Cases That Haunt You

[Marple]

Morgan Chauntel Nick, missing since June 9, 1995. Abducted by a stranger in Alma AR. Very, very sad. I can't believe it's been 13 years.

 

[BostonSu]

Ramona Price---Santa Barbara---missing 1961
Todd Collett----Santa Barbara---missing 1964

These two really haunt me. I live just up the hill from where Todd vanished, and shop at the market that was being built.

Ramona disappeared about 2 miles away, and I pass the stretch of road along where she was walking. I find myself looking off to the side, wondering if she's there somewhere.

These cases where people (especially chldren) just walk off the face of the earth just stay with me.

 

[gaia227]

Mostly the really old ones, because I know there's basically no chance of them ever being solved, since no one who was around when the person died or went missing is alive anymore....

Sad, very sad, that they'll never be truly closed.

I agree with you and Kline. I am most interested in the old cases ranging from the turn of the century to about 1970. I think it is the idea they will never be solved, their bones are somewhere out there on this earth laying hidden for all these years, the people who knew what happened to them are gone, their family is gone, the investigators are gone. It gives one a strong sense of nostalgia mixed with bitter sadness for the victim.

 

[shadowangel]

Another interesting aspect of the "old" cases, especially before 1950, is tha ability we have now to check the "facts" as they've been passed along for decades.
A case in point is the disappearance of Andrew Carnegie Whitfield. Most reports out there state that he placed a call to his family after his plane was known to have taken off. As I discovered from reading in news archives, this simply appears to be an incorrect report by one of the smaller new services...But now it is part of the legend of ACW's disappearance. And, contrary to what has been reported, there is a viable alternative to the "flew off into the unknown" legends.

For those of us with a fascination for history, this allows us a window into the lives and happenings from many, many years ago.

 

[gaia227]

would also like to add......again

The Oklahoma Locust Grove Girl Scout Murders - 3 girl scouts raped and bludgeoned to death on a camping trip with 100 other girl scouts and their leaders. Leaders repeatedly ignored the terrified scouts reporting they kept seeing a man lurking around their tents and grabbing them when they went to the restroom. There was a scream at 2:00am that morning but no one bothered to get up and investigate.

Unfortunately the website dedicated to their case has been shut down by the admin. Here are a couple other links. The third one is linked to the discussion thread on A&E's Cold Case section. It is interesting because one of the posters and several of his family members post there and seem rather convinced that it is one of their family members who committed this crime.

http://www.angelfire.com/ok5/girlscoutmurders/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oklahoma_Girl_Scout_Murders

http://boards.aetv.com/thread.jspa?threadID=100001959

 

[MSinIndy]

Henryville Indiana cold cases, 3 boys murdered in same small town within a couple miles of one another. Located adjacent to I-65 and Hwy 31 in Clark County (extreme southern indiana, just north of louisville kentucky).

All happend in the 1970's:

Boy age 8, found April 1974 in a barn loft. Hands tied, sexually assaulted, strangled to death and covered up with rags.


Boy age 15 or 16, found June 1977 in Clark State Forest in an area called Flat Rock off of Hwy 160. TRUE FACTS OF CONDITION OF THE BODY HAVE NOT BEEN CONFIRMED BUT FOLLOWING IS RUMORED; hands tied together over head with barbed wire and tied to a tree, sugical style incisions on body, dragged through woods, molested, beaten with skull fracture and strangled to death.


Boy age 19 found Oct 1977, reported missing Sept 27 1977. Located in woods near Clark State Forest not far from his home. Hands were bound, beaten and platform shoes missing.

If you can think of any killers who would have been passing through this area during those years please post info. Thanks.

 

[Bargle]

Some that stick with me.
The Indiana Dunes girls.
Evelyn Hartley
Zodiac
Valerie Percy
The Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run
A local case, the murder of Michelle Denise Anderson. Originally thought to be a runaway, her remains were found in 1989 in a wooded area. I remember seeing missing posters of her everywhere in my neighborhood before she found.

