I'm from Ireland and I think the strangest one here is the disappearance of Trevor Deely in 2000. He attended a work Christmas party, was seen on CCTV entering his work place at around 3:30am. He was captured leaving his office at around 4am and then for the last time at 4:15am on a CCTV camera near an AIB bank on the corner of Baggot street bridge. He was never seen again and almost 24 years on, no trace of him has ever been found. A hooded figure who was spotted on camera outside his workplace has never been identified and considered by many to be a possible suspect. The Peter Bergmann John Doe case in Sligo is also a bit unusual. Unidentified man who went by the alias of Peter Bergmann arrived at the Sligo city hotel in June 2009. He was seen behaving strangely over several days, leaving the hotel multiple times with a purple bag filled with unknown items. Several days after arriving in Sligo, his partially dressed body was found on the beach at Rosses point. An autopsy found that he was terminally ill with two different types of cancer and heart disease. Despite extensive investigation, his true identity, motives and even how he arrived in Ireland have never been solved.
What's the strangest or most bizarre unsolved mystery from your country/state/hometown etc?
POTM - May 2024I watched it last year. I knew about the murder of Olof Palme but knew nothing about the investigation and how long and complicated it was.
The series reminded me of the Zodiac movie.
The morning after the murder is my earliest verified memory. I was just a month shy of my fourth birthday. So this has been part of more or less my entire life.
Perfect alibi…!
Australian here: At least you know where your PM was, we lost ours. See Harold Holt disappearance at sea...and the fact we named a pool after him.
Harold Holt disappearance
I remember my dad telling me about this, years later. Our family's in Canada, but it made international headlines ... the reason Dad remembered was that I was born later that day. Dad had kept the newspaper edition, and after showing me the front page (I haven't got it with me now, but I think it was either the lead or the secondary story "below the fold"), he turned to the classified section and showed me the announcement of my birth.
Not saying I believe in reincarnation, but I have always been reluctant about swimming, especially in open water!
Yeah I’ve heard about that. That’s weird.
There's also a communication station in the west named after him. It aids in the transmission of communications to ships at sea.
Including submarines.
N.b. for those who don't know the story well, a prominent conspiracy theory about his disappearance is he didn't die, but was picked up off the coast by a Chinese submarine.
I'm from the south of Sweden and was obsessed with the disappearance of Carl-Eric Björkegren. A rich businessman who disappeared with out a trace on June 2 1994. Some say he was murdered, some say he fled because he was in debt. There were several proposed sightings of him. He had a butler, who some strongly believe murdered Carl-Eric. The motive could've been money since Carl-Eric had large sums of money stashed away in the house which has gone missing.
Edit: Thank you so much for the encouragement! I will do a write up!
Your English seems great to me! You should do it :)
Your English is great! I would love to learn more about this case
English good. More words, please
I've seen many comments from native speakers which are more poorly written than this.
Right? I always feel like an idiot when I read a well-written comment, maybe with a minor error or two, and the person is like, please forgive my English, it's my fourth language 😂
Your English is great and I for one would love to learn more
Your English is better than many native English speakers. I wouldn't have ever guessed English isn't your native language.
Yes it is, you should do it!
You write very well in English. I would be very interested in reading more about this case.
Your English is excellent, highly encourage a write up!
This sounds super interesting!! If you’re ever willing to give it a shot (because, as everyone has said, your English is definitely more than good enough!) I’m a pretty good proofreader and would be happy to check you if it would give you any additional confidence! Ignore me if it wouldn’t help :)
August 15, 2002, Michael and Mary Short of Oak Level, VA, were shot in the head while sleeping in separate rooms. (He slept apart from her due to his snoring.) When his employee found their bodies later that morning, it was also discovered their 9-year-old daughter, Jennifer, was missing. Six weeks later, Jennifer was found dead under a bridge--45 minutes away in North Carolina.
This case was heavily investigated with no cure, and continues to be revisited periodically without resolution. Theories (professional and amateur) have ranged from criminal enterprise to business dealings to stalkers/traffickers, to revenge to family abduction, but all have come up empty.
https://www.wxii12.com/article/memorial-ride-honors-short-family-unsolved-murders/40891007
https://myfox8.com/who-killed-jennifer-short/
https://the-line-up.com/the-short-family-murders
https://myfox8.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/17/2020/08/jennifer-short.png?w=660
I personally feel that this all occurred just so that the perpetrator/s could kidnap the girl. All of this was so he could get to her and take her. Absolutely heartbreaking case and I read they are looking at DNA so I m praying they get answers soon.
Austria, Wiener Neustadt: Pencil Murderer
1973 an 11 yo girl was brutally murdered on the way home from school with her own pencil. I can’t find any English articles, but if you are interested, I will do a write up tomorrow?
Grew up in Adelaide, murder capital of Australia. Can probably take your pick between:
- the Beaumont children, 3 sisters who were led away by a man at Glenelg Beach and disappeared with no trace after six decades
- Adelaide Oval kidnapping, potentially linked to the Beaumont children, another two young girls disappeared without a trace from a football game
- Family murders, the perpetrator of one of the crimes was put away but the dark mystery was how many high profile people in the city were potentially involved, doctors, politicians etc
And we also had the Somerton Park mystery cadaver but that got solved recently.
The Beaumont children and the disappearance of Kirste and Joanne are both baffling and terribly heartbreaking. Those poor parents
The Beaumont kids were actually two girls and a little boy.
Correction: the Beaumont children were two girls and a boy.
I keep thinking of the Mr Cruel case in Australia too. That one really bothered me. Australia doesn't seem to have as many cases as say America but when it does, wow do things get bad.
The Beaumont children case has always creeped me out…who was the blonde guy in his 30’s these kids were seeing running around with ?! So strange ….
I went through the (long) https://www.bigfooty.com/forum/threads/the-family-murders.983092/ thread.
From https://www.bigfooty.com/forum/threads/the-family-murders.983092/page-4 it seems there were five main suspects and a looser group of associates from the beat and nightclub scene. One tag-along was the partner of a member of the main group. Apparently plenty of boys were picked up and drugged but many were allowed to sleep it off and leave the next day. There was apparently a main group involved in some of the drugging incidents and sexual assaults but they may not all have been involved in the murders.
