true crime

Rodney Marks was an Australian astrophysicist who died from methanol poisoning while working at the Amsden-Scott station in Antarctica. He, along with 49 other people on the base, was researching for the University of Chicago at the Antarctic Submillimeter Telescope and Remote Observatory, which “paved the way for newer telescopes to exploit the South Pole: the best location on Earth for observations in the submillimeter band.”

On May 11th, 2000, Marks suddenly became unwell while walking between the remote observatory and the base. He became increasingly sick over a 36-hour period, going back and forth three times to the station’s doctor, increasingly distressed. He complained of stomach issues and feeling feverish. The station doctor could apparently not be reached and although he attempted to seek medical advice by satellite, he died on the 12th of May at age 32 with no clue of his condition.

Before an autopsy could be done, The National Science Foundation, which governs all U.S.-based research at the station, issued a statement announcing that Marks had died of natural causes stemming, potentially, from Marks’s long-term alcohol abuse.

Due to the remote nature of the base, Marks’s body was kept in a freezer at the observatory for six months until it could be flown back to Christchurch, New Zealand, the center for the U.S.-based operations, for an autopsy.

The postmortem examination determined that Marks died from methanol poisoning, contradicting the initial cause of death stated by the National Science Foundation. After the results of his autopsy, the investigation into Marks’s death began and is still ongoing to this day.

DSS Wormald was tasked with investigating Marks’ mysterious death. He concluded that 1. Marks did not commit suicide. Although Antarctica can be harsh and isolating, his panic at his illness struck his fellow researchers as authentic, unable to be feigned. 2. He did not ingest the methanol accidentally. Marks and his fellow scientists knew the dangers and risks of working with such materials and would not have made such a mistake. Marks’ body was also free of illegal drugs, meaning he would not have ingested methanol accidentally while intoxicated. The only conclusion in DSS Wormald’s eyes was murder. That left only 49 suspects, however, interviewing them was no easy task.

Wormald stated, "I suspect that there have been people who have thought twice about making contact with us on the basis of their future employment position.” In fact, the U.S. was not cooperative at all with Wormald’s investigation, the NFS instead doing its own investigation and not sharing the findings with the public or the New Zealand authorities. Wormald said, "I am not entirely satisfied that all relevant information and reports have been disclosed to the New Zealand police or the coroner.”

Randisha Love was murdered inside her family’s Fulton County, Georgia home on January 12th, 2016. That day began as a seemingly typical day for the 17 year-old girl. Randisha attended school at Westlake High and then took the bus home in the afternoon. She called her mother at 4:15pm and asked her to bring home some dinner. Nothing seemed unusual about the phone call. Unfortunately, at some point between the time the call ended and 9pm that evening, Randisha was shot several times. She was found by her mother and brother after they returned home shortly after 9pm.

Both investigators and Randisha’s family are unsure of a motive for her murder. Nothing was missing from their home, so a robbery was quickly ruled out. Additionally, police found no signs of forced entry inside the home, which indicates that Randisha was likely killed by somebody she knew and had allowed into the residence. It appears that Randisha was targeted–but investigators still do not know who targeted her or why. Detective Stewart Webb of the Fulton Police told reporters, “We’re still trying to figure out why this girl would have been targeted. There’s no obvious reason this should have happened to her.”

Randisha had aspirations to one day join the Air Force. She participated in her school’s ROTC program and got good grades in her classes. By all accounts, it appeared that Randisha was a typical high school student without any known enemies. Still, investigators believe that one of Randisha’s classmates might have information about her killer. In an appeal to the public for information, Detective Webb explained, “I’d like to reach out to the student body of Westlake High School. There’s at least two grades there that were attending school during the time of the murder. I would like them, their families to talk about it and if they have any information, rumors, talk that they heard in school that year, to please contact Crime Stoppers or the Fulton County Police Department.”

In the summer of 1979, a man calling himself R.C. Christian (who admitted his name was a pseudonym) came to Elbert County, Georgia, planning to find somewhere with both enough granite for his project and enough space to display it. Christian created The Georgia Guidestones, which today, along with the identity of its creator, remains one of the United States’ biggest mysteries.

