Their families had lost hope, then miraculous circumstances led to joyful reunions
6 Missing Person Mysteries That Were Miraculously Solved
Mary Seow
Mary Seow was persuaded to sell her home in Singapore and move to mainland China to invest the money, only to realize it was all a scam. She lost everything. Seow tried to work her money back by sweeping streets and carrying branded goods, but it wasn’t enough to make up for what she’d lost.
After making her way to Hong Kong, Seow followed the lead of other people experiencing homelessness by sleeping in a 24-hour McDonald’s. When AP ran a story about the “McRefugees,” Seow’s family saw her name in the article, and her son flew to Hong Kong to bring her home.
Raudhatul Jannah
Then-4-year-old Raudhatul Jannah was far from the only person separated from family during Indonesia’s 2004 tsunami—but hers was certainly one of the most miraculous cases of missing people found after the storm. Both she and her older brother were washed away as their parents tried holding on to them on a floating plank of wood, and after a month of searching, they were convinced both children had drowned.
A decade later, Raudhatul’s uncle spotted a teenage girl who looked strikingly like his missing niece. It turned out that a fisherman had rescued the little girl, and his mother had been caring for her during those 10 years.
Chance the bull terrier
Chance might not be a missing person, but his story is still incredible. When the adorable Staffordshire bull terrier was 3 years old, he disappeared from his owners’ garden in Wales. The family, including Sion Cox, who was 11 years old at the time, spent months searching for their precious pet, to no avail.
Fast-forward 10 years, and Cox’s mother got a call from a kennel 20 miles away: They’d found Chance! The dog had apparently been abandoned and neglected but was overjoyed to be back with his old owner.
Franklin Villca Huanaco
At 10 years old, all Franklin Villca Huanaco wanted was to be back with his mom, who was in jail more than 130 miles away from home. But the truck the Bolivian boy hid in for transportation didn’t go the way he thought it would, and after a two-day journey, Huanaco found himself in Chile—620 miles in the opposite direction.
A local woman took him in and cared for him, and a national news station ran a piece about the boy and his mysterious story. Huanaco’s mother, who was working on a Bolivian farm by that time, caught wind of the story and flew to Chile for a heartfelt reunion.
Andrew Thompson
Australian 3-year-old Andrew Thompson’s parents were in a messy custody battle over him in 2008 when his mother abducted him and brought him to Germany—then went off the grid. Even his father, Ken Thompson, had no idea where his son was.
Two years later and still with no leads, Ken quit his job as fire chief so he could bike across Europe to find Andrew and advocate for other missing children. About four months into his journey, Ken received a call from a family friend. A school principal had found 180 Interpol alerts about the then-6-year-old when his mom tried enrolling him for school in Amsterdam. In another heartwarming case of missing people found, the father and son were reunited in December 2010.
Barbara and La’Myra Briley
On Christmas Eve 2016, Barbara Briley took her 5-year-old great-granddaughter La’Myra on a road trip from New Jersey to visit family in North Carolina. Briley had called her son and daughter while stuck in traffic in Virginia, but an hour after her ETA, she had yet to arrive—and the worried family’s calls were going straight to her voicemail.
Thankfully, a man in Dinwiddie County, Virginia, was walking his dog down a densely wooded dirt road four days later when he stumbled across a car he’d recognized on the news. In another case of missing people found, Briley was lying on the ground 300 feet from the car, unable to move, and little La’Myra was right by her side. After Briley’s daughters met her at the hospital, they learned the young girl had been feeding her great-grandmother and keeping her warm for days.
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Sources:
- National Crime Information Center
- NBC News: “Singaporean Woman Reunited with Son After ‘McRefugee’ Story”
- The Independent: “Girl lost in Indian Ocean tsunami reunited with her parents 10 years on”
- South Wales Argus: “Dog missing for ten years and found in Newport is reunited with family”
- The Guardian: “Bolivian boy who tried to find his mother ends up in Chile”
- Sydney Morning Herald: “After almost three years, missing son finally surfaces”
- 6 News Richmond: “Man who found missing 71-year-old, child: ‘She told me she loved me’”
