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Top 15 Unsolved Murders

True crime podcasts often feature some episodes of cold cases where they dive into crimes that were committed but the perpetrators never found. This gives us an insight into just how many unsolved cases are active in the criminal justice system. Therefore, this article will delve into the top 15 unsolved murders to give the reader knowledge on the topic and open them up to the realities of true crime investigations.

1 Jack the Ripper

The story of Jack the Ripper is one of the famous true crime stories that caused ripples in England. Jack was an infamous serial killer who terrorised the East End of London in 1888. Jack the Ripper killed prostitutes around the Whitechapel area in London. The Ripper case is famous because the perpetrator has yet to be identified; it is still one of the world’s most famous unsolved cases.

The first casualty was Mary Ann “Polly” Nichols. She was killed and mutilated on August 31. Just over a week later, Annie Chapman was murdered. At the end of September, Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddoweson were killed. In November, Mary Jane Kelly was assassinated. These are the only five confirmed Jack the Ripper murders, though more are suspected. Based on his exacting brutalization of his victims’ bodies, it was assumed that he had some experience with butchery or medicine.

2 The murder of Kirsty Jones

Kristy Jones was a British national who had gone vacationing in Thailand in August 2000. She was found dead after being strangled and raped. The 20-year-old Liverpool University graduate was just three months into what was supposed to be a two-year trip around the world. Kirsty Jones was found dead in Aree guest house which is located in Chiang Mai in northern Thailand.

The last person to see Kirsty alive was a fellow British backpacker known as Sarah Wiggett. Sarah had met Kirsty on a three-day trekking trip and they later had dinner together with another backpacker Nathan Foley who was also staying at the guest house. Sarah and Kirsty went on to the night bazaar. After the duo separated for the night and went back to their rooms, Sarah was informed the next morning that Kirsty had been murdered. The case made little progress when it was established that the person who murdered her was of Asian descent but that was as far as it went. Up until 2020 when the case was being closed by the authorities, the murderer had not been found and thus remains one of the most high-profile unsolved murders.

3 Black Dhalia

The murder of Elizabeth Short popularly known as Black Dhalia is among the oldest cold cases in the United States of America. Elizabeth was horrifically murdered and the case proved to be a very difficult one to solve. A mother going out for a walk with her child in the neighbourhood was the first person who found Elizabeth’s body in Leimert Park, Los Angeles.

The woman said that at first, she thought the body of Elizabeth was a mannequin because of the way it had been posed. But a closer examination showed the Black Dahlia crime scene’s true horror. Elizabeth who was 22, had been slashed in half at the waist and had lost all of his blood. Her intestines, for instance, had been cut out and neatly tucked underneath her buttocks. Her thighs and breasts had sections of skin removed. And because she had a lot of excrement in her stomach, some people assumed that she had been made to consume them before she was killed.

There were also lacerations on her face as she has been sliced from the corner of her mouth to her ears to create the illusion that she was smiling. The smile is now known as the Glasgow smile. Furthermore, the body had been washed which suggested that she had been killed before being dumped at the park.

Her mother was not aware that her daughter had been murdered until reporters called her under the guise that she had won a beauty contest. Before disclosing the horrible reality, they barraged her with all the information they could find on Elizabeth. Her daughter had been killed, and the horrific ways in which her body had been dissected.

Although there were many potential suspects over the years, there was never enough proof to bring any charges. There were many ideas about the murder and how it might have been connected to other killings. Some detectives thought that the same individual who killed Elizabeth Short and the Cleveland Torso Murders was responsible. Another reasonable hypothesis at the time was that Short’s slaying was connected to the Lipstick killings.

4 The death of Ned Doheny

In his 55-room, Tudor-style Beverly Hills house, Greystone Mansion, 35-year-old Edward Laurence “Ned” Doheny Jr., the heir to an oil family fortune, was found shot in the head. Hugh Plunkett, his secretary, was also discovered dead from a gunshot wound nearby. Authorities did a brief investigation and concluded that the oil tycoon’s secretary shot him and then proceeded to shoot herself. However, the crime is a source of speculation with people claiming that the crime was staged to look like a murder-suicide.

5 The murder of Ann Heron

On August 3, 1990, the body of Ann Heron, 44, was discovered in a pool of blood in the living room of her sizeable detached house close to Darlington. In the previous 70 years, it has remained County Durham’s lone unsolved homicide. On that beautiful afternoon, Ms Heron, the wife of a local businessman, had been lounging in her garden at Aeolian House. In 2005, her husband Peter was accused of killing her, but the allegations were later dismissed. A recent Channel 5 documentary regarding Ann’s case included an interview with Mr Heron. A podcast has also been made about Ann’s murder.

Although the murder weapon has never been discovered, it is thought to have been either a Stanley knife or a razor blade. No signs of a fight or forced entry could be seen, suggesting she might have known her killer. No trace of a break-in or sexual assault was present, nor had the family dog been heard to bark to warn of an intruder. A blue automobile or van was parked next to or outside the house at 4.45 pm, according to many witnesses who came forward. At around 5 o’clock, when Ann, according to authorities, was killed, a cab driver saw a blue automobile rushing away from the site.

