In the ever-unsettling world of true crime, it’s not every mystery that gets solved. And when it dawns on you that these are real cases involving real people, it’s almost impossible not to get sucked in.
Whether it is an unsolved murder, a mysterious disappearance, or a seemingly impossible event, many spine-tingling cases can keep you up at night. As a result, we’re left falling deep into the rabbit hole of unsolved mysteries. However, while there are a plethora of these cases around, the following have left us feeling restless, and of course, desperate for some answers!
The Dyatlov Pass incident
In 1959, an expedition of nine experienced trained hikers decided to ski-hike the Sverdlovsk Oblast and went missing. Following the news of their disappearance, a rescue party found their tent and belongings greatly disturbed, and shortly after, their bodies turned up.
The corpses of the hikers were found at varying distances from the site, and some of them were dismembered- from skull fractures, to missing eyes, and even a missing tongue. With several contradictory statements as to the real cause of their deaths, many are still skeptical about the harrowing incident.
The Circleville letters
The Circleville letters were sent in 1970 to several residents and organizations in a small town in Ohio. Think Gossip Girl/Bridgerton’s Lady Whistledown, but on a more, horrific scale. One of the victims, Mary Gillispie, was warned to end her affair, while her husband was urged to murder his wife and her lover. In an attempt to find the writer, Mary’s husband died.
In a shocking turn of events, his brother-in-law, Paul Freshour was charged with attempted murder, and accused of being behind the letters. However, even after Freshour was put behind bars, the letters continued.
The Oakville blobs
At 3 am on an August night in 1994, a strange, clear, gelatinous substance began to rain from the sky in Oakville, Washington. Over the next three weeks, this happened five more times, causing anyone who came in contact with it to fall sick. Some testing revealed that the blobs contained two species of bacteria and unidentifiable cells.
Theories about the blobs include that they were jellyfish remains dispersed by the Air Force, while some speculated that they were waste from aeroplane toilets. Either way, it’s one of the most disgusting unsolved mysteries out there.
Bill and Dorothy Wacker’s stalker
Bill and Dorothy Wacker were a married couple who began to get burgled regularly in 1984. One day, a stranger turned up at the door asking to use their phone, only to bludgeon Dorothy and steal some items, including a gun.
When Bill set up a stakeout to catch the culprit, they found a note a few hours later that simply read ”get the message.” All their stolen items were slowly returned over time, but the stalker was never caught.
Glen and Bessie Hyde Grand Canyon disappearance
This newlywed couple planned to set the record for the fastest travel on a boat through the Grand Canyon. They were seen at various stop points, but eyewitness reports stated that Bessie seemed tired of the trip by their last sighting.
Unfortunately, they were never seen again. However, many years later, a guide on the course passed away and it was revealed that her name was Bessie, creating the shocking theory that she killed her husband and donned a new persona.
The disappearance of Frederick Valentich
Valentich was an Australian pilot who rented a Cessna plane in October 1979 to fly to King Island. However, while flying, he reported to Air Flight that a strange aircraft was above him. Neither his body nor his plane were ever recovered, and theories about his disappearance have ranged from extraterrestrial visitors, to a graveyard spiral.
The Yuba County Five
The Yuba County Five involved a group of five friends, all of whom had learning disabilities, who decided to catch a basketball game in Chico, California in 1978. They didn’t return home as expected and, four days later, the car they had taken to the game was found near the mountains, well off their route.
They weren’t found until months later, when four of their bodies were discovered near a fully stocked trailer. The fifth man, Gary Mathias, has never been found.
The Berkshire UFO case
In 1969 in Berkshire, Massachusetts, multiple people reported that they saw a UFO. 10-year-old Tom Warner reported hearing a strange voice say, “You need to go home,” while he was playing with friends, and claimed that a beam of light surrounded and trapped him.
12-year-old Melanie Kirchdorfer claimed that she was abducted and deposited by a lake. The witnesses came together as adults to share their experiences, verifying each other’s experiences.
The California ghost blimp
Two military officials, DeWitt Cody and Charles Adams were flying a military blimp when they crashed in San Francisco. The blimp was found, but neither of their bodies were inside, despite all the parachutes on board being intact. Speculations about what went wrong include a mystery third person, who murdered the pair.
The Allagash abductions
Two brothers and their friends were on a boating trip in 1976 when they allegedly saw a bright light in the sky that began to chase them. Soon after, they claimed to have woken up on the shore with no recollection of the past few hours. After a series of hypnosis, they remembered the incident, and attributed it to an abduction by extraterrestrials.