Local Unsolved Mysteries

[ellipses84]

Aug 17, 2024 17:40:07 GMT -5 tacokick said:

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

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.

That was some of the news speculation at the time, because the whole situation was just so strange. She seemed old to me as a teen, but I think she was only in her mid-40s. She seemed completely devastated, she ran a home daycare, there was no record of abuse in the home, and there was a lot of public disbelief that she could have had anything to do with it. Her story kept changing (although some of that may have been police interrogation trying to get her to confess to their theories). A judge held her in contempt and put her on house arrest for months try to get the truth out of her once she lawyered up. Nobody else who lived in the house has ever come forward with any other info. I thought I heard the great aunt is dead now, but I can find any articles that say that.

[InBetweenDays]

I went to high school in 8th grade because one of our middle schools was closed. My sister was a senior that year. A kid from our high school (i think he was a senior) went hunting up north (which wasn't unusual for our area) and disappeared.

Speculation that he got drunk or high and wandered into the marshy woods. Or he was accidentally shot by another person in the group. But almost 38 years later and we don't know

[hermione]

The Oakland County Child Killer. This was in the 70s. At least 4 kids were kidnapped, held, murdered, and left in public places and they never solved it. My dad was a cop at the time and the theories were/are all over the place. It is still being investigated.

[Vespasia]

I'm sure that Baltimore has lots of unsolved crimes but this is one that has always stuck with me: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Phylicia_Barnes

16-year-old honor student from NC is visiting family in Baltimore when she goes missing. Case has major news coverage locally and somewhat nationally. Her body is found 4 months later and her sister's ex-boyfriend is arrested a year later. 

At the time it seemed obvious that he had done and it and he stood trial for the crime several times. He was convicted at one of the trials and served several years before his conviction was overturned and eventually all charges were dropped. 

I think it's entirely possible/probable he did it. I also think it's possible the police wanted to charge someone in this high profile case and went after an easy target. 

[ProfessorArtNerd]

Aug 17, 2024 17:19:43 GMT -5 gummybear said:

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.

OMG I couldn't for the life of me remember their names.  Still nothing?  Man

[tacokick]

Aug 18, 2024 0:11:01 GMT -5 ellipses84 said:

Aug 17, 2024 17:40:07 GMT -5 tacokick said:

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

That was some of the news speculation at the time, because the whole situation was just so strange. She seemed old to me as a teen, but I think she was only in her mid-40s. She seemed completely devastated, she ran a home daycare, there was no record of abuse in the home, and there was a lot of public disbelief that she could have had anything to do with it. Her story kept changing (although some of that may have been police interrogation trying to get her to confess to their theories). A judge held her in contempt and put her on house arrest for months try to get the truth out of her once she lawyered up. Nobody else who lived in the house has ever come forward with any other info. I thought I heard the great aunt is dead now, but I can find any articles that say that.

I bet people heard “great aunt” and jumped to elderly. When I looked up old articles a lot didn’t include her age at all.

What a sad, confusing situation.

[Pibs]

A year or two after we moved here Kyron Horman, a 10 year old boy, went missing and has never been found.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Kyron_Horman

[nothingcontroversial]

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

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.

That one was the subject of multiple true crime podcasts. Her boyfriend, who is also a real estate agent, was supposed to be waiting outside the house the whole time so that he could come to her rescue if she was in danger. He had some excuse as to why he wasn't right outside of her house. I think that the boyfriend was involved in this. 

[redheadbaker]

Aug 17, 2024 17:19:43 GMT -5 gummybear said:

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.

I didn't know them or anything, but the case still pops into my mind once in a while. 

[nothingcontroversial]

Trigger Warning

More than 40 years ago when I was a small child, one of my dad's co-workers, "Amy" was found dead. Amy's husband "Piers" claimed that Amy was depressed, went out into the woods, and took her own life. Amy's friends and family insisted that Amy would have never done this, and that Amy's husband, Piers, actually killed her.

My father was the last person known to have seen Amy alive. He and Amy were getting ready to leave work. Amy was at their place of employment, waiting for Piers to pick her up, when my dad left. The next reported sighting of Amy was when she was found dead in the woods.  The case was considered cold for decades.

So more than 30 years after this, my mom (my dad's wife) died after a devastating illness. My dad was waiting for all of us kids to travel home for the funeral. He got a call from the Pennsylvania State Police. My dad immediately assumed that the PSP were going to tell them that my sister, who lived on the opposite side of Pennsylvania, had been killed in a car accident while traveling home for my mom's funeral. My dad had just lost his wife, so this is where his mind took him when he picked up the phone to receive a call from the state police. Instead, the state police told him that they were reopening the cold case into Amy's death.

