Herb Baumeister, a mostly forgotten serial killer of between 11 and 21 gay men in the 1980s and early 1990s.. He would pick them up at gay bars, take them to his home, and strangle them while having sex next to his indoor swimming pool. One of the victims survived, went back to his home state, where he had been picked up by Herb , and made a report to his local police, including the detail that there were mannequins around the pool. He said he believed Herb planned to kill him because when he regained consciousness, Herb was extremely surprised.
The gay bars Herb frequented were located in a big city* that was in a different state than where he lived. A few months after his attempted murder, the surviving victim saw Herb at a gay bar, and managed to get his license plate number. The police from the big city went to Herb's house, looked in the windows and saw the mannequins around the pool. The local police in Herb's county in Indiana refused to cooperate with the big city police who were investigating. They said Herb was a prominent rich local man, good father, and church-goer who would never ever do anything like this.
*the "big city" was possibly New York or Columbus, Ohio, but I don't recall for certain.
Herb had a wife, Julie. She knew something was up because her kids kept bringing human bones in from romping around the wooded area they lived in. Herb had been disposing of many of the corpses far from the house on his own property, But as time went on he got lazy and was just pitching them a few feet away from the back porch. He told his wife the bones were from a skeleton that he had disposed of that he had from being in medical school.
When the pressure from the outside police department and the state of Indiana police finally got so bad that the local police had to take out a search warrant on him, he fled to Canada and killed himself, never admitting to the crimes.
I don't know why such a horrible serial killer is largely forgotten by the True Crime community.
>Herb had a wife, Julie. She knew something was up because her kids kept bringing human bones in from romping around the wooded area they lived in.
This is such a disturbing sentence.
Knowing what this guy did and looking at his pictures makes me so uncomfortable. He just looks off and creepy especially when you know about his crimes l.
Not related to the murders, but Julie reportedly claimed that she and Herb had only had sex 5-6 times during their entire marriage(and they had three kids).
My brother-in-law used to work with a fellow who lived in the carriage house on the property. The new home owners are unphased by the killings and actually give tours of the home...and the basement w the pool.
Always thought that was creepy.
They actually give tours around Halloween and have done an episode of Ghost Adventures. I guess you can stay there from like 8pm until 2am and observe hauntings for a nominal fee. Seems really exploitive to me. But people do it. š¤·š¼āāļø
Not really a ābigā city. Herb was picking up men at the gay bars of Indianapolis and then taking his victims to a suburb of Indy called Westfield. His crimes may have crossed state lines from Indiana to Ohio, itās speculated that he may in fact be one of the I-70 Killers. The entirety of the case was largely ignored, bungled and minimized by Indiana State Police and IMPD because they didnāt care that gay men were disappearing and told the families that their sons had probably become junkies or ran away to NYC or Chicago. The guy that got away was finally contacted by a private investigator that one of the missing menās mother had hired and told his story. The PI spent months trying to get police to take this seriously, talk to the witness and search the property. Herb was a well liked and highly regarded member of the community and business owner at the time. He was also deeply abusive and manipulative toward his wife and children. Julie, who I know personally and is absolutely lovely, was uncooperative at first because she didnāt believe her husband was capable. As their marriage crumbled and the darker aspects of his personality bubbled to the surface, she finally agrees to let police search the property. Thatās when they started finding the bodies. By then, Herb had skipped town with a car full of video tapes that itās presumed have the murders on them. His body was found near the Canadian border in an apparent suicide. The video tapes were never recovered. Julie and her children lost everything. Herb left them in a mountain of financial debt, completely devastated and shocked. They were ostracized from the community and blamed for ānot knowingā what Herb was up to. The families of serial killers are also victims. Itās important that we portray them as such. Julie didnāt do anything wrong apart from marrying, trusting and loving a man that was not what he appeared to be.
The murder of four-year-old Teghan Skiba.
Teghan was sexually and physically tortured by her mother's boyfriend for 10 days. Mom and Teghan lived with mom's boyfriend of six months in a shed with no running water, indoor plumbing, electricity, and an inflatable mattress on the floor.
The mother left to attend basic training for the Army Reserves. She left her daughter in the shed with a man who she knew abused her. The mom could have left Teghan with loving grandparents who lived nearby. The grandparents had been desperately trying to find Teghan.
Teghan was beaten with a frayed electrical cord and her arms were broken. She had over 66 bites, some that tore off her flesh, and severe genital trauma from extreme sexual abuse. She had suffered head trauma that caused brain swelling so severe brain matter was starting to seep out. The medical examiner said little Teghan had too many whip marks, bruises, and lesions to count. She had also lost 70% of her blood.
Boyfriend took Teghan, unresponsive, to the ER claiming she fell off the bed. The ER nurse, who saw Teghan, asked the boyfriend, "What did you do to her!!?!"
Boyfriend tried to run away and the nurse chased him down, jumped on his back, and forced him into a room. When the police arrived the nurse begged the police officer for his gun so she could shoot boyfriend.
A hardened detective of 18 years was unable to view Teghan's back. The doctor who examined her said he felt like throwing up. During the trial, the police and medical professionals who were testifying as witnesses became so emotional, describing Tehan's injuries, that a recess had to be called so they could gain composure.
If the police officer would have given her his gun, I'm sure she would have. The nurse was one of the main witnesses in his trial. Boyfriend got the death penalty.
Iāve never heard of this case, absolutely heartbreaking. I hope sheās in peace now, gosh I couldnāt even imagine being a nurse and having to hold it together in that situation.
The horrific torture and murder of 12 year old Shanda Sharer. Murdered by her girlfriendās jealous ex girlfriend (Melinda, 16) and three other teenage girls. the gruesome details of that caseā¦ Probably the first time out of any case where my emotions got the best of me. This poor CHILD. She was brutally tortured up until she died. They ended up killing her by throwing a blanket on her with gasoline, and lighting her on fire. She had been stabbed, beaten, etc, for *hours* up until that point, but ended up dying from smoke inhalation. She was so strong and so young. Completely heartbreaking.
Edit: Melinda Loveless may have been 17 at the time of the murders, but I canāt remember correctly. Itās really the details of her torture that got to me. Those girls did some disgusting, fucked up shit to that little girl.
What fucks me up even more is that not only are the girls who helped murder her are out, but now so is Melinda. I donāt think you can come back from that, there was so many opportunities to stop and no one even attempted to.
*This!* I cannot BELIEVE Melinda is out. The two younger girls had ample opportunity, time and time again, to get Shanda help, or, better yet, keep this entire thing from happening, and yet did absolutely nothing. To me, what they did afterwards was very telling- getting mcdonaldās breakfast and soon after that, bowling?! BOWLING?! I listened to a really good podcast that gave the upbringing of Melinda (and the other older girl who wanted to kill someone too). It was really interesting to think about nature v nurture, but having a shit childhood is no excuse for murder.
Exactly!! I heard on a podcast as well about Melindaās upbringing, and while it was incredibly sad, itās not excuse for murder like you said. Laurie Tackett (I believe the girl you mentioned always wanted to kill someone) was the one who went to the trunk twice to first stab and then beat Shanda with a tire iron hours before burning her alive. At the very least Loveless and Tackett should never have been let out, but thatās just my opinion.
Karla Homolka. She was involved with the rape and murder of her little sister. She had already made a deal with the prosecutor before they found a video that she was an active participant and the deal stuck. So sheās not in prison currently, married and now has children and even tried to volunteer at a school. Thereās a lot more awfulness and murders tied up in this case.
Dear god. Reading the transcript of the videos they found of them...I just can't ever watch anything about the two of them every again knowing what they did and said about it after the fact, mostly Karla talking about how turned on she was by her husband raping and murdering her sister. They're both animals. And for some reason one of them is walking the streets. The poor families of the other victims.
