Into Thin Air

the nature of missing person's cases can vary greatly both in terms of their individual circumstances and their eventual outcomes but few such disappearances match the complexity and mystery of those we will be examining in this episode instances where those who went missing have vanished in front of multiple Witnesses seemingly into in [Music] air when a missing person's case is initiated investigators act quickly in gaining a full understanding of the subject's background individuals associated with the person are interviewed using a predefined set of questions aimed at uncovering potential underlying factors which might explain their withdrawal from

society focusing on commonly observed patterns these include details about the subject's relationships their finances and health with a view to understanding a viable goal or motive for their absence to which the police can then cater an appropriate response when none of of these factors are clearly apparent it should prompt a more urgent investigation raising the likelihood of an unforeseen third party's potential involvement and suggesting a higher probability of Foul Play but amidst a landscape of voluntary disappearances accidents and crimes there is a small number of instances where the circumstances offer no viable explanation whatsoever cases

in which background checks witness interviews and local inquiries provide nothing that can assist the investigators suggesting that the only explanation for what has taken place may be something beyond our understanding in 1809 the political landscape of the European Mainland was in chaos as the major Powers attempted to counter the Ambitions of Napoleon bonapart the the French Emperor had defeated his Rivals time and time again on the battlefield and had recently claimed the Throne of Spain to add to his burgeoning Empire having repeatedly failed to organize a military Coalition capable of blunting the ongoing advances of

the French Empire Britain again turned to Austria as part of their efforts a young Envoy named Benjamin batur was dispatched to Vienna to plead directly with the Austrian Emperor for his Nation to intervene bathurst's Mission itself would prove successful with Francis I first declaring war on bonapart several months later during April of that year the efforts of Austria's Army itself though would be far less successful with the emperor's forces being defeated once again by their French opponents in short order nevertheless his duties having been completed Bathurst was duly recalled to London setting off with his

valet for Hamburg in order to gain passage on a ship back to England on the evening of November the 25th a coach carrying the two men stopped to rest its horses at a Tavern named The White Swan situated just outside the town of peber over the next few hours the Englishman took dinner whilst going over some correspondence before being informed that the horses had now been fed and watered and were ready to continue the journey rising from his table Bathurst had then proceeded to make his way outside to the Courtyard followed closely behind by his

valet the Diplomat was observed to approach the horses confirming they were all in order before moving around them to the far side of the coach but upon opening and then entering the carriage a few seconds later his valet had been confused to find that Bathurst was nowhere to be seen with the coach standing unattended directly in the center of the tavern's courtyard there was no obvious place for the missing man to have been hiding batur had only been out of his servant's eyeline for a matter of seconds with no one else in the immediate vicinity

it was as if he had walked around the waiting horses to The Far Side of the carriage and then simply ceased to exist all in the space of a heartbeat after the alarm had been raised local Army units were called for and a comprehensive search of the inn and its surroundings were conducted but despite these efforts which included the dragging of a nearby River the missing Diplomat was never seen again leaving no clue behind as to how or where he had disappeared to late on November the 9th 1878 Christian Ashmore and his family had just

finished eating their supper together and were preparing to retire for the evening the ashmor resided in a rural Farmhouse which was situated on the outskirts of Quincy Illinois located not far from a nearby natural spring as was common for that time of day Christian asked his son Charles to go and draw some water for the family to wash with the 16-year-old boy had obediently reached for his hat and coat as it had been snowing heavily for most of the day and then set off for the spring with a metal bucket several minutes later when Charles

had still not returned his younger sister Martha became sufficiently concerned concerned to set off in search of him donning her own Overcoat she had taken a lantern and then slowly walked the short distance to the spring calling out his name as she did so a single line of footprints was clearly visible from the light of the Lantern's glow having apparently been made by Charles on his journey through the fresh snow but several meters short of the spring these Footprints had come to a sudden and unexpected end as if the person making them had simply been

plucked from the face of the Earth calling for her father Martha desperately cast her Lantern around in search of her absent brother or at least the metal pale he had been holding but there was no sign of either when the rest of the family arrived they had spread out further in search of the missing boy but were unable to find any further footprints in the surrounding snow in addition to this it was also discovered that the stream itself was completely Frozen making it impossible for Charles to have fallen in and drowned at their father's insistence

the ashmor retreated back to their house in the hope that Charles would reappear at some subsequent point during the evening but by the following morning he had still not returned prompting Christine to set off into town to seek help from the authorities with her husband gone Mrs Ashmore stayed in the house in case Charles returned after a time she walked back through the snow to the point where her son's Footprints had terminated as she did so she suddenly found herself stopping dead in her tracks clearly hearing her son's disembodied voice plead leading with her for

help Mrs ashmore's head turned this way and that in search of the boy but he was nowhere to be seen and yet his desperate cries for help could still be faintly heard sometimes coming from One Direction and then another as if he was traveling around her in an ever increasing Circle moving slightly further away each time he called when Christian returned a short time later with the local Constable his wife related what had happened but upon checking neither man could hear Charles's voice no clue as to the ultimate fate of the missing boy would ever

be uncovered despite a number of search efforts but on several further occasions members of his family swore they could hear him faintly crying out for help near to the spot from which he disappeared until his his plaintive cries finally ceased all together some weeks later this left the Ashmore family completely shattered and bewildered by their loss there is exactly one YouTube channel that I personally religiously follow it's called Bedtime Stories and it's like the most epic storytelling and my goodness if you're a fan of the strange dark and mysterious you will be a fan of

