Legends of mythical monsters have been sending shivers down spines for centuries, and sometimes those spooky stories become tangled up with real‑world misfortunes. In fact, the ten tragedies blamed on legendary beings range from missing teens to murderous confessions, showing just how powerful folklore can be when tragedy strikes.
10 tragedies blamed: Mythical Creatures and Their Dark Stories
10 Bigfoot Kidnapping
Ever since the infamous Gimlin footage burst onto the scene in 1967, countless Bigfoot sightings have peppered the United States, even though most scientists dismiss the whole notion as a hoax or pure fantasy.
Fast forward to June 1, 1987, when 16‑year‑old Theresa Ann Bier decided to ditch school and chase the elusive creature in California’s Sierra Nevada range. She was accompanied by 43‑year‑old Russell Welch. After a day of wandering, Welch returned alone, and Theresa was reported missing. When questioned, Welch claimed he last saw her on June 2, saying they had both encountered a Bigfoot, and that the beast had whisked her away after she gave chase. He kept revising his story, adding ever‑more elaborate details each time.
Police, skeptical of his wild tale, arrested Welch on June 11, but released him when they could not produce any concrete evidence. Even a thorough search that employed sniffer dogs around the last known location turned up only a presumed purse and fragments of clothing.
To this day, no one has been charged in connection with Theresa’s disappearance, and her ultimate fate remains an unsettling mystery.
9 Mermaid Drowning
In December 2013, 12‑year‑old Siyabonga Masango left his home to join friends for a game of soccer. After a while, the scorching heat convinced the boys to cool off by swimming in a tributary of the Sabie River in Mpumalanga, South Africa.
A nearby man washing his car witnessed Siyabonga being pulled beneath the surface and rushed to help, but the water proved impenetrable; rescuers could not locate the boy. Police divers scoured the river for two weeks, eventually concluding that a crocodile attack was the most plausible explanation for his disappearance.
However, Siyabonga’s family rejected the crocodile theory, insisting that a mermaid had taken their son. They performed rituals hoping the mermaid would release him in time for school. Despite their fervent belief, the boy was never recovered, and his fate remains unknown.
8 Ghostly Vengeance
In June 2018, two men in the Thai village of Tambon Dong Yai, Nakhon Ratchasima’s Phimai district, were found dead in their sleep. Alarmed villagers consulted a local medium to summon spirits for an explanation. The medium reported that a widow’s ghost claimed she intended to kill four men in the village; having already claimed two lives, she warned that two more would soon follow.
Spooked, several residents hung a bright red shirt in front of their homes, believing the color would repel the ghost. Some even attached notes declaring that no men lived there, only pets.
After the red shirts were displayed, no further male deaths were reported, suggesting the community’s improvised talisman may have deterred the vengeful spirit.
7 Alien Abduction
The disappearance of pioneering aviator Amelia Earhart sparked countless conspiracy theories, even after the U.S. Navy concluded that she and navigator Fred Noonan most likely ran out of fuel and crashed into the Pacific Ocean, perishing at sea.
Alternative theories have ranged from Earhart and Noonan washing ashore on Nikumaroro and living as castaways, to being captured by Japanese forces, or even being devoured by coconut crabs after a crash near Howland Island.
Among the more outlandish ideas, some claim that aliens seized Earhart on the very day she was to land on Howland Island, transporting her through a wormhole where she was left in suspended animation.
This extraterrestrial angle even found its way into popular culture; the anthology horror series American Horror Story featured a character claiming to be Amelia Earhart, who makes contact with alien entities.
6 Demonic Murder
Demonic entities and evil forces have long populated folklore, mythology, fiction, and religious texts. Alongside these tales, modern crimes have occasionally been blamed on demonic influence.
In 2016, Aljar Swartz admitted to the brutal killing and beheading of 15‑year‑old Lee Adams, later burying the victim’s head in his backyard in Cape Town, South Africa. After his trial, when psychiatrists deemed him mentally stable, Swartz’s lawyer abruptly declared that his client was possessed by a demon and demanded an exorcism be performed in Swartz’s prison cell while he awaited sentencing.