 

[MaryLiz]

Some that stick with me.
The Indiana Dunes girls.
Evelyn Hartley
Zodiac
Valerie Percy
The Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run
A local case, the murder of Michelle Denise Anderson. Originally thought to be a runaway, her remains were found in 1989 in a wooded area. I remember seeing missing posters of her everywhere in my neighborhood before she found.

I forgot about the Valerie Percy case. That's another one I think of from time to time. I was only 13 when she was murdered but I vividly remember reading about it in the papers back then. It seems unbelievable to me that this case was never solved, as high profile as it was.

Here's a link to the Crime Library story on her. She has a thread on here, titled Senator's Daughter but there hasn't been a posting on it for 3 years.

http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/notorious_murders/famous/valerie_percy/index.html

 

[athy]

one of the cases that has haunted me since i was a teenager was the charles lindbergh baby kidnapping. both my mom and grandmom lived in jersey during the time of the kidnapping. i was raised there. i know that bruno hauptmann was found guilty and executed for it but i've also done a lot of checking into it. one of the reasons i was doing so was as a teen i remember my grandmom and mom saying, hauptmann didn't do it. they told me about rumour going around that the baby was born with something wrong with him. in those times, people with that kind of money couldn't have an imperfect child and keep their status (apparently how some felt, not all). i remember my grandmom saying that the rumour was the grandmom might have hired someone to kidnap the baby and was going to have it raised "hidden" so no one would know about the "imperfection". of course, there is no way of knowing if this was true but it was odd that my grandmom brought it up as...that just wasn't her style. people didn't talk about those kind of stories. but as i got older i always was curious about the case. it seemed there were some discrepencies to me and apparently to others also.

 

[Blackwatch]

The case that haunts me the most, and there are many, is the murder of Susan Reinert and the disappearance of her two children:

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/r/reinert_karen.html
http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/r/reinert_michael.html

Waumbaugh wrote a book on this murder, Echoes In The Darkness, which was made into a tv movie. There is another book on this topic, Principal Suspect, written from a different slant, that of the school principal who was first convicted, then acquited of the murder due to some police or prosecution dishonesty.

When I was working, I talked to a man who had been taught by some of the main characters in these books.

I'm so fascinated by the murder, and the children's disappearance, that I plan to start a group of some sort to investigate further. My problem with this is time, and safety - God knows murder attracts some strange people and I'm not sure how to weed them out, LOL, although some could say the same for me.

 

[Blackwatch]

would also like to add......again

The Oklahoma Locust Grove Girl Scout Murders - 3 girl scouts raped and bludgeoned to death on a camping trip with 100 other girl scouts and their leaders. Leaders repeatedly ignored the terrified scouts reporting they kept seeing a man lurking around their tents and grabbing them when they went to the restroom. There was a scream at 2:00am that morning but no one bothered to get up and investigate.

Unfortunately the website dedicated to their case has been shut down by the admin. Here are a couple other links. The third one is linked to the discussion thread on A&E's Cold Case section. It is interesting because one of the posters and several of his family members post there and seem rather convinced that it is one of their family members who committed this crime.

http://www.angelfire.com/ok5/girlscoutmurders/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oklahoma_Girl_Scout_Murders

http://boards.aetv.com/thread.jspa?threadID=100001959

This case is another of the ones that haunt my dreams. The book about this case is, Someone Cry For The Children, written from the investigator's point of view. Just recently, due to DNA testing, the man put on trial for, and acquitted of these murder, Gene Leroy Hart, was found NOT to have been the rapist.

It is a shame about that board going under, I used to read it faithfully. It did sound like the "relative" may have known a bit more than anyone let on - I mean he lived right there and was accused of "stuff" by his young female relatives.

 

[shadowangel]

The case that haunts me the most, and there are many, is the murder of Susan Reinert and the disappearance of her two children:

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/r/reinert_karen.html
http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/r/reinert_michael.html

Waumbaugh wrote a book on this murder, Echoes In The Darkness, which was made into a tv movie. There is another book on this topic, Principal Suspect, written from a different slant, that of the school principal who was first convicted, then acquited of the murder due to some police or prosecution dishonesty.

