Unsolved Mysteries That Blur the Lines Between Fact and Fiction

By: Calla Conway | Last updated: Sep 22, 2022

The world is chalk full of mystery and wonder, and while oftentimes those uncertainties can be whimsical, sometimes they can be dark, too.  Random skulls, mysterious hijackers, and radioactive people are enough to boggle any mind.

Here is a compilation of mysteries that have been left unanswered and most likely always will be.

The Disappearance of the Sodder Children

On Christmas Eve night in 1945, the Sodder family home was burned down. At the time of the fire, Jennie and George Sodder, along with nine of their 10 children, were inside the house. Only four children escaped safely.

Advertisement

Source: Appalachian History

The bodies of the other five were not recovered after the blaze leading the Sodders to believe that the fire had been started by an arsonist and that the children were abducted. In 1967, Jennie received a letter and photo of a young man who looked like her son with cryptic writing on the back. The Sodders searched for their children until their death.

A Family Never Moved into Their Home Due to a “Watcher”

A family bought a home in 2014 in Westfield, New Jersey but did not move in due to several anonymous threatening letters from someone who called themselves “The Watcher.” He claimed to be the rightful owner of the house. He specified the family’s children by name and made it clear that he was not some teenage prankster.

Advertisement

Source: dantri.com.vn

According to the letters “The Watcher” threatened to spy on, stalk, and kill whoever moved into the home. The family has sued the previous owner’s, claiming they knew of the stalker and still sold the home. No one know who the stalker is to this day.

A Ufologist Turned Up Dead After Warning Something May Happen

A British ufologist (yes, someone who studies UFO’s) proclaimed that he was closing in on details about UFO’s when he was unexpectedly discovered on his couch dead in Poland.

Advertisement

Source: taringa.net

According to doctors, he died of natural causes. However, according to his mom, his death was no accident at all. A week before his death she received a text that simply said, “If anything happens to me, investigate.”

A Man Walks into a Bar and Never Walks Out

On April 1st, 2016, an Ohio State University medical student disappeared from the Ugly Saloona bar on his spring break. The bar had CCTV at all the entrances and Schaffer was filmed entering, yet never exiting.

Advertisement

Source: onlygossip.net

There were hundreds of interviews and thousands of hours of playback videos leading to numerous dead ends. The mystery of Brian Schaffer’s disappearance has never been solved.

DB Cooper, the Most Infamous Unsolved Hijack in History

November 1971, a man dubbed D.B. Cooper hijacked a plane mid-flight over Oregon. During the hijacking, he extorted ransom and parachuted off the plane with it in tow.

Source: Wikipedia Commons

The take over remains the “only unsolved air piracy in American aviation.” Many theories have circulated, but as you may have guessed, it remains a mystery to this day.

Advertisement

Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 Disappears into Thin Air

On March 8th, 2014, on a flight from Malaysia to China, a Boeing 777 carrying 239 passengers as well as crew members vanished. Amid the largest global search effort in aviation history, only 20 pieces of aircraft debris was discovered.

Source: WION

Allegedly, the aircraft disappeared somewhere over the Indian Ocean. $160 million was spent scouring the thousands upon thousands of ocean square miles. The plane and the over 240 people aboard have never been found.

Advertisement

A Prime Minister Went for a Swim and Never Resurfaced

On December 17th, 1967, the Australian Prime Minister, Harold Holt, disappeared during an afternoon swim off the coast of Cheviot Beach, Australia. Holt was accompanied by six others, but only one chose to swim with him due to unsafe swimming conditions.

Source: providr.com

At one point he went beneath the surface and never came back up. Over 340 personnel searched for holt, including diving teams and helicopters but his body was never found. There are rumors that due to Holt wanting to pull out of the Vietnam War, that the CIA assassinated him.

Advertisement

The Radioactive Woman?

In February of 1994, a woman named Gloria Ramirez was admitted to a California emergency room suffering from an aggressive case of cervical cancer. She was incredibly confused and had an oily sheen across her body.

Source: WION

Within moments of treating her, hospital staff began to feel ill, with some even fainting. Ramirez was pronounced dead after 45 minutes of CPR. Within that time, 23 people became ill, five of whom had to be hospitalized. One medical resident had to spend two weeks in intensive care. The county health department believed that hospital workers suffered mass hysteria, but many disagree.

Advertisement

A Skull in the Hollow Trunk of a Wych Elm Tree

In April of 1943, a group of four boys uncovered a human skull in the trunk of a wyche elm tree in Worcestershire. Upon investigation, police found the rest of a female skeleton, but were unable to identify her.

Source: Wikipedia

The next year, someone put graffiti around the tree saying, “Who put Bella down the Wych Elm?” The unidentified skeleton was thus named “Bella” but the mystery has never been solved.

Advertisement