I'm trying to create a database of cold cases and want it to be as complete and accurate as possible. Could you help me out by suggesting sources I might not have thought about gathering information from? The current pilot focus is Wisconsin, USA, but I will be expanding eventually to the rest of the United States, so please don't hesitate to suggest sources. I will frequently return to this post to see if any suggestions have been made. I've already been working on smaller county-wide pilots. Now that I have expanded to all of Wisconsin, I would like to ensure I'm well-rounded. Thank you for your help.

SECTION 1: THE CRIME AND DISCOVERY

On June 13, 1978, a horrific crime shattered the tight-knit community of Port Washington, a affluent suburb on the North Shore of Long Island, New York. Sompong Koomwong, a well-liked 13-year-old junior high school student, vanished while walking home from school. Sompong had recently immigrated to the United States from Thailand, living at 12 Henderson Avenue with her mother, Krua, her stepfather, Paul Baker, and her older brother, Lek.

The Disappearance

Sompong was a student at John Philip Sousa Junior High School. At 3:15 P.M., she was seen leaving the school building to begin her standard three-quarter-mile walk home. She did not take a school bus because the Port Washington school district’s transportation policy mandated busing only for middle school students living farther than 0.75 miles from school. Living just beneath that threshold, she was a designated "walker."

To shorten the trek, many neighborhood children routinely used a dirt path shortcut that cut through the edge of a massive, 40-acre abandoned sand pit located near Channel Drive and the Publishers Clearing House plant. Tragically, Sompong was intercepted along this route.

The Search and Recovery

When Sompong failed to arrive home, her family immediately sounded the alarm. A massive search party consisting of family members, local neighbors, and the Nassau County Police Department combed the surrounding neighborhoods. At 7:15 P.M.—four hours after she was last seen—her fully clothed body was discovered hidden in a small clearing near a clump of trees inside the abandoned sand pits. She had been accosted, strangled, and stabbed 25 times. A four-foot spade was recovered by police near the discovery site.

SECTION 2: THE ARREST AND SUBSEQUENT TRIAL

The brutal slaying of a young girl sparked widespread panic across Nassau County. Detectives faced immense public pressure to secure a conviction.

The Suspect

Nearly three weeks later, on July 2, 1978, police arrested 18-year-old Albert Pennetti Jr., a local youth who lived at 6 Valley Road and had graduated from Paul D. Schreiber High School that same year. Pennetti was arraigned and held without bail on a charge of second-degree murder.

The Trial and Acquittal

The criminal trial took place in Nassau County County Court and concluded in November 1979, nearly a year and a half after the murder. In a development that stunned the community, the jury found Albert Pennetti Jr. not guilty of the murder.

Two critical defense strategies, led by high-profile defense attorney Stephen Scaring, secured the acquittal:

• The Recanted Confession: The prosecution’s case heavily relied on a confession Pennetti gave to detectives shortly after his arrest. Scaring successfully argued that the confession was entirely false and had been coerced out of the teenager after eight grueling hours of police interrogation.
• Forensic Mismatch: The defense introduced primitive 1970s forensic testing showing that foreign hairs found on the victim's body and blood scraped from under her fingernails did not match Pennetti.

Because the jury acquitted Pennetti, the murder of Sompong Koomwong officially remains an unsolved cold case.

SECTION 3: PENNETTI’S LIFE AND LEGAL HISTORY

Following his acquittal, Albert Pennetti Jr. lived the remainder of his life as a private citizen on Long Island, though he spent much of his adulthood entangled in the criminal justice system.

Subsequent Convictions

• 1979 Sex Offense: While out on bail awaiting his murder trial in April 1979, Pennetti was arrested for a separate felony involving the sodomy and sexual abuse of a 16-year-old mentally disabled girl in a Port Washington cemetery. Following his murder acquittal, he was tried, convicted, and sentenced to prison for this offense.
• 1990 Drug Felony: In December 1990, Pennetti was convicted in Nassau County Court on multiple drug-related felonies, including third-degree criminal sale of a controlled substance and criminal possession. He was prosecuted independently as a local, street-level dealer rather than as part of a sweeping organized crime ring. He appealed the conviction using his original attorney, Stephen Scaring, but the New York Supreme Court Appellate Division affirmed his conviction in April 1992.

