More than 35 years after she began making “Unsolved Mysteries,” co-creator Terry Dunn Meurer is still amazed at what’s happening on the planet.
Murders, missing people, paranormal experiences, possible alien encounters — few stories have been off the table for “Unsolved Mysteries” since it began on NBC in 1987. It later aired on CBS, Lifetime, and the former Spike TV before being revived by Netflix in 2020, where 5 new episodes are currently streaming as part of Volume 4.
The new batch runs the gamut of the “Unsolved Mysteries” spectrum, highlighting the cases of a severed head discovered in the woods of Pennsylvania, a body found in a blood-soaked basement, and a college student found dead on the stage of a locked theater. However, the collection closes its fourth volume with two episodes that may be a departure from its current choice of lesser-known cases –– Jack the Ripper and the Mothman.
But that’s just the beginning of the collection’s fall launch. Selection can fully reveal that four more episodes will be released in October — just in time for Halloween — as part of Volume 5. While Netflix has yet to reveal what these episodes will focus on, Meurer can barely contain her delight at one of them. “It’s the most unnerving thriller I’ve ever completed,” she says. “That’s all I can say right now!”
For now, Meurer spoke with Selection on making Quantity 4, how the mass departures of Jack the Ripper and Mothman made the cut — and why she still can’t shake the severed head case. Warning: There are mild spoilers in the interview below.
True crime documentaries come out seemingly every week these days. Does that change the way you approach what “Unsolved Mysteries” has been doing for over 35 years?
We’ve never considered ourselves a true crime series. We’d rather stand aside and say we’re more of a thriller show. So we’re always looking for mysteries, and we’re probably selective in another way, because it has to have certain elements of suspense. It probably can’t just be a crime, and we try to open up paranormal stories as well. So that limits the type of stories we’re prepared and able to solve. We’re looking for that level of suspense that some true crimes don’t have.
These new episodes begin and end with the tales of Jack the Ripper and the Mothman, who are much more recognizable figures than the opposing episodes you completed on Netflix. Why pay attention to them now?
With Jack the Ripper in particular, everyone has heard the title, but people don’t really know what he did or how he did it. And some people probably don’t even know that it’s unsolved. So, of course, it’s a bit of a departure for those reasons, but also because it’s such an old case. It’s one of the oldest cases we’ve ever completed, along with our classic episodes.
There are no family members to interview about the case and the victims, so now we have some really good experts who have dedicated their lives to investigating Jack the Ripper and all the assorted suspects. People probably don’t know that there are still new suspects being named.
As for the Mothman, it’s a good story that we’ve done in our classic episodes, however, we recently heard that there’s been a new set of sightings in the space at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport. So this new episode is kind of like a big update to the Level Nice Mothman episode (from 2002). Has the Mothman moved to Chicago? What does that mean if people really believe it (is it a harbinger of something bad)?
One of the many things we always look for in relation to paranormal stories is basically reliable witnesses. If we can’t find witnesses who are reliable, we wouldn’t do the story. So we researched the Mothman case and located many witnesses, and some air traffic controllers, pilots and cargo handlers at O’Hare who had also seen the Mothman and given us statements, but were not prepared to be interviewed.
The great thing about doing this for over three years is that you can replace your personal work, and you even use some of your classic Mothman reenactments in this episode. But for those watching closely, did you also use these new real-life witnesses in your tale reenactments?
We don’t usually do that, but we did in this case. We just felt like it might make it a little more believable. That was a selection, really. With the classic series, we would have dialogue and we would see people’s faces. Normally, we would have real police officers or other real people, after they were prepared. But with the Netflix series, the reenactments were more evocative. Shots of arms and feet and the backs of heads. We went a little further with the Mothman episode with the real people, just to mix it up a bit.
What was it like doing this?
Oh, everybody wanted to do it. We didn’t have to convince them to do it. These people were really traumatized by this experience. That’s one of the many things that I feel makes them so believable. In some ways, it might have seemed odd to put an actor in these particular ones. I don’t know why. And now we hear often over the years that people are so grateful for the catharsis of telling their story in an interview, and they feel like they’re doing something to advance the suspense and resolve it.
