When Investigations Have No Choice But To Abort
It’s wild how seemingly typical events happen, but they never get resolved like the rest. These are ones that didn’t make it into “case closed” status but still hit different when you hear them. Unpolished. Unsettling. And very real.
The Vanishing Of The Mary Celeste
In 1872, the Mary Celeste was discovered adrift in the Atlantic Ocean close to the Azores Islands. The ship was in seaworthy condition, with its cargo of denatured alcohol intact and ample provisions on board. However, the crew was missing, and there were no signs of struggle or violence.
The Vanishing Of The Mary Celeste (Cont.)
Theories about the crew’s disappearance range from piracy and mutiny to natural disasters and even paranormal explanations. Some suggest that fumes from the alcohol cargo may have led to an explosion scare, prompting the crew to abandon the ship. However, no definitive evidence supports any single theory.
The Enigma Of The Voynich Manuscript
The Voynich Manuscript is a 15th-century codex composed in an unknown script and illustrated with enigmatic drawings of plants, astronomical diagrams, unclothed figures, and more. Discovered by antiquarian Wilfrid Voynich in 1912, the manuscript has baffled scholars like cryptographers, linguists, and historians for over a century.
Unknown Author, Wikimedia Commons
The Enigma Of The Voynich Manuscript (Cont.)
Here’s where it gets interesting: Various theories have been proposed about its content. The claims range from a pharmacopeia for women’s health and an elaborate hoax to a lost civilization and extraterrestrial origin story. Will we ever find out? No one knows.
The Lost Colony Of Roanoke (1587)
Over 100 English settlers established a colony on Roanoke Island, present-day North Carolina. Led by Governor John White, the group aimed to create a permanent settlement. White returned to England for supplies but was delayed by the war. When he finally returned in 1590, the colony was deserted.
The Lost Colony Of Roanoke (Cont.)
He only found the word “CROATOAN” carved into a post. Theories about the colonists’s fate include assimilation with local Native American tribes, relocation, or passing due to disease or conflict. Recent archaeological findings, such as English pottery in nearby areas, suggest some may have integrated with indigenous communities.
John Parker Davis, Wikimedia Commons
The Mysterious Demise Of Edgar Allan Poe
On October 3, 1849, Edgar Allan Poe, a writer and author, was found hysterical on the streets of Baltimore, donning clothes that were not his own. He was taken to Washington College Hospital, where he passed on four days later. The cause of his passing remains unknown.
Unknown authorUnknown author; Restored by Yann Forget and Adam Cuerden, Wikimedia Commons
The Mysterious Demise Of Edgar Allan Poe (Cont.)
Poe’s demise certificate and medical records have been lost, and this adds to the enigma. Some believe he was a victim of “cooping,” a practice where individuals were forced to vote multiple times under different identities. Despite extensive research, the true cause of Poe’s passing remains a mystery.
Mathew Benjamin Brady, Wikimedia Commons
The Disappearance Of Agatha Christie
On a fateful day in December 1926, the famed author Agatha Christie vanished from her home in England, which sparked a nationwide search. Her car was found abandoned, and she was missing for 11 days. She was eventually discovered at a hotel, registered under a false name, claiming amnesia.
Unknown author, Wikimedia Commons
The Disappearance Of Agatha Christie (Cont.)
Theories include personal distress due to her husband’s infidelity and the recent passing of her mother. Some suggest it was a publicity stunt, though Christie never spoke publicly about the incident. Her mysterious vanishing has inspired numerous books and films, and it scored her the name the “Queen of Mystery”.
The Unsolved Case Of The Sodder Children
The quiet hills of West Virginia were shaken by a mystery that still lingers. A devastating house fire ripped through the Sodder family home, and five of their ten children vanished without a trace. No remains were found in the ashes, and the family never accepted that they were gone.
Unknown; edited slightly by Daniel Case prior to upload here, Wikimedia Commons
The Unsolved Case Of The Sodder Children (Cont.)
The search for answers began on Christmas Eve, 1945, and lasted for decades. Stories ranging from kidnapping to human trafficking took root. Mysterious letters and photographs surfaced over the years, hinting the children might still be alive. Despite relentless efforts, the truth remains hidden.
The Taos Hum
Residents of Taos, New Mexico, have reported hearing a low-frequency hum since the early 1990s. The sound is described as a faint droning noise, heard indoors and out, but its source has never been identified. Now, here is the most interesting part...
Captain-tucker, Wikimedia Commons
The Taos Hum (Cont.)
Only a tiny percentage of the population reports hearing it. Are they specially chosen, or are they random? No one knows. Investigations into the Taos Hum have included studies by scientists and government agencies, but no definitive cause has been found.
