The Strangest Mysteries That Remain Unsolved According To Crime Buffs
It's not difficult to understand why true crime content, be it in film, television, or podcast continues to grow in popularity.
Of course, the most fascinating crime stories are those which remain unsolved.
It allows us to put on our detective hats, and evaluate the cases ourselves, hoping we might find the answers which evaded the police at the time.
Knowing full well, the answers may never arrive.
"What is the strangest mystery that is still unsolved?"
Atomic Cover-Up
"The lost A-bomb off the coast of America, which the US government said not to worry about in the 50's and tried to cover up."
"Was dumped in the ocean in an aviation accident and it's still lost to this day."
"100x more powerful than what was dropped in Japan."- BremCrumbs
Targeted Divorcée
"I remember seeing a video about a woman that after getting divorced started getting stalked and assaulted in her own house."
"Every time police would arrive no one more than her was at the scene, sometimes she would appear with bruises, once she appeared with a screwdriver through her hand."
"This happened so many times that police started ignoring her calls after the investigation on her husband and on the case left no suspects."
"Three months later she disappeared just to reappear next to a highway in the middle of the desert, miles away from her house, with her hands tied, dead."
"Autopsy later confirmed she was beaten to death."
"Creepiest sh*t I know."- JustCallMeAttlaz
The Oakville Blob
"The Oakville Blob."
"In 1994, there was a rainstorm in Oakville, WA."
"Only the 'raindrops' were a strange clear substance that had the consistency of Jello."
"Lots of people experienced flu-like symptoms after coming into contact with it, and peoples' dogs and cats all over the city were dying."
"When a local hospital ran a lab test on the substance after one of the patients suggested it, it was found that whatever this mysterious 'rain' was, it had human white blood cells in it."
"Some time after that, a sample was also sent to the Washington State Health Laboratory, where it was being researched by epidemiologist Mike McDowell."
"After he determined that it was man-made and speculated that it was some sort of matrix for transporting viruses/bacteria, the samples suddenly went missing from the containment facility and his supervisor told him not to ask any questions."
"There are no known samples of the stuff anywhere today, despite being sent to several different facilities by various Oakville residents."
"So yeah, I'd personally say that this was clearly some sort of bio-weapon test run, but by whom?"
"I'd like to give the US Government the benefit of the doubt here and assume it wasn't us testing something like that on our own citizens, but if it wasn't, why would it have been covered up like that?"
"And you'd think an event like this would be a lot less obscure."
"Also, even if it being a bio-weapon seems super obvious, how the heck did whoever dispersed it manage to make it rain over an entire city for several days?"- Xaldyn
A Family Thing
"An unsolved murder of an entire family in Japan which to this day remains unsolved despite DNA evidence indicating the ancestry of the killer, a sand sample left by the killer which was traced back to the California desert near Edwards AFB, and even sesame seeds in the killer's stool."- PaperbackWriter66
The Circleville Letters
"THE CIRCLEVILLE LETTERS."
"In 1976, residents of the small city south of Columbus Ohio began receiving handwritten sinister and graphic letters."
"Each letter included secret and dark details about their personal lives."
"One resident received a ton of letters, accusing her of various unsavory acts."
"The author warned the resident that he had been keeping an eye on her home, as well as her comings and goings."
"The resident was horrified and tried to keep the letters a secret until her husband began receiving them."
"The attacks on the family continued, with large posters appearing around town spreading rumors about their 12 year old child."
"One day in 1977, the husband left the house after receiving a call from who he thought was writing the letters."
"A few minutes later, the husband was found dead at the end of the street dead behind the wheel."
"The sheriff had ruled it a homicide when he realized that a single shot had been fired before the accident, but there was no evidence that the husband was shot at the site."
"The sheriff found the husband was twice the legal limit and ruled it a drunk driving accident."
"The letters began once again, this time accusing the sheriff of covering up the true nature of the death."
"The letters also accused the sheriff of mishandling an investigation into the county coroner who had been accused of other grotesque acts."
"The harassment continued, this time with signs along the road and in 1983, the original resident who had been accused of having an affair pulled over to remove a sign."
"During the effort to remove the sign, she discovered a box was attached and inside of it was a small pistol."
"The gun was part of a booby trap designed to fire when the sign was removed."
"Paul Freshour was arrested and given 25 years, but one small problem."
"The letter writing continued even after Freshour was put in jail."
"In a new batch of letters, the author had promised to dig up the grave of a deceased baby and mail the bones to the police in the case of another potential affair turned murder."
"Hundreds of residents continued to receive personal letters until 1994 when everything stopped."- GeneralMadAnthony
Running Man
"This dude got lost in the catacombs, and they found camera footage of his journey, but at some point he drops the camera and just starts to run."
"As far as I know, nobody has found out wtf happened to him."- Cookyloco6
The world may never know the fate of these poor souls, and those responsible might never be brought to justice.
However, cold comfort though it may be for the families of those involved, there will always be people searching for answers.
As the saying goes, the truth is, indeed, out there.
History is littered with horror and fright.
And much of it is journaled and cataloged for our reading pleasure.
