The true-crime genre has exploded in popularity in recent years, even more so when a mystery has no answer or culprit.
While there are many famous historical examples of unsolved mysteries like the crimes of Jack the Ripper or who killed JFK, just two decades into the 21st century, there have been a lot of contemporary bizarre goings-on too.
So much so, that we've decided to compile a list of 10 creepy unsolved mysteries from this century that are almost guaranteed to keep you up at night.
1. The death of Elisa Lam
Elisa Lam was a Canadian student who mysteriously died while staying at the Cecil Hotel in Los Angeles at the age of 21 in 2013. Her body was found in the water tank of the hotel.
What makes this case particularly creepy is the strange CCTV footage released by police during their investigation. In the video content, the student could be seen acting erratically. After appearing to argue with someone who cannot be seen on camera, she hides in the hotel lift and repeatedly checks to see if she has been followed. But nobody else was picked up on any other camera.
While the death was eventually ruled as accidental, per Insider, Lam was discovered naked in the water tank, with her personal effects floating nearby.
Over the year, people have questioned how she gained access to the roof, which was off-limits to guests. Many have been concerned about her bizarre behaviour in the lift and questioned who it was she was running from.
Watch the strange footage below:
2. Severed feet in Washington
A number of severed human feet have mysteriously washed up on the shores of the Salish Sea in the Pacific Northwest.
The Snohomish County Sheriff's Office reported that the 15th human foot to wash up in a decade belonged to Antonio Neill, who was reported missing at the age of 22 in 2016.
While the majority of the severed feet have been identified, the exact reason why they wash up so regularly on this particular stretch of coastline has remained something of a mystery.
Per Vox, Parker MacCready, an oceanography professor at the University of Washington, said of the feet: "Things that float at the ocean surface move with the currents, but also are pushed a bit by the wind, and this can be significant in getting them to shore.
"The prevailing winds here [around the Salish Sea] are west to east, and so floating stuff in this part of the Pacific gets blown to the coast effectively."
Meanwhile, Gail Anderson, co-director of the Center for Forensic Research at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, added: "Feet easily disarticulate and when they are attached to a flotation device such as a running shoe, they are easily washed ashore.
"Notice there are no feet washing ashore in stiletto heels or flip-flops. Also, today's running shoes are much more buoyant than in the past."
Find out more about the mystery in the video below:
3. Brandon Swanson's last phone call
Brandon Swanson, 19, drove his car into a ditch after a party in May 2008 and called his parents to help him out. However, he was unsure of his exact location and said he was near Lynd.
He stayed on the phone with his parents as they drove out to get him until 45 minutes later when he exclaimed "Oh sh*t!" and went silent. HIs dad desperately tried to call him back – but he never answered. That was the last time anyone spoke to Swanson.
Bizarrely, his cell phone later revealed that he was actually near Porter – 40 km away from where he had told his parents he was. This led to the discovery of his car near Taunton.
However, Brandon's body has never been found.
4. Birds falling out of the sky
In 2011, 5,000 red-winged blackbirds mysteriously fell to their deaths in Arkansas, with similar events reported at the time in Louisiana, Tennessee, and Kentucky.
Reuters reports that the mystery mass deaths have prompted many theories about their cause, with officials blaming the incident on New Year's Eve fireworks.
"It's looking more and more like that," said Keith Stephens, spokesman for the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission said at the time.
The birds have particularly bad night vision, and it is believed that the fireworks may have frightened them out of their nighttime roost and into trees, houses, as well as other objects, the commission said in a statement.
5. Radio signals from deep space
In 2007, scientists first reported the existence of a Fast radio burst or FRB; an extragalactic flash of light that unleashes the same power generated by the sun in a century in just a few seconds, Space.com reports.
However, the cause of these radio bursts, which have been recorded more than 100 times, remains a complete mystery with some speculating that they are coming from alien civilizations.
Further weight was added to this theory in January of 2020 when astronomers reported that one member of the "repeater" class has a 16-day activity cycle that sees it emit signals for four days then go quiet for twelve before repeating itself again.
6. Malaysia Airlines Flight 370
Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappeared while flying from Kuala Lumpur International Airport to its planned destination, Beijing in March 2014.
This prompted an expansive search that became the most expensive in aviation history, but the plane has never been found, although numerous pieces of wreckage believed to be from the plane have been discovered.
As per Britannica, theories about what exactly happened to the plane have ranged from mechanical failure to pilot suicide.
7. Octopuses on land
Octopuses are famously sea-dwelling animals, but back in 2017, dozens of octopuses were seen mysteriously emerging from the ocean and crawling along the Welsh coastline.
Brett Jones, who runs SeaMôr dolphin-watching boat trips, said that he first saw the octopuses on land when he was returning from a sunset trip.
"It was a bit like an End Of Days scenario," he told the BBC. "There were probably about 20 or 25 on the beach. I have never seen them out of the water like that."
He explained that is "really rare" for octopuses to end up on try land and added: "Maybe they are getting confused by the bright lights in New Quay harbour and maybe they are dying off after summer or getting knackered after the recent storms."
The curator at the National Marine Aquarium in Plymouth, James Wright, told the Telegraph that the behavior was "quite odd ... and suggests there is something wrong with them."
8. Woman's head in the woods
A woman's embalmed, severed head was discovered in the woods by a child walking home in a town about 35 km northwest of Pittsburgh in December 2014.
Reuters reports that despite almost 30 leads from the public, the identity of the woman remains a mystery, with police describing her as Caucasian and about age 50.
Police at the time speculated that the head could be linked to the black market for body parts.
Beaver County District Attorney Anthony Berosh said: "There's a black market on body parts and that market is pretty extensive."
He also explained that the head was unlikely to have been moved into the area by animals as the embalming fluid would have put them off.
"It didn't roll off a truck. It just didn't happen that way," Berosh said.
Toxicology reports found drugs used to treat cardiac distress in her system, which suggested that she could have died of heart failure.
Featured below is a recreation of the severed head.
9. Havana Syndrome
Havana syndrome is the name given to a mysterious set of symptoms that United States and Canadian embassy staff in Cuba began to experience in August 2017.
Cuba was subsequently accused of causing the mystery illness which saw sufferers hear strange noises that ranged in duration from 20 seconds to 30 minutes, Neurology Today reports, as well as causing headache, hearing loss, memory loss, and nausea.
The mystery deepened when US diplomats in China began to experience similar symptoms in 2018 as well as CIA agents who were in the process of negotiating with countries to uncover Russian covert operations around the world, the New York Times reports.
In December 2020, it was concluded by a study that "directed" microwave radiation was the likely cause of the symptoms, as per the BBC.
10. Japanese ghost ships
Five corpses and two human heads were discovered inside a shipwreck on the coast of Japan on board what is known as a ghost ship in December 2019.
What made this even more mysterious was that police at the time could not confirm if the severed heads belonged to the corpses, Japanese media simply reported that the remains were "partially skeletonized".
The BBC reports that while ghost ships are a fairly common discovery and are generally empty or contain human remains, with the most likely cause being exposure and starvation during the winter.
So there you have it, ten of the biggest mysteries of this century so far.
Which one freaks you out the most? All we can say is good luck sleeping tonight!
