Bedtime Stories

Time, for most of us, feels like the one true constant - a steady progression from past to future. Yet throughout history, people have reported moments where time - and perhaps even reality - seems to falter. Some claim to have been pulled into the past or thrust briefly into the future. Others describe slipping into worlds that look almost like our own, but with subtle, unsettling differences. In...

For decades, paranormal researchers have heard tales of a strange anomaly in the hills of central Washington - a hole so deep that it devours everything thrown into it, and which seems to possess supernatural powers. In the late 1990s, a man named Mel Waters came forward, claiming to own the land upon which the bottomless pit resides. But after going public, he found himself at the centre of a con...

In August 1993, a group of kayakers from Ukraine travelled to Irkutsk in Southern Siberia. Whilst enjoying the river and scenery south of Lake Baikal, they came across something haunting: a 17-year-old girl, covered in blood and mumbling incoherently about a tragedy that had befallen her and her friends. Her name was Valentina Utochenko, and the terror she survived still baffles experts, who refer...

Plenty of towns have disappeared over the years. In most cases, the explanations range from economic problems to government initiatives to resources drying up. But what about the towns that truly and quite literally vanished without a trace? It’s not as rare a phenomenon as some people might think. And for thousands of people in the U.S. state of Wisconsin, it’s a perplexing reality. Given the pre...

Story One – The Manchester Pusher Over the past decade, close to a hundred people have lost their lives in the canal network of one northern English city. In this chapter, we examine evidence, which suggests that a significant number of these deaths were the work of one person, the Manchester Pusher. Story Two – The Uniondale Hitchhiker The N9 is one of South Africa’s longest roads, running from t...

During the closing stages of 2009, a family residing in Oklahoma vanished under suspicious circumstances, leaving little clue as to what had happened to them. When evidence of their tragic fate did eventually surface five years later, it only prompted further questions as to what exactly had transpired, rather than providing any useful answers. Join us as we attempt to unravel what really happened...

Story One – Drawn by Conflict When the movie Predator released in 1987, audiences were captivated as they watched an unseen, extra-terrestrial interloper stalk and kill a highly trained team of US special forces. Little did we know that during the Vietnam war, the militaries on both sides had been attacked by something just as frightening and just as bizarre, a true to life enemy unknown which see...

Story One – There is Something in the Forest Abandoned towns can be found scattered across the globe and are usually the epilogue of natural disaster or ever-changing economic factors. But every so often, an established settlement can turn into a ghost town for much more sinister reasons. The one featured in this story was allegedly abandoned because of something in the forest. Story Two – There i...

The ocean has always captured mankind's imagination. But where some saw endless potential for travel, trade, and exploration, others could only imagine what untold terrors might be lurking in its depths. Ask any sailor, modern or ancient, and they’ll tell you that the sea is not only a natural force but a supernatural one. As more people begin to confront the thousands of firsthand accounts of mys...

Scotland’s Highlands are among the most beautiful and remote places in the world. But to many, this stunning landscape of mountains, lakes, and coastal villages also bears a notable air of mystery and foreboding. Even today, these ancient lands remain steeped in folklore and supernatural tales. Once one begins to dig into the stories of High Strangeness in the Scottish Highlands, it becomes clear...

Story One – Our Lady of Fatima In the Autumn of 1917, as the brutality and savagery of the First World War threatened to finally overwhelm Portugal’s borders, seventy thousand people gathered near a rural township to witness an appearance by the Virgin Mary. What exactly happened during The Fatima Event? Story Two – The Legend of the Bell Witch Whether tales of cryptids or ghostly apparitions, eve...

The forests of North America are dense, tall, and foreboding. So it may come as little surprise that as long as people have lived on the continent, there have been sightings of all manner of beasts and cryptids. Some, like the Canadian Wood Bison, were later discovered to be real. Others, like Bigfoot and the Thunderbird, remain in the grey area where myth, fact, and misidentification meet. But th...

Story One – The Charterhouse Guest The English county of Somerset possesses a rich and colourful history which is steeped in tales of myth and legend. It has been the scene of many a mysterious and unexplained occurrence, one of which is known as The Charterhouse Guest. Story Two – Spirits of Devil’s Pool After a string of deaths at a remote beauty spot in Queensland, Australia, many people began...

