Old-school "Unsolved Mysteries" cases that you desperately want solved (but they probably never will be)

Why did 23 year olds look like 43 year olds in 1993?

R1 this is a valid question and an unsolved mystery in and of itself.

The lost Hannibal boys. They probably got lost in the cave system but who knows.

R1 Gloria Swanson was barely 50 years old when she made Sunset Blvd. People looked older back in the day.

I'll always remember Gloria Swanson as the Bee Lady.

I enjoy watching those unsolved mysteries/crimes shows.

I still remember this case when I think of Unsolved Mysteries.

I was unaware it was recently solved in 2020 after 30 years. This poor girl. I hope the murderer reveals where her remains are so her mother can at least have that closure.

Bernadette Peters' career

Here in southern WV, the case of the Sodder kids was never solved. They disappeared on Christmas Eve in 1945. There was a house fire and 5 of the 9 kids bodies weren't there. Its believed that they were kidnapped and the Father spent the rest of life traveling around the country investigating leads. The Father owned a trucking company and ties to the mob. How 5 kids were kidnapped from the 2 nd story of a house without anyone knowing, I don't know. Its a weird case.

R7 I long believed the theory that the Speed Freak Killers abducted and murdered here—the composite drawing was uncannily similar to one of the killers. I was surprised when they made that arrest. I hope they find her body. Her poor mother has toiled away for years keeping a blog/website up in her daughter’s memory.

Who were the Speed Freak Killers?

The Patricia Meehan case is one of my favorites and one of the most haunting. I think about it a lot. The segment is so well done, and I love that self-portrait photograph she took.

I’m sure I saw the case linked to in the OP but I don’t recall it. Will have to check it out tonight—sounds equally haunting, and I’m in a haunted mood.

This was referenced on the Wiki page for Meehan. Another young woman who went kinda nutty, bopped around the countryside- then disappeared for good.

Can't imagine being the families of these missing people. It would haunt you the rest of your life.

Richard Colvin Cox - the only West Point cadet to permanently vanish

Bumb

The Wackers! From 30:30 at this link. A lot of people online think it was the husband all along.

The disappearance of college student Ronald Tammen in 1953

The death of Keith Warren.

The famous Springfield Three case, one of the most baffling and creepy missing persons cases ever. It's been 30 years and is unlikely to ever be solved.

Were the Springfield Three ever featured on UM?

R21 I don’t think so, which is a bit surprising. That case would have made for a great UM segment. A number of the cases posted here weren’t profiled by UM.

This is probably the best place to make this request: can someone please start a thread about the classic Unsolved Mysteries case profilee Cindy James, of Richmond, British Columbia?

(Sadly, not a missing person.)

She should be a DL icon.

I first learned about The Springfield Three on ID's show Disappeared. After that it became one of those cases I've followed off and on over the past several years. Last year, there was a really good podcast linked below. The journalist who did the podcast grew up in Springfield and gave some good insight into vibe of the town.

The Dr. Sam Sheppard murder case. Did Dr. Sam kill his wife or was there really a "bushy haired man"?

I still think the bodies of The Springfield Three are buried under that parking garage they refused to excavate.

Jodi Huisentruit case

I'm still curious about the Black Dahlia. No, I don't believe that Steve Hodel's father killed her. That fucker thinks his father killed everyone.

I don't think these were on Unsolved Mysteries, but just in the past few weeks, these "mysteries" seem to have been solved: *They determined the identity of the Somerton Man, a middle aged guy who died on an Australian beach with no papers and no one claimed him (looks like a suicide) *They identified by name the The Boy in the Box, a four-year-old who was murdered in Pennsylvania in 1957 *They arrested the guy who murdered those two girls who went hiking in Indiana

Very intriguing to think that even after years and years, some mysteries can be solved.

The Joe Pichler case

Lindsay Buziak was a realtor targeted and killed within 15 minutes by a man and woman who posed as customers and slipped out tye back as her boyfriend waited for her in his truck out front.

I guess this isn't "old school" but I really wish Brian Shaffer would turn up somehow.

The Brian Shaffer case is quite baffling because the bar had various cameras and they were no captures of him leaving the bar. Another missing persons case I remembered was the 1999 disapperance of UCLA student Michael Negrete.

I'd want to know what happened to Johnny Gosch, because he's constantly brought up in this and that conspiracy just enough to make me wonder.

Sometime in 2008, friends and family of Kanika Powell received the following email:

“I just wanted to share with you the scariest thing that happened to me this weekend. Saturday evening around 7pm a man was knocking at my door (as all of you may know I live alone). I asked who it was and he didn’t answer, so once I got close to the door and looked out of the peephole I saw a male figure that was not familiar to me at all.

I asked who he was and all he stated was that he was from the FBI and that he was looking for Kanika Powell. It freaked me out completely because this man knew my name. He held a shield up but no picture ID and he never gave his name. He told me he was looking for me in regards to an investigation. I told him that I had no idea as to what he was talking about and that he would need to show me documentation as well as a warrant of some sort.

