True Crime.

Ted Bundy - The Coed Killer

Bundy was an intelligent young man who volunteered for Seattle Suicide Hotline, Helped run a reelection campaign and even received commendation from Seattle Police for saving the life of a toddler.

So how did he hide such an evil, dark side?

Theodore Robert Cowell was born in Vermont on November 24 1946. His mother Louise Cowell was unmarried and the identity of Teds father was Unknown. Due to unwed pregnancies being seen to bring shame on a religious family, Bundy grew up believing his mother was his older sister and his grandparents were his parents. At the age of 4 his “sister” moved them to Washington where Louise Married Johnnie Bundy, who was a military cook. They had four children together and Ted assumed his step fathers last name. Johnnie and Ted couldn’t form a bond and Ted later said that his step father “wasn’t very bright”. 

Bundy did well in school and held a high grade average. He later on attended the University of Puget Sound and the University of Washington.

In the Spring of 1967, he began dating a fellow classmate, Stephanie Brooks. She later found him to be immature, lacking in direction and basically not marriage material. In 1968 after graduating, Brookes broke off her relationship with Bundy and left him devastated.

It wasn’t until 1969 that Bundy learned the truth about his “sister” being his mother and his “parents” being his grandparents. In any case this would be traumatic and life changing, but Bundy’s attitude towards his mother didn’t change. However, his personality did begin to change and he became more dominant and driven. There was also escalation in Bundy’s petty criminality, going from minor thefts to shoplifting and burglary. 

After some weeks, he re-enrolled at the University of Washington as a psychology major and became an Honour student. It was around this time he met the Universities secretary, Elizabeth Kloepfer who was a divorcee. They began Dating and this relationship continued long after Bundy was a suspect in a series of murder investigations. 

In 1971 Bundy began working at Seattle’s Suicide Hotline crisis centre. During this period his life seemed to be on the up. He also started to send out applications to law schools, his interest in politics also saw him working on Washington Governor, Daniel J Evans, reelection campaign. 

During a trip to California on  Republican Party business in 1973, Bundy met up with Stephanie Brooks, his previous girlfriend. She noticed his transformation into a serious and dedicated young man with a distinguished legal and political career ahead of him. Bundy noticed her interest and began dating her again. However, in January 1974 he broke off the relationship and refused to speak to her. When Brooks eventually got into contact with Bundy she demanded answers from him about his behaviour. Bundy insisted he didn’t know what she was talking about and hung up the phone. They never spoke again. 

A month later, young women in the Pacific Northwest area began to disappear.

No one is sure when Bundy committed his first murder but the first one attributed to him occurred on January 4 1974. He snuck into the apartment of a UW student, 18 year old Karen Sparks. He bludgeoned her in the head as she slept with a metal pole from her bed frame and then proceeded to sexually assault her with the weapon, which caused serious internal injuries. Karen survived the attack but was left with permanent brain damage. 

A month later, Bundy broke into Lynda Ann Healy’s home. She was a UW undergraduate. She was beaten until unconscious and then Bundy dressed her and carried her away with him. 

Over the next few months six girls were reported missing, which caused panic among student communities in Washington and Oregon. All the police had were reports of a young man wearing a sling or cast and driving a brown/tan Volkswagen Beetle. 

Incidents were then reported on July 14, At Lake Sammarmish State Park, 20 miles East of Seattle. Five female witnesses described being approached by a young, handsome man who called himself “Ted”, he was wearing a sling and asking for help unloading his car. With a detailed description of Bundy and his car, police were able to distribute fliers throughout the Seattle area. A composite sketch was also put on TV adverts and printed in papers. Four separate people came forward, including Elizabeth Kloepfer, reporting Ted Bundy as a possible suspect. The clean cut, law student who had no criminal record was not considered a high probability suspect even after the report was filed.

Six months later, Skeletal remains were being found near Lake Sammarmish and Taylour Mountain. 

In 1974, Bundy moved to Salt Lake City to begin his studies. A new series of homicides began. Victims were found raped and strangled. 

Years later Ted Bundy was caught and ended up confessing to a total of 30 murders, but some some believe the real number is much higher. Bundy was sentenced to die by electric chair in Florida on January 24 1989.

Arthur Shawcross - A Look Into The Killers Childhood.

