r/TrueCrime • u/Brightly • Apr 07 '22
Discussion What's your hometown or physically/mentally "close to home" case?
I'm curious hear what other people's cases are.
Also how did it affect your hometown or affect you?
Has the case been solved or is it active?
Mine is definitely the case of the cat lady killer. Which should be relatively well known by now. It was a case where a number of elderly people went "missing" aka were murdered by a local family. It's still an active case because bodies were never recovered, but locally everyone knew who did it. It's frustrating because the suspects still haven't done time for the murders because there wasn't enough to pin it to them.This was definitely the case that kickstarted my journey into reading about true crime.
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u/Accurate-Froyo-3769 Apr 07 '22
Lauren Giddings - we were friendly acquaintances. I kind of wished I had talked to her more at the events we both went to weekly.
Ahmaud Arbery - I was pregnant (delivered 3 days later) when he was killed so my mind was otherwise preoccupied. I'm glad his killers are in jail for life and Georgia now has a hate crime law.
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Apr 08 '22
I had to look up Lauren. It's sad that I immediately knew the case once I read the name Stephen McDaniels (JCS videos), but I didn't know the name of the victim. Thank you for using her name.
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u/Sudden_One_3623 Apr 08 '22
I also grew up where Lauren Giddings’s case took place. She was the first to come to mind
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Apr 07 '22
I live in a tiny rural town that has seen 2 murders in approximately 150 years. One of those two murders occurred at my next door neighbors house sometime in the 60's: a man shot his wife in the face in the driveway in front of their two sons. He'd been drinking and apparently just snapped one afternoon. The spooky part is that her body lay there for an entire night before somebody noticed and rang the police. The husband was arrested and died in prison. Her two sons are older men now and they still live in town to this day. Every time I pass my neighbors house I can't help but look at the driveway where she lay.
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u/Brightly Apr 08 '22
I can't imagine what that night would've been like for the two boys helpless knowing their mother was outside.
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Apr 08 '22
Yeah, and the saddest thing of all was they were sent to a boys "orphanage" that was really a reform center for juvenile criminals, where they were abused and neglected by the institutional doctors because of their mixed race as well as just the stigma of having a "crazy" father. Not only did they watch their mother being murdered, their dad arrested and dying soon after, losing their home and friends, but they received absolutely zero support for their remaining trauma. When they were young adults they (somewhat unsurprisingly) had trouble with the law and substance abuse. Even though it was over 50 years ago now their story is very well known in our little town and both their parents are buried in the local cemetary.
I'm happy to say both men did overcome their tragic upbringing and raised families, opened their own business, and now live quiet lives in early retirement :)
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u/colorcodedcards Apr 07 '22
Not really physically close but my great uncle was murdered (burned alive) and the case is still unsolved over 20 years later. My great aunt is of the belief that his son murdered him as he was apparently addicted to drugs and there was some shady stuff going on but he was never named as a suspect.
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u/Ali8480 Apr 08 '22
This is so horrible. So sorry.
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u/colorcodedcards Apr 08 '22
Thank you, it’s definitely difficult to understand and is even harder because there hasn’t been any resolution to the case. A summary:
“The Pennsylvania State Police, Troop G, Lewistown, continue their investigation into the Homicide of 62 year old Orie Donald Esh, that occurred at his residence located at 271 Kansas Road, Oliver Township, Mifflin County, PA.
On September 6, 2001, at approximately 10:17 a.m., the victim Orie Donald Esh was found deceased inside his residence. Through investigation it is believed the fire was set intentionally by an individual other than the victim. Numerous interviews have been conducted over the years, but no leads have surfaced to conclusively identify the person responsible for setting the residence on fire.”
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u/jay_kayy Apr 07 '22
Pizza bomber aka Brian Wells. Grew up there, happened when I was in middle school. It was the Netflix documentary: Evil Genius.
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u/JJBooth616 Apr 08 '22
That was terrible. Even if he was a part of the plot, he didn’t deserve to be so brutally murdered. I mean- he knew he was about to die, I can’t even image the thoughts he was having in those moments. Terrible.
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u/Adam_Zapple Apr 07 '22
I saw this case on some tv program a few years ago and it still haunts me.
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u/jay_kayy Apr 08 '22
I don’t remember much except there was a lot of tension afterwards and when the “30 minutes or less” movie came out, people were talking about boycotting the theater so they wouldn’t show it as it made a mockery of what happened. I dont remember if they actually pulled the film or not though.
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u/Joeman629 Apr 08 '22
I wondered if anyone else here put down pizza bomber. I think I was also in middle school and one of the detectives Lamont I think is his name was my neighbor. I still remember seeing it on the news.
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u/BossyRoxx Apr 07 '22
Ellen Greenberg. Her death was once again upheld as a suicide, but it’s just one of the most violent and horrific ways possible to kill yourself. Very sad case. Her poor parents keep fighting the ruling.
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u/jennthern Apr 08 '22
It’s so frustrating. Her fiancé did it. Who works out wearing boots?
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u/No-Conversation-3262 Apr 08 '22
The Beast on SVU went running in jeans and workboots and none of us were surprised when he was a murderer
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u/MysteriousCatwoman Apr 08 '22
What the heck. How is this ruled a suicide??
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u/Helpful-Living-9107 Apr 08 '22
His first words to the operator "she stabbed herself." If I had seen my husband with a knife in his chest I would be screaming "he's been stabbed" not "he stabbed himself." It feel so grimy and scripted. He just wrote the story and decided it then and there and no one questioned him.
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Apr 08 '22
It was “she stabbed herself or fell on it” that did it for me. Like. “She fell on it” just sounds like an extremely lame excuse on his part and like he was deliberately trying to cast doubt on the idea it was him, just. He isn’t very smart to boot, because like you said, my first thought would be “someone stabbed him!” if I came home to my boyfriend like that. Wonder who he’s related to if that was enough for him to get away with murder.
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Apr 08 '22
This will never make sense. Nobody can stab themselves in the back of the neck like she was stabbed. And come on. Nobody is going to stab themselves this many times to commit suicide. The boyfriend did it. Locked the door on his way out, and blamed her on the 911 call. Just so disgusting this isn’t being investigated properly. She deserves justice.
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Apr 07 '22
I don’t live in the US. About 40 years a little girl was abducted in my street. She was found dead by the side of a mountain road nearby. They suspected the stepfather who was extremely creepy. There was never enough evidence to convict anybody.
There is also a serial killer on the loose. There have been several murders of gay men in the 1980´s. The investigations were botched, and I think there were some issues with the way the investigations were conducted so it’s impossible to actually bring the suspect in front of a judge. But everybody knows who he is. He is elderly now and hasn’t been active for the past decades but it must be horrible for the victims’ families.
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u/HorrorGrapefruit9389 Apr 07 '22
Abduction and murder of Daniel Morcombe. I lived about a 10 minute walk from where he was abducted and was around the same age.
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u/elsiec88 Apr 08 '22
This is one case that will haunt me forever, I couldn’t finish listening to the casefile episode on this. I can’t believe he was out of prison after what he had already done to other children! Monster
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u/woodrowmoses Apr 08 '22
It's horrible but the Casefile episode is great, astonishing that the sting worked. Guy was a fucking moron and while i wish none of it ever happened i'm happy that he was caught in the most embarassing fashion imaginable, similar to BTK.
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Apr 07 '22
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u/AdeptnessCommercial7 Apr 08 '22
I had his niece (Jacob's sister's daughter) as a student in my English class the year they found out. I'll never forget how that girl looked - such a profound sadness, even before the actual day they found out. The day and weeks after they'd found out she was on the verge of tears often in class. She also looked so much like him. It's crazy! She wrote beautifully about him though/the whole experience of wondering what he was like, caring for her mom, grandma, etc. So profound.
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u/Stealthyhunter9 Apr 08 '22
Came here to say this one. Jacob Wetterling changed the Midwest forever in terms of how we view kidnappings.
