The world has witnessed many incidents from time to time, which are impossible to believe. A similar incident, known as the Taured mystery, was witnessed about six decades ago at Haneda Airport in Tokyo when a passenger on his arrival claimed to be a citizen of a country that did not exist elsewhere on the planet.

Not only that, but the mysterious man also vanished from his hotel room amidst tight security and was never seen again. The Taured mystery remains a puzzle and has been fueling the rumor mills for decades.

The Mysterious Passengers disembarks at Haneda Airport

The incident occurred in July 1954, when a well-dressed man arrived at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport from a European flight. He goes through customs like the rest of the passengers. But whatever transpired after that has left everyone perplexed and concerned.

The man proceeded to the check-out counter and handed over his passport to the security officer. The man introduced himself as John Allen Kuchar Zegrus. But the officer was startled upon seeing the man’s passport.

Passenger’s passport baffles the security officer

On his passport, the name of a country was written as ‘Taured’. The officer had never heard of such a country before. The officer became suspicious about the man and informed his security in charge, who took the passenger to a separate room for interrogation.

The man, who appeared to be a Caucasian with a beard, spoke French as his first language. However, the man was also fluent in Japanese and numerous other languages. He claimed to be a citizen of Taured.

Investigation of The Taured Mystery

The officials first inquired as to why he had come to Japan. On this, the man informed the officers that he is a businessman and has come to Tokyo on a business trip and that this was his third trip to Japan from his home country.

He further claimed to have visited many countries of Europe on the same passport and showed the pages with Visa stamps of other countries. The officers were perplexed as the stamps appeared to be genuine.

The officers were still not ready to believe that the traveler’s home country was actually anywhere on the planet. To verify the passenger’s claim, the officers showed him a world map and asked him to point out where his country was.

The man pointed to Andorra as his home country. However, the man appeared to be surprised as to why Andorra was inscribed on the map instead of his home country, Taured.

The officers were startled as the man claimed to be from a fictitious country, but upon examination of his passport, visa, and other paperwork, he appeared to be telling the truth.

The officers were left with only one way to verify his claims, and that was to find out who he had come to meet for business. When questioned by officials, he gave the name of the company to which he had to report. He also gave the details about the hotel where he was meant to stay.

His claims are found to be fictitious and he is placed under custody  

The officers then contacted the company and the hotel, but neither would identify any such person. This led the officers to believe that he may be a criminal who is concealing his identity with the motive of committing a crime. They then took all of his possessions and placed him in a hotel room under constant police observation.

He mysteriously vanishes from the custody

The police were surprised to find no one in the room when they opened the door the next day, despite the fact that they were guarded outside and all of the room’s windows had been secured. His passport, visa, and other paperwork impounded at the airport were also missing, which startled the authorities further. No one could quite figure out what had actually happened.

The Taured mystery as covered in Media

The case of John Allen Kuchar Zegrus was widely covered widely in the mainstream media. As per the reports, Zegrus was born in the United States but he migrated to the United Kingdom. He also served as a pilot in the Royal Air Force during World War II.

After WWII, he settled in Latin America and later worked as an American spy in South Korea. Then he was assigned a secret mission by the United Arab Republic. He was reportedly on a secret mission to recruit Japanese military personnel for the United Arab Republic when was apprehended by a security officer at the Haneda Airport in Tokyo.

It was eventually determined that the information provided by Zegrus was false and that the stamps in his fictitious passport were forged and he was sentenced to one year in prison. Following the verdict, he attempted suicide by cutting his veins with a piece of glass that he had covertly taken to the court. After his release, he was deported from Japan to Hong Kong, from where he had recorded his entry.

Speculations run rife

The speculations are rife about the mysterious passenger. Some speculate that the man was perhaps from Taured, but that the country was in another universe and that he had traveled via a parallel dimension to land at Haneda Airport. Another speculation is that he was a time traveler who landed at the airport through a time machine. However, there are many who consider the story as nothing but a hoax.  

Truth or a hoax, the urban legend of the mysterious passenger from the Taured remains a subject of speculation to this day. 

If you liked this story, you should also read about the mysterious Pan Am Flight 914 that landed 30 years after its takeoff.