People Are Sharing Extremely Dark True Crime Stories No One Ever Seems To Talk About, And It's Shocking
We previously asked the BuzzFeed Community to tell us about a true crime story we haven't already heard 100x before. There were so many comments and responses to that post that we decided to do a part two. Here are more terrifying stories people shared:
Warning: Graphic and disturbing content ahead including mentions of abuse, rape, and murder.
1.The 1980 "Amana Ax murders," where a couple, Rose Burkert and Roger Atkison, were murdered in their hotel room after checking in to a Holiday Inn in Amana, Iowa. Both victims were discovered face down on the bed with their skulls beaten by either a hatchet or machete.
"Rose was my best friend, and the murders still remain unsolved after all these decades. Their murders were truly horrific. She was 22, and he was 32. Maybe sharing could help solve it."
—Anonymous
2.The murder of Joseph Augustus Zarelli, aka the "Boy in the Box," whose naked, malnourished, and severely beaten body was found on the side of a road in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1957.
"Long story short, the 4-year-old boy was found dead in a box with clean nails and freshly cut hair. It went cold for decades until recently. In November 2022, with new technology, the Philadelphia Police Department was able to identify the boy using DNA and genealogical databases."
3.Savanna Greywind, a 22-year-old woman from Fargo, North Dakota, who died in 2017 after her unborn daughter was cut from her womb by a woman named Brooke Lynn Crews. According to prosecutors, Savanna was still alive when the baby was removed.
"It's a sad, sick story, especially for the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women. This story needs to be told more."
—Anonymous
Crews was sentenced to life in prison, while Greywind's baby, Haisley Jo, is now with her father, Greywind's boyfriend Ashton Matheny.
4.The suspicious death of John "Jack" Parsons Wheeler, a former White House aide who, in 2010, was killed by blunt force trauma.
"He was found dead at a landfill about a week before former US Rep. Gabby Giffords was shot and almost killed. So, the news about his murder was very quickly overshadowed. He was a graduate of West Point and served multiple US presidents. His death was ruled a homicide and sadly is still unsolved."
—Anonymous
According to the Radio Times, "Following his death, a mysterious video emerged of Wheeler just days before his death. The surveillance video from a Wilmington parking garage showed a seemingly disoriented Wheeler wandering around, coatless and confused with one ripped shoe"
5.The gruesome and unsolved murder of two West Virginia University students, Karen Ferrell and Mared Malarik, whose decomposed, decapitated bodies were found in 1970.
"Their heads were never found."
—Anonymous
According to CBS News, "The WVU freshmen and friends were spied getting into a cream-colored sedan on a cold night in Morgantown four months before. They were hitching a ride back to their dorm after a movie downtown."
6.Donald Henry "Pee Wee" Gaskins Jr., a serial killer from South Carolina who murdered more than a dozen people over the course of several decades from the 1950s–1980s.
"I don't know how many people know about 'Pee Wee' Gaskins. He was a prolific serial killer and the only person who killed another inmate while both were on death row. He was active primarily along the coast of South Carolina, and when I was young and dumb, I used to hitchhike around that area in Myrtle Beach. I get the creeps when I think about how lucky I was."
7.The strange and inexplicable disappearance of 25-year-old Atlanta resident Mary Shotwell Little in 1965. Little was last seen by her friend and co-worker around 8 p.m. after they had dinner and parted ways.
"Oct. 14, 1965 was the first day of the most famous missing persons case in the history of Atlanta: Mary Shotwell Little."
—Anonymous
Among many of the wild twists and turns to the case, Little's vehicle was eventually located and found with groceries, random blades of grass, a slip, bloodied underwear, and a girdle inside. There was also blood smeared on the steering wheel, on the driver's side door, inside the passenger window, and on both front seats. Police officers at the time believe it had all been staged. Not long after, Mary's credit card was used at gas stations in North Carolina, both signed with her name. However, Little was never found.
8.Israel Keyes, a serial killer who murdered at least three people and committed many other crimes including robbery, arson, and rape throughout the United States for over a decade from 2001 to 2012.
