dailyunsolvedmysteries

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Khutulun, a descendant of Genghis Khan, refused to marry unless her suitor could beat her in a wrestling match. Nobody ever defeated her

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In 2007, Gordon Ramsay visited the restaurant ’Campania’ in Fair Lawn for an episode of Kitchen Nightmares where he told the owner, Joe Cerniglia, that his business was “about to swim down the f*cking Hudson River” if he didn’t change. Sadly, just three years later in 2010, Joe Cerniglia committed suicide by jumping off the George Washington Bridge into the Hudson River.

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The Horror of the Vipeholm Experiment

In the early 20th century dentists were divided on the cause of dental decay. Was it due to an underlying disease? Was it due to overall diet? Or was it due just to sweets? Clues pointed to the role of sweets: Orphans in children's homes too poor to provide sweets had fewer cavities than the general population; dental decay among conscripts declined during sugar rationing in WWI.

Facing a national epidemic of tooth repair too expensive to undertake, the Swedish government decided to focus on prevention, and commissioned a study on the role of diet and sweets. It was funded by the sugar industry.

The perfect place to perform such a study, they decided, was the Vipeholm Mental Institution, a large facility just outside Lund, Sweden. In 1935 it had been turned into a home for people with severe intellectual and developmental disabilities.

These ‘idiots,’ which was a medical classification at the time, were gathered from smaller wards all over the country. In the beginning they had 650 people and it grew up to over a thousand. In medical terms at the time, an “idiot” was a person with an IQ below 25, who functioned at the level of a normal toddler.

At the beginning of the study, the children’s teeth were closely examined. It was noted that their teeth were in much better shape than the Swedish population as a whole. During the first two years of the experiment, the children were given little starch and half the average consumption of sugar in a typical Swedish diet. Vitamins A, C and D, along with fluoride tablets were given, and no food was allowed between meals. At the end of this period, 78% of the children had no new cavities.

Over the next two years the children were given twice the amount of sugar typically consumed in Sweden, administered in several ways. One group ate sweet, sticky bread made with extra sugar with their meals, another group drank beverages with 1½ cups of added sugar at meals, and a third group ate chocolates, caramels or sticky toffees between meals.

The sticky candy group was further divided into children who ate 8 or 24 pieces of toffee between meals. The toffee was developed specifically to stick better to the teeth.

Models of teeth used to rank levels of decay. Courtesy Acta Odontologica Scandinavica

In both toffee groups and the caramel group, the increase in cavities occurred immediately after the children began eating them, the study added.

They were given toffees or caramels that stuck in their teeth. The teeth were destroyed. And after they were ruined, these people were in terrible pain. Researchers decided not to fix the teeth for “those who could not cooperate with the fixing procedures (like being scared of the drill). They also chose not to fix the teeth among many of the ‘lower’ categories of patients. They did fix the teeth among many of the “higher” categories, he said. But in many cases the teeth were pulled out instead of being fixed.

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The Strange Disappearance and Death of David Glenn Lewis

David Glenn Lewis was born on December 11th, 1953, in Borger, Texas. David married a woman named Karen Garret in 1982 and the couple had their only child together—a daughter named Lauren—a year later.

On Thursday, January 28th, 1993, David left work at the Buckner, Lara & Swindell law practice, stating that he wasn’t feeling well. However, his credit card revealed a charge made at a gas station later that afternoon. David also reportedly taught his class that night, which ended at 10 p.m.

The following day, Karen and Lauren left to spend the weekend shopping in Dallas. Although they didn’t see David before leaving, they didn’t find that especially concerning. They already knew he wanted to stay home that weekend, because his favorite football team—the Dallas Cowboys—would be playing in the Super Bowl and David was eager to watch the game.

It was during this weekend that David’s behavior took a turn for the strange. First, he was spotted by a friend from church frantically rushing through a Southwest Airlines terminal. David didn’t appear to have any luggage with him.

