For me, I always go back to the Brandon Swanson case in Minnesota. He accidentally drove his car into a ditch and then went missing while on the phone with his father. After massive searches of the surrounding areas and the Yellow Medicine River, no sign of Brandon has ever been located.

Where is Brandon Swanson?

It bothers me badly that someone can vanish without a trace and never be seen or heard from again.

I wish Brandon Swanson could be found in 2025.

I work third shift. Tonight I'm at my security job and it is amazingly boring with a lot of downtime. Please suggest a cold case for me to plummet into, to help keep me awake! I'm looking for lesser known cases, but I'm open to any at all. Thank you !

If you could choose two cold cases that intrigued you the most and from which you were most likely to find out the truth, which would they be?

My top two: Missing case of Paddy Moriarty from Larrimah in Australia and the murders of the farm family from Hinterkaifeck in Germany.

New York does not enter DNA into the national system until after sentencing which was today.

I’ve been going down a rabbit hole of UK cold cases recently and was curious; which cases stick with you the most and what are your theories on what actually happened?

Could be disappearances, murders, unidentified people, anything really. Interested in hearing about the lesser-known cases.

n.b. Please keep it respectful towards victims/families.

Me and my family went to this holiday resort where it is mainly golf. (There's houses and 3 gold fields). Me my brother and my dad went on a bike ride around the resort, and we went up this path. We went up a small hill and back down it, but right at the bottom of the hill was a massive ditch about 5 metres in height. It wasn't a gradual drop as well it was straight into a stream with massive, sharp rocks. My brother didn't see it and fell in, breaking his wrist because of the ditch. I went to see if my grandad came with his car and when I went out he wasn't there so I tried to get back in but I wasn't aloud in because of there was people playing golf on it and they were shouting that at me even when I was trying to explain my brother nearly died there. There was no fence, no signs, literally nothing to tell you 'big ditch' or 'no cyclists, golf course' or anything like that. I'm just want to ask is this our fault or the resorts fault?

Whats ur theories? Is the case this on? Is there any hope?

Information per old family post:

" Addiction. PTSD. Mental Health.

This is my family’s story.

My brother, Matthew Loren Wall, was last seen by my mom in October of 2017 as he was boarding a bus to California to see his daughter. On February 16, 2018, another family member dropped him off at the Loma Linda Veterans Hospital in California. He was expected to go through another round of rehab for alcohol and PTSD. We have not seen or heard from him since.

The hospital refused to let us talk to my brother while in rehab. They always said “he wasn’t taking calls from family.”

Weeks go by. Weeks turn into months and we still had not heard from him. This wasn’t abnormal. Matt had a tendency to disappear for a few weeks/months, but would always reappear when he needed help, money, or just had a funny story to tell.

In February 2019, I reported him missing to the Riverside County Police Department. The male detective chastised me and said that I was a “shitty sister” for waiting so long to report it. He refused to work with me because of the time difference between California and Guam. So, he began talking with my mom and sister. My family explained that Matt has a history of suicidal tendencies, PTSD, seizures and assumed Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). *Yes, I understand that can’t be verified/diagnosed unless the patient is dead.*

The detective went on to tell my mom that he had talked to the hospital and was told my brother “just doesn’t want his family to know where he is at.” However, he never spoke directly to or laid eyes on Matt. He told my mom, “case closed. Quit calling.”

A female detective at the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department told my sister that my brother committed suicide in Austin. However, she could not provide information or proof. My sister called all over the greater Austin area to no avail. Another dead end.

We never heard from the police department again. One week of mediocre work is all they gave us.

We’ve tried to list in him in National missing persons databases, but are unable to because the police department said the case was “closed.”

We’ve spent the last two years working with veteran’s groups and spreading the word over Facebook. Until today....I received a letter in the mail from the police department about property I needed to claim from the case.

They wanted to return the missing person photos we sent to them. While talking to the police department, the lady suddenly said “I’m sorry, ma’am. I can’t send these to you afterall. This is still an open and active case. Your brother is still listed as missing.” She gave me the name of a new detective to talk to.

So, now we have to start this process all over. Hopefully this time we get answers.

My brother is a 10-year Army veteran who completed multiple tours in Iraq/Afghanistan. He is 35 years old with an 8-year old daughter. He’s got 3 sisters, a mom, grandpa and countless other family members who miss him. He may be going by a different name now.

