A Texas woman is murdered and her family suspects her husband.

Marilu Geri

Her mother found Marilu’s body

CASE DETAILS

Paramedics attempted to save her life

On the morning of February 14, 1986, Marilu Geri, a young, affluent Houston woman, was found in her home, shot four times. She was rushed to the hospital and pronounced dead soon after. Marilu Geri had been murdered and her parents are convinced that her husband, Stephen, was the killer. However, Stephen has repeatedly maintained his innocence.

Marilu’s body was discovered shortly after 10 AM. At 8:15 AM, Stephen Geri called Marilu’s mother, Maria Serrato, and asked her to go over and help Marilu prepare for a lunchtime party:

“As soon as I hung up with him, I dialed Mary’s number, and she didn’t answer the phone. And it got me very concerned because I thought how strange, she’s supposed to be already running around the house doing the last things for the party. But where is she?”

Maria immediately drove to her daughter’s house. She searched the back of the house, where she found Marilu lying on the floor:

“She looked like she had fainted or something, and I started to kiss her in her face, and touching her, and she looked like she was dead. And it got me completely, I was just like, a wild person. I thought I was in a nightmare.”

Stephen Geri insists he is innocent

At 10:30 AM, the paramedics tried to revive Marilu. They injected her heart with medication, but she was already dead. This procedure later made it impossible to determine the exact time of death. Marilu had been shot four times with two different guns—a .38 and a .22. But there were no guns found in the house, nor was there any physical evidence of a break-in. In the bedroom, Marilu’s jewelry box was open. Could robbery have been a motive? Marilu’s mother believed it was a well-planned murder:

“There was jewelry lying there, like she had been selected jewelry or something that she was going to wear. Whoever killed Marilu didn’t come in the house to steal anything.”

However, Stephen Geri disagreed:

“Well, there were many things taken. The gross value was about 25 to 30, maybe 40 thousand dollars worth of jewelry.”

Marilu and Stephen had been married for three years. Stephen was an insurance agent and Marilu worked for him. The couple enjoyed vacations in Hawaii and Europe and appeared to be happily living the good life. But according to her mother, Marilu’s marriage was anything but happy:

“It was a torment of a marriage. The last two and a half years of her life, it was nothing but crying about one thing and another. They were fighting over money.”

Marilu’s maiden name is now on her gravestone

Investigators viewed Stephen Geri as one of the possible suspects. He owned several handguns, which were tested in the police ballistics lab. However, the results proved that Stephen’s guns were not used in the shooting. Stephen also gave the police a detailed account of his movements on the day of the murder. Normally, he worked in his home office during the early morning. But according to Stephen, on that particular day he changed his routine:

“I woke up at about five that morning, I went upstairs and worked on the computer. I had an extremely busy day, there were some things that I had to finish up. Marilu was still in bed. Told her that I would call her at seven. I know that the security system was on when I left the house, at about 6:25, 6:30. I went down to 7-11 and got another cup of coffee. I left there and went to the post office, picked up our mail for the day. From there, I went to the donut shop, picked up donuts. Then I went to Precision Glass, Don Richardson’s company, and talked with them for a moment. I started to leave, realized that I had forgotten to call Mary. I went back in at the reception desk and called her at almost 7:30. She was up, she said she was busy, busy, busy, so I told her goodbye.”

From 7:30 when he called Marilu, to 10:06 when Marilu’s body was found, Stephen spent most of his time with witnesses who confirmed his alibi. A private investigator, Bill Elliott, hired by Marilu’s parents, examined Stephen’s alibi in detail:

“The witnesses that we interviewed indicated to us that it was not his habit or pattern to leave the house before nine or ten in the morning. And this particular day he claims to have left the house between 6:00 and 6:30.”

When Stephen left home, his first stop was the 7-11, only two blocks away, and less than a five-minute drive. But according to Bill Elliot, there is a conflict as to the actual time Stephen arrived:

“We interviewed the people at the convenience store where he went first, and it was their recollection and very positive recollection that Stephen did not get there until three minutes until seven o’clock. A variation in the alibi that would have given him time to do things as far as getting rid of evidence and that kind of thing. The curious thing is that Mr. Geri had not only gone to these places that morning, but the following day, he went back and reminded these people that he had been there the day before, which is something that I found unusual.”

Bill Elliot also discovered that two years before Marilu’s death, Stephen had purchased insurance policies on both their lives. According to Bill, each policy had a total value of more than $400,000:

“Mr. Geri was a big spender, liked to spend a lot of money and liked to live the high life. At a higher level than his income was capable of supporting.”

Ten months after the murder, Stephen tried to collect on his wife’s policy. Outraged, Marilu’s parents went to court to prevent him from collecting the money. They claimed he had been the cause of Marilu’s death and would attempt to prove it in court. However, Stephen Geri believed there was another reason that the Serratos filed the lawsuit:

“Well there are two things that make the world go round, and that’s sex and money. And it definitely wasn’t sex, was it?”

Strangely, just as the trial was beginning, Stephen Geri and Marilu’s parents reached an out of court settlement. But which side had requested the settlement? Stephen claimed that the Serratos approached him with the offer:

“I was adamant that when my attorney presented this to me, that it would not be as an admission of guilt and that rather that the Serratos would realize that I was not involved, or why would they make the offer? And that we would settle on it. If it had been my daughter and I thought that person was involved, there was no way I would ever take the settlement… but they did.”

The court documents can’t reveal who asked for the settlement, since the judge ordered the records sealed.

The police continue to search for information about the two weapons that were used in the murder. They feel these guns will lead them to the killer. Stephen Geri remains a person of interest. But through it all, Geri has consistently maintained his innocence:

“No, I did not kill my wife. Marilu was the perfect woman for me. We had a wonderful life together, exciting, we traveled, we built one hell of a business, and were a fantastic complement to each other.”

---

Watch this case now on Amazon Prime in season one with Robert Stack and season five with Dennis Farina. Also available on YouTube with Dennis Farina. Various seasons available now on Hulu.

SUBMIT A TIP

The post Marilu Geri appeared first on Unsolved Mysteries.

Two unidentified men rob a bowling alley, killing four people and wounding three.

7 people were shot at the Bowling Alley

Suspect #1

Suspect #1: Gender: Male DOB: Approx. 1960 Height: 5’10” Weight: 170 lbs. Eyes: Light Hair: Dark, wavy Remarks: Speaks excellent English with no Spanish accent

Suspect #2

Suspect #2: Gender: Male DOB: Approx. 1940 to 1950 Height: 5’7” Weight: 140 lbs. Hair: Salt & pepper Remarks: Speaks with a slight Spanish accent

CASE DETAILS

On February 10, 1990, at the local bowling alley in Las Cruces, New Mexico, Ida the cook, was in the kitchen preparing for the lunch hour rush. It was about 8:00 A.M. and just an hour before opening time. The day manager, Stephanie, was in the office adding up the previous night’s receipts. Stephanie’s 12-year-old daughter, Melissa, and Melissa’s friend, Amy, were with her.

At about 8:20, Ida was surprised in the kitchen by a stranger with a pistol. He forced her towards the office where Stephanie and the girls were being held by a second gunman. According to Ida:

“I just thought they were gonna get money and then take off, especially when they told us, ‘All of you put your heads down.'”

The second gunman took $4,000 from the safe while the other gunman continued to yell, “Heads down!” Ida said she followed the instructions:

“When he said that, I thought, ‘These guys are leaving.’ And that’s when I felt they had shot me in the head.”

A witness saw the two men outside

Seconds later, employee Steven Teran arrived at the bowling alley with his two young children. Like the other witnesses, they were shot in the head. All three died, along with Melissa’s friend, Amy. Somehow, Stephanie, Melissa and Ida survived the vicious attack. Captain Fred Rubio of the Las Cruces Police Department:

“We assessed the scene immediately. We canvassed the neighborhood, and thank god we were able to come up with a couple of witnesses that were able to give us some pretty decent composites.”