bedtime stories they C strange crazy stories as well and it's just masterfully done but I'm not here today just to tell you how great bedtime stories is I'm here today because I have an announcement bedtime stories is starting a podcast and it's going to fall under the Ballin Studios Banner we're working together it's super cool but here's the even bigger news not only is bedtime stories a brand new Ballin Studios podcast it is live right now new episodes of The Bedtime Stories podcast will Air each week on Wednesday but right now the first three episodes

of the podcast are available wherever you get your podcasts so go and mu kick the Bedtime Stories follow button right in the solar plexus and get hooked on them just like I did but first check out this clip from the trailer for bedtime stories turn off the lights get into bed and turn up the volume it's time for a creepy bedtime story from Boran Studios welcome to bedtime stories a new weekly show that will truly immerse you in a strange dark and Mysterious World and haunt your dreams we'll bring you true stories from around the

world from the Paranormal to the supernatural Unsolved Mysteries strange deaths Cryptids and the most disturbing of True Crime all told in a unique and Bone chilling Way new episodes every Wednesday follow bedtime stories wherever you get your podcasts the tragic case of young Charles Ashmore is even more haunting when heard in conjunction with a similar incident which had taken place just 24 years earlier one afternoon during July of 1854 a landowner named Orion Williamson had been Seated on the front porch of his Farmhouse with his wife in Salma Alabama it was an oppressively hot summer's

day and as he had watched his workers moving about the fields in front of him Williamson became concerned about his horses worrying that the animals were being adversely affected by the heat he had tried to attract the attention of his farm manager who happened to be standing a few meters away but despite calling the man's name several times Williamson had still not received a response and so chose to set off on foot into the fields to resolve the issue himself with his wife watching on the farmer had bent down to pick up a small Branch

before continuing to walk towards his horses waving the stick before him in an apparent effort to shoe them into some nearby shade by coincidence the owner of the neighboring property armor Ren happened to be passing by a short distance away on his horse and cart with his son James seated alongside him they had waved a greeting to their neighbor but at the exact second that Williamson had stopped to wave back he suddenly disappeared from sight despite being stood on an open and flat area of ground with a cry of alarm Mrs Williamson had immediately run

from the porch to try and locate her husband who she assumed had fallen to the ground due to the intense heat but when she reached the spot where he was last seen closely followed by Ren and his son as well as other members of the Williamson household Orion was nowhere to be found to all those who had been watching it was as if the farmer had suddenly blinked completely out of existence right before their very eyes with word of the mystery quickly spreading into the nearby Town several hundred residents hurried to the Williamson Farm to

form search parties they would spend the next week tirelessly combing the grounds of the property and those that boarded it for any sign of the missing man he was never seen again and the search concluded with apologies and words of comfort for The Grieving Mrs Williamson as they had nothing more tangible to offer as the months passed workers on the farm noticed that a perfectly circular patch of land at the spot where their employer had vanished had now become completely Barren nothing grew there even after multiple efforts to seed and water it more worrying still

Mrs Williamson would later claim that whenever she or her children approach this area they would hear Orion's voice crying out from somewhere nearby he would plead for them to guide him back to the farm saying he was lost and did not know where he was over time as life eventually returned to this small patch of baren Earth the missing man's voice simultaneously faded away leaving nothing more than his memory and unanswered questions as to how he disappeared when examining these three cases the most popular Theory put forwards by modern-day commentators is that the three missing

men Were Somehow pulled into another dimension that for reasons still unknown to modern science the Unseen barriers between this world and other parallel regions had somehow inexplicably broken down the victims of these strange disappearances had either inadvertently fell or passed through these breach between two separate universes and had not been able to find their way back as these invisible borders had then resealed themselves the desperate pleas of those who had gone slowly faded away the baron area of land left at the scene of Orion Williamson's Vanishing seems to suggest that some unknown natural phenomenon had

contributed to his disappearance such a terrifying Prospect could perhaps explain many other unsolved mysteries of a similar nature in the case of Benjamin Bathurst there may of course be a far more rational explanation the Diplomat vanished during his era's equivalent of the Cold War at a time when numerous spies and agents were actively engaged against various Nations human remains and discarded valuables that may have belonged to Bathurst have since been located in the vicinity of his disappearance but due to the amount of time that has elapsed since he went missing it has never been possible

to definitively attribute them to him or to confirm that any crime took place whatsoever on the other hand the other two cases we have mentioned have since been identified as potential fiction or hoaxes by those who have more closely scrutinized them both were subject to analysis by the author Ambrose beerus with accusation that he had fabricated them himself in order to later comment upon them in public the case of Orion Williamson has fallen under particular scrutiny as it has been presented elsewhere in a virtually identical format for instance there is a story set in sna

County Tennessee at the turn of the 20th century featuring a farm owner by the name of David Lang who disappeared in exactly the same circumstances the events related in the Charles Ashmore case are also very similar to the story of Oliver Lurch who disappeared during a snowstorm after having been asked to fetch some water from the family well however the Charles Ashmore version predates its Lurch counterpart by at least half a century and it has been said that the latter is in fact an adaption of the former Ambrose beer would later go on to disappear

in unexplained circumstances during the throws of the Mexican Revolution which perhaps seems to be more than a touch of a coincidence given his very public interest into this mysterious and recurring phenomenon as with so many other theories it remains to be seen if definitive proof of parallel Dimensions or universes will ever be found the vast majority of disappearances ultimately have a rational albeit unfortunate and often tragic explanation these incidents typically influenced by either the deliberate actions of the missing person or misinterpretation by Witnesses involved leading to a different narrative regarding the event but if the

stories we have examined have demonstrated anything it is that foremost in each and every such case are the loved ones who have been left behind with the ultimate goal of those searching for the people who have vanished being to reunite both parties or at at least to unearth the exact details which forever separated them [Music] [Music] h [Music] [Music] a time glor