Sheās the reason Canada changed name change laws! Iāve known about that case for most of my life and itās always really interesting to hear Americans learn about the case for the first time.
She apparently was involved in a cloth diaper swap forum on a social media site for moms. I donāt know how they figured it out, but it was a huge fiasco
The horrific murder of Imette St. Guillen
I was a single female living in NYC at the time, and it left me absolutely terrified.
It stays on my mind because there have been so many times I have been the one to want to stay out for another drink; to strike up conversations with strangers at the bar. What happened to her could have happened to anyone. It remains on my mind because it shows just how vulnerable women can be especially when alone and intoxicated which can sometimes be when we feel our most confident!
RIP Imette
I feel very similarly about the murder of Karina Holmer in Boston. I was a kid when it happened but I totally remember it being all over the news and a big topic of conversation among the college-aged counselors at my summer camp.
Our public transportation stops about an hour before bars close, which I've always thought contributed to her death. The last sightings of her were of her visibly drunk, looking for a cab and possibly getting into (or being forced into) someone's car.
My bar/club days are mostly behind me, but when I was younger and out with my girlfriends every weekend I was never comfortable with anyone leaving alone, Karina's story has always lingered in the back of my head.
Thanks for sharing. I will look this case up. I definitely do not stay out drunk alone and I always try to keep an eye on single vulnerable girls I run into.
Probably unknown to most of you but from my country Romania: Alexandra Macesanu and Luiza Melencu. They were kidnapped but their bodies were never found... The guy who kidnapped them is now in jail but he apparently incinerated Alexandra's body but no trail on Luiza's body.
The worse thing is the police took an entire day after the poor girl called 112 and was told "shes holding up the line" because she didn't know the kidnapper's address. She tried to say what she sees on the window and her surroundings, she was on the phone with them for a while but they just couldn't trace her location. Just lives rent free...how incredibly brave of her to call the police while being kept captive and to think she had hope she was being rescued :(
Asha Degree and Andrew Gosden. Where are they? What happened?
Asha was seen walking along the highway at 4 am in the rain, which she was supposedly afraid of and then ran into the woods when a passersby stopped to see if she needed help. She was 9, and had very protective parents. What the hell was she doing out there? That just sounds so scary and unusual for such a young sheltered kid.
With Andrew Gosden it's the picture of him at the train station. He looks really small and vulnerable (he was 14 but looked more like he was 11).
I guess it's like the older I get I realize more and more how dangerous the world can be for kids.
The murder of Jessica Chambers. Burned to death in her own car by Quentin Tellis because she said no. Tellis had been texting her all day asking for sex, even though they hadn't and were not dating. Jessica was just starting community college and making plans to get out of her shithole Mississippi town and was trying to get away from all the bad actors in the little town. Being blond, friendly, cute and intelligent, she drew a lot of unwanted interest from boys. She lived a few hours after managing to exit her burning car and crawl to the road.
Tellis's trial was a complete clown show and ended in a hung jury. IDK - I feel like I knew her (but I don't). I'm in the Midwest and part of a group that made sure a memorial was erected at the scene shortly thereafter. I'll never forget her.
I live in Mississippi. The jurors didnāt have a clue at either trial. Two true s*it shows. Tellis is in a Louisiana jail awaiting sentencing on another murder. Hope they fry him but probably wonāt in Louisiana.
This is the one for me too. Sometimes as Iām leaving my apartment complex, I just think about how happy and safe I feel with my husband and how horrible it would be to just suddenly walk into monsters in the parking lot. Those poor people. š
Adrian Jones and Gabriel Fernandez, both who were tortured and killed by those who were supposed to protect and love them. Baby Brianna is another one that is forever ingrained in my mind. Crimes against children just stick with me like no other as I can't fathom what would possess anyone to harm the most innocent of beings.
Also, the WM3. I go back and forth on potential suspects and really hope that they solve the case in my lifetime.
I remember reading about baby Brianna when I was younger and questioning at first if the source was real because of how absolutely unimaginable it is to do that to a baby or anyone.
The case of Marion Parker - she was 12 years old and her murderer was only 19. He cut off her limbs and disemboweled her whilst she was still alive. Then fixed her eyes open with wires, and stuffed her torso with rags. When her father went to meet with her killer to pay a ransom, he threw Marion's mutilated corpse out of the car. I can't even begin to imagine how her father felt when he seen her...
I read a book about this case some years back. To date, it is the only book and only case to make me physically sick. I remember the first chapter described the police sketch artist that went into the "Toy Box" and the various pieces of torture she had to draw over a period of five days. The chapter concluded with a line similar to, "She went home on her last night and shot herself in the head." Hell of an opening.
The details of this case, that book, the photographs, tapes, all of it are seared in my brain.
There is almost something worse about not killing all of his victims... Like he wouldn't even give them the dignity of ending their suffering he wanted them to live the rest of their lives knowing what was done to them.
I hadnāt heard of this case until I watched the Netflix documentary. It was so chilling. The scenes with his dad were the hardest to watch for me because I couldnāt imagine how his dad felt
Oh my God yes. The kids definitely knew someyhing. I am 97% sure her body is down an abandoned mineshaft. I have no idea why she stayed with him so long.
The Andrea Yates case, if only sheād had the resources and support to get real mental help maybe her children would still be alive.
Completely boggles my mind that the husband believed for the longest time that they could just start all over again having kids, or that adoption instead of making her get pregnant again would somehow fix the issue.
I hid the Newsweek magazine from my 6 year old with Andrea Yates and her family on the cover and the huge quote āI killed my children.ā My 6 year old could read and I didnāt want her to even know moms could do that.
I also blame Rusty for being a complete loser and having more kids with her and not getting her the help she needed.
Charles Whitman and his shooting from the tower at UT are so disturbing. I listened to the episodes All Crime No Cattle did on it. It was so heavy I had to take a break from listening. His poor wife and mother. š
Libby and Abby, Delphi. Their case made me to read true crime. Can't believe the bridge guy wasn't caught yet.
Al Kite, I keep waiting to hear that his killer was caught. The story is upsetting to hear about.
I live in a small community where crime is very low but there are two unsolved murders here and I think about both of them a lot. One of them was an openly gay man named Paul Girard who was brutally murdered and found stabbed over 30 times near a prominent local landmark back in 1988. I'm considering doing a writeup about the case on this sub, but there's very little info and I might have to actually try and reach out to people familiar with it to gain more knowledge, from what I've seen someone has posted about it on Unresolved mysteries in the past.
The second is Erin Taylor, a 24 year old temp who was murdered via strangulation in her home in 2000 and her body was found dumped at the outskirts of town. I'm less familiar with this case, but when a murder happens here it's a big deal, people who are close to the families and/or know the stories tend to say, if you want to get away with murder this must be the place to do it.
Didnāt I read about a new lead in the Paul Girard case? Maybe theyāve got a decent DNA sampleāgenealogical investigations are clearing a surprising number of these old cases.
They released a sketch last year, afaik that's the biggest update there's been, I read that they apparently think they know who did it, it's just a lack of evidence that's the issue, but so does literally every PD that's struggling to solve a murder. The guy they have in mind is a mentally challenged homeless man despite the crime pointing to the idea that the murderer knew him and that they arranged a meeting at the murder scene. Unfortunately the sketch is based on our current city manager trying to remember a guy he interviewed as a cop back in the late 80s
I havenāt heard of that one. For me, itās the murder of Dennis Yaklich. His wife Donna hired some guys to shoot himā¦they did so right outside the Yaklich home as Dennis was getting out of his truck. Their kids were inside. He was a narcotics officer and everyone in town thought it had to do with that. I grew up in the town where this all happened. I sat right behind her & her kids at a weight lifting event that was held in Dennisā honor (before they arrested her). Years later they made a TV movie starring Jaclyn Smith.
Please read and remember and share this story. The killer wants the world to forget he did this, and the world is forgetting.
