Mysterious Cases You've Never Heard of

..Or maybe you have.

Regardless, these are some compelling cases that range from truly fascinating all the way to out right bizarre. So without further ado;

1. The Green Children of Woolpit


Let's start off with something that should ignite your imagination. A fascinating tale that took place around the 12th century in the village of Woolpit. 2 young children seemingly appear out of nowhere in the middle of the forest, their skin was green, they wore clothes made from unfamiliar materials, spoke an unrecognizable language and only ate raw beans. They were taken into the homes of the local land owners where the younger boy eventually succumbed to his unfamiliar environment, but the older girl survived, learned english and eventually got married.

The Green Children of Woolpit

When she was later questioned about her past the girl was only able to relate vague details about where the children had come from and how they arrived at Woolpit. She stated that her and the boy were brother and sister, and had come from ‘the land of Saint Martin’ where it was perpetual twilight, and all the inhabitants were green in colour like they had been. She was not sure exactly where her homeland was located, but another ‘luminous’ land could be seen across a ‘considerable river’ separating it from theirs.

She remembered that one day they were looking after their father’s herds in the fields and had followed them into a cavern, where they heard the loud sound of bells. Entranced, they wandered through the darkness for a long time until they arrived at the mouth of the cave, where they were immediately blinded by the glaring sunlight.

Many theories, from an underground village inside the earth, to extraterrestrials from another dimension, to an even rational explanation, but I like the former 2 theories better

Either way it remains unsolved with no clear explanation.
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2. The Missing Sodder Children


A horrific story that happened on Christmas Eve 1945. I can't imagine what it feels like to lose 5 children, along with your house on Christmas and never knowing what truly happened.

In the middle of the night, the Sodder's awoke to their house on fire, unable to save their 5 children sleeping in the attic they watched their house burn to the ground with their children still inside, or so they thought. The next morning after firefighters arrived, their were absolutely no remains of any of the 5 children. Their was speculation that they may have been kidnapped and the perpetrators tried to burn down the house. What really happened?

The Missing Sodder Children

Jennie couldn’t understand how five children could perish in a fire and leave no bones, no flesh, nothing. She conducted a private experiment, burning animal bones—chicken bones, beef joints, pork chop bones—to see if the fire consumed them. Each time she was left with a heap of charred bones. She knew that remnants of various household appliances had been found in the burned-out basement, still identifiable. An employee at a crematorium informed her that bones remain after bodies are burned for two hours at 2,000 degrees. Their house was destroyed in 45 minutes.

There are many variables to this story, they were well known and respected with ties to the mob. Were the children kidnapped right before the house burned down?

Some 20 years later the mother recieved a photo in the mail claiming to be one of her son's. She hired a private investigator only for the investigator to completely vanish himself.

This case remains unsolved.
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3. The Disappearance of Sarah Joe


This is a bizarre case that has Hollywood written all over it. 5 men go on a fishing trip off the coast of Hawaii on a clear morning, only to go missing after a sudden storm appears. They were all eventually presumed dead after a couple weeks of searches.

10 years later their boat was discovered 3000 miles away on an island, ironically from a person that was part of the search a decade earlier. They also found the remains of one of the men, buried with gold and silver tin foil (Chinese rituals?). No traces of the other men were ever found.

Disappearance of Sarah Joe

The disappearance and subsequent discovery of the Sarah Joe thousands of miles away on this atoll poses numerous questions, the answers of which have remained elusive. One is just how the Sarah Joe managed to survive the raging storm in the first place, and then drift all the way to the Marshall Islands. While experts have agreed that the boat could have feasibly drifted here within 3 months, there had been a thorough government survey of the island just 6 years prior to the boat’s discovery which had turned up no sign of a wrecked boat or grave. This means that the boat would have had to have floated about in the ocean for at least over four years before finding its way to the island, so where was it all of that time and why hadn’t anyone seen any sign of it? On top of this, the entrance to the lagoon where the boat was found is exceptionally narrow, and it seems unlikely that it could have just aimlessly drifted in there to cast itself gently upon the sand without first being torn to shreds by rocks. Then there are the questions of what happened to the other four men who had been on the boat, if they had been alive when they reached the atoll, and who buried the body of Scott Moorman, as well as why his jawbone had been placed on the grave and what the significance of the mysterious sheets of paper was.

Now I highly doubt the boat was just drifting in the ocean for years, so this only adds to the mystery. Where were they all those years? Who brought the boat to the island? Who made the burial site? Where are the other men? So many unanswered questions.