Story One – The San Pedro Haunting During the summer of 1988, a young mother residing in an unassuming Los Angeles neighbourhood reported having been subjected to a horrifying and relentless series of attacks within her home. She claimed that these assaults had been carried out by a mysterious supernatural entity, but just how much truth is there behind the San Pedro Haunting? Story Two – Doppelgä...

Story One – The Skies Over Kecksburg On the afternoon of 9th December 1965, the residents of a small village in rural Pennsylvania became the unwitting recipients of their very own legend. A mysterious event which captured the imaginations of an entire generation. What exactly happened in the skies over Kecksburg? Story Two – The Trucker’s Wife Whilst attending a conference in Las Vegas, noted UFO...

Story One – Footprints in the Snow The Antarctic region is notorious for being as unforgiving as it is beguiling. For those who work there, the psychological dangers associated with their posting can often be more dangerous than any physical hazard. In this chapter, we will examine the fate befalling one such soul. A man who disappeared in May 1965, leaving nothing but a set of footprints in the s...

Story One – The CrossWade Interlopers In the Spring of 2013, what seemed to be a straightforward emergency call out for two police officers would turn out to be anything but. Not only would this experience chill them to the core, but it would have them questioning their own sanity for years afterwards as they tried to solve the riddle that was the CrossWade interlopers. Story Two – The Belfast Cro...

Story One – The Lead Masks of Vintém Hill During August of 1966, the dead bodies of two men were found on a hillside in Brazil. Much of what was discovered at the scene would leave authorities baffled and has never been fully understood. What we are left with is a fifty-year-old mystery known as the Lead Masks of Vintém Hill. Story Two – The Watervale Runner Somewhere in South Australia, a small t...

Smartphones and texting have caused many of us to forget that until the early 2000s, complete strangers could call you at any time, for any reason. And if they said the right things to keep you from hanging up, you could find yourself subjected to all manner of psychological manipulation. This tale is one in which several calls are featured, but – in reality – they are just one part of a much larg...

Story One – The Mysterious Disappearance of Flight 19 In December 1945, five torpedo bombers on a routine patrol over the Bahamas vanished without trace. It was an incident that would kickstart the notoriety surrounding the infamous Bermuda Triangle and even now, more than 70 years later, we are still questioning what caused the mysterious disappearance of Flight 19. Story Two – The Disappearance...

Story One – Bridgend Lying between the sandy beaches of South Wales’s Gower Peninsula and the rugged mountains of the Brecon Beacons, the county of Bridgend is surrounded by areas of outstanding natural beauty. But over a three-year period in the late 2000’s, the area was devastated by a string of teenage suicides. Just what was happening in Bridgend? Story Two – Eleven Eleven years. Eleven diarie...

In February 1994, police searching a house in Gloucester, England, made a horrifying discovery that would lead to one of the most infamous and disturbing cases in British criminal history. From that point onwards, the property at 25 Cromwell Street would become known as "The House of Horrors." MUSIC  Tracks used by kind permission of Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons:...

In our second Christmas week episode, we focus on more stories from the Bedtime Stories team. This time, it’s Simon’s turn. Simon has been a writer with Bedtime Stories since 2019 and has penned the majority of the episodes you have listened to thus far. As a serving police officer, he has witnessed a number of inexplicable occurrences whilst on duty. Finally, we finish out the year with a rather...

Christmas has a long tradition of ghost stories and tales of the unknown. Believe it or not, families would often take the opportunity to gather around the fireplace on cold Christmas evenings to share chilling tales with one another. In this episode, we introduce you to Rich, the narrator of the podcast, so that he can share some of his own personal experiences with the paranormal. MUSIC  Tracks...

Story One – The Lost Girls of Panama On the morning of 1st April 2014, two young women decided to hike up to a popular tourist spot on the famous Pianista trail. They were never seen alive again. Were their deaths the result of a tragic accident? Or is there more to this mystery than meets the eye? What happened to the lost girls of Panama? Story Two – The Strange Death of Jonathan Lovette When se...