![]() ![]() “Sadly, time, a thick overgrowth of weeds and the ever present danger of snakes and other animals prevented closer inspection,” the narration wryly notes. Driving down “the hard road” (now WV Route 10), McCracken comes to an unpaved bend in Laurel Creek Road and finds a stone face that could actually be the “large rock” mentioned in the legend as being the hiding spot of the long sought after treasure. When McCracken films his own drive using Edelman’s purported treasure map, you see just how much – and how little – the area has changed. Black-and-white footage from the archives of Model-A era cars awkwardly fording creeks, ferried slowly across rivers and bumping along country roads convey just how impassable the mountain roads were. As the legend goes, Edelman was a Jewish peddler from Russia who, from 1916 until his sudden death in 1933, catered to isolated residents south and west of the Kanawha Valley. Mysterious WV’s lighter-hearted episode on the buried treasure of Moishe Edelman perfectly illustrates how this combination sheds light on Appalachian history and culture. He agrees: “There would be no channel without the State Archives.” It’s McCracken’s use of archival material, however, that truly elevates its output. “How accurate can they actually be?” Anyone can film on location with today’s technology, but McCracken brings his deep-rooted knowledge of the area along with his Sony Handycam. “Picture a person in Maine profiling a case that occurred in California,” he said. ![]() It’s that local knowledge that ultimately convinced him to start the channel. “The channel overall – no pun intended – is deadly serious.” In the quest for justice and resolution, however, Mysterious WV also shines a light on overlooked aspects of the real Appalachia, from its ethnic diversity and labor history to the way the mountains have shaped life – and death – over the years.īorn in South Charleston, McCracken has lived in West Virginia his entire life. McCracken’s goal with Mysterious WV is to bring answers to grieving friends and family. As one commenter put it, “This is the most underrated channel on the planet.” The videos stand out for their attention to detail: evocative narrations, blueprints of city blocks and suburban maps where X marks the crime scene, and on-location dispatches from winding county roads and downtown rooftops. Thirty-three cases and nearly 54,000 subscribers later, this one-man operation is one of the most well-researched and fascinating true crime shows out there. Combining archival research, collaborations with family and local police, the old-school gravitas of McCracken’s voice and his grandfather’s orange coat, Mysterious WV profiles lesser-known missing and unidentified persons, unsolved murders and even buried treasure and the paranormal in and around West Virginia. Since 2017, McCracken has done exactly that with his YouTube channel Mysterious WV. Burial will be in Poe Cemetery in Soddy Daisy.“I wanted to be the person who got these cases in front of as many eyes as possible, told the story in a cohesive way and then hoped to draw the people out of the woodwork who could fill in the missing pieces,” he said. in the chapel, officiated by Pastorĭwight Kilbourne, Ooltewah UMC. Services will be held at Lane Funeral Home, Ashland Terrace on Saturday beginning with He ran for sheriff of Hamilton County in 2002. He was a member of the Soddy Masonic Lodge, the Scottish Rite and the Alhambra Shrine. Since then, he has been state certified in law enforcement and investigation training, including specialized training in Advanced Criminal Investigations, Police Middle Management training, and training in the areas of DNA, Major Crime Scene Investigations and Homicide Investigations. He then graduated from the Tennessee Law Enforcement Training Academy in 1973. He worked many years to solve the case in which property owner Frank Casteel was finally convicted in the deaths of three men on four-wheelers who had been headed to the Blue Hole.Ī graduate of Soddy Daisy High School, Detective Sneed attended Chattanooga State Technological Community College. His investigative work has been featured on Unsolved Mysteries, City Confidential, and Crimestoppers and published in Detective Cases. from the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Department in 2000. His major responsibilities with the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Department included investigating crimes, arresting suspects, testifying in legal proceedings, working Internal Affairs investigations, and handling all homicide investigations. In one shooting he suffered minor injuries, but in the second shooting in which he was pursuing a bank robber, he was shot in the head.Īfter serving the Soddy Daisy Police Department for five years, Detective Sneed joined the Major Crimes Division of the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office. ![]() Twice while working with Soddy Daisy, he was shot in the line of duty.
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