List of unsolved deaths

Contents 1 Unsolved murders 1.1 1779–1899 1.2 1900–1924 1.3 1925–1949 1.4 1950–1974 1.5 1975–1999 1.6 2000–2010 2 Unsolved serial killer murders 3 Suspected serial killers 4 Unsolved deaths 5 Date of death disputed 6 See also 7 References

This list of unsolved deaths covers notable cases and where victims have been murdered or have died under unsolved circumstances, including murders committed by unknown serial killers. People are listed chronologically by year. (For serial killer cases which span multiple years, the entries are listed under the year the first murder took place.)

Unsolved murders

1779–1899

• Benjamin Bathurst, a British diplomatic envoy who disappeared on or around 25 November 1809 in the town of Perleberg, Germany, and who was likely murdered.^[1][2]
• Mary Rogers also known as the "Beautiful Cigar Girl". Her body was found in The Hudson River on July 28, 1841. The story became a national sensation and inspired Edgar Allan Poe to write "The Mystery of Marie Rogêt" in 1842.
• Thomas C. Hindman, American politician assassinated by one or more unknown assailants on 27 September 1868, who fired through his parlor window while he was reading his newspaper with his children in Helena, Arkansas, United States.^[3]
• John M. Clayton, American politician, shot and killed instantly by an unknown assailant on the evening of 29 January 1889 in Plumerville, Arkansas after starting an investigation into the possible fraud of an election he took part in. After his death he was declared the winner of the election but his assassin was never found.^[4]
• Andrew Jackson Borden and Abby Durfee Borden, father and stepmother of Lizzie Borden, both killed in their family house in Fall River, Massachusetts on the morning of 4 August 1892, by blows from a hatchet, which in the case of Andrew Borden, not only crushed his skull but cleanly split his left eyeball. Lizzie was later charged and arrested for the murders as she and a maid were the only ones in the house at the time of the killings, but was acquitted by a jury and the case remains technically unsolved.^[5]

1900–1924

• William Goebel, American politician who was shot and mortally wounded on the morning of 30 January 1900 by an unknown assailant in Frankfort, Kentucky one day before being sworn in as Governor of Kentucky. The next day the dying Goebel was sworn in and despite 18 physicians attending him, died the afternoon of 3 February 1900. Goebel remains the only state governor in the United States to be assassinated while in office.^[6]
• Rose Harsent, a 6 month pregnant maid who was stabbed to death on 1 June 1902 in Suffolk, England by an unknown assailant. At the time it was alleged that the murderer was a preacher of the Primitive Methodist Chapel named William Gardiner who was having an affair with the victim: Gardiner was tried twice for the murder but each time the jury failed to reach a verdict.^[7][8] The case has been investigated in BBC One's Julian Fellowes Investigates.^[9]
• Elsie Paroubek, five-year-old daughter of Czech immigrants, was either kidnapped or wandered away from her home in Chicago on April 8, 1911. Her disappearance was the subject of intense police investigation over three states, with massive newspaper coverage. Her body was found a month later. Elsie, under the name Annie Aronburg, became one of the principal characters in Henry Darger's immense novel The Story of the Vivian Girls in the Realms of the Unreal.
• Joseph Wilson, the sixty year old stationmaster, shot dead at Lintz Green railway station, in the North East of England, on 7 October 1911. His murder sparked one of the largest murder investigations in the North East.
• The Villisca Murders – J.B. Moore, his wife, four children and two guests were killed by an unknown axe-murderer in Villisca, Iowa on June 10, 1912.
• William Desmond Taylor, popular American actor and director of silent movies from Los Angeles, United States. Killed by a shot in the back on 1 February 1922 inside his bungalow. His murder, along with other Hollywood scandals such as the Roscoe Arbuckle trial, led to a frenzy of sensational and often fabricated newspaper reports.
• The Hinterkaifeck murders. Hinterkaifeck, a small farmstead between the Bavarian towns of Ingolstadt and Schrobenhausen (approximately 70 km north of Munich), was the scene of one of the most puzzling crimes in German history. On the evening of 31 March 1922, the six inhabitants of the farm were killed with a pickaxe, and the murder is still unsolved.
• The Janet Smith case. On July 26, 1924, the 22-year-old Scottish nursemaid was found dead with a gunshot wound to the temple in a home in an exclusive neighborhood of Vancouver, Canada. Initially labeled a suicide (despite much evidence to the contrary), her friends were able to get the case reopened and deemed a murder. The initial suspect, Chinese houseboy Wong Foon Sing, was kidnapped and tortured for weeks in an unsuccessful attempt to extract a confession, causing a major scandal when it was discovered that various police officials and respected members of society were directly involved. Wong was eventually tried and acquitted for lack of evidence. A bill was proposed, banning the employment of Orientals and white women in the same household, but failed to pass.

