| class="wikitable sortable zebra" |
| data-sort-type="isoDate"|Date
! data-sort-type="text"|Person(s)
! data-sort-type="text"|Age
!Country of disappearance
! class="unsortable" |Circumstances
! data-sort-type="text"|Outcome
! data-sort-type="value"|Time spent missing or unconfirmed |
|---|
| 1940
|Les Clisby
|25
|Scotland
|Clisby, an Australian World War II fighter ace who served with the Royal Air Force and was credited with sixteen aerial victories, went into action with his flight against more than thirty Bf 110s over Reims on May 15, 1940. Having destroyed two of the German heavy fighters, Clisby's aircraft was seen going down with its cockpit trailing smoke and flames, evidently hit by cannon fire. He and another officer were posted as missing, until both of their aircraft were recovered in the vicinity of Rethel. Clisby was buried in the military cemetery at Choloy in north-eastern France.[Clisby, Leslie Redford (1914–1940). Australian Dictionary of Biography. National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. Retrieved 4 June 2015.]
|Killed in action
|Unknown |
| 1940
|Hans Ehlers
|26
|France
|German Luftwaffe military aviator Ehlers was shot down by RAF fighters on May 18, 1940, the same day he claimed his first aerial victories. He was listed as missing, but rejoined his unit shortly afterward.[{{Cite book|last1=Prien|first1=Jochen|last2=Stemmer |first2=Gerhard|year=2002|title=Jagdgeschwader 3 "Udet" in WWII: Stab and I./JG 3 in Action with the Messerschmitt Bf 109|location=Atglen, Pennsylvania|publisher=Schiffer Publishing|isbn=978-0-7643-1681-4|page=57}}]
|Found alive
|Unknown |
| 1940
|Ronald Cartland
|33
|Belgium
|Cartland, a British Conservative Party politician who was the Member of Parliament for King's Norton in Birmingham from 1935 to 1940, was shot and killed on May 30, 1940 near Watou, Belgium while serving in the Battle of Dunkirk.[{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-54478753|title=The gay MPs persecuted for opposing appeasement of Nazi Germany|date=15 October 2020|work=BBC News}}] Initially listed as missing, his family learned of his fate in January 1941, when his mother received a letter from one of Cartland's men, describing Cartland's death in detail. He is now buried at Hotton War Cemetery, in Hotton, Belgium.
|Killed in action
|8 months |
| 1940
|Franciszek Gruszka
|30
|United Kingdom
|Polish soldier and flying officer for the RAF who mysteriously vanished during the Battle of Britain. Initially listed as missing in action, his remains were located in 1975, when a team of scientists examining marshes in the English countryside stumbled upon the plane's wreckage and his remains.[Sarkar, Dilip: Missing in Action Resting in Peace?, Bayhouse, Worcester 1998.]
|Killed in action
|35 years |
| 1940
|Eric Charles Twelves Wilson
|28
|Somaliland Protectorate (modern-day Somaliland)
|British Army officer and colonial administrator who was captured by Italian forces during the invasion of British Somaliland. Presumed killed in action, he was released after the Italians surrendered the following year.[{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article48391356 |title=An Entire Nation in the Front Line. |newspaper=The Barrier Miner |location=Broken Hill, NSW |date=26 March 1941 |access-date=27 December 2014 |page=2|edition=HOME |via=National Library of Australia}}]
|Found alive
|Several months |
| 1940
|Nicolae Iorga
|69
|Kingdom of Romania
|Romanian politician kidnapped on November 27, 1940 and later murdered by a squadron of the Iron Guard, a radical fascist organization operating in the country.[{{Cite web|title=O expoziţie formidabilă|url=https://www.dilemaveche.ro/sectiune/ieri-cu-vedere-spre-azi/articol/o-expozitie-formidabila|access-date=2021-09-26|website=Dilema veche|language=ro|archive-date=May 23, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240523021735/https://dilemaveche.ro/sectiune/societate/ieri-cu-vedere-spre-azi/o-expozitie-formidabila-611187.html|url-status=live}}]
|Murdered
|1 day |
| 1941
|Six Hernández children
|Various
|Mexico
|Six Mexican children from Mexico City were not seen from 1941 to 1959 as they were confined to their house by their father Rafael Pérez Hernández. They were finally freed from the situation when the police showed up to investigate the case.[{{Cite web|url=https://mexicotravelchannel.com.mx/servicios/20201114/el-increible-caso-de-la-casa-de-los-macetones/|title=El increíble caso de La Casa de Los Macetones - Mexico Travel Channel|first=Mariana|last=Ramírez}}]
|Found alive
|18 years |
| 1941
|Vladimir Chebotaryov
|20
|Soviet Union (modern-day Ukraine)
|Soviet commanding officer stationed in Kiev, who was declared missing in action after the territory was occupied by Nazi forces. Chebotaryov made multiple successful escapes from various prison camps, with his final one resulting in him being picked up by Soviet intelligence officers who dispatched him to a SMERSH unit. After the war, he started a successful career as a film director and writer.[Anatoly Yusin. [http://izvestia.ru/news/333565 I found my daughter which I haven't seen for 66 years] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161111061901/http://izvestia.ru/news/333565 |date=November 11, 2016 }} interview at Izvestia, January 21, 2008 (in Russian)]
|Found alive
|4 years |
| 1941
|Raymond Donoghue
|21
|Unknown
|An Australian infantryman, Donoghue was captured by the Germans on April 28, 1941, and reported as a POW in August. After his release in 1945, he recounted his experiences to the media, and was later awarded the George Cross for his conduct during the war.[{{Australian Dictionary of Biography|last=Clements |first=Graham|title=Donoghue, Raymond Tasman (1920–1960) |year=1996 |id=A140020b|access-date=27 March 2008}}]
|Found alive
|2–3 months |
| 1941
|Fyodor Truhin
|45
|Soviet Union (modern-day Latvia)
|Soviet major general who was declared missing in action after being arrested by German forces on June 30, 1941. His fate was uncovered years later, when it was revealed that he had defected to Nazi Germany. Shortly thereafter, he was arrested, convicted of treason and executed.[{{cite book |last=Alexandrov |first=Konstantin |date=2001 |title=Офицерский корпус армии генерал-лейтенанта АЛ. Власова |trans-title=Vlasov's Officer Corps|location=Saint Petersburg |publisher=Russo-Baltic Information Center |pages=1–360 |isbn=5-86789-045-7}}]
|Found alive
|4 years |
| 1941
|Clive Barry
|16
|Unknown
|At the time of his disappearance, Clive Barry was an underage youth who had falsified his date of birth so he could enlist in the Australian army.[Australian War Memorial.] While serving in the European front, he went missing, but it was later revealed that he had been held as a POW in Italy. Two years after his capture, he managed to escape into Switzerland, and then returned to Australia, where he became a famous novelist.[Manly Biographical biography]
|Found alive
|2 years |
| 1941
|Jim McCairns
|21
|France
|McCairns, an English RAF pilot, was posted as missing in action after failing to return from a fast combat with Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighters over the French coast on July 6, 1941. His aircraft was positively identified by its squadron code letters painted on the fuselage when sighted by another member of the squadron on July 8, 1941, crash-landed near the beach at Gravelines-Dunkirk. He had been captured by German soldiers,[National Archives, London. Air 27/2524 – 616 Squadron ORB] and his status was "prisoner of war, slightly wounded".
