Chapter Text
A strange string of disappearing children:
Cult or Coincidence
Buzzfeed unsolved season 4 ep. 13
Ryan: This week on Buzzfeed unsolved we’ll discuss a string of different missing children over the past decade and how they are connected despite the fact they occurred over many years and in vastly different locations around the country.
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The strange case actually starts back in the 1940’s with the murder and disappearance of a prominent family of Italian diplomats-
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Shane: Wait, I thought you said this was a recent one?
Ryan: Patience, we’re getting there. Trust me you’ll get why this is important the further we get into this case- it’s a crazy one.
Shane: Oh I’m all ears
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Maria di Angelo was born the daughter of a prominent Italian diplomat, Bruno di Angelo, and his wife Lucia.
(On the screen an image of a young teenage girl with long black hair and a happy smile standing between a man and a woman appeared)
Maria’s childhood and teen years were uneventful, until 1929 when 22 year old Maria abruptly left home on an impromptu trip to an unknown location. When she returned a few months later she was pregnant.
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Shane: So she just wandered off one day and her parents were like ‘of course honey, have fun’ no more questions asked?
Ryan: How am I supposed to know man? The neighbors and her parents reportedly didn’t know anything about where she went nor did she say anything about what she did while she was gone once she returned.
Shane: 1930’s Italy, and being the daughter of a prominent family, that must have been quite the controversy.
Ryan: It certainly seemed to send waves through the small town they lived in at first, but her parents protected her from the social isolation many women may have faced in the same situation.
Shane: Aww that’s actually nice- normally in these cases we hear about asshole parents or shitty families. It’s nice to see some supportive relatives for once.
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Maria gave birth to her daughter, Bianca, in March 1930. Maria continued to hide any information about the girl's possible father. But strangely enough, large bouquets of Gardenia flowers were left in Maria’s di Angelo’s room. The flower was reportedly Maria’s favorite but being non-native to Italy they would have been more difficult to obtain and even more hard to deliver to her while keeping them so fresh. A bag was also left with fine silken blankets, dolls, and other toys for the newborn Bianca. Most of the hospital staff assumed the fine gifts came from the father, but no one ever saw whoever gifted them enter or leave the hospital despite the fact all entrances had multiple staff nearby who would have seen a stranger bearing gifts arriving.
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Shane: So her baby daddy was a ghost? But instead of haunting people he just used his supernatural powers to give gifts?
Ryan: I can hear the sarcasm in your voice- but genuinely there were many people who theorized the father was some kind of supernatural entity.
Shane: *laughs* you’re kidding?
Ryan: No! And there’s a decent amount of strange occurrences that lend credence to the theory- just wait you’ll see.
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Around a year later Maria disappeared once again with little notice to her family, this time bringing her one year old daughter with her. Exactly like last time, Maria didn’t return until months later and she was once again pregnant. Her and her daughter came back wearing far finer clothes than even her family in their high position could afford. Bianca had toys fit for a princess- handcrafted dolls, stuffed animals made of the softest material imaginable, and little toys encrusted in jewels.
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Shane: Jesus Christ who is this man. You’d think if he was visiting Maria so often and showering her with gifts he must really like her. Why not just marry her?
Ryan: Some theorists guessed that he may have been already married and either feared the judgment that would come with getting a divorce, or that his current wife was from an even more powerful family who he didn’t wish to cross.
Shane: I can’t imagine people were any more pleased that she’d run off and gotten pregnant again.
Ryan: They weren’t- the town they lived in was highly religious, even for 1930’s Italy. Premarital sex was a big no-no. But her family shielded her again and eventually people learned to deal with it, especially once the children began to grow up.
Shane: Oh?
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Maria’s second child, Niccolo, was born January 1932. Same as Bianca’s birth, Maria was left with flowers and gifts for the newborn in the hospital. And once again no one saw the arrival or departure of the mysterious benefactor. For the next ten years, the children grew up with very normal and happy lives despite the mysteries around their birth. Bianca grew up as the spitting image of her mother. She was reportedly kind, thoughtful, mature, and devout. She had a talent for singing and dancing that enchanted the older women at church and the graceful air she carried herself with at such a young age impressed all the adults in the community. Even to the point where neighbors forgot the manner of how they were born. One elderly man claimed, quote, ‘she was such a lovely young lady it made you forget she was born from sin within a single conversation with the girl’ and his wife similarly added ‘Maria surely was guided by God in her actions because the girl's existence could be nothing other than His will.’
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Shane: Jesus Christ that’s so backhanded- “yeah their mom kind of committed an affront to nature, but hey the kids are nice!”
Ryan: *laughs* yeah well, religious community in 1930’s Italy, Maria and her children got off far better than anyone else would have in their position.
Shane: Thank god- I’m rooting for this girl and her kids. Maria seems like a badass, she has some wealthy lover that drops vast amounts of riches on her, she goes where she wants when she wants, and doesn’t explain herself when people press her for answers.
Ryan: She didn’t take shit from anyone, I respect that.
Shane: I just realized what eventually happens to her and now I’m mad. Forgot what type of stuff we talk about on this show for a moment.
Ryan: *sighs* yeah… that’s coming up soon. But first let’s talk about the other child.
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Niccolo, who mostly went by Nico, was just as loved by the community as his sister. The boy was reported as energetic and kind-hearted. His mother worked as her fathers assistant and secretary, so while she was busy the boy was frequently found playing in the streets of town with the other children, or assisting his elderly neighbors in cleaning or grocery shopping. Overall, the children were as close to angels as you could find. The family was well liked and well off in their community. But with the rising tensions and violence of World War Two, this peaceful lifestyle didn’t last long. Maria and her children were spared from the worst of the war, due to her fathers position. She traveled with him to America and chose to stay there with her children until the war ended. From 1940 to 1941 she lived in the finest luxury hotel in Washington DC.
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Shane: Damn, a year's worth of luxury hotel stays? That’s a lot of money shelled out instead of just buying a house.
Ryan: yes well, reportedly Maria was planning to move home to Italy once the war came to an end and didn’t want to go through the struggle of buying and then selling a house.
Shane: Well, I guess she does come from a rich family. People like that have money to throw away, so why not live in luxury if you have the means to afford it.
Ryan: Here's the thing, another oddity to add to the whole case. Her father was sending periodic parcels of money to her in order to pay for her stay in the states. But after her death all the money was returned to him- Maria didn’t use any of her family's money to pay for her luxurious lifestyle.
