Around the globe, every country has its fair share of unexplainable events and creepy mysteries,
though these are often debunked as hoaxes or events that have logical explanations.
But some of the world’s scariest and strangest mysteries remain unsolved and due to their odd
nature, it seems very likely that they will remain that way forever.
5. Zebb Quinn
The strange mystery of the disappearance of 18-year-old Zebb Quinn occurred on Sunday
the 2nd of January, 2000. Zebb was working in the electronics department at a Walmart in Asheville,
North Carolina at the time and at around 9 pm, his shift had ended.
He had planned to meet up with one of his friends, Robert Jason Owens after
work to travel to Leicester where the two men would be looking at a car that Zebb was
interested in buying. They met in the Walmart’s parking lot and each left in their own vehicle.
They were then seen in surveillance footage at a nearby gas station about 15 minutes later
where they were buying sodas. Owens later told police that, after they left the gas station,
Zebb signalled for him to pull over by flashing his car’s headlights.
He said that he had received a page and needed to make a phone call and so, he
left to find a payphone. About 10 minutes later, he returned and Owens described him as frantic
and Zebb cancelled their plans to go to Leicester. He was in such a rush that
he rear-ended Owens’ car as he tried to leave, but he apologized and drove away.
In the early hours of the following morning, Owens was treated at a hospital
after he had been in what he claimed was a second, unrelated car accident,
however, no accident report had been filed with the police.
On the afternoon of the 3rd of January, Zebb’s mother filed a missing person report after she
had repeatedly paged him with no response. He was supposed to work his next shift on the 4th,
but didn’t show up and his supervisor, Patty King received a call from someone claiming to be Zebb,
saying he was sick and couldn’t come to work.
She immediately knew it wasn’t him and kept the caller on the line
by asking him about details of Zebb’s shift. The caller couldn’t answer any of her questions
and when the call was traced, it was found to have been made from a Volvo plant where Owens worked.
Police questioned him and he admitted to making the call
but told them that Zebb had asked him to call a favor. After giving his initial statement,
Owens refused to further cooperate with police. When the page that Zebb had received was traced,
it was found to have come from his aunt, Ina Ustich’s house, but she denied having paged him.
On the 6th of January, a former classmate of Zebb’s phoned his
mother to tell her that she had seen his car in the parking lot of a barbeque restaurant.
Police found that the headlights were left on and a pair of lips and an exclamation mark
had been drawn in lipstick on the car’s back windshield.
They also found a plastic hotel key card, someone else’s jacket and a black Labrador-mix
puppy inside, which was eventually adopted by one of the investigators.
Forensic evidence turned up no new leads. 15 years later, investigators found fabric,
leather and unknown hard fragments under a layer of concrete on Owens’ property.
On the 10th of July, 2017, Owens was charged with ending Zebb’s life and he is awaiting
trial. Zebb’s true fate, however, remains unknown.
4. J. Bernard Hutton and Joachim Brandt
Reporter, J. Bernard Hutton and photographer Joachim (yow ah kim) Brandt were working for a
German newspaper in 1932 when they were sent on an assignment to the Hamburg shipyards
to cover a local story and they inadvertently ended up in a real life, scary mystery.
The creepy case started after Hutton had gathered enough information for his story
and Brandt had taken some photos and the two men walked back to the
shipyard exit gate. They both suddenly became aware of the sound of aircraft
overhead and as they looked up, they saw the sky was full of RAF bomber warplanes.
A few moments later, huge explosions erupted around them as the shipyard was bombed and they
were told by a security guard to vacate the area. As chaos ensued around them,
Brandt managed to take a rapid series of photos before they made their way to safety.
As they drove back to Hamburg city centre, they became confused
as the sky had returned to normal and everyone seemed to be going about their business,
unaware of the attack. They looked back at the shipyard
and found that it was in the same state as when they arrived with no damage whatsoever.
Back at their office, Brandt’s photos were developed and they showed nothing unusual,
the shipyard appearing normal. Their editor phoned the shipyard and was told
that nothing out of the ordinary had happened that day and so, their claims were dismissed.
Just before the beginning of World War II, Hutton had moved to London and in 1943, he saw
a newspaper article about a successful air raid that had been carried out on the Hamburg shipyard.
He studied the photos of the event and found that they showed the shipyard exactly as he
and Brandt had witnessed it 11 years earlier but their encounter remains a strange mystery.
3. Thelma Melton
On the 25th of September, 1981, 58-year-old Thelma Melton, better known as Polly, had
travelled with her husband, Bob and two friends to the Deep Creek Trail in the Smoky Mountains.