1925–1949

• The Wallace Case, was the unsolved murder of a Liverpool housewife Julia Wallace on 20 January 1931. Her husband, William Herbert Wallace, was convicted and sentenced to hang, but the verdict was overturned on appeal - the first such instance in British legal history. The chess-like quality of the puzzle has attracted a host of crime writers. Raymond Chandler said ‘The Wallace case is the nonpareil of all murder mysteries ... I call it the impossible murder because Wallace couldn’t have done it, and neither could anyone else. ... The Wallace case is unbeatable; it will always be unbeatable.’
• Vampire Murder Case, is the nickname given to the case of an unknown assailant who committed the unsolved murder of a prostitute who was found dead with a crushed skull in her apartment on 4 May 1932 in Stockholm, Sweden. Police had also noticed that someone had drunk her blood.
• Sir Harry Oakes, an American-born British gold-mine owner and philanthropist who was found murdered in his mansion in Nassau, Bahamas on 8 July 1943. His murder became the subject of worldwide press coverage at the time as well as several books, films and documentaries.^[10]
• Georgette Bauerdorf, a 20-year-old oil heiress who was found face down in a bath tub in her home at West Hollywood, California on 12 October 1944. She had been strangled with a piece of towel stuffed down her throat and although there was a large roll of $2 bills and thousands of dollars worth of sterling silver lying in an open trunk, Bauerdorf's jewelry and other valuables were not stolen. The police believe her murderer had unscrewed an automatic night light over the outside entrance of the apartment so it would not come on and laid in wait for her.^[11]
• The Black Dahlia (Elizabeth Short), a 22-year-old woman who was found severely mutilated and her body cut in half in Leimert Park, Los Angeles, California on 15 January 1947. Her unsolved murder has been the source of several books, films, and widespread speculation.^[12]
• Emily Armstrong, found in a dry cleaner's shop in London, England on 14 April 1949, about an hour after she had been murdered. An autopsy showed she was beaten to death and her skull shattered by at least 22 blows from a blunt object, believed to be a claw hammer.^[13]

1950–1974

• Marilyn Reese Sheppard wife of Sam Sheppard, attacked and killed in her home in Bay Village, Ohio, United States, on 4 July 1954. Sam Sheppard was later convicted of killing his pregnant wife but this was overturned in 1966 and he was acquitted in a new trial. He claimed his wife was killed by a bushy-haired man who also attacked him and knocked him unconscious twice. Their son slept through the night, just down the hall from the bedroom in which his mother was murdered. The trial of Sam Sheppard received extensive publicity and was called "carnival atmosphere" by the U.S. Supreme Court.^[14] The Shepherd case was a large part of the inspiration for the television series and later movie The Fugitive.

