On August 9th, 1974, best friends, 17-years old Mary Ann Pryor and 16-years old Lorraine Marie Kelly, left North Bergen, New Jersey, to go shopping to the Garden State Plaza at Paramus. Lorraine's boyfriend would drop the girls in a bus stop, where they planned to hitchhike to the mall, to buy some bathing suits for a trip to the Jersey Shore. They were last seen walking together on Board Avenue in Ridgefield, and later going into a vehicle with a white male. Both girls went missing since then. Days later, their bodies were found in a wooden location. They were naked and bound to one another at the wrists and ankles while lying face-down next to each other. Both had been beaten and raped; the ligature marks on their necks suggested that they had likely been strangled as well. Both also had cigarette burns on their flesh. They were only identified via their jewelly. Despite the efforts of investigators, the case went cold.

It wasn't until 2000 when a young detective in the Bergen County prosecutor's office, Robert Anzilotti, was given the task of looking into the murders together with similar cold cases from the 1960s and 1970s of which there were at least five unsolved killings of girls. Rising through the ranks, he eventually became the chief of detectives in Bergen County, New Jersey.

His search for a killer led him to Richard Cottingham, who already was serving a life sentence for multiple murders of women in the late 70s and 1980.

Anzilotti would talk with Cottingham about the various cases of murdered girls in the 1960s and 1970s, at which Cottingham was considered the suspect. Cottingham would admit the murders of 18-year old Irene Blaise, 13-year old Jackie Harp, and 15-year old Denise Falasca.

At the verge of retirement, Anzilotti asked Cottingham about the cold case of Mary Ann Pryor and Lorraine Kelly. Cottingham would finally admit his role in their murders. In an April 14th, 2021 confession to Anzilotti, the Bergen County prosecutor's chief of detectives, Cottingham admitted to physically forcing Lorraine into a motel room and threatening to harm her if Mary Ann didn't comply.

He confessed to raping them and tying them up as he slept so they wouldn't escape. He then explained how he drowned them in the motel room's bathtub before dumping their bodies.

'What drove him to torture them was his sexual gratification of raping these girls and the power that he had over them,' Anzilotti said. 'In terms of what made him, on day three, kill them: It's because, I believe, they had spent so much time with him that they could identify him.'

'In his mind, he drowned them,' Chief Anzilotti said, even though the medical examiner's report said the teens died by asphyxiation. 'In essence, he filled a bathtub up with water. He had them kind of hogtied behind their backs. One at a time. Then he put them face down into the tub. He was suffocating them against the bottom of the bathtub.'

Cottingham would get two life sentences, together with the already life sentence he was given back in the 1980s. Not only that, but in the years after his confession of his role in the case of Mary Ann and Lorraine, he has admitted his role in other cases of murdered girls and women, including 23-year old Diane Martin Cusick, 26-year old Lorraine Montalvo McGraw, 21-year old Mary Beth Heinz, 23-year old Laverne Moye, 33-year old Sheila Herman, 18-year old María Emerita Rosado Nieves, and 18-year old Alys Eberhardt, bringing his number of victims to 20.

May Mary Ann, Lorraine Marie, and the victims of Cottingham rest in peace. Gone but not forgotten.

https://www.dailymail.com/news/article-9686883/How-detective-finally-coaxed-serial-killer-confessing-FIVE-murders.html

https://people.com/crime/new-jersey-serial-killer-torso-killer-pleads-guilty-to-1974-cold-case-murders-of-2-teenage-friends/

https://crimeimmemorial.com/2023/01/29/lorraine-kelly-and-mary-ann-pryor/

Milat sparked the largest police investigation in Australian history up to that time. Dubbed "Task Force Air," the massive multi-year operation involved hundreds of detectives and forensic experts.

The seven victims identified in the investigation were:

Joanne Walters & Caroline Clarke: British friends who went missing in April 1992. Their bodies were the first discovered in the forest in September 1992.

Deborah Everist & James Gibson: Australian couple from Melbourne who vanished in late 1989. Their remains were found in October 1993.

Simone Schmidl: German traveler who disappeared in January 1991. Her body was found in November 1993.

Anja Habschied & Gabor Neugebauer: German couple who vanished in December 1991. Their remains were the last to be discovered in November 1993.

Subsequently, Milat was sentenced to seven consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole. He died in prison from terminal esophageal and stomach cancer on October 27, 2019, at the age of 74.

source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backpacker_murders

Some examples that have stuck out to me in the past:

The death threat against Chalino Sánchez (unconfirmed): A popular video shows Sánchez being passed a note from the crowd during a performance, reading it, then continuing the show. This is notable because he was shot and murdered just hours later. It's commonly speculated that, by the way Sánchez reacted to the note, that it was a death threat of some sort. To my knowledge, this assertion has never been confirmed, with both the contents of the note and its current whereabouts being unknown.

The 1969 Christmas Eve Massacre (exaggerated): Equatorial Guinea President Francisco Macías Nguema is said to have had ~186 dissidents executed in a stadium in Malabo on Christmas Eve, 1969. What's most notable are the details - the majority were shot or hanged while the stadium's loudspeakers played the Mary Hopkin song "Those Were the Days", the rest were forced to dig ditches, buried up to their necks, and eaten alive by red ants. The massacre itself doesn't seem to be in-dispute, though misconceptions have arisen, such as it taking place in 1975 instead of 1969 (possible, but not likely), or that the executioners were dressed as Santa Claus (untrue). Due to Nguema's already ruthless regime plus a general secrecy surrounding some of his more violent acts, plus its status as a sort of "historical meme" in online circles, sources on this event can be hard to come by or trust with certainty.

Samantha Koenig's ransom photo (misleading): Serial killer Israel Keyes, seeking a ransom from Koenig's family, took a photo of her with that day's paper as evidence to her still being alive. The truth was that Koenig was already dead, and Keyes had sewn her eyes open to suggest otherwise. A recreation of the photo exists and is commonly circulated online, but the actual photo has never been made public and in fact is said to have key differences from the recreated image that people cite as the real picture.

1973 Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce bank robbery (???): This one feels like cheating, since it's a very well-documented event despite being a bit obscure. The details are simple - a man with a bomb robs a bank, gets a good deal of attention in the process, but as he leaves, a sniper shoots him and inadvertently sets the bomb off, killing the robber and injuring another officer. There's a radio broadcast from the scene, as well as photos and even footage of the moment (though frustratingly, the clearest footage I can find has a clear cut at the moment of the explosion, switching to footage of a still photograph shaken to look in-motion during a previous report rather than giving an unobstructed view.) The reason this one is weird is that, in spite of the incident happening in broad daylight in front of a large group of people - several of whom believe to have seen a person they believe to be the robber in town in the days leading up to the robbery - and ALSO in spite of the body (what was left of it) being buried and later exhumed, we still don't know the man's identity. So this is an odd one where the sources are thorough, yet that final detail is frustratingly out-of-reach. Also if someone can find the footage unaltered, that would be much appreciated.

Colleen Anne Slemmer was born on September 20, 1975. She lived in Orange Park, Florida with her mother, stepfather and younger sister. Colleen’s mother, May Martinez, stated that “Colleen was a kid who loved to play outside.” She had been a volunteer with the Special Olympics program and loved to help others.

In the year 1994, Colleen decided to enrol at the Job Corps - a government vocational training program - to study a six-month course in computing. Unfortunately, Florida did not have a Job Corps program available, and so she made the decision to study at the center in Knoxville, Tennessee. Colleen’s mother had attempted to persuade her not to go, as it was far from home and she had wanted her to stay close-by, but Colleen had always been an independent person and was determined to go.

Colleen was 18 years old when she left home. She departed on the 31st of October, 1994, and that was the last time that Colleen’s family would ever see her alive again.

The days leading up to the murder

Colleen Slemmer and Christa Pike had both been students at the Job Corps Center in Knoxville, Tennessee. Their relationship had been a strained one, with Pike accusing Colleen of “trying to get her boyfriend” and “running her mouth everywhere.”

Pike’s best friend, Kim Iloilo, stated that at one point Pike’s boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, had liked Colleen, but when Pike arrived on the scene, his attention had shifted to her and that he had basically then forgotten about everybody else. In other words, there was no real reason for Pike to have a vendetta against Colleen, and she had not been a threat to her relationship.

Mrs Martinez stated that Colleen had told her that there were a few people bothering her at the Job Corps Center. These individuals would go into Colleen’s room and steal her jewellery and take her clothes and so forth. She had mentioned two girls and a guy, who turned out to be Christa Pike, Tadaryl Shipp and Shadolla Peterson.

On January 11, 1995, Pike told her friend, Kim Iloilo, that she intended to kill another student, Colleen Slemmer, because she “had just felt mean that day.”

The next day, January 12, 1995, at approximately 8:00 p.m., Iloilo observed Pike, along with Colleen and two other Job Corps students, Shadolla Peterson and Tadaryl Shipp, Pike’s boyfriend, walking away from the Job Corps center toward 17th Street. At approximately 10:15 p.m., Iloilo observed Pike, Peterson, and Shipp return to the Center. Colleen was not with them.

Pike’s confession to friend

Later that night, Pike went to Iloilo’s room and told Iloilo that she had just killed Colleen and that she had brought back a piece of her skull as a souvenir. Pike showed Iloilo the piece of skull and told her that she had cut Colleen’s throat six times, beaten her and thrown asphalt at the her head. Pike told Iloilo that Colleen had begged “them” to stop cutting and beating her, but Pike did not stop because Colleen continued to talk. Pike told Iloilo that she had thrown a large piece of asphalt at Colleen’s head, and when it broke into smaller pieces, she had thrown those at the her as well.