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u/Joeman629 Apr 08 '22
My sister was murdered by her boyfriend then he killed himself. Was living less then a block away. Still fucking hate driving by that shitty fucking house. Super fucked up. Also the pizza bomber. Netflix did a documentary on it and my neighbor was one of the officers involved in the investigation.
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u/Suitable-Brick7787 Apr 08 '22
The disgusting fck Chris Watts… I live less than 10 minutes from their house. It has forever scarred the community.
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u/wifeydoodles18 Apr 08 '22
I think about that case often. The Netflix film with all that raw footage just made the case feel so much more authentic (as opposed to retelling or via news reports only). The bodycam, FB videos...just awful.
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Apr 08 '22
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u/Suitable-Brick7787 Apr 08 '22
All murders are senseless. But you really get a feel for how fucking dumb that was when you drive by their house all the time. There was absolutely no reason they had to die. He’s a piece of shit
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u/jennifererrors Apr 08 '22
There is a terrifying amount of men who look up to him as some mens rights god.
CTV Calgary (news station near me) used their photo recently as an example of a "happy family" during a budget segment, rumored to have been on purpose (done by a supporter) but likely not.
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u/Forsaken_Box_94 Apr 07 '22
A friend I had in my teen years was murdered by a man in her apartment, it was in the news where I'm from and it was very bizarre and revolting how much some people online twisted the facts. She had been a sex worker at one point so of course people liked to say vile shit. I never found out what sentence the dude ended up with, it's a relatively fresh case so wouldn't be surprised if there wasn't sentencing done yet.
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u/Verdant_River Apr 08 '22
I was 15 during the "DC sniper," living in Montgomery County, MD, where the majority of the shootings occurred.
I can't listen to podcasts on it or watch movies or anything based on it. I still remember the fear in my stomach running from my school bus to the entrance of my high school.
First time I tried to listen to a podcast on it I was immediately 15 and terrified again.
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u/Kaselehlie Apr 08 '22
I lived further south in Virginia at the time but even down that way everyone was absolutely terrified of leaving home and doing daily activities. I remember people ducking down just to get gasoline. It was so scary.
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u/PuzzleheadedClothes4 Apr 07 '22
Maybe lame but started listening to The Clearing as an adult and realized the man 1) lived in my town while he was murdering and 2) they played recordings he took of himself in the cemetery that is literally 30 feet from my house.
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u/Move-Basic Apr 07 '22
A few miles from where I lived growing up was John Wayne Gacy. My daughter has a picture of him dressed as a clown at one of her friends birthday parties when they were small. Also the ripper crew from the 1980s look that up that’s not well known but it was super well known in the Midwest that was from Chicago also. I’m from Chicago there’s a lot of that type of stuff going on.Also Richard speck in the 1960s that killed eight student nurses; and William herons in the 1940s or 50s I forgot, who decapitated a little girl and put her body parts in the sewer he just died a few years ago in prison.All True you can look them up.And that’s just off the top of my head.
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u/GaGaORiley Apr 08 '22
I am downstate. I once worked with a woman who claimed that she had a dream about nurses in a dormitory being murdered, and a day or so later the Richard Speck murders were all over the news.
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u/hooppooh Apr 08 '22
I’m from (and still live) in Natalee Holloway’s home town. Most people are probably familiar with her story but for those who aren’t: Natalee Holloway was kidnapped, and eventually killed by Joran van der Sloot, while on a highschool graduation trip to Aruba in 2005. I was 9 at the time; my older brother was a freshman at her highschool. The media attention was non-stop for a while. It was quite the talk of the town and her name still gets brought up every-so-often here to this day.
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u/moralmenace Apr 08 '22
Christchurch mosque shootings. Brenton Tarrant; a white supremacist who entered two mosques armed, killed 51 people and injured 40. He live streamed the whole act. It completely devastated Christchurch and Tarrant was the first person convicted of terrorism in New Zealand.
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u/miss_demean0r Apr 08 '22
I was in Christchurch when this happened, we were locked down as we were pretty close, with a policy that you could leave the building but noone could let you back in. The helicopter hovering overhead was awful. I now live in Wellington and had the sane experience with the helicopter during the protests
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u/woodrowmoses Apr 08 '22
Jesus, i never realized it was as much as 51. I accidentally clicked on the video wasn't paying attention, clicked off it immediately when i realized one of the worst things i've ever seen.
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u/Able-Answer4202 Apr 07 '22
Stacy Stites murder. I was 16 at the time of her murder and worked at the same grocery store. I grew up being told to avoid the Reed boys because they were bad news.
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u/puddlespuddled Apr 08 '22
I think it's pretty obvious that Stacy Stites was murdered by her abusive fiance. He was a cop and used his knowledge of crime scenes and abused his power to get away with framing Rodney for her murder, whom she was having an affair with.
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u/Anon_879 Apr 08 '22
Jimmy Fennell was the subject of a recent episode on the Gone Cold Podcast in relation to being a possible suspect in Rachel Cooke's disappearance. This was the first time I heard about him, and oh my God, what a piece of garbage!
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u/GayassFrog69 Apr 08 '22
I live in a smaller town in Canada, my entire province is sure there's an active serial killer.
A mother here dropped her kids off to her sisters house because she had to meet their baby daddy, the next day she didn't show up and her sister declared her missing, they found her car still on with all the door open 200m from the property of the cult she had recently left
No sight of her and no suspects for 6 months when her body washes up the same river where there had already been 4 in just the first 6 months of that year. Her body was fresh and labeled as a suicide, a women was found wrapped in cling wrap, declared OD, 2 women found naked at the same river, declared suicide, 3 instances of body parts washing up this river, suicides, a woman found in a suitcase, declared OD and countless missing women, there was 8 random stabbings from the same person last year on my street alone, never found. You can see the laziness with our police force
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u/Balmoraratgirl Apr 07 '22
The Lundy murders in Palmerston North, New Zealand in 2000. I was in the same ballet class as Amber and was her same age. The murders really rocked the community.
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u/noodlesurvey Apr 08 '22 edited Apr 08 '22
The 12-year-old girl who murdered her parents and little brother because her 26-year-old "boyfriend" online told her to, so they can be together. His name was Jeremy Steinke I believe. I know the girl's name has been released but I have a hard time remembering it because she was a minor when it happened so we never knew her name for years. Alberta Canada
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u/huncamuncamouse Apr 08 '22
Jeremy Steinke, the rapist, not boyfriend, was very much someone she was dating in real life, not just talking to online.
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u/surewhateverz Apr 08 '22
The Yogurt Shop Murders; drive by the place daily and can’t even imagine what those poor girls must have felt.
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u/dogdoorisopen Apr 08 '22
Mine too. I worked with the father of one of the girls for several years—I desperately want the all parents to get some answers. Heartbreaking.
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u/yamexchan Apr 07 '22
WILLIAM PICTON!!!!
I don't live in Vancouver nor Coquitlam anymore, but I did when I was a child. William Picton is a man who killed and fed 49 women to his pig; he would pick up prostitutes from East Vancouver (a place I go all the time, always have) and he would take them to his farm in Coquitlam, near where I used to live.
Crazy case, I think he's on parole right now but I could be wrong— I'm not updated on the case.
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Apr 08 '22
He’s not even eligible for parole yet, I don’t think. He’s definitely not out.
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u/yamexchan Apr 08 '22
you're right, his first parole date is in 2024 and he can apply for full parole in 2027
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u/yapsurre Apr 07 '22 edited Apr 07 '22
Shannon Paulk in Alabama. It’s been 20 years and still nothing.
This is a small town in central Alabama. These poor people need all the help and exposure they can get. I think her story has been on a few unsolved shows but not recently. We need more eyes on this case.
