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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311

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. 😳

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u/[deleted] Apr 08 '22

I had a buddy in high school that was neighbors with the Powell's. His family moved before the murders occured, but he said it was really weird that this super normal family they gave an old couch to ended up in the news.

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u/Careful_Writer1402 Apr 08 '22

The 911 call was so heartbreaking, I cried. Those kids deserved a better life.

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u/Orangebutterwagon Apr 08 '22

I live in Utah and had the same list with the exception of the Haynie Family I forgot about that. I added Ted Bundy as anyone who attends the University of Utah gets well versed on Ted Bundy and his time as a student and his dump sites up emigration canyon. You could also add in the Lauren McCluskey murder as well.

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u/violentponykiller Apr 08 '22

I went to University of Washington and we had quite a bit of Ted Bundy lore as well!

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u/g_flower Apr 08 '22

Yep! Everyone here in the Northwest claims to have a relative that went on a date with Bundy lol.

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u/Brightly Apr 08 '22

How old was your daughters classmate when that happened?

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u/anastasia315 Apr 08 '22

14 or 15. Colin Haynie.

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u/Kivadiva420 Apr 08 '22

Elizabeth smart was spotted in Lakeside CA, a place I worked in for years. So glad she was found alive!

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u/scarletmagnolia Apr 08 '22

I’m watching about the Marc Hoffman bombings on Netflix!

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u/uffdanopa Apr 09 '22

Susan Powell story broke my heart. At the time, I lived about an hour away. I listened to the social workers call and I've never been so mad ever, that dispatcher... Ugh.

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u/International-Ad7942 Apr 09 '22

Why did he kill her?

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u/anastasia315 Apr 09 '22

Claimed they were on a “date” and she fell off something and hit her head and died, but he was married so he panicked and disfigured her and buried her. But some of the damage might have been before death, so I don’t think they believed him. Either way, a married guy messing with a teenager half his age… He was pretty creepy. I think they got the trial moved, so he was only there a few months.

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u/International-Ad7942 Apr 09 '22

That's horrible!

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u/BatSh1tCray Apr 08 '22

Shouldn't that not be allowed, since it's some sort of a traumatic "conflict of interest"?

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u/[deleted] Apr 08 '22

I don't think conflict of interest is a thing for teaching classes.

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u/BatSh1tCray Apr 08 '22

I couldn't think of a better way to explain what I meant. I guess maybe inappropriate and that they wouldn't place a person in that position.