On Sunday, David’s red Ford Explorer was seen parked outside of the Potter County courthouse and a deputy sheriff witnessed a man matching David’s description photographing the vehicle. David returned home at some point, evidently, because the neighbors reported seeing his vehicle parked in the driveway that weekend.

However, when Karen and Lauren arrived home on Sunday, they found David’s wedding ring and watch on the counter and a load of laundry in the dryer. The lights and television were on and the VCR was still recording the football game. There were also two turkey sandwiches in the refrigerator, presumably prepared by David. The thing that was notably absent from the home, however, was David himself.

Nevertheless, Karen assumed that he had simply gone to watch the game at a friend’s house and that he’d be back soon. But when she learned the following day that David had missed two appointments—very out of character for him—she became worried and notified the police that he was missing.

Early in the investigation into David Glenn Lewis’s disappearance, police learned that someone using his name had purchased two plane tickets before he went missing. The first ticket was bought on January 31st and was from Dallas to Amarillo. The second ticket was purchased the next day and this one would take him from Los Angeles to Dallas. No one could explain what might have compelled David to buy these tickets, and since U.S. airports didn’t require a person to show their ID before boarding a plane in 1993, it couldn’t be verified that he was really the person who purchased the tickets.

Another unexplained detail that came out during the investigation was that $5,000 had been deposited into the Lewis family's bank account on January 30th. Unfortunately, it couldn't be determined who made the deposit. David’s Ford Explorer was soon discovered parked by the courthouse. His keys were under the floor mat and his driver’s license, credit cards, and checkbook were all found inside as well.

Later, a cab driver came forward to say that he had picked up a man strongly resembling David on February 1st and drove him to the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. The man in question appeared nervous and paid in cash from a wad of hundred-dollar bills he had with him. There were no further sightings of David reported in the Amarillo area after this.

David’s family didn’t believe that he had left voluntarily; they believed he was abducted. Karen said that he had received death threats in the past while working as a judge and that he’d begun to receive death threats once again just before he vanished.

At the time he went missing, David had been a defendant in a conflict-of-interest lawsuit that had been brought against him and several other attorneys, as well as a former client.

Ultimately, the authorities believed that David left Amarillo of his own free will and couldn’t find any evidence of foul play. They eventually closed his case in 2002.

However, on the night of February 1st, 1993, motorists witnessed a man walking down the middle of State Route 24 in Moxee, Washington, east of Yakima. The man was wearing military fatigues and boots. He didn’t appear to have anything else with him. A concerned driver turned around and attempted to warn the other motorists that someone was walking on the road. Sadly, they were too late to help this man, because, by the time they got back, he was lying dead by the side of the road, the victim of an apparent hit-and-run accident. The autopsy report concluded that he had died of injuries consistent with having been struck by a vehicle. Additionally, there were no drugs or alcohol in his system. The deceased, who had no ID, would be classified as a “John Doe” and remained unidentified for 11 years.

Washington State Patrol detective in Yakima, Washington, Pat Ditter, read the series of reports and started to look into a number of local missing persons cases, as well as John and Jane Doe cases, hoping to solve at least some of them. He noted that David looked very much like the John Doe in question, but a notable difference was that David wore glasses and the John Doe hadn’t been wearing any when he was found.

However, they still had the clothing he’d been wearing at the time of the accident and Ditter discovered a pair of glasses in one of the pockets. These glasses looked identical to the distinctive pair that David himself wore. Ditter was now convinced that they were the same person. A DNA test in 2004 would confirm that he was correct: the Moxee John Doe was in fact, David Glenn Lewis.

But how and why did he end up over 1,600 miles away from his home in Amarillo, Texas? Why was David, said to have very poor eyesight, not wearing his glasses that night? Why was he walking down the middle of a road at all? Many aspects of this case remain a mystery.

It’s also unclear why he was wearing military fatigues, as Karen was adamant that he didn’t own anything like that.

