25 Unsolved Mysteries People Just CANNOT Stop Thinking About
We previously asked the BuzzFeed Community to tell us about an unsolved mystery they just couldn't stop thinking about. There were so many comments and responses to that post and more follow-ups, that we decided to do a part four. Here are more terrifying stories people shared:
Warning: Disturbing and graphic content ahead.
1."The eerie disappearance of Angela Green from Prairie Village, Kansas. This one is worth looking up — it’s a lot. And nothing the husband has said adds up."
Angela Green was a 51-year-old mom who disappeared under inexplicable circumstances in June 2019. She was last seen at her home in Prairie Village, Kansas, but was not reported missing until some months later.
According to Fox 4 News, "Ellie Green, Angela’s daughter, said her father told her that her mother died of a stroke in a hospital. Ellie said her father asked her not to tell their extended family. Ellie says she eventually tried to get her mother’s death certificate and discovered the State of Kansas had no record that Angela died." After her father's story became "even more unbelievable," Ellie filed a missing person's report.
Authorities have since investigated more then 150 leads, however, Angela remains missing.
2."Kyle Fleischmann left a bar in Charlotte, North Carolina in November 2007 leaving his debit card and jacket at the bar. He stopped for pizza but then disappeared. His scent was detected by dogs, but his body was never found. His parents believe he was buried in a new construction site where apartments were built after. I went to college with him, and it has always haunted me."
According to WCNC, "It was closing time, and Kyle had left his wallet and coat at the bar. He’d made several calls to his best friend, his sister, and dad — probably looking for a ride home. It was after 2 a.m. He didn’t reach anyone, and he didn’t leave any voicemails.
Dogs tracked Kyle’s scent to NoDa, near where construction was just getting started on new condos. Eleven years ago, it was a neighborhood in transition.
Kyle's father, Dick said, 'I just think he was a victim of robbery; it got bad, and they took his life.'"
3."Lindsay Buziak’s murder is a case that keeps me up at night. It's a very eerie story. Crime Junkie podcast covers her story, and there is an ID Discovery doc, too."
Lindsay Buziak was a 24-year-old real estate agent in the Victoria, Canada area who was stabbed to death on Feb. 2, 2008, while showing a property to an unnamed couple.
According to CTV News, "Investigators believe the couple arranged the meeting using a prepaid cellphone that was later determined to be registered to a fake name in Metro Vancouver."
Lindsay's boyfriend at the time, Jason Zailo, was questioned by police; however, no charges have ever been made against him. The case remains unsolved.
4."Billy Smolinski, who's been missing since 2004. His story was actually featured on Disappeared."
Billy Smolinski disappeared from Waterbury, Connecticut on Aug. 24, 2004. He was 31 years old. His home on Holly Street was the last place he was ever seen, and he left behind his truck, keys, wallet, and dog Harley.
However, the search was apparently "hampered" by a lack of coordination between police agencies, and according to NBC News, Billy's family said they were "victimized [...] by a system that didn't allow them to participate in the search."
As a result, Billy's parents lobbied Congress for "Billy's Law" for over a decade, which finally passed in 2022. "Billy's Law" will essentially work to try and match up missing-person cases with unidentified bodies. You can learn more about it here.
5."Alexis Patterson. Missing from Milwaukee since 2002. She was 7 years old and dropped off at school by her stepfather but never made it into the building. Some people speculated that her mother and/or stepfather were somehow involved, but there was never enough evidence to arrest either of them. They insisted that they had nothing to do with her disappearance. It's probably ridiculous, but I will always watch my kids actually walk into the building when I drop them off at school before I drive away."
According to USA Today, "The morning Alexis disappeared, she and her mother, Ayanna Patterson, argued over cupcakes. Alexis had planned to bring the treats to school, but she hadn’t done her homework, so her mother didn’t let her.
LaRon Bourgeois, Ayanna's husband, and Alexis's stepfather, told police he and his son walked Alexis to the corner between their home and the school and left her with a crossing guard, who — according to the records — was a fifth grader.
The reports include differing witness accounts. Some said they saw Alexis on the school grounds that morning. Others said she had never arrived.
Two weeks after Alexis went missing, FBI behavioral analysts concluded she was most likely the victim of an 'emotion-based' homicide at the hands of her mother. Also possible, but less likely, they said, was that she had been the victim of a neighbor. The analysts noted numerous 'discrepancies' in Patterson's and Bourgeois’s statements to law enforcement, friends, and the media.
The two leading theories both conclude that Alexis is likely dead, but her remains have never been found. No one has ever confessed to taking her, let alone killing her. And there is little physical evidence to support either theory."
