List Of Unsolved Deaths
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This list of unsolved deaths includes notable cases where: * The
cause of death In law, medicine, and statistics, cause of death is an official determination of the conditions resulting in a human's death, which may be recorded on a death certificate. A cause of death is determined by a medical examiner. In rare cases, an ...
could not be officially determined following an investigation * The person's identity could not be established after they were found dead * The cause is known, but the
manner of death In many legal jurisdictions, the manner of death is a determination, typically made by the coroner, medical examiner, police, or similar officials, and recorded as a vital statistic. Within the United States and the United Kingdom, a distin ...
(homicide, suicide, accident) could not be determined following an investigation * Different official investigations have come to different conclusions Cases where there are unofficial alternative theories about deaths – the most common theory being that the death was a homicide – can be found under: Death conspiracy theories.


Unsolved murders


Unsolved deaths


Ancient

*
The Younger Lady The Younger Lady is the informal name given to an ancient Egyptian mummy discovered within tomb KV35 in the Valley of the Kings by archaeologist Victor Loret in 1898. The mummy also has been given the designation KV35YL ("YL" for "Younger Lady") ...
(25–35) is the informal name given to the
mummy A mummy is a dead human or an animal whose soft tissues and Organ (biology), organs have been preserved by either intentional or accidental exposure to Chemical substance, chemicals, extreme cold, very low humidity, or lack of air, so that the ...
of a woman who lived during the
Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt The Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt (notated Dynasty XVIII, alternatively 18th Dynasty or Dynasty 18) is classified as the first dynasty of the New Kingdom of Egypt, the era in which ancient Egypt achieved the peak of its power. The Eighteenth Dynasty ...
(c. 1549 to 1292 BCE), and was discovered in the
Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...
ian
Valley of the Kings The Valley of the Kings, also known as the Valley of the Gates of the Kings, is an area in Egypt where, for a period of nearly 500 years from the Eighteenth Dynasty to the Twentieth Dynasty, rock-cut tombs were excavated for pharaohs and power ...
in tomb
KV35 Tomb KV35 is the burial place of Amenhotep II, a pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt, in the Valley of the Kings in Luxor, Egypt. Later, it was used as a cache for other royal mummies. It was discovered by Victor Loret in March 1898. L ...
by archaeologist
Victor Loret Victor Clement Georges Philippe Loret (1 September 1859 – 3 February 1946) was a French Egyptologist. Biography His father, Clément Loret, was a professional organist and composer, of Belgian origin, who had been living in Paris since ...
in 1898. The cause of her death is unknown. Through recent DNA tests, this mummy has been identified as the mother of the pharaoh
Tutankhamun Tutankhamun or Tutankhamen, (; ), was an Egyptian pharaoh who ruled during the late Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt, Eighteenth Dynasty of ancient Egypt. Born Tutankhaten, he instituted the restoration of the traditional polytheistic form of an ...
and a daughter of pharaoh
Amenhotep III Amenhotep III ( , ; "Amun is satisfied"), also known as Amenhotep the Magnificent or Amenhotep the Great and Hellenization, Hellenized as Amenophis III, was the ninth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt, Eighteenth Dynasty. According to d ...
and Queen Tiye. Early speculation that these were the remains of Queen Nefertiti has been disproven. *
Tutankhamun Tutankhamun or Tutankhamen, (; ), was an Egyptian pharaoh who ruled during the late Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt, Eighteenth Dynasty of ancient Egypt. Born Tutankhaten, he instituted the restoration of the traditional polytheistic form of an ...
(18–19), male Egyptian pharaoh, is believed to have died around 1323 BC, though his cause of death remains unknown, with one theory being that he was fatally injured in a
chariot A chariot is a type of vehicle similar to a cart, driven by a charioteer, usually using horses to provide rapid Propulsion, motive power. The oldest known chariots have been found in burials of the Sintashta culture in modern-day Chelyabinsk O ...
crash. *
Zoroaster Zarathushtra Spitama, more commonly known as Zoroaster or Zarathustra, was an Iranian peoples, Iranian religious reformer who challenged the tenets of the contemporary Ancient Iranian religion, becoming the spiritual founder of Zoroastrianism ...
(76) was an ancient male
Iranian Iranian () may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Iran ** Iranian diaspora, Iranians living outside Iran ** Iranian architecture, architecture of Iran and parts of the rest of West Asia ** Iranian cuisine, cooking traditions and practic ...
prophet who lived during 1000 BCE and who was said to perform miracles; he founded the religion now known as
Zoroastrianism Zoroastrianism ( ), also called Mazdayasnā () or Beh-dīn (), is an Iranian religions, Iranian religion centred on the Avesta and the teachings of Zoroaster, Zarathushtra Spitama, who is more commonly referred to by the Greek translation, ...
. Zoroaster's cause of death is unknown; it is said that Zoroaster was killed by invading Turanians around the time that he was last seen, but this was never confirmed. * The
Hasanlu Lovers The Hasanlu Lovers are a pair of human remains found at the Teppe Hasanlu archaeological site, located in the Naqadeh in the West Azerbaijan Province of Iran. Around 800 BCE, the city of Hasanlu, located in north-western Iran, was destroyed by a ...
are the remains of two humans found in Teppe Hasanlu, Iran, in 1972 who are thought to have died . While it has been suggested that they died from asphyxiation, no definitive cause of death has been established. * The Borremose bodies are three
bog bodies A bog body is a human cadaver that has been Natural mummy, naturally mummified in a Bog, peat bog. Such bodies, sometimes known as bog people, are both geographically and chronologically widespread, having been dated to between 8000 BC and the S ...
that were found in 1946 and 1948 in Himmerland, Denmark, in the Borremose peat bog. They have been dated to have lived in the
Nordic Bronze Age The Nordic Bronze Age (also Northern Bronze Age, or Scandinavian Bronze Age) is a period of Scandinavian prehistory from . The Nordic Bronze Age culture emerged about 1750 BC as a continuation of the Late Neolithic Dagger period, which is root ...
during 770 BCE. The causes of their deaths are unknown. * The Saltmen are the remains of six men who lived during the remainder of the
Achaemenid dynasty The Achaemenid dynasty ( ; ; ; ) was a royal house that ruled the Achaemenid Empire, which eventually stretched from Egypt and Thrace in the west to Central Asia and the Indus Valley in the east. Origins The history of the Achaemenid dy ...
(550–330 BCE) that were found in 2010 in the salt mines in
Chehrabad Chehrehabad () is a village in Ghanibeyglu Rural District of Zanjanrud District in Zanjan County, Zanjan province, Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It ...
on the southern part of the Hamzehlu village in the
Zanjan Province Zanjan province () is one of the 31 provinces of Iran. Its capital is the city of Zanjan. It is a mountainous province with close to 22,000 km2 of land placed in Iran's Region 3. Two-thirds of the people of the province live in the cit ...
in Iran. Though it is known that most of them were accidentally killed by the collapse of galleries where they worked, the causes of the deaths of the other saltmen remain unknown. *
Alexander the Great Alexander III of Macedon (; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), most commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the Ancient Greece, ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia (ancient kingdom), Macedon. He succeeded his father Philip ...
(32) died in 323 BCE after a short illness. Exactly what the illness was is a subject of debate; however, it is known that he was a heavy drinker throughout his life. * Orgetorix, 61 BCE, was a wealthy aristocrat among the
Helvetii The Helvetii (, , Gaulish: *''Heluētī''), anglicized as Helvetians, were a Celtic tribe or tribal confederation occupying most of the Swiss plateau at the time of their contact with the Roman Republic in the 1st century BC. According to Ju ...
, a Celtic-speaking people residing in what is now
Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...
during the consulship of
Julius Caesar Gaius Julius Caesar (12 or 13 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC) was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in Caesar's civil wa ...
of the
Roman Republic The Roman Republic ( ) was the era of Ancient Rome, classical Roman civilisation beginning with Overthrow of the Roman monarchy, the overthrow of the Roman Kingdom (traditionally dated to 509 BC) and ending in 27 BC with the establis ...
. He was put on trial for conspiring to seize control of
Gaul Gaul () was a region of Western Europe first clearly described by the Roman people, Romans, encompassing present-day France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and parts of Switzerland, the Netherlands, Germany, and Northern Italy. It covered an area of . Ac ...
. His cause of death beyond this is disputed. *
Cleopatra Cleopatra VII Thea Philopator (; The name Cleopatra is pronounced , or sometimes in both British and American English, see and respectively. Her name was pronounced in the Greek dialect of Egypt (see Koine Greek phonology). She was ...
(39), the last ruler of
Ptolemaic Egypt Ptolemaic is the adjective formed from the name Ptolemy, and may refer to: Pertaining to the Ptolemaic dynasty * Ptolemaic dynasty, the Macedonian Greek dynasty that ruled Egypt founded in 305 BC by Ptolemy I Soter *Ptolemaic Kingdom Pertaining ...
, is believed to have died in August of 30 BCE in
Alexandria Alexandria ( ; ) is the List of cities and towns in Egypt#Largest cities, second largest city in Egypt and the List of coastal settlements of the Mediterranean Sea, largest city on the Mediterranean coast. It lies at the western edge of the Nile ...
. According to popular belief,
Cleopatra Cleopatra VII Thea Philopator (; The name Cleopatra is pronounced , or sometimes in both British and American English, see and respectively. Her name was pronounced in the Greek dialect of Egypt (see Koine Greek phonology). She was ...
killed herself by allowing an asp ( Egyptian cobra) to bite her. According to
Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...
and Roman historians, Cleopatra poisoned herself using either a
toxic Toxicity is the degree to which a chemical substance or a particular mixture of substances can damage an organism. Toxicity can refer to the effect on a whole organism, such as an animal, bacterium, or plant, as well as the effect on a subst ...
ointment or sharp implement such as a hairpin.
Primary source In the study of history as an academic discipline, a primary source (also called an original source) is an Artifact (archaeology), artifact, document, diary, manuscript, autobiography, recording, or any other source of information that was cre ...
accounts are derived mainly from the works of the ancient Roman historians
Strabo Strabo''Strabo'' (meaning "squinty", as in strabismus) was a term employed by the Romans for anyone whose eyes were distorted or deformed. The father of Pompey was called "Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo, Pompeius Strabo". A native of Sicily so clear-si ...
,
Plutarch Plutarch (; , ''Ploútarchos'', ; – 120s) was a Greek Middle Platonist philosopher, historian, biographer, essayist, and priest at the Temple of Apollo (Delphi), Temple of Apollo in Delphi. He is known primarily for his ''Parallel Lives'', ...
, and
Cassius Dio Lucius Cassius Dio (), also known as Dio Cassius ( ), was a Roman historian and senator of maternal Greek origin. He published 80 volumes of the history of ancient Rome, beginning with the arrival of Aeneas in Italy. The volumes documented the ...
. Modern scholars debate the validity of ancient reports involving snakebites as the cause of death and whether she was murdered. Some academics hypothesize that her
Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...
political rival
Octavian Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian (), was the founder of the Roman Empire, who reigned as the first Roman emperor from 27 BC until his death in ...
forced her to commit suicide in the manner of her choosing. The location of Cleopatra's tomb is unknown. *
Judas Iscariot Judas Iscariot (; ; died AD) was, according to Christianity's four canonical gospels, one of the original Twelve Apostles of Jesus Christ. Judas betrayed Jesus to the Sanhedrin in the Garden of Gethsemane, in exchange for thirty pieces of sil ...
, a disciple and one of the
Twelve Apostles In Christian theology and ecclesiology, the apostles, particularly the Twelve Apostles (also known as the Twelve Disciples or simply the Twelve), were the primary disciples of Jesus according to the New Testament. During the life and minist ...
of
Jesus Jesus (AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Chris ...
, circumstances of death in AD 31 vary widely depending on the source, though many state that Judas died by
suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Risk factors for suicide include mental disorders, physical disorders, and substance abuse. Some suicides are impulsive acts driven by stress (such as from financial or ac ...
, specifically
hanging Hanging is killing a person by suspending them from the neck with a noose or ligature strangulation, ligature. Hanging has been a standard method of capital punishment since the Middle Ages, and has been the primary execution method in numerou ...
himself. * The Weerdinge Men were two
bog bodies A bog body is a human cadaver that has been Natural mummy, naturally mummified in a Bog, peat bog. Such bodies, sometimes known as bog people, are both geographically and chronologically widespread, having been dated to between 8000 BC and the S ...
found naked in the southern part of Bourtanger Moor in
Drenthe Drenthe () is a province of the Netherlands located in the northeastern part of the country. It is bordered by Overijssel to the south, Friesland to the west, Groningen to the north, and the German state of Lower Saxony to the east. As of Jan ...
in the
Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...
in 1904. Though one of the men is known to have been murdered, the cause of the other man's death is unknown. They died between 160 BCE and 220 CE. * Windeby I (16) is the name given to the
bog body A bog body is a human cadaver that has been naturally mummified in a peat bog. Such bodies, sometimes known as bog people, are both geographically and chronologically widespread, having been dated to between 8000 BC and the Second World War. Fi ...
in 1952 that was preserved in a
peat bog A bog or bogland is a wetland that accumulates peat as a deposit of dead plant materials often mosses, typically sphagnum moss. It is one of the four main types of wetlands. Other names for bogs include mire, mosses, quagmire, and muske ...
close to
Windeby Windeby () is a municipality in the district of Rendsburg-Eckernförde, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea ...
located in Northern
Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
containing the remains of a teenage male who lived between 41 BCE and 118 CE. His death cause is disputed and unknown.


