The Skeleton Key Chronicles

8 hours ago

When Sarah Winchester passed away on September 5th, 1922, something else came to an end with her, the decades-long construction of her enormous California home. After 36 years, the house was finally finished. Not because Sarah decided it was complete, but because Sarah was gone.

But to understand why the house was never supposed to be finished, you have to go back to where the story began. Sarah had already endured the loss of her infant daughter when her husband, William Wirt Winchester, heir to the Winchester arms fortune, passed away in 1881.

According to legend, Sarah was grieving and still living in Connecticut when she consulted a medium who told her to move to move out west and keep building, and that she would remain alive for as long as construction continued. Some versions even claim the strange layout was intended to confuse the spirits trying to find her.

Rooms were added onto rooms as the house grew into a sprawling maze of roughly 160 rooms, 2,000 doors, 10,000 windows, 47 fireplaces and 47 stairways. Hallways twisted through the mansion, staircases seemingly led nowhere and doors opened in places you wouldn't expect.

Whether Sarah actually believed any of that is another mystery entirely. She was intensely private, and there is very little evidence connecting her directly to many of the supernatural stories that eventually became inseparable from her name.

What we do know is that Sarah spent decades transforming an ordinary farmhouse into one of the strangest homes in America.

More than a century after her passing, the Winchester Mystery House still stands in San Jose. And if you've ever wanted to see just how bizarre it really is, there's a 360° virtual tour that lets you wander through every level of the mansion and explore rooms normally off-limits on the standard tours. … See MoreSee Less

The Skeleton Key Chronicles

14 hours ago

If you’re wondering how these three sketches could possibly be renderings of the same woman, that’s actually part of the mystery surrounding Florence County Jane Doe.

When a hunter discovered her skeletal remains in a wooded area of northern Wisconsin on October 28th, 2022, investigators had very little to work with. A single hoop earring was found nearby, but even basic details about the woman herself have been difficult to narrow down. Mostly because she may have been there for anywhere from two to 15 years. Because of that, it's been difficult to even estimate an age range, so it's listed that she could have been anywhere from 30 to 83 years old when she passed.

Last year, forensic artists with the Wisconsin DCI and Michigan State Police released the three very different sketches pictured here. Because only skeletal remains were recovered, there are parts of her appearance that can’t be determined from the skull alone. Her age, hairstyle and the way the soft tissue of her face looked in life all leave room for interpretation, so the artists created different possibilities in the hope that something in one of those faces might be familiar to someone.

What investigators have been able to determine is that she stood approximately 4’8” to 5’4” tall and may have been White and/or Hispanic. DNA testing, dental examinations and searches through national and international databases have all been used in an effort to identify her. So far, investigators have also compared her to missing women from Wisconsin, Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and surrounding states, ruling out possible matches along the way.

Nearly four years later, she still doesn’t have a name. Now the hope is that perhaps one of these renderings, or the rusted hoop earring found with her, will eventually look familiar to someone. Identifying Florence County Jane Doe is the first step in determining what happened to her and how she ended up in those woods.

Anyone with information can contact Wisconsin DCI and reference Florence County Jane Doe, case 22-7814.

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The Skeleton Key Chronicles

20 hours ago

Forty-four years ago today, 12-year-old Johnny Gosch left his Iowa home with a red wagon and a stack of Sunday newspapers to begin his morning paper route. He never returned and, despite one of the most widely known missing-child investigations in the country, Johnny has never been found.

It was early Sunday morning, September 5th, 1982, in West Des Moines. Johnny delivered the Sunday Des Moines Register, and his father normally accompanied him on his route. That morning, however, Johnny headed out with the family dog, Gretchen, and made his way to the neighborhood paper drop at 42nd Street and Ashworth Road, where carriers picked up their newspapers.

Johnny collected his papers there before beginning his route. Other newspaper carriers were in the area that morning, and their accounts would later become important in trying to piece together Johnny's last known movements.

While Johnny was still near the paper drop, another paperboy said he saw Johnny talking with a stocky man in a blue, two-toned car near the paper drop. Another witness said Johnny told him the man had been asking for directions and appeared to be following him.

As Johnny made his way north along 42nd Street toward Marcourt Lane, the vehicle was reportedly seen in the area again. Another paper carrier later recalled seeing Johnny near 42nd and Marcourt talking with a man wearing a baseball cap, although he couldn't say whether it was the same man who had earlier asked for directions.

Not long afterward, a nearby resident reported hearing a car door slam and seeing a vehicle speed through the intersection at Marcourt Lane and 42nd Street before heading north. Whether that vehicle had anything to do with Johnny's disappearance has never been established.

Johnny's red wagon was later found near Marcourt Lane with newspapers still inside. And Gretchen made her way back home alone. Family members later recalled that for weeks after Johnny disappeared, the dog would sit outside and shake intensely.

When customers began calling the Gosch home because their Sunday papers hadn't arrived, Johnny's father went looking for him. What followed was a massive search involving police, sheriff's deputies and hundreds of volunteers, but there was no sign of Johnny. And there still hasn't been.

Forty-four years later, Johnny remains missing. No one has ever been arrested or charged in connection with his disappearance, and the investigation remains open. Then, less than two years later, another Des Moines Register paperboy disappeared.

Thirteen-year-old Eugene Martin vanished while delivering newspapers in Des Moines on August 12th, 1984. Eugene has never been found either. Investigators considered whether the two cases might be connected, but no connection has ever been established.

Johnny's disappearance also helped change the way missing-child cases were handled in Iowa. In 1984, the state enacted legislation requiring authorities to immediately investigate reports of missing children. After Eugene disappeared that same year, a Des Moines dairy began putting photographs of both boys on milk cartons, an idea that would soon spread across the country.

In the decades since, Johnny's case has generated reported sightings, possible leads and an enormous number of theories. His mother, Noreen Gosch, has continued searching for answers and has long maintained that Johnny was taken and survived his disappearance.

Johnny would be 56 years old today. His case remains open with the West Des Moines Police Department.

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