"Israel Keyes is the most terrifying serial killer I’ve heard of because he had no specific region he stuck to and no specific preference with his victims. He would travel every corner of the country sexually assaulting and then murdering whoever crossed his path.
He sent photos of his deceased victims to their families for ransom by posing them in a way to seem alive. After he was finally caught, he somehow convinced the police to not publicly identify him because he didn’t want his young daughter to know.
The police kept their word until he died by suicide in prison. However, it seems to have had a longstanding effect as not many have heard of him."
—Anonymous
9.The disappearance and murder of Gina Renee Hall in Radford, Virginia in 1980 whose killer was convicted without a body having been found.
"In the area where I grew up, the disappearance of Gina Renee Hall has been a huge mystery. Under the Trestle by Ron Peterson Jr. is a great read about it. She was a Radford University student who went to a bar in Blacksburg (a couple of towns over) and was never seen again. Stephen Epperly, a former Virginia Tech football player still living in the area, was found guilty in Virginia’s first no-body murder trial. Her body has still never been recovered, and Epperly is still in prison. There is so much that goes into this small-town murder story that you just have to read the book!"
—Anonymous
10.The 2001 Dartmouth College murders of professors Half and Susanne Zantop. The Zantops, who had been teaching at Dartmouth since the '70s, were stabbed to death in their home in Etna, New Hampshire by high schoolers James J. Parker and Robert W. Tulloch.
"They were murdered by a couple of teenagers who wanted to know what it was like to kill."
—Anonymous
According to the Dartmouth Review, "As Susanne was preparing dinner, Half Zantop allowed the two inside. Parker and Tulloch started to ask Half questions, and when the two did not seem to be fully prepared, Half told them as much, angering Tulloch. When Half turned away, Tulloch attacked him with his knife, fatally slashing him across the chest and face. When Susanne entered the kitchen, she met the same tragic fate."
11.The bowling alley massacre in Las Cruces, New Mexico where seven people were shot, resulting in four people being killed, by unidentified robbers in 1990.
"I was living there at the time, and thought it was a drug cartel because they killed adults and children. It’s been years, and the killers still haven't been found…and no one ever talks about it. Las Cruces was a small town, around 60,000 people, and the crime was horrendous."
—Anonymous
12.The murder of Maddie Clifton, an 8-year-old girl who was killed by her 14-year-old friend and neighbor, Josh Phillips, in 1998.
"I remember when I was little, being traumatized by watching the news with my mom and seeing the ongoing story of Maddie Clifton who was an 8-year-old. Maddie had been playing with 14-year-old Josh Phillips when he accidentally hit her in the eye with a baseball. His story is he brought her into his room while she was crying because he was scared of his dad, and then, when she cried louder, he apparently panicked, so he hit her over the head with a baseball bat three times and then repeatedly stabbed her. He then hid her under his waterbed. After weeks of searching with the community, his mom thought the waterbed was leaking and found her body under the bed and immediately went to the police.
I was around 5 or 6 at the time so was close to Maddie’s age and still vividly remember watching this unfold on the news being worried that would happen to me. Weird core memory. Very tragic and terrifying for her and her family."
13.Michael Alig, an infamous New York "Club Kid," who killed fellow Club Kid Andre "Angel" Melendez in 1996.
"I never hear anyone talk about Michael Alig. He was the leader of the Club Kids in New York in the late '80s and early ‘90s. He and a friend murdered their dealer, dismembered him, then threw his body in a river. Then they bragged about it. It’s kind of a wild story; the movie Party Monster is based on it."
Alig died of an accidental heroin overdose in December 2020.
14.The Bricca family murders from 1966 in Cincinnati, Ohio, which is believed by investigators to have been carried out by someone who knew the family.
"Mom, dad, and 4-year-old daughter were all stabbed to death in the middle of a quiet neighborhood. The murder of the little girl was particularly awful. The crime scene was trampled by an army of cops from several agencies, so evidence collection was compromised. I wish someone would do a podcast about it because it makes no sense whatsoever.
