 Ellen Greenberg was a first grade school teacher and loved her job and her life. She'd met the man of her dreams and the two were engaged to be married, but in January of 2011, all of that would change. A winter storm forced Ellen to leave work early, returning home to her apartment. At around 5 p.m. that evening, a terrible tragedy occurred. When Ellen's fiancé returned home from the gym, he found his soon-to-be wife on the floor in their kitchen, completely unresponsive. When responders and investigators arrived just seven minutes later, rescue personnel announced that there was nothing they could do. The crazy thing is, according to detectives, Ellen had been wounded more than 20 times and many of these injuries were on her back, very clearly suggesting that Ellen had been ambushed while her fiancé was away. But after a relatively brief investigation, police determined that Ellen had done this to herself. Ellen Greenberg was just 21 years old in 2011. She'd been living in Philadelphia for much of her adult life, but had originally come from Harrisburg. Ellen taught first grade students at the Juniata Academy, located in Philadelphia. Even though the school is labeled as an academy, which in my area means it's a pretty high-end decent place to be, well, the school seems average at best. With math and reading proficiency scores coming in at 20 and 39% respectively, well, it's not really the best school in the world. Overall, it ranks in the mid to low ratings compared to other schools in the area, but Ellen never let that deter her. If anything, this just meant that her students needed her more now than ever. Ellen seems to have been incredibly happy with her job at the school, and she seems to have loved all of her students dearly. At least that's how it appeared on the outside. In reality, underneath it all, Ellen, known by her family as Ellie, have been struggling pretty severely. We don't specifically know what led to all of this, but her parents had known that she'd been dealing with some pretty serious anxiety for quite a while. Considering Ellie lived in a less than desirable area, there's a chance that the crime and unpredictability of the city just placed her on edge. There's a chance that she'd been struggling with her students at school. There's just so much that's uncertain and so much that we don't know about her private life. But what we do know is that Ellie called her parents just a couple weeks before the crime unfolded and announced that she wanted to quit her job and, in her words, come home. Her parents were very sympathetic to Ellie's struggles. They openly welcomed her back into their home, but they requested that she get some professional help with her anxiety if she decided to do so. When they pressed her about what was bothering her, all that Ellie revealed was that the stress of planning a wedding was getting the best of her. Her wedding was set to take place in August, about seven months away. She also revealed that her job as a teacher had been super busy lately and it was really starting to stress her out. She'd been planning for her wedding for a number of weeks and she sent out her Save the Date cards just four days before tragedy struck. While all of these complaints are certainly understandable, none of them should have been enough of a reason for Ellie to have done what the police claim she did, which was take her own life. According to Ellie's father, when he spoke with her on the phone in January of 2011, he felt like something was a little bit off about Ellie. He claims that her personality had changed and she didn't sound like her typical happy-go-lucky self. He says that Ellie had been continually complaining about how the stress of her job was affecting her and she felt like she may have been falling behind. But when the teacher who eventually took Ellie's class over, looked through her books and general housekeeping, she said that everything looked perfect. It appeared as though Ellie was on top of everything and was doing remarkably well with her class. After learning this, many people began to wonder if Ellie had been sharing the whole truth with her parents. Was her job really the problem here or was there something else going on that she didn't want her family to know about? Eventually, Ellie gave in to her parents' wishes and agreed to go to a professional for help with her anxiety. This professional appears to have been chatting with Ellie extensively for several weeks, with the two meeting on at least three separate medications as far as I was able to confirm, but it's possible that they'd been meeting for a lot longer than this. Her doctor says that at no point during any of their discussions, did Ellie give any indication that she would want to claim her own life. She was a perfectly healthy young woman who was simply overwhelmed by various stressors that had appeared all at once in her life. In the end, the doctor offered Ellie a couple medications to help her sleep and help her take the edge off so that she could have a clear head to try to work through whatever it was that was bothering her. While seeking help should have been the start of a new beginning for Ellie, unfortunately, it just wasn't. In fact, it was quite the opposite. If anything, it merely marked the beginning of the end. It was January 26, 2011. A terrible winter storm had begun to blow into the area and the local schools quickly became concerned that the buses may not be able to finish their rounds before the roads were covered in snow and ice. As a result, school was called off early that day and all the children were sent home in the early afternoon hours. The teachers would follow soon after. After leaving the school, Ellie headed to a nearby gas station and filled up her car with gas before returning home to her apartment that she shared with her fiance, Sam Goldberg. Sam was a local television producer and he and Ellie had met about three years prior. By all outward appearances, the relationship between Ellie and Sam was going great. Shortly after Ellie had returned home from school that day, Sam announced that he was going to head to the nearby gym, which was still open despite the storm. He left their apartment at about 4.45 PM that day, saying goodbye to Ellie and not thinking anything else of it. He was at the gym for around 30 minutes before he returned home. When he got back, he tried to open the door to their apartment, but it was wedged shut. Sam quickly realized that someone had engaged the swing lock from inside of the apartment. He tried and tried to open the door, but he just couldn't. Clearly frustrated, he began to text Ellie, asking her to open the door. Ellie didn't respond. He texted her again and again, with this taking place over the course of around an hour. His texts grew increasingly frantic and he got so frustrated with Ellie's lack of response that he went and found one of the apartment building's security personnel and asked them to unlock the door. But they refused, claiming that it was unethical and against their building's policy. Sam, undeterred, returned to the apartment and broke through the latch that was keeping the door closed. As soon as the door flung open, Sam's anger turned to sheer terror. As he peered into the apartment, he saw Ellie slumped down on the kitchen floor. She was covered in pools of evidence as was the ground around her. Sam immediately called the police and explained what was going on. He was instructed to begin CPR, hoping to keep Ellie alive until rescuers could arrive, but that's when he noticed the knife. The emergency responder then instructed Sam not to conduct CPR and to wait until first responders could get there. Paramedics showed up within a couple of minutes, but it was quickly determined that Ellie was gone. She was pronounced deceased at 640 p.m., not even two hours after Sam had last spoken to her. The big question here is, who could have done this to Ellie? After all, the door was not only locked, but it was also lashed from the inside. So who could have been responsible? Well, if investigators are to be believed, Ellie. Once detectives entered the apartment, they immediately noticed there were no signs of forced entry aside from the broken latch that Sam had burst through in order to gain access to the apartment. As police canvassed the apartment, there was no sign of anything being disturbed outside of the kitchen. Very clearly, the crime had begun and ended within the boundary of the kitchen. In fact, it doesn't even seem as though Ellie had even walked around in the kitchen. Best I can tell, all of the evidence was collected in one small corner of the kitchen, where Ellie had collapsed in the corner of a set of cabinets. A fresh bowl of blueberries was found on the counter, as was a freshly peeled orange. It seemed as though Ellie may have either prepared herself a snack or was getting ready to have dinner, but she was ambushed from behind. But detectives refute this belief. When a medical examiner arrived, it was determined that Ellie had passed away from a total of 20 individual wounds. Each wound was infected with a single weapon, the knife that was still found in the kitchen. 10 of the wounds were found on the back of her head, her back and her neck. She also had a pretty serious cut on the top of her head sort of on her backside, but the fatal blow was to her chest. What's crazy is that no matter how much police investigated the scene of the crime, they couldn't find a single shred of evidence that suggested anyone else had been inside the apartment that day. There were no shoe prints, obviously no forced entry, no open windows, nothing. So how had someone broken in, taken Ellie's life, and then fled without leaving a shred of evidence behind? Well, investigators first looked at the weapon for any signs of evidence. They found no fingerprints nor any DNA outside of Ellie's. They also began to look at all the exterior walls of the home. They noticed that the home had a large balcony, but none of the snow that had fallen on the balcony had been disturbed. There was also no evidence that anyone had entered the home after being in the snow. No wet marks on the floor or anything else of the sort. There was nothing. This led police to one seriously dangerous but honestly understandable conclusion that Ellie had taken her own life. Police quickly contacted the apartment security team, hoping they captured CCTV footage of someone that day. The apartments did have cameras set up in the main lobby, but they didn't have any surveillance in the hallways of the building, likely for privacy reasons. After combing through the footage, police found no evidence of anyone who couldn't be accounted for. When speaking with neighbors, investigators recalled that none of the nearby residents heard anything unusual that day outside of Sam, repeatedly banging and shouting at the door trying to get inside. Sergeant Tim Cooney remembered the investigation and said that the entire crime unfolded in the exact spot where they found Ellie in the corner of the kitchen cabinets. He said the rest of the apartment was unremarkable. No further evidence was found outside of what was collected from the kitchen. When speaking about the case, Detective Cooney explained that the case was not ruled as a homicide for a number of reasons. The most obvious was the lack of any further evidence suggesting such, but he also recalled the state of Sam, the fact that he never left the scene of the incident for that entire night, as well as the fact that Sam was extremely cooperative throughout the investigation. I say this because naturally, police always suspect the spouse or partner, especially considering Sam was the only other person with the key to the apartment as far as we know, outside of security staff. But Sam's alibi checked out and there was zero reason to believe he was involved in the crime. I remember reading one report that claimed that there was evidence found on Ellie's laptop, claiming that she'd been looking up details regarding taking one's own life. But the best I can tell, this report was false. Every other report I've found claims that nothing was found on her laptop or in her search history, but it does clarify that police did check into her laptop just to be sure. Now, at this point, you might be thinking, okay, cool story, Ellie was more depressed than she let on and she eventually took her own life, case closed, right? Well, no, not exactly. And in fact, not at all because the results of Ellie's autopsy soon came in and what they revealed would cast the case in a completely different light. Just a day after Ellie lost her life, the local medical examiner began the autopsy. He began searching her body for wounds. When he would find one, he would label them with the letter, obviously beginning with the letter A. By the time he was finished, he made it all the way to letter T. He noted that Ellie had a total of eight wounds on her chest alone. Each of these injuries range from a couple centimeters to more than four inches. Now, I could certainly understand how someone may have done something like this to themselves in an attempt to claim their own life. I'll admit there are easier ways of going about this, but we don't know Ellie's mental state at the time. So this may have been a reasonable option for her. But what about the 10 wounds that were found on her back? How in the world would a petite person like Ellie have been able to get herself in the back with such tremendous force? Worse yet, how could she have done this and still been able to inflict the final tin blows on the front of her body? After all, one expert took a look at the results of this investigation and explained that the wounds on her back appear to have taken place first. But she would have been in such excruciating pain that she would have either been rendered unconscious or maybe even paralyzed. This is because the wounds on her neck completely severed much of her nervous system. To put it plainly, there's no logical way that Ellie did this to herself. The examiner also found 11 bruises on her body with them being in various stages of healing. This seems to suggest that Ellie may have been in some sort of a scuffle in the days leading up to her demise, though admittedly she was also an elementary school teacher. First graders are nuts, so many of these bruises may have just come from her day to day life as a teacher, we just don't know for sure. I've seen several people suggest that these bruises prove that Sam may have been abusive and this could have led to Ellie's sudden change in personality as well as her sudden onset of anxiety. But police found no evidence to support this theory and I didn't find any reason to believe this either. The bruises are certainly suspicious, that much is obvious, but that doesn't mean that Sam was involved in any way. At the end of it all, the medical examiner weighed the options and listed Ellie's case as a homicide. But that's not the end of it because no sooner than Ellie's case was handed off to the homicide unit, it was updated once again. This time the homicide unit rejected the idea of her case being listed as such and they once again claim that Ellie had done this to herself. They claim that they believe this to be true after Ellie had obviously been struggling with her mental health, as well as the fact that there was literally nothing found at the crime scene. When investigators eventually spoke with Ellie's closest friend Debbie, she revealed some information that didn't really help this ruling. Debbie explained that in the weeks leading up to Ellie's demise, she had become incredibly reserved and didn't wanna talk about much of anything. When Debbie pressed her about this, Ellie would shut down and refused to reveal what had been bothering her. Debbie says that if she asked her anything, there'd be a long pause followed by Ellie saying, I don't wanna talk about it. Debbie worked alongside Ellie at school and she says that while working, Ellie didn't seem any more stressed than any of the other teachers. She believes that whatever's going on, it wasn't work related. Ellie's father says that despite Ellie's obvious signs of anxiety, she never complained about anything or anyone in particular outside of her wedding plans. When investigators spoke with Ellie's psychiatrist, she revealed that Ellie never complained about anyone either. She specifically explained that Ellie never complained about her relationship with Sam, which in essence completely rules Sam out as having any involvement in this. Her psychiatrist even recalled that when speaking about Sam, Ellie would begin to smile. Ellie's family rather obviously does not buy into the belief that Ellie claimed her own life. They firmly believe that she had her life stolen from her. They've hired various detectives on their own and one of these detectives described a scene of the crime as a so-called Blitz attack, which is essentially an attack that's carried out incredibly quickly and would certainly explain the number of Ellie's wounds as well as the varying severity of them. But still, investigators were undeterred. In the end, Ellie's family took the case to court and demanded that it be reexamined as a homicide. This all took place as recently as September of 2023, just a few weeks ago at the time of making this video. But in a two to one vote, the case was rejected. Ellie's demise is still listed as having been carried out by herself. Now, I tend to be fairly quick to be critical of investigators during cases like this, but if we take a step back for a moment, we have to ask ourselves, what other choice do officers have? Rather, obviously, they should continue pursuing the case and looking for leads. But as the case stands, there's simply no evidence pointing to anyone else being in that apartment that day. The only two entrances were the front door and the balcony, which was on the sixth floor of the building, mind you. The front door was latched shut from the inside and the balcony was covered in countless inches of snow, all which had been undisturbed. Now, to be clear, I'm not defending the belief that Ellie did this to herself, not for one second, but in terms of a simple black and white investigation, what other option do investigators have? I hate this so much for Ellie and her family. Sam has since moved on and continued with his life, and he's now a married man and a father of two young children. But for Ellie's family, the pain never stops. They've announced that they plan to continue pushing for justice, and I'm so thankful that they have the strength to do so. In the end, something happened to Ellie that day, and I for one do not believe she was alone in that apartment. All we can do is hope that at some point, more information will become available. Investigators will finally be able to get this case solved properly. A detective's daughter isn't someone you would expect to become caught up in a true crime story. But in the case of Georgia Williams, that's exactly what happened. Now, Georgia wasn't this criminal's first victim, but investigators ensured she was certainly his last. Georgia was lured to the home of someone she felt completely comfortable around, someone she felt she could trust more than anyone else in the world. But this notion of trust was quickly shattered when Georgia realized she was in for a lot more than she bargained for. Georgia was subjected to what was likely hours upon hours of unspeakable terror, unlike anything you could imagine. What should have been a calm evening between friends turned into the stuff of nightmares. Georgia Williams was born on a cool day in mid-September back in 1995 in Shropshire, England. She had a sister who was a bit older than her and the two would grow up in the home of their parents, Lynette and Steve Williams, with Steve being a detective. Georgia is remembered for being a very lively girl that was always full of energy, someone who could make friends with darn near anyone, the type of person many of us aspire to be. Growing up in her younger years, though, Georgia didn't always have it easy. When she was in middle school, she began to be bullied quite a lot. Thankfully, this bullying didn't last very long and after enduring a few years of aggravation and pain, high school rolled around. And that's when things really began to take shape for Georgia. By the time she reached the age of 16 or 17, Georgia's luck had completely turned around. And not only was she now considered to be one of the popular girls, but she was eventually elected head girl of her class. Now, for anyone who may not be familiar with this term, myself included, that's basically the British equivalent of being class president, a single student who the others have elected to be the lead voice of the entire student body. Needless to say, Georgia had a pretty prosperous time in high school, and when her schooling finally began to wind down when she turned 17, she revealed that she planned on continuing her education so that she could become an Air Force paramedic, an incredibly noble position to aim for. In order to make these dreams a reality, though, she needed to fund her future education to do this, she opted to get a job at a local gas station. After beginning work at the gas station, Georgia made friends incredibly quickly. It didn't take long before she was on good terms with every member of staff, but there was one guy in particular who Georgia took an interest in. She noted that he was incredibly shy and didn't really hang out with the rest of the team, but she wanted to change that. Knowing all too well how it felt to be an outcast in her younger years, Georgia made sure to take time with this guy to make sure he felt welcomed and accepted. This man would be Jamie Reynolds, who was about 22 years old at the time. Georgia went out of her way to make sure Jamie was invited to all of the coworkers get-togethers and gatherings. While he wasn't the type of person to really be seen in a social or a public setting, well, things quickly changed. As soon as he began hanging out with Georgia, it was like his entire personality changed, while he'd previously been reserved, awkward and shy, his confidence had finally come to the surface. It was clear that there was a deep bond developing between the two, but it seems like they weren't really on the same page. As you probably have come to expect, before long, Jamie had fallen head over heels for Georgia, but there was one problem. She didn't really feel the same way about it. Jamie ended up asking Georgia out on a couple of dates, but she turned him down and explained that she wasn't really looking for a boyfriend at the moment. She was more focused on making her career dreams a reality, and she explained to him in the gentlest way that she could that she just wanted to be friends. Jamie was understandably upset about this, but he made it clear that he completely understood why Georgia had turned him down. He took the let down in stride and basically just let it go, or so it seemed. As anyone who's been rejected knows, being turned down isn't always easy. Now it's simple enough to let the situation pass and move on with your life, but just because it's simple doesn't mean it's easy. Jamie understood this all too well, because this was one of the hardest things he'd ever done. It would seem that Georgia was one of the only people who was ever really willing to give Jamie the time of day, and he was terrified of letting her slip away. So he concocted a plan to make sure that would never happen. By the time Jamie turned 23, he and Georgia had been friends for the better part of a year. Feeling like he could confide in her, he'd spoken with Georgia multiple times about how unsatisfied he was with his life. He couldn't fathom the thought that the best life would ever be for him was working a job at a gas station. He wanted more, and who could blame him? Georgia spoke with him about what his dreams were, what his hobbies may have been, and what he wanted to do with his life. Jamie explained that one of the biggest passions of his was photography. And that's when Georgia suggested that he tried taking up a job as a photographer, find some people to shoot photos for, maybe do weddings, things of that nature. Jamie loved this idea, so much so that he asked Georgia to help him establish a professional portfolio to show off his work. Not only this, but he asked Georgia to be his first model, and she jumped at the opportunity to help out her friend. The plan was for Georgia and a few others to head over to Jamie's house on May 26th, 2013. They'd planned a huge photo shoot for that day so that Jamie would be able to get heaps of photos of various people to ensure his portfolio was as diverse as possible. The only problem was Georgia would soon learn that her family had planned a big barbecue party that same day, and her grandparents would be coming to town for a short visit as well. Georgia did not want to miss this barbecue, but she also didn't want to let Jamie down. She knew that the two only lived about four or five minutes apart, so she decided to get dressed up and go do the photo shoot, then hurry home afterwards so that she could spend time with her grandparents. She did her hair, put on jeans and a leather jacket, and then took off. It would be around 7.30 that evening when Georgia headed off towards Jamie's house. Her family expected her to be back within a fairly short amount of time, maybe 30 minutes to an hour or so, but when three full hours had passed by, they started to get a bit concerned. They weren't worried or anything, but they couldn't understand what had been taking so long. Her mother ended up texting her to make sure everything was going okay, and Georgia explained that they'd finished the photo shoot quite a while ago and that she'd been hanging out with friends there and she simply lost track of time. Georgia explained that she would probably not be home until fairly late that night, letting them know not to wait up for her. With that, her parents turned in for the night, they had no idea that the person they'd been texting wasn't Georgia. By the following morning at 6.30 a.m., Georgia's mother quickly realized that Georgia still hadn't returned home. This is when things really began to become bizarre because her mother knew that Georgia had a music festival scheduled later that day and she wouldn't miss it for the world. She'd been planning on attending for weeks. Her parents assumed that she'd probably just be heading off to the festival from her friend's house, so again, they didn't put too much thought into it. After all, Georgia had never been the type of person to get into trouble, so they assumed she had it all figured out as she always did. By later that evening though, they started to get suspicious. See, Georgia didn't have her driver's license just yet and she was taking driving classes before actually taking her test to ensure that she knew the ins and outs of everything. Her classes were scheduled to take place early the next day, so her parents expected her to return home later that evening, but she never did. They waited up late that night, expecting her to come home at any moment, but they never heard a word from her. She also stopped responding to texts and calls. By late that evening, her parents had taken to calling friends, family, anyone who may have seen Georgia, but no one had. When Georgia still hadn't returned home the next morning and eventually missed her driving lesson, that's when her parents called the police to file a missing person report. When police showed up at the Williams home later that day to take their statements, they asked all the usual questions, including when they'd last seen their daughter and where she was supposed to have been. Her parents explained that the last they knew, she'd headed off to a photo shoot at her friend, Jamie's house. Admittedly, this wasn't much information to work with, but the obvious first step was to look into Jamie and see what he may know about her disappearance. But as officers began to look up information in their database about Jamie, they were shocked to say the least. As they brought up Jamie's profile in their system, they quickly learned that Jamie was caught by officers back in 2008 for attempting to claim the life of a teenage girl. The crazy thing is the police didn't actually arrest him, nor was he charged with a single crime. Now, I'm sure there's more to the story than what's been reported, but this definitely seems bizarre to me. In the end, Jamie was just given a warning and was allowed to walk away without any repercussions while this innocent girl was left with lifelong trauma. This seems utterly nuts to me, but again, I feel like there has to be more to the story than this. Surely the police weren't this negligent, but the truth is maybe they were. Thankfully, investigators weren't willing to take George's case so lightly. They knew now that Jamie had a history of violence, so they began the hunt for Georgia, firing on all cylinders. They showed up at Jamie's door and knocked, but received no response. Desperate for answers, they didn't waste any time. They kicked down his door and forced their way inside. They searched every inch of the home, but didn't find any signs of Jamie. They immediately sent out calls for help and Jamie was now considered to be a wanted man. Detectives first went to the gas station where Jamie and Georgia worked, but none of their coworkers had seen them in days and both of them had missed their shifts. This was not good news. They tracked down details of Jamie's van and sent out information to all available officers to be on the lookout for the vehicle. After searching the ends of the earth for any sign of him, officers eventually tracked him down more than 200 miles away in Scotland of all places. This man hadn't just skipped town, he fled the country entirely. This was all the info police needed to know that Jamie was up to something, but what was it? When police questioned him about Georgia, they quickly pulled the I don't know card and left it at that, insisting he had no knowledge of where Georgia went after the photo shoot that day. Investigators weren't having any of it. They detained him and transported him all the way back to Shropshire for a proper interrogation. But the news that he would reveal, well, it wasn't anything that Georgia's family wanted to hear. Police were now highly suspicious of Jamie. In fact, the text messages that Georgia's family had received on the night that she went missing, now these were getting called into question as well, as Jamie may have been the one to send them. Considering he had a history of assault and was found while fleeing the country, police now had enough evidence to search his home for clues about Georgia. They didn't know how he was involved in her disappearance, but they felt highly confident at the very least that he knew more than he was letting on about Georgia. As they searched his home, they managed to track down the camera that he'd been using on the day of the photo shoot. Lucky for them, the SD card was still inside the camera too. The only problem was the card had been completely wiped. Not a single photo remained. But investigators weren't going to let this stop them. Detectives brought the SD card to their digital forensics team. And without much issue, the team was able to recover all of the deleted photos. See, when you delete a photo off of something like an SD card or a hard drive, those photos aren't actually deleted. To put it in super simple terms, they basically just be moved to a hidden folder where they'll just sit there and wait until that space is needed for other files. Then they'll be gradually deleted one by one. You could think of it as throwing something in the trash, but not taking the trash out. Yes, the trash is out of your way, but until it gets taken to the dump, it's easy enough to just take things back out of the bin. That's basically how these photos were recovered. When forensic specialists managed to recover the photos, nothing could prepare them for what they had found. Turns out, Jamie did have a photo shoot that day, but he and Georgia were the only ones in attendance. Unbeknownst to Georgia, no one else had ever even been invited. The photo shoot began like any regular photo shoot. There were various photos of Georgia looking happy, smiling and posing. But all of a sudden, the tone of the images shifted. Soon, Georgia's clothes were missing. Things only got worse from here, as the next few photos showed Georgia with a rope hanging loosely around her neck with a very concerned, terrified expression on her face. The next few photos, well, they were worse. It was incredibly clear that Georgia was being held against her will. What was even more clear is that between two of the photos, things took a tragic turn and Georgia had now lost her life. Immediately after Georgia's life had been taken, Jamie continued to take hundreds of other photos, literally hundreds, of her in various poses at different angles, so on and so forth. I truly can't get into all of the details of what these photos showed, but it was unlike anything you could ever imagine. This was horrendous, and that's putting it so, so lightly. Police continued to search Jamie's home, and that's when they found, in addition to the photos of Georgia, a minimum of 16,800 photos that showed incredibly violent acts being carried out on various people. Detectives don't believe Jamie took all of these photos himself if he took any of them at all, but simply possessing them was a crime. There were also 72 graphic videos that were found as well, and again, each was more and more violent than the one before it. Considering Jamie was still living with his parents when all of this came to light, his parents were asked to speak with officers to give their side of the story, hoping they could shed some light on the situation and explain how all of this had taken place and how Jamie managed to get ahold of these photos and videos. What his parents told the police was downright shocking because what police had found in Jamie's room, it was nothing new. In fact, his parents had known about it for the better part of a decade. When all of this was taking place, the photo shoot, the crime and everything in between, Jamie's parents had been out of town on vacation, but as soon as they got the call from investigators about Jamie's arrest, they rushed back home as quickly as they could. When police confronted the couple about what they'd found in Jamie's room, their jaws hit the floor. See, they knew about Jamie's, well, fantasies to put it lightly, they knew that he'd been watching violent sexual videos for quite some time. When the police pressed them about this issue, Jamie's parents admitted they'd first caught Jamie watching videos like this when he was just 14 years old. After this discovery, his parents reached out to their internet provider and had them block access to these websites. But it's pretty much all that was ever said about the situation. To make matters worse, I feel the need to clarify that this is simply when his parents caught him watching these videos. That doesn't mean it was the first time he'd ever done it. Truth be told, he could have been watching stuff like this since he was in middle school, we just don't know. But here's where things get crazy. When Jamie found out that his parents had blocked access to these websites, he actually called the internet provider himself and paid for his own private internet connection. His parents were none the wiser. Each month, he would pay the bill with his own money and his parents never had a clue. When his parents did eventually find out about his private internet access, they decided to call the police as well as child protective services. From what I've gathered, neither of these parties did anything to actually fix the situation. I found one report that claimed that possessing these videos isn't even illegal in England, but I personally find that hard to believe. If these videos were as violent as some sources suggest they are, then they may have been documenting actual crimes, which in fact is a crime in and of itself, at least here in the States. I feel it's safe to assume that this would be a crime in England as well, but I may be wrong. But regardless, no one did anything about it. Jamie wasn't willing to obey his parents and despite their constant complaining, he made it very clear that he was gonna do what he wanted to do and there was nothing they could do to stop it. Jamie continued to grow up surrounded by this incredibly damaging content. In me is to say it had a profound effect on him in his later years, as is evidenced by this very case. When police continued searching Jamie's home after his arrest, they managed to track down at least 40 separate notepads on which Jamie had written stories and fantasies about what he wanted to do to Georgia as well as various other women. Now, these weren't your typical fan fiction type stuff that you'd find on the internet. No, these were highly detailed, incredibly graphic stories about what he planned to do to a woman if he was ever given the opportunity. Each of these stories ended the same way with the females losing their lives. As police combed through each and every one of these stories, they found one that caught their eye. It was titled Georgia Williams in Surprise. The story documented an explicit detail exactly what happened to Georgia that day. It was like a play-by-play of the crime. According to one article, police say that he began writing the story in January and finished writing it just a few weeks before the crime actually unfolded. When police confronted Jamie about this story, he didn't budge. He continued to claim that he was innocent and was 100% uncooperative with the investigation. This meant police had to resort to good old-fashioned detective work to figure out what exactly had happened to Georgia and where she was now. Their investigation first began at a gas station nearby. It's unclear if this is the same station where the two had worked or if this was a different station entirely. Jamie was caught on CCTV here, filling up his van with gas. It's believed that at this very moment, Georgia had already been stowed away in the back of the vehicle. Immediately after getting gas, he drove to a nearby movie theater and watched a movie. All while Georgia was still in the back of the van, just leaving her there for hours while he laughed it up inside the theater. Police weren't sure where he went after this, but a few witnesses later reached out and explained that they'd seen that exact van driving through a mountain road in North Wales. As it would turn out, while driving through the area, Jamie's van got stuck in the mud and a few people actually helped him get his van unstuck and back onto the road. All the while, Georgia was likely still in the back. This is what led police to head to the woods where the van was stuck and check out the surrounding area. Sure enough, in the thick brush of the woods, they found Georgia's body tossed amongst the trees like some animal. It should go without saying that at his trial a short while later, Jamie was found guilty. Interestingly, he'd been proclaiming his innocence all the way up until the very day of the trial. Then, as he stood before the court, he finally changed his tone and pleaded guilty. He was the youngest person in English history to be given a life sentence with no possibility of parole. In the wake of the trial, it came to light, not only did the police fail the public back in 2008 when Jamie tried to take the life of that teenage girl, but various other institutions also failed to properly get this man off the streets. A mental health nurse made a public statement in which she said that she knew about Jamie's violent behavior years before the trial. She recalled a series of photos that Jamie had drawn, presumably when he was a child, each of which depicted a woman with a rope hanging around her neck. According to this nurse, nothing was done about this and the situation just faded away. Now, she didn't say this part outright, but her verbiage led me to believe that she may have attempted to speak with investigators about this, but it didn't really go anywhere if so. By this point, Jamie's parents were also well aware of his violent tendencies, having caught him watching the aforementioned videos on multiple occasions. His parents did everything they knew how to do, but outside of kicking Jamie outside of their house, what can you do if your child just outright refuses to cooperate? Now, I suppose he could have been involuntarily admitted somewhere, and surely if his parents knew just how bad this behavior was, they would have explored that. But the truth is, this case can't just be blamed on one person. Jamie isn't the only one responsible. If he'd gotten the help he needed when he was younger, it's likely that none of this would have ever happened. And I'm not blaming his parents for this by any means. From the reports I've read, they legitimately did their best. The mental health nurse that he saw also seems to have done her best to bring awareness to this situation and the poor teenager who he attacked also seems to have done her part. But the investigative teams at each of these institutions just failed. There's another way to explain it. Let this be a lesson to parents everywhere. Take note of what your children are doing on the internet, what content they watch, what games they play, who they're speaking to. Cases like this don't have to happen. Stories like this don't have to be told. If something seems a bit weird, chances are it's because it's weird. If your kid is watching something you don't understand, take the time to understand it and make an educated judgment call. If you catch your child repeatedly watching content like this, it's your job to go as far as you need to to keep them safe. Cancel your internet entirely if you have to. Take their phone, their computer, tablet, whatever it is, throw that junk in the trash if that's what it takes. I don't care what it costs. We're all responsible for the children in our lives, even if they're not our own. It's our job to keep these children safe and keep tabs on them until they're old enough to make good decisions on their own. If something strange is going on with your kid, it is never too early to reach out to a professional for help. There's no shame in it either. It doesn't make you a failed parent or a guardian if you've learned that your kid needs more help than you can provide. What makes you a failed parent or guardian is if you're unwilling to reach out and admit when both you and your kid need help. Ultimately, in Jamie's situation, his parents didn't know just how disturbed he really was. And his parents reached out to the police and mental health experts. But sadly, that still wasn't enough because their cries fell on deaf ears. I don't know who to think is responsible for this, but I do feel with every ounce of my being that this could have been avoided. It didn't have to end this way. It was August 25th, 2016, and Shanna Grice was home alone. What's crazy about this case is that Shanna had already complained to the police five times about fears that she was being stalked. In fact, during one of these reports, she was reprimanded by the police and handed a fine of $90 for wasting police time. If only officers knew just how wrong they would be about Shanna. They'd be forced to learn the hard way that Shanna's fears were justified and her life was in serious danger. Shanna Grice grew up near Brighton in Sussex and she had a pretty ordinary childhood. Shanna was an only child, but she had plenty of friends at school to make up for a time that was spent alone at home. We don't know too terribly much about Shanna's upbringing or her time in school. Her family haven't really shared much personal information about her since that awful crime took place. What we do know is that she was described as incredibly lively and vivacious, so it's clear to see that she was a young girl who had a passion for life. As far as we know, Shanna's early years played out without too much of a fuss, but the time Shanna had entered secondary school as we call it here in the States, she'd already taken her life into her own hands and started crafting a future for herself. It was while she was attending high school that she ran into a boy named Ashley Cook. The two met sometime around 2013 when Ashley was 17 and Shanna was 16. From the outset, the two were inseparable. What began as a passive interest in one another grew to something far, far greater within a matter of a few months. Before they knew it, the two started dating and not long after that, things began to get quite serious between them. After graduating from high school and moving on with their lives, the two remained together and were deeply dedicated to one another, or so it seemed. See, Ashley was dedicated to the relationship more than anything, but Shanna, well, she was beginning to have a change of heart. After school, Shanna had found a job at a local fire alarm company and when starting a new job, you're bound to meet all sorts of new people. And one of these people was Michael Lane. Up until this point, the relationship between Shanna and Ashley, I've been nothing but perfect, but after meeting Michael, Shanna began to have second thoughts. See, as far as I can tell, neither Shanna nor Ashley had ever been in another serious relationship before this point. And I mean, how could they have been? They were literal children when they first started dating. And while this is nothing to really be concerned about, the two obviously didn't have much life experience behind them. So when Shanna met Michael Lane, well, she began to wonder if Ashley really was the one like she had thought. Michael and Shanna were always able to laugh with one another, no matter what they did, whether at work or otherwise, they had fun. The same was true between Shanna and Ashley, but with Michael, things were different. He had an energy about it that was captivating and infectious. To top this off, he made Shanna feel like she was the only thing in the world that really mattered. Before long, Shanna realized that she'd started to develop feelings for him. Now, we don't know how the situation played out specifically, but one thing led to another and Shanna started to feel like she and Ashley may not have been the perfect couple that she thought they were. She proposed the idea of the tube taking a break, testing the waters and making sure they'd explored all of their options before dedicating themselves to one another at such a young age. It seems that Ashley likely disagreed with this idea, but what was there that he could have done to stop it? After all was said and done, the two agreed to take a break and they went their separate ways. Immediately after setting their feelings aside for a while, Shanna began dating Michael Lane. But there was one big problem here. See, Michael was definitely the sweetheart that he portrayed himself to be, at least in the early days. But as time passed by, Shanna began to realize that there was much more to Michael than meets the eye. Rather quickly, Shanna began to feel trapped, smothered. It took her less than three months to realize Michael was not the person she thought he was. She knew she'd made a big mistake. Before we keep going with the video, I wanted to show you guys a great new mobile game called June's Journey. If you're into true crime and mysteries as much as I am, this game will be perfect for you. June's Journey is a hidden object game, but with a pretty captivating story involving a murder mystery. It takes place back in the 1920s, and each new scene and level takes you through a different chapter of the story, setting up June Parker, the main character, to solve the mysterious murder of her sister. This game is completely free to download, and the basic idea of the game is hunting for clues and hidden objects that may help bring June one step closer to solving the case. You can customize and remodel your mansion as well as your garden island along the way. Now, I grew up playing Seek & Find games like this, so this game is right up my alley, and I feel like you guys will enjoy it as well. It's super relaxing to play and easy to pick up when you have a few free minutes here or there throughout the day. You can click the link below in the description to download the game on iOS and Android devices, but it's also available on PC through Facebook Games. So if you're ready to dive headfirst into a captivating murder mystery and help June solve the mysterious case surrounding her sister, just click the link below to download June's Journey. When Shana first met Michael, Michael had been working as a mechanic at Brighton Fire alarms, while she had a position somewhere else in the company. Needless to say, there was a serious attraction between the two, but this is likely because Shana had no idea about Michael's colorful past. See, by the time Michael and Shana had met, Michael had already been arrested just a few years prior. The specific number has never been revealed, but we know that several women had filed complaints against Michael. Now, I don't know about your specific definition of the word several, but to me, that means it must have been at least three or more women. These women had filed complaints against Michael that covered a span of around 10 years. Mind you, he was only in his late 20s when he met Shana. So this guy had been in constant trouble for his entire adult life. One of these women who filed charges against him described him as being, quote, very controlling in their relationship. A few of these women accused him of obsessive and stalker-like behavior. At least one woman claimed that he sent her erotic photos against her will, and this report seems to suggest that he might have done this on several occasions involving multiple women. Several of these women claimed that he would show up to their homes unannounced, harassing them by luring outside of their doors or windows. One of these women even claimed Michael had become physically aggressive with her at one point. Since Shana was blissfully unaware of Michael's history, it's clear to see that she had no idea what sort of red flags she should be looking out for. The two continued dating for a period of around three months, but all of a sudden Shana had a change of heart that seems to have come from nowhere. Ashley, Shana's former boyfriend, has never revealed why Shana decided to do this, but he says that he got a call from her out of the blue one day, and she admitted that she made an awful mistake by breaking up with him. She made it clear that the time that she'd spent with Michael only helped to prove how deep her love for Ashley had really gone. She begged for Ashley to take her back, and considering he'd spent most of his time hoping and praying for a call like this to come through, he had no issues with reigniting the relationship. But that doesn't mean there wasn't trouble in paradise, because you've got to remember Michael had fallen head over heels for Shana by this point. Michael knew that he'd been somewhat of a third wheel from the very beginning. It was clear to see that the bond between Shana and Ashley went much deeper than anything you could have ever hoped to have with Shana. After all, the two had essentially grown up together. That's not a bond that can be easily replaced. Needless to say, Michael was angry. Not only angry, but enraged and downright ticked off. Immediately following their breakup, Michael confided in a friend about how he had been feeling, ending their conversation by saying quote, she'll pay for what she's done. If you're watching this video, chances are you're familiar with the man by the name of Ted Bundy. The interesting thing about Ted Bundy is that he was able to lure women in by making them feel safe, valued, heard and respected. He had a charisma about him that was unrivaled. While we all know the monster that he turned out to be, the women he attacked could never be blamed for falling into his trap. He was a master manipulator, but he put on a front like no one else. He gave the impression of being someone you could let your guard down when you were near, someone you could trust. See, Michael Lane was the same way. He was a man that you and I both clearly know was a bully, and that's putting it incredibly lightly. But for the women that he had an interest in, he was able to put on a front that was downright irresistible. In the days after Shanna and Michael had broken up, he became incredibly depressed. Not only this, but he began to obsess over the months that he'd shared with Shanna, and he vowed to do whatever it may take to get her back. He initially took to harassing Ashley, first by leaving a note on his car taunting him, saying Shanna will always cheat on you. Thankfully, Ashley knew that this simply wasn't true and didn't really let it get to him. Shanna, on the other hand, wasn't as willing to let it go. She contacted the police and reported Michael's actions, but they didn't really do much to help. They showed up and gave Michael a verbal warning, but that was pretty much the end of it. But soon after this happened, Michael installed a tracking device on Shanna's car. This device would alert his phone anytime Shanna's car moved, giving Michael time to jump into action and follow her wherever she went. One day, he followed her home. He approached her as she was just outside the front door and grabbed her phone. He then chased her around while Shanna did everything she could to escape his grasp. But that's when he lunged toward her, grabbed her hair, pulling her closer to him. Once Shanna was able to break free, she called the police and it seemed like they were willing to take the case more seriously at this point. When officers showed up, they immediately arrested Michael for assault, but rather strangely, no sooner than he was taken to the station, he was released. When officers were questioned about this, they explained that they let him go because as far as they could tell, no crime was committed. They believed that this was nothing more than an argument between a young couple. So they wrote the whole situation off rather quickly. The reason they believed this to be the case was because as they searched through Michael's phone records and his text messages, they noticed that some of the texts that were sent by Shanna had been signed with five kiss emojis. Investigators exact words were, quote, Shanna would be signing texts to Michael with five kisses. This is not harassment. Now, I'll admit it is certainly a bit bizarre that if Shanna felt so threatened by Michael that she would be signing her texts with kisses, especially after just getting back together with Ashley. I don't really understand what's going on here, but to top this off, Shanna was hit with a $90 fine for supposedly wasting police time. The thing is, just prior to Michael being picked up by the police, Shanna had reported him for stalking and leaving unwanted flowers on her car. So if the two were already at odds with one another, weeks prior to this, it just makes the kiss emojis all the more bizarre. A couple months after this, the situation escalated dramatically when Michael stole a key from Shanna and let himself into her home without her knowledge. He snuck in in the middle of the night while he thought she was sleeping, just standing beside her bed and watching her. After a while, he turned and left. As of a turnout, Shanna wasn't asleep. She'd heard someone enter her home, so rather than running or trying to hide, she thought it was best to just fake being asleep, hoping that whoever had broken in would just take whatever they wanted and leave her alone. She only realized that the criminal had in fact been Michael, when she saw him walk past her window as he was leaving. Needless to say, Shanna reported this incident to the police as well. Michael was once again arrested, but was once again let go, simply being told by the police to stay away from Shanna. The very next day, Shanna would receive seven phone calls from a blocked number, believed to have been Michael, in which he would do nothing but heavily breathe into the phone. When Shanna tried to report this, police basically shut down and said that they would not be looking into the situation any further. Two days later, when Michael was seen stalking Shanna, she reported him once again with the responding officer claiming that this was nothing more than a low-risk case, adding that he'd make the case leader aware of it, but we all know that this means he basically wrote the whole situation off and never spoke of it again. Finally, on August 4th, 2016, Shanna spotted Michael hanging outside of her home. She confided in a friend that she was terrified the police wouldn't believe her, obviously based on her previous five experiences. Her friend actually witnessed this particular situation, so we know without a shadow of a doubt, Shanna was telling the full truth. Ashley backed up Shanna's claims as well. Regardless, this time, Shanna didn't call the police. And unfortunately, this would prove to be a fatal mistake. It was August 25th, 2016. Shanna was at home with her roommate, but at some point in the evening, the roommate stepped out for a while. As it would turn out, this ended up being an evening in which Michael was loitering outside of Shanna's home, keeping tabs on her and watching for when she'd be left alone. No sooner than he saw Shanna's roommate leave, Michael jumped into action and let himself inside of her home, presumably using the same key he'd stolen a few months prior when he watched her sleep. The only problem was this time, Michael had much more nefarious intentions. As he burst into Shanna's home, he made a quick work of the situation. He headed straight towards Shanna's room and used a knife to end her life. No one could have ever seen this coming. This was a rapid escalation unlike anything that could have been predicted. But that wasn't all. Before he left, he deactivated the fire alarm in the home, then set Shanna's bedroom on fire while she was still inside. He then locked the door and just walked away. Ashley had last seen Shanna a few hours before. He'd kissed her goodbye and left for work as he always did, not knowing that this would take place just hours later. He said he didn't realize anything was wrong until he got a message from one of Shanna's coworkers later on, claiming Shanna'd never shoot up for work. He wasn't able to stop by her apartment on his own, so Ashley called his younger sister and asked her to stop by and check on Shanna. No sooner than she arrived, she called him back, sobbing and panicking because she noticed a red stained footprint near the door and no one was answering the door to let her inside. At this point, Ashley began panicking as well. He called his father immediately and asked him to stop by and see what was going on. He arrived a few minutes later and made his way into the apartment. The moment he stepped inside, it was clear what had taken place. He found Shanna in her bedroom in a state which he's never put into words. Investigators would later reveal that Shanna had in fact lost her life in her bedroom that day. We don't know if Michael took her life himself or if the flames and smoke did it after he left, but needless to say, the situation was incredibly grim. Ashley remembers that day and says that he hates that his father will have that memory stuck in his head for the rest of his life. But Ashley's father says that he's simply thankful that it wasn't Ashley who had to find her that way. Needless to say, there was one primary suspect in this case, Michael. Police closed in on him immediately and when questioned, Michael obviously denied any involvement. He admitted to being over at Shanna's home that evening but insisted he hadn't been involved in the crime. Even though investigators have been pretty well useless up until now, they made a quick work of the investigation and immediately charged Michael for claiming Shanna's life. But there's one big issue here for many people. Why had it taken such a tragedy for police to actually do something about Michael? The thing is, Shanna had obviously reported Michael to the police on five separate occasions. If they'd even spent as much as two minutes searching his record, they could have easily seen that he was a terrible, awful person with a colorful history that perfectly documented what he was capable of. Yet they did nothing to protect Shanna. How is it that after all this time in all these reports, no one ever even bothered to once open up his criminal record? After Shanna lost her life, a police watchdog group intervened and investigated the way the Sussex police handled the case. A total of 13 officers were investigated and three were held accountable and faced disciplinary actions. One officer defended himself claiming that Shanna admitted to having an affair with Michael while she was in a relationship with Ashley. But how is this a defense? What does that even prove? Affair or not, the girl was clearly being stopped. She reported Michael's violence towards her as clearly as she possibly could and Michael had an obvious history of violence towards other women as well. I was able to confirm that the three aforementioned officers did in fact get punished, but I haven't found any reports that claim any of them faced any jail time or really any sort of repercussions for their actions outside of a gentle slap on the wrist. In the words of Shanna's family, the whole situation was a joke and the hearing was a sham. In the end, I'm grateful that Michael was finally caught and put behind bars. He'll be facing a sentence of 25 years for what he's done. But in no world should it have taken such disastrous consequences for police to have acted on this man. This whole case is just sickening and the loss of Shanna's life was, well, pointless. Police had more than enough information to arrest this man and actually charge him with something, but they chose not to. Shanna begged and begged for help five times or more, but police turned a blind eye to this heinous serial criminal. I just hope that at the very least, these three officers lost a great deal of sleep over the next few weeks, months and hopefully years because the loss of Shanna's life rests solely on their shoulders. It was 1992 and Shanna's share was just 12 years old. She recently moved to a new school and was having trouble with one particular girl who just wouldn't leave her alone. The girl would send Shanna countless threatening letters with each letter growing more and more violent than the last. This all culminated in one seriously disturbing crime that investigators simply couldn't understand. Shanna would eventually go missing, but two of her so-called friends would soon make a shocking confession that no one could have seen coming. Detectives were left speechless, questioning how a few teenage girls could have such twisted minds and carry out a crime of such vile and repulsive proportions. This is one story you won't wanna miss. Shanda Sherer was born in Pineville, Kentucky back in June of 1979. Her parents, Stephen and Jacqueline, were deeply in love at the time of her birth, but unfortunately, their marriage simply didn't stand the test of time. I can't tell exactly when this took place, but the two divorced while Shanna was still quite young. After the two were divorced, it didn't take too long for Jacqueline to get remarried, moving to Louisville to live with her new husband. Here, Shanna would begin attending her fifth and sixth grade school years at St. Paul. Shanna got on very well at St. Paul and was able to find many friends here very quickly becoming a member of the in-crowd. Shanna would go on to play volleyball and softball and was even accepted onto the school's cheerleading team. It was very clear to everyone that Shanna was destined for greatness, but her success wouldn't last very long. The details of the situation have never been made public, but for some reason, Shanna's mother once again got divorced and once again decided to pull Shanna from school and transfer her to yet another middle school. This time, Shanna and her mother moved to New Albany, Indiana, reportedly so Shanna could be closer to her biological father, though I wasn't able to confirm whether or not this was entirely true, as all the records I could find simply said that Shanna's father lived in the neighboring state of Kentucky. They never got more specific than that. In 1991, after settling down in New Albany, Shanna was enrolled at Hazelwood Middle School. I'm sure as is true with most kids, Shanna was terrified about having to start a new school and make new friends, and for this to have happened to her twice over the span of just a few years, I'm sure it only made things that much more difficult for her. But it certainly didn't help things when Shanna almost immediately began getting into fights at her new school. See, the kids in Shanna's past always welcomed her with open arms and she was always considered to be one of the popular girls. But at Hazelwood, things were much different. Just a few days after starting school, a girl named Amanda Hevrin came into the picture and appears to have been dead set on making Shanna's life miserable. Now, we don't know who started the bullying, but before long, they were both deeply involved in it. The two girls got into a fistfight with one another on at least one occasion, and Shanna's mom seems to have suggested that Amanda was the one to throw the first punch. Though, admittedly, this is all rather irrelevant because they both ended up in detention regardless. But things got a bit weird from here. Once the two were forced to sit beside one another in detention, they actually got to know each other and found out they had a lot in common. While Shanna's mom certainly had some reservations about Amanda considering they just bended each other's throats just days before, Jacqueline was just happy that Shanna was beginning to make new friends. But things got a lot more serious for the girls from here. As it would turn out, Amanda didn't simply want to be friends. She wanted to be much more than that. The two girls would often pass notes to one another in class and in detention and Amanda began to ask questions about Shanna, specifically asking if she liked girls. Amanda would compliment her clothes and always made sure to tell Shanna how pretty she was. Now, we've all heard the stories of how kids bully each other, not specifically to be mean, but because they secretly like each other but don't know what to do with these complex emotions. Well, this seems to have been the case here as well because before long, Shanna and Amanda began a romantic relationship with one another and even went to the school's fall dance together, something that was really daring for a couple young kids in a strongly conservative state in 1992. But this dance wouldn't lead to the happy memories that the two had hoped for. While the dance itself went along perfectly, issues began to arise when Shanna was introduced to a 16-year-old girl named Melinda Loveless. The only problem was Melinda wasn't looking to become friends. That's because in her eyes, Shanna had stolen her girlfriend. See, Melinda had been dating Amanda for about a year and to a teenager, a year may as well have been a lifetime. The two broke up a short while before Amanda met Shanna, but Melinda hadn't healed from the breakup just yet. At the dance, Amanda repeatedly threatened Shanna and days later, she began writing hateful letters to Amanda expressing how much she hated the fact that Amanda and Shanna were spending so much time together. This is where things began to get a bit complicated. Now, I mentioned that Amanda and Melinda had broken up, but this isn't entirely accurate. While Amanda was certainly under the belief that the two had broken up, Melinda hadn't really accepted the breakup. She felt that the two were just having problems and that they would eventually work things out. But it seems as though Amanda had checked out of the situation entirely. So while Amanda thought that she was in the clear to start dating other people, Melinda was stuck in the mindset that Amanda was cheating on her. This was all made worse by the fact that while all of this was taking place, Melinda's father had just left the family high and dry and her mother was quickly moving on to someone else. Needless to say, Melinda was already feeling completely betrayed by her family. And the last thing she needed was to be betrayed by her girlfriend as well. These compounded emotions were too much for Melinda to handle. And before long, she wanted revenge. It was late 1991 at this point in the story. Melinda was at an all-time low, but somehow she felt like she couldn't stop herself from sinking even lower. It's been reported by Midwest Crime Files that Melinda and all of her older sisters decided to come out to their mother around this time. Apparently, while Melinda had come out at school a long time ago, her mother was blissfully unaware. But no sooner than Melinda came out, all of her siblings joined in to back her up and express their relationship preferences as well. Melinda's mother was shocked by this to say the least. In fact, some reports claim she was downright furious, but as time passed by, she had come to accept her children's decisions. By November of that year, Shanda's mother began to have the same realization as Melinda's mother. But unfortunately for her, Shanda didn't trust her mother enough to directly come out and tell her how she'd been feeling about other girls. Instead, Shanda and Amanda kept their relationship a secret, pretending to simply be friends around Shanda's family. But one day, Shanda's mother came across a series of handwritten notes that were shared between Shanda and Amanda and what she learned shocked her to her core. While we don't know the specific contents of these notes, Shanda's mother says that they were very clearly revealing that the two were far more than friends and certain details suggest that the two had been involved in a physical relationship with one another. Shanda's mother immediately forbade her from hanging out with Amanda anymore. But as is true with most teens, this didn't stop Shanda from doing what she wanted to do. All it caused her to do was be more secretive about it. According to Shanda's mother, her issue wasn't with Shanda being interested in other girls, her issue was with the age gap between the two. Amanda was 14 at the time and Shanda was just 12. Well, two years isn't really a big difference in the grander scheme of things. You got to remember to younger kids, even an age difference of six months can make a world of difference in terms of your maturity, your mental ability, and your decision-making skills. In her mother's own words, Shanda was still a baby and she felt that she was being pressured into doing things she wasn't comfortable with. Now, she may have been right about this or she may have been completely wrong, we just don't know. But that was all beside the point because things were about to get much darker. Rumors had begun to spread that Melinda was truly livid with Amanda for seemingly stepping outside the relationship. But it doesn't appear as though she was specifically mad at Amanda. Instead, she was mad at Shanda. These rumors suggested that Melinda wasn't going to sit back and watch this all unfold. She was gonna do something about it. By the fall of 1991, Melinda had begun to publicly discuss her plans of ending Shanda's life. Melinda began to deliver more and more threatening letters to both Amanda and Shanda. And Amanda grew so concerned that she began turning the letters into a local youth prosecutor. But the problem was the prosecutor didn't take the threat seriously. In fact, in Amanda's opinion, the prosecutor never followed up on the letters at all. Now, we obviously don't know if this is 100% accurate, but as far as the evidence suggests, there's nothing that would suggest any sort of investigation took place during this time. And things were about to get very serious very quickly. It was January 10th, 1992, a night that Melinda had been anticipating for a very long time. Melinda had spoken with three of her friends, Laurie Tackett, Hope Rippy, and Tony Lawrence, and asked him to come over to her house that afternoon. Once the three arrived, Melinda revealed that she'd concocted a plan to get Shanda away from Amanda once and for all. She then showed the girls a knife. Melinda explained that she was going to use the knife to scare Shanda into breaking up with Amanda. She told her friends that she believed Shanda was nothing more than a copycat that stole her girlfriend. The girls had learned that Shanda had been staying with her father on the weekends, with Shanda's father living in Jeffersonville at this point. It appears that Laurie must have either owned or borrowed a car, and the girls all headed towards Shanda's father's house. Once they arrived, they came up with a plan. Two of the girls knocked on the front door of the home and claimed to be friends of Amanda, saying that they were on their way to meet Amanda, but that Amanda had requested that they all stop by to pick up Shanda along the way. They urged Shanda to get into the car so that they could meet at an old abandoned house nearby, known locally as the Witch's Castle. Shanda wanted to go with the girls, but she knew her parents wouldn't allow her to. It was still fairly early at this point, but Shanda assured them she'd be able to sneak out if they came back around midnight. Melinda was incredibly angry about this, but they left anyway and attended a local concert while they waited. The girls began to drive back towards Shanda's house around 12.30 a.m. And remember at this point, all the girls believed that Melinda simply wanted to scare Shanda into breaking up with Amanda, but things began to get more and more twisted as the ride progressed. And before long, Melinda spoke out and said, she couldn't wait to kill Shanda. Naturally, this change in plans shocked the girls, but if I had to take a guess, I'd say the girls probably didn't think Melinda was actually serious, but they had no idea how wrong they would be. When the girls finally arrived at the house, Tawney refused to coerce Shanda into the car. Seemingly having a change of heart after learning about the links, Melinda was willing to go to, but that's just a guess. Either way, two of the other girls went to speak with Shanda while Melinda ducked down into the back seat and hid under a blanket, claiming to a knife that she had brought with her. Shanda was a bit reluctant to go with the girls. I don't know if she sensed something was wrong or if she just believed that she would get into trouble, but regardless, the girls talked her into leaving. And just minutes later, Shanda got into the car with them. As the group drove down the road toward the Witch's Castle, Melinda leapt out from underneath the blanket and placed the knife on Shanda's neck. She began interrogating her about the details of her relationship with Amanda, and Melinda only got more and more angry as time passed by. Soon enough, they arrived at the Witch's Castle and Shanda was forced from the car, tied up and taken into the building. Once inside, Melinda and her friends stole Shanda's jewelry, including her favorite Mickey Mouse watch. Melinda spoke about how pretty Shanda's hair was, then asked how she would look if she were to cut it all off while running the knife through her hair. One of the girls then pulled a shirt out of the car and brought it into the so-called castle, lighting it on fire just a moment later. Why the girl did this, I have no idea, but the smoke coming from the shirt was so overwhelming that the girls feared someone passing by might notice. So they gathered up Shanda, stowed her away in the car, and drove further down the road, eventually towards Madison, near where Laurie lived. Laurie directed the girls to an abandoned logging road that was surrounded by forest and trees. The girls drove deep into the road and when they reached an agreeable location, they pulled Shanda from the car. Shanda was then forced to remove all of her clothes and immediately after, Melinda began to attack her, punching her, kicking her, and repeatedly kneeing her in the face. Two of the girls stayed inside the car because they were terrified by what was about to take place, but before long, Melinda coerced the girls to help hold Shanda down while she finished the job. She then pulled out the knife that she had brought along with her and attacked Shanda again, then used a rope that she'd found to ensure that the deed was done. Once this night of terror was seemingly over, the girls then loaded Shanda back into the trunk of the car and drove to Laurie's house to clean up and get a few drinks to cool off. While they were inside the