Name: Mel and Judy Bellamy disappear during a November 10, 2002 flight toward Beaver Island
Start: 2002-11-10
End: 2002-11-12
Location: Beaver Island

Locator map: Beaver Island highlighted within the Beaver Island archipelago — Took place at Beaver IslandLocator plate © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL 1.0); depths NOAA; names USGS GNIS. How the plates are drawn.

Event

Dates: 2002-11-10 – 2002-11-12
Kind: Occurrence
Where: Beaver Island
Eras: Modern era
Concepts: aviationaccidentdisastercommunity
Within: Beaver Island

Summary

Mel and Judy Bellamy disappeared while returning to Beaver Island in their Cessna 175 on November 10, 2002. After they failed to arrive from a refueling stop in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, the Coast Guard searched for 48 hours, while hunters and Civil Air Patrol members searched the likely flight path and nearby woods without finding the couple or a confirmed wreck.

Evidence limits

The Beacon’s memorial article records the disappearance and search as known at publication; it does not establish a crash location, final official determination, or complete investigative record.

Sources

Beaver Beacon, December 2002, “Mel and Judy Bellamy—Swallowed into Heaven.”
Reports that Mel and Judy Bellamy left Missouri in a Cessna 175 for Beaver Island, stopped to refuel in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, and failed to arrive; Coast Guard, Civil Air Patrol, hunters, and others searched for 48 hours without finding them. No public copy of this file is known; the archive holds one and can provide it on request.
data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 2002-12_Beaver-Beacon
Beaver Beacon, December 2002, held issue PDF, source scan.
The held issue scan confirms the December 2002 report.
data1 · beaver-island-archive · scans · beaver_beacon · issues · 2002-12_Beaver-Beacon

Added 5 August 2026. Recent changes

Cite this article

Beaver Island Archive, “Mel and Judy Bellamy disappear during a November 10, 2002 flight toward Beaver Island”, https://beaverislandarchive.org/events/beaver-island-mel-and-judy-bellamy-disappearance-2002/, accessed [date], citing Beaver Beacon, December 2002, “Mel and Judy Bellamy—Swallowed into Heaven.” (and 1 further source listed on the page).

Last revised 2026-08-05. Fill in [date] with the date you read it — this page is static and cannot know that.

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