The Georgia Guidestones are a collection of granite slabs measuring 19 feet 3 inches (5.87 m) tall, with one slab in the center, four arranged around it, and one on top of the structure. They are positioned in an “X” pattern, with each axis oriented toward areas of the moon’s annual rotation around the earth.

The capstone at the top of the monument reads “Let these be guidestones to an age of reason," in Babylonian cuneiform, Egyptian hieroglyphics, Sanskrit, and classical Greek.

The slabs on the outside of the structure have a set of ten guidelines inscribed in Arabic, Chinese, English, Hebrew, Hindi, Russian, Spanish, and Swahili.

The guidelines are as follows:

1. Maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in perpetual balance with nature.

2. Guide reproduction wisely — improving fitness and diversity.

3. Unite humanity with a living new language.

4. Rule Passion — Faith — Tradition — and all things with tempered reason.

5. Protect people and nations with fair laws and just courts.

6. Let all nations rule internally resolving external disputes in a world court.

7. Avoid petty laws and useless officials.

8. Balance personal rights with social duties.

9. Prize truth — beauty — love — seeking harmony with the infinite.

10. Be not a cancer on the earth — Leave room for nature — Leave room for nature.

The guidelines and their vague wording have attracted many conspiracy theorists. One interpretation of the stones is that they describe how to rebuild a devastated civilization. Author Brad Meltzer argues that they may have been intended as a message to the possible survivors of a nuclear World War III since the stones had been erected at the height of the cold war. A local minister at the time proclaimed that he believed the monument was "for sun worshipers, for cult worship and for devil worship.” Notably, congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) responded to a 2018 Facebook post allegedly endorsing conspiracy theories stating Sandy Hook was staged and 9/11 was an inside job saying, “This is all true. By the way, I’ve seen the Georgia guide stones [sic].”

There are also astronomical meanings to the stones. As mentioned before, the stones are erected to follow the moon’s phases throughout the year. Along with that, in the middle of the “Gnomen” stone (the stone in the middle) is a large slot with a hole cut through the granite, orienting the monument with summer and winter solstices. The monument is also a sundial, as there is a small hole in the capstone allowing for sun to shine on the Gnomen stone at noon.

Günther Stoll was a food engineer in Germany who, in 1984, went through a bout of extreme acute paranoia. He talked constantly to his wife about people who were after him, only referring to his aggressors as “they.” His wife never believed that anyone was coming after him.

On the night of October 24th, 1984, at approximately 11 p.m, Stoll suddenly stood out of his armchair and yelled “Jetzt geht mir ein Licht auf!" This roughly translates to “Now I’ve got it!” or “Now I understand!” He then grabbed a piece of paper and pen and wrote down the phrase “YOG’TZE” then immediately scribbled it out. Before his wife could ask what the note meant, he left.

Shortly after, he was seen at his favorite bar in Wilnsdorf. Witnesses report that he ordered a beer and then stumbled out of his chair, injuring his face on the ground. He then left without eating or drinking anything. The bartender stated that he was not drunk at all, but did seem agitated and distracted.

His whereabouts are unknown until 1 a.m. when he showed up at a friend’s door, allegedly confused and manic. The friend was an older woman he had known since childhood and with whom he wanted to discuss religion. He warned her of a “terrible accident” that was to occur that night. She stated that since it was so late at night and he seemed so distressed that he go to his parent’s house and discuss it with them. He then left.

His whereabouts are once again unknown until approximately 3 a.m. when two truck drivers report a car crashed in a ditch off of the highway. Once law enforcement arrived, they found Stoll naked, barely alive, in the passenger seat of his car. One truck driver testified that Stoll had told him there were four other passengers in the car with him, but Stoll also stated he did not know who they were. Stoll perished on the way to the hospital.

As law enforcement began investigating his death, they discovered that Stoll’s injuries were consistent with being hit by a car, but not his car. They theorized that someone must have run Stoll over with a different car, then put him in the passenger seat of his own car and drove into the ditch. The truck drivers also testified that they both saw a man in a brightly colored jacket leave the scene before law enforcement arrived. That person has never been identified.

The meaning of the scribbled “YOG’TZE” remains unknown to this day. There are many theories, including it’s an anagram for zygote, or that the “G” is actually meant to be a “6” and is the license plate, meaning Stoll had somehow known he was going to be hit by a car that night. There is also a Romanian radio station with the callsign YO6TZE, however, no connection to Stoll has ever been made.