• Barbara and Patricia Grimes disappeared on 28 December 1956, in Chicago, Illinois after going to a cinema to watch an Elvis Presley movie. Their disappearance launched one of the biggest missing-persons hunts in Chicago history. However, police were not able to determine what happened to the Grimes sisters.^[15] On January 22 1957 their naked bodies were found off a road near Willow Springs, Illinois. The corpses contained various bruises and marks (for example puncture wounds in the chest that may have come from an ice pick) that were never fully explained.
• Mary Jane Hanselman, a 16 year old sophomore at Sacred Heart Academy, Springfield, Illinois, was discovered north of the fairgrounds on April 27, 1958. She was bound with her own stockings and clothed in the uniform she was last seen wearing at a restaurant where she worked in Springfield. A dishwasher at the Georgian, the restaurant where Hanselman worked, was arrested but there was insufficient evidence to hold him.^[16] (See Absence of Goodness.)
• Boy in the Box, sometimes known as "America's Unknown Child" is a name given to an unidentified murder victim, approximately 4 to 6 years old. The body of the boy was found battered and naked inside a cardboard box on 25 February 1957 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The case received massive media attention and pictures of the boy were placed in every gas bill in Philadelphia. It has been featured on the America's Most Wanted television series but despite all attention the case remains unsolved and the boy's identity unknown.^[17]
• Lynne Harper, 12 years old, was last seen alive on 9 June 1959 riding on the handlebars of her friend Steven Truscott's bike near an air force base which is now Vanastra, Ontario, Canada. Two days later her body was discovered in a nearby farm woodlot, she had been raped and strangled with her own blouse. 14 year old Steven Murray Truscott was convicted and sentenced to death for the murder, becoming Canada's youngest person to be sentenced to death. The sentence was later commuted to life in prison. Truscott was held in custody for 10 years: in 2007 his conviction was ruled a miscarriage of justice, although he was not declared innocent.^[18]
• The Lake Bodom murders, were an infamous multiple homicide that took place in Finland on 5 June 1960. That night four teenagers were camping on the shores of the lake when between 4 am and 6 am they were attacked by an unknown individual or individuals with a knife and a blunt object. Three of them died and the fourth one was wounded but survived. Although the sole survivor became a suspect for some time in 2004, the case remains unsolved and the killer(s) identity unknown.^[19]
• Mary Meyer, a socialite from Washington, D.C., and close friend of U.S. President John F. Kennedy.^[20] Shot to death on 12 October 1964 by an unknown assailant after finishing a painting and going for a walk. She was heard screaming for help by a mechanic on a nearby road who also heard two gunshots and saw an unidentified man standing over her body. Her murder would later stir speculation relating to the Kennedy assassination.^[21]
• Betsy Aardsma, was a 22-year-old woman from Holland, Michigan, United States, and a graduate student at Penn State University who was stabbed to death in broad daylight in the stacks of Pattee Library on Penn State's campus on 28 November 1969. She was stabbed a single time through the heart with a single-edged small knife. Approximately one minute later two men came from Betsy's location and told a desk clerk, "Somebody better help that girl," and then exited the library. The men were never identified. 25–35 minutes later Betsy arrived at a hospital where she was pronounced dead. She had worn a red dress, and since there was only a small amount of blood visible, no one immediately realized that she had been stabbed.^[22]
• The unsolved murders of Carmen Colon, 10; Wanda Walkowicz, 11; and Michelle Maenza, 11, of Rochester, New York, between 1971 and 1973. Each victim was abducted from within a different quadrant of the city proper, and their raped and strangled bodies were found in suburbs of that city that began with the first letter of their respective names. Thus, the murders were dubbed the Alphabet murders and the Double Initial murders. The cases remain open and surprisingly active. In 2009 a supernatural thriller called Alphabet Killer was released, which was loosely based on the crimes; and in 2010, a book called "Alphabet Killer: The True Story of the Double Initial Murders" was released by author Cheri Farnsworth, detailing the actual events, from the time they occurred through the present, in the only book fully dedicated to these shocking crimes.^[23][24]
• Gus Uhlhorn, a Cincinnati, Ohio man, left the Roundup Bar on Dixie Highway, Northern Kentucky, in the early morning hours of March 3, 1973. His car was parked across the street in a parking lot. He was hit by a car as he crossed Dixie Highway. At 8:20 a.m. that morning, teenagers driving by spotted him in a water-filled ditch next to Chinatown, about 500 feet from where his car was parked. He suffered fatal injuries and was dead on arrival at St. Elizabeth Hospital, Covington, Kentucky. Erlanger police were quoted at the time as saying it was "definitely foul play—perhaps vehicular homicide." No one has ever been charged with the crime.
• Henry Bedard Jr., a 15-year-old boy from Swampscott, MA on December 16, 1974. He was found beaten to death with a baseball bat in a wooded area of Swampscott. His body was covered with leaves. Henry had been shopping for Christmas gifts earlier and was on his way home. The case remains open as of December, 2010.