6 The murder of Dian and Hugh Harland

The couple lived in the coastal town of Morro Bay, California. Dian and Hugh had a strenuous marriage because Dian liked spending her husband’s meagre salary that he got as a fisherman on her dogs. This put a strain on their marriage. In 1982, Dian was found dead. A dog collar was discovered wrapped around Dian’s throat when her body was discovered. Hugh was a suspect but never put to trial.

Hugh disappeared on November 1st, 1986, while visiting San Simian. His keys were discovered nearby his abandoned truck. While some people believe Hugh ran away to avoid being connected to the death of his wife, others suspect he was abducted and killed by the same person who killed Dian. He disappeared, and the murder of his wife was never solved.

7 Cindy James

Cindy James was a 44-year-old nurse who started getting frightening letters and phone calls from an unknown person. This harassment spanned seven years and it escalated from being just threats to violent attacks. Authorities didn’t believe her, though, despite several alarming tales, including James being found drugged and naked on the side of the road and strangled with nylon.

After Cindy James went missing, her body was discovered dead a few weeks later close to an abandoned house, with nylon hogtied around her neck. She was tied up and even though there were prior claims of her being drugged, it was established that she died from a morphine overdose, leading the police to frustratingly rule it as a suicide.

8 The murder of Yvonne Fitt

On September 12, 1992, Yvonne Fitt’s body was discovered in Lindley Wood, South Yorkshire. She had been fatally stabbed. Yvonne, a resident of the Leeds region, was last seen in Bradford on January 16, 1992, at the time of her disappearance, she was 32 years old, and she has been missing ever since.

She was murdered while working in the Leeds and Bradford red-light areas. Detectives have been looking into her death ever since, but no one has ever been charged. 2019 saw a police request for a caller to the BBC programme that recreated the crime scene to get in touch. After the show, several calls were made, including one from an unidentified caller who named a suspect.

9 The Zodiac Killer

An unknown American serial killer known as the “Zodiac Killer” is suspected of killing at least five persons in northern California between 1968 and 1969. Because of the killer’s mocking letters to newspapers and phone calls to police, the murders received extensive investigation and media coverage. His letters, which were written between 1969 and 1974, frequently began with the words “this is the Zodiac speaking,” and were signed with a symbol like a gunsight’s crosshairs. The identity of the zodiac killer was never known and therefore the five murders remained unsolved.

10 The murder of JonBenet Ramsey

The six-year-old beauty pageant winner was found dead in the basement of her house in 1996. To date, no suspect in her murder has been arrested. That morning, Ransey’s mother called 911 informing them that her daughter was missing and a ransom note of $118,000 had been left in the house.

However, the family and the police only learned that JonBenét had never truly left the house a few hours later. Her father, John, discovered her dead in the basement after being directed to perform a second search of the home. With a blow to the head and a garotte made from one of Patsy’s paintbrushes and a piece of cord, she had been bound, gagged, and slain. Later, it was discovered by investigators that JonBenét had also been sexually molested. Although there were suspects in the matter, the killer was never found

11 The murder of John Kennedy

John Kennedy was assassinated in a bar 25 years ago. On Saturday, February 8, 1997, just before 6 a.m., he was stabbed inside The Railway Arms pub in Tower Hamlets, London. The father-of-two had gone out the night before his death with friends, stopping at several bars along the way, and they eventually wound up at the Railway Arms at three in the morning. The tavern was occupied by about 60 individuals at the time.

 Following a heated exchange with the suspect, John, 31, was attacked and stabbed. John was approached by the suspect. The suspect left the scene with another man and drove off after the victim collapsed on the tavern floor.

12 The Janikheil incident

Four youths whose ages ranged from 13 years to 17 years went missing in March 2020 and they were later discovered a year later after a shepherd dog picked up their scents. The bodies were found in Khyber which is located in Bannu District in Pakistan. It was revealed that the teenagers, whose identities were eventually made public, had endured horrific torture, and that their murderer is still at large. The media has dubbed the incidents the “Janikhel incident.”

13 Marc Angelucci

A well-known men’s rights advocate from the United States, Marc served as vice president of the National Coalition for Men. On July 11, 2020, he was tragically shot at his residence in California. A week after killing New Jersey federal judge Esther Salas’s son during an attack on her home, a potential suspect named Roy Den Hollander, who was also prominent in the men’s rights movement, committed suicide. He and Angelucci had disagreed, and he had been kicked out of the group. The homicide is still unsolved.

14 The death of Elwyn and Mary Crocker

In the backyard of their father’s home in Effingham County, Georgia, Elwyn Crocker Jr., 14, and Mary Crocker, 13, were found buried. In November 2016, Elwyn Crocker Jr. vanished, and his sister Mary Crocker vanished in October 2018. After receiving a tip that Mary Crocker had died, and after speaking with Crocker Sr., detectives started to think they should examine the home’s grounds. Neither child had been reported missing to the authorities. They were both only afterwards found. Several people were detained and accused of hiding a death and child maltreatment. The case has not yet been solved.

15 The death of Nora Tait

In 2005, Nora Tait was fatally beaten at her Doncaster home. On October 12, she was last spotted at a delivery place. Her untouched fish and chips dinner was discovered on the dining room table on the same day that she is believed to have been murdered. The following day, a buddy found the 69-year body. old’s Only a black leather purse, which has never been located, was taken from her house. Despite incentives by the police to anyone who provides information about the murder, there has been no progress made to date.