Medieval

* Princess Yongtai (15–16), 701. In both the
Old Book of Tang The ''Old Book of Tang'', or simply the ''Book of Tang'', is the first classic historical work about the Tang dynasty, comprising 200 chapters, and is one of the Twenty-Four Histories. Originally compiled during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdo ...
and
New Book of Tang The ''New Book of Tang'', generally translated as the "New History of the Tang" or "New Tang History", is a work of official history covering the Tang dynasty in ten volumes and 225 chapters. The work was compiled by a team of scholars of the So ...
, it is recorded that she was executed by
Empress Wu Zetian Wu Zetian (624 – 16 December 705), personal name Wu Zhao, was Empress of China from 660 to 705, ruling first through others and later in her own right. She ruled as empress consort through her husband Emperor Gaozong and later as empr ...
with her brother and husband because of talking about rumors about the two officials Zhang Yizhi and Zhang Changzong, who were also the lovers of Empress Wu Zetian. However, from her epitaph, it was said she was pregnant when she died. From a piece of her pelvic bone, it has been presumed that she died from childbirth, because her pelvis seems to be smaller than other women at the same age. It is also suspected that she went into shock on hearing the news that her brother and husband had been executed, and it caused a fatal miscarriage. *
Emperor Taizu of Song Emperor Taizu of Song (21 March 927 – 14 November 976), personal name Zhao Kuangyin, courtesy name Yuanlang, was the founding emperor of the Song dynasty of China. He reigned from 960 until his death in 976. Formerly a distinguished milita ...
(49), the first emperor of
Song dynasty The Song dynasty ( ) was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 960 to 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song, who usurped the throne of the Later Zhou dynasty and went on to conquer the rest of the Fiv ...
, died in 976. There are no records about how he died. However, his younger brother was granted the throne due to the fact that he had two grown sons. There is a folk story "shadows by the candle and sounds from an axe" possibly indicating that he was murdered by his brother, but it may also have been a suicide. * Roopkund is a high altitude
glacial lake A glacial lake is a body of water with origins from glacier activity. They are formed when a glacier erodes the land and then melts, filling the depression created by the glacier. Formation Near the end of the last glacial period, roughly 10,0 ...
in the
Uttarakhand Uttarakhand (, ), also known as Uttaranchal ( ; List of renamed places in India, the official name until 2007), is a States and union territories of India, state in North India, northern India. The state is bordered by Himachal Pradesh to the n ...
state of
India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
. It lies in the lap of Trishul massif, located in the
Himalayas The Himalayas, or Himalaya ( ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the Earth's highest peaks, including the highest, Mount Everest. More than list of h ...
. It is widely known for the hundreds of ancient human skeletons found at the edge of the lake. The human skeletal remains are visible at its bottom when the snow melts. Research generally points to a semi-legendary event where a group of people were killed in a sudden, violent hailstorm in the 9th century. Studies placed the time of mass death around the 9th century CE (1,200 years old) and second group of skeletons were dated to the 19th century CE. The skeletons' identities are unknown, but radiocarbon dating suggests that the older remains were deposited over an extended period of time, while the remains of the younger group were deposited during a single event. * King
William II of England William II (; – 2 August 1100) was List of English monarchs, King of England from 26 September 1087 until his death in 1100, with powers over Duchy of Normandy, Normandy and influence in Kingdom of Scotland, Scotland. He was less successfu ...
(43–44), 1100, was killed by an arrow while hunting; it may or may not have been an accident. *
Agnès Sorel Agnès Sorel (; 1422 – 9 February 1450), known by the sobriquet ''Dame de beauté'' (Lady of Beauty), was a favourite and chief mistress of King Charles VII of France, by whom she bore four daughters. She is considered the first officially ...
(28), 1450, was
Charles VII of France Charles VII (22 February 1403 – 22 July 1461), called the Victorious () or the Well-Served (), was King of France from 1422 to his death in 1461. His reign saw the end of the Hundred Years' War and a ''de facto'' end of the English claims to ...
's chief royal mistress, having four daughters with him. Sorel fell ill while pregnant with their 4th daughter, and after giving birth, died on 9 February 1450 from causes which are disputed.


Early modern

* The
Lovers of Cluj-Napoca The Lovers of Cluj-Napoca are a pair of human skeletons discovered in 2013 by archaeologists in the cemetery of a former Dominican Order, Dominican convent in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. The couple are believed to have lived between 1450 and 1550 – bet ...
(30s), a nickname given to two skeletons found in a former Dominican convent in
Cluj-Napoca Cluj-Napoca ( ; ), or simply Cluj ( , ), is a city in northwestern Romania. It is the second-most populous city in the country and the seat of Cluj County. Geographically, it is roughly equidistant from Bucharest (), Budapest () and Belgrade ( ...
, Romania in 2013, are thought to have lived between 1450 and 1550. Their exact causes of death are unclear. * Henry Holland, 3rd Duke of Exeter (45), a Lancastrian, died after mysteriously falling overboard and drowning while sailing through the
English Channel The English Channel, also known as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates Southern England from northern France. It links to the southern part of the North Sea by the Strait of Dover at its northeastern end. It is the busi ...
in September 1475. Though there are different theories to what happened, none were ever proved to be true. *
Regiomontanus Johannes Müller von Königsberg (6 June 1436 – 6 July 1476), better known as Regiomontanus (), was a mathematician, astrologer and astronomer of the German Renaissance, active in Vienna, Buda and Nuremberg. His contributions were instrument ...
(40), whose real name was "Johannes Müller von Königsberg", was an
astrologer Astrology is a range of Divination, divinatory practices, recognized as pseudoscientific since the 18th century, that propose that information about human affairs and terrestrial events may be discerned by studying the apparent positions ...
,
mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematica ...
, and
astronomer An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. Astronomers observe astronomical objects, such as stars, planets, natural satellite, moons, comets and galaxy, galax ...
of the
German Renaissance The German Renaissance, part of the Northern Renaissance, was a cultural and artistic movement that spread among German thinkers in the 15th and 16th centuries, which developed from the Italian Renaissance. Many areas of the arts and sciences ...
who was active in countries in Europe. He was thought to have died from the plague on 6 July 1476, but this is not known for sure. *
Princes in the Tower The Princes in the Tower refers to the mystery of the fate of the deposed King Edward V of England and his younger brother Prince Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York, heirs to the throne of King Edward IV of England. The brothers were the only ...
, used to refer to Edward V, King of England and
Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York (17 August 1473) was the second son of King Edward IV of England and Elizabeth Woodville. Richard and his older brother, who briefly reigned as King Edward V of England, mysteriously disappeared shortly ...
who disappeared in the summer of 1483.R. F. Walker, "Princes in the Tower", in S. H. Steinberg et al, ''A New Dictionary of British History'', St. Martin's Press, New York, 1963, p. 286. In 1674, workmen at the
Tower of London The Tower of London, officially His Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress of the Tower of London, is a historic citadel and castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London, England. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamle ...
dug up a wooden box containing two small human skeletons. The bones were found in a box under the staircase in the Tower. The bones were widely accepted at the time as those of the princes, but this has not been proven and is far from certain. King Charles II had the bones buried in
Westminster Abbey Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an Anglican church in the City of Westminster, London, England. Since 1066, it has been the location of the coronations of 40 English and British m ...
, where they remain. *
Amy Robsart Amy, Lady Dudley (; 7 June 1532 – 8 September 1560) was the first wife of Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, favourite of Elizabeth I of England. She is primarily known for her death by falling do ...
(28), 1560, was the first wife of Lord Robert Dudley, favourite of Queen Elizabeth I of England. She is primarily known for her death by falling down a flight of stairs, the circumstances of which have often been regarded as suspicious. * King
Charles XII Charles XII, sometimes Carl XII () or Carolus Rex (17 June 1682 – 30 November 1718 Old Style and New Style dates, O.S.), was King of Sweden from 1697 to 1718. He belonged to the House of Palatinate-Zweibrücken, a branch line of the House of ...
(36) of
Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...
was struck in the head by a projectile and killed. The definitive circumstances around Charles's death remain unclear. Despite multiple investigations of the battlefield, Charles's skull and his clothes, it is not known where and when he was hit, or whether the shot came from the ranks of the enemy or from his own men. * Cornelia Zangheri Bandi (66) was an
Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...
noblewoman whose death on 15 March 1731 may have been a possible case of spontaneous human combustion. But the case has never been proven, with the true cause of death remaining unknown. *A human skull that was found off
Vanikoro Vanikoro (sometimes wrongly named ''Vanikolo'') is an island in the Santa Cruz Islands, Santa Cruz group, located to the Southeast of the main Santa Cruz group. It is part of the Temotu Province of Solomon Islands. The name ''Vanikoro'' is alway ...
in April 2003 was thought to have been that of Gaspard Duché de Vancy (35–36), who disappeared in 1788. Who it belonged to and the cause of death are unknown. *
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791) was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition and proficiency from an early age ...
(35), composer, died on 5 December 1791. The circumstances of his death have attracted much research and speculation, as it remains unclear whether he died from disease or poisoning. There have also been
conspiracy theories A conspiracy theory is an explanation for an event or situation that asserts the existence of a conspiracy (generally by powerful sinister groups, often political in motivation), when other explanations are more probable.Additional sources: * ...
.


19th century

*
Meriwether Lewis Meriwether Lewis (August 18, 1774 – October 11, 1809) was an American explorer, soldier, politician, and public administrator, best known for his role as the leader of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, also known as the Corps of Discovery, with ...
(35), an American explorer who helped explore territory bought during the
Louisiana Purchase The Louisiana Purchase () was the acquisition of the Louisiana (New France), territory of Louisiana by the United States from the French First Republic in 1803. This consisted of most of the land in the Mississippi River#Watershed, Mississipp ...
, was found dead with multiple gunshot wounds in an inn along the Natchez Trace, a nature trail in Tennessee, in 1809. Though it was originally declared a suicide, historians debate whether it was murder or suicide due to the nature of his injuries and the lack of a thorough autopsy. * The Female Stranger (23) refers to an unnamed American woman who died in 1816 and was elevated to national intrigue by the mysterious headstone and romanticized tale. Accounts of the stranger increase in oddity over time and help to incite further speculation as to the identity of the person buried in the grave. The reported location of the woman's death, Room 8 at Gadsby's Tavern, is also a tourist destination, and supposedly her ghostly visage can be seen standing at the window. *
Paul Johann Anselm Ritter von Feuerbach Paul Johann Anselm Ritter von Feuerbach (14 November 177529 May 1833) was a German legal scholar. His major achievement was a reform of the Bavarian penal code which led to the abolition of torture and became a model for several other countries. ...
(57), a German legal scholar, died on 29 May 1833. The circumstances remain unclear – his family as well as he himself shortly before his death believed that he had been poisoned due to his protection of and research work on
Kaspar Hauser Kaspar Hauser (30 April 1812 – 17 December 1833) was a German youth who claimed to have grown up in the total isolation of a darkened cell. His claims, and his subsequent death from a stab wound, sparked much debate and controversy both in Nur ...
, who himself died the same year under suspicious circumstances (see below). * The events that led to the death of German youth
Kaspar Hauser Kaspar Hauser (30 April 1812 – 17 December 1833) was a German youth who claimed to have grown up in the total isolation of a darkened cell. His claims, and his subsequent death from a stab wound, sparked much debate and controversy both in Nur ...
(21) remain a mystery, just like many other points regarding his life and identity. On 14 December 1833, he came home with a deep stab wound in his chest of which he died three days later. While he had claimed to have been attacked, the court of enquiry doubted this due to inconsistencies in his claims and speculated that he wounded himself in order to seek attention and revive the fading public interest in him, a theory that is also supported by some historians today. * Thomas Simpson (31) was a
Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...
Arctic explorer,
Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), originally the Governor and Company of Adventurers of England Trading Into Hudson’s Bay, is a Canadian holding company of department stores, and the oldest corporation in North America. It was the owner of the ...
agent and cousin of Company Governor Sir George Simpson. His violent death in what is now the state of
Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...
allegedly by suicide after gunning down two traveling companions in the wilderness on 6 June 1840 has long been a subject of controversy and has never been solved. * John Gregory (42) was an English engineer who served aboard HMS ''Erebus'' during the 1845 Franklin Expedition, which sought to explore uncharted parts of the
Northwest Passage The Northwest Passage (NWP) is the sea lane between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans through the Arctic Ocean, near the northern coast of North America via waterways through the Arctic Archipelago of Canada. The eastern route along the Arctic ...
. He is believed to have died some time around May 1848. Gregory's remains were identified via
DNA analysis Genetic testing, also known as DNA testing, is used to identify changes in DNA sequence or chromosome structure. Genetic testing can also include measuring the results of genetic changes, such as RNA analysis as an output of gene expression, or ...
in 2021, although his exact cause of death is undetermined. *
Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe (; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic who is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales involving mystery and the macabre. He is widely re ...
(40) American writer, editor, and literary critic, died on 7 October 1849 under circumstances that remain mysterious. The circumstances leading up to it are uncertain and the cause of death is disputed. On 3 October 1849, he was found delirious in
Baltimore Baltimore is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the 30th-most populous U.S. city. The Baltimore metropolitan area is the 20th-large ...
, "in great distress, and... in need of immediate assistance", according to the man who found him, Joseph W. Walker. He was taken to the Washington College Hospital, where he died days later. *In the years in between 1849 and 1859, a skeleton was found on
King William Island King William Island (, ; previously: King William Land) is an island in the Kitikmeot Region of Nunavut, which is part of the Arctic Archipelago. In area it is between and making it the list of islands by area, 61st-largest island in the world ...
which was thought to be that of Harry Goodsir (28–29), who had disappeared in 1848. After conducting tests on the bones, it is believed that cause of death was a tooth that was infected, but this was not confirmed. Also another skeleton was found that was thought to be that of Henry Thomas Dundas Le Vesconte (25–26), who disappeared along with Goodsir, aboard
Franklin's lost expedition Franklin's lost expedition was a failed British voyage of Arctic exploration led by Captain Sir John Franklin that departed England in 1845 aboard two ships, and , and was assigned to traverse the last unnavigated sections of the Northwest ...
, but this was proven to be untrue. Whom it belonged to and cause of death are unknown. Dundas Le Vesconte's body was found, but his cause of death is unknown. * Edward James Roye (57) was the first of Liberia's
True Whig Party The True Whig Party (TWP), also known as the Liberian Whig Party (LWP), is the oldest political party in Liberia and Africa as a whole. Founded in 1869 by primarily darker-skinned Americo-Liberians in rural areas, its historic rival was the Re ...
, who had served as the fifth President of Liberia from 1870 until he was overthrown a year later and whose death had followed on 11 February 1872. The circumstances of Roye's death remains unknown. *
Zeng Guofan Zeng Guofan, Marquis Yiyong (; 26 November 1811 – 12 March 1872), birth name Zeng Zicheng, courtesy name Bohan (), was a Chinese statesman and military general of the late Qing dynasty. He is best known for raising and organizing the Xiang ...
(60), a Chinese statesman, military general, and
Confucian Confucianism, also known as Ruism or Ru classicism, is a system of thought and behavior originating in ancient China, and is variously described as a tradition, philosophy, religion, theory of government, or way of life. Founded by Confucius ...
scholar of the late
Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing, was a Manchu-led Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China and an early modern empire in East Asia. The last imperial dynasty in Chinese history, the Qing dynasty was preceded by the ...
. He is best known for raising and organizing the
Xiang Army file:Zeng Guofan.png, 150px, Zeng Guofan, the leader of the Xiang Army The Xiang Army or Hunan Army () was a standing army organized by Zeng Guofan from existing regional and village militia forces called ''tuanlian'' to contain the Taiping Rebel ...
to aid the Qing military in suppressing the
Taiping Rebellion The Taiping Rebellion, also known as the Taiping Civil War or the Taiping Revolution, was a civil war in China between the Qing dynasty and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. The conflict lasted 14 years, from its outbreak in 1850 until the fall of ...
and restoring the stability of the Qing Empire. Along with other prominent figures such as Zuo Zongtang and
Li Hongzhang Li Hongzhang, Marquess Suyi ( zh, t=李鴻章; also Li Hung-chang; February 15, 1823 – November 7, 1901) was a Chinese statesman, general and diplomat of the late Qing dynasty. He quelled several major rebellions and served in importan ...
of his time, Zeng set the scene for the
Tongzhi Restoration The Tongzhi Restoration (; c. 1860–1874) was an attempt to arrest the dynastic decline of the Qing dynasty by restoring the traditional order. The harsh realities of the Opium Wars, the unequal treaties, and the mid-century mass uprisings of t ...
, an attempt to arrest the decline of the Qing dynasty. He died on 12 March 1872 of mysterious reasons. * L'Inconnue de la Seine was the name given to an unidentified young woman who, according to an oft-repeated story, was pulled out of the
River Seine The Seine ( , ) is a river in northern France. Its drainage basin is in the Paris Basin (a geological relative lowland) covering most of northern France. It rises at Source-Seine, northwest of Dijon in northeastern France in the Langres p ...
at the Quai du Louvre in
Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
around the late 1880s. Since the body showed no signs of violence,
suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Risk factors for suicide include mental disorders, physical disorders, and substance abuse. Some suicides are impulsive acts driven by stress (such as from financial or ac ...
was suspected. * Composer
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky ( ; 7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Russian composer during the Romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music made a lasting impression internationally. Tchaikovsky wrote some of the most popula ...
(53) died in
Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...
in November 1893 nine days after his Sixth Symphony, called the "Pathétique", had debuted. His cause of death is debated and remains unsolved. * Barney Barnato (46), an English Randlord and entrepreneur who was a prominent rival to
Cecil Rhodes Cecil John Rhodes ( ; 5 July 185326 March 1902) was an English-South African mining magnate and politician in southern Africa who served as Prime Minister of the Cape Colony from 1890 to 1896. He and his British South Africa Company founded th ...
, was found dead at sea near
Madeira Madeira ( ; ), officially the Autonomous Region of Madeira (), is an autonomous Regions of Portugal, autonomous region of Portugal. It is an archipelago situated in the North Atlantic Ocean, in the region of Macaronesia, just under north of ...
, Portugal on 14 June 1897. While suicide was the prevailing theory, his family rejected it, saying that it was unlike him to do such a thing.


