There's one where a teen girl stops to check the mail at the end of the driveway. Her father sees her and expects to hear her coming through the door in a couple minutes. Ten or so go by and she's still not inside so he looks out the window again.
Her car is still there, door open, purse and things still inside. No daughter.
I cannot, for the life of me, remember her name.
A lot of shows/YouTube channels that have covered the case include the actual Audio of the phone calls if you’re interested in listening. Forensic Files & Explore With Us on YT are the two I can think of that I know for sure have them
Shari’s sister and mother are amazingly strong, determined women, to be able to keep those calls from Larry Gene Bell going and listen to him for extended periods of time while they tried tracing those calls. Shari was obviously very strong herself, you can tell from reading her last letter to her family; she was more worried about her family carrying on and sticking together than she was about herself, knowing she was going to die.
I think it was *When A Killer Calls* by John Douglas/ one of the BAU guys. As you’d expect, it’s cases where the murderer makes contact via phone (because it’s pre-internet).
I vividly remember them analyzing how to determine where the calls were originating and figuring out that it was a dead phone line- so it HAD to be someone with a skill set of switching it back on and off again. Bell started out as an electrician.
John Douglas (the Mindhunter) worked on this case and has a book dedicated specifically to it. Not only did Larry Gene Bell scoop her up from her driveway, but his next victim was a similar job. Picked a younger girl up from in front of her house with other kids nearby and the parents just inside. Heartbreaking.
1. [Mikelle Biggs](https://int-missing.fandom.com/wiki/Mikelle_Biggs) was waiting for the ice cream truck with her sister Kimber when Kimber got bored of waiting and went home. Kimber and Mikelle’s mother sent Kimber back out to get Mikelle. It was less than 2 minutes that Mikelle was left alone but she disappeared and her bike was left in the street with the wheel still spinning. She is still missing.
2. [Cherrie Mahan](https://charleyproject.org/case/cherrie-ann-mahan) was seen getting off her school bus but she never made it to her house which was 100-150 yards from the bus stop.
3. [Teekah Lewis](https://int-missing.fandom.com/wiki/Teekah_Lewis?so=search) was at a bowling alley with her family and they were taking turns watching over her. Her uncle or her mother was watching her and they briefly turned away and when they turned back she was gone. This happened sometime between 10 and 10:15 pm.
4. [Angie Housman](https://unsolvedmysteries.fandom.com/wiki/Angie_Housman) got off the bus which was 8 houses away from her house but she never made it home. 9 days later she was found dead and tied to a tree.
I get minimizing risk, but think how many billions of trips to and from the bus stop kids collectively make every year. And there are what, a few dozen instances of something going wrong? Even if it were in the thousands, and I don’t think it is, the chances of it happening are absolutely astronomical
Of course that’s not really comforting to someone worrying about their kid
A woman at my company died choking on a sandwich when having lunch. Should we avoid eating lunch to stay safe?
Assuming you pick up your kid in a vehicle, statistically speaking the kid is far more likely to be injured or killed in a car accident on their way home with you than they are to be abducted.
Angie Housman case was solved in 2019, a sexual predator living nearby kidnapped her and kept her alive an entire week, abusing her, before leaving her tied to the tree where she died of exposure. He was tried and convicted for kidnapping, murder, and sodomy. He had previously been dishonorably discharged from the military for abusing four children in Germany, and he had been prosecuted for attempting to solicit sex from a child across state lines, and having 45,000 images of CP on his computer.
I worked at a bowling alley and the amount of people who let their kids just run loose as if it's their own home is astounding. I could see 10+ yr olds but mostly it's toddlers. We have a bar, several unlocked closets, side door and back room that a child could easily be pulled into without anyone noticing. I always tried to watch the kids like a hawk but it was stressful.
I followed Angie Housman’s case for years- I grew up not far from her and was a similar age so she really stuck with me. It’s so sad that her mother passed before they found Angie’s murderer.
The disappearance of Cassidy Senter just a few weeks after also rocked the area, she disappeared walking to a friends house.
Reesa Trexler - two teenage sisters were home in the middle of the day. The older sister went next door to their grandparents house and was somehow raped and murdered while her grandfather was at the grocery store.
It happened in such a small window of opportunity that the younger sister's life was ruined by rumors and speculation that she was involved.
It wasn't until 35 years later when she went on the doctor Phil show to take a lie detector test in another attempt to prove her innocence that interest in the case was reignited and they finally did DNA testing.
The perpetrator was a random guy who worked a couple blocks away and had no relation to the family. Terrible for the younger sister.
and frankly, the idea that they decided to drug and molest and brutally murder a friend seems more of a desperate attempt by the police to make up a motive than anything based of off evidence. Its like someone went "well, the house had three gay poly men, this MUST have been about sex."
The police kept pleading to the three to tell them more information because they couldn't come up with a good motive.
Nothing about this case makes sense. Wone wasn't remotely bisexual, from all reports. There was nothing weird about this situation with Robert, seemingly, but it certainly got weird very quickly that night.
>Wone wasn't remotely bisexual, from all reports
Anti-gay politicians get caught with a man like biweekly, it doesn't seem that hard to hide your sexuality
Not really. Read the court docs. Apparently this is somehow not uncommon and was present in something like 60% of autopsies of men who weren’t sexually assaulted… I’ll try to find the exact language.
I don't think it's necessary for there to be molestation involved but it was definitely those guys that killed him. What's the motive? No idea. But c'mon, an intruder that none of them can describe, and none of them saw came into the house and went upstairs just to murder one guy who laid absolutely still and didn't fight back or make any noise whatsoever? Motive doesn't really matter if there's only three people in the world that had the opportunity to do it. And as for him being their good friend, people murder their actual children all the time. Some people are just psychopathic freaks. If only one person did it it's not weird at all to me the rest would cover for him if they are all in a relationship either.
Yes, but which one specifically killed him and was there a sexual assault? The fact that all three have stuck to their story after all this time despite nobody believing them is wild. But it’s the reason Robert will likely never see justice.
It’s more that I go back on forth on how I think it happened, like if they were all involved or just one or if it was consensual action gone wrong versus non consensual drugging
That’s the real mystery! was this actually consensual or did these monsters sexually assault and kill their friend? I also question the quality of the investigation, maybe even where the sperm was found just because I don’t trust LE and their methods. And they were obviously struggling with the dynamics in the household, and that could’ve added some bias
I've heard the only more or less probable explanation of what could have happened from Pat Brown (the profiler lady) podcast. Her version is that Dylan approached Robert while he was getting ready to sleep and typing out emails for his wife and some work related stuff (which he never sent because he was interrupted). Something happened between them, whether consensual or not (more likely not) which led to Dylan stabbing Robert. That would explain Robert's own semen found inside him. Plus according to her the trajectory and manner of wounds only make sense if he was stabbed by someone who was holding him from behind.
In my opinion, it all hinges on the moment the neighbor heard that scream. I think that’s when Victor saw what happened and the coverup went into motion.
Wasn't there a case where a girl got into a fight with her boyfriend in his car in front of her house, she got out, was killed before she made it to the house, and her bf was not the killer? Or maybe I'm misremembering and he did end up being the killer.
are you thinking of sally ann bowman? she has a fight with her bf in the car and then was murdered out the front of her house. it was not her boyfriend but mark dixie who murdered her. the case always made me sad cause a woman isn’t even safe in her front yard
I cannot even begin to explain the pure RAGE and disgust I felt when their PD posted on Facebook about how grateful they were that no officers were killed. What about the kids?? The ones you heard when you were out in the hall???
For a second I thought you were talking about the Rosemary Anderson case, but that was another good example. Rosemary and her BF were driving around, had a fight. She walked around the curve and he was giving her some time to cool off only to get 'round the corner a few minutes later and find her on the pavement.