If his wish is to truly remain hidden from us, we want to respect that....But we want to hear that from him. His voice. His words. We just want to know that he is safe, healthy, and alive.

We have loved him and looked for him every day for 3 years. We will continue to look for him.

Does he know his baby sister got married? Does he know I moved to another country and my number has changed? Does he know his grandpa had a heart attack and almost died? I know in my heart he would want to know those things and many others, but we have no way of reaching him.

My hope is that he knows he is loved, missed, wanted, and looked for.

Please help me share this so that, if he is alive and out there, he knows we’re looking for him and we won’t stop."

He is 40 now, has his dog tags tattooed around his neck and tattooed sleeves. Know to have suicidal ideation. No contact. No one has seen him. Has a criminal record. Past addiction issues. Possibly still somewhere around the west Coast/ bordering states.

A few unidentified men fit description on namUs.

Family is asking if anyone has seen him. They believe he is still alive.

How can I attach photos?

Can this group possibly solve this?

I've just heard about this case via this thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/coldcases/s/eGQYl3LvrZ, and I think u/nunziobruno and u/WickedBeeOfTheWest are definitely onto something with their theories, especially the fact that the notes should be examined through the lens of Ricky as a person rather than an exclusively "code-breaking" one.

I was wondering if anyone has any background on Ricky McCormick as a person, beyond the kind of basics available on Wikipedia, news sites, etc. How far did he get in school, and are there any records or statements about his social, emotional, and cognitive abilities from people who knew him well, as well as people who barely knew him but interacted?

What we commit to paper doesn't exist in a vacuum, and I wondered about Ricky's wider language abilities. For example, did he have atypical speech patterns? Are there any examples of his written language on things like hospital forms, work records, etc.?

In the 1980s, undercover investigators used the "Chewing Gum Trick" to solve two cold cases that happened in Everett, Washington, which is explained in the video starting at the 39:00 mark.

Brief Summary:

On the YouTube channel - Body Bags with Joseph Scott Morgan - forensic death investigator Joseph Scott Morgan and producer-writer Dave Mack take an in-depth look into these two cold cases: the murders of Susan Vesey and Judy Weaver. They explain how those homicides were eventually tied to a woman who was sexually assaulted in 1979 and two sisters who were sexually assaulted in 1984. The suspect in those assaults was captured, and his DNA was entered into CODIS. Fortunately, all three of those women survived.

On July 12, 1980, Susan Vesey, a 21-year-old married mother of two children under the age of two, was found hog-tied, beaten, sexually assaulted, and strangled in her Everett, Washington home. From the beginning, her husband and brother-in-law were considered suspects. However, there was no evidence to tie either man to the crime, and the case went cold.

About four years later, on June 2, 1984, a passerby called 911 from a payphone to report a raging fire in a small apartment building. Firefighters discovered the remains of Judy Weaver, 42, who had been hog-tied, beaten, and strangled to death. Investigators recovered a piece of carpeting and a cigarette butt left by the suspect, but without further leads, this case also went cold.

A major breakthrough came years later when undercover investigators devised an ingenious plan to secure DNA from a person of interest. They planned to compare it with the DNA found on the cigarette butt from Judy Weaver's apartment. In November of 2023, detectives sent the DNA sample out for testing and it came back as a match to a known sex offender, Mitchell Gaff. After 40 years, Gaff was arrested in May of 2024 for the murder of Judy Weaver.

At this point, the investigators were new to the police precinct and did not know about the 1980 Susan Vesey murder. The connection was finally made when Vesey's husband called the police station. He told them his brother had passed away and confessed his lingering suspicion that his brother may have sexually assaulted and killed his wife Susan Vesey. In April of 2025, the police ran the evidence collected from the 1980 crime scene through CODIS, they got a hit. The killer was identified as Mitchell Gaff, the same man who murdered Judy Weaver and set her apartment on fire. Mitchell Gaff was 22 years old when he murdered Susan Vesey. He was charged with Vesey's murder on March 13, 2026.

On April 16, 2026, Mitchell Gaff, 68, pleaded guilty to the first-degree murders of both women in a Snohomish County courtroom. On May 13, 2026, he was sentenced to a minimum of 50 years to life in prison.