|Found alive
|2 days |
| 1941
|Konstantin Rakutin
|39
|Soviet Union
|A major general of the Red Army, Rakutin led the Yelnya offensive during Operation Barbarossa. On October 7, 1941, he never returned from the frontlines, and was declared dead in 1946. His place of death was discovered by members of the Search Movement and in 1996 his remains were reburied at the military cemetery in Snegiri. He was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union in 1990.[{{Cite web|title=Ракутин Константин Иванович|url=http://encyclopedia.mil.ru/encyclopedia/heroes/USSR/more.htm?id=12100378@morfHeroes|publisher=Ministry of Defense of Russia|language=ru|trans-title=Rakutin, Konstantin Ivanovich|access-date=30 April 2020|archive-date=October 25, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231025091912/https://encyclopedia.mil.ru/encyclopedia/heroes/USSR/more.htm?id=12100378@morfHeroes|url-status=live}}]
|Killed in action
|55 years |
| 1942
|Bill Aldag
|37
|Dutch East Indies (modern-day Indonesia)
|Aldag, an Australian rules footballer who enlisted in the 2nd AIF in 1940, was declared missing in 1942, but later found in a POW camp in Thailand, where he worked on the infamous Burma Railway in appalling conditions. In 1945 Aldag returned home.[{{cite book | last=Cullen, Barbara |title=Harder than football : league players at war|year=2015|page= 237 |publication-date=2015 |location=Richmond, Victoria | publisher=Slattery Media Group |isbn=978-0-9923791-4-8}}]
|Found alive
|Unknown |
| 1942
|Ern Parker
|19–20
|British Malaya (modern-day Singapore)
|Parker, an Australian rules footballer who enlisted in the Australian Army in July 1941, was declared missing after the fall of Singapore. During his incarceration Parker worked on the Burma Railway and he survived to return to Australia in late 1945.[{{cite book | last=Cullen, Barbara | title=Harder than football : league players at war | year=2015 | page=423 |publication-date=2015 | location=Richmond, Victoria | publisher=Slattery Media Group | isbn=978-0-992379-14-8}}]
|Found alive
|3 years |
| 1942
|Hamilton Lamb
|42
|Dutch East Indies (modern-day Indonesia)
|Lamb was an Australian politician who was a member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly from 1935 to 1943, representing the electorate of Lowan for the Country Party. While serving in the 2/2nd Pioneer Battalion of the Second Australian Imperial Force, he was captured as a prisoner of war and sent to work on the Burma Railway in Thailand. He died on December 7, 1943 at the Japanese work camp 131 Kilo in Thailand, suffering from malaria, dysentery and malnutrition. Official notification of his death was not received in Australia until nearly nine months later on September 1, 1944.[[http://www.cwgc.org/search-for-war-dead/casualty/2090291/LAMB,%20GEORGE%20HAMILTON LAMB, GEORGE HAMILTON], Commonwealth War Graves Commission.]
|Died as a prisoner of war
|About 2 years and 9 months |
| 1942
|Harold Ball
|21
|British Malaya (modern-day Singapore)
|Harold Ball was an Australian rules football player who on February 9, 1942[Main and Allen, (2002).] was captured by Japanese soldiers near Tengah Air Base, Tengah, British Malaya. He was found dead on May 9, 1942 after being murdered.
|Murdered
|3 months |
| 1942
|Peter Chitty
|30
|British Malaya (modern-day Singapore)
|Chitty, an Australian rules footballer, was captured during the Fall of Singapore in March 1942 and reported missing on March 26, 1942. While in captivity in the Changi Prison, he won the only "Changi Brownlow" awarded in the Prisoner of War Changi Football League. In 1943, he was transferred to Burma where he spent eighteen months working on the Burma Railway. He was released at the end of World War II.[Shaw, I. (2006) Bloodbath, p. 59, Scribe, Melbourne. {{ISBN|1-920769-97-8}}.]
|Found alive
|3 years |
| 1942
|Fyodor Kostenko
|46
|Soviet Union (modern-day Ukraine)
|A commander of the Southwestern Front during World War II. Kostenko is believed to have died in the Second Battle of Kharkov on May 26, 1942. His body was recovered in the spring of 2016 and later repatriated to Russia.[{{cite news|url=https://rg.ru/2018/06/21/v-moskve-pohoronili-ostanki-komanduiushchego-armiej-propavshego-v-1942-m.html|title=В Москве похоронили останки командующего армией, пропавшего в 1942 году|work=Rossiyskaya Gazeta|date=21 June 2018|access-date=7 March 2023|language=Russian|archive-date=June 22, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180622140055/https://rg.ru/2018/06/21/v-moskve-pohoronili-ostanki-komanduiushchego-armiej-propavshego-v-1942-m.html|url-status=live}}]
|Killed in action
|74 years |
| 1942
|Maurice Fitzgerald
|25
|Belgium
|Fitzgerald was an Australian rugby league footballer who died while serving in the Royal Australian Air Force in World War II. On June 1, 1942, he was on board a Vickers Wellington which was shot down over Hainaut, German-occupied Belgium, and crashed near Binche. Fitzgerald was originally cited as missing in action, but was declared presumed dead on December 26, 1942. The crew's remains were eventually found, and all were buried at Charleroi Communal Cemetery.[{{Cite web |title=NAA: A705, 163/112/125 |url=https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Gallery151/dist/JGalleryViewer.aspx?B=1056870&S=4&N=52&R=0#/SearchNRetrieve/NAAMedia/ShowImage.aspx?B=1056870&T=P&S=3 |access-date=13 July 2020 |website=National Archives of Australia |archive-date=September 25, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230925181828/https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Gallery151/dist/JGalleryViewer.aspx?B=1056870&S=4&N=52&R=0#/SearchNRetrieve/NAAMedia/ShowImage.aspx?B=1056870&T=P&S=3 |url-status=live }}]
|Killed in action
|Unknown |
| 1942
|Peter Turnbull
|25
|Territory of New Guinea, Australia (modern-day Papua New Guinea)
|Turnbull was an Australian fighter ace of World War II credited with twelve aerial victories. On August 27, 1942, he was patrolling for Japanese tanks with another member of his squadron when his plane was seen flipping onto its back and crashing into the jungle while diving on an enemy target. The cause of the incident was never fully established. Initially posted as missing, Turnbull was confirmed dead on 4 September when troops from the 2/12th Battalion found the wreckage of his plane and his body inside. He is buried in the Bomana War Cemetery, Port Moresby.[{{cite book|last=McCarthy|first=Dudley|year=1959|title=Australia in the War of 1939–1945: Series One (Army) Volume V – South–West Pacific Area – First Year: Kokoda to Wau|page=182|location=Canberra|publisher=Australian War Memorial|url=https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/RCDIG1070204/|oclc=464094751|access-date=January 31, 2023|archive-date=March 17, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210317033859/https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/RCDIG1070204|url-status=live}}]
|Killed in action
|8 days |
| data-sort-value="1942-09-14"|1942
|Joan Pearl Wolfe
|19
|United Kingdom