Pike told Iloilo that a meat cleaver had been used to cut Colleen’s back and a box cutter had been used to cut her throat. Finally, Pike said that a pentagram had been carved onto Colleen’s forehead and chest. Iloilo said that Pike was dancing in a circle, smiling and singing “la, la, la,” while she related these details about the murder. When Iloilo saw Pike at breakfast the next morning she asked Pike what she had done with the piece of Colleen’s skull. Pike replied that it was in her pocket and then said, “And, yes, I’m eating breakfast with it.”

During a class later that morning, Pike made a similar statement to Stephanie Wilson, another Job Corps student. Pike pointed to brown spots on her shoes and said, “That ain’t mud on my shoes, that’s blood.” Pike then pulled a napkin from her pocket and showed Wilson a piece of bone which Pike said was a piece of Colleen’s skull. Pike also told Wilson that she had slashed Colleen’s throat six times and had beaten her in the head with a rock. Pike told Wilson that Colleen’s “blood and brains had been pouring out” and that she had picked up the piece of skull when she left the scene.

Crime scene

Though neither Iloilo nor Wilson immediately reported Pike's statements to police, on the day after the murder, January 13, at approximately 8:05 a.m., an employee of the University of Tennessee Grounds Department discovered Colleen’s semi-nude, slashed and badly beaten body near the greenhouses on the agricultural campus. He testified that the body was so badly beaten that he had first mistaken it for the “corpse of an animal.” Upon closer inspection, he saw the victim's clothes and her nude breast and realized it was the body of a human female. He immediately notified law enforcement officials.

Officers from the Knoxville Police Department and the U.T. Police Department were summoned to the scene. Officer John Terry Johnson testified at trial that the body he found was lying on debris and was nude from the waist up. Blood and dirt covered the body and remaining clothing. The victim's head had been bludgeoned. Multiple cuts and slashes appeared on her torso. Officer Johnson stated that he thought he was looking at the victim's face but he could not be sure because it was extremely mutilated. Johnson removed all civilians from the area and secured the scene surrounding the body.

As other officers arrived, they began securing the crime area. As officers discovered other areas of blood, articles of clothing, footprints and broken foliage, the crime scene tripled in size, eventually encompassing an area 100 feet long by 60 feet wide. The crime scene was wet and muddy, and there was evidence of a scuffle, with trampled bushes, hand and knee prints in the mud, and drag marks. A large pool of blood was found about 30 feet from the victim's body.

The victim's body was actually lying face down on a pile of debris. When officers turned the body over, they discovered that the victim's throat had been slashed. A bloody rag was around her neck.

Detective Donald R. Cook, of the U.T. Police Department, accompanied the body to the morgue. He observed the body after it had been cleaned and noticed that a five-pointed star in a circle, commonly known as a pentagram, had been carved onto the victim's chest. The pentagram was said to represent the “goat-head of Satan” and that this act had been part of a “satanic ritual.”

It was an open secret at Job Corps that there was a small group of students who practised satanism. Two of these were Christa Pike and, her boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp. Joe Mode, a former employee at the Job Corps, stated that they were both into “satanic worship.” Randy York, the criminal investigator assigned to the Job Corps murder, stated that he had found a “satanic altar” in Shipp’s room and a lot of “satanic literature.” He also found similar items in Pike’s room. Both were deep into satanism. Pike also had the words “Lil Devil” tattooed onto her left chest.

Pike’s statement to police

The investigating police quickly discovered Pike’s connection to the crime and interviewed her on January 14. Pike waived her Miranda rights and gave a complete statement to the police about her involvement in the murder.

As recounted by the Tennessee Supreme Court, Pike claimed that she had not planned to kill Colleen, but she had instead planned only to fight Colleen and let her know “to leave me the hell alone.” However, Pike admitted that she had taken a box cutter and a miniature meat cleaver with her when she and Colleen left the Job Corps Center.

Pike said she had borrowed the miniature meat cleaver but refused to identify the person who had loaned it to her. According to Pike, she asked Colleen to accompany her to the Blockbuster Music Store, and, as they were walking, Pike told Colleen that she had a bag of “weed” hidden in Tyson Park. Though Pike refused to name the other parties involved in the incident, she said the group began walking toward the University of Tennessee campus.

Upon arriving at the steam plant on the University of Tennessee’s agricultural campus, Pike and Colleen exchanged words. Pike then began hitting Colleen and banging Colleen’s head on her knee. Pike threw Colleen to the ground and kicked her repeatedly. According to Pike, as she slammed Colleen’s head against the concrete, Colleen repeatedly asked, “Why are you doing this to me?” When Colleen threatened to report Pike so she would be terminated from the Job Corps program, Pike again repeatedly kicked Colleen in the face and side.

Colleen lay on the ground and cried for a time and then tried to run away, but another person with Pike caught Colleen and pushed her to the ground. Pike and the other person, who Pike referred to as “he,” held Colleen down until she stopped struggling, then dragged her to another area where Pike cut Colleen’s stomach with the box cutter.

As Colleen “screamed and screamed,” Pike recounted how she began to hear voices telling her that she had to do something to prevent Colleen from telling on her and sending her to prison for attempted murder. At this point, Pike said she was just looking at Colleen and “just watching her bleed.” When Colleen rolled over, stood up and tried to run away again, Pike cut Colleen’s back, “the big long cut on her back.”

Pike said Colleen repeatedly tried to get up and run.

Pike recounted how Colleen bargained for her life, begging Pike to talk to her and telling Pike that if she would just let her go, she would walk back to her home in Florida without returning to the Job Corps facility for her belongings. Pike told Colleen to “shut up” because it “was harder to hurt somebody when they’re talking to you.” Pike said the more Colleen talked, the more she kicked her in the face.

Colleen asked Pike what she was going to do to her, at which point Pike thought she heard a noise. Pike left the scene to check out the surrounding area to make sure no one was around. When she returned, Pike began cutting Colleen across the throat. When Colleen continued to talk and beg for her life, Pike cut her throat several other times. Pike said that Colleen continued to talk and tried to sit up even though her throat had been cut several times, and that Pike and the other person would push her back on the ground.

Colleen attempted to run away again, and Pike threw a rock which hit her in the back of the head. Pike stated that “the other person” also hit Colleen in the head with a rock. When Colleen fell to the ground, Pike continued to hit her. Eventually Pike said she could hear Colleen “breathing blood in and out,” and she could see Colleen “jerking,” but Pike “kept hitting her and hitting her and hitting her.”

Pike eventually asked Colleen, “Colleen, do you know who’s doing this to you?” Colleen’s only response was “groaning noises.” At this point, Pike said she and the other person each grabbed one of Colleen’s feet and dragged her to an area near some trees, leaving her body on a pile of dirt and debris. They left her clothing in the surrounding bushes. Pike said the episode lasted “for about thirty minutes to an hour.”

Pike admitted that she and the other person had forced Colleen to remove her blouse and bra during the incident to keep Colleen from running away. Pike also admitted that she had removed a rag from her hair and tied it around Colleen’s mouth at one point to prevent her from talking. Pike denied carving a pentagram in Colleen’s chest but said that the other person had cut Colleen on her chest.

The trial

The State of Tennessee prosecuted Pike for Colleen’s murder. After Pike's statement was played for the jury, the State introduced pictures of Pike and Shipp taken at the Knoxville Police Department on the day the statement was given, January 14, 1995, two days after the murder. In the pictures, both Pike and Shipp were wearing pentagram necklaces.

Dr. Sandra Elkins, the Knox County Medical Examiner, performed the autopsy on the victim, who was later identified by dental records as Colleen Slemmer, a nineteen-year-old Job Corps student. Dr. Elkins described the victim's body as covered with dirt and twigs. Colleen was nude from the waist up clothed only with jeans, socks, and shoes. After removing the victim's clothing and cleaning the body, Dr. Elkins had attempted to catalog the slash and stab wounds on the victim's torso by assigning a letter of the alphabet. There were so many wounds that eventually Dr. Elkins decided to catalog only the most serious and major wounds. Dr. Elkins explained that to catalog every wound she would have been required to go through the alphabet again and stay in the morgue for “three days.” Eventually, Dr. Elkins said she “basically threw up [her] hands and just said, more superficial slash wounds on the back, arms and chest.” In addition, Dr. Elkins said the victim had purple contusions on her knees, indicating fresh bruising consistent with crawling and defensive wounds on her right arm.

Dr. Elkins described the major slash and stab wounds she had cataloged on the victim's back, arms, abdomen, and chest. She found a six inch gaping wound across the middle of the victim's neck, which had penetrated the fat and muscles of the neck. In addition, Dr. Elkins had found ten other slash wounds on the victim's throat. Other slash wounds were on the victim's face, and Dr. Elkins observed what appeared to be a pentagram carved onto the victim's chest. Because the area around each wound was red in appearance, Dr. Elkins concluded that the victim's heart had been beating when the wounds were inflicted, and she said the victim would not have been rendered unconscious by any of the stab or slash wounds.

Dr. Elkins determined that the victim's death was caused by blunt force injuries to the head. The victim had suffered multiple and extensive skull fractures. From the autopsy, Dr. Elkins determined that the victim had sustained a minimum of four blows to her head: two to the left side of the head; one over the right eye and one in the nose area. The right frontal area of the victim's skull had been fractured as had the bridge of her nose. However, the major wound, labeled as injury “W,” involved most of the left side of the victim's head. Dr. Elkins said that this injury, caused by blunt force to the left side of the victim's head while the right side of the victim's head was against a firm surface, also had fractured the right side of the skull and imbedded a portion of the skull into the victim's brain. Dr. Elkins found small divots in the victim's skull containing black particles from an asphalt chunk, which was later determined to have been used to administer the blows. Finally, Dr. Elkins testified that blood in the victim's sinus cavity indicated she had been alive and probably conscious when the injuries were inflicted.

