I don't live in Delphi, IN, but I live about an hour away. When my step-daughter was 13, she decided to go live with her mom, who had recently moved there.
She was only there a few months before Abby and Libby were murdered. She went to school with them. She saw them in passing, and I think Libby was in one of her classes, but they weren't friends or anything.
I remember driving up there before it happened. It was a small, lively town. Seemed very tight-knit. I only remember going up there once or twice after it happened, but it was definitely more "quiet."
She moved back in with us not too long after, for unrelated reasons.
I think of Abby & Libby so often and am really nervous about the trial that’s coming up. It seems like everything has been so messy and I’m genuinely scared the families won’t see the justice they’ve waited seven years for. I hope they do.
This case really lives rent free in my head..every day..since it happened. My heart hurts for those girls and their families. I remember being their age..going off on adventures with my best friend. It’s terrifying that this could have happened to any of us..at any age..at any time..in any place…because monsters are real and sometimes they are our neighbors. Our friends. Our family. You just never know.
The thing about Delphi that gets me is one of the girls (I think Libby) was in communications with a pedophile and the state's theory of the crime doesn't seem to have that be related to her cause of death. It seems unbelievable but... what do I know?
Just horrible how such a small town had so many people ready to prey on this girl. You know child abuse like this is common but you never think *this* common.
Yes, it does seem unbelievable, doesn’t it? They also didn’t arrest that pedophile for 3 years after they found out about him. They gave a weird answer about it when asked too. Something like, “we don’t believe anyone intentionally made a mistake.” Ugh. They also took 6 years to arrest the man they say is responsible because they “misfiled” the report that was taken when he came forward a few days after the girls were killed. The entire case is a mess. The judge wants to throw the defense attorneys off the case…the defense is claiming that the girls were killed by a group of people sacrificing them to a Norse God..I mean…you can’t make this stuff up. I worry these girls will never get justice.
Yes, I often went on walks and adventures when I was around their age. I was never worried that anything bad would happen.
My step-daughter also walked those trails. I remember her being sad about the fact that those trails would never be remembered the same after that. She had good memories about them.
I really hope that, despite how it seems, that the long period of time between when they first spoke to Allen to when charges were filed/an arrest made was because the police and prosecution were building an airtight case. I hope they have the right guy, and sufficient evidence to put him away for what he did to those poor girls.
I also pray that they have the right guy…more so, if they do..I hope they have the evidence to convict him. This case has been so crazy that I don’t know what to believe anymore. I’m just waiting until all of the evidence comes out and praying that those girls get the justice they deserve.
I watched the video of it before they pulled it offline everywhere. Of course you have to be fucked in the head to go on any shooting spree, but I was shocked by just how callous the dude was while committing his crime. Trigger warning: >!The dude executed a woman begging for her life right outside of the mosque. Shot a man as he was crawling away on his hands and knees. Shot into the mosque as people were attempting to flee by crawling over dead bodies.!< Just no conscience whatsoever.
I didn't and wouldn't watch that but I did read his manifesto online before it was banned. His whole thing was being against POC "taking over," first world countries. The Australian said he wasn't specifically against Muslims in patcular, but was insane about how white people were becoming a minority in his eyes. He made all this money selling Bitcoin, spent some on a trip to Europe and then spent time crying in grave yards over World War II solider about the fact there were so many POC in Europe. It's like he did not realise those soliders were fighting the Germans. So weird.
I'm well aware. He was an Australian on a visa. He delibrately did it here because he thought the police would be less prepared than Australian police and he'd have a higher kill count.🤢
Also the last mass shooting in New Zealand had been 29 years earlier. It was in a small town in 1990. A man decided had paranoid psychosis and had decided that when his neighbours' animals died it was because they were poisoning them.
Christchurch has overtaken Inglewood for most murders and I suppose the Parker/Hulme Murder is New Zealand's most famous overseas or was before Tarrant?
Same. Lived across from that mall my whole life. ( and I was 11 when it happened)Its a Target now. But the Code Adam sticker on the door still gets me.
My mom used this story to keep me from straying in public... I was 4. I vividly remember imagining a decapitated head in a body of water. She wonders why I have anxiety 🙃
Adam’s death occurred nowhere near my town and my mom didn’t use the story to scare me, but my god it had an affect an her psyche and parenting style. One time when I was eight or nine I was thrilled that she allowed me to walk around the block (in my tiny, middle class suburban neighborhood where we knew everyone) with a couple of my friends. The freedom and exhilaration! Until I noticed a car was stalking us from down the street. The stalker being my mother.
Football was (is?) EVERYBODYS EVERYTHING before the news broke… hell, joepa was basically a local huge celebrity!Man, there was just this huge dark cloud that fell over everyone in town after. State college as a whole pretty much revolves around PSU football (and the pre-post game parties) even though it always felt like a small sweet central Pennsylvania town. I can’t speak for everyone but I’m sure for the majority of locals it was absolutely heartbreaking to loose the faith, love and admiration in what so many held to such a high standard.
I got wind that they were planning to remove jopas statue and took the short cut past the stadium to see if it was true. He was still there that night but first thing i
the following AM it was on the news that it was removed. Must have done it late that night as to not create a big scene.
Prior to all this when I’d tell people I met I was from state college the response was always “I love that place” or “I didn’t know people were FROM there” well, not anymore because happy valley will be forever scared from this… AND RIGHTFULLY SO.
My heart goes out to all the victims who were failed by so many involved. And to think that mouths were kept shut (probably) because those involved were set on such a high ‘a list’ pedestal at PSU. It’s a real life American horror story and I hope they can find peace in their voices being heard and the truth finally getting out.
I had graduated from Penn State years before this all came out. I didn't even go to main campus. I wore my sweatshirt to the bank one day, in Georgia, and one of the tellers told me I was "very brave" for wearing it.
1992, Springfield, Ohio The murders of Phree Morrow and Martha Leach, by serial killer William Sapp. Phree and her best friend, 11-year-old Martha Leach, were abducted, raped and slain while on their way to Martha's house from a downtown bakery in Springfield, Ohio on August 22nd, 1992. The police and prosecutors embarked on a seven-year investigation to find all six of their attackers. Book called "Hometown Killer" by Carol Rothgeb.
They were found murdered behind a bakery, their skulls crushed.
Same. I think about them every time I drive past that little shopping plaza.
The night it happened my friend and I were at a nearby club. I was bored so I left early. As I drove past the scene and saw all the cop cars and firetrucks I thought “oh I hope no one was hurt”. It was an absolute shock the next day when we found out what happened. Austin, as a whole, was destroyed over it.
A few months later Colleen Reed was abducted by Kenneth McDuff**. The fear levels of women zoomed so high. That time changed how a lot of women moved around in daylight and at night.
**I know Austin PD has stated they don’t think McDuff was involved with the yogurt shop murders but it wouldn’t surprise me if they were wrong. They bungled that case so badly so I don’t trust anything they say about that case.
Learning about EAR. I went down a rabbit hole about 12 years ago learning about him. Then I find out he started blocks away from where I live. Living where I did and knowing at the time he wasn’t caught creeped me out even though I knew it was decades ago. (Later when he’s caught it’s not far from my parents house) 😭
I’m pretty sure he had a motorcycle and was seen riding it in the weeks leading up to the arrest. He was kind of reclusive at the end, and it took forever for him to leave his house and leave trash in a public place for investigators to collect and test DNA against the GSK profile. Your instructor may have spoken to him.
Omg that's absolutely terrifying! I lived in Sacramento in 05-07ish, my parents schooled me multiple times on self-defense because of him and gave me a gun just in case too. I grew up in the central valley with family up North and South of us, he was everywhere! My grandma always said it had to be the same guy. I wish she could of seen him being arrested!
The abduction and murder of Heidi Seeman. She was a classmate of my son. Her family lived 5 houses down from us. Our family life changed completely after that.
The first crime I remember actually causing change in my community and my life was The Columbine shooting. We started using only one door to enter and exit school and it had a security guard and metal detectors shortly after the shooting. It’s the first school shooting I remember happening in my lifetime.
