Random Strangest Solved Mysteries (12 items)

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  (#11) The Iron Pillar of Delhi

  Likely built sometime around 450 CE, the 23-foot-tall iron pillar found in Delhi's ancient Qutb Complex amazed both locals and scientists because of its seeming resistance to rust. Theories about the "out-of-place artifact" abounded, with one explanation being that it was built by aliens, since local people at the time couldn't have built such an element-resistant object.

  But recent scientific analysis showed that not only was such a feat well within the capabilities of ancient people, it also revealed exactly why the pillar doesn't rust. It's coated with a thin layer of iron hydrogen phosphate hydrate (also called misawite), which keeps the elements out. The film likely ended up on the pillar through a combination of impurities in the iron and the primitive ovens the metallurgists were using. No ancient astronauts needed.
  
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  (#7) The Kidnapping of Carlina White

  On August 4, 1987, Carlina White, just 19 days old, was rushed to New York's Harlem Hospital Center. Suffering from an infection and high fever, Carlina was admitted, but disappeared during an early morning shift change. Witnesses described a heavyset woman dressed like a nurse who had been hanging around the NICU, and who left shortly after the shift change. But because the hospital's video surveillance wasn't working, nobody knew what she looked like. The incident was the first non-parental infant abduction in New York history. A reward was set up for White's return, but she was never found. The parents sued the hospital, won a settlement, and eventually split up. The case remained cold for decades.

  For the next 23 years, Carlina was raised under a new name by Connecticut resident Annugetta "Ann" Pettway. After becoming suspicious of her mother's inability to provide birth documents, as well as the lack of resemblance between the two, Carolina began researching on the Internet, and found baby photos that resembled her likeness as an infant.

  She called the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and was reunited with her birth parents in 2000. Pettaway disappeared, but eventually turned herself in and pleaded guilty to kidnapping. She's currently serving a 12 year sentence.
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  (#12) The Bermuda Triangle

  The small patch of water between Florida, Puerto Rico, and Bermuda is legendary for its strange phenomenon, vanishing ships, mysterious weather, and numerous planes and crafts that have gone in, but never come out. Innumerable books and documentaries have sold the Bermuda Triangle as an earthly black hole, gobbling up ships for decades.

  Except it's not that at all. The Triangle has been thoroughly investigated, and ship losses aren't any higher there than any other place. Ships sink in the Triangle for the usual reasons ships sink—and much of their wreckage has been recovered. The Coast Guard doesn't recognize the existence of any strange phenomenon, and countless ships and planes go through it every day without incident.
  
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  (#1) The Bloop

  "The Bloop" was the name given to an extremely powerful underwater sound detected by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in 1997. Detected in a remote part of the Pacific Ocean off the southern tip of South America, the Bloop was an ultra-low frequency burst of noise that could be heard through hydrophones almost 3,000 miles away. Scientists had no idea what it was, and theorized everything from calving ice in Antarctica, to an iceberg dragging along the ocean floor, to a whale, and even to some unknown sea cryptid.

  It wasn't until 2012 that scientists agreed upon an explanation for the Bloop. The sound was matched to a known icequake, and it was eventually narrowed down to the crash of disintegrating icebergs somewhere between Bransfield Straits and the Ross Sea in Antarctica.
  
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  (#3) The Death of Bill Sparkman

  In September, 2009, the body of teacher and US Census field rep Bill Sparkman was found tied to a tree in rural Kentucky, naked save for his socks, his hands, feet, and mouth bound with duct tape. Most mysteriously, the word "fed" was written on his chest in felt-tip marker. The death was immediately blamed on local residents with an anti-authoritarian bent, especially given the controversy about political activism group ACORN being involved with the census.

  While media and pop culture speculation centered on lurid anti-Obama and anti-government conspiracies, the Kentucky State Police came out with a much more believable explanation. Sparkman was a cancer survivor, but likely believed his cancer had returned. He committed suicide and staged it to look like a homicide, in order to collect a $600,000 life insurance policy, which would go to his family.
  
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  (#9) The Missing Teens of Oklahoma

  Three Oklahoma teens vanished in November 1970, with no trace of either the trio or their car ever being found. Their disappearance hung over their small town for decades, leading to theories that ranged from them being murdered, to the three running away to avoid the draft. The police department did little to investigate the case, and the families did everything from offer money for information to consult a psychic.

  It wasn't until 2013 that the mystery was solved, or at least as much as it could be. Their Camaro was found in a nearby lake where local police were testing sonar equipment. Sure enough, three bodies were found inside the car, which was submerged in just 12 feet of water, 50 feet from a boat ramp. The bodies were identified as the three teens, and while it isn't clear whether they drove the car in accidentally or were killed, at least their families can stop looking for them.
  

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