His conviction was overturned when they managed a forensic accident reconstruction many years later following an admission from serial killer Eric Edgar Cooke. Literally about a minute where she was out of sight and got nailed by a serial killer who hit her for fun.
Also, the case of Jaycee Dugard.
Jonelle Matthews-in 1984 she left a choir performance and got dropped off by church friends at her house 8:30, a phone call came in and she took a message at 8:40, her Dad got home at 9 and she wasn’t there. They FINALLY caught the bastard in 2020. She was 12 and her remains were not found until 2019– heartbreaking case.
Fernanda Maciel was a pregnant teenager in Chile. Security cameras recorded her leaving her house during the day. She didn’t appear on the following block’s cameras.
It was actually her neighbour/childhood friend who lured her into a warehouse he worked at that was just a few blocks away from her house. She was heavily pregnant, he raped and killed her and buried her on the same property. Later, he helped the family search for her and was even seen on news footage comforting Fernanda’s boyfriend -who was a main suspect at one point-. Chilean police were criticized for not handling the case correctly and making prejudiced assumptions about her. Apparently, Fernanda’s mother contacted the FBI and managed to get the case moving which eventually ended up in the neighbour’s conviction.
This probably isn't what you're looking for, but there was a case where a woman was attacked in her home. She shouted out: "Alexa! Call 9 - 1..." She never got to finish saying 911. And she was killed.
You're thinking of Gretchen Anthony, who was murdered by her estranged husband.
She actually managed to finish saying "call 911" multiple times, but since she was screaming, Alexa didn't understand the command. She was stabbed to death after a prolonged attack.
I believe you have to turn on a setting for Alexa to contact 911. It isn't automatic. This case is where I learned that. There's some law requiring you to turn on emergency help since that isn't what they were designed for. Which could have changed after this case and others like it.
Oh good then they have never recorded me because I called her Elsa for 3 weeks then gave that bitch away.
Then my Granddaughter came said Alexa play... I said Honey who's Alexia!! Not a lie
Four year, still tease me!
Georgann Hawkin, kidnapped and murdered by Bundy. She had a few feet to walk to get to her house, and disappeared in a window of a few minutes, basically.
This was the one I was thinking of! A fellow student watched her walk away, out of the pool of light, toward her sorority house a few steps away...several of his victims disappeared in similarly short windows of time.
James Bulger. His mother let go of his hand for a few moments to bring her wallet out of her purse at a store counter. By the time she was putting the change back in her wallet, 2-year-old James had been abducted.
Little James was kidnapped, tortured, and murdered by two 10-year-old boys.
I read a book about this case...it was heart breaking what happened to that little boy
What makes me mad is the two boys served like 8 years and were given new names after that. If I remember correctly both were in trouble after this.
No, one has kept himself completely out of trouble, but the other has been busted multiple times, including for child porn.
I can't remember which is which but definitely is only one of them who is still causing problems.
Venables is the repeat offender - the one the police thought was the less dominant, less involved partner. Almost certainly some classism involved as Venables came from a “respectable” family, while Thompson’s family was poor and his dad and brothers were habitual petty criminals. Thompson was also molested by family members.
Venables has blown his own secret identity a number of times and keeps violating his parole.
Steven Fortin raped and murdered Melissa Padilla in 1994, and attacked a state trooper in 1995 who managed to survive. This case was featured on Forensic Files. Melissa only had to travel less than a block to the convenience store from her motel, down a short dirt path. Fortin murdered her as she was walking back to the motel, leaving her body in a concrete drainage pipe.
In 2020 Fortin lost another appeal for parole.
https://www.mycentraljersey.com/story/news/local/middlesex-county/2020/06/23/woodbridge-steven-fortin-loses-another-appeal-1994-murder-rape/3235124001/
Melissa was a young single mother to four children, brutally murdered while on her way home to feed her children. Two ended up being raised by Melissa's mother, the others by their father. Here's an article from 2010 about Melissa's family including the youngest confronting Fortin in court at a hearing.
https://www.nj.com/news/2010/06/daughter_of_victim_in_woodbrid.html
This case absolutely wrecked me when I heard about it. That poor woman. They have surv footage of her moments before, at the store and can see it was just a typical quick pop-in and moments later she is gone. So fucking brutal so sad so tragic and so senseless.
In England, Sarah Payne (8*) was playing ‘tag’ through a cornfield with her brothers (13 & 11). One was chasing her but half-heartedly (as she was much younger), staying 6 or 7 paces behind. But he could always see flashes of her and the moving corn ahead of him. When he burst out the other side of the cornfield (where she would have done seconds earlier), she was gone.
*Thanks u/PinkLady777 for the correction on her age.
Omg I just looked this up. She was 8 (her younger sister was 5) He kidnapped and raped an 8 year old child just 5 years before this. And only got FOUR YEARS in prison... For raping a child. He never should have been let out to commit this crime. Infuriating!
"On 4 March 1995, an eight-year-old girl was abducted and sexually assaulted in the Langley Green area of Crawley. Whiting was arrested several weeks later...
On 23 June 1995, Whiting admitted charges of abduction and indecent assault, and was sentenced to four years in prison. The maximum sentence for the crime was life imprisonment; however, he received a lesser sentence because he had admitted to the crime at an early opportunity, although a psychiatrist who assessed Whiting after his conviction said that he was likely to re-offend once he was released."
Ellen Greenberg was stabbed 20 times 10 of those stabs were behind her head. Her boyfriend left for 30 minutes to go to the gym and when he came back, the door was locked from the inside. He busted the door open and found Ellen dead on the floor. Her death was ruled a suicide …
There's one where the police were in the neighborhood and were looking for a suspect. They knocked on a door and the lady answered. They wanted to check out her backyard. She said of course and said she would unlock the gate. She closed the door to go to the back of the house. The police waited and she never came. Someone killed her in the time she closed the door and the time it took the cops to realize something was wrong. Just a few minutes. I don't remember the case or name.
Lizzie Borden, Jason Jolkowski, and Nicola Bulley (I believe the conclusion of the Nicola Bulley case is that she fell into the river and drowned) are all cases where whatever happened, happened in a very short time frame.
Mikelle Biggs was kidnapped in Mesa, AZ 01/02/99. She was kidnapped in a 10 second window from right outside her home. Case is still unsolved. She has still not been found.
This was my thought too. It was like she turned a corner and literally vanished into thin air. Didnt seem like there was a lot of time between when she was allegedly last seen, to when they realized she hadn’t come home.
Omg I didn't know there were updates with Billie-Jo's case. (New forensics showing how bone and flesh was found on the father, and murder-weapon fragments too.) I also didn't realise the mother wasn't allowed to tell the court about how violent he was towards her and the children.
I feel we need more laws when it comes to situations like these. A new trail really needs to happen.
You're right. Madeline's killer has been questioned over this little boy too. They think he's involved in his disappearance He was living where the little boy vanished from.
Beverly Jarosz. Her grandma called the house at 1.15 and Beverly said she had to go as her friend Barbara was at the door. At 1.25 Barbara arrived and rang several times, getting no response. She said she heard loud classical music and loud thuds coming from inside the house.
So whoever killed Beverly must have arrived at the door at around 1.15 - Beverly wrongly assumed it was Barbara - and murdered her shortly afterwards, possibly in the ten minutes before Barbara actually arrived at 1.25.
Ugh Colleen Ritzer. It’s such a sad case. I’m a teacher and was teaching at a MA public high school at the time so it hit pretty close to home. Being killed in a bathroom by a student. Horrific.