Aside from Bevan Spencer Von Einem there were four other main suspects.
There was a man who ran an antiques type business - a close friend of Von Einem. This man lived with a doctor, who was apparently also involved.
Also involved was a hairdresser. He died in the 1990s.
Also involved was a prostitute / drifter. He has served as a witness to the cruising and drugging incidents but maintains he was never present for any murders.
Associates were the lawyer boyfriend of the doctor mentioned above. There were three trans women also involved. They shared a house where it seems some of the sexual assault victims were taken, though it seems not the murder victims. Various members of the household apparently rode in the car as lures when Von Einem went picking up boys and inviting them to parties with "drugs and women".
So we have Von Einem (accountant), a business owner, a hairdresser, a doctor. It isn't really a network of rich and powerful politicians and judges like some people imagine.
Various other names have come up over the years. A few were known paedophiles and friends of Von Einem who were involved in drugging and sexual assault incidents but aren't thought to be involved in the Family murders.
Austin, TX - 1991 Yogurt shop murders. Unsolved quadruple homicide. Victims were 13-17 year old girls.
The arrest, trial, conviction and subsequent exoneration of two suspects is a maddening story all to itself.
That case is horrendous. Those poor girls :(
Was there no DNA left behind that child possibly be tested now?
They have DNA — as I mentioned above, it was used to exonerate two wrongly-convicted suspects. But it is only partial, so good enough to eliminate but not enough for a full match.
I missed that part. Thanks for the repeat. What does partial mean in the way of possible identification? Does that mean they might be able to locate this specific very large range of people narrowed down by age and sex? Or not even that would be possible?
I mean DNA is a very complicated chemical sequence, that's so specific to a person that if they got two next to each other an expert or a system would be able to match and or find differences. A partial one is then a sequence that's not complete, but can still give long enough string to still be able to match or eliminate different ones.
Yes, this is a case I always remember.
the ensuing 30 years would have been one of the greatest documentaries of all time - rabbit holes within rabbit holes - not a research project for the faint of heart
A documentary has been in the works. A couple of years ago I did some work for a production company that was trying to pick up the mantle. Not sure how many had tried before. I had to scan in some photos from it, nothing gory but still incredibly sad. I left the production company so I have no idea what happened.
The pictures of the girls bedrooms were the saddest to me.
Phoenix AZ area. Mikelle Biggs. It has always bugged me because she was my age and the short amount of time she disappeared was just scary.
Is that the one that was taken so quickly the wheel on her bike was still spinning when they found it? That case haunts me with how fast it went down.
I wish all people knew this one statistic...
It takes less than 45 seconds to lure or abduct a child.
What about the statistic that 95% of child abductions are by someone the child knows and not a stranger?
Phoenix AZ area too. The one that sticks with me is Robert Fisher. Why did he do it? And where the hell did he disappear to?
Been so interested in his case since seeing him on FBI playing cards. Also Jason Derek Brown. Both have just completely gone MIA.
I lived in that area at the time. I watched America's Most Wanted at a too young of an age
Im from Phoenix, the two people shot while camping in Crown King maybe 20 years ago is another. The picture from their camera that came up a few years ago was weird.
Brandon Rumbaugh and Lisa Gurreri
I had to refresh my memory of the details of Mikelle’s case. Link to her Charley Project page. The time period in which she disappeared was so short.
The sketch vs the dad’s favored suspect 🎯
Sounds like the predator from 2 blocks away...maybe no hard proof but very likely.
Her parents know who did it. And he's in prison for life, for similar, but unrelated reasons.
LE has long suspected a violent criminal named Dee Blalock who lived in the neighborhood and has been in prison for other crimes since a few months after M.B. disappeared
My great great aunt was systematically sexually assaulted for years by a number of men in the village, the whole village knew and then she was found dead under suspicious circumstances and the police did no investigation.
That village is a black hole of toxic secrecy and people know what happened to her, they're just too cowardly to say.
Her name was Agnes Amalie Waade and she was a wonderful, kind human being who loved animals and who was extraordinarily kind to everyone. But especially children and animals.
Edit: Case from Norway
It sounds nightmarish -- your poor relative! I can believe that sort of thing could happen (there was a situation with an isolated religious community in South America a couple of decades ago, involving dozens of women). Afterwards, the women were told that they had to forgive the criminals.
I’m sorry for your loss and the lack of justice.
Sorry my friend. I hope the truth is revealed
I hate this. The ones supposed to protect her did nothing. She sounds like she was a sweet person. Turning a blind eye makes everyone complicit.
Oh poor Agnes, this must be heartbreaking for you and your family. https://www.nrk.no/trondelag/xl/gaten-agnes-waade-romte-over-30-ganger-hjemmefra-_-ble-stemplet-som-andssvak-1.15835046
I’m so sorry. I hope justice is found for her.
Holy shit I have that last name too. And my family is from Norway. I think we are related, holy shit. Im going to PM you.
Go ahead ❤️
The murder of 13 year old Tristan Brübach. Was strangled and had his throat slit in a tunnel at 3.30 p.m on a normal weekday in 1998.
The murderer also removed both testicles and parts of his thighs and buttocks.
Three school girls spotted the perpetrator and a composite sketch was made:
https://mordfall-tristan.de/phantombild/
but the man has never been identified.
What surprises me is that it's a very specific type of murder. This was premeditated and likely, this wasn't this person's only victim.
From Texas- The Ice Box Murders. On June 23, 1965, police were sent to the home of Fred and Edwina Rodgers. The door was locked, there was food on the table, but there was no sign of a struggle, or of the couple. Their heads and dismembered body parts were later found in the fridge. The couple had a 43 year old son that lived with them, he disappeared on the day of their murders and was legally declared dead 10 years later.
As an FYI, to those who are not from the area: an ice box is a term used for the refrigerator. It was mostly used by older generations, and is not commonly used now, but I grew up hearing this term.
Weirdly enough, I first heard about this reading James Ellroy’s Underworld USA trilogy. The couple’s son/murderer was a fella named Chuck Rogers. Rogers had a pretty colorful history: ex navy pilot and intelligence officer, worked for Shell oil, and (weirdest of all) is frequently brought up in JFK assassination conspiracies. He was an alleged KA of David Ferrier. He was purported to be a CIA contractor, the person who impersonated Oswald in Mexico, and one of the three tramps arrested after everything went down. Hence why he appears as a minor character in the James Ellroy books. Truly a bizarre case.
