True Crime thread

[MichaelWinicki]

Yea, forgot about the killing fields. I should have remembered because that all happened in and around where I grew up(League City). I was just born but I was raised to be very weary of those murders and us neighborhood kids always walked each other home, game arcade and what not.

An older kid in my neighborhood discovered a body in a field a few miles away just off Calder Drive which they thought was linked. They were out there drinking I guess

It's a sad and curious area for sure.

So many bodies... And so many murderers that were apparently involved.

On top of that was the massive cluster-***** of one of the local police departments not being happy with the investigation of one (or more) of the murders, firing their police chief, bring on a new guy (who brought on other new guys) supposedly "finding" the killer, getting him convicted and sending him of to prison.

HOWEVER, come to find out the new chief and his right-hand man coerced a confession out of the suspect just to solve the case. Then the ***-backward Texas judicial system couldn't admit the mistake of convicting an innocent guy, so he ends up dying in prison.

And then me have the gem of this chief of police and his right-hand man being arrested and sent to prison for robbing banks.

You can't make this stuff up.

 

[MichaelWinicki]

Here's one I had not heard of before...

"The Bonebreaker Killer."

In 1994 in Wisconsin, a 14 yo boy, Chris Steiner disappeared from his room.

At first it was thought he took off from friends.

After several days being gone it appeared something nefarious had occurred.

Then the teenager's body was found in a near-by river.

In 1995, another teenager (13 YO Thad Phillips) came up missing from his home.

A few days later, a distraught Thad Phillips called the police.

What had occurred to Thad was beyond awful.

https://www.ranker.com/list/joe-clark-the-bonebraker-facts/laura-allan

 

[Reverend Conehead]

The murder of Lisa Au happened in 1982 when I was in high school, and they still haven't solved it. I was living on the island of Oahu in Hawaii at the time, which is where the murder happened. I remember there was this drive up into the mountains named Tantalus, which was a super favorite make-out place to go with a date. I had gone there with a few different girls for some really enjoyable experiences. Then it was a huge shock when it was reported that Tantalus was where Lisa Au's dead body was found. That great make-out spot was now either a murder place or a murderer's drop-off place.

Lisa Au had gone to see her boyfriend, and then she never got home. I remember they thought that some scumbag impersonated a police officer in order to pull her over and abduct her. Her car was found in a way different place than her body. I remember in high school everyone was worried about this, and we talked about it in class. We learned not to pull over for a cop if you were driving alone late at night, but instead to drive to the police station or at least to some really well-lit area.

It irks me that whatever piece of trash did this to her might still be alive today and free, and maybe murdering other people. If the low-down dirtball who committed this crime is ever found, I think he ought to be [redacted to keep me out of trouble]. I don't know why someone would do this.

https://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/2019/...ipped-oahu-start-investigation-went-astray-2/

 

[csirl]

When I was c.4 years old, a neighbors teenage son killed another neighbors 4 year old kid.

The child went missing when playing in his front garden. The police organised a search party to search fields on the edge of town. This was a diversion to get everyone out of the area - nearly everyone had volunteered to search.

When everyone arrived back from the search it was announced that the childs body had been found under the teenagers bed. And the teenagers family had moved out.

Then it came out that the teenager had been involved in some unsavory incidents with young children at the previous town they'd lived in. The family had only moved in recently and the teenagers father was a police officer in the previous town.

My mother says that she and others were worried about the teenagers behaviour from the moment the family moved - he seemed to stalk younger children in a psycho way. Says my brother or me could easily have been victims.

 

[MichaelWinicki]

When I was c.4 years old, a neighbors teenage son killed another neighbors 4 year old kid.

The child went missing when playing in his front garden. The police organised a search party to search fields on the edge of town. This was a diversion to get everyone out of the area - nearly everyone had volunteered to search.

When everyone arrived back from the search it was announced that the childs body had been found under the teenagers bed. And the teenagers family had moved out.

Then it came out that the teenager had been involved in some unsavory incidents with young children at the previous town they'd lived in. The family had only moved in recently and the teenagers father was a police officer in the previous town.

My mother says that she and others were worried about the teenagers behaviour from the moment the family moved - he seemed to stalk younger children in a psycho way. Says my brother or me could easily have been victims.

Was this NY State?

 

[csirl]

Was this NY State?

Nio,, a small town called Rathcoole near Dublin, Ireland.

 

[MichaelWinicki]

Nio,, a small town called Rathcoole near Dublin, Ireland.

