These shocking true crime mysteries continue to baffle the world. Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the most mysterious murder cases that have puzzled law enforcement to this day.
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00:00 This terrible thing that happened to my darling girls. Please, please never give up.
00:06 Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the most mysterious murder
00:11 cases that have puzzled law enforcement to this day.
00:14 I mean, we have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on this investigation,
00:17 and we still have no answer.
00:20 Number 30. The Icebox Murders.
00:22 There's a wide range of theories, from satanic possession to evil government agents.
00:29 On June 23, 1965, two Houston, Texas, officers visited the residence of Fred
00:34 and Edwina Rogers for a welfare check. After entering the noticeably empty house,
00:39 one officer stumbled upon what appeared to be stacks of hog meat in the refrigerator.
00:43 However, upon closer examination, he realized they were, in fact,
00:48 the body parts of the elderly couple.
00:50 There was a massive amount of bleach that was used.
00:54 A key suspect quickly emerged - Charles Rogers, the reclusive middle-aged son who also lived in
01:00 the house. Although the crime scene had been thoroughly cleaned, a bloodstained saw was
01:05 discovered in Rogers' bedroom. But police never got the chance to question him, as he disappeared
01:10 and was never heard from again. Ten years later, Rogers was declared dead in absentia, leaving the
01:16 case unresolved. On the anniversary, people would come by and just look at the lot.
01:21 Number 29. The Villisca Axe Murders.
01:24 In June 1912, the quiet town of Villisca, Iowa, experienced a shocking tragedy with a set of
01:30 horrific murders. Josiah and Sarah Moore, as well as their four children and two visiting girls,
01:35 were found dead in their home by a neighbor. All eight victims had been killed with an axe.
01:41 Early on, authorities fumbled the investigation by allowing unauthorized access to the crime scene,
01:46 leading to contamination of the area and the murder weapon.
01:49 "The grip butts in the attic, bloody water, I mean, just tons of crime scene,
01:53 all destroyed by half the town wandering around looking at it."
01:57 Nevertheless, multiple suspects soon emerged, including a visiting reverend named George Kelly.
02:03 Kelly was tried twice for the crime. The first ended in a hung jury, while the second yielded
02:08 a not guilty verdict. Over a century later, nobody knows who committed the Villisca Axe Murders.
02:14 Number 28. The Murder of the Grimes Sisters.
02:18 In Cook County, Illinois, a construction worker driving through a rural area came
02:22 across what looked like mannequins strewn by the roadside. It soon became evident that the
02:26 figures were actually the bodies of Barbara and Patricia Grimes. The sisters had disappeared a
02:31 few weeks earlier on December 28, 1956, after leaving home for a movie screening.
02:36 "I know they left the house, they were all excited."
02:38 A large-scale investigation was launched and police found their prime suspect in Edward Bedwell,
02:44 a drifter seen with two girls resembling the Grimes sisters. Bedwell even confessed after
02:49 a lengthy interrogation, but he was released when evidence surfaced contradicting his account.
02:53 "There was really nothing beyond minor circumstantial evidence to convince
02:58 law enforcement he was guilty."
03:00 A few other suspects subsequently emerged. However, none were charged due to insufficient
03:06 evidence. As such, the case gradually went cold.
03:10 "We cannot deny these lies, but our family must live with them. We demand an absolute
03:17 vindication until proven otherwise."
03:20 Number 27. The Fatal Poisoning of Charles Bravo.
03:23 Four months into his marriage to a wealthy divorcee,
03:26 Charles Bravo, a British lawyer, was poisoned with antimony.
03:30 [Coughing]
03:33 "Hot water, get some hot water."
03:35 "What should I make, Mrs. Bravo?"
03:36 "No, get hot water and mustard, quickly."
03:38 Rather than an immediate conclusion, Bravo's death unfolded painfully over a span of two
03:43 to three days. The case was particularly puzzling because in all that time, Bravo never revealed
03:49 who or what exactly had caused his condition.
03:51 "Mrs. Cox tells me you say you've taken poison."
03:53 "I don't remember telling anyone I took any poison."
03:56 "I can't believe this."
03:56 As a result, various theories have emerged to explain the poisoning.
04:00 Some believe that marital tensions led his wife Florence to poison him. Others posit
04:04 that Bravo accidentally poisoned himself in a failed attempt to murder Florence.
04:08 Following two sensational inquests, a coroner ultimately deemed it a case of willful murder,
04:14 but no one ever faced any charges for the crime.
04:17 Number 26. The Keddie Quadruple Homicide.
04:20 Between April 11th and 12th, 1981, an unusual set of murders occurred at a resort in Keddie,
04:26 California. Sheila Sharp returned home on the morning of the 12th to a grim discovery.
