Tag: unsolved mysteries

Thelma “Polly” Melton: Vanished From the Great Smoky Mountains

Thelma Pauline “Polly” McAllister was born in Alabama on February 26th, 1923, to parents Fred and Luella. She was one of six children.

Those who knew Polly described her as friendly, intelligent, and generous. She loved the outdoors and was an avid hiker. She had previously worked as a teacher.

Twice divorced with no children, Polly married Robert “Bob” Melton, a man 20 years her senior, in 1975. The couple resided in Jacksonville, Florida, for most of the year, but spent each fall living in their Airstream trailer in North Carolina’s Deep Creek Campground, near the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Bob had two adult sons from a previous marriage.

Polly was a two-pack-a-day smoker on medication for nausea and high blood pressure when she went missing. Additionally, she was no longer permitted to drive alone, for undisclosed reasons.

While staying in North Carolina, Polly Melton was a frequent volunteer at the Bryson City Presbyterian Nutrition Center, where she served meals to elderly people. She reportedly never missed a day of working at the food bank.

For this reason, it was undeniably odd when Polly chose not to sign up to volunteer on September 25, 1981. However, she offered no explanation for this decision.

In another uncharacteristic move, she reportedly used the phone at the center the day before—the first time she’d ever done so in all of the years that she’d been volunteering there. To whom she made the call and what they spoke about is unknown.

Neither her friends nor family could remember speaking with her on the phone that day. No long-distance charges appeared on the bill, suggesting the call was local.

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Madeleine McCann detectives ‘fear their probe into prime suspect paedophile Christian Brueckner is close to collapsing and have just weeks to save investigation’

Detectives investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann fear that their case against prime suspect Christian Brueckner is ‘close to collapsing’. 

German police probing convicted paedophile Christian Brueckner, who was officially named as a suspect in the three-year-old’s disappearance in April 2022, reportedly have until the new year to find a new lead before their investigation falls through. 

A source close to the investigation told The Sun: ‘The next few weeks are make or break for the detectives investigating Christian B. 

‘Publicly they are saying they remain convinced he is linked to Maddie’s disappearance… but, privately, the case is close to collapsing.’

Brueckner is yet to be formally charged by police but was named as a suspect after his campervan was reportedly spotted near the Praia da Luz resort in Portugal where Maddie vanished from in May 2007.

The police’s case is largely centred around his former friend Helge Busching’s testimony that Brueckner chillingly told him when they were discussing Madeleine’s disappearance that ‘she didn’t scream’. 

The source told The Sun that the case is now in jeopardy as there are ‘no new leads’ and their primary witness Busching ‘has totally gone offside’. 

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Jimmy Hoffa may be buried at site of demolished MLB stadium: cold case group

A nonprofit group of cold case crime investigators believes it has located a site in Milwaukee where former Teamsters President Jimmy Hoffa is buried.

The Case Breakers said a “a dying police sergeant’s scribbled instructions on an ace of spades” playing card helped lead their yearslong investigation to the old site of Milwaukee County Stadium in Wisconsin, according to a Wednesday press release.

The alleged burial site is next to the current Milwaukee Brewers stadium, American Family Field, where they believe Hoffa’s body lies in a spot under where the demolished stadium’s third-base line previously stood.

Jim Zimmerman, a 13-year member of Case Breakers and a former police officer, is credited with locating the ace of spades playing card which they say was written by a dying police sergeant believed to be involved with Hoffa’s kidnapping.

“Independent sources in three states convinced the volunteer investigators that CSI forensics will reveal Hoffa’s remains at a little league field, in the shadow of Milwaukee’s MLB stadium,” the press release stated. Three credible witnesses are said to have claimed that six years before the demolition of Milwaukee County Stadium, Hoffa’s body was moved from another location and “secretly buried in 1995 under this old stadium’s 3rd base.”

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Is this the clue to unlock Madeleine McCann mystery? German prosecutors say sick online messages between suspect Christian and another paedophile about ‘MM’ could be a ‘hint’ as to what happened

A German prosecutor leading the Madeleine McCann investigation has revealed that sick online messages between suspect Christian Brueckner and another paedophile ‘could be a hint’ as to what happened to the toddler. 

Convicted sexual predator Brueckner has been named as the prime suspect in the 16-year long case due to his activities in Portugal at the time but is yet to be formally charged.

The three-year-old disappeared during a family holiday in the Algarve in May 2007, sparking a nationwide hunt – but 16 years later and the truth of what happened to her has still not been unearthed. 

However, Hans Christian Wolters, a public prosecutor in Braunschweig has told BBC‘s Panorama that it is their opinion that Madeleine was killed in Portugal by Brueckner. 

He told the programme: ‘I can only say that we have only have one suspect at the moment. [She died] in Portugal and we think maybe we know where it happened.’ 

Mr Wolters also described how an online exchange between Brueckner and another paedophile could be a ‘hint’ as to what happened due to the use of the letters ‘mm’ – which they say could be a cryptic reference to Madeleine McCann. 

The online chat, which was found on one of Brueckner’s computers shows a brief conversation with a paedophile. 

In the chat, Brueckener details explicitly his desires to abduct and kill a little girl and ‘document it.’ 

He then speaks about ‘destroying evidence’ to which the paedophile replies: ‘mm’. 

Commenting on the vile exchange, Mr Wolters said: ‘It could be a hint. 

‘Of course, it’s important for us. It could be piece for the big puzzle.’ 

