Facts about crimes. Unsolved crimes - interesting facts

If we consider this crime from the point of view of organization and conduct, it cannot be called ideal. But how lucky the guys, how lucky! On February 25, 2009, three robbers descended a rope ladder through a window into one of the jewelry stores of Des Westens, the second largest shopping center in Europe. Everything, at first glance, went perfectly: the criminals were not detained at the scene of the crime, they managed to escape safely with jewelry, the total value of which exceeded 5 million euros. But there was one big “but”: one of the thieves inadvertently left a glove in the store, from which the police managed to extract DNA. It would seem that the theft was discovered - it remains to detain the "confused" and his accomplices. In fact, everything turned out much more complicated: the owner of the evidence was one of the two twin brothers.

Long live German justice, the fairest and most honest justice in the world! Probably, with such words, the detainees Hassan and Abbas left - the same twins, one of whom left evidence during the theft in the shopping center. The police were able to isolate DNA from the material of the glove, but they could not reliably determine which of the two brothers it belongs to - the young people are identical twins and have an almost identical DNA chain. And according to the laws of Germany, each violator must be convicted individually. Nothing is known about the third person involved in the robbery.

2nd place. The only unsolved crime in US aviation history

Per long history There have been many cases of terrorists hijacking a plane and demanding a ransom in the United States aviation. But only one crime remains unsolved...

On November 24, 1971, the night before Thanksgiving, a certain Dan Cooper boarded a plane flying to Seattle at Portland Oregon Airport. The man was dressed in a long raincoat and dark glasses, holding a briefcase in his hands. He walked through the cabin and took a seat at the back. Having lit a cigarette, the passenger called the stewardess to him, ordered whiskey and handed the girl a note with the message that there was a bomb in the briefcase. The main requirement of the criminal in exchange for the safety of the health and life of passengers and crew was the payment of $ 200,000. Dan Cooper also demanded that he be provided with 4 serviceable parachutes. The authorities fulfilled all the requirements of the criminal, giving him money and parachutes at the Seattle airport. Immediately after the transfer of the ransom, the criminal released all passengers and ordered the pilot to take off and head for Mexico. When the plane crossed the mountains located northwest of Portland, the terrorist put on a parachute and landed. It is still unknown if the robber managed to survive the jump. Only in 1980, about $ 6,000 was found on the ground in the area where the criminal was tentatively supposed to land ...

3rd place. Boston Robbery

Another holiday-related robbery, another unsolved robbery. On March 18, 1990, on St. Patrick's Day, police officers approached the door of the art museum in Boston, telling the watchman that an alarm had been received at the post that robbers had entered the building. The watchman immediately opened the door and was immediately handcuffed. It turned out that criminals who decided to rob the gallery were hiding under the police uniform. The guard was ordered to call his partner on the radio, who was also shackled with iron bracelets. A few minutes later, the robbers left the museum, taking with them 13 of the most expensive paintings, among which were priceless masterpieces by Vermeer, Degas, Rembrandt. More than 12 years have passed, and not one of the thieves for this crime has been detained, the paintings have not appeared on the market ...

4th place. Japanese robbery

Tokyo, Japan, December 10, 1968, a local bank's cash-in-transit vehicle transports 300 million yen (the equivalent of $817,000). Everything goes smoothly until a police motorcycle appears behind the collectors. The officer of the law informs the bank employees that a bomb has been planted on the car. Previously, the bank received similar threats, and the information does not seem strange. Passengers leave the car, the policeman bent down to inspect the bottom for the presence of an explosive device, as a bright fiery flash occurs. Collectors run for cover to escape from the explosion, the policeman at this time calmly gets behind the wheel of the "money" car and hides in the scene. As it turned out later, the policeman was fake. The resourceful man was never identified and caught. In 1975, the statute of limitations for this crime expired, in 1988, all civil obligations were annulled. Yes, the plan turned out to be just perfect, films would be shot according to it ...

