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Looking at the abundance of TV shows and all sorts of podcasts on the topic, it’s no secret that true crime has lately been on the rise. For many people, there seems to be something bizarrely fascinating about the terrible stories of what has happened to people.

It might have something to do with the fact that many of the stories, known as ‘cold cases,’ were never solved. The added mystery seems to captivate people’s minds even more, sometimes even years or decades after the terrible events take place.

One member of the ‘Ask Reddit’ community has delved deeper into the spine-chilling topic, asking fellow redditors to share what true crime cold cases don’t sit right with them, and quite a few people replied. If you’re interested in their answers, scroll down to find them on the list below, but do it at your own risk, as some of the stories can be quite disturbing.

#1

A mysterious metal chute, possibly linked to unsolved true crime cold cases, showing signs of rust and age. About three years ago there were suddenly a rash of ladies throwing themselves down garbage chutes in Chicago to commit s*icide. All within a year or so timeframe. Generally in the same area downtown.

Everyone was saying it was random s*icide or just bad luck.

I don't buy it.

I think there was a serial k*ller or something operating in the city.

If you've ever lived in a high rise you know it's damned near impossible to accidentally throw yourself down a garbage chute. And I just don't see most women choosing that as their way out.

ssshield , Канопус Киля / Wikipedia (not the actual photo) Report

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HTakeover
Community Member
3 days ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Nope, women aren't throwing themselves down garbage chutes en masse. Historically women overwhelmingly choose non-violent / not-messy suicide routes - pills, asphyxiation, that kind of thing. Men typically choose the opposite.

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    #2

    A white ceramic urn on a wooden table beside a framed photo, symbolizing unsolved true crime cold cases. I don't remember her name, but I saw one on a cold case tv show that left me screaming at the detectives.

    Woman mysteriously vanished from her work without a trace and they found her body a few weeks later. During this time, they showed interviews with her husband, who she married pretty recently, I think. And the way he talked about her was terrifying. He went on and on about how he hated her kids, they were taking her away from him, she wasn't allowed to be anyone else's, etc. Never made any sort of expression other than a blank stare.
    Near the end of the episode, he talked about how he slept with her urn every night and "frolicked" in the ashes every morning. He lied to her son that he lost the urn so that the kids wouldn't have access to their mom's memorial. His last statement was that he was glad she was dead cause it meant that nobody else could have her. The episode concluded with the narrator saying that they currently had no suspects.

    rosescript:


    This sounds exactly like an episode of the recent reboot of Unsolved Mysteries, “13 Minutes” about Patrice Endres. She disappeared from work one day and was found dead later, her husband was an absolute creep and her poor son never got an closure.

    nineteensickhorses Report

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    #3

    Child with a backpack running down a school hallway, evoking unsolved true crime cold cases. The disappearance of Kyron Horman. The kid was at school with his stepmom, she saw him walk down the hall in the school and he was never seen again. Gone. Disappeared without a trace.

    There's no evidence at all. People like to believe the stepmother k*lled him or something but there is no sound evidence, and I believe the search for him was the most money Oregon has spent on a missing person case. Over 10 years later and there's still nothing.

    EliDrInferno , Caleb Oquendo / Pexels (not the actual photo) Report

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    G R
    Community Member
    4 days ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    If you read all the evidence, the stepmother is almost certainly innocent.

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    #4

    Person walking on a wet city street at night, reflecting urban lights, evoking mystery like true crime cases. The case of Joshua Maddox.

    In 2008 Joshua Maddox left his house to go for a walk and never returned. 7 years later in 2015, his body was found in the chimney of a cabin that was in the process of being demolished.

    There are multiple weird elements to the case:

    -Josh was found in the fetal position facing head-first into the chimney

    -In order to have gotten into the chimney he would have needed to scale the building and remove a metal grate that was blocking the entrance, placed there so that animal were not able to get in.

    -Josh was found completely nude except for a thermal shirt

    -the cabin was still locked and secured.

    And strangest of all:

    -His clothes were found neatly folded inside of the cabin, sitting right in front of the fire place.



    There's so may weird details of the case that just don't make any sense whatsoever.

    dawrina , Pranaav Report

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    #5

    Dense forest representing a mysterious setting for true crime cold cases, with tall trees and lush greenery. Heather Teague. She was dragged into the woods from a riverbank. The abduction was witnessed from across the river by a man using a telescope.

    usedTP , George C / Unsplahs (not the actual photo) Report

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    Upstaged75
    Community Member
    3 days ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Here's more info. Another case mishandled by police: https://www.courierpress.com/story/news/local/2024/08/28/kentucky-woman-heather-teague-has-been-missing-for-29-years-state-police-sarah-teague-marty-dill/74967148007/

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    #6

    Burning car engulfed in flames at night, illustrating a true crime cold case scene. Jessica Chambers. She was set on fire inside her vehicle, and was found by paramedics walking down the road fully engulfed in flames.

    -RadarRanger-:

    Thanks, I came looking for this one. She tried to speak the name of the guy who burned her alive but her scorched flesh could no longer produce the sounds correctly. She was seen on cctv at the gas station, but whoever she was with was not visible in frame.

