A fire broke out on the 700 block of Kingman Road in Unionville, Tennessee on September 23, 2012. Inside the home were Leon “Bubba” McClarans, 72 and Molli McClarans, 70, 9-year-old Chloie and her 7-year-old half-brother Gage. After the blaze was put out, firefighters determined that Leon and Molli, along with their pet poodle and cockatoo, perished in the fire.
The remains of Chloie and Gage were never found. The remains of everyone in the home was found and identified by experst, but the children vanished without a trace. Some have theorized that they may have been cremated in the fire, but that would require the home to reach a temperature of 1500 degrees fahrenheit, which is nearly impossible.
The children were living with their grandparents amid a nasty custody battle. This was a main reason as to why investigators believed that the children survived the fire but disappeared. The parents were questioned accordingly.
Their mother, Cheryl Daniel, was investigated and it was confirmed that she did not have them. Gage's father was also determined to have no involvement of the missing children. So, where did they go?
Former TBI agent Brad Garrett said that "statistically, children this age, over 90 percent of the time, are taken by their own parents or a close relative." After an exhausting search, there were no traces of the children with any relatives.
The cause of the fire is also unknown. The McClarans' had about 30 propane tanks in their basement. One of them had leaked, but there was no sign of an explosion. It was all too suspicious, but no other evidence was brought forward. Forensic anthropologists could not find traces of the children inside the burnt home. It's still a mystery.