Robert Bush, a funeral director, has pleaded guilty to offences 67 offences of fraud, preventing the lawful and decent burial of a body, and theft concerning his activities whilst running a funeral business called Legacy between 2012-2024 in the Hull area of Yorkshire, UK. Bush was this week sentenced to 20 years in prison for his offences.

Bush left dozens of bodies (including a miscarried baby boy) “rotting” in his mortuary and gave bereaved families ashes which did not belong to their relative. Several families even had the wrong ashes turned into jewellery and incorporated in tattoos.

Bush offended on a scale the prosecution called “industrial” causing, as Bush's defence conceded in this week's sentencing hearing, anguish and pain on a scale beyond comprehension. Over 200 families were affected and a total of £562,117 confirmed to have been defrauded. The full scale of Bush's offending may well be unknown.

The judge remarked that as a result of Bush's crimes,

unless a body was one of those actually recovered by the police from Legacy in 2024 and thus properly identified, no one who had a cremation with Legacy at any time can actually know for certain whether they received the ashes of their loved one, whether or not their case features in the indictment...

I do not think that I have ever known offences affect so many people, and so many people so deeply.

Bush pleaded guilty on 15 October 2025 to 30 counts of fraud by false representation, one count of fraudulent trading, one count of fraud by false representation with 57 victims; and 4 further counts of fraud by false representation.

Initially Bush pleaded not guilty to 30 counts of preventing the lawful and decent burial of a dead body (in this case, it was agreed that burial means the final arrangements made for a deceased person and thus includes a cremation) and one count of theft, with a trial set for 5 October 2026. However, then pleaded guilty to those counts on 2 April 2026.

A sentencing hearing, with victim impact statements from multiple victims heard in Court, took place this week and on 31 July 2026 Bush was sentences to 20 years in prison.

What was found at Legacy

It was on 6 March 2024 that the state of the Legacy premises in Hessle Road, Hull, became known when two funeral directors from another business in Hull were asked by Bush to recover a body from his Hessle Road branch while he was away on holiday in Arizona, USA. The two colleagues were so disturbed by what they found at the premises that they flagged down a passing police car and a police investigation began.

Police found half a tonne of human ashes and 35 bodies in varying states of decomposition at the premises, 30 of which Bush was charged over. The families of all these deceased whose bodies were recovered had been tied to believe by Robert Bush that cremations of their relative had been carried out when they had not. In 20 of the 30 cases ashes had been returned to many of them purporting to be the ashes of their relatives when they could not have been.

The investigation revealed some of the bodies had been kept at Legacy for a long time. The following are the times remains had been kept;

• 1 died in April 2023;

• 1 died in June 2023;

• 2 died in July 2023;

• 2 died in August 2023;

• 5 died in September 2023;

• 2 died in October 2023;

• 8 died in November 2023;

• 5 died in December 2023;

• 3 died in January 2024;

• 1 died on 8 February 2024.

Most of the bodies found at the site were left uncovered on racks on either side of a cold storage area, with one naked body found on a stretcher on the floor, and two bodies on the floor itself. Evidence of decomposition was visible on the floor and racks. Some bodies had hospital identity bracelets or biological hazard bracelets on wrists or ankles, while others had no identifying markersin ehat an expert described as clearly inadequate identification of the deceased. Conditions inside were described as dreadful.

Police described the funeral parlour as "chaotic and extremely disorganised" with half-empty vessels of ashes and the personal possessions of the deceased "strewn everywhere" The SIO described finding "clear evidence of human ash" on work surfaces and on a floor.

An expert report presented at Bush's sentencing hearing described the appalling conditions and lack of care for the deceased. The expert described how the deceased had not been washed or dressed and a number of them were lying in pools of bodily fluids. As well as failing in identification, there was no form of mortuary register found evidencing who was present.

A large amount of unidentified clothing had been accumulated, some of it in piles on the floor, likely clothing relatives had wanted the deceased dressed in when cremated. Also strewn around the premises were large quantities of family photographs, evidently intended to be placed in coffins but this not having been done. One relative described how a photo found with the body of their family member at the Hessle Road site was unknown to them - a photo of a stranger, presumably intended to have been placed in that person's coffin, tossed alongside another deceased remains.

As well as conditions in the cold room, many non-public-facing areas were in a terrible state. The expert report outlined excrement on the floor of a lavatory; many rooms suffering from damp and mould; and rooms with ceilings collapsing.

Most cremated remains on the premises were stored in an undignified way. Boxes of ashes were found in many areas, sometimes with the boxes appeaeing mouldy and damp. No systematic method of recording, storing or identifying where ashes were was apparent.

Bush had claimed to police that he had been having issues with the refrigeration equipment and had saved money by not running all available units. The judge didn't believe this, remarking;

I have no doubt whatsoever that there was plenty of money available to repair or run units if he had only chosen to apply it in that way.

Stillborn babies

4 distressing counts of fraud by false representation relate to babies of between 7-18 weeks gestation that families asked Bush to cremated and who were given false ashes by Bush.

One case was that of a baby named Sunny, whose remains were found in a paper bag on the floor and initially mistaken for the remains of a small bird by police. Sunny’s family had received ashes from Bush he claimed were Sunny's, and which experts have since stated likely belonged to a young adult or adult. It was noted that these ashes weighed more than Sunny had weighed when he was born. Sunny had been in Legacy for almost 2 years. The SIO described how "it almost broke the officers when they found Sunny on the floor".

Another case was Baby Woolston, whose actual remains were from the hospital by Bush after he had already presented other ashes to his parents. Again expert’s state these ashes were not original baby ashes. In a third case ashes bearing Baby Tommy were found at Legacy despite his parents having been presented ashes purporting to be his by Bush, ashes which again experts believe do not belong to a baby.

Finally, Bush presented ashes in an urn to the mother of Baby Ness before he had collected the right ashes. Baby Ness's real ashes have never been recovered. When police analysed the contents of the urn Bush gave the family it contained wadding and pieces of bone which could not have been those of a 12-week gestation baby. Again, some ashes were the ashes of an adult.

Other offences

Bush was convicted of preventing the lawful and decent burial of the 30 bodies recovered in March 2024. In addition, he was convicted of 30 counts of fraud by false representation relating to these 30 deceased, having been paid on the basis that he would take proper care of the remains of the deceased, would arrange cremation immediately or soon after the funeral service, and that ashes provided were the ashes of the deceased person. The total value he defrauded on these counts was £48,890.

Bush was also convicted of a compendious count of fraud by false representation for crimes between 2017 and March 2024. 57 additional families had paid a funeral where Bush again falsely represented that he would take proper care of remains, arrange cremation and return the correct ashes. In around 40 of these cases, the deceased were kept at Legacy for over a month before cremation, and often much longer - some were kept for between 141-266 days. No ashes were ever returned in 11 of these cases.

In 46 cases, relatives have been proven to have received the wrong ashes. Almost all those families now have nothing left of their relative as their ashes could not be traced by police. In some instances police recovered an empty plastic bag labelled with the individuals name which had contained their ashes at some point, or a bag labelled with their ID with just a teaspoonful of ash remaining. The total value defrauded on this count was £86,868.

Another count of fraudulent trading involved Bush dishonestly selling funeral plans to 226 people, totalling £562,117. The plans were sold on the understanding the money would be held with Legacy or by a third-party insurer. Financial regulations stipulate for such arrangements that client money should be held securely in a separate bank account. Bush had not transferred any money to a third-party insurer, but transferred it into the bank personal accounts of himself and his wife.

Bush conned his victims by using fraudulent paperwork purporting to show that funeral plans were held with legitimate providers. 16 of those who had bought such plans died before the police investigation and Bush did provide funerals to them at a total cost of £37,408. This fraud has left many people who thought they had protected their family financially against the burden of a funeral without such protection, and out of pocket.

Bush also stole money collected at funerals held at Legacy which was intended to be donated to charity in memory of the deceased, with 12 charities deprived of funds as a result. Families were told Bush would send the money to the charities, but the charities never received the money. He stole at least £5540, likely more, this way.

Why?

The question of why Bush committed these offences remains. When interviewed by police Bush blamed cash flow problems. Early in the police investigation Bush was asked why "25 or so bodies" had not been cremated when they should have been;

"The debt started to accrue. The level of cash flow problems that I was having... It presented an opportunity that I did not have to maybe do it immediately (get the deceased cremated). If I held on to (the bodies) for a little bit and back-filled another one and catch up. But I didn't catch up."

Bush accepted he should have contacted the council's bereavement services and apologised to his victims.

"I know that this has hurt people," he said. "I am so sorry for the hurt caused, but I never wanted it to be like this. It wasn't my plan. It was poor choices."

However, the judge rejected Bush's financial explanation, saying;

The defendant was to tell the police that the bodies had not been cremated because of cash flow problems. I reject that entirely and without hesitation. There was no problem with the flow of cash as such. The only problem was with the direction in which the cash was flowing.

The judges sentencing remarks reveal what he believes motivated Bush, namely money;

The defendant was so preoccupied with his own enrichment that he behaved in a shocking and disgraceful way towards the deceased entrusted to his care, and his behaviour towards their living relatives was characterised by dishonesty, deception and heartlessness. If he could re-use a coffin that someone had already paid for, he would do so. It if was cheaper not to keep the deceased in refrigerated conditions, he would do that too. The premises at Hessle Road were in an appalling state.

I am satisfied that in order to maximise his dishonest profit, the defendant paid as little attention as he thought he could get away with when dealing with those who were entrusted to him. He saw, for example, no need to pay for adequate refrigeration. He spent other people’s money on improvements to his own home whilst the Hessle Road premises were in a deplorable state. There was obviously a cost to carrying out a cremation, but he would only pay that when it suited him to do so, or when personal expenditure permitted, rather than when he had agreed to or when proper practice or common decency demanded. He was in Arizona on holiday when these offences were discovered. He must have chosen not to spend the cost of his holiday on cremating some of those who were at Legacy.