house, they began to hear Shanda screaming from the trunk of the car. Laurie immediately sprang into action, grabbing a paring knife and quickly making her way back to the trunk of the car. She then came back inside, cleaned up again, and then Laurie and Melinda got back into the car and began to cruise the local country streets. It was about 2.30 a.m. at this point. Before long, they heard Shanda calling out from the trunk once again. This time they pulled over and grabbed a tire ire, with Laurie believing she had finally finished the job at this point. It's also been reported that around this time, their attacks took on the more sexual nature, but this isn't something I'm really comfortable discussing, so if these details interest you for whatever reason, I'll let you look up that aspect of the story on your own. When Melinda and Laurie returned home early the next morning, the two girls were still at Laurie's house waiting for them to return. When they asked what had happened to Shanda, Laurie began to laugh and describe the crime in extreme detail, adding that Shanda was still in the trunk of the car. Later that morning, the girls drove to a local gas station and filled their car up with gas. One of the girls went inside and grabbed a two liter Pepsi, pouring out the Pepsi and filling the empty bottle with gasoline. The girls then drove to Lemon Road, north of Madison and pulled Shanda back out of the car. They placed her just off the side of a gravel road, poured the gasoline on her and started a fire. A corner would later reveal that, despite what the girls believed, Shanda was still alive at this point. All of the girls returned home after stopping at a local McDonald's and having breakfast along the way. Melinda met up with Amanda later on that day and probably confessed what she had done to Shanda. Amanda obviously didn't believe her at first, but that's when Melinda took her to the trunk of the car where Shanda's hand prints could be seen all over the trunk with her socks still being found inside as well. Amanda was speechless, truly speechless. Melinda then turned to her, swore her love for her and begged Amanda not to tell anyone. Terrified, Amanda agreed. Later on in the morning on January 11th, the morning after the crime took place, two brothers were heading out to the Jefferson Proving Ground to go hunting. Along the way, they noticed something on the side of the road that looked an awful lot like a crime scene, but they believed it to be a mannequin that someone had ditched until they got closer. They ran to the nearest phone to call the police as soon as they realized what they had uncovered. The police asked them to return to the scene of the crime and wait on a team of investigators to take their statements. Several state troopers and detectives showed up and began to collect forensic evidence from the scene of the crime. Police initially believed that this was some sort of gang violence, especially considering that the body had been placed in a suggestive pose before being burned and abandoned. They also learned that the victim's face and hands had been a particular point of focus for the assailant, as it seemed as though they were purposefully burnt so that the victim couldn't be identified. As all of this was taking place, Shanda's father had just woken up and found out that Shanda wasn't in her room. He looked all over for her, but she was nowhere to be found. He called her mother and explained what was going on and they both searched for her all to no avail. By that afternoon, they met with local investigators and filed a missing person report with the Clark County Sheriff. By 8.20 that evening, Hope and Tawny, Melinda's two friends, unexpectedly showed up at the local police station alongside their parents. The two girls were hysterical and could barely even speak. They were eventually able to get out that the victim police had found earlier that day had been none other than Shanda. The girls confessed to everything, telling investigators the entire series of events that had taken place that evening. Several local counties worked together to piece the story together and eventually the Clark County Sheriff was alerted that the missing person report that had been filed earlier that day had officially been solved. Detectives soon obtained dental records and were able to positively identify Shanda. Both Melinda and Laurie were arrested the following day while the other two girls were already being held in police custody. By April of 1992, Tawny accepted a plea bargain with police. By September, both Melinda and Laurie accepted plea bargains as well. Both Melinda and Laurie were later sentenced to 60 years in prison, but rather shockingly they were both paroled after just 26 and 25 years respectively. The two other girls were given much lesser sentences with Hope being given 35 years though she only served 14 and Tawny being sentenced to 20 years but only serving nine. At the end of it all, I really don't know what to make of this case. I usually give you guys my brief input before the end of the story but I just don't know what to say here. Many people may be quick to defend Melinda blaming her actions on her remarkably dark childhood that was filled with abuse and deception and I'll admit, Melinda had a very, very hard time growing up. So much so that Melinda's story would be enough to fuel a video of her own but in the end, Melinda's actions and the actions of her friends are inexcusable. There's no denying that Melinda was fully aware of what she was doing and she was fully aware of the consequences of her choices but she continued with the crime anyway. But particularly disturbing were the actions of Laurie Tackett as it's rumored that she hadn't even met Shanda until the night that she helped claim her life. I wish there was some sort of silver lining here but this just isn't one of those cases. I just sincerely hope that while spending all that time behind bars, the girls were able to truly rehabilitate themselves from the awful disgusting crimes they committed and maybe somehow they can learn from their terrible choices and become decent people moving forward however unlikely that may be. It's just terrifying to know that these women are now walking free among us. It was January 8th, 2012. Melinda Coleman was sleeping peacefully in her bed when she was startled awake by the sound of a commotion in her front yard. Without hesitation she ran to the front door and looked outside. What she saw brought her to her knees. Lying just feet away from her covered in snow was her teenage daughter Daisy. She was unconscious and wearing nothing but a t-shirt and yoga pants. Daisy had been lying here so long that her hair became frozen and stuck to the ground. Melinda ran to get the help of her three sons and together they pulled the girl from the snow and dragged her inside to the warmth of their home. They first tried to warm her up by wrapping blankets around her but when that didn't work they placed her in a tub of warm water. That was when her mother noticed the bruises. Daisy was immediately rushed to the hospital for treatment but when the police arrived her mother couldn't have prepared herself for what she was about to hear. See the police were largely unconcerned. In fact, in their eyes this young girl she got what she deserved. Considering this story takes place in the small peaceful town of Marival, Missouri it was a story that shocked the entire state when news began to break regarding what had happened to young Daisy Coleman. Daisy had grown up in Missouri with her three brothers and her mother Melinda Coleman who was a local veterinarian. The children were forced to grow up without a stable father figure in their lives because tragically Michael, Daisy's father lost his life in a car accident when Daisy was about 11 years old. To say that Michael's passing had a profound effect on the family would be a tragic understatement. The loss of Michael nearly tore the family completely apart. The family of five had only just begun to recover from Michael's passing when this situation with Daisy reared its ugly head. Prior to the crime, Daisy had been an outgoing incredibly happy and carefree young girl. She was incredibly popular in school and was even one of the star cheerleaders. To say that she had it all well, that'd be putting it lightly. Daisy was a girl that every other girl her age aspired to be. She was surrounded by a flock of close friends, had access to all the cutest guys in her school and to top it off, her brother was best friends with the school's most popular football player. With all this in mind, it made it all the more shocking when the events of that fateful evening unfolded, leading up to Daisy being found nearly frozen on her front lawn. When Daisy was rushed to the hospital at about 5 a.m. on January 8th, it quickly became clear what had taken place. Doctors and nurses ran to Daisy's side and from the very beginning, they were certain of one thing. Daisy had been forced against her will and taken advantage of. The evidence was obvious. She had bruises that covered the insides of her legs, proving she'd endured some serious trauma. She was almost completely unconscious and her alcohol level was 0.13%. The legal limit in Missouri is just 0.08%, so Daisy was nearly doubled at. But you have to keep in mind by the time Daisy was taken to the hospital, it's believed they'd been about five hours since the crime had actually taken place, meaning her alcohol level had been gradually dropping that entire time. So if it was at 0.13% after all this time, you could only imagine how intoxicated she must have been when the crime unfolded. She would have been nearly comatose. When Daisy finally began to regain consciousness a few hours later, it was very clear that she was in no condition to recount the events of that evening. But thankfully, she wasn't the only person present that night when the crime unfolded. Daisy's close friend, Paige Parkhurst, stepped up and helped police better understand what had taken place that night. Paige appeared to have been profoundly affected by the events of that evening. When she spoke with investigators about the night in question, she seemed a bit distant and was clearly rattled. Still, she managed to tell detectives that she and Daisy have been invited to a small party at the home of Marvel's star football player, Matt Barnett. She recalls that Daisy had gotten the phone number of Matt and the two were texting back and forth throughout the evening. Now, some sources say that the two had been flirting between one another, but I haven't been able to 100% confirm this. Either way, during their conversation, Daisy learned that Matt was having a small get-together at his parents' house in the basement. The only thing was, his parents didn't know about it. It was just a small gathering between Matt and a few of his friends, nothing crazy, and Matt asked the two girls if they wanted to come. Obviously, with Matt being the most popular guy in school, the girls jumped at the opportunity. No sooner than the girls arrived at this party, though, they grew a bit nervous because they quickly realized they were the only two girls in attendance that night. This definitely put them on edge a little bit, but nothing about the party seemed too crazy. It was just a bunch of teenagers getting together to share some laughs amongst their friends, but then the alcohol came out. Shortly after they arrived, Paige says that the host of the party, Matt Barnett, started pushing drinks on Daisy. Paige seems to have suggested that prior to this night, neither she nor Daisy had ever had alcohol before, but not wanting to disappoint their peers, they both accepted drinks and vowed to have a good time. They were both ushered to the basement where they were told to stay quiet so as not to wake up Matt's parents. And this was the moment when everything changed. Paige says that as the door to the basement shut behind them, she realized what was really going on here. Just minutes later, without any warning, one of the boys grabbed Paige by the hand and forced her into a nearby room. And when he shut the door, well, things didn't go the way Paige had planned. She was taken advantage of and considering this boy was far, far larger than her, she was helpless to stop it. When the event was finally over and Paige was able to break free, she took off into the other room and quickly noticed Daisy was nowhere to be found. Matt Barnett was missing as well. Paige made her way to one of the only other rooms in the basement, and that's when she found both Matt and Daisy. Tragically, Daisy was in the midst of suffering the same fate as Paige. It didn't take long before Matt exited the room, seemingly clear-headed and perfectly coherent, almost looking as though he was proud of what he had done. When Daisy finally stumbled to the doorway, it was clear she was not in a good place. She wasn't able to stand up on her own without assistance, and she was more or less limp due to the amount of alcohol she'd consumed by this point. We don't know how much alcohol she consumed willingly and how much was forced on her by the boys at the party, but needless to say, she was wildly drunk and had no idea what was going on. Almost immediately after Daisy exited the room, barely even conscious, the girls were then led to a car and taken home. The boys drove the girls back to Daisy's house where the two had been having a sleepover before sneaking out for this party. As soon as they pulled up in front of the house, the boys told Paige to go on inside and get some sleep. They said that they would take care of Daisy and make sure that she made it in. Paige believed them and headed back inside, going to bed, fully believing Daisy would be inside just a minute or two later. As soon as Paige's head hit the pillow, she was out like a light. She only awoke hours later when she heard the commotion caused by Daisy's mother and brothers bringing her inside from the cold. No one knows just how many hours had passed since Paige had gone inside that night, but considering Daisy's hair was frozen solid and stuck to the ground beneath her, it's safe to assume she'd spent an incredibly long time out in the cold. It would eventually be discovered that after Paige made it inside that night, the boys just pulled Daisy from the car then tossed her onto the front lawn in the middle of the snow. Speeding away from the scene so as not to get caught in the act. They could not have cared less about her if they tried. And after Paige revealed all of this to the police, Daisy's brother Charlie opened up and said that he knew Paige was telling the truth because he'd found Daisy's phone buried in the snow near where she'd been dumped. When he looked through her text messages, he found that she'd been having flirtatious conversations with Matt Barnett, a guy who up until this point, he'd considered to be one of his closest friends. Considering he knew Matt better than anyone, he knew what he was capable of. But the police, well, they weren't buying it. After Paige told her story to investigators, they called Matt Barnett down to the station for questioning. Needless to say, Matt's version of events was completely different from what Paige had said. According to Matt, he didn't simply invite Daisy and Paige over that evening. According to him, Daisy had begged him for an invite to their get together. And he seems to have only agreed because he found her attractive. He also claims that Daisy had been slightly drunk when she arrived at the party. And this statement may have actually been true because Paige admitted later on that she and Daisy had snuck a few sips of alcohol from Daisy's mother's liquor cabinet just moments before sneaking out to go to the party, trying to loosen themselves up and not embarrass themselves in front of Matt. According to Matt, when the girls arrived at the party, Daisy agreed to follow him to the bedroom before she'd ever even been handed a drink. He insists that their actions were consensual and Daisy only began drinking after their relations were over. He made it painfully clear that Daisy knew exactly what she was getting herself into and that she had been a willing participant. But the more he shared his version of events, the more things changed. See, at first he claimed he didn't know the name of the girl that had tagged along with Daisy that night. But just a few moments later, he referred to her by name, Paige. He also claimed to have never given Daisy a drink until after they had relations. But again, moments later, he admitted to giving her a few drinks to, quote, break the ice. What's insane about this whole ordeal is that the officer who was conducting the interview with Matt was totally unconcerned and he made that incredibly clear. In fact, at one point during the interview, the officer can be seen lounging in his chair hands behind his head as if shooting the breeze with a close friend. When Matthew admitted to dropping Daisy off in her front lawn that evening, literally tossing her into a pile of snow, the officer didn't even question it. He actually applauded Matt for making sure she made it home, quote, safely. If this weren't bad enough, one of the other boys who'd been present that evening, Jordan Zek, admitted that he'd filmed the relations between Daisy and Matt that evening, capturing the footage through a small crack in the doorway. But interestingly, as soon as the police asked to take a look at this footage, Jordan miraculously been deleted. Why he deleted the footage, well, that's never been explained. But I think it's clear to see that Jordan was most likely covering for his friend. Thankfully, despite the fact that the police had largely been blowing the whole thing off and doing their best to sweep it under the rug, they finally agreed to act on the situation. Before the sun had set that evening, police arrested Matt Barnett, Jordan Zek and another boy who's never been named. But unfortunately, things wouldn't be that easy. By this point, Daisy had begun to wake up. And the story she told investigators, well, it wasn't pretty. When we hear about awful stories like this, it can be easy to forget that we can all end up in bad situations sometimes, whether it's a night out with friends that suddenly goes horribly wrong, or if it's a simple mistake we've made that alters the course of our day or even our lives. The best way to keep ourselves out of dangerous situations is to keep our wits about us. But for some of us, we may need a little extra help doing that. This is where I place my trust in Magic Mind, an awesome mental performance shot that helps me feel a lot more focused and certainly provides a much needed boost of energy. Magic Mind has nearly everything you could want to help improve your mental clarity, including new tropics for focus, matcha for boost of energy, adaptogens to keep your stress levels low, and heaps of vitamins. My favorite thing about Magic Mind is that the caffeine doesn't leave you all jittery. Since it comes from ceremonial grade matcha, it's a very smooth and even wave of energy that lasts most of the day and still lets you fall peacefully asleep at night. Magic Mind is backed by real world doctors and it was developed over the course of 10 years. Over 200 studies have been conducted regarding the ingredients in Magic Mind and all of the mushrooms, and yes, mushrooms that are used in it are grown organically in California. Now, I'll admit I'm not much of a supplement guy, but the effects of Magic Mind, in my opinion, are undeniable. Now, it's not a one-shot fix-all. It takes a few days for the ingredients to build up in your body before you'll get the full effect and it's designed to become a part of your morning routine to enhance your mood, motivation, and your focus. And it's certainly the best mental performance shot that I've ever used. The taste isn't too bad either. One of the main flavors that comes through is passion fruit, which I personally love. Give Magic Mind a try by visiting magicmind.com slash tie knots and using code tie knots 20 to get up to 56% off your first order in the next 10 days. The best part about this offer is that there's a 100% money-back guarantee if you decide you don't like it. All of your money-back, no questions asked. Pretty much a risk-free investment, so give it a shot and let me know what you think. But let's get back to the story. As Daisy finally began to come to her senses, she could only remember bits and pieces of what had unfolded that evening. She didn't remember many details at all, but she did remember drinking before sneaking out of her home that night, then being given copious amounts of alcohol after arriving at the party. Unfortunately, she didn't realize that she'd overindulged until it was far too late. She couldn't recall having any sort of relationship with Matt that evening. And the only clear image of that evening that she could remember was a dog jumping on her lap while she was sitting on a couch. Seconds later, she passed out. Now, for anyone with half a brain, you know that Daisy's version of events clearly proves that from the moment she arrived at that party, she was not in control of her body. This alone should prove that Matt almost certainly took advantage of her that night. There was no way that he didn't, especially if she was already drunk the moment she arrived, as she would later admit. Even though Matt denied all of the charges that were placed against him, his friend, the one who's never been named, confessed to what he had done to Paige that evening. He pleaded guilty in court and recalled every detail of that night, including every time that Paige begged him to stop and she repeatedly told him no. In the end, he was sentenced to spend time in a juvenile facility, but Matt wasn't going down without a fight. He denied everything from the very beginning and even made sure to tell all of his friends and peers that Daisy was nothing more than a liar. With the intention of putting this whole situation behind her and letting the law decide how things should play out, Daisy then made the incredibly brave call to return to school while the investigation was carried out. She'd hoped that her friends and peers would support her and back her up on her allegations against Matt, but nothing could have been further from the truth. When Daisy arrived back at school, it seemed as though the entire student body had turned against her. In stark contrast to her expectations, everybody was being supportive of Matt, not Daisy. She was subjected to every type of bullying you could imagine because everyone believed that she'd made the whole thing up. The thing is, in the small community of Marival, Matt's family name was known far and wide. His whole family was known for being the best of the best in everything they did, so it seemed unfathomable that Matt would be capable of something like this. Considering the influences family had over the town, well, it's easy to see why everyone sided with Matt. As a result, Daisy lost most of her childhood friends who'd now turned their back on her. She was labeled every offensive name you could think of and no one wanted anything to do with her anymore. Daisy's brother, Charlie, who was supremely popular at the school and had formerly been best friends with Matt, was pretty much the only person who tried to protect her from the hate and the bullying. He took every opportunity to explain that he had proof that Daisy's allegations were true, but no one wanted to hear it. Within a matter of days, Daisy was merely a fragment of her former self. She lost all of her friends, she lost every bit of her popularity, and worse yet, she had to live in a world where no one believed a word she said. If this weren't bad enough, the Marival town sheriff, Darren White, had spoken up and made it painfully clear he didn't believe Daisy either. He repeatedly claimed that his sympathy was with Matt, who was being held against his will for crimes he didn't commit. Sheriff White wanted more than anything to have these charges dropped and move on with his career, but in his eyes, these two lying girls simply wouldn't let that happen. When Sheriff White was later confronted with the idea that he may be wrong and the girls may be telling the truth, he literally laughed. He believed that the girls were simply doing it for attention, even though Page's assailant had already confessed, been charged, and sent to juvenile detention. If this wasn't bad enough, he even took to insulting Daisy's mother, Melinda, claiming that Melinda loved being able to play the victim and get sympathy from her peers. Remember, this is a widowed single mother who was simply doing the best she could to keep her family together less than three years after the tragic loss of her husband and the horrific assault of her daughter. At what point in time are you allowed to be a victim if not in this exact situation? But if you could imagine, the worst was yet to come. After several months of being told that a court date would be set very soon, the Coleman family finally received news from the local authorities. They were excited to hear what kind of development had taken place in the case, but that's when they were told every charge against both Nat and Jordan, the boy who filmed the ordeal, had been dropped. Nothing else would be done, and both boys were free to return to their daily lives. The reason the police were able to do this was because of a slip of the tongue on Daisy's part. When Daisy was first coming out of her drunken days in the hospital, the officers posed a loaded question. Is there any chance that you may have told the boys that you would exchange sexual favors for alcohol? Daisy replied, quote, I guess, and that was the end of it. The legal team used this statement against her and had the entire case dismissed. Paige, who was coherent the entire evening, claimed she'd never witnessed such a phrase leave Daisy's mouth, but it was pointless. The damage was done and the case was closed. The thing you have to keep in mind is that Daisy didn't even remember anything from that night, so her response of, I guess, was nothing more than an honest assessment of the situation, not a suggestion or admission of guilt. Think of it like this, I hand you a sealed cardboard box and I ask you, is there a chance there's a cat inside this box? Well, the only honest answer would be, sure, I guess. You have no idea what's inside the box. Any more than Daisy had any idea what was going on in that basement. At this point, many people began to wonder if Matt's grandfather may have played a part in having these charges dropped. See, his grandfather was a former cop and a state representative, so to say that he had some pull with the Marival Police Department would be an understatement. I honestly can't find the words to describe just how much of an influence the Barnets had over this small town, it's truly sickening. At this point for Daisy, her life was essentially ruined. She faced relentless bullying, both online and in person, and there was nothing she could do to stop it. This led her to attempt to take her own life four times. She became so fragile and such a danger to herself that her family removed the door from her bedroom so that they could always keep an eye on her. I can't believe I'm saying this, but somehow things still managed to get worse from here, because while the family were away one evening, someone actually set their home on fire. Thankfully, no one was harmed, but the Coleman family vowed this was the end of the road. They packed up what was left of their belongings and left the city, moving several miles away to a neighboring town with a different police force and a whole new set of faces, finally giving themselves a fresh start. It was around this same time that Daisy's case started to gain attention on a national scale and it didn't take long before an underground group of hackers learned of the criminal mischief that Sheriff White was up to and they promised to put an end to it. A team of hackers known as Anonymous stepped up and they didn't just ask for the case to be reopened, they demanded it. Their historic tagline sent chills down the spine of the Marival Police Department and everyone involved in the investigation. We are Anonymous, we are Legion, we do not forgive, we do not forget. For those of you who may not be aware, Anonymous is a group of people that you don't want to mess with. No one even knows how many members of Anonymous there are, but each and every one of them is the best of the best when it comes to hacking. These people will find out information about you that you yourself probably didn't even know. They took on a similar case from Ohio and managed to hack into the personal social media accounts of various high school students who were connected to an eerily similar crime that took place there, exposing not only their personal information, but also private chats, photos and videos, each of which confirmed the involvement of many students who police didn't even consider to be suspects at that time. When Anonymous took on Daisy's case, the Marival Police knew they had messed up. When they demanded justice for Daisy, Missouri state authorities finally knew they had to step in and do something. Soon afterward, they announced that a new prosecutor would be taking a look at the investigation and reexamining the evidence. But unfortunately, there simply wasn't enough here to lead to a conviction or even lead to new charges. The police had Daisy cornered that one statement she made while still stuck in a drunken stupor had tainted the entire case. There was simply nothing that could be done. Thankfully, Matt was finally held accountable for something, though. While he couldn't be charged for taking advantage of Daisy, he was charged and convicted for dumping her in the snow that evening. But still, he didn't spend a single night in jail. He was given two years' probation and a four-month suspended sentence. He also had to pay $1,800 in restitution to the Coleman family, as if that actually did anything. After all was said and done, Daisy somehow managed to continue pushing herself through high school and eventually even got a scholarship to Missouri Valley College. She later decided to get as far away from her haunting past as she possibly could, opting to move to Colorado to begin life anew as a tattoo artist. By this point, she was suffering severely with PTSD. She wanted it so desperately to get away from the ghosts of her past, but no matter how fast she ran, tragedy was lurking just around the corner. In June of 2018, as Daisy was packing up her things and moving homes, her mother and brother offered to help her with the move. Her brother Tristan was riding with Melinda, their mother, when they were involved in a single car accident. Melinda was severely injured, but made it out. Tristan did not. He lost his life immediately upon impact, leaving yet another dark hole in this family's history. But by this point in the story, you have to realize there's several minutes of this video left and the story of the Coleman family is far from over. In the years following the horrific ordeal that Daisy had to endure, she decided the only way to move past this was to share her story with others as a warning. She didn't want what happened to her to ever happen to any other child on this planet. She started speaking much more openly about her traumatic past and appeared in various interviews and speaking events to share her message. But by the summer of 2020, Daisy's past had finally caught up with her. Around four in the afternoon on August 4th, 2020, Melinda called in the Denver police and asked them to perform a welfare check on Daisy because she'd been incredibly depressed and hadn't heard from her in a while. When officers showed up, everything seemed fine. As a precaution, a crisis prevention agent stayed behind for a good while to better assess the situation and ensure that Daisy was safe. He left later on that evening. No sooner than he drove away, Daisy claimed her own life. She was pronounced deceased at the age of just 23 at 8.30 that evening. When Sheriff White found out about Daisy claiming her life, it seems he had a change of heart and finally admitted he may have been wrong all those years ago. At least that's the story I wish I could share. As it would turn out, Sheriff White doubled down on his stance against Daisy. In fact, it was election season and he was running to be re-elected as the town's sheriff. In one of his speeches, if you could even imagine, this man took to the stage and proclaimed that Daisy decided to take her life at this particular moment as a way to spite him, bringing her story back into the spotlight and ruining his chances of winning the re-election. This man literally said this. Praise God, this man lost the election by a landslide. But still, the story isn't over. Four months after Daisy claimed her own life, her mother took to social media, posting several remembrances of her daughter. It's safe to say at this moment she wasn't just thinking about Daisy though. I feel certain that memories of Tristan as well as her late husband must've been flooding her mind because right after posting to social media, she too took her own life. Caroline Crouch was just 19 years old when a trio of criminals broke into her home that she shared with her husband. These criminals ambushed Caroline, tying up her husband and leaving him to watch the crime unfold. After the crime took place, Caroline and her beloved seven-month-old puppy had both lost their lives, leaving only Caroline's husband and their infant daughter behind. The crime that was left behind shook the entire country of Greece and investigators couldn't understand what the couple could've been in possession of that would've been so valuable to warrant such a vicious and heartless crime. But that's when they realized there was much more to the story than meets the eye. Investigators and prosecutors soon uncovered a plethora of evidence that no one could've expected, landing one man in prison for the rest of his life. Before we get started with today's video, I wanna let you know about an amazing new game called Love and Pies. Love and Pies is a free-to-download mobile game that can be played either on your mobile phone or tablet. It's a surprisingly addictive game that I can't recommend enough mostly because it's just so easy to pick up and play. It's super easy to just pick up and play when you're taking a short break from work or maybe taking a warm bath after a particularly long day. The story involves you taking over your mother's cafe that burnt down, where you aim to rebuild the cafe into a thriving business. Along the way, there's also a mystery to unravel as you try to uncover all the chilling details surrounding your mother's sudden disappearance, taking you down a rabbit hole of small town gossip and an unexpected romance. Love and Pies is a great way to unplug from the busy, overwhelming world around us. And if you love juicy secrets, mystery, and captivating drama, I can't recommend the app enough. As someone who has a soft spot for those classic mystery TV shows like Desperate Housewives or Pretty Little Liars, this game is just perfect. One of the best aspects of this game is that you get to customize your newly rebuilt cafe, however you want. And with a diverse cast of characters, this is a game you won't wanna miss. Now it's your turn to jump into the world of Love and Pies and join me in unraveling this mystery and uncovering the many dark secrets that Love and Pies has to offer. So what are you waiting for? Download Love and Pies now using my link below. Thanks to Love and Pies for sponsoring today's video. Carolyn Crouch was born and raised in the UK for much of her childhood. Her transition to Greece isn't very well documented and her parents haven't shared too many details about Carolyn's personal life and upbringing. One source stated that Carolyn moved to Greece when she was just eight years old, but we don't know what prompted such an unexpected move. Some sources suggest that Carolyn's father remained in the UK for much of Carolyn's life, so it's probably safe to assume that her father and mother must have split up at some point, but other sources claim that Carolyn moved to Greece alongside both her mother and father. So what caused Carolyn to end up in Greece? Well, we really don't know. Most of the sources I found claim that she moved there with both of her parents, so that's the version of events that we'll run with here. Just know that that may not be completely accurate. But either way, Carolyn spent the majority of her childhood years in Greece, following Greek customs and being raised in a traditionally Greek lifestyle. And this, believe it or not, is what caused things to get a bit weird, at least from an American's perspective. See, Carolyn was the daughter of a retired engineer with some sources claiming that this engineering experience was spent working with oil and gas companies, suggesting her father had quite a reasonable income for much of Carolyn's life. And when looking at some of the photos of Carolyn's later years, it certainly seems that the family lived a pretty comfortable lifestyle. And that's what makes this next series of events seem rather unusual. I'm sure most of us are familiar with two things. The first being that love has no age limits. That's just a simple fact. The second is that around the world, many cultures will marry for financial or political gain. Keep both of these things in mind and we'll get back to this in just a moment. When Carolyn was entering her teenage years, she'd been considering what she planned on doing for the rest of her life. She'd been actively attending school and was doing quite well for herself, but that's when she met a man named Babise. Carolyn met Babise when she was just 15 years old, sometime in 2017. The two hit it off, but I can't for the life of me understand how. Like I said, Carolyn was 15 at the time, still presumably living with her parents, but Babise was 29 when they met, twice her age and Carolyn was still a minor. Now, there may be some sort of cultural difference here that I just don't understand, hence why I suggested that this just seems a bit odd, specifically from an American perspective. But keep in mind, in Greece, just like in America, you can't legally marry until you're 18. So by all means, Babise was in an intimate relationship with an underage girl and her parents were totally fine with this. We know that her parents were aware of this unusual relationship because in 2019, just two years later, the two got married. Even at this point, Carolyn was still underage. Many her parents needed to sign the documents to allow this marriage to take place. Now, I'm not gonna judge someone for a situation I don't fully understand due to potential cultural differences, but this just seems a bit off to me. As mentioned, love has no age limits, but if you want my opinion, that rule only applies if you're of a legal age, not still considered a child. Either way, Carolyn and Babise were married and everything seemed great afterward. The two appeared to be very happily in love and everything was going well, at least to the outside world. See, behind closed doors, things were not at all what they seemed. Allegations of abuse had begun to run rampant and to this day, we still don't know whose allegations were more closely aligned with reality, but things were about to change for the Crouch family and in ways no one could have ever seen coming. The following version of events has been told from the perspective of David Crouch, Carolyn's father. This story has been passed along by him as being completely truthful. So for the sake of this video, I'll be presenting it in the same way, but in the interest of full transparency, this exact series of events has not been proven, at least not as far as I can tell. David says that Carolyn and Babise would frequently go to a local restaurant near Athens. They'd been to the restaurant countless times in the past and it was one of their favorite places to visit. As time passed by, Babise would become close friends with the owner of the restaurant, a man who's never been named publicly. At this same point in time, Babise was a helicopter operator and it was a job he seems to have been quite proud of. Babise was a very confident pilot, seemingly with many hours under his belt and anyone who knew him knew that being a pilot wasn't just a job for Babise, it was part of his identity. Naturally, as Babise and the restaurant owner spoke time and time again, Babise's time spent working as a pilot was a frequent topic of their conversations. But one day, these conversations took a dark turn that no one could have seen coming. According to David Crouch, the restaurant owner began to speak to Babise about his secret business that involved smuggling illegal goods all around the country. This restaurant owner was deeply, deeply involved in his business. In fact, it may have been the whole reason behind him owning the restaurant in the first place. After all, what better way to clean dirty money than to funnel it through a highly profitable business? David says that the restaurant owner approached Babise and told him about a gang that he'd been involved with. The gang had recently been dealing with some pipeline issues, so to speak, and he felt that Babise would be the perfect man to fix these issues. With Babise's easy access to helicopters, there would be no better way to smuggle goods around the country than through the air. This would keep the police off the trail of any potential drops as sniffer dogs and drug enforcement agents can't really patrol the air, at least not very easily. Babise, whether willingly or by coercion, allegedly agreed to this business endeavor, and in the process, struck up a deal with the devil. Babise seemingly had no idea that this job would take everything from him, including his wife and daughter. According to David Crouch, Babise was quote, very stupid. While Babise may have been an excellent pilot, he didn't have a good sense of business nor did he know about keeping people on a need-to-know basis. So instead of keeping his mouth shut about his new shady business deal, he told Caroline about it, essentially sealing her fate. Now, I'm sure most of us are familiar with this idea, but anytime someone conducts shady business deals, it's always the best practice to never tell anyone about it. That's just common knowledge. This isn't usually done in an attempt to lie to the people you love, but rather to keep them safe. After all, if they don't know anything about your crimes, they won't be the ones to go down when the ship inevitably sinks. This keeps your family and loved ones at a safe distance from anything going on so that if things do start to go south, you're the only one that has to atone for what you've done, not them. But Babise didn't seem to have understood this concept because as soon as he struck up the deal with the restaurant owner, Caroline was the first person that he told. Naturally, being a good person, Caroline wasn't okay with this new line of work, yet it was going to bring in a massive sum of money for the small family, but it wasn't money that Caroline was interested in accepting. She fought back against these plans every chance she got, but there was little she could do to stop her husband. Worse yet, there was even less that she could do to stop her husband's new employers. When Caroline realized that her words had no weight in the eyes of her husband, Caroline's father says that Caroline started to walk out on Babise. Babise couldn't stand by and watch this happen, but the problem was Babise's new employers weren't willing to sit by and watch this happen either. Thus, they forced Babise to silence his wife once and for all. David Crouch says that all of this was revealed to him in a handwritten letter that was given to him by Babise while Babise was incarcerated. David says that Babise wanted to set the record straight once and for all, and he felt that Caroline's father deserved to know the truth. But for many people, this so-called truth was just a bit too much to believe, especially considering that Babise had told a dramatically different story up to this point. In fact, Babise's attorney says that this entire story is nothing more than a fabrication on the part of Caroline's father, and he even goes on to claim that such a letter was never handed over to David because that letter doesn't even exist. And according to Babise's public statements, he wasn't involved in the crime at all. In reality, he was just another victim. It was May 11th, 2021. It was a day like any other for Babise and Caroline. That is, until nighttime rolled around. At some point in the middle of the night, a trio of armed robbers broke into the couple's home, which at the time was occupied by Caroline, Babise, their seven-month-old husky puppy and their infant daughter, Lydia. When the three broke into the home, they immediately grabbed the puppy and heartbreakingly ended its life using its own leash. Once this was done, the three made their way upstairs where they pulled out weapons and demanded all the money that the couple had to offer. Babise told the men that they had about 10,000 euros and even told them where to find the money. But Caroline wasn't going to let them take it without a fight. Caroline had been trained in martial arts and she began to fight back against the robbers. But when they began to resist, they threatened little Lydia, who'd been in the room with the couple that evening. The leader of the three robbers managed to overpower Caroline after making threats against her child, then ended her life by restricting her breathing, leaving her on the couple's bed and fleeing the home. But before they left, they tied up Babise and gagged him with him fainting just a few minutes later. This all took place around 4.30 a.m. and when Babise eventually woke up, he managed to free himself from his restraints and call the police for help. When officers arrived at the scene, initially everything that Babise had told them seemed to have been true. Unfortunately, when they checked the home security camera for evidence, they found that the robbers had stolen the SD card, meaning that nothing was left behind outside of an obvious mess and a disturbing crime scene. The Crouch family and Babise would later mourn the loss of Caroline, with photos from the funeral showing Babise embracing Caroline's mother as she wept. But just a few weeks later, police would reach a breakthrough in the case, finding new information that would turn the investigation on its head and paint Babise in a much different light. As investigators were doing their best to get to the bottom of the awful crime that transpired in the couple's home that night, they began to notice some inconsistencies in Babise's story. Police requested access to Caroline's phone on the night of her passing in an effort to better pin down her final moments and what took place leading up to the crime, likely in an effort to find out if she'd been in contact with anyone suspicious in the days or weeks leading up to her demise. It was when searching through her phone that they gained access to her fitness data. This is when things get very interesting. So if you have a modern smartphone or smartwatch, you should know that your devices are always collecting data on you. Most of us think of this as purely being your location data, but if you have a smartwatch such as an Apple watch, then your phone is also documenting things such as your heart rate, your physical movements, and in some cases even your temperature or other details about your health. When investigators looked into Caroline's health data, they found something interesting. According to her health data that was pulled from her Apple watch, which documented her sleep patterns, Caroline had been fast asleep immediately before losing her life. Worse yet, her location data showed that she never once got out of bed, which was inconsistent with what Babise told investigators about Caroline doing her best to physically fight off the assailants using martial arts. To make matters worse, Babise also claimed that the attack had taken place sometime around 4.30 a.m. But investigators learned from their home security system that the memory card had been removed at precisely 1.20 a.m. More than three hours before Babise claims that the crime began. Caroline's Apple watch also showed that her heart stopped beating at about 4.20 a.m. Again, disputing the timeline that Babise had claimed. With all of this information taken into account, police theorized that from 1.20 a.m. to 4.20 a.m., Babise had been staging the scene of the crime. They believe he made multiple attempts on Caroline's life during this time, making sure to cover his tracks along the way, to make sure that things appear as though there was a break in. But the bigger question here that many of us are wondering is, why? Well, that's the problem. There are multiple answers, depending on which version of events you believe. Was Babise truly threatened by an elusive gang member? If so, then he probably took his wife's life because he was told to. Did Caroline truly find out about Babise's smuggling crimes and threatened to leave, sending him into a fit of rage? Well, that's certainly possible too. But in more recent accounts from Babise during his trial, he even claimed that the marriage between the two had been filled with physical abuse. He claimed that his reason for taking Caroline's life was because he was sick of her assaulting him, referencing several occasions in which she would punch and kick him when things didn't go her way. He says that he grew so tired of this that he smothered Caroline with her own pillow while she slept. But if this were true, then why did he also take the life of her dog? That part just seems excessive. If you want my personal opinion, I think the guy's just a cold-blooded monster. He likely had a million different reasons that he was able to justify in his own mind, none of which hold water when you look at them from a logical perspective. Ultimately though, none of these theories matter. The only thing that we know for sure is that Babise was in fact, responsible for taking the life of his wife, regardless of his reasons. He was sentenced to life in prison plus 11 years for the crimes against Caroline's dog, though unfortunately his so-called life sentence only lasts around 20 years. He's expected to remain behind bars until he's in his 50s, at which point he'll be eligible for parole. In the aftermath of the crime and Babise's conviction, Caroline's family has been highly critical of the investigation and the allegations that Babise has made. Caroline's father in particular believes that there's much more to the story than Babise is letting on. And considering Babise has changed his version of events at least three times since his initial interrogation, there's a good chance that Caroline's father may be right. We may never know just how deep this rabbit hole really goes. Laura Babcock had a life that was seemingly perfect. She'd just gotten a college degree, was surrounded by friends who loved her, and she was on the path to secure the job of her dreams. But all of that changed when she got unexpectedly involved in a love triangle that she couldn't get out of. Laura was blissfully unaware that the man that she'd fallen for had a series of incredibly dark secrets that he'd been keeping from her. Investigators claim that Laura was subjected to an unspeakable crime, and it ultimately resulted in her losing her life and being disposed of in the most creative, yet heartless way you could imagine. Detectives spent months collecting evidence and investigating this crime, and in the end, two criminals were placed behind bars, but they're not anyone you would have expected. This is a story that is bizarre from beginning to end. This is the twisted case of Laura Babcock. Before we keep going with today's story, I wanna let you guys know about the sponsor of today's video, MyHeritage. MyHeritage is the leading global service for family history research, and they even offer DNA testing that adds a whole new spin on researching your genealogy. MyHeritage is incredibly easy to use, and it's super useful if you're trying to build your own family tree. I was able to set up my own personal family tree in a matter of minutes. Once you add in the information about your parents and grandparents, MyHeritage will make the rest of the process super quick and easy, searching over 19 billion historical documents to help connect your family members to your tree. There's a really cool feature called Instant Discoveries that will link you with countless people from your lineage, dating back several generations, introducing you to so many people that you probably never even knew about. I was able to trace my family all the way back to 1695. I found that on my maternal grandmother's side, my family were descendants of Native Americans. On my maternal grandfather's side, we all came from Europe. On my father's side, things were a lot more simple. We've basically lived in Mississippi for hundreds of years, even before the United States was even founded, and we're all still here today too. The really cool thing about MyHeritage is that it'll even link you with documents, photos, and pretty much anything else that's been stored in the database regarding your family, letting you take an even closer look at the lives of these people you've never even known about. If you happen to find some old photos of your family, they even offer a feature to colorize these photos, bringing new life to these people that have long since passed. It's a super cool service, so I'd strongly urge you guys to check it out. If you click the link in the description, you'll not only be given a 14-day trial, but you'll also get 50% off your membership. Give it a try and let me know what you find. You never know we'd actually be related somewhere along the line. Thanks to MyHeritage for sponsoring today's video. Laura Babcock was just 23 years old in the summer of 2012. Laura had a core group of friends that she depended on, as well as a family who cared deeply for her. She was known for having the most sincere love for dogs, but she also had aspirations of starting her own family one day and eventually settling down with someone she loved. Laura's personality was described pretty interestingly by one reporter who recalled her as being the perfect mixture of optimistic and conflicted. Laura was a strong young woman, but she also had a few demons. Laura had struggled with her mental health in the past, but she was on the path to making things better for herself. In 2012, she just graduated from college and got her degree in English as well as drama. She'd been attending the University of Toronto for a number of years and was super excited to finally put her life as a student behind her so that she could get to work on her career. She'd been spending her time searching for a more permanent job where she could begin to place her roots and grow, but she quickly learned that finding an honest, good-paying job isn't as easy as some people would make it seem. After spending quite some time trying to find a suitable position and being unable to do so, Laura started to get impatient. Worse yet, she'd begun having disagreements with her parents. Although Laura was 23 and equipped with a solid education, she continued to live at home with her parents while she tried to make ends meet. Her parents were happy to have her, but they had strict rules that she was expected to follow. This was the cliche situation of stay at home as long as you want, but if you live under my roof, you live by my rules. Laura respected this to a certain extent, but tensions began to rise when Laura began to push back on her parents' rules about curfew. She'd missed curfew multiple times in the past, and this was beginning to be a problem for her parents. Rather than agreeing to her parents' rules, Laura decided that enough was enough and she'd moved out on her own. Well, sort of. She moved out, but she wasn't entirely on her own just yet. She wasn't able to afford her own place to stay, so she opted to hop from couch to couch, bouncing between the homes of her various friends. While this certainly isn't a great lifestyle decision, Laura just needed some space and time away from her parents while she tried to establish herself as her own person. Her father clarified that she'd not been banished from their home due to her curfew violations, but he made it clear that he didn't approve of her coming home at two or three in the morning multiple times a week, which is when Laura eventually opted to just move out. Without a job and desperate for money, one of Laura's friends introduced her to a new idea. While waiting for a more traditional job that utilizes her degree, why not try joining the escort business? To put it plainly, an escort is someone who's paid for their companionship. Escort services are widely available to people of all genders and walks of life, and most of the time, it just involves accompanying someone to an event or just paying the person to hang out with you and be friendly. But sometimes escort services require more than simple friendship, depending on the client's requirements and requests. Laura was apprehensive about this line of work, but she knew that she needed money and she needed it quickly, so she opted to give it a try. Those around Laura noticed that pretty soon after she joined this particular workforce, her mood began to change. Her father recalls this time in her life and says that it was clear that Laura was growing frustrated. He said she always seemed agitated and on edge and would have a hard time staying still. One of her friends recalled her time working as an escort and said that Laura had a lot of emotional issues, but that they understood each other and overall Laura was a happy and outgoing person. But by the spring of 2012, that had begun to change. A darkness had begun to envelop Laura and there was nothing her family could do to stop it. By July of that year, Laura stopped contacting her family and soon after, she was never heard from again. It quickly became clear to those around her that Laura had been hiding some dark secrets from those that she held closest. Laura's boss, the owner of last-minute escorts, recalled that Laura had big aspirations of becoming an actress. He remembered Laura fondly, explaining that she worked for him at multiple times in the past. Outside of this, three other men spoke up about their time working with Laura. All three men agreed that they'd never had intimate relations with her. Their business was purely professional, but a couple of other people she worked with weren't as open about the time they spent with Laura, leaving a lot of room for speculation. One of her former clients was a TV and film producer who let Laura stay at his house for at least two weeks. Another of her clients was a doctor who offered to help Laura pay for an apartment so that she could be on her own. But both this doctor and all of Laura's other clients stopped hearing from her in early July of 2012. It was around the same time that a man named Delin Millard reappeared in Laura's life. Delin and Laura went way back. They met back in 2008 and dated for a short while before calling things off. Delin was incredibly well off financially speaking. He's often described as a millionaire and was the heir to the thriving business, Millard Air, which is an aviation company based out of Toronto. When Laura and Delin met, they hit it off instantly. They would share an on-again-off-again relationship before eventually losing contact sometime in early 2009. By 2010, Laura had moved on and met a new man named Sean Lerner. Sean and Laura shared a much deeper relationship and dated for about a year and a half before things were broken off around Christmas of 2011. We'll get back to Sean in just a minute, but around the same time that the relationship had begun to fall apart, Laura was struggling pretty seriously. She'd been admitted to a hospital in August of 2011 after she confessed to doctors that she felt as though she cried all hours of the day and was suffering from serious bouts of depression and anxiety. But it's never been publicly revealed why she was having these issues. It's possible that she was simply coming to terms with the fact that her relationship was falling apart, but it's also possible that there were deeper issues here that just haven't been shared publicly. Laura eventually confessed that she'd begun to harm herself, and that's when doctors began to take her case a bit more seriously, with one report suggesting that she began taking antidepressant medication as a result. By April of 2012, about six or seven months later, Laura had returned to the hospital at least 12 more times due to various mental health issues. Laura was losing it, and she was spiraling quickly. Her friends began to grow increasingly concerned, but there was very little that they could do other than just be there for her and comfort her. To make matters even worse, this is when Dylan Millard came back into the picture. While Dylan and Laura had broken up about four years prior, they still kept in touch from time to time. With Laura now being single, she decided to reach back out to Dylan to see if there was anything left between the two of them. And as luck would have it, there was, but there was also a catch. Dylan had begun dating someone about a year prior to this, sometime in early 2011. His new girlfriend, Christina, was a bit of an interesting character. She and Laura had multiple arguments, and what it ultimately boiled down to was Christina being jealous of the bond that Laura and Dylan shared. It was clear that there was something special between the two of them, and Christina felt threatened by this. To make matters even worse, Dylan and Christina weren't even in a committed relationship. While they were technically together, Dylan says that they were in an open relationship, and he claims that Christina was aware that he was actively sleeping with other people, one of these people being Laura. In February of 2012, Laura turned 23, and on her birthday, she received a text from Christina. The text read, happy birthday. A year ago today was the first time I slept with Dylan. Laura, seemingly unfazed by this, responded by saying, that's fine, I slept with him a couple weeks ago. It was clear from this moment on there was some serious bad blood between the two, but Dylan wanted no part of it. It would seem that Dylan wasn't looking to reignite anything serious with Laura. This became clear when he texted her a short while later and explained that he felt that Laura was a bad influence for him. He requested that she not contact him anymore until she'd made a quote huge leap of self-discovery. He concluded this by saying, as I said before, good luck with life. It was very clear that Dylan was done with Laura, but Laura's version of events paints a different picture. While Dylan claims that Christina knew about his promiscuity, Laura doesn't believe that Christina knew the extent of Dylan's actions. A text that she sent to another friend named Andrew suggests that Dylan was cheating on Christina behind her back and the two weren't actually in an open relationship. Laura seems to have regretted hooking up with Dylan to an extent, because she believed he and Christina were on the same page, but would soon learn after that they weren't. I'll spare you all of the he said she said drama and cut to the chase. In April of 2012, Christina had had enough. She wanted Laura out of their lives for good and Dylan admitted that he was willing to make that happen. He texted Christina and told him that he'd take care of Laura. He didn't even beat around the bush about it. When Christina asked what he planned to do, he said, quote, first I'm going to hurt her, then I'll make her leave. I will remove her from our lives. By June of 2012, Sean Lerner, the man who Laura had been dating for about a year and a half stepped back into her life. He'd heard about how bad off she was and he wanted to do his best to help her. The two had no plans of getting back together, but Sean still cared for Laura deeply and wanted to help her get back on her feet. Sean had also learned that Laura had begun working for last minute escorts. When he found out about how bad of shape she was in, he paid for her to stay in a motel for a few days and even gave her an iPad so that she could look for apartments in the area. When he pressed Laura about her involvement in the escort business, she repeatedly assured him that her business was not of a sexual nature and that she was nothing more than arm candy for lonely men. Sean says that he still believes there was more to it than this. If this weren't bad enough, several of Laura's friends also explained that around the same time, they have reason to believe that Laura had developed an addiction to illegal substances. Laura, to put it lightly, was not having a good time. You can't help but feel terrible for her after everything she'd been through, but at the same time, we also have to admit Laura was an adult capable of making adult decisions. It seems that she just kept making one bad decision after another and it let her down a path that it quickly became too treacherous to come back from. All throughout this time, despite Laura's claims that she didn't want to be involved with Dylan and despite his claims that he didn't want to be involved with her either, Laura and Dylan remained in almost constant contact. In fact, in the days leading up to her disappearance, Laura and Dylan spoke on the phone at least 100 times. I wasn't able to confirm if this communication was via calls or texts, but either way, they were still on speaking terms and they were making the most of it. The two had made plans to meet up on the evening of July 3rd and later that night, Laura headed toward Kipling subway station in Toronto where Dylan picked her up, driving her to his home. An hour later, Laura's phone turned off and would never come back on again. Now fair warning, the case takes a rapid nosedive from here and the events all take place rather quickly, one right after the other. So buckle down and maybe even take some notes because things are about to get crazy in very rapid succession. After Laura met up with Dylan that evening, Dylan sent out a text message at around 7.30 PM to his friend, Mark Smitch. The message read, I'm on a mission, back in one hour. No further texts were sent after this. The very next day, Sean Lerner received a notification that the iPad that he'd given Laura had suddenly been renamed Mark's iPad. Safe to assume that Dylan's aforementioned friend, Mark, had come into possession of Laura's iPad. But how? Immediately after this, Dylan took a photo on his cell phone, showing an object wrapped in a blue tarp located on his farm in Waterloo. And it's been suggested that this photo was shared with Mark. Later that same day, Dylan accepted a same day delivery for a brand new mattress. I think we can all tell what's probably going on here. Laura spends the night, then all of a sudden Dylan's taking photos of something wrapped in a tarp, then buying a new mattress, things were getting fishy to say the least. But if this wasn't clear enough, things are about to get worse. In the days leading up to all this, Dylan had contacted his mechanic friend and asked him to make arrangements to deliver an animal incinerator to his farm. This incinerator arrived on July 5th, two days after Laura was last seen. This brings us to July 14th, 2012, the day that Laura's family decided to file a missing person report. See, Laura was known to lose touch with her parents from time to time. After all, they were still caught up in a bit of a disagreement at this point. But it was incredibly unusual for Laura to not make contact with her friends. It's been noted that she spoke to her friends literally every single day up to this point. But when the missing person report was filed, Sean Lerner says that police didn't seem concerned in Laura's case at all, especially after they learned about her mental health issues and her work as an escort. It was almost as if they completely shut down after learning this. Nine days passed by without any leads coming to or from the police who were working the case. But on the evening of July 23rd, Dylan sent a text message to Mark saying barbecue has run its warmup. It's ready for meat. Immediately after this text was sent, Dylan made a Google search, seeking the correct temperature for cremation. Soon after, Dylan took a photo of Mark standing next to the cooker. The objects that were seen inside the cooker at this point were later described by a forensic expert as resembling human bones. By late July, Laura's final phone bill was delivered to her parents' home. Desperate for answers, her parents opened the bill and looked at her call history. They immediately noticed that the final calls she made worked to Dylan, someone she'd supposedly written off and moved on from. This was the biggest red flag her parents could have possibly found. And they immediately called all her other friends desperate for more information about her secret relationship with Dylan. One of the people her parents reached out to was Sean Lerner. Sean took it upon himself to reach out to Dylan, asking if he had any information about Laura. He sent Dylan a text that read, quote, I'm not looking to point a finger at anyone, but we're concerned about Laura and it looks like you were the last person to correspond with her. Dylan initially ignored these texts, but the two later set up a time to meet at a local Starbucks to chat about the situation. When the date finally rolled around, the two spoke briefly before Dylan began making allegations that Laura was nothing but an addict who continued hounding him hoping for a fix. Dylan says he repeatedly denied Laura's requests and had no involvement in her disappearance. But then he made a pretty shocking statement. As the two ended their conversation, Dylan informed Sean that he should have, quote, no reasonable expectation of finding her. This brings us to August of 2012 when the pieces finally began to fit together. Mark had invited a few of his friends over to his mother's home and they were hanging out in the garage when Mark began rapping. I can't tell if he was rapping as a joke or if he was serious about it, but my gosh, is it awful. Look, if you go swimming, you'll find a phone. Find a phone. Find a phone. If you find a phone, if you go swimming, you'll find a phone. Lay out, smash it on me. In this weird rap, Mark says that she started off as skin and bone and now she lays on ashy stone. And he ends the segment by claiming, if you go swimming, you can find her phone. I don't know about you, but this sounds like a confession if I've ever heard one. Mark's friends were apparently shocked by this as well and that's why they eventually agreed to testify against Mark, saying that he would later confess to claiming a girl's life, burning the remains and then disposing of the evidence in a lake. Mark was very clearly terrible at keeping secrets. This was all investigators needed to pin both Mark and Dylan for the disappearance of Laura Babcock. But this isn't the end of the case by any means. After detectives learned of Mark's ridiculous confession, they obviously pieced together the connection to Laura Babcock's case. But they also started to reinvestigate another crime that involved Dylan's own father, Wayne Millard. Wayne had lost his life a while back, but investigators initially ruled that he'd claimed his own life, resulting in Dylan becoming the heir to his father's multi-million dollar estate. But now that they learned the extent of Dylan's involvement with Laura, they wanted to re-examine his father's case, planning to pin Dylan for that crime as well. If this weren't bad enough, investigators also learned of a third man who was involved with Dylan. This man had listed a pickup truck for sale on a local shopping app and Dylan and Mark showed up to test drive it. While out driving the car, they claimed the life of the owner and presumably stole the truck. This victim was also disposed of in the duo's makeshift incinerator. Now, the story of Dylan and Mark goes much deeper than this and pretty much everyone who knew the two were somehow involved in the case, with the female friend of the two even being accused of helping clean up the scene of the crime and destroying evidence. If you'd like to see a more in-depth look at the crimes of these two, just let me know in the comments and I may revisit this in the future. But for today's video, I wanna stay focused on Laura Babcock. For the duo's crimes against Laura, they were each sentenced to 25 years behind bars. Even though Laura's remains have never been found, Dylan has since appealed the charges placed against him regarding the disappearance of Laura, but it seems safe to assume that these appeals will most likely be denied. Thankfully, Laura's family were finally able to get justice for the horror that their daughter was put through. But in the end, this doesn't bring Laura back. Doesn't really solve anything at all. We may never know why Dylan went to such drastic means to get Laura out of his life. There's truly no sense to it. It's heartwarming to know that this pathetic shell of a man was finally taken off the streets of Toronto. But it doesn't change the fact that the damage is already done. Ali Costiel was born in St. Louis, Missouri, but had always dreamed of attending the University of Mississippi. When she was finally given this chance, in her eyes, life couldn't have gotten much better. But then things changed. Investigators say that there weren't any clues or evidence that could have tipped off Ali's friends before her life was tragically cut short on that July afternoon. Detectives who arrived at the scene of the crime couldn't understand how someone could have done such a thing to a well-behaved, easy-going student. But that's when they honed in on their primary suspect, another student who had a secret agenda that no one could have ever seen coming. Ali Costiel was 21 years old in 2019, attending Mississippi State University in Oxford, Mississippi. Oxford, Mississippi is a relatively small town. There isn't a whole lot going on there. I was there just a couple weeks ago, and best I could tell, it was a town that didn't have much to offer outside of a few restaurants and outdoor stores like tractor supply. With the population of about 25,000, it's a quaint little town, very quiet, and certainly a great place for college students to live, as there's only so much trouble you can get into in such a small, lazy town. The University of Mississippi is really the main draw for the town, and I think it's safe to assume that the college is likely where the town gets most of its money as well. The university has an acceptance rate of around 90%, but the reason most people go here is likely because its tuition is relatively low, compared to other similar schools. And with the graduation rate of about 65%, it fits right in line with schools that may cost 10 times as much, while offering what's essentially the same exact education. This is likely why Allie Costfield was so determined to attend the University of Mississippi, a great school, a great price, and usually great people. Allie was attending college with the plans of graduating with a degree in marketing. She was scheduled to graduate in the spring of 2020, much sooner than many of her friends and peers, as she'd been attending summer school on top of her regular college courses. Allie had dreams of getting a job in the fashion industry in some capacity, though she never revealed specifically what type of fashion marketing job that she'd been hoping for, at least not publicly. Allie didn't just attend the University of Mississippi, though. She wasn't just a run-of-the-mill student. She had a fierce passion that few people will ever match. Allie had helped found the Alpha Phi sorority and was even the president of the school's golf club. If this weren't enough in her free time, she would also help teach fitness classes in the area as well. I don't know how she managed to find time to do all these things, but with summer school stacked on top of all this, it's pretty clear that Allie was a very busy person, but she always made sure to save time for friends and family. Her mother recalled Allie's dreams of attending the University and said that she didn't only have plans of carving out a great career for herself, but she also dreamed of meeting her future husband at the school. Allie felt confident that she'd be able to find a suitable partner and settle down with an honest man by the time she graduated. In the fall of 2016, Allie believed that she had finally met this man. When she ran