Disappearance of Russell Bohling
Russell Bohling, born 29 December 1991 in Hull, England, disappeared on 2 March 2010 at age 18 from West Ella, East Riding of Yorkshire. He was a bricklaying student at Bishop Burton College. On the day he vanished, his car, a Renault Clio, was found 45 miles away at Bempton Cliffs near an old RAF bunker. A parking ticket showed the car had been there since about 11:30 am, and a passerby saw it there again the next day.
Police searched the area for him, including the bunker and the coast, but the case has remained unsolved. The family has criticized some aspects of the investigation, saying searches may not have always focused on finding him alive. In December 2012, firefighters conducted a more detailed search of the bunker as a training exercise, with the family present. The family later spent about £1,200 to have the bunker opened.
Two years after Russell disappeared, his best training shoes were found at the family’s Ravenscar holiday home, which the family believes he wore on the day he vanished. Investigations showed he left home three days before without telling anyone where he had been. He had visited York, Bradford and Bridlington in the days before, and he had looked at an RAF Bempton website and a page about Ravenscar on the morning he disappeared.
His family say Russell was drawn to eerie artwork left on the bunker walls by a cult in the 1970s, and he kept notes about them on a USB stick that was never found. They believe a third person may have been with him when he drove toward Bempton, noting that his car had little fuel and the debit card was unused, with little cash on him. They also point to a possible motive related to a large payment his father was arranging to help Russell start a business.
Russell has a speech and language disorder, which his family say can make him seem fine even when he isn’t. Police have suggested he may have taken his own life, and a 3-year-old tape of him imitating a suicide was mentioned, though the family say the tape is old and from a time of exams anxiety. Russell’s disappearance was featured on Crimewatch in 2010. Later searches found feet on the Humber Estuary, but these were not connected to him. In a separate case, his father was convicted of possessing child pornography after police searched a computer he had provided.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 15:15 (CET).