    1GamingAngel , Adrian Balasoiu / Unsplash (not the actual photo) Report

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    Manny
    Community Member
    3 days ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I remember this one. She said Eric or Derrick, the cops couldn't be sure and the guy they last saw her with there wasn't enough evidence to charge him

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    #7

    Mystery remains unsolved with a box found in a bush, linked to a true crime cold case. The boy in the box always makes me very sad. No one ever found who he was and it just hurts my heart so much that there’s some family out there that will never know what happened to their little boy, and that he died in such a horrific and scary way.

    Finnrip:

    Yep. Wikipedia says: “Another theory was brought forward in February 2002 by a woman identified only as "Martha." Police considered "Martha"'s story to be plausible but were troubled by her testimony, as she had a history of mental illness.[12][14] "M" claimed that her abusive mother had "purchased" the unknown boy (whose name was Jonathan) from his birth parents in the summer of 1954.[8][15] Subsequently, the boy was subjected to extreme physical and sexual abuse for two and a half years. One evening at dinner, the boy vomited up his meal of baked beans and was given a severe beating, with his head slammed against the floor until he was semiconscious. He was given a bath, during which he died. These details matched information known only to the police, as the coroner had found that the boy's stomach contained the remains of baked beans and that his fingers were water-wrinkled.[8]”

    houseofreturn , Philadelphia Police Dept / Wikipedia Report

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    OpheliaPoe
    Community Member
    4 days ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    There were advancements in the case in 2022 as a result of DNA testing. Although his murder remains unsolved he at least has his name back: Joseph Augustus Zarelli. Eta: this case always bothered me more than others but now that I have my own 4 year old who looks similar to Joseph it haunts me on a deeper level. I can't begin to comprehend someone hurting him. Then the level of torture and terror he endured is so far beyond sickening; I just have no words...

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    #8

    Police officer in uniform, holding a radio, related to unsolved true crime cold cases. The owner of a funeral home business went to Camden, Maine with his wife. They had some kind of altercation. The wife disappeared, and was never found.

    Police in the home town think they know that there was foul play, but have no leads that they can follow. The case is closed.

    jbsinger , Tommy van Kessel / Unsplash (not the actual photo) Report

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    #9

    30 Baffling Unsolved True Crime Cases That Are Not For The Faint-Hearted Most of these answers seem to come from the US so here's one from the UK: the m**der of Jill Dando.

    Jill Dando was a well-known British TV presenter and journalist, who was shot dead in broad daylight, on her doorstep on 26th April 1999. They still don't know who killed her or why. Someone was convicted and imprisoned, but later acquitted.

    Separate-Peak-1085 , D Z / Unsplash (not the actual photo) Report

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    Julie S
    Community Member
    3 days ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I still remember hearing about this on the radio it was shocking.

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    #10

    Crib in a decorated nursery, related to unsolved true crime cold cases. Ayla Reynolds. An 18 month old baby with a broken arm disappears from her dad's house in the middle of the night while her dad, his sister and his girlfriend are “asleep”. Blood was found in the basement. It’s been 10+ years and no arrests have been made and her body has never been found. This happened in Maine.

    TorchesLightTheWay , Planet Volumes / Unsplash (not the actual photo) Report

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    #11

    Detectives examining a case board and documents in an office, highlighting true crime cold cases. The Black Dahlia case, the fact that such a gruesome act of m**der was committed, and that the lead suspect is very likely the killer, but didn't serve jail time sickens me. Also its quite interesting how one of the suspects died on the anniversary of the last time she was seen alive.

    PennyoftheNerds:

    I know there were several suspects, but I assume you are referring to George Hodel. And if so, it baffles me that his family even thinks he did it. So much so that his son became a detective in part to try and prove his father was guilty.

    alghihieri , Getty Images / Unsplash (not the actual photo) Report

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    Delicate Fcuking Flower
    Community Member
    3 days ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    The crime scene photos from The Black Dahlia case are nuckin futs! If you have a strong stomach, I recommend checking them out

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    #12

    Evidence marker number 2 placed on a wooden surface at a crime scene, related to unsolved true crime cold cases. The Mary Morris m**ders. Two women both named Mary Morris that were both killed just a few days apart in a really close proximity to each other.

    immadriftersbody , Nik / Unsplash (not the actual photo) Report

    #13

    30 Baffling Unsolved True Crime Cases That Are Not For The Faint-Hearted Yogurt Shop M**ders in Austin, Tx. False confessions, overturned convictions, DNA not giving the answers, this case is so confusing. But someone r**ed and k**led 4 teenage girls before setting a fire and we still don’t know who they are. It’s not okay.

    misntshortformary , National Cancer Institute / Unsplash (not the actual photo) Report

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    #14

    Crime scene tape around trees, depicting unsolved true crime cold cases. That family that got m**derd in the French alps and the cyclist who came across the scene and the little girl stayed still under her mums dress for 8 hours

    Does anyone have a update on this.

    Chetanzi:

    Her sister survived also, despite being shot multiple times and pistol-whipped on the head. They're teenagers now and being re-interviewed for any new leads. Poor girls. I kind of agree with the other commenter who replied to you... sounds like it was a professional hit. Left the gun (shattered, in pieces) at the scene of the crime. Shot the cyclist execution-style. Freaking horrible.