across, Brandon Thies fell, a student that she fell ahead over heels for. But unfortunately, these feelings were not mutual. Allie's friends say that they did their best to warn her about Brandon, but she was blinded by his presence. For whatever reason, Allie was drawn to him with a magnetic intensity. She just couldn't keep her mind off of it, but unfortunately, these feelings were far from mutual, but Allie couldn't let him go. Over the course of the next few years, Allie would learn a lot about herself after realizing how low she'd be willing to go to keep Brandon around. Oddly enough, Allie didn't actually meet Brandon Thiesfeld while the two were on campus. She actually met him in Fort Worth, Texas back in 2016, but quickly learned that he was a student at the University of Mississippi. For Allie, this likely seemed like the stars were all finally aligning and their relationship was meant to be, but tragically, this simply wasn't true. Now, at the time, Allie certainly didn't know this, but everyone around her knew exactly the type of person that Brandon really was. Brandon was a part of the in-crowd. He was popular from the very beginning, at least with other guys' age. As far as women, well, as soon as they actually got to know him, they'd usually go running the other way, but that wasn't true for Allie. She couldn't get enough. According to various friends and acquaintances, Brandon was, well, a terrible person. Now, I don't go around throwing insults like this very often, but I'm serious. Brandon was the very definition of a piece of human garbage. All of Allie's friends recall him as being a total tool. All he ever talked about was his father's money and how he could do whatever he wanted because his dad would always bail him out. It didn't matter if what Brandon was doing was illegal or simply immoral. He'd do whatever he wanted all the time, always, no matter who he heard in the process. One of Allie's friends spoke about Brandon and while this friend rushed to remain anonymous, she described him as a pig. She said that he would use his family's money to do whatever he wanted and that he'd have six different girls around him at one time sitting back and laughing at them. She ended her remarks about Brandon by describing him as, quote, super misogynistic. Other friends recalled Brandon in a similar fashion. They said that he was raised as a, quote, daddy's boy and that he had no regard for women whatsoever. He viewed them as little more than property to be played with. One friend recalled that he would constantly badger every female that he came into contact with in the dorms. He'd hang out with them, get what he wanted out of them and then move on to the next one. Unfortunately, this seems to have been the case with Allie as well. Allie was deeply infatuated with Brandon. In the early stages of their relationship, Allie was under the impression that the two were exclusive and that they had started dating, but according to Allie's family, she couldn't have been more wrong. Allie's mother recalled Allie coming home from college one day and announcing that she'd met a boy, specifically a boy from Texas. Her mother says that for whatever reason, Allie was always interested in Texas and the people from Texas. So when she met a boy from one of her favorite places, she couldn't have been happier. Allie initially described Brandon as nothing more than a crush, but it soon became clear that they were far more than that. Maddie Norris, one of Allie's closest friends, says that she never even met Brandon. According to Maddie, Brandon always had better things to do than meet Allie's friends and family. Maddie would later describe the relationship between Allie and Brandon as on and off again, but for Allie, Brandon was the only person she cared about. Allie's friends say that she was repeatedly crushed by Brandon. She would constantly make plans with him then he would never show up. She'd invite friends over to meet him but he'd disappear just hours before the meetup. She'd scheduled dates or phone calls, but he was never around. This all reached a breaking point in the summer of 2019. By this point, Allie and Brandon had been involved with one another on some level for about three years. But then Allie dropped a bombshell on Brandon. She sent him a text message and announced that she might be pregnant. She also sent a photo showing a pregnancy test result that came back as inconclusive. At this point, Allie was a senior in college planning to graduate in just a few short months in the following spring. She revealed her possible pregnancy to Brandon on the 14th of June at around 10, 15 p.m. While Brandon always did his best to dip and run whenever Allie reached out to him, this time was different. He responded almost immediately by saying that she should just take the plan B pill and move on with her life. He added that he had no plans to keep a child saying, quote, I do not want a kid at all. Just minutes later, this was followed by another text that read, I'm serious, no kid at all. It will ruin my life. I will not help at all. Immediately after these texts, Allie set up a time to meet with Brandon about this supposed pregnancy, but he never showed up, go figure. She scheduled multiple follow-up meetings as well, but it didn't show up to a single one of them. He would always concoct some sort of excuse in claiming he was busy or had other plans or simply forgot. It wouldn't be until July of that year that Brandon would finally get around to meeting with Allie, but he didn't plan on simply meeting up with her. He had much bigger plans and a much darker secret. Allie and Brandon had once again made plans to meet up on the evening of July 19th, 2019. At this point, Allie was expected to have been about three months pregnant, but interestingly, police found surveillance footage from that night showing that she'd been at a bar. She got an Uber after leaving the bar and was seen driving home alone, suggesting that she'd likely been drinking. This took place at 11.52 p.m., just a couple hours later at 1.28 a.m., believe it or not, Brandon actually showed up for their planned meeting. He picked up Allie and the two drove down to a fishing camp at Sardis Lake. According to photos that were taken at the scene of the crime, the two had been drinking white claws and eating junk food throughout their drive to the fishing camp. Mind you, this was taking place while the two were operating under the assumption that Allie was pregnant, and for anyone that might not be aware, white claws are alcoholic and junk food ain't great for a baby either. The two arrived at the fishing camp at around 2.15 a.m., and according to those who live nearby, around this same time, a series of shots rang out in the night. A woman who was walking her dog reported hearing the shots between 2.15 and 2.30 a.m., pretty much the exact same time that Brandon and Allie would have arrived. By 10.30 a.m., that same morning, a police officer was passing through the area while conducting his routine patrols of the camp, and that's when he came across a crime scene. Based on the crime scene photos and police officer testimony, when he arrived at the camp, he found Allie lying face down on the ground. Nearby, he found her purse, two cans of white claw and the aforementioned bag of snacks. There was also a jacket placed on a nearby picnic table. When he approached Allie, it became clear that she had lost her life after being hit by multiple rounds at a somewhat close range. The officer stated that upon closer inspection, Allie had been hit a total of nine times, though 11 shell casings were found nearby, leaving two rounds unaccounted for. The investigator said that in all of his years in the service, he'd never seen someone be hit so many times before. As soon as police confirmed the identity of Allie, they immediately got to work on the case, interviewing her closest friends and family members. In particular, they were interested in the testimony of Allie's friends. After speaking with multiple friends and acquaintances, detectives quickly noticed that there was one name that repeatedly came up in conversation. Brandon Thesefeld. Brandon was a difficult person to track down, but police were eventually able to get in touch with him and they asked him to come in for questioning. They didn't reveal that he was a suspect as far as I can tell. They purely explained that they wanted to hear his testimony from the night of the crime, but Brandon treated the police in the same way that he treated all the women in his life with blatant disrespect. He told the officers on at least three occasions that he would meet them at a specific location at a specific time, but he would never show up. Once he lied on this third occasion, police got much more serious and spoke with a judge and requested to obtain a warrant for his arrest, as well as gain access to his cell phone data. The judge granted this request and police began to trace Brandon's movements by using his cell phone. They quickly learned that he wasn't even in the state of Mississippi any longer. He had packed his bags and was hanging towards Tennessee without ever notifying them. Needless to say, this wasn't going to fly, so police tracked him down after issuing a bolo for his truck, an $80,000 Ford F-150 that he purchased once again with daddy's money. About two hours after issuing the bolo, Brandon was arrested in Memphis. As soon as police searched Brandon's truck, things got much worse for him. They found a 40-caliber weapon that he had been hiding, a weapon that matched the one used at the scene of the crime. Brandon was immediately extradited back to Mississippi, but believe it or not, things would only get worse from here. When police were doing their best to tie Brandon to the scene of the crime, they requested access to Ali's phone records. While they obviously found the weapon that was used in the crime, they didn't have any sort of motive, and without a motive, it would be a bit more difficult for a jury to find Brandon guilty. Well, it wouldn't take long for them to uncover a mountain of evidence that simply couldn't be ignored. When they began looking through Ali's Apple Watch and iPhone, they were able to use her location data, her fitness data, and her text messages to paint a remarkably clear picture of when the crime took place, how it played out, and what role Brandon had played in things. They were able to confirm via Apple iMessage that Brandon was the last person to have seen Ali on the night that she disappeared. Not only this, but they were able to match their location data to the exact same location at the exact same time. But then came the most damning evidence of all. When looking at the contents of Ali's text messages, they learned that for three months, Ali had been leading Brandon to believe that she was pregnant and that the baby was his. Brandon, naturally terrified, refused to do the right thing and just meet up with Ali to talk it over and figure out what role she wanted him to play in all of this. Brandon pretty clearly didn't want a child, but Ali continued to push him to talk about the possibilities. In the end, Brandon made a rash decision that would change the history of his community forever. Police were able to prove that Brandon, terrified of, quote, ruining his life, decided to claim Ali's life and the life of her unborn baby. Or did he? Well, yes, he did claim the life of Ali, but a shocking revelation was announced when an autopsy was conducted on Ali's body. She wasn't pregnant, nor was there any indication that she had been at any point in the recent past. So what was with this strange pregnancy test that she showed to Brandon? Well, who even knows? There are a million reasons why a pregnancy test could come back inconclusive, but it seems that Ali was riding this train for as long as she possibly could, maybe just hoping to get a meeting with Brandon. But here's the thing. We have no way of knowing if Ali knew that she wasn't pregnant. We have no way of knowing if she really was just straying him along. But what I find really odd is that for the three months that she believed she might have been pregnant, she never bothered taking a follow-up pregnancy test to confirm one way or the other. But the most crucial piece of evidence in my book that proves that she likely knew that she wasn't pregnant was her attendance at the bar that night and the white claws that were found at the scene of the crime. Ali was a smart girl. She almost certainly knew that if she was pregnant, then she shouldn't be drinking. To me, this seems to allude to the idea that Ali may have been so deeply in love with Brandon that she was willing to do almost anything just to get a few moments alone with him and try to hash things out. But Brandon was just too much of a coward to face the possible consequences of his actions and just sit down and have a talk with her. And the thing that bothers me most is that if Brandon had half a brain, he could have pieced all this together as well. But instead, he decided to put an end not only to their relationship, but to an entire life. Ali had been working so hard to get her degree so that she could begin her dream career. She tried so hard to love someone and begin a life with someone, but unfortunately it was someone who just couldn't love her back. Ali had everything going for her, but this moronic monster stole all of that and more. After Brandon's arrest, police came across a handwritten note in which Brandon accepted responsibility for his actions. The note was addressed to his parents and he explained that he was sorry for what he had done and sorry for the pain that he had caused them. He explained that he'd been having dark thoughts for quite some time, years leading up to the crime. He said that he couldn't explain where these thoughts came from, but that he'd finally acted on them and deeply regretted his actions. At the end of it all, Brandon was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole once he turns 65. It would seem that at long last, Brandon had finally committed a crime that his dad couldn't bail him out of. It was August of 2011 when Caitlin Markham was last seen. She'd been working on her laptop on the evening of August 13th with a friend noting that she wasn't her usual happy-go-lucky self. She was very reserved and may have even seemed as though something was bothering her, but we don't know for sure. Caitlin was last seen alongside her fiance just before 11 p.m. that evening, but by the following morning, she was gone. Her fiance reported her as a missing person but her case went cold almost as quickly as it had begun. Her remains would be found two years later and the state of her body was, well, confusing. The crime scene just didn't make sense. And worse yet, police were at a loss for who could have been responsible until they uncovered a shocking clue in the investigation. Before we dive into today's story, I wanna let you know about today's sponsor, AG1. AG1 is a nutritional supplement that helps with immune support, focus, recovery, and energy. AG1 is an all-in-one powder that is great for helping fulfill your daily nutritional needs as every serving contains 75 ingredients, including vitamins, minerals, probiotics, and so much more. I've given AG1 a try personally and the results have been great so far. The flavor is surprisingly solid and it's not at all what you'd expect. Unlike taking pills every day, AG1 is super easy to use every day. Just add water to the powder, mix it up, and you're ready to go. AG1 is designed to be used straight out of the packet or container but one of my favorite things to do is mix a bit of peppermint with mine. When you give it a try, be sure to let me know some of the unique ways in the comments that you mix up AG1. I'd love to hear some of your favorite recipes. If you're ready to support both your performance and your immune system, click the first link in the description and give AG1 a try. For signing up using my link, you'll get a year's supply of vitamin D3K2 and five travel packs for free with your first purchase. Thanks to AG1 for sponsoring today's video. Caitlin Markham was described as being highly energetic, bubbly, and maybe even a bit weird, but not in a bad way. Oftentimes when cases like this pop up, families tend to tell the exact same story, saying that their loved ones lit up the room, loved everyone, and so on and so forth, but in Caitlin's case, that really does appear to have been true. She was a very quirky young woman who wasn't afraid to be herself. Caitlin lived alongside her family and fiance in Fairfield, Ohio. Fairfield is a rather popular city just 25 miles away from Cincinnati. With a population of around 42,000 people, it's certainly not a small town, but it's not a very big town either. It's largely made up of suburbs and young families, and it seems to be a great place to be. I've seen mixed reports when it comes to how safe Fairfield may be. Some sources claim that it's incredibly dangerous and that crime rates are remarkably high, though other reports say that crime isn't really any higher here than anywhere else in the country. I'm not sure what to make of this, but if you want my personal opinion, it seems like a great place to be. There's a heck of a lot to do in Fairfield. There are heaps of attractions for young families to visit, more parks than I could count, in tons of great restaurants to see. The only real trouble with Fairfield is that it's a fairly lengthy drive to get anywhere, with the average work commute being up to 88% higher than in other parts of the state. Caitlin had been attending college as an art student, and this seems to have been the perfect career path for her. We don't know for sure just how long she'd been dating her fiance, John Carter, but the two appeared to have been together for quite a while. I can't tell if they met at college or if they may have been together much longer than that, but whatever the case may be, the two were inseparable, and it was clear that they were deeply in love with one another. Caitlin had been living in a small condo in Fairfield, and her fiance would often stay over with her. She didn't plan to live here very long, though, as Caitlin and John had plans to move to Colorado in the fall of 2011. But unfortunately, these plans would never be carried out. That's not because the two suddenly decided not to leave Fairfield. Rather, it's because Caitlin would become caught up in a haunting crime that she wouldn't survive. It was August 13th, 2011. It was a day like any other for Caitlin and John. The two had been spending most of the evening at Caitlin's condo in Fairfield. Caitlin had been busy with schoolwork, trying to get everything filed away before she missed her deadlines. On this particular evening, a friend of the couple had been hanging out at the apartment with them. Later on into the night, the friend decided to leave and head to a nearby party that was just a few miles away. Both Caitlin and John decided to stay whole, and the friend left sometime around 10.45 that night, saying goodbye to the two for what would unknowingly be the last time. As the friend left the hole, he noticed that Caitlin wasn't acting like her usual self, while she was normally smiling from ear to ear and making jokes and generally being a pleasant person to be around. This evening was much different. The friend mentioned that Caitlin seemed reserved, distant even. He said that she stayed on the couch the entire time he had been there, and this appears to have been for several hours. The entire time she never really moved or got up at all, she just sat there working on her laptop. When the friend left that evening, he recalled that Caitlin and John were the only two people left in the condo. John decided to leave the condo soon after, heading out around 11 p.m. He headed off to a party in Hamilton, then went home sometime around 2 a.m. and remained there for the rest of the night. He woke up around 2.30 p.m. the following day, then made it to work at Papa John's around 5 p.m., leaving just two hours later around 7. While this was a fairly normal schedule for John, there was one big problem. His soon to be wife was nowhere to be found and he couldn't get in touch with her. John claims that he hadn't been able to get in touch with Caitlin since he left her condo the evening before. He called 911 shortly after arriving for his shift at Papa John's, telling the dispatcher everything that he knew. He explained that he didn't want to report her missing so soon, but he was getting worried after he hadn't been able to find her. Just hours later, Caitlin would fail to show up for her job at David's Bridal and this is when investigators knew something was very wrong. They collected all the information that they could from John, but considering he'd been asleep for most of the day, he really wasn't much help. Several friends and family members were also interviewed, but no one had any idea where Caitlin could have gone. But one thing was for sure, wherever she had gone, she hadn't gone willingly because she left behind her purse, keys and her dog. Mysteriously, her cell phone was missing, but it appears to have been turned off. Police say that volunteers began searching for Caitlin almost immediately. Her family printed out missing person flyers in record time and began handing them out all throughout the Fairfield area and other nearby towns. As far as police could tell, no one had seen Caitlin since the evening of August 13th, meaning John, her fiance, was the last person to see her alive. After coming to this conclusion, John was called in for a polygraph test and the results were interesting. Police got to work right away, trying to track down Caitlin and one of the first people they brought in for questioning was John Carter, Caitlin's fiance. After determining that John was the last person to see Caitlin alive, they certainly had a few questions to ask him. Unfortunately, John didn't have many answers. They asked John all the obvious questions. Where did you last see her? What was she wearing? Did anything seem wrong? John was seemingly answering everything honestly, but then the questions got a bit more specific. Detectives asked John if he knew anything about Caitlin's disappearance. John claimed he didn't, but the polygraph operator claimed that was a lie. When they asked if he was involved in her disappearance, he said he wasn't. That was also a lie. Police soon noticed that John also had several scratch marks on the side of his neck. When he was questioned about where these had come from, he claimed they were from a razor, but investigators didn't believe scratches like this would come from any razor. When police spoke with a friend of John's, the friend said that he didn't notice the scratches until the day after Caitlin had vanished. Over the coming weeks and months, John was asked to speak with police on at least three occasions, with them using a polygraph during each of these sessions. Now, while these machines aren't exactly reliable, they can certainly provide investigators with some good information, and that's definitely what they did in this case. Police say that in all three sessions, John was caught telling lies about where he was the night that Caitlin disappeared. While they couldn't prove it just yet, investigators knew something was up and they were determined to prove it, but that was a lot easier said than done. That's when investigators uncovered two key witnesses that would help blow the case wide open, as it would turn out two teenagers who were just 15 years old at the time of the crime had been walking by John's home on the evening of Caitlin's disappearance. The two teens had snuck out of their homes that night, planning to attend a party that was taking place a few miles away. As they waited outside for another friend to pick them up, they noticed two cars drive up to John's mother's house. One of the cars was a red Ford Focus, and the other was a dark colored sedan with a male driver. The man in the Ford Focus pulled into the driveway, then opened the home's garage. He rummaged around inside for a few minutes before getting back into his car. It's unclear if he removed anything from the garage or if he just looked around and left. Police were later able to confirm that John had a red Ford Focus registered in his name, and they presumed he had been the driver that evening. The man in the other vehicle wasn't immediately identified. The teens say that when the men arrived, they were coming from the direction of Caitlin's house. When they left, they headed back in that same direction. Mind you, all of this took place just after 2 a.m. But according to John's statements with police, he had been in bed by this point after having been at a party. Things only got worse for John from here. When police spoke with one of Caitlin's friends in the days after her disappearance, the friend had a pretty interesting encounter with John that she was itching to share with detectives. At this point, Caitlin had been missing for just over 48 hours, as far as I can tell. But the friend explained that when she spoke with John about Caitlin's disappearance, she noticed he kept speaking about her in the past tense. Now, for any investigator, this is always a massive red flag. If this isn't an obvious sign of guilt or some sort of concealed knowledge of a crime, then nothing is. To top this off, when police asked for more details about John and his relationship with Caitlin, the friend explained that John had always seemed incredibly possessive of Caitlin. Well, it's only natural for someone to have a healthy amount of jealousy when it comes to their partner or spouse. The friend says that John's jealousy was to the point of being aggressive. She says that Caitlin would often complain about how insecure John was, and that he would get very upset if she even talked to someone of the opposite gender. This all grew very concerning for detectives, when the friend finally revealed that Caitlin had been considering breaking off their engagement. Caitlin had confided in her friend that she was incredibly unhappy with John's lifestyle and she couldn't support his decisions anymore. He supposedly had an addiction problem and would also look at adult content online, something that Caitlin wasn't comfortable with. Worse yet, John would repeatedly pressure her into doing things in the bedroom that she just wasn't interested in and she was tired of satisfying his strange fantasies. Now, if you recall, I mentioned that the couple had plans to move to Colorado in a few months. Well, it seems that John was the main one who was wanting to move to Colorado and Caitlin doesn't appear to have been completely on board with this plan. John mentioned in an interview that he never wanted Caitlin to feel forced to move, which is a pretty strange choice of words, if you ask me. My own opinion, this proves that John probably knew he was being a bit pushy about things, but others may disagree. Having been an inconsiderate jerk in the past, I've gotten pretty good at spotting people like this and John ticks all the boxes in my book. In the end, the two repeatedly delayed their plans to move and this seems to further the idea that Caitlin simply didn't want to go, but haven't been able to confirm whether or not this is entirely true. It's just what the evidence and witness statements seem to allude to. After several more months had passed, police had still found no leads in the search for Caitlin. They reached one dead end after another. While they certainly had enough evidence to suggest that John was involved, they didn't have enough info to prove it or even charge him with anything. But that's when things took a dramatic turn, one that no one hoped for and certainly not one that anyone expected. It was the spring of 2013. The flowers were in full bloom and the weather couldn't have been more perfect. But for the Markham family, perfect was far from what they had been feeling. It had been nearly two years since their daughter had gone missing and they'd spent every moment they had searching for her desperate for answers. A couple had been visiting Cedar Grove, Indiana, wandering through the woods in search of scrap metal or other valuables that may have been dropped or left behind. Little did they know that their hobby would soon lead to a massive breakthrough in the investigation for Caitlin's whereabouts. As they were scavenging through the area with their metal detectors, they came across a strange looking rock unlike anything they had seen before. But they soon realized this was no rock. This was a human jaw bone. Police were called to the scene of the crime immediately. A team of researchers cordoned off the area and began an investigation into the remains. Before long, the discovery was tied to the disappearance of Caitlin. And investigators were forced to make the call to Caitlin's parents that every parent and family member dreads in a situation like this. In this particular case, all this did was reopen the family's wounds as officers didn't really have any good information to share with the family. There was no silver lining because they had no leads, no proof and virtually no evidence. When the coroner examined the bones, things only got worse. The bones had been left in the weather for so long there was no way to tell what had happened to the victim or who had put them there. There wasn't any way to tell how Caitlin had lost her life but there was one particular detail that was fairly strange. Now, I don't know the specifics of how the coroner determined this but the investigator had reason to believe that Caitlin hadn't been buried in these woods for all this time. According to a more thorough examination, Caitlin had been buried for a while, then dug up and then moved to a new location where this original location may have been no one knows for sure. However, some speculate that it may have simply been an alternate location within the same patch of woods but that's just a guess. The only thing to mention about the state of the remains is that there was evidence to suggest that Caitlin had been wounded on her wrist around the time that she lost her life. But the coroner couldn't be certain about this. The coroner noted three to four wounds on her wrist but it was never determined what may have caused these wounds. Though the reports that I found online suggest that they may have been caused by some sort of blade but even that isn't known for certain. But here's the real kicker. No sooner than these remains were uncovered, the case went cold yet again. By 2015, Caitlin's father had urged the police to continue with the investigation and the local police after much pushback finally agreed. They brought in new investigators to take a fresh look at the case. While they admit that they did have a suspect, they still didn't have enough evidence to pursue anyone legally. A few suspects were questioned but everyone was set free without charges. It would be another eight years until police would make any more progress in the case. But finally, in March of 2023, an arrest was made. By March of 2023, police announced that they had detained yet another suspect in Caitlin's disappearance. By this time, they felt confident that they could secure a conviction. I'm sure most of you expected this outcome by now but their new found suspect was none other than John Carter, Caitlin's fiance. See, when the coroner was examining Caitlin's remains, investigators uncovered that Caitlin had been wrapped in a sheet of plastic as well as a garden weed barrier. We know the black fabric that you put down when setting up a flower bed to avoid like weeds popping up everywhere. Well, as luck would have it, police were able to secure a search warrant for John's mother's shed. Inside the shed, they found a gardening fabric that was an exact match to the fabric that had been found around Caitlin's remains. Police also found a list of other items that they believe were connected to the crime but this list has never been made public in the hope of protecting the integrity of the investigation. During their search, police also uncovered several other key pieces of evidence and inconsistencies in John's alibi, as well as discrepancies in the stories that he told officers about the night that Caitlin vanished. Cell phone records from both John and Caitlin showed that both of their cell phones returned off around midnight on August 13th, the evening that Caitlin vanished. John claimed he had been at a party at this time but police felt it was a bit suspicious that both of their phones had been shut off at the exact same moment that evening. If this weren't strange enough, John claimed that he hadn't texted Caitlin at all the evening that she disappeared. However, phone records prove that this was a lie. He sent dozens of messages to her leading up to around 11.36 PM. When the messages abruptly stopped and their phones were shut off just minutes later. When police requested to look at John's phone, the texts between himself and Caitlin from that specific evening were mysteriously missing. Every other text they had shared was still there, but this specific block of text messages from that night had vanished. Police wanted to check Caitlin's phone as well but it was never located. It was believed to have been left inside of her car on the night of her disappearance but this was never confirmed and all these years later, her phone has still never been found. When asked about these text messages, John initially claimed he didn't text Caitlin that evening at all. But when investigators revealed that they had phone records that proved otherwise, he said he deleted the messages by accident. Then he claimed he deleted them to make room for new texts as he was getting flooded with texts from friends on the day that Caitlin was reported missing. This man just couldn't keep his story straight. But all of this leads up to one final revelation that took place after the search warrant was issued for John's mother's home. Inside, they found a notebook, a diary of sorts, I guess you could say that included a few notes from John. The notebook was filled with various ramblings and unimportant writings but one page in particular caught the attention of investigators. Researchers say that the entry appears to have been a conversation between John and what they call a demon of sorts. The note reads as follows. Deep down, I love her. You ought to kill her. But I love her. She must die. I can't kill her. Yes, you can. No. Yes. How do you talk me into all these things? I'm just that good. But you're bad. I know. How do I kill you? You can't. You're right. About what? Nothing. This was followed by a single sentence that read, I slit your wrists with the key to your heart. I don't know about you but that final sentence sounds like a confession if I've ever heard one, especially considering the wounds that were found on Caitlin's wrists. Needless to say, the future is not looking great for John Carter. John was arrested and held on one million dollars bail. Somehow he was able to make this payment and he's currently a free man. His trial is set to take place next year in 2024 and investigators have every reason to believe he will be found guilty. John has never made any comments about what this note could mean. So is he mentally ill? Does he really believe he was speaking with a demon? We just don't know at the moment. However, all of this will be answered at trial but as it stands, the case is still technically unsolved but don't imagine it will stay that way for long. The year is 1975. For the Foreman family, life was moving along perfectly. They had two wonderful kids. They were young and deeply in love and everything was looking up. But on Mrs. Foreman's 25th birthday, tragedy would strike. As her five-year-old son Jason was playing outside in the woods near their home, he disappeared. The family and nearby neighbors searched for the boy for hours, days, weeks and eventually years. They found no clues or evidence that would explain his sudden disappearance. The missing boy wouldn't be found until seven years later when investigators met with a neighbor who made a truly disgusting confession to a crime of devastating proportions. The Foreman family had been living in South Kingstown, Rhode Island for a number of years. One of the great things about South Kingstown and one of the things that keeps people coming back is the beautiful beaches. The town is home to more than 10 miles of undisturbed beaches, as well as several large parks and recreation areas for small families like the Foremans. If this weren't enough, crime also isn't a particularly big deal in South Kingstown and it never really has been. Sure, there are a few areas where things can get a bit shady, but that's true for just about every city in America. Overall, South Kingstown is just a wonderful place to be, a city rich in history and filled with things to keep young minds occupied while parents go on about their daily lives. For the Foreman family, it doesn't appear like they could have been any happier in their own little slice of heaven. The family lived in the Peacedale area on High Street. A quick look on Google Maps Street View shows that this street is still to this day, just stunning. The Foremans lived on top of a hill right next to the local fire station. And from what I can tell, their home used to back up to a patch of dense woods, but it appears as though most of these wooded areas have since been cut down to make way for new housing, but I can't tell that for certain as we don't know what their specific address was. The family consisted of Joyce Foreman, John Foreman and their three kids, Raven, Jason and Jason's older brother, whose name I wasn't able to determine. The family members all got along well with one another and there were several other kids who lived in the nearby local area, making it the perfect place to raise a growing family. Jason and his older brother would often hang out with some of these other kids and this was the case on May 18th of 1975. May 18th was Joyce's 25th birthday. She'd been hanging out at home that day with Jason and his brother heading out to play for the afternoon. Joyce says that she could hear the kids playing behind the home in the woods all throughout the afternoon and she last remembers hearing the boys laughing and playing sometime around 3.30 p.m. But soon after that, things got quiet. Joyce didn't think anything of this at the time, but when Jason's brother returned home later that afternoon, Jason was nowhere to be found. His mother went out back to try to round him up, but he was gone. The family all worked together to try to find Jason and bring him home, but it was as though he vanished into thin air. His mother knew he couldn't have gotten very far and all of the neighbors in the area soon joined in to help search for him, but still there was no sign of him. We don't know where Jason's older brother may have been during the time that Jason disappeared, but it seems safe to assume that he likely just wandered off with the other children to play elsewhere. Jason's brother hadn't seen him since earlier that afternoon and with no signs of him by nightfall, the family decided it was time to call in the help of the police. We don't know too much about the search efforts that were conducted for Jason officially, at least not the ones that involved the police. We know that officers took witness statements in search for Jason far and wide, but most of the specifics of this search have been lost to time or they were never publicly mentioned in the first place. When searching newspapers from that time period, I wasn't able to find a single mention of Jason until 1982 and that's when things began to take a pretty disturbing turn. By this point, the foremen's had been tirelessly searching for their missing son for more than seven years, but in all this time, not a single shred of evidence was ever found by investigators, but all of that changed on April 15th. The foremen's had several neighbors who lived in close proximity to them. Their houses were all very close as is the case in many suburban neighborhoods. This meant that whatever happened at your neighbor's house, you probably knew about it. This was true when news began to spread about a disturbance involving a 14-year-old paper boy named Dale Sherman. Dale had been delivering papers one day when Michael would men see, notice the boy and ask him to come inside for a bit. Michael lived directly across the street from the foremen's, but at the time it doesn't appear as though anyone witnessed Michael talking with the team. Before their conversation was over, Michael had lured the boy into his home with the promise of giving him alcohol. Dale spoke with the New York Times in March of 2011 and recalled the day that he'd been at Michael's home, saying that Michael made good on his promise to give him alcohol, but that wasn't all he gave him. Dale recalls that soon after drinking the alcohol, he began to get incredibly tired, so much so that he could barely keep his eyes open. While all of this was going on, Michael suddenly stood up and grabbed a nearby bandana, wrapping it around Dale's neck and attempting to take his life. Somehow in the chaos of all this, Dale managed to fight Michael off and escape his grasp. Dale hightailed it out of there and immediately ran home to tell his father. His father didn't take this report lightly, and rather than call the police, he approached Michael one-on-one. Dale's father walked over to Michael's home, knocked on the door, then promptly punched him in the face. As Dale's father was heading back home, he saw the police at a nearby residence and he flagged them down and reported what had happened to his son. Police spoke with the two briefly, then asked that everyone come down to the police station so that they could take an official statement and try to get to the bottom of things. And this is where the case took another much darker turn. When police were speaking with Michael, they began to suspect that he may have had a few more secrets than he was leading them to believe. Unfortunately, we don't know exactly what happened when they questioned him about his assault against Dale. But that's because they began to suspect that Michael may have been holding on to a secret much more disturbing than the one they'd actually been interrogating him about. During their conversations with Michael, at least one of the officers began to wonder if Michael may have had some information about Jason Foreman, the boy who at this point had vanished more than seven years ago. They didn't want to ask Michael outright for fear that he might clam up and conceal the truth. So, gradually, they began to steer the interrogation in a different direction, tossing in questions about Jason Foreman just here and there. But in a shocking twist, Michael actually opened up about what he knew regarding Jason Foreman's disappearance. Before long, he spilled everything he had known about the boy and even told officers that he knew exactly what happened to Jason and where he was today. We don't know what specifically led to Michael's confession, but while being interrogated about his involvement in the crimes against Dale, Michael came clean and admitted that he had seen Jason on the day that he vanished back in May of 1975. Not only this, but he'd been in direct contact with the boy just minutes before he disappeared. The details of how all of this played out have never been revealed publicly. Even all these years later, police have kept certain aspects of the crime private in order to save the family from any more heartache. All we know for sure is that much like in the case of Dale, Michael had spoken with Jason and managed to lure him into his house. We don't know how Michael convinced Jason to follow him home, but whatever lies he made up, the boy believed them. This is probably a good time to explain that Michael Woodmency was just 16 years old at the time that all of this unfolded. He was still a kid himself, but Michael wasn't your typical teen by any means. Michael had seemingly been battling dark fantasies for a long time, but on May 18th of 1975, these fantasies would finally be unleashed. Once Michael had taken Jason to his home, he attacked the young boy. The only aspect of the crime that we know for certain is that at some point in the afternoon, Michael grabbed a knife from his kitchen and ambushed young Jason. Why he did this remains a mystery, but in the end, Jason lost his life. We don't know what he may have done or said to Jason before this crime took place, but we have a pretty hefty suspicion about what took place afterward. See, there's a reason why police never located the remains of Jason. Usually when a person goes missing, if they're not found alive, their remains are found a while later. But that wasn't true in Jason's case. He had simply vanished entirely, never to be seen again. But as police were speaking with Michael about the crime during his interrogation, he made a pretty bizarre statement. After confessing to the crime, he immediately got nervous and mentioned a journal or a diary or some sort of notebook that he kept in his room. He explained to officers that if they searched his home, they would find the book. But he wanted to assure them that whatever was inside this journal was purely fiction. But as far as we can tell, it wasn't. When officers found the book, their jaws hit the floor. This journal didn't just include the ramblings of a teen or a young adult, it included detailed accounts of what had happened to Jason all those years ago. Now, naturally, the exact contents of this book have never been made public. In fact, police haven't released a single word from this journal after all this time. The only reason we know what was inside is because Jason's sister spoke with officers about the journal and they shared many of the contents with her and she openly revealed what Michael had done to her brother all those years ago. And I promise it's nothing you would have ever expected. Jason's sister Raven is now obviously an adult and she's spoken with various news outlets in recent years about the contents of Michael's home and what investigators found during their interrogation. Raven says that while police didn't reveal anything about this journal publicly, they did share several key details with her and explained the contents of the journal, though they seem to have refused to show it to her directly. Raven spoke about the contents of the journal and explained that the journal didn't just contain a detailed account of what happened to her brother, but it had become, well, a recipe book of sorts. She says that the journal described in detail what Michael had done to Jason after claiming his life and to keep it simple and very clear, Michael ate Jason. His motive for doing this has never been clear, but after Jason had been dealt with accordingly, Michael couldn't just ditch Jason's bones in a landfill or toss them in a creek somewhere. No, that would be too weird and twisted. So what better way to hide a body from the police than to clean each of the bones and then encase them in shellac and display them on your dresser? Now, you've probably heard the phrase, the truth is stranger than fiction. Well, that's certainly true here. While Michael insisted that the contents of this journal were fiction, Raven says that the police have an overwhelming amount of evidence that proves that the accounts written inside this journal were entirely real. Now, some reports claim that Jason's bones were displayed on Michael's dresser as if they were trophies, though other reports claim that the bones had been shellacked and kept inside of a box. I don't know which of these reports is more accurate, but needless to say, investigators had all the evidence they needed to secure a conviction. But this is where the case takes yet another turn, and again, it's not a good one. See, when investigators were pursuing the case, they were running all of the details by the Foreman family. While officers wanted to secure a conviction of first degree murder, they were concerned about the impact that the trial would have on the Foreman family. Needless to say, the Foreman family had already been the hell in back to make them sit through a trial and hear each of the gruesome details of their son's final moments. May have just pushed them over the edge. To get past this, police offered Jason's father a way to sidestep this process. Rather than pursue a conviction of first degree murder, they would pursue second degree murder. This would still secure Michael Woodmancy a 40-year conviction, but it would keep the family from having to hear all of the details inside the journal and also keep them from having to see their son's remains on display when they were used as evidence in the trial. Jason's father agreed to this plea deal and Michael was sent to prison for 40 years instead of getting a life sentence. But once again, the case takes yet another turn. And this may be the darkest twist yet. The backlash from this case was serious. The entire community of South Kingstown was enraged by what Michael had done. And to say that he had a target on his back would be an understatement. When Michael was sent to prison, he had to be sent to an out-of-state facility in Massachusetts for his own protection. But considering he was prosecuted under Rhode Island law, that meant that all of Rhode Island's rules and regulations regarding prisoners were still applicable in Michael's case. One of these being the so-called good time law. This law allows prisoners of various convictions to receive lighter sentences for good behavior. In general, the law will allow a prisoner to have 10 days removed from his sentence for every 30 days of good behavior. Essentially lessening some sentences by up to 33%. Now, there's definitely some ifs ands and buts regarding this law, but this is very generally speaking what the law provides for these prisoners. As you might expect, Michael exploited this law to the best of his ability. It was only required to serve 28 years of a 40-year sentence. When news of this came out publicly and locals found out that Michael would be heading back to Rhode Island in 2011, they were furious. So much so that several locals admitted purchasing weapons in anticipation of Michael's return. But these weapons weren't to be used for protection. Many locals spoke out against Michael and directly confessed that if he ever stepped foot back in their community, they'd kill it. And they meant one of these people was Jason's own father who was sworn on multiple occasions that he has every intention of killing Michael Woodmancy if he's ever able to find it. Jason's father feels a certain amount of guilt for accepting the plea bargain that was offered by investigators all those years ago. He says that had he known about the good time law, he would have never agreed to that deal. Now he fears that if Michael is released into society again, he may claim the life of someone else's child. And Jason's father says he feels solely responsible for that possibility. Thankfully, Michael wasn't released, at least not fully. While Michael was released from prison, he agreed to be sent to a mental health facility for the remainder of his life. Michael is in his sixties now, as far as I can tell, and he knew how dangerous it would be if he went back to the Rhode Island community. There were riots and protests all throughout the state filled with people who wanted to see Michael six feet under. When he learned of this news, he knew he didn't stand a chance at having a proper life ever again. And he's now residing at the Eleanor Slater Hospital in Cranston, Rhode Island, where he'll likely remain for the rest of his days. Jason's father, John, says that he'll search high and low to find Michael and ensure that he doesn't hurt anyone ever again. And John's family say that they have every reason to believe that he will follow up on this promise. We don't know if John is satisfied with Michael being released into a mental health facility or if he still plans on following up on these claims, but one thing is for sure, however things may play out, Michael would men say will never be a free man ever again, at least not for long, so long as John Foreman's around. It was February 4th, 2007. 13 year old Paris Bennett was at home with his four year old sister Ella in Abilene, Texas. Their mother had hired a babysitter to watch over the two for the evening, but at some point during her stay, Paris had convinced the babysitter to step out of the house for a while. About an hour and a half later, Paris entered his sister's bedroom to do the unthinkable and his sister lost her life. Around 15 minutes later, Paris called the police and concocted a story, claiming his sister had turned into a pumpkin-headed demon and that he had claimed her life out of fear and self-defense. But when investigators arrived at the scene of the crime minutes later, it became clear what had taken place here. Paris was obviously arrested, but the stories he told investigators were chilling to say the least and his true motive was completely unexpected. Paris and Ella Bennett were for the most part ordinary kids. They grew up with their mother in Abilene, Texas in the early 2000s. Their mother, Charity, was a single mom who did the best she could for her kids. Her children had two different fathers, but they were raised as part of the same household, with Charity presumably having full custody of them both. One interesting thing to note about Charity is that her mother, Kyla, was actually believed to have conspired against her husband and attempted to take his life, her husband naturally being Charity's father. While her mother was never found guilty, in the eyes of the public, she certainly was. Many people believe that there was more than enough evidence to prove that she was at fault, but regardless, she was found not guilty on all counts. Even Charity believes her own mother was guilty, but no one has ever been able to prove it. When Charity was a young girl, she claims her mother rarely gave her any sort of attention. For Charity, it was more or less like she didn't even exist in the eyes of her mom. Some sources say rather strangely that Charity made a conscious decision as a young girl to become addicted to drugs in an attempt to get her mother's attention and finally received some form of maternal love. But even this didn't work. Her mother truly couldn't have cared less with many people describing her as a psychopath. Now, I find it rather hard to believe that someone would purposefully become addicted to drugs, but that's what all of the sources claim, so it does appear to be true. And if this is true, it really shows just how far Charity was willing to go to feel some sort of love. Needless to say, Charity had a very hard time growing up. The unfortunate truth is, in many cases, it doesn't matter how much we try to improve the lives of our children compared to how we ourselves were raised, we're all bound to make the same mistakes and end up falling into the same path as our parents at some point or another. The important part is just that we fix these mistakes along the way. But as difficult as this may be to digest, Paris, Charity's son, claims that Charity was no exception to this rule. See, when Paris was a young boy, he was described as incredibly likeable and charismatic. He'd make friends with just about anyone, but as the years passed by, his behaviors began to change. He was tested at one point and found to have an IQ of 141, which is pretty impressive. His future looked incredibly bright, but then his sister was born and everything changed in the blink of an eye. Paris claims that after his sister's birth, his mother couldn't have cared less about it. He was used to being the center of his mother's attention, but all of that went out the window rather unexpectedly. Paris believes that his mother was so caught up in his sister's life and her former drug addiction that she completely ignored him. Now, to be unbiased here, I've got to say this may have been true. I have no idea. I wasn't there. Paris's claims may have been 100% accurate. But what I will say is that I find that hard to believe after taking into account the various statements and interviews that Charity has released since the impending crime took place. But in his own eyes, Paris felt so betrayed by his mother that he took every opportunity to make her life difficult. This all reached a boiling point sometime in 2006, just a year prior to the crime that would bring an entire community to their needs. We don't know the specifics surrounding the scenario, but Paris's rage towards his mother grew to such an incredible degree that he actually attempted to claim his mother's life. From the scarce details that are available, it seems Paris took off after his mother while wielding a knife, but she somehow managed to escape the situation. Paris was then put into a mental health facility so that he could get the help that he needed. He was released later on, but it doesn't seem like he ever learned his lesson. This would all bring us to February of 2007, the year that everything changed for the Bennett family, and their lives would never be the same again. Sources vary, claiming what specific date this crime unfolded. Some say that it took place on February 4th, while others claim that it took place on February 5th. Charity had been working at the local Buffalo Wild Wings that evening, working late into the evening well past midnight. Knowing that she would be out for most of the night, she hired a babysitter to watch over her kids for the evening. The evening was like any other, with the kids minding their own business and playing well into the night. But at around 10 p.m. that evening, Paris, now 13 years old, approached the babysitter and convinced her that he'd spoken with his mother and she gave the babysitter permission to go home, presumably because two kids had already gone to bed for the evening. The babysitter believed Paris and decided to leave, with Paris and his younger sister Ella now being left home alone. While it's safe to assume that the babysitter most likely believed the kids would simply go to bed, Paris had other plans. In the days after this disturbing crime was revealed, his mother says that she actually uncovered that he'd secretly been watching adult videos on their home computer that night. But these weren't the typical videos that teenagers would dig up without their parents' supervision. These videos were unusually aggressive and violent and shockingly so. Charity says that she uncovered hours of content that he had watched, each video becoming more violent and more disturbing than the last. Now, I certainly won't go into the specifics of what Paris was watching, but what I will say is that it became glaringly obvious that Paris had some serious issues. While these videos were of an adult nature and were freely viewable online, we have no idea if some of these acts were even consensual or not. All we know is that they were far beyond anything a young teenager should be exposed to and they would have been shocking even to most adults. But here's the incredibly scary and heartbreaking part. After watching these videos, Paris got a few ideas. Minutes later, he decided to enter his sister's bedroom while she was still asleep. Now, due to his sister's age and the truly heinous extent of these crimes, I'm not really going to go any further than this. The information of what unfolded is widely available online, so feel free to look it up if you're curious, but it's not something I'm comfortable getting into and I don't think YouTube would be too happy with me either if I went any further. But all I will say is that Paris entered his sister's room with a knife and a particularly chilling imagination. What he did to his sister was unlike anything that anyone should ever have to endure. We don't know just how long Paris was in Ella's room, but Charity, their mother, described Paris's actions as slow, methodical, not frenzied, and not an uncontrollable rage. Charity believes her son wanted to inflict as much pain as possible on his sister, all the while getting some sort of sick gratification for doing so. From the information I've been able to gather, my best guess would be that the crime began and ended in a period of about 30 to 45 minutes. After the crime was completed, Paris, believe it or not, called 911 and openly admitted to his crime, showing no remorse for his sister whatsoever. Once he explained what he had done, the 911 operator proceeded to walk Paris through the steps of performing CPR, hoping to keep his sister alive until paramedics could arrive. In the call, Paris agreed to carry out CPR, but in reality, he made zero attempts to save his sister's life. As he could be heard counting impressions in the phone call, he would later admit he wasn't administering aid at all. Instead, he was just walking around the house counting, faking the entire thing. When police arrived at the scene just minutes later, they arrested Paris after just minutes of questioning. It became very clear to investigators, this was no accident. It was intentional and it was unlike anything they could have ever expected from such a young boy. But if you thought this was disturbing enough, things are only going to get worse because when Paris was in custody, he rather quickly opened up about the crime, more specifically, he revealed his motive and no one saw this coming. Now, I can't seem to determine just how long Paris was in police custody, but my guess would be a few weeks to a few months, but most of this info has been lost to time. But while speaking with investigators and his own mother, Paris decided to open up about his crimes. But before he did so, he tried to weasel his way out of the situation. He claimed that he was delusional and believed his sister was some sort of pumpkin-headed demon that he thought was going to attack it. He wasn't going to willingly let this happen, so he claimed that he attacked the demon in self-defense. But as you might expect, this story quickly unraveled and investigators knew that he was lying. In the end, Paris decided to confess to everything that he had done and as it would turn out, Paris wasn't ashamed of what he had done either. In fact, he was pleased with himself. When he confessed to the crime, he admitted that he had taken his sister's life for one main reason, because he wanted to hurt his mother as much as he possibly could. He knew how much his mother loved his sister and what better way to get back at her than to remove his sister from the family. The crime appears to have been revenge against his mother for not paying enough attention to him, very similar to the pain and anger that Charity herself felt regarding her own mother all those years ago. While Charity had turned to addiction to counteract her pain, Paris had taken things much further and simply wanted his mother to feel the same pain that he had felt while being ignored. Now again, I can't confirm whether Charity was truly an absent mother or not. It's entirely possible she was, but it's also entirely possible that Paris was simply jealous of his sister and wanted all of the attention for himself. There's just no way to know this for sure, but one thing is certain. The statements that Paris gave regarding the evening of the crime don't completely add up. When Charity was first speaking with her son behind bars, it seemed as though he wasn't quite ready to admit to the crime just yet, but the more she questioned him, the more information he revealed until he finally opened up and truly confessed to everything that took place that evening. He finally admitted, quote, you're right, I did kill her. According to Charity, he professed this with a sense of pride. When she pressed him about the disturbing videos that he'd been watching in the lead-up to the crime, he also confessed to this and said that he'd been watching the videos because they made him angry, helping him to conjure up the courage to carry out the crime. See, he claimed he committed the crime as a way to get back at his mother, but investigators have reason to believe that this isn't entirely true. Instead, they believe there's a chance the crime may have been more sexually motivated than anything else. As they were collecting evidence from the scene of the crime, they noted that they were able to collect large amounts of bodily fluids from the scene of the crime. Now, I'm really trying hard to keep this video as respectful as possible, so I'll let you make your own conclusions about what these fluids were, but there's a reason that these fluids led police to believe the crime may have been sexually motivated. This would certainly seem to make sense considering the videos that Paris had been watching just moments before the crime had unfolded. It's possible he had some sort of sadistic fantasies that he wanted to carry out and his sister was simply a victim of circumstance, but it's also entirely possible he planned the crime for weeks, maybe even months, and simply took advantage of Ella because in his eyes, why not? After all, by doing so, he would get what he wanted in more ways than one. He'd act out his twisted fantasies but also get his sister out of the picture so his mother's attention would solely be on him. Unfortunately, this seems to be the most plausible answer here. According to Paris, he didn't plan on stopping at just ending his sister's life though. He planned on taking the life of his mother too but just never got the opportunity. According to charity, her son told her that the reason he spared her life was because he learned that it was a lot harder to claim someone's life than he initially thought. She went on to say that her son also claims to have spared her life because if he took her life, she would only have suffered for five or 10 minutes. But if he kept her alive, she would suffer for the rest of her life. After being sent to trial, Paris was obviously convicted and sent to a juvenile detention center. He was given a sentence of 40 years with the possibility of parole after 20 years. He'll be eligible for parole in 2027 but it's pretty much certain that he will not be granted parole. According to charity, her son has shown no improvement since he's been in prison and she claims that he's even begun a relationship with the woman on the outside and has been plotting crimes with her from behind bars. Charity has begun to fear for her life, believing that her son may end up having her taken out while he's still behind bars. She also believes with every fiber for her being that when he's ultimately released sometime around 2047, he'll come for her. But what's even worse is that after all this time, Paris is still actively carrying out crimes against his mother. According to charity, on multiple occasions when she's gone to visit her son, he's assaulted her. In one instance, she claims that she was left unsupervised with him in the visitor's room in the jail. At one point during their conversation, he slammed the table into her, pinning her against a concrete wall. He held the table against her, preventing her from breathing. She was in shock and paralyzed with fear, believing she was about to lose her life but then he let go. But no sooner than she caught her breath, he did it again. He later told his mother, by the way, I enjoy watching your pain. Charity ended up writing a book about her life, particularly involving the crimes carried out by her son, titled At How Now Butterfly? A Memoir of Murder, Survival and Transformation. In her book, she describes the years of abuse that she'd been subjected to by her son, even while he's behind bars. Charity, after all these years, has finally admitted that she's been forced to come to terms with the fact that she can still love her son but she can't love the monster that he's become. She knows that whenever he's released from prison, she's going to have to move away and do her best to disappear. She spent her more recent years wondering if her brief relapse in 2006 may have been what led Paris to become the monster that he is today. See, she was an addict for years before Paris was born but once she found out she was pregnant, she got clean. She remained clean for the first 12 years of his life but had a short relapse less than a year before the crime took place. But truthfully, there's no sense in Charity blaming herself for the crimes of her son. If the stories that she shared over the years are true, she really did do her best to raise Paris well but being a single mom with two kids just isn't easy and there's only so much time in a day. Charity says that in the years since the crime, she's been able to forgive her son. She said, quote, my son is a psychopath. I can't help it. That may not matter in the long run. What may matter is I can't, not at this point, give up on it. I love my first born with as much intensity as I did the day I found out I was pregnant with him. Charity says that she associates her daughter Ella with butterflies, hence the name of her book. She says that a butterfly painting was the last thing Ella ever gave to her before she lost her life. What's even more heartwarming and also heartbreaking about this is that one of Charity's friends actually found a butterfly brooch in Charity's backyard on her first day returning home after the crime. It doesn't seem like Charity knows how this brooch got there and it's more or less like it appeared out of thin air. Charity has continued to carry on Ella's legacy founding the ELLA Foundation, which stands for empathy, love, lessons and action. The nonprofit helps people who are affected by violence, mental illness and the criminal justice system. One thing is for sure, while Ella's life may have been tragically cut short by a brother who she trusted endlessly, her legacy will live on for many, many years to come. You've probably heard someone mention the phrase the perfect crime, usually referring to a crime in which the criminal leaves behind no evidence or any clues that bring investigators closer to solving the case. Detectives often spend years investigating these cases all to no avail. Well, that's true in the case of Ray Rivera. Ray was a man who had a lot going for him, a beautiful wife, a brand new home, a great job lined up in friends and family that loved him deeply. But if all of this is true, what prompted him to jump off of a 14 story hotel on a warm summer evening in 2006? Strangers still, what should be made of the strange series of notes that he left behind? And an elusive thief who repeatedly tried to steal Ray's computer. Well, that's the thing. Ray's family believe he didn't jump off that hotel roof that day. And if key pieces of evidence are to be believed, they may be right. Ray didn't jump, he was pushed. Before we jump into today's story, I wanted to let you know about Pia, an amazing VPN service that you can use on any smartphone and also the sponsor of today's video. 