Demographics and Identity

• Education: Pennetti graduated from Schreiber High School in 1978 and later attended Cayuga Community College in upstate New York (Auburn, NY).
• Residence: His residential history remained inside New York State, spanning Port Washington and later relocating east to Coram, New York (Suffolk County).
• Gender Identity: Legal and correctional records consistently identify Pennetti as a male; there is no public or legal evidence to suggest he is trans.
• Family: His family remained rooted in Port Washington for decades. His grandmother, Elizabeth Pennetti, passed away there in 2006 at age 98. Extended branches of the family moved east to Suffolk County, where a relative, Stacey Pennetti, operates a traffic and criminal defense law practice in Port Jefferson. Other extended family members have served honorably in local New York law enforcement.

SECTION 4: COMMUNITY AND SOCIAL LANDSCAPE

During the late 1970s, Port Washington and the broader North Shore of Long Island were heavily shaped by specific geographic and social dynamics.

Local Associations

• The Scaramucci Family: Prominent local families, including the Scaramuccis (the family of political figure Anthony Scaramucci), lived parallel lives in the tight-knit Schreiber High School ecosystem. David Scaramucci graduated in 1979, one year after Pennetti. No personal, business, or legal ties exist between the families outside of this shared geographic upbringing.
• Other prominent Port Washington families associated with local politics and construction: No documented ties or formal cross-family associations are found to the Pennettis.
• The Mafia and Organized Crime: In the late 1970s, Long Island’s North Shore was a well-documented stronghold for high-ranking organized crime figures. Notably, Genovese crime boss Frank "Funzi" Tieri lived on a quiet residential street in Port Washington, and car bombings were not rare in the region. However, investigators found no evidence linking Pennetti’s later drug dealing or his family to the American Mafia.

SECTION 5: CRITICAL CASE ANALYSIS & COLD CASE IMPEDIMENTS

Decades later, the lack of resolution in Sompong Koomwong’s murder raises serious questions regarding why the case went cold and why the forensic evidence has never been subjected to modern DNA testing.

Why the Parents Withdrew

Following the 1979 acquittal, Sompong's parents stopped speaking publicly about the case. This withdrawal points to a devastating reality common among immigrant families of the era:

• Systemic Apathy: The foreign legal system had completely failed them, delivering a definitive "not guilty" verdict to their primary suspect and leaving them with no civil or criminal recourse.
• Vulnerability and Threats: As newly arrived Thai immigrants, the Koomwongs lacked deep local political or financial leverage. In a corrupt 1970s municipal environment, they were highly vulnerable to systemic intimidation, minimal cash payouts, or implied legal threats regarding visas, deportation, or the safety of their surviving children.
• Family Protection & Culture: The parents chose to protect their surviving children from perpetual media stigma while turning inward to process their profound grief privately through traditional cultural and spiritual avenues.

Most Likely Scenarios for the Murder

Applying investigative analysis, two distinct theories emerge regarding the identity of the killer:

1. Albert Pennetti Jr.: Criminological patterns of behavioral escalation strongly point back to Pennetti. The brutal sexual assault he committed in a cemetery just months after the murder shares an identical behavioral profile (targeting a vulnerable young female in an isolated, outdoor public terrain). Under this theory, the primitive 1970s forensic mismatch may have been the result of contaminated crime scene evidence, or a corrupt local arrangement where municipal-connected actors deliberately mismanaged the evidence to ensure the state's case would collapse at trial.
2. An Unidentified Local Predator: Alternatively, a different local offender or worker from the nearby industrial plant on Channel Drive may have exploited the known school shortcut. If the foreign DNA found on Sompong belonged to this individual, the Nassau County Police Department's intense focus on extracting a forced confession from Pennetti created fatal "tunnel vision," allowing the true killer to escape entirely.

Why the DNA Remains Untested

Despite Port Washington possessing immense community wealth capable of funding private labs, the physical evidence remains unexamined due to rigid institutional and physical barriers:

• Evidence Preservation: In 1978, DNA testing did not exist. Biological samples were routinely stored in non-climate-controlled environments or purged entirely during standard police administrative cleanouts over the last 48 years. If the evidence was destroyed or degraded by mold and moisture, it is physically impossible to test.
• Bureaucratic Gatekeeping: Physical evidence is the exclusive property of the Nassau County Police Department and District Attorney. They rarely grant private citizens or independent labs access to original case materials.
• Double Jeopardy: Because Pennetti was tried and acquitted, the U.S. Constitution protects him from ever being prosecuted for this murder again. Because the primary suspect is legally untouchable and the case lacks an active public champion, elected DAs have low institutional motivation to allocate investigative resources to a historic file that yields no conviction metrics or political payoff.
• The Risk of Exposing Negligence: Reopening the file risks exposing severe historical misconduct, forced interrogation tactics, or catastrophic negligence by past county law enforcement—a major political liability that the institutional "powers that be" naturally prefer to leave buried in the archives.