David Hopper last saw his daughter, Ava Baldwin, on September 17th, 2015. She was five years old when she went missing from her home in San Antonio, Texas. 

Hopper and his wife, Kathryn Baldwin, were in a fierce custody battle over Ava, and when Hopper filed for full custody, Kathryn and Ava both disappeared. Kathryn has a history of drug and alcohol abuse and suffers from a mental illness that requires medication, however, there is no record of her refilling her prescriptions since 2015. 

Kathryn’s silver 2014 Ford Escape was found abandoned in a parking lot in San Antonio in April 2016, seven months after she and Ava disappeared. Kathryn’s family have stated they haven’t heard from her since 2015 and assume she is dead, however, David Hopper has not given up hope. He believes they are alive and moving frequently with help from friends and family. 

Andrew Sadek was only 20 years old when he disappeared from his college campus in 2014. Sadek was studying at the North Dakota State College of Science and after an arrest for selling marijuana on a college campus (a class A felony in North Dakota with a sentence of up to 40 years), he agreed to work as a confidential informant (CI) in exchange for having the charges dropped. 

On the night of April 30th, he watched a movie with a friend then went back to his dorm. He was last seen on security footage leaving his dorm early on the morning of May 1, 2014, wearing a Buccaneers sweatshirt and his backpack. He had his phone on him, but it was turned off. 

Almost two months later he was found deceased in Red River with a single gunshot wound to his head and a backpack full of rocks tied to his body. 

The police labeled it a suicide, reasoning he wanted to escape his responsibilities of being a CI. His family, however, believes he was murdered. There was no suicide note and a weapon was never recovered. The backpack full of rocks also implies someone tried to weigh down Andrew’s body. When his body was discovered, he was no longer wearing his Buccaneers sweatshirt and instead was wearing a sweatshirt that his family did not recognize as belonging to him. His wallet was also missing. In a radio interview after his death, Sadek’s mother said, “There was no suicidal tendencies. There was no note. There was no depression. And his grades were excellent … Who shoots themselves in the head and fills their backpack with rocks, ties it to themselves and ends up in the river? It’s just too much.” She also revealed that when they picked up Andrew’s car, the carpeting in the trunk was completely soaked suggesting that someone murdered Andrew, put his body in the trunk, dumped his body in the river, cleaned the car, and returned to campus. There were reports that someone saw three men cleaning a car similar to that of Andrew’s the day of his disappearance, however, the cameras in the parking lot next to the dumpsite were not working that night. 

Andrew’s family wonders whether the police thoroughly investigated their son’s death or if the local police department were even capable of investigating the case on their own. The family has asked why they did not bring in the state police or the FBI to investigate. 

In 2017, “Andrew’s Law” was passed by the Governor of North Dakota, putting protections in place for criminal informants, including requiring law enforcement to notify informants of their right to speak to an attorney. 

29-year-old Claudia Kirschhoch worked as an assistant editor for Frommer’s Travel Guides in New York. In 2000 she was asked to be last minute replacement on a travel junket to the new Sandals resort in Havana, to which she accepted. 

On 24 May, they flew to Jamaica but were denied entry to Cuba, meaning they were stranded in Jamaica due to the fact there was no room on any flights back to New York. On 25 May, Claudia and her co-worker, Tania Grossinger, booked into the Sanda’s resort in Negril. Claudia began talking to a bartender called Anthony Grant and went out for drinks and dinner with him. 

On 27 May, Tania managed to get a flight back to New York, leaving Claudia behind. A lifeguard reported seeing Caludia later in the afternoon, walking away from the resort in a bikini and carrying a portable radio - this was the last time she was ever seen. The following day, Anthony called in sick from work and took the following four days off work. 

On 2 June - the day Claudia was scheduled to be back in work - she did not show up and her parents contacted Sandal’s asking if she had left the hotel. They searched her room and discovered that all of her belongings were still inside her hotel room, including her passport. The case was mishandled from the onset - her belongings were moved and her room rented out to other guests, potentially contaminating a crime scene. Somehow her phone which was found in her room went missing along with the hotel log book of the license plates of the cars that came in and out of the hotel each day. Surveillance footage was also taped over. 