1975–1999

• Barbara Colby, an American actress from Venice, California, United States, was shot to death while walking with a colleague to his car on 24 July 1975. She died instantly from her wounds but her colleague was able to describe the shooting to the police before he also died from his wounds. He said the shooting occurred without reason or provocation and said that there were two gunmen whom he didn't recognize. There had been no attempt to rob the two and the killers and their motivation are still unknown.^[25]
• Seewen murder case- 5 people were shot during Pentecost weekend 1976 in a weekend house nearby the Swiss village Seewen. Although the weapon was found in 1996, the murderer remains unknown.
• Daniel J. Guyton, A1c USAF, an Air Force Security Policeman (SP) from Mattituck, New York, United States, was shot to death in his patrol jeep on Scott Air Force Base in Belleville, Illinois at 9:12am December 2, 1977. Guyton was found with a shotgun between his legs and what appeared to be a suicide note next to him. His death was originally ruled a suicide, until the coroner reported that Guyton's arms were too short to have reached the trigger from that position. Additionally, two shotgun shells were found on the floor of the jeep, which suggested that someone else may have pulled the trigger. Along with this evidence, several key witnesses questioned the legitimacy of the handwriting in the so-called "suicide note." At the time, Guyton was involved in a drug-smuggling investigation that other US airmen were allegedly involved in. Due to this investigation, it was deemed likely that Guyton had numerous enemies with access to the base, and to his daily schedule. Because of these factors, his death was eventually declared an unsolved murder, and the case remains open to this day.^[26]
• William A. Kagdis, On August 1st, 1982 at approximately 11:50 AM Sheriff’s deputies responded to the Johnson Motel located at 9533 James Madison Highway, Fauquier County, VA, on a report that a guest had been found deceased in his rented room. Upon arrival at the Johnson Motel deputies were directed to room no.17 where they discovered the apparently dead body of a white male laying on one of the beds in the room. The victim was found lying face down in a large pool of blood. The room showed signs of a struggle having taken place. The victim was identified as William Anthony Kagdis, an aeronautical engineer with NASA, who checked into the room at the Johnson Motel the evening before. An autopsy revealed Mr. Kagdis’ death was due to the numerous blunt force injuries he received to his head. Mr. Kagdis had been traveling from his home in Baltimore, MD to Tennessee on business. He was known to be driving a white 1979 Volkswagen Rabbit station wagon with mirrors on the bumpers. The vehicle had a Maryland license plate number of EBX 304. The vehicle is believed to have been taken by the assailant after the attack and has never been recovered.
• Bob Crane, an American actor, best known for his role in Hogan's Heroes, was discovered violently bludgeoned to death with a weapon that was never found (but was believed by police to be a camera tripod) at the Winfield Place Apartments in Scottsdale, Ariz., on June 29, 1978. Crane had allegedly called his friend John Henry Carpenter the night before to tell him their friendship was over. Crane was involved in the underground sexual scene and filmed his numerous escapades with the help of Carpenter, who was an audio-visual expert.^{[27][28][29][30]} Police reportedly found blood smears in Carpenter's car that matched Crane's blood type, but no charges were filed against Carpenter for more than a decade. When he was charged, in 1994, he was acquitted. Carpenter maintained his innocence until his death in 1998, and the case is now officially cold.^[31]
• Ronda Mechelle Blaylock November 9, 1965 – August 26, 1980 {Cause of death: Multiple stab wounds to the chest and abdomen.} Ronda was a ninth grade student at Atkins High School in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She attended school on Tuesday, rode the bus home to a friend's house, and she and the friend walked back to her house so that Miss Blaylock could change clothes. The two girls started walking back towards the friends house and were picked up by a young man driving a blue Chevrolet pickup truck with a white camper. The driver then dropped the friend off at her Rural Hall, North Carolina home. Miss Blaylock was never seen alive again. Her body was found about 50 feet off a private road off Secrest Road near the Surry-Stokes County line. Her murder remains unsolved. http://inmemoryofrondamechelleblaylock.tripod.com/index.html – Contact information for authorities handling the case at the bottom of linked page.
• Raymond Nels Nelson, Administrative Assistant to Senator Claiborne Pell and former bureau chief of the Providence Journal, Rhode Island. He was found bludgeoned to death by a typewriter in his Washington, D.C. apartment on June 1, 1981.
• Raymond Washington, original founder of the notorious South Central Los Angeles street gang that came to be known as the Crips. Washington was shot dead at the age of 25 when he walked up to a car on the corner of 64th and San Pedro Streets in Los Angeles. At the time of his death, Washington no longer had any real control over the gang he originally founded. He wanted to unite warring gangs in peace and had always opposed guns. Different theories exist on why he was killed and who did it but no one was ever arrested for his murder.^[32]
• Óscar Romero, the fourth Archbishop of San Salvador, El Salvador, was killed by a shot to the heart on 24 March 1980 while celebrating Mass at a small chapel located in a hospital. It is believed, but never proven, that the assassins were members of Salvadoran death squads. During the funeral ceremony, a bomb exploded on the Cathedral square and shots were fired, many people were killed during the subsequent mass panic.^[33]
• Peter Ivers, television host and musician, was found bludgeoned to death in his Los Angeles apartment. The murder was never solved, although on the basis of new information found in the book In Heaven Everything Is Fine: The Unsolved Life of Peter Ivers and the Lost History of New Wave Theatre (2008) by Josh Frank and Charlie Buckholtz, the Los Angeles Police Department has reopened their investigation into Ivers' death.
• Catrine da Costa, Swedish prostitute. Parts of her dismembered body was found in Solna, just outside of Stockholm, during the summer of 1984.