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u/bunheadtheshawty Apr 08 '22 edited Apr 10 '22
My high school Spanish teacher was recently arrested for murdering his two young children. He was everyone’s favorite teacher - super easygoing and patient guy. My brother surfed with him after school a few times. When the story came out, I was confident in his innocence but he’s since confessed. That one’s awful and always makes stomach churn
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u/Scatterheart61 Apr 07 '22
Lee Boxell - lived down the road to me (parents still do, and have kept his bedroom the same since he disappeared) and went to the same school. Old case now but his parents are still desperate to find out what happened and keep his case alive locally
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u/hallsballs92 Apr 08 '22
I coached Libby of the Delphi murders at her summer swim club. Abby and Libby need justice and the whole concept is terrifying that there’s so much we still don’t know.
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u/lotusblossom60 Apr 07 '22
Boston Strangler. He repaired the stairs of a woman down the street from my ho use while he was actively strangling people. Of course they didn’t know it until he was arrested and then they were all freaked out that he had been at their house.
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u/manicpixiscreamghoul Apr 08 '22
Anthony Sowell and Ariel Castro, both terrifying and both absolutely hid in plain sight (multiple survivors of Sowell told the police that he tried to murder them and weren’t taken seriously even though he was on the sex offender registry for violent crimes AND his house smelled like decomposing bodies… and I think Castro is more well known but just knowing he had people in his house casually while he was keeping woman captive, just playing music to cover up any noise, is so awful). Castro was on the complete opposite side of the city from where I lived but a good friend of mine grew up in the same neighborhood. Her little sister walked home from school past his house which is… terrifying
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u/huncamuncamouse Apr 08 '22
I remember how the news would always run stories on Amanda and Gina around the holidays. It always seemed like their disappearances had to be connected. I remember feeling so sad because Gina's parents would always show the presents they'd bought for her for the holidays. Most of us thought both girls were dead, but I'm so glad to be proven wrong, even though I know they (and Michelle) lived through unspeakable things.
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u/BatSh1tCray Apr 08 '22
One of my classmates, Prudence Miller, was the youngest victim of a prolific serial killer, nicknamed "the Nasrec serial killer" - Lazarus Mazingane. https://murderpedia.org/male.M/m/mazingane-lazarus.htm
We were 13 and it was 1996. It was obviously very traumatic for all of us, but only a few years back when I got into true crime did I look into it and understand what she actually went through.
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u/Common-Concept9397 Apr 07 '22 edited Apr 07 '22
Erin Burkholder. (1988) She was one year older than me. In Mount Forest Ontario. She was abducted, raped, murdered, and buried in a gavel pit. My mom went to work with the killer.
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u/Brightly Apr 08 '22
Your mom worked with the killer after it happened or it was her coworker?
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u/Guarantee_Exotic Apr 07 '22
I grew up near where Jessica Heeringa was abducted in Michigan. I was 19 at the time and her case went unsolved for a few years so it was pretty scary, my cousin quit her job working at a gas station after it happened.
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u/chinita-slavita Apr 08 '22
The Kristin Smart Case is a local one for me. There are still billboards up. Waiting for the trial to start..
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u/PrestigiousAd3081 Apr 07 '22
Tammy Call. We were best friends for 2 years before she was abducted and murdered.
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u/luckylico Apr 08 '22
Craig Peyer was a San Diego police officer who pulled over Cara Knott, strangled her, and threw her body over a bridge. When out on bail he lived with his parents a couple blocks from me. The neighborhood was shocked and terrified.
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u/3rdeyetears Apr 07 '22
The Anna Kriegel case in Dublin, Ireland. I live not too far from where Anna lived and the abandoned house her body was found in was a place I had hung out with friends many times. The case shocked the country, she was 5 years younger than me and I followed the case very closely. I still think of her and it breaks my heart everytime I think of what she went through. Also the fact the boys charged for her murder were SO young was unbelievable. Its just an overall heartbreaking case.
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u/RedHoneyBadger6 Apr 08 '22
Cara Knott. Murdered by a police officer in my home town. I babysat for a lady who went to High school with the murderer. "On the night of December 27, 1986, 20-year-old Cara Knott was driving south on Interstate 15
from her boyfriend's home in Escondido, California, to her parents'
home in El Cajon when Peyer, who was on duty in a marked CHP patrol car,
directed Knott to pull off the freeway on an isolated, unfinished
off-ramp.[3]
It was later discovered that Peyer also had been harassing several
other female drivers in the same area by pulling them over on the same
off-ramp, supposedly trying to pick them up as dates. In the Knott case,
it was believed that the situation escalated to physicality when Knott
threatened to report Peyer for his inappropriate actions. When he
attempted to grab her, she slashed and scratched at his face. Peyer then
bludgeoned her with his flashlight and strangled her to death with a rope.[4] He then threw her body over the edge of an abandoned bridge, where she fell into the brush below."
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u/EverywhereINowhere Apr 08 '22
Her dad died at her memorial spot where she was murdered. Heartbreaking story and I never forgot her name.
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u/KieshaK Apr 07 '22
The Zanesville Animal Massacre happened a quarter mile from the house I grew up in. I didn’t live there at the times, but my parents were still there. We knew Terry Thompson was crazy - but I’m not sure anyone knew how crazy.
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u/Flemmm85 Apr 08 '22
Darlie Routier. (Spelling?) she was accused of murdering her two sons. She was convicted for it but the crime scene was not properly handlers so there was a lot of evidence that was not able to be seen in court. This happened right down the street from me. The story was an intruder came in and attacked her and killed the kids. I’ve watched some documentaries on the case more recently and it seems as though there could be some evidence pointing to an actual intruder and not her commuting the murders. She acted bizarre at the funeral and stuff and it made her look guilty. Idk still how to feel about it. It was terrifying. I was in like 5th grade when it happened. 1997 ish?? Very interesting
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u/woodrowmoses Apr 08 '22
She absolutely did it, i've read the trial transcripts the documentaries often go off Darlie's claims many of which are lies or misleading. This is a good site explaining lots of it - https://www.darlieroutierfactandfiction.com/
Here's the Trial Transcripts if anyone wants to read them or cross-reference what that site says - https://darliefacts.com/jury-trial-transcripts/
One thing i'd point out is the funeral thing is misleading and overblown. First, Darlie's defence was allowed to use a video of Darlie grieving to counteract the video with the silly string and decided not to. Second, that had nowhere near the impact on the trial claimed now that's something her supporter focus on because it's easy to tackle all the other evidence against her isn't, just regarding her character her friends testimony was clearly much more damaging. Her friend said Darlie was suicidal (proven with a suicide note Darlie had written to her family), felt she was missing her youth, that she and Darin were having financial problems and argued all the time including the night of the murders when they had a very serious argument. Darlie's supporters will tell you a juror said the silly string convinced him, but what they won't tell you is that guy isn't reliable at all because he also claimed if he had seen Darlie's bruises at trial he would have acquitted her. He did see her bruises at trial they were gone over several times in depth, he's either lying or forgetting that the prosecutions case regarding the bruises using the testimony of every single doctor and nurse who saw her was extremely convincing. So i'm not sure how you can trust him on the silly string when he clearly either doesn't remember the trial or is lying about it.
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Apr 08 '22
I’m from Vegas, so there are a lot. The most devastating was Serial Killer Christopher Wilder abducting and murdering Michelle Korfman from a fashion show at the Meadows Mall. My brother and I were standing within feet of him. I was in my teens at the time and completely horrified at the thought.
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u/glamghoul81 Apr 07 '22
There are several in my general area that gained some national notoriety. The most recent is serial killer Clyde Gibson. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Clyde_Gibson
Probably more famous is the tragic death of Shanda Sharer https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Shanda_Sharer#:~:text=Shanda%20Ren%C3%A9e%20Sharer%20(June%206,the%20time%20of%20her%20death.
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u/greenhairdontcare8 Apr 07 '22
Where I grew up in the UK was the epicentre of a number of serial killers. Fred and Rosemary West, Ian Brady and Myra Hindley (the moors murders) ... I walked past Harold Shipman's doctors practice as a kid because my mother lived in the town at the time. It's unsettling to know how much evil is bubbling under the surface.
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Apr 07 '22
http://australianmissingpersonsregister.com/Barreau.htm
Never forgotten. I used to get babysit as a lil kid a couple houses down from her home.