1900–1924

* Sursinhji Takhtasinhji Gohil (26), popularly known by his pen name, ''Kalapi,'' was a Gujarati poet and the Thakor (prince) of
Lathi state Lathi is a town with municipality in Amreli district in the Indian States and territories of India, state of Gujarat. Geography Lathi is located at . It has an average elevation of 141 metres (462 feet). Demographics India census, L ...
in
Gujarat Gujarat () is a States of India, state along the Western India, western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the List of states and union territories ...
who died on 9 June 1900. He is mostly known for his poems depicting his own
pathos Pathos appeals to the emotions and ideals of the audience and elicits feelings that already reside in them. ''Pathos'' is a term most often used in rhetoric (in which it is considered one of the three modes of persuasion, alongside ethos and ...
. It is believed that Kalapi's love for a woman named Shobhana became a source of conflict with their acquaintance Rajba-Ramaba and gave her a motive to
poison A poison is any chemical substance that is harmful or lethal to living organisms. The term is used in a wide range of scientific fields and industries, where it is often specifically defined. It may also be applied colloquially or figurati ...
him. * Gaetano Bresci (31) was an Italian anarchist who assassinated King
Umberto I of Italy Umberto I (; 14 March 1844 – 29 July 1900) was King of Italy from 9 January 1878 until his assassination in 1900. His reign saw Italy's expansion into the Horn of Africa, as well as the creation of the Triple Alliance (1882), Triple Alliance a ...
in
Monza Monza (, ; ; , locally ; ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) on the Lambro, River Lambro, a tributary of the Po (river), River Po, in the Lombardy region of Italy, about north-northeast of Milan. It is the capital of the province of Mo ...
on 29 July 1900. Due to capital punishment being abolished 11 years earlier, he was sentenced to penal servitude at Santo Stefano Island, where he was found dead in his cell on 22 May 1901. While his death was reported as being suicide by hanging, it is believed that he had been murdered. * David Park Barnitz (23) was a
Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...
graduate and an American poet who died on 10 October 1901 from unclear circumstances, as there are conflicting ideas about how he died. * Paul Rée (51) was a
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
philosopher Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...
, author, and physician who died on 28 October 1901 after he fell into the Charnadüra Gorge in the Swiss Alps near
Celerina Celerina/Schlarigna (German language, German/Italian language, Italian ''Celerina''; Romansh language, Romansh ) is a municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the Maloja Region in the Switzerland, Swiss Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Grau ...
when he was hiking. It is unknown whether it was a suicide or an accident. *
Émile Zola Émile Édouard Charles Antoine Zola (, ; ; 2 April 184029 September 1902) was a French novelist, journalist, playwright, the best-known practitioner of the literary school of Naturalism (literature), naturalism, and an important contributor to ...
(62), French author who died on 29 September 1902 from carbon monoxide poisoning that was caused by a sealed chimney. His enemies were blamed for his death, but were not proven to have been actually responsible. It is also possible that Zola committed suicide. * Gabriel Syveton (40), French politician and historian, was found dead in
Neuilly-sur-Seine Neuilly-sur-Seine (; 'Neuilly-on-Seine'), also known simply as Neuilly, is an urban Communes of France, commune in the Hauts-de-Seine Departments of France, department just west of Paris in France. Immediately adjacent to the city, north of the ...
on 8 December 1904 in his office by gas poisoning. It is unknown whether this was a murder or suicide. * On 14 March 1911 in
Ostend Ostend ( ; ; ; ) is a coastal city and municipality in the province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It comprises the boroughs of Mariakerke, Raversijde, Stene and Zandvoorde, and the city of Ostend proper – the la ...
harbour, a deceased body was found that resembled
Cecil Grace Cecil Stanley Grace (1880 – 22 December 1910) was a pioneer aviator who List of missing aircraft, went missing on a flight across the English Channel in 1910. Family Grace was born in Chile, the son of John William Grace of New York. His ...
(30), who was a pioneer aviator who disappeared on 22 December 1910 over the
English Channel The English Channel, also known as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates Southern England from northern France. It links to the southern part of the North Sea by the Strait of Dover at its northeastern end. It is the busi ...
. The body could not be identified since it was too badly disfigured, and its identity and cause of death remain unknown. * German inventor
Rudolf Diesel Rudolf Christian Karl Diesel (, ; 18 March 1858 – 29 September 1913) was a German inventor and mechanical engineer who invented the Diesel engine, which burns Diesel fuel; both are named after him. Early life and education Diesel was born on 1 ...
(55) disappeared in the
English Channel The English Channel, also known as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates Southern England from northern France. It links to the southern part of the North Sea by the Strait of Dover at its northeastern end. It is the busi ...
in 1913 and was found dead at sea 10 days later. His cause of death is debated. * Tom Thomson (39) was a Canadian artist who was active in the early 20th century. Though his career was short, he managed to produce around 400
oil sketch An oil sketch or oil study is an artwork made primarily in oil paint in preparation for a larger, finished work. Originally these were created as preparatory studies or modelli, especially so as to gain approval for the design of a larger commiss ...
es on small wood panels, as well as around 50 larger works on canvas. Thomson disappeared on 8 July 1917 and was found dead a few days later. It is unknown whether his death was murder or suicide. *
Silent film A silent film is a film without synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, w ...
actress Virginia Rappe (30) was found to have died of
peritonitis Peritonitis is inflammation of the localized or generalized peritoneum, the lining of the inner wall of the abdomen and covering of the abdominal organs. Symptoms may include severe pain, swelling of the abdomen, fever, or weight loss. One pa ...
due to a ruptured bladder on 9 September 1921. While this could have been the result of some of her ongoing health problems, such as
cystitis A urinary tract infection (UTI) is an infection that affects a part of the urinary tract. Lower urinary tract infections may involve the bladder (cystitis) or urethra ( urethritis) while upper urinary tract infections affect the kidney (py ...
, or complications from a recent
abortion Abortion is the early termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. Abortions that occur without intervention are known as miscarriages or "spontaneous abortions", and occur in roughly 30–40% of all pregnan ...
( illegal at the time), Maude Delmont, an acquaintance, told the
San Francisco Police Department The San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) is the Municipal police, municipal law enforcement agency of the San Francisco, City and County of San Francisco, as well as San Francisco International Airport in San Mateo County, California, San Ma ...
that silent film comedian Fatty Arbuckle had sexually assaulted Rappe during a
Labor Day Labor Day is a Federal holidays in the United States, federal holiday in the United States celebrated on the first Monday of September to honor and recognize the Labor history of the United States, American labor movement and the works and con ...
party in his suite at the St. Francis Hotel, another possible cause of the ruptured bladder. Arbuckle was charged with rape and
involuntary manslaughter Manslaughter is a common law legal term for homicide considered by law as less culpable than murder. The distinction between murder and manslaughter is sometimes said to have first been made by the ancient Athenian lawmaker Draco in the 7th ce ...
but was acquitted. *In July 1922, an expedition was conducted during which a skeleton was discovered on the mainland shore which is across from Dikson Island. It is thought to be either Peter Tessem or Paul Knutsen. Its death cause is not known for certain. *In 1923, an unidentified body on the grounds of an abandoned
Jesuit The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...
church in Corrientes whose death might have been caused by stabbing was found. It was thought to have been that of Alejandro Carrascosas (22), who had disappeared a year earlier. The body was never identified and the cause of the deceased's death is not known. * Andrew Irvine (22), and
George Mallory George Herbert Leigh-Mallory (18 June 1886 – 8 or 9 June 1924) was an English Mountaineering, mountaineer who participated in the first three British Mount Everest expeditions from the early to mid-1920s. He and climbing partner An ...
(37), were both British
mountaineers Mountaineering, mountain climbing, or alpinism is a set of outdoor activities that involves ascending mountains. Mountaineering-related activities include traditional outdoor climbing, skiing, and traversing via ferratas that have become sports ...
who disappeared on 8 or 9 June 1924, while they were climbing mount
Mount Everest Mount Everest (), known locally as Sagarmatha in Nepal and Qomolangma in Tibet, is Earth's highest mountain above sea level. It lies in the Mahalangur Himal sub-range of the Himalayas and marks part of the China–Nepal border at it ...
. Mallory's remains were found in 1999. In October 2024 Irvine's remains were found. Their cause of death is unknown.