• Dian Fossey, an American zoologist who observed and studied gorilla groups over a period of 18 years in Rwanda. She was brutally murdered in the bedroom of her cabin on 26 December 1985. Her skull had been split by a native panga, which she had confiscated from poachers years earlier and hung as a decoration on the wall of her cabin. Fossey was found dead beside her bed and 2 meters away from a hole in the cabin that was cut on the day of her murder.^[34]
• Olof Palme, Prime Minister of Sweden and the leader of the Swedish Social Democratic Party was shot in the back while walking home from a cinema together with his wife shortly after 11 pm on 28 February 1986 in Stockholm, Sweden.^[35]
• Julie Ward, murdered in Kenya in 1988 while on safari in the Masai Mara game reserve. Her burned and dismembered body was found a week after she went missing, The original statement by Kenyan officials was that she had been eaten by lions and struck by lightning but this was later revised to say she was murdered.^[36]
• Deanna Cremin, a 17-year-old girl from Somerville, Massachusetts, United States, was found behind a senior housing complex. An autopsy revealed she had been strangled. She was last seen alive by her boyfriend who, unlike on other occasions when he would walk her to the door, walked her only half way and she continued on her own toward her house. Her murder remains unsolved.^[37]
• Amber Hagerman, victim of an abduction and murder. On 13 January 1996, the 10-year old girl was kidnapped while riding her bike near her grandparents' home in Arlington, Texas. Four days later, a man walking his dog found her body in a creek bed. An autopsy revealed that her throat had been cut. Although a $75,000 reward was offered for information leading to Hagerman's killer, the perpetrator was never found. Her murder would later inspire the creation of the AMBER Alert system.^[38]
• Sophie Toscan du Plantier. Wife of French filmmaker Daniel du Plantier, found beaten to death outside her home in Toormore near Schull in Co Cork Ireland on the morning of the 23 December 1996. Former French President Jacques Chirac was a friend of the couple and gave the case national attention. The main suspect, Ian Bailey has been questioned 2 times by the Irish Authorities in relation to the murder, but the DPP (Director of Public Prosecutions) decided not to prosecute. In early April, 2010 the French authorities issued an arrest warrant for Mr. Bailey. On 24th, April, 2010 the Gardaí in Ireland arrested Ian Bailey and brought him in front of the High Court in Dublin to appeal his extradition, this case is ongoing and is expected to take many months.^[39][40]
• JonBenét Ramsey, a six-year-old American girl who had competed in child beauty pageants, was made famous by her Christmastime murder and the subsequent media coverage. She was found dead in the basement of her parents' home in Boulder, Colorado, on December 26, 1996, nearly eight hours after she was reported missing. The official cause of death was asphyxia due to strangulation associated with craniocerebral trauma. After several grand jury hearings, the case is still unsolved.^[41] Her parents were the target of media coverage that suggested they were suspects, but authorities eventually confirmed that the couple had been cleared of any involvement.
• Tupac Shakur, a top-selling American Rapper who was shot four times in a drive-by shooting on 7 September 1996, in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States, and died six days later of respiratory failure and cardiac arrest at the University Medical Center.^[42]
• Notorious B.I.G., a famous Brooklyn rapper killed by an unknown assailant in a drive-by shooting on his way back to his hotel, while waiting for a red traffic light to change on 9 March 1997, in Los Angeles, California, United States. Even though a composite sketch^[43] of the perpetrator was made, the case is still unsolved.
• Ita Martadinata Haryono, an Indonesian human rights activist, found dead on 9 October 1998 in her bedroom in Central Jakarta, Indonesia. She was stabbed ten times and her neck had been slashed. The murder occurred just three days after a Jakarta press conference held by the human rights organizations she had been involved with.^[44]
• Big L, Harlem rapper. Was shot multiple times in the head and chest near his Harlem home on 15 February 1999
• Jill Dando, an English journalist and television presenter who worked for the BBC for 14 years. She was killed by a single gunshot wound to the head on 26 April 1999, after leaving the home of her fiancé. Her death sparked "Operation Oxborough", the biggest murder inquiry and largest criminal investigation since the hunt for the Yorkshire Ripper.^[45]
• Suzanne Jovin, a 21-year-old senior at Yale University, was found stabbed to death in 1998 on the campus of Yale.^[46] Allegations that her thesis advisor was a suspect led to the end of his career at Yale, but the crime remains unsolved.
• Raonaid Murray, Raonaid Murray (1 January 1982 – 4 September 1999) was an Irish murder victim, stabbed to death at the age of 17 within a few hundred metres of her home in Glenageary, Co. Dublin, in the early hours of Saturday morning, 4 September 1999.
• Ricky McCormick whose body was found in a field by sheriff's officers in St. Charles County, Missouri, on June 30, 1999.
• Katherine “Kathy” Page, 35 was found strangled in her vehicle May 14, 1991. The 1991 black Mercury Tracer was found around 4:20 a.m. in a ditch about a block from her home on Boliver Street in Vidor, TX. The vehicle had very little damage to it, but Page had bone fractures around her larynx, a broken nose, blackened right eye, and a bruise to the right temple, Conroy said. Page was separated from her husband and had two young daughters at the time of her death.
• Sugie Vasquez of Orange, TX was 38-years-old when her body was found in a Newton County pond on May 16, 1997.She died as a result of blunt force trauma to her head. In addition she had two stab wounds. Her husband, Rogelio Vasquez, 48, is believed to be in Mexico. A warrant for the murder of his wife was issued June 10, 1997. Rogelio Vasquez is described as 5 feet 11 inches tall and weighs about 160 pounds. He is also a roofer by trade
• Elaine Doyle was 16 years old when she was found murdered on 1 June 1986, 50 yards from her home in Greenock, Scotland. The previous night she'd been at a disco with friends until around midnight, when she began the walk home to her house and her waiting parents. Her body was discovered by a man walking his dog at 7am the next morning. She had been raped and strangled. The motive for the killing is believed to be sexual. As of 2011, nobody has been convicted. The case was featured on BBC's Crimewatch, but no new leads came to light and the murder remains unsolved.