    Chiditch , Nik / Unsplash (not the actual photo) Report

    #15

    Judge using a gavel in a courtroom, symbolizing unresolved true crime cold cases. In 1991 the body of a man James Allen Killam was found by hikers close to a path in New Brunswick, Canada. According to newspapers they had no suspects.

    However, someone I know was a former roommate that owed Killam money. Killam even told his mother that someone was out to get him. After his death Killam’s car was found in the parking garage of a building the person I know worked in. This same person was caught and charged with credit card theft/fraud for using Killam’s credit cards after he went missing. The m**der weapon was determined to be a knife. The person I know gave a knife to their friend to hold for “safe keeping”.

    The person I know went to trial which ended in it being thrown out due to circumstantial evidence. I can’t prove it but I am convinced the person I know is a m**derer…and he got away with it.

    rebel_spazz , Getty Images / Unsplash (not the actual photo) Report

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    Pencil
    Community Member
    3 days ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    If you look out the window before you go to sleep and the ground is clear and dry but when you wake up, it's covered in snow, the evidence that it snowed during the night is only circumstantial because you didn't actually see it happen. Keep that in mind when you hear the evidence was "only" circumstantial. It may have more legal meaning than it does practical implications.

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    #16

    30 Baffling Unsolved True Crime Cases That Are Not For The Faint-Hearted Amy Lynn Bradley always freaks me out. She went missing from a cruise ship. Later a soldier in the US military likely came across her in a brothel and did nothing to help her because he was afraid of getting in trouble. No one has seen her since.

    Impossible_Town984 , Peter Hansen / Unsplash (not the actual photo) Report

    #17

    Neon-lit building at night, related to unsolved true crime cold cases. My aunt was on a trip across some of Asia with her friends. The one friend had planned to go to Hong Kong, but the rest didn’t want to, so they decided they would all just meet up at the next country and let her go to Hong Kong by herself.

    They heard from her when she got off the plane, and not again.

    It’s been about 15 years.

    The_MRT14 , Matthieu Gouiffes / Unsplash (not the actual photo) Report

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    Rob D
    Community Member
    3 days ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I'm sure there was appropriate context, but at face value; holy s**t, solo is not how friends let friends travel.

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    #18

    Person in a white shirt on a gray sofa, gesticulating passionately about true crime cold cases. Sky Metalwala was 2 years old when he disappeared. His mother concocted an obviously false story, but was never charged in his disappearance.

    What happened to the child is one question. Why the police have obviously chosen to give the mother a pass is a much bigger question.

    McFeely_Smackup , Nini FromParis / Unsplash (not the actual photo) Report

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    tameson
    Community Member
    2 days ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    My guess is that the police don't want to get in a situation of a botched prosecution. She is mentally ill and without the child's body there is no evidence that a murder even took place. If they tried to prosecute her now she could easily be found not guilty and then if they did find evidence they wouldn't be able to prosecute her again.

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    #19

    Police car with lights on, illustrating unsolved true crime cold cases and public dissatisfaction. A local case from 1977. A small Indiana town with a population of less than 2,000 had 3 unsolved child m*rders committed in the same year. After the third m*rder, the k*llings stopped and the cases remain unsolved.

    anon , Ahmet Kurt / Unsplash (not the actual photo) Report

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    Nikole
    Community Member
    4 days ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    So the killer died, got incarcerated for something else, or moved? The moving part is troublesome.

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    #20

    30 Baffling Unsolved True Crime Cases That Are Not For The Faint-Hearted It’s not necessarily a cold case, but There were several (2-5) of John Wayne Gacy’s victims who went missing while Gacy was confirmed to be out of town. IIRC, the bodies of those victims were all under his house. That means someone else had to at least kidnap and hold the victim until Gacy returned if the accomplice(s) didn’t actually m*rder the boys.

    YayAdamYay , Jonas Jaeken / Unsplash (not the actual photo) Report

    #21

    Open car door at a park, evoking unsolved true crime cold cases and intrigue. Laurie Depies. Vanished in Wisconsin in 1992. No viable suspects and her body was never found. She just vanished one night shortly after she arrived at her friend's apartment complex, car door open and no sign of a struggle.

    For true crime buffs, one potential suspect is Chuck Avery, the older brother to Steven Avery, subject of Netflix's docu-series Making a M**derer. Turns out Chuck is violent rapist and ped*phile.

    PickledCake88 , Sean Musil / Unsplash (not the actual photo) Report

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    #22

    People dancing in a vibrant room with neon lights and disco balls, related to true crime cold cases. Springfield three.

    This is a case where 3 girls went missing shortly after graduation, they were all supposed to attend after parties and activities, and out of thin air they just disappear.

    What’s mind boggling is there is no connections between a single piece of evidence that was gathered. The weird/sexual “prank calls”, the ex bf involvement, and C*x weird hints.

