To say that Netflix has been releasing some amazing content lately would be an understatement. Along with adding a lot of streaming movies and TV shows to the service, they’ve also been creating their own original content. From movies to TV series and even some really interesting documentaries, Netflix has been on top of their game when it comes to releasing things that viewers just can’t get enough of.
Along with their fictional series, Netflix has also been releasing a ton of really interesting true crime documentaries and docuseries in recent years. These are a fun way to learn about a new, usually strange case that we had never heard about before, or even to get a deeper look into a strange case that was all over the news when it happened. But, in the world of true crime, there are a ton of mysterious cases that Netflix hasn’t taken on yet in a documentary, but we think that should change.
To see 10 unusual true crime cases Netflix needs to cover next, keep reading!
Maura Murray
The disappearance of Maura Murray is an unsolved mystery that has become a massively popular case around the Internet since it happened. There are books, forums, and blogs dedicated to organizing all the evidence and coming up with theories as to where she went and who might have been responsible for her disappearance.
Maura was a nursing student who informed her professors that she had a family emergency - which her family denied. She packed her car and drove away from her campus. After her car went off the road, someone offered to call for help, but she asked them not to because she already had. Doubtful, the person went home and called the police anyway, but when they arrived, Maura was already gone and has never been found.
Joan Risch
Joan Risch’s disappearance is one that took place quite a while ago, but the case is still interesting and unusual enough to keep the attention of the modern amateur sleuth. Joan Risch disappeared in 1961 and the police came to her house after her neighbor said they saw blood trailing out of her house.
Police saw quite a bit of blood on the floor in her kitchen, but no bloody footprints or handprints anywhere in the house to imply that she had become injured and walked out. Risch had also checked out books about people who had disappeared recently, which only adds to the mystery and makes the fact that she was never found even stranger.
The “Salvador Mundi”
The “Salvador Mundi” is a painting that was believed to have been created by Leonardo da Vinci. The story of this painting isn’t necessarily one of true crime since, as far as anyone knows, no crime was actually committed in relation to it. Still, the mystery surrounding this painting is still one that has us scratching our heads.
The painting was sold at auction to Prince Badr bin Abdullah for over $450 million. The painting was going to be put on display at an exhibit in Abu Dhabi, but it was suddenly canceled without any real explanation. This painting is special to the art world as its one of only a few remaining that were painted by da Vinci, so the reason why its reveal was canceled and where the painting is located has many art lovers feeling confused.
Debbie Wolfe
Debbie Wolfe was a woman who lived in a fairly isolated cabin outside of Fayetteville, North Carolina. After she failed to show up to her job as a nurse one day in 1985, her friends and family worried about her. Naturally, they went to her cabin to check up on her.
There, they found the neat and tidy woman’s house in shambles. There were clothes and garbage everywhere and her dogs hadn’t been fed. A message on her answering machine implied that she had been missing from work for several days, the reason for which became clear when her body was found inside of a barrel in the pond near her house. Despite the strange circumstances, her death was ruled an accident, something that Wolfe’s family and friends were highly doubtful of.
Misty Upham
Misty Upham was a Native American actress that was born in Kallispell, Montana and was a member of the Blackfeet Nation. This actress was known for her roles in movies like Django Unchained and Frozen River.
Tragically, this actress’s life was cut short in 2014. After leaving her sister’s home in Washington, Misty disappeared and wasn’t heard from for some time. This caused her family and friends to start a search for her and, eventually, they found her body at the bottom of a cliff. Many people close to her believe this was an accident and that she fell because it was dark outside, but it’s not entirely clear.
The Isdal Woman
The Isdal Woman is a name given to a woman whose body was discovered, burned, in Norway in 1970. It’s believed that her cause of death was being burned alive, but sleeping pills were also found in her stomach during an autopsy.
People who had seen the woman during her travels across Europe noted that she regularly wore wigs, used different names, and claimed to have a variety of different professions when speaking to people. The fact that she was so secretive about her life and the mysterious circumstances of her death definitely make this case a strange one that has never been solved.
The Titanic Cast & Crew Poisoning
Titanic was released in 1997 and has become a cultural icon. But, how many fans of this historical film knew that it was also the source of one of Hollywood’s most unusual mysteries? In 1996, a number of members of the film’s cast and crew found themselves poisoned by PCP-laced seafood.
Vanity Fairreported that over 60 people in the cast and crew had ingested the food that was spiked with this drug. Who did it? No one is sure, but the main suspect is a crew member who had recently been fired. Was this some kind of prank gone wrong? Or a heinous revenge plot? No one can say for sure.
Elisa Lam
Elisa Lam’s disappearance is one that has become infamous around the Internet due to CCTV footage of her erratic behavior. She was spotted on a hotel’s security system acting strangely in the hotel’s elevator, repeatedly going in and out and pushing buttons and generally acting as though someone was after her.
Later, guests reported issues with the water supply in their rooms. Hotel staff investigated the water supply and found Lam’s body inside the water tank. How she got there is unclear, but just about everyone on the Internet has a theory about what happened to her.
Cicada 3301
Although this is technically not a crime, as far as the general public is aware, it’s still a bizarre case that has the Internet scratching their heads that would make an excellent Netflix documentary. Cicada 3301 is the name of a secret organization that appeared on 4chan in 2012 and tasked users with solving a series of puzzles in order to “join” them.
The puzzles were heavily focused on Internet security, surveillance, and cryptography and had varying different methods of being solved, some of which had users travel to different cities around the world to find special posters that were put up.
Who Put Bella In The Wych Elm?
This question has haunted the people of Hagley since the 1940s. In 1943, a group of boys were outside when they stumbled across a wych elm and saw a skull inside the hollow trunk. An investigation uncovered an entire body inside the trunk, one that has never been identified.
To make things stranger, graffiti reading, “Who put Bella in the wych elm?” has been appearing on the obelisk in the area over and over, starting in 1944. Although later appearances of the question are likely people just stirring up an old mystery, the fact that it first appeared so soon after her body was discovered is definitely unusual!
Next: 10 Most Underrated True Crime Movies Of The Last 20 Years