04:31 The bodies of her mother Sue, her brother John, and his friend Dana.
04:35 In a different part of the house, she found her two younger brothers and their friend unharmed.
04:40 However, her sister Tina was missing. It would take three years for Tina's remains to be discovered.
04:46 Despite countless hours of investigation, law enforcement was unable to charge any suspect.
04:51 With new evidence being discovered in recent years, there is a possibility the case may be
04:56 solved one day. But for now, it remains a perplexing mystery.
05:00 Number 25. The Death of Gareth Williams.
05:04 This case is the stuff of Hollywood espionage thrillers.
05:07 Gareth Williams was a Welsh mathematician who worked as an MI6 agent.
05:11 In August 2010, Williams was found dead in the bathroom of his London safe house.
05:16 Bizarrely, his remains were inside a bag that was padlocked from the outside.
05:21 The key to the padlock was discovered inside the bag beneath his body.
05:26 Even more peculiar, no fingerprints were found on the bag, the padlock, or on the rim of the bath.
05:32 Although the Metropolitan Police concluded that it was likely an accident,
05:36 Williams' involvement in secret intelligence work has led to
05:38 speculation that he might have been assassinated by Russian agents.
05:42 Number 24. The Mysterious Murder of Mary Rogers.
05:46 Dubbed the "Beautiful Cigar Girl," Mary Rogers was a young New Yorker who worked in a tobacco store
05:51 and gained fame for her striking appearance. Rogers first disappeared in 1838,
05:56 but this was later reported to be a hoax as she returned home soon after.
06:00 "She achieved a kind of early form of what we would today
06:05 recognize as being famous just for the sake of being famous."
06:08 Three years later, she disappeared again, this time tragically for good.
06:14 On July 28, 1841, her body was found floating in the Hudson River.
06:18 Given her reputation in New York, Rogers' murder became national news.
06:23 While the evidence pointed towards foul play,
06:25 some believed her death resulted from a failed abortion.
06:28 The perplexing case inspired the mystery of Marie Roget,
06:31 the short story by Edgar Allan Poe, who also died under mysterious circumstances.
06:36 Number 23. The Yotzi Case.
06:39 German food engineer Günter Stoll suffered from paranoia
06:42 and was convinced that an unknown group was after him.
06:45 On October 25, 1984, Stoll scribbled the letters Yotzi on a sheet of paper.
06:50 He then left for a pub, triggering a series of bizarre events
06:54 that culminated in him being discovered naked and severely injured in his vehicle.
06:58 Stoll disclosed that four men had been in the car with him,
07:01 but they fled before he was found. Sadly, he died on the way to the hospital.
07:06 Police investigation determined that he had been struck by another vehicle,
07:10 placed in his own car, then driven to where he was found.
07:13 However, mystery persists around the cryptic letters,
07:16 the four men, and the assailant who struck Stoll.
07:19 Number 22. The Murder of Dorothy Jane Scott.
07:23 In the months leading up to her abduction,
07:25 Dorothy Jane Scott received unsettling calls from an anonymous man.
07:28 The caller repeatedly professed his love for her, but also threatened her life.
07:38 Those threats seemingly became a reality on May 28, 1980,
07:42 when she was abducted in her own car after driving two co-workers to the hospital.
07:46 Hours later, Scott's vehicle was discovered in an alley where it had been set on fire,
07:51 but she was nowhere to be found.
07:53 It wasn't until about two months later that a construction worker stumbled upon her remains.
07:58 It's believed that the anonymous caller orchestrated Scott's abduction and murder,
08:02 but efforts to identify him have proved futile.
08:04 Number 21. The Texarkana Moonlight Murders.
08:08 In 1946, a series of murders in the Texarkana region of the U.S.
08:13 sent shockwaves across the country.
08:15 The unidentified perpetrator, referred to as the "Phantom Killer,"
08:18 attacked young couples in the area,
08:20 claiming five lives and instilling fear in the community.
08:23 Despite an extensive investigation that involved officers from the local to the federal levels,
08:31 the Phantom Killer remained elusive.
08:34 One major suspect eventually emerged.
08:36 Ewell Sweeney, a car thief and counterfeiter,
08:39 came onto police radar after his wife confessed that he was the Phantom Killer.
08:43 However, she later recanted her confession
08:45 and Sweeney was never conclusively linked to the murders.
08:49 Decades later, this remains one of the most notorious unsolved cases in American criminal history.
08:54 Number 20. Ken Rex McElroy.
08:57 Ken Rex McElroy was by no means the nicest man.
