# Unsolved mysteries and murders **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 12, 2018, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unsolved-mysteries-and-murders/810443 "2018-03-12T18:49:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Dr.Girlfriend](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.girlfriend/32/193_2.png) [@Dr.Girlfriend](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Girlfriend)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2018, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unsolved-mysteries-and-murders/810443/101 "2018-09-15T16:33:10Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > I just came across the Wikipedia [article](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_April_Tinsley) on this today. (Your link also has an update.) They’ve arrested a suspect recently. Methods similar to GSK. Old DNA, online DNA partial match, narrow down to two brothers, steal some DNA from a garbage can (used condom :eek:), arrest ensues. > > We might need an ongoing thread for new developments in cold cases like this. I think a lot of people here still hoped that there would finally be an arrest but probably didn’t think it would actually happen. I heard some speculation when the arrest was first made that the same guy might have been involved with the case that **Barkis is Willin’** mentioned. I don’t know if anything came of it, I haven’t heard anything recently. ---
**Author:** ![Princess\_Perfume](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/princess_perfume/32/16518_2.png) [@Princess\_Perfume](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princess_Perfume)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2019, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unsolved-mysteries-and-murders/810443/102 "2019-05-14T01:50:24Z")
Not unsolved, but what happened to Judith Barsi still haunts me. She was arguably the best young voice actress in the United States in 1988 (Tara Charendoff, Cree Summer and Alyson Court all lived in Toronto). She would have gone far. ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2019, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unsolved-mysteries-and-murders/810443/103 "2019-05-14T02:02:32Z")
[This one](https://www.sanluisobispo.com/news/local/crime/article226883504.html) always stayed with me. > [@](#): > > It was supposed to be a fun weekend in San Luis Obispo for Marina Ruggiero around family and close friends. But nearly 28 years later, police are still mystified by her ill-fated visit to SLO. > > The 20-year-old San Pedro resident was in town Sunday, Aug. 25, 1991, for the wedding of a close family friend. After Ruggiero left the reception alone to return to her nearby motel room, nobody she knew would ever talk to her again. > > The young woman who, by all accounts, had a fairly normal life, was brutally stabbed to death about 10 p.m. that night. I don’t think they’ll ever solve it. ---
**Author:** ![StusBlues](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@StusBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StusBlues)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2019, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unsolved-mysteries-and-murders/810443/104 "2019-05-14T21:00:21Z")
> [@Princess\_Perfume](#): > > It’s really sad when places where crimes occurred or victim’s bodies were found are later demolished or paved over when streets and highways are widened. Two of the “canonical five” Jack the Ripper murder sites are now children’s playgrounds. If we become overwhelmed by the history or a landscape, we become moribund. The time comes to move on. ---
**Author:** ![NetTrekker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nettrekker/32/2909_2.png) [@NetTrekker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NetTrekker)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2019, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unsolved-mysteries-and-murders/810443/105 "2019-07-14T01:56:11Z")
> [@Enola\_Straight](#): > > I believe this phenomenon is called Family Annihilation: The Suicide…usually a man…has an over-developed sense of importance. Not so much Narciccism, but that others vitally depend on him to survive. > > For one reason or another he decides killing himself is the only way out, and going on without him is a fate _worse_ than death, so he “mercifully puts them out of their misery.” I hadn’t heard of that. I was thinking along the lines of PTSD since the anecdotes involved cops and cops deal with some bad stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Princess\_Perfume](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/princess_perfume/32/16518_2.png) [@Princess\_Perfume](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princess_Perfume)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2019, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unsolved-mysteries-and-murders/810443/106 "2019-07-18T18:51:33Z")