My hometown case is pretty wild, with all kinds of strange details, rumors of occult undertones, a meticulously staged crime scene, but no ties to presidential assassinations or anything.
I just looked up the Stephenson case, that is very bizarre. I hope with modern technology, the individuals in LE are closer to finding the perpetrators.
Yeah. It always gave me the heebie jeebies.
Detective Coy Cox, who’s headed the Boone County Sheriff’s investigation since Day 1, told me he’s been “guarded and careful” about the details he’s released from the start. What he will say is that the bodies had been posed. Items inside the house had been moved around. “There wasn’t one room in that house that wasn’t staged.”
Cox said the easy-to-fence items robbers steal were left untouched. Photos were arranged to suggest the killer(s) liked certain people and disliked others, but it all feels scripted.
"There's a lot about this scene you wouldn't believe," Cox said.
Really makes ya wonder what the scene looked like..
Yeah. Apparently there was a message left by the killer as well, but what it said had never been disclosed.
So obviously he'd be dead now, but do you think that the son started a new life somewhere or took his own? (It seems like most people think he did it.)
It would be a lot easier to create a new identity in the 60's, so it'd be interesting to know if he managed to truly escape.
It goes back to when they actually had to put ice blocks in it, before Freon and other modern refrigerants were developed.
And also before electricity. We had an antique icebox when I was growing up in the 80s that my parents used for a liquor cabinet.
I would add The Killing Fields and Texarkana Moonlight Murders here as well.
Also, a crazy disappearance is that of Virginia Carpenter, who apparently knew 3 of the Texarkana Moonlight murder victims
I have not heard of Virginia Carpenter, that is a strange coincidence.
The Killing Fields also happened in Houston. We lived in Friendswood in the '90's. It was scary at times.
I lived in the DFW area at this time, but I cannot imagine how scary that would be. I can only hope that the girls, women, and the families of those that were slain receive justice one day.
Holy shit…..I just looked this up on Wikipedia to read more about it. I lived a few house down from the murder house in the 2000s. I had no idea that happened.
Iceboxes were pre-electricity refrigeration, literally just an insulated box or cabinet that you would place a block of ice inside to seal in with your perishables. For the people that grew up with iceboxes and later transitioned to electric refrigerators, they carried the word over and then they taught it to us youngins as the proper word for "a small cold place in the house to store food". Fred and Edwina being 81 and 79 respectively in 1965, depending on their income level and whether or not they had reliable electricity, may have actually had an ice box in their house rather than a refrigerator. Looks like this was a modern fridge though, from what I can see.
Editing to add that down the rabbit hole I go, because I was expecting to read all kinds of things about their son Charles but I did not have "rumored involvement in the assassination of JFK" on my bingo card!
Just looked him up based on your comment and wow, he seems like a very interesting character. I’d like to find out how the Gardenier’s traced him to Honduras
My grandma used the term “ice box” to refer to the fridge all the time. I think it was just what that generation was used to calling it.
I believe you are correct; from what I can recall about the case, a vegetable drawer and shelves were mentioned, so I assumed it was a modern refrigerator.
But thank you for the extra information. I was not the only person who used that term in elementary and middle school, so I'm not sure if it just happened to be the area, or who we were raised by. My middle school math teacher called us "country" for that lol.
Oregon, the Kyron Horman case. Hoping they find him someday.
This is a local one for me too, I actually live in the area Terri was driving around in the day Kyron went missing. I really believe he's somewhere in the hills forests. By now his remains have probably been really scattered by animals (we have coyotes, foxes, raccoons, skunks, not uncommon to see them even in the suburbs) and very hard to find. But I really hope they can someday and get closure for the family.
I’m from Wales - Trevaline Evans a 52-year-old lady disappeared from Llangollen in 1990 after leaving a sign on the door of her antique shop that said “back in two minutes.”
Never heard of this. Gave me goosebumps, she just nipped out for a min and then … gone.
I think a lot of people believe the husband was responsible, just not clear on how.
I'm from Argentina. There's many i'm interested in, Cecilia Giubileo, Claudia Ferro (i mean, we kinda know but there's no official statement), Sofia Herrera (i have so much hope she'll be found safe and well)
The one that really stuck with me tho is Maria Rosa Di Leo. Excuse me if i miss use some words.
Okay, this was years ago. Maria Rosa was a daycare teacher (or kinder, not sure what the word is for 3-5 year olds in English) who lived with her parents in Rosario, Santa Fe, was dating a man called Luis (who lived in Buenos Aires, another province) planning to marry
Maria had the daycare in their (parents and her) place. It was a humble daycare, nothing big or that had something different that you might really want your child to go there.
For months she kept receiving calls from a woman who wanted to make the inscription for her kid to go there althought, according to the calls, she lived on the other side of the city. Again, this is a humble place, not something you'd drive a long time daily for. Anyway on one of those calls the woman apparently tells her she'll sign her kid there. She actually goes not long after, (which they find weird, its not like she lived 5 blocks away) and Maria Rosa brings out the paperwork, she is about to write down the info when she gets shot, there's actually a pen trail on the paper.
She is found by her mom at the place, obviously police is called
Anyway there's no suspects. Some people nearby said they saw a brunette woman, some people saw a blonde woman, but they dont know who she is or if it was even her who shot Maria Rosa. More than that and the calls, they have nothing.
Months after a tv channel gets an anonymous message saying a woman, Miriam Buisart, was who shot Maria Rosa. They give this info to the police in charge who start investigating. Turns out Miriam lived in Colon, Buenos Aires, which is were Luis, Maria Rosa's boyfriend lived.
They investigated and she was brunette -not blonde like some people had said- had money and had dated Luis. She got detained, at her place they found a blonde wig, she had missed work, her car was similar to one described to have been there the day of the murder and she took it to the carwash althought the neighbours did not recognize that as the car, the hair found in the crime scene did not belong to her, her phone line was investigated and had no ties to the daycare.
On the day of the crime she says she had been with her boyfriend, claims to have casually dated Luis in the past but it was not serious and meant nothing, she had last seen him 5 or so months before the crime. The blonde wig, she said was for a costume from a party and had she done it, she would not have gotten such a cheap wig.
