S19 Ep17: Stories of the vanished (Sn. 19 Ep. 17)

Summary

**Summary of "Monsters Among Us"
Episode: S19 Ep17: Stories of the Vanished
Host: Derek Hayes | Audioboom Studios
Release Date: June 10, 2025

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Monsters Among Us Episode S19 Ep17, titled "Stories of the Vanished," delves into mysterious disappearances of objects, people, and more. Hosted by Derek Hayes, the episode features a compilation of firsthand accounts from listeners who have experienced inexplicable vanishings. This summary captures the essence of each story, highlighting key discussions, insights, and conclusions drawn by the host.

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Introduction: Setting the Haunted Theme

[00:52] Derek Hayes:
Derek introduces the episode by observing a pattern in listener calls centered around the theme of disappearance. He sets the tone for the evening, inviting listeners to explore tales where things vanish without a trace.

"This idea only came to me when I began to notice an abundance of calls, all containing the same word in their description. And that word is disappear."
[00:52]

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Mysterious Sky Phenomena

1. The Vanishing Star

[02:01] Anonymous Caller (Oregon):
A nighttime security guard recounts witnessing an unexplained celestial event. He describes observing a star-like object that brightened intensely before vanishing without a trace.

"I noticed it getting brighter and brighter until it just completely vanished."
[02:01]

[04:19] Derek Hayes:
Derek theorizes potential explanations, such as ball lightning, but acknowledges the uniqueness of the report.

"But Frank didn't mention any storm, and his account matches reports we've heard from so many others over the years."
[05:48]

2. The Crane of Lights

[07:00] Anonymous Caller:
Another caller describes witnessing hundreds of stationary lights in the sky shaped like a crane. As he and his friend drove beneath them, the lights mysteriously disappeared.

"It seemed like we started to drive under them. And as we were driving under them, they disappeared."
[09:24]

[09:26] Derek Hayes:
Derek offers a natural explanation, suggesting that flocks of birds reflecting light could create the illusion of glowing orbs.

"The birds are not really glowing. The light is simply reflecting off their white plumage."
[09:26]

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Unexplained Object Movements

3. The Phantom Fishing Pole

[11:24] James (Virginia):
James shares a baffling fishing experience where a fishing pole he just used reappears cast into the water without his friend moving it.

"I know I didn't do that...he got out a string. We put it through the Noah's gills."
[11:24]

[15:39] Derek Hayes:
Derek admits he lacks a concrete explanation, suggesting a possible "glitch in the matrix."

"I believe we can call that a glitch in the matrix when there's a little hiccup in the programming."
[15:39]

4. The Disappearing Lighter and Toilet Paper

[16:14] Carrie (California):
Carrie recounts two eerie incidents: her ritual lighter vanishing and reappearing, and a spotless square of toilet paper mysteriously falling onto her geranium bush.

"It's a perfectly white, unwrinkled, perfectly clean square of toilet paper sitting on top of my geranium."
[16:14]

[22:26] Derek Hayes:
Derek introduces the concept of "aport" in paranormal studies, pondering whether magical practices could be responsible for such anomalies.

"Could that magic be powerful enough to cause a single sheet of white toilet paper to spontaneously appear?"
[22:26]

5. The Missing Phone and Mysterious Keys

[24:48] Lauren (Michigan):
Lauren describes her phone vanishing from her workspace and inexplicably reappearing in her car, despite her having it with her throughout the day.

"I looked for my phone...it's sitting right there in the windowsill."
[24:48]

[28:32] Nora (Tennessee):
Nora narrates the disappearance of her car keys, which vanished from her hand as she approached her home.

"I go out of my car and my hands still closed, my keys are gone. Absolutely gone."
[28:32]

[31:58] Rebecca (Missouri):
Rebecca shares two paranormal experiences: a violently shaking tree branch with no physical cause and her pillow teleporting from her bed to the window.

"I grabbed the mini blinds...my pillow went from under my head to the window across the room."
[31:58]

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Vanishing People and Ghostly Apparitions

6. The Swift Disappearance on the Overpass

[39:37] Brandon (Pennsylvania):
Brandon recounts seeing an old lady in period clothing walk across an empty overpass. After passing under it, she vanishes without a trace.

"I looked in my rear view...she was gone."
[39:37]

7. The Purple Lady and Disembodied Legs

[49:08] Anonymous Caller:
A caller describes encountering a man acting strangely at an intersection who disappears suddenly without any obstruction.

"He was completely gone. Like I said, there was nothing around the intersection for him to hide behind."
[49:08]

[51:53] Mike (California):
Mike shares his experience of seeing a woman dressed in a purple sweater walking motionlessly along a road, who disappears as he observes her.

"She was just straight up gone. No noise, no nothing."
[51:53]

[58:04] Kelly (Alabama):
In a brief revisit, Kelly recalls seeing a "little green fluorescent butt" running across the road, highlighting the bizarre nature of such sightings.

"I saw a little green butt run across the road. It was about a foot two feet tall at the top of the butt."
[58:04]

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Concluding Thoughts and Community Engagement

[53:57] Derek Hayes:
Derek reflects on the recurring theme of disappearances occurring near roads and intersections, contemplating possible links or coincidences. He emphasizes the unsettling nature of these stories and prepares listeners for the final eerie account.

"The calls are downright unsettling. But I've saved the most unsettling for last."
[53:57]

[54:56] Will (Texas):
Will narrates his sighting of disembodied legs walking on the grass beside the road, which vanish upon closer observation.