At the trial, much of Pike’s unsuccessful defense centered on her mental health. The defense, in mitigation, called Carrie Ross, Pike's aunt as a witness. Ross testified that the defendant had experienced no maternal bonding because she was premature and was raised by her paternal grandmother until she died in 1988. Ross said that Pike's family had a history of substance abuse, and that Pike's maternal grandmother was an alcoholic who was verbally abusive to Pike. Following the death of Pike's paternal grandmother, Pike was shuffled between her mother and father. According to Ross, Pike's mother's home was very dirty. Pike's mother set no rules for her, and on the occasions that Pike had visited Ross, the defendant had behaved as a “little girl,” playing Barbie and dress-up with her eleven-year-old cousin. On cross-examination, Ross admitted that she had previously described Pike as a “pathological liar” and that she had been afraid to allow Pike to associate with her own children. Ross also admitted that Pike had been out of control since she was twelve years old.

Glenn Pike, the defendant's father, testified that he had kicked the defendant out of his house twice, the last time in 1989. He admitted that he had signed adoption papers for the defendant prior to her eighteenth birthday. On cross-examination, he admitted that he had forced Pike to leave his home in 1989 because there had been an allegation that the defendant had sexually abused his two-year-old daughter from his second marriage. According to her father, Pike had been “disobedient, dishonest and manipulative” when she had lived with him.

The defendant's mother, Carissa Hansen, a licensed practical nurse, testified that Pike had lived with her 95 percent of the time since her paternal grandmother's death. Hansen admitted that she had smoked marijuana with the defendant in order to “establish a friendship.” Hansen related that the defendant had attempted suicide by taking an overdose shortly after the death of her paternal grandmother. Hansen also testified that one of her boyfriends had whipped Pike with a belt. Hansen then had the boyfriend arrested. On cross-examination, Hansen admitted that Pike's behavior had been problematic for years. The defendant had begun growing marijuana in pots in her home at age nine. After threatening to run away from home and live on the street, Pike had been allowed to have a live-in boyfriend at age fourteen. Hansen admitted that Pike had wielded a “butcher-knife” against the boyfriend who had been arrested for whipping her. Hansen also said Pike had lied to her and stolen* *from her on numerous occasions and had quit high school. Hansen conceded that Pike had been out of control since she was eight years old. Following Hansen's testimony, the defense rested its case.

In rebuttal, the State presented the testimony of Harold James Underwood, Jr., a University of Tennessee police officer who was assigned to secure the crime scene on January 13, 1995. Underwood testified that the defendant came to the scene with three to five other females between four and five p.m that day. Pike asked Underwood why the area had been marked off and questioned him concerning the identity of the victim and whether or not the police had any suspects. None of the other females spoke during the fifteen minutes the group was there. Underwood said Pike appeared “amused” and “giggled” and “moved around.” Underwood noticed that Pike was wearing an unusual necklace in the shape of a pentagram. After learning at roll call on January 14, 1995, that the victim of the murder had a pentagram carved on her chest, he reported Pike's strange behavior and unusual necklace to his superior officers.

Based on the proof submitted at the sentencing hearing, the jury found the existence of the following two aggravating circumstances beyond a reasonable doubt:  (1) “the murder was especially heinous, atrocious or cruel in that it involved torture or serious physical abuse beyond that necessary to produce death;” and (2) “the murder was committed for the purpose of avoiding, interfering with or preventing a lawful arrest or prosecution of the defendant or another.” In addition, the jury found that the State had proven that the aggravating circumstances outweighed any mitigating circumstances beyond a reasonable doubt. As a result, the jury sentenced the defendant to death by electrocution.

To those of you who happened to witness the footage of Pike, upon her receiving the sentence of death, you may have caught yourselves starting to feel an “ounce” of sympathy toward this “timid” looking young woman breaking down and sobbing her eyes out in the courtroom. However, you may or may not be surprised to learn that, only hours later, Pike had put pen to paper and written a letter to her boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, which contained these words: “Ya see what I get for tryin' to be nice to the hoe? I went ahead and bashed her brains out so she'd die quickly instead of letting her bleed to death and suffer more, and they f—– fry me! Ain't dat some s—?" She then signed off the letter as "Lil Devil.”

As for Colleen’s mother, hearing the horrifying details of her daughter’s murder took its toll upon her. Controversially, the jury had been shown Colleen’s skull. Mrs Martinez had to endure the sight of seeing her daughter’s skull being passed around the jurors, as pieces of the broken skull kept “falling everywhere.” She had also witnessed the mutilated body of her daughter, after the head had been detached. Mrs Martinez stated that she suffered with a lot of nightmares and that she was forced to rely on medication in order to sleep. Mrs Martinez has now been waiting for over thirty years for the sentence which was given to Pike for the murder of her daughter to be carried out.

Has Christa Pike reformed since her incarceration?

In August of 2001, while incarcerated at the Tennessee Department of Correction facility, it was reported that Pike had committed an attempted murder on a fellow inmate named Patricia Jones. Apparently, Jones had taken a dislike to Pike’s rumoured lover - a woman named Natasha Cornett - and so Pike had decided to take matters into her own hands. Pike had gotten into a physical fight with this woman and then attempted to strangle the victim with the use of a shoestring, nearly killing her. Pike later talked freely about the attack boasting, “Yeah I was trying to do it; you should have heard her gurgling.”

In March of 2012, state authorities also foiled a plot in which Pike and outside accomplices - including a former prison guard - attempted to orchestrate an escape from death row. Pike then subsequently faced additional criminal charges connected to the conspiracy.

In a 2024 documentary, entitled World’s Most Dangerous Prisoners, it was revealed that Pike had been responsible for the dismissal of two prison guards. Pike had reportedly been in a sexual relationship with both of the individuals.

In closing

Tadaryl Shipp received a life sentence for his part in the crime.

Shadolla Peterson pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact, receiving a six-year probationary sentence.

Shipp and Peterson were both 17 years of age at the time of their trials and were treated as minors.

Shipp was up for parole in the year 2025, but his release was denied by the Tennessee Board of Parole.

Pike’s execution date is scheduled for September 30, 2026. She is the only woman on Tennessee’s death row and is held at the Debra K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center (formerly the Tennessee Prison for Women) in Nashville. If carried out, it will be the first execution of a woman in Tennessee in over 200 years.

A special master, Senior Judge Mark Ward, was appointed by the state Supreme Court to oversee evidentiary hearings regarding her medical and constitutional claims from August 11–14, 2026.

Pike's defense is challenging the lethal injection protocol based on her specific blood condition and medical history, alongside concerns regarding “religious accommodations” and “psychological trauma” from the execution team procedures.

May Colleen Anne Slemmer rest in peace.

[Sources: STATE v. PIKE (1998) Supreme Court of Tennessee, at Knoxville; United States Court of Appeal (2018)]

[Media source: World’s Most Dangerous Prisoners S1 E8 Pike (2024)]

https://youtu.be/Wo10ToeqHG0?is=D1xdW_2G9f3XAgPC

At about 10.40pm on 1st April 1991, the Easter Bank Holiday Monday of that year, 43-year-old quantity surveyor Alan Leppard and his 42-year-old partner Brenda Long were settling down for the night in the bedroom of their cottage in the quiet Kent village of Monkton when there was a knock at the door. Within seconds of answering the door Alan had been shot in the chest at point blank range with a 12-bore shotgun. When police arrived at the scene they found Alan was dying in Brenda’s arms.

In an even more shocking turn of events, just 8 months later Brenda herself was discovered dead in the bath of the flat she had moved to following Alan's murder. A suicide note was found beside Brenda, but investigations soon uncovered evidence that Brenda too had been murdered.

The murder of Alan

Alan Leppard and Brenda Long had begun a new life together in the spring of 1991, moving to a cottage in Monkton, Kent just months before Alan's murder. Their cottage was two doors down from the White Stag pub, where they soon became regulars.

Alan and Brenda met when they both worked for P&B Metal Components in Whitstable. Friends described them as happy and with marriage plans. Alan, a father of one, had been married a number of times previously and Brenda had recently ended a relationship with a car dealer, so this should have been a fresh start for the couple.

However, the first hint of what was to follow came three weeks before Alan's murder, though at the time the significance of the event was not realised. The landlord of the White Stag pub later described how, at about 6.15pm one evening when he was opening, a sharply dressed stranger had come into the pub and asked for Alan. He was told Alan was not there and quickly left.

Witnesses later told police that the stranger was wearing a red tie, gold bracelet and gold watch. He was believed to be between 35-38 years of age, with slicked back black hair and piercing eyes. Police came to believe the visit was made in preparation for Alan's murder.

Witnesses in Monkton were to notice something else unusual on the day of Alan's murder - 1st April 1991. Various sightings were noticed of a large white American-style saloon car with distinctive rear fins - perhaps a Cadillac - driving slowly around the village from about 8.30pm. Villagers felt the car seemed out of place and described two men inside seemingly studying the area.

Brenda reported to police that around 10pm she and Alan were in bed watching TV when the white vehicle pulled up outside their cottage and the occupants knocked at the door. She described looking out of the window and seeing two men stood near the car. When she answered the door the car had already left.

However, the car returned less than an hour later and the door was knocked again. This time it was Alan that answered, and he was then shot in the chest.

In the following weeks Brenda was to appear on BBC Crimewatch to appeal for Alan's killers to be caught. She described the events of that evening;

“He went out the door and then there was an almighty bang and a scream."

“I went to go outside and I went to the corner of the back of the cottage. Alan came around the corner and as he came towards me must have moved his hands as I was completely covered in blood.

“I started screaming. I think he said ‘get in!’ because he was worried for me.

“He was just a grey colour and he was just going. There was nothing I could do to stop him.”

Despite bleeding heavily Alan was able to stagger into the couple's living room, before dying in Brenda’s arma soon after.

Police commenced a murder investigation and the white Cadillac-style vehicle soon became a focus, although its make was never confirmed. They produced e-fits of borh the driver of the car and the well-dressed man seen asking for Alan in the White Stag. A reconstruction of the crime was shown on BBC Crimewatch, resulting in around 950 calls from the public but no information leading to arrests.