09:01 In fact, this town tormentor from Skidmore, Missouri,
09:04 was indicted 21 times in his life on various counts.
09:07 In 1980, he shot and injured 70-year-old grocer Ernest Bohenkamp,
09:11 but was able to appeal the conviction.
09:14 He immediately went back and threatened to kill Bohenkamp,
09:16 but he never got the chance.
09:18 On July 10, 1981, while sitting in his pickup truck with his wife,
09:22 McElroy was shot twice from two different guns.
09:26 A crowd of up to 46 people looked on,
09:29 no one called an ambulance,
09:30 and everyone except his wife claimed to have not seen the shooters.
09:34 In the end, no one was charged.
09:36 Number 19. The Lake Bodom Murders.
09:39 Our next entry is like something out of a horror movie.
09:42 On June 5, 1960, two young couples were camping near Finland's Lake Bodom.
09:47 Three of them were stabbed and bludgeoned to death,
09:49 while the fourth, Nils Wilhelm Gustafsson, was injured.
09:53 There were several suspects,
09:55 including kiosk keeper Karl Waldemar Jellström,
09:58 said to have cut down tents in the past,
10:00 and he drowned himself in the lake in 1969.
10:03 Another was a man named Hans Asmann,
10:05 who turned up in a hospital the next day with bloody clothes.
10:08 In 2004, police arrested the survivor Gustafsson,
10:11 but he was later acquitted.
10:13 The case fascinates Finns to this day,
10:16 and Finnish heavy metal band Children of Bodom named themselves after the mystery.
10:19 Number 18. The Lizzie Borden Axe Murders.
10:23 On the morning of August 4, 1892,
10:26 Lizzie Borden discovered that both her parents had been murdered.
10:29 Both her father and stepmother had been repeatedly struck in the head with a sharp instrument.
10:33 Lizzie became the prime suspect after providing police with contradictory accounts.
10:37 A few days after the murders,
10:39 she was even witnessed burning a dress in the kitchen stove.
10:42 She was arrested and tried in a sensational landmark trial,
10:45 but was acquitted due to circumstantial evidence.
10:48 Others suspected of the murder include Lizzie's sister Emma and her maternal uncle John Morse,
10:53 who had slept in the house the night before.
10:55 Number 17. The Boy in the Box.
10:58 In 1957, a boy was found naked lying face up inside a cardboard box in the woods near Philadelphia.
11:04 He'd been wrapped in a blanket and his arms were folded across his stomach.
11:08 Investigators determined that he was four to five years old
11:11 and had been killed by several blows to the head.
11:14 His entire body was covered in bruises.
11:16 A woman with a history of mental illness came forward
11:18 and claimed that her mother had bought the boy from his parents and abused him for years.
11:22 However, police couldn't confirm her tale,
11:24 and neither the boy nor the murderer was ever identified.
11:28 Number 16. The Cleveland Torso Murderer.
11:32 Also known as the Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run,
11:34 this serial killer murdered at least 12 people in the Cleveland area in the 1930s.
11:39 There were also other possible victims in the 20s, 40s and 50s.
11:42 Almost all were beheaded and dismembered,
11:45 with several never identified because their heads were never found
11:48 and because many were drifters or members of the working poor.
11:52 Although the case was reviewed by Elliot Ness,
11:54 the man who put Al Capone behind bars,
11:56 no suspects were ever charged.
11:58 Some theories have even claimed that there was no single butcher,
12:01 but rather several different individual murderers.
12:04 Number 15. Bob Crane.
12:06 When Hogan's Heroes star Bob Crane was found bludgeoned to death in his Arizona home in 1978,
12:11 suspicion immediately turned to his friend John Henry Carpenter,
12:15 a video equipment salesman.
12:17 Crane's extensive home video collection showed that the two were rather close,
12:20 filming their sexcapades with various women together.
12:24 Carpenter had been with him the night before,
12:30 and according to Crane's son, Crane had planned to end their friendship.
12:34 There were even stains on Carpenter's car door that matched Crane's blood type.
12:38 However, insufficient evidence meant that Carpenter was let go.
12:42 The case was reopened in 1990,
12:44 and Carpenter went to trial four years later, but was acquitted.
12:48 Number 14. The West Mesa Bone Collector.
12:51 As a woman walked her dog in the West Mesa of Albuquerque, New Mexico on February 2nd, 2009,
12:57 she stumbled across this awful find.
13:00 The remains of 11 women and a fetus, which had been buried in the bank of an arroyo.
13:05 Many of these women were Hispanic,
13:07 and most were caught up in drugs and sex work at the time of their disappearances
13:10 four to eight years earlier.