Ming Sen Shiue was born in Taiwan but his family immigrated to Minnesota when he was a young boy. He attended Alexander Ramsey High School in Roseville, Minnesota, and while attending this school, he developed a crush on his algebra teacher, Mary Stauffer. This crush developed into an obsession and this obsession followed him through to adulthood.

On 16 May, 1980, Shiue managed to track Mary down. She had been in a beauty salon in St. Paul with her 8-year-old daughter, Elizabeth. Mary’s family had been scheduled to leave for the Philippines on a four-year Baptist missionary trip and she and her daughter were treating themselves to a haircut before the big trip. Upon leaving the beauty salon, Ming approached Mary and Elizabeth armed with a gun.

15 years had passed and at first, Mary didn’t recognize Ming. Initially, she thought that he possibly wanted to steal her car so she handed over her keys. Ming, however, had other plans. He forced Mary and Elizabeth into the car and ordered Mary to drive north. Mary drove to a remote wooded area in Anoka County where Ming tied her up alongside Elizabeth and stuffed them into the trunk of the car….

𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐌𝐨𝐫𝐞:

Rodney Marks was an Australian astrophysicist who died from methanol poisoning while working at the Amsden-Scott station in Antarctica. He, along with 49 other people on the base, was researching for the University of Chicago at the Antarctic Submillimeter Telescope and Remote Observatory, which “paved the way for newer telescopes to exploit the South Pole: the best location on Earth for observations in the submillimeter band.”

On May 11th, 2000, Marks suddenly became unwell while walking between the remote observatory and the base. He became increasingly sick over a 36-hour period, going back and forth three times to the station’s doctor, increasingly distressed. He complained of stomach issues and feeling feverish. The station doctor could apparently not be reached and although he attempted to seek medical advice by satellite, he died on the 12th of May at age 32 with no clue of his condition.

Before an autopsy could be done, The National Science Foundation, which governs all U.S.-based research at the station, issued a statement announcing that Marks had died of natural causes stemming, potentially, from Marks’s long-term alcohol abuse.

Due to the remote nature of the base, Marks’s body was kept in a freezer at the observatory for six months until it could be flown back to Christchurch, New Zealand, the center for the U.S.-based operations, for an autopsy.

The postmortem examination determined that Marks died from methanol poisoning, contradicting the initial cause of death stated by the National Science Foundation. After the results of his autopsy, the investigation into Marks’s death began and is still ongoing to this day.

DSS Wormald was tasked with investigating Marks’ mysterious death. He concluded that 1. Marks did not commit suicide. Although Antarctica can be harsh and isolating, his panic at his illness struck his fellow researchers as authentic, unable to be feigned. 2. He did not ingest the methanol accidentally. Marks and his fellow scientists knew the dangers and risks of working with such materials and would not have made such a mistake. Marks’ body was also free of illegal drugs, meaning he would not have ingested methanol accidentally while intoxicated. The only conclusion in DSS Wormald’s eyes was murder. That left only 49 suspects, however, interviewing them was no easy task.

Wormald stated, "I suspect that there have been people who have thought twice about making contact with us on the basis of their future employment position.” In fact, the U.S. was not cooperative at all with Wormald’s investigation, the NFS instead doing its own investigation and not sharing the findings with the public or the New Zealand authorities. Wormald said, "I am not entirely satisfied that all relevant information and reports have been disclosed to the New Zealand police or the coroner.”

On April 30th, 1982, 16 monks and one nun belonging to the Hindu organization Ananda Marga in Bijon Setu in West Bengal, India, were dragged out of taxis taking them to an educational conference, beaten to death, then set on fire. The brutal murders occurred in broad daylight and were witnessed by thousands of people, but no arrests have ever been made.

The Statesman Weekly, the leading Calcutta newspaper at the time, reported a week after the incident that "Seventeen Ananda Margis, two of them women, were done to death on April 30 morning by frenzied mobs at three places in South Calcutta in the suspicion that they were child-lifters." The press was criticized for holding no compassion for the victims and printing unproven claims.