Shane: So how would a young woman with no job, and rejecting her family’s money pay for their stay at the hotel- *laughs* oh are we about to see the return of mysterious rich baby daddy?
Ryan: *laughs* you’re gonna love this next part
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During their stay in America, Maria and the children lived a very normal and safe life despite it being wartime. They found a local church and attended nearly every morning for mass, Bianca began taking professional dance lessons, Nico took an interest in reading and a card game called ‘mythomagic’ that hotel staff recalled fondly that he would ‘talk about to everyone who would listen’. A private tutor was hired to teach the children in the afternoons. Maria's father frequently visited due to his job, and would bring his daughter and grandchildren along to fancy dinners and parties with his fellow diplomats. Hotel staff also reported that a tall man with dark hair and eyes who was the spitting image of Nico often visited Maria and her children at the hotel. None of them spoke to him, but Maria was always in an incredibly upbeat mood after he visited. And a young maid reported hearing the children excitedly call him ‘papa’ after she watched him enter the young family's penthouse suite one day.
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Shane: The mysterious father finally makes his appearance! Weird that he’s in America all of a sudden. Did he follow her to the states from Italy? Cause if so then I don’t see why this man hasn’t proposed to Maria yet, chasing her to a whole new country certainly seems more like a bachelor in love move than the actions of a married man trying to hide a mistress.
Ryan: Back to the supernatural entity theory, some people think that he had the power to teleport. So he could have just appeared with Maria whenever he wanted, no matter where in the world she was.
Shane: *cackles* That's literally the craziest explanation that someone could come up with.
Ryan: Just wait, the supernatural elements will become more prominent.
Shane: You've said that like six times- and as much as I’m loving learning about Maria and her kids I don’t see how this ties into the disappearance of children during the past decade.
Ryan: just-
Shane: yeah, yeah- just wait. Get on with it then.
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Unfortunately, the happy lives of the di Angelo’s didn’t last much longer after their arrival in the states. Early in 1942 staff reported they saw Maria, her children, and the strange man having a hushed argument in the lobby of the hotel. A strange occurrence since usually they were not publicly seen together and all their meetings happened in the privacy of Maria’s suite. After the argument, the two hurried the children back upstairs. A member of the hotel staff heard a loud bang and a shattering noise from Maria’s room shortly after. Concerned, the girl went to check up on the family. When no one answered, she went to get a manager to open the door. Inside they found the dead body of Maria but both her supposed lover and the children were gone without a trace.
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Ryan: God I hate that part…
Shane: Jeez, I knew shit was about to hit the fan but it still sucks to hear about. Maria sounded like a cool gal, and her kids definitely deserved better. Don’t tell me they met some horrible fate as well…
Ryan: That's the thing- no one knows. If they are truly connected to the group that is the topic of today's video then it seems they had at least a chance of a happy ending. But we’ll get into that in a moment.
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After Maria’s death, a nationwide manhunt started for the children and the strange man who was assumed as her lover and the children’s father. Maria’s parents quickly made their way to America and promised huge cash rewards to anyone who could return the children or give information about their disappearance. All the efforts amounted to nothing though. The only lead they had was the man, but no one was able to identify him based on a description and he never appeared again. After months they had to give up and the case went cold. Bruno and Lucia never gave up on looking for the children though nothing came from their continued efforts, the two of them died within a year of one another around a decade later.
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Shane: *brief shocked laugh* Jesus that is awful, that is such a depressing ending. Why are we talking about this case again, it’s just making me sad man.
Ryan: Most of the cases we talk about are, but perhaps the kids actually lived a relatively happy life in the end.
Shane: I suppose we’ll get into that during the theories.
Ryan: Not exactly. This case in particular is only a piece of the greater one we’re talking about today. So we’ll only follow the theory that would tie it to our main mystery. Additionally, there’s way too many theories to go over to begin with. With no evidence whatsoever, people have come up with dozens of possibilities of what happened to the family. One of them is that the children survived and are alive and well today.
Shane: And I suppose we’ll be talking about that one right now? Not that I’m complaining those poor kids survived-
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Decades after their disappearance, and in a whole new century the children, or at least two individuals who were almost perfect copies of them, were spotted at Westover hall. According to some teachers, the two children were brought by a lawyer to the military academy at the beginning of the 2007 school term.
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Shane: Wait, as in the two of them were still children? If they survived they would be in their like 80’s or something-
Ryan: See I told you that the supernatural elements would come into play. To answer your question, yes. The two children looked as if they hadn’t aged a day since their disappearance.
Shane: then it’s just a coincidence- this wouldn’t be the first time in history people share a resemblance to complete strangers.
Ryan: Oh it gets way more insane from here, buckle up-
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Both children not only shared an uncanny resemblance to the missing di Angelo’s. But the children shared the same first and last names as the kids and had a weird gap in memory about their lives before coming to Westover hall according to some of their teachers.
(on the screen an image of Bianca di Angelo posing at her mothers side from 1941 next to a picture of Bianca di Angelo in her school soccer uniform, smiling with a soccer ball at her feet from 2007 appeared)
Young Bianca not only shared her appearance and name with the missing girl from 1942 but she also was described with the same qualities as her. Her teachers reported she was kind and thoughtful as well as fiercely protective of her younger brother. Apparently she also once told her English teacher that she was trained in classical dance as well as expressing regret at not being able to attend church while at the academy.
(On the screen an image of Nico in his Sunday church clothes from 1941 appeared next to an image of modern Nico from the school yearbook)
The same as Bianca, Nico shared the same interests and qualities as his 1940’s counterpart. The boy was reportedly obsessed with mythomagic and his teachers often had to scold him to stop him from playing with the cards and figures during class.
(All four pictures appear again on the screen and slowly move to overlap the past images with the modern ones until they were perfectly lined up. The top image faded slightly so you could see how perfectly the children’s appearance lined up with the missing children from the 40’s)
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Ryan: nothing to say to that?
Shane: ok, I’ll admit that’s very strange. But I don’t see how it’s possible for them to just skip into the next century somehow.
Ryan: I’m telling you dude, their dad is some kind of otherworldly entity, it’s the only thing that could explain all the strange things around their disappearance and reappearance.
Shane: no offense, but if he’s this all powerful entity then what killed Maria? Based on what we heard from this guy before he seemed to genuinely love Maria. So why would he kill her?