5th place. Theft of the largest diamond

It would seem that what could better protect a gem than a closed vault with a lock with 100 million possible combinations, thermal motion sensors, radars and other security features. But, as they say, for every force there is a counterforce. On February 15, 2003, the bandits emptied 123 deposit boxes out of 160. The weight of precious stones was so great that the robbers did not touch the remaining 37 cells - physically they could not carry more. In addition, when they came to work in the morning, bank employees found a lot of scattered diamonds on the floor of the vault.

According to police, at least four people were involved in planning the theft. Part of the group, including its leader, were detained and convicted. The event was planned carefully and for a long time, for several years. Nevertheless, the "diamond team" was pierced through negligence: one of the criminals left his traces in the vault (it turned out to be a trader from the same center), the other threw out a half-eaten sandwich along with a bag in which the stolen pebbles were transported, not far from the crime scene, and the police managed to extract the thief's DNA from the scraps. Although the thieves were apprehended, the diamonds were never found.

6th place. The First National Bank robbery in Chicago.

There are ideal robberies, but there are simply incredible ones, as if their author was David Copperfield or his colleague "in the shop of magic." On Friday, October 7, 1977, before Columbus Day, a bank clerk deposited $4 million in secure vault. Imagine the surprise and shock of the financiers when on Tuesday morning they missed 1 million. Over 36 kilograms of $50 and $100 banknotes vanished into thin air. The police failed to identify the robber. Four years later, in 1981, $2,300 of the stolen money was discovered during the arrest of drug dealers. The rest of the money is still in circulation.

7th place. dashing ladies

On December 4, 2008, just before closing, three ladies entered one of the most famous jewelry stores in Paris. Once inside, the visitors took out a weapon and a grenade and began to rob the salon ... As it turned out later, the ladies were not ladies at all, but men dressed in women's clothes and wigs. The criminals fled the scene in less than 15 minutes, taking with them diamonds, rubies and emeralds worth the equivalent of $108 million. To date, the identity of the robbers has not been established. Investigators only assume that this operation is the work of the notorious Serbian group Pink Panther.

8th place. Priceless artifact in exchange for plastic

Plunging time after time into the depths of the sea off the coast of San Pedro, diver Teddy Tucker fulfilled his dream - he raised a priceless artifact from the seabed - a 22-carat gold cross encrusted with green emeralds. The find was truly priceless (it was a thing from a ship that crashed in 1594), but the treasure hunter decided to sell it to the government of Bermuda. The amount is not yet known. Fortunately for the thief and the misfortune of everyone else, Tucker's golden cross was not destined to appear in the art museum. During transportation, the precious artifact was replaced with a cheap plastic replica. The thief turned out to be so clever that his identity has not yet been established, and the moment at which the theft occurred has not been established. Presumably, the emeralds were removed from the cross and sent to the "black" stone market, and the gold was melted down.

9th place. Robbery in Baghdadi

Saddam Hussein allegedly robbed the country of billions of dollars, and we all know what happened to him later. However, live in Baghdad and more "successful" robbers who got away with the crime... On July 11, 2007, unknown people stole almost 300 million dollars from the vault of one of the private banks. Investigators suspect that the theft was committed by security guards. When employees came to work in the morning, they found that the bank had been robbed, there was no money, as well as security guards. Since the American invasion of Iraq, several banks have been robbed, but this crime was the largest.

10th place. resourceful robbers

This case is a vivid proof that no matter how powerful the locks are, no matter how thick the walls of the safe are, if desired and resourcefulness, they can be safely stolen. 59 times a team of unknown thieves robbed the supermarkets of the French chain Monoprix. In total, the criminals earned about $ 800,000, and so far not a single member of the team has been identified or detained. When designing the vault for money, the designers provided strong walls and other protection, but did not take care of the safety of banknotes on the way to the safe. Money enters the vault through the air duct. Robbers make a hole in the pneumatic channel and connect a powerful vacuum cleaner to it. Voila, and the money does not reach its destination - it ends up in the bags of thieves.

Interesting fact: the very first person arrested on stage during his performance was Jim Morrison, the leader of the musical group The Doors. It is worth noting that he was arrested on stage twice in 1967 and 1968. It is noteworthy that both the first and subsequent times he was arrested for allegedly speaking obscenely against the police, thereby provoking them to aggressive actions. According to the fans, of course, it was completely different.

