'Unsolved Mysteries' That Have Never Been Solved

The world is a weird, messed up horror show, with no rhyme or reason. Things happen that don't make sense, people die before finishing what they've started, and there are some unsolved mysteries that will never be solved. Here are some brutal cold cases from the popular TV show Unsolved Mysteries that seem destined to remain cold as Pluto forever.

Have you ever read The Da Vinci Code and thought it was ridiculous? Try this on for size. On a beach in Australia, a man was found with only a handful of things on his person — a comb, gum, stuff like that. But one of the things he had was a small scrap of paper that read Tamam Shud, which means "finished" in Persian, which the dude pretty well was.

After that, a man came forward with a copy of the book it was ripped from — as in, the exact copy. The man had no idea where the book had come from. He had found it in his car, and there were random letters capitalized. To this day, no one knows who the dead man is, or who left flowers on his graves. One woman claimed her mother and the Tamam Shud man were spies, but she had no proof. The letters he capitalized seem to be a cypher, but one that absolutely no one can solve. Just like his murder. New DNA testing in January 2018 might lead to a breakthrough in the case, but nothing has been announced yet.

Jean Spangler was a movie star. Or rather, she wanted to be a movie star, but she hadn't quite reached that level yet. But it seemed like she might have ... if she hadn't disappeared.

At age 26, Spangler left her home while her mother was out of town, and then vanished. Her purse was eventually found with a small note written to a man named Kirk, reading, "Can't wait any longer, Going to see Dr. Scott. It will work best this way while mother is away." Her sister, whom she lived with, said that Spangler had a caller by that name, but she had never met him. The police were at a loss, only knowing one possible Kirk with ties to Spangler. You might know him too!

Kirk Douglas, movie star and father of Michael Douglas, admitted that Spangler had a bit role in his upcoming film, but insisted he did nothing wrong. The police regarded that about as well as you might think and proceeded to interview him twice, but no dice. There were dozens of theories — maybe her abusive ex-husband killed her. Was she randomly murdered? Was she connected to a mobster? Was this Doctor Scott an abortion doctor? Did Kirk Douglas kill her? What actually happened? Well, buddy, there's a reason this article is about unsolved mysteries.

Maura Murray's 2004 disappearance is incredibly, incredibly weird, if only because there're so many possibilities, and none of them make any sense. What we know is that the day before she disappeared, she had a breakdown at work, which she said was because of her sister. Later that night, she got into a small car accident with a guardrail in her father's car. He told her to pick up some forms for the insurance, which she did the next day. The day she disappeared.

On that day, she told her work that she was leaving for a week due to a death in the family (despite there not being a death). She apparently took about $300 from an ATM, bought about fifty bucks of alcohol and drove away, heading north. Later, her room would be searched — all of her belongings were packed, her art taken off the wall, and a small note about her and her boyfriend's issues left on them. After driving for awhile, she crashed again, this time into a tree. When someone stopped to help her, she begged him not to call the police. Despite this, he did, but by the time they got there, she was gone.

One person saw her walking down the road later, but didn't realize until much later who it was. No one knows what happened to her. No one knows why she broke down, or why she disappeared, except for her. This wasn't all that long ago, though, so there's a chance you might be the one to crack the case!

Odds are, you've heard of the cult horror classic The Town That Dreaded Sundown, about a hooded man who stalked the rural town of Texarkana in the 40s, killing teenagers, and just generally being a Zodiac rip-off. What you might not have known is that that masked man ... was real. He went by the names "The Phantom Killer," and he committed what's now known as "The Texarkana Moonlight Murders."

He began killing teenagers at Lovers' Lane, molesting the girl before killing her, leaving her boyfriend beaten, but alive. He told people they were attacked by a man with a white hood and two holes for eyes (which was also incredibly similar to what the Zodiac Killer wore). Later, two more teenagers were found dead, execution style, at a road nearby. Eventually he attacked a couple in their house, killing the man, but only managing to hurt the woman. Then ... he disappeared. To this day, the case is still open. He could still be out there (and really old), just smiling.

Tara Grinstead was a country beauty queen who went on to be a beloved history teacher before becoming one of America's most mysterious unsolved mysteries. She disappeared from her home in 2005, taking her keys and her wallet ... and nothing else. Her cell phone was left charging. Her car sat outside, unlocked. There were no signs of a struggle, although there was a broken lamp. There were no obvious suspects. She had a dated some people, but none seemed to hold a grudge.

The only clue to her disappearance was a small latex glove with a man's DNA on it. However, every male suspected was tested, and the DNA belonged to none of them. No one knows who the DNA belongs to, just as no one knows whatever happened to Tara Grinstead. Weirder still, one of the investigators even said that there's some "information we have never released that we can't explain." While he didn't explicitly say aliens, we're going to go ahead and say it for him. Aliens.

In February 2017, a man named Ryan Alexander Duke, a former student at Grinstead's school, was arrested and charged with Grinstead's murder. Grinstead's body has not been found at the time of this writing. Duke's trial will begin sometime in 2018.

Unlike a lot of other unsolved mysteries, there are actually some plausible reasons for Ray Gricar's disappearance. For one thing, he had worked as a prosecutor when he was younger. Another thing? He was a District Attorney. So that's a couple of reasons we could see Ray Gricar disappearing (he kept picking jobs where he made a lot of enemies, but his disappearance was so ... weird. He just drove off one day and was never seen again.

