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.
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.
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.
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)
Very reminiscent of the Gilgo murders.
Can south Jersey residents chime in to comment?
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.
Update:
Apparently, authorities are looking into it.
Cops eye possible link between Rex Heuermann and Atlantic City sex workers (pix11.com)
Gilgo Beach murder suspect Rex Heuermann may have ties to unsolved murder cases in Atlantic City: authorities (fox29.com)
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!
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.
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.
Finally solved!
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.
Came in to mention this case. Oakland County resident, one kid disappeared from the parking lot of a hobby shop that I frequented.
Wow. Two innocent young men spent years in prison for those Austin murders, based only on false confessions.
One of them was on death row for a while!
In 1983, Louis 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.
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/
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.
Previously posted in a similar thread Maine’s oldest cold case