So, a few weeks after we buried my mom, my dad had to meet with the state police to recount his memories about the last time that he saw Amy alive.

Amy's husband Piers was charged with Amy's murder. The case went to trial. My dad was a witness for the prosecution.

Piers was acquitted of the murder.

My father passed away last year.

The very first time that I had ever heard of this was right after my mom died, when my dad got the call from the state police. My parents had several daughters, so I think that dad didn't bring this up because he had so many daughters of his own. 

[nicolewi]

www.fbi.gov/wanted/vicap/missing-persons/laurie-jean-depies

This was local to me at the time. I was in high school. They never solved it and weirdly, I see her disappearance date was 8/19…anniversary is tomorrow.

[scm1011]

There’s a girl from our local high school that was found dead super close to her house after a night out with her boyfriend. This was in 1995 and it’s never been solved. The boyfriend and a local firefighter were both suspects for a while but neither were charged. Her parents still keep a billboard up in the neighborhood offering a $50k reward for info relating to an arrest

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Deanna_Cremin

[nospaekae]

Aug 17, 2024 22:10:04 GMT -5 countthestars said:

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

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

I had heard about this but haven't listened yet. I'll have to add it to my list. I was finishing up my senior year of HS and it was obviously big news in the area, but I was so preoccupied with college acceptance stuff, I didn't really know much about the actual details until years later. So many theories, I'm not really sure what could be plausible and what isn't.

[heygrey]

Not an unsolved mystery per se, but there was a double homicide one mile from my parents house when I was 4 years old. My parents were friends with the couple (rural neighbourhood, everyone attended the same church, everyone is friends kind of thing). The ex-spouses of the couple were both considered suspects, the ex-husband was charged and is still on death row 30+ years later. My dad testified in the trial. It's always been this *thing* that hangs over that community.

Every so often I google again and read more about it. Evidence was lost, DNA was contaminated, the initial trial should have been tried outside the county to get a fair and impartial jury. He hasn't been executed yet because there have been so many appeals.

I just always wonder. I don't necessarily think he is innocent, but there were enough things pointing towards the ex-wife that it seems hard to make a definitive decision.

[arehopsveggies]

A close family friend’s son went missing 40 years ago. He just… disappeared.
I always wondered how someone copes with that. At least with death you KNOW. She’d get a random piece of junk mail with his name on it and think there was hope.

My first thought when I’d heard she passed was “I hope she finally knows what happened now.”

[midwestmama]

There is one case that is somewhat unsolved in my area. A woman, Jessica Heeringa, was abducted in 2013 from the gas station where she worked, and her body has never been found. Three years later, a teenage girl was almost abducted as she walked home in the middle of the night. She was able to get away and get help from nearby homeowners. The suspect was caught in that attempted abduction was not only tied back to Jessica Heeringa, but also another unsolved murder from 2014. Thankfully he is in jail now and will remain there until he dies. What remains unsolved is whatever happened to Jessica. The murderer never disclosed, and her body has not been found.

[shauni27]

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.

I live not far from there but only know about this case thanks to starburst604, lol. She told me she was listening to the podcast about it. I think I do not remember it because I was away at college and not focused on the news back then. 

I still have not listened to the podcase but I have read a lot about it. Very mysterious!

[sadlebred]

Many of the Atlanta Child Murders of the late 1970s/early 1980 remain unsolved. There are also large doubts the convicted killer was responsible for all those attributed to him. The convicted killer was actually convicted of killing two adults age 21+, none of the kids.

[holly116]

Aug 17, 2024 18:37:23 GMT -5 maudefindlay said:

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

My DH went to high school with Brian.  It's so heartbreaking and confusing.  I pray that one day everyone gets answers. 

[jinkies]

Thought of another one. Two 20-year-old men were working at a video store one night. They were brutally stabbed to death sometime around closing. The person opening the store the next morning found them-- the front door was ajar, security camera had been cut, some money was stolen but a lot more was left behind.

It's been over 30 years and there are basically no leads whatsoever. They do think it was more than one killer because of the unlikelihood of a single killer overpowering two healthy 20 year old men simultaneously with only a knife.


www.cbsnews.com/philadelphia/news/cbs3-mysteries-bryan-benson-seann-campbell-warminster-west-coast-video/

[glw]

David Gipson Smith. He disappeared under suspicious circumstances in August 2017 and his body was found in February 2018 nowhere near where he was supposedly last seen and cause of death undetermined. The story is very weird and has lots of holes; there have been no arrests and the family has no answers. It's so frustrating and heartbreaking.

www.investigationdiscovery.com/crimefeed/crime-history/update-body-found-in-maryland-identified-as-david-gipson-smith

There's an episode of The Vanished podcast about it.

