27 Extremely Dark True Crime Stories From Countries Outside The United States
We recently asked the true crime fans of the BuzzFeed Community around the world to tell us about the most disturbing unsolved case from their countries (outside the United States). Here are their bone-chilling responses:
Warning: Graphic and disturbing content ahead including mentions of murder.
1.Australia — The recent case of Lesley Trotter, a 78-year-old woman from Brisbane who was missing for almost a month before being declared dead by police at the beginning of April 2023. It is believed that her body was "collected from a wheelie bin [and then] compacted in a rubbish pit."
"It's just been found that she was likely killed and put into a wheelie bin before bin day, so her body got trash compacted and dumped in a garbage dump. They're doing mass searches at all nearby garbage dumps right now. The craziest thing is that she was apparently widely disliked in her neighborhood for going through her neighbors' bins to make sure they were recycling, so much so that some people think she may have been murdered for it."
2.Japan — The Setagaya family murder, aka the "Goldilocks Murder," which refers to the unsolved murder of the Miyazawa family who lived in the Setagaya neighborhood of Tokyo where they were brutally stabbed to death in December 2000.
"The husband, wife, and their two kids were murdered during a home invasion by an unknown assailant who then remained in the family's house for several hours before disappearing. He ate their food, used their toilet, and computer, and napped on their couch. There was so much DNA evidence left behind, but the killer was never caught. I lived in the same area when I was young so thinking about it still gives me chills."
—Anonymous
3.Mexico — The death of Paulette Gebara Farah, a 4-year-old girl who disappeared, but was later found dead under suspicious circumstances. Her body was discovered seemingly hidden in her own bed.
"Back in 2010, a wealthy family in Mexico City was coming back from their country house with a driver and one or two nannies in a heavily gated community with security guards and cameras everywhere. At some point between getting out of the car and getting in the house, Paulette disappeared but no one noticed until the next morning when they called the police and a heavily media-covered search for her began.
Paulette’s face was literally everywhere and the parents were giving interviews from the girl's room, crying on her bed begging for someone to give a clue of where their baby could be. The whole country was hooked following the case.
A few days later her body was found wrapped in blankets in a gap between the mattress and the bed frame on the exact same bed her parents had given interviews. The parents started turning on each other, the mom was particularly suspicious, and they divorced soon after.
It was declared an accident. The whole country is still angry about that one."
4.Canada — The "Highway of Tears", which is a 450-mile corridor of Highway 16 in British Columbia, and a location where many Indigenous women have gone missing and or been murdered since at least 1986.
According to the Highway of Tears Governing Body, "From 1989 to 2006, nine young women went missing or were found murdered along the 724-kilometer length of highway 16 — now commonly referred to as the "Highway of Tears." All but one of these victims were Indigenous women. Additionally, they explain, "There is still much debate over the exact number of women who have gone missing in northern BC, but many people living in the north believe that the number exceeds 30."
5.Italy — The story of serial killer Leonarda Cianciulli who lured, then killed three women in her Italian village, and then turned them into soap to give to other people in the neighborhood.
—Anonymous
Cianciullii started her crimes in the 1930s. Apparently, when she learned her eldest son would join the army, she wanted to protect him and decided that the way to do this would be with human "sacrifices."
6.Finland — The Lake Bodom murders, which involved the killing of three friends and the surprising survival of a fourth, is considered one of the most infamous unsolved homicide cases in Finland's history.
In June 1960, four teens went camping on the shore of Lake Bodom in Finland. Three of the teens were stabbed and bludgeoned to death. The only survivor, Nils Gustafsson, sustained a concussion and some facial fractures. He claimed to have only gotten a glimpse of the attacker. There was a large investigation, and authorities came up with a few suspects, but no killer (or killers) has ever been officially identified.
Many years later, in 2004, Gustafsson was arrested on suspicion of being the murderer — the theory being that he killed his three friends, walked away to hide the evidence, and then returned to injure himself, too — however, he was tried and acquitted a year later.
7.Bulgaria — The mysterious and confusing disappearance of Lars Mittank, a young German man on vacation in Bulgaria who was last seen on security footage running out of an airport and into a nearby forest.
