Most interesting unsolved non-serial killer cases

[Rosella]

The Evelyn Foster case has intrigued me for years. Robert Dixon wrote 'Evelyn Foster: Murder or Fraud on the Northumberland Moors' about it.

The Gatton murders are a fantastic mystery also. When Leonie Wallace wrote her book 'The Horrible Man' about the Portand hairdresser murders I corresponded with her about the Shirley Collins murder. In spite of the cold case work I don't believe the killer's been found in that one.

The farming family murders in the 1920's at Hinterkaifeck is the ultimate in murder mysteries, though.

[Graham]

About all I can remember about the Shirley Collins case is that the police were pretty certain she was murdered by someone she knew, as she apparently allowed someone to drive her about 40-odd miles to where her body was found.

A couple of other unsolved cases that I've always found mega-puzzling are:

Janice Weston - found battered to death in a lay-by on the A1 road in Northamptonshire in 1983; her car was found shortly afterwards in London, quite close to where she lived. I started a thread about this case on this Forum, but didn't get much response.

Evelyn Foster - found severely burned near a burning car in a remote part of Northumberland in 1931. No sign of physical or sexual attack, although before she died she claimed that she'd been punched in the face and 'interfered' with. She worked as a hire-car driver for her father's garage, and had met a man who had booked a car to go a village called Ponteland where he said he was going to get a bus to Newcastle. Also before she died, she claimed that the man had been picked up near to where she was found by another car. No trace of this man was ever found, although separate evidence appeared to prove that he did exist.

What is it about women + murder + cars?

Graham

[sdreid]

That was a new one for me Mycroftacd-a real puzzler.

[Mycroftacd]

A case I haven't seen here yet.

I found out about this case about six months ago, Al Kite in Aurora, Colorado in 2004. There are so many things about this case I find puzzling from the victimology to the suspect to the methods used. Anyone have any thoughts?

[sdreid]

That's good to know although the perp is likely deceased.

Or maybe they are interested because a suspect is still alive; hard to say.

[sdreid]

There was some talk earlier of the Shirley Collins case from the '50's earlier in the thread.

A friend of mine is married to a cold case detective who was telling me that the Victorian Cold Case squad has this as their top priority.

That's good to know although the perp is likely deceased.

[GUT]

I've also heard that a new book is coming on the Gatton murders naming a Priest, I think a priest has already been a suspect so I'll be interested to see if it has anything new.

[GUT]

There was some talk earlier of the Shirley Collins case from the '50's earlier in the thread.

A friend of mine is married to a cold case detective who was telling me that the Victorian Cold Case squad has this as their top priority.

[Cogidubnus]

Poor kid...

[Harry D]

Not technically a murder case (as far as we know), but Tara Calico's disappearance is pretty haunting. In Belen, New Mexico on September 1988, Tara Calico (then aged 19) was going for her usual bike ride and had told her mother to come pick her up if she wasn't back by noon. When noon came her mother drove out to get her but Tara was nowhere to be found. She alerted the police and during the search they found pieces of Tara's Sony Walkman and a cassette along the route, but there was no other trace of Tara. Several witnesses testified to seeing Tara on her bike and several reported that she was being followed by a pick-up truck.

Around a year later, an ominous polaroid was found in the parking lot of a convenience store in Port St. Joe, Florida. It pictured an unidentified young girl and boy bound and gagged, the girl bearing a resemblance to Tara. I won't link to the pic but it's easily Googled. Tara's mother believed it to be her missing daughter, since the girl appeared to have a scar on her leg similar to the one Tara got in a car accident, and the photo features the book 'My Sweet Audrina', said to be one of Tara's favourite reads. Apparently there are two more polaroids that might be Tara but the police have yet to release them publicly.

However, twenty years after her disappearance, Rene Rivera, then-sheriff of Valencia County, claimed that he knows what happened to Tara. According to his sources, two boys from Tara's school accidentally hit Tara with their truck and they then panicked and disposed of her body. Rivera claims to know the names of the two men involved but said he's unable to make a case without a body.

[Harry D]

Isdal Woman has some similarities with Somerton Man

THANK YOU! I was trying to reacquaint myself with this case the other day but couldn't for the life of me remember her "name".

[sdreid]

Isdal Woman has some similarities with Somerton Man

[Harry D]

There are too many unexplained disappearances and murder cases to name. Here's some unsolved mysteries that have kept me up till the early hours. In no particular order:

1. Somerton Man
2. DB Cooper
3. Voynich manuscript
4. Dancing Plague of 1518
5. Toynbee Tiles
6. Elisa Lam
7. Kendrick Johnson

[sdreid]

Thanks GUT; that's interesting - like you say - "may".

[GUT]

Stan

http://www.news.com.au/national/new-evidence-over-the-murder-of-susan-oyston-the-daughter-of-sheila-florence/story-e6frfkp9-1226532264510

A link to a news report of a couple of years ago that may [and I repeat MAY] shed some light on the case.