An interesting fact: in 2005 alone, in the city of Los Angeles, 6 million 200 thousand carts were stolen from supermarkets. Interestingly, most of them were stolen from the same store. The owner was forced to put beacons on the carts so that thefts would not lead to huge losses.

An interesting fact: according to official statistics, when a bank is raided, the guards are the first to be killed. However, according to anecdotal evidence obtained by a group of young researchers, by watching surveillance cameras from materials available to the public, the raiders themselves are most often killed. At what does it none other than the guard.

An interesting fact: the story took place in 1981, when women began to complain that someone was pestering them under the table. A few weeks after the application was submitted, Los Angeles A man was arrested for hiding under tables in restaurants and painting women's nails yellow. It is noteworthy that the man was recognized as absolutely healthy from a psychological point of view. He himself explained this by saying that he wanted to joke.

An interesting fact: cybercrime statistics are not uncommon in our time. There are also minor violations. For example, in 2006, only 10 percent of licensed music was downloaded, amounting to just over 500 million songs. On the this moment the situation has changed only for the worse, for the sellers of licensed copies.

Interesting fact: according to statistics, the highest risk of being shot or beaten to death falls on the first day of each new year. It should be noted that even in countries where New Year celebrated in the summer or at other times of the year, the statistics do not change. Most murders occur on the first of January.

An interesting fact: millions of people are detained daily in the United States of America. It is worth noting that more than 97 percent of those arrested were arrested for drunk driving, petty theft, drug or alcohol intoxication.

An interesting fact: according to statistics, most crimes occur in underdeveloped countries. However, it is not clear why, since people, as a rule, are very friendly and welcoming in such countries. At the same time, it is worth noting that crimes related to violence are very rarely committed there.

Interesting fact: in 1965, Donnie Cash received almost no punishment for burning 200 hectares of forest in California National Park (Los Padres). It happened because the singer decided to light a fire.

Every criminal wants to make sure that he is not caught. Masks, bribery of guards, ingenious schemes are used. However, as practice shows, in most cases, the police either catch the violator of the law, or accurately identify him, putting him on the wanted list. Nevertheless, the history of forensic science knows several cases of crimes that can be called ideal.

Robbery of a jewelry store in Des Westens (Germany). This crime can hardly be called ideal from the point of view of both organization and conduct. However, the bandits were incredibly lucky. It all happened on February 25, 2009. Three robbers using a rope ladder entered a jewelry store located in the second largest shopping center in Europe, Des Westens. At first everything went like clockwork. The thieves managed to escape from the scene of the crime, along with jewelry worth 5 million euros. Only one intruder left his glove in the store. With its help, experts were able to determine the DNA of the robber. It would seem that this is the end of the story. It remains only to detain a very specific person and his partners. However, life gave the police an unpleasant surprise - the evidence belonged to one of the two twin brothers. German justice turned out to be not surprisingly honest and decent. As a result, the detained brothers Hassan and Abbas were released, despite the fact that one of them definitely participated in a high-profile robbery. After all, although the police identified the criminal's DNA, it turned out to be impossible to determine who exactly it belongs to. The brothers turned out to be identical twins, whose DNA is almost identical. But the laws of the country state that each offender must be convicted individually for his misconduct. Who was the third criminal remains a mystery.

The only unsolved crime in US aviation history. Aviation crimes are solved quite simply. After all, terrorists sooner or later have to land a plane where the police are waiting for them on the ground. The list of passengers is known, so the identity of the perpetrator is determined quickly. The hijacking of the plane and the demand for ransom do not go unpunished in the end. However, one crime in the history of US aviation was never solved by the authorities. It happened on November 24, 1971. At the airport in Portland, Oregon, a certain Dan Cooper boarded a flight bound for Seattle. He was wearing a long cloak, and his face was hidden under dark glasses. The passenger was holding a briefcase. Mr. Cooper took a seat at the back of the saloon. So he lit a cigarette, ordered a whiskey and called the stewardess over to him. Cooper handed her a note stating that he had a bomb in his briefcase. The offender demanded that he be paid 200 thousand dollars and provided with 4 serviceable parachutes. Only in this way did he guarantee the safety of the lives of all passengers on the plane. At the Seattle airport, authorities provided the terrorist with what he required. After receiving the ransom, Cooper released the passengers and ordered the pilot to fly to Mexico. But when the plane crossed the mountainous area northwest of Portland, the criminal put on a parachute and jumped overboard. What happened to the robber, so no one knew. In 1980, at the places of the alleged landing of Cooper, they found a bundle of banknotes in the amount of 6 thousand dollars with serial numbers from his lot. This may indicate that the robber died in the fall, and that he skillfully covered his tracks.