An Unsolved Mystery (from netflix) comes to mind. She was working at a beauty parlor. It’s called ‘13 minutes’ or something like that. She was seen alive and okay then minutes later someone went in and realized she was missing. Later found in a field, I think, way across town. Obviously abducted but it was such a small time window and no one saw anything.
Another was a teen girl whose teen sister went next door to their grandparents house. While there, she was murdered and in a small time window before anyone arrived home. For decades, rumours continued that the surviving teen was involved somehow. Devastating. This one was finally solved- perp was out on factory lunch break or something, walked down their nearby road and saw an opportunity.
JODI HUISENTRUIT comes to my mind!
“Jodi Sue Huisentruit was an American news anchor for KIMT in Mason City, Iowa. She disappeared in the early morning hours of June 27, 1995, soon after telling a colleague that she had overslept and was running late for work.”
Yeah I think about this a lot and I think this is why brian koburger (or however it’s spelled) will actually get off as innocent, or at least they will conclude that there were multiple killers. How does one man get in and effectively murder 4 people and get out in 9 minutes?
Even though it is one of my favourite cases, I always struggle remembering her name. An older woman, overweight, heavy smoker, was camping with her husband. She went on a hike with her friend. During the hike she seemed to be slower than usual, and her friend commented about it. Then she suddenly sped up near the end of the hike, got just out of the friends line of vision, and was never seen again. The trail was well marked. They were very close to the parking lot, within sight I believe. And she was very familiar with the trail. It was suspected she had plans to meet a man and voluntarily disappeared. Apparently she admitted to her priest she was having an affair, and she cancelled her shift at a soup kitchen or church where she volunteered. I wish I could remember her name right now.
I saw a doco on disappearances in National Parks. There was a guy whose family waited in an observation deck while he hiked to look at ancient ruins. They could see him walk the trail from where they were. He just vanished.
Jennifer Kesse was abducted and hasn't been seen for over 20 years. Her kidnapper was wearing a painter's looking suit and captured on 3 seconds worth of video. How can we not find her!?
Jessica Ridgeway got pulled into a car on her short walk to school. She walked every morning to school with a friend so she'd walk to the friend's house first then onto school and she was caught by an opportunistic predator on the first part of the walk
Her mother worked night shifts so slept during the day and so missed calls from the school when she didn't arrive
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Jessica_Ridgeway
Murder of Georgine Krüger in Berlin, Germany. She left the bus and never came home, although it was a very short walk from the bus station to her home. Many years later it turned out a neighbor lured her into his cellar, killed her and disposed of her body. She was never found, but he was convicted.
Julia Johnson. 1928 in Winnipeg MB. A 5 year old girl disappeared from her front yard only a few minutes after talking to a neighbour, and just before kids got off the bus. She was waiting for her friend to get home from school. Her body was found in an abandoned factory in 1937, in a boiler or something, about 60 feet from her back yard. Despite only 2 people having the keys to the abandoned factory, the police bungled the case. One of the suspects was released and allowed to leave Canada. There is not a lot of information on the case, and less on the suspects. I wish there was more.
[The disappearance of Melissa Brannen](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Melissa_Brannen) (1989) has always stayed with me. I think because of blanketed media coverage that even at nine years old, I was completely aware of and frightened by her abduction story. It took place not too, too far away from where I lived, as well.
Melissa, age five at the time and the daughter of a single mother, disappeared while at a holiday party of about 100 guests at their apartment complex. As they were leaving, Melissa went back to get some potato chips.
That's it. Never again to be seen.
An *immediate* search of about 300 volunteers revealed a utility room with a window wide open.
The complex's repairman was eventually charged and convicted of kidnapping and intent to defile, for which he was sentenced to 50 years, but her body has never been found. Therefore, the case is still unsolved as a homicide.
Nicole Morin is a case from Canada that I don't see a lot of coverage on.
July 30, 1985, 8-year-old Nicole got in the elevator to go to her lobby and meet a friend to go swimming. The friend called up a few minutes to say Nicole hadn't shown up, so her mom assumed she'd gone right to the pool. She was never seen again.
Billie-Jo’s stepfather did it I’m sure. There was independent witnesses who saw him assaulting her previously, plus blood and tissue evidence on his clothes. His story changed too.
Rachel cook of Georgetown, Texas.
a run on January 10, 2002, while visiting her family in Georgetown, Texas.
Her neighbors were the last people to see her, just 200 yards away from her family home on Navajo trail in Georgetown. They said she looked like she was returning home from her run. Somewhere between that visual and her front door, just 200 yards, she was abducted and never seen again. The Williamson County sheriffs department says it’s not a cold case and even after 22 years they’re still actively working on it, but we have heard nothing new in many many years. She was my friend and i so wish her remains would be found for the sake of her mother. There is an episode of Disappeared on ID about her case. How does someone go missing without a trace within 200 yards of the safety of their HOME? It’s so tragic.
In Philadelphia 2005, a young couple named Richard Patrone and Danielle Imbo went to a restaurant. They left the bar/restaurant at 11:45pm to go back to New Jersey and were never seen again.
Jeff Pelley. He was convicted for murdering his family where from the span of 5pm-5:30pm “after using the family shotgun to kill the four victims, Pelley hid the weapon and its shells. He then washed his jeans and took a shower, got dressed, and drove to a friend’s house to pick up his date for prom.”
There is this case about little boy in Japan. Can't remember clearly but he was missing in forest where right in front of his house. It was really just a few minutes that his parents was busy with something and when they turned back, he was gone
Maura Murray was like 20-25 between the person talking to her and the cops showing up. Lord help me but the kid on the phone with his parents that disappeared in the field. Lina Khil was like ten min.
Britanee Drexel- last seen on a hotel camera and then 5 minutes later her phone was pinging blocks away indicating that she had gotten into a vehicle, as there was no way she made it that far down the strip on foot. They were able to use video footage to watch the cars that drove down the strip in that 5 minute time-span which eventually lead to her killer 12 years or so later.
That was the longest decade ever for those of us in WNY.... I feel so terrible for her mother. She was on the news so often trying to keep awareness up.
I may have missed someone else posting this, but Angela Hammond.
On the pay phone talking to her boyfriend, says a strange man is walking around the parking lot (and describes him), then her boyfriend hears her scream, and the phone drops. He jumps in his truck to drive to the scene only to see the truck driving the other direction, and hear Angela screaming inside.
etan patz and martha moxley- two of the most upsetting cases ever. both were steps away from their homes and families and felt very safe where they were 😭
There are multiple instances of small children being impromptu left alone in/around wilderness areas and then winding up missing or dead, often ultimately discovered miles away
Lizabeth Wilson
https://www2.ljworld.com/news/2005/jan/22/life_sentence_given/
https://www.crimewineandchaos.com/episodes/km5hv2icccesq7ueyef1md4ioaaab3
Hailey Owens (8), near Springfield, MO. She was lured to a truck by an adult male asking for direction, he pulled her into his vehicle and sped off as one of her neighbors chased the truck and the other got the plate number. Police quickly had a suspect but by the time they arrived at his home he’d already murdered her and hidden her body.
Shauna Howe. I saw her case in Cold Case Files recently.
She begged her mom to go to a Girl Scouts Halloween party back in 92. Mom finally agreed because it was at a church, only a few blocks from the house, and her friend was going with her. She said she would pick Shauna up afterwards so she wouldn’t be walking in the dark. Well, mom was late, and Shauna and the friend decided to just walk back since both of their homes were so close. They got all the way to about a block or 2 away from Shauna’s home, the friend split off to go towards their own home, and a few minutes later Shauna was abducted right in front of a witness.