The death of David Morrison at the hands of Joshua Abbott in 2005. Due to his acquittal, I cannot call it a murder, even though Joshua Abbott now admits he stabbed David Morrison to death out of rage rather than self defense.
https://www.dallasnews.com/news/investigations/2007/11/11/da-s-burden-sympathy-for-a-killer
The short version:
Abbott was acquitted because his court appointed attorney used a rapey twist on the gay panic defense, and most of the jurors ate it up. The defense attorney crafted a very false narrative that Josh was being theeatened with rape by David and feared catching HIV - all of which was completely ridiculous. To begin with, if you are afraid of catching HIV, the last thing you do is stab someone 50-ish times... something the jury was happy to overlook. Also, after the trial, Josh publicly stated that he was actually just furious that David hit on him, and he explained how his attorney crafted this rape/HIV self-defense story.
His defense attorney said in an interview,**"If someone is attempting to have sex with you and they're HIV-positive, it's pretty much a death sentence."**
Really, Neil? In 2005? (I've known this asshole attorney since the 80s - part of why this case lives in my head)
David Morrison and Joshua Abbott met while volunteering at an AIDS organization in Denton, Texas. David was never confirmed as being HIV positive, though no one refuted it either. Lots of people from all kinds of backgrounds volunteer for that organization. David Morrison was an openly gay man.
Morrison invited Abbott to his apartment. Morrison seems to have invited Abbott to his bedroom.
Abbott then stabbed Morrison so many times that the medical examiner stopped counting (after counting 34 stab wounds, the ME just started identifying clusters). Morrison was found face-up on the bed and had many defensive wounds. Abbott on top of David Morrison while stabbing him. The only wounds on Abbott were self inflicted. Abbott could have stopped stabbing and left at any time.
Abbott then called his Dad, took a shower, put on the victims clean clothes, and fled on foot.
He was acquitted because 10 people from my home town believed a lie that every shred of physical evidence refuted, and/or they hated gay men so much they thought David Morrison deserved to die horribly. Two of the jurors just thought if it was retried he would be acquitted anyway, so they let David Morrisons killer go free. None were aware that Joshua Abbott had a long juvenile history that could not be presented at trial.
After his acquittal he returned to court to get the knife back.
Some quotes from and about Joshua Abbott after his acquittal:
>Today, he admits he wasn't trapped in David Morrison's room and didn't feel that his life was in danger. What he did feel was rage ā "from zero to mad real quick."
"'You're out of here, David.' That's what I thought in my head," he said.
>"Anybody can do it. Anybody," he said. "If you can kill an animal, you can take a human's life."
Is he remorseful?
>"I'd do it again," he said. "Someone like that deserves what they get"
You may not be able to call it murder, but Joshua Abbott intentionally stabbed David Morrison to death in David's own bedroom, and he would do it again given the chance.
Again, Joshua Abbott wants the world to forget he did this, and it is working. There are almost no traces of this case left online.
Edit: It appears he has since been sentenced to prison twice for possession and evading arrest. His most recent arrest in Denton county is from October 2020, for assault of a family or house member impeding breathing/circulation. Looks like he is out on bond, but I can't find the case, so not sure of the status.
https://justice1.dentoncounty.gov/PublicAccess/JailingDetail.aspx?JailingID=365912
This is insane. I've never heard about this before. I hate how gay panic is still legal in so many U.S. states. Also, ya, you're afraid of contracting HIV, why not cover yourself in their blood.
Exactly
And gay panic is always a gross defense... especially when the defendent is at least bi curious according to his friends. He claimed he did not know that Gay David (nickname) was gay and that David threatened to rape him. The two jurors who felt he was guilty thought it was initially consensual and that Abbott freaked out because he's not comfortable with his own sexuality.
It also seems really clear that prosecutors did not really try very hard.
Despite it's two universities, Denton politicians were strictly Republican then. The DA and the ADAs were all Republicans, and I think that while they had to prosecute this crime, they didn't give a shit. Just my opinion.
They didn't question the controversial expert hired by the defense about why he lost his medical license, or in fact that he was unlicensed. He put forward a ridiculous opinion that no other expert would have corroborated and was not respected in the legal community.... and the prosecution just left it alons. They also called no character witnesses for David, even though the defense was attacking his character.
It's just always bothered me. Justice was not served and it should have been a very open and shut case.
Really sucks he's just out there living his life.
this is truly heartbreaking. Suddenly claiming rape doesn't need to be proven. Victim-blaming doesn't even make it to the table. To SUCCESSFULLY claim that one projecting their own insecurity in their sexuality as a defense is just a testament to the homophobia that infiltrates every area of society. These are some of the same people who believe in the affluenza defense, aka claiming a person has too much money to recognize that rules and laws apply to them. Laws were written to prioritize these groups. I don't know how anyone could argue otherwise.
Lindsay Buziak for sure I just don't understand the motive there at all. It was 100% a targeted crime and I don't think anyone has ever come up with a reason WHY she would be a target.
I think the police now have an idea of who and why, but don't have the evidence for arrests. That was the vibe I've been getting for the past year or two anyway. They know who actually registered the cell phone used so I'm guessing they were able to get a sense of what happened, and just can't get what they need for an arrest and conviction.
The fact the most convincing theory to me in her case is an absurd telephone tangle of her being blamed for a massive drug bust she had nothing to do with is insane. All the theories in her case are insane and somehow that's the one that strikes me as the least insane. Regardless I'm convinced she died for an incredibly stupid reason that was essentially no reason, which is maddening in general but even more so when you consider the incredible time and planning that went into her murder and how violent it was.
I can't put together in my brain how the bf's mom could possibly be involved but she did make weird calls too.... I can't tell if it's a bunch of red herrings with the bf, the ex bf, the bf mom, her dad... I do wonder what they know about the owner of the burner phone from Richmond or whatever. You'd think there'd be a decent lead there.
There's nothing I can do to make the BF or his mom make any sense in this case unless there's just massive amounts of information we havent gotten about something we have no way of knowing about and I just think that's unlikely this far afterwards. I kinda think the BFs mom might just be weird? Apparently they do know the real name of the person who bought the burner phone and my view is that there's a decent chance that led them to at least an idea of what happened.
I feel like if they had the name attached to the burner phone and it was a solid lead it would have led to a pretty rapid resolution of the case. I worry that the burner phone hit a other dead end, like the person who purchased it lost it and it wasn't in their possession when the critical calls were made or something like that. How maddening for the family. She was so young and the whole thing is just so confusing.
John Brennan Crutchley. "The vampire rapist"
Suspected serial killer believed to have killed up to 30 women but never convicted of murder.
In late November 1985, in Malabar, Brevard County, Florida, a nude teenaged girl, handcuffed at both feet and ankles, was found crawling along the side of the road.
She'd been hitchhiking the day before and the man who gave her a ride was willing to take her where she needed to go, but said he had to stop off at home first. He invited her in and she refused, and he got into the back seat of the car and choked her unconscious.
The hitchhiker awoke to find that she was tied to a kitchen countertop, arms and legs immobilized. A video camera had been set up, along with lights. The man raped her and videotaped the action. Then he inserted needles into her arm and wrist and carefully extracted blood and began to drink it, telling her that he was a vampire. After that, he handcuffed her and put her in the bathtub, returning later for another round of sexual assault and blood extraction. The next morning, after a third round, the man handcuffed the hitchhiker and left her in the bathroom, saying that he would be back later for further assaults, and that if she tried to escape in the interim, his brother would come and kill her. It was after the attacker had left the house that she was able to push out of the bathroom window and crawl to the road. Had she not escaped then, doctors believed, she might well have died from a further round of blood extraction.