The gunmen shot the witnesses in cold blood

One of the witnesses was Stephanie’s brother, who we’ll call Michael. He said he had stopped by the bowling alley on his way to school:

“I saw two Hispanic gentlemen walking from the back of the building towards the front. The older gentleman handed the younger gentleman a small case. The older gentleman squats down, and looks right at me as I’m driving towards them. I took notice of what they were wearing, and their descriptions, hair color, skin, eyes.”

Based on this and all the eyewitness descriptions, police were able to draw up composites of the killers.

---

Watch this case now on Amazon Prime in season two with Robert Stack and season seven with Dennis Farina. Also available on YouTube with Dennis Farina. Various seasons available now on Hulu.

SUBMIT A TIP

The post Bowling Alley Murder appeared first on Unsolved Mysteries.

A State Department employee murders his mother, wife, and three sons.

William Bradford Bishop

Suspect:

Gender: Male
DOB:8/1/36
Height: 6’1”
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Brown

CASE DETAILS

On March 2, 1976, a state park ranger in Columbia, North Carolina, responded to a report of a brush fire in a remote wooded area. As the ranger brought the fire under control, he found an empty gas can and a shovel. When the smoke cleared, the ranger also discovered the remains of five partially charred bodies in a shallow grave, three young boys, and two women.

An age progressed photo of Bishop

The victims’ clothes had labels from expensive department stores in Bethesda, Maryland. The shovel came from a hardware store in the same area. However, the Bethesda police had no missing person’s reports that they could link to the bodies, until six days later. The call came from a neighbor of William Bradford Bishop, a respected economist with the State Department. Lt. Joe Sargent of the Montgomery County Police Department was first to arrive at the Bishop home:

“There was a common driveway to the neighbor’s home and to the Bishop home. And I met the neighbor there to investigate the whereabouts of the family. It was rather routine to do an investigation like this. It’s not unusual. And I wasn’t overly concerned about it until I reached the front step of the home and I noticed there were blood drops on the front step. Upon opening the front door I saw blood droplets leading from the doorway thru the foyer and up a set of stairs that led to the upper bedroom level of the home. In going up the stairs I observed blood splatterings on the wall and in the one bedroom that I could see into, almost the entire ceiling and wall was completely splattered with blood. There was hardly a place you could put your hand where there wasn’t blood splatterings. I’d been a police officer for approximately 12 years and this was the worst scene that I’ve ever observed.”

Authorities were finally able to identify the five bodies: Brad Bishop’s wife, Annette, his three sons, and his mother. There was no sign of Brad Bishop. Was he also a victim? Or was there a far more sinister explanation for his disappearance?

Police believe Bishop killed his family

Bishop worked for the State Department as a director of commercial practices and trade. To most of his co-workers, he seemed to be on the fast track to a high level job. But a co-worker, Roy A. Harrell, saw a different side of Brad Bishop:

“Brad Bishop had extensive experience overseas. He liked the international scene from the time he was in the army in Italy. Brad’s career was very much on track. Although he was exceedingly despondent about not getting a promotion.”

Roy ran into Bishop just outside the State Department on the day the annual promotion list came out. Bishop said he had been once again passed over for a promotion. According to Roy:

“He said, ‘I think I’m getting the flu. I don’t feel well at all and it’s the reason I’m leaving work now.’ So I helped him hail a taxi and I watched him drive out.’

The next day Brad Bishop’s family was found dead and he had disappeared.

The bodies were burned in the woods

On March 18, 1976, almost three weeks after the murders, a ranger in Tennessee discovered an abandoned station wagon. In the back he found what looked like dried blood. The car was registered to William Bradford Bishop. Bishop was now the prime suspect in the slaying of his own family. Wiley D. Thompson was an assistant special agent with Baltimore FBI:

“The courts will have to determine whether Brad Bishop is guilty of killing his family. But there was enough evidence for a warrant to be issued for his arrest for homicide, based on the fact that there appeared to be premeditation in connection with the events that occurred on March 1st.”

He abandoned the car in Tennessee

The authorities pieced together Bishop’s activities leading up to the murders. According to Lt. Sargent, on the day he left the State Department, Bishop withdrew several hundred dollars from his bank account and went to a local hardware store and gas station:

“And as far as we know, after that he returned to his home, probably around 7:30 to 8:00 at night, after the children were put to bed.”

Assistant Special Agent Thompson:

“Our investigation shows that Mrs. Bishop was probably killed first. She was found beside a book which she may have been reading at the time that she was killed. The children were probably killed next, followed by Bishop’s mother. They were all killed with a blunt instrument and none of the victims had an opportunity to defend themselves.”

Is Bishop living in Italy?

According to the FBI, Bishop loaded the five bodies into the family station wagon and headed 200 miles south to the countryside near Columbia, North Carolina.

According to Bishop’s co-worker, Roy Harrell, Bishop suffered from feelings of inadequacy:

“Brad Bishop felt, from the time I knew him, that there was something lacking in himself. This feeling was nourished constantly by both his mother and, to some degree, his wife, who constantly told him that he was inadequate and washed up and wasn’t going anywhere in his career. And I think that he conceived in his mind that this was a way to, as he often said many times about other people, ‘This would be a way of putting them in their place.'”

After buying a pair of tennis shoes near the site of the fire, Bishop drove 400 miles to the Great Smokey Mountains in Tennessee where his station wagon was found abandoned.

Brad Bishop successfully covered his tracks and was not seen for two years.

Then, in 1978, 5,000 miles away in Sorrento, Italy, a bizarre coincidence. Roy Harrell says he came face to face with Bishop in a bus station restroom:

“I was washing my hands and this bearded disheveled looking man came in. In my mind’s eye I took the beard and his grubby clothes off of him and I saw the Brad Bishop I had seen coming out of the State Department. I followed him and watched him disappear down the cliffs going towards the boat landing where boats go to Capri.”

Bishop is wanted by the FBI, Interpol, and the US Marshals. He has evaded capture for over 30 years. Authorities believe he is living in Europe.

Update:

On October 8th, 2014, the FBI announced a new theory as to William Bishop’s whereabouts: he may have been killed by a hit and run driver in Alabama in 1981, and become a John Doe. The DNA results came back, and they are not a match. William Bishop’s whereabouts are still unknown.

---

Watch this case now on Amazon Prime in season three with Robert Stack in season five with Dennis Farina. Also available on YouTube with Dennis Farina. Various seasons available now on Hulu.

SUBMIT A TIP

The post William Bishop appeared first on Unsolved Mysteries.

Authorities hope to identify a woman found strangled in Lake Panasoffkee, Florida.

Little Miss “P”

A body was found in the lake

CASE DETAILS

Lake Panasoffkee lies in the heart of the vast Florida wetlands. Crossing the lake’s eastern shore is Interstate 75, which connects Florida with the rest of the Southeast. On February 19, 1971, two teenagers were hiking along the Interstate, heading north from Tampa, when they noticed the outline of a human form in the shallow water. Authorities retrieved the badly decomposed body of a young woman. She appeared to have been strangled: a man’s size 36 belt was still wrapped around her throat.

Flyers were sent around the country

Investigators determined that the woman may have been in her late teens or early twenties. She had no identification and had been dead for approximately three weeks. They were unable to find the killer, nor determine the woman’s identity. No one came forward to claim the body. After six months, the young woman was laid to rest beneath a small metal marker that simply read, “Jane Doe – 1971”

Ten years later, Jamie Adams became the Sheriff of Sumter County. He began to review the department’s unsolved cases, and was particularly disturbed by the murder of this young woman:

“It bothered me that this young girl had never been identified. And being a daddy and a granddaddy, I just couldn’t accept the fact that somebody out there couldn’t come forward and let us know who this young girl was. It was something that I had to do and I just feel deeply that it’s a mission that I’ve got to accomplish.”