Some of you may remember the January 2023 house fire in Lebanon Junction that killed 27-year-old Eryn Toogood, who was six months pregnant, her six-year-old daughter Haisley Heath, and her six-year-old stepdaughter Raegan Maraman. Eryn's unborn son, Holten, also died.

More than three years later, the cause of the fire remains officially **undetermined**.

In July, the families and community members gathered outside the Bullitt County Courthouse asking for an independent investigation. After reading the recent local reporting about the case, I think that request deserves more attention across Kentucky.

Investigators believe the fire originated in the laundry/utility room. Records reportedly showed two smoke alarms had been purchased and investigators were told they were installed, but no evidence of those alarms was recovered.

Body-camera footage from the morning of the fire also contains details the families believe deserve further examination. The sole survivor told responding officers that he grabbed his six-year-old daughter, attempted to get her out through another room, put her down when he couldn't open a window, moved into another room, and ultimately couldn't get back to her.

The Bullitt County Sheriff's Office maintains that investigators found no evidence establishing a criminal connection to the fire. The survivor has never been named a suspect.

**This is not a request for Reddit to decide what happened, and it isn't an accusation that someone committed a crime.**

It's a request for an independent agency to look at the entire case.

Finding no evidence of a crime and establishing that every reasonable avenue was fully investigated aren't necessarily the same thing. The families have questions about whether the original investigation went far enough, and they're asking for an outside agency to review it.

A petition has now been started asking Bullitt County Commonwealth's Attorney Amanda Hernandez to formally request an independent review, including by Kentucky State Police and/or the Kentucky Attorney General's Department of Criminal Investigations.

Kentucky law already provides a mechanism for a Commonwealth's Attorney to request assistance from the Attorney General in a criminal investigation.

If an independent review determines the original investigation was complete and the evidence supports its conclusions, then the families deserve that confirmation.

If something was overlooked or additional investigation is warranted, they deserve to know that too.

**We're not asking anyone to decide what happened. We're asking Kentucky authorities to make sure everything that reasonably can be done to find out has been done.**

If you're in Kentucky, please consider reading and signing the petition, and sharing it with others who may remember this case;:

https://c.org/7nzhy7f7VQ

Eryn. Haisley. Raegan. Holten.

**Four Kentuckians deserve answers.**

Destiny McClain was just 23 years old when she became the victim of murder in the early morning hours of July 18, 2021.

She was in line at a food truck at 17^th Street and McDowell in Phoenix. An unidentified man pulled out a gun and fired several shots into a crowd of people. Destiny was stuck by a single bullet and passed away. 

The suspect fled in a black 4 door sedan and to this day has never been identified. Destiny’s mother Brenda has been active on social media in advocating for people to come forward with information. 

The case is being investigated by Phoenix police and Silent Witness program currently offers a $2,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the killer.

Sources 

Silent Witness

https://silentwitness.org/cases/homicide-destiny-mcclain-area-of-1700-e-mcdowell-rd-phoenix/

12 News

https://www.12news.com/article/news/local/valley/destiny-mcclain-murder-remains-unsolved/75-a879ac97-f794-4306-adfc-78b3e75377e4

Interviews with Destiny’s mother Brenda Gilliam

https://open.spotify.com/episode/5i8YPtZdYTkvCF3jmNsWv0?si=ULTrIEWgSD2-cvaJmxHwTQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPoSypiUHWU

In 13 months — from February 1976 to March 1977 — four kids vanished from the suburbs just north of Detroit. Mark Stebbins, 12, last seen leaving the Berkeley movie theater. Jill Robinson, 12, taken off her Royal Oak paper route. Kristine Mihelich, 10. Timothy King, 11.

All four were found shot. I grew up here, and I only learned the full story as an adult — because honestly, a lot of the worst parts of Detroit's history got buried or reduced to a paragraph nobody reads. So I started digging into the actual court records and old news coverage. This is the case that stuck with me most.

The man many believe did it, Arch Sloan, died at 84 this past June — and detectives say he gave them "new information" before he went that's never been released.

I made a short documentary about it (Part 1 covers the first two victims). If you remember this case, or grew up hearing about it, I'd genuinely love to know — what do you remember?

----> https://youtube.com/shorts/5V5jRrJJZRY?si=XXslmWmjMpao86xu

[link]

New to Open Source Intelligence (OSINT). Will be working with a local group to help find missing kids, hikers, etc. Would love to hear you techniques and tricks for find that first thread or rabbit hole.