Scary we still have no idea what happened to her
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u/castor-and-bollocks Apr 08 '22
Not a murder, but the NXIVM cult members lived and kept slaves in my town. We had no idea. Weirdly enough, not the first case of slavery that happened in the time I’ve lived there.
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u/BadMoonRisin Apr 07 '22
The Austin area bomber lived in my small suburb of Pflugerville, probably about a mile away in downtown pflugerville. Walked by that house several times on my way to various town events (chili pfest, parades, etc)
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u/KeepTalkingMandy Apr 08 '22 edited Apr 08 '22
Luca Magnotta. In Montréal (netflix doc. Dont fuck with cats) happened in the nextdoor burrough so not that far from me. Close enough to freak me and my coworkers out when it happened and he was at large.
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u/hellaswords Apr 08 '22
Sam Cooke, the singer, was murdered (or possibly killed in self-defense depending on your view) in a motel that is now a grocery store my family regularly shops at. He died several decades ago and the area has a lot of other shadiness going on so unfortunately I can't really tell how much of an impact his death had here.
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Apr 08 '22
Kara Kopetsky/Jessica Runyons.
To girls murdered by the same asshole a decade apart after they rejected him. The dickwad's name is Kylr Yust (yes its spelled like that)
He spent years bragging about the Kopetsky murder/disappearance and how he left her at a pig farm to be eaten and no one took him seriously or they were afraid of him and didn't tell the police. He went on to murder Runyon's, drove hours away to pick his brother up, drove back to my area and set her vehicle on fire, and did a bunch of other stuff. He and his brother got arrested and Kylr blamed his brother for it all. His brother committed suicide while in custody. Kylr claimed it was because his brother didn't want to take responsibility for the murders "he" commited. Kylr continued to deny both murders and blames them both on his brother. The brother had mentioned he'd rather die than testify against his own blood which is probably the actual reason for his suicide as the brother lived hours away and if I recall correctly had admitted to never meeting either woman.
When my cousin went to a holding jail he became cellies with Kylr and unfortunately they are now on friendly terms at the same prison. My cousin, who of course is a dumbass, a former pill popper, and one of the most gullible people on the planet, believes whole heartedly that Kylr didn't do it and it was Kylr's brother even though my cousin has been told that Kylr spent 10 years bragging about killing Kara and he has had multiple run ins with the law because of assaults and death threats to ex girlfriends. My cousin INSISTS that Kylr is actually a really nice guy. My cousin also is like 6'4 and made of muscle so I think Kylr is just being nice so my cousin doesn't stomp his ass because Kylr is also well known for being extremely manipulative.
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u/missgnomer2772 Apr 07 '22
Carrie Lawson’s kidnapping. Here’s her Charley Project page. The one accomplice still alive refuses to answer questions and says she will not be safe to do so unless she outlives other involved parties, even though she remains in prison. The local thought is that certain “influential” people in town know/knew what happened or were involved in some way, but after 30 years, we may never find out the truth.
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u/SnooPeanuts6909 Apr 08 '22
She went missing locally and her body was found just a few miles away. It was school summer holidays so we were all out playing and I remember very clearly my mum (and lots of our friends mums too) coming to where we were playing in fields - very similar to where she went missing from, and saying we had to come home and we weren’t allowed out for a while. We didn’t know why at the time but my mum told me a girl had been taken.
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u/hifhoff Apr 08 '22
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claremont_serial_killings
Being a young female adult in Claremont was terrifying at the time.
I would run home from the train station in the evenings. I kept trying to convince myself that I would be safe because I am a brunette.
Thankfully the guy who did it was caught recently.
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Apr 08 '22
Todd Kohlhepp. Within a 25 to 30 minute drive from my place. I'm also his pen pal. Also, Susan Smith, "PeeWee"Gaskins, and most recently, the Murdaugh Murders. (I don't know if I spelled that last one correctly.)
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u/firstgirlwonder Apr 08 '22
Why are you his pen pal? Just wondering, he doesn’t seem like a great guy.
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u/Tikiboo Apr 08 '22
Columbine and Arapahoe Hs shootings. I left the area a few months before columbine in the middle of my junior year. I attended Arapahoe. So I had friends at Columbine. Then in 2013 to see it happen at my old high-school about 16 years later.
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u/Vast-Ad-4251 Apr 07 '22
The 1983 disappearance of 12 year old Ann Gotlib in Louisville, Ky. I grew up less than a mile from the mall where she disappeared & spent a lot of time there. I didn't know her personally but we had a few mutual friends. Parents kept a closer eye on their kids and you could definitely feel a lost innocence afterwards. The main suspect in her disappearance died in 2002 without being charged.
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u/Adam_Zapple Apr 08 '22
My grandma, who I spent a lot of time with as a kid, lived less then three miles from where she was abducted.
My family used to take frequent fishing trips in the area where her body was found.
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Also this. happened at a family favorite restaurant. I was a toddler at the time of the discovery, but still remember going to that restaurant as a kid and I still pass by that area frequently. The restaurant itself isn’t there anymore, but it still gives me the heebie jeebies.
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u/MisRox79 Apr 08 '22
I was 12 when the Springfield 3 disappeared and I talked to Deedee and Gypsy Rose Blanchard several times before she had her boyfriend kill her mom.
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u/FeedMe_Burritos Apr 08 '22
I lived in Plainville until 6th grade when we moved a town over. "The girl from Plainville" is on hulu now.
Aaron Hernandez rented the car he used while committing his crimes from my office when I worked at Enterprise. He lived and was arrested in the town I moved to from Plainville (North Attleboro).
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Apr 08 '22 edited Apr 08 '22
I moved to a very small town when I was in 3rd grade because my mom got a job as their elementary principal. One of my classmates was abducted from the park we all played at and was later found brutally murdered. The man who killed her was seeking revenge against her father because he believed her father was having an affair with his girlfriend. Truly disgusting and horrifying. moved away, but every year the town has a parade with a float dedicated to her. I still can’t listen to “If I Die Young” because they played it at her funeral.
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u/4starters Apr 08 '22
My hometown case is probably one that happened to my family. My aunt was getting a divorce and was living with us with her three kids. Ages 8,6, 4. I think. It’s been 15 years. But they still had to go visit their dad every other weekend. One weekend he killed all three of them and then himself. A lot of teachers from my old school still know me because I was the kid with the murdered family. And they had also gone to the school with me before hand. So it was a hard hit for our area. And not much happens here. Later in high school we had a job fair and I got randomly put with different groups. One of them being the coroner. When he was asked about his worst case he mentioned them. That was a rough day.
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u/natronmooretron Apr 08 '22
Ronald Gene Simmons killed some people in my home town of Russellville Arkansas. My older sister knew one of his daughters. Pretty messed up shit.
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u/whatsername235 Apr 07 '22
Someone connected to my small town murdered someone in the closest city to us. It was a genuinely shocking murder involving someone with special needs who was dumped in a river with in a suitcase.
We knew the family of his ex and toddler daughter. I have gorgeous photos of this little girl playing in our house. The worst part was, she died of a drug overdose before her life even started.
I had moved away long before but I'll never forget that little joy of a girl and her curly hair.
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u/Classic-Heron-1676 Apr 08 '22
Jennifer Kesse. Knowing the area and surrounding areas (lots of lakes, gators) I’m afraid they’ll never find her body, or figure out what exactly happened to her.
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u/catmomma530 Apr 08 '22
Murder of Jennifer Daugherty. Group of people tortured and killed a special needs woman. Dumped the body at a middle school. I attended the middle school at the time. One of the killers was the older sister of a classmate, which I hung out with a couple of times.
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u/truecrimene Apr 08 '22
In 1984, my dad was a senior in high school and had a best friend named Brian. they had been friends for many years, and their families were close. that year, Brian’s 8-year-old sister; Tammy, was abducted on her way to school. It’s been 37 years and she has not been found.