Which sometimes is reading that can leave one a bit on edge.
That's because some of our best long-dead wordsmiths left some serious echoes.
Now we all do love a good speech.
We're especially entranced when the speaker has that certain... "thing."
But once and awhile when you listen and really dig deep, they are less inspirational and more morbid
Redditor KeyWar8755 wanted to compare notes on the words we can't shake. They asked:
"What’s a quote from history that gives you chills?"
I always listen to famous serial killers. So I've long been tainted.
To the Sea
Season 3 Nbc GIF by ManifestGiphy"'It is only those who have never heard a shot, never heard the shriek and groans of the wounded and lacerated […] that cry aloud for more blood, more vengeance, more desolation.'"
"General Sherman, from a letter sent in May of 1865 in the midst of his march to the sea."
TTTriplicate
Loss in Life
“'WAR is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.'― Smedley Butler"
ayayaJAMMER
Shoot
"'Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.' -- Dwight D. Eisenhower"
zyygh
Dirty
"'In Germany, the one who complains about the dirt is considered much more dangerous than the one making something dirty.' -Kurt Tucholsky"
"(Not an exact translation, the original quote is in German)"
EsszettOfficial
I'll Find You
looney tunes marco GIF by Looney Tunes World of MayhemGiphy"Nobody believed Marco Polo’s stories about travelling through Asia, and on his deathbed someone asked him to admit he had made it all up. His response was 'I have not told half of what I have seen.' That always got my imagination going. I would have liked to have heard his stories straight from him."
mariam67
I've always wondered about Marco Polo's origins.
Dreams
Hungry Hanna Barbera GIF by Warner ArchiveGiphy“'All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds, wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act on their dreams with open eyes, to make them possible.' T. E. Lawrence"
Kravashera
Time to Die
"'I've seen things you people wouldn't believe... Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion... I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain... Time to die.' — Rutger Hauer in Blade Runner"
cisforcoffee
Send it All...
"'Stop sending people to kill me. We've already captured five of them, one of them with a bomb and another with a rifle… If you don't stop sending killers, I'll send one to Moscow, and I won't have to send another.' - Said by Josip Broz Tito to Joseph Stalin"
ChangKaiShek2
Death
“'I used to have five brothers, now I'm not even a brother' - Kevin Von Erich"
"His older brother died at the age of 6. His younger brother David died suddenly at 25. His three youngest brothers all killed themselves at 33, 23, and 21. Between 1984 and 1993 he went from having four younger brothers to not being a brother."
ToxicBanana69
Remember
Martin Luther King Jr Mlk GIF by IdentityGiphy"'We will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.' - Martin Luther King, Jr."
RecalledBurger
Power
"'We have the power to make this the best generation of mankind in the history of the world or make it the last.' - John F. Kennedy"
VerdHorizon
Hard Truth
"'There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen.' --Vladimir Ilyich Lenin"
thatsnotmyf**kinname
"Whew! The timing."
imheretoupvotes**t
"Seen too many once in a generation depressions and once in a hundred years extreme weather events."
Meritania
Pay Attention
"'A generation which ignores history has no past and no future.' Robert Heinlein"
underpressure65
"Here in Latin America we have a similar saying: 'Un pueblo sin memoria es un pueblo sin futuro.' Which means 'A nation without memories is a nation without a future.'"
Guilhermedidi
NOW!
gordon ramsay fox GIF by MasterChef JuniorGiphy"'They didn't want it good, they wanted it Wednesday.' -Robert Heinlein"
Hob_O_Rarison
"Damn. I work in manufacturing and this hit me right in the paycheck."
XXPapaZombieXX
Take Notice
"'Why show anger to the world, as if the world would notice.'"
Wehfi
"I like this. Who said it?"
-Saltyz
"It's a double quotation. It's best known today as a quotation from the Meditations by Stoic philosopher and Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius, but he was himself quoting from the Greek play Bellerophon by Euripedes."
contramundi
Bull Moose
"'Friends, I shall ask you to be as quiet as possible. I don't know whether you fully understand that I have just been shot; but it takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose. But fortunately I had my manuscript, so you see I was going to make a long speech, and there is a bullet - there is where the bullet went through - and it probably saved me from it going into my heart. The bullet is in me now, so that I cannot make a very long speech, but I will try my best.' -Teddy Roosevelt"
herculesmeowlligan
Pay Up
“'It will cost what it will.' - Albert von Bredow"
"After receiving orders to charge the French infantry. Would become one of the last successful cavalry charges used in battle. More than half of them died in the charge."
KingOfWinteryIce
DONE
Proud Ides Of March GIF by Checkatrade.comGiphy"'The die is cast - Ceasar'"
"He said that after sending Roman troops to the border of Italy and Callia which marked the beginning of a Civil War."
Lanxol
Franz
“'One day the Great European War will come out of some damn foolish thing in the Balkans.' - Otto Von Bismarck"
"Said in 1888, 26 years before Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated in Sarajevo triggering World War One."
Superb-Possibility-9
These are some powerful words that have stood the test of time.
It's spooky time, fam!
