13 Disappearances, Cold Cases, And Other Unsolved Mysteries I Genuinely Don't Think I'll Ever Forget

WARNING: This article contains mentions of death, bodily harm, and murder. Please proceed with caution.

Hi, my name is Angelica, and a fun fact about me is that I activate like the Winter Soldier if I hear the words "unsolved mystery" said anywhere in the same vicinity as me. It really doesn't matter what the topic is — from historical mysteries, to true crime cold cases, to things we may never understand about space, I am locked in, ready to listen, and will probably end up in a Wikipedia rabbit hole about it later. All that being said, I have also become, like, a living, breathing list of fun (and not-so-fun) facts about all kinds of mysteries.

Whether I discovered them through podcast episodes, Twitter threads, Discovery Channel shows from the 2000s, or BuzzFeed readers like you, I decided to share 13 unsolved mysteries I simply cannot get out of my mind. Without further ado, here they are:

Note: The following stories are all summaries, please feel free to check out the corresponding links at the end of each mystery if you'd like to do a deeper dive!

1.The vanishing of Mary, Fannie, and Jessie Stuart. On December 10, 1978, Mary Stuart and her two daughters, Fannie and Jessie, left their home in Honeydew, California, for a day of errands — specifically, grocery shopping, to get their TV repaired, and the optometrist. The three did not make it home that night, so one of Mary's friends reported them missing. Police checked with local optometrists and TV repair places, asking if they'd seen the Stuart girls, but none had. Almost a month later, their car was found on an old logging road just a few miles from their home. Detectives found their bags of groceries and a now-repaired TV inside and noticed the car's gas line was broken. There was no sign of the family, nor were there indications of foul play.

2.The Great Kentucky Meat Shower, or the "Kentucky Shower of Flesh." On the third of March in 1876, large chunks of fresh meat — most of which were about 5x5 cm — rained down from the sky in Olympia Springs, Kentucky, "like large snowflakes." It was not actually raining, though — in fact, the sky was crystal clear, minus the chunks of flesh falling from it. Two local men tasted the strange meat and believed it was either venison or mutton. Later, two histologists analyzed the meat and determined it (or at least, the pieces they had access to) was made up of lung tissue, muscular tissue, and cartilage.

3.The Tunguska Mystery. At a little after 7 in the morning on June 30, 1908, residents near the Podkamennaya Tunguska river in rural Romania reported seeing a smoking fireball in the sky, an incredibly bright flash of light, a loud boom, and felt themselves being blown into the air. Some reported going unconscious and that their homes were destroyed. Trees in the area were flattened and burned. According to Scientific American, other parts of the world experienced huge silver clouds, spectacularly colored sunsets, and bright skies even in the dead of night.

4.The mysterious green children of Woolpit. The legend is that two children with green skin reportedly appeared in the village of Woolpit in Suffolk, England, around 1150. The brother and sister duo spoke in an unknown language and refused to eat anything but raw fava beans. They were taken to the home of a man named Richard de Calne, who, over time, slowly got them to consume other foods and learn to speak English. Eventually, their skin lost its green color. When asked where they came from, they claimed to be from "the land of St. Martin," where the sun doesn't rise.

5.The "Lost Girls" of Panama. In April of 2014, two Dutch women — Kris Kremers and Lisanne Froon — were hiking the "El Pianista" trail near Boquete, Panama. They were in the region to volunteer at a local school and learn Spanish. They were informed that their assistance wasn't needed for another week, so they decided to explore the area in the meantime. Unfortunately, neither Kris nor Lisanne ever returned from that hike. Search parties were sent out but came back empty-handed. Two months later, Lisanne's left foot — which had been detached at the ankle — was found in her hiking boot. Kris's pelvis was also discovered, split in two. Later, locals found Lisanne's backpack, which held their bras, phones, $87 in cash, and a Canon Powershot camera. The camera had dozens of strange photos on it, most of which were taken at night, dated a week after the women initially disappeared.