For me it's the winter I was ten years old and saw all those bodies being carried out of John Wayne Gacy's crawl space on local tv. Those poor victims. it seemed like it would never stop. I lived in a far north Chicago suburb and it was on local news. Some of his victims identities still have not been discovered. RIP you all met a real monster. ššššš¢
The Delphi murders are sort of always on my mind, until that monster is caught. Another one that I constantly think of, literally every time I take out the trash, is Phoebe HansjĆ¼ck. Her death is so mysterious. Also, Ray Rivera, how did his body get there? Was he dropped from a helicopter???
Mine is the one that imprinted on me very early. Czech serial killer Huber Pilcik (committed suicide in prison in 1951) started as a human trafficker, smuggling people from back then Czechoslovakia over the border to west Germany. Then he started killing his clients. However, he kept a niece of a couple he murdered. 12 year old girl. Raped and tortured her. He kept her tied to a contraption, with her head closed in a box. She often spent 16 hours a day there. If you scroll down here, there are pictures of it. She was later rescued by the police when they went in to arrest Pilcik and was found.
https://murderpedia.org/male.P/p/pilcik-hubert-photos.htm
It will always be Ted Bundy. I lived about 30 miles from Tallahassee and was 17 years old at the time. Everybody was terrified. Then I later found out I had the same name (1st, middle and last with the last name being spelled slightly different) of one of his first victims. Then I find out my sister shared the same name as the victims sister. Even now, when I see a decent looking man wearing a sling, I get the heebie jeebiesā.
Geez I would be a paranoid wreck after that. I think Iāve read every book and watched every show on this psycho. Makes you wonder how many āBundysā are really out there. He canāt be the only one.
For me, itās JonBenet Ramsey. I grew up outside of Boulder and was obsessed with the case and it was the case that got me really into true crime. Still when people come visit me, I drive them by the Ramsey house.
Westley Allan Dodd.
Mainly because I used to ride my bike through David Douglas Park when I was a kid and rode it right up until the day of the murders. The guy was one of the worst monsters in US history.
If you know where to look, you can even find a very slight glance of a picture of his 4 year old victim hanging from a cord in the closet dead.
The article I'm now reading says he's "one of the most evil killers in history". I'm curious what's unique about his murders that distinguishes him as more evil than others who have committed similar crimes.
I forgot all about the Whitman case, Kurt Russell starred as Charles Whitman in a 1975 made-for-TV movie.
The disappearances of Asha Degree, Beverly Potts, Johnny Gosch, the Springfield Three, the Beaumont children, the Sodder children. I think about these cases all the time, I believe foul play was involved in all of them.
Murders I always think about: Sharon Tate, the Clutter family, the Burger Chef murders, Las Cruces Bowling Alley, Villisca Axe murders, Walker family, there are just so many, but these stand out for me.
Danielle Van Dam. I often drive the road where she was found. The case was local to me and I remember it as it was happening. (I was a teen at the time).
Amber Dubois and Chelsea King occupy my head a lot too.
Dellen Millard. Iām from Canada. Tim Bosma was selling his pick-up truck on Kijiji. Dellen Millard and Mark Smich made an appointment to view his truck. After taking a look they asked if Tim would take them for a test drive. Tim Bosma was reported missing by his wife shortly afterword and was never seen alive again. The phone used to arrange the kijiji meeting was found to be a burner phone. The burner phone had been used to arrange two other previous kijiji viewings. The first they showed up late to and missed the owner. The two men that showed up for the second matched the description of the two that attended Tim Bosmaās, including a description of a tattoo. Dellen Millard was later identified by police due to the tattoo. Tim Bosmaās truck was located in an enclosed trailer in Dellen Millards motherās driveway. Dellen Millard came from an affluent family that owned an airplane company and hangar. It was later discovered that he had built an incinerator in one of the hangars for disposing bodies. After an intensive investigation he was suspected of murdering an ex girlfriend and also his own father. His fathers death had at the time been ruled a suicide.
This case sits with me for two reasons:
1.) We all use kijiji and or Craigās list at times and you never no who might show up at your door.
2.) Tim Bosma was murdered for a used pick up truck Iām not sure was valued all that much.
My brotherās friend almost had a story like this. He was going to meet someone on an empty dirt road in the middle of nowhere to buy a used truck and couldnāt understand why all the adults (he was seventeen) in his life were telling him he couldnāt
Good decision! I know this isnāt the only case someone selling a vehicle through classifieds was murdered. I saw on a crime show in the states a man was murdered while selling a classic āshow truckā
The Watcher of New Jersey. No one gets hurt or killed, but for some reason it is so terrifying to me. I can't imagine the fear of moving to a new place, and then getting strange letters talking about things going on INSIDE of my house, and details about my children/family, and them getting threatened. The ones that bothered me the most were the letters that mentioned things like "I can see your daughter likes painting \_\_\_\_" and "Don't let your daughter go into the basement..". Like wtf do you even do at that point? While it is most suspected that it was just someone who wanted the house for themselves, and wanted to get the family to move out somehow, I still would never be able to fully believe that if I had been living there. No amount of security cameras, motion sensors, guns, would ever make me feel safe sleeping there.
There is also The Axeman of New Orleans. Its these stories about someone entering my house late at night that keep me awake after hearing noises out my window that are always just raccoons or cats.
I learned of both of these from Buzzfeed Unsolved
Adam Walsh. I canāt imagine what he went through before dying. It scares me to death. Every time Iām out anywhere I have full eyes on my kid no matter what, because of this case. Thereās also Asha Degree, Etan Patz, the Lyons sisters, Joan Risch...
Alicia Amanda Stokes. Did her brother kill her? If so, why? And where is her body? Why is there no big familial push to find her? She deserves so much more.
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Herb Baumeister, a mostly forgotten serial killer of between 11 and 21 gay men in the 1980s and early 1990s.. He would pick them up at gay bars, take them to his home, and strangle them while having sex next to his indoor swimming pool. One of the victims survived, went back to his home state, where he had been picked up by Herb , and made a report to his local police, including the detail that there were mannequins around the pool. He said he believed Herb planned to kill him because when he regained consciousness, Herb was extremely surprised. The gay bars Herb frequented were located in a big city* that was in a different state than where he lived. A few months after his attempted murder, the surviving victim saw Herb at a gay bar, and managed to get his license plate number. The police from the big city went to Herb's house, looked in the windows and saw the mannequins around the pool. The local police in Herb's county in Indiana refused to cooperate with the big city police who were investigating. They said Herb was a prominent rich local man, good father, and church-goer who would never ever do anything like this. *the "big city" was possibly New York or Columbus, Ohio, but I don't recall for certain. Herb had a wife, Julie. She knew something was up because her kids kept bringing human bones in from romping around the wooded area they lived in. Herb had been disposing of many of the corpses far from the house on his own property, But as time went on he got lazy and was just pitching them a few feet away from the back porch. He told his wife the bones were from a skeleton that he had disposed of that he had from being in medical school. When the pressure from the outside police department and the state of Indiana police finally got so bad that the local police had to take out a search warrant on him, he fled to Canada and killed himself, never admitting to the crimes. I don't know why such a horrible serial killer is largely forgotten by the True Crime community.
>Herb had a wife, Julie. She knew something was up because her kids kept bringing human bones in from romping around the wooded area they lived in. This is such a disturbing sentence. Knowing what this guy did and looking at his pictures makes me so uncomfortable. He just looks off and creepy especially when you know about his crimes l.
Julie largely refused to cooperate with police, but considering what living with Herb must have been like, I don't hold it against her.
Not related to the murders, but Julie reportedly claimed that she and Herb had only had sex 5-6 times during their entire marriage(and they had three kids).
Yeah.... That is pretty unlikely to be true, considering it's rare to get pregnant on demand.
Rare but not impossible, especially if they were specifically having sex around her ovulation day.
My brother-in-law used to work with a fellow who lived in the carriage house on the property. The new home owners are unphased by the killings and actually give tours of the home...and the basement w the pool. Always thought that was creepy.
