#Cold cases

[gwydpolls]

Time Travel Question : Murder and Disappearances Redux

I periodically get new Death and disappearance Items. (Also ones I can't remember if we did in the 2023 poll). Since we have enough to make a poll, I'm reviving it here.

A lot of the big famous ones like Jack the Ripper, we covered in 2023. If your fave doesn't go this time, odds are it was one I remembered we already did.

As long as there is a reasonable mystery such as cause of death, reasons for murder, where they went, etc., it counts.

I will not do ones that are 21st century, because it makes me feel creepy and ghoulish. I will not do ones that are credibly definitively solved.

I refuse to do JFK. I have my reasons.

[marzipanandminutiae]

periodically checking in online like "hey friends have you figured out Who Put Bella In The Wych-Elm yet?"

and the Wiki page is all excited like "WELL OKAY SO WE DID THIS PODCAST ASKING MUSEUMS IN THAT PART OF THE UK TO CHECK THEIR HUMAN REMAINS COLLECTIONS CAREFULLY IN CASE-"

"oh so there are new leads?"

"...no"

"that's okay, buddy. keep trying"

[luciferlaughs]

Mekayla Bali's disappearance on April 12, 2016, from her hometown of Yorkton, Saskatchewan, has remained a haunting mystery, capturing the attention of both law enforcement and the public. The 16-year-old Canadian was last seen at a local bus stop between 1:00 and 1:45 p.m., sparking a frantic search effort that has yet to yield any definitive leads. The day before her diappearance, she visited the bank to have $25 wired to her account. Later, she texted several friends that she was upset and needed help with something, but no further explanation was provided. The day she went missing was marked by a series of perplexing events, adding layers to the enigma surrounding her case. She texted a friend at around 6:41am asking for a ride to the bank again, but the friend declined since the bank was closed. Her grandmother then drove her to school at around 8:10am. Surveillance cameras showed her putting her binder in her locker and then slipping out the back entrance. She hiked all the way to the bank, where she withdrew $55. She then went to a Wendy's/Tim Horton's restaurant, where, for the next hour or so, she exhibited strange behaviour. Footage shows her disassembling her phone and then reassembling it. Multiple times she left the restaurant, wandered around, and then re-entered. She spent much of her time talking on the phone and texting, including a friend whom she asked for help with something, only to follow it up with ''Nevermind I figured it out''. She also asked a random customer for help with renting a hotel room, but was turned down. At around 11am, she went to the bus stop and asked a stranger when the next stop to Regina would be. Since the bus wasn't going to arrive until 5pm, she left without purchasing a ticket and went back to school for the lunch period, where she met with friends and told them she was planning a trip to Regina. At around 12:03pm, she departed from school and went to a Trail Stop Restaurant, which was attached to a bus stop. She ordered food and left about an hour later. She was never seen by eyewitnesses again, nor was she captured on surveillance footage anywhere. Police were able to confirm she did not get on any bus that day, either. Over the years, various theories have emerged regarding Bali's disappearance, ranging from the possibility of her running away to concerns about human trafficking or falling victim to an online predator. Despite reported sightings and extensive police investigations, including the review of hundreds of hours of surveillance footage and interviews with potential witnesses, Bali's whereabouts remain unknown, leaving her family in agonizing uncertainty.

[dailyunsolvedmysteries]

The Strange Disappearance of Kenny Veach

Born in 1967, Kenny Veach loved the outdoors and connected with other hikers and outdoorsmen on social media. He was funny, creative, and energetic. He was also obsessed with the Mojave Desert.

Tired of the daily Monday-through-Friday grind, Kenny wanted to be his own boss, be in charge of his own life, and have the free time to immerse himself in his desert explorations. So, he quit his day job and decided to be an inventor. He started a YouTube channel, documenting his creations and his forays into the desert.

It was in June of 2014, using the name Snakebitmcgee, Kenny left a comment in response to a YouTube video that read: That ain’t nothing. I am a long-distance hiker. One time, during one of my hikes out by Nellis Air Force Base, I found a hidden cave. The entrance to the cave was shaped like a perfect capital M. I always enter every cave I find, but as I began to enter this particular cave, my whole body began to vibrate. The closer I got to the cave entrance, the worse the vibrating became. Suddenly, I became very scared and high-tailed it out of there. That was one of the strangest things that ever happened to me. 

