Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Unsolved Mysteries’ on Netflix, Volume 3 Of The Legacy Title’s Return To The True Crime Scene

This latest incarnation of Unsolved Mysteries first appeared on Netflix in 2020, rebooted for the streamer by Stranger Things exec producer Shawn Levy and its original creators John Cosgrove and Terry Dunn Meurer. And with the true crime wave continuing to drench content in all its forms, Netflix has re-upped with Unsolved Mysteries for a third volume. Nine new episodes will release in packets of three through the month of November, and feature stories about mysterious disappearances, mysterious lights in the sky, and mysterious slayings. 

UNSOLVED MYSTERIES SEASON 3: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT

Opening Shot: “Tiffany was just…just always beautiful,” Dianne Valiante says at the outset of “Mystery at Mile Marker 45,” the kickoff episode of Unsolved Mysteries Vol. 3, and over footage of high school volleyball action, we learn that her daughter had accepted a scholarship to play at the collegiate level. “We were all so very proud of her.”

The Gist: When eighteen-year-old Tiffany’s body was found one night near the train tracks just a few miles from the family home in Mays Landing, New Jersey, Valiante disputed the railway company’s assertion that her daughter committed suicide. “I wanna know what happened to my daughter.” And Unsolved Mysteries hits us with its classic theme music and an intro slightly tweaked to channel Stranger Things visuals.

An onscreen timeline establishes Tiffany’s movements on July 12, 2015, the night she was killed. She went home after a family party nearby, and met her mother Dianne and father Stephen there, but just a few minutes later she’d disappeared, which sent mom, dad, and members of the family into search mode. Hours of unanswered texts and phone calls ensued, until Stephen eventually found Tiffany’s phone off to the side of the road, and saw his daughter’s image on the deer camera he maintained on their property. And by midnight, they learned something awful, that police were investigating a body near the railroad tracks a few miles from the house.

In the days after the tragedy, Dianne and Stephen questioned how local newspapers and the rail carrier could so quickly have classified their daughter’s death as a suicide. “New Jersey Transit made the determination that my daughter stood on those tracks and committed suicide in less than 24 hours from the time she was hit,” Dianne says. Paul D’Amato, the Valiante family’s lawyer, shows photos from mile marker 45, and blood on the portion of the train that made impact; he also parses statements from the engineers aboard, and points to differences between what they said that night and what they said later when under oath.

No autopsy, no rape kit, no DNA collection, no questions for the family from police, and a completely clean toxicology report: Dianne, Stephen, and their family members and allies continue to wonder how a killing that was officially characterized as open and shut could still have so many doors left wide open.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? The broadcast history of Unsolved Mysteries is a tangled one. Its 1980s and 90s heyday featured Robert Stack as host, and those episodes were eventually repackaged as basic cable clip shows presented by Dennis Farina. (Remember Spike TV?) And during down broadcast periods, the show has always thrived on YouTube, with viewing audience engagement that undoubtedly informed this very reboot. But if it’s the old content you crave, Hulu features a few seasons, and Pluto TV has a channel dedicated to the vintage Unsolved Mysteries.

Our Take: As advocates for the Valiante family describe it, suicide was a simple outcome for the investigating authorities – everybody from the New Jersey Rail transit police to the county medical examiner’s office – because suicide is a definitive case closer. And that sense of closing down the investigation and moving on sticks with them, since they didn’t agree with how it was handled in the first place. One of the more harrowing moments of “Mystery at Mile Marker 45” includes Valiante family members later conducting their own search of the impact site and recovering bits of Tiffany’s bone and flesh. And the family lawyer speaks to a medical examiner’s report that said her limbs were “cut” from the body, not destroyed by the train’s impact. All of this is grisly to be sure. But it certainly stokes the mystery side of what’s unsolved here.

There are no interviews with responding authorities, or with representatives of the county ME or New Jersey Transit. We don’t know their side of the story, beyond hearing that they stand by the original incident reports. But given what the family is saying – their read of the evidence says “definitely she was murdered and laid on that tracks” – it would have been interesting for Unsolved Mysteries to get the authorities on record. But according to a postscript, those agencies denied a request to speak.

Sex and Skin: None.

Parting Shot: Dianne Valiante is reflecting before the cabinet in her home where memories of and tributes to Tiffany are kept, including photos, keepsakes, prayer boxes, and a bracelet that was on her person the night she died. The episode ends as Unsolved Mysteries always has, with phone numbers and a link for online tips, in case anyone has more information.

Sleeper Star: For some, the original soundtrack music for Unsolved Mysteries exists in a memory hole alongside the X-Files theme and Angelo Badalamenti’s music for Twin Peaks, so it’s cool that it’s a part of this reboot, too, especially since both of those programs have informed the aesthetics of Stranger Things, to which Unsolved is now adjacent.

Most Pilot-y Line: From retired medical examiner Louise Houseman’s point of view, inconsistencies in the train operator’s statements leave Tiffany’s true cause of death uncertain. “I believe that the student engineer was in a type of trauma, in shock. When you read the transcription, it seems to be rambling. He’s not really sure of what he saw, and it’s possible what he saw was, when the train struck her, the body parts flew in all different directions, because she was being dismembered.”

Our Call: STREAM IT. Unsolved Mysteries was doing true crime when the wildly popular genre’s podcasters were still in short pants, so it’s nice to see it reclaim a seat at the table and thrive on Netflix. After all, what’s a stranger thing than mysteries, spooks, and murders unsolved?

Johnny Loftus is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift. Follow him on Twitter: @glennganges