2000–2010

• Jill-Lyn Euto, an 18 year old student, was found stabbed to death in her sixth-floor apartment at 600 James St, Syracuse, NY on 28 January 2001. No arrests have been made.^[47]
• Evelyn Hernandez, and her 5-year-old son Alex, last heard from on 1 May 2002 at her residence in San Francisco, California. Her wallet was found several days later, in South San Francisco. Hernandez was nine months pregnant at the time and on 24 July 2002 her torso was found floating in San Francisco Bay. Her unborn child and her son Alex have not been found. The case was profiled twice on America's Most Wanted during the summer of 2003.^[48]
• Rashawn Brazell, disappeared after leaving his home in Bushwick, Brooklyn, New York, United States, on the morning of 14 February 2005. His dismembered body parts were later found in garbage bags. America's Most Wanted profiled the case three times, on 29 September 2005; 1 April 2006; and 9 December 2006.^[49][50]
• Gail DeLay, age 49, was murdered sometime between July 23 and 24, 2005, in her Dallas, TX, apartment. She was found on the morning of Sunday, July 24 by a friend. She had been severely beaten. Delay was a freelance artist, illustrator, and motivational speaker and had been a volunteer with the SPCA for 18 years. Dallas police investigated and quickly ran out of leads.^{[51][52][52][53]}
• Robert Wone, age 32, was murdered on August 2, 2006, in his friend's Washington, D.C., apartment. He was "restrained, incapacitated, and sexually assaulted" prior to his death. The only individuals present in the apartment at the time were its three residents, all friends of Wone. They have denied involvement and insisted that an intruder committed the crime. Authorities claim that there was no evidence of a break-in, the apartment appeared to be washed cleaned, the three residents appeared freshly showered, and the evidence was not consistent with the residents' accounts. In addition, the residents tampered with the crime scene, waited an inordinate amount of time to call 911, and exhibited strange behavior when paramedics and police arrived. Authorities believe that either some or all of the three house-mates murdered Wone and engaged in a cover-up.^[54][55]
• Lane Bryant shooting – on February 2, 2008, a gunman trying to rob a Lane Bryant store killed five women (a manager and four customers). The shooter has not been apprehended, although police do not consider it a "cold case" yet.
• Mallory Manning – Manning, a formerly drug addicted prostitute was picked up by a supposed client on her usual corner in a inner city street in Christchurch, New Zealand on 18 December 2008. She was taken to a property and brutally murdered before being dumped in a nearby river where she was discovered the next day.

Unsolved serial killer murders

1800–1899

• Servant Girl Annihilator (aka Austin Axe Murderer), Austin, Texas, 1884–1885.
• Jack the Ripper murders, 1888 London, England.

1900–1949

• Axeman of New Orleans murders, 1918–1919.
• Cleveland Torso Murderer (aka The Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run), Cleveland, Ohio, 1935–1938.
• Phantom Killer, Texarkana (Texas and Arkansas), 1946.

1950–1999

• Jack the Stripper, London, 1963–1964.
• Zodiac Killer, Northern California, 1968–1972.
• Bible John, Glasgow, Scotland, 1968–1969.
• Freeway Phantom, Washington, D.C., 1971–1972
• Alphabet murders, Rochester, New York, 1971–1973.
• The Doodler, San Francisco, California, 1974–1975.
• Oakland County Child Killer, Oakland County, Michigan, 1976–1977.
• Connecticut River Valley Killer, 1978–1987.
• Original Night Stalker, Southern California, 1979–1986.
• 1982 Chicago Tylenol murders, Chicago area, 1982.
• Frankford Slasher, Philadelphia, 1985–1990.
• Honolulu Strangler, Hawaii, 1985–1986.
• Hwaseong serial murders, South Korea, 1986–1991.
• North Side Strangler, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 1986–2007. In September 2009, Walter E. Ellis was arrested and subsequently charged with the crimes.
• New Bedford Highway Killer, New Bedford, Massachusetts, 1988–1989.
• Stoneman, Kolkata, India, 1989.
• Lisbon Ripper, Lisbon, Portugal, 1992–1993.
• Claremont serial murders, Claremont, Western Australia, 1996–1997.

2000–2009

• The Smiley face murder theory (variations include Smiley face murders, Smiley face killings, Smiley face gang, and others) is a theory advanced by two retired New York City detectives, Kevin Gannon and Anthony Duarte, that a number of young men found dead in bodies of water across several states over the last decade did not accidentally drown, as concluded by law enforcement agencies, but were victims of a serial killer or killers.
• West Mesa Murders, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 2003–2005.
• Daytona Beach killer, Daytona Beach, Florida, 2005–2007.