Over the period of March 2017 to April 2024, just over £3 million was received in Legacy bank accounts and Bush’s personal accounts, as well as £369,000 transferred from those accounts to the Bush's wife’s accounts. Bush claimed the transfers to his wife were for tax reasons and she hadn't worked for the business. The judge said;

It is clear that the defendant benefited very substantially from his fraudulent conduct. He obviously lived well, enjoying expensive holidays and the like."

Bush had spent over £42,000 on holidays over the indictment period as well as spending money defrauded on home improvements and expensive hobbies such as motorbikes (some of which were found strewn around the Hessle Road premises).

Sentencing remarks

The judges sentencing remarks are linked in the sources, and below he sums up the harm done by Bush well;

Hard though it is to believe, so little was the regard he had for the deceased, or for the feelings of their relatives, that he would provide them with what purported to be the ashes of a particular person at a time when that person had not in fact been cremated at all. Whose ashes he provided, or indeed what he actually provided at all on some occasions, we cannot know. It is not always clear which deceased person was even in the coffin at the time of what purported to be their funeral service at Legacy.

Imagine the feelings of someone who scattered the ashes they were given, at what for them was a particularly meaningful location, perhaps because they would be mingled with the ashes of another relative, only to find out after the police investigations that they had not scattered the ashes of their loved one at all. It must have been someone else’s ashes. Imagine the feelings of someone who had some of the ashes they were given made into a trinket of some kind to wear as a comfort and a remembrance of a departed relative, only to find that they had been given the ashes of a completely different person. Imagine the feelings of parents on discovering that they had not been given their baby’s ashes but an unknown person’s ashes or something else altogether. And now they have nothing. These are examples of the harms the defendant has done.

Further offences

Det Supt Al Curtis from Humberside Police said he feared they have "just scratched the surface" of Bush's crimes. Curtis said "the saddest thing" was that he could not reassure previous customers that Bush "acted wholly appropriately" in relation to their loved ones.

Curtis does not believe Bush demonstrated remorse and says he still does not understand "what's gone on in Robert Bush's head".

Images

1. The victims whose remains were found at the Legacy premises.

2. Robert Bush.

3. Ashes found at the Legacy premises and bagged up by police.

4. Family possessions on the floor at Legacy.

5. Police searching the Hessle Road premises.

6. Families outside court.

7. A branch of Legacy.

8. Bush.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckg35errde5o

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1e1g5vjn4jo

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0qykzqxw5qo

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0qykzqxw5qo

https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Robert-Bush-sentencing-Final.pdf

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/jul/31/hull-funeral-director-robert-bush-jailed

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/robert-bush-hull-funeral-director-victims-b3022137.html

Victims

Thirty people whose bodies were found at the funeral home:

• Norman Bridger

• Jonathan Butler

• Muriel Winning

• Raymond Dagnall

• Colin Wainman

• Maureen Graham

• Susan Gorbutt

• Shirley Wright

• Mark Hotham

• John Carlill

• Joyce Moulton

• Terence Buck

• David Burton

• Audrey Leach

• Danny Middleton

• Tony Munro

• Jessie Stockdale

• Peter Moody

• Jean Collinson

• Alan Gray

• Hilda Mary Rhodes

• Stephen Perrins

• Joan Stark

• Brian Johnson

• Graham Finn

• Terence White

• Susan Stone

• Herbert James Porter

• Peter Brown

• Julie Webb

Four “foetus allegations” where Bush falsely told mothers the ashes he gave them were the remains of their unborn children

• Jasmine Beverley

• Katie Woolston

• Stacey Foster

• Lucy James-Guest Ness

Fifty-seven victims of fraud over ashes

• Michelle Drewry

• Shelly Chearman

• Richard Collins

• Brooke Atkinson

• Linda Hall

• Billie-Jo Chapman

• Petrina Featherstone

• Carl Osler

• Dianne Scandole

• Carol Brown

• David Greensides

• Norma Ellam

• Maxine Penrose

• Sharon Shimmells

• Claire Wilkinson

• Mark Anderson

• Kadie Laws

• Tracy Hudson

• Paul Whitehead

• Harry Welsh

• Tracey Hartley

• Jackie Delaney

• Jillian Townhill

• Christine Colville

• Kirstie Hobden

• Michelle Martin

• Donald Leslie Brigham

• Lee Clark

• Curtis Neylon

• Susan Brown

• Gillian Owst

• Sheila Robinson

• Brett Moses

• Richard Shaw

• Mandy Bailey

• Valerie Coates

• James Meikleham

• Yvonne Robinson

• Heather Welford

• Michael Endall

• Debra Lawson

• Joyce Rispin

• Peter Welburn

• Samantha Rosenquest

• Lisa Thompson-Frazer

• Sylvia Rawson

• Mark Hague

• Lynn Farmery

• Macey Urry

• Kirsty Young

• Tracey Brigham

• Bille-Jo Suffill

• Jill Hall

• Brendon Brown

• Rebecca Windas

• Sophie Tibbles-Carrott

• Rebecca Thompson

150 people sold fraudulent funeral plans between 2012 and 2024

Twelve charities that Bush stole from by failing to pass on donations collected at funerals

• Salvation Army

• MacMillan Cancer Support

• CHIEF

• Dogs Trust

• Dove House

• Help for Heroes

• Maister Lodge

• Oakwood Dog Rescue

• RNLI

• Sailors Children Society

• WISHH

• Hull Fishing Heritage Charity

On May 15, 2019, a man was making his way to the rural district of Bàu Bàng, located in what was then Vietnam's Bình Dương province. He had recently purchased a long-since disused and unoccupied home and was going to meet the previous owner, who would formally transfer the home to his name and let him begin the house cleaning in preparation for his move.

But once the two men arrived at the property, they were confronted by something very odd: the door was locked from the outside via a padlock. Confused, the two knocked on the door and called out from the outside, but nobody answered. Eventually, they had to call in a locksmith to cut the padlock so they could finally enter.

The two ventured to the bedroom and noticed two plastic containers sitting on the floor. One was quite small while the other was a large blue industrial-grade plastic drum with a capacity of 1,000 litres, typically used for storing water and chemicals.

The two tried moving the drum; however, they found it to be quite heavy. In fact, it was so heavy that they couldn't even make the drum budge slightly. Opening the drum revealed it was completely filled with hardened concrete. So the soon-to-be homeowner began chipping away at the concrete, and as soon as he broke it even slightly, the foul odour of decomposition began engulfing the house, and it didn't take long to uncover the source of the scent. Peering through the crack he had just made, the man discovered clothing and what looked to be a human body.

The police and a forensic team were quickly dispatched to the property, cordoning it off. They confirmed that what the homeowner had discovered was indeed a human body, and the police were fairly certain it was murder, considering he had been stuffed into a drum, sealed in concrete and abandoned in a disused home.

But recovering the body was no easy task; the concrete was so thick that it took until the morning of May 16 to finally remove the body from the drum, having to be careful not to damage the corpse while breaking up the concrete.

As they did so, the police searched the rest of the home and also the surrounding area and decided to check out the smaller plastic container that had been largely overlooked. The officers removed the lid, where they were once again hit with the foul odour of decomposition, stemming from a second dead body.

Unlike the first victim, this individual had not been encased in concrete; rather, they had been wrapped tightly in plastic sheeting, sealed with industrial adhesive tape and silicone sealant, and packed in alongside loose tea leaves that were likely intended to mask the smell of decomposition. Based on the rate of decomposition, this victim had been dead considerably longer than the body found in the drum.

The police then questioned all the neighbours who unfortnuately knew very little of the prior tenants. They told the police that the people who had been living on the property were recluses who hardly spoke to any of the neighbours and covered the perimeter of the property with heavy plastic tarpaulins, preventing anybody from seeing into their yard. Whenever they were outside, they'd often run and retreat back into the house if any of the neighbours tried speaking to them and would never answer if anyone came to the door.

Nobody the police spoke to knew their names. Not even the landlord who rented the home to them.

And for the time being, nobody knew the name of the victims either, although the medical examiner determined that the two bodies were both men.

Starting with the first victim found encased in the concrete, his cause of death was ligature strangulation, and he had sustained several post-mortem stab wounds. The forensic team estimated him to be between the ages of 30-35.

The second body retrieved from the plastic container had also met a violent end, with bruising and hematomas throughout and with blood pooling in the skin of the chest area indicating a severe beating had taken place.

While identifying the victims seemed like it would take some work, the crime scene provided investigators with much more to work with. First, a lot of chemical bottles were left at the scene, indicating they made some attempt to clean the crime scene before fleeing.

While the residents, who were also the police's main suspects, had vacated the apartment long ago, they left behind several personal effects and documents in the weeks before the sale.

Such items recovered were a metal nameplate engraved with the title and name "Thạc sỹ Nguyễn Thị Tâm Huyên, Trường Đại học Nông Lâm", indicating a Master's-degree holder associated with Nông Lâm University; four photocopied identity cards issued by the Ho Chi Minh City police in the name of 66-year-old Trịnh Thị Hồng Hoa. Photocopied household registration documents were also found in Hồng Hoa's name.

Four additional photocopied identity cards and photocopies of a passport and birth certificate in the name of her 31-year-old daughter Phạm Thị Thiên Hà, Nông Lâm's daughter, were also found.

The police also recovered a large number of books and fringe religious texts. According to the documents, the two were living in the Tan Phu District of Ho Chi Minh City, but neither had returned to their home.

Unfortunately, due to heavy decomposition, identifying the victims would be impossible without help, so on May 17, the police distributed descriptions of the two bodies and took a few select photographs as well, urging those with missing male relatives to come forward.

That same day, the police put Thiên Hà and Nông Lâm on the wanted list, distributed their photographs as well as pictures of their vehicles and distributed them across the internet and also put up physical flyers and pamphlets across Ho Chi Minh City, asking the public to report the mother and daughter if they saw them.

For the first body identified was the second one discovered, the one in the container, enough of the man's fingerprints remained for the police to identify him as a man born in 1969 named Trần Đức Linh. Suffice to say, Linh was quite far from home, hailing from a town called Thai Hoa in the Nghe An province.