Boston robbery. This robbery took place during the holidays and also remained unsolved. On March 18, 1990, on St. Patrick's Day, the police drove up to the doors of the art museum. They told the watchman that they had received a message about the presence of robbers inside the building. The gullible watchman opened the door and immediately found himself in handcuffs. The "cops" turned out to be disguised criminals who decided to rob the museum in this form. The guard was ordered to call his partner, who also had his hands cuffed. Within a few minutes, the robbers left the museum, taking with them 13 of the most expensive paintings. Among them were masterpieces by Rembrandt, Degas and Vermeer. More than 12 years have passed since then, and none of the criminals could be detained. And on the "black" market, works of art did not surface anywhere.

Japanese robbery. On December 10, 1968, in Tokyo, a cash-in-transit car of one of the banks transported the amount of 300 million yen. This roughly corresponded to 817 thousand dollars. Suddenly, a police motorcycle started chasing the car. The officer of the law reported that a bomb had been planted on the car. I must say that the bank had already received similar threats before, so the information did not seem strange. The car stopped, the passengers left the passenger compartment. The policeman bent down to check the bottom for the presence of explosives. As suddenly there was a bright fiery flash. Collectors rushed headlong into the shelter to hide from the explosion. Meanwhile, the "policeman" calmly got behind the wheel of a car full of money and calmly left the scene. Of course, later it turned out that the servant of the law was false. Who turned out to be that resourceful criminal remains a mystery. In 1975, the term of this case expired, and in 1988 all civil obligations under it were annulled. The plan turned out to be so simple and perfect that it is quite suitable for the role of a Hollywood detective script.

Theft of the largest diamond. People try to protect jewelry by installing a variety of technical means. But even closed vaults with a perfect lock that allows for 100 million combinations, thermal sensors and radars may not stop criminals. So, on February 15, 2003, the bandits entered a protected place and robbed 123 of the 160 available deposit boxes. The rest were not touched only because the robbers simply could not take away more precious stones. Some diamonds were even left on the floor, which was discovered by bank employees in the morning. The police assumed that at least 4 people were involved in the theft. Over time, part of the gang, including its leader, were found and put behind bars. It turned out that this robbery was planned for a long time, for several years. A team of thieves gave themselves away through negligence - one of them left his traces in the vault. It turned out that it was a trader from the same center. Another robber, along with a bag not far from the place of the theft, threw away his half-eaten sandwich. This allowed the police to determine the burglar's DNA. Only now, despite the capture of the thieves, the diamonds could not be found.

The First National Bank robbery in Chicago. Among the ideal crimes, there are those that seem to have been invented by some magician. Even David Copperfield would envy the bandits' fantasy. Friday, October 7, 1977, turned out to be the day the First National Bank clerk in Chicago deposited $4 million in secure vault. The next working day happened on Tuesday. The bankers were astonished when they missed a million dollars in the vault. In some mysterious way, 36 kilograms of money disappeared from there, banknotes of 50 and 100 dollars seemed to have disappeared into thin air. The police were never able to identify the robber. After 4 years, part of the stolen money in the amount of $ 2,300 was found during the capture of drug dealers, while the rest of the bills remained in circulation.

Cool ladies. Robbery seems to some to be such a romantic activity that even women do it. On December 4, 2008, three women entered one of the famous jewelry stores in Paris. Inside, the visitors took out pistols and a grenade and began to rob. In just 15 minutes, the tough ladies managed to carry away $108 million worth of diamonds, emeralds and rubies. As it turned out, cunning criminals dressed as women, whose identity could not be established. The investigation only came to the version that this case was turned by the well-known Serbian criminal group "Pink Panther".

