Matthew and Philip were two brothers who grew up together in Cleveland, Ohio. In 2020, thirty-nine year old Matthew was raising his own children- five boys, ranging between the ages of 2-10, with his wife Faye, who was his high school sweetheart. The couple met in high school, and Faye stated that the connection was instant and intense, and they had continued to date throughout college, waiting to marry after Faye obtained her degree in nursing. Faye described their relationship as very loving and happy, and that the pair grew together both romantically and in life. Matthew was an easygoing, loving father who his sons adored, and was described as being a very romantic husband, often bringing his wife small gifts, just to show her he was thinking of her.

At his work as an HVAC technician, Matthew was known to be soft-spoken and analytical, with his manager saying he had “Jeopardy-like knowledge.” Matthew was loyal to his Catholic faith, and was in love with collecting watches, hiking, and riding his bike. His wife said that he loved blasting “terrible Irish music” in the car and at home, often dancing with his young sons. Faye said that Philip especially loved spending time with his younger brother, and the two would often be found out in the garage tinkering with cars. Whenever the family of seven would go out for family outings, Matthew would always invite Philip along.

Twenty-nine year old Philip was an adoring uncle to his five nephews, and they called him “Uncle Phils.” He was described as being full of energy when he was around the boys and would often build igloos with them. He showered his nephews in candy and presents around Christmas time, and was known to tease them as if they were his younger brothers, with sarcasm and wit, making them laugh. Philip was known to be very loyal and helpful to those around him, and he had the tendency to always go out of his way for people, and always had a smile while doing so. Faye recalls her affection for her brother in law, and how she essentially watched him grow up, saying:

“He was just a little boy, like our little boys, when I first met him. He always had a smile on his face and was really funny.”

Philip was employed as a maintenance man at an apartment complex in Cleveland, but just before his death, he was planning a big move to California in order to begin a new job, and a new path in life. A friend of Philip’s had mentioned to him how an employment opening was available at the Montecito Sequoia Lodge, located in the Sequoia National Forest, and interested in living in a new location, Philip had flown out to California and applied for the position. Philip was soon offered the job after he flew back to Ohio. He decided that he would give the job a shot, and planned to work there for at least one year, and if he enjoyed it, he considered staying on as an employee for longer.  He was equally excited, and nervous, about this new journey.   When Philip accepted his new position in California, that meant he needed to make a cross country move to relocate. Matthew, wanting to spend a bit more time with his younger brother, decided he would join him on the drive, as a form of brotherly bonding. Faye encouraged this decision, knowing how much Matthew was going to miss his younger brother while he was away. The two planned to visit popular tourist destinations along the way, and take in the sights that the journey had to offer, following along the famous Route 66.

On March 17, 2020, Philip had dinner with Matthew and Faye, and he was feeling very anxious about his move to California. He had never lived outside of Ohio before, and it had made him nervous. He said to Faye a handful of times that evening:

“I’m jobless and I’m homeless, so, I have to go.”

Philip was thankful for his brother joining him on his long drive, and the two spent the rest of the evening planning out their travel route. They wanted to drive Route 66, and specifically wanted to see Spider Rock in Canyon De Chelly, in the Navajo Nation, Arizona. This route would fatefully take them through Sawmill, Arizona, on their way to Spider Rock Campground.

In the early morning hours of March 20, the brothers set out for their trip in Philip’s black Ford Escape, with Faye and her sons seeing them off. The plan was that the brothers would go at their own pace out to California, visiting the landmarks along their way, and that Matthew would fly home the following Tuesday. What no one knew at the time was that due to COVID, Canyon De Chelly, and all the national parks within the Navajo Nation, were now closed, and no longer accepting visitors. A stay at home order had been issued in the area. While the Trump administration and the CDC told Americans that there was no limitations for travel at the time and that “people should go about their daily lives,” this didn’t account for what the Navajo Nation independently decided to do, which was to close their parks for the safety of their community. In fact, all federal parks in the nation were open to the public at this time, except the parks in the Navajo Nation, so Matthew and Philip may not have known that the parks were even closed before they set of on their trips, with their plans in mind. On the very same day that Matthew and Philip were leaving Ohio, the Navajo Nation issued a stay at home order for all residents. Faye mentioned she had a nervous feeling at the time, but wasn’t quite sure why- and ultimately brushed it off, waving as her husband and brother in law set out for their trip.

On the very first day of the drive, the brothers travelled for 16 long hours, ending the day in Shamrock, Texas. Matthew sent his wife a picture of him and Philip standing in front of a Conoco gas station, the garage that was made popular in the Disney film “Cars.” He was eager for Faye to show their boys, thinking they would be excited to see it since they liked the movie. Faye recalled noticing how tired Matthew had looked, knowing that instead of stopping in Oklahoma as they had planned, they pushed all the way through to Texas on the first leg of their trip. Faye told Matthew to get a good night’s sleep and that she loved him and would speak to him the next morning.

The next day they set out to cross the Texas-New Mexico State lines, where communication became spotty and sporadic between Matthew and Faye. It seems the brothers made one quick stop at The Blue Hole in Santa Rosa- a popular swimming destination. Philip and Matthew were pushing to get to Spider Rock before sunset, and still had a ways to go. At 4:26pm EST, Faye would receive her final communication from her husband: a photo of a train passing through the southwestern landscape. As the evening wore on, that nagging, uncomfortable feeling returned to Faye. She hadn’t heard from her husband in hours, but assumed they may just be pushing through New Mexico, into Arizona.

Around 6pm that evening, Matthew and Faye’s 6 year old son Patrick had attempted to Skype his father, but no one had answered. Faye found this unsettling because Matthew had always been good at staying in touch with her and the boys when he was away, and would never miss an opportunity to say goodnight to the children.  Two hours later, with still no word from Matthew, Faye’s worry began to intensify. Faye began to call around to hotels, campgrounds, and hospitals throughout northern Arizona to see if her husband and brother in law had checked in anywhere, but no one had seen them and there was no record of them staying anywhere. Faye tried to calm her nerves despite her anxiety growing. She later stated:

“I was like, ‘Just wait a minute, they’re probably making that last push like they did the night before, and they’re probably just getting to wherever they’re staying, and then they’re gonna call you or they’re gonna Skype.”

On the other side of the country, in Sawmill Arizona, a small town in norther Arizona with a population of 706 people in 2020, Matthew and Philip were reportedly last seen alive around 3pm that Saturday. At some point during their drive on Navajo Route 7, passing through Sawmill, their vehicle got stuck in the mud and snow in a ditch, about two miles away from the Sawmill Express Convenience store. They men began to walk in the direction of the store, in order to get help with pulling their car from the mud. The men hadn’t even made it half a mile into their walk, when they crossed paths with a killer, and were fatally shot.

A woman who was driving by a short time later to collect firewood discovered their lifeless bodies, partially in the roadway, and had to drive further into town to get service in order to call the authorities. Navajo police were first to arrive on scene, noting each man had multiple gunshots wounds, which had been fired at close range. Later, the Apache County Sheriff’s office would arrive on scene, where this was deemed to be a homicide. The FBI would take over the investigation, as the men were not Native Americans, and the Navajo Nation is a sovereign nation- a news article describes the situation this way:

“When crimes happen on the reservation, the race of the suspects and victims, and the severity of the crime, determine who has jurisdiction. The brothers were not Native Americans.”

  Authorities were able to identify the victims as Matthew and Phillip by running the license plate from the vehicle though the database, which returned back as registered to Philip. Due to the temperature dropping as night approached, and the fact that the sun was going down, police made the decision to halt the investigation for the night and resume the next morning to search for evidence around the crime scene. When daylight approached, officers were back on scene and noted that it appeared that the vehicle had slid on ice and into the ditch, where it had gotten stuck in the mud. Handprints on the car had all come back to Matthew and Philip, most likely due to them attempting to push the Ford Escape out of the mud and back onto the road. No other fingerprints had been found on the vehicle that had belonged to anyone else. They also noted that the vehicle had not been tampered with in any way, that the car was still locked, and no damage had been done to the vehicle other than from what had occurred when it slid into the ditch.

When Sunday morning rolled around, Faye was beyond worried. She began to call her husband every hour, on the hour, receiving no answer or reply. When calling wasn’t enough, she drove to her father’s home, where the two decided she should contact authorities in Arizona. She headed back to her own home, and while she was preparing to run a quick errand, her doorbell rang.

“I walked up the stairs into our living room and I could see the two policemen through the front door windows,” she said. “At that moment, I knew something was terribly wrong. I felt that way for the whole day. I answered the door and I talked to them. They were very kind.”

The officers told her that she needed to call the Apache County Sheriff’s office in Arizona, and that her husband had been found deceased. Knowing that Philip wouldn’t have left Matthew, she asked if Philip had been found as well. They again urged her to call the authorities in Arizona. When she did, she learned about the murder of her husband and brother in law, something she never expected to hear. She stated that when they set out for their trip, her biggest worry had been COVID having reached the United States- she never expected her husband and brother in law would be harmed in any way. The police stayed at Faye’s home while this call unfolded, and sadly, her oldest son was by her side to hear the news about his father. When asked by police if they could get anyone for her, she recalls thinking to herself:

“The police asked me who they could get for me I just couldn’t even think straight. The person you could get for me is the person you just told me isn’t available.”

  As this happened fairly recently, the investigation into Matthew and Philip Reagan’s murders are still on going and active, and there doesn’t seem to be any word about what has been uncovered so far. Robbery was considered as a possible motive for the deaths, but the motive itself has not officially been determined, and it has been said that nothing was taken from the car or the bodies of Philip or Matthew. It is believed that Matthew and Philip had taken the rural road because GPS had directed them that way instead of on a more populated road that may have taken longer, and that when their car got stuck in the mud, someone with ill intentions happened upon them. Faye stated that it wasn’t like her husband to take such desolate roads, however, and finds it strange that they were so far off the beaten path, with main highways being quite a far distance away. Authorities working on the case has stated that while the road is quite rural, and it is only paved for a part of the way before it turns into a dirt road, which is mostly used by locals, there have been instances where GPS had navigated other tourists down that road in order to lead them to Spider Rock.  

With limited leads, police turned to surveillance video that had been obtained from the convenience store in Sawmill. It showed that Matthew and Philip had passed through Sawmill at around 3 pm that day, which led them to determine the time of their deaths were between 3 and 6pm. The surveillance video showed that no altercations between the men and anyone else had occurred at the store, and it didn’t appear that anyone had been following them at the time. Police were able to identify and track down any individual who had visited the store leading up to the murder or shortly after, and speak to them. One individual they had spoken to had a criminal record, and they felt that he might have been a good candidate as a potential suspect of the shooting. This individual was thoroughly interviewed and in the end they determined that he had nothing to do with the murders and he was cleared as a suspect.

Faye has had a difficult time accepting that her partner of 22 years is no longer with her, or her sons. She said that she sees Matthew whenever she looks at their children- she sees him in their spirit, in their cheek dimples, and in their bright red hair. She worries that their youngest son won’t remember his father at all, once he grows older, but she speaks to her children every single day about their father, reminding them of his deep love for his family. She described the pain of losing her husband, saying:

“At home, he’s everywhere. But then very sadly, he’s not. And that’s very hard."

  She finds comfort in the fact that the two brothers were together in the moments of their deaths, and not alone. She wants her husband and brother in law to be remembered not for how they died, but for who they were in life and before this terrible tragedy unfolded, saying:

“They both did so many things with their lives that impacted so many people around them in a positive way, that we don’t want the primary thing that they’re ever thought of or when you look for them and is this one single event. There’s so much more than how they were killed. They were people that had tons of family that loved them, they had friends. They had coworkers. They have a lot of people that missed them, but then they are also not able to continue with those relationships.”

Twenty one months after the death of her loved ones, Faye made her way to the desolate dirt road where her world changed forever. She wanted to see the place her husband spent his final moments, a chance to see through his eyes. She placed two wooden crosses at the side of the road- and she used this moment to teach her sons that healing was about forgiveness, and not allowing your heart to harden.

The FBI has put up a $10,000 reward for any information leading to a resolution in the deaths of Matthew and Phillip Reagan. anyone with information about this case is asked to call:

·        FBI Phoenix: (623) 466-1999

·        Navajo Department of Criminal Investigations in Window Rock, Arizona: (928) 871-7519

·        Apache County Sheriff’s Office: (800) 352-1850   The FBI is working on the case and have vowed to not give up on it, saying to the Arizona Republic:

   “We are confident someone knows who is responsible for the murders of Matthew and Philip Reagan. The FBI and our law enforcement partners have logged many hours of investigative work on this case. The FBI does not forget. No matter how much time has passed, we will continue to aggressively pursue this investigation. We are dedicated to protecting all of our communities and to pursuing justice for Matthew and Philip Reagan, their family, and friends.”

Links

FBI.gov

Cleveland 19

Hello everyone! As always, I'd like to thank you for all your comments under my post about Perpetua, Ezekiel, Justice, and Ava Bushey- I hope that they will be found safe and soon.

Today I'd like to bring up a Doe case where the deceased left behind a letter. I recently covered a similar story, of another John Doe who wrote a suicide note, but this is a different one. I found out about this case through this thread on r/gratefuldoe, so I want to give credit where it is due :)

DISCOVERY

On the 30th of September, remains of a man have been found in a wooded area in the 3500 block of U. S. 1, near the Interstate 595 ramp in Dania Beach, Florida, USA. He had seemingly hung himself on a tree a couple days prior to discovery, but his body had already become mummified.

There isn't much that is known about John, likely in part due to the state his body was in. He was white, and between 20 and 30, about 6'1" (73 inch / 185 cm), but his weight couldn't be estimated. His hair was brown and balding, but his eye color was unknown. He was wearing non-descript "shirt, shoes, socks, and trousers", and other items found with him were 2$, one key, and a revlon-brand white metal pocket knife.

There were some discrepancies between the initial report and the data on him that has been seemingly standardized in different databases later; For example, while it seems that now it's estimated that John was only in his 20s, one report said that he was an "old man". It was also said that he was 5'7" (67 inch / 171 cm).

Probably the most unusual thing found with John was a hand-written suicide note that explained why he chose to take his own life. The note had been scanned and is available to read, but it isn't very clear, so not everything is legible. However, someone tried their best to upscale the scan and transcript the note. It goes something like this:

I am expressing my Right to Die as

the Government says we don't Have

any one with half the pain that I am

going thru would do the same the

pain gets stronger by the day since

I don't have the 900.00 a month it take

to keep me in medication. And have been

to all government agencies for help

with letters from [ ] Dr. telling them my

problems.

Since I am [not an] un wed mother

under 18 [or a senior citizen] there is

nothing they can [do] [ ]

[ ]

[ ] the [ ]

at least now [I will] be at Peace

and out of Pain

I get a little [ ] when I think

about the fact that the Government will

have to pay for my creamation since

I have no family

(The [ ]'s are parts that still remain unclear)

CONCLUSION

If what is written in the note is true, then we actually know quite a lot about John's life: he was suffering from a disease that caused him pain, but he didn't have enough money to keep buying the medications he needed. When it comes to Doe cases, this is much more than we are usually given, since we know what was his motivation for suicide, and the situation he was in before death. We also know that he seeked help from the government but didn't recieve it because he didn't fit in the narrow criteria you have to fulfill if you were to get any benefits. He was under the care of a doctor, but we have no idea what their surname was, or even what they specialized in. John also said that he had no family to pick up his body, so he was possibly all alone in the world.

It's such a tough situation to find yourself in; It's horrible that he felt like suicide was his only option. There are books and articles that cover the problems with the American healthcare system much better than I ever could, so I'll just say that John seems to sadly be another victim of it. I've seen voices that if John was alive today, he would have more options he could take to get the money/drugs he'd need, but I have no experience with the American healthcare system, so I can't comment on that. I hope, however, that it is true, for the sake of others who might be suffering like he was.

It seems like this case wasn't handled well, or at least it was, but in a pretty sloppy way. There are no recons of John, the descriptions of his clothes are very vague, and there are no exclusions for him on NamUS. It seems like the report of his death was taken, bare minimum was done, and his case was completely forgotten about. He was "just" a suicide victim who stated that he had no family, so perhaps he was shrugged off as someone mostly insignificant and who wouldn't be missed.

It's such a shame that his body was in that bad of a shape when he was found, especially since his PMI was mere few days. This kind of mumification is usually what happens with corpses that have been lying somewhere for a long time, but different environmental factors can speed up the process, which I assume happened here. It's unknown as to what his disease was; Or at least, it wasn't mentioned anywhere. I think that if it caused him such pain, then the reason for it should've been found during an autopsy- maybe it was, but it wasn't shared with the public.

If they did find it, then I'd think that the next logical step would be to contact any local doctors who specialize in said disease, and ask them about a patient who had financial troubles and asked for assistance with finding a governemnt program that would help him buy his drugs. It doesn't seem that hard to do- time-consuming, sure, but not impossible. I wonder if anything was even done for John after his death to find his identity, or if the government once again completely ignored his suffering.

There seemingly wasn't anything taken from John that might aid in finding his identity now; No dental records, no fingerprints (possibly due to him being mummified), and no DNA. This case took place in the 90s, so basic DNA technology was definitely around, and it was known that it will develop further, so it's perplexing why no sample was taken for the future. I hope that the data isn't accurate, and that there is still something remaining that might be used for DNA extraction and genetic genealogy. It would be such a shame if this Doe, who was clearly suffering in life, became a complete blip in history, with the only known record that he existed being a police file and a note he wrote before death about the pain he was in and his innability to afford medications. I hope that one day he will be remembered as a whole person, not exclusively defined by his illness, pain, loneliness, and the overall lack of any help and support around him.

If you believe you know anything about John's identity, contact the Broward County Sheriff's Office at (954) 321-4735 (case number 97-09-15027).

