Buzz
Law enforcement officers dedicate their lives to combating crime and solving mysteries, but what happens when they find themselves at the heart of an unsolved enigma? Typically, when an officer becomes a victim, solving the case becomes a top priority, yet success isn’t always guaranteed. The officers mentioned here were involved in perplexing incidents, some of which may have had supernatural elements. Their cases remain unresolved to this day.
10. The Vanishing of Mel Wiley
Following a long career in law enforcement, Mel Wiley was appointed police chief of Hinckley Township, Ohio, in 1982. Three years later, the 47-year-old vanished without a trace. The last verified sighting of him occurred on July 28, 1985. Two days later, his abandoned car was discovered at Lakefront State Park in Cleveland. Upon inspecting Wiley’s apartment, investigators found no evidence of foul play. His two cats had been left with several days’ worth of food and water, and numerous personal items were missing from both his apartment and his office. The most puzzling clue, however, was found on Wiley’s office typewriter.
Upon analyzing the typewriter’s ribbon, investigators found that Wiley had composed a letter to a friend, expressing his exhaustion with life and a desire to vanish. Strangely, the friend never received the letter, and no duplicate was ever located. It’s possible Wiley faked his disappearance, especially since he had divorced his wife the year before and mentioned wanting to leave police work to pursue writing. He even claimed to be working on a novel, though no manuscript was ever discovered. Wiley never touched his bank account or pension funds, leaving no financial trail. If he did stage his disappearance, he has remained undetected for over three decades.
9. The Killing of Elwood Gainor
In 1927, Elwood Gainor served as a police lieutenant in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, known for his strict enforcement of Prohibition laws and his reputation as one of the few honest officers in the region. On the night of March 28, Gainor left the station after a phone call, unusually without his service revolver or nightstick. A witness later reported seeing him speaking with men inside a blue sedan. The next morning, his body was discovered on a remote road over 100 kilometers (60 miles) away. He had been brutally beaten and shot four times in the head. Gainor was found holding a leather bag containing items, including custom silk shirts, which were linked to Joe Deano, a New York mobster deeply involved in bootlegging.
On the day of Gainor’s murder, Deano and an associate were allegedly seen driving through the area in a blue sedan. They picked up two women but later abandoned them, taking their purses. The women reported the sedan’s license plate to the Lancaster police, likely prompting Gainor’s departure from the station that night. Two months later, the charred remains of the blue sedan were discovered in Queens. An arrest warrant was issued for Deano, but he was never found.
The case grew increasingly bizarre as three separate investigators were killed, each by a gunshot to the head. All three deaths were ruled suicides, despite the absence of a weapon at one scene. In August 1929, Joe Deano was also found shot in the head, his body inside a burning vehicle at a Newark dump. Following this, the investigation into Elwood Gainor’s murder came to a complete halt.
8. The Questionable Suicide of Davina Buff Jones
In 1999, Davina Buff Jones, a 33-year-old rookie officer with the Bald Head Island Police Department in North Carolina, was on duty near the island’s lighthouse on the evening of October 22. During a radio transmission, she stated, “Show me out with three,” followed by pleas for someone to lower their weapon before the communication abruptly ended with a high-pitched noise. Shortly after, Jones was found dead near the lighthouse, lying outside her truck with a gunshot wound to the back of her head. Her firearm was placed near her right hand. Initially treated as a homicide, her death was officially declared a suicide two weeks later.
The day after Jones’s death, a prominent local family hosted a wedding in the vicinity, prompting authorities to hastily clean the crime scene. This led to the destruction of critical evidence, including a bloody palm print on Jones’s truck. The next morning, three men with extensive criminal histories were detained attempting to leave the island by ferry but were released after brief questioning.
Some speculate that Jones may have been killed while disrupting a drug deal. Given the island’s low crime rate, there were concerns that reports of murder and drug activity could harm property values. After a thorough reinvestigation, the controversial suicide ruling was overturned in December 2013, and her cause of death was reclassified as “undetermined.” Despite this, the exact details of her death remain unresolved.