1925–1949

*
Rudolf Steiner Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner (; 27 or 25 February 1861 – 30 March 1925) was an Austrian occultist, social reformer, architect, esotericist, and claimed clairvoyant. Steiner gained initial recognition at the end of the nineteenth century ...
(64), Austrian esotericist who developed
anthroposophy Anthroposophy is a spiritual new religious movementSources for 'new religious movement': which was founded in the early 20th century by the esotericist Rudolf Steiner that postulates the existence of an objective, intellectually comprehensibl ...
and
Waldorf education Waldorf education, also known as Steiner education, is based on the educational philosophy of Rudolf Steiner, the founder of anthroposophy. Its educational style is holistic, intended to develop pupils' intellectual, artistic, and practical sk ...
, died from illness on 30 March 1925, but the nature of the illness was never confirmed and remains controversial, with theories suggesting
cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving Cell growth#Disorders, abnormal cell growth with the potential to Invasion (cancer), invade or Metastasis, spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Po ...
or
poisoning Poisoning is the harmful effect which occurs when Toxicity, toxic substances are introduced into the body. The term "poisoning" is a derivative of poison, a term describing any chemical substance that may harm or kill a living organism upon ...
as the most probable causes. * Ottavio Bottecchia (32), 1927, Italian cyclist, was found by the side of a road, covered with bruises and with a serious skull fracture. His undamaged bicycle was discovered propped against a nearby tree. Bottecchia was taken to a hospital, but died soon afterwards. An official inquiry concluded accidental death, but it was suggested he had run afoul of the powerful and growing
National Fascist Party The National Fascist Party (, PNF) was a political party in Italy, created by Benito Mussolini as the political expression of Italian fascism and as a reorganisation of the previous Italian Fasces of Combat. The party ruled the Kingdom of It ...
in
Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...
at the time. * José Rosario Oviedo (42), a
Cuban rumba Rumba is a secular genre of Cuban music involving dance, percussion, and song. It originated in the northern regions of Cuba, mainly in urban Havana and Matanzas, during the late 19th century. It is based on African music and dance traditions, n ...
dancer known as "Malanga", died in 1927. The exact circumstances under which he died have never been known for certain. One common account has it that he was murdered after a dance contest through broken glass hidden in his food, but no death certificate was ever filed and the location of his grave is unknown. * Frances Smith (18), was an American female teenage college student who disappeared on 13 January 1928 from
Smith College Smith College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts Women's colleges in the United States, women's college in Northampton, Massachusetts, United States. It was chartered in 1871 by Sophia Smit ...
in
Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...
and was found dead from unknown causes on 29 March 1929. * Pyotr Wrangel (49), was a
Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...
officer who died on 25 April 1928 from reasons that have been debated as his family stated that they think that he was poisoned by the butler of his brother. This was never proven for certain though. * Alfred Loewenstein (51) was a Belgian financier who's believed to have fallen out of a plane's rear door while going to use the lavatory. He disappeared while crossing the
North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Denmark, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. A sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Se ...
on 4 July 1928, and his body was found in France 15 days later. His death cause is unknown. * Starr Faithfull (25), a
Greenwich Village Greenwich Village, or simply the Village, is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street (Manhattan), 14th Street to the north, Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the s ...
flapper Flappers were a subculture of young Western women prominent after the First World War and through the 1920s who wore short skirts (knee length was considered short during that period), bobbed their hair, listened to jazz, and flaunted their ...
, was found drowned on the beach at
Long Beach Long Beach is a coastal city in southeastern Los Angeles County, California, United States. It is the list of United States cities by population, 44th-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 451,307 as of 2022. A charter ci ...
,
Nassau County, New York Nassau County ( ) is a suburban County (United States), county located on Long Island, immediately to the east of New York City, bordering the Long Island Sound on the north and the open Atlantic Ocean to the south. As of the 2020 United St ...
on 8 June 1931. Although Faithfull had left a suicide note, her family contended that she was murdered by wealthy politician Andrew James Peters, former
mayor of Boston The mayor of Boston is the head of the municipal government in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Boston has a mayor–council government. Boston's mayoral elections are nonpartisan (as are all municipal elections in Boston), and elect a m ...
, who had allegedly
sexually abused Sexual abuse or sex abuse is abusive sexual behavior by one person upon another. It is often perpetrated using physical force, or by taking advantage of another. It often consists of a persistent pattern of sexual assaults. The offender is r ...
Faithfull for years beginning when she was 11 years old and paid the Faithfulls to keep silent about it. Despite a lengthy investigation, it was never determined whether Faithfull's death was homicide, suicide, or accident. *
Ivar Kreuger Ivar Kreuger (; 2 March 1880 – 12 March 1932) was a Swedish civil engineer, financier, entrepreneur and industrialist. In 1908, he co-founded the construction company Kreuger & Toll Byggnads AB, which specialized in new building techniques. B ...
(52), a Swedish civil engineer, financier, entrepreneur and industrialist who died in a
Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
hotel room on 12 March 1932. Though it was thought it have been a suicide it may have also have been a murder. * Jay Ferdinand Towner III (23), a
Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...
undergraduate, was found dead on campus shortly after an 11 November 1933, football game. He had suffered broken wrists and severe internal injuries. His death was variously attributed to a fall suffered in the stands during the game or a car accident amid conflicting accounts of his whereabouts prior to his death; the exact cause has never been determined. * Zachary Smith Reynolds (20) was the son of American millionaire and businessman R. J. Reynolds. He died from a gunshot wound to the head on 6 July 1932, at his home in
Winston-Salem, North Carolina Winston-Salem is a city in Forsyth County, North Carolina, United States, and its county seat. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 249,545, making it the List of municipalities in North Carolina, fifth-most populous ...
. It is unclear if his death was a
suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Risk factors for suicide include mental disorders, physical disorders, and substance abuse. Some suicides are impulsive acts driven by stress (such as from financial or ac ...
or a
murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse committed with the necessary Intention (criminal law), intention as defined by the law in a specific jurisd ...
. *
Paul Bern Paul Bern (born Paul Levy; December 3, 1889September 5, 1932) was a German-born American film director, screenwriter and film producer, producer for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), where he became the assistant to producer Irving Thalberg. He helped la ...
(42) was an American film director,
screenwriter A screenwriter (also called scriptwriter, scribe, or scenarist) is a person who practices the craft of writing for visual mass media, known as screenwriting. These can include short films, feature-length films, television programs, television ...
from
Wandsbek Wandsbek () is the second-largest of seven Boroughs and quarters of Hamburg#Boroughs, boroughs that make up the city and state of Hamburg, Germany. The name of the district is derived from the river Wandse which passes through here. Hamburg-Wandsb ...
,
Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...
, Germany. He became the assistant to
Irving Thalberg Irving Grant Thalberg (May 30, 1899 – September 14, 1936) was an American film producer during the early years of motion pictures. He was called "The Boy Wonder" for his youth and ability to select scripts, choose actors, gather productio ...
after he became the producer for
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, commonly shortened to MGM or MGM Studios) is an American Film production, film and television production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered ...
. He was found dead in
Beverly Hills, California Beverly Hills is a city located in Los Angeles County, California, United States. A notable and historic suburb of Los Angeles, it is located just southwest of the Hollywood Hills, approximately northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Beverly Hills ...
on 5 September 1932 after being shot. Even though he left a note saying that he committed suicide it is also believed that his former ex-common-law wife had killed him as she very shortly later herself committed suicide. * Ivo Pilar (59), was a Croatian lawyer, politician, publicist, and historian who was found dead on 3 September 1933 at his home in
Zagreb Zagreb ( ) is the capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Croatia#List of cities and towns, largest city of Croatia. It is in the Northern Croatia, north of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the ...
,
Kingdom of Yugoslavia The Kingdom of Yugoslavia was a country in Southeast Europe, Southeast and Central Europe that existed from 1918 until 1941. From 1918 to 1929, it was officially called the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, but the term "Yugoslavia" () h ...
and it is unknown whether he was killed or if it was a suicide. * Franziska Kessel (28) was a
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
politician who after being sent to jail in
Mainz Mainz (; #Names and etymology, see below) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, and with around 223,000 inhabitants, it is List of cities in Germany by population, Germany's 35th-largest city. It lies in ...
was found dead in her cell on 23 April 1934. It is unknown whether Kessel committed suicide or was murdered. *
Thelma Todd Thelma Alice Todd (July 29, 1906 – December 16, 1935) was an American actress and businesswoman who carried the nicknames "The Ice Cream Blonde" and "Hot Toddy". Appearing in about 120 feature films and shorts between 1926 and 1935, she ...
(29), was an actress notable for appearing in multiple comedy films where she starred alongside
Buster Keaton Joseph Frank "Buster" Keaton (October 4, 1895 – February 1, 1966) was an American actor, comedian and filmmaker. He is best known for his silent films during the 1920s, in which he performed physical comedy and inventive stunts. He frequently ...
,
Charley Chase Charles Joseph Parrott (October 20, 1893 – June 20, 1940), known professionally as Charley Chase, was an American comedian, actor, screenwriter and film director. He worked for many pioneering comedy studios but is chiefly associated with pro ...
,
Laurel and Hardy Laurel and Hardy were a British-American double act, comedy duo during the early Classical Hollywood cinema, Classical Hollywood era of American cinema, consisting of Englishman Stan Laurel (1890–1965) and American Oliver Hardy (1892–1957) ...
and the
Marx Brothers The Marx Brothers were an American family comedy act known for their anarchic humor, rapid-fire wordplay, and visual gags. They achieved success in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in 14 motion pictures. The core group consisted of brothers Chi ...
. On the morning of Monday, 16 December 1935, she was found dead in her car inside the garage of Jewel Carmen, a former actress and former wife of Todd's lover and business partner,
Roland West Roland West (February 20, 1885 – March 31, 1952) was an American film director, known for his innovative proto-film noir movies of the 1920s and early 1930s. He is however best known for his possible involvement in the death of Hollywood ...
. Her death was determined to have been caused by
carbon monoxide poisoning Carbon monoxide poisoning typically occurs from breathing in carbon monoxide (CO) at excessive levels. Symptoms are often described as " flu-like" and commonly include headache, dizziness, weakness, vomiting, chest pain, and confusion. Large ...
. The exact circumstances of the case could not be determined and sparked wide speculations and theories. The case was officially closed as "accidental with possible suicide tendencies." It could never be determined and still sparks debate whether her death was accidental, suicide or murder. * Katherine E. Hull (22), American woman who went missing on 2 April 1936 from Lebanon Springs, New York after going hitchhiking and whose remains found on 8 December 1943 in
Hancock, Massachusetts Hancock is a New England town, town in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. It is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts, Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 757 at ...
. Her cause of death is unknown. *
Robert Johnson Robert Leroy Johnson (May 8, 1911August 16, 1938) was an American blues musician and songwriter. His singing, guitar playing and songwriting on his landmark 1936 and 1937 recordings have influenced later generations of musicians. Although his r ...
(27), an early
blues Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated among African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spiritual (music), spirituals, work songs, field hollers, Ring shout, shouts, cha ...
singer and guitarist, died on 16 August 1938, near
Greenwood, Mississippi Greenwood is a city in and the county seat of Leflore County, Mississippi, United States, located at the eastern edge of the Mississippi Delta region, approximately 96 miles north of the state capital, Jackson, and 130 miles south of the rive ...
. The cause was not officially recorded. He was reportedly in extreme pain and suffering from
convulsion A convulsion is a medical condition where the body muscles contract and relax rapidly and repeatedly, resulting in uncontrolled shaking. Because epileptic seizures typically include convulsions, the term ''convulsion'' is often used as a synony ...
s; this has led to theories he had been poisoned with strychnine by a jealous husband; however, the alleged poisoning is said to have taken place several days earlier and most strychnine deaths take place within hours of ingestion. Another report claims he died of
syphilis Syphilis () is a sexually transmitted infection caused by the bacterium ''Treponema pallidum'' subspecies ''pallidum''. The signs and symptoms depend on the stage it presents: primary, secondary, latent syphilis, latent or tertiary. The prim ...
or
pneumonia Pneumonia is an Inflammation, inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as Pulmonary alveolus, alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of Cough#Classification, productive or dry cough, ches ...
. The uncertain location of his gravesite has made it impossible to exhume his body for further investigation. * Kyrylo Studynsky (30–31) was a western Ukrainian cultural and political figure who was forced to leave
Lviv Lviv ( or ; ; ; see #Names and symbols, below for other names) is the largest city in western Ukraine, as well as the List of cities in Ukraine, fifth-largest city in Ukraine, with a population of It serves as the administrative centre of ...
in July 1941 and died shortly after from unknown reasons. * Jeanette Loff (35) was an American actress, musician, and singer who came to prominence for her appearances in several
Pathé Exchange Pathé Exchange, commonly known as Pathé, was an American film production and distribution company, largely of Cinema of the United States, Hollywood's silent film, silent era. Known for its trailblazing newsreel and wide array of short film, s ...
and
Universal Pictures Universal City Studios LLC, doing business as Universal Pictures (also known as Universal Studios or simply Universal), is an American filmmaking, film production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered at the 10 Universal Ci ...
films in the 1920s who died on 4 August 1942 from
ammonia Ammonia is an inorganic chemical compound of nitrogen and hydrogen with the chemical formula, formula . A Binary compounds of hydrogen, stable binary hydride and the simplest pnictogen hydride, ammonia is a colourless gas with a distinctive pu ...
poisoning in
Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
. Though law enforcement was unable to determine whether her death was an accident or a
suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Risk factors for suicide include mental disorders, physical disorders, and substance abuse. Some suicides are impulsive acts driven by stress (such as from financial or ac ...
, Loff's family maintained that she had been
murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse committed with the necessary Intention (criminal law), intention as defined by the law in a specific jurisd ...
ed. The real cause behind her death remains unknown. *
Władysław Sikorski Władysław Eugeniusz Sikorski (; 20 May 18814 July 1943) was a Polish military and political leader. Before World War I, Sikorski established and participated in several underground organizations that promoted the cause of Polish independenc ...
(62), prime minister of the
Polish Government in exile The Polish government-in-exile, officially known as the Government of the Republic of Poland in exile (), was the government in exile A government-in-exile (GiE) is a political group that claims to be the legitimate government of a sovere ...
, was among 16 people killed on 4 July 1943 when their plane crashed into the sea shortly after taking off from the
Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...
base at
Gibraltar Airport Gibraltar International Airport, previously known as North Front Airport, is the civilian airport that serves the British overseas territories, British overseas territory of Gibraltar. The runway and aerodrome is owned by the Ministry of Defence ...
. The plane had not managed to gain sufficient altitude due to its
elevators An elevator (American English) or lift (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English) is a machine that vertically transports people or freight between levels. They are typically powered by electric motors that drive tracti ...
being prevented from working properly; British investigators found the cause was most likely an accident while their Polish counterparts called it undetermined. The bodies of Sikorski's daughter, chief of staff and other key aides purportedly on the plane were never found, and the plane's only survivor, the pilot, had uncharacteristically worn his life preserver in the cockpit. Sabotage and a possible assassination have been suspected, with
Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...
, the
Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
, the
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
, or even rival factions in the Polish government in exile theorized to have been involved. Poland reopened the case in 2008; an exhumation of Sikorski's body found his injuries consistent with death from an air crash, ruling out some theories that he had been killed before being put on the plane, but the investigators still could not rule out the possibility of sabotage. British files on the case will remain sealed until 2050. *
Herschel Grynszpan Herschel Feibel Grynszpan (Yiddish: הערשל פײַבל גרינשפּאן; German language, German: ''Hermann Grünspan''; 28 March 1921 – last rumoured to be alive in 1945, declared dead in 1960) was a History of Jews in Poland, Polish-Jew ...
, whose assassination of Nazi diplomat
Ernst vom Rath Ernst Eduard vom Rath (3 June 1909 – 9 November 1938) was a member of the German nobility, a Nazi Party member, and German Foreign Office diplomat. He is mainly remembered for his assassination in Paris in 1938 by a Polish Jewish teenager, ...
was used to justify massive pogroms, is assumed to have died sometime between 1940 and 1945 in a concentration camp. * A number of Nazis disappeared in the final days of Nazi Germany, and their whereabouts are either still unknown (with them likely now being dead), or their deaths occurred under unknown circumstances. For example,
Martin Bormann Martin Ludwig Bormann (17 June 1900 – 2 May 1945) was a German Nazi Party official and head of the Nazi Party Chancellery, private secretary to Adolf Hitler, and a war criminal. Bormann gained immense power by using his position as Hitler ...
's body was not found for 27 years (in 1972) and was not identified until 1998. Heinrich Müller has still not been located. * Emil Hácha (72), a
Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus *Czech (surnam ...
lawyer, the third President of
Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...
from 1938 to 1939, who died in Pankrác Prison on 27 June 1945 under mysterious circumstances, and his death cause remains unknown. Hácha had collaborated with the Nazis during the German occupation, and had been arrested by the
Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...
after the liberation of Prague. * Lipót Klug (91), a Jewish-Hungarian
mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematica ...
, professor who died towards the end of the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
on 24 March 1945 in what were said to have been strange circumstances, his true cause of death having never been revealed. * King
Ananda Mahidol Ananda Mahidol (20 September 19259 June 1946) was the eighth Monarchy of Thailand, king of Siam (later Thailand) from the Chakri dynasty, titled Rama VIII. At the time he was recognised as king by the National Assembly of Thailand, National ...
of Thailand (20) died of gunshot wounds, either the product of
suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Risk factors for suicide include mental disorders, physical disorders, and substance abuse. Some suicides are impulsive acts driven by stress (such as from financial or ac ...
, accident or assassination, on 9 June 1946. Mahidol's successor King
Bhumibol Adulyadej Bhumibol Adulyadej (5 December 192713 October 2016), titled Rama IX, was King of Thailand from 1946 until Death and funeral of Bhumibol Adulyadej, his death in 2016. His reign of 70 years and 126 days is the longest of any List of Thai mo ...
, Prime Minister
Pridi Banomyong Pridi Banomyong (, , ; 11 May 1900 – 2 May 1983), also known by his noble title Luang Praditmanutham (), was a Thai lawyer, professor, activist, politician, and senior statesman. He served in multiple ministerial posts, as regent, and as pri ...
, and the former Japanese intelligence officer Masanobu Tsuji have alternatively been accused of complicity. * The Body in the cylinder refers to a male decedent discovered within a partially sealed steel cylinder on a derelict
WWII World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
bomb site in
Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...
,
England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...
. The discovery was made on 13 July 1945 and it is believed that the body had lain undiscovered for 60 years. Inquiries named a strong (but unconfirmed) candidate for the identity of the decedent; however, the cause of death and the reason for their presence in the cylinder remain a mystery. *
Alexander Alekhine Alexander Aleksandrovich Alekhine. He disliked when Russians sometimes pronounced the of as , , which he regarded as a Yiddish distortion of his name, and insisted that the correct Russian pronunciation was . (March 24, 1946) was a Russian ...
(53), the fourth
World Chess Champion The World Chess Championship is played to determine the world champion in chess. The current world champion is Gukesh Dommaraju, who defeated the previous champion Ding Liren in the World Chess Championship 2024, 2024 World Chess Championship. ...
, was found dead in a hotel room in
Estoril Estoril () is a town in the civil parish of Cascais e Estoril of the Portuguese Municipality of Cascais, on the Portuguese Riviera. It is a popular tourist destination, with hotels, beaches, and the Casino Estoril. It has been home to numero ...
, Portugal on 24 March 1946. Several causes of death have been proposed, but the two most likely are a heart attack or choking on a piece of meat which was found lodged in his throat in an autopsy. *
Vera West Vera West, née Flounders, (28 June 1897 – 29 June 1947) was an American fashion designer and film costume designer. From 1928 to 1947, she was the chief costume designer for Universal Pictures. Personal life The details of West's early life ...
. West was an American fashion designer and film costume designer, who worked for
Universal Pictures Universal City Studios LLC, doing business as Universal Pictures (also known as Universal Studios or simply Universal), is an American filmmaking, film production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered at the 10 Universal Ci ...
. She was found dead in her swimming pool on 29 June 1947, having possibly committed suicide by drowning, although police were never able to ascertain the precise circumstances surrounding her death. * Kim Man-il (3–4), was a Korean male child who in
Pyongyang Pyongyang () is the Capital city, capital and largest city of North Korea, where it is sometimes labeled as the "Capital of the Revolution" (). Pyongyang is located on the Taedong River about upstream from its mouth on the Yellow Sea. Accordi ...
, Soviet Korea in either 1947 or 1948 is said to have drowned under conflicting circumstances. * The Trow Ghyll skeleton, discovered in a cave in rural north
Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...
, England in 1947, remains unidentified. The death probably occurred in 1941; the fact that the body was discovered with a glass bottle of cyanide has led to speculation that it was someone connected with espionage. *
Jan Masaryk Jan Garrigue Masaryk (14 September 1886 – 10 March 1948) was a Czech diplomat and politician who served as the Foreign Minister of Czechoslovakia from 1940 to 1948. American journalist John Gunther described Masaryk as "a brave, honest, turbule ...
(61), 1948, son of
Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk Tomáš () is a Czech name, Czech and Slovak name, Slovak given name, equivalent to the name Thomas (name), Thomas. Tomáš is also a surname (feminine: Tomášová). Notable people with the name include: Given name Sport *Tomáš Berdych (born 198 ...
, Czech diplomat, politician and Foreign Minister of
Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...
, was found dead in the courtyard of the Foreign Ministry below his bathroom window. The initial investigation concluded that he committed suicide by jumping out of the window, although many are convinced that he was pushed. A new investigation by the Czechoslovak government after the
Velvet Revolution The Velvet Revolution () or Gentle Revolution () was a non-violent transition of power in what was then Czechoslovakia, occurring from 17 November to 28 November 1989. Popular demonstrations against the one-party government of the Communist Pa ...
ruled his death a murder. * Sadanori Shimoyama (47), 1948, first director of
Japanese National Railways The , abbreviated JNR or , was the business entity that operated Japan's national railway network from 1949 to 1987. Network Railways As of June 1, 1949, the date of establishment of JNR, it operated of narrow gauge () railways in all 46 pre ...
, was last seen leaving his official car to go into a department store on his way to work the morning of 5 July of that year. Others reported seeing him at various train stations, and walking along one line, that afternoon. His dismembered body was found at noon the next day on the
Jōban Line The is a railway line in Japan operated by the East Japan Railway Company (JR East). The line officially begins at Nippori Station in Arakawa, Tokyo before the line officially ends at Iwanuma Station in Iwanuma, Miyagi. However, following ...
. It had indisputably gotten that way as a result of being struck by a train, but the autopsy suggested he had died before being struck. That conclusion has been disputed, and whether his death was a suicide or murder remains undetermined. *
Irwin Foster Hilliard Irwin Foster Hilliard (February 2, 1863 – November/December 1948) was an Ontario lawyer and political figure. He represented Dundas (provincial electoral district), Dundas in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1914 to 1919 as a Progressi ...
(85) was a Canadian political figure and lawyer in
Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...
who was last seen on 23 November 1948 before going on a shopping trip. He was found dead on 22 December 1948 close to Lambton. His death cause is unknown. *
Nora Gregor Nora Gregor (3 February 1901 – 20 January 1949) was an Austrian stage and film actress. Biography She was born Eleonora Hermina Gregor in Görz, a town which then belonged to Austria-Hungary, but is now part of Italy, to Austrian-Jewish parent ...
(47), whose full name was "Eleonora Hermina Gregor", was an Austrian actress who acted in both on stage and in movies who died on 20 January 1949 in
Viña del Mar Viña del Mar (; meaning "Vineyard of the Sea") is a List of cities in Chile, city and Communes of Chile, commune on Zona Central, Chile, central Chile's Pacific coast. Often referred to as ("The Garden City"), Viña del Mar is located withi ...
from a debated cause.


