The 2 Most Haunting Unsolved Mysteries Volume 3 Cases (so far)

Personally, whether they deal with anything paranormal or not, I feel every episode of Unsolved Mysteries is pretty haunting. Not knowing what happened to someone —be it how exactly they died, or where they disappeared to in the case of missing persons— is very haunting. Especially the way the producers tell the stories through nothing more than firsthand accounts. At the end of each episode, it’s impossible not to empathize with the loved ones who are desperate for answers and resolution.

But then Unsolved Mysteries likes to get unconventional and also tell those stories that transcend true crime. Volume 1 had the “Berkshires UFO” episode. Volume 2 had “Tsunami Spirits.”

So does Unsolved Mysteries volume 3 have any paranormal episodes too? Yes. It’s following a similar precedent.

Unsolved Mysteries Volume 3, “Something in the Skies”

The first three episodes of Unsolved Mysteries volume 3 premiered on Netflix on October 18. “Something in the Sky” was the second episode in the batch. It relates the accounts of what happened the night of March 8, 1994, in western Michigan when hundreds of people reported seeing strange lights in the sky.

It was interesting to hear the 911 recordings of the callers. Some even said, “This is a non-emergency call, so if you need to go, just let me know, but I was wondering…what’s up with the lights in the sky?”

A Unique Solution

As Unsolved Mysteries does, they showed the testimony of people who saw the lights that night. Which you would expect. But what sets this episode apart is one witness in particular. He viewed the lights in an entirely different way and from a very unique vantage point from most other witnesses, whether it be this Michigan UFO case or any others.

Jack Bushong is now a retired meteorologist. Back on the night of the Michigan lights in 1994, he was working the night shift at the National Weather Service, Muskegon office. He got involved thanks to an idea that now-retired officer Sergeant Jeffrey Velthouse had that night.

When Officer Velthouse first responded to one of the calls at the Graves household, he was skeptical that anything unusual was happening. He figured there’d be an explanation for it —until he, too, saw the lights the family did. And when they acted in an unfamiliar manner from any aircraft he’d ever seen before, he also started wondering what was going on.

He tried to follow the lights in his car. All the while, dispatch kept getting more calls about the lights. Officer Velthouse had a unique solution for trying to solve the mystery. He told dispatch to locate a radar service to see if they could determine what was in the sky. Dispatch contacted the National Weather Service, and that’s how Jack Bushong got involved.

The Meteorologist

Bushong located the lights on the radar and quickly ruled out many things, including swamp gas and bounce-back. Based on his calculations, at one point, the lights were moving 74,000 miles an hour. His observations and the data he noted are sort of like the ones from some military pilots: all the more convincing because they’re completely perplexed by what they’re witnessing.

And it was all the more intriguing because the episode begins with Bushong confessing, “This is tough for a scientist to admit, and so I’m just gonna have to say…the way they acted, even though intelligent, they didn’t act human.”

I have never seen a UFO. (But perhaps I saw an EBANI once?) However, I’ve always thought UFOs could —and theoretically should— exist. It seems implausible, not to mention arrogant and naive, to think we’re the only ones in the universe.

Don’t get me wrong. Many of the eyewitness reports from the bigger UFO cases, including the one covered in the Unsolved Mysteries “Berkshires UFO” episode, strike me as credible. But this episode took it to a whole new level. I’d wager this is the episode that will make you believe in UFOs if you didn’t already because, as one of the MUFON representatives in the episode said, it really does support the case for UFOs.

Unsolved Mysteries Volume 3, “Paranormal Rangers”

This episode hurt my heart. It was a shining example of what quality, yet entertaining, paranormal TV could look like. Currently, that landscape is so homogenous and formulaic. It was refreshing to see investigators of another fabric entirely.

Although, years ago, there was a show called Paranormal Cops, which I loved. They were actual policemen who used real police tactics to investigate paranormal reports. It was fascinating. At least, I thought so. It only lasted one season, which was disappointing but not surprising. It wasn’t sensational enough, and by “sensational,” I do mean fake. I can’t see those guys tolerating the direction paranormal TV production has gone.

Anyway, the “Paranormal Rangers” episode reminded me of that show. And right off the bat, I knew this episode was going to be something special.

Belief & Faith

In 2000, Jonathan Redbird Dover was one of the two Navajo Nation Rangers assigned to investigate reports of paranormal activity on the reservation. His partner was Stanley Milford, Jr. The accounts in this episode were from their case files.

