When a victim is found dead in an strange place, solving the mystery can be very challenging. It can be difficult to figure out how the victim met their demise, or who was responsible for their death. The secret is all the more perplexing when the victim had no reason to be in that place. In some other cases, the victim voluntarily traveled to a spot they had never been before, but no one can tell why. In other types of cases, the victim’s remains were found in a location that was incredibly difficult to reach.
10 The Skeleton in Ada Constance Kent’s Cottage
Ada Constance Kent was at one time a famous English stage actress. As she got older, she decided to live as a recluse in her cottage in the village of Fringringhoe. In the year of 1939, Kent vanished, and left behind some peculiar clues. A supper tray was placed on top of the dining table, and a transcript of Romeo and Juliet was discovered open on her chair beside the fireplace. Authorities made an in-depth search throughout the cottage, and the neighboring area countless times, but found no trace of Kent. The case remained open for a decade until a bank got in touch with the police. Kent still had sums deposited in an account, so the bank was curious about her location. The police chose to conduct another search of her abandoned cottage. To their surprise, a skeleton was discovered inside the bedroom. After Kent’s disappearance, her bedroom was searched three separate times, but the corpse was not found In the meantime, a tree branch that was protruding had fallen through the roof, creating a large amount of debris. The police took two hours digging through the wreckage to open the bedroom entrance. However, everything else appeared precisely as it was the day Kent vanished. The skeleton had been well dressed, and a discarded bottle with a label rested alongside it. They did not see any signs of foul play, and the victim was established as Ada Constance Kent. Even so, subsequently the remains were conveyed to Scotland Yard, and a forensic investigation was drawn to a close that the victim was too big to be Kent. The story of Ada Constance Kent and the identification of the skeleton discovered at her cottage remains a mystery.
9 The Georgia-Pacific West Inc. John Doe
When the remains of unidentified women or men are found, they are given the title of Jane or John Doe. An unknown person was found within Georgia Pacific West Inc paper mill in Bellingham County, WA. On September 20, 1987, a worker detected a temperature rise within the chimney of one the paper mill’s boilers. The commoner went to examine the inside of the chimney, and was appalled to see skeletal remnants lying on top of the pipes. A forensic investigation concluded that the victim might have been a Native American male between the ages of 20 and 40.
The chimney was not often checked, so the victim might have been there for several days. During that time, the boiler was running at temperatures ranging from 115 to 185 degrees Celsius. Since the victim’s bones had been broken, they must have either fallen or been tossed down the chimney. To be capable of throwing the victim down the chimney, the murderer would have had to climb up many flights of stairs to the top of the building. There was nothing to indicate that the victim was an employee at the paper mill since no person had been reported missing that worked there at the time. The sole clue to his identity was the burnt remains of what seemed to be a baggage claim from Continental Airlines. Unfortunately, because of the supreme heat in the core of the chimney, all indications of DNA were annihilated, so this John Doe might never be identified.
8 Blair Adams’s Extended Vacation
On July 11, 1996, 32-year-old Blair Adams was discovered dead in a deserted parking lot in Knoxville Tennessee. Adam had made a journey of 2,000 miles (3,000 kilometers) from his hometown of Surrey, British Columbia, for unexplained reasons. Adams worked as a construction worker, but within weeks preceding his death, he had been exhibiting paranoid and erratic behavior and was sure that someone was attempting to kill him. On the day of July 5th, Adams emptied his safety deposit box and his savings account before trying to go across the border. Adams was declined entry into the US. He then came back, quit his job, and purchased a plane ticket to Frankfurt, Germany. Adams made the decision to turn his ticket in, and then rent a car instead. This time, he was able to cross the border successfully, and drove to Seattle. From that point, he flew to Washington, D.C. booking a rental car to drive to Knoxville.
Subsequently, he locked himself out of his car. Adams then checked himself into a motel, but he did not go into his room. He was discovered dead the next morning. All evidence pointed toward Adam suffering from some kind of mental breakdown. However, the unique nature of his demise raises inquiries about whether or not foul play was involved.
When Adam’s corpse was found, he was nude from the waist down. There was no indication of sexual assault, but he had several abrasions and cuts. He was killed violently with a blow that ruptured his stomach. He had $4,000 worth of various currencies scattered about his corpse, and $2,000 worth of valuables on him. Currently, investigators are not sure why Blair Adams traveled to Knoxville, and the circumstances of his death remain unsolved.
