Can You Solve These Mysteries?Amateur sleuths and Internet detectives: Now's your chance to prove your skills. Solve these real unsolved cases, then alert the police so they can put these babies to bed.
Updated December 6, 2021 31.6k votes 8.5k voters 782.5k views
Voting Rules
Vote up all the solved mysteries that you find unnerving.
Local history is often weird history, and it's almost inevitable that if you dig deep enough, you'll learn about a creepy, disturbing, or just downright bizarre story that happened near you. Whether it's the eccentric, superstitious heiress who kept building onto her house for decades to appease spirits, or the European tourists who disappeared into thin air, history is full of mystery. More chilling is the fact that humans have continued to display what evil they're capable of throughout the centuries.
Not only are some of these mysteries upsetting, they all have a curious element as well. And just because these mysteries were solved doesn't mean they won't still creep you out. Just a tip: You probably don't want to read this before bedtime.
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7,136 VOTES
A Perplexing Suicide Note Led Police To Discover Pots Of Body Parts In A Kitchen
In New Orleans, LA, on an October night in 2006, the body of Zachary Bowen, an Iraq War veteran who was just 28 years old, was found on top of a parking garage. In his pocket, police found his dog tags, a suicide note, and a key to his girlfriend's apartment. The note read:
This is not accidental. I had to take my own life to pay for the one I took. If you send a patrol car to 826 N. Rampart, you will find the dismembered corpse of my girlfriend Addie in the oven, on the stove, and in the fridge and a full signed confession from myself... Zack Bowen.
When police arrived at Addie Hall's apartment, that is exactly what they found. Her head was in a pot on the stove, as were her hands and feet, and her legs and arms were covered with seasoning salt on a roasting pan in the oven. Upon further searches of the scene, police found Bowen's journal, in which he calmly described how he strangled Hall to death and, not surprised that he had no remorse for the act, decided it was time to leave this world.
7,136 votes
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4,826 VOTES
When Police Rescued A Recently Missing Child, They Also Found A Boy Who Had Been Missing For Four Years
In January 2007, 13-year-old Ben Ownby disappeared from a school bus stop in rural Missouri. A witness saw the white pick-up truck that carried Ownby away, which eventually led police to a small one-bedroom apartment belonging to 41-year-old Michael Devlin. Upon arriving at the scene, investigators not only discovered Ownby alive and well, but another boy, Shawn Hornbeck, who had been missing from the area for four years sitting comfortably on the couch.
Devlin had quite literally been on the prowl in rural neighborhoods, looking for a young boy to victimize when he abducted Hornbeck and took him back to his apartment just 50 miles away. Eventually, Hornbeck was allowed out of the apartment to lead a relatively normal life, under the threat that if he tried to leave or tell anybody about his captivity, Devlin would kill his family. This arrangement, coupled with sexual abuse, lasted for four years, until Devlin decided Hornbeck was getting too old and he started looking for another victim. That's when he spotted Ownby at the bus stop.
With the eyewitness tip fresh in mind, officers happened to be responding to an unrelated call at Devlin's apartment complex when they spotted the white pick-up. The next day, they questioned Devlin at the pizza shop he owned, which was just around the corner from the police station; he confessed to kidnapping not one but two boys.
Authorities were stunned not only at his confession, but at the result: two abducted boys, found alive, not more than an hour's drive from their homes. Devlin received 74 life sentences for his crimes.
4,826 votes
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4,561 VOTES
A Murder Investigation Went Cold Until A Family Found A Drifter In Their Attic
In the fall of 1941, while his wife Helen was recovering in the hospital from a broken hip, Philip Peters returned home to find a man going through his icebox. He confronted the man, and was promptly beaten to death by the intruder with a cast-iron stove shaker. Worried neighbors came to check on Peters that evening, as they usually saw him every day; that's when they discovered his body.
No evidence was found at the scene, dumbfounding the police. Even more mind-boggling were the calls from neighbors - and even Helen, once she returned home - insisting they heard someone in the house, or telling of odd smells. Every time officers responded, they found nothing suspicious. Helen eventually moved out and the house stayed vacant, yet calls from the neighbors continued.