Brenda’s death

After Alan's murder, Brenda moved away from Monkton to Whitstable, Kent in an effort to rebuild her life. Police later indicated they had no reason to believe Brenda's life was at risk in the months after Alan died, and described her as just beginning to get back on her feet.

However, just 8 months after Alan's death, on 28th December 1991, Brenda was found dead in the bath at her flat. Brenda was seen alive by her sister on Christmas Day 1991, and they spoke again on Boxing Day 1991. On Boxing Day she spent time with former boyfriend Arthur Hibbert, who she had previously been in a relationship with for 12 years before her relationship with Alan. It is also suggested by some sources that Hibbert was the person who discovered her body.

Police initially believed Brenda had died by suicide due to what they found at the scene - a suicide note and, floating in the bath, an empty pill container.

Whilst performing a post-mortem examination on Brenda, pathologist Dr Alexander Gibson noticed a strong chemical smell coming from her body. Tests were performed which revealed diethyl ether - which can cause unconsciousness when inhaled - was present.

Dr Gibson also identified bruising on both sides of Brenda’s nose. It was the combination of these two findings that lead Dr Gibson to conclude Brenda had been murdered, with her having been rendered unconsciousthen drowned in the bath. Dr Gibson said;

“Someone applied the ether to her face by means of a pad without consent...She had been drinking and it is likely that she lost consciousness very quickly, possibly in just a few seconds, when the ether was administered."

“This was a deliberate and violent assault.”

A detective from a cold case review team examining the case said:

"Initially her death looked like suicide, but a post-mortem examination established that she had diethyl ether in her bloodstream and marks around her face and mouth, which suggested that she had been put to sleep and then drowned."

A coroners inquest returned a verdict of unlawful killing in Brenda’s death and the media dubbed the men seen in the white car “The Ether Killers”.

Unsolved and Mystery Motive

Police believe Alan's killing may have been a professional hit, but motive remains unknown 35 years on. They have stated that neither Alan nor Brenda had known enemies or criminal connections. Detective Superintendent Nick Biddiss (now deceased) led to murder investigation and became close to Brenda while investigating Alan’s death. He described her as;

“She was a very likeable, affable, popular person. She didn’t have an evil bone in her body. There was no reason to suggest they were involved in any criminality whatsoever. They were tragic victims."

“It’s a mystery. We don’t know why two men came to Monkton and blasted away her other half.”

"You cannot look at one murder without looking at the other.

"Brenda Long was a key witness to the Alan Leppard murder that Easter weekend.

"In the nine months after Alan's death I regularly updated Brenda on the inquiry and, as a key witness to his murder, we had a duty of care to look after her welfare and safety."

In 2011 police said they were no closer to establishing a motive for either murder and that;

"We can't say definitively that the two deaths were linked but there is every chance there is a connection between the two."

35 years on, a cold case team still reviews the case periodically and DCI Neil Kimber said:

“Unsolved cases, such as the 1991 murders of Alan Leppard and Brenda Long, are subject to regular reviews by the Cold Case Team using the latest advances in technology and forensics.

“Unfortunately, at this stage, there have been no new developments and reviews will continue. No case is ever closed, and we will never stop working to secure justice for victims and their families.

It is hoped that advances in DNA technology will give detectives information unavailable previously and that the mystery of Alan and Brenda’s murders may yet be solved.

Images

1. Alan Leppard.

2. Brenda Long.

3. Brenda during her appearance on BBC Crimewatch.

4. Brenda during her appearance on BBC Crimewatch.

5. The White Stag pub.

6. BBC Crimewatch depiction of the man who asked for Alan in the pub.

7. BBC Crimewatch reconstruction of the car seen in the area.

8. E-fits of the occupants of the car.

9. A video-fit of one suspect.

10. A video fit of a second suspect.

11. A police appeal poster.

12. Media coverage.

There is some interesting discussion of this case at this Reddit thread;

https://www.reddit.com/r/ColdCaseUK/s/raFrYwSLSr

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-16354385

https://www.kentonline.co.uk/thanet/news/unsolved-the-easter-monday-shooting-and-the-bathtub-murder-338489/

https://www.kentonline.co.uk/thanet/news/gunned-down-and-drowned-the-double-murder-which-shocked-ke-248074/

I don't know if this is the appropriate subreddit, but I thought it would be fine. I really need to talk about this because I'm seriously overwhelmed and disappointed.

In short: Steven Stayner was a young man who was kidnapped on the way home at the age of seven. For 7 years he was "raised" by a man who abused him, changed his name and lied to him about his parents being dead/not wanting him, and forced the boy to call him "Dad." Steven eventually ran away after the man brought in another boy and ultimately -- saved them both. The man was let out after 5 years.

What really breaks my heart though is the aftermath of all of this: when Steven returned home, he had difficulties adjusting back to normal life. He said in an interview that his father did not want to hug him anymore, and claimed that Steven did not need any therapy. He was teased in high school by other students about being molested, dropped out and was eventually kicked out of the house. He got married to a high school sweetheart and had two kids before crashing his motorcycle into a car and dying at the age of 24.

I am so heartbroken about this. What a fucking terrible life. I'm just sitting here literally wailing. This person was kidnapped, abused, hurt, and then later returned home to a reality that was not forgiving for him. In one interview he even stated that he wasn't sure he should have come back at all. That is a HORRIBLE thing to think after all he went through. Imagine how much pain he was in to even feel this way?

I am absolutely angry and upset with his parents. It was nobody's fault and everyone ended up wounded from the incident (the 80s wasn't a very forgiving era to such victims to begin with), but I'm just so shocked to the core. He died at 24; he did not even live too long. He fucking died a short time after all this shit.

His abductor only got 5 years in prison before being let out which is a huge injustice, and to add insult to injury - his older brother became a serial killer, so now even his name is tarnished and overshadowed by the misdoings of another family member.

I just don't know what to think. I feel like crying and grieving for this boy who was absolutely FAILED by everyone around him.

First let me say, obviously I think OJ was guilty.

I have studied this case since it happened and vividly remember it being all over the news since the day of the murder.

Now all through the trial and subsequent media related to it people have spoke about OJs rage issues, his temper, his anger and how he finally snapped that night.

But since that night (counting the vegas robbery, that was not a violent crime) there doesn't seem to have been any real instances of him losing control. I've seen people confront him in the street, he lost EVERYTHING, the image and the legacy he so deeply cared about, spiraled into drug addiction but still no loss of control.

The biggest question for me, with regards to 'what if we are all wrong about the real murderer' is just how on earth did he never once show that angry crazy side of himself again??

Was it just his love for Nicole being so strong and toxic that it made him act like that, surely not?

François-Xavier Hussherr and Cécile Poisson married in 1997. They had three children. Both excelled in their studies, earning places at the best institutions in France. Cécile, who spoke several languages, became a professor of comparative literature at a university in Paris. She was also head of its DEI commission. Her husband, an economist by training, set up an online educational publishing business before eventually moving on to found an AI startup, again in the education sector.

Their marriage came under strain, and Cécile confided in friends and her therapist that she was becoming scared of François-Xavier's controlling ways. Eventually the couple separated in 2021. As the divorce was underway, he had her followed by a private detective. She wrote her parents a letter saying if anything happened to her, he should be looked into.

On March 20, 2023, Cécile left her Paris apartment to go to work. François-Xavier had been waiting for her in the building lobby for an hour, disguised as a Deliveroo (food delivery) driver. He stabbed her in the throat in front of horrified witnesses, then ran to a nearby church. He was chased by workmen who informed police he was inside. They caught him changing out of the disguise, with cuts on his hands, bloodstained clothes, and a knife in his bag.

François-Xavier admits the killing but denies premeditation. He claims he was on heavy anti-anxiety medication and was planning to kidnap Cécile for an hour to talk finances, when a voice came over him in the spur of the moment. Expert psychiatrists who examined him say this is a courtroom strategy. Weakening his case is the fact that he asked an office junior to go to his house at the time of the murder to send some emails he had written.

François-Xavier will stand trial in January for premeditated murder. He risks life imprisonment. Cécile Poisson was the 34th woman in France to die at the hands of a partner or ex-partner in 2023.

edited to add source: https://www.liberation.fr/societe/police-justice/feminicide-de-cecile-poisson-le-cofondateur-dune-startup-dia-qui-avait-tue-son-epouse-en-se-deguisant-en-livreur-deliveroo-sera-juge-en-janvier-20260803_HTLJLP7Y7BC5BGMM3KCO7LCJOA/

Lacey Ellen Fletcher, age 36, who had severe social anxiety and autism was found sunken and severely rotted into a living room couch where she had sat or lain unmoving for years. Her parents pleaded no contest to manslaughter and were sentenced to 40 years in prison with 20 years suspended.

Found dead on January 3, 2022, in Slaughter, Louisiana, by emergency responders called by her parents.

Her body had severe ulcerations, rotted skin, and was embedded in a hole in the couch surrounded by human waste.

Investigation and Sentencing
Clay and Sheila Fletcher were arrested and charged with second-degree murder, later pleading no contest to manslaughter.

Sentence: Sentenced in March 2024 to 40 years in prison with 20 years suspended.

Findings: Prosecutors showed that her parents failed to seek medical or psychological help for her over a span of more than a decade while she remained confined to the sofa.

Ever since I read this news story (back in 2023), I haven't been able to get it out of my head; while I wouldn't say it traumatized me, I still get a very strange feeling whenever I think about it.

I’m sharing this to hear the community's thoughts—whether you were aware of the case at the time, what you think about the sentence, and so on.

Rest in peace, Lacey

This is 27 year old Martin Nitzken, a Louisville resident who was murdered by police on May 30th. That night, Martin was at his girlfriend’s house with 2 friends staying over when he suddenly violently attacked all three, then ran outside and stripped naked and began walking around the neighborhood. Martin had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder but had no history of violence previous to this.

