The Best Unsolved Mysteries That Keep People Up at Night

Four questions, four blanks — who was behind it, how it happened, why, and where the settlers went. John White sailed back in 1590 to find the site fortified and abandoned, the word CROATOAN carved into a post of the palisade. The lead calls that White's interpretation rather than a finding, and says the fate of the 112 to 121 colonists is largely unknown. Nothing has closed it since 1590.

Roanoke Colony - Wikipediahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roanoke_Colony

Adrift off the Azores on December 4, 1872, dishevelled but seaworthy, under partial sail, still amply provisioned. Who, how, why, where they went — every one of the four comes back empty. The salvage hearing at Gibraltar weighed mutiny, piracy and insurance fraud and found no convincing evidence for any of them. The missing lifeboat, with the cargo of alcohol left intact, is the only thing gone.

Mary Celeste - Wikipediahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Celeste

A house fire in Fayetteville, West Virginia, on Christmas morning 1945, and then nothing. George, Jennie and four of the nine children escaped; the bodies of the other five have never been found. All four questions are blank — who, how, why, where they went. A repairman told the parents the telephone line cut 14 feet up the pole had not burned through at all.

Sodder children disappearance - Wikipediahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodder_children_disappearance

Twenty-five passengers and crew left this vessel in the South Pacific in October 1955 and none of them arrived anywhere. She was found adrift with nobody aboard, and investigators were puzzled that the crew had not stayed put and waited for help — the cork lining that made her virtually unsinkable meant she was never going down. Four blanks, open since 1955.

MV Joyita - Wikipediahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MV_Joyita

Two friends and one of their mothers walked out of a house in Missouri on June 7, 1992, leaving cars, purses and everything else behind. The single sign of anything wrong was a broken porch light globe. A relative heard the strange message erased from the answering machine before police could. Neither their whereabouts nor their remains have ever been discovered — all four questions are blank.

Springfield Three - Wikipediahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Springfield_Three

Sign-off from the flight deck: the last radio call was Good night. Malaysian three seven zero. Radar lost the aircraft on 8 March 2014, and the cause of its disappearance has not been determined. Australian investigators proposed hypoxia and the lead reports that no consensus was reached on it. Two searches ended without finding the aircraft — who, how, why and where it went are all blank.

Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 - Wikipediahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaysia_Airlines_Flight_370

Whitechapel, 1888, and three of the four come back empty: who he was, why, and what became of him afterwards. How it happened is not blank — the lead states that the victims' throats were cut before the abdominal mutilations. George Lusk of the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee found half a human kidney in the box sent to him with the From Hell letter. Unsolved since 1888.

Jack the Ripper - Wikipediahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_the_Ripper

Manoel Pereira da Cruz and Miguel José Viana were found dead on a hill above Niterói on 20 August 1966, each in a formal suit, a waterproof coat and an eye mask made of lead. Where they ended up is the one question the lead settles. The cause of death was never determined, and neither was who else was there, or why. A notebook nearby carried the line reading 18:30 ingerir cápsulas.

Lead masks case - Wikipediahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead_masks_case

At least five people were murdered in the San Francisco Bay Area between December 1968 and October 1969, and the lead says plainly where and how. Who, why and what became of him are the blanks. Four cryptograms went to newspapers and two were decrypted, in 1969 and 2020 — the two cryptograms still unsolved are the remainder. Police named a single suspect, who died in 1992.

Zodiac Killer - Wikipediahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zodiac_Killer

Big Ear picked up a strong narrowband radio signal on August 15, 1977, and the lead describes the detection completely. What produced it, why, and where that source sits are the blanks — Sagittarius is a direction, and the lead hedges even that. Jerry Ehman wrote a one-word comment beside 6EQUJ5 circled on the computer printout. It lasted 72 seconds and never came back.

Wow! signal - Wikipediahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wow!_signal

Two blanks and two answers. The lead tells the whole story: treasure buried in Bedford County, Virginia, in about 1820, a box left with an innkeeper, three ciphertexts printed decades later. It also reports the arguments that the story is a hoax. Who the owners were and where the treasure sits are blank — the Declaration of Independence used as the key cracked the second text and no more.

Beale ciphers - Wikipediahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beale_ciphers

Fired clay, about 16 cm across, dug out of the Minoan palace of Phaistos by Luigi Pernier in 1908 and on display at Heraklion ever since. The lead says how it was made and where it is now, then says its purpose and its original place of manufacture are disputed. Who made it and why are the two blanks. There are 45 distinct signs pressed in with individual stamps.

Phaistos Disc - Wikipediahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phaistos_Disc

Panels of amber backed with gold leaf and mirrors, built in Prussia and given to Peter the Great, then installed at the Catherine Palace. Army Group North looted it during the war and took it to Königsberg for display, so who took it and why are both closed. What became of it and where it went are not — the paper trail that ends at Königsberg is all there is. Missing since 1944.

Amber Room - Wikipediahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amber_Room

Elizabeth Short was found in Leimert Park, Los Angeles, on January 15, 1947, a body severed at the waist and drained of blood. That settles how it happened and where she ended up. Who did it and why do not get settled: LAPD worked through over 150 suspects and made no arrest, and by that spring it was a cold case. The nickname came later — possibly from the 1946 film The Blue Dahlia.

Black Dahlia - Wikipediahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Dahlia

Northwest Orient Flight 305, November 24, 1971. The lead narrates the whole hijacking and gives the motive: a claimed bomb, a ransom, four parachutes, then the aft door lowered over southwest Washington. Two answers, two blanks — his identity and his ultimate fate are both undetermined. He left the black clip-on necktie in seat 18-E, and part of the ransom surfaced on the Columbia River in 1980.

D. B. Cooper - Wikipediahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D._B._Cooper

One blank, and it is who. A granite monument stood in Elbert County from 1980 until a bombing on July 6, 2022, after which the local government hauled the debris away. The lead gives the reason plainly: the creators expected a social, nuclear or economic calamity and meant it as a guide for whatever came after. It never names them. The hole drilled through the center column framed the North Star.

Georgia Guidestones - Wikipediahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia_Guidestones