1950–1974

*
Syama Prasad Mukherjee Syama Prasad Mookerjee (6 July 1901 – 23 June 1953) was an Indian barrister, educationist, politician, activist, social worker, and a minister in the state and national governments. Noted for his opposition to Quit India movement within the ...
(52), an Indian politician, died in a prison hospital 23 June 1953, one and a half months after his arrest for attempting to enter Jammu and Kashmir without a permit. The exact cause of death has never been disclosed; Prime Minister
Jawaharlal Nehru Jawaharlal Nehru (14 November 1889 – 27 May 1964) was an Indian anti-colonial nationalist, secular humanist, social democrat, and statesman who was a central figure in India during the middle of the 20th century. Nehru was a pr ...
, whose government Mukherjee had resigned from in protest over Nehru's decision to normalise relations with
Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...
despite that country's treatment of its Hindu population, said at the time he made inquiries and was satisfied that his former minister's death was due to natural causes; speculation has continued that Mukherjee was actually murdered due to some unusual circumstances of his arrest and treatment. * Raimondo Lanza di Trabia (39) was an
Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...
man who was successful in many fields. On 30 November 1954 in
Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...
, Lanza di Trabia died from circumstances that are suspicious after he fell out of a hotel room window. * Herman Schultheis (33) was a technician and photographer who worked for Walt Disney Studios who disappeared on 20 May 1955 near
Tikal Tikal (; ''Tik'al'' in modern Mayan orthography) is the ruin of an ancient city, which was likely to have been called Yax Mutal, found in a rainforest in Guatemala. It is one of the largest archaeological sites and urban centers of the Pre-Col ...
, Guatemala. His remains were found on 23 November 1956, along with some of his belongings. His death cause is unknown. * The Dyatlov Pass incident was the deaths of nine Hiking, hikers on the Kholat Syakhl mountain in the northern Ural Mountains range on 2 February 1959; the bodies were not recovered until that May. While most of the victims were found to have died of hypothermia after apparently abandoning their tent high on an exposed mountainside, two had fractured skulls, two had broken ribs, and one was missing her tongue. There were no witnesses or survivors to provide any testimony, and the cause of death was listed as a "compelling natural force", most likely an avalanche, by Soviet investigators. * Barthélemy Boganda (48), who was Prime Minister of the Central African Republic, died on 29 March 1959 in Boukpayanga during a mysterious plane crash. * Diana Barrymore (38), daughter of actor John Barrymore, was an American actress who acted both on the stage and in movies and was a relative of American actress Drew Barrymore. On 25 January 1960, Diana Barrymore died in her hometown of New York City. At first her death was said to be the result of a drug overdose. After an autopsy was conducted, this was proven to be untrue. Speculation included a theory that she had committed
suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Risk factors for suicide include mental disorders, physical disorders, and substance abuse. Some suicides are impulsive acts driven by stress (such as from financial or ac ...
, but this was never proven. She had admitted publicly she was a recovering alcoholic. In July 1957, she gave an American television interview to Mike Wallace in which she said, "At the moment, I don't drink. I hope to be able, one day, in perhaps the near future [or] the very distant future, to be able to drink like a normal human being. That may never be possible." * Dag Hammarskjöld (56), a Swedish economist and diplomat who served as the second Secretary-General of the United Nations, died on 18 September 1961 in Ndola, Northern Rhodesia in a mysterious plane crash. * Lucas Samalenge (33), a State of Katanga, Katangese and Democratic Republic of the Congo, Congolese politician who died under suspicious circumstances on 19 November 1961 in Lubumbashi. * Bogle–Chandler case, Dr Gilbert Stanley Bogle (39) and Margaret Olive Chandler (29) were found dead, both partially undressed, near the banks of the Lane Cove River in Sydney, Australia, on 1 January 1963. Their bluish pallor and the presence of vomit and excrement led to a finding that they had been poisoned, but the coroner was unable to determine what the toxin was. It was suspected they had been murdered (possibly by Chandler's husband) although no suspect has ever been identified. Who Killed Dr Bogle and Mrs Chandler?, A 2006 TV documentary suggested their deaths were not due to foul play but the result of hydrogen sulfide gas leaking from the river bed and reaching dangerously high concentrations in the low-lying depressions where their bodies were found. * The death certificate of Dorothy Kilgallen (52) states that she died on 8 November 1965 from "acute ethanol and barbiturate intoxication / circumstances undetermined." She was famous throughout the United States as a syndicated newspaper columnist and radio/television personality, most notably as a regular panelist on the longest running game show in history at the time, Columbia Broadcasting System, CBS's ''What's My Line''. The New York City medical examiner James Luke categorized the cause of death as "circumstances undetermined." * Death of Hedviga Golik, Hedviga Golik (42) was a Croatians, Croatian woman from Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia, who in 1966 sat down in front of her TV with a cup of tea and died from unknown reasons. Her body was discovered 42 years later when the police entered her apartment. * Lal Bahadur Shastri (61), an Indian politician who was the second Prime Minister of India, mysteriously died on 11 January 1966, just hours after signing the Tashkent Declaration. His death cause is disputed. * The Lead Masks Case involves the death of two Brazilian electronic technicians, Manoel Pereira da Cruz and Miguel José Viana, whose bodies were discovered on 20 August 1966, in Niterói, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. After an autopsy was performed the cause of death could not be proven since the organs were too badly decomposed. * Alvar Larsson (13) was a Swedish boy who disappeared on 16 April 1967 while going for a walk. In November 1982, a human skull was found on a small island 6 km away that was identified as belonging to Larsson. The disappearance attracted a lot of media coverage at the time and many theories as to what happened have been put forward. Sture Bergwall, Thomas Quick has confessed to the crime, but has since recanted all his confessions. * Death of Joan Robinson Hill, Joan Robinson Hill (38) was a Texas socialite who died in 1969. At first ruled to have died of influenza following a brief hospitalization on 19 March, suspicions were aroused when her body was released to the funeral home and embalmed before a legally required autopsy could be carried out. Despite the compromised evidence, three autopsies, all with their own irregularities, were performed and her husband John eventually became the only person indicted by a Texas grand jury for murder by omission, or failing to take proper action in the face of a life-threatening situation. The first attempt to prosecute him ended in a mistrial in 1972; he was murdered before he could be retried and the gunman who was suspected of his murder died in a police shootout. Two other alleged accomplices were later convicted. * Mutesa II of Buganda, Edward Mutesa (45), who was Kabaka of Buganda, Kabaka of the Buganda, Kingdom of Buganda in Uganda, died on 21 November 1969 from alcohol poisoning, in his London flat. He may have committed suicide or been poisoned by someone. * Katherine Walsh (actress), Katherine Walsh (23), American actress who died in London, England on 7 October 1970 while she was at a party at her home. While it is known that she died from barbiturate poisoning and alcohol, it is unknown whether it was a suicide or accident. * Mustafa Zaidi (40), Pakistanis, Pakistani Urdu poet from India who died in Karachi from unknown reasons on 12 October 1970. The case has never been solved. * Ronald Hughes (35), an American attorney who disappeared while on a camping trip in November 1970. He had been representing Leslie Van Houten in the Tate–LaBianca murder trial. His body was found in March 1971, but his cause of death could not be determined. * The Isdal Woman was a partially charred unidentified corpse found on 29 November 1970, hidden off a hiking trail near Bergen, Norway. The official conclusion that her death was a
suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Risk factors for suicide include mental disorders, physical disorders, and substance abuse. Some suicides are impulsive acts driven by stress (such as from financial or ac ...
has not been widely accepted, since some believed she was murdered. Her identity remains unknown and is considered one of Norway's most profound mysteries. The case has been the subject of intense speculation for many years. Multiple investigations point to the possibility that she was a Espionage, spy. *Michael O'Sullivan (actor), Michael O'Sullivan (37), an American man who had a brief, but successful acting career, was found dead at his apartment in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, on 24 July 1971 with a bottle of sleeping pills next to him from what may have been a death by suicide. * Giangiacomo Feltrinelli (45), who had during the 1950s published the smuggled manuscript of Boris Pasternak's novel ''Doctor Zhivago (novel), Doctor Zhivago'', but later became a left-wing militant during Italy's Years of Lead (Italy), Years of Lead, was found dead at the base of a power-line transmission tower outside Segrate, near his native Milan, on 15 March 1972. It was believed that he had died when a bomb he was attempting to plant on the tower went off, and later testimony by other members of the Red Brigades supported this. However, the death was always viewed suspiciously, and in the 2010s forensic reports surfaced that suggested he had been tied to the tower before the bomb went off, with various intelligence agencies inside and outside of Italy suspected of responsibility. * Gia Scala (38) was an American model and actress from
Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...
, Merseyside, England who on 30 April 1972 was found dead in her house in the Hollywood Hills. Her cause of death remains undetermined. * Nigel Green (47) was a character actor who was born in South Africa, and was raised in London, England, who died in Brighton, Sussex on 15 May 1972 after taking too many sleeping pills. It is unknown if this was a suicide or not. * Amaryllis Garnett was an English actress and diarist who appeared in various productions in the 1960s, with her most notable appearance being Judith of Balbec from the original 1966 version of ''A Choice of Kings''. With the onset of the 1970s, however, she fell into a deep depression, and on 6 May 1973 she was found drowned in the Chelsea, London, Chelsea river. Whether her drowning was accidental or a suicide remains unclear. * Kafundanga Chingunji served as the first chief of staff in the government of UNITA, pro-Western world, Western rebels, during the Angolan Civil War. Officially, Chingunji died from cerebral malaria in January 1974 on Angola's border with Zambia. His wife and others who saw his body say someone poisoned Chingunji. Rumors later alleged Jonas Savimbi, the head of UNITA, ordered his assassination. It is unknown for sure what the exact circumstances of his death were. * Karen Silkwood (28), a nuclear power whistleblower, died in a car accident on 13 November 1974, while driving to a meeting with a ''The New York Times, New York Times'' reporter in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Oklahoma City. Whether that accident involved another vehicle, whose driver may have deliberately run her off the road, or resulted from her own fatigue, remains a matter of debate. * Aman Andom (50) was an Ethiopian military figure and was the acting Head of State of Ethiopia, head of state of Ethiopia who died on 23 November 1974. Sources say that he died by suicide, while others say that he was killed by political rivals among the coup leadership, possibly including Mengistu Haile Mariam.