"I saw a pair of legs walking on the grass...when I looked back, she was gone."
[54:56]

Final Remarks:
Derek wraps up the episode by connecting the final call to previous stories, reinforcing the episode's theme of mysterious disappearances. He encourages listeners to share their own stories to keep the community engaged and the show thriving.

"Those are the stories of the vanished tales of disappearing objects, people and things. Now, I sure do hope you had as much fun with this one as I did."
[58:40]

He also promotes upcoming content and community platforms, inviting listeners to join their Discord server and participate in special screenings.

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Key Takeaways:

• Recurring Theme: Disappearances often occur near roads, intersections, or in isolated settings.
• Possible Explanations: While natural phenomena like reflections and flocks of birds are suggested, many vanishings remain unexplained, hinting at paranormal or otherworldly causes.
• Community Engagement: The episode emphasizes the importance of listener participation in sharing personal experiences to enrich the show's content.
• Atmosphere: Derek maintains a spooky and investigative tone, encouraging listeners to ponder the mysteries of the unknown.

Notable Quotes:

• "It was just too bright. It was going way too fast. And the way it just disappeared into the sky."
  — Frank, New York [05:50]

• "It seemed like we started to drive under them. And as we were driving under them, they disappeared."
  — Anonymous Caller [09:24]

• "But unlike Rebecca's call, I wonder if the cause of this next strange occurrence isn't right there in front of us."
  — Derek Hayes [36:00]

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For those intrigued by the unexplained and the paranormal, this episode of Monsters Among Us offers a chilling exploration into the world of the vanished. From peculiar celestial events to the mysterious disappearance of personal items and people, Derek Hayes guides listeners through a night filled with haunting tales that defy logical explanation.

Stay Spooky!

Transcript

[Derek Hays]

Good evening and welcome to Monsters Among Us. I am your guide, Derek Hays. It is great to have you back with us here this evening, and I have a spooky one for you. An unexpected theme, you might say, or at least I would imagine. This idea only came to me when I began to notice an abundance of calls, all containing the same word in their description. And that word is disappear. So I scraped together a dozen or so of these calls and packaged them up for you here tonight in an hour episode I'm calling stories of the vanished disappearing items, people and more. And to kick us off this evening, we begin with a few stories about odd objects in the sky that seem to vanish right before the witness's eyes. Please welcome the following anonymous caller out of Oregon to get us started.

[Anonymous Caller]

Hi, Derek. So I wanted to call to report something that I've seen in the night sky. To preface, I work as a nighttime security guard in Hillsborough, Oregon. And on the morning of June 27, 2020, at around 3:40am I saw something in the sky that I couldn't really explain. I was out on patrol and I had noticed that there was a meteor shower going on. So I looked up in the night sky to observe all the meteors. And after it had kind of subsided for a little while, I was still looking up at the sky and I happened to notice something that I just can't really explain. At first, it looked like just a typical ordinary star, but the weird thing about it was that I noticed it getting brighter and brighter and it got increasingly brighter until it just completely vanished. And I have no idea where it went or what it was, for that matter, because I'd never heard of a star just getting brighter and then suddenly disappearing. So to clarify, there were no clouds in the sky, so it wasn't a case of cloud cover blocking the star from my point of view. And it was completely stationary, like it wasn't moving, like a satellite or a meteor. I had witnessed meteors going off that night. Like, it didn't look anything like what I had seen earlier. It wasn't streaking across the sky. It was just completely stationary in one part of the sky. Yeah, was in the region between the Cassiopeia constellation and Ursa Minor, so kind of near Polaris. Anyways, thanks for taking my call. Bye.

[Derek Hays]

Thank you, caller. You know, it sounds like you were in the right place at the right time, so good for you. And good for this next caller as well, because he seemed to have been just as lucky. Please welcome our friend Frank out of New York.

[Anonymous Caller]

Hey, Derek, this is Frank from Long Island. I'm just calling because something happened to me about 20 minutes ago around 10:40. It is Tuesday, January 14th, so I'm coming back home from Queens. I usually come home late on Tuesday nights. I hang out with some friends from the neighborhood at a bar. So I'm usually coming home very late. Driving on the northern state, which is on northern Long island, and this is around the borderline of Nassau and Suffolk. Now, I don't drink. I have a long ride back home. I'm just dead, you know, hanging out, having a good time. So I'm driving, and all of a sudden I see this bright white ball of light that just comes speeding in the sky, just shooting straight down. The way I can compare, it was like, you know, the way when you shoot a ball rocket and it zigzags fit? It looked just like that, but it was going fast.

[Derek Hays]

First thing that came to mind was.

[Anonymous Caller]

Like, is that possibly a jet? But if it was like a military jet, definitely would have heard it. They've flown over here before, and they're hopefully pretty loud, especially when you're driving. So I would have definitely heard it, but this thing just blew and it disappeared in midair. And I'm thinking to myself, maybe it was just a reflection in my window or something. It was just way too bright. It was going way too fast. And the way it just disappeared into the sky, like, I didn't even see it go past over the horizon or anything. It just went straight and then just disappeared. Lately, we've been having a lot of drones over there in Jersey. Some people have been reporting seeing them over here as well. I'm not sure if they're related. Hopefully somebody's listening to this. Maybe they saw the same thing that I saw today. Yeah, just want to report it. I was listening to your podcast when I saw it, and guess it was like a reminder. Let me. Let Derek know right away. Thanks, man. Love your show. Good night.

