There’s something oddly alluring about an unsolved mystery. It’s the eeriness of blatant secrecy of those involved; the unexplainable circumstances of how an event occurred; and the queasy knowledge that truth exists. That truth may never reach to the surface, though. We collected some of our favorite unsolved mysteries that still raise hairs on peoples’ necks. Internet sleuths, crack your knuckles and clean your glasses. You’re about to embark on multiple missions that all lead to dead ends.
Thanks to ever-evolving technology, DNA databases, and fresh eyes on the evidence, some mysteries and criminal cases that sat cold for decades finally had their loose ends tied. For example, authorities caught the notorious Golden State Killer thanks to new DNA samples.
But other mysteries, strange goings on, and puzzling codes are destined to remain unsolved for the foreseeable future.
And, we don’t know about you, but that sends a major chill down our spine. Before we dive into the unsolved mysteries, we should warn you that some of the cases involve somewhat graphic descriptions. Therefore, proceed with caution if you’re prone to queasiness or emotional triggers. If not, then put on your detective cap, and let’s get to it.
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1. The Strange Disappearance and Recovery of Elisa Lam
Elisa Lam was a 21-year-old college student from Canada who embarked on a solo trip to California in 2013. On January 26th, she arrived in Los Angeles and checked into the Cecil Hotel. Four days later, she neglected to check in with her parents.
Accordingly, the Lams called the L.A. police department who discovered Lam was missing.
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During their investigation, police came across eery surveillance footage from one of the Cecil’s elevators.
The video showed Lam enter the elevator and act as though she’s trying to evade someone. She pushed all the elevator buttons, only to exit the elevator and hold a conversation with someone out of frame. Or perhaps no one was there at all.
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Two weeks after authorities published the video in order to gain outsider information, residents of the Cecil Hotel began complaining of low water pressure.
And they said the tap water tasted strange. A maintenance worker then made a ghastly discovery. Lam’s body was floating in a water tank on the roof of the hotel. The clothes she wore in the surveillance footage floated next to her.
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The autopsy revealed that Lam consumed medication for her bipolar disorder, but no other substances of note were found in her system.
Additionally, the hotel confirmed that Lam had been moved from the hostel-style room she stayed in after her roommates complained about her “odd behavior,” Some people believe this happened because the young woman didn’t take her medicine correctly.
But it’s still unclear how Lam ended up in the water tank without setting off security alarms or having anyone notice her. And it’s this mystery that leads some to believe something paranormal occurred. Plus, the Cecil Hotel is reportedly one of the most haunted places in Los Angeles. It’s the site of 16 unnatural deaths since 1927.
2. The Mysterious Voynich Manuscript
In 1912, antiquarian bookseller Wilfrid M. Voynich acquired a strange 15th-century book and uncovered a centuries-old puzzling mystery. The book, now known as the Voynich Manuscript, is an undecipherable text of bizarre coded language, unidentifiable botanical illustrations, astronomical and zodiac charts, and possible diagrams of female menstruation, reproduction, and/or pregnancy.
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According to the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, the Voynich Manuscript is “a magical or scientific text.”
Although a multitude of scholars examined the work, no one could decode it or figure out what exactly the illustrations depict. In 2017, history researcher and television writer Nicholas Gibbs believed he cracked the code and claimed the manuscript was a “guide to women’s health” that was mainly plagiarized from other books of the time.
And in 2019, a Turkish research team called Ata Team Alberta (ATA) “deciphered and translated over 30% of the manuscript,” believing it contained a phonetic transliteration of speech rather than an actual language.
This means the manuscript’s author simply wrote down words phonetically.
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But who is to say that either theory is correct? Because people have very little information to go off of, it’s likely the Voynich Manuscript will continue to puzzle scholars and code experts for decades (and perhaps centuries) to come.
If you’d like to try your hand at decoding the text, check out the full Voynich Manuscript here.
3. Bella from the Wych Elm
In the spring of 1943, four teenage boys hunting for birds’ nests in Hagley Woods near Birmingham, England discovered a human skull lodged within a wych elm tree. Police went to the scene and removed an entire skeleton from the tree, minus a hand.
They determined the remains belonged to a young woman. Her head still had a clump of hair attached to it and a scrap of taffeta was stuffed in her mouth. Someone removed all of the labels from the woman’s clothing, and the bones from her missing hand were scattered next to the wych elm.
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A pathologist concluded the woman was about 35 years old when she passed about 18 months prior to the boys’ discovery.