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Just go to piavpn.com slash true crime stories to get 83% off your subscription. Then get four additional months completely free. Thanks to Pia for sponsoring today's video. Ray Rivera was born on June 10th, 1973. By 2006, Ray was doing quite well for himself. He'd become a writer and a videographer while living in Baltimore, Maryland. According to a few reports I found online, Ray was a big fan of movies and film, being particularly fond of Stanley Kubrick's work. Some accounts claim that Ray was an aspiring script writer and storyteller, but his work never really took off. He spent a lot of his time writing and journaling potential plots and stories, but nothing ever really went anywhere. I wasn't able to find any samples of Ray's scripts or any of his storytelling work, but Ray did have a job as a writer for the rebound report, a financial newsletter of which Ray was one of the lead editors. While Ray loved his job at first, things just weren't working out the way he had planned. Ray and his wife, Allison, had moved from Los Angeles to Baltimore so that Ray could accept the job and they could begin their new lives together, having just recently become married. The job seemed like an excellent opportunity, but it wasn't panning out. While Ray certainly was a great writer, it doesn't seem like finance was really his true passion. He did his job to the best of his ability, but many of the stocks that he would write about didn't follow the trends that he expected him to, calling his credibility into question and naturally leading Ray to become quite self-conscious about his predictions and his overall value to the company. This job had been given to Ray by one of his close friends, Porter Stansbury. Porter and Ray went way back and Porter felt that Ray would be the perfect fit for the role of editor. While Ray appreciated the job tremendously, he couldn't shake the feeling that his efforts would be better spent elsewhere. So after around two years of working for the rebound report, Ray left his position in late 2005, instead becoming a freelance writer for the Agora Corporation, a company that was still in some way operated by Porter Stansbury. Allison, Ray's wife, says that the two had spoken several times about moving back to Los Angeles so that Ray could pursue his true passion of screenwriting. While the two had talked about this multiple times, they'd never made any concrete plans of returning to their hometown. Though it was becoming increasingly clear that Ray simply wasn't happy with their new life in Baltimore. When he wasn't writing or editing financial articles, Ray could be found coaching the local water polo team at Johns Hopkins University. Ray had a love for aquatics and he'd even worked at a high school in Burbank, California as an aquatics coach for teenagers. His students loved him with his former high school students were calling him quite fondly with one of the assistant coaches saying that the kids truly valued his input because Ray was a man that by all means knew what he was talking about when it came to aquatics. But all of this seemingly went out the window when without warning, Ray disappeared one night in 2006, never to be seen alive again. Ray Rivera was last seen on May 16th, 2006. He'd been at home while his wife was away on a business trip to Virginia. While she was gone, a work colleague of hers was staying over at the house with Rivera. This colleague, Claudia, was good friends with Allison and the two spent a lot of time together. Claudia says that she'd spent the day at the house with Ray, but Ray had been preoccupied with one of his assignments. So she didn't see him much at all that day as he'd been locked away in his office busy with work. At some point around 4 p.m. Claudia says that she heard Ray's phone ring. He answered the phone, but only replied, oh shoot, before taking off out the back door of the home as if he was late for something. No sooner than he left, he came running back inside then took off again just a few seconds later, leaving the lights on in his office as well as leaving his computer running. When Claudia told Allison about Ray's strange behavior, she tried to call Ray multiple times but he never answered his phone. Allison later admitted that she assumed that Ray had just gone out to drink with friends, but there was no indication that this had actually happened. It wasn't until the following day that Allison began to fear that something had gone terribly wrong. The next day, Allison returned home from her business trip and Ray was still nowhere to be found. Reports indicate that Allison spent the entirety of that day searching for Ray, but there was no trace of him. Once Ray had been gone for about 24 hours, Allison decided it was time to report him missing. When Ray left the family home, he'd been driving Allison's car and about six days later, her car was found parked in the Mount Vernon area, abandoned. There was nothing of interest in the car, nothing seemed off and there doesn't appear to have been any indication that anything suspicious had taken place. The only problem was that Ray was nowhere to be found and there was no indication of where he may have gone. But the following day, police would reach a breakthrough in the case when they uncovered a crime scene that was, well, bizarre. On May 24th, 2006, police were called to the Belvedere Hotel in Baltimore after a passerby had uncovered a crime scene. The Belvedere Hotel is a major historic attraction for residents in the United States. Originally built in 1903, the building has a very rich history, housing historic icons such as Theodore Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, Woodrow Wilson and King Edward VIII, just to name a few. When police were called to the hotel, Ray been missing for just over a week. When employees led investigators to the scene of the crime, they couldn't believe their eyes. Ray Rivera was found lying on the ground inside an abandoned office room in the hotel that hadn't been used in the number of years. His remains were very badly decomposed, meaning he'd been here for quite some time. Police believe he had likely ended up here on the same day that he disappeared or within a day or so after. When detectives surveyed the crime scene, they noticed one particular clue that seemingly solved the case after just minutes of arriving. A large hole in the ceiling and roof suggested that Ray had jumped from the top roof down to the lower roof, plunging 14 stories to his demise. And as it would turn out, the Belvedere Hotel is no stranger to people claiming their own lives. With the various sources claiming that people have claimed their own lives to this hotel countless times in the past, though a specific number has never been determined. The hotel has a history of strange occurrences that have taken place on its grounds. And Ray Rivera's unexpected demise only added to this list. But there was only one problem. The state of Ray's remains did not at all suggest that he had taken his own life. Worse yet, when detectives started using math and calculating the location of Ray's body, things just didn't add up. If you take a look at this photo of the hotel, you'll see that the building is designed with two distinct roof lines. There's the obvious roof at the very top of the building, but notice the alcove that's right in the center of the building. This alcove has a second, much lower roof, and this is where the hole in the roof was found. The reason I bring this up is because police initially believed that Ray took his own life by jumping from the upper roof down onto the lower roof, with this lower roof giving way under his weight, sending him into the office building below. But this just doesn't add up mathematically. There was a considerable distance between where Ray would have jumped on the top roof and where he would have ended up on the bottom roof. According to experts, Ray fell about 177 feet and would have taken him about 3.3 seconds to impact that lower roof. When he impacted the lower roof, he was about 43 feet from the outer walls of the building, and this is where this theory begins to fall apart. For Ray to have ended up 43 feet across the roof, he would have needed to have been traveling at a speed of about 10 miles per hour and leapt off of the roof like he was Buzz Lightyear or something. But the catch is Ray only had a span of just over 15 feet on the upper roof, not nearly enough room to reach a full sprint speed of 10 miles per hour. To make matters worse, Ray wasn't even wearing shoes when he plunged through the roof. He was wearing flip-flops. This jump would have been difficult even for a professional runner who was wearing proper running shoes. But Ray wasn't a runner, nor was he wearing proper shoes. There is no logical way that Ray could have made this jump. The only other explanation would be if Ray was actually inside of the building, giving him more room to get a running start than jump out of an upper floor window. But the problem with this theory is that the upper floors have been converted into condos, which for all the obvious reasons would have been locked. And there's never been a report of any of the upper windows being left open or broken at any time. But this brings us to the autopsy report, which is shocking to say the least. Up to this point, police had been running with the theory that Ray had claimed his own life by jumping off the upper roof of the building, even though they couldn't explain how he could have done such a thing. But the coroner had a different idea. I was able to track down the official autopsy report from this case, and the medical examiner documented dozens of wounds and fractures that were all over Ray's body. When looking at the conclusion of the report, the coroner admits that Ray's injuries do appear to be consistent with him falling from a multi-story building. The only hitch in this plan is that the coroner labeled the cause of Ray's passing as undetermined. Others have taken a look at the autopsy report and claimed that Ray's injuries appeared to be much more consistent with being hit by a car than anything else. But I'm certainly not an expert in this field, so I can't really comment one way or the other. The only thing I can say that I personally found odd is if someone fell 14 stories, then plunged through a roof and landed on the floor beneath it, I would tend to think that that person would have almost certainly broken their spine. But the coroner's report doesn't document even one vertebrae that was broken. Now again, I'm certainly not an expert in this field, but I find that incredibly strange and almost impossible to believe. The most important thing here is that the coroner couldn't confirm one way or the other how Ray lost his life, but could only conclude that his injuries could have possibly been from the fall or from something else. And it's this idea of something else that's led to many different theories, some of which point to the idea that Ray may have been pushed. One of the strangest details from this case that I just can't seem to figure out is that even though Ray's believed to have jumped from the upper roof, both of his flip-flops were found on the lower roof. The only indication of damage to them is that one of them had the toe strap popped loose, but this can happen to anyone at any time. It's not uncommon. But even stranger is that his cell phone was found on the lower roof as well, and it was also completely undamaged and fully functional. So if Ray had been 14 stories up, how were his flip-flops and phone in such perfect condition untouched on this lower roof level? Now, one thing I'd like to make clear is that there are also rumors that claim the hole in the roof of the building simply wasn't large enough for Ray's body to have fit through, but this just isn't true. The hole, though it seems small in the photos, was more than large enough for an adult male to fall through. I'm not sure where this rumor began, but I do wanna put that to rest before it spreads any further. Ray's wife, Alison, weighed in on the situation and mentioned that in the days leading up to his disappearance, Ray had been acting very strangely. She mentioned that he seemed extremely paranoid, and she believes she knows when all of this began happening. She mentioned a time just a few weeks prior to the disappearance when Ray had been speaking with the man in a local park. Alison says that Ray never revealed what the two spoke about, nor did he mention who the man was. But after their conversation was over, Ray was walking away and had a very worried look on his face. Immediately after this conversation, Ray grew so paranoid that his entire demeanor changed. Ray was widely known for being a happy-go-lucky man, but all of a sudden, he'd become quite reserved, quiet, and fearful. Immediately after this, Ray believed their home was burgled twice over the span of just a few days. Their home was fitted with a top-of-the-line security system, and twice, the alarm went off in the middle of the night. When the couple got up to see what was going on, the security system never picked up anyone on any of the cameras or sensors, so they had no idea why the alarm had gone off. But this is where things get really weird. After Ray disappeared and police were searching through his home and office, they came across a note that had been kept in plastic and taped to the front of Ray's computer. The note had been typed on a computer and printed out in very tiny font, leading some of the words and letters to be blurry, but the best I can tell, the note reads as follows. Brothers and sisters, right now around the world, violences are erupting. What an awesome sight. The next line is a bit too blurry to read, but it continues a moment later saying, quote, that was a well-played game. Congratulations to all who participated. I hope you enjoyed it. It was a time to wake up, so here I am. I'd like to welcome those who accept that our invitations for membership during the game. We couldn't have done it without you. I took on this endeavor to find the truth. After this, most of this letter is too blurry to read, but he mentions something known as the council, then begins referencing people in his personal life, as well as actors, directors and film writers, such as Stanley Kubrick. He then writes out a very long list of names, seemingly of people he knows, and ends this list by mentioning his friend, Porter Stansberry, saying he didn't do it himself, but he never mentioned what it is referring to. Now, this note is obviously very bizarre and largely doesn't seem to make any sense, but a Reddit user picked up on the fact that Ray was referring to something called The Game. The Reddit user mentioned a movie called The Game, and in one scene, one of the lead characters jumps off of an upper-level roof and crashes through the ceiling of a lower-level roof, a very bizarre coincidence considering what happened to Ray. But the problem with this theory is that the FBI has taken a look at the letter and found no merit in these claims, and one other expert claimed the same thing, believing that this note has nothing to do with Ray's disappearance and ultimate demise. In fact, Ray's own family seemed to believe that this note is unrelated to his disappearance, as they claim that he kept journals full of ramblings like this, saying that none of these notes ever made any sense. The note has since been referred to as a stream of consciousness, and that it may have never had any real purpose for underlying meaning. Why Ray wrote so many of these strange notes remains unknown, and what game he was referring to remains unknown as well. Interestingly, all of these notes were found to have likely originated on Ray's computer. When police were researching Ray's case, detectives took his computer in as evidence so that they could take a closer look at his files. After they'd concluded their research, the computer was eligible to be picked up exclusively by his wife, but in the days that it took her to pick up the computer, police noted that one person had called multiple times day after day doing their best to pick up Ray's computer, even though they weren't permitted to do so. Police had never revealed who this person was. In fact, we don't know if they even know who it was. But Alison, Ray's wife, says that no one else should ever have any sort of interest in Ray's computer, and she has no idea who would have wanted to do such a thing. As far as we know, nothing important or relevant to the case was ever found on his computer, so this seems incredibly odd. The only other theory in this case is that Ray was somehow associated with the elusive group known as the Freemasons, a secret organization that has existed for hundreds of years and are rumored to have been involved in all sorts of dark and secretive plans throughout history. Ray was fascinated by the Freemasons and had picked up various books on the subject and had even recently purchased a book titled Freemasons for Dummies in the weeks leading up to his demise. He even visited a Masonic lodge and requested to join the group, but we don't know if anything ever came of this. In the end, no one knows for sure what happened to Ray Rivera. His family remains hopeful that they will find answers one day and they're adamant that he wouldn't have done this to himself. There's a prevailing theory that Ray must have been pushed from the rooftop that day, as he had an intense fear of heights and had recently just purchased a new home with his wife. But the problem is there's no indication of who would have wanted to push him. Worse yet, who could have pushed him hard enough to send him flying a staggering 45 feet across the roof? Even if he had been pushed, he should have landed only a few horizontal feet from his starting position, only a little further than he had jumped, but that just isn't what took place. Policers are still actively investigating this case even after all these years, but they're no closer to solving it today than they were all those years ago. Policers are still operating under the assumption that Ray took his own life, but it seems like even they are beginning to believe that this may be a bit too far-fetched to be true. An innocent victim or a common criminal. These are the two labels that have been given to Rachel Hoffman, a 23-year-old college student whose life was turned completely upside down after working with Florida police in a sting operation that went horribly, horribly wrong. Rachel had no idea that a simple routine traffic stop would send her life into a tailspin, and before Rachel knew it, she was facing a weekend in jail. But by April of the following year, things had turned sour. Rachel was now facing years of jail time after detectives tried to pin her for a crime that would have essentially ended her life. She was offered a once-in-a-lifetime get-out-of-jail-free card. The only catch was she had to work undercover for the police. With nowhere else to turn, Rachel accepted the offer. Not knowing that this job would be her last. Rachel Hoffman was by no means your average young woman. By the time she was 18, Rachel had done all the things most of us only ever dream of doing. Rachel was born in Clearwater, Florida, where she had, best I can tell, a largely ordinary childhood. The only thing that sets Rachel's childhood apart from most is that she had opportunities most of us could never imagine. See, Rachel wasn't a particularly wild kid, but she also wasn't a kid who was willing to settle down. She and her family were always up to something. By the time she was 12 years old, Rachel had already learned ballet, learned to ride horses, and she'd even been a major competitor in a little mermaid contest. Her life never seemed to stop moving forward and having lived in Clearwater, Florida, it's easy to see why. Because Clearwater is a beautiful place to be and it's a city that's filled with attractions in all sorts of things for a small family to do. As the name suggests, there are several beautiful clear beaches, all kinds of museums, cruises, sports events, restaurants, parks, everything. The only real issue with Clearwater is crime. While Clearwater certainly isn't a particularly dangerous place to be, there are definitely pockets of the city that you want to stay clear of. It's certainly not a city where you'd need to fear for your life while walking around at night, but it's absolutely a place where you need to keep your eyes open and maintain a little bit of common sense. For Rachel, she certainly had enough common sense and confidence to go around, but being the free spirited woman she was, well, she wasn't going to let anything keep her from doing what she'd set her mind to doing. By the time Rachel had turned 18, she was on her way out of high school. By this point, her resume had grown to include being a flute player, a piano player, a skydiver, a Grand Canyon hiker and so much more. Rachel just didn't know when to quit. After graduating high school, Rachel continued on with her academics and joined Florida State University. She was here from the time she was 18 until she was 23 and after graduating from Florida State, she planned to continue her education by moving to Arizona to pursue a culinary degree. By February of 2007, Rachel was continuing on her path to greatness, but that's when everything came crashing down around her, what should have been a simple traffic stop and an ordinary speeding ticket turned into so much more. Before Rachel even knew what was going on, her life had changed forever. It's stories like this that remind us that danger can pop up when we least expect it and when you're injured, your injury could be worth millions. Insurance companies often love to low ball claims, but if you become a client of Morgan and Morgan, they will help to fight to get you what you deserve. All law firms are not the same. Morgan and Morgan is as popular as they are for a reason. They've won a lot. If you're ever injured, whether in an accident or otherwise, you should know that you have rights and Morgan and Morgan will fight for their clients to protect those rights and get them the compensation they deserve. Just in the last few months, Morgan and Morgan has won a $12 million case in Florida, a $26 million case in Philadelphia and a $6.8 million case in New York, all of which were dozens of times higher than the insurance offer. The best thing about Morgan and Morgan is that their fee is absolutely free unless you win the case. And there's a good reason why over three million people each year trust Morgan and Morgan and call them in their time of need. If you've been injured, it's super easy to start a claim with America's largest injury law firm in just a few clicks. You can start your claim now with Morgan and Morgan at ForThePeople.com slash True Crime Stories or click the link in the description. That's ForThePeople.com slash True Crime Stories. Thanks to Morgan and Morgan for sponsoring today's video. It was February 27th, 2007. Rachel was in her final days of Florida State University and was already gearing up to transfer to Arizona. But before that could happen, her life changed in the blink of an eye. While Rachel was out driving one day, she got pulled over for speeding. It happens to everyone and it's unlikely that Rachel thought much of it. The officer approached her window and asked for her license and insurance, but that wasn't all. Now, the details of what unfolded next are a bit uncertain, but it seems like the officer knew that something was a little bit off about Rachel. In fact, he could smell it. As soon as he caught a whiff of Rachel's car, he asked her to exit the vehicle. He then asked Rachel's permission to search the car. What he found in the car brought Rachel to her knees. As the officer combed through every square inch of the car, he finally found what he was looking for. He turned to Rachel with a bag that was filled with a certain plant and at this point in history, it was illegal in Florida. Rachel knew that she was in serious, serious trouble. Not only did this crime mean that she may be spending some time in jail, or at the very least, paying a very steep fine, but she also knew that a crime like this could cost her everything, including her getting kicked out of Arizona College before classes had even started. Rachel did everything she could to keep this off of her record, but her best efforts simply weren't enough. After the officer reported the crime, Rachel was forced to enter a rehab program and was told that she would be subjected to periodic testing to ensure that she was free and clear in the future. What's crazy to me is that the state was incredibly serious about these routine tests. Usually the state doesn't care about much of anything at all, but that wasn't true in this scenario. Now, we don't know how long Rachel was required to attend this rehab program, nor how long she was required to take these regular tests, but more than a year later, in March of 2008, we know that she was still going through with these tests. The only problem was, in March, someone close to Rachel lost their life. This meant that Rachel needed to travel all the way to Tallahassee to attend the loved one's funeral, but there was only one issue with this. On the day of the funeral, Rachel was also due to take one of her scheduled tests. She missed this appointment and, as a result, was ordered to spend a weekend in jail in April of 2008. Rachel did her time, got out of jail and went back home. It wasn't really the end of the world for her. No, that would come just two weeks later and this time, Rachel would be doing a lot more than spending a couple days in a cage. This time, she was in deep. Just two weeks after Rachel was released from jail, she was in her apartment, minding her own business, when all of a sudden, there was a powerful knock at the door. She opened the door to see what was going on and that's when she noticed two police officers who stood there to greet her. There was a familiar, skunky odor that poured out of Rachel's apartment and she knew her time was up. The officers reported that there had been odor complaints from one of her neighbors. They then asked if Rachel had been using anything illegal that evening, she had. They then asked if she had anything illegal in her apartment, she did. They asked Rachel's permission to search her apartment and she allowed them to. When they asked her what was going on to cause such an odor, Rachel knew she couldn't hide any longer and she admitted to everything. But what was originally a fairly innocent crime and a somewhat light sentence turned into something much, much more and in record time. That's because this time around, Rachel wasn't just holding on to a few grams of a plant. This time, she'd been caught with much, much more. Now, because of the rules in terms of service on these streaming platforms, I can't specifically discuss what officers found. So we'll just say that under Rachel's couch cushions, officers found some illegal medications that very clearly proved that Rachel was looking to party. Not only that, but she had more than enough to share with her friends. So police began to fear that she may be selling these goods to other people. Needless to say, Rachel was arrested, but she could have never imagined what would unfold next. As she was taken to the local jail, Rachel learned that she faced multiple felony charges. If her previous charges didn't risk ending her college career, these charges certainly would. Rachel was set to be put away for a very, very long time. At the age of just 23 years old, Rachel didn't know what to do. She was nothing more than a college student who was looking to experiment, learn more about herself and who she really was as well as have a good time. But she quickly learned the hard way that this type of a good time is rarely all it's cracked up to be. It was then that Rachel was introduced to Officer Ryan Pender, who offered her a deal that she simply couldn't refuse. All those drug charges, he'd make them go away. All she had to do was work for him. Desperate for any way out of this mess, Rachel agreed. This would turn out to be a mistake that would cost her her life. Rachel's job with Officer Pender was simple. She would work undercover for the local police, helping them to locate and eradicate local smuggling operations. She'd show up to the homes or hotspots of various dealers, make a successful exchange, and report everything back to Officer Pender. The police told her that if she helped to get the weapons and illegal goods off the street, they'd wipe away any trace of her previous arrests. According to her boyfriend, Ben, she was only initially asked to take part in one or two sting operations, but things quickly grew out of control. We don't know the specific number of undercover ops that Rachel went on, but we know that it was far greater than just one or two. But by May of 2008, one of these operations took a dangerous turn that cast the entire state of Florida into a negative light. It was May 7th when Rachel reported to the Tallahassee Police Department for her next mission. She was taken to the office of Officer Pender, who would explain the details of her next assignment. Officer Pender would explain that Rachel was to be given a wire, then given $13,000 in cash. She was instructed to purchase a weapon, 1.5 ounces of one substance, and 1,500 tablets of another. She was to bring her haul straight back to the police so officers could link the crimes to the dealers. This sting operation was incredibly large. A total of three DEA agents, 15 police officers, Officer Pender and Rachel had all been assigned to this investigation. And according to the Tallahassee Democrat, this was the largest sting in the department's history. The operation was scheduled to begin at 7pm, but from the very beginning, things did not go according to plan. At first, Rachel was set to meet up with the men at a predetermined location, but all of a sudden, they changed the meeting spot. A few hours later, they changed it again. Rachel was driving herself to Forest Meadow Park, where she was to meet up with these two men. But on her way there, she got a phone call from one of the men. Yet again, there was a change of plans. And during this one phone call, they changed the meeting twice more. They asked Rachel to meet them at a plant nursery, then switched to Gardner Road, a dead-end street with no hope of an easy exit. Rachel hung up the phone with the dealers and immediately called HQ to speak to Officer Pender. Officer Pender claims that he immediately picked up on what was taking place here, and he told Rachel to abandon the mission, saying that it was unsafe. He says that he doesn't know if Rachel hung up before hearing this command, or if she purposefully ignored his warning. But after this call, Rachel was never heard from again. Police drove to Gardner Road, hoping to catch a glimpse of Rachel. There was no sign of her car, nor any indication she'd ever made it to the meeting spot. Detectives then drove over to Rachel's boyfriend's home, asking if he'd seen any sign of her. He had it, and that's when investigators knew that no matter what, this wasn't good. Either Rachel had run away and made off with the $13,000 they'd given her, or worse, the dealers had found out about the sting. It would be two more days before Rachel was finally found, but unfortunately for everyone involved, she lost her life. Rachel was found dumped in a gully and tangled up in vines in Perry, Florida, about an hour away from Tallahassee. She'd been hit with five rounds, then dumped like yesterday's garbage. A deep and extensive investigation into her disappearance was carried out, and that's when police learned that Rachel had simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time. Well, sort of. As it would turn out, the dealers had made plans to rob Rachel that evening, taking the $13,000 and selling her aspirin, rather than the substances she'd actually shown up for. But at some point during the meeting, things went awry. One thing led to another, and the dealers ended up grabbing Rachel's purse and searching it, and that's when they found the wire. The dealers did what dealers do best, and tied up any loose ends, meaning Rachel lost her life right then and there. But the story isn't so simple. After news of Rachel's demise made it into the local media, the entire state of Florida was up in arms. How could a local police officer send an untrained young woman into the middle of a sting operation of this proportion? The biggest sting in the department's history was no place for a newly acquired informant to be. As it would turn out, just three years prior in 2005, the Department of Justice had issued a very clear and specific set of guidelines for how confidential informants were supposed to be treated and used. The Tallahassee Police Department failed to follow these guidelines, placing Rachel in harm's way without so much as a second thought. Rachel had no formal training and was remarkably unprepared for what she was thrown into, but that's not all. See, when Rachel was just about to start her mission and meet up with these dealers, Officer Pender claims that he knew something fishy was going on, and he claims that he immediately told Rachel to abandon the mission and return back to the police department. But the thing is, many people have begun to question whether or not this actually happened. Now, have I been able to find any evidence to point one way or the other? But many people feel as though Rachel was treated as little more than a disposable pawn in a much larger game of chess. Some people have speculated that Officer Pender never gave any warning to Rachel, nor did he tell her to stand down and return home. He claims that Rachel either hung up before hearing his command, heard the command and didn't heed his warning, or that their call was disconnected and his commands didn't go through. Either way, after locating Rachel's body on May 9, officers immediately closed in on the two dealers and they were both charged and convicted for ending Rachel's life. They were each sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole. In the ensuing investigation into the Tallahassee Police Department, several officers were suspended from their positions. In the end, the department openly admitted to their wrongdoing, confessing that Rachel had zero training as an informant and admitting that she didn't even have any experience or prior knowledge of the substances that she would have been purchasing that evening. She quite literally went into the operation blind. Naturally, the police department was found to be at fault, but there's no mention of whether or not they faced any real repercussions for this. Now, Officer Pender was fired as a result of the failed operation, but less than two years later, he was reinstated. So it doesn't seem like the department learned anything from this. Rachel's family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the department and they were eventually awarded $2.6 million, but that's pretty much the end of it. No further repercussions were faced, but there is somewhat of a silver lining here. Rachel didn't lose her life for nothing. In the wake of this disaster in May of 2009, Rachel's law was passed by the Florida State Senate. This law helped to instate some seriously strict guidelines for how Florida officers are allowed to use informants, ensuring that a situation like this never happens again. This law requires every single police department in the state to subject informants to extensive training exercises to ensure that they're as prepared as they can possibly be for anything that gets thrown their way. If Rachel had had this type of training, it's incredibly likely she would still be here. If Rachel had had any training at all, she'd probably still be here. The thing we have to keep in mind is that laws like this cannot be substituted for common sense. Yes, Rachel's law is an incredible thing and it's guaranteed to save countless lives, but it shouldn't take a lawyer or some college degree to understand that you can't throw an average civilian into the biggest police operation that the Tallahassee Police Department has ever seen. On what planet is this okay? And in what world did anyone think this was safe? I love the fact that Rachel's life wasn't stolen for nothing. There was some good that came of it, but she didn't have to lose her life for this to have taken place. Her fate should weigh heavily on the shoulders of all 19 officers who were involved in this operation. Not one of them spoke up. Not one of them suggested, hey, this is a bad idea. Not one of them did anything to preserve her life. Actions speak louder than words and it's clear to see that the Tallahassee Police Department saw Rachel as nothing more than disposable. It was 2007 when Carly Ryan fell head over heels for her boyfriend, Brandon Kane. Investigators say that the two had everything in common, but Brandon had a few dark secrets that Carly was blissfully unaware of. Detectives would learn that Carly and Brandon had been dating for several months leading up to the crime and everything was going well for the two. But one day in February of 2007, things would take a dark turn when Carly failed to return home from a night out with her friends. She'd been acting somewhat strange in the moments before leaving that day, repeatedly asking her mother for hugs. It seems almost like she knew something was wrong, but she was powerless to stop it. Carly's mother certainly felt that something was a bit off that evening, but she could have never imagined just how terrifying things were about to become. Carly Ryan was born in January of 1992 in Stirling, South Australia. She was raised by her mother, Sonya, for most of her childhood, but there's never been any mention about what happened to her father, so I suppose it can be assumed that he was simply out of the picture. The thing about Carly is that she was growing up in the midst of a social media hurricane. By the time she was a teenager, it seemed like there was a new social media platform coming out every other day of the week. And this was long before Facebook was the goliath that it is today. Most of this case takes place back in 2006 and seven. So we're talking about the days of Myspace, Zanga, Tumblr, and the countless other online messengers that were around. It was an incredibly interesting time to be on the internet, but it was also a remarkably dangerous time because many of the safeguards that are in place today simply didn't exist back then. Considering Carly was just a teenager at this time, her mother Sonya was pretty critical about what Carly got up to online. Carly and Sonya were remarkably close, meaning Sonya knew pretty much every detail of Carly's life. She'd often walk by the computer and take a peek at what Carly was doing, but knowing that her teenage daughter was a smart girl, she trusted that Carly was being safe and cautious. Sonya says that she feels like she knew everything that was going on in Carly's life. She knew all of her friends, kept tabs on what was going on at school, and was an ever-present force in all that Carly did. Not in a helicopter parent kind of way, but in a pretty healthy mother-daughter relationship kind of way. You've got to remember it was just the two of them, so they were understandably super close. But the main issue here is that at this point in history, the internet was wild to put it lightly. Carly was known to spend a lot of time on a website called ratemybody.com. For those of you that aren't familiar with this site, well, it's pretty much exactly what you would think. People post photos of themselves and anonymous users rate that person's body. The big problem with this website is that as we've already established, there were virtually no safeguards in place. The website prided itself on anonymity, and that means that there was no way of knowing if the images you were looking at even belonged to the person who uploaded them. Worse yet, considering this website was often visited by teenagers, well, I think you'd get the picture I'm painting here. This was not a safe website, and it was a major hotspot for older men who had some rather nefarious intentions. Thankfully, this website has since been shut down. But Carly was often described as a scene girl. This is a bit of a vague term that's most often used when referring to teens or young adults who are super interested in the Gothic punk lifestyle. These would have been the kids listening to bands like Blackville Brides, asking Alexandria to escape the fate, all while reading Twilight or something similar, wearing all black from head to toe, black hoodies, black headphones, so on and so forth. And don't think I'm saying this in a judgey or joke kind of way. I was one of those kids too. Heck, I'd still listen to all of those bands. Dying is your latest fashion, one of the greatest punk albums of all time. For Carly, this was a group of people and a lifestyle that gave her a sense of purpose, a sense of belonging. She was known for being pretty active on websites like vampirefreaks.com, which is another goth or emo website in store. But most of all, she would spend hours upon hours on MySpace. Her profile was pretty much everything you would imagine it to be. It was full of gothic selfies, heaps of makeup, links to all of her favorite online forums, quotes from her favorite books, typical MySpace stuff. By sharing her interest in this genre of entertainment, Carly was able to make dozens of online friends. But there was one friend in particular who really caught Carly's interest, an 18-year-old named Brandon Kane. Brandon was a young musician who was born in Texas but had recently moved to Brisbane, Australia, the total opposite side of the country from Carly. The two immediately became friends as soon as they met. They liked all the same bands, had all the same interests. It was almost like they were meant to be. Before too long, their relationship grew into something more. Carly began to share stories of her new online friend with her real life friends. It wasn't too long after this that Carly stopped referring to him as simply a friend. He was now considered her boyfriend. All of Carly's closest friends knew about Brandon and Sonia knew about him too. It seems that in the early days of their relationship, Sonia was happy that her daughter had met someone that she could be so open with. Even though Brandon was a few years older, Sonia didn't find this too concerning. She mentioned that she would look over Carly's shoulder from time to time to see what the two were chatting about, but she never noticed anything suspicious or anything that concerned her in any way. Before long, the two started video chatting with one another, and by all means, Brandon appeared to be the guy that he claimed to be. Carly couldn't have been happier. Even though her boyfriend lived over 20 hours away, she was just ecstatic to have someone that she could be close with. But it didn't take long before things started to get, well, a bit unusual. Brandon was quickly becoming the main focus of Carly's life. Whenever the two were up to, the other person was immediately informed about it. They shared everything with one another. What I found particularly fascinating is that, as we all know, most teenage relationships don't last too terribly long, especially online relationships. But Carly and Brandon managed to keep their relationship going for more than 18 months, even though they'd never even met in person. After they'd been chatting for about a year or so, Brandon wanted to introduce Carly to his father, Shane, and he did this over a video call. As time rolled on, Carly started talking more and more about Shane. In fact, it didn't take long before Carly was talking about Shane just as much as she was talking about Brandon. This is when Sonia started to get a little bit concerned. She asked Carly why she suddenly had such an interest in Shane, and she explained that Brandon and Shane were incredibly close, much like Sonia and Carly were. Sonia reminded Carly to be careful, and Carly made it very clear that if anything started to get weird or uncomfortable, she would tell her mother right away. And for Sonia, this was enough to calm her fears, so she dropped it and let it be. Sonia would later learn that Shane had a job as a security guard, and this job caused him to travel for work events every so often. In February of 2007, he was traveling across Australia for one of these events, and on his way back home to Brisbane, he offered to stop by Carly and Sonia's home to drop off a few birthday gifts that he and Brandon had purchased for Carly the previous month. At first, Sonia thought this was a little bit strange, but when Shane showed up at the family's home, he was wearing his security guard outfit, so the story seemed to check out. Shane seemed to be exactly the man that he claimed to be. He was clean-cut, professional, and nothing seemed unusual about him. In fact, Carly and Sonia felt so safe around him that they offered to let him spend the night at their home, inviting him to Carly's birthday party the following day. But while Shane was in town, he offered to take Carly shopping. Now, this in my book is definitely a bit strange. What would a 50-year-old man be doing taking a teenage girl shopping? Even if he was the father of her boyfriend, this seems a bit strange considering the two had only just met, and there's been no indication that Carly's mother was even present during their trip. But the following day at Carly's birthday party, that's when things started to get really bizarre. When Shane showed up at Carly's birthday party, it was immediately clear that something strange was happening. When Carly's friends and family members started showing up, Shane started to get visibly uncomfortable. There wasn't any particular moment where you could point to and say, see that, that's weird. But Sonia started to notice that Shane, for lack of a better word, seemed possessive over Carly. It seemed almost as if Shane and Carly were glued at the hip. He didn't let her wander off too terribly far, and he hung around Carly throughout the entire party, rarely ever speaking to anyone other than her for more than a few simple sentences. But the following morning, that's when things really started to get weird. As soon as Sonia passed by Carly's bedroom, she noticed Shane and Carly relying on Carly's bed. In one report, it was claimed that Shane was actually lying on top of Carly, and Carly was visibly uncomfortable. Sonia immediately sprang into action and told Shane that he needed to leave immediately. It doesn't seem like he put up too much of a fight either. He knew he'd been caught. He grabbed his things and left. As soon as he was gone, Carly revealed that he'd made a few passes at her, and that she had repeatedly rejected his advances, insisting that she was in love with his son, not him. Carly then told her mother about the birthday presents that Shane had shown up with. Now, because of YouTube's terms of service, I can't really explain the full extent of these gifts, but let me just say, one of them was an outfit that no 50-year-old man had any business gifting to the girlfriend of his son. This was the moment that Sonia truly understood what was happening here. She made all the right moves in the coming days, taking away Carly's access to social media, banning her from using her cell phone, keeping a much closer eye on her online activity, and calling Shane and telling him that he was never allowed to speak to her daughter again, or she'd report him to the police. Mind you, this all may sound a bit harsh, but this wasn't done as a way to punish Carly in any way. This was all done in a bid to keep Carly safe. And based on Sonia's statements since then, it seems like she likely did a good job explaining this to Carly. It's awful that Carly lost so many of her freedoms because of this guy, but when it comes to the safety of your child, all bets are off, you do what you have to do. But the problem is that, well, we've all been teenagers at some point. We all know that regardless of what your parents tell you to do, if you wanna do something, you'll find a way to do it. And Carly wasn't willing to let Brandon go. She admitted that what happened with Shane was pretty insane, but Brandon wasn't to blame for this. No sooner than her mother forbade her from speaking with Brandon, Carly was right back up to her old antics, speaking to Brandon every chance she could get. Only this time, she was keeping it a secret and her mother had no idea. A few weeks passed by and it was February 19th, 2007, when Carly told her mother that she was going to be spending a night out with a group of her friends. She got dressed up in her best outfit then headed for the front door. But strangely, Sonia says that it was at this moment that Carly's behavior began to change. She turned to her mother and asked her for a hug, then another, then another and another. It was almost as if she was afraid to leave. Her demeanor had changed without any rhyme or reason. Sonia didn't really know what this was all about, but what kind of mother would turn away hugs from her daughter? Carly's last words to her mother before she left were simply, love you, mom. The door closed and Carly was never seen again. Carly never returned home from her outing with her friends that evening. When she still hadn't shown up by the following morning, Sonia knew something had gone terribly wrong and that's when she called the police to report her daughter missing, every parent's worst nightmare. But for Sonia, her nightmare was about to get far, far worse. Sonia would be subjected to something that no parent should ever have to face. As she was pacing around her home, pleading for some sort of news about her daughter, she heard a knock at the door, followed by two police officers with sullen expressions. As we all know, this never means anything good. Carly had been found, but not the way her mother had hoped. Investigators revealed that early that morning, detectives had come across a victim who'd been floating in Horseshoe Bay. That victim was identified as Carly Ryan. When she was taken in for further forensic analysis, it was determined that Carly had endured at least 19 injuries before she lost her life, each of which was more haunting, heartbreaking and heinous than the last. Security cameras and witness reports would soon reveal that Carly was last seen on the beach in the Horseshoe Bay area at around 9.30 the previous evening. She was in the company of what appeared to be two men, but it would later come to light that this had been one man and a teenage boy. They had arrived in the area in a blue vehicle, and it was this vehicle description that was used to track them down later on. As it would turn out, the two males who were seen in the CCTV security footage were none other than Shane and Brandon. Except that's not entirely true. See, that's because Shane and Brandon, they didn't exist. 11 days after Carly was discovered in Horseshoe Bay, police closed in on Gary Francis Newman, as well as his teenage son. His teenage son has never been named due to laws in Australia that prevent the names of the young offenders from being revealed. It would quickly become clear though that Gary was in fact both Shane and Brandon. He'd created an alter ego online to lure teenage girls and cause them to fall in love with him, faking interest in everything they loved and stalking them both online and in the real world. What makes this situation so much worse is that Gary had either convinced or forced his teenage son to play a part in the scheme as well. Considering there's virtually zero information available about Gary's son, we don't know if he was a willing accomplice or just as much a victim as Carly was. Basically, Gary was the one who was chatting with Carly for more than a year online, but anytime he needed to schedule a video call with Carly, he would ask his son to step in to make things more realistic. All the photos that have been shared between the two were also of his own son. When Shane or Gary was forced to leave Carly's home after being caught lying in her bed, he was understandably upset. After all, he'd been concocting this plan for more than a year and a half and in the blink of an eye, it was all over. But he couldn't let this be the end. He needed to see Carly one final time and this time he would bring his teenage son along to help finish the job. Carly was lured out of her home that evening under the promise of finally being able to meet her online boyfriend in person for the first time. She lied to her mother and explained that she would be going out with friends, but in reality, she was due to hang out with her boyfriend or so she thought. The thing is, Carly knew that something was fishy about this situation. She had seen all the red flags. Her mother had warned her about both Shane and Brandon, but she chose to risk it all anyway. We know that Carly knew about the potential dangers because of how apprehensive she was to leave her home that evening. Her mother knew something was a bit off too, but considering Carly lied about her intentions that evening, there was little her mother could do. As she was blissfully unaware of the level of danger her daughter was about to place herself in. Now, don't think for one second that I'm blaming this on Carly. She was never anything more than a victim of this awful, heartless monster. I merely bring up the fact that she ignored all the obvious signs of danger as a warning to parents or teenagers that when your gut tells you something's unsafe, it's probably because it's unsafe. If you smell smoke, there's probably a fire. We've been given the gift of gut feelings for a reason and you should pretty much always trust them. But if you could imagine, this story is about to get a whole lot worse. If you remember, it was nearly two weeks after Carly was found in Horseshoe Bay that Gary's home was finally raided by the police. When detectives showed up at his home, Gary was actually in the middle of chatting up another teenage girl online. When his home was searched and investigators combed through every square inch of his place, they found a notebook that had documented at least 200 different aliases that Gary had been using online. From what I can tell, he used this notebook to help keep his story straight so that his victims wouldn't see right through his charade. Brandon and Shane had been just two of the names, less than 1% of his total list of characters. In his notebook, investigators found names, ages, occupations, interests, everything that related to each and every one of these characters that he'd created. If you consider that Gary used two aliases when speaking with Carly, that means that he could have had another 100 victims, assuming he pulled the whole father's son card for each of them. In reality, this number of victims could be substantially higher. There's just no way to know for sure. This notebook was also a gold mine for investigators because it even documented user names and passwords for each of his fake online profiles, giving them every last piece of evidence that they needed to get this man behind bars. But we have to remember that putting someone behind bars does little to help calm the pain of the family who are now left with one less person at the dinner table each night. Worse yet, in Sonia's case, she's now left with no one at her dinner table each night. Sonia's world ended the day that she lost her daughter. Her purpose, her goals, her ambitions, they're gone and she can never get them back. Thankfully, Gary was sentenced to life in prison. Unfortunately though, he still will be eligible for parole after 29 years, but considering he was 50 when this crime took place, the man will likely be 80 before he ever has the slightest chance of seeing natural sunlight again, though we can all hope that this day never comes for Gary. In the wake of Gary's sentencing, Gary's ex-wife came out and explained why the two had gotten divorced many years before this. She explained that Gary had been shockingly aggressive towards her, assaulting her multiple times, forcing her against her will on many occasions. When he then started turning his attention towards their own teenage daughter, that's when she knew that she needed to get herself and their three children out of there. Unfortunately, this wasn't even a wake up call for Gary. He would later adopt the son of his own, the one that he used in his online schemes and he simply repeated the cycle. After all was said and done, Gary's son was cleared of all charges, which pretty much secures the idea that his son was likely just as much a victim as Carly was. In the aftermath of such a tragedy, Sonya felt that she needed to do something, anything, to help parents whose children may end up in similar situations. This led her to form the Carly Ryan Foundation, a foundation that offers certified online safety programs and conducts regular seminars to help educate children and parents about the dangers of online predators. If this wasn't enough, Sonya was also able to establish Carly's law, an Australian law that allows prosecutors to both charge and convict online predators before they ever lay a hand on a child. They can do this by establishing intent based on chat logs, as well as convict an adult who misrepresents their age to a minor. This law has already saved so many lives and Sonya was the driving force behind this law every step of the way. If not for her, there's no telling how many other children may have ended up just like Carly. If you're a parent or even if you're a teenager, I would strongly urge you to visit CarlyRyanFoundation.com to better understand everything that the foundation has to offer. The resources page has heaps of valuable information that's been updated for modern times to help keep kids safe on more modern platforms such as roadblocks, Fortnite, and the various other social media or gaming platforms that are predominantly aimed towards children. There's nothing that any of us can do to bring Carly back. But if Sonya has it her way, every child across the globe will become better educated about internet safety so that stories like this will one day be a thing of the past. No one should ever have to go through what Carly and Sonya dealt with. And it's our job, you and me, it's our job to keep these kids safe. It was April 16th, 2003, a day like any other in San Antonio, Texas. Traffic along the I-10 was carrying on as usual. When out of nowhere and without any warning, a gold mercury tracer swerved towards the median and struck something, causing the car to launch into the air, bounce around for more than 1,000 feet then crash back down onto the concrete. Every witness to the crash naturally assumed that something awful had likely happened to the driver. But here's the kicker. The car then just kept driving along as if nothing happened. The car continued down the highway for several more miles before finally veering off the road near the John's Road exit and crashing into a patch of trees. When investigators arrived at the scene of the crash, they very quickly learned something wasn't right here. The driver of the car had been mortally wounded but his injuries weren't caused by the crash. Craziest of all, the victim's nipples had been removed and he was missing a portion of his pinky finger. When detectives noticed that his hands and feet had also been duct taped together, well, that's when they knew they uncovered much more than a car crash. They had just stumbled onto a very bizarre crime scene. Before we keep going, I wanna let you guys know about the sponsor of today's video, Factor. If you're getting too busy with your summer plans to cook, Factor can help you skip the process of making a menu, going to the store, prepping everything and cooking meals that ultimately take you hours. 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Colonel Hsu was a soon to be employed psychiatrist at the facility and had worked for the Air Force for more than 23 years with plans to retire in October of 2003. Philip wasn't your average veteran. He'd been decorated with more awards and honors than I can count and was a man deeply dedicated to his country. His wife Tracy recalled Philip and said that she'd never met anyone else who had such a passion for life and all the little things that go along with it. Philip was fiercely loyal to his country and his uniform. Philip and Tracy had met back in 1988 when both of them were stationed at the Eglin Air Force Base in Florida. Philip had just been coming down from a very difficult divorce from his former wife Nancy with her seemingly taking every opportunity to make Philip's life difficult, at least in his eyes. Strangely, around the time of their divorce, his ex Nancy took out two life insurance policies on Philip with each being valued at around $500,000. Philip did his best to have these policies canceled later on, but he wasn't able to do so as the insurance agency claimed that he hadn't been the one who opened the policy so they couldn't have them canceled without the policy holders consent. Now, I'm certainly not a lawyer, but I don't understand how Nancy would have been able to take out a policy on Philip after the two had already been divorced, especially considering that their marriage had ended on very bad terms. But according to various sources, this was certainly the case. In fact, some sources even claim that these policies were given to Nancy as part of their divorce settlement. I just can't wrap my head around this, so if there's any divorce lawyers watching, be sure to let us know in the comments how all of this would have played out because this just seems incredibly bizarre. And in reality, I'm not the only one who thinks this is strange. In fact, Philip found it very concerning as well. Philip wrote a letter to USAA Life Insurance, the company that offered the policy and explained that the policy caused him to fear for his life, worrying that his former wife and her new husband may do anything within their power to claim the benefits of this plan, even if it meant ending his life. In his letter, Philip said, quote, my former wife and her husband would prefer that I die of natural causes. However, the longer I live, the more tempting it becomes for them to act on their plans for my murder. While there isn't any foolproof evidence to claim that Nancy was in any way involved in the case, Philip certainly believed otherwise. His fears were heightened even more when he began receiving a strange series of letters in mid-1999. But these letters weren't from some deranged killer, as you may expect. Instead, they were from an anonymous author who was actually trying to help Philip, or so it seemed. The first letter was received in May of 1999. Philip had told his wife about the letters and they scared him to such a degree that he even told his supervisors at work about them. The only problem is that no one outside of Philip's wife seemed to believe that the letters were anything to be concerned about. These letters Philip had begun receiving were more than just a little bit creepy. They were downright haunting. Just take a look at the first one and you'll see exactly what I'm talking about. Please read this letter. You may be in danger. I'm writing because I remember you as such a kind and caring doctor and I can't just sit by and not help you by telling you what I know. I'll try to keep it short so you're certain to read it. A friend of mine who worked with Don, your ex-wife's husband, told me some scary things. I don't know Don or your ex-wife myself. Sorry, I don't even know her name. My friend told me they wish you were dead so they could collect life insurance. I don't understand why they would have life insurance on you but that's what my friend told me. My friend thinks they may actually be planning something. I don't know if they would actually hurt you but please be careful. I had to write. If I didn't, I couldn't bear the thought of something bad happening to you that I could have prevented by telling you what I heard. If I hear anything more specific, I'll let you know. Shortly after this, things started to go missing. For Philip, the most concerning item that was stolen was his laptop which contained his nearly complete master's thesis. Philip reported his stolen laptop to the police in June of 1999, saying that he was working the library when he stood up and left his table to go use the restroom. When he returned, his laptop was gone. Evidence confirms that Philip's laptop was returned later on in July of 1999, after being left on the hood of his car. When he approached his car, he found a note that said if he reported anything else to the police, other people would die. When he booted up his laptop later on, he found that his entire hard drive had been wiped, taking his master's thesis with it. Philip would eventually confront his ex-wife about the letters and the rumors that she'd been plotting something. Naturally, Nancy claimed she had no idea what the author of the letter was talking about and she claimed it was probably just some kind of joke. While Philip did his best to brush off the thought of someone coming after him, he couldn't shake the feeling that he was being watched. Throughout 1999, Philip was still attending schooling so that he could receive his master's degree and ultimately become a psychiatrist for the Lackland Air Force Base, as mentioned a moment ago. Just to clarify, it was during his final year of schooling that his laptop was stolen. One of Philip's counselors at the school had approached Philip about his master's thesis, explaining that he needed to turn it in soon if he planned on graduating on time. It was during one of these meetings with the counselor that Philip revealed that his laptop had been stolen, but he was doing everything he could to get his thesis completed, though the only copy of it was on his laptop and that had obviously been deleted during the theft. Around this same time, Philip also told the counselor about the threats on his life, as they'd been stressing him out severely. His counselor seems to have been one of the only people to take these threats seriously, and he immediately told Philip that he should contact the police. Philip was apprehensive about going to the police, insisting that they simply wouldn't care or wouldn't take him seriously. Though in reality, it's more likely that he just feared someone else may get hurt if he were to raise any more awareness about his situation. As far as the counselor knows, Philip never spoke with investigators about these allegations. Philip did eventually complete and turn in his master's thesis, though. But things only got more strange from here. Just over a year later, in October of 2000, Philip was scheduled to take his aerospace medical board exam. He had obviously been preparing heavily for the exam, but when the results came back in, Philip scored zero points. It was as if he had never taken the test at all, but several people confirmed that he had been present that day and had actually turned in his exam personally. The crazy thing is, his test was multiple choice, so at some point during the exam, even if he had guessed most of the answers, he was bound to at least get one response correct. The professors believe that for whatever reason, Philip intentionally failed the test, though no one knows why. One theory is that Philip had become dissatisfied with the Air Force and wanted to send a message to his superiors. This rumor is furthered by the fact that he planned on retiring from the Air Force entirely and beginning to practice psychiatry in a private environment. This has never been proven, but it's certainly an interesting theory, though I don't understand why failing his exam would have proven anything to his superiors. In our reality, it would have just made things more difficult for Philip in the long run, but when looking at Philip's medical history, things get pretty concerning. He began reporting panic attacks in June of 1999, the month after he received that first creepy letter. His records indicate that by the end of 1999, his anxiety had grown to such a degree that it had progressed into symptoms of depression. He was placed on medication for depression and in December of 1999, his symptoms had improved, but his underlying fears did not. He still feared for his life, but the medication took the edge off so that he wasn't so focused on it all the time. Over the following three years, up until April of 2003, Philip worked alongside a psychiatrist trying various medications to help remedy his panic attacks, but they persisted all throughout this time. Philip's paranoia grew to a worrying degree and his panic attacks continued to worsen in severity, to the point that Philip began to fear he was going to have a heart attack. Philip's psychiatrist worried that he wasn't being entirely truthful in their conversations. It wasn't necessarily that Philip was lying to him, but he felt that Philip was instead withholding important details in some of the scenarios. But that's when Philip finally dropped a bombshell on the psychiatrist and revealed the story about the threatening letters. Philip knew that the story sounded crazy, but the psychiatrist noted that Philip's anxious response to telling the story indicated that he was, without a doubt, telling the truth. Around the same time, on April 11th, 2003, Philip updated his will. He had previously had his son listed as a beneficiary. The problem is that his son was in the midst of some marital issues and Philip feared that if he lost his life and his son received the money, he may end up losing most of it in a divorce settlement. To fix this, Philip updated his will and everything that was going to be given to his son was now going to be given to his wife. While this is the official explanation to this sudden change in plans, other people believe Philip was making final arrangements as he knew his life was about to end. But more on that in a moment. Philip's concerns about his job performance were taking a heavy toll on him. He knew his anxiety and paranoia were affecting his ability to work and he confided in a psychiatrist that he was worried he was soon going to be unable to do his job. But that's when Philip revealed the most concerning thing of all. He came in one day and revealed to a psychiatrist that he'd experienced what he called a dissociative episode. Philip elaborates on this by saying that he had an episode or a vision would be a better way to put this about driving to work one day and losing control of his car after a great deal of violence had been inflicted on him. Now, this may sound like something out of an episode of The Twilight Zone, but I assure you this story is entirely true. And unfortunately for Philip and his family, his worst fears right down to the very last detail were about to come true. It was the morning of April 16th, 2003, just days after his last meeting with the psychiatrist. Colonel Philip Shue was traveling along Interstate 10 just outside of San Antonio, Texas, just minutes after 8 a.m. Two witnesses reported seeing Philip on the highway just after mile marker 543. They reported that immediately after this marker, Philip's car began to behave erratically. He would swerve in and out of lanes, eventually crossing the median and remaining here for several hundred yards then weaving in between light poles. As he was traveling along the median, his car struck something though we don't know what specifically. After hitting this object, his car became airborne with some reports suggesting the car bounced several times over a span of a thousand feet. I'm not sure what these reports mean when they say that the car bounced, but judging by the photos of the aftermath, it seems safe to assume the car had been through quite the ordeal. Regardless of the obvious damage to the car, Philip continued traveling down the highway for several more miles, with witnesses saying that Philip corrected the car and seemingly drove normally again throughout this time. However, four or five miles later, as soon as the car passed the Johns Road exit, it crossed the side median and drove directly into a patch of trees, striking three of the trees and coming to a halt after the driver's side smashed into one final tree with some serious force. Both of the witnesses claimed that the car had been seen driving between 60 and 65 miles per hour throughout the entire ordeal. And neither witness ever saw the brake lights on the car light up, not even once. Reports indicate that Tracy says that Philip left home early that day at about 5.30 a.m. so that he could catch up on some paperwork that he'd been lagging behind on. He had coffee with his wife as usual and the two talked about their plans for the future. Then he left afterward telling his wife, see you later. When he crashed his car later that morning, police noticed that Philip was actually headed in the opposite direction from his work and no one knows what he had been doing between 5.30 and 8.00 a.m. It doesn't seem that anyone ever reported seeing him at work that morning. And none of the evidence found at the scene suggested that he had been there either. What he'd been up to during this time remains a mystery. When investigators and detectives arrived at the scene of the crash, they quickly determined that Philip had suffered fatal injuries. He was in such a bad state that there was never any attempt to resuscitate him. Police and first responders were initially treating the case as a simple car crash. But that's when they noticed the duct tape. When investigators made it to the scene of the crash where Philip's car had come to rest, they removed the door of the car and uncovered several pieces of evidence that just didn't make sense. They first noticed the strips of duct tape that had been wrapped around his wrists and ankles with around four or five inches of tape dangling off of each extremity. Stranger yet, his work uniform had been ripped open and was covered in blood. When they examined him even further, that's when they noticed that both of his nipples had been removed leaving disturbing wounds on his chest. While most videos and articles covering this case claimed that his pinky had been entirely removed as well, in reality, only the tip had been removed and this tip has never been found. Philip's cell phone was found inside the car. It was a clamshell style phone and while no calls had been made that morning, there was blood found on the inside of the phone suggesting that it had been opened up at some point after Philip had been attacked. Philip was known to have had at least $47 in his wallet but his wallet was missing and the wallet pocket on his pants had been cut open but investigators don't believe this would have been a severe enough cut to cause his wallet to fall out somewhere suggesting that they believe it was either ditched or stolen. The only other suspicious items found inside the car were a straight razor, two pocket knives, a latex glove and some medical needles. Philip's DNA was later found on both the glove and one of the knives but there was no DNA from anyone else inside the car or on any of the other items. The latex glove doesn't appear to have been ever worn and detectives claim that the knives they found would not have been sharp enough to inflict the injuries that Philip was found with. A large wound was found in Philip's chest during the autopsy. This wound, according to the autopsy report does not appear to have been caused by the crash. It seems as though it was inflicted just minutes or hours beforehand. The coroner reported signs of hesitation around the wound, suggesting the perpetrator was either nervous or wanted to make the wound as painful as possible. The same hesitation was not found around his nipples and they appear to have been removed with the utmost confidence and precision. The coroner ultimately found no evidence or any signs of a struggle, as is true in many of these cases but this is where the investigation takes a nosedive. After all of this evidence was gathered, after learning the man had been possibly restrained and duct taped by all four limbs, after his nipples had been removed, after his shirt and pants had been torn open and after the tip of his pinky had been removed, the coroner ruled that Philip did this to himself. At the request of Philip's late wife Tracy, a second autopsy was performed. The doctor who performed the second autopsy agreed with most of the findings from the first autopsy but with a few exceptions. Mainly this doctor didn't believe that all these wounds could have been inflicted by Philip himself. He did admit that there was a distinct possibility that Philip could have done this to himself but most of the evidence suggested otherwise. The main bit of evidence that I personally find most concerning is the fact that there were no fingerprints found on the duct tape that was wrapped around his limbs. This would suggest that whoever put the tape there was wearing gloves or was being particularly cautious. But there's a bigger picture here that to some extent could actually help prove that Philip didn't do this to himself. Philip had recently announced that he planned on retiring from the military with this retirement being scheduled to take place in just a few months. Philip had also been accepted into a fellowship program that he'd been highly anticipating and he'd just purchased a new home with his wife Tracy outside of town. But to top all of this off, Philip's psychiatrist found no indication that Philip had any sort of plans to claim his own life, none whatsoever. In fact, Philip was looking forward to the future though the creepy letters that he'd been receiving certainly put a damper on things. Philip's medical records showed no signs of mental illness outside of his depression and justifiable paranoia. When a toxicology report was conducted, the only thing found in his system was his prescribed medications and a small amount of lidocaine. Interestingly, the reports showed that Philip had stopped taking his anti-depression medication at least a week before the crash. But both his psychiatrist and his wife say that they were not aware that he had discontinued his medicines. Worse yet, the levels of lidocaine in his blood were initially reported to have come from pain cream. But upon further analysis, it was determined that the levels in his system were far, far higher than what would have been usual in pain cream. And that's when investigators remembered the pack of surgical needles that had been found in his car. Investigators have concocted a narrative that when you really think about it, could make sense. They believe since Philip worked in a hospital, he was able to procure lidocaine injections for himself. They believe that he would have used the lidocaine prior to inflicting the injuries on himself. While this does make sense in a way, it doesn't explain the hesitation that was found around his chest wound or why he would have done this in the first place. Now, some reports say that this chest wound was quite deep, as were the wounds to his nipples. But I was able to locate an official legal report about the incident and this report claims that all of Philip's unusual wounds were just superficial. Meaning that they didn't penetrate deep enough to cause any lasting damage or threaten his life. So if this is true, the hesitation found around his chest wound may have meant that Philip did in fact inflict the wound upon himself, but he was apprehensive about doing so. Either because of the pain or because he was unsure that he wanted to go through with it. To make things even more interesting, the duct tape that was found wrapped around his wrists was not tied in a way that would indicate that he was fully restrained by someone. In fact, the method in which the tape was applied wouldn't have restrained him at all. Now, I don't fully understand how the police described the tape being wrapped around his wrists and there's no public photos from the case to prove anything. But they claim that any grown person would have been able to break the tape due to the way that it had been wrapped, even if it was tied behind their back. There were also no signs of stretching on the tape, as you might expect, if someone was struggling to break free. But there's still one other piece of evidence that just doesn't make sense. The missing tip of his pinky finger. According to first responders, while this is certainly a strange clue, it's most likely that he lost the tip of his pinky in the car crash. First responders noted that while there was a sizable amount of blood on Philip's clothing from his other injuries, there wasn't a large amount of blood coming from his finger, suggesting that it may have been cut off after he passed away, possibly being severed by glass or by his own car door during the crash. Now, we're all obviously asking the same question here. Did Philip really do all of this to himself? And if not, who's to blame? Well, according to his wife Tracy, the answer lies in another question. Who stood to gain the most? Tracy Xu has been very outspoken about Nancy, Philip's first wife, and her potential involvement in Philip's demise. Now, as I mentioned at the beginning of the video, there's no evidence to suggest that Nancy or her husband were involved outside of the mysterious letters that Philip had received. But in 2008, Tracy and Nancy were involved in a lawsuit with one another. During this lawsuit, Philip's passing was officially reclassified, and it's now being listed as a full-blown homicide. This allowed USAA to release the funds of Philip's life insurance. And who received them? Nancy and her husband. Tracy did her best to sue for the money, but she ultimately lost the court battle and the funds were handed over to Nancy. It's been reported that only 500,000 was paid out to Nancy though, and we know that Philip had two policies, so I don't know where the other money went. It may be best to assume that this is why Philip changed his will, and he somehow managed to get the second policy switched to his current wife's name, but this is just a guess I really don't know what happened to the rest of the money. So who's to blame here? Well, we still don't know. More than 20 years later, the case remains as mysterious as the day that it happened. There's so much that can't be explained here, such as why Nancy was given two life insurance policies on Philip's life, who had been writing the mysterious letters that Philip received leading up to the crime, and even stranger, how Philip had such a bizarre premonition about his crash just days before it happened. Well, there is one explanation for Philip's bizarre premonition about his crash. He planned it. He planned it down to the last detail. Now, I have a hard time believing the theory that Philip did this to himself, but it is possible. But considering the courts in 2008 determined the case is now reclassified as a homicide, I mean, we just don't know. I could see this case going either way, especially considering that Nancy, Philip's first wife, has refused to make any comments about the case. In fact, she's pleaded the fifth more than a dozen times when asked about Philip's final moments. In a letter to USAA, written back in 1999, Philip implicated his ex-wife, Nancy, and said, quote, thoroughly examine my eventual death for evidence of foul play, even if on the surface, the cause would appear to be natural or accidental. And wiser words may never have been spoken. In June of 1930, Joseph Mozinsky left work one evening telling his wife he was heading out to run some errands. In reality, Joseph was continuing a two-year affair with his 19-year-old mistress, Catherine May. Catherine and Joseph were sitting together in a parked car in Queens, New York when an unidentified man approached the vehicle and without warning fired two rounds at Joseph, ending his life instantly. The mysterious man then handed Catherine a note, telling her not to read it until the following day. He then walked Catherine to a bus stop and left her there unharmed. Catherine did not immediately report the crime to the police. Instead, she waited until they approached her about a coat that she left behind that evening. She then handed the note over to investigators. Investigators were stunned by this note, partly because of the crazy story Catherine had shared about that evening, but also because the note didn't make any sense. All the note said was Joseph Mozinsky, 3X3-X-097. Police had no leads in this case until they received a letter in the mail, describing Joseph as a rascal and a dirty rat. This letter warned detectives that 14 more of Joseph's friends would soon be joining him. Just a couple of days later, police found another body. When police spoke with Catherine May about the night in question back in June of 1930, she gave conflicting accounts about what really took place that evening. You've got to keep in mind this story unfolded nearly 100 years ago and the world was a much different place back then. Catherine was devastated by what had transpired and rightfully so. There was a much bigger social impact here than what we may be accustomed to these days. See, Catherine had an image to uphold. So when police began interrogating her about what happened that evening, she repeatedly tried to cover her tracks and save herself from public ridicule. It's believed that this is why Catherine never even went to the police after the crime had taken place. She knew she'd messed up by having an affair with a married man and if she informed police about it, it would only have made matters worse. So she did her best to conceal her true intentions that evening. When asked about the crime, Catherine first told police that she believed the suspect was an Italian gangster, specifically pinning a man named Albert Lombardo. But as police pressed her about this, they quickly realized that she was lying. In more recent years, many people believed that these accusations were racially or ethnically motivated and that would certainly align with the average public opinion at the time. Officers realized rather quickly though that Catherine wasn't being entirely truthful. And when pressed about this, Catherine did eventually confess that her story was untrue. And that's when she began to change her tone. She finally explained that the man appeared to have a thick German accent. Worse yet, the man didn't just stop at ending Joseph's life. According to Catherine, after ending the life of Joseph, the man grabbed her and took advantage of her. He then began rummaging through Joseph's pockets almost as if he was looking for something. He found some papers in one of Joseph's pockets and rather strangely, he set the papers on fire, then turned to Catherine and asked for her address. The man then grabbed Catherine and walked her to the nearest bus stop, boarding the bus alongside her as soon as it arrived. It was at this point that he handed her the aforementioned note. He accompanied her to the nearest bus station, then departed after telling her not to open the note until the following day. Catherine did not obey the man's wishes. As soon as he was out of sight, Catherine looked at the note and found an odd phrase written inside, Joseph Mozinsky, 3x, 3-x-097. Now, there are conflicting reports about this note with some sources saying that the note was handwritten, while others suggest that the phrase on the note had been stamped with red ink. Either way, Joseph's body was found the following day. With all of this unfolding, the editor of the New York Evening Journal received a bizarre letter in the mail. The letter began by saying, kindly print this letter in your paper for Mozinsky's friends. This statement was followed up by a series of letters and numbers that didn't make any logical sense. The letter claimed that by printing this letter in the paper, the editor would be saving the lives of many people, saying, quote, By doing this, you may save their lives and the women may know where the missing papers are and who has them since they were given to Mozinsky. We don't want any more crimes unless we have to. This letter was then signed 3x, the man behind the gun. When police were informed about this letter, they looked at the postmark and found that it had been mailed out several hours before Joseph had even lost his life. This confirmed to investigators that the man behind the letter was indeed the man behind the crime. The next day, the paper did decide to report on the incident, but they never mentioned the letter in their write-up. Just a few days later, the paper would receive another letter from this elusive criminal. This time, his intentions were much more clear. It became obvious that this man wasn't going to leave until the job was done. In this letter, he clarified that Catherine May was nothing but an innocent bystander and that she had no involvement in the crime whatsoever. But he continued on and seems to have suggested that Joseph Mozinsky may have been much more of a womanizer than his wife and Catherine even realized. He said rather cryptically, quote, Mozinsky was nothing but a rascal, a dirty rat. Not two women as stated in the papers, but six and two young girls, one 14 and one 15, were with him in that same place. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but this seems to suggest that Joseph had been involved not only with Catherine, but at least six other women, two of whom were underage. The man continued on by saying, quote, I am the agent of a secret international order. And when I met Mozinsky that night, it was to get him certain documents, but unfortunately they were not in his possession at that time. If his relative knew so much of his luck with women, maybe he would tell us what became of the following items. NYX 2673, NJ 4344, Philadelphia, XV346. These papers must be returned to us at once or 14 more Mozinsky's friends will join him. Mozinsky's relatives and friends have until Monday, 12 p.m. to bring these documents to us. If no answer is received by that time, we will start merry hell for all of them. It was clear whoever was writing these letters, they meant business and they were going to stop at nothing to get what they believed was rightfully theirs. The letter was once again signed 3X. On the evening of June 16th, five days after the crimes against Joseph and Catherine, Noah Salley, a 26-year-old radio mechanic from Brooklyn, had picked up his girlfriend, Betty, driving to a nearby salvage yard so the two could spend some time alone in the car. As the two sat in the vehicle, they noticed a man with a flashlight approaching. He shined the light in the window then revealed that he was holding a weapon, aimed at Noel. This man, much like the man from the previous crime, spoke with a thick German accent and asked Noel for his driver's license. After reviewing his license, the unknown man then turned his flashlight into the distance and began flickering it in a pattern. When Noel asked what he was doing, the man said that he was telling his friends that he wouldn't be needing their assistance. The man then turned back to Noel and asked if he knew Joseph Mozinsky. Noel replied, no, and the man immediately fired at him. Despite his wounds, Noel was still alive and well and managed to utter the phrase, I'm not the man you're looking for. The assailant then calmly walked to the back of the car, looked at the license plate and replied, you're the one we want all right, you're going to get what Joe got. He then fired one more round and ended Noel's life. Three X returned to Noel's side and began searching through his pockets. He then pulled out a slip of paper and shouted, I have it. The man then turned to Betty, Noel's girlfriend, and started to advance towards her. She then grabbed a religious necklace that she'd been wearing and that's when three X decided to back off. He took Betty and much like he did with Catherine, took her to a nearby bus stop. He handed Betty a note and when she read it later on, it simply said, sally three X. Stamped in red ink, just like the letter that Catherine had received just days before. When police arrived at the scene of the crime later on, they collected several key pieces of evidence that seemed to prove that Noel certainly knew much more than he was letting on. When they searched his body, they found a newspaper clipping about the crimes against Joseph and Catherine with the word Mozinsky stamped in red ink followed by the words, here's how, written in the margins. We don't know if Noel was the one who collected this clipping or if it had been left in his pocket by the mysterious three X. All we know is that it was there when investigators arrived. If this weren't strange enough, investigators soon found a roll of cash that had been stashed inside of a magazine with this being found in the back of the car. Prior to these discoveries, police still believed Catherine may have somehow been involved in the first crime. But after hearing Betty's story, they agreed that Catherine was nothing more than an innocent victim, just like three X had said. Three X may have been nothing more than a cold-blooded monster, but he was now proven to at least be honest. Shortly after the crime was committed, the Evening Journal and police both received a letter in the mail. One of these letters contained a 23-caliber shell casing, as well as a note that mentioned Noel Sally, referring to him as V5 Sally. The letter that they received went on to state, quote, Some of our money was found on his person and the NY document. 13 more men and one woman will go if they do not make peace with us. It was at this point that the Evening Journal decided to post the letters they'd received from three X, hoping this may put a stop to the crimes. Almost immediately after the publication went out, they received yet another letter. This one read, quote, Tonight one more will go. You may let them know three X is the man behind the gun. He asks for no quarter, but will give none. On June 18th at 9 p.m., I will be at college point to get WRV8. Police were desperate for answers in this case and they set out on an incredible manhunt to try to bring three X to justice before he could get ahold of whoever WRV8 was. Police were stationed all over the town that evening, but oddly, no crime was ever reported. The very next day, the Evening Journal received yet another letter. This letter was the first of its kind because it almost seemed hopeful in a strange way. It read, quote, WRV8 of CP has returned to Philadelphia XV346 to meet tonight after reading their paper. Also $37,000 of blackmail money The letter continued on by saying that since the items were returned, one woman and five men would have their lives spared. It's assumed that these individuals must have somehow been close with the would-be victim and that by fessing up, the men was able to save their lives. But there was a catch. The letter concluded by saying that NJ4344, as well as $39,000 were still missing. This meant that seven more men were still in danger. 3x referred to each of these men by their code names, saying that they each needed to follow orders if they wanted their lives to be spared. The threat to WRV8 may have been over, but as far as investigators knew, the real crimes had only just begun and Joseph Mozinski's brother was about to learn this the hard way. On June 19th, just eight days after Joseph Mozinski had lost his life, his brother received a letter of his own. The postmarks on this letter suggested that it had come from Philadelphia and the writer ordered Joseph's brother, John, to deliver a series of valuable documents to him, presumably referring to the aforementioned $39,000, as well as the NJ document. The letter requested that the documents be placed inside a newspaper and hidden inside the men's room at the Broad Street station. As soon as John received the letter, he approached the police and an investigative team and explained that he had no idea what the letter was talking about, claiming to have no knowledge of these documents whatsoever. John was placed under police protection while the investigation was underway, and it seems as though John may have actually been telling the truth. This is because just two days later, investigators would receive their final letter from 3X. The letter stated, the last document, NJ 4344, returned to us on the 19th at 9 p.m. My mission is ended. There's no further cause for worry. At this point, you're probably thinking the same thing that I was. Now that 3X's job was over, he probably planned to leave the area and never return, meaning we'll never actually find out who this man was or what he wanted. Well, that's not entirely true. See, 3X may have been a monster, but he wasn't one to leave Lucent's. Before signing off his final letter, 3X came clean about his intentions, his origins, and why he'd shown up here in the first place. 3X explained that he was a former officer in the German army. He said that he'd been recruited by a secret organization based in Russia, known as the Red Diamond of Russia. One interesting thing to note is that when 3X signed all of his letters, he didn't technically sign them as 3X. He signed them as 3, followed by an upside down V and a right side up V, giving the impression of a poorly written X. 3X went into extreme detail, explaining that the inverted V represented the supreme tribunal of the order, and the normal V represented that he was a special agent. He went on to explain that Joseph Mozinsky and Noel Sallie both had their lives ended because they too were part of the Red Diamond of Russia. He said that they'd been affiliated with the organization, but had committed treason after joining a gang of blackmailers and smugglers. The three documents that 3X had been searching for were the property of the Red Diamond of Russia. The documents had been stolen for blackmail purposes, and it was 3X's job to get these documents back. He signed off his letter by saying that he would now be returning to Russia, clarifying that any further letters received by anyone claiming to be 3X would be considered fake. Police were interested in speaking with the family of Joseph and Noel, hoping that they'd be able to shed some light on this secret organization. But as expected, when the families were questioned, they claimed to have no knowledge of this Red Diamond of Russia, and even went as far as claiming that there was no way their loved ones could have been involved in such a thing. But one thing that's rather interesting is that just a month before Joseph lost his life, he deposited $8,000 into his bank account, the equivalent of around $150,000 today. It's never been publicly revealed where this money actually came from, and many suspect it could have been a payout provided by the blackmailers or the smugglers. After all was said and done, police did receive more letters from 3X, but as 3X's own letter stated, it's to be assumed that all of these future letters were nothing but fakes. Catherine and Betty were both called in on multiple occasions by police to take a look at a few people who police suspected could have been involved in the crimes, but both Catherine and Betty were able to clear each of these suspects of any involvement in the case. It's safely assumed that 3X did, in fact, return to Russia as he claimed. At this point, the case was, in a sense, solved, but neither 3X nor the Red Diamond of Russia were ever heard from again, and the identity of 3X remains a mystery. What I personally find so odd about this case is that you have to ask yourself, who is the real criminal here? As far as secret agents go, 3X seems to be a relatively level-headed person. After all, he gave each of his victims the chance to turn over the papers that were stolen, giving them the chance to have their lives spared, and 3X made good on his word. Each of the victims that did return the papers were allowed to live. That's extremely unusual in crimes like this. Most of the time, the criminal would have gotten what they wanted and claimed the lives of their victims anyway, simply for revenge, but 3X didn't. But even though 3X made good on his word, you have to remember he took advantage of Catherine when she was a completely innocent woman, not to mention the fact that he took the lives of two other people. But you have to wonder if Joseph and Noel were even half as honest as 3X was, would they have even ended up in this situation in the first place? I personally blame Joseph just as much as 3X for putting Catherine in such a dangerous position whether he meant to or not, not to mention the two underage girls that he was supposedly involved with as well. Joseph Mozinsky is just as much of a criminal as 3X is. It's just hard to feel bad for someone who built a life for themselves that was fueled by crime, regardless of which side of the table they were playing on. This case is still technically unsolved, but for all intents and purposes, at least in my own mind, this case has reached a perfectly reasonable conclusion. 3X showed up, took what was rightfully his, and left. It would be great to find out who this masked man really was one day, and maybe even learn what was contained on those papers, but let's be real, that's simply not going to happen. Remember, this case took place nearly 100 years ago, so even though 3X may have never seen justice in his life, certainly be held accountable in the next one. The only remaining question is, whatever became of the red diamond of Russia? February 13th, 2009, when Amber Dubois set off for school for what would unknowingly be the final time. As she arrived, she was approached by a boy who appeared to be a bit older than her, and certainly much larger. The two chatted outside for a few brief moments, and then Amber disappeared. Just a year later, in February of 2010, Chelsea King was out jogging on a local hiking trail in Rancho Bernardo Park. She planned on going on a five-mile hike, but at some point along the way, she too disappeared. Investigators would later find pieces of her clothing scattered all around the trail, and soon after, detectives came across a crime scene. 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I'm always looking for new stories, and most of these cases come from you guys. But with that said, let's begin the story of Amber Dubois. Amber Dubois was a very interesting girl. She was just 14 years old in 2009, but she had already made up her mind about what she wanted to do for the rest of her life. Like many young girls her age, Amber had a loving interest in animals and wildlife. She'd spent a lot of her life infatuated by farm animals, and she'd always speak to her mother about her dreams of owning a few animals of her own one day. See, Amber was a very academic young girl. While many of the other kids her age were worried about what they were going to do for the summer or where they were going to go shopping or go hang out after school, Amber was extremely focused on getting good grades, taking as many courses as possible than trying to graduate early. And she was well on her way to doing so. Amber had been attending Escondido High School in California, just a short trip away from the heart of San Diego. When it came time to choose her classes for the year, Amber knew that she wanted to become part of the school's future farmers program. This program would allow the younger generation to become acquainted with farm animals and all the ins and outs of living life on a farm and taking care of the animals and livestock. This program was everything Amber had dreamed of, but there was one catch that her mother seemingly didn't see coming. This program would allow Amber to get a head start on her future goals of becoming an animal behavioral scientist, but in order for this to happen, Amber would need access to a lamb, particularly a lamb of her very own. Her mother wasn't interested in letting her buy a lamb. After all, lambs are a lot of work, at least for someone who doesn't really have access to all the necessary supplies and whatnot, and Amber certainly fell into this category. But as the weeks and months passed by, Amber continued to beg and plead with her mother to allow her to buy a baby lamb. Eventually, her mother felt obligated to agree and even offered to pay for the lamb if it meant helping Amber achieve the future that she had always dreamed of. But while she was very hesitant about the idea, Amber's mother wrote to her check for the lamb with Amber becoming ecstatic, securely hiding the check inside of her backpack so that she could go to pick up her new baby after school. This all took place on February 13, 2009, a date that for reasons unexpected, her mother would never forget. Amber left her home that morning with a skip in her step, overwhelmed with excitement by the idea of finally having a lamb of her own. She couldn't wait to get to school and tell both her instructor and her friends about what the future had in store for her. But tragically, she never got the chance to do so. As soon as Amber arrived on the campus of her local high school, a witness spotted her talking to someone who was described as being much taller than Amber. The witness couldn't make out the boy's age, but seems to have believed that the person that she was speaking to was a student at their high school. To clarify, the witness didn't say this outright, but it's just the impression they gave during their interview. They described the boy as being doughy looking, quite tall and dark-complected. After Amber was spotted talking to this person, she would never be seen again. This particular day was a Friday. It had been raining on and off throughout the day, but by all means, it was a day like any other. That is, until Amber failed to return home that afternoon. One thing to note is that Amber's parents had separated at some point during her childhood, leading her mother to begin dating again. While Amber's mother appears to have been at work on this particular afternoon, her mother's boyfriend had been at home and was anticipating Amber's return from school. But she never came back. Naturally, the boyfriend, named Dave, assumed that Amber had just become caught up in her newly purchased lamb and had lost track of time. But as minutes and hours eventually ticked by, Dave became extremely worried. He decided to drive over to Amber's school and try to find her. No sooner than he arrived, he spotted one of Amber's teachers and asked if she had seen Amber. In a disturbing twist, she replied that Amber hadn't been in class that day. This was particularly odd because not only should Amber have been at school for the entire day, but she'd also never missed a day prior to this. Her mother recalled that Amber was hyper-focused on her school attendance and her studies, and she wouldn't miss a day of school no matter what. So where had she gone? Dave grew incredibly concerned at this point and called Amber's mother to report what had happened. Soon after, Amber was officially reported missing and the search was on. Hundreds of volunteers caught wind of Amber's disappearance and turned up to help search for her. The search area spanned for miles, but no matter how far or wide the search was, no one managed to find any evidence that would explain where she had gone or who could have been responsible. When police began to dig deeper into her disappearance, they realized that Amber's phone was still active in the area a short time after she had disappeared. There was no mention of what time her phone was specifically turned off for good, but we know that wherever she had gone, it had likely been within a span of just a few miles as Amber's home and school were both within the proximity of the same cell tower. And there was no indication that she'd been anywhere near another cell tower during the beginning stages of her disappearance. Now, it's obviously possible that her phone could have been disabled before she left the area, but police didn't seem to believe that this was a likely scenario, though it's unclear why. When police began looking further into her cell phone data, they quickly learned that Amber's voicemail had been accessed shortly after she had disappeared. This voicemail again pinged off the same cell tower that connected to both Amber's home and her school. Investigators had now begun to feel confident that Amber had been abducted, but the only real evidence they had to go on was the eyewitness account from earlier that morning, describing the unknown mail that she'd been speaking with just moments before she vanished. Police, now taking the case far more seriously, began to interview all of the registered offenders in the area, as well as Amber's friends and family. A total of 1,200 tips were followed up on, and police conducted at least 500 interviews, but none of these interviews produced any leads or additional evidence. The captain of the police force recalled that no matter how much they investigated the case, they only ended up with more dead ends. Just over a year later, things would only get worse. Chelsea King was just 17 years old on February 25th, 2010. She was a straight A student at Poeway High School in California. Much like Amber, Chelsea lived just a few miles from the heart of San Diego. Chelsea was also a girl who took her schoolwork very seriously. Outside of her usual classes, she was a member of the school's cross-country team and would spend a couple hours each day training, running and hiking. One particular trail that she often visited was in the Rancho Bernardo Community Park. The trek would have taken her about five miles from beginning to end, and it was a trail that her family said that she would take time and time again, a trail she knew like the back of her hand. Chelsea had spent her last few months researching more than 100 colleges. Considering she had excellent grades and a remarkable work ethic, she'd been accepted into a few of these schools already, but it seems as though she was trying to decide between the University of Washington and the University of British Columbia. But unfortunately, she wouldn't attend either of these schools. That's because after she was out hiking her favorite trail at Rancho Bernardo one day, she wouldn't return home. It was February 25th, 2010, almost exactly a year after the devastating disappearance of Amber Dubois. Chelsea had been following her typical five-mile route, with her parents expecting her home at her usual time. But that time came and went with no signs of Chelsea. Chelsea's family and friends searched all over the park for any sign of her, but there was simply no trace of her. Before long, the police were called in to investigate. The police worked alongside a group of countless volunteers. With their combined efforts, they began to make a bit of progress in Chelsea's case, but it wasn't the progress that they had hoped for. Rather than finding evidence that Chelsea was alive and well, all of their discoveries proved the exact opposite. First, volunteers came across one of Chelsea's socks, found about two miles away from where she had parked her car, but then came the most shocking evidence of all. A volunteer came across her undergarments, combined with evidence that Chelsea had met with a terrible fate. A short while later, one of her shoes was found as well, less than a mile away from the two previous discoveries. A police sergeant says that the location of this evidence proved to them that foul play was almost certainly involved. The FBI was called in to investigate soon after, with them interviewing people at at least 300 homes in the surrounding area, and following up on at least 600 tips. And again, registered offenders were interviewed, but no one seemed suspicious or gave any indication that they may have had ties to Chelsea's disappearance. But investigators would finally have a breakthrough in the case when they sent in the underwear that they had found for a DNA analysis. When the results came back, they found that the DNA obviously matched Chelsea, but they also found DNA that belonged to a man that was known to the local police far too well, a man named John Gardner. John Gardner was well known to the police near San Diego. That's because back in 2000, he'd been convicted in another case involving a minor. In this particular case, the victim made it away with her life, but just barely. He had ambushed a 13-year-old girl and taken advantage of her. In a truly chilling twist, the young girl had actually been his neighbor. John had been about 21 years old at the time of his offense. He was sentenced to serve just six years behind bars, being released early on good behavior. The prisons were known to have been incredibly overcrowded at this time, and it's likely that this played a part in his early release as well. John was eventually released from parole in 2008, but a later investigation found that during the stint of his parole, he violated it at least seven times, including one time in which he lived too close to a school in 2007. John was also given an inklet to wear during his parole, during which time he was documented as having violated that 168 times, but nothing was done about this. When the GPS data was looked over later on, it was found that he'd spent countless hours in close proximity to several schools. He was also spotted in front of a daycare, as well as visiting prisons. With police believing he may have been delivering contraband to inmates. When police connected John to the case of Chelsea King, everything began to fall into place. It didn't take a genius to connect the dots and understand that John had stalked Chelsea along her jogging route that day, striking when she least expected it. It was reported that he took advantage of Chelsea and also claimed her life, but police never revealed the order in which these events took place. But as investigators were digging up all the details that connected John to Chelsea's disappearance, they began to realize that Chelsea's case had striking similarities to the case of Amber Dubois. Police would eventually track John down to a bar, where they found him to be soaking wet, covered in mud, and clearly drunk. They brought him in for questioning regardless, and it became apparent that he wasn't telling the truth about his knowledge of Chelsea's disappearance. But things got a lot darker when, without being provoked, John brought up Amber's disappearance as well. We have no idea why he would have spoken about Amber, and police say that her name came up at random during their interview. During the process of John's interrogation, it became clear to him that investigators had enough evidence to pin him to the crime. He eventually called in an attorney, and the attorney knew that they had a very solid case against him. It also became clear that prosecutors were going to do their best to secure the death penalty. Throughout this process, John quickly began to realize that, by all means, his life was essentially over. This realization set in even more when he found out that just five days later, on March 2, 2010, a team of FBI investigators had located the remains of Chelsea, buried near Lake Hodges. This was the moment that John knew the jig was up. He'd been found out, and there was little he could do to stop his conviction. Unless he got crafty, investigators obviously had enough evidence to pin him to the case of Chelsea King, with the DNA match on Chelsea's clothing being the most crucial piece of this. But the evidence connecting him to the disappearance of Amber Dubois was trivial at best. They believed her case had many similarities to the case of Chelsea, but they had virtually no evidence tying him to her disappearance. Just because he mentioned her name in an interview doesn't prove he was guilty. It just proves he watched local news back in early 2009. But that's when investigators came up with a plan. As mentioned, John was staring down the barrel of capital punishment, but they offered him a plea bargain that he couldn't afford to refuse. If he would lead them to the grave of Amber Dubois, they would agree to stop pursuing capital punishment, and instead simply pursue a life sentence. The only problem with this is that Chelsea's family would need to agree with these terms. Up until this point, Amber's family had been living in utter turmoil, hoping, begging, and praying to learn what had happened to their beloved daughter. The only thing worse than finding out that your loved one passed away is finding out that they're just missing, and you have no idea if they may still be out there begging to be found. After hearing about the heartache that the Dubois family had been forced into, Chelsea's family agreed, without hesitation, to waive the possibility of capital punishment in exchange for a plea deal. Everyone was in agreement, and John decided to open up about what had happened to both Amber and Chelsea. He told police everything, and he led them to an old dirt road, taking them to a rusted-out water tank. Nearby, police found the shallow grave that belonged to Amber. When John explained the details of her final moments and what he had done to her, they confirmed these details after digging up her remains, and it appeared that John had, in fact, been telling the truth. He was later convicted and given two life sentences, one for each of the girls, as well as that additional 25 years for assault, and an additional 24 years for other convictions. Needless to say, John Gardner will never be leaving prison again. But one of the headlines and comments that I continually see in regards to this case is that the system somehow failed these two girls. I'll admit, at first, I didn't understand what these people were talking about. After all, the criminal was caught and put away for life two times over. The system worked as well as it ever has. I'm often the first one to criticize law enforcement when they make ridiculous mistakes, but this is a prime example of an investigation firing on all cylinders and putting a killer behind bars. But there is a bigger problem here. If John hadn't been released from prison in the first place, or maybe if he'd at least served a longer, more beneficial sentence, these girls may still be here. After all, the whole point of being put behind bars is to be rehabilitated and learn from your mistakes, but that didn't happen with John. If you remember, John was arrested back in 2000 for what he did to the 13-year-old girl. That girl's life was changed forever in the blink of an eye. He took something away from that child that can never be given back and left her with a lifetime of fear and resentment, a lifetime, yet he served just six years behind bars. In response to this outrageous sentence, the family of Chelsea King worked alongside attorneys and law enforcement to instate a new law, now known as Chelsea's law. This law is the first of its kind to allow criminals to be placed behind bars for life, for crimes that didn't involve claiming the life of another person. If John had been given the proper punishment for his crime against the 13-year-old girl all those years ago, both Chelsea and Amber would likely still be here. To top this off, if investigators had done something about the 168 violations of parole that John committed, these girls would still be here. If they had arrested him when he was found stalking a children's daycare, these girls would still be here. If they had arrested him for moving to a home that was within walking distance of a school, well, you get the point. The most important thing is that John Gardner is now locked behind bars, where he will remain for the rest of his days. But I can't help but shake the feeling that if police had actually done something about this man years prior than the King and Dubois families, they'd still be sharing holidays with their beloved daughters. Paul Bernardo and Carla Homulga, known in the media as Ken and Barbie, are two of the most twisted criminals that Canada has ever seen. And after hearing this story, I think you'll agree. Paul Bernardo is a particularly disturbing man, who along with the help of Carla committed a series of crimes against young women in Ontario between 1986 and 1992. When the two were eventually apprehended, Carla struck a controversial plea bargain with prosecutors, after she claimed she was an unwilling participant in the crime. But investigators would later find out this wasn't exactly true, but their deal had already been made. In more recent years, this plea bargain has been described as a deal with the devil. A total of 23 victims are involved in this case, making it an incredibly important story to tell, and one that you can't afford to miss. This story is so convoluted and filled with so many twists and turns, that it's difficult to determine even where to begin. But I want to begin with a word of caution. Typically, I make these videos in remembrance of the victims. If you've watched true crime stories for any length of time, you know that the victims are always my prime focus, but today's video will be a bit different. The sheer brutality of this case is something that needs to be spoken about, so that the crimes that these two people committed will not be forgotten, especially considering one of these monsters is no longer even behind bars. So this video, rather than focusing on the victims, will be particularly focused on the criminals and the awful crimes they committed. So with that said, let's begin with a story of Paul Bernardo and Carla Homuca, the Ken and Barbie killers. Paul Bernardo was born in Ontario in 1964, to his parents Kenneth and Marilyn. Paul's father was a seriously sick man. It's been reported that Kenneth had an unusual fascination with his daughter, Paul's sister. Kenneth would reportedly abuse the girl in front of the entire family, including Paul, his brother and their mother. The details of this abuse haven't been clarified, but it's safe to say that whatever went on in the Bernardo household wasn't pretty. Thankfully, Paul's father would eventually be held accountable for his crimes, but the family never recovered. Even years after the abuse had ended, Marilyn, Paul's mother, suffered from severe mental health issues, including depression and uncontrollable anxiety. During the time that her husband still lived in the family home, Marilyn grew so afraid and paranoid that she packed up her things and moved into the basement just to have some physical distance between herself and her husband. The natural question many people may be asking is, why didn't she just leave it? Well, you have to keep in mind when you're living alongside a ticking time bomb and also a proven psychopath, you can't really afford to rock the boat, so to speak. Marilyn was likely just doing the best she could to make sure that she didn't end up six feet under. Regardless of his troubles at home, for much of his childhood, Paul didn't really present himself as being someone with a troublesome home life. All in all, he was a fairly ordinary kid. But as he entered his teenage years and young adult years, things began to change. While he grew up being a very outgoing boy, taking pride in his enrollment with the Boy Scouts, underneath the cracks had begun to show. He began to develop an obsession with fire. By the time he was 16, his parents had gotten into a monumental argument. After Kenneth, Paul's father discovered that Marilyn had been having an affair. Soon after, Paul found out that Kenneth may not even be his biological father. This planted a seed of resentment in Paul, who had now developed a hatred for his mother. The two would often curse at one another, call each other names, and ultimately make an already difficult childhood just that much worse. Around this same time, Paul had been dating a girl from his school. Paul was head over heels for this girl, but then she unexpectedly left him for one of his best friends. This rather obviously only made Paul's hatred that much stronger. But now he didn't just hate his mother, he hated all women, seeing them as little more than objects that he could take advantage of. He later took several of his ex-girlfriend's belongings and set them on fire in retaliation for what she had done to him. As years passed by, somehow Paul managed to get into college. He was here that his behavior towards women reached a worrisome peak, and Paul was soon headed down a path that very few ever returned from. He and his college friends were now of drinking age and begun concocting new ways to pick up women from local bars. Paul's attempts were unfortunately fairly successful. He would convince his dates to come back home with him, where he would engage in disturbingly aggressive behavior in the bedroom, often without the consent of these women. This eventually led to two women getting restraining orders against him, but many of the other women were too afraid to go to the police, as Paul had already threatened their lives if they were to do so. But it was around the same time that Paul met someone new, a woman named Carla Hamulca. While many of the other women that Paul had dated were resistant to his behaviors, so to speak, Carla encouraged them. The two had an immediate attraction for one another, and overall their compatibility was undeniable. This all took place in 1987, and as the years passed by, the relationship between Carla and Paul only got stronger. But something else was taking place during this time as well. A series of attacks against women have been sweeping across the Scarborough area. The bulk of these attacks occurred between 1987 and 1990, with many of these victims being underage. The criminal would wait near bus stops and wait for lonely women to exit the bus and bushing the victims when they were most vulnerable, often completely unaware that someone had even been following them. At least 19 of these cases were reported to the police, but it's possible there were many more that were never spoken of. Police caught onto this series of crimes quite quickly, and DNA samples were taken from each confirmed report. Police spoke with Paul about these crimes, and he even voluntarily submitted his DNA for comparison, but for reasons that remain unclear, his DNA was never actually tested, and this would prove to be a fatal mistake. By 1990, Paul and Carla had gotten engaged. Not too long after this, Paul lost his job as an accountant, and Carla's family allowed him to move into their home. Carla led that home with her parents and younger sister, Tammy. Tammy was just 15 years old at the time, and Paul was about 26 or so. No sooner than Paul moved in, he became fixated with Tammy. Even though he was set to marry Tammy's older sister, he couldn't control his lust for her. In the end, Carla and Paul worked together to get Paul exactly what he wanted, unrestricted access to Tammy's bedroom. The two concocted a plan to feed Tammy spaghetti that had been laced with a sedative, and once Tammy passed out, well, I think you can infer what happened next. All the while, Carla was seemingly a willful participant in the crime against her sister, with some rumors saying that Carla sat back and watched the whole crime take place, while others say that she joined in. At the same time, Carla was working for a local animal clinic. When working one day, Carla was left alone with prescription medications long enough that she was able to grab a few additional sedatives, bringing them home to Paul. This was around December. In Carla's own words, she wanted to sedate Tammy and give her to Paul as a Christmas present. Thus, she dosed her sister up once again, but this time, things wouldn't go according to plan. The two had moved Tammy down into the basement so that Paul's so-called gift wouldn't be witnessed by Carla's parents. But while in the basement, Tammy, still unconscious, began to vomit. Considering she had no control over her body, there is nothing she could do to keep from choking, and she very quickly stopped breathing. Paul and Carla began to panic. So before calling an ambulance for help, the two cleaned up the scene of the crime, vacuumed the basement, washed and changed clothes, and got themselves cleaned up. And only then did they call an ambulance for help, but by this point, it was far too late, and Tammy had lost her life. Somehow, despite being witnessed cleaning the basement from top to bottom in the middle of the night, police accepted the theory that Tammy passed away after drinking heavily, then choking on her own vomit. The case wasn't investigated any further, and Carla and Paul got away with it. Soon after this crime took place, Paul and Carla moved out of the Hamulka household and got a place of their own, allowing them even more privacy to carry out their disturbing crimes. By now, it was June of 1991. Paul had been traveling through Burlington while looking for license plates that he could steal. While driving around, he came across a young girl who had been locked out of her house after she had missed curfew. Paul approached the girl and rather strangely openly told the girl that he was planning on breaking into her neighbor's house. Even more strange, the girl didn't even bat an eye. She didn't even question it. She just asked Paul if he had any cigarettes. Paul then led the girl back to his car, where he blindfolded her, forced her into the car, then drove her back to his home, where he informed Carla that he'd found their next victim. Over the following few days, Carla and Paul videotaped themselves doing all sorts of things to the girl. The situation was far, far too graphic to mention here and I know that's not something you guys want to hear but I just can't get into these sorts of details when these victims are so young and the crimes are just so unnaturally terrible. After the crime had been completed, Paul and Carla encased the victims' remains in cement and dumped the evidence in Lake Gibson, about 11 miles from their home. The dump site was discovered just two weeks later but there wasn't enough evidence to immediately link the crime to Paul and Carla. This brings us to April 16, 1992. Paul and Carla were driving around your St. Catherine School looking for other potential victims. As they drove past the Holy Cross Secondary School, they spotted someone. Again, due to the girl's age and the circumstances of the crime, I won't be revealing her name as it really doesn't add anything for the story here. For this reason, we'll just call the girl K. Paul and Carla pulled into a parking lot just a short distance away from K. Carla then got out of the car with a map in hand pretending to be lost, hoping for some assistance. When K grabbed the map to help Carla out, Paul ran up from behind, forcing her into the front seat of the car, restraining her and driving away. When K didn't return home that afternoon, her parents knew something was wrong. Around 24 hours later, her shoe was found in the parking lot where she was abducted and investigators knew they had a crime on their hands. Once again, for the few days that the girl was held captive by Carla and Paul, they videotaped themselves doing whatever they wanted to the girl. K was found in a ditch just two weeks later, about 40 minutes away from her school. All evidence had been washed away before she was abandoned, meaning investigators had very little evidence to go on. Her hair had all been cut off as well, so identification was a bit more difficult than it needed to be. Keep in mind, the victims we've just covered only account for three of a total of 23 crimes, meaning there are confirmed to have been at least 20 other crime scenes connected to the couple, but there are likely dozens more that officers simply don't know about. But by 1992, things were beginning to heat up, and the police were hot on the trail of these two. Both Carla and Paul were questioned several times in connection to the crimes, but at this point the investigation was well underway. While investigators only had two confirmed victims at this moment, the unexpected demise of Tammy, Carla's sister, was beginning to look a bit suspicious as well, but without any hard evidence there wasn't much that could be done. It was December of 1992 when all of that changed. Carla and Paul had gotten into a heated argument, leading Paul to attack Carla with a flashlight, hitting her over and over again and causing her to become so badly injured that she told her friends she'd gotten into a car accident, and some of them believed this to be a plausible excuse, meaning the extent of her injuries must have been pretty severe. But when Carla's parents found out, they weren't so easily convinced. They showed up to the couple's home and physically removed Carla from the situation. They took her to a local hospital where she revealed that Paul had done this to her. She was treated for her injuries and a police report was filed. Paul was arrested, but was released a short while later. Now, if you remember a while ago, I mentioned that Paul voluntarily submitted his DNA to the police, but they didn't really do anything else about the cases they'd been piling up. Well, 26 months later, more than two years later, they finally submitted Paul's DNA for comparison and found that it was a match. Paul was then placed on a secret 24-hour surveillance by investigators. Around this same time, Carla opened up to her family about the extent of Paul's abuse, revealing that he was not only abusive towards her but that she knew, without a doubt, that Paul was the man who had harmed all 23 of those girls. But in a shocking twist, she revealed that she'd been involved in some of the crimes as well, though she explained that she'd been forced into compliance by Paul, who had allegedly threatened to harm her if she didn't do exactly as he had asked. Police arrested Paul almost immediately after this confession, and they began an intense search of his home. They had caught wind of their allegedly being videotapes that documented some of the crimes, but when they searched the home, only one of these tapes was found. Now, normally in cases like this, police will tear a house apart while looking for evidence, but for some weird reason, police weren't allowed to conduct any level of demolition inside the home, meaning they were incredibly limited in their abilities to search. Their search of the home took a total of 71 days. After this search was concluded, the evidence against Paul was minimal. Police only found the one aforementioned tape, but the only evidence that it contained would have implicated Carla, not Paul. And this is where things get a bit strange. See, before the discovery of this tape, Carla had struck a deal with police. In exchange for a dramatically lesser sentence than Paul was facing, Carla spoke with police and revealed the extent of their crimes against these girls and young women. Police agreed to this plea bargain with Carla. They were under the assumption that Carla had been forced to commit these crimes after being threatened by her husband. But even though Carla had been forced to commit the crimes, the fact of the matter is she still committed them. This meant that she wasn't completely immune from charges, but police assured her that her sentence would be far less severe. Carla agreed to the terms of this bargain and police drew up a contract for her, and she revealed everything she knew about the victims, helping police in their search of Paul's home. But after this search was concluded, as mentioned, they found minimal evidence. But that's when Paul told his lawyer where he had hidden all of the secret tapes. Paul instructed his lawyer to remove a light fixture from the upstairs bathroom, and inside of this fixture, all of the tapes were hidden away. The lawyer hid these tapes from investigators, but soon after this discovery and the realization of the extent of Paul's crimes, the lawyer resigned. Paul's new attorney was then given access to the tapes, which he immediately handed over to the authorities. When police viewed these tapes, they found all the evidence they needed to put Paul away for life, but there was only one problem. They also found enough evidence to put Carla away for life as well. Despite claiming that Paul forced her into submission, investigators quickly learned that this was all a ruse. The tapes clearly revealed that Carla played an almost equal role in these crimes. She wasn't forced at all, she was a willing participant. But the fact is, they'd already signed a plea bargain with Carla. This meant that regardless of what the tapes documented, there was little they could do. Paul was eventually handed a life sentence, though he was given the possibility of parole after 25 years. Thankfully, parole has never been granted. Carla, on the other hand, was given a maximum sentence of just 12 years behind bars. As a result, she was released almost 20 years ago, back in 2005. Despite her release, Carla was still kept under pretty strict supervision. She was required to submit a DNA sample to police, as well as required to tell police if she planned to be away from her home for more than 48 hours. She was also required to attend regular counseling and therapy, and has been prohibited from being in an isolated presence of anyone under the age of 16. She's also been barred from contacting Paul or any of the victims' families. When she was analyzed by a psychiatrist, Carla was, by all means, determined to be a relatively normal person. She doesn't have a particularly disturbing past, nor does she show any of the usual markers of being a volatile person. But one of her psychiatrists remarked that while Carla comes across as a perfectly normal person, her morality is questionable at best. She was ultimately declared as being a normal person, albeit one with particularly dark desires, which is likely how she was able to be so complicit in so many of these chilling crimes. In the end, this is a case that's just truly bizarre. Carla and Paul were subsequently described in the media as being Ken and Barbie, the perfect partners for one another. There isn't really much commentary to add to this case, outside of the obvious, what the heck, seriously. Thankfully, Paula's since been locked away for life, Carla, on the other hand, remarried immediately after her release and has been married to the same man since 2005. All we can really do is hope that her dark desires don't reemerge as time passes From the outside, Susan and Jeff Wright had it all. They were the perfect image of a beautiful young family, but as we all know, every family has their secrets, and the rights were no exception. One fateful night, the world around them would collapse and their lives would be changed forever. Detectives say that on January 13, 2003, someone took the life of Jeff Wright. The suspect attempted to clean up the scene of the crime, but investigators were hot on their trail. By the end of a rather lengthy investigation, after an extremely unexpected confession, prosecutors had finally caught the criminal. But it wasn't someone that any of the investigative team would have expected. The entire city of Houston, Texas was left frozen in fear when the culprit was finally revealed, and the family was left torn in two. Susan Wright was born in 1976 in Houston, Texas to her parents, Sue and Jimmy. Susan had a fairly interesting life from the very beginning. Her early childhood isn't spoken about much, but her teenage years revealed that she must have been battling some pretty serious demons. By the time Susan had turned 17, she'd begun making some interesting career decisions, as she began working as an exotic dancer. I'm not an attorney, but I'm not even sure that something like this would have been legal for someone her age. But either way, Susan made a go of it, and continued working as a dancer for a period of just eight weeks before quitting and trying to find something better to do with her time. There's no mention of how much money Susan made during her two months as a dancer, but she must have been a pretty good one because after she quit, she began to put herself through college using the money that she had made. Susan initially began a nursing program at one of her local community colleges, but she quickly found out that nursing wasn't for her and neither was college. Considering she was a young woman with her entire future in front of her, Susan felt that college was taking up far too much of her time and eating away at the little bit of freedom that she had. So after only taking a few courses and seemingly getting no degrees or certifications out of it, she decided to quit and begin working as a waitress, giving her far more time for herself and helping her to continue to have an income, unlike what was happening at college. This proved to be a good move for Susan. After leaving school, it seems like she had a pretty great time working as a waitress. She met all sorts of interesting people and generally seemed to have been quite happy with her sudden change of plans. Her job forced her to commute to Galveston with all this taking place in 1997, when Susan was just 21 years old. I couldn't find any mention of what specific restaurant Susan worked at, but we know that it was located on a beach which brought in all kinds of tourists and other interesting people. One of these people was Jeff Wright, a highly successful carpet salesman who took a serious interest in Susan from their very first encounter. One of Susan's co-workers reported that after the two met, Jeff would call the restaurant two or three times a day and asked to speak with Susan. Thankfully, Susan shared this same interest, and the two began dating within weeks of meeting up. Everyone recalled Jeff as being an incredibly sweet man. From the moment that he walked into the restaurant, several of Susan's co-workers noticed just how calm and loving he was. Susan even remembers how Jeff would bring her flowers and gifts while she was at work, and he always took time out of his day to make sure that she felt special and cared for. Barely a year later, Susan was already eight months pregnant with their first child, a boy named Bradley. The two would get married shortly before the arrival of their son, with Susan recalling that Jeff was your typical American man who wanted nothing more than to settle down with a wife and kids and a dog in a traditional Houston, Texas home. But Jeff wasn't always this way. According to several people who knew Jeff, he spent much of his teens and twenties partying pretty heavily. Mind you, when he and Susan met, Jeff was eight years older than her. He'd been a pretty reckless person throughout his younger years, often going out to bars and parties with friends and partaking in various illegal activities. Jeff was a difficult man to tame, but once he met Susan, all of this changed for the better. Or so it would seem. See, everything wasn't perfect in paradise. While the couple kept up outward appearances of being happy and deeply in love, the picture they painted for others simply wasn't accurate to what was actually taking place in the right family home. Immediately after the birth of their son, Susan and Jeff moved into a picturesque home in the White Oaks suburb of Houston. It didn't take too long before Susan was pregnant again, this time with a girl named Kaylee. Susan always did her best to keep their home neat and tidy. After all, Jeff was bringing in so much money that Susan didn't even have to work. So she decided to stay home with the kids and seemed to be incredibly happy with her newfound passion for parenting and tending to the family's home. But just four years in, well that's when the facade that they'd upheld in front of their neighbors, friends, and family began to show some cracks. While Jeff had initially believed that he was ready to settle down and start a family, nothing could be farther from the truth. In all honesty, Jeff may have honestly been ready to leave his old life behind him, but we all know that old habits die hard. After years of partying day in and day out, Jeff just couldn't shake off his lust for alcohol and illegal drugs. In fact, Jeff had developed a pretty serious addiction. Susan had done her best to let Jeff deal with his addiction in his own way, but as time passed by, Susan began to realize that his usage wasn't letting up, and it may have actually been getting worse. She spoke with Jeff about this on multiple occasions, but Jeff was insistent that he was completely fine and that everything was under control. It wasn't. Susan says that as years passed by, Jeff's usage began to seriously affect their whole life. After he would use, he would grow incredibly aggressive with both her and their children. Susan recalls being kicked, punched, slapped, and who knows what else during Jeff's uncontrollable fits of rage, all of which stemmed from his years of substance abuse. Jeff also had a mentality that he provided everything for the family so he should be able to do as he pleased regardless of who had heard. As years passed by and the abuse only worsened, Susan's patience had begun to run out. She did her best to be a good person and a good wife. She didn't believe that divorce was ever the right answer, but she knew that something had to change. She feared for her own safety and for the safety of her children, and she knew that this nightmare needed to end and she was going to see to it that whatever the cost, she would end it. It was January 13th, 2003. Jeff once again was high. He'd been playing with a couple's son Bradley that afternoon, but things didn't really go as planned. While the two were having a great time at first, Jeff once again got a bit too aggressive with Bradley, accidentally hitting his son a bit too hard during their antics, causing him to cry. Jeff was thankful that Susan didn't seem to notice that this had happened, so he brushed it off and moved on with his afternoon. But unbeknownst to him, Susan did in fact notice. After a few hours had passed by, the two tucked their children into bed for the night. As Jeff was laying on the couch watching TV, he noticed Susan appear in the doorway, wearing nothing but a bathrobe. Without another seconds thought, he turned off the TV and headed into the bedroom. As he entered the doorway, he found that Susan had placed candles all around the room and even had music play. Jeff couldn't have been more excited. He hopped onto the bed and without another word, Susan began to tie him to the bed posts. Jeff felt that the evening couldn't have gotten any better. After tying him to the bed posts though, Susan's expression began to change. As she stared down at Jeff, completely helpless, the years of abuse that she and her children had been subjected to spun around in her mind. She knew that she would never have a better opportunity to end her suffering and the suffering of her children. So she grabbed a knife that had been stored away nearby and began to execute her plan. Jeff quickly realized that the evening was not going to end the way that he had imagined, but he was helpless to defend himself. Try as he might, he couldn't break free of his restraints. All the while, Susan allowed her pent-up rage to flow freely, injuring Jeff a total of 193 times. Let that sink in for just a moment. 193 individual injuries, dozens of which should have been fatal but weren't. But by the time the crime was over, Susan dropped the weapon and slid off the bed, collapsing to the floor after realizing what she had done. Jeff's life had finally come to an end. When Susan gathered the courage to turn the light on and look at what she had done, she was struck with an intense feeling of panic. As she stared at the crime she'd committed, she was overwhelmed. She knew if she couldn't go to prison, it would destroy what was left of her family. She knew that she had to clean this up and do the best that she could to destroy the evidence of the crime, but she couldn't even determine where to begin. After a while, she decided simply to take a shower, then return to the bedroom to begin cleaning things up. After she was satisfied with her cleaning, Susan called Jeff's parents, who lived about 150 miles away in Austin. She began the call by sobbing, claiming that Jeff had just come home from his boxing lessons angrier than he had ever been before. She says that he began to unleash on both her and their son. Jeff's parents couldn't believe what they were hearing, but they had no choice but to trust that Susan was telling them the truth. Naturally they asked to speak with Jeff, but Susan explained that he'd run out of the house and she had no idea where he had gone. She felt confident that Jeff had finally left her once and for all. Jeff's parents, completely blindsided by these accusations, asked Susan what had set him off into such a fit of rage. Susan explained that his addiction had grown increasingly out of control and he had finally snapped. As far as Jeff's parents knew, he'd stopped using four years ago when Jeff and Susan had gotten married. They truly had no idea just how bad his addiction had gotten. Susan cried on the phone with Jeff's parents for more than an hour before eventually hanging up. All the while, their son lay lifeless on the bed that he had once shared with his beloved wife. After Susan finally ended the call, she knew that her hard work had only just begun. In the weeks leading up to the crime, Jeff had been busy preparing their backyard for a new deck and a fountain that he had planned to install. At this point it became glaringly obvious that this project was never going to be completed, so instead Susan came up with a plan. She pulled Jeff to the backyard and dropped him into the hole that he had been digging for the fountain, meaning Jeff had literally dug his own grave just days prior to losing his life. As Susan tried to shove him into the hole, she quickly realized that this wasn't going to work, but she'd come too far to give up now. The son was beginning to rise and she needed to think quickly. Unable to fit him completely inside, she just began throwing dirt over the top of him, doing a truly terrible job of concealing the crime. She knew that this wouldn't work long term, but with the amount of time she had before her children would wake up, she had to call it good enough and get back inside to begin cleaning up the mess that she left behind. Susan rushed back inside and began cleaning the floor, the walls, the ceiling, the bed, everything. In the end, she tossed the sheets in a trash bag in the backyard and even hauled the couple's mattress out back as well, assuming the children wouldn't find either of them. She then bleached the couple's bedroom from floor to ceiling, all in the nick of time. By the time her children got out of bed, she loaded them up and they all headed into town to run some errands, as if nothing had ever even happened. After Susan had spoken with Jeff's parents that evening, they anxiously awaited a knock at their door, assuming that Jeff would come to their home to cool off for a bit. But Jeff never showed up. They never even received a call from him. As hours passed by, his parents called Susan back and asked if Jeff ever returned home. Susan explained that he had but that they ended up in yet another argument, so he grabbed some clothes and left again, destination unknown. She added that Jeff was so mad that he grabbed a bottle of bleach and shook it all over the bedroom, creating an alibi for why the home was filled with the odor of bleach and explaining why the carpet in their bedroom had been so damaged during Susan's secret cleanup. Before long, Jeff's boss called as well, and Susan shared the same story. When a neighbor inquired about Jeff later that day, she once again shared the same story, with the neighbor suggesting that Susan filed a police report. Two days later, Susan agreed to this plan. She headed to the police station in Harris County and filed a report based on the version of events she had told all of her friends, family, and neighbors. Police took photos of the cuts and bruises on her hands, the ones she'd given herself while ending Jeff's life, and the police seemingly believed every word of her story. Fearful of what might happen if Jeff returned home to find that she reported him to the police, investigators even offered her a restraining order so that she would feel safer at home with her kids. By the following Saturday, Susan realized that she couldn't keep up the charade forever. The questions people had begun to ask were getting harder and harder to answer, but that was by no means the worst part. During all this time, Susan had not managed to find Jeff a more suitable grave. To make matters worse, the family dog had discovered Jeff's location and had begun to dig him up. I can't go into too much detail about what Susan saw after this, but as she looked out the rear window of her home, she noticed that the dog had also well started chewing on what it had found in the hole in the backyard, and now there was evidence all over the place. Later that day, Susan had enough. She couldn't lie anymore. Her alibi had run its course and she knew that there was nowhere else to run. She loaded up her children into the car and drove to her mother's house a few miles away. When she arrived, she told her mother the same story she had told everyone else, but her mother felt that there was something else going on here. As certain aspects of this story just didn't hold up under scrutiny. Finally, Susan's mother asked, Susan, did you kill Jeff? With a slight nod of her head, Susan confessed. Susan's mother helped her find a great criminal defense attorney. The couple's children were then sent to stay with Susan's sister, Cindy, while Susan went to the police and confessed what had taken place. Well, sort of. Susan obviously knew that she'd be caught eventually, but rather than share the true version of events with police, she concocted a story that painted her as a blameless victim. She claimed that Jeff had come after her with a knife, and that she had managed to wrestle it away from him and use it to defend herself. But that didn't explain why she had injured him nearly 200 times. She claimed that once she started, she couldn't stop, but the jury wasn't buying this. Susan did explain that after years of abuse, her rage had just overflowed, but she still refused to share the full truth about what had happened. It didn't take long before everyone in the courtroom realized that Susan had been lying profusely and that the tears she shed in court were fake. Susan wasn't an innocent victim, she was a cold-blooded killer. After just five and a half hours of deliberation, the jury decided that Susan was guilty, and she was sentenced to 25 years behind bars. But that isn't the end of the story. See, one woman believed Susan. That was Misty McMichael, Jeff's former fiance. She came forward in 2005 and announced that she'd been subjected to Jeff's abuse as well during their four-year engagement. She believed that the story that Susan had been sharing may have been true after all. Police took these accusations seriously, and in the end, five years were taken off of Susan's sentence. This allowed her to be eligible for release in 2014, but her parole was denied. She was eligible again in 2017, but her parole was denied once again. Finally, in 2020, Susan applied for parole once more, and her request was granted. She was released from prison on December 30, 2020. As of 2022, Susan has essentially fallen off the map. She's now living a very low-profile life somewhere in Texas, and appears to be meeting all the terms of her parole. Her children were adopted by Jeff's brother during the trial, and were allowed to live as normal of a life as possible, thankfully. At the end of it all, Susan's anger towards Jeff may have been justified. After all, you can only abuse someone and push them so far before they snap. But does that defend what Susan did? Absolutely not. Was Jeff a bad husband? Most likely. Substance abuse can destroy even the best of us, but there's no way to excuse what Susan did to her husband. She could have reported into the police and had him sent to prison. She could have done a million other things than claim his life, but Susan was so blinded by her own rage that none of these possibilities felt like reasonable options to her. I'll never be one to paint an abuser as some sort of martyr or innocent victim, but Jeff certainly didn't deserve what Susan put him through, and that's just the honest truth. Susan has since become known in the media as the Blue-eyed Butcher, a pretty fitting name considering what she's done. Susan's life has since moved on, but for Jeff's family, life will never be the same. Maureen Kelly was just 19 years old when she went out with a group of friends to Canyon Creek Campground near Cougar, Washington in the summer of 2013. At around 5 p.m. that evening, she stripped off all of her clothing and told her friends that she was leaving to go on a quote, spiritual quest, claiming she'd be back by midnight. Maureen never returned. Her friends reported her missing the following morning, but investigators quickly realized that this case was far more bizarre than they could have ever anticipated. So what happened to Maureen? Was this a simple case of misadventures in the forest, self-harm, foul play, or yet another disturbing missing 411 disappearance? Being out in nature while camping or hiking can be a very rewarding and relaxing experience, though most of us know that it can also be very dangerous, since there are wild animals to consider. Temperatures could suddenly drop very drastically, or you could get lost, which obviously means that it's vital to be as prepared as you possibly can be. But not every excursion into the wild is planned ahead of time. It's good to be a little spontaneous, but even then, you need to keep your wits about you to ensure that you can make your way out of the woods and return home safely. But sometimes, even the most prepared people on the planet can still be bested by unforeseen circumstances, and Maureen Kelly is certainly no exception. In 2013, Maureen Kelly, known to her friends and family as Anu, was just 19 years old. She had been born and raised in Vancouver, Washington in September of 1993, and was raised alone by her mother. Most of Anu's early life is largely a mystery. Her family has been pretty tight-lipped about her upbringing, and all we know for certain is that Anu was of Pacific Islander descent. As Anu grew older, she eventually began attending Lewis and Clark High School in Spokane, Washington. This was a school steeped in history, having first opened its doors way back in the late 1800s. For Anu, it was a great place to be. She seemed to have made many friends here, and all things considered, it seemed like a great place to have grown up. Her hometown of Vancouver, on the other hand, couldn't have been more different. According to neighborhood scout and city data, Vancouver is in the top 10% of the most unsafe areas in the entire country. So to say that Anu grew up surrounded by crime would be an incredible understatement. I'm sure this played a part in Anu's personality and lifestyle choices. Despite being surrounded by the worst of the worst, Anu was an incredibly spiritual person. She loved to stay in touch with nature and embrace the more natural aspects of humanity. Anu felt that the moment we're born were about as connected to the planet and mother nature as we'll ever be. In her eyes, as we grow up, our connection with the world around us begins to fade as we become influenced by outside factors, many of which are less than ideal. When Anu wasn't out hiking, or generally being the respectful, carefree person she was known for being, she could be found singing or playing the ukulele. She loved to post photos and videos of herself online and join music in the outdoors. She even had her own YouTube channel where she would post about her many interests predominantly her music. It