When I was working, I talked to a man who had been taught by some of the main characters in these books.

I'm so fascinated by the murder, and the children's disappearance, that I plan to start a group of some sort to investigate further. My problem with this is time, and safety - God knows murder attracts some strange people and I'm not sure how to weed them out, LOL, although some could say the same for me.

Discussion of the Reinert case:
http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?t=34302&highlight=reinert

This case hits me on both points...Both haunting and fascinating. The picture of the "standing stone" especially stays with me, and I still find myself looking around and wondering when I'm out on trails in western PA.

 

[Blackwatch]

Discussion of the Reinert case:
http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?t=34302&highlight=reinert

This case hits me on both points...Both haunting and fascinating. The picture of the "standing stone" especially stays with me, and I still find myself looking around and wondering when I'm out on trails in western PA.

I believe the case happened in eastern PA, around Valley Forge, Upper Merian(sp), Allentown area, very close to me - that's why I wanted to get a group together and go to all these places.

The marker is interesting, but as someone pointed out to me, those children could be anywhere from PA to New Mexico, since one of his lady loves drove his car there and could have dumped the bodies. However, I believe that marker is in PA - somewhere.

 

[shadowangel]

Bradfield's statement to his prison buddy that he only meant to kill Susan but that he had to kill the kids because he could "leave no stone unturned" takes on a chilling new meaning when thinking of that stone marker.

 

[skygirl]

For me it would have to be ADAM WALSH. I was just a pre-teen at the time it all happened. We lived on the west coast side FL. And this was going on around Ft. Lauderdale area. It scared me to death at that age. And then when they eventually only found his head. That did it! I think of it quite a bit. Do they really think that "ottis T" guy did it, or not? Everytime I see John Walsh on TV I think of what happened.

 

[kline]

Theres another book on the Reinhardt case called'Engaged To Murder' thats pretty good.
I still think Jay Smith was involved in that case.
Adam Walsh and the Girl Scout Murders certainly qualify as Haunting to say the least.

 

[fox1950]

For me it would be the missing Sodder children which is number one. After that, I am very interested in the Sharon Marshall and Anna Waters case. Another case, although it doesn't get much attention on Websleuths, is the Margie Dodd case, from Beckley, WV. A lady that was abducted in 1977 while returning home from the bank she worked.

 

[Blackwatch]

Theres another book on the Reinhardt case called'Engaged To Murder' thats pretty good.
I still think Jay Smith was involved in that case.
Adam Walsh and the Girl Scout Murders certainly qualify as Haunting to say the least.

Yes, thank you for reminding me of that book. Seems I haven't read it in years, if at all, because I don't remember much about it and I have it right on my book shelf. Will have to read it again.

 

[Blackwatch]

There are so many cases, old and new, and so many people missing that it messes with my mind. I'm doing a systematic, case by case, read through of all the missing on the Charley Project, in the hope of matching some, but there are so many. I spent hours and hours a day on this.

I don't know about the rest of you, but when I'm working on these cases, mostly at night, I get strange feelings, fear maybe, and have to close all the windows and bar the doors. Anyone else feel that way?

 

[georgiagirl]

There are so many cases, old and new, and so many people missing that it messes with my mind. I'm doing a systematic, case by case, read through of all the missing on the Charley Project, in the hope of matching some, but there are so many. I spent hours and hours a day on this.

I don't know about the rest of you, but when I'm working on these cases, mostly at night, I get strange feelings, fear maybe, and have to close all the windows and bar the doors. Anyone else feel that way?

Yes, when I first started getting interested in the Missing Person's cases when I would read through the Doe Network and Charley Project I felt very paranoid for myself and my children I was so immersed in reading about them. I actually had to take a break and limit the amount of time on there and even reading on WS. It affected me so much psychologically.