|19-year-old Joan Pearl Wolfe disappeared in Surrey, England on September 14, 1942. Her remains were unearthed by two Royal Marines on October 7, 1942; an autopsy conducted the next day concluded that Wolfe died of a single blow to the back of the head. August Sangret, a 28-year-old French-Canadian soldier with whom Wolfe was romantically involved, was arrested and charged with her murder. Sangret was found guilty and sentenced to execution by hanging; he was hanged on April 29, 1943 at the age of 29. The recovered fragments of Wolfe's skull were introduced as evidence at Sangret's trial.[{{cite journal|url=https://www.truecrimelibrary.com/crimearticle/%C2%93wigwam-girl%C2%94-found-murdered|title=Wigwam Girl Found Murdered|journal=True Crime|date=August 2022|issn=0262-4133|access-date=12 June 2023|archive-date=September 25, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230925181831/https://www.truecrimelibrary.com/crimearticle/%C2%93wigwam-girl%C2%94-found-murdered/|url-status=live}}]
|Murdered
|data-sort-value="023"|23 days |
| 1942
|Dermot Chichester, 7th Marquess of Donegall
|26
|Italian Libya (modern-day Libya)
|Dermot Chichester was a British soldier, landowner and member of the House of Lords whose father was Arthur Chichester, 4th Baron Templemore. He served in the Second World War as a captain with the 7th Queen's Own Hussars in Egypt.[Waite, Arthur Edward (2007). A New Encyclopedia of Freemasonry. Vol. I. Cosimo, Inc. p. 400. ISBN 978-1-60206-641-0.] He was reported missing in action and believed to have been killed, but had been captured in Libya in November 1942 during the North African campaign. He remained a prisoner of war in Italy until escaping in June 1944.
|Found alive
|1 year and 7 months |
| 1942
|Boyd Wagner
|26
|United States of America
|American USAAF aviator and fighter ace who disappeared in Florida under unclear circumstances. Partial remains and his plane's wreckage were found in January 1943, and he was reburied in Johnstown.[{{cite news |last=Hadix-Cardarella |first=Deann |date=April 12, 2009 |title=Researcher's work shines the spotlight on World War II hero 'Buzz' Wagner |url=http://www.tribdem.com/news/local_news/researcher-s-work-shines-the-spotlight-on-world-war-ii/article_0eb016d3-c60f-59d7-a84f-63acb8b5f3bd.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170305002801/http://www.tribdem.com/news/local_news/researcher-s-work-shines-the-spotlight-on-world-war-ii/article_0eb016d3-c60f-59d7-a84f-63acb8b5f3bd.html |archive-date=March 5, 2017 |access-date=October 11, 2021 |newspaper=The Tribune-Democrat}} accessed September 8, 2009]
|No
|2 months |
| 1943
|Juran Hisao
|40–41
|South Pacific
|Hisao was an author who was drafted into the Imperial Japanese Navy in 1943. He was reported missing in action over the South Pacific in 1943, but returned safely to Chōshi, Chiba, the following year.[Eguchi Yusuke. Hisao Juran. Hakusuiha (1994). ISBN 4-560-04316-7]
|Found alive
|Approx. 1 year |
| 1943
|Hans Eller
|32
|Soviet Union
|Hans Eller was a German Olympic rower who was active in World War II. After being sent to Russia he disappeared on January 23, 1943 and it was later discovered that he had died on April 4, 1943 near Starobelsk in a camp.[{{cite web |url=https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/friv/lists.cgi?id=65 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200417055433/https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/friv/lists.cgi?id=65 |url-status=dead |archive-date=17 April 2020 |title=Olympians Who Were Killed or Missing in Action or Died as a Result of War |access-date=24 July 2018 |work=Sports Reference}}]
|No
|data-sort-value=10068|Body never found |
| 1943
|Gerry Chalk
|32
|France
|Chalk, an English amateur cricketer, was shot down over Louches in northern France on February 17, 1943 whilst serving as a Spitfire pilot in the Royal Air Force. He was listed as missing in action and was presumed dead in January 1944. His body was identified in the 1980s and his remains transferred to the Terlincthun British Cemetery near Wimille in 1989, having originally been listed on the Runnymede Memorial.[[http://www.espncricinfo.com/wisdenalmanack/content/story/155695.html Frederick Chalk] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230105123130/https://www.espncricinfo.com/wisdenalmanack/content/story/155695.html |date=January 5, 2023 }}, Obituary, Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, 1945. Retrieved 2017-04-16.]
|Killed in action
|At least 38 years |
| 1943
|Robert S. Johnson
|23
|Belgium
|Johnson, a USAAF fighter pilot, encountered Luftwaffe aircraft for the first time on a May 14, 1943 mission to escort Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses to bomb Antwerp, damaging two Focke-Wulf Fw 190s that had broken up his squadron's formation. He became separated from the group and, finding himself alone, broke off the engagement. He returned to base to find that he had been erroneously reported as missing in action.
|Found alive
|Less than a day |
| 1943
|Art Grant
|24
|Nazi Germany
|Art Grant was a Canadian professional ice hockey player and a pilot officer in the Royal Canadian Air Force, who was listed as presumed dead with two other crew when their aircraft, containing seven crew in total, was shot down south of Rheinberg, Nazi Germany. The remaining 4 crew members became prisoners of war, and the 3 dead crew, including Grant, had been buried at Monchengladbach after the crash, but were disinterred in 1949 and reburied at Rheinberg War Cemetery.[{{CWGC|id=2047304|name=Grant, Arthur Gordon|access-date=July 19, 2020}}]
|Killed in action
|6 years |
| 1943
|John L. Jerstad
|25
|Kingdom of Romania
|Jerstad was a posthumous recipient of the Medal of Honor for his actions during Operation Tidal Wave on August 1, 1943, during which he volunteered to lead a formation. Three miles from the target, the largest of the oil refineries at Ploieşti, Jerstad's bomber was badly damaged and set aflame by enemy ground fire. It crashed into the target area after bombs were released on the target, and Jerstad was listed as missing in action. His remains were located seven years later, and buried at the Ardennes American Cemetery near Neupré, Belgium.[{{cite news|url=http://www.journaltimes.com/articles/2008/10/11/local_news/doc48f182234c3fb210193869.txt|title=Tribute honors fallen soldier|last=Wicklund|first=Pete|date=October 11, 2008|work=The Journal Times|access-date=2009-08-11|archive-date=May 23, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240523021707/http://www.journaltimes.com/articles/2008/10/11/local_news/doc48f182234c3fb210193869.txt|url-status=live}}]
|Killed in action
|7 years |
| 1943
|Charles Peter O'Sullivan
|28
|Territory of New Guinea, Australia (modern-day Papua New Guinea)
|O'Sullivan, a veteran fighter pilot during World War II, was shot down south of Wewak on September 20, 1943. He managed to avoid being captured by the enemy and returned after being missing for one month.[Wolf, Ron. "Charles Peter O'Sullivan", Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, November 1, 1998, pages 1D and 5D.]