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Killing of Lacey Fletcher: She moulded into the sofa.

Lacey Fletcher was autistic and was reportedly bullied in high school. Her parents Sheila and Clay Fletcher later withdrew her from school in favor of homeschooling. Sheila and Clay were known to complain about Lacey, stating that they did not want to be caregivers when they became parents.

When Lacey was 24 years old,a decline in her cognitive health led to her being unable to leave the house.She became confined to the family's leather couch. Instead of seeking medical assistance for Lacey, Sheila and Clay left Lacey on the couch. Sheila and Clay left her on the couch and placed towels next to it, so Lacey's faeces and urine would be easier for them to clean. The rest of their house was well-cleaned, except for the couch, where Lacey remained unable to move from the couch on her own. Over time, Lacey's clothes began to no longer fit her, simply draping off of her body. Clay and Sheila would frequently leave for days on end to go on vacation, leaving her there to starve.

Over time her muscles atrophied, and vermin began to eat at her extremities under the couch leaving mouse droppings and maggots to thrive in the space. There were signs she had been trying to lift herself out of the couch to avoid the pain, but due to severe malnourishment and atrophy in her leg muscles, she was unable to. Her body fused into the leather couch cushions as she was covered in urine and feces, as well as maggots living in her hair and inside her. She suffered starvation and bone infections, leading finally to sepsis which caused her death. She had faeces and couch cushion both under her fingernails and in her stomach contents, showing she had attempted to save herself by eating her surroundings before dying on the couch whilst or shortly after Clay and Sheila vacationed for the holidays. Lacey was found at autopsy to have COVID-19.

On January 3, 2022, Sheila called 911 and stated that she had found Lacey dead on their couch. Emergency services and the coroner arrived at the home and discovered Lacey's dead, partially clothed and malnourished 96-pound (44 kg) body fused into the family's leather couch, with clear signs of neglect. It was determined that Lacey had been dead for one to two days before Sheila had finally decided to call 911. Sheila and Clay lied to police that it had been Lacey's own decision to lie in those conditions for 12 years. Her autopsy ruled her death a homicide. Investigators stated they could not sleep or eat after investigating the killing due to the mental distress that the gruesome nature of the case caused them.

On March 20, 2024, they were sentenced to 20 years in prison, with a consecutive 20-year suspended sentence

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(1762) The X-Rated Furniture Of the Russian Empress Catherine The Great

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The Ghost Blimp

At 6:03 a.m., on August 16, 1942, L-8 – having been assigned to Airship Patrol Squadron 32 – lifted off from Treasure Island. Inside the gondola were Lieutenant Ernest DeWitt Cody, aged 27, and his co-pilot, Ensign Charles Adams, aged 35; it was Adams's first flight as a commissioned officer. L-8 was armed with two depth charges and one .30-caliber machine gun. At the time of the incident, the airship had made 1,092 previous trips without incident and had recently been inspected. Conditions on the morning of the flight were clear. At 7:38 a.m., L-8's crew radioed to Treasure Island and reported observing an oil slick 4 miles off the coast of the Farallon Islands. A Liberty ship and a fishing boat in the area both witnessed L-8 descending to within 30 feet of the ocean surface and circling the oil slick. This would constitute the last confirmed sighting of the airship with the crew aboard. Controllers at Treasure Island lost contact with the crew at 8:50 a.m. Shortly after 9:00 a.m., L-8 dumped ballast, ascended, and headed east toward San Francisco – contrary to its intended course towards Point Reyes, which was to the northwest. At 11:15 a.m., L-8 reappeared off the coast of Ocean Beach near Fort Funston and drifted towards the coastline at low elevation. The airship touched down on the beach, where two surf fishermen tried to hold it down by its mooring ropes. Upon looking inside the gondola, the fishermen observed that no crew were inside. As the fishermen were unable to hold the airship down any longer, they released it and the ship rose briefly into the air before running into a sloping cliff, causing damage to its starboard propeller and dislodging one depth charge, relieving it of enough weight to gain altitude. An automatic valve inside L-8 was opened and began releasing helium gas, causing the weight of the gondola to give the envelope a sagging V-shaped appearance as it deflated. L-8 drifted inland over the Olympic Club golf course and Mission Street, attracting the attention of a large crowd of onlookers who followed its journey. Floating over San Francisco's Crocker-Amazon neighborhood, the airship lost elevation and began scraping telephone poles and residential houses. L-8 finally crashed in the street in front of a house at 419 Bellevue Avenue While the gondola doors were found hanging open, and the crash had been so gentle that the crewmen would have walked away unharmed, neither Cody nor Adams were found inside. Searches of the coastline from air, land and sea found no trace of the missing pilots, and the search was abandoned on August 18. Authorities initially theorized that Cody and Adams had bailed out of L-8 over the ocean, but all three parachutes and a rubber life raft were found aboard the gondola. Furthermore, the airship's radio and engines were switched on and no distress transmissions had been sent, indicating that the crewmen's disappearance had been abrupt. A board of investigation convened by the Navy could only determine that L-8 had not been shot down, burned, or made contact with the ocean, and that Cody and Adams had not engaged in misconduct. Cody and Adams were declared legally dead in 1943.