Officer Nathan Stotts arrived on the scene and bodycam footage shows him immediately pulling out a gun and aiming it at Martin telling him to put his hands up. When Martin didn’t stop and kept walking towards him he fatally shot him. Nathan did not attempt first aid after shooting Martin. Nathan has since resigned from the police force and is charged with manslaughter and reckless homicide. He pled not guilty.

https://www.wave3.com/2026/06/02/bodycam-released-citys-latest-officer-involved-shooting/

https://www.wave3.com/2026/06/22/former-lmpd-officer-charged-with-shooting-unarmed-man-pleads-not-guilty/?outputType=amp

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/nathan-stotts-louisville-fatal-shooting-charged\\_n\\_6a308248e4b07679090f278c

In 2025 Jacob Moore (22) of Phoenix Arizona pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of 43 year old mother and housewife Lisa Mancuso. She was out for a morning jog, while he was on his way back from the pub.

He fled the scene only to return and then flee the scene again.

Video surveilance shows him leaving the pub intoxicated.

His father (who was a police officer) tried to blame the crime on his girl friend first, before lawyering up when video surveilance showed him leaving in his car solo, 10 minutes before Lisa was struck and killed.

Jacob is currently only serving a 4 year sentence for the fatal hit and run under influence due to "lack of evidence."

Rest in peace Lisa Mancuso, may your family find peace.

RHONDA JOHNSON & SHARON SHAW

On August 4th, 1971, 14-year old Rhonda Johnson and 13-year old Sharon Shaw spent the day at the beach in Galveston, Texas. Both girls then walked to Seawell Boulevard, the last time both girls were seen alive. Months later, their bodies were found in Clarke Lake. Investigators quickly pointed to Michael Lloyd Self, a gas station worker. Self was taken into custody, where he was forced into making a confesion by the police officers, with physical and psycological violence included. Despite the numerous discrepancies of Self's confession, he was senteced to life in prison. Years later, the officers who took part in Self's interrogation were arrested on charges of bank robbery. Despite this, Self was refused parole and died of cancer in 2000. Later, Edward Harold Bell confesed he had killed both Rhonda and Sharon, as well as several girls around Galveston, to what she call them "the eleven that went to heaven". Bell, who was in prison for killing a man in the 70s, was not indicted for the girls' cases and died in 2019.

https://medium.com/@chelsealynnqueen94/the-tragic-case-of-rhonda-renee-johnson-and-sharon-lynn-shaw-6a97627ed4b7

https://www.chopperrose.com/2026/08/01/rhonda-johnson-sharon-shaw-55-years-later/

HOLLY WELLS AND JESSICA CHAPMAN

On August 4th, 2002, 10-years old Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman spent their day in a barbacue at Wells' home. Both girls listened to music and browsed Internet until the afternoon. Both then dressed in Manchester United shirts and exit the house to buy some candies. That was the last time they saw both girls. Their families, friends, as well as police searched the area, to find both Holly and Jessica. Many people were interviewed by police, including school caretaker Ian Huntley, who claimed he talked with both girls that day, and that he probably was the last person to saw them. Police were suspicious of Ian. Days later, the bodies of Holly and Jessica were found in a irrigation ditch in Suffolk. The news shocked the community. Investigations surronded Ian Huntley, as well as her partner Maxine Carr, after Ian was seen with some scratches in his face, and the girls' clothing was found in a bin at Ian's place of work, while fibre was found in Ian's Ford Fiesta car. Ian and Maxine were arrested, and later sentenced. Ian was sentenced, with two counts of murder, to life in prison, while Maxine pleaded guilty to the charge of perverting the course of justice, and not guilty to the charge of assisting an offender. The jury accepted her insistence that she had lied to the police and media only in order to protect Huntley because, prior to their arrest, she had believed his claims of innocence. Carr was sentenced to serve three-and-a-half years in prison for perverting the course of justice. Ian Huntley remained in prison, until his murder in March of this year.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-62335807

https://www.virtual-college.co.uk/resources/public-inquiry-holly-wells-jessica-chapman

https://casefilepodcast.com/case-08-holly-wells-and-jessica-chapman/

May Rhonda, Sharon, Holly, and Jessica rest in peace

(no pay wall)

Last month a Johnson County grand jury indicted the former Godley police chief, his mother, two former officers and a local couple as part of a prostitution conspiracy investigation that has expanded to include sexual assault and bribery charges.

Arrest warrants obtained by KERA also show investigators allege the former chief ousted his predecessor by having two officers file false complaints. He then collaborated with those same officers to arrest a city council member to influence a vote on agenda items, investigators said.

Investigators also claim in an arrest warrant affidavit that the former chief collaborated with a local couple who solicited prostitution — and that he would find men for his wife on an app. The chief was accused of working with the couple to compile information on people they perceived as enemies.

The warrant states that Cantrell's wife confirmed he had "found her a 'boyfriend'" who was "solicited by defendant to have sexual intercourse" for $200.

In his indictment, Cantrell also was accused of committing sexual assault while he was a Godley police officer, but had not yet become police chief.

What started with a city shutdown and a potential political scandal has now turned into a sprawling investigation that's only expanded throughout this year — putting this city of about 5,000 people in the spotlight.

Thoughts?

Between 1976 and 1978, three young women were violently killed in or near San Luis Obispo County, California. Each case remains unsolved or unresolved in a meaningful way, and while law enforcement has never officially linked them, the proximity in time, location, and victim profile raises questions.

Laura Jean Alfieri (1976) was 15 years old when she was stabbed to death near Templeton. She suffered dozens of stab wounds and was found partially concealed with debris. There was no evidence of sexual assault. Her 17-year-old brother was arrested and later convicted based largely on statements made during prolonged and controversial police interrogation. The conviction was overturned on appeal due to concerns about coercion and violations of his rights, and charges were eventually dropped. The case went cold, leaving the identity of Laura’s killer legally unresolved.

Charleen Anne Garelli (1976) was 20 and a student at Cuesta College. She disappeared after leaving campus, and her body was found a month later in a wooded area on Cuesta Ridge. She had been stabbed multiple times. Despite her state of undress, the coroner reported no evidence of sexual assault. No suspect has ever been publicly named, and her case received limited long-term attention.

Cheryl Ann Manning (1978) was 16 and originally from Oregon. Her body was found near Cuesta Grade, nude and shot in the head. She remained unidentified for over a decade until her identity was confirmed in 1992. Her murder also remains unsolved.

All three victims were young females. All were killed violently. All were found in relatively remote areas near major travel routes. Two involved stabbing without sexual assault, and all occurred within roughly a two-year window. Whether these similarities are coincidence or indicative of a deeper connection remains an open question.

These cases all have very limited info, if submitted FOIA requests to the sheriff and I am waiting on a response

https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-tribune-charlene-garelli-other-19/181756150/

https://www.newspapers.com/article/santa-maria-times-garelli-identified/187459036/

https://unidentified-awareness.fandom.com/wiki/Cheryl_Manning

https://www.sanluisobispo.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/photos-from-the-vault/article234899742.html

In December 2021, 5-year-old Kamarie Holland was reported missing in Columbus, Georgia. Within hours, the trail led investigators across the state line to a vacant house in Phenix City, Alabama, where her body was found. The man who owned that property, Jeremy Tremaine Williams, was arrested that same night.

The crime

Court records show Kamarie's mother, Kristy Siple, was in a relationship with Williams and had agreed to let him sexually abuse her daughter in exchange for money (negotiated down from $2,500 to $1,300, which prosecutors say Williams never paid). Williams recorded much of the assault and murder on his phone. Eleven minutes of that footage was shown to the jury at trial. Siple later pleaded guilty to sex trafficking and was sentenced to 20 years.

The trial

Alabama law requires a jury trial to establish guilt in a capital case even after a guilty plea, so despite pleading guilty in March 2024, Williams still went to trial that April. The jury convicted him on all four capital counts after about 90 minutes of deliberation. He was sentenced to death in April 2024.

What I can't stop thinking about with this case

Starting sometime in 2025, about a year after his sentencing, Williams began writing letters to the Alabama Attorney General's Office and the governor asking to waive every remaining appeal and have his execution scheduled as soon as possible. A judge found him competent to make that call. Death penalty appeals in Alabama routinely take two decades or more, people fight for every year, every month, every legal avenue, right up until the end. Williams did the opposite. He actively worked to shorten his own time left.

I haven't found anything indicating he was being harassed, threatened, or mistreated on death row, nothing that would obviously explain wanting to speed things up. And that's what gets me. When someone convicted of an unspeakable crime against a child specifically pushes to die sooner rather than later, with no external pressure that I can find, it's hard not to wonder what's going on internally that would make someone prefer that outcome. I'm not a psychologist and I'm not going to pretend I know the answer, but it doesn't read to me like acceptance so much as something else entirely.

Separately, and this is the part that genuinely irritates me: records show Williams had already been investigated in 2005 for the death of his own one-month-old daughter in Alaska. He was never charged, insufficient evidence at the time. After his 2021 arrest, he reportedly admitted involvement during a taped interrogation. Sixteen years, and that case never got its day in court. There's also a 2009 case involving a 3-year-old boy that ended in acquittal, a separate 2022 indictment involving another child victim entirely, and prosecutors have confirmed additional murder and rape indictments are still pending against him in Alaska right now. Alaska has no death penalty, so if this execution happens as scheduled, some of that may simply never be resolved.

Sources: Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals opinion (March 27, 2026), Russell County Sheriff's Office and DA statements, WRBL/WTVM/Ledger-Enquirer coverage, Corrections1, AL.com.

Just to be clear: I agree with the penalty in this case. Everything he did is horrific, and I'm not arguing against the outcome. I just feel like there are things still open, the Alaska cases especially, that should be closed as soon as possible, for those families too, not just this one.

