# 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:** 7\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2025, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-and-true-stories-that-just-creep-you-out/971573/141 "2025-01-02T17:58:54Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > I _think_ you’re describing [Little Miss 1565](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hartford_circus_fire#Little_Miss_1565), one of 167 people killed in a Ringling Brothers Circus tent fire in Hartford, Connecticut in 1944. Unidentified body cases creep me out, and I’m not sure why. The Boy in the Box gave me the willies, and I was so glad he was finally identified, even if it didn’t lead to his killer. There are a couple of seriously creepy cases where murder victims weren’t identified for decades-- one was a man & a woman found on a hiking trail in the 60s or early 70s. It was especially disturbing partly because it was so modern-- even though DNA wasn’t available as a means of identification, there were many other things, and partly because they were found shortly after they died, before there was really any decomposition, so there were very good photos of them circulating, and still no one claimed them. They were just identified with the help of DNA a couple of years ago. Another case that creeps me out is the Charley Ross case. He was a 6-yr-old who was the first person kidnapped for ransom in the US. He was never found, but a burglar who was shot and died in the attempt said the name “Charley Ross” as he died, and some people who heard him think he was trying to confess to the kidnapping. He didn’t give any helpful information though. ---
**Author:** ![Old\_Wench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecccb3/32.png) [@Old\_Wench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Old_Wench)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2025, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-and-true-stories-that-just-creep-you-out/971573/142 "2025-01-02T22:20:58Z")
Here’s an odd one. In 2014 a woman’s embalmed head was found in Beaver County, PA. No other body parts have been found and she has not yet been identified. > **[10 years later, 'Jane Doe' remains unidentified in Beaver County](https://www.post-gazette.com/local/region/2024/12/12/beaver-economy-severed-embalmed-head-reward-jane-doe/stories/202412120002)** > > For years, Andy Gall took care of the modest grave himself. > The marker isn’t much bigger than a brick, and it’s tucked against the back wall... ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2025, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-and-true-stories-that-just-creep-you-out/971573/143 "2025-01-02T22:49:14Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > one was a man & a woman found on a hiking trail in the 60s or early 70s. It was especially disturbing partly because it was so modern-- even though DNA wasn’t available as a means of identification, there were many other things, and partly because they were found shortly after they died, before there was really any decomposition, so there were very good photos of them circulating, and still no one claimed them. They were just identified with the help of DNA a couple of years ago With the recent ID was there any backstory given on how they ended up there, dead, and nobody missing them? The Earth is a big place. The odds on somebody connecting their missing loved one, friend, or neighbor with reports of a body go down sharply with distance. The internet helps reduce that factor but not eliminate it. Meantime the farther from home one is, the less likely they’re _there_. There’s X many places I could be (or be found) 5 miles from home. But far, far more if 500 or 5000 miles from home. These two factors together suggest a body that’s unclaimed / unidentified ain’t from 'round here. Which leads to the “Why there, why then?” question. ---
**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:** [January 2, 2025, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-and-true-stories-that-just-creep-you-out/971573/144 "2025-01-02T22:52:28Z")
The case of the [Isdal woman](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isdal_Woman) would fit in with a James Bond novel, except it would be too over the top. A possible spy/prostitute/antiquities dealer is found dead and later traced to multiple passsports and disguises. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2025, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-and-true-stories-that-just-creep-you-out/971573/145 "2025-01-02T22:59:53Z")
The Somerton Man is another one that creeped me out; he’s been identified by a hobby genealogist, but the family is satisfied with the ID, and it looks reasonable to me. It’s also not a fantastic story-- it’s very ordinary, and lots of the proposed stories were fantastic, but the guy who ID’d him followed the evidence, not the best storyline. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2025, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-and-true-stories-that-just-creep-you-out/971573/146 "2025-01-02T23:41:53Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > but the guy who ID’d him followed the evidence, not the best storyline. How refreshing. IRL is not TV & vice versa. Hard to remember these days. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2025, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-and-true-stories-that-just-creep-you-out/971573/147 "2025-01-03T00:09:50Z")
The story I’ve heard about the Somerton Man is that, at least at the time, his family didn’t WANT him identified, because he had treated them very poorly. Closer to home, this case was unsolved for many years, and finally, his ex-wife connected the dots and convinced the authorities that she did indeed know who he was. TL : DR - the body of a man was found floating in a river in Des Moines, Iowa, near a homeless camp. People who knew him said he was a good man, but alcoholism eventually cost him everything. (Warning: some of the pictures in the link may be disturbing to some people.) > **[Unidentified White Male, Des Moines, Oct. 25, 2005 | Iowa Cold Cases](https://iowacoldcases.org/case-summaries/unidentified-white-male-dsm-10-25-05/)** > > An unidentified white male found floating in the Des Moines River in 2005 was identified nine years later as Robert Bryan McMahon of Des Moines after WHO-TV and Iowa Cold Cases partnered on a story. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-and-true-stories-that-just-creep-you-out/971573.md?page=7)