Tag: unsolved mysteries

D.B. Cooper Researcher Casts Considerable Doubt on Parachute Discovery Claim

A dedicated D.B. Cooper researcher has cast considerable doubt on the alleged discovery of the legendary skyjacker’s parachute, pointing out several flaws surrounding the suspected evidence which suggest that it did not play a role in the crime. The remarkable claim made earlier this week spawned worldwide headlines with many wondering if the longstanding mystery surrounding the 1971 caper was on the cusp of finally being solved. However, many in the diverse D.B. Cooper research community expressed skepticism at the fantastic development with one in particular, Ryan Burns, releasing a detailed video (seen above) wherein he makes the case that “this is unquestionably not” the parachute used by the skyjacker.

Citing contemporaneous media accounts and the voluminous FBI files concerning the crime, he noted that the parachutes provided to Cooper were repeatedly said to have been missing two specific features: D-Rings and capewells. Alas, these two pieces are present on the recently unearthed rig. Additionally, he indicated that the parachute harness model provided to Cooper during the caper was from the Navy rather than the Air Force, which is the case with the newfound alleged evidence. These three factors, among other aspects of the account, led Burns to conclude that the headline-making parachute could not have come from the 1971 skyjacking.

As to the possibility that it was used in the caper and then significantly altered sometime later, Burns dismissed that scenario as implausible. For that to be the case, he explained, suspect Richard McCoy Jr would have had to both keep a damning piece of evidence and subsequently enlist “a master parachute rigger to have all these modifications done to it.” If Burns’ assessment is correct, one wonders why the FBI seized the item since their own files would appear to indicate that it is not a genuine piece of evidence. While the agency could answer that question, previous instances of the federal government getting involved in longstanding mysteries, such as the still-contentious Pennsylvania treasure hunt from a few years ago, suggest that they may less than forthcoming on the matter.

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Suspected D.B. Cooper Parachute Draws FBI Interest

A parachute found on the family property of a longstanding D.B. Cooper suspect has drawn interest from the FBI, which seized the intriguing item that some contend could be a breakthrough clue in the legendary cold case. As detailed in a lengthy piece by Cowboy State Daily, the remarkable discovery was made by researcher and YouTuber Dan Gryder, who believes that the skyjacker was a man named Richard McCoy II. Permitted to search the family’s property a few years ago, Gryder unearthed the parachute from a crate in a shed. Last week, he revealed that his videos about the discovery had caught the attention of federal authorities, who asked to speak with the researcher.

According to Gryder, he and McCoy’s son met with the FBI in September of last year wherein agents seized the curious canopy that could be connected to the Cooper caper. The following month, the agency conducted an extensive search of the property where the parachute had been found. Musing that “it’s a good sign that they’re taking this seriously,” McCoy’s son revealed that the FBI also collected a DNA sample from him with the suggestion that they may eventually have to exhume his father’s body should it prove necessary. To date, however, the agency has given no indication as to what their recent investigation has uncovered, though paperwork furnished by Gryder confirms that they did confiscate the parachute.

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Stonehenge mystery deepens: Scientists say the altar stone did NOT come from Orkney as claimed – as the hunt for its place of origin continues

The origin of Stonehenge’s iconic standing stones has baffled archaeologists for hundreds of years.

Last month, the plot thickened as scientists made a bombshell discovery that the stone circle’s altar stone could be traced back to Scotland, rather than Wales.

Now, the mystery has deepened once again as a new study finds that this bluestone slab did not originate from Orkney as most experts had assumed. 

‘The mystery of where the stone came from is becoming clearer and clearer as we begin to rule out specific areas in north-east Scotland,’ said Professor Richard Bevins from Aberystwyth University, the lead author of the new study.

‘This research is radically changing our thinking about the origins of the Altar Stone. It’s thrilling to know that our chemical analysis and dating work is slowly unlocking this great mystery.’

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47-Year-Old ‘Wow! Signal’ Mystery Solved? Arecibo Observatory Scientists Think They Have an Answer

A team of scientists from the Planetary Habitability Laboratory (PHL) at the University of Puerto Rico at Arecibo believe they may have finally solved the 47-year-old mystery of the infamous “Wow! Signal.”

Detected by the Ohio State University Big Ear Telescope on August 15th, 1977, the Wow! Signal got its name because astronomer Jerry R. Ehman was so impressed he wrote “WOW” in the signal printout’s margins. Since then, the signal has continued to fascinate the scientific community, including the possibility that it may have been sent by an extraterrestrial civilization light years from Earth due to its high power, strong signal-to-noise ratio, and narrow bandwidth.