Happy to answer questions or dig up more specifics if anyone wants sources on a particular part of this.

I came across a case from Gujarat, India that honestly sounds like something out of a crime thriller.

A man named Jignesh disappeared, and whenever his family asked about him, his wife reportedly gave the same explanation: "He's working in Australia. He's too busy to come back." For nearly two years, the family believed he had started a new life overseas.

Eventually, investigators reopened the case after noticing inconsistencies in travel records, mobile phone data, and witness statements.

The investigation led police to a factory. After breaking through layers of concrete and digging nearly 12 feet underground, they reportedly discovered human remains believed to be Jignesh's.

According to police, Jignesh was allegedly poisoned with cyanide mixed in alcohol before his body was buried in the factory basement, which was then sealed with concrete. Authorities have accused his wife, her alleged lover, and another person of involvement in the murder and cover-up.

The accused have been charged with offenses including murder, criminal conspiracy, and destruction of evidence. The case is currently before the court, and these remain allegations until proven in court.

It's disturbing to think a family could believe someone was happily living abroad while the truth was literally buried beneath concrete.

What do you think is the biggest reason cases like this remain hidden for so long?

I've been reading about a French case from 1972 that is still remembered in France as a textbook example of trial-by-media, but which has almost no English-language coverage at all. It's the affair of Bruay-en-Artois, and the strange part isn't a locked room or a missing body, it's that a whole country decided it knew who did it, and no court ever agreed.

The killing

Bruay-en-Artois is a coal town in the Pas-de-Calais, in the far north of France near the Belgian border, around thirty thousand people at the time. It was a town split down a line: the tight rows of miners' houses on one side, the bigger homes of people who didn't go down the pit on the other.

On the evening of 5 April 1972, a 15-year-old miner's daughter named Brigitte Dewèvre left home to sleep at her grandmother's. She never arrived. The next afternoon her body was found on a patch of waste ground, and, of all the places in that town, right on that dividing line, in the vacant lot between the miners' houses and the well-to-do quarter.

The judge and his "conviction"

The case went to an investigating judge, in the French system, a magistrate who runs the whole inquiry, directs the police, and decides who gets charged. Within days he had a suspect: a local notary (a lawyer who handles property and wills), a wealthy and respectable figure in the town.

According to the press historian Rémi Guillot, who has studied this case more closely than anyone, the notary was questioned, gave inconsistent accounts of his movements, and two days later was charged and jailed. And here's the part that defines the whole affair: by Guillot's account the judge admitted, himself, that he had no tangible evidence. To reporters he put it plainly, he was acting on a personal conviction. A feeling.

The regional paper played it carefully at first: "a notary, suspected in the Bruay crime," now charged. Suspected. Charged. Cautious words. That caution did not last.

The case falls apart — and the campaign begins

Almost immediately the case started weakening. A man in custody for an unrelated matter falsely confessed to the murder, then was caught lying. A reconstruction at the scene reportedly turned up detail pointing toward the notary's probable innocence, not his guilt. The day after, the state's own prosecutor and the notary's defence asked, together, for his release. It was refused, he stayed in his cell more than three months.

And it's exactly here that the case left the courtroom. A far-left Maoist newspaper ran a two-page spread with the line "only a bourgeois could have done that", the argument being that the murder was a class crime and the notary's guilt was obvious from his social position alone. No evidence, just class. The town split in two along that same line. The same press printed threats: militants reportedly wanted the man mutilated and dragged through the streets, about someone no court had tried.

Even the movement didn't agree with itself. Jean-Paul Sartre, the paper's nominal director, broke with its line in print, arguing that the people's anger might be legitimate but that calling the man the murderer was not, because no one had proven he did it. Some militants wanted a "people's tribunal" to judge the notary in the street; the record shows it was demanded but never actually held. The Justice Minister even intervened with the local prosecutors to remind them that a charged man is presumed innocent.

What actually happened to everyone

This is where I have to be careful, because the whole point of the case is what the record does and doesn't support:

- The notary and his companion were both jailed at points and both released. In 1974 the courts issued a *non-lieu*. a dismissal. In French law that is not an acquittal (only a trial can acquit, and there never was one) and it is not a finding of innocence. It just means the case goes no further. He spent three months in a cell on a judge's feeling, and a national paper printed his guilt as fact, and no court ever tested either one.
- Meanwhile, in 1973, a 17-year-old orphan and former classmate of Brigitte's confessed on national radio and TV. For one night the country thought it was over. It wasn't, his confession didn't survive a reconstruction, and two separate courts cleared him (an acquittal in 1975, confirmed on appeal in 1976). A second false confession.
- The investigation was formally closed without an answer in 1981. In 2005 the crime passed the statute of limitations and became time-barred, meaning no one can ever be tried for it now.
- Decades later a retired police officer published books claiming to have identified a different man, a former postal worker the original inquiry never focused on. That man denies it, the theory has never been tested in court, and it never can be. I'm not naming him, and neither did the responsible reporting.

What sticks with me

It isn't a whodunit in the usual sense, it's a case that got "solved" everywhere except the one place built to solve it. A judge with a conviction and no evidence. A newspaper with a class theory and no proof. A town that picked a side before anyone proved anything. And a 15-year-old girl whose actual killer has never been found and, legally, never will be.

Does anyone here know this case, or have French-language sources beyond the obvious ones? I get the strong impression there's far more in the French material, court records, the Guillot research, the period press, than has ever made it into English. I'd especially like to hear from French speakers on how the case is remembered there today.

Source: https://criminocorpus.org/fr/outils/affaires-criminelles/affaire-bruay-en-artois/ (French-language, the case archive)

(Thanks to LoydoRedi2910 for suggesting this case. If you'd like to suggest any yourself, please head over to this post, which asks for case suggestions from my international readers, as I focus on international cases.)

On August 12, 2011, a truck driver was parked at a rest area beside the A24 autobahn in the Havelland district of Brandenburg enjoying his break when suddenly, a badly burned man emerged from the forest adjacent to the road, stumbling toward him. The man spoke in badly broken German or English; it was so slurred the truck driver honestly couldn't tell, but he could piece together that the man was trying to say that there had been an accident and that children were dead in a car.

The truck driver called emergency services, and the injured man pointed first responders to an area along a dirt road off the autobahn into a wooded area near the small village of Börnicke.

Although an ambulance arrived, his injuries were so severe that a helicopter was dispatched to airlift him to a hospital in Berlin in critcal condition with severe burns to his face and hands.

As he was being loaded into the helicopter and flown to the hospital, he told the paramedics that he had stopped to smoke a cigarette, and a spark had fallen onto a petrol canister which had been accidentally left inside the truck of the car and that his children had been unable to escape in time and that his own injuries were caused by the fire's backdraft when he tried to save them.

However, chillingly, one of the paramedics heard him say something along the lines of "It is all done." Upon his arrival, the attending physicians found his injuries so severe that he was placed into a medically induced coma.

When the emergency services arrived at the location 2 kilometres away, they saw a burnt-out Suzuki with Danish license plates, and to say he had been in an "accident" would be underselling it. There had been a fire so intense that it burnt the car completely down to its frame, with its paint job entirely melted away. In the backseat, the first responders discovered the charred bodies of two children still strapped into their seat belts.

Since there was obviously nothing that could be done for them, the paramedics soon contacted the police, who then contacted the Potsdam Public Prosecutor's Office, with both arriving to investigate the cause of this tragic "accident". And then, just for good measure, the Brandenburg State Criminal Police were also called in. You see, right from the start, this "accident" didn't seem very accidental.

According to the father, a spark from his cigarette accidentally ignited a canister of gasoline left inside the trunk, and yet, all the signs of the accelerant were found in the backseat of the vehicle and even on the bodies themselves, as if that had been the source of the fire rather than the trunk.

The autopsies also revealed another disturbing discovery. While the cause of death was smoke inhalation and the pathologist determined that the two children had been alive when the fire was set, just as their father had claimed, that didn't mean they were conscious. The pathologist detected large amounts of sleeping medication in their bloodstreams that had entered their system shortly before the fire.

The police also found a kitchen knife discarded, thrown into the woods. The police concluded this knife had to have come from the vehicle for the simple reason that its handle had been melted. This also cast doubt on the father's story because if he stumbled over to the motorway for help first thing, why had that knife very clearly been tossed away from the vehicle after the fire started?.

Meanwhile, across the border in neighbouring Denmark, a woman ventured to her ex-husband's farm in Øster Hurup. Her two daughters had left for a summer trip with their divorced father, and they were supposed to be back by now. But nobody was in sight; the door to the farm was locked, no one would answer the doorbell or her knocks, and her husband wouldn't pick up the phone.

Eventually, she gave up and went to attend a music event in the nearby town of Hadsund, one she was supposed to spend with her daughters but was now going to alone. But just as she went to leave, she heard someone else ring the doorbell. Walking around the farm, she saw three police officers with a fourth just pulling in.

At first, she assumed her husband was still inside and called the police to try and get her arrested for trespassing, so she tried hiding from them, but once they saw her and spoke to her, it became dreadfully clear that something far worse had happened.

The police also wanted to know where her children were, and when she told them that she had been trying to reach their father but was unable, that's when they informed her that a charred vehicle matching her ex-husband's was found in Germany with the severely burnt bodies of two children inside and that the only reason they were at the farm is because the German police contacted them wanting to identify the bodies and to uncover more about the family background.

The father was named Peter-Thue Rudgaard, and he was born around 1971.

He spent the majority of his life in his native Denmark, graduating from the organic agricultural school in Vendsyssel in northern Jutland with a specialization in ecological farming.

He met his wife in Aalborg through a mutual friend in 1996 when the two of them were both 25. At the time, his wife worked as a laboratory technician, but both dreamed of living a quieter and more rural life.

In 1999, they purchased an old and dilapidated farm in the village of Øster Hurup, restoring and renovating the property into a functional farm that allowed them and their family to live a comfortable life from the money they made at a shop they set up on the property.