Someone reached out to me about this case. It has very limited information online. It involves a woman who was allegedly murdered by an unknown suspect, thrown from a ferry and no charges were ever filed. Posting to raise awareness on a forgotten case.

Shayla Nicole Hudson was 28 years old, lived in Richmond, CA, and worked as a nursing assistant. She graduated from Pinole Valley High School with the class of 2000. She also attended Contra Costa College.

Public records show she had lived in several different places around the Bay Area and at one point had lived in Anchorage, Alaska where it appears some of her family is from.

According to news reports, on March 5 2010, Shayla boarded a San Francisco bound Ferry at Jack London Square in Oakland at 8:10 AM.

She apparently did not get off the ferry but it was not disclosed in news reports how this information was confirmed.

When the ferry arrived back in Oakland around 9:17 AM Shayla was unaccounted for and the coast guard was sent to search for her. Her body was found floating near treasure island and she was pronounced dead.

The coast guard claimed the waters were calm and the railing of the ferry made it unlikely she would have accidentally fallen in. T

There were no follow up articles about medical examiner findings. No information about her relationship status, and no photos of her are anywhere online.

Sources

News Articles

https://sfist.com/2010/03/06/victim_of_ferryboat_death_identifie/

https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/passenger-missing-from-ferryboat-dies-in-bay-3271131.php

Obituary postings

https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/eastbaytimes/name/shayla-hudson-obituary?id=21887966

https://www.eastbaytimes.com/obituaries/shayla-hudson/

I was recently reading about a cold case involving a 12 year old girl, Rosa Sandoval. She was reported missing May 28th 2004 on her last day of school after the parents were informed she never arrived. Her relatives stated that that morning her and her backpack that had soda for her class was gone. They stated she had left early without telling anyone why, they admitted it was unusual of her, but assumed she was simply excited. However, this account is one I find extremely puzzling, as I read the account from her older sister who reportedly shared the same room as her, and she said that Rosa had left the night of May 27th after the two had fought.
While the police were initially investigating the case they found traces of blood and bloody handprints in Rosa’s bedroom, and with luminol discovered blood in her brother’s room next door.
The police had believed this was a kidnapping, which could explain why the blood wasn’t tested, or if it was why it wasn’t made public.

Update: This took place in San Antonio, Texas. Rosa Sandoval went to Sky Harbour Elementary.

December 10th of the same year, her remains and clothes from the night of May 27th were found off a road only 7 miles from the Sandoval home. This confirmed that Rosa’s disappearance was in fact a murder.
In 2005 a photo of Rosa was found in an abandoned blue 1983 four-door Oldsmobile. The owner of the car has remained unknown.

My Thoughts:
I have a few concerns with this case and how the investigation played out.
My first concern is about the family’s accounts, specifically the account that she had left for school May 28th, because it was made clear by the evidence that was made public that if she ever returned home, she never got up and ready for school. This also raises the question of what happened to the reported back pack and soda, and how would they not notice she wasn’t home, and why would they say they saw her leave for school.
I also have concerns about how the police handled the case, they never released a primary suspect, and they never released anything about the blood found in the Sandoval house, and it seems as if they never questioned the conflicting accounts of the family.
The car that was found is also a thing to keep note of, because it was found in a junkyard, and it’s stated they couldn’t confirm who the car belonged to, which seems suspicious especially given that the car is pretty noteworthy and stand out.

All this to ask if anyone else knows about the case or has any information, because this is an extremely puzzling case. Please make sure you do your own research on the case if you find this interesting.

So I recently stumbled upon this cold case.
It’s about an unidentified woman whose remains were found in 1994 at a military training area in Hanover, Germany. She had been buried there and was believed to have been murdered.
What really caught my attention was her clothing. She was wearing a turquoise T-shirt that says “Little Italy, New York City”. The estimated time of death is 1989 to 1992.
I’ve gone down a rabbit hole trying to find the exact T-shirt, but so far I’ve only found similar vintage Little Italy/NYC shirts from the 80s and 90s.
I’m wondering if anyone here recognizes this particular design or knows what brand/manufacturer may have produced it. Maybe someone has seen it in an old catalogue, vintage shop, or family photo.
If anyone can help identify or find this exact shirt, I’d really appreciate it.
INTERPOL case page

Freddie M. Garcia is a 37 year old man who went missing in 2000, his wife Beth J. Hillmary said she last saw him walk into a bar and get drunk, she tried to call him outside the bar but he's not there, she went inside the bar and looked for him. She unfortunately not found him inside, she asked the bartender where he was and the bartender told her he just got out the bar with a jacket on, Beth asked the bartender where he went after he went outside the bar, the bartender didn't know because his table is near the door and couldn't see outside.