Ryan: Though him killing her is a popular theory, even more popular is that some other entity equally as strong as him targeted his family in revenge. It could explain why he would hide the kids away until almost a century later.
Shane: So what? Are you saying the kids are immortal or something?
Ryan: Well it makes sense! If their dad is some entity that means his kids aren’t fully human either, they could be immortal!
Shane: never would I have guessed we would be theorizing about immortal children when you started talking about the Di Angelo kids.
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Shortly before winter break at Westover Hall, Bianca and Nico went missing once again.
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Shane: Jesus! These kids cannot catch a single break
Ryan: Oh? So you believe these kids from Westover are actually the di Angelo’s! I never thought I’d see the day you bought into one of my supernatural theories
Shane: *scoffs* I don’t, but if the rest of this video is going to assume it’s true I have to play along with the theory man.
Ryan: sureeeee
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The two siblings disappeared during their school dance, none of the students and teachers reported seeing them leave the gym where the dance was being held despite the fact multiple teachers were posted around the doors to check for any students looking to get into trouble during the festivities. Additionally, the school security cameras were strangely glitching during the night of their disappearance. Nevertheless, a few images of the kids were able to be recovered. One showed a man, later identified as a new teacher at the school named Dr.Thorn, leading the children out of the gym, and then shortly after out of the school as a whole. This time accompanied by Perseus Jackson, the subject of a nationwide manhunt from just a few years earlier. The other notable image recovered shows two girls and a boy chasing after them. The girls were Identified as Thalia Grace and Annabeth Chase- two of the most prominent unsolved child disappearances in the country. And the boy as someone named ‘Grover Underwood’ though that is only the name we know from reports made by Perseus Jackson, or Percy, and his mother. That name doesn’t appear anywhere in the system, legally he does not exist.
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Shane: four missing kids from different cases, in different centuries, appear in the same area alongside someone who doesn’t legally exist and a boy who was previously missing. No way that is a coincidence, I’m starting to see what you’re saying here about the odd connection between all these cases
Ryan: I know right! All the disappearances of these kids have nothing in common and yet they all appear at this school at the same time- supposedly together.
Shane: hmmm I’m definitely going with the cult angle here, the kids didn’t seem forced to go to the school- so maybe a case of brainwashing.
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The six children nor Dr.Thorn ever reappeared at the school. And it’s widely believed that some altercation came about between the kids and the older man. Police traced their footsteps to find a clearing near a cliff that looked like dozens of people had been staying at. There were various different footsteps on the snow that called for far more people than the seven we were aware of being there. In any case the children were spotted many more times but Dr.Thorn was notably never seen again leading many to believe they either escaped him or drove him off somewhere. It is also believed that Bianca and Nico left with the other children, a claim supported by future images and eyewitness accounts reporting them together. To understand more about the significance of this, let’s get into the missing person cases of these three other kids.
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Shane: This is some lord of the flies shit. A bunch of missing kids running off into the woods after possibly killing a teacher.
Ryan: Who knows, maybe the teacher was the bad guy. It is weird he was dragging the kids out of the school, and the image we have of him certainly does not look as if Percy, Nico, and Bianca are happy to be going with him.
Shane: So maybe he just interrupted their annual meeting of the unsolved missing kids club or something.
Ryan: *snort* honestly I guess you could call them that and it would actually be very accurate.
Shane: Well except the Percy kid, you said he was only formerly missing.
Ryan: Actually he goes missing again later in the story…
Shane: are you kidding me-
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Eldest of the group, and who we can assume is the leader is Thalia Grace. Born December 22nd 1987 to Beryl Grace- a popular movie star at the time. She had a younger brother named Jason, born 7 years later. Neither of the children’s fathers were known.
(A picture is shown of a scowling little girl with tan skin and choppy black hair that appeared as if it had been cut with scissors, holding the hand of a two year old boy with bright blonde hair and a little white scar on his lip)
Her mother was on the fall from popularity around the time her second child was born and struggled heavily with alcoholism. When Jason was two years old, the family took a picnic in a nearby park- but this seemingly wholesome event would soon turn tragic. Later that night, nine year old Thalia called the cops in a panic claiming that her mother had done something to her little brother while at the picnic. The girl claimed that her mother had left Jason in the woods.
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Shane: *wince* Damn- that’s cold. A kid that young alone in the wilderness doesn’t have much of a chance.
Ryan: Yeah- let’s just say little Thalia didn’t have many kind words for her mom when police interviewed her. *smirk* If Beryl Grace was falling from grace before then being accused of abandoning her infant son in the forest was the final nail in the coffin of her career.
Shane: *sighs* that pun was abysmal
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When questioned by police Beryl Grace spoke like a madwoman, claiming that her son was an offering to the wife of Jason’s father and that she hadn’t wanted to leave her son. While Thalia doubled down on how horrible of a parent her mother was and that her younger brother's disappearance was entirely Beryl’s fault. Police sent out a search and rescue crew to look through the woods, but Jason was never found. And eventually Beryl was cleared of charges on grounds of mental instability and the prime suspect became the boy's secret father whom authorities believed took the boy from Beryl against her will.
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Shane: uhhh- did they miss the part where she called her son an offering. How the hell did they clear her of charges, especially with the daughter so adamant the mother had a part to play in it
Ryan: Dude you know Hollywood- it was probably hush money or something. So many celebrities get away with insane shit. And even though Beryl’s reputation plummeted beyond repair after this, she still used to be one of the most prominent movie stars in the country.
Shane: ‘oh she just spoke about her own son like he was a human sacrifice- but you have to admit she was a darn good actress’ these people are insane. I feel for the little girl- knowing your mother had something to do with your brother's disappearance and no one listening to you would cause me to go insane.
Ryan: Thalia certainly didn’t forget about what her mother did I’ll tell you that
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Less than a year later Thalia ran away. It took her mother a week to report her missing and by then the girl was nowhere to be found. Authorities believe she had already crossed state lines. With how famous her mother was, this case became a matter of national interest almost immediately and soon people across the country were claiming to have seen young Thalia. Most of the reports were fake, but a few had validity and very likely were genuine sightings of the girl. After the first year she began being spotted with an older boy with dark hair-
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Ryan: reading this out loud is just making me realize- how the hell did no one catch her. There were dozens of sightings of her but the police never managed to be quick enough getting to the scene to actually catch the girl.