SOURCES:

1. NamUS.gov
2. doenetwork.org

John Doe's websleuths.com thread

In June 2004, Craig Frear was a popular, athletic 17-year-old living in Glenville, New York. He had just finished up his junior year of high school, was a standout soccer player for his school team and had been selected as one of the varsity captains for the upcoming season, and some colleges were looking to recruit him for his athletic abilities. Pictures show that Craig, who stood 5'11 and weighed 190 pounds, struck a handsome figure with his red hair, dimples, and athletic build. Craig was said to belong to different friendship circles that didn't necessarily interact with one another.

However, there were signs that all wasn't going totally well in Craig's world. His parents had just found out that he had been fired from his job at a local grocery store a few weeks earlier, but had still been pretending to go to work so that his parents wouldn't know that he didn't have a job anymore. He'd also recently broken up with his girlfriend, which was apparently upsetting to him. Craig did have one previous instance of running away, in his early teens, but was only gone for one night before returning.

On June 27, which was a Sunday, Craig had gone to visit a friend at the Cambridge Manor Apartments in Scotia, NY (I've seen some sources saying it was an ex-girlfriend, but not sure if it was the one he'd just broken up, if it was a different one, or if it was a friend who was a girl, so I'll use what most sources do and keep it with "friend"). While there, he got a phone call from his mom informing him that she had just found out about him being fired from his job, and she asked him to come home. Different sources have conflicting times about when he was last seen- he apparently got off the phone with his mother around 10:15 AM, but Charley Project says that he was last seen at about 2:00PM. Craig had driven his car to his friend's apartment, but instead of getting in the car and driving back to his house, he left on foot and was last seen walking into the woods behind the apartment complex. He left his car in the parking lot, never arrived at home, and never returned to the apartment for his car.

He was not carrying his cell phone when he left, and he left his wallet (with $40 in it) behind in his bedroom. His Social Security Number has not been used since he disappeared, and while there have been reported sightings of him in the area shortly after his disappearance, he was last definitively seen walking into the woods. There were numerous railroad tracks in the area where he disappeared, but searches no signs that he was hit by a train. His friends have said that while he was upset about his recent breakup, they didn't think that he would harm himself or run away because of it. Craig's mother reported him missing the evening of his disappearance after he failed to return home, but they didn't initially publicize his disappearance because they hoped that he just needed time to get over what was bothering him and would come home.

So- what happened to Craig? Did he go into the woods to die by suicide and his body was never found? Was he hit by a train (you would expect that body parts would be found though)? Did he meet up with someone he knew who harmed him? Did he meet up with a stranger who harmed him? Craig was a pretty big, athletic guy, so not necessarily someone who would be a good target for a kidnapping and someone who would probably fight back if harmed, but I don't think any possibility can really be taken off the table at this point.

Craig would now be 38 years old.

Sources:

https://charleyproject.org/case/craig-allen-frear

https://cbs6albany.com/news/evidence-room/remembering-craig-frear-law-enforcement-and-family-still-search-for-answers-missing-person-disappeared-retired-new-york-state-police-officer-trooper-investigation-unresolved-unsolved-mystery-

https://web.archive.org/web/20240630035247/https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/Police-investigating-new-lead-in-Craig-Frear-16277303.php

Ten years after the disappearance of Australian foster child William Tyrrell, more details have emerged of what the police's current theory is regarding his presumed death.

William disappeared at the age of 3 in September 2014 while staying at his foster grandma's house in rural New South Wales. He was in the care of his foster mother at the time his disappearance was reported and police have now explicitly stated that they think she covered up his death.

There have been competing theories and unresolved questions about William's fate ever since he vanished. The laws of Australia protect the identities of foster children and foster parents so it took years for it even to emerge that William was being raised outside his birth family. William's foster sister stayed in the care of their foster parents for many years following his disappearance but was eventually removed from them. William's foster mother later pled guilty to abusing her.

In 2020 and 2021, fresh searches around the area William was last seen failed to unearth any evidence of the toddler's remains or distinctive Spiderman suit.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/nov/09/william-tyrrell-case-takes-a-turn-after-10-years-as-inquest-hears-new-theory-of-his-death-ntwnfb

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_William_Tyrrell

https://www.kidspot.com.au/news/william-tyrrells-sister-removed-from-care-of-foster-parents/news-story/2bca46e37e48f990d0226af2969c5e01

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/sep/05/child-allegedly-assaulted-by-william-tyrrells-former-foster-parents-heard-sobbing-on-audio-played-in-court

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5846899/amp/William-Tyrrells-complicated-family-explained-amid-new-police-search.html

For my fourth writeup, as it's almost the 66th anniversary of this oft-mentioned but incredibly intriguing mystery, I thought I'd turn to the strange, long-ago deaths of four members of the Martin family. It's both surprisingly straightforward - there's a convincing suspect and motive - and unexpectedly convoluted in its twists, almost novelistic.

The Background of the Martins

By all accounts, the Martins were little different from most other middle-class American families of the period. Father, Ensign Kenneth R Martin, had been born in 1904 in South Dakota; his father moved the family to the Rose City Park area of Northeast Portland, Oregon seven years later, when he became superintendent of the American Sunday School Union (now known as InFaith).

Kenneth's wife Barbara Aileen Cable was also raised in Rose City Park. She had been born in 1910 to a family of former pioneers who had arrived from Brownsville, Oregon, and the historical record suggests she was both pretty and popular as a youth - she was crowned the first Portland Rose Festival junior queen in 1918. The pair married on 28 November 1929, and moved three years later into a two-story newbuild in the Roseway neighbourhood.

Children followed: first Donald Kenneth, in 1930, who was succeeded some years afterwards by his sisters Barbara Lee ('Barbie') in 1942, Susan Margaret in 1946, and lastly Virginia in 1948. The family were known to be community-minded and fun-loving. Kenneth reportedly enjoyed entertaining the neighbourhood children by dressing up as Santa Claus at Christmastime and making candy cane decorations (leading their street to be nicknamed 'Candy Lane'), and the Martins also organised things like parades and Kool-Aid stands in the summertime.

At the time of the disappearance, Kenneth was an employee at Eccles Electric Home Service Company. 14-year-old Barbie had just started as a freshman at the local Grant High School (her younger sisters were at Rose City School) and the eldest and only son Donald - aged 28 - was a US Navy corpsman stationed at Fort Schuyler, New York. This made him the only immediate member of the Martin family no longer living in Portland.

The Alerting of Law Enforcement

The phone rang at around 9.30 pm in the Multnomah County sheriff's office on Monday 8 December 1958. The caller was Taylor Eccles, a man concerned at the unexpected absence that day of his employee Kenneth. The Martin family, he reported, were known to have set out the day before to obtain Christmas wreaths, or a Christmas tree, in the Larch Mountain area of Oregon; they had not been seen since. Kenneth had not been present at work, and the girls' teachers had noted their absence as well. Kenneth's sister Mrs Charlotte Dorsey was in fact a second-grade teacher at Rose City School, and she too had experienced growing concern as night fell and the family proved uncontactable.

The police's examination of the Martin house at 11 pm that night revealed a family who had not intended to be gone for long. Some frozen meat had thawed on the counter; there was laundry in the washing machine; and dishes were in the sink. A significant amount of money remained in the Martins' bank account, seeming to preclude the possibility of a planned disappearance. Suspecting foul play, the police launched an investigation.

The Day of the Disappearance

On the evening of Saturday 6 December 1958, the Martins had attended a 'holiday lodge party' in Beaverton, Oregon, with the result that nut shells and sweet wrappers (which perhaps the children had brought back with them) were found in their home fireplace by investigators. As planned, the five issued forth early the next afternoon for their Christmas decorations errand.^(1)

Police established that the family had driven east in their 1954 cream-and-red Ford Country Squire, towards the Columbia River Gorge, to gather greenery. Alongside their search of Larch Mountain, police received a break when - several weeks after the family's disappearance - a signed receipt was posted to the house (common practice for the time) for five gallons of petrol from a Cascade Locks petrol station. When questioned, the proprietor Dean Baxter was able to confirm that at around 4 pm on Sunday 7 December, the Martins had bought five gallons of gasoline in Cascade Locks, a city in Hood River County approximately 40 miles from their home, after which they continued east alongside Highway 84. Police theorised that rather than obtaining greenery from Larch Mountain, the family had decided to follow their alternate practice of looking for greenery 40 miles further east in Mosier, Oregon.

Baxter was not the only witness to have seen them that Sunday afternoon. They were also waited upon by Clara York at the Paradise Snack Bar, another 20 miles away from Cascade Locks. She was able to provide a detailed description of what the family had ordered, attributing this to the slow business that day. She reported that they drove west (that is, homewards) after they ate, as dusk started falling, and that two men who had also been in the restaurant left shortly afterward, westbound as well.

The last sighting of the Martins that day comes from Kelsey and Doris Knutson, a middle-aged couple out for a drive. They informed the FBI that around 4.30 pm they saw a light-coloured station wagon driving west quickly from the area of the Paradise Snack Bar; they later passed the same car parked under the Bridge of the Gods at Cascade Lock, with two men standing outside talking to those within. Several others also reported seeing the station wagon, with a dark-coloured car near it, and one man attested to seeing an abandoned car parked at nearby Trotter's Point, a jut of land overlooking the Columbia River, that day.

Initially dismissed as being of no significance, the car - a 1951 white Chevrolet complete with keys and remaining petrol - had been there for weeks by the time investigators realised that its proximity to the last known location of the Martins could be relevant. It was towed on 18 December, and running the plates revealed that it had been stolen in Venice, Los Angeles by ex-convict Lester Kenneth Price. He was identified by a worker at the Paradise Snack Bar as one of the two men, the other being fellow local and ex-convict Richard Allen Hunt, who had dined at the same time as the Martins and left shortly after them. The two men had in fact been arrested for the car theft the day after the Martins' disappearance.

In January 1959, a .38 Colt Commander handgun covered in dried blood was also discovered in some bushes near the car by a passerby named Theodore Hellyer. Only one of nine bullets in the chamber had been discharged and its casing was still in the gun. Bizarrely, though passed onto law enforcement, the gun was not processed as evidence: instead it was cleaned and returned to Hellyer. It was not until later that investigators would realise its significance. Its serial number revealed that it had originated from a Meier & Frank department store; in fact, it was among a number of sporting goods which the Martins' son Donald had been accused of stealing from the Meier & Frank branch he worked at in 1954.

Searches of the river and follow-ups of alleged sightings yielded little of value for months. Then, in February 1959, local businessman Donald Bain - who had developed an active interest in the disappearance of the Martins and sometimes retraced their route along Highway 84 and the Columbia River - made a discovery: he found tyre tracks leading off a cliff near The Dalles opposite an aluminium smelting plant, with a 20-foot drop to the river below, which was in that area 100 feet deep. Cream-coloured paint chips were visible on the rocks at the foot of the cliff. These were recovered and sent to the FBI for analysis, confirming that the paint matched that used on the make and model of the Martins' car. The tracks too were also a match for a Ford Country Squire.

The relative isolation of the area, and its distance from the road, made a simple vehicular accident unlikely. In an attempt to recover the car, the US Army Corps of Engineers lowered the level of the lake behind Bonneville Dam by five feet, but sonar technology revealed no sign of it.

 The Son of the Martins

There were by this time multiple suspicious connections between Donald Martin and the disappearance of his parents and sisters. This was not lost on Detective Walter Graven, who was chiefly responsible for investigating the case and kept a detailed record.

Car thief Lester Price had a mutual acquaintance with Donald, a man known to the public only as Wayne.^(2) Donald and Wayne had become friends in 1953 while Wayne was a student at Portland State University and Donald worked at Meier & Frank, where he subsequently admitted to stealing over $2000 worth of items, including the .38 gun.^(3) The gun was never returned to the store. Donald later denied knowledge of the gun, stating that it was Wayne who 'liked guns' and 'had a buddy who worked in sporting goods'.

In 1958, while a PE teacher at Cascade Locks High School, Wayne became acquainted with the ex-convict Price. He reportedly stated in a 2008 interview that he had been in Cascade Locks himself on the afternoon of Sunday 7 December 1958, teaching a PE class.^(4) This information does not seem to have been known to Detective Graven.

Donald and Wayne were the same age. They became roommates and close friends after their meeting, with the latter remaining on intimate terms with the Martins even after their discovery that their son was gay and that Wayne had known about it. According to Wayne in 2008, this discovery happened when Kenneth and Barbara unexpectedly returned home one day and caught Donald with another male. Although they wanted him to join a Christian college in Connecticut, he instead went into the Navy.

Relationships with the rest of the Martins were strained; after his theft, he told his bosses at Meier & Frank that he had been having a difficult time at home due to the revelation of his sexuality. His mother was apparently described by him as a 'fat slob', his father 'not much better', and his sisters as having the capacity of growing up to be like them. Detective Graven noted that moving away from them to New York, however, did not seem to have cured Donald's larcenous tendencies: he had been accused of stealing once again in New York and was seeing a psychiatrist. Donald did not travel from New York to assist with the search for his family, claiming that his paternal aunt Charlotte had encouraged him to stay in New York, a suggestion she refuted. He also did not attend Susan and Virginia's memorial, with the justification that he had mistaken the dates.

He did however return to Oregon in June 1959 to settle the estate. Donald, as the sole beneficiary to the Martin estate, received a payout of around $36,000, almost $400,000 today.

The Discovery of the Bodies

On Friday 1 May 1959 - some three months after the discovery of the tyre tracks - a drilling rig anchor being dropped to the riverbed nearby caught on something big. Whatever it was appeared to have become stuck on the anchor, since efforts to pull the anchor back up faced resistance. Unfortunately, the item became dislodged before it could be winched back to the surface, but a man on board who was able to strike the item with a long pole believed it to be made of metal. Being unaware of the proximity of the tyre tracks - or indeed of the Martin family's disappearance - it was a couple of days before they reported their discovery to the police.

Early the next day, at around 6 am, fisherman Ellery Colby and his wife noticed what appeared to be two bodies floating downstream near Cascade Locks, 40 miles away from the drilling rig. They re-encountered the bodies at Bonneville Dam. Eventually, at noon on Sunday 3 May, one body was recovered near Camas Slough, Washington on the north bank of the Columbia River, while the other was found near the dam the next day. They were identified positively via dental records as the bodies of 11-year-old Susan and 13-year-old Virginia Martin, respectively. It was now clear that the Martins had in fact entered the river, and the item dislodged by the anchor was most probably their car, which had perhaps had a window damaged sufficiently for the bodies to float out.

The bodies were autopsied in Multnomah County, Portland. They were relatively well preserved due to the cold winter temperatures of the water, and their last meals of burgers and fries corroborated the testimony of Clara York, the waitress at the Paradise Snack Bar. Prior to the autopsies, a technician who fingerprinted the bodies stated that they believed there were bullet holes in the girls' heads; however, the medical examiner Dr Waterman officially recorded that both had died of drowning, and stated that he had found no such injuries. There were also traces of aluminium on Susan's clothing, consistent with the presence nearby of the smelting plant.

Dives were carried out to recover the remains of Kenneth, Barbara and Barbie, but were halted after a search diver almost drowned. Sonar and helicopter searches proved fruitless.

 The Theories of Detective Graven

There was among the local police a belief that the Martins had died accidentally, a belief strengthened by the medical examiners' findings. Detective Graven however remained unconvinced, and strongly suspected foul play. He emphasised the improbability of the car being driven off a cliff that was not straightforward to access from the highway, and focused his investigations on Donald Martin when he arrived to settle the estate.

Donald told Graven that he also believed there had been foul play, but was unable to name any suspects or motives. As it happened, Graven considered that Donald's motive was strong. He would have - and did - gain financially from his family's death; he clearly disliked them; and his behaviour after the disappearance attracted suspicion, even apparently from his friend Wayne, who stated in 2008 that he acted 'cold' after the bodies were found. Per this theory, Donald became acquainted with the ex-convicts Price and Hunt through Wayne, supplied them with the gun, and passed on information about his family's whereabouts in order to facilitate their murders.

Graven also considered another, somewhat more outlandish theory: that 14-year-old Barbie was pregnant, and that Wayne was the father. The chief piece of evidence was the fact that a few months previously, she had been taken to a doctor in Vancouver, Washington rather than the usual local family doctor. Wayne, by his own admission, spent a lot of time with the Martins. According to Donald, he was also the one responsible for stealing the .38 handgun later found near the abandoned car. Had he arranged to meet the Martins in the Paradise Snack Bar that afternoon, instead setting them up to be met and disposed of by his acquaintances Price and Hunt?

The Aftermath of the Affair

The criminal careers of Price and Hunt continued unabated. The latter featured on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list and was ultimately sentenced to life in prison in 1959 for assault with intent to kill; however, he was released in 1968. What became of both is not clear.

The bodies of Susan and Virginia were cremated after their autopsies and stored at River View Abbey Mausoleum in Portland. Oddly, despite the presence of multiple extended family members in the area, the urns went unclaimed for over a decade, until their paternal grandmother Margaret died on 29 December 1969. An unknown individual claimed the two girls' urns the next day, while preparations were being made for their grandmother's funeral. They are now buried at Rose City Cemetery with their grandparents.

Donald passed away in 2004. He had moved to Kapolei, Hawaii, becoming a teacher at the James Campbell High School. His marriage to Helen Sylvia East in 1963 produced four children, of whom the youngest, Sarah, admitted that there were 'chapters of this family’s history that we do not discuss'. He spoke rarely of his sisters and parents to his family, who have also been reticent on the case.

Graven died in 1988, convinced both that the Martins' deaths had not been accidental, and that the discovery of the car and remaining bodies would shed full light on the mystery. Unfortunately, no such discovery has been made in the nearly 66 years since their car went into the Columbia River that December day. Occasional searches - including one in 1999 which utilised modern technologies such as GPS, new sonar, and lidar - have been unsuccessful.

