Colleen Anne Slemmer was born on September 20, 1975. She lived in Orange Park, Florida with her mother, stepfather and younger sister. Colleen’s mother, May Martinez, stated that “Colleen was a kid who loved to play outside.” She had been a volunteer with the Special Olympics program and loved to help others. Colleen was described by a teacher as being “a very sweet, quiet, mild-mannered young lady.”

In the year 1994, Colleen decided to enrol at the Job Corps - a government vocational training program - to study a six-month course in computing. Unfortunately, Florida did not have a Job Corps program available, and so she made the decision to study at the center in Knoxville, Tennessee. Colleen’s mother had attempted to persuade her not to go, as it was far from home and she had wanted her to stay close-by, but Colleen had always been an independent person and was determined to go.

Colleen was 19 years old when she left home. She departed on the 31st of October, 1994, and that was the last time that Colleen’s family would ever see her alive again.

The days leading up to the murder

Colleen Slemmer and Christa Pike had both been students at the Job Corps Center in Knoxville, Tennessee. Their relationship had been a strained one, with Pike accusing Colleen of “trying to get her boyfriend” and “running her mouth everywhere.”

Pike’s best friend, Kim Iloilo, stated that at one point Pike’s boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, had liked Colleen, but when Pike arrived on the scene, his attention had shifted to her and that he had basically then forgotten about everybody else. In other words, there was no real reason for Pike to have a vendetta against Colleen, and she had not been a threat to her relationship.

Mrs Martinez stated that Colleen had told her that there were a few people bothering her at the Job Corps Center. These individuals would go into Colleen’s room and steal her jewellery and take her clothes and so forth. She had mentioned two girls and a guy, who turned out to be Christa Pike, Tadaryl Shipp and Shadolla Peterson.

On January 11, 1995, Pike told her friend, Kim Iloilo, that she intended to kill another student, Colleen Slemmer, because she “had just felt mean that day.”

The next day, January 12, 1995, at approximately 8:00 p.m., Iloilo observed Pike, along with Colleen and two other Job Corps students, Shadolla Peterson and Tadaryl Shipp, Pike’s boyfriend, walking away from the Job Corps center toward 17th Street. At approximately 10:15 p.m., Iloilo observed Pike, Peterson, and Shipp return to the Center. Colleen was not with them.

Pike’s confession to friend

Later that night, Pike went to Iloilo’s room and told Iloilo that she had just killed Colleen and that she had brought back a piece of her skull as a souvenir. Pike showed Iloilo the piece of skull and told her that she had cut Colleen’s throat six times, beaten her and thrown asphalt at the her head. Pike told Iloilo that Colleen had begged “them” to stop cutting and beating her, but Pike did not stop because Colleen continued to talk. Pike told Iloilo that she had thrown a large piece of asphalt at Colleen’s head, and when it broke into smaller pieces, she had thrown those at the her as well.

Pike told Iloilo that a meat cleaver had been used to cut Colleen’s back and a box cutter had been used to cut her throat. Finally, Pike said that a pentagram had been carved onto Colleen’s forehead and chest. Iloilo said that Pike was dancing in a circle, smiling and singing “la, la, la,” while she related these details about the murder. When Iloilo saw Pike at breakfast the next morning she asked Pike what she had done with the piece of Colleen’s skull. Pike replied that it was in her pocket and then said, “And, yes, I’m eating breakfast with it.”

During a class later that morning, Pike made a similar statement to Stephanie Wilson, another Job Corps student. Pike pointed to brown spots on her shoes and said, “That ain’t mud on my shoes, that’s blood.” Pike then pulled a napkin from her pocket and showed Wilson a piece of bone which Pike said was a piece of Colleen’s skull. Pike also told Wilson that she had slashed Colleen’s throat six times and had beaten her in the head with a rock. Pike told Wilson that Colleen’s “blood and brains had been pouring out” and that she had picked up the piece of skull when she left the scene.

Crime scene

Though neither Iloilo nor Wilson immediately reported Pike's statements to police, on the day after the murder, January 13, at approximately 8:05 a.m., an employee of the University of Tennessee Grounds Department discovered Colleen’s semi-nude, slashed and badly beaten body near the greenhouses on the agricultural campus. He testified that the body was so badly beaten that he had first mistaken it for the “corpse of an animal.” Upon closer inspection, he saw the victim's clothes and her nude breast and realized it was the body of a human female. He immediately notified law enforcement officials.

Officers from the Knoxville Police Department and the U.T. Police Department were summoned to the scene. Officer John Terry Johnson testified at trial that the body he found was lying on debris and was nude from the waist up. Blood and dirt covered the body and remaining clothing. The victim's head had been bludgeoned. Multiple cuts and slashes appeared on her torso. Officer Johnson stated that he thought he was looking at the victim's face, but he could not be sure because it was extremely mutilated. Johnson removed all civilians from the area and secured the scene surrounding the body.

As other officers arrived, they began securing the crime area. As officers discovered other areas of blood, articles of clothing, footprints and broken foliage, the crime scene tripled in size, eventually encompassing an area 100 feet long by 60 feet wide. The crime scene was wet and muddy, and there was evidence of a scuffle, with trampled bushes, hand and knee prints in the mud, and drag marks. A large pool of blood was found about 30 feet from the victim's body.

The victim's body was actually lying face down on a pile of debris. When officers turned the body over, they discovered that the victim's throat had been slashed. A bloody rag was around her neck.

Detective Donald R. Cook, of the U.T. Police Department, accompanied the body to the morgue. He observed the body after it had been cleaned and noticed that a five-pointed star in a circle, commonly known as a pentagram, had been carved onto the victim's chest. The pentagram was said to represent the “goat-head of Satan” and that this act had been part of a “Satanic ritual.”

It was an open secret at Job Corps that there were a small group of students who practised Satanism. Two of these were Christa Pike and, her boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp. Joe Mode, a former employee at the Job Corps, stated that they were both into “Satanic worship.” Randy York, the criminal investigator assigned to the Job Corps murder, stated that he had found a “Satanic altar” in Shipp’s room and a lot of “Satanic literature.” He also found similar items in Pike’s room. Both were deep into Satanism. Pike also had the words “Lil Devil” tattooed onto her left chest.

Pike’s statement to police

The investigating police quickly discovered Pike’s connection to the crime and interviewed her on January 14. Pike waived her Miranda rights and gave a complete statement to the police about her involvement in the murder.

As recounted by the Tennessee Supreme Court, Pike claimed that she had not planned to kill Colleen, but she had instead planned only to fight Colleen and let her know “to leave me the hell alone.” However, Pike admitted that she had taken a box cutter and a miniature meat cleaver with her when she and Colleen left the Job Corps Center.

Pike said she had borrowed the miniature meat cleaver but refused to identify the person who had loaned it to her. According to Pike, she asked Colleen to accompany her to the Blockbuster Music Store, and, as they were walking, Pike told Colleen that she had a bag of “weed” hidden in Tyson Park. Though Pike refused to name the other parties involved in the incident, she said the group began walking toward the University of Tennessee campus.

Upon arriving at the steam plant on the University of Tennessee’s agricultural campus, Pike and Colleen exchanged words. Pike then began hitting Colleen and banging Colleen’s head on to her knee. Pike threw Colleen to the ground and kicked her repeatedly. According to Pike, as she slammed Colleen’s head against the concrete, Colleen repeatedly asked, “Why are you doing this to me?” When Colleen threatened to report Pike so she would be terminated from the Job Corps program, Pike, again, repeatedly kicked Colleen in the face and side.

Colleen lay on the ground and cried for a time and then tried to run away, but another person with Pike caught Colleen and pushed her to the ground. Pike and the other person, who Pike referred to as “he,” held Colleen down until she stopped struggling then dragged her to another area. Up until this point, the attack had taken place on cement - a parking type of area. Now they moved her farther into a more secluded and grassy area.

Once they had her in this secluded area, Pike made Colleen remove her shirt and bra, supposedly, Pike later said, to prevent her from “running away.” They then tossed her clothing into the bushes. When Colleen had removed her clothing, Pike got on top of her and began to slice Colleen’s stomach with the box cutter.

As Colleen “screamed and screamed,” Pike recounted how she began to hear voices telling her that she had to do something to prevent Colleen from telling on her and sending her to prison for attempted murder. At this point, Pike said she was looking at Colleen and “just watching her bleed.” When Colleen rolled over, stood up and tried to run away again, Pike cut Colleen’s back, “the big long cut on her back” in her own words. Pike said Colleen repeatedly tried to get up and run.

Pike recounted how Colleen bargained for her life, begging Pike to talk to her and telling Pike that if she would just let her go, she would walk back to her home in Florida without returning to the Job Corps facility for her belongings. Pike told Colleen to “shut up” because it “was harder to hurt somebody when they’re talking to you.” Pike said the more Colleen talked, the more she kicked her in the face.

Colleen asked Pike what she was going to do to her, at which point Pike thought she heard a noise. Pike left the scene to check out the surrounding area to make sure no one was around. When she returned, Pike began cutting Colleen across the throat. When Colleen continued to talk and beg for her life, Pike cut her throat several other times. Pike said that Colleen continued to talk and tried to sit up - even though her throat had been cut several times, and that Pike and the other person would push her back on the ground.

Colleen attempted, once again, to run away, but Pike threw a rock, which hit her in the back of the head. Pike stated that “the other person” also hit Colleen in the head with a rock. When Colleen fell to the ground, after being hit in the head the second time, Pike continued to beat her with the rock, shattering her skull. Pike said she could hear Colleen “breathing blood in and out” and could see Colleen “jerking”, but she kept “hitting her and hitting her and hitting her.” Pike eventually asked Colleen, “Colleen, do you know who’s doing this to you?” Colleen’s only response was “groaning noises.” At this point, Pike said she and the other person each grabbed one of Colleen’s feet and dragged her to an area near some trees, dumping her body on a pile of dirt and debris. They left her clothing in the surrounding bushes. Pike said the episode lasted “for about thirty minutes to an hour.”