Shane: Impressive of her honestly, who else can say they outfoxed the US government at nine years old. I respect it.
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With the attention this case was getting, her companion was quickly identified as well. Luke Castellan, 12 year old son of May Castellan and an unknown father.
(An image on the screen shows a blurry photo of a black haired boy standing next to Thalia Grace at an unnamed park. The photo was taken by a runner who recognized Thalia from media coverage of the case)
His mother had never filed a missing persons report for him, but, well- as everyone could clearly see, he was very much missing from home.
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Shane: *laughs* another missing kid! Maybe they really do have a club.
Ryan: yeah, and all of them with mysterious dads who no one has ever seen before.
Shane: Maybe it’s a family thing, you know. *laughs* all their dads are in the same cult and the initiation is running away from home and never being seen again except for in the most shady of circumstances.
Ryan: You joke but that’s a genuine theory here- that their missing parents are connected to each other and therefore that’s how they met up.
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Another two years later after half a dozen sightings that amounted to nothing, the public mostly lost interest in the case. The kids clearly didn’t want to be caught and no amount of effort had led to them being found and brought home. That is until the two kids were spotted with another child suddenly among their group- another missing person, Annabeth Chase. Annabeth was only seven years old and her father had reported her missing rather quickly after her disappearance claiming she had run away from home. Authorities reported the man seemed almost guilty, making him seem like a suspect for why the girl may have run in the first place, but nothing came of that line of detective work. A week after the report was filed, a local gas station worker who was a true crime fan spotted the girl with Thalia and Luke seemingly traveling North. The police arrived and found security footage supporting the story but were too late to catch any of the children.
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Shane: So this Annabeth girl and Thalia go way back. And both of them were spotted at Westover Hall meaning that they stuck together this whole time. I wonder what happened to the other boy…
Ryan: That unfortunately we never got any more leads on after his journey across the country with the girls ended. Unlike his companions he wasn’t spotted much again later save for a couple times by true crime buffs. At this point the case was so cold that the general public didn’t really remember or care to look out for the boy. Who knows what happened to Luke Castellan.
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Moving to Annabeth Chase now. She was born to Frederick Chase, a professor at West Point. The girl's mother is unknown.
(An image taken of Frederick Chase with his daughter appears. It shows a little girl with a somber expression and ombré hair done up in braids sitting on a couch. In her hands was a book on the concepts of mathematics that looked to be far too advanced for a child her age. Even through the picture you could see how tense her and her dad were around each other)
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Shane: Oh? It’s not a missing father this time! We got a mother, guys this is a drastic change up from the formula.
Ryan: *laughs* don’t celebrate that man.
Shane: I’m not celebrating, but a change from the pattern is a change from the pattern. I’m merely doing my job as an investigator to note that.
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A few months after Annabeth joined the group they seemed to fall off the edge of the world. There were no more sightings of them until five years later. When Annabeth Chase was spotted and accused of blowing up a bus with Percy Jackson and his friend Grover Underwood.
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Ryan: Here's where we tie in our last members of the missing persons crew that met up with the di Angelo’s at Westover Hall.
Shane: And what a merry little crew they are-
Ryan: *laughs* merry would not be the word I’d use to describe it given the amount of life or death situations they seem to find themselves in. From here on it only gets more crazy
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Perseus Jackson was born August 18th 1993 to Sally Jackson and an unknown Father. Shortly after her son's birth, Sally married a man named Gabe Ugliano
(An image appears of a young woman with brown hair and a warm smile. She seemed to be taking the picture herself while sitting on the beach with her son wrapped in a blue baby blanket resting in her lap. The boy was peeking up at the camera with curious green eyes)
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Shane: yikes that’s an unfortunate name for the stepfather- she looks like a lovely lady though.
Ryan: honestly the farther we get into this you’ll realize the name really fits. He’s an unfortunate man- and I mean that as in his existence in general is unfortunate for the general public.
Shane: *loud laughter*
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Percy was described by many as a troubled kid. He was diagnosed with ADHD and dyslexia at a young age and not many of his schools made proper adjustments to help him. It didn’t help that trouble also seemed to follow him like a plague- he went to a different school every year mostly because he was expelled from them so often. Most of the reasons cited from the teachers are so outlandish you wouldn’t even believe it. One claimed he hit the school bus with a cannon during a field trip. And funnily enough on another field trip he accidently sent some of his classmates off a platform into a tank with some tiger sharks- thankfully no child or shark was injured in the process.
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Shane: *cackles* oh my god I love this kid already! Blowing up school buses and breaking aquarium rules- he seems like a funny kid.
Ryan: *snorts* yes, well clearly his teachers didn’t agree
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When Percy was twelve he attended Yancy academy, a school for troubled teens. He reportedly lasted for most of the year before an incident during a field trip to an art museum sent him spiraling. He claimed he was attacked by a teacher named Mrs.Dodds, the only issue was that this teacher outright didn’t exist and no one had seen anyone attack young Percy to begin with. For the rest of the year he became more snappy with his other teachers and acted out more in what many believed was a response to no one believing him. He finished out the year but was told he would not be invited back next year. It was at Yancy where Percy met his friend Grover, who would continue to appear whenever Percy did during the following years. As mentioned previously, Grover legally doesn’t exist- there is no record of him in any databases. When questioned about how he got into the school, the principal of Yancy claimed his files had looked legit but that they had been lost during a reboot of the school's computer systems.
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Shane: How convenient. Either that kid is really good at making fake documents or someone at that school is lying.
Ryan: my bets on both to be honest. Fake documents I doubt were very convincing, but given how little the principal seemed to care about his students I doubt anyone bothered to look too closely at whatever the kid submitted.
Shane: That does beg the question of why the kid was there- seems a little strange he appeared and befriended Percy right before he disappeared.
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After the last day of class Percy returned home and quickly departed once again with his mom for a trip to the beach- a vacation the two took often. But their fun family vacation didn’t last long before a hurricane swept into Long Island. The storm was considered a freak weather incident given how little warning there was before its arrival. Percy and his mother left the beach house early in the evening- some authorities believed they may be trying to get farther inland to avoid the storm. But oddly enough they traveled in the opposite direction of their home. Whatever their reason was for leaving they brought essentially nothing with them and they disappeared soon after. The car they drove, belonging to Gabe Ugliano, was found crashed on the side of the road and strangely enough appeared as if it had been struck by lightning.