^(1) The actual time they left their house is a matter of slight dispute. Neighbour Ella Chinn stated she had witnessed them leave at around 2pm, while Frank Womack - another neighbour who had been washing his car - placed the time as closer to 1.30 pm. He also reported that Kenneth had been carrying two film cameras around his neck. In any case, Kenneth turned down the usual Sunday night dinner invitation from their relatives, the Evanses, who visited that morning, stating they would be busy, so it seems they expected to be out into the evening.

^(2) His last name has not been officially released.

^(3) Over $20,000 today.

^(4) Unfortunately I have not been able to find this interview, which was apparently given to KOIN 6 in Portland for the 50th anniversary of the disappearance, but only references to it in the podcast Going West. It is notable that Wayne chose to reach out and be interviewed.

Sources

Echo of Distant Water - JB Fisher (2019)

Beneath the Icy Depths: The Mysterious Disappearance of the Martin Family — Heart Starts Pounding: Horrors, Hauntings and Mysteries

Martin family disappearance - Wikipedia

The Martin Family Disappearance: Oregon's Most Baffling Cold Case - HubPages

Barbara Martin – The Charley Project

I don't have time to get too much into writing up something about this case, but thought you'd like to hear about it. I'll include some links to information about the case. I live in the area and have been interested in the case for years and have been hoping for some kind of resolution or justice.

A suspect in the 1974 murder of 25-year old Mary Schlais, a Minneapolis woman has been identified through genetic genealogy and placed under arrest. Her body was found on February 15th, 1974 with 15+ stab wounds on the side of the road in the town of Spring Brook, WI which is located roughly five miles west of Eau Claire, WI. The suspect is 84-year old Jon Miller of Owatonna, MN. He is currently sitting in jail awaiting extradition to Wisconsin.

Spring Brook is listed as a ghost town on Wikipedia, and there's truly not much there that you could identify as a town. It's farm fields, there's a butcher shop, and a church. I have no idea what it was like in 1974 but suspect it's changed very little.

Mary was hitchhiking from Minneapolis to attend an art show in Chicago and no arrest had ever been made until yesterday.

It'll be interesting to see how this case proceeds.

Here are some links with additional information about the case.

https://www.weau.com/2024/11/08/arrest-made-dunn-county-cold-case-homicide/

http://www.dunncocrimestoppers.com/sitemenu.aspx?P=custom&D=2&ID=1021

https://www.wqow.com/news/50-years-later-murder-of-minneapolis-woman-remains-unsolved/article_6de1c52c-cc61-11ee-8554-8796ab88beca.html

https://www.inforum.com/news/the-vault/witness-saw-a-young-womans-body-thrown-from-a-car-investigators-are-still-looking-for-her-killer

https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/news/cold-case-mary-schlais/

https://www.newsbreak.com/leader-telegram-1593251/3666400819104-read-a-2003-leader-telegram-article-about-the-investigation-into-a-1974-dunn-county-murder

The Keddie murders refer to a mysterious quadruple homicide that took place during the night of April 11 to 12 in 1981. This event remains unsolved to this day, leaving many questions unanswered about what really happened that night.

The victims of this horrific crime included Glenna Susan Sharp, her daughter Tina Louise Sharp, her son John Steven Sharp, and a family friend named Dana Hall Wingate. The gruesome scene unfolded in house number 28 at the Keddie Resort, where the lives of these individuals were cut short.

On the morning of April 12, Glenna, Tina, and John were discovered deceased by Sheila, Glenna's 14-year-old daughter, who had spent the night at a friend's house.

Although Sheila's two younger brothers, Rick and Greg, along with their friend Justin Smart, were present in the home, they were fortunately unharmed.

However, Tina was notably missing from the scene, adding to the mystery surrounding the case.

Tina was considered a missing person until April 1984, when her skull and some other bones were found near Feather Falls in Butte County, roughly 62 miles away from Keddie.

Over the years, various leads and potential suspects were looked into, but no one was ever charged in connection with the case.

The house where these events took place, known as the former Sharp home, was torn down in 2004.

On the morning of April 12, 1981, Sheila Sharp, a 14-year-old girl, came back to her home at Cabin 28 in Keddie Resorts, California, after visiting a neighbor.

What she found when she entered the small four-room cabin was shocking and has since been remembered as one of the most horrifying crime scenes in American history, known as the Keddie murders.

Inside Cabin 28, Sheila discovered the lifeless bodies of her mother, Glenna “Sue” Sharp, her older brother John, and his friend Dana Wingate.

The victims had been restrained with medical and electrical tape, and they showed signs of having been brutally attacked, suffering from stabbings, strangulation, or blunt force trauma. Defensive wounds were present

Edit: Rigor mortis sets in based on how long someone has been dead. They needed to be dead for at least two hours before it starts to happen, so keep that in mind when Shelia came back the next day

In a different room, the two youngest Sharp boys, Rickey and Greg, along with their 12-year-old friend and neighbor, Justin Smartt, were discovered safe and sound.

It seemed they had slept through the horrific events that occurred just a short distance from where they were resting.

The Sharp family had relocated to cabin 28 the previous year. After Sue's divorce, she moved her children from Connecticut to Keddie, a small area in Northern California.

The family of six quickly became acquainted with their neighbors at the Keddie resort.

Life in Keddie had started to feel like a fresh beginning for Sue and her kids.

They enjoyed the community and the friendships they were building.

The night before the events, Sheila stayed over at a friend's house just down the street.

Meanwhile, John and his friend Dana had hitched a ride to a nearby town for a party and came back later that night.

Tina had spent some time with her sister at the neighbor's place before heading home to her mom, two younger brothers, and a neighbor boy named Justin.

When Sheila got back home early the next morning, she was horrified to find her mother, brother, and his friend lying dead in the living room.

In shock, she quickly went back to her neighbor's house. Her friend's dad noticed the three boys were safe through their bedroom window, so they wouldn’t have to see the crime scene.

The killings were extremely brutal. Investigators were summoned roughly an hour after Sheila found her family members dead.

The police were the first to reach the location, and they noted that there was blood splattered all over the place — on the walls, the soles of the victims' shoes, Sue's feet, the bedding in Tina's room, the furniture, the ceiling, the doors, and even on the back steps.

The only logical conclusion is that the bodies had been shifted and repositioned from where they were originally killed.

Young John lay closest to the front door, his body sprawled out with his face up. His hands were bound with medical tape, stained with blood, and a deep gash marked his throat.

Next to him, his friend Dana was on the floor, her hand resting on his stomach. John's head showed severe trauma, as if it had been struck by a heavy object, and it was partially resting on a pillow.

He had also been strangled, and his ankles were bound with electrical tape, which was wrapped around Dana's ankles as well, linking the two of them together in a horrifying scene.

Sheila's mother was partially covered by a blanket, but it did little to conceal the horrific injuries she had sustained. Lying on her side, the mother of five was exposed from the waist down, with her wrists tied using a bandana and her own underwear secured with medical tape.

Signs of a struggle were evident on her body, and there was a distinct imprint from the butt of an .880 pellet gun on the side of her head. Tragically, like her son, her throat had also been cut.

The investigation revealed that there were no signs of forced entry into the home, although detectives did find an unknown fingerprint on a handrail located on the back stairs.

Additionally, the cabin's phone was left off the hook, all the lights were turned off, and the curtains were drawn tightly shut.

What makes the situation even more puzzling is that the three youngest boys appeared to be completely unharmed and seemingly unaware of what had happened.

This is particularly strange considering that a woman and her boyfriend, who were staying in the cabin next door, reported waking up around 1:30 a.m. to what they described as muffled screams. However, they couldn't figure out where the sounds were coming from and decided to go back to sleep.

A man stumbled upon a human skull in Butte County, which is roughly 30 miles away from Keddie in Plumas County. Alongside the skull, detectives uncovered several items, including a child's blanket, a blue nylon jacket, a pair of jeans missing a back pocket, and an empty surgical tape dispenser.

These findings were crucial in piecing together the mystery surrounding the case.

This discovery led to the identification of Tina Sharp's remains, confirming that the tragic events of April 11 or 12, 1981, were indeed a quadruple homicide. Interestingly, an anonymous tip related to Tina had been sitting sealed in the case files, untouched by the Plumas County Sheriff’s Department until 2013.

It was then that the case was reopened by Sheriff Greg Hagwood and Special Investigator Mike Gamberg, who brought fresh eyes to the investigation.

In 2016, Investigator Gamberg made a significant breakthrough by finding a hammer believed to be one of the murder weapons in a dry pond in Keddie. The prevailing theory surrounding the case suggests a complicated love triangle involving Martin, Marilyn, and Sue. It was thought that Martin and Sue were involved in an affair, and Sue had been advising Marilyn to leave her allegedly abusive husband.

When Martin learned of this, he reportedly recruited his friend Bo, a known mob enforcer who had stayed with the Smartt family shortly before the murders, to eliminate Sue from the situation. That is the most widely accepted theory

1. https://youtu.be/jVKVfs6JHCA?si=MhMdxkieCe1NSmz6

2. https://crimejunkiepodcast.com/wanted-keddie-cabin-killer/

3. https://www.abc10.com/article/news/crime/true-crime/murder-in-cabin-28-keddie-murders-unsolved-california/103-1e3e7671-8c2c-4f4c-abb3-fae3ae07425e

It is July 30, 2002, we are in Bremen, Germany. It's around 5pm. a young woman is found dead in the Weser River, near the Weser Stadium, in the Peterswerder district by a boater who reports seeing a "beam" on the surface of the water.

In the center of the bundle, tied with strings, nylon ropes and a blue clothesline, the remains of a woman were found. It is a 2 x 3 meter multicolored carpet with a red polyamide edge; whitish linen sheets designed with green-stemmed red flowers, with added yellow coloring; what may have been a duvet/quilt with a similar pattern to sheets with a blue and purple coloring, an air pillow, and a light-colored bag made of woven plastic (similar to that of a tarp) with red markings , blue and green measuring 100cm x 60cm. Adhesive tape was also used to secure some materials. The descriptions of these elements, unfortunately, differ depending on the sources, giving us a confusing picture - what is certain is that whoever killed the unknown woman in the Weser River made a great effort to get rid of her corpse.

It is unclear whether the body was disposed of near the location from which it was recovered or whether it was carried by the current from Lower Saxony to the marina. The cause of death is established only in a second place; there is trauma to her neck, she was strangled - however, it cannot be ruled out that she drowned after being placed in the water.

The stranger from the Weser River is approximately 167 cm tall and has light skin, is visibly slim, weighs 50 to 55 kg, is petite, has an almost childish build. Her hair is about 43 cm long, it is dark blonde dyed golden blonde, it is wavy, possibly permed, in general well-groomed. She has thick, curved eyebrows, shaved body hair, long manicured nails with purple and gold nail polish, and has purple nail polish on her toenails.

From the examination of the body it emerges that the woman may have had a natural birth between 1985 and 1999, it is not known whether it was an alive or stillborn child, and if alive, the child would probably have been between 3 and 17 years old in 2002, he would currently be between 24 and 38 years old. No other obvious scars or tattoos were found on her body, her appendix is ​​present.

The information about her teeth is clear and specific: her dentition is intact, without misalignments.

The third molars have completed the development of the crown, the root formation is largely completed, the apex is still open. All wisdom teeth are in the process of erupting. The degree of abrasion is low, it is periodontal disease or periodontitis. There is a slight build-up of tartar on all teeth. With the exception of the left mandibular second molar, all first and second molars are affected by mild to moderate fissure decay, a root canal treatment has been carried out on tooth 14, a large filling extending over the distal half of the crown has been placed roughly and still shows no signs of wear. It protrudes a lot towards the 15th, filling the interdental space - this dental treatment took place at most a few months before the woman's death, it could be a temporary filling, waiting to proceed with the permanent one later. Regarding tooth 26 there is a small fissure filling, a crown filling, inconspicuous and integrated into the abrasion surface.

The woman is only wearing light cotton panties, size 140, a children's size - otherwise she is completely naked. She wears a butterfly-shaped hair clip, neon green, it is flashy, very visible, it is made of plastic with a metal clasp and is probably of Russian origin. She wears a silver earring with a red stone, produced in 1956 in Kharkiv, Ukraine, almost all sources state that it is a "Juwelenkombinat", made in a former socialist country. She also wears a gold-colored earring with a black stone, with a gold-colored clasp engraved with "NIFREE", "nickel-free". The jewels, described as unique, could aid identification. We know that at least one of the earrings comes from Ukraine, but it is also possible that the woman purchased them in another Eastern European country or in Russia - it is the presence of these jewels that makes us hypothesize that the woman is originally from Eastern Europe.

On 10 May 2023, the case of the unknown woman from Bremen was also taken up by Interpol's Identify Me project, a public appeal to name more than forty unidentified women whose bodies were found in various European countries; most of these women were murdered and were probably foreigners, often from Eastern Europe.

Also in 2023, a possible new lead to follow emerges, on the other hand we don't know whether he is a mythomaniac or not. A man calls the program "Aktenzeichen XY ... ungelöst", and claims that in 2002, in Bremen, he found a package containing the same hair clip worn by the victim - and this is all we know about the woman from the Weser River, at least until today.

(sources; https://www.polizei.bremen.de/fahndung/kriminalfaelle-ungeklaert/fund-einer-weiblichen-leiche-23335

https://www.interpol.int/What-you-can-do/Identify-Me/Countries-in-which-the-bodies-were-found/Women-found-in-Germany/DE04-The-body-in-the-carpet

https://www.doenetwork.org/cases-int/490ufdeu.html

https://www.bka.de/DE/IhreSicherheit/Fahndungen/Personen/UnbekannteTote/Kampagne_NL_B_D/Yachthafen_Bremen/Sachverhalt_Weser_Bremen.html

https://toteohneidentitaet.hpage.com/unbek-weibliche-wasserleiche-bremen.html

https://www.swp.de/unterhaltung/tv/aktenzeichen-xy-irre-wendung-mordfall-anrufer-gibt-eigenartigen-hinweis-71466723.html )

On October 5, 1977, two hunters hiking in Foresthill, California spotted what they assumed was a trail of blood from an injured deer. They followed the blood from the road’s edge down an embankment along the heavily wooded eastern side of Lake Clementine and, within only a few feet, discovered the bodies of 15-year old runaways, Kimberly Best and Paige Sinclair.

Their murders remain unsolved.

While the story never appears to have gained national attention, it has, in the years since, spurred discussions and speculation about the identity of Kimberly and Paige’s killer.

What hasn’t been discussed, however, are the events that happened a week later, on October 12th, when two other teenage girls were attacked in the same location — and escaped.

Were the cases connected?

***

I came across the story of Kimberly and Paige while researching my last article, The Truth About Santa Rosa. Because of the general proximity, timing, and circumstances, it has long been hypothesized that these killings were carried out by the same person.

The theory is at least worth consideration. This time there actually was a solitary monster roaming the streets, looking for victims.

But just as we saw in Santa Rosa, finding the truth can be a complex and frustrating process.

Warning: Very Graphic Content Ahead.

***

To better understand this story, it helps to have a sense of the area’s geography.

Foresthill, California is located in Placer County, on a wide ridge of heavily wooded land — known as the Divide—between the North and Middle Forks of the American River.

A 20-minute drive down Foresthill Road takes you over the Foresthill Bridge (the highest in California) and into Auburn, where it connects with I-80.

Should you take I-80 W, another hour of driving will bring you to Sacramento, passing areas like Roseville, Citrus Heights, Orangevale, and Rancho Cordova along the way.

Should you take I-80 E, you’ll drive through the Tahoe National Forest, passing exits for Kings Beach and Incline Village on Lake Tahoe, before crossing the border and reaching Reno, Nevada in about 90 minutes.

Our story mostly takes place within these boundaries.

***

Here’s what we know so far: On the morning of October 3rd, Kimberly and Paige boarded their school bus in the small town of Dallas, Oregon. Paige was carrying a suitcase.

According to classmates, the girls were best friends and had talked of running away for several days. So when they didn’t show up in class, no one was surprised.

It was first believed that Kimberly and Paige hitchhiked from Dallas to Corvallis, Oregon where they then purchased bus tickets that took them the 500 miles south to Sacramento — however, a truck driver later testified he’d picked the girls up in Klamath Falls, Oregon and he was the one who dropped them off in Sacramento on October 4th.

Exact details after this remain fuzzy.

One witness claimed to have seen Kimberly and Paige hitchhiking at the intersection of Madison Avenue and I-80 near American River College at 9am. Other witnesses were said to have seen the girls talking with “two bikers” outside Auburn as late as 3pm that same day. Neither account could ever be 100% verified, but between the two it was the former version that police followed up on.

Whoever gave the girls a ride first drove them up Foresthill and then turned left down the winding, “nearly hidden” dirt road that led to Upper Lake Clementine Beach. Sheriff’s deputies said the area was known to be used by young people who went to the beach and “stayed for days.”

“It appears that someone was familiar with the area to take the two girls there,” Sheriff-Coroner William A. Scott later said.

Items found at the murder scene on October 5th give some indication as to what occurred before the girls’ deaths: soda and beer cans, a pack of cigarettes, a notebook, and a shotgun shell. Paige’s flower-printed suitcase, containing “clothes, costume jewelry, and a few other items,” lay nearby.

Both girls had “superficial markings” on their necks.

It would later be determined that Kimberly had been shot in the right temple by a .38 caliber pistol. Her plaid blouse was pulled up to her neck, and her underwear was yanked down to her ankles.

Paige was “fully clothed in a white blouse and blue jeans.” She had been “severely” bludgeoned to death with two separate instruments.

Kimberly and Paige were identified by student I.D. and library cards found among their possessions.

At this point in the story, the basic details match the sad circumstances of the Santa Rosa Hitchhiker Murders: young teenage girls hitchhiking alone and later found murdered.