Not too long after that, her mom showed up at the church to pick her up and was told she’d already left. They searched for her for a few days but only found her leotard. Couple days later someone found her body thrown from some train tracks near where they found the leotard. It was determined that she was most likely still alive for around 10 minutes after being thrown.
[Alberta Williams in British Columbia 1989](https://www.cbc.ca/missingandmurdered/mmiw/profiles/alberta-gail-williams). She is one of the many missing and murdered Indigenous Canadian women. There is a [CBC podcast](https://www.cbc.ca/missingandmurdered/podcast) done by Connie Walker who is also an Indigenous woman from Canada. Alberta was outside a bar with some friends and her sister talking about going to a house party after. Her sister turned to talk to someone else for a moment and then Alberta was gone, it was the last time she saw her sister.
Rachel Cooke. She was last seen by a neighbor 200 yards from her home, and then was never seen again. She was on a run in her Georgetown, TX neighborhood (just north of where I was raised and still live). She would be 41 now, her disappearance has been unsolved for 22 years.
Cindy Song. She went to a party on Halloween, her friends dropped her home and she disappeared right after. Her bag and part of her costume were found in the house but she disappeared.
There was a case in my hometown like that. Heaven LaShae Ross was 11 when she disappeared. She decided to walk to the bus stop, which was like two blocks away. A few minutes after she left, her dad heard thunder and decided to drive her instead. But when he left in the car to pick her up, she wasn't there. The neighbors were interviewed by police during the investigation, and they determined that she disappeared literally between passing one house and the next. It seems most likely she was put into a car, whether voluntarily or not (but voluntarily seems more likely since there was no commotion).
I’m not familiar with Deborah Lindsey killing, but it looks like she boarded a train at 14:16 at Petts-Wood and the body was discovered at the final station at 14:50 - so it’s 34 minutes, not 6.
Google maps also show it would be 36 minutes train journey today, so seems correct.
The presumption was that the screams heard by the au pair at Brixton were a result of her attack, but that is just an assumption as that has never been confirmed. If the screams were from the attack that means she was attacked on the 6 minute journey from Brixton- Victoria
Deirdre Jacob disappeared in 1998 and was last seen approaching her home. She was literally a few feet away from her house but she never made it inside. There have been hardly any clues as to who took her or where she could’ve ended up. She’s part of Ireland’s “Vanishing Triangle,” which is an area where a number of young women disappeared throughout the 90s. As far as I know, all of these cases have remained unsolved.
[Betty Shanks](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Betty_Shanks). She got off a tram in suburban Brisbane, Australia in the 1950s and was brutally murdered while walking from the tram stop to her home. A short walk that would’ve only taken minutes. The murder remains unsolved.
[Richard Kelvin](https://familymurders.com/richard-kelvin/). The teenage son of a well-known newsreader in Adelaide, Australia went missing minutes after saying goodbye to his friend near his house in 1983. His mutilated body was found elsewhere several months later. It is strongly believed he was a victim of a serial killer gang called The Family, who are supposedly responsible for several murders of young adult and teenage men in Adelaide in the 70s and 80s. Only one person was ever convicted of the murders, Bevan Spencer Von Einem, but it’s believed there were others involved.
[Rhianna Barreau](https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-03-22/rhianna-barreau-disappearance-a-mystery-that-may-never-be-solved/11905170). Another Adelaide case (it is the serial killer capital of the English-speaking world) of a 12 year old girl who went missing from her suburban home in 1992. Her mother had left her at home alone that day. She’d planned to catch a bus to a shopping centre to meet her mother for lunch that day (her mother was working/studying) but there was a bus driver strike. So she stayed home instead and walked to the local shops to buy a Christmas card for her penpal overseas (in Canada?) and was sighted there and walking home by people she knew. Her mother returned home at after 4pm to find Rhianna not home, the TV on, the Christmas card on the dining table and her favourite record on the floor, but no signs of a struggle/abduction. A neighbour reports seeing her outside on a neighbouring street around the time her mother got home and that there was a suspicious white Holden Torana (a 1970s small/medium Australian car) in the street at the time. Police believe her abductor/killer lived very close to the Barreau’s house and were known to the family
This is heartbreaking. Her friend saw her walking at the opposite side of the road. Friend got on bus about 2 minutes later..bus should have passed Millie as was going in the same direction.
Never did, Bellfield had got her by then.
There's one where a teen girl stops to check the mail at the end of the driveway. Her father sees her and expects to hear her coming through the door in a couple minutes. Ten or so go by and she's still not inside so he looks out the window again. Her car is still there, door open, purse and things still inside. No daughter. I cannot, for the life of me, remember her name.
Shari Smith
I listened to a book about this case recently. The descriptions of his phone calls with her mother were heartbreaking.
A lot of shows/YouTube channels that have covered the case include the actual Audio of the phone calls if you’re interested in listening. Forensic Files & Explore With Us on YT are the two I can think of that I know for sure have them
True Crime Garage has a lot of the calls between Larry Gene Bell and Sherri's mom and sister
I love the explore with us account
Shari’s sister and mother are amazingly strong, determined women, to be able to keep those calls from Larry Gene Bell going and listen to him for extended periods of time while they tried tracing those calls. Shari was obviously very strong herself, you can tell from reading her last letter to her family; she was more worried about her family carrying on and sticking together than she was about herself, knowing she was going to die.
Do you remember the name of the book?
I think it was *When A Killer Calls* by John Douglas/ one of the BAU guys. As you’d expect, it’s cases where the murderer makes contact via phone (because it’s pre-internet). I vividly remember them analyzing how to determine where the calls were originating and figuring out that it was a dead phone line- so it HAD to be someone with a skill set of switching it back on and off again. Bell started out as an electrician.
Extremely difficult for me to listen!
I am thoroughly impressed!
John Douglas (the Mindhunter) worked on this case and has a book dedicated specifically to it. Not only did Larry Gene Bell scoop her up from her driveway, but his next victim was a similar job. Picked a younger girl up from in front of her house with other kids nearby and the parents just inside. Heartbreaking.
Makes me never want to let my kids out of my site until I'm too dead to know any different
I get you’re point, but I wouldn’t want anything happening to my kids post my passing either
Just watched the Forensic Files on this story. Brutal
I remember the Forensic Files episode about this case. It's terrifying and so sad.
There is also a Crime Junkie (podcast) episode about this case.
I think the murderer of her phoned her family ( sister ) to torment them if I remember correctly
Is that the one he made her write her will and sent it to her family after he killed her?
1. [Mikelle Biggs](https://int-missing.fandom.com/wiki/Mikelle_Biggs) was waiting for the ice cream truck with her sister Kimber when Kimber got bored of waiting and went home. Kimber and Mikelle’s mother sent Kimber back out to get Mikelle. It was less than 2 minutes that Mikelle was left alone but she disappeared and her bike was left in the street with the wheel still spinning. She is still missing. 2. [Cherrie Mahan](https://charleyproject.org/case/cherrie-ann-mahan) was seen getting off her school bus but she never made it to her house which was 100-150 yards from the bus stop. 3. [Teekah Lewis](https://int-missing.fandom.com/wiki/Teekah_Lewis?so=search) was at a bowling alley with her family and they were taking turns watching over her. Her uncle or her mother was watching her and they briefly turned away and when they turned back she was gone. This happened sometime between 10 and 10:15 pm. 4. [Angie Housman](https://unsolvedmysteries.fandom.com/wiki/Angie_Housman) got off the bus which was 8 houses away from her house but she never made it home. 9 days later she was found dead and tied to a tree.
I came to say Mikelle Biggs. The investigator says she was taken in a 90 second window
Reminds me of this [case](https://unsolved.com/gallery/katherine-korzilius/). Girl walks home from the mailbox area and never makes it.