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The Mysterious Murder of Ken Brown

On August 29, 1994, in quiet town of Barrow-upon-Soar, Leicestershire inside a chicken shed on his sprawling nine-acre estate, Kenneth “Ken” Brown, a 56-year-old businessman and co-owner of a successful chain of pubs and restaurants, was found dead from a single gunshot wound to the chest. Police said he had suffered a gunshot wound from a single, unique make of shotgun cartridge. It is thought he was killed the night before he was found. There were no signs of a break-in or burglary. In the wake of Ken’s murder, Graham, his business partner, who shared the Walton Lane house with Ken, even issued a £25,000 reward to catch the killer, later doubling the stakes to £50,000. Police did go on to arrest two men in connection with the case, but they were never charged – and the case has stalled ever since. A number of theories, including a contract killing and a highly personal revenge killing, have attached themselves to the case over the years due to the very unique bullet used called 'the slug'.  A white Mercedes car, probably an L-registration, was spotted near Hunter’s Lodge several times in August 1994, while two men wearing combat gear were seen driving a blue Astra GTE near Walton crossroads just hours before the body was found. Mystery also surrounds the sighting of two white men, one wearing a hat or balaclava, spotted in fields nearby to Ken’s home on the night of the murder. A large car, possibly a four-wheel drive vehicle, was also seen parked close to Mr Brown's home at 10pm on Thursday, August 25 – that’s around the time police believe Ken died. Paper found in Mr Brown's pocket with the numbers 52, 46, 32, 001, 0921 is also a mystery to this day. 

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In October 1896, Elva Zona Heaster (who went by her middle name Zona met a blacksmith named Erasmus Stribbling Trout Shue, and married him soon afterwards, taking his surname. On January 23, 1897, Zona was found dead in her home. The cause of death was listed as "childbirth". She was buried on January 24, 1897, in the local cemetery now known as the Soule Chapel Methodist Cemetery. Her mother, Mary Jane Heaster, later claimed to have seen Zona's ghost at her bedside. According to Mary Jane's story, Zona insisted that Erasmus had murdered her. Erasmus Shue was held in the jail in Lewisburg while waiting for the trial to begin. During this time, more information about his past was coming to light. He had been married twice before: his first marriage had ended in divorce, with his wife accusing him of great cruelty; his second wife had died under mysterious circumstances less than a year after they were married. Zona was his third wife, and Shue began to talk of wishing to wed seven women; he freely spoke of this ambition while in jail, and told reporters that he was sure he would be let free because there was so little evidence against him. Shue was found guilty of murder on July 11 and sentenced to life in prison. 