Collectively, we love a good ghost story. Horror films gain cult-like followings. We all know that our passion for a mystery podcast is unmatched. Being safely scared seems to be something we dig.
But when it comes to our real lives, most of us would prefer it if things stayed ghost-free.
It doesn't.
Reddit user numbnesstolife asked
"People who have experienced paranormal activity, what is your story?"
Buckle up, readers. It's about to get spooktastic.
A Face Looking Back
black and white horror GIFGiphy"I grew up in a house that originally served as an 'old folks home.' "
"At night the whole house would pop and crack. It sounded like people were walking up and down the stairs all night."
"My mom was always on board that the house was haunted. My dad said it was “Just the house settling” the house in 1984 was 100 years old."
"One night I woke up to the sound of a door slamming. I walked down the hall and peeked around the corner, looking down the stairs. At the bottom of the stairs was a closet."
"The door was open about six to eight inches, and there was a human face looking at me from inside the closet."
"The face was very shadowed as the house was dark. But there was no glisten to the eyes, just black. It’s face was protruding slightly from the opening between the door and the door frame."
"The skin was a pale grayish white, as I could make out. I didn’t stick around very long to study it."
"I ran into the bathroom and tried to calm down. Finally I mustered the courage to come out of the bathroom and look down the stairs again…. Nothing there."
"There were many experiences in that house that are harder to explain."
- AsphiXiate8888
"Hey, psst"
neverending story 80s GIFGiphy"When I was younger, maybe like 5, I went to bed and I woke up to the sound of something whispering and I thought nothing of it until I heard 'Hey, psst' and I looked up and saw a black dog with yellow eyes standing on 2 legs."
"I started screaming and crying and yelled for my parents and when they came up the thing hid behind a chair in my room. I was so scared I slept with my parents for a week and never saw that thing again."
"I had multiple dreams about it though."
"In the dreams it always had this power that it could make me freeze and not be able to move and he would always do it in front of my parents and they never did anything."
"Really Creepy sh*t."
- CoolQuip1
Nothing's Wrong With The Doorbell
home alone lol GIF by Shalita GrantGiphy"I was about 16 and home alone one night at my stepdad's house. Everyone had gone out for the night except me."
"One thing you need to know about this household; it’s in a pretty rural area, in a little village where everyone knows each other and a lot of families lives in the same town. Because of this, no one would ever use the front door."
"Everyone who came over for a visit would just come through the garden and use the back door and walk right in."
"So it’s about 10pm, I’m watching tv, and the doorbell rings. It startled me a bit; who could that be at this hour? Why would they be at the front?"
"So I look out the window to get a full view of the front doorstep. No one’s there."
"As I’m looking out the bell rings again, but there’s no one there to ring it."
"My whole body becomes red hot with adrenaline and fear and I’m frozen to my seat as it rings again. And again. And again."
"I run to grab my phone to try and call my mom to come home cause I’m scared sh*tless. No answer. The ringing stops."
"About an hour later my parents come home and I freak out and tell them what happened and I’m pissed at them for not answering the phone."
"My stepdad chuckles and says 'Oh yeah, that’s my wife. It happens sometimes.' "
"His previous wife and partner for years had died a few years back. He said he tried to have the doorbell fixed only to find out there’s nothing wrong with it."
"Their theory is that when the doorbell rings it’s her reminding them she’s still with them."
- lxtje
"Outstanding reports"
Twitch Smile GIF by HewFoEGiphy"I used to be a contractor and had to inspect all kinds of places. One was an old psych hospital/asylum that had long been empty."
"I was working on one of the floors and it was starting to feel...off."
"It was August, but got freezing inside all of a sudden. So I decided I was going to calmly, but briskly, leave the building. As I was going down the stairs (i think I was between the 2nd and 3rd floor) something grabbed my ankle."
"I booked it out of there immediately - I absolutely didn't care if someone saw me terrified or panicked. I ran the f*ck outta there, ripped off my PPE and called my contact to confirm I was out."
"And then I left for the day due to 'outstanding reports' and went home and tried to convince myself it didn't happen."
- Wise_Coffee
Mom
canadian comedy GIF by CBCGiphy"I've always slept with my bedroom door open. I have a small room and it feel smaller when the door's closed, also I was very scared of the dark as a kid."
"I had a mirror across my room that faced the hallway. My bed was facing the mirror so I could see the hallway from my bed."
"Anyways, so there was one night I woke up in the middle of the night for no reason."
"And that night I looked in the mirror and I saw my mom in the mirror, and she was looking down and giving me the creepiest smile."
"I blinked and she was gone."
"I'm not sure if that was a sleep deprived hallucination or what, but it definitely wasn't my mom."
- mystic_mayhem03
"One night I woke up and seen my mom standing in my closet smiling at me. I looked at her for a few seconds and she faded away."
"It creeps my mom out when I tell her."
- halfbreed_prince
A Children's Choir
royal wedding choir GIF by BBCGiphy"I lived in a haunted house for a year."
"At this time it was just me and my three sisters. Ages 13, 5 and 2 (I was 10.) My older sister and I were home from school with a stomach bug."
"My mom had to go get my 5-year-old sister from school and asked us to watch our youngest sister."