|Found alive
|data-sort-value=10068|30 days |
| 1944
|John Verdun Newton
|27
|Nazi Germany
|Newton was an Australian politician and Royal Australian Air Force officer who was killed in action 55 days after being elected to the Parliament of Western Australia for the seat of Greenough at the 1943 state election. He went missing with seven other crew during an air raid on January 14, 1944, and it was later established by RAF investigations that their plane had crashed into another, and afterward the wreckage of both bombers had been subjected to massive explosions and/or intense fires. The crew were initially buried in the crater caused by the explosion, but late reinterred in the Hanover War Cemetery.[Alan Storr, 2006, RAAF Fatalities in Second World War among RAAF Personnel Serving on Attachment in Royal Air Force Squadrons and Support Units, p. 480.]
|Killed in action
|Unknown |
| 1944
|Floyd K. Lindstrom
|31
|Kingdom of Italy
|Lindstrom, a United States Army soldier who was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions on November 11, 1943, landed at an Anzio beachhead with his unit on January 22, 1944, and on February 3, killed in a German counterattack. Initially listed as missing in action, his status was changed to killed in action on June 6. First buried at Nettuno, Italy, he was returned to his family in Colorado Springs in July 1948, where he is buried next to his mother in Evergreen Cemetery.[{{cite news|url=http://more.ppld.org:8080/SpecialCollections/Index/ArticleOrders/2014/49/848839.pdf|title=VA facility named for Army hero|last=Tom Roeder|date=December 5, 2014|newspaper=The Gazette|location=Colorado Springs, Colorado|page=B4|access-date=May 29, 2017|via=Pikes Peak Library District|archive-date=May 23, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240523021704/http://more.ppld.org:8080/SpecialCollections/Index/ArticleOrders/2014/49/848839.pdf|url-status=live}}]
|Killed in action
|Unknown |
| 1944
|Percy Charles Pickard
|28
|France
|Pickard, an RAF officer during World War II, led a group of Mosquitos on the Amiens prison raid to destroy the walls of a Gestapo prison and free the prisoners inside, during which he and Flight Lieutenant Alan Broadley were killed. Both initially reported missing, in September 1944 it was announced they had been killed in action. Both men were buried at the St Pierre Cemetery near Amiens, France. Pickard is buried in plot 3, row B, grave 13 while Broadley is buried in plot 3, row A, grave 11.[[http://www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_details.aspx?casualty=2847235 Casualty details—Pickard, Percy Charles] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110517024004/http://www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_details.aspx?casualty=2847235 |date=May 17, 2011 }}, [http://www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_details.aspx?casualty=2847196 Casualty details—Broadley, John Alan], Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Retrieved on 5 November 2008.]
|Killed in action
|7 years |
| 1944
|Elmer Gedeon
|27
|France
|Gedeon was an American professional baseball player who was one of the only two Major League Baseball players killed in World War II, the other being Harry O'Neill. On April 20, 1944, he was shot down while piloting a B-26 bomber on a mission led by Darrell R. Lindsey. He was listed as missing in action until May 1945, when his grave was located in a small British Army cemetery in France. His remains were later returned to the United States and interred in Arlington National Cemetery.[{{cite news|last=Morris, R.|title=Remembering World War II airmen: Website remembers baseball players killed in World War Two|publisher=Untold Valor|date=June 24, 2007|url=http://untoldvalor.blogspot.com/2007/06/website-remembers-baseball-players.html|access-date=December 2, 2007|archive-date=July 8, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110708071401/http://untoldvalor.blogspot.com/2007/06/website-remembers-baseball-players.html|url-status=live}}]
|Killed in action
|1 year |
| 1944
|John Balmer
|33
|Belgium
|Balmer, a senior officer and bomber pilot in the Royal Australian Air Force who was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross in April 1944, failed to return from a mission over Belgium on the night of 11/12 May. Initially posted as missing, his plane was later confirmed to have been shot down, and all of the crew killed. Balmer was buried outside Brussels.[{{cite web|url= http://static.awm.gov.au/images/collection/pdf/RC09125_016--1-.pdf|title= 467 Squadron RAAF World War 2 Fatalities|page= 68|publisher= Australian War Memorial|access-date= 16 June 2016|url-status= dead|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20140826113608/http://static.awm.gov.au/images/collection/pdf/RC09125_016--1-.pdf|archive-date= 26 August 2014|df= dmy-all}}]
|Killed in action
|Unknown |
| 1944
|Ray Watts
|26
|Belgium
|Watts, an Australian rules footballer who served as a warrant officer and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross in 1943, was shot down by enemy fire on May 31, 1944. He managed to hide in a Belgian pine forest for six weeks until he was captured. He spent more than a year as a German prisoner of war at Stalag Luft III.[{{cite web| url=http://www.essendonfc.com.au/team/player-past.asp?id=954| title=Watts, Ray| publisher=Essendon Football Club official website| url-status=dead| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120326062318/http://www.essendonfc.com.au/team/player-past.asp?id=954| archive-date=26 March 2012}}]
|Found alive
|About 1 year |
| 1944
|Păstorel Teodoreanu
|49–50
|Romania
|A notable Romanian humorist, poet, gastronome and World War II propagandist. Teodoreanu disappeared for a period of time during the Allied bombing raids of Bucharest, but later resurfaced, having taken refuge in Budești throughout the campaign. He later returned to regular journalism.[{{in lang|ro}} [https://web.archive.org/web/20140419105813/https://jurnalul.ro/editie-de-colectie/maria-tanase-2-iulie-2007/pastorel-toarna-la-securitate-295556.html "Păstorel toarnă la Securitate"], in Jurnalul Național, 25 June 2007]
|Found alive
|{{circa|2 months}} |
| data-sort-value="1944-07"|1944
|Shoichi Yokoi
|29
|Guam
|Shoichi Yokoi was a sergeant in the Imperial Japanese Army during the Second World War who was one of the last three Japanese holdouts to be found after the end of hostilities in 1945. He disappeared in July 1944 during the Second Battle of Guam,[{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-16681636|title=Shoichi Yokoi, the Japanese soldier who held out in Guam|last=Lanchin|first=Mike|date=January 24, 2012|work=BBC News|access-date=August 12, 2017|archive-date=March 23, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190323110503/https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-16681636|url-status=live}}] and on the evening of January 24, 1972, he was discovered alive in the jungle.[{{cite book|last=Patrick M. Mendoza|title=Extraordinary People in Extraordinary Times: Heroes, Sheroes, and Villains|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g6nQjEr84uMC&pg=PA71|year=1999|publisher=Libraries Unlimited|isbn=978-1-56308-611-3|page=71|access-date=August 4, 2021|archive-date=May 23, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240523021706/https://books.google.com/books?id=g6nQjEr84uMC&pg=PA71|url-status=live}}]
|Found alive
|data-sort-value=10068|28 years |
| data-sort-value="1944-12"|1944
|Hiroo Onoda
|22
|Second Philippine Republic
|Hiroo Onoda was an Imperial Japanese Army intelligence officer who fought in World War II and was a Japanese holdout. He entered a jungle on Lubang Island in Occidental Mindoro, Philippines to continue fighting after the US invaded the island. He surrendered on March 11, 1974, after 29 years of guerrilla warfare.[{{Cite news|url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/wwii-soldier-who-hid-in-jungle-for-29-years-dies-at-91/|title=WWII soldier who hid in jungle for 29 years dies at 91|access-date=September 12, 2017|date=January 17, 2014|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170913044331/https://www.cbsnews.com/news/wwii-soldier-who-hid-in-jungle-for-29-years-dies-at-91/|archive-date=September 13, 2017}}][{{Cite web|title=The Soldier Who Continued Fighting WWII 29 Years After It Ended, Because He Didn't Know|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6rOSe3EsdM|website=Youtube|access-date=August 4, 2021|archive-date=May 23, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240523021819/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6rOSe3EsdM|url-status=live}}]
|Found alive
|data-sort-value=10682|29 years |
| 1944
|Miklós Horthy Jr.