[Derek Hays]

Thank you, Frank. And thank you for thinking of us straight away. I bet your mind was spinning, and yet you thought to give us a call. I think you made the right choice. Now, as for the object that Frank saw, we know that it could have been ball lightning. We already know that it exists, and we also know that it looks very similar to what Frank witnessed. And we also know that it can act just like the light that Frank saw. But Frank didn't mention any storm, and his account matches reports we've heard from so many others over the years. Others that seemingly were not describing bald Lightning in their report. But whatever it was, it sounded like it made for an amazing experience. Frank. And we thank you again for taking the time to call it in. Now folks, before we go to our first break, I'm going to slip in one more scary story. And what's cooler than seeing one of these glowing orbs of light? Well, maybe seen hundreds of them. Please welcome another anonymous caller to tonight's program. Me and my friend were driving down the freeway. He stops mid conversation and tells me, hey, look at that, what's in the sky? We look up, it looks like hundreds of lights, but in the shape of like a crane. We thought it was a crane. Those lights that usually they put around them to border them to avoid things from running into them or airplanes or whatever. And there was at least a hundred lights, but in a single line. And as I started to look out.

[Anonymous Caller]

At them and notice them as well, I kept on telling to my friend.

[Derek Hays]

That we'll be able to see them, that they're right above my house. And as I stuck my head out the window, it was weird. It seemed like we started to drive under them. And as we were driving under them, they disappeared. Thousands of lights.

[Anonymous Caller]

It was crazy.

[Derek Hays]

It seemed like they were watching us. Thank you, caller. Now, when I was doing talking, talking headpieces for the TV show Paranormal Caught on Camera, we covered a few videos depicting a very similar scene to what our caller just described. Hundreds, if not thousands of small, lightly glowing orbs bouncing around up in the sky. Now, personally, I think what we're seeing in those videos at least were flocks of white birds swarming together over a light source like a spotlight, a floodlight or a busy city center. You see, the birds are not really glowing. The light is simply reflecting off their white plumage, which intensifies when juxtaposed against the darkness of space. And they disappear when they fly out of that light's range or into a nearby shadow. So maybe that's what you saw, caller. I sure hope so, because the alternative is that there are thousands of unidentified things floating around above us. And I don't like the sound of that at all. Thank you again, caller, for taking the time to call in. Alright, folks, I'll be right back with more vanishing objects right after this district in San Francisco.

[Anonymous Caller]

It must be 21 +. Terms and conditions apply. See after details.

[Derek Hays]

Now, we've already heard a few examples of disappearing lights in the sky. So what do you say we explore more disappearing objects, beginning with James over in Virginia.

[Anonymous Caller]

Hi, Derek, My name is James. I'm Calling from Virginia. I don't really know how to categorize this story. It took place during the summer of either 2017 or 2018. One night, a friend of mine at the time, him and I went fishing, which we often normally did. This particular night, we went somewhere kind of not too far from where he lived at the time. For those who are familiar with the area, he lived near South Boston, Virginia. And I believe, if I remember correctly, the spot we'd gone fishing at night was somewhere between South Boston, Virginia, and Clarksville, Virginia. Anyway, this particular night, we were out just fishing alongside a river. We just had a couple of lawn chairs pulled up alongside the water between us. We had a lantern. That was the only light we had. But the lantern was to the left of me looking at the water, and it was to the right of my friend. And we had fishing pole holders in the ground to hold the poles. Well, we had six poles, one pole in front of me, another pole several feet away to my right, and another pole several feet to the right of Beth. And for him, who was sitting to my left, he had a fishing pole sitting in front of him with another one to the left several feet and another one to the left several feet. So, like I said, we had, like, six poles in the water altogether. And we had little bells on the poles to, you know, jingle if we got a bite. Well, I don't remember how long we'd been sitting there for. The fishing pole right in front of me where I was sitting jingled, and I got up and I pulled the pole, and I started reeling in a fish. Well, I got the fish, you know, catfish. My friend got up and he was helping me to get it in, take it off the hook, and he got out a string. We put it through the Noah's gills, put in the water, and I started to rebate my pole. You know, I turned my back from the water for just a moment while I put the bait back on. And then when I went to turn around to face the water to recast the pole, all of a sudden I noticed there's a pole right where I just pulled that pole from, and it's already cast out in the water. And I know it wasn't my friend that did it, just because, for one thing, he didn't have enough time to do it if he wanted to. And I brought it up to him, like, how did this pole get in the water? This is the spot I just pulled this pole from. And he was as baffled as me. And I noticed all the way to the left the far end of the left, which would have been on his side, which was like in the darkest area away from the light of the lantern. There was a pole missing. We both know there was a pole over there before. So, you know, he said, maybe you must have pulled the pole way over there. And I said, no, I know I didn't do that for two reasons. Because one, if that had been the pole that caught the fish, he would have got up to get it because it was on his side of where he was sitting, one of his poles. And two of the lines would have crossed all the other ones bringing it back over to where we were in the light of the lantern. But me and my friend were totally sober. We had not been taking any sort of illegal substances or anything like that to make us hallucinate. So we hadn't been drinking, hadn't been smoking or doing anything else like that. We were completely sober. So I really don't know. I think it really creeped my friend out more than it did me. To me, it just baffled me. I've had a lot of strange, odd things that I don't know how to explain over the years, but this one takes the cake. I really don't know how to explain this one. But if you have any ideas what could have been, I'd love to hear it. Thanks, Derek. Love the show. Bye.