Artifact in exchange for plastic. Some people look for treasures in the depths of the sea and they even succeed. Diver Teddy Tucker near the coast of San Pedro was able to fulfill his dream - to find a precious artifact. The man raised a 22-carat gold cross encrusted with green emeralds from the seabed. That find was truly priceless, it turned out to be on board a ship that crashed in local waters back in 1594. A lucky treasure hunter decided to sell the artifact to the government of Bermuda. The amount of the deal remained unknown. However, that golden cross did not appear in the exposition of the art museum. When the artifact was transported, someone managed to replace it with a cheap plastic fake. The thief turned out to be so dexterous that no one could understand who it was. The authorities do not even know when the substitution took place. One can only assume that emeralds were seized from the cross and sent to the "black market". The artifact itself was simply melted down into a gold ingot.

Robbery in Baghdad. In Baghdad the main robber for a long time Saddam Hussein was considered to have allegedly squeezed billions of dollars out of Iraq. His fate was unenviable. But there are other successful robbers in the city who got away with their crime. On July 11, 2007, unknown people stole $300 million from the vault of one of the country's private banks. Investigators blame the guards for everything. After all, when bank employees came to work in the morning, it turned out that there was neither money nor people guarding them. I must say that since the entry of US troops into Iraq, several banks have already been robbed. Only this crime turned out to be the largest and loudest.

Resourceful robbers. This crime proved that neither powerful locks nor thick walls of the safe will stop smart robbers if they really want to commit a robbery. Supermarkets of the French chain Monoprix gang of unknown thieves robbed as many as 59 times! During this time, the criminals managed to endure about 800 thousand dollars. Interestingly, during all this time, no one from the criminal team was identified and detained. When the designers planned the vault for money, powerful walls and other protective measures were provided. But no one thought about the security of delivering banknotes to the safe. The money entered the vault through the air duct. The robbers made a hole in the pneumatic channel and connected a powerful vacuum cleaner to it. As a result, the money simply did not reach its destination, settling in the pocket of cunning robbers.

Unsolved crimes make you think that the world is full of cheat codes that we don't know about. Nevertheless, there is nothing good in crimes, and the presence of it has not pleased anyone yet. And here are four unsolved crimes that will fry your mind. Let's get to the point:

1. Murders on Lake Bodom. It all happened in Finland, by a lake called Bodom. On the night of June 4, 1960, four teenagers sniffed peacefully in a tent on the beach until the knife in the maniac's hand decided to kiss the insides of the teenagers. Three of them died a violent death. The only survivor is 18-year-old Nils Gustafsson. However, the guy cannot remember the details of what happened, as his face was turned into a porridge-baby. Believe me, if a person is seriously injured in the head, he can easily forget about reality or even “watch cartoons”.

The disclosure of this crime did not take place, and the investigation reached a dead end for many years. And in 1972, exactly 12 years after the murder, a local resident committed suicide, his suicide note contained a confession that he was the killer. The police found that the guy worked at a kiosk by the lake, and he feuded with the victims, whom he sold lemonade the day before the attack (yes, yes, lemonade to teenagers who spent days walking in nature). The only problem is that the guy from the stall had a compelling alibi; on the night of the murder, he was at home with his wife. However, for some reason, he killed himself on the anniversary of the attack on the teenagers and left a confession that was clearly a lie.

There was another potential culprit in this story. He appeared on the scene when a local doctor reported that an injured immigrant from Germany named Hans Assmann (Hans Assmann from Germany!) was admitted to his hospital for treatment immediately after the attack. Assman lived near Lake Bodom, wore red clothes and behaved strangely, but for some reason the police did not even detain the suspect. The doctor began to dig deeper and it turned out that the German was connected with the KGB. But while this was revealed, a ton of books and articles were published that described Assman as a sadist and liberal in red, an ex-Nazi drug addict who was responsible for almost every unsolved crime in the country.

