This article contains mentions of sexual assault, suicide, and murder.
Unsolved Mysteriesis one of the most fascinating and disturbing true-crime shows streaming at the moment, but some of its mysteries are no longer unsolved. The mysteries featured inUnsolved Mysteriestend to be either missing persons cases, supernatural tales, or truly disturbing stories. Many ofUnsolved Mysteries' most disturbing caseshave several factors that make them more eerie than the other mysteries featured. However, with breakthroughs in CGI and security,some of the stories that originally sounded unsolvable have logical explanations, and otherbizarreUnsolved Mysteriescases that are still openmay have a solution one day.
One of the unique aspects ofUnsolved Mysterieswas the audience participation angle.Unsolved Mysteriesdid not just present the stories, the show actively encouraged viewers to call the hotline if they thought they might know something. This factor kept regular people and amateur detectives tuning in, especially asthe show had a surprisingly high success rate, withmanyUnsolved Mysteriescases being solved by viewers. While there are still many strange and mysteriousUnsolved Mysteriescases that have yet to be answered, many of them have now been solved through a combination of police work, audience participation, and luck.
10The Murder Of Angela Bugay
Season 13, Episode 4
In Antioch, California, on November 19th, 1983, five-year-old Angela Bugay’s family were visiting a neighbor when her three-year-old brother Chris said he wanted his rain boots. The children walked back to the house to get them, but only Chris returned. When the apartment complex and surrounding area were searched, there was no trace of Angela, and the police theorized that if Angela had been taken, she must have known and trusted the person.
A week later,Angela’s nude body was found in a shallow gravenear a reservoir, raped and asphyxiated, with her clothes piled on top of her. While the police waited for DNA results, three more girls went missing. The FBI believed the cases were connected and watched one man who visited Angela’s grave 90 times in one year. Though he had also helped search for all the girls, the tests ruled him out.
Finally, on April 24th, 1996, the DNA testing linked Larry Christopher Graham to Angela’s clothing and body. Graham was a neighbor, and he was also dating Angela’s mother. According to her,Graham was the only man that Angela trusted, and so she would have gone with him willingly. Graham was convicted and sentenced to death in 2002, but he committed suicide in his cell in 2009.
9The Abduction Of Brandon Fagan
Season 3, Episode 24
Pat and Michael met at a chiropractic seminar in 1983, andPat appeared to like the idea of having children better than actually having thembecause she referred to her children from a previous relationship as “inconveniences.” Still, Pat became pregnant after marrying Michael, and their son Brandon was born in 1985. In October 1988, Michael went out of town for his brother’s funeral and returned to find a note on the table.
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The note said, “I know you are not going to take care of me. Therefore, I am taking your son.“Both Pat and Brandon were gone. There was no trace of them for three years, with police fearing that Brandon had been placed for adoption. However, the night before Brandon’sUnsolved Mysteriesepisode was due to air in 1991, Pat turned herself in, and Michael was granted full custody of Brandon.
8The Savior Of Steve Newton
Season 9, Episode 7
On Jul 24, 2025, in Naples, Florida, Steve Newton was heading home on his motorcycle so that he could pick up the family car and drive it to the hospital, where his wife, Cheron, was waiting with their newborn baby. At around 2pm, Steve hit a patch of water and was thrown from his motorcycle where he lay, unconscious and facing downward, in a drainage ditch.Steve would have drowned, but somebody saved his life.
Steve remembered a woman looking down at him, but she left without revealing her name. Steve and Cheron appeared onUnsolved Mysteriesin November 1996because they wanted to thank the woman for saving his life. Somebody watching the episode recognized the woman as her coworker. She called the hotline, giving the woman’s name: Tammy Dotson.Tammy and Steve were reunited in January 1997, where the family thanked her for everything.
7The Mona Lisa Mystery
Season 6, Episode 9
Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa is one of the most famous paintings in the world, but for centuries, nobody knew who the woman really was. When the computer artist, Lillian Schwartz, compared a self-portrait of Da Vinci with the Mona Lisa, she found them to be so similar that, for years,many believed that Da Vinci had based the Mona Lisa on his own face. However, when it appeared that Da Vinci’s self-portrait may have been a forgery, the Mona Lisa’s mystery returned.
The mystery was solved in 2005 when a researcher found a margin note written by a friend of Da Vinci’s.
When Schwartz found a drawing of an Italian duchess named Isabelle, who resembled the Mona Lisa, she changed her theory, believing that Da Vinci used Isabella’s face for reference. The Mona Lisa mystery was so captivating that it featured onUnsolved Mysteries. The mystery was solved in 2005 when a researcher found a margin note written by a friend of Da Vinci’s. The note confirmed that theMona Lisa was based on a real womannamed Lisa del Giocondo.
6The Hidden WWII Letters
Unsolved Mysteries Specials Episode 6
On February 4th, 1986, Mike, an exterminator, found an enormous sack in an attic, with handwritten letters spilling out. The elderly owner of the house had a nephew who had been a crew member aboard theS.S. Caleb Strongin 1944, at the height of the Second World War.That sack was full of letters from 92 soldiers onboard the ship, and though the nephew promised he would send the letters, he forgot. His ashamed aunt had then hidden the sack in the attic.
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Mike convinced the woman to give him the letters, which he delivered to the Post Office, where the staff promised to try and track the soldiers down. This was an enormous undertaking. One grateful widow said that she had waited for 40 years to hear from her husband again. Another former soldier died of shock. Yet more were reunited with their old military friends. A special episode ofUnsolved Mysteriesfeatured the letters, helping to find the final soldiers, and the final letter was delivered in 1989.