She did say that a few weeks before, her daughter picked up a call from Luis -or someone claiming to be him- telling her to tell Miriam to call to another phone number later, she didn't call but thinks it was probably an attempt to incriminate her.
Anyway she did went to jail for two years but then was absolved. Many things fit but there was no actual proof. Maria Rosa's parents weren't happy with the fact that she didn't contact them, apparently Luis stopped talking to them during the investigation (and he didn't say anything or help with the investigation in any way, which imo is suspicious) the case went cold and to this day there's no answer.
https://www.clarin.com/sociedad/matan-balazo-maestra-jardinera_0_rydxkb-ZRtx.html
This made me so sad. My daughter'sname is Maria Rosa.
Good write up, thank you. BTW, if English isn't your first language, I would never know, I hope you don't mind me saying.
Oh, thank you!!!
Livia Beirnes. She used to babysit me when I was young. Someone tied her up in her basement and burned the house down and they never caught the culprit. https://www.niagarathisweek.com/news/police-release-new-details-on-10-year-anniversary-of-unsolved-st-catharines-murder/article_65e44706-0e4b-5e1e-9dfd-01e09532a42b.html
That is just so sad, she looks so sweet.
Where I come from in Central Scotland has low crime and the inhabitants generally have their feet on the ground so there is a lack of mystery ... with one striking exception:
Roughcastle Brickworks murder (1949)
This is a fantastically obscure case, but I am researching a writeup.
Central Iowa, United States— Johnny Gosch was a paperboy who disappeared at the age of 12 one morning in 1982 while doing his paper route. Despite being the first missing child to have his picture printed on milk cartons, he still hasn’t been found. His mom claims that she met him in the 90s and got photos of him in the 2000s, but most people here don’t think that happened. It’s a sad case for a lot of people in my dad’s generation, that something like that could happen here and a boy could go missing without a trace. I hope he’s found, if nothing else but to give his parents peace.
Johnny Gosch is a wild story when you listen to podcasts…the theories with local people of notoriety involved…
This is one where the police actively worked against looking for him. The way his disappearance was handled is baffling.
Another paper boy, Eugene Martin, disappeared from the south side of Des Moines two years after Johnny Gosch's disappearance.
And there was another boy who vanished two years after Eugene, in 1986, his name was Marc Allen, and just recently his brother said he was also a paperboy, though he wasn't on route when he was taken.
I remember in the Bush years there was a lot of speculation that a reporter named Jeff Gannon was Johnny Gosch. https://www.reddit.com/r/nonmurdermysteries/comments/kihr36/jeff_gannon_et_al_johnny_gosch/
I grew up in Des Moines in the 80’s. We always raced home before dark so we wouldn’t end up like Johnny Gosch.
Same. As did my spouse. His dad got a German Shepherd and taught the dog to track my husband (then 10 years old) in case he got kidnapped…..Johnny’s case scared everyone. For what it’s worth, my dad always thought it was someone in the neighborhood who knew the newspaper route and where Johnny picked up the papers to be delivered. I don’t blame his mother for losing touch with reality. Then Eugene Martin 2 years later…
Illinois has plenty but I can't believe the Lane Bryant murders haven't been solved yet (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lane_Bryant_shooting). Five women were killed mid-morning at a clothing store in 2008. Another survived, and there's a sketch of the shooter but no suspects.
A rare case of an unsolved mass shooting. Hopefully that one will find its resolution one day
North Carolina - Asha Degree. I grew up in a neighboring county and have always wondered what happened to her.
By any chance, do you know anyone who knew Asha and/or her family personally? Also, what theories do people local to the area have about the case?
Nope, I do not know anyone who knew her or her family personally. I haven’t talked to anyone local about it in a while, but most people I’ve spoken to about it don’t seem to think it’s the family. I honestly have no idea.
I don’t think it was the family either. It’s weird because it seems like most people online used to believe that the parents were innocent but now, the majority think that Harold and Iquilla were involved.
Yeah, I also noticed that shift, but I don’t know what to think of that. I don’t want to think bad about the parents though some of the theories involving them sound convincing (at least to me, an internet stranger who knows nothing lol)
I'm in Germany and the case of Rebecca Reusch is so crazy.. Also Frauke Liebs
Frauke Liebs is really creepy! It‘s near my husbands home, her mother was his school principal. He told me about her when we drove through the woods where she was found, I had never heard of her before. Still creeps the hell out if me until this day!
My German mystery obsession will always be Hinterkaifeck.
Rebecca Reusch is very strange. I'm convinced the Brother-in-law killed her.
Germany - the YOGTZE case. It is an unsolved murder case where the victim wrote down a "word" with unknown meaning.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/YOGTZE_case
Also the unsolved disappearance of Lars Mittank (although it happened in Bulgaria). https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Lars_Mittank
Who killed 11 year old Heidi Seeman, and what happened to 3 year old Lina Khil .
Lina disappeared probably about 10-15 minutes by car from where I live. Hits close to home, and so heartbreaking. Her family leaves Afghanistan because they thought they’d be more safe here, only for her to go missing. Breaks my heart and I hope they find closure one day.
Oh my god this https://lbpost.com/news/identical-twins-found-dead-in-naples-one-hanged-herself-the-other-s-death-unknown/
I didn't know them or anyone who knows them personally but I heard about this and it's bothered me.
Basically, two twins, one died of unknown causes and the other outed herself, probably when she found her sister dead. They were incredibly close. Even though they seemed to have friends and did activities outside the house regularly, people who knew them said it was only really on a surface level. No one really knew anything about their childhood or anything else personal. Only family was someone a bit distant (neither married or had kids.) Their house was designed for a lot of privacy from the street. Someone who worked with them (a dr, I think, also per a different article) said he always thought if one of them died, the other would take herself out, which is what happened.
So it's not just mysterious that the one twin's death was unknown causes, but their whole lives were very secretive. Just another case of twins who kept almost entirely to themselves. I've checked periodically over the years for any update or anything new on them. It's been mostly crickets.