"I am neither Bulgarian nor German, but Lars Mittank's disappearance has always fascinated (and scared) me. Mittank, a 28-year-old German man, joined his friends in Bulgaria on holiday in 2014 but never made it back home. Mittank was involved in a fight a few days before the flight home, and he was treated by a doctor for a head injury. Necessary medication delayed him from joining his friend's home on the same flight. Although they offered to stay with him, he demurred. Shortly before he was scheduled to board his flight, he was overheard saying, 'I don’t want to die here. I have to get out of here.' He then dropped his belongings and fled the airport to the forest. He left his wallet, passport, and luggage behind. The video of him fleeing the airport and being seen — possibly alive for the last time — is haunting.
8.France — The Dupont de Ligonnès murders, which involved the murder of five members of the Dupont de Ligonnès family (as well as their two dogs) and the disappearance of the father, Xavier, who is considered the prime suspect, in 2011.
"Agnès Dupont de Ligonnès, her four children, and two dogs were found murdered underneath the garden in the backyard of their house in France while her husband went on a three-week road trip down the coast of France. He allegedly murdered them and then just casually visited restaurants and hotels. He disappeared without a trace into the hills after the last town he visited and hasn't been seen since, even after an extensive manhunt search was held. This episode on Unsolved Mysteries on Netflix was wild!"
9.South Korea — The deeply upsetting "Frog Boys" case about a group of five young boys who went missing for over a decade, until their remains were found with evidence of trauma.
—Anonymous
The "Frog Boys" were a group of five boys who disappeared while out trying to catch frogs on the outskirts of Daegu, South Korea in 1991. Although the case received a lot of media attention, and a large search was conducted by police and the military, the boys were not immediately found. However, in 2002, the remains of the boys were finally discovered. Although authorities believe the boys were likely murdered (three of the boys had signs of blunt force trauma to their heads), what exactly happened has never been solved.
10.Panama — The deaths of Kris Kremers and Lisanne Froon, Dutch students who went on a hike in Boquete, a small mountain town in Panama, in 2014 and never returned.
"Kremers' phone was found and showed 77 attempts to emergency services and had numerous strange pictures on it. Their bones were later found, seemingly bleached, and according to a forensic anthropologist had no marks on them. I usually don't find disappearances that creepy but this one always sends a chill up my spine. You have to wonder what happened to them. If they called emergency services 77 times in the space of three days, it must have been really *bad*. Imagine being in a state of terror for that long..."
11.Australia — The unsolved case of Phoebe Handsjuk, a 24-year-old woman in Melbourne whose body was found after she'd apparently fallen several stories, feet first, down into a high-rise building's garbage chute. Although her family believes someone put her into the garbage chute, her death remains a mystery.
"Her body was found in the garbage chute area of the apartment. The case was ruled an accident/suicide, but there's no way. There has to be some sort of foul play."
12.Finland — The Hausjärvi gravel pit murders, a series of two (and possibly more) violent crimes committed outside Helsinki in the 1990s by what is believed to be one perpetrator, known in the Finnish media as the Järvenpää Serial Killer.
According to the book, Serial Killers Who Were Never Caught, in 1990, a 39-year-old woman had an encounter with a man who had given her a ride home from a train station. He allegedly attacked her with a knife, though she managed to escape. Then, "In April 1991, the body of 28-year-old Tuula Lukkarinen was found in a gravel pit in Järvenpää. [...] Lukkarinen's body was badly mutilated and was found close to where the woman in 1990 had spoken of having a narrow escape from the man who struck her with a knife." Suspiciously, in 1993, a 40-year-old woman disappeared in the same area, and it was soon discovered that similar incidents with other women had occurred all around there as early as 1987. The suspect has never been found.
13.Canada — The murder of Barry and Honey Sherman, billionaires who were found dead, strangled in their Toronto home in 2017. Although investigators initially speculated that the case was a murder-suicide, police later concluded that there was evidence of a homicide, saying they believed the couple was targeted.