    YEARS later, aside from being completely unsolved, anytime ANYONE comes close to figuring it out, something ends up stopping it. Whether it’s police regulations, media censors etc.. Or they’d immediately retreat once reaching a certain point. One journalist even said herself she knows what happened but is afraid of speaking out. Whether she’s lying for attention or not (journalist), it’s still weird how many people came in with tips or clues and it’s still somehow a dead-end. Someone out there knows a lot more than they’re giving.

    traffic_free8 , Aleksandr Popov / Unsplash (not the actual photo) Report

    #23

    Police tape symbolizing unsolved true crime cold cases. Shannon Paulk. 11yo girl kidnapped and later found m*rdered in my hometown, Prattville Alabama. It’s been 20 years and they still don’t know who did it.

    lariet50 , David von Diemar / Unsplash (not the actual photo) Report

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    #24

    Person in orange vest holding a "Missing" poster, related to unsolved true crime cold cases. Michael Dunahee. Posters for this kid were everywhere when I was a kid. He disappeared from a playground in Victoria BC in 1991. The latest theory is that he's out there somewhere with no memory of who he was. RCMP recently released a composition of what he might look like now in hopes that it will trigger him to remember and come forward.

    anon , Ron Lach / Pexels (not the actual photo) Report

    #25

    Person hiking on a scenic mountain trail overlooking a lake, related to unsolved true crime cold cases. The deaths of Lisann Froon and Kris Kremers.

    They were two young Dutch women who disappeared from a hiking trail in Panama. Some of their belongings and bones were found weeks and months later. The eerie part is that one of them had a digital camera and had been taking pictures of their hike. It showed them reaching the summit then continuing down the trail where it becomes much more treacherous. Then ten days later there's a flurry of photos in the dark. Most of them showed nothing but a few showed their surroundings and the bloody scalp of one of them. Their cell phones were also used to attempt emergency calls for several days.

    The case was never solved and likely never will be. The two main theories are that one or both of them suffered an accident that incapacitated them or some form of kidnapping/human trafficking gone bad.

    anon , Joel & Jasmin Førestbird / Unsplash (not the actual photo) Report

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    A̷͇̘̓͜l̷̼͇̣͒̌ͅȩ̷͍͙͗̅̀͊̏̾͘x̶̋̍
    3 days ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Oh, I've seen this one before. The details are a bit fuzzy, but I remember that they'd been working as volunteers for the community and were staying. When they went on the hiking trip and disappeared, their belongings were found, and the camera had pictures of the surroundings and the back of one of their heads. I don't think their bodies were found, but one of their boots was found with their foot inside it, washed up from a river.

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    #26

    30 Baffling Unsolved True Crime Cases That Are Not For The Faint-Hearted In my town, there was a girl in her early 20s. It's a small town, 1,000 people maybe. Most of everyone lives in the boonies, super rural place.

    Anyway, she worked at a restaurant/bar in the village. Her boss and coworkers said her shift ended and she punched out. She didn't show up the next day for her shift. They actually never found her. Sure, they found hair, blood, and a shoe. They found her car parked at an abandoned house outside town. But they never found her body.
    Search parties through out the woods, police dogs, everything. My mother and I searched for a good few weeks, as well. We all found nothing.

    My mother worked at a mountain resort for a bit a couple years later. She was in the backroom on break when her coworker came in. He sat at the employee computer. My mom got ready to head back out to the front desk. She turned to ask her coworker a question. He was scrolling a missing persons website. And there she was, my mother saw her smiling face. The girl in her 20s. The coworker turned and made eye contact with my mom. He smiled and turned back and said, "they never did find her. Pretty little thing, huh?" He turned back to my mom and said, "I wish I could have seen her one more time." And my mom quit. That night, she quit her job. She drove home. She sat on her bed for hours, wouldn't talk to us. She swears to this day, he m**dered the girl. She just got this feeling. He moved a couple weeks later after he said that weird s**t.

    She actually only told me all this a couple years ago. When this happened I was like 10 years old, I'm 25 now.

    mossybishhh , Pablo Merchán Montes / Unsplash (not the actual photo) Report

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    OpheliaPoe
    Community Member
    4 days ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    If she'll share his name you could submit it as a tip to the police. There is still a chance he could be found and convicted. You never know. Cold cases get reopened often enough with the right leads.

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    #27

    30 Baffling Unsolved True Crime Cases That Are Not For The Faint-Hearted Not typically a cold case, because the case was closed as far as I knew although there is chatter about new leads.

    Gareth Williams, an ex-spy for the British secret service, was found dead in his flat a week after he went missing.

    His naked body lay stuffed in a duffle bag in his flat’s bathtub, the zipper pad locked on the outside.

    Although the coroner thought it was likely the result of foul play, the police declared his death an accident. An unfortunate result of Williams locking himself in the dufflebag and unable to get out. After which he died.

    Still seems like a bad coverup to me.

    EDIT: I just now learned that Williams was known to have a fetish for auto asphyxiation, bondage and total enclosure. Which may have had a thing to do with how he ended up in the dufflebag.

    But it still doesn’t explain how the zipper got padlocked from the outside.

    There has been a call to analyse existing evidence (hair and dna from the padlock) to maybe get a new lead, but I haven’t heard about anything turning up yet.