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The Legend of Dearg Due

There are many stories of vampirism in Ireland and one of the most frightening creatures is known as the Dearg Due, or ‘Red Thirst’. However, the legend of the Dearg Due is as tragic as it is scary. Many centuries ago in the area that is now Waterford City, there lived a young woman who was as beautiful in personality as she was in face. She was deeply in love with a farm labourer and they had made plans to marry. Unfortunately for them, arranged marriages were not uncommon at that time, and her father cared only for money, not love. Instead, he forced her to marry a much older, wealthy clan chieftain in exchange for money and land for himself. The young woman’s new husband was a cruel man and treated her very badly. He kept her locked in a tower and would take delight in hurting her just to see blood on her pale skin. She hoped her lost love would come and rescue her, but he could not. Eventually, her heart broke and she wasted away. The villagers took her body and buried it under what was known as Strongbow’s Tree. There was an old Irish practice of placing a tall pile of stones on the graves of the recently deceased so they could not rise again, but for some reason, on the night of her burial this did not happen. Some say it’s because the villagers felt guilty for not doing anything to save her from her wicked husband. What the villagers could not have known was that the spirit that rose from the grave on the first anniversary of her death was nothing like the young woman whose body it had come from. The spirit was seeking revenge on those who had ruined her life. First, she visited her childhood home. As her father lay sleeping in his bed, she kissed his lips and sucked all of the air out of his body. As she made her way to see her husband, she came across him staggering drunkenly home from the tavern. As her lips met his, she not only sucked the air from his lungs but also the blood from his veins. Having then developed a taste for blood, the spirit of the young woman continued to prey on young men, luring them with her beauty before feasting on their blood. To try and prevent more young men falling victim to the Dearg Due, the locals would meet on the eve of the anniversary of her death and place rocks on her grave so that here spirit cannot rise.

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Jennifer Kesse

On Jan. 23, 2006, her family knew that something horrible must have happened to her. Although there is some grainy footage of a person of interest and Kesse’s abandoned car was later found, her mysterious disappearance nonetheless continues to elude investigators.

On the evening before that January day, the 24-year-old Floridian returned home from work and chatted with her family over the phone. She called her boyfriend Robert Allen around 10 p.m. and then went to bed. Then, texts and calls to Kesse went unreturned throughout the following day. Coworkers were surprised that she didn’t show up to work. By 11 a.m., her parents drove from Tampa to Orlando to check if she was home. They found her car missing, but everything else seemed normal.

Footage was retrieved from her apartment complex surveillance system, which showed an unidentified person dropping off Kesse’s car at noon on the day of her disappearance. Unfortunately, any distinguishing characteristics of theirs were obscured by the apartment’s gate. Journalists covering the case reported the mysterious figure was thus “the luckiest person of interest ever.”

In the following years, police have found Kesse’s abandoned Chevy Malibu but not much else. The car yielded a latent print, which was deemed “too minuscule” to reveal any helpful information. Additionally, none of the valuable items in Kesse’s vehicle had been taken, which suggested that her unsolved disappearance wasn’t instigated by a robbery.

Authorities pivoted from a lack of evidence to the acquaintances and friends of Kesse’s who might know more. Kesse’s brother and boyfriend both investigated one of Kesse’s ex-boyfriends on their own, but he was quickly ruled out. An older work colleague interested in Kesse was also cleared as a suspect.

video of footage

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The Strange Disappearance of Kenny Veach

Born in 1967, Kenny Veach loved the outdoors and connected with other hikers and outdoorsmen on social media. He was funny, creative, and energetic. He was also obsessed with the Mojave Desert.

Tired of the daily Monday-through-Friday grind, Kenny wanted to be his own boss, be in charge of his own life, and have the free time to immerse himself in his desert explorations. So, he quit his day job and decided to be an inventor. He started a YouTube channel, documenting his creations and his forays into the desert.