[Derek Hays]

Thank you for the phone call. Now, honestly, I don't have a clue, James, but I wish that I did. Outside of a paranormal explanation, I don't know how you could have had that experience. I believe we can call that a glitch in the matrix when there's a little hiccup in the programming. And perhaps that's the explanation for this next call as well. A similar story from Carrie here in California.

[Anonymous Caller]

Hi, Derek, this is Carrie from Northern California by the Oregon border. I just had something really weird happen. It happened probably around 10am about 15 minutes ago. And it's a continuation for what started happening yesterday. So yesterday I woke up and I got everyone ready for school because I'm a mom too and I have my husband who needs to go to work. So I got everyone up and ready to go and got them out the door, got my coffee, was settling down to do some of my artwork for small business I own. But I was sitting there upstairs drinking my coffee and doing Memoriam routine, which is scrolling Facebook and Instagram. But I decided that I was going to light a candle or whatever. I have a total of three lighters today. I just wanted to relax with a candle Upstairs, it was cold and I just was not in the mood to do anything else. Anyways, I get up and I'm trying to look for my lighters. Two of them are broken now, even though they're full. And it's kind of frustrating. And then I had to go and get my ritual one that I have on my altar. I went to go look for it, and it's nowhere on my altar. I look around the room that my altar is in, it's nowhere in the room. There's a cat in the window. I pick up the cat. I look on the windowsill, it's not there. I'm going around in circles for like five, 10 minutes. Really, really super frustrated because I can't find it. And it's just the one thing I wanted to do this morning to relax. Now I'm going around room to room to room to room, trying to find this lighter and not finding it. Checked my old clothes, I checked my son's room, I checked my daughter's room. I checked everywhere and I couldn't find it. So I finally, frustrated in the middle of my house, said, I don't care who has my lighter right now. I just want it back. It's the only one I have and it's the only one working and I need it. And I'm very frustrated right now. And then I just took a deep breath and I went to the bathroom. I got ready for my day, got dressed and everything, just to calm down. And then when I come back upstairs to start up my artwork again, and after I've calmed down, I look in the windowsill and it's sitting right there in the windowsill. I look there, I picked up the cat that was in the window. I moved every plant that I have in the window because I have like 8 to 10 plants in my window. It wasn't over there. And then when I come back upstairs, it's over there. It was so weird. I was just like over it. And I put the lighter situation out of my mind. I think it's just me forgetting where I put the lighter or whatever. I am very forgetful and I do have adhd, so doesn't help any with that. But today, this morning, around 10:00, I took my dog outside to use the bathroom. And right as we walk out the door to go outside or whatever, I have a porch. It's like 4 foot wide by like 15ft long. But at the corner of my porch on the back, I see this random white thing just appear and fall. And I'm like, what was that? And I walk over, I look, I have a geranium bush right underneath my awning because my neighbor's fence is right there against my porch. So I put a geranium there to give it a little bit more soundproofing between me and my neighbors. Anyways, I look on top of my geranium, and there is a perfectly white, unwrinkled, perfectly clean square of toilet paper sitting on top of my geranium. You heard me, right? I said toilet paper. It was one single clean, not wet, not dirty, nothing wrong with it, not even a wrinkle in it, piece of toilet paper. It was so weird. And then my dog saw it too. She went at it like it was a bird that landed in the bush. And so by the time I was able to fully see that it was indeed a piece of toilet paper, it was on the ground under the geranium, wet from the leaves, because it literally rained last night. So everything is wet and we have frost that's melting off of the grass. So there's not really any place dry back there. But when it landed on the geranium, it was perfectly dry and clean. It was so weird. Anyways, it sounds very mundane, but those have been my last two days. And for some reason I don't feel like this is, like random things just happening right now. But at the same time, I don't know if I can handle random toilet paper falling from the sky. That might be too much for me. Anyways, love the show. Thank you so much, Derek. Okay, talk to you later. Bye.

[Derek Hays]

Thank you, Carrie. Watching an item appear out of thin air. They call it an a port in parapsychology and spiritualism. An abort is an alleged paranormal transference of an article from one place to another or an appearance of an article from an unknown source that is often associated with poltergeist activity or seances. So it's kind of heavy stuff there. But as Carrie had mentioned, she did have an altar, and it seemed she was no stranger to some sort of magic. Could that magic be powerful enough to cause a single sheet of white toilet paper to spontaneously appear? Well, I'll let you be the judge of that. But in the meantime, thank you again, Gary, for sharing that story here with us. Now, before we hit play on our last disappearing object story, a quick reminder that if you don't share your stories with us, this show could disappear. Visit our hotline at 888608, night. That's 888608, Nig H T. Or you can Record a voice memo on your phone and email the file to me at monsters among us podcastmail.com and a brief but important message. We recently opened up our MAU Discord server to all of our listeners and you can find the link in tonight's show notes or on our social media pages if you would like to join us there. And if you're one of those long time Discord users from Patreon, you will still have access to a special Patreon exclusive channel within our Discord, so make sure that you check that out. Welcome aboard everyone. Hopefully we'll see you there. Now, what do you say we do one more vanishing object story before we move on to our next grouping of calls from that state up north. Please welcome Lauren to tonight's program.