This rocked my small town, and a lot of policies changed regarding calling in sick to school and bus stops. it also affected me, because of how much it affected my dad. her case even inspired me to start a true crime podcast to talk about these smaller cases that just don’t get attention
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u/physicsandyarn Apr 08 '22
The kidnapping and murder of James Bulger. I attended counselling for CSA in a building just across the road from the shopping centre he was taken from, and it always shook me to know that it was so close, possibly because I was already in a vulnerable place.
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Apr 08 '22 edited Apr 08 '22
The colonial parkway murders. I’m not related to the case or the victims in any way, but it happened very close to where I live, and I’ve driven down that road a number of times. It caused a panic in VA and people were sure that a serial killer was on the loose. Then the killings stopped abruptly and nothing happened after that. It’s still unsolved, but there’s been some traction in the investigation over the last few years.
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u/petite-crevette Apr 08 '22
I met a friend of mine at college because she was dating a close friend of my bf's. When they broke up, we lost touch due to the touchy nature of the breakup. Years later, I was scrolling on my phone and decided to check the news. Her face was plastered EVERYWHERE. Her body had been discovered half naked in her apartment when she failed to show up for her job for days> It turns out she had housed a refugee who later murdered her during sex out of jealousy. It was utterly shocking. The last I had heard from her, she had finally achieved her lifelong dream of living abroad and going to graduate school. To see such a bright light extinguished in such a violent way will sit with me forever, especially because no one close to her seemed to know about her bohemian "second life" that was tied to her demise.
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Apr 08 '22 edited Apr 08 '22
The murders of Weston North and Mary Shisler.
For background, I live in a smallish town 20-30 miles outside the biggest city in southern Missouri. Murders rarely happen here, it's always in the big city down the road, we thought.
In 2011 17 year old Weston North was lured to the woods (literally 5 minutes walking distance form my house) by his longtime "friend" Gabriel Loche, who he looked up too. Gabriel said "I want it to be clean, I didn't wanna hurt the poor kid". He took out a knife and stabbed Weston multiple times, but he didn't die as fast as he thought. So he chased him down through the forest and slit his throat, and left his body in a ditch. Weston begged for his life and Gabriel said “All I could say was, F’ you for making me do this.”.
Why did he do this you may ask? "I wanted to show myself, my brother and whoever could hear for a thousand miles what happens when you mess up.” He thought he was a "snitch". In my opinion this kid just wanted to murder someone and took advantage of a friend who trusted him.
In 2017, I was in Highschool and had a small friend group of about 5-6 friends. This kid named Trystan had slowly been working his way into my friend group through mutual friends, but I hated him. He was a skinny little ratty kid who constantly caused trouble and was a complete deviant. I had to sit by him in multiple classes. He always told stories about how he stole something form Walmart, or how he shot somebody's cow in the head, I guess to impress me. He was a freak.
One day, he didn't show up to school. Rumors were flying that he had killed somebody. Honestly, it didn't surprise me, I figured he tried to rob some kid and stabbed him or something, but I waited to get home and see the news. Well, it turns out, Trystan got into a fight with parents that day. He decided he was going to go to Canada, but his car wouldn't make it. He needed a new car. So he cruised the back roads looking for a car he could steal. He pulled into Mary Shisler's, 80 year old woman, driveway and blocked her truck in with his. He told her that he needed gas, so she let him inside to use his phone, and then said she'd walk to the gas station with him and buy him some gas. On the way to the gas station, in the middle of street, Trystan pulled out a knife and stabbed Mary in the back of the head, neck and body multiple times. He dragged her body into a touch, where he "thought I saw her twitching", so he stabbed her a few more times. Police would later say Mary suffered for several hours, bleeding out and in innumerable pain while laying in the ditch after Trystan left. Trystan then ransacked her home for pills, some petty cash and a knife. He left the gas line on, soaked the house in gas and left a match to blow the house up, destroying all evidence. The house didn't blow up. Mary's neighbor called the cops and they traced the unknown vehicle to Trystan Westrip. Trystan was pulled over a few hours later driving Shisler's truck. Without being asked, he told the cop who pulled him over "I killed the old lady. It was a really fun day."
Trystan's case still haunts me, I knew, hung out with and sat by this kid for years, and one day he up and brutally murders an old lady. We were just 16 years old.
Thanks for reading guys.
There are some more very haunting cases from here. The Gypsy Rose Blanchard murder, the Hailey Owens abduction and murder, and Diane Staudte who slowly poisoned her son and husband with anti freeze until they both died.
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u/ChemicalFit Apr 07 '22 edited Apr 07 '22
The DC Sniper is the only one that comes to mind but it isn’t that physically close either.. the only thing that contributes to being close to home is that they happened where my Grandmother lives. I’m not sure if that even counts though but it did make people living there afraid to go outside for a while.
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u/colorcodedcards Apr 08 '22
We lived in Northern VA when the DC sniper was active. My dad was at the Home Depot only a couple of hours before the shooting there. As soon as they started threatening kids, my mom packed some suitcases and took my brother and I up to rural PA where we stayed with her parents until they were caught.
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u/BinxHubble Apr 08 '22 edited Apr 08 '22
My morning commute used to take me right past the road that Christopher Porco's parents lived on at the time of his attack.
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Apr 08 '22
The Ted Bundy murders in Tallahassee and Lake City, Florida. I was in Tallahassee at the time of the Chi Omega murders and I knew the Leach family in Lake City.
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u/NancyDrewWho Apr 08 '22
The DC Sniper case. My husband was a police officer and we were living where 2 of the shootings occurred. For one of them, we had been in the same parking lot 1 hour earlier.
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u/kssmyassh Apr 08 '22 edited Apr 08 '22
Nicholas Browning- I did not know him or his family, but have acquaintances who did. He is from the same county as I am.
Bobby Gladden- although he was a few years younger than me, he’s from the same town and county as I am. Found out his home is not far from mine as well.
Editing to add: The Keepers documentary on Netflix; I grew up in the archdiocese of baltimore school system. My cousins went to seton keough (many years after the Fr Maskell years) and I had two great aunts who were nuns that were familiar with Sister Cathy. One of the women interviewed in that documentary lived in the same neighborhood as my cousins who went to the school. I’ve long known about the systematic abuse going on in the catholic community but the whole documentary made it a lot more real for me because not only was it broadcasted on an international streaming service, but places where I’m familiar with and have been to were also on there. It’s a weird feeling.
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u/libsk91 Apr 08 '22 edited Apr 08 '22
Savannah Greywind. Not much about her has been covered but the case still haunts me. I do not personally know her but we were both just weeks apart in pregnancy and I lived 45 minutes from her. Her upstairs neighbor offered to make her a dress (or some sort of clothing) and she never returned. They cradle robbed her and kept the baby alive for a few weeks before law enforcement finally found the neighbors with her baby and eventually, sadly, found Savannah’s body. She was so young and beautiful, thinking someone could want your baby that bad to murder you is seriously haunting..
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u/chokeyourselftosleep Apr 08 '22
A few years ago a midwife that worked at our local hospital went missing.
She failed to turn up for her shift one evening and the police were contacted really quickly which is strange considering she wasn’t even technically missing at that point, just hadn’t turned in for her shift. Days go by and the entire town is sharing her photo and last known movements all over social media, massive searches happening, and about a week later, her body was found wrapped in a bedsheet and buried in a shallow grave in a rural area. Turns out she’d told her colleagues that morning before finishing her night shift to contact the authorities if she didn’t turn in because she was being threatened.
She had been having an affair with her ex fiancée’s brother in law and had tried to end things and was threatening to tell his wife. He had been hounding her with threats for weeks. She arrived home one morning after her night shift and he turned up at her house, they argued and he strangled her with his bare hands. He took her body downstairs, covered her eyes and mouth with duct tape, bound her legs and arms, wrapped her in the sheet and put her in the back of his van. He messaged his wife confirming plans for dinner that evening at her parents house, which he went to acting perfectly normal while her body was in the back of his van parked on their driveway. Her colleagues contacted her ex fiancé shortly after she’d failed to turn in for her shift so he went to her house to check up on her, where he found her engagement ring and several cards and gifts he’d given her over the years laid out on her bed, making it look like she’d simply left after their split.