She had mousy brown hair, crooked teeth, and had given birth at some point in her past. Yet even with the information, police couldn’t determine what happened.
The flurry of media attention around the case eventually ceased. However, as winter set in, graffiti asking, “Who put Bella in the wych elm?” started popping up in the area. Although eerie, the graffiti didn’t add much to case besides more speculation.
Some theorized the woman was sacrificed during an occult ceremony. Others thought she was involved in a Nazi spy ring during the early ’40s.
To this day, no one knows anything about the woman from the tree. Even her true name is a mystery.
4. The LISK
In May of 2010, Shannan Gilbert went missing from a gated community in Oak Beach, NY. She worked as an escort and was with a first-time client the night she disappeared. According to the woman’s driver, Gilbert, who struggled with a bipolar diagnosis, became unexplainably panicked that spring night.
She called 911, banged on neighbors doors, and eventually disappeared into the night.
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Eventually, police started searching for the missing woman.
Eight months later, the search party stumbled upon the remains of a woman; they assumed it was Gilbert. However, the remains belonged to someone else — another missing woman from the area. By December of 2011, police actually discovered 1o different women’s remains. They found Gilbert after the 10th recovery. Authorities determined that a serial killer — the Long Island Serial Killer, or LISK — was most likely to blame for the ghastly occurrences.
Books, podcasts, and television series all discuss these mysterious deaths. And each one mulls over several theories about the culprit. One theorist suggests the police chief was responsible. Yet authorities can’t pinpoint an adequate suspect, though. Therefore, the LISK is still at large.
5. Timmothy Pitzen, Missing Person
Timmothy Pitzen was just six years old in 2011 when his mother, Amy Fry-Pitzen, took him from school in Aurora, IL. The mother and son spent two days driving through multiple states. When authorities finally tracked the Pitzens down (after Timmothy’s father, Jim Pitzen, reported them missing) Amy had already taken her life in a motel. No one could find the child, though.
Additionally, Amy left a note stating that although Timmothy was safe, he’d never turn up.
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Throughout the investigation, the remaining Pitzen family claimed that Amy, who struggled with her mental health, wouldn’t hurt Timmothy. They believed the mother would do everything in her power to protect him. So there’s a strong chance Timmothy is alive and well somewhere.
Then, in April 2019, a teen boy approached a woman in a parking lot in Kentucky, claiming to be 14-year-old Timmothy Pitzen.
He asked the woman for help, telling her he just escaped two kidnappers. Family, friends, and the American public hoped the story was true. But then police conducted a DNA test and came to the crushing conclusion that the teen (actually a 23-year-old man) was an imposter.
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6. The Case of D.B. Cooper
On November 24, 1971, a man by the name of Dan Cooper (D.B. Cooper) bought a one-way ticket for the Northwest Airlines Flight 305, from Portland, OR, to Seattle, WA. The other passengers described Cooper as a neat-looking man in his mid-40s wearing a dark suit and tie.
When Cooper reached his seat, he lit a cigarette, ordered a bourbon with soda, and paid in cash.
Then, once the plane took off, he handed a note to the flight attendant. She initially ignored it, but Cooper urged her to read it, claiming he had a bomb in his briefcase. The man even showed her a glimpse of the device, which later turned out to be a fake.
Cooper then demanded the flight attendant bring him $200,000 (about $1.2 million today after inflation) and four parachutes.
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The 30-minute flight eventually landed in Washington and Cooper let the other 36 passengers leave after accepting the $200,000 from authorities who met the plane at the airport. After, he ordered the pilot to fly to Mexico City.
While the plane was somewhere between Washington and Nevada, Cooper lowered the rear stairs of the plane and jumped out, never to be seen again.
The FBI looked at over 800 suspects within the first year of the investigation, but many people speculated that Cooper never survived his landing.
A body ever turned up, though.
That is, until 1980, when a boy found a beat-up box containing $5,800 in cash with serial numbers matching the ransom money.
In 2018, though, two years after the case officially closed due to lack of evidence, a Vietnam veteran named Robert Rackstraw reportedly admitted to being D.B. Cooper. He had a series of coded letters that led investigators to believe he was truly the culprit. However, it’s unknown whether the FBI will officially reopen the case to follow the lead.