Her body was exhumed for clues

A year after he took office, Sheriff Adams officially re-opened the case. He obtained a court order to have the body exhumed. Dr. William Maples, one of the nation’s foremost forensic anthropologists, was brought in to assist with the new investigation:

“The re-examination of the remains, ordered by Sheriff Adams, gave us a piece of information that is crucial. Something that wouldn’t have been known had it not been for Sheriff Adams. And that was that she had orthopedic surgery to her right ankle. This was done by an orthopedic surgeon, who wound a tendon through holes drilled in the bones of the ankle. It is a Watson Jones, or modified Watson Jones technique. The family or the physician may remember this.”

Sheriff Adams next contacted Linda Galeener, a forensic artist renowned for her ability to create accurate composite drawings based on skeletal remains:

“One of the first things we do is get photos of the skulls and it’s important for those to be to scale, the same size of the skull. We use the crime lab to do that. And they bring forth photos of a profile and facial front of the skull. Then an artist will sit down, and we’ll put either tissue paper or some type of matte acetate over it so we can still see the photograph, and draw over it. And we actually plot the tissue depth using charts. And you just mold that face until it comes to life on paper.”

Next, Sheriff Adams asked Linda to create age regression drawings of how the victim might have appeared at the age of twelve and at the age of six. According to Jamie Adams, this technique had never before been used in law enforcement:

“I needed something that would put her back in time, with the hopes that maybe a school teacher, a Sunday School teacher, even a classmate that had gone to school with her would say, ‘Well, she’s in the fifth grade or the first grade that we remember.’”

She had orthopedic surgery on her right ankle

Sheriff Adams has mailed flyers to more than 3,000 law enforcement agencies throughout the United States and Canada. He has contacted hundreds of hospitals, and followed up hundreds of leads. Still, the identity of Little Miss Panasoffkee remains a mystery.

The young woman was 5’2” tall, weighed about 100 pounds and was approximately 20 years old. In addition to the “Watson Jones” surgical technique that had been performed on her ankle, the young woman had extensive dental work, including crowns, caps and fillings. The examination also revealed that she had given birth to at least one child. These clues suggest that the victim was well cared for and may have left a family behind.

---

Watch this case now on Amazon Prime in season five with Robert Stack and in season five with Dennis Farina. Also available on YouTube with Dennis Farina. Various seasons available now on Hulu.

SUBMIT A TIP

The post Little Miss “P” appeared first on Unsolved Mysteries.

Michaela’s young friend was able to describe the man and the vehicle to police officers, but no suspects were located. They gathered DNA from Michaela’s scooter, hoping that one day a match would be found.

Nearly 30 years later, that day finally came. The case was reopened and the DNA was tested again. This time, they found a match. David Misch, 59, who is serving a sentence for an unrelated murder conviction, was charged Monday, December 21st 2020 by Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O’Malley in the disappearance of Michaela Garecht. Witnesses place him in the area at the time. While Michaela’s remains have still not been found, the family is one step closer to justice for their little girl.

See the original Unsolved Mysteries in Season 1, Episode 14 with Robert Stack. 

The post Michaela Garecht appeared first on Unsolved Mysteries.

On July 16, 1996, Susan Walsh of Nutley, New Jersey, was in a hurry. She dropped off her son, David, with her estranged husband, and said she needed to run a few errands. Susan never returned. Police believe Susan Walsh simply chose to disappear, while those close to her fear she may have met an untimely end.

Despite her bitter childhood, Susan dreamed of being a poet. By the time she turned 20, however, she found herself as a substance abuser and stripper. Still, she kept her hopes alive, using her dancing tips to pay her way through college. By the time she graduated in 1988, she began her writing career.

According to Susan’s friend, Melissa Hines, Susan had been sober for over four years when she got married and became a devoted mother. Eventually, she and her husband separated. Her writing jobs didn’t pay enough to support her son, so Susan went back to stripping for a steady income.

Eventually, Susan landed an internship at New York’s alternative newspaper, The Village Voice. Because of her background as a stripper, she was assigned to research the sex industry. She soon turned up a hot story: Russian mobsters in New Jersey were allegedly forcing young immigrant women to work like slaves in strip clubs.

While Susan earned praise for her Russian mob article, she also received serious threats when it was published. But that didn’t stop her from taking another dark assignment, this time investigating vampire nightclubs frequented by goth club kids. However, some took it further than just black outfits. Some were even drinking real blood.

Susan was attracted to the vampire world. She even started dating a man who claimed to be one of the undead. To Susan’s disappointment, The Village Voice never ran her vampire story. She went back to dancing full time, which began taking a physical and mental toll on her.

Forty-eight hours after a friend last saw her, Susan disappeared. Did she collapse because of her depression and poor health? Or was she out there somewhere, waiting for help? Susan’s friends had to consider darker theories. One journalist believes she may have overdosed. The police believed she was still alive.

An old friend told the police that they saw Susan after she disappeared, getting into a limousine. She is positive she saw her a month after her disappearance. They ran the plates and contacted the owner, who did describe a woman who fit Susan’s brief.

Some believe Susan was deliberately hiding out in fear of her own safety. It’s possible she had been stalked, threatened by the mob, or otherwise endangered. Her father, Floyd Merchant, passed in 2013 without knowing what happened to his daughter. Susan’s friend plans on making a documentary about her disappearance.

UPDATE: In September of this year, Susan’s half-brother filed a lawsuit against the Nutley Police Department with hopes to obtain information about the investigation into Susan’s disappearance. If you know anything about what happened to Susan Walsh, please leave us a tip at unsolved.com.

Watch this case now on Amazon Prime in season nine with Robert Stack and in season four with Dennis Farina. Also available on YouTube with Robert Stack. Various seasons available now on Hulu.

The post Desperately Seeking Susan appeared first on Unsolved Mysteries.

Shmulik Rosenthal, who relocated to Boston under the name Steve Ross, was a Holocaust survivor. He was held in ten different concentration camps from ages 9 to 14, the last being Dachau. He suffered unknowable pain, but found hope in the form of an unknown soldier. He long hoped to say thank you to the anonymous American GI who got him back on his feet after his flight from Germany.

Shmulik can be seen amongst the cheering prisoners in a photo taken before their liberation. He and his older brother were reunited, only to learn that their mother, father, and six siblings had all died in the camps.

Shmulik walked among American troops toward the medical stations upon release. It was there that he encountered an American soldier eating out of a can with his bayonet. The solider leapt from the tank upon which he sat and offered the can of food to Shmulik. Overcome with emotion, Shmulik fell to his knees, holding onto the soldier’s legs and kissing his boots. The soldier comforted him, something Shmulik hadn’t experienced in years.

The soldier gave him an American flag, and from then on, Shmulik felt as though his future would be bright. He took the soldier as a symbol of love despite all odds, even amongst the harshest and most unforgiving circumstances.

He considered that solider a member of his family and the reason he was able to emulate love, despite the horrors of his childhood. He believed that the soldier was in the 191st Army Tank Battalion, which was part of the 20th Armored Division, and was traveling from Dachau to Munich in May of 1945.

Shmulik and his brother relocated to America and began their own families. Under the new name Steve Ross, he became a psychologist who counseled disenfranchised teens in Boston. Mr. Ross spoke to schools and at memorials about his experiences. He would show children his numerical tattoo. In 2017, he released a memoir recounting the childhood stolen by the camps.

In 2012, Mr. Ross was finally able to thank the family of the soldier who so greatly impacted his life. His daughter, Gwen Allanson, saw the segment on Unsolved Mysteries and reached out. The soldier’s name was Steve Sattler, a Purple Heart recipient who had died in 1986. Steve Ross met the soldier’s grandchildren in a heartfelt union.

