The world is full of mysterious events and strange discoveries that have never been solved.
Some of these unexplained mysteries have left us baffled for centuries, leaving us no closer
to uncovering the actual truth behind them.
5.
Dighton Rock
In 1680, John Danforth who had just graduated from Harvard, happened upon a boulder in what
was then known as the town of Dighton, Massachusetts.
He noticed that it contained strange carvings of which he made a drawing.
That same drawing is now held at the British Museum and it shows only the uppermost section
of carvings that are actually found on the rock.
It is believed that, at the time, the lower section was covered with water.
The drawings were studied, but their meaning and origin could not be determined and ever
since then, it has remained an unexplained mystery.
Danforth believed that the carvings were made by Native Americans and that they told the
story of a battle with seafarers who had arrived in the area.
Theologian Ezra Stiles has theorized that the drawings were left on the rock by ancient
Phoenicians while others have posited that they were the work of visitors from Carthage.
A Danish historian called Carl Christian believes that the rock was carved by Vikings, but other
theorists believe that the carvings are Portuguese in origin while many others claim it to be
proof of extraterrestrials that have visited the area.
In 1963, the 40-tonne rock was removed during construction of a dam on the river and it
is now kept at a small museum in the Dighton State Park.
The fact that the rock is now more easily accessible has made little difference and
despite the best efforts of archaeologists, scholars and students of New England Native
American tribes, its interpretation remains elusive.
4.
The Disappearance of Shelley Luty
On the 24th of August, 1982, Shelly Diane Luty, a 19-year-old woman from Pennsylvania
was finishing her shift at a diner where she worked as a waitress with her mother.
At around 11pm, she left the restaurant and got into the car that she had borrowed from
her stepfather, a mint green, two-door Chevrolet Impala which she had parked across the street
from the diner.
She had made plans with a friend to meet up after the end of her shift, but she never
made it to the rendezvous.
When she didn’t return home either, her stepfather reported her missing, but her whereabouts
remain an unexplained mystery.
Shelly’s mother would later tell police that she saw a man, who had been a diner in
the restaurant, leave at around the same time that Shelly did.
Other witnesses reported seeing the same man talking to her outside the diner about half
an hour before her shift ended.
He is described as being between 5’10 and 6’0 tall, with an athletic build.
The man is not considered a suspect in her disappearance, but police believe that he
may have crucial information about Shelly after she left the restaurant.
Police immediately assumed that foul play was involved as she had a 2-year-old daughter
at home who she would never abandon.
There have been many leads in the case, most coming from California and Minnesota, but
none proved fruitful.
The FBI interviewed Shelly’s co-workers, family, friends and former boyfriends and
performed polygraph tests on all of them, but with no new leads as they were all ruled
out as suspects.
No further trace of Shelley has ever been found and her stepfather’s car has never
been recovered.
The FBI would conclude their investigation in October of 1984 with no results, though
her case remains open and investigators in Upper Darby remain hopeful that they will
be able to solve the mystery of Shelly’s disappearance one day.
3.
Money Pit of Oak Island
In 1795 in Nova Scotia, Canada, a teenage boy living on the mainland near Oak Island,
spotted something strange happening on the island.
He noticed strange lights in the area and called two of his friends and the three set
out to investigate.
They rowed over to the island and in a small cluster of trees, they found that an area
of soil, about 13 feet in diameter had been disturbed as the soil was loose and young
trees had begun to grow.
They started to dig and about 2 feet down, they found a circle of stones lining the outside
of a pit.
8 feet further down, they discovered that a wooden platform had been placed in the ground
with another about 20 feet down.
They couldn’t find anything else but in the 1800s, the Onslow Company decided to excavate
the site.
As they uncovered more of the soil, they found that a platform had been constructed at every
10 feet, some covered with putty, coconut fibers or charcoal.
It should be noted that coconuts didn’t grow in the area at the time and the nearest
coconut trees were located 900 miles away.
At 90 feet, however, they discovered a strange, rectangular stone with unusual markings.
Many people believed that the markings were a type of treasure map and in the 1860s, a
professor of languages determined that the markings read: “Forty feet below, two million
pounds are buried”.
They kept digging and at 98 feet, they struck something that sounded like a hollow container.
They called the dig off for the night and returned in the morning, only to find that
the pit had been filled in with 60 feet of water.
They believed that they had triggered a booby trap and their efforts ended there.
In 1849, another crew attempted an excavation.
They bailed out the water and drilled into the hollow container, hitting sections of
wood and loose metal, leading them to believe that they were about to unearth a treasure
chest.
But before thay could gain access to the container, the bottom of the pit collapsed and the pit
was flooded with water once again.
It was found that the pit was connected to a flood tunnel and the men attempted to drain
it, but to no avail.
