The craziest cases on Netflix’s ‘Unsolved Mysteries’ series

Spanning an impressive 33 years, NBC’s Unsolved Mysteries remains in our collective consciousness as a harbinger for our obsession with true crime. 

Thankfully, earlier this month Netflix released six new episodes to keep us sated on all things sinister. In its infamous call-to-action style, Unsolved Mysteries now has the added benefit of the internet, where Redditors and armchair detectives alike can roll up their sleeves and get to the nitty gritty themselves. 

But if you’re still wondering which episode to start with, we’ve picked our top 3 from the season that’ll definitely leave you spooked. 

Episode 1: “Mystery on the Rooftop”

In May 2006, Rey and Allison Rivera—newlyweds of six months—had been living in Baltimore, Maryland for a year and a half, after relocating from Los Angeles when Rey was offered a job. 

On the evening of May 16, 2006, Allison Rivera was out of town on a business trip when she tried to phone Rey, but he didn’t answer. At 9:30pm, Allison phoned her co-worker, Claudia, who was staying at the couple’s home. Claudia told her that at 6pm, Rey rushed out of the house after receiving an urgent phone call. 

At 5am the next morning, Claudia called Allison to say Rey still wasn’t home. Allison immediately headed back to Baltimore, calling hospitals, police, friends, and family looking for Rey, and ultimately filed a missing person report with the police.

Family and friends fled to the scene to help with the search, but yielded not a single clue or witness. Six days later, Rey’s SUV was found in a parking lot next to the Belvedere Hotel in downtown Baltimore. The parking ticket showed it had been there since the 16th.  

On May 24th, three of Rey’s co-workers decided to search for clues in the parking structure adjacent to the Belvedere. From the 5th floor of the parking structure, they looked down on the roof of a lower annex of the Belvedere, and saw two large flip-flops, a cell phone, and glasses. Next to these items was a hole in the roof, about 40” in diameter. 

Overcome by a sense of dread, they called the police. When hotel concierge Gary Shivers opened the door to the conference room under the hole, they discovered Rey’s severely decomposed body. 

The medical examiner on the case declared the cause of Rey’s death as “unexplained”, therefore the case remains open with the Baltimore Police Department. Allison Rivera still holds out hope that someone will come forward with a clue or a lead to the mysterious death of her husband.    

Episode 3: “House of Terror”

Xavier Dupont de Ligonnes hailed from an aristocratic French family with an impressive lineage. Xavier and his wife, Agnes Hodanger, had four children: Arthur, Thomas, Anne, and Benoit. 

They lived in an upscale townhouse in the center of Nantes, where their children attended private schools and the family frequented church together. On the surface, they seemed happy, yet despite his privileged upbringing, Xavier had little success in his professional life.

Few people were aware that he was struggling financially, and he managed to maintain an appearance of wealth by borrowing money from family and friends. 

On Sunday, April 3rd, 2011 the couple and their three children went out to dinner and the movies. At 10:37pm, Xavier left an eerie message on his sister’s voicemail that said he was “going to put the kids to sleep.” 

The next day, Arthur, Anne, and Benoit were absent from school and Agnes didn’t show up for work. Xavier called to say everyone was ill and would be staying home for a few days. 

The following day, Xavier called Thomas at his boarding school to say his mother had been in an accident and that he should return home immediately. Xavier picked up Thomas at the train station, never to be seen alive again. 

Days later, Xavier’s immediate family received a letter from Xavier saying he had been working covertly for the American Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), and the entire family had relocated to the United States as part of the Federal Witness Protection Program. 

Xavier said he and his family would be out of contact for a few years, closed all bank accounts, terminated the lease on their house, and sent final payments to all the children’s schools. He left instructions about how to dispose of the few remaining household items and cars. 

After a few days, neighbors began growing suspicious of the shuttered house and called the police, requesting a welfare check. After several futile visits, one police officer noticed wet cement under the back porch. 

When they started digging, they uncovered the corpses of the five family members and their two dogs, buried under the fresh slab of cement. They had all been shot with a .22 rifle, with Xavier nowhere to be found. 

Episode 5: “Berkshires UFO”

On Labor Day weekend in 1969, 10-year-old Tommy Warner vanished into thin air for a period of seven minutes. It’s during this stretch of time that Tommy believes he was transported to a UFO. 

The next thing he remembers is being back in his yard, pinned to the ground by an unexplainable beam of light. 

On the same summer evening, just a mile or two away, 14-year-old Melanie Baumann, parked by the lake with her family, is shocked to see a blinding light and a huge craft, rising out of the water in front of their car. 

Melanie and her siblings tried to hide as their father attempted to follow the mystifying craft. But the next thing Melanie remembers is being alone in the dark on the sandy lakefront, left to find her way home. Like Tommy, she believes she was abducted. 

In Sheffield, the next town over, the Reed family was exiting a bridge on their way home, only to be bathed in terrifying, brightly colored lights—recalled by a sensation of dropping dead underwater. 

Then 10-year-old Thom Reed, his younger brother, mother, and grandmother, found themselves inside what seemed to be an enormous, bizarre warehouse. Thom was placed on a metal table and heard the frantic voices of his mother and brother. The next thing they knew, the entire family was back in their car. 

That same evening,  42-year-old Jane Green also encountered the UFO. As she was driving home with a friend, she saw a huge bright light in front of her car. She stopped, along with other amazed drivers, and witnessed what seemed to be an alien aircraft, hovering at eye-level and completely silent. 

These witnesses to the UFO never spoke about the sighting in 1969, fearing ridicule. But now, 50 years later, they have decided to share their stories.