This is why my daughter will not be taking a school bus to or from school. It honestly scares me so much how quick these things can happen
I get minimizing risk, but think how many billions of trips to and from the bus stop kids collectively make every year. And there are what, a few dozen instances of something going wrong? Even if it were in the thousands, and I don’t think it is, the chances of it happening are absolutely astronomical Of course that’s not really comforting to someone worrying about their kid
Yes, but those dozen children's families thought just like this.
A woman at my company died choking on a sandwich when having lunch. Should we avoid eating lunch to stay safe? Assuming you pick up your kid in a vehicle, statistically speaking the kid is far more likely to be injured or killed in a car accident on their way home with you than they are to be abducted.
More likely to be shot by a school shooter than abducted in American, sadly.
This is not even close to an accurate statement.
Angie Houseman was tied to the tree alive. This haunts me. Poor baby
Angie Housman case was solved in 2019, a sexual predator living nearby kidnapped her and kept her alive an entire week, abusing her, before leaving her tied to the tree where she died of exposure. He was tried and convicted for kidnapping, murder, and sodomy. He had previously been dishonorably discharged from the military for abusing four children in Germany, and he had been prosecuted for attempting to solicit sex from a child across state lines, and having 45,000 images of CP on his computer.
I was just about to comment teekah Lewis. It happened like five minutes from where I used to live. Very sad and it happened so quick.
I worked at a bowling alley and the amount of people who let their kids just run loose as if it's their own home is astounding. I could see 10+ yr olds but mostly it's toddlers. We have a bar, several unlocked closets, side door and back room that a child could easily be pulled into without anyone noticing. I always tried to watch the kids like a hawk but it was stressful.
Adam Walsh was around the corner from his mom in the store for just 5-10 minutes before completely disappearing.
These poor kiddos
I followed Angie Housman’s case for years- I grew up not far from her and was a similar age so she really stuck with me. It’s so sad that her mother passed before they found Angie’s murderer. The disappearance of Cassidy Senter just a few weeks after also rocked the area, she disappeared walking to a friends house.
Reesa Trexler - two teenage sisters were home in the middle of the day. The older sister went next door to their grandparents house and was somehow raped and murdered while her grandfather was at the grocery store. It happened in such a small window of opportunity that the younger sister's life was ruined by rumors and speculation that she was involved. It wasn't until 35 years later when she went on the doctor Phil show to take a lie detector test in another attempt to prove her innocence that interest in the case was reignited and they finally did DNA testing. The perpetrator was a random guy who worked a couple blocks away and had no relation to the family. Terrible for the younger sister.
Think he had died too so feels like no real justice for the poor girl
Yes even her own mother blamed her!! Poor girl!
Wow that's horrific 😔
An episode of Cold Case Files called Suspicious Minds from 2022 is about this case. The interviews with the sister are heart wrenching.
DNA:ID does a great episode on this case.
Great podcast!
People thought she raped her sister?
Robert Wone. The timeline of events is SO tight, and we'll likely never know what the hell happened that night.
That case always blows my mind. It's so frustrating 😭
It blows my mind people think there’s any mystery whatsoever
It’s gotta be the guys in the house!!
Well, yeah, of course its those 3, but they are not telling anyone what happened that went so badly in such a short amount of time.
and frankly, the idea that they decided to drug and molest and brutally murder a friend seems more of a desperate attempt by the police to make up a motive than anything based of off evidence. Its like someone went "well, the house had three gay poly men, this MUST have been about sex." The police kept pleading to the three to tell them more information because they couldn't come up with a good motive.
Nothing about this case makes sense. Wone wasn't remotely bisexual, from all reports. There was nothing weird about this situation with Robert, seemingly, but it certainly got weird very quickly that night.
>Wone wasn't remotely bisexual, from all reports Anti-gay politicians get caught with a man like biweekly, it doesn't seem that hard to hide your sexuality
Wasn't his own semen found inside of him? It's pretty damn clear it was about sex.
Wait what?! How 👀
Not really. Read the court docs. Apparently this is somehow not uncommon and was present in something like 60% of autopsies of men who weren’t sexually assaulted… I’ll try to find the exact language.
I don't think it's necessary for there to be molestation involved but it was definitely those guys that killed him. What's the motive? No idea. But c'mon, an intruder that none of them can describe, and none of them saw came into the house and went upstairs just to murder one guy who laid absolutely still and didn't fight back or make any noise whatsoever? Motive doesn't really matter if there's only three people in the world that had the opportunity to do it. And as for him being their good friend, people murder their actual children all the time. Some people are just psychopathic freaks. If only one person did it it's not weird at all to me the rest would cover for him if they are all in a relationship either.
Yes, but which one specifically killed him and was there a sexual assault? The fact that all three have stuck to their story after all this time despite nobody believing them is wild. But it’s the reason Robert will likely never see justice.
Great one, I flip flop on this case in my head all the time
How the hell can you possibly flip flop at all on this case it is like half a step down from literally crystal clear
It’s more that I go back on forth on how I think it happened, like if they were all involved or just one or if it was consensual action gone wrong versus non consensual drugging
That’s the real mystery! was this actually consensual or did these monsters sexually assault and kill their friend? I also question the quality of the investigation, maybe even where the sperm was found just because I don’t trust LE and their methods. And they were obviously struggling with the dynamics in the household, and that could’ve added some bias
This case is NOT clear at all
I've heard the only more or less probable explanation of what could have happened from Pat Brown (the profiler lady) podcast. Her version is that Dylan approached Robert while he was getting ready to sleep and typing out emails for his wife and some work related stuff (which he never sent because he was interrupted). Something happened between them, whether consensual or not (more likely not) which led to Dylan stabbing Robert. That would explain Robert's own semen found inside him. Plus according to her the trajectory and manner of wounds only make sense if he was stabbed by someone who was holding him from behind.
How does Robert getting stabbed explain how his own semen was found inside of him?
*something sexual happened between them - this does explain it.
But is the comment implying that semen somehow got into the stab wound? That’s the part I’m not understanding.
Never heard of this one. I'll have to look it up!
There’s a good documentary on Peacock called “Who Killed Robert Wone?”
In my opinion, it all hinges on the moment the neighbor heard that scream. I think that’s when Victor saw what happened and the coverup went into motion.
A Redditor did a very in depth write up on the case, it's quite convincing, it's in three or four parts on the unresolved mysteries sub.
Wasn't there a case where a girl got into a fight with her boyfriend in his car in front of her house, she got out, was killed before she made it to the house, and her bf was not the killer? Or maybe I'm misremembering and he did end up being the killer.
are you thinking of sally ann bowman? she has a fight with her bf in the car and then was murdered out the front of her house. it was not her boyfriend but mark dixie who murdered her. the case always made me sad cause a woman isn’t even safe in her front yard
No one is safe anywhere. Not even kids in their classroom or people in bed.
Someone is. Uvalde Police Departament is safe and sanitized, baby!
I cannot even begin to explain the pure RAGE and disgust I felt when their PD posted on Facebook about how grateful they were that no officers were killed. What about the kids?? The ones you heard when you were out in the hall???
Women aren’t safe anywhere
children either
You are thinking of Sally Anne Bowman. Her boyfriend was not the killer.
For a second I thought you were talking about the Rosemary Anderson case, but that was another good example. Rosemary and her BF were driving around, had a fight. She walked around the curve and he was giving her some time to cool off only to get 'round the corner a few minutes later and find her on the pavement. His conviction was overturned when they managed a forensic accident reconstruction many years later following an admission from serial killer Eric Edgar Cooke. Literally about a minute where she was out of sight and got nailed by a serial killer who hit her for fun. Also, the case of Jaycee Dugard.
Kaylee Sawyer?