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Shane: All these kids seem to have the worst luck ever- I mean your car getting hit by lightning right after a freak storm hit your beach house? The chances of that happening back to back must be insane.
Ryan: if you can believe it, this kid only becomes more unlucky after this.
Shane: With the trend we’ve had so far I can totally believe it…
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A missing persons report was filed for the boy and his mom by Gabe Ugliano who claimed it was his stepsons fault. Saying that the kid was troubled and must have snapped or something. Though Percy became a suspect in his mothers disappearance while still missing himself, everyone questioned seemed to claim the boy and his mom were incredibly close and that he would never hurt her.
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Shane: I’d bet anything he had something to do with this. Evil step-parent is the most classic trope in the book.
Ryan: yes, well this is real life not a fairytale. but I won’t deny that Ugliano is a shady guy.
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A little over two weeks later, Percy Jackson was spotted again on a bus leaving New York accompanied by his friend Grover from Yancy and strangely enough Annabeth Chase. Though no one knows how the famous runaway met Percy in the two weeks he was unaccounted for. The bus they were driving crashed shortly after crossing into New Jersey due to an altercation between the children and three elderly passengers, distracting the bus driver and causing him to drive off the road.
(A blurry image taken by another passenger of the bus is shown on the screen. In the image three elderly women seem to be grappling with Annabeth and Grover- though Percy is not anywhere in sight)
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Shane: *laughs* They fought some poor old ladies on the bus. Ok- I was kind of rooting for these kids before this but an attack on some elderly women is a little uncalled for.
Ryan: Actually every eye witness account claims the elderly women started the fight, but they unfortunately disappeared from the crime scene before police could arrive to question them.
Shane: Of course they did, nothing can ever be normal with these kids. Alright lets add disappearing violent old ladies to the list of possible suspects.
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Shortly after, Percy and his friends led police on one of the most baffling chases across the country that’s ever been recorded. Strangely enough it started with them returning a lost dog in order to get the prize money to buy tickets for a train across the country. Two days after the bus exploded they were spotted at the Gateway Arch where Percy was the prime suspect in an explosion that went off at the top. The attack left a gaping hole in the side of the arch to which one eye witness claimed he saw Percy jump out of before plummeting into the water below.
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Ryan: I would like to add that even though that is the only actual eye witness report- the likelihood of that happening is essentially nothing. Percy would have died if he plummeted into the water from that height. Unless-
Shane: *laugh* Please do not start truthing this kid as some magical entity like you did with the Di Angelo’s
Ryan: *laughs* I guess I’ll just stay quiet then
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The kids were then spotted a day later at a small diner. The waitress reported that they were with a large, scary looking man- remember this guy, he comes into play later. And that they looked both scared and angry while speaking to him. The waitress reported seeing them sneak into a ‘humane animal transport van’ likely as stowaways. After tracking the car authorities found security footage of it arriving in Vegas where the kids released multiple animals including a lion and a zebra that the car was transporting into the streets. It was later found that the transport company wasn’t a legitimate business but instead was a front for smugglers who were harshly abusing the animals in their care.
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Shane: Objectively- what did these kids do wrong? From what I can see they were attacked by some old ladies and then helped free some abused animals and accidently uncover a smuggling scheme in the process
Ryan: There is the part where they may have blown up the Gateway Arch
Shane: Not enough evidence, I won’t believe it till you prove it. With these kids luck I’d bet anything it's another ‘wrong place, wrong time’ moment.
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Then the children once again fell off the map for a few days. The next time they were sighted would be the most eventful of their cross country journey and would happen on June 21st 2006. Local coast guard found the kids in the ocean, not too far out but definitely enough for it to be strange. When they got them to shore their rescuers left briefly to check on a disturbance down the street. When they returned Percy was in a standoff with the same man that had been with them at the diner. Police arrived at the scene quickly, but a few shots from the stranger had them scrambling for cover. They couldn’t risk shooting with the children so close either. Eventually shots were exchanged between the man and Percy. The child thankfully came away with no injuries, but one of the bullets got his attacker in the arm causing him to flee. Police tried to find him after that, but the man never showed up in the public eye again.
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Shane: Badass kid- I’ll say it.
Ryan: not the thing to focus on right now! Did you even hear me say that his attacker disappeared into thin air and is presumably still out there somewhere?
Shane: If I was owned that hard by a twelve year old I wouldn’t show my face again either
Ryan: *sighs*
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After being rescued by police the children finally got to tell the true account of events. The man Percy was in a shootout with had apparently abducted them and dragged them across the country. Percy managed to steal a gun from his attacker and run off with his friends. They were cornered at the beach and had tried to swim away as a last ditch effort. When the coast guard had brought them back to shore Percy had resorted to fighting with their abductor. The tearful story pulled heartstrings and the kids were on a flight back to New York within a few hours.
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Shane: uh- did people forget Annabeth was a currently missing person?
Ryan: with the rush of getting the kids on the plane no one connected the dots until later- and by then Annabeth was in the wind again. This next part though- I think you’ll find it interesting.
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According to police transcripts of the interview with the children. Shortly after describing his fight with the gunman, Percy whispered to his friend something along the lines of ‘guess we know who the stronger cousin is now’
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Shane: Hey my theory about the family cult might be real- if their kidnapper was Percy’s cousin that would certainly explain a motive. Perhaps he was bringing the boy to his father.
Ryan: Yeah the moment you mentioned that earlier on the episode I had to refrain from commenting on how correct you were. Most people didn’t notice or care about the throwaway comment but if you look at it through the scope of the dad’s side of the family being cultist it becomes a huge hint.
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Though the children had a valid explanation for their journey across the country, no explanation was offered as to how Sally Jackson appeared back home safe and sound within the same day. She claimed to have amnesia of everything regarding the event and though authorities doubted her claim there was no proof to go against her. Even more odd, when authorities returned to question her and her son about Annabeth Chase’s current whereabouts they were in a brand new apartment. Gabe Ugliano had disappeared and Sally claimed that she had divorced him and not seen him since- though records show her selling a hyper realistic statue of him only a week earlier.
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Shane: I already know what you have to say about that
Ryan: leading theories suggest she turned him into a statue, like how the white witch from Narnia did.
Shane: Of all the examples, you choose the white witch from Narnia? Medusa from Greek mythology is literally right there.