6."The murder of Ebby Steppach. She disappeared in 2015, and her car was found a couple of days later in a park with her belongings in it — keys in the ignition, battery dead, and out of gas. Police believed she ran away and 'searched' the park where her car was found. Nothing happened (except a lot of police failure) for three years until the case was given to a different detective (who actually came out of retirement to work on this case). He decided to go back and research the park her car was found in, and they found her body in a drainpipe less than 200 yards from her car (the opening to the pipe where her body was put into the drain was less than 100 feet from where her car was). The case is still unsolved, and there are so many other things about it; please look it up!"
Ebby Steppach was an 18-year-old high school student who disappeared under strange circumstances in Little Rock, Arkansas in October 2015. As mentioned above, her body was found nearly three years later, not far from where her car had initially been found.
According to Ebby's family, as revealed in a 2022 Dr. Phil episode, the Little Rock Police Department allegedly claims that Ebby died by suicide, which her family disagrees with. On the same program, Ebby's boyfriend revealed that he believes Ebby had been involved in a "terrible accident" with some of her friends.
7."The mystery of Cookie Jacobson from Tempe, Arizona. I went to school with her daughter, who got arrested for the murder, along with her brother. Brother said he found his mom dead in bed, and his sister helped put her in the trash can cause he was afraid of being blamed. They found her blood in the trash can, but a two-month search of the landfill turned up nothing. Kids were released due to a lack of evidence. It was crazy when the daughter came back to school after a month or so."
According to ABC 15, "The teenage children of Cookie were arrested. Aaron for second-degree murder and his sister for allegedly assisting him, but they were quickly released for lack of evidence. They were never charged with any crime. After telling police that he found his mother dead and that he and his sister put her in the trash can, Aaron never spoke of it again. His sister has always denied any involvement with her mother's disappearance. Today, police officially consider the children 'persons of interest' in the 'unsolved cold case.'"
8."The disappearance of Danielle Imbo and Richard Petrone, 2005, Philadelphia. Last seen leaving a bar with friends, toward Petrone's truck. They were never seen again."
As mentioned, Danielle Imbo and Richard Petrone, who were dating, were last seen leaving a bar/restaurant in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania late in the evening on Feb. 19, 2005.
According to a CBS News report from 2022, a search and rescue dive team dedicated to helping families find missing loved ones called Adventures with Purpose began working on the case.
Doug Bishop, of Adventures with Purpose said, "I know the FBI's position is that there was foul play and that the vehicle has somehow made it to a chop shop, however, there's no actual information leading to suspect those types of conclusions. So, our specialty is water; we know we have a couple that's missing and missing with their vehicle, and we're going to do what we do best."
9."Why does no one ever talk about Kyron Horman? That case bothers me to no end."
"He was a little boy who disappeared near Portland, Oregon in 2008 or 2009. His stepmom dropped him off at school, took him into the class, and even snapped a picture of him (there was a science fair or something going on), and then, his teacher never saw him. He disappeared. His stepmom was investigated, and most people think she had something to do with it, but he has never been found. I lived in the Portland area at the time, and it was so sad and shocking."
—Anonymous
10."Brittney Wood. She went missing after meeting with an uncle, then that same uncle died by suicide. And then it was revealed his suicide was...off. After that, the police found a multi-generational incestuous pedophilic trafficking ring in her family where the adults would get the kids hooked on hard drugs at a very young age. It was and is horrific, and somehow, poor Brittney has still never been found."
Brittney Wood was a 19-year-old single mom who disappeared on May 30, 2012, in southwestern Alabama.
According to WKRG, "On that day, Brittney left her mother’s home and headed to visit her uncle Donnie Holland. She never returned home. Two days later, Holland was found in his truck off of a beaten path with a gunshot to the head.
In the wake of Brittney’s disappearance, 11 people were arrested on sex abuse charges, including members of her family and family friends."
Although there have been tips and some leads over the years, her case remains unsolved.
11."A client told me about the 1978 disappearance of Genette Tate, which dominated the news 'for a whole summer' (she actually went missing in August), which got me reading up on it."
"In Devon (SW England), 13-year-old Genette was doing a paper round on a bike when she came across two school friends on a country lane. After a chat, she gave them a copy of the newspaper and rode off. They had a quick look at the newspaper and continued walking until they spotted her bike lying on the ground with newspapers scattered around. They saw her only seven minutes earlier.
They took her bike to Genette's home in case she got fed up with doing the paper road and abandoned her bike. She wasn't at home. After a search, the father called the police. In spite of a massive search with scores of police officers, search dogs, divers, and volunteers looking for her, she was never found.
The police eventually turned this case of a missing teenager into a murder investigation, which remains open."