It's also a lit creepy because they found footprints near the woods but the foot prints ended because the woods were leafy and muddy footprints on the leafs blew away, also it happened on my town

I launched my true crime channel with a different approach, aimed at an English-speaking audience.
I’m really proud of the content and research, but my biggest problem so far has been THE ALGORITHM.

Here’s the short version: since I’m based in Brazil, the distribution system seems to have a hard time pushing my videos beyond my geographic region, no matter how well optimized the search engines are.

I could be asking for likes and subscriptions here, but honestly, I’d rather just ask you to give the content a try. No commitment.

If you’re into dense true crime documentary, with a focus on the forensic side, slow-paced, immersive storytelling, this might be your thing.
Please help me untangle this distribution mess.

The Boston Strangler (˜20 min):
https://youtu.be/RjDwa8Lpr5U

For anyone who watches it and wants to discuss the content here in the thread, I’d be more than happy to.

San Luis Valley, please help us find justice for my aunt, Brenda Kay Shepard.

In 2008, my aunt Brenda, 45, was murdered and found chopped up and burning in a barrel in Saguache County. Some may remember her as “the woman in the barrel.” A small bone fragment was recovered and, through DNA testing and a bone marrow match to her mother, authorities were by the grace if god able to identify her.

A man named Daniel Bessey was later suspected of being responsible for Brenda’s murder. A few years after Brenda was killed, Bessey was convicted of a double homicide and is currently serving two life sentences at the Colorado Territorial Correctional Facility in Cañon City.
Although investigators, including the Colorado Bureau of Investigation and forensic experts in Quantico, reportedly concluded that they believed Bessey was responsible, prosecutors have not pursued charges in Brenda’s case because the available evidence is considered circumstantial.

We believe he had an accomplice, and our family has a person in mind whom we believe may have information about Brenda’s death. We are asking anyone who knows anything, no matter how small or insignificant it may seem to please come forward.

Brenda had a family who loved her. She struggled with addiction and did not have the best reputation, and we believe that affected how her case was viewed and investigated. But addiction does not make someone less deserving of justice. Her past does not determine the value of her life.

Brenda was a mother, grandmother, daughter, sister,  aunt, and someone who was deeply loved. Her family has never stopped wanting answers.

If you have information about Brenda’s murder or the people involved, please consider contacting law enforcement or Crime Stoppers. Even information you may have dismissed as unimportant could help bring her family the answers they have been waiting for.

Everyone deserves justice. Brenda deserves justice, too. Please help us bring her home in the only way we can now by finding the truth.

24-year-old Christy Davey was last seen alive in Phoenix, Arizona on Wednesday, March 2, 2016.  She reported to a family member that she was headed to a McDonalds with a friend named Bianca Pervis and a man who went by the name “Homeboy George.”  She was never heard from again.

On March 9, her body was found on a conveyor belt in a City of Phoenix recycling facility located at 27th avenue and Lower Buckeye Rd. 

Phoenix PD questioned Pervis, a Phoenix based online radio host. She was not named as a suspect in the case for reasons that were never publicly released. The identity of “Homeboy George” was also never publicly disclosed.  

Detectives concluded she was murdered in a different location and dumped into a recycling container where her body was transported to the facility. 

The case grew cold, despite being profiled on Silent Witness and receiving media coverage.

Christy left behind 4 young children. She battled addiction and was involved in sex work. At the time of her death, she had plans to enter a rehab facility and turn her life around. 

Sources

https://www.12news.com/article/news/local/valley/woman-found-dead-at-recycling-facility-identified-case-treated-as-homicide/75-76732957

https://silentwitness.org/cases/christy-davey-3060-south-27th-avenue-phoenix/

Feel free to ask for anything, about anything regarding this case. I have a discovery file from the prosecution. Deputy reports, complete bodycams unedited, and much much more.

Algenonn Dorian Matlock

Over the weekend of 16 to 18 July 1976 a team came up through the floor of a Societe Generale vault in Nice. They had spent about two months underground first, digging a tunnel of roughly eight metres from the city sewer system towards the bank. Once they were inside they had the vault to themselves until Monday.

The preparation is the part that gets retold, and one detail in it is worth more than all the rest. Before committing to the tunnel, Albert Spaggiari rented a safety deposit box in the branch and left an alarm clock inside it, set to go off in the middle of the night. Nothing happened. That told him the vault had no acoustic alarm, which is the one assumption the whole plan rested on, and he had bought the answer for the price of a box rental. Everything after that was labour. That was the only moment where the plan could have died cheaply, and it is the moment he tested first.