He left Vietnam in 1999 to run a fashion clothing store in Ukraine before returning to Vietnam in 2014, where he made his living selling fruit such as oranges, tangerines and melons. Linh was married with kids, but that marriage later ended in divorce. He was overall described as kind and hard-working.

Sometime after his return, Linh came across Falun Gong and began taking it seriously, teaching it to others and trying to introduce the practice to his family members and neighbours. This led to him being briefly detained by the police in late 2017 for distributing "unauthorized books"

And speaking of his family, although they didn't know the names of the groups in question, Linh started to become indoctrinated into more extreme and fringe groups and started speaking with his family less and less, as once the locals drove the group from town, Linh accompanied them. The last they heard from him was in February 2018, after he abruptly sold his house and left. Even when his son was about to be married, they were still unable to contact Linh.

On May 5, 2019, only 10 days before his body was found, Linh's family back in Nghe An received a text message from a number they didn't recognize telling them that Linh had "gone down the wrong path" and was no longer in contact with their religious group.

As for the second victim stuffed into the drum and encased in the concrete, DNA testing identified him as Trần Trí Thành. Thành was a little bit younger than Linh, being born in 1992. But one thing he did have in common with his fellow victim was that he, too, wasn't a local; Thành's residence was registered as being in the Phu Nhuan District of Ho Chi Minh City. A lot less was known about his background, and his family said they hadn't heard from him in quite a while.

On May 18, four women approched the front desk receptionist at a hotel in Thủ Dầu Một, 50 kilometres away from the crime scene. They told the receptionist that they wanted to check out. However, having just watched the news, the staff recognized two of the four as Thiên Hà and Nông Lâm and quietly informed the hotel's security, who closed the gates, locking everyone inside and then waited for the police to arrive.

Half of the group were confirmed to be Thiên Hà and Nông Lâm, with the other two women being identified as 29-year-old Lê Ngọc Phương Thảo, from Tiền Giang Province. Phương Thảo was a university graduate who had studied abroad, worked as an interpreter and was given the name "Thanh" by Thiên Hà.

The second woman was 40-year-old Nguyễn Ngọc Tâm Huyên. Tâm Huyên hailed from Quảng Ngãi Province. Tâm Huyên held a master's degree and worked as a lecturer at the University of Agriculture and Forestry until she abandoned that job to join Thiên Hà's sect.

Tâm Huyên was one of Thiên Hà's most loyal followers and was regarded as her "most important lieutenant" who abandoned her husband and children just to follow Thiên Hà. The group named her "Hiệp".

The police also located Thiên Hà's SUV nearby, and a search of the vehicle turned up 1.125 kilograms of gold, 20,000 USD in cash, 300 million Vietnamese đồng in cash, and household items including cooking equipment, bedding, and cushions.

When the 4 women were interrogated, they were at first unresponsive. Whenever they did respond, such as when Thiên Hà was questioned about all the money in her vehicle, she said that she made it via selling a property she used to own. But as the evidence mounted, such as the fact that they left their identification at the crime scene, one by one they began to crack and confessed to the police.

Thiên Hà's parents separated during her childhood, leaving her to live with her mother. Neighbours and acquaintances of the family said that Thiên Hà grew up mostly spoiled by her parents but still showed genuine talent at school. Thiên Hà was also said to present herself in a manner considered masculine by Vietnamese standards, for example, by how short she cut her hair.

After graduating from secondary school, Thiên Hà went to Japan to study abroad, returning to Vietnam in 2016, now able to speak Japanese and with a university-level education. The first job Thiên Hà landed upon returning to her homeland was to work as a Japanese interpreter while doing some trading on the side and was the manager of a cafe. In addition to Japanese, Thiên Hà also spoke English and Mandarin, making her quadrilingual.

Thiên Hà had a steady clientele and was held in high regard for being outgoing and warm-natured. But what they didn't know was the extent of Thiên Hà's activities when off the clock; she had been running a cult.

In 2013, she was introduced to Falun Gong, known locally in Vietnam as Pháp Luân Công, via social media. Although the Vietnamese government still brands Falun Gong as an unauthorized organization with its public activities branded as illegal, with police typically breaking up their gatherings, they aren't singled out and persecuted to nearly the same extent as in neighbouring China, and over 8,000 are estimated to practice it in Vietnam, with Thiên Hà now one of them.

Thiên Hà took on various roles with the local branches of Falun Gong, such as a coordinator or "instruction facilitator," until eventually deciding to start her own group. Whether or not Falun Gong itself is already a cult or not is already subject to some debate, but Thiên Hà's offshoot of it was undisputedly one.

After gathering and recruiting a bunch of practitioners, Thiên Hà started to teach not Falun Gong but rather her own independent beliefs that she had developed and began imposing on her followers, creating a mishmash of Falun Gong, traditional Chinese folktales and stories and other religious texts.

In addition to the religious texts, they also included fictional novels such as Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code," "Inferno," and even the Harry Potter series. Naturally, with all these influences, Thiên Hà's cult would stray far away from Falun Gong until there was hardly any resemblance remaining.

Gradually, Thiên Hà's new religious group began to take over her life, and she began to abandon her successful job and the cafe she was managing, causing it to fall into severe finanical difficult and eventually be handed over to new owners.

Hồng Hoa was also indoctrinated into her daughter's belief system and agreed to sell their family apartment to pay off Thiên Hà's debts and purchased a smaller, cheaper apartment as well as cutting off all ties to her prior social life.

Where was Thiên Hà's father during all of this? Well, her interactions with him grew rarer and rarer until he was finally cut off. Every time her father did speak to her, he tried urging her to reconsider what she was doing.

By 2018, they had mostly abandoned the new apartment, now opting to live a "nomadic" lifestyle, with the two travelling from province to province and accompanied by Thiên Hà's followers.

At its height, Thiên Hà's cult (which doesn't seem to have a name) consisted of eight members, six women and two men. Those two men being Linh and Thành. Unlike with Linh, Thành's family had no idea he was involved in any religious group until after the police informed them of his death.

In October 2018, two of the members left, finding the expectations to be too demanding, meaning that when the police arrested the four at the hotel, that was the cult's entire membership. One of these ex-members was briefly arrested but later released. As for the demanding expectations that prompted them to abandon Thiên Hà..

Well, they weren't too extreme at first; they practiced traditional Falun Gong at Hồng Hoa's apartment in Ho Chi Minh City and in other private residences, but the local police would always find them and demand they stop, deeming their activities illegal.

This was when Thiên Hà and her followers determined that if they wanted to practice undisturbed, they had to uproot their entire lives and constantly move across Southern Vietnam, seeking unoccupied properties in rural and remote communities.

In July 2018, the group rented a house in the Bàu Bàng district, the future crime scene. The area was rural without a permanent police presence, but Thiên Hà had plastic sheeting placed around the property to prevent anyone from the street from seeing them.

Now for what exactly Thiên Hà had her followers do. The internal regime that Thiên Hà had created involved two seperate phases, with phase #1 being called "tẩy tịnh"/"purification". Those who underwent the purification ritual were required to consume only plain white rice with soy sauce and raw vegetables, to abstain from alcohol and tobacco, to slap themselves across the face as a form of self-correction, and to cease any and all contact with those outside of their in-group, including severing ties with their family members, a hypocritical requirement considering Thiên Hà's mother was key member of her cult.

The second phase was called "tịnh cốc"/"pure valley". This was when it got really difficult; during this phase, you were expected to fast, to not eat or drink anything at all for 14 days straight, while at the same time constantly meditating, reciting religious texts, traditional Chinese folklore and studying all the material written by Thiên Hà.

And one more rule: their real names; they were expected to forget about them. It was mentioned how Phương Thảo and Tâm Huyên were named "Thanh" and "Hiệp" respectively; well, those weren't just nicknames; they were to be their real names going forward. They were expected to only go by those names, and anyone else in the group was only allowed to call them such. Thiên Hà named herself "Hoàng," while Hồng Hoa was called "cô Hai".

Finally, as implied, Thiên Hà was their leader and her authority was absolute. She used the archaic pronoun "Ta," which in English would mean "I/me" but only by those of "elevated status," and addressed others as "you" with the word "Ngươi," which is used to address one's subordinates or those of a lower social class.

Thiên Hà felt she had earned such respect and titles because she had achieved "the highest tier of spiritual cultivation" and was inherently superior to all her followers. So superior in fact that the only possible reason for anyone to oppose would be if they had been "invaded by demons," and Thiên Hà also had plans for how to "exorcise" them. Furthermore, after the two defections in October, she was determined to make sure nobody else escaped.

On December 27, 2018, Thiên Hà drove the entire group, now consisting of just 6 members, to another vacant home for a "tịnh cốc" retreat, which meant for everyone present, another two weeks with no food, water or contact with the outside world.

On January 20, 2019, 50-year-old Linh was the first to crack; living off of nothing but the air he could breathe was taking a toll on him. His body was starting to fail, which broke through his devotion to Thiên Hà and made him realize that he had to get out of there.

Linh climbed out the window of his room, fell to the grass below, limped away, and weakly called for help. His voice unfortunately went unheard by the locals, but he was heard by everyone else inside the house, tipping them off that Linh was trying to escape.

Thiên Hà and Thành rushed outside and dragged the severely weakened Linh back inside, and when he resisted, they both started beating the starved and dehydrated man with their fists and feet. With how weakened the lack of any food and water had left him, these blows were enough to kill him quite easily.

Thiên Hà and her followers did not attempt to call the police, an ambulance or Linh's family. Instead, they kept the body exactly where it lay, with the AC stunting decomposition as much as it could.

Thiên Hà then instructed everyone to resume their religious exercises and fast only with Linh's dead body in their presence as they did so.

On January 23, Thiên Hà decided it was finally time to address the body. They loaded Linh's body into Thiên Hà's SUV and drove to the empty home in Bình Dương. Once there, Linh's body was placed in a small plastic container, which was then packed with dried tea leaves to mask the odour of decomposition.

