25 Unsolved Mysteries That Cannot Be Rationally Explained By The Human Mind

These unsolved mysteries from Ask Reddit will give you the creeps for years to come.

Unsolved mysteries
Unsplash / Toa Heftiba

1. A man went missing — and a doll looking just like him appeared

“A family man who had a problem with sleepwalking that would increasingly get worse and worse. His wife was concerned and his daughter was living in la la land and would just play with her doll house. Well, one night, he just disappears. So the cops are over, his wife is at a loss where he could be, and the girl is somewhere in the shot playing with her dollhouse and she shows them a new doll that looked exactly like her dad.” — [deleted] 

2. A man vanished right in front of his family house

“The one where a guy was out in the front yard in view of his family. He walked around to the other side of his car and just vanished. There was nowhere he could have gone without someone seeing him, and his family could hear him calling for help from what seemed to be underground. His voice got fainter and fainter, and then disappeared. I always wondered if there was some sort of hidden sinkhole or something.” — threadtoss

3. A boy was locked inside his closet (and somehow disappeared)

“There was this mystery show where they did 2 fake stories and one real one. They would reveal the true story at the end of the show. One episode had a story where a child was afraid of his closet and wouldn’t go near it and complain about hearing noises from it to his parents. One day his older brother and a friend locked the boy in the closet. The kid was kicking and screaming trying to get out but then he went silent. The brother opened the door and the boy was gone. There was nowhere for him to escape the closet though. They revealed that this was the true story for the episode.” — NullHaxSon

4. There were hoof prints inside of the snow

“The Devil’s Footprints.

All over England one snowy morning, hundreds of miles of hoof prints appeared in the snow. What was unusual was not only how far and wide the reports were, but where the prints went – across open fields and over rooftops, taking a straight path through everything where it would be impossible for an animal to make them.

Still hasn’t been completely explained.” — tuento

5. The lighthouse keepers vanished without a trace

“The disappearance of the Eilean Mor lighthouse keepers.

The scene found by the people that went to check why there was no response was quite standard yet slightly off. 2 of the 3 water proof jackets were missing and in the kitchen they found pretty much everything normal except that one chair laying on the floor and there was still a meal on a table, suggesting that maybe they left in a hurry. The light keepers were nowhere.

The only clues that were gathered came from the lighthouse’s log. The entries the last few days there were written were weird:

severe winds the likes of which I have never seen before in twenty years. The log attendant, Thomas Marshall, wrote also noticed that James Ducat, the Principal Keeper, had been ‘very quiet’ and that the third assistant, William McArthur, had been crying. What is strange about the last thing is that William McArthur was a seasoned mariner, and was known on the Scottish mainland as a tough guy. Storms shouldn’t have been a big deal.

Entries the day later stated that the storm was still raging even worse that before, and that the lighthouse keepers had been praying for it to stop. Btw the lighthouse that was 150 feet above sea level, and not only they should have been perfectly safe but they should have known that. They were very experienced.

The thing is that no storms were reported in the whole area in any of the days close to the entries. The weather was calm.

The final log entry was made the day after. It said, ‘Storm ended, sea calm. God is over all.’” — BioregenerativeLamp

6. UFOs flew over the American Southwest

“I legitimately saw them with my own eyes. I lived in Phoenix at the time, and was out driving around with some friends, totally not smoking pot. But those lights were unmistakable – a triangle of lights. I told my mom the next day, and she thought I was mental, until the story broke. Stoner me was vindicated. The thing the gets me is that the governor of Arizona at the time gave a real press conference addressing the sighting, and in the middle of it, dudes in alien costumes stormed the stage, and basically turned it into a joke, and the government laughed it off with no explanation.” — BagelsRTheHoleTruth

7. The Somerton man was found dead on an Australian beach 

“Well dressed, athletic guy is found dead leaning against a seawall on an Australian beach. No cause of death is discovered despite autopsy. No ID, no labels on any of his clothes, nothing to identify him, but a scrap of printed paper saying ‘Taman Shud’ found in his pocket. No one is reported missing. Later a briefcase is found in a locker at a train station attributed to him, with a few clothes marked T. Keane – no one named that is found missing. When the info about the note is released, one of the locals finds an odd book in the backseat of his car in the area that the man died in. The piece of paper matches the torn out bit in the book. In the book there is a very odd Cipher that no one has been able decode since and a phone number. Blood pooling in the body suggest he didn’t die with his head propped against the wall as he was found. Half smoked cigarette found fallen out of his mouth, but if he died in a different position, would be a little odd. Body was embalmed and put on display for 6 months, and received a lot of attention, but no one can remember having seen him. No family or anyone knowing him have ever been found. Tamam Shud roughly means ‘the end times.'” — The-Sound_of-Silence

