7 Mysterious Unsolved Murders -Will They Remain Unsolved

Time, circumstances, and locations all have an effect on a crime scene and sometimes the evidence needed just isn’t there. Meaning there are a number of unsolved murders and other crimes. Below are seven of the strangest. 

The Phantom Killer

Eight attacks on young couples took place over ten weeks in Texarkana. Five of those eight were killed, the others injured. It was the spring of 1946 and the town was in a panic. Residents armed themselves or locked themselves in their homes if they didn’t have to be somewhere. And the Texas Rangers were called in. Those who survived the attacks say the perpetrator wore a white mask with holes cut for eyes. A series of murders that inspired the film The Town that Dreaded Sundown. 

Unsolved Murders

The Body in the Tree

Found inside the trunk of a Wych Elm, the skeletal remains of a woman with taffeta in her mouth were found in Hagley Wood, England in 1943. Three boys were out in the wood hunting birds nests. As one climbed a tree and looked down inside the hollow trunk he realised he could see a human skull. When authorities investigated they concluded she had been smothered and hidden in the tree. Some believe she could have been a Nazi spy and others that it was a ritualistic killing linked to black magic. Was she perhaps the missing German actress and cabaret singer Clara Bauerle?

The Atlas Vampire

Stockholm 1932, 32-year-old prostitute, Lilly Lindström, was found dead. Her clothes were neatly folded on a chair, her skull caved in, her body almost entirely drained of blood, and a blood-stained gravy ladle beside the bed -that investigators theorised was used as drinking apparatus. Her former clients were ruled out. Despite saliva found on her body and condoms, the technology wasn’t yet available for DNA testing of this evidence. And you have to wonder, did the perpetrator drink all of the blood or was it transported away somehow? 

The Bear Brook Murders

Initially, neither the perpetrator or the victims were known in these unsolved murders. And there are still questions to be answers and identities to be found. Between 1985 and 2011 four decomposing and badly beaten bodies were found hidden in Bear Brook Park in New Hampshire. One woman and three girls aged between 1 and 11. The woman was related to two of the girls but it is not known how. In 2017 the unrelated child’s father was identified as Robert Evans who died in prison in 2010 where he was serving a sentence for murdering and dismembering his wife. Robert Evans, one of his aliases, is known to have gone by several different aliases. Whilst the unrelated child has now been identified, the other three victims remain unknown. 

The Monster of Florance

Between 1960 and 1985, in Florence Italy, 14 people were murdered with a .22, a knife, and the removal of parts of the female anatomy. The killer would stalk some of the victims before attacking them. And there were a number of suspects but no one could be entirely certain of their guilt in these unsolved murders Read More Here

The Disappearance of Melanie Hall

Bath, on the night that England drew 1-1 with Switzerland in the opening game of Euro ’96, University Graduate Melanie Hall was sitting on a bar stool in the Cadillacs nightclub. It was the last time she was ever seen alive. Her remains, wrapped in black bin bags and tied with blue rope, were discovered 13 years later in 2009 by a workman on the side of the M5 motorway in Gloucestershire. The investigating officers were able to retrieve DNA evidence from the scene and, with the advances in technology, put together a DNA profile. Now they have to find a suspect to match it to.

The Cinderella Murder

Portsmouth, 1986, 24-year-old Linda Cook left home to visit a friend but never returned. Found in wasteland, raped and brutally attacked with a fractured jaw and spine her body retained the shoe print of her attacker in her abdomen. The Cinderella Murder was called this because of the hunt for the owner of the shoe that matched the imprint and logo left on the body. Although an arrest made and a conviction, the accused was later released from prison when new DNA evidence was found. 

Not the only Unsolved Murders

The reasons murders, and other crimes, remain unsolved can by a mystery in itself. Sometimes there’s evidence but no one to link it too, other times there are suspects but no proof, and on occasion, the surrounding circumstances are so strange that there are no leads to follow.

With a simple online search you’ll find hundreds of unsolved murders going back decades. And there’s always one that has you wondering ‘but what if…?’