News

Missing Woman Accidentally Joins Own Search Party

by Isobel Markham

Do you reckon you'd easily recognize a basic description of yourself? Sure, you'd think so — but that wasn't the case for a woman on vacation in Iceland, who accidentally joined a search party that was busy looking for... well, her.

Back in 2012, the tour group was traveling by bus to the volcanic Eldgja canyon when they made a rest stop near the canyon park. The woman left the bus to go inside, change her clothes, and freshen up. Whatever it was she changed into was clearly enough to completely befuddle the rest of the tour guests, because when she came back nobody recognized her.

Soon, word got around the group that a passenger had gone missing, and the woman in question didn't recognize the description of herself. The group then mounted a 50-person search party in vehicles and on foot to look for the missing woman, who was in fact searching right along beside them. The coast guard was even ready to launch a helicopter.

Around 3 a.m., some bright spark in the group realized that the woman they were all looking for was actually in the search party, and the hunt was called off.

We've got to admit it's pretty funny that this woman didn't recognize a description of herself, and that she managed to so completely transform herself in a rest-stop bathroom that nobody recognized her, but we also kind of feel bad. Did nobody speak to this woman once before she went missing? Did nobody know her name? People really should be more friendly...