8 Famous People Who Went Missing (And Were Never Found)

7. Scott Smith

Vanished in 2000

Scott Smith was a musician and bassist for the popular Canadian band, Loverboy. As he was the original bassist, his legacy lives on in classic rock staples such as Turn Me Loose and Working For The Weekend, some standard Friday-afternoon bangers.

Smith was loved by everyone in the band, helping them soar in popularity, and selling millions of pop-rock albums worldwide. So, the devastating news of his disappearance caused huge upset.

After performing at a diabetes research benefit in Vancouver, Smith, his fiancée Yvonne Mayotte, and friend Bill Ellis took off in his sailboat to a marina south of Los Angeles. Their plan was to reside there for the winter, but they never got the chance.

Nearing San Francisco, they hit a colossal storm, and while Smith was steering the boat and the passengers were below deck, he encountered 20-foot-high waves first hand. One of these knocked the boat onto its side, and when the other passengers rushed back up onto deck, they discovered Smith was gone, along with the boat’s wheel, torn off by the sheer force of the wave. Smith had been wearing two jumpers and some joggers, with no life jacket in sight.

They thought very quickly and began throwing floatation devices overboard, in hope that Smith would be able to surface and grab onto something, and sent out a distress call for someone to help them. A helicopter was at the scene within 20 minutes, but there was no sign of Smith anywhere.

In the following days, a Coast Guard search turned up nothing, and neither did a private search. Smith was 45 years old; he was never recovered.