2010–present

• The Long Island serial killer dumped 10 bodies of sex workers in and around Gilgo Beach over the last 15 years.

Suspected serial killers

• John Bodkin Adams murder case, physician suspected of being a serial killer, England. One alleged victim, Gertrude Hullett, was found to have committed suicide at the inquest in 1956, but Dr. Adams was indicted for her murder the following year. The case was then dropped by the prosecution via a nolle prosequi, an action described by the judge as an "abuse of process."

Unsolved deaths

1–1100

• Dagobert II, 679, one of the last kings of the Merovingian line, murdered by persons unknown in the Ardennes Forest on December 23, 679.

1100–1899

• King William II of England, 1100, killed by an arrow while hunting.
• Agnès Sorel, 1450, mistress of King Charles VII of France. While the cause of death was originally thought to be dysentery, scientists have now concluded that Agnès died from being poisoned by mercury. The culprit remains unknown.
• Regiomontanus (aka Johannes Müller), 1476, German mathematician and astronomer died mysteriously in Rome. Some say of plague, others (most likely) by assassination.
• Moctezuma II, 1520, Aztec emperor. According to Spanish accounts he was killed by his own people; according to Aztec accounts he was murdered by the Spanish.
• Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey 1678 found impaled on his own sword and strangled at Primrose Hill London. Three men were hanged but later the witness statement was found to be perjured.
• King Charles XII of Sweden, 1718, killed by bullet in siege trench while observing enemy. Bullet entered side of head leading to speculation he was shot by one of his own men.

1900–1924

• Émile Zola, 1902, French author, died in Paris in 1902 of carbon monoxide poisoning caused by a stopped chimney. His enemies were blamed, but nothing was proved.
• Death of Rudolf Diesel, 1913, the place is unknown and many theories are given about Diesel's death. He disappeared in the English Channel and was found dead at sea ten days later.
• S. L. MacGregor-Mathers, 1918, well-known magician and occultist, died of an unknown cause; it is known that he had many enemies. The manner of death is unknown; his death certificate lists no cause of death. Violet Firth (Dion Fortune) claimed his death was the result of the Spanish influenza of 1918. As few facts are known about Mathers' private life, verification of such claims are very difficult.
• B. H. DeLay, 1923, Aviator Actor who died while performing on 4 July in Venice Beach (Los Angeles) California area, died when the wings of his plane were sabotaged causing him to die instantly in the subsequent crash.

1925–1949

• Ottavio Bottecchia, 1927, Italian Cyclist, was found by the side of a road, covered with bruises and with a serious skull fracture. His bicycle was undamaged, propped against a nearby tree. He was brought to a hospital but died soon afterwards. An official inquiry concluded accidental death but many suspected that he had run afoul of the powerful and growing fascist movement in Italy at the time.
• Death of Ivar Kreuger, 1932, in a Paris hotel room. Probable suicide.
• Ghazi of Iraq, 1939, King of Iraq, died in a mysterious accident involving a sports car he was driving. Some believe he was killed on the orders of Nuri as-Said.
• King Ananda Mahidol of Thailand, 1946. Died of gunshot wounds; suicide, accident or assassination.
• Jan Masaryk, 1948, son of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk; Czech diplomat, politician and Foreign Minister of Czechoslovakia, was found dead in the courtyard of the Foreign Ministry below his bathroom window. The initial investigation concluded that he committed suicide by jumping out of the window, although many are convinced that he was pushed.
• The Taman Shud Case, 1948, Adelaide, Australia, in which a man was found dead on the beach. His dental records did not match those of any known person. He carried no identification. The labels on his business suit and clothing were all missing. In one trouser pocket there was a piece of paper with the words 'Taman Shud' on it. This is a phrase on the last page of collection of poems called The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam and it means 'the end.'