12."A local girl in Kanawha County, Melanie Metheny, went missing years ago, and it bothers me to this day."
According to WCHS, "Metheny, 21, was last seen about 8 a.m. July 19, 2006, dropping two of her three children off at Country Kids Daycare in Belle. Her van was found four days later on Charleston's West Side but offered no clues on what had happened to her."
"The vehicle was processed for evidence. There were certain personal items that should have been potentially in the vehicle or with Melanie that were not discovered. Nothing further was gained from locating the vehicle," Kanawha County Sheriff's Office detective Sgt. Ana Pile said. "There was nothing out of the ordinary and didn't appear there had been a struggle."
Although there have been extensive searches and over 200 interviews conducted since, the case remains unsolved.
13."Kierra Coles. Pregnant postal worker from Chicago missing since 2018. She withdrew money from an ATM and then disappeared. General consensus is that she was killed, but no body was ever recovered."
Kierra Coles was 26 years old and roughly three months pregnant when she went missing on Oct. 2, 2018. Her last known movements on that day were captured on CCTV camera, which the Chicago police released in 2022.
According to ABC News, "The surveillance video showed a man — who is considered a person of interest — arriving at Coles's home, and later Coles and the man were seen driving away in Coles's car. At about 10:43 p.m. that night, Coles was spotted on surveillance video making ATM withdrawals — the last known images of her, according to police.
Later that night, Coles's car was parked in another part of the city, police said. The person of interest was seen getting out of the passenger side, but nobody got out of the driver's side, according to police.
The next day, the person of interest was seen parking Coles's car near her home and going inside, police said. He then left Coles's home and drove away in his car.
When the person of interest was interviewed, police said he gave varying accounts of the last time he saw Coles."
14."Canada’s Highway of Tears in British Columbia should be on here. So many First Nations women and girls have disappeared. It started in 1970 and continues today. Whether it’s one or many responsible, it needs to be shut down."
According to the Highway of Tears Governing Body, "From 1989 to 2006, nine young women went missing or were found murdered along the 724-kilometer length of highway 16 — now commonly referred to as the 'Highway of Tears.'" All but one of these victims were Indigenous women. Additionally, they explain, "There is still much debate over the exact number of women who have gone missing in northern BC, but many people living in the north believe that the number exceeds 30."
15."Maura Murray's disappearance will always bother me."
Murray was a 21-year-old nursing student who got into a car accident in upstate New Hampshire. The strange thing was, prior to disappearing, she'd told professors that she would be taking a week off due to a death in the family. However, her family later told authorities that there had been no death.
"I graduated college the year before she disappeared, and honestly used to just take off a lot and clear my head or take unplanned weekend trips alone. She was in nursing school, too, so I understood the struggle sometimes. So many strange factors surround her disappearance."
16."Heather Elvis. She disappeared in Myrtle Beach. It is incredibly likely a couple killed her, as she had been having an affair with the married older man, but her body is still missing. It's horrible, and I wish it got more attention. There was a lot of victim blaming in her case, which is horrific."
According to WMBF News, "Elvis was last seen or heard from on Dec. 18, 2013. It was revealed that Sidney Moorer and Elvis had an affair from July 2013 until late October or early November 2013. Documents show that during the early morning hours of Dec. 18, 2013, Sidney Moorer and Elvis had been in communication. There were also suspicions that Elvis was possibly pregnant when a surveillance video from Walmart that morning showed Sidney Moorer buying a pregnancy test. Then around 4 a.m. on Dec. 18, 2013, Elvis’s car was discovered at Peachtree Landing by a Horry County police officer on patrol. Elvis’s body has never been found."
Tammy Moorer was found guilty of kidnapping Elvis in October 2018, while Sidney Moorer was found guilty in September 2019. Both appealed to have their convictions overturned in, but were denied in 2023.
17."The 2015 murder of Alicia Hummel, a preschool teacher from South Dakota. Police had proof of life and found her deceased not long after. Still no clue who did it."
Alicia Hummel was 29 years old when her body was found in the Missouri River near Vermillion, South Dakota on June 1, 2015. Her last known contact was on Snapchat at 1:30 p.m. that day, just hours before her body was found.
According to Keloland News, "An autopsy was done, revealing that she drowned, but investigators ruled her death a homicide as the autopsy also revealed that she sustained injuries to her head and a cut on her neck."
18."I live near Wichita, Kansas, and there was a little 5-year-old Black girl named Jaquilla Scales who went missing just before 9/11 happened. Sadly, the events of 9/11 overshadowed her disappearance, and her fate has never been known."