Although Assman had an ironclad alibi on the night of the murder, his persecution did not stop and he was the main suspect until 2004. How, suddenly, the police decided that the killer was Nils Gustafsson, the only survivor and the only witness to the crime. The police filed charges exactly on the 45th anniversary of the massacre. Do you think the case is closed? Nothing like that! About 15 months later, Gustafsson was acquitted.

2. Gatton murders. One of Australia's most famous unsolved crimes. On December 26, 1898, a man named William McNeil went looking for Michael, Nora, and Ellen Murphy. All three were his relatives who went to the city at night to dance and did not return home as planned. He found the guys in a desert area known as Moran's Paddock. Or rather, only their mutilated, lifeless bodies, which were placed on the carpet, with their hands tied. At that time, almost every immigrant in the neighborhood turned out to be a suspect. Because, well, you understand - CARPET.

The city sheriff chose a random guy named Richard Burger. When it turned out that he had an ironclad alibi, he turned his attention to Thomas, another immigrant, because he had blood on his clothes. But it turned out that Thomas just worked as a butcher in a local store.

In the end, thousands of false confessions and delusional theories brought the matter to a standstill.

3. Henry Weston Smith. A reverend named Henry Weston Smith, who died on August 20, 1876, of completely natural causes of the time: an overdose of lead.

It's only logical to assume that he was shot for wearing a hipster idiotic beard. However, there is a theory that a guy named Al shot him in order to alleviate the suffering of the reverend. That is, he performed an act of mercy, because Weston Smith experienced hellish torment from a brain tumor. In fact, it wasn't all that romantic.

In August 1876, Henry Weston Smith was found lying on the road leading to the nearby town of Crook. He was killed with one bullet to the chest. He wasn't robbed or scalped or anything like that - just killed and left to rot in the merciless sun.

To this day, we have no idea who really killed Smith. Most, including the local sheriff, Seth Bullock, immediately blamed him for the death... Who do you think?! Of course !

Other popular potential culprits in the death of the reverend are robbers (apparently, someone just forgot, robbery is part of their profession).

Maybe, just maybe, the charismatic preacher got everyone with his sermons about morality, the dangers of drinking, and. Yes, Smith's death was not a hit of that time, because then people died in batches. The main reason why this case is still of interest is that it was not robbed!

4. Massacre in Hinterkaifeck. What would you do if you lived on a scary old farm in the back of the world? If your answer is "Happily Ever After" - you are not Andreas Gruber, the owner of the Bavarian farm Hinterkaifeck.

On April 4, 1922, a group of local residents went to Hinterkaifeck to find out why family members did not go to school and church. To their surprise, they found Gruber, his wife, their 35-year-old daughter, two grandchildren, and a maid, all killed with a hoe. This was especially surprising because the family had been dead for three days, and all the cows were freshly milked, freshly cooked and the neighbors saw the smoke from the chimney. In other words, someone lived on the farm after they killed the family.

A few days before the sad incident, Grubber told his neighbors that he had found strange footprints leading from the forest to his farm. Family members also complained about strange noises in the attic and missing a set of house keys.
What's more, the maid abruptly quit her job on the farm six months ago. A new maid was hired hours before the massacre.

Investigators were able to determine that the killer methodically followed the family, luring the older Grubbers into the barn one at a time. Finally, he entered the house and killed the youngest child and the maid while they slept in their bed. The exact order of the killings remained unclear, and there was no motivation. There was also no robbery, because all the valuables remained intact.

The nature of the crime is exacerbated by the fact that the Grubbers were not the family of the year; most people hated Andreas Grubber for his cruel temper and greed, and the family had a bad reputation - they were considered a village clan of incest. In the end, the investigators simply decapitated the bodies, sent the heads to the city for research, in other words, surrendered. The crime remains unsolved to this day.

Not all grieving families manage to find out the reason for the disappearance or murder of their relatives, but some crimes are revealed even after half a century of mysterious obscurity!

1.

This mystery was already 44 years old, since it was revealed! And all thanks to the fact that the woman saw a photograph of her mother on an old wanted poster.

Australian Tamara Milograd went to the Royal Melbourne Show when she was only 15 years old and never returned home. Her family has been searching for decades. At the same time, Corrina Russell discovered that her mother, who died in 1976, is the same Tamara. The daughter was simply collecting information, trying to find out more about a loved one who passed away too early.