1975–1989

* Sandra Mozarowsky (18), Spanish female teenage actress who on 14 September 1977 in Madrid, Spain fell to her death from her balcony. It is unknown if she died by suicide or if she fell by mistake. * Death of Manon Dubé, Manon Dubé (10), was a Canadian girl from Quebec who vanished while sledding with friends in Massawippi on 27 January 1978. Her body was found on 24 March 1978, but the exact cause of death was never determined. * Yuba County Five were a group of young men from Yuba County, California, United States, each with mild Intellectual disability, intellectual disabilities or Psychiatric condition, psychiatric conditions, who were reported missing after attending a college basketball game at California State University, Chico (also known as Chico State), on the night of 24 February 1978. Four of them—Bill Sterling, 29; Jack Huett, 24; Ted Weiher, 32; and Jack Madruga, 30—were later found dead; the fifth, Gary Mathias, 25, has never been found. Their causes to the lead-up of their disappearances and deaths are still unknown. * Marcia Moore (50), a writer on Yoga as exercise, yoga and astrology, disappeared near her home in the Seattle, Washington area during the winter of 1979. In 1981 her skeletal remains were found in nearby woods. It has been presumed in the absence of any evidence that would more conclusively establish a cause of death that she died of hypothermia while wandering the woods under the influence of ketamine, a drug whose use she had promoted. However, true-crime writer Ann Rule, a friend, says what appeared to be a bullet hole was found in her jawbone, although authorities said it could just as easily have been a result of the bone decaying during the cold winters. Officially the cause of Moore's death remains undetermined. * Marin Preda (57) was a Romanians, Romanian director of Cartea Românească publishing house who wrote novels about wars that had ended. Preda was found dead on 16 May 1980 at Mogoșoaia Palace from asphyxiation. * Gustav Wagner, former deputy commander of the Sobibor extermination camp, died 3 October 1980 in Brazil. His death was officially ruled as a suicide by self-inflicted knife wounds. Sobibor survivor Stanisław Szmajzner had identified Wagner shortly before. * Death of Douglas Crofut, Douglas Crofut (38) was an American radiographer who died of both radiation poisoning and radiation burns on 27 July 1981 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The event is thought to have been either a suicide or murder, but this remains uncertain. * On 29 November 1981, actress Natalie Wood (43), who was a passenger on the yacht owned by her and her husband Robert Wagner, was found drowned near Santa Catalina Island, California, Santa Catalina Island, California. Two other people were on board the Wagners' yacht at the time: actor Christopher Walken and Dennis Davern, a longtime employee of the Wagners who served as skipper of the yacht. While drowning has always been accepted as the direct cause of her death, the circumstances under which she went into the water have never been clear. After reopening the investigation in 2012 the coroner changed the cause of death from "accident" to "undetermined" based on cuts and bruises on her body that may or may not have been suffered before her death. In 2018 Wagner was identified as a person of interest. * Death of Don Kemp, Don Kemp (34–35) was a New York advertising executive who disappeared under mysterious circumstances in Wyoming in 1982, where he had planned to begin a new life. His remains were discovered in 1986, but the circumstances surrounding his death, and whether or not it was homicidal, remain unclear. * Death of Eduardo Frei Montalva, Eduardo Frei Montalva (71), who was president of Chile from 1964 to 1970, died on 22 January 1982. As of 2005, his death is being investigated because of allegations that he was poisoned. * The cause of death of the baby born to Joanne Hayes in Ireland's 1984 Kerry Babies case was never established. * Radomir Radović (32–33), a Yugoslav civil engineering technician and trade unionist who advocated for an independent trade union in the country, was found dead at his villa in Orašac (Obrenovac), Orašac on 30 April 1984. While the ruling party claimed that he had died by
suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Risk factors for suicide include mental disorders, physical disorders, and substance abuse. Some suicides are impulsive acts driven by stress (such as from financial or ac ...
, this claim was disputed by fellow intellectuals, and his true cause of death remains unclear. * 25-year old Japanese office worker Kenji Iwamura purportedly died during the 1984–1990 SOS incident. * The YOGTZE case refers to the death of unemployed German food engineer Günther Stoll (34) on 26 October 1984. Stoll died under strange and largely unknown circumstances after leaving behind the cryptic message "YOGTZE." * Samora Machel (53), a Mozambique, Mozambican politician, military commander, and revolutionary, was killed on 19 October 1986 in a mysterious plane crash close to the Mozambique–South Africa border, Mozambican-South African border. * Cam Lyman (54–55) was a multimillionaire Dog breeding, dog breeder from Westwood, Massachusetts, who disappeared in the summer of 1987. In December 1997 his body was found in a septic tank on his estate in Hopkinton, Rhode Island by the new owners of the house. Lyman's death remains a mystery. * On 11 October 1987, West Germany, West German Christian Democratic Union of Germany, Christian Democratic Union politician Uwe Barschel (43) was found dead and fully clothed in a filled bathtub in his room at the Hotel Beau-Rivage Geneva, Beau-Rivage in Geneva,
Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...
. Lorazepam and other drugs were found in his system. The circumstances of his death remain unclear and controversial, with suicide or murder both considered possible explanations and the case still being investigated. * Pakistani president Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq (64), the country's longest-serving leader, and 30 others, including the country's top military leaders and the U.S. ambassador, were killed in a Death and state funeral of Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, 17 August 1988 plane crash. Whether it was an accident or foul play, the result of sabotage or a shootdown, is a matter of debate. American investigators came to the former conclusion, while their Pakistani counterparts produced a report reaching the latter. Theories as to responsibility if it were an act of malice have put the blame on a number of domestic and foreign actors. *On 8 June 1989, Canadian nurse Death of Cindy James, Cindy James (44) was found dead of a multiple-drug overdose in the yard of an abandoned house in the Vancouver suburb of Richmond, British Columbia, Richmond, hogtied and with a nylon stocking around her neck. During the seven years leading up to her death, she had made approximately 100 reports to police of incidents of stalking, harassment, vandalism, and physical attacks. Despite significant investigation, authorities could find no evidence pointing to an assailant, and it was suspected that James had fabricated the incidents herself, culminating in an elaborate staged suicide. The cause of death was found to be a drug overdose due to the extraordinarily high levels of morphine, diazepam and other drugs found in her system, but exactly how that came about could not be determined. * Said S. Bedair (40) was an Egyptians, Egyptian scientist in electrical engineering, electrical, electronic engineering, electronic and microwave engineering and a Egyptian Army ranks, colonel in the Egyptian army. He died on 14 July 1989 in
Alexandria Alexandria ( ; ) is the List of cities and towns in Egypt#Largest cities, second largest city in Egypt and the List of coastal settlements of the Mediterranean Sea, largest city on the Mediterranean coast. It lies at the western edge of the Nile ...
of unclear circumstances, though his wife thinks it might have been a suicide. * Duncan MacPherson (23), was a Canadians, Canadian professional ice hockey player who disappeared 9 August 1989 when he went on a trip to Austria, In 2003 his body was found on a mountain where he had gone snowboarding and his death cause is unknown.


1990–1999

* Texas Killing Fields#Victims, Donna Marie Prudhomme (34) disappeared from Nassau Bay, Texas, in July 1991 and was found dead on 8 September 1991. Her cause of death is unknown. * Berlin police were called to a Lichtenberg, Berlin, Lichtenberg apartment on the night of 3 December 1991 after neighbors complained of loud arguments, barking dogs and a parade of men coming and going. Inside they found the body of Beate Ulbricht (47), adopted daughter of Walter Ulbricht, the first Communist leader of East Germany, by then defunct. Visible facial injuries suggested a death by blunt force trauma, but whether that had resulted from an accident or foul play has never been determined. She had recently given a series of interviews about her family life in which she recalled her mother, Lotte Ulbricht, Lotte, as harsh and unloving, in contrast to her late father; Lotte was unsurprised when a reporter informed her of Beate's death. The unsolved stabbing death two years later of a man thought to be Beate's lover in her last years may be connected. * A skull fragment found in a wooded area of Baldwin, Pennsylvania, in 1992 turned out to be that of Death of Michael Rosenblum, Michael Rosenblum (25), of nearby Pittsburgh, who had not been seen since 14 February 1980, near where the bone was found. While the cause of death could not be determined, circumstantial evidence accumulated over the years suggested that Baldwin's police department had covered up its own officers' involvement in Rosenblum's disappearance; the chief had been fired and reinstated a short time later over the allegations. * The remains of Death of Timothy Wiltsey, Timothy Wiltsey (5), of South Amboy, New Jersey, were found in a muddy brook behind an office park in nearby Edison, New Jersey, Edison on 23 April 1992, almost a year after his mother, Michelle Lodzinski, had reported him missing from a carnival. Decomposition was too advanced to determine how Wiltsey had died. Suspicion accumulated around Lodzinski in later years owing to reports that she had changed her account of his disappearance several times shortly after reporting it, and her conviction for an attempt to stage her own kidnapping in 1994 followed by another conviction for theft several years later. In 2014 she was arrested for her son's murder and convicted after trial two years later, but the New Jersey Supreme Court, state Supreme Court vacated that conviction in 2021 for insufficient evidence. * Marsha P. Johnson (46) was an American gay rights activist who on 6 July 1992 was found dead floating in the Hudson River in New York City, New York, New York (state), New York. It is unknown whether she died by suicide or was murdered. * Chris McCandless (24), American hiker who after going hiking in Alaska in 1992 was found dead in August 1992, possibly due to starvation, but it is not known for sure how he died. * Deaths of Arnold Archambeau and Ruby Bruguier, Arnold Archambeau (20) and Ruby Bruguier (18) left a passenger behind in their overturned car following an accident before dawn on 12 December 1992 outside Lake Andes, South Dakota. They were never seen alive again; almost three months later their bodies were found near the accident site. Police do not believe they had been there during the intervening winter months as they were not found during several searches of the area. Autopsies attributed the deaths to hypothermia; however Bruguier's body was in a far more advanced stage of decomposition and other evidence at the scene has reinforced investigators' belief that the two died somewhere else and their bodies were moved there. The FBI investigated as well, due to the victims being Native Americans and the incident taking place on a reservation, but closed their file in 1999 having found insufficient evidence to believe a crime occurred. * Death of David Glenn Lewis, David Glenn Lewis (52) was found dead on 1 February 1993, the victim of a hit and run, shortly after he was seen wandering on Washington State Route 24 in Moxee, Washington, just outside Yakima, Washington, Yakima. The town of Moxee is from Lewis' home in Amarillo, Texas; evidence conflicts as to whether he was there for the preceding two days or traveled from the city. At the time of his death, he was wearing clothing his family said was not his. His body remained unidentified until 2004. The driver of the vehicle that struck him also remains unidentified, and since his presence in the Yakima area has not been explained, whether his death was an accident, suicide or foul play cannot be determined. * Divya Bharti was an Indian actress known for her popularity in Bollywood films in the early 90s. She was the first co-actress of successful actor Sharukh Khan. She accidentally fell from the 5th floor of her building on 5th April 1993 at the young age of 19. The mystery surrounding her death remained unsolved, creating a number of conspiracy theories regarding her family, social life, and husband Sajid Nadiadwala. * Mansour Rashid El-Kikhia was a Libyan politician and human rights activist known for his opposition to Muammar Gaddafi's regime. On 10 December 1993, he was kidnapped while on a diplomatic visit to Cairo, Egypt, allegedly by Libyan Mukhabarat el-Jamahiriya, Mukhabarat operatives. His fate remained unclear until October 2012, when his body was found in a refrigerator in Tripoli, Libya, Tripoli, indicating that he had likely died while in custody. * Zviad Gamsakhurdia (54), former president of Georgia (country), Georgia, died on 31 December 1993 from circumstances that remain very unclear. It is known that he died in the village of Khibula in the Samegrelo region of western Georgia. *On 27 April 1994, Lynne Frederick (39) was found dead by her mother in her West Los Angeles home. Foul play and suicide were ruled out and an autopsy failed to determine the cause of death. Some in the media speculated she died from the effects of alcoholism. Her remains were cremated at Golders Green Crematorium in London, and her ashes were interred with those of her first husband, Peter Sellers. * Oscar Gomez (activist), Oscar Gomez, American student and activist during the 1990s, died under mysterious circumstances on 16 November 1994 in Santa Barbara, California, while he was protesting with his fellow students. *Death of Sonja Engelbrecht, Sonja Engelbrecht (19) was a young teenage woman who went missing on the night of 10–11 April 1995, in Munich, and whose remains were first discovered on 23 November 2021. Her cause of death remains unknown. * Death of Caroline Byrne, Caroline Byrne (24), an Australian model, was found at the bottom of a cliff at The Gap (Sydney), The Gap in Sydney on 8 June 1995. Her boyfriend at the time of her death was charged with killing her and was convicted, but was acquitted of the conviction in February 2012 as the decision was overturned. It is unclear whether her death was a
murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse committed with the necessary Intention (criminal law), intention as defined by the law in a specific jurisd ...
or
suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Risk factors for suicide include mental disorders, physical disorders, and substance abuse. Some suicides are impulsive acts driven by stress (such as from financial or ac ...
. * Death of Carl Isaacs Jr., Carl Isaacs Jr. (21), formerly known ''Rock County John Doe'', and also commonly referred as ''John Clinton Doe'', was the name given to a now-identified set of skeletal remains of a young adult white male found alongside Turtle Creek near Clinton (town), Rock County, Wisconsin, Clinton, Rock County, Wisconsin on 26 November 1995. His death cause is also unknown. * Green Boots is the name given to the unidentified decedent, unidentified corpse of a climber that became a landmark on the main Northeast ridge route of
Mount Everest Mount Everest (), known locally as Sagarmatha in Nepal and Qomolangma in Tibet, is Earth's highest mountain above sea level. It lies in the Mahalangur Himal sub-range of the Himalayas and marks part of the China–Nepal border at it ...
. Though his identity has not been officially confirmed, he is believed to be Tsewang Paljor, an Indian climber who died on Mount Everest in 1996. * English actor Barry Evans (actor), Barry Evans (53) died on 9 February 1997. The police went to his house to inform him that they had recovered his stolen car, which was reported the day before, but he was found dead in his home. The coroner found a blow to Evans' head and also found high levels of alcohol in his system. A short will was found on a table next to his body and a spilt packet of aspirin tablets, bearing a pre-decimalisation price tag, indicating that the pack was at least 26 years old, was found on the floor, although the coroner concluded that he had not taken any of them. The cause of his death was never confirmed. * Screenwriter Gary DeVore (55) left Santa Fe, New Mexico, on 28 June 1997, for Hollywood to drop off his final draft of the script for a remake of ''The Big Steal'', a 1950 film in part about a man who stages his own disappearance. He never arrived and was considered missing for a year until his body was found in his car in the California Aqueduct. His hands were missing, and it did not appear from the position in which it was found that the car had gone into the waterway after an accident. No cause of death has been conclusively established. * Death of Ricky Reel, Ricky Reel (21), a computer science student at Brunel University, was last seen alive in the early morning of 15 October 1997; his body was recovered from the River Thames six days later. Although the Metropolitan Police initially declared his death accidental death, accidental, an open verdict was later returned. Speculation remains as to a racial motive behind his death. * Theodore Sindikubwabo, interim president during the Rwanda genocide, died in 1998. Cause of death is unknown, but it has been speculated that he died of HIV or was killed by Interahamwe hardliners. * Florinda Donner#Disappearance, Patricia Lee Partin was among four women who left Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, and disappeared alongside Florinda Donner in 1998; her remains were found in the desert sands of Death Valley in 2003. Partin's cause of death remains unknown. * Greek philosopher Dimitris Liantinis (55) disappeared on 1 June 1998. In July 2005, human bones were found in the area of the mountain Taygetos; forensic examinations verified that it was the body of Liantinis. No lethal substances were found to identify the cause of death. * Sani Abacha (54), military dictator of Nigeria, died on June8, 1998. There is a popular theory in Nigeria that he died after consuming a poisoned apple, but one of his confidants reported that after shaking hands with Yasser Arafat during the latter's visit, he began feeling unwell and died shortly afterward. * Death of Kevin Hjalmarsson, Kevin Hjalmarsson (4), a Swedish boy who went missing, was found dead in Arvika on 16 August 1998. Though he was originally thought to have been murdered, it is now claimed by the police that he is thought to have died in an unknown accident. *Bardhyl Çaushi (62–63), a Albanians in Kosovo, Kosovo Albanian activist and human rights lawyer, was kidnapped in 1999 by Yugoslav forces and found dead in 2005 from reasons that could not be determined. * Viacheslav Chornovil#Death and funeral, Viacheslav Chornovil (61), a prominent Ukrainian politician, died in a car crash under unclear circumstances on 25 March 1999. His political allies and supporters have alleged that he was killed by members of a Ministry of Internal Affairs (Ukraine), Ministry of Internal Affairs unit on the orders of President Leonid Kuchma to ensure his victory in the 1999 Ukrainian presidential election. Investigations into whether Chornovil was murdered or whether his death was accidental have been closed and reopened on several occasions without a conclusion. * Death of William DaShawn Hamilton, William DaShawn Hamilton (6) was an American child whose skeletal remains were found near a cemetery near Atlanta, Georgia, in 1999. His mother was convicted in 2024 of concealing (but not of causing) his his cause of death is unknown. * Godard family disappearance, Yves Godard (43) was a French doctor who, along with his son and daughter, disappeared on a sailing trip in September 1999. A skull fragment belonging to his daughter Camille was found in 2000; six years later bone fragments belonging to Godard were found in the
English Channel The English Channel, also known as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates Southern England from northern France. It links to the southern part of the North Sea by the Strait of Dover at its northeastern end. It is the busi ...
. No trace of his son or Godard's boat has ever been found. His wife, who did not go on the sailing trip and stayed at home, also disappeared at the same time. Investigators found traces of blood in the family home and in Godard's caravan, raising suspicion that Godard's wife was murdered. In 2012, the case was closed without charges. Prosecutors ruled out accidental death and believe that Godard probably Murder–suicide, murdered his family before committing suicide at sea, but acknowledge that they are not certain of this. * Hangthong Thammawattana (49), a Thai people, Thai businessman and politician, was found dead from a gunshot wound in the early hours of 6 September 1999 in his family's mansion. It is unknown if it was a suicide or murder. * Death of Jaryd Atadero, Jaryd Atadero (3) was an American boy who went missing on 2 October 1999 in Colorado in the Arapaho & Roosevelt National Forest. On 6 May 2003, some of his remains were discovered by two businessmen while they were hiking. Though there are different theories to how he died, the true cause is not known.