She was very familiar with the area, as she had been hiking the trail for the past 20
years and on that day, Bob stayed behind in their Airstream trailer as the other three headed out.
The trail was easy going and wouldn’t have posed much of a challenge for the hikers.
As they headed back after the hike at around 4 pm,
Polly suddenly picked up her pace and walked ahead of her friends. They saw her walk over a small
hill and lost sight of her, but they assumed that they would see her back at the trailer.
When they arrived back there at around 4:30 pm, however, she hadn’t returned and Bob stated that
he hadn’t seen her. The two friends returned to the area where they had last seen her,
but she was nowhere to be found and she was reported missing at about 6 pm.
For the following week, more than 150 people searched the area
with the help of 9 search dogs. At one point, one of the dogs alerted to a tree that had fallen over
and it is assumed that Polly had stopped there for a rest,
but her scent wasn’t picked up anywhere else and no further trace of her was ever found.
When police investigated her movements prior to her disappearance, they found that Polly
had decided against going to her volunteer job that day and on the previous day, she had made
several phone calls from a work phone. She had never used the phones in the 4 years that she had
been volunteering there and when police attempted to trace the calls, they were unable to do so.
Some people have suggested that she was having an affair with another man
and that she disappeared of her own free will. Others think that she had planned to
end her own life since her pastor stated that she was battling with a bout of depression.
This is all mere speculation, however and Polly’s disappearance has never been solved.
2. Jerome of Sandy Cove
On the 8th of December, 1863, an 8-year-old boy named George Colin Albright was on the
beach of Sandy Cove in Nova Scotia, Canada when he stumbled upon a man suffering from exposure.
He noticed that the man’s legs had recently been amputated above the knees and when
he was further examined, it was found that the operation had been done by a skilled surgeon.
Many people were intrigued by the strange case and came to see him,
but they found that he didn’t speak or understand French, Latin,
Italian or French and he remained silent. He was described as Mediterranean in appearance
and it was noted that his hands were too soft for him to have been a manual laborer.
He was taken in by the local Acadians who received funds from the Nova Scotia
government so that his needs would be taken care of. He was eventually named Jerome since he was
said to have uttered something similar when asked for his name on one occasion.
Jerome ultimately went to live with Jean Nicola, who spoke several languages
but even he couldn’t get the man to talk. He would remain there for the following 7 years
and following the passing of Jean’s wife, he was sent to stay near Meteghan.
Here, Jerome was put on show and an admission fee was charged for members of the public to see him,
with the family he had been staying with living well off of his government stipend.
He would end up staying there until his passing on the 15th of April, 1912.
It has been speculated that Jerome was a sailor who had mutinied and was left on Sandy Cove Beach
after having his legs amputated as punishment. It has also been suggested that his difficulties
with speech may have been the result of damage to the part of his brain which regulates speech,
explaining why he was able to produce sounds, but never spoke in any understandable language.
His true identity and origin, however, remain shrouded in mystery.
1. Sergeant Roland Hughes
RAF Flight Sergeant Roland Hughes was on a training mission over
West Germany in 1952 when he flew into a scary unsolved mystery
that was deemed credible enough to be investigated by a government minister.
Papers revealed by the Churchill Archive at Cambridge University
recount the tale of Hughes returning to base when he came into contact with an object
that he described as a gleaming silver, metallic disc that was highly reflective
and absolutely seamless in appearance that flew alongside his plane, a de Havilland Vampire.
He estimated that the object measured around 100 feet across – about the wingspan of a
Lancaster bomber. Three fellow pilots who were flying the same mission failed to see
the object since they were engaged in a “banking turn” and were not facing the same direction.
The incident was confirmed by RAF radars that showed the object travelling at speeds
far greater than any aircraft of the time was able to reach. Hughes reported the incident and
was sent to the aviation minister, Duncan Sandys to whom he recounted the incident.
By the end of the briefing, Sandys was certain that the tale was true
and he went on to brief senior civil servants on the matter, telling the
government’s chief scientist, Lord Cherwell that he deemed the evidence to be convincing.
He is also cited in the Cambridge University document as stating: “I have no doubt at all that
Hughes saw a phenomenon similar to that described by numerous observers in the United States”,
referring to the well-known Foo Fighters sightings.
After the encounter, Hughes was dubbed “Saucer Sam” by his fellow pilots who painted a flying
saucer on his plane. Hughes’ son, Brian, says that their family knew about the sighting, but
that his father didn’t speak about the incident often and had to be prompted to recount the tale.
Brian says his father once told him that: “People think you're mad
if you say you've seen a flying saucer. I've only ever seen one once; I've never seen one since”.