Most topics discussed here are probably narrow enough for our purposes, but there are a few that are simply too broad.

Black Dahlia

Elizabeth Short

Her murder by an unknown assailant was the big news story of the time period.

JonBenet Ramsey

This little girl was a 6 year old beauty pageant contestant. She'd been bludgeoned and then strangled to death.

Despite almost all the evidence pointing to the family, they were never charged. In 2008 the investigators formally cleared the family based on some DNA evidence.

DNA evidence is not the slam dunk everyone seems to think.

It's just a piece of the investigation puzzle, like any other piece of evidence, like fingerprints, weapons, footprints, etc.

But for some reason, most likely the way TV shows and movies have portrayed it, most Americans think it is the be-all, end-all of investigation.

(Fingerprints and hair analysis were treated like that when they first came out, as well.)

The Sodder Children

Potential mob retaliation against their father?

The investigation into the missing children has a lot of questions.

MH370

(Malaysia Airlines plane crash)

Again, a common theme among mysteries is that TV shows and movies have led us to believe reality works in a way that it does not. The ocean is enormous and enormously deep. The missing pieces of the aircraft after a crash seems mysterious, but really is not.

Elisa Lam

This captures our attention for really only one reason - the elevator video.

Lam's odd behavior on the video has caught the public notice. Her disappearance and then subsequent recovery in the water tank is a mystery, but doesn't invite the scrutiny that the security film does.

Jack the Ripper

(Honestly, at this point probably the most discussed unsolved murder mystery in history, and we're no closer to solving it than they were back then.)

Caylee Anthony

The outcome of this trial was a travesty in the eyes of the general viewing public. There was so much evidence pointing directly to Caylee's mother, that the collective population probably all shouted at their tvs when a "not-guilty" verdict was presented.

The biggest hangup in the case was the lack of forensic evidence. But that goes back to the point on earlier slides: Americans simply believe that the CSI fantasy of forensics is reality, and that's just not the case. In earlier decades, I have no doubt Caylee's mother would be in prison on a life sentence.

Jeanette Depalma

Most people haven't heard this one recently, but it was all the news in the 1970s. It was at the height of the Satanic Panic.

Crazily, the current Q-Anon conspiracy nuts right now in the US aren't far removed in their thinking than the people in the 1960s-80s who were scared of Satan-worshipping murder cults

The recent Navy UAP videos

This is one of those topics that risks being too broad.

You would need to focus narrowly just on the videos and the secrecy around them. Extrapolating all the way out to aliens is a bridge too far.

Bermuda Triangle

(I specifically called this out as being too broad. It's too broad. If you have a specific case involving the triangle, that might be okay.)

The basic problem here is that the "mystery" never really happened. It's a fiction. There have not been numerous disappearances of planes or ships. In fact, it's one of the most heavily trafficked shipping lanes in world history. The only real mystery is why this is a "mystery."

Atlantis

Atlantis was a fictional location made up whole cloth by the philosopher Plato. It was an allegory created just so Plato could talk about his philosophical principles using a fake location - much like Pan-Em in Hunger Games or Wakanda in the Marvel Comics.

This doesn't really count as a mystery, so probably best to avoid it.

D.B. Cooper

Cooper most likely died in the mountains he landed in, but to date none of the money he was given nor his body have resurfaced. And none of the money was spent in circulation either, which means he probably didn't get to spend it. More evidence that he most likely died after his parachute exit from the plane.

Amelia Earhart

Every few years she's "found" whether in a photograph taken on a tourist destination Pacific island living it up with other people, a piece of a plane that could be hers washing up on shore, or a random skeleton uncovered on a deserted island.

Most topics discussed here are probably narrow enough for our purposes, but there are a few that are simply too broad.

Black Dahlia

Elizabeth Short

Her murder by an unknown assailant was the big news story of the time period.

JonBenet Ramsey

This little girl was a 6 year old beauty pageant contestant. She'd been bludgeoned and then strangled to death.

Despite almost all the evidence pointing to the family, they were never charged. In 2008 the investigators formally cleared the family based on some DNA evidence.

DNA evidence is not the slam dunk everyone seems to think.

It's just a piece of the investigation puzzle, like any other piece of evidence, like fingerprints, weapons, footprints, etc. But for some reason, most likely the way TV shows and movies have portrayed it, most Americans think it is the be-all, end-all of investigation.

The Sodder Children

Potential mob retaliation against their father? The investigation into the missing children has a lot of questions.

MH370 (Malaysia Airlines plane crash)

Again, a common theme among mysteries is that TV shows and movies have led us to believe reality works in a way that it does not. The ocean is enormous and enormously deep. The missing pieces of the aircraft after a crash seems mysterious, but really is not.

Elisa Lam

This captures our attention for really only one reason - the elevator video. Lam's odd behavior on the video has caught the public notice. Her disappearance and then subsequent recovery in the water tank is a mystery, but doesn't invite the scrutiny that the security film does.

Jack the Ripper

(Honestly, at this point probably the most discussed unsolved murder mystery in history, and we're no closer to solving it than they were back then.)

Caylee Anthony

The outcome of this trial was a travesty in the eyes of the general viewing public. There was so much evidence pointing directly to Caylee's mother, that the collective population probably all shouted at their tvs when a "not-guilty" verdict was presented.

Jeanette Depalma

Most people haven't heard this one recently, but it was all the news in the 1970s. It was at the height of the Satanic Panic.

Crazily, the current Q-Anon conspiracy nuts right now in the US aren't far removed in their thinking than the people in the 1960s-80s who were scared of Satan-worshipping murder cults

The recent Navy UAP videos

This is one of those topics that risks being too broad.

You would need to focus narrowly just on the videos and the secrecy around them. Extrapolating all the way out to aliens is a bridge too far.

Bermuda Triangle

(I specifically called this out as being too broad. It's too broad. If you have a specific case involving the triangle, that might be okay.)

The basic problem here is that the "mystery" never really happened. It's a fiction. There have not been numerous disappearances of planes or ships. In fact, it's one of the most heavily trafficked shipping lanes in world history. The only real mystery is why this is a "mystery."

Atlantis

Atlantis was a fictional location made up whole cloth by the philosopher Plato. It was an allegory created just so Plato could talk about his philosophical principles using a fake location - much like Pan-Em in Hunger Games or Wakanda in the Marvel Comics.

D.B. Cooper

Amelia Earhart

Every few years she's "found" whether in a photograph taken on a tourist destination Pacific island living it up with other people, a piece of a plane that could be hers washing up on shore, or a random skeleton uncovered on a deserted island.

Area 51 WAY TOO BROAD

Aliens (see Area 51)

Medical Mysteries

COVID-19 (was it made in a lab?)

Regenerating neurons

Spring 2021 Research Topics

More from Cameron Mount

It's just a piece of the investigation puzzle, like any other piece of evidence, like fingerprints, weapons, footprints, etc.

But for some reason, most likely the way TV shows and movies have portrayed it, most Americans think it is the be-all, end-all of investigation.

Potential mob retaliation against their father?

The investigation into the missing children has a lot of questions.

MH370

(Malaysia Airlines plane crash)

This captures our attention for really only one reason - the elevator video.

Lam's odd behavior on the video has caught the public notice. Her disappearance and then subsequent recovery in the water tank is a mystery, but doesn't invite the scrutiny that the security film does.

Area 51

WAY TOO BROAD

Aliens

(see Area 51)