2000–2010

* Lolo Ferrari (37) was a French dancer, singer and film actress who also performed in pornography and was known for her large Breast implant, surgically enhanced breasts. Ferrari was found deceased on the morning of 5 March 2000 of causes which have never been determined. *Disappearance of Erin Foster and Jeremy Bechtel, Erin Foster (18) and Jeremy Bechtel (17) were a teenage couple from Sparta, Tennessee who disappeared on 3 April 2000, after leaving a party. In 2021, they were both found dead in a car underwater. What led up to the event is unknown. * Rodney Marks (32), an Australian astrophysics, astrophysicist, died of a sudden illness on 12 May 2000 at Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station in Antarctica. It was not possible for his body to be flown to New Zealand and autopsied until after the Antarctic winter ended six months later; the cause of death was found to have been methanol poisoning. Suicide was ruled out, as he did not seem to have a motive and had readily sought treatment for his apparent illness, nor did an accidental overdose seem likely, either, as there was plenty of alcoholic drink available for consumption at the base should he have wanted it. The New Zealand police believed instead that the methanol had been "unknowingly" introduced into Marks' system but could not conclusively call the case a homicide. Further investigation has been frustrated by the refusal of American agencies to share their findings, the global dispersal of researchers and personnel at the base that winter, the 2006 disappearance of the doctor who treated Marks, and the loss of any possible crime-scene evidence during the winter after Marks' death. * Soad Hosny (58) was an actress from Cairo, Egypt, who died in London after she mysteriously fell from the balcony of her friend's apartment on 21 June 2001. * On 11 August 2001, Irish musician Paul Cunniffe (40), formerly of the bands Blaze X and the Saw Doctors, died in a fall in the London neighborhood of Whitechapel. The circumstances that led to the fall, however, or even exactly where it occurred, remain unknown. His is one of several deaths among friends and acquaintances of Pete Doherty. * Disappearance of Daniel Nolan, Daniel Nolan (14) was an English schoolboy who disappeared from the Hampshire harbor town of Hamble-le-Rice after a fishing expedition on 1 January 2002. Sections of Nolan's body were discovered inside two socks in Swanage, Dorset, on 15 May 2003. His cause of death is undetermined. * Abu Nidal (65), Palestinian terrorist leader behind the 1985 Rome and Vienna airport attacks, already suffering from leukemia, was reported to have died from a gunshot wound in Baghdad on 16 August 2002. Ba'athist Iraq, Iraq's government at the time claimed his death was a suicide; however, the Abu Nidal Organization, Fatah Revolutionary Council, which Nidal founded, claimed he was assassinated on Saddam Hussein's orders to prevent his possible capture during the Invasion of Iraq, American invasion of Iraq that began six months later. * Death of Jeremiah Duggan, Jeremiah Duggan (22), a British student studying in
Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
, was found dead on a highway in Wiesbaden, Germany, early on 27 March 2003. The initial investigation concluded he had died by suicide by running into traffic. However, his mother, noting that he had called her in great distress over his involvement with the LaRouche movement, who may have discovered that he was British and Jewish, within an hour of his death, never accepted that theory, and a later investigation found evidence that the accident may have been staged to cover an earlier beating. The case was reopened in 2012 after extensive litigation in England, resulting in a change of the cause of death to "unexplained", with the note that Duggan may have been involved in some sort of "altercation" beforehand. * Jürgen Möllemann (57), German Free Democratic Party (Germany), Free Democratic Party politician, died on 5 June 2003 in a parachuting incident at Marl, Germany, Marl-Lohmühle. His death was investigated by the Essen district attorney's office, which published a final report on 9 July 2003. While outside interference was ruled out, no definite verdict was reached on whether Möllemann died by
suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Risk factors for suicide include mental disorders, physical disorders, and substance abuse. Some suicides are impulsive acts driven by stress (such as from financial or ac ...
or had death by misadventure, died via misadventure. Shortly before his death, Möllemann, a passionate and experienced skydiver, had been confronted with allegations he had been involved in illegal arms deals and evaded taxes on millions of euros he allegedly earned from these activities. To enable a full investigation on these charges, the Bundestag lifted his parliamentary immunity on 5 June 2003 at 12:28, 22 minutes before his death. The tax evasion charges were dropped after his death. * Singer-songwriter Elliott Smith (34) died of stab wounds inflicted in his
Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
home on 21 October 2003. His girlfriend, Jennifer Chiba, claims she got out of the shower after an argument—having heard him scream—to find him with a knife sticking out of his chest, and found a short suicide note on a Post-it note, Post-It shortly thereafter. Despite common belief, the note did not misspell Elliott's name by leaving out a 't'; it was instead the coroner who made the mistake on the report. While he did indeed have a history of Depression (mood), depression and Addiction, drug addiction, friends say From a Basement on the Hill, he was actively working to finish an album at the time and seemed optimistic. The coroner found the stab wounds were inconsistent with a
suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Risk factors for suicide include mental disorders, physical disorders, and substance abuse. Some suicides are impulsive acts driven by stress (such as from financial or ac ...
attempt but could not conclude it was a homicide either; the cause of the stabbing remains undetermined and has not been further investigated. * Jonathan Luna (38), an Assistant U.S. Attorney from Baltimore, was found dead of multiple stab wounds inflicted with his own penknife in Denver, Pennsylvania, on the morning of 4 December 2003 in a stream underneath his car, which had been driven there overnight from Baltimore. The FBI, which has jurisdiction over the possible murder of any U.S. federal employee, found that Luna had mounting financial problems and was facing an investigation over missing money at his office; they considered it a suicide or botched attempt at staging a kidnapping. However, the Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, Lancaster County coroner's office, pointing to evidence suggesting he had been abducted and someone else was driving for at least the final stage of his drive, ruled it a homicide and considers the case open. * Death of Lamduan Armitage, Lamduan Armitage was a formerly unidentified woman whose body was discovered in 2004 on the mountain Pen-y-ghent in Yorkshire and the Humber, Yorkshire,
England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...
, leading her to become known as the ''Lady of the Hills''. She was found to have originally come from somewhere in Southeast Asia, South-East Asia, but despite an international police investigation, the identity of the woman, and how she arrived at the location remained a mystery until 2019. The woman was identified in March 2019 through DNA testing. Her cause of death remains unknown. * Death of Alonzo Brooks, Alonzo Brooks (23), American man who went missing from La Cygne, Kansas, on 3 April 2004 and was found dead on 1 May 2004. After the pathologists did an autopsy they have not yet been able to tell the cause of his death. * The coroner investigating the death of Richard Lancelyn Green (51), a British Arthur Conan Doyle scholar who was found garrotted with a shoelace on his bed in his home on 27 March 2004, returned an open verdict. Many of his friends and family suspected homicide as he had complained of someone following him in his efforts to stop the auction of a cache of Doyle's personal papers that he believed to have been wrongfully acquired. However, despite suicide by garrotte being unusual and difficult, some investigators believed that he had followed the example of one of Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories in which a woman stages her suicide to look like a murder. * John Garang (60), Sudanese politician and former rebel revolutionary leader, died on 30 July 2005 in New Cush, Sudan in a suspicious helicopter crash. * Death of Barbara Precht, Barbara Precht's (69) body was found on 29 November 2006 in Cincinnati, Ohio. She remained unidentified until November 2014. Her husband was later located and is considered a person of interest in her death, which has unknown circumstances. * Joyce Carol Vincent (38) was found dead in her London flat in January 2006, two years after she had died, by which time the body had decomposed so much as to make identifying a cause of death impossible; her story was profiled in the 2011 documentary ''Dreams of a Life''. * Death of Rey Rivera, Rey Rivera (32), American writer, was working for Stansberry Research, Stansberry and Associates, went missing from his house on 16 May 2006 and was found dead on Belvedere Hotel on 24 May 2006, in Mount Vernon, Baltimore Even though the Baltimore Police Department has claimed that his death was most likely to be a
suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Risk factors for suicide include mental disorders, physical disorders, and substance abuse. Some suicides are impulsive acts driven by stress (such as from financial or ac ...
, this has not been proven to be the case. * Bob Woolmer (58), Pakistan national cricket team, Pakistan's national cricket coach, was found dead in his hotel room on 18 March 2007, after losing in the 2007 Cricket World Cup, Cricket World Cup 2007 in the West Indies. Investigators at first ruled the death a suicide, but the jury that heard the inquest returned an open verdict. * The body of Death of Corryn Rayney, Corryn Rayney (44) was found in the Perth, Australia, Perth suburb of Kings Park, Western Australia a week after her 7 August 2007 disappearance; her husband Lloyd was charged in her murder even though a cause of death had not been determined. A judge acquitted him at his 2012 trial, finding the largely circumstantial case was further compromised by police misconduct. The verdict was upheld on appeal the following year; Rayney and his lawyers have called for two known sex criminals to be investigated as well. * The Salish Sea human foot discoveries are the severed feet found from 20 August 2007 to 1 January 2019 that are known to belong to people who are thought to be dead. The circumstances behind these events remain unclear. * Tony Harris (basketball, born 1970), Tony Harris (36), American basketball player who had played in multiple countries, disappeared from Brasília, Brazil on 4 November 2007 and was found dead on 18 November 2007. There are different ideas about why he died, yet the true cause of his death is unknown. * After Death of Ophélie Bretnacher, Ophélie Bretnacher (22), a French exchange student, left a Budapest nightclub to return to her apartment early 2 December 2008, security cameras recorded her walking through the streets in that direction; it was the last time she was seen alive. Her handbag was found later on the Széchenyi Chain Bridge over the Danube, which she had been recorded crossing. Two months later, her body was found washed up on the river island of Csepel, within the city but upstream from the bridge. Hungarian authorities were unable to determine the cause of death and closed the case in 2014. * American professional wrestler Steve Bradley, Steven James Bisson (32), who went by the ring name of "Steve Bradley", was found dead on 4 December 2008 in Manchester, New Hampshire, in a parking lot across the street from a pro wrestling school where he once operated. Bradley's cause of death is undetermined, as the autopsy could not reveal what he died from, so his death remains a mystery. * The Peter Bergmann case is an unsolved mystery pertaining to the death of an unidentified man in County Sligo, Ireland, whose naked body was found on a beach; the autopsy found no signs of drowning or foul play and thus the cause of death remains undetermined. From 12 to 16 June 2009, a man using the alias "Peter Bergmann" visited the coastal seaport town of Sligo in northwest Ireland. He used this alias to check into the Sligo City Hotel, where he stayed during the majority of his visit. He was described by hotel staff and tenants as having a heavy German accent. Despite conducting a five-month investigation into the death of "Peter Bergmann", the Garda Síochána have never been able to identify the man or develop any leads in the case. * Skeletal remains found in a dry creek bed in California's Malibu Canyon on 9 August 2010, turned out to be those of Death of Mitrice Richardson, Mitrice Richardson (25). She had last been seen on the night of 16 September 2009 in the backyard of a former local television news anchor after being arrested for marijuana possession and failure to pay the bill at a local restaurant where she had been acting strangely, behavior that investigating officers did not believe was caused by alcohol or drugs. The coroner has said her death did not appear to be a homicide, but the body was too decayed to determine the exact cause of death. *The Jamison family deaths, Jamison family disappeared mysteriously on 8 October 2009 from Red Oak, Oklahoma and were all later found dead after four years in November 2013. Their death causes could not be determined.


