Not all unsolved mysteries involve murder, so let’s look at one that’s just downright weird. On Aug. 7, 1994, residents of Oakville, Washington woke to a strange sight. Overnight, weird, gelatinous blobs had fallen from the sky (maybe) and covered everything. They weren’t just gross, reports the BBC’s Science Focus, they were also dangerous. Residents blamed the blobs for the flu-like sickness that quickly started making the rounds. Doctors recorded higher-than-normal instances of inner ear problems, major respiratory problems, and vertigo in the days after the event: Some, like Beverly Roberts, suffered such bad vertigo that she had to crawl to her car to make it to the doctor. She was hospitalized for a week.
Even more disturbing were the deaths of any animals who happened to eat the jelly. They, reported The Chronicle, died almost immediately after ingesting the substance. Death came with vomiting green foam, and scores met this tragic fate.
There’s never been a satisfactory explanation for what the jellies were, and yes, they’ve been analyzed. The results cleared up absolutely nothing, and the official results from the Washington Department of Health said that the blobs contained illness-causing bacteria (but, weirdly, none of the illnesses any of the victims suffered), along with white blood cells of human origin. No one has the foggiest idea what the heck was going on.
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