Unsolved Mysteries...

Let me start by saying, yes, it's entirely possible I watch too much TruCrime TV...but that doesn't mean I don't have a legitimate mystery on my hands!

See, earlier today I walked out of the building after my last class and couldn't help but notice that there was an old woman sleeping in the back of a student's car.

Which is odd because most college kids don't bring their grandmothers to campus at all, much less allow them to take a snooze in a semi-public place.

But some of you are probably wondering how in the world I knew it was a student's car and that the vehicle didn't belong to a faculty member or visitor or the old lady herself?

Because I walk past that car just about every day. It's always parked in the space reserved for disabled drivers and I've seen the driver--a student in my first class--get into it at least 10 times…and never once have I seen him chauffeuring a little old lady around.

Besides, the woman in question was clearly Native American—which is only relevant because the student has flaming red hair, fair skin, and an Irish surname that would make St. Patrick proud. Visually, it’s a little hard to fit a Native American ancestor on that family tree.

And so, as I walked to my own car, I started to get myself worked up into a state I call “empathy” but my husband calls “overreacting.” Did the student know the woman was in his car? Was the woman lost and confused and just in his car to warm up? Should I go find the student and warn him that there was an old lady in his car? What would I say if he was all, “Of course that’s my grandma!” Maybe I should just go check and see if the woman was all right.

Which is when my mind made the only possible logical leap (at least logical for those of us obsessed with true crime stories).

How did I know the woman was actually sleeping? What if she was DEAD?!

What if the kid came out of the building and found an old dead woman in the back of his car?

Or, worse yet, what if he knew she was dead? What if the stress of Thanksgiving, and my class, and upcoming final exams had caused the kid to snap (like on the TruCrime TV show Snapped!) and he killed some poor old woman then stuffed her in the back of his car?

Yes, I realize NOW that this would have been a difficult task considering his disability, but when I get an idea like that in my head, it’s hard for me to let it go…and I knew that if I didn’t investigate further, I would be liable to snap myself, possibly cornering the kid in class on Wednesday and screaming things like “What was with the old lady in your car? What’d you do, MURDER HER?”

And that’s just not good for anyone’s career.

In any case, don’t worry, I can definitively state that the woman was NOT dead.

I’m also fairly sure that she didn’t believe that I pulled up behind her car and honked because I was trying to get the attention of the students across the lawn (even though I waved enthusiastically like I knew them).

Possibly because none of them waved back.

But here’s the thing… as I was pulling away, I saw the kid come out of the building and get in the car. And when I did another quick circle around the parking lot, she was leaning against the back door again with her eyes closed. And the kid just drove off like that was perfectly normal…

I can’t figure it out…the kid had been in class with me for an hour, had spent another 30 minutes or so inside while I stressed out about the mystery woman in his car…so he either knew she was there, and left her in a freezing car for an hour and a half or he didn’t know she was there but the sight of her didn’t alarm him…or—as has been suggested by my so-called loved ones—the woman was a figment of my imagination and I’m a lunatic after all…

I need a plausible theory, people, help me!



UPDATE 11/28 -- So I went to class today, fully epecting to ask the kid what in the heck was going on. Unfortunately, he was absent--which wouldn't be a huge deal except when I left the building, his car was in the disable spot AND THE WOMAN WAS IN THE BACK SEAT AGAIN!! The mystery deepens...is the kid still alive? Did he NOT see the woman last time after all and she jumped out of the back seat at him like she was in some horrible urban legend, attacking the kid and stealng his car? And if so, why would she return to the scene of the crime? And, if not, where was the kid? And why is this woman in his car AGAIN? And why doesn't she come in the building, it's freaking cold outside!

Then, to make matters worse,she wasn't asleep today (probably because she couldn't relax for fear some lunatic was going to pull up and honk at her) but as I walked to my car, I passed another car with someone sleeping inside! This woman was in the driver's seat, head thrown back, out cold (but breathing--I watched to make sure--so also not dead). What is going on? Why has this university parking lot become a hotbed of car-sleeping women?

I've decided that I'm taking my camera Friday and if there are any sleeping women, I'm photoing and posting like crazy and soliciting others' opinions...I don't know if I can take much more of this mystery!



kimbo325 is a writer and a teacher who is laughing her way through life…she does have a slight obsession with Snapped, 48 Hours, The Nightmare Next Door, and a variety of other true crime shows but she doesn’t usually hallucinate crime victims (at least, she doesn’t think she does!) To read more about her crazy life, follow her on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ItIsInterestingToNote?ref=hl#!/or tweet with her at Twitter @kimbo325