Latest / Be Amazed / Debunking ‘Solved’ Mysteries

Transcript

Debunking ‘Solved’ Mysteries · Be Amazed

• 0:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: On a humid August night off the coast of Sicily, British billionaire Mike Lynch, along with 21 other passengers, were sleeping soundly on Lynch's luxury yacht, the Bayesian.
• 0:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: Then all of a sudden a surging storm hammered the vessel.
• 0:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: shockingly, within minutes the Bayesian had capsized, tragically sending Lynch and seven others down with her.
• 0:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: Now you'd presume this was just an unlucky case of Nature's brutality.
• 0:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: However, some theorists out there believe that somehow Lynch was deliberately targeted that night.
• 0:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: Intrigued?
• 0:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: Well, get your trench coat and magnifying glass as we reopen the case files on this and plenty more supposedly solved mysteries.
• 0:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm listening to all of this news.
• 0:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: October 2011 was a pretty big month for Mike Lynch.
• 1:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: His software company Autonomy was bought by American Tech Company Hewlett Packard, or HP, for a sum over $10 billion.
• 1:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: However, the deal was dogged from the start with HP accusing Autonomy of artificially inflating its profits ahead of the sale.
• 1:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: Fast forward to 2018 and U.S. prosecutors brought multiple charges, including wire fraud and conspiracy against Lynch and Autonomous former financial executives, Stephen Chamberlain.
• 1:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's fair to say things weren't looking good.
• 1:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: If found guilty, they faced the prospect of more than 20 years in prison.
• 1:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: And considering less than 0.5% of federal criminal cases end in a quiddle, they may as well have started saying they're good buyers.
• 1:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yet in June 2024, both Lynch and Chamberlain were acquitted of all charges by a jury.
• 1:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: As it was ruled that HP were at fault for failing to properly vet the deal.
• 2:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: Keen to make up for all the time he'd lost on the trial the tech entrepreneur organized a yacht trip around the Mediterranean for friends and family.
• 2:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yet for many on board, it'd be a fatal voyage.
• 2:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: In the early hours of August 19, the Bayesian, Lynch's giant 184-foot-long super yacht, was anchored to the sea bed outside the harbor of Porticello in Sicily, Italy.
• 2:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: Then at around 5am, a violent storm fierce enough to whirl up water spouts headed straight for the vessel.
• 2:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: At first, the boat started to rock, before long the windows of the yacht shattered as water poured into the vessel.
• 2:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: Now, normally you'd presume such a freak weather event was pure accident, but not everyone was so sure.
• 2:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, isn't it an odd coincidence that Lynch passed just months after he'd been acquitted?
• 2:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: Could this have been revenge from those who wanted to see him punished?
• 3:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: More mysteriously, according to the company that made the Bayesian, the vessel was unsinkable.
• 3:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: So it's curious the yacht sank in a matter of minutes, especially considering another yacht more nearby, remained relatively untouched by the storm.
• 3:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: Still, the Bayesian's grandeur could have resulted in its downfall.
• 3:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: At 237 feet tall, this yacht's aluminum mast was one of the tallest in the world.
• 3:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: Cool is that sounds the massive mast likely increased the surface area exposed to the wind, making it more susceptible to tip in such stormy conditions.
• 3:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: But could it be an inside job?
• 3:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: Well, no weather forecast for that day predicted such a severe storm.
• 3:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: So how could the yachts captain or anyone else know what was going to happen?
• 3:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: Saying that yachting experts have suggested the crew may have failed to close hatches before the storm struck, allowing the Bayesian to fill with water quickly and sink.
• 3:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: Perhaps someone on board did send Lynch in the vessel down.
• 3:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: Despite those theories, it was ultimately deemed that Lynch was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
• 4:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: and that's that.
• 4:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: Wait a minute, there's more.
• 4:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: Remember Lynch's co-defended Steven Chamberlain who was also acquitted of all charges in June the 2024?
• 4:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: Well, remarkably, just like Lynch, he was involved in a freak accident following the verdict.
• 4:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: Early on in August morning, just days before the Bayesian capsized, Chamberlain left his home near Cambridge, England to go out on a morning run.