Unbeknownst to Kenny and the rest of the world, that comment would have tragic consequences.

Kenny’s comment on that video sparked a flurry of requests for him to prove his claim. Since he hadn’t documented the first trip to what would become known as “the M cave”, he needed to go back to the area to locate it and, this time, document what he found. On his second search for the cave, he went armed with a 9-millimeter handgun and a video camera. 

When he returned from this hike, he uploaded the video of his excursion to his YouTube channel. In what has famously become known as the “M cave video,” Kenny was light-hearted and enthusiastic about his hike.

He documented some wildlife and found a whole horde of pine nuts that he gleefully ate on camera. He stood next to an abandoned mine shaft and rather sheepishly declared that he was unable to find the cave on his second hike.

Much to Kenny’s dismay, that video was met with criticism. Many thought he had made the whole thing up, and the public demanded proof of his claim of a mysterious cave with supernatural properties.

Viewers actively encouraged, and some even dared Kenny to go back out to the mountain range a third time. 

However, one comment on his video, which has since been deleted, read, “No! Do not go back there. If you find that cave entrance, don’t go in, you won’t get out.”

Whether that comment was made by somebody teasing Kenny or whether it was a serious warning by somebody who was personally familiar with the cave is unknown.

Regarding the M cave, Kenny said, “I solo hike across mountain tops that most people wouldn’t dare go. I have been in more caves than I can count. I play with rattlesnakes for fun. But this one particular cave was beyond anything I had ever encountered.”

Hoping to put the naysayers in their place, Kenny hiked out to the territory a third time.

On the 10th of November 2014, Kenny once again made his way to the Sheep Mountain area, which is close to the U.S. Air Force installation called Area 51, known for its speculated connection to UFOs and secret government experiments. It’s located near Groom Lake and is within the Nevada Test and Training Range. As late as 2012, the U.S. government denied the existence of Area 51, and it is still closed to the public.

Kenny had informed his loved ones that he would be gone for a couple of days. When he failed to return home on the third day, his girlfriend, Sheryon Pilgrim, reported him missing.

Both ground and aerial searches were conducted, but no sign of Kenny could be found. Dave Cummings from Red Rock Search & Rescue reported finding Kenny’s cell phone next to an abandoned vertical mine shaft, where he filmed part of the M cave video. Specially trained individuals were called in to conduct a search of the mine. Unfortunately, aside from his vehicle and his cell phone, no trace of Kenny was ever found.

There are three main theories as to the fate of Kenny Veach: death by natural causes, murder, or suicide. Quite simply, the desert could have swallowed Kenny.

As of 2024, Kenny Veach has still not been found, even though more than thirty search and rescue team members scoured the Sheep Mountain area on three occasions.

[saintshivann]

you guys i just discovered these... xfiles audiobook voiced by dd and ga... oh...

[she-is-ovarit]

In true crime cases, it is in 90% of cases always a mother who does not stop searching for her missing son wandering daughter, carrying on a cold case search even after 17 years. When it isn't a mother, it's always the sister, or female best friend. In so many cases they are also the ones that—due to their persistence and intuition—a crime or cold case is solved.

Not that it doesn't happen, but so, so rarely is it ever a father or a brother who never gives up looking for their lost son, daughter, sister, or brother.

[dailyunsolvedmysteries-movedd]

The Weird Death of Elisa Lam

For her trip to California, Lam travelled alone on Amtrak and intercity buses. She visited the San Diego Zoo and posted photos taken there on social media. On January 26, she arrived in Los Angeles. After two days, she checked into the Cecil Hotel, near downtown’s Skid Row. Lam was initially assigned a shared room on the hotel’s fifth floor; however, her roommates complained about what the hotel’s lawyer would later describe as “certain odd behavior” and Lam was moved to a room of her own after two days.

Lam had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and depression. She had been prescribed four medications – Wellbutrin, Lamictal, Seroquel and Effexor – to treat her disorders. According to her family, who supposedly kept her history of mental illness a secret, Lam had no history of suicidal ideations or attempts, although one report claimed she had previously gone missing for a brief period.

Lam contacted her parents in British Columbia every day while traveling. On February 1, 2013, the day she was scheduled to check out of the Cecil and leave for Santa Cruz, her parents did not hear from her and called the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD); her family flew to Los Angeles to help with the search.

