50 Unsolved Mysteries in ALL 50 States of America | Full Doc - video Dailymotion

WatchMojo

Every state has its secrets… but some remain unsolved forever. Join us as we dive deep into the most baffling, spine-chilling, and mind-boggling unsolved mysteries from every corner of America! From cold cases and strange disappearances to unexplained phenomena and legendary conspiracies, the truth is out there — somewhere. Which mystery haunts you the most?

Transcript

00:00:00It was after the second double murders they started using the name Phantom in the local newspaper.

00:00:06No one felt like he or she was safe.

00:00:09Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we'll be taking a look at the most definitive mysteries from each U.S. state

00:00:14that have yet to be solved.

00:00:15At that time when this first broke, it went all over the world in three days' time, and I got

00:00:22calls from all over the world.

00:00:30Alabama. The disappearance of Shannon Nicole Polk.

00:00:33It was nearly 16 years ago when the city of Prattville was shaken by a tragic crime.

00:00:38A little girl went missing and later found murdered.

00:00:41In August 2001, the community of Prattville was shattered when 11-year-old Shannon Nicole Polk vanished from her neighborhood.

00:00:48Witnesses saw the young girl talking to a man in a vehicle just moments before she disappeared.

00:00:52Despite the abduction occurring in broad daylight within a populated trailer park, the vehicle drove away unnoticed.

00:00:58Her remains were found two months later in a remote field, turning a desperate search into a homicide investigation.

00:01:04Despite witnesses seeing Polk speaking to a man in a car, the driver has never been identified.

00:01:08For over two decades, a child killer has walked free, hiding behind the silence of a small town in a

00:01:14trail that went cold the moment that car turned the corner.

00:01:16But the morning of August 16th was the last time she was seen alive.

00:01:21Sixty days later, her body found in a wooded hunting area about 17 miles from her home.

00:01:26Her killer still at large today.

00:01:34Alaska, the disappearance of Begich and Boggs.

00:01:37In 1972, a Cessna carrying U.S. House Majority Leader Hale Boggs and Representative Nick Begich vanished from the frozen

00:01:44wilderness of the Alaska Triangle.

00:01:46This wasn't just a missing plane.

00:01:47It triggered the largest search and rescue operation in American history up to that point.

00:01:52Forty military aircraft and 50 civilian planes scoured the landscape for 39 days.

00:01:57Yet no wreckage, debris, or bodies were ever located.

00:02:00The complete absence of evidence fueled wild conspiracies, ranging from political assassination to supernatural interference.

00:02:07The tragedy actually forced Congress to pass laws requiring emergency locator transmitters in all civil aircraft.

00:02:14Today, the fate of these high-ranking politicians remains frozen in time, buried somewhere beneath the endless Alaskan ice and

00:02:20snow.

00:02:25Arizona, the death of Chuck Morgan.

00:02:28But in 1977, Chuck Morgan had become a potential witness in a state land fraud case involving a known organized

00:02:35crime boss.

00:02:36And suddenly, on March 22nd, Morgan disappeared.

00:02:40In 1977, Tucson escrow agent Chuck Morgan vanished, only to reappear three days later in a state of terror.

00:02:46He couldn't speak, claiming in written notes that a hallucinogenic drug had been painted on his throat to silence him.

00:02:52Two months later, Morgan was found dead in the desert from a gunshot wound to the back of the head.

00:02:56Despite wearing a bulletproof vest and having his own tooth wrapped in a handkerchief in his pocket,

00:03:00authorities ruled that he had taken his own life.

00:03:02The mystery is cemented by the strange clues found on his body.

00:03:05A $2 bill pinned to his underwear containing a coded map and Bible verses referencing the Golden Bull and Silver

00:03:11Court.

00:03:11Was Morgan a victim of a sophisticated mob hit or a man unraveling from paranoia?

00:03:16The coded bill remains undeciphered, and the truth likely died with him in the Arizona sand.

00:03:20If he was quietly providing assistance to the U.S. government and monitoring the activities of one or more major

00:03:26organized crime families,

00:03:28he wasn't a villain.

00:03:29He was a good guy.

00:03:31And they need to know that.

00:03:38Arkansas.

00:03:39The boys on the tracks.

00:03:41Scientific evidence revealed they had not smoked enough pot to be unconscious,

00:03:45and they possibly died before the train hit them.

00:03:48In his words, the deaths are, quote,

00:03:51not accidental.

00:03:52Burton says Henry had a stab wound and not related to anything the train did to this boy.

00:03:57Teenagers Don Henry and Kevin Ives were struck by a train in Alexander, Arkansas in 1987.

00:04:02What began as a ruling of accidental marijuana intoxication quickly unraveled when a second autopsy revealed that the boys had

00:04:09been stabbed and bludgeoned before being placed on the tracks.

00:04:12The reclassification to homicide sparked a firestorm of controversy.

00:04:16Over the years, the case became infamous for allegations of high-level corruption and a protected drug ring,

00:04:21with rumors swirling that witnesses connected to the case died under suspicious circumstances.

00:04:26But despite public outcry, the so-called train deaths remain officially unsolved,

00:04:31leaving a cloud of suspicion over who placed the boys on the tracks that night.

00:04:34My thoughts were that one day, somebody is going to, I hate to use the word stumble,

00:04:41but come upon answers to the questions of what specifically happened to the boys and why it happened to them.

00:04:52California.

00:04:53The Zodiac Killer.

00:04:55People are going to ask, was that thing even loaded?

00:05:04Terrorizing the Bay Area in the late 1960s, the Zodiac Killer remains the ultimate American cold case.

00:05:10He killed at least five verified victims while taunting police with complex ciphers and letters.

00:05:14And although his infamous 340 cipher was finally cracked by amateurs in 2020, the message provided no identity.

00:05:21Contrary to popular belief, the Zodiac did in fact leave traces including partial DNA and fingerprints.

00:05:26But forensic limitations of the time and unmatched samples have kept him a faceless phantom.

00:05:31Despite thousands of leads and prime suspects like Arthur Lee Allen,

00:05:35no evidence has ever definitively linked anyone to the crimes.

00:05:38And the window to catch this cryptographic killer is slowly closing.

00:05:41The prints, the handwriting.

00:05:43I'm not asking you as a cop.

00:05:44But I am a cop.

00:05:49I can't prove this.

00:05:51Just because you can't prove it doesn't mean it's not true.

00:06:01It is one of the greatest unsolved crimes in history.

00:06:05We have a kidnapping.

00:06:07There's a ransom note here.

00:06:09A little girl vanishes from home Christmas night.

00:06:12The 1996 murder of 6-year-old John Benet Ramsey in her Boulder home is a case that divides the

00:06:17nation.

00:06:18Found in the basement hours after a ransom note was discovered in the home,

00:06:22the young beauty queen had been bludgeoned and strangled.

00:06:24The case is a labyrinth of compromised evidence.

00:06:27The crime scene was not secured and family friends were allowed to freely roam the house.

00:06:31Suspicion ping-ponged between an intruder and the parents.

00:06:33Yet DNA evidence found in her clothing pointed to an unknown male.

00:06:37The mystery persists not only because her killer was never caught,

00:06:40but because the physical evidence contradicts the circumstantial and popular theories.

00:06:44Despite decades of media scrutiny and grand jury hearings,

00:06:47investigators cannot conclusively prove who wrote the note or who struck the fatal blow,

00:06:52leaving justice permanently out of reach.

00:06:55When I opened the door, and when I turned the light on, I...

00:07:07Connecticut.

00:07:08The murder of Suzanne Joven.

00:07:10Well, today marks 27 years since Yale student Suzanne Joven was found dead in New Haven's East Rock neighborhood.

00:07:16On December 4, 1998, Yale senior Suzanne Joven was stabbed 17 times in the East Rock neighborhood of New Haven,

00:07:23miles from the safety of campus.

00:07:25The investigation became a cautionary tale of tunnel vision,

00:07:28as police publicly named her thesis advisor as a primary suspect to fight no physical evidence linking him to the

00:07:33crime.

00:07:34Unfortunately, this singular focus likely allowed the real killer to escape detection.

00:07:38By the time the advisor was fully exonerated years later, the trail had gone cold.

00:07:42And unlike many cold cases in which forensic evidence proves elusive,

00:07:45investigators actually possessed the killer's DNA, as some was found under Joven's fingernails.

00:07:50Alas, it matches no one in the system.

00:07:52Until that genetic profile finds a name, Suzanne's killer continues to walk free, perhaps hiding in plain sight.

00:07:58We're really interested in anybody in the neighborhood, anybody that might have seen something that,

00:08:03or anybody at the university that may have information that may help us.

00:08:13Delaware, the murder of John P. Wheeler III.

00:08:16On December 31, a garbage truck dumped its contents into a Delaware landfill and out fell a dead body.

00:08:22It would have been a shocking story under any circumstances, but the identity of the victim made it national news.

00:08:28The 2010 death of John P. Wheeler III is a baffling mix of Washington politics and bizarre behavior.

00:08:34A former presidential aide, Wheeler was found murdered in a Delaware landfill.

00:08:38Security footage from the days leading up to his death captured him wandering Wilmington disoriented,

00:08:43wearing one shoe and appearing terrified of an unseen threat.

00:08:45The story became enormously popular, not only for the murder itself,

00:08:48but the disconnect between his high-status life and his gritty, tragic end.

00:08:52Was he the victim of a random mugging, a mental health crisis, or a targeted political hit?

00:08:56The lack of a clear crime scene and the strange behavior captured on video offer more questions than answers,

00:09:02and authorities have never determined who dumped his body or why he was targeted.

00:09:06Little is known beyond the fact that he had been involved in a dispute with a neighbor over house construction.

00:09:11The police investigation is ongoing, and the FBI has gotten involved.

00:09:20Florida.

00:09:21The Disappearance of Jennifer Kessie

00:09:23There is new hope in the search for an Orlando woman, missing for nearly 20 years now.

00:09:27Yeah, the family of Jennifer Kessie says their daughter's cold case is no longer cold.