• 4:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: Then, at around 10 a.m. while crossing the road, he was struck by a car.
• 4:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: The 49-year-old woman driver remained at the scene assisting with police inquiries as the former autonomy employee was sent to hospital.
• 4:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: Tragically, he passed away a few days later.
• 4:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yet coincidental and downright suspicious as Chamberlain's passing seemed, British police said there was no evidence of anything suspicious or unto ward.
• 5:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: Hmm, I don't know, first Mike Lynch, then Steven Chamberlain.
• 5:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: What are the chances they were both wiped out in bizarre unrelated disasters just days apart?
• 5:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: For many people online, these two cases are about as suspicious and unto ward as you can get.
• 5:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: What are you reckon?
• 5:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: Let me know in the comments if the platform allows it, whether you think this is down to pure bad luck, or if there's something more sinister going on.
• 5:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: Alright, what headscratcher do we have next?
• 5:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: Mike Lynch isn't the only man to meet his end in mysterious circumstances.
• 5:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: On 1st December 1948, Beach Goers visiting the Summerton Park Beach near Adelaide, Australia made a spine-chilling discovery.
• 5:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: lying against the sea wall was a body of a deceased man.
• 5:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: While that sight alone would be jaw-dropping enough, there was something strange about the Summerton man that made it even earier.
• 5:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: He was fully dressed in a suit and trousers, though the name tags on his clothes were all meticulously cut off.
• 6:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: His clothes were dry and there was nothing to indicate he'd washed up on shore.
• 6:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: In his pockets were bus and train tickets, chewing gum, some matches, two combs and a pack of cigarettes.
• 6:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yet puzzlingly, there was no wallet, no cash, and no ID.
• 6:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: But most mysteriously of all a scrap of paper with the printed words, Tommum should, meaning the end in Persian, was found in his trouser pocket.
• 6:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: This scrap was later found to be taken from a copy of the Rubayat of Omar Kayam, a 12th century book of Persian poetry, left in the back of car near where the body was found.
• 6:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: To thicken the plot further, investigators found perplexing seemingly coded messages written on the books inside cover.
• 6:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: experts weren't able to pinpoint a cause of death, but medical witnesses testifying during the inquest agreed the death wasn't natural, and likely resulted from poisoning.
• 7:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: As for his identity, the Summerton man's fingerprints were sent around the world, but still no one could identify him.
• 7:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: It wasn't until 2022 when forensic genealogists analyzed some of the Summerton man's hair samples that they finally thought they cracked the code.
• 7:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: They matched the DNA to a Carl Webb.
• 7:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: Supposedly, Webb was born in 1905 near Melbourne, Australia.
• 7:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: In October, 1941, he married Dorothy Robertson, yet it appears the couple separated six years later in 1947.
• 7:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: Some have theorized that Webb went looking for Robertson who's believed to have lived near Somerton Park Beach at the time.
• 7:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: Seemingly things went south, resulting in either Robertson poisoning her ex or Webb consuming the stuff of his own accord.
• 7:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: Not everyone's convinced, though.
• 7:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: Whether it's the lack of identification, the curious scrap of paper reading Tumam Shood, or the nearby copy of the Rubayat of Omar Kuyam, filled with creepy codes, some people are convinced the Summerton man was actually a spy.
• 8:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: With the Cold War commencing just months before the Mystery Man's passing, perhaps he got caught a little too deep in the espionage game, paying for it by being permanently decommissioned and dumped on Summerton Park Beach.
• 8:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: Considering the complexity of this case, I'm not sure we'll ever get to the bottom of it.
• 8:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: While we're on the topic of Australian obscurities, that brings us to the curious case of Frederick Valentech.
• 8:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: Born in 1958, Valentech was an aspiring pilot with dreams of enlisting with the Royal Australian Air Force.
• 8:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: He held a private pilot's license and routinely went on flights in order to help his dream come true.
• 8:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: On October 21, 1978, Valentech embarked on one such training flight.
• 8:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: Flying in a Cessna 1-8-2-L, he was making the short journey from Melbourne to King Island off the coast of South Australia.
• 9:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: Things started smoothly.
• 9:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: However, around an hour into the flight, the young pilot noticed something strange.