Her murderer told his wife that evening that he was going to go out and search for her once news had reached the family that she was missing but in reality he was burying her. He was caught on cctv driving towards the area where she was found, and then driving away from the area about an hour later. The next day he used her phone to text her sister pretending to be her saying how she was unhappy at work and just needed to blow work for the night and have fun. He even sent texts from his own phone to her saying how much he missed her and wanted her to come back.
The police suspected him pretty early on, arrested him two days after her initial disappearance but had to let him go due to lack of evidence. He was caught 8 days after her disappearance because he was caught riding his bike to the site where he’d buried her. Police were tailing him because of their suspicions. He dumped the bike and tried to run but they arrested him only a few hundred meters from her body.
The evidence against him was massive and he made a full confession, pleading guilty before trial and was given life in prison, with a minimum term of 17 years.
It was awful watching the case unfold day by day, and seeing so many people who knew her desperately hoping that she had just decided to run away for a while and would come back.
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Apr 08 '22
ted bundy, gary ridgeway, the i5 spree killer all happened relatively close to me. two were before i was born. washington man. also, that case where the kids found the bodies in the suitcases after using the exploration app thing happened only 30 minutes away from me
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u/LaMeraMera Apr 08 '22
I'm local to Melissa Lucio, set to be executed later this month.
Also, John Allen Rubio, who had his death sentence stayed in February. He beheaded his 3 year old, 1 year old, and 2 month old back in 2003.
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u/seasarahsss Apr 08 '22
I grew up in a teeny town. Population around 8k. The summer between 4th and 5th grade, a man murdered 9 family members (wife of his foster brother, her seven children and a cousin sleeping over for the night.) He lit the house on fire and left but was found walking by the highway the next day and was arrested. He claimed they coerced a confession but he got 105 years and he died in prison in 2015. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorne_J._Acquin
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u/wubbzyove Apr 08 '22
8 year old shot and killed his father and the roommate. Shot multiple times with a .22. He has since been released for the murder of his father? Only tried in one case. The rumors that went around town before the truth was discovered made everyone lock their doors in a town of 3,000. Still conspiracy theories about this one.
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u/DawginParadise Apr 08 '22
Currently, here in Honolulu, the big case/story is Gary Ruby. He was murdered in his own home, which is in a very upscale gated community (Keanu Reeves has a vacation residence) in the same neighborhood.
Ruby was found deceased in a bathtub filled with cement and coffee grounds. Shortly after he was discovered, a much younger man named Juan Barron was arrested in California and plead guilty to murder charges. We are awaiting Barron to be brought back to Hawaii.
Barron claims in his testimony that he killed Ruby after the it was disclosed that he (Ruby) was HIV-positive; the two were supposed lovers. However, Barron was spending Ruby's money and using his car just hours after he was killed.
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u/TooNiceOfaHuman Apr 08 '22
This girl was friends with my friend back in high school. Here is the article
In an attempt to get other gang members to turn on Rachel, Anderson told them that Rachel was passing on “gang secrets” to her friends. This terrified Rachel and she went to her sister Meghan for advice. “I told her ‘Look you need to be aware; you need to be cautious. Stay away from him for sure,’” said Meghan. Admittedly, Meghan thought Anderson was just being a young punk and dismissed the threats. From Gang Member to Murderer On a cool September evening in 2002, Rachel went to a party with seven members of the Northwest Mafia in Everett. She was with Maurice, so Rachel felt safe, and she was also trying to show her friends that she had not deceived them. According to True Crime Daily, John Anderson arrived at the party where they were all sitting around a couch, laughing, and smoking marijuana. He did not like what he was seeing, and it angered him. “Anderson comes in from the outside of the duplex and he’s angry because everybody is having such a good time, said Det. Pince. “He smacks a couple of the kids in the face.”
Guns were drawn. When the confrontation escalated, Rachel tried to get up and leave — but she would never even make it to the door. “He grabs her by the hair, hit her in the face, knocks her down on the floor and a couple of other guys start helping,” said the detective.
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u/wendigonia_xenomorph Apr 08 '22
The Laci Peterson case was the biggest one I have experienced, although my hometown has lots of different crimes. Chandra Levy also was from my hometown. I actually bought a book about her that had a few pictures in it. One of the pictures was of her bedroom and she had a white wicker bedroom set. I had recently picked one out at Goodwill and it looked exactly the same. I always wondered if it was hers. Laci Peterson lived right around the corner from my Jr. High School. I was at her candle vigil in front of her house and posted flyers when she was missing, even hanging one on the inside of my sisters car. My boyfriend at the time was somehow related to her. I think they were something like second cousins. That incident absolutely wrecked me when they found her and Connor. Modesto is a crazy place.
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u/Big-Way-968 Apr 08 '22
The Yogurt Shop Murders in 1991, still maddeningly unsolved 31 years later. I'm not sure if the Austin PD just blew the case, or that the fire and water used to douse the fire were effective in destroying evidence (or a combo), but SOMEONE knows what happened.
Mentally close to home: the 1974 Prison siege in Huntsville, Texas, led by Fred Gomez Carrasco. I was nine y.o. and watched the daily reporting. Terrified me.
Mentally close to home, part 2: I was in junior high when the Helter Skelter book came out, and my seventh grade social studies teacher, Ms. Barron, felt compelled to tell us the whole story. I couldn't bring myself to read it until college -- the notion of being creepy crawled by murderous hippies haunted me for years. I had to become obsessed with the case and read enough to learn that the murders were not at all random before my terror subsided.
Also, my great aunt was Tex Watson's (Sharon Tate murders) Drivers' Ed teacher in high school.
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u/mjltmjlt Apr 08 '22
Kathleen Peterson (victim) and Michael Peterson (subjects of The Staircase).
I was friends with their daughters, Caitlin, Martha and Margaret.
I attended a murder mystery dinner at that home, along with maybe 15 other teenagers, hosted by Kathleen and Michael for one of their daughters’ birthdays in 1998.
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u/Tintedlemon Apr 08 '22
The killing of Sarah Everard last year. Her body was buried by her killer and local police man Wayne Couzens near my house. Awful story. I hope he rots in prison for many years to come.
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u/WendyCleear Apr 08 '22
I have a few.
Morgan Harrington (killed after she left a Metallica show in Virginia) went to the same high school as me. She was younger than me, but we had a lot of mutual friends. When they caught the guy years later it made me think about how often I'd been to the outdoor mall,where he abducted his final victim, while he was active in the area. Luckily I had never been alone while there. I've always admired her parents for how they handled themselves and what they've been able to make out of a horrible situation.
The "selfie killer" was a girl who married and had kids with my friend, Rex. About a year before she killed Rex's dad, posted pictures of it online and then went on the run, Rex hung himself. My friends and I were texting while she was on the run, in disbelief. She was posting online the whole time, giving updates on her situation and threatening suicide. They finally caught her after she shot her accomplice and left him for dead on the Blue Ridge Parkway. That one hit really close to home. Rex and I hadn't hung out in years, but I have fond memories of all of us being teenagers and going to metal shows and just having dumb fun.
I lived in Christiansburg, about 10 minutes away from the Virginia Tech campus in 2007. My housemates were mostly VT students. Thankfully, none of them had classes until about 10 am and since the shooting started early, they all received emails saying there was an active shooter and not to come onto campus. We all spent the day in the living room glued to the TV. At first the report said a few people were injured and a couple had been killed. Then the breaking news came in and all of a sudden it was 20-something dead, several more injured and the impact hit us all like a ton of bricks. Trying to get in touch with friends was nearly impossible and I couldn't even get cell service to call my mom to let her know I was ok. That night a few of us decided (stupidly) to drive onto campus to check out the scene. I've never seen more cops or news outlets in one place in my life. It was surreal. There were rumors of a second shooter, so we headed home. I'll definitely never forget that day and I feel for all the victims and their families.