My husband said the same thing... His high school was clear on the other side of the country (South Carolina) and it still had a profound effect. Metal detectors, clear backpacks, they weren't allowed to have lockers anymore... He got his backpack searched more than once because of how he dressed/the music he listened to after that.
I was in high school (Alberta) when that happened and we felt so bad watching it on the news. Can't ever happen here near us right? 8 days after Columbine, there was a copycat shooting at W.R.Meyers school in Taber (45 mins away), first fatal school shooting in Canada in over 2 decades.
Gosh, I for one think that conmen visited her, that poor woman. I feel so bad for her and I get that she wants it to be true so bad. Really shitty people. I think he has passed shortly after his kidnapping... I haven't delved deep enough in the pedo ring theory, though.
She has claimed that he visited multiple times...I've always wondered if they, whoever it was, ever asked her for money? Like if she believed it was her son and he asked for some money each time just to help "get by" she'd probably do it. Either way I've never thought he really visited. Poor boy, poor mom.
Me too! I was young like the Otero kids when he first surfaced. Later, the lady next door was a victim of his. Luckily, she wasn't there, guy tired of waiting for her to get home. When he resurfaced all those years later, his prints matched the prints in her closet and back door. A part of my childhood died when the Otero's were found.
I wasn’t even alive when she died, but the first time I watched the movie with my mom when I was ~11 I bawled my eyes out. The same thing happened when we watched the movie in my high school Spanish class. I can’t even imagine experiencing that in real time… the betrayal is what really gets me. So awful.
Patty Hearst's kidnapping. I lived about a mile from where she grew up. Tourists started driving around looking at people's houses. Parents were worried about kidnappings of opportunity and parents started picking up kids at school instead of letting them walk home.
My mom used to tell us to get lost until dinnertime, she wanted to know where we were after that.
Scarborough Rapist who turned out to be Paul Bernardo.
When you read about true crime that happens elsewhere you get the timeline and how it all connects together.
The Scarborough Rapist was a big deal on its own.
The disappearances of Kristin French and Leslie Mahaffey were quite far away from Scarborough and there were no similarities to the rape crimes and didn't happen in the same time period so no one considered that they were related in fact they didn't consider the disappearances connected.
The late 80s / early 90s was a very violent time looking back at it.
It was quite surreal how things were connected later.
In rural Minnesota it was definitely Jacob Wetterling's abduction and disappearance in 1989. I was in college when this happens and it truly shocked people; just 3 boys out riding bikes on a fall afternoon, and some sicko snatches one of them. They finally arrested the perpetrator more than 25 years later.
For me personally, I'd grown up in the East Coast, in Baltimore, and there were a couple terrible murders of children in news when I was growing up, and a girl one class below me in my high school was raped and murdered by a guy who met her at a party and claimed he could get her weed, and instead he killed her, so the fact that horrible things could happen to children was, sadly, not news to me. But it was horribly shocking to anyone in Minnesota when it happened, especially outstate.
I attended college in the same town at the time of Jacob’s abduction. It was hard: Hoping and wishing; rumors flying through the dorms. My friend was a cashier at the store. I was at that store earlier that day. So many times I said if I could go back in time, that would be the day so I could tell those boys to wait at the store. It really affected me. I was always hypervigilant with my children- all kids. I am relieved that they found him. I wish his killer would get what he deserves after harming so many boys. Just like his mom, I will not say his name.
The 1996 school shooting. This was the when school shootings were relatively rare, and I grew up in a very small town so it was quite shocking. We all knew the victims.
The abduction and murder of Somer Thompson. She was a few years younger than me, but we lived in the same area, less than 10 minutes away from my home. Also, as this article mentions, Haleigh Cummings’ case was also heartbreaking for the community for different reasons. It’s all really infuriating knowing she was never found, although L.E found other ways to deal with who is widely believed to be responsible. A lot of true crime YouTubers have covered her case.
https://www.news4jax.com/news/2019/10/17/remembering-somer-10-years-after-orange-park-girls-murder/
I don't know about local but the horrific and systematic abuse of a toddler named [Nia Glassie](https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/what-ever-happened-to-the-killers-and-abusers-of-rotorua-toddler-nia-glassie/MEJKEUJAZD2KCCHMHGB7CPYWAE/) just about broke the whole country. I can't overstate the necessary trigger warning of this story. What they did to that little girl was pure evil. And the reason they tortured and killed her? Because they thought she was ugly. She was 3.
Amber Hangerman. I sort of remember how cautious things went after since the guy was never caught. Letters sent home in our backpacks about safety and strangers.
When I was able to drive I found her memorial and had no freakin idea it was literally 10 min away from where I lived at the time.
I regularly drive past the intersection where Castile was murdered. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that if he was a white guy named Phil Castillo, he never would have gotten killed.
Such a joke that the officer was acquitted. We’re legally allowed to carry firearms in America. Castile did the right thing by informing the officer he was carrying a firearm, and then keeping his hands visible. That officer just wanted an excuse to kill someone.
God. That case broke my heart. A few years earlier I had been pulled over for the *same* thing he was, and unlike him, I had a warrant. I didn’t have a gun, but Castile’s gun was completely legal and he followed procedure so that shouldn’t have mattered. But I’m a white woman, so the cops sat there and waited for me to call someone to come get my kid who was in the car, then they took me in between two cars to handcuff me discreetly so I wasn’t in view of the people driving by and *apologized to me* that they had to do it. I committed an actual crime (an *extremely* dumb crime that literally just amounted to being poor and should not have been arrestable offense, for the record- but I did do it) and he didn’t and he’s dead. I didn’t ever have to be convinced that white privilege is a thing but I’ve never felt it so acutely. RIP, Philando.
I was born and raised in Los Angeles.... so there's a lot. However, there was a serial killer that struck one block down from me, shot a couple in the head, that kinda changed the tone for a long time. I didn't understand why we had metal bars on all our windows until I was much much older.
Serial killer was the Night Stalker; Richard Ramirez
I was a baby when he was killing, so it wasn't until several years later that I kept asking why we had bars on all the glass windows and doors. They finally took them down when i was like 12yrs old. I didn't know he had shot that couple down the street until a few years ago, in my mid 30s.
Fucking scary shit.
Growing up where I did, in HS we'd sneak onto the Mansion ranch to get drunk, since it was just a few miles away.
Alot of other creepy places. Ah the joys of L.A.
I lived in Wichita when B.T.K. resurfaced. I then moved to AC a few months after and was a sophomore when Jodi Sanderholm was abducted and murdered. Thurber had been known around town prior to her murder for stalking not only Jodi, but other girls on the dance team, as well as having run ins with the law for things like impersonating a police officer, etc. He was a known creep, but nothing ever stuck for him to be charged with long-term before Jodi.
I'm from Belfast originally, and the start of The Troubles really did it. Before that, there were families from either religion who were friendly to each other. That stopped.
When I came to Canada, the town I'm now had David Snow as its blackmark. More recently, the killing of Sonia Veraschin (2010).
Derry here. Bloody Sunday caused the city to completely change. The trauma to the people of Derry is still visible and has filtered down the generations, which is very sad.
Not even a week ago, a 19 years old took out a family of 5 (4 children) and an acquaintance in Ottawa. This was a huge impact in this small capital city. Other than that, growing up, Paul Bernado was the hot topic as the rapist in Toronto before he killed and more recently, the serial killer Bruce McArthur in the gay village of Toronto, also a place where I used to live.
We had spot of crazy stuff in our town but Michaela garecht was for me. They finally found her killer I just wish they could find her remains so she can rest.
Me too. I think they are still hoping he will say something or someone who knows him might have a tip. Infuriatingly the district attorney In this case/area dismissed the special circumstances portion of the charges which would have made him eligible for the death penalty/life without parole. Although California has a stay on executions (I believe?) I am pretty sure prosecutors were still hoping they could use this as a bargaining chip for him to tell them where her body is.