• 9:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: He radioed Melbourne Air Flight Service to report an unidentified aircraft following him.
• 9:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: Though he was told there was no known air traffic at that level, Valentic claimed to see a large, long, fast-moving metallic aircraft illuminated with four bright lights behind him, then the pilot reported the aircraft was approaching him.
• 9:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: Looking up, he could see it had a shiny metal surface and a green lights on it.
• 9:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: Sounds awfully UFO-like, doesn't it?
• 9:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: Valentic noted that it seemed to be playing a game with him, flying past and around his plane at high speeds.
• 9:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: And here's the spookiest part.
• 9:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: As to identify the aircraft, the lintage radioed, it's hovering, and it's not an aircraft.
• 9:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: Before his transmission cut out, it'd be the last time anyone heard from him.
• 9:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: a sea and air search surrounding an area over 1,000 square miles found nothing.
• 10:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: So, had he just vanished?
• 10:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: Investigators concluded that Valentic was likely the victim of a pilot air.
• 10:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: Considering he was still an inexperienced pilot, the young Australian may have become disorientated with the altitude and direction of travel.
• 10:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: amid the confusion Valentech may have mistaken his own lights reflected by clouds for those of a UFO while flying upside down before crashing down into the sea, where his plane sank.
• 10:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: The only trace attributed to the craft was a small fragment of a Sessna 1, 82 L's exterior, which washed ashore months later.
• 10:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: Valentech's father claimed his son was an ardent believer in UFOs and often worried about being attacked by one.
• 10:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: Was he right?
• 10:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: Or did his fears lead him to panic?
• 10:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, he virtually disappeared without any trace.
• 10:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: Could Valentech have been taken out by the very thing he feared?
• 10:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: Who knows?
• 11:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: Maybe Valentech is in a galaxy far, far away right this very second.
• 11:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: Let me know your thoughts in the comments if the platform allows it.
• 11:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: 36 years after Frederick Valentich's final flight, the world was witnessed to more plain puzzle men.
• 11:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: In March 2014, Malaysian Airlines Flight MH3070 took off from Koala-Lunpur, Malaysia, heading for Beijing, China.
• 11:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: The Boeing 777 aircraft was filled with 12 crew members, as well as 227 passengers excited to reach their destination.
• 11:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yet tragically, they never make it to China.
• 11:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: Flight 3-7-0 took off at 1241-A.M. Around 40 minutes later, the plane's transponder, which pings electronic messages to radar systems about the plane's altitude and speed cutout.
• 11:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yet strangely, no distress calls were made.
• 11:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: And after the plane failed to reach Beijing, an official investigation was opened, Military Radar showed the plane changing course making a sharp turn westward toward the Indian Ocean before disappearing off the radar at 222AM.
• 12:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: Despite extensive search and rescue operations, no traces of the plane were found.
• 12:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: In fact, in the years since, only a few pieces of debris washed ashore on western Indian ocean islands have been confirmed as belonging to the MH37O.
• 12:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: So what happened to the plane and where did it end up?
• 12:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: In 2015, Malaysia officially declared the disappearance accidental, concluding the aircraft exhausted its fuel over the southern Indian Ocean.
• 12:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: Not everyone's bought the no-blame story, though.
• 12:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: Skeptics believe the pilot, Zaharia Ahmad Shah, deliberately turned off the aircraft's transponder, so it couldn't be tracked.
• 12:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: Similarly, Australian researcher Vincent Lyne claims the disappearance of the MH-370 was down to act of unbelievable malicious insanity by the plane's pilot, who he suggests deliberately crash the Boeing 777 somewhere, there'd be no chance of rescue or discovery, a 20,000-foot deep underwater trench in the south eastern Indian Ocean.
• 13:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: Line suggestion is in part based on the fact that Shaw, at his home, less than a month earlier, conducted a simulated flight deep into the remote southern Indian Ocean, the same area, the MH-37, oh, went missing, now that would be some coincidence.
• 13:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: Some out there still won't blame Shah though, you see, it's even been suggested that the sudden loss of MH307O from radar, as well as the lack of debris and distress signals weren't down to sabotage.