Rachel Mellon Skemp - Bolingbrook, IL
She was sick home that school day during winter with her stepdad and suddenly "disappeared" without a jacket, shoes or her purse during a wintery Chicago suburb evening. Her stepdad was covered in deep scratches on his chest, neck and arms and told the police it was from "fixing up an old car in the garage". What Rachel's stepfather stated was that he went to check up on her in the afternoon and she was sleeping in bed. He left the house to supposedly walk the dog but the dog ran off and he stated he chased after it and came home without the dog and without checking up on her.
Many people speculate that due to her crying a few days before to her friend about "having to take care of a problem" that her stepfather sexually abused her to the point of pregnancy, which further raised suspicion when she had a hidden kitchen knife in her bedroom as well as her personal diary about the sexual abuse and mistreatment her stepfather inflicted on the young teen. The only missing articles from the home were just her bedsheets and many people believe that he hid and ditched her body in the trunk of his car when police were called to investigate.
Her biological mother wasn't too keen on looking for her nor Rachel's stepfather and they both moved to different states together. Rachel's biological father however hasn't given up on hope for searching what remains of his daughter as he moved back to Illinois and has spent decades with what resources he has to uncover the truth.
The last I heard he was trying to hire a company to search the ground via sonic waves for anything.
Tacoma, Washington state, Tekah Lewis, toddler that disappeared from a bowling alley 20+ (?) years ago. She's never been found.
More recent in Bellevue WA a kid named Sky Metalwala disappeared. I think his mom killed him..
I still wonder about that case. Claims she left the 2yo in the car left on the side of the road but took his 4yo sister. The mother had some issues too, I remember watching an interview with the father and she wouldn't allow him to even use the bathroom in their house. It was weird.
Yeah, a friend of mine lived in one of the condos where the Metalwalas' lived and she says that Julia was always yelling and treating everyone badly. Also, Bellevue is super ritzy so if Julia had called the emergency number an ambulance would have been there in 10 minutes flat. She murdered him or allowed her father to take him to Ukraine. Also, the mother had another kid after Sky disappeared and that kid was taken from the home. I hope we find him soon.
I don’t think Skye was in the car that day. I think he was killed beforehand.
That is most plausible to me, however, Julia's "father" went to the US to visit her from Ukraine about 2 weeks before the disappearance. It could be that the person took Skye out of WA and is in the Ukraine. Without a body and Julia isn't talking, we can only hope he is alive and living in Ukraine.
Italy.
Emanuela Orlandi vanishing: the 15yo daughter of a Vatican employee disappeared while coming back from a music course in 1983. Since then there have been a lot of investigations and suspects but no real clues about what happened. Potential leads regarded Pope John Paul's attempted assassination, dirty bishops, the notorious Roman "banda della Magliana" (a criminal gang that robbed, killed, kidnapped, dealt drugs and prostitution during the '70s and '80s), and white women slave trade.
At a certain point, a possible suspect - who said a lot of lies but was alsso able to produce a flute that really seemed Emanuela's one - made a correlation with another girl, killed in 1984, with no relationship whatsoever with Emanuela during life. This time he was right and Kethy's grave was actually opened to find it robbed and the casket taken away. Emanuela's family is still fighting for the truth, her brother firmly believes in some Vatican responsibilities, while the original investigator still believes in a "plain" sexual assault ended in murder.
The image of Emanuela used in the missing posters is very familiar to any Italian and especially Roman grown up in the '80s, with her flute and her black hairband, and for a long time there was some hope that she could be still alive (there was a trace that lead to an English college in the '90s), but nowadays all is wanted is some justice for a 15 yo vanished in a hot summer afternoon.
The Vatican Girl documentary was fantastic.
Yuba County Five, Brian Shaffer
Yuba County 5 left me with more questions than answers. I've seen a few documentaries and listened to several podcasts trying to figure it out.
What questions? I think the vast majority of it has been explained, Ted's parents answered the weirdest questions with their descriptions of his behaviour and them not being surprised in the slightest that he never touched the food.
I've literally spent all afternoon researching Brian Shaffer. Absolutely baffling how he vanished. I don't believe he fell into the construction site or got trapped in the walls as some have said. So much uncertainty.
Employees of the bar have come forward and said that there are many ways he could have left without being seen...it still doesn't account for his complete disappearance but just saying...he didn't necessarily dissappear there...whatever happened to him could have happened anywhere...
For years, I delivered beer around OSU campus. In fact, not long after Brian disappeared. The employees are right, the back hallways to that building are a maze and you eventually would end up outside around the back dock areas of the building. If I’m not mistaken, there was an awful lot of development still underway when he went missing. South Campus Gateway was pretty much still being built when he went missing. So I think either scenario where he could’ve gone missing in a construction area or he left without being seen is very plausible with what I know. South Campus Gateway has always given me the creeps since that incident, every time I would go there to deliver for work or whatever.
The other thing that people who aren’t local need to take into account is that the neighborhood adjacent to south campus is a very poor, crime ridden area. I’ve also thought it could’ve been a robbery gone wrong if he was walking away disoriented after a few drinks.
Exactly. I believe there are some cases where certain "facts" are promoted as urban legends and LE does nothing to get the record straight, precisely because the "bizarre" aspects surround it are crucial to keep the case in the public eye: "how could he just vanish??"
Obviously, if his remains aren't inside the bar, he left the bar.
Not my hometown itself but just down the highway…the murders of Barry and Honey Sherman. Billionaire Toronto couple who were found hanging by belts from a railing that surrounded their indoor pool. There is video of a suspect near their home but you can’t see the face…and there’s no other leads despite a 35 million dollar reward.
IMO - That one drive me crazy. I suspect that the murderer knew the family's habits, and schedules well. Why no one has been arrested is so strange. Do you think the police have a good idea of who did it?
Maryland, USA Sister Catherine Cesnik, Netflix docuseries, The Keepers is about her unsolved murder.
Absolutely wrenching documentary, so well done.