Not long after the toddler was killed by the couple teenagers (London maybe?) here in NYS a teenager killed a young boy... Just wondering if we were talking about the same case or not.

 

[MichaelWinicki]

Iowa teen’s 50-year-old cold case murder finally solved, police identify killer through DNA evidence

https://news.yahoo.com/iowa-teen-50-old-cold-001621838.html

Sorry that the murderer past away in 2013 but glad the crime is solved.

 

[csirl]

Not long after the toddler was killed by the couple teenagers (London maybe?) here in NYS a teenager killed a young boy... Just wondering if we were talking about the same case or not.

I remember that case in the UK - Jamie Bulger. I think it was Liverpool. Horrible stuff. Case I mentioned was earlier - mid 70s.

 

[jnday]

Which notorious serial killers are left to be identified? Only Jack the Ripper comes to mind aside from a few lesser known ones like the Bone Collector and the Long Island SK.

I watched one of these true crime documentaries a couple months ago that asked a FBI officer how many serial killers are active in the USA at the present time. He said that their is about 50 serial killers that are active at this time. He worked on a serial killer task force that tries to establish patterns and behavior of the killers. He had a really depressing job IMO. By the way, I see where DNA was found on one of Jack the Ripper’s victims and it matches one of the suspects that police thought was the killer.

 

[jnday]

When I was c.4 years old, a neighbors teenage son killed another neighbors 4 year old kid.

The child went missing when playing in his front garden. The police organised a search party to search fields on the edge of town. This was a diversion to get everyone out of the area - nearly everyone had volunteered to search.

When everyone arrived back from the search it was announced that the childs body had been found under the teenagers bed. And the teenagers family had moved out.

Then it came out that the teenager had been involved in some unsavory incidents with young children at the previous town they'd lived in. The family had only moved in recently and the teenagers father was a police officer in the previous town.

My mother says that she and others were worried about the teenagers behaviour from the moment the family moved - he seemed to stalk younger children in a psycho way. Says my brother or me could easily have been victims.

That’s a creepy, but cool story.

 

[HungryLion]

I watched one of these true crime documentaries a couple months ago that asked a FBI officer how many serial killers are active in the USA at the present time. He said that their is about 50 serial killers that are active at this time. He worked on a serial killer task force that tries to establish patterns and behavior of the killers. He had a really depressing job IMO. By the way, I see where DNA was found on one of Jack the Ripper’s victims and it matches one of the suspects that police thought was the killer.

Wow. I had not seen this but frankly I am not surprised. I think serial killing may be more common than people tend to think and there may be serial killers that we don’t know are serial killers because The police can’t connect the crimes.

 

[MichaelWinicki]

Wow. I had not seen this but frankly I am not surprised. I think serial killing may be more common than people tend to think and there may be serial killers that we don’t know are serial killers because The police can’t connect the crimes.

I think that was the case twenty, thirty, fifty years ago, but not anymore.

Several reasons why the number of serial killers peaked about 40 years ago and have since decreased.

-Modern forensics. There's not substitute for it. DNA, DNA, DNA. Much easier to connect crimes than ever before.
-Police departments both local and national are connected more uniformly than they ever have thus information moves much more freely from one jurisdiction to another. Much more difficult today for a "Ted Bundy" to kill in Washington State and then move to Colorado, kill some more and not have the killings connected to those in Washington State.
-Video and camera's. They're everywhere now. Much more difficult to commit multiple crimes without it being caught by someone somewhere with a camera or security camera.
-Amber alerts and such. Someone disappears it's much more likely authorities and such are alerted sooner.
-People are more aware today IMO. You don't have the hitch-hikers today that we saw back in the 70's.
-24 hour news coverage. Just look at the coverage given the Gabby Petito disappearance and murder. Disappearances are handled much more quickly and seriously than were decades ago.

All these reasons have greatly reduced the number of active serial killers.

It's now easier to commit a one-time mass murder than it is to commit one murder after another over a long time period.

 

[jnday]

Wow. I had not seen this but frankly I am not surprised. I think serial killing may be more common than people tend to think and there may be serial killers that we don’t know are serial killers because The police can’t connect the crimes.