    Although it may have been an assisted accidental s*icide, there are still questions unanswered.

    mbkruk , Nik / Unsplash (not the actual photo) Report

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    Bat cat in a hat
    Community Member
    3 days ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I seem to remember a documentary about this case, they even got a contortionist to try and get in the same position as Gareth and it was impossible, so it's very likely someone else was involved; maybe not murder, but manslaughter

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    #28

    Police car light bar, symbolizing unsolved true crime cold cases. The disappearance and death of Patrice Enders

    Check out the Cold Case Files reboot on Netflix. The husband maintains his innocence but he’s creepy as f******ck. There’s a lot of things he’s said and done that just doesn’t sit right. For starters he seemed to have some kind of personal jealous vendetta against Patrice’s teenage son because he was the main focus of her life. Even in interviews he’d openly say the kid is a loser and he just didn’t feel like he was going anywhere in life. Then when Patrice went missing from her hair stylist business he went ahead and changed all the locks in the house so the son couldn’t come in the house. Since then the kid’s basically been banned from entering the house, and the creepy husband has said that he would snuggle with the ashes of Patrice like a teddy bear as he sleeps…but then when asked where her remains were he had to go dig it out of an old cardboard box in a closet. If you loved someone so dearly why would you keep their remains in a plastic bag in a cardboard box in a closet??? It’s just weird and creepy all around.

    TrinixDMorrison , Gabriel Hohol / Pexels (not the actual photo) Report

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    #29

    30 Baffling Unsolved True Crime Cases That Are Not For The Faint-Hearted Brianna Maitland. This happened near where I live, I was very young but that case still bothers me. Beautiful 17 year old girl just vanishes, her car was found crashed into an abandoned building and she was just gone. Real life Without a Trace type s**t.

    ashenrenee , Artyom Kulakov / Pexels (not the actual photo) Report

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    Uncle Schmickle
    Community Member
    3 days ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    William Tyrrell age 3, disappeared in 2014 from his step mother's & step grandmother's home in New South Wales, Australia. Never been found. Police suspected the step mother, or a paedophile, but no evidence has been found. Look at Wikipedia's Spider Man suit boy. Reward of $1 million was offered, but nothing came of it.

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    #30

    Person in protective gear, relevant to true crime cold cases, stands outdoors wearing blue gloves and apron. Alexandra Wiwarchuk. Young nurse who went for a walk in Saskatoon, SK, Canada in 1962 and never came home. Two weeks later she was found partially buried in a shallow grave a few blocks from her apartment. What doesn’t sit right with me is her next door neighbour across the alley was a 48 year old postal carrier who was involved with an infamous California m**der case in the 20s. The 20s case was made into a Hollywood movie. But his name is never brought up in the 62 investigation or now as a cold case. Even in a biography about the guy, the nurses death is glossed over in a single sentence.

    tangcameo , Luke Jones / Unsplash (not the actual photo) Report

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    Grazina Strolia
    Community Member
    3 days ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    The neighbor was 48 in 1962 and was involved in a murder case in the 1920s? So he was born in 1914...making him at most 15 years old during the '20s.

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    #31

    Bryce Laspisa is one that I think about often. This guy was in his sophomore year of college and the school was a few hours from home. His girlfriend and friends all said he’d been acting weird for a few weeks and if I’m remembering right, I think him and his girlfriend had gotten into it or something and he called his parents to say he’d be coming home for awhile so they stayed up waiting what should’ve only taken a few hours. He calls his mom a couple times to say he got off on the wrong exit or had car trouble so it was going to slow him down some. Time goes by and his mom sees on the gps on her phone that he hasn’t moved for some time so she sends a cop out to make sure he’s okay. He’s fine. He’s just sitting in his car on the side of the road not doing anything. So he talks with the cop who goes on to follow him and make sure he’s heading the right direction. Then things just go radio silent. His parents never heard from him again and his car and all of his stuff are sitting abandoned after getting in a wreck down a backwoods road he should’ve never even been on. This happened in 2013 and he still hasn’t been found.

    Individual-Gur-4455 Report

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    #32

    The murder of Shannan Gilbert and The Long Island serial killer case.

    In 2010, an eagle eyed cop with a cadaver dog spotted something out of place in a bramble patch near Gilgo Beach on Long Island while searching for a woman named Shannan Gilbert, who disappeared in the area earlier that year. They didn't find Shannan, but they did find a body. And another. And another. And a few more. They found a total of around 10 bodies, most of them nothing but skeletons and just bits of bodies, all wrapped in burlap and dumped in the brambles. A few of them they actually managed to match with bits of bodies discovered in other places as far back as 1996.

    The thing that doesn't sit right with me was the circumstances surrounding Shannan Gilbert's death and autopsy. The search for Shannan Gilbert is what led to the discovery of the serial killer's dumping ground, but Gilbert herself wasn't in it. She was found almost a year later in a marsh about a half a mile from the beach. When they conducted an autopsy, they said that she drowned in the marsh, her death was ruled an accident, and the case was closed. This was despite the fact that she was reportedly running around at 4:00 in the morning banging on peoples' doors saying someone was after her and she made a panicked 911 call saying as much before she fled into the marsh and was never seen again. "Accident." Right.