00:09:3124-year-old Jennifer Kessie vanished from her Orlando condo on January 23, 2006,

00:09:37leaving behind a pristine apartment and a baffling puzzle.

00:09:39Kessie's car was discovered a mile away from the apartment,

00:09:42and surveillance cameras actually captured the person who parked it.

00:09:44But in a stroke of maddening bad luck,

00:09:47the suspect's face was obscured by a fence gate and every single image captured by the automated camera.

00:09:52This luckiest criminal ever walked away unidentified, leaving investigators with zero solid leads.

00:09:57Unfortunately, there is no physical evidence of a struggle,

00:10:00and the only visual clue is virtually useless,

00:10:03leaving this mystery with a frustrating lack of leeway.

00:10:05Without a body or an identification of the phantom figure in the photos,

00:10:09the case remains a heartbreaking stalemate.

00:10:11If we find that mystery, man, we'll have our questions.

00:10:14Whether that person did something directly to Jennifer or was asked to do something with Jennifer's car.

00:10:20If we find that person, it's over.

00:10:22I can guarantee you, it's over.

00:10:28Georgia.

00:10:29The Atlanta Ripper.

00:10:31Decades before modern profiling, the Atlanta Ripper stalked the streets of Georgia.

00:10:35From 1911 to 1912, this shadowy figure targeted young African-American women

00:10:39slitting their throats and leaving their bodies in dark alleyways.

00:10:42At least 15 victims were claimed, yet the killer operated with near impunity.

00:10:46While police attempted to investigate, their efforts were hampered by the primitive forensics of the era

00:10:51and the deep racial segregation that divided the city.

00:10:53And to make matters worse, the mystery is compounded by confusion

00:10:57over whether this was a single serial killer or multiple copycats.

00:11:00Ultimately, the Atlanta Ripper remains a ghost of the South,

00:11:03a terrifying reminder of a time when systemic racism allowed a monster to slip away into history.

00:11:13Hawaii.

00:11:14The mystery of the Sarah Joe.

00:11:16It's gonna be hard, my little boy.

00:11:20Back in 1979, five men departed the island of Maui on the Sarah Joe for a fishing trip.

00:11:26And then they vanished into a storm, leaving behind a tantalizing Hawaiian mystery.

00:11:30Ten years later, the boat was found on a remote atoll in the Marshall Islands,

00:11:33over 2,000 miles away.

00:11:34The mystery took an even darker turn when a shallow grave was discovered nearby

00:11:38containing the bones of one of the fishermen, Scott Mormont.

00:11:41The other four were never found.

00:11:43Unfortunately, this only led to more questions.

00:11:45Who buried Mormont?

00:11:46If survivors made it to land, where did the others go?

00:11:48And how did the small boat drift that far intact?

00:11:51With no survivors to tell the tale,

00:11:53the Sarah Joe remains one of the Pacific Ocean's most haunting maritime riddles.

00:11:57For those of us left behind,

00:11:59the vast unmarked grave which is home for those lost at sea is of no consolation.

00:12:05It can't be visited.

00:12:07There is no headstone on which to rest a bunch of flowers.

00:12:11The only place we can revisit them is in our hearts or in our dreams.

00:12:22Idaho, the disappearance of Dior Coons Jr.

00:12:26Today marks a decade since Dior Coons Jr. disappeared from Alemhi County Campground.

00:12:31The mystery around what happened to him drew intense scrutiny,

00:12:36captivated the nation, and has left his family living a nightmare for 10 years.

00:12:40The 2015 disappearance of two-year-old Dior Coons Jr. is a nightmare of the American wilderness.

00:12:45While camping in the Salmon Chalice National Forest,

00:12:48Coons' parents claimed he vanished in mere minutes while they were out exploring.

00:12:52Massive searches yielded absolutely nothing.

00:12:54No body, no blood, and no signs of animal predation.

00:12:57The total lack of physical evidence led investigators to name the parents as suspects,

00:13:01theorizing a cover-up, yet they've maintained their innocence.

00:13:03The mystery remains stuck in limbo.

00:13:05Did the child wander off and succumb to the elements in a place searchers missed?

00:13:08Or did something sinister happen within the family?

00:13:10Without a body or a confession, the fate of little Dior remains one of Idaho's darkest open questions.

00:13:15Dior's grandma, Trina Clegg, sent me a statement on behalf of Dior's mom, Jessica Mitchell.

00:13:20Jessica says,

00:13:20The pain of each day still feels the same as the day Dior went missing, adding,

00:13:25I love and miss my son every day.

00:13:33Illinois, the Tylenol Murders.

00:13:35Crime captivated the nation, put the nation on its ear,

00:13:38and had probably hundreds and hundreds of thousands of households going through their medicine cabinets

00:13:43to try to determine, do we have poison in our house?

00:13:45A wave of terror swept Chicago in late 1982 when several people died after consuming Tylenol capsules laced with cyanide.

00:13:52The killer had randomly pulled bottles from store shelves, poisoned the medicine, and then returned them,

00:13:56turning everyday pharmacies into a game of Russian roulette.

00:13:59This act of domestic terrorism changed the world, leading to the tamper-proof packaging that we use today.

00:14:04However, the perpetrator remains unknown.

00:14:06While a man named James Lewis was convicted for trying to extort Johnson & Johnson during the crisis,

00:14:11he was never physically linked to the poisonings and died in 2023 without providing further answers.

00:14:16The killer, who possessed a terrifying knowledge of chemistry, committed the perfect crime,

00:14:20and fundamentally changed how we buy and consume medicine.

00:14:23The family members of the victims are entitled to some closure,

00:14:26but until there's a prosecution, until someone is charged and hopefully convicted,

00:14:33there really is no closure for them.

00:14:40Indiana. The Burger Chef murders.

00:14:42It's been 45 years since four Burger Chef employees were murdered.

00:14:46The case is still open, and now the place where they worked is about to be demolished.

00:14:51On the Friday night of November 17, 1978, four young employees at a Burger Chef in Speedway, Indiana,

00:14:58vanished at closing time.

00:14:59Police initially dismissed it as a petty embezzlement gone wrong,

00:15:02and tragically failed to secure the scene.

00:15:04Two days later, the teenagers' bodies were found 20 miles away in the woods,

00:15:08with evidence showing that they had been brutally murdered.

00:15:10The investigation was botched from the start,

00:15:12with the restaurant cleaned and reopened the very next day, thereby destroying vital evidence.

00:15:16The negligence ruined the investigation and led to questions we still don't have answers to.

00:15:20Was it a robbery, a botched kidnapping, or a thrill kill?

00:15:23Despite thousands of leads and confession letters,

00:15:25the connection between the victims and their executioner remains unknown,

00:15:28leaving a permanent scar on the community.

00:15:30Every time you go by, you think of Jane.

00:15:32Yeah.

00:15:34You know, that's the thing.

00:15:36Yeah, it should have came down long.

00:15:37It should have came down immediately.

00:15:44Iowa.

00:15:45Villisca, Axe Murders.

00:15:47Villisca, Iowa.

00:15:48The heartland of farming.

00:15:50Surrounded by miles and miles of cornfields,

00:15:53you'd think that this small, quiet town would be filled with nothing but happy history.

00:15:57But this place has a dark side, and that's why we're here.

00:16:00The quiet town of Villisca became the site of a massacre on the night of June 9, 1912.

00:16:05Eight people, the Moore family, and their two young guests were brutally bludgeoned to death

00:16:09in their sleep by an axe-wielding intruder.

00:16:11The killer had strangely covered all the mirrors in the house and locked the doors before vanishing

00:16:16into the night.

00:16:16An enormous number of suspects were brought forth, including a traveling minister and a state senator.

00:16:21Yet trial after trial ended in hung juries and acquittals.

00:16:24The lack of forensic technology at the time meant the physical evidence they did manage to collect was useless.

00:16:29Today, the house still stands as a morbid tourist attraction.

00:16:32But the question of who slaughtered eight innocents in their beds remains a century-old secret.

00:16:36But the weirdest and strangest part is, is this killer didn't want to see himself.

00:16:42Covered up all the mirrors in the entire house.

00:16:45Did he not want to see what a true monster looks like?

00:16:50And who was the killer?

00:16:52As an unsolved murder case, the suspect was never caught.

00:17:00Kansas, the disappearance of Randy Leach.

00:17:03Randy got there around 10 p.m., driving his mom's car, a gray 1985 Dodge 600 sedan.

00:17:10Although nobody saw him drinking, Randy seemed to be messed up and had a hard time walking,

00:17:16according to people at the party.

00:17:17In 1988, 17-year-old Randy Leach drove his mother's gray Dodge sedan to a graduation party

00:17:23in rural Linwood, Kansas and was never seen again.

00:17:26The strangest part of this mystery is the disappearance of the car.

00:17:28Despite extensive searches of the Kansas River and various local ponds,

00:17:32neither the boy nor the full-sized vehicle has ever been recovered.

00:17:35Rumors of satanic cults and drug deals have clouded the investigation for decades.

00:17:39But no credible witness has ever come forward.

00:17:41Perhaps the largest question in this weird tale remains.

00:17:44Just where in the heck is that car?

00:17:46Did Randy drive away to start a new life or was he murdered and the car crushed?

00:17:49Without the vehicle, police have no crime scene to investigate.

00:17:53We'd like to have the family get some soulless after, what has it been, 36 years.

00:18:05Kentucky, the Kelly Hopkinsville encounter.

00:18:08Throughout American history, we've been no stranger to the occasional alleged alien encounter.

00:18:13Anything from Roswell, New Mexico to Area 51, and even here in Kelly, Kentucky,

00:18:19where the famous Kelly Hopkinsville Goblin Incident occurred 70 years ago today.

00:18:24On August 21, 1955, a rural farmhouse near Hopkinsville became the site of a terrifying interstellar scene.

00:18:31Two families rushed to the police, claiming they were under attack by small goblin-like creatures.

00:18:35For nearly four hours, they held the beings off with gunfire,

00:18:38reporting that bullets bounced off the creature's metallic skin with a distinct ringing sound.

