Local Unsolved Mysteries

[fernweh]

There was a local news article today - a man was driving around 4am and hit a woman that was walking in the road. When he got out of the car to check on her she was no where to be found. He called the police to report, they did an expanded search and still no woman found.

I have seen some comments claiming it’s a skin walker which I know that’s part of the Navajo culture so with no connection to it I am not going to form an opinion there.

Does your area have anything that belongs on an episode of unsolved mysteries?

[loira]

Yes, a couple of them - and they have probably both featured on crime shows at some point though I can't recall which ones. One is the disappearance of a little 4 year old boy in 1990. He disappeared while playing at the playground, with his parents nearby and a whole bunch of other people at the park. Absolutely zero witnesses.

The other is a high profile murder of a local real estate agent who was brutally killed while showing a house to a mystery couple. There's likely a drug connection to that one but nobody has ever found out who did it. Our city's police are separated by municipality and I think a lack of swift resource sharing was also to blame in not gathering evidence fast enough.

[livinitup]

You wouldn’t think that there would be so many murders in my little town in Maine but for about 12 years, on and off, almost weekly, I was helping the local police. So, they weren’t actually unsolved mysteries for long because I did help solve them. Which I was happy to do because the police almost always missed the important clues and wanted to arrest the wrong person.

At the same time, I was writing murder mysteries. My stories sold really well. And to be fair, it wasn’t always solving murder mysteries in Cabot Cove, it was also New York City and even when I travelled overseas.

You wouldn’t think I was the mastermind behind all of the murders. Would you?

[maudefindlay]

livinitup I hear you were great at going undercover.

[gummybear]

The big one that first comes to mind here is the disappearance of Danielle Imbo and Richard Pettrone. They vanished into thin air about 20 years ago.

Our other one “The boy in the box” was solved recently.

[ellipses84]

Lenoria Jones was a little girl who went missing near where I lived as a teen and it’s always haunted me. I feel like it was a long time before they announced to the public there was no evidence she was ever at the Target her great aunt said she disappeared from (and I had shopped there many times). People questioned if the great aunt had dementia. Obviously there was foul play but they never had any real evidence.

www.king5.com/article/news/local/tacoma/lenoria-jones-tacoma-missing-person-cold-case/281-8f371494-b231-4ecf-a105-e78ea7d931b3

[maudefindlay]

Lauren Spierer's disappearance is local to me. I gave birth to DS2 the day she went missing and I was up late with a newborn and so followed the story on the late night news. It hurt to look at her Mom and Dad and the pain they were in. IU is my alma mater, so I felt a connection there. I really believe the young men she was with that night know something. They are all young 30s now and likely married and starting families. Maybe guilt will get one of them someday or perhaps one will get divorced and the ex will share something with police. I also think finding her body could also solve it.

[tacokick]

A young woman who graduated from my HS when I was a freshman went missing from her own street when she was in her early twenties and has never been found. That was huge news and her family and that of her husband were really entrenched in the community we lived in. She had a little kid who must be in his early twenties now.

Just last year they were searching her ILs property again. They seem to think the eyewitness testimony at the time was incorrect and she was not actually seen the day they thought she disappeared and have been asking for help from the public again.

[tacokick]

Aug 17, 2024 17:19:56 GMT -5 ellipses84 said:

Lenoria Jones was a little girl who went missing near where I lived as a teen and it’s always haunted me. I feel like it was a long time before they announced to the public there was no evidence she was ever at the Target her great aunt said she disappeared from (and I had shopped there many times). People questioned if the great aunt had dementia. Obviously there was foul play but they never had any real evidence.

www.king5.com/article/news/local/tacoma/lenoria-jones-tacoma-missing-person-cold-case/281-8f371494-b231-4ecf-a105-e78ea7d931b3

The great aunt had a 9 year old son at home at the time! I wonder how old she was.

[maudefindlay]

Aug 17, 2024 17:33:53 GMT -5 tacokick said:

Aug 17, 2024 17:19:56 GMT -5 ellipses84 said:

Lenoria Jones was a little girl who went missing near where I lived as a teen and it’s always haunted me. I feel like it was a long time before they announced to the public there was no evidence she was ever at the Target her great aunt said she disappeared from (and I had shopped there many times). People questioned if the great aunt had dementia. Obviously there was foul play but they never had any real evidence.

www.king5.com/article/news/local/tacoma/lenoria-jones-tacoma-missing-person-cold-case/281-8f371494-b231-4ecf-a105-e78ea7d931b3

The great aunt had a 9 year old son at home at the time! I wonder how old she was.

I'm 47 and have a great-niece who is almost 8. DH is the youngest in his family and BIL had niece from a prior relationship before marrying SIL (DH's older sister).

[tacokick]

Aug 17, 2024 17:37:53 GMT -5 maudefindlay said:

Aug 17, 2024 17:33:53 GMT -5 tacokick said:

The great aunt had a 9 year old son at home at the time! I wonder how old she was.