7 The Flight of Jonathan Luna
In 2003, Jonathan Luna was 38 years old and working as an attorney in Baltimore. Not long before midnight on December 3rd, Luna had left his business office at the federal courthouse, neglecting to grab his glasses and cell phone, which he required for driving. About 5:30 A.M. the following morning, his car was found over 80 miles (130 km) away in a creek in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Luna’s corpse was discovered in the water underneath his car. He was stabbed 36 times with his own knife, and blood was scattered all over the inside of his vehicle. Astonishingly, FBI investigators conclusion was that Luna’s death was either a faked kidnapping went awry, or suicide.
Luna had $25,000 in credit card debt and was wanted for information about the disappearance of $36,000 in a bank larceny case. Nevertheless, the Lancaster County coroner’s office believed that he was murdered.
There was never an explanation for why Luna made a journey from Baltimore to Lancaster County, and his movements don’t appear to make sense. This trip can be made within two hours, but Luna took a scenic route which also took him through New Jersey and Delaware.
In Baltimore, Luna used his EZPass at three tolls before he began purchasing toll tickets as an alternative. Through the duration of the night, $200 was withdrawn from his account at an ATM, and his debit card was used to buy gas.
At the 4:04 AM, Luna gave in a toll ticket with blood spotted on it. With the vast amount of blood on the backseat, it appeared likely that Luna spent his traveling with some other person while he was driving. Even so, there are no answers about who may have murdered Jonathan Luna, or how he wound up in Pennsylvania.
6 The Sycamore Jane Doe
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On August 14th, 1999, a hiker ascended to the top of Sycamore Canyon in Arizona. When he looked down, he saw a set of skeletal remains on an edge right above the canyon floor. The victim had no personal identity, but it was sooner or later determined that the body was a female between the age of 25 and 40. She had been dead for about six months or a year, but how she died was a mystery. A scrap of a Catalina brand swimsuit was discovered hanging from a tree nearby. Skeletal remains of a baby found inside the victim. This shows that Jane Doe was at full term pregnancy before she met her demise. The big question is how did a pregnant woman make it to the top in the first place?
The path going into Sycamore Canyon is 10 miles (16 km) away from the town Clarkdale. Jane Doe was found 2.5 miles (4 km) from the start of the trail, and no abandoned vehicles were within the area. While it would not have been impossible, it seems unlikely that she could have handled ascending to the top where she was discovered. It would be just as difficult for a person to move the body of a pregnant woman to that spot. One theory is that she was escorted to that location by someone who later left her to die there. There have been countless pleas to the public for more details, but the Sycamore Jane Doe has not been identified.
5 Debbie Wolfe in A Barrel
On December 26th, 1985, Debbie Wolfs, a 28-year-old nurse, finished her shift at a North Carolina hospital and headed home to her cabin in the woods. That would be the last day she was seen alive. When Debbie did not show up to work the next day her mother visited her cabin. On New Year’s Day, two of her friends chose to search a pond near her cabin. They discovered her body in a barrel at the bottom. After Debbie’s corpse was found by the police, her death was said to be an accidental drowning. They thought she had likely fallen into the water and drowned while she was playing with her dogs. Since Debbie’s friends had discovered her corpse in a barrel, they disputed the decision.
Even so, the police then made the disputed statement that Wolfe was in reality not found in a barrel at all, and the divers were wrong. This statement from the police was not true; a burn barrel from her property went missing at the time of her death. She was strangely enough discovered wearing clothes that did not belong to her and were several sizes too big. Her family believed that she might have been murdered by a male volunteer from her work, who had developed an obsession for her. The day of Wolfe’s vanishing, her mother discovered an odd message on her answering machine from this man, who was expressing concern about her missing several days of work. However, she had only been missing a few hours at that point. Even with these leads, Debbie Wolfe’s suspicious death remains unsolved.
4 Doctor Gilbert Bogle and Margaret Chandler
In the year 1963, Dr. Gilbert Bogle was considered one of the best scientists in Australia. He lived in Sydney with his wife and four children. He was also having an affair with a woman named Margaret Chandler, the wife of a co-worker. On New Year’s Eve, both Chandler and Bogle attended a function in Chatswood. Bogle appeared alone, but Chandler was escorted by her husband. When Chandler’s husband went to another party, Bogle agreed to drive her home. They left at around 4:15 A.M. A few hours later, a class of children found Bogle’s body beneath Fullers Bridge close to Lane Cove River. Chandler’s corpse was discovered nearby.
Bogle was only wearing a shirt, but his body was draped by the rest of his clothing and a fragment of carpet from his car. Chandler was also in a state of partial nudity, but her body was cloaked in beer cartons. Since that area was known for being a “lovers lane,” it appeared it was likely that Bogle and Chandler died within the throes of desire. However, no one has found the cause of death. Feces and vomit were discovered at the scene, giving reason to believe they were poisoned, although no toxins were detected in their systems.