7. The Assault on Doyle Wheeler
On April 19, 1988, two armed intruders broke into the Suncrest, Washington, home of Doyle Wheeler, a retired San Diego Police Department officer. They attacked Wheeler, forced him to write a note, and then restrained him. One assailant fired a shot at Wheeler with a pillow over his head, but the bullet only grazed his ear, allowing him to survive. The strangest detail was the note Wheeler was compelled to write, apologizing for his earlier testimony against Donovan Jacobs, another San Diego officer. One attacker even called the San Diego PD from Wheeler’s home, specifically asking for Jacobs.
In 1985, Jacobs and his partner, Thomas Riggs, stopped an African-American man named Sagon Penn for a traffic violation, leading to a confrontation where Penn fatally shot Riggs and injured Jacobs. During Penn’s murder trial, his defense argued that Jacobs had a history of racism and misconduct and that Penn acted in self-defense. Wheeler testified against Jacobs, contributing to Penn’s acquittal.
Wheeler suspected the attack was retaliation by Jacobs or other San Diego PD members for his whistle-blowing. He also thought one assailant resembled a former drug informant from the department. Conversely, Jacobs and some officials accused Wheeler of fabricating the entire incident. Despite a thorough investigation, the truth behind the alleged attack on Doyle Wheeler remains unresolved.
6. Herbert Schirmer’s Claimed UFO Encounter
When someone recounts an alien encounter, it’s easy to dismiss them as delusional. But what if the claim comes from a respected police officer? Around 2:30 AM on December 3, 1967, 22-year-old Herbert Schirmer was on a routine patrol near Ashland, Nebraska, when he spotted unusual lights at a highway intersection. Schirmer claimed the lights shot into the sky and disappeared. He returned to the station, noting in his logbook that he had seen a flying saucer. To his surprise, it was already 3:00 AM, despite the trip taking only 10 minutes. He also had a severe headache and a mysterious red mark on his neck. Soon after, Schirmer was promoted to police chief but resigned due to debilitating headaches that hindered his work.
The most puzzling part of Schirmer’s account was the unaccounted 20 minutes from that night. With no memory of this time, Schirmer underwent hypnotic regression. Under hypnosis, he described seeing alien beings exit the saucer and approach his car. They allegedly took him aboard their craft, explaining they were monitoring humanity and conducting a “breeding analysis.” Afterward, they returned him to his car, erasing his memory of the event but leaving the red mark on his neck. While the truth remains unclear, a small piece of molten metal was found at the intersection.
5. The Claimed Alien Abduction of Alan Godfrey
Around 5:00 AM on November 28, 1980, Constable Alan Godfrey of the West Yorkshire Metropolitan Police was investigating missing cattle near Todmorden. While driving on a rural road, he encountered a diamond-shaped UFO. After a blinding flash, Godfrey experienced a time lapse. The UFO vanished, and his patrol car had moved over 20 meters (60 feet). Despite the rain, a large dry patch appeared on the wet road. Godfrey also realized 30 minutes had passed, with no recollection of what occurred.
Numerous peculiar incidents surrounded Godfrey’s encounter. The missing cattle were later discovered in a field behind a locked gate, yet no hoofprints were found. Five months prior, Godfrey had found the body of Zygmunt Adamski in a Todmorden coal yard. Officially, Adamski died of heart failure, but his unexplained five-day disappearance fueled speculation of alien abduction. Shortly after Godfrey’s UFO encounter, he and his wife, who had been unable to conceive due to an injury, miraculously became pregnant.
Similar to Herbert Schirmer, Godfrey underwent regression hypnosis, during which he described meeting alien beings aboard a spacecraft. The publicity surrounding his story eventually led to his resignation from the police force, though he continues to insist the events were real.
4. The Killing of George Coniff
In 1935, George Coniff served as the sheriff of Pend Oreille County in Newport, Washington. On the night of September 15, he caught two men breaking into a local creamery to steal cheese and butter—valuable commodities during the Great Depression. When Coniff confronted the burglars, he was fatally shot.
The investigation into Coniff’s murder initially stalled and appeared destined to remain unsolved until it resurfaced over 50 years later. In the 1980s, Anthony Bamonte, the new sheriff of Pend Oreille County, revisited the case while working on his master’s thesis. During his research, Bamonte made startling discoveries, including an old report implicating Clyde Ralstin, a corrupt Spokane police detective, in Coniff’s murder. The report had been ignored, but after reopening the case and interviewing witnesses, Bamonte concluded the claim might be credible. Two former officers revealed that their captain had ordered them to dispose of a gun in the Spokane River shortly after Coniff’s death.
