The Sodder Children

The Sodder children were either killed in a fire or went missing. No one knows which, no one knows where they are and it's likely that no one ever will.  This video from the wonderful Cayleigh Elise tells you the full story in depth.

Tamam Shud - A Mystery Corpse

At 6:30 am on the 1st of December 1948 a man was found dead on Somerton beach near Adelaide, Australia.  

He had no identification and a public appeal brought no information on the man at all.  To this day no one knows who he was or why he was dead on the beach.  When an autopsy was performed no cause of death could be found.

A re-enactment of how and where the man was found.

His pockets contained a used bus ticket from the city, an unused second-class rail ticket from the city to nearby Henley Beach, a narrow aluminium American comb, a half-empty packet of Juicy Fruit chewing gum, an Army Club cigarette packet containing (the different brand of) Kensitas cigarettes, and a quarter-full box of Bryant & May matches.

One month later a suitcase was also found at the train station and is believed to have belonged to him.  This still didn't give any clue as to who he was.  The case contained:

■ Red checked dressing gown

■ Red felt slippers, size 7

■ Undergarments - four pairs

■ Pyjamas

■ Four pairs of socks

■ Shaving kit containing razor and strop, shaving brush

■ Light brown trousers with sand in cuffs

■ A screwdriver

■ A cut-down table knife

■ A stencilling brush

■ A pair of scissors

■ A sewing kit containing orange Barbour's brand waxed thread

■ Two ties

■ Three pencils

■ Six handkerchiefs

■ Sixpence in coins

■ A button

■ A tin of brown shoe polish, Kiwi brand

■ One scarf

■ One cigarette lighter

■ Eight large envelopes and one small envelope

■ One piece of light cord

■ One shirt without a name tag

■ One yellow coat shirt (a shirt with an attached collar)

■ Two airmail stickers

■ One eraser

■ One front and one back collar stud

■ Toothbrush and toothpaste

Months after he was found, someone going back over the case found a small scrap of paper in the fob pocket of his trousers.  It said Tamam Shud in print, which is Persian for either ended or finished and it was identified to be ripped from a book.  It was worked out that the book was Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, a book of 12th century poetry.  

A man heard of this case and the book.  He came forward with a copy of the book that he had found tossed in to the back of his car the night before the man was found.  The back page was missing where this phrase would have been printed.  On the inside of the books back cover they found indentations from hand writing which showed a code that has never been deciphered.

WRGOABABD
MLIAOI
WTBIMPANETP
MLIABOAIAQC
ITTMTSAMSTGAB

There have been many people working on this case and it has spanned out all over the world.  There are many theories and some possible ideas on who he might have been but there is nothing solid anywhere.  This is still now considered a great mystery and we will probably never know who he was, why he was there or what it all means.

Elisa Lam - The girl in the water tank

On February 19th 2013 the naked body of 21 year old Elisa Lam was found in the water tank on the roof at The Cecil Hotel in LA. Residents had been complaining that the water was running slow, had an odd taste and was looking a little brown so the tank was checked and there she was.

She was last seen alive on January 21st and once she was found they checked over the video from the lift and found this.  No one has been able to pin down exactly what she is doing or why but the theories are all over the net.  The most accepted one is some kind of mental episode due to her background with depression and bipolar disorder and the four medications she was taking for it.  It was ruled that she died of accidental drowning which they do believe was most likely self inflicted.

There are still a lot of questions around the case though as to how she managed to get up there to the roof, how she managed to get in the tank and how she managed to drown in it unassisted.  Some people believe there is someone unseen in this video that is the cause of her freak out while others have suggested demonic possession.  There are even conspiracy theories about her being involved in something to do with Tuberculosis research as the vaccine for it is called Lam-Elisa.  Thoughts?

The WOW signal - Radio from Space

Jerry Ehman, a radio astronomer, was looking through data collected by The Big Ear Telescope in 1977 and he came across something staggering.  This was done in the search for any communication from alien life.  He made the freak discovery on the data print out, circled it in red pen and wrote 'WOW!' next to it, thus the WOW signal was born.

The Big Ear was listening for radio waves from an area of sky near the constellation of Sagittarius.  The data print outs were a visual representation of the sounds it was collecting.  In all the 1's and 2's on the print out, Jerry saw 6EQUJ5.  This is the actual recording that was picked up.

The same patch of sky has been listened to for years to see if anything else comes from it, but nothing ever has.  It's estimated that the distance the signal traveled to get to us was 200 light years.  This means the signal would have taken 200 years from being transmitted to the day it actually reached us.  If we send one back it will take 200 years to get back to them.

We may never know where the signal came from or who sent it.  It looks like this is another mystery we will never solve.