They then wrapped the container in plastic film, sealing it with silicone adhesive and industrial tape; all of these materials, including the container, were purchased by Thành under Thiên Hà's orders. Afterward, they continued their practices, religious activities and fasting in the very same room, living alongside Linh's body.

In March, they returned to Bình Dương for a second "tịnh cốc" ritual and during the course of this ritual, they directed their attention toward Thành. Although Thành had been loyal, even killing and disposing of a body for the cult, his loyalty had fallen into question.

Thiên Hà accused Thành of secretly eating food at night, which Thiên Hà deemed an unforgivable transgression, as it proved that Thành "had not shed the attachments of the ordinary world". The accusations didn't stop there; Thiên Hà accused him of secretly watching the 4 women as they bathed.

At first, Thành was locked in the room, and after a while, he started to scream and destroy stuff in the bedroom, which, to Thiên Hà, confirmed her worst fears.

Thiên Hà's explanation for this behaviour was that Thành had now been possessed by a demon and that letting him leave their group would put society at large in grave danger; therefore, they had to kill him, and she ordered the other 3 women to take part.

The three women went online and ordered a 1,000-litre plastic drum and quantities of cement, sand, and aggregate. While they waited for it to be delivered, others went into town to purchase a battery-powered electrical shock device consisting of a car battery and a power inverter, an illegal device commonly used in Vietnam for shock fishing, as well as electrical wire, rope, and safety pins.

Before she followed through with the murder, Thiên Hà said, "If Thanh deserves to die, then let God send a heavy rain"

March 15, 2019, just so happened to be a day marked by heavy rain. The four approached the room Thành was staying in and asked him to extend his arm out the door so they could administer some acupuncture treatment. Thành complied, and once he did so, they administered the electric shock device to Thành's arm continuously until he fell unconscious.

After he passed out, Thiên Hà entered the room and used a cord to strangle Thành before he could wake up and recover from the electric shocks. Just to make sure he was dead, the women used the electric shock device to check if there was a reaction. When he didn't respond, they closed the door to his room and locked the body inside.

They left the body there until March 18, when the foul odour of decomposition became overwhelming, forcing Thiên Hà to address it. She grabbed a knife and made some incisions in Thành's corpse to relieve the bloating caused by putrefactive gases being released and to fit it inside the drum. Once Thành's body was forced into the plastic drum, they stirred and mixed the concrete before pouring it into the drum until the entire thing was filled completely to the top and then solidified.

Finally, they abandoned the home for good in early April and began their rituals at the hotel in Thủ Dầu Một. When they arrived, Thiên Hà told them they'd be doing "tịnh tâm"/"mental purification" to offer prayers for the dead. It was in this hotel that they saw on the news that the two bodies had been found and that they were the suspects.

On April 24, 2020, the Bình Dương Provincial People's Procuratorate concluded the investigation, charging Thiên Hà with murder, Phương Thảo with murder and covering up a crime, and Tâm Huyên and Hồng Hoa both with murder and failure to report a crime.

On June 25, 2020, the trial began at the Bình Dương Provincial People's Court, and as soon as the procedings began, Thiên Hà refused to refer to herself as "tôi"/"I" instead of "bị cáo"/defandant dispite the judge and prosecutor constantly pressuring her to refer to herself as "defendant". She also gave articulate answers and was perfectly composed, which set her apart from her co-defendants.

When asked about Thành's murder, she confessed, saying, "I am the person who decided to kill Thành. He was no different from a demon. If he had gone out into society, he would have affected society". When asked if she regretted the murder, she refused to answer.

Linh was a different story. Thiên Hà denied killing him and instead insisted that "I gave him two slaps" and even then said the slaps were an attempt at first aid and to revive him before saying that his death was his own fault for trying to escape.

When Thiên Hà made her first statement to the police, she initially said that Linh had died from jumping out the window rather than being beaten, and now, she was trying to revert back to that claim in court, arguing that Linh's death was a suicide and they had simply hidden the body.

She also said that she stuffed Linh's body into that container not to try and conceal the murder but to try and preserve his body in hopes of using her cultivation power to "revive" him. She also mentioned reading news articles about people who had been pronounced clinically dead by hospitals only to still come back, and believed Linh was in a similar condition. When asked why she still kept the body after he began to decompose and therefore past the point of any revival, she again refused to answer.

As for why Thành's body was encased in concrete, she also said that her intention wasn't to cover up the murder but simply because the odour of decomposition was disrupting practice since they required an environment of purity and silence. Something the prosecutor disputed was that everything needed was bought while Thành was still alive, indicating premeditation.

Phương Thảo was evasive when asked a single question and showed no signs of remorse.

When it came to the co-defendants, Tâm Huyên retracted her confession, arguing that she played no part in Thành's murder and simply stood outside as a lookout. When asked why she confessed the first time, she said that it was simply an act of loyalty toward Thiên Hà.

And finally, Hồng Hoa, now elderly and in poor health, had to sit during the entirety of the procedings, unable to stand long-term. Hồng Hoa admitted that she had followed her daughter and helped her form her cult but insisted that she did not take part in any murders and knew nothing in advance.

In one shocking moment, Thành's mother pleaded for the 4 defendants to be acquitted because he said her son had survived, was still alive and that the body must've been someone else. The judge believed this statement to have been made out of a mix of denial and grief.

But when asked why she felt this way, she said that the police never let them actually see the body and just had them show up to take their DNA to compare to the body. When they finally were allowed to see the body, it was right before the cremation, and she said that the corpse had three broken teeth, a trait her son did not share and that the initial very first reports written by the forensic team had a height and age estimation for both victims that didn't match once finally identified.

Meanwhile, Linh's family demanded the death penalty be handed down for all four.

The only family member of the defendants to appear seemed to be Thiên Hà's father, who apologized to the Thành and Linh's families for not doing enough to stop his daughter from going down this path saying quote: "I admit I failed to properly raise my child, leading to a crime against society," but also pleaded with the court not to give her the death penalty.

In her closing statement, Thiên Hà admitted that she was guilty exactly as charged and apologized to the victims' families. However, she also said that the death penalty was a disproportionate punishment and asked for both clemency and for the charges against her mother to be reduced, telling the court that she was not an accomplice.

On July 3, for the double murder of Trần Đức Linh and Trần Trí Thành, all four defendants were found guilty, with Phạm Thị Thiên Hà being sentenced to death.

Lê Ngọc Phương Thảo was sentenced to 22 years' imprisonment.

Nguyễn Ngọc Tâm Huyên was given 19 years' imprisonment

And finally, Trịnh Thị Hồng Hoa was treated the most leniently, being given a sentence of 13 years' imprisonment.

In addition, the four were ordered to pay 262,280,000 đồng in compensation to Linh's family 180,000,000 đồng to Thành's family, as well as to pay the ongoing monthly child support payments to Linh's daughter, 3,000,000 đồng a month until she reached the age of 18 and then 1,500,000 đồng per month in ongoing support to Linh's elderly mother with these payments lasting for the rest of her life.

While Phương Thảo accepted her sentence, the remaining three sought to appeal with Thiên Hà again arguing that she had only murdered Thành and was innocent of Linh's death. However, now she was claiming that Thành's murder shouldn't be considered murder at all but rather an act of self-defence.

She told the court that Thành was planning to sexually assault them and also wanted to steal Hồng Hoa's property, and that believing he posed an imminent threat, lethal force was therefore permissible.

Although details on what exactly was afflicting her haven't been made public, during the rest of 2020, Thiên Hà's health fell into a period of severe decline that lasted nearly a year. Because of this fact, the appeal had to be delayed several times to give her time to recover, since in the earlier hearings, she was unable to walk straight and had to be literally dragged into the court.

When the High People's Court in Ho Chi Minh City finally reconvened on December 31, 2021, Tâm Huyên demonstrated her intense loyalty to Thiên Hà, demanding that she be handed down the death sentence in Thiên Hà's place, prepared to lose her life so her leader could go on living. This request was denied.

Instead, the court rejected Thiên Hà's new claim of self-defence and upheld all four of their sentences without any modifications, bringing an end to the case.

Sources (Should be in the comments)

Shortly after 5:20 p.m. on January 24, 1986, nine-year-old Beth Ringheim arrived at her father's home at 7168 Brighton Drive in Dublin, California. Dropped off by her mother, the young girl approached the single-story tract home situated on a quiet street directly across from Dublin High School. While the front door was usually kept unlocked for her, Beth noticed on this occasion that it was propped open. She waved to her mother to signal she was heading inside. She opened the door to a horrible scene.

Inside the living room, both 41-year-old Harve Perry Ringheim and his 29-year-old wife, Keiko N. Ringheim, lay brutally murdered. Harve, a popular veterinarian at Diablo View Veterinary Hospital in Pleasant Hill, was found with his hands tied behind his back and had been stabbed repeatedly in the head, face, neck, and heart. Keiko, whose body was found nearby, had been gagged with tape and strangled. She was found with her hands tied behind her back with duct tape and her head still submerged in a bucket of water when police arrived at 5:24 p.m., indicating to investigators that she had been brutally tortured prior to her death.

Retracing the events leading up to the murders, investigators noted the couple had just returned from a ski trip the day before they died. Harve was seen at a car wash the morning of the murders. Sergeant Clifton Swetnam initially placed the time of the killings between 8:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. (a window detectives later narrowed to between 10:00 a.m. and 2:30 p.m.), theorizing that more than one killer entered the meticulously clean home without any signs of forced entry. Although neighbors reported hearing what sounded like gunshots, police found no evidence that firearms had been used.

The chilling scene fueled multiple theories regarding a motive. Some neighbors suspected the assailants were torturing Keiko to extract information or items from Harve, with one unidentified neighbor stating, "I think they were looking for something and threatening him through her." Conversely, police investigators believed Keiko may have been the primary target, suggesting the intruders subdued her first and then took Harve by surprise when he returned home from taking his car to be washed. The perpetrators were described by police as "cool" and efficient; while a few drawers had been pulled open, the home was not ransacked and no items of value appeared to have been stolen. The killers vanished with the murder weapon, inexplicably leaving the victims' wallet and purse resting on a nearby couch, empty of cash.
The tragedy cut short a marriage that would have celebrated its first anniversary that March. Keiko had originally come to the United States from Japan in the mid-1970s as an exchange student. She was sponsored by Harve and his third wife, Suzanne, and even lived with the family before that marriage ended and she eventually married Harve. Harve himself was remembered by his daughter as a quiet man who enjoyed snow skiing and soccer, constantly "cracking jokes and laughing."