It’s not hard to imagine what might have happened. And just as we saw in the Santa Rosa cases, given the random and anonymous nature of crimes involving hitchhikers, it can be incredibly difficult to find a suspect.

But only twelve days after the bodies of Kimberly and Paige were discovered, police arrested 26-year old American River College student Kenneth Lane at his home in Citrus Heights.

In an interview the following day, the chief deputy district attorney of Auburn attributed Lane’s arrest to “a lot of really precise investigation and a lot of lucky breaks.”

The circumstances were certainly unusual.

Sacramento resident, Maxine DaCosta, was the witness who claimed to have seen Kimberly and Paige at Madison Avenue and I-80. Maxine told police she watched them getting into a white truck driven by a bearded man and, thinking the girls might be in trouble, she followed the truck for a time in an attempt to remember relevant details.

However, when she was initially interviewed by police, DaCosta couldn’t recall the license number. It was allegedly only after she underwent hypnosis that she was able to list 5 out of 6 numbers on the license plate, and it was this detail that led police to identify white-truck-owner Lane as a suspect. Later testimony by DaCosta revealed she had included the “beard” detail after Lane’s picture appeared in the paper.

On October 14th, police went to Lane’s residence on Paco Court in Citrus Heights, where he let them inside. He admitted he’d been to Foresthill a few weeks earlier with his then-girlfriend, Linda Sue Davidson, to mercy kill his cocker spaniel that was going blind from cataracts.

While searching Lane’s house, police found live bullets from a .38 caliber pistol in a suitcase, as well as wooden grips to the same pistol on the roof of his garage. When he took police to his truck (a white Ford matching DaCosta’s description), Lane failed to locate the gun and said it must have been stolen. In fact, his house had been robbed on September 20th, and the break in was reported to both police and Lane’s insurance company.

The following day, police returned to Lane’s home and were met by Linda Sue Davidson. She told them where the cocker spaniel had been buried— about a mile from the spot where Kimberly and Paige were found. Bullet casings later taken from the dog’s grave were said to match both those found at his house and the bullet used to kill Kimberly.

Based on these findings, Lane was arrested on October 17th. By October 31st, the Placer County Sheriff’s Office closed its investigation into any other possible suspects in the murder of Kimberly Best and Paige Sinclair.

The trial began on September 22, 1978 but the venue was changed to Santa Rosa for jury selection. Placer County special prosecutor, Rick McClendon said they were seeking the death penalty because Lane had “tortured, raped, and then murdered the two girls.”

While the gun that allegedly killed Kimberly was never located, police claimed to have found the weapon used to kill Paige: a “body-and-fender hammer” that police said was left to dry next to Lane’s kitchen sink after he’d cleaned the blood off. But Linda Sue Davidson disputed this, saying she’d used that hammer to hang curtains for privacy in the wake of Lane’s arrest — days after police claimed to have seen it there.

Further, Davidson testified that on October 4th —the morning of the murders—she’d given Lane a ride to class in his truck, dropped him off at American River College at 7:45am, then drove the truck back to their house and took a nap.

(She later stated it was possible their neighbor, Richard Ybarra, borrowed the truck without asking, which he had done in the past. Ybarra was arrested for shooting a man during an armed robbery in May 1978, but denied any involvement in the girls’ deaths. The judge at Lane’s trial ruled Ybarra’s testimony “contradictory” and barred it from evidence.)

Attendance records showed Lane was in class that morning, but prosecutors argued he could have left early. An instructor for a later class at noon said Lane didn’t sign in, but Lane’s attorney, William Lipschultz, said the attendance records showed the instructor was prone to errors.

By Davidson’s account, she then picked Lane up at 1pm. A service station employee, Jean Farot, said she saw Kimberly and Paige at the intersection of Lincoln Way and Foresthill Road sometime between 1 and 2pm. Two other witnesses, a Mr. and Mrs. Richard Allen, also claimed they saw the girls at the same intersection.

(A fourth witness, Roger Stockman, testified to “seeing” Kimberly and Paige there as well. More on his claims later.)

Both receipts and eye witness testimony confirmed that Lane drove to a hardware store in Sacramento to pick up sand between 3 and 4pm — almost exactly the time frame when medical examiners estimated Kimberly and Paige were murdered in Foresthill.

Lane’s defense attorney, William Lipschultz, argued that Kimberly and Paige were hitchhiking from Oregon when they were “picked up by a person driving Lane’s truck.” He went on to hypothesize that while the girls were in the truck, one of them stole Lane’s gun before the truck driver dropped them off, and then they were picked up by one or more people they knew; the stolen gun, he said, was later used to kill Kimberly.

Lipschultz “did not elaborate” on this theory to reporters, but used a visit to the murder site to demonstrate his belief that the girls were killed by more than one person and that investigators had failed to properly examine the evidence found there.

While on the stand, Placer County Sheriff’s Inspector Johnny Smith “admitting neglecting to collect or consider…numerous items found at the crime scene,” including Paige’s “suitcase and coat, soft drink and beer cans, a shotgun shell, a notebook, cigarette papers” and a “Marlboro soft pack right by the blood on the road” Smith further admitted he never asked Lane if he smoked. Lane, who underwent surgery for colon cancer in 1974 and regularly traveled to Tijuana for quack cancer treatments, did not smoke.

On November 13, 1978, the judge declared a mistrial when the jury announced they were deadlocked.

Ultimately, Kenneth Lane would be tried three times, and each time resulted in a hung jury: 7–5, 6–6, and 7–5.

The final trial ended on July 2, 1979. A month later, on August 6th, the Placer County District Attorney announced they were dropping murder charges and wouldn’t pursue a fourth trial. Lane told newspapers that after everything that had happened he planned to relax: “The worst is knowing I didn’t do anything. I had to sit there and hear people talk about me and see the way they would look at me.”

On July 21, 1979, three weeks after the final trial of Kenneth Lane and nearly two years after the murder of Kimberly and Paige, an arrest was made—not for murder, but for the simple act of shoplifting. This would have been unremarkable, except the shoplifter was an Auburn policeman caught stealing “dog repellant and a hammer” from the Pay N’ Save in Citrus Heights.

Officer Joseph James Deangelo was eventually fired for this petty crime.

Thirty-nine years later, in April 2018, it would be revealed that Deangelo was known by other names:

Visalia Ransacker

East Area Rapist

Original Night Stalker

The Golden State Killer

As Deangelo was apprehended at his Citrus Heights home in 2018, the ex-policeman “told officers he had a roast in the oven. They said they would take care of it.”

***

Unlike my conclusions about the possible identity of the Santa Rosa Hitchhiker Murderer, Joseph James Deangelo is the type of monster one conjures when imagining a “serial killer” — a trusted family man hiding in plain sight while methodically carrying out sadistic crimes in his own community.

On August 21, 2020, 75-year old Deangelo — serial killer, serial rapist, burglar, and peeping tom — was sentenced to life in prison for committing at least 13 confirmed murders, 13 kidnappings, 51 rapes, and 120 burglaries. He was “one of the most prolific serial offenders in history” and, between 1974 and 1980, he carried out a campaign of “sexual terrorism” across Placer County.

Following his 1979 arrest for shoplifting, Deangelo moved to Southern California where he continued his rape and murder spree until 1986. It wouldn’t be until 2001 that DNA evidence definitively linked the crimes, and Deangelo himself wouldn’t be identified until 2017 when detective Paul Holes and FBI lawyer Steve Kramer uploaded genetic material found in a rape kit to a genealogy website.

Many of Deangelo’s victims were teenage girls, and it only makes sense to wonder if he might have been responsible for the deaths of Kimberly and Paige. One amateur investigator noted “I posted this case on my Twitter and Paul Holes responded with “He has to be considered.”

Other web sleuths have put forth theories that Deangelo framed Kenneth Lane for some reason. Given Deangelo’s habit of moving evidence around crime scenes, perhaps this theory isn’t as absurd as it might first appear. Furthermore, Deangelo’s home in 1977 was on Granite Lane, only minutes from the intersection where Kimberly and Paige were allegedly last seen.

It was on one of these forums that I came across a post by a woman named “Tracy” who wrote:

“On October 5, 1977 Hunters discovered the brutally murdered bodies of 15 year old Kimberly Dawn Best and Paige Suzann Sinclair a few yards off a dirt road in the woods near Auburn Calif. One man was charged but a jury failed to convict him. For that, I am thankful.I have assumed for 43 years that they now knew that Kimberly and Paige were killed by him or at least had a starting point to investigate further and he would be caught. It was only when I looked up the murder of them a few days ago that I discovered it was still unsolved. I’m appalled that there is no mention of Larry anywhere.”

For 40+ years the case has remained unsolved. Many have wondered if Kim and Paige were 2 more in the long list of [Deangelo’s] victims. I know they were not. Unbelievably, some members of the local Sheriffs office know that as well.

How do I know, you might ask? In mid October 1977 my friend (I’ll call her Jo) and I went “for a ride to the mountains” with a man we met in a park in Orangevale near Jo’s sisters house whom we were visiting from So Cal.

His name was Larry.

Once in the mountains Larry asked us if we wanted to smoke a joint and drink some beer. We sat side by side on the hillside just a few yards off a dirt road near Auburn, with Larry in a crouching position in front of us. When we finished he suddenly sprang forward grabbing both of us by the throats and slammed us to the ground saying “do what I say and you won’t get hurt”. He raped us.

After raping us he pretended to be sorry and said he would take us home. I told him we would find our own way home but he insisted. Afraid he would hurt us then and there we pretended to believe him but with one hand on the door handle and the other squeezing Jo’s hand in the back seat to keep her from crying we went. We planned to escape at the first sign of people… but there was none.

He drove us deeper and deeper into the forest in his old 2 door Ford Fairlane. Where the dirt road was wide and smooth in the beginning it gradually became worse until we were descending into a valley with nothing but thick woods in front of us, huge ruts in the road and the bushes scraping both sides of the car. I knew we were almost to the place he planned on killing us. Still pretending to believe he was taking us home I said “this looks like the wrong road” and he agreed. Surveying the area he explained how he was going to use a small clearing on one side to turn around. When he turned in there was thick brush just ahead on our side… And he slammed the gas peddle to the floor.

When he did that I flung the door open. Had he kept his foot in it, the bushes ahead would have trapped us in the car but he panicked, slammed on the brakes and grabbed ahold of me. I pulled up the seat and yelled RUN JO RUN! He tried to grab her but she flew. With his one hand still gripping my arm I turned and hit him as hard as I could and ran behind her leaving only the sleeve of my shirt in his hand.

…After walking for miles we broke into a house and waited for the owners to come home. They contacted the [Placer County] Sheriff on the CB radio, no phones that far out. The couple took us to a little store/post office they owned (still dirt road) where a deputy picked us up. We only knew the guy as Larry.

When the deputy radioed in the call he gave Larry’s first AND last names. There are some details I don’t remember but there are some things I will never forget. The following are the reasons I am convinced [Deangelo] is not those girls’ killer.

After the hospital we were taken to the Sheriffs (police?) station. When we walked into the detectives office there was a picture of Larry sitting on his desk. They pretended it was accidental and said we weren’t supposed to see that. The detective said to us:

“Last week we pulled the bodies of 2 girls out of the EXACT area he took you to. They were so badly beaten we couldn’t identify them.”

(Until last week I didn’t know one of them had been shot). I don’t remember if it was that night or a couple days later when they talked to us again that they told us that this was the 4th time Larry had been arrested for rape. We were his oldest victims. Jo and I had birthdays 1 day apart. She just turned 16 and me 18.

It was the second time we talked to the sheriffs that I forever lost all faith in law enforcement and the judicial system.

In the second interview they told us that they had arrested him in his ex-wifes bathroom. He was shaving off his sideburns. They said that in the previous 3 rape cases they had not been able to convict him. He gave them some bull story that it was consensual sex and we just took off afterwards. They said that since we hadn’t (yet) been beaten there was no way to prove otherwise. Also since we had smoked marijuana we could have imagined the fact it was rape and our testimony would be no good and since there were no convictions in the prior cases they could not use those in a trial.

They had released him and the DA had dropped the case. Oh, they told us that we could push it if we wanted to but the defense would drag us through the mud and we smoked pot so it was unlikely he would be convicted. I guess we were supposed to be satisfied with the restraining order they gave him. We soon returned to So Cal and never heard from them again. As far as the exact date, I’m not positive but it was only a day or two after our birthdays. Mine is October 11.

I have assumed for 43 years that they now knew that Kimberly and Paige were killed by him or at least had a starting point to investigate further and he would be caught. It was only when I looked up the murder of them a few days ago that I discovered it was still unsolved. I’m appalled that there is no mention of Larry anywhere.”

[Edits and formatting changes made for clarity.]

***

I reached out to Tracy hoping she might be able to provide more information on this unexplored angle to the story. Who was Larry?

While I waited for a reply, I took another look at the evidence uncovered during the trials of Kenneth Lane.

Among the items found on Paige’s body was a scrap of paper with the address for what turned out to be the Primadonna Casino in Reno, Nevada. Police hypothesized this was where the girls were headed when they were hitchhiking in Auburn.

But why? Why would two 15-year old girls from rural Oregon be traveling to a casino in Reno?

While Kimberly had never left her small town before, Paige had actually been to Reno several times. After her parents divorced, it appears Paige lived with her mother in Reno for a while before moving to Oregon with her father.

Dissatisfied with small town life, Paige ran away earlier in 1977 and had been living all summer at the Garni Motel in Kings Beach on the shore of Lake Tahoe. Jean Hickey, head housekeeper at the motel, told investigators that Paige used the fake name “Sarah Richards” and worked in the housekeeping department there.

Hickey went on to say that Paige showed up for work one day after having been “severely beaten” by her 31-year old boyfriend because she drank the last of the milk. In the course of this conversation, Paige confided to Hickey that she was pregnant and that her boyfriend thought she was 16, not 15. “If I told him, he’d kill me,” she said.

As it turned out, Kenneth Lane’s defense attorney, Lipschultz, had actually defended Paige’s boyfriend on narcotics charges in the past. And so during Lane’s trial, Lipschultz called Lawrence Fitzgerald to the stand.

I’ll admit, I missed it the first time, but then it clicked:

Paige’s boyfriend was Lawrence Fitzgerald.

Lawrence.

Larry.

Paige’s older, abusive, drug dealing boyfriend was named Larry.

***

Part 2: A New Suspect? The Unsolved Murders of Kimberly Best and Paige Sinclair

Part 3: A New Suspect? The Unsolved Murders of Kimberly Best and Paige Sinclair

JoAnn Romain's family had been in a bitter battle over their inheritance for THREE DECADES. However, between 2009 and 2010, things seemed to escalate into something more sinister. After JoAnn's daughter Michelle received a threatening call it was from someone unknown, Michelle became increasingly paranoid, convinced that someone was stalking her. JoAnn herself admitted she had started to suspect that her phone had been tampered with, her mail was being rifled through without her consent, and that intruders were entering her home while she was away. In response, she decided to change all the locks on her doors that was not enough.

January 12, 2010, JoAnn vanished after attending a prayer service at St. Paul’s Catholic Church, which is located near Lake St. Clair.

JoAnn Matouk Romain was a 55-year-old divorced mom of three, residing in the suburbs of Detroit, Michigan. She was a part-timer at a clothing store and shared a home with her daughters, Michelle and Kellie, and her son, Michael. A devoted Catholic, she was last seen leaving an evening service at St. Paul on the Lake Catholic Church, which was close to her house, on January 12, 2010. What happened after that is where the mystery begins.

The police discovered JoAnn's car parked close to the church around 10 PM that night. They being curious by its unusual presence at such a late hour, they decided to look inside and found her purse. As they continued their investigation, they noticed footprints leading toward the water of Lake St. Clair. The tracks in the snow suggested that Romain had sat down and then made her way down two ledges before entering the frigid water.

70 days after she went missing, Romain's body was found floating on Boblo Island, located along the Canadian side of the Detroit River, a staggering 35 miles from where she was believed to have entered the water. While the police concluded that her death was a suicide, there are may reasons to suspect that she may have been murdered instead.

To begin with, the idea of suicide seems unlikely based on the evidence that was discovered. Romain did not leave behind any note, seemed to be doing well in the days before she vanished, and even took the time to fill her car with gas before going to church. While these factors do not completely eliminate the possibility of suicide, they did raise some doubts for JoAnn’s daughter, Michelle. This prompted her to hire a team of private investigators to dig deeper into the situation.

Additionally, there are other details that point to different explanations. For instance, the water's depth suggests that Romain would have had to walk quite a distance to reach a point where it was deep enough to be dangerous. Moreover, an eyewitness, who are often considered very unreliable, claimed to have seen Romain's car move after the church service, which further casts doubt on the suicide theory. These factors combined make it seem more plausible that something else might have happened.

If Romain was really murdered, we have to consider a few people. First up is her brother John, who was dealing with some financial issues then. He even hints in an interview that someone might have killed his sister as a way to get back at her. However, Michelle pointed out another main suspect: JoAnn’s cousin, Tim, who she was reportedly scared of?

What really frustrates me is that this case only mentions one eyewitness from the church on the night JoAnn disappeared. In reality, there were three witnesses, and one of them even heard JoAnn's car alarm going off. Plus, there is the issue of JoAnn's spare car keys going missing. Her daughters said that a spare set of keys disappeared in the weeks leading up to her disappearance. Strangely, that same set of keys showed up at the police station the day after she went missing, and no one knows how they got there. Is this just careless police work, or is there something more suspicious going on?

On the night JoAnn disappeared, a strange man wearing a black scarf was spotted close to the area of the lake where she was said to have entered. This detail was never mentioned whatsoever, but it did appear in a report. Interestingly, that black scarf ended up at the police station at some point, but it was taken out of the property system in 2015. This raises a lot of questions, especially since the case remains unsolved. It might just be poor police handling, but there could be something deeper going on as well.