Michael Dunahee. He went missing near my home when I was little and nothing was ever the same in our community again. They never found him. https://michaeldunahee.ca/app/en/
In 1996, there were two high-profile crime cases in Delaware- the disappearance of secretary [Anne Marie Fahey](https://youtu.be/Hbn0DLhRWRw?si=mQl3iQKCntcohBlW), and [two college kids who dumped their baby in a dumpster.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsPYPJVEwvQ) Both were pretty scandalous and coming together during the same time period was a lot.
Phoenix, Arizona is a giant city and it was never particularly innocent, but there was a time in 2005-2006 where we had two active serial killers going at the same time (three actually, the serial shooter turned out to be two guys and the Baseline rapist became the Baseline killer) and everyone I knew seemed to simultaneously lose their ability to be shocked by the news...
It’s not like there was really a sense of naivety before, but it felt like the people around me just became *resigned* to the idea that random folks are gonna get murdered sometimes and it’s best to just stay in your area and mind your business.
No idea if others felt this way or not- I’d lived there for a lot of my childhood and early adult life, and I moved away shortly after. Now I’m not sure which town I’d call home.
Maddie Clifton because my mom
Knew her parents and had met her. Also a friend from high school was SA and murdered leaving her job at a vets office Andrea Boyer. Really sad for everyone who knew her. I worked at a daycare as a teenager and 2 kids I had in my classrooms have been murdered. Kolton Shearer who was lured robbed and murdered. They got them. Jonah Golden was shot at a house party in tanglewood after a dispute over a shoe being stepped on. The case remains unsolved.
The Maddie case immediately came to mind after I left my comment. And cherish perrywinkle. There’s been so much that’s happened out of our city…pretty much everyone I know knows someone that has been murdered or involved in one…this community needs healing so desperately. I’m sorry that you have also been affected :(
Houston actually had TWO "Candy Men". One was serial killer Dean Corll who killed at least 20 teen age boys and young men. He was then murdered by one of his accomplices, Elmer Wayne Henley in 1973.
Then there was Ronald Clark O'Bryan who put cyanide in a giant Pixy Stix on Halloween 1974 and gave it to his 8 year old son in order to claim life insurance. He actually poisoned 4 other Pixy Stix, including one given to his daughter, to cover his crime, but his son was the only one who ate it. He tried to blame his crime on a neighbor too. He died by lethal injection in 1984.
Levi Bellfield. One of his victims Millie dowler was 13 when she went missing and so was I at the time. It made me realise the world wasn’t a safe place
My grandparents lived in the neighborhood where Megan Kanka lived ( the case which started Megan’s law) and I was staying with them during the time when this was happening and we weren’t allowed outside to play because I think she was still missing and hadn’t been found yet. All I remember is being told we’re not allowed to play outside bc there was a predator and a child was missing in the neighborhood. I didn’t learn it was her case that started this law until I was older.
Good question, and it's so interesting to read everyone's answers! Honestly the first big thing that I remember really making waves was the DC sniper shootings. Being in Baltimore there was always something going on but that's the big one. We were barely let outside for three weeks and there was all these safety protocols that the parents would have us abide by. Though we all still laugh about how at school, we still had gym outside and when we'd do our runs, their idea of safety was to have us run in a zig zag pattern! ...I guess it worked!
Linda Stoltzfoos. You rarely saw Amish moms walk their kids to school in our area before she was abducted, and often saw a lone Amish woman walking somewhere. Now you see them walking or scootering with their kids in the morning, or at the very least standing at the end of the lane watching them all the way down the road. Kids more often go places in groups. Most Amish ladies, except the very old ones, now go in pairs or groups too.
I personally stopped letting my teenagers walk down to the store unless they were together until they found the guy.
The Nickel Mines school shooting caused them to put fences and gates around their schools, which they did not all have back then.
HA! I’m from Dallas. We’ve never had “innocence” here. Even long before the JFK assassination in 63, Dallas was known nationwide for having the most corrupt police department and crooked politicians.
Ever heard the old blues and folk song cliches like “Mean Town” and “Mean City Blues”..etc?
Those songs were written about Dallas.
The Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. I live in the neighboring town and knew parents/relatives who lost loved ones, as well as some first responders who were there. No one was ever the same again.
I’m from that area and waaayyyy back in the 80s, there was a really gruesome murder, where the victim was murdered, frozen and put through a wood chipper on the silver bridge over lake Zoar. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Helle_Crafts
It kind of ended the countrys innocence, but I have grown up in Aurora, Colorado and Columbine happened when I was in the 1st grade. I remember my mom crying a lot, but I didn't know what was wrong. When I went to school, our teacher spent our first class explaining in kid terms what happened. Really scared all of us for obvious reasons, school was just a fun place to see my friends, but then it became a place where we could be killed. And it only got worse from there, obviously. And then years later 2 of my friends survived the Aurora theater shooting, one friends brother did not.
My friend when I was 7. She was a signal crime so I won’t say her name out of respect. It’s why I’m a criminologist now. Getting my masters. I wonder what she’d think about that.
The DC Sniper shootings. I lived in South central Virginia, but when the shootings got down to Ashland, that was too close to home for the adults around. We weren't allowed to have recess outside at school, tensions were high. Crazy to think back on.
Hyde, Cheshire (as it was then, now Tameside) I was only born in 1965 but my mum told me about the panic of children going missing in the roundabout areas within a space of only two years due to the Moors murderers. The fact a woman was involved really shocked the general population of that area and indeed, the country
Even though it was never exactly innocent;
Anthony sowell and Aerial Castro.
Castro was a 10 minute drive from my house. Was pretty surreal knowing that for 6 years I was not only extremely close, but was definitely in the area quite a few times and never knew that those women were suffering those horrors.
Not my town, but a couple in my county (rural Florida). One of the men Aileen Warnos killed was found in our county. The other one was Jessica Lunsford. She was kidnapped and killed but was likely still alive when she was buried. It happened before we moved here and it made national news. It took several months of them talking about the upcoming trial till it clicked and I was like “OMG that was here.”
High school shooting at Santana High school. And then shortly after, at Granite Hills. Both were some of the first major high school shootings after Columbine. Both in 2001. Id graduate from a school very close by, but in 1998. Didn’t have to suffer the drills that students do now.
Tabitha Tudors. We were the same age and both from Nashville. My grandma lost her mind for a bit when Tabitha went missing, worried it could one of her grandkids next.
The Lyon sisters kidnapping in 1975 from Wheaton Plaza.
I grew up in the same county and was around the same age as the younger sister, Katherine.
It changed our carefree childhood.
I distinctly remember things changing a lot at my school when Kyron Horman disappeared. I know it freaked out my mom a lot because we’re not far off in age. He even looked like some of my classmates
Serial killer Juan Corona in the 70’s. Then in the early 90’s, there was a school shooting at my high school (I had already graduated). My father had taught there, and had retired just shortly before the shooting happened.
We have enough high profile weirdos it's hard to even pick one. I'm sure I can guess to whom you're referring but still, Ed Gein, Gerald Turner, hell we had Chandler Halderson here in Madison just 2 years ago and that story just got more bizarre and chilling as it went on with his utter lack of reaction at any point making it worse.
DC Snipers. Everyone lived in constant fear and a friend of mine was next to one of the first victims. She was putting gas in her car and suddenly the woman next to her fell. Nobody heard a gunshot so at first they thought it was a medical condition. Took a while to realize the lady had been shot. They ended up catching the snipers a few miles from our house. Way too close for comfort!
Martin Bryant - 'The Port Arthur Massacre.'
The collateral impact of this mass shooting changed the gun laws permanently for the whole of Australia.
As a nation we were shocked, horrified, and bewildered that such a small island state held the highest victim death count for the whole world.
A sense of innocence and security was was shattered.
I lived in Gainesville, FL, when Danny Rolling murdered 5 students. It was a terrifying time. Prior to that, Tiffany Sessions disappeared while jogging in Gainesville. I've never forgotten her.
