Sometimes you hear of a mystery so sinister and unexplainable that it sends a shiver down your spine.
But, much like when you drive past a car crash and can’t help but look, we’re drawn again to stories like this.
If you’ve got a fascination for things creepy, gruesome, or just straight-up mysterious, then we’ve got a treat for you – just don’t go blaming us if you have nightmares!
The disappearance of Madeleine McCann.
Unless you were living under a rock in 2007, you would have heard about Madeleine McCann.
Madeleine and her family were on vacation in Praia da Luz, Portugal, in 2007 when tragedy struck.
While Madeleine’s parents were dining in their villa’s restaurant, Madeleine (then just shy of four years old) was sleeping in their hotel room.
When her parents returned, there was no trace of Madeleine, and investigators have been trying to track her down ever since.
The Assassination of the Swedish Prime Minister.
On February 28, 1986, Olof Palme dismissed his bodyguards for the night and went to the cinema with his wife, Lisbet, where they met his son and his girlfriend.
They parted ways after the film and made their separate ways home – although Olaf would never make it.
At 11:21 pm on the busiest road in Sweden, a tall stranger surprised Olof and Lisbet from behind, shooting them at point-blank range.
While many suspects were arrested over the years, a culprit was never found.
The disappearance of the Beaumont children.
The sleepy city of Adelaide, Australia, was sent into a fever on January 26, 1966.
The three Beaumont children, Jane (aged 9), Arnna (aged 7), and Grant (aged 4), took the bus to Glenelg Beach, where they were to spend a few hours before returning home.
The children were seen playing at the beach with an unknown man and were never seen again.
Who was this strange man with whom the children were seen playing so comfortably? He, too, disappeared for good!
The Cape Intruder.
Residents of Cape Elizabeth, a peaceful town in Maine, USA, will never forget the creeping sensation they felt when they went to sleep at night at the end of 2005, for fear they would be visited by a man dubbed the Cape Intruder.
Victims of the Cape Intruder would wake up to find him looming over their beds. He didn’t break or steal anything but stood over them and watched them while they slept.
No one was attacked nor touched (as far as they know!).
Despite several suspects being interviewed, no one was ever found, and as quickly as he came, the Cape Intruder disappeared.
The Axeman of New Orleans.
From May 1918 to October 1919, terror gripped the streets of New Orleans, Louisiana, USA.
The Axeman, as he soon became known, broke into at least twelve homes and murdered the residents with their own ax in cold blood.
On March 13, 1919, the Axeman penned a letter to be published in the newspapers, where he mentioned his fondness for jazz and declared that he wouldn’t attack any homes playing Jazz music.
The city was full of music that night, and no one had lost their life.
The Axeman’s last victim was on October 27, 1919, and then he disappeared without a trace.
The D.B. Cooper Hijacking.
Let’s take a break for a moment and look at a case that, while not quite as spooky, is undoubtedly mysterious!
On November 24, 1971, a man of average appearance, calling himself Dan Cooper, bought a one-way flight from Portland, Oregon, to Seattle, Washington.
Once in the air, Cooper informed the stewardess that he had a bomb and was holding the plane hostage.
When the plane landed, he exchanged the passengers for $200,000 and four parachutes and ordered the plane to take off toward Mexico.
Shortly afterward, he jumped out of the back of the aircraft – and was never seen or heard from again!
The Zodiac Killer.
The Zodiac Killer was one of America’s first “classic” serial killers in the sense that he clearly had a pattern in how he operated; he sent taunting letters to the press.
During the 60s and 70s, he murdered at least five people but claimed to have killed another thirty-seven.
The letters he sent contained encoded passages, one of which apparently includes his real name, although no one has been able to crack the code for this one.
The Zodiac Killer fascinated and horrified the world, with countless amateur detectives attempting to discover who he was.
No one has.
The Chicago Tylenol Murders.
Imagine taking a day off work because you’re feeling unwell, taking a painkiller, and then being poisoned by it.
Seven people in Chicago, Illinois, suffered this fate in 1982 when they took Tylenol-branded painkillers to soothe their pains.
What they didn’t know, though, was that these pills had been laced with cyanide.
Some depraved person had taken pill bottles off shelves and filled some of the capsules with cyanide.
Despite following a few leads, no one was ever convicted.
The disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370.
On March 8, 2014, a Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 went missing on a routine flight from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Beijing, China.
The flight’s path was changed shortly after take-off, and the plane’s transponder was switched off for some unknown reason.
Over a year later, the first piece of confirmed debris from flight 370 washed up on Réunion, a French island 2,300 miles (3,700 km) west of the area, searched by authorities.
The plane evidently crashed, and the passengers most likely perished – but how?
Why did the plane’s path change, and why was the transponder manually switched off? We may never know the answer!
The Unsolved Hinterkaifeck Murders.
On March 31, 1922, German history’s strangest and most gruesome crime occurred.
The residents of a small Bavarian farmstead had started noticing signs that they weren’t alone at their farm and mentioned it to their friends.
Soon after, they were all brutally murdered, and their bodies were strewn about the farm.
Whoever committed the vile act then lived in the house, with the corpses, for three more days eating their food and using their fireplace before moving on.
While the investigation was as thorough as possible, and multiple suspects were arrested, the murderer was never found.
We’ve really only touched the tip of the iceberg for these mysteries, and to be frank, we’ve left out some of the goriest details.
If you want to read more about these bizarre mysteries and gruesome murders, let it be upon your head!