There are several theories that revolve around a phone call Tim had with JoAnn just weeks before she passed away. Michelle, who overheard their conversation, mentioned that her mom appeared scared afterward. She also recalled her mother saying that if anything happened to her, Tim should be the one to look at. This definitely raises some red flags for me.

He also rejected the idea that his relationship with JoAnn was ever “estranged,” insisting that they were on friendly terms right up until that notorious phone call. He mentioned that he reached out to her after learning from another family member that she had been saying things about him when he was not around.

JoAnn's family, including her daughter, strongly disagrees with the idea that she drowned in the lake, believing instead that she was a victim of foul play. They point to the details surrounding her disappearance, particularly the fact that her body was found by fishermen in Canada, a full 70 days after she went missing. This location was also about 30 miles from where she was last seen, raising questions about how her body could have traveled such a distance without being noticed during the numerous searches conducted in the area.

The circumstances of her body being discovered so far away from the original site of her disappearance only add to their and my suspicions. It seems unlikely that her remains could have floated that entire distance without being spotted, especially given the extensive efforts made to search the lake. This has led her family to believe that something more sinister occurred, rather than a simple accident.

Given all the evidence and the family's strong convictions, I find myself leaning towards the theory that JoAnn was murdered. The timeline and the location of her body raise too many red flags to dismiss their concerns. It is too hard for me to ignore the possibility that foul play was involved in her case/death

https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/wayne-county/2024/09/17/grosse-pointe-man-accused-ramming-truck-van-charged/75259899007/

https://crimejunkiepodcast.com/mysterious-death-joann-matouk-romain-part-2/

https://www.cosmopolitan.com/entertainment/tv/a34452069/joann-romain-theories-disppearance-death-unsolved-mysteries/

Hello all! I fell down the rabbit hole when I found this case on NamUs. I truly believe that this case could be solved if there are more eyes on it.

Note: I am just a web sleuth/criminal justice college student; I have no insider knowledge or involvement in the cases I write up on. I write these write-ups in the hope of engaging the community with these cases. And bear with any grammatical inaccuracies. I do my best.

Background

Karen Rae Bosta was born to her mother, Arlene Murin, in New Jersey on December 20, 1975. She was the youngest of two other children, but that didn't stop her from shining brightly. Bosta was described by those who knew her as a bright, tender woman with a passion for helping others. She attended the Morris County Community College, majoring in Early Childhood Education, then worked as a public school teacher for several years. In 2014, she moved from New Jersey to Hertford, North Carolina to live with and care for her mother and grandmother. By all accounts, Bosta had acclimated well to the change. (Source)

Bosta has an undisclosed mental disorder and cognitive impairment. She takes essential medication for these conditions, which could have severe side effects if suddenly ceased.

Disappearance

On May 30, 2015, Bosta left her home in Hertford, North Carolina to run errands in the nearby town of Edenton, North Carolina. This drive was roughly twenty minutes. She was driving her red 1997 Lincoln Continental and brought her paisley quilted pocketbook, keys, phone, and her mother's credit card. Murin had given Bosta the card so that she could buy groceries and cigarettes. Bosta left around noon and seemed in good spirits. (Source)

Bosta's whereabouts around this time are only vaguely known to the public. According to the sheriff's office, her phone pinged in various locations around Edenton. She visited a fast-food restaurant, drove past a crossing bridge, and visited the home of her friend, 62-year-old Thomas White multiple times. White lived on Johnson Street, along the same road as the Walgreens and Food Lion. This behavior was apparently not unusual for Bosta. (Source)

Towards the evening, Bosta texted her mother saying that she was with friends but would return home earlier than anticipated. This is the last known communication from her.

Murin claims that Bosta was last seen leaving a Walgreens store; however, the sheriff's department had said that her last confirmed sighting was at a Food Lion store at around 10 p.m. This is backed up by security cameras and credit card records. After that, it is unknown where exactly she traveled. It is believed that she intended to go home, but she never arrived. Calls to Bosta went unanswered, though her phone was still on for two days until it either died or was shut off on June 1.

Bosta was not reported missing until around June 1st. Murin says that is because she was in disbelief that her daughter would disappear and expected her to return soon. When she didn't, Murin filed a missing persons report.

This is where the legality gets dicey. Bosta lived in a different area than Edenton, meaning that there were two police departments involved on the case. Plus, controversy arose when a Silver Alert was never issued for Bosta, despite her suffering from cognitive impairments. It's hard to say what effects these choices had on the overall case.

Bosta's car was discovered on June 8th in downtown Edenton, pulled into a parking lot off of Broad Street. It is unknown how long it had been there, but what was clear was all that was missing. Her keys, phone, and credit card were missing, and the car's doors were locked. After processing the car, there was no foreign DNA or evidence indicating what may have happened to her. It was as if she had exited the car and vanished. (Source)

However, a big break in the case came shortly afterwards, when it was discovered that charges were still being made on the borrowed credit card. The card was being used after May 30th at a local grocery store and gas station, but the gas station had declined the card. It turns out that the card had been in the possession of Bosta's friend, Thomas White. White's story on how he acquired the card varied throughout the investigation; he claimed that he had found it in his girlfriend's car, but he later changed the story to say that he found it on his porch. Regardless, White was arrested and charged on October 3rd in regard to the theft. He has not been charged regarding Bosta's disappearance, but those in the investigation believe he may have information that he has refused to share. (Source)

Bosta has never been heard from or seen since. Her phone has not been active since.

Vital Information

Karen was 39 when she went missing. If alive today. she would be a few weeks shy of 49. She is 5'3, roughly 140 pounds, and white. Brown curly hair and blue eyes. She was last seen wearing a plain white shirt, white shorts, and slip-on gray Sketchers sneakers. Karen has a lower back tattoo of a butterfly and a tattoo of a strawberry between her shoulder blades. If carrying her keys, they will be on a butterfly keychain loop.

If you have any information regarding Karen's disappearance, please contact the North Carolina Bureau of Investigation at 919-662-4500, or the Edenton Police Department at 252-337-4875.

We are in Germany, the state is Brandenburg. We are at Lake Bugsin, in German Bugsinsee, in Althüttendorf, near Frankfurt on the Oder. The lake is divided by a railway line and belongs to the Schorfheide biosphere, it is located near the Joachimstahl motorway exit of the A-11 federal motorway, between Berlin and Stettin - it is June 26, 2004, an elderly amateur fisherman spots a travel bag near the shore. It is very similar to those used by the Bundeswehr (German military forces) but it is not original, the color is olive green, it is big, it can be carried with two straps - the man looks more carefully, a human leg sticks out of the bag. That Saturday afternoon Wolfhard Trenn, an investigator of the Eberswalde homicide squad, a branch of the Frankfurt police headquarters, is on duty. The control center informs him of the discovery of the body, he immediately goes to the lake with a colleague of forensic sciences at around 3:00 pm.

What has just been found is the body of a woman, she has nothing with her that leads to her identity - no documents, no personal effects.

The woman is fully clothed. She is wearing a black and grey striped long-sleeved bodysuit with lace trim in the shape of waves around the neck and sleeves with a width of approximately 3.5 cm, size L, brand "MARTINA 81516", dark blue stretch jeans of the brand Bulani with grey corduroy back pockets and 12 cm long slits on the legs trimmed with corduroy. She is wearing a pink underwired bra of the brand Gina Benotti with lace and padding, size 80b, and a black thong with three metal rings. Both Bulani and Martina are not registered trademarks in Germany in 2004, while investigators are having better luck with the underwear. The bra and panties were sold in Ernsting stores in northern and eastern Germany for four months starting on 27 December 2001 - the store where they were purchased, however, remains a mystery. The woman is wearing a single blue left sock, some sources also mention the presence of a size 31/27 belt, the only brand present is "Made in China".

We soon learn that the bag was stolen from its original owner, so it gives us no information on the identity of the executioner or that of our unknown woman.

We have some information about her physical appearance. Average height, between 160 and 165 cm, Caucasian, her body weighs between 50 and 60 kg, her shoe size seems to be 34-35, her hair is dyed red, naturally brown, 30 to 35 cm long, she has a completely healed scar of 8.5 cm on the upper right arm and a scar of 1 cm x 0.5 cm, on the right knee joint. She has two holes in her left ear and one in her right ear, she has no scars from smallpox vaccination and has not had an appendix operation. As for her teeth, they are described as poorly positioned: the incisors are slightly overlapping in the upper and lower jaw, a characteristic that is evident to a more careful eye. It is precisely the teeth that help us learn more about our unknown. To determine the woman's age, an expert uses the study of the so-called anulation of the dental cement. The layers of dental cementum that have deposited on the root of the tooth are counted. "They are similar to the annual rings of trees," explains Wolfhard Trenn. It is with this method that the age range initially attributed to the unknown woman changes drastically; if older sources attribute her to 17 to 25 years, now we know the truth. The unknown woman from Althüttendorf is between 34 and 45 years old.

The woman's teeth had been restored, which suggests regular visits to the dentist. The existing amalgam fillings immediately arouse the investigators' interest. This is gamma-2-free amalgam, which in 2004 has not been used or sold on the German or Western European market for several years - in Eastern Europe, however, it is still in use - but the theory that the fillings were placed in the GDR era, therefore certainly before 1989, cannot be ruled out immediately.

It is estimated that she died between 3 weeks and 6 months, the body is decomposed, swollen from being in water, the woman's face is unrecognizable, the cause of death seems undetermined - too much time has passed, the water has erased part of the crime. Forensic experts even manage to reconstruct the softened papillary ridges of the victim so that they can take an imprint from each finger. They try to find matches in the fingerprint identification system, they do the same in the DNA database, all in vain - no information attributable to the poor woman from Lake Bugsin.

The investigators publish their findings on the woman's teeth in the Zahn Ärzteblatt (a dental magazine) of Berlin and Brandenburg. Again, no match - but this does not discourage the investigators. In December 2009, the murder investigators contact the LKA in Saxony-Anhalt, they meet with a facial reconstruction expert in Magdeburg. Facial reconstructions are produced to help with her identification, the reconstructed face should and should resemble that of the woman as much as possible, while the hairstyle was freely chosen - the woman from Lake Bugsin finally has a face.

https://images.app.goo.gl/mgCkn5nmBiMwsW1v7

This is one of the many facial reconstructions, the other ones are on her Unidentified Wiki Page:

https://unidentified-awareness.fandom.com/wiki/Alth%C3%BCttendorf_Jane_Doe

The investigators are not going to leave any leads untried. They have twice decided to have an isotope analysis performed at the Institute of Forensic Medicine in Munich, the test uses bones, hair, teeth and nails to determine where and how a person grew up and what their diet was in recent years.

"In March 2006, when the method was still relatively new, the experts found that the woman must have lived in an area close to the Romanian environment, as a child and a teenager," Trenn says in the report. The unknown woman from Lake Bugsin could therefore have lived in Romania or in areas close to the border of the former Yugoslavia.

"With this result, we started a public search in the Balkan countries and turned to Romania with a request for legal assistance," says the criminologist. However, there were not enough clues to help the Brandenburg homicide squad. Six years later, when the isotope analysis becomes more sophisticated, Trenn turns to the experts in Munich again. As expected, the result was more accurate.

“We can say that the woman was born in Romania, Yugoslavia or Greece. Everything also suggests that she spent the last three years of her life in Germany or Italy,” Trenn says. As he browses the database of missing persons from war zones in The Hague through Interpol, he has the Balkan war in mind. Result: negative - again.

Theories to investigate seem to be running out, Trenn provides a more classic, more common version: the unknown woman could be a foreign prostitute who was living illegally in Germany. Investigations in the red-light district of Barnim have revealed that no prostitutes are officially missing from the area. Perhaps, says Trenn, the woman was a lover, someone's concubine.

The main file on the murder case now comprises 13 volumes and there are various key folders with secondary leads and investigative information, four volumes contain the results of forensic analyses - in total there are thousands of sheets on the case.

There is a new investigative approach to the case: animal hair found in the duffel bag. Specialists from the Federal Criminal Police Office identified it as dog hair. "Maybe we can move forward," says the homicide investigator, without wanting to elaborate further.

Wolfhard Trenn says that the perpetrator did not make life easy for the investigators. "Water makes it incredibly difficult to identify a dead person" Now the investigators in Eberswalde are just hoping for a witness who recognizes the woman in the photos after so many years - somewhere, there must be someone wondering what happened to her sister, her best friend, her girlfriend, or even just her neighbor, the woman she exchanged a few words with that one time in the supermarket.

(sources: https://www.berliner-zeitung.de/mensch-metropole/seit-19-jahren-raetseln-brandenburger-ermittler-wer-ist-die-tote-aus-dem-seesack-li.317054

https://www.doenetwork.org/cases-int/465ufdeu.html

https://www.bz-berlin.de/archiv-artikel/tote-im-see-gefunden

https://unidentified-awareness.fandom.com/wiki/Alth%C3%BCttendorf_Jane_Doe

https://web.archive.org/web/20040910173528/http://www.szczecin.kwp.gov.pl/poszukiwani/zag/index.php?id=168

5 years ago on r/nonmurdermysteries was posted a thread about the identity of the singer of a 1964 song titled 'Don't You Make My Baby Cry' by someone calling himself 'Percy Evanston', the song was written and produced by legendary British producer Joe Meek, Meek worked with top UK artists of the time and became infamous after he shot and killed his landlady and then himself. Most people believe that 'Percy Evanston' was Geoff Goddard (a frequent Meek collaborator who passed away in May 2000) yet a few argue it was somebody else after Goddard turned the song down.

A few comments pointed out that the photo/sketch of Evanston used on his discogs page (now deleted but can still be seen online) looked like the Zodiac Killer. After looking at the Percy Evanston fan page on Facebook (which has been inactive for a few years) there is a photo on there and underneath it states ''A young Percy Evanston signing his record contract with Claridge Music Inc.'' but the photo is actually of former Republican Senator Charles H. Percy with a young man.

Charles H. Percy's 21 year old daughter Valerie was brutally murdered in 1966 and the murder remains unsolved, the Zodiac Killer (also unknown) has often been linked to Valerie's murder.

Who was Percy Evanston? Why does the sketch of a random singer from the 60's look like the sketch of The Zodiac Killer ? where does the sketch of Percy Evanston come from and how come the young man in the photo with Charles H. Percy looks like the sketch of the Zodiac killer who may have murdered his daughter?

https://www.crimelibrary.org/notorious_murders/famous/valerie_percy/index.html

https://classicchicagomagazine.com/has-the-valerie-percy-murder-finally-been-solved/

https://www.45cat.com/record/nc124765us#comments

John Cannan has died in HMP Full Sutton, aged 70. His cause of death has not been made public.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy9jxpj2lypo

Cannan, who was serving a life sentence for the 1989 abduction and murder of Shirley Banks, was the prime suspect in the 1986 disappearance of estate agent Suzy Lamplugh, who vanished during an appointment to show a house in Fulham to a "Mr. Kipper". No trace of her has ever been found.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Suzy_Lamplugh

The Crown Prosecution Service took the unusual step of publicly naming Cannan as the main suspect in 2002 even though numerous searches have failed to turn up sufficient evidence to formally charge him, most recently at his mother's former home in Sutton Coldfield He maintained his innocence in both crimes until his death.

Rest in piss.

Altena-Bergfeld Jane Doe was a young female found murdered in a wooded area in Germany, between Hemecker Weg and Bergfeld, in North Rhine-Westphalia. She had been raped, strangled, and burned alive. Unspecified evidence has proven that she was killed by a relative and efforts were made to conceal her identity. The body was burned and the upper half was very disfigured, making it hard to recognize her.

The date of the woman's death is probably June 1, 1997, and while some sources say it is possible that the woman died up to a month earlier, we can be pretty sure in saying that the woman was killed no earlier than 48 hours after she was found.

On Monday June 2, 1997, around 7:30 pm, a young motorcyclist, who is living out his urge to move on his off-road bike, found the partially burned body of a young woman at the end of a forest path above the Rahmedetal in Altena (pop. 23,077 in 1998). The motorcyclist immediately called the police and forensics is conducted late into the night. The woman was naked and her left leg was slightly angled, protruding unnaturally from her body. She was found in a wooded area in Altena-Bergfeld, Germany, near the city limits to Lüdenscheid.

https://images.app.goo.gl/q64Ks7DwzGbi4pF17

The facial reconstruction you're seeing now was made by Ursula Wittwer-Backofen, famous anthropologist from the University of Freiburg.

The woman was very petite, standing at 5'1" (150-155 cm) and weighing 100 lbs (around 45 kg), and is estimated to have been between 14 and 22 years old (probably more around 18-22, as her skull was fully developed) at the time of her death. At first she was thought to have blue eyes, although it is very likely that her eyes were dark, Frank Haarmaan, who is currently leading the investigation, stated that they could've lightened after the woman's body was set on fire. She had a pale complexion, and auburn to dark brown hair. The woman's teeth were very well taken care of and she may have worn a gem on one of her incisors (tooth 12, possibly a diamond-like, likely imitation, ornament around 2mm), which investigators believe may have been purposely removed during her murder to avoid her identification. She may have additionally recieved orthodontic treatment prior to becoming a teenager and she may have worn braces in the past before she turned 12. Her shoe size was likely 33/34/35 (EU), (2,5/3/3.5 US), her toenails were painted with red polish. The body was nude, yet blue/gray fibers at the scene may have been from fragments of clothing, an isotope test was inconclusive, however, it is believed she spent the first 15 years of her life in Eastern Europe.

Postmortem examination indicated that the woman had been raped, strangled with a nylon stocking, and then doused in some kind of fuel and set on fire, she was probably killed elsewhere. During the autopsy skin was found under her fingernails and semen was found inside of her vagina. DNA discovered on the woman's body was examined and found to belong to a male relative (a lot of German articles say it was her own father).