8. Five men were found after months of missing — with no memory of what happened

“Five men coming home from a basketball game one night never arrive, and are found months later, hugely off course in the wilderness with no rhyme or reason to what happened to them or how they even ended up where they were.” — 7deadlycinderella

9. The Mad Trapper survived by eating chunks of himself

“Has anyone said the Mad Trapper yet? The badass who evaded the RCMP through the frozen tundra for a month, surviving by eating chunks of himself. His true identity is still unknown. Many of the First Nations believe he was a Wendigo.” — arkonite167 

10. A freshman in college tweeted seconds before his death

“In my college’s town, there was a freshmen a few years ago who went missing. He was found beaten to death in an industrial park. The last time his friends saw him, they were all party hopping. His last tweet was something like ‘someone pick us up we’re gonna die.’

No one has come forward, no leads have been found.” — Girtzie

11. A little boy was found dead in the bottom of a river — but no one knows who did it

“In France we have the Grégory Affair.

A mother goes get her 4 years-old boy at the childminder, once at home lets him play in the front yard while she does some laundry. 15 minutes later the boy is missing. Someone calls the boy’s uncle and tells him, ‘I have taken the boy’ and says he lies dead in the river. The boy is found dead, hands and feet tied, at the bottom of the river nearby.

The whole investigation is a total clusterfuck during which various members of the family are accused at some point, culminating with the boy’s father killing one accused member of the family with a shotgun. The case was reopened last year because of additional information, then the man who was the judge at the time committed suicide.

We still don’t know who did it.” — NAN001

12. A young boy was found dead inside of a cardboard box

“Is anyone else familiar with ‘The Boy In The Box?’ He was a 7-year old kid (about) who was found by a peeping tom in the 1950s. He was a dead boy in a cardboard box. The police never identified him, never found who killed him. I saw that story on America’s Most Wanted as a kid and it has haunted me ever since.

To make matters worse, I knew a kid who looked like the boy in the box, and I would have nightmares of him/them attacking me.” — 42Cobras

13. A little girl went missing from her bus stop after school 

“There’s a small town next to where I live where a little girl named Cherry Mehan disappeared. She got off at her bus stop one evening after school and vanished. No one is really sure what happened to her to this day. We have a rather long trail system running through that town and few others so the description I read of her and her clothing is always in my mind and has always had me on the lookout while I’m out rummaging around through the forest.

There is also a very remote spot where there are at least 100,000 bullet and shell casings on the ground. There are so many that they cover the ground floor for 25 yards and when you reach down and grab a handful of debris beneath your feet all you get is a handful of casings.” — xP_F0X

14. A group of people died from exhaustion 

“The Dancing Plague of 1518.

The gist of the story is that in the modern era an unknown women entered a village and started dancing in front of the residence of the village with no music backing her, she just suddenly started dancing. Days past and she was still going. Other people join her and dance along with her (some even die of exhaustion).

To this day it is still unknown what caused people to do this and that really freaks me out.” — brbee

15. Right before The Hinteraifeck Murders, the maid complained about mysterious happenings 

“In the early 1900’s (pretty sure) an entire family was murdered in their farm weeks before this the maid complained about mysterious happenings around the house and foot prints were found in the snow leading into the woods, also 2 days after the date investigators said they were murdered neighbors said there was smoke coming from the chimney.” — REVUPTHOSEFRYERS123

16. A man was murdered — but it was considered a suicide

“A guy I knew was found dead in his apartment.

The police said he was attacked and had been murdered.

A few weeks later they say it was an error, and it was suicide.

He was dating this girl, who was the daughter of the sheriff the next county over.

They argued a lot and she would tell him things like, ‘If you died no one would know who killed you’ and other creepy stuff to scare him. She was a psychopath, and apparently would hit her previous ex boyfriends(and possibly even him, he never would tell us though)

He was not suicidal, and he died just a few days after breaking up with her after a big argument.

