On a typical spring break night in 2006, 27-year-old medical student Brian Shaffer stepped into a bar with friends, but he was never seen leaving. What began as an evening of bar hopping in Columbus, Ohio, quickly turned into one of the most perplexing missing persons cases of our time. CCTV footage captured Brian entering the Ugly Tuna Saloona, but despite extensive searches and investigations, no footage ever showed him exiting. 

Did Brian disappear voluntarily, or was foul play involved? Join us as we explore the chilling details, unanswered questions, and lingering theories behind the mysterious vanishing act of Brian Shaffer.

https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/vicap/missing-persons/brian-shaffer

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A council house in North London. A single mother. Two frightened children. And a haunting that exploded into one of the most documented paranormal cases in modern history.

In this episode of Mysteries at Bedtime, we revisit the Enfield Poltergeist with a calm, immersive retelling of the key events: the knocks and violent disturbances, the chilling “Bill” voice, the alleged levitations, and the investigators who believed they were witnessing something extraordinary.

But Enfield is also a case defined by contradiction. Eyewitness accounts, recordings, and media frenzy collided with claims of exaggeration and trickery. The result is a story that still divides believers and sceptics almost fifty years later.

Whether you think it was genuine, misunderstood, or something in between, Enfield remains a rare case where the mystery is the legacy.

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In August 1955, a terrified Kentucky family burst into a small-town police station claiming they’d spent the night under attack from “little men” that bullets couldn’t hurt. What officers found at the Sutton farmhouse would become one of the strangest and most controversial cases in UFO history. In this episode of Mysteries at Bedtime, we head to rural Kelly–Hopkinsville to walk hour by hour through the so-called “Goblin Siege”: the glowing craft in the sky, the strange metallic creatures at the windows, the 20–plus officers who swore the family were genuinely afraid, and the investigations that followed. Were they besieged by aliens, fooled by owls, or swept up in a perfect storm of fear, folklore and bad timing? Settle in as we unpack one of the classic foundations of the “little green men” legend.

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In 1924, deep in the wilderness near Mount St. Helens, a group of gold prospectors claimed they were attacked by giant ape-like creatures. The incident became known as the Ape Canyon Attack, one of the earliest and most chilling reports linked to Bigfoot. In this episode, we revisit the miners’ terrifying night inside their remote cabin, the footprints they found, the gunfire, and the mysterious evidence left behind. Was it a hoax, hysteria, or a genuine encounter with something unknown in the Pacific Northwest?

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For generations, mountaineers on Ben Macdui have described the same impossible experience: the sound of slow, heavy footsteps behind them… but no one there. Some claim they saw a figure ten feet tall moving through the mist. Others fled down the mountain convinced something was pacing them on the plateau. Known in Gaelic as Am Fear Liath Mòr — the Big Grey Man — this phenomenon has baffled experts and terrified hikers for more than a hundred years. In this atmospheric deep dive, we explore the folklore, the eyewitness accounts, and the science behind one of Britain’s most haunting mysteries.

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When a pickup truck was found abandoned on a remote Oklahoma mountain road, its doors were unlocked, wallets untouched, and a family dog barely alive inside.

Bobby and Sherilynn Jamison, and their six-year-old daughter Madyson, were gone.

Inside the truck — $32,000 in cash, phones, IDs, and a note that hinted at despair.

For years, searchers combed the wilderness with no trace… until four years later, their remains surfaced just miles away, and with them, only more questions.

Murder, accident, or something stranger?

This is the story of the Jamison family — a modern American mystery that refuses to rest.

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In 1912, four-year-old Bobby Dunbar vanished beside Louisiana’s Swayze Lake. After eight desperate months, a child was found hundreds of miles away with a travelling handyman — and the Dunbars swore he was their son.

The story became a national sensation: a miracle return, a family reunited, faith rewarded.

But ninety years later, a simple DNA test exposed one of America’s most haunting cases of mistaken identity.

This episode follows the Dunbar mystery from the muddy bayous of Opelousas to a 21st-century laboratory — uncovering a century-old lie, a mother who was never believed, and the family legend that outlived them all.

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In the summer of 1951, 67-year-old Mary Reeser was found almost entirely incinerated in her armchair in St. Petersburg, Florida — in a fire so strange, the FBI was called in. The walls were untouched. The clock had frozen at 4:20 a.m. And all that remained of Mary was a slippered foot, part of her spine, and a shrunken skull.

Her death would become one of the most famous unsolved mysteries in modern forensic history, sparking decades of debate over spontaneous human combustion, the wick effect, and whether science has ever truly explained what happened that night.

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In July 2014, 28-year-old German tourist Lars Mittank vanished without a trace from Varna Airport in Bulgaria. Just hours before his flight home, Lars suddenly ran from the terminal in a panic, leaving behind his luggage, wallet and passport. Security footage captured him sprinting into nearby fields — and he was never seen again.

What began as a summer holiday with friends quickly spiralled into one of Europe’s most unsettling modern mysteries. What happened to Lars in those final hours? Was he running from someone — or something only he could see?

In this episode of Mysteries at Bedtime, we trace Lars’s final days: the bar fight that injured his ear, the strange calls to his mother, the bizarre behaviour at the hotel, and the haunting airport footage that still chills millions of viewers online.

This is the story of the vanishing man at Varna Airport — a case that continues to baffle investigators, fuel theories, and break hearts around the world.

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Richard Lancelyn Green was the world’s leading expert on Sherlock Holmes. A lifelong collector, historian, and passionate Holmesian, he spent years uncovering long-lost treasures tied to Arthur Conan Doyle. But in March 2004, Green was found dead in his London flat under circumstances eerily reminiscent of the detective stories he adored.

