Lists about real and fictional mysteries and the people who solved them—or at least tried to.

Mysteries & Detectives

So many new shows, so little time. Which are worth your precious eyeballs? These list rank the best new series in each genre that have premiered since 2015, so you still have plenty of time to catch up.

New Shows to Check Out

Entertainment

With so many great TV series currently airing, we&rsquo;re ranking the best <a class="edS-cl" href="https://www.ranker.com/list/mystery-tv-shows-and-series/ranker-tv?ref=internalCrossLinking_keyword">mystery TV shows</a> since 2018. Our list of the highest rated TV mysteries&nbsp;of the past four years is ranked by viewers from everywhere, so make sure you vote up the best new mystery series on television.&nbsp;What is the best new mystery TV show?&nbsp;

Featuring new <a class="edS-cl" href="https://www.ranker.com/list/best-crime-tv-show-on-netflix-watch-instantly/lanayoshii?ref=internalCrossLinking_keyword">Netflix mystery shows</a>, Hulu originals, critically acclaimed&nbsp;miniseries, and more, the best recent mystery shows include Mindhunter, 13 Reasons Why, Riverdale, and&nbsp;Ozark. The HBO miniseries Killing Eve is&nbsp;considered to be one of the most binge-worthy shows today, while Netflix&#39;s&nbsp;Russian Doll and HBO Max&#39;s The Flight Attendant are known as the shows to watch now.&nbsp;

Vote up the best new mystery shows and feel free to add any new mystery series missing from the list.&nbsp;

The Best New TV Mysteries of the Last Few Years

TV Program

The 60+ Best New Mystery TV Shows, Ranked

Ranker TV

Lists of fascinating and bizarre real cases that continue to stump detectives and amateur sleuths.

Unsolved Mysteries

Unsolved Mysteries Test

Lifestyle

There are few things as deeply disturbing and fascinating as the cases of children who go missing, but are found many years later. It may seem hard to believe, but approximately 2,300 children and adults are reported missing in in the U.S. every day. It&#39;s a horrifying and sad statistic, but history has shown that there is always hope! To find a missing person many years later is truly a miracle, as the loved ones of those who are kidnapped seldom receive this kind of happy news. These stories of found lost children prove you can never give up. 

It&#39;s actually slightly more common to find missing children than you may think. We latch on to these stories with rabid fascination, because they are often the purest examples of the epitome of human strength, fortitude, and resilience. Still others happened under the oddest set of circumstances one can imagine-- like a girl who hid out with her boyfriend for five years, or the guy who was just doing drugs while everyone assumed he&#39;d been murdered by serial killer <a class="edS-cl" href="https://www.ranker.com/list/facts-about-john-wayne-gacy/amandasedlakhevener?ref=internalCrossLinking_keyword">John Wayne Gacy</a>. The experiences of found missing kids vary from wretched to wacky to WTF?!

From rescues on land and sea, to decades of captivity, and kidnapped kids who never even knew they were considered missing-- this list is comprised of the fascinating stories of often courageous and sometimes strange missing children who turned up months and years after they were lost.&nbsp;

Lost Children Who Were Found

General

Found Missing Children | Lost Kids Who Were Returned

Anabel Conner

Mysteries

To really leave your mark upon this world when you depart, consider the different scary tombstone epitaphs&nbsp;available for your final resting place. While custom usually dictates the dead &quot;rest in peace,&quot; you might see yourself more inclined to view your dirt nap as a chance to rile the place up even after you've gone. All manner of&nbsp;<a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/weirdest-and-creepiest-graves/ariel-kana" target="_blank">creepy mysterious tombstones</a>&nbsp;exist out there for you to choose from if you feel more macabre as you decompose. Or perhaps you enjoy tormenting the living, in which case&nbsp;confusing epitaphs of strange elements of your life or philosophy will unnerve anyone foolish enough to go into a cemetery with a positive mindset.&nbsp;&nbsp;Looking at these&nbsp;unexplained epitaphs on tombstones, you can theorize various different fates that happened to those who dictated them. Many of people received their <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/funny-tombstones/anabel-conner" target="_blank">confusing&nbsp;tombstones</a> years after their demise, so they don't even get a say in the eternal riddle which has become their memory. But the ones who laid down some fine lines before they croaked definitely roll around in their graves today, no doubt still amused by their final quips.