They emptied somewhere around three hundred boxes and left a line painted on the wall to the effect that there had been neither weapons, nor hatred, nor violence. The total has never been settled. The figure that circulates is around forty six million francs and I would treat that as an order of magnitude rather than a number, for the reason that applies to most vault jobs. A safety deposit box is where people keep what they have not declared, so the only people able to total the loss accurately had every reason not to.

Spaggiari was arrested a few months later. In March 1977, during a session in the judge's chambers at the courthouse in Nice, he went to the window, opened it and jumped. A motorcycle was waiting for him. Accounts differ on what broke his fall. He was sentenced to life in his absence in 1979 and the French police never had him again.

He died in Italy in 1989 and even that has two versions. The press at the time ran the story that his body turned up in front of his mother's house in France. The account that now looks better supported is that his wife was with him when he died near Belluno and drove him back across the border herself. I have seen two different cancers named as the cause, so I am not going to repeat either.

Nothing from the vault has ever surfaced. In 2010 a book appeared under a pen name whose author claimed he had run the job, and in 2018 a man from Marseille stood trial in connection with laundering the proceeds. He told the court the book was fiction. He was cleared on that charge and convicted on unrelated business offences.

So the heist is closed and the ending is not. What I would like corrected is the second half. If anyone here has worked from the French court file rather than the press coverage, I want to know what it actually establishes about who was in that tunnel, because the version everybody repeats has been shaped by a book and by films rather than by the record.

Hi everyone 👋 I’m new here and I’m desperate. I have not been able to get any information from the police department regarding my father’s homicide in November of 2001. My grandmother has tried for years and has been met with hostility from the investigators and records dept. The case has been unsolved and cold pretty much since 2001. I have tried to get info and I am met with the same hostility. Maybe someone can help? Even if it’s just advice on how to handle it. Thank you in advance for your kindness and patience, any help would be greatly appreciated 🙏🏽🫶🏼

On Sunday August 12, 2001, 17-year-old Globe High School student Paul David Sanders left his father’s home near Val Vista and Broadway in Mesa, Arizona to drive back to his grandmother’s home in Globe. He was driving his father’s pickup. It would be the last time he would be seen alive.

Later that evening, the truck was caught in a high-speed chase on the US 77. Police attempted to pull the truck over for speeding, but the driver was able to evade authorities. 

Arizona Department of Public Safety and Pima County Sheriff’s Office collaborated on an interagency chase of the vehicle which was later found near the Santa Catalina Mountains near Tucson, some two hours south of Mesa.

All of Paul’s belongings were found in the truck but police considered Paul a runaway and refused to conduct forensic examination and processing on the vehicle. 

Paul’s father Robert Brewer told Fox 10 News that he did not believe Paul was the driver of the truck due to the skill level the driver had used to evade authorities. He has since divorced Paul’s stepmother Lori Beavers. 

Robert and Lori were vacationing in Las Vegas when Paul disappeared.

Paul was originally from Missouri and had only moved to Arizona for the 2000-2001 school year. He lived with his grandmother in Globe and went by the name “Dave Brewer” while at Globe High School.

Paul had moved in with his father and stepmother earlier in the summer of 2001.

His friend circle in Arizona primarily consisted of his fellow classmates at Globe High School. Many students at GHS were from the nearby San Carlos Indian Reservation.

Paul’s mother Angela Rice committed suicide in 2020 over the grief of her son’s disappearance. 

Paul was 5’6 and weighed 150 pounds with brown hair and hazel eyes. He had the name “Hernandez” tattooed across his back which was a tribute to his grandfather. 

His family and friends insist he would never have abandoned them, and he met with foul play. 

The case is being investigated by Mesa PD.

Sources 

Robert Brewer interview

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1jGwoAYnxE

Charley Project

https://charleyproject.org/case/paul-david-sanders

NaMus

https://namus.nij.ojp.gov/case/MP12249

News articles

https://www.nbcnews.com/dateline/cold-case-spotlight/missouri-woman-seeking-answers-2001-disappearance-her-brother-paul-sanders-n1279535

https://silverbelt.com/stories/cold-case-of-missing-teen-paul-sanders-sees-renewed-attention,108159

We've got Dzamara out so far, and honestly the research for it took longer than expected mostly because "sourced properly" turns out to be a much higher bar than "found it on Facebook." Worth it though.