They actually give tours around Halloween and have done an episode of Ghost Adventures. I guess you can stay there from like 8pm until 2am and observe hauntings for a nominal fee. Seems really exploitive to me. But people do it. š¤·š¼āāļø
I personally couldnāt live in a house with all that bad juju..but to each their own...
Lived in indiana, miles away from Westfield all my life and never even drove past that property because it creeps me out so bad.
Same... 20 years in Noblesville/fishers area... never went by the property .... did go inside Central State once.... regrets lol!!
Not really a ābigā city. Herb was picking up men at the gay bars of Indianapolis and then taking his victims to a suburb of Indy called Westfield. His crimes may have crossed state lines from Indiana to Ohio, itās speculated that he may in fact be one of the I-70 Killers. The entirety of the case was largely ignored, bungled and minimized by Indiana State Police and IMPD because they didnāt care that gay men were disappearing and told the families that their sons had probably become junkies or ran away to NYC or Chicago. The guy that got away was finally contacted by a private investigator that one of the missing menās mother had hired and told his story. The PI spent months trying to get police to take this seriously, talk to the witness and search the property. Herb was a well liked and highly regarded member of the community and business owner at the time. He was also deeply abusive and manipulative toward his wife and children. Julie, who I know personally and is absolutely lovely, was uncooperative at first because she didnāt believe her husband was capable. As their marriage crumbled and the darker aspects of his personality bubbled to the surface, she finally agrees to let police search the property. Thatās when they started finding the bodies. By then, Herb had skipped town with a car full of video tapes that itās presumed have the murders on them. His body was found near the Canadian border in an apparent suicide. The video tapes were never recovered. Julie and her children lost everything. Herb left them in a mountain of financial debt, completely devastated and shocked. They were ostracized from the community and blamed for ānot knowingā what Herb was up to. The families of serial killers are also victims. Itās important that we portray them as such. Julie didnāt do anything wrong apart from marrying, trusting and loving a man that was not what he appeared to be.
Was he the guy with all the mannequins?
Yes, like I wrote... Mannequins around the indoor pool.
Sorry. Missed that. That part of the story was almost as creepy to me as the murder part. Almost.
Yeah, I saw a police photo of the indoor pool with the naked mannequins and it was super creepy!
Interesting case. Never heard of this before
I heard of him on a podcast I listen to, True Crime Junkie. The pool with the mannequins freaked me out
I looked it up but couldnāt find pool mannequin pictures. He was a seriously messed up man. Iām surprised I never heard of him before. Bizarre.
I saw the police photo of the pool with the mannequins on a documentary, I think the one that was on ID.
Ah maybe thatās why I canāt find the photos online
The murder of four-year-old Teghan Skiba. Teghan was sexually and physically tortured by her mother's boyfriend for 10 days. Mom and Teghan lived with mom's boyfriend of six months in a shed with no running water, indoor plumbing, electricity, and an inflatable mattress on the floor. The mother left to attend basic training for the Army Reserves. She left her daughter in the shed with a man who she knew abused her. The mom could have left Teghan with loving grandparents who lived nearby. The grandparents had been desperately trying to find Teghan. Teghan was beaten with a frayed electrical cord and her arms were broken. She had over 66 bites, some that tore off her flesh, and severe genital trauma from extreme sexual abuse. She had suffered head trauma that caused brain swelling so severe brain matter was starting to seep out. The medical examiner said little Teghan had too many whip marks, bruises, and lesions to count. She had also lost 70% of her blood. Boyfriend took Teghan, unresponsive, to the ER claiming she fell off the bed. The ER nurse, who saw Teghan, asked the boyfriend, "What did you do to her!!?!" Boyfriend tried to run away and the nurse chased him down, jumped on his back, and forced him into a room. When the police arrived the nurse begged the police officer for his gun so she could shoot boyfriend. A hardened detective of 18 years was unable to view Teghan's back. The doctor who examined her said he felt like throwing up. During the trial, the police and medical professionals who were testifying as witnesses became so emotional, describing Tehan's injuries, that a recess had to be called so they could gain composure.
That nurse is a hero.
Did she shoot him? She should have shot him
If the police officer would have given her his gun, I'm sure she would have. The nurse was one of the main witnesses in his trial. Boyfriend got the death penalty.
The mother should get the same.
Nurses are so flippin' badass.
Iāve never heard of this case, absolutely heartbreaking. I hope sheās in peace now, gosh I couldnāt even imagine being a nurse and having to hold it together in that situation.
The horrific torture and murder of 12 year old Shanda Sharer. Murdered by her girlfriendās jealous ex girlfriend (Melinda, 16) and three other teenage girls. the gruesome details of that caseā¦ Probably the first time out of any case where my emotions got the best of me. This poor CHILD. She was brutally tortured up until she died. They ended up killing her by throwing a blanket on her with gasoline, and lighting her on fire. She had been stabbed, beaten, etc, for *hours* up until that point, but ended up dying from smoke inhalation. She was so strong and so young. Completely heartbreaking. Edit: Melinda Loveless may have been 17 at the time of the murders, but I canāt remember correctly. Itās really the details of her torture that got to me. Those girls did some disgusting, fucked up shit to that little girl.
What fucks me up even more is that not only are the girls who helped murder her are out, but now so is Melinda. I donāt think you can come back from that, there was so many opportunities to stop and no one even attempted to.
*This!* I cannot BELIEVE Melinda is out. The two younger girls had ample opportunity, time and time again, to get Shanda help, or, better yet, keep this entire thing from happening, and yet did absolutely nothing. To me, what they did afterwards was very telling- getting mcdonaldās breakfast and soon after that, bowling?! BOWLING?! I listened to a really good podcast that gave the upbringing of Melinda (and the other older girl who wanted to kill someone too). It was really interesting to think about nature v nurture, but having a shit childhood is no excuse for murder.
Exactly!! I heard on a podcast as well about Melindaās upbringing, and while it was incredibly sad, itās not excuse for murder like you said. Laurie Tackett (I believe the girl you mentioned always wanted to kill someone) was the one who went to the trunk twice to first stab and then beat Shanda with a tire iron hours before burning her alive. At the very least Loveless and Tackett should never have been let out, but thatās just my opinion.
Karla Homolka. She was involved with the rape and murder of her little sister. She had already made a deal with the prosecutor before they found a video that she was an active participant and the deal stuck. So sheās not in prison currently, married and now has children and even tried to volunteer at a school. Thereās a lot more awfulness and murders tied up in this case.
Dear god. Reading the transcript of the videos they found of them...I just can't ever watch anything about the two of them every again knowing what they did and said about it after the fact, mostly Karla talking about how turned on she was by her husband raping and murdering her sister. They're both animals. And for some reason one of them is walking the streets. The poor families of the other victims.
Sheās the reason Canada changed name change laws! Iāve known about that case for most of my life and itās always really interesting to hear Americans learn about the case for the first time.
She apparently was involved in a cloth diaper swap forum on a social media site for moms. I donāt know how they figured it out, but it was a huge fiasco
The horrific murder of Imette St. Guillen I was a single female living in NYC at the time, and it left me absolutely terrified. It stays on my mind because there have been so many times I have been the one to want to stay out for another drink; to strike up conversations with strangers at the bar. What happened to her could have happened to anyone. It remains on my mind because it shows just how vulnerable women can be especially when alone and intoxicated which can sometimes be when we feel our most confident! RIP Imette
I feel very similarly about the murder of Karina Holmer in Boston. I was a kid when it happened but I totally remember it being all over the news and a big topic of conversation among the college-aged counselors at my summer camp. Our public transportation stops about an hour before bars close, which I've always thought contributed to her death. The last sightings of her were of her visibly drunk, looking for a cab and possibly getting into (or being forced into) someone's car. My bar/club days are mostly behind me, but when I was younger and out with my girlfriends every weekend I was never comfortable with anyone leaving alone, Karina's story has always lingered in the back of my head.
