The Man Who Vanished from His Chair

The Man Who Vanished from His Chair

From Crime at Bedtime by Jack Laurence

April 21, 2026 · 17 min · Season 2 · Episode 40

About this episode

The episode explores the mysterious disappearance of Owen Parfitt, a paralysed man who vanished from his chair in 1768.

On a warm June evening in 1768, a 69-year-old paralysed man named Owen Parfitt sat outside his sister's cottage in Shepton Mallet, England, dressed in his nightshirt and propped up on his folded greatcoat. Just a dozen yards away, farm workers laboured in full view of the porch. Around 7 PM, Owen's elderly sister Mary and a young neighbour, Susannah Snook, went inside to fetch him before an approaching storm. Minutes later, they returned to find Owen gone. The chair remained. The greatcoat remained. But Owen Parfitt—a man who couldn't move by himself—had vanished. The farm workers had seen nothing. Heard nothing. An exhaustive search through the storm and the days that followed found no trace. Owen had been a sailor in his youth, regaling locals with wild tales of piracy, smuggling, and black magic across Africa, America, and the high seas. Mary went to her grave believing the Devil had taken her brother as payment for his wicked life. Others suspected "men from Bristol" had silenced him to claim hidden treasure or stop his garrulous tales. Investigations in 1813, 1814, and 1933 uncovered no answers. More than 250 years later, Owen Parfitt's disappearance remains one of England's…

People in this episode

Host: Jack Laurence

Topics covered

  • disappearance
  • mystery
  • historical crime
  • unsolved cases
  • England

Keywords

  • Owen Parfitt
  • disappearance
  • Shepton Mallet
  • historical mystery
  • unsolved crime

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Patreon, Apple

Places: Shepton Mallet

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