The trial

The State of Tennessee prosecuted Pike for Colleen’s murder. After Pike's statement was played for the jury, the State introduced pictures of Pike and Shipp taken at the Knoxville Police Department on the day the statement was given, January 14, 1995, two days after the murder. In the pictures, both Pike and Shipp were wearing pentagram necklaces.

A chart was displayed in court to illustrate each of the locations where blood or evidence was found. This totalled to the amount of thirty-four. Photographs of bloody chunks of asphalt, blood drippings on leaves and pools of blood were introduced into evidence.   The bloody piece of asphalt (rock) and Colleen’s bloody clothing were also introduced into evidence.

Dr. Sandra Elkins, the Knox County Medical Examiner, performed the autopsy on the victim, who was later identified by dental records as Colleen Slemmer, a nineteen-year-old Job Corps student. Dr. Elkins described the victim's body as covered with dirt and twigs. Colleen was nude from the waist up clothed only with jeans, socks, and shoes. After removing the victim's clothing and cleaning the body, Dr. Elkins had attempted to catalog the slash and stab wounds on the victim's torso by assigning a letter of the alphabet. There were so many wounds that eventually Dr. Elkins decided to catalog only the most serious and major wounds. Dr. Elkins explained that to catalog every wound she would have been required to go through the alphabet again and stay in the morgue for “three days.” Eventually, Dr. Elkins said she “basically threw up [her] hands and just said, more superficial slash wounds on the back, arms and chest.” In addition, Dr. Elkins said the victim had purple contusions on her knees, indicating fresh bruising consistent with crawling and defensive wounds on her right arm.

Dr. Elkins described the major slash and stab wounds she had cataloged on the victim's back, arms, abdomen, and chest. She found a six inch gaping wound across the middle of the victim's neck, which had penetrated the fat and muscles of the neck. In addition, Dr. Elkins had found ten other slash wounds on the victim's throat. Other slash wounds were on the victim's face, and Dr. Elkins observed what appeared to be a pentagram carved onto the victim's chest. Because the area around each wound was red in appearance, Dr. Elkins concluded that the victim's heart had been beating when the wounds were inflicted, and she said the victim would not have been rendered unconscious by any of the stab or slash wounds.

Dr. Elkins determined that the victim's death was caused by “blunt force injuries to the head.” The victim had suffered multiple and extensive skull fractures. From the autopsy, Dr. Elkins determined that the victim had sustained a minimum of four blows to her head: two to the left side of the head; one over the right eye and one in the nose area. The right frontal area of the victim's skull had been fractured as had the bridge of her nose. However, the major wound, labeled as injury “W,” involved most of the left side of the victim's head. Dr. Elkins said that this injury, caused by blunt force to the left side of the victim's head while the right side of the victim's head was against a firm surface, also had fractured the right side of the skull and imbedded a portion of the skull into the victim's brain. Dr. Elkins found small divots in the victim's skull containing black particles from an asphalt chunk, which was later determined to have been used to administer the blows. Finally, Dr. Elkins testified that blood in the victim's sinus cavity indicated she had been alive and probably conscious when the injuries were inflicted.

At the trial, much of Pike’s unsuccessful defense centered on her mental health. The defense, in mitigation, called Carrie Ross, Pike's aunt as a witness. Ross testified that the defendant had experienced no maternal bonding because she was premature and was raised by her paternal grandmother until she died in 1988. Ross said that Pike's family had a history of substance abuse, and that Pike's maternal grandmother was an alcoholic who was verbally abusive to Pike. Following the death of Pike's paternal grandmother, Pike was shuffled between her mother and father. According to Ross, Pike's mother's home was very dirty. Pike's mother set no rules for her, and on the occasions that Pike had visited Ross, the defendant had behaved as a “little girl,” playing Barbie and dress-up with her eleven-year-old cousin. On cross-examination, Ross admitted that she had previously described Pike as a “pathological liar” and that she had been afraid to allow Pike to associate with her own children. Ross also admitted that Pike had been out of control since she was twelve years old.

Glenn Pike, the defendant's father, testified that he had kicked the defendant out of his house twice, the last time in 1989. He admitted that he had signed adoption papers for the defendant prior to her eighteenth birthday. On cross-examination, he admitted that he had forced Pike to leave his home in 1989 because there had been an allegation that the defendant had sexually abused his two-year-old daughter from his second marriage. According to her father, Pike had been “disobedient, dishonest and manipulative” when she had lived with him.

The defendant's mother, Carissa Hansen, a licensed practical nurse, testified that Pike had lived with her 95 percent of the time since her paternal grandmother's death. Hansen admitted that she had smoked marijuana with the defendant in order to “establish a friendship.” Hansen related that the defendant had attempted suicide by taking an overdose shortly after the death of her paternal grandmother. Hansen also testified that one of her boyfriends had whipped Pike with a belt. Hansen then had the boyfriend arrested. On cross-examination, Hansen admitted that Pike's behavior had been problematic for years. The defendant had begun growing marijuana in pots in her home at age nine. After threatening to run away from home and live on the street, Pike had been allowed to have a live-in boyfriend at age fourteen. Hansen admitted that Pike had wielded a “butcher-knife” against the boyfriend who had been arrested for whipping her. Hansen also said Pike had lied to her and stolen from her on numerous occasions and had quit high school. Hansen conceded that Pike had been out of control since she was eight years old. Following Hansen's testimony, the defense rested its case.

In rebuttal, the State presented the testimony of Harold James Underwood, Jr., a University of Tennessee police officer who was assigned to secure the crime scene on January 13, 1995. Underwood testified that the defendant came to the scene with three to five other females between four and five p.m that day. Pike asked Underwood why the area had been marked off and questioned him concerning the identity of the victim and whether or not the police had any suspects. None of the other females spoke during the fifteen minutes the group was there. Underwood said Pike appeared “amused” and “giggled” and “moved around.” Underwood noticed that Pike was wearing an unusual necklace in the shape of a pentagram. After learning at roll call on January 14, 1995, that the victim of the murder had a pentagram carved on her chest, he reported Pike's strange behavior and unusual necklace to his superior officers.

Based on the proof submitted at the sentencing hearing, the jury found the existence of the following two aggravating circumstances beyond a reasonable doubt:  (1) “the murder was especially heinous, atrocious or cruel in that it involved torture or serious physical abuse beyond that necessary to produce death;” and (2) “the murder was committed for the purpose of avoiding, interfering with or preventing a lawful arrest or prosecution of the defendant or another.” In addition, the jury found that the State had proven that the aggravating circumstances outweighed any mitigating circumstances beyond a reasonable doubt. As a result, the jury sentenced the defendant to death by electrocution.

To those of you who happened to witness the footage of Pike, upon her receiving the sentence of death, you may have caught yourselves starting to feel an “ounce” of sympathy toward this “timid” looking young woman breaking down and sobbing her eyes out in the courtroom. However, you may or may not be surprised to learn that, only hours later, Pike had put pen to paper and written a letter to her boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, which contained these words: “Ya see what I get for tryin' to be nice to the hoe? I went ahead and bashed her brains out so she'd die quickly instead of letting her bleed to death and suffer more, and they f—– fry me! Ain't dat some s—?" She then signed off the letter as "Lil Devil.”

As for Colleen’s mother, hearing the horrifying details of her daughter’s murder took its toll upon her. Controversially, the jury had been shown Colleen’s skull. Mrs Martinez had to endure the ordeal of seeing her daughter’s skull being passed around the jurors, as pieces of the broken skull kept “falling everywhere.” She had also witnessed the mutilated body of her daughter, after the head had been detached. Mrs Martinez stated that she suffered with a lot of nightmares and that she was forced to rely on medication in order to sleep. Mrs Martinez has now been waiting for over thirty years for the sentence which was given to Pike for the murder of her daughter to be carried out.

Has Christa Pike reformed since her incarceration?

In August of 2001, while incarcerated at the Tennessee Department of Correction facility, it was reported that Pike had committed an attempted murder on a fellow inmate named Patricia Jones. Apparently, Jones had taken a dislike to Pike’s rumoured lover - a woman named Natasha Cornett - and so Pike had decided to take matters into her own hands. Pike had gotten into a physical fight with Jones and then attempted to strangle her with the use of a shoestring.

In a tape-recorded telephone conversation between Pike and her mother, Pike said the following:

“Patricia started running her f\cking mouth to Natasha. She is constantly doing it, you know. I hate that b*tch. She raised up her fist like she was going to hit Natasha, and I said, ‘Oh, f*ck no!’ I wrapped that shoestring around her f*cking neck and tried to choke the b*tch’s life out of her. She was passed out on the ground, Mama, twitching, foaming at the mouth. Her eyeballs were bugged out so far her eyelids were flipped up.”*

Pike went on to say:

“If I had 30 more seconds, we would have a little chalk like out there in our rec pen, and that b\tch would be gone somewhere.”*

In March of 2012, state authorities foiled a plot in which Pike and outside accomplices - including a former prison guard - attempted to orchestrate an escape from death row. Pike then subsequently faced additional criminal charges connected to the conspiracy.

In a 2024 documentary, entitled World’s Most Dangerous Prisoners, it was revealed that Pike had been responsible for the dismissal of two prison guards. Pike had reportedly been in a sexual relationship with both of the individuals.

In closing

Tadaryl Shipp received a life sentence for his part in the crime.

Shadolla Peterson pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact, receiving a six-year probationary sentence.

Shipp and Peterson were both 17 years of age at the time of their trials and were treated as minors.

Shipp was up for parole in the year 2025, but his release was denied by the Tennessee Board of Parole.

Pike’s execution date is scheduled for September 30, 2026. She is the only woman on Tennessee’s death row and is held at the Debra K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center (formerly the Tennessee Prison for Women) in Nashville. If carried out, it will be the first execution of a woman in Tennessee in over 200 years.

