Creepy Unsolved Mysteries - From unsolved murders to unidentified people to unexplained supernatural events, what are some of the creepiest unsolved mysteries you've ever heard of?

[AnOminous]

One of the big problems with identifying the early spread of AIDS in Africa is that it isn't a distinctive enough disease in its symptoms. It's not like smallpox where you can immediately tell when someone has it, you mostly just die of opportunistic infections and not the HIV itself. Africa is full of people who die from unexplained illnesses, even now (and definitely back before the 1960's) these deaths are mostly just labeled bush fever and not investigated.

It was probably around for some time. It really only stood out once it was in a First World country where causes of death are routinely examined, and when it specifically hit a relatively affluent and mostly white population, not to go all Critical Race Theory or anything.

Only when you had a bunch of people dying of similar causes and they were all "hey wait nobody dies of this" and "why are they all gay" was it suddenly a scary plague.

 

[Lucky Jim]

Lots of

One of the big problems with identifying the early spread of AIDS in Africa is that it isn't a distinctive enough disease in its symptoms. It's not like smallpox where you can immediately tell when someone has it, you mostly just die of opportunistic infections and not the HIV itself. Africa is full of people who die from unexplained illnesses, even now (and definitely back before the 1960's) these deaths are mostly just labeled bush fever and not investigated.

Stuff gets passed from animals too, and they use bushmeat extensively in Africa; you can seriously get gorilla steaks some places

 

[An automatic clown]

Russian sub K129. From what actually happened on the bottom of the ocean to sink it to what the US actually raised from the depths compared to what they claimed.

The sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald. I get autistic about subs and ship wrecks.

 

[TurdFondler]

I thought it was pretty well established the Fitzgerald hit a rogue wave on the lake. The waves on a lake are super choppy to begin with, and when big rogue waves form they are a lot more aggressive than ocean waves, the ship doesn't have much of a chance to actually absorb it. The ship was loaded down too, so it snapped basically in half from what I remember.

 

[An automatic clown]

I thought it was pretty well established the Fitzgerald hit a rogue wave on the lake. The waves on a lake are super choppy to begin with, and when big rogue waves form they are a lot more aggressive than ocean waves, the ship doesn't have much of a chance to actually absorb it. The ship was loaded down too, so it snapped basically in half from what I remember.

There are a couple different hypotheses, that is one. One suggests the boat ran aground. One suggests a cargo hold let go. All just hypothesis. I believe the lack of any final radio comms muddies the waters.
But it would be nice to know what the cause was 100%>

 

[Lucky Jim]

A mystery I guess is the case of Michael Taylor.

Cheerful Englishman in a small town, and while the 1970s in England were not quite lively, he did live in a more idyllic time than now; but his marriage and fatherhood started declining, and his wife started taking him to prayer meetings. Not Church of England or Episcopalian prayer meetings, but a "Christian Fellowship Group," absolutely out-to-lunch stuff you would think wouldn't exist outside the American South, speaking in tongues, the whole nonsense; and shortly his wife claimed that he was screwing the woman who headed the group; Taylor himself claimed that evil "overcame" him after a struggle, and he physically attacked the woman in front of the group.

His behavior grew more erratic until eventually two local clergy (Methodist and Church of England) decided on performing an exorcism; which took all night; they claimed to have cast out "at least forty" demons, including those of "incest, bestiality, blasphemy, and lewdness." Next morning they let him go home, warning him as he left the church that "at least three demons, insanity, murder, and violence" still remained.

Later that morning he committed a brutal murder of his wife and dog, and was found by police in the street, covered naked in blood; found legally insane, he spent a few years in psychiatric treatment and was released; over the years he attempted suicide several times, and was decades later put back into treatment after touching a girl.

The incident was high profile and brought to an end the already rare practice of exorcisms in the Church of England; but the mystery: was he crazy? was he possessed? Were the exorcists just frauds? Or what exactly had they seen that night?

 

[Karl der Grosse]

I thought it was pretty well established the Fitzgerald hit a rogue wave on the lake. The waves on a lake are super choppy to begin with, and when big rogue waves form they are a lot more aggressive than ocean waves, the ship doesn't have much of a chance to actually absorb it. The ship was loaded down too, so it snapped basically in half from what I remember.

The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Of the big lake they called Gitche Gumee

 

[DavidFerrie]

The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Of the big lake they called Gitche Gumee

I've often maintained that Gordon Lightfoot made the Edmund Fitzgerald the second-most-famous shipwreck in history. If it hadn't been for that classic song, nobody outside of the Great Lakes would remember the tragedy.

 

[SITHRAK!]

If you have ten minutes to spare, Fascinating Horror on jewtube runs a pretty good doco about the loss of the Fitzgerald.

 

[REGENDarySumanai]

Othram cracked yet another case and identified Little Miss Nobody as Sharon Lee Galagos. Genetic genealogy really is the gift that keeps on giving.

 

[Cheesegirl78]

Another one that's local to me:

Several years ago, guy fishing finds a newborn baby girl in one of our rivers. Perfect baby, left in the water when she was only a few hours old.

Police check the hospital for a mom that may have given birth recently, but no luck there.
So people from the community buy a plot, casket, and headstone for her. This was in the local paper.

