# Cases and true stories that just creep you out **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 14, 2022, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-and-true-stories-that-just-creep-you-out/971573 "2022-09-14T18:20:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mislav](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/77aa72/32.png) [@Mislav](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mislav)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2022, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-and-true-stories-that-just-creep-you-out/971573/1 "2022-09-14T18:20:58Z")
Something that really gets to you, actually provokes fear. There was one case in Croatia that always gave me the creeps. It sounds like a plot of a horror movie, but it actually happened. A couple had two children, a son and a daughter. The girl became a Satanist as a teenager, holding seances, reading books about the black magic etc. As she reached adulthood, she apparently developed schizophrehia and started hallucinating about some man/demon dressed in all black following her around the apartment and telling her to kill herself. She eventually committed suicide. The son also grew up having mental problems and he had been hospitalized several times for depression, but he wasn’t delusional. Around 30 years after her daughter’s suicide, the mother also started hallucinating about the man/demon in black, just like her daughter had. The mother was already in her 70s by that point, way too old to develop schizophrenia, though obviously a mental breakdown in general was still possible. One night, the mother, delusional and in an apparent effort to put her family ouf of her misery, took her husband’s gun and shot her son to death while he slept in his bed (they were staying at the son’s apartment at the time). She also tried to kill her husband, but she only managec to graze his arm before he overpowered and disarmed her. She ended up in a mental institution. To make this even more tragic, her son had three children with his ex-wife, and his current wife was pregnant at the time of the murder. That case always creeped me out, especially since I watched an episode of a true-crime show about it, that included reenactments, including the reenactments of hallucinations that the women suffered. Obviously, I was way too young to watch that. That case would actually make for an interesting horror film or a psychological thriller. These are the only two articles about the murder available online; written in Croatia, but they can be translated into English using Google translate. However, they do not mention the most disturbing details, that only came out sometime after the murder. > **[Zagreb: Ubila sina, a ranila supruga](https://www.jutarnji.hr/naslovnica/zagreb-ubila-sina-a-ranila-supruga-3357533)** > > ZAGREB - Zagrebačko naselje Malešnicu potresla je danas oko 2 sata neviđena obiteljska tragedija kada je Vjera Pezdirc (72) u stanu u Ulici Tomislava Krizmana 5 na spavanju ubila svog sina Davora (... > **[Neubrojiva ubila sina i pokušala usmrtiti supruga](https://www.jutarnji.hr/naslovnica/neubrojiva-ubila-sina-i-pokusala-usmrtiti-supruga-3839394)** > > ZAGREB - Napravila sam tešku, neoprostivu stvar... i za to moram biti kažnjena. Prošaptala je to Vjera P. (73) koja je u neubrojivom stanju lani u kolovozu ubila sina Davora (43) i pokušala ubiti ... Your opinion and picks? ---
**Author:** ![Mislav](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/77aa72/32.png) [@Mislav](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mislav)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2022, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-and-true-stories-that-just-creep-you-out/971573/2 "2022-09-14T19:35:39Z")
This was originally in Cafe Society, but it got moved. It fits well on here. ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2022, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-and-true-stories-that-just-creep-you-out/971573/3 "2022-09-14T19:46:31Z")
The deaths of [Kris Kremers and Lisanne Froon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deaths_of_Kris_Kremers_and_Lisanne_Froon). One website has the photos that were retrieved from Froon’s camera, which are _ **really** _ creepy. Yet we still don’t know if they died of natural causes, or were murdered. ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2022, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-and-true-stories-that-just-creep-you-out/971573/4 "2022-09-14T19:49:56Z")
I don’t want to meet anyone that isn’t creeped out by this story & photo. It’s safe for work but added extra click to see. The last photo of Regina Kay Walters. The murderer shaved her hair and made her put on the black dress and heels before he took the picture. He killed her after. [https://m.imgur.com/ZJ1KVGP](https://m.imgur.com/ZJ1KVGP) ---
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2022, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-and-true-stories-that-just-creep-you-out/971573/5 "2022-09-14T19:55:45Z")