13:12 Police linked these murders with the area's yearly state fair,
13:15 which drew sex workers to the area in large numbers, but the crimes remain unsolved.
13:20 But the families aren't the only ones frustrated.
13:23 They are suspected to have been the work of a serial killer.
13:32 Number 13. The Chicago Tylenol Murders.
13:36 Chicago was gripped with fear in late 1982,
13:39 when seven locals died after taking Tylenol capsules that had been laced with cyanide.
13:48 A man named James William Lewis wrote to Johnson & Johnson,
13:51 saying that he was behind them and would stop for $1 million.
13:54 But since he was in New York the whole time, he was only charged with extortion.
13:59 Johnson & Johnson was applauded for its response,
14:01 and tamper-proof seals became common practice when copycat crimes occurred afterward.
14:06 However, even with the support of the government and a huge corporation,
14:15 the person who really masterminded the poisonings was never found.
14:18 Number 12. The Highway of Tears.
14:22 The Highway of Tears is a 450-mile-long stretch of road
14:26 between Prince George and Prince Rupert in British Columbia, Canada.
14:29 From 1969 to 2011, at least 18 women were murdered along this highway,
14:34 although it is estimated that the real number may be in the dozens.
14:38 And they're still investigating, but if there's no leads,
14:42 then it's pretty much not a priority. So it's disheartening to the families.
14:47 A disproportionate number of the victims were indigenous,
14:52 a fact that has led some critics to accuse the investigating police of racism.
14:57 Although a few victims have been linked to a convicted serial killer named Bobby Jack Fowler,
15:01 there's still no explanation for the other murders.
15:04 Hitting a dead end, the case is seemingly a road to nowhere.
15:08 Number 11. The Alphabet Murders.
15:10 Also known as the Double Initial Murders,
15:13 the Alphabet Murders transpired in New York State during the early 1970s.
15:17 There were three young victims, Carmen Colon, Wanda Walkowicz, and Michelle Mayenza.
15:23 Each was found in a town starting with the same initial as their names.
15:27 Colon in Churchville, Walkowicz in Webster, and Mayenza in Macedon.
15:31 Strangely, each girl came from similar backgrounds.
15:34 They all had learning differences, were Roman Catholic, and came from single-parent homes.
15:40 This case was later connected to a series of similar murders in California,
15:43 for which Joseph Naso was convicted and sentenced to death.
15:46 But his DNA didn't match the samples found on the victims.
15:50 Number 10. Amber Hagerman.
15:52 While the Amber in Amber Alert does stand for America's Missing Broadcast Emergency Response,
15:57 it was actually originally named for Amber Hagerman.
16:00 The nine-year-old was abducted while riding her bike in Arlington, Texas on January 13, 1996.
16:06 Just four days later, her body was discovered in a storm drainage ditch.
16:10 And her killer still hasn't been found.
16:12 The outcry in response to this tragedy led to tougher laws for child abductors and sex offenders,
16:17 with Bill Clinton signing the Amber Hagerman Child Protection Act into law,
16:21 which created the National Sex Offender Registry.
16:24 Number 9. The Axeman of New Orleans.
16:30 Between 1918 and 1919, a serial killer, simply known as The Axeman, terrorized New Orleans.
16:36 The Axeman is believed to have murdered eight people,
16:39 although it is speculated there were several more victims.
16:42 Almost all the confirmed victims were Italian-Americans and killed with an axe.
16:47 On March 13, 1919, a person claiming to be The Axeman had a letter published in the newspaper,
16:53 claiming he or she was not human, but rather, quote, "a demon from the hottest hell."
16:58 The murders suddenly stopped shortly thereafter, and The Axeman's identity was never discovered.
17:03 He or she was apparently a jazz fan,
17:05 and promised to spare anyone whose home had a jazz band in full swing.
17:09 Number 8. The Hinterkaifeck Murders.
17:12 This farmstead in Germany was home to one of the country's strangest murder mysteries.
17:16 On March 31, 1922, the family living at Hinterkaifeck was murdered, along with their maid.
17:22 The crime scene suggested that four of the six had been led to the barn and killed one by one.
17:27 Just days before the massacre, their grandfather Andreas Gruber
17:30 discovered footprints in the snow leading to the farm, but none leading back away.
17:35 Although police questioned over 100 suspects, nobody was ever convicted.
17:40 Number 7. The Murder of The Notorious B.I.G.
