Freaky Friday Files: Christmas Mysteries 2.0

Disclaimer: Some information in this blog post may be distressing. Reader discretion advised.

Hello! Happy FRI-YAY! I thought we could use this edition of Freaky Friday Files to take a look at some more Christmas Mysteries, aka Christmas Mysteries 2.0, if you will!

If you'd like to check out last year's Christmas Mysteries, you can do so "here". That post covers the Sodder children, JonBenét Ramsey, human combustion, and more.

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Christmas Mysteries 2.0

• Twas the Night Before Christmas/A Visit From St. Nicholas Poem Mystery - The origins of this poem are very murky, and no one truly knows who actually wrote it. The poem was first sent to a newspaper in Troy, New York, called the Sentinel, and from there was published on the 23rd of December, 1823. In 1844, a professor called Clement Clarke Moore claimed credit for writing the poem. The poem had been sent to the Sentinel by one of Moore's friends. Apparently, Moore was reluctant to take credit for the poem originally because he was embarrassed and thought it was "unscholarly". In 2000, a different professor, Donald Wayne Foster, presented evidence that it was someone else entirely who wrote the poem. Foster said that the real author was Henry Jr. Livingstone, who passed away in 1828. Foster believed this because he said the poem was a striking resemblance to Livingstone's other works and an anomaly of Moore's writings. Some historians agree with Foster, and others still think Moore was the original author. However, in the poem, the reindeer were originally called "Dunder" and "Blixem," and they only became "Doner" and "Blitzen" due to a printing error. Moore wrote out poems with the latter reindeer names, and the former are actually Dutch words for "thunder" and "lightning". Livingstone spoke Dutch, but Moore did not. So who really wrote the poem Twas the Night Before Christmas?

• The Patty Vaughan Cold Case - On Christmas Day, 1996, a 32-year-old woman called Patty Vaughan left her house in La Vernia, Texas, and never ever returned. Her van was found 25 km away from her house the next day with a flat tyre, traces of blood, and a man's red jumpsuit. Allegedly, before her disappearance, Patty had gotten into an argument with her estranged husband, JR. JR was the last person to see Patty alive. Patty and JR had three children together and had separated 2 months earlier. Patty was dating another man, and JR was jealous. JR filed for divorce the day after Patty went missing - people thought this was weird. Blood was found in Patty's bedroom as well as on a mop, which suggested that someone had been cleaning her house. The carpet had also recently been shampooed. DNA tests confirmed that the blood that was found belonged to Patty. Two months later, Patty's mum went to JR's house and attacked him with a baseball bat. Authorities never found any evidence linking JR to the crime, and he was able to gain sole custody of his children and leave Texas. During the time that Patty was missing, JR happened to be working on construction for a school in the nearby town of Natalia. There is a theory that Patty's remains may have been buried in the concrete foundation and that multiple people were involved in the disposal of Patty's body. A few years later, DNA testing was done on some other items found in Patty's van; they found female DNA that wasn't Patty's. Patty's disappearance has never been solved.

• Mari Ann Fowler's Disappearance - On Christmas Eve, 2002, 65-year-old Mari was abducted from a Port Allen Shopping Centre in Louisiana. Mari was on her way to visit her husband (who was serving time in prison) and stopped at a Subway shop. However, she never came back out of the parking lot. Subway employees noticed that her car was still parked in the car park for ages after she had left with her order. The employees were so concerned that they came outside to look, and what they found was Fowler's purse, keys, food, and several of her fake nails on the ground. This suggested that some sort of horrifying struggle had taken place. When they checked the CCTV footage from a nearby alcohol store, it showed a dark coloured pickup truck parked next to Fowler's car, then a man grabbing her before the truck drove away. The footage was not able to reveal the suspect's face. It is thought that Mari Ann Fowler may have been a victim of serial killer Derrick Todd Lee, as he was convicted of m*rdering women between 1998 and 2003. Lee tended to target women alone and would leave their bodies to be found. However, Fowler's body was never discovered, so they could not convict him.

• The Loz Feliz Murder Mansion - On the 6th of December, 1959, in LA, a doctor, Dr. Harold Perelson m*rdered his wife with a hammer, then severely beat his 18-year-old daughter, and then ended his own life with water, acid, and tranquillizer pills. The three children survived but have not been mentioned in the media ever since. For 50 years, the home would remain uinhabited and trespassers would say you could still see the remains of their Christmas tree. A year after the murder-s*icide, the mansion was sold to a couple, Emily and Julian Enriquez, who only used it as a storage site and a place where their cats lived. No one has ever figured out a motive for the crime.

• Rendleshem Forest Incident - This one is similar to the Warminster case I wrote about last year. According to Wikipedia, the Rendlesham Forest Incident was "a series of reported sightings of unexplained lights near Rendlesham Forest in Suffolk, England, in December 1980, which became linked with alleged UFO landings." These events happened outside RAF Woodbridge, which was being used by the United States Air Force at the time. Some USAF personnel claimed to have seen UFOs, and the event is often referred to as "Britain's Roswell".

Thanks for reading!

Stay safe.

Ash x