|37
|Kingdom of Hungary
|Politician and son of Miklós Horthy, who was abducted by German agents on the orders of Otto Skorzeny. He was held under house arrest and then in concentration camps until he was rescued by the United States Army North on May 5, 1945.[Peter Koblank: [http://www.mythoselser.de/niederdorf.htm Die Befreiung der Sonder- und Sippenhäftlinge in Südtirol] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190917012827/http://www.mythoselser.de/niederdorf.htm |date=September 17, 2019 }}, Online-Edition Mythos Elser 2006 {{in lang|de}}]
|Found alive
|7 months |
| 1944
|Bernard Gavrin
|29
|South Seas Mandate, Japan (modern-day Saipan)
|American army private who went missing during the Battle of Saipan sometime between June 15 and July 9, 1944. His fate remained unclear until his remains were recovered by a Japanese non-profit group searching for remains of Japanese soldiers. He was positively identified via DNA testing, but his exact cause of death was not determined.[{{cite news |last=Schultz |first=Marisa |title=Brooklyn soldier laid to rest 70 years after final battle |url=https://nypost.com/2014/09/04/brooklyn-soldier-laid-to-rest-70-years-after-final-battle/ |access-date=5 September 2014 |newspaper=New York Post |date=4 September 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304090638/http://nypost.com/2014/09/04/brooklyn-soldier-laid-to-rest-70-years-after-final-battle/ |archive-date=4 March 2016 |url-status=live }}]
|Presumed killed in action
|70 years |
| 1944
|William T. Carneal
|24
|South Seas Mandate, Japan (modern-day Saipan)
|An American serviceman killed fighting the Japanese on the island of Saipan. Initially declared missing in action, his remains were discovered by a Japanese nonprofit organization searching for the remains of fallen Japanese soldiers in 2013. His remains were identified via DNA testing in December 2013.[{{cite news|last=Canning|first=Rob|title=Paducah Funeral Held for World War II Soldier 69 Years After Missing In Action|url=http://wkms.org/post/paducah-funeral-held-world-war-ii-soldier-69-years-after-missing-action|access-date=26 April 2014|newspaper=WKMS|date=25 April 2014|archive-date=October 16, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161016125834/http://wkms.org/post/paducah-funeral-held-world-war-ii-soldier-69-years-after-missing-action|url-status=live}}]
|Killed in action
|69 years |
| 1944
|Rulon Jay Borgstrom
|19
|France
|Rulon Jay Borgstrom was the brother of LeRoy, Clyde, and Rolon Day Borgstrom, all of whom served and died in World War II. Rulon Jay served with the 38th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division, when he was reported missing in an attack on Le Dreff, near Brest, France, in August 1944. He was found and died 18 days later on August 25, 1944, from wounds received in action.[Associated Press, "Farm Family's Fourth Son Lost in War", The San Bernardino Daily Sun, San Bernardino, California, Tuesday 7 November 1944, Volume 51, page 1.]
|Killed in action
|18 days |
| 1944
|Helmut Bergmann
|24
|France
|Bergmann, a German Luftwaffe military aviator, night fighter ace, and recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross, was shot down and killed together with two crew members at Mortain on the Cotentin Peninsula on 6 August 1944. His remains were later found and temporarily buried, and later re-interred at the Marigny German war cemetery.[{{Cite book|last=Thomas|first=Andrew|year=2005|title=Mosquito Aces of World War 2|location=Oxford, UK|publisher=Osprey Publishing|page=34|isbn=978-1-84176-878-6}}]
|Killed in action
|Unknown |
| 1944
|Eugeniusz Horbaczewski
|26
|France
|Polish fighter pilot and flying ace Horbaczewski led his 12-aircraft squadron over France on a 'Rodeo' mission. They attacked a group of 60 Fw 190s of Jagdgeschwaders 2 and 26 over an airfield near Beauvais. Horbaczewski quickly shot down three Focke-Wulfs, but went missing during the dogfight. In 1947, his plane's wreckage and body was found crashed near Velennes.[Paul Hamlin, Coolham Airfield Remembered, Private Pressing, Sussex (1996) {{ISBN|0-9527968-0-5}}]
|Killed in action
|3 years |
| 1944
|Pyotr Z. Bazhbeuk-Melikov
|72
|Soviet Union
|An ethnic Armenian politician who later joined the Odessa-based Committee for the Salvation of Bessarabia. Bazhbeuk-Melikov later fled the region during the later stages of the Russian Civil War and returned to Bessarabia; he fled the region following the Soviet occupation of 1940 and settled in Ploiești, where he died in 1944.