"We were sitting in the living room and she was eating some snacks and had a sippy cup of water. The top to the cup must’ve not been screwed on tight enough because when she knocked it over, water spilled everywhere."
"My older sister went to the kitchen to get some napkins to clean it up. When she came back she handed me some of the napkins and we both started cleaning."
"We were on our hands and knees wiping up the water when we started to hear banging coming from the second floor. We both paused, looked at each other, and said nothing. But we both had that look of 'you heard that too, right?' ”
"We stayed silent and kept cleaning."
"Then again, another bang. At this point we stand up and are still silent, just staring at the ceiling."
"Then came the giggles. We heard little kids upstairs laughing. Then the laughing turned to singing. It sounded like a whole children's choir singing."
"My sister scooped up the baby and we ran outside. It was a clear day out that day, but I remember once we got outside it started to rain on us."
"We had no choice but to go back to the house. We stayed on the front porch until my mom got home."
"We saw things in that house that I still have nightmares about, 20 years later, but for some reason that giggling and singing bothered me the most."
- Cat523
My Shadow Roommate
music video mv GIF by Lady GagaGiphy"The apartment where I'm currently living seems to have some sort of resident shadow figure. I tend to see it moving in my office."
"Sometimes when I'm out in the hallway I'll see a shadow that looks like a medium-build man moving in there. Sometimes when I'm in the office at my PC I'll see it out of the corner of my eye like someone's standing at my shoulder and turn expecting to see my boyfriend - but nobody is there."
"Sometimes I'll see the figure down where the stairs meet the front door. The closet near the front entrance (right by where I've seen the shadow lingering at the end of the stairs) has opened itself a few times when I've been home alone & cooking in the adjacent kitchen."
"It's never seemed frightening to me, though, so whatever it is - some trick of lighting or bonafide shadow dude - I don't really worry about it much."
"I did recently have a bad bout of sickness. There was one night that I was running a temp of 103 and was just absolutely miserable, falling in and out of sleep while being anxious about my rising temp & how laboured/difficult my breathing was becoming."
"I was kind of scared since my aunt had died in her sleep due to COVID relatively early on in the pandemic - she had been on the phone with her boyfriend and mentioned she wasn't feeling well suddenly and was going to take a nap. I couldn't help but think of her because of how quickly it seemed like things were accelerating that night."
"At one point I did manage to fall asleep, but was woken up by a shadow figure opening my door & coming to stand over me. It wasn't my boyfriend."
"I was staying completely isolated in a diff part of the apartment to protect him since he has asthma & is a high risk, I asked later to confirm he hadn't randomly decided to break that quarantine that night and he was like 'of course not!' "
"I couldn't see anything but a shadowy outline. The figure was saying something to me; it was unintelligible but seemed like a question. Then it eventually walked back out of the room."
"I would've assumed it was a fever hallucination if my cat didn't jump up from her sleeping position to stare at the figure. Who knows, maybe it still was and I even hallucinated her reaction?"
"But I kind of like the idea that my shadow roommate came to check on me at my sickest point when I was anxious about being alone since my boyfriend couldn't!"
- junipercoffee
The Audacity Of This Girl
Tired Monsters Inc GIFGiphy"I used to babysit my niece and nephew when they were 4 and 5 while my sister went to work. She lived down the street from me so I would walk down in the morning before she left and before the kids woke up."
"I got there one morning and after she left I laid down on the couch. I heard one of the kids run down the hall and I immediately pretended to be asleep so they would go back to bed and not get the day started yet."
"I felt my niece run by me on the couch. Her running stomps shook the floor and I could hear the trinkets on the shelves shake. And I felt the wind of her blow by me."
"Then it was quiet but I knew she was still there. She leaned over my ear and moved my hair out of the way and laughed in my ear."
"I just thought to myself 'The audacity of this girl!' "
"Then she hid under the end table of the couch. Realizing she wasn’t gonna go back to bed until I woke up and played with her, I just got up and looked under the end table."
"There was no one there."
"Completely baffled at how she got up and out of the living room in literally 2 seconds without me hearing shook me. So I went down the hall to her room and was starting to freak out."
"My nephew was sound asleep in his bedroom and I got to my niece’s room, she was sound asleep tucked under her covers."
"My heart almost fell out of my body."
- FootstepsofDawn
The Blue Cup
Britains Got Talent No GIF by Got Talent GlobalGiphy"Years ago, when I was just a kid, my mom and I lived in this old apartment in MA. One day, when I was watching TV while she was cooking, all of a sudden she started to scream, yelling for me to come over and 'look at this!' "
"I ran over. She was standing right by the dining room table, which was empty except for a blue plastic cup at the end of it. I was confused, and asked her what the hell was going on."
"She didn't say anything. She just picked up the blue cup, and set it down at the other end of the table. As soon as she put it down, the cup just slid over all the way to the other end of the table, by itself. It stopped right at the edge."
"I jumped back, perplexed. My mom picked up the cup and did it again. And again for a third time."
"I've always liked technology and science (I grew up to become an engineer) so rather than being scared, I tried to figure out a rational explanation for this."