Was it suicide, an accident, or something far more sinister? This episode of Mysteries at Bedtime unravels the strange twists of his final days — from secret archives and disputed literary estates to a mysterious garrotting and unanswered questions that still puzzle investigators today.

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Listener discretion advised: This story contains subject matter some may find upsetting.

In the quiet Scottish countryside, just outside Dumbarton, lies an elegant stone bridge that has become infamous around the world. Since the 1950s, Overtoun Bridge has drawn eerie attention for a chilling phenomenon: hundreds of dogs have leapt from its walls—many to their deaths—without warning or explanation. Locals call it the “Dog Suicide Bridge.” Scientists, spiritualists, and sceptics have all tried to unravel the mystery. Is it something in the landscape, a scent in the air, or something far stranger at work?

In this unsettling episode of Mysteries at Bedtime, we step into the misty grounds of Overtoun House, trace the chilling reports of inexplicable canine behaviour, and explore the folklore and theories that have haunted this bridge for decades. Prepare for a story where the line between natural instinct and the supernatural becomes dangerously blurred.

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In 1976, the small town of Circleville, Ohio, began receiving letters, hundreds of them.

Each one was anonymous. Each one accused neighbours, teachers, and officials of dark secrets. And each one carried the same eerie signature: none at all.

The anonymous writer seemed to know everything, where people worked, who they spoke to, even private affairs no one else could have known. Then came the threats, a mysterious death, and a trap wired with a gun.

When a local man was arrested, everyone thought the nightmare was over… until the letters kept coming from hundreds of miles away, even while he sat in prison.

In this episode of Mysteries at Bedtime, we revisit one of America’s most disturbing unsolved cases, a story of obsession, fear, and words that tore a town apart.

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In December 1946, 18-year-old Bennington College student Paula Jean Welden set out for a short hike on Vermont’s Long Trail. She was seen by motorists and hikers and then she was gone. Despite one of the largest searches in state history, no trace was ever found. Her case not only unsettled a community, but directly led to the creation of the Vermont State Police, and became part of the legend of the so-called Bennington Triangle.

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In 1928, nine-year-old Walter Collins vanished on his way to the cinema in Los Angeles. Months later, police declared they had solved the case and returned a boy to his grieving mother. But when Christine Collins insisted the child was not her son, she found herself locked in a battle with one of America’s most corrupt police departments and at the centre of a mystery that would spiral into one of California’s darkest criminal cases.

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In December 2016, American diplomats in Havana, Cuba, began reporting a strange set of symptoms, nausea, dizziness, headaches, and hearing loss. Many described hearing a high-pitched sound, like marbles rolling inside a funnel, just before the illness struck. By 2018, dozens of U.S. and Canadian officials had been affected, sparking panic, diplomatic fallout, and years of investigation.

Was it a new kind of weapon, crickets mistaken for sonic attacks, or mass stress spreading through embassy halls? In this episode of Mysteries at Bedtime, Jack unravels the story of the Havana Syndrome, from the first reports in Cuba to its spread in China, through government inquiries, scientific studies, and a mystery that remains unsolved to this day.

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In August 2005, 21-year-old Australian backpacker Ryan Chambers walked barefoot out of an ashram in Rishikesh, India, leaving behind his passport, wallet, phone, and shoes. He was never seen again. For nearly two decades, his family searched across India, chasing rumours and plastering posters from Punjab to Rajasthan.

In 2023, a South Australian court finally declared Ryan dead — but the mystery of what happened that morning on the banks of the Ganges remains unsolved. This is the haunting story of Ryan Chambers, one of Australia’s most enduring missing-person cases abroad.

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n January 2013, 21-year-old Canadian student Elisa Lam checked into Los Angeles’ infamous Cecil Hotel. Known for its dark history of crime, tragedy, and mystery, the hotel was the last place Elisa was seen alive.

When she failed to check out or contact her family, police launched a search. Two weeks later, security footage of Elisa inside a hotel elevator shocked the world. Her behaviour, pressing multiple buttons, hiding in corners, stepping in and out, gesturing as though to someone unseen went viral online.

Millions debated what the strange footage meant: was she running from someone, suffering a mental health episode, or caught in something far more sinister?

On February 19, Elisa’s body was discovered in one of the hotel’s rooftop water tanks, after guests had complained about the water supply. With no signs of trauma, an official ruling of accidental drowning, and countless unanswered questions, her death remains one of the most disturbing and widely discussed mysteries of the 21st century.

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In 1872, the merchant brigantine Mary Celeste left New York Harbor on a routine voyage to Italy. On board were Captain Benjamin Briggs, his wife Sarah, their young daughter Sophia, and a crew of seven experienced sailors. Just weeks later, the ship was found drifting in the Atlantic Ocean — fully seaworthy, cargo intact, provisions untouched… but not a single soul remained on board.

What happened during those missing days between her last log entry and her discovery by the Dei Gratia? Why would an experienced captain abandon a safe ship with food, water, and sails set for the journey ahead? Was it mutiny, piracy, a sudden storm, or something stranger that stole away ten lives without leaving a trace?

In this episode of Mysteries at Bedtime, we unravel the haunting voyage of the Mary Celeste, exploring the ship’s background, her fateful discovery, the Gibraltar investigation, and the enduring mystery that still captures imaginations nearly 150 years later.

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On Christmas Eve 1945, a fire tore through the Sodder family home in West Virginia. George and Jennie escaped with some of their children, but five never made it out. When no remains were found in the ashes, suspicion turned to sabotage, kidnapping, and conspiracy. This is the enduring mystery of the Sodder children.

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