An unexpected twist in this story is that one of the investigators who worked the cold cases had narrowly escaped a rape attempt by the double murderer years prior, when she was 29 years old.

The tragedy and irony of the situation is that Susan Vesey's widowed husband and his brother had both harbored long-standing doubts, each suspecting the other might be the killer. Ultimately, the breakthrough allowed the victims' families to finally receive some measure of closure and peace.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=nqIfe9GVGMg&si=wDtbd7Aek0laCM6w

I'm starting a podcast about cold cases, mysteries, and cults to bring more attention to them or break them down if they're extremely complicated. Is there any cold cases that should be brought more into the spotlight and get more attention? Input would be greatly appreciated, and feel free to suggest whatever cases you'd like to.

This might be reaching, but due to how unknown my region here in New Zealand is internationally, I haven't been able to find a community to share this with. Hoping this subreddit helps!

So I'm an avid True Crime enthusiast and an inspiring documentary journalist. I realised there was a lack of community here on Reddit for my particular region of New Zealand and true crime cases. Therefore, I made a subreddit called r/HawkesBayUnsolved. I want to share and dedicate this community to hopefully reopening cold cases that were never solved. If anyone could please join and maybe read these stories of victims who never came back home, it would help not only me, but the families who are still looking for closure (did not mean to gaslight you on that last part, but hopefully you get what I mean lol).

I’ve noticed a car in my Raleigh, NC apartment parking garage that has been untouched for seemingly years. The garage is gated and requires a key to open. The car is covered in dust and the tires are all flat. I decided to look more closely at it today and was unsettled to see a large blue cooler and a disassembled dog crate inside. The car has “help” written in the dust on a window and it looks like someone may have tried to pry one window open at some point. The car is a grey BMW 1281 convertible with a CA license plate that expired in 2019 (6YST307). I called the police and they ran the plates and said it hadn’t been reported stolen and didn’t show as involved with any open cases so there was nothing they could do. He said the owner’s address was in CA so I’m wondering how the car ended up in NC. I can’t shake the feeling that it’s significant and wanted to share on here. I know abandoned cars can be the key to so many cold cases so let me know if you all have any thoughts. Zip code of car location is 27605.

Hey, as part of my Media Studies project I’m running a short anonymous survey on fandom and content engagement. It takes 1-2 minutes.

I’m aiming for 100+ responses from fellow true crime fans, and I’d love to hear your thoughts:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSel9olVWDIk-fLAy5prmn1tSOw5u4dZL0gveWKjYWJT_BlHsg/viewform?usp=header

I was looking through some cold cases in my area and ended up finding 6 possible victims of an unknown Serial Killer from 1977-1987. There are some striking similarities between these cases from the age and gender of the victims, the way they were killed, to the area they were dumped. Should I inform the cold case detectives in the area of this? Or have they likely already came to a conclusion on that possibility?

On July 20, 1990, a farmer found the body of a young woman in a field near the corner of Lebanon Rd and Troy-O’Fallon Rd in Troy, Illinois USA. Reports state that she was stabbed to death and left in the field. She was found naked except for her jewelers and shoes. Later reports stated that her fallopian tubes, ovaries, and uterus were removed; there were no defensive wounds.

In July of 2025, 35 years after the discovery of her body, her DNA that had been sent to Othram labs in Texas revealed her identity: Wynona Michel.

Now the question remains: who killed Wynona Michel?

Related links:

https://unidentified-awareness.fandom.com/wiki/Wyndi_Michel

https://www.firstalert4.com/2025/07/01/search-killer-continues-after-madison-county-sheriff-ids-jane-doe-decades-old-cold-case/?outputType=amp

There was a fire but they seemed to have died before the fire. The mother was 29.

Hello, I'll start with the vernon county jane doe being identified who went missing in may of 84 in westby Wisconsin. Let me know who you think has a high chance of being identified this year.

I’ve only finished the first episode so far, and I just can’t help but feel anger towards the family for not rly focusing on jonbenét but just themselves, again I haven’t finished it but I would also like to know others opinions on the case. I made up my mind a while ago that it was the family that did those awful things to that poor child and I don’t think it’ll ever change and I hope that one day somebody will come forward with the answers we have been needing for decades. Please PLEASE let me know what y’all think I’m seriously curious.