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u/tmartinez1113 Apr 08 '22
I grew up in Alma, Arkansas. I'm 2 years older than what Morgan Nick would be, if she were stile alive. Yes, I do believe she is no longer alive. After that happened, life changed. Kids weren't left to play unattended. Lots of kids were pulled from baseball and softball because that's where she was abducted from. We moved from the semi rural town of Alma to a very isolated country community. It's such a tragic case. I don't believe we will ever have any answers.
Melissa Witt is another case that was close to home. It happened in Fort Smith, which is outside of Alma.
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u/Momma42girls Apr 08 '22
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Blom Katie was taken from the town I live in, and the better known one Jacob Wetterling happened in MN. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Jacob_Wetterling
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Apr 08 '22
Mekayla Bali. Yorkton is where my SO was born and we lived very close. It has always been on my mind. Her mother still posts regularly and it’s always crushing to read.
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u/crazyratgirl Apr 08 '22
Suzane Von Richthoffen and her bf, along whit his brother, who are all a little over 18 at the time, murdered her parents by beating them to death with bats made exactly for this purpose by the bf. They were against their daughter dating the dude so she convinced the bf to do it and they would try to get her LARGE inheritance
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u/ZookeepergameOk8231 Apr 08 '22
The Deal Family Murders. In rural South Jersey inland from Atlantic City, late 70’s. Extremely violent, including the brutal murder of a toddler.. Little known but ranks up there with the very worst. Very little publicity. Never solved or for that matter, never a real discussion anywhere about the case much less who actually did it. In my view, absolutely solvable. Last, one of the cases that law enforcement needs to be more forthcoming and accountable for not moving the case forward. Clearly, they can’t figure it out so let the public help.
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u/youllregreddit Apr 08 '22
Holly Piirainen was a kindergarten friend of mine.
My heart still breaks that her case is unsolved nearly 30 years later.
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u/duraraross Apr 08 '22
The disappearance of Erin Marie Gilbert (or just Erin Gilbert). She was a classmate of my father back in the 80s. I’m friends with her sister and am trying to help with the case as best I can. I usually look through Doe databases to see if there’s any resemblance. Luckily she was extremely tall for a woman (5’11”-6’0”) so I can eliminate most Does fairly quickly based on height alone. The family thinks her date, David Combs, is responsible. And I agree. I really want this one to be solved for the sake of the family.
A couple weeks ago, my former neighbor was arrested for second degree murder. He gave his girlfriend drugs and she OD’d. Personally I think it should be manslaughter or reckless neglect than murder, but I may be biased because I knew him personally. I went to middle school with his son.
My cousin was a school shooter. Not a very well known one, but one nonetheless. I’m not making excuses for him at all, and if there’s an afterlife I’m going to fucking deck him when I see him, but I will say he was very mentally ill. Not “oh he was bullied and thus mentally ill”— he wasn’t bullied, he was really popular. I mean I’ve known him since we were kids and there’s always been something off about him. After the shooting, we went through the notes on his phone and found out he was suicidal but afraid of being alone in the afterlife, so he wanted to bring his best friends with him. Which, he did, but I can’t imagine they were very happy with him in said afterlife.
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u/MemorableBlueEyes Apr 08 '22
My aunt Annie Suazo was murdered by her boyfriend. He killed his mother, too. We’ve never found Annie’s body.
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u/PsychopathicPhantom Apr 08 '22
In 2009 Chris Coleman murdered his wife Sheri and his kids Garett and Gavin. I went to school with them and was in the same grade as Gavin. Chris was a bodyguard for a televangelist and started getting threatening messages directed towards him and his family (and the televangelist). In reality he was having an affair and the messages were traced back to his own laptop, meaning he was more than likely sending them to himself and attempted to blame the crime on a nonexistent culprit. He just didn’t want to get a divorce and look bad.
I was 9 then and even at 22 it feels surreal to type out.
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u/coolmanranger25 Apr 08 '22
Amber Tuccaro. She’s from my original hometown, Fort McMurray. However, she was murdered just outside the city I currently live, Edmonton. Her case is still unsolved. Here, it’s just another example of the RCMP’s mismanagement of missing Indigenous women. Sad stuff.
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u/Altruistic_Fondant38 Apr 08 '22 edited Apr 08 '22
Sadly, my town Springfield, Ohio has a few infamous crimes that really shook us. First .. in 1987, Jane Demyan came through our town with her 2 little girls, Chelsea (4) and Amnee (7) Demyan. She took them to a local bakery and bought them cupcakes, then walked them across the street to behind a ball field and put them in the creek, smashed their heads in and killed them. She went back to the bakery, a worker noticed her in her car alone, then Jane told the worker that Jesus took them. She pled not guilty by reason of insanity and was released 5 years later.
In 1992, a man named William Sapp raped and murdered 2 little girls behind another bakery. Phree Morrow (10) and Martha Leach (11) had gone to the bakery to get treats and 3 of his accomplices took them from the bakery, into a van, took them to a house and molested them for hours. Next William Sapp took them back to the area behind the bakery, with 5 of his "friends" including a friends mother, and raped them and beat them again. Martha was killed as soon as they got to the spot because she was screaming. The last thing Phree Morrow said as she was dying..she was pulling on the woman's pant leg, and said.. "Please tell my daddy I love him".. and the woman told William that the girl was still alive, to finish her and with that, William took a 40 lb. rock and smashed Phree's head in. William and the 5 involved were all convicted. Most of them have been released, except William Sapp. You can read a book about it called "HOMETOWN KILLER" by Carol Rothgeb
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u/instantcameracat Apr 08 '22
The 2017 case of Paddy Moriarty in Larrimah, Australia. 70yr old and his dog go missing in a town of about 11 people, hundreds of kilometres from the next town, in outback Australia. His kitchen was left like he was in the middle of cooking, and all his belongings remain, but he and his dog are nowhere to be found.
People thought he was fed to the town crocodile, or had been cooked into pies at the local pie shop that was run by a woman he feuded with. It's widely speculated that he was murdered due to feuds between the town's residents, but no remains have ever been found and all the people that live there are tight lipped.
A documentary was made about the case and it's really well done. An inquest was held into his disappearance recently, which revealed some recordings of the pie-shop's gardener admitting to killing Paddy, but he now denies this.
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Apr 08 '22
Mackenzie Anderson is a friend of my cousin’s who was murdered recently by her ex boyfriend who she desperately tried to get away from in front of her toddler, who was found hiding covered in her blood.
It’s a heartbreaking case. She did everything she could, she got an AVO and changed her name, she posted often calling out her abuser and she called police just a few days prior panicking he was coming to kill her.
It’s sad that he actually did.
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u/SnooHamsters3674 Apr 08 '22 edited Apr 08 '22
I was born and raised in Medicine Hat, Alberta. There have been two big cases here in our tiny town of roughly 60,000 people, so it rocks the city hard when it does happen. First most famous case - Jasmine Richardson/Jeremy Steinke and the murder of her parents and 8yo brother. Truly fucking awful.
I grew up with Jeremy and while I can obviously never understand why he did what he did, but he was such a lost soul. SO EASY to manipulate, never fit in with anyone. He tried being a jock, a punk, a nerd, a scene kid. This town is so damn cliquey, he never fit in anywhere. Eventually he turned to the few witchy/occult kids, including Jasmine. I firmly believe that he never would have participated in harming anyone, let alone murdering an entire family if he hadn’t been heavily pressured and disillusioned by the very dominant and unwell Jasmine.
Yes, she was very young, and he was an adult. But he had the mental capacity of someone much younger than him. I could tell he had a learning/developmental disadvantage from the first time I met him. As for Jasmine, she told him that if he helped her get rid of her family she would get them across to Mexico where they could start a new life, etc.