Ryan: Either works- but I say good riddance. Apparently neighbors claimed he was abusive to Sally and at the very least verbally abusive to Percy though they couldn’t be sure if he had hit the boy at all.
Shane: God what an asshole. I doubt he was turned to stone but I hope he got what was coming to him in the end.
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When pressed about Annabeth Percy claimed he wasn’t in contact with her anymore. A claim that we know is untrue as authorities placed her at the sight of Percy’s school the next term right before the boy was accused of causing a fire in the gym. The two of them along with a homeless boy the school had taken in were seen fleeing the scene of the crime. The next sighting of them after that was in Florida of all places alongside a girl named Clarisse La Rue. When authorities questioned her mother she claimed that her daughter went to a year round boarding school but refused to give them the name without a warrant. With no proof against her they were forced to back down from that course of questioning.
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Shane: yikes, year round boarding school? At that point why even have kids if you just plan to send them off and never see them again.
Ryan: I mean at least she knew where her kid was. That's better than most of the other parents we’ve talked about so far.
Shane: true- I’m honestly more impressed Percy managed to blow up his school's gym. If I were him I would lay low after the whole kidnapping thing- but nope right back into the action for him.
Ryan: he was cleared of that as well somehow. Most of his classmates claim it was some thugs who snuck onto school grounds who did it instead. The initial accusation of Percy came from a class bully who had a vendetta against him.
Shane: Ah of course. Honestly- Percy if you’re out there I say go for being a lawyer kid. With how many situations he’s managed to slip out of, it's gotta be a talent at this point.
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That brings us back to the current timeline where all these missing kids seemed to have converged on Westover Hall and then mysteriously disappeared once again. Brief images of Bianca, Thalia, Grover, Percy, as well as an older girl who has still yet to be identified were captured near Washington DC. And then once again at the Hoover dam, though this time Bianca was not with them and the young girl would never reappear again in the public eye. Interestingly Annabeth was never seen with the group despite the fact her and Percy seemed to almost always be seen traveling together.
(Two pictures appear on the screen. One is of the group of five huddled together and looking around warily. Thalia and Percy appear to be having an argument. The second photo shows the same group with the exception of Bianca di Angelo, their clothes are significantly more damaged and they appear worn and tired)
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Ryan: unfortunately the leading theory as to the girls sudden disappearance is that she must have died or been captured within the two days of their first sighting
Shane: That's morbid- maybe she just split off from the group. Seems a little hasty to jump to assume she’s dead
Ryan: Everyone else in this group save for the unknown older girl were spotted again in the future, Bianca is the exception. Though I’d like to think she’s alive somewhere out there.
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After that, sightings of Thalia began cropping up alongside a group of dozens of other young girls wearing matching silver outfits with bow’s slung over their backs. These claims couldn’t be proven though as there is no photo evidence and other people on the locations they were spotted did not see anything out of the ordinary like our few eye witnesses claimed. The sightings were eventually claimed to be fake. As for the other kids, Percy returned home and was questioned by police once again about the location of Annabeth Chase and Thalia Grace. He once again denied any association with the missing girls and claimed he had no idea where they currently were. Though it was clearly a lie his mother backed him up and without any more proof they were unable to follow through with their investigation into him. Annabeth’s father was questioned once again about her whereabouts and claimed his daughter was still missing. Authorities believed this was a lie especially after discovering a recent letter from the girl in his house. The return address went to a random field in New York so police were led to believe it must have been a cover to hide Annabeth's actual location. After a day of questioning led to nothing, authorities were forced to release Mr.Chase and accept that the girl had escaped them once again.
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Shane: This is getting almost comical, all these children are literally just fucking with the government at this point.
Ryan: *laughs* That's why there’s so much information about this case. Normally the general public aren’t really on the lookout for missing kids- there’s too many to keep count of you know. But when half a dozen of these missing kids keep showing up together and avoid the authorities an embarrassing amount of times, people tend to pay a little more attention to them.
Shane: You would never see the government going this hard to try and find missing kids usually. You know some people are sitting in Quantico right now fuming that they’re being outsmarted by middle schoolers
Ryan: *laughs* the US government beefing with half a dozen missing children
Shane: me personally, I would just quit if a group of sixth graders humiliated me that hard
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After that there aren't many sightings of the missing kids beside Percy Jackson, who is, well- not missing. The boy went to ‘a private boarding school’ for a large part of the rest of the school year. But his mother declined to reveal the name of it.
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Shane: lots of private boarding schools with these kids… seems like a coverup of some kind
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The last concrete incident behind Percy Jackson was when he was accused of causing an explosion at Goode high school. He fled the scene- once again accompanied by Annabeth Chase. The only witness was a young lady named Rachel Dare, the daughter of Billionaire Walter Dare. She was very vocal about the explosion not being Percy or Annabeth’s fault, and as the only one present for the explosion they were unable to pin the crime on the teenagers. Though given that this was the sixth school related incident, paired with the boy's continued association with runaways the police labeled him as a person of interest that they wanted to interview. His mother and new stepfather, a teacher at the school, claimed that they weren’t aware of his whereabouts. But authorities believed it was highly likely they were once again lying.
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Ryan: after this Percy Jackson kind of became a missing person but it’s widely known he still visited his mom frequently. But neighbors always claimed to never see him. The whole apartment building seemed to be covering for the family.
Shane: if the entire building was working together to cover for this kid then I have a feeling he isn’t the bad guy in this scenario
Ryan: hey don’t shoot the messenger- I’m just explaining the information as we know it. He has been officially missing since, though it is highly likely that he was still in New York, staying with his mother most of the time, and even completing his senior year of high school. Though any records Goode may have had on the boy's attendance there had been ‘mysteriously wiped’ somehow.
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There was mostly a loss for leads on the case for a year or so after this until December 2009. During a field trip to the Grand Canyon held by a Wilderness school in Nevada. There were some technical difficulties with a viewing platform that many students claimed was the fault of three of their fellow students who were seen fleeing the scene with Annabeth Chase and an unknown boy. These three teenagers are Piper McClean, Leo Valdez, and Jason Grace.
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Ryan: recognize any of those names?
Shane: *snorts* yes and I can practically see you wanting to jump up and down in your seat at the return of Jason Grace to the story.