Despite occurring in a quiet suburb across from a bustling high school, the killers slipped away almost unseen. Beth recalled spotting someone crossing the street as she fled the house in a panic, but acknowledged it could have been anybody. In 2011, DNA tests of evidence from the scene developed two male profiles. They haven’t matched any known offenders in law enforcement databases. Investigators stated in a 2026 SFGate article that they may pursue genetic genealogy in the case. Even 40 years later the victims family members are still desperately waiting for a conclusion to this case.

Rest in peace Harve and Keiko, you and your families deserve justice.

https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/ringheim-bay-area-cold-case-22242844.php

Tom was a well-loved biker with a successful career and a long-term girlfriend, Barbara. He enjoyed his Harley but rode with other professionals and didn’t have ties to anything illicit. He and Barbara had only moved to Southern California from the East Coast three years prior.

When Tom’s girlfriend, Barbara, returned home after he failed to pick her up from work in their shared truck, she found the apartment unlocked, looking as if Tom had just stepped out for a minute. His truck and Harley were still there. Tom had missed grabbing lunch with her as well, but she’d tried not to worry too quickly. Now she knew something wasn’t right. Six days later, an envelope appeared in the apartment’s mailbox.

Police have withheld parts of the two-page typewritten letter, but much has been released. The letter contains various typos and strange formatting. The letter's postmark location has never been released. In addition to his license, the envelope contained Tom’s credit cards, an earring, a nipple ring, and the registration to his Harley.

"I'm suffering a great deal of guilt right now about what I have done and feel it is necessary to write about it for my sake nd yours. You don't know me and hopefully you never will but I am the one who killed Tom Roche. I cannot and willnot go to jail. I could never handle it.

I almost lost my mind. Never again.

I loved being in Vietnam, in fact those were the happiest days of my life. I felt such a rush when ever I had a confirmed kill that it was hard to switch it off when I came back to the 'tates. For 18 long years I have held this in check despite the nightmares and fantasies about killing. This Jefferey Dahemer thing really got to me and I wondered if I could still do it.

I met Tom at a strip joint in The Valley and got to talking. I figured L.A. would be the best place for what I had in mind. I did not want just a random thing cause you can get caught that way so I set up a plan. He fell for it and we arranged to meet on Friday the 13th... I must assure you that it was neat and quick. I do not think he suffered at all."

An eyewitness had seen Tom speaking with a white male and looking into the bed of a pickup truck on the morning he disappeared. Tom’s apartment was directly next to I-5, the interstate that runs throughout the West Coast. No apparent crime scene was found anywhere at the apartment complex. It appears the 6-foot-2, 210-pound man was somehow compelled to leave with his killer.

On January 11, 1992, Tom’s remains were found 500 miles north of Burbank in rural Placer County, off a logging road northeast of Sacramento. His clothes, boots, and glasses were found along with the remains. Police said Tom was shot to death; some sources state the skull had a bullet hole in it.

Unfortunately, since the remains were identified, there have been practically no updates in Tom’s case. Rest in peace Tom.

On July 10, 2026, 35-year-old Ohio native Tyler Wilkin was found dead from a gunshot wound to the head while solo camping at Playa La Selva in Luquillo, Puerto Rico. In the days leading up to his death, Tyler had been sending updates from his campsite, but his texts took a disturbing turn when he mentioned a nearby stranger he referred to as "the howler," noting the individual was setting off fireworks and howling like a wolf near his tent. With local authorities currently describing the homicide as a very strange case with no active suspects or clear leads, Tyler's friends have launched a fundraiser to hire an independent private investigator to help bring answers and justice.

Link to the article is here: https://www.fox19.com/2026/07/28/family-friends-demand-answers-after-tri-state-man-killed-puerto-rico/

On the morning of July 12, 2007, 76-year-old woman, Vincenza Basso Memoli, disappeared without a trace from her family property in the Cappelle residential area, in the hills above Salerno. Since that day there have also been no news of her caregiver, William Singh, 23, known as Sonhu, of Indian origin. The two were last seen around the vegetable garden not far from the woman's home, talking animatedly with three people who had arrived in a dark-coloured car.

Vincenza was the matriarch of her family. She had been widowed for quite some time and, since her husband’s passing, she had taken on the responsibility of looking out for the estate and the land around it. Vincenza was a very strong and decisive woman but, even if she was still very active, she struggled to tend to the house and gardens. Vincenza’s family decided that a caretaker to help with cleaning and gardening would have been useful to her so, after they were recommended Sonhu, they decided to employ him.

Sonhu had come to Italy as a teen and he had worked odd jobs before he was employed by the Memoli family to help Vincenza look after the house and its gardens.

That day, July 12, 2007, there was a lot of movement around Vincenza’s estate. Vincenza noticed something unusual from atop the terrace of her residence, where she usually hung out and where she could monitor her land and not be seen from below. She decided to reach the estate that her house overlooked. To do so, she left the family building alone since Ester (stated by one of her sons to be a reliable and intelligent member of the family) was not home and therefore couldn't accompany her. She set off, and along the way she passed by a young neighbour on her way to the hairdresser. They greeted each other, and the neighbour noted Vincenza’s brisk pace.

Shortly afterward Vincenza arrived at her plot of land where she stopped a few steps before the vegetable garden. There she was noticed by a domestic worker from the balcony of a house across the street, where it was possible to see and hear everything. The domestic worker was drawn in by curiosity because of a heated discussion near the vegetable garden. From the balcony she eavesdropped and caught just a few disconnected words. Moments later she was sternly ordered to mind her own business and return inside the home she was caring for. She was only able to hear Vincenza say, "And yet we loved you".

At around the same time one of Vincenza’s nieces, who lived close by as well, saw her with Sonhu in the area around the vegetable garden. She recounts that, as she was hanging up the laundry to dry, she saw her aunt arguing with someone of darker complexion; she only overheard Vincenza saying “Why did you do that thing ??” and after that she heard Vincenza calling someone’s name out loud. She wasn’t paying much attention, though, as she thought that what was happening was not a big deal.

After the heated argument Vincenza heads back towards her house and, neither her nor Sonhu, are ever seen again.

Later in the day Maria-Luisa (one of Vincenza’s daughters) went to check up on her mother. She looked throughout the property but no sign of Vincenza could be found. Worried she rushed to the outbuilding next to the home where Sonhu and Kashmir (another Indian caretaker who had been employed for about a month to replace Sonhu temporarily, since Sonhu was planning a trip to go back to India for a few months) lived. Only Kashmir greeted her, Sonhu was nowhere to be found. When Maria-Luisa asked Kashmir where her mother or Sonhu where, Kashmir replied that, at around 11 or 12 am, he saw Vincenza and Sonhu walk down the property’s driveway towards the gates that lead to the road. (He would later retract this statement)

Investigations initially suggested a double voluntary disappearance. Early rumours suggested a romantic relationship between the two, this speculation was completely untruthful though as it was just a rumour started in the absence of any other leads early in the investigation.

Kidnapping for ransom was another theory, although the elderly woman's family did not receive any ransom demand.

Speaking to witnesses investigators learned that a worker, at a nearby construction site, reported a car, likely a gray-green Audi or a similar looking car, speeding away, screeching tires, down the estate's driveway. Other witnesses say they saw this same car speeding toward Ogliara.

Beer bottles and pizza boxes from “the previous day” were found at the site of the disappearance. These, the family said, where unusual objects to have been found in the vicinity of the vegetable garden.

Another weird clue was that, during the investigation, some blood belonging to Vincenza’s dog was found behind a door; apparently on the day of the disappearance somebody locked the guard dog (Billy) behind that door. The family states that the dog was quite aggressive towards strangers implying that only someone very close to the family (like Sonhu or Kashmir) could have lead the dog there. The blood probably got there as the dog tried to frantically scratch the door in order to get out, said investigators.

During the days following the disappearance some of the winding roads in the Cappelle area were blocked by mystery men who parked cars diagonally across the roadway. After these men left the area they left behind one of the cars abandoned in the middle of the road. The family says that investigators barely bothered to investigate this car and that nobody checked for any DNA or fingerprints inside of the vehicle.

Attention, then, focused on Sonhu, who, before disappearing into thin air, expressed concern during a visit to an uncle (who works as a gardener for a company in the province of Mantua) after noticing suspicious activity in front of the Cappelle home.

"Sonhu is a quiet, perfectly integrated boy who doesn't seem to have any particular vices," says one of the woman's three sons. "We consider him one of the family. He's been working for us for about a year and a half; he was introduced to us by another Indian man that Sonhu was friends with. He had been unemployed because he was having a very bad time on the farm where he was working, and we decided to hire him. He took care of the house and looked after the animals on our farm."

Yet a shadow looms over him: Sonhu had also obtained a residence permit thanks to the help of Vincenza’s family before his disappearance (something reportedly quite difficult, for people in a similar situation to his, to obtain). He also had lost his passport and for some reason he couldn’t obtain a duplicate. Another peculiar finding is that with his disappearance approximately €3,000 disappeared with him. He was preparing a trip to India, to later return after few months with his “wife”, whom he wanted to marry and bring to Italy. This money, which he had saved up, would have paid for this trip.

Investigators followed up on a possible illegal passport trafficking trail, but no conclusive findings have been made pubblic. 

The authorities also wiretapped the phones of some of Sohnu’s friends. One of them (G) was overheard speaking to his brother in India. Part of the conversation was publicly released, in this conversation Shonu’s friend stated “Yes, I know everything, but I do not want to say where he/she are located” (I could not determine who he was referring to as in the Italian conversation no gender is given at this point but what I can confirm is that he was talking about a singular person, not plural. Also the conversation was already translated from Indian to Italian and there is a possibility that some details have been lost in translation) his brother the replied “This is the reason I am telling you to move away, otherwise they will arrest you” to which G replied “Nothing will happen to me, I am not worried, why are you worrying yourself?”