Born on Wednesday 6 June 1945, at the US Naval Hospital, Kittery, across Portsmouth, Maine, was Arthur John Shawcross. He was a small baby weighing just 5 lb. His parents were Corporal Arthur Roy Shawcross, age 21, and Bessie Yerakes Shawcross, age 18. Arthur would become their oldest of four children. His siblings were Jean, Donna and James. 

Arthur’s education started at The Brownville-Glen Park Central School. During this time, personality problems surfaced. Shawcross would have sexual fantasies about his sister Jean, but he resented his other two siblings. At the age of 5, Shawcross had created two imaginary “friends”. He described one being the same age as him and his name was “Paul”, the other was a younger girl who had no name. He would be seen speaking in a childish voice to his “friends”, and this led other pupils to believe he was talking to himself. Years later, Shawcross said in an interview: “I had to have these friends, because i wanted someone to play with. No one else liked me”. Pupils began to bully Shawcross and gave him the nickname “Oddie”. All of this caused him to go into a world of his own, and he would be seen wandering around the school in a dream like state. He became an easy target for the stronger children and this would cause him to go home a torment his siblings as a way of revenge. 

School Welfare Officers began to make enquiries when they realised Shawcross was a problem child. They looked into his home life and noticed that his parents were very lenient on him. Shawcross then started running away from home but was quickly brought back each time. During this time he also began to carry a tyre iron with him on the school bus. he would have this on him in case any of the other children bothered him.

Just before Arthur’s eighth birthday, his school called for a mental health evaluation. After speaking with him, the psychologists from the Jefferson County Mental Health team, gathered that Mrs Shawcross was giving her son mixed emotional messages. There would be times that she treated Arthur like a little doll, but then punish him for no apparent reason, which left the young boy very confused. Mrs Shawcross and her former Marine husband had quite old fashioned rules, which came with hints of military discipline. Arthur had to keep his bedroom spotless at all times and his clothes had to be folded perfectly, If anything was found slightly out of place he would be punished or sent to his room. 

In an attempt to win back being the favourite, Arthur would remember Birthdays and Anniversaries, and smother his parents with gifts when he could. 

Shawcross became frightened of unusual noises, and slowly his confusion turned to resentment. After this Arthur always seemed afraid and even began stealing money from his mother to pay off the bullies at school. He remained friendless and continued to torment his younger brother. Psychiatrists began to think that young Arthur felt rejected by his Mother and also that his father favoured the other children. 

Shawcross continued to be bullied at school and this caused his grades to slip and he developed a characteristic blink, which would be permanent. He also began to make strange noises and would slip in and out of a baby like voice. He suffered nightmares which led to bed wetting, and this continued into his early teens. 

When Shawcross was nine, his mother found out that her husband was already married to another woman in Australia and they had a ten year old son. After this, Mrs Shawcross hated her husband and every minute spent with him. She decided to make his life a misery. Arthur, already being a confused child, now stayed away from home as much as possible due to the constant arguing at home between his parents. In the months ahead, Shawcross began to show two different sides, like he was mirroring his mothers behaviour by showing two sets of opposing emotions and attitudes. 

As Arthur got older he began to torture small animals. This started when he was in seventh grade in 1960. He would drown cats, skin animals alive and may more twisted means of torture. Shawcross became uncontrollable and started to beat any teenager who upset him. He became stronger and no longer felt fear. 

Aged 17 he dropped out of school and began thieving. He became known to the police and by age 20 he was charged with attacking a 13 year old boy during a snow ball fight. He spent a lot of time with children younger than him and was often caught playing with children’s toys. 

In April 1967, Shawcross was drafted into the army. During his time serving, his behaviour improved and he developed a structured life. Years later in an interview, Shawcross spoke enthusiastically of how he had killed several women and a child during his time in the army, although there was no evidence to prove this. 

Months after leaving the army Shawcross was arrested for arson attacks and robbery. Whilst in prison he had a Psychological assessment. he was diagnosed as an immature adolescent with a schizoid personality. They said he should be viewed as a Schizoid Arsonist who requires supervision and emotional support. He was also given a referral to a mental clinic and was said to need close supervision and psychiatric treatment. 

In 1972, Shawcross admitted to killing two children and was given a 25 year jail sentence. He served only 15 years of his sentence and was released on parole in April 1987. He went on to kill 11 more women and was sentenced to 25 years for each count of murder. He was held at the Sullivan Correctional Facility in New York State, until November 10, 2008. On this date he complained of pain in his leg and was transferred to a hospital where he later died of cardiac arrest. 