—Anonymous
According to CBS News, "Barry Sherman, who founded generic drugmaker Apotex Inc., and his wife, Honey, were found dead in their mansion on Dec. 15, 2017. The two were hanging by belts from a railing that surrounds their indoor pool and were in a semi-seated position on the pool deck."
As of 2022, the Sherman family wanted to "remind the public of the $35 million in reward money and pleaded anyone with information to contact the Toronto Police Service."
14.China — The Nanjing University mutilation case about a 19-year-old university student, Diao Aiqing, whose mutilated body parts were found scattered across different parts around the province of Jiangsu.
"Diao Aiqing was a 19-year-old Chinese university student last seen alive in 1996. Her body was boiled and chopped up into pieces. Body parts were found in multiple trash bags, located all over the university campus. There's been almost no progress and no solid suspects in the case. They put together all the body parts they could find to complete her body. Still haunts me to this day."—Anonymous
15.England — Jack the Ripper, an unidentified serial killer who mainly targeted sex workers in impoverished areas of London in 1888.
"Don’t need to explain the biggest unsolved one for the UK, it’s the most famous one of all, Jack the Ripper."
The victims were mainly sex workers who lived and worked in impoverished areas of east London. The kills were very violent including things like throat cutting, mutilation, and the removal of internal organs. Due to the rarity of serial murders at the time (that were known), there was extensive newspaper coverage of the crimes. None of the murders were ever solved.
16.Australia — The disappearance of the Beaumont children near Adelaide in 1966, who were believed to have been abducted and murdered.
"Australia's would have to be the Beaumont Children."
Jane, Grant, and Arnna Beaumont disappeared on Jan. 26, 1966, after taking a bus to a nearby beach. According to their mother, they were supposed to return home at noon but did not. Their father, Jim, drove to the beach to find them but was unable to do so. He returned to the beach again with his wife and both looked for them there, around streets, and at friends' houses.
Authorities spoke with a number of witnesses, who had apparently seen the children at a nearby reserve with a "tall man." Other witnesses also reported seeing the children at a shop and then walking away from the beach.
There have been a number of suspects over the years, and, as late as 2018, there was still a $1 million reward offered for information related to the cold case.
17.Canada — The disappearance of Melanie Ethier, a teenager who went missing in New Liskeard, Ontario, and was last seen around 1:30–2 a.m. leaving a friend's house to walk home alone. Later that morning, Melanie's mother became concerned when she realized her daughter was not home and then did not show up to work later that day.
"She disappeared in 1996 when she was 15 while walking home from a friend’s house. To this day nobody knows what happened to her, and her mom made a group on Facebook about it to try and solve it."
18.Australia — The case of suspected murderer and violent criminal, Mr. Cruel, who was active in the late '80s and early '90s. The perpetrator has never been identified, and as of 2016, there is a $1 million reward for information related to their crimes.
"Many people have seen the police sketch of the modified balaclava that he wore in one of the kidnappings (the one with white stitches to conceal any potential identifying markers — super creepy!), but his crime spree and its sudden stop are haunting. Its unsolved nature adds more to its overall creepiness."
19.Norway — The "Isdal woman" case about an unidentified woman whose burned body was discovered in a remote part of the Isdalen valley on Nov. 29, 1970. Although many clues were found by authorities, her identity and mysterious death remain unsolved.
"NRK and the BBC did a podcast about her that was fantastic and only made the mystery deeper."
"I am a true crime buff and the case I will never shake is the Isdal Woman. An unidentified woman was found in a remote park in Norway in 1970. She’d gone to great lengths to conceal her identity and there are a ton of theories as to who she was and why she was killed — military spy, art thief, woman with a stalker. I think about this one all the time. My all-time favorite podcast, 'Death in Ice Valley,' details the case beautifully."
20.Belgium — The "Brabant Killers", aka the "Nijvel Gang" and "the mad killers of Brabant," who committed violent attacks, robberies, and murders in the central province of Brabant in the early to mid-'80s.
