In 2019, Netflix relaunched one of the first true crime series to ever air on our American airwaves: Unsolved mysteries.

Unsolved Mysteries began in 1987 as a documentary series about true crime cases that could not be solved after years of being unsolved. The series also deals with paranormal phenomena and other more outlandish concepts and ran on television in some form for decades. Netflix has so far produced four volumes of the series, each containing six episodes. A fifth season is scheduled to premiere in October 2024.

For true crime fans, the series is a must-watch, but it’s entertaining enough for even the most violence-averse fans. If you only have time for a few episodes, here are ten from the reboot that will leave your head overflowing with ideas, theories and what-ifs.

10. Secret on the Roof (Volume 1, Episode 1)

Right at the beginning, the story of a man from Baltimore who died under mysterious circumstances signaled a return to form for the Unsolved mysteries Brand. Rey Rivera was a loving family man and husband who always had a smile on his face until he suddenly started acting strangely. One day in 2006, Rivera received a call at work and rushed out. He was never seen alive again.

Police later found his mutilated body in a hole in the roof of a hotel. His glasses and cell phone were neatly placed next to it. A “suicide note” was found nearby that made no sense to anyone. Investigators later discovered a possible connection to a Masonic organization, but nothing about the story made sense. To this day, Rivera’s family has no idea how he ended up dead on that roof.

9. The Mothman Revisited (Volume 4, Episode 5)

The original Unsolved mysteries first looked at the Mothman, a winged, human-looking cryptid with glowing red eyes that was first reported in Point Pleasant, West Virginia, in a 2002 episode. Since then, stories of these mysterious half-human, half-avian “omens of doom” have spread around the world.

For the episode “The Mothman Revisited,” paranormal investigators Tobias Wayland and Lon Strickler teamed up to investigate more than 161 sightings in the Chicago area over the past few years. Witnesses recall seeing flying black cryptids with a 15-foot wingspan that ranged in size from 6 to 8 feet tall. These bat-like creatures are sighted day and night, particularly by employees at Chicago O’Hare airport, many of whom have Mothman stories to tell.

8. Paranormal Rangers (Volume 3, Episode 5)

Stanley Milford Jr. and Jonathan Redbird Dover are Navajo Rangers who became a kind of “real life” The X-Files” in 2000. At the time, the rangers were being called out more and more frequently to investigate paranormal claims such as Bigfoot and UFO sightings on the 27,000-square-mile reservation they protect in Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. For more than twenty years, Milford and Dover have been investigating terrifying reports of skinwalkers, aliens and other otherworldly phenomena and have the eyewitness accounts to prove it.

7. Death in Oslo (Volume 2, Episode 2)

In May 1995, police were dispatched to a hotel room in Oslo, Norway because a woman had checked in and hung a “Do Not Disturb” sign on the door, but had not provided the front desk with a credit card or passport. When they knocked on the door, a gunshot rang out inside. Police went downstairs to call for backup, and when they returned 15 minutes later, the door was double-locked from the inside. When they got inside, they found Jennifer Fairgate dead, but she had no identification papers, the tags had been cut off all of her clothing, and there were no fingerprints or the gun anywhere in the room.

At first, police said it was suicide, but as they began their investigation, it became clear that something was wrong. Was Fairgate actually a spy or government agent who had been executed? Was anyone else in the room with her? What happened in the 15-minute window when police went downstairs?

6. Berkshires UFO (Volume 1, Episode 5)

This episode covers one of the wildest UFO incidents ever reported in the United States. On Labor Day 1969, more than 250 people saw a huge glowing disk-shaped object the size of a football field in Berkshire County, Massachusetts. The show interviews actual survivors who recall bits and pieces of floating into the UFO and returning hours later with only vague memories of the final hours. Journalists, investigators and family members tell their stories, and it’s a fascinating yet confusing experience to relive through their eyes.

5. Corpse in the Basement (Volume 4, Episode 2)

The death of Amanda Antoni is the ultimate unsolved mystery. She was on the phone with her husband when her dog barked sharply and the conversation abruptly ended. A day and a half later, Lee came home to find his wife dead on the basement floor. The walls and floor were covered in blood from a head wound she had sustained, but her bloody footsteps stopped at the bottom of the basement stairs. It seems that she never attempted to climb the stairs to get help, but instead wandered around the basement for hours, bleeding profusely. Even stranger, her dog and cat never came down the stairs either, even though the door was wide open. What prompted Amanda to go to the basement in the first place? How had she cut her head open, and why didn’t she get help?

4. House of Terror (Volume 1, Episode 3)

In April 2011, Xavier Dupont de Ligonnes left his parents’ home in Nantes, France, and disappeared forever. In the days and weeks that followed, friends and neighbors were shocked to discover the bodies of his five family members: his wife Agnes and their four children Arthur, Thomas, Anne and Benoit, as well as their two dogs, wrapped in bedsheets and buried in the garden. Each victim had been executed with two bullets to the head.

Police later determined that Xavier had apparently been planning the murders for some time, but the crime scene was still strange. There was no DNA or fingerprint evidence anywhere in the house, and no blood stain, even though he had allegedly murdered seven people there.

3. Tsunami Spirits (Volume 2, Episode 4)

The Tohoku region of Japan was devastated by one of the strongest tsunamis in human history on March 11, 2011. As people struggled to cope with the massive loss of life, resources, and even essentials, many locals began reporting ghostly encounters with victims who were unaware they had not survived the floods. Journalist Shuji Okuno coaxes these stories from traumatized residents for this episode.

A mother recalls how her late son’s toys turned on and moved on their own after his death. A medium tells how she told a group of teenagers they died to help them transition. All of these stories give viewers goosebumps and leave us with a strong appreciation for higher planes.

2. The Lady in the Lake (Volume 2, Episode 5)

On a freezing January night, JoAnn Romain parked her car near a church in northern Michigan, got out, and disappeared without a trace. Police found footprints leading to a nearby lake and immediately suspected that JoAnn had run into the freezing water to kill herself, but her family insisted that she was not suicidal. They searched the lake but could not find a body, and there was no suicide note or signs of depression.

This episode delves deeper into the investigation, gathers data from private investigators and the FBI, and ultimately asks why the system broke down and failed JoAnn. Her body turned up seventy days after she disappeared, but it provided little clue as to what happened to her.

1. The Ghost in Apartment 14 (Volume 3, Episode 8)

Who doesn’t love a good ghost story? A woman named Jodi Foster (pure coincidence) and her three-year-old daughter Hannah moved into apartment 14 of the Walnut Garden Apartments in Chico, California on January 21, 2000. She immediately noticed that something was wrong in the apartment. There was a strange smell in the air, objects were moving on their own, and one of Hannah’s toys was still making noises even after the batteries were removed. Worse, Hannah met an “invisible friend” she called Myliz, and Jodi began having dreams of abductions.

Within a few months, things got worse and worse in the apartment, culminating in a scary scene like poltergeistThey moved out and it was only afterward that Jodi learned of a young woman named Marie Spannhake, or “Marliz” as she was known, who had lived in apartment 14 in the 1970s. Marliz disappeared and her disappearance was later linked to a local couple who admitted to murdering her.

All four volumes of the newly launched Unsolved mysteries are currently streaming on Netflix.

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