Ronald Goldman always gets forgotten, I’ve found. It ends up being All Nicole, All The Time… ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2019, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unsolved-mysteries-and-murders/810443/107 "2019-07-19T14:10:02Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > What about Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Lyle Goldman? There’s never been a conviction in that case! Not by me he hasn’t. I will always remember there were TWO people carved up in that murder scene. ALWAYS!!! ---
**Author:** ![Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a183cd/32.png) [@Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barkis_is_Willin)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2019, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unsolved-mysteries-and-murders/810443/108 "2019-07-19T15:08:14Z")
> [@Barkis\_is\_Willin](#): > > I recently discovered a podcast episode about the [Delphi, Indiana murders](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murders_of_Abigail_Williams_and_Liberty_German)of two teenage girls just about a year and a half ago. How it remains unsolved is the real mystery because police have released a picture of the main suspect, a detailed sketch, voice audio, and apparently they have video of at least part, if not all of the crime. But there have been no arrests. It’s a bit of a rabbit hole. Well, this one I mentioned almost a year ago has become even more weird. A couple months ago police released a new sketch of the suspect that looks nothing like the first sketch. I think they’re flailing in the dark and it’s pretty sad. > [@Carryon](#): > > What amazes me is when I come across some of these that are solved, decades later and the body is found within a half a mile or so of the place of disappearance. > > It shows how easy it is to overlook things. The Jacob Wetterling case is the all time example of this. There was a nationwide manhunt to find this kid and 27 years later they find out he’s buried 30 miles from where he was abducted by what should have been an obvious suspect from the very beginning. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2026, 10:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unsolved-mysteries-and-murders/810443/109 "2026-06-15T10:14:16Z")
Here’s one that appears at last to be in sight of a resolution: > **[Multi-millionaire banker with royal connections arrested in hunt for...](https://www.lbc.co.uk/article/multi-millionaire-banker-royal-connections-arrested-putney-pusher-5HjdbbT_2/)** > > The dramatic arrest comes nearly ten years after CCTV images showed a jogger shoving a female pedestrian into the path of a double-decker bus on Putney Bridge. ---
**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:** [June 24, 2026, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unsolved-mysteries-and-murders/810443/110 "2026-06-24T23:03:28Z")
June 25th marks the 47th anniversary of the discovery of Susan Reinert’s body in a car in a motel parking lot near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Reinert was one of the victims in the “Echoes In The Darkness” case. The mystery here is what happened to Reinert’s children, who’ve been missing all this time and are presumed dead. Both suspected killers (Bill Bradfield, who died in prison after his murder conviction) and [Jay C. Smith](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jay_C._Smith)\*, whose conviction was overturned for prosecutorial misconduct, have since died, so the exact details of who did what and how will likely never be known. \*Smith, a former high school principal, was involved in other criminal activity including armed robbery, and was suspected in the disappearance of his daughter and son-in-law, also an unsolved mystery. ---
**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:** [June 24, 2026, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unsolved-mysteries-and-murders/810443/111 "2026-06-24T23:18:17Z")
[Missy Bevers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_Missy_Bevers) was murdered ten years ago in a church in Texas, at 4:30 in the morning. She was alone, and setting up equipment for an exercise class that was to start at 5:00 AM. You can find the surveillance video online that shows the suspect walking through the church beforehand, breaking things with his or her hammer. Very creepy. I find it so odd that the suspect hasn’t been caught yet. Some online sleuths think there’s a cover-up in law enforcement, and I’m beginning to wonder if it’s true. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2026, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unsolved-mysteries-and-murders/810443/112 "2026-06-25T00:00:18Z")
There’s the Maud Crawford (prominent early woman attorney)disappearance in Camden, Ark. 1957. Bungled early. Or paid off. The big wig rich dude in town. Mike Berg was disgruntled because Ms. Crawford was handling his mother’s estate, to maintain her will which may have written Mike out. The new will was never located so Mike inherited the $20 million dollar estate In 1980s a woman(Beth Brickell a prominent actress for a time, starred in Gentle Ben, a TV series);wrote a serialized account in the Arkansas gazette. She found a suspect but he died before the police could get him to spill the beans. He was Mike Berg’s body guard. Interesting story. Very famous around these parts. You can tour her house today. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2026, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unsolved-mysteries-and-murders/810443/113 "2026-06-25T00:37:31Z")
