10 Most Baffling Unsolved Crimes in History

5. Anonymous Caller

In 1980, a woman named Dorothy Scott started receiving terrifying calls from an anonymous stalker. Some days the caller professed his love for her while other times he taunted her with graphic threats of violence. What terrified Dorothy was that the caller seemed to know intimate details about her day-to-day life, suggesting he was watching her from afar.

One night, Dorothy vanished after taking a colleague to hospital. Her car was seen abruptly speeding away and was found abandoned and on fire hours later. A week later, the anonymous caller started harassing Dorothy’s mother. The caller even called up a radio station to claim responsibility for Dorothy’s disappearance. The last thing he said before hanging up was: ‘I killed Dorothy Scott. She was my love.’

Dorothy’s remains were eventually found four years later, but the mystery of who killed her remains unsolved. Creepier still, a week after the remains were discovered Dorothy’s parents received two calls from an anonymous person asking ‘Is Dorothy home?’

4. Cruise Ship Disappearance

In 1998 twenty-three-year-old Amy Lynn Bradley went on a Caribbean cruise with her family. Early one morning she left her cabin for a quick cigarette and was never seen again. Authorities searched the ship but found no sign of her. Because of the ship’s rigorous safety measures, investigators determined it was unlikely she’d fallen overboard.

Police saw no obvious signs of foul play, though a few passengers said they saw crew members giving Amy lots of inappropriate attention before she disappeared. This led Amy’s parents to believe their daughter had been kidnapped and sold into sex slavery.

This wild theory was given credence when provocative photos of a woman who looked like Amy turned up online. Several tourists also saw a woman matching Amy’s description on a beach in Curaçao and a member of the US Navy claimed he saw Amy working in a brothel against her will.
But despite all of these clues and sightings, Amy Lynn has sadly never been found.

3. Sudden Intoxication

In 2009, Diane Schuler was driving her children and three nieces home from a camping trip. On the way she stopped for McDonald’s, filled the car with gas and made a phone call to her brother.

Ten minutes later, she was struck with a sudden illness. Witnesses saw her abruptly pull over to vomit. A short while later, Diane’s oldest niece called her father and told him that Diane couldn’t see or speak. Diane’s brother urged them to stay off the road but Diane ignored his pleas. A short while later, she was seen driving erratically against traffic. Her car collided head-on with an SUV, killing everyone aboard except her young son.

Police and Diane’s family were mystified. The toxicology report found Diane’s blood alcohol level was somehow twice the legal limit. But those who knew her say drink driving was completely out of Diane’s character. And, after a thorough investigation, police found no evidence she’d been drinking. The multiple witnesses who interacted with her that morning say she appeared completely sober. So what was it that had this effect on her? We may never know.

2. The Changeling

In 1994, thirteen-year-old Nicholas Barclay mysteriously vanished after a game of neighbourhood basketball. His parents were devastated, but over time they came to accept he was gone.
But three years later, the Barclays received a strange phone call from someone claiming to be their son. He said he’d been kidnapped and sold into a European slavery ring.

Although the story was suspicious, the Barclays were thrilled about the prospect of reuniting with their son. But when Nicholas stepped off his plane he looked completely different. He claimed his abductors had chemically changed his eye and hair colour, but this didn’t account for his new French accent.

The FBI ran DNA and fingerprint tests, exposing the new Nicholas as a fraud. His real identity was twenty-three-year-old Frédéric Pierre Bourdin, a serial impostor who’d assumed hundreds of fake identities, including three missing children. Frédéric pled guilty to fraud and perjury and spent six years in prison.

As for the real Nicholas Barclay? Unfortunately, his whereabouts remain unknown.

1. The Hinterkaifeck

In 1922, the Gruber family and their housekeeper were brutally hacked to death on their private Hinterkaifeck farm. The case remains one of the darkest and most puzzling unsolved murders in German history.

Before his death, Andreas Gruber had told his neighbours and friends about a series of strange occurrences around his home. These included noises in the attic, objects going missing and the appearance of unexplainable footprints. These clues suggest the killer may have been living with them in their home before they struck.

An autopsy report revealed that the youngest victim, seven-year-old Cazila, had pulled her own hair out before she was killed, possibly in response to the trauma of seeing her family murdered.

What’s more unnerving is the killer hung around living in the victims’ home for several days after their murder spree. They fed the Gruber’s animals and ate their food before finally moving on.

—

So there’s our list of the ten most baffling unsolved crimes in history. Did this listicle leave you as baffled are we are? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below or on any of our socials.