His car, with his cell phone, was found on a bridge, but no one ever found his body in the water. They did later find his laptop in the river, with the hard drive missing. So foul play? Could be. But to further fog matters, on Gricar's home computer were searches for how to completely destroy a hard drive.

A short time ago, a man was found, offering no proof of his ID, but matching Gricar's appearance to a T. But his prints didn't match. So what gives? Where is Gricar? Why did he disappear, leaving everything behind, but making sure to destroy his laptop first? Your guess is as good as ours.

Zebb Quinn's case is a bit odd because, while it seems like there's a pretty good explanation for his disappearance ... no one knows if it's what actually happened. See, one night, Quinn and his bestie, Robert Owens, were going to see a car for sale, when Quinn got a page. He pulled over, used a payphone, and then turned frantic, telling his friend he had to go. He quickly pulled away, hitting Owens' car before disappearing, forever.

Even weirder, Owens was arrested years later for murdering the family of a Food Network star. Investigating Owens' property, the feds found things underground, what could be the remains of clothes and an odd white powder substance. Is that Quinn? Was Owens responsible for Quinn's death? If so, why did he make up such a weird story? Why did he admit to being together the last night Quinn was seen? Why did he make up a story about a page and a frantic phone call? Did he kill Quinn? Did he and Quinn do something bad that Quinn ran away from? Does anyone know? Besides Owens. He's probably not a very reliable source.

In July 2017, Owens was indicted for first-degree murder in Quinn's case. As you might expect, the case is dragging along.

Mike Williams was a hunter. Unlike a lot of other hunters, he got eaten by an alligator. Supposedly. See, in 2000 he was beside a lake, hunting duck, when — so the story goes — he was dragged into the lake, drowned, and became gator vittles.

Except, no one could find his body. Not even a tiny piece of it. Plus, the investigators don't believe he got gatored at all! See, as soon as Williams "died," his wife, Denise, got a declaration of his death (despite there not being a body). He also had a million-dollar life insurance policy taken out by his wife, who remarried scary fast ... to the guy who sold her the policy. Never mind things that make you go hmmm. These are things that make you go "oh c'mon, arrest someone already!"

Unfortunately, no one cared enough to look further until 2004, when Williams' poor, bereft mother got the police to start investigating. It seemed like it might be too late. For a long time, it seemed like all the evidence was probably gone. Then in October 2017, Williams' murdered body was found, and not inside an alligator. In May 2018, Denise was arrested and charged with the murder of her husband. The trial is not yet concluded.

We're going to openly give our explanation for what we think happened: Michael Negrete developed super powers and ran away from his life to be a travelling hero, like the Hulk, but not as melancholy. Do we have proof of that? No, but it makes about as much sense as any other explanation.

See, Negrete was a college student at UCLA, who disappeared in the middle of the night, without a trace. He had gone to a party, then stayed up late playing video games with some friends — after stopping, he went out of his dorm room to give another player a high five. That was the last anyone saw of him.

Police brought bloodhounds to find him and couldn't find even the tiniest bit of a trail ... except at a bus stop, miles away. There are no suspects, nothing in his past that points to any reason he might have disappeared, and his shoes, wallet, and keys were all in his room. He just ... disappeared. So he's the Hulk until proven otherwise.

You might be familiar with this one, if you're a fan of the show American Horror Story. In their third season, Coven, they included the ghost of the Axeman, a serial killer stalking the streets of New Orleans in the 1910s. He would, as his name suggests, kill people with an axe — mostly women, but men too, if they got in his way. He also had one of the weirdest modus operandis of all time. See, he sent a letter to a newspaper saying that, on a specific Tuesday, he would be passing through the streets of New Orleans, ready to kill, but he would spare anyone who had a jazz band playing in their house. It was like a radio station's all-request hour, only with the morbidity cranked up to 111.

Needless to say, music halls were packed. Amateur jazz bands of all sorts were shoved in people's houses. The streets were alive with the sound of music, and after that, the Axeman was never heard from again. Our guess? He was just a musician who needed some applause.

The Monster with 21 Faces was a person ... or a group ... or a gang. No one knows! His/Her/Their reign of terror started when they kidnapped the CEO of Glico (the Pocky candy people) and held him hostage. He escaped, but they weren't done yet! They defaced cars, sent threatening letters (signed "Monster with 21 Faces") with acid, and claimed to have poisoned all the Pocky, prompting a huge, million-dollar-loss recall.

After that, they started taunting the police, eventually sending a letter saying they forgave Glico for ... whatever reason, and then stopped forever. By that, we mean they simply targeted another candy! This time they claimed that twenty-one packages of candy made by the Morinaga company contained a lethal dose of sodium cyanide. And ... they did. Twenty-one packages were found, and all would have killed anyone who ate them. Each of them, though, had been labelled "Danger: Contains Toxins," so maybe the Monster had some heart?

Eventually the police believed they found the leader, nicknamed the Fox-Eyed Man, but he was never caught. After being unable to catch them, the head of the police set himself on fire. After he died, the group said they would stop harassing food companies, boasting, "We are bad guys. That means we've got more to do than bullying companies. It's fun to lead a bad man's life. Monster with 21 Faces." And then, he/she/they disappeared. Check your candy tonight, kids.