> [@PatrickLondon](#): > > Here’s one that appears at last to be in sight of a resolution: Daily Mail?? [https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/daily-mail/#google\_vignette](https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/daily-mail/#google_vignette) > Questionable Reasoning: **Right, Propaganda, Conspiracy, Some Fake News, Numerous Failed Fact Checks** > Bias Rating: **RIGHT (6.6)** > Factual Reporting: **LOW (7.1)** > Country: **United Kingdom** > MBFC’s Country Freedom Rank: **MOSTLY FREE** > Media Type: **Newspaper** > Traffic/Popularity: **High Traffic** > MBFC Credibility Rating: **LOW CREDIBILITY** That bit about **descended from royalty** is clickbait. > The Daily Mail reports that the suspect has familial links to some of Europe’s leading royal dynasties, including the House of Windsor. Here is a better cite- > **[Man arrested over 2017 ‘Putney pusher’ incident on south-west London bridge](https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/jun/15/met-arrests-man-2017-putney-pusher-bridge-london)** > > Police say 44-year-old arrested on suspicion of attempted grievous bodily harm, after woman pushed into path of bus > A man suspected of being the “Putney pusher” who appeared to shove a woman into the path of a bus while jogging on Putney Bridge in south-west London has been arrested nine years after the incident. > On Monday, the Metropolitan police force – which had closed the case in 2018 – announced the arrest of a 44-year-old man on suspicion of causing attempted grievous bodily harm. > > A spokesperson said: “The arrest relates to an incident on 5 May 2017, where a woman was pushed into the path of a bus on Putney Bridge.” > > The man, who was reportedly arrested at his £1.4m home in west London, was taken into police custody, where he remained at lunchtime. The Met spokesperson said inquiries were continuing. Note the non mention of “royalty”. ---
**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:** [June 25, 2026, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unsolved-mysteries-and-murders/810443/114 "2026-06-25T13:34:33Z")
Here’s a mystery within a riddle wrapped in an enigma. In 1915 the cargo ship S.S. Iberian [was torpedoed and sank off the Irish coast](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Iberian_(1900)). A strange and terrifying sight was beheld. > [@](#): > > About 25 seconds after the ship had sunk, there was a powerful explosion, which was almost certainly her boilers exploding. The explosion threw débris from the ship about 80 feet (24 m) above the surface of the sea. Forstner reported that as well as the débris, the explosion threw into the air a giant sea creature, about 60 feet (18 m) long. It had four limbs with large webbed feet, a long, tapered head, and a long, tapered tail. The animal was visible for 10 to 15 seconds before disappearing below the surface. What was the mysterious creature? An enormous sea turtle? Surely not a giant squid. Perhaps…Nessie? ---
**Author:** ![Push\_You\_Down](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/push_you_down/32/9095_2.png) [@Push\_You\_Down](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Push_You_Down)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2026, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unsolved-mysteries-and-murders/810443/115 "2026-07-07T16:05:09Z")
My hometown of Great Falls MT has this one-- actually featured on the show. Pizza delivery driver is called out to an empty house…murdered… > **[Someone knows: Decades after his murder, Morris Davis's family still...](https://www.ktvh.com/news/someone-knows-decades-after-his-murder-morris-daviss-family-still-searching-for-answers)** > > Morris Davis’s life was cut short in Great Falls 41 years ago, on April 5, 1985, he was only 23 years old. His murder is still unsolved, something his family still lives with every day. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2026, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unsolved-mysteries-and-murders/810443/116 "2026-07-07T16:54:03Z")
[Jennifer Dulos](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Jennifer_Dulos) was a Connecticut woman and mother of five children who went missing on May 24, 2019. She was in the middle of a messy divorce from her husband, Fotis Dulos. He, along with Michelle Troconis (a co-worker of his with whom he was having an affair) were suspected of attacking her at home and disposing of the body elsewhere. His lawyer Kent Mawhinney was suspected of involvement. And then Fotis Dulos committed suicide after being charged in the case. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2026, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unsolved-mysteries-and-murders/810443/117 "2026-07-10T03:15:51Z")
There was an episode of Law and Order with this premise. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unsolved-mysteries-and-murders/810443.md?page=5)