On February 25, 2020, Steve Ross passed away. Though his birth certificate was destroyed in Germany, it is believed he was 88 years old when he passed. Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh grieves this loss, saying that “Boston lost a giant, and the world quite honestly lost a giant.”

See the original Unsolved Mystery segment on this case streaming in Season 2, Episode 9 with Robert Stack and in Season 3 Episode 6 with Dennis Farina. https://unsolved.com/watch/

The post Steve’s Flag appeared first on Unsolved Mysteries.

On a chilly Saturday morning in November 1956, a local hunter and his son walked past two young lovers rendezvousing in a car deep in the swamps of Louisiana, at Frenier Beach. The hunter returned the next morning to find the man shot in the head and the woman gone.

The man, Thomas Hotard, was a 46-year-old engineer. The woman was Audrey Moate, 31, a divorced mother of three who was never seen again. Audrey was a single mother and Thomas was a married man. They would tell their families they worked on Saturdays, only to instead spend those stolen days together having picnics in the swamp. The two were in love, and their passion was a most cherished secret.

It was Sheriff Percy Hebert who responded to the hunter’s police call. He found Thomas Hotard shot in the head with a 16-gauge shot gun that had been fired through the car’s side window. There were women’s clothes on the floor of the car, personal effects from her purse strewn about the vehicle’s exterior, and car keys still in the ignition. It’s likely they were making love when the crime took place.

50 yards from the vehicle, Hebert found a trail of small, bare footprints followed by the print of a large boot. Five feet from that, he found evidence of a scuffle and a pair of car keys. The keys were discovered to fit the ignition to Audrey’s car that same night. Also in her car was a handwritten verse from “The King and I” that croons of a secret love and of kissing in shadows.

Dekki Moate, the victim’s daughter, recalls a conversation between her mother and grandmother where Audrey said that, should anything ever happen to her, take the kids and run. In the weeks that followed, the small town was aflutter with gossip and theories. Two weeks after the disappearance, Audrey’s former mother-in-law received a phone call: “Mom, I’m in trouble.” A waitress claims she recognized Audrey at a diner. That was the last alleged sighting of Audrey Moate. Over time, the case went cold.

Decades later, in 1980, an elderly Ernest Acosta told his family that it was his wife at the time, Caroline Schlesser, that had murdered the couple, and that he helped hide the body. They had a reputation for being a surly, gun-toting couple who lived in the swamp, not even a mile away from Frenier Beach. Acosta’s daughter, Marville Caronna, alleges that Audrey and Thomas had been to their house twice and thinks that Audrey and Caroline were related in some way.

Ernest claimed that Caroline shot the lovers in her house, and that he and a neighbor later placed Hotard back into his vehicle. They then tied Audrey to an old civil war cannon and dumped her body deep into the swamp. Officer Wayne Norwood believes that Ernest’s story isn’t the full truth, and that Ernest himself was responsible for the actual murders. His daughter also doubts the validity of the story as police evidence suggests that Hotard was killed in the car.

In 1964, a 17-year-old, emaciated, Dekki Moate arrived at John Spain’s desk at the Traveler’s Aid Society of New York. She said her mother had been killed and dumped in a swamp, or ran off. Spain had Dekki call her father, who had divorced Audrey two years before her disappearance. He told her not to come back home and instead wired her the exact bus fare to go live with her grandmother in Oregon. She eventually went to college, had a stint as a Playboy Bunny in New Orleans, then became a columnist for a magazine in New York. Before her death in 2019, Dekki left DNA samples with the police department, should information about her mother’s disappearance ever resurface.

See the original Unsolved Mystery segment on this case streaming in Season 1, Episode 21 with Robert Stack and in Season 4 Episode 17 with Dennis Farina. https://unsolved.com/watch/

The post Kiss of Death appeared first on Unsolved Mysteries.

Jodi Huisentruit moved to Mason City, Iowa, in late 1993, and quickly became an active member of the community. As the anchor of a morning news show, Jodi was a local favorite, a woman with many friends and no known enemies. On June 27, 1995, Jodi Huisentruit vanished without a trace.

On the morning of her disappearance, Jodi was scheduled to work her regular shift on the morning show. When she didn’t arrive on time, the show’s producer, Amy Kuns, called her apartment. She noted that nothing was out of the ordinary with Jodi’s answer and assumed she had just overslept. The thought of a possible abduction never crossed her mind.

When Jodi didn’t show up by airtime, Amy anchored the newscast alone and sent the first available person to check on Jodi. Police arrived at Jodi’s apartment shortly after. Frank Stearns, an investigator for the Mason City Police at the time of Jodi’s disappearance, reported seeing Jodi’s personal items strewn about in a trail leading from her car. There was also an unidentifiable partial palm print on the side of her vehicle.

By that afternoon, the Mason City Police launched a massive search, aided by the FBI and the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation. Rescue teams scoured the countryside. Divers and police dogs covered the Winnebago River and its banks. But there was no trace of Jodi Huisentruit. In fact, the only possible clue was a white Ford Econoline van seen in the parking lot of Jodi’s apartment building about the time she disappeared.

A deep dive into Jodi’s personal life revealed nothing unusual. Private Investigator Patrick McCarthy recalls that there was “no dark side to Jodi; she was as real and all-American as she appeared to those who knew her and to her viewers.”

As a display of the idyllic town’s grief, community members put up yellow ribbons and signs to commemorate Jodi. Now, 25 years later, the ribbons have turned into lit porch lights and candles as the “Leave A Light On For Jodi” campaign grows in the #LightsForJodi hashtag.

More people of interest have been interviewed, DNA has been subpoenaed, and vehicles have been searched, but no indictments have been made. Additionally, Private Investigator Steve Ridge says that someone who found themselves in a “very volatile and extremely dangerous situation” destroyed evidence that could have led to a conviction in the days immediately following Jodi’s disappearance.

A billboard put up for Jodi’s 50th birthday was vandalized with the words “machine shed” and the name of a retired officer formerly on her case. It’s unclear whether this was a tip, a message, or a vandal with their own agenda.

25 years later, the culprit and motives behind beloved anchorwoman Jodi Huisentruit’s disappearance remain a mystery.

See the original Unsolved Mystery segment on this case streaming in Season 8, Episode 1 with Robert Stack and in Season 3 Episode 12 with Dennis Farina.

The post Missing Anchorwoman appeared first on Unsolved Mysteries.

On August 26, 1982 three-year-old Rachel Runyan was abducted from a playground near her home in Sunset, Utah. 24 days later Rachels body was found partially submerged 20 miles from the playground.

The only witnesses to her kidnapping were her older and younger brother, ages 5 and 1, at the time. According to them, a man approached the group of children at the park, offering to buy them ice cream from a local establishment. Rachel began walking away with the man until her older brother called for her to come back. As Rachel turned to walk back, the stranger grabbed her and sprinted away.

Two and a half years after her abduction, police discovered a gruesome message scrawled across the bathroom wall of a local all-night laundry that read:

“Beware I’m still at large I killed the little Runyan girl. Remember beware!”

Update: At the time of the investigation into the abduction, police used Rachel’s 5-year-old brother’s witness account to draw up a sketch of the perpetrator. At the time, the child believed the perpetrator to have been an African American male in his 30’s. Now almost 40 years later, investigators have changed the description of the possible person of interest in the case. He is no longer described as an African American male, but is not Caucasian, and of dark brown complexion.

The update to the possible perpetrators profile has already pointed police in the direction of a local man who has a history of sexually abusing children.

The post Who killed Rachel Runyon? appeared first on Unsolved Mysteries.