7. The Infamous Taxicab Phone Discovery
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In 2014, a student got into a Fijian taxicab and found an unclaimed cellphone in the backseat. In an effort to find the phone’s owner, the student thumbed through the device’s photos. Instead, he found a 10-minute video of four people clinging to ship wreckage in the middle of the ocean.
The chilling video, which was uploaded to YouTube, shows the victims raising their arms for help only to be struck by multiple rounds of gunshots. Someone in the background of the video repeatedly yelled in Mandarin over a loudspeaker.
Police got involved immediately after the video was posted and contacted Interpol for help identifying both the victims and the assailants. However, because the video was such poor quality, no faces were identifiable.
It’s hard to tell what exactly is happening in the video, but we still recommend approaching it with caution.
Graham Southwick, the president of a Fijian boat association, noted that crimes happened often in the area and boating community. He claimed, “Conflicts and fights and murders on the high seas on fishing boats are relatively common… In the Pacific, there’d probably be half a dozen a year at least.”
The case is still unsolved.
8. The Strange Upbringing of Kasper Hauser
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On a typical morning in 1828, Kasper Hauser wandered into the town square in Nuremberg. His boots were worn out at the soles, he barely spoke any language, and he had a note clutched in his hand. It was addressed to a cavalry captain and explained that an anonymous person previously raised Hauser like a son.
The note also implied that since 1812, 16-year-old Hauser had not left the house.
After being taken into police custody, Hauser denied all food and drink except water and bread. He was also fascinated by the sight of a candle and his own reflection. Because of his lack of understanding, he was dubbed the “forest boy” and adopted into a noble family that taught him to speak.
Eventually, Hauser described being raised in a prison.
He purportedly never saw the face of his captor who took him to Nuremberg. And while staying with his adoptive family, Hauser claimed to endure several life-threatening attacks. His life was ultimately cut short in 1833 when a stranger stabbed him in a park.
Why anyone would want to harm Hauser remains a mystery as does Hauser’s true identity. DNA tests done in 1998 ruled out previous theories that he was long-lost royalty. However, they didn’t clear up any of the mystery.
9. The Isdal Woman
In 1970, a family of hikers stumbled upon a woman’s body in the wooded Isdalen Valley in Bergen, Norway. All but her black hair was completely charred beyond recognition. An autopsy revealed the woman was alive she caught fire but 50 sleeping pills were in her system.
It appeared as if she ingested them minutes before catching fire.
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The Bergen police knew they were dealing with a particularly puzzling case when they realized the all of the labels on the woman’s clothes were cut.
Additionally, all of her jewelry was placed around her in a ceremonious manner. Authorities managed to match her fingerprints to a set of luggage left at the Bergen train station. However, nothing in the luggage helped identify the Isdal woman’s identity.
Her personal diary contained several coded messages.
And the luggage contained different disguises. Police even found places where the Isdal woman used fake identities. They pieced together a composite sketch with descriptions from multiple people who interacted with the woman at various locations. No one ever came forward with information about her name, though.
By the time investigators closed the case, people assumed the unidentified woman was a Cold War spy.
But almost 50 years after the case opened and closed, new technology helped track down the woman’s true origin. According to the BBC, scientists believed the Isdal Woman came from Europe, maybe France.
10. The Anonymous Letters That Held Circleville Hostage
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In 1976, Mary Gillispie, a school bus driver in Circleville, OH, received an anonymous letter written in block letters to conceal the penman’s handwriting. The author of the note claimed to be surveiling Gillispie’s house. Moreover, the author knew Gillispie was having an affair and demanded she end it.
The woman ignored the letter, so the author penned several additional notes and even sent one to Gillispie’s husband, Ron. The mysterious note-sender told Ron to stop his wife’s affair or face dire consequences.
The Gillespies weren’t the only Circleville residents to receive letters.
The author wrote to many other people, often mentioning eerie details about the recipients’ lives. And all of the notes were postmarked from the nearby city of Columbus; they did not include a return address. Things really got serious in 1977; Ron got so enraged by an anonymous call (perhaps from the letter-writer) that he grabbed his gun and took off in his truck.
His body later turned up inside his crashed vehicle, and a single shot had been fired from his gun.
Mary continued to be harassed. The phantom writer even posted blackmail signs along her route to work. When the victim tried to tear one down, a spring-loaded booby trap nearly fired a gun at her. Authorities traced the gun back to Ron’s brother, Paul Freshour.
Case closed, right?
