A little while back we asked the BuzzFeed Community to tell us about a more obscure true crime story they felt more people should be talking about. Here are their bone-chilling responses:
Note: Mentions of extreme violence, abuse, rape, and murder ahead.
1. The shocking case of Katherine Knight, who was convicted for the gruesome murder of her boyfriend, John Charles Thomas Price in February 2000 in New South Wales, Australia. She became the first one in Australian history to be given a life sentence without parole.
2. The disappearance of Ann Mineko Racz in Newhall, California in 1991. Although Ann's body has never been found, she is believed to have been murdered by her estranged husband, a former LA County Sheriff’s sergeant, John Racz.
3. The cryptic case of Franchesca Alvarado, who disappeared while on a trip to Atlantic City with an unidentified older man in 2012.
4. The highly disturbing case of seven-year-old Ondrej and nine-year-old Jakub Mauerova who were severely abused by their mother Klara (pictured below), which included feeding their flesh to relatives, in the Czech Republic in 2008.
5. The violent murder of Katie Janness and her partner's dog Bowie who were found stabbed to death outside the entrance to Piedmont Park in Atlanta, Georgia in 2021.
6. The ongoing case of Dahlia Bolin, a 16-year-old teen in rural Illinois who is facing charges of first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, solicitation of murder for hire, solicitation of murder, and conspiracy to commit murder in the deadly shooting of her mother, Rebecca Bolin on Oct. 22, 2021.
7. The appalling death of five-year-old Logan Marr in Maine in 2001. Logan, and her younger sister Bailey, had been in the care of a woman named Sally Schofield (pictured below) at the time. Schofield was eventually convicted of manslaughter in Logan's death.
8. The strange disappearance of 16-year-old Ruth Wilson in Box Hill, Surrey, England in 1995.
9. The controversial and highly suspicious death of Private First Class LaVena Lynn Johnson who was found dead in her tent in Iraq in July 2005. Although her death was ruled a suicide by the Department of Defense, her family argues there was evidence suggesting she'd been raped and murdered.
10. The Port Arthur massacre, a mass shooting that happened in Tasmania, Australia on April 28, 1996. The killer, Martin Bryant, killed 35 people, including children, and wounded 23 more.
11. The gruesome triple homicide of an elderly couple, who were tortured before their death, and their deaf and nearly-blind son in the Boise foothills of Idaho in 2015.
12. The case of Anna Maciejewska from Malvern, Pennsylvania who has been missing since 2017 and whose case is being investigated as a homicide.
13. The terrible Parker-Hulme murder case in Christchurch, New Zealand in June 1954, which actually inspired the Peter Jackson film Heavenly Creatures.
14. The mysterious and upsetting death of a young girl named Sara Keesling in Riverside, California in 1988 that didn't get enough attention.
15. The horrifying case of mass murderer John List who methodically killed his wife, three children, and mother at their home in Westfield, New Jersey in 1971 believing it was "the only way to ensure their safe arrival in heaven."
16. The unthinkable and extremely violent killing and dismemberment of Aliahna Lemmon, a nine-year-old girl in Fort Wayne, Indiana by Michael Plumadore, a family friend who was babysitting her in 2011.
17. David Parker Ray, aka the Toy-Box Killer, who was active in the '90s in New Mexico. The moniker came from the fact that he would chain and torture women in his soundproofed "toy box," a semi-trailer.
18. The tragic case of Keith Warren, a Black teenager who was found hanging from a tree in Maryland in 1986, and whose case was believed to be mishandled and "erroneously ruled a suicide."
19. The horrible case of Seth Privacky, who shot and killed his parents, grandfather, brother, and his brother's girlfriend in November 1998 in Muskegon, Michigan.
20. The deplorable case of Marcus Wesson, a mass murderer, abuser, and rapist — including the rape of his own underage daughters and nieces — who is responsible for one of Fresno, California's most horrific crimes. His crimes spanned several decades, from the 1970s until the mid-2000s.
21. The awful case of Jeff Pelo, a former Bloomington Police Sergeant who was convicted of repeatedly assaulting four women and stalking a fifth woman in Bloomington, Illinois from 2002–2006.
22. The case of Robert Garrow, a serial rapist and spree killer who was active in upstate New York in the 1970s. The case turned a bizarre twist when his lawyers refused to disclose the location of the bodies of two of his victims in what became known as the "Buried Bodies Case."
23. The horrifying case of Anthony Sowell aka "The Cleveland Strangler" or "The Imperial Avenue Murderer," a serial killer who was active in Cleveland, Ohio in 2009.
24. The disappearance of Wetumpka, Alabama resident Traci Pittman Kegley in 1998. Her car was found abandoned with her unharmed two-year-old daughter, purse, and ID still inside.
25. The nightmarish case of Allan Legere, an arsonist, rapist, and serial killer who was active in New Brunswick, Canada in the 1980s.
26. The awful case of Thomas Koskovich & Jayson Vreeland, aka the "Pizza Killers," who committed their crimes in Franklin, New Jersey in 1997.
27. The horrible case of the "Hangman" or "Killer Cop", aka Gerard John Schaefer Jr., a former sheriff's deputy and suspected serial killer active in Florida in the '70s.
28. The case of Bruce McArthur, a serial killer active in the 2010s in Toronto, Canada who targeted marginalized people, primarily gay men of color.
29. The Ant Hill Kids cult, formed by Roch Thériault in Canada, which was active from the '70s to the '80s.
30. Finally, the terrifying case of Gary Lee Bullock, who had only been out of jail for a few hours when he committed the violent murder of a beloved priest in Eureka, California in 2014.
Note: Some submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.
If you or anyone you know has information on a missing person case, call local law enforcement first. You can also contact the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children at 1-800-843-5678 (THE-LOST) or visit the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System site for regional case assistance.