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

7. Richey Edwards

Vanished in 1995

When the Manic Street Preachers started out, they wanted to be the biggest band in the world. They said it was not for the fame or the money, but because they had something to say. However, one band member didn’t seem to want to be in the limelight at all, disappearing off the face of the earth on the 1 February 1995.

The Welsh quartet were very disruptive with their music from the get go, and this all was attributed to their secret weapon, 27-year-old guitarist Richey Edwards. Edwards has been deemed the ‘chief lyricist, orator, poet, philosopher, and media manipulator of the band’, so his sudden disappearance seemed to leave them at a real loss.

Edwards had a history of heavy drinking and also had a severe eating disorder, and even after battling through rehab, he was still not himself. He spiralled once more, and in one of his final interviews he spoke about being ‘fundamentally unlovable and doomed to be alone.”

The Preachers were due to travel to America for a promotional tour, and Edwards made it very clear from the get go he didn’t want to go. He had called his mother numerous times to express his disinterest, but this stirred no clue to what inevitably happened that February morning.

The day before they were due to fly out, Edwards and bandmate James Dean Bradfield checked into the Embassy hotel in London, a stopping point before their flight. Their plan was to go have a few drinks in and around the hotel and see the city sights, but as the evening drew closer, Edwards decided he wanted to stay in his hotel room alone. The following morning, he checked out at the crack of dawn, drove back to his hometown to drop off his passports and credit cards, and disappeared without a trace.

His car was found on the 17 February, parked at Aust Services on the English side of the Severn crossing, and to this day, he has not been discovered.