It's possible that the family or father claimed that the girl moved away or ran away. It could also be possible that they claimed to have reported her missing but never did. Further examination of the woman's body revealed she was still alive when her killer set her on fire, smoke was in fact found in her lungs, although she was not necessarily visibly alive to the perpetrator, as she could've fainted. The reason for her burning was probably to cover up evidence, as it seems that the killer tried to erase whatever features that might have led to her identification. They speculate that Jane Doe and whoever murdered her may have belonged to a family travelling through the area, who by chance headed for the remote woodland on the mountain field to kill the young woman there.

Also, some believe that she could have been a part of a group passing through the area for the rifle festival in the city the weekend before her death, it's possible she could have belonged to a group of showmen. However, police didn't find any information that would support the theory. In fact, some people remembered two twins who worked in a circus, one of whom always performed with her father, but this lead did not produce any results. The two twins, in fact, are both still alive and well.

Investigator Ulrich Kayser said he didn't think a foreigner would find the place the body was found, as it was a very remote area, but he also didn't think a family in the area would have been able to keep a family member's disappearance a secret. In 2017, twenty years after the murder, Kriminalkommissar Ulrich Kayser told Westfalenpost: "There must be a family somewhere that misses their daughter."

There is speculation on the Doe's Websleuths thread that her death could have come as an islamic honor killing and she may have been of Turkish descent, however it's not very likely, considering that she is probably Romanian, although this is just a theory. The case was recently featured on Germany’s biggest (unsolved) crime show, Aktenzeichen XY... ungelöst . It really went into detail and also talked about some theories, like a taxi driver, that came forward years later, that said she drove a young lady and three older men into the woods, she said that they spoke a foreign language she couldn't understand, they said they were the father and the brother of the girl and they left the taxi as soon as they began to approach the woods, even though it was late night.

Identifying the victim could also lead to the crime being solved. If you have any information, please contact the Hagen police headquarters, Tel. 02331/986-2066, or any other police station. Her fingernails and her DNA are available for comparison, probably also her teeth.

[sources: https://www.wr.de/wr-info/article5201322/ die-jagd-nach-dem-grausamen-moerder-geht-weiter.html

https://victimsofhomicide.fandom.com/wiki/Altena_Jane_Doe

https://unidentified-awareness.fandom.com/wiki/Altena-Bergfeld_Jane_Doe

https://web.archive.org/web/20031005194444/

http://www.lka.nrw.de/fahndung/hagen/default.htm

https://www.wp.de/region/sauer-und-siegerland/article212643923/vom-vater-missbraucht-und-verbrannt.html

https://www.come-on.de/luedenscheid/bergfeld-leiche-polizei-hofft-tv-sendung-1455014.html

https://www.bka.de/DE/IhreSicherheit/Fahndungen/Personen/UnbekannteTote/Kampagne_NL_B_D/MK_Bergfeld_Hagen/Sachverhalt.html

https://missingdoe.com/uf-0011/

https://www.doenetwork.org/cases-int/309ufdeu.html

https://www.interpol.int/How-we-work/Notices/Operation-Identify-Me/DEO3-The-burned-body-in-the-forest

https://www.bild.de/regional/ruhrgebiet/ruhrgebiet-aktuell/fall-bei-aktenzeichen-xy-wer-ist-das-mordopfer-mit-den-schoenen-zaehnen-84811718.bild.html

https://www.bild.de/regional/ruhrgebiet/ruhrgebiet-aktuell/ermittler-wenden-sich-an-zahnaerzte-glitzerstein-soll-cold-case-aus-altena-loese-84904584.bild.html

https://www.bild.de/news/2023/news/bka-kampagne-mordopfer-unbekannt-wer-kennt-diese-toten-frauen-83865912.bild.html ]

I'm sorry for my poor English, unfortunately I'm not a native speaker, I'm still learning.

We are in Germany, this time in the Baden-Württemberg region, in the far south of Germany, the city is Todtnau, which currently has just over five thousand inhabitants. It is July 24, 1997, the partially burned body of a woman is found buried in a pit in the forest hiking parking lot "Weissenbach" in the Präg district in the Heidelbeerbülhl area, we are about thirty kilometers from the Swiss border, it's a place frequented by hikers of several nationalities - the clothing of our woman, however, does not resemble that of a hiker.

The unknown woman from Todtnau is wearing a light-colored Speedway T-shirt, a long dark blue De Ville skirt with a light floral pattern, a blue plastic belt with a gold-colored buckle, white Roberto Santi sandals with gold-colored ornaments, size 38, a light-colored bra, white Trend panties in cotton, size S - she may also have been carrying a "DeLanee" bag with her, which was later found by the owner of a restaurant, the "Präger Böden", less than ten kilometers from the place where she was found. The investigators are positive, they are convinced that the distinctive clothing could help to identify her. About her clothes, currently sold in second-hand shops, we don't known exactly where they were sold at the time. While various sources tell us that in 1997 they were available in Vögele stores in Germany, Switzerland and Austria, deputy spokesman for the public prosecutor's office Michael Blozik claims that they were only available in Switzerland and in some shops on the border. Her sandals, made by an Italian company, could also have been resold and purchased in any other country. She is around 164 cm tall, her age is estimated to be around 20 years old, she has brown hair, about 34 centimeters long and the size of her clothes suggests that she has a slim build.

We don't know who she is, what her name is, or how she got there. We only find out later that she was left in the Weissenbach for at least several days, possibly up to two weeks. Establishing the exact cause of her death is almost impossible, probably due to the state of decomposition of her body. We only know that it was doused with a substance that accelerated its combustion, probably gasoline - the berry hunters who found her quickly looked around, the first thing they noticed was a construction shovel not far from the body.

There aren't many theories about what happened to her. It's very likely that she was a murder victim, given the circumstances of her discovery. Opinions are divided about her origins, some believe she isn't from very far away, others theorize that she could be from Eastern Europe, or even Turkey, maybe she was a victim of human trafficking. Chief detective Matthias Höfling is instead convinced that the woman has some connection with the Swiss border, given the origin of her clothes.

There are no missing person reports linked to the woman, and if there are, the police have not been able to find one to her in all these years.

On May 10, 2023, the case of the unknown woman from Todtnau will become part of the Identify Me project, an operation launched by Interpol to solve cold cases across Western Europe to identify 22 unnamed women found dead in several countries, including the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. A public appeal has been launched for information on the unidentified women. Interpol, together with the Dutch, German and Belgian police forces, have released new forensic facial reconstructions, including that of our unknown woman, which was made public last year by the Stuttgart Criminal Investigation Department, along with other information needed for the investigation - after twenty-six years, the unknown woman from Todtnau finally has a face.

On 10 November 2023, the case was covered by Germany's most popular cold case TV program, "Aktenzeichen XY... Ungelöst", and thanks to this and the Black Notice of the Identify Me campaign, the Waldshut-Tiengen public prosecutor's office received at least around 120 reports, which, according to Blozik, are currently being investigated.

The authorities are asking anyone who thinks they have information about the case to contact the Freiburg police, who are offering a reward of 3,000 euros for information that can help them investigate the crime and identify the perpetrator, while any tip-off that leads to the identification of the woman will be rewarded with 2,000 euros. Anyone who thinks they may have witnessed the crime is asked to contact the Lörrach police at 07621/176-800, at +497621 176-800 or by email loerrach.kk.d1.coldcase@polizei.bwl.de.

-

links to the facial recontrusction and the clothes.

https://images.app.goo.gl/W8DkG4syVz13FAZY9

https://images.app.goo.gl/dt1ENMkVNQK32Kx1A

(sources: https://www.bka.de/DE/IhreSicherheit/Fahndungen/Personen/UnbekannteTote/Kampagne_NL_B_D/Soko_Hochkopf_Freiburg/Sachverhalt.html

https://www.suedkurier.de/region/hochrhein/kreis-waldshut/tote-frau-20-im-schwarzwald-polizei-bittet-im-cold-case-fall-von-1997-um-hinweise;

https://fahndung.polizei-bw.de/tracing/todtnau-cold-case/

https://www.verlagshaus-jaumann.de/inhalt.mordfall-von-1997-in-todtnau-80-hinweise-gehen-ein.8217bdb1-7eb5-4fad-bf74-2ceb95e78883.html

https://www.watson.ch/international/deutschland/599165804-mord-in-todtnau-1997-polizei-erhaelt-120-hinweise-aus-der-bevoelkerung

https://www.badische-zeitung.de/cold-case-todtnau-praeg-polizei-hat-neue-hinweise-zur-identitaet-der-leiche-erhalten

https://www.stuttgarter-nachrichten.de/inhalt.junge-frau-1997-bei-todtnau-getoetet-cold-case-aus-dem-schwarzwald-bei-aktenzeichen-xy-ungeloest.710dd61c-d46f-487b-807c-5dddabc64809.html

https://www.bild.de/regional/stuttgart/stuttgart-aktuell/ungeloester-mordfall-wer-diese-frau-kennt-bekommt-2000-euro-85686198.bild.html

https://www.20min.ch/story/todtnau-d-26-jahre-nach-leichenfund-das-ist-die-frau-im-blumenrock-898245609575

https://www.blick.ch/ausland/cold-case-nahe-der-schweizer-grenze-unbekannte-tote-hat-nach-26-jahren-ein-gesicht-id19119329.html

https://www.bzbasel.ch/basel/basel-stadt/toetungsdelikt-cold-case-in-basler-grenznaehe-neue-hinweise-koennten-zur-identitaet-der-leiche-fuehren-ld.2537960

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

https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/1408o1k/an_unidentified_woman_was_found_burned_in_a/?rdt=38660 )

I'm trying to distract myself from the massive anxiety and doom scrolling I've been doing due to the U.S. elections, and what better way to do that then having some new rabbit holes to go down?

There are so many cases that, while technically unsolved, it's fairly obvious what happened: a woman goes missing and it's clear that her abusive husband is responsible; a man goes for a weekend hiking trip alone and never returns, and is presumed to have gotten lost or injured and died in the wilderness; a child gets in trouble in the water and never resurfaces after going under, body never found but certainly drowned. But I want to learn about the most unusual, baffling mysteries out there- the ones that have left investigators scratching their heads at a dead end. The ones where anything could have happened, or nothing could happened. The one where instead of "hear hoofbeats and think horses, not zebras," it actually may be a zebra.

My personal submission for this prompt is the death of David Glenn Lewis. In 1993, Lewis lived in Amarillo, Texas, and was an attorney. He was married and had a daughter. On January 28, he left work at noon, saying that he didn't feel well and was going home. He bought gas at a gas station, and then taught a class at a local college until 10 PM. The next day, his wife and daughter went to Dallas for a weekend-long shopping trip, and they didn't see him before he left. He had not gone with them because he wanted to watch the Dallas Cowboys, his favorite football team, play in the Super Bowl. When his wife and daughter returned home on Sunday night, they found a VCR recording the telecast of the game (which had already ended), but Lewis nowhere to be found. There were sandwiches in the fridge, laundry in the wash, and his wedding ring and watch were left behind on the kitchen counter. His wife first assumed that he had been watching the game with a friend and then left to do some work, but after he missed two work appointments, she reported him missing. The day he was reported missing, his red Ford Explorer was found downtown by the Amarillo courthouse, with the keys under the floor mat and his checkbook, driver's license, and two credit cards also inside. Financial records indicated that $5,000 had been deposited in his bank account on January 30; that a plane ticket from Amarillo to Dallas was purchased in his name on January 31; and that a plane ticket from Dallas to Los Angeles was purchased in his name on February 1 (it could not be determined who purchased the tickets or if they were used).

Meanwhile, on February 1, the day Lewis's wife reported him missing, a man in Yakima, Washington, was struck and killed by a car. He had earlier been spotted by others in the road, and seemed disoriented. He had no identification on him and was pronounced a John Doe. In 2004, the Washington John Doe was identified as Lewis.

There are obviously a lot of questions: How did Lewis get to Yakima, a distance 1600 miles from his home in Texas and also considerably far from Los Angeles, where the plane ticket in his name would have landed? What prompted him to leave in the first place? Why Yakima, Washington?

More sources:

Baffling trail stumps police searching for missing attorney

Find a Grave

1993 hit and run victim is finally identified

What many consider the greatest lost media search has finally come to an end. For years efforts included contacting retired dj’s and radio show hosts out of retirement to scouring 80s and 90s commercials. Yesterday on November 4th, a Reddit user Marijn1412 contacted artists named in 80s german newspaper Nordwest Zeitung searching for its creator. Phret from the band FEX responded by sending an original recording of it. The song by was titled “Subways of your mind” recorded in 1984, not “like the wind” as many assumed. FEX had no idea this song had gone viral and was considered lost media. The discovery of it has allegedly inspired a reunion tour.

Cheers to another mystery off the checklist.

A verge article covering the discovery: https://www.theverge.com/2024/11/5/24288782/unidentified-song-mystery-reddit-fex-subways-of-the-mind#

The Reddit post where Marijn1412 posted the original recording: https://www.reddit.com/r/TheMysteriousSong/comments/1gjbrs6/tms_is_found_the_song_is_called_subways_of_your/

The original recording provided by phret: https://vocaroo.com/19NFyeqYi7Zj

I've recently gotten supper into the "death of an artist" podcast (https://open.spotify.com/show/3HzRY1tJUIxLTCAR4yw98x?si=ByhTAhrRQzCrGy702IX4UA) which discusses the mystery around the artist Ana Mendieta's death and the probability that it might have been a murder by her husband Carl Andre (also an artist). [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ana_Mendieta#]

The case went to court but a lot of evidence was not admitted (I'm not very practical with the legal world, so I'm not sure why) and Andre was acquitted. But in the podcast they say that all the evidence and documents related to the trial were locked away and only Andre had access to them. This means that no one from the public or from the legal world had access to any records (his 911 call, Polaroids of scratches on his body, verbal witness records of people passing by, including the existence of these records isn't officially "confirmed").

Andre died earlier this year so I'm wondering: what happened to all these documents and evidence? Can anyone else have access to them now that he's dead? Do they get destroyed(?)?

It's too late to serve justice now that he's passed away, but it would be nice to know whether he was a scumbag lying to everyone for most of his life or if the story was blown out of proportion from the the victims's side.

Jill Dando was murdered outside her house in Fulham, London, on April 26, 1999. The following year, Barry George, a resident of the same neighborhood, was taken into custody on suspicion of her murder. In 2001, he was found guilty and received a life sentence.

However, he filed multiple appeals and eventually had his conviction overturned after a retrial in 2008. Currently, there are no updates or new suspects in the case.

Maybe that is exactly the issue at hand. One of the most shocking and puzzling high-profile murders in recent history still remains a mystery. Jill Dando, a well-known television journalist and presenter, was tragically shot in the head at close range right outside her home in Fulham, west London, on April 26, 1999, by a shooter who has never been caught. The circumstances surrounding her death were almost unbelievable.

In the UK, shootings that don't involve violent gangs are extremely rare, and murders of women by strangers are even less common. Fulham, being an affluent area, has low crime rates overall.

The fact that a well-liked public figure was killed in broad daylight for no clear reason was simply hard to comprehend.

I ranked the top theories based on how probable I think they are.

1. Stalker
2. Hitman
3. Revenge Act

In my opinion, the most likely motive is that she discovered something she was not meant to find out.

Stalker: Considering Dando’s fame and presence on TV, some people believe she could have been murdered by a fan who was overly obsessed or a stalker, possibly even a pedophile, but that seems a bit far-fetched if you ask me

Hitman: This theory proposes that Dando was killed by a Serbian assassin as revenge for the NATO bombing of a television station in Belgrade just three days before she was murdered. A few weeks earlier, Dando had also hosted a BBC appeal for Kosovo-Albanian refugees during the Kosovo War. This suggests that her role in reporting on the conflict and advocating for the refugees could have made her a target for some Serbian nationalists.

Revenge act: There are theories suggesting that Dando could have been a target due to her role in the BBC show Crimewatch, which aimed to get the public's help in solving various crimes. This idea implies that someone who was featured/wanted or felt endangered by the show might have sought revenge against her

Dando was a famous figure on television and had actually previously experienced being stalked by an obsessed fan. According to the London weekly Observer, just two weeks before her death, a person who identified themselves as a Serb reached out to Dando. This individual expressed disapproval of her public appeal for help regarding Kosovar Albanian refugees.

Following her death, the police investigated various leads and looked into a broad spectrum of possible suspects. Among those considered were a supposed Serb assassin and a former lover who had been rejected. The authorities were determined to uncover the truth behind her untimely demise.

The situation surrounding Dando's death raised many questions and concerns, especially given her previous experiences with harassment. The involvement of a stalker and the threats she received added a layer of complexity to the investigation. As the police continued their inquiries, the public remained captivated by the unfolding story and the search for justice.

It triggered one of the biggest criminal investigations in the UK since the hunt for the Yorkshire Ripper, yet the case is still unresolved.

Jill Dando transitioned from a promising print journalist in Weston-super-Mare to a beloved BBC personality, often referred to as 'TV's Diana.' Many even drew comparisons between her and Princess Diana.

Born in Weston-super-Mare, she began her journalism career at the Weston Mercury newspaper and had worked there for years

Jill Dando began her career with the BBC in the mid-1980s, where she contributed to BBC Radio Devon and worked on the Spotlight program in Plymouth. Her talent and dedication quickly became evident, leading her to transition from regional television to more prominent national programs in London by the late 1980s.

During this time, she gained significant recognition for her work on breakfast television, the 6pm news, and popular shows like Holiday and Songs of Praise.

Tragically, Jill Dando's life was cut short when her body was found on the doorstep of her home in West London around 11:47 am. Despite being rushed to the hospital, medical personnel declared her dead by approximately 1 pm.