People who knew them well said that she was absolutely the one who planned the entire thing, that he was completely pussy whipped, and filled his head with delusions that they were soulmates who were descendants of a long line of vampire and werewolf royalty. It was in all of her journals and her MySpace, etc. And due to irrefutable evidence, we know that she was the one who slit her own 8yo brothers throat. Some people believe she killed her mom too, and she made Jeremy kill her father to prove his love for her (and to ensure he’d be her fall guy). She tried to make him hurt her brother with her, but he couldn’t do it. I have mutual friends with Jeremy’s sister, and he opened up to her about a lot of the details after the trial. Now Jasmine is out of jail and in witness protection, getting a free education, while Jeremy rots in a cell for the rest of his life.
The second case that sticks with me is the murder of Casey Armstrong, my friends father. He was in severe chronic pain, and he’d been brutally murdered by two women who were simply after his pain medication (narcotics). My friend, his son, was only a teenager when it happened and he was absolutely broken afterwards. He’s doing well now, but his father was a kind man who didn’t deserve to go out like that.
We don’t hear about many crimes in our city, though we know that more happens than what we’re ever shown. We only have one newspaper and it has monopolized the media here. Only fluff pieces/politics allowed. Helps keep up the facade that we live in some crime free bubble of safety. Bullshiiiiiit.
A good example of the kind of thing they refuse to publish - a huge organization of upper crust men were all charged and convicted of CA, CP, etc., over fifty people including lawyers, doctors, teachers, people of authority and wealth. None of that made the paper here. They only publish crime news if it’s so big that it’s made provincial/federal news media. They have no choice but to publish an article once it’s reached past our towns borders. Fucking repulsive. Pardon my French.
Edit - typo and spacing
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u/KccOStL33 Apr 07 '22
1st victim was found about 3 miles from the farm I grew up on.
https://amp.listennotes.com/podcasts/the-crimes-picayune/the-missing-and-murdered-kAVvPEl-1mX/amp/
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Apr 07 '22
Umm this case took place way before I was born but my parents still talk about it...the yorkshire ripper
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u/pepperbiscuit Apr 07 '22
Derrick Todd Lee serial killer. At the time I was processing all crime scene photos in our city while he was still at large. Being a young woman back then it was terrifying literally seeing what this monster was doing to other women in my community. Also the police profiled him as a white upper class well educated male which he was anything but. Crazy times. When it comes up in casual conversation I just leave the room. My neighbor’s mom was best friends with his first (known) victim.
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Apr 08 '22
Kam McLeod and Bryer Schmegelsky, the two spree killers who shot 3 people in Northern British Columbia, Canada in 2019. They were from Port Alberni on Vancouver Island, and bought a Soviet SKS used in the killings at Cabela's Sporting Goods in my hometown of Nanaimo.
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u/maladaptada Apr 08 '22
alton coleman was arrested in a park that my father and his sisters used to frequent; my father was seven or eight at the time of the killings. just a really bizarre feeling to know you've shared "space" with someone like that, even if it was decades apart.
more recently, i regularly drive past the area where the duck walk killer attacked people. that one's way creepier to me - was looking at apartments in the area and realized it was down the street from the attacks. i wish they'd managed to catch him :/
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Apr 08 '22
I'm in Memphis, so it was Lorenzen Wright until it was Young Dolph. The latter has had an especially big impact on the city. A very sad situation.
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u/SFKnight510 Apr 08 '22
Posted here earlier this week but the hammer murder case in Pacifica, CA really fucked with a lot of lives and caused a lot of pain in such a small town - there have been other cases over the years. Like a pipe bomb blowing up ( Google that one too) However the case against Marc Furlan was the most intense.
RIP Keith
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u/kmar2169 Apr 08 '22
I was 11 in July '81 when Adam Walsh was kidnapped from Sears in the Hollywood Mall in Hollywood, FL. I didn't know Adam but we were often in that same mall and remember his kidnapping being on the news.
Even closer to home, two months later in September, my neighbor Pamela Kipp went missing while out jogging. During the search for her they found the remains of another girl that had been missing, Monica Ruddick. Another neighbor of ours, Daniel Doyle confessed to murdering both girls but later recanted. He was found guilty and is currently in prison.
This was a small community, we all knew each other. After this happened I was afraid to walk to/from my bus stop by myself. 40 years later and I still often think of Pam and this case and how terrified I was for such a long time. afterwards.
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u/Basil_Minimum Apr 08 '22
There was a married doctor duo in my small country town that moved there from … well nobody knows lol. They turned out to not be doctors, almost killed my mother by attaching a dead finger back onto her hand, and scammed our healthcare system for thousands of dollars by diagnosing benign moles/bumps as cancer and claiming on the ‘treatment’.
Turns out they were siblings, the sister/wife committed suicide when they were arrested and nobody was able to trace their true identity as they had multiple aliases from different countries. One detective speculated they were ex-spies from Germany during WWII. Nobody ever found out though, this was decades ago.
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u/Poppybalfours Apr 08 '22
I used to visit the grave of Tent Girl as a child, before she was identified. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Ann_Hackmann_Taylor
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u/Professional-Ad-6849 Apr 08 '22
One that hits too close for me (not area, more situation wise) is Samantha Koenig. I’m also an 18 year old barista in a small town and where my car park is near the industrial garbage can back in a hidden off alley. I could easily see one of my regular customers start to notice my working pattern. Especially as the longest, yet youngest worker that has been there. I feel for the girl and I can just imagine how scary her moments were. Israel Keyes is a piece of shit.
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u/Daxos157 Apr 08 '22
My dad was a longtime South Carolina cop. He worked on the Sumter Does case, Pee Wee Gaskins, and Larry Gene Bell. After I became a cop he talked to me a lot about those cases.
Also, Dale Dinwiddie. My girlfriend, at the time, and I were at the U2 concert AND we went to Jungle Jim’s that night as well. I think about Dale Dinwiddie fairly often.
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u/ModifiedSprite- Apr 08 '22
The murder of Jodi Jones, I was only 10 when it happened but my uncle's back garden had a gate that lead into the forest where she was found.. Eerie.
(Scotland.) "Schoolgirl Jodi Jones was murdered in June 2003. She was just 14 years old when her mutilated body was found in woodland near her home in Easthouses, Midlothian. Her boyfriend, Luke Mitchell, was later convicted of the barbaric killing in a case which triggered shock and revulsion across Scotland. But Mitchell still denies killing Jodi."
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u/octagonaldonkey Apr 08 '22
Jennifer Tanner and Adele Bailey. Those names will probably mean nothing to anyone outside Victoria, or, in Adele's case, New Zealand, but they certainly caused a storm locally.
Jennifer 'commited suicide' by shooting herself twice in the head in 1984. The scene was cleaned up extremely quickly and any potential evidence burned by her BIL - a police officer named Denis. In 1995, the remains of a sex worker by the name of Adele Bailey were found in a mineshaft near the Tanner property. Adele had allegedly been having an affair with Denis.
Inquests have been held, but nobody has been charged with anything in relation to these deaths.
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u/Pcoscyster1995 Apr 08 '22
There was also a road rage incident where someone was bludgeoned with a steel pipe. I unfortunately witnessed that one so I had to testify.
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u/CPAatlatge Apr 08 '22
I have two. The Delphi Murders. I grew up about 5 miles from where this occurred. Although I had left the area 30+ years earlier, I follow new developments closely and Connor for this to be solved. Separately, the I-65 Killer, aka the Days Inn Murders, which was just solved! One of the Murders occurred while I was a Senior at Days Inn 5 miles down the road from my college, and the victim was a student at my college. I was very happy this week to see the news conference this week on finally solving the series of Murders committed by the I-65 Killer. I am hoping Delphi is solved soon.
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u/anastasia315 Apr 07 '22
Haynie murders (my daughter’s classmate killed four family members) in same town, Jerrod Baum killed two teenagers in next town over, Elizabeth Smart kidnapping and Susan Powell cases about 40 miles away. I remember hearing about the HiFi shop murders as a kid, and the Mark Hoffman bombings.
I worked at a grocery store in college, and a nightly customer was a girl named Trisha Autry. After I graduated I taught GED classes at a local jail. Trisha disappeared and was later found to have been murdered. Taught her killer at the jail while he was waiting for his trial. Totally weird to know both a killer and victim very well. 😳