"I picked up the cup, and looked at it closely. I looked under and around the table. The table was spotless, and there was nothing else there."
"It wasn't a trick, there were no wires or magnets or anything of the sort. I tried the same thing with other objects, and nothing happened. It only happened with this particular blue plastic cup."
"I eventually tried it while looking directly at the cup, literally 2 inches away from it, and followed its path. The cup would actually vibrate as it moved, and did so in such a way that you could only notice it up close."
"Cups move when there's condensation under them, but they usually move a few inches, not the length of a fairly long dining room table. Also, the cup was made entirely of plastic, no seal, and dry. The table was dry as well."
"I've just never seen anything else like that, before or since. And the faint vibration was very, very freaky."
"To this day, I am not sure what caused the cup to move."
"That wasn't the only strange thing I experienced in that apartment..."
- JohnnyTwoTimes21
Steve
Driving Rush Hour GIFGiphy"My Dad has heard my mom calling him when she needed him. No phone or anything."
"One example - one time she dropped him off for a half day conference in a big office tower downtown and was going to do some shopping while she waited to pick him up."
"She drives away and 30 min later starts feeling very sick."
"She drives back to the building but doesn't know where in the building he is or where to call him. She said she just tried to focus and thinks his name really hard over and over ... like 'Steve, I need you. Steve, I need you.' "
"10 min later he came running out to the car and was like, 'What, what do you want?' "
"He drove her to the hospital and she needed her appendix taken out."
"Another time, my Dad's driving a car down a busy road. It's one of the ones where the main road has the right of way and all the side roads have stop signs where people have to stop then merge into traffic when there's a break."
"Anyway he's driving along and hears 'Steve!' "
"He looks around. No one's in the car with him, the windows are closed plus he's doing 50 miles per hour - but maybe someone he knows is in traffic?"
"Then he hears it again, 'Steve!' So he slows down and looks in the rearview mirror. He thinks it might be his friend."
"He slows down a bit more... and a dump truck blows through the stop sign at the crossing before him."
"If he hadn't slowed down he would have been flattened like a pancake."
- wellchelle
Avoiding the unexplained might be preferable for some, but it sure does make for a good story.
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Many people in the United States believe in the paranormal.
According to an October 2019 YouGov poll that was appropriately timed for the spookiest month of the year, many Americans–more than four in 10–believe that ghosts and demons exist.
Interestingly enough, the same poll found that not as many Americans believe in the existence of vampires, so it's kind of funny that Americans are so selective about their otherwordly beings!
While many scoff at the paranormal and have worked to convince people to turn away from a belief not shrouded in evidence, there are cases of former skeptics who've done an about-face, as we were reminded once Redditor barbexaclone asked the online community,
"People who used to not believe in the paranormal but do now — What experience changed your mind?"
"Until one day..."
"I always wanted to believe but never had any experience of my own to allow me to. Until one day I was home alone and as plain as day heard someone stomp up my basement steps to the floor I was on. I was sitting maybe 12 feet away from the steps and I was frozen as soon as I heard them."
"I was watching closely and the sound got all the way to the top of the steps, but no one was there. My cat was sleeping on the couch adjacent to me, he woke up suddenly and stared right at the stairs too. He heard it too. So that's how I know I wasn’t crazy. It wild to experience."
HustleWestbrook
I bet!
But was it really the paranormal?
"I was working at a pharmacy..."
"I was working at a pharmacy that was in an old building downtown. We kept our records upstairs. The second floor was used for several different things over the 100+ years it has been around, but it had not been renovated in decades."
"Anyway, I went upstairs to file some paperwork and while I was squatting in the hallway, putting the papers away (we had shelves built in the hallway to store banker boxes) I heard two loud, and I mean LOUD stomps only feet away from me. There was nobody else up there."
toxic99
Old places make all sorts of noises, though, no?
"I know without a doubt..."
"I wouldn’t say I didn’t believe but I wasn’t a full believer, I was middle ground."
"Then a few years ago I moved into my now house, I’m in my mid 40s so I’ve essentially gone my entire life with zero paranormal experiences."
"It started out as a weird, huh I think ghosts live here? But I never felt they were harmful they were just there. I couldn’t even give a specific example but I just knew I wasn’t alone."
"Then my dog started acting weird. At night he’d start looking at the ceiling like there was something there, happened a few times a week. Then I’d be in bed and I’d feel something walk across the bed. Thinking it was the dog but nothing was there."
"This happened all the time. Doors would close strangely, lights would flicker but the constant was the foot steps across the bed."
"For the first year or so I never said anything to my husband, I for sure thought he’d think I was crazy. Then one night he bolts up in bed and was like “DID YOU FEEL THAT” it was the footsteps. We both realized we’d been experiencing the same thing and both thought we were crazy."
"The clincher for me though was when my dog woke me one night to go for a pee. I let him out and was watching him through the peephole in the door. I very clearly saw a man and a woman dressed in Victorian era clothing standing together looking at something in my hedges."
"It was like 2 a.m. I took a step back and was like whoa I was obviously half asleep and I did just see that. Then went back to look again and sure enough they were still there. I’ve never seen them again since but I know for sure they were there."