Few days later, an older Hispanic woman goes to the place that made the headstone, says she's from the cemetery, so the place gives it to her. Cemetery calls later that day wanting to if the stone is ready, and they tell them it's already been picked up.
Turns out, no one knew who the woman was, she didn't work for any of the cemeteries in the area, and the headstone place didn't think to ask for ID.

Since the baby was also Hispanic, many people think the woman was related to the child in some way, and wanted the stone as a...keepsake...of some sort.

Never have identified the baby or the older woman.

 

[FatalTater]

We're coming up on the 100 year anniversary of the murders at Hinterkaifeck. I really wish it could be known who did this, I mean someone must have told someone who told someone, right?

March 31, 1922, Germany
Six victims.
Andreas Gruber ( age 63)
Cäzilia Gruber (age 72)
Viktoria Gruber-Gabriel (age 35)
Cäzilia Gabriel (age 7)
Josef Gruber (age 2)
Maria Baumgartner (age 44)
All bludgeoned to death with a root hoe.

There are TONS of youtube videos, podcasts, etc about this event. I've found that among the people talking about it, not many understand 1922 and even less understand farmers. They get bogged down discussing the father/daughter incest between Andreas and Viktoria, or the speculation over paternity of Viktoria's son Josef.

Decent overview is given in a Krinx TV video

Some good pages, all in German

https://www.hinterkaifeck.net/wiki/index.php?title=Hauptseite

https://www.hinterkaifeck.net/

https://www.allmystery.de/themen/km31345

 

[Karl der Grosse]

Did you ever read 'The Man From the Train'? The author comes up with a bunch of signature crimes in America very similar to the Hinterkaifeck killings. It's impossible to prove after all this time, but he links together the American crimes in a pretty interesting way and even comes up with a suspect.

 

[glass_houses]

Did you ever read 'The Man From the Train'? The author comes up with a bunch of signature crimes in America very similar to the Hinterkaifeck killings. It's impossible to prove after all this time, but he links together the American crimes in a pretty interesting way and even comes up with a suspect.

Ouch, that's expensive. My true crime addiction hurts my bank account at times. Can't pass this one up though.

 

[Michael Jacks0n]

I'm surprised no-one's mentioned Brandon Swanson. I always see that name show up on lists of the creepiest unsolved mysteries.

Brandon Swanson was a 19 year old from Marshall, Minnesota. One night, he was on his way home from a party celebrating the end of the spring term at his college when he accidentally drove his car into a ditch. He was unharmed and called his parents to come and get him. He told them he was near the town of Lynd and they stayed on the phone with him while they drove to his supposed location. 47 minutes into the call, Brandon suddenly exclaimed "Oh shit!" and that was the last anyone ever saw or heard from him.

After checking his phone records, it was discovered that he had actually been 25 miles away from his reported location of Lynd when the call was cut off. It was thought he might have fallen into a nearby river, but an extensive search didn't turn up any results, and although he'd been at a party before his disappearance, there was no evidence he was intoxicated. The police didn't rule out foul play, and it's suspected someone might have attacked and murdered him in the dark, but no evidence was ever found. He disappeared in 2008, so he's been missing over 13 years now.

One positive development from the case is that it caused "Brandon's Law" to be passed in Minnesota, which requires police to treat missing adult cases with the same seriousness as missing child cases and investigate immediately. When Brandon's parents first reported his disappearance, the police didn't take them seriously because they assumed he was still out partying, and as a result, the investigation into his disappearance was delayed.

If he is still out there, I hope they find him. Can you imagine "Oh shit!" being the last words your loved ones ever hear from you?

This one creeped me out too for a while, but I dug into some recent developments and it's now speculated that he was killed in a farming accident. What they think happened is that he yelled "OH SHIT!" because he was walking too close to an overflowing creek in the dark and got swept in the current, lost his glasses, then was taken down stream to a nearby farm and passed on the field due to exhaustion, and got run over by a combine harvester. Keep in mind that it was raining heavily prior to his disappearance and that streams were overflowing, and also he was in a desolate rural area. I'll check into it some more, but I found some Reddit posts on one of the lesser pozzed subreddits that deals with true crime, and an update contained rumors and hearsay from locals who claim he was killed by the farming equipment and that it was covered up since the local farm workers were illegals.

 

[Karl der Grosse]

Ouch, that's expensive. My true crime addiction hurts my bank account at times. Can't pass this one up though.

My library had it.

 

[glass_houses]

My library had it.

Yeah, see, the problem with libraries is that they make you give the books back.

 

[FatalTater]

Did you ever read 'The Man From the Train'? The author comes up with a bunch of signature crimes in America very similar to the Hinterkaifeck killings. It's impossible to prove after all this time, but he links together the American crimes in a pretty interesting way and even comes up with a suspect.

That one makes a very good case for the American ones possibly being linked, but it seemed a stretch to include Hinterkaifeck.

 

[Karl der Grosse]

I thought so as well, but it's as good a theory as any.

 

[Smaug's Smokey Hole]

Yeah, see, the problem with libraries is that they make you give the books back.

If there's a winter coat there's a way.

It looks like it costs $30 for a hardcover on Amazon which isn't bad for a 480 page book. I thought it would be the £143 for a used pocket plus shipping kind of expensive.