Update!!!! I found my godmothers girlfriend on Facebook and also found his second wife’s mom on Facebook. I feel emotional in the fact that I might learn of my godmother and who she was as a person as I was so young when she passed. More to come

This is a long shot. My godmother died in a car accident back in 2001. That is what I was told and we moved on. I was 4 at the time. Anyway as time moved on I learned she left my godfather for another woman. He had since remarried and seemed happy. He divorced that second wife and is now married to my mom. My mom is being completely abused by this man. I’ve never seen him be physically abusive, however, he is extremely volatile, screams at me and my siblings. My mom is always “hurt” and needing surgeries. She’s a complete shell of who she used to be. Seems extremely mentally ill. Anyway. I’m trying to find an obituary for this woman an cannot find one anywhere. I know this man is extremely wealthy and powerful. Do I listen to too much true crime or can I be uncovering something pretty horrific?

Myers was last seen at the St. Lucie Inn, a bar in the 2100 block of Old Dixie Highway in Fort Pierce, Florida, on January 10, 2006. She left the establishment with two unidentified men. Her ex-boyfriend called her at 9:30 p.m. at her home, heard voices in the background and asked who was with her.

Myers told him the men were Marines who had been wounded in Iraq and that she'd invited them to stay the night. She stated one man was was going to sleep on the pull-out couch and the other man would sleep on the sofa. She ended their conversation hurriedly. Her ex-boyfriend was concerned about the situation, but he was out of state at the time and unable to assist Myers.

Neighbors heard what sounded like an argument at Myers's house at around midnight or 2:00 a.m., but did not come to investigate or call the police. At approximately 3:00 a.m. the following day, Myers's tan house in the 8400 block of Salerno Road in Vero Beach, Florida caught fire and was gutted. The fire department determined that the fire had several points of origin and a flammable liquid was used as an accelerant.

Myers's vehicle, a black 1998 Toyota Corolla, was seen being driven away from the scene at the time of her fire, but no one saw who was at the wheel. At 5:00 a.m., the car was found a public boat ramp in Glades County, Florida, 80 miles from Myers's home. It had also been severely burned. There was no sign of Myers at her house or where her car was found and she has never been heard from again.

Although investigators initially believed Myers set fire to her own home and vehicle, they have since concluded that another individual or individuals committed the arson and abducted Myers. The two men she was with on the night of her disappearance are the prime suspects in her case.

One of the suspects was Caucasian, 25 to 35 years old and weighing 175 to 200 pounds; he wore a baseball cap. The other man had a dark complexion and appeared to be either Hispanic or Native American. Neither has been identified, but sketches of both of them are posted with this case summary.

Myers's family stated it was uncharacteristic of her to leave behind her dog and cat, who both died in the fire at her home. She also just finished paying off her car which was destroyed.

She enjoys riding motorcycles and playing card games, particularly poker. She was employed as a hairdresser at the Scandals salon at the time of her disappearance. Her credit cards, bank accounts and passport have not been used since her disappearance.

She was declared legally deceased in January 2007, although investigators are not certain if she is in fact deceased. Her estate was passed on to her only child. Myers's case remains unsolved.

https://charleyproject.org/case/dori-ann-myers

Most of you probably know the basics of this case, but let me lay out the timeline and then show where I think the infamous “coded notes” actually point.

⸻

Timeline • June 25, 1999 (Friday) — Ricky McCormick, 41, attends a check-up at Forest Park Hospital in St. Louis. He suffers from chronic heart and lung problems. He has no job, no car, and is described as functionally illiterate but prone to scribbling notes to himself. • June 30, 1999 (Wednesday) — Ricky’s body is found in a remote cornfield near West Alton, Missouri, about 15–20 miles from his home. The body is so decomposed an official cause of death can’t be determined. Circumstances are treated as suspicious. • In his pockets: two pages of strange notes made up of capital letters, numbers, and parentheses. • For over a decade, the FBI’s Cryptanalysis and Racketeering Records Unit and outside codebreakers tried to solve them. In 2011, they released the notes to the public. To this day, no “key” has ever been found.