Hotel staff who saw Lam that day said she was alone. Outside the hotel, Katie Orphan, manager of a nearby bookstore, was the only person who recalled seeing her that day. “She was outgoing, very lively, very friendly” while getting gifts to take home to her family.

Police searched the hotel to the extent that they legally could. They searched Lam’s room and had dogs go through the building, including the rooftop, but the dogs were unsuccessful in detecting her scent. “But we didn’t search every room,” Sgt. Rudy Lopez said later, “we could only do that if we had probable cause” to believe a crime had been committed. On February 6, a week after Lam had last been seen, the LAPD decided more help was needed. 

On February 15, after another week with no sign of Lam, the LAPD released a video of the last known sighting of her taken in one of the Cecil’s elevators by a video surveillance camera on February 1. In approximately two and a half minutes of footage, Lam, alone, makes unusual moves and gestures, leaving the elevator at one point while its doors remain open, even after she appears to have pressed every button. When the doors fail to close after she returns, she leaves; the doors close later.

The video drew worldwide interest in the case due to Lam’s strange behavior, and has been extensively analyzed and discussed. It was reposted widely, including on the Chinese video-sharing site Youku, where it got 3 million views and 40,000 comments in its first 10 days. Many of the commentators found it unsettling to watch.

Several theories evolved to explain her actions. One was that Lam was trying to get the elevator car to move in order to escape from someone who was pursuing her. Others suggested that she might be under the influence of ecstasy or some other party drug, but none was detected in her body. When her bipolar disorder became known, the theory that she was having a psychotic episode also emerged.

Other viewers argued that the video had been tampered with before being made public. Besides the obscuring of the timestamp, they claimed, parts had been slowed down and nearly a minute of footage had been removed. This could have been done to protect the identity of someone who otherwise would be in the video, either related or not to the disappearance.

During the search for Lam, guests at the hotel began complaining about low water pressure. Some later claimed their water was colored black and had an unusual taste. On the morning of February 19, Santiago Lopez, a hotel maintenance worker, found Lam’s body in one of four 1,000-gallon (3,785 L) tanks located on the roof providing water to guest rooms, a kitchen, and a coffee shop. Through the open hatch he saw Lam lying face-up in the water. The tank was drained and cut open since its maintenance hatch was too small to accommodate equipment needed to remove Lam’s body.

On February 21, the Los Angeles coroner’s office issued a finding of accidental drowning, with bipolar disorder as a significant factor. The full coroner’s report, released in June, stated that Lam’s body had been found naked;  clothing similar to what she was wearing in the elevator video was floating in the water, coated with a “sand-like particulate”. Her watch and room key were also found with her.

Lam’s body was moderately decomposed and bloated. It was mostly greenish, with some marbling evident on the abdomen and skin separation evident. There was no evidence of physical trauma, sexual assault, or suicide. Toxicology tests showed traces consistent with prescription medication found among her belongings, plus non-prescription drugs such as Sinutab and ibuprofen. A very small quantity of alcohol (about 0.02 g%) was present, but no other recreational drugs. Investigators and experts have however noted that the concentration of her prescription drugs in her system indicated that she was under-medicating or had stopped taking her medications recently.

The investigation had determined how Lam died, but did not initially offer an explanation as to how she got into the tank in the first place. Doors and stairs that access the hotel’s roof are locked, with only staff having the passcodes and keys, and any attempt to force them would supposedly have triggered an alarm. The hotel’s fire escape could have allowed her to bypass those security measures; her scent trail was lost near a window that connected to it. A video posted to the Internet after Lam’s death showed that the hotel’s roof was easily accessible via the fire escape and that two of the lids of the water tanks were open.

Apart from the question of how she got on the roof, others asked if she could have gotten into the tank by herself. All four tanks were 4-by-8-foot (1.2 by 2.4 m) cylinders propped up on concrete blocks;  there was no fixed access to them and hotel workers had to use a ladder to look at the water. They were protected by heavy lids that would be difficult to replace from within. The hotel employee who found the body said that the lid was open at the time, removing the issue of how she could have closed the lid from inside. Police dogs that searched through the hotel for Lam, even on the roof, shortly after her disappearance was noted, did not find any trace of her.