00:18:42Indeed, there was some credibility to the chaos.

00:18:45Police found a house riddled with bullet holes and witnesses in a state of genuine medical shock.

00:18:49While skeptics attribute the event to aggressive great-horned owls,

00:18:52families never sought feign more money.

00:18:54They maintained until their deaths that they had battled intruders not of this earth,

00:18:58making it one of the most compelling close encounters in history.

00:19:01In the 70 years since that initial encounter,

00:19:04the property's been sold and the house destroyed.

00:19:07But the story still remains.

00:19:15Louisiana, the Axeman of New Orleans.

00:19:17The city was also worried, plagued, and in fear of a figure known as the Axeman.

00:19:27From 1918 to 1919, the Axeman held New Orleans in a grip of terror.

00:19:31This serial killer broke into Italian groceries and homes,

00:19:34using the victim's own axes to bludgeon them to death.

00:19:36He was not just a killer, but a showman,

00:19:38writing a letter to the press claiming to be a demon

00:19:40and promising to spare anyone playing jazz music on a specific night.

00:19:44The city actually complied,

00:19:45filling dance halls with music and indeed, no one died.

00:19:48Weirdly enough, the attacks stopped just as suddenly as they started,

00:19:51and the shadowy Axeman was never caught or identified.

00:19:54Was he a jazz-loving psychopath hoping to advertise the greatness of the music?

00:19:58Or a calculated killer with a vendetta against Italian grocers?

00:20:01Alas, his identity vanished into the humid Louisiana air.

00:20:05The Axe murders seemed to cease, just as mysteriously as they had started.

00:20:12And no closure to the case was brought.

00:20:17It sort of receded back into yet another New Orleans legend.

00:20:28Mate, the Allagash abductions.

00:20:31This light came out, this thing started moving.

00:20:34And so we thought, well, you know, this is real.

00:20:38This is really happening.

00:20:39This is not a figment of our imagination.

00:20:42I mean, we've got to deal with this situation now.

00:20:46In 1976, four men camping in the Allagash Wilderness experienced one of the most famous alien events in history.

00:20:53While out night fishing, the men were engulfed by a blinding sphere of light.

00:20:57After paddling to shore, they discovered their roaring campfire had burned down to ashes,

00:21:01though they swear that only minutes had gone by.

00:21:04Years later, under hypnosis, the men recounted identical details of being taken aboard a mysterious craft.

00:21:08However, the mystery has since fractured a little bit.

00:21:11One of the four men, Chuck Rack, later claimed that the abduction story was a fabrication for money

00:21:15and alleged that the group was using drugs.

00:21:18However, the other three men vehemently deny this and stand by their testimony.

00:21:21While Rack's recantation has cast a permanent shadow of doubt over what happened in the deep woods,

00:21:26we still don't know what exactly occurred, if anything at all.

00:21:29There was no apparent explanation.

00:21:31But Jim was getting worse, his doctors growing more concerned.

00:21:35Repeatedly, they asked Jim what was wrong, and he finally revealed the nightmares.

00:21:40A psychiatrist working on the case said it sounded like an abduction experience.

00:21:51Maryland

00:21:52The death of Ray Rivera

00:21:53The biggest question is where did he come from?

00:21:58How did he get through that hole?

00:22:01In 2006, Ray Rivera's body was found in a conference room at Baltimore's Belvedere Hotel,

00:22:06having apparently crashed through the roof.

00:22:08While police believed that Rivera took his own life, the physics of the fall didn't add up.

00:22:12The distance from the roof edge to the hole seemed nearly impossible for a human to jump

00:22:16without a running start that the roof just didn't allow.

00:22:19Furthermore, his glasses and phone were found intact,

00:22:21and a bizarre rambling note taped to his computer referenced the Freemasons.

00:22:25While it may seem like Rivera took his own life, the evidence supports conflicting theories,

00:22:29a mental health crisis and a staged murder connected to his work with a financial firm.

00:22:33With the medical examiner listing the manner of death as undetermined, Rivera's final moments remain a baffling puzzle.

00:22:39The fact that the medical examiner left the case open in terms of manner of death as undetermined

00:22:45is what the case is all about, is that it doesn't have a firm conclusion to it.

00:22:57Massachusetts

00:22:58The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Heist

00:23:01The first thing the police did after freeing the guards and getting their statements was search the museum for evidence.

00:23:07In the early mornings of March 18, 1990, Boston became the site of the biggest art heist in history.

00:23:13Two men disguised as police officers conned their way into the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum,

00:23:17tied up the guards, and spent 81 minutes stealing masterpieces by Vermeer and Rembrandt.

00:23:22The hall, valued at over half a billion dollars, has never been seen since.

00:23:26The mystery is twofold, just who were the thieves, and more importantly, where is the art?

00:23:30Works of this magnitude are impossible to sell on the black market,

00:23:33and despite numerous FBI stings and mob rumors, the frames hang empty to this day.

00:23:38It remains the ultimate unsolved whodunit of the art world,

00:23:40with a $500 million treasure still hidden somewhere in the dark.

00:23:44The pieces that were stolen were priceless masterpieces.

00:23:47One was a Rembrandt seascape, known as the Storm over the Sea of Galilee.

00:23:51It's the only seascape Rembrandt ever did.

00:23:54Another piece was called The Concert.

00:23:56It was by Vermeer.

00:23:57It's the only Vermeer that's missing in the world.

00:24:00Those two pieces alone were valued at the time of over $200 million.

00:24:09Michigan, the disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa.

00:24:12I don't wait for anybody more than 10 minutes.

00:24:14He's at the house.

00:24:15What house?

00:24:16The 1975 disappearance of Teamsters leader Jimmy Hoffa is the holy grail of mob mysteries.

00:24:22Hoffa vanished from a restaurant parking lot in Bloomfield Township on July 30th, 1975,

00:24:26while waiting to meet two mafia bosses.

00:24:29He was never seen again.

00:24:29While it is widely accepted that he was murdered by the mob to prevent his return to power,

00:24:34the mystery lies in the disposal of the body.

00:24:36Every theory from burial under giant stadium to incineration in a Detroit crematorium has hit a dead end.

00:24:42Despite federal investigations, tell-all books, and deathbed confessions,

00:24:46not a single physical trace of Hoffa has ever been found.

00:24:49His disappearance remains the ultimate symbol of organized crime's ability to erase a man completely from the face of the

00:24:54earth.

00:25:09Minnesota, the disappearance of Brandon Swanson.

00:25:12You were on the phone with your son a large part of those early hours when you were trying to

00:25:17find him,

00:25:17and he was trying to find you.

00:25:19He wasn't hurt at all, right?

00:25:21I mean, the car went into a ditch, but he seemed to be okay.

00:25:26Correct.

00:25:26He said he was fine, but he was not injured.

00:25:30And, you know, in fact, when we did find his vehicle...

00:25:33Shortly after midnight on May 14th, 2008,

00:25:3619-year-old Brandon Swanson accidentally drove his car into a ditch and then called his parents for a ride.

00:25:41He stayed on the phone with his father for 47 minutes, guiding him toward his location.

00:25:44But suddenly, Brandon shouted an expletive and the line went dead.

00:25:48He was never seen again.

00:25:49The mystery only deepened when his car was found miles away from where he thought he was and where he

00:25:53told his father to go.

00:25:54Search dogs traced his scent to a nearby river, but no body was ever recovered.

00:25:58The mystery remains.

00:25:59What did he see that made him scream?

00:26:00Did he fall into the water, or did he encounter someone in the dark?

00:26:03We might never know, as Brandon simply vanished into the rural Minnesota night.

00:26:07We didn't immediately hang up the phone.

00:26:09We, you know, we called his name.

00:26:10We tried to, you know, thinking that he still had the phone, that it was very near him, that he

00:26:16could pick it up.

00:26:16He'd hear our voice, and we called out to him several times, and we realized, you know, he's not there.

00:26:29Mississippi.

00:26:30The Phantom Barber of Pascagoula.

00:26:33In 1942, the small town of Pascagoula was terrorized by a creepily specific intruder.

00:26:38The so-called Phantom Barber would break into homes at night by splitting window screens, but not to steal valuables

00:26:43or harm the occupants.

00:26:44In fact, their primary motive was to cut locks of hair from young girls while they slept.

00:26:48Naturally, the violation and intimacy of the crime caused mass hysteria.

00:26:51Police eventually pinned the barber crimes on a man named William Dolan after he was arrested for a separate attack,

00:26:56but many locals remained unconvinced.

00:26:58The sheer weirdness of the motive has kept this crime in the public consciousness, and the evidence against Dolan was

00:27:03largely circumstantial.

00:27:04So, the true identity of the man who stole hair in the dark remains a disturbing legend of Mississippian folklore.

00:27:21Missouri.

00:27:22The Springfield Three.

00:27:23It's three grown women that just disappeared.

00:27:26One person may be something that you could sit back and go, okay, I can see that.

00:27:32Two people are difficult to imagine, and three is almost unfathomable.

00:27:36In June of 1992, Cheryl Levitt, her daughter Susie and Susie's friend Stacey McCall, vanished from Levitt's home in Springfield.

00:27:43The next morning, the house was an eerie sight.

00:27:44The door was left unlocked.

00:27:45The women's purses were lined up, and the dog was agitated.

00:27:48But the women themselves were gone.

00:27:50Bizarrely, the home and the surrounding area showed a distinct lack of a struggle.

00:27:53A persistent theory suggested that the bodies are buried beneath the local hospital parking garage, where modern ground-penetrating radar

00:28:00has supposedly shown anomalies.

00:28:01However, police have stated the construction timeline makes this impossible, and have refused to excavate.

00:28:06Without a crime scene or bodies, the Springfield Three simply walked into the void, leaving behind a pristine home and

00:28:12a mystery that continues to haunt Missouri.

00:28:14I do believe they're probably gone.

00:28:17They're probably deceased.

00:28:19I don't have anything that tells me for sure.

00:28:23So until they have found their remains, I have to believe that they're still alive and well.

