The Disappearance of Juan Pedro Martínez
This unsolved mystery from Spain is one you may not have heard of, but it definitely needs more attention.
In 1986, Juan Pedro was around 10 year old, and as a reward for preforming well in school, was allowed to accompany his father, a truck driver, on his way to Bilbao, Northern Spain. It was set to be a family affair, with the boy’s mother also coming along for the ride.
The truck was carrying 20,000 litres of sulphuric acid, and up until June 25th, the trip had progressed as normal. The family had just had breakfast at a service station one the N-1 motorway and little did anyone know, this would be the last sighting of the three of them together.
At 6.30am, the truck, which had been speeding excessively, skidded on a curve and crashed on the Somosierra mountain pass. The accident cracked open the cistern and spilt sulphuric acid across the scene.
Juan Pedro’s parents were killed immediately, their bodies inevitably damaged by the acid. However, Juan Pedro was not with them. In fact, he was nowhere to be found, and has remained missing for the past 37 years. Items of his were recovered among the wreckage, and he’d just been spotted having breakfast with his parents – so where on earth was he?
Some have theorised that his body was entirely dissolved by the acid, but this was ruled out. The body would have to have been completely submerged for hours for this to have happened, and the speedy arrival of emergency services prevented this fate befalling the parents’ bodies. Others hoped that Juan Pedro had been injured – possibly splashed with acid – and wandered away from the accident in search of water from a stream, only to have gotten lost or swept away. This seems unlikely, as despite extensive searches of the area, no body was found.
So where is he? Why was the truck speeding?
To add more mystery to an already mysterious story, analysis of the truck showed that it had made twelve stops in the last thirteen kilometres (about 8 miles) before the accident, all without leaving the road. There was no viable reason for this stop-start pattern, as there was no traffic on the road at the time. Police confirmed there was no mechanical issues affecting the truck.
There is, however, one line of enquiry that the police have been unable to rule out. It was discovered that Juan Pedro’s father had been forced to transport heroin around Spain as part of a larger drug smuggling ring. Neither parent had any drug-related criminal record, and according to the family, it seems an about of fear was involved.
Of course, this added to the questions. Police now theorised that another vehicle was involved with the crash. Perhaps smugglers had been following them, and the father, out of fear, ended up speeding and crashing the truck? Alternatively, it’s possible that Juan Pedro had been kidnapped as collateral, and the truck’s strange behaviour was due to the parent’s desperate chase?
There is one other piece in this puzzle of strangeness.
According to eye witnesses, a white Nissan Vanette, driven by a “foreign-accented” couple, stopped at the accident scene, searched the truck and allegedly removed a bundle, which they loaded into the van and fled. In the almost 40 years since the incident, police have been unable to trace the van.
Perhaps this couple where part of the drug ring. They could have attempted to recover the heroin – traces of which were found in the truck, by the way – but found the boy clinging to life? If he was alive, maybe he was taken and disposed of as a potential witness? Maybe the “bundle” was just a a large enough amount of heroin to be mistaken for s 10 year old child? Perhaps the couple were well intentioned and they intended to take the injured child to a nearby hospital? Remember, this was the era before mobile phones.
But if that was the case, why is Juan Pedro yet to be found? If he was taken, unconscious, to a hospital and later died, the police would have been able to link him to the accident, surely?
Perhaps the couple took the child and raised him as their own? Maybe he was already in the van, his parents chasing behind, only to crash. Then, perhaps the couple bundled in the heroin, fled the scene?
So many questions, but one outweighs them all.
What happened to Juan Pedro Martínez?
The Oakville Blobs
Oakville, Washington has a population of 715, but one August day inn 1994, all 715 residence were left baffled when translucent, gelatinous blobs rained down from the sky.
Some of those who came into contact with the blobs became unwell, and they were even blamed for the deaths of a few curious animals.
Two weeks later, it happened again.
So what was the strange goop that fell from the sky? There are a few theories.
Some claim it came it was human waste from a commercial airplane. Leaks from plane’s lavatory systems have been known to fall to the ground, after freezing in midair. However, these are always dyed blue with disinfectant and remain frozen – hence its nickname, Blue Ice.
Alternatively, some suggest that the Oakville blobs were – bare with me on this one – dismembered jellyfish.
Bomb testing had been going on off the coast of Washington around the times the blobs rained down. It was theorised that the bombs may have blown up a school of jellyfish, which were then pulled up into the atmosphere during evaporation and released during a storm. Now remember, this has happened before, resulting in rains of fishes, spiders, frogs and worms.
There is a problem with this theory, however. The blobs were tested and initially found to contain human white blood cells. On further examination, the cells contained no nuclei, which ruled out human or jellyfish bits.
According to Unsolved Mysteries, microbiologist Mike McDowell, studied the blobs and found two kinds of bacteria, Pseudomonas fluorescens and Enterobacter cloacae, which is known to appear in digestive tracts and occasionally where waste has been deposited. Further investigation as to what the blobs themselves were could not be carried out, as the samples seem to have gone missing in the years since.
The Death of Zigmund Adamski
In June of 1980, Zigmund Adamski, a coal miner from Tingley, England, disappeared. Five days later, his body was found on top of a 10ft coal pile in a coal way 20 miles away from home.
The 56 year old was found to have had a “haphazard” haircut, and only a day’s worth of beard growth. Even stranger, he was dressed “improperly” in a suit, but with no shirt, watch or wallet, and had burns over his head, neck and shoulders, which had been covered in an ointment that, upon testing, could not be identified.
Despite being on top of a coal pile, his body and clothes were free of coal dust. The coroner ruled Adamski had died from a heart attack, with a look of terror on his face. This lead to a theory that he’d been literally, scared to death.
Of course, the immediate thought was aliens. Many believe to this day that Adamski was abducted by aliens, possibly experimented upon, then left on top of the coal pile. It sounds outrageous, but not according to Alan Godfrey, the first police office to be called to the scene.
Godfrey went on to have his own UFO encounter in November of that year later recalling, under hypnosis, that he had in fact been abducted. Later, he was even paid a visit by a man from “The Ministry” and made to swear under the Official Secrets Act not to speak to the media. Speaking to the media many years later, Godfrey supposedly called the event a “dream”, although he remained open minded.
But back to Zigmund: what could have possibly happened to him over the five days he was missing? How did he end up dead, atop a 10ft coal pile?
Some seem to point to the KGB. Adamski was Polish and emigrated to the UK during the war, later marrying his wife, Lottie, in 1951. Lottie used a wheelchair and, due to his own health problems, Zigmund had applied for early retirement.
There seems to be no reason for the KGB to have be involved. Lottie herself seemed to believe her husband had been kidnapped, but reports never seem to say who she suspected.
Another theory some that suggested is that Adamski was a victim of ball lightening, and, disorientated, wandered up the coal pile to die. In my opinion, even aliens are a better theory than this.
But what did happen to Zigmund Adamski? Where was he for the five days before he was found? What caused the strange burns on his neck? Who applied the strange ointment and what was it made of? Could he have been a spy, fallen foul of the KGB? Or was it, as many seem to believe, aliens? We may never know.
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The Hawthorn Files 