Theories arose pertaining to the elevator video. Some argued that she was attempting to hide from a pursuer, perhaps someone ultimately responsible for her death, while others said she was merely frustrated with the elevator’s apparent malfunction. Some proponents of the theory that she was under the influence of illicit drugs are not dissuaded by their absence from the toxicology screen, suggesting that they might have broken down during the period of time her body decomposed in the tank or that she might have taken rare cocktails of such drugs that a normal screen would not detect. The very low level of her prescription drugs in her system, and the amount of pills left in her prescription bottle, suggested she was under-medicating or had recently stopped taking her medication for bipolar disorder, which might have led to a psychotic episode.

The autopsy report and its conclusions were also questioned based on the incomplete information. For instance, it does not say what the results of the rape kit and fingernail kit were or even if they were processed. It also records subcutaneous pooling of blood in Lam’s anal area, which some observers suggested was a sign of sexual abuse; one pathologist noted it could also have resulted from bloating in the course of the body’s decomposition, and her rectum was also prolapsed. Even the coroner’s pathologists appeared to be ambivalent about their conclusion that Lam’s death was accidental.

Since her death, her Tumblr blog was updated, presumably through Tumblr’s Queue option that allows posts to automatically publish themselves when the user is away. Her phone was not found either with her body or in her hotel room; it has been assumed to have been stolen at some time around her death. Whether the continued updates to her blog were facilitated by the theft of her phone, the work of a hacker, or through the Queue, is not known; nor is it known whether the updates are related to her death.

[chowtrolls]

She's telling him about her elaborate plan to dispose of several dozen bodies in her moirail's garden by turning them into caste-based fertilizer. she may or may not be joking.

Art by @/isa-ah ! Lil dogman is @outsidertrolls zellah

[tani-b-art]

Black and Missing Foundation — linktree

BAMFI — website

::Twitter Facebook Instagram

[follow-up-news]

Nearly three decades after two women were found dead in a national park in Virginia, their killer — a "serial rapist" who died in prison in 2018 — was identified through forensic tests, the FBI said Thursday. DNA tests determined that Walter "Leo" Jackson Sr. killed Laura “Lollie” Winans, 26, and Julianne “Julie” Williams, 24, at Shenandoah National Park on May 24, 1996, the FBI's Richmond Field Office and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Virginia said Thursday in a joint statement.  “After 28 years, we are now able to say who committed the brutal murders,” U.S. Attorney Christopher R. Kavanaugh said in the statement. “I want to again extend my condolences to the Winans and Williams families and hope today’s announcement provides some small measure of solace.”

[gwydpolls]

Suggestions Wanted

A reader suggested a list of unsolved murders along the lines of "Who was Jack the Ripper?"

On consultation with my friends we decided to expand it to disappearances and the occasional murder where we know who did it but because it was so long ago other questions remain.

We brainstormed more than one Time travel poll worth, but not enough for two.

To go on the list:

At least one person needs to have disappeared (with foul play expected. I put Amelia Earhart on a 20th Century list) or been murdered. (I put an early modern case were it's either a serial killing or a mystery animal, which is an edge case, I know).

There needs to be a mystery about it. (Mysteries besides who done it are allowed).

It needs to have happened before 2000. (I would feel like an asshole doing anything more recent.)

Not the Kennedy Assassination. I refuse to do the Kennedy Assassination. Sorry.

[halogalopaghost]

Do you like true crime? How about solving cold cases? Here's one way to help.

The Doe Project is a non-profit volunteer organization founded and run by Todd Matthews, one of the individuals who helped create NamUs, the national missing person's database. They have assisted in solving more than 100 cases nationwide, three of which were just this year. The website is completely open and free for anyone to use. If you fancy yourself an armchair detective, I absolutely recommend checking it out.

What I REALLY want to highlight is that the organization is asking for donations to keep the website updated and running.

The campaign has been running for a year, and as you can see, there have only been 56 donors. That's barely half of the amount of cases they've solved. This website and the work of its volunteers has without a doubt affected far more lives than that, and it should be allowed to continue to grow and thrive. If you want less funding to police, more support for missing persons and cold cases, and a more community-driven approach to crime solving and prevention, you need to be looking out for things like this.

You can use this QR code to donate directly to the cause, or click on this link to get to the page shown above.

Obviously if you can't afford to donate, then don't! Just reblog this post so that others can see it, and maybe the next person can donate enough for the both of you. I'll be donating as soon as I've finished making this post.

