10 Lesser-Known Creepy Mysteries

While we’ve shared many mystery lists before, a recent question on the Mytour Facebook fanpage inspired me to create a new compilation. This list features obscure and eerie mysteries, including one updated entry, that are likely unfamiliar to most readers. Dive into these chilling tales and share your own spooky stories in the comments.

10. Shanti Deva

In 1930, four-year-old Shanti Deva from Delhi, India, claimed she had once lived in Muttra (now Mathura), where she was a mother of three named Ludgi who died during childbirth. Her persistent storytelling led her parents to investigate. They discovered Muttra was real, and a woman named Ludgi had recently passed away there. Upon visiting, Shanti spoke the local dialect, recognized her supposed past-life family, and provided 24 accurate details about Ludgi’s life—an astonishing achievement for a child her age. [Source]

9. The Eerie Gnome

In 2008, a bizarre gnome was captured on video in Argentina. Jose Alvarez, who recorded the footage, explained to the newspaper El Tribuno that they encountered the creature while joking around in their hometown of General Guemes, Salta Province, Argentina.

He recounted: “We were reminiscing about our latest fishing trip around 1 a.m. I started filming with my phone while everyone was chatting and laughing. Suddenly, we heard a strange noise, like stones being thrown. We glanced over and noticed the grass moving. At first, we assumed it was a dog, but when the gnome-like figure appeared, we were terrified.”

Since the initial sighting, other residents have reported similar encounters, leaving the town shrouded in fear.

8. The Ghost of Freddy Jackson

This eerie photograph, captured in 1919 and later published in 1975 by retired R.A.F. officer Sir Victor Goddard, features his squadron from World War I aboard the HMS Daedalus. In the group portrait, a ghostly face is visible behind the airman in the top row, fourth from the left. The face is believed to belong to Freddy Jackson, an air mechanic who died in an accident involving an airplane propeller two days prior. His funeral occurred on the same day the photo was taken. Squadron members instantly recognized the face as Jackson’s, leading to speculation that he unknowingly attended the photo session posthumously. For those who might miss it, the ghostly figure can be seen in the inset on the left. [Source]

7. Overtoun Bridge

The Overtoun Bridge, an arch bridge constructed in 1859 near Milton, Dumbarton, Scotland, has gained notoriety for the unexplained phenomenon of dogs leaping to their deaths. Reports of these incidents began in the 1950s or 1960s, with long-nosed breeds like Collies suddenly jumping off the bridge, falling fifty feet. Some dogs survived, only to leap again. Strangely, many jumps occur from the same spot on the right-hand side, between the final two parapets.

Some speculate the bridge is haunted. In 1994, a man threw his infant son off the bridge, claiming the child was the anti-Christ, and later attempted suicide there. This tragedy has led some to believe Overtoun Bridge is a “thin place,” where the boundaries between the living and the dead blur. [Source]

6. James Worson

On September 3, 1873, James Worson accepted a challenge to run from Leamington to Coventry, a 20-mile journey, to prove his athletic prowess. His friends, Hammerson Burns and Barham Wise, followed in a horse-drawn gig, with Burns bringing a camera. Worson, visible at all times, occasionally turned to chat with them. Mid-run, he stumbled, let out a piercing scream, and vanished before hitting the ground. His footprints in the dirt showed a stumble, then abruptly ended. Despite extensive searches and bloodhounds’ reluctance near the spot, Worson was never found. [Source]

5. The Devil’s Footprints

On the night of February 8–9, 1855, and subsequent nights, mysterious hoof-like marks appeared in the snow following a light snowfall. These prints, 1.5 to 2.5 inches wide and spaced eight inches apart, stretched over 100 miles across the countryside. They followed straight lines, crossing houses, rivers, haystacks, and even appearing on rooftops and walls. The tracks entered and exited narrow drain pipes as small as four inches in diameter. During this time, rumors circulated of a “devil-like figure” spotted in Devon. Locals armed themselves to hunt the creature but found nothing. Recently, on March 12, 2009, similar marks reappeared in Devon, as shown above.

4. Felicia Felix-Mentor

Felicia Felix-Mentor allegedly passed away in 1907 from a sudden illness, which Haitian tradition associates with individuals destined to become zombies. In 1936, a woman, either naked or dressed in tattered clothes depending on accounts, was discovered wandering and claimed to recognize a farm as her father’s property. The farm’s owners and her husband identified her as Felicia Felix-Mentor, believed to have died decades earlier. Due to her deteriorating condition, she was hospitalized. A doctor who examined her noted:

Her sporadic laughter lacked emotion, and she often referred to herself in the first or third person indiscriminately. She had no concept of time and showed complete detachment from her surroundings.

3. Gef

In September 1931, the Irving family—James, Margaret, and their 13-year-old daughter Voirrey—reported strange scratching and rustling sounds from behind their farmhouse walls. Initially thought to be a rat, the creature soon began mimicking various sounds, including ferret-like spitting, dog-like growling, and baby-like gurgling. It eventually spoke, introducing itself as Gef, a mongoose born in New Delhi, India, in 1852. Voirrey, the only one to see it clearly, described Gef as rat-sized with yellowish fur and a bushy tail, unlike actual Indian mongooses.

Gef described himself as “an extraordinarily clever mongoose,” an “earthbound spirit,” and “a ghost in the form of a weasel.” He once declared, “I am a freak. I have hands and feet, and if you saw me, you’d faint, be petrified, mummified, turned to stone, or a pillar of salt!” Voirrey Irving, who cared for Gef, passed away in 2005. In a late-life interview, she insisted Gef was not her invention. [Source]

2. SS Ourang Medan

In February 1948, distress signals from the Dutch freighter SS Ourang Medan were received by multiple ships near Indonesia. The haunting message stated, “All officers, including the captain, are dead in the chartroom and bridge. Possibly the entire crew is dead.” This was followed by garbled Morse code and a final grim message: “I die.” When rescuers arrived hours later, they found no response to their hails. Boarding the ship, they encountered a horrifying scene, cementing the Ourang Medan as one of the most eerie ghost ship tales ever.

The entire crew and officers of the Ourang Medan were found dead, their eyes wide open, faces turned toward the sun, arms extended, and expressions of terror frozen on their faces. Even the ship’s dog lay dead, snarling at an invisible foe. As rescuers approached the boiler room, they felt an unnatural chill despite the 110°F heat. While preparing to tow the ship, smoke began billowing from the hull. The rescue team fled just in time to cut the tow lines before the Ourang Medan exploded and sank.

The fate of the Ourang Medan and its crew remains an unsolved mystery to this day. [Source]

1. Chupas

Chupas are enigmatic UFO-like objects reportedly seen in the eastern forests of Brazil, primarily at night. Described as small, metallic, and emitting a humming sound akin to a refrigerator or transformer, they are often spotted by hunters waiting in trees for prey. Witnesses claim chupas emit a bright white light and are not just unidentified objects but potentially deadly. Some hunters report being pursued by them, experiencing prolonged pain or even death from alleged beams emitted by the chupas. Attempts to shoot at them have proven futile. [Source]