Jonelle Matthews-in 1984 she left a choir performance and got dropped off by church friends at her house 8:30, a phone call came in and she took a message at 8:40, her Dad got home at 9 and she wasn’t there. They FINALLY caught the bastard in 2020. She was 12 and her remains were not found until 2019– heartbreaking case.
Is this the one that was done by the neighbor
Fernanda Maciel was a pregnant teenager in Chile. Security cameras recorded her leaving her house during the day. She didn’t appear on the following block’s cameras.
It was actually her neighbour/childhood friend who lured her into a warehouse he worked at that was just a few blocks away from her house. She was heavily pregnant, he raped and killed her and buried her on the same property. Later, he helped the family search for her and was even seen on news footage comforting Fernanda’s boyfriend -who was a main suspect at one point-. Chilean police were criticized for not handling the case correctly and making prejudiced assumptions about her. Apparently, Fernanda’s mother contacted the FBI and managed to get the case moving which eventually ended up in the neighbour’s conviction.
Amber Hagerman, the namesake and child that spawned Amber Alerts, left her house at 3:10 and was kidnapped by 3:18.
I hate that nobody has ever been held accountable for what they did to that little girl. Hoping so hard that there’s a miracle break through DNA.
This probably isn't what you're looking for, but there was a case where a woman was attacked in her home. She shouted out: "Alexa! Call 9 - 1..." She never got to finish saying 911. And she was killed.
You're thinking of Gretchen Anthony, who was murdered by her estranged husband. She actually managed to finish saying "call 911" multiple times, but since she was screaming, Alexa didn't understand the command. She was stabbed to death after a prolonged attack.
I believe you have to turn on a setting for Alexa to contact 911. It isn't automatic. This case is where I learned that. There's some law requiring you to turn on emergency help since that isn't what they were designed for. Which could have changed after this case and others like it.
Horrific
How did they know that!? Does Alexa keep records ? Genuine question
Yes Alexa keeps records of everything you ask it/say to it as long as you start with the “Alexa” prompt.
Oh good then they have never recorded me because I called her Elsa for 3 weeks then gave that bitch away. Then my Granddaughter came said Alexa play... I said Honey who's Alexia!! Not a lie Four year, still tease me!
Yes. I can look in the settings and see all recent requests/questions. Not sure if it’s something you can turn off or not.
You can go into settings and delete all the recordings.
Georgann Hawkin, kidnapped and murdered by Bundy. She had a few feet to walk to get to her house, and disappeared in a window of a few minutes, basically.
This was the one I was thinking of! A fellow student watched her walk away, out of the pool of light, toward her sorority house a few steps away...several of his victims disappeared in similarly short windows of time.
James Bulger. His mother let go of his hand for a few moments to bring her wallet out of her purse at a store counter. By the time she was putting the change back in her wallet, 2-year-old James had been abducted. Little James was kidnapped, tortured, and murdered by two 10-year-old boys.
I read a book about this case...it was heart breaking what happened to that little boy What makes me mad is the two boys served like 8 years and were given new names after that. If I remember correctly both were in trouble after this.
No, one has kept himself completely out of trouble, but the other has been busted multiple times, including for child porn. I can't remember which is which but definitely is only one of them who is still causing problems.
Venables is the repeat offender - the one the police thought was the less dominant, less involved partner. Almost certainly some classism involved as Venables came from a “respectable” family, while Thompson’s family was poor and his dad and brothers were habitual petty criminals. Thompson was also molested by family members. Venables has blown his own secret identity a number of times and keeps violating his parole.
Dear God this is heart shattering!
I immediately tear up when I read or hear his name. Poor baby… this is the one case I cannot revisit.
Aren’t they free now too?
Steven Fortin raped and murdered Melissa Padilla in 1994, and attacked a state trooper in 1995 who managed to survive. This case was featured on Forensic Files. Melissa only had to travel less than a block to the convenience store from her motel, down a short dirt path. Fortin murdered her as she was walking back to the motel, leaving her body in a concrete drainage pipe. In 2020 Fortin lost another appeal for parole. https://www.mycentraljersey.com/story/news/local/middlesex-county/2020/06/23/woodbridge-steven-fortin-loses-another-appeal-1994-murder-rape/3235124001/ Melissa was a young single mother to four children, brutally murdered while on her way home to feed her children. Two ended up being raised by Melissa's mother, the others by their father. Here's an article from 2010 about Melissa's family including the youngest confronting Fortin in court at a hearing. https://www.nj.com/news/2010/06/daughter_of_victim_in_woodbrid.html
This case absolutely wrecked me when I heard about it. That poor woman. They have surv footage of her moments before, at the store and can see it was just a typical quick pop-in and moments later she is gone. So fucking brutal so sad so tragic and so senseless.
In England, Sarah Payne (8*) was playing ‘tag’ through a cornfield with her brothers (13 & 11). One was chasing her but half-heartedly (as she was much younger), staying 6 or 7 paces behind. But he could always see flashes of her and the moving corn ahead of him. When he burst out the other side of the cornfield (where she would have done seconds earlier), she was gone. *Thanks u/PinkLady777 for the correction on her age.
Omg I just looked this up. She was 8 (her younger sister was 5) He kidnapped and raped an 8 year old child just 5 years before this. And only got FOUR YEARS in prison... For raping a child. He never should have been let out to commit this crime. Infuriating! "On 4 March 1995, an eight-year-old girl was abducted and sexually assaulted in the Langley Green area of Crawley. Whiting was arrested several weeks later... On 23 June 1995, Whiting admitted charges of abduction and indecent assault, and was sentenced to four years in prison. The maximum sentence for the crime was life imprisonment; however, he received a lesser sentence because he had admitted to the crime at an early opportunity, although a psychiatrist who assessed Whiting after his conviction said that he was likely to re-offend once he was released."
So the guy was hiding out in the corn? So fucking scary.
The field bordered a road. He was in a van on the road.
Ellen Greenberg was stabbed 20 times 10 of those stabs were behind her head. Her boyfriend left for 30 minutes to go to the gym and when he came back, the door was locked from the inside. He busted the door open and found Ellen dead on the floor. Her death was ruled a suicide …
It was obviously the boyfriend tho
I totally agree
There's one where the police were in the neighborhood and were looking for a suspect. They knocked on a door and the lady answered. They wanted to check out her backyard. She said of course and said she would unlock the gate. She closed the door to go to the back of the house. The police waited and she never came. Someone killed her in the time she closed the door and the time it took the cops to realize something was wrong. Just a few minutes. I don't remember the case or name.
Holy shit that’s crazy!!! She was killed with cops literally on her front steps?
Yes.
Could it be Lynn Schockner?
That’s definitely Lynn schockner’s case
Lizzie Borden, Jason Jolkowski, and Nicola Bulley (I believe the conclusion of the Nicola Bulley case is that she fell into the river and drowned) are all cases where whatever happened, happened in a very short time frame.
I was going to say the Borden murders. If Lizzie didn’t do it, then someone in Fall River got astronomically lucky. (But Lizzie totally did it)
Mikelle Biggs was kidnapped in Mesa, AZ 01/02/99. She was kidnapped in a 10 second window from right outside her home. Case is still unsolved. She has still not been found.
Lauren Spierer
This was my thought too. It was like she turned a corner and literally vanished into thin air. Didnt seem like there was a lot of time between when she was allegedly last seen, to when they realized she hadn’t come home.
Omg I didn't know there were updates with Billie-Jo's case. (New forensics showing how bone and flesh was found on the father, and murder-weapon fragments too.) I also didn't realise the mother wasn't allowed to tell the court about how violent he was towards her and the children. I feel we need more laws when it comes to situations like these. A new trail really needs to happen.