Alonzo’s mother followed up with his friends, questioning why they left him at a party with people he didn’t know, considering he was one of the few Black people at the party. Thereafter, Alonzo’s friends and family raced to La Cygne to search for him, but found only his boots and hat in the weeds across the road from the long driveway to the farmhouse. Nobody at the farmhouse or in the small-town claimed to have seen Alonzo. Rumors quickly surfaced that racial slurs and threats were tossed around at the party after Alonzo’s friends left…that Alonzo was flirting with a white girl and was dragged or chased down the driveway and murdered…that he was beaten to death…that he went swimming in the nearby creek and drowned. 

The search for Alonzo did not immediately provide results. Law enforcement searched multiple areas, but Alonzo did not turn up. It wasn’t until a month after law enforcement searches died down that Alonzo’s family decided to put on their own search. They found Alonzo within 30 minutes of starting their search. He was in a creek, which law enforcement said they had thoroughly searched previously. Even though Alonzo had been missing for a month, his family and friends noticed that there was not much decomposition to his body, thus fueling rumors that maybe his body had been previously frozen. The coroner who assessed Alonzo’s body was not able to confirm a cause or manner of death at the time.  

The last update came in July of 2020, when Alonzo’s body was exhumed from his grave. Now, on November 13th 2020, the FBI has released another update. Through new interviews and eyewitness accounts, the FBI has learned that there was a second party happening that night, not far from the party Alonzo had attended. Party goers say an altercation took place at the second party, and many people from that event later attended the farmhouse gathering, where Alonzo Brooks was last seen alive. The FBI is now asking for information from anybody who attended either party, no matter how small or insignificant it may seem. They are offering a $100,000 reward for tips that lead to the arrest, prosecution, and conviction of the individual or individuals responsible for Alonzo’s death. 

If you have any information regarding the death of Alonzo Brooks, please contact the FBI at 816-512-8200 or tips.fbi.gov. Or submit a tip to unsolved.com/tips. If you’d like to familiarize yourself with Alonzo’s case, the episode is now streaming on Netflix at https://www.netflix.com/title/81026055. 

The post New Information Surfaces in the Alonzo Brooks Case appeared first on Unsolved Mysteries.

Tammy Mahoney was a shy, kind girl with a love for animals. Classmates recall Tammy taking a final with a kitten that she had rescued before class sitting in her purse. She was a Long Island native and a student at SUNY Morrisville. Though her mother passed this summer, she is survived by two sisters looking for answers.

Since Tammy’s disappearance, several law enforcement agencies have been on the case. At the time, they said they had identified ten to fifteen suspects, yet no arrests were made. After a series of dead ends, the case went cold.

When the case was revisited, numerous digs searching for remains were conducted, yet there was no evidence of Tammy Mahoney. The special agent on the case, Thomas Relford, does say they have four persons of interest, but declined to give any further information.

Then on October 27^th, 2020, the FBI released previously classified information to the public that could possibly break the case. A week after Tammy was reported missing, someone anonymously turned in a wallet. Law enforcement believes that the owner of this wallet was with Tammy the night she disappeared. They’ve spoken to this person before, but are now searching for whoever who brought the wallet forward. They believe the submitter may know what happened that night, even if they don’t think they do. Whoever turned in the wallet could have circumstantial knowledge that would help the case.

Previously, there was a $10,000 reward for any information leading to the discovery of Tammy’s body. However, in 2019, that reward went up to $20,000 by the FBI. Additionally, the Oneida Nation matched another $20,000 for information regarding Tammy Mahoney. The $40,000 reward currently stands.

If you have any information about what happened that night, or have any tips about the wallet, please contact the investigators at (315) 731-1781.

You can watch the original Unsolved Mysteries web video, done by a friend and classmate of Tammy’s, on the Unsolved Mysteries YouTube Channel.

The post Missing Teen Tammy Mahoney’s Case Reopens after Forty Years appeared first on Unsolved Mysteries.

Shortly before 7:00 PM, a bridge supervisor and a state trooper investigated an empty car that was blocking one of the westbound lanes. The engine was running and the headlights were on.   On the back seat were several articles of clothing, neatly folded.   Up front, there was cash, cut up credit cards, and a driver’s license. 

Robert Moorehead was the bridge supervisor on duty that evening: 

“When I first got up there, I thought it was an abandoned car.   He checked the car and… that’s when we knew…   it’s the Emery’s car.” 

Most anyone in Rhode Island would have recognized the name Emery.   That very day, Adam Emery, the car’s owner, had been convicted of murder.   Though he was free on bail, Emery faced 20 years to life in the state penitentiary.   Now it appeared that Adam and his wife, Elena,   had found a way out of their impending separation–by jumping to their deaths off the Newport Bridge. 

 It all began three years earlier, on August 30, 1990.   Adam Emery, his wife Elena, and another couple stopped for dinner at a local seafood stand.   It was just before 9:00 PM when a car whizzed by and sideswiped Adam’s car.   The car then sped away and disappeared around a corner. Adam and his party decided to chase the vehicle. 

The car they were chasing was driven by 20-year-old Jason Bass. Adam caught up to the car, and cut it off. He then exited his vehicle and began yelling at Jason Bass. In an unfortunate turn of events, Jason was stabbed once through the heart. He died before ambulances could arrive. 

The tragedy of Jason’s death was compounded by the facts that soon emerged.   According to Detective Hopkins, Jason never so much as touched Adam Emery’s car 

 The trial ended on November 10th, Adam Emery’s 31 st birthday.   Adam Emery was found guilty of second-degree murder.   The judge allowed him to remain free on bail pending formal sentencing a month later. But by nightfall, Adam and Elena were dead.   Or so it seemed. 

Their actions leading up to the suicide were questionable. They stopped by a sporting goods store and had dinner at a fast food place before stopping at the bridge. Actions investigators say are not typical of people intending to end their life.  

 Months later the remains of Elena Emery were found by a fisherman deep in the Narragansett Bay. Elena had at last been found.   But to date, there’s been no trace of Adam.   Perhaps, his bones are deep in Narragansett Bay.   Or perhaps, the day will come when Adam Emery turns up alive. 

Officially, the case is still open.   Reliable sources say there’s no reason to believe Adam Emery ever committed suicide. 

Watch this case now on Amazon Prime in season seven with Robert Stack and in season three with Dennis Farina. Also available on YouTube with Dennis Farina. Various seasons available now on Hulu.

The post Have you seen Adam Emery? appeared first on Unsolved Mysteries.

His last couple of interactions included speaking with a friend outside of her apartment as well as leaving a campsite in haste along with all of his belongings.

Many promising leads were followed during the investigation but all lead to twists, turns, and ultimately dead ends.

The most promising tip came in the form of an anonymous note sent to Charles’s mother. It read:

“I seen your ad in the paper looking for your son. I seen him May 26. We were partying and two people knocked him out. But he died. His body is in the lake by the bridge.”

When volunteering divers searched the lake and came up with nothing a second note appeared. The note said that they were looking on the wrong side of the bridge. Sure enough, when divers searched the other side of the bridge they found a body. Unfortunately, the body found was identified as being that of a 64-year-old Kelowna Resident, a probable suicide.

Almost 30 years have gone by and no trace of Charles Horvath has been found.

Update: Leeds Beckett University will begin its own investigation into the missing person case of Charles Horvath. LBU has recently opened a cold case unit as part of its school of social sciences. LBU’s cold case unit will be working alongside Locate International in its deep dive of the case. They are hoping that the young minds at LBU alongside the expertise at Locate International can make headway in the case. Charles’ mother, Denise Allan, is extremely grateful for the support she is receiving from the local university.

The post Missing for nearly 30 years: Charles Horvath appeared first on Unsolved Mysteries.