Unfortunately, various efforts to detect a repeat of the signal, which had a frequency and duration that didn’t match any known natural phenomenon, have come up empty, leaving the exact nature and origin of the potentially artificial signal unsolved. Several efforts in the ensuing decades have tried to offer potentially natural explanations for the signal. However, those attempts have also come up short of providing a definitive solution, leaving scientists to wonder if the Wow! Signal was indeed of extraterrestrial origin.

Now, the PHL’s lead researcher, Professor Abel Méndez, and his colleagues say that the vast amount of data they collected with the Arecibo’s iconic 305-meter telescope before it collapsed in 2020, as well as additional data collected by the facility’s 12-meter telescope since 2023, has led them to a potentially ‘astronomical’ solution to this enduring mystery.

“The Wow! Signal may have been caused by a unique astrophysical event: the sudden brightening of a cold hydrogen cloud due to stimulated emission from a transient strong radiation source, such as a magnetar flare or a soft gamma repeater (SGR),” Méndez told The Debrief. “These rare events might cause hydrogen clouds to momentarily shine much brighter, potentially explaining the fleeting nature of the Wow! Signal.”

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Mysterious monolith appears on hiking trail near Las Vegas – sparking wild speculation about where it came from

A mysterious metal monolith has appeared on a hiking trail near Las Vegas, leaving officials baffled as to how it got there.

The mirrored monolith was found near Gass Peak, about 25 miles from Sin City by Las Vegas Metro Search and Rescue.

Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department (LVMPD) officials confirmed the object was found on the popular hiking trail last weekend.

Posting about it on Facebook along with some images, they wrote: ‘We see a lot of weird things when people go hiking like not being prepared for the weather, not bringing enough water… but check this out!’

The post quickly garnered more than 1,000 likes and hundreds of comments. 

Many commenters joked it had landed from outer space. 

One Facebook user mused: ‘Maybe, it’s a portal going to different location.’ 

Another commenter jested: ‘I don’t care what it is… but can someone go up there and pray to it or something… ask it to lower our rent.’

While the LVMPD deemed the monolith a ‘mystery,’ one commenter wrote in response: ‘It’s not “mysterious.” Someone built, put in a truck, drove it out there, and set it up. It’s not a big deal.’

The peculiar-looking metal slab is one of many which have been found across the world in recent years.

In late 2020, dozens of similar looking monoliths began popping up across the US as well as the UK, Canada, Romania and further afield, often before eerily disappearing.

The silver structures in the UK were found in Glastonbury, Cornwall and the Isle of Wight.

More recently, a 10ft monolith was found in on a hilltop near Hay-on-Wye in Wales

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The girl who never came back: New York socialite who vanished in 1910 is America’s oldest missing persons case – here are the top theories about her disappearance

Dorothy Arnold was 25 when she disappeared from her Upper East Side mansion with today’s equivalent of $1,000 on an icy Monday morning in December 1910. 

The eldest daughter of perfume importer Francis R Arnold left her jewelry and passport at home and strolled towards Central Park, never to be seen again, according to The Charley Project which tracks missing persons cases. 

Her disappearance has stumped detectives for more than 100 years, making her case the oldest recorded missing persons case in American history and what the Times has called ‘one of New York’s greatest mysteries’. 

‘A hundred years later, I don’t expect any kind of resolution,’ Jane Vollmer, Dorothy’s great-niece told the National Geographic last month. 

Full name Dorothy Harriet Camille Arnold, the socialite’s last words to her mother were ‘I’ll telephone you’ as she stepped out of their Manhattan mansion on East 79th Street. 

Arnold gave different accounts of her plans for the day to different people – telling one friend she was shopping with her mother, and her mother that she wanted to go by herself. 

She set off toward Fifth Avenue and stopped at the Park and Tilford’s candy store where she paid for some chocolates using her father’s credit card at 1.45pm. The clerk told investigators at the time that she had appeared to be in high spirits. 

Arnold went on to purchase a book at Brentano’s on 27th and Fifth, before bumping into a friend who she chatted with for a few minutes, telling them she was headed for Central Park. 

Her mother waited to meet her for lunch at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel that day, but she never turned up. 

When she didn’t return home that night, the family grew concerned. Fearing bad publicity from contacting the police, they hired a private investigator.   

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Five Mysterious Ancient Artifacts That Still Puzzle Archaeologists

Archaeologists are often described as “stumped” or “baffled” by their discoveries. But, in reality, specialists have a good grasp of what most historical objects were created for. But there are a few exceptions to this rule. 

The following list is a selection of intriguing mystery objects. They’re a great example of why digging up the past continues to hold great fascination for professionals and public alike. 

1. Neolithic Stone Balls 

The elaborately carved stone balls found predominantly in Scotland and dating from the later Neolithic period (circa BC3200-2500) are one such mystery. 