It was in June of 2014, using the name Snakebitmcgee, Kenny left a comment in response to a YouTube video that read: That ain’t nothing. I am a long-distance hiker. One time, during one of my hikes out by Nellis Air Force Base, I found a hidden cave. The entrance to the cave was shaped like a perfect capital M. I always enter every cave I find, but as I began to enter this particular cave, my whole body began to vibrate. The closer I got to the cave entrance, the worse the vibrating became. Suddenly, I became very scared and high-tailed it out of there. That was one of the strangest things that ever happened to me. 

Unbeknownst to Kenny and the rest of the world, that comment would have tragic consequences.

Kenny’s comment on that video sparked a flurry of requests for him to prove his claim. Since he hadn’t documented the first trip to what would become known as “the M cave”, he needed to go back to the area to locate it and, this time, document what he found. On his second search for the cave, he went armed with a 9-millimeter handgun and a video camera. 

When he returned from this hike, he uploaded the video of his excursion to his YouTube channel. In what has famously become known as the “M cave video,” Kenny was light-hearted and enthusiastic about his hike.

He documented some wildlife and found a whole horde of pine nuts that he gleefully ate on camera. He stood next to an abandoned mine shaft and rather sheepishly declared that he was unable to find the cave on his second hike.

Much to Kenny’s dismay, that video was met with criticism. Many thought he had made the whole thing up, and the public demanded proof of his claim of a mysterious cave with supernatural properties.

Viewers actively encouraged, and some even dared Kenny to go back out to the mountain range a third time. 

However, one comment on his video, which has since been deleted, read, “No! Do not go back there. If you find that cave entrance, don’t go in, you won’t get out.”

Whether that comment was made by somebody teasing Kenny or whether it was a serious warning by somebody who was personally familiar with the cave is unknown.

Regarding the M cave, Kenny said, “I solo hike across mountain tops that most people wouldn’t dare go. I have been in more caves than I can count. I play with rattlesnakes for fun. But this one particular cave was beyond anything I had ever encountered.”

Hoping to put the naysayers in their place, Kenny hiked out to the territory a third time.

On the 10th of November 2014, Kenny once again made his way to the Sheep Mountain area, which is close to the U.S. Air Force installation called Area 51, known for its speculated connection to UFOs and secret government experiments. It’s located near Groom Lake and is within the Nevada Test and Training Range. As late as 2012, the U.S. government denied the existence of Area 51, and it is still closed to the public.

Kenny had informed his loved ones that he would be gone for a couple of days. When he failed to return home on the third day, his girlfriend, Sheryon Pilgrim, reported him missing.

Both ground and aerial searches were conducted, but no sign of Kenny could be found. Dave Cummings from Red Rock Search & Rescue reported finding Kenny’s cell phone next to an abandoned vertical mine shaft, where he filmed part of the M cave video. Specially trained individuals were called in to conduct a search of the mine. Unfortunately, aside from his vehicle and his cell phone, no trace of Kenny was ever found.

There are three main theories as to the fate of Kenny Veach: death by natural causes, murder, or suicide. Quite simply, the desert could have swallowed Kenny.

As of 2024, Kenny Veach has still not been found, even though more than thirty search and rescue team members scoured the Sheep Mountain area on three occasions.

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The Redpath Mansion Murders

The Redpath family was among Montreal’s most influential and wealthy elites at the turn of the 20th century. They had built their fortune through the Redpath Sugar Refinery, and their social connections extended into Canadian political and business circles. On June 13, 1901, neighbors were startled by the sounds of gunshots coming from the Redpath mansion. Later that evening, both Ada Redpath and her son Clifford were found dead in their rooms. The official report stated that Clifford had shot his mother and then died by suicide. Ada was killed in bed with a revolver wound to the head, while Clifford was found nearby with a bullet wound to his temple. However, many details didn’t add up — and for over a century, doubts have persisted about what actually happened that day.

No official coroner’s inquest was held at the time.