Vinita, Oklahoma, is a small rural town in Craig County. On December 29, 1999, local teenager Ashley Freeman turned 16. It was a night of celebration for her parents and for her best friend Lauria Bible. Lauria’s father, Jay, recalled the last time he saw his daughter:

“Lauria, she said to me, ‘Daddy, is it all right if I spend the night with Ashley in the Freemans’ home?’ I said, “Well, just make sure you’re home by noon tomorrow.’ And, noon tomorrow didn’t happen the way it should’ve.”

That night, the Freeman family’s home was set ablaze. Leaving only the remains of Ashley’s parents, Kathy and Danny Freeman. The police began looking into homicide after it was discovered the parent’s cause of death was not the fire but was actually a shotgun blast to the head.

The bodies of Ashley Freeman and Lauria Bible are yet to be found.

Many years later, progress was finally made in the case with the charging of Ronnie Busick. He was charged with four counts of first-degree murder, two counts of kidnapping, and one count of arson. He has since signed a plea deal with prosecutors to serve a prison sentence of 10 years with 5 years of probation. Although the Bible family wishes Ronnie would have gotten a stronger sentence they are happy to finally see Busick behind bars.

See the original Unsolved Mysteries segment on this case streaming in S11:E1 with Robert Stack and S2:E8 with Dennis Farina.   https://unsolved.com/streaming-2

The post Ronnie Busick Sentenced, Girls Still Missing appeared first on Unsolved Mysteries.

Hours before Russell was killed, he was hanging with his friend Aaron and a few others at a local park. While at the park Aaron got into an argument with two teenagers regarding Aaron’s girlfriend. Being a good friend, Russell decided to step in to defend Aaron.  

After the confrontation, Russell decided to spend the evening at a friend’s house. Then, at about 12:30 AM, he called his father to say that he was heading home. Based on evidence found at the scene, police constructed a hit-and-run scenario.  

Spokane Police Lt. James Hill: 

“On impact with the vehicle, he was separated from his shoes. He finally came to rest about seventy-five feet from where we think he was struck.” 

 Forensic pathologist George Lindholm concluded that Russell was likely struck in the back by a bumper. However, his father, John Evans, had a different opinion: 

“We looked at him after he died and I thought he had been in a fight. Later on, when the police started talking about hit-and-run, his mom and I just couldn’t buy that. The injuries weren’t there.”  

Evidence from the scene fully convinced Russell’s parents that he had been attacked and murdered, while police still believe Russell was the victim of a hit-and-run.  However, officially, the case remains unsolved. 

Update: Diana Gulick, Russell’s younger sister, and only sibling was only five years old when he died. Even though Diana was young, she hasn’t lost hope that someone within the Spokane community knows what happened to her brother.  

She has hopes that because it’s been 30 years that whoever was maybe afraid to come forward in 1989, will now speak up to do what’s right and reveal what happened to Russell. She has reached out to every member of the Spokane council as well as the city’s mayor, in hopes of getting this cold case revived.  

See the original Unsolved Mystery segment of this case streaming in Season 3, Episode 15 with Robert Stack and Season 6 with Dennis Farina. https://unsolved.com/watch/  

The post Update: A Sister’s 30-Year Search for How Her Brother Died Continues appeared first on Unsolved Mysteries.

During DeAngelo’s sentencing he did not attempt to physically face his victims or their families, often not looking in their direction. However, he did apologize to them. DeAngelo stated, “I’ve listened to all your statements, each one of them, and I am truly sorry to everyone I hurt.” During sentencing, many of the victims or their family members recounted in detail what happened to them at the hands of DeAngelo. Another unique aspect of this case is that DeAngelo is the first person to be publically arrested due to genetic genealogy. With the use of his DNA that remained at crime scenes, investigators were able to use public genealogy databases to track down DeAngelo’s ancestry, which led to his arrest in 2018.

See the original Unsolved Mysteries segment on this case streaming in Season 12, Episode 8 with Robert Stack.

For a list of where you can stream this episode, please go to https://unsolved.com/watch/

The post Golden State Killer Sentenced to Life in Prison appeared first on Unsolved Mysteries.

Alonzo’s mother followed up with his friends, questioning why they left him at a party with people he didn’t know, considering he was one of the few Black people at the party. Thereafter, Alonzo’s friends and family raced to LaCygne to search for him, but found only his boots and hat in the weeds across the road from the long driveway to the farmhouse. Nobody at the farmhouse or in the small-town claimed to have seen Alonzo. Rumors quickly surfaced that racial slurs and threats were tossed around at the party after Alonzo’s friends left…that Alonzo was flirting with a white girl and was dragged or chased down the driveway and murdered…that he was beaten to death…that he went swimming in the nearby creek and drowned. 

The search for Alonzo did not immediately provide results. Law enforcement searched multiple areas, but Alonzo did not turn up. It wasn’t until a month after law enforcement searches died down that Alonzo’s family was able to put on their own search. They found Alonzo within 30 minutes of starting their search. He was in a creek, which law enforcement said they had thoroughly searched previously. Even though Alonzo had been missing for a month, his family and friends noticed that there was not much decomposition to his body, thus fueling rumors that maybe his body had been previously frozen. The coroner who assessed Alonzo’s body was not able to confirm a cause or manner of death at the time.  

Update: As of July 2020, Alonzo’s body has been exhumed from his grave. The FBI is also offering a $100,000 reward for information about his disappearance.  If you have any information about Alonzo Brooks, please let us know here. 

See the episode of “No Ride Home” streaming now on Netflix.

The post Update: Alonzo Brooks Exhumed appeared first on Unsolved Mysteries.

Police and volunteers searched the campus for Kristin, but they didn’t find a clue. Then cadaver search dogs were taken through the dorms. According to Det. Sgt. Peter R. Bayer of the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s office, the dogs earned their pay: “Those dogs hit on this room, room 128, at the Cal Poly campus, and specifically came into this room and hit on this mattress and the corner of this mattress. This room was occupied by, coincidentally, the male subject that was last seen with Kristin Smart on the day she became a missing person.”

That male subject was Paul Flores. Det. Bayer said that authorities became suspicious of Flores’ statement that he and Kristin had gone home separately: “He says he continued into his dorm, which is up the hill, and she left and went up between the two dorms to her own dorm. However, we believe that, based on what we’ve learned from the search dogs, she actually continued into his dorm with him.”

In 2002 Kristin was legally declared dead even though her body was never discovered. As of April 2020, authorities served Paul Flores with a search warrant for his Los Angeles County home. Paul had been served with a search warrant previously in February 2020 for “specific items of evidence”. Paul has not been named as a suspect in the case, but he was always a person of interest. The results of the search warrants have not been released and Kristin’s disappearance is still a mystery

See the original Unsolved Mysteries segment on this case streaming Season 9, Episode 1 with Robert Stack and Season 4, Episode 15 with Dennis Farina.

For a list of where you can stream this episode, please go to https://unsolved.com/watch/

The post A College Student Disappeared. 24 Years Later No One Knows Why appeared first on Unsolved Mysteries.

Three years after Jill’s disappearance her remains were found in a wooded area in Morgan County, Indiana. Forensics revealed the cause of death to be a shotgun wound to the back of her head.

In 2006 authorities arrested John Myers for Jill’s murder. Numerous pieces of evidence were stacked against him, such as Jill’s bike being found just one mile from his home, and witnesses found it odd that his car was no longer parked in a visible location and his trailer windows were covered. The day Jill went missing, John was out of sorts and mentioned leaving town and not returning. Lastly, his brother noticed that their parent’s twelve-gauge shotgun was missing. It was the same type of gun that was used to kill Jill.

In October of 2006, Myers was convicted of murder and sentenced to sixty-five-years in prison. However, Myers appealed his verdict, citing that he did not have a proper defense and that there were errors made by his legal team when the case went to trial. In 2019 the federal court agreed with him and ordered his release within the following 120 days.

In 2020, Attorney General Curtis Hill rebuffed Myers’ court order. Instead of keeping Myers in prison, the judge ordered Myers’ to be released until the court made a decision on the appeal.  