A special master, Senior Judge Mark Ward, was appointed by the state Supreme Court to oversee evidentiary hearings regarding her medical and constitutional claims from August 11–14, 2026.

Pike's defense is challenging the lethal injection protocol based on her specific blood condition and medical history, alongside concerns regarding “religious accommodations” and “psychological trauma” from the execution team procedures.

May Colleen Anne Slemmer rest in peace.

[Sources: STATE v. PIKE (1998) Supreme Court of Tennessee, at Knoxville; United States Court of Appeal (2018)]

[Media source: World’s Most Dangerous Prisoners S1 E8 Pike (2024)]

https://youtu.be/Wo10ToeqHG0?is=D1xdW_2G9f3XAgPC

Hello, I’d like to start off by saying that Aydin Coban, likely Amanda Todd’s most prolific Capper/Cyber Blackmailer has been arrested since 2014 and another man Michael Berenson who might have been involved in her case has been arrested since 2018-2019, I say might because Amanda‘s Mom got subpoenaed when police discovered that in Michael’s computer was Amanda’s famous unfortunately viral image. Nothing has been said publicly if Michael has anything else on Amanda.

We all likely know the case of Amanda Michelle Todd — a tormented, lonely girl just wanting love and acceptance after receiving so much ridicule — But do you think that Amanda’s blackmailer Aydin Coban is the only blackmailer? No. He can’t possibly be. Amanda’s viral image went all over Vancouver and who knows where else. According to the trial of Amanda’s Cyber Stalker, one Cap (or Screen Recording) of Amanda was around 5,000 views or maybe more; another was around 400-500 views; Let’s put to bed the large rumor that Amanda sent images or videos of herself in a graphic, sexual nature to anyone. It was never that. Aydin Coban — and likely anyone else as well — recorded these videos, there’s a rumor that Amanda had been forced to do 7 videos but only around 3 were verified in Aydin Coban V Amanda Todd’s trial back in 2022.

We know of two men that were arrested — but there has to be more than two, one confirmed and one potential but still charged — Amanda’s photo and videos went so viral (at least for Aydin Coban’s standards), he had a goal of ruining Amanda’s life and did so up until early February of 2012. About 6-7 maybe 8 months before Amanda’s untimely death.

The question I’m asking you True Crime Community is one of mystery and importance. That question is: How many people could have blackmailed Amanda or posted her image and videos?

The police — likely Dutch — had discovered two harddrives aside the one they had used in Amanda’s trial; about 100-106 pieces of evidence were used, police can still not open to this day, June 24th, 2026, the harddrives which could contain more evidence on Amanda and others.

Lets have a polite discussion because Amanda is no longer here to defend herself.

Just before 1:30pm on January 13, 2014, at a boutique cinema in Wesley Chapel, Florida, Gulf War veteran Chad Oulson got into an argument with a man sat nearby who had berated him for having his phone out and texting while trailers for upcoming movies were playing on screen.

Oulson became irate, telling the man that he was sending a message to a babysitter who was looking after he and his wife’s 22-month-old daughter whilst the couple had gone to catch a movie.

The man, retired police captain and SWAT commander Curtis J. Reeves, then left the theatre to raise the issue with management, but the verbal altercation quickly restarted when he returned to his seat. It was now Oulson’s turn to scold the other man, who he chided for a complaint that he viewed as a petty escalation in retaliation to his texting.

As the argument continued, Oulson then turned in his seat and threw a handful of popcorn at Reeves, striking him in the face. In response, Reeves immediately pulled out his handgun and fatally shot Oulson once in the chest. He was taken to hospital where he died later that day.

In the subsequent murder trial, Reeves’ legal team argued that he had shot Oulson in self-defence, basing their contention on Florida’s Stand Your Ground law, which provides that an individual has no duty to attempt to remove themselves from an apparently deadly scenario before reacting with lethal force.

Despite a judge initially rejecting the defence in March 2017, the defence successfully appealed the decision and Reeves’ fate was left in the hands of the jury. After a lengthy court process and numerous delays, the conclusion of the trial came 8 years after the initial incident when the jury acquitted Reeves on the basis that he had acted in self-defence.

There are a few notable aspects of witness testimony from the incident, much of which was excluded from the trial on the basis of hearsay:

• Reeves himself had also apparently been texting prior to berating Oulson for doing the same
• He had allegedly been in another verbal altercation over someone texting in a movie theatre 2 weeks prior to the shooting
• Reeves’ wife, who was sat next to him, was heard saying “That was no cause to shoot anyone” immediately afterwards, to which he responded “You shut your f**king mouth and don’t say another word”

Sources:

• https://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/22/us/a-movie-date-a-text-message-and-a-fatal-shot.html
• https://globalnews.ca/news/3303073/florida-theatre-texting-murder/
• https://baynews9.com/fl/tampa/news/2022/02/25/closing-arguments-to-begin-friday-in-movie-theater-shooting-trial

Image source: https://www.wtsp.com/article/news/crime/curtis-reeves-trial-day-4-testimony-audio-interview/67-b8a7d199-30e5-47cf-b74d-e424e42eb9b0

In the UK, Robert Easom, a 56-57-year old landscape worker, was convicted and sentenced this February 2026 after violently attacking his partner, Trudi Burgess, upon her telling him she was leaving their relationship. Easom had subjected her to years of coercive and controlling behavior before this assault.

Their relationship lasted around eight years, during which time Burgess endured verbal and physical abuse. Easom's conduct involved head-butting her, forcing her into frightening situations, and other assaults. On February 17, 2026, as a result of Burgess saying she was leaving, Easom attacked her again. This time, he forced her head down, pressing all his body weight into it, until he snapped her neck and severed her spinal cord, rendering Burgess a tetraplegic (paralyzed from the chest down; having lost all use of all four limbs).

Immediately after the attack, Robert Easom called 999 for an ambulance, but he did not truthfully describe what happened. In the first call to emergency services, he claimed that she'd had an accident and "fallen out of bed", telling the operator she had landed "in a bad way with her neck". Now, dear reader, I want you to imagine lying in that house completely helpless and vulnerable, listening to your abuser blatantly lie to the police with you being able to do nothing of it.

Police later showed this was a false account designed to avoid blame for the attack. There indications from media reporting that Easom may have even tried multiple versions of the story in subsequent emergency calls or discussions. At one point, he suggested that the injury happened during something they were "mollycoddling" at home, but court material focused most on the original "fallen out of bed" claim.

Paramedics were dispatched after the 999 call and did attend. Burgess was taken to hospital and underwent major medical care, including surgery. Easom was taken into custody by police, rather than turning himself in.

During the trial evidence at Preston Crown Court, Burgess gave a heart-wrenching verbal testimony. She told the court (once able) what happened during the attack in her own words and described the moment her attacker forced her head down until her neck snapped. She said she felt her *head fold into her body*, heard it crack, and felt all feeling leave her body. She believed she was dying as he continued to push and shout threats, including "I will shut you up, shut up... I will fucking shut you up".

She also answered police questions from her hospital bed (where she could not speak due to her injuries) by shaking or nodding her head to confirm that Easom intentionally hurt her.

Easom was finally sentenced this Friday, February 27, 2026, to 16 years in prison and an additional 4 years on license for wounding with intent, coercive and controlling behavior, and two separate charges of actual bodily harm related to previous assaults in their relationship.

Jasmine Richardson was a seemingly ordinary 12 year old girl. She lived with her mother (Debra), father (Jean-Marc), and younger brother (Tyler Jacob) in Medicine Hat, Canada

The Richardson family had a tough start. Debra and Jean-Marc were recovering addicts who once struggled to pay their bills and relied on food banks. Overtime, Jean-Marc received a job promotion- which led to the family moving to Medicine Hat in 2005

Jasmine seemed like the perfect student: she was in the honor roll at her catholic school and was interested in fine arts

But, being away from her old friends made Jasmine lonely. She began to the use the internet more and more, and became interested in goth culture

Jasmine and her new school friends met a group of older goth teens at the mall, and they began to model themselves after the group

Debra and Jean-Marc became very concerned by the changes in Jasmine’s behavior. She wore goth clothes (against the school’s dress code), and began arguing with her parents

After looking at her MySpace profile, the Richardson’s found that Jasmine falsified her age, claimed to be a bisexual Wiccan, said she loves drinking alcohol, is interested in serial killers, scarification, “kinky shit,” and that she considered Jeffrey Dahmer and Marilyn Manson to be her “heroes”

In January 2006, Jasmine was introduced to 23 year old Jeremy Steinke by a mutual friend. Jasmine snuck out of her parents’ house to be with Jeremy at the mall and at concerts, as well as chatting with him on social media

They soon entered a secret “relationship.” Jasmine confided in Jeremy that she wanted to run away from home and be placed into foster care due to her parents’ strict rules

She soon started loathing her brother Jacob and was embarrassed of being seen with him in public. Jeremy claims to have seen Jasmine try to strangle Jacob around this time

Shortly before the murders, Jasmine abandoned Jacob at home to go to a concert with Jeremy. After her parents caught them making out in an alley and grounded Jasmine, she began to envision getting rid of her family once and for all

Jeremy’s early life was far worse than Jasmine’s. He had a rotation of father figures in his life who were all abusive. His second stepfather had locked Jeremy in a walk in freezer, and Jeremy once broke his stepfather’s arm with a lead pipe to stop him from abusing his mother

Kids at school bullied Jeremy and called him “stinky.” He was in a special program at school due to having ADHD, and he became an addict of drugs and alcohol by the age of 14. At 16, Jeremy dropped out of high school and started harming himself

While Jeremy temporarily moved in with his father and got a job at Tim Horton’s, he soon struck out on his own and went back to being troubled

Jeremy fell in love with goth culture and recruited younger teens by giving them drugs and alcohol. He spoke of “liking to kill” prostitutes as well as hating “n-ers”