[Anonymous Caller]

Hi Derek, My name is Lauren and I am from Michigan. The story that I want to tell you just happened to me as I was leaving work. So I work for a small local music school and I'm often there by myself at the end of the night after all the students and teachers have left. And I have, you know, my closing duties because I work at the front desk. So sorry, I was a little shaken up. But tonight I go through and I'm wiping everything down. Part of my duties is to wipe everything down and make sure all of the lesson room doors are shut. So I know I shut all the doors. The light switch is in the back of the building, so I go turn off the light switch and I go to pull out my phone to turn the flashlight on so I can get to the front of the building and I can't find my phone. Nowhere to be found. So I'm like, okay, make my way to the front of the building and I cannot find my phone anywhere. So I'm like, whatever, get the studio phone, try calling it. It's ringing, but I can't hear it anywhere. Then I hear two of our back room doors open. I thought it was just one, but the last two rooms, the doors opened. Nobody else is there but me. I can't explain it. There's no breeze. There's no air conditioning. I turn the air off every night. So I don't really know at this point. I'm like, okay, whatever. I will get my phone tomorrow. I gotta get home. I have two small kids I gotta take care of. I go out to my car. My phone is on the passenger seat. Now there is no way that I took my phone out there. I hadn't been out to my car. I had my phone with me while I was at work, I was texting my husband. I was texting my mom. They have text messages to prove I had my phone. I have no idea how it got to the passenger seat of my car. I don't know if I have a special visitor. I didn't feel scared or intimidated, but just a little creeped out. Anyways, keep up the great work and I look forward to listening. Have a great night.

[Derek Hays]

Thank you, Lauren. Now, the only explanation here that I can think of is that you actually ran out to your car real quick, leaving your phone there, but forgot all about running out there. Of course, this explanation relies on Lauren completely forgetting that she did something so only she would know for sure. But regardless, this story is perfect for this episode. An episode filled with disappearing things and as you're about to learn, disappearing people as well. But first, these quick messages. One, two. We're celebrating Christmas in June at the big.

[Anonymous Caller]

I. I think, I think you.

[Derek Hays]

Your message is this. Now, I actually have a few more missing object stories to get through before our final section. So let's start with this gem from Nora down in Tennessee.

[Anonymous Caller]

Hello, my name is Nora Gower. I live in Rock Island, Tennessee, and this is my story. I lived in Nashville at the time, and I have stair step children. And I am always having to go in the house to get something that they might have left, backpack, papers, whatever. So I decided to get a set of breakaway keys where the cookies on one side, house keys on the other, and you clip them together or break them apart. So I get off work kind of a little early. I go to the grocery. I'm ready to just kick it. The kids didn't have any church, football, basketball, band, whatever it is they do. So I'm driving home and I live on a street at the dead end. Anytime it goes on the hill, you can't see my house as you approach it. But I go in and grab my house keys out of the council of my car as I'm driving down the hill and I decide I'm going to go through my yard. And I know I still had my keys in my hand because it was kind of awkward. As I'm pulling up against the yard and I'm like, oh, Nora, you're gonna hit the house with the car. Because I always say silly things like that to myself. I didn't. And my hand is still closed. My keys are still in my hand from the time I grabbed them out of my console. And I get out of my car and my hands still close, I open the door, I go up my Stairs. I go to open my screen door, I open my hand to unlock my door, and my keys are gone. Absolutely gone. So I'm like, kind of puzzled. I go and I'm like, well, maybe I dropped them. I didn't realize it, even though I did have them clutched in my hand. And I look in my groceries, I look, you know, the side of the seat, under the seat, other side of the seat, I look on my side, I look under my car, in the grass, kind of up the stairs. I never found them. Keys. Thank you, Derek, and everyone who puts this amazing show together. Bye bye.

[Derek Hays]

Thank you. Nora. Where the hell did those keys go? Now, I like to imagine that somewhere I have a story from someone across the country that found a set of keys. And maybe they were Nora's keys, somehow transported to another part of the world. In short, losing a set of keys is easy, I suppose. Although it doesn't sound like it was that simple here with Nora. But what about losing something much, much bigger? Here with an example of that is Rebecca from the show me State of Missouri.

[Anonymous Caller]

Hey, Derek, this is Rebecca. I'm calling from St. Louis, Missouri, and I have a couple stories for you. This is my first time calling in. I've had a lifetime of paranormal activities. You know, weird things happen to me, but these were two of the weirdest. And it happened in the same place. So it's early 90s, probably like 92 or so. I'm sitting on the couch watching TV, and my husband at the time is in his room playing classical guitar. He had like a music room, so he's playing, I'm watching tv. And to the right of me is like a seven foot tall ficus tree. And so it's in a pot on the floor, standing in the center of a sliding glass door. Now, the door was shut. There was no air conditioning, no windows open, nothing like that. So there I am sitting on the couch, watching tv, and all of a sudden, one of the branches on the tree stood straight out and started shaking like a thousand miles an hour. I was staring at this thing thinking, what in the hell is that? Like, I could not believe what I was seeing. Like I could not even form a sentence or a thought. And then it stopped dead. Now, the leaves did not like kind of sway a little bit till everything stopped. When I say it stopped dead, like that branch stopped on a dime. I could not understand what it was I was seeing because it broke every law of physics that we have. I got up, I was looking at the tree. I wasn't scared. So Much. I was more like completely baffled on what I had just seen. So I don't know what that was about, but that damn branch shaking scared the out of me. So, anyway, now, about six months later, same apartment, I'm sleeping in bed next to my husband, and I wake up and realize my pillow is gone. I look all over for the pillow. I look around me, around the bed, around my husband. I look on the floor. I can't find that stupid pillow anywhere. So I get out of bed, turn the light on, and I'm looking around the room. My husband's mad. What are you doing? Turn the light out. I said, I can't find my pillow. He's like, well, it's gotta be around here somewhere. So he starts helping me look for the pillow. That pillow has vanished. It is gone. We don't know where it's at. So I'm like, forget it. I gotta go to work in the morning. I went to the couch, grabbed a pillow off of that, took it to bed, put it under my skull and tried to go back to sleep. But I could not sleep because I kept thinking about that stupid pillow. And I was feeling around, feeling around. And then something in my head, a clear voice said, look out the window. Now, this was not an audible voice.