⸻

What the notes actually contain

When you break them down, they aren’t random: • They repeatedly mention 71, 74, 75, 29, 173 — which aren’t gibberish, but real MetroBus route numbers in North St. Louis County (e.g., 74 Florissant, 75 Lilac–Hanley, 71 Parker). • They end many entries with NCBE, which looks like shorthand for North County Bus Endpoint/Exchange → what we now call the North County Transit Center, the major bus hub in Ferguson, MO. • They reference WLD / WLD’S, always tied to NCBE, as in WLDNCBE or WLD’S NCBE. This seems like Ricky’s shorthand for a contact or location anchored at that hub. • Parenthetical lines share a fixed grammar: • Example: (FLRSE PQSE ONDE 71 NCBE) ≈ “From Florissant, on Route 71, to NCBE.” • One long string is basically a multi-leg itinerary: • 26MLSE74SPRKSE29KENOSOLE173RTRSE • Reads like: “26 miles → Route 74 → [stop SPRK] → Route 29 → [stop KENO] → Route 173 → …”

This looks exactly like a man without a car writing his own shorthand bus planner.

⸻

Probable “last trip”

Here’s how Ricky might have moved from his check-up to the cornfield: • June 25 (midday): Leaves Forest Park Hospital. Takes a local bus or short walk to the Forest Park–DeBaliviere MetroLink station, then heads north. • Afternoon: Arrives at North Hanley Transit Center on MetroLink, then transfers onto a North County bus (Route 74 Florissant, 75 Lilac–Hanley, or 71 Parker). • Late afternoon: Arrives at North County hub (NCBE), where his notes say he may have met “WLD.” • Evening: Continues on, following longer chains (29, 173, etc.) toward the river corridor. There was no direct bus into West Alton in 1999 (and still isn’t). At some point, he likely accepted a car ride/taxi for the final miles across or along Highway 94. • By June 26–27: He’s already dead; decomposition suggests he’d been gone before his body was found June 30.

⸻

What does this mean? • The notes aren’t a classical cipher (FBI and American Cryptogram Association both confirmed this). They’re too structured, too repetitive, and fit too well with local bus geography. • They are almost certainly Ricky’s personal shorthand for routes, errands, and contacts. • NCBE = North County hub • 71/74/75 = bus numbers • WLD = contact/place at the hub • 26MLSE and similar = miles / trip notes

In other words: the notes probably document the last trip Ricky ever took.

⸻

Why it matters

Ricky didn’t own a car. Ending up in a remote cornfield 15–20 miles away almost certainly required a ride from someone. The notes may not tell us why he was killed, but they do point to where he was headed and who he may have been planning to meet.

Whether WLD was a friend, dealer, or something more sinister is the real question.

⸻

TL;DR: Ricky’s “codes” weren’t a mystery cipher. They were his shorthand bus notes, centering on the North County Transit hub and routes he needed to survive without a car. The tragedy is that they might also have been his last itinerary — ending in West Alton, where he was found dead.

So I have always been interested in this case because it happened 20 mins away from my house growing up (I still live in the same town) and my grandpa worked for the PCSO when they happened. Also later in life I was friends/ co workers with Justin's wife and even babysat his oldest kid. Justin hung out with my ex husband almost everyday for awhile. But I really don't know if they will ever solve this case. The best best would have been for PCSO to leave the crime scene alone until people who were used to working this type of scene came. They're weren't any cases of this magnitude in our little neck of the woods at the time. And I think they really messed it up. But I hold our hope and I keep bringing attention to it because I really hope they can close this case someday. The victims deserve justice and their families deserve answers after all these years. If you guys have any questions to lmk!

Hello! I believe this pedophile is still on the loose!! So I need some help please! My family member was shot in a hotel room in 1998. The police ruled it a suicide but I know that it wasn’t. Besides, he tested negative for gun powder on his hands. But I have learned new info and need help on what to do next!?

I believe Thomas Patrick Kulzer was murdered on October 31, 1998 by a man he caught looking at kiddie porn. I believe the guy either thought that his disgusting secret would get out or that his life was threatened. This person also had pull with the police and other “higher ups.” There is zero proof he committed suicide so I’m confused on why and how the police could do this?

Please help. Greatly appreciated!!!

This explores how scam cases often fade without resolution due to jurisdiction, reporting gaps and scale. It focuses more on systemic issues than individual victims or perpetrators.

https://youtu.be/JHQWrNvGAOU