was the 7th of June 2013 when Anu created a post on her Facebook account in which she asked whether any of her friends who had a vehicle were available to go camping on the upcoming weekend. See, Anu had made plans to take herself and a few of her friends on what she described as a spiritual quest, but unbeknownst to her loved ones, this quest would be Anu's last. Some sources state that Anu contacted her half-sister, Cherry, to ask if she could borrow some of her camping gear. But it isn't known whether she ever collected any of that gear, or if she had any of it with her while she was camping and getting ready for her spiritual journey. We don't know much about the specifics of Anu's spirituality or her spiritual quest, but it goes without saying that she wanted to do everything she could to stay in touch with Mother Nature, and this journey was going to expedite that process. Cherry would later report that during the phone call with Anu, she seemed very excited about the prospect of going camping, and that she just seemed like her normal self, happy-go-lucky and full of life. With the ride sorted out and a group of friends to accompany her, Anu set out to campsite number three at the Canyon Creek Campground, which is situated in Gifford, Pinchot National Forest, just two days later on Sunday, the 9th of June. The site is known to be surrounded by dense foliage and tall trees, and hence it's a tent-friendly only area. It's the perfect place for remote escape, far away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life, especially considering it's darn near impossible to even have an RV in this area or anything of the sort. Many people who have visited the campsite describe the surrounding areas as hard to traverse, since there's a steep slope leading up to the campground into the dense national forest beyond, which encompasses an area of over 1.32 million acres. This forest is incredibly large. When the group arrived at the campsite, the weather was mild at a pleasant 70 degrees. There was no threat of rain, and it all seemed very idyllic for an afternoon of camping. There's no indication whether the group of friends had anything to eat or drink while they were out there that afternoon. But one would assume that they made a fire at some point, since it would begin to cool down soon. There's been a lot of speculation about whether the group took part in any alcohol or anything else while out in the woods. Many people claim that this may have been what led to the terrible series of events that's to follow. But the reality is that this information simply isn't available. No one from the group has spoken up about this, so I can't really say anything with certainty. Regardless of this, everything seemed to go exactly as planned that afternoon, until around five o'clock, when Anu suddenly announced to the group that it was time for her to set out on the spiritual quest that she'd been planning for so long. As she proclaimed that the time had come, she caught everyone off guard when, without warning, she stripped off all of her clothes, including her shoes. She acted like this was no big deal, but her friends were all shocked to say the least. Immediately after doing so, she grabbed a fanny pack that contained a compass, a small knife, and a pack of matches. She then turned away and wandered off into the woods, telling her friends that she planned to be back by midnight. Many people have questioned why Anu's friends didn't stop her from going into the woods by herself, especially since she was incredibly underdressed and unprepared. But according to Sheriff David Cox, her friends felt that this was something that she needed to do, since she'd been talking about it for a very long time. I wish we knew more about her mental state at this time, as well as the specifics of her spirituality, because it could help to shed a lot of light on this case, but unfortunately that information just isn't there. One thing is clear, though. For Anu, this trip wasn't something that she had suddenly decided she wanted to do. In her mind, this was something she needed to do. As Anu stepped away from her group of friends, she showed them one final glimpse of her smile before walking off into the woods, never to be seen alive again. The term Missing 411 refers to individuals who have gone missing under bizarre circumstances inside of a national park. Unfortunately, Anu's case is the very definition of bizarre. Anu's friends waited patiently for her to return as promised, but when temperatures started to drop into the 40s, accompanied by light rain, they became concerned since she wasn't wearing any clothing and will be left at the mercy of the elements if she didn't make it back to the campsite soon. She did have matches with her so she would have been able to start a fire, but if the rain got any worse, that fire would have been useless. When midnight came and there was no sign of Anu, her friends felt that something had to be done and they contacted the Scamania County Sheriff's Office to report Anu as a missing person. A search party was quickly organized, and soon as it started, detectives felt that there was a good chance that she would be found, since they very quickly discovered bare footprints not far from the campsite that were estimated to be about the same size as Anu's feet. The footprints led them to Canyon Creek, which isn't too far from the campground, and it was determined that she had crossed the creek, seemingly without any problems. Most people have, though, expressed their astonishment at the fact that she made it this far, since the going from the campsite to the creek is very steep and it would not have been easy to traverse the terrain, especially while not wearing any shoes. Just as astounding was the fact that she seemingly climbed up the other side of the canyon, which was also very steep, and she seemed to have made it to Forest Road 54. But unfortunately, this is where searchers were unable to find any more footprints, so they had no idea which direction Anu may have walked. It was as if she had approached the road, then vanished. There were no signs of a struggle, no clues or evidence, nothing. It was genuinely like she just blipped out of existence. The decision was made to bring in search dogs from a non-profit company called Pacific Crest Search Dogs to aid in the search, but they were unable to pick up on Anu's scent past this road. At one point, searchers considered calling in helicopters to help the search from the air, but it was the following day at this point and a thick cloud cover had formed, which made this mission impossible. Unwilling to give up, searchers continued scouring the area for the rest of the day, but were unable to find any trace of Anu, and they had no choice but to suspend the search when it started getting dark, as their efforts would have now put even more lives in danger. They resumed the search the following morning, but again, they were unable to find a single clue as to which direction Anu had traveled, and her family and friends started to fear the worst. She had now been nude in the wilderness for multiple days. Temperatures had dropped multiple times. Rain and mud now covered the terrain and the conditions were dire to put it mildly. But what's incredibly odd is that the search efforts were called off after just two days, which is a very short time in a missing person investigation. Oftentimes, rescue personnel will search for clues for weeks, even months, but in Anu's case, this simply didn't happen. It's unclear why this was done since the forest is massive and Anu could have walked in any direction that had not been searched yet. This decision admittedly seems incredibly irresponsible, but I feel like we have to assume that the Sheriff's Office likely had their reasons. Anu's family and friends then launched an urgent appeal in which they spoke to the media, begging for searchers to continue their efforts. This had the desired effect, and the search was indeed resumed that same week. But many people who followed the case still wonder why the decision was made to suspend the search in the first place, since no explanation was ever given. This wasted large amounts of crucial time. Considering Anu had no food, no water, no hope of shelter, it just boggles my mind how they could have tried to give up after less than 48 hours. One thing that's interesting about the search is that some of the searchers stated that the brush was so thick that they could probably walk right up to someone who was lying on the ground and never even notice them. They feared that the chances of finding Anu after she'd been out in the elements for nearly a week were now slim to none. This is a very, very old growth forest, so it makes sense that the undergrowth would be quite substantial. Anu and her friends waited day after day, hoping, praying, and begging that they would receive some sort of news. As fate would have it, they received news just six days later. But it wasn't the news that they had hoped for. At 6pm on the 15th of June, just six days after her disappearance, Anu's friends and family were informed that the search was officially called off. Not a single trace of her was found, and since the likelihood that she would have succumbed to hypothermia due to the low nighttime temperatures was very, very high, authorities stuck to their decision this time around. It was announced that Anu was presumed deceased, and that was that. Not one trace of Anu has ever been found, even all these years later. It's been almost 11 years since Anu ventured out into the wild on her own, and to this day, no one knows where she went, what happened to her, or if she was trying to make her way back to the campsite when she went missing. As with most unsolved missing person investigations, those that kept close tabs on the case had their own theories as to what happened to Anu, and some of them make a lot more sense than you would expect. This isn't one of those typical missing 411 cases where everyone suspects some kind of alien abduction. This case hits very close to home for a lot of people, and some of these theories may just be correct. The most common and most likely scenario is that Anu lost her way while in the forest, and having no clothing or other supplies like food to keep her warm, she had to bunker down for the night planning to finish her journey in the morning. While this would have been a good idea under normal circumstances, Anu would have been far more affected by the low temperatures and soft rain that was falling, leading many people to believe that she succumbed to hypothermia in her sleep. The reason why she was never found? Well, it's entirely possible she was taken off by an animal, as disturbing as that may sound. One would think that if this were the case, Anu's remains would have eventually been found, in part or in whole. But since there are any number of wild animals in this area, it's also very likely that there's simply wouldn't have been anything left for rescue workers to find, especially when taken into account the thick underbrush. The next much debated theory has to do with Forest Road 54. It's here that all traces of Anu stopped after her footprints led searchers here, and since it's a well-maintained asphalt road, it's led to some interesting speculation. Most people believe that Anu never crossed the road, since her footprints would have been found on the other side, which they weren't. Hence, it's been suggested that she either followed the road before heading on to a different part of the woods, or she was picked up by someone when she reached that point. And this is the theory that I find most plausible as well. After all, we know the area Anu came from was incredibly crime-ridden and dangerous. Could you imagine what would happen if one of these criminals happened to be passing by and saw a nude 19-year-old by the side of the road? Another theory that's also been suggested is that she planned to be picked up ahead of time, unbeknownst to her friends and family. It's possible that the entire situation was planned and Anu simply left to start any life, though admittedly this theory is wildly unlikely as no one in her circle believes she had any reason to want to disappear, especially not in such an unorthodox way. The prevailing theory for most people is that Anu simply reached the road at just the wrong time, resulting in her being taken against her will. But this theory has drawn a lot of criticism, since it seems somewhat sensationalized in most media reports and since investigators have stated that they don't suspect any type of foul play in her disappearance. But the theory that she was picked up by someone may just hold some water, since search dogs were unable to find her scent again after they reached this part of the road. And since she was barefoot, one would imagine that her scent would still be present for some time if she left that area on foot. If she ever set foot on that road that day, I just feel certain that the dogs would have found something, anything. The fact that her scent stopped so suddenly right there, well it just seems suspicious. But not everyone is convinced that Anu has lost her life. One of her friends, a woman named Yasmine, stated that there is always the possibility that she simply wandered into the forest with no intention of ever returning. She has been quoted by multiple sources as saying, quote, she may not want to be found. This theory may, in all actuality, be correct. One final idea is that given Anu's outlook on life and her spiritual nature, she may have taken illegal substances before she headed out on her quest, but Sheriff Cox stated in an interview that there was no indication that she had taken any such substance or any alcohol, and it's far more likely she was just eager to head out in a nature on her own, then got lost or didn't make it to shelter in time. It's entirely possible that Anu is still alive somewhere, but given her loving character, it seems far more likely that if this were the case, she would have reached out to one of her loved ones at some point to reassure them that she's alright, and that they no longer need to worry about her. Whatever the case may be, Anu's disappearance has never been solved, and at this point it seems very unlikely that her friends and family will ever receive the answers they are so desperately searching for. If you have any leads on Anu's case, you're asked to get in contact with the Scamania County Sheriff's Office at 509-427-9490. The small town of Bathurst in New South Wales is rarely interesting. Being a small college town when the students are at school or gone for the holidays, the town falls eerily silent. But this wasn't true during the holiday season of 2001. Janine Vaughn was a local shopkeeper who was known all throughout the town, so when she vanished without a trace on the evening of December 7th, the entire town waited on the edge of their seats to find out what had happened to her. Janine was last seen stepping into a small red car, but after this, she was never seen again. The police force were hot on her trail, taking action the moment she was reported missing. But that's when a few people started to suspect that investigators may have known a lot more than they were letting on, and one of their own detectives may just be responsible. 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By the time she was a young adult, she decided to move to Bathurst with her boyfriend. The two lived in Bathurst for quite some time together, but their relationship eventually broke down. At this point, Janine had already made a home for herself here, so rather than head back to Hunter Valley, she opted to stay in the area of Bathurst, making a really solid life for herself. Janine soon found a job at an Ed Harry menswear store, selling suits, pants, pretty much everything a businessman could need. She was the manager of the store and seems to have taken great pride in her work. Even though Janine had left many of her friends and family members behind in Hunter Valley, she'd found a close knit group of friends in Bathurst as well, so she wasn't really missing out on much in terms of her social life. Janine's best friend, Rebecca, was always around when she needed someone, and the two were virtually inseparable. Rebecca remembers Janine as being a fun, easygoing person who was super outgoing. Rebecca says that Janine was always there for anyone who needed a friend, and she loved taking care of other people. She was also a very social person and looked for any excuse to head out into the town to have a good time. On top of all this, Rebecca says that Janine was also a very careful person. Even though she loved meeting new people and making new friends, she always kept her wits about her and kept people at a safe distance until she felt that she could truly trust them. For Rebecca, this made things all the more bizarre when she learned from investigators that Janine had vanished after getting into a car with someone that she'd never met before. According to Rebecca, there was a zero percent chance Janine would have done this. She claims that she and Janine shared all of their friends. Janine didn't have a single acquaintance or friend that Rebecca wasn't fully aware of. To her, Janine would have never entered a car with someone she didn't know, and according to Rebecca, this means that whoever took Janine on that warm December evening, she knew them. It was December 6, 2001. Janine had met up with two of her close friends to head out into the town and spend the evening at one of the bars and bathrooms. Her friends were Jordan Morris and Juanita Murphy, who appeared to have been dating at the time. The three spent the evening at the Metro Tavern, also known as the Metro Night Club. They spent the entirety of the evening here, carrying over their affairs into the early morning hours of December 7, finally leaving the bar at about 3.45 am. CCTV footage from the evening showed that shortly before leaving the bar, Jordan and Juanita had gotten into an argument. While this was going on, Janine had lost her handbag and was desperately searching for it. She never did find her bag, but the three decided to leave the bar anyway. Several hours later, her bag was found by a member of the cleaning crew. When her bag was investigated later on, it was found to have contained her cell phone, keys, money, and identification, so Janine would have been virtually helpless without it. After they left the Metro Tavern, the three decided to head toward the Oxford Hotel nearby, planning to have one final round of drinks before calling it a night or a morning at this point. It seems that Janine was growing tired of hearing the couple bickering all the time because, according to police, Janine was walking about 40 meters ahead of the couple as they made their way toward the hotel. They all made their way onto Keppel Street, and that's when Jordan and Juanita noticed a car up ahead. The car suddenly popped a U-turn and pulled up alongside Janine. The grainy CCTV footage shows that the car had stopped for about 27 seconds before Janine agreed to get inside. Multiple witnesses at the time remember that the car was red, but that's about all they could say with any certainty. A few sources claim that the car was also a Mazda, but it's unclear how they came to this assumption, though police are accepting this information as likely factual. Investigators have supplied a reconstruction image of the vehicle they believe to be a close match to the one that Janine was seen getting into, but this reconstruction looks more like a BMW than a Mazda, if you ask me. Janine's friends were, rather obviously, confused by her sudden decision to hop into a car that evening. But one thing I haven't seen anyone else report on is the fact that it was raining very heavily that night. As the three left the bar, it was merely a drizzle, but at the time that Janine got into the car, it was pouring. Janine's family and friends, Rebecca specifically, says that there's no chance she would have gotten into that car if she didn't know the person who was driving. But what we have to keep in mind is that when people are desperate for help, for example if it's pouring down rain and they have no ride, they can do some rather unusual things. To top this off, not only was it pouring down rain, but Janine and her friends had been at a bar for hours upon hours that night. It's safe to assume that she was probably pretty drunk, so I don't personally find it too crazy to believe that Janine may have gotten into a vehicle with someone she wasn't familiar with that night. When Janine rode off with this unknown individual that evening, her friends didn't bother reporting her to the police. After all, they were operating under the assumption that she likely knew this person. Because of this alarms weren't raised until hours later when Janine failed to show up to her store later that morning. After she was reported missing, everyone in the town began to fear the worst, not because Janine was a fairly vulnerable young woman who was kidnapped under highly suspicious circumstances, but because of something much worse. See, in the weeks leading up to Janine's disappearance, the town of Bathurst was already on edge. A series of unusual and unsettling crimes had been taking place over the last few weeks, and police were beginning to fear that they may have a much bigger problem on their hands, and a serial attacker may have been lurking the streets. To say that Janine Vaughn vanished without a trace would be the understatement of the century. Janine left behind zero evidence, the very definition of nothing. In all seriousness, she may as well have been abducted by aliens because there wasn't even the slightest inkling of where she may have gone. One interesting bit of information that makes this case all the more suspicious is, according to the cleaner who found Janine's purse, the purse appeared to have been deliberately hidden. The cleaner says that when they found the purse, it had been forcefully wedged into a corner and was being covered up by a couple of bags of chips. Whoever put the purse here didn't want it to be found. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, a total of three police forces investigated her disappearance, including the Strike Force Toco, the Mountain Baton PD and Toco 2. Toco 2 is still actively investigating the case, but they've still largely come up empty-handed even after all this time. When speaking with various officers and police departments who were assigned the case, they all say that the case was contaminated and doomed from the start. One officer reported at the beginning of the investigation that resources were plentiful and they felt optimistic that they would be able to get to the bottom of this relatively quickly. With CCTV evidence and various witness reports collected during the beginning stages of the investigation, things were looking up, but as time passed by, resources quickly needed to be allocated to other investigations, leading Janine's case to run cold sooner than anyone had hoped. By 2005, the case had begun to fall apart. This is because of an investigation into the potential involvement of a local police detective. This detective had a romantic interest in Janine and showed this shortly before she went missing, but he was also the lead investigator in her disappearance, according to the Sydney Morning Herald. One of the most crucial pieces of evidence in this case is Janine's diary. In her diary, she repeatedly wrote about a detective by the name of Mr. Hosemans. Janine claims that Mr. Hosemans was stalking her and refused to leave her alone. He was very obviously interested in her, but the feeling was not mutual. It's assumed that Janine made this known to Mr. Hosemans, but he simply wasn't getting the message or didn't care. Multiple investigations helped to clear this detective's name, but rather mysteriously, the diary that implicated this detective in the first place has miraculously vanished from evidence archives, which is pretty fishy if you ask me. By 2006, an alternative task force was established to help continue the investigation into Janine's disappearance, and this new task force pulled the case away from the desk of Mr. Hosemans, who again was the lead investigator into a case that he was also the primary suspect for, finally giving this case a fair shot at actually being solved. This new task force announced that they were closing in on a person of interest, but this person has never been named publicly. It was around this same time that the Sydney Morning Herald, a simple news and media company, made a heroic effort to try to help push the case along, assigning their own team of investigators to push for answers and try to bring this case to a close. An investigator for this newly established force explained that when he was handed the case, it was incredibly contaminated. He said that they needed to go back and re-interview many of the witnesses and informants from years ago, but that their statements were largely unhelpful, presumably because the public's opinion on the case in the years since the crime unfolded had now swayed people's memories and perceptions about what had really taken place that evening. By 2009, the state coroner had announced that she feared the trail for Janine had completely gone cold and she feared the criminal may never be caught, as too much time had passed since the incident. A total of three people of interest were privately named, but each of these people insisted they were innocent, and officers didn't have nearly enough evidence to accuse any of the three of them for any sort of involvement. But that's when the Sydney Herald made a groundbreaking discovery that may just help bring this case to a close. The Sydney Morning Herald was given access to a total of 47 people of interest who investigators believe may somehow be involved with the case. The Herald was able to hone in on one person in particular, who seems to have had a very strange connection to Janine's disappearance. According to the Herald, they were able to track down dozens of people who knew this man personally, including his friends, family, and people that had worked with him in the past. More specifically, they were interested in people who had visited his home around the time that Janine had vanished. Two of the witnesses that detectives spoke with had very vivid memories of what had taken place all those years ago, and they specifically recalled visiting his home between late 2001 and 2002, just months after Janine had vanished. Each of these witnesses requested that their identities remain anonymous, and rightfully so. One of these individuals recalled an incredibly strong, quote, horrendous odor coming from an indoor area of the suspect's home. He claimed that this terrible smell lasted for several weeks before it finally began to fade. The witness remembers the time that he entered the home and says that he distinctly remembers claiming that the place smelled awful. He also remembers a very specific sound, which he described as sounding like a beehive. He says that there was a lot of buzzing, and considering this man used to live on a farm, he felt that it suggested the presence of a dead animal. But in his mind, he felt that the sheer number of bees or bugs that would be required to make such a loud noise would have been far more than the number that would have been interested in any animal. He believed something had died here, and it was quite large, maybe even the size of a human. The witness also recalls seeing a note that had been attached to the suspect's fridge, a note that he found very unusual, but the contents of this note have not been made public, as the Herald fears that it may hinder their investigation. They've since passed the contents of this note on to professional investigators. The second witness that the Herald spoke to remembers visiting the suspect's house around 2002, and she doesn't remember any particularly offensive smell, but she does remember the loud buzzing sounds. Worse yet, she witnessed the bugs firsthand. She says that she saw an incredibly unusual number of bugs that were interested in one particular area of the home. She says that this area of the home is, quote, insanely full of bugs that she described as either bees or wasps. She says that none of the insects were flying, though, but they were crawling around on the ground and hundreds of them were lying there dead. She says that after sweeping them up, she would come back and hundreds more would have appeared. The one says that this infestation lasted for several months. When speaking to a forensic biologist, the Herald says that they were led to believe that these insects were most likely hoverflies, which can often be found at the site of decomposition. She also said that these bugs closely resemble bees or wasps, but it was at this point that the case truly took a turn that, in all honesty, blew me away. The Herald looked back through various property records, and they came across a man who owned this property back in the 1980s, and he had outlined the rough location of a cellar that had since been closed up. This was found on a floor plan that the man had created many years ago. He mentioned that when he purchased the home, a cellar could have been accessed by opening up a hatch or a trap door, as he called it. He said that he used the cellar to store renovation supplies when he was carrying out the work on the home. When the work was completed, he said that he felt as though the trap door was a hazard, so he decided to close it up permanently, eliminating access to the cellar entirely. But the cellar was still completely intact underneath the subfloor. The cellar was never filled in. The Herald says that they passed this information on to investigators, but the detectives refused to comment on whether or not they'd followed up on this new lead. But rather interestingly, several of the witnesses that the Sydney Herald had spoken to said that they were contacted by investigators within a few weeks after the Herald reported this information to them. So this leads us to one big question here. Who was the owner of this house when Jeanine went missing? And who could possibly be responsible? Well, the truth may be stranger than fiction. If you remember, the Sydney Morning Herald announced that they were handed a list of 47 total people of interest. Well, one of these people was none other than the lead investigator in Jeanine's case, as mentioned a moment ago. This man was Detective Brad Hoesman. Brad was interviewed at length regarding Jeanine's disappearance after it was found that he had a romantic interest in her in the weeks leading up to her sudden disappearance. One witness claimed to have actually seen Jeanine with Brad on the night that Jeanine vanished, but that's not all. See, the witness didn't spot the two having a friendly conversation. Instead, the witness claimed to have seen Jeanine bound and gagged in the back of Brad's car. Brad claimed that he had no idea what had happened to Jeanine. To top this off, he claimed he wasn't even in bathrooms at the time that she vanished. He claimed to be in Newcastle, but police very quickly found evidence that proved otherwise. In fact, he was in bathrooms when Jeanine vanished. He explained this away by claiming that he had traveled multiple times around this time period and must have simply been mistaken. Hoesman has repeatedly denied any involvement in Jeanine's disappearance, but many people simply aren't buying this story. About four years after Jeanine disappeared, the New South Wales police received an anonymous letter that insisted that Detective Hoesman was behind the crime, but the letter was unable to provide any irrefutable evidence that this was true. Another detective says that this letter suggested local police were covering up the crime to help protect one of their own, but there just wasn't enough evidence to back this up. There have been many eyes on Detective Hoesman's ever since he was first suspected of involvement in this case, but there's truthfully no solid evidence against him, and we have no reason to believe he may have been this mysterious person of interest. Well, except for one small footnote that I found while investigating this case. One article I came across referenced an investigation that was carried out at Brad Hoesman's home. This article detailed how a team of investigators arrived at his home and drilled through the concrete floor at Brad's home. There were no other details about this investigation that were mentioned, but this begs the question, why would detectives have wanted to look underneath the floor of his home? This is just my personal theory, but is it possible that there may have been a cellar hidden underneath the floor? Maybe even the cellar that was uncovered by the Sydney Herald. Obviously, the person of interest was never named by the Sydney Morning Herald, but this just seems too specific to not be the case. Though let me be clear, there is no proof that Brad Hoesman's is responsible for this. After all, the drilling investigation allegedly didn't find anything beneath his flooring that implicated him in the case, though I've not been able to confirm when this drilling took place. So it is entirely possible that if it was Brad Hoesman's home that had the hidden cellar and Janine's body was somehow placed down there, well it may have already been eliminated by the hundreds of bugs by the time investigators looked for it, but again, that's just my personal input. One thing about this unknown person of interest that's incredibly interesting and can't be overlooked is that nearly all of his former coworkers recalled the man as being remarkably volatile, and you'd never know which version of him you'd be greeted by each day of the week. He was regarded as having zero respect for females, particularly his female coworkers. He was noted on multiple occasions by multiple women as making unwanted sexual advances, just like what happened to Janine, but it doesn't seem like any legal action was ever taken. Several people described him as having a Jekyll and Hyde personality type. When it came to men, he was very well composed, honest and decent, but when women came into the picture he would shift, coming off as arrogant, mean and downright nasty. He was also described as showing up to work incredibly clean, cut and proper one day, only to show up looking disheveled, sweaty and dirty the next day. Several of his former coworkers recall their time working with him, saying that there were many days when they felt genuinely scared around him. He would often shout angrily at people, particularly females, and many people remarked that he seemed to have some demons buried beneath the surface. One male coworker recalled that he got along very well at the man, but said that he was in constant fighting with women and it certainly made him apprehensive about it. He specifically recalled that when dealing with women he was quote, a nasty person, no doubt about that. He added the confrontation was real, but he had no explanation about why the man was so mean to his female coworkers. So is this mysterious man Detective Brad Hoseman's? Well, maybe. It has been noted by one of the more recent investigative task forces that Brad is, at this very moment, still one of the top three persons of interest. Even though his own police force cleared him of any involvement, that doesn't mean they were honest during their investigation. After all, cops don't rat out other cops and live to tell the tale. That's just common knowledge. But the reason I believe there may be some level of corruption going on in this case is actually tied back to one particular piece of evidence that, again, I haven't really seen mentioned in any of the write-ups about this case. See, back in 2001, police collected a knife as a piece of evidence that they strongly believed may have been tied to Janine's possible demise. Very little information is available about this knife, but what's incredibly shocking and supremely fascinating is that the knife was destroyed by police officers back in February of 2002, less than three months after Janine disappeared. And what investigative team was leading the case at the time? Brad Hoseman's. The same team who mysteriously lost the diary that implicated Brad in the first place. Though in all fairness, we don't know for sure whether or not this knife was even related to Janine's case, it's just strongly suspected to have been. In fact, if this knife was involved in the case, it could possibly implicate an entirely new suspect, a man named Dennis Briggs. Dennis knew Janine, but not on a personal level. They went to the same bar quite often, but he claims to have never seen her there. Dennis says he only knew of Janine from the men's wear store where she worked. There was a report that Dennis supposedly confessed to the crime, but this confession was later tossed out after Dennis claims to have been intimidated by the police in order to coerce a false confession. Several other people have spoken out about Dennis over the years, and it's even known that he owned a red car at the time of the crime, but this car was searched and no evidence was found. Dennis remains a person of interest, but there isn't really any real evidence tying into the case. The final person of interest is a man named Andrew Jones, a local pharmacist who owns a red car matching the one seen at the scene of the crime. Andrew's pharmacy was located in the same shopping center as Janine, but he claims to have never known her, though it appears he did know of her. Receipts were found that proved he visited the store where she worked, but dozens of people shop there every day, so it doesn't prove anything. Andrew also bears a bit of a resemblance to the man who was witnessed driving the red car that evening, but the description is also pretty vague, so that's not really conclusive either. Janine's family are still actively pursuing her case, and so are investigators. There's currently a $1 million reward available for any information that brings this case to a close, but Janine's family have completely lost faith in the police force at this point, and who could really blame them? Her family has spoken out as recently as 2023, saying that Janine's father is now in very poor health and more than anything, they want to bring this case to a close before he inevitably loses his life. So if you have any information regarding what happened to Janine Vaughn, you're urged to contact Crime Stoppers Australia at 1-800-333-000. This case still remains unsolved, but let's hope it doesn't stay that way for much longer. The unsolved disappearance of Ray Grakar is one of the most shocking and confusing true crime cases in Pennsylvania history. Once a well-respected district attorney, Ray Grakar would suddenly and tragically go missing in 2005, after taking a drive to clear his head after a long week at work. The only problem is, Ray would never come back. His notebook computer was later found at the bottom of a lake, but the hard drive was mysteriously missing. Ray's whereabouts have never been uncovered, and most people believe that he was likely involved in a secret life of crime that ultimately led to his demise. The story of Ray Grakar has been requested dozens of times over the years, so I figured I'd do a deeper dive into Ray's disappearance this week. By the way, if there's any other stories you'd like me to cover, just let me know in the comments. Most of the topics I cover are recommendations from you guys, so I'm always looking for suggestions. The story of Ray Grakar may seem a bit boring and rather mundane at the beginning, but that's how some of the greatest true crime stories start out, making the crimes even more bizarre and unexpected. Ray was never a guy that you would expect to go missing under such mysterious circumstances, and his early years are certainly telling of this. Ray Grakar is most well known for being a lawyer who practiced in Pennsylvania for most of his life. Ray was born in Cleveland, Ohio and grew up in what was once considered one of the greatest areas in all of Cleveland, Collinwood. In the years since, the town has certainly seen a bit of a decline, later leading to what many would call the city's downfall. It's now considered a historic region in Cleveland, but it's also known for being rather crime-ridden, an impoverished area these days. As of 2020, the area is home to around 26,000 people, but the median income is just 27,000, with a population that's around 10% Caucasian and 85% African American. Considering Ray grew up during the glory days of this area, he was quite privileged as a teen and a young adult, eventually attending a well-to-do Catholic school in Gates Mills. After leaving high school, he attended the University of Dayton, where he began studying law and interning at the local prosecutor's office, an internship that would drive him for pretty much the rest of his life. As he realized, he didn't just have a passion for being a lawyer, but he had a passion for law and justice. Now, that may sound kind of redundant, but you've gotta realize there's a big difference between being a criminal lawyer and being a criminal lawyer, and it seems like most lawyers fall into the latter category these days. Sorry for any lawyers who may be watching this, but you and I both know that's just the honest truth. If we fast forward a bit, Ray finished up his schooling and internship programs, and a few years later, eventually accepted a job at the county prosecutor's office in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, specializing in homicides. By 1980, Ray had made his way to Pennsylvania in order to be with his newfound wife, who'd recently accepted a job at Penn State University. But in a shocking move to many of his family members and peers, Ray decided to quit his career as a lawyer and prosecutor entirely, opting to become a stay-at-home father to his children. If Ray was anything, he was a great father and a great husband. No one has ever spoken ill about his family or his home life. He was a man who seemed to have put his family first in all of his endeavors, so it made things even more strange when, without any prior notice, Ray packed up his car and disappeared, leaving his family, his friends, and one heck of a mystery in his wake. While Ray was enjoying his life at home, raising his children and attending the family matters, his new lifestyle didn't last too terribly long before Ray got an itch to begin working again. He was soon contacted by David E. Grime, who worked with the Sinner County District Attorney's Office in Pennsylvania. David had heard great things about Ray, so he made him an offer that he couldn't refuse, leading Ray to begin working again, accepting a new position as the Sinner County District Attorney. This took place around 1985, when the former District Attorney had decided not to run for reelection, paving the way for Ray to swoop in and claim the election by a margin of just 600 votes. When Ray accepted this new position, he agreed to work only part-time, but by 1996 he had campaigned to begin working full-time, and this request was ultimately granted. The people of Pennsylvania loved Ray, re-electing him in 1989, 1993, 1997, and 2001, but it was around 1998 when Ray's relationship with the public began to sour a bit. Even though he managed to get re-elected in 2001, his election wasn't without its share of controversy. In 1998, news began to break about the Penn State assistant football coach, Jerry Sandusky. For any of you who may not be aware, Jerry Sandusky is a name that's now gone down in infamy in the world of football. While Jerry may have been a great coach in his own right, he had many dark secrets that he was hiding behind closed doors, 52 secrets to be precise. Jerry had been putting on a front that he was a family man and all around a nice guy. But as it would turn out, he had been accused by countless young boys of, well, you can fill in the blank, but he had a thing for them. In 2011, he would be convicted of 52 counts of violations against minors. He was sentenced to serve between 30 and 60 years in prison, but now you may be wondering how all of this pertains to Ray Grecar. As it would turn out, Ray had allegedly known about these crimes all the way back in 1998, and Ray was asked to press charges against Jerry, but he refused. According to Ray, there simply wasn't enough evidence against Jerry at the time, so he let the case slide. Now, in the years since, the details of this situation have faded a bit, so I can't say for sure whether or not Ray was in the wrong here. After all, it wouldn't be the first time an attorney's let things slide, especially when their mayor may not have been under the table money involved. Mind you, this has never been proven, but a scumbag is a scumbag, and I wouldn't put anything past Jerry's and dusky. But I haven't found any reason to suspect that Ray was wrong in his claim that there simply wasn't enough evidence against Jerry at that particular moment. We know that the crimes were going on, that much is obvious, but if there isn't enough evidence for a conviction, then there's no reason to begin a lawsuit that's guaranteed to fail from the get-go. Thankfully, the evidence against Jerry mounted over the years, and he was finally sent to prison. But for many people, this raised concerns about Ray Grecoire's integrity. Some people even believe that this may have been what led to Ray's eventual disappearance. Maybe it was vengeance by one of the parents of the victims. Some believe that Ray didn't disappear of his own accord. They believe that he was kidnapped. It was 11.30 am, April 15, 2005. Ray had moved in with his longtime girlfriend, Patti for Nicola, back in 2003, and the two were living in her childhood home in Bellafont at the time. Ray had called Patti to let her know that he was going to take a drive through the Brush Valley area, just a short distance away from Center Hall. This wasn't out of the ordinary for Ray. According to those that knew him, Ray loved to take long drives to relax and clear his head. It was supposedly something he did quite often. But on this particular day, Ray's drive would take him much farther than he anticipated, and he would never make it home. Ray was expected to be home by dinner that evening, but he never made it back. Patti waited and waited for him to return, or at least call, but she never heard from him. As evening turned into night, Patti grew concerned and reported him missing. It would take investigators nearly 24 hours before they found any clues about where Ray might have gone. As they searched the areas around where he was known to have been driving that day, they eventually encountered a tip that his car had been parked outside of an antique store in Lewisburg. When detectives arrived at the vehicle, they found nothing but his cell phone inside. They knew that he had his notebook computer, wallet, and car keys with him that day, but all of these items were missing. But strangely, officers found no evidence of foul play at the scene of the crime, so wherever Ray had gone, he had gone there willingly, and he had taken his notebook computer with him. Or so it seemed. Police, as well as his family and friends, noticed that the scene of the crime seemed a bit familiar. It didn't take them long to realize that the circumstances in which Ray's car was found bore a striking resemblance to the situation of Ray's brother, Roy, who had taken his own life back in 1996, with Roy's car being found in almost the exact same situation. Ray's brother had left one day in May of 1996 to allegedly go purchase a few bags of mulch, but he never made it home. A few days later, his car was found after it was abandoned in Dayton, Ohio, near the Great Miami River. Roy had reportedly taken his own life by jumping off of a bridge into the lake after suffering from years of depression. Ray's car was found parked very close to the Susquehanna River, so police naturally suspected Ray may have ended up taking his own life as well. This led them to conduct a very thorough search of the river, but they found no signs of Ray or any of his belongings. Police later brought in sniffer dogs and had them search the area near Ray's car. We don't know specifically what led police to say this, but they claimed that the behavior of the sniffer dogs led them to believe that Ray had been meeting up with someone that day and may have left the scene of the crime in another vehicle. Pennsylvania police at this point asked the FBI to step in. The FBI then gained access to Ray's bank records, credit card statements, cell phone records, and every other aspect of his personal life. Ultimately, they found no clues or anything that seemed suspicious. Ray was in a good financial situation, his life was completely in order, and he planned on retiring later that year. But for reasons unknown, he had simply vanished before being able to live out his golden years. It would be several months later before the case would see any more progress. By July 30th, a group of fishermen had been traveling down the Susquehanna River when they came across a notebook computer at the bottom of the water, located just beneath a bridge that separated Lewisburg and Milton. And I believe this is the same bridge that was within walking distance of Ray's car, the bridge that police initially feared he may have jumped from, but don't quote me on that. Police showed up to collect the notebook computer, but they found that the hard drive was missing. This is interesting for two reasons. The most obvious reason is that it appears as though something was on the hard drive that someone either wanted access to or wanted it destroyed. As it would turn out in the months leading up to Ray's disappearance, he'd spoken with several people inquiring about how he could erase his hard drive, so that none of his information could be found or tracked. When Patty told police about this, she revealed that his search history on their home computer had alluded to some rather suspicious activity. He had searched how to fry a hard drive, as well as how to wreck a hard drive and even water damage to notebook computer. Mind you, these searches took place just a few weeks to months before he disappeared, so while we don't know much for certain, it seems that Ray Grecar was hiding something on his notebook computer that, for whatever reason, the world simply couldn't find out about. If this wasn't weird enough, things were about to get even worse. As police continued looking through his search history, they found that he had visited the MapQuest website and searched the driving directions of getting from Bellafont to Lewisburg, but Ray had made this trip countless times before. He knew the journey like the back of his hand, so why would he suddenly need directions? Well, it's possible that he'd been looking up these directions so that he could print them out for someone else. The case got even more bizarre when investigators processed Ray's car for evidence. Inside the car, they found evidence of cigarette ash on the floorboard. They also noticed a strong cigarette odor inside the car. This is strange because not only was Ray not a smoker, but he hated the smell of cigarettes and all of his closest friends knew this, so someone else must have been in the car with him that day. This all became more plausible when just a few months later, someone found a mysterious unmarked hard drive on the banks of the Sescajana River. Just 100 yards from where Ray's notebook computer was found under the bridge, and also in close proximity to where his car had been found. Unfortunately, police weren't able to determine for sure if the hard drive truly belonged to Ray, but it seems a bit suspicious that it'd be found in such close proximity to his notebook computer if that weren't the case. Police sent the hard drive to a team of experts in the hopes of recovering some of the data from the drive, but it had simply been too badly damaged and there wasn't anything to be recovered, not one single file. No one knew what to make of Ray's disappearance. There were no signs of foul play ever uncovered, nor was there any indication that Ray had wanted to start a new life. After all, all of his money had been left behind untouched in his bank accounts. He made no plans to go anywhere other than visit Lewisburg that day, and it seems strange that if he wanted to vanish and leave no trace behind, that he would call his girlfriend and tell her about the upcoming journey. If he wanted to dip and run, he would have just done that without saying a word. Despite all of this evidence that proves otherwise, the Grecarre family believed that Ray most likely met with foul play that day, and I'll be honest, I tend to believe them. It's far too much of a coincidence that police found evidence that he printed out instructions for a journey that he'd taken many times before, and later found cigarette ash in his car, as well as the sniffer dogs that believed that he left the scene of the crime in another vehicle that just doesn't add up unless there was someone else involved. This all came to a head when a former district attorney and close friend of Ray spoke out in the months after Ray's disappearance. This friend came forward and explained that he'd recently been contacted by a prison inmate. This inmate, whose name has never been released, claimed that he had been cellmates with a man who claimed to have been involved in Ray's disappearance. The inmate claims that his cellmate openly confessed to taking Ray's life and had no problems talking about the crime. The cellmate supposedly wanted to take Ray's life because Ray had been the one who landed him in prison. The cellmate wanted revenge. He says that he claimed to raise life in Lewisburg that day, then dumped his body on hunting grounds just outside of Lewisburg. The only problem was, police found no reason to believe that this story is true. They claim that they have no evidence pointing to foul play even after all these years. The district attorney believes that the inmate is telling the truth but that police simply won't follow up on the lead well enough. But if this is true and the cellmate did take Ray's life that day, then why was his laptop found in the river? And why was the hard drive removed and thrown in a different location? And what about the cigarette Ash in his car? Truth be told, we simply don't know what happened to Ray Grecar. Many people believe his disappearance may have had something to do with his unwillingness to charge Jerry Sandusky back in 1998. But there's no evidence to suggest that there's any relation here, literally nothing. In the end, Ray Grecar was legally declared deceased in 2011. So what happened to him? Well, we may simply never know. Bianca Devins was an up-and-coming Instagram celebrity who gained quite a sizable following online. She made many friends and fans on social media, but one friend in particular seemed to have been much more interested in Bianca than anyone realized. While Bianca and her newfound friend seemingly cared for each other and did everything together, investigators would soon learn that he had an ulterior motive, one that detectives never saw coming, and one that would cost Bianca her life and lead to one seriously twisted crime scene. If you're in a relationship with someone, whether you're married or dating, it's best to check in with one another from time to time to make sure everyone's needs are being met, and to be sure that you're on the same page. This is where Paired steps in. Paired is an incredible app that can help you improve communication, stay connected to your partner, and deepen your intimacy as a couple. Most importantly, Paired was designed to help you improve the happiness of your relationships, and it does a wonderful job. You can explore fun games, quizzes, and even receive expert guidance to help strengthen your relationships and overcome your struggles or shortcomings. 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Bianca Devins was a self-described fake internet girl who had gathered quite a following on Instagram, but Bianca was also a very real person, something we all may tend to forget from time to time when keeping tabs on some of our favorite social media stars. Bianca seems to have been focused on attempting to make a career out of being a social media influencer, and she was certainly on her way to making these dreams a reality. I can't say for sure just how large of a following that she had, but her account currently sits at just under 150,000 followers, so I'm sure many of these followers found her account after the crime took place, but more on that in just a moment. Being just 17 years old, Bianca had a good head on her shoulders for her age. She was incredibly talented as an artist, and this shows in many of her more expressionistic Instagram posts. Bianca wasn't a so-called e-girl in the traditional sense of the word, rather than posting provocative photos like many people do these days, she would pose for more artistic shots, often adding in captions or other images alongside herself, making her posts more of a modern art form than anything else. While Bianca focused heavily on her potential career online, she also took the proper steps to ensure that she'd have a successful life in case social media didn't pan out. Bianca was a remarkably bright girl, and her family says that she took pride in her efforts to help others. A former online friend spoke about Bianca, and remembered that she always was willing to help those around her, even if she was going through some dark situations in her own life. Bianca had made plans to study psychology at Mohawk Valley College in Utica, New York. She doesn't appear to have decided on what she planned to do with this degree just yet, but I would imagine she would have been involved in counseling or some sort of therapy if I had to guess, but we really don't know for sure. While Bianca presented herself online as a powerful and willful girl, she had some pretty serious struggles that she had to deal with on a daily basis for a number of years. I'm sure most of us are aware that being a teenager is incredibly hard, and many teens end up battling depression at some point. But for Bianca, her struggles were much deeper than anything many of us would have ever had to deal with. Her family spoke about her teenage years, and recalled that Bianca had been battling serious bouts of depression for a number of years. Not only this, but she also had to deal with crippling anxiety and a diagnosis of borderline personality disorder. Now, I don't know really anything about BPD, so I'm certainly not going to try to give any real detail to try to describe the disorder, but I know that a large number of people often struggle with BPD, and many of them are teenagers. The only thing I can say for sure about BPD is that it often leads to a disturbingly warped sense of reality and dramatically heightened emotions. And it's been said that up to 10% of people who suffer with BPD will end up taking their own life before finding a suitable form of treatment. If this weren't bad enough, Bianca would also be treated for PTSD, but we don't know for sure what may have led to all these troubles. Bianca's loved ones say that because of all these struggles, she found herself in and out of mental hospitals all throughout her teenage years. Bianca was seriously having a hard time, and she did everything she could to keep her health troubles at bay, but she'd often lose these battles and be forced to spend additional time in various hospitals for treatment. With all of the issues that she faced in her day-to-day life, it's no surprise that Bianca found refuge in online communities, particularly 4chan and discord. And who can blame her? Many of these forums that she became a part of predated themselves on the anonymity that they offered, meaning that Bianca could be whoever she wanted to be without feeling judged for the troubles that she faced on the daily. Bianca found a great number of friends online, but she also made more than a few enemies. According to a newspaper article, while Bianca loved to hide away on the internet, she found herself being harassed by perverted men on multiple occasions, and these men would go to great lengths to lure Bianca in to do whatever they wanted her to do. I say that as a joke, but seriously, if you have teenage kids, keep a close eye on the people they talk to online. One thing can lead to another very quickly, and Bianca was about to learn this in the worst possible way. One of the men that Bianca had been speaking with online went by the name of Brandon Clark. Brandon was a bit of a troubled child. While details of his childhood and upbringing haven't really been shared publicly, we do know that he had to deal with a lot of trauma in his younger years, much like Bianca. He recalled one particular incident where he witnessed his father using a weapon to hold his mother hostage for several hours. Thankfully, the situation seems to have cleared itself up, but this did a great deal of damage to Brandon, considering he was so young at the time. As time passed by, Brandon was able to hold himself together, but he always had troubles and triggers that would send him into fits of rage, paranoia, or worse. While he was able to live a normal life, he'd been battling demons for as long as he could remember, and that's probably why Brandon and Bianca hit it off so well. It's believed by many that Bianca and Brandon met on Instagram sometime in the spring of 2019. He began following Bianca because he enjoyed her posts, but he soon began privately messaging her as well. Bianca thought that he seemed like a perfectly nice guy, so she even messaged him back. Eventually, their relationship blossomed into a real-world friendship, but that's the problem. See, Bianca was just 17 at the time, and Brandon was 21, but this didn't matter to Brandon. While he loved being friends with Bianca, for him, that simply wasn't enough. While their relationship wasn't illegal, per se, considering the age of consent in New York is 17, their relationship certainly turned a few heads. Brandon had expressed his romantic feelings for Bianca several times, but Bianca quickly set him straight, explaining that she wasn't interested in becoming anything more than friends. She felt that the two had a lot in common, and they were both able to get a lot out of their friendship, but Brandon just wasn't able to let it go. But here's where things get a bit confusing. According to investigators, they have evidence to suggest that Bianca was quote, personally intimate with Brandon. Now, your guess is as good as mine as far as what that means, but to me, this suggests that they have reason to believe that the relationship was of a private consensual nature. It could be wrong about that, but that's the implication as far as I can tell. But Bianca's mother refutes these claims, saying that she'd spoken with Bianca about Brandon on several occasions, and Bianca had assured her that the relationship was nothing more than friendly. But let's be real for a minute. If you were 17, and you were having relations with someone who was 21, would you really tell your parents? I don't know the dynamic of Bianca's relationship with her mother, and I'm certainly not suggesting that Bianca was lying to her mom. I don't know this family at all. The only point I'd like to make here is that it's entirely possible that her mother wasn't aware of the full nature of this relationship. I may seem way out of line to even suggest such a thing, considering Bianca was a minor. But the reason I've come to this conclusion that Bianca wasn't being entirely open with her mother is because one of Bianca's mother's close friends claims that she feared that Brandon was manipulating Bianca. The friend claims that Brandon would get Bianca high and then coerce her into sexual encounters. So if this family friend had reason to believe that Bianca and Brandon were intimately involved with one another, and detectives claim the same thing, well I don't think it would be too much of a stretch to assume that they were intimately involved. But we still need to treat this idea as nothing more than a rumor since it can't be proven. But the real kicker here is that in all honesty, regardless of the details of Bianca's relationship with Brandon, one thing is certain, she was not interested in him when it came to a serious or even long-term relationship. While they may have been slightly more than friends, she didn't plan on things going any further than that. But Brandon was a very jealous man and Bianca was a young girl who turned quite a few heads. And unfortunately, this would lead to a dramatic fallout in their relationship, and one that Bianca wouldn't recover from. It was July of 2019. Over the last couple of weeks, Bianca had been speaking with her mother about attending a concert in Queens. A gothic folk singer that Bianca was extremely interested in was coming to town and Bianca wanted more than anything to be there. Bianca's mother was extremely nervous about letting her daughter go to a concert unattended, but she soon learned that Brandon would be there as well. Bianca's mother loved Brandon. He seemed like a very clean-cut guy and she felt much better about letting Bianca go to the concert after learning that he would be going with her. Now, to be clear, her mom still didn't want her to go, but in her mom's own words, Bianca was nearly 18 and she knew that she would go whether she said yes or not. When the night of the concert came, Bianca couldn't contain her excitement. She'd spent the majority of the evening trying on various outfits and asking for her mother's feedback. She finally decided on a black tank top with a black and white skirt. It was around this time that Bianca's mother learned about another person who'd be going with the two to the concert, a young man named Alex that Bianca had met on Discord. We don't know Alex's age, but we know that he lived somewhat close by and Bianca thought that this concert would be a great way for the two to meet up for the first time. Bianca eventually left home with Brandon and met up with Alex a short while later. According to various reports about the meetup, Bianca appears to have been romantically interested in Alex, even though she had told her mother that she wanted to remain single so that she wouldn't be tied down when she left home to attend college in a few months. But for whatever reason, Bianca appears to have been taken aback by Alex. The two had so much in common and Alex was an incredibly sweet and caring young man. The two had chatted for hours upon hours online, talking about anything and everything. Bianca felt that the two had been friends for years, even though they'd only known each other for a matter of weeks, as far as I can tell. This relationship only continued and strengthened once they met in person, and Bianca seems to have been falling head over heels for Alex, and the two ended up kissing at a nearby store in Queens. As you could imagine, this kiss angered Brandon greatly. Brandon, being somewhat possessive, felt betrayed by Bianca. After all, she'd no sooner told Brandon that she wasn't interested in anything serious when she, in his eyes, then turned around to begin pursuing someone else. Brandon was devastated to say the least. Bianca insisted to Brandon that this was nothing more than a friendly kiss, but Brandon consents that something more was going on here. Nevertheless, it appears as though the three attended the concert together anyway, but Brandon kept a much closer eye on Bianca after this. Bianca had been checking in with her mother all throughout the evening, and her final text rang through at about 7.30pm when the three were looking for a parking spot at the show. After this, her mother was left completely in the dark. When her mother hadn't heard back from them by about 1.45 the following morning, she became a bit concerned, but she assumed that Brandon and Bianca had pulled over somewhere to sleep before attempting to drive home after dark. Unfortunately, this wasn't true. By 7am that morning, Bianca's sister Olivia heard a knock at the door. She answered and was shocked to find that it was the police, and they wanted to talk about Bianca. When prosecutors arrived at Bianca's home, they weren't there because Bianca had gotten into trouble or had been arrested. Instead, they arrived with the worst news a parent could ever imagine. Bianca's life had been stolen from her, and if this weren't bad enough, it was taken by a trusted family friend. While Brandon may have given outward appearances of being a very calm and collected young man, he wasn't by any stretch of the imagination. The two had argued about Bianca's kiss with Alex for hours after the concert had let out. While Bianca thought it was nothing more than a misunderstanding, Brandon perceived this as a direct violation of his trust, and he wasn't going to stand for it. Brandon truly believed that he loved Bianca, and he would have done anything to have had her love him back, but if he couldn't have Bianca, no one could. While the two were in the midst of a heated disagreement in Brandon's car, Brandon pulled out a knife that he had hidden in his car earlier and claimed Bianca's life with one swift movement. For reasons that remain unclear, Brandon appears to have been under the assumption or the delusion that he and Bianca were dating, even though she had allegedly made it painfully obvious that she was uninterested. We know that this is the case because Brandon actually called the police himself and confessed to the crime, but rather than admitting that he had taken the life of his closest friend, he phoned 911 and said, quote, I just killed my girlfriend. But here's where things get disturbing, confusing, and just plain dark. On that fateful evening, Brandon revealed that not only was he battling some serious issues, but he was truly a sick and disturbed man. Before he even bothered calling 911, Brandon had actually taken photos with Bianca's body, posed with her body, and then shared these images all over social media. If this weren't bad enough, these photos spread like wildfire, but it gets even worse from here. Considering Bianca was an up and coming Instagram celebrity, these photos eventually made their way to Instagram. And soon enough, the photos had been sent to the inboxes of Bianca's family members. These images were sent to Bianca's mother multiple times, with her mother opening the messages before she could realize what they contained, blindsiding her with the most awful images of her child that anyone could ever witness. These images were sent alongside hurtful and untrue statements, with some users claiming that Bianca got what she deserved, with some even saying that Bianca was sleeping around with various people and that she had it coming. But this statement is an outright lie. When detectives dug into the situation further, they learned that Brandon had first posted the images to one of Bianca's regular Discord servers that she was known to frequent. He posted the image alongside an expletive laced comment saying that her fans would need to find someone else to follow now that Bianca had been dealt with. Detectives have even suggested that Brandon filmed himself committing the crime, and it's rumored that this video is floating around on the internet as well, but to tell you the truth, this isn't an allegation that I'm willing to dig into because some videos are better left unseen, so if you're curious about the validity of these claims, I'll let you do the digging on your own. When police arrived at the scene of the crime following Brandon's phone call and his confession, he turned the weapon on himself and attempted to take his own life, but thankfully first responders were able to administer aid in order to keep him alive long enough to stand trial. In the end, Brandon made a full recovery. Investigators say that they have every reason to believe that not only did Brandon take Bianca's life out of jealousy, but they believe he also did it for the fame, as they found a note left behind at the scene of the crime that was written by Brandon, reading, May you never forget me. Worse yet, the crime may have even been premeditated, and the kiss may not have actually been what provoked Brandon. He may have planned on committing the crime from the very beginning. Police claim that they have more than enough evidence to suggest that Brandon had been planning the crime for quite some time. If you remember, the weapon that Brandon had used to commit the crime had been stashed away in his car ahead of time, presumably long before Bianca's kiss with Alex. Brandon had also spent several days googling information about the location of the carotid artery online, as well as how to incapacitate someone. By all means, it seems as though Brandon had every intention of claiming Bianca's life for weeks in advance, but in the end, he was only sentenced to prison for second degree murder, presumably due to a lack of irrefutable evidence. But thankfully, Brandon was given life in prison with the possibility of parole after 25 years. But if we're being honest, I think we all know that this man will never see the light of day again. In the aftermath of the crime, Bianca's crime scene photos were popping up all over the internet. Her family were forced to not only live through the tragic and heartbreaking loss of their loved one, but every time they opened social media, they were greeted with more disturbing images of their family member. One of Bianca's friends recalled a time when someone had forwarded the photo to her. The friend had flagged the photo and reported it to Instagram so that it could get removed. But get this, she got a message back from Instagram the following morning saying that the image didn't violate their terms of service and thus it wouldn't be taken down. This happened on more than one occasion as well. Some of Bianca's family members said that they continued to receive these images in their inboxes for more than two years after Bianca had lost her life. With her family essentially being unable to do anything to drown out these disturbing photos, fans of Bianca came up with a different idea. Her followers all worked together to begin sharing photos of pink clouds in Bianca's honor. The idea here seems to have been to snuff out the images of Bianca's crime scene with images of peaceful pink clouds, and this movement certainly worked to a certain extent. For Bianca's family, though, the damage had already been done. Bianca's mother says that she doesn't feel as though she can close her eyes without seeing the awful, disgusting final images of her daughter. Worse yet, she found out that the Oneida district attorney's office also leaked private images and videos of Bianca to the press, so now these videos are circulating around on the internet as well. These images supposedly came from Bianca's private phone, and when investigators and detectives searched the phone during the investigation, these images were uploaded to a database shared by multiple law agencies, then eventually leaked to the public somehow. Without getting into too much detail, all I can really say is that these photos and videos, well, they're disturbing and highly illegal, as Bianca was underage. That should tell you all that you need to know. Bianca's family has since pressed charges, but as of now, the case hasn't been settled. This story is just disgusting from beginning to end. From Bianca's mental health issues, to the actions of her close friend, to the mishandling of her case by the district attorney's office, everything about this case is just tragic. Bianca's family will still be battling court cases for many years to come, but maybe on some level, the incarceration of Brandon will help bring them some form of peace, knowing that the man that ruined their lives will now be locked away forever. At trial, Brandon certainly did show signs of remorse, but whether these feelings were genuine or all for show remains to be seen. All we can hope for now is that Brandon never gets to live his life in the free world ever again. For Lauren Phelps, life had really just begun when she married the love of her life, Matthew Phelps, in 2016. The two were deeply involved in their local Baptist church, with Lauren being a Sunday school teacher and Matthew being a church minister. But in the fall of 2017, their lives would forever be changed. In the middle of the night, a crime of unspeakable proportions took place in the Phelps household, a crime that Lauren unfortunately wouldn't survive. When Matthew phoned 911 to report the crime to investigators, the statements he gave were haunting, confusing, and unlike anything investigators would have expected. Unfortunately, this is one of those cases where we don't have a lot of backstory. I'm not sure if the family of Lauren