5The Murder Of Tupac Shakur
Season 9, Episode 17
Tupac Shakur was a popular and successful rapper, leading toTupac appearing in movie and TV roles. However, he was involved in gang activity andthough Tupac survived being shot five times in 1994, he was murdered in 1996, aged just 25. Tupac was on his way back from a boxing match when a white Cadillac pulled up alongside the car. A passenger in the back seat then shot Tupac, who died from the wounds six days later.
The music world was deeply affected by Tupac’s murder, and though there were thousands of witnesses, people were reluctant to talk. One of the witnesses, backup singer Yafeu Fula, was shot dead, with people speculating that this was to ensure he didn’t name the killer. Several names were rumored to be connected to Tupac’s murder, including the rappers The Notorious B.I.G. and Sean “P. Diddy” Combs, as well as members of Tupac’s entourage.
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The case aired onUnsolved Mysteriesin 1997, and though it appeared that nobody would ever come forward through fear of retaliation, the mystery was likely solved in 2023. Police had made breakthroughs in 1998 when Orlando Anderson was killed. He had bragged about killing a rapper, but there had not been enough evidence to charge him. Police raided the home of Anderson’s uncle, Duane “Keefe D” Davis, in 2023 and later charged him with Tupac’s murder.Davis’s trial is scheduled to begin in 2025, with more details to follow.
4The Fortune Of Dorothea Allen
Season 3, Episode 12
Though Dorothea Allen was a former wealthy socialite, she died a widow, with no children, and with just five people attending her funeral. She was buried in 1990, and whileDorothea left behind a mansion and a $4 million fortune, she had also left no will. When the British Government attempted to find an heir, they unlocked a bigger mystery, as Dorothea appeared to have hidden all evidence of her past.
Dorothea had defaced her passport and photographs, and given her few friends a false name. With her estate set to revert to the UK government in 2002,Unsolved Mysteriesfeatured her in December 1990. While the show did not solve the case, her former boyfriend recognized her from a newspaper photo in 1995.
He provided her real name and explained that, as her husband’s mistress, the two had never married.Researchers located one of her cousins and used DNA testingfrom a single hair to track down her surviving distant relatives, who each inherited about $40,000.
3The Daly City Man
Season 6, Episode 14
On July 11, 2025, an unconscious man was found underneath an overpass in Daly City, California. He had brain bleeding and a broken leg, but it was unclear what had happened to him. While it was suggested that he could have been hit by a vehicle, a witness saw him falling from the overpass but was unsure if it was an accident, an attempted suicide, or an attempted murder.
The man lay in a coma, with no identificationand no clue as to who he was, untilUnsolved Mysteriesfeatured him in January 1994.When his face appeared on TV, a hospital worker recognized himas a former patientand called theUnsolved Mysterieshotline to identify him.
The man’s identity has not been revealed to the public, but his family were contacted, and when they entered his hospital room, staff noticed a jump in his vital signs. His family explained that he had been on his way for a visit, but never arrived. As he had a history of seizures, this could have caused him to fall from the overpass.
2The Escape Of Judge John Fairbanks
Season 4, Episode 4
In 1989, it became clear that the respected Judge John Fairbanks was not the benevolent and helpful pillar of the community that he appeared to be. He had been helping his fellow Newport, New Hampshire residents with their financial issues, but one resident, Patricia Sawyer, found that the checks she had been expecting suddenly stopped after the 1987 stock market crash. He explained that he was turning the checks back in to keep them from losing value.
Another resident discovered that $20,000 was missing from his brother’s estate that Fairbanks was managing, and reported Fairbanks to the police. Charges were pressed, and when they were made public, more people came forward, including Patricia, who found that she had lost over $500,000.It appeared that Fairbanks had stolen over $10 million, and he was indicted on multiple counts of theft in 1989, but just when things were looking very serious for Fairbanks, he disappeared. His clients had lost everything.
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Unsolved Mysteriesfeatured Fairbanks in 1991, andFairbanks was found dead in a Las Vegas hotel in 1994. Fairbanks had assumed a false identity as a retired history professor, and spent his time hiding in luxury condos around Quebec City, before heading to Las Vegas. It appeared that he killed himself after noticing one of the investigators who had worked on his case in the hotel’s casino. The mystery appeared to have been solved by luck. Still, Fairbanks’s clients were less lucky, as their money was never recovered.
1The Savior Of James Vernon
Season 5, Episode 6
James Vernon lived in Houston, Texas, and had struggled with a heroin addiction until hitting rock bottom in 1982. James was outside one night when he saw a large billboard that advertised a crisis helpline. He called the phone number, where he spoke to a woman named Libby.Libby urged him not to give up, and the two spoke most nights. Still, James’s addiction worsened, and he decided to kill himself by overdose after calling Libby one last time.
He became a successful and sober comedian, and in 1992, he tried to find Libby throughUnsolved Mysteries, to thank her for saving him.
James’s overdose didn’t work, and when he called Libby again, she suggested that he should try treatment again. Finally, James did just that. He became a successful and sober comedian, and in 1992,he tried to find Libby throughUnsolved Mysteries,to thank her for saving him. Libby saw the show and though she had to remain anonymous as she was still working as a counselor, she called theUnsolved Mysterieshotline the night of the broadcast and spoke to him once more.
Unsolved Mysteries
Cast
Originally debuted in the 1980s, Unsolved Mysteries is a documentary-styled mystery television series that explores various cold cases and supernatural reports left unexplained. Using re-enactments, interviews, and presenting evidence and theories, the show attempted to explain some of these bizarre cases that were left unsolved, with episodes requesting for viewers to call in if they had any information on anything presented. The show has been shelved and revived several times on several different networks, with modern changes to the format to keep up with the changing television landscape.
