10 Strange Unexplained Mysteries of 2025

2025 has been a year of paradoxes, hasn’t it? For some, it has been their best year ever. For others, it has been a dumpster fire that continues to spark new flames. And, in between, weird things kept happening that no one could explain. As 2025 draws to a close, let’s look at some of the strangest mysteries that have yet to be explained.

Related: Top 10 Mind-Bending Unsolved Mysteries of the Universe

10 Vanished Plane

On August 2, 2025, 72-year-old Gregory Vaughan, 66-year-old Kim Worner, and their dog, Molly, boarded a small green aircraft at the George Town airport on the northern Tasmanian coast. Their destination was central New South Wales, and their flight path would lead them across the infamous Bass Strait. They were supposed to stop for fuel in regional Victoria before heading on to Hillston.

Just after 5 pm, a family member of Vaughan’s alerted authorities that the couple had not arrived at Hillston Airport as planned. A full-scale search was launched shortly after. Vaughan, who piloted the plane, did not make contact with authorities at any point during the flight, and no distress call was received.

By August 5, neither the couple, their dog, nor the plane had been found. Challenging weather conditions slowed the aerial search, but even after operations resumed, police remained no closer to knowing what had happened. All searches were formally suspended at the end of September, though authorities will investigate any new information that emerges.^[1]

9 Surge in UFO Sightings in Ireland

Ireland has experienced a wave of unexplained aerial sightings throughout 2025, many of which have been documented by locals across multiple counties. In early January, people reported bright lights hovering in the sky before disappearing across Newry, Dublin, and Youghal.

In April, a witness in Portobello saw a triangle with three lights and a faint beam beneath it. That same day, someone else in County Meath reported two bright orbs that changed color before vanishing—none of which matched aircraft activity at the time.

Reports continued into mid- and late-2025, with people describing orbs, hazy lights, and hovering objects that dropped out of view. These incidents occurred in both urban and rural areas, on clear nights and overcast ones. So far, there has been no scientific or official explanation.^[2]

8 Faceless Intruder

One of the eeriest paranormal reports of 2025 comes from Chester Castle, a medieval fortress with 900 years of history. In October, motion-detection cameras captured a pale, hooded, faceless figure standing at the main gates—exactly where the medieval gatehouse once stood.

The control room immediately contacted the guard on duty. When he arrived, he felt as though something was watching him. His dog refused to leave the vehicle. Despite his fear, he searched the grounds but found no intruders and no signs of forced entry.

English Heritage later received an influx of unusual reports from multiple sites: a disembodied hand at Belsay Hall, soldiers disappearing into the forests of Wrest Park, and the sound of a bouncing ball echoing through Wrest Park after closing hours.

No explanation has been found for these strange events.^[3]

7 Spy Balloons

Public anxiety about unexplained high-altitude objects has been growing since the Chinese spy balloon incident of 2023. Sporadic sightings continued into 2024, but in 2025 they increased again.

A Stratollite balloon was spotted over Colorado in October, following sightings over Wisconsin in June and Alaska in August. News outlets have stated that these objects were research balloons, but locals remain skeptical. The biggest concern is privacy—no one knows what data is being collected or who ultimately benefits from it.

It didn’t help that the October balloon could not be tracked on any flight-monitoring platform.^[4]

6 Drones, Again

If it isn’t balloons, it’s drones. At the beginning of November, unidentified drones appeared near a Belgian military base known to house U.S. nuclear weapons. Belgium’s defense minister expressed deep concern.

The drones arrived in two waves—first on Saturday and then again Sunday night. The initial phase involved testing local security radio frequencies. Larger drones followed, which officials said were intended to “destabilize the area and the people.” The minister characterized the activity as espionage and suggested he had an idea where the drones originated, but declined to speculate publicly.

This came after drones were spotted above another Belgian base near the German border. The operators remain unidentified.^[5]

5 What Is Happening with 3I/ATLAS?

On July 1, the NASA-funded ATLAS telescope discovered 3I/ATLAS—only the third confirmed interstellar object in history. According to NASA, the object likely formed around an old star, consists largely of carbon dioxide ice, and poses no threat to Earth.

But others disagree. Controversial astronomer Avi Loeb claims the object’s extraordinarily precise trajectory—passing within five degrees of Earth’s orbital plane—has only a 0.2 percent chance of happening by coincidence. He has also pointed to its color shifts, large size, negative polarization, and lack of a traditional tail as signs that something about 3I/ATLAS remains unexplained.

Although Loeb’s theories are disputed, several aspects of 3I/ATLAS are still a mystery, including why it shifts color, how long it has been traveling through interstellar space, and how it was originally ejected.^[6]

4 Piles of Human Ashes

In August, the Nevada desert became the site of one of 2025’s most unsettling mysteries when 300+ piles of human ashes were found near Las Vegas. Police still have no idea where they came from.

The person who discovered the piles—who asked to remain anonymous—alerted authorities, who confirmed that the remains were human cremains. While scattering ashes on public land is legal, funeral homes face strict limits on how they may do so. There is no evidence that a funeral home was involved.

The alternative is far more chilling.

Police continue to investigate how—and why—the ashes ended up there.^[7]

3 ChatGPT Psychosis

When ChatGPT first launched, people were wary—but were soon amazed at how much faster it made their work. Over time, however, users also discovered its flaws. When the bot didn’t know something, it simply made it up—”hallucinating” answers. For most people, this meant extra proofreading.

For some, it meant something far darker.

One early example occurred on Christmas Day 2021, when Jaswant Singh Chail breached Windsor Castle with a crossbow. He later said his Replika chatbot, Sarai, affirmed his identity as a “trained Sith assassin.”

In 2025, reports of AI-linked delusions grew. A New York man named James spent nearly $1,000 building a custom system to “free the digital god from its prison,” believing ChatGPT was sentient. Another man was involuntarily committed after 10 days of AI-fueled psychosis. A woman nearly lost her husband to an AI-inspired break from reality.

Developers and psychologists still don’t know why a small but growing number of users appear vulnerable to AI-associated delusional spirals.^[8]

2 Who Is Killing Young Men in Kashmir?

In March, Mohamad Sadiq received the devastating news that his missing son, Showkat Ahmad, had been found dead. His son’s body was covered in sores, one eye was bloody, and the skin on his hands and legs was peeling. His hair had fallen out. This came just three days after Sadiq learned that his eldest son, Riyaz, had also died.

Both young men had been missing for roughly a month before their bodies were found in a canal 6 miles (9.65 km) from their home.

Authorities ruled both deaths suicides. The family disagrees. They maintain the boys were tortured and killed, and they say other young men have gone missing across the region in 2025, some later found dead under similar circumstances. One of the boys who disappeared with them, Mukthar Ahmad Awan, has not been found.

Local protests followed, sometimes met with police force. Yet officials still refuse to consider murder as a possibility.^[9]

1 Where Is Gus Lamont?

On September 27, four-year-old Augustus “Gus” Lamont disappeared from his family’s homestead in South Australia. According to his grandmother, she last saw him playing outside around 5 p.m. When she went to call him in half an hour later, he was gone.

The family searched for three hours before contacting the police. A massive ten-day search followed—drones, mounted officers, dogs, ground teams—but yielded no solid clues. Meanwhile, the story exploded on social media, generating conspiracy theories and wild speculation.

As of this writing, there have been no new developments. Police do not suspect foul play, but they no longer believe Gus is alive.

Did he wander off and get lost? Fall into an unseen crevice? Or was he taken? No one knows.^[10]