and Matthew wanted to maintain their privacy after the crime, or if it's simply that reporters didn't have too many interviews with the family. But the early lives of both Lauren and Matthew were largely a mystery. Oddly enough, most of the information I have been able to find about the couple comes from Instagram of all places. I was able to find out that Lauren was involved with a company known as Sensey. Sensey is a service pretty similar to Avon and countless other programs where you can sign up on their website to sell products in exchange for a small commission. Sensey in particular deals in fragrances such as wax warmers and candles, and they're not a sponsor, by the way. The best I can tell, Sensey seems like it may just be another pyramid scheme, but I don't know enough about the company to say that for sure. It's just the impression that they give. But anyway, Lauren teamed up with Sensey sometime in 2015 or 2016 and it seems as though she was doing quite well. She received a few awards during her time working for the company and everything seemed to be working out great for her. As far as I can tell, the work that Lauren was able to do with Sensey allowed her to maintain a stay-at-home lifestyle while her boyfriend and soon-to-be husband was attending schooling and training to become a pastor at the couple's Baptist Church. For those of you that may not know much about the Baptist Church, and I'll be the first to admit I don't know much about the Baptist faith either, a pastor is someone who leads church services, gives sermons, and even counsels members from time to time. In a non-denominational church, which is what I'm more familiar with, a pastor is more akin to an elder or rather someone who makes decisions about the church's donations and outreach projects and the overall directions of the church. But in the Baptist faith, this isn't really the case typically. It appears as though Lauren met Matthew sometime in mid-2014. The first mention of Matthew on Lauren's social media was in the fall of that year, and the two seemed to have hit it off immediately, officially becoming a couple in November of 2014. Matthew and Lauren seemed to have been great for one another, and all of Lauren's family members agree, saying that the two seemed destined to be together, with Matthew being a very honest, clean-cut guy. It seemed that for Lauren, the stars were finally aligning, and she'd found the one that she'd been looking for for all this time. Matthew allowed Lauren to be herself, and he loved her forehead. We don't know if Lauren had any ambitions of college or a long-term career path, but we know that once she met Matthew, her life began to change for the better. She became even more deeply involved with her local church, and when Matthew announced that he wanted to begin studying to become a pastor, Lauren was more than happy to support him. After dating for just under two years, the two got engaged on Valentine's Day in 2016, and they would get married later on that year. According to social media, the two were beyond happy together. In fact, their lives seemed to be perfect, but you always have to remember, social media is only a slight glimpse into the lives that people are actually living. As it would turn out, no sooner than their marriage had begun, it had begun to fall apart. According to Lauren's family, despite how happy Lauren may have seemed, she was miserable, and most of this misery stemmed from her new husband, Matthew. As it would turn out, Matthew wasn't at all the man that he claimed to be. You would never guess it, but Lauren and Matthew were walking on very thin ice from the moment they got married. I'm sure most of us already know that when you marry someone, typically you combine finances. I know there are certain couples out there that don't do this, but more often than not, couples share everything with one another, including their money. This is where things began to cause trouble for the Phelps household, though. See, when they were single, everything was working out great between Matthew and Lauren. After all, they each had control over their own lives, and they were able to share only what they felt comfortable sharing with one another. But now that they were married, they more or less felt obligated to share every little detail with one another. And that's when Lauren began to make a few discoveries about Matthew that she never would have expected. After living together for a few short months, Lauren began to realize that Matthew had a serious problem with money. We don't know for sure just how deep the rabbit hole really goes, but according to Lauren's family and friends, Matthew was spending like he was a member of Congress, but in reality, his income was virtually nothing. At least it was nothing compared to the amount that he was spending. It's pretty safe to assume that Matthew was likely in a lot of debt, but I haven't been able to confirm this for certain, so don't take that as fact. But according to Lauren's peers, Matthew was living a lifestyle that simply wasn't sustainable, no matter how you looked at it. This naturally caused serious problems in the couple's relationship, and Lauren was at wit's end no sooner than their marriage had begun. Lauren was known for being a very resourceful, honest, and caring person about how she lived her life. Matthew, on the other hand, was a bit more rambunctious and careless. Lauren had spoken with him time and time again about the sheer amount of money that he was spending, and Matthew seems to have made every attempt to cut down on his spending, but he just couldn't shake the habit. After all, for some people, buying things can be an addiction, even a way to hide their pain and discomfort in various aspects of their lives, and this certainly seems to have been true for Matthew. Matthew was unhappy with his life. On the surface, he had everything, a beautiful wife, a fulfilling job, a nice car, everything most people would ever aspire to have, but that just wasn't enough for him. Lauren grew so concerned about Matthew's spending habits that she began limiting access that he had to their bank accounts, but even this didn't seem to work, as he'd always find ways around Lauren's safeguards. This led to one argument after another, and before they knew it, both Lauren and Matthew were at wits end with one another. Lauren seems to have been set on working out whatever flaws the couple had, but she can only take so much. In mid-2017, Lauren had been speaking with a few of her friends about Matthew, and she began to fear that their relationship wasn't going to work out. No matter what she did, she felt like Matthew wasn't willing to cut back on his spending, and if the couple were ever going to start a family together, big changes would need to be made, but Matthew wasn't willing to make these changes. To top this off, Lauren had begun to suspect that Matthew was being unfaithful, but she couldn't prove anything just yet. At this point, it was more of just a gut feeling than anything else. Lauren did her best to see past Matthew's flaws, but they were becoming too large to ignore, and it was causing their lives to spiral out of control. While Lauren was obsessed with things like her cute outfits, Star Wars, dogs and children, Matthew's priorities were elsewhere. See, Matthew wasn't the man that he portrayed himself to be. Matthew had a dark side. Contrary to Lauren's more lighthearted interests and hobbies, Matthew seemed to have had an affinity for horror movies and the macabre, particularly the movie American Psycho. If you've never seen the movie, a quick rundown is that the main character, Patrick Bateman, is an investment banker who lives a double life as a serial killer. According to Matthew's friends, he was truly obsessed with the film to a concerning degree. He even dressed up as some of the characters from the film on holidays from time to time. But things got much darker and much more concerning when Matthew was casually talking with one of his friends over drinks one day. This friend says that seemingly unprovoked, Matthew brought up serial killers. But not only this, he confessed that he often wondered what it would be like to claim someone's life. I'm sure this is a thought that's crossed all of our minds at some point in our lives, but Matthew seemed strangely curious. This wasn't just a passing thought for him. The friend said that he could tell there was a strange energy that encompassed Matthew as he pondered the thought of this. It wasn't too long after this that tragedy struck. It was September 1st, 2017. The Phelps couple were happily asleep in their apartment and it was, by all means, a night like any other. The two had turned in for the evening and went to bed as they always did, but at some point in the middle of the night, Matthew was haunted by twisted dreams that he couldn't seem to shake off. Matthew had actually revealed that he struggled to sleep most nights. This led him to go to various means to try to get some rest, oftentimes relying on over-the-counter medications to get to sleep, though there are some rumors that he may have been involved in much harder substances as well. On this particular night, Matthew had taken a high dose of cough medicine, as he'd heard from a friend that it was the easiest way to turn in for the night. But one of the side effects of this medicine is that it can cause some rather wild dreams, and Matthew was experiencing this first hand. He never revealed specifically what these crazy dreams were about, but they were so disturbing that he eventually got out of bed to clear his mind for a bit, trying to calm down. As he crept out of bed, he stumbled over to the bedroom doorway and turned on the light, but when he turned to face the room, he couldn't believe his eyes. At first he thought he was still dreaming, but he quickly realized this was no dream, this was real life. When he turned around, Matthew found Lauren lying on the floor, the entire bedroom covered in red stains. On the bed, he noticed a knife, and when he looked down at his clothing, he noticed he was covered in red from head to toe. Unsure of what to do, Matthew did the only sensible thing and called the police. After dialing 911, Matthew made a truly disturbing revelation to the dispatcher. As he spoke with the 911 operator, he explained that he had a terrible dream, but when he turned the lights on, he found his wife on the floor. He followed this by saying, I think I killed my, and then he trailed off. The dispatcher began desperately asking how something like this could have happened, but all Matthew could do was describe the scene of the crime. He was very clearly in shock by what had taken place. All he was able to explain was that he had taken a large amount of cough syrup, then woke up to the scene of a crime. As the call came to an end, Matthew began sobbing, saying that his wife didn't deserve this. But Matthew was shocked, wouldn't last for very long. As investigators later made their way to the scene of the crime to collect whatever evidence they could, they realized a particular aspect of the crime scene didn't make any sense. When they arrived to speak with Matthew, they realized that he was strangely clean. Even though he had told the dispatcher he was covered in red stains, they found he was in pretty good shape for someone who had just woken up to a crime scene. It didn't take detectives long at all to prove that Matthew had, in fact, cleaned up long before the 911 call. I don't know about you, but if I woke to find my wife on the floor in a bedroom covered from floor to ceiling in evidence, I don't think taking a shower would be the first thing on my mind, and police picked up on this clue immediately. All throughout his interrogation and interviews with police, Matthew maintained his story. Each time he was asked, he'd say the same thing. He took a much larger dose of cough medicine than he should have, and then he went to bed and woke up to the scene of a crime. Police didn't have any evidence to prove otherwise, outside of the strange fact that he had cleaned up before calling 911, but this isn't a crime by any means, it's just weird. But while Matthew had initially maintained his innocence during the investigation, he would soon make a bizarre confession that took everyone by surprise. At this point, investigators were unsure of what to believe. The evidence told a clear story of what had taken place that evening, but the account that Matthew had given made an equal amount of sense, at least to a certain point. Matthew claimed he was under the influence of cough syrup when the crime occurred, and this appeared to have been true, but the manufacturer of the cough syrup in question explained that in their countless years of research, they found zero evidence that could link the medication to violence. Police were highly suspicious, but they weren't able to prove much of anything, at least not yet. As his trial was underway, Matthew was speaking with the judge who'd be overseeing his case. As he spoke with the judge, Matthew's demeanor began to change. Up to this point, Matthew had shown no signs of remorse. In fact, when investigators spoke with him at the scene of the crime, they noted that he showed no significant signs of emotion, claiming he didn't even shed real tears. But as he spoke with the judge, Matthew underwent a major shift and actually admitted to the crime. He told his side of the story, and he opened up about the possibility of being responsible for the crime. Then, just a few brief moments later, he more or less confessed the cough syrup probably had nothing to do with his actions that evening. The judge asked, are you admitting guilt? And Matthew agreed. Some prosecutors believe Matthew only did this as a way to avoid the death penalty, while others believe he really was beginning to show signs of remorse. It's difficult to say one way or the other if I'm being honest, but this is nowhere near the end of the story and things would only get worse for Matthew from here. As the case was still undergoing investigation and the trial was underway, detectives managed to track down multiple social media accounts that Matthew owned. He had two Instagram accounts, one titled Marty Radical and another titled Uncanny Maddie. On his Marty Radical page, Matthew almost exclusively posted screenshots and quotes from the film American Psycho. This account has since been set to private, so I can't confirm any of the specific posts that Matthew made, but the profile image from this account is still visible, and it's an image of Christian Bale from the film covered in red spatter, so it's pretty safe to say that the allegations there are most likely true. As for Matthew's other account, well let's just say that his bio didn't age well. The only part of this page that is still visible is the message in his bio that reads, I'm just a pitiful anonymous drifting into the abstract. I can't seem to tell if I'm dreaming anymore. Police have made a few bold suggestions, claiming that Matthew was so fascinated with American Psycho and so frustrated with his wife for trying to control their finances and threatening divorce that he snapped. In a fit of rage, they claimed that he enacted one of his favorite scenes from American Psycho, inflicting more than 120 individual wounds on his wife, then taking the time to clean himself up before ever calling the police. While Matthew was never admitted directly to all of these allegations, I don't think it would be much of a stretch to assume that investigators are probably correct in these assumptions. In the aftermath of the crime, Lauren's family has spoken out about the case, and Lauren's father has expressed regret over the last few weeks of Lauren's life. He mentioned that just a few weeks before his daughter lost her life, he noticed that her demeanor had changed. She seemed paranoid, afraid and worried about something. He regrets that he didn't question her further about this, and he believes that this may allude to Matthew's crime having been premeditated, and Lauren may have felt that something bad was about to happen. To make matters even worse, Lauren also learned that Matthew had been cheating on her. Lauren's sister says that she spoke with Lauren just hours before the crime unfolded, and she discovered that Lauren and Matthew had been arguing about Matthew's alleged affair, after Lauren had witnessed her husband sneaking out of the house to be with another woman. Lauren's sister believes that the two were most likely revisiting this argument when Matthew lost his temper and began attacking Lauren, but this has never been proven, though it would certainly make sense. We may never know for sure, but Lauren's family has been beyond heartbroken by the entire situation, though I'm sure that really goes without saying at this point. Lauren's mother describes Matthew as a master manipulator, also believing the crime was premeditated for months before it took place, though in all honesty, I've found no reason to believe that this is true. According to Lauren's mother, police allegedly told her that most of Lauren's wounds had also come from behind, and they have reason to believe that he had knocked her to the ground, sat on top of her and inflicted most of the wounds while she was defenseless against him. In response, Lauren's father said, I think about it every day, what I did wrong, what I missed. Till this day, I just regret not knowing or keeping my eyes open and watching. I took everything as it was. When asked about the possibility of forgiving Matthew one day, Lauren's father replied, no, I'll take it to my grave and I'll still hate him. In the end, Matthew was sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole. Now, I can already tell that a few select people watching this video are going to run to the comments and start ranting about how this Christian man killed his wife. Let me just tell you, Matthew was not a Christian man. Matthew was a fraud, a joke even. In fact, one of his social media accounts didn't even describe himself as being a pastor or even a pastor in training. He described him as an entrepreneur. Christianity is about living up to the example that Christ set for his people, helping those who are less fortunate, loving our neighbors, and being in the world, but not of the world, and following the very simple commands that God has given to his followers. Matthew was none of those things. Matthew was a hateful man who turned his back on religion a long time ago. He is not representative of any Christian I've ever met, and it pains me to have even mentioned him in the context of being a minister of God's word. He's nothing but a wolf in a sheep's den, and Matthew got exactly what he deserved. But in the real world of Christianity, as painful as it may be to hear at times, there's always a possibility of redemption. And I certainly hope that before his life is over, Matthew is able to truly turn his life around and realize the pain and the grief that he's inflicted on so many innocent people, and maybe even turn himself around before it's too late. Melissa Jenkins was a schoolteacher and basketball coach from Vermont who went missing under mysterious circumstances in March of 2012. Thankfully, she was found within 24 hours of her disappearance, but unfortunately her discovery would reveal a disturbing crime that was committed by two suspects who claim they were her friends. Melissa Jenkins was a 33-year-old single mother who on the surface seemed like her typical American woman, but in reality she was far more than that. Melissa was truly one of the nicest women in her area and she would do just about anything for anyone. Everyone in her community, both before and after her untimely passing, had nothing but nice things to say about her. She made a living by teaching at St. Johnsbury Academy in Vermont. St. Johnsbury is a private school, but it's considered a non-profit as well, giving it a leg up over some other schools of this nature. Melissa was one of the school's science teachers who was loved by all of her students. Every year, it seemed like students fought as hard as they could to land a place in her class. She was a great teacher who got on well with all of her students and made sure that each of them felt welcomed, heard, and cared for. She always had her students' best interest at heart and had a true passion for furthering the future generations. When she wasn't teaching science, she spent her time coaching the school's basketball team. Coaching grades 9 through 12 as far as I can tell. Melissa knew that if her students were going to succeed, they not only needed a proper education, but they needed an extra curricular outlet as well, and she was more than willing to provide this for them. Not only was Melissa an amazing teacher and coach, but she was a great mother as well. We don't know much about what led Melissa to become a single mother, but we know that she had a two-year-old son who was the center of her world. Unfortunately, she needed to work two jobs to make ends meet, but she was happy to do so if it meant building a better life for her son. To make this happen, she would spend nights and weekends working as a waitress at a local restaurant. Considering Melissa spent almost every waking minute of her day, either at work or in the public in some capacity, it became all the more shocking when she seemingly dropped off the face of the earth on March 25, 2012. None of her friends were able to get in touch with her throughout that evening, and she'd been watching her two-year-old son that evening as well. So her boyfriend grew incredibly concerned for both the safety of Melissa and her son. After several hours went by and he had still been unable to reach her or locate her, he decided to call 911. It was March 25, 2012, when police received a call from Melissa's boyfriend. He explained that he'd received a call from Melissa earlier that night about a couple of friends of hers that were having car troubles. He explained that Melissa had offered to come help the friends out, but he never heard another word from her after this, despite dozens of phone calls. Her boyfriend continued by saying that he'd gone out looking for Melissa that evening, but he couldn't find any trace of her. But this is where things get pretty interesting. He explained that Melissa sounded strange when he spoke to her on the phone, but he didn't think much of it at the time. But he grew incredibly concerned when he found her car abandoned on Gos Hollow Road. This doesn't seem to have been a road that she would have normally traveled down. It was just a dirt road a short distance from her home. But her boyfriend couldn't figure out any reason that she would have been in this area at this time of night. When he approached her car, he realized it was still running. He looked in the windows, but there was no sign of Melissa. But then he noticed the most disturbing detail of all. Her son was still strapped into his car seat in the back of the car, all by himself. After telling police all of these details, investigators showed up within minutes. We don't know why the young boy wasn't given to his father, but he was sent to live with a family friend while police ironed out the details of what was going on. There were obvious signs of a struggle just outside of the car, including various shoe prints, scrapes, smudges, and unidentified tire tracks. A baseball hat was found on the ground near the front of the car, but it didn't belong to Melissa, and none of her friends or family recognized the hat. The tire tracks that were seen a short distance away looked as if the person driving the car had sped away in a hurry, but it was this next piece of evidence found near the tire tracks that made police all the more suspicious. They found Melissa's cell phone on the ground crushed and rendered useless. Officers collected the phone for evidence, but there wasn't much information on the phone that proved to be beneficial to the investigation. By the time detectives had collected all of the evidence from the scene of the crime, it was beginning to get dark out, meaning their investigation met a new challenge. Regardless, police worked tirelessly through the night to collect every piece of evidence they could, but it seemed the suspects had managed to successfully leave the scene of the crime without leaving anything of significance behind. Except for Melissa's two-year-old son. As it would turn out, he witnessed the entire struggle, and he was willing to tell the police everything he saw. As with most missing person cases, the first person detectives suspected of the crime was Melissa's boyfriend. Police interviewed the boyfriend, and he gave a few conflicting accounts to officers. According to Melissa's brother, the boyfriend wanted a serious relationship, but Melissa just wasn't into him like that, or at the very least, she wasn't ready for such a strong commitment so soon, considering she had a son now. She either wanted to break things off or just keep things somewhat casual. According to her brother, the boyfriend wouldn't let this go, and it seems as though he often pressured Melissa into committing, even though she wasn't ready. But when officers spoke with the boyfriend about this, he claimed that the brother was either lying or ignorant to the truth. According to the boyfriend, he agreed with Melissa's decision to take things slow. Police weren't buying this at first, so they decided to take a mold of his boots to compare them to the boot prints found at the scene of the crime. Turns out they weren't a match, and police decided to let him go. The following day, investigators called him the help of a detective who specialized in interviewing children. They brought in Melissa's son and spoke with him about what had happened that night, the night that his mother went missing. It turns out the boy, despite being only two years old, was able to reveal a lot of information to the police about the crime. He told investigators that his mother had been attacked by two people. Not only this, but when police asked him what happened to his mom, he grabbed himself by the neck, looked at the detective, and said, Mommy cried. After hearing this terrifying confession from Melissa's son, the next person of interest was the father of Melissa's son. Just to clarify things here, Melissa's boyfriend, the one we've been speaking about up to this point, the one that discovered her car, was not the father of her son. The boy's father lived about 80 miles away in Burlington. Police interviewed him, but he had an alibi and was cleared almost immediately. This brought police back to St. Johnsbury. When they made their way into Melissa's home, they searched every square inch of the property, but found no indication of a struggle or anything that was amiss. It seemed as though they'd reached a dead end. But as they looked around, they noticed one small detail that seemed vaguely interesting. A business card for a snow plowing business, owned by Alan and Patricia Prude. The police didn't know if this business card was significant, but it seemed as though she'd only recently received the card, so they thought the owners of the business might have some details to share if they happen to be present prior to the crime taking place. By this point in the investigation, police strongly suspected that Melissa had already lost her life. They kept their options open, but they prepared for the worst, as the evidence found at the scene of the crime didn't suggest that the perpetrators intended to keep Melissa alive for very long and time was running out. Police searched every possible area where someone might have wanted to dispose of incriminating evidence, but they continually turned up empty handed. They even searched all of the local rest stops and ditches, but there was nothing to be found. It was around the 24 hour mark that investigators received a tip that would blow the case wide open. Someone had called in from a local boat launch and reported that they noticed something suspicious sticking out of the water in a local fishing spot. Investigators didn't think much of it, but they decided to investigate anyway. Once they arrived, they immediately knew that they had encountered a crime scene. As they drew closer to the mysterious object in the water, they found out quite quickly that this wasn't an object. It was a woman, and this woman was none other than Melissa Jenkins. A scuba team was called to the scene of the crime to help collect all of the evidence that may have been left underwater. Mind you, all of this was taking place in the middle of March in Vermont. The waters were borderline freezing temperatures, but the scuba team had a job to do and they did it well. As they looked under the water, they found that Melissa had been secured in place with a few cinder blocks and rope. Thankfully, they were able to free her without much issue, allowing police to look into the case without too much degradation of evidence. Photos from the scene have been kept under wraps, but officers revealed that Melissa was placed in the water face down. She was then secured with the aforementioned cinder blocks and rope and was then covered up with sticks and brush to try to conceal her location. But this seems to have been done in a half hazard rush, proving that the criminals weren't prepared for this crime ahead of time. None of Melissa's clothes were found at the scene of the crime, and there was virtually no other evidence to lead investigators to the suspects that may have done this. But when she was pulled from the water, police realized something that shocked them to their core. When police looked into the evidence that was collected directly from Melissa's remains, they found that she was covered in bruises and had several serious wounds that were inflicted immediately prior to her losing her life. These wounds were indicative of a stun gun being repeatedly used, but the next piece of evidence wasn't what officers would have ever expected. They found that someone had taken Melissa's life with their bare hands, an up close and personal attack that wasn't consistent with the evidence officers had collected up to this point. They believed that they were initially investigating a crime of opportunity, but now they were investigating a crime of passion. When officers began to backtrack Melissa's steps from that day, they first checked her phone records to see who she'd spoken to that evening. They found one call had come in from a prepaid burner phone at around 8.30 that evening. They found that the burner phone had only been used to make this one single call. This led investigators to a store in New Hampshire where the phone had been purchased. When they asked the manager about the sale of the phone, they learned that the device had been purchased with a check. The signature on the check tied it to none other than Patricia Prue, the same name that had been printed on the business card that was found inside of Melissa's home. Police planned on calling in the Prues to interrogate them, but as it would turn out, they didn't need to call them because when they arrived back at the police station, the Prues were there waiting on them. When officers spoke with the couple, Patricia said that she'd come into the police station to report her identity as being stolen, and she believed her ex-husband was behind it. But police quickly turned the conversation to Melissa Jenkins, and the couple both admitted that they had met Melissa before. In fact, they were friends of hers. They'd plowed her driveway a couple times the previous winter, and friends and family of Melissa also said that this was true. They learned that Melissa was very friendly with the Prues couple, but that she hadn't spoken to them in several months. They had been reasonably close friends leading up to this, but according to one of Melissa's friends, Melissa had to end their agreement because she was creeped out by Allen. As it would turn out, Allen Prue had romantic feelings towards Melissa, but these feelings were not mutual. Allen had asked her out on multiple dates, but Melissa repeatedly declined and eventually terminated their business agreement as a result. The Prues were allowed to leave the police station that day, but they were secretly placed under police surveillance over the next few days. Investigators knew that the couple were acting suspicious, and they believed that they may be involved in the crime, but they just didn't have any evidence to prove it just yet. Police eventually managed to retrieve the CCTV footage from the store where the burner phone had been purchased, and as expected, both Allen and Patricia were seen in the footage. During their interrogation with the couple, police noted that Allen mentioned visiting a drive-thru restaurant that same evening, so they requested footage from the restaurant as well. When the footage finally arrived, investigators were speechless. The CCTV footage showed Allen wearing the same hat that had been found at the scene of the crime that day, the one that had been left in front of Melissa's car. Police called the couple back in for follow-up questions, this time speaking to them separately. Patricia denied any involvement and any knowledge about the crime even when she was confronted with the CCTV footage and the images from the scene of the crime. Allen, on the other hand, buckled under pressure. Allen opened up to the officers and explained the details of what had taken place that fateful evening, and it wasn't pretty. Police knew that he'd previously shown a romantic interest in Melissa, but they couldn't have expected what he revealed next. Allen admitted that his wife was bisexual, not only this, but she struggled with monogamy. She would often ask Allen if they could invite other partners into their bedroom, and he felt forced to comply. On this particular occasion, the couple had agreed to find someone willing to come home with them, and Allen specifically wanted to bring Melissa into the equation. The two hatched a plan to fake car troubles, calling Melissa to help them. It seems that the plan was simply to try to seduce Melissa into coming home with them, but the plan went south very quickly. Soon after Melissa arrived, Allen jumped on her and managed to overpower, but he wasn't able to finish the job. Patricia then jumped in and put an end to things, and the two worked together to steal Melissa in the back of their car, now panicking about what they had done. All the while, Melissa's son watched from the backseat of the car, with both Allen and Patricia blissfully unaware that Melissa had even brought her son with her that evening. The crime wasn't premeditated, so to speak. Yes, they conspired together to try to get Melissa to go home with them, but both Allen and Patricia insist that they had no plans of taking her life that day, and the evidence certainly seems to support this. Allen says that even after things went south, he still had no plans of claiming her life. He admitted to police that he wasn't feeling like himself that night and seems to have been filled with misguided rage, but when he realized what he was doing, he stopped. But that's where Patricia jumped in to finish the job, allegedly against Allen's wishes. During the couple's court proceedings and future interrogations, Allen continually claimed that Patricia was the one to blame for claiming Melissa's life. He admitted to letting his temper get the better of him and was willing to accept whatever punishment the court deemed necessary, but he never admitted to taking her life. Regardless, a jury decided that they were both guilty and sentenced each of them to life in prison. Both Patricia and Allen have appealed their sentences since then, but their cries have fallen on deaf ears. In the years since the crime, both Allen and Patricia have continued to blame one another, passing the buck, so to speak. The truth is, we don't know which of these two was truly the mastermind behind the crime. All I can say for sure is that, thankfully, it doesn't look like either of these two will ever see the light of day again, and Melissa's family can finally begin their search for closure. Most of us fall in love for the first time while we're still in school or attending college, and for Alex Skeel, a 28-year-old man from Stewardby in Bedfordshire, England, this was no different. But his case is one that's left many people in disbelief when it came to light that he'd been suffering horrific abuse at the hands of Jordan Worth, the woman who claimed to love him, and it would take a near-death incident to finally bring her heinous misdeeds into the public eye for all to see. Alex Skeel didn't have an easy start to his life. He and his twin brother Luke were both born prematurely on the 17th of August 1995, and weighing just two pounds, he had to spend some time in intensive care and underwent several surgical procedures while he was still an infant. He went on to make a full recovery, and later on, he and his brother became models for the well-known supermarket franchise, ASDA, a pretty happy ending to an otherwise tumultuous situation. While growing up, Alex developed a deep love for football, or soccer as we call it in the States, and Alex spent most of his weekends playing the game with his friends. By June of 2012, Alex was 16 years old and attending Bedford College in Bedford, England. It's here that he would meet Jordan Worth, a fellow student who was studying fine arts. On the 3rd of June of that year, one of Alex's friends was performing in a play at the college, and Alex decided to attend to show his support. Jordan was also in attendance, since one of her friends was also in the play, and soon, she and Alex started chatting. Alex had never shown much interest in women, but something felt different when he was with Jordan, and before long, he was falling head over heels for her. He found it surprising and exhilarating that Jordan showed interest in him, and at the time, he described her as a confident, caring, and loving person. He introduced her to his friends, and they all got along, though Jordan seemed reserved and introverted compared to the rest of the group. Regardless, they accepted Jordan for who she was, and soon, she was just as much a part of the group as anyone else. Alex later introduced Jordan to his family, and this is when he started to notice strange things about her behavior. Jordan would comment on the clothes that he was wearing, and on some occasions, would mention that she didn't like the color and that it didn't suit it, and that she thought he should wear something else. She would also make comments about other things like his hairstyle, suggesting that he'd rather wear it in a style that she preferred, and at first, he didn't think much of it, but changed some things that she had mentioned since he wanted to impress her. After all, every relationship is full of compromise, though admittedly, these were some pretty strange things to compromise on, and a lot of the time, it wasn't a compromise at all. It almost felt as though Jordan was demanding these things, while offering nothing in return. Alex's parents also started noticing that Jordan was playing mind games, and they tried to warn him, but he felt that when he and Jordan were alone, things were different, and although he had also noticed some strange behavior on her part, he was sure that it was nothing to worry about. That brings us to the 17th of August, 2013. Alex and Luke were celebrating their 18th birthdays, and their mother decided to make the day special by hiring a caterer and inviting all of their friends to celebrate with them. But when Jordan got wind that a certain family friend's daughter would be attending, she proclaimed that she wouldn't be going to the party, end of story, but Alex eventually convinced her to change her mind. During the night, though, an altercation broke out between Jordan and the girl, who was just 15 at the time, with Jordan hurling some rather nasty language towards her. Jordan was generally unhappy that Alex was spending all this time with people other than her. She wanted him all for herself and nothing else would do. Although Alex's friends tried to warn him that Jordan was nothing but trouble, he just couldn't see it. Considering how much he loved her, he allowed her antics to continue, believing it was all for the best. After this argument at the party, the couple started fighting much more frequently, and on one occasion, Jordan lost her temper and snapped Alex's phone's SIM card in half, preventing him from contacting anyone on his phone. He suddenly realized that his family and friends were right, and he decided to end the relationship, much to the relief of everyone around him. From this point forward, things seemed like they'd begun to cool down for Alex. His life gradually got back to normal and all was well. But Jordan she had other things in mind. Unfortunately, as is true in many abusive relationships, the separation between Alex and Jordan didn't last long. Just a few days after the breakup, Jordan arrived at the family's house with the shocking news that she was pregnant with Alex's child. He agreed to support Jordan and their child financially, but told her that they couldn't be in a relationship since he couldn't handle the mind games and her controlling behavior. For the next 12 months, they had virtually no contact, and for Alex, things couldn't have been better. Jordan gave birth to a healthy baby boy on the 19th of May, 2014, and without prior warning, Jordan showed up to the family's home with the boy so that everyone can meet him. Though Alex was unhappy with Jordan being invited into the house, his family felt that she changed after becoming a mother, since she showed none of the strange behavior that they'd witnessed in the past. For Alex though, the wounds still felt too fresh, and he wanted no part in this. Instead, he decided to meet his son for the first time without Jordan present, opting instead to do so with his grandfather, who he was very close with by a side. But before long, as you probably expected, Alex and Jordan started spending time together again while caring for their son, and the following year, they decided to officially and formally get back together. This time, everything seemed different. Jordan truly seemed to have turned over a new leaf, and by Alex's own admittance, the relationship was better than it had ever been. But just a short while later, Alex's family started noticing more alarming behavior, and when Alex confronted Jordan about it, she lost her temper yet again. She told Alex that he had to choose between her and his family. Alex didn't want to be separated from his son, and so he decided to move in with Jordan. His family wouldn't see him again for the next two years. The couple had moved into Jordan's parents' house, but here, Jordan's controlling behavior only escalated. She forced Alex to change his phone number, and on several occasions accused him of cheating on her with other women, even though Alex wasn't that kind of person and never showed any interest in anyone else. She also falsely told him that her mother had been informed by his family that his grandfather had passed away, but upon seeing how upset he was, she later admitted that she had lied. Why she did this? Nobody knows. Despite all of this, the couple decided to find their own place in 2016, and they moved to Stewardby. For a while, everything seemed perfect. Alex and Jordan were getting along, their son was healthy, and they loved their new house. Since relationships seemed to be better than ever before, they decided to have another baby, and soon Jordan was pregnant once again. While everything was going great during these days, their house of cards would soon come crashing down, and Alex could have never expected the terror and turmoil that his life was about to crash into. Jordan was still in college at this time. She had classes nearly every day, but as time passed by, she began to grow concerned that Alex may have been sneaking around behind her back while she was gone for the day. As it would turn out, she was right, but Alex wasn't sneaking around with other women, he was sneaking around to visit his family. When Jordan found out about this, she was beyond livid. From this point on, she forced Alex to attend all of her classes with her, so that she would always be able to keep an eye on him. Alex hesitantly agreed, because he couldn't stand the thought of shaking the foundations of his already fragile family. It wasn't long after this that Jordan had set up a fake Facebook profile in Alex's name, and in the months that followed, she contacted his friends via private messages, stating that he wanted nothing to do with them, and that he'd never really considered them as his friends in the first place. Luckily, they quickly caught on and replied that they knew Jordan was the one messaging them, resulting in them being blocked from the fake profile. She also messaged his family pretending to be Alex, telling them that he didn't want any contact with them and that they should just leave him alone. Again, it seems the family knew that these messages weren't from Alex, but from Jordan. By this time, Alex's family had had enough, and they made up their minds to intervene. They knew that the couple had relocated to Stewartby, but when they finally tracked Alex down at his new address, their knocks were ignored despite the couple clearly being home. They were under the impression that Alex didn't want to see them, and so they had no choice but to leave. In the meantime, Jordan's behavior had gotten worse than ever before, and on one occasion, she forced Alex to swallow an entire packet of sleeping tablets, which left him with memory lost for the rest of the evening. When he finally woke up, he had no clue what had taken place, and to this day, that evening is still a bit of a blur. A few days later, the two were driving in their car when, without provocation, Jordan picked up her hairbrush and started assaulting Alex with it, resulting in one of his teeth breaking off. She would later admit to the assault, but maintained that she had never been abusive towards him before, nor she ever kept him from contacting his family. The investigation into this incident more or less ended right there, but things would only get far, far worse from here. During the nights when Alex had fallen asleep before Jordan, he would repeatedly be awoken by blows to his head, which would leave him with scars afterward. During one of these attacks, Alex was unsure what had even happened, and to his shock, he realized that Jordan had assaulted him with a hammer. When questioned by the police later on, Jordan would admit that she had in fact used a hammer to assault him, but inexplicably stated that she never meant to hurt him. But then, investigators found out that she had taken things a step further on a couple occasions, pulling out a knife. Her response to this accusation was even more baffling. She stated that, yes, she had used a knife to assault him, but she only ever cut him and never jabbed him with it, as if that would make things better. It would seem that in her mind, the two actions were vastly different, but in reality, regardless of how things specifically played out, Alex's life was in constant danger. By this time, Alex had started to lose weight in a dramatic way, since Jordan would sometimes not allow him to eat. This would usually be when she wasn't hungry, and so she didn't see the point preparing dinner, and it would seem that she prevented Alex from preparing dinner either. She also started prohibiting him from sleeping in their bed, instead forcing Alex to sleep on the floor. She would later make the excuse that there wasn't space for Alex, since she was sharing their bed with their baby, but this was an obvious lie. Alex knew that he was in trouble by this point. There was no doubt in his mind that he was going downhill physically, but his judgment had become so clouded that he didn't know what to do. He saw no other option than to contact his family for help, and in February of 2017, he contacted his father out of desperation. But when his father arrived at the couple's house, all of the lights were suddenly switched off, and Alex asked him to leave, but he refused to do so. Instead, his father phoned the police since he suspected that Jordan was keeping him from coming outside. He didn't know how right he was. He would seem that for weeks or months leading up to this, Jordan had prevented Alex from leaving the house at any point without her accompaniment or approval. He was to remain in her line of sight at all hours of the day, no exception. When officers arrived later on, they spoke with the couple and told Alex's father that the couple had merely had an argument that the issue had been resolved. They did, however, mention that Alex was seen walking with a limp, but stated that there wasn't much that they could do other than to ensure that the fight was well and truly over. Disappointed by the outcome, Alex's father had no choice but to leave empty handed. It would seem at this point Alex was desperate to get out of the relationship, but Jordan's controlling behavior had gotten so out of control that he had no idea how to deal with it or how to escape the nightmare that he was living. He was now a prisoner within his own home. He couldn't leave. He couldn't sleep. It almost felt as though he couldn't breathe without Jordan's permission. But quite unbelievably, the worst was yet to come. Alex would later recall that he and Jordan went to see a band perform in Leeds one night, and he thoroughly enjoyed himself. Not only because it was his favorite band, but because he and Jordan were having a good time and he felt as though he didn't need to worry about being abused for once, even if only for one night. But his relief was short lived. The following morning, he woke up in their hotel room to the horrific realization that Jordan was pouring boiling water down his back for reasons unknown. He would later state that he'd started screaming in pain and couldn't understand why she had done this. When Jordan was confronted about this by investigators later on, she merely stated that it was untrue since she had never poured boiling water on Alex while they were in Leeds, with her exact words being quote, never in Leeds, never. On another occasion, Jordan purchased a cheap lie detecting device, which she told Alex to strap to his hand. She quizzed him on things about all kinds of stuff, all the while standing ready with the kettle of boiling water, which she intended to use if he was found by the machine to have been untruthful. To make matters worse, Jordan would reveal a short while later that she'd fallen pregnant yet again. But while most of us would recoil in horror at the thought of this, Alex believed that having another baby together might bring about a change in Jordan's behavior. But as is to be expected, this simply wasn't the case. Their second child, a girl, was born in May of 2017. And for the first few days, Alex did see a change in her behavior. But this wouldn't last long. The couple had started arguing yet again and one night their neighbor had had enough and decided to call the police. The caller would tell the 999 dispatcher that he was certain someone was being assaulted since he heard a man asking someone to stop hurting him and to get off of him. When officers arrived at the scene, they had to knock and call out several times before the door was opened by Jordan. The first officer to see her stated that she didn't seem in any way distressed. And she calmly stated that there had been an incident in which Alex had hurt himself. She added that he had a history of self-harm, which was of course untrue. But when the officer asked Alex whether this was the case, he stated that it was, likely out of fear that he would be assaulted if he contradicted her. It would later come to light that Jordan had been assaulting Alex with a bread knife. In an effort to defend himself, he had to put his hand in front of his face to avoid being cut and in the process sustained a serious injury to his hand. After the police left, Alex went to a local hospital where he received stitches. And since the police officers couldn't see any evidence that a crime had been committed, they took the couple's word that the injury was self-inflicted, and hence could do nothing further. The injury to Alex's hand was so severe that he needed surgery. But before this could happen, Jordan arrived and decided that he needed to go home instead. Hospital staff were quick to realize what was going on, and they tried to convince him to stay if only to undergo the necessary procedure. Alex was then seen by a consultant who asked him if he was sure that he wanted to leave since he felt that it would be unsafe. But Alex assured him that everything would be all right, so he left the hospital and went home with Jordan. He would later admit that in that moment, he knew he had a chance to reveal everything that had been done to him, but he was frightened at what the repercussions would be the next time that he was alone with Jordan. A few days later, the same officer who had been called to the house before returned to the property for yet another domestic incident report. In this time, he sat Alex down to ask him whether he was being abused while he ordered Jordan to stay downstairs. But Alex stated that he and Jordan had merely been arguing since they were under a lot of stress. In body cam footage of the incident, it becomes clear that the officer doesn't believe him and decides to take Alex out of the house. He escorted Alex to his patrol car and asked him to finally tell the truth since they were in a safe environment where they couldn't be overheard. Alex stuck to his story for a short while, but eventually relented and admitted that he had been suffering abuse at Jordan's hand for years. But he pleaded with investigators to only rely on neighbors' reports since he didn't want Jordan to find out that he'd been the one to accuse her of a crime. Officers returned to the house and informed Jordan that she was being placed under arrest for assault and that she would be taken to the police station for questioning, where she would be allowed to tell her side of the story. The officer would later report that Jordan mistakenly thought that she would only be out of the house for an hour or so, and that she'd be allowed to leave as soon as she had, quote, cleared everything up. Alex was then taken back to the hospital, where the true horrific nature of his injuries was revealed. Due to the head trauma that he had sustained, fluid had built up on his brain, and doctors informed him that if he hadn't received treatment when he did, he likely would have lost his life in about 10 days. When interviewed later by investigators, Alex stated that he never lashed out at Jordan in self-defense since he didn't want to hurt her. He added that he never reported the abuse since he believed it would stop one day and that the relationship would turn out to be okay. After being questioned by police and admitting to the abuse that she'd inflicted on Alex, Jordan was charged with 17 counts of grievous bodily harm and controlling or coercive behavior. She pleaded guilty to three of the charges, and in April of 2018, she was found guilty and handed two seven-year sentences to be served at the same time. She also received six months for the controlling or coercive behavior, becoming the first woman in UK history to be convicted of that charge. After being released from the hospital, Alex moved back in with his family, who were all too happy to see him home and safe. Jordan would eventually be released in 2023 after serving just five years of her sentence when it was found that she'd no longer posed a risk to her surrounding community. She'll never be allowed to contact Alex again, and Alex has since gone on to become a football or soccer coach and is now an ambassador for a charity against domestic violence called the Mankind Initiative, who also sponsors his football team. Alex is vowed to do everything within his power to spread the word of Jordan's abuse, but in a positive way, hoping to inspire other victims to take any opportunity they can to get out of an awful situation, such as the one that he had to live through. He's also started hosting talks in which he informs others of the signs of domestic abuse, and he's since stated that he's learning how to cope with the trauma and the memories of the abuse against him. He's now concentrating on the life ahead of him and creating a promising future for his children. There's been no word on what happened with Jordan after her release, but considering she's now prohibited from ever speaking to Alex again, I think I can speak for everyone when I say who even cares what happened to her. Good riddance. It's not often that cases like this have a happy ending, so let this be a lesson to all of us. You're worth a lot more than you probably give yourself credit for. We're all above being abused, talked down to, or physically assaulted. I've said it in past videos, it can never be too early to get out of a bad situation, but it can always be too late. Holly Bobo was a 20-year-old girl from Tennessee who was studying to become a nurse. Midway through her studies, Holly unexpectedly went missing in April of 2011. The last time anybody saw Holly alive was when she was spotted by her brother inside the family's garage, speaking with a man sounding distraught and terrified. This unidentified man kidnapped Holly and forced her into a nearby patch of woods. Police recall that it was too late. By the time they arrived, the man was gone. Holly Bobo was your average girl from Darden, Tennessee. She loved all things outdoors, as is evidenced by the many photos showing her and her family in camouflage outfits wandering the wilderness. But Holly wasn't the outgoing woman that she may have appeared to be on the outside. She was actually quite shy and timid, but was certainly confident in herself as an individual. Holly grew up in Darden, Tennessee, a relatively small community with a population of just under 3,000 people. Darden appears to be a fairly quiet, secluded area as far as I can tell, a great place to raise a family. Most people regard Darden as a middle class community, with crime being very low and the cost of living being equally low. All things considered, Darden is the perfect place to settle down and begin life with the people that you hold close. When she wasn't spending time with her family in Darden, Holly was attending her usual college classes in Parsons at the University of Tennessee's Martin Parsons Center, studying to become a nurse. This center was a relatively small building that housed a few hundred students, predominantly teens and young adults, who were studying for a profession in the medical field. You could think of this campus as somewhat of an outlet, so to speak. For example, you may see large clothing stores in major cities take coals for example, but in smaller towns you may only have access to a coals outlet, which is more or less just a smaller version of coals with fewer options. Well, that's essentially what the Martin Parsons Center is, just a small outlet version of the much larger University of Tennessee, which is several cities away in Knoxville. Despite being a small town with a large college community though, Parsons wasn't too far off from Darden, both in terms of location and amenities. Parsons is also a very small town, and there isn't much really going on here outside of college classes and a few small shops. Parsons would be a great place to visit to get away from all the noise and interference of daily life, but it certainly wouldn't be the place where you would expect a strange, shockingly violent crime to occur, one that would gain nationwide attention and lead police on a multi-year hunt for a dangerous criminal. It was the morning of April 13, 2011. Holly woke up early that morning at around 4.30 a.m. to begin studying for an upcoming exam. Everything went as expected for several hours. At around 7.30 a.m., Holly received a call from her boyfriend, Drew Scott, who'd spent most of the morning turkey hunting on his grandparents' property. By this point, Holly's parents had already left for work, and Holly's brother, Clint, was asleep in his bedroom. It would be just 12 minutes later at about 7.45 a.m., when Holly would make her final phone call. After this, every call and text that rang through would remain unanswered, leaving Holly's family desperately wondering what could have happened. Just minutes after Holly ended the call with her boyfriend, neighbors reported hearing screams coming from the Bobo household. The neighbor, a young man who lived with his parents, called his mother to report what he had heard. The mother, in turn, called Holly's mother to let her know that something was wrong. By this point, Holly's brother had been woken up by the family dogs barking and growling, so he jumped up to go see what was going on. As he looked out the window, he reported that he saw Holly and an unidentified man standing near the family's garage. He mentioned that the man looked remarkably similar to Drew, Holly's boyfriend. In fact, at first, he believed the man was Drew. He said that it seemed as though the two were kneeled down looking at one another. They were talking back and forth, but he couldn't make out anything that they were saying. All he knew was that Holly sounded incredibly upset, but she wasn't saying much. The man was doing most of the talking. The only thing Holly's brother was able to make out was that Holly at one point replied to the man saying no, then later began asking him why. At some point during the argument, Holly's brother Clint received a call from his mother. Clint detailed everything that he had seen to his mom, adding that he thought Holly and Drew were breaking up in the garage. It was clear at this point, Clint had no idea that Holly was in danger, but that's when Holly's mother told Clint that's not Drew. Clint was then ordered by his mother to fire at the man, but Clint was in disbelief. While he couldn't see the man clearly, he fully believed that this was Holly's boyfriend. Clint replied to his mother, pleading, you want me to fire at Drew? It seems likely Holly's mother grew frustrated at this point because she hung up the phone and called the police. But because she was calling from her work phone, her number rang through to the wrong county of officers, wasting precious time and ultimately giving the unidentified man further time to conceal the situation even further. By the time Clint was informed of all this and looked out the window again, the two had already left the garage and were headed towards the nearby woods. It was at this point that Clint finally realized for himself this man was not Drew. He was much larger than Drew, but Clint still couldn't get a good look at him. Clint tried to call Holly's phone at this point, but she obviously didn't answer. He tried to call Drew as well, but Drew wasn't answering. By this point, Holly's mother called Clint once again, saying that she was having no luck contacting the police. She asked Clint to call the police instead, and Clint then grabbed his weapon and headed outside. And that's when he found red stains near the garage that presumably belonged to Holly. It was at this point that he agreed to call the police. It would take investigators around 10 minutes to reach the Bobo household, by which point Holly and the suspect were long gone. Police searched the area, but they didn't find anything that would lead them to either Holly or the criminal. Police requested phone records for Holly's phone, and they soon began using the GPS data from her device to pinpoint her last known location. They quickly determined that her cell phone had traveled through the woods near her home just as Clint had suggested. Movement stopped near Interstate 40, then picked up again, returning in the direction from where the device originally came from. Detectives were sent out to investigate the section of woods where the phone movement had stopped, but they came up empty handed. The area didn't appear to have been recently disturbed, and there were no signs of Holly. Unfortunately, this left officers at a dead end, as the case reached its first roadblock. But search teams were about to uncover mountains of evidence pertaining to Holly's case. After they uncovered Holly's personal items that had been scattered all throughout the town, almost as if the suspect was taunting the family and the locals. When officers went back to the family home and began speaking with Clint, he described the unidentified man as being about 5'10 and maybe as tall as 6 feet, weighing about 200 pounds with dark hair and a hat. He added that the man appeared to be wearing mossy oak brand camouflage and that he had a very deep low voice. He couldn't make out any distinguishing features about the man's face. And considering Parsons was a fairly rural town filled with hunters and outdoorsmen, the description that Clint gave police essentially described every male living within a 30 mile radius. Search teams were sent all over the town to search for any clues or possible witness sightings. It didn't take investigators long to come across several pieces of evidence scattered all throughout the town. As police patrolled the area, they found several items that belonged to Holly abandoned throughout the town. They found her lunchbox, a receipt with her name on it, a card from her school and some reports even claimed that they found her cell phone and later her SIM card, though other reports indicate that the phone and SIM card were found in the woods much closer to Holly's home, so take that as you will. Police initially narrowed down their list of suspects and began investigating one man in particular named Terry Britt. Terry was a registered offender who fit the bill of the man that Clint had seen in the garage that day. Investigators went as far as wiretapping Britt's home and searching his property, but they ultimately found nothing of interest and he was cleared as a suspect. It wouldn't be until three years later in 2014 that the case would see any more progress. Gen scene hunters were traveling through the woods near Interstate 40 when they came across a crime scene unlike anything they could have ever expected. Police were called to the scene and they unfortunately revealed that they had uncovered the partial remains of Holly Bobo. She was about 20 miles away from Darden. When investigators spoke with the owner of the property, he revealed it wasn't uncommon for locals to hunt in the area without permission, so he wasn't too terribly shocked that the hunters and investigators managed to find her there all these years later. When investigating the scene of the crime, police revealed that bones had been scattered all throughout the area, but that Holly had likely lost her life after taking a single round to the head. It was at this point that police revealed that they'd honed in on their primary suspect, but as it would turn out, they'd been investigating the man for at least six months prior to this discovery. But what makes things incredibly strange is that he was just one of six men who are believed to have had connections to Holly's case, and that's only the tip of the iceberg. The first of the arrests in Holly's case took place in March of 2014, several months before the discovery of the crime scene. Zach Adams, his brother Dylan, and their friend Jason were all suspected of aggravated kidnapping. On top of this, police had enough evidence to suggest that the men had taken advantage of Holly before claiming her life. After bringing these three in for questioning, police also arrested two other men who they believed helped to conceal Holly's remains. There was another man who investigators believed may have been involved as well, but he claimed his own life before he could be properly investigated. One detail that we don't know much about is what led police to suspect any of these men had any connection to the case. For some reason, police have never explained this aspect of the investigation, though it's probably safe to assume that it's either none of our business as it may have been a private matter or to protect the integrity of the investigation or both. We just don't know. The only thing we know for sure is that Dylan Adams had been arrested on an unrelated weapons charge in 2014. While he was speaking with police, Dylan explained that he had seen Holly alive at his brother's house quite some time after her abduction. The details of a search warrant claimed that Dylan had witnessed Holly at Zach Adams' home on April 13, 2011, the same day that Holly disappeared. Dylan revealed that he'd visited his brother's home that day to borrow his truck, but when he went inside, he noticed Holly sitting in a chair in the living room in a very bad state. Dylan claims that his brother then revealed that he'd taken advantage of Holly and recorded the entire ordeal, but this recording has never been found. Dylan also explained that Zach had been wearing camouflage clothing that day, which matched the description that Holly's brother had given to investigators. The only problem with all this information is that Dylan would later recant his confession, claiming he was coerced by investigators. Worse yet, this seems to be true because some of the finer details that he'd shared with police simply don't add up with the evidence that's been uncovered, and this may be why the aforementioned video has never been found because it doesn't exist. Regardless of this, the confession proved to be useful enough to allow investigators to arrest Zach Adams, Jason Autry, and Shane Austin, all three of which were men who police heavily suspected were involved in the case, with Shane being the man that I mentioned a moment ago who took his own life before going to trial. This left Zach and Jason to tell their side of the story. In a dramatic turn of events, it didn't take police long at all to convince Jason that he would be looking at spending the rest of his life behind bars if he didn't help investigators close the case. Naturally, he changed his tune rather quickly once he was in police custody, and offered to testify against Zach in exchange for a lesser sentence. Police agreed to these terms and it was at this point that the case was blown wide open. In the months leading up to the trial, an attorney for Shane Austin, the man who took his own life, spoke out against the police who were investigating the case, and announced that detectives had no evidence against Shane whatsoever. He claims that police were pursuing theories, hearsay, and rumors rather than actual evidence. He claims that they continually threatened Shane, leading him to believe he was going to be pinned for a crime that he didn't commit. His attorney claims that this is the reason why Shane took his life, and his family holds the police responsible for his demise. There's been no word of any lawsuits that may be filed, but I think it's safe to say that those will eventually be coming sooner or later. But by September of 2017, Zach Adams was sent to trial. During his trial, it was alleged that Clint, Holly's brother, actually knew her attackers. Jason, the man who agreed to testify against Zach, claims that he, Zach, and Dylan had all visited the Bobo household that day in order to teach Clint how to make illegal substances. At some point during this process, Holly found out about it and began to freak out, exiting the house while shouting. These would have been the shouts that the neighbor initially heard prompting the police to be called a short while later. This would have explained why Clint was so reluctant to spring into action when it became painfully clear that his sister was in trouble because he knew the attackers and what they were capable of. Once Holly began shouting and trying to flee the home, the man allegedly grabbed her and abducted her in order to keep her quiet. They later took her to a barn where they took advantage of her and took her life. The only problem with these allegations is that Clint claims they're untrue and there's no real evidence to suggest that things took place one way or the other, so we're ultimately forced to take them as nothing more than hearsay and false rumors. Both Jason and Dylan gave conflicting accounts about what took place on the day that Holly disappeared. The most accurate form of the story that I can gather seems to suggest that following whatever took place at Holly's home that day, Holly was taken to the aforementioned barn. Zach, Dylan, and Jason were all involved somehow or another, with Zach being the mastermind behind the operation. Zach eventually attempted to claim Holly's life, then rolled her up in a rug, placed her in the back of his truck, taking her out to the woods off of Interstate 40. But once the trio arrived in the woods, they learned that Holly was still alive. This is what led to the single round to the back of her head. This weapon was later found abandoned in a body of water cleared of any fingerprints or DNA. Before his trial, Zach's girlfriend had spoken out against him, claiming that he had admitted to the crime and claimed he'd do the same thing to her if she mentioned a word of it to anyone. Zach had allegedly also threatened his brother, Dylan, with the same consequence if he spoke to anyone about the case. In the end, Zach was found guilty of all charges. He was sentenced to life in prison, with Dylan, his brother, being given 50 years, serving 35 before parole will be considered. Jason, on the other hand, doesn't appear to have played any active role in the crime outside of helping the two brothers cover their tracks. For his participation in the trial and the conviction, it appears as though he was allowed to walk away a free man. I need to reiterate, the story of Holly's abduction and her subsequent demise have not been fully proven. There were so many lies and rumors being tossed around during the trial that it's difficult to make heads or tails of the situation. The story I shared regarding the consequences of events leading to Holly being dumped in the woods is purely the aspects of the story that make the most sense based on the evidence that's been found. In the end, there's so much more to the story that I couldn't share here because it would take literal hours to cover every aspect of the investigation and the arrests. So I'd urge you, if you're interested, take a closer look at this case on your own and establish your own conclusions. All we know for sure is that, for one reason or another, Holly was taken from this world far too soon by two sadistic and evil brothers who had nothing better to do with their time than wreak havoc on a small town and torment a young woman who just wanted nothing more than to live her life in peace. Holly's tragic demise has left a permanent scar on an otherwise beautiful town and her memory will not be soon forgotten. Alexis Rasmussen was invited to the home of Eric and Dee Millerburg one night in 2011 under the pretense of babysitting for the couple while they spent the night out. Alexis needed the extra money and knew the couple well so she agreed. But Eric and Dee had no plans of heading out that evening and instead subjected Alexis to a night of terror like nothing she could have ever imagined. This case is going to be very difficult to cover, but it's also a very important case to talk about. Alexis Rasmussen was, by every definition, your typical teenage girl. She was born in January of 1995, making her just 16 years old at the time of the crime in 2011. Alexis was a girl who seemed excited about what the future had in store for her. Some of her favorite hobbies included reading, dancing, and shopping, but more than anything she loved hanging out with her friends. Alexis had a strong support system of girls her age, friends she could tell anything to, but Alexis' life was far from perfect. We don't know much about Alexis' home life or her relationship with her parents, but what we do know is that she had a brother that she loved dearly. The two would fight all the time, but not in any serious way. It was always your typical sibling rivalry and things rarely ever got out of hand. Alexis knew that she had a family that cared about her deeply, and she knew she could depend on most of her family members when she needed them the most. But unfortunately, Alexis was battling demons that her parents never knew about. While she put on a front of being a happy-go-lucky teen girl with the world and the palm of her hand, she was hiding dark secrets unlike anything you could imagine a teenager going through. Alexis met Dee and Eric Millerberg in the spring of 2011. She'd been looking for a way to make some extra pocket money for when she went shopping with her friends, and she felt like babysitting would be a great way to make some extra