The investigation revealed that she had suffered a fatal gunshot wound to the head

In the aftermath of her death, a neighbor reported seeing a man described as tall and around 40 years old leaving the scene. This sighting is considered to be the only lead in the investigation into her murder

Jill Dando's funeral took place at Clarence Park Baptist Church in Weston-super-Mare on May 21, 1999. Over 2,500 attendees were present, and authorities collected more than 1,000 statements regarding her tragic death.

A local resident named Barry George was found guilty and sentenced to prison for her murder in the early 2000s. Nevertheless, after serving eight years behind bars, he was released due to a successful appeal and retrial. To this day, no other individual has been charged in connection with Jill Dando's murder.

1: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-04-26/jill-dando-murder-25-years-bbc/103763480

2: https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-66783495

3: https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/uk-news/what-happened-jill-dando-killer-25290884

4: https://youtu.be/NOMOFWgt2jQ?si=_1dGdXr42vDxyEhr

5: https://youtu.be/YR2m6yGaFBM?si=xtLFPrlbuApY-_gh

Edit elaborating on the theory she found out something she was not supposed to know/killed to stay quiet:

Jill Dando reportedly attempted to inform her colleagues about a pedophile ring at the BBC that included "big name" celebrities, according to a former coworker. It is claimed that she communicated this information to higher management in the mid-1990s, but for some unknown reason, no investigation was conducted.

The year before her death, Dando became involved in a campaign aimed at helping expose/catch pedophiles. She had been threatened with death before, which led to the BBC going into lockdown, with armed guards stationed at their center in London.

Jill in the years before she was murdered had attempted to expose a history of sexual abuse and child molestation involving some of the biggest names in TV, but her concerns were often dismissed and overlooked.

The BBC has faced serious backlash due to pedophilia scandals after many individuals came forward to share their experiences of abuse by the disgraced TV presenter Jimmy Savile, who was associated with the BBC. Recently, Rolf Harris was sentenced to prison for his involvement in the sexual abuse of children, and police have made additional arrests of unnamed TV personalities connected to these allegations.

A year before her death, Dando became involved in a campaign aimed at exposing pedophiles once again. Fellow BBC presenter Sally Jones mentioned that while she was alive, Dando had to deal with sexual/physical harassment from numerous people at the BBC on a daily basis.

Just days before Jill was murdered, British forces conducted airstrikes, and shortly after her death, it was revealed that the former head of BBC news, Tony Hall, received a call from a man with an Eastern European accent who said, “Your prime minister here. They butchered innocent young people. We butcher back.”

The idea that she might have known too much is not far-fetched, but it seems likely she would have shared that information with someone. Whether it be a colleague or whoever else, someone should have been aware of it. Was this possibility really not taken into consideration during the investigation? 🤦🤦🤦🤦🤦🤦🤦🤦🤦🤦🤦🤦🤦🤦🤦🤦

This is a weekly thread for off topic discussion. Talk about anything that interests you; what's going on in your world?. If you have any suggestions or observations about the sub let us know in this thread.

Jodi Huisentruit disappeared in the early hours of June 27, 1995. She was running late for work after oversleeping, and after leaving her apartment, she was abducted, as indicated by signs of a struggle outside, with some personal items strewn in the parking lot next to her car but no signs of Jodi. Neighbors reported hearing screams at the time she would have left for work, and one saw a white Ford Ecoline idling in the parking lot at Jodi's apartment. Despite an extensive investigation, the case remains unsolved. Recently, there have been new developments according to the Find Jodi website, following a police search of an area in Winsted, Minnesota, two weeks ago after receiving a tip. Let's hope and pray this leads to something that could help solve the case.

Source: https://findjodi.com/mason-city-iowa-investigators-search-area-in-winstedminnesota-on-a-huisentruit-tip/

With the advent of genetic genealogy, John and Jane Doe cases that had gone cold decades earlier are getting their identities returned to them at an unprecedented rate previously thought impossible just a few short years ago.

However, for some Does, their name is only half the puzzle for investigators: now they have to solve their murders. In this series, I hope to bring light to cases that have gone cold twice over. Today's case is that of nineteen-year-old Peggy Ann Elgo, a young woman identified after her family submitted their DNA for comparison to another Jane Doe*.

The Apache are a group of indigenous tribes native to the southwestern United States and northern Mexico. They include the San Carlos Apache, a band living on the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation, a 1.8 million-acre plot east of Phoenix, Arizona. Peggy, who was a member of the San Carlos Apache, disappeared in the winter of 1983, leaving behind an infant son and no traces of where she could be. At the time of her disappearance, the teen lived with her sister and son on the reservation in the small town of Peridot, Arizona.

That summer, Peggy's remains were found the morning of June 7th south of Florence, Arizona by a pair of ranch hands working on state-leased ranching land. Florence is located near Phoenix, about sixty miles (96 km) southwest, and right at the intersection of three major state highways. She had been left in a desert wash, a shallow passage that 'washes' water downhill to lower elevations, likely three or four months prior to her discovery. Due to the passage of time she had spent exposed to the elements, authorities were unable to determine a definitive cause of death, though her head was missing from her body. No clothing remained on her body save for her socks and shoes, a pair of brown faux-suede sneakers.

Unfortunately, Peggy's identification was stymied by one major factor: upon on an examination from the Pima County Medical Examiner, her remains were incorrectly assumed to belong to a Black woman in her twenties, not an indigenous woman. This discrepancy was not noticed until her identification, which was spurred by a relative of hers spotting a press release for another Jane Doe, a teenage girl found the same year in the Ahwatukee Foothills area of Phoenix.

A DNA profile developed from Ahwatukee Jane Doe's remains pointed towards her being of San Carlos Apache heritage, though genealogists were unable to triangulate her exact identity. By happenstance, in 2018, Peggy Elgo's cousin came across information about Jane Doe, and suspected that they might be one and the same. Investigators took DNA samples for direct comparison with the unidentified girl, which proved to be not a match.

Undeterred, Detective Stuart Somershoe of the Phoenix Police department, input the samples into CODIS, the national DNA database, which highlighted a probable match, later confirmed with more advanced DNA testing.

Her surviving relatives are unsure what brought Peggy to the Phoenix area, nor who may have taken her life and left her out there in the desert, but they're thankful to finally know what happened to her after so long. The family plan to re-inter her remains on the San Carlos Reservation.

*Recently identified as Lori Longchase, another indigenous teen born into the same tribe.

-

https://www.missingkids.org/blog/2020/finding-missing-kids-its-in-our-dna

https://www.phoenix.gov/newsroom/police/1013

https://www.websleuths.com/forums/threads/az-pinal-county-blk-fem-20-25-up11058-found-in-desert-head-missing-june-83-peggy-elgo.457645/?fbclid=IwY2xjawGL_g9leHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHTCMN5BSSP_VktTG6nit4DuzBoW5aQ13j04mvR5CzlNMjyDf3DrVI66mEQ_aem__ndIuAKmYpsLBo-avVouKA

https://www.azcentral.com/story/travel/local/history/2015/07/20/difference-arroyo-gulch-wash-terminology/30410531/

https://charleyproject.org/case/peggy-ann-elgo

https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/163713302/?match=1&terms=%22body%20found%22

In 1974, a spirited and outspoken woman residing in St. Augustine, Florida, became entangled in a bizarre dispute with her neighbors, a conflict that garnered public attention and turned much of the historic city against her. Tragically, she was murdered in a brutal attack with a machete on her own front porch during daylight hours, and her assailant remains at large.

Athalia Ponsell Lindsey was a model, dancer, socialite, and political activist who lived near the picturesque Matanzas Bay in St. Augustine. Originally from Ohio, Athalia met a tragic and violent fate on the evening of January 23, 1974. Many people think that a neighbor, with whom she had ongoing disputes, was responsible for her murder, which had not been solved.

Their conflicts had escalated to noise complaints and a highly publicized argument. On the night of January 23, 1974, a young neighbor heard screams and went to check it out, discovering the horrific scene of Athalia's body. A man who fit the description of the arguing neighbor was seen fleeing the area. Athalia had been viciously attacked with a machete, suffering multiple blows to her arms, head, and neck. Some of her fingers were severed, and she had been brutally decapitated.

The shocking news rattled the community, sparking rumors and a deep sense of fear that such a terrible act could happen in the usually quiet town of St. Augustine. Following Ponsell’s murder, law enforcement began an extensive investigation to find out what really happened. They encountered many obstacles while trying to gather clues and understand possible motives.

At 6:10 pm, neighbor Locke McCormick, who was 20 years old, looked out his window toward the Lindsley home and saw a man moving his arms up and down as if he was hitting something. Locke McCormick dashed outside and saw a white man in his middle ages, dressed in a white shirt and dark pants, walking away from the Lindsley house, leaving a crumpled figure on the bottom step. He quickly ran back inside to tell his grandmother, “Mr. Stanford is attacking Mrs. Lindsley.” The St. Augustine Police Department received the call at 6:12 pm. It was clear that any attempts to revive her would be pointless.

Medical examiner Dr. Arthur Schwartz reported that Lindsley had been “struck nine times with a machete on her hand, arm, and head. One of her fingers was cut off, and she was almost decapitated.” Despite these severe injuries, the first investigation found no evidence of a struggle. Her husband noticed that nothing was missing from their home except for a baby blue jay that Athalia had been caring for. The cage where the bird was kept was described as “smashed.” What do you all think?

I am 99.9% sure her neighbor whom she was having a domestic dispute with had something to do with it

https://crimecapsule.com/bad-blood-the-murder-of-athalia-ponsell-lindsley/

https://historiccity.com/2017/staugustine/news/former-mayors-wife-hacked-to-death-61705

Edit: It seems that the main issue was Athalia had a tendency to take in stray dogs off the street and act like they were hers basically. This became a problem because the dogs were always barking, and it really annoyed her neighbors. On top of that, she also had some birds, which added to the noise. It was like a constant symphony of barking and chirping at all hours of the day and night. The noise from her pets became unbearable for the people living nearby. They were absolutely fed up with the constant interruptions I can see why though, whether it was early in the morning, during the afternoon, or even late at night.

I absolutely hate when cases like this go unsolved - I don't know about you guys but I think it is pretty damn obvious who did it

Hello everyone! As always, thank you for all your comments and votes on my last post about Karl Klinge- I hope that he will be able to be buried under his own name soon.

This case is quite unusual, as it involves four people- adopted siblings, all under 18- who went missing together.

BACKGROUND

When the Bushey kids went missing in 2023, they were all so very young- Perpetua was 15, Ezekiel was 13, Justice was 12, and the youngest, Ava, was just 6. They were last seen in Whitewater, Wisconsin, USA.

They were members of a large adoptive family lead by Chad and Kim Busheys. The missing four weren't the Busheys' only children- their other siblings include Kari, Elizabeth (now 21), Jeremiah (now 20), Hannah, Ezra, and Emily. They had three other siblings, who have sadly passed away in late 2022/early 2023: Samuel, Grace (died at 16), and Joseph (died at 13). I do not know the ages of all the children, as I can't find them in any sources, but they are not considered missing; Kari, Elizabeth and Jeremiah seem to be adults, so I'm assuming they're probably living on their own, but Hannah, Ezra and Emily are listed after Ava in Grace's obituary- wouldn't that imply that they were younger than Ava? They aren't, however, listed as missing, so I'm assuming they're accounted for- it's possible that they were taken away by CPS, for example.

Chad and Kim were open to adopting children with congenital diseases like Huntington's Disease, which is the cause of death of Grace and Joseph. Perpetua also has Huntington's, while Ava has cerebral palsy and has to use a wheelchair.

The Busheys were a devout christian family who seemed to live a farming lifestyle- during an artisan fair, they were selling jewelry, knitted items, dog treats, wood work, goat milk soap, and other trinkets. An article about the family that was, admittedly, written about 12 years ago, said that they kept chickens, llamas and goats at the time. They also seem like big fans of a TV station called the Christian Broadcasting Network, and they made regular payments towards their Orphan's Promise charity. The Busheys ran a ministry for the children called "The Carpenter's Flock". By the time the siblings went missing, they were non-custodial parents of them.

When she was 11, Perpetua loved "horses, gardening, art, piano, feeding her baby sister, singing, gymnastics", and has been described as "liking everything".

When he was 9, Ezekiel loved "sports, swimming, being a jokester, piano, lego`s, math, biking, and wrestling with brothers".

When he was 7, Justice loved "legos, piano, his little sister, sledding, math". He was a fast runner and loved to run, plus he was very creative with cardboard boxes.

Sadly, we don't know anything about little Ava, other than the fact that she suffered from cerebral palsy and used a wheelchair.

DISAPPEARANCE

Sadly, the only thing we know about the disappearance of the siblings is that they were reported missing on the 5th of September 2023. A welfare check was performed at the family's residence, only to discover that they were all gone. There's no info on any mode of transport, clothes anyone was wearing, just nothing.

Chad had entered a civil tort in December of 2023, asking for a change of address, but the new address is just a UPS store in California. The house they owned was sold in January of this year.

CONCLUSION

I'm sorry that this writeup is so short on the actual details of the disappearance, but I've been seeing this case brought up on websleuths for some time now and it bothered me every time, so I decided to write about it on the off chance that someone who might know anything will read it.

How come four kids, and at least two of them heavily disabled and in need of extensive medical care, simply vanish like this, with seemingly nobody caring much? There are no articles on the case, nothing. If not for the NCMEC posters and a few social media posts by law enforcement, nobody would know they were even missing. Someone was clearly concerned about the quality of care the siblings were recieving if a welfare check was conducted.

Even without the disappearance, I find the whole situation troubling. Chad and Kim had 12 kids in total, with some of them disabled- there's no way that there was no parentification happening, and the older kids weren't forced to look after their younger siblings. It's simply impossible to provide all kids with adequate attention and care at that amount of children, with some of them requiring so much additional care. I also wonder if the kids had to work on the farm and help keep the family afloat to some degree. I saw cases like this one before, where a deeply religious christian family adopts many, many children as a form of faith affirmation, and then doesn't provide them with right conditions to grow up, makes them look after their younger siblings and work in some kind of family buisness. I'm not saying this is 100% the case here, but it's obvious to me that even if Chad and Kim were the world's most loving and caring parents, they simply wouldn't be able to look after that many kids without neglecting some of their emotional needs. The fact that there is reason to believe that the ill children aren't recieving the proper medical care is also saying a lot.

I wonder what do the older siblings of Perpetua, Ezekiel, Justice, and Ava are thinking. I wonder if they know anything about where their siblings might be, or if they do know, but don't want to divulge it to law enforcement.

I also wonder if Chad and Kim have any help from people who think they're right and are supporting their cause- a bit like it is assumed in the case of Tom Phillips in New Zealand, who is assumed to be living in the bush with his three children for three years now. They seemed to be quite close with the local community back in 2012, but I personally feel like they are probably hiding in another state.

Perpetua is biracial (hispanic/white), has brown hair and eyes, and wears glasses. She would be about 16 now. She has Huntington's disease. Ezekiel is Black, has black hair and brown eyes. He would be about 13. Justice is Black, has black hair and brown eyes. Ava is white and has brown hair and eyes. She would be about 7 now. She suffers from cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair. The siblings might be accompanied by Chad Bushey (white male, long, brown hair, might have facial hair) and Kim Bushey (White female. Blond/brown hair, brown eyes. Her ears are pierced. She may use the last names "Broome," "Raatz," "Urbanek," and/or "Young").

If you know anything about the wherabouts of any of the siblings, contact the Walworth County Sheriff's Office at 262-741-3200.

SOURCES:

1. missingkids.org
2. forthelost.org
3. elkhorn.marketfaire.com
4. cbn.com
5. echovita.com

The siblings' websleuths.com thread

Ariel Jeffrey Kouakou is a young Black boy from the Ahuntsic-Cartierville neighborhood in Montréal (Québec, Canada). He has black hair and black eyes. At the time of his disappearance, he was 10 years old. He stood 1.40m tall and weighed 40kg (4ft 7in, 88lbs). He wore a black hooded coat, gray pants and yellow Adidas shoes. He spoke French and was described as a shy, gentle boy who liked playing soccer.

Image
A) A photo of Ariel shared with the media after his disappearance
B) A map of the area where he was last seen (red cameras are the garage and restaurant)
C) One of the river banks where Ariel could have slipped
D) The diving squad in the partially frozen river
E) Age-progression image of Ariel at 16 years old

The Disappearance - Monday, March 12 2018

Ariel, a fourth-grader at François-de-Laval elementary school, had a day off from school on March 12. Despite the cold weather (1°C / 33.8°F) and cloudy skies, he decided to visit his friend Ismaël who lived less than 500m (0.3 miles) from his home. It was the first time he could visit this friend without being accompanied, as his father was at work and his mother had to go to class. He left his house on Valmont Street at around 11h10.

He walked along Gouin Boulevard and was captured on cameras from homes and businesses, including a camera from Garage Jules Provost. In the footage, he is seen turning back twice to look behind him without stopping. A neighbor confirmed she saw him knock on his friend’s door, confirming that he made it to his destination. Unfortunately, Ismaël wasn’t home and no one answered because the house was empty. The neighbor saw him turn around. Another camera at Le Bordelais restaurant recorded him walking back toward his house. Some sources state he was recorded entering Parc des Bateliers, though others do not specify this.

The last confirmed sighting is unclear. Several sources confirm a woman saw him around 11h25 and asked him why he was alone at the park instead of at school. However, after the AMBER alert was issued, another witness claimed she might have seen him at 14h00, still at Parc des Bateliers. Regardless, he was never filmed or seen leaving the park after 11h30. One of the witnesses described him as looking “unhappy” because he couldn’t play with his friend.

The Parc des Bateliers (Bateliers Park)
The Parc des Bateliers (connected to the Parc de la Merci, directly across the railway) is a small wooded area along the Rivière des Prairies and the Gouin Boulevard. It has bike paths, walking trails and picnic spots. It’s important to note that there are no barriers to prevent people from falling into the river. Usually, the center of the wide river remains too strong to freeze, but the calmer shores sometimes become covered in ice and snow. At the start of March in 2018, the ice apparently extended over much of the river.