If you'd like to learn more about Todd Matthews and how he identified his first cold-case victim that launched his career as a missing persons' advocate, listen to episode four of What Remains, a podcast all about the science and procedure behind solving cold cases.

[misteria247]

Nothing will ever make me break out into goosebumps of fear faster than anything involving ghosts who haunt places and who had been Nuns during their lives.

There's just something so incredibly unnerving about something that's supposed to be holy in nature and symbolic for God in some way, becoming something so incredibly evil and hostile. Like I can deal with ghosts and abandoned buildings and stories involving serial killers or unsolved cold cases or horrific urban legends, but as soon as anything religious enters the playing field I'm like fucking out bruh.

[dailyunsolvedmysteries]

Wales' Bermuda Triangle 

The day was February 4, 1977. It was a normal day at Broad Haven Primary School in Pembrokeshire, Wales. It was normal, that is, until more than a dozen children started telling their teachers that they had seen something “weird” flying around the school. What they saw was described as a silver, cigar-shaped object around 45ft in length. It had a central dome and a red pulsating light on the top and appeared over the trees around the perimeter of the school. What exactly it was has been subject to debate and discussion for more than four decades. One of the 10-year-old boys who saw the object was Dave Davies. Mr Davies, now in his 50s, told the BBC: ��Throughout the day children had come in from playtime saying they had seen a weird object flying around the perimeter of the school. The headmaster thought he was having his leg pulled at the time so he wouldn’t actually go out and have a look. At the end of the day the final bell went and I thought I’d investigate for myself so I went up to the top perimeter of the school and the object popped up from behind some trees. It was about 50ft long, about the size of a bus, with a florescence to it. " The Monday after the sightings at the school the headmaster – understandably sceptical – asked the children to draw an image of what they had seen. Amazingly children who had seen the object at different times all drew very similar depictions of it. Mr Davies said: “The headmaster approached us, isolated the children who had seen the object, and made us draw pictures of what we saw and also a written account. He was very sceptical but the accounts were so similar that there was this resignation that hit him that we had in fact seen something.”

[scienceofreasoning]

Unknown Male DNA in Context: The JonBenet Ramsey Case

Photograph of JonBenet Ramsey. Source: Internet.

In this article, we are exploring the question asked by a television reporter, “So what do we know about the person suspected of killing JonBenet Ramsey? The D.A. says the genetic profile from the DNA belongs to a male."[1]

The available pages of the Bode Technology Group reports stated an unknown male 1 profile. More than one Individual, including the victim. Major and minor contributors. At least one male contributor.[2]

The Answer to the Article Question Raw DNA data, genetic profiles, an electropherogram and other DNA charts do not indicate who the contributors were in the context of the case. A principal, accomplice, accessory, and/or innocent secondary transference by one or more individuals, including JonBenet.

Photograph of an electropherogram. Source: Internet. Not from the JonBenet case.

More investigation is needed to reach the conclusion that the unknown male 1 profile contributor(s) and at least one male contributor are of an assailant. The contributors need to be identified or matched. Once identified or matched, how was their genetic material transferred to the two clothing items? What are their connections to the Ramseys?

Further Research Former F.B.I. Criminal Profiler Pat Brown discusses the Ramsey DNA and cites two parts of one of my articles on the JonBenet case.[3]

An episode of “48 Hours” shows the importance of a full, thorough and complete analysis of how genetic material was transferred when there are two identified or matched contributors of DNA in a case.[4]

President Barack Obama quote. Source: Internet.

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Endnotes

"The List: Who Killed JonBenet? (20/20, January 15, 2021)" The Ramsey Case. Time index 1:11:24 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nM4HLmCiMl0&rco=1

"Comparison of 1997 DNA to 2008 DNA ‘matches’ in One Bode Test" Paula Woodward https://www.paulawoodward.net/dna-evidence/2017/3/2/comparison-of-1997-dna-to-2008-dna-matches-in-one-bode-test

"JonBenet Ramsey: Understanding Touch DNA and Its Relevance to the Crime" Profiling with Pat Brown https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsN8M-qFvQM&t=346s

"Blood in the Sand" CBS News https://www.cbsnews.com/video/torrey-pines-blood-in-the-sand/

Copyright (c) 2024 Phil Richard. All rights reserved.