These Cryptic Messages On Tombstones Only Hint At Their Terrifying Backstories

Creepiest Tombstone Messages Of All Time

Laura Allan

Nicknamed &quot;Shelby&#39;s Sweetheart&quot;&nbsp;by her community, Asha Jaquilla Degree was last seen walking down a foggy highway in the early hours of Valentine&#39;s Day&nbsp;2000. She was only 9 years old. Over the past two decades, there have been multiple theories explaining why Asha left her Shelby, NC, home in the middle of the night, and as of 2016,&nbsp;there were&nbsp;350 leads on the case.

Despite these leads, one fact remains clear: No one has seen, heard from, or been able to find Asha Degree in over 20 years. Even after two decades of searching, Asha&#39;s family still believes she is alive; while this may strike some as wishful thinking, there are numerous <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/missing-people-who-were-found-alive/rydavis" target="_blank">missing persons</a> who have been found, sometimes years after they disappeared.

The Asha Degree case is still considered an open investigation; here&#39;s everything we know.

Everything We Know About The Mysterious Disappearance Of Asha Degree

Patrick Thornton

Arizona is beautiful, with its picturesque mountains, desert landscape, and welcoming residents. However, beneath this tourist-friendly facade is&nbsp;a dark underbelly of&nbsp;depravity and murder. These true crimes from Arizona might make you think twice before heading on a family road trip to the desert. You may have heard of Arizona's most notorious killers, which include Jodi Arias&nbsp;and&nbsp;Pamela Phillips.But did you know about Cynthia Lynn Coffman and James Marlow, serial killers who targeted women? How about&nbsp;Winnie Ruth Judd, a married woman who killed her two best friends because they had slept with her boyfriend, then stuffed their bodies in trunks bound for Los Angeles, CA?&nbsp;There is much more than meets the eye in Arizona, and these shocking stories will show what terrifying things can happen&nbsp;after dark.&nbsp;

Heinous Crimes And Unsolved Mysteries From Arizona

Most Chilling Unsolved Crimes From Arizona

Stefanie Hammond

There are nearly 90,000 missing persons in the U.S. alone, at any given time. And most cases will remain cold, as people disappear into different lives, some filled with unimaginable terrors. But what happens to the small percentage of missing people who one day show back up? Where did they go and what happened to them? <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/13-famous-missing-people/celeb-stalker?ref=internalCrossLinking_keyword">Missing people found</a> alive are stories that capture the nation's attention whenever they break. Often inspiring and devastating at the same time, and sometimes downright eerie and bizarre, these narratives of men and women who return after years of absence are all-around fascinating.&nbsp;Some tales are so fantastic, you would think there's no way they could be true, like the story of Gabriel Nagy, the missing man found alive several years after disappearing and suffering severe amnesia, or the incredible events leading to Elizabeth Smart's rescue and return to her family. Kidnapped people who escaped, missing people found off the grid, others <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/greatest-fictional-characters-leading-double-lives/ranker-characters?ref=internalCrossLinking_keyword">living double lives</a>, each story manages to shock one after the other. For the devotedly curious creep-seekers, here are several stories about real life missing people who were found alive, despite all reasonable doubt.

Missing People Who Were Found Alive

Ryan Davis

Lists of strange discoveries and real mysteries that have perplexed the world.

Dark & Curious Cases

Everybody loves The X-Files, but even almost 10 years of weekly weirdness was not enough to cover all of the truly bizarre things that can happen. From bizarre illnesses and&nbsp;mysterious disappearances to alien hot spots and inexplicable fires that have ravaged entire towns, there are a lot of true creepy mysteries out there. Some of these real life X-files go beyond completely terrifying.&nbsp;

What makes a man mysteriously pass and decompose as if he&#39;d been deceased for weeks in only a matter of days? Where do entire boats and planes go when they disappear? What can make five children disappear almost <a class="edS-cl" href="https://www.ranker.com/list/full-cast-of-without-a-trace-cast-list-for-the-show-without-a-trace/reference?ref=internalCrossLinking_keyword">without a trace</a> and then taunt their parents for decades? No one has ever been able to figure most of these bizarre real-life mysteries out, but we all know it would be awesome to watch Mulder and Scully take a crack at them. Take a look at these cases that might even be too weird for&nbsp;The X-Files.

Mysterious True Stories Too Freaky For Mulder And Scully

12 Mysterious True Stories even the X-Files Wouldn't Touch

Isadora Teich

Brittanee Drexel told her parents she was staying with a friend for spring break before she went <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/lost-children-who-were-found/anabel-conner" target="_blank">missing</a> in 2009. Leading up to her disappearance, the 17-year-old high school senior from Rochester, NY,&nbsp;was under an immense amount of stress from&nbsp;her parents&#39; separation. While her vanishing&nbsp;may at first sound like the case of a runaway teen, Brittanee Drexel&#39;s disappearance quickly turned ominous.