19-year-old Nathan Leopold and 18-year-old Richard Loeb were both law students at the University of Chicago when they decided that they wanted to commit the “perfect crime.” 

During the summer of 1924, the two young men rented a car and drove to a local private school where they met 14-year-old Robert Franks and offered him a ride. They had picked Robert in particular due to the fact that he was the son of a wealthy watch manufacturer. The murderous duo had already written a ransom note when they picked the young boy up and it was delivered to his father, Jacob, the following morning. 

Before Jacob even had a chance to respond to the ransom note, the body of his son was found in a culvert. Found near his body was a pair of glasses which were traced back to Leopold. They confessed that they had attempted to knock the boy unconscious with a chisel but they had hit him too hard, killing him. 

“Everybody wants to change something about themselves. I’ve wished for not having legs since I was six. I feel like I am trapped in the wrong body. I can’t be myself when I have these two legs. I need both of them to go in order to go on with my life.”

These are the words from someone who suffers from body integrity identity dysphoria, a rare disorder characterized by a desire to be physically disabled in one form or another. This is due to a mismatch between the sufferer’s mental body image and their actual physical body, causing them to feel ‘’trapped’’ in an able-body that doesn’t precisely align with their own perceived, warped self-image. They have usually felt this way since childhood and may desire to be blind, deaf, or wheelchair-bound. If a sufferer is dissatisfied with their legs, perceiving them as a foreign part that doesn’t or shouldn’t belong to their body, the only way to ease their pain is to have these undesirable limbs removed. To achieve this, they may harm themselves by attempting to hack off their own limb(s), laying on train tracks, or freezing their limb(s) with ice so that doctors have no option but to comply with their wishes and amputate that limb. In one case, a man suffering from BIID shot himself in the leg and had it amputated. There are many cases in which sufferers feel an improved self-esteem and body image after ridding themselves of the body part that was causing them so much distress all their lives.

Some experts believe that this condition is a form of body dysmoprhic disorder. People affected with BDD may obsess over a certain physical feature they do not like, such as their nose or skin. This is also true with sufferers of body integrity identity disorder. 

29 year-old Ronkeya Holmes (top left)  was murdered by the father of her child, Lester Ross (bottom left), on October 18th, 2009. Lester had custody of their 3 year-old daughter, MaSarah Ross (top right), and he lived in Haines City Florida with her and his wife, Sharon Ross (bottom right). On the day Ronkeya was murdered, she went to Lester’s house to pick up MaSarah. Unbeknownst to Ronkeya, she would not be able to pick up her daughter that day. MaSarah had already been dead for months. Lester had killed her and hid her body inside of a freezer at his home. He told his wife Sharon that MaSarah’s death was an accident, but still reportedly threatened to kill Sharon if she ever told anybody about it. Lester had allegedly been abusive towards Sharon for years and she reportedly feared for her life during this time.

In order to hide the fact that he had murdered his own daughter, Lester decided that he had to kill Ronkeya as well. Before Ronkeya arrived at their home on October 18th, Lester asked Sharon to buy rat poison and melt the pellets on the stove. He then instructed her to mix the rat poison into a bottle of Coke from their refrigerator. Sharon followed Lester’s commands, and then left the Coke bottle on their kitchen counter.

At some point, Lester gave the Coke to Ronkeya. A few hours later, Sharon stumbled upon Lester with Ronkeya’s lifeless body inside his home office. Lester forced Sharon to help him move both Ronkeya and MaSarah’s bodies into his car. He then forced Sharon to drive to an orange grove in Winter Haven to help bury their bodies. Over a year later, in December 2010, Sharon lead authorities to their grave sites. It took over a year for the remains of Ronkeya and MaSarah to be positively identified, but once they were, Lester was indicted on murder charges.

The Murder Of Alie Berrelez

Alie Berrelez was 5 years old when she disappeared from the courtyard in the apartment where she lived. She had been playing and eating pizza with her brothers. Her baby-sitter had gone inside for a few minutes. By the time she came back, Alie was gone.