17:44 A fierce rivalry between East Coast and West Coast rappers led to two of their biggest stars being
17:48 gunned down. On March 9, 1997, East Coast rapper The Notorious B.I.G. was fatally shot in Los
17:55 Angeles, just six months after fellow rapper Tupac Shakur suffered a similar fate. It's been
18:00 theorized that Suge Knight, then CEO of Death Row Records, which was Shakur's label, had ordered
18:05 B.I.G.'s death as an act of vengeance. However, with no conclusive evidence proving this, the
18:11 murder remains officially unsolved. As for Shakur's case, in 2023, a man named Dwayne "Keefie D"
18:23 Davis was arrested and charged for his involvement in the murder. His trial is set for June 2024.
18:29 Number 6. The Disappearance Of Jimmy Hoffa
18:49 A union activist since his teens, Jimmy Hoffa became the president of the International
18:53 Brotherhood of Teamsters in 1958. His role with the Teamsters led him to organized crime, however,
18:59 and he was even sentenced to prison for jury tampering and fraud. This connection may have
19:04 led to his subsequent disappearance. Hoffa was last seen in the parking lot of the Maxxis' Red
19:09 Fox restaurant on July 30, 1975. Hoffa had allegedly been there to meet with two members
19:14 of the mafia. He was officially declared dead in 1982, and his body has yet to be found,
19:20 although there is no shortage of rumors as to the circumstances surrounding his death.
19:24 Number 5. The Dyatlov Pass Incident
19:28 In 1959, nine experienced Russian hikers ventured into the northern Ural Mountains and never
19:34 returned. Their tent was later found torn from the inside, suggesting a hasty escape into the
19:39 freezing night. When their bodies were eventually discovered, they displayed mysterious injuries,
19:44 and appeared inadequately dressed for the extreme weather. Some of them had succumbed to hypothermia,
19:50 while others bore signs of physical trauma. Despite decades of investigation,
19:54 the circumstances surrounding their demise remain enigmatic, giving rise to various theories.
19:59 Although the most popular of these suggests that they were killed by an avalanche,
20:12 there is an abundance of evidence that seems to contradict this theory.
20:15 Number 4. The Killing of Jambonay Ramsey
20:19 In the late 90s, this murder gripped the nation and gave rise to numerous theories.
20:24 Child beauty queen Jambonay Ramsey was found dead in the basement of her Colorado home on the day
20:29 after Christmas. That morning, her mother Patsy had discovered a ransom note and contacted police.
20:34 Due to unusual details in the note, Patsy and her husband John immediately came under suspicion.
20:42 However, forensic cleared them of involvement. Criticism has since focused on shoddy police work
20:47 at the scene. In 2006, someone did come forward claiming to have killed her, but the DNA found
20:53 on Ramsey's body was not a match. Number 3. The Black Dahlia Murder
20:58 Perhaps the most striking detail about 22-year-old Elizabeth Short's gruesome murder in 1947
21:03 was that her mouth was slashed at either edge, giving the false impression of a wide smile.
21:08 On January 15th, her body was found in a vacant lot in Leimert Park, Los Angeles.
21:14 Coverage was sensational and even shamed Short for her relationships with men.
21:18 She became known as the Black Dahlia, and her unsolved murder sparked theories,
21:22 books and films in the years after her death. Although police identified more than 150 suspects,
21:28 the perpetrator was never found. Number 2. The Zodiac Killer
21:33 The Zodiac Killer began taunting authorities in the late 1960s when a string of similarly
21:38 murdered victims surfaced in Northern California. He sent letters and cryptic puzzles to police and
21:43 media, naming himself Zodiac and daring them to catch him. While he's known to have killed at
21:48 least five people, he claimed to be responsible for the murder of up to 37. His letters included
21:54 four cryptograms. Once solved, one of the puzzles stated that he was collecting slaves for the
21:58 afterlife. Another was cracked in 2020, while the others remain unsolved. While there were several
22:05 suspects and even a Hollywood movie, the Zodiac Killer's identity still remains a mystery.
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22:25 Number 1. Jack the Ripper The murder of five sex workers in London's
22:31 Whitechapel district in 1888 has become one of the most infamous unsolved crime mysteries in
22:36 history. The victims were found with their bodies mutilated. Three of them even had internal organs
22:42 removed. This led to the belief that the killer may have been well-educated or even a surgeon.
22:47 Several later murders in Whitechapel were also blamed on the same perpetrator. At the time,
22:51 the media and authorities received a barrage of letters that claimed to be from the killer.
22:56 The nickname "Jack the Ripper" came from one. Another came with half a human kidney. The case
23:01 received intense media scrutiny but was never solved. And it continues to spawn new theories
23:07 even today. Which of these murder mysteries do you think will be solved in the near future?
23:11 Share your predictions in the comments below.
23:14 Charlie, can you hear me? What have you taken, Charlie?
23:17 [Music]