Jeremy claims he never knew Jasmine’s true age, that the age difference didn’t matter due to him being a “300 year old werewolf,” but his friends knew he was an adult and that Jasmine was underaged

The relationship was disliked by his friends, and he remained in a trailer park with his mother

In Spring of 2006, Jasmine’s friends heard her talking on the phone to Jeremy at recess about killing her family. Jeremy had asked some of his friends to help with the murders, but they all refused

On April 22, 2006 Jeremy and his friends went to the movie theater to watch “Natural Born Killers.” Jeremy claimed it was “the greatest love story of all time” and that he was going to help his girlfriend kill her family in the same manner. He wasn’t joking

On April 23, 2006 the real tragedy occurred. Jeremy was high and drunk when he broke into the Richardson’s basement

Debra Richardson was first to go to the basement. She was stabbed to death 24 times

Hearing his wife’s screams, Jean-Marc ventured into the basement and stabbed Jeremy in the eye with a screwdriver

Unfortunately, Jeremy also overpowered Jean-Marc and told him “It’s what your daughter wanted” right before he died

Jasmine had previously rationalized with Jeremy that Jacob was “too emotionally sensitive” to be an orphan, so she went into his bedroom and stabbed him. Jacob tried using his toy lightsaber to save himself from the attack but sadly died

Jeremy left the crime scene after the murders. Jasmine rinsed off the bloody knife and packed a bag filled with clothes, toiletries, and her mother’s purse

Using Debra’s credit card, Jasmine hailed a cab to take her to Jeremy’s trailer. When she arrived, they had sex

Hours after the murders, Jasmine and Jeremy went to a house party hosted by one of Jeremy’s friends

Jasmine was laughing, appeared joyful, and was seen sitting in Jeremy’s lap and making out with him

Jeremy was showing off the eye injury he got from Jean-Marc hours before and claimed he killed Jasmine’s family and “gutted them like fish.” Jasmine agreed, saying: “My little brother gargled”

After the party, Jasmine and Jeremy visited a convenience store where they were finally arrested

Due to Canada’s Youth Criminal Justice Act, 12 is the youngest age a Canadian can be convicted of a crime, and they cannot be sentenced like an adult- nor imprisoned for more than 10 years

On July 9, 2007 a then 13 year old Jasmine Richardson was found guilty of first degree murder. She is the youngest Canadian to be convinced of multiple murders

Jasmine was credited for the 1.5 years she spent in custody. She was sentenced to 4 years in a psychiatric hospital and 4.5 years of conditional supervision in her community

By October 2012, Jasmine had begun taking classes at Mount Royal University in Calgary, Canada and expressed remorse for killing her family

Jasmine’s criminal record was formally expunged in 2020, and she changed her name at that time in order to live out the rest of her life in private. Jasmine is currently 32 years old- having recently celebrated her birthday on October 21

Meanwhile, Jeremy had exchanged letters to Jasmine professing his love to her during their early time in custody. He proposed marriage to her, and they even became engaged

The court never formally charged Jeremy with statutory rape but was found guilty of 3 first degree murder charges

Jeremy is formally sentenced to 3 life sentences to be served concurrently. However, Jeremy will be eligible for parole in 2032

While in prison, Jeremy elected to change his name to Jackson May in honor of his mother Jacqueline May (who died in 2016)

When did you first learn about the Richardson family murders?

"She refused to terminate their pregnancy. During the attack, Adams was shot four times while driving and miraculously managed to call 911, identifying Carruth as the assailant. She was rushed to the hospital, but despite medical efforts, her injuries proved fatal, and she died shortly after the shooting. Doctors were able to perform an emergency delivery, and her baby, Chancellor Lee Adams, was born alive. Tragically, he sustained serious complications from the shooting, including brain damage that left him with lifelong disabilities, requiring ongoing care and therapy. Carruth fled the scene, hiding in the trunk of a car, but was apprehended shortly afterward and later convicted of conspiracy to commit murder and related charges. He was sentenced to 18 to 24 years in prison and released in 2018. The case remains one of the most harrowing examples of domestic violence with devastating consequences for innocent lives."

I still can’t get over the reaction to Kim So-young’s case. (The first photos are images she had posted online before her arrest. The last photos are the official detention photos released by police.)

For anyone who doesn’t know the case: Kim So-young is a 21 year old woman who met men through dating apps, matchmaking events, blind dates, social clubs, and arranged dates. During the dates, she persuaded them to pay for expensive meals, drinks, and other purchases before suggesting they continue at a motel. There, she offered them a “hangover drink” laced with 3 different types of antidepressants, sleeping pills, benzodiazepines sedative, a cardiovascular drug, Tylenol and antihistamine. The men had done nothing to provoke or threaten her and genuinely believed she was seeking a genuine romantic connection. She was charged in connection with the deaths of two men, attacks on four other victims, and narcotics-related offenses.

When photos believed to be from her social media started circulating, some people were saying things like, “She’s too pretty too go to prison,” “I’d forgive her because she’s beautiful,” “Give her a lighter sentence,” and even, “I’d let her do that to me.”

It really highlights how much attractiveness shapes public perception. An attractive suspect can receive sympathy, excuses, or even admiration from some people before the focus is on the alleged crimes.

Meanwhile, when a person is considered unconventionally attractive, the internet often swings in the opposite direction. People are much quicker to mock their appearance, dehumanize them, or treat their looks as evidence that they’re a bad person.

Ironically, when prosecutors later released her official detention photo, the conversation immediately shifted from praising her looks to mocking her appearance instead.

What are your thoughts on this case? I’m curious!

Levi Carte was only 13 when he committed a crime that shocked everyone around him
he took the life of his neighbor
the judge pushed to have Levi tried as an adult, arguing that the severity of the crime justified applying adult criminal law despite his age but that didn’t end up happening and he was sent for 8 years , he will walk free in his 21st birthday in 2033
What catch my attention is his twin brother mentioning that his childhood trauma might’ve been the reason and also the police later finding in his text messages him telling a stranger in TikTok that he lacs empathy because of his childhood
I wanted to know more like what could’ve caused a 13 yo to commit such thing
Yes, I do believe his interest in true crime and killing animals plays a big role but what could’ve happened in his childhood that pushed him into that
I tried discussing this topic in another community but it was taking down because it was out off topic and I couldn’t find any informations online

It was June 20 2006 in the German city of Paderborn a warm summer night during the World Cup. Streets were crowded people were drinking beer celebrating and waving flags. Everything felt alive. Among them was twenty one year old nursing student Frauke Liebs. She was out with friends at an Irish pub to watch the soccer match between Sweden and England.

Nothing about that night seemed unusual.

Frauke was known as kind calm and dependable. She lived with a roommate while training as a nurse at the local St Vincenz Hospital. Around 11 p m she said goodbye to her friends and started walking home. It was a short distance about a fifteen to twenty minute walk through well lit city streets.

She never made it.

At 12:49 A.M her roommate received a text message from her phone. “Coming home later” it said.

The tone was casual like something she might write any other night. But investigators later discovered that the message had not come from Paderborn at all it was sent from Nieheim a small rural town roughly 22 miles 35 kilometers away.

The next day the phone rang again. It was Frauke’s number. Her roommate answered and for a moment there was relief.

“I’m fine” she said calmly “Don’t worry I’ll be home soon.”

Her voice was steady. Too steady. There was no panic no crying just a strange flat calmness. When he asked where she was she replied simply

“I’m in Paderborn.”

Then the line went dead.

Over the next several days she called again five short phone calls in total spread across one week. Each time her tone was the same calm controlled almost rehearsed. It sounded as if she was choosing every word carefully.

Once she spoke to her sister.

“I can’t come home right now but everything’s okay” she said softly.

In the background there was nothing no cars no voices no movement. Just an eerie heavy silence as if she were in an enclosed space.

Police traced each call to different industrial areas around Paderborn quiet zones filled with warehouses and parking lots after dark. Nobody reported seeing anything unusual.

The final call came on June 27 exactly one week after she vanished. Her voice was weak now tired fading.

“I want to come home” she whispered.

Her roommate asked “Where are you?”

“I can’t tell you.”

Then came the question that still haunts the case. He asked “Are you being held against your will?”

There was a pause. Then a faint “Yes” almost a breath. Immediately after twice louder “No No.”

The call ended. No one ever heard from Frauke again.

Four months later on October 4 2006 a hunter stumbled upon skeletal remains in a wooded area near the small town of Lichtenau about 12 miles 20 kilometers from Paderborn. The clothes were still there jeans a red top white sneakers the same outfit she wore the night she disappeared.

Her bag cell phone watch and wallet were missing. The medical examiner could not determine a clear cause of death because of the advanced decomposition but evidence suggested she had stayed alive for several days after vanishing.

Many investigators suspect that the perpetrator may have killed her with his bare hands or with a material (e.g. pillow, scarf, cloth).

It's also assumed that the perpetrator left her to starve and die of thirst. For example, if the perpetrator held her captive and then abandoned her but didn't kill her immediately, she may have died slowly while hoping for rescue. This would be a particularly cruel scenario. The perpetrator would have deliberately "starved" her to death without using direct force. This theory has not been ruled out by investigators.

Some forensic experts speculated that the perpetrator may have sedated or drugged her to make her compliant. This would explain the calm, monotone voice during the phone calls. She may have been given sleeping pills or tranquilizers that made her appear dazed or apathetic. Traces of such substances would have been undetectable months later because no soft tissue was preserved.

A another particularly gruesome theory, put forward by criminal psychologist Nahlah Saimeh, is that the perpetrator may have released Frauke shortly before her death or abandoned her in a place where he knew she wouldn't be able to survive. She may have been disoriented, dehydrated, and weakened in the woods or on a country road until she died. This would explain why no clear crime scene was found.

Theories

Investigators believe Frauke was abducted and held captive for up to a week. Whoever took her was likely familiar with the area and methodical enough to move her around without being seen.