| Died from natural causes
|data-sort-value=10068|4 years |
| 1944
|George Varoff
|30
|Republic of China
|Varoff, an American pole vaulter, was shot down on December 7, 1944, while doing his military service in China. He and his crew managed to safely bail out, and eventually managed to safely reach their base.[{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1945/01/17/archives/capt-george-varoff-safe.html|title=Capt. George Varoff safe|date=January 17, 1945|work=The New York Times|access-date=2007-10-10|archive-date=October 29, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211029181423/https://www.nytimes.com/1945/01/17/archives/capt-george-varoff-safe.html|url-status=live}}]
|Found alive
|6 weeks |
| 1944
|Lawrence Dickson
|24
|Nazi Germany (modern-day Austria)
|Dickson, an American pilot and member of the Tuskegee Airmen who flew in 68 missions during World War II, went missing while flying over Austria. His remains were identified by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency in 2018.[{{cite web |last=Daley |first=Jason |title=Remains of Tuskegee Airman Found in Austria |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/remains-tuskegee-airman-found-austria-180969787/ |website=smithsonianmag.com |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |access-date=December 5, 2019 |archive-date=December 5, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191205222616/https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/remains-tuskegee-airman-found-austria-180969787/ |url-status=live }}]
|Killed in action
|74 years |
| 1944
|Heinrich Bartels
|26
|Nazi Germany
|Heinrich Bartels was an Austrian-born German fighter pilot during World War II who was posted as missing in action on December 23, 1944 after being shot down.[Weal, John (2003). Jagdgeschwader 27 'Afrika'. London, UK: Osprey Publishing. {{ISBN|978-1-84176-538-9}}.] Twenty-three years later, Bartels' fighter and his remains were found near Bad Godesberg, Germany, on January 26, 1968.
|No
|data-sort-value=22399|23 years |
| 1945
|Carl Shaeffer
|20
|Belgium
|Shaeffer was taken prisoner of war by German forces in Belgium on January 18, 1945. Initially reported missing in action, he was later found to be a prisoner and was released at the end of the war. After he returned home, he began playing basketball at the University of Alabama and later became Alabama's first-ever professional basketball player.[{{Cite web |title=Carl Shaeffer |url=http://peachbasketsociety.blogspot.com/2017/07/carl-shaeffer.html |access-date=January 25, 2021 |website=Peach Basket Society |date=July 28, 2017 |archive-date=February 2, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210202122416/http://peachbasketsociety.blogspot.com/2017/07/carl-shaeffer.html |url-status=live }}]
|Found alive
|7 months |
| 1945
|Al Blozis
|26
|France
|Blozis was an American football offensive tackle and track and field athlete who persuaded the United States Army to waive its size limit and accept him in. On January 31, 1945, his platoon was in the Vosges Mountains of France scouting enemy lines. When two of his men, a sergeant and a private, failed to return from a patrol, he went in search of them alone,[[http://www.hoyasaxa.com/sports/fb-blozis1945.htm HoyaSaxa.com: Georgetown Football Awards] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061229012455/http://www.hoyasaxa.com/sports/fb-blozis1945.htm |date=December 29, 2006 }} at www.hoyasaxa.com] but never returned. His death was confirmed in April 1945, and his remains buried at the Lorraine American Cemetery and Memorial in Saint-Avold, Moselle.
|Killed in action
|3 months |
| 1945
|Keith Thiele
|23
|Nazi Germany
|Thiele was a Royal New Zealand Air Force officer who was one of only four New Zealand born airmen to receive two medal Bars to his Distinguished Flying Cross. While leading a formation of eight Tempests to attack locomotives in the Paderborn-Rheine area on February 10, 1945, Thiele and another pilot were shot down by enemy anti-aircraft fire, with Thiele bailing out and being reported as missing in action. Slightly wounded, Thiele was taken captive by the flak crew that had shot him down and was sent to a prisoner of war camp at Dulag Luft near Wetzlar. The camp was liberated on March 31, 1945 before any transport or Allied forces arrived, so Thiele and a Canadian airman stole bicycles and then a motorcycle. Thiele got back to his base five weeks before the war ended in Europe.[Coats, Patricia (2005). [http://www.news-mail.com.au/story/2005/04/26/apn-keiths-great/ Keith's Great Escape] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120319044903/http://www.news-mail.com.au/story/2005/04/26/apn-keiths-great/ |date=March 19, 2012 }}. APN News & Media Ltd. Retrieved on 26 April 2009]
|Found alive
|About 1 month |
| 1945
|Spencer Walklate
|27
|Territory of New Guinea, Australia (modern-day Papua New Guinea)
|Australian rugby footballer who later enlisted as a special operations serviceman in the Australian Army. After being sent to Japanese-occupied Papua New Guinea, Walklate was likely captured in mid-April, tortured and executed. His remains were recovered on Kairiru Island in 2013, and promptly reburied at a local war cemetery.[{{cite news |last=Nolan |first=Anna |title=Two Australian World War II soldiers laid to rest in Papua New Guinea |url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-06-15/two-australian-wwii-soldiers-lad-to-rest-in-png/5525256 |access-date=3 July 2019 |work=ABC News |date=15 June 2014 |archive-date=October 9, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211009162211/https://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-06-15/two-australian-wwii-soldiers-lad-to-rest-in-png/5525256 |url-status=live }}]
|Killed in action
|68 years |
| 1945
|Walter Botsch
|48
|Nazi Germany
|Botsch, a German general who commanded the 19th Army and received the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on May 9, 1945, was considered missing in action on April 16, 1945, but later turned up alive.[Patzwall, Klaus D.; Scherzer, Veit (2001). Das Deutsche Kreuz 1941–1945 Geschichte und Inhaber Band II [The German Cross 1941–1945 History and Recipients Volume 2] (in German). Norderstedt, Germany: Verlag Klaus D. Patzwall. ISBN 978-3-931533-45-8.]
|Found alive
|Unknown |
| 1945
|Gerhart Drabsch
|42
|Nazi Germany
|Drabsch, a German writer whose work was part of the literature event in the art competition at the 1928 Summer Olympics, was listed at missing in action on April 9, 1945 while serving in the Volkssturm during the final days of World War II. His remains were later found and interred at Luckenwalde war cemetery.[{{Cite web |title=Gerhart Drabsch |url=https://www.volksbund.de/graebersuche/detailansicht.html?tx_igverlustsuche_pi2%5Bgid%5D=442c9cd13744beb7ec588c70cb7f3e62&cHash=4aebb81585ff9d9b667143c6dbbb4766 |access-date=30 October 2020 |website=Volksbund |archive-date=November 2, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201102185416/https://www.volksbund.de/graebersuche/detailansicht.html?tx_igverlustsuche_pi2%5Bgid%5D=442c9cd13744beb7ec588c70cb7f3e62&cHash=4aebb81585ff9d9b667143c6dbbb4766 |url-status=live }}]
|Killed in action
|Unknown |
| data-sort-value="1945-06-23"|1945
|Simon Eden
|data-sort-value="20"|20–21
|Burma
|Simon Eden, son of Anthony Eden and Beatrice Beckett, was killed in action with the Royal Air Force in Burma in 1945. His plane was reported "missing in action" on June 23 and found on July 16; Anthony Eden did not want the news to be public until after the election result on July 26, to avoid claims of "making political capital" from it.[Thorpe (2003), p. 313.]