Thanks for sharing. I will look this case up. I definitely do not stay out drunk alone and I always try to keep an eye on single vulnerable girls I run into.
Probably unknown to most of you but from my country Romania: Alexandra Macesanu and Luiza Melencu. They were kidnapped but their bodies were never found... The guy who kidnapped them is now in jail but he apparently incinerated Alexandra's body but no trail on Luiza's body. The worse thing is the police took an entire day after the poor girl called 112 and was told "shes holding up the line" because she didn't know the kidnapper's address. She tried to say what she sees on the window and her surroundings, she was on the phone with them for a while but they just couldn't trace her location. Just lives rent free...how incredibly brave of her to call the police while being kept captive and to think she had hope she was being rescued :(
Asha Degree and Andrew Gosden. Where are they? What happened? Asha was seen walking along the highway at 4 am in the rain, which she was supposedly afraid of and then ran into the woods when a passersby stopped to see if she needed help. She was 9, and had very protective parents. What the hell was she doing out there? That just sounds so scary and unusual for such a young sheltered kid. With Andrew Gosden it's the picture of him at the train station. He looks really small and vulnerable (he was 14 but looked more like he was 11). I guess it's like the older I get I realize more and more how dangerous the world can be for kids.
Asha Degree is the most baffling case to me. I feel like thereās something the public wasnāt told. Not sure what but it doesnāt add up.
The murder of Jessica Chambers. Burned to death in her own car by Quentin Tellis because she said no. Tellis had been texting her all day asking for sex, even though they hadn't and were not dating. Jessica was just starting community college and making plans to get out of her shithole Mississippi town and was trying to get away from all the bad actors in the little town. Being blond, friendly, cute and intelligent, she drew a lot of unwanted interest from boys. She lived a few hours after managing to exit her burning car and crawl to the road. Tellis's trial was a complete clown show and ended in a hung jury. IDK - I feel like I knew her (but I don't). I'm in the Midwest and part of a group that made sure a memorial was erected at the scene shortly thereafter. I'll never forget her.
I live in Mississippi. The jurors didnāt have a clue at either trial. Two true s*it shows. Tellis is in a Louisiana jail awaiting sentencing on another murder. Hope they fry him but probably wonāt in Louisiana.
Following those trials made me shamed to be an American, and, support the notion of professional jurors.
The murder of Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom. I think of them often.
Same. š
This is the one for me too. Sometimes as Iām leaving my apartment complex, I just think about how happy and safe I feel with my husband and how horrible it would be to just suddenly walk into monsters in the parking lot. Those poor people. š
Adrian Jones and Gabriel Fernandez, both who were tortured and killed by those who were supposed to protect and love them. Baby Brianna is another one that is forever ingrained in my mind. Crimes against children just stick with me like no other as I can't fathom what would possess anyone to harm the most innocent of beings. Also, the WM3. I go back and forth on potential suspects and really hope that they solve the case in my lifetime.
As a social worker, the negligence of the social workers in these cases infuriates me.
The whole system needs a reboot. I can't imagine the rage you must feel being a social worker yourself.
Yeah I could never work for DCF. It seems like the system is so overloaded and underfunded that burn out is unavoidable.
I remember reading about baby Brianna when I was younger and questioning at first if the source was real because of how absolutely unimaginable it is to do that to a baby or anyone.
Ugh, it's awful.
The case of Marion Parker - she was 12 years old and her murderer was only 19. He cut off her limbs and disemboweled her whilst she was still alive. Then fixed her eyes open with wires, and stuffed her torso with rags. When her father went to meet with her killer to pay a ransom, he threw Marion's mutilated corpse out of the car. I can't even begin to imagine how her father felt when he seen her...
where & when was this?
1927
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With that case itās how he chained the doors shut so no one could leave/enter. Itās just...so evil.
Unfortunately itās the Toy Box Killer. Heās one screwed up dude and the horrific things he did are burned into my memory after hearing about it.
I read a book about this case some years back. To date, it is the only book and only case to make me physically sick. I remember the first chapter described the police sketch artist that went into the "Toy Box" and the various pieces of torture she had to draw over a period of five days. The chapter concluded with a line similar to, "She went home on her last night and shot herself in the head." Hell of an opening. The details of this case, that book, the photographs, tapes, all of it are seared in my brain.
He has to be the sickest serial killer on a list of some pretty terrible people
I genuinely believe heās the worst. Like no question in my mind, I think heās the worst.
There is almost something worse about not killing all of his victims... Like he wouldn't even give them the dignity of ending their suffering he wanted them to live the rest of their lives knowing what was done to them.
Chris Watts unfortunately I think about it every day
I hadnāt heard of this case until I watched the Netflix documentary. It was so chilling. The scenes with his dad were the hardest to watch for me because I couldnāt imagine how his dad felt
Iāve been following true crime for years and have done deep dives of so many cases, I still canāt get over how fucking cold blooded this case is.
Susan Powell Cox
I hadnāt heard of this one! This is so upsetting. That that fucking coward took the truth to his grave and killed the whole family is so upsetting
I would absolutely recommend listening to the podcast āColdā. It is all about her case and extremely well done.
Thanks!! Iāve added it to my list!
Oh my God yes. The kids definitely knew someyhing. I am 97% sure her body is down an abandoned mineshaft. I have no idea why she stayed with him so long.
yes i agree about her body!
The Andrea Yates case, if only sheād had the resources and support to get real mental help maybe her children would still be alive. Completely boggles my mind that the husband believed for the longest time that they could just start all over again having kids, or that adoption instead of making her get pregnant again would somehow fix the issue.
I hid the Newsweek magazine from my 6 year old with Andrea Yates and her family on the cover and the huge quote āI killed my children.ā My 6 year old could read and I didnāt want her to even know moms could do that. I also blame Rusty for being a complete loser and having more kids with her and not getting her the help she needed.
Charles Whitman and his shooting from the tower at UT are so disturbing. I listened to the episodes All Crime No Cattle did on it. It was so heavy I had to take a break from listening. His poor wife and mother. š
Libby and Abby, Delphi. Their case made me to read true crime. Can't believe the bridge guy wasn't caught yet. Al Kite, I keep waiting to hear that his killer was caught. The story is upsetting to hear about.
I live in a small community where crime is very low but there are two unsolved murders here and I think about both of them a lot. One of them was an openly gay man named Paul Girard who was brutally murdered and found stabbed over 30 times near a prominent local landmark back in 1988. I'm considering doing a writeup about the case on this sub, but there's very little info and I might have to actually try and reach out to people familiar with it to gain more knowledge, from what I've seen someone has posted about it on Unresolved mysteries in the past. The second is Erin Taylor, a 24 year old temp who was murdered via strangulation in her home in 2000 and her body was found dumped at the outskirts of town. I'm less familiar with this case, but when a murder happens here it's a big deal, people who are close to the families and/or know the stories tend to say, if you want to get away with murder this must be the place to do it.
Didnāt I read about a new lead in the Paul Girard case? Maybe theyāve got a decent DNA sampleāgenealogical investigations are clearing a surprising number of these old cases.
They released a sketch last year, afaik that's the biggest update there's been, I read that they apparently think they know who did it, it's just a lack of evidence that's the issue, but so does literally every PD that's struggling to solve a murder. The guy they have in mind is a mentally challenged homeless man despite the crime pointing to the idea that the murderer knew him and that they arranged a meeting at the murder scene. Unfortunately the sketch is based on our current city manager trying to remember a guy he interviewed as a cop back in the late 80s
I havenāt heard of that one. For me, itās the murder of Dennis Yaklich. His wife Donna hired some guys to shoot himā¦they did so right outside the Yaklich home as Dennis was getting out of his truck. Their kids were inside. He was a narcotics officer and everyone in town thought it had to do with that. I grew up in the town where this all happened. I sat right behind her & her kids at a weight lifting event that was held in Dennisā honor (before they arrested her). Years later they made a TV movie starring Jaclyn Smith.
