Most chilling mysteries folks need to see solved of their lifetime

In this strange world we live in, there are so many mysteries we may never know the answers to.

But it doesn’t stop people wondering what really became of some of the people who disappeared from the face of the earth without a trace or met grim, unexplained deaths. It’s a common topic of conversation on social media platform, Reddit. Earlier this week, one person sparked a huge debate when they asked: “What case/s would you hope to see solved in your lifetime?”

“I think for me, it would have to be Andrew Gosden,” they volunteered, adding: “This is one of the UK’s most famous missing persons cases and there’s just so many unanswered questions about it all that I hope someday are answered.”

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Hundreds responded with mysteries that have puzzled them for years including the brutal yogurt shop murders and the harrowing case of child beauty queen, JonBenét Ramsey.

Here, we take a look at them.

Andrew Gosden

On September 14, 2007, 14-year-old Andrew Gosden skipped school, withdrew £200 from his bank account and bought a one-way ticket to London never to be seen again.

The highly-intelligent teenager had never before missed a day off school and most of his teachers believed he was destined to study at Cambridge. He was described by his family as an introverted “homebird” who rarely left his Doncaster home.

On the morning of his disappearance, he woke up late and moody, which was said to be out of character. Instead of catching the school bus, he walked to a cash machine and withdrew almost all of his money in his account before being captured on CCTV returning home.

He put his uniform in the washing machine and changed into a Slipknot t-shirt and black jeans, picking up his bag, wallet, keys and his Playstation Portable console.

He bought a one-way ticket to London after being told a return ticket would only cost him 50p more, insisting he wanted a single.

When Andrew failed to arrive at school teachers attempted to contact his parents to alert them but ended up leaving a message on the wrong person’s phone. He wasn’t reported missing until 7pm that evening.

Meanwhile, Andrew arrived at King’s Cross station at 11.20am and was caught on CCTV leaving the main entrance at 11.25am. This was the last confirmed sighting of him.

Police investigated the possibility he had gone to meet someone he’d got talking to over the internet, but found no evidence. It was also suggested he could’ve visited the area to addend a music gig.

He didn’t use a computer at home, had no email address and hadn’t set up an online account on his XBox or PSP. Police even took computers from Andrew’s school and library but found no trace of activity from him.

Speaking in 2009, his dad Kevin said: “In my heart, I still think his disappearance was a spur-of-the-moment thing.”

In 2021, two men were arrested on suspicion of kidnap and human trafficking but were later released without charge.

The family have kept Andrew’s room as he left it and have not changed the locks. His bank account has not been used since he vanished.

Springfield Three

When single mum, Sherrill Levitt, 47, her daughter Suzie Streeter, 19 and Suzie’s friend Stacy McCall, 18 went missing from Sherrill’s home in 1992, they left all their personal belongings including their cars and purses behind.

There were no signs of a struggle apart from a broken porch light globe. But there was a message on the answering machine that could have provided a clue, however it was inadvertently deleted.

When friends came looking for them, one innocently sweeped up the glass from the broken light and entered the house to find the pet Yorkshire terrier “agitated.”

They answered a “strange and disturbing call” from an unidentified man who made “sexual innuendos.” The friend hung up immediately and remembered Suzie complaining about prank calls since moving in.

When Stacy’s mum came looking for her at the house, she listened to a “strange message” but it was erased like many voicemails in the 90s after being played once.

Police said the crime scene had been “corrupted” by worried friends and family who came looking for them.

In 1997, convicted kidnapper and robber, Robert Craig Cox claimed he knew that the women had been murdered and their bodies would never be recovered. Neither their whereabouts or their remains have ever been discovered.

Cox told journalists he would disclose what happened to the so-called Springfield Three after his mother died. No investigators in the case believe Cox has any credibility.

The case remains unsolve despited more than 5,000 tips from the public.

Asha Degree

In the early hours of February 14, 2000, nine-year-old Asha Degree from North Carolina strapped on her backpack and slipped out of her house.

At around 4am, two motorists said that they saw the girl walking on the highway without a coat in a “raging storm.” When one driver turned around to check on her, he said she ran into the woods.

That was the last time she was ever seen. But in the days and months that followed, several bizarre clues only compounded the mystery in a case that investigators still believe they can solve.

They include the discovery of a white Atlanta 1996 Olympics pencil, a green marker and a Mickey Mouse hair bow found in the doorway of a shed the next day, which were said to have been Asha’s. The shed was 100 yards away from where she was last seen on Highway 18 and was where the trail ended.

The week before she disappeared, Asha, who was point guard on her basketball team, was upset after being fouled out of a game. She was crying but soon perked up, however investigators have always considered whether her disappointment over the game was a factor in her possible decision to run away.

Eighteen months later, her backpack was unearthed 25 miles north of where she was last seen a officers believed it was “thrown out of a moving car.” It contained the Dr. Seuss book “McElligot’s Pool” from Asha’s school library, and a New Kids on the Block concert T-shirt that her mother said didn’t belong to her.

In 2020, a newspaper received a letter from a man claiming to know how Asha had been killed and where her body had been buried. But the man, who was serving a prison sentence for sex crimes against children was deemed meritless.

Cleveland County Sheriff Alan Norman said that advances in technology will one day help investigators crack the case. “We actually have things that aid us now that we didn’t have 24 months ago, much less 24 years ago,” he said.

Yogurt Shop Murders

In 1991, four teenage girls were brutally murdered in an I Can’t Believe It’s Yogurt! shop in Austin, Texas. The horrific crime has haunted their families, the city, and the investigators who chased every lead in the case to a dead end.

Eliza Thomas, 17 sisters, Sarah and Jennifer Harbison, 15 and 17 respectively and Amy Ayers, 13 were tied up and shot in the head. At least one of them had been raped before the yogurt shop was then set on fire.

Eliza and Jennifer were employees. Jennifer’s little sister Sarah and Sarah’s friend, Amy, who were also at the shop, had planned to get a ride home with Jennifer after the store closed at 11pm.

Investigators theorise that the four teens were forced into the storage room where the gunman or gunmen forced them to undress, bound them in their own undergarments and sexually assaulted some of them.

Despite the damage to the crime scene, a partial DNA profile was found, however, it only had 16 genetic markers, which wasn’t enough to incriminate.

For decades, investigators worked to find suspects after a string of false confessions. There were eventually arrests and even convictions. But those convictions were overturned, leaving the case unsolved today.

JonBenét Ramsey

The murder of child pageant queen, JonBenét Ramsey has remained a mystery for 27 years.

The six-year-old was found beaten and strangled inside the basement of her home in Boulder Colorado in the US on Christmas Day, 1996.

The winner of Little Miss Colorado was found covered by a white blanket with a nylon cord around her neck, and her wrists bound above her head and her mouth covered by duct tape. There was no clear-cut evidence of rape, but police did not rule out sexual assault.

A bizarre ransom note was also uncovered demanding $118,000 from her family.

Nobody has ever been formerly charged with the murder but there have been several suspects over the years. Among them was John Mark Karr, 58, who claimed that he was with JonBenét when she died but his admission ultimately came to be viewed as an elaborate lie by investigators.

For years, JonBenet’s parents and brother, Burke, who was just nine-years-old at the time of his sister’s death, were also under suspicion.

However, in 2008, they were finally exonerated and formally taken off the suspect list.

Incredibly, police never investigated a possible link between an attack on another girl in her bed and the murder of JonBenet just a few blocks away.

New police say they are reviewing new expert “recommendations” in the case.

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