# Bizarre, Unsolved or Otherwise Infamous True Crime Cases From Your State / Country
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizarre-unsolved-or-otherwise-infamous-true-crime-cases-from-your-state-country/847890
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [February 13, 2020, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizarre-unsolved-or-otherwise-infamous-true-crime-cases-from-your-state-country/847890 "2020-02-13T18:45:56Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 7
### Author:  [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2023, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizarre-unsolved-or-otherwise-infamous-true-crime-cases-from-your-state-country/847890/121 "2023-07-15T16:32:26Z")
An interesting case I ran across a year or so back. I think a friend from the area mentioned it to me. It’s a 5-part article. [The Merchant Murders.](https://www.pennlive.com/crime/2022/06/someone-was-gunning-down-harrisburg-store-owners-in-1963-was-it-a-serial-killer.html)
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### Author:  [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2023, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizarre-unsolved-or-otherwise-infamous-true-crime-cases-from-your-state-country/847890/122 "2023-07-15T17:13:22Z")
> [@xizor](#):
>
> Growing up, we had to deal with the [Oakland County Child Killer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oakland_County_Child_Killer)
I remember that case well. I was an Oakland Country resident and 12 at the time, so I was the same age as the victims. I remember that someone reported seeing a blue Gremlin in the vicinity of one of the child disappearances, so I kept a sharp eye out for blue Gremlins as I walked to school.
I also remember that my parents, who before that let me run around the neighborhood all day long like a stray cat (as was the parenting style of the time), suddenly cracked down and wouldn’t let me go anywhere by myself. In the colossally selfish way of youth, I remember thinking how unfair to me it was. I think it was only a few weeks before they eased up again, though, and I was free to roam the suburban streets again.
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### Author:  [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2023, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizarre-unsolved-or-otherwise-infamous-true-crime-cases-from-your-state-country/847890/123 "2023-07-15T20:43:42Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#):
>
> I’m currently reading a novel very loosely based on the trial, which was the most notorious and widely covered until the Lindbergh trial took over that honor a few years later. The novel is called The Bellamy Case by Frances Noyes Hart, and it is a real page-turner.
Just wanted to make a correction: the book by Hart is called _The Bellamy Trial_ not _The Bellamy Case,_ which is the name of a different book. In case all these years later someone is looking for it.
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### Author:  [@EnolaStraight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EnolaStraight)
#### Post date: [July 18, 2023, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizarre-unsolved-or-otherwise-infamous-true-crime-cases-from-your-state-country/847890/124 "2023-07-18T01:26:16Z")
Fifteen years ago in West Atlantic City…essentially, a strip of motels along the Black Horse Pike…four women were found dead behind a motel along a salt marsh channel.
Unsolved.
[Fifteen years later, West Atlantic City murders remain unsolved (pressofatlanticcity.com)](https://pressofatlanticcity.com/fifteen-years-later-west-atlantic-city-murders-remain-unsolved/article_a7f68624-498e-11ec-90ab-6f2bfa7344fd.html#:~:text=Fifteen%20years%20after%20the%20murders%20of%20four%20women,east%20toward%20Atlantic%20City.%20Raffo%2C%2035%2C%20was%20strangled.)
_Very_ reminiscent of the Gilgo murders.
Can south Jersey residents chime in to comment?
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### Author:  [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)
#### Post date: [July 18, 2023, 8:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizarre-unsolved-or-otherwise-infamous-true-crime-cases-from-your-state-country/847890/125 "2023-07-18T08:09:38Z")
Toronto: the Barry and Honey Sherman murders. Billionaire couple is found dead by their swimming pool… by a real-estate agent giving a tour of the house.
> **[Canada: son of murdered billionaire couple triples cash reward to C$35m](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/dec/12/canada-billionaire-couple-toronto-murder-reward)**
>
> Barry and Honey Sherman found dead in Toronto home five years ago but family frustration mounts as crime remains unsolved
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### Author:  [@EnolaStraight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EnolaStraight)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2023, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizarre-unsolved-or-otherwise-infamous-true-crime-cases-from-your-state-country/847890/126 "2023-07-20T22:53:00Z")
Update:
Apparently, authorities are looking into it.
[Cops eye possible link between Rex Heuermann and Atlantic City sex workers (pix11.com)](https://pix11.com/news/local-news/cops-investigating-possible-link-between-gilgo-beach-suspect-and-4-dead-atlantic-city-sex-workers/)
[Gilgo Beach murder suspect Rex Heuermann may have ties to unsolved murder cases in Atlantic City: authorities (fox29.com)](https://www.fox29.com/news/gilgo-beach-murder-suspect-rex-heuermann-may-have-ties-to-unsolved-murder-cases-in-atlantic-city)
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### Author:  [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)
#### Post date: [July 29, 2023, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizarre-unsolved-or-otherwise-infamous-true-crime-cases-from-your-state-country/847890/127 "2023-07-29T20:20:50Z")
> [@carrps](#):
>
> > [@Roderick\_Femm](#):
> >
> > I’m currently reading a novel very loosely based on the trial, which was the most notorious and widely covered until the Lindbergh trial took over that honor a few years later. The novel is called The Bellamy Case by Frances Noyes Hart, and it is a real page-turner.