It is concerning that there are so many confirmed serial killers that the public is not aware of. There could be a serial killer living next door to me and I have no way of knowing. One interesting serial killer was caught here in Mississippi. He was a truck driver and he stated that he is just one killer out of a big group of killers that all drove cross country delivering goods. He said that they would meet from time to time and compare the number of kills they had made. It was a contest for them. It sounded really wild and hard to believe until he started naming off unsolved murders and unknown details about the murders that was never solved. IIRC, there was a woman truck driver that was a member of the group. It sounds crazy until you think about how easy truck drivers could pick up hookers and by the time the dead body was found, the killer was three stares away. After thinking about it, I need to find a new hobby.

 

[jnday]

I think that was the case twenty, thirty, fifty years ago, but not anymore.

Several reasons why the number of serial killers peaked about 40 years ago and have since decreased.

-Modern forensics. There's not substitute for it. DNA, DNA, DNA. Much easier to connect crimes than ever before.
-Police departments both local and national are connected more uniformly than they ever have thus information moves much more freely from one jurisdiction to another. Much more difficult today for a "Ted Bundy" to kill in Washington State and then move to Colorado, kill some more and not have the killings connected to those in Washington State.
-Video and camera's. They're everywhere now. Much more difficult to commit multiple crimes without it being caught by someone somewhere with a camera or security camera.
-Amber alerts and such. Someone disappears it's much more likely authorities and such are alerted sooner.
-People are more aware today IMO. You don't have the hitch-hikers today that we saw back in the 70's.
-24 hour news coverage. Just look at the coverage given the Gabby Petito disappearance and murder. Disappearances are handled much more quickly and seriously than were decades ago.

All these reasons have greatly reduced the number of active serial killers.

It's now easier to commit a one-time mass murder than it is to commit one murder after another over a long time period.

You make some good points. From my reading, there was hundreds of serial killers from the 1960’s to the 1990’s. I think that the 1970’s was the peak years for the number of serial killers. DNA is amazing to me. We have come so far with technology during my lifetime. I fully expect that the government will start taking DNA samples at right after birth so that a massive DNA data bank can be created. If they do something like that, it would just about eliminate unsolved criminal cases where DNA was found. I think we have just scratched the surface of the capabilities of DNA.

 

[MichaelWinicki]

You make some good points. From my reading, there was hundreds of serial killers from the 1960’s to the 1990’s. I think that the 1970’s was the peak years for the number of serial killers. DNA is amazing to me. We have come so far with technology during my lifetime. I fully expect that the government will start taking DNA samples at right after birth so that a massive DNA data bank can be created. If they do something like that, it would just about eliminate unsolved criminal cases where DNA was found. I think we have just scratched the surface of the capabilities of DNA.

Oh I wholeheartedly agree. It is amazing. I'm stunned every week or so, when an old cold-case from (going back to the 50's now) is solved due to DNA.

And I think that's just the tip of the iceberg. Some very famous or infamous cases are still left to be solved and I think many of them will be.

 

[SlammedZero]

You guys see this? Interesting.

A cold-case task force claims it has identified the Zodiac Killer:

https://nypost.com/2021/10/06/zodiac-killer-identified-linked-to-sixth-murder-cold-case-squad/

 

[MichaelWinicki]

A local case (for me) involving a 13yo boy who killed a 4yo in 1993...

Anyway the killer has been granted parole.


ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — Eric M. Smith, who was 13 when he killed a 4-year-old boy with a rock in western New York, has been granted parole, corrections officials said on Saturday.

Smith, now 41, appeared for the 11th time before the Board of Parole on October 5 and was granted release as early as Nov. 17, the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision said in an emailed statement.


https://news.yahoo.com/now-41-killer-4-old-143242635.html

 

[MichaelWinicki]

A suspect has been named in a 1988 cold case where a 13yo girl was fatally shot in the head...

Elise Kaplan, Albuquerque Journal, N.M.
Fri, October 15, 2021, 11:04 PM


Oct. 15—In the early morning hours of Sept. 9, 1988, 13-year-old Stella Gonzales was walking home with a friend near Central and the river when she was shot in the back of the head.

She died a couple of days later.

The case received scant media attention at the time.


On Friday, police announced that Paul Apodaca — who is charged in one cold case murder and suspected in a second — had confessed to killing Gonzales.


https://news.yahoo.com/suspect-cold-case-homicides-linked-030400270.html

 

[MichaelWinicki]

You guys see this? Interesting.

A cold-case task force claims it has identified the Zodiac Killer:

https://nypost.com/2021/10/06/zodiac-killer-identified-linked-to-sixth-murder-cold-case-squad/

Yes, it's very interesting.

I'm waiting to see if more information is released.