Omaha, NE: Jason Jolkowsi disappearance. In June 2001, the 19 year old man was walking 6 or 7 blocks from his home in a middle class, semi urban residential neighborhood to a nearby high school to meet a coworker for a ride to their job. He was last seen by his younger brother and a neighbor bringing trash cans back up from the curb up to his family's garage then walking west toward the high school. Sometime during the short 10 to 15 minute walk on a bright summer day around lunchtime, Jason vanished. Neighbors and people living in the area saw and heard nothing unusual, and no trace evidence (keys, wallet, discarded clothing, etc) has ever been found. I get it that kidnappings/disappearances can happen in the matter of seconds, but it's still so crazy that a young, 6'2" man could vanish while walking in the middle of a semi-busy neighborhood. This is a neighborhood not far from major thoroughfares in the city of Omaha (those familiar with Omaha know what I'm talking about: Fontenelle Blvd, Saddle Creek Road/Northwest Radial Highway, Maple Street, 52nd Street etc.) and even within the neighborhood there is regular foot and car traffic. This wasn't some isolated rural area out in the boonies at night with nobody else around.
It's quite baffling, also considering there were no other disappearances reported in the area before and since. It's literally like he was there 1 second and gone the next. Also frustrating because when Jason's parents called Omaha PD that afternoon, they were brushed off with the "Oh he probably ran away" trope and OPD didn't start a serious investigation until almost a week later.
Chelsea Small’s murder in 2013. She was a single mom who was gunned down while working at a check cashing place. The suspect is on video but the police don’t think he has a previous connection to her.
Couple off top of my head:
-Disappearance of Catherine Sjoberg outside of Oconomowoc, WI in 1974. Vanished from a party at the Concord House and place notable due to another double murder that happened there 6 years later which has been solved. I've been in that general area for work, strangely unsettling feeling when I'm there.
-Karl Lotharius in Milwaukee, 1981. Murdered with a crossbow. 2 prime suspects, 1 of whom was an ex lover with crossbow experience but as Karl lay dying he identified the other suspect. The ex lover killed himself months later, other suspect vehemently denies involvement.
Lauren Speirer from Indiana
The disappearance of Dennis Martin in the Great Smokies
Jefferson Davis parish, Louisiana: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Davis_8?wprov=sfti1#.
Jeff Davis 8, 8 girls killed by a serial killer right? Well…all the girls knew each other, all were in prostitution and drugs, all witnessed a cop kill a drug dealer in a drug den.
After that it just gets even weirder, from dirty cops, to a local criminal, to a politician who was supposedly running a drug and prostitution ring and had national ambitions for congress.
Watch murder on the bayou or read the book. This story is crazy and unsolved.
It’s cases like this that make you wonder if some places are so deeply corrupt that there is no way crimes will ever be solved.
I’m thinking right now of the case in Mississippi where 215 bodies of prisoners were buried behind a jail and no relatives were ever informed. I hope the FBI is involved.
British Columbia -- the disappearance of the Jack family, 1989. This case is unusual even in a province that has a lot of missing persons cases, compared with the rest of the country. (A lot of sparsely-populated terrain that's difficult to search due to rugged topography, dense forests, and coastlines/lakes is a major factor.) Multiple people disappearing at the same time is much less common than individuals going missing -- an entire family, including the kids, is very strange. I don't think there's another case like it in Canada. The circumstances suggest they didn't go out camping/boating and have an accident -- the fact that other people, who have not been identified, were involved is rather ominous.
https://evelazarus.com/the-missing-jack-family-from-prince-george/
https://medium.com/@reallyhorrifying/the-family-that-vanished-the-jack-family-disappearance-b55e3e2ad246
I’m from Maryland. The murder of Kanika Powell (in August 2008) is both baffling and terrifying.
My pet theory for certain kinds of cases is espionage/intelligence, and this one was on my list, along with Scott Ratigan from Arlington.
However, based on information disclosed on the Unsolved Mysteries podcast ("A Killer Comes Knocking," Season 2 ep. 34) it sounds like this case may be based on jealousy, According to her mom and others interviewed on this podcast, Kanika was bisexual and had recently stated dating a woman. She had planned to visit the Pride festival in Atlanta with this woman, and they were scheduled to leave the day after she died. The woman had previously been involved with a jealous and potentially dangerous man.
There goes my theory that international spies hired sloppy local contractors. It sounds like it's a pretty traditional motive combined with a familiar lack of sufficient evidence to prosecute. I recommend the podcast as it contained a lot of information I hadn't heard elsewhere.
Florida:Zachary Bernhardt. Entire case is fishy and bothers me to this day.
His mom is super sketchy. "Going swimming" at 3 am in her clothes? Moving to Hawaii and changing her name shortly after he disappeared? She either is involved or knows who is.
From the city I currently live in, Edmonton, it’s probably Amber Tuccaro, a young lady who was murdered in 2010. I am going to take this opportunity to, as i usually do when i talk about her, post a clip of the audio of her final phone call, in case it rings any bells for anyone.
Vancouver BC - Cindy James. A woman who reported ~90 instances of stalking, harassment, and attacks over a 7 year period from 1982-1989. She went missing in 1989 and was later found dead in the yard of an abandoned house hogtied in the fetal position with nylons around her neck. Cindy had several drugs in her system and a huge dose of morphine that was suspected to be intravenously administered (though no needle was found near her body).
I’m not even sure what popular opinion is on this case and I go back and forth between it being self inflicted and the result of a third party. Ultimately I think it was someone else, and that she likely knew who
This is definitely a strange one and I also go back and forth on if she was doing any of it herself to further her complaints of a stalker. It’s such a fkn weird saga…
Woah, never heard of this one. That’s insane and incredibly disturbing.
From Van, B.C. too. What do you think about the Madison Scott case? Her remains were recently found, but no updates almost a year later.
I just don’t see how she could’ve hog tied herself and then killed herself. That’s what sticks with me.
iirc, they think she injected herself and had time to tie herself, and the knots seemed to be tied in a way she could have done it herself.
Not sure though, it’s been a while.
Jennifer Kesse in Florida (1981)
This is from just down the road from where I live. I believe law enforcement has an idea of who did it, but doesn't have the evidence for arrest.
https://thecrimewire.com/true-crime/Who-Killed-Kelcey-Fike-of-Kearney-Nebraska
Tara Calico https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Tara_Calico I lived in New Mexico when it happened.
The disappearance of Lois Hanna in July 1988 I was 12. I still remember the helicopters going up and down the lakeshore. I was at a week long sleep away camp about 20 minutes south of town. The helicopters went over us several times over a couple of days. The counsellors told us something about they were practicing rescue manoeuvres, which they actually do do there to this day at least once a year, and are called in if someone goes missing in the lake (Huron). To this day no one knows what happened. She just vanished.