The Dyatlov Pass incident is pretty creepy (though as with all cases like this the likely explanation rather [mundane](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/scientists-may-have-finally-unraveled-mystery-dyatlov-pass-incident-180976886/)): > **[Dyatlov Pass incident](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyatlov_Pass_incident)** > > The Dyatlov Pass incident (Russian: гибель тургруппы Дятлова, transl. "Death of the Dyatlov Group") was an event in which nine Soviet hikers died in the northern Ural Mountains between February 1 and 2, 1959, in uncertain circumstances. The experienced trekking group from the Ural Polytechnical Institute, led by Igor Dyatlov, had established a camp on the eastern slopes of Kholat Syakhl in the Russian SFSR of the Soviet Union. Overnight, something caused them to cut their way out of their tent... The random unexplained radio stations repeating gibberish are also fairly creepy: > **[The ghostly radio station that no one claims to run](https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20170801-the-ghostly-radio-station-that-no-one-claims-to-run)** > > “MDZhB” has been broadcasting since 1982. No one knows why. And finally the various mummified bog bodies found in Europe, in and of itself not creepy, except almost all of them have been murdered in various gruesome ways: > **[Europe's Famed Bog Bodies Are Starting to Reveal Their Secrets](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/europe-bog-bodies-reveal-secrets-180962770/)** > > High-tech tools divulge new information about the mysterious and violent fates met by these corpses ---
**Author:** ![Seanette](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/seanette/32/9139_2.png) [@Seanette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seanette)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2022, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-and-true-stories-that-just-creep-you-out/971573/6 "2022-09-14T20:13:52Z")
Dyatlov Pass was pretty spooky, all right. Here’s my candidate: > **[Hinterkaifeck murders](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hinterkaifeck_murders)** > > The Hinterkaifeck murders occurred on the evening of 31 March 1922, when six inhabitants of a small Bavarian farmstead, located approximately 70 kilometres (43 mi) north of Munich, Germany, were murdered by an unknown assailant. The six victims were Andreas Gruber (aged 63) and Cäzilia Gruber (aged 72); their widowed daughter Viktoria Gabriel (aged 35); Viktoria's children, Cäzilia (aged 7) and Josef (aged 2); and the maid, Maria Baumgartner (aged 44). They were all found struck dead. The perp... ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2022, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-and-true-stories-that-just-creep-you-out/971573/7 "2022-09-14T21:07:31Z")
[The Lead masks case](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead_masks_case). ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2022, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-and-true-stories-that-just-creep-you-out/971573/8 "2022-09-15T00:29:50Z")
We have Black Bears where we live. Not creepy. We get along fine. Mostly. But I hate it when they sit and stare at the house. And the only way to scare them off is by firing a high powered rifle in their direction. The bears now break into our cars. Four times now. We don’t lock our cars. Have been advised not to. They open the damn doors. If it was locked, they would just rip the handle off. No damage yet except muddy footprints on seats. This spring, I noticed that both of my Wife’s and my car had doors open. This was about 5am. I went out on the deck to check it out. About 30 feet from the cars. There was no way I could see into the cars, and I didn’t want to poke my head in to see if anyone was home. Ummm. No. Bears look like slow lumbering creatures, but are really, really fast. I retreated inside, and got a revolver, .357, makes a shit ton of noise. I fired it into the ground behind the vehicles looking for movement inside. I figured that would wake them up. Nothing. Cars did not rock or anything. So the bear must be gone. I hoped. The revolver would have maybe, maybe given me a little advantage, but not much in a close contact situation. Was frightening to walk up to the cars to check them out. It’s fall now, when bears are trying to stock up to hibernate. So we have to be extra careful. We are used to it, but it’s kinda creepy. I am encroaching on their habitat. Not the other way around. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2022, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-and-true-stories-that-just-creep-you-out/971573/9 "2022-09-15T00:42:19Z")
> [@griffin1977](#): > > The Dyatlov Pass incident is pretty creepy (though as with all cases like this the likely explanation rather [mundane](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/scientists-may-have-finally-unraveled-mystery-dyatlov-pass-incident-180976886/)): Dark Matters did a segment on Dyatlov. While I don’t believe the truth involves aliens, yetis or mind control, I have not heard an explanation that fits all the facts. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2022, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-and-true-stories-that-just-creep-you-out/971573/10 "2022-09-15T01:25:07Z")