"I know without a doubt there is some sort of spirit in this house but I also feel like it’s friendly so not worried about it. Now when something weird happens my husband and I are like oh the ghosts are active tonight!"
Wexylu
If you were half asleep, did you not think you could have imagined it? I think I would have had the opposite reaction?
"Until the day..."
"Old building, renovated into something new. Had a few previous staff mention they've seen a woman in white at the top of the stairs or walking through the kitchen, I'm like yeee, whatever."
"Until the day everyone was in bed, one staff upstairs, one at the table with me, and I turned around and very briefly saw a face in the dark conservatory. My heart could have leapt out of my chest. I made someone check with me JUST in case it was an intruder."
"Nothing. Doors locked, no one's there. 100% first thought was not omg ghost, it was omg intruder we have meds and vulnerable people. So when I say we checked, we CHECKED."
Bellamontage
Okay, that's pretty unsettling. I'll totally give you that, especially if several people were there and they were all checking.
"Nothing else has really happened since..."
"I was also walking out of the kitchen another time and I felt someone tap my shoulder. When I turned, there's literally no one behind me, or even in the room."
"Nothing else has really happened since, though some pm/night staff did report a few strange sightings but not for a while. I'm not like... Early day Ryan Bergara carrying holy water in a water pistol and screaming at a torch believer (not a dig, I'm a huge fan of the ghoul boys), but it has made me believe it's possible."
"Because I cannot explain these events."
Bellamontage
Intriguing!
I can see why this would change your mind about the existence of the paranormal.
I think we're in different camps, however.
"One day I was lying in bed..."
"One day I was lying in bed and the whole bed starts jumping and shaking like the Exorcist scene. I think I was half awake? Very confusing experience."
ConsistentBag1
A nightmare, no? You'd be surprised what you'll experience the second you fall asleep!
"I would often find..."
"I have had various things happen to cause me to question how straight forward what we know of our world is, but I lived in what felt like a haunted house. It's a bit a long, sorry."
"I lived for a while in a very old house. It was the oldest house in the area, and had started off as a small cottage, with various extensions and developments throughout it's history, but even the newest sections were still at least 100 years old."
"It is a detached house. For some of the time I lived there alone, and had up to three other friends living there at other times."
"One time I was sat in the living room, at this point no one else lived with me, and I heard my bike fall over in room next door. I kept it inside, leaning on a wall near the back door. Initially I thought nothing of it, thinking that the handlebars had turned and it slid over."
"When I came to find my bike it was a couple of meters from the wall and on it's side as if it had been flung away from the wall. Months later I spoke the the owner of the house about it and he had had the same thing happen to him with a motorcycle wheel from the same wall."
"I would often find lights and taps left on that I was sure I had switched off, they never turned themselves on when I could see them though, so I could never be sure it wasn't me."
"I would often hear noises in the house even when I was the only one there."
"I slept in a room at the top of the house (three stories) and I would get home from work before my housemates. Often I would be up in my room and clearly hear one of them come home and run up the stairs. I would shout downstairs to say hello, and get no reply. Then explore only to discover the doors still all locked and no one but me in the house."
"My friend woke up feeling himself pinned into his bed at night, he said it felt as if a person was holding him down by his arms. He has not experienced "night terrors" before or after living in this house."
"We looked after a rottweiler dog for a while there, it was a fearless and to be honest dangerous dog, or at least fearless until it lived there. Sometimes she would cower in a corner or press up against us for comfort whilst staring at something we couldn't see. Sometimes her stare would be following this invisible thing moving through the room."
"There were all sorts of odd happenings in this house, a lot of them easily written off as nothing due to the fact there were four of us living there, but I am convinced that house is haunted, as is the landlord (I only spoke to him about this after having moved out, it's not like he planted the idea.)"
"Oddly though it wasn't actually that scary. The noises of non existent people didn't bother me, but the bike and the dog was pretty freaky."
elbandito
The noises of nonexisting people didn't scare you?
Horror movie characters always say that.
So what do you think?
Does the paranormal actually exist or could all of this be explained away pretty easily?
It's pretty interesting to see how harshly divided people are on this matter.
Have some stories of your own? Feel free to tell us more in the comments below!
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People Who Live In Rural Areas Describe The Scariest Thing They've Ever Experienced
I could never live in a mostly rural area.
The woods scare me. I'm just not that outdoorsy person.
Wild animals freak me out and I believe owls are minions of the devil.
I also need to be around other homes, we all do incase we need to be able to run for help to someone.
Don't you think we see too many stories about the creepy goings on in the dead and dark of night, along trails and in the countrysides?
It's all a perfect set up for horror films and Dateline NBC episodes. I need some city life nearby.
Redditor _-Ascendancy-_ wanted to hear about all the spooks and kooks people encounter outside the city limits, by asking:
"People who live rurally, what's the scariest experience you've had that you can't explain?"
Living below a blanket of stars and a mile from the nearest person sounds serene. Until a ghost or a serial killer shows. Just keep that in mind.