The Search for Ariel
At 16h00, Ariel's mother went to Ismaël's house to pick up Ariel, only to be told by Ismaël’s older sister that he wasn’t there. In the evening, Ariel’s parents grew increasingly worried when he didn’t return home. They visited the local police station, which advised them to call emergency services. At 19h30, they contacted 911 and the search began.

Given Ariel's young age, lack of history of running away or behavioral issues, the police took his disappearance very seriously. Initially, no leads were ruled out: he could be lost, a runaway, involved in an accident, or abducted. The temperature dropped quickly, with snow in the forecast. Since Ariel wasn’t properly dressed for the cold, finding him was urgent. Officers searched through the evening and night, covering streets, parks and his favorite places. They also spoke to his friends, who had no idea where he was.

His disappearance quickly became one of the most publicized cases in Montréal’s history. Known affectionately as "little Ariel" by the media, every detail released by the police was broadcast. Volunteers poured into the neighborhood to assist and a fundraising campaign was launched to help the family. Door-to-door was conducted in Ahuntsic-Cartierville to gather information and encourage residents to check their properties for clues. After 24 hours with no results, an AMBER alert was issued for 10 hours, even though it technically didn’t meet the criteria. It generated new leads, but none were fruitful. Ariel's family was unhappy when the alert ended and wanted it to continue until he was found.

Days passed without any sign of Ariel. The police increasingly focused on the riverbank, prioritizing the theory that he had drowned. On foot, on VTTs and on horses, they searched over 6km along the river’s edge to the hydroelectric station downstream. It wasn’t until March 19, a week later, that a dive team could safely enter the water. They considered the possibility that Ariel's body, despite the river's strong current, might be caught in underwater debris such as rocks, branches or ice. When a body is submerged, the decomposition process usually create gases that make it float to the surface after a few days. However, the freezing water could potentially slow this process, keeping the body underwater.

Despite six dives, nothing related to Ariel was found. As months passed, searches slowed and the case became cold. Further dives occurred in spring, but no new evidence emerged.

The Kouakou Family
Ariel's disappearance devastated his family. His parents made many media appearances to keep Ariel in people’s minds, while trying to remain strong for their three other children. Ariel’s younger sister didn’t understand why her older brother hadn’t come back home. His mother admitted she still prepared his clothes every Sunday before going to church and turned on his night light before bed.

The family thanked the volunteers and police for their hard work and constant support in this ordeal. However, Ariel's family always disagreed with the drowning theory and his father wished to be more involved in the investigation. He felt the police prematurely focused only on one possibility. Ariel’s parents believed he would never have gone near the water, as they had repeatedly warned him of its dangers. They think that even if he had fallen in, someone would have seen or heard him struggle.

The family has always believed Ariel was kidnapped and have hope that he is still alive. Four months after his disappearance, they published a public letter addressed to his unknown abductor, offering forgiveness and asking only for their son’s return. They also petitioned the provincial government for a specialized provincial abduction response unit.

Aftermath
Nearly seven years later, the case remains unsolved with no new leads. The yellow missing signs that greet motorists at Ahunstic-Cartierville’s entrances, asking "Ariel, where are you?", have now faded to white. Ariel’s father cannot accept the stalled investigation: “We shouldn’t wait for my son to come back; we have to keep searching.” In 2024, on the sixth anniversary of his disappearance, the Missing Children’s Network released an age-progression image of Ariel at 16 years old, created by Sécurité du Québec experts.

Personally, I believe Ariel may have accidentally fallen into the river. The snow thaws then turns to ice, making park trails slippery and dangerous. Meanwhile, snow on the banks can create the illusion of solid ground when you’re actually standing on thin ice. Falling in the freezing river would likely cause shock, making him unable to call for help and making him lose consciousness fast. If his body remains trapped underwater, it might only be found if something like a shoe separates from his ankle and floats to the surface.

However, there is the less likely but still possible scenario of abduction. At 10 years old and 1.40m tall, he could have been targeted by an opportunistic predator in a vehicle or living near the park. The police relied heavily on not seeing him leave the park, but there are multiple exits (six from Parc des Bateliers, four from Parc de la Merci, plus the Perry Island bridge to Laval), and it's unclear if they were all monitored. No evidence conclusively supports either theory. One detective said that they prioritized the accidental drowning theory over the others specifically because of the absence of proof was a proof in itself.

What do you think? Did Ariel accidentally drown, or was he kidnapped? Or do you have another idea of what might have happened? Regardless, I think about him a lot and I hope Ariel’s parents will have answers soon. Thank you for taking the time to read my write-up.

Notes

• March 11, the day before his disappearance, was daylight saving time in Canada, It caused confusion in some reports about the timeline.
• It is unclear what Ariel was doing between 11h30 and 14h00, if the second witness really did see him.
• Ariel’s case didn’t meet the AMBER alert criteria since his abduction was unconfirmed.
• I don’t know if the hydroelectric station downstream might intercept a body floating down the river. If so, it could mean that Ariel is either still underwater or not in the water at all.
• Some speculate Ariel’s body could have reached the Atlantic Ocean, but that’s unlikely. It would need to travel 30km (18 miles) to the St-Lawrence River, then 700km (435 miles) to the Gulf of St-Lawrence, all while dodging the many islands and structures in the way.
• Ariel’s family was never considered suspects, nor was anyone in their circle.

Sources

• Still no trace of missing Montreal boy as search continues
• AMBER Alert lifted for missing 10-years-old boy
• Montreal police believe missing boy fell in the Rivière des Prairies
• Heavy snow hampers search for missing 10-years-old
• Le petit Ariel a été capté par des caméras de surveillance (footage of Ariel)
• Battue pour retrouver le petit Ariel, chien pisteur d'Halifax en renfort (lots of pictures that show what the conditions were like during the searches)
• La famille d'Ariel écrit au présumé ravisseur (the parent's letter, in french)
• Dossier de disparition - Ariel Jeffrey Kouakou

Human remains identified in 2023 are from a 26-year-old Toronto man who escaped from prison in 1980. William Joseph Pennell had a criminal history and was arrested on June 30, 1979, for armed robbery and attempted murder. He was jailed at the Kingston Penitentiary and escaped from the prison on June 13, 1980. He told a friend he was planning on fleeing to South America, and this is the last documented communication from Pennell.

Human remains were found on the side of 11^(th) Concession Road in Markham, a suburb just outside the northern boundary of the City of Toronto (formerly the City of North York before amalgamation of six city boroughs in 1998) on July 16, 1980. The remains were identified as a white male between the ages of 25 and 40 that was approximately 5’6” tall with medium-length brown hair, although advanced decomposition of the body hindered identification.

The unidentified remains were exhumed in 2007 for facial reconstruction and to obtain DNA. No DNA matches were returned when submitted to the DNA database, but in 2021, investigators used genetic genealogy to identify relatives of the deceased. He was identified as William Pennell on April 3, 2023.

Although a cause of death was not determined, foul play is suspected and the York Region Police (YRP) are searching for any known associates and/or friends of Pennell that may be able to shed some light on the timeline between when he escaped from the Kingston Penitentiary and when his body was found approximately a month later.

Source

Source

December 24th 1992, Susan Lund was a 25 year old mother and wife living in Clarksville Tennessee. She left her house to pick up last minute groceries by foot, but never returned. Her husband reported her missing and a search effort by police over Clarksville was enacted. Information on the month long search is scarce but true crimes have since gathered newspaper articles from the time indicating that the case suffered the usual problem of false sightings. One headline reads that she was found alive and well in Alabama, others say people called in seeing her in Kentucky. The article also reads that at some point in January 1993, Susan called the police claiming to be alive and safe somewhere. This could unfortunately be further from the truth.

On January 27th 1993, Wayne Fitzgerell park just west of Ina Illinois. Joggers discover a severed head in the bushes on the side of the road. Police searched the area but found no other body parts. The state of the head suggested she had been killed just a few days earlier. The Ina Jane Doe remained a mystery for decades in the backlog of cold cases. Notable for police exaggerating wry neck syndrome in their sketches of Susan. After 29 years forensics experts Laurah Norton and Amy Michael reopened the case in 2021 and used Redgrave Research to run a genealogy search on a new dna sample extracted from the head. In 2022 they matched it to Susan Minard Lund.

So we have the head identified and can finally confirm Susan never abandoned her family. Considering she left her house on foot, and ended up hundreds of miles north most likely means she was kidnapped on her way to or from the store. This also means the alleged call to police may have actually been her, if she was kidnapped in December but died in late January she was likely in some sick fucks captivity for a month, and they could have forced her to make the call so police would stop searching for her.

Now for the other obvious questions, where is the rest of the body? No other body parts, bones or clothes have been found and matched to Susan. I think the answer to this is that the killer was heading to Lake Rend, a huge lake that the way Wayne Fitzgerell park is a peninsula on. It would be far from the first time body parts or murder victims would be found in the lake if true. Either that or the killer buried or burned her somewhere among miles of woodlands. As for why the killer left a head, it’s possible it fell out of their car while transporting it somewhere or they panicked and through the head out the window before regaining composure and deciding to hide the rest of the body.

There have never been any named or theorized suspects in Susan Lunds murder. No suspicious vehicles, no enemies, motives or arrests as far as I can find. The 29 years as a Jane Doe doesn’t help the odds of the murderer being caught. We’ve come this far, bring justice for Susan Lund.

Sources:

https://www.theleafchronicle.com/story/news/crime/2022/03/15/susan-lund-missing-clarksville-tennessee-remains-identified-illinois/7051339001/

https://redgraveresearch.com/index.php/cases/ina-jane-doe-illinois-1993

https://www.wsiltv.com/news/1993-jefferson-county-murder-victim-identified/article_6b962a0a-a0b3-11ec-a42d-0f8bf0dcea06.html

https://amp.bnd.com/news/local/article257582398.html

Newspaper scans reporting her disappearance and alleged sightings:

https://imgur.com/TQ6tA0x

https://imgur.com/nwANIWJ

I am happy to announce that the DNA Doe Project has been able to identify Lansing Street John Doe 1996 as David Brown. Below is some additional information about our work on this identification:

David Brown died after being doused in kerosene and set on fire just a few blocks from his home in Atlanta, Georgia in 1996, but without identification or clues to his identity, his disappearance wasn’t connected to his remains until now. In October, 2023, the case was referred to DNA Doe Project by Danielle DiPasquale, Founder of the Find Our Missing Facebook group. Earlier this year, the Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office provided a sample for DNA testing. Once a genetic profile was developed, volunteer investigative genetic genealogists with the DNA Doe Project spent a little more than four months researching complex genealogy to come up with his name. 

Brown was known as Fulton County John Doe, and buried without his name, while his family had reported him missing at the time he disappeared. Even though there was DNA testing available in the mid-90s, techniques used in investigative genetic genealogy didn’t emerge until after the explosion of direct-to-consumer sites like Ancestry.com and FamilyTreeDNA.com and the identification of Marcia King, formerly known as Buckskin Girl, in 2018. 

“The lack of records prior to 1870 makes African American genealogical research very challenging,” said genetic genealogist Lance Daly. “We discovered an ancestor from the 19th century who was born in Lincoln County, GA, but later died in Atlanta. This led us to hypothesize that our John Doe had deep family ties to Atlanta and may have been born there.”

Investigative genetic genealogy is a set of techniques using advanced DNA testing and online DNA databases to discover “matching” genetic relatives of an unknown person. By building the family trees for these sometimes distant relatives, investigators with the DNA Doe Project were able to locate the correct branch of the family tree to find David Brown. These techniques have been used to identify hundreds of former Jane and John Does since 2017.

“We are proud to have been able to finally identify him after so many years.” said team co-leader Rebecca Somerhalder. “Most of our cases are very complex and we are extremely grateful to those who upload their DNA to GEDmatch and FamilyTreeDNA to assist us in our work.”

The DNA Doe Project is grateful to the groups and individuals who helped solve this case: the Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office, who entrusted the case to the DNA Doe Project; Genologue for extraction of DNA and whole-genome sequencing; Kevin Lord for bioinformatics; GEDmatch Pro and FTDNA for providing their databases; and DDP’s dedicated teams of volunteer investigative genetic genealogists who work tirelessly to bring all our Jane and John Does home.

https://dnadoeproject.org/case/lansing-street-john-doe-1996/

https://medium.com/the-mystery-box/the-unsolved-murder-and-lost-identity-of-a-man-in-flames-ef945466ef0c

And if you want to help us solve more cases and you've already taken a consumer DNA test, please consider uploading your DNA profile to the databases we can use - GEDmatch, FamilyTreeDNA and DNA Justice. Thank you!

In my ongoing pursuit of finding lesser known unsolved cold cases, I frequently use the newspaper archives as one of my research tools. Oftentimes I come across articles that, due to a lack of information, I save for later use. Several years ago I began compiling these cases into “categories” and sharing them here.

Today I am sharing seven stories of unsolved Halloween pranks that resulted in tragedy.

Story 1

On October 31, 1969, 25-year-old Myron Parenuik was traveling alone along a secluded section of highway in rural Canada. The dense patches of fog that evening made for limited visibility, and unfortunately, by the time a large tree that was laying across the roadway came into view, it was too late. Myron’s vehicle struck the tree at full speed.

The tree had fallen at “eye level” across the roadway, resting on an incline on either side of the road. According to police, it had “made a convertible” out of Myron’s car, nearly decapitating him. Sadly, he did not survive the accident.

Evidence at the scene indicated the tree had been felled using a chain saw. Police discovered a fresh “wedge” of trunk had been removed, causing it to fall in the direction of the highway. Less than ten miles away, on the same road, police discovered a second tree lying across the roadway. It too had a small wedge removed. A matching set of shoe prints and tire tracks showed the same person had been responsible for both incidents.

Unfortunately, despite a lengthy investigation, the person responsible was never identified.

Story 2

On Halloween night, 1939, Angus McMillan, a 46-year-old life insurance salesman, had returned to his hometown of Kelowna to celebrate the holiday with loved ones. After a visit with his brother, Daniel, Angus left.

However, the following morning, Daniel discovered his brother's car still running in the driveway. Upon closer inspection, he found Angus slumped over the steering wheel. Tragically, he was pronounced deceased upon arrival at the hospital.

A subsequent investigation revealed a partially eaten apple, deliberately lodged in the vehicle's already faulty tailpipe, had caused a lethal accumulation of carbon monoxide gas within the vehicle.

The person responsible was never found.

Story 3

On October 31, 1945, a Halloween prank in Russellville, Indiana, had devastating consequences. Romulus Boyd, a respected 82-year-old former high school principal and bank president, was well-known for his fear of fire. He had oftentimes expressed this fear to his former students, neighbors, and fellow employees at the bank.

A group of local youths, capitalizing on this vulnerability, set a pile of leaves ablaze on Romulus’ front porch using kerosene. When he opened his door to investigate the disturbance, the shock and terror of the flames triggered a massive sudden heart attack. Sadly, Romulus was pronounced deceased at the scene.

The group responsible were never found.

Story 4

(Warning this story contains details of animal cruelty. Reader beware.)

On November 1, 1996, El Paso, Texas resident Sam Ponder awoke to discover his Halloween display had been gruesomely vandalized. The vandals had replaced a jack-o-lantern, used as a dummy's head, with a real severed horse's head.

The person/s responsible was never found.

Story 5

On October 29, 1956, a Halloween prank in Mt. Prospect, Illinois, nearly caused a man to go blind. Neil Bolier, a seasoned semi-truck driver, was the unfortunate victim of said prank. That night, as he navigated the dark roads, a group of pranksters, traveling at high speed in the opposite direction, hurled a large pumpkin directly at his vehicle. The force of the impact shattered the windshield, sending a shower of glass into the cab.

Miraculously, Neil managed to bring his truck to a safe stop. However, over 50 pieces of glass had to be extracted from his eyes and face. Thankfully, doctors were able to save his eyesight and Neil made a full recovery .

The individuals responsible were never identified.

Story 6

On the morning of November 1, 1952, Herbert Bucholz and his two children, 3-year-old Wayne, and 6-year-old Pamela, were involved in a major traffic accident as a result of a Halloween prank. Tragically both children died; Pamela at the scene of the accident, and Wayne just days later in the hospital.

An investigation revealed a pair of stop signs were removed from a busy Wisconsin intersection on Halloween night, leading to the fatal car accident that had claimed the childrens’ lives.

Unfortunately, no arrests were ever made.

Story 7

On November 1, 1934, a passerby stumbled upon the nude body of a man in an empty Virginia parking lot. The victim was later identified as John Rainey, a WW1 veteran who had passed away a month prior.

A chilling investigation revealed that John’s body had been exhumed from a nearby cemetery as part of a Halloween prank. The perpetrators had desecrated his grave, then partially undressed his corpse, before dragging John’s body a quarter-mile to the parking lot, leaving behind a trail of tattered clothes and human “debris” in the process.

ETA: Thanks to u/bloodwagon for letting me know this case was actually solved!

“USMC convicted five men for their roles in desecrating John Rainey's grave and body. Trumpeter Emile H. Hauck, Privates Fred Brothers, Gene Kays John C. Killingworth jr., and Charles H. Stephens. They came from B-1-5th Marines, HQ Company Fleet Marine Force, and the Post Service Battalion. They were tried and convicted at a general court martial in January 1935. Kays initially claimed he watched the incident and claimed it was four men who threw their shovels into Quantico Creek after. Shovels were found by the investigating USMC officers where he indicated. All five were sent to Portsmouth Naval Prison. Hauck, Brothers, and Stephens served a year. Kays spent two years there. Killingsworth served 10 months. All were dishonorably discharged. This is from the USMC muster rolls. Rest in peace, Mr. Rainey.”

Sources

Newspaper Clippings

Newspapers.com

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