Mary Louise Eklund

Tag: Freaky Friday

  • Freaky Friday – The New Jersey Watcher

    Menacing By Michael Summers. Who granted use under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0). His street photography is great do check out his website Canonsnapper. He has a wonderful eye for composition and his choice of black and white compliments it well.
    Menacing By Michael Summers. Who granted use under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0). His street photography is great do check out his website Canonsnapper. He has a wonderful eye for composition and his choice of black and white compliments it well.

    Imagine you have finally saved enough and found your dream house for you family. That’s where Derek and Maria Broaddus were in June of 2014 when they purchased their dream home for $1.6 million in Westfield, New Jersey. Before they moved in a letter came explaining the house came with more… it came with a stalker who was at least the third generation stalker of this particular home. He thanked them for new blood and asked by name where each child would have a bedroom. They never moved in but that didn’t stop the letters or their problems.

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  • Freaky Friday – Maura Murray

    The required US legal disclaimer: All images are the property of their owners I reproduce them here under the Fair Use Doctrine of the copyright law for commentary and critique The required US legal disclaimer: All images are the property of their owners I reproduce them here under the Fair Use Doctrine of the copyright law for commentary and critique
    The required US legal disclaimer: All images are the property of their owners I reproduce them here under the Fair Use Doctrine of the copyright law for commentary and critique The required US legal disclaimer: All images are the property of their owners I reproduce them here under the Fair Use Doctrine of the copyright law for commentary and critique

    The Maura Murray case is another case of a college aged girl who disappeared under mysterious circumstances. She disappeared in 2004. Like the Elisa Lam case there are people who have become obsessed by it but this more than a what happened that night question, but rather a longer mystery that ended up with a disappearance.  The armchair investigators have become so obcessed that one, James Renner, has written a book about how it consumed him entitled True Crime Addict: How I Lost Myself In The Mysterious Disappearance of Maura Murray.  It is on my to read list and when done will be a Tuesday Thoughts book.   Many of the armchair investigators are adamant that their theory is the right one and much in-fighting is done that just undermines the goal of finding Maura IMHO.   But today let’s just look at Maura and her disappearance not the effects it’s had others even years later.

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  • Freaky Friday – Roman Dodecahedrons

    Roman Dodecahedron By Lokilech - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0
    Roman Dodecahedron By Lokilech – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0

    It seems we know so much about the Roman Empire. We read many of their works from daily letters to poetry to speeches to architectural design notes. Yet it’s the simple things that stymie us. Take the Roman dodecahedrons found everywhere in all sizes. There is nothing written to explain what they are, why are they so ubiquitous that it seems the average Roman soldier carried a few small ones with him and houses would have containers full of various sizes? This common everyday objects of Roman life remain a mystery to us.

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  • Freaky Friday – Elisa Lam

    The required US legal disclaimer: All images are the property of their owners I reproduce them here under the Fair Use Doctrine of the copyright law for commentary and critique The required US legal disclaimer: All images are the property of their owners I reproduce them here under the Fair Use Doctrine of the copyright law for commentary and critique
    The required US legal disclaimer: All images are the property of their owners I reproduce them here under the Fair Use Doctrine of the copyright law for commentary and critique The required US legal disclaimer: All images are the property of their owners I reproduce them here under the Fair Use Doctrine of the copyright law for commentary and critique

    When it comes to mysteries the Elisa Lam case is an unique one. She was a Canadian on her own touring the United States with her own plan. She was young and out to see the world. Then she disappeared. Then she was found in a shocking manner that made world news. How did she end up in the water tanks that serviced the Cecil Hotel in Los Angles? Was it murder or suicide? Either one was it intentional or accidental? What was Elisa doing in that eerie elevator video hours before her death? Was there a cover up or just shoddily run security system? These are topics that are still discussed today among mystery aficionados. What happened to Elisa Lam?

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  • Freaky Friday – UVB-76

    Buzzer by Matthew H on Flickr. He granted use of the photo under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic license.
    Buzzer by Matthew H on Flickr. He granted use of the photo under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic license.

    UVB-76 is an old call sign for a Russian station at 4625kHz known as The Buzzer. It’s been in operation at least since 1973. It has pretty much been continuous for over 40 years with occasional breakdowns and short outages. It buzzes about 25 buzzes per minute but the rate has varied over time. Occasionally it is interrupted by a heavily accented Russian voice reading common first names, Russian phonetic alphabet, and numbers. Many believe it is a peculiar type of numbers station.  But why the constant buzzing?  Do the shifts in tone and frequency have meaning? Despite the fall of the Soviet Union it continues. Who are the messages for? What do they mean?   Is it an apocalypse dead man switch to nukes?