> [@jnglmassiv](#): > > I don’t want to meet anyone that isn’t creeped out by this story & photo. It’s safe for work but added extra click to see. > > The last photo of Regina Kay Walters. Not clicking on that link. It’s bad enough having seen a photo serial killer Harvey Glatman took of one of his victims before killing her (it appears in more than one true crime book). Some photos shouldn’t be in the public domain. ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2022, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-and-true-stories-that-just-creep-you-out/971573/11 "2022-09-15T02:10:52Z")
> [@Seanette](#): > > Here’s my candidate: Great example, terrifying. Edit: Brutally kill some kids, check. Gruesome weapon, yes, good. In their sleep? Yes, please go on. Chill in their house a while, obviously. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2022, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-and-true-stories-that-just-creep-you-out/971573/12 "2022-09-15T03:42:02Z")
For me it is **BTK**. He killed at least ten people in Kansas over nearly 20 years. He was active in his Lutheran church, and he was the congregation president, so he had to have been very trusted in that church. You just never know. He was truly a sick fuck. > **[Dennis Rader](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Rader)** > > Dennis Lynn Rader (born March 9, 1945) is an American serial killer known as BTK (an abbreviation he gave himself, for "bind, torture, kill"), the BTK Strangler or the BTK Killer. Between 1974 and 1991, he killed ten people in Wichita and Park City, Kansas, and sent taunting letters to police and media outlets describing the details of his crimes. After a decade-long hiatus, Rader resumed sending letters in 2004, leading to his 2005 arrest and subsequent guilty plea. He is currently serv Rader... [![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a2/DennisRader.jpg) ](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a2/DennisRader.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2022, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-and-true-stories-that-just-creep-you-out/971573/13 "2022-09-15T04:45:57Z")
What makes the Hinterkaifeck murders particularly interesting is that there’s an argument to be made that they were committed by “the man from a train”, a serial killer who may have had dozens of victims across America around the turn of the 20th century. > **[The Man from the Train](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_from_the_Train)** > > The Man from the Train is a 2017 true crime book written by Bill James and his daughter Rachel McCarthy James. > In The Man from the Train, the authors claim to have discovered the identity and existence of a previously overlooked serial killer active in the late 1800s and early 1900s. According to the authors, this criminal was named Paul Mueller, who operated throughout North America and killed between 40 and 100 people. > Bill James is best known as a baseball analyst using sabermetrics, but als... My personal pick for creepiest true tame is the Yuba City Five, which some have nicknamed the American Dyatlov Pass incident. In 1978, five young men with varying degrees of disability drove from Yuba City, CA up to Chico to attend a college basketball game. On the way back, they disappeared. Their abandoned car was found on a mountain road way off-course from their destination. Over the following weeks, the remains of three of the men were found in the woods where they had apparently died of exposure and been eaten by scavengers. A fourth was found the following summer in a disused Forest Service cabin where he had apparently survived for months before starving to death (despite the cabin having an ample food supply), and no trace of the fifth has ever been discovered. > **[Yuba County Five](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuba_County_Five)** > > The Yuba County Five were a group of young men from Yuba City, California, with mild intellectual disabilities or psychiatric conditions, who attended a college basketball game at California State University, Chico, on the night of February 24, 1978. Four of them—Bill Sterling, 29; Jack Huett, 24; Ted Weiher, 32; and Jack Madruga, 30—were later found dead; the fifth, Gary Mathias, 25, has never been found. > Several days after their initial disappearance, the group's Mercury Montego was found, aba... ---
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2022, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-and-true-stories-that-just-creep-you-out/971573/14 "2022-09-15T04:54:29Z")
To me personally there is nothing exactly creepy per se about terrible serial killers, like BTK. Their crimes are horrific and shocking, but not fascinating and don’t give me any desire to know more (in fact I’d happily know less if that was an option). What is actually creepy to me are mysteries, like the Yuba County Five @Smapti posted above. Which I’d not heard about before (thanks @Smapti way to creep me out before bed 😉 ) ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2022, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-and-true-stories-that-just-creep-you-out/971573/15 "2022-09-15T05:18:46Z")