Ryan: oh come on, this is a popular conspiracy theory but actually assembling a timeline like we did here was almost impossible. Can’t I be a little proud of my work
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This marked the first time Jason Grace was ever seen since his disappearance. The boy just appeared at the Wilderness school one day after being sent there by a lady named ‘Juno O.’ There is no other information available about this woman but we may be able to assume she was his kidnapper back in 1996. The other two children are also of interest. Primarily Piper McClean, daughter of famous actor Tristan McClean.
(An image from the school yearbook of the three kids with their arms thrown around each other was shown. Leo was in the middle with a blinding grin, on one side Piper seemed to be mid-laugh, and on the other Jason had a bewildered look on his face)
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Ryan: It's crazy how many of these kids have famous parents. You’d think with the higher publicity they’d be way less likely to run in the first place, much less manage to stay hidden so long.
Shane: Makes you think of all those secret Hollywood cult conspiracy theories
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Piper was born June 3rd 1994 to Tristan McClean- and you guessed it, an unknown mother.
(An image appears of a girl, maybe twelve years old, walking at her fathers side down the street. The image was taken by paparazzi and by the way the girl glanced back in annoyance you could tell she wasn’t a fan of it.)
Her early childhood was marked by poverty, but after her father started to make it big in acting the family became very wealthy. Due to his busier schedule, Tristan had far less time to spend with his daughter. And according to his assistant the girl would act out in an attempt to regain that attention. Piper had a string of minor crimes, primarily theft, by the time she was twelve. Her father was able to talk authorities out of charges most of the time, until Piper stole a Lamborghini from a nearby car dealership. The only way that the girl managed to stay out of jail was a compromise with the court where she was sent to Wilderness school instead. Which is where she meets up with Jason and Leo, and eventually Annabeth before her disappearance. To this day, Piper denies stealing the car, and states that the dealer gave it to her of his own free will
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Shane: *laughs* I like this girl too. Being caught red-handed and then just being like ‘no fuck you, I didn’t do it’ anyway is such a ballsy move.
Ryan: You should not be supporting these kids every time they commit crimes
Shane: Where's the harm in it, their crimes are funny.
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The last member of the new trio was a boy named Leo Valdez. Born the son of Esperanza Valdez and-
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Shane: and an unknown father.
Ryan: you didn’t let me finish
Shane: but you were about to say it’s an unknown father weren't you
Ryan: …yes
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Born the son of Esperanza Valdez and an unknown man. His neighbors reported strange happenings around the boy for most of his childhood, mostly having to do with fires.
(An image appears of a little boy with a bright grin being held in the arms of a smiling woman with dark hair and eyes. Even in the picture you could tell how close the two were)
It seemed that trend would sadly continue as he would end up losing his mother in a fire when he was eight years old. Authorities and his other family suspected the fire was caused by him despite the word of a child psychologist who had been hired to meet with the boy. Dr.Willows, the psychologist, claimed that after her evaluation of his mental state and taking into account witness accounts claiming the boy and his mom were very close. Him starting the fire was incredibly unlikely unless it was by accident. In the end the boy was taken to foster care. You can’t really press charges on an eight year old, and his remaining family refused to take him in, claiming he was quote ‘the devils spawn’ end quote.
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Shane: *wince* that’s harsh especially since the kid was like eight
Ryan: yeah apparently the fire started from where the kid was standing, leading people to accuse him of being the culprit. But further forensic data showed there was nothing the boy could have used to create such a powerful blaze so quickly. Makes you think that maybe-
Shane: don’t say superpowers
Ryan: What? It’s possible! Especially when you take into account the weird and unexplainable things the other kids did.
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After the three children disappeared with Annabeth Chase and her unknown companion, the trail for all of these kids goes cold for a little while. Until eight months later when suddenly they were spotted once again, this time in the company of Percy, and two new kids. Only one was able to be identified. The boy, Frank Zhang, was born June 5th 1994 to Emily Zhang and an unknown father. He was raised by his grandmother in Canada for most of his life before he started being spotted with Percy and a strange girl in America.
(An image appears on the screen. It’s a young boy with dark hair and a shy smile holding up a spelling bee certificate next to a stern looking older lady who could only be his grandmother)
When American authorities got in contact with Canadian authorities about it they went to question the boy's grandmother only to find the house burned to the ground. There is still little information about what happened or whether she survived the fire. The other new kid was unable to be identified, but after some rigorous research we came across some conspiracy theories claiming she was actually born in the 1920’s
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Ryan: before you say anything, remember the same thing happened with the Di Angelo’s and there was pretty damning evidence it was correct
Shane: I still think the Di Angelo’s are just distant relatives or something. Maybe Nico and Bianca are family names and some second cousin once removed wanted to honor the missing kids
Ryan: how would that explain the exact same personalities?
Shane: Maybe the kids were inspired to copy their namesakes
Ryan: that’s just ridiculous
Shane: more ridiculous than immortal children from the 1940’s??
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Hazel Levesque was born December 17th 1928 to Marie Levesque and an unknown father. She spent her childhood in New Orleans before her mother moved both of them to Alaska when she was 13. The new living arrangements wouldn’t last long before both mother and daughter went missing in the summer of 1942. We actually only have one recovered picture of the girl herself.
( a black and white image appears of a young girl in a school uniform, black shoes, and stockings standing next to another boy around her age. He had a mischievous smile and an arm thrown over the girls shoulder)
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Shane: Hey, the kid kind of looks like Leo Valdez
Ryan: *giggles* That's because the boy, Sammy Valdez , is Leo Valdez’s great-grandfather.
Shane: Ok, that’s weird I’ll admit.
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Though it’s unknown if the strange girl is actually Hazel Levesque, it’s certainly an interesting possibility. Especially since she was seen with Nico Di Angelo, the other child theorized to be from the 1940’s. It was also one of the only times Nico di Angelo was seen after he disappeared from Westover Hall in 2007. The girl would later be spotted alongside Frank Zhang, Annabeth Chase, Percy Jackson, Piper McClean, Leo Valdez, and Jason Grace in Charleston, West Virginia on June 28th 2010. After this, these children essentially fell off the map and no more weird sightings have been seen of them since. All except for Piper McClean who returned to her fathers mansion at the end of the summer. The girl was questioned by police but the general consensus was that she ran off to visit her mothers side of the family in Greece for the summer. Piper had a previous history of running away and the line of questioning was dropped. As of now she is about to start her first college semester at West Bay University.
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Ryan: What I find most interesting is the story of her going to visit her mothers side of the family during her disappearance.