[Derek Hays]

This.

[Anonymous Caller]

This was just a voice I heard in my head. Look out the window. And I thought, what the hell? I'm not looking out the stupid window. I'm trying to sleep. Look out the window. So finally, I jumped out of bed, walked around to the one window in the room, grabbed the mini blinds, pulled the string, the mini blinds went up, and I looked out the window, and I couldn't see anything. And I'm thinking, what is the deal? So I turn the light on, because now I'm really confused because I can't see out the window. And there between the glass and the screen is my pillow. I don't know how, I don't know why, but my pillow went from under my head to the window across the room in between the glass and the screen. So there you have it. I have thought of those two things about 50 million times in the last 30 years. I still cannot understand it. Anyway, love what you do. Love you. Bye.

[Derek Hays]

Thank you. Rebecca. Shaking branches and teleporting pillows. How exactly did either of these two things happen? And, you know, I think I'm with Rebecca on this one. There doesn't seem to be any logical reason if she and her husband didn't do these things themselves, which it sounds like they did not. But unlike Rebecca's, call. I wonder if the cause of this next strange occurrence isn't right there in front of us. From the deserts of Arizona, please welcome Luna to tonight's program.

[Anonymous Caller]

This is Luna from Tucson, Arizona. This story is a Ouija board story. And it happened when I was about 13 years old. I was at my parents house and we were sitting on a trampoline. It was me, about four of my friends on this trampoline. And the way it was set up, the trampoline was outside in the backyard in an area completely free of trees. You know, there was nothing if you were jumping that you'd bump your head on. No trees nearby, completely cleared area. So we're sitting on the trampoline playing with the Ouija board and we asked a question, we asked where my friend's hat was, just to see, you know, if it worked or whatever. And the Ouija board would not move. And we kept blaming each other. Oh, you're keeping it from moving. Oh, you're doing it on purpose. You just want to him off so he doesn't find his hat. And this friend who had lost his hat got frustrated and he threw the Ouija board up into the air and it never came back down. So that's the story. Thanks.

[Derek Hays]

Thank you, Luna. Incredible stuff. And yet another reason not to involve yourself with a Ouija board. Their power seems to know no bounds. Now folks, we have to cut away for another quick break, but I'll be right back with our next grouping of disappearances. Don't touch that dial.

[Anonymous Caller]

Looking for top notch healthcare in it's in Covent for us. Oh, absolutely.

[Derek Hays]

According to the National Missing and Unidentified persons database, over 600,000 people go missing every year. There are approximately 4,400 unidentified bodies recovered each year, with approximately 1,000 of those bodies remaining unidentified after one year's time. On average, about 2,300 people are reported missing daily in the United States. The vast majority of these individuals are found within a short period. However, some cases remain unsolved for years. According to the FBI, about 70% of all reported missing persons are found or voluntarily returned within 48 to 72 hours. Now with those figures in mind, please welcome our next guest, Brandon from Pennsylvania.

[Anonymous Caller]

Hi, Derek, My name is Brandon and I'm in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. This story took place about not quite an hour ago, maybe 45 minutes from this call. And it happened on Interstate 76 going from Elwood City to downtown Pittsburgh. I'm doing deliveries for work. And while I was on 76, I came up to this one overpass over Me as I was driving by. And on it, I saw this old lady or what looked like an old lady. She was kind of in a light brown overcoat and a white looking shawl covering her head and face and almost looked like she was from a different time period, kind of the outfit almost looked like what you would see in movies of someone dressed from, I don't know, a hundred years ago, really long time ago. Outfit did not match this time period. And she was just walking on this bridge that was totally empty. It's really cold up here too. I mean, it's been on and off snowing all day today here in Pittsburgh. And that's what looked off putting to me, was just seeing someone walking like.

[Derek Hays]

That in the snow alone.

[Anonymous Caller]

And I just kept looking at this lady as I'm driving to the overpass. And once I go under, I look in my rear view just to keep looking and she was gone. Like just totally vanished. And I looked up and down on that overpass in my rear view while.

[Derek Hays]

Paying attention to the road in front.

[Anonymous Caller]

Of me and I couldn't see anything. It was like she wasn't even there. So I'm pretty sure I could have seen a potential residual ghost from another time period that just happened to walk on that bridge or on the land. That bridge was built some time ago. Anyway, I thought it was interesting and thought you and the other listeners might enjoy a quick little ghost sighting story here in Pittsburgh. I know this city does have a lot of history, so that's my story. And thank you for listening. Keep it spooky.