That’s at the heart of what we do. Sure, it’s entertainment. But these are real people with real stories and real mysteries. If we can help them figure that out, that’s why I’ll be doing “Unsolved Mysteries” until the day I die.
The three lesser-known episodes in the middle of the season are really creepy. However, the highlight might also be “The Severed Head,” just because there’s so much that happens in a single episode. There’s a severed, embalmed head discovered with red rubber balls where its eyes should be. You assume it’s actually the missing head from a 1950s grave robbery, but then it’s definitely shown that it’s not, so that could be a whole other story. Then there’s the strange rivalry between an old man and the 15-year-old who discovered the top, and how that may have escalated into using the top as retaliation and, later, suicide. How did you uncover this wild story?
This is actually one of my favorite episodes, and the one I hope most gets solved. Chief Mike O’Brien and Andy Gall, the two investigators on that case, are that lady’s family now. They are so obsessed with solving this case. It was very multifaceted, and more than many of our cases in recent memory, it was an education for me, because I didn’t know anything about the body parts trade. I also didn’t know that when a head is embalmed, you can’t get DNA from it. We tried. We paid to send some of those samples to a different lab, and they tried, but they said they couldn’t get any.
These guys tried everything to solve this. They used NASA satellites to try to see if a car was parked there when the top was dropped, and then there’s the character Jay. We set this story several years ago when Jay was still alive, but we didn’t interview him then. He’s already a mystery in the case, and then you definitely find out that Jay committed suicide.
This case simply has too many twists and turns and too much intrigue. How did the top get there? Who put it there? Who It is the top? Where is the rest of her body? There are so many mysteries. I know the detectives really think that if we can find out who she is, we can give a clue as to what happened to her.
You mentioned that you focused on this case years ago. How long does it take to provide these episodes?
It takes about two years to complete a season. Maybe more, depending on the case, but that’s only half the season. The rest will fall in October.
What resonated with you about the two different episodes this season –– “Physique within the Basement” and “Homicide, Heart Stage?”
In fact, with “Physique in the Basement,” it was fascinating to me that the officers started out thinking it was a murder, and then they thought it might be an accident. Often times, the opposite happens in these cases. We’ve never closed a case like this before, which made it really interesting to tell. And they were stunned. When Detective Dave Candy came to us, he said, “Before I retire, I have to feel like I’ve done everything I can to solve this.”
And Sigrid, in the other episode, was just this lack of a wonderful life, so many years ago. This one, you hope that someone is watching who is aware of the reality. But the truth is that all four investigators are still so obsessed with solving her case, despite all these years. We’ve highlighted time and time again the eagerness of the family members or the detectives, and I would say that’s the case in all three of the central episodes of this season. You want to help them solve these cases.
You’re in multiple volumes of “Unsolved Mysteries” on Netflix with this longer format that focuses on one case per episode. How has that played out within the legacy of the present?
You know, within the classic episodes, we’ve been doing 100 mysteries per season. So the possibility of solving extra instances was there. I really enjoy doing the deeper dives into the instances, and I feel like our viewers enjoy that as well. That’s what we’ve heard. But for me, with the mission of trying to solve as many instances as we can, we’re limited right now. We have 9 episodes this year. In the first season on Netflix, we did 12. We want to solve those mysteries — it’s not just about telling the stories.
The early years of “Unsolved Mysteries” were well-known for moving the needle on instances you covered. You’ve already seen progress in fixing the instances you highlighted on Netflix through your tipster site, Unresolved.com?
There was one case that was solved. It was in Quantity 3; it was a parental kidnapping case. However, I was shocked that some of these cases that I thought were surefire were not solved. Still, I learn from every tip that comes in, that we send to the US Marshals, and we send a lot of stuff to them.
But with these desired instances, for example, what I feel and hope will happen is that when these new episodes come out, people will come back and rewatch the other ones. Then we can have another chance to get some resolution. When it aired on NBC, it confirmed once, and that’s all you bought. In this case, people can go back to Netflix, and hopefully we can get some mysteries solved.
This interview has been edited and condensed.