> [@enipla](#): > > The revolver would have maybe, maybe given me a little advantage, but not much in a close contact situation. Not to hijack this thread but I’m curious, wouldn’t 2-3 shots from a .357 stop a bear if it was charging you? You’d need good shot placement, of course. We’ve talked about this before, and you gave me the idea that I could shoot at the ground near a bear and that is usually enough to startle it and send it away. I have a .44 magnum and a .45ACP and carry them if I’m in bear country. Fortunately I’ve never had to use them. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2022, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-and-true-stories-that-just-creep-you-out/971573/16 "2022-09-15T07:18:58Z")
> [@DocCathode](#): > > While I don’t believe the truth involves aliens, yetis or mind control, I have not heard an explanation that fits all the facts. Recently there was a possible explanation put forth based on, of all things, the CGI snow animation from Disney’s _Frozen_. > **[How Disney's Frozen Led to a Breakthrough in Russia's Dyatlov Pass Mystery](https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/645349/disneys-frozen-dyatlov-pass-mystery-breakthrough)** > > Sixty-two years ago, nine hikers died in what's now Dyatlov Pass in Russia after fleeing their tent for unknown reasons. Using models inspired by Disney's 'Frozen,' scientists have come up with an explanation for the incident. ---
**Author:** ![Toxylon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f05b48/32.png) [@Toxylon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toxylon)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2022, 7:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-and-true-stories-that-just-creep-you-out/971573/17 "2022-09-15T07:30:31Z")
> [@Bullitt](#): > > wouldn’t 2-3 shots from a .357 stop a bear if it was charging you? My understanding is that when a bear is charging you, you have time to maybe shoot once, and then you have a bear in your lap. They are extremely fast. And **Enipla** did specify a close contact situation. ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2022, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-and-true-stories-that-just-creep-you-out/971573/18 "2022-09-15T11:42:28Z")
> [@Bullitt](#): > > wouldn’t 2-3 shots from a .357 stop a bear if it was charging you I’m certainly not an expert in this area, but my WAG is that it depends on shot placement. Am guessing two or three shots in center of mass would _not_ stop a bear. The bear will kill you, and then (might) die of blood loss an hour or so later. Hitting the bear in the head or spine would stop him, but that would require expert shooting or luck. Interestingly, I’ve hear it stated that spraying “bear spray” in its eyes is actually more effective at stopping a bear vs. shooting it in the center of mass with a gun. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2022, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-and-true-stories-that-just-creep-you-out/971573/19 "2022-09-15T13:08:54Z")
Yeah, I’m not kidding my self. A .357 could do serious damage or kill a bear, the odds of hitting it in a panicky situation are pretty small. My preference is to stay close enough to the house to be able to beat it to the door. Then, though, you might have a whole different situation. The bears have ripped off my shed door twice. But that’s enough of this. I was mostly relating that it is creepy to have a bear scout out your house, and then sit and wait watching the house. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2022, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-and-true-stories-that-just-creep-you-out/971573/20 "2022-09-15T13:28:54Z")
My current pick for truly creepy killer is the [“Black Widow”](https://abcnews.go.com/US/timeline-black-widow-stacey-castors-shocking-crimes/story?id=60860538), Stacey Castor. Her second husband died after drinking antifreeze in what was supposed to be a case of suicide. Then evidence turned up pointing to Stacey as the killer, including a turkey baster she used to force more antifreeze into him as he was unconscious or dying. Even worse for her, authorities exhumed her first husband who’d died of what was originally thought to be natural causes, but the autopsy revealed the body was “loaded” with calcium oxalate crystals, a telltale sign of antifreeze poisoning. At this point, with the law starting to close in on her, Stacey Castor decided to frame her daughter for murder, forging a confession/suicide note and mixing a medication overdose into her daughter’s drink. Fortunately the daughter survived (barely), the forgery was discovered and Stacey Castor was convicted of murder. She even [looked suitably creepy](https://www.aetv.com/real-crime/stacey-castor-and-other-women-who-killed-husbands). [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-and-true-stories-that-just-creep-you-out/971573.md?page=2)