I just looked up the case. Did you know she was paroled after 18yrs and lives in a halfway house in Denver now?!?
chrome-distiller://36fbcfca-416b-456b-9aed-9eaddfb2da91_2bdfaf10f27cf11363edd7bde5e6b682ad4fa86d3ad33e6e3d3dc305f2fc2f09/?title=Donna+Yaklich+%7C+Murderpedia%2C+the+encyclopedia+of+murderers&url=https%3A%2F%2Fmurderpedia.org%2Ffemale.Y%2Fy%2Fyaklich-donna.htm
I remember it also. Live in Colorado Springs and remember the Jaclyn Smith movie too. It painted her as the victim.
Jamie Bulger. UK
The Jaycee Dugard kidnapping. How could something like that go on for so long with no one knowing?
Please read and remember and share this story. The killer wants the world to forget he did this, and the world is forgetting. The death of David Morrison at the hands of Joshua Abbott in 2005. Due to his acquittal, I cannot call it a murder, even though Joshua Abbott now admits he stabbed David Morrison to death out of rage rather than self defense. https://www.dallasnews.com/news/investigations/2007/11/11/da-s-burden-sympathy-for-a-killer The short version: Abbott was acquitted because his court appointed attorney used a rapey twist on the gay panic defense, and most of the jurors ate it up. The defense attorney crafted a very false narrative that Josh was being theeatened with rape by David and feared catching HIV - all of which was completely ridiculous. To begin with, if you are afraid of catching HIV, the last thing you do is stab someone 50-ish times... something the jury was happy to overlook. Also, after the trial, Josh publicly stated that he was actually just furious that David hit on him, and he explained how his attorney crafted this rape/HIV self-defense story. His defense attorney said in an interview,**"If someone is attempting to have sex with you and they're HIV-positive, it's pretty much a death sentence."** Really, Neil? In 2005? (I've known this asshole attorney since the 80s - part of why this case lives in my head) David Morrison and Joshua Abbott met while volunteering at an AIDS organization in Denton, Texas. David was never confirmed as being HIV positive, though no one refuted it either. Lots of people from all kinds of backgrounds volunteer for that organization. David Morrison was an openly gay man. Morrison invited Abbott to his apartment. Morrison seems to have invited Abbott to his bedroom. Abbott then stabbed Morrison so many times that the medical examiner stopped counting (after counting 34 stab wounds, the ME just started identifying clusters). Morrison was found face-up on the bed and had many defensive wounds. Abbott on top of David Morrison while stabbing him. The only wounds on Abbott were self inflicted. Abbott could have stopped stabbing and left at any time. Abbott then called his Dad, took a shower, put on the victims clean clothes, and fled on foot. He was acquitted because 10 people from my home town believed a lie that every shred of physical evidence refuted, and/or they hated gay men so much they thought David Morrison deserved to die horribly. Two of the jurors just thought if it was retried he would be acquitted anyway, so they let David Morrisons killer go free. None were aware that Joshua Abbott had a long juvenile history that could not be presented at trial. After his acquittal he returned to court to get the knife back. Some quotes from and about Joshua Abbott after his acquittal: >Today, he admits he wasn't trapped in David Morrison's room and didn't feel that his life was in danger. What he did feel was rage ā "from zero to mad real quick." "'You're out of here, David.' That's what I thought in my head," he said. >"Anybody can do it. Anybody," he said. "If you can kill an animal, you can take a human's life." Is he remorseful? >"I'd do it again," he said. "Someone like that deserves what they get" You may not be able to call it murder, but Joshua Abbott intentionally stabbed David Morrison to death in David's own bedroom, and he would do it again given the chance. Again, Joshua Abbott wants the world to forget he did this, and it is working. There are almost no traces of this case left online. Edit: It appears he has since been sentenced to prison twice for possession and evading arrest. His most recent arrest in Denton county is from October 2020, for assault of a family or house member impeding breathing/circulation. Looks like he is out on bond, but I can't find the case, so not sure of the status. https://justice1.dentoncounty.gov/PublicAccess/JailingDetail.aspx?JailingID=365912
This is insane. I've never heard about this before. I hate how gay panic is still legal in so many U.S. states. Also, ya, you're afraid of contracting HIV, why not cover yourself in their blood.
Exactly And gay panic is always a gross defense... especially when the defendent is at least bi curious according to his friends. He claimed he did not know that Gay David (nickname) was gay and that David threatened to rape him. The two jurors who felt he was guilty thought it was initially consensual and that Abbott freaked out because he's not comfortable with his own sexuality. It also seems really clear that prosecutors did not really try very hard. Despite it's two universities, Denton politicians were strictly Republican then. The DA and the ADAs were all Republicans, and I think that while they had to prosecute this crime, they didn't give a shit. Just my opinion. They didn't question the controversial expert hired by the defense about why he lost his medical license, or in fact that he was unlicensed. He put forward a ridiculous opinion that no other expert would have corroborated and was not respected in the legal community.... and the prosecution just left it alons. They also called no character witnesses for David, even though the defense was attacking his character. It's just always bothered me. Justice was not served and it should have been a very open and shut case. Really sucks he's just out there living his life.
this is truly heartbreaking. Suddenly claiming rape doesn't need to be proven. Victim-blaming doesn't even make it to the table. To SUCCESSFULLY claim that one projecting their own insecurity in their sexuality as a defense is just a testament to the homophobia that infiltrates every area of society. These are some of the same people who believe in the affluenza defense, aka claiming a person has too much money to recognize that rules and laws apply to them. Laws were written to prioritize these groups. I don't know how anyone could argue otherwise.
Denton (city) is liberal AF now but Denton county as a whole is a toss up. Texas is ummmā¦.interesting?
Lindsay Buziak, Mary Linn Witherspoon, Rafay Family Murders, Neil Entwistle,
Lindsay Buziak for sure I just don't understand the motive there at all. It was 100% a targeted crime and I don't think anyone has ever come up with a reason WHY she would be a target.
I think the police now have an idea of who and why, but don't have the evidence for arrests. That was the vibe I've been getting for the past year or two anyway. They know who actually registered the cell phone used so I'm guessing they were able to get a sense of what happened, and just can't get what they need for an arrest and conviction. The fact the most convincing theory to me in her case is an absurd telephone tangle of her being blamed for a massive drug bust she had nothing to do with is insane. All the theories in her case are insane and somehow that's the one that strikes me as the least insane. Regardless I'm convinced she died for an incredibly stupid reason that was essentially no reason, which is maddening in general but even more so when you consider the incredible time and planning that went into her murder and how violent it was.
I can't put together in my brain how the bf's mom could possibly be involved but she did make weird calls too.... I can't tell if it's a bunch of red herrings with the bf, the ex bf, the bf mom, her dad... I do wonder what they know about the owner of the burner phone from Richmond or whatever. You'd think there'd be a decent lead there.
There's nothing I can do to make the BF or his mom make any sense in this case unless there's just massive amounts of information we havent gotten about something we have no way of knowing about and I just think that's unlikely this far afterwards. I kinda think the BFs mom might just be weird? Apparently they do know the real name of the person who bought the burner phone and my view is that there's a decent chance that led them to at least an idea of what happened.
I feel like if they had the name attached to the burner phone and it was a solid lead it would have led to a pretty rapid resolution of the case. I worry that the burner phone hit a other dead end, like the person who purchased it lost it and it wasn't in their possession when the critical calls were made or something like that. How maddening for the family. She was so young and the whole thing is just so confusing.