00:28:37Montana. Disappearance of Patricia Meehan.

00:28:39As I looked out across the accident, I noticed someone on the other side of the fence standing there like

00:28:46a spectator, not like that it had happened to her.

00:28:4937-year-old Patricia Bernadette Meehan collided head-on with another vehicle in Montana Highway 200 near Circle on April

00:28:5620, 1989.

00:28:57Dazed and glassy-eyed, she stepped out of her car, stared silently at the wreckage, and walked off into the

00:29:02surrounding prairie.

00:29:03She was never seen again.

00:29:04She was a very caring individual, never wanted to hurt anyone in here.

00:29:10She had a very traumatic accident where she may have thought instantly that she hurt or killed another person, and

00:29:20her mind blocked that out.

00:29:22Over the years, more than 5,000 reported sightings poured in from across the U.S., but none were verified.

00:29:29Investigators theorized that Meehan, suffering from head trauma or emotional distress, might have wandered off in a fugue state.

00:29:35Featured on Unsolved Mysteries, her case remains one of Montana's most haunting disappearances, a woman seemingly erased by the open

00:29:42plains.

00:29:42More than anything else in the world, I want her back with us, and we would then know that she'd

00:29:50be safe, not knowing who she's going to get a ride from, and that's my biggest worry, I think.

00:29:57Just praise on your mind day in and day out, and you pray to God and hope that she's with

00:30:03some good people.

00:30:10North Carolina, Lost Colony of Roanoke.

00:30:13It is one of America's oldest unsolved mysteries, and it happened in our own backyard.

00:30:20What happened to the Lost Colony of Roanoke?

00:30:22In 1587, more than 100 English settlers established a fragile colony on Roanoke Island off the coast of present-day

00:30:29North Carolina.

00:30:30When a resupply ship finally returned three years later, the fort was deserted.

00:30:33No one knows for certain what happened.

00:30:36Some argue the colonists traveled inland.

00:30:39Some think they died or were all killed.

00:30:41Others firmly believe they came here to Hatteras Island.

00:30:45Because the colony doesn't know they're lost.

00:30:47In their mind, someone's coming back with resupplies.

00:30:50The colonists did leave behind a clue.

00:30:52The only clue is the word Croatoan, carved into a post.

00:30:56No bodies, graves, or records were ever found.

00:30:58Did the colonists assimilate with the Croatan tribe, perish in conflict, or die of famine?

00:31:02Archaeological finds at sites miles away suggest migration, but no proof has ever surfaced.

00:31:08Over four centuries later, the fate of the Roanoke settlers is America's original unsolved mystery.

00:31:13A chilling question mark at the dawn of its history.

00:31:16I think that it's almost a duty to learn about it.

00:31:20This is the birth of America, and this is the real story.

00:31:22It's a story of failure, but these failures are what the success of our nation is founded on.

00:31:33North Dakota, disappearance of Barbara Louise Cotton.

00:31:37In continuing coverage today, marks 40 years since a 15-year-old girl went missing just blocks away from her

00:31:44home in Williston.

00:31:45Family and friends are still looking for answers involving the disappearance of Barbara Cotton.

00:31:50And in the midst of it all, they decided to celebrate her life.

00:31:54Fifteen-year-old Barbara Barb Louise Cotton left a restaurant in downtown Williston, North Dakota,

00:31:58after dinner with friends and vanished on her short walk home.

00:32:01She was last seen heading toward Recreation Park, just blocks from her house on April 11, 1981.

00:32:07What I can remember, it was more of a possibly runaway at that time, and that's kind of what I

00:32:14believed, I guess.

00:32:15That didn't change for, I don't know how long after she disappeared, that they finally decided she wasn't a runaway.

00:32:23But the question still remains, what actually happened?

00:32:26Despite searches, interviews, and decades of renewed attention, no physical evidence has ever been found.

00:32:32Rumors of suspects and sightings persist, but none have been confirmed.

00:32:35More than 40 years later, Cotton's disappearance is among North Dakota's oldest active missing person cases,

00:32:41a mystery that still haunts the quiet streets of Williston.

00:32:44Although this is the family's first time holding an event to celebrate Barbara's life,

00:32:49both pain and hope still remain.

00:32:51You just walk into a store and hope to see her.

00:32:54You know, you get a phone call, and you take it because you hope it's her calling you.

00:33:00A lot of that throughout the past 40 years.

00:33:11Our math department at Chadron State had been looking for a theoretical mathematician.

00:33:18You know, Chadron State's a fairly small community, somewhat remote, a couple of hours to the nearest mall.

00:33:24Not too often do you find PhD mathematicians that would like to settle in that kind of a rural environment.

00:33:31Chadron State College math professor Stephen Hotija vanished from the small Nebraska college town where he taught in December 2006.

00:33:38Months later, searchers discovered his burned remains bound with wire in a ravine just south of campus.

00:33:43A gruesome and baffling scene.

00:33:45It was widely reported that the cause of death of Dr. Hotija was smoke and foot inhalation combined with thermal

00:33:52injuries.

00:33:53That is true.

00:33:55In layman's terms, that means that Dr. Hotija unfortunately burned to death.

00:34:01Additionally, there were wrappings around Dr. Hotija's ankles, around his torso, his midsection, connecting him to a tree.

00:34:11Authorities detailed the discovery and said homicide had not been ruled out, though no suspects were ever identified.

00:34:17Friends and colleagues remembered Hotija as quiet and kind, though struggling with personal pressures,

00:34:22leaving investigators uncertain whether his death was self-inflicted, foul play, or something stranger.

00:34:27The case inspired author Poe Ballantine's memoir, Love and Terror, on the howling plains of nowhere,

00:34:32ensuring Hotija's mystery stands as perhaps Nebraska's darkest cold case.

00:34:36I actually also had sent an email to one of the editors at the Chronicle of Higher Education,

00:34:43and he's just got a strange email back from him that said that this happens all the time.

00:34:48We get emails like this all the time, and they usually just show up.

00:34:52So right now it's not news for us.

00:34:54I was kind of shocked by that.

00:35:00New Hampshire.

00:35:02Bear Brook murders.

00:35:03Cold case investigators in New Hampshire have a major update in the infamous Allenstown murders.

00:35:08It's a case our Bob Ward has covered for decades and featured as part of New England's Unsolved.

00:35:13Four people were found dead in Bear Brook State Park.

00:35:16A hunter in Bear Brook State Park discovered a 55-gallon drum containing the remains of an adult woman and

00:35:22a young girl in the mid-1980s.

00:35:24Fifteen years later, another barrel was found nearby with two more children inside.

00:35:28For decades, the victims and their killers were unknown, collectively called the Allenstown Four.

00:35:32If you know something, you say something.

00:35:34This is no longer a time for secrets.

00:35:36Everybody involved is getting older.

00:35:40Let's figure out what happened here.

00:35:42Forensics genealogy eventually tied the murders to serial offender Terry Petter Rasmussen,

00:35:48also known as Bob Evans, and identified three victims.

00:35:51In 2025, the fourth, Rasmussen's biological daughter, Ray Rasmussen,

00:35:55was finally named, bringing long-awaited closure to part of the case.

00:35:59It's important to the family to know who their little sister was,

00:36:03so they can do whatever they need to do in terms of putting all that back together.

00:36:08Yet questions remain about the precise timeline and motive.

00:36:16New Jersey, Watcher of Westfield.

00:36:19When a New Jersey family moved into a new home,

00:36:21they began receiving disturbing letters from someone who called themselves the Watcher.

00:36:26Now, after years of torment, that family is finally speaking out.

00:36:31This is the now infamous Watcher house at 657 Boulevard in Westfield, New Jersey.

00:36:37Derek and Maria Broaddus thought they'd found their dream home in Westfield, New Jersey,

00:36:41until the letters began arriving.

00:36:42Signed only the Watcher, the notes described the couple's children, the home's layout,

00:36:46and a disturbing obsession with the property itself.

00:36:49The author claimed their family had watched the house for generations

00:36:52and threatened to call to the young blood.

00:36:54Derek Broaddus says,

00:36:55I was a depressed wreck.

00:36:57They hired a number of experts.

00:36:59They hired a former FBI agent to try to create a profile.

00:37:03They hired a private investigator to kind of look around the neighborhood.

00:37:07The family ultimately moved in with Maria Broaddus' parents

00:37:10before deciding to put 657 Boulevard back on the market.

00:37:15Police chased every lead.

00:37:16Neighbors, postal records, even prior owners, but came up empty.

00:37:19DNA testing proved inconclusive and the Broadduses eventually sold the house in 2019.

00:37:24The mystery inspired Netflix's hit series, The Watcher,

00:37:27created by Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan.

00:37:29Despite the added layer of publicity, though,

00:37:31the real-life soccer's identity remains unknown.

00:37:33Now, five years later, the family's selling the property that they've never lived in,

00:37:37that has haunted them for years,

00:37:39taking a loss, selling it for $400,000 less than they paid for it.

00:37:44We spoke with their attorney in the midst of their ordeal.

00:37:46It's a great house. This is a total tragedy and nightmare for my clients.

00:37:56New Mexico. Las Cruces Bowling Alley Massacre.

00:37:59About 8.30 in the morning on February 10, 1990,

00:38:03Las Cruces police were dispatched to Las Cruces Bowl,

00:38:05where the four children and three adults were found shot execution style.

00:38:10Five ultimately died from their injuries, including the three children.

00:38:13On the morning of February 10, 1990, two armed men entered the Las Cruces Bowl

00:38:18as staff prepared to open.

00:38:19They forced seven people, including children, into an office,

00:38:22stole about $4,000 to $5,000,

00:38:24and shot the victims at point-blank range before setting papers on fire.

00:38:29Three survived, including manager Stephanie C. Senec and her daughter, Melicia Rapaz,

00:38:34though Senec died in 1999 from her injuries, bringing total fatalities to five.

00:38:38Despite composite sketches, survivor testimony, and decades of work,

00:38:42the gunmen have never been identified.