cash. So when she found out that the Millerbergs were needing someone to watch over their children every once in a while, she jumped at the opportunity. It didn't take long for the Millerbergs to become close friends with Alexis. After all, she had a strong, likeable personality and the Millerbergs seemed like great people. But Alexis would soon learn that there was far more going on within the Millerberg family than she could have ever imagined. The problem is that Alexis looked up to the couple. Now, Alexis had parents who loved her dearly, and she seemed to have been well aware of her parents' love and support for her. But as I'm sure we all know, when you're a teen, you're looking for literally anyone to look up to except your parents. It's a time in life when you're doing your best to discover your own identity outside of your family and your parents. So Alexis dove headfirst into the Millerbergs' lifestyle and friendship, feeling like she'd finally found a place where she truly belonged, a place where she could discover new things about herself and begin blossoming into an adult. She had a lot of respect for the Millerberg family, so she began spending more and more time with the couple. But what began as a simple babysitting opportunity quickly turned into much more, more than Alexis could have ever bargained for, and certainly more than Alexis' parents knew about. As it would turn out, even though Alexis looked up to the Millerbergs as role models, Eric and Dee were far from being model citizens. In fact, if you ask me, they proved themselves to be some of the worst people I've ever talked about on true crime stories, and you guys know that's certainly saying a lot. Eric and Dee, in a span of about six months, would turn a beautiful 16-year-old girl into a shell of her former self. Alexis became someone her friends could barely recognize, losing all sense of self and purpose and becoming trapped in an addiction that few people are able to make it out of. Before I go any further, I need to make one thing clear that the timeline of events and specifics of this case all come from testimonies given by the perpetrators, not the victim or her family. Alexis' family has been largely silent about this case, and that's to be expected. Her family was grieving a loss that most of us couldn't even fathom, so you can't blame them for just wanting to maintain their privacy. Unfortunately, that means that we don't have much clarity on certain aspects of the case, and we basically just have to take the Millerbergs word for it. So if any of you guys happen to have known Alexis' family, or maybe lived in the area where this occurred, then feel free to clarify any details that may be inaccurate in the comments below. But according to the Millerbergs, after Alexis had babysitted for the family a handful of times, their relationship began to grow. Instead of only coming over to babysit, Alexis began coming over just to hang out with the family. It was during one of these visits that the Millerbergs offered Alexis alcohol. Keep in mind, Alexis was only 16 and the legal drinking age in the US is 21. Now, it's no secret that teens often end up finding alcohol at a much younger age anyway, but the Millerbergs openly offered it to Alexis on a regular basis, so she considered their home to be a place to get away from all the rules and regulations of her everyday life. It was a place where she could just hang out and be herself without being judged by everyone around her. Now, I'm sure most of us can get over the idea of alcohol, but the Millerbergs very quickly began upping the ante. Not only were they providing her with alcohol, but they soon began providing her with much harder numbing agents, the kind that you rarely come back from. Now, I'm not talking about the typical stuff that your uncle probably grows in the back of his garden, I'm talking about the stuff that you often hear about in trailer parks and what not when someone's house explodes in the middle of the night. The Millerbergs had quickly turned Alexis into an addict, a functioning one, but still an addict nonetheless. In fact, towards the end of her life, Alexis would begin accepting payment in the form of these substances rather than asking the couple for cash. These mind-altering experiences turned an innocent teenage girl into a fragment of the girl that she used to be. And soon enough, things got even worse if you could possibly imagine such a thing. Now, I'm gonna be very careful how to word this next statement because it's not something most of us need to hear, but it is important in painting an accurate picture of Eric and D. I'm sure we all know that when you're married, there are certain aspects of your relationship that you want to keep behind closed doors. But in the Millerberg household, doors were always open and anyone was allowed to join in. Sometimes it was even encouraged and Alexis was around for all of this. To call this sickening would be a disservice to children everywhere. This by all accounts is maddening and I can't wrap my head around how broken a human being must have been to be involved in something like this, but the worst is yet to come. It was September 10th, 2011. Alexis had been invited over to the Millerberg home because the couple needed to head out to go shopping for their daughter's birthday. But no sooner than Alexis arrived, plans changed. No babysitting or shopping ended up happening that day. Within minutes of Alexis arriving at the house, Eric offered her a mixed cocktail of various things. He injected her at least three times within a matter of minutes. Mind you, just a single injection would have been enough for a full-sized adult, but Alexis was rather small and still a teenager. Eric and Alexis then went to the bedroom for some private time away from D, but after a short while, Alexis' mind had begun to shift. She went from having the time of her life to feeling like she was living in a nightmare. Her thoughts began to spiral and D says that she began to freak out. Before long, she was completely disoriented and it started to get extremely cold. Blankets and sheets weren't nearly enough, so she asked the Millerbergs if she could take a hot bath to try to get warm. After about 45 minutes, D came in to check on her and found that she was still cold. D helped her get out of the bath and wrapped her in a blanket, helping her lie down in another bedroom. The couple reportedly assumed that she would be fine and would snap out of it, but she never did. She only got colder and colder, but there wasn't much the Millerbergs could do for her, at least not in their eyes. After a short while, Eric and D stepped outside for a cigarette. They came back inside about 30 minutes later and found Alexis completely unresponsive. D was the only person who even remotely tried to help her. When she noticed Alexis wasn't breathing, she attempted to perform CPR, but it didn't help. The obvious choice here would have been to call 911 for help, but neither D nor Eric were prepared to do this. According to D, her first thought was that the two were going to lose their kids. Their lives, as they knew it, would essentially be over. They didn't feel like there was any hope for Alexis, so they never called anyone. What's really interesting about this decision is that D is a registered nurse and Narcan would have been an obvious option. Narcan can be administered after an overdose like this, and most of the time, it can bring someone back from the break. I've seen the miracles that it can work firsthand. Most ambulances keep it on hand for situations like this, so a simple 911 call would have almost certainly saved Alexis' life. But the Millerbergs weren't willing to do this. Instead, they let Alexis lose her life cold, alone, and terrified. Police revealed later on that at the time of the crime, Eric was on parole for a prior burglary charge and a firearm charge. He was also known to be in a prison gang. D, on the other hand, had outstanding court dates after she was arrested for writing fraudulent prescriptions and for child endangerment charges. The seemingly clean-cut couple that Alexis had looked up to were very quickly turning out to be little more than thieves and criminals. Faced with the fact that, in their eyes, they had nowhere else to turn, the couple decided to stuff Alexis into a footlocker, later taking it out to the trunk of their car. They then left the home, leaving their 6-year-old daughter behind, unattended for hours. But thankfully, they took their toddler with them. Now, I say thankfully, but really, these two were driving all over the place higher than you could imagine, and a small child was in the back seat and a body was in the trunk. There's really nothing to be thankful for here, so maybe thankfully isn't the best word to describe this situation, but at least the kid wasn't alone, though he may have been better off that way. The two eventually made their way to a remote patch of woods where they took Alexis out of the footlocker and dumped her body, face down in the dirt. They then covered her up with sticks, leaves, and dirt so that she couldn't easily be seen by passersby. The couple then drove to a dumpster and threw out Alexis's purse. They then drove to another dumpster and cut the carpet out of their car, trying to throw it away to remove any evidence that may have been left behind. They then drove home and acted like the whole thing never happened. After the couple finished up with one of the most disturbing crimes anyone could imagine, they moved on with their life. Meanwhile, the lives of the Rasmussen family were falling apart from every angle. Alexis's parents desperately waited for her to return home that day, but she never arrived. Obviously, before long, she was reported missing to the police, but there was absolutely no trace of her to be found. I'm not sure if her parents knew that she'd been heading over to babysit for the Millerburg family that day. Reports haven't really suggested where all police may have looked for her, but I would wager that her parents weren't aware of these plans, even though she planned on being out for several hours that day. What we do know is that Alexis had run away from home at least once before, so the family seems to have been operating under the assumption that she was just hiding out somewhere likely with friends. No one would ever have expected such a heart-breaking scenario would have played out behind the family's back. The truth is, police likely would have never found out the truth if it hadn't been for one man, Eric Smith, also known as Peanut. According to the police, they had no idea that Alexis was in trouble or that she'd gotten involved with the wrong crowd. Peanut was a member of the same prison gang as Eric Millerburg, and there are varying accounts about how Peanut became involved in the crime. One source claims that Peanut was with Eric and Dee when they disposed of the evidence, but another source says that Peanut was simply told about the crime after it happened. Either way, Alexis had been missing for more than a month. The crime had begun to weigh heavily on Peanut's mind. He knew how desperate Alexis' family must have been, and when he finally came forward, he told police that he wanted to reveal what had happened to Alexis to put her family at ease. He only requested that he be given immunity for keeping the crime a secret for so long, and police agreed to this. When they asked him why he suddenly had a change of heart, Peanut responded with one simple statement, saying, I also have a 16-year-old daughter. Peanut came clean to the police, revealing every last detail he had ever heard about the case. He even offered to lead police to the dump site. When the police rode out to the patch of woods, he took them directly to the area where Alexis had been left behind, finally bringing this nightmare to an end, at least for investigators. The truth is, for the Rasmussen family, the nightmare had only just begun. Police were quick to track down the Millerburgs, arresting them both and sending them to trial. The court case had a bit of a twist that I for one certainly didn't see coming. When Dee was asked about what had taken place that day, she responded that she was willing to open up about everything, but she wanted to be protected from her husband during the trial, and she wanted a lighter sentence in exchange for her cooperation. Her husband, on the other hand, wouldn't say a single word to investigators or detectives. Dee then turned her back on her husband and explained everything, every last detail about the couple's relationship with Alexis, and the events that transpired on that fateful day in September. In exchange for her participation, Dee received descendants of just five years in prison. Eric, on the other hand, didn't get off so lightly. He may be expecting that he was sent to prison for life, but he wasn't, well, not really anyway. Eric was found guilty of three major crimes, homicide, obstruction of justice, and one charge for having relations with Alexis when she was still a teen. Even though Alexis technically consented to it, though she was obviously under the influence of who knows what so consent is highly debatable, but one of these charges has a sentence of one to 15 years, another has a sentence of up to five years, and the final charge has a sentence of five years to life. The only problem is that Eric will be eligible for parole in 2046. While this may seem like a long way away, it's not. There isn't a sentence long enough for Eric, and a mere five years certainly isn't long enough for Dee either. In fact, Dee has already been released, and she's now a free woman. But the Rasmussen family will never be free. Nothing can ever bring back Alexis, and nothing could ever atone for the nauseating crimes that Eric and Dee committed. Alexis had such a bright and vibrant future ahead of her, but she lost it all because of these pathetic, repulsive monsters. Rachel Barber was 15 years old in 1999 when she went missing after a dance recital. She was last seen alongside her babysitter that afternoon, but investigators found no trace of her after this. But detectives did find a disturbing diary entry written just days before she vanished, in which her babysitter confessed to what really happened that day. Rachel Barber was born on September 12, 1983. She was the oldest of three sisters and had parents who were deeply involved in her life, doing their best to provide her with everything she could have ever wanted. Her mother, Elizabeth, and her father, Michael, had been together for many years, and Rachel's home life was the very definition of healthy and typical for a girl her age. Sometime around 1992 or 1993, Rachel and her family moved to Mont Albert, hoping for better opportunities. It was around this time that the family met a young girl named Carolyn Reed Robertson. Carolyn quickly became a friend of the family, with Rachel's parents often hiring her to help babysit the children. Carolyn would grow up alongside Rachel and her siblings, but she was around four years older and certainly more mature than the young Barber girls were at the time. Rachel was just 15 years old by 1999. She spent much of her childhood training to become a dancer, and she was incredibly talented. Not only was she a great dancer, but she aspired to be a model as well. Her goal in life was to eventually interact in classes and work her way into musicals across the globe, particularly musicals in the US, as most of her favorite venues and performances were taking place in Chicago. Rachel had become a full-time student at the Dance Factory in Melbourne, Australia. She was known for her beauty as well as her popularity and her athleticism. She was in great shape and was often in the top of her class, becoming a world-class dancer at a strikingly young age. While Rachel may have been quite popular in school, she was actually a quite shy young girl. She didn't take too well with strangers and would often seem withdrawn around people that she didn't know very well, but she was always very nice and respectable. Even though she was quite shy, Rachel had been dating her boyfriend Manny for several months, and it seemed that the two were closer than ever. Despite her timid nature, she had no problems opening up to Manny, who seemed to make it easy for Rachel to just be herself. Caroline Robertson, the babysitter I mentioned a moment ago, was right there alongside the Barber family for about seven years or so. She watched Rachel turn from a shy young girl into a vibrant young woman who was bound for success in her dance career. Caroline adored Rachel, but she had other feelings towards Rachel that were less than loving. Caroline was a very jealous teenager. She had trouble dealing with other people's successes, especially considering that, in all honesty, she didn't have much going for her at the time. She was a perfectly good-looking girl, but she didn't have the magnetic energy and charisma that Rachel had, and this bothered Caroline deeply. As she watched over the girls for most of their childhood, it seemed that this resentment toward Rachel grew. When it began as a simple feeling of jealousy, something all of us struggle with from time to time, grew to something far more dangerous and far more sinister. Caroline wanted to live Rachel's life, and if she couldn't live it, either could Rachel. Caroline's troubles with self-worth and jealousy would reach new heights as her teenage years drew on. By the time she was in her mid-teens, she began to feel horrible about herself, and not just in the typical way that most teens will at some point or another, it seems that by all means she had begun to develop a genuine hatred toward herself. She didn't look the way that she wanted to look, she didn't feel smart enough, and she certainly didn't feel worthy of being loved. According to those around her, she'd always put herself down, referring to herself as a loser, as unwanted, fat, dirty, or even dumb. In fact, she created a self-portrait around the age of 14 that had several of these words written on it, with misfit being written in bold letters at the very top. Caroline was reaching an all-time low, and was happening quickly. But as she got a little bit older, some of this hate turned away from herself and was beginning to surround her father, this being after her father walked out on the family, leaving Caroline and the rest of her loved ones to fend for themselves while her dad started a new, better life elsewhere. Caroline would take her anger and write it down in letters to her estranged father. I don't know if she ever mailed these letters, or if they were purely therapeutic, but the letters grew very vicious, with her one time blaming her father for her feelings of alienation, writing, quote, I feel like a troubled, tortured, lost soul that's been thrown into an alien environment full of angels. These terrible feelings of self-hatred that Caroline held on to would eventually lead her to plotting a crime of disastrous proportions. Her anger and rage would soon be taken out on someone who didn't really have anything to do with her situation, Rachel Barber. It was March 1st, 1999. Rachel's father drove her to a tram stop that morning around 9.30 a.m. so that she could attend her classes at the dance factory in Melbourne. She left home wearing her favorite gold necklace, having only $13 in her wallet. She told her boyfriend, Manny, that after classes she was going to head out for a secret job offer that she wasn't allowed to talk about. The sheer fact that she even mentioned the job to Manny was against the rules, but she felt like he needed to know. This secret job was supposedly to pay incredibly well, but this was the only information that she was willing to share with anyone. She left the dance factory that afternoon headed off for this secret location. Her parents had no idea that she had any other plans after classes that day, outside of hanging out with her friends as she normally did. The last reported sighting of Rachel came just after she left the dance factory, when she was spotted walking around a tram station with a woman. Hours passed by and Rachel had not returned to the tram station to meet her father that evening, and her parents grew very worried. Rachel had never missed curfew before and she was reported missing right away. Manny quickly opened up to Rachel's parents and the police and admitted that she told him about a secret job offer, but he didn't know anything else about this job, so this information wasn't very helpful with the investigation. By all means, Rachel simply vanished off the face of the earth, and no further updates would be released until 13 days later, when some shocking news would leave the Barber family and shambles. It was March 14th when police approached the Barber family with news that they could have never expected. Keep in mind, at this point the Barbers had no idea that police were investigating the case as a potential homicide, so you can imagine their surprise when officers knocked on the door of the Barber family home and revealed that they had arrested a suspect in connection with Rachel's disappearance. When police revealed that the suspect was none other than Carolyn Robertson, their jaws hit the floor. Carolyn had been a close family friend for the better part of a decade, so how could she have been involved in Rachel's disappearance? Unfortunately, the follow-up statements from detectives only made things far worse. Carolyn had been arrested because police had found remains buried in a shallow grave near Kilmore, and they had evidence connecting Carolyn to the scene of the crime. Investigators would soon learn that Rachel had been ambushed with a telephone cord, then buried under less than 12 inches of dirt. One of the most unexpected twists in this case came after police brought Carolyn to the station for questioning. It didn't take them long to get Carolyn to open up, and she admitted to everything. Well, almost everything. Within a few short hours, Carolyn admitted that she had, in fact, taken the life of Rachel Barber, but she claimed it was an accident. Carolyn says that she met up with Rachel that day, shortly after her classes at Inden. I'll admit, I don't fully understand the specifics of what Carolyn was explaining here, but the best I can make out is that she explained to police that she'd convinced Rachel to come to her apartment for some sort of psychological exercise, but it's not clear why Rachel thought this was a job offer or why she thought she'd be receiving any payment for this. The rumor is that Carolyn had invited Rachel over and promised her $500 to take part in a highly confidential survey of some sort. But this was only mentioned in one source, so I can't verify that this is true. But either way, Carolyn explained that the two rode the tram together, then got out at her apartment after promising Rachel that she'd have pizza and drinks ready for them. And sure enough, when Rachel entered the apartment, pizza and drinks were ready. But Rachel was blissfully unaware that Carolyn had spiked the pizza with high doses of anhystamines, causing Rachel to become more and more delirious the more she ate. After Carolyn was satisfied with Rachel's impairment, she began her attack. She told Rachel that she was ready to begin the psychological survey, asking Rachel to close her eyes and think of happy and pleasant thoughts. As soon as Rachel was lost in a dream state, Carolyn ambushed her from behind with a telephone cord. Carolyn then stuffed Rachel inside of a wardrobe, keeping her there for several days while she worked out the next steps in completing the crime. She would eventually wrap Rachel in two rugs and enlisted the help of an innocent taxi driver to help her move what she called a heavy statue to her father's property. Obviously what the taxi driver helped her haul away was no statue. But once the two arrived at Carolyn's father's house, Carolyn took the so-called statue out to the back of the property, and after the taxi driver left, she buried the remains in the family's pet cemetery, next to Carolyn's former dog, Lucy. In the days after Rachel Barber had gone missing, Carolyn became very withdrawn from her normal activities. She went to work the day after the crime, March 2nd, but one of her co-workers ended up driving her home after Carolyn reportedly looked very ill and wasn't able to function well enough to get her job done. Carolyn would call out of work for the next few days as well, claiming that she was sick. During this time, investigators were hot on the trail of Carolyn, tracing Rachel's last moments and getting witness testimonies from everyone who had seen her at the tram station that day. As they dug into phone records, they soon noticed that Rachel had spoken with Carolyn on the day of her disappearance. In fact, she'd spoken with her within hours of her last known whereabouts, meaning Carolyn may have been the last person to see Rachel alive. Witnesses from the tram station also reported that they'd seen Rachel walking alongside a quote plain-looking young woman. Detectives went to Carolyn's apartment on March 12th, but they weren't getting any response at the door, even though they knew that Carolyn was inside. They eventually made their way into Carolyn's apartment and found her unconscious on her bedroom floor. They soon learned that she had suffered an epileptic seizure which had likely been caused by the severe stress that she'd been under while trying to hide Rachel's body. While inside the apartment, they searched through Carolyn's belongings and soon came across her diary. Now, if you've been watching True Crime Stories for the last few weeks, you'll know that this is the third case I've covered in less than a month where the criminal was found because either they or the victim kept a detailed diary of events leading up to the crime. I don't know how so many of these cases ended up leading to the exact same situation, but that's exactly what happened here as well. When investigators took a closer look at Carolyn's diary, they realized that she'd been deeply obsessed with Rachel, and certainly not in a playful way or in any sort of innocent infatuation, Carolyn had kept detailed records of Rachel's recent life and had even written down several possible ways that she planned on taking Rachel's life. She scribbled several options down with one of the options claiming that she planned on incapacitating Rachel then placing her into an army bag and dumping her out in the middle of the woods somewhere. These clues were a bit too suspicious for investigators and they soon began investigating Carolyn's recent movements, tracking down her connection with her father's property and the aforementioned taxi driver. Detectives were able to prove that Carolyn had been spending days, maybe even weeks, plotting to take Rachel's life and in essence, become Rachel. This was only amplified when detectives later found an application for a copy of Rachel's birth certificate in Carolyn's apartment. This is likely why she tricked Rachel into thinking she was offering her a job, as it would have been the easiest way to get personal information about Rachel, including her social security number, ID cards, and everything else she needed. Well, everything except for her birth certificate obviously. Alongside this application was documentation for a bank loan for $10,000, as well as detailed plans on what Carolyn had planned to do. Her plans for the day claimed that she needed to clean up her father's farm, including the area where she had placed Rachel in the pet cemetery. She also planned to secure the bank loan on the following Tuesday, as well as rent a moving van, dye her hair to match Rachel's, then thoroughly clean her house and carpet. She then planned to disappear and begin life under Rachel's name. By October of 2000, Carolyn was still in police custody. In a surprising twist, Carolyn had opened up to investigators and admitted to taking Rachel's life, even pleading guilty during her trial. She was ultimately given 15 years behind bars. During her court sessions, she explained how much she hated herself and wanted to be someone else, so much so that she was willing to go to great lengths to achieve this. She was diagnosed with a personality disorder just before the trial, with a judge claiming that she was a danger for anyone she became fixated with. But what's really interesting about her time in prison is that she never once showed any kind of remorse for her actions. In fact, while she was in prison, she progressively made herself look more and more like Rachel. She began styling her hair differently, she appears to have lost weight, and did her best to become the spitting image of Rachel, at least as much as she realistically could. Rachel's own mother even spoke out about the uncanny resemblance after Carolyn was released from prison in 2015, after fulfilling her sentence. Carolyn is now a mostly free woman. She still lives under the surveillance of the court system, but she's now allowed to continue on with her life, or rather Rachel's life. While she never successfully claimed Rachel's identity, she's done her best in the years since to continue living in the shadow of Rachel, and her fixation doesn't seem to have faded over the last 23 years. Honestly, I don't understand how someone like this is allowed to live in the free world after there was such a massive amount of evidence proving that she'd been plotting this crime for years, but I guess the laws in Australia only allow the court system to do so much to someone so young. Thankfully, after all this, Rachel's memory is still very much alive in the minds of those who knew her, but unfortunately, one of those minds belongs to Carolyn Robertson. Before, Brooke Willberger was anything but your average teenager. She was an avid churchgoer, always did right by her family, and put her faith in God above everything else in her life. Unfortunately, the criminals in her area didn't have the same set of values. One fateful day in May of 2004, Brooke had her innocence, her future, and her life taken away from her at the hands of a disgusting criminal in one of the most heartbreaking and grotesque ways possible. It would take investigators the better part of a decade to finally get this case solved, but detectives are still trying to wrap their heads around the motive all these years later. Brooke Willberger was born on February 20, 1985, to Greg and Cammie Willberger, and she grew up in Fresno, California. She had a relatively sheltered childhood, as her family were extremely devout members of the Church of Mormon, more commonly known as the Church of the Latter-day Saints, or LDS for short. Church and their dedication to God was always the primary focus of the Willberger family, setting their sights on things much higher than the world around us. Brooke went to school in the Fern Ridge School District, eventually graduating from Elmira High School sometime around 2002 or 2003. After leaving high school, Brooke decided to continue her education, but we don't know for sure what her major was. All we know is that she decided to enroll at Brigham Young University in Utah, a Christian school sponsored by the LDS Church. It was around this time that Brooke began to date her longtime boyfriend, Justin Blake. Much like Brooke's family, Justin also had dedicated his life to his church, becoming a Mormon missionary in Venezuela. Brooke and Justin were incredibly close, and it seemed as though their long-distance relationship was working out quite well for the two. When Justin eventually headed off to Venezuela, he left Brooke behind for the summer while she worked for her sister and brother-in-law to make some extra money before her upcoming school year began. This was around May of 2004. Brooke's sister and brother-in-law had been managing an apartment complex in Corvallis, Oregon. They needed help around the apartment during the summer months, so they offered Brooke a job doing various tasks around the property, usually cleaning or restocking supplies, simple things. Brooke was excited about her new job and the freedom that the new found income would provide for her, but unfortunately, her freedom was about to be taken away in an unexpected and shocking turn of events that would lead to one of Oregon's most publicized missing person cases in the state's history. Corvallis, Oregon isn't a place that you typically associate with a high rate of crime, but while researching this case, they actually found out that crime is actually a pretty big issue in the area. The only exception to this fact is that it's mostly petty theft or other property crimes that run rampant in the area. Violent crime is actually much lower than the national average. With this in mind, it doesn't seem like most people in the area really pay much mind to keeping themselves safe from criminals. Yes, everyone locks their cars and their doors at night, but the area doesn't put its residents in any particular danger, at least not any more so than any other part of the country. Because of this, Brooke and her family never thought much about Brooke's safety when she worked at the aforementioned apartment complex. Brooke would spend a lot of time outside, cleaning buildings, picking up trash, and making sure the place looked the best that it could. This also happened to be what Brooke was doing on the morning of May 25th, 2004. Brooke showed up for work that morning just like it was any other day. She was outside near the parking lot, cleaning up some lamp posts in the surrounding areas, when without notice, she went missing. I'm not sure who noticed that she vanished first, but her family would soon discover her sandals had been left behind a lamp post in the parking lot, almost as if she'd walked right out of them. Her sister and brother-in-law searched the whole property, but there was no sign of Brooke. She had vanished into thin air, leaving zero trace behind outside of her shoes. One of the most interesting aspects about her disappearance is that the apartment complex was located on the edge of Oregon State University, so close in fact that you should have been able to see the school from the parking lot of the apartments, according to several reports. This area was presumably very well-policed, considering there were thousands of college students running around. It was an area where Brooke should have felt the safest, but that safety had quickly been turned on its head when Brooke's family decided that it was time to call in the help of the police. When officers arrived at the scene of the crime, they collected a little bit of evidence that they could, and began their investigation immediately. What ended up being fairly unusual in this case was that the police pursued every lead with the utmost urgency. According to Lieutenant Ron Noble, this case was very unusual. In the past, it was the Corvallis Police Department's policy to wait a full 24 hours before pursuing a missing person case. It's their belief that adults are allowed to come and go as they please, and they don't treat any case as suspicious until 24 hours have passed by. But in Brooke's case, they knew something was wrong. After all, a 19-year-old girl isn't typically going to walk out of her sandals in the middle of a parking lot on a hot summer's day and just disappear. This case was bizarre from beginning to end. Police agreed with the family. Brooke didn't appear to be a woman who would disappear on her own. All the evidence alluded to the fact that Brooke was taken, kidnapped. As soon as Brooke's church heard about the crime, they organized a team of volunteers to help search the area in Corvallis. Unfortunately, the search team wasn't able to come up with any leads, nor did they find any evidence to further the case. But it wouldn't be long before police found their first person of interest. A very strange man that police seem to have had their eye on for quite some time, and you won't believe what they found when they brought him in for questioning. Police had narrowed down their search efforts, and it honed in on a man by the name of Sung-Koo Kim. I wasn't able to determine specifically what led police to this man, but as they began investigating him, they uncovered mountains of evidence that proved that this man was, by all means, pretty unusual. By many people's definitions, he was a bit of a creep. Sung-Koo Kim was heavily questioned by police regarding Brooke's disappearance. Kim continually pleaded his innocence, but police weren't letting up. After days of interrogation, police had found that there was far more to Kim than he was letting on. After a few weeks of research and detective work, police connected Kim to dozens of thefts and crimes all across the state of Oregon. Each of these crimes specifically targeted women. For investigators, this was all they needed to know to believe that they had found their man. But there was just one problem. Even though they were able to prove that Kim was a criminal, they still had no evidence that directly linked him to the disappearance of Brooke. But this is when things went from strange to bad to just plain weird. As they dug deeper into every aspect of Kim's life, they learned that he had a collection, so to speak. As it would turn out, the breaking and entering charges that were now being placed against Kim were not the result of him stealing money, electronics, or even cars. Rather, he'd been stealing women's underwear. You're not going to believe this, but the research and detective work uncovered more than 3,400 pairs of women's underwear in the possession of Kim. That's more than your average woman would wear in a decade. I could understand if he had a few pairs in his apartment, maybe even a couple dozen. Not saying that it isn't weird, I'm just saying I could understand how a creep may be able to procure something like this and keep it hidden. There's some pretty strange people out there after all, but 3,400 pairs I can't wrap my mind around how he could have stolen so many. He would have needed an entire room in his home to dedicate just to this type of collection. It just doesn't make sense, but it's the truth. After all was said and done, Sung-Koo Kim was sent to trial and was convicted for various charges, including the theft of the underwear. He was given an amazing 11 years behind bars, but not before his family filed a lawsuit of their own, claiming that police used excessive force during their interrogation and their arrest of Kim. The Kim family ended up winning this lawsuit, being awarded over $300,000 in compensation. But this is all little more than a side note in the case of Brooke Wilburger. While Kim was certainly a man that police need to keep their eye on, they were forced to exclude him from their investigation after they found no evidence tying him to Brooke's disappearance. With this, police reached a dead end in the investigation, but they weren't willing to give up just yet. By this point, it was November of 2004. Police were left scratching their heads, desperately hoping for a new lead in the disappearance of Brooke Wilburger. It would be November 30th before this lead would finally arrive, and it would be yet another heartbreaking turn that no one could have ever expected. On November 30th, 2004, a foreign exchange student who'd been attending the University of New Mexico several states away, contacted police after being kidnapped, beaten and taken advantage of. She was able to survive the ordeal, but naturally her life would never be the same afterward. Thankfully, didn't take police long to track down the culprit, a man named Joel Patrick Courtney. Joel was sent through all the typical hoops of the American court system, and it would be nearly three years later in 2007 before he was finally sent to prison, being given a sentence of 18 years, then an additional five years parole after his release. But it was during this time that Joel was awaiting trial that police in Oregon began to notice a few connections between the foreign exchange students kidnapping and the disappearance of Brooke Wilburger. In particular, police were interested in the victim's report of being taken away in a green minivan. Investigators would soon reveal that in Brooke's disappearance, witnesses had also reported seeing a green minivan that may have been a bit suspicious. Worse yet, investigators soon learned that Joel was a native to Oregon, making it very likely that he would have been in the area on the day that Brooke vanished. Court documents explained that, in fact, detectives were able to place Joel in Corvallis on the exact date of Brooke's kidnapping, further stating that his van had been witnessed by multiple people, with these witnesses claiming they'd never seen the van before or since the crime. To make matters worse for Joel, an OSU employee identified Joel in a lineup, saying that he witnessed him acting suspiciously on the day that Brooke was taken. Investigators eventually tracked down Joel's green minivan, but not without all the usual hurdles that you would expect during a multi-state investigation. When detectives finally gained possession of his vehicle, they managed to find Brooke's DNA all throughout the van, as well as a strand of her hair. Mind you, all of this unfolded in mid-2005, but investigators weren't able to do much with this information until April of 2008, as they were forced to wait for all the paperwork to be filed and all the usual legal hoopla in order to extradite Joel from New Mexico to Oregon. But all throughout this process, there was a much bigger problem than investigators still had not been able to solve. Where was Brooke? Her body had never been located, and Joel certainly wasn't going to admit to anything. But that's when everything changed for Joel, and he had a sudden change of heart. Prosecutors were interviewing Joel in the case when they revealed something to him that shook his world to its core. They explained that they weren't just looking to get Joel sent to prison. They were pursuing capital punishment, and it certainly seemed as though they had enough evidence to secure this type of conviction. Joel rather obviously changed his tone after this and began to cooperate with police. Joel was finally willing to talk about Brooke's disappearance. After an intensive interrogation, Joel admitted to kidnapping Brooke on May 24th. He said that he had noticed her in the parking lot of the apartment complex. And when no one was around, he jumped out of his car, overpowered her, then restrained her in the back of his van. He then drove her out to the woods just outside of town, but after a short while, he returned to town to grab some food. All the while, Brooke was bound in the back of his van, unable to escape or even call for help. This twisted man literally drove all over town with the victim in the back of his van, playing it off as if nothing was unusual, and the people that he encountered along this journey never thought anything about it. Joel says that he hadn't done anything to Brooke at this point. He kept her alive throughout the remainder of the night, seemingly unsure of what he planned on doing, but the following morning, he had made his decision. Joel says that his intentions were simply to take advantage of Brooke, then let her go, but Brooke wasn't going to make things easy for him, and she fought him every step of the way. In the end, he grew so angry with her resistance that he claimed her life, did the deed that he'd been waiting for, then buried her on a logging road where she presumably would never be found. After Joel learned that police had been seeking capital punishment, he cut a deal with investigators. In exchange for taking capital punishment off the table, he would reveal where he had buried Brooke's remains. Both parties accepted this deal and Brooke's location was determined in late 2009. The trial had been set for February of 2010, with Joel pleading guilty to all charges and being given life in prison with no possibility of parole. After five long years, the case was finally closed. Brooke's family were finally able to begin seeking the closure that they so desperately wanted, knowing that this monster would be locked behind bars for the rest of his life. The only mercy in this case is that Brooke's suffering appears to have been over relatively quickly, but the pain and agony that her family are left with is something that they'll likely never recover from. But we also need to keep in mind the innocent foreign exchange student who had all hopes of a normal future stolen from her on that chilly November day. All she wanted to do was come to America in the hopes of getting a better education, but instead her dreams were crushed in her future forever changed course. I'm sure Joel's arrest makes little difference to this young woman at this point what's done is done, but maybe at the very least she can rest a little bit easier at night knowing that the man who stole so much from her will never be able to lay a hand on her again. Hannah Cornelius was a 21 year old woman from South Africa who was spending the evening out with her friend, Cheslin. As they were sitting in their car talking about the great time that they just had together, four unidentified men approached their vehicle and kidnapped them. Only one of the two friends would make it out alive. Detectives soon uncovered a crime scene unlike anything they had witnessed before. So I want to be clear, this case is by far the worst, most heartbreaking, and most disgusting case I've ever covered. And I'm not saying that to hype up the video, I say that as a warning. This case is just awful from beginning to end, so much so that I strongly considered scrapping the whole thing and just covering a different story. But the truth is, no matter how tragic and how haunting these cases are, the victim's stories deserve to be heard and Hannah deserves to be remembered. With that said, this is the story of Hannah Cornelius. Hannah Cornelius lived in Stellenbosch, South Africa, but was born in Western Cape. From a young age, Hannah was always a very happy young girl. She was very close with her family, most of whom appeared to have lived in Cape Town about 45 minutes away from Stellenbosch. Anyone with eyes understands that Hannah was a beautiful young woman, and her parents, Willem and Anna, were incredibly proud of her. She'd done great in school as a teenager and was destined for success. According to one source, Hannah was doing remarkably well in her university studies, getting an 85% on her most recent final, studying for a BA in humanities, a field that's predominantly focused on human history and literature. Outside of her schooling, Hannah was an excellent piano player and always dreamed of traveling to Paris to see all the historic sites that the town is to offer. She was also an advocate for animal welfare, but I don't note to what extent she was involved in the more recent animal rights movements. Hannah came from a well-established family, with her father being the former magistrate of Simonstown. While her childhood appears to have been great, all things considered, she did have a somewhat difficult whole life at times, due to her younger brother, who suffers from severe autism. While many people with autism are able to still live relatively normal lives, her brother wasn't so lucky, as he requires round-the-clock care and has more recently been sent to an assisted living facility. Hannah had a number of friends who looked up to her and were there for her whenever she needed them. One of these friends was Cheslyn Marsh. The interesting thing about Cheslyn is that we don't really know how close he and Hannah were though. I've seen various reports about the two, with some saying that the two were in a relationship, while others say that they were just friends. In fact, one report claims that the two had only met the night before the crime. Regardless of their relationship status, though, it seems safe to assume that these two had a very tight bond with one another, and Cheslyn cared for Hannah deeply. As fate would have it, Cheslyn was with Hannah on the evening that things went terribly wrong for her. What was supposed to be a relaxing, fun night out in town ended in what could very easily be described as one of the most gruesome heinous crimes in Stellenbosch's history. It was May 27, 2017. Hannah and Cheslyn had spent the night out drinking and dancing and had returned to their home at around 3.30am that Saturday morning. CCTV footage shows the two pulling into a parking lot in Hannah's blue and white Volkswagen Golf. After pulling into the lot, Hannah and Cheslyn spend a fair amount of time chatting with one another, waiting to head inside to get some much needed rest. As they're sitting in their car though, four men walk by. Men who were later identified as suspects in this case. These four men were on their way to a nearby apartment when they happened to walk by Hannah's car, noticing that two people were inside. It was at this point that their plans for the evening changed. The four men approached the car and without hesitation began to attack both Cheslyn and Hannah. Police say that Cheslyn was forced into the back seat of the car while Hannah was pinned in between the front two seats. After a few moments, CCTV footage shows Hannah's car driving away after one of the four men had fled the scene, catching back up with the gang later on. At 4.30am, the car is seen pulling into a gas station parking lot. This was about an hour after the initial altercation, even though the footage was taken only a few miles away. By this point, Cheslyn had been forced into the back of the car, with Hannah being restrained in the front passenger seat. As far as we know, this was the last time Hannah would be seen alive. One of the suspects soon exits the vehicle and enters the gas station, heading towards an ATM. He had stolen Cheslyn's bank card and attempted to make a withdrawal from his account, but Cheslyn had given him the wrong pin number, meaning the suspect left empty handed. The man was obviously angry about this and vowed that Cheslyn would be punished later on. The men drove away from the gas station and police ultimately lost track of them for several hours. One of the suspects would later reveal to officers that Hannah remained quiet and stoic for the remainder of the drive. She didn't say one word to any of the men, nor did she obey any of their demands. She simply stared straight in front of her, silent for the remainder of the drive. It would be around 5.30am to 6.00am that the men pulled over into a secluded area, with Cheslyn saying that it was still dark out at this point. He had been stowed away in the back of the car for nearly two hours by now, but the perpetrators soon opened the hatch and forced him out of the car, telling him to lay down on the ground and place his head onto a brick. We don't know for sure what took place next, but Cheslyn says that the last thing he remembers is closing his eyes and praying, begging for forgiveness for whatever he had done to end up in this situation. He mentioned seeing two of the men holding bricks in their hands, but he has no idea what they did with these bricks, though I think it's pretty safe to assume what took place. The criminals believed that Cheslyn had lost his life, so they abandoned him and drove Hannah several more miles away to an even more secluded location, this time in a patch of woods located just behind a paintball venue. Hannah pleaded with her attackers, offering to allow them to do whatever they wanted to her, only asking in return that she be allowed to leave with her life. The suspects say that despite her pleas and bargaining, she fought back every step of the way and wasn't going to make things easy for them. She refused to willingly exit the car once they arrived at the paintball venue, with the men prying her from the hatch before tossing her into the woods and taking advantage of her time and time and time again. After the men were done, they put her back inside of the car and drove her several more miles out to an area of secluded farmland. By this point, it's safe to assume that the sun had begun to rise, so the men needed to act quickly if they wanted to get away with their crimes without getting caught with Hannah's stolen car. Once they arrived on the farm, they pulled Hannah from the car, then attempted to enter suffering using a knife. When that began to take too long, the men forced her to lay on the ground all the while she was begging with her every breath for the men to just leave her be. It was at this point that the men picked up an 80-pound rock from nearby and dropped it on top of Hannah, bringing the worst night of her life to a tragic, horrific conclusion. The gang then abandoned the crime scene, but their night of terror still wasn't over. Early the next morning, the men arrived back in town and chased down a woman who was walking to work. They ran after her until she ultimately tripped and fell, stealing her purse and other belongings and leaving her there, thankfully not going any further than just stealing her possessions. Unfortunately, a third woman wouldn't be quite so lucky. A few miles away, a third victim was kidnapped and robbed, but we don't know the extent of her injuries. As best I can tell, she seems to have gotten away without anything serious happening, it's safe to assume that her life would never be the same after this, regardless of her making it out alive and with her dignity intact. By the following day, around 2pm, only two of the four men remained with Hannah's car. The men had been traveling through Stelenbosch once again. By this point, it appears as though police had been on the lookout for Hannah's missing car, and an undercover agent happened to notice the car pass by, with two unidentified men inside of it. The undercover cop called for backup, and before long, a high-speed chase ensued. The men drove police dozens of miles down the road to yet another area of farmland where they would abandon the car near a field and take off on foot. Thankfully, the two men were captured by officers and they were taken in for questioning. By the following morning, Cheslin had finally woken after being so badly beaten by his kidnappers. He somehow survived the horrific encounter with these men, but he certainly left the scene of the crime with more than a few scars and an unbelievable story to tell investigators. As he woke up, he headed toward a nearby series of houses and began begging for help. When he was taken to the hospital, doctors revealed that he, by all accounts, shouldn't even be alive. He ended up going deaf in one ear, but as far as I can tell, he didn't have any other lasting effects from the attack and appears to have made a full recovery. I can't confirm this with any certainty, but he seems to be doing okay these days. Cheslin obviously went to the police and reported what had happened. Thankfully, police had already picked up two of the perpetrators and it didn't take long for the suspects to begin to turn on one another, each of them blaming the others for the crimes. At this point, it doesn't appear that police knew that Hannah had lost her life, but they would soon uncover all of the gruesome details of that evening and what these four men had truly been up to that night. Now, unfortunately, this is where the case gets a bit muddied. Every source I've found seems to tell a different side of the story and most of these stories don't align with one another. All I can say for sure is that the four men continually blamed one another for the crimes, with each of the men pleading their innocence at trial. In fact, two of these monsters confessed to certain aspects of the crime during their interrogation, but when it came time for their trial, they claimed they weren't guilty. I'm not sure how they thought they were going to get out of this after being filmed during their confession, with this confession being used against them as evidence in court. They also had Cheslin as an eyewitness testifying against them, but regardless, they all claimed that they had nothing to do with the crime. Thankfully, though, Cheslin managed to heal enough in time for the trial that he was able to tell the judge and jury everything that he had gone through, though he appears to have been nearly suffering a panic attack throughout the entirety of his testimony. The only problem is that he wasn't around for Hannah's final moments, so he couldn't help out much in that aspect of the case. But in reality, it doesn't seem like police needed much help in pinning these men for the crime. After all, their DNA and fingerprints were all over Hannah's car. Their DNA was found across every inch of the crime scene, and two of the men were caught red handed in Hannah's vehicle. This case was about as open and shut as it could possibly be, but if that weren't enough, there were also the two additional victims that the suspects attacked the following morning. I can't wrap my head around how any of these four men thought they would get away with even one of their crimes. Someone had witnessed almost every single aspect of the case, obviously excluding what took place in the woods that night, but the DNA that was found at the scene painted a very clear picture for detectives. At trial, three of the four men who took Hannah's life were given a life sentence. One of the men got away with a slightly lesser sentence because there was no evidence tying him to Hannah's final moments. In total, the men received a combined 358 years in prison, with the crowd of people who attended the hearing cheering as their sentences were read. But honestly, one of the worst aspects of this case is how the suspects acted during the trial. All throughout their time in the stand, they were making faces at the victim's family, telling jokes to one another, laughing and smiling and throwing hand gestures at the crowd of people. One of the men even made suggestive remarks toward the judge who was reading the gang's sentence. These four men were all the lowest of low, true monsters that deserve everything they'll get behind bars, but the story isn't over just yet. As I'm sure all of you know, one of the biggest crimes in a situation like this, believe it or not, isn't actually what happened to the victim. It's what happens to the victim's loved ones who were left to face another day without the people they hold closest. The real tragedy is the families and friends of those who were taken away far too soon, who now have to figure out how their world is going to keep turning when such a pillar in their lives has been stolen. You may have heard the phrase, the mercy of life is that it just keeps going, but for some people it doesn't. Hannah's mother, Anna, lost her way after Hannah lost her life. Hannah was so deeply involved in her parents' lives that for Anna, it was just too much to bear. Anna had a remarkably difficult time coming to terms with the loss of her daughter. She went through all of the daily motions, but nothing mattered anymore. In the words of Hannah's father, when Hannah died, so did our family. The following year in 2018, Anna would head out on one of her daily swimming exercises, but on this particular day, she didn't make her usual rounds. She didn't make her usual laps around the ocean. Instead, she jumped into the water, swam into the distance, and just kept swimming. Her body was found washed ashore several days later. The pain of her daughter's loss was too much to bear, and Anna would ultimately lose her battle with depression. Anna's father would later speak about the loss of his wife and daughter, saying, me and my son were not a family, were the survivors who live in the ruins of what once was. If all of this weren't bad enough, Willem would soon be diagnosed with cancer. He fought a short battle before the illness overtook him, and he too lost his life. This left behind Hannah's brother, who's now being cared for in an assisted living facility due to severe autism. It's very likely her brother's unable to comprehend what his family went through, and why his parents and sister no longer come to see him. This, this is the true tragedy in cases like this. Natalie McNally was over the moon when she found out that she had a child on the way. Her boyfriend and parents were equally excited. But on a cold December morning in late 2022, this excitement was taken away from her. In the still of the night, a criminal broke into her house and claimed Natalie's life in one of the most disturbing ways imaginable. Detectives have been on the hunt for the suspect responsible for the crime, and while the case remains under investigation, police believe they may have found their man, and he was a lot closer to home than anyone would have expected. Natalie McNally was, by every definition, a happy and independent young woman. She had grown up in Lurgen, located in Northern Ireland. Alongside her three brothers, Natalie had a fairly typical childhood, growing up in a great community surrounded by family who cared for her. Lurgen may not be a very well known town, but it's only about 18 miles from Belfast, so pretty much anything you could ever need or want was within driving distance. With a population of around 28,000 people, it would be difficult to describe Lurgen as a small town, but the community was very strong and very close. It's been described by many in the area as a place where no one bothers to lock their doors because crime is never really an issue. It's been the perfect place to raise a family for decades, and this is likely why the population of Lurgen continues to grow every year. Natalie McNally loved it here. She had countless friends that she could always count on, but more importantly, she had family. While she was certainly close with her friends from work and her former years at school, she was closest with her mother. The two did everything together, shopping, crafts, housekeeping, local events, everything. As strange as it may seem to some people, Natalie and her mother were best friends. Even though Natalie was close with her mother, her mom says that Natalie was also fiercely independent. While she always hung out with her mother, she made it clear that she didn't need help or expect anything from anyone. She was her own woman and lived her life on her own terms. According to her friends, Natalie was also an animal lover. She had a house full of cats, but she was closest with her dog, a German shepherd named River. The two of them went everywhere together, and Natalie was dedicated to giving River the best life possible. To top all of this off, Natalie had been in a great relationship with her boyfriend, Stephen. The two seemed closer than ever, and things had been going smoothly for quite some time. I don't know if the two were engaged or not, but it may be safe to assume that if they weren't, an engagement was likely imminent. The two were deeper in love than anything you could imagine, and they were expecting their first child in just a few short months. But unfortunately, before they could begin their family together, tragedy would strike the town of Lurgen. Just days before Christmas on December 18th of 2022, Natalie, now 15 weeks pregnant, went missing. She stopped answering calls or texts, and no one was able to get in touch with her. When a friend decided to check her home to check on her, they walked into a crime scene unlike anything you could ever imagine. Traumatic is the only way that I can put this crime scene into words. Desperate and emotional are two other words that come to mind, describing this horrific violence that was displayed to her Natalie and her final moments on this earth. Natalie's parents say that in the weeks leading up to her demise, Natalie was the happiest that she'd ever been. She was just 32 years old and knew that she had the world in the palm of her hand. She was over the moon about being a mother's suit, and she'd wanted nothing more in her life than to be a mom. But someone took that joy away from her and left behind nothing but a trail of destruction. We don't know which of Natalie's friends stumbled across this crime scene, but police were called immediately afterward. Emergency services were called to Natalie's home sometime around 10pm on the evening of December 19th. As we would learn soon after, the crime had been committed at the previous day, but Natalie wasn't found until about 24 hours afterward. Medics were initially hopeful that Natalie could be saved, but unfortunately they called off all rescue attempts at the scene. Natalie was gone. When police reviewed CCTV footage from the area that was recorded at the evening of the crime, they noticed a scary looking man who was acting very suspicious. He had walked down Natalie's street at about 8.52pm. By 9.30pm, he was seen leaving the street coming from the direction of Natalie's house. The best I can tell, there was no footage of Natalie's actual house, only footage of the surrounding areas. But the CCTV footage was more than enough for police to pin down their first suspect. A suspect was tracked down fairly quickly, and he was arrested the following day. By all means, police were pursuing the case with a sense of urgency, but unfortunately the man had an alibi. The lead suspect was released from police custody on December 20th, and detectives officially announced that they were treating Natalie's case as suspicious. The following day, investigators revealed more details about the state of the crime scene, confirming that they were now classifying the case as a homicide investigation. They revealed that Natalie's body was covered in wounds. She had been very badly beaten, becoming unrecognizable to her family. They found several wounds that were consistent with a knife and countless others that were defensive wounds. It appeared that Natalie had fought back against her attacker and she wasn't going down without a fight. According to one report, Natalie was so badly beaten that she had multiple broken bones in her face. Another report detailed that her neck had also been broken as well, but we don't know how all of this played out, though I don't think this information would need to be shared publicly anyway. It doesn't change what happened and how callous this criminal acted towards Natalie. By December 22nd, police had arrested another man and revealed that they'd come across another few pieces of CCTV footage. In this footage, a man was seen leaving the area of the crime while carrying a bag of some sort. Unfortunately, this suspect was released as well, but he was released on bail. Police didn't reveal his name at this point in the investigation, but it appears as though detectives had a significant amount of evidence against him, but not quite enough to secure a conviction. The only information that was revealed at this point was that the suspect was 32 years old and this revelation certainly began to turn a few heads. After this, the case stalled for a while, but investigators would announce on January 5th, 2023 that they had located the weapon used to claim Natalie's life, but here's where things get far worse. They explained that they had reason to believe that Natalie knew her attacker first hand. They explained that there were no signs of forced entry and they had no reason to believe that Natalie didn't let this person into her home willingly. But to top this off, police explained that they questioned whether or not this was a targeted attack or if it had been completely random. Because of this, they issued a warning to all of the women in the local area that there was a serious possibility that the suspect may have been a danger to other women as well, telling the locals to ensure that their doors were locked at all hours of the day and to never be out in public alone. By January 13th, police arrested another man who they believed may have been connected to the crime, but he too was released the next day on bail. At this point, the case reached another stand still, this time for a period of about two weeks. With no further information to go on and no evidence linking anyone to the scene of the crime, police appealed to the public for assistance. They revisited the previously released CCTV footage and begged anyone from the public to come forward if they felt as though they may have seen or heard anything on the night but no one ever stepped up. It wouldn't be until January 31st, over a month after the crime, that police would announce that they had the criminal in custody. But it wasn't who anyone would have ever expected. Police had arrested their first suspect, who we mentioned a moment ago, once again. This time they had new evidence against him, but we don't know exactly what this evidence was. This time they were pursuing allegations against this man far more aggressively and he was sent to the local police station for a full-fledged interrogation. Just two days later, this suspect was officially charged with homicide. A few days after this, the suspect's name was revealed and it came as a shock to everyone, especially Natalie's family. It was someone they all loved and respected and certainly the last person they would have ever expected to be capable of such a thing. After all, it was the man who claimed to love Natalie the most, her own boyfriend, Steven McCullough. Police explained that Steven was brought in for questioning after they had originally spoken to him on the night of December 19th. If you don't remember, he was the suspect who police initially arrested but they let him go after they found out he had an alibi that was virtually undeniable. And I'll be honest, his alibi for that evening was truly remarkable. Steven has a YouTube channel and it seems that he mostly used the channel for gaming. In particular, he was a big fan of the Grand Theft Auto series and it seems like he played these games quite often on his channel. Steven is also involved in the local media industry, so he knows his way around a computer and certainly knows the thing or two about entertainment. On the night of Natalie's demise, Steven said that he was at home playing Grand Theft Auto, but not only this, he said that he was live streaming his session to dozens of people. His alibi was as airtight as they come. If dozens of people remember seeing him playing video games that night, then it seems pretty apparent that he was most likely in fact playing video games. But this is where Steven got a bit crafty and I've never heard of something like this ever happening before. For those of you that may not know, when you stream to YouTube, TikTok, or even Facebook, most professionals use a program known as OBS Studio to do this. I've used it on this channel several times in the past. But the thing about OBS is that it gives you far more features than your traditional streaming app or streaming software. One of those features is the ability to live stream pre-recorded files. This is why, for example, when you see bands performing on live streams, they sound so much better than you may have expected them to sound live, because it's usually all pre-recorded and heavily edited. Well, Steven pulled off this same thing on the evening of the crime. He had pre-recorded himself playing Grand Theft Auto for more than six hours, then used this computer software to replay that file live to his viewers. As far as his viewers knew, Steven was sitting behind his desk playing Grand Theft Auto. But in reality, Steven could have been anywhere in the world doing anything, and police have reason to believe that he was at Natalie's house that evening. After all, he perfectly resembles the man that was captured on CCTV that evening. If this isn't already sounding crazy enough, it's about to get even more strange, because police say that their team of computer experts analyzed his live stream from that evening and proved that, without a doubt, it had been pre-recorded. Steven eventually admitted to this, but he claimed he'd been home drinking all night, though he never gave a believable excuse as to why he had pre-recorded the live stream. But the crazy part is what took place shortly after this. Police say, in the weeks after Natalie lost her life, Steven had visited her parents' home multiple times. On one of these visits, Steven left the home but returned about 45 minutes later, claiming he left behind his cell phone by mistake. Well, he did leave his cell phone, but it was no mistake. During that 45-minute window, Steven had been recording audio on his phone to try to determine whether the McNally family suspected him of taking Natalie's life. We don't know if Steven was ever able to find the information he was looking for, but it doesn't seem like he did. On top of this bizarre piece of evidence, police say that they have CCTV footage that follows him to a bus station in Lurgen that evening, as well as additional footage placing him in the proximity of Natalie's home during the time the crime was committed. They even claimed to have footage of him returning home later that evening. All in all, investigators have tracked Steven throughout every step of the crime. But this all begs one big question. If Steven and Natalie were as in love as everyone says, and she was carrying his child, why would he want to take her life? Well, sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction. Jealousy is a powerful motivator. For Steven, this was especially true. Bear in mind, this case is currently ongoing and there's only so much information and evidence that we can go on for now. But according to investigators, Steven McCullough was a very jealous man. When he found out that Natalie had been speaking with other men through text messages, he took great offense. According to police, Steven had found out that Natalie had been texting an ex-boyfriend through WhatsApp. In total, officers say that just 33 messages were exchanged between the two. In today's world, and in my opinion, this would lend itself to an off-the-cuff short conversation, maybe just two people catching up. But for Steven, this meant war. The problem with this story is that we don't know the content of the messages. In Steven's eyes, Natalie had crossed a line and it seems that he was under the assumption that she was cheating on him. In all reality, she may have been, we just don't know. But a total of 33 messages makes this seem like a bit of a stretch. Granted, you can say a lot in just a single text message, but 33 messages still doesn't sound like much of an affair or relationship, but that's purely my opinion. It could be that there truly was a relationship between Natalie and this ex. And maybe Natalie's child didn't even belong to Steven, who knows, there's a million ways you could look at this situation. But there's only one way to look at it properly. No matter what Natalie did, she didn't deserve what took place that evening. Police say that on the evening of the crime, Natalie's phone had been unlocked nine times between 8.52 and 9.30pm. Investigators believe that these unlocks were due to Steven scrolling through Natalie's text messages, presumably catching her in the act. Take it from someone who's been on the other end of a situation like this, whatever Steven found in those messages likely broke him in the deepest parts of his soul. He'll never be the same after seeing something like this. To be fair, that's incredibly unfortunate and for many people it could lead them down a dark path for the rest of their lives. But one of the biggest things you have to remember in situations like this is that it's never an excuse to take your anger out on someone, certainly not in a physical way and certainly not to the extent that Steven went. Relationships are complicated and one of the most dangerous parts of a relationship is admitting that you've taken your emotional well-being and placed it into the hands of someone else, someone who could tear you apart from the inside out if they felt like it, sometimes just despite you. The scariest part of a relationship is that lack of control, the lack of proof, knowing just how deeply you love another person, but never fully being able to know whether or not they feel the same way. You just have to trust and assume that they do based on their actions and the way that they treat you. But for Steven, it doesn't seem like he was willing to place this amount of control over his life into the hands of someone else. Whatever he found on Natalie's phone that evening was his breaking point and unfortunately Natalie suffered for it. Police say in the days leading up to the crime, Steven had searched on his computer most painful ways to die, so it's safe to say that whatever he did to Natalie that evening, she didn't deserve it, no one does. Keep in mind, Steven is still considered innocent until proven guilty, but let's be real, in a case like this with mountains and mountains of evidence, it seems like this case is pretty open and shut. Thankfully for Natalie, her suffering is finally over, but if Steven is found guilty, his suffering has only just begun.