"They were a gang of 4 to 10 men that attacked 20 supermarkets from the Delhaize Group. They mostly attacked in the Brabant area of Belgium, hence their name. They killed 28 persons and injured 22. They made their last attack on Nov. 9, 1985, and were never heard from again. To this day, their identities are still a mystery."
—Anonymous
21.New Zealand — The disappearance of Amber-Lee Cruickshank, a two-year-old toddler who was last seen on Oct. 17, 1992 and whose case shook the small town of Kingston where she lived.
"Mentioning Amber-Lee Cruickshank in New Zealand will usually get a reaction, even if the listener wasn't alive when she went missing. Amber-Lee lived in Kingston, south of Queenstown, by the north edge of Lake Wakatipu.
After arriving home from getting ice cream, she watched the neighbor pull out of her house and drive away. When the neighbor arrived home 20 minutes later, Amber was missing.
There was a land and water search lasting three days, and police are sure that if she had wandered off or gone into the lake on her own, they would have found her. Officially, police suspect foul play. Unofficially, the rumor is a stranger hit her with their car, panicked, and buried her somewhere."
—Anonymous
22.Australia — The mystery of the Somerton Man, an unidentified man found dead on a beach in Somerton Park (a suburb of Adelaide) who had a scrap of paper with "tamám shud," meaning "ended" or "finished" on it.
"The dude from Australia! The Somerton Man! He was found on the beach, dead. All signs pointed to poisoning but they didn't find anything in the tox report. All the tags on his clothes were cut out, there was no way of identifying him. Then they found a line from a book in his pocket or something. They say he could have been a spy but we'll probably never know."
In July 2022, researchers in Australia claimed to have identified the "Somerton man" as an electrical engineer named Carl "Charles' Webb. However, the claim has yet to be confirmed.
23.England — The suspicious death of Gareth Williams, a British intelligence employee who was possibly assassinated in August 2010.
"The spy in the duffel bag. His naked remains were found in a duffel bag, padlocked from the outside, in the bath of a safe house. No forensic evidence was found that pointed towards it being an accident, and the key to the padlock was found underneath his body. The official cause of death was ‘probably an accident’ but a KGB agent claims he was killed by the Russian SVR."
24.Russia — The Dyatlov Pass incident where nine people died in the mountains of Russia under very bizarre circumstances in 1959.
"Nine experienced trekkers were found dead. There was no sign of foul play, but most of them were missing clothes, some of them had extreme injuries, and the tents were ripped open from the inside. It happened over 50 years ago and to this day is still unsolved!"
In recent years, a government investigation was opened and, later, research suggested that an avalanche may have been the cause of the incident. However, this theory remains unconfirmed.
25.England — The strange and tragic death of Corrie McKeague, an RAF gunner who was last seen on CCTV footage entering a bin loading area before disappearing in Bury St Edmunds in 2016.
—Anonymous
According to the BBC, in 2022, "Inquest jurors in Ipswich concluded he died after climbing into a bin which was then tipped into a waste lorry." The report concluded that he died "as a result of 'compression asphyxia in association with multiple injuries [and that the] death was contributed to by impaired judgment due to alcohol consumption.'"
26.Australia — The case of Harold Holt, a former Australian prime minister whose disappearance in 1967, while he was still in office, spawned several conspiracy theories — including wild ones like that he'd been taken by a Chinese submarine. Although his body was never found, Holt was later presumed dead.
"In December of 1967, Australian prime minister Harold Holt disappeared while swimming at Chevion beach. As a memorial to our lost prime minister we named a community swimming pool after him."
—Anonymous
27.Lastly, Portugal — The widely publicized Madeleine McCann case about a three-year-old British girl who went missing from her bed in 2007 while her family was on vacation in Portugal.
"I watched the documentary that came out not too long ago and it shook me to my core because they were so close but so far to finding her and it still bothers me since she probably won’t be found."
As of April 2023, according to Reuters, convicted German criminal, Christian Brückner, has been formally identified as an official suspect in the Madeleine McCann case.
Note: Some submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.
If you or anyone you know has information on a missing person case, call local law enforcement first. You can also contact the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children at 1-800-843-5678 (THE-LOST) or visit the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System site for regional case assistance.