A local doctor, not a coroner, signed the death certificates.

Burials occurred rapidly, which some suggest was an attempt to suppress scandal.

There was no powder residue reported on Clifford’s hands.

Clifford was said to have severe rheumatic fever, raising doubts about whether he was physically able to shoot his mother — or himself.

The position of the bodies was never fully explained or diagrammed.

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Alien Hand Syndrome

Alien hand syndrome (AHS) or Dr. Strangelove syndrome is a category of conditions in which a person experiences their limbs acting seemingly on their own, without conscious control over the actions. There are a variety of clinical conditions that fall under this category, most commonly affecting the left hand. The affected person may sometimes reach for objects and manipulate them without wanting to do so, even to the point of having to use the controllable hand to restrain the alien hand. The occurrence of alien hand syndrome can be usefully conceptualized as a phenomenon reflecting a functional "disentanglement" between thought and action. There is no cure for the alien hand syndrome

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Arachnodactyly or “spider fingers" is a condition in which the fingers are abnormally long & slender, in comparison to the palm of the hand.

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What happened to Veronica Anderson?

On the night of August 24, 1991, Veronica “Vera” Anderson, a 42-year-old single mother of two from Widnes, Cheshire, left her home after receiving a mysterious phone call—leaving her 7-year-old son with a neighbour, saying she'd be back in ten minutes. Known for co-running a sandwich business with her teenage daughter, and described as fun-loving and family-oriented, Vera vanished after that call. Five hours later, just after 3 AM on August 25, her body was found slumped over the steering wheel of her blue Ford Cortina, parked off Tannery Lane in Penketh, Warrington—more than 4 miles from home. She had been brutally murdered: her throat was cut and signs pointed to a violent struggle, including possible strangulation.

No sign of sexual assault or robbery—nothing was stolen

Left at the scene: a blood-stained glove (possibly Minette cotton) and a length of sash cord—suggesting deliberate staging or a professional killer’s involvement

A mystery brown hatchback was seen near the scene around 11:15 PM, before Vera’s body was discovered

A possible sighting at a pub (“Crown and Cushion”) between 10:30–11 PM shows her talking to a white male (30s–40s, moustache, fawn jacket), who has never been identified

A witness reported a man with a hand injury around 1:40 AM, possibly linked

A man called John Blyth is considered the main suspect but has never been convicted and has since died

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The Mystery of Herxheim 

Herxheim was discovered in 1996 on the site of a construction project when locals reported finds of bones, including human skulls. The excavation was considered a salvage or rescue dig, as parts of the site were destroyed by the construction.

Whether for religious purpose or war, it is apparent from the 2009 study that the humans at the site of Herxheim were butchered and eaten. Not only were cut marks found on locations of the skeleton that are made during the dismemberment and filleting process, bones were also crushed for the purposes of marrow extraction, and chewed. Besides the fresh-bone fractures present on many bones, "[processing] for marrow is also documented by the presence of scrape marks in the marrow cavity on two fragments."

Skeletal representation analysis revealed that many of the "spongy bone" elements - such as the spinal column, patella, ilium, and sternum - were underrepresented compared to what would be expected in a mass grave. "All these observations are similar to those observed in animal butchery." Additionally, preferential chewing of the metapodials and hand phalanges "speak strongly in favour of human choice rather than more or less random action by carnivores".

The number of people concerned at Herxheim obviously suggests that cannibalism for the simple purpose of survival is highly improbable, all the more so as the characteristics of the deposits show a standard, repetitive, and strongly ritualised practice.

A detailed study published by the excavators in 2015 estimates that the site contains the scattered remains of more than 1000 individuals, all of whom were butchered and eaten. More than a third of the dead were juveniles, ranging from newborns to teenagers of both genders. 

The evidence indicates that the bodies were cooked, probably by spit-roasting them whole (including the heads) over open fires. Both flesh and bone marrow were eaten, and the skulls were processed into cups.