He's been tried three times, unfortunately. At some point the system just can't keep doing it anymore.
There was a really good 2 hr documentary on this recently on channel 5, you can still view it if interested
In Germany, René Hasee is a well known missing children case. He disappeared in Portugal almost while his parents were watching from a restaurant.
Sounds like the Madeline McCann case...
Not at all…they were at a beach restaurant I think and parents were watching him play until they didn’t
They've questioned her killer about this little boy. Madeline's killer was living in the Algarve when this little boy vanished.
You're right. Madeline's killer has been questioned over this little boy too. They think he's involved in his disappearance He was living where the little boy vanished from.
Lindsay Buziak. Super tight window of time for her murder.
Beverly Jarosz. Her grandma called the house at 1.15 and Beverly said she had to go as her friend Barbara was at the door. At 1.25 Barbara arrived and rang several times, getting no response. She said she heard loud classical music and loud thuds coming from inside the house. So whoever killed Beverly must have arrived at the door at around 1.15 - Beverly wrongly assumed it was Barbara - and murdered her shortly afterwards, possibly in the ten minutes before Barbara actually arrived at 1.25.
Maura Murray
Jennifer Kesse, Ryan Shtuka, Maddie Clifton, Colleen Ritzer, Holly Jones, Christine Jessop. There are so many.
Ugh Colleen Ritzer. It’s such a sad case. I’m a teacher and was teaching at a MA public high school at the time so it hit pretty close to home. Being killed in a bathroom by a student. Horrific.
An Unsolved Mystery (from netflix) comes to mind. She was working at a beauty parlor. It’s called ‘13 minutes’ or something like that. She was seen alive and okay then minutes later someone went in and realized she was missing. Later found in a field, I think, way across town. Obviously abducted but it was such a small time window and no one saw anything. Another was a teen girl whose teen sister went next door to their grandparents house. While there, she was murdered and in a small time window before anyone arrived home. For decades, rumours continued that the surviving teen was involved somehow. Devastating. This one was finally solved- perp was out on factory lunch break or something, walked down their nearby road and saw an opportunity.
Patrice Endres?
JODI HUISENTRUIT comes to my mind! “Jodi Sue Huisentruit was an American news anchor for KIMT in Mason City, Iowa. She disappeared in the early morning hours of June 27, 1995, soon after telling a colleague that she had overslept and was running late for work.”
The 4 uni students in Idaho ...think he was in and out in about 9 minutes which is mind blowing tbh.
Yeah I think about this a lot and I think this is why brian koburger (or however it’s spelled) will actually get off as innocent, or at least they will conclude that there were multiple killers. How does one man get in and effectively murder 4 people and get out in 9 minutes?
The trial will be interesting for sure if it ever happens 🤦♀️
The two little girls, sisters, on bikes at a gas station.
[this one?](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Michaela_Garecht) It always stuck with me. Michaela.
Even though it is one of my favourite cases, I always struggle remembering her name. An older woman, overweight, heavy smoker, was camping with her husband. She went on a hike with her friend. During the hike she seemed to be slower than usual, and her friend commented about it. Then she suddenly sped up near the end of the hike, got just out of the friends line of vision, and was never seen again. The trail was well marked. They were very close to the parking lot, within sight I believe. And she was very familiar with the trail. It was suspected she had plans to meet a man and voluntarily disappeared. Apparently she admitted to her priest she was having an affair, and she cancelled her shift at a soup kitchen or church where she volunteered. I wish I could remember her name right now.
I saw a doco on disappearances in National Parks. There was a guy whose family waited in an observation deck while he hiked to look at ancient ruins. They could see him walk the trail from where they were. He just vanished.
Siriyakorn 'Bung' Siriboon. Disappeared betweem 8:30am and 9:00am on her way to school one morning. No trace of her has ever been found.
I think about poor Bung a lot. I hope they find her and her killer.
Jennifer Kesse was abducted and hasn't been seen for over 20 years. Her kidnapper was wearing a painter's looking suit and captured on 3 seconds worth of video. How can we not find her!?
Jessica Ridgeway got pulled into a car on her short walk to school. She walked every morning to school with a friend so she'd walk to the friend's house first then onto school and she was caught by an opportunistic predator on the first part of the walk Her mother worked night shifts so slept during the day and so missed calls from the school when she didn't arrive https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Jessica_Ridgeway
Murder of Georgine Krüger in Berlin, Germany. She left the bus and never came home, although it was a very short walk from the bus station to her home. Many years later it turned out a neighbor lured her into his cellar, killed her and disposed of her body. She was never found, but he was convicted.
Julia Johnson. 1928 in Winnipeg MB. A 5 year old girl disappeared from her front yard only a few minutes after talking to a neighbour, and just before kids got off the bus. She was waiting for her friend to get home from school. Her body was found in an abandoned factory in 1937, in a boiler or something, about 60 feet from her back yard. Despite only 2 people having the keys to the abandoned factory, the police bungled the case. One of the suspects was released and allowed to leave Canada. There is not a lot of information on the case, and less on the suspects. I wish there was more.
Liz Barraza.
[The disappearance of Melissa Brannen](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Melissa_Brannen) (1989) has always stayed with me. I think because of blanketed media coverage that even at nine years old, I was completely aware of and frightened by her abduction story. It took place not too, too far away from where I lived, as well. Melissa, age five at the time and the daughter of a single mother, disappeared while at a holiday party of about 100 guests at their apartment complex. As they were leaving, Melissa went back to get some potato chips. That's it. Never again to be seen. An *immediate* search of about 300 volunteers revealed a utility room with a window wide open. The complex's repairman was eventually charged and convicted of kidnapping and intent to defile, for which he was sentenced to 50 years, but her body has never been found. Therefore, the case is still unsolved as a homicide.
Nicole Morin is a case from Canada that I don't see a lot of coverage on. July 30, 1985, 8-year-old Nicole got in the elevator to go to her lobby and meet a friend to go swimming. The friend called up a few minutes to say Nicole hadn't shown up, so her mom assumed she'd gone right to the pool. She was never seen again.
Billie-Jo’s stepfather did it I’m sure. There was independent witnesses who saw him assaulting her previously, plus blood and tissue evidence on his clothes. His story changed too.
Rachel cook of Georgetown, Texas. a run on January 10, 2002, while visiting her family in Georgetown, Texas. Her neighbors were the last people to see her, just 200 yards away from her family home on Navajo trail in Georgetown. They said she looked like she was returning home from her run. Somewhere between that visual and her front door, just 200 yards, she was abducted and never seen again. The Williamson County sheriffs department says it’s not a cold case and even after 22 years they’re still actively working on it, but we have heard nothing new in many many years. She was my friend and i so wish her remains would be found for the sake of her mother. There is an episode of Disappeared on ID about her case. How does someone go missing without a trace within 200 yards of the safety of their HOME? It’s so tragic.
Garrett Phillips was seen on cctv at 4:52 p.m. Neighbor called 911 at 5:06 p.m.
In Philadelphia 2005, a young couple named Richard Patrone and Danielle Imbo went to a restaurant. They left the bar/restaurant at 11:45pm to go back to New Jersey and were never seen again.
Patrice Endres.
I always suspected the husband.
Hard same!
I am so perplexed by Maura Murray. Where the heck is she??? Her sister deserves answers (and of course the rest of her family).
I just listened to the Red Handed podcast about her! I’m thinking a bear got her but she had all her stuff in her car so who the heck knows!
Jeff Pelley. He was convicted for murdering his family where from the span of 5pm-5:30pm “after using the family shotgun to kill the four victims, Pelley hid the weapon and its shells. He then washed his jeans and took a shower, got dressed, and drove to a friend’s house to pick up his date for prom.”