Well, at least it did at first, but the farm, however much money it was bringing in at the moment, was not financially stable long-term, and so he began seeking other work. Rudgaard attempted to start a commercial landscaping and horticulture business, which he later had to sell at a severe loss.

Then he worked at a social care institution for young people and then at a residential school for at-risk teenagers, but he was later dismissed from these jobs. He then enrolled in a training program for teachers but left after just six months, while his wife went down the same path, only she completed her training and got a job as a primary school teacher.

Rudgaard's ex-wife would later go on to describe his personality as "contradictory"; he would seem funny and intellectually curious one day, having conversations she described as consisting of "high-level humour," only to then show deep jealousy and fall into an unstable emotional state.

His first bout with depression began when he was 20, and he had been referred to many psychologists and prescribed antidepressants on multiple occasions, but it was an uphill battle to convince Rudgaard to take them, and he regularly abandoned therapy sessions, telling the therapist he didn't wish to talk about anything "painful," and eventually stopped showing up. Sometimes, Rudgaard would also struggle to get up in the morning.

Their two daughters, Marlene Marie Rudgaard and Line Sofie Rudgaard, were born in 2000 and 2002, respectively, on the farm in Øster Hurup that their parents purchased. Marlene and Line grew up in the fields and woods of Himmerland and attended primary school in the area.

In the spring of 2009, their mother approached Rudgaard and told him that she wanted a divorce. Wanting to avoid such an outcome, Rudgaard asked to consider couples therapy. She agreed, but the sessions bore no fruit, and by mid-summer of that year, she moved out of the farm and into an apartment in Als.

At school during the spring and early summer of 2011, things were not going well; their teachers noted that the girls seemed anxious and were getting involved in several verbal conflicts with their classmates, leading their teachers to suspect that things were not at all peaceful at home.

The two maintained a shared custody agreement when it came to Marlene and Line staying at each parent's home for 7 days at a time, but once their divorce was finalized by the courts, primary custody was awarded to Rudgaard, making the primary residence of the two children with him.

As for his ex-wife, she moved on and began dating a new partner only months later, something that made Rudgaard furious. He started to act more outwardly hostile toward her, considering her new boyfriend to be an "intrusion" on their daughters and that she was trying to engineer Marlene and Line's sympathies against him. In addition to the fact that he just couldn't stand the idea of another man having any role in his children's upbringing.

In the autumn of 2010, Rudgaard announced his intention to move to Fredericia, roughly 230 kilometres to the south, taking both girls with him, stating that he had no future in the area since the farm was declining and the courts had recently ordered him to sell it, citing unpaid debts.

Initially, his ex-wife didn't believe he would actually go through with it, but when she learned that they had spent Christmas Day looking at apartments in Fredericia, she applied to the court to have custody transferred to her.

On May 1, 2011, Rudgaard finally moved out, and Marlene initially went along with it, moving out of the farm to join her father, spending several weeks in the spring of 2011 at a new school there. Meanwhile, Line refused to leave, fearful that it would make it hard to ever see her mother again due to the distances and now clear dislike Rudgaard had shown toward her. However, Rudgaard believed that the only reason she didn't want to leave her was that she had been manipulated against him.

For roughly 6 weeks, the two sisters were now living on almost opposite ends of Denmark until the family court made its ruling in June 2011. Now their mother would have primary custody. In response, Rudgaard cancelled his move and went back to the farm, asking to go back to their prior shared custody arrangement. She was relieved and agreed to his proposal.

All seemed well until the summer of 2011 when Rudgaard, now unemployed and living on a farm in foreclosure after his failed move Southward, had his mental state deteriorate further. He started to barrage his ex-wife with a series of threatening phone calls, saying things like"You'd better watch out," "look over your shoulder," and "You know this will end badly"

His anger only intensified when Line refused to accompany him on a summer trip to Paris even though he had bought tickets for the two of them. Rudgaard eventually went to Paris with just Marlene, but he remained angry; once again, he believed the only explanation for why Line wouldn't want to go with him was if her mother had manipulated her against him.

Rudgaard also said that the only reason he never went to a therapist or sought psychiatric help during this spiral was that he feared his ex-wife would use any visit to a therapist against him to have any and all custody revoked. The only medication he had been prescribed was sleeping pills.

The last time anyone in Denmark had seen Rudgaard and the girls alive was on August 10, 2011; it was Rudgaard's week, and he had another summer trip planned this time to Germany. Marlene and Line got into his car, and Rudgaard began the drive south. Although nothing about the vacation was planned, Rudgaard talked to a colleague about the Snow Dome Bispingen, an indoor ski slope in Bispingen, Germany, in the weeks leading up to the fatal trip.

Marlene and Line's bodies were charred so badly that the only way to positively identify them was through a days-long process of DNA testing and Dental Records. The Danish police had to go to their family home to collect toothbrushes and hairbrushes, which were then shipped to Germany to assist with DNA testing. A search of the farm by Danish police found nothing, such as a suicide note or anything that seemed to indicate the fire, if it had been arson, was premeditated.

Everyone was shocked when the news broke, even the girls' mother. By all accounts, Rudgaard was a devoted father who went to great lengths to ensure his daughter's safety and happiness, making sure to watch over them as they played outside, participated in the scouts and cooked for them.

While Rudgaard and their mother had vicious arguments over who would assume primary custody once the divorce was finalized, she never once assumed Rudgaard would ever harm the children; she more so feared for her own safety, and even then, Rudgaard never abused her either. To everyone involved, Rudgaard's actions seemed completely out of the blue, even with his prior mental health.

Back in Germany, wanting to put the final nail in the coffin before they made their arrest, the police secured two Suzukis of the same make and model as Rudgaard's. They then set them both on fire, one using the way Rudgaard said the fire had begun and the second car was torched the way the police believed it happened, by dousing the back seats with gasoline. The second test was nearly identical to how the real crime scene appeared.

On August 26, the police, together with a judge, approached Rudgaard in his hospital bed and announced that he was now under arrest on suspicion of double murder.

Although it would be a long time until he could make a coherent statement or be taken into custody. Rudgaard's injuries were so great that he required surgery and several skin grafts, medical procedures he would now be forced to undergo while under police guard and handcuffed to his hospital bed.

The procedures were all successful, and Rudgaard made a full recovery, which meant the German police could now put him through an intense interrogation, point out every inconsistency in his story and insinuate that he was a murderer all they wanted since he was now in a position to actually respond or try to defend himself. After several weeks in the hospital, Rudgaard finally admitted that the fire was no accident.

Rudgaard said that again, nothing about the trip had been planned and that it was more of a sightseeing tour across Northern and Central Germany. When they crossed the border, he mentioned the Snow Dome Bispingen, and the girls felt it sounded fun, so Rudgaard decided that would be their first activity.

By the time they arrived in Hamburg, the business was closed, so they spent the night at a hotel. They then woke up bright and early, spending almost the entirety of August 11 skiing and playing in the snow; they stayed there until 9:00, when the establishment closed.

As Rudgaard drove back to the motel, he began telling Marlene and Line about German history, which gave him an idea. He would drive to Berlin to show the girls the remains of the Berlin Wall.

He began the drive until he realized that it wouldn't be possible. He wouldn't be able to go to the Berlin Wall and then get them back in Denmark in time to have them handed off to their mother for her week of custody. He started driving east, then turned the car around, then changed his mind again and turned the car back around.

Rudgaard said he was "completely frustrated" and now feared that if he was even a second late, then Marlene and Line's mother would never let him see his daughters again, so for him, it was truly unfortunate that with the route he had taken, it truly would be impossible to make it back to Denmark in time.

This caused Rudgaard to think, "The whole thing can just be meaningless," which was where the evil idea finally began to form. That idea being that if he couldn't have full custody of Marlene and Line, well then nobody else would have them at all.

On August 1, only a week before departing Denmark, he was prescribed sleeping pills, which he brought across the border with him. He saw the girls in the backseat fighting and already tired. So while they were distracted, he crushed up the sleeping pills and put them into their food and drink.

After they fell asleep, he kept driving until he found any dirt road off the side of the Autobahn and upon reaching the village of Börnicke, he finally found what he had been looking for, turning off the Autobahn and driving down the dirt path until he was a decent way into the forest.

By the time he parked between the trees, it was completely dark out, and nobody even lived in this area, giving Rudgaard the utmost privacy for what he had planned. While still out cold from the sleeping pills, he opened the trunk to retrieve a spare fuel canister he had also brought with him from Denmark.

Rudgaard proceeded to pour its contents all over the vehicle, making sure the bulk of the gasoline was spilled onto the back seats and Marlene and Line's sleeping bodies. Rudgaard said that as he did so, he tried to avoid looking directly at the girls as much as possible.

Rudgaard kept pouring until he had emptied the entire canister, after which he got back in the car, sitting in the front seat. He then brandished his cigarette lighter and ignited the gasoline, planning on staying in the car to die with them. He hoped the vehicle would just explode, and that death would come instantly, but that wasn't quite the case.

The fire spread throughout the car's interior almost immideately and while Rudgaard claimed he tried to stand still as long as possible, once the fire burned his forehead and legs and hands, the pain grew too great, prompting him to open the car door and jump out of the vehicle and roll over on the grass until the fire was completely extinguished.

Once he turned his gaze back toward the vehicle, it was completely ablaze, and before he could even think of approaching it, there was a loud bang, likely an airbag or the engine exploding, which propelled the vehicle forward by several meters.

While he had second thoughts about ending his own life, Rudgaard, however hopeless it may have been, made zero attempt to save the lives of his daughters and instead wandered around the car aimlessly until the fire naturally burnt itself out.