Korina saw a photo of Tamara on the website of the National Missing Persons Coordination Center and realized that her mother and the missing girl were the same person. Investigators used a DNA analysis technique blood relatives to compare samples of Corina Russell with her alleged uncle, Tamara's brother Nick Milograd.

As it turned out, in 1971, Tamara left home, changed her passport details, adding 3 years to her date of birth, became Pauline Tammy Russell, gave birth to two children and died in a car accident.

Only a few decades later, Tamara's 90-year-old mother was able to find out the truth about what happened to her daughter. And although the woman had to come to terms with the fact that she outlived her child, now she at least has a grandson and granddaughter, and even great-grandchildren, with whom she has been in close contact since the discovery of the truth.

2.

The mystery of the sudden disappearance of an entire family from Southern California is finally solved. In 2010, Joseph, Summer McStay and their young sons Gianni and Joey packed up their belongings and disappeared from their home in San Diego, as if fleeing from an unknown danger. The police found an empty house in in a strange way. There were half-eaten eggs on the kitchen table, and bowls of popcorn and two dogs, alive but unattended, in the living room. And no sign of a struggle.

The family car was found in San Ysidro, California, and video cameras captured the family, matching the descriptions of the McStays, crossing the border into Mexico. But beyond that, no other references to this family could be found. Nobody understood what happened.

On November 11, 2013, a motorcyclist found the remains of a family in 2 cramped graves near Interstate 15 in San Bernardino County, more than 100 miles from their home. A one-kilogram sledgehammer was found nearby, with which, apparently, they were killed. Also buried in the graves were dirty clothes stained with the paint that had been used to paint the house the day the McStays disappeared.

After a thorough search, investigators' suspicions fell on Charles Chase Merritt, Joseph's business partner. What motives could he have? Money. Charles had problems with gambling to severe addiction, and he even wrote several large checks totaling $21,000 from Joseph's account just from the day the entire McStay family disappeared. Then he was seen in several casinos in Temecula, San Bernardino and Los Angeles. According to the archives, the man lost several thousand dollars there. The suspect is currently awaiting trial.

3.

Two sisters who disappeared back in 1985 have finally been found. These girls were reported missing back in 1985, but, thank God, they were eventually found alive and well in Houston, Texas. Their mother was charged with kidnapping.

Rhode Island authorities believe that Kelly and Kimberly Yates, now 32 and 35, were abducted by their mother, Elaine Yates, 69. Elayne was deprived of parental rights to girls in favor of her husband Russell (Russel). The couple broke up due to domestic violence and infidelity. When Elayne lost in court, custody rights were completely transferred to Russell. Then on August 26, 1985, she took the girls from home and disappeared for almost 30 years.

All this time, Elayne lived under the name of Liana Waldberg (Liana Waldberg), but now she has to answer for the double kidnapping of children and spend 20 years in a state prison.

After Russell learned about the discovery of his daughters, he said: “I never stopped looking for my children. Now our meeting depends only on whether they want to contact me.”

4.

Murder mystery solved 50 years later thanks to DNA analysis. In February 2016, after 51 years of torment, the family of 18-year-old Mary Agnes Klinsky finally found out who was responsible for the disgusting of their child.

DNA evidence linked the teenager's death to notorious serial killer Robert Zarinsky, who died in 2008. He was arrested in 1975 for the murder of 17-year-old Rosemary Calandriello, whose body has never been found since her disappearance in 1969. Robert was also charged in March 2008 with the murder of a 13-year-old girl, Jane Durrua, in 1968, but he died before trial, being a suspect in four other bloody crimes.

Klinski's body was found near the southern entrance to the state road along Telegraph Hill Park in Holmdel, New Jersey. She was raped and beaten to death.

5.

About the pregnant victim of a famous maniac became known only after 40 years. The already convicted serial killer will have to defend himself in court again, but now in the case of the murder of a woman found dead almost 40 years ago in Wyoming.