Over 425 balls have been found. They are generally the size of a cricket ball and made from a wide variety of stones. Their surfaces are sculpted, sometimes into raised circular discs and sometimes with deep incisions defining knobs and lobes in high relief. Decoration takes the form of spirals or concentric shapes, echoing those found on pottery and monumental stones of the era. 

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It’s one of Australia’s most baffling cases – a mother, her daughter and friend who disappeared while under the spell of a cult leader. Now, a retired cop has lifted the lid on what he thinks REALLY happened

A retired policeman is on a mission to solve one of Australia’s most baffling missing persons cases, which began 17 years ago with the disappearance of an entire household who were members of a doomsday cult. 

Barry McIntosh, whose interest in the case is personal, served 35 years with Victoria Police and hopes to search a remote patch of Western Australian bushland with cadaver dogs.

Mr McIntosh is the uncle of Chantelle McDougall, who was last seen alive in July 2007 with her British-born partner Gary Felton, their six-year-old daughter Leela and friend Tony Popic.   

Ms McDougall, 27, had fallen under the spell of 45-year-old Felton, a self-styled spiritualist who had assumed the identity of an English workmate called Simon Kadwell.

At the time of their disappearance, Ms McDougall and Leela had been living with Felton in a rundown farmhouse at Nannup, about 280km south of Perth, with 42-year-old Mr Popic.

Mr McIntosh is convinced Felton was involved in the deaths of his niece, her daughter and Mr Popic and is determined to find their bodies.

‘[Felton] spoke of providing Chantelle and Leela with a drug that would provide a peaceful death and that Tony would bury them all,’ he says.

‘Tony would then walk into the bush to take his own life.’ 

The charismatic Felton – ‘Si’ to his acolytes – was the founder of Truth Fellowship and had 40 online followers of what has been described as an international doomsday cult.

Felton called his followers The Forecourt and spoke to them through a chatroom known as The Gateway where they would discuss teachings from his book, Servers of the Divine Plan.

That book warned about Earth’s pending doom but promised a new world of higher consciousness once a 75,000-year ‘cycle’ had run its course.

Neighbours at Nannup said ‘off the planet’ Felton was obsessed with electromagnetic fields and deeply paranoid.

Felton, who did not work and relied on the subservient Ms McDougall and Mr Popic for financial support, slept during the day and stayed up all night on his computer.  

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Scientists may have solved mystery behind Egypt’s pyramids

Scientists believe they may have solved the mystery of how 31 pyramids, including the world-famous Giza complex, were built in Egypt more than 4,000 years ago.

A research team from the University of North Carolina Wilmington has discovered that the pyramids are likely to have been built along a long-lost, ancient branch of the River Nile – which is now hidden under desert and farmland.

For many years, archaeologists have thought that ancient Egyptians must have used a nearby waterway to transport materials such as the stone blocks needed to build the pyramids on the river.

But up until now, “nobody was certain of the location, the shape, the size or proximity of this mega waterway to the actual pyramids site”, according to one of the study’s authors, Prof Eman Ghoneim.

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ARCHAEOLOGISTS UNEARTH NEW CLUES THAT COULD HELP SOLVE CENTURIES-OLD “LOST COLONY” MYSTERY

In 1587, John White and a group of approximately 115 English settlers landed on Roanoke Island off the coast of present-day North Carolina. The colony they sought to establish marked the second attempt to create a long-term presence in the New World under the direction of Sir Walter Raleigh, who instructed them to establish a city bearing his name in the vicinity of the Chesapeake Bay. However, much like the earlier failed effort under Governor Ralph Lane in 1585, White and his fellow colonists soon began to face challenges that included strained relations with the region’s Indigenous inhabitants.

With hopes of garnering additional support for the colony, White sailed back to England, leaving his daughter Eleanor Dare, her husband Ananias Dare, and their infant daughter Virginia—the first English child born in America—behind on Roanoke Island. By the time he returned in 1590, following delays imposed by the Anglo-Spanish War, White found the settlement had been deserted. The only potential clues regarding the whereabouts of the colonists had been an inscription of the word “CROATOAN” carved into a palisade, along with the letters “CRO” found carved into a nearby tree, seemingly in reference to a nearby island located 50 miles to the south.

For centuries, historians have attempted to resolve the mystery of Roanoke’s famous “Lost Colony.” Theories about the fate of the colonists range from their assimilation with local Indigenous tribes to their possible death resulting from attacks by them. Others have proposed that the colonists may have died in a failed attempt to return to England or even that their fate may have been linked to the arrival of the Spanish prior to White’s return in 1590.

For White, the inscriptions left at the deserted colony were clear evidence of the colonists’ relocation to Croatoan Island. An agreement had been made that in the event of their departure, they would leave behind a “secret token” indicating their whereabouts, or if they were imperiled, they would instead leave a cross pattée indicating such circumstances.

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