So he left and I looked out my bedroom window and saw him walking. I also heard a voice tell him to walk in the opposite direction. The whole situation was scary and seemed so false. So because of this incident not only did I get NO sleep for the rest of the weekend but I am now trying to get an alarm system installed in my apartment. I had one in my old apartment, but I just hadn’t had it transferred over to my new one.

As far as everything that happened with the guy. I did call the FBI and they told me that it was more than likely bogus because they never come to your door by themselves and they always leave a card of some sort so that you can contact them. I called the local police as well to give them a description just in case someone is out there trying to rape or harm single women... pass this on ladies... This is not a fake Forward this happened to ME Kanika…Who knows who these guys are and what they are doing and in what areas other than mine.” ——

Kanika called 911 after the incident and the police arrived 4 minutes later. They canvassed the area but found no trace of either of the men. Kanika thought that she was possibly the target of a scam. Differing reports claim that she either installed or planned to install a security system after this event. She reported the incident to the apartment complex and contacted the FBI, who confirmed that they had sent no agents to her apartment. She also vented to a friend on August 26th, who said that she seemed “messed up about the whole thing.”

On August 27th, 2008, another man came to her door. This is often erroneously reported as five days later than the first incident but would actually seem to be four days, since the first man came to her door on August 23rd. This man also addressed her by full name but this time claimed to be delivering a package. She refused to open the door again, and he walked away, claiming to be retrieving the package. He never came back to the door and left no package and no note.

It seems that there was another incident the next day on August 28th, which may be where the errors come in about the timeline. Another man knocked on the door, claiming to be delivering a package for her. He came by at 7:30 in the morning and again, used her full name. Frightened, Kanika not only did not open the door for him but called her mom. She wanted to know who delivered packages so early in the morning. The police were called again but did not find the man.

Kanika was leaving the next day for a work trip and needed to run errands. She didn’t want to wait until dark to do them, so she decided it would be safer to go out in broad daylight. She left her apartment for a few hours and arrived back home a little before noon. A man was waiting in the hallway. She was shot several times in the torso with a handgun. The police received a call at 11:50 am and she was rushed to the hospital. Kanika never regained consciousness and died the next day, August 29th.

R35 That is incredibly freaky and scary

R34 I wish something would come up before his poor mom dies

R28 Steve Hodel may be fucking nuts but the evidence suggesting that Dr. George Hodel killed the Black Dahlia is somewhat overwhelming.

R37 have you heard about the Jeff Gannon thing? I doubt it has anything to do with Gosch but it's sort of a fascinating rabbit hole. There's DEFINITELY something weird going on with Jeff Gannon.

The 2005 disappearance of Pennsylvania prosecutor Ray Gricar isn't an old school case. But, it got some attention because Gricar had declined to prosecute Jerry Sandusky in the late 90s.

What is the overwhelming evidence that Hodel killed the Black Dahlia.

R41 Different poster here. I wouldn't say overwhelming but he is a suspect at the very least.

- At the time of the murder investigation he was in the top 5 suspects. Several witnesses told police they had seen George Hodel and Elizabeth Short together, as she was reportedly one of many flings that occupied Hodel’s time. There was enough evidence to bug Hodel’s home in 1950. Through the tapes from hours of recordings, the police caught Hodel saying, “Supposin’ I did kill the Black Dahlia. They can’t prove it now. They can’t talk to my secretary anymore because she’s dead. They thought there was something fishy. Anyway, now they may have figured it out. Killed her. Maybe I did kill my secretary.”

- Hodel was a doctor with the surgical knowledge to precisely cut her up like that.

- He was well known in the Surrealist art scene, as well as the party and sadomasochism scenes. (The way she was cut up is kind of surrealist.)

Also of interest: Hodel was charged with incestuous sexual abuse against his daughter although the jury believed him and the charges were dismissed.

I totally disagree on Black Dahlia and I’m hoping this thread doesn’t become all about that case. Hodel based it all on evidence that is absolutely INconclusive, period, end of. I do agree that there is some circumstantial evidence, but that isn’t enough for me.

The Kanika story is terrifying. I strongly suspect that whoever killed her was also in the military because the way she was approached multiple times with different ruses seems quite sophisticated. I wonder if she was having an affair with someone, or perhaps a lunatic became convinced she was having an affair. That is one of the scarier cases I’ve read.

At 9 p.m. on May 28, 1980, Scott was at an employee meeting at work.[1] She noted co-worker Conrad Bostron did not look well and had a red mark on his arm. She and another co-worker, Pam Head, left the employee meeting to take Bostron to the emergency room at UC Irvine Medical Center. On the way to the hospital, they stopped by Scott's parents' house to check on her son. She also changed her black scarf to a red one.[2] At the hospital, medical personnel determined Bostron had suffered a black widow spider bite and treated him; Head said she and Scott remained in the E.R. waiting room. At no time, Head said, did Scott leave her side.