Out Camping
The Lion King GIF by Walt Disney StudiosGiphy"Camping as a kid behind buddies house. Heard most God awful terrifying screech. Like 2 pieces of metal being rubbed together. Hands absolutely trembled unzipping tent and we hauled butt to the house. Honestly I was still scared in there too, thought something was going to come through window and get me. Probably a cougar/mountain lion I suppose but they aren't common here at all." ~ tbr6742
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK!!!
"8 years old, in VERY (I mean very— 45 miles away from the nearest anything on top of a mountain) rural Appalachia, I was sitting on my couch with my dad at around 9pm in winter, with freshly fallen snow, watching of all things SIGHTINGS, an old 90s show about alien counters which scared the absolute crap out of me anyway, and we heard a KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK on the window."
"Keep in mind it's pitch black outside, so whatever could see us but we couldn't see them. Dad told me to sit right there with the telephone beside me, and he ran outside with a mag light to go see what it was. He locked the door behind him and he had explicit instructions that if he didn't come back in 5 minutes to call the police."
"I was terrified. He went around the house and came back in, downplayed it saying it must have been an animal, but directly after all of this, he took the (long corded) phone in the other room and called his best friend to come up and investigate. He thought I was zoned out on tv, but I was listening. He said "I'm telling you, there was a knock like someone was knocking on the window to be let in, but there was NO FOOTPRINTS." It's still scary and I'm in my late 30s now." ~ INCORRIGIBLE_*UNT
Hello Caller
"I was camping alone in the middle of the plains in North Dakota. A storm blew in and I was stuck in my tent under some trees and got a super strange feeling. I had two phones on me at the time, one had internet and was for navigating and the other was just for cell reception (2013). All of a sudden, one of the phones starting ringing and I looked at the caller ID, the call was coming from my other phone which was closed and in my hand." ~ BetterCallTim
Knives Out
"15 years ago I had a seasonal job with the US Forest Service in western Colorado for the summer. I was living in an old ranger station by myself. One night I had a dream that someone was walking around the cabin while I was in bed. When I woke up that morning the front door was wide open. For the rest of the summer I slept with a large knife close by." ~ pinus_taeda
Bullets
The Emperors New Groove Disney GIFGiphy"Semi-Rural Australia, I wouldn't say "can't explain", but I do get mighty annoyed at the amount of bullet holes I keep finding in shed iron, solar panels, p2p radio dishes and so on."
"The holes are often 'tumbled' or 'keyhole' as well, so I don't think it's dimwits shooting directly, more like shooting at a 45° angle from miles away or something. It would ruin my serenity to get beaned by a random bullet." ~ ozspook
This is why I don't camp. I have no interest in learning what that noise was. Just run, let the noise be. And shooting randomly into the woods is not the best idea.
Bucked
girl woman GIFGiphy"My mom lives in the woods with my young nephew. Totally dark at night, tiny house. She woke up in the middle of the night to a banging on the house. Eventually she worked up the courage to look out her bedroom window. She saw a buck, banging its head against the siding. Just backing up and rearing toward the house over and over." ~ Eaj1122
Obscure Opinions People Are Fully Committing To | George Takei’s Oh Myyy
We all have a set of beliefs about even the smallest of topics. Like sandwiches should have structural integrity. That's something we can all agree on, right...you know the sound...
"My mother lives alone pretty much in the woods. Completely dark at night, no street lights or lights from neighbors, only a small road leading up to the house. One time in the middle of the night she woke up to clear footsteps on the gravel (you know the sound), and three knocks on the front door."
"She called out hello and looked outside and nothing there, only silence. It might not be a spectacular story but I would freak out if it was me waking up to that in the middle of the night with no other people around." ~ ingfrior
All about the bass...
"Unfortunately it's hard to explain. I was hiking down a trail with my dog in remote Northern Wisconsin, when I just got a weird feeling. At the exact same time, the heckles on my dog went straight up and he began acting really anxious. About the same time, I came into a clearing in the woods, and got hit with what I can only describe as a sound wave. It was like someone was blasting a subwoofer right next to me but there was nothing around."
"The nearest road was maybe a mile away. Something told me to get the heck out of there. So I quickly turned around and hiked as quickly as possible the rest of the way back. I didn't hear that bass sound after I left the clearing, but I still felt like something was following me." ~ HammockDistrictOn5th
Into the Woods
"This isn't a super scary experience or anything, but at the time (I was like 10 or so) it was pretty unnerving. So I was staying with my grandparents who lived pretty much in the middle of nowhere, and a dude knocked on their door. He asked for directions to town, but they lived on a dead end road where the only way to get up there is to come from town so he obviously knew where it was."
"They then pointed in the direction he needed to go, and then he said thanks. But instead of getting back into his car, he just ran off into the woods as fast as he could. They called the cops but they never found him so we have no clue what happened. He left his car in their driveway and never came back for it." ~ Last-Bar-5633
Duck, duck, goose...
ducks no GIFGiphy"In Pennsylvania, USA. Woke up at 5:30 one morning to the sounds of WWIII starting. Shotgun pellets landing on the metal roof and falling into the gutters."