The search dragged on for four days without a single clue. Finally, the police turned to an age-old crime-fighting tool: bloodhounds. Yogi and his handler, K9 officer Jerry Nichols, went to work. The dog took Alie’s scent from clothing she had recently worn, then started moving. First Yogi went up the stairs, zeroing in on a single apartment. It was Alie’s home, and it was a good sign. Yogi was on the right track. His handler reckons the dog picked up a scent from a car journey, as opposed to someone on foot. The dog led them to a wooded area off the freeway, called Deer Creek Canyon, almost 14 miles away from Alie’s house. Volunteers found Alie’s body in a duffel bag 2 miles from where the dog was made to rest. It’s unsure whether she was killed or died as a result of her asthma and the kidnapper panicked and dumped her body.

Police suspected a neighbour or someone who was visiting a resident of the apartment complex.

Lizzie Halliday: The First Woman To Be Sentenced To Death By Electric Chair

The murders

The first woman to be sentenced to death by electric chair was a woman named Lizzie Halliday. Her exact day of birth is not known, but it is believed that she was born around 1859. Lizzie and her family moved from Ireland to America during Lizzie’s childhood, but there is not much known about her upbringing. Sometime during her 20s, Lizzie married her first husband named Ketspool Brown. It is believed that the couple had a son together. Around two years later, Brown died and Lizzie remarried. Her second husband was an elderly man named Artemus Brewer, but he passed away just a year later. Lizzie married for the third time shortly thereafter; this time, the marriage ended in a divorce. However, her fourth marriage was more dramatic than her previous one; apparently, Lizzie had tried to poison her fourth husband with arsenic but failed. Lizzie disappeared without a trace but reappeared in Vermont where she married once again. However, after just two weeks of marriage, Lizzie was gone once again.

In 1888, Lizzie set up a store in Philadelphia. It seemed like she was trying to start a new life with a new career, but her store suddenly burned down. She was found guilty of setting the store on fire to get insurance money. Just a year later, Lizzie started to use her first husband’s surname and started working for a man named Paul Halliday as a maid. They were soon married, but their relationship was oftentimes turbulent. Paul describes Lizzie as shifting from a normal state of mind to complete insanity. During their two first years of marriage, their house and barn burned down to the ground. Paul’s son John died in the fire and Lizzie claimed that he had died while trying to save her. However, evidence told another story; John’s bedroom door had been locked, and Lizzie had access to the key. Lizzie was found mentally insane and was sent to an asylum, but was soon released. Surprisingly, Paul opened his house for Lizzie once again, even though she had murdered his son. Tragically, Paul disappeared shortly after Lizzie was released. The police searched through the house but did not find Paul. However, they found something else. In the barn, the corpses of two women were found. They had been shot and were soon identified as Sarah and Margaret McQuillian. What made their murders even more tragic was the fact that they had let Lizzie stay with them when she lived in Philidelphia and set up her store. They had shown nothing but kindness but were killed in return.

Lizzie was, unsurprisingly, the main suspect of the murders. However, Lizzie seemed to be mentally unstable when law enforcement tried to interrogate her. Whether this was genuine or simply an act to get away with the murders is not clear. The odds of Lizzie being released worsened when her husband Paul was found under the floorboards of their house. He had also been shot, but he had unlike the McQuillan’s been severely mutilated.

Trial and aftermath

Lizzie’s time in custody was dramatic. She harmed herself several times by cutting her own throat, tried to hang herself, and set fire to her bed. As a result, the officers at the County jail found no other solution than to chain her to the floor.

Lizzie stood trial in 1894 and was found guilty of killing Sarah and Margaret McQuillan, but was not convicted of killing her husband Paul Halliday. She was sentenced to death by electric chair and became a historical person as she was the first woman to be sentenced to die in the electric chair. However, her sentence was soon changed after she was found mentally insane. Lizzie was instead sentenced to spend the rest of her life in a mental institution.

But the story does not end here; Lizzie killed once again while incarcerated. She had come to like a woman named Nellie Wicks, who worked at the institution where she was housed. Lizzie found out that Nellie had resigned and was both disappointed and upset. Lizzie stabbed Nellie over 200 times until she died. The murder weapon was a pair of scissors, which had been given to Lizzie since she spent most of her time sewing. Twelve years after her last murder, Lizzie died of Bright’s disease, which is a form of kidney disease.

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐔𝐧𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐝 𝐀𝐬𝐲𝐥𝐮𝐦

This unfinished asylum on the outskirts of Kiev was cancelled in the early 1990s not due to the fall of the Soviet Union but due to many contractors falling to their death or suffering life changing injuries.