• 13:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: Instead, they're proof the plane disappeared into a warm hole through time and space.
• 13:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: Of course, that's not the most evidence-based assumption, but it's a little less bleak to think about, right?
• 14:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: Crashing down in the middle of the Indian Ocean, or getting sucked in by some interdimensional wormhole?
• 14:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: I know which misadventure I'd prefer.
• 14:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: Not all cases of mysterious voyages take place up in the sky.
• 14:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: In fact, one of the most puzzling of all occurred in the middle of the deep blue.
• 14:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yep, I'm talking about the Mary Celeste, a terrifying ghost ship tale that's puzzled the world for over 150 years.
• 14:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: In November 1872, the 282-ton brigantine ships set sail from New York Harbor to Genoa, Italy.
• 14:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: On board were the ship's captain Benjamin Briggs, along with his wife Sarah.
• 14:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: two-year-old daughter and eight other crew members.
• 14:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yet the ship never reached Italy.
• 14:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: On December 5th, it was discovered by a passing British ship floating east of the Azores, a group of islands in the North Atlantic Ocean.
• 14:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: With no sign of life, two crew members from the British ship climbed aboard to check what was going on.
• 15:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: They were shocked at what they saw.
• 15:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: The crew's personal belongings were untouched, their cargo was intact, and the vessel was loaded with six months worth of food and water, yet not a soul was on board.
• 15:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: So where had they gone?
• 15:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: Some speculated whether a group of rowdy pirates had thrown them overboard, yet the ship's cargo was left untouched.
• 15:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: The ship's lifeboat was missing, along with some navigational tools indicating that some or all of the passengers abandoned ship be of the lifeboat.
• 15:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: But why would they abandon a ship fully stocked and seemingly see worthy ship?
• 15:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's been suggested the crew staged a mutiny, throwing the Captain and his family overboard before life-boating themselves to safety.
• 15:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's also possible those on board were startled by extreme weather, and in their panic they may have boarded the life-boat in hope of sailing to safety, but sunk before reaching their destination, all while the Mary Celeste survived.
• 16:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: Though the most accepted theory is that water logging occurred on board, convincing Briggs the ship was sinking, and after all more than three feet of water were found on the lower deck, as a result he and the rest of the crew likely fled on the lifeboat where they succumbed to the sea.
• 16:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: On the wilder side of theory some have even speculated the crew were pulled from the ship by some colossal crack and light creature, thinking about it all that commotion could cause the water logging.
• 16:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: and as for the missing crew, well no prizes for guessing where they would have ended up.
• 16:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's certainly a crazy and seemingly unlikely theory, but with the mystery having no official solution to this day, your guess is as good as mine.
• 16:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: And why not have fun with it?
• 16:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm voting for crack and attack.
• 16:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: Shiver Me Timbers
• 16:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's fair to say that tiny village of Kalachi in Kazakhstan isn't the most well-known place in the world, but that didn't stop this little location from hitting the headlines.
• 16:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: Between 2013 and 2016, around a quarter of Kalachi's residents were plagued by a mystifying ailment.
• 17:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: The townspeople would suddenly fall asleep remaining in their slumber for days at a time.
• 17:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: The sickness affected young and old with some even reporting nightmarish hallucinations, too.
• 17:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: When the victims woke up again, they'd experience headaches, grogginess, and failed to remember what had happened.
• 17:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: As the cases increased, authorities began to look into the matter, immediately their attention turned to the nearby deserted uranium mines.
• 17:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: Obvious an answer, as it may have been, experts pointed out that exposure to uranium usually causes cancer in organ damage, not sleepiness.
• 17:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: So the Kazakhstan authorities put forward the explanation that carbon monoxide was leaking out of the mines.
• 17:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: Blood tests from those suffering with the sickness showed higher than normal levels of carbon monoxide.
• 17:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: This stuff finds to the blood 200 times more effectively than oxygen.
• 17:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: So when the levels get too high, it can starve the brain of oxygen, triggering it to shut down.
• 18:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: hence the uncontrollable fatigue.
• 18:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: Believeable as that sounds, there's one problem that uranium mines were in active since the early 1990s and carbon monoxide would only typically be released in significant enough quantities to cause these symptoms during active blasting operations.