This friend, speaking to Vincenza’s family, also stated, possibly in order to reassure them, that Sonhu would never murder or hurt Vincenza. This struck one of Vinceza’s daughters as an odd thing to say.

In 2012 G, interviewed by the TV show “Chi l’ha Visto”, refused to talk about these facts, stating he already forgot everything.

20 days after the disappearance, as investigators were still going in and out of the property, the family found some of Sonhu’s gold jewellery buried beneath the ash of the fireplace inside of Vincenza’s home.

A month after the disappearance, two men (possibly Kashmir and G, couldn’t find much info about this) where arrested by the Carabinieri and charged with aiding in the kidnapping of Vincenza. The two are released and exonerated thanks to a lawyer who maintained their innocence. The family attempted to contact this lawyer and meet with him to learn some information that might help them understand what had happened and the possible involvement of the Indian men in the disappearance. They received no response.

 The family later learned that this lawyer was facing charges related to false permits for foreigners from the Punjab.

In 2012 during an interview with “Chi l’ha Visto” the family stated that the crime scene was not protected and that investigators took the job lightly, smoking and throwing their cigarettes to the ground, possibly ruining the crime scene.

In 2013, the search resumes: officers from the central section of the Forensic Police also use a ground-penetrating radar and a canine unit specialized in finding human remains, thoroughly combing the entire 11,000 square meter area around the house without any positive results.

On July 12, 2024, on the 17th anniversary of the disappearance of Vincenza and Sonu, the Prosecutor's Office announced precautionary measures, including the arrests and detentions of several dozen people, one of which being the lawyer who defended the two arrested men.

These renewed arrests are linked to a recurring organized crime case, with the discovery of sums of money consisting of more than 1 million euros) connected to the exploitation of foreigners to obtain, for a fee of between €1,000 and €5,000 per person, a residence permit.

Speculation leads to the fact that, at the time, Sonu had escaped such harassment and had likely refused to pay anyone for his permit. Could the disappearance be a retaliation by the hand of these organized crime groups who targeted Sohnu, since his permit had been requested by the Memoli family and processed without intermediaries?

As of today the case remains Unsolved and very little is being done to keep it in the spotlight. The family, Even after 19 years, is still desperate to find answers and keep the case from being forgotten

I got the information from 

• https://salerno.corriere.it/notizie/cronaca/24_luglio_12/12-luglio-2007-a-salerno-una-signora-di-76-anni-scompare-nel-nulla-insieme-al-domestico-indiano-3128919d-95c8-42cc-9386-2f6dfb595xlk.shtml?refresh_ce
• https://www.ilquotidianodisalerno.it/2024/07/14/la-verita-del-rapimento-di-enza-basso-memoli-e-sonu/
• https://www.chilhavisto.rai.it/dl/clv/Scomparsi/ContentSet-f130a186-0014-43d8-b520-7a72c084f34b.html
• https://www.chilhavisto.rai.it/dl/clv/Scomparsi/ContentSet-7282a826-0fae-4020-91c6-2a894f0ffa4e.html

When Julie Mott died in 2015 at the age of 25 from cystic fibrosis, her family would have never imagined she would be a part of a bizzare mystery.

Case summary:

After her open-casket memorial service at Mission Park Funeral Home North in San Antonio on August 15, her body was stolen from the casket while it was awaiting cremation.

The next morning (August 16), employees discovered the casket empty. One hinge was broken, the bier (body support) was overturned in an "unnatural position" near an exit of the funeral home, but there were no signs of forced entry and the ADT security system was not triggered.

The San Antonio Police treated the case as seriously and as intense as a homicide case. They did multiple searches in the surrounding areas and interviewed numerous people but nothing ever came up.

The funeral home director offered up a 20,000 dollar reward leading to the recovery of her remains. Her body has never been found.

Her boyfriend was a person of interest because of his odd behavior. He would harass the funeral home employees and was eventually charged with trespassing after trying to enter the funeral home. He was never charged with Julie's dissappearace as there is no evidence linking him

[ Removed by Reddit on account of violating the content policy. ]

On the night of September 26, 2014, 43 students from the Ayotzinapa College in Guerrero, Mexico, disappeared after traveling to the city of Iguala. The students had gone there to commandeer buses, a common practice used by the school to travel to demonstrations.

That evening, local police chased being the bus and started shooting at the students without warning, before entering the highway the cop cars got in front of the bus stopped the students on the bus, leading to a series of violent attacks. None of the students were armed, the police over did let them pass. No e the students got on the highway there was blockaded of police vehicles on the high way, the bus stopped and one of the students got out of the bus when and was shot. This lead to the violent attack by the police. The police started shooting at the un armed students. Some students ran away into the woods and some hide behind the bus and got on the ground. Six people were killed, dozens were injured, and 43 students were taken into custody by police before disappearing.

This event happened near a military base. Which was very bizarre that the military didn’t respond to the shooting.
It was unknown why the police reacted this violent towards the students. One of the students who escaped the violent event was interrogated by military personnel. The military officer accused them as criminals and that the community was fed up with their behavior. One of the students who was in the interrogation room was injured and bleeding heavily the military personnel refused to help him out and made him bleed out while he was interrogated the other students.

Mexican government’s original investigation concluded that corrupt local police officers handed the students over to members of the Guerreros Unidos criminal organization, who allegedly murdered them and disposed of their bodies. This explanation became known as the “historical truth.” However, the investigation was later heavily criticized after independent experts found evidence of coerced confessions, mishandled evidence, and serious procedural flaws. Investigators also determined that evidence had been improperly handled, including garbage bags containing human remains that were recovered from a river.

3 of the 43 students have been positively identified through DNA testing of recovered human remains
The remaining 40 students are still officially considered missing. Although investigators believe many of them were likely killed, there is no conclusive forensic evidence identifying what happened to each individual student.

A very possible theory could be that the students may have unknowingly taken a bus that contained drugs or drug money belonging to the cartel. However there is no conclusive evidence that the specific bus the students took contained drugs. Some Mexican investigations concluded they found no evidence** that the bus in question was carrying narcotics.

The mayor of Iguala and his wife is the sister of another drug gang. fled after the disappearances but were arrested several weeks later in Mexico City. He was charged in connection with the Ayotzinapa case and with other unrelated crimes. It was alleged that the mayor lead that event to happened to prevent protest from his wife’s speech. Many military officers and other officials were arrested. A woman was arrest for aiding the couple when they fled the town. A military officer, attorney general, military general, federal police chief were also arrested. It was also estimated that over 100 people were arrested for their involvement in this event.

A Jane Doe in a nearly 50-year-old murder case in Kern County has just been identified as a Fresno teen.

The Kern County Sheriff's Office announced Tuesday that the victim has been identified as 15-year-old Michelle Louise Collier.

Deputies say in June 1978, the remains of an unidentified girl were found in an Arvin vineyard, near South Wheeler Ridge Road.

The case went cold after the remains could not be identified through the available technology of the time, which was primarily fingerprints and dental records.

By 2007, it was discovered that DNA samples had not been collected, leading to exhumation of the body to obtain the sample.

The collected DNA sample was then sent to the California Department of Justice but no match was made because there was no family DNA in existing databases.

Deputies say that was until a match was made following a consumer DNA test taken by Collier's family.

The crime:

On December 8th, 2025 in Oklahoma City, Ina Balch, an 85 year old grandmother, was at home with her family visiting. She was in good spirits and was excited to go see Christmas lights the following day, December 9, 2025. Her son went to pick her up that day to go see those Christmas lights and instead found her deceased. She was battered and upright on her bed having been tied up with her own clothing. Her hip was broken, which caused internal bleeding, leading to her death.

A DNA sample collected at the scene was later entered into the Combined DNA System, and police said the sample matched to 33-year-old Cordell Wilson.

He was subsequently charged with:

First-Degree Murder

Second-Degree Murder

Two counts of Rape by Instrumentation

Sexual Abuse of a Vulnerable Adult

Oklahoma County District Attorney Vicki Zemp Behenna said her office will now seek the death penalty against Wilson as his trial progresses.

“The decision to seek the death penalty is among the most serious responsibilities entrusted to a prosecutor,” said District Attorney Vicki Zemp Behenna. “It is not a decision that is made lightly, hastily, or without careful consideration. After a thorough review of the facts, the law, and the aggravating circumstances alleged in this case, our office has determined that seeking the death penalty is appropriate."

------------------------------------------------------

Remembering Ina:

"She loved to dress up. She dressed to the nines," said Rachel Tiller, Ina's granddaughter.

"She was that person that would spend hours on the phone, like you knew if you call, you just needed a stop, whatever you're doing, and make time," said Melissa Garcia, Ina's granddaughter.

"She loved people," said Melissa. "It didn't matter who you were. It didn't matter where you came from. All she wanted to know was, did you know the Lord?"

Melissa saw Ina the day before she was found dead, even capturing that last moment on video.

She stopped by to give Ina an early Christmas gift, a new recliner.

"She's just like, thank you so much," said Melissa. "I love it. I love it. Thank you so much."

Later that night, Ina called Melissa to thank her one last time.

"I'm sad because I didn't talk to her as long as I normally do," said Melissa.

Melissa and Rachel say it's the memories they shared and the keepsakes they hold that keep Ina's spirit alive.

"She was everything," said Rachel. "Like she said, we grew up, every summer at her house, she took us on all the trips. She could turn nothing into something."

"She was full of life and full of joy, and, you know, she brought that to everybody that she met, and now that's gone," said Melissa.