6.The whereabouts of Byron Preiss's treasure. In 1982, Bryson Preiss published The Secret (treasure hunt), a fantasy book about "the Fair People," which were creatures like dragons, fairies, goblins, and the like who fled the "Old World" for the human world and brought heaps of treasure with them. In the book, Byron invites readers to find the 12 lost treasures of the Fair People, which he actually hid across North America. Through a series of 12 paintings, verses, and riddles, Byron and his team hint at the locations of 12 ceramic casques containing keys. Upon the discovery and redemption of a key, the winners get their cut of $10,000 worth of jewels (in 1982 dollars — which, today, would be worth about $31,960.31).

7.The disappearance of Jodi Huisentruit. Jodi was a morning news anchor at KIMT-TV — a news station in Mason City, Iowa. On the morning of June 27, 1995, Jodi didn't show up to work. A producer called her, and, frazzled, she said she'd overslept and would be in ASAP. The producer called again later, but she didn't pick up the phone or show up to work that day. So, they called the police for a welfare check. They found a bottle of hairspray, a pair of red shoes, and a blow dryer next to Jodi's red Mazda Miata. There were signs of a struggle at the scene, including a bent car key and handprints on the car.

8.The Taos "hum." In Taos, New Mexico, some residents report hearing an inexplicable low-frequency humming noise, which they describe as sounding like a swarm of bees or the humming of a truck. The noise, which has been reported since 1993, is usually heard when the surrounding atmosphere is quiet and still. Hearing an unexplainable noise like this isn't a unique occurrence — it's been the complaint of residents in several cities across the globe. How Taos differs, however, is that nobody has figured out where the sound is coming from.

9.The Rectangle Galaxy. If you've ever seen an image of a galaxy in space, odds are you've seen something that either looks like a disk or some kind of blob. Well, astronomers from Australia's Swinburne University of Technology discovered a galaxy that doesn't quite fit the mold of what we're used to seeing. That galaxy is LEDA 074886, or the "emerald-cut galaxy." Scientists aren't yet sure what precisely made this rectangular (or diamond-shaped, depending on how you look at it) galaxy look the way it does, but leading theories are around two disk galaxies colliding, or some gravitational-tidal interaction. According to Dr. Alister Graham at the university, "It’s one of those things that just makes you smile because it shouldn’t exist, or rather you don’t expect it to exist."

10.The disappearance of Tiffany Sessions. On February 9, 1989, 20-year-old Tiffany left her home in Gainesville, Florida, at 6 p.m. to take a walk. She was never seen or heard from again. Thirty-five years later, neither Tiffany nor her remains have been found.

11.The mystery of the Phaistos Disc. In 1908, the disc was discovered inside the Minoan Palace of Phaistos in Crete, Greece. On it are various pictograms featuring images of everything from people and plants to a bell and a cat's head. The images are arranged into 61 total "groups," separated by lines drawn between the images. Many assume these groups are intended to represent words. The disc has long been a particularly fascinating mystery, as no one has been able to decipher what it says, let alone what its purpose was. Loads of theories have been floated, ranging from it being a prayer to a curse.

12.The disappearance of Branson Perry. In April of 2001, 20-year-old Branson was at his home in Skidmore, Missouri, with a family friend. Branson's dad had been in the hospital, so the two were getting the house ready for his return. Branson went to the shed near his family's home to put a pair of jumper cables back...and simply never returned. He left all his belongings — including his car — behind.

13.And finally, the perplexing Yonaguni Monument. Located off the coast of the Ryukyu Islands in Japan is a series of rectangular rock formations that make up these strange, pyramid-like structures 25 meters underwater. It's about 50 meters by 20 meters in total and kind of looks like giant, carved steps. At first glance, it certainly seems man-made, so it makes sense that people have dubbed it "Japan's Atlantis." According to scientists, the "monument" is estimated to be over 10,000 years old.

Now it's your turn! Is there an unsolved mystery — be it a murder, disappearance, historical event, or scientific anomaly — that you can't stop thinking about? If so, tell us about it in the comments below or via this anonymous form.

Note: Submissions have been edited for length, clarity, and to include the most up to date information on each case.

If you enjoyed these unsolved mysteries, you can read more of them here, here, and here. If you'd like to hear ~personal~ unsolved mysteries experienced by BuzzFeed readers like you, you can find a whole bunch of them here.