Bobak Ha'Eri, Wikimedia Commons
The Dyatlov Pass Incident
Was it an avalanche? Did they quantum leap to another realm? Or was it an attack? What happened? That’s still a question the world asks when it comes to the event in 1959 when nine experienced hikers passed on mysteriously in the Ural Mountains of Soviet Russia.
Unknown author, Wikimedia Commons
The Dyatlov Pass Incident (Cont.)
First, their tent was found torn from the inside, and second, their bodies were discovered at varying distances, with some bodies having severe injuries. Even with numerous investigations happening, the exact cause of the hikers’s deaths remains unknown.
Dmitriy Nikishin, Wikimedia Commons
The Disappearance Of Flight MH370
The aviation world is never short of mysterious missing plane cases, which is precisely what the world found out on March 8, 2014, with the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370. This plane was en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people aboard.
Laurent ERRERA; edit by Soerfm, Wikimedia Commons
The Disappearance Of Flight MH370 (Cont.)
The plane vanished from the radar less than an hour after takeoff. Apparently, the Boeing 777 deviated from its planned path, turning westward over the Malay Peninsula before getting lost over the southern Indian Ocean. This resulted in extensive multinational search efforts, but only scattered debris has been found.
Indian Navy, Wikimedia Commons
The Lead Masks Case
Imagine this: two men in suits and raincoats, lying lifeless on a hill near Rio, sporting lead masks like something straight out of a retro alien movie. Sounds bizarre? Hold on; it gets weirder. A cryptic notebook lay nearby, filled with strange instructions, along with some empty water bottles.
The Lead Masks Case (Cont.)
No signs of trauma. No struggle. Just a mystery. Then, the stories about the men’s passing came in, and they ranged from a failed scientific experiment to involvement in occult practices. Some suggest they were attempting to contact extraterrestrial beings or engage in spiritual rituals requiring the lead masks.
Unsolved Mystery: The Lead Masks Case by ReignBot
The Circleville Letters
In 1976, anonymous letters flooded Circleville, Ohio, exposing secrets and stirring fear. One woman passed on after receiving them, yet the notes kept coming—even after a suspect was jailed. The town had a stalker with a pen, and no one knew who was holding it.
The Circleville Letters (Cont.)
If no one died, experts would have left it, but someone did, so experts were onboarded. The results proved futile, and the case hit a dead end. The letters outlasted the trial, and this left the townsfolk wondering: Did they catch the wrong person—or was someone else lurking, still writing?
The Disappearance Of The Beaumont Children
Back in 1966, three siblings went missing from Glenelg Beach without a trace. There was a national panic and countless leads, yet no clues ever surfaced. The disappearance shook Australia and became a dark chapter in its history of child safety and vanished innocence.
The Disappearance Of The Beaumont Children (Cont.)
Suspects came and went, tips dried up, and hope faded. Yet, the mystery remained. The case left such a mark that it changed how Australian parents watched their kids and how the country confronted its darkest unknowns. Where nine-year-old Jane, four-year-old Grant, and seven-year-old Arnna went remains a mystery.
The Mystery Of The Green Children Of Woolpit
Two green-skinned kids appeared in medieval England, speaking a strange tongue and avoiding food until they found beans. One passed on, and the other survived. She later said they came from a shadowy place called “St Martin’s Land”. Of course, the speculations got weird.
The Mystery Of The Green Children Of Woolpi (Cont.)
Were they aliens, mole people, the result of a prank, or malnourished kids with a wild backstory? Historians can’t agree, and the theories surrounding this event continue to swirl to this day, but their eerie tale still lives on—half fairy tale, half unsolved enigma. Also, why were they green?
The Tunguska Event
In the early 1900s, specifically 1908, a mysterious explosion lit up the skies and impacted 3–6 miles of beautiful Siberian forest. Those who witnessed it saw a dazzling flash and felt the powerful shockwave, but surprisingly, no crater was found.
Leonid Kulik, Wikimedia Commons
The Tunguska Event (Cont.)
It wasn’t a meteorite that landed; instead, scorched trees and a sense of wonder and confusion were all that remained. Whatever happened came and went without a trace. Most believe it was a meteoroid that exploded mid-air, but others blame comets, antimatter, or aliens.
The Dancing Plague Of 1518
Can you imagine dancing until you die? Well, in 1518, it happened. One woman started it. Dozens followed, and by the end, hundreds danced nonstop in 1518 Strasbourg. There were no breaks. There was no beat—just bodies in motion—some dropping from exhaustion.
Pieter Brueghel the Elder, Wikimedia Commons
The Dancing Plague Of 1518 (Cont.)
It was the deadliest dance party in history ever asked for. But just wait, how did it happen? Was it poisoned rye or a religious frenzy? Could mass hysteria also be the cause? No one knows. The mystery endures as one of the strangest “epidemics” ever recorded.