• 18:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: So, how would they still be releasing enough carbon monoxide to send the town to sleep?
• 18:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: What's more, only some of those reporting sleeping sickness had elevated levels of carbon monoxide in their blood?
• 18:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: So, rather than gas-emines, some have proposed a more sinister explanation, whether it's Kalachi's isolated nature or the slow unconvincing response of the authorities,
• 18:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: Some online theorists suggest this place was used as some sort of trial town for experimental forms of biological or psychological weaponry, but could a government really be trying to send its own people to sleep at the push of a button?
• 18:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: Well, governments, including the USA's, have infamously carried out secret biological tests on their own population, so it wouldn't be unheard of.
• 19:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: But there's also the possibility that the effects are accidental by products of government tests.
• 19:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: It wouldn't be the first time.
• 19:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: Throughout the late 20th century, the then Soviet Kazakhstan government performed secret nuclear tests at the semi-politics test site, which left the totally unaware surrounding towns dangerously irradiated.
• 19:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: It was only once the Soviet Union collapsed that this information was leaked, so the real question is, if this really was something more sinister going on, would we ever know?
• 19:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'll leave that up to you.
• 19:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: Speaking of sea-based headscratchers, that brings us to the infamous case of the Titan submersible.
• 19:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: At around 9 a.m. on June 18th, 2023, the 22-foot-long 5-person sub operated by American Tourism Company Ocean Gate was launched from the Canadian vessel, polar prints.
• 20:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: This submersible was descending down to the Titanic, allowing those on board to get a view of the wreck.
• 20:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: An hour and 45 minutes into the dive while at a depth over 12,000 feet down, the Titan Sub lost contact with the polar prints.
• 20:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: Then when the Titan Sub failed to resurface at it's a lot of time of 430pm, panic started to grow.
• 20:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: As search and rescue efforts began.
• 20:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: Sadly, days later, the wrecked Titan was discovered by a robotic deep-sea vessel on the seafloor of the North Atlantic.
• 20:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: A few hours after the Titan submerged a U.S. Navy acoustic detection system identified an acoustic signal consistent with an implosion.
• 20:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: Experts concluded that shortly after it lost contact with the polar prints, the Titan imploded under immense pressure, almost 400 times more than at the Ocean's surface.
• 20:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: So what caused it?
• 20:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: Usually submersible vessels are made from titanium or steel.
• 20:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: However, Ocean Gates CEO, Stockton Rush, decided to go with a carbon fiber made hole to save money, even though Experts warned it was susceptible to folding under deep ocean pressure.
• 21:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: Rush even went on record saying he'd broken the rule of sub-design, safe to say that rule breaking didn't end too well.
• 21:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: Despite the belief that the Titan imploded due to design faults, rumors swirled that the submersible may have encountered some other natural disaster down there, perhaps it wasn't a bisseleddy, a type of deep sea water vortex that could have caused severe turbulence and destroyed the Titan?
• 21:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: Others have proposed the titans' demise was down to a ravenous giant squid, but that's unlikely, even though their deep sea creatures giant squids are only typically known to live as far as 2,000 feet down.
• 21:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: Still 80% of our oceans are still unexplored, so who can say for sure?
• 21:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: In the northern Ural Mountains is the site of another malevolent mystery known as the Diatlov Pass Incident.
• 22:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: In January 1959, a group of experienced hikers were embarking on a daring 16-day voyage across the Ural Mountains.
• 22:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: They'd planned to send a telegram back to their sports club around three weeks after taking off, so when the club heard nothing from the hikers, a search party was sent out to find them.
• 22:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: Before too long, the hikers tent was found, yet no one was inside.
• 22:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: The tent was partly collapsed and largely buried in snow.
• 22:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: After pulling it out, the search party was shocked to see that it had been slashed in several places from the inside.
• 22:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: Around 100 feet downhill from the tent, the search party found footprints of 8 or 9 people walking toward the tree line.
• 22:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: Over the next few days, they uncovered the remains of 5 of the hikers.
• 22:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: All the expired hikers were covered with bruises, cuts, and scratches, while some were shoeless and dressed in only underwear.