I'm 47 and have a great-niece who is almost 8. DH is the youngest in his family and BIL had niece from a prior relationship before marrying SIL (DH's older sister).

That’s what I’m saying! I wouldn’t jump to dementia in her case. Generations can be short.

[jinkies]

Well the police consider this solved and just a tragic coincidence.

But about 10 years ago a local woman went missing while walking home from a bar on the river. There is a canal that runs along the river and a path that runs along the canal. She was ultimately found to have been drunk and somehow fell into the canal, where she drowned.

About 10 years before that happened, a man died walking the exact same route, drowning in the canal in the exact same way. If I remember right, they were walking home from the same bar.

But the crazy part is... the man was going home to an apartment he shared with a roommate.

The woman was going home to an apartment that she shared with her boyfriend.

This was the same person (Roommate = boyfriend, they were both going home to the same guy).

At least one of the woman's friends has publicly stated that the woman never took the path, especially if alone at night. But police say that's exactly why it ended tragically-- she was drunk and unfamiliar with the narrower sections.

This story has stuck with me and just never sat right.

I just googled it to remind myself of the details and it looks like it might have recently resurfaced in a tiktok video questioning whether it could really be a coincidence.

[gummybear]

jinkies how have I not heard of this!?! Was it the Manayunk canal?

[cereal K]

I remember one from home when I was in middle school - a local high school student named Dale Dinwiddie. Went missing after a concert with friends. It’s been over 30 years. I hate that her family has no closure.

[tacokick]

Aug 17, 2024 17:44:21 GMT -5 jinkies said:

Well the police consider this solved and just a tragic coincidence.

But about 10 years ago a local woman went missing while walking home from a bar on the river. There is a canal that runs along the river and a path that runs along the canal. She was ultimately found to have been drunk and somehow fell into the canal, where she drowned.

About 10 years before that happened, a man died walking the exact same route, drowning in the canal in the exact same way. If I remember right, they were walking home from the same bar.

But the crazy part is... the man was going home to an apartment he shared with a roommate.

The woman was going home to an apartment that she shared with her boyfriend.

This was the same person (Roommate = boyfriend, they were both going home to the same guy).

At least one of the woman's friends has publicly stated that the woman never took the path, especially if alone at night. But police say that's exactly why it ended tragically-- she was drunk and unfamiliar with the narrower sections.

This story has stuck with me and just never sat right.

I just googled it to remind myself of the details and it looks like it might have recently resurfaced in a tiktok video questioning whether it could really be a coincidence.

I fell down that rabbit hole recently! So odd.

[maudefindlay]

This is a state over from me, the disappearance of Brian Shaffer. How did he get out of the bar unseen? Is he still there a result of an accidental fall into the construction going on? So weird.

www.fbi.gov/wanted/vicap/missing-persons/brian-shaffer

[mcppalmbeach]

I can’t think of any in my little city. But where I grew up 30 minutes away a young teen disappeared from the beach and was found raped and murdered and her case was never solved back in 1990. I still remember her name because she was 3 or 4 years older than me and she was definitely a cautionary tale about staying with your friends and not taking shortcuts through the woods. Horrible story. There was also a mother and daughter killed at a mall that has never been solved. A local lake was recently discovered to have multiple cars in it that solved a few cold cases, which is crazy to think about. No foul play suspected/

[mcppalmbeach]

Aug 17, 2024 17:44:21 GMT -5 jinkies said:

Well the police consider this solved and just a tragic coincidence.

But about 10 years ago a local woman went missing while walking home from a bar on the river. There is a canal that runs along the river and a path that runs along the canal. She was ultimately found to have been drunk and somehow fell into the canal, where she drowned.

About 10 years before that happened, a man died walking the exact same route, drowning in the canal in the exact same way. If I remember right, they were walking home from the same bar.

But the crazy part is... the man was going home to an apartment he shared with a roommate.

The woman was going home to an apartment that she shared with her boyfriend.

This was the same person (Roommate = boyfriend, they were both going home to the same guy).

At least one of the woman's friends has publicly stated that the woman never took the path, especially if alone at night. But police say that's exactly why it ended tragically-- she was drunk and unfamiliar with the narrower sections.

This story has stuck with me and just never sat right.

I just googled it to remind myself of the details and it looks like it might have recently resurfaced in a tiktok video questioning whether it could really be a coincidence.

I believe in Occam’s razor and all that, but this seems too coincidental

[jinkies]

Aug 17, 2024 18:05:11 GMT -5 gummybear said:

jinkies how have I not heard of this!?! Was it the Manayunk canal?

Bar is in New Hope, both lived in Lambertville and fell in the canal on the NJ side.

