Murder is an objectively disturbing topic with an overall depressing tone. With some cases, it is possible to identify some silver lining that lets us end on somewhat of a positive outlook. For example, when 9-year-old Amber Hagerman was abducted and murdered in Arlington, Texas in 1996, the AMBER Alert system was set up in her honor to help prevent child abduction and murders in the future.
With unsolved murders, however, we don’t always get the closure we crave when learning of a murder case. Just knowing that the killer is still freely walking the streets is enough to induce a constant state of anxiety. Here are five of the creepiest unsolved murders that will keep you up at night.
1. The Alphabet Murders
In the years of 1971-1973, three young girls were raped and strangled in Rochester, New York. The girls all had one thing in common: their names were alliterative. Additionally, the girls’ bodies were discarded in towns that started with the same letter as their names. Carmen Colon was left in Churhville, Michelle Maenza in Macedon, and Wanda Walkowicz in Webster. Although there were several persons of interest in the years following the murders, all have been cleared due to DNA profiling.
2. JonBenet Ramsey
JonBenet Ramsey was found dead in the basement of her family’s home in Boulder, Colorado on the day after Christmas in 1996. JonBenet had been beaten and strangled, with duct tape placed over her mouth and throat. A shoddy ransom note and conflicting stories and timelines caused the Ramsey family to quickly fall under scrutiny. Some people believe the murderer to be JonBenet’s brother, Burke, some think it was her father, John, and others are still under the impression that the murderer was someone outside of the family. No arrests have ever been made, however, and the murder of 6-year-old JonBenet remains unsolved.
3. Zodiac Killer
The Zodiac Killer murdered five people in northern California between 1968 and 1969, although he claimed in letters he had written to the police that there were dozens of more victims. In December 1968, two teenagers were shot in a parking lot. About seven months later another two people were shot in a parked car, but one survived. It was after this attack that local newspapers started getting letters from someone anonymously claiming to be responsible for the murders. The newspaper said the letters contained coded messages intended to explain the motivation behind the killings, as well as a key to helping readers crack his identity. The code was never cracked and the Zodiac Killer went on to stab two more people in late September with only one survivor. Two weeks later, a taxi driver was fatally shot. To this day, no suspects have been confirmed (Ted Cruz doesn't count) and the investigation is ongoing.
4. The Black Dahlia
In 1947, 22-year-old Elizabeth Short’s body was discovered by a mother and her child just a few feet from the sidewalk. She had been sliced in half at the waist, with not a single drop of blood left in her body. Short had appeared to be professionally dissected, and one breast was cut off. Many people stepped forward to claim credit for the murder, but none of the confessors appeared to be telling the truth. The Los Angeles Police Department says that they are still investigating the case.
5. The Boy in the Box
In Fox Chase, Philadelphia in 1957, a man was checking his muskrat traps in the woods when he came upon a box with the dead body of a young boy in it. Due to muskrat traps being illegal, the man decided against reporting the body to authorities. Two days later, a college student named Frederick Benosis came across the body as well, and after a day of deliberation reached out to the police. The boy was completely naked, and his hands and feet were wrinkled as if he had been submerged into water before he died. He also had a dark substance in his esophagus, suggesting he may have vomited shortly before he died, most likely due to several blows to the head. One of the most depressing aspects of the case is that no one ever came forward to identify or claim the boy, and the case remains unsolved.