• 22:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: It appeared that these 5 hikers passed from hypothermia.
• 23:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: This can cause a ratic behavior like paradoxical undressing, a phenomenon where people undress because they feel hot even though they're freezing to death.
• 23:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: While that explains the lack of clothing, why had the hikers cut their way out of the tent and fled into the forest?
• 23:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: months later after the snow began to melt, investigators discovered the remaining four expired hikers lying in a stream under 13 feet of snow.
• 23:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: They had even more harrowing injuries, one had a fractured skull, two had crushed chests.
• 23:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: Plus, one was missing eyes while another was missing its eyes, tongue, and upper lip.
• 23:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: to make things weirder and investigation revealed some of these victims emitted unnaturally high levels of radiation.
• 23:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: Those looking into the diatlov pass incident were so stumped, the investigation was called off after just a few months.
• 23:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: It wasn't until 2019 when Russian authorities reopened the case, concluding that an avalanche was the likely culprit.
• 24:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: The thinking was that a sudden avalanche could have caused the hikers to panic and quickly cut their way out of the tent, fearing a larger avalanche was imminent.
• 24:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: In fairness, the crushing trauma of the avalanche could explain some of the injuries sustained by the hikers.
• 24:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: Still, that doesn't answer why some of the facial injuries were so particular.
• 24:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: Some theorists have a wild explanation for this though, they suggest a yetti was responsible.
• 24:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: basing their theories on the traditions of local indigenous monsy people, who have historically shared legends of ape-like creatures dwelling in the tundra, supporters suggest such beast would be capable of producing these destructive yet precise injuries.
• 24:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: Now, rather obviously, a pack of wolves or a bear could also cause similar injuries.
• 24:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: However, intriguingly, one hikers' final photograph shows a dark, hunched figure advancing through the snowy forest.
• 25:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: Chances are this was just a blurred snap of a fellow hiker, but yet you're not, that still doesn't explain the traces of radiation found on some of the bodies.
• 25:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: Though the levels of radiation weren't extremely high, some theorists argue that the hikers accidentally ventured into an area where the Soviet military were conducting radio active weapon tests, it could explain why the government were keen to close the investigation so quickly, and as we've seen, honesty was rarely the policy of the Soviet government.
• 25:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: With so much strangeness at play, the Diatlov Pass incident still raises some big questions, questions which may never be answered.
• 25:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: In Southeastern Siberia, swathes of green forestry dominate the landscape?
• 25:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: Well, most of the landscape.
• 25:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: You see, the vast forest is interrupted by a massive mound known as the Potomsky crater.
• 25:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: Made up of shattered limestone, it stretches across 520 feet and reaches up 130 feet.
• 26:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: The question is, what is it?
• 26:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: Until 1949, it was known only to locals who called it the Fire Eagles Nest.
• 26:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: They believed it was a bad place and avoided it at all costs, citing tales of people, and even animals who dare to venture too close to the crater, vanishing under mysterious circumstances.
• 26:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: Initially, it was believed to have been formed by a chunk of the famous Tunguska meteorite that descended down on the region in 1908, yet no meteorite fragments have been found in the area.
• 26:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: Researchers have proposed this thing formed around 350 years ago, way before the Tunguska meteorite crashed down.
• 26:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: The strange shape of the Potomsky crater have led to suggestions that it's a volcano.
• 26:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: However, no evidence of volcanic activity have been recorded in the area,
• 26:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: Intrigued by the mystery, experienced geologist Yosheni, Varobiev, wanted to solve the Potomsky puzzle for himself in 2005.
• 27:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yet as he neared the crater, he suddenly collapsed and died of a heart attack, continuing to fuel suspicions that the place is cursed.
• 27:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: To this day, Potomsky crater's origins are still officially unknown, but with all these strange happenings
• 27:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: Maybe it is home to something strange, be it from space, or from the unseen bowels of the Earth itself.
• 27:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: One thing's for sure, you'll do well to stay as far away from it as possible.
• 27:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: Alright, I think that's enough solved mysteries crack back open for one day.
• 27:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: Which alternate theory had you most hooked?
• 27:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: Let me know below in the comments if the platform allows it, and thanks for listening.