00:38:44The case remains open with Las Cruces police and the FBI seeking new leads.

00:38:48And the case remains unsolved.

00:38:50Las Cruces, Dona Ana County Crime Stoppers continues to offer a cash reward

00:38:53of $25,000 for information that helps solve this crime.

00:39:02Nevada. Secrets of Area 51.

00:39:05America's Central Intelligence Agency has officially acknowledged

00:39:09the existence of a secret site known as Area 51.

00:39:13Newly declassified documents relating to the U-2 spy plane program

00:39:17make reference to the air base in the state of Nevada,

00:39:20which has long been the subject of elaborate theories about aliens and flying saucers.

00:39:25Hidden deep in Nevada's desert lies Area 51,

00:39:29a U.S. Air Force testing ground so secret it wasn't officially acknowledged

00:39:32until a 2013 CIA FOIA release confirmed its existence.

00:39:36The documents detailed Cold War testing of advanced aircraft like the U-2 and A-12 Oxcart,

00:39:41but decades of denial had already fueled conspiracy theories.

00:39:44Take the combination of a remote location, an enormous degree of secrecy around it,

00:39:50plus all the rumors and the claims concerning alleged connections with UFOs,

00:39:58the enticement or the interest in secret aircraft itself.

00:40:02I mean, they all combine to make it something that people are interested in reading about

00:40:08and people are interested in writing about.

00:40:09From tales of alien spacecraft and reverse-engineered technology

00:40:12to unmarked planes ferrying workers in and out daily,

00:40:16Area 51's secrecy has made it the epicenter of extraterrestrial speculation.

00:40:20Whether it's cutting-edge aviation or something far stranger,

00:40:23this isolated base remains the gold standard for mystery and myth.

00:40:26Yes, I mean, the report is an internal history from within the CIA of the site,

00:40:33so there's a lot of information in there that we didn't have before.

00:40:35Or there are things like information about individual missions for these planes,

00:40:41pilot code names, things like that.

00:40:43So there is quite a bit of detail.

00:40:49New York. Vanishing of Judge Joseph Forrest Crater.

00:40:53A lot of people believe that once FDR is president,

00:40:56Crater will be a nominee to the United States Supreme Court.

00:40:59He's kind of a man about town in New York.

00:41:01He knows all the cops, he knows all the politicians,

00:41:03he knows the Broadway producers, the dancers.

00:41:06He is a widely known celebrity in the city.

00:41:08And, at the time, if you're a New York celebrity,

00:41:11you're a nationwide celebrity.

00:41:12New York Supreme Court Justice Joseph Forrest Crater

00:41:15left a restaurant near Times Square on August 6th, 1930.

00:41:18He then hailed a taxi and, by all accounts, vanished into thin air.

00:41:21His disappearance became a national sensation,

00:41:24blending whispers of political corruption, gang ties, and scandal.

00:41:27Stella's birthday comes and goes on the 9th,

00:41:29and Crater's a no-show.

00:41:30He's nowhere to be found,

00:41:31and she's a little worried because she's not used to her husband

00:41:33breaking personal promises to her.

00:41:35And Stella's calling around to all these powerful men

00:41:38to try to figure out what happened to her husband,

00:41:39and powerful men will do what powerful men normally do.

00:41:44They're going to cover up for their friends.

00:41:46Investigators learned he had withdrawn over $5,000 in cash,

00:41:50liquidated investments, and that his safe deposit box

00:41:52and some files were empty, suggesting deliberate preparation.

00:41:55Back in the 30s, Crouse had a vacation home,

00:41:59which he frequently let Crater use for parties.

00:42:02Many of those parties were co-hosted by Martin Healy.

00:42:05Crouse claimed that in early 1930,

00:42:07the two men buried $90,000 in the backyard.

00:42:10But in mid-August, after Crater's disappearance,

00:42:13Crouse visits his vacation home to find the place in Shambles.

00:42:18Yet no trace of him or his body was ever found.

00:42:21A grand jury failed to reach a conclusion,

00:42:23and to pull a crater entered the American lexicon

00:42:25as slang for disappearing without a trace.

00:42:28The police were able to verify part of Crouse's story.

00:42:30Their investigation showed that Crater

00:42:32had written at least two checks to Crouse.

00:42:34And Crouse did indeed have a Westchester home.

00:42:38Crouse's 1954 revelations revive public interest in the case.

00:42:43Life magazine funds an excavation of the home's backyard.

00:42:47Unfortunately, they don't find Crater's remains.

00:42:50And that's about as far as authorities can take things.

00:42:58Ohio, Circleville Letters.

00:43:00Driving around Circleville today

00:43:02would be much like driving around Roundtown in the late 1970s.

00:43:06Nothing changes much.

00:43:07In fact, the population continues to go down.

00:43:10There would be one major change, though.

00:43:12Back then, there were the letters.

00:43:14The Circleville Letters.

00:43:17In 1976, residents of Circleville, Ohio,

00:43:20began receiving anonymous letters

00:43:21exposing alleged affairs and corruption.

00:43:24The campaign turned sinister

00:43:25when Mary Gillespie's husband, Ron,

00:43:28died in a 1977 car crash,

00:43:30officially ruled an accident,

00:43:32though many considered the circumstances suspicious.

00:43:34William Harsha is a 4th District State Judge

00:43:37who was a prosecutor during some of the time of the letters.

00:43:40He received his share.

00:43:41Harsha says the main suspect of the letters

00:43:44was Paul Freshour, who lived in Grove City.

00:43:46Freshour was later convicted of booby-trapping a mailbox

00:43:49belonging to an ex-sister-in-law.

00:43:51That sister-in-law was a school bus driver

00:43:54who the letters would claim

00:43:55was having an affair with a school official.

00:43:57Police later arrested bus driver Paul Freshour

00:44:00after a booby-trapped gun linked to him was discovered.

00:44:03He was convicted of attempted murder.

00:44:04Yet even while Freshour was imprisoned,

00:44:07the letters kept coming.

00:44:08Decades of handwriting analysis and investigation

00:44:10have failed to identify the author,

00:44:12leaving the town's eerie correspondence

00:44:14as a haunting postscript.

00:44:15The writer also says,

00:44:17the signs and letters will not stop.

00:44:20Whatever happened, the letters continued off and on

00:44:22with less frequency into the 1990s.

00:44:25Then, like it never happened, the letters stopped.

00:44:28And Circleville carried on like nothing had ever happened.

00:44:37Oklahoma, Girl Scout murders.

00:44:39An empty tent, what stained mattresses.

00:44:42Agents arrested Gene Leroy Hart.

00:44:44The state's first two witnesses were former camp counselors.

00:44:48For two days, we've gone over what happened to our child.

00:44:51But still lacking, at least at mid-afternoon,

00:44:53was any hard evidence directly linking Hart

00:44:55to the scene of a crime.

00:44:57On June 13, 1977, the bodies of Lori Farmer,

00:45:00Denise Milner, and Michelle Goose

00:45:02were found on a trail at Camp Scott

00:45:04near Locust Grove, Oklahoma.

00:45:06The girls had been assaulted and murdered.

00:45:07Their bodies left about 150 yards from their tent.

00:45:10We believe Lori and Michelle

00:45:11were probably most likely killed in the tent

00:45:14and that Denise was either carried

00:45:17or made to walk to the location

00:45:19where the bodies were found.

00:45:20There was blood on the mattresses

00:45:22of the first two cots,

00:45:24of the two cots on the left.

00:45:26And there was blood on the floor of the tent.

00:45:29Suspicion soon fell on Gene Leroy Hart,

00:45:32a convicted sex offender

00:45:33who had escaped from prison four years earlier

00:45:35and was captured after a massive manhunt.

00:45:37Hart was tried in 1979 and acquitted,

00:45:40only to die of a heart attack in custody months later.

00:45:42Later DNA testing, including 2017 retesting,

00:45:45that strongly suggested Hart's involvement,

00:45:47never yielded a conclusive legal result,

00:45:50leaving the case officially unsolved.

00:45:52As far as the OSBI goes

00:45:54and the evidence that we have,

00:45:55our belief is that Gene Leroy Hart

00:45:57committed the murders.

00:45:58And the evidence that we have doesn't exclude him,

00:46:02it doesn't point to anyone else.

00:46:09Oregon, disappearance of Kyron Horman.

00:46:12It has been nearly 13 years

00:46:14since Kyron Horman disappeared.

00:46:16His mom has not given up her search

00:46:18since the then seven-year-old went missing

00:46:20from his elementary school in Portland.

00:46:22On June 4th, 2010,

00:46:24seven-year-old Kyron Horman

00:46:25vanished from Skyline Elementary School

00:46:27in Portland after attending a science fair

00:46:29with his stepmother, Terry Horman.

00:46:31He was seen walking toward his classroom,

00:46:33but never arrived.

00:46:33And no one has seen him since.

00:46:35The search that followed

00:46:36became the largest criminal investigation

00:46:38in Oregon's history,

00:46:39drawing over a thousand volunteers

00:46:41and multiple agencies.

00:46:42Yeah, Kyron Horman was last seen here

00:46:44at Skyline Elementary on June 4th, 2010.

00:46:48His mom drives up to the Portland area

00:46:49at least once a year, if not more,

00:46:51to work with law enforcement

00:46:53to keep this case active

00:46:54and to bring him home.

00:46:56Suspicion centered on Terry,

00:46:57whose behavior and communications

00:46:58fueled speculation,

00:47:00though she was never charged.

00:47:01As years passed,

00:47:02no physical evidence

00:47:03or trace of Kyron surfaced.

00:47:05His disappearance remains

00:47:06one of Oregon's most heartbreaking

00:47:07and confounding mysteries.

00:47:09My life didn't really move on.

00:47:11My mission stays the same.

00:47:14And until I get to bring Kyron home,

00:47:17I just keep fighting for him.

00:47:24Pennsylvania, who killed

00:47:26Joseph Augustus Sorelli?

00:47:28And Action News this noon

00:47:29is the child at the center

00:47:30of one of Philadelphia's highest profile

00:47:32unsolved mysteries

00:47:33now finally identified.