The Brittanee Drexel case has remained unsolved since she was last seen on April 25, 2009, though the investigation fluctuated between hot and cold throughout the 2010s. While murder and human trafficking are the two leading theories in Brittanee&#39;s disappearance, the events of April 25&nbsp;remain just as perplexing now as they were in 2009.

Here are the facts of the case and a general timeline of events. We&#39;ll also explore plausible theories and suspects in Brittanee Drexel&#39;s confounding disappearance.

Brittanee Drexel Was On Spring Break When She Vanished In 2009, And Her Case Is Still Unsolved

Across the United States, there are dozens of devastating incidents&nbsp;that go unsolved each&nbsp;year, leaving active cold cases that persist for long periods of time. When this happens, the victims don&#39;t receive the justice they deserve, and the families are left wondering what happened to their loved one. Not all cold cases end poorly, however, and there have been a number of <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/missing-people-who-were-found-alive/rydavis" target="_blank">missing people found</a> decades after their disappearance.&nbsp;

The cold cases people forgot about leave families and loved ones stranded in their search to solve the event that changed their lives. Whether a person is still missing, a suspect has been ignored, someone has been wrongfully convicted, or there just isn&#39;t enough information to lead investigators to the proper sources, national attention might prompt any ordinary or unsuspecting citizen to uncover the clue law enforcement has been missing. The&nbsp;crimes&nbsp;themselves -&nbsp;and some of the photographs or audio released to the public&nbsp;regarding the <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/people-who-disappeared-to-another-dimension/katherine-ripley" target="_blank">people who disappeared</a>&nbsp;-&nbsp;may be disturbing to some readers. Although this article does not feature said&nbsp;photos, please take caution when researching these active cold cases.&nbsp;

If you have any information that might help authorities in any of these cases, please follow the appropriate links.&nbsp;

Active Cold Cases You Should Google Even Though You Probably Don’t Want To

Active Cold Cases You Can Help Solve

Jonathan H. Kantor

We like to think that if we&#39;re always prepared, travel in groups, and&nbsp;walk with both eyes open, we&#39;ll be safe from any potential dangers. But then Stranger Things went and made us all terrified of the possibility that we could disappear into the Upside-Down at any moment. No amount of preparation can keep you safe from being snatched into another dimension. So, to make you even more terrified, here&#39;s a list of real-life <a class="edS-cl" href="https://www.ranker.com/list/people-who-disappeared-mysteriously/alby-thompson?ref=internalCrossLinking_keyword">people who disappeared</a> into another dimension - or at least, it seems very likely that they did.

These are people who disappeared and left no trace. They vanished in an instant, vanished from inside a building, or vanished and appeared to be calling out for help, although no one could find them. Clearly, the most logical explanation is they were taken to the upside-down.

If you don&#39;t think that&#39;s possible, see if you can come up with another explanation for these mysterious disappearances. Good luck, because these are some truly befuddling cases.

10 Incredibly Strange Disappearances

Person

10 People Who May Have Disappeared Into Another Dimension

Katherine Ripley

In 2019,&nbsp;podcaster Chris Lambert created an eight-part series entitled&nbsp;<a href="https://www.yourownbackyardpodcast.com" target="_blank">Your Own Backyard</a>&nbsp;to investigate the 1996 disappearance of college student Kristin Smart.&nbsp;The&nbsp;case had fascinated him&nbsp;since he was a boy, as he had passed a billboard about Smart&#39;s disappearance almost daily for 20 years.&nbsp;

He&#39;s not the only one intrigued by the story - the Kristin Smart case has captured the attention of countless people across the US, and over two decades later, investigators may have finally found a lead:&nbsp;On April 13, 2021, Paul Flores and his father, Ruben, were arrested in connection with Smart&#39;s disappearance.

After 20-Plus Years, We May Finally Get Some Answers In Kristin Smart’s Mysterious Disappearance

Here's What We Know About Kristin Smart's Mysterious Disapperance

Michelle Nati

There are few things more terrifying than having a loved one or friend go missing. Sometimes there is closure months later when a body is found;&nbsp;other times, people seem to vanish without a trace. On Reddit, people are sharing their difficult stories about friends and loved ones who went missing.

People Share Stories Of Friends Who Went Missing

Amanda Ashley

Real tales of terror from real people doing normal things, like playing the Powerball and using tampons.