    Her family (and their lawyers) naturally called b******t on this and a second autopsy was performed, where they found evidence that she was strangled, and the cops also left out the little detail that she was found face up, which isn't common for drowning victims. Furthermore, the cops sealed the 911 tapes from the night Shannon died, and her family's lawyers had to fight tooth and nail to get those tapes unsealed, and they found out that the cops weren't exactly telling the truth about the content of those tapes.

    Also, the cops' handling of the serial killer case didn't sit right with me either. James Burke, who was the Suffolk County chief of police at the time as well as the one in charge of the case, repeatedly blocked any and all attempts by the FBI to help solve the case and was really otherwise not doing much to solve the damn thing. Burke was eventually ousted as the chief of police when he was arrested on various counts of corruption and an incident where he beat the s**t out of someone who stole a duffel bag full of dildos and pornography out of his van.

    All these weird details (including a few I left out because this thing is long enough as it is) about this woman's murder, which led to the discovery of this serial killer, the weird police response to all of it, and just the general all singing all dancing shitshow the investigation became, just raises so many questions.

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    Tempest
    Community Member
    3 days ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Wasn’t some architect living nearby identified as the serial killer? But if I recall correctly Shannan’s case was still not tied to his other murders.

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    #33

    LaVena Johnson. Not technically a cold case since listed as a s*icide but she showed signs of a beating, her genitals were mutilated with a corrosive chemical, the gunshot wound that was inconsistent with suicide, and bloody footprints were found outside her living quarters. But your gonna tell her family she k*lled herself?

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    #34

    Police tape at a crime scene, representing unsolved true crime cold cases. That horrible double m*rder case from Delphi, IN.

    That piece of s**t needs to be caught.

    LaylaDoo:

    Your comment was the one I was looking for. I live in Indiana and this case haunts my dreams. We literally have a picture of the guy and his voice on the girls’ phone and still haven’t arrested anyone. Hopefully that guy behind anthonyshots or whomever they have, for a different case, is the guy who did it. These girls deserve justice. Their poor families! Just breaks my heart and scares me so much that he is still out there.

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    #35

    There was that one guy who was acting unusual at an airport so security pulled him in. He said people were after him and he wasn't safe. Security left or got him a drink. There is cctv of him bolting full speed from the airport and jumping the fence. Never seen again.

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    Jesse
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    3 days ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Lars Mittank disappeared in Varna, Bulgaria. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Lars_Mittank

    #36

    There was a hit and run in my hometown several years back. About 10 years ago, a hometown "confessions" page popped up on Facebook. Most of it was dumb petty s**t, but then someone anonymously admitted to committing the crime.

    The victim's mother saw it and became distraught all over again. She offered up a cash reward for anyone that would come forward with information. She reached out to the local PD and they tried to get Facebook to disclose the information, but I dont think they ever did. To my knowledge its still unsolved. What sits weirdly with me is one of the city councilmen was arrested for DUI on that same road a few years ago. He was not charged as he got the field sobriety test thrown out because it was "discovered" that the road has a slant and is very uneven...

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    #37

    Motorcycle POV on forest road, exploring unsolved true crime surroundings. Steven Truscott accused of killing Lynn Harper. A young (13 I think) is accused of r**ing and k**ling her with almost no proof, only because he gave her a ride on his bike on his way home. He spent several decades in prison, some of it on death row.

    If you lived in Ontario Canada in the 70's, it made the news.

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    MindNumbinglyBoringJob
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    3 days ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    This story ticked me off so much. His life was destroyed by the police. They terrified a naïve 13 year old and forced him into a false confession. He was sentenced to death and spent 10 years in prison. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Truscott

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    #38

    One that has stuck with me is the missing boy named Andy Puglisi. They have a documentary about his disappearance called ‘Have you seen Andy?’ The little boy went missing from a public pool in 1976, in Lawrence, Massachusetts. He was 10 years old at the time of his disappearance.

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    #39

    Worn black boots on a dirt path, associated with unsolved true crime cold cases mysteries. Dylan Ehler, a 3 year old boy who disappeared from his grandmother's home in Nova Scotia. Literally just gone. His boots were found and never anything else.

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    Upstaged75
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    3 days ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    They found his boots in the river. Most people think he fell in a creek and drowned, then got swept in to the river. Very sad.

    #40

    Jodi Huisentruit.
    Disappeared after telling a coworker she overslept and was running late. Signs of struggle outside of her apartment but they never found her. This was back in ‘95.

    Anonymous:

    I just watched a Dateline or 20/20 episode about her case. At the end of the show, the detective says he thinks he knows who killed her, but just can't prove it yet. There seem to be a few prime suspects, including an older man she was friendly with who has now stopped cooperating with the cops. None of the suspects are particularly compelling based on the information included in the episode. I know it's scary to think about, but sometimes random people attack and kill, and they may not have even known she was a local celebrity or targeted her for anything connected to her work. I was hoping they were going to say that new DNA testing tech had provided new leads, but nothing like that was included in the episode. Sad case all around for sure.

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    #41

    Silver SUV driving through a desert landscape, evoking unsatisfied feelings from true crime cold case enthusiasts. Dale Hay. His girlfriend Dana was terrorized and followed to her house by a truck after she passed it because the driver was too slow. The driver drives away once, comes back, Dale goes out to yell at the guy and the truck took off but returns later on. So, he chased the truck in his jeep. After he was gone a few hours, his girlfriend and son went looking for him and Dale was found dead in his jeep with a single bullet hole in his head.