|Killed in action
|data-sort-value="0023"|3 weeks |
| 1945
|Genrikh Lyushkov
|45
|Manchukuo (modern-day China)
|Lyushkov was a high-level Soviet defector and former Far East NKVD chief. A participant in the Great Purge, he fled to avoid what he believed would be arrest and execution into the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo. After his defection, he became a military consultant and analyst for the Imperial Japanese Army. He disappeared during the Soviet invasion of Manchuria and was reported as being last seen in a crowded train station in Dairen (Dalian) in August 1945. His fate remained unknown for 34 years until 1979, when Yutaka Takeoka, an intelligence officer and Lyushkov's handler, publicly admitted that he executed Lyushkov on the evening of August 19, 1945 in order to prevent him from falling back into Soviet hands.[Coox, Alvin D. (1998b). "The Lesser of Two Hells: NKVD General G. S. Lyushkov's Defection to Japan, 1938–1945, part II". The Journal of Slavic Military Studies. 11 (4): 72–110. doi:10.1080/13518049808430361.]
|Executed
|Body never found |
| 1945
|Teruo Nakamura
|26
|Dutch East Indies (modern-day Indonesia)
|Nakamura was a Taiwanese-Japanese soldier of the Imperial Japanese Army. He was stationed in Morotai Island in Indonesia shortly before the island was overrun by the Allies in September 1944. Declared legally dead in September 1945,[Han Cheung (January 2, 2016). "The last holdout of Morotai". Taipei Times. Retrieved September 15, 2018.] he was discovered alive in 1974, and formally surrendered that year. Nakamura was the last known Japanese holdout to surrender after the end of hostilities.
|Found alive
|rowspan="1" data-sort-value=19357|29 years |
| 1945
|Thora Chamberlain
|14
|United States of America
|Chamberlain was a teenage female high school student from California who had disappeared and was later reported missing on November 2, 1945. It was later revealed that she had been murdered {{clarify|date=October 2022}} although her body was never recovered.[{{Cite news|url=https://www.mercurynews.com/2017/05/21/a-forerunner-to-sierra-lamar-case/|title=Eerie echoes of 1945 case in Sierra LaMar's fate|date=May 21, 2017|work=The Mercury News|access-date=May 10, 2018|archive-date=May 10, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180510115736/https://www.mercurynews.com/2017/05/21/a-forerunner-to-sierra-lamar-case/|url-status=live}}][{{Cite news|url=https://io9.gizmodo.com/the-scientist-who-wanted-to-bring-a-death-row-inmate-ba-1692200257|title=The Scientist Who Wanted To Bring A Death Row Inmate Back From The Dead|last=Davis|first=Lauren|work=io9|access-date=May 10, 2018|archive-date=May 10, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180510115635/https://io9.gizmodo.com/the-scientist-who-wanted-to-bring-a-death-row-inmate-ba-1692200257|url-status=live}}]
|Murdered
|rowspan="1" data-sort-value=19357|Body never found |
| 1946
|Muriel Drinkwater
|12
|Wales
|Muriel Drinkwater was a Welsh female child who disappeared on June 27, 1946. She left her house to go to the store to buy food for her family and was found dead in a Penllergaer, Swansea nearby woods the next the day after being murdered.[{{Cite news |date=2008-11-05 |title=Mystery of 1946 murder in woods |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/7711196.stm |access-date=2025-02-16 |language=en-GB}}]
|Murdered
|data-sort-value="0001"|1 day |
| rowspan="2"|{{circa}}1947
|David Bousquet
|{{circa}} 7
| rowspan="2"|Canada
| rowspan="2"|The bodies of two brothers, David and Derek Bousquet, were found concealed in woodland at Stanley Park in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada on January 14, 1953. The Bousquets are believed to have been murdered with a hatchet around the year 1947. A DNA test conducted in 1998 confirmed that the victims were brothers between the ages of six and ten. With the help of forensic genealogy, the Vancouver Police Department publicly identified the Bousquets on November 15, 2022.[{{cite web|last=Kennedy|first=Laurel|date=February 15, 2022|title=VPD identifies child victims in historic cold case murder|url=https://vpd.ca/news/2022/02/15/vpd-identifies-child-victims-in-historic-cold-case-murder/|access-date=September 6, 2023|website=Vancouver Police Department|language=en-CA|archive-date=September 6, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230906144130/https://vpd.ca/news/2022/02/15/vpd-identifies-child-victims-in-historic-cold-case-murder/|url-status=live}}]
| rowspan="2"|Murdered
| rowspan="2"|69 years |
| Derek Bousquet
|{{circa}} 6 |
| data-sort-value="1947-01-01"|1947
|Daniel S. Voorhees
|data-sort-value="033"|33–34
|United States of America
|Daniel S. Voorhees] American man who confessed to murder of Elizabeth Short on January 28, 1947,[{{cite news |agency=The Associated Press (AP) |title=Man confesses 'Dahlia' killing |date=29 January 1947 |page=3 |department=National news |newspaper=The Decatur Daily Review |access-date=8 September 2021 |publication-place=Decatur, Illinois, United States of America |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/3154645/black-dahlia |via=Newspapers.com |lccn=90054700 |oclc=22714420 |publisher=The Review Pub. Co. |volume=69 |issue=27 }}] disappeared shortly after that, then later reappeared. He died on July 28, 1953 from lung cancer.
|Found alive
|Unknown |
| 1947
|Lai Teck
|45–46
|Thailand
|Lai Teck, a leader of the Communist Party of Malaya and Malayan People's Anti-Japanese Army, disappeared in 1947. According to the newly elected party leader Chin Peng, he personally went to Bangkok and Hong Kong and contacted the communist party organizations there, asking them to help track down and kill Lai Teck; both the Vietnamese and Thai communists assisted Chin Peng in the manhunt. Eventually, Chin Peng was told by the Thai Communist leader that Lai Teck was accidentally suffocated while three Thai Communists tried to capture him. His body was then put into a gunny sack and tossed into the Menam River.[Chin Peng, My Side of History, pp 189-190.]
|Killed in struggle
|Body never found |
| data-sort-value="1948-02-22"|1948
|Riva Kwas
|data-sort-value="032"|32
|France
|Riva Kwas, a 32-year-old Polish woman working as a chemist in Paris, was murdered in her studio-apartment in the Auteuil district on the night of February 22, 1948. Although Kwas' body was discovered five days later, her murder remained unsolved for more than five years, until serial killer John Balaban confessed to Kwas' murder after being detained and charged for murders committed in Australia.[[https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/59697618 Paris Spotted Our Murderer], Sunday Times (Perth), 7 November 1954, page 13.]