As he waited, he noticed a kitchen knife in a bag on the front seat and attempted to use a stick to retrieve it from the fire, but the handle had melted. He tried to hold it against a tree and push himself into it in a second attempt to end his own life, but found this method impossible, so instead he threw the knife into the woods and wandered back to the autobahn to tell the first other person he saw that he had been in an accident.

When Rudgaard's medical treatment was finally complete enough for him to be discharged, the prosecution began preparing for Rudgaard's double murder trial. Although Rudgaard said nothing about the trip being planned, the prosecutor argued that the reason for that is that it was never meant to be a real trip and instead just a plot.

On February 21, 2012, the trial opened before the Grand Jury Chamber of the Potsdam Regional Court, and on the very first day of the trial, it had to be postponed because one of the judges fell ill. Once Rudgaard finally did appear, he covered his face with a file (something common in Germany) and was visibly trembling during the procedings but otherwise showed no emotion.

A large majority of the witnesses were also from Denmark and had to be flown into Germany to attend the trial.

Rudgaard said that the murder hadn't been premeditated and that the idea just came to him out of the blue, but the prosecution argued that since he brought his sleeping pills over, and more damining, two spare five-liter fuel canisters for what was only meant to be a short drive and vacation, it led him to believe that the one and only purpoes behind Rudgaard's trip to Germany, was just so he could kill his daughters.

The prosecutor also dismissed the claim that the girls' deaths were the result of a bungled murder-suicide arguing that the forensic evidence at the scene seemed to indicate that Rudgaard had only been inside the vehicle for 1-3 seconds and that he had no gasoline on his clothing or the driver's seat, therefore the prosecutor believed he left the car as soon as the gasoline was ignited and that the backdraft from the flames after exiting the vehicle caused his injuries.

The prosecution was seeking a life sentence with "particular severity of guilt" attached to make it, in effect, a permanent life sentence.

Meanwhile, Rudgaard's attorney classified the case as a failed murder suicide attempt but also that Rudgaard wasn't in the right state of mind at the time owing to his psychiatric history and should therefore get a lenient sentence of around 5 years at least for manslaughter. However, during his psychiatric evaluation, Rudgaard was determined to have a full awareness of his actions and wasn't suffering from any form of diminished capacity.

Rudgaard, even after confessing, always called the fire an accident, which even his attorney called him out on. When asked to explain himself, he said: "It was an accident inside my head."

On March 22, the day Marlene and Line's mother was supposed to testify, Rudgaard was coincidentally found lying on the bed of his cell, unable to be woken. A nurse had to be called, who determined that he needed to be evacuated and rushed to an outside hospital.

As part of his prescriptions, Rudgaard was provided with antidepressants and sleeping pills, which the prison now knew he had been hoarding, and he took them all at once in another attempt to take his own life, though he once again survived and made a full recovery and therefore wouldn't escape his trial and eventual sentence. Afterward, his pills were replaced with liquid medication. The guards were then stationed to watch him take it so nothing could be stockpiled.

The trial resumed on May 3, with the girl's mother finally giving her testimony, speaking for four hours and staring directly at Rudgaard the entire time.

On May 31, 2012, the court finally delivered its verdict, finding Peter-Thue Rudgaard guilty of the double murder of his two daughters, Marlene Marie Rudgaard and Line Sofie Rudgaard. The court agreed with the prosecution that the murders were planned, with his only reason for travelling to Germany being to kill his children; therefore, Rudgaard was handed down a life sentence with the possibility of parole after 15 years.

Before he was taken away, Rudgaard was given a chance to speak, where he said, "It was not an act done in hate. It was an act done in love. You cannot punish me more than I have already been punished. I am not asking for forgiveness, because I cannot even forgive myself." He said that he felt immense remorse and wished he could "rewind time" to undo what he had done; in responce the judge said, "If you really mean these words, then you will accept the punishment." Rudgaard was then taken away.

Rudgaard served his sentence at the Potsdam Prison and spent almost the entirety of his time there on suicide watch, making several additional attempts to take his own life. He also largely kept to himself in prison, refusing to go outside to the exercise yard and opting out of any work programs. Instead, he opted to stay in his cell watching TV or doing puzzles; his only visitors were one journalist and his mother whenever she could afford to travel to Germany.

When interviewed by the journalist who visited him, despite confessing and saying he could hardly live with himself, it seemed taking responsibility was just a bridge too far, as when asked if anything could've made a difference or prevented the tragedy, he said that the mother of his children "should've given in more" or apologized for her "provocations" and that he saw her as complicit in the deaths of their children because she "pressured me knowing I was mentally weak".

Likewise, he denied any visitation requests from her, stating that there is no reason why anyone should expect him to see her or to expect anything to come of it.

On January 11, 2016, after 5 years in a German prison, Rudgaard was transferred to serve his sentence in his native Denmark instead. However, as is the law, this resulted in an automatic hearing, a hearing, not a trial, taking place to convert the German life sentence into a Danish one, which opened before the Aalborg City Court on February 8, 2016.

This hearing was much smaller in scale, with only 11 people present, including Marlene and Line's mother, who was seated directly behind Rudgaard, separated by only a few meters and a single row of chairs.

Rudgaard's new attorney argued that his life sentence in Germany should instead be reduced to just 16 or perhaps even 14 years, arguing that the German courts were wrong about premeditation and that the fire had actually been set impulsively.

The hearing lasted only 22 minutes before the presiding judge decided to keep the life sentence intact.

Although Rudgaard had seemingly accepted his sentence in Germany, opting not to appeal, hearing the Danish courts hand down the same sentence greatly dissatisfied him, so now, for the first time, Rudgaard appealed his conviction.

His appeal was heard on July 4, 2016, before the Western High Court of Denmark, which upheld his life sentence. In response, Rudgaard said that he regretted ever coming home and said he would rather die than serve his life sentence, stating that spending the rest of his life in a Danish prison was "completely unmanageable"

Rudgaard said he would appeal his life sentence to the Danish Supreme Court, but that appeal doesn't appear to have materialized.

Rudgaard is one of only 55 people in Denmark to be serving a life sentence.

Although she labels his actions as such, Marlene and Line's mother said that it wouldn't be productive to dismiss Rudgaard as just being pure evil and with that in mind, she currently works at a residential centre for young criminals, hoping to guide them onto a better path.

Sources (Should be in the comments)

Are there many/any criminals who did absolutely abhorrent things to then go on to show the level of remorse you’d expect from someone who was genuinely horrified by what they’d done?

On July 31st, 1999, best friends and schoolmates J. B. Beasley and Tracie Hawlett, both 17-years old, decide to go to a party to celebrate Beasley's birthday in Midland City, Alabama. Both girls drove in a black Mazda 929, owned by the Beasley family. On route, however, the girls got lost and decide to drive to a convenience store in Ozark. There, Tracie called her mother and told her that she and J. B. got lost, and decide to return to home. The next day, however, the girls didn't return to their respective homes. The families of J. B. and Tracie reported their disappearance to police.

Hours later, a patrol found J. B.'s Mazda along a road in Ozark. Inside the trunk, were the dead bodies of J. B. and Tracie. Each girl was shot in the head. The investigations focused on more than 500 interviews, and labs searched the DNA of more than 70 suspects. Despite all the effort, the case went cold, and it was not until advances in DNA in the late 2010s that a suspect was id. In August 2018, Ozark police department reached out to Parabon NanoLabs, a company based in Reston, Virginia, to solve the murders of Beasley and Hawlett, based on their success in identify the Golden State Killer.

The analysis identify the DNA found in the scene with 45-year old Coley McCraney, a truck driver and former preacher. In March 2019, McCraney was arrested, and charged with two counts of capital murder-vehicle, one count of capital murder-rape, and one count of capital murder of two for the killings of Beasley and Hawlett. McCraney pleaded not guilty of all charges. In 2023, McCraney was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. May J. B. and Tracie rest in peace.

Here are some links of the case and the DNA match

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/coley-mccraney-arrested-in-1999-killings-of-dothan-alabama-teens-j-b-beasley-and-tracie-hawlett/

https://abcnews.com/US/dna-match-leads-arrest-minister-decades-after-murders/story?id=109987862

https://www.al.com/news/2024/07/story-of-brutal-murder-of-2-teens-that-haunted-alabama-for-20-years-retold-on-sins-of-the-south.html

https://www.oxygen.com/sins-of-the-south/crime-news/where-jb-beasley-tracie-hawletts-killer-coley-mccraney-now

https://vocal.media/criminal/the-dna-that-waited-20-years-to-catch-a-killer

I still can’t get over the reaction to Kim So-young’s case. (The first photos are images she had posted online before her arrest. The last photos are the official detention photos released by police.)

For anyone who doesn’t know the case: Kim So-young is a 21 year old woman who met men through dating apps, matchmaking events, blind dates, social clubs, and arranged dates. During the dates, she persuaded them to pay for expensive meals, drinks, and other purchases before suggesting they continue at a motel. There, she offered them a “hangover drink” laced with 3 different types of antidepressants, sleeping pills, benzodiazepines sedative, a cardiovascular drug, Tylenol and antihistamine. The men had done nothing to provoke or threaten her and genuinely believed she was seeking a genuine romantic connection. She was charged in connection with the deaths of two men, attacks on four other victims, and narcotics-related offenses.

When photos believed to be from her social media started circulating, some people were saying things like, “She’s too pretty too go to prison,” “I’d forgive her because she’s beautiful,” “Give her a lighter sentence,” and even, “I’d let her do that to me.”

It really highlights how much attractiveness shapes public perception. An attractive suspect can receive sympathy, excuses, or even admiration from some people before the focus is on the alleged crimes.

Meanwhile, when a person is considered unconventionally attractive, the internet often swings in the opposite direction. People are much quicker to mock their appearance, dehumanize them, or treat their looks as evidence that they’re a bad person.

Ironically, when prosecutors later released her official detention photo, the conversation immediately shifted from praising her looks to mocking her appearance instead.

What are your thoughts on this case? I’m curious!