    It sounds like road rage but it also seems like the driver wanted someone to come out after them. Maybe they wanted to murder Dale or maybe they wanted to kill Dana and settled for Dale.

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    #42

    Philip Cairns. Schoolboy who disappeared while on his way back to school after lunch break in Dublin, Ireland. His school bag was found a few days later in a lane way near his home but no trace of him was ever found.

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    #43

    Amy Wroe Bechtel, we're learning about it in my English class. She went to plan a 10k, and disappeared. Only her car and keys were found.

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    #44

    Murder of Garrett Phillips.

    12 year old kid found murdered in his own apartment in upstate NY. Neighbors heard commotion, they knocked on the door, heard some footsteps, then called the police when no one answered. The perpetrator likely jumped out of a second story window and ran or drove away.

    Lots of questionable witnesses, backtracking of statements, weird police coincidences.

    They railroaded Nick Hillary. He was ultimately acquitted, but police still think they had the right guy so they aren't investing the case any further.

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    #45

    I remember there was this case from a few decades back. Little boy disappeared for months, town goes crazy trying to find him, later an older man is found with a boy similar to the missing kids description. Man says it's his sister's nephew that he got permission to take on the trip but the kid seems to not quite be all there or something. I think he even days he doesn't know the man when he's separated and questioned.

    They take him back to his "family" (the one who reported him missing initially) but the kid also shows no recognition of that family and they claim his actions and habits are completely different and that he's not the same. Of course they assume abuse and after a few years he's "back to normal".

    With thay said the entire time the other family (of the man who said it was his nephew) has been fighting to get him back because they claim thats their kid. There's a huge legal battle and the first family ends up with custody but the second family spends years trying to get him back and claiming they stole their son.

    Theory is if he is the second families kid he may have lied about not knowing his uncle as a joke but when he was placed with the other family he was too scared to say the truth until he eventually believed it himself.

    Now it's generations later. That kid is dead along with anyone else who was alive at the time. But the descendents of both families still exist. Both families are divided. We now live in an age where DNA test from a descendent of the missing kid and a descendent of a sibling from the first family and one from the second family should be able to set this case once and for all. But none of the missing kids descendents want to go through with it because they "know the truth" and don't need to prove anything.

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    OpheliaPoe
    Community Member
    4 days ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    If this is the case I think it is a lot of the issue was rich couple vs. poor single mom in the 1920s or 30s. So yeah, rich coupld got the kid because they said he was their son and the mindset of the era being "Well, whatever the truth is the kid would be better off with the rich two parent household so let's go along with their story as it's 'what's best' for the kid anyway." From what I've read the first child was camping with family (and family friends?). He was left alone along the edge of an alligator filled body of water by a family friend or relative who got mad at the child and went back to the campsite without him. (Yeah, weird but seems to be true) It seems his true fate was likely a result of the environment where he was left and last seen alive. Then the second child really did belong to the poor mother in South Carolina (or was it Georgia?). Although how the boy ended up roaming around the south with his hobo uncle (great uncle?) is another mystery.

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    #46

    Police car with lights flashing behind crime scene tape, highlighting true crime and unsolved cold cases. Jon Benet. So many bizarre details that just got glossed over, including super sketchy details involving the older brother.

    McFeely_Smackup:

    I have no doubt that her mother or brother killed her, one of the two. Too many details point to inside the home.
    The only person still alive that 100% knows for sure is John Ramsey , and he's not likely to ever tell.

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    Blue Bunny of Happiness
    Community Member
    3 days ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I have no idea as to the weight of evidence in this case, but can’t imagine what it must be like for any family member being viewed as guilty if they are 100% innocent.

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    #47

    My uncle was found dead in a warehouse he owned with “multiple shots to the head.” It was ruled a s*icide.

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    #48

    There are many, but I have a sick stomach when a child is /children are murdered. One of them that really stuck to me is the 1977 Oklahoma Girl Scout murders.

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    #49

    Murder that happened in my town a couple years ago, missy beavers in Midlothian Texas? Not sure if anyone knows about this one but she was my grandmas friend and a fitness instructor, while at a church preparing for a early morning workout class someone walked in and was caught on camera wearing what looked like a full swat team uniform, and killed her with a hammer basically just destroying her head from what I heard. Apparently they brought in the fbi and they have repeatedly said they have a suspect but no one’s been arrested yet.

    Note/edit: I didn’t research anything this is literally just what I remember hearing about it, if I used the wrong name or got the details wrong (which I probably did) apologies.

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    Upstaged75
    Community Member
    3 days ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    The person was already there waiting for her. The video of them roaming around the church before she arrived is chilling.

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    #50

    DB Cooper. Able to hijack a plane, get tons of money and parachute out with no body, and very little of the money being found since.

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    #51

    In Burari Delhi India, 11 members of a family were found hanged to death one morning. Completely Normal family. Ages Varying from 15 to 70. As average as you can possibly be. Active in the community, friends with everyone. Neighbours involved in lives yet no one alive had any idea.

