'Genius' hasn't been seen since leaving note saying he was boarding alien spaceship
A 'genius' who claimed he'd been in contact with aliens vanished off the face of the Earth one day in 1980, leaving behind a note saying he was going aboard an alien spaceship.
On the night of 29 November, 1980 in the Canadian town of Duncan a 32-year-old man named Granger Taylor disappeared and was never seen again.
His family and friends knew Taylor as a mechanical genius who had restored a car, a bulldozer, an old train that had been abandoned in a forest and even rebuilt a World War Two plane.
He had dropped out of school early to work at local mechanical shops, which is when people around him realised he had an incredible knack for fixing things.
Advert
Taylor also believed he could communicate with aliens and had built a life-size replica of a spaceship out of parts he found at the local dump.
His sister had told Vice that in the months before his disappearance he had been taking acid a 'few times a day'.
After several months he simply disappeared, leaving a note behind for his family telling them he would be away for 42 months and that he was leaving them all of his possessions.
The message read: "Dear Mother and Father, I have gone away to walk aboard an alien spaceship, as recurring dreams assured a 42-month interstellar voyage to explore the vast universe, then return.
"I am leaving behind all my possessions to you as I will no longer require the use of any. Please use the instructions in my will as a guide to help. Love, Granger."
No other trace of Granger was found until six years later when forestry workers found a blast site with a wrecked vehicle near the farm where the Taylor family lived.
The police were able to confirm that the registration for the destroyed vehicle matched that of Taylor's Datsun pickup.
Some human bone fragments and a scrap of clothing believed to be part of a shirt belonging to Taylor were also found at the scene, but no full body was ever found.
A coroner's inquest determined that Taylor must have been killed in the blast that had destroyed the vehicle, concluding that he had been carrying dynamite in his truck when it went off, though it made no judgment on whether this had been on purpose or accidental.
Taylor often had dynamite in his truck as it was commonly used in the area to destroy tree stumps and knew how to use it.
Why he disappeared that night and why he left the note for his family remains unknown and nobody can say for certain exactly what happened, or why.
Joe Harker