Mummified Infant Remains and a Peter Pan Obsession
In 2010, a woman made a shocking discovery inside a trunk tucked away in her Los Angeles, CA apartment building's basement. Wrapped in LA Times newspapers from the 1930s were two mummified remains of newborn infants, sealed away together with various Peter Pan-related paraphernalia, including a copy of the book by J.M. Barrie and a membership card to the Peter Pan Woodland Club. Weirdly enough, the previous owner of the trunk was Janet M. Barrie - or J.M. Barrie, the same name as the famous author.
While some theorized the woman might have been a distant relative of the writer, it was later revealed there was no familial relation.
Furthermore, DNA tests showed the infants were indeed the children of Janet, and it's possible they were illegitimate children who died shortly after birth. While the identity of the children and further information about the trunk's owner were unearthed, the circumstances that led Janet to stow her deceased children in her trunk will forever be a mystery.
A Secret Roommate
Ohio State University students made a startling discovery in September 2013, when they found a locker in the basement of their house that led into a secret room, complete with textbooks and photographs on the wall. The room was apparently inhabited by "Jeremy," a complete stranger to the other residents of the house. The matter was resolved peacefully - Jeremy simply vacated his sweet secret room. Still, the tenants have no idea how many keys to their home might be floating around town.
A WWII German Panzer Tank
In July 2015, a man in the wealthy German suburb of Heikendorf was found to possess a decommissioned World War II-era Panzer (Panther) tank, which he had stowed away in his basement. He also possessed a German cannon and torpedo, and was apparently an avid collector of WWII arms. The tank was well-known in the town, with the mayor reporting the man was "chugging around in that thing during the snow catastrophe in 1978."
The question is this: how in the world did this guy get a tank into his basement?
Underground Prison
In 2013, a man in Cleveland heard a horrifying sound. A woman next door was crying for help. The heroic neighbor went over and discovered the worst-case scenario: a terrified woman screaming at the screen door. This awful discovery was the first step to putting away the horrific criminal Ariel Castro and freeing Michelle Knight, Amanda Berry, and Gina DeJesus.
Castro tricked these women into going to his basement, then imprisoned them and used them as sex slaves. Between 2000-2004, Castro kidnapped and abused three women, with one of the survivors even having a baby in captivity. The women finally escaped in 2013. One month into Castro’s 1000+ year jail sentence, the Cleveland Kidnapper committed suicide.
Canadian Gothic
In 2011, contractors working in an abandoned home in southern Ontario made a chilling discovery. When they went into the basement, they found what seemed to be a confinement-style room with a thick door and locks on the outside. It looked like it was specifically designed to keep somebody in. Even more mysterious: the house had been empty since 2006, but the room was built only a few years before its discovery. So far, nobody has come forward with information about the terrifying room.