00:47:35Moments ago, Philadelphia investigators

00:47:37identified the so-called boy in the box

00:47:40as Joseph Augustus Sorelli.

00:47:42The child's body was found

00:47:43in a cardboard box

00:47:44on the side of what was

00:47:45Susquehanna Road

00:47:47in Fox Chase back in 1957.

00:47:50In February 1957,

00:47:52police discovered the body

00:47:53of a young boy wrapped in a blanket

00:47:54and placed inside a cardboard box

00:47:56in Philadelphia's Fox Chase neighborhood.

00:47:58For decades,

00:47:59he was known only

00:47:59as the boy in the box.

00:48:01Investigators chased thousands of leads

00:48:02from orphanages

00:48:03to traveling circuses,

00:48:04but none solved the mystery.

00:48:06Now, DNA was collected

00:48:08in 1998

00:48:09and once again in 2019.

00:48:11It was that evidence

00:48:12which finally led detectives

00:48:14to a break.

00:48:15The DNA matched up

00:48:16with another sample

00:48:18in a genealogy database.

00:48:20It connected little Sorelli

00:48:22to his mother.

00:48:23Then in 2022,

00:48:25forensics genealogy

00:48:26finally gave the boy his name.

00:48:27Joseph Augustus Sorelli,

00:48:29born in 1953.

00:48:30Authorities later identified

00:48:31both of his parents.

00:48:33The child died from blunt force trauma,

00:48:34but no suspect

00:48:35has been publicly identified.

00:48:37Though his name

00:48:37had been established,

00:48:39his killer remains unknown,

00:48:40ensuring the boy in the box case endures.

00:48:42Without the boy in the box,

00:48:44a profound sadness is felt.

00:48:47Not just because a child was murdered,

00:48:49but because his entire identity

00:48:53and his rightful claim

00:48:54to own his existence

00:48:56was taken away.

00:48:57Joseph has a number of siblings

00:48:59on both the mother and father's side

00:49:01who are living,

00:49:02and it is out of respect for them

00:49:04that their parents' information

00:49:06remain confidential.

00:49:12Rhode Island, origins of Newport Tower.

00:49:15People come from all over the world

00:49:17just to see this tower,

00:49:18and it's one of Rhode Island's

00:49:20stranger things.

00:49:23The Newport Tower

00:49:24is the oldest structure

00:49:25in Rhode Island.

00:49:27It's believed to be

00:49:29at least 400 years old.

00:49:31It's different than most architecture

00:49:33of Rhode Island,

00:49:34which is all wood

00:49:34and rectangular buildings.

00:49:36This one is circular,

00:49:37very unusual.

00:49:38At the heart of Toro Park

00:49:40in Newport, Rhode Island

00:49:41stands the Newport Tower,

00:49:42a circular stone structure

00:49:44that's baffled historians

00:49:45for centuries.

00:49:46Built of masonry fieldstone

00:49:47and featuring eight arches,

00:49:49the tower has inspired

00:49:50countless theories

00:49:51about its origins.

00:49:52No matter who built it,

00:49:53its purpose seems clear.

00:49:54In the 1990s,

00:49:56URI professor William Penhalo

00:49:58began solving the tower's mysteries.

00:50:01The structure

00:50:02is an astronomical timepiece.

00:50:05The horologium

00:50:06of building

00:50:06that keeps track of time.

00:50:07Sort of like

00:50:08a Rhode Island Stonehenge.

00:50:10Some claim it was erected

00:50:11by Norse explorers,

00:50:13Knights Templar,

00:50:13or even Chinese sailors

00:50:14long before Columbus,

00:50:16while most scholars

00:50:17credit 17th century governor

00:50:18Benedict Arnold,

00:50:19who referenced

00:50:20a stone windmill

00:50:21in his 1677 will.

00:50:22Still, its unusual design

00:50:24and supposed

00:50:25astronomical alignments

00:50:26continue to invite speculation.

00:50:28Whether medieval relic

00:50:29or colonial windmill,

00:50:30the Newport Tower

00:50:31remains an architectural enigma.

00:50:33It's not just

00:50:34the winter solstice

00:50:35this tower can track.

00:50:36Every 18.6 years

00:50:38for what's called

00:50:38a lunar miner,

00:50:39the full moon

00:50:40shines through

00:50:41the west window.

00:50:42It also tracks

00:50:43the north star

00:50:44and equinoxes,

00:50:45but the winter solstice

00:50:47is the most dramatic.

00:50:53South Carolina,

00:50:55Lizardman of Skateboard Swamp.

00:50:56My tires was

00:50:57bust and it flat.

00:51:00So I got out and changed

00:51:01about 2 a.m. at night.

00:51:05After I was finished changing,

00:51:06I was putting a flat

00:51:08in the jack and the trunk.

00:51:09I looked back,

00:51:11I saw red eyes,

00:51:14big red eyes thing running,

00:51:16toy.

00:51:16In the summer of 1988,

00:51:1917-year-old Christopher Davis

00:51:20reported a chilling encounter

00:51:21near Skateboard Swamp

00:51:23outside Bishopville,

00:51:24South Carolina.

00:51:25After stopping to fix

00:51:26a flat tire late at night,

00:51:27he claimed a 7-foot

00:51:28red-eyed reptilian creature

00:51:30lunged at his car,

00:51:31leaving deep claw marks

00:51:32in the metal.

00:51:33Within weeks,

00:51:33other residents reported

00:51:34similar sightings

00:51:35and animal attacks,

00:51:36prompting a media frenzy.

00:51:38I scratched my head.

00:51:39I said,

00:51:39I can't believe this

00:51:41when I'm here.

00:51:42I said,

00:51:42okay,

00:51:44draw it.

00:51:45He drew it.

00:51:46Immediately,

00:51:46he drew it.

00:51:47At that time,

00:51:49when this first broke,

00:51:50it went all over the world.

00:51:52Sheriff's deputies

00:51:53photographed large footprints

00:51:55and damaged cars,

00:51:56but no solid evidence

00:51:57ever emerged.

00:51:58Skeptics dismissed the legend

00:51:59as mass hysteria or hoax,

00:52:01yet locals embraced the story.

00:52:02Today,

00:52:02the Lizardman remains

00:52:03a beloved piece

00:52:04of Carolina folklore

00:52:05and an icon

00:52:05of American cryptid culture.

00:52:07The legend of the Lizardman

00:52:09is Lee County.

00:52:10We just need to embrace it.

00:52:12Every town should have an icon,

00:52:13and we just happen

00:52:14to be fortunate enough

00:52:15that it happens

00:52:16to be a Lizardman,

00:52:17that he chose us

00:52:18as opposed to us

00:52:18having to go out

00:52:19and find an icon

00:52:20for Lee County.

00:52:21I think he likes us.

00:52:22Maybe he doesn't.

00:52:22He doesn't like cars,

00:52:23obviously,

00:52:24but we'll take him

00:52:25for what he's worth.

00:52:31South Dakota.

00:52:32Deaths of Arnold Archambault

00:52:34and Ruby Bruggeier.

00:52:35Lake Andy, South Dakota,

00:52:37December 12, 1992.

00:52:39At six in the morning,

00:52:40a car stopped

00:52:41at a remote intersection

00:52:43at the edge

00:52:43of the Yankton Sioux

00:52:44Indian Reservation.

00:52:46It was cold.

00:52:47The road was icy.

00:52:49All three of the car's

00:52:50occupants had been drinking.

00:52:51Archambault

00:52:52and his girlfriend,

00:52:53Ruby Bruggeier,

00:52:54both from the Yankton Sioux

00:52:55Reservation,

00:52:56crashed their car

00:52:57near Lake Andy, South Dakota.

00:52:58When responders arrived,

00:52:59the vehicle was overturned

00:53:01in a roadside ditch,

00:53:02but the couple had vanished,

00:53:03leaving Ruby's cousin,

00:53:04Tracy Deon,

00:53:05disoriented but alive.

00:53:06I was really scared

00:53:07because, gee,

00:53:08Ruby's my cousin,

00:53:09you know.

00:53:10How can she leave me,

00:53:11you know?

00:53:12If she got out,

00:53:13how come,

00:53:13how come, you know,

00:53:14she didn't want to help me out,

00:53:16you know?

00:53:16Or why didn't Arnold

00:53:17try to help me get out,

00:53:19too, you know?

00:53:19Three months later,

00:53:20in March 1993,

00:53:21their partially decomposed bodies

00:53:23were found in the same

00:53:24roadside depression,

00:53:25within yards of the crash site,

00:53:26despite earlier searches

00:53:27that came up empty.

00:53:29Investigators couldn't explain

00:53:30how the pair

00:53:30ended up back at the scene

00:53:31or why they weren't

00:53:32found sooner.

00:53:33The coroner determined

00:53:34hypothermia due to exposure

00:53:35with the manner of death

00:53:36undetermined,

00:53:37and lingering inconsistencies

00:53:39have kept suspicions

00:53:40of foul play alive

00:53:41ever since.

00:53:42I've gotten written

00:53:43affidavits from people

00:53:44that's also walked it,

00:53:45people that had nothing

00:53:46to do with the case.

00:53:49They couldn't have been there.

00:53:50They couldn't have been missed.

00:53:56Tennessee, Bell Witch.

00:53:58Voices and strange noises

00:54:01in the cave

00:54:02is actually very common,

00:54:03but there's been stuff

00:54:05actually happen

00:54:06all over the farm.

00:54:07It's not just the cave.

00:54:09We've had tapping

00:54:10and knocking in the cabin

00:54:12or hear footsteps

00:54:13and nobody's there.

00:54:16Between 1817 and 1821,

00:54:18the Bell family

00:54:19of Adams, Tennessee,

00:54:19claimed they were tormented

00:54:21by a violent

00:54:21and intelligent spirit

00:54:23known as the Bell Witch.

00:54:24The entity reportedly targeted

00:54:26farmer John Bell

00:54:27and his daughter Betsy,

00:54:28speaking in disembodied voices,

00:54:30moving objects,

00:54:30and even striking family members.