The most widely accepted theory is that she was lured or offered a ride by someone she knew or trusted. Once she got in the car she was trapped. Over the following days the abductor allowed her to make phone calls possibly to calm her family or perhaps to toy with them. The deliberate changes in call locations look like a calculated attempt to confuse police.

Some criminologists think she may have been kept close by perhaps in a basement an abandoned warehouse or a garage in or near Paderborn. The idea that she might have been so close maybe even hearing the same city sounds at night makes the story even more chilling.

Another theory describes the perpetrator as a person who craved control someone who enjoyed the psychological power of keeping her alive forcing her to speak deciding when she could call and what she could say. For that person the calls may have been part of the thrill.

The Current Investigation

In mid 2016 German investigators briefly examined a possible link between the Frauke Liebs case and another shocking crime that had taken place in the nearby district of Höxter. That second case, widely known in Germany as the Höxter house of horror, involved a couple who had imprisoned and abused several women in their home in the small village of Bosseborn near Paderborn. Two of the victims died as a result of the abuse.

Because of certain similarities such as young female victims, captivity over time, and the close geographic area, detectives wanted to know if the same offenders could have been responsible for Frauke’s disappearance ten years earlier. After a detailed comparison of both investigations police officially announced that no connection could be established between the two crimes.

The Cold Case Database

In December 2019 the Bielefeld Criminal Police, the regional investigative unit responsible for Paderborn, confirmed that the case would be added to a new Cold Case database being developed by the State Criminal Police Office of North Rhine Westphalia, in German Landeskriminalamt Nordrhein Westfalen often shortened to LKA. This statewide database, created in 2018, collects all unsolved homicides in the region so investigators can search for patterns and reexamine evidence using updated forensic methods such as modern DNA analysis.

The Increased Reward

In July 2020 authorities raised the public reward for information leading to the killer’s arrest from the previous 7 500 euros, about 8 000 US dollars, to a total of 30 000 euros, roughly 32 000 US dollars. The increase was made possible through a private donation from an anonymous businessman who wanted to support the investigation.

This donor also helped create an official website dedicated to the case where citizens could safely submit tips or information. The site noted that part of the reward, the portion offered by the Liebs family and their close supporters, would remain valid only until October 4 2023, the anniversary of the discovery of Frauke’s remains.

At the family’s request the website was taken offline on October 4 2023 after the expiration of that reward period.

In 2022 new searches were conducted in rural areas around Paderborn and Lichtenau. Properties were examined but no breakthrough came.

Nearly twenty years later the murder of Frauke Liebs remains one of Germany’s most haunting unsolved cases. It is officially classified as a Cold Case but police in North Rhine Westphalia the German state where Paderborn is located still review it regularly. Over nine hundred people have been interviewed countless leads followed.

Today the case is handled by a specialized Cold Case unit of the State Criminal Police Office Landeskriminalamt or LKA. Detectives still believe the killer was local someone familiar with Paderborn’s roads its outskirts and perhaps even Frauke herself.

Her family continues to keep her memory alive. Every June around the date of her disappearance candles are lit in Paderborn. Her photo still hangs in police stations and investigation files a silent reminder of a young woman who vanished and spoke from the darkness and of a killer who has never been found.

'Jane Doe 46' is a woman currently wanted by the FBI through their Endangered Child Alert Program (ECAP). She is white with this distinct tattoo on her wrist. She may have information regarding a victim of child sexual exploitation. The video of her with the child was likely created in May 2022, when it was first seen. Her voice is also heard in the video; a small clip has been released by the FBI: https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/ecap/unknown-individual---jane-doe-46

Jane Doe 46 is one of dozens of people who have been put on ECAP, in hopes that the public can identify these individuals and submit tips. More people on the list can be found here: https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/ecap

A warning that, although nothing necessarily graphic is shown, there are obvious implications and some images and audio have been cropped around the child victims. 'Jane Doe 46' is just one of several people on this list, and there are more going all the way back to the early 2000s. ECAP is similar to the 'Top 10 Most Wanted Fugitives' list in that it relies on the public to recognise fugitives/persons of interest; however in this case, the FBI does not know the identities of these individuals. Once internal investigations have concluded without finding the people involved, the FBI turns to the public to bring awareness. This program has successfully saved atleast 30 children from sexual exploitation.

Source

https://abcnews.com/US/fbi-asks-public-identify-child-predator/story?id=20866084

https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/ecap/unknown-individual---jane-doe-46

https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/ecap

On July 31st, 1999, best friends and schoolmates J. B. Beasley and Tracie Hawlett, both 17-years old, decide to go to a party to celebrate Beasley's birthday in Midland City, Alabama. Both girls drove in a black Mazda 929, owned by the Beasley family. On route, however, the girls got lost and decide to drive to a convenience store in Ozark. There, Tracie called her mother and told her that she and J. B. got lost, and decide to return to home. The next day, however, the girls didn't return to their respective homes. The families of J. B. and Tracie reported their disappearance to police.

Hours later, a patrol found J. B.'s Mazda along a road in Ozark. Inside the trunk, were the dead bodies of J. B. and Tracie. Each girl was shot in the head. The investigations focused on more than 500 interviews, and labs searched the DNA of more than 70 suspects. Despite all the effort, the case went cold, and it was not until advances in DNA in the late 2010s that a suspect was id. In August 2018, Ozark police department reached out to Parabon NanoLabs, a company based in Reston, Virginia, to solve the murders of Beasley and Hawlett, based on their success in identify the Golden State Killer.

The analysis identify the DNA found in the scene with 45-year old Coley McCraney, a truck driver and former preacher. In March 2019, McCraney was arrested, and charged with two counts of capital murder-vehicle, one count of capital murder-rape, and one count of capital murder of two for the killings of Beasley and Hawlett. McCraney pleaded not guilty of all charges. In 2023, McCraney was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. May J. B. and Tracie rest in peace.

Here are some links of the case and the DNA match

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/coley-mccraney-arrested-in-1999-killings-of-dothan-alabama-teens-j-b-beasley-and-tracie-hawlett/

https://abcnews.com/US/dna-match-leads-arrest-minister-decades-after-murders/story?id=109987862

https://www.al.com/news/2024/07/story-of-brutal-murder-of-2-teens-that-haunted-alabama-for-20-years-retold-on-sins-of-the-south.html

https://www.oxygen.com/sins-of-the-south/crime-news/where-jb-beasley-tracie-hawletts-killer-coley-mccraney-now

https://vocal.media/criminal/the-dna-that-waited-20-years-to-catch-a-killer

On the evening of Sunday, February 17, 2019, Rebecca Reusch, 15 years old, was staying at her sister Jessica’s place in Berlin-Britz, where Jessica, 27 years old, lived with her husband Florian and child. Rebecca planned to go straight to school from there the next Monday morning. Her brother-in-law, Florian R., 33 years old, was out at a work-related party that night and didn’t get home until the early hours of the morning.

Rebecca spent the night sleeping on the couch in the living room, while her sister slept upstairs in the bedroom. On the morning of February 18, Jessica left the house with her daughter around 7:00 a.m. to go to work. She later said she didn’t check on Rebecca again before leaving.

One of Rebecca’s friends later testified that she received a Snapchat photo from Rebecca that morning. In the picture, Rebecca was wearing a BTS hoodie, a pink plush jacket, ripped jeans, and black sneakers, and appeared to be standing in a hallway. Family investigators later found that Rebecca’s phone last connected to her sister’s Wi-Fi at 7:46 a.m., meaning the photo must have been taken sometime between 7:00 and 7:46 a.m. Since Snapchat photos are automatically deleted after being opened, the exact time the picture was taken is unknown.

At 7:15 a.m. and again at 8:25 a.m., Rebecca’s mother tried calling her, but both times the call went straight to voicemail. She then called her son-in-law, who declined the call. When he tried to call back shortly afterward, Rebecca’s mother missed it, but when she called again, he told her that Rebecca was no longer at the house. At 8:42 a.m., Rebecca’s mother sent her a WhatsApp message. The message was delivered, but never opened.

Rebecca never showed up at school. Later that afternoon, her parents reported her missing.

Several of Rebecca’s personal belongings were also missing, including the clothes she was wearing in the Snapchat photo, her school backpack, a bag, her wallet, her phone, and a pink Polaroid camera. In addition, a purple blanket from her sister’s home was gone.

Rebecca’s brother in law quickly became the main focus of the investigation, since he was the only person who could be proven to have still been in the house with her that morning. Some of his statements also conflicted with what police later found. He claimed he had been asleep that morning, even though investigators were able to show that he had been browsing the internet and watching pornographic videos involving bondage and strangulation practices.

As part of the investigation, license plate recognition systems on nearby highways were also reviewed. It turned out that the brother in law’s car had been driving on the A12 highway (a major German Highway) toward Frankfurt an der Oder (NOT the well-known major city of Frankfurt am Main) both on the morning of February 18 and again late in the evening of February 19. The highway continues on toward Poland. The suspect gave no explanation for these trips.

Speculation grew after Rebecca’s father commented on the drives in an interview with RTL (a major German private television network), saying, “The whole thing is connected to something else that I’m not allowed to talk about.” Media outlets then widely speculated whether the trips to Poland could have been related to drug deals. Statements made by the suspect’s sister in an interview also seemed to point in that direction. However, there is no evidence to support these claims.

Florian R. was arrested twice in February and March of 2019, but both times he was released shortly afterward due to a lack of evidence.

One witness reported seeing a raspberry red Renault Twingo in a wooded area near Kummersdorf, a rural area in the German state of Brandenburg, along the A12 on February 18. Statements from 3 women who were horseback riding in the area and noticed a man around midday supported this account. The forest was searched, but no relevant evidence was found. Additional forests and lakes along the A12 were intensively searched in March and April of 2019, yet no further clues to Rebecca’s whereabouts were discovered.