    CCTV cameras around showed the 15 year old boy coming down and going up with wires, i mean if my father asks me to go and get wires i wouldn't ask id just go and get the wires.

    Police found diaries with Exact details of what to do for every member of the family. Asking kids to use less mobile, asking women to make different dishes for dinner asking girls in the family to look for husband. All of it was supposed to be told to the patriarch of the family by his dead father. I can understand that but it was all written in the handwritings of girls aged 22 and 27 , both college educated working women. Actually wrote that everyone must be hanged with a noose around and the gates open in some ritual. Like they knew it would happen, no one questioned it and no one told anyone outside the family. Just Imagine 27 Year old Woman with a Masters degree writing in a diary that 11 people have to hang themselves and their dead grandfather will come back to save them and then actually doing it.

    There's Videos of the family dancing and what not one week before the mass suicide. Like actual normal dance you'd except from someone living in Delhi. Not Choreographed or anything just drink men moving their bodies, I've danced like that multiple times. Just chilling how it could have happened and no one was wise enough to stop it or call someone outside the family that died.

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    #52

    This one no one has prob heard of but hits close to home. Webb Pedrick. Dude left his front door in California and vanished. He’s a family friend, well the family is. He was kinda estranged from his family in the first place but I guess no one knows where he is. We get the family news letter around the holidays and is just a post script now. “Still no news from Webb”. Just freaky how people can just disappear.

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    #53

    Dramatic sunset over an empty road, evoking feelings related to unsolved true crime cold cases. Asha Degree. She was so young, there is no way she decided to pack up her things and run away in the middle of the night.

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    G R
    Community Member
    4 days ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    The police have identified a suspect via DNA and know what happened to her.

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    #54

    Who killed Susan?


    TLDR: Woman and husband are out on the patio. She's texting with friends, all good. Husband goes to bed. Wakes up in the morning with cops knocking on the door. His wife was found in a nearby river. At some point in the night, she (or someone) had driven her car a mile up river and left her car near a bridge. But body was found way down river with no way for it to have floated that far or get past the rocky terrain. Someone staged her car up there, dumped her body further down the river. Police found signs of murder, but won't say what exactly.

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    zububonsai
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    3 days ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    This is very unspecific; It sounds a bit like creative writing, IMHO.

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    #55

    Corrie McKeague.

    RAF Airman last seen on CCtv entering a cul de sac, is then never seen again, no body found, just vanished.

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    Awkward lady
    Community Member
    3 days ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Isn't this the one where he'd climbed into a commercial bin (or dumpster for USA readers) after drinking heavily. It was assumed that he fell asleep, and the bin was collected and taken to a landfill site and emptied. The site was searched, but his body was never found.

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    #56

    Young man on a phone call, partially lit, representing the unsolved mysteries theme in true crime cold cases. Brandon Swanson.

    Seriously, go listen to the "Morbid" podcast about him, it's episode 293/294.

    So much that's odd about it, I listened to it earlier this week and I can't stop trying to figure it out.

    Dude is on his way home from a party, on a straight road to his house that he takes *every day* and knows really well, calls his parents as he needs help pushing his car out of a ditch, when they arrive to where he described he was, he was nowhere to be seen. They call for 47 minutes talking the whole time, he's flashing his lights, they're honking their horn, can't find each other. The next day the cell phone records are pinged to a mast literally miles away and when that road is searched, there's his car but not him. The last thing they heard him say on the phone was "oh s**t" then the call went silent. No body was ever found, no possible explanation given.

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    G R
    Community Member
    4 days ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    That’s not accurate. He’d been seen drinking at two different parties and crashed his car driving drunk. He had no idea where he was. He was drunk and disoriented from the crash. He decided to climb a fence and trespass across farmland to try to walk towards some city lights in the distance. The call remained open after he said oh s**t so clearly no foul play, otherwise the parents would have heard something. He obviously fell into the river or a hole or something. No one knows where he might be because he was walking for nearly an hour, so he could be anywhere within a one hour radius of where the car was found. That’s a lot of land to cover.

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    #57

    Sophie Toscan Du Plantier. What a warped and messed up case! I hope it gets solved one day, poor woman.

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    Deborah
    Community Member
    3 days ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I'd like a little more background on some of these, the names may be familiar in the location where the event happened, but not know to others.

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    #58

    Back in 1989 when pelican bay prison was being constructed. 2 campers were murdered. Years later my former sketchy as hell brother in law brought it up in conversation. I think he did it.

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    #59

    A couple of police officers intentionally shot at each here in Ontario around the Niagara Falls area, and no one is providing an explanation as to WTF is going on.

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    #60

    The Adnan Syed case, aka Serial podcast season one.

    It was the first that got me into true crime genre.

    As a Muslim kid growing up in the US, I was basically doing most of the things Adnan was doing, basically in the same hide from the family manner.

    The realization that it could land someone in jail for life and how little it took to take someone there was a slap on the face.

    Spent years obsessing over that case. The only reason I moved on was because I realized there is no way to get any closure on this.

    For anyone who cares about my opinion on this: we basically know absolutely nothing about what really happened. We do know what didn't happen though: anything Jay said.

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    Regina Holt
    Community Member
    3 days ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    So, if I want to know what this is about, I've gotta research it myself.

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