Editorial attribution
Sarah Fin covers historical mysteries and unsolved cases for Morbid Index, with a focus on what the surviving record — court documents, contemporary reporting, official investigations — actually establishes, as distinct from theories that developed afterward.
This is an editorial byline. Read our attribution policy and sourcing standards.
48 entries
The Index · Unsolved Cases
Earhart vanished near Howland Island on July 2, 1937. What the Itasca radio log, the 1940 Nikumaroro bones, the declassified files and the October 2026 search show.
Oct 29, 2026
The Index · Unsolved Cases
A man was found dead on Somerton Beach on 1 December 1948. The inquest named no one and no poison. A 2022 DNA claim points to Carl Webb. The coroner has not ruled.
Oct 28, 2026
The Index
The beaked plague doctor is a seventeenth-century print, not a medieval uniform. What the 1656 broadsides, Charles de Lorme and a 1721 book actually show.
Oct 28, 2026
The Index · Dark History
Ancient DNA shows the Black Death was plague, caused by Yersinia pestis. The death toll and whether rats spread it remain estimates, not a census.
Oct 28, 2026
The Index
What is in the Codex Gigas? Explore its biblical and historical texts, Devil and Heavenly City images, Swedish history and the unsupported one-night legend.
Oct 26, 2026
The Index
What happened to the three Flannan Isles keepers in 1900? Compare the official reports, wave explanation and missing evidence with later invented details.
Oct 26, 2026
The Index
Explore the Franklin expedition's records, Inuit knowledge and discovered wrecks, and separate the real Arctic disaster from the fiction of The Terror.
Oct 26, 2026
The Index
Understand London's 1665 plague, the death totals, quarantine orders and Samuel Pepys's diary—and why the Great Fire of 1666 did not end the epidemic.
Oct 26, 2026
The Index
What caused London's Great Smog in December 1952? Learn how weather trapped pollution and why estimates of 4,000 and 12,000 deaths cover different periods.
Oct 26, 2026
The Index
How did storms become a plot against James VI? Examine the North Berwick witch trials, coerced confessions and the claims printed in Newes from Scotland.
Oct 26, 2026
The Index
Follow the Pendle witch trials of 1612, Jennet Device's testimony and the executions at Lancaster and York, with Thomas Potts's account read critically.
Oct 26, 2026
The Index · Unsolved Cases
Five Sodder children vanished after their West Virginia home burned in 1945. The evidence leaves real questions, but it does not establish either abduction or survival.
Sep 21, 2026
The Index · Unsolved Cases
Six people were killed at Hinterkaifeck in Bavaria in 1922. The surviving record establishes an unsolved crime, not the internet legend built around it.
Sep 21, 2026
The Index · Unsolved Cases
Elizabeth Short's 1947 murder was never solved. Here is what the investigation established, what the press added, and why the leading suspect claims remain unproven.
Sep 21, 2026
The Index · Unsolved Cases
Five men vanished after a Chico basketball game in 1978. Four were found in the mountains, Gary Mathias was never found, and no theory explains every decision.
Sep 16, 2026
The Index · Haunted Places
The Myrtles Plantation has a real history of slavery, family loss and William Winter's 1871 murder. The Chloe tale and 'ten murders' claim are much less securely documented.
Sep 16, 2026
The Index · Unsolved Cases
The real story of D.B. Cooper: the 1971 Northwest Orient hijacking, $200,000 ransom, parachute jump, FBI evidence, suspects, and the mystery that remains.
Sep 16, 2026
The Index · Dark History
The Donner Party was trapped by early snow in the Sierra Nevada in the winter of 1846-47. Some survivors did resort to cannibalism -- the specific murder accusations against Lewis Keseberg were never proven.
Sep 13, 2026