Pieter Brueghel the Younger, Wikimedia Commons
Barbara Newhall Follett Disappearing Into Thin Air
At just 12 years old, Barbara Newhall Follett published a critically acclaimed novel. Then, in 1939, at age 25, she went missing without a trace. No witnesses, nobody, only questions. Her story still haunts the literary world to this day.
The House without Windows - Jackie Morris by Waterstones
Barbara Newhall Follett, A Literary Prodigy Lost To Time (Cont.)
On December 7, Barbara left with $30 in her pocket after a quarrel—never to be seen again. Her husband waited two weeks before alerting the police. When they investigated the matter, there were no clues or sightings. But wait a minute: Who waits two weeks to report a missing person?
Barbara Newhall Follett, Wikimedia Commons
The Lava Lake Murders
In the winter of 1924, three fur trappers disappeared near Oregon’s remote Lava Lake. Months later, their frozen, brutally murdered bodies were found beneath the ice. Who killed them and why? The isolated setting only deepens the chilling aura around this decades-old unsolved case.
Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife, Wikimedia Commons
The Lava Lake Murders (Cont.)
The evidence found included gunshots and blunt-force trauma. However, nothing was confirmed, even with the investigation identifying a likely suspect. With no witnesses and minimal evidence, the case quickly went cold. Today, nearly a century later, the triple murder remains hidden.
Gary Halvorson, Oregon State Archives, Wikimedia Commons
The Beale Ciphers
Three coded letters, a buried treasure worth millions, and one partially solved message. The story behind the Beale Ciphers is wild. Allegedly detailing a hidden fortune in Virginia, these 19th-century ciphers have fascinated codebreakers and treasure hunters for over a century.
Unknown authorUnknown author, Wikimedia Commons
The Beale Ciphers (Cont.)
The tale began with an 1885 pamphlet describing Thomas Beale’s legendary hoard. Only the cipher revealing the treasure’s contents has been cracked. But don’t celebrate yet because the location (and the treasure) remains a mystery even with countless attempts.
Viktor Wase, Wikimedia Commons
The Demise Of Tom Thomson
The body of famed Canadian painter Tom Thomson was discovered in Canoe Lake in 1917. Officially classified as an accidental drowning, the circumstances felt suspicious. He was an expert outdoorsman, so how could this have happened?
Unknown author, Wikimedia Commons
The Demise Of Tom Thomson (Cont.)
Rumors circulated about fights, affairs, and hidden enemies. Over a century later, people still wonder: Was it truly an accident? Multiple books and forensic dives have sought to solve the mystery, and conflicting reports and missing evidence only deepen the mystery.
Unknown author, Wikimedia Commons
Who Was Kaspar Hauser?
One rainy day in 1828, a confused teenager wandered into Nuremberg with a strange note and even stranger claims. He barely spoke, was confused, didn’t know his name, and said he’d lived in a dark cell. Whispers of royal blood and political secrets swirled around his every move.
Unknown author, Wikimedia Commons
Who Was Kaspar Hauser? (Cont.)
Just five years later, Kaspar lay dying from a stab wound, claiming an attacker had ambushed him. Others believed he inflicted it himself. Stories flew all around that he might have been a lost prince silenced forever or a masterful fraud. DNA ruled out royalty.
Johann Friedrich Carl Kreul, Wikimedia Commons
A Frozen Mystery
What begins as a bold mission often ends in a chilling mystery. In 1845, Sir John Franklin and 128 men set sail to conquer the Arctic. Instead, the people and the two ships, Erebus and Terror, vanished. Years later, rescuers went on a hunt and found out that…
Thomas Phillips (died 1845), Wikimedia Commons
The Lost Franklin Expedition (Cont.)
The ice path was unforgiving, so much so that a filmmaker remarked, “We got stuck in the ice for over ten days”. Explorer Mark Synnott was the head of this National Geographic expedition, aiming to retrace their doomed steps. If you thought “winter was coming,” it did for this crew.
Illustrated London News - Getty, Wikimedia Commons
The Vanishing At Flannan Isles
Sometimes, silence speaks louder than screams. In 1900, a lighthouse supply ship arrived at the remote Flannan Isles and found eerie silence. The light was out, and the keepers were gone. A chair overturned, and a haunting logbook hinted at dread. Thomas Marshall, James Ducat, and Donald MacArthur were gone.
Chris Downer, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons
The Vanishing At Flannan Isles (Cont.)
Theories swirled: a rogue wave, madness, foul play, even the supernatural. Equipment was missing, and nothing added up. Wilfrid Gibson’s haunting poem captured the legend, inspiring the 2019 film The Vanishing. The lighthouse still stands, with its beam slicing through the mist. It proves that the sea has never surrendered.
The Vanishing Trailer #1 (2019) | Movieclips Indie by Rotten Tomatoes Indie
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