00:54:32The whole community

00:54:33of Adams witnessed this.

00:54:35It attended church,

00:54:37but it gave multiple identities

00:54:40of itself,

00:54:41saying that it was

00:54:42an Indian spirit,

00:54:43an immigrant spirit.

00:54:44The haunting became famous

00:54:46when legend holds

00:54:47that Andrew Jackson

00:54:47visited the Bell home,

00:54:49though historians find

00:54:50no documentary evidence

00:54:51he ever did.

00:54:52John Bell's mysterious

00:54:531820 death

00:54:54was later blamed

00:54:55on the spirit

00:54:55said to have poisoned him.

00:54:57Skeptics attribute the tale

00:54:58to folklore and mass hysteria,

00:54:59but the Bell Witch

00:55:00remains a ghost story

00:55:01that refuses to die.

00:55:02There has been times

00:55:04where we've heard somebody

00:55:05walk up on the pavilion

00:55:07and there's nobody there.

00:55:09We've come in

00:55:10and there'll be books

00:55:10all over the floor

00:55:11in the gift shop.

00:55:14That's happened

00:55:15multiple times, actually.

00:55:17History or haunting,

00:55:18the Bell Witch legend

00:55:19has put Adams on the map.

00:55:26Texas.

00:55:27Texarkana, Moonlight Murders.

00:55:29Tonight, a final case

00:55:30is from the Tex-Files,

00:55:31Texas mysteries

00:55:32worthy of X-Files plots.

00:55:34You've heard this one,

00:55:35serial killers

00:55:36stalking young couples

00:55:37on Lover's Lane,

00:55:38but it isn't fiction.

00:55:39It's the real deal,

00:55:41a legendary predator

00:55:42that people in Texarkana

00:55:43have always known

00:55:45as the Phantom Killer.

00:55:47The twin cities

00:55:48of Texarkana

00:55:49straddling Texas

00:55:49and Arkansas

00:55:50were gripped by fear

00:55:51as an unidentified gunman

00:55:53stalked couples

00:55:53parked on remote roads

00:55:55in the spring of 1946.

00:55:56The killer, dubbed

00:55:57the Phantom, murdered

00:55:58five people

00:55:59and wounded three others

00:56:00over ten weeks.

00:56:01Survivors described him

00:56:02as wearing a white sack

00:56:03with eye holes,

00:56:04attacking mostly

00:56:04with a .32 caliber pistol,

00:56:06though one later assault

00:56:07involved a .22 rifle.

00:56:09Tillman Johnson

00:56:10was then a deputy sheriff

00:56:11on the Arkansas side.

00:56:13People were frightened,

00:56:15not only here,

00:56:16but for miles around here.

00:56:18When dark came,

00:56:19the kids came in.

00:56:21People didn't go downtown

00:56:22too much.

00:56:23They were frightened.

00:56:25Life magazine gave it

00:56:26front page coverage

00:56:27and hordes of policemen

00:56:28came to town.

00:56:29Despite a massive investigation,

00:56:31police never caught

00:56:32the perpetrator.

00:56:33Suspect Ewell Swinney

00:56:34was imprisoned

00:56:35for auto theft

00:56:36but never charged

00:56:36with the murders

00:56:37and no conclusive link

00:56:38was ever proven.

00:56:40The unsolved spree

00:56:40inspired the 1976 film

00:56:42The Town That Dreaded Sundown

00:56:44and a legend of terror

00:56:45that still lingers.

00:56:46Ewell Swinney,

00:56:47car thief,

00:56:48habitual criminal,

00:56:49long-time con.

00:56:50In the end,

00:56:51a lot of the evidence

00:56:52does seem to point to him

00:56:53and thus,

00:56:54mystery solved.

00:56:56Well, maybe not.

00:56:58Over the years,

00:56:59relatives of murder victims

00:57:01have received

00:57:01anonymous phone calls

00:57:03from a woman,

00:57:04middle-aged maybe,

00:57:06apologizing for what she said

00:57:08her father had done.

00:57:14Utah, Skinwalker Ranch.

00:57:17From UFO sightings

00:57:18to cattle mutilations,

00:57:20a ranch in the Uintah Basin

00:57:22has been home to numerous

00:57:23bizarre and terrifying events

00:57:25and it's now the subject

00:57:26of its own TV series

00:57:27on the History Channel.

00:57:28Yeah, well, tonight,

00:57:29new specials Andrew Adams

00:57:30has his own exclusive look

00:57:32inside the mysterious

00:57:33Skinwalker Ranch

00:57:34after a visit that proved

00:57:36to be a little out

00:57:37of this world.

00:57:38In Utah's remote Uintah Basin

00:57:40sits Skinwalker Ranch,

00:57:41a 512-acre property

00:57:43infamous for decades

00:57:44of bizarre activity.

00:57:46From glowing orbs

00:57:47and cattle mutilations

00:57:48to unexplained aerial craft.

00:57:49The site takes its name

00:57:50from Navajo legends

00:57:51of skinwalkers,

00:57:52shape-shifting witches

00:57:53said to possess

00:57:54dark supernatural powers.

00:57:55In 1996,

00:57:57aerospace magnate

00:57:58Robert Bigelow

00:57:59bought the ranch

00:57:59to study its phenomena

00:58:00under his National Institute

00:58:02for Discovery Science.

00:58:03Brandon Fugel

00:58:04now employs a team

00:58:06of scientists

00:58:06and they've found

00:58:07when it comes to

00:58:08radio frequencies,

00:58:10the ranch

00:58:10has a peculiar pulse.

00:58:12So we might think of this

00:58:13as a range

00:58:14across the radio

00:58:16dial

00:58:17and here

00:58:18it's as if

00:58:19several stations

00:58:21all at once

00:58:21became very loud.

00:58:23Later,

00:58:24the Defense Intelligence

00:58:25Agency's

00:58:26AAWSAP program

00:58:27explored similar anomalies

00:58:29through Bigelow's

00:58:30research company.

00:58:31Despite years of

00:58:31monitoring sensors

00:58:32and high-tech cameras,

00:58:33no verifiable evidence

00:58:35has ever emerged.

00:58:36Today, Skinwalker Ranch

00:58:37stands at the crossroads

00:58:38of science, folklore

00:58:39and pop culture myth.

00:58:40What does it say?

00:58:41Calibration failed

00:58:42that it was too strong

00:58:43to actually calibrate.

00:58:44At the time,

00:58:44our drone

00:58:45encountered an

00:58:46unexpected interference.

00:58:47I don't know

00:58:48what that is

00:58:48or if it has

00:58:49any relationship

00:58:49to what's happened

00:58:50with your drone.

00:58:52The RF sensors

00:58:53started going crazy.

00:58:55Well, this is a recording

00:58:56I just made 30 seconds ago.

00:58:58When a contrail shadow

00:59:00began to appear

00:59:00in the sky.

00:59:06Virginia,

00:59:07Colonial Parkway murders.

00:59:09Full of light,

00:59:10witty, smart and beautifully

00:59:12herself.

00:59:13A true firecracker.

00:59:15Loved ones of Lori Ann Powell

00:59:17remember the 18-year-old

00:59:18before she was murdered

00:59:19back in March of 1988.

00:59:21According to police,

00:59:22she was last seen

00:59:23walking along Route 614

00:59:25toward Route 17

00:59:27in Gloucester County.

00:59:28Between 1986 and 1989,

00:59:31at least eight people,

00:59:32four young couples,

00:59:33were murdered along

00:59:34or near Virginia's

00:59:35scenic Colonial Parkway.

00:59:36The historic route linking

00:59:38Jamestown, Williamsburg

00:59:39and Yorktown.

00:59:39The victims were found

00:59:40in or near their cars,

00:59:42often showing signs

00:59:43of restraint

00:59:43but little indication

00:59:44of robbery

00:59:45or sexual assault.

00:59:46The FBI initially

00:59:47suspected a single

00:59:48serial killer,

00:59:49though later theories

00:59:50proposed multiple offenders

00:59:51or a rogue

00:59:52law enforcement impersonator.

00:59:53State police have identified

00:59:55Alan Wilmer Sr.

00:59:56as the suspect

00:59:57who killed Powell.

00:59:59If that name sounds familiar,

01:00:00it's because back

01:00:01in January of 2024,

01:00:03police linked Wilmer

01:00:04to the deaths

01:00:05of Teresa Howell

01:00:06in Hampton

01:00:06and the deaths

01:00:07of Robin Edwards

01:00:09and David Nobley.

01:00:10Cases commonly known

01:00:11as the Colonial Parkway murders.

01:00:13In 2024,

01:00:14Virginia State Police

01:00:15posthumously identified

01:00:16Alan W. Wilmer Sr.

01:00:18as a suspect

01:00:19in two related cases,

01:00:20but the broader series

01:00:21remains unsolved.

01:00:22Decades later,

01:00:23the Colonial Parkway murders

01:00:24continue to haunt

01:00:25investigators

01:00:26and the lovers' lanes

01:00:27of Virginia.

01:00:28Nothing can erase

01:00:29the pain of losing

01:00:30Lorianne.

01:00:30Today we find comfort

01:00:31in knowing that the truth

01:00:32has come to light

01:00:33and that accountability

01:00:34has finally been achieved.

01:00:36We hope this resolution

01:00:38brings a measure of peace

01:00:39to everyone who loved her

01:00:41and all the families

01:00:41still waiting for justice

01:00:43in unsolved cases.

01:00:49Vermont.

01:00:50Bennington Triangle

01:00:51Disappearances.

01:00:52In the forests

01:00:53around Bennington, Vermont,

01:00:54a series of mysterious

01:00:56disappearances

01:00:56in the 1940s and 1950s

01:00:58created what local lore

01:00:59would dub

01:01:00the Bennington Triangle.

01:01:01The most famous

01:01:02was Paula Jean Weldon,

01:01:03a 19-year-old

01:01:04Bennington College student

01:01:05who vanished

01:01:06from the Long Trail

01:01:07on December 1st, 1946

01:01:09during a routine hike,

01:01:10triggering massive searches

01:01:11that turned up nothing.