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  • Freaky Friday – Things We’ve Lost

    The Antikythera Mechanism by Tilemahos Efthimiadis on Flickr. Used under the Creative Commons Generic Attribution 2.0. Thanks for making this available!
    The Antikythera Mechanism by Tilemahos Efthimiadis on Flickr. Used under the Creative Commons Generic Attribution 2.0. Thanks for making this available!

    Being a history buff I’ve still not gotten over the burning of the Alexandria Library by the Romans. I know, I know it’s been a while I should let it go but honestly, I mourn the loss and suppression of knowledge. Where could be be if humans built on what they learned rather than lost or suppressed it? Just as the burned library is a symbol of lost knowledge a touch stone of it is the Antikythera Mechanism. What’s that you ask? I’m so glad you did because there are more answers now than there where 10 years ago but not as many as there were 3,000 years ago when it was used. THAT’S what’s freaky about it.

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  • Freaky Friday – The Monster With 21 Faces

    monster-headz-by-andres-musta-18sep16
    monster headz by Andres Musta on Flickr. He has given license for use via Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic. Thanks Andres!

    If you enjoy the Japanese confection Pocky as my BFF Patricia does you might want to know about an incident in 1984-85 where the Monster with 21 Faces threatened Pocky, kidnapped an CEO, threatened another company’s confectioneries, rejoiced in the suicide of a policeman, and actually got ransoms. Apparently two faces of monster were seen then dubbed Video Tape Man and Fox Eyed Man. Honestly the further you go into the stories the far-out it seems. But in the end it’s a true crime very similar to our unsolved Tylenol Murders in the US.  If you want to know how the Monster did all of this keep reading?

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  • Freaky Friday – How Did Judy Smith get there? Who Killed her?

    judy-smith
    The required US legal disclaimer: All images are the property of their owners I reproduce them here under the Fair Use Doctrine of the copyright law for commentary and critique The required US legal disclaimer: All images are the property of their owners I reproduce them here under the Fair Use Doctrine of the copyright law for commentary and critique

    Judy Smith caught my attention when she her remains were found in Asheville, North Carolina. Again it was the connection to an area I was familiar. Then I learned she was from the Boston area and disappeared in the Philadelphia area. How did she wind up on Mt Pisgah? It an odd case that has left everyone wondering since 1997.

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  • Freaky Friday – What Was It?

    frozen-sea-cavern-national-library-of-australia
    On the frozen sea in a cavern eaten out by the waves under the coastal ice-cliffs, Adelie Land [Australasian Antarctic Expedition, 1911-1914] by Hurley, Frank, 1885-1962. The image was shared by The National Library of Australia on Flickr as a member of The Commons. The image has no known copyright restrictions.
    I chose this mystery because as a kid I viewed it in the Johnson City Mall. It was the mysterious Minnesota Iceman. The story of it and just what it was is so convoluted and twisted in the end I’m not sure what I saw. But dang I’m so glad I convinced my folks to spend the 25 cents for me to view it. Whatever it was I saw left a memory.

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  • Freaky Friday – Dalytov Pass

    dyatlov-pass-hikers_1
    The required US legal disclaimer: All images are the property of their owners I reproduce them here under the Fair Use Doctrine of the copyright law for commentary and critique The required US legal disclaimer: All images are the property of their owners I reproduce them here under the Fair Use Doctrine of the copyright law for commentary and critique

    Honestly I don’t know where to start on this story or what I think of it. I will do my best to relay what I found and my thoughts. I spent the most time yet researching it hoping I’d find an answer I felt was the right one. I didn’t. As much as I like mysteries I don’t like them when it takes nine gifted live loving people’s lives. That’s what happened to these nine Russian hikers in 1959. They set out doing something they loved and wound up dead not from hazards of the arduous hike but from something unexplainable. Why was Lyuda’s tongue removed while she was still alive? How did two of them wind up with radioactive clothes? What removed both eyes from two? What crushed the chest of three? What flailed the chest of one? Why was their tent cut from the inside? What happened? What compelled these highly experienced hikers to do what they did? Why was the region closed for three years after the event? Why were the documents related to it classified until after the fall of the Soviet Union? If after this you favor a theory or have one let me know. The more I found out the less I felt I knew except as the coroner ruled “an unknown compelling force” caused their deaths.

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