|Murdered
|data-sort-value="0005"|5 days |
| data-sort-value="1948"|1948
|Placido Rizzotto
|34
|Italy
|Rizzotto was a partisan,[{{Cite web|url=http://lombardia.anpi.it/voghera/rizzotto/rizzotto.htm|title=ANPI Voghera | Placido Rizzotto – Il Partigiano che morì di mafia|website=lombardia.anpi.it|access-date=August 4, 2021|archive-date=August 4, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210804140223/http://lombardia.anpi.it/voghera/rizzotto/rizzotto.htm|url-status=live}}] socialist peasant and trade union leader from Corleone, who was assassinated by Sicilian Mafia boss Luciano Leggio on March 10, 1948. Over 60 years after his death, remains were found on July 7, 2009, on a cliff in Rocca Busambra near Corleone, and on March 9, 2012, a DNA test, compared with one extracted from his father Carmelo Rizzotto, long dead and exhumed for this purpose, confirmed the identity of remains as being that of Placido Rizzotto following a long and difficult investigation conducted by the State Police at the service of the PS Commissariat of Corleone.[{{Cite web|url=http://palermo.repubblica.it/cronaca/2012/03/09/news/trovate_le_ossa_di_placido_rizzotto-31212133/|title=Ritrovati i resti di Placido Rizzotto sindacalista ucciso dalla mafia nel '48 – Palermo – Repubblica.it|website=Palermo – La Repubblica|date=March 9, 2012|access-date=August 4, 2021|archive-date=August 4, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210804145208/https://palermo.repubblica.it/cronaca/2012/03/09/news/trovate_le_ossa_di_placido_rizzotto-31212133/|url-status=live}}][{{Cite web|url=http://www.corriere.it/cronache/12_marzo_09/rizzotto-identificati-resti-corleone_8ae8bfea-69b8-11e1-b42a-aa1beb6952a8.shtml|title=Identificati dopo 64 anni i resti di Rizzotto il sindacalista che combatteva la mafia di Liggio|first=Redazione|last=Online|website=Corriere della Sera|access-date=August 4, 2021|archive-date=August 4, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210804144000/https://www.corriere.it/cronache/12_marzo_09/rizzotto-identificati-resti-corleone_8ae8bfea-69b8-11e1-b42a-aa1beb6952a8.shtml|url-status=live}}]
|Murdered
|data-sort-value=22399|61 years |
| data-sort-value="1948"|1948
|Irwin Foster Hilliard
|85
|Canada
|Irwin Foster Hilliard was an Ontario lawyer and political figure. He went missing after leaving his home on a shopping trip on November 23, 1948, and while initially believed to have drowned, his body was found near Lambton on December 22.["Ontario Police Recover Body of Missing Man", Winnipeg Free Press, Thursday, December 23, 1948, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada]
| Died (undetermined cause)
|data-sort-value=22399|29 days |
| data-sort-value="1949-02-18"|1949
|Olive Durand-Deacon
|69
|United Kingdom
|69-year-old Olive Durand-Deacon, the wealthy widow of solicitor John Durand-Deacon and a resident at the Onslow Court Hotel, was invited to a workshop on Leopold Road by English serial killer John Haigh—who introduced himself to Durand-Deacon as an engineer—on February 18, 1949. Once Durand-Deacon was inside, she was shot in the back of the neck, stripped of her valuables, and placed into a vat of sulphuric acid. Two days later, Durand-Deacon was reported missing by a friend. Police searched the workshop and found items belonging to Durand-Deacon as well as previous victims of Haigh. Some of Durand-Deacon's remains were discovered behind the workshop. Haigh was arrested and charged with Durand-Deacon's murder, as well as the murders of five others. Haigh pled insanity, though was convicted and sentenced to death; he was hanged on August 10, 1949.[{{cite magazine|url=https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,853862,00.html|title=Foreign News: A Glass of Blood|magazine=Time|date=July 25, 1949|access-date=June 19, 2023|archive-date=June 20, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230620044505/https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,853862,00.html|url-status=live}}]
|Murdered
|data-sort-value="002"|At least 2 days |
| 1949
|Eva Neander
|28
|Sweden
|Neander was a female Swedish journalist and author from the 1940s,[{{cite book |last1=Larsson |first1=Lisbeth |last2=Myers |first2=Margaret |title=Eva Lydia Carolina Neander |date=March 2, 2020 |publisher=Swedish Women's Biographical Dictionary |url=https://skbl.se/en/article/EvaLydiaCarolinaNeander |access-date=December 29, 2020 |archive-date=January 25, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210125164133/https://skbl.se/en/article/EvaLydiaCarolinaNeander |url-status=live }}] who disappeared on February 22, 1949, and was found dead, frozen in ice in Lake Unden in Tiveden[{{Cite web|title=427 (Svenskt författarlexikon / 2. 1941–1950)|url=https://runeberg.org/sfl/2/0427.html|access-date=March 29, 2021|website=runeberg.org|language=sv|archive-date=August 4, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210804140221/https://runeberg.org/sfl/2/0427.html|url-status=live}}] exactly one year later.
|Died from drowning
|1 year |
| 1949
|Sadanori Shimoyama
|47
|Japan
|Shimoyama was the first president of the newly formed Japanese National Railways who was last seen at the Mitsukoshi department store in Nihonbashi, Tokyo on July 5, 1949. While his dismembered body was found on the Jōban Line the following day after having been run over by an outbound freight train, the circumstances of his disappearance and death still remains a mystery.[{{Cite web |last=Hernon |first=Matthew |date=2018-05-02 |title=The Three Big Rail Mysteries that Defined Japan's Summer of 1949 |url=https://www.tokyoweekender.com/japan-life/news-and-opinion/the-three-big-rail-mysteries-that-defined-japans-summer-of-1949/ |access-date=2023-12-05 |website=Tokyo Weekender |language=en |archive-date=December 5, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231205022041/https://www.tokyoweekender.com/japan-life/news-and-opinion/the-three-big-rail-mysteries-that-defined-japans-summer-of-1949/ |url-status=live }}][{{Cite web |last=Kincaid |first=Andrew |date=2015-05-24 |title=The Japanese National Railways Incidents–Enduring Mysteries from Post-War Japan |url=https://www.japanpowered.com/history/the-japanese-national-railways-incidents-enduring-mysteries-from-post-war-japan |access-date=2023-12-05 |website=Japan Powered |language=en-US |archive-date=December 15, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231215224724/https://www.japanpowered.com/history/the-japanese-national-railways-incidents-enduring-mysteries-from-post-war-japan |url-status=live }}][{{Cite web |last=Shibata |first=Tetsutaka |date=2009-05-19 |title=Vol.25 昭和24年 戦後最大の謎、下山事件（1/3 |url=http://doraku.asahi.com/earth/showa/090519.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140628212416/http://doraku.asahi.com/earth/showa/090519.html |archive-date=2014-06-28 |access-date=2023-12-05 |website=Doraku |publisher=Asahi Shimbun |language=ja}}]
|Died in train accident
|1 day |
| 1949
|Thelma Taylor
|15
|United States
|Thelma Taylor was an American teenage female who disappeared on August 6, 1949 in Portland, Oregon and was found dead five days later after being murdered.[{{cite news|newspaper=Reading Eagle|date=August 11, 1949|title=Former Convict Leads Police To Body of Murdered Girl|page=21|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=eLwhAAAAIBAJ&pg=5560%2C3195374&dq=thelma+taylor+portland+morris+leland&hl=en|via=Google News}}]
|Murdered
|5 days |