In 1989, the river was searched, and a rusted .32-caliber pistol was found lodged between rocks. Since Ralstin had reported his own .32-caliber gun stolen around the time of the murder, he became the primary suspect. However, Ralstin died months later at 90, leaving Coniff’s murder officially unresolved.
3. The Harlem Mosque Incident
On the morning of April 14, 1972, NYPD officers Philip Cardillo and Vito Navarra responded to a distress call from someone claiming to be “Detective Thomas of the 28th Precinct.” The call came from Mosque Number 7 in Harlem, the Nation of Islam’s New York headquarters. Upon arrival, the officers were met by a group of men who forced them back downstairs. As more police arrived, a brawl erupted in the reception area, with most officers locked outside. During the chaos, Officer Cardillo was shot with his own service weapon by an unidentified attacker. He died from his injuries six days later.
After the shooting, an enraged crowd gathered, escalating the situation into a riot. To restore order, police withdrew from the mosque without securing the crime scene or making arrests. Although a Detective Thomas worked at the 28th Precinct, he never made the call, suggesting it was a ploy to lure officers into a confrontation. Witnesses identified Louis 17X Dupree, the mosque’s school dean, as Cardillo’s shooter, but political delays postponed his murder indictment for two years. Insufficient evidence and arguments that Cardillo might have accidentally shot himself led to Dupree’s acquittal after a hung jury in his first trial.
Recent claims suggest the FBI’s COINTELPRO program may have staged the fake distress call to undermine the Nation of Islam. The true instigators of the Harlem mosque incident and Cardillo’s shooter remain a mystery.
2. The Killing of August Mayford
Despite being 66 years old, August Mayford worked as a special patrolman and merchant’s watchman for the Alton, Illinois, police department, overseeing the downtown business district. He carried a set of keys to inspect businesses after hours. On the night of October 16, 1937, Mayford disappeared after leaving a local restaurant during his patrol. His body was found on Halloween near Cahokia Creek, on the edge of a rural cornfield. He had been shot eight times in the back and brutally beaten, resulting in a broken jaw. His service revolver was missing, and the investigation into his death only deepened the mystery.
After Mayford vanished, his wallet and some clothing were discovered inside a local shoe store. Later, two sets of keys were found in the store’s closet. The leading theory is that Mayford interrupted a burglary, leading to his abduction and murder. Strangely, the closet had been searched twice before, and the keys were not there initially. These were later identified as Mayford’s backup keys, as his main set was still in his pocket when his body was found.
The investigation into Mayford’s murder stalled, but his legacy endures in Alton for another reason. Over the years, there have been numerous sightings of August Mayford’s ghost on the street corner where he was last seen. Witnesses claim the ghost glances over its shoulder before disappearing.
1. The Questionable Suicide of Michael O’Mara
In 1988, Captain Michael O’Mara, a highly decorated officer with the Cook County Sheriff’s Police Department in Chicago, was nearing retirement. On the evening of May 30, he informed his family he was going out for frozen yogurt but never returned. His body was later discovered at a service area near the Markham Courthouse. O’Mara’s car was parked at a gas pump, and he was found slumped over a rock on the lawn, shot in the forehead. His gun lay near his right hand, and with no signs of robbery or struggle, his death was ruled a suicide. However, the lack of a clear motive and several inconsistencies raised doubts.
When O’Mara’s car was found, the gas pump nozzle was still in the tank, and a flashlight lay near his body, suggesting he had stepped away to investigate something before his death. The police faced criticism for mishandling the crime scene. Although one round had been fired from O’Mara’s gun, the fatal bullet was never recovered, and tests couldn’t confirm if he had fired the weapon himself.
Given O’Mara’s role in dismantling the Illinois mafia, one theory posits his death was a revenge killing. Another suspect was a former sheriff’s officer O’Mara had suspended for alcohol-related issues, but he was never questioned and died six months later. While O’Mara’s family succeeded in changing his cause of death from suicide to “undetermined,” authorities still insist he took his own life.