[Derek Hays]

Thank you. Brandon. You're gonna start to notice a theme here with these last few calls, each and such Erie as the last. And speaking of Erie, a friend of the show needs your help. Artist, wrestling fan, and all around good guy, Erie. Eric is experiencing some debilitating medical issues that has left him unable to work. Close friends of Eric's have set up a gofundme and I've linked to it there in the show notes. Now, Eric has always been great to me and my crew. He did some work for us for Crypticrate way back in the day. He designed our summer camp Bigfoot shirt we have in our shop. And he did the Goonies inspired drawstring backpacks that we also have featured. But most importantly, he's one hell of a guy. So if you have even a couple of dollars you can spare, please visit his gofundme again. You can find the link in the show notes or at the very least do what you can to send him Some good vibes and we hope that you're feeling better soon, Eric. Now, next up, we visit another vanishing human story, this time from Amy in California.

[Anonymous Caller]

Hi there, my name is Amy, I am from California. So I have a little creepy story. I was going across United States from California to Georgia, driving, of course, because I had two senior dogs with me and I didn't want to fly. So I get to, I'm assuming would be Oklahoma, going into Arkansas. Anytime I would get to a half tank, I wanted to stop for gas to make sure I get a full tank, you know, just to keep it safe. Check my app on my phone to see when the closest gas station would be around. Says about 10 miles. And I was like, look to my right and I see a sign, really big billboard. But it wasn't up in the sky. It was close to the ground. Mind you, I'm in the country area, the Chevron, two miles away. I'm like, perfect, go ahead, drive. I see where, you know, the chevron is. I make a right. Mind you, this area looked like it would be a cul de sac. To my right has that white fencing that farms usually have, you know, the plastic kind. On the right side, I see the Chevron, small, very bright. But on my left side, which seems a little weird now that I think about it. And I still think about this was it looked like a motel, but it was totally dark, like not in service. Okay, well, it is a country, it might not be in business. I pull in, it was very old school looking, this Chevron. I get out, use my ATM card. I have cash, but I'm just using my ATM card, get my gas, and I look to my right and I still to this day get chilled. I see a lady walking down where that farm is inside the fence. She has blonde hair, pink and white plaid top purse going across, her white pants on. And the coloring of her would be as if somebody's wearing something bright walking down like a dark waist. So I didn't think anything of her. Mind you. This is probably about 12, 2am you know, I'm still going across the United States. So I'm just trying to get to my destination. And I'm like, okay. So I'm looking at her more as she's getting closer to the fence, but I'm kind of like a little driveway across from her. She looked at me, I look at her. She looked at me like you could see me. And I was just kind of like, this is strange. Get into my car. My dogs, they're sleeping. Like it's nothing. I go ahead, make a U turn out one way in, one way out of this little area. So I look to my left because I'm like, it's a little late for those ladies to be in the street. There's nothing there. It's just extremely weird. I'm looking back going, there's no way this lady could disappear, you know? And I just saw her. So I just went out of my merry way. I was like, yeah, let me just get out of here. I got places to go. Once I reached Georgia a couple days later, I really thought about it, and I wanted to do some research on this area because it was very strange. I go into my bank account, look for the transaction. That transaction was never recorded on to my bank account, which is weird. And I was like, well, maybe I have the day wrong. Maybe I have the time wrong. It was never there. So I'm not sure what happened there and why. That was never documented on my transaction, but it was extremely weird. Still get goosebumps to this day. If anybody knows anything about this, I would love to hear it. Hope everybody has a great day and keep it spooky. Thank you for everything you do. Bye.

[Derek Hays]

Thank you, Amy. How creepy that the transaction was never recorded. You know, I wonder if this experience even ever happened at all. And if it didn't, then what the hell was it that Amy experienced? Some sort of time slip? A ghost? Or did she just imagine the entire thing? And yet again, we're left asking ourselves here, where did the stranger go? People don't typically disappear into thin air, except for when they do. And though this occurrence is rare, we have an abundance of stories featuring that detail here tonight. Take this anonymously submitted call, for example, coming to us from parts unknown.

[Anonymous Caller]

Hey, Derek. So I got a quick story. It's a bit of a strange one. I don't really know how to really explain it. So I was standing on the corner of an intersection, and it was a pretty open intersection. Like, there weren't any, like, visual obstructions. I mean, there were a few cars at the intersection, obviously, but they weren't big enough that they would, like, completely obstruct my view of him. And so to start off, I saw this man on the corner, and he was acting a bit strange. Like something just seemed a bit off about him. I don't know. Sometimes people just give off weird vibes. And this guy was definitely acting a bit odd, to say the least. And I couldn't quite pin down what felt off about him. I think it was just his Mannerisms and just the way he was behaving, I don't know, he just seemed a bit eccentric and very animated. So basically I was standing at the intersection and I see him from across the street and I briefly look down to my phone to check the time and then I look back up like only a few seconds later and he was completely gone. Like I said, there was nothing around the intersection for him to like be obstructed from my view or for like him to hide behind. And there was no way that he could have had enough time to run somewhere else to basically hide out of sight. So yeah, it was very strange occurrence. I have no explanation for it. But yeah, that's basically my story. Thanks, bye.

[Derek Hays]

Thank you, caller. It's strange that all these stories seem to occur while in traffic. Could it be that the witness was simply moving too quickly to keep an eye on the soon to be missing? Or is there some other connection involved here? Now I have one more entry depicting this strange phenomena, but it doesn't involve a moving vehicle. However, it does still occur on the road. So please welcome Mike from California to the program.

