What Happened to the Two Bodies that were never found after the Silver Bridge Collapse

[FabledPhantom]

On December 15th, 1967 the Silver bridge in Point-Pleasant West Virginia collapsed from the weight of rush hour traffic driving over it, 46 people perished when the bridge fell into the Ohio river but only 44 bodies were ever recovered.


Mothman, a mysterious creature has been sighted in Point-Pleasant West Virginia various times before and after the bridge collapse, some people say it is the harbinger of doom and disastrous events around the city of Point-Pleasant.


Mothman was first seen by 5 gravediggers seen a "man-like shadowy figure" fly over their heads as they were digging a grave, on November 12th, 1966. Fast forwarding 3 days since the first sighting which occured on November 15, 1966, coincidentally 1 year and month before the Silver bridge collapse, two couples; —Roger and Linda Scarberry and Steve and Mary Mallette, claim they were chased by a black figure with a wingspan of 10 feet and glowing red eyes while driving.


Back on topic to this post; Could Mothman be responsible for these two bodies completely vanishing, or could they have been swept away by the current of the Ohio river? The later sounds more reasonable, but with all of the bizarre sightings and events that occur in Point-Pleasant anything could be a possibility.

 

[Duke]

Maybe Lynne or others into cryptids can tell us if there have ever been cases where flying humanoids have been accused/suspected of abducting humans, living or dead. I'm not aware of any such instances.

Having been in the accident response/investigation business, I can tell you there are distinct phases in the post-mishap process. First is rescue, this goes on until there is statistically no chance of finding survivors. The length of the rescue phase is dependent on a number of variables including type of accident, weather, availability of resources, individual victims, danger to rescuers, etc.

After the victims have been given up for dead, the next step is the recovery (of remains) phase. This phase unusual sees a significant decrease in resources allocated, with, at some point, the designated authority deciding when to scale back, and eventually end, recovery efforts. Rule of thumb here is to not endanger additional lives in the recovery of remains. How long the recovery effort lasted after the Silver Bridge collapse I don't know.

There is a nice memorial display to the victims of the disaster in the Mothman Museum in Point Pleasant. I was there last summer and noticed both missing victims were female, and were in vehicles where others died/remains recovered. Autopsy reports on the cause of death (drowning, hypothermia, blunt force trauma,etc) of those who died in the cars with the missing victims could give indications on how they died, and possibly what happened to their remains.

 

[FabledPhantom]

Maybe Lynne or others into cryptids can tell us if there have ever been cases where flying humanoids have been accused/suspected of abducting humans, living or dead. I'm not aware of any such instances.

Having been in the accident response/investigation business, I can tell you there are distinct phases in the post-mishap process. First is rescue, this goes on until there is statistically no chance of finding survivors. The length of the rescue phase is dependent on a number of variables including type of accident, weather, availability of resources, individual victims, danger to rescuers, etc.

After the victims have been given up for dead, the next step is the recovery (of remains) phase. This phase unusual sees a significant decrease in resources allocated, with, at some point, the designated authority deciding when to scale back, and eventually end, recovery efforts. Rule of thumb here is to not endanger additional lives in the recovery of remains. How long the recovery effort lasted after the Silver Bridge collapse I don't know.

There is a nice memorial display to the victims of the disaster in the Mothman Museum in Point Pleasant. I was there last summer and noticed both missing victims were female, and were in vehicles where others died/remains recovered. Autopsy reports on the cause of death (drowning, hypothermia, blunt force trauma,etc) of those who died in the cars with the missing victims could give indications on how they died, and possibly what happened to their remains.

Thanks for the in depth reply.

 

[Lynne]

I have no idea on this mystery. Perhaps the numbers were wrong. Maybe there weren't as many killed as first thought? I guess I never paid close enough attention to the count. Such a horrific incident.

 

[Selectric]

I don't think Mothman had anything to do with the missing bodies either. The current could've taken their bodies, though should've washed up somewhere. Most likely with poor lighting of the time and the allotted time for recovery their remains could not be found after being trapped under debris or embedded in mud.

 

[ozentity]

They could have faked their death but I think there is some truth to Mothman, I just get a feeling.

 

[FabledPhantom]

I don't think Mothman had anything to do with the missing bodies either. The current could've taken their bodies, though should've washed up somewhere. Most likely with poor lighting of the time and the allotted time for recovery their remains could not be found after being trapped under debris or embedded in mud.

That's logical reasoning, they were most likely swept away by the current or maybe a steel beam or some concrete from the bridge submerged them with it, trapping their corpses underneath.

 

[FabledPhantom]

They could have faked their death but I think there is some truth to Mothman, I just get a feeling.

Me too, I read a story back from the 1960's about a man named Mr. Partridge who was sitting in his living room watching a movie, all of a sudden his TV started to show weird images on his screen that replaced what he had been originally watching, the television began to make a strange static sound that most likely scared his dog, Bandit, who was sitting on the porch as he began to howl very loudly, when Mr.Patridge wanted to investigate why Bandit was howling, he went outside with a flashlight and noticed his dog staring into the field on their property, suddenly Bandit sprinted off of the porch and into the field and when Mr. Partridge tried to command him to come back he wouldn't obey and that night Bandit never returned back home, never again to be seen. Mr.Partridge recalls flashing his flashlight into the field and catching the red eyes that were described as "bicycle reflectors" staring back at him.


The same night Bandit vanished, people noticed a dead dog on the side of the road a mile from Mr.Partridges house, when these people went to report the dead animal to the police, they leaded investigators to where they found the dead dog, when they returned to the location the dogs corpse was not in the original place they found it, and the corpse was to never be seen again.

 

[ozentity]

Me too, I read a story back from the 1960's about a man named Mr. Partridge who was sitting in his living room watching a movie, all of a sudden his TV started to show weird images on his screen that replaced what he had been originally watching, the television began to make a strange static sound that most likely scared his dog, Bandit, who was sitting on the porch as he began to howl very loudly, when Mr.Patridge wanted to investigate why Bandit was howling, he went outside with a flashlight and noticed his dog staring into the field on their property, suddenly Bandit sprinted off of the porch and into the field and when Mr. Partridge tried to command him to come back he wouldn't obey and that night Bandit never returned back home, never again to be seen. Mr.Partridge recalls flashing his flashlight into the field and catching the red eyes that were described as "bicycle reflectors" staring back at him.


The same night Bandit vanished, people noticed a dead dog on the side of the road a mile from Mr.Partridges house, when these people went to report the dead animal to the police, they leaded investigators to where they found the dead dog, when they returned to the location the dogs corpse was not in the original place they found it, and the corpse was to never be seen again.

Mothman is the cryptid I'm most interested in. Yeah there is something real about it and I'm thinking the movie Jeepers Creepers may be based on the Mothman sightings. I'm feeling it is paranormal more than an unidentified species.

 

[Selectric]

think there is some truth to Mothman

Me too

There are entities very similar to Mothman. There was one spotted at Chernobyl as well. Always seems to be attracted to areas of or destined for disaster.