The murders were not properly investigated when they occurred and the government has been accused of withholding information about the killings from the public. In 1996, The Human Rights Commission began its own investigation into the matter but still could not make any headway due to the lack of cooperation from the local authorities.

On April 30th, 1999, the Ananda Marga Pracharaka Samgha (AMPS) requested a high-level judicial probe into the mass killings, sending a 66-page letter to Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee. The government had done something similar in the past when it ordered a probe into the killings of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons in Orissa. However, the AMPS were not granted their inquiry.

The AMPS have continued to fight for an investigation into the slayings. They have publically stated that they believe the killings were done by the Communist Party of India.

It is unknown why the state government refused to investigate the issue properly.

I've been reading about the candle factory collapse and it's just nightmarish.

"Duck and cover?" What is that supposed to do? Running for cover with a moment's notice is not going to do shit unless you're in a solid, structurally sound, preferably underground area. there's supposed to be a designated shelter and you are supposed to be in it before the tornado is RIGHT THERE.

Jessie Wright was a 16-year-old girl living in Islington, London. Her family remember her as a beautiful, bubbly girl with a zest for life. She planned to complete her GCSEs and begin a hair and beauty course. Jessie was recovering from a serious illness and brain surgery, her final operation was due to be five months after she was tragically killed.

March 2010, Jessie ate a late dinner with her Nan and then left her Nan's flat to walk home, this was the last time her family saw her. Jessie's partially naked body was found in a secluded spot the next day, she had been thrown into a well and landed sprawled on the ground below.

Suspicion quickly fell to a local man called Zakk Sackett. It emerged that Sackett was obsessed with Jessie and claimed to have been in love with her, Jessie's friend recalled him swearing and making lude suggestions such as 'I will have you in my bed,' to Jessie, who attempted to ignore him and walked away. Jessie's uncle testified that he had warned Sackett to stay away from Jessie after he had previously tried to drag her into some bushes in a park. Sackett initially lied that Jessie's boyfriend had come round and threatened both of them, Jessie's boyfriend had never met him and had not been in the area on the night of the murder. He then claimed to have been at home for most of the night and not to have seen Jessie. Sackett's lies continued and in court, he told the jury that he had had sex with Jessie three times including on the night she died but denied raping her. He claimed she had died of natural causes when they had been having consensual sex and that he had been unable to resuscitate her. This was dismissed by the court who were able to prove Jessie had died from compression of the neck consistent with both manual strangulation and a ligature. Just minutes after the murder, Sackett had sold Jessie's mobile phone for £15. Local residents had also expressed their fears of Sackett including emails to social services stating that he 'was going to end up killing someone.'

On the night of October 26th, 1961, Transylvania University student Betty Gail Brown finished a biology study session at Forrer Hall and began walking to her car. This would be the last time she would be seen alive. On the morning of October 27th, her body would be found on the driver’s side of her car with her bra wrapped around her neck. Her cause of death was strangulation. Although her murder entranced Kentucky and horrified her school’s student body, the case has never been solved.

It wasn’t until five years later a lead would surface.

Alex Arnold Jr. claimed he was looking for a place to sleep the night of the 26th after spending his money at a local bar. He claimed he saw Betty and another woman in her car and when he tried asking for a match to light his cigarette, they began to yell and curse at him. He then left. Later, having had a bit more to drink and feeling brazen, he allegedly walked back to the car, yanked the car door open, and began to assault the two women. The unidentified woman jumped out of the car and Arnold began to focus on Betty. He reportedly left bruises and scrapes on her while she fought for her life, then strangled her to death with her own bra.

Although Arnold confessed to killing Betty, he simultaneously claimed to be innocent at trial. All of Arnold’s claims could be found in the papers years before he confessed. It is very possible he read the details of the murder and convinced himself he had something to do with it. While sober in the jail awaiting trial, he then realized his mistake and backtracked.

Arnold’s trial ended in a hung jury and he was never re-tried.

There was also a theory that serial killer who worked in Michigan, Ohio, and Kentucky in the 1980s, Nolan Ray George, killed Betty as he strangled his victims with items of their clothing. It’s theorized her murder would have been one of his firsts, as he would have only been 18 at the time of her death. Other than that, however, there is no concrete evidence to connect George to the murder, and he was never questioned.