She claimed that a local man who suffered from mental illness had burst into her home in Necochea on the Atlantic coastline and murdered her two children. The man was promptly arrested.

It looked like an open and shut case, but heading the Bureau of Identification at the regional headquarters at La Plata was a fingerprinting pioneer named Juan Vucetich. He dispatched Inspector Eduardo Alvarez to reinvestigate the crime.

Alvarez was appalled by the sloppiness of the original investigation. For instance, he found that the accused man had an unshakable alibi, but had been too mentally confused to mention it.

When Alvarez visited the crime scene, he found a bloody thumbprint. He recalled a recent lecture in which Vucetich had demonstrated the value of fingerprinting.

When Alvarez compared the bloody print to Rojas’s, he saw that it matched perfectly. Confronted by the evidence of her own hand, Rojas confessed and was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Sophie Louise Hook was a 7-year-old British girl who lived in Cheshire, UK.

Sophie was on holiday at her uncle's home in Llandudno to celebrate her cousin's birthday, during the day of 29th July 1995, she and her cousins played in a paddling pool in the garden. It is believed she was being watched and her later attacker was seen in the area crouching in the bushes nearby. While the children played they discussed spending the night in the tent in the garden, a conversation that would have been audible to the nearby path and bushes.

That night, Sophie and her cousins slept in the tent outside, her uncle checked on the children at 12.40 am. At 2.30 am, Sophie's cousin woke up, checked the time and saw all the children still sleeping. When the children woke up at around 7.15 am, they found Sophie was missing. She was reported missing at 8.20 am after a search of the garden and surrounding areas.

At 7.10 am that morning the nude body of a young girl had washed up on the beach half a mile away, it was confirmed to be Sophie. An autopsy revealed she had been attacked with 'considerable force.' She had suffered multiple injuries including internal bleeding and had been raped violently. Her death was caused by manual strangulation which had lasted up to three minutes and then her body had been thrown into the sea. Sophie's clothes were not found at the time.

Howard Hughes was born in Llandudno, he had 17 convictions, including for violent offences and indecently assaulting young girls. Previous cases involving children had been dropped by the Crown Prosecution because 'because the victims were so young and could not have given reliable evidence.' Hughes was arrested at his home the day the body was discovered and detained, he was released the next day due to a lack of evidence. Hughes was then rearrested over possession of indecent images of children found in a search of his home. He was later charged with the murder of Sophie Cook.

Hughes' father testified that Hughes had admitted the murder. Another witness saw Hughes carrying a large sack with a naked body in on the night of Sophie's murder, the witness had not previously come forward as he had been in the process of stealing from a garden when it happened. A third witness, a convicted sex offender, testified that Hughes had boasted to him that he would like to 'rape a girl of 4 or 5.'

18 year-old Ebby Jane Steppach was last seen on October 24th, 2015 in her hometown of Little Rock, Arkansas. On the previous day, October 23rd, Ebby sent her stepfather Michael a text message stating she had been assaulted, and that the person who assaulted her recorded a video of it on his cell phone. Michael urged her to call the police, and she told him she already had and was planning to go to the station to officially file a report. The following day—the day of her disappearance—Michael and Ebby were supposed to meet at Ebby’s grandmother’s house. However, when Michael showed up, Ebby had already come and gone. According to Ebby’s brother Trevor—with whom she was living—she never returned home after going to her grandmother’s and she has not been seen since.

Family members made many unsuccessful attempts to get in touch with Ebby the rest of that afternoon and all throughout the next day, until she finally answered a phone call from her brother on the evening of October 25th. The two spoke for four or five minutes, and her brother said she sounded groggy and disoriented. He also said that Ebby kept saying that she was outside of his house—but she wasn’t—and she was unable to say where she really was and who she was with. That was the last time she has been heard from.

The drainage pipe was searched after a cold case detective decided the area from which Ebby disappeared deserved a second look. This time around, it did not take investigators long to find the remains at all–which is leading many to question the quality of the investigation when Ebby was first reporting missing. 

This news is still unfolding and no additional details on the investigation have been released yet but there is likely to be more updates soon.