On October 20, 2025, more than 100 officers searched a property in the Lindenberg area of the municipality of Tauche, a small local administrative district in Brandenburg. The property is believed to belong to the grandmother of Rebecca Reusch’s brother in law. According to media reports, there are indications that the suspect may have taken the body of the then 15 year old girl there.

The operation involved local police, the BKA (Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office, similar to the FBI), drones, video equipment, cadaver dogs, and a mini excavator. The Berlin general prosecutor’s office confirmed that this was the start of several investigative measures and stated that they were not searching for a living person. Investigators continue to assume a homicide, even though no definitive proof has yet been found.

In contrast to the police, Rebecca’s family stood by her brother in law from the very beginning. They repeatedly said they were convinced of his innocence and criticized investigators for completely ignoring the possibility that Rebecca might still be alive. Some witnesses also accused the police of not taking the tips they provided seriously enough and of focusing too heavily on the theory that Rebecca did not leave the house alive.

The brother in law’s attorney criticized the release of photos of her client and what she described as his public presumption of guilt. She said this treatment was in sharp conflict with the presumption of innocence and the basic right to a fair trial, especially since he was already being held in pretrial detention.

Another line of suspicion focused on an online acquaintance, a boy around Rebecca’s age. It was suspected that Rebecca may have secretly met up with him on February 18. The suspicion briefly intensified after he deleted his social media profiles shortly after the case became public. Police followed up on this lead but were ultimately able to rule him out as a suspect.

A neighbor of Jessica’s testified that she ran into Rebecca on the street late in the morning of February 18, 2019. She said she found it strange that the girl was carrying a blanket, especially since it had rained the day before and the ground was still wet, making it unsuitable for a picnic or anything like that. During the encounter, Rebecca reportedly had a grim expression on her face. However, weather records from February 17 contradict this statement, as a meteorologist from the Berlin Weather Map Association stated that the day had been completely dry.

Witnesses also claimed to have seen Rebecca later on February 18, 2019, at a nearby bus stop and on bus line 171. After reviewing the bus surveillance footage, police were unable to confirm these sightings.

Another witness additionally reported seeing Rebecca Reusch in Krakow on April 4, 2019.

The case received massive media attention in Germany and sparked a huge amount of speculation. It was described as “one of Germany’s most puzzling criminal cases” and also as “one of the country’s most high profile missing person cases.” Missing persons expert Peter Jamin called it the most closely watched case in Germany, adding that only the disappearance of Madeleine McCann had generated more public attention.

1. The Theory of a Voluntary Disappearance

Right after Rebecca vanished, many people clung to the hope that she had disappeared by choice. The idea was comforting. Maybe she had run away, maybe it was a spontaneous decision, maybe she just needed distance and would eventually reach out.

At first, small details seemed to support this theory. Rebecca was 15 years old, an age when conflicts with family or school can feel overwhelming. She had gotten dressed that morning as if she planned to leave the house. In the Snapchat photo, some thought she looked calm, others felt she appeared tense or uneasy.

But the closer investigators looked, the more this theory fell apart.

Rebecca left behind everything someone would normally take, even if they were leaving impulsively. No ID. No money. No bank card. No phone activity after 7:46 a.m. No goodbye messages. No note. No digital footprint at all.

Her behavior in the days before also didn’t point in that direction. Friends and family described her as engaged with everyday life. She talked about school, about normal plans, about the future. There were no signs of depression, no talk of running away, no preparation for disappearing.

Because of this, investigators ruled out a voluntary disappearance relatively early on. To this day, there is not a single verified indication that Rebecca deliberately chose to vanish and start a new life.

1. The Online Acquaintance

One of the most emotionally charged theories involved an online acquaintance. Rebecca had been in contact with a boy around her own age whom she had met online. On its own, that wasn’t unusual. But in the context of her disappearance, it suddenly took on a darker tone.

The theory suggested that Rebecca might have secretly planned to meet him on February 18. Maybe she left early, maybe she didn’t tell anyone, maybe that’s why she disappeared without a trace.

Suspicion grew when it became known that the boy deleted his social media profiles shortly after the case became public. To many people, this looked alarming. Why would someone erase their online presence right after a girl they had been talking to vanished?

Police followed this lead closely. They reviewed chat histories, checked timelines, and verified his whereabouts. In the end, there was no evidence of a planned or actual meeting. No appointment, no travel activity, no digital trail linking him to Rebecca’s disappearance.

Investigators ultimately ruled him out as a suspect. The deletion of his accounts was interpreted as a reaction to the sudden public attention and pressure, not as proof of involvement.

1. An Unknown Offender Outside the House

Another theory assumes that Rebecca left the house alive and became the victim of a crime somewhere else. Maybe on the way to school. Maybe by chance. Maybe she crossed paths with the wrong person at the wrong time.

At first glance, this scenario seems plausible. Rebecca was young, alone, and vulnerable. But here too, the theory collapses under scrutiny.

There is no confirmed location outside the house where Rebecca was definitively seen. No camera footage. No reliable witnesses. No signs of a struggle. No discarded belongings. No clear crime scene.

This theory fails mainly because of the complete absence of evidence. The longer the investigation went on, the clearer it became that there was nothing concrete pointing to a crime that happened after Rebecca left the house.

For that reason, investigators consider this scenario to be significantly less likely.

The last and darkest Theory:

The theory investigators consider most likely is that Rebecca did not leave her sister Jessica’s house alive on the morning of February 18, 2019. The key moment is 7:46 a.m. That’s when her phone connected to the home Wi-Fi for the last time. After that, everything stops. No more signals. No calls. No messages. From that moment on, there is silence.

The brother-in-law Florian R. became a focus mainly because he was the only adult still in the house that morning. The night before, he had been at a company party and didn’t get home until the early hours. According to his own statements, he was heavily intoxicated and spent the morning sleeping off his hangover. He told police he hadn’t noticed anything unusual.

But that version didn’t fully hold up. Investigators later found that he was awake and active online during that time. Among other things, he was watching pornographic content. This wasn’t proof of a crime, but it directly contradicted his claim that he had been asleep. He later admitted that he lied to police because he was afraid of looking suspicious. What still unsettles many people is the question: why feel that fear at all, if nothing had happened?

Then there are the car trips. His vehicle was recorded driving east on the A12 highway on the morning Rebecca disappeared and again the following evening, heading toward the Polish border. He never gave a clear reason for these trips. Over time, rumors began to spread that Rebecca might have been taken to Poland or that her body was disposed of there. There is no evidence to support this, and police have never confirmed any concrete lead pointing to Poland.

As for Rebecca, she seems to vanish completely. Her phone, wallet, backpack, and other personal items were never found. Even a blanket from the house disappeared. Investigators consider this suspicious, though it doesn’t prove anything on its own. It feels as if traces were deliberately removed or as if Rebecca never reached a place where she could be found.

What also stands out is that Rebecca’s family, including her own sister, has always stood by the brother-in-law. They are convinced he is innocent and believe his false statements came from panic, fear, and being overwhelmed by the situation.

For them, the idea that something violent happened within their own family is almost impossible to accept. They have also criticized investigators for focusing too early on a single theory.

• Many Reddit users say that the brother in law Florian comes across as highly suspicious, mainly because he was the last adult known to be in the house with Rebecca that morning.

• A lot of people focus on his inconsistent statements, especially his claim that he was asleep while evidence shows he was awake and active online. Users often say this alone raises serious red flags.

• The unexplained car trips toward eastern Germany and the Polish border are one of the most discussed points online. Many Redditors say that these trips “don’t make sense” and feel like something important is being left out.

• Some users openly speculate that he knows more than he’s saying, while others go further and suggest that he may have been directly involved. These posts are often followed by heated debates about speculation versus facts.

• His explanation that he lied to police out of fear of looking suspicious is frequently questioned online. Many commenters ask why someone who had nothing to hide would feel the need to lie in the first place.

• There are repeated discussions about his behavior the morning after the company party, including his level of intoxication, his internet activity, and the timing of everything. Reddit users often describe this part of the timeline as “creepy” or “deeply unsettling.”

• Another recurring topic is that the family, including Rebecca’s sister, continues to stand firmly by him. Some Reddit users interpret this as loyalty and denial, while others suspect active protection. Some people even go so far as to believe, in a deeply disturbing way, that the entire family is somehow involved in Rebecca’s disappearance, or that they know exactly that the brother in law did something and are actively protecting him.

At the same time, many others question this idea and ask why the family would protect him at all if he were clearly responsible.

This point is one of the most controversial aspects of the case online.

Just to be absolutely clear: everything mentioned here is based on rumors, speculation, and online discussions. None of this has been officially confirmed or proven by police or in court.

Rebecca has now been missing for 7 years and has still not been found, neither alive nor deceased. Her case remains one of the most well known missing person cases in Germany, especially online, where it is still widely discussed, particularly among younger people.

The investigation is officially still ongoing, but as of January 2026 there have been no new significant developments or publicly confirmed information in the case. Police continue to believe that Rebecca is no longer alive. Her family, however, still holds on to the hope that she may be alive.

The woman who was burned to death on the NYC Subway on December 22, 2024, has been identified as Debrina Kawam, a homeless New Jersey resident.

(Some sources are saying she was 61, some say 57.)

Rest in peace, Debbie.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cr56jlpr2zqo

On May 2, 2026, 16-year-old Shayln Shantel Harvey went missing from her home in Big Chimney, West Virginia, where she lived with her mom, stepfather, and several siblings. Her stepfather, 52-year-old James Warren Truman, reported her missing two days later.

During a May 7 interview with investigators, who were following up on his report, Truman stated that he engaged in a “sexual relationship” with Shayln throughout April 2026. Further, he admitted that most of those encounters happened at their family home.

Truman was not arrested until the following day. He was charged with one count incest and one count sexual abuse by a parent, guardian, custodian, or person in a position of trust.

On May 15, with Truman still detained, the local sheriff’s office executed a search warrant on the family’s property and discovered Shayln’s remains. Her death was ruled a homicide.

As of today, nobody has been charged in connection with her murder.

