Acompanhe o áudio desses textos no episódio 84: https://open.spotify.com/episode/6vuSjJRbs3wzDjqyGOu4oY?si=G170Aq16SLeymn1J4rm-zQ

Hello and welcome to another edition of Way Ahead’s Cold Cases. This is teacher Fabio Emerim and today we’re looking at 4 mysterious cases that still haven’t been solved. At this time, I’m doing something different, rather than talking about the vocabulary at the end of the podcast, I invite you all to click on the link in the description of the episode that will take you to the texts I read. Deal? So, let’s begin!

The Severed Feet Mystery
In 2007, a girl was roaming a beach in British Columbia when she found a sneaker. To her horror, as she opened up the sock, she found that a human foot was inside. Since then, a number of severed feet have washed ashore. The feet have been connected to five men, one a woman, and three of unknown sex. Throughout the years, with a hoax foot thrown here and there, the case has never been completely closed, with many theories floating around as to who the feet belonged to.

The Vancouver police managed to identify one foot in 2008, matching its DNA to a man who was described as suicidal. They later were able to match two other feet to a woman who was also believed to have committed suicide. Because of these findings, many speculate that the feet belong to those who jumped off a bridge to their deaths. However, because of the rarity of only feet and no other body parts showing up, some believe that the feet were connected to a plane crash by a nearby island. Others suggest they were those of the victims of the Asian Tsunami in 2004 since the make of the shoes were all manufactured before 2004. Whatever sources these feet are coming from, they have left the world baffled for years.

The Jeanette Depalma case
Usually people connect witches to Salem, MA, but for this particular case, the witches were in Springfield, New Jersey. It all started in 1972 when a dog brought home a decomposed forearm. This prompted a police search and a body was soon found afterwards atop a cliff in Springfield. The body was identified to be that of Jeanette DePalmer, a 16-year-old who had gone missing for six weeks. Immediately, rumors began spreading as to the cause of her death. The hill where she was discovered was covered with occult symbols and many believed her body was placed on a makeshift altar. Many locals, even some police members, blame a coven of witches, otherwise known as Satanists, who used DePalma for a human sacrifice.
Because of a flood, much of the case’s details have since been destroyed. However, some reports from local papers mention that police couldn’t determine the cause of death due to her badly decomposed body. They had also investigated a local homeless man who was a prime suspect, only to find no connection with the killing. As for the occult theory, many believe that DePalma may have provoked a group of Satan-worshipping teens at her high school when she was trying to evangelize them. She was involved with a group who helped drug addicts by finding faith in Christ. The reverend who ran the group theorized that she was selected as a sacrifice to the group because of this.
Was she a human sacrifice? Or did these suspicions help hide the real killer? Perhaps no one will ever know.

The Man who didn’t exist
In early 1945, a Boston hospital received an unconscious patient suffering serious injuries, including infected shrapnel wounds. Someone wrote on a card, “Charles A. Jamison [some articles say “Jamieson”]; forty-nine; religion-Catholic; American. Cutty Sark.”

After extensive treatment, Jamison slowly improved to the point where he could speak. Unfortunately, he seemed to be suffering from amnesia, and what little information he could give couldn’t be matched to any records. There was no US enlisted man named Charles Jamison (or any variation) who was unaccounted for. The patient’s fingerprints and photos were checked against military and criminal records, with no match. No ship named Cutty Sark was listed in the US military. There was one used by the British navy. The British vice-consul (who felt Jameson spoke with a British accent) sent his information to the admiralty and the British maritime registry, who couldn’t match it to any sailor.

Despite record searches in both the US and the UK and widespread newspaper coverage, no one was ever able to figure out who Charles Jamison was. He spent 30 years in the hospital before he died with no solid identity.

The Lost Colony of Roanoke
In 1587, English colonial governor, John White, led a group of people from Britain to found an English colony, settling on Roanoke Island, one of a chain of barrier islands which is now known as the Outer Banks near North Carolina. When rations were running low, White left for more supplies. When he returned, three years later, he found the colony carefully abandoned, with all houses and military constructions dismantled with care. Before he had left the colony, White had instructed his people that if they were taken by force, someone was to carve a cross into a nearby tree. But there was no cross nor sign. They had been brutally taken over. The only clue was the word “Croatoan,” the name of a Native American tribe that allied with the English colonists, which was carved into a post. White took this to mean that the colonists had moved to Croatoan Island.

Ongoing investigations have claimed that the colonists had been slaughtered by the Powhatan tribe, but there is no archaeological evidence to support this, and a recent re-examination indicates that any massacre that occurred was not of this particular group of colonists, but rather a group of colonists who had arrived earlier. More theories involve an amalgamation between the colonists and the Croatians, but so far, no DNA evidence has identified any descendants of the colony.