Throughout the years, there were several possibilities about how the couple passed; maybe they were murdered by Chandler’s husband, an LSD overdose, or even because of Bogle’s secret investigations on lasers. The most likely theory is that of industrial waste dumping throughout decades that caused a reaction of hydrogen sulfide gas to ascend from the polluted river, and then start to poison the couple. It is also possible that the couple’s naked bodies were found by a local who chose to cover them for the sake of modesty. Where ever the truth may lie, their demise remains a mystery.
3 Bella Baldwin’s Trip to Maine
19-year-old Bella Baldwin was known as a shy girl with a preference for writing poetry. In September of 1972, she had vanished from her home in Reisterstown, Maryland. Her parents did not have any idea what happened to her until the received shocking news one month later. Bella had been buried at a cemetery in the island town of Vinalhaven, Maine. On the day of September 17th, two women had discovered a young girl dead lying on a beach located on Lane’s Island. This girl had no personal information on her; she was buried with a tombstone saying “Unknown, 1972.” Subsequently, an inquiry was made into details about missing girls within the area. Even so, no one could find out what happened to her, and why she was in Vinalhaven in the first place.
Bella had gone on a bus trip from Reisterstown to Rockland and checked into a hotel under an assumed name. After taking a ferry to Vinalhaven, Bella had written a letter describing her adventure to a friend. At some point in time, she had come back to Vinalhaven and ended up dead. Her cause of death was drowning, but no one knows if it was accidental, suicide, or homicide. Bella’s body had marks of bruising, and cracked ribs, but it is possible that she could have fallen off some rocks. It is probable that she drowned prior to the tide washing her body ashore. Pieces of paper were discovered in Bella’s motel room featuring poetry she had written, but no other personal belongings were discovered, including her personal identification and red purse. No one has found an explanation for Bella Baldwin’s traveling to Vinalhaven or her odd death.
2 The Disappearance of Tim Molnar
On January 24th, 1984, 19-year-old Tim Molnar left his home in Daytona Beach, Florida, to drop his younger brother at school. He never came back home. Weeks later, Tim’s family found that his credit card was used to purchase gas in Lake City close to 150 miles away (250 km). Several months after that, the Molnars received a document from a twine business in Atlanta advising them that Tim’s 1969 Dodge Dart was found abandoned. Tim’s identification was left in the vehicle, but there was no money inside, and the stereo system was also missing. After not getting any leads for over a decade, Tim’s family chose to have his disappearance shown on Unsolved Mysteries. When the show was broadcast in the year of 1996, there was an unexpected development.
On March 23rd, 1986, the skeletal remains of an unidentified male were discovered within a secluded woodlot close to the town of Merton, Wisconsin. Because of the freezing temperatures, the remnants were covered in a sheet of ice. The victim had no indication of trauma; his cause of death could not be determined. The victim was discovered with a set of keys for a 1969 Dodge Dart, and another key that was identical to the Molnar house. DNA tests ultimately confirmed that the unknown male was indeed Tim Molnar. Even so, there is no explanation why or how Tim Molnar made his 1,200 miles (2,000 km) travel from Florida to Wisconsin or how he died.
1 The Body in the Shoe Box
On August 8th, 1886, a huge box was spotted underneath some trees in a rural area outside of Wallingford, Connecticut. It was the same kind of box usually used to carry shoes; the lyric “French toe, fine stitched” was written on the side. The box was subsequently unsealed, and it was discovered to be lined with tar paper. However, there was a shocking discovery inside, a bare male torso. Its legs, arms, and head were completely removed. A forensic investigation determined that the victim was most likely in his thirties. Because traces of arsenic were found in his stomach, the cause of death was most probably poisoning.
Soon after the body’s discovery, locals saw what they thought was a large bag at the bottom of a close well. They required some tools to recover the bag, but when they come back the following day, the bag was gone. Even so, a tiny piece of human scalp was on the ground, so it appears the victim’s head could have been within the bag. A month later, a farmer discovered a set of legs and arms in the area, also wrapped in tar paper. Investigators soon traced the box to a shoe retailer in Chicago. The retailer alleged that after getting the shipment of shoes from Massachusetts, he had left the box in his backyard before an unknown man offered to buy it. No one knows how the box showed up in Wallingford with a human torso inside. The victim’s head was never recovered; his identity and the surroundings of his death will forever remain a mystery.