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.
Below, you will also find Bored Panda’s interview with Kevin Bennett, Ph.D., a full teaching professor of psychology at Penn State University, Beaver Campus, and the creator of the Kevin Bennett Is Snarling podcast, who was kind enough to share his thoughts on why so many people are interested in the rather spine-chilling true crime stories.
#21
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.
33points
#22
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.
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.
33points
#23
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.
32points
#24
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.
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.
32points
#25
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.
31points
#26
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.
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.
30points
#27
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.
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.
30points
#28
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.
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.
29points
#29
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.
28points
#30
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.
17points
The allure of unsolved mysteries often captivates audiences, urging them to delve deeper into the unknown. This fascination is reminiscent of the enigmatic items found in the handmade box discovered in a dumpster, which contained sketches and diary entries about flying saucers. The blend of mystery found in both situations captivates curiosity, much like the compelling accounts shared on Reddit about these strange finds.
For a deeper exploration of the perplexing nature of the 'Box of Crazy,' you can explore the intriguing combination of religious and extraterrestrial themes found within the box.