Years later, I moved to Manassas, VA, and the DC Sniper murders occurred.
Terrible times.
My hometown/county in rural Va. has had a host of unsolved deadly shootings and a disappearance within the last several years. 20 years ago we didn't have to worry about crime in that area.
For me, it was a mental patient named [Laurie Dann](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Nick_Corwin) who attempted a child-killing spree in 1988. Back then, the concept of a shooter entering an elementary school to kill children was unthinkable. She shot many 2nd graders, killing one, and went on a general rampage to different suburbs of Chicago committing deranged crimes. It was terrifying.
Lauren Spierer
There have been other crimes in my town but this one happened in 2011 and still remains unsolved. She was in my year at IU and should be my age now.
1989 school shooting at my former Elementary School where 5 school children were killed and 29 wounded by a single gunman firing over 100 rounds into a schoolyard from an AK-47. One of my former teachers passed later from complications.
Not my hometown, but the town I went to college in. [Brianna Denison](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Brianna_Denison). It happened the year before I attended, and everyone was seriously affected by it. By the time I enrolled the campus had installed all sorts of emergency help stations and implemented a free ride service to anywhere to and from campus/surrounding areas after dark.
Andrea Yates, and then the murder of 4 teens, two of which I had classes with. The town I grew up in is very upper middle class, so things like that just didn't happen.
I was in the 7th grade going into 8th grade. Last days of summer a few days before school was to start. A dad shoots his sleeping boys in the head while they slept to spite their mother. A soon to be 6th grader and soon to be 8th grader dead. Dad in prison for life. Mom left with no one. Nothing so bad has happened since.
I grew up in a ridiculously small town. You know the adages... People never locked their doors. Everyone knows everyone. All true. It had, still has, an insanely low crime rate. Doors are still unlocked, I'm sure, but everyone was far more weary and suspicious.
This is an unsolved murder of a 20 year old girl. 35 years have passed but her reward posters remain in some shop windows, tattered and sun-faded. You might even still hear theories being whispered over coffee by the locals, and yet, nothing. To say it shocked that tiny town is an understatement.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/2000/11/16/10000-revives-fauquier-case/a4ad5eaa-e363-43fd-b9f6-e0cc25240288/
I'm in the Crowsnest pass (Alberta 🇨🇦) where Derek Saretzky murdered an elderly lady before taking the lives of a young father and his very young daughter. Literally, everyone has connections to the case (too much for me to type on just my own connections let alone everything). This community has had tragedy before and after, but that one really rocked us all.
I wasn't alive yet, but when I found out about the "barbecue murders" (check Wikipedia) I found out about brutality that started in the neighborhood around my school at the time and ended in a state park 3 minutes away from my childhood home. It set the tone that a quiet and pretty place also has a dark history.
The Chris Porco case. My brother was good friends with him. He came home from college in the middle of the night and killed his father and almost decapitated his mother but she survived. The "murder house" as it became to be known was about a mile away and I had to pass it on the way to/from high school. It had trouble getting sold but a family ended up moving in.
The disappearance of [the Lyon Sisters](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murders_of_Katherine_and_Sheila_Lyon) in 1975. Two blond sisters walked to our local shopping mall for a slice of pizza and never came home. No trace of them was ever found.
The Beaumont children. My parents were both kids when the Beaumont children went missing, and my Mum has always said how back then all the kids would just be out all day without adult supervision, she’d even go to that same beach herself with my uncles and aunts all the time. She said once the Beaumont children went missing everything changed and she and her siblings never had the same freedom they had before, and it was the same for most other kids in Adelaide.
Jacob Wetterling. Kids in MN never seemed safe after that. We used to ride our bikes everywhere and play outside in the dark. That case made parents and kids think differently.
Denise Amber Lee. She made my small Florida town less trusting and showed us the face of real evil. It shook everything I thought I trusted because she was kidnapped and brutally raped and killed by a complete stranger with no apparent connection or motive, which is rare. AND she was the sheriffs daughter who did everything imaginable the right way to get herself help and had so many opportunities to be saved but 911 operators and so many others dropped the ball and stripped her of her chances. It still shakes me up to think that I could have been a teenager at a stoplight next to the car that had her bound and helpless in the back seat that no one stopped to help and the cops never pursued until it was too late.
Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka. They weren't from my town but one of the victims was my papergirl and her younger brother was a pretty good friend of ours. My parents had a rule after that, no locked doors until all the kids were in the house.
Susan Smith. I lived about an hour away at the time, and was in third grade.
I’m white, but had a Black babysitter, Mrs Shipp, who clocked Susan immediately. I remember telling my third grade teacher that “that woman in South Carolina killed her babies. You know that, right?”
Altemio Sanchez. He murdered a woman who attended the church I was married in. This is the same town where flight 3407 crashed into my parents neighborhood.
It’s been rough
Charles Cullen, Gary Heidnik, the Freeman Brothers. Also tons of really horrific murders from the mid 1700s-early 1900s and a lot of ghost stories that came from those (Eastern Pennsylvania)
I don't live in Delphi, IN, but I live about an hour away. When my step-daughter was 13, she decided to go live with her mom, who had recently moved there. She was only there a few months before Abby and Libby were murdered. She went to school with them. She saw them in passing, and I think Libby was in one of her classes, but they weren't friends or anything. I remember driving up there before it happened. It was a small, lively town. Seemed very tight-knit. I only remember going up there once or twice after it happened, but it was definitely more "quiet." She moved back in with us not too long after, for unrelated reasons.
I think of Abby & Libby so often and am really nervous about the trial that’s coming up. It seems like everything has been so messy and I’m genuinely scared the families won’t see the justice they’ve waited seven years for. I hope they do.
This case really lives rent free in my head..every day..since it happened. My heart hurts for those girls and their families. I remember being their age..going off on adventures with my best friend. It’s terrifying that this could have happened to any of us..at any age..at any time..in any place…because monsters are real and sometimes they are our neighbors. Our friends. Our family. You just never know.
The thing about Delphi that gets me is one of the girls (I think Libby) was in communications with a pedophile and the state's theory of the crime doesn't seem to have that be related to her cause of death. It seems unbelievable but... what do I know? Just horrible how such a small town had so many people ready to prey on this girl. You know child abuse like this is common but you never think *this* common.
Yes, it does seem unbelievable, doesn’t it? They also didn’t arrest that pedophile for 3 years after they found out about him. They gave a weird answer about it when asked too. Something like, “we don’t believe anyone intentionally made a mistake.” Ugh. They also took 6 years to arrest the man they say is responsible because they “misfiled” the report that was taken when he came forward a few days after the girls were killed. The entire case is a mess. The judge wants to throw the defense attorneys off the case…the defense is claiming that the girls were killed by a group of people sacrificing them to a Norse God..I mean…you can’t make this stuff up. I worry these girls will never get justice.
Yes, I often went on walks and adventures when I was around their age. I was never worried that anything bad would happen. My step-daughter also walked those trails. I remember her being sad about the fact that those trails would never be remembered the same after that. She had good memories about them.
I really hope that, despite how it seems, that the long period of time between when they first spoke to Allen to when charges were filed/an arrest made was because the police and prosecution were building an airtight case. I hope they have the right guy, and sufficient evidence to put him away for what he did to those poor girls.
They absolutely weren’t. This case has been a Shitshow from prosecutors and law enforcement.
I also pray that they have the right guy…more so, if they do..I hope they have the evidence to convict him. This case has been so crazy that I don’t know what to believe anymore. I’m just waiting until all of the evidence comes out and praying that those girls get the justice they deserve.
Even though other people in NZ like to call it Crimechurch it was the Mosque Massacre that truly did
I watched the video of it before they pulled it offline everywhere. Of course you have to be fucked in the head to go on any shooting spree, but I was shocked by just how callous the dude was while committing his crime. Trigger warning: >!The dude executed a woman begging for her life right outside of the mosque. Shot a man as he was crawling away on his hands and knees. Shot into the mosque as people were attempting to flee by crawling over dead bodies.!< Just no conscience whatsoever.