Brueckner is currently serving a seven-year prison term in a high-security prison locally dubbed ‘Alcatraz of the North’ in Oldenburg, near the historic northern city of Bremen. 

Earlier this month it was reported that the suspect could face trial as early as February next year for a string of heinous crimes, which include three shocking rapes and two sex attacks on children. 

He is said to have filmed two of the rapes he is being tried for which are said to have taken place at his former residence outside Praia da Luz – the same area where Madeleine disappeared.  

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Blonde woman found dead face-down in Florida creek nearly 40 years ago is finally identified as wife in notorious Boston crime family after investigators match DNA from bone fragments to her daughter

A murder victim whose body was found face down in a Florida canal in 1984 has finally been identified, 40 years later. 

Lori Jane Kearsey was just 23 when she went missing after marrying into an infamous Boston crime family. 

She was found dead in a canal on the 2600 block of Southwest 130th Avenue in Davie, South Florida on February 18, 1984, having been strangled.  

Despite releasing her description, blonde, hazel eyes, 5’4 and 120 pounds, police were not able to identify the victim.

However, a breakthrough came when the use of DNA from Kearsey’s bone fragments led investigators to find a match with her daughter Maehgan Smith, who lives in Gloucester, Massachusetts.

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Amateur D.B. Cooper investigator leading new search for parachute in skyjacking case

Fifty-two years after a plane heading to Seattle was hijacked by a man known as D.B. Cooper, an amateur investigator is leading a new search for evidence — claiming more details in the unsolved case have been revealed.

Amateur investigator, Eric Ulis, claims new information was revealed by the Seattle air traffic controller who managed the skyjacked Northwest Orient Flight 305, two US Air Force F-106 chase jets, and an Oregon Air National Guard T-33 during the 1971 skyjacking.

The search comes years after no trace of DB Cooper has ever turned up — no parachute, briefcase, clothing or body.

On Oct. 26, small search team led by Ulis will search a “treacherous” tree-and blackberry-lined trench where it is believed Cooper’s parachute may have been dumped.

Ulis says the trench is near the location where money connected to the heist was found in 1980. The cash was found on the banks of the Columbia River west of downtown Vancouver by 8-year-old Brian Ingram — discovering $20 bills with serial numbers traced to Cooper’s ransom, a total of $5,800.

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9 Mysterious Undeciphered Codes and Inscriptions in History

From Neolithic tablets containing the oldest known system of writing, to a series of letters scrawled on the back of a dead man’s book, some of the most legendary undeciphered codes and texts remain a challenge for even the world’s best cryptographers, code breakers and linguists. Yet unravelling these mysterious puzzles remains as important as ever, since many of these enigmatic inscriptions could hold the keys to understanding civilizations that have long since faded into historic oblivion. Here we feature nine of the most fascinating undeciphered codes and inscriptions throughout history.

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Wichita Police Department & the FBI Partner with Othram to Identify the Suspect in the 1989 Murder of Krista Martin

In October 1989, the body of twenty-year-old Krista Martin was found beaten to death in her Wichita, Kansas apartment located on South Osage Street. A concerned friend visited her home in the early hours of October 2, 1989, and discovered Krista. Wichita Police Department responded to the scene of the crime and began their investigation. It was determined that Krista died from blunt force trauma to the back, left side of her head. Initial investigative efforts included the collection of DNA evidence. Although DNA testing and the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) systems were not available at the time, the DNA evidence was carefully preserved.

Despite conducting numerous interviews and analyzing the available evidence, investigators were unable to identify a suspect. Undeterred, investigators continued to scrutinize the evidence and gather new leads. DNA samples were collected from multiple individuals for comparison with the evidence from the scene, but no match was found. In 2009, DNA evidence from the crime scene was submitted to the Sedgwick County Regional Forensic Science Center, resulting in the development of a potential suspect profile. This profile was uploaded to CODIS, but it did not lead to any matches. Further DNA sampling from potential suspects also proved unsuccessful. Despite law enforcement’s extensive efforts to identify the suspect, the case went cold.

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Leftist journalist who downplayed violent crime gunned down in his Philly home

Josh Kruger, a leftist journalist and activist who was based in Philadelphia, was shot and killed inside his home on Monday. Kruger had a long history of downplaying violent crime in the city, often openly mocking those who expressed concerns about homicides in Philadelphia.

“Look, it’s that lawless land of liberals in Philly where shootings are…dropping to levels not seen in years,” read a past post by Kruger.

“Some idiot just said you’re more likely to get shot and killed than die of COVID in Philly to make some insensitive rhetorical point for ‘his side.’ Folks, four times as many Philadelphians have died of COVID than gun shots this year. I understand math is hard but do better,” stated another. 

The 39-year-old Kruger was shot seven times at a residence in the 2300 block of Watkins Street around 1:30 am Monday, reports 6 ABC.

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Last living suspect in 1996 drive-by shooting of Tupac Shakur indicted on murder charge

A man who prosecutors say orchestrated the 1996 drive-by shooting of rapper Tupac Shakur was arrested and charged with murder Friday in a long-awaited breakthrough in one of hip-hop’s most enduring mysteries.

Duane “Keffe D” Davis, 60, has long been known to investigators as one of four suspects identified early in the investigation. He isn’t the accused gunman but was described as the “shot caller” by authorities Friday at a news conference and in court.

Davis himself admitted in interviews and in his 2019 tell-all memoir, “Compton Street Legend,” that he provided the gun used in the drive-by shooting.

Police homicide Lt. Jason Johansson said Davis’ own public comments revived the investigation by providing police with “admissible evidence.”

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