David Horn Jr.
The Vanished Podcast
Wondery
4.5 • 15K Ratings
🗓️ 17 November 2025
⏱️ 80 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
It was Christmas Day 2017 when 35-year-old David Horn Jr. vanished from Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania. At the time, Dave was living alone just around the corner in Trainer. That evening, the Philadelphia Eagles were set to play the Raiders. Dave had been born and raised in the Philadelphia area and was a devoted Eagles fan. Spending a holiday night at a neighborhood pub to watch the game would not have been unusual for him. What was unusual was that as other fans were filing in to settle down for the Christmas night game, Dave walked out of the bar. No one ever saw or heard from him again.
Dave had plans to leave for a trip to Las Vegas right after the holiday, so when he went quiet, friends and family assumed he was already there. But in early January, Dave’s father went to check on him and found an unsettling scene. Dave’s truck was still parked outside. Inside, the lights and TV were on, and his belongings appeared untouched. Even the plane tickets for his upcoming trip were sitting out in plain view. Then his father noticed the basement door had a broken window with what looked like blood on it.
By then, precious days had already passed. As his family retraced his steps, they confirmed that the last known sighting of Dave was at the pub in Marcus Hook. They learned he had ordered an Uber that evening, but the ride was canceled. After that moment, his trail went cold. Nearly eight years later, Dave’s loved ones are still searching for answers about what happened that Christmas night and why he never made it home.
If you have any information about the disappearance of David Horn Jr., please contact the Trainer Borough Police Department at (610) 494-7399.
If you have a missing loved one that you would like to have featured on the show, please fill out our case submission form.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The whole situation is insane. I swear everybody that knows anything about it from around this area all say the same thing. |
| 0:17.0 | You got a whole date line and I still get stopped by people around here |
| 0:21.8 | because everybody knows about it. It's pretty crazy the way how everything it went down. So many |
| 0:27.8 | weird things happened, but he went missing the night of that Eagles game. His house was left |
| 0:33.5 | with all the lights on, fan was on, the TV was on, very weird. |
| 0:41.1 | It was Christmas Day of 2017, when 35-year-old David Horn disappeared from a pub in Marcus |
| 0:48.1 | Hook, Pennsylvania. At the time, Dave was living alone around the corner in the borough of |
| 0:53.2 | Traynor. That evening, the Philadelphia Eagles were around the corner in the borough of Traynor. |
| 0:56.9 | That evening, the Philadelphia Eagles were playing the Raiders. |
| 1:02.4 | Dave had been born and raised in the Philadelphia area and was a devoted Eagles fan. |
| 1:07.8 | Spending a holiday evening at a local pub to watch the game wouldn't have been unusual for him. |
| 1:12.9 | What was unusual was that as other fans were shuffling into the bar to settle in for the Christmas night game, Dave walked out. No one ever saw or heard from him again. Dave had |
| 1:19.4 | planned a trip to Las Vegas right after Christmas. So when he went quiet, everyone assumed that he |
| 1:24.8 | was already enjoying his vacation. But in early January, Dave's |
| 1:29.1 | father went to check on him at his home and trainer and found an unsettling scene. Dave's truck |
| 1:34.5 | was parked outside. Inside, the lights and television were still on, and Dave's belongings appeared |
| 1:40.4 | untouched. Even the plane tickets for his upcoming trip to Vegas were sitting out. |
| 1:45.7 | His father also discovered that the basement door had a broken window, with what looked like |
| 1:50.0 | blood on it. By then, they were already days behind. But his family began retracing his steps |
| 1:55.7 | back to Christmas night. They confirmed the last place he had been seen at was the pub and Marcus |
| 2:00.7 | Hook. They later |
| 2:02.0 | learned that he had ordered an Uber that evening, but the ride had been canceled. After that, Dave's |
... |
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