Bostron was discharged around 11 p.m. and given a prescription. Scott offered to bring her car to the exit; she did not want Bostron to walk too far in his condition, as he was still not feeling well. Head said Scott used the restroom briefly before heading out to the parking lot.[1] Head and Bostron filled his prescription and waited at the exit for Scott; when they did not see her after a few minutes they went out to the E.R.'s parking lot. Suddenly, they saw Scott's car speeding toward them; its headlights blinded them so they could not see who was behind the wheel. They waved their arms to try to get Scott's attention, but the car sped past them and took a sharp right turn out of the parking lot.[1] Initially, both thought Scott had an emergency come up with her son. A few hours later, after not hearing from her, Head and Bostron reported Scott missing.

The guy who kidnapped her did it at a location she wasn’t supposed to be while she was with two friends in the 5 minutes it took to get her car. He drove by her friends. He called her mother every Wednesday for years after killing her.

R44 Wasn't there an odd coworker of a family member who people suspected?

The I-70 killer case is very creepy and has never been solved.

This one must be near the top for me. What we're missing in almost every UFO case is physical evidence. We have it here in the form of radiation burns on these witnesses. I want to know what happened to them.

[quote]the evidence suggesting that Dr. George Hodel killed the Black Dahlia is somewhat overwhelming

It is not. There are a couple of intriguing pieces of evidence but they're both hearsay, unfortunately (the WGM letter and the alleged transcription of a conversation he had when the DA bugged his home). Steve and Fauna Hodel have a vested interest in keeping George a suspect and that, in and of itself, calls into question how reliable their information is.

The Victorio Peak treasure.

Excellent thread topics , OP. Thanks. I love my crime shows and some really do stick out.

Kyron Horman. 13 years missing.

Gemini killer. I still don't have a solid opinion on that one

Who remembers Adam and Elena Emery? They both apparently jumped off the Newport Bridge. Or did they?

The FBI said in 2019 they think they would find him in Italy in 5 years. It’s been 4 years now.

But why did they find Elena’s skull in the bay? What went down?

And there was one about this black woman from I think San Diego who dropped out of college to join the Air Force they meant to San Francisco and had a bunch of friends that she never introduced her family to and then got in a car accident and eventually cut off all contact with her family. It seems pretty obvious to me that this woman probably stop talking to her family because she wanted to live life openly as a lesbian.

R54, actually there are quite a few cases they have aired over the years that I thought they couldn’t solve because they weren’t thinking from a gay angle.

This case comes to mind. He studied to be a priest and then decided not to. Please. He smelled cookies!

It was suspected that missing cadet Richard Colvin Cox ran away to live openly as a gay man. Detectives even searched gay bars in the Village trying to spot him.

Not necessarily unsolved, but it would be nice to find Stacy Peterson's body even though Drew Peterson is already rotting in prison. I hope someone is pushing his smug ass face into a pillow while serving up some prison justice to his ass.

[quote] Kyron Horman. 13 years missing.

Kyron Horman's stepmother is responsible for his death. She hid his body in a good spot and has never admitted to causing his disappearance. However, all signs point to her.

I hate to say this, but his bio mom (Desiree Young) is kind of weird, too. Supposedly, she was sick when he disappeared. Hence, he was living pretty much 100% with his father & stepmother. It still sounds odd to me that she (bio mom) wasn't really spending time with him when he disappeared.

[quote] Desiree never tried to regain custody of Kyron, though she has maintained a close relationship with her son, caring for him every weekend or so with her new husband, Medford police Detective Tony Young.

Two separate priests murdered in the 80s, their cases are thought to be connected but nobody knows how or why.

Kyron's dad was a piece of work as well. Desiree was in the hospital giving birth to Kyron when she found out that he was having an affair with the woman who would ultimately plot his murder.

Why is everybody looking at me?

Who was D.B. Cooper?

R59 I always thought that one was retaliation for sexual abuse.

One case that I'm surprised is still unsolved is the murder of college student Thomas Burkett. His parents did a really good job of investigating and collecting evidence to prove that his suicide was actually murder and most likely covered up by the police department.

Since it happened in 1991 I imagined that the college students who were allegedly involved are still alive and know exactly what happened.

According to the NamUs database, there are 600,000 people declared missing every year. Alongside that statistic, there are 4,400 unidentified bodies discovered every year.

When I started selling on ebay in 2000 there was a seller whose 17 year old, really pretty, straight A daughter went to the movies and never came home. Every year he posted an update but every year there was nothing to report. By the 5th year he just assumed she was dead and they would never find her body. I got a new computer and forgot what his user name was so lost track of him. You could feel his pain when he wrote these updates and I always thought how unbearable it must be to lose someone like that and hoped that I never would.

Who killed the Sherman couple. Their murder was creepy AF because of the position of the bodies and also because of the time the killer/Killers spent in the home.

I just wonder how many of these cases could be solved now with 23andme and Ancestry.com DNA testing.

Watching the one about Kristi Krebs (referenced in OP) and was thinking she might have had a child.

The Springfield Three is my number one. It will probably never be solved. Such a strange and sad case.

I had forgotten about this case. Curt Borton aka Robert Borton. The family seems convinced he returned from Vietnam under a new identity and that he was part of some special ops that prevented him from making contact and yet they thought he tried to make contact a few times.

I honestly don't know what to think of it.