At the start of the episode, Dover says, “We get asked all the time, ‘Do you believe in Bigfoot?’ ‘Do you believe in UFOs?’ ‘Or Navajo witchcraft?’ We don’t like using the term ‘believe’ because to believe is an act of faith based on no evidence.”

That’s a powerful statement right there. (Not to mention a quote keeper.)

Did they collect any more conclusive evidence than anyone else ever has in the paranormal field? No. But they tracked all varieties, from Bigfoot and UFOs to hauntings and even Skinwalkers. They definitely employed police tactics to gather clues, including casts of Bigfoot prints and collecting hair samples.

Orbs and Hauntings

Some of the most compelling and thought-provoking accounts in this episode had to do with orbs and a haunting. Although Milford, Jr.’s account of his experience with a Skinwalker was pretty compelling too, and the Bigfoot accounts were nerve-racking.

And I have to say that I normally groan when someone gets excited about an “orb.” 99.9% of the time, it’s one they “caught on camera” and “didn’t even know was there.” They only discovered it after looking at their photos.

Again, 99.9% of the time, that’s either dust, bugs, a reflection, or something else explainable. No, the orb story in the “Paranormal Rangers” episode was about a real orb. A visible one. Not one that someone noticed after the fact in a photo and tried to make fit into a narrative. This one stalked a lady in her car. That kind of orb is rarely reported anymore. It was refreshing to see an account of one on Unsolved Mysteries.

Then there was the haunting. Navajo Nation Ranger Stanley Milford, Jr. called it “one of the most interesting and eye-opening cases” that he experienced.

Employees who worked in the Window Rock, Arizona, building reported “things moving, things flying across the room, things exploding, voices.” One woman kept getting calls to her desk. Over and over and over, but nobody was there. The rangers got the phone company involved, but “the phone company wasn’t able to determine where these calls were originating from.”

When Dover and Milford, Jr. investigated the building, they experienced coins that materialized from thin air. They first heard a clink or two that caught their attention. That’s when they discovered coins on the ground. But then a couple even hit them. Where were they coming from?

The Coins and Multi-Universe or Dimensional Gates

When the coins first fell during the investigation, Milford, Jr. had everyone pull their pockets inside out. He said, “For me, as an investigator,  you always have a certain level of skepticism.” No one had coins in their pockets, so it wasn’t someone pulling a prank.

But the thing was, the coins were very unique. I mean, they were varying U.S. denominations. Nothing unusual about that. But they always landed face up. And after the investigation, the activity followed Milford, Jr. to his house where coins would spontaneously fall…and land face up. He felt that was a message in and of itself, as well as a revelation.

As he put it, “The coins was really a key in opening my mind to the fact that there’s an underlying commonality among all of these paranormal events.” He believed they came from elsewhere.

Or as Dover explained it, “One of the things that we found was that all of these different phenomenon can be connected through this idea of multi-universe or dimensional gates.”

Then Milford, Jr. added, “They are different dimensions. And within those different dimensions, you have these beings like the Bigfoot. You have UFOs. And from time to time, they’re crossing over into our physical world. And if you look at these Navajo creation stories, it kind of fits, you know?”

It reminded me of something Steve Gonsales brought up in The House in Between. Or that Travis Taylor and team on The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch often theorize. More and more investigators and researchers have reason to believe paranormal activity isn’t unilateral, but more of a spoke on a much larger wheel. It was interesting to hear Dover and Milford, Jr. make that connection too, and voice it in the episode.

Less than 1%

Also interesting to hear was them say that the paranormal cases they did work on during their decades-long careers comprised less than 1% of all the work they did as Navajo Rangers. Which means, stuff happens, sure, but it’s not as common as you might think based on all the shows on TV.

I’m glad Dover and Milton, Jr. had a chance to share their cases and were willing to. While it was familiar in one respect, it was also fresh in another. Thought-provoking and much more credible than so much of the demon-centric drama manufactured for TV now.

Unsolved Mysteries Volume 3, The November Batch

The last three volume 3 episodes will premiere on November 1. Will there be another paranormal episode among them? I don’t know. There’s been one in each batch that’s so far been released, so my fingers are crossed.

However, there was only one each in volumes 1 and 2, so maybe we’ll only get these two. We’ll soon find out.

But no complaints from me. These two episodes were brilliant. I’m okay with having less quantity if it means we get quality paranormal episodes like that.

For More Info

Did you know Netflix has an Unsolved Mysteries page that tells a little more about the series? Visit it here: https://www.netflix.com/tudum/unsolved-mysteries-volume-3. They even have the link to submit any tips you may have.

Check-In

Do you feel the multi-dimensional theory might explain some, if not all, paranormal activity?