01:01:13Between 1945 and 1950,

01:01:15at least four other people

01:01:16disappeared in the same

01:01:17remote wilderness,

01:01:18including hunter

01:01:19Mitty Rivers

01:01:20and veteran James Tedford,

01:01:21who vanished

01:01:22from a bus en route home.

01:01:23No bodies,

01:01:24no confirmed sightings,

01:01:25and no explanations emerged.

01:01:26Fueling speculation

01:01:27about wild predators,

01:01:29hidden cults,

01:01:29through something far stranger

01:01:30lurking in Vermont's mountains.

01:01:37Washington.

01:01:38Disappearance of D.B. Cooper.

01:01:40The break in the

01:01:41nine-year-old investigation

01:01:42came Sunday

01:01:43when Dwayne and Patricia Ingram's

01:01:45eight-year-old son

01:01:46overturned some sand

01:01:47while walking the shoreline

01:01:49of the Columbia River

01:01:50near Vancouver, Washington.

01:01:51The public learned

01:01:52in an FBI news conference

01:01:54Tuesday,

01:01:55little Brian Ingram

01:01:56unearthed several packets

01:01:57of deteriorated $20 bills,

01:01:59and the FBI confirmed it.

01:02:01Chances are

01:02:01you've heard this one before.

01:02:03On November 24, 1971,

01:02:05a man calling himself

01:02:06Dan Cooper

01:02:06hijacked Northwest Orient

01:02:08at the end of the day.

01:02:08Flight 305

01:02:09after it departed

01:02:10Portland, Oregon

01:02:10for Seattle, Washington.

01:02:12Claiming to have a bomb,

01:02:13he extorted $200,000

01:02:14in ransom

01:02:15and four parachutes

01:02:17before releasing

01:02:17the passengers.

01:02:18In a bold,

01:02:19unprecedented move,

01:02:20he then parachuted

01:02:21from the rear stairs

01:02:21of the Boeing 727

01:02:23into stormy skies

01:02:24somewhere over

01:02:25southwest Washington.

01:02:26E.B. Cooper bailed out

01:02:27of a Northwest Airlines jet

01:02:28going 200 miles an hour

01:02:30at about 10,000 feet.

01:02:31The best guess is

01:02:32he jumped almost exactly

01:02:33over LeCenter, Washington.

01:02:35In fact,

01:02:35a placard from the jet

01:02:36was found near there.

01:02:37Despite an extensive

01:02:38FBI hunt

01:02:39and occasional leads,

01:02:40including a partial stash

01:02:41of the ransom

01:02:42found near Vancouver

01:02:43in 1980,

01:02:44neither Cooper

01:02:45nor definitive evidence

01:02:46of his fate

01:02:47has ever been found.

01:02:48Here it is,

01:02:49right here behind me

01:02:50on screen,

01:02:50that new breadcrumb

01:02:52that was discovered.

01:02:53A trace of metal

01:02:54pulled from Cooper's necktie.

01:02:56Here it looks massive,

01:02:57but in reality

01:02:58it's itsy-bitsy.

01:02:59I'm told 3 to 4%

01:03:01of a single centimeter.

01:03:02You need a microscope

01:03:03to see it.

01:03:09Wisconsin,

01:03:10Beast of Bray Road.

01:03:11I told my mom

01:03:12I thought I saw a werewolf

01:03:13and my mom believed me.

01:03:15It was walking along

01:03:16a good probably

01:03:177 to 10 seconds

01:03:19before it had

01:03:20turned its head.

01:03:21That thing,

01:03:22that was no dog.

01:03:23That was too big

01:03:24to be a dog.

01:03:25That thing was bigger

01:03:25than me.

01:03:28That thing

01:03:29was stalking cornfields,

01:03:31jumping on cars,

01:03:32and feasting on roadkill.

01:03:35In rural Walworth County,

01:03:36Wisconsin,

01:03:37near Elkhorn,

01:03:38locals began reporting

01:03:39sightings in the 1980s

01:03:40and 1990s

01:03:41of a strange wolf-like creature

01:03:43roaming the countryside

01:03:44along Bray Road.

01:03:46Dubbed the Beast of Bray Road,

01:03:47witnesses described

01:03:48the tall, hairy,

01:03:49humanoid creature,

01:03:50sometimes walking upright,

01:03:51sometimes on all fours,

01:03:52with glowing eyes

01:03:53and a menacing presence.

01:03:54Some claimed it chased cars

01:03:56or left scratch marks

01:03:57on vehicles.

01:03:57It was foggy out

01:03:58and I was a little bit afraid.

01:04:00And this big thing

01:04:02come just like

01:04:03trucking,

01:04:04you know,

01:04:04just trucking down

01:04:05the road at me,

01:04:06man.

01:04:06I looked at it

01:04:07and I'm like,

01:04:07ah,

01:04:08and I ran,

01:04:08I got back in the car.

01:04:10You know,

01:04:10and before I peeled off,

01:04:11that thing scratched

01:04:12the back of the car.

01:04:13Tom Brickta's car

01:04:14was also scratched

01:04:15by the creature

01:04:16from Bray Road.

01:04:17My adrenaline

01:04:18started pumping.

01:04:20I was scared.

01:04:21While skeptics

01:04:22point to misidentified animals

01:04:23like wolves or bears

01:04:24and suggest hoaxes

01:04:25or exaggeration,

01:04:26the legend persists

01:04:27in regional folklore,

01:04:28inspiring books,

01:04:29documentaries,

01:04:30and a cult following

01:04:31among cryptid enthusiasts.

01:04:32So,

01:04:33is it a dog,

01:04:34coyote,

01:04:35or werewolf?

01:04:36Believe what you will,

01:04:37but just remember,

01:04:39it's here.

01:04:40Just waiting.

01:04:47West Virginia,

01:04:48Mothman of Point Pleasant.

01:04:50I was in the third grade.

01:04:52My neighbors saw it,

01:04:53said there's a large,

01:04:54there's a six-foot bird

01:04:55with big red eyes

01:04:57and massive wings

01:04:59chasing cars in a TNT,

01:05:02and in fact,

01:05:02it kept up

01:05:03with Roger Scarberry's

01:05:0457 Chevy.

01:05:06Between November 1966

01:05:07and December 1967,

01:05:09residents of Point Pleasant,

01:05:10West Virginia,

01:05:11reported sightings

01:05:12of a bizarre,

01:05:13winged humanoid

01:05:13with glowing red eyes,

01:05:15quickly dubbed

01:05:15the Mothman.

01:05:16The first accounts

01:05:17came when two couples

01:05:18saw a large,

01:05:19bird-like creature

01:05:20near the old TNT plant,

01:05:21and the reports

01:05:22ramped up

01:05:23in the following months.

01:05:24It officially ended

01:05:25the Mothman.

01:05:26That's what ended the story.

01:05:28That was it.

01:05:29When the bridge fell,

01:05:30no one wanted to hear

01:05:31about the Mothman anymore.

01:05:32It was ultimately discovered

01:05:33that a single eye bar,

01:05:3555 feet long,

01:05:36fractured,

01:05:37causing the pin

01:05:38holding it in place

01:05:39to become loose

01:05:40and the tragic chain

01:05:41of events to follow.

01:05:42Some locals feared

01:05:43it was a harbinger

01:05:44of calamity,

01:05:44and when the Silver Bridge

01:05:45collapsed in December 1967,

01:05:48killing 46 people,

01:05:49the legend took on

01:05:50ominous meaning.

01:05:51While scientists often

01:05:52cite misidentified birds,

01:05:53the Mothman remains

01:05:54a fixture of West Virginia folklore,

01:05:56spawning books,

01:05:57films, festivals,

01:05:57and a giant statue

01:05:58in Point Pleasant's Park.

01:05:59It's a copy of the

01:06:01original Point Pleasant Register

01:06:02of the first Mothman sighting.

01:06:05Wednesday, November 16th,

01:06:06so it would have been

01:06:07the morning after.

01:06:08Couple sees man-sized bird,

01:06:10creature, something.

01:06:13There's drawings!

01:06:15Yay!

01:06:16Scarsberry eyewitness sketch

01:06:18of Mothman,

01:06:19verified by others.

01:06:26Wyoming.

01:06:27Disappearance of Amy Rowe Bechdel.

01:06:29With the 15-year anniversary

01:06:30of Amy Bechdel's disappearance

01:06:31coming up next month,

01:06:33the Fremont County Sheriff's Office

01:06:34say even though it's a cold case,

01:06:36they are still following up on tips

01:06:38and they even have a new lead.

01:06:40On July 24th, 1997,

01:06:42Amy Joy Rowe Bechdel,

01:06:43a record-breaking distance runner

01:06:45and aspiring Olympian,

01:06:46vanished while jogging

01:06:47near her home in Lander, Wyoming.

01:06:49Bechdel had been mapping out

01:06:50a 10-kilometer race route

01:06:52in the Wind River Range

01:06:53when she disappeared.

01:06:54Later that night,

01:06:55searchers found her

01:06:56unlocked white Toyota Tercel

01:06:57abandoned a long loop road

01:06:59with no sign of struggle

01:07:00or clues to her whereabouts.

01:07:01From such a small community

01:07:03where we don't have

01:07:04a lot of criminal activity,

01:07:06especially in that time,

01:07:09to just go up in the mountains

01:07:11for a run and then just disappear

01:07:13and basically just disappear

01:07:16without any traces of evidence.

01:07:19Despite extensive investigations,

01:07:22media attention,

01:07:22and renewed searches over the years,

01:07:24Bechdel's fate remains unknown.

01:07:26In 2004,

01:07:26she was declared legally deceased

01:07:28and her disappearance

01:07:29remains a perplexing open case.

01:07:31Which of these mysteries

01:07:32intrigues you the most?

01:07:33Let us know in the comments.

50 Unsolved Mysteries in ALL 50 States of America | Full Doc

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