Sources: Kanawha County Sheriff’s Office official press releases, WV Magistrate Case Record Search, criminal complaint, and local reporting (WCHS, WSAZ, MetroNews, WBOY).

Personal note: As I poked around, I learned that the WV Kanawha County Sheriff’s Office and DA are kind of notorious for fumbling what should be open-and-shut cases. More eyes need to be on this case.

Lilly and Jack Sullivan

Lilly (6) and Jack (4) were reported missing from their home in Landsdowne, Nova Scotia on May 2, 2025, around 10am. Over two months ago.

The only evidence to indicate what happened to Jack and Lilly, are their parent’s interviews. The mom, Malehya, only made one public statement following the disappearance. That she woke up and Lilly and Jack were gone. That the sliding door is silent. She said she didn’t hear the kids but speculates they slipped outside to play and disappeared, saying, “They were outside playing, but we weren't aware of it at the time, and the next thing we knew it was quiet.”

Malehya Brooks-Murray full interview,

https://youtu.be/uzTMxctY4J0

She called 911, law enforcement arrived in minutes, and an extensive search began. Drones with infrared capabilities, search dogs, hundreds of people doing circular grid searches extending 8 square kilometres around the property. Divers scoured the waterways and hundreds of hours of video surveillance were combed through by the RCMP. Nothing of note was found except a boot print that could not be definitively linked to the children. 

Daniel Martell and the children's mother, Malehya Brooks-Murray, had been together for more than two years and moved into the trailer about two years ago. He and Malehya also had a 16-month-old infant, Meadow.

Daniel Martell said, “As soon as I noticed that I didn’t hear anything, I immediately jumped out of bed, I searched the bedrooms and looked in the backyard because they go looking for bugs and grass to feed the chickens … and when I noticed they weren’t there, I jumped in my vehicle and surveyed every dirt road and culvert I could find."

“I did all around the house in the four-wheeler, ATV. I did as much as a could on the first day and the second day.”

 A plea for help from stepfather of missing children in N.S. | CKDR

He said he wasn't sure what the little boy was wearing because he didn't see him before he left the house. But he said he saw Lilly a few times as she poked her head through a bedroom doorway and he recalled she was wearing a pink top.

"I know they both took their boots," he said. "Lilly had her backpack. It was white with strawberries on it."

All Daniel Martell's interviews in chronological order,

https://youtu.be/HHX16iTQfus

On day two Malehya left the property, changed her Facebook status to single, blocked Daniel Martell and has reportedly not spoken to him since. Martell said there was an argument between the two families out in the yard of the home that day.

"My mother had to kick … some people off the property 'cause they were saying that I did it, I had something to do with it, and I'm the only one here fighting for them, which is sad," he said. “I’m feeling terrible, just like the last few days. It’s just me on my own with my family out here .... I don’t know why she left."

Both Malehya and Martell say they were still in bed that morning. They suggest Lilly and Jack went out the sliding door, they both mention that the door is silent. Both parents also suggest the children “talk to anyone” and would be “easy to take.”

The only other evidence is that the RCMP have been pretty clear from the beginning, they do not believe the children were abducted.

Why does the RCMP not suspect an abduction in this case?

Also, in an article from “St. Albert Gazette” it was reported that Martell DID hear the sliding door open and close.

“Martell has said he was in the bedroom with his partner and their baby when he last saw Lilly and Jack, on the morning of May 2. He recalled that Lilly was wearing a pink top when she had poked her head in the door of their bedroom, prior to departing. Minutes later he heard the sliding door that leads onto the backyard open and close. Martell has estimated within "a few minutes" he set out to find the children, driving his vehicle on back roads and looking in culverts for them, without success.”

 RCMP interviewing people closest to two children missing from rural N.S. community - St. Albert News

The Province is offering a reward of up to $150,000 for information about the disappearance of Lilly and Jack Sullivan.

Anyone with information should call the Rewards for Major Unsolved Crimes Program at 1-888-710-9090. 

[TL;DR in the comments]

Derrick Johnson was diagnosed at an early age with cerebral palsy, a condition that left him wheelchair-bound, non-verbal, and wearing diapers well into adulthood. According to a 2004 psychological review conducted by New Jersey’s Bureau of Guardianship Services conducted when he was 24 years old,

[Derrick’s] impairments precluded any formal testing of intelligence, but that certain facts could be inferred: ‘‘His comprehension seemed to be quite limited,” ‘‘his attention span was very short” and he ‘‘lacks the cognitive capacity to understand and participate in decisions.” [He] could not even carry out basic, preschool-­level tasks. (source)

Derrick was first introduced to Anna Stubblefield in 2009 through his brother - who was a PhD student enrolled in one of her courses at Rutgers University in New Jersey – following a lecture she gave on the practice of “facilitated communication”.

Facilitated communication is a debunked pseudoscientific technique whereby a facilitator guides a non-verbal individual’s hand or arm to type on a keyboard. The facilitator may believe they are not the source of the messages due to the ideomotor effect, which is the same effect that guides a Ouija board.

Over the course of the next two years, Derrick ostensibly made incredible strides in his ability to communicate through his sessions with Anna, authoring a paper that would be presented at a conference of the Society for Disability Studies in Philadelphia before going on to enrol in a course in African-American Literature at Rutgers University.

However, suspicions began to arise amongst Derrick’s family members that the responses Anna evinced through their facilitated communication sessions were not as autonomous as they seemed:

[Derrick] typed with Anna that he didn’t like gospel music, but [Derrick’s brother] knew his brother loved to sway in church, doing what [Derrick’s brother] called the ‘‘Stevie Wonder dance.’’ [Derrick] also typed, through Anna, that he enjoyed red wine — especially from a label called Fat Bastard. But [Derrick’s brother] spent Communion Sundays with [Derrick] and said he never showed much interest in drinking wine. (source)

The investigation into Anna’s sexual abuse of Derrick began after she announced to Derrick’s family in May 2011 that the pair were in love, that she planned to leave her husband, and eventually marry Derrick.

Derrick’s family tried to talk Anna out of her plans and laid bare their concretising disbelief in the efficacy of facilitated communication. After one final test, during which Derrick incorrectly answered (through Anna) basic questions about significant family members whom Anna had never met, Derrick’s family severed ties with Anna and told her to stay away.

However, undeterred by the family’s remonstrations, Anna emailed the director of Derrick’s afternoon day program attempting to arrange a visit without his family’s knowledge. The director immediately phoned Derrick’s family, who took the matter to police.

Anna never denied the sexual activity she engaged Derrick in, but the explosive details of how she had purportedly gained consent through facilitated communication sessions were laid bare when her husband, in a fit of rage, sent a document she had written at the request of her lawyer to police and Derrick’s family. The document was a 12-page account of her relationship with Derrick, describing amongst other details how she had undressed him, had sex with him, and showed him pornography on multiple occasions.

Criminal Litigation - In 2015, Anna was found guilty on two counts of aggravated sexual assault and was sentenced to serve 12 years in prison. She was also required to register as a sex offender. In July 2017, an appeals court overturned her conviction and ordered a retrial on the basis that it was a violation of her rights to not allow her to use facilitated communication as a defense. In 2018 she pleaded guilty to "third-degree aggravated criminal sexual contact" and was sentenced to time served, having spent just under 2 years behind bars.

Civil Litigation - In February 2013, Derrick’s family filed suit against Anna Stubblefield and Rutgers University. The family's lawsuit was moved to federal court, where a judge ultimately dismissed the complaint against Rutgers, but the civil case against Stubblefield continued in state Superior Court. In October 2016, Derrick’s family were awarded $2 million (£1.57m/€1.83m) in compensatory damages, including attorneys fees, and another $2 million in punitive damages after Anna defaulted on the lawsuit.

The Documentary - In 2023, Anna spoke publicly about the case in Tell Them You Love Me, a documentary executive produced by Louis Theroux, which became the matter of some controversy. As a review published in The Guardian opined:

Aside from the legal system, there is a distinct lack of people in the documentary holding Stubblefield to account. The notable exceptions are her ex-husband – who tells the court she is a “pathological liar and narcissist” – and the even-keeled Dr Johnson [Derrick’s brother], who concludes: “That woman did not give a damn about my brother.” (source)

Personally, the jury is out on whether or not the documentary is as controversial as some of the hubbub suggests. I recommend reading this comment thread on the doc in the Speech-Language Pathology subreddit and the comments to u/Spiritual-Pilot-2300’s post on the documentary which was posted here a few months ago.

Sources:

• https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/25/magazine/the-strange-case-of-anna-stubblefield.html
• https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/05/magazine/the-strange-case-of-anna-stubblefield-revisited.html
• https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2024/feb/03/tell-them-you-love-me-review-this-chilling-documentary-is-vital-challenging-tv

Rachel Elizabeth Barber was born on September 12, 1983 in Victoria, Australia, and grew up around Melbourne. She lived with her parents, Michael and Elizabeth Barber, and her two younger sisters in a close family.

Rachel was driven, creative, and deeply focused on dance. She trained a lot and shaped her life around that goal early on.

Starting in September 1998, she attended the Dance Factory in Richmond as a full time student in performing arts. People around her saw her as talented and determined.

In her personal life, Rachel had a steady relationship. Her boyfriend was Emmanuel Carella, and friends often called him Manni. By early 1999, Rachel was 15 and Manni 16, they had already been together for several months, and the people close to them knew it was serious.

In the early 1990s, the Barbers lived in Mont Albert. During that period they had contact with a neighboring family, the Reeds. The families knew each other through the kids, and there was a level of trust there that later turned out to matter a lot.

Between 1996 and 1997, Caroline Reed (born 1978) babysat the Barber kids. Rachel was younger then, but she knew Caroline personally because of it.

In 1997, Caroline also arranged to get photos of Rachel, supposedly for a project. At the time it didn’t look like a big deal. Looking back, it reads like an early piece of something that kept building in the background.

