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The Cases of Mysterious Disappearances and Reappearances
- Poudre Press Staff
- May 8
- 6 min read
In the United States, an average of around 600,000 people are reported missing every year. Fortunately, most are found again in short notice whilst some others are not so lucky. In this essay, we will cover a handful of cases where the missing person was found again, although after much time and under strange circumstances.
Steven Kubacki
In the winter of 1978, near Lake Michigan, two snowmobilers discovered the skis, poles, and backpacks of a 23 year old college senior named Steven Kubacki. Steven had recently gone a what was planned to be a brief cross-country skiing trip, however he did not come home that day. After an exhaustive search, the only lead they had was a trail of footprints. A trail that lead to a complete stop before an ice crevasse. Search-and-Rescue team members determined that the cause of death had likely been falling into one of these crevasses and drowning.
After fifteen months, over a year later, a driver in Massachusetts picked up a hitchhiker who requested to be taken to a payphone. The hitchhiker would contact the friends and family of Steven claiming to be himself Steven Kubacki. He would inform those close to him and the media at large that he had woken up in a random field with an unfamiliar outfit, and also could not recall what had happened to him in the over one year-long time frame in which he was missing.
In regards to the circumstances of the case, many have taken a more conspiratorial/assumption of supernatural route when it comes to explaining his nearly year long disappearance. From a more realistic perspective, (no offense intended) it's a lot more likely Steven had some form of mental struggle, and decided to "escape" if you will. This also indicates that his story about simply waking up in an obscure field across the country simply made up. There has also been some controversy in regards to how Steven later attempted to market his story in the form of a book, which many saw as clear signs that story was all an elaborate hoax.
On September 5th, 2024, Steven Kubacki died at the age of 70. His obituary is linked below:
Danny Fillipidis
On a February day in 2018, Danny Fillipidis was skiing with several of his Toronto firefighter coworkers at Whiteface Mountain in New York. Danny would tell some of his fellow skiers that he would be heading down to the bottom of the slope to go retrieve his phone which he had supposedly lost. However, nobody would ever see him return from that objective. The news of his disappearance spread quickly, with 100 volunteers including some of Danny's own fire-crew gearing up and searching the region for him. The search-and-rescue teams escalated their efforts even further, upgrading to tented command center with Wi-Fi connections as well as canine, drone, and helicopter crews being dispatched. Officials were baffled as to how they weren't able to find someone as quickly as they had in the past. This would all change when Fillipidis's wife received a phone call.
The call was from none other than Danny, who claimed to be calling from the Sacramento Airport in California. This meant that in the six days that the search was occurring, Danny had traveled across the entire country. Many of the S&R members who had aided in the rescue operations maintained a sentiment summed up by a quote from Matt Levenson, who said: "we just picked up everything and went home."
When it comes to Danny's motivations for traveling across the entire continental United States, odd is an applicable description. Danny claimed to have been in a "dazed and confused" state, presumably from a concussion received at some point when he went missing, although Danny claimed to have no recollection of a head injury. He also claimed to have hitchhiked across for most of the journey to Sacramento. The legitimacy of all these claims has come into question. Such as how no witnesses such as potential truck drivers have come forward. Or how he was able to flag down an 18-wheeler like in his story despite them being an incredibly rare sight on the Wilmington Notch. All in all, it could potentially be another case of one attempting to escape from societal or mental struggles.
Gabriel Nagy
On January 21, 1987, Pamela Nagy received a call from her husband Gabriel, claiming he would be home for lunch. However lunch would pass and Gabriel had not arrived. In fact, all that remained of him was a burned-out vehicle by the side of the road. Immediately the search efforts began. No leads came until two weeks later when money was withdrawn from Gabriel's bank to purchase camping supplies in Newcastle. Without Gabriel present, his family would have to move out of their old home. Pamela even kept all their numbers in the phone book, for if there was just even a slight chance that he attempted to contact them. However, they and most other just assumed Gabriel to be dead.
20 years later, a Medicare record written under the name Gabriel Nagy was spotted by senior constable Georgia Robinson. She would call the number and eventually reach out to Gabriel. Gabriel's story goes as follows: His earliest memory was in Newcastle, where he recalled bleeding from a head-wound. This injury is assumed to be the cause for him leaving his family for 20 years and suffer amnesia. He claimed to have live on the streets for some time before he eventually landed in Mackay and was discovered by Pastor Barry Hayhoe, who gave him a place to stay in the church as well as a job as caretaker. After being told about his previous life, it all came back to him
Gabriel would end up writing a 7 page letter to his family. In only three days, he would receive a message from his now 32 year old daughter Jennifer. "It said 'Hi Dad' and it was enough to make me cry." Gabriel said. Only ten minutes later, he got a call from Pamela, and they reportedly called until the phone's battery died. Two weeks after that, Jennifer flew out to Mackay to meet her Father for the first time in decades.
As to what happened to Gabriel to cause this episode, many claim that the car accident that left his vehicle burning by the side of the road led to the head wound and following amnesia symptoms. After this, Gabriel simply got confused and lived his life completely unknowing that he had a family back home that missed him dearly.
Agatha Christie
Agatha Christie was an English mystery and crime novelist from the early 20th century. In fact, to this day she holds the spot as the world's bestselling novelist with over 2 Billion of her books being sold worldwide. Another thing she is known for is her 1926 disappearance, a similar circumstance to what was often depicted in her writings.
On December 3rd, 1926, after kissing her daughter goodnight, she would get into her car and drive. When the search began, all that was found was her vehicle off the road by the side of a chalk quarry. Inside her car were random items such as clothing and the driver's license. (Which helped ID the vehicle) Due to Agatha's popularity, the case exploded into the mainstream. Journalists covering the case came up with theories including suicide or the whole thing being a publicity stunt to drive up sales of her novels. One Sir Arthur Doyle even consulted a medium in order to gather information and aid in the search.
11 days after she left her home, she was rediscovered staying at the Swan Hydro hotel, where after being recognized and confronted she claimed to have had memory loss and could not recall the past eleven days. According to her biographer, she had entered a fugue state due to stress and depression. The stress in question likely could have been brought on by relationship issues with her husband, Archibald Christie. Recently prior to the disappearance, Archibald had an affair with another woman and then later asked Agatha for a divorce. It was the night she disappeared that the two had a supposedly heated argument.
Although the disappearance was frightening for many, Agatha would live a mostly peaceful life until she passed away in 1976.
When someone returns from their status of being missing, the title of tragedy is less appropriate. The intrigue as to what happened mostly lies in the circumstances for which the person disappeared and if intentional, why? Whether it be someone's perceived chance to escape societal standards or a less consensual explanation, many of the secrets often pass on with their keeper.
Citations:
Agatha Christie - https://blog.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20speople-investigating-the-strange-disappearance-of-mrs-agatha-christie/
Steven Kubacki - https://stevenkubacki.com/writings/the-disappearance-what-really-happened-to-one-of-historys-last-unexplained-missing-persons/
Danny Fillipidis - https://www.adirondacklife.com/2025/02/11/gone-missing-on-whiteface/
Gunner Farrell is a member of the Poudre Press and focuses on writing critiques and analysis on popular media such as film and video games. He does a bi-weekly series where he covers obscure films that are typically bad.
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