The disappearance and murder of Gabrielle ‘Gabby’ Petito has captured worldwide attention. The 22 year-old young woman vanished during a cross-country road trip with her fiance, Brian Laundrie. Suspicions about Brian’s involvement in Gabby’s disappearance began to arise after Brian returned to his family’s home in Florida without her. Once Gabby was reporting missing, it was revealed that Brian and Gabby faced struggles both before and during their trip. Once Gabby’s body was found, many began to suspect that Brian had murdered her. However, authorities were unable to question him–as Brian himself also vanished days before Gabby’s remains were found. In late October 2021, Brian’s remains were found as well. An investigation into his death is still ongoing.

Unrequited Love Ending In Murder And Dismemberment

Background

Jonna Henningsson, in her mid-twenties, was in the middle of a triangle drama in 2014. Jonna was in love with a man she once had a relationship, but he had moved on to date another woman named Lovisa. At first glance, this seems like a regular case of unrequited love, but Jonna decided to do something most women never do for the chance of love; murder her rival.

The drama between Jonna, Lovisa, and the man had been going on for quite a while before it escalated. Lovisa had known the man since they were children, and they started dating in 2008. However, they often broke up and got back together again. Sometime during one of their periods apart from each other, the man started dating Jonna instead. The man then broke up with Jonna and got back together with Lovisa, and repeated this process several times since he had a hard time deciding who he wanted to be with. During this time, Jonna became pregnant with the man’s child. She told him that she would get an abortion, but never did. He found out about it after she admitted to it a few weeks later when they were out drinking, which made him break things off once again with Jonna. Jonna later suffered a miscarriage. However, the man finally decided to be in a relationship with Lovisa. When Jonna found out that he had made a final decision, she cut herself just above her pubic area and sewed the wound shut. Jonna then drove to the hospital and told the man that she was in the hospital hoping that he would feel sorry for her. Jonna also wrote letters to the man. A quote from a letter reads (my translation from Swedish to English): ’‘You could have hugged and kissed me each time I break down and cry, and you could have told me that you loved me and that you always will. You could have calmed me down and told me that even if we aborted the child we could always make more when we are ready and that I would never lose you“. She continues: ”You will always be the love of my life and I will always love you“.

The murder

Jonna decided to drive her car to Lovisa’s apartment and kill her in June of 2014 to end the triangle drama. Jonna brought several weapons with her; syringes filled with alcohol and sleep medication, a knife, and a hammer. She rang the doorbell, and as soon as Lovisa opened Jonna walked into the apartment and started beating Lovisa with the hammer. However, Jonna’s plan was not going accordingly. Lovisa did not fall unconscious and screamed for a long time. After a few minutes, a concerned neighbor rang the doorbell. Jonna ignored the doorbell and finally killed Lovisa by stabbing her. Jonna later said to detectives (my translation from Swedish to English): ’'It’s only then when she is quiet and still, and when the doorbell has stopped ringing, that’s when I realize that she is dead”. Jonna’s original plan was to make Lovisa’s death look like a suicide by drugging her and beating her in the head and then placing her on a railroad, but after the violent way Jonna had killed Lovisa, it would be clear that Lovisa had been killed. Instead, Jonn drove home and got several IKEA-bags and a large saw. She then returned to Lovisa’s apartment and dismembered the body into four parts. Jonna put the bodyparts in the IKEA-bag and then placed them in her trunk. Jonna did not get rid of the body immediately; in fact, she went to work and left the body inside her car. After finishing her shift, Jonna drove to a wooded area where she dumped the body parts. Jonna then returned home and called the police and told them what she had done.

Trial and aftermath

Crystal Brooke Howell was only 17 years-old when she murdered her father, 50 year-old Michael Howell, on February 24th, 2014. Crystal had moved in with her father five years before the murder, after her parents got a divorce. The two lived in Maggie Valley, North Carolina, in a remote cabin on Sheepback Mountain. On the day of the murder, Michael and Crystal went shopping together in Ingles. Crystal allegedly attempted to shoplift, but was caught by Michael. Investigators theorize that after this incident, Crystal began to think about killing her father.

When the two returned from shopping that day, Michael took a nap while Crystal took a shower and allegedly continued to think about killing her father. Once she got out of the shower, Crystal grabbed a shotgun and shot her father once in the head as he napped on the couch. She then hid his body in a plastic container inside the family’s storage shed. Then, she dumped the couch he was laying on and sold the shotgun that she used. Life seemed to just continue for Crystal after that–she began to drive her deceased father’s car, spend his money, and damage his house. Her friends moved in, and they often threw parties at the house. Crystal even had a stripper pole installed in the kitchen. When asked about her father’s whereabouts, Crystal told her friends that he moved to Georgia and then killed himself.