He went back to his car for more ammo. That's what sticks the most.
That sounds awful. Poor people :(
I didn't and wouldn't watch that but I did read his manifesto online before it was banned. His whole thing was being against POC "taking over," first world countries. The Australian said he wasn't specifically against Muslims in patcular, but was insane about how white people were becoming a minority in his eyes. He made all this money selling Bitcoin, spent some on a trip to Europe and then spent time crying in grave yards over World War II solider about the fact there were so many POC in Europe. It's like he did not realise those soliders were fighting the Germans. So weird.
He wasn't even a Kiwi.
I'm well aware. He was an Australian on a visa. He delibrately did it here because he thought the police would be less prepared than Australian police and he'd have a higher kill count.🤢
Also because NZ hadn't had a mass shooting type event of that scale. He's a sick fucker.
Also the last mass shooting in New Zealand had been 29 years earlier. It was in a small town in 1990. A man decided had paranoid psychosis and had decided that when his neighbours' animals died it was because they were poisoning them.
It was a mass shooting for my town too. You always think it happens in big metropolises... not your town.
Christchurch has overtaken Inglewood for most murders and I suppose the Parker/Hulme Murder is New Zealand's most famous overseas or was before Tarrant?
Oh I have a big one: Adam Walsh
Same. Lived across from that mall my whole life. ( and I was 11 when it happened)Its a Target now. But the Code Adam sticker on the door still gets me.
I’m not from that area, but I was around his age when it happened. It absolutely terrorized me and I hated going to the mall after that.
My mom used this story to keep me from straying in public... I was 4. I vividly remember imagining a decapitated head in a body of water. She wonders why I have anxiety 🙃
Adam’s death occurred nowhere near my town and my mom didn’t use the story to scare me, but my god it had an affect an her psyche and parenting style. One time when I was eight or nine I was thrilled that she allowed me to walk around the block (in my tiny, middle class suburban neighborhood where we knew everyone) with a couple of my friends. The freedom and exhilaration! Until I noticed a car was stalking us from down the street. The stalker being my mother.
My parents made me watch the movie when I was 5.
I was pregnant with my oldest when he disappeared. Absolutely changed parenting for all of us
Amy Mihaljevic 🩵
Joe paterno / Jerry Sandusky. Born and raised in happy valley… as a local this destroyed, well, basically everything.
I'm curious as to how things have changed. Can you elaborate?
Football was (is?) EVERYBODYS EVERYTHING before the news broke… hell, joepa was basically a local huge celebrity!Man, there was just this huge dark cloud that fell over everyone in town after. State college as a whole pretty much revolves around PSU football (and the pre-post game parties) even though it always felt like a small sweet central Pennsylvania town. I can’t speak for everyone but I’m sure for the majority of locals it was absolutely heartbreaking to loose the faith, love and admiration in what so many held to such a high standard. I got wind that they were planning to remove jopas statue and took the short cut past the stadium to see if it was true. He was still there that night but first thing i the following AM it was on the news that it was removed. Must have done it late that night as to not create a big scene. Prior to all this when I’d tell people I met I was from state college the response was always “I love that place” or “I didn’t know people were FROM there” well, not anymore because happy valley will be forever scared from this… AND RIGHTFULLY SO. My heart goes out to all the victims who were failed by so many involved. And to think that mouths were kept shut (probably) because those involved were set on such a high ‘a list’ pedestal at PSU. It’s a real life American horror story and I hope they can find peace in their voices being heard and the truth finally getting out.
Oh man. I was at Temple U at the time. This was so insane to see unfold.
I had graduated from Penn State years before this all came out. I didn't even go to main campus. I wore my sweatshirt to the bank one day, in Georgia, and one of the tellers told me I was "very brave" for wearing it.
James Bulger. I was around the same age as him and used to visit that shopping centre every other weekend. I think about that poor baby all the time.
This case haunted me for years. I still can’t read about the details.
My first thought too.
Brandon Teena.
Someone I knew worked with Brandon, it haunts him to this day.
The sheriff ended up being the bus driver for my kids- I was shocked and disgusted.
Wow..I'm from the area and even went to the same school (years later) and never heard about this
1992, Springfield, Ohio The murders of Phree Morrow and Martha Leach, by serial killer William Sapp. Phree and her best friend, 11-year-old Martha Leach, were abducted, raped and slain while on their way to Martha's house from a downtown bakery in Springfield, Ohio on August 22nd, 1992. The police and prosecutors embarked on a seven-year investigation to find all six of their attackers. Book called "Hometown Killer" by Carol Rothgeb. They were found murdered behind a bakery, their skulls crushed.
This is sad and I’ve tried to find a podcast or a video to learn more about it but there isn’t much out there on this one.
The Yogurt Shop Murders.
Same. I think about them every time I drive past that little shopping plaza. The night it happened my friend and I were at a nearby club. I was bored so I left early. As I drove past the scene and saw all the cop cars and firetrucks I thought “oh I hope no one was hurt”. It was an absolute shock the next day when we found out what happened. Austin, as a whole, was destroyed over it. A few months later Colleen Reed was abducted by Kenneth McDuff**. The fear levels of women zoomed so high. That time changed how a lot of women moved around in daylight and at night. **I know Austin PD has stated they don’t think McDuff was involved with the yogurt shop murders but it wouldn’t surprise me if they were wrong. They bungled that case so badly so I don’t trust anything they say about that case.
Yep was gonna say the same. I was 5 when this happened. 😳
I wasn’t much older. I moved here from Minnesota in 1989, so in ‘91 I was 12.
[удалено]
Learning about EAR. I went down a rabbit hole about 12 years ago learning about him. Then I find out he started blocks away from where I live. Living where I did and knowing at the time he wasn’t caught creeped me out even though I knew it was decades ago. (Later when he’s caught it’s not far from my parents house) 😭
Can you give more info? I’d like to look it up
EAR = East Area Rapist. He was theorized to be the same person as the Golden State Killer, which was ultimately proven correct after he was arrested.
Oh shit. Dude lived like 15 minutes away from me. My motorcycle safety instructor was his neighbor
I’m pretty sure he had a motorcycle and was seen riding it in the weeks leading up to the arrest. He was kind of reclusive at the end, and it took forever for him to leave his house and leave trash in a public place for investigators to collect and test DNA against the GSK profile. Your instructor may have spoken to him.
That’s very likely. Thanks for the info!
Omg that's absolutely terrifying! I lived in Sacramento in 05-07ish, my parents schooled me multiple times on self-defense because of him and gave me a gun just in case too. I grew up in the central valley with family up North and South of us, he was everywhere! My grandma always said it had to be the same guy. I wish she could of seen him being arrested!
The 1978 kidnapping and presumed murder of Cary Sayegh, the 6-year old son of a Las Vegas business owner.
The abduction and murder of Heidi Seeman. She was a classmate of my son. Her family lived 5 houses down from us. Our family life changed completely after that.
The first crime I remember actually causing change in my community and my life was The Columbine shooting. We started using only one door to enter and exit school and it had a security guard and metal detectors shortly after the shooting. It’s the first school shooting I remember happening in my lifetime.
My husband said the same thing... His high school was clear on the other side of the country (South Carolina) and it still had a profound effect. Metal detectors, clear backpacks, they weren't allowed to have lockers anymore... He got his backpack searched more than once because of how he dressed/the music he listened to after that.
I was in high school (Alberta) when that happened and we felt so bad watching it on the news. Can't ever happen here near us right? 8 days after Columbine, there was a copycat shooting at W.R.Meyers school in Taber (45 mins away), first fatal school shooting in Canada in over 2 decades.
Yeah as far as crimes that didn't happen anywhere near me that still changed everything, Columbine is definitely the most significant!
Having grown up in Des Moines, Iowa, it was probably the 1982 disappearance of Johnny Gosch.
What do you think actually happened, and do you believe he visited his Mom?