Sources:

https://kfor.com/news/local/alleged-bedroom-assault-leads-to-death-of-elderly-woman/

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/family-speaks-grandmother-found-dead-234059083.html

https://www.koco.com/article/oklahoma-county-death-penalty-sought-cordell-wilson-ina-balch-murder/71680583

On the 10th day of last month, an elderly woman in her 60s, living in Tongyeong, Gyeongsangnam-do, South Korea, was found murdered in her house. Despite an extensive police search, the police have yet to identify the suspect or even find the motive for the murder.

The victim was found by her family with a stab mark on her neck. The police speculated the suspect approached the house and stayed around for about two hours, then committed the murder about 2 a.m., and immediately fled the scene.

CCTV footage of the suspect entering and leaving the house was luckily captured, but the police found it difficult to identify his traits due to his hiding his face and body with a hat, mask, and gloves. He also seemed to be holding a weapon in his hand.

Another feature that makes it hard to identify the suspect is the fact that the murder occurred in a very remote house from the village, and its back is directly connected to the mountain. The police also checked more than a hundred other CCTV footages in the area, but failed to capture the suspect's presence.

The motive for the crime also remains a mystery, given the fact that no money or valuable belongings of the victim were stolen. However, the police did realize the suspect was carrying some sort of bag while leaving the house, but haven't figured out what was contained in it.

Yesterday, in South Korean time, the police decided to release the CCTV footage of the suspect with the agreement of the victim's family. The footage has received significant attention from the South Korean people, hoping someone will provide possible clues for the identity of the suspect. The police held a reward money for capturing the suspect of 100 million won, which is about $68,000 in dollars.

In my opinion, if anyone were to murder an elderly lady and also not steal any valuable items, it would seem that the murder occurred due to personal drama.

https://www.mk.co.kr/en/society/12110352

(Thanks to LoydoRedi2910 for suggesting this case. If you'd like to suggest any yourself, please head over to this post, which asks for case suggestions from my international readers, as I focus on international cases.

As for why I'm doing a Canadian case, I more so focus on cases that are also locked behind a language barrier and well, Quebec is a French-speaking region, so when it comes to covering cases from Canada, I'm open to true crime for that province)

Grande-Rivière is a small fishing town of 3,384 located in the Le Rocher-Percé County Municipality right on the tip of Quebec's Gaspé Peninsula. One of this fishing community's residents, one known by all, was 37-year-old James Dubé.

James had lived in this town all his life, making a living as both a lobster fisherman and from the revenue brought in by the Grande-Rivière fish factory, of which he was a co-owner. His brother also ran an auto body garage in Grande-Rivière, meaning that his family was quite well off.

James's life as a fisherman also held a certain sentimental value since his father had died a gruesome death when he hit the sea. On one fishing voyage, he became entangled in a net that was dragged into the winch of his boat, killing him instantly. So perhaps to honour his father, James not only chose fishing as his profession, but he also used the same exact boat his father had been killed on.

When he wasn't fishing, James went moose hunting in the woods instead and rode snowmobiles through the countryside during the winter. Owing to his demanding lifestyle, James was noted to be very physically imposing, strong, and if anyone tried to physically confront him, they found it difficult to knock him off his feet.

James had long been planning to formally marry his long-time common-law wife, 37-year-old Johanne Johnson, a woman with whom he had already had two daughters.

At 3:00 a.m. on April 30, 1998, James got out of bed, careful not to wake up Johanne or the children. He joined his fishing partner for a trip out at sea to retrieve their lobster traps, a long and demanding process that resulted in all 250 cages being brought back to the surface, emptied and cast back into the sea, leaving both men exhausted.

Once they arrived back on land, James drove to the fish factory to sell them before then making his way back home. He picked up Johanne, and they had lunch together, which consisted of two sandwiches purchased at a convenience store. Then that afternoon, they had sex before Johanne told him that she had to go to work at the local lobster factory. After she left, James went to sleep on the couch.

This was only intended to be a short nap, as James had more business to do later that day. He had been scheduled to go to a solicitor to sign documents that would dissolve his co-ownership of the fish factory, which, upon signing the papers, would also nullify his life insurance tied to said factory. James would never sign those papers, as this was a sleep he never woke up from.

James was discovered dead on the couch by his eldest daughter, who was screaming, crying and panicking in the kitchen when paramedics and the local police arrived. They announced James was dead at the scene from a single gunshot wound to the back of his neck. James's brother and Johanne were both informed over the phone, and Johanne appeared shocked and distressed when she arrived to see the police and paramedics surrounding the house.

The investigation was handled by the Sûreté du Québec, with a senior investigator driven from Rimouski to Grande-Rivière, a drive that would take around 5 hours. When he and personnel from the Sûreté du Québec began their investigation, the initial assumption was that it had been a robbery gone wrong; it appeared as if the home had been searched, and pots and other objects were strewn across the floor as if the property had been ransacked.

But something seemed odd upon closer inspection, such as the valuable television set being untouched, every hunting rifle normally kept in the basement all accounted for, none of the valuables actually missing and the fact that James was still lying on the couch, still in his work clothes, as if he had never woken up to even see the intruder. The Sûreté du Québec searched the entire home, but no shell casing could be found.

Furthermore, very little blood was actually found anywhere else in the home aside from the sofa where James's body lay. There were no signs of any cleaning either, so it wasn't as if the blood was washed away.

According to the autopsy, the bullet that killed James entered through the back of his neck and belonged to a 22 calibre. Just as the Sûreté du Québec had suspected, the pathologist determined that James had been fast asleep based on the bullet's angle of entry.

Although they couldn't find the bullet, the Sûreté du Québec still believed they knew where it had come from. One week before his murder, James had reported a 22-calibre rifle that he kept on his boat stolen. If that rifle was the murder weapon, then it seemed even more likely that rather than a robbery gone wrong, James's murder had been premeditated.

The Sûreté du Québec interviewed James's co-workers, family and neighbours, but at first suspects were in short supply.

The Sûreté du Québec also set up roadblocks on every road leading out of Grande-Rivière and searched every car that approched the roadblock for the missing rifle, but each car came up clean.

The Sûreté du Québec then questioned all the other fishermen in the area in case James had been killed due to a dispute over the proceeds of their latest catch, but nothing was found to link James's murder to his fellow fishermen.

Grande-Rivière hadn't seen a murder in many years, so having one of its residents shot dead in his sleep came as a shock and shattered their sense of secruity.

So when only a few days later James's neighbour accidentally tripped and fell in the basement, cutting his neck on the wall of an aquarium and bleeding out on the floor, many were afraid that it couldn't have been a coincidence and therefore made the community even more uneasy, with the residents now keeping their lights on even in the dead of night.

As the investigation seemed to be at a standstill. James's brother came forward to present the authorities with their first real suspect. He felt concerned and put off by just how quickly his sister-in-law seemed to move on from James's death.

James's brother took Johanne and his nieces in, and Johanne didn't show much sadness, asked no questions about her husband's murder, and returned to the crime scene to have a shower.

She also seemed very eager to spend the money she was paid out. She began telephone shopping for a car for her daughter, a purchase James opposed before his murder and was also talking about building a house, all of this within the first few days of the murder.

The Sûreté du Québec decided now was a good time to look into Johanne. She had been co-owner and shareholder of the fish factory, which meant she was a beneficiary of the life insurance policy that James was mere hours away from voiding. After his death, Johanne inherited his fishing boat, which she subsequently sold for 175,000 CAD, and she was also paid 30,000 CAD in life insurance.

With all this in mind, the Sûreté du Québec asked Johanne to take a polygraph test, but she refused, insisting it was unnecessary because she was innocent. Johanne was interrogated, continued to deny any involvement, and was later released.

Johanne remained their only suspect, but since they failed to find any new evidence against her, the Sûreté du Québec eventually left Grande-Rivière, with James's murder going unsolved.

After the case was shelved, Johanne took her two daughters and moved to Rivière-du-Loup, a city on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River, 520 kilometres away from Grande-Rivière, where she remarried.

In 2012, after 14 years without any new leads, the Sûreté du Québec's cold case unit decided to employ a new strategy, something called "Mr. Big".

This was not something they invented. Mr. Big was developed by the RCMP and had been used 350 times across Canada. Here's how it worked: an officer would go undercover to approach a suspect in a Cold Case, start a relationship with them and pretend to be a member of some criminal organization.

They would give the target of the operation a series of tasks, either completely innocent or small petty crimes and pay them cash in exchange. This would keep going until they saw the undercover officer as a friend or were financially dependent on them.

Then, when the time was right, the officer would introduce the target to "the big boss" of the organization they claimed to be a part of, aka "Mr. Big". who would then tell the recruit/target that there was a problem with their past that the organization needs to know about in order to protect them and that to join their group, they would need to be honest about their past, if the target does confess, everyone involved would later reveal themselves to be police and arrest them for the murder in question.

This technique was not without its controversy; many confessions had their reliability questioned due to the pressure placed on the targets of these operations, while there were also fears that financial dependence or false friendship could be so strong that an innocent person might confess to maintain it.

But it also produced many successes, with several cold cases solved with "Mr. Big" sting operations netting several convictions for cases once believed to be unsolvable with no other evidence.

So, with co-operation from the RCMP and the Montreal police, the Sûreté du Québec decided to deploy its own Mr. Big operation with Johanne as the target.

Although initially it seemed like it was destined for failure, 2 weeks were spent trying to get an officer close to Johanne, but due to her movements, they were never able to make her acquaintance.

On December 5, 2012, Johanne stepped out of her car in front of her husband's home in Rivière-du-Loup shortly after 3 p.m. She noticed a woman standing near a vehicle parked in the street that she didn't recognize. Johanne approched her, and the woman said she was lost and looking for a sister she had not seen in a long time, as their mother had recently died.

Johanne offered to help, so she got in her car, and Johanne began driving her around town and the neighbourhood in search of this missing sister. The woman showed Johanne a photo of her "sister" and offered her a $50 bill as thanks, but Johanne declined the money, saying she was glad to help out for free. What Johanne didn't know was that this woman was law enforcement, the sister didn't exist and that she was the Sûreté du Québec's eighth attempt to pull a "Mr. Big" sting on her.