Crazy True! Horror Stories

<a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/list-of-all-detective-movies/reference">TV shows and movies</a> teach&nbsp;us that relentless detectives always solve the case. Sadly, however, this is not always true. Many cases remain not only unresolved, but shrouded in mystery, rife with eerie, unsettling details that continue to raise questions. Several real-life detectives, police officers, and dispatchers took to Reddit&nbsp;to share some of their most bizarre and hair-raising stories concerning cases that were never officially solved, and incidents where &quot;justice was served,&quot; despite a host of loose ends. Here is a collection of the most startling unsolved cases.&nbsp;

<a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/1h5k7f/law_enforcement_and_detectives_of_reddit_have_you/" target="_blank">Source</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/19uxzk/copsdetectives_of_reddit_have_you_ever_obsessed/?" target="_blank">Source</a>, <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/5a9fou/seriousdetectivespolice_officers_of_reddit_what/" target="_blank">Source</a>&nbsp;

Real Police Officers Describe Their Creepiest Unsolved Cases

Real Detectives Describe Their Creepiest Unsolved Mysteries

Christopher Shultz

Have you ever had an unexplainable&nbsp;chilling encounter or experience that still haunts you?&nbsp;Many people have had experiences&nbsp;that are just so bizarre that they are are still scratching their heads years later wondering what exactly happened. On Reddit, people are sharing creepy and unsettling life events that still remain an&nbsp;unsolved mystery to this day.&nbsp;

People Share Their Creepiest Personal Unsolved Mysteries

True Crime

On April 1, 2014, two students from the Netherlands named&nbsp;Lisanne&nbsp;Froon and Kris Kremers went on a hike in Panama with a dog. The dog came back, but the young women didn't. A search eventually turned up a severed foot and scattered remains, but authorities had trouble determining&nbsp;how the hikers&nbsp;had died. Years later, some people still believe someone killed the pair.Froon&nbsp;and Kremers&nbsp;were both in their early 20s; they traveled to&nbsp;Panama to work with children. Many hikers <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/backpacker-disappearances/mariel-loveland" target="_blank">from all over the world disappear</a>, fall,&nbsp;or suffer other fatal&nbsp;accidents while traveling&nbsp;-&nbsp;this could've happened to these women as well.&nbsp;But there are a few holes&nbsp;in this particular theory. For one, the girls' camera had photos on it from hours after they stopped dialing emergency services. Also, a&nbsp;serial killer might have stalked&nbsp;their area at the time.The world may never <a class="edS-cl" href="https://www.ranker.com/list/sw-extended-universe-things-to-last-jedi/nathan-gibson?ref=internalCrossLinking_keyword">know what happened</a> to the pair, but speculation still runs wild. Did they become lost&nbsp;and fall down a cliff? Was someone who's still out there responsible for their deaths? Or is it all part of a cover-up?

What Really Happened To Two Dutch Hikers Who Disappeared In Panama?

The mysterious kidnapping of supermom Sherri Papini rocked northern California in 2016. People throughout the area&nbsp;were shocked to see a <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/scary-abduction-stories/amandasedlakhevener" target="_blank">frightening abduction story</a> play out with a nice mom in the Shasta County suburbs.&nbsp;

For three weeks, Sherri&#39;s&nbsp;family&nbsp;worked to get Sherri back in one piece while the Shasta County Sheriff&rsquo;s Department pursued a silent investigation.&nbsp;Out of nowhere,&nbsp;the beloved wife and mother&nbsp;returned home, but&nbsp;she wasn&#39;t forthcoming with details and didn&#39;t want to talk about the previous&nbsp;three weeks. Because of this, many believed the whole ordeal was nothing but a <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/facts-about-fake-kidnapping-of-jennifer-carol-wilbanks/amandasedlakhevener" target="_blank">fake kidnapping</a>.

Hundreds of unsolved abduction stories play out just like&nbsp;Sherri Papini&#39;s, but most subjects don&#39;t return so unscathed. Sherri&#39;s disappearance and subsequent return play&nbsp;out like a protracted version of a made-for-TV movie, including&nbsp;quirky side characters, mysterious men with money, and a cadre of internet spectators&nbsp;ready to add their opinions to the mix. 

Here is everything we know about the mysterious disappearance and reappearance of Sherri Papini.

A 'Super Mom' Vanished In Broad Daylight And Mysteriously Reappeared, But The Details Don't Add Up

The Mysterious Story of Sherri Papini Who Vanished and Came Back

Jacob Shelton

Mysteries lists at Ranker - the ultimate source for lists and rankings in all categories