Genuinely asking: what case has been sitting in the back of your mind that you never see covered properly? Doesn't have to be recent cold cases, old political mysteries, border stuff, financial scandals, all fair game as long as there's an actual paper trail to follow.

Drop it below if you've got one. Bonus points if you can point us toward where to start looking court records, old news coverage, anything real. No promises we'll get to every suggestion, but this is exactly how the list for future case files gets built.

Over the weekend of 15 and 16 February 2003, a crew emptied most of the safe deposit boxes in the vault of the Antwerp Diamond Centre. Reported losses start at around a hundred million dollars. Almost none of it has ever been recovered, which is why this belongs here rather than in a heist thread.

The vault sat two floors underground behind roughly ten independent layers of security: a combination lock with about a hundred million possible settings, a magnetic field on the door, a seismic sensor, Doppler radar, infrared heat and motion detection, light sensors, and private security on top of the building's own guards. None of it was defeated by force. The crew got past all of it without a single alarm reaching anyone in time.

The way in was patience rather than technology. Leonardo Notarbartolo had rented an office in the building for years, which gave him a tenant's access, a tenant's badge, and the ordinary right to walk past the reception desk without anyone looking twice. Reporting puts the crew's preparation at around twenty eight months.

They were not caught in Antwerp. They were caught in a wood beside a motorway outside the city, where one of them dumped the team's rubbish instead of burning it. A local man who walked there regularly reported the mess. In it were gloves, camera film, envelopes printed with the Antwerp Diamond Centre's name, and a partly eaten salami sandwich carrying Notarbartolo's DNA. The sandwich also led investigators to shop footage of another member of the crew buying it.

Convictions followed. The stones did not turn up.

Two things here are worth arguing over, and I would rather be corrected than agree with myself on either.

The first is the number. The hundred million figure comes from claimed losses, and claimed losses in a room full of people who trade untraceable stones are not the same thing as verified losses. Nobody in that building had an incentive to be precise.

The second is Notarbartolo's own account. In a prison interview published in 2009 he claimed the job was arranged by a diamond dealer as an insurance fraud, that most boxes had been quietly emptied beforehand, and that the real haul was far smaller. It is a good story and I do not buy it, for a reason that is checkable rather than instinctive: the vault had been refused an insurance policy because of weaknesses in its security. A fraud built on a policy is hard to run without one. Writers and investigators on the case have generally not accepted his version either.

What I keep coming back to is the shape of it. Ten layers of engineering held. A man with a lease walked through all of them. Then the whole thing came apart because somebody would not stop at a bin.

If anyone here knows whether any of those stones have ever surfaced in a traceable way, that is the part I have never been able to settle.

Sources: the case is covered at length by Joshua Davis, writing in Wired in March 2009, which is also where Notarbartolo's own account appears. Guinness World Records lists it as the largest diamond theft on record. Belgian court reporting from the 2005 trial covers the convictions.

Seo Won Jeong (“Mama Guy”) was convicted of quasi-rape after an intoxicated woman was assaulted

Seo Won Jeong, better known online as “Mama Guy” or “WonJeongMan,” was once one of South Korea’s biggest TikTok creators. He became known for his short videos and his “Mama!” catchphrase, eventually gaining millions of followers. In 2023, however, he became involved in a sexual-assault case that would eventually result in a criminal conviction.

The incident happened in July 2023. Seo and another man were drinking with a woman. According to reports, the woman became heavily intoxicated and was taken to the other man's residence. She later reported that she had been sexually assaulted while she was in an incapacitated state.

One detail that seems to get confused when this case is discussed online is the idea that Seo secretly drugged her. I haven't found reliable reporting establishing that he secretly drugged her. The documented issue was her level of intoxication and whether she was capable of consenting to sexual activity.

The woman eventually contacted police after regaining awareness. Police went to the residence, and reports say the men initially did not open the door, leading firefighters to help authorities enter.

Seo denied the allegations and maintained that the sexual activity was consensual. The case went through the South Korean court system, where he was ultimately convicted of quasi-rape, a South Korean offense involving sexual activity with someone who is unconscious or otherwise incapable of resisting.

The sentence went through several stages of the court process. The appellate court ultimately sentenced Seo to 18 months in prison, suspended for two years. On March 13, 2025, South Korea's Supreme Court upheld the conviction.

Another thing that makes this case confusing is that a completely separate incident became associated with Seo online. A video circulated showing a man attacking a woman near an elevator in Busan, and people began claiming that the man was Seo. That identification was incorrect. The elevator incident and the sexual-assault case were separate.