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Not quite. Paul claimed his gun was stolen, but he was charged with attempted murder and put in prison. The letters, however, kept coming. Paul even received one, himself. The police ultimately released Paul in 1994, and the letters eventually stopped. But no one ever discovered the writer’s true identity.
11. Area 51?
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This unsolved mystery crosses the line into conspiracy. And the American public is still in the dark about Area 51, the U.S. military base. In fact, according to Atlas Obscura, Area 51 is the most secretive military facility in the entire world. Located in the desolate Nevada desert, the base is reportedly a site where authorities test experimental military aircrafts and technology.
The site doesn’t appear on maps, though. And it was only confirmed as real in 2013 when the CIA had to follow through with a Freedom of Information request from 2005.
So what exactly is the government hiding on the Area 51 compound?
Some believe the government is hiding proof of alien life from the mysterious 1947 Roswell UFO crash. Others think Area 51 is where the 1969 moon landing was staged and filmed. More probable reports suggest the base is likely home to technological advances that are not alien at all.
The UFOs seen in the surrounding area are probably just new aircrafts being tested for military purposes. But because all of the information about Area 51 is strictly off limits, all we can do is speculate.
12. The Hikers from the Dyatlov Pass Expedition
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In January of 1959, 10 hikers, led by seasoned hiker Igor Dyatlov, began a difficult trek through Russia’s Ural Mountains. Before they had left for their expedition, Dyatlov agreed to send a telegram to their sports club when they returned from the hike around February 12th. But that telegram never arrived. On February 20th, a volunteer rescue party went to investigate and found a horrendous scene.
The group first came upon an abandoned and shredded tent.
They discovered the hikers’ belongings, but their dwelling was cut open from the inside. The men had apparently escaped wearing nothing but socks. Then the uncovered bodies of two hikers turned up near an extinguished fire. They only wore underwear, and evidence suggested they had tried desperately to climb a nearby tree.
And that wasn’t all.
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More hikers, including Dyatlov, were found frozen. It seemed like they were returning to the campsite. None of them had external injuries, however, they died of hypothermia. Finally, the rescue party found the remaining victims wearing their fallen comrades’ clothing.
Those hikers’ bodies showed signs of violent force equal to that of a car crash, but they had no external wounds. They dug a den in the snow to keep warm, but their bodies were located outside of the den. Plus, some of their clothing was radioactive.
There are countless theories that suggest how and why the hikers met such a gruesome and strange fate. But nothing truly adds up.
13. The Phantom Barber of Mississippi
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In the summer of 1942, the citizens of Pascagoula, MS, lived in utter fear. A series of home invasions began that summer, and citizens assumed a single criminal would snip a piece of hair from the inhabitants of each house. Because of this creepy defining trait, the robber earned the “Phantom Barber” nickname
After establishing himself as a spook in the night, the Phantom Barber turned violent.
He beat one couple with an iron bar after breaking into their home. Luckily, the couple survived, but they couldn’t identify the man. The next Phantom Barber attack included chloroform, so authorities suspected a retired German chemist and rumored Nazi sympathizer. Police arrested the man but later released him after he passed a polygraph test. Many people claim the chemist was arrested because of German phobia. Others, however, believe he was truly the Phantom Barber.
14. A Pollock Twins Reincarnation
Hexham, England residents John and Florence Pollock had two daughters, Joanna and Jacqueline. Unfortunately, though, a car fatally struck the girls on May 5, 1957. John, who firmly believed in reincarnation, despite his Christian faith, told Florence the girls would return to them through another set of daughters.
Sure enough, Florence got pregnant with twin daughters.
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Gillian and Jennifer were born a year after Joanna and Jacqueline’s passing. Jennifer even had a birthmark in the same place Jacqueline had a scar. The birthmarks weren’t the only odd traits the twins shared with their deceased sisters. Gillian and Jennifer also knew facts about their sisters even though no one seemed to talk to them about the older girls. The twins mentioned specific details about their sisters’ former toys and discussed the accident as if they had firsthand experience with it.
Furthermore, the family moved away from Hexham when the twins were babies. But when they returned to visit, Gillian and Jennifer knew the exact location of the park the family used to visit. Of course, the parents could have coached the girls. But some professionals who studied the girls believe they’re proof that reincarnation is real.
What are your thoughts on these unsolved mysteries?
Did we leave out the mystery that keeps you up at night?
If so, tell us all about it; we want to know. Now, don’t mind us as we pull ourselves out of the unsolved cases rabbit hole. It’s dark in here.