James E Tedford (often referred to as Tetford) was born around 1884 in Vermount.

Not much is known about his early life, but by 1940 he was resident in Fletcher Town, Franklin, VT with his younger wife Pearl (she was aged 28 and he was 56)

Things started to get strange following Tedfords return to Vermount the end of his second spell of military service at the end of WW2.

He returned to find his wife Pearl had vanished, no trace of her could be found – the property they rented in Fletcher Town had been left abandoned. Tedfords family claimed no knowledge of the whereabouts of his missing wife. They said they had last seen her as she was heading to the Amoco store in Franklin, but they never saw her again.

On December 1, 1949 Tedfords remaining family reported him missing.

Police investigations and reports show he boarded a bus in St Albans a few days earlier, but that he had not arrived at his destination.

Tedford, was on his way home to the retirement home in Bennington from a trip to see family in St. Albans, Vermont. The scheduled bus trip should have taken the best part of 8 hours, but heavy snow caused a long delay. The route also passed through the Green Mountain National Forest, an area renowned for disappearances and strange events during the 1940’s.

Tedford was seen sitting on the bus by 14 other passengers. They all testified to seeing him there, sleeping in his seat. When the bus reached its destination, however, Tedford was gone, and the driver and other witnesses all testified that they had not seen the old man leave the bus.

Tedford was seen getting on the bus in St Albans by multiple witnesses, and was seen still on the bus at the last stop before arriving in Bennington.

Somewhere between the last stop and Bennington, Tedford vanished.

Strangely all his belongings were still on the luggage rack, and a local bus timetable lay open on his empty seat.

Source

http://coolinterestingstuff.com/the-strange-mystery-of-james-edward-tedford