>
> Just wanted to make a correction: the book by Hart is called _The Bellamy Trial_ not _The Bellamy Case,_ which is the name of a different book. In case all these years later someone is looking for it.
Just finished reading this book (thanks for the reco, @Roderick_Femm !). It’s definitely a page turner, but the 1920s language was unnecessarily flowerly and convoluted, so I was turning the pages slower than I expected. Were the “facts” in the novel the same as the real case? Because I’d forgotten this was based on a real case when I started to read it, and it read just like a murder mystery fiction. And I was fooled by the final resolution! I like to be fooled!
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### Author:  [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)
#### Post date: [July 29, 2023, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizarre-unsolved-or-otherwise-infamous-true-crime-cases-from-your-state-country/847890/128 "2023-07-29T20:37:20Z")
> [@carrps](#):
>
> Were the “facts” in the novel the same as the real case?
I don’t remember, in fact I’m not sure I ever knew. Since I wrote “very loosely based” 2.5 years ago, I’ll guess the facts are not identical. Especially the resolution, since in real life there doesn’t appear to have been one.
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### Author:  [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)
#### Post date: [July 29, 2023, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizarre-unsolved-or-otherwise-infamous-true-crime-cases-from-your-state-country/847890/129 "2023-07-29T20:40:51Z")
I just googled…could have done that before replying, duh…but no, the circumstances were different. Similar enough for the novel, but in the details quite different. No one was ever found guilty. Interestingly, it’s considered to first courtroom murder mystery novel. I liked how it was framed with the growing relationship between the novice “girl” report and the cynical NYC reporter.
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### Author:  [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)
#### Post date: [September 27, 2025, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizarre-unsolved-or-otherwise-infamous-true-crime-cases-from-your-state-country/847890/130 "2025-09-27T02:58:00Z")
> [@flurb](#):
>
> More recently, in 1991 four teenagers were murdered in a [yogurt shop](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1991_Austin_yogurt_shop_murders) in a case that has never been solved. A terrible crime, and the subsequent conviction of two suspects in 1999 was overturned over alleged coerced confessions and the discovery of male DNA at the scene that did not match either suspect.
Finally solved!
> **[DNA evidence links a dead man to the 1991 killings of 4 girls at Texas yogurt...](https://apnews.com/article/austin-yogurt-shop-1991-murders-solved-1bc45a19a8fe021bde015794de9a5865)**
>
> Austin police have identified a new suspect in the 1991 yogurt shop murders of four teenage girls. They announced Friday that DNA tests point to Robert Eugene Brashers, who died by suicide in 1999.
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### Author:  [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)
#### Post date: [September 28, 2025, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizarre-unsolved-or-otherwise-infamous-true-crime-cases-from-your-state-country/847890/131 "2025-09-28T01:27:44Z")
A little five year old in my city went missing almost fifty years ago. Last seen walking with a stranger. We always hope the mystery will be solved.
Dear Jacky, at least I hope you are in Heaven.
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### Author:  [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)
#### Post date: [September 28, 2025, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizarre-unsolved-or-otherwise-infamous-true-crime-cases-from-your-state-country/847890/132 "2025-09-28T01:39:18Z")
Came in to mention this case. Oakland County resident, one kid disappeared from the parking lot of a hobby shop that I frequented.
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### Author:  [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)
#### Post date: [September 28, 2025, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizarre-unsolved-or-otherwise-infamous-true-crime-cases-from-your-state-country/847890/133 "2025-09-28T11:37:40Z")
Wow. Two innocent young men spent years in prison for those Austin murders, based only on false confessions.
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### Author:  [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)
#### Post date: [September 28, 2025, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizarre-unsolved-or-otherwise-infamous-true-crime-cases-from-your-state-country/847890/134 "2025-09-28T12:17:00Z")
One of them was on death row for a while!
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### Author:  [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)
#### Post date: [September 28, 2025, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizarre-unsolved-or-otherwise-infamous-true-crime-cases-from-your-state-country/847890/135 "2025-09-28T12:50:22Z")
In 1983, [Louis Hastings](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_D._Hastings) murdered six people, or 25%, of the population of McCarthy, Alaska. McCarthy is remote, although it’s accessible by a dirt road. It’s located by the now closed Kennecott Copper Mine, which is a tourist attraction. The small number of permanent residents are generally loners who prefer living off the grid. Hastings had intended to murder all of the residents as part of a bizarre plan to somehow shut down the oil pipeline project. His plan was to hijack a fuel truck and drive it into a pump station, causing it to explode and burn both the station, the truck and himself. By killing all the residents of McCarthy, he felt that nobody would be able to identify his remains.