Update: The court ruling to have John Myers be released from prison was overturned on August 4, 2020, thus Myers will remain in prison. The court did not deny that Myers’ attorneys made errors during his trial, however, they believe that the jury would have still convicted Myers. Specifically, the court believes the statements that Myers made to many people were self-incriminating enough for him to be convicted. Jill’s family is so relieved to know that Myers will not be released. Myers is serving a 65-year sentence at Indian State Prison in Michigan City.  

See the original Unsolved Mystery segment on this case streaming in Season 11, Episode 7 with Robert Stack and Season 3, Episode 16 with Dennis Farina.

For a list of where you can stream this episode, please go to https://unsolved.com/watch/

The post A Bike Ride Ends in a Woman’s Disappearance appeared first on Unsolved Mysteries.

Eventually, an unknown White man entered the church and requested to speak to Harold. The unknown man and Harold got into a tussle, in which Thelma came rushing to her husband’s aid. Unfortunately, both she and Harold ended up shot dead on the floor. The unknown killer immediately fled the scene.

It took 18 years for there to be a conviction. In 2003, Dennis Perry, 58, was convicted of their murders. Testimony from Perry’s ex-girlfriend’s mother, Jane Beaver, claimed that Perry told her that he planned to kill Harold due to him laughing in Perry’s face when Perry asked for money. Beaver would continue to play an important role in Perry’s conviction. However, there was a lot of speculation around whether Perry actually committed the crime, since there was no physical evidence linking him to the scene. For this reason, the case was reopened.

Initially, investigators were looking at Erik Sparre as a possible suspect. Sparre’s ex-wife revealed to authorities that there was a tape of him saying he killed the “two n——in that church.” However, in 1986 suspicion around Sparre was dropped when someone identifying himself as Sparre’s boss called the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and said that Sparre was working the night of the murders, so he couldn’t have killed them.

Investigators did find a pair of glasses at the murder scene that had hair attached to them. They tested the hair against Perry and there was no match. However, they were tested against Sparre’s mother’s DNA and there was a match. There was also a statement from Sparre’s ex-wife about how he was a person who “hated Blacks.” His second ex-wife admitted to Sparre telling her that he did indeed kill the Swains. Sparre has denied all allegations and claims he is not a racist. 

Update: On July 23, 2020, Dennis Perry was released from prison after being arrested for the Swain’s murder twenty years ago. New DNA evidence has come out pointing to Erik Sparre as a suspect who was at the crime scene. For this reason, the judge overturned Perry’s conviction.  

Erik Sparre has not been charged as the investigation is still ongoing. Once the results of the investigation are in, the District Attorney’s Office can decide how they will like to move forward with the case.  

See the original Unsolved Mystery segment on this case streaming in Season 1, Episode 6 with Robert Stack and Season 8, Episode 4 with Dennis Farina.

For a list of where you can stream this episode, please go to https://unsolved.com/watch/

The post Update: A Couple Murdered, But Is the Convicted Man Innocent? appeared first on Unsolved Mysteries.

It was just an overnight trip; Jay and Tanya were expected home the next day. When their families didn’t hear from them the following evening, they began to worry. Sometime during their journey, Jay and Tanya’s peaceful vacation turned into a violent nightmare.

It was not long before Jay and Tanya’s bodies were found. Investigators believe it was most likely that Jay and Tanya met their killer on the 10:20 p.m. ferry from Bremerton to Seattle, and that it may not have been the killer’s first murder.

Jay and Tanya’s case remained cold until May 2018, when authorities took 55-year-old William Talbott II into custody and charged him in connection with the murders of Jay and Tanya. The break in the case came when forensic experts created a profile on a genealogy website based on the DNA gathered from the case. It came back with a match to a relative of Talbott’s.

In June 2019, Talbott’s trial began and he was found guilty of Jay and Tanya’s murders. Talbott was sentenced to life in prison.

See the original Unsolved Mysteries segment on this case streaming in S2:E5 with Robert Stack and S5:E22 with Dennis Farina. Also on Lifetime and Escape in SP110.
https://unsolved.com/watch/

The post UPDATE: Jay Cook and Tanya Van Cuylenborg appeared first on Unsolved Mysteries.

The case is believe to have first began in June of 1976 when a woman was assaulted in her home in Rancho Cordova, a suburb of Sacramento. The rapist continued to terrorize the area for the remainder of the 70s, escalating from attacking homes with women and children present to homes with both men and women.

By the late 1970s, the man known as the East Area Rapist had moved 50 miles west to Contra Costa County. Five more assaults were reported there. Then, the attacks abruptly stopped.

The trail eventually grew cold. But over the years, criminalist Paul Holes of the Contra Costra Sheriff’s Department, continued to work the case. He ran DNA profiles on semen recovered from the five rapes in his county. He then attempted to track down the rapist. Holes began contacting agencies across the state. 400 miles south, in Orange County, forensic scientist Mary Hong had used DNA to link six rape-murders in her county to a single killer. The East Area Rapist had become a Southern California killer, leaving a trail of deaths in his wake. With the biological link to the Northern California rapes confirmed, investigators now had 50 additional cases to comb through in search of new clues to the serial killer’s identity. But even with the combined evidence and DNA samples, they still could not identify the suspect.

Then in 2018, investigator Paul Holes got the idea to use the killer’s DNA to create a profile on a genealogy site to try to find his identity. In order to find a DNA sample for the testing, Holes turned to Dr. Peter Speth, a forensic pathologist who made it habit to make duplicate rape tests. His diligence resulted in a pristine DNA sample that was able to be used to create the killer’s profile. Holes created an undercover account on the genealogy site GEDMatch, and received back a list of distant relatives. From there investigators combed through the family tree to find the most likely suspect.

The investigators zeroed in on DeAngelo, who fit what they knew about the killer from witness statements. Discarded DNA samples from DeAngelo were then tested against the DNA provided by Dr. Speth, and they were a match.

See the original Unsolved Mysteries segment on this case streaming in S12:E8 with Robert Stack and S7:E22 with Dennis Farina. Also on Lifetime and Escape in SP154.   https://unsolved.com/watch/

The post UPDATE: An arrest in the case of the East Area Rapist / Golden State Killer appeared first on Unsolved Mysteries.

Busick was arrested on April 22nd, 2018, but both Welch and Pennington are dead. Busick is facing four counts of murder.

It all started on December 29, 1999, when Ashley Freeman turned 16. Her best friend, Lauria Bible, was sleeping over. Sometime during the night, the Freemans’ home became an inferno. By the time Lauria’s parents arrived the fire was out, but the home had been reduced to ashes. Lauria’s car was still there, but there was no sign of their daughter. Investigators found the bodies of Ashley’s parents, Danny & Kathy Freeman, but there was no sign of the two girls.

Over the years investigators searched many nearby locations, but there was no sign of the missing girls. Two different convicted killers — Tommy Lee Sells and Jeremy Jones — both confessed but later recanted. In February of 2017, the Craig County Sheriff’s Office discovered a box of documents pertaining to the investigation, which helped current detectives chase down previous witnesses and investigators who pointed detectives to an insurance card found at the scene of the fire.

The insurance card belonged to Welch’s girlfriend. She told investigators about the Polaroids she saw of the girls bound and gagged and lying on a bed; she was certain the girls were Lauria and Ashley, and the bed was the one in her and Welch’s bedroom. Other witnesses told investigators that they too had seen the pictures.

Investigators are still looking for the girls’ final resting place. If you have any information, please use our tip form.

See the original Unsolved Mysteries segment on this case streaming in S11:E1 with Robert Stack and S2:E8 with Dennis Farina. Also on Lifetime and Escape in SP021.   https://unsolved.com/watch/

The post A major break in the case of Lauria Bible & Ashley Freeman appeared first on Unsolved Mysteries.

