Unsolved mysteries are all over the internet and throughout history, but some are downright terrifying. To this day, we still don’t know about many unsolved mysteries out there, and we may never know the answers.
We took a look at some unsolved mysteries out there, and these are the top five most horrifying unsolved mysteries ever. Just a warning, it might get a bit graphic for some of you.
1. The Incident at Dyatlov Pass
In February 1959, nine ski-hikers took a trip to the mountain ranges of Russia. However, all nine of them would proceed to die under mysterious circumstances.
The night of the incident, the nine had set up camp and were preparing to sleep so that they could head out the next day. However, none returned.
On February 26, search and rescue teams found the abandoned tent that belonged to the hikers that was ripped from the inside. They were able to track some footprints and discovered the first set of bodies. The findings were grim.
One had evidence of blunt force trauma, another had third-degree burns, one had been vomiting blood, and one was missing a tongue. The creepiest part? All of their clothes were radioactive.
To this day, it is still widely unknown what the exact cause of their deaths is. Some theories included drugs, UFOs, the KGB, but recently a filmmaker presented a theory that it was due to something called “infrasound.” This phenomenon causes a hum when wind interacts with the topography of the region. The hum can create feelings of nausea, panic, nervousness, and other issues.
Still, to this day, nobody knows what really happened to the 9 at Dyatlov Pass.
2. The Death of Elisa Lam
On January 26, 2013, 21-year old Canadian Elisa Lam checked into a hotel in downtown Los Angeles called the Cecil Hotel. However, she would never leave. After being reported missing to the LAPD, her body was found in a water tank on the roof of the hotel.
The freakiest part is that the reason the water tank had been checked was that patrons at the hotel complained about the water pressure. Other guests claimed the water came out black and had a terrible taste.
The last time she had been seen before her death was on security camera footage. The footage shows Lam entering the elevator, but acting very strangely and moving her hands in bizarre ways. It looked like she was speaking to someone out of view of the camera, but nobody showed up besides her in the footage.
To this day, it is still unclear how Elisa Lam died or how she had managed to get into the water tank in the first place. No traces of drugs had been found in her blood, no blunt force trauma was found on her body, and there seemed to be no witnesses for the LAPD to speak to.
3. The Zodiac Killer
One of the biggest mysteries in true crime history, the Zodiac Killer was a serial killer that terrorized Northern California between the 1960s and the 1970s. Although police found 5 victims, the Zodiac Killer claimed he had killed 37 in total.
The first known murders were on December 20, 1968 when 17-year old David Faraday and 16-year old Betty Lou Jensen were shot and killed while sitting in a parked car.
Related: The best dark fantasy video games you can play right now
The Zodiac Killer would go on to kill several more people and then send a handwritten letter on August 1, 1969 to publications in San Francisco. The letters contained codes that he demanded be printed in the newspapers or else he would kill again.
Another letter sent on August 4 revealed that the Zodiac Killer believed that those he killed would become his slaves in the afterlife and that nothing could stop him. The final letter was written on January 29, 1974 in which the Zodiac Killer stated that he had killed 37 people.
To this day, nobody has been able to figure out who the Zodiac Killer really was.
3. The Unexplained Disappearance of the Sodder Children
On Christmas Eve in 1945 in Fayetteville, West Virginia, 5 children would disappear in one of the most bizarre cases out there.
George and Jennie Sodder had been asleep and their 9 children were as well when a fire would suddenly break out at 1 in the morning. George, Jennie, and 4 of the children managed to escape, but the remaining 5 did not.
George attempted to rescue them, but the staircase was on fire. He went to retrieve his ladder, but the ladder was misplaced. His two coal trucks were also refusing to start. One of the children who escaped ran to a neighbor to phone the fire department, but the operator did not pick up the phone.
Another neighbor called and the operator did not pick up another time. The neighbor then drove to the fire station and told the fire chief about the fire. By the time the fire fighters arrived, it had already been 7 hours since the blaze began. The house had been decimated.
The 5 children were not found and neither were any remains in the aftermath of the inferno. The fire chief suggested that the children had been essentially cremated during the fire, but usually bones are left behind in fires like this.
The cause was suspected to be bad wiring, but that did not add up to George and Jennie, as the wiring had been checked not too long ago and deemed to be working fine. They began to suspect that their children had been kidnapped and that the fire was started on purpose.
A woman stated that she had seen the five children in a passing car and another woman said she had seen four of the five children a week after the fire.
To this day, it is unknown what happened to the Sodder children.
4. The Lost Colony of Roanoke Island
The early colonial days of the United States was marked by conflict and a plethora of other issues. However, the most bizarre and strange event was the disappearance of an entire colony.
In 1587, English colonial governor, John White, led a group from Britain to the Americas to start a colony on Roanoke Island, near North Carolina. He had returned to Britain to resupply but when he returned three years later, he found that the entire colony was abandoned and all the structures had been dismantled.
There was no sign that they had been attacked or taken by force. The only clue left was the word “Croatoan” carved into a tree. The name Croatoan referred to a Native American tribe that had been allied with the colonists. White believed that the colonists had moved to Croatoan Island.
To this day, it is unknown exactly what happened to the colony. No evidence was found of any massacres and no substantial DNA evidence suggests that the colonists had mixed with the Croatoan tribe. It is one of the most historically debated unsolved mysteries in American history.
5. The Black Dahlia Murder
On January 15, 1947, the remains of 22-year old Elizabeth Short (The Black Dahlia) were found in Los Angeles, California. Her body had been found cut in half and drained of blood to the point where the woman who found the body thought it was a doll at first.
Her body had been cut with near surgical precision and a smile had been carved into her face. No blood was found on the ground near her, and it was believed that she had been moved to the location after the murder.
Nine days following the discovery, an envelope with all of Short’s belongings was sent to the examiner. Gasoline had been used to clean off any fingerprints.
On March 14, a suicide note found near the beach at Breeze Avenue in Venice stated : “To whom it may concern: I have waited for the police to capture me for the Black Dahlia killing, but have not. I am too much of a coward to turn myself in, so this is the best way out for me. I couldn’t help myself for that, or this. Sorry, Mary.”
The letter had been found in a pile of clothing, but the clothes gave no indication to police who the killer was.
To this day, the identity of the murderer is unknown. It is one of the most enduring unsolved mysteries ever.