"It was apparently the first day of duck season and some hicks had set up in the stream 50 yards from our cabin. We went out and gave them an earful, they told us to screw off, we called the game commission, they got cited, it wasn't a great day for anyone." ~ NerdyRedneck45
"somebody help me"
"I live alone in the woods fifteen minutes from my town. My neighbors are near but not right next door. One summer morning I woke around 4:30am to a strange 'pounding' sound. It was still kind of dusky dawn lighting and I was in a daze from just waking up. Then I started to hear a man's voice yelling "somebody help me."
"I began to look out my windows to see if I could see anyone but couldn't from upstairs. My home has no window coverings on any windows. I went downstairs and caught a glimpse of him, naked with a thin T-shirt on, running around my house trying to jiggle windows and doors. He was very erratic, kept screaming for someone to help him, and kept running from door to window all around trying to find a way in. In any normal situation, I would gladly help someone in need."
"But this situation felt too unpredictable and dangerous for me to allow this person into my home. I was able to contact my neighbors who got my msg and quickly made their way over to help me, this is faster than any police that can get here. The guy ran away straight into the trees before they arrived. He was picked up by RCMP shortly after. No idea what happened there." ~ whoiswilds
Mushrooms...
"I walked about a mile from home to go mushroom hunting in a usual area. Walked through a field of goldenrod as high as my shoulders and was about to enter the woods when I felt something strange. I felt like I needed to go or I wouldn't get out of there alive."
"I didn't hear or see anything, but I had got goosebumps and I felt anxious when everything was fine before I reached that spot. I stood there debating and decided to go hunt somewhere else. I've gone back many times and haven't experienced that again."
"I live in an area that have bears, wolves, coyotes and bobcats, I've never had any problems with them on walks or hikes in the woods, but maybe that day would've been different or maybe there was a bad person in there. I've learned to trust this feeling I get, it's saved me many times and when I ignored it I got hurt. Whatever was in there, I did the right thing in not going in." ~ Slight-Ad-1744
The Boonies...
"When I was a teenager I went to visit my Aunt and Cousins who lived in the boonies in a town name Eager, AZ (close to the border of New Mexico and half a mile away from the town where Fire In the Sky took place). I was really into Alien abductions lore, I suffered from sleep paralysis where I'd wake up but couldn't open my eyes or move my body."
"Anyway, late at night after everyone went to bed, I put on a movie.. I can't remember the name of it.. but it was like the Blair Witch version of an Alien Abduction movie. I was really into it, and totally geeked out. All the lights in the house were off, just the TV screen."
"I heard something behind me and slowly turned around in my reclining chair only to see a G**-DAMN ALIEN staring at me. I FREAKED OUT and jumped straight into the air screaming. Guys... it was a half-inflated balloon left over from my cousin's birthday party." ~ TransRational
The Ancient Lands
freaking out snakes on a plane GIF by KAT BALLGiphy"I'm semi-rural - village with houses and shops, but surrounded by fields. There are loads of Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments, like 1000 in a 5 mile radius. Anyway, there is this one prehistoric grave which is open, the contents having been moved to the museum."
"I jumped in one time to get a photo taken and my dog, a placid old black lab suddenly started barking with full alert mode, hackles, danger, right at me, in the burial cist. Still shudder to remember the moment. Maybe it was a snake, I don't know." ~ RandomiseUsr0
"what siren?"
"My wife and I were staying at a cabin in a rural town in the mountains. Around 8pm, an air raid siren (fire maybe), rang out for quite a while. We joked that it might be a zombie apocalypse, and after a while we actually got a little nervous that we didn't know what it was for."
"So I put on my coat and pots and walked down the road to a small grocery store nearby. Went in, asked if they knew what the siren was for. They said "what siren?" And when I went back outside the siren was gone." ~ a_pope_on_a_rope
Very Odd Feeling
"I lived in Japan and went on a trip in the mountains with a friend of mine. On a night ramble with him in an unfamiliar area, we both happened upon a torii that was immediately met with an impassable rock face. This seemed strange to me as torii were symbolically passageways."
"He and I both instinctively looked up to the sky while standing before the torii and somewhere that felt close to earth a great multi-colored light appeared hovering above us, letting off light almost like a gas in the full spectrum of colors, before disappearing. He and I both felt something incredibly significant had happened, but had no idea what. Very odd feeling." ~ dayto_aus
On and on...
"I live in the country, and it is weird how BOTH my dogs will key in on something and run to a place in the yard, focused, driven, hackles up, snarling... and there is absolutely nothing there. nothing!! And they aren't looking down or digging, they look up. A few weeks later it happens again, different area of the property. On and on... been here for years now and even the new dogs do it. Something is here with us." ~ hyteck9
Howls...
"I live way way out in the country and nothing really gets to me. However, I was out walking after dark and my flashlight died. I took about five steps and heard coyotes howling right near me and it absolutely freaked me out. I mean hair standing up on neck and frozen with fear. I made it home safely, but I'll never forget that awful sound. If you've never heard coyotes howling at night, you are missing a spine tingling feeling." ~ Robby777777
Yeah see, I'm definitely content with a Walmart and Target close by.
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