[devonpow]

My hometown in California had a case from the 80s of two Swedish tourists who were assaulted and murdered while camping that hasn’t been solved. Also some Golden State Killer victims were killed there (but of course luckily that has been solved).

Here in Boston the one that I think is craziest is oddly also a Swedish woman who was killed - Karina Holmer. She was working as a nanny for a wealthy family and was found dismembered in a dumpster downtown after going out to some clubs. Clubs that I also went to in the late 90s. The dad she worked for was very suspicious I recall but they never solved it.

[Tacocat]

Not local to me, but Jodi Huisentruit that disappeared from Mason City Iowa on her way to work in 1995. She was a local news anchor so it was all over the news in MN where I grew up. Her story will pop up on 20/20 or a similar show from time to time. They never found her body or figured out what happened to her. It was believed she was abducted due to signs of a struggle outside of her apartment building, but that’s the only evidence that was ever found.

The other one is Joshua Guimond, who disappeared from St Johns university in Minnesota in 2002. He was at a friends dorm party that night and left to walk home and disappeared. He never made it back to his dorm and his car was found still in campus.

[gummy]

Aug 19, 2024 7:28:29 GMT -5 midwestmama said:

There is one case that is somewhat unsolved in my area. A woman, Jessica Heeringa, was abducted in 2013 from the gas station where she worked, and her body has never been found. Three years later, a teenage girl was almost abducted as she walked home in the middle of the night. She was able to get away and get help from nearby homeowners. The suspect was caught in that attempted abduction was not only tied back to Jessica Heeringa, but also another unsolved murder from 2014. Thankfully he is in jail now and will remain there until he dies. What remains unsolved is whatever happened to Jessica. The murderer never disclosed, and her body has not been found.

I saw a dateline/2020/48hrs on this case. That man gave me the creeps through the tv.

[wise_rita]

Aug 19, 2024 10:36:40 GMT -5 Tacocat said:

The other one is Joshua Guimond, who disappeared from St Johns university in Minnesota in 2002. He was at a friends dorm party that night and left to walk home and disappeared. He never made it back to his dorm and his car was found still in campus.

How have I never heard of this?!

Did this not get the same press Jacob Wetterling did, or was my college self just not tuned into the news of the day?

[jennistarr1]

Sean Suiter

Im from Baltimore, it's discussed in the HBO "We own this city". I think there is 0% chance that his death is unrelated to the known and shown police corruption

[melmel4854]

Aug 19, 2024 7:29:54 GMT -5 shauni27 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.

I live not far from there but only know about this case thanks to starburst604 , lol. She told me she was listening to the podcast about it. I think I do not remember it because I was away at college and not focused on the news back then. 

I still have not listened to the podcase but I have read a lot about it. Very mysterious!

I was going to comment Maura Murray and Molly Bish! Do you follow Maura's sister Julie on Tiktok? 

[scm1011]

Aug 19, 2024 10:24:26 GMT -5 devonpow said:

Here in Boston the one that I think is craziest is oddly also a Swedish woman who was killed - Karina Holmer. She was working as a nanny for a wealthy family and was found dismembered in a dumpster downtown after going out to some clubs. Clubs that I also went to in the late 90s. The dad she worked for was very suspicious I recall but they never solved it.

Oh god, she was found in the dumpster under my apartment kitchen window (I didn't live there until 4 years later and didn't realize it was the infamous dumpster until after I moved in...). 

[Tacocat]

Aug 19, 2024 12:39:53 GMT -5 wise_rita said:

Aug 19, 2024 10:36:40 GMT -5 Tacocat said:

The other one is Joshua Guimond, who disappeared from St Johns university in Minnesota in 2002. He was at a friends dorm party that night and left to walk home and disappeared. He never made it back to his dorm and his car was found still in campus.

How have I never heard of this?!

Did this not get the same press Jacob Wetterling did, or was my college self just not tuned into the news of the day?

I believe it got a ton of news attention in the beginning. They had tons of volunteers help look for him and also divers check the body of water he would’ve walked near to get back. I think coverage stopped though when the investigation stalled out. The college also was very hush hush about it and wouldn’t let the police search certain areas of campus. And yes, it was in the same area as where Jacob Wetterling disappeared, so there was some speculation that it was the same person. The thought was someone approached him by car when he was walking home that night and somehow got him in and took him away. There’s a newer Unsolved Mysteries episode that covers his case and talks about possible scenarios. It’s worth watching if you’re interested.

[fivechickens]

The Skelton brothers.

They were last seen on Thanksgiving in 2010. The father, who was last with them, said that he left them with friends but then said he gave them to an unknown woman. He currently in jail for unlawful imprisonment and refuses to tell anyone what happened to the boys.

I can not imagine the torture the mom goes through daily.