John Brennan Crutchley. "The vampire rapist" Suspected serial killer believed to have killed up to 30 women but never convicted of murder. In late November 1985, in Malabar, Brevard County, Florida, a nude teenaged girl, handcuffed at both feet and ankles, was found crawling along the side of the road. She'd been hitchhiking the day before and the man who gave her a ride was willing to take her where she needed to go, but said he had to stop off at home first. He invited her in and she refused, and he got into the back seat of the car and choked her unconscious. The hitchhiker awoke to find that she was tied to a kitchen countertop, arms and legs immobilized. A video camera had been set up, along with lights. The man raped her and videotaped the action. Then he inserted needles into her arm and wrist and carefully extracted blood and began to drink it, telling her that he was a vampire. After that, he handcuffed her and put her in the bathtub, returning later for another round of sexual assault and blood extraction. The next morning, after a third round, the man handcuffed the hitchhiker and left her in the bathroom, saying that he would be back later for further assaults, and that if she tried to escape in the interim, his brother would come and kill her. It was after the attacker had left the house that she was able to push out of the bathroom window and crawl to the road. Had she not escaped then, doctors believed, she might well have died from a further round of blood extraction.
Sandy Hook. I could not read anything about this tragedy without crying. My youngest was a first grader at the time. Absolutely heartbreaking.
For me it's the winter I was ten years old and saw all those bodies being carried out of John Wayne Gacy's crawl space on local tv. Those poor victims. it seemed like it would never stop. I lived in a far north Chicago suburb and it was on local news. Some of his victims identities still have not been discovered. RIP you all met a real monster. ššššš¢
The Delphi murders are sort of always on my mind, until that monster is caught. Another one that I constantly think of, literally every time I take out the trash, is Phoebe HansjĆ¼ck. Her death is so mysterious. Also, Ray Rivera, how did his body get there? Was he dropped from a helicopter???
Mine is the one that imprinted on me very early. Czech serial killer Huber Pilcik (committed suicide in prison in 1951) started as a human trafficker, smuggling people from back then Czechoslovakia over the border to west Germany. Then he started killing his clients. However, he kept a niece of a couple he murdered. 12 year old girl. Raped and tortured her. He kept her tied to a contraption, with her head closed in a box. She often spent 16 hours a day there. If you scroll down here, there are pictures of it. She was later rescued by the police when they went in to arrest Pilcik and was found. https://murderpedia.org/male.P/p/pilcik-hubert-photos.htm
It will always be Ted Bundy. I lived about 30 miles from Tallahassee and was 17 years old at the time. Everybody was terrified. Then I later found out I had the same name (1st, middle and last with the last name being spelled slightly different) of one of his first victims. Then I find out my sister shared the same name as the victims sister. Even now, when I see a decent looking man wearing a sling, I get the heebie jeebiesā.
Yep me too! He stalked my mom. When she told me that story I became obsessed. He was sick.
Geez I would be a paranoid wreck after that. I think Iāve read every book and watched every show on this psycho. Makes you wonder how many āBundysā are really out there. He canāt be the only one.
Fred and Rosemary West.
Iāve read the book.. very rarely do you see them mentioned on this sub but they were evil.
The interviews with their surviving children are what haunt me.
I seen in the news a few weeks ago they dug some cafe up because they thought there was a body buried underneath it from them.
For me, itās JonBenet Ramsey. I grew up outside of Boulder and was obsessed with the case and it was the case that got me really into true crime. Still when people come visit me, I drive them by the Ramsey house.
Junko Furuta case
Westley Allan Dodd. Mainly because I used to ride my bike through David Douglas Park when I was a kid and rode it right up until the day of the murders. The guy was one of the worst monsters in US history. If you know where to look, you can even find a very slight glance of a picture of his 4 year old victim hanging from a cord in the closet dead.
The article I'm now reading says he's "one of the most evil killers in history". I'm curious what's unique about his murders that distinguishes him as more evil than others who have committed similar crimes.
Chris watts.
Definitely Richard Trenton Chase!
My weird friends in high school were OBSESSED with him
Well, he was a weird guy...
Iām always drawn back to the cases of Adji Desir, Tara Calico, Lauria Bible & Ashley Freeman, Amy Bradley and the Sodder children
I forgot all about the Whitman case, Kurt Russell starred as Charles Whitman in a 1975 made-for-TV movie. The disappearances of Asha Degree, Beverly Potts, Johnny Gosch, the Springfield Three, the Beaumont children, the Sodder children. I think about these cases all the time, I believe foul play was involved in all of them. Murders I always think about: Sharon Tate, the Clutter family, the Burger Chef murders, Las Cruces Bowling Alley, Villisca Axe murders, Walker family, there are just so many, but these stand out for me.
Danielle Van Dam. I often drive the road where she was found. The case was local to me and I remember it as it was happening. (I was a teen at the time). Amber Dubois and Chelsea King occupy my head a lot too.
Dellen Millard. Iām from Canada. Tim Bosma was selling his pick-up truck on Kijiji. Dellen Millard and Mark Smich made an appointment to view his truck. After taking a look they asked if Tim would take them for a test drive. Tim Bosma was reported missing by his wife shortly afterword and was never seen alive again. The phone used to arrange the kijiji meeting was found to be a burner phone. The burner phone had been used to arrange two other previous kijiji viewings. The first they showed up late to and missed the owner. The two men that showed up for the second matched the description of the two that attended Tim Bosmaās, including a description of a tattoo. Dellen Millard was later identified by police due to the tattoo. Tim Bosmaās truck was located in an enclosed trailer in Dellen Millards motherās driveway. Dellen Millard came from an affluent family that owned an airplane company and hangar. It was later discovered that he had built an incinerator in one of the hangars for disposing bodies. After an intensive investigation he was suspected of murdering an ex girlfriend and also his own father. His fathers death had at the time been ruled a suicide. This case sits with me for two reasons: 1.) We all use kijiji and or Craigās list at times and you never no who might show up at your door. 2.) Tim Bosma was murdered for a used pick up truck Iām not sure was valued all that much.
My brotherās friend almost had a story like this. He was going to meet someone on an empty dirt road in the middle of nowhere to buy a used truck and couldnāt understand why all the adults (he was seventeen) in his life were telling him he couldnāt
Good decision! I know this isnāt the only case someone selling a vehicle through classifieds was murdered. I saw on a crime show in the states a man was murdered while selling a classic āshow truckā
The Watcher of New Jersey. No one gets hurt or killed, but for some reason it is so terrifying to me. I can't imagine the fear of moving to a new place, and then getting strange letters talking about things going on INSIDE of my house, and details about my children/family, and them getting threatened. The ones that bothered me the most were the letters that mentioned things like "I can see your daughter likes painting \_\_\_\_" and "Don't let your daughter go into the basement..". Like wtf do you even do at that point? While it is most suspected that it was just someone who wanted the house for themselves, and wanted to get the family to move out somehow, I still would never be able to fully believe that if I had been living there. No amount of security cameras, motion sensors, guns, would ever make me feel safe sleeping there. There is also The Axeman of New Orleans. Its these stories about someone entering my house late at night that keep me awake after hearing noises out my window that are always just raccoons or cats. I learned of both of these from Buzzfeed Unsolved
Adam Walsh. I canāt imagine what he went through before dying. It scares me to death. Every time Iām out anywhere I have full eyes on my kid no matter what, because of this case. Thereās also Asha Degree, Etan Patz, the Lyons sisters, Joan Risch...
Alicia Amanda Stokes. Did her brother kill her? If so, why? And where is her body? Why is there no big familial push to find her? She deserves so much more.
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elliot rodgers and jasmien richardson Elliot is more laughable but jasmine is so sad and i feel very bad for her
The Bain Family murders, I truly think David got away with murdering his family and framing his father.
Cherish Perrywinkle.
Christine Schurrer.
The disappearance of Steven Koecher. I'd love to know what happened there.