In this age of technology, it seems unfathomable that a crime as violent as a murder could go unsolved. Despite all of our advancements in crime scene investigations, like DNA evidence, there are still numerous murders and crimes that go unsolved all the time. Here are 12 of the scariest murders that have yet to be solved. Be warned, these stories are graphic and unsettling.
In 1968, Northern Michigan was devastated after the Robinsons, a family of six, was brutally murdered while vacationing on Lake Michigan. The couple, along with their four children, were beaten and shot in a violent crime scene that was only discovered by neighbors after they noticed a horrible smell coming out of the Robinson’s cabin. It was believed the family’s bodies had been there for nearly a month before they were discovered. The killers were never found, but in 2013 many believed their identity had finally been discovered. Despite these claims, no charges have ever been filed for their deaths.
In a truly grisly murder, the Setagaya family of four was found murdered in their home in Japan. Authorities believe the killer spent nearly 12 hours in the home after stabbing three of them and strangling the young boy. Apparently he ate some of their ice cream and used their computer before leaving the scene of the crime. Somehow it still remains unsolved, despite nearly 200,000 officers who have been involved in working on the case and 16,000 tips from the public.
The Phantom Killer was highlighted in the film “The Town that Dreaded Sundown” after a ten-week killing spree in 1946 in Texarkana. The town became paralyzed with fear and almost everyone remained in their homes after the killer was connected to eight attacks and five deaths, each occurring on the weekend. Numerous suspects have been investigated and over 400 of them have been brought in regarding the murders, but no one has ever been convicted and the Phantom Killer remains uncaptured.
In 1956, two teenage sisters, Barbara and Patricia Grimes, went missing after going to a movie theater in Chicago. Nearly a month later their bodies were discovered, naked and frozen, on a back road in a Chicago suburb. No suspects were immediately named and the case remained clueless until 2010. A retired officer started looking into the case once again for any clues as to who murdered the sisters. While no arrests have been made yet, a female witness did come forward and say she was with the sisters on the night of their disappearance. She isn’t a suspect and said that she was too frightened to come to the police when she was younger. Hopefully this new breakthrough will lead to more information on their deaths.
In 1912, a family of six, along with two young girls who were spending the night with the family’s children, went to bed after church. That night, someone came into the house and murdered all eight of them with an axe. Word got out and everyone in town busted into the home to see what had happened. By the time detectives arrived the crime scene was wrecked.
Some believed it was the Reverend who was in town at the local church the night of the murders. He was tried twice for the murders and never convicted. Others believed it was the work of a hired murderer because of a business deal gone wrong. Numerous other names arose as suspects, but the tragic case is still unsolved to this day.
If you’ve ever read “In Cold Blood” by Truman Capote then you’re familiar with this one. Back in 1959, in Osprey, Florida, the Walkers, a family of four including two toddlers, were murdered. Tragically, their killers were never caught. There were two suspects, Perry Smith and Richard Hickock, who had committed a similar family murder in Kansas a few weeks before the Walkers died. The suspicion arose because the duo had stolen a car and drove to Florida, so they definitely fit the profile. Unfortunately, there was no DNA evidence to support the claim. Smith and Hickock were hung for the murder in Kansas, but the Walker murder remains unsolved.
In one of the most eerie and disturbing cases in recent memory, the bones of 11 women were found in the middle of the desert in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in 2009. The women were prostitutes from ages 15 to 32 and appeared to have been murdered by the same killer. There are no witnesses to any of the murders or disappearances and authorities have never been able to find any DNA evidence besides the victims. Not only has the crime gone unsolved, there hasn’t been any strong suspects in the case.
In March of 2014, the family of four was murdered in a Chinese community in Cypress, Texas, after an intruder slipped into their home and shot each of them in the head four times. Despite numerous bits of information and tips from members of the community, the police have yet to pinpoint a suspect and so the case has still not been solved.
In 2011, in France the entire De Ligonnes family, except for the father, Xavier Dupont de Ligonnes, was murdered in their sleep. Even the two family dogs were killed with what was believed to be a silenced .22 rifle. After friends and relatives noticed the family had been missing, the police searched their home and discovered all five bodies buried in the backyard. A manhunt immediately started for Xavier, who quickly became the prime suspect. (He had cancelled the lease on their home and informed his children’s school that they were moving and would no longer be attending.) Although his car was discovered at a nearby hotel, he has never been found. Police believe he most likely committed suicide, but a body was never discovered.
Over a span of five years in the ’80s and into the ’90s, there were nine murders in Frankford, Pennsylvania, with the same method of execution-the victim would be sexually assaulted and then stabbed. The majority of the victims had been spotted with a white middle-aged male shortly before their deaths. The work of a serial killer was ruled out in a bizarre way after the 8th victim. Police arrested a man named Leonard Christopher, a black male, that didn’t fit a single description of the suspect and had little evidence against him, other than the fact that he worked at a fish market near the location of one of the murders. Nonetheless he was convicted and given a life sentence. Months later, the 9th victim was murdered in the exact same fashion-a crime that would have been impossible for Leonard Christopher to commit. The other murders were never solved.
India became the home to a vicious serial killer who murdered 13 homeless people over a six-month span. His method was brutal. He would look for homeless men or women in isolated and quiet areas and then beat them to death with a stone. The police weren’t sure if it was the work of an individual or a group of killers since the murders took place in Bombay and Calcutta. Eventually the police decided to bring in anyone who could possibly be a suspect and, while no actual arrests were made, the killings stopped. That either means they had their man and let him go, or the real killer heard about it and stopped. Either way, the case remains unsolved.
In 2004, Jason Allen and his fiancée Lindsay Cutshall were murdered in an eerily similar fashion to the style of the Zodiac Killer. The couple was on vacation and decided to spend the night camping in Jenner, California. They were each shot in the head by a .45-caliber rifle while they were asleep in their sleeping bags. There were no signs of sexual assault and nothing appeared to be missing. The only suspect that arose was a drifter named Joseph Henry Burgess, and while he was killed in a police shootout in 2009, his DNA didn’t match the crime scene. Was it just a random murder, a copycat, or was it the Zodiac Killer taking yet another pair of lives?