Rodney Alcala, also known as the winner of ABC's romantic TV show that ran at the same time as the murder spree, has been charged with the murder of 28-year-old Christine Ruth Thornton from Texas. The girl was six months pregnant when she was killed. Alcala met Christine in San Antonio in August 1977, and allegedly dumped her body on a ranch in Granger, Wyoming, around the same time. A medical examination showed that the girl was strangled.

Thornton was found in 1982 but could not be identified for several decades. Finally, in 2014, the body was identified by comparing its DNA samples with the alleged sister. The family identified the girl from a photo that was one of several released by the Huntington Beach Police in 2010 following Alcala's sentence to death penalty. The photos were found in a locker in Seattle, registered to the killer.

Former photographer, Alcala, 73, was sentenced to death for a string of murders in California but is still being held at Corcoran State Prison. Presumably, from 50 to 130 people died at his hands, but the exact number is still unknown.

6.

Girl stolen as a baby is found alive and well 18 years later. In January 2017, the girl met her biological parents for the first time 18 years after the abduction. Craig Aiken and Shanara Mobley's emotional reunion with their daughter took place at the Southern California police station in the town of Volterboro.

Kamiyah Mobley was only eight months old in July 1998 when she was abducted from a Florida hospital by a woman posing as a nurse.

The girl grew up in rural South Carolina under the name Alexis Manigo (Alexis Manigo). She had no idea that 51-year-old Gloria Williams (Gloria Williams), who raised and raised her, was at the same time her kidnapper. About a week before arriving at the Florida hospital, Williams had a miscarriage. A woman stole a newborn baby, presumably because of the deep psychological trauma from the loss of her own child. And although the police repeatedly carried out large-scale searches, and all these years received thousands of leads, Camaya was never found.

Authorities reached out to Williams thanks to a tip received by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The woman is accused of kidnapping and interfering with the rights of guardians, and she faces a life sentence.

7.

In Germany, a hermit was found, who for 30 years was considered the victim of a murderer. Petra Pazsitka from northern Germany was only 24 years old when she disappeared without a trace in 1984. She was considered dead after a man confessed to her murder.

In March 1985, a 19-year-old carpenter's assistant, known as Günter K., was arrested and confessed to the murder of a teenage girl. Petra was officially declared dead in 1989, but Gunther later recanted his testimony. The girl's true name was revealed when thieves broke into her Düsseldorf apartment in 2015 and a police investigation was launched. The 55-year-old woman told investigators that the name in which the burglarized apartment was registered was not actually hers, and that the woman was living under a false name. Then it turned out that it was she who was the missing schoolgirl 31 years ago. Petra lived without a card for 31 years social insurance, driver's license, passport or bank account.

The woman will not face any charges because she has never forged official documents. Petra did not want to explain why she ran away from home, but she made it clear that she did not want to associate with either the public or her family.

40 years later, two cousins ​​were accused of killing little girls.

Doris Karen Derryberry, 13, and Valerie Janice Lane, 12, went shopping together at California's Linda Mall on November 11, 1973, but never returned home. The next day, their mothers reported the disappearance of the girls. Just a few hours later, along a dirt road to Marysville, California, their bodies were found in the woods. After examining the corpses, it became clear that they were shot at close range with a shotgun.

Until 1976, the investigation did not subside, then it was transferred to the category of cold (unsolved) murders, but the evidence was carefully preserved and has been waiting in the wings for the past 38 years. With the advent of appropriate technology, investigators re-examined the case, took DNA samples from the semen collected from the body of one of the victims and sent them to the California Department of Justice for a forensic examination.

Larry Don Patterson of Oklahoma and William Lloyd Harbor of California are cousins. Both are 65 years old, and both of them were previously involved in criminal cases. They were 22 at the time of the girls' murder and both lived in Olivehurst, California. Harbour was in prison in 1997 and 2003 for drug dealing, while Patterson was arrested for the rape of two women in Chico, California in 1976 and again in 2006 for sexual harassment charges.

Now the relatives have 6 charges for two - three for each victim, including manslaughter, murder during rape and murder during the molestation of a minor. If convicted, these suspects are not subject to the death penalty because they committed the crimes in 1973, when California did not yet have capital punishment for such atrocities.