[maudefindlay]

Local to my hometown was a girl who went jogging in broad daylight in a gated community and never came home. I remember the high school closed one day and had all the students help in the search. This was in 1981, but still....what if one of them found her? 2 months later a farmer and his teen grandson did find her. I think it's 99% safe to say a firefighter was her killer. His dad was former chief of police, so surprise surprise never criminally prosecuted. The FBI came for his DNA in 99 and he killed himself....and tests were inconclusive. His wife is still alive and I hope she admits his guilt before she dies or in a letter after. Would just be good for the family to have that confirmed. I was 5 years old and between that and then Adam Walsh that summer it definitely changed how loose parents were with their kids.

[macmars45]

Many missing Native women unfortunately; I live near an Indian Reservation.

[nospaekae]

I grew up, and my parents still live, not far from where Maura Murray's car was found if anyone remembers that case.

[mokes]

I don't want to post too many details since it'll be identifying, but my great-grandmother was murdered and the case has been long considered an unsolved "locked room" mystery. Every so often, a reporter or detective will dig it up as a cold case and try to re-investigate but no one has ever gotten to the bottom of it. I know it's in a couple of books and I recently came across a blog discussing it.

I've always found the reporting from the time it happened very interesting as some details that seem important or at least very curious were never been reported (and have never been since), and there were a lot of inaccuracies in the reporting as well. I also discovered a connection between her murder and another, totally different strange local story, and I've also never seen anyone else put that connection together. I do sometimes think about putting it out there with some of that additional info to see if anyone could finally solve it or would come forward with info.

[sadlebred]

This is about an hour from Atlanta. It's never been solved.

www.11alive.com/article/news/crime/cold-cases/fbi-new-leads-cellphone-data-dna-evidence-brutal-killings-elderly-georgia-couple-lake-oconee/85-9de921b0-385c-4305-9ebe-615ab3031eb4

[arehopsveggies]

A local murder was on 20/20 a few years ago.

A woman disappeared from my neighborhood a few years ago with no leads

I really feel like for the size of my small town our number of murders is …. Too high. Many aren’t solved.

[lo]

Aug 17, 2024 16:38:49 GMT -5 loira said:

Yes, a couple of them - and they have probably both featured on crime shows at some point though I can't recall which ones. One is the disappearance of a little 4 year old boy in 1990. He disappeared while playing at the playground, with his parents nearby and a whole bunch of other people at the park. Absolutely zero witnesses.

The other is a high profile murder of a local real estate agent who was brutally killed while showing a house to a mystery couple. There's likely a drug connection to that one but nobody has ever found out who did it. Our city's police are separated by municipality and I think a lack of swift resource sharing was also to blame in not gathering evidence fast enough.

I have heard of the second case you mentioned and it’s so horrifying!

Locally for me, I can think of Suzanne Lyle and Jaliek Rainwalker. There’s another case from the city I’m from in MA that I hope gets solved someday, too- Jasmyn Beatty

[dancingnancy]

Aug 17, 2024 19:46:36 GMT -5 nospaekae said:

I grew up, and my parents still live, not far from where Maura Murray's car was found if anyone remembers that case.

Yep. I live in central NH. I’m all over the place on what I think happened.

[countthestars]

Aug 17, 2024 21:49:36 GMT -5 dancingnancy said:

Aug 17, 2024 19:46:36 GMT -5 nospaekae said:

I grew up, and my parents still live, not far from where Maura Murray's car was found if anyone remembers that case.

Yep. I live in central NH. I’m all over the place on what I think happened.

Her sister has a really interesting podcast about the case. I think it’s called Finding Maura Murray. It’s so suspicious and sad

[loira]

Aug 17, 2024 18:17:00 GMT -5 booky said:

There’s a bunch but one that bothers me the most is a murder case still open for a woman I knew whose body was dumped in a very locally used and tourist filled open area on a main road beside the ocean at about 5am. It is mind boggling to me that there were no witnesses to her body being dumped in that heavily used area. Like at any given time there are hundreds of people on that road as pedestrians, bikers, and early morning joggers. It’s too upsetting to get into lack of investigation but I’m not surprised this murder hasn’t been solved with the lack of municipal info sharing.

I have never heard of this one! Where was this? Ugh it's so stupid that a greater city of only 400k people has 4 different police departments (5 if you count RCMP).

ETA: Never mind - I think I found the case you're talking about, and I remember it now. Yeah, that one is weird as heck - even if it was some tweaked out stranger, how did no one see anything?

[starburst604]

Yes and this case actually was on Unsolved Murders. When I still lived in my hometown, a woman from there who worked at Logan airport disappeared after going out to pick up dinner for her and coworkers. She was found dead in her trunk later. There’s a lot of crazy stuff leading up to her death, sexual harassment and threats due to her being a woman in a supervisor position normally held by men there. There was also a credit card theft ring within her group that she wasn’t involved in but knew about. It seems like they probably know who did it, but don’t have evidence nor will anyone talk. It happened in the 90’s.