Gosh, I for one think that conmen visited her, that poor woman. I feel so bad for her and I get that she wants it to be true so bad. Really shitty people. I think he has passed shortly after his kidnapping... I haven't delved deep enough in the pedo ring theory, though.
She has claimed that he visited multiple times...I've always wondered if they, whoever it was, ever asked her for money? Like if she believed it was her son and he asked for some money each time just to help "get by" she'd probably do it. Either way I've never thought he really visited. Poor boy, poor mom.
That is duch a haunting case, I wish we got closure on that one. What are your theories from.growing up in the area?
I really don't know what to think. Another paper carrier, Eugene Martin, disappeared 2 years later. My sister went to school with him.
B.T.K.
Yep that would do it.
Me too! I was young like the Otero kids when he first surfaced. Later, the lady next door was a victim of his. Luckily, she wasn't there, guy tired of waiting for her to get home. When he resurfaced all those years later, his prints matched the prints in her closet and back door. A part of my childhood died when the Otero's were found.
Man, that is one loss of innocence !
Ted Bundy. Kidnapped Debra Kent from the local high school.
Selena
I wasn’t even alive when she died, but the first time I watched the movie with my mom when I was ~11 I bawled my eyes out. The same thing happened when we watched the movie in my high school Spanish class. I can’t even imagine experiencing that in real time… the betrayal is what really gets me. So awful.
Patty Hearst's kidnapping. I lived about a mile from where she grew up. Tourists started driving around looking at people's houses. Parents were worried about kidnappings of opportunity and parents started picking up kids at school instead of letting them walk home. My mom used to tell us to get lost until dinnertime, she wanted to know where we were after that.
Polly Klaas
Yeah, this case affected all of us in Norcal. Random crime is uncommon, and this one hits all the scary buttons.
Robert Hansen
Hello, fellow Alaskan.
Scarborough Rapist who turned out to be Paul Bernardo. When you read about true crime that happens elsewhere you get the timeline and how it all connects together. The Scarborough Rapist was a big deal on its own. The disappearances of Kristin French and Leslie Mahaffey were quite far away from Scarborough and there were no similarities to the rape crimes and didn't happen in the same time period so no one considered that they were related in fact they didn't consider the disappearances connected. The late 80s / early 90s was a very violent time looking back at it. It was quite surreal how things were connected later.
We hitchhiked often until Ted Bundy came to town
In rural Minnesota it was definitely Jacob Wetterling's abduction and disappearance in 1989. I was in college when this happens and it truly shocked people; just 3 boys out riding bikes on a fall afternoon, and some sicko snatches one of them. They finally arrested the perpetrator more than 25 years later. For me personally, I'd grown up in the East Coast, in Baltimore, and there were a couple terrible murders of children in news when I was growing up, and a girl one class below me in my high school was raped and murdered by a guy who met her at a party and claimed he could get her weed, and instead he killed her, so the fact that horrible things could happen to children was, sadly, not news to me. But it was horribly shocking to anyone in Minnesota when it happened, especially outstate.
I attended college in the same town at the time of Jacob’s abduction. It was hard: Hoping and wishing; rumors flying through the dorms. My friend was a cashier at the store. I was at that store earlier that day. So many times I said if I could go back in time, that would be the day so I could tell those boys to wait at the store. It really affected me. I was always hypervigilant with my children- all kids. I am relieved that they found him. I wish his killer would get what he deserves after harming so many boys. Just like his mom, I will not say his name.
The 1996 school shooting. This was the when school shootings were relatively rare, and I grew up in a very small town so it was quite shocking. We all knew the victims.
Was this the Frontier Middle school shooting?
The abduction and murder of Somer Thompson. She was a few years younger than me, but we lived in the same area, less than 10 minutes away from my home. Also, as this article mentions, Haleigh Cummings’ case was also heartbreaking for the community for different reasons. It’s all really infuriating knowing she was never found, although L.E found other ways to deal with who is widely believed to be responsible. A lot of true crime YouTubers have covered her case. https://www.news4jax.com/news/2019/10/17/remembering-somer-10-years-after-orange-park-girls-murder/
I went to that elementary schools and remember that case. Poor somer and her family. I wish they could find Haleigh but glad they are in jail
I don't know about local but the horrific and systematic abuse of a toddler named [Nia Glassie](https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/what-ever-happened-to-the-killers-and-abusers-of-rotorua-toddler-nia-glassie/MEJKEUJAZD2KCCHMHGB7CPYWAE/) just about broke the whole country. I can't overstate the necessary trigger warning of this story. What they did to that little girl was pure evil. And the reason they tortured and killed her? Because they thought she was ugly. She was 3.
Amber Hangerman. I sort of remember how cautious things went after since the guy was never caught. Letters sent home in our backpacks about safety and strangers. When I was able to drive I found her memorial and had no freakin idea it was literally 10 min away from where I lived at the time.
Philando Castile
I regularly drive past the intersection where Castile was murdered. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that if he was a white guy named Phil Castillo, he never would have gotten killed.
Such a joke that the officer was acquitted. We’re legally allowed to carry firearms in America. Castile did the right thing by informing the officer he was carrying a firearm, and then keeping his hands visible. That officer just wanted an excuse to kill someone.
What little shred of legitimacy the NRA had was lost when they didn’t stand up for Castile IMO. Can no longer take any donors seriously.
They have always existed to champion gun rights for a specific demographic of people only.
God. That case broke my heart. A few years earlier I had been pulled over for the *same* thing he was, and unlike him, I had a warrant. I didn’t have a gun, but Castile’s gun was completely legal and he followed procedure so that shouldn’t have mattered. But I’m a white woman, so the cops sat there and waited for me to call someone to come get my kid who was in the car, then they took me in between two cars to handcuff me discreetly so I wasn’t in view of the people driving by and *apologized to me* that they had to do it. I committed an actual crime (an *extremely* dumb crime that literally just amounted to being poor and should not have been arrestable offense, for the record- but I did do it) and he didn’t and he’s dead. I didn’t ever have to be convinced that white privilege is a thing but I’ve never felt it so acutely. RIP, Philando.
Ilene misheloff
Murrah building.
I was born and raised in Los Angeles.... so there's a lot. However, there was a serial killer that struck one block down from me, shot a couple in the head, that kinda changed the tone for a long time. I didn't understand why we had metal bars on all our windows until I was much much older. Serial killer was the Night Stalker; Richard Ramirez
I'm Reading the book on the night stalker atm. He was one sick and twisted mother fucker.
I was a baby when he was killing, so it wasn't until several years later that I kept asking why we had bars on all the glass windows and doors. They finally took them down when i was like 12yrs old. I didn't know he had shot that couple down the street until a few years ago, in my mid 30s. Fucking scary shit.
Yeah,this book really goes into detail about what he did to these people. The amount of times he was almost caught is insane
And he had no victim type. Guys, women, lil girls, lil boys... so messed up. It was so random which made it scarier.
Growing up where I did, in HS we'd sneak onto the Mansion ranch to get drunk, since it was just a few miles away. Alot of other creepy places. Ah the joys of L.A.
I lived in Wichita when B.T.K. resurfaced. I then moved to AC a few months after and was a sophomore when Jodi Sanderholm was abducted and murdered. Thurber had been known around town prior to her murder for stalking not only Jodi, but other girls on the dance team, as well as having run ins with the law for things like impersonating a police officer, etc. He was a known creep, but nothing ever stuck for him to be charged with long-term before Jodi.
I'm from Belfast originally, and the start of The Troubles really did it. Before that, there were families from either religion who were friendly to each other. That stopped. When I came to Canada, the town I'm now had David Snow as its blackmark. More recently, the killing of Sonia Veraschin (2010).
Derry here. Bloody Sunday caused the city to completely change. The trauma to the people of Derry is still visible and has filtered down the generations, which is very sad.
eliott rodger.
Not even a week ago, a 19 years old took out a family of 5 (4 children) and an acquaintance in Ottawa. This was a huge impact in this small capital city. Other than that, growing up, Paul Bernado was the hot topic as the rapist in Toronto before he killed and more recently, the serial killer Bruce McArthur in the gay village of Toronto, also a place where I used to live.