A local author wrote a book about the case, but he clearly wanted to prove his own theory rather than research all possibilities. Took a class from him about the case, and he actually called the murder victim a 'slut.' Asshole!"
15.John Norman Collins, aka the "Michigan Murderer," who was responsible for killing at least one young woman (although it's believed to be more) in southeastern Michigan during the late 1960s.
"John Norman Collins is a murderer convicted of killing 19-year-old college student Karen Sue Beineman in Ypsilanti, Michigan in 1969. He was strongly suspected of being responsible for a string of at least seven brutal killings of young women in Ann Arbor, Ypsilanti, and Salinas, California during the period of 1967–1969. The community was gripped in terror for two years as young women’s beaten, sexually assaulted bodies were found, one after another. The arrest and conviction of Collins (the nephew of a state trooper) brought relief and shock to the community — Collins appeared to be the handsome 'all-American' boy. His story was totally eclipsed by the Manson story, but Collins was a vicious killer whose deeds were amongst the worst people had ever seen."
16.Viktor Sayenko and Igor Suprunyuk, aka "The Dnepropetrovsk Maniacs," two Ukrainian serial killers who committed a string of murders in June and July of 2007.
"They were a Ukrainian duo who filmed random gruesome murders, that ended up being some of the first 'snuff' films posted online in the 2000s. Their 2 guys 1 hammer video is what made them famous. They never even hid their faces."
17.The disappearance and death of Mitrice Richardson, a 24-year-old recent Cal State Fullerton grad who went missing on Sept. 17, 2019 after allegedly leaving a sheriff's station in Malibu.
"She was behaving erratically, released from jail at 1 a.m. with nothing but the clothes on her back, and her remains were found almost a year later despite an extensive search. A cause of death was never determined, and the case is still open. Since her skull was detached from her spine, and screaming was heard close to where her remains were discovered in the days after she went missing, foul play has long been suspected."
18.Audrey Groat, a 41-year-old mother from Northfield, Vermont who was dropped off at her truck by her boyfriend in 1993, and then never seen again.
—Anonymous
According to the official Vermont Missing Persons site, "After a day of shopping with a friend in Burlington, Vermont, Audrey was reportedly dropped off at her vehicle at the park and ride near Exit 8 in Montpelier. Her car was later located parked in the same location, and her purse was located in nearby bushes. Various searches have been conducted throughout the years in a number of areas near where Audrey had been seen, but no new evidence has been discovered."
19.The horrifying Villisca axe murders, which occurred between the evening of June 9, 1912 and the early morning of June 10, 1912, in the town of Villisca, Iowa.
"The six members of the Moore family and two guests were found dead in the Moore residence. All eight victims, including six children, had severe head wounds from an axe. A lengthy investigation yielded several suspects, one of whom was tried twice. The first trial ended in a hung jury, and the second ended in an acquittal. The crime remains unsolved."
20.Herb Baumeister, a suspected serial killer who was believed to have murdered over a dozen men in the early '90s in the Westfield, Indiana area.
"Herb Baumeister would lure gay men to his home from Indianapolis gay bars in the '90s, then murder them and bury them in his back yard. He had a wife and three kids and was a respectable business owner."
21.Geza de Kaplany, a Hungarian-born physician who, after emigrating to the US, was convicted of murdering his wife with a scalpel and corrosive acid in 1963.
"He was a doctor in San Jose, California who poured acid on his wife and used a scalpel to disfigure her. She survived long enough to tell what he did, but died a month later. The doctor was convicted, paroled mysteriously, and is still alive at 96 years old, living in Germany."
—Anonymous
22.The Setagaya family murder, aka the "Goldilocks" killings, the unsolved case of the Miyazawa family who lived in the Setagaya neighborhood of Tokyo where they were brutally stabbed to death in December 2000.
"In Tokyo in December 2000, a man broke into a house and killed the entire family. Despite leaving thousands of pieces of evidence in the house, including his clothes, the murder weapon, his DNA, his blood, even his excrement, the case is still unsolved."