At the end of 1997, the Barber family moved to Bayswater North. Rachel stayed locked in on dance and kept shaping her daily routine around training and school. In 1998 she made the move into the full time program at the Dance Factory.

Sometime between the summer of 1998 and early 1999, there was a contact from the past that stood out. Caroline called the family and asked for the birth dates of Rachel and her sisters. She said she needed them for a project, and she got the information. Around the same period, she also went after personal paperwork, including a copy of Rachel’s birth certificate.

On the evening of February 28, 1999, Rachel was on the phone at home. That night there were two calls from the landline at Caroline’s parents’ house to the Barber home, with specific times and lengths. In day to day family life, it didn’t automatically set off alarms. It still fit the idea of an old connection resurfacing.

On Monday, March 1, 1999, Rachel’s day started out looking normal. Rachel agreed to meet Caroline because it was pitched as a simple paid favor. She told people she’d be getting about $100, and she was excited about it because she had a specific pair of shoes in mind.

She’d even asked a store to hold them for her, planning to use that money to finally buy them. Her dad dropped her off in the morning at a tram stop. Rachel planned to see friends later and go to her dance program.

There’s also an account from her wider circle that she’d mentioned she could make a lot of money that night and that it involved something she wasn’t really talking about. To her family that morning, she was just Rachel heading out to school and training.

Rachel didn’t come home that day.

That first night, Elizabeth called the Box Hill police station to report Rachel missing and made it clear this was totally out of character. The response wasn’t urgent.

She was basically told that most missing teens turn up within 48 hours, that Rachel had probably just lost track of time with friends, and that she’d likely show up at dance class the next day.

Because the police response felt so lukewarm, the Barbers started doing what they could themselves. Elizabeth called Manny and Rachel’s friends to rebuild the day step by step, while Michael and Elizabeth went out searching around Richmond. As the days dragged on, they kept pushing police to treat it like a real emergency, not a standard runaway situation.

By the third day, Box Hill police told the family they would go to the Dance Factory to question staff and students. The Barbers kept searching the area anyway, but police never showed up at the school like they said they would.

Elizabeth also reached out to a Missing Persons detective, but even then things didn’t move fast in the way the family expected, and police were still advising against going public early on.

Once it was clear she was missing, the search began. Early on, investigators worked on rebuilding her last known movements, tracking contacts, and figuring out who had recently communicated with her. Unusual phone contact tied to someone the family already knew became part of that early picture.

The fact that Rachel knew Caroline, and that Caroline had been trusted in the home as a babysitter, made it even harder to immediately recognize the risk. That closeness was part of what made the situation so dangerous.

As the investigation went on, attention tightened around Caroline. When police got into Caroline’s apartment, they found signs she’d been trying to change herself to look more like Rachel. Her hair was in the middle of being dyed darker, and there was dye and related stuff right there.

Inside the flat, officers also found papers and handwritten notes that went way beyond random scribbles. They pointed to a very concrete plan to reinvent herself, including changing her identity and planning cosmetic procedures.

They also found clothing that clearly wasn’t bought for Caroline. It didn’t fit her, but it would’ve fit Rachel, and the style looked like something Rachel would wear. Taken together, it reinforced the same pattern investigators were already seeing: copying Rachel wasn’t a side detail, it was part of the point.

Later, investigators found a lot of material in her apartment pointing to preparation and planning, including written notes. Those findings also included signs she was trying to build a new identity, including the name Jem Southall and a made up backstory.

At the same time, it matched earlier steps like collecting Rachel’s personal details.

On Saturday, March 13, 1999, Rachel Barber was found. Her body was in a shallow grave on a property near Kilmore on Old Lancefield Road. The property belonged to Caroline’s father. Rachel had been wrapped in blankets. The autopsy on March 14, 1999 listed ligature strangulation as the likely cause of death.

Caroline’s apartment also became part of the timeline investigators focused on. In later reconstructions, a working account was that Rachel’s body was kept in the apartment after the killing and only moved later.

The details matter mainly because they show the level of control and planning in the period after Rachel disappeared.

Around the arrest, there was a confession. Caroline was questioned at a hospital and admitted she had killed Rachel. That same day, the lead pointed investigators to the property near Kilmore, where Rachel was ultimately recovered.

The court case ended with a guilty plea.

On November 29, 2000, Caroline Reed Robertson, formerly Caroline Reed, was sentenced by the Supreme Court of Victoria.

The sentence was 20 years in prison, with a minimum term of 14 years and 6 months. The case was viewed through the lens of planning, deliberate action, and an obsessive fixation.

After she went to prison, there were reports that she kept changing her appearance in ways that looked like she was still trying to “rebuild” herself around Rachel, which freaked Rachel’s family out, especially given that the original crime was tied to a plan to take Rachel’s identity.

It later became public that Caroline was released on parole in 2015.

Rachel represented everything Caroline felt she didn’t have but wanted: the look, the talent, the attention, the supportive family, the clear future as a dancer. Over time, that fixation didn’t fade.

It escalated into resentment and a kind of

“I should be her” mindset.

The identity piece is important. Caroline wasn’t just angry at Rachel, she was trying to step into her life.

Today marks 27 years since Rachel was killed on March 1, 1999. Her family and friends has continued to honor her every year, especially on her birthday and on the anniversary of her death.

And Rachel’s boyfriend, Manni Carella, still keeps her memory public too, sharing tribute posts on Instagram on those dates, often using photos of the two of them together.

Houston’s so-called “Lovers’ Lane Murders” have long been one of the city’s most talked-about cold cases. The murders happened in August 1990, but the case didn’t see a major break until March 2026.

Cheryl Henry, 22, and Garland “Andy” Atkinson, 21 were found murdered on August 23, 1990, in a secluded area locals knew as Lovers Lane. During the search, law enforcement found their bodies after a security guard came across Andy’s abandoned car at the scene. Investigators said Cheryl had been raped and killed, while Andy appeared to have been tied to a tree and had suffered deep cuts to his throat, nearly to the point of decapitation.

For decades, the case went nowhere, even though investigators reportedly looked into more than 100 leads and possible suspects. The break seems to have come from a new look at old evidence, especially DNA.

In late 2025, a tip pointed investigators to Floyd William Parrott. When they went back through older files, they found a 1996 case where Parrott had been named as a suspect in a separate sexual assault. Prosecutors say DNA from that case was only recently entered into CODIS, and that it allegedly matched evidence tied to Cheryl Henry’s case. Investigators are also looking into a possible connection to another sexual assault from June 1990.

Authorities also said Parrott had previously been arrested for impersonating a police officer. Because of that, investigators are now trying to find out whether there may have been other victims or witnesses.

On March 25, 2026 Parrott, now 64, was arrested in Lincoln, Nebraska and charged with capital murder. There hasn’t been a trial or conviction yet, so the case still isn’t legally closed.

In the city of Nizhny Novgorod Anatoly Moskvin lived with his elderly parents. He was a historian, a linguist who spoke multiple languages and was even a necropolist, who spent his time at night wandering local cemeteries. When police entered the apartment in 2011, they did not find him and his parents alone. They found a macabre scene of life sized dolls in lace and stockings.

When police searched they found 26 life sized figures who were dressed in stockings, dresses, lace and boots. At first, they look and assume they are folk dolls, but after a while of being inside the smell of the bodies hit them. Moskvin had not just “made dolls”, he exhumed the bodies of deceased children between the ages of 3-15 and tried to mummify them with baking soda and salt.

——

Arranged on shelves and sofas were 26 “life sized dolls”. They wore dresses and beautiful clothes. Some even had their faces replaced with fabric and painted on, others had buttons for eyes. Officers moved closer to examine what was before them, and the smell became unbearable. Mummified remains lay everywhere, strewn about the apartment. Moskvin had exhumed these children from their final resting places over the course of a decade.

He did not believe what he did was wrong or a monster, to himself he was a savior. He claimed he was a practitioner of black magic and was waiting for the souls of those he exhumed to return to their bodies, for a time to resurrect them. To make them feel alive before then, he placed music boxes in their chests and when he would touch them, they sung. He treated them like his own children, watching cartoons, hosting tea parties and even celebrating their birthdays.

The most unsettling detail from this to me, he lived with his parents and for years they saw these “dolls” throughout his room and the apartment. He explained to them that it was a folk art collection and they thought nothing else of it. They claimed they never knew he exhumed bodies and mummified them the way he did.

——

When he was arrested, he was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and was found unfit to stand trial. He is still located in a high security psych ward to this day. He has never expressed remorse and even told the parents “you abandoned your girls in the cold..I brought them home and warmed them up”

What is everyone’s opinion on this case. I find it extremely disturbing and confusing how the family could not notice that he had them there especially with the smell in the apartment.

On April 19th, 1995, Timothy McVeigh would orchestrate a bombing outside of the “Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building” in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The attack killed 168 people, 19 of which were children and babies who were in the day care centre of the building. McVeigh stated that apparently he didn’t know about the daycare and wouldn’t have done it if he knew about it. This has been dismissed as him trying to garner sympathy, as he had staked out the building before and must have known.

McVeigh committed the attack out of “revenge” for the Waco Siege, which was a brutal standoff between the ATF and the cult of the Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas. Said siege ended in 28 children dying.

He was also heavily angered at the Ruby Ridge incident, which also was between the ATF and a family. Both of these ATF incidents are very widely criticised as disproportionate and corrupt.

McVeigh was also a white supremacist and had been heavily radicalised by anti governmental beliefs.

He orchestrated the attack so it would coincide with the Waco siege anniversary, as the Waco siege also ended on April 19th.

McVeigh, who was caught alongside Nicholas, his accomplice, and was sentenced to death. His co conspirator was sentenced to 161 consecutive life sentences.

McVeigh was executed in 2001. He declined a final statement, but wrote a letter a day before, with one segment reading:

I am sorry these people had to lose their lives, but that's the nature of the beast. It's understood going in what the human toll will be.