I spoke to the police about him and his girlfriend’s behavior, and they told me nothing could be done since the case was closed.” — PM_ME_FOR_SMALLTALK

17. The wife of a scientologist went missing

“Michele Miscavige, she is the wife of the leader of scientology David Miscavige. She went missing in 2007 and hasn’t been seen in public since. There is a lot of speculation that she may be dead or held captive at one of their compounds.” — Operator4009

18. A man disappeared for no reason and was never seen again

“Lars Mittank. People disappearing isn’t that weird, but whatever compelled his guy to sprint out of an airport terminal, over a barbed wire fence, and into the woods to never be seen (no credible sightings even) again is spooky. No history of mental illness.” — Jwkdude

19. A boy left his house with only £200 and never returned

“Andrew Gosden. The boy simply left his house, withdraw £ 200 from a bank account, took a one-way ticket to London and simply vanished.

It is specially weird, since he NEVER skipped school, he had 100% attendance there. Also, it seemed he went to London to watch a concert from a band he was a big fan. Also he didn’t took a electronic charger for his PSP, which suggests that he probably didn’t expect to be gone for too long.

My personal theory is that he met some creepy guy online or in person, who probably used his love for the band to lure him to London, probably said something like, ”Don’t worry about a return ticket, I will take you back home.”” — TheSovereign2181

20. There was a serial killer hunting men in Boston

“There may be a serial killer currently targeting young men in their early 20s in the Boston area. They go missing after a night drinking and end up in the Charles with a puncture wound from a needle. The police haven’t release any other details and this has been going on for years.” — mmmclams

21. A sick man was suffocated inside of his hospital room

“For many decades there was only one hospital in the area I grew up, their closest competition about a half-hour drive away. For about 20 years they’ve had a reputation for screw-ups and questionable patient deaths. Both as a patient and being there for family members, I’ve had multiple experiences that made me agree with that reputation.

Several years ago there was a big to-do, as someone was murdered there. Their killer got past security after visiting hours, bypassed all medical staff, and then suffocated their victim with a pillow. The body was found with the pillow still over the victim’s face, a fact the police reported in an interview on the case.

Time passes, and new reports come up that the victim was strangled with cords in their hospital room, then the pillow was placed over the face.

A few days after that there’s a new report. There was no murder, it was an accident… where the bedridden victim somehow found the strength to get up, gather the cords in the room, then pull them tight enough to choke themselves to death… and now there was no mention of the pillow the police noted as being there.

The media dropped the story immediately after that last report, with no questioning about the changes in the report. On top of that, if you try and search online the local TV stations seem to have totally scrubbed their old reports, except for one, which has the accident version of the story and nothing else.

About 20 years before this I got to witness a similar change in the facts regarding the reports of a fellow who died, because it looked bad for his employer that his death was because he did something stupid while looting. I honestly think the hospital used its clout to force the local media to bury their original reports and go with the accident theory, so as not to get a worse reputation. I really feel like someone got away with murder in part due to them wanting to protect the brand image.” — AsexualNinja

22. There were butchered rabbits spread out on the floor

“When I was younger I lived with my mother in the countryside. We were the only two people ever in the house and one night, after watching tv with me, she went into the kitchen to find two butchered rabbits laid out on the floor with all of the body parts carefully placed in the correct places.

Someone must have sneaked in through the back door while we were watching tv and placed them there without making a sound. I remember we stayed at my grans house for about a week after that and we never found out how or why it happened.” — MaxxPowerss

23. A little girl ran away from home and still hasn’t been found

“Nine year old girl packs a backpack and leaves her home between midnight and five am during a storm. Several motorists see her along a highway. There is evidence of her in a near by barn, her backpack is found over a year later wrapped in plastic buried at a construction site. She’s never been found.” — ohhsweetgirl

24. The Zodiac Killer left ciphers that haven’t been cracked

“Zodiac. It’s frustrating and positively baffling. Best suspect, ALA, DNA doesn’t match. Supposedly, the police squandered a chance to arrest him after actually running into and questioning him not far from the cabby murder. Geniuses of cryptography haven’t cracked a couple of the Zodiac’s ciphers.” — MenLivesMatter

25. An activist predicted his own death

“A man predicts the police will kill him and posts proof of surveillance vans outside his home. He’s then found dead in his burning home, having died of stab wounds. It’s considered a ‘suicide.’ And there was no media attention.” — -ratking- Thought Catalog Logo Mark

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