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10. The Lost Roanoke Colony
In August 1587, 115 English settlers arrived to Roanoke Island, which is now modern-day North Carolina. John White, the new colony’s governor, had to return to England for supplies. The war between England and Spain held him there for a long time. He returned to Roanoke after three years.
Upon his return, he couldn’t find any traces of its inhabitants or the colony, including his wife, daughter, and infant granddaughter. The entire community was nowhere to be found. The only clue of the colony’s former inhabitants? The word“Croatoan” engraved in a tree. Investigators are still developing hypotheses about this baffling historical event, but none can come up with a concrete explanation as to what happened to the colony.
9. The Town Where Everything is the Same
In the summer of 2019, an anonymous Redditor with a throwaway account posted of a very bizarre string of changes that happened in the town they lived in. They never named the town, only that it was ‘near a big city’ and that they lived on ‘Main Street.’ Their suburban neighborhood was in an economic downturn, which resulted in the closure of retail stores. While walking down the town’s main street, they noticed the empty retail stores had been rented out by new businesses. The strange thing was, they 12 identical stores with similar price and products.
According to the writer, even the floor plan was the same. The stores’ names were all generic, such as
8. The Disappearance of Alfred Lowenstein
You might remember this mystery as “the man who fell from the sky.” According to The New York Times, this event from is one of the strangest fatalities of all time in commercial aviation history. On July 4, 1928, Mr. Alfred Loewenstein went to the lavatory in a small plane – and disappeared while the plane was in flight. To this day, people have no clue as to what happened on that fateful flight.
At the time of his disappearance, Loewenstein was the third richest person in the world. Theories abound about how Mr. Alfred vanished from the plane’s lavatory – and why. Some people argue that he had actually never gone to the lavatory but instead jumped from the plane possibly to take his own life. Others believe that other passengers that were on the plane that day aren’t telling the full story. Could it have just been a freak accident? The truth about the disappearance of Mr. Alfred Loewenstein remains a mystery.
7. The Dancing Plague of 1518
In 1518, Strasbourg was a small village in modern-day France, then part of the Holy Roman Empire. That summer, residents reportedly experienced an uncontrollable desire to dance. The bizarre event was recorded in numerous historical accounts, from the Town Council, to newspapers, to letters between loved ones at the time. It all began when a woman named Fray Troffea began dancing in the street. At first a spectacle, to everyone’s surprise, she continued to dance alone in the street…for almost a week.
Then, about three dozen of the town’s residents joined her.
Just one month later, almost 400 people were dancing in the streets. There are conflicting reports of residents dying from exhaustion, heat, and exposure. The dancing epidemic only ended in September when the town sent the remaining dancers away to a shrine so they could pray for repentance. There were numerous reports of dancing plagues all across Europe around this time period, though the Dancing Plague of 1518 is the best documented of the bunch.
Some believe the town’s food may have been contaminated with a hallucinogenic fungus that prompted the strange event. Others believe it was a case of mass hysteria, a little understood phenomenon attributed to many bizarre historical events that are hard to explain in esoteric terms.
6. The Tromp’s Family’s Bizarre Road Trip
The Tromp family ran a farm in Silven, Victoria, Australia, where they grew and sold red berries. They would become the center of international attention when they went on a spontaneous, tech-free, week-long road trip that baffled investigators and medical professionals alike. It all started when Mark and Jacoba convinced their adult children they had to leave the house abruptly.
The family members left their phones, passports, and bank cards behind – except one. Middle child Mitchell had brought his along and was the only one of the family not overcome with paranoia that someone was out to hurt them. He initially went along to make sure they’d be okay, but as his parents behavior became increasingly erratic (and because they insisted he throw away his phone), he left the family after they arrived as a city that was almost 500 miles away from their home. Next, sisters Ella and Riana also abandoned their parents by stealing a truck.
Later, police found all the family members safe, but clearly in duress. Investigators are still confused why the wave of paranoia had overcome the otherwise normal, stable family.
5. The Disappearance of the USS Cyclops
The mysteries of Bermuda Triangle’s are plentiful, but the disappearance of the 550-foot-long ship really the mind. The Cyclops had been an active sea vessel for about eight years before it vanished chartering between the Caribbean, Mexican, and the Baltic Seas.
Her main voyages were help refugees and moving coal supplies. But in March 1918, she departed from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, voyaging toward the ports of Baltimore. But she had to make an unexpected stop in Barbados after the Capitan reported that there were indicators the ship’s load was too heavy. Authorizes who investigated concluded that she was not actually overloaded, but in fact properly secured.
She never made it to Baltimore. Searches turned up empty-handed. No wreckage was ever found.
The last message found before the disappearance of the ship was “Weather Fair, All Well.”
Less than 25 years later during the dawn of World War II, two of the Cyclops‘ sister ships were also lost at sea along the same route the Cyclops vanished into thin air. Wreckage has never been found.
4. The Overtoun Bridge
Bridges are beautiful, but they can be quite haunting. This is at least in part due to the fact that they are common sites of people in despair. One bridge in West Dunbartonshire, Scotland, seems to really trigger that response. But not in people – in dogs.
Almost 600 dogs jumped to their deaths. Of those, 50 have died. People have been trying to determine the cause behind dogs’ strange jumping behavior since the 1950s.
Though it’s far from proven, the running theory at the moment is that dogs are strongly attracted to the smell of mink urine – stronger than the scent of other kinds of animals.
3. The Death of Gloria Ramirez
Gloria Ramirez, a 30-year-old woman from Riverside, California, checked into the Riverside General Hospital when she fell ill. Unfortunately, she was suffering from last-stage cervical cancer, but was diagnosed with that for some time before that fateful night.
According to the hospital workers, her sweat was thicker and more oily than was normal, and has a strange, sweet garlicy smell.
Staff took a blood samples and noted that there were small, crystallized structures in it.
Then, the healthcare providers who had treated Gloria became ill themselves. Her attending doctor fainted, and other staff experienced muscle spasms and shortness of breath. Sadly, Gloria died a few hours after she arrived
In a post mortum investigation of the incident, it was chalked up to ‘mass hysteria.’ Many people disagreed with
2. The Oakville Incident
On August 7, 1994, the tiny town of Oakville, Washington, experienced a rain fall unlike any other before it. Though rain is common in the area, this time, the rain wasn’t water. This was a peculiar view for citizens, among them, Officer David Lacey and her partner. As they were patrolling the area, the substance covered their windows.
The substance was transparent, and had a gelatinous texture. The strangest part is that the dogs and the cats, after contact with the substance, grew sick. Some died. And it didn’t just affect animals. People got sick after encountering this odd rain as well.
According to town residents, it was the accidental byproduct of a military experiment of a biological weapon.
The mystery remains unsolved. There are no remaining samples of the Oakville blob.
1. The Death of Cindy James
In June 1989, the body of the 42-year-old nurse Cindy James was found on the roof of an abandoned house. According to the investigator, she was heavily intoxicated. Her legs, hands, and feet were tied behind her back. Theree were signs of strangulation on her neck.
Surprisingly, despite the manner in which she was found, police ruled the death an accident. Prior to her discovery, Cindy had filed numerous reports of being stalked, harassed, and attacked for years. She had moved city’s, changed her names, hired a private investigator, and took numerous precautionary measures. Wth the exception of one incident, no one had ever seen Cindy’s stalker.
Her family believe she was too scared to say who it really was, so she tried to manage the situation on her own.
Police believed it was an elaborate ruse of a woman suffering from paranoid delusions.
What really happened to Cindy James remains a mystery.