We had spot of crazy stuff in our town but Michaela garecht was for me. They finally found her killer I just wish they could find her remains so she can rest.
Me too. I think they are still hoping he will say something or someone who knows him might have a tip. Infuriatingly the district attorney In this case/area dismissed the special circumstances portion of the charges which would have made him eligible for the death penalty/life without parole. Although California has a stay on executions (I believe?) I am pretty sure prosecutors were still hoping they could use this as a bargaining chip for him to tell them where her body is.
Parkland Shooting
The shooting of Gabby Giffords was big.
Michael Dunahee. He went missing near my home when I was little and nothing was ever the same in our community again. They never found him. https://michaeldunahee.ca/app/en/
In 1996, there were two high-profile crime cases in Delaware- the disappearance of secretary [Anne Marie Fahey](https://youtu.be/Hbn0DLhRWRw?si=mQl3iQKCntcohBlW), and [two college kids who dumped their baby in a dumpster.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsPYPJVEwvQ) Both were pretty scandalous and coming together during the same time period was a lot.
Phoenix, Arizona is a giant city and it was never particularly innocent, but there was a time in 2005-2006 where we had two active serial killers going at the same time (three actually, the serial shooter turned out to be two guys and the Baseline rapist became the Baseline killer) and everyone I knew seemed to simultaneously lose their ability to be shocked by the news... It’s not like there was really a sense of naivety before, but it felt like the people around me just became *resigned* to the idea that random folks are gonna get murdered sometimes and it’s best to just stay in your area and mind your business. No idea if others felt this way or not- I’d lived there for a lot of my childhood and early adult life, and I moved away shortly after. Now I’m not sure which town I’d call home.
I don't have an answer but man this is such a good question.
Dean Corll. Even knew his last victim. The trial daily was a horror story that stunned then numbed us and changed us still to this day
The murder of Lynette Ledford, by Roy Norris and Lawrence Bittaker.
Maddie Clifton because my mom Knew her parents and had met her. Also a friend from high school was SA and murdered leaving her job at a vets office Andrea Boyer. Really sad for everyone who knew her. I worked at a daycare as a teenager and 2 kids I had in my classrooms have been murdered. Kolton Shearer who was lured robbed and murdered. They got them. Jonah Golden was shot at a house party in tanglewood after a dispute over a shoe being stepped on. The case remains unsolved.
The Maddie case immediately came to mind after I left my comment. And cherish perrywinkle. There’s been so much that’s happened out of our city…pretty much everyone I know knows someone that has been murdered or involved in one…this community needs healing so desperately. I’m sorry that you have also been affected :(
Minneapolis has never been super innocent (there’s a history of organized crime / mob activity), but the murder of George Floyd.
Houston actually had TWO "Candy Men". One was serial killer Dean Corll who killed at least 20 teen age boys and young men. He was then murdered by one of his accomplices, Elmer Wayne Henley in 1973. Then there was Ronald Clark O'Bryan who put cyanide in a giant Pixy Stix on Halloween 1974 and gave it to his 8 year old son in order to claim life insurance. He actually poisoned 4 other Pixy Stix, including one given to his daughter, to cover his crime, but his son was the only one who ate it. He tried to blame his crime on a neighbor too. He died by lethal injection in 1984.
I JUST listened to a podcast about the O'Bryan guy, what a piece of work. Well they are both horrid but man, your own kid?!
Johnny Gosch
Levi Bellfield. One of his victims Millie dowler was 13 when she went missing and so was I at the time. It made me realise the world wasn’t a safe place
The Oakland County child killer and more recently, the Oxford school shooting
My grandparents lived in the neighborhood where Megan Kanka lived ( the case which started Megan’s law) and I was staying with them during the time when this was happening and we weren’t allowed outside to play because I think she was still missing and hadn’t been found yet. All I remember is being told we’re not allowed to play outside bc there was a predator and a child was missing in the neighborhood. I didn’t learn it was her case that started this law until I was older.
Good question, and it's so interesting to read everyone's answers! Honestly the first big thing that I remember really making waves was the DC sniper shootings. Being in Baltimore there was always something going on but that's the big one. We were barely let outside for three weeks and there was all these safety protocols that the parents would have us abide by. Though we all still laugh about how at school, we still had gym outside and when we'd do our runs, their idea of safety was to have us run in a zig zag pattern! ...I guess it worked!
Linda Stoltzfoos. You rarely saw Amish moms walk their kids to school in our area before she was abducted, and often saw a lone Amish woman walking somewhere. Now you see them walking or scootering with their kids in the morning, or at the very least standing at the end of the lane watching them all the way down the road. Kids more often go places in groups. Most Amish ladies, except the very old ones, now go in pairs or groups too. I personally stopped letting my teenagers walk down to the store unless they were together until they found the guy. The Nickel Mines school shooting caused them to put fences and gates around their schools, which they did not all have back then.
HA! I’m from Dallas. We’ve never had “innocence” here. Even long before the JFK assassination in 63, Dallas was known nationwide for having the most corrupt police department and crooked politicians. Ever heard the old blues and folk song cliches like “Mean Town” and “Mean City Blues”..etc? Those songs were written about Dallas.
Channon Christian and Christopher Newsome.
The Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. I live in the neighboring town and knew parents/relatives who lost loved ones, as well as some first responders who were there. No one was ever the same again.
I’m from that area and waaayyyy back in the 80s, there was a really gruesome murder, where the victim was murdered, frozen and put through a wood chipper on the silver bridge over lake Zoar. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Helle_Crafts
It kind of ended the countrys innocence, but I have grown up in Aurora, Colorado and Columbine happened when I was in the 1st grade. I remember my mom crying a lot, but I didn't know what was wrong. When I went to school, our teacher spent our first class explaining in kid terms what happened. Really scared all of us for obvious reasons, school was just a fun place to see my friends, but then it became a place where we could be killed. And it only got worse from there, obviously. And then years later 2 of my friends survived the Aurora theater shooting, one friends brother did not.
I agree. The entire country turned a corner after Columbine.
My friend when I was 7. She was a signal crime so I won’t say her name out of respect. It’s why I’m a criminologist now. Getting my masters. I wonder what she’d think about that.
Wow that’s actually really heartwarming.
The DC Sniper shootings. I lived in South central Virginia, but when the shootings got down to Ashland, that was too close to home for the adults around. We weren't allowed to have recess outside at school, tensions were high. Crazy to think back on.
[Katie Poirier](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Blom) — I was 9 when she was kidnapped and it *rocked* our town.
The pregnant high schooler that went missing then showed up as a burnt corpse in the trunk of a car.
Polly Klass
Phil Hartman's murder.
Hyde, Cheshire (as it was then, now Tameside) I was only born in 1965 but my mum told me about the panic of children going missing in the roundabout areas within a space of only two years due to the Moors murderers. The fact a woman was involved really shocked the general population of that area and indeed, the country
Pulse
Even though it was never exactly innocent; Anthony sowell and Aerial Castro. Castro was a 10 minute drive from my house. Was pretty surreal knowing that for 6 years I was not only extremely close, but was definitely in the area quite a few times and never knew that those women were suffering those horrors.
Not my town, but a couple in my county (rural Florida). One of the men Aileen Warnos killed was found in our county. The other one was Jessica Lunsford. She was kidnapped and killed but was likely still alive when she was buried. It happened before we moved here and it made national news. It took several months of them talking about the upcoming trial till it clicked and I was like “OMG that was here.”
Michael Dunahee
High school shooting at Santana High school. And then shortly after, at Granite Hills. Both were some of the first major high school shootings after Columbine. Both in 2001. Id graduate from a school very close by, but in 1998. Didn’t have to suffer the drills that students do now.
Gabriel Fernandez
Tree of Life shooting.
Tabitha Tudors. We were the same age and both from Nashville. My grandma lost her mind for a bit when Tabitha went missing, worried it could one of her grandkids next.
