All in Cold Case Files
On December 24, 1945, George and Jennie Sodder and 9 of their 10 children, their eldest son in the army, went to sleep. At around 1am, a fire broke out and George and Jennie, along with four of their children escaped, but the other five were never seen again.
On Dec. 4, 1872, an American ship called the Mary Celeste was found abandoned and floating in the Atlantic Ocean. The ship was found to be perfectly intact, except for a lifeboat which appeared to have been boarded in an orderly fashion.
On December 1, 1948, a dead man was found slumped against a wall on Australia’s Somerton Beach. The man was allegedly well dressed, wearing a full suit and polished shoes, with no signs of trauma, and his identity and cause of death remained unknown to police.
On the morning of November 29, 1981, Natalie Wood’s body was found floating in the water of Catalina Island’s Blue Cavern Point, where her death was ruled an accidental drowning, however it was widely known that Wood was terrified of sea water, and the night she drowned, she and her husband Robert Wagner had allegedly been arguing.
Jack the Ripper was a serial killer from the late 1800’s that has never been identified. He was known for having murdered and mutilating at least five women in the east end of London, also known as the Whitechapel Murders.
On January 15, 1947 an aspiring actress by the name of Elizabeth Short was found brutally murdered in Los Angeles.
The New York State Police Bureau of Criminal Investigation is still seeking assistance to help solve a 26-year-old cold case.
In 2010, Shannan Gilbert, a 24-year-old sex worker, went to a client’s house in Oak Beach, Long Island. She called 911 while leaving the house, repeating, “There is somebody after me.” She wanted the officers to locate her address; by the time they called her back, she had already disappeared. Her investigation led to the discovery of four other bodies on Gilgo Beach.
For over 20 years, the murder of Claire ‘Lisa’ Hills has continued to be a mystery in spite of the presence of DNA evidence collected from the crime scene. The case has remained unsolved, but the search for the killer remains unabated.
On Tuesday District Attorney Brian R. Sinnett announced that the Adam County District Attorney’s Office and detectives from the Gettysburg Borough Police Department will be reinvestigating the 35-year-old murder of Ivan Darling.
A man “named” Roland T. Owens checked into the Hilton President hotel, on January 2, 1935 at 1:20 p.m. Two days later, on January 4, 1935, a bellboy would walk into a gruesome sight that led to the investigation of what could be considered the perfect crime in all of Kansas.
Over 45 years ago just outside of Detroit in Oakland County, Michigan a serial killer was kidnapping and murdering young children between the ages of 10-12. This killer has four confirmed victims with a few others who have been loosely linked to the case due to proximity and similar victim demographics. This murderer, or possibly murderers, has been referred to as the Oakland County Child Killer.
In May 1988, Lucille Hultgren was found dead, stabbed and sexually assaulted. At the time, there were no leads or information on who her killer could be, and the case went cold. Decades later, Hultgren's killer has been found due to advancements in DNA testing, but it’s too late.
Kristin Chenoweth has revealed a surprising connection to the murders of three Girl Scouts from 1977. On June 13, 1977, 3 young girls were found murdered in their sleeping bags while at Camp Scott in Oklahoma. All three girls were Girl Scouts and from the Tulsa/Broken Arrow area of Oklahoma. Their names were Lori Lee Farmer, 8, Michelle Heather Guse, 9, and Doris Denise Milner, 10.
Two sets of human remains were unearthed last week in Lake Mead, Nevada after drought conditions caused water levels to lower significantly. The bodies were in barrels in the Colorado River reservoir, just a 30-minute drive from the Las Vegas strip which has deep-rooted ties to the mob. This discovery has not only highlighted the devastating impacts of climate change; it has also sparked renewed interest in the disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa.
On August 23, 1987, Don Henry, 16, and his best friend Kevin Ives, 17, had returned from hanging out with a group of friends on the outskirts of Little Rock, Arkansas. Wanting to do a little late-night hunting, the boys stopped at Don’s house so he could grab his .22 rifle. Don spoke to his father for about 15 minutes at 12:15 a.m. before he and Kevin walked towards the railroad tracks that ran behind Don’s house to begin their hunting. Three hours later, Don Henry and Kevin Ives would be dead.
More than three decades after 11-year-old Melissa Tremblay was killed in Massachusetts, 74-year-old retired corrections officer Marvin McClendon Jr. of Alabama, has been arrested in connection with her death.
Corinna Slusser was last seen in the early morning hours of September 20, 2017 at the Haven Motel in Rego Park, Queens, NY.
Authorities in Suffolk County, New York released new video evidence on Tuesday showing the last known surveillance footage of Megan Waterman, one of the victims in the unsolved Gilgo Beach murders. These murders are thought to have been committed by an elusive serial killer nicknamed the Long Island Serial Killer.