2010–2019

* On 23 August 2010, the partially decomposed body of Death of Gareth Williams, Gareth Williams (32), a Welsh mathematician who worked for British intelligence GCHQ, but who was seconded to Secret Intelligence Service, MI6 at the time of his death, was found in a padlocked bag in the bathroom of a safe house in the London neighbourhood of Pimlico. It was determined he had been dead for about a week. Due to the nature of his work, the investigation had to withhold details of it and some other aspects from any material made public; his family and friends allege that the Metropolitan Police compromised and mishandled key forensic evidence in the early stages of their response. An initial investigation by the coroner's office concluded that the death was a homicide; a later re-investigation by the police claimed that it was instead an accident. * Rajiv Dixit (43), an Indian public speaker and social activist, died on 30 November 2010 in Bhilai, Chhattisgarh, of a heart attack. It is claimed that Dixit refused to undergo emergency medical treatment, and died shortly thereafter. No autopsy was ever conducted. *Anneka Di Lorenzo (58) was a film star and a nude model who worked in California who was found dead in January 2011 after having drowned in the sea off Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, Camp Pendleton. It is unknown whether or not her death was either a murder or suicide. * British citizen Lee Bradley Brown (39) was arrested by Dubai Police Force, Dubai police while on holiday there 6 April 2011 and charged with assault after an incident between him and a hotel maid; accounts of the circumstances differ. Held without bail, he died in custody six days later after, police claimed, being beaten by cellmates; later they said he had "thrown himself on the ground repeatedly." An autopsy, however, found instead that Brown had, under the influence of hashish, choked on his own vomit. British officials who were allowed to examine the body disputed that conclusion, saying they saw no evidence of choking or blunt force trauma; Dubai authorities have declined repeated requests to share evidence such as CCTV footage from the original incident and the police station that might clarify matters. A coroner's inquest in the UK that considered only the autopsy report and the diplomats' reports returned an open verdict. *Anjuman Shehzadi (33–34), Pakistani film and stage actress, was found dead in Lahore under mysterious circumstances on 15 May 2011. Her death remains unsolved. * Death of Maddy Scott, Maddy Scott (20) was a Canadian woman who disappeared on 28 May 2011 from Vanderhoof, British Columbia and was found dead on 27 May 2023. Her cause of death is unknown. * Ahmad Rezaee, Tom J. Anderson (35), formerly known by his birth name "Ahmad Rezaee", was a businessman and the eldest son of Iranian Major General Mohsen Rezaee. On 12 November 2011, he was found dead in the Gloria Hotel, located in Dubai Media City, where he was staying. There are different theories about how he died, yet the cause of his death remains unknown. * Death of Stephen Corrigan, Stephen Corrigan (48) was an Irish people, Irish man who disappeared on 22 November 2011; on 9 April 2020 some remains of his skeleton were found in Rathmines, Rathmines, Dublin. Corrigan's death cause is unknown. * Death of Christoph Bulwin, Christoph Bulwin (40),
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
man who died of complications related to mercury poisoning on 9 May 2012. He may have been poisoned by someone whose identity is unknown. * Arkadiusz Sojka (32), was a football (soccer) player Forward (association football), striker from Poland who went missing in June 2012 from Przesieka, Lower Silesian Voivodeship, Przesieka, and was found dead in October 2012. His cause of death is not known. * Candice Cohen-Ahnine (35), a French Jewish woman who successfully fought a legal battle against Saudi prince Sattam bin Khalid Al Saud over their illegitimate daughter, fell to her death in
Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
on 16 August 2012. Her death is considered suspicious in nature due to the circumstances. * Exiled Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky (businessman), Boris Berezovsky (67) was found dead in his home near Ascot, Berkshire on 23 March 2013. At first glance he had hanged himself; he had recently lost what remained of his fortune, and some other close friends had unexpectedly died, which had left him despondent. The police soon ruled the case a suicide, but at the inquest, Berezovsky's daughter, who believes her father was murdered at the behest of the Russian government, introduced a report by a German pathologist that cast enough doubt for the coroner to return an open verdict. * Zsolt Erőss (45), a Hungarians, Hungarian high-altitude mountaineer, disappeared on 21 May 2013 while he was climbing Kangchenjunga. Erőss' body was found in 2014, and his death cause is unknown. * The decomposing remains of Canadian journalist Death of Dave Walker, Dave Walker (57) were found in Cambodia's Angkor temple complex on 1 May 2014, ending a search that began shortly after he failed to return to his hotel's guest house on the night of 14 February that same year. While the medical examiner concluded that he had died weeks earlier, the cause of Walker's death could not be determined. * Bone fragments found along the Rio Culebra near Boquete, Panama, in late June 2014 were matched to Deaths of Kris Kremers and Lisanne Froon, Lisanne Froon, 22, and Kris Kremers, 21, of Amersfoort, the Netherlands. The two had last been seen alive on 1 April when they went for a hike on the popular El Pianista trail. After unsuccessful initial searches, a backpack belonging to the women was turned in by a local. It contained their phones, a Canon camera, and personal effects. After two months, a small fraction of their remains was found as well. The women's cell phones showed that they had repeatedly attempted to contact emergency numbers shortly after taking pictures of themselves at the Continental Divide. Those calls had continued over several days, and Froon's camera contained 90 photographs taken in the night of 8 April, seven days after their disappearance. Most of the photos showed the jungle in the dark, but some of them contained rock formations, small pieces of paper and other items in close-up, and one contained the back of Kremers' head. It was impossible to determine from the remains that were found exactly how they had died. Local officials believe the women suffered an accidental injury shortly after getting lost in a network of trails in the region's cloud forests and got lost in the wilderness around Volcán Barú; however, Panamanian lawyers for their families have pointed to failings of the investigation and suggested both women could have met with foul play. * On 27 June 2014, the body of Death of Andrew Sadek, Andrew Sadek (20) was recovered from the Red River of the North, Red River near Breckenridge, Minnesota, with a small-caliber gunshot wound and a backpack full of rocks. He had last been seen by a security camera leaving his dorm at North Dakota State College of Science in Wahpeton, North Dakota, Wahpeton around 2 a.m. on 1 May. At the time of his disappearance he had been working as a confidential informant for local police as a result of his own arrest for selling marijuana on campus, which could otherwise have resulted in a long prison sentence. It has not been determined yet whether his death was suicide or murder. Like Rachel Hoffman's death, the case has been used as an example of the mishandling of youthful CIs by police. * Gennadiy Tsypkalov (43) was a political and military figure of the unrecognized Luhansk People's Republic (LPR). According to officials of the Luhansk People's Republic, Tsypkalov had died by
suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Risk factors for suicide include mental disorders, physical disorders, and substance abuse. Some suicides are impulsive acts driven by stress (such as from financial or ac ...
on 17 May 2014, yet according to some of Tsypkalov's colleagues whom Igor Plotnitsky dismissed, the leadership of LPR murdered Tsypkalov. His true death cause is unknown. * Death of Lennon Lacy, Lennon Lacy, a student who went to West Bladen High School located in Bladenboro, North Carolina, was found dead in the center of a mobile home community hanging from the frame of a swing set on 29 August 2014. It is unclear whether he died by
suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Risk factors for suicide include mental disorders, physical disorders, and substance abuse. Some suicides are impulsive acts driven by stress (such as from financial or ac ...
or was murdered. * Deaths of John and Joyce Sheridan, John Sheridan (72), formerly New Jersey Department of Transportation#NJDOT Commissioners, New Jersey's Transportation Commissioner, was found dead in his Skillman, New Jersey, Skillman home along with his wife Joyce on the morning of 28 September 2014. The bodies were in an upstairs bedroom where a fire had been set; they were found with multiple stab wounds. An original ruling of murder-suicide was changed to undetermined in 2017 after a court challenge by the couple's sons, motivated by complaints of mishandled evidence and some evidence suggesting the couple had been attacked by an intruder. The sons called for the investigation to be reopened, which the state attorney general did in 2022. * The Unnao dead bodies row, discovered on 14 January 2015, were the remains of over one hundred unidentified dead bodies found floating in the River Ganges in Unnao district located in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. The cause behind their deaths is unknown. * Death of Alberto Nisman, Alberto Nisman (51), an Argentine federal prosecutor, was found dead in his apartment with a single gunshot wound to the head on 18 January 2015. He had been investigating the 1994 AMIA bombing, Argentina's deadliest terror attack, and had publicly accused President Cristina Kirchner and other high officials close to her of covering up for suspects in the case for foreign-policy reasons; he was scheduled to present these allegations to Congress the next day. While some of the circumstances of his death are consistent with an early statement that he died by suicide, friends and relatives say that he was eagerly looking ahead to his appearance before Congress and did not seem depressed or despondent at all. Kirchner has suggested the country's intelligence services were behind the killing since he was about to expose their attempts to bring her down and called for them to be dismantled. The case remains under investigation. * Kayla Mueller (26), an American human rights activist and humanitarian aid worker who had been taken captive by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, Islamic State in August 2013 in Aleppo, Syria, where she was helping Doctors without borders, Doctors Without Borders, was reported to have died in a Jordanian air strike during the Syrian Civil War in Raqqa on 6 February 2015. Her death was confirmed by the The Pentagon, Pentagon, but the circumstances could not be established by the US. The Pentagon confirmed that the building ISIS claims she died in was hit during the bombings but disputed that Mueller or any other civilian had been inside at the time. The site had been bombed by the coalition twice before and was targeted again because ISIS soldiers sometimes return to bombed sites, thinking the coalition would not bomb those sites again, according to Pentagon spokesman John Kirby (admiral), John Kirby. After Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi's death in October 2019, new speculations arose that Al-Baghdadi may have had her executed. * Josh Greenberg (29), co-founder of the music-streaming service Grooveshark, which had shut down a few months earlier after settling several copyright-infringement suits brought by major music companies, was found dead in his bed by his girlfriend on 29 July 2015 at their apartment in Gainesville, Florida. The autopsy could not establish a cause of death; investigators have said that suicide or foul play are unlikely. * Vladimir Cvijan, Serbian lawyer and politician, former MP (2012–2014) and legal advisor and General Secretary of President of Serbia (2004–2010). High-ranked member of ruling Serbian Progressive Party, SNS of Aleksandar Vučić, from 2010 to 2014, and later dissident disappeared in 2017, allegedly fleeing to the United States. However, in March 2021, Serbian media published a document in which the Public Prosecutor of the Higher Public Prosecutors Office in Belgrade stated that the Prosecutor's Office had issued an order ordering the payment of costs to the Institute for Forensic Medicine of the University of Belgrade Faculty of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Belgrade for the autopsy of Vladimir Cvijan's body on 20 November 2018 in Belgrade, Serbia. The cause, circumstances and exact date of his death are still unknown. * Valery Bolotov (46) was a Ukrainian militant leader known for his involvement in the War in Donbas in eastern Ukraine, and as the leader of the unrecognized Luhansk People's Republic. Bolotov was found dead on 27 January 2017 in his own home in Moscow, Russia. The preliminary results of clinical tests showed an acute heart failure as reason for death. Poisoning later was suspected. The causes of his death are being investigated and are not currently known. * Otto Warmbier (22) was an American college student who was arrested and detained in North Korea since January 2016, on charges that he had attempted to steal a propaganda poster. During his imprisonment, he suffered an unspecified injury which caused him to go into a coma, from which he died on 19 June 2017. * Sean Suiter (43) was a homicide detective working in Baltimore, Baltimore City who died on 16 November 2017. It is not known whether it was self-inflicted or not. * Death of Rogelio Martinez, Rogelio Martinez (36), an agent of the United States Border Patrol, died on 19 November 2017 in Culberson County, Texas while on duty. His cause of death is thought to be murder, but this remains uncertain owing to a lack of evidence. A four-month investigation was conducted by the FBI into his death cause, but the results were inconclusive. *Sridevi (54) was an Indian actress. Sridevi died on 24 February 2018 after she was found drowning in her bathtub by her husband in the Emirates Hotel of Dubai. Her mysterious accidental death in a foreign country remains unsolved and has led to a number of conspiracy theories. * Computer hacker Adrian Lamo (37) was found dead 14 March 2018 on a pile of sheets in the guest bedroom of the Wichita, Kansas, home of a couple he had been living with. After three months of investigating, the county coroner was unable to identify a cause of death. While there are some alternative theories suggesting his death had something to do with his controversial involvement in the criminal cases against Chelsea Manning and Julian Assange, the most likely theory is the possible adverse interactions of some of the medicines found near him with kratom, which he often used. *Fernando Albán (56), a Venezuelan-Colombian politician, lawyer, and activist, who died on 8 October 2018, while he was being held in the headquarters of the Bolivarian Intelligence Service (SEBIN) in Plaza Venezuela, Caracas. His cause of death is unknown. * Hong Kong teenager Death of Chan Yin-lam, Chan Yin-lam, who participated in the 2019 Hong Kong protests, was found dead and naked in the harbour off Tseung Kwan O on 22 September 2019. This sparked conspiracy theories in pro-protest circles, notably the online platform LIHKG that Chan had been killed by the police. On 11 September 2020, a coroner's inquest jury ruled that the cause of death could not be determined. *Disappearance of Yolanda Klug, Yolanda Klug (26), German woman who disappeared in Leipzig on 25 September 2019 and whose disappearance has been linked to Scientology. A walker discovered her bones on 25 February 2023 in the "Rödel" forest area near Freyburg, Germany, Freyburg. The cause of death is unclear. * Death of Marc Bennett, Marc Bennett (52), a British citizen working for Qatar Airways, was found hanged in his Doha hotel room on 24 December 2019. Authorities there ruled it suicide, a finding Bennett's friend and family disputed as he had been actively making plans for his future at a new job with a Saudi Arabia, Saudi company. The airline might have been upset by this since Qatar and Saudi Arabia did not have good relations at the time; a couple of months earlier, after he had let them know that he was dissatisfied and leaving, he was arrested and charged with possessing stolen documents from the company. During the month he was held, he said he was tortured. The West Sussex Coroner's Office reinvestigated the death and found that foul play "could not be ruled out".


2020s

* Ana Lucrecia Taglioretti (24) was a blind female Paraguayan violinist and prodigy who had performed at events for charitable causes. She was found dead on 9 January 2020 in her apartment in Asunción, Paraguay, by her mother during a welfare check. Her cause of death is unknown. * Facundo Astudillo Castro (22–23) was an Argentines, Argentine man who disappeared on 30 April 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic in Argentina, COVID-19 pandemic after he was stopped by the Buenos Aires Provincial Police, police in Mayor Buratovich, Buenos Aires. Castro was found dead on 15 August 2020. Though Castro's death was revealed to be caused by drowning, it could not be determined if it was a result of homicide, suicide, or an accident. * Death of Esther Dingley, Esther Dingley (37) was an English hiker and blogger who disappeared while going on a solo trip through the Pyrenees. Partial remains were found in July 2021, and later confirmed to be Dingley's following a DNA profiling, DNA examination. Her cause of death is currently unknown. * John Snorri Sigurjónsson (48), Juan Pablo Mohr Prieto (37), and Ali Sadpara (45), three high-altitude mountaineers, went missing while climbing the Bottleneck (K2), Bottleneck area of Pakistan's K2 mountain on 5 February 2021. The three men's bodies were found on 26 July of that year, but cause of death could not be determined. * Melissa Caddick (49) was an Australian financial advisor who vanished on 12 November 2020, amid allegations that she was running a Ponzi scheme. Her partial remains were found floating in the ocean in February 2021, but cause of death is yet to be established. * James Dean (footballer), James Dean (35) was an English footballer and champion kickboxer who disappeared in the area of Oswaldtwistle on 5 May 2021. His body was found four days later. While authorities have said that the case is not treated as a homicide, no cause of death has been determined. The police announced his death was not being treated as suspicious. * Kristina Đukić (21) was a Serbians, Serbian Online streamer, livestreamer and YouTuber who was found dead in Belgrade, Serbia on 8 December 2021 from causes that have yet to be determined. * Aguil Chut-Deng (55), also known as "Aguil Chut-Deng Acouth" and "Aguil de'Chut Deng", was a South Sudanese activist and revolutionary who was found dead on 26 April 2022 in a wooded area in Brisbane after being reported missing a day earlier. Her cause of death is not yet known. * Dan Rapoport (52), Latvian-born American businessman, fell to his death from a building in Washington, D.C., on 14 August 2022. The cause of the fall has not been officially determined. Speculation has considered the possibilities of both suicide and homicide, the latter possibly by either aggrieved business connections or the Russian government, of whom Rapoport had become increasingly critical. * Julian Sands (65), English actor who went missing in January 2023 in the San Gabriel Mountains northeast of Los Angeles, while he was hiking. Sands' remains were found in June, but due to the condition of the body his cause of death could not be established. * Death of Émile Soleil, Émile Soleil (2), disappeared on 8 July 2023 in the French commune of Le Vernet, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence. No trace of him was found until March 2024, when his skull was found by a hiker. His cause of death could not be determined. * Elinés Olivero (22), Venezuelan female military officer who died in Tumeremo, Venezuela on 1 October 2023, either by suicide or was murdered. * Ross McDonnell (44) was an Irish photographer, cinematographer, and film director, who went missing in New York City, New York, on 4 November 2023 and whose partial remains were found on 17 November 2023. His cause of death is unknown, but local authorities believe his body was dismembered by sharp rocks.


Date of death disputed

* According to contemporary sources, German alchemist and astrologer Johann Georg Faust was killed in an explosion in either 1540 or 1541. It was assumed that Faust had been killed in an alchemical accident. However, the nature of this accident is unknown and Faust's body was said to have been "grievously mutilated", leading to suggestions of foul play and even of Satanic involvement. * Raoul Wallenberg (34), a Swedish diplomat who worked in Budapest, Hungary, was most likely executed in the Soviet Union in or around 1947 after being captured by the Red Army in 1945. His death is dated by Soviet authorities as 16 July 1947, but this is disputed, and the case remains unsolved. * In 1948, a German court ruled that the case of Hans Kammler (43), an engineer and Schutzstaffel, SS commander who oversaw many Nazi construction projects, including Nazi concentration camps, concentration camps and, later, the V-2 missile program, died on 9 May 1945 of what was later claimed to be suicide by cyanide poisoning.Karlsch, Rainer (2014). "Was wurde aus Hans Kammler? (summary of an article in Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaft, Heft 6, 2014)". Frankfurter Allgemeine am Sonntag (in German). Frankfurt: 52–53. Some other accounts, however, have him being killed by his own side to prevent his capture during an attack by Resistance in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, Czech resistance fighters; others suggest those accounts of his death were put out to cover his surrender to the United States Army, U.S. Army, in whose custody he supposedly hanged himself two years later.


See also

* Cold case (criminology) * Forensic science * List of kidnappings * List of unsolved murders in the United Kingdom * Lists of unsolved murders * Lists of people by cause of death * Lists of people who disappeared * Unidentified decedent


References


External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:List of unsolved deaths Lists of people by cause of death, Unsolved Unsolved deaths,