Try not to boggle your mind coming up with a theory for this one.
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Enjoy

oooh I like threads like this. The Woolpit Children is a bit spooky and odd. Have to look more into that one. Quite surprised they weren't burnt at the stake as witches or demons!

Right up my street. Thanks for this.

So from what I've dug up, it seems the most popular explanation was in 1998 by Paul Harris of Fortean Studies 4 in which he theorises that these children were in fact children of Flemish Immigrants to England who's parents were killed in the uprising against the immigrants culminating in the Battle of Fornham in 1173. These children were orphaned and escaped to the woods where they lived for some time but short on food which caused them to suffer from chlorosis which causes a green tinge to the skin apparently. As they spoke no English they were considered unusual and strange when found by locals. Seems feasible

a reply to: PhyllidaDavenport

That was the rational explanation I was referring to :p

It's highly possible that is the case, but what is strange was she claimed perpetual twilight wherever she came from. Maybe cave dwellers?

a reply to: knowledgehunter0986

I suppose that if the forest was thick enough they would get little sunlight....but then again they'd also get a very dark darkness....hmmm dunno

a reply to: PhyllidaDavenport

Or there is a mysterious world inside the earth

I don't know much of the folklore around those areas but aren't fairies and stuff supposedly living in the forest/caves/under-earth?

a reply to: knowledgehunter0986

I feel like the boat could have simply been drifting about for a few years and it was just small enough that it missed anyone's attention for that time, but it is a great tale! All 3 - thanks for a great thread OP. This was fun

a reply to: FamCore

What about the men on the boat? There's no way you would be able to survive couple years on that small boat. Even the 3 month estimated would be hard to survive. There must have been a survivor(s) if one man was buried. Maybe they were captured/saved at sea by another ship.

I had heard of the green children, but not the other cases. Thank you! I love these types of threads!

a reply to: Night Star

Hi Night Star! I'm glad you're enjoying it, thanks for reading

nice thread

a reply to: humanoidlord

Thanks a lot

a reply to: knowledgehunter0986

Excellent post and we need more of them.

a reply to: Ksihkehe

I just might make a part 2 now.

a reply to: knowledgehunter0986

The woolpit children is a famous case, in some respect's it has similarity to other mysteries such as the Capser Hauser mystery in that these children seem to have come from somewhere else?, another dimension, a controlled environment or even another time they also have often been linked to the wood wose a medeivil british forrest man whom like the big foot was a hairy man like creature.
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The Wood Wose is also related to the pagan tradition of the Green Man a fertility god of the ancient Britain's, note that point the GREEN man so could they have been the last of an extinct tribe whom had lived in the ever diminishing woodland that once covered all of Britain from a time it was said that a squirrel (a red squirrel is far smaller than a grey squirrel) could travel from one end of Britain to the other and never touch the ground.

The Sodder Children does sound like foul play but it is interesting and one of the son's trying to contact his mother, strange but if they had ties to the mob not that strange.

The Sarah Joe sound's like the boat was probably found by some Chinese sailor's with only one body aboard, maybe already a skeleton, they could have had problem's, what became of the other crew members is up there with many tale's of the sea but not as mysterious as the infamous (and probably insurance related) Mary Celeste case or the true mystery of the Flannan lighthouse keepers whom all three vanished.

a reply to: knowledgehunter0986

Please do. While I was aware of 2 incidents, I was not aware of the 5 children. We could use more of this. Thank you

a reply to: LABTECH767

Regarding the green children and wood hairy man, didn't JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis wrote about similar creatures in their stories?

For the Sarah Joe case, I wonder if everyone (except the one eventually found buried) went overboard during the storm. Then, the body is found by -someone- presumably Chinese, either still afloat or washed up with the boat on the island, and out of respect they bury him. Perhaps the significance of the bone on top is simply to mark it as a grave, to be found.

Anyway, I love threads like this - the curiosity kills me and despite having heard of some of these, they continue to boggle my mind and make me wonder ^^

a reply to: starwarsisreal

They most certainly did, Tolkien for example took much of his inspiration from folk lore but these were much older legend's.
If you think about it the celtic british tribes painted there skin on woed then ran into battle almost naked, blue woed and today we know that woed was actually an antiseptic so it probably protected them during battle from infection setting into there wound's, if there were a tribe whose woed was more green they too could have inspired these legend's especially if they clung on well into saxon time's.