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Strange Disappearance of Steven Kubacki
Steven Kubacki vanished without a trace only to wake up in a field 700 miles away 15 months later with no memory of what happened
Steven Kubacki was then 23 years old student at Hope College in Holland, Michigan. He was majoring in either German or history. He was known to be an avid outdoorsman and had recently climbed mountains while studying abroad in Europe.
In February of 1978, Steven set off for a solo cross country skiing trip starting near the town of Saugatuck. On February 20th, Steven skied over Lake Michigan which was not unusual as he had been cross-country skiing in the same area before. The next day a couple of snowmobilers found an abandoned set of skis in a backpack and contacted authorities to report a possible missing person. The authority quickly found that the contents of the bag include a ski belonging to Steve. A search and rescue mission ensued and investigators found a 200-yard trail of footprints in the snow leading past the edge of the lake which ended abruptly. Investigators concluded that Steven was likely filled with ice to his death even though the ice was unbroken.
15 months later on May 5th 1979, Steven woke up in a grassy field in Pittsfield, Massachusetts which is 720 miles from where he went missing with no recollection of what had happened since that day at Lake Michigan. Steven found himself to be wearing clothes that he didn’t recognise and had a backpack filled with maps and hitchhiking science showing he travelled to Sacramento, San Francisco, Reno, Chicago and Utah. He also had $40 in cash new glasses, sneakers and a t-shirt from a marathon in Wisconsin. Steven said that he didn’t know how much time had passed until he bought a newspaper and saw the date. He then found his way to his aunt’s house in Great Barrington which is about 20 miles from where he woke up. He then reunited with the rest of his family. Steven said the last thing he remembers about the day he went missing was feeling cold and scared of being lost in the frozen darkness. Some explanation was that he may have been sick or unhealthy. Steven…