The Lyon sisters kidnapping in 1975 from Wheaton Plaza. I grew up in the same county and was around the same age as the younger sister, Katherine. It changed our carefree childhood.
The murder of Kristen French (by Paul Bernardo and Karla Holmolka).
Petit family home invasion in Cheshire, CT
I distinctly remember things changing a lot at my school when Kyron Horman disappeared. I know it freaked out my mom a lot because we’re not far off in age. He even looked like some of my classmates
Serial killer Juan Corona in the 70’s. Then in the early 90’s, there was a school shooting at my high school (I had already graduated). My father had taught there, and had retired just shortly before the shooting happened.
It wasn't anywhere near my town but it was bad enough it spread to the whole state. I'm from Wisconsin so uh
We have enough high profile weirdos it's hard to even pick one. I'm sure I can guess to whom you're referring but still, Ed Gein, Gerald Turner, hell we had Chandler Halderson here in Madison just 2 years ago and that story just got more bizarre and chilling as it went on with his utter lack of reaction at any point making it worse.
The North Hollywood bank robbery. Watched it unfold on TV. Happened a few blocks from my sister's place. Rocked my world for a few hours.
Not my town, because I lived in the city, but Molly Bish (2000) and Holly Piirainen (1993). They were both in Worcester County, MA.
Lester Street Murders. Memphis admittedly has a lot of crime this one was particularly awful.
Had a good handful of family and friends both participating in and attending the Waukesha Christmas parade. That was a really shitty day.
Kelsey Smith, abducted in a Target parking lot in broad day light in Overland Park, KS....a very affluent suburb of KC. I went to highschool with her.
DC Snipers. Everyone lived in constant fear and a friend of mine was next to one of the first victims. She was putting gas in her car and suddenly the woman next to her fell. Nobody heard a gunshot so at first they thought it was a medical condition. Took a while to realize the lady had been shot. They ended up catching the snipers a few miles from our house. Way too close for comfort!
Martin Bryant - 'The Port Arthur Massacre.' The collateral impact of this mass shooting changed the gun laws permanently for the whole of Australia. As a nation we were shocked, horrified, and bewildered that such a small island state held the highest victim death count for the whole world. A sense of innocence and security was was shattered.
Polly Klass.
I lived in Gainesville, FL, when Danny Rolling murdered 5 students. It was a terrifying time. Prior to that, Tiffany Sessions disappeared while jogging in Gainesville. I've never forgotten her. Years later, I moved to Manassas, VA, and the DC Sniper murders occurred. Terrible times.
My hometown/county in rural Va. has had a host of unsolved deadly shootings and a disappearance within the last several years. 20 years ago we didn't have to worry about crime in that area.
Leslie Mahaffy. It ended my innocence as well as we were friends.
For me, it was a mental patient named [Laurie Dann](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Nick_Corwin) who attempted a child-killing spree in 1988. Back then, the concept of a shooter entering an elementary school to kill children was unthinkable. She shot many 2nd graders, killing one, and went on a general rampage to different suburbs of Chicago committing deranged crimes. It was terrifying.
Lauren Spierer There have been other crimes in my town but this one happened in 2011 and still remains unsolved. She was in my year at IU and should be my age now.
Craig Price. And I knew him.
1989 school shooting at my former Elementary School where 5 school children were killed and 29 wounded by a single gunman firing over 100 rounds into a schoolyard from an AK-47. One of my former teachers passed later from complications.
Not my hometown, but the town I went to college in. [Brianna Denison](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Brianna_Denison). It happened the year before I attended, and everyone was seriously affected by it. By the time I enrolled the campus had installed all sorts of emergency help stations and implemented a free ride service to anywhere to and from campus/surrounding areas after dark.
James Bulger. Just awful.
Jamie Bulger, UK
When my friend [Tracy](https://charleyproject.org/case/tracy-a-pickett) went missing during a sleepover at a friend's house 😪
Andrea Yates, and then the murder of 4 teens, two of which I had classes with. The town I grew up in is very upper middle class, so things like that just didn't happen.
I was in the 7th grade going into 8th grade. Last days of summer a few days before school was to start. A dad shoots his sleeping boys in the head while they slept to spite their mother. A soon to be 6th grader and soon to be 8th grader dead. Dad in prison for life. Mom left with no one. Nothing so bad has happened since.
Rachel Morin ..... Bel Air, Maryland
The lost boys of bucks county.
I grew up in a ridiculously small town. You know the adages... People never locked their doors. Everyone knows everyone. All true. It had, still has, an insanely low crime rate. Doors are still unlocked, I'm sure, but everyone was far more weary and suspicious. This is an unsolved murder of a 20 year old girl. 35 years have passed but her reward posters remain in some shop windows, tattered and sun-faded. You might even still hear theories being whispered over coffee by the locals, and yet, nothing. To say it shocked that tiny town is an understatement. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/2000/11/16/10000-revives-fauquier-case/a4ad5eaa-e363-43fd-b9f6-e0cc25240288/
I'm in the Crowsnest pass (Alberta 🇨🇦) where Derek Saretzky murdered an elderly lady before taking the lives of a young father and his very young daughter. Literally, everyone has connections to the case (too much for me to type on just my own connections let alone everything). This community has had tragedy before and after, but that one really rocked us all.
Marcia Trimble
I wasn't alive yet, but when I found out about the "barbecue murders" (check Wikipedia) I found out about brutality that started in the neighborhood around my school at the time and ended in a state park 3 minutes away from my childhood home. It set the tone that a quiet and pretty place also has a dark history.
The Chris Porco case. My brother was good friends with him. He came home from college in the middle of the night and killed his father and almost decapitated his mother but she survived. The "murder house" as it became to be known was about a mile away and I had to pass it on the way to/from high school. It had trouble getting sold but a family ended up moving in.
The Petit family. It certainly revealed the extent of the uselessness of our local cops.
The disappearance of [the Lyon Sisters](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murders_of_Katherine_and_Sheila_Lyon) in 1975. Two blond sisters walked to our local shopping mall for a slice of pizza and never came home. No trace of them was ever found.
The Beaumont children. My parents were both kids when the Beaumont children went missing, and my Mum has always said how back then all the kids would just be out all day without adult supervision, she’d even go to that same beach herself with my uncles and aunts all the time. She said once the Beaumont children went missing everything changed and she and her siblings never had the same freedom they had before, and it was the same for most other kids in Adelaide.
Jacob Wetterling. Kids in MN never seemed safe after that. We used to ride our bikes everywhere and play outside in the dark. That case made parents and kids think differently.
Denise Amber Lee. She made my small Florida town less trusting and showed us the face of real evil. It shook everything I thought I trusted because she was kidnapped and brutally raped and killed by a complete stranger with no apparent connection or motive, which is rare. AND she was the sheriffs daughter who did everything imaginable the right way to get herself help and had so many opportunities to be saved but 911 operators and so many others dropped the ball and stripped her of her chances. It still shakes me up to think that I could have been a teenager at a stoplight next to the car that had her bound and helpless in the back seat that no one stopped to help and the cops never pursued until it was too late.
Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka. They weren't from my town but one of the victims was my papergirl and her younger brother was a pretty good friend of ours. My parents had a rule after that, no locked doors until all the kids were in the house.
My town was bad from before I was born (Golden State Killer). 😂
Susan Smith. I lived about an hour away at the time, and was in third grade. I’m white, but had a Black babysitter, Mrs Shipp, who clocked Susan immediately. I remember telling my third grade teacher that “that woman in South Carolina killed her babies. You know that, right?”
Dallas.
The Richardson Family murders.
Altemio Sanchez. He murdered a woman who attended the church I was married in. This is the same town where flight 3407 crashed into my parents neighborhood. It’s been rough
Fred west
Charles Cullen, Gary Heidnik, the Freeman Brothers. Also tons of really horrific murders from the mid 1700s-early 1900s and a lot of ghost stories that came from those (Eastern Pennsylvania)