Six months earlier, Dustin Bowers disappeared from the town parking lot He was 11 months old. The night after he disappeared, his mother said she had a dream that he was in a field in the snow. The police found him there. My parents had friends that lived in the subdivision, within a few hundred metres of where he was found. They said their dog and another dog barked for hours and no one could find anything around their homes. And then they just stopped barking. Common belief is that they could hear him crying and when he stopped crying, they stopped barking. After CTV aired the W5 episode about it, a lot of people revealed some things that weren’t revealed in the episode or before, and really only did because the family would not cooperate with interviews. Apparently her siblings had threatened several times that Dustin would just disappear if she left him in the car. It was a very small town in rural Ontario with really no crime that didn’t involve alcohol at that point. And then that’s exactly what happened. Friends I have and trust who knew the family had heard them say this themselves and said they acted very bizarrely after Dustin’s body was found.
There’s still not a lot of crime not involving alcohol there. The only other big crime that those of us that lived there back then can remember is the police officer who was stealing from multiple businesses when on night patrol.
As a fellow Irish friend I have to agree - my fixation on Trevor Deely can only be unhealthy
His disappearance is as utterly baffling and mysterious to me as the likes of Andrew Gosden, Brian Shaffer etc
They found a severed hand in the dog park across the street from my old house. Never found out who it belonged to or where it came from. Not exactly the best safest town, there’s a good deal of drugs and crime, but the neighborhood was still outta place for that kinda thing, just a small cul de sac with old people and kids so it was pretty wild
North-East France : "Le petit Gregory".
A little boy found dead in a stream near his parents' home, where he was playing under their supervision. Hands and feet tied, and a hood on the head
A mysterious raven who sends anonymous letters before and after the incident to taunt parents. After 37 years of investigation, we still haven't found the culprit. Part of the family was suspected, the father killed an alleged culprit..
I'm from Dublin and the killing of Grace Livingstone has always baffled me.
The rape and murder of Rachel Hurley in Jupiter Florida, USA in 1990. It happened in the middle of the day, walking from one part of the beach to another to meet her mom. No eye witnesses or anything. She was only 14 years old.
ETA: it happened on St. Patrick's Day, a generally busy day at Jupiter Beach/Carlin Park. I've been there literally hundreds of times and it's shocking how close other people had to have been. It's also a relatively open area. While there are trees and other foliage on the path she took, it's not dense at all.
In New York’s Hudson Valley, the disappearance of Audrey May Herron in 2000. One of the rare cases where, like Toni Sharpless (coincidentally also a nurse) the MP is last seen driving away and not just they but their car has never been found. Which, given that there are a limited amount of routes between the nursing home she worked at and her home, and all the small waterbodies along them were searched thoroughly at the time, is puzzling.
(Sudden thought, though: That assumes she left work intending to go home, or straight home, that night. There was no reason not to make that assumption, of course, but it doesn’t mean she did)
I also grew up near (and briefly in) Springfield, NJ, which has the lingering unsolved murder of Jeannette DePalma. I really get the feeling that someone with the means to make sure that happened didn’t want the case being fully investigated.
As far as I know, there have never been any leads whatsoever. Two young people working late the day after Christmas, brutally murdered.
Definitely not the strangest or most notorious mystery in the first state but the one that seems like we SHOULD know something by now.
Isle of Man, elderly lady was murdered outside her house. Not in a paticulary busy area but no witnesses, no clues, no anything.
Thelma Krull. Winnipeg Manitoba. Older woman goes for morning walk. Never is seen again. Few years later her skull is found in a field.
Arkansas- The Murder of Don Henry and Kevin Ives, also known as The Boys on The Tracks case. Many theories have been put out about this case from it being a freak accident to the boys possibly seeing something they shouldn’t have and were killed by a famous drug pusher of the time (whos name i cannot remember for the life of me.)
From 🇮🇳 india, the Noida double murders of Aarushi Talwar and her servant Hemraj.
Washington State here : D.B. Cooper!
Johnny gosch—he disappeared from right behind my current house.
The villisca ax murders
Ashley Oakland (young realtor that got murdered execution style during an open house)
Rex McElroy murdered on the street of Skidmore Missouri in the 1980s. He terrorized the town for years, with rape, arson, attempted murder. They finally had enough and one morning shot him dead in his brand new truck with his wife seated next to him. No one ever confessed and no one was convicted.
Guy totally deserved it. Even the local sheriff and judges were intimidated by him. However, Skidmore has had a very dark history since. For a town of less than 500 residents, it has had a disproportionate amount of crimes happen there. A young woman was murdered by her husband in the late 90s, then the mysterious disappearance of Branson Perry in 2001. Then, just 3 years after that, Perry's pregnant cousin Bobbie Jo Stinett was brutally murdered and had her baby cut out of her.
Sudbury Ontario here. Until recently it was the Renee Sweeney murder but after almost 30 years the murderer was finally found and convicted.
The disappearance of Angela Gilbert from Granite Falls, WA. My mom was friends with her and her boyfriend turned husband and lived with them for a while. I always wonder what happened to her and if the story the police were told about her going for a walk even happened or was staged to make it look like she went for a walk while she was actually killed at “the compound” she was staying at and it was covered up. The person she supposedly went out walking with was said to have returned without her and that she went on walking, but then that guy was found drowned and the report states his death was around the time Angela was last seen.
I had my Christmas party in Dublin the same night as Trevor.
He has always stuck in my mind, a truly sad case.
I really hope his family get closure 😢
Disappearance of Cherrie Mahan. An 8 year old who got off a school bus in 1985, 50' from the bottom of her driveway, and was never seen again. Witnesses reported seeing a van with a distinctive paint job but it was never found.
This happened in Butler County Pennsylvania about 30 miles north of Pittsburgh and there is a Wikipedia page about her and the case.
Eighteen years ago today Luke Durbin went missing from my hometown.
Luke was from nearby Hollesley and made his way into Ipswich on the 12th of May 2006 with a couple of friends for a night out. One friend returned home shortly after arriving into Ipswich but Luke and another friend stayed and went to Zest nightclub.