1950–1974

• Barthélemy Boganda, 1959, Prime Minister of the Central African Republic, in a plane crash.
• Death of Dag Hammarskjöld, 1961, in Ndola, Northern Rhodesia, aeroplane crash.
• Dorothy Kilgallen, 1965, New York City, death certificate reads "acute ethanol and barbiturate intoxication / circumstances undetermined." People who have said publicly that she could have been murdered (perhaps by needle injection after drinking an unknown amount of alcohol) include Larry King, Dominick Dunne, Bob Bach (who booked the mystery guests on Kilgallen's TV show What's My Line?), and writer Mary Brannum Bringle (a colleague of Patricia Bosworth).
• Death of George Washington Vanderbilt III, (1961), in San Francisco, California.
• Lead Masks Case in Niterói, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1966.
• Harold Holt, 1967, Australian Prime Minister, vanished while swimming in heavy surf, presumably drowned.
• Edward Mutesa, 1969, died, possibly from alcohol poisoning, in his London flat.
• Hale Boggs and Nick Begich, 1972, Democratic U.S. House members whose plane disappeared in the Alaska wilderness. Remnants of plane and bodies never recovered.
• Aman Mikael Andom, 1974, Ethiopian military figure, sources say that he committed suicide, while others say that he was killed by political rivals among the coup leadership, possibly including Mengistu Haile Mariam.
• Jimmy Hoffa, 1975, International Brotherhood of Teamsters leader who disappeared from the parking lot of a Michigan restaurant. Body never recovered; declared legally dead by the state of Michigan in 1982.
• Haile Selassie, 1975, Emperor of Ethiopia until his deposition in 1974. His death was officially said to be from natural causes, but a persistent allegation is that he was smothered with a pillow.

1975–1999

• Omar Torrijos, 1981, brigadier general and president of Panama, died in a plane crash.
• Roberto Calvi, 1982, CEO of Banco Ambrosiano, found hanged under Blackfriars Bridge in London.
• Eduardo Frei Montalva, 1982, president of Chile from 1964 to 1970. As of 2005, his death is being investigated because of allegations that he was poisoned. [2]
• Samora Machel, 1986, president of Mozambique, killed in air crash on the border of South Africa, hillside in the Lebombo Mountains. He was leading anti-Apartheid spokesman.
• Uwe Barschel, 1987, minister-president of Schleswig-Holstein.
• Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, 1988, military ruler of Pakistan, died in a plane crash in 1988.
• Pablo Escobar, 1993, head of the Medellín Cartel, war against Escobar ended in 1993, as he tried to elude the Search Bloc one more time. Using radio triangulation technology provided as part of the U.S. efforts, a Colombian electronic surveillance team found him hiding in a middle-class barrio in Medellín. A shootout between Escobar and the Search Bloc personnel ensued. Some believe U.S. special ops snipers may have taken part in the final shootout with Escobar. Accordingly, how Escobar was killed during the confrontation has been debated, but it is known that he was cornered on the rooftops of Medellín and suffered gunshots to the leg, back, and the fatal one behind his ear.
• Zviad Gamsakhurdia, 1993, former president of Georgia, died in circumstances that were (and still are) very unclear. It is known that he died in the village of Khibula in the Samegrelo region of western Georgia.
• Juvénal Habyarimana, 1994, president of Rwanda, killed in a mysterious plane crash at Kigali airport. The resulting political instability led to the Rwandan Genocide and the outbreak of full-scale war in Burundi.
• Cyprien Ntaryamira, 1994, president of Burundi, killed in a mysterious plane crash at Kigali airport. The resulting political instability led to the Rwandan Genocide and the outbreak of full-scale war in Burundi.
• Kristin Smart, 1996, California Polytechnic State University student last seen returning to her dorm from an off campus party. Body never recovered; declared legally dead by the state of California 2002.

2000–2010

• Giorgi Sanaia, 2001, Georgian journalist known for opposition to government, shot in apartment in Tbilisi.
• Joyce Carol Vincent, 2003, a 38 year old woman whose remains were found undiscovered in her London flat for three years, by which time the body had decomposed so much as to make identifying a cause of death to be impossible; her story was profiled in the 2011 documentary Dreams of a Life.^[56]
• Enrique Salinas, 2004, brother of former Mexican president Carlos Salinas. Found with a plastic bag over his head in a parked car. The vehicle was abandoned in the upmarket municipality of Huixquilucan, Estado de México outskirts of Mexico City.
• John Garang, 2005, Sudanese politician and former rebel leader (suspicious helicopter crash), Southern Sudan. One theory was poor visibility. Second one was arranged by Sudanese Government.
• Britt Lapthorne, Australian backpacker from Melbourne, aged 21, went missing September 18, 2008 in Dubrovnik, Croatia, where she was last seen at a local nightclub. Her body was found almost 3 weeks later in a Dubrovnik Bay.^[57] In April 2009 it was revealed that Ms Lapthorne's body only surfaced once it had already decomposed, making it likely that it was weighed down before being deposited into the water, according to her father, Dale.^[58] To date, no solid leads have been established as to the identity of her abductors, neither as to how Ms Lapthorne died. The AFP (Australian Federal Police) has been involved in reviewing the case, which has included travel to Croatia, as reported by the Herald Sun on March 24, 2010.^[57]

Date of death disputed

• Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish humanitarian who worked in Budapest, Hungary, was most likely executed in Russia in or around 1947 after being captured by the Red Army in 1945. Death is dated by Soviet authorities as 16 July 1947, but this is disputed; remains an unsolved case.

See also

• Alphabet murders
• The Keddie Murders
• Cold case
• Forensic science

References