PHOTOS8 Celebrities Who Died After Going Missing: Julian Sands, Naya Rivera and More
Julian Sands
Julian Sands was found dead five months after he was declared missing.
A Room with a View and The Killing Fields actor Julian Sands was found dead five months after he was declared missing.
On January 13, 2023, his wife, Eugenia Citkowitz, reported him missing when he vanished while hiking in Southern California's Mount Baldy. The San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department posted a news release on Facebook days after the actor's disappearance, telling everyone that there had been multiple fatalities of other hikers on the mountain due to "adverse and extremely dangerous" weather.
The search lasted for five months until civilians found human remains in the mountain, which were later confirmed to be Sands'. His death was ruled undetermined; the County Sheriff's department said the ruling is common in such a case.
"We continue to hold Julian in our hearts with bright memories of him as a wonderful father, husband, explorer, lover of the natural world and the arts and as an original and collaborative performer," his family said following the confirmation.
Rapper Young Capone/Dopeboy Ra
Young Capone was last seen in Chicago days before his passing.
Atlanta-based rapper Young Capone, who was also known as Dopeboy Ra and Rara, was found dead after going missing for days.
According to reports, he was last seen in Chicago days before his passing, and his publicist Aleesha Carter confirmed his death through an Instagram post on August 16.
"Young Capone aka Dopeboy Ra aka Rara was one of my first Hip Hop/ Rap clients, and I can't believe the news I just got of his unexpected passing!" she captioned the post. "A friend...a client and just huge in East Atlanta. This is not the easiest post at all. Rest easy, RIP."
Details about his disappearance and cause of death remain unknown as of press time.
Luke Bell
The musician went missing for six days.
Country star Luke Bell, 32, died on August 26, 2022, after going missing for six days in Tucson, Ariz.
Bell's pal and fellow country singer Matt Kinman expressed his heartbreak in a statement to Saving Country Music but did not disclose his cause of death. However, he told Boot in a separate statement that a change in Bell's medication — he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder — might have contributed to his disappearance and, eventually, demise.
The Pima County Medical Examiner's office released the autopsy report a few weeks later, revealing that Bell was found in a shaded area where drug paraphernalia was recovered. The toxicology report said he had a lethal amount of fentanyl in his system at the time of his death; he also had been drinking.
The autopsy also noted that he suffered arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease, but it was not reportedly the cause of his death.
"In consideration of the known circumstances surrounding this death, the available medical history, and the examination of the remains, the cause of death is ascribed to fentanyl intoxication," the autopsy report said, per People.
The Medical Examiner's office stated that Bell's death was accidental.
Naya Rivera
The actress saved her son's life — but couldn't save her own.
On July 8, 2020, after a six-day search, Glee star Naya Rivera's body was recovered from Lake Piru in Ventura County, Calif.
Rivera and her son spent time at the lake and rode a pontoon boat before the actress went missing. Her son told rescuers they swam in the water, but she failed to return to the boat. He revealed that he saw her disappear under the water's surface when he looked back at her.
Ventura County Sheriff Bill Ayub said Rivera probably saved her then-4-year-old son and helped her get back onto the boat. Unfortunately, she also did not have the strength to get herself back.
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Natalie Wood
Robert Wagner became a person of interest in Feburary 2018.
Decades after Natalie Wood died, her passing remains a mystery that tickles the public's curiosity.
On November 28, 1981, the actress, who was 43 at the time, was on a yacht with her then-husband Robert Wagner, Christopher Walken and the skipper. At 11:05 p.m. that night, the passengers realized she was missing.
A few hours after her disappearance, the group sought Coast Guard's help — which piqued investigators' interest due to the timeline.
Goodbye Natalie, Goodbye Splendour author Marti Rulli told CNN that the four-hour wait to call the authorities should be mainly examined. At 8 a.m. on November 29, 1981, Wood's body was discovered about a mile off the isolated Blue Cavern Point.
Huffington Post noted that the Los Angeles Medical Examiner's Office found several bruises on her arms, legs and face and ruled her death an accident. However, the Sheriff's Department changed Wood's cause of death in 2013 from an accidental drowning to "drowning and other undetermined factors," per CBS News.
For the first time, Wagner became a person of interest in February 2018, but he denied the accusations several times.
Jefferson Machado
Jefferson Machado's is currently under investigation due to their potential connection to his death.
Months after Jefferson Machado was reported missing in January, local news outlet R7 said the Brazilian authorities recovered his cemented remains hidden in a trunk and buried in a backyard of a Campo Grande, Brazil, home.
"Preliminary information indicates that the actor's body was found in a trunk, buried in a hole of considerable depth," the soap opera actor's family said in a statement on Facebook. "This situation deeply saddens us and indignant in the face of the suffering faced by Jeff."
Machado's friend, who rented the house, is currently under investigation due to their potential connection to his death.
Kurt Cobain
Kurt Cobain was found dead after going missing for six days.
Kurt Cobain went missing for six days before he was found dead.
On April 8, 1994, an electrician named Gary Smith found the 27-year-old Nirvana frontman's body inside his Seattle home where he was called to install a new security system. Authorities said he died by suicide using a 20-gauge shotgun days before his body was discovered, and the authorities also found traces of heroin and Valium when he died.
The rocker also left a suicide note that read, "Please keep going Courtney [Love] for Francis (their daughter, Frances Bean). For her life will be so much happier without me. I love you. I love you."
Richey Edwards
Richey Edwards was presumed dead in 2008.
Manic Street Preacher guitarist and lyricist Richey Edwards was presumed dead in 2008, decades after he disappeared in 1995.
On February 1 of that year, he left his London hotel room and never returned, leaving his loved ones clueless about what happened to him.
In the book Withdrawn Traces: Searching for the Truth About Richey Manic, authors Sara Hawys Roberts and Leon Noakes noted that the musician probably has had undiagnosed Asperger's Syndrome. As cited by NME, the musician reportedly disappeared as a "coping mechanism."