Luke lost his friend in the busy club and was seen on CCTV at various places in Ipswich town centre, including the train and bus stations (which had ceased services as it was around 3am) and a taxi firm. As Luke had left his phone and wallet at his friend’s house he wasn’t able to pay for the taxi back to his village.
Luke was last seen on CCTV in the town centre, at which point he completely vanished.
There were questions on whether Luke had attempted to walk back home, having had no luck with finding any public transport that could get him there. This is highly unlikely, though, as not only would the journey have been extremely difficult - crossing fields, busy roads and waterways in pitch black conditions - no CCTV cameras spotted him along the route out of Ipswich, a route that would have been well covered by cameras.
A few years ago, Luke’s mum revealed that he did occasionally take and sell drugs. She was reluctant to discuss this aspect in case it changed how people thought of Luke and his case. The police are considering this in connection with the case.
Just after Luke was spotted on CCTV for the final time, a car appeared in the same area. It was found some time later to have fake licence plates and so police haven’t been able to trace the car. Both the police and Luke’s mum think this car is really important to the case.
There were some reported sightings of Luke but these have never been proven. Two people were arrested for identity fraud some years after he disappeared as they’d been using Luke’s details during an online transaction. Another person was arrested for Luke’s murder but no charges seem to have been brought against them.
Luke’s disappearance is strange to me due to him suddenly and completely disappearing from all CCTV footage, despite his entire journey around town in the preceding hours being easy to find. I think it’s most likely that whoever drove that car seen in the same area was out looking to find a vulnerable person on their own and unfortunately for Luke, they happened to cross paths.
I really hope his family get some answers. It’s such a long time to not know what happened to a loved one.
Dee Warner in Lenawee County Michigan. It's been a few years since she disappeared without a trace. The consensus is that her Husband Dale Warner (my mother's cousin) is responsible but he hasn't said anything damning about it. He is in jail currently for failing to turn over business documents. Also the Skelton Brothers case. They disappeared over 13 years ago. They were 5,7, and 9 years old at the time. Their father said he gave them to some underground Amish family. He's been in prison for about 13 years and possibly about to be paroled later this year.
Daniel Robinson, who went missing in Arizona in 2021 from a job site. He's never been heard from again despite his Dad's tireless work to locate him. He was on an episode of the newer America’s Unsolved Mysteries (which I guess is cancelled now?).
Las Cruces Bowl murders
The Max Headroom Incident
Rabbit hole warning!
The 1994 Lake Michigan UFO. This is, IMO, one of the top UFO stories EVER. What makes this one unique is that it involves an on duty United States National Weather Service meteorologist . Hundreds of calls flooded 911 dispatchers from multiple counties. One dispatcher calls the local National Weather Service office at the Muskegon County (Michigan) airport. The on duty meteorologist uses his radar to sweep the sky and confirms, in real time, that what they are seeing on the ground is also visible on radar.
It’s the 30 year anniversary this year and that meteorologist did interviews again. The lame excuse by the government was temperature inversion, but that’s not what Jack believes.
Kansas City - Baby Lisa
I'm from Nepal. The royal massacre.
The crown prince reportedly wiped out his entire family, his extended family, and a lot of people, leaving his uncle and family alive. However, there were several gaps in that story. He lived for a few days in hospital, was made the king, and then died a few days later, although it was told that his conditions were improving. Dude apparently shot himself in the head on the left, while he was a right handed (or vice versa). Anyways.
Uncle became the new king.
People revolted, he was ousted. Nepal then became a democratic Republic, and the new leaders ruined it even more.
The 3 Missing Women (Springfield, MO) coming up on the 30th anniversary. Maybe someone will come forward near the anniversary.
USA - Sneha Phillip always has befuddled me. Essentially, she lived in Manhatten and was last seen on the night of September 10, 2001, the night before the 9/11 attacks. Apparently her home/marital life was a bit all over the place depending on who in her circle you asked.
No one knows to this day whether she met with foul play and because of the attacks it was never discovered. She could have died as a result of the attacks as well. Others still think she saw the chaos of 9/11 as an opportunity to walk away from her life completely and start fresh somewhere else.
The Exeter UFO sighting.
The incident actually occurred in the smaller, neighboring town of Kensington, but at the time, Kensington didn't have a full time police department, relying on Exeter police to cover the late night shift.
On September 3, 1965, 18 year old Norman Muscarello was walking home to Exeter from nearby Amesbury, Massachusetts. As he made his way down Route 150, he witnessed a large, illuminated object hovering along the woodline behind a barn. After the object drifted away, a panicked Muscarello flagged down a driver, who drove him to the police department in downtown Exeter. Muscarello and an officer returned to the location of the sighting, and both saw the object return. A second officer joined them and also witnessed the event.
The police officers were military veterans who were familiar with military aircraft., and both unequivocally said that it wasn't a helicopter or military aircraft. Nearby Pease Air Force Base (now Pease Air National Guard Base at Portsmouth International Airport) stated that they had no aircraft in the area that night.
The incident was part of a larger wave of sightings in Southern New Hampshire that year. Other sightings were reported in Hampton Beach, Kingston, and Brentwood.
The Exeter case sometimes gets confused with the Betty and Barney Hill case a few years earlier. The Hills lived in Portsmouth, and Betty was raised in Kingston, both close to Exeter. In addition, author John Fuller wrote books about both events. The Hill abduction actually occurred about 100 miles northwest of Exeter, in Woodstock, NH.
From Erie, Pennsylvania: the Pizza Bomber https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Brian_Wells
That’s a very strange case, but I thought it was solved.
Auckland, New Zealand- Iraena Asher
There has recently been a docuseries made on the weirdness that is the place she disappeared from. It's been met with some mixed opinions here, a lot of people dismissing the series as conspiracy bait etc, but I lived there a few years after her disappearance, and let me tell you it's fucking strange out there. I was young when she disappeared, but after living there I fully believe there is a high chance she is still in someone's shed in the bush. A lot of odd characters, isolated geographically, and a land that has an ominous vibe to it. It is stunning there, but there is something very off around there
Here in Stockholm, it’s probably the murder of prime minister Olof Palme. It’s not only strange that someone could murder the prime minister in the middle of the capital and not get caught, but both witnesses and police have said and behaved strangely throughout the investigation.
Check out The Unlikely Murderer on Netflix if you want more.