Shane: yeah clearly her and her father knew who the mother was and where she was but publicly she was still reported as unknown
Ryan: Maybe it was an affair and the mother didn’t want her actual husband knowing.
Shane: Then how did she explain when the random teenage girl came to stay with her for an entire summer
Ryan: *laughs* yeah wait that’s a good point. The strange second parent of all these kids will show up in the theories though, so let’s get into it.
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THEORY #1:
Coincidence
We’ll get this one out of the way first since it’s the most boring. It basically goes that all these runaways and missing kids crossed each other's paths by pure coincidence. For children like Thalia, Annabeth, and Luke- they could have just crossed paths while on the run and seen each other as kindred spirits. Though this is what the police who have covered the case of these missing children believe, it is actually the most unlikely. The chances of this many cases crossing paths would be astronomically small, nor does it explain how children like Percy and Piper who weren’t missing to begin with got tangled up in everything. It also doesn’t account for Nico and Bianca Di Angelo or Hazel Levesque. Additionally the fact that each child has one parent who is completely unknown. Though single parents are common, the fact that every single one of these missing children had a missing parent is suspicious.
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Shane: yeah I don’t buy that. Those kids must be giggling watching the government absolutely fail to crack the case all these years
Ryan: I mean they’re all very likely still alive and at least Piper McClean is living a relatively normal life so they may be watching this right now.
Shane: hello missing children if you’re watching
Ryan: they actually wouldn’t be considered missing children anymore. Most of the kids in this case would now be like 18-20 years old, except for Nico Di Angelo and Hazel Levesque. So hey, if you’re watching, you guys are out of the woods when it comes to being sent back to foster care or your families. So let us know what actually happened
Shane: *laughs* That would be one way to solve it. What are the chances of them seeing this though
Ryan: I don’t know- if someone made a video theorizing about my life I’d probably watch it
Shane: at least to make fun of us when we inevitably get this wrong.
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THEORY #2:
cult kidnappings
Theory number two, which is the most popular among true crime buffs online, is that these children were victims of cult brainwashing. The theory goes that an unknown cult preyed on mostly runway children who would not be missed. Though no one is sure quite what the cult’s goal would be, many think it has religious undertones to it. For children like Percy and Piper who’s parents covered for their disappearance it could be that they were either threatened with their kids' lives or they themselves were raised in the cult. It could also explain why every kid seems to be missing one parent, maybe the cult only targeted kids who fit that description- for what reason we don’t know why. Some proof for this theory is the identical orange shirts the kids are frequently seen in and the children’s own lack of willingness to properly explain what happened. Though this theory doesn’t explain the three children allegedly from the 1940’s. And with little idea of what the cult could be about, most professional investigators ruled out this as a possibility
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Ryan: Also what I found weird about this possibility is that the kids seem free to go where they want, when they want. It could be brainwashing but with how quickly after their disappearance they are seen wandering the country without adult supervision it’s unlikely their captors would be able to brainwash them in that time
Shane: *laughs* have you considered this is a lord of the flies scenario after all and all these kids are just running their own little society
Ryan: What about the Di Angelo kids or Hazel?
Shane: maybe they’re fans of necromancy
Ryan: aww but that would mean those poor kids all died back in the 40’s and that’s just depressing
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THEORY #3:
Supernatural scions
Theory three claims that they are all the children of some kind of supernatural entities- maybe angels or demons. This would explain why all them seem to be missing one parent, and would tie into why Percy may have implied that his kidnapper was a cousin. It would also explain how Bianca, Nico, and Hazel bear such striking resemblance to children from the 40’s. Being not fully human led to them being immortal and would explain their presence in a completely different century while still looking like children.
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Shane: I’m gonna be real, if I was them I’d be pissed I stopped aging at like 13- like do they get to decide the age or is it like randomly assigned
Ryan: *laughs* dude I don’t know how immortality works, maybe they wanted to stay as children forever
Shane: *laughs* why would anyone wish eternal puberty on themselves
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This theory also appeals to the fact that strange things seem to happen around the children. Percy survived supposedly plummeting hundreds of feet into a river. And one of the former students of the Wilderness school claimed that Piper and Jason fell into the canyon, but Jason was able to fly both of them to safety. Though none of the other students claimed to see the same. This theory doesn’t explain why all these kids seemed to converge on the same location unless they have some type of system to identify other supernatural children.
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Ryan: I think this is the most plausible, it could also account for how Piper and her father both knew who her mother was but declined to comment. If it’s some supernatural entity then you can’t really explain that to the police
Shane: “yes officer, my mother is actually a demon”
Ryan: *laughs* I doubt they’d believe her, but Piper if you’re watching let us know if we’re close to the truth or not.
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THEORY #4:
A family business
This theory has elements from both theories two and three combined into one. It goes that the kids' missing parents are part of some type of cult or mafia and the kids were following the bidding of this group on their journeys. It would explain how they all seemed to know each other if their parents worked together. And also accounts for why the kids would seemingly go along with the cult willingly. It could have been something that they were expected to do since they were young. It also ties in well with what Beryl Grace said about her son being an offering, perhaps to whatever group the father worked for. Some people take this theory farther to claim that their parents work together AND are supernatural entities and that would explain the odd occurrences around them as well. Despite being the most out there theory, this one actually covers almost every unknown in the story.
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Ryan: So that’s the last theory, which one do you think is most likely?
Shane: I’d say the cult theory with their families, though I’m obviously not sold on the supernatural part, is most likely but I still think the Di Angelo’s are just distant relatives and there’s not much actual proof that the girl spotted with Percy and Frank is Hazel Levesque.
Ryan: Well I believe their parents weren’t fully human. It's the only option that accounts for all the unnatural occurrences of this case. Plus it would mean the Di Angelo kids didn’t die horrible deaths and that’s a happy thought.
Shane: yes but it would also mean that they were forced into some cult.
Ryan: At least they wouldn’t be dead! And if this is a cult it doesn’t seem like the worst cult we’ve talked about.
Shane: *laughs* they might be a cult but they seem like nice guys
Ryan: You know what I mean- it’s not like they were going around killing people.
Shane: and as we’ve established, most of their crimes were actually very funny
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Answers as to what happened during the decade that these disappearances and sightings took place have never been found. But this case has the unique factor of most of the people discussed being strongly believed to still be alive. Maybe one day in their adulthood these children will come out with the truth of what actually happened during the periods where they disappeared, but for now, the case will remain unsolved.