23.The disappearance of Jodi Huisentruit, a news anchor in Mason City, Iowa who went missing on the way to work on June 27, 1995.
"I lived in Iowa at the time and would see her on the morning news before school. She was late for work the morning she disappeared. A coworker called her, and Jodi said she was coming in, but then never showed up. Police were called and found her car and some of her belongings nearby in what police said looked to have been a struggle. She was declared legally dead in 2001, but her disappearance still remains a mystery. I still google her name from time to time to see if there have been any updates on her case even though I moved out of Iowa a long time ago."
—Anonymous
24.The murder of Jun Lin, a university student in Montreal, Canada, who was murdered and then dismembered by a man named Luka Magnotta in 2012.
"Luka Magnotta, who became known for the 1 Lunatic, 1 Ice Pick video (depicting the murder), kept the body of his lover in his home and did all sorts of horrible things to it for days and filmed it, then sent body parts to different schools around the country. He was also a semi-famous model."
25.The extremely brutal murder of 14-year-old Peggy Reber in Lebanon, Pennsylvania, more than 40 years ago, in 1968.
"Among other gruesome details, she was impaled with a recurve crossbow. There are many other strange things about the case like a botched trial and possible collusion and tampering between the small-town powers that be, the local military facility, and even the FBI, but the truth remains shrouded in mystery and secrecy."
—Anonymous
26.The murder of 39-year-old former high school principal Gary Beverly, who was shot on a packed freeway in Compton, California in 2000. No motive was determined, although there are theories of road rage, misguided gang violence, and even assassination.
"Some people believe that former Compton mayor Omar Bradley was behind the hit. His murder is still unsolved. It is rumored that Beverly discovered Bradley had fathered an illegitimate child with a student and he had him killed."
—Anonymous
27.The Bigham family murders which is about a powerful family active in Florence County, South Carolina during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It is believed that, over three generations, the family was responsible for nearly 20 murders, including their own family members.
"This story is bonkers, and it happened two miles from my grandmother's house, and there was even a book written about it!"
—Anonymous
28.The 1985 violent unsolved murders of Cassie Rundle and her two children, 12-year-old Detrick and 10-year-old Melanie, in Colorado Springs.
"Cassie was tortured, sexually assaulted, and hogtied, and her two children were murdered as well. The young daughter was sexually assaulted before she was killed. At the time, investigators involved were inexperienced in murder investigation and botched the gathering of evidence. No one was arrested, and two different DNA profiles were mistakenly mixed with evidence gathering. I would bet now that more advanced DNA testing exits, it could possibly solve the mystery as to who killed Cassie and her children."
—Anonymous
29.The disappearance of 17-year-old Leanne Green who was last seen on Highway 46 in Dickson, Tennessee in 1987 after being left to wait for her brother to get gas. The case remains unsolved.
"Leanne was picked up from work by her brother near Dickson, Tennessee in 1987. Their car ran out of gas, so her brother walked to a gas station. When he returned, she had disappeared without a trace and has never been seen since."
—Anonymous
According to News Channel 5, "Her purse and wallet were still in the car, as well as the car keys, and there was no sign of a struggle."
30.The disappearance and murder of Judith Hand, a 15-year-old girl from Farmington, Maine whose case has remained unsolved for over 50 years.
"On Sept. 10, 1971, Judy Hand left home in Farmington, Maine to walk to a babysitting job nearby. She never arrived. A few days later, her badly decomposed body was found buried in an old sawdust pile, near a rundown building. Nobody was ever charged."
—Anonymous
31.Finally, the 2007 murder and beheading of Daniel Sorensen, a sex offender, in Plymouth, Michigan. Two teens were arrested for the crime, and one, Jean Pierre Orlewicz, was ultimately found guilty of first-degree murder, felony murder, and mutilation of a corpse.
"Prosecutors in the case referred to it as a 'thrill kill' for the teenagers."
—Anonymous
Note: some submissions were 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.
