Russell Bohling was born December 29, 1991 in Hull, East Yorkshire. At the time of his disappearance he was 18 and was studying a bricklaying course at the Bishop Burton College in Beverley.
On March 2nd 2010, Russell had set of his day getting ready for college and set off at 8 am to make his way to college. Once he left the house he was never seen again.
When he failed to return home from college that day, his parents became increasingly worried and started ringing his phone to get a reply from him. Despite their efforts to try and contact him but he never answered his phone. This was out of character for Russell therefore, his parents phoned the police to report him as missing.
Police went to the Bohling house and began asking his parents if he was different that morning or if there was anything suspicious. His parents told the police that Russell was dressed smarter than he normally would for college; a search of his bedroom then took place which revealed a pair of brown steel toe cap boots were missing.
The next day, police contacted the college to see if Russell had turned up that day but it was found that they did not take registers or have a system so there was no way of checking if he actually turned up to college.
Later that day Police were called to an abandoned car that matched the description of Russell’s car. This car 45 miles away from his home in Bridlington. The car was parked in an area on the coast called Bempton Cliffs, the car was there from the previous morning and had an all day ticket on (which had expired). The warden had seen the car on the morning of March 2nd, 2010 and it was still there at 5:30pm the same day; the warden looked inside the car but it had the all day pass so he did not think much about it. The next morning (March 3rd, 2010) the car was still parked in the same place so the warden knew something was wrong and called the police to report it. The parking ticket/pass was bought at 11:30am on the day Russell went missing meaning it was three and a half hours after he left for college. The car was confirmed to be Russell’s car which also confirmed that he never went to college.
Searches then began in the area where his car was found, police focused on a RAF bunker which was nearby and Russell had searched online about this bunker the day he disappeared. Police checked the site but never went inside. Air, sea and mountain searches did take place.
Russell’s parents did remember that three days before his disappearance, Russell had got up, got in his car and drove off. Russell was gone until late at night but he never told anyone where he had been. When police looked at his debit card history for that day he went out they found he went to three different places. Russell had been to Bradford, York and Bridlington. Remembering that Bridlington is the place his car had been found when he went missing days later. His card was not used on the day he went missing and had not been used since.
Police removed all electronics that Russell used in the house to see if there was any indications of what happened. As mentioned before they found that he had searched the RAF bunker near to wear his car was found. After Russell searched that police found he had searched Ravenscar, Russell’s family had a holiday home there. After hearing that Russell had searched Ravenscar, his parents drove straight to the holiday home to see if he was there but there was no sign of Russell being in or near the home.
It was also found that Russell had a fascination with the RAF bunker at Bridlington and its history which was abandoned. Russell had a USB with all information and pictures of the bunker plus its artwork. However, when Russell disappeared so did the USB and has never been found.
Police made Russell’s family pay over a thousand pounds to open the bunker but police did not search the bunker properly. The bunker showed no sign of Russell or his belongings.
There is many theories about this disappearance, here are some of them:
- Russell had committed suicide. The cliff where this car was found is known as a common place of this to happen. Many people strongly believe this as their is no activity on his debit cards or anything to show he is still alive. There was also a ‘suicide tape’ made by Russell which was found by police, it was a three year old video but it adds to the theory. On the tape he talks about where he wants to be buried and why he did not want to be alive.
- The second theory is he had run away however this is not a strong case as he had no money, he left his car and had no contact. However it is possible that Russell had saved the money to run away. It was also found that two years after his disappearance when his parents were at their holiday home in Ravenscar, they found the black boots they claimed he was wearing on the day he disappeared. It could be possible that sometime after his disappearance he could have gone to the holiday home to stay and changed.
- A third party was involved. This is the theory his parents believe. Russell’s family believe at the time of his disappearance that he was a very mentally stable person and was excited for the future. Russell’s father had told him that he would give him £300,000 so he could start his own business. His parents believe that someone wanted the money he wound get and got murdered because of it.