[Anonymous Caller]

Hey Derek, it's Mike from Siskiyou County, California. And my story takes place in Fort Jones, which is about, let's say 50 miles away from Weed, I believe. But anyways, I was on my walk one day around Fort Jones and it was pretty late at night, it was like 11 o' clock. And as I was coming to the end of my walk, I noticed this lady at the very end of the road from me. And I was like, that's not strange. But as I got a little closer notice, she's not really moving all that much. And as I got closer and closer, I can see she's quite old. She has a purple sweater knitted and like grayish slacks and not super long gray hair. She was real wrinkly. But you know, as I come around the corner, I wave at her. That's what we do around here. And she's still motionlessly just staring off into space, not moving. So I was like, okay, well that's bit creepy. So walk up past her. It wasn't until she got out of my line of sight that I turned my head ever so slightly, looked back at her and she was gone. Yeah, she was just straight up gone. No noise, no nothing. She can't really sprint away. I can hear her. Yeah, that was bit weird. Told my friends about it. We even went back to the spot to recreate the experience and they can't explain it. We all call her the purple lady? Yeah, that's my experience. Keep it spooky. Bye.

[Derek Hays]

Thank you, Mike, for the phone call. Now maybe the road is the common denominator here, as all four of these stories seem to take place on one. But regardless of who these people were or where they disappeared to, the calls are downright unsettling. But I've saved the most unsettling for last. But first, we must take our final break of the evening. I'll be right back.

[Anonymous Caller]

Trust the community health center with eight convenient locations. He's a police robbery matchup going on.

[Derek Hays]

In the NL West. Now, as promised, one last final eerie entry. And this one is out of the Lone Star state of Texas. Please welcome Will to the program.

[Anonymous Caller]

Hi Derek, my name is William and I'm from Texas. I am calling to report a sighting that happened last night. So I do deliveries for work and it was nighttime, I had just gotten off work and I decided to go a slightly different route back home. And as I'm turning around a corner in my vehicle, I see as I am nearing another bend in the road going to the right. Up ahead in my headlights is just a pair of legs walking on the grass, going to the right. And when I first see it I'm like, what? What is that? You know, I just was kind of baffled because imagine just a pair of legs walking. It kind of looks like a Slinky or something. But there were shadows and I got closer and as I got closer they disappeared. So I was like, there's got to be an explanation. I backed up and turned on my brights and I backed up into the exact same way that I was approaching it with the headlights and everything. And it didn't ever happen again. I tried to recreate it, but it didn't happen again in the exact same circumstances. So as I approached the first time, I was also looking for like maybe a cat or something that was approaching from an angle that looked like it was stretching out its shadow or something like that on the back wall. But no, I mean, as far as I could tell, I could not recreate that effect. There were no animals at that time as far as I know. I just thought it was a really strange one just to see a pair of human shadowy legs just walking without a torso to accompany it. Anyways, I think that might tickle your brain a little bit and maybe you'll have your suggestion for what it might have been. Alright, thank you very much.

[Derek Hays]

Thanks, Will. Well, you know, that sort of detail sounds awfully familiar. We've played a number of stories over the years about disembodied legs that seem to hustle across the road. At one time, even a disembodied green butt was described, and each of these anomalies seemed to disappear during the sighting, I might add. Now, speaking of the green butt encounter, I've actually referenced that call before, so I have a truncated version of the original call, and I'm just gonna share it here with you once again real quick. So from season 10 episode 19, please welcome back Kelly from Alabama.

[Anonymous Caller]

As I was driving across the bridge, I saw a little green fluorescent butt. I say fluorescent because it was glowing. I saw a little green butt run across the road. It was about a foot two feet tall at the top of the butt had legs and feet and it slashed across my car as I was driving. I was probably driving about 35 miles an hour. There was no top half to this little creature or spirit or whatever it was. It literally like ran across the road.

[Derek Hays]

While what Will saw was not green, it was awfully similar and both did seemingly disappear right before the witness's eyes. So perhaps there is a connection here, or perhaps this is simply one wild coincidence. But either way, folks, those are the stories of the vanished tales of disappearing objects, people and things. Now, I sure do hope you had as much fun with this one as I did. Who knew that vanishing objects was such a popular trope? Now folks, that's gonna do it for this evening. But before I go, Monsters Are Among Us podcast is written and produced by me, Derek Hayes. Copyright Red Crow Media. Additional support is provided by Sarah Carter Hayes, Delaney Bowers and Connor Ryan. All media used in this episode was done so under the protection of fair use. Be sure to like and follow us on social media, give us a like and follow on YouTube, and leave us a rate and review wherever that sort of thing is possible. Don't forget, you can catch the show every Saturday evening at 10pm Eastern on the Onax Digital Network. Just visit on xnetwork.com to tune in. And finally, tonight's score was provided by Iron Cthulhu, Apocalypse Code at AG Music and Carl Casey at White Bat Audio. Now don't forget to watch our film Shadows in the Desert High Strange Strangeness in the Borrego Triangle. Just visit borregotriangle.com to learn where you can tune in. And for you international folks, you'll definitely want to join our Discord. Very soon I'll be making an announcement about special screenings through Discord that will allow you to watch the film, so be sure to get that app and to stay tuned. More info to follow soon. All right, folks, I'll catch you back here on Thursday with a brand new installment. Until then, share with a friend, give us a call, and keep it spooky. Have yourselves a good night.