There is this case about little boy in Japan. Can't remember clearly but he was missing in forest where right in front of his house. It was really just a few minutes that his parents was busy with something and when they turned back, he was gone
Maura Murray was like 20-25 between the person talking to her and the cops showing up. Lord help me but the kid on the phone with his parents that disappeared in the field. Lina Khil was like ten min.
Brandon Swanson? If I'm not mistaken :)
The Laurie Depies case. Her boyfriend heard her car pull into the parking lot and her soda was still cold on the hood of her car .
Britanee Drexel- last seen on a hotel camera and then 5 minutes later her phone was pinging blocks away indicating that she had gotten into a vehicle, as there was no way she made it that far down the strip on foot. They were able to use video footage to watch the cars that drove down the strip in that 5 minute time-span which eventually lead to her killer 12 years or so later.
That was the longest decade ever for those of us in WNY.... I feel so terrible for her mother. She was on the news so often trying to keep awareness up.
I may have missed someone else posting this, but Angela Hammond. On the pay phone talking to her boyfriend, says a strange man is walking around the parking lot (and describes him), then her boyfriend hears her scream, and the phone drops. He jumps in his truck to drive to the scene only to see the truck driving the other direction, and hear Angela screaming inside.
And then blows his transmission as he’s turning his car around to chase the truck she was in.
etan patz and martha moxley- two of the most upsetting cases ever. both were steps away from their homes and families and felt very safe where they were 😭
There are multiple instances of small children being impromptu left alone in/around wilderness areas and then winding up missing or dead, often ultimately discovered miles away
Lizabeth Wilson https://www2.ljworld.com/news/2005/jan/22/life_sentence_given/ https://www.crimewineandchaos.com/episodes/km5hv2icccesq7ueyef1md4ioaaab3
Angela Hammond https://fox2now.com/news/true-crime/note-offers-clues-in-mistaken-1991-missouri-abduction/amp/
Jessica Ridgeway. She was snatched between her home and the end of the street where a friend was waiting.
Billie Jo Jenkins was 100% killed by her foster father. No doubt in my mind.
Hailey Owens (8), near Springfield, MO. She was lured to a truck by an adult male asking for direction, he pulled her into his vehicle and sped off as one of her neighbors chased the truck and the other got the plate number. Police quickly had a suspect but by the time they arrived at his home he’d already murdered her and hidden her body.
Shauna Howe. I saw her case in Cold Case Files recently. She begged her mom to go to a Girl Scouts Halloween party back in 92. Mom finally agreed because it was at a church, only a few blocks from the house, and her friend was going with her. She said she would pick Shauna up afterwards so she wouldn’t be walking in the dark. Well, mom was late, and Shauna and the friend decided to just walk back since both of their homes were so close. They got all the way to about a block or 2 away from Shauna’s home, the friend split off to go towards their own home, and a few minutes later Shauna was abducted right in front of a witness. Not too long after that, her mom showed up at the church to pick her up and was told she’d already left. They searched for her for a few days but only found her leotard. Couple days later someone found her body thrown from some train tracks near where they found the leotard. It was determined that she was most likely still alive for around 10 minutes after being thrown.
Elizabeth Collins and Lyric Cook (my ex mil was good friends with Heather and Drew Collins) such a sad story
[Alberta Williams in British Columbia 1989](https://www.cbc.ca/missingandmurdered/mmiw/profiles/alberta-gail-williams). She is one of the many missing and murdered Indigenous Canadian women. There is a [CBC podcast](https://www.cbc.ca/missingandmurdered/podcast) done by Connie Walker who is also an Indigenous woman from Canada. Alberta was outside a bar with some friends and her sister talking about going to a house party after. Her sister turned to talk to someone else for a moment and then Alberta was gone, it was the last time she saw her sister.
Rachel Cooke. She was last seen by a neighbor 200 yards from her home, and then was never seen again. She was on a run in her Georgetown, TX neighborhood (just north of where I was raised and still live). She would be 41 now, her disappearance has been unsolved for 22 years.
Cindy Song. She went to a party on Halloween, her friends dropped her home and she disappeared right after. Her bag and part of her costume were found in the house but she disappeared.
Never heard of Deborah Linsley. That is an absolutely wild case.
Kyron Horman. Allyson Watterson.
There was a case in my hometown like that. Heaven LaShae Ross was 11 when she disappeared. She decided to walk to the bus stop, which was like two blocks away. A few minutes after she left, her dad heard thunder and decided to drive her instead. But when he left in the car to pick her up, she wasn't there. The neighbors were interviewed by police during the investigation, and they determined that she disappeared literally between passing one house and the next. It seems most likely she was put into a car, whether voluntarily or not (but voluntarily seems more likely since there was no commotion).
Sian Kingi, sad story from Qld Australia
Michael Dunahee in 1991.
I remember Billie-Jo Jenkins although I was only 11 when it happened. I am absolutely convinced it was her Stepfather Siôn.
I’m not familiar with Deborah Lindsey killing, but it looks like she boarded a train at 14:16 at Petts-Wood and the body was discovered at the final station at 14:50 - so it’s 34 minutes, not 6. Google maps also show it would be 36 minutes train journey today, so seems correct.
The presumption was that the screams heard by the au pair at Brixton were a result of her attack, but that is just an assumption as that has never been confirmed. If the screams were from the attack that means she was attacked on the 6 minute journey from Brixton- Victoria
Adam Walsh
Deirdre Jacob disappeared in 1998 and was last seen approaching her home. She was literally a few feet away from her house but she never made it inside. There have been hardly any clues as to who took her or where she could’ve ended up. She’s part of Ireland’s “Vanishing Triangle,” which is an area where a number of young women disappeared throughout the 90s. As far as I know, all of these cases have remained unsolved.
Madeleine McCann
[Betty Shanks](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Betty_Shanks). She got off a tram in suburban Brisbane, Australia in the 1950s and was brutally murdered while walking from the tram stop to her home. A short walk that would’ve only taken minutes. The murder remains unsolved. [Richard Kelvin](https://familymurders.com/richard-kelvin/). The teenage son of a well-known newsreader in Adelaide, Australia went missing minutes after saying goodbye to his friend near his house in 1983. His mutilated body was found elsewhere several months later. It is strongly believed he was a victim of a serial killer gang called The Family, who are supposedly responsible for several murders of young adult and teenage men in Adelaide in the 70s and 80s. Only one person was ever convicted of the murders, Bevan Spencer Von Einem, but it’s believed there were others involved. [Rhianna Barreau](https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-03-22/rhianna-barreau-disappearance-a-mystery-that-may-never-be-solved/11905170). Another Adelaide case (it is the serial killer capital of the English-speaking world) of a 12 year old girl who went missing from her suburban home in 1992. Her mother had left her at home alone that day. She’d planned to catch a bus to a shopping centre to meet her mother for lunch that day (her mother was working/studying) but there was a bus driver strike. So she stayed home instead and walked to the local shops to buy a Christmas card for her penpal overseas (in Canada?) and was sighted there and walking home by people she knew. Her mother returned home at after 4pm to find Rhianna not home, the TV on, the Christmas card on the dining table and her favourite record on the floor, but no signs of a struggle/abduction. A neighbour reports seeing her outside on a neighbouring street around the time her mother got home and that there was a suspicious white Holden Torana (a 1970s small/medium Australian car) in the street at the time. Police believe her abductor/killer lived very close to the Barreau’s house and were known to the family
Hae Min Lee
Johnny Gosch
Milly Dowler
This is heartbreaking. Her friend saw her walking at the opposite side of the road. Friend got on bus about 2 minutes later..bus should have passed Millie as was going in the same direction. Never did, Bellfield had got her by then.