Crystal continued her new lifestyle for almost a month before her secrets were uncovered. On March 22nd, 2014, two of Crystal’s house guests decided to move a pinball machine into their storage shed. While doing that, one of the men noticed the plastic container and found Michael’s body inside. The police were called, and Crystal was eventually arrested and charged with murder. 

Jill Wells was 36 years-old when she died under suspicious circumstances on March 28th, 2001. The mother of two spent that day doing target practice with her husband Mike Wells and their six year-old son, Tanner Wells. The three were shooting on a remote ranch outside of Punkin Center, Colorado. At 1:48pm, Lincoln County dispatch received a 911 call from Mike. He told the dispatcher that his wife had accidentally been shot and killed. The dispatcher then passed the call to Lincoln County Undersheriff Adam Yowell. Yowell asked Mike what happened, to which he replied, “My wife and my son and I were out target shooting. And he turned the gun and it went off and shot her. I don’t even know where he hit her. But get somebody down here, please.” First responders rushed to the scene, but due to the remote area of the ranch, it took around 20 minutes for them to show up. When they arrived, they found Jill on her stomach on an old foam mattress with a rifle in her right hand. She had a single bullet wound just above her ear. It was clear that she was deceased. Mike was once again asked what happened, and he explained that Tanner had been shooting with a child’s rifle, but asked if he could fire one shot out of the “big gun”. Mike obliged Tanner’s request and allowed him to fire a single shot out of his .22 caliber rifle. Mike then said that he turned his back to pick up Tanner’s rifle, and when he turned back around, he saw Tanner trying to cock the rifle before it accidentally went off. That was the bullet that reportedly hit Jill, killing her. Both the prosecutor and the coroner who were sent to the scene honored Mike’s story. The coroner took Jill’s body straight to a mortuary after deeming that an autopsy was unnecessary. It seemed as if Jill’s death was quickly labeled as a tragic accident. However, Jill’s family members and friends always felt there was more to the story–and their feelings were not unfounded. In addition to an autopsy not being performed, there were many other things that were seemingly overlooked as well. Investigators did not attempt to identify any fingerprints on the rifle that killed Jill, nor did they did do any ballistics testing. They also did not conduct any in-depth interviews with anyone involved in the case. As the years passed after her death, Jill’s loved ones could not shake the feeling that Jill’s case was closed too quickly. A closer look into the details of Jill’s relationship with her husband Mike revealed a possibility that perhaps her death was not an accident after all.

James Barry (21) was stabbed to death inside his mother’s Loxahatchee, Florida home during the early morning hours of November 17th, 2016. James’ mother’s boyfriend, Guy Hand, awoke that morning to the sound of James screaming. Guy ran into James’ bedroom and found him fatally wounded on his bed. It was clear that James had been stabbed, and the assailant had already fled the scene. Guy attempted to CPR to no avail; James died before the paramedics were able to get to him.

Three days later, James’ ex-girlfriend Melanie Eam (20) was arrested for his murder. Police found her at her family’s home in Silver Spring, Maryland—where she reportedly fled after committing the crime. While investigating James’ death, police learned that James and Melanie had recently broken up after being in a relationship for two years. James reportedly ended the relationship via text message. After being taken into custody, Melanie admitted to stabbing James in a fit of rage. The confession was recorded, and in the recording a detective is heard asking Melanie how many times she stabbed James. Melanie replied, “I don’t know, it’s not like I counted.” When the detective asked her why she stabbed him, she explained that “he set me off” when he decided to end the relationship through text instead of in person.

Despite confessing to the crime, Melanie still pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder. Her defense team pointed the finger at Guy, the boyfriend of James’ mother. Melanie’s lawyers cast suspicion on Guy because he moved the murder weapon after the police arrived at the home. Guy stated he found the 13 and ½ inch butcher knife on the bedside table in James’ room, and he moved it so nobody else would get hurt. He also reportedly washed one of his blood-soaked hands. The defense claimed that Melanie and Guy got into an argument, and that James stepped in-between the two of them and was then accidentally stabbed by Guy.