Police finally caught a break when two officers stationed in front of the house spotted a man inside. They rushed inside just in time to see a pair of spindly legs disappearing into an attic trapdoor. The suspect, Theodore Coneys, was apprehended and confessed to Peters's murder. Upon viewing the filthy, cramped quarters that Coneys had been living in for months, Officer Fred Zarnow declared, "A man would have to be a spider to stand it long up there." And so began the legend of "The Denver Spider Man."
A Family Of Four Vanished Into Thin Air Until A Dirt Biker Made A Gruesome Discovery
When the McStay family vanished in February 2010, it was as if they had simply disappeared in the middle of an ordinary day at their Southern California home. The house had no signs of forced entry or other suspicious activity. There was no communication, no cellphone data, no credit card activity. Their groceries were left out on the counter, and their two dogs were left outside in the cold. What could have happened to this well-loved family?
More than three years later, a dirt biker made a grisly discovery in the desert 100 miles away from the McStay home: a child's skull. This led investigators to a shallow grave containing the remains of all four McStays: Joseph, his wife Summer, and their preschool-aged sons Gianni and Joseph. Buried in the grave along with the remains was the weapon that killed them: a sledgehammer.
The mystery went unsolved until another year later, when Joseph's friend and business partner Charles Merritt was arrested for the murders, thanks to cellphone tracking data and DNA analysis from the family's car found near the Mexican border. The likely motive? Around $42,000 that Merritt owed McStay.
A Private Investigator Brought Down A Serial Rapist When He Spotted A Suspicious Suitcase
On a cold February morning in 2005, 21-year-old Inna Budnytska was found on a sidewalk naked, alone, and unconscious. She had been attacked and raped. Her discovery marked the start of a long and winding investigation that would take months to solve. When Budnytska sued the hotel in which she was staying at the time of the attack, blaming the establishment for inadequate security, the hotel called in private investigator Ken Brennan.
After reviewing surveillance camera footage, Brennan noticed a large man leaving the hotel with a suitcase so heavy, it required an extra tug to get through the elevator. Thinking that was odd, Brennan tracked down the suspect and obtained a DNA specimen, which was a match for the DNA connected to the crime scene.
As it turned out, the suspect had not only attacked Budnytska; his job in the catering business took him all over the country, and he had attacked women in Colorado, Louisiana, and likely other states, as well. Once his DNA was entered into the system, matches to other cold cases came up. The attacker, Michael Lee Jones, was arrested and sentenced to 24 years in prison.
The 'Weepy-Voiced Killer' Would Cry And Confess His Murders Over The Phone, But He Didn't Reveal Everything Until He Was Dying
The Minneapolis-St. Paul region of Minnesota saw a series of unsolved murders and attacks take place in the 1980s. Police had no leads but one strange clue: The murderer would call and confess to the crime, emotionally distraught and crying, yet he would leave no identifying information behind. "I can't stop myself. I keep killing somebody," he tearfully said in a high-pitched, whiny voice. Thus, the hunt for the aptly named "weepy-voiced killer" began.
It started with a brutal attack on Karen Potack, a 20-year-old who had the misfortune of running into the killer in the early morning hours of New Year's Day. A crying man then phoned the police, alerting them of Potack's whereabouts and urging them to get there quickly. Miraculously, Potack survived her severe head and neck injuries, but the next victim wasn't so lucky.
Kimberly Compton, 18, was stabbed with an ice pick more than 60 times; the killer called the police to confess and cry, yet his regret didn't stop him from killing again. Kathleen Greening, 33, was drowned in her bathtub, and 40-year-old Barbara Simons was stabbed more than 100 times after leaving a bar with the killer.
When he attempted to stab 19-year-old Denise Williams to death with a screwdriver, she fought him off and screamed for help. At last, "weepy-voiced killer" Paul Michael Stephani was caught and sentenced to 40 years in prison. He succumbed to skin cancer while incarcerated at the age of 53, but not before confessing to all of the attacks. Sincere or not, he put on a good show of acting remorseful, apologizing in that same weepy voice to his victims' families.
