The chilling case of a man who vanished for 30 years and returned home in the same clothes.
In 1991, Vasile Gorgos, a 65-year-old cattle farmer from a small village in eastern Romania, mysteriously disappeared.
He had gone on a routine business trip, purchased a return train ticket, and left his home as usual. However, he never returned.
What happened to Vasile Gorgos?
Vasile’s family grew increasingly worried after he failed to come back.
They contacted local authorities, who launched a search for the missing man. Days turned into weeks, weeks into months, and months into years.
As time passed, his family began to suspect that Vasile had passed away. Memorial services were held in his honor for three decades.
Then, on 29 August 2021—30 years after his disappearance—Vasile mysteriously returned home.
A car pulled up outside his home, and a confused Vasile emerged, wearing the exact same clothes he had left in back in 1991. His family was stunned.
However, there were no witnesses to provide details about the car, as it sped off before anyone could note its registration. Vasile himself could remember very little of what had happened.
Chilling details: The mystery deepens
Vasile’s ID was still in his pocket, along with the original train ticket for the Bacău-Ploieşti line, the very ticket he had purchased on the day he vanished.
Despite the passing years, doctors found Vasile to be in surprisingly good health when he was examined.
He had some neurological issues, but nothing that seemed unusual for his age.
Vasile was able to remember key facts about his past.
Vasile’s memory includes details such as his birth year (1928), the death of his wife, and the fact that he was the son of a famous merchant.
However, he struggled to recognize his own children. His son expressed confusion, stating that Vasile seemed disconnected from reality.
“He talks about his life as a cattle farmer, but when we ask him specific questions, he gives strange answers,” the son said.
What happened to Vasile?
Vasile’s strange reappearance led to numerous theories, as his family and armchair detectives tried to piece together the mystery.
Some speculated that Vasile had willingly abandoned his old life. The *Gone, But Never Forgotten* podcast proposed that he had run off to start a new life with a lover, only to return years later to make amends.
Another theory suggested that Vasile was arrested and had spent 30 years in prison. The idea was that Vasile might have changed his name and tried to escape his past, but eventually, his history caught up with him.
A more psychological theory posited that Vasile might have suffered from dissociative personality disorder, leading him to live a completely separate life for three decades.
However, this condition typically only causes sporadic shifts in personality, making this theory unlikely for such a long period.
Some even speculated that Vasile was kidnapped and forced into labor. This theory suggested that his health had deteriorated to the point where he was no longer useful as a laborer, leading his captors to return him to his family.
Alien abduction or government experiments?
In the world of wild speculations, some people even suggested that Vasile might have been abducted by aliens or taken by the government for experimental purposes. These theories, though, remain highly unsubstantiated and purely speculative.
Despite the many theories, Vasile’s family may never fully understand what happened during those 30 missing years. His mysterious disappearance and equally strange return remain one of Romania’s most haunting unsolved cases.