In the 1860s, a steam-powered pump was used to try and drain the pit, but it exploded
and ended the life of one man.
And so started the legend of the Oak Island curse.
In 1897, a man fell into the pit and lost his life and four more people would succumb
to noxious underground fumes in 1965.
A crew used cameras and a monitor to explore the pit in 1975 and they claim to have seen
a wooden chest at the bottom, though the incident was never recorded.
In the years that followed, a lead cross, believed to have belonged to the Knights Templar
has been discovered, along with bone fragments and a U-shaped wooden structure.
Despite many years of digging and speculation, the Money Pit of Oak Island remains an unsolved
mystery.
2.
Disappearance of Tiffany Daniels
On the 11th of August, 2013, theater technician Tiffany Daniels, a 25-year-old woman from
Pensacola, Florida attended a farewell breakfast that was being held in honor of her boyfriend
who was relocating to Texas after being accepted into The University of Texas’ robotics program.
He wanted her to move to Austin with him, but Tiffany felt that she wasn’t ready to
leave Pensacola and made plans to visit him in the future.
That night, Tiffany and Gary Nichols, a 54-year-old man who was sharing her house, watched the
film “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” since the theater department where Tiffany
worked was preparing for the production of a musical called “Spamalot”, which is
based on the film.
At work the following day, Tiffany asked her supervisor if she could leave early and have
a few days off.
He agreed and she left at 4:43pm.
Since then, no trace of her has ever been found.
The following evening when she hadn’t returned home, Nichols contacted Tiffany’s parents
via Facebook.
Her mother contacted all her friends, but they hadn’t seen her.
She contacted police and reported Tiffany missing at the end of that week, though Escambia
County police seemed disinterested.
She contacted Pensacola police instead and they searched Tiffany’s house.
They found nothing unusual and her boyfriend was contacted, but they found that he had
last contacted her days before.
8 days after her disappearance, Tiffany’s car was found by a jogger in Pensacola Beach.
Inside were her phone, bicycle, purse, wallet, clothes, paintings, a jug of water and a jar
of peanut butter.
Two fingerprints were lifted, but no match was found.
Two residents of a nearby condominium stated that they had seen a man getting out of the
car earlier that day before leaving the area.
In 2015, another witness described a shirtless man in his 30s wearing red shorts opening
the tailgate of the car.
He said he remembered the event, since the car had been parked strangely facing oncoming
traffic in a wildlife reservation area.
Tiffany’s case remains an unexplained mystery and she has never been found.
1.
Don Decker
The unexplained mystery of 20-year-old Don Decker begins in Pennsylvania on the 24th
of February, 1983.
His grandfather, James Kishbaugh (Kish Bah) had just passed away while Don was doing time
at the Monroe County Correctional Facility and he was granted a few days of compassionate
leave to attend the funeral and to be with his family.
During his leave, he was invited to stay with family friends, Bob and Jeannie Keiffer in
their rental house in Stroudsburg.
After spending some time catching up, Don headed upstairs to get ready for dinner when
he started feeling strange.
He told his friends that he was cold and seemed to be disoriented and confused.
Before long, he fell into a trance-like state and would afterwards describe having a vision
in which an older man, wearing a crown, appeared to him.
Soon after, he would discover scratch marks on his arms.
His friends became extremely concerned and when they questioned him further, he claimed
that the scratches had been made by Satan.
It was then that they noticed water dripping from the ceiling and walls in the living room.
The Kieffers contacted their landlord, Ron Van Why and told him about the leak.
He went to the house immediately, but could find no source for the leak, as there were
no water pipes in the area where the drips were coming from, but they kept getting worse.
They then realized that Don was still in a trance and while Ron phoned his wife, Romayne
to tell her what was happening, the Kieffers phoned the police.
Upon entering the house, patrolman Richard Wolbert very quickly found himself drenched
in water from the dripping ceiling.
He would describe standing inside the front door where he saw a droplet of water floating
horizontally between him and the house’s residents, into an adjoining room.
Having no explanation, he left and filed a police report with the police chief.
The Kieffers decided to take Don out of the house to a restaurant across the road and
as soon as he stepped outside, the dripping stopped.
They reached the restaurant and stepped inside, only for the dripping to start again.
When the restaurant owner saw what was happening, she suspected that Don was possessed and placed
a crucifix on his skin.
He immediately pulled away and they noted that his skin had been burned.
The group returned to the house where Van Why and his wife were waiting and as soon
as Don entered, the drips started once again.
Officers would return to the house the next day and report that they witnessed Don being
lifted into the air and thrown against a wall by an unseen force.
They saw three scratch marks on the side of his neck and to this day, no explanation has
been found.