The attorney even sought a retired Methodist minister to conduct the rite, citing Swartz’s claim that a black‑lizard‑shaped demon appeared in his cell, crawling into his chest and taking control. Swartz described himself as a “vessel” for the devil, arguing he could not be held responsible for Lee’s murder.
The court, however, found Swartz had murdered Lee Adams to sell the victim’s head to a sangoma—a traditional healer in South African culture. He received a 22‑year prison sentence.
5 By Order of the Vampire Queen
In 2002, 22‑year‑old Allan Menzies murdered his 21‑year‑old friend Thomas McKendrick, then proceeded to bite off part of the victim’s head, drink his blood, and bury him shallowly. During his trial, Menzies claimed that Akasha, the “Vampire Queen” from the film The Queen of the Damned, had repeatedly ordered him to kill his friend.
Menzies confessed to watching the movie over a hundred times, insisting Akasha promised him immortality if he carried out murders. He said McKendrick had insulted the fictional queen, prompting the lethal act, and that he felt nothing after his friend’s death, believing he had become a vampire.
The court sentenced Menzies to life imprisonment in 2003. He was later found dead in his cell in 2004, with investigators concluding he had taken his own life.
4 Monster Behind the Mystery
Originating from Norwegian folklore, the Kraken is famed as a colossal sea monster capable of swallowing ships whole. Sailors once mistook the creature for an island, only to be dragged beneath the waves.
Even the renowned naturalist Carl von Linné listed the Kraken as a real organism in his seminal work Systema Naturae. Some enthusiasts point to Ichthyosaur fossils arranged in patterns reminiscent of how octopuses discard prey, suggesting the Kraken could have existed.
Modern mystery hunters have also blamed the Kraken for unexplained disappearances within the Bermuda Triangle, proposing that a super‑intelligent cephalopod lurks in the depths, feeding on wayward vessels and aircraft. The monster has even been implicated in the Mary Celeste’s vanishing, despite the ship’s disappearance occurring far from the triangle’s heart.
3 Quota of Lives
The Higginson Highway in Chatsworth, Durban, South Africa, has earned a grim reputation for fatal accidents. Drivers often encounter rocks hurled from overhead bridges, leading to crashes, robberies of injured motorists, loss of vehicle control, and deadly rollovers.
Many of these tragedies are attributed to a resident specter known as Highway Sheila. Folklore holds that Sheila maintains a “quota of lives” each year, manifesting in the middle of the road to cause drivers to swerve, resulting in fatal collisions.
Recently, a Metro police officer and his family were traveling home late at night when they nearly collided with a woman dressed in white standing in the lane. Terrified, they believed divine intervention saved them from harm.
2 Wendigo Psychosis
Algonquian legends describe the Wendigo as a gaunt, antlered cannibal that roams frozen wilderness, preying on humans to survive. According to myth, the first Wendigo emerged when a hunter, lost in a harsh winter, turned to cannibalism and transformed into the monstrous being.
In the 1800s, a Cree man named Swift Runner fell into alcoholism, lost his job as a guide for the North West Mounted Police, and grew increasingly violent. In 1878, he led his wife, six children, mother‑in‑law, and brother into the woods, slaughtered them, and consumed their flesh.
Authorities discovered broken, hollowed‑out bones and a pot of human fat in the forest, leading to Swift Runner’s arrest. He confessed that a Wendigo had possessed him, compelling the gruesome massacre.
The court dismissed his supernatural defense, found him guilty, sentenced him to death, and carried out the execution in December 1879.
1 Lurking Leviathan
Caribbean folklore tells of the lusca, a 75‑foot hybrid of shark and octopus—sometimes dubbed the “lurking Leviathan.” This sea monster is said to haunt the waters around Andros Island in the Bahamas, boasting a shark‑like head and torso with an octopus‑like lower body.
One theory posits that the lusca is the ghost of a drowned woman transformed into a monstrous form. Another suggests the creature is a mermaid or siren, dispatched by nymphs to lure sailors to a watery death.
The television series River Monsters dedicated an episode to the lusca, exploring its possible role in the disappearances of swimmers exploring Andros’s blue holes. Missing individuals include 38‑year‑old Liu Guandong, Wesley Bell, and 72‑year‑old John William Batchelor, whose boat was recovered but whose fate remains unknown.