[WARNING: This list contains disturbing recordings.] In 2017, a pilot flying over Western Australia spotted a massive SOS formed from rocks in a desolate stretch. Realizing someone might be trapped in that unforgiving terrain, the pilot alerted authorities, sparking a full‑scale investigation. This chilling tale sets the tone for our top 10 chilling unexplained SOS calls that continue to puzzle investigators.
Top 10 Chilling Cases Overview
10 Kenji Iwamura
In July 1989, two Tokyo hikers ventured into Daisetsuzan National Park on Hokkaido, aiming for Mount Asahidake. When they failed to return by July 24, rescuers were dispatched. From a helicopter, a massive SOS made of birch logs caught the crew’s eye, prompting a rescue that brought the stranded pair back to safety. The pilots later praised the hikers for supposedly constructing the signal, a claim the men vehemently denied, forcing authorities to reopen the search the next day out of concern for additional victims.
A subsequent sweep of the area uncovered a backpack containing a tape recorder and the driver’s licence of 25‑year‑old Kenji Iwamura. The recorder held the eerie audio clip featured above.
Five years earlier, Kenji had attempted a similar trek. When he never checked out of his hotel, the proprietor alerted police, initiating a search that was abandoned after thirty days without a trace.
When investigators revisited the site after the backpack discovery, they unearthed human bones near the SOS structure, later identified as Kenji’s. The remains yielded no clear cause of death, leading officials to close the case. Curiously, early reports described the skeleton as belonging to a woman with type O blood, but later analysis corrected it to a male with type A, matching Kenji’s profile.
Skeptics still puzzle over how Kenji could have moved the enormous birch logs and felled the trees with an axe—yet no large cutting tool was ever recovered. The mystery surrounding his final moments remains unresolved.
9 Anthonette Cayedito
Anthonette Cayedito lived with her mother and two sisters in Gallup, New Mexico. In the early hours of 5 April 1986, a knock at the door sent her to answer, only to be seized by two men and shoved into a van that vanished into the night. Her mother didn’t realize Anthonette was missing until the following morning, at which point she filed a police report.
With scant leads, investigators hit a dead end until almost a year later, when Gallup PD received a chilling phone call from a young girl—audible in the recording above. Though the call was too brief to trace, Anthonette’s mother, Penny, confirmed the voice was her daughter’s.
The brief glimpse of hope faded when, for nearly five years, no contact came. In 1991, an unverified tip emerged from a waitress in Carson City who claimed a teenage girl matching Anthonette’s description was dining with a disheveled couple. After the pair left, the waitress discovered an SOS scrawl on a napkin beneath the girl’s plate that read simply, “Help me!” and “Call Police.”
That napkin proved to be the last known trace of Anthonette. Her mother, Penny, passed away in 1999, never learning the fate of her missing daughter.
8 Henry Mccabe
On 6 September 2015, Henry Mccabe’s wife and children traveled from Minnesota to visit relatives, leaving Henry alone at home. He spent the night out with two friends, eventually ending up at a local nightclub. By 2 a.m., clearly unfit to drive, his companions escorted him home, but Henry insisted on stopping at a gas station for a snack before walking the remaining distance.
At 2:28 a.m., Henry’s wife received a voicemail from his phone. Only a fragment of the message has ever been released to the public, and you can hear that excerpt above.
Disturbed, Henry’s wife alerted police. Investigators learned that after the voicemail, Henry also called his brother, who reported hearing sobbing on the line before the call abruptly cut off. Later that night, Henry’s phone pinged a cell tower roughly four miles away—its final known location.
Nearly two months later, divers recovered Henry’s body from a lake near that tower. With no visible injuries, the coroner listed the death as either suicide or accidental drowning. Although he had recently received a poor performance review and a bounced rent check, none of these stressors explain the unsettling noises captured in his SOS call that night.
7 Brandon Lawson
At 11:30 p.m. on 8 August 2013, Brandon Lawson called his father to announce his impending visit to Crowley, a three‑hour drive from his San Angelo, Texas home. An hour later, at 12:30 a.m., he phoned his brother Kyle, reporting that he had run out of gasoline on Route 277. Shortly thereafter, Brandon placed a 911 call for assistance—the audio of which is featured above.
Kyle arrived at the scene at 1:18 a.m., greeted by an officer who had been dispatched after other motorists reported a stranded vehicle. Unaware of Brandon’s 911 call, Kyle chose not to mention his brother’s outstanding warrants, and the officer proceeded without knowledge of the emergency request.