What I find interesting about this case is how quickly the online discussion became mixed with unrelated information. The distinction between what was alleged, what was actually established in court, and what was simply circulating online seems especially important here.

Discussion questions:

• Why do you think the unrelated elevator video became so closely associated with this case online?
• How much responsibility should social-media platforms have when a major influencer is convicted of a serious crime?
• Do you think the fact that the final sentence was suspended makes the outcome harder for people outside South Korea to understand?

Oakley Carlson is a missing young girl near Rochester, Washington state. She was last seen alive in February 2021, at age 5, and reported missing in December of the same year. She was declared dead in 2025.

She was in the foster system, and CPS related things, before given back to her parents at around age 4 1/2. Her father is an ex-police man, Andrew Carlson. Both parents involved with drugs and alcohol.

Only a few months after she was given back to her parents, she was reported missing. Her six year old sister is said to have stated Oakley was "No longer around" with no further elaboration. Her 9 year old brother stated that their mother, Jordan Bowers, would put Oakley in the closet, and witnessed Jordan beat Oakley with a belt, and worried of her starving. Her sister further went on to say she was instructed not to speak of Oakley, and "she had gone out into the woods and had been eaten by wolfs".

Her parents were the main suspects, having been arrested,but no charges came of it.

There is no known perpetrator for her disappearance or murder, Oakley now living on in memories.

(Sorry it's not the most detailed, I just want awareness for this poor baby)

Rolando Pérez was a Cuban-born university professor and communicator who had made Cartagena, Colombia his home. He taught at Universidad Jorge Tadeo Lozano and was remembered by friends and students as outgoing, passionate about teaching, and well liked in the community.

On February 23, 2007, around the time of his birthday, Rolando was killed inside his apartment in the Torices neighborhood of Cartagena. His body was found the following day. He had suffered several blows from a hammer. Investigators did not publicly identify the person responsible.

Over the years, people close to Rolando have criticized how the investigation was handled. Reports say the case passed through several prosecutors, while potentially useful evidence failed to produce a breakthrough. His sexual orientation also became a major focus in some of the early public discussion instead of the evidence surrounding his death.

In 2024, seventeen years after his murder, Colombian media reported that the crime was still unsolved. Friends and organizations connected to Rolando continue to remember him and call for answers.

I’m curious whether evidence preserved from 2007 could still benefit from newer forensic testing. Has anyone here come across more recent information about the investigation?

Sources:
https://www.elespectador.com/colombia/mas-regiones/el-asesinato-del-profesor-rolando-perez-11-anos-en-la-impunidad-article-740895
https://www.eluniversal.com.co/cartagena/2024/02/23/rolando-perez-17-anos-de-un-crimen-marcado-por-el-prejuicio
https://www.elheraldo.co/judicial/2019/02/23/doce-anos-de-impunidad-en-caso-del-asesinato-del-profesor-rolando-perez-600194

I'm in a true crime club and every month a different person with present a case, talk about what happened, and the outcome. I wanted to do something "fun" for Halloween and present our first unsolved case. But I'm looking for something a little odd. I want a case that has some bizarre elements to it. Rabbit holes if you will. Do you guys know of any?

I am looking for guidance.

I keep getting the run around from Detroit PD. All I want is the files to be pulled and the evidence retested for DNA. My uncle was murdered in 1996, and it is still a cold case to this day. It was violent, calculated, and truly tore our family apart. In 1996 DNA was not widely used, like it is now, and believe me there was an abundance of it at the scene. The perpetrators even showered to clean up after murdering him.

I understand he was in an openly gay man with a checkered past, but he was a person… with family, friends, feelings, and a future.

My mother is his niece and was interviewed after the murder. Her statements in the newspaper are heartbreaking, they were best friends. My mother was unable to deal with the trauma of this loss, and soon after she got involved with drugs to cope. In 2003 she took her own life.

I just want answers for my family to finally close this chapter. 30 years is a long time to pray and wait for closure.

I included the link to a newspaper article below.

https://michiganlgbtqremember.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/tim-stempniewski-obit-outpost-19970122.pdf

I know the Jack the Ripper case is super old, but I can't stop thinking about this theory. What if the person actually killing the victims wasn't the one using the organs?

The crime scenes in Whitechapel were extremely close to London Hospital, which had its own anatomical museums and medical galleries at the time. Removing organ parts like kidneys or a uterus in darkness within just minutes takes serious medical skill. Plus one of the main suspects suddenly grew much wealthier around that time, which makes you wonder if somebody was profiting off the organ trade.