It started back in 1994, when Elizabeth met Jonathan Kern, a well-known Formula One race driver, in a hotel in Miami, Florida. Elizabeth knew something about car racing and was at first skeptical. She recalled how Kern eventually won her over:

“And I asked a few more questions, and I said, ‘Well, what did you do before you raced cars?’ He said, ‘I was a medical doctor.’ And I said, ‘That’s right.’ I knew some background. I said, ‘Who did you race for?’ And he told me Tiero, which I knew was a British team. And I thought, ‘Wow, it really is you.’”

But in reality, the man claiming to be Jonathan Palmer was actually Jonathan Kern, a con man. Eventually, Kern charmed his way into Elizabeth’s Connecticut home. She still believed he was Jonathan Palmer, still believed he had put his career on hold to spend time with her. But Kern was apparently only interested in her money.

During his stay with Elizabeth, Kern made what he said were frequent business trips to Manhattan. He made the drive in a $125,000 Mercedes lent to him by a local dealer. He also carried Elizabeth’s ATM card, just in case of an emergency. During one trip, he called to say his wallet had been stolen. Once again, Elizabeth put her own money at Kern’s disposal.

Eventually, Kern started spending more time in Manhattan than with Elizabeth, causing her to have a complete change of heart. When he left one day, Elizabeth began calling numbers from her phone bill, matching them with names Kern had mentioned. The answers came back the same: the caller was named Jonathan Lake, not Palmer. Elizabeth was crushed.

Police said that Kern swindled some $15,000 from Elizabeth, forcing her into bankruptcy. There is still an active warrant for Kern, and should he return to the U.S. and be caught, he would be arrested. Today, Elizabeth continues to pursue the case with a Facebook page where she hopes others who may have had similar experiences can find comfort and share information.

When Kern was reached by email, he stated, “I think Ms Grzeszczyk really needs to get a life. Her accusations are exaggerated and fictitious and my family, colleagues and I are fed up to the back teeth of this attention seeker ….”

Read more of Kern’s comments and more about Elizabeth here: https://www.nhregister.com/metro/article/Milford-woman-bilked-by-con-man-23-years-ago-12499529.php

You can watch the Unsolved Mysteries segment now streaming on Amazon Prime in season nine with Robert Stack and in season one with Dennis Farina. Also available on YouTube with Dennis Farina. Various seasons available now on Hulu.

The post The Case of Jonathan Kern: 23 years later appeared first on Unsolved Mysteries.

It wasn’t until February of 2018 that a man was finally convicted of Joyce’s murder. Philip Scott Fournier had been a longtime suspect, but wasn’t arrested until 2016. On the night of Joyce’s murder, Fournier, then 19, was drunk and stole an oil truck and crashed it. As a result he suffered a serious brain injury that damaged his memory.

There was no forensic evidence that initially connected Fournier to the crime; his conviction was based solely on circumstantial evidence and witness testimony. According to four different people, Fournier had confessed to the crime. Justice Murray’s decision was influenced particularly with the testimony of high school janitor John DeRoche. (Read more: https://bangordailynews.com/2018/02/24/news/penobscot/how-a-janitors-chance-encounter-helped-convict-a-murderer-in-the-joyce-mclain-case/)

In one of his other confessions, Fournier told a minister that he did not rape Joyce because “it was the wrong time of the month.” In fact, the autopsy revealed that Joyce was indeed having her period when she died.

Fournier faces up to 25 years in prison. Sentencing will likely not be until April or May 2018. Read more: https://bangordailynews.com/2018/02/22/news/bangor/maine-man-found-guilty-in-1980-slaying-of-joyce-mclain/

See the original Unsolved Mysteries segment on this case streaming in S1:E18 with Robert Stack and S8:E14 with Dennis Farina. Also on Lifetime and Escape in SP168. http://bit.ly/2oK7bzr

The post 37 years later: Justice for Joyce McLain appeared first on Unsolved Mysteries.

According to witnesses, the gunman was in his late 40’s to 50’s with a receding hairline, a thin nose, and wore aviator style glasses. He was six feet tall with a thin build and a medium complexion. He drove a green Jeep Cherokee from 1995 to 1997 with New Hampshire plates.

Richard Aderson died less than an hour after calling 911. Since his death, police have pursued over 3,000 leads in the case, which is still unsolved.

If you have any information, please submit a tip or contact the New York State Police Bureau of Criminal Investigation in Wappinger by calling 845-677-7300, and refer to SJS # 3021797.

Read more about this case: http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/story/news/2017/12/30/cold-case-murders-disappearances-dutchess-remain-unsolved/989612001/

Watch this case now on Unsolved Mysteries in S10:E4 with Robert Stack on Amazon Prime, S2:E4 with Dennis Farina on Amazon Prime, and on YouTube with Dennis Farina.

The post Cold Case: Richard Aderson appeared first on Unsolved Mysteries.

Inside was a human skeleton with a bullet lodged in the skull. In March of 1992 the skeleton was turned over to the Wyoming State Crime Lab in Cheyenne, where a facial reconstruction was made. Tips came in, but the skeleton’s identity remained a mystery until 2017.

Thanks to advancements in DNA, the Hot Springs County Sheriff’s Office has finally made a positive identification. According to the Sheriff’s Office:

“On 10-19-17 a DNA sample was obtained from an adult female from Iowa who had relayed that her father had been shot in the head by her uncle some time in 1960 and then was placed in a trunk prior to being burried in Iowa. It was then stated that the uncle then dug the trunk back up and transported it to Wyoming where the uncle was working. The uncle then left the trunk behind. The uncle then moved to Mississippi where he later committed suicide. The Wyoming State Crime Lab was able to determine that the female who had submitted the DNA sample was indeed a 99.99% match to the bones that had been collected. The bones have now been identified as being Joseph Mulvaney who was born in 1923. Joseph will now be able to get a proper burial and the Mulvaney family can rest easy knowing that their family member has been found.”

Watch this case now on Amazon Prime in season five with Robert Stack and in season five with Dennis Farina. Also available on YouTube with Dennis Farina. Various seasons available now on Hulu.

The post SOLVED: Skeleton in a box appeared first on Unsolved Mysteries.

In the days leading up to his death, Blair had been acting strangely. He was having mood swings, and had withdrawn his savings and emptied his safe deposit box. He showed up at work, asked his boss for his check, and then quit. Then he bought a plane ticket to Germany, but later shoed up at a friend’s house in a panic, terrified that someone was trying to kill him.

Read the latest about this unusual case: http://www.knoxnews.com/story/news/crime/2017/09/11/unsolved-canadian-blair-adams-raced-knox-county-slain-half-nude-his-gold-untouched/610262001/

Watch this case now on Amazon Prime in season nine with Robert Stack and in season three with Dennis Farina. Also available on YouTube with Dennis Farina. Various seasons available now on Hulu.

The post The Unexplained Death of Blair Adams appeared first on Unsolved Mysteries.

In 2016 the Hampden County District Attorney’s office released a computer generated composite of the suspect based on DNA recovered at the scene. With that new profile, detectives honed in on a few people who had been of interest during the investigation, but who did not have DNA samples on file. Schara was one of those people.

While trying to locate Schara, a tipster contacted authorities and presented them with documents supposedly written by Schara that detailed the abduction, rape and murder of Lisa Ziegert. Investigators then obtained samples of Schara’s DNA, which matched the profile taken from Ziegert’s body.

Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/we-got-you-arrest-in-1992-cold-case-slaying-of-mass-teachers-aide-lisa-ziegert/

Watch this case now on Amazon Prime in season six with Robert Stack and in season eight with Dennis Farina. Also available on YouTube with Dennis Farina. Various seasons available now on Hulu.

The post UPDATE: Lisa Ziegert appeared first on Unsolved Mysteries.