It all went sideways, of course, and he was apprehended, but not until he murdered two couples and two unmarried men, and wounded some other folks. He was tried and sentenced to 634 years in prison, despite an attempt to plead insanity.
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### Author:  [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)
#### Post date: [September 29, 2025, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizarre-unsolved-or-otherwise-infamous-true-crime-cases-from-your-state-country/847890/136 "2025-09-29T01:41:59Z")
There was a I Can’t Believe It’s Yogurt shop near where I work. I often stopped there after work. It closed over 25 years ago.
It made this case more personal.
I’m watching the 4 episode series on Max.
I’m glad they identified the bastard. Too bad that he’s already dead.
The article includes a full timeline of the case. Innocent people went to prison.
[https://www.ktsm.com/news/timeline-of-the-texas-yogurt-shop-cold-case-investigation/](https://www.ktsm.com/news/timeline-of-the-texas-yogurt-shop-cold-case-investigation/)
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### Author:  [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)
#### Post date: [September 29, 2025, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizarre-unsolved-or-otherwise-infamous-true-crime-cases-from-your-state-country/847890/137 "2025-09-29T11:14:12Z")
Wow. Among the many travesties of justice: the 8-year gap (2017 to 2025) between the FBI finding a match for the DNA, and the Austin police getting this info to finally resolve it and release the accused.
It reminds me a little of the lack of inter-agency communication in the months leading up to 9-11.
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### Author:  [@Fir\_na\_tine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fir_na_tine)
#### Post date: [September 29, 2025, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizarre-unsolved-or-otherwise-infamous-true-crime-cases-from-your-state-country/847890/138 "2025-09-29T12:32:22Z")
Previously posted in a similar thread [Maine’s oldest cold case](https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/27foaq/maines_oldest_cold_case_the_murder_of_13_year_old/)
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### Author:  [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)
#### Post date: [November 4, 2025, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizarre-unsolved-or-otherwise-infamous-true-crime-cases-from-your-state-country/847890/139 "2025-11-04T18:45:19Z")
Here’s one that just came back to me: the disappearance of Victor Grayson. Officially unresolved, but strong suspicion that he fell foul of the sinister [Maundy Gregory](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maundy_Gregory)
> **[Victor Grayson](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Grayson)**
>
> Albert Victor Grayson (born 5 September 1881, disappeared 28 September 1920) was an English socialist politician of the early 20th century. An Independent Labour Party Member of Parliament from 1907 to 1910, Grayson is most notable for his sensational by-election victory at Colne Valley, and unexplained disappearance in 1920.
> Albert Victor Grayson was born in Liverpool, the seventh son of William Grayson, a Yorkshire carpenter, and Elizabeth Craig, who was Scottish. He became an apprentice en...
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### Author:  [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)
#### Post date: [November 5, 2025, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizarre-unsolved-or-otherwise-infamous-true-crime-cases-from-your-state-country/847890/140 "2025-11-05T06:09:09Z")
Here’s a current case that I just found out about today - the disappearance of Melodee Buzzard. On October 7, Ashlee Buzzard, a 35-year-old widow from Lompoc, CA, took her 9-year-old daughter Melodee (who was seen on camera wearing a wig) to a rent-a-car, where they rented a Chevy Malibu and drove to Nebraska and back. At some point along the route, Ashlee switched the license plates on the car with New York plates. Ashlee returned the car, with its original plates back on it, on Oct. 10 - but Melodee wasn’t with her, having last been spotted on surveillance cameras near the Colorado-Utah border the previous day. Ashlee has not cooperated with law enforcement and won’t say where her daughter is.
[https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/kidnap/melodee-buzzard](https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/kidnap/melodee-buzzard)
> **[Update in Ongoing Search for Melodee Buzzard- Investigative Focus on October...](https://www.sbsheriff.org/update-in-ongoing-search-for-melodee-buzzard-investigative-focus-on-october-9-travel-route/)**
>
> Proud to Protect and Serve Santa Barbara County The men and women of the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office are proud to protect the people of this beautiful county. Our dedicated team of professionals uphold our five core values, integrity,...
> **[Mystery deepens in search for missing 9-year-old after shocking license plate...](https://cbsaustin.com/news/nation-world/mystery-deepens-in-search-for-missing-9-year-old-after-shocking-license-plate-twist-melodee-buzzard-might-be-in-disguise-investigation-california-santa-barbara-county-sheriffs-office-ashlee-mother-wig-hair-hooded-sweatshirt-surveillance-im)**
>
> The desperate search for a missing 9-year-old girl took a troubling turn.
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