According to KWCH, "Jaquilla was 4 years old when she was last seen in her bed at around 12:30 a.m. on Sept. 5, 2001. She was discovered missing at 3:00 a.m. at her home in the 1600 block of N. Volutsia. Six days after she disappeared, the 9/11 attacks occurred."
An age progression photo was released Kansas Bureau of Investigation in 2022.
19."The disappearance of Nancy Renkas in Iron Mountain, Michigan in 2016, which is now considered a homicide investigation."
On July 18, 2016, Nancy Renkas went to Iron Mountain to get supplies for a meal for a family celebration, but according to her children, she never returned home. Nancy was last seen in the parking lot of a Super One Foods grocery store and, later, a surveillance camera showed her getting into a white SUV in the parking lot at a mall. The SUV driver was named a "person of interest."
According to the Iron Mountain Daily News, the Dickinson County Sheriff's office announced in July 2022 that "there is no evidence Nancy went missing of her own accord. The investigation has shown Nancy disappeared in peril and investigators now classify this as a no-body homicide investigation.”
20."For me, it’s the disappearance/murder of Molly Bish. It was all over the local news at the time, and it hit me pretty hard. Her body was found a couple of years after she disappeared, but her killer remains unknown."
Molly Bish was a 16-year-old lifeguard who vanished from her post at Comins Pond in Warren, Massachusetts on June 27, 2000. According to investigators, Molly was gone just after 10:00 a.m., but wasn't reported missing until almost two hours later, and police didn't speak with her mother until after 1 p.m.
According to Molly's mother, "The crime scene was almost completely destroyed, and it has had devastating consequences to this day. We have had little DNA to work with and little information."
Bish's remains were found in 2003, a few miles from the pond, in the woods.
NBC 10 Boston recently reported in June 2023, "The search for Bish's killer has led investigators to convicted rapist Frank Sumner, who died in 2016, but more [DNA] testing needs to be done."
21."Josh Guimond. Student at a rural (e.g., middle of nowhere) Catholic college in Minnesota. Disappeared from a college party in November 2002 just steps from his room and was never seen again, despite extensive efforts over the years. Heartbreaking. I was at a party in the same part of campus that night and knew him and still don't have a solid theory. There's an Unsolved Mysteries episode and a podcast about it."
According to MPR News, "Friends assumed he’d walked back to his dormitory. When Guimond didn’t show up for a mock trial team practice the next day, a search for answers began that’s continued for two decades."
22."Kortne Stouffer is a hometown disappearance/unsolved mystery."
Kortne Stouffer was 21 years old when she disappeared on July 29, 2012. Kortne was last seen early in the morning at her home in Palmyra, Pennsylvania.
According to the FBI, "The last known contact with Stouffer was at 3:30 a.m., by the Palmyra police regarding a disturbance," and the next day her family reported her missing. Kortne did not appear to pack a bag or take any of her personal belongings as her purse, cellphone, money, and car were all left at home.
23."For me, it was the Johnny Gosch disappearance, and the interviews with his mother, who fought tooth and nail to find him. Based on the docs I've watched and her interviews, I think he was indoctrinated into a sex trafficking network and was too afraid and brainwashed to leave."
"In 1982, 12-year-old Johnny Gosch vanished on his paper delivery route. His mother claims that in 1997, a 27-year-old Johnny visited her accompanied by a strange man, talked with her for an hour, then left again, feeling it was not safe to return home. She hasn’t seen him since."
24."The disappearance of Lauren Spierer in Bloomington, Indiana is also a weird one."
According to WISH-TV, "Spierer vanished on June 3, 2011, after a night of partying with friends at a bar in Bloomington. Police said she was last seen leaving a friend’s place. They say she left alone and was walking back to her apartment when something happened. Investigators say a male friend reported the Indiana University student missing."
Although there have been many theories over the years, "Her body has never been found and police have not made any arrests in the case. Investigators have received more than 800 tips and executed 10 search warrants in recent years."
25.Finally, "The murder of Jill Dando. A well-known British TV presenter was shot dead on her London doorstep in broad daylight, and 24 years later, it remains an unsolved case."
Jill Dando was 37 years old when she was shot dead outside her home in Fulham, an area of London, on April 26, 1999.
A man named Barry George was eventually arrested for murder, found guilty, and sentenced to life in prison in 2001. However, in 2007 his conviction was overturned, and in 2008 he was cleared of the crime after a retrial.
Although many other theories exist, including ones involving various hitmen, the case remains unsolved.
Note: Some submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.
If you or anyone you know has information on a missing person case, call local law enforcement first. You can also contact the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children at 1-800-843-5678 (THE-LOST) or visit the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System site for regional case assistance.
