Unresolved: A True Crime & Mystery Podcast

"I have never been able to get rid of the thought that [the 22nd September event] was some sort of joint operation between Israel and South Africa."

At 00:53 Coordinated Universal Time on September 22nd, 1979, an aging American satellite called Vela 6911 recorded a double flash of light somewhere over the southern Indian Ocean. That same night, President Jimmy Carter wrote in his diary that there was an indication of a nuclear explosion near South Africa, and that it was either South Africa, Israel using a ship at sea, or nothing.

The two leading suspects had every reason to be suspects. South Africa had been caught preparing a nuclear test in the Kalahari Desert two years earlier. Israel had an undeclared arsenal, a long-standing policy of never confirming it, and a secret military relationship with South Africa that, according to South African documents published decades later, had included discussion of nuclear-capable missiles. Yet the search for evidence was coming up empty...

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"There was indication of a nuclear explosion in the region of South Africa, either South Africa, Israel using a ship at sea, or nothing."

In May 1969, Vela 6911 had been launched into the upper atmosphere to monitor a portion of the planet for any sign of a nuclear explosion. It was an Advanced Vela Satellite, carrying X-ray, gamma-ray, and neutron detectors. It was also armed with a pair of optical sensors called bhangmeters, which were named that almost as a joke, because 'you would have to be high' to believe they would actually work.

Well, over their lifespan, the bhangmeters had actually worked successfully. Of the 41 "double-flashes" that the Vela satellites recorded over their first decade of use, all had been confirmed as a nuclear explosion by other means, usually by detecting the radioactive debris afterward. But then on Saturday, 22 September 1979, at 00:53 Coordinated Universal Time, Vela 6911's two bhangmeters recorded a double flash over the southern Indian Ocean, somewhere between South Africa and Antarctica...

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"At this point in time, all I want is what’s left of my son and put him to rest."

On 22 June 2019, skeletal remains were discovered behind an abandoned house on Pecan Drive, in southwest Atlanta, partially covered up by a deflated air mattress. Despite the advanced decomposition of the remains, authorities quickly linked them to a man who'd gone missing after a bizarre shooting incident days earlier, named Jeffrey Merriweather Jr.

Despite identifying the remains, authorities at the Fulton County Medical Examiner's Office are unable to how, exactly, Merriweather had died. So they wrote a letter to a medical examiner in St. Louis, and arranged transit of the remains 500 miles northwest. On July 5th, a package containing at least some of Merriweather's remains were dropped off at a FedEx office, and the package made it at least as far as Austell, Georgia, before disappearing entirely...

If you have any information about the 2019 shooting that you'd like to share, please contact:
Crime Stoppers Atlanta: 404-577-TIPS (+14045778477)
If you worked at the FedEx facility in Austell during this time or in the Fulton County Medical Examiner's Office, or you have any information about this story that you'd like to share, please reach out through the following methods:
Email: micheal@unresolved.me
Voicemail or Text: +18312003550

Check out the podcast store at unresolved.dashery.com

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"When you get stabbed in the manner that he was, you're going to be out in seconds."

On the evening of 30 August 2025, tens of thousands of people gathered around a seventy foot wooden figure that was slowly being engulfed in flame. It was the culmination of Burning Man, an annual festival held in Nevada's Black Rock Desert that is centered around concepts like radical self reliance and self expression. Participants are encouraged to help in the building of the temporary city that is the foundation of the entire festival, and urge to leave behind no trace when it's all over.

But on this night, as the flames start to climb, a Pershing County Sheriff's deputy working the perimeter gets flagged down by a participant with a very different kind of urgency in their voice...

If you have any information about this story that you'd like to share, please contact:
Pershing Co. Sheriff's Office: 775-273-5111 or 775-273-2641
Secret Witness of Northern Nevada: 775-322-4900

Check out the podcast store at unresolved.dashery.com

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This is a preview for an Unresolved bonus episode, available for those that support the show on Patreon. If you'd like to listen along to this and other Patreon Exclusive bonus episodes, become a supporter at https://patreon.com/unresolvedpod or by clicking on the link below: 

Seattle's Pitting Epidemic - Unresolved (Patreon Exclusive)

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