Speculation abounds: some argue Brandon may have relapsed into drug use, while others suspect he deliberately vanished to start anew. The case remains open, and his family maintains that foul play is the most plausible explanation.
6 Joanne Pederson
On 19 February 1983, 10‑year‑old Joanne Pederson toured a mall in Chilliwack, British Columbia, with her sister and cousin. After an argument, the two older girls rushed home, locked the front door, and inadvertently left Joanne outside in the cold, dark night.
Unable to persuade her sister to unlock the door, Joanne fled to a payphone and, at 8 p.m., dialed her parents. Her father answered, promising an immediate pickup, then handed the receiver to his wife for comfort. When Joanne’s mother took the line, a gruff, irritated male voice warned, “If you’re not here in thirty minutes, I’ll call the police,” before the line went dead.
Rushing to the payphone, Joanne’s parents found no sign of their daughter. Witnesses later reported seeing her with a Caucasian man in his thirties, clad in a dark jacket, and possibly entering a cream‑colored car with a green roof. Thirty‑five years later, the mystery remains unsolved.
5 Brandon Swanson
Brandon Swanson, a 19‑year‑old student at Minnesota West Community College, crashed his car into a ditch on the night of 13 May 2008, around 2 a.m., while returning from a party. Though uninjured, he called his parents to request a ride.
Uncertain of his exact location, Brandon assumed he was near the town of Lind, spotting distant lights. He told his father he would walk there and meet him at a local bar’s parking lot. The father stayed on the line for 47 minutes, until Brandon uttered a startled “Oh shit!” and the call abruptly disconnected.
Cell‑tower data later revealed that Brandon had been calling from Taunton, a settlement roughly 25 miles from Lind. A search uncovered his Chevrolet north of State Highway 68, but despite a 30‑day effort, neither Brandon nor his phone were ever recovered, leaving his fate shrouded in mystery.
4 Ruth Price
In 1988, elderly Ruth Price lived alone in the United States. When she dialed 911 to report a prowler outside her home, she informed the operator that she was home alone, then let out a blood‑curdling scream, accompanied by muffled thumps heard over the receiver. The operator sat in stunned silence as Ruth’s desperate cries filled the line before it abruptly ended. The harrowing recording can be heard above.
Veteran 911 trainees in the 1990s often heard this audio during training, as instructors explained that the tape was genuine and that Ruth had been beaten to death in her residence. The recording served as a stark illustration of proper emergency‑operator procedure, highlighting the challenge of responding when no address is available.
3 Japanese City’s Mystery Emergency Calls
In Akita Prefecture, Japan, emergency responders have been baffled by a series of landline calls that appear to originate from nowhere. In 2020, firefighters were dispatched nine times to properties where residents claimed their phones had inexplicably dialed emergency services without their knowledge.
The calls contained no discernible language, described by witnesses as robotic noises. Classified as ‘mute emergency calls,’ firefighters arrived to find bewildered occupants who were often not even at home, leaving authorities perplexed by the phantom alerts.
2 SS Ourang Medan
The Ourang Medan SOS remains one of the most infamous maritime may‑day transmissions, though its exact date is disputed—most accounts place it between late 1947 and early 1948.
The distress signal, received by two American vessels, allegedly read: “All officers including the Captain are dead. Lying in chartroom and the bridge. Possibly whole crew dead. I die.”
Upon hearing the ominous message, the tanker Silver Star was dispatched to the coordinates. Hours later, the ghostly hull of the Ourang Medan was located, its decks eerily silent. Boarding the vessel revealed a gruesome tableau: the Dutch crew’s bodies lay scattered, faces twisted in terror, yet bearing no visible wounds. The radio operator and engineers were still at their stations, seemingly dead in place.
When the Silver Star attempted to tow the derelict ship, the Ourang Medan suddenly erupted into flames from its lower decks, exploded, and sank beneath the Malacca Strait, dragging any remaining clues to the ocean floor.
1 1990 Washington State Bigfoot Calls
Our final entry features two 1990 emergency‑operator recordings from Washington State. Both edited clips capture the same distressed gentleman, sober and logical, attempting to describe an inexplicable sighting. Though he tries to articulate what he sees in human terms, his bewildered narration suggests he cannot fully comprehend the phenomenon he’s witnessing.