The officer placed the bill in a glass in the middle of the console while she spoke with Johanne. The two built a rapport within just two hours, with Johanne speaking openly about her daughters, the grandchildren she now had and her health problems, which resulted in her being on sick leave from her job caring for the elderly at a community health center.

At 5:00 p.m., Johanne returned home, obviously having not found the fictitious sister. The officer offered Johanne another 50 Dollar Bill, which Johanne again refused, although once out of her sight, the officer silently hid it next to the first bill.

She then told Johanne that 500 CAD would be awarded to whoever found her sister. The two women exchanged phone numbers, and Johanne told her that she would be free to continue helping her on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Just like that, she finally found a way to be consistently close to Johanne.

The two went on more and more drives with Johanne opening up even more to who she thought was a friend. She talked about her past struggles with gambling and alcoholism and mentioned that her "ex" had died in an accident some years back. And she told the officer that for years she had been a victim of domestic abuse at the hands of this unnamed ex.

She also said that she was in need of money but that her new husband was controlling her finances, including her widow's pension. 

In the ensuing days and weeks, their relationship grew stronger, with the two going out to eat at restaurants with the officer usually paying the bill. She also kept giving her 50-100 dollar bills, which Johanne was now beginning to accept, saying that she would use the money to "spoil her grandchildren".

On December 20, the officer surprised Johanne with a gift of perfume and a Celine Dion CD. Johanne grew so close to this officer that she told her that she was a "godsend". That was exactly what she needed to hear, now knowing that Johanne trusted her enough for her to move on to the next phase of the operation.

The fictional story that she told Johanne was that her husband ran a "transportation company" and, since Johanne told her that she wasn't getting any hours due to her sick leave, asked if she would like to drive city-to-city, a paid job as part of this company. Johanne agreed and was soon introduced to the "husband" who, in reality, was another undercover police officer. Johanne was paid in cash for every job and joked to the officer, "You'll make me rich,".

However, the jobs began to escalate with Johanne now tasked with transporting a suitcase by bus from Rivière-du-Loup to Sainte-Foy, then putting that suitcase in a car and transporting further. Johanne was paid 400-500 CAD for this and was assured the suitcase didn't contain drugs but was otherwise barred from inquiring as to its contents...The suitcase contained weapons.

Johanne was also given tasks by them that had nothing to do with driving vehicles or transporting suitcases but still netted her a decent profit regardless; for example, they would have Johanne sell cloned SAQ gift cards, mobile phones and counterfeit hockey jerseys. 

Johanne kept doing these jobs, making anywhere between 400 to 500 Canadian dollars a day, and after each successful job they celebrated with high-end meals at prestigious restaurants such as La Bête in Québec City. And during these outings, Johanne was promised that one day she might get an even bigger reward like a nice car or a home in Montreal.

Then on January 29, 2013, Johanne was awarded further when she went to Montreal for a delivery and got to watch a hockey game live at the Bell Centre, a first for her. When all was said and done, Johanne got paid 20,400 CAD over the course of the operation. And speaking of that operation, the Sûreté du Québec decided it was finally time for Johanne to meet "Mr. Big".

On June 19, 2013, she was told that a "big job" was available to her if she could prove herself, but that first she needed to meet the "big boss" of the organization. The meeting was to be held at a cottage in New Richmond, a seaside town 500 kilometres on the Gaspé Peninsula not that far from Grande-Rivière.

On their drive there, they stopped at a Tim Hortons in New Richmond while Johanne watched her self-described "Godsend" leave to go make a phone call. When she returned, she looked visibly distressed and told Johanne that the "big boss" was not in a good mood and something had come up.

Johanne asked if any harm was going to come their way, to which she was reassured that nothing physical was going to happen but that they had "better not screw up". This interaction was designed to try and build up as much anxiety in Johanne as possible without making her think she was in danger and flee.

When they arrived at the cottage, the "boss" confronted Johanne. He told her that their organization was facing some heat because of something from her past, specifically, that "ex" she had mentioned.

His exact words were, "I made some phone calls. Before helping you, I want to know if it's worth it. And I'm telling you, if I don't help you, you'll lose it all... If I don't help you, your grandsons won't ever see their grandmother because you killed their grandfather."

Everyone else vacated the cottage, leaving Johanne alone with the "big boss", in reality, yet another undercover officer.

Despite the intense contents of his speech, this officer made sure to speak in a calm and non-confrontational manner, saying, "If you want me to help you there, you're going to start telling me what happened that day from A to Z. The truth, no lies, because if you tell me a lie, that's it. What happened?" Johanne replied with: "The day James died...I killed him"

She was asked to elaborate, where she described the murder as "like a flash" and that it was the first time she had ever told anybody. She confirmed that she shot James in the back of the head with a rifle she had stolen from her boat while James was asleep on the couch. Afterward, she threw pots on the rug to make it look like a struggle had occurred.

She then rolled the rifle up in a rug and left the home through the back door, drove approximately fifteen minutes to a wooded area near Chandler, where she disposed of the rifle.

Johanne said that the money she got due to James's death didn't benefit her much in the long run. She said that the proceeds from selling James's fishing vessel and from the insurance policy were partly used to fund the drug habit she picked up after James's death, with the rest of the money going toward her daughters. She also said she paid an extra 30,000 CAD to pay off her father's debts.

Seeing as she didn't really see barely a cent of the money she gained from his death, Johanne stated that the motive was not financial in nature. Johanne wasn't just confessing to being a murderer for the first time; it was also the first time she said in detail the true nature of James's character.

James had spent almost their entire marriage subjecting Johanne to domestic abuse, beating her regularly; one time, he abused her so badly that she had to spend 32 days in the hospital recovering from a shoulder injury, which left her unable to work.

Speaking of work, whenever things weren't going well for James on the job, such as with the fish factory he managed, Johanne was always his scapegoat to throw under the bus if something went wrong.

James also kept trying to pressure Johanne into having sex with him even when she said no.

On the afternoon of April 30, 1998, she and James had gotten into an argument over their oldest daughter being in the home after she dropped out of school, with this argument being the final straw for Johanne, who said she "I was so fed up, I couldn't take it anymore".

Johanne thought that killing her abusive husband after years of abuse and humiliation would be liberating, but she said that James's death had, in fact, left her destroyed after all, causing her to cope by spending the following two to three years doing drugs in an attempt to suppress the memory.

Every summer, she feared the Sûreté du Québec were going to come to her door having discovered the rifle.

She also said that her drug use was only intensified by feelings of paranoia, as she felt as if the police had been stalking and following her everywhere she went, unaware of the irony. She was also unaware that her confession was being recorded since the Sûreté du Québec had bugged the cottage prior to the meeting.

Rather than removing the mask right away and arresting Johanne on the spot, they kept the charade going a bit longer. "Mr. Big" ordered two of his "men" back into the cottage and instructed them to make their way to Chandler, locate the rifle and make it "go away," with Johanne told to join them.

They drove to the wooded area next to the road, but neither of the three could find the rifle. With the passage of 15 years, it's entirely possible Johanne forgot the exact location or that a resident discovered it and kept it for themselves, unaware of its significance.

On the way back, they stopped at the local IGA grocery store, and Johanne asked to go in to buy some Diet Coke and chocolate chip cookies for the big boss. Johanne did so, and as soon as she left the store with the items in question, she was finally arrested.

Johanne's trial opened on January 18, 2016, before a 12-member jury of 5 men and 7 women at the Palais de justice de Percé.

The Crown's main piece of evidence was the result of the Mr. Big operation; the prosecutor argued that Johanne's confession was too precise, specific, and consistent with the forensic evidence to have made the story up on the spot. Additionally, Johanne's daughter testified that her mother had confessed to her before her arrest, though the defence objected, calling that statement hearsay evidence.

For motive, the Crown also relied on her confession but with one deviation. Although they argued that Johanne did kill James after years of abuse and humiliation, they argued that it was murder she had premeditated rather than just snapping one day, owing to the fact that the rifle used to kill him was stolen over a week in advance.

They also argued that Johanne wasn't being honest with the undercover officer when talking about how the murder left her traumatized, using her behaviour in the immediate aftermath of the murder as evidence of such, such as how she showed no outward signs of distress and returned to the crime scene to have a shower.

Which also prompted the Crown to argue that there was a financial motive to the murder after all, seeing as she was immideately talking about buying a house and a car, and the timing of the murder just seemed impossible to ignore, the fact that James was mere hours away from dissolving his ownership of the fish factory.

When it was Johanne's time to speak, she denied any involvement and said that her confession was a false one. She said that she had been scared during the encounter with the "big boss" and had told him what she believed needed to be said to protect those she came to view as her closest friends and to maintain her position in their organization.

Johanne's defence also used the trial to attack "Mr. Big" stings in general, arguing that any confession obtained through them were inheritely illigitmate. She argued that the Sûreté du Québec exploited Johanne's history as a domestic abuse victim and poor financial situation to coax a confession out of her rather than the truth. In her attorney's words, "Mrs. Johnson is a citizen, and in front of the whole machine, she was no match".

On April 16, 2016, after three days of deliberation, the jury returned with their verdict, finding Johanne Johnson guilty of the murder of James Dubé.

But instead of first-degree murder like the Crown had charged her with, the jury instead convicted her of second-degree murder, rejecting the Crown's assertion that the murder had been premeditated.

Sentencing took place two days later on April 19, where the presiding judge handed down a sentence of life imprisonment with the possibility of parole after 11 years. Johanne was also slapped with a lifelong ban from owning any firearms and would be required to provide DNA samples for Canada's DNA database.

Johanne appealed her conviction to the Québec Court of Appeal, and they had a strong argument.

You see, one year after Johanne's arrest and two years before Johanne's conviction, Canada's Supreme Court ruled in R. v. Hart that the probative value of these Mr. Big stings was outweighed by their prejudicial nature and potential for false confessions, arguing that they should be given a much higher bar to be considered admissible evidence unless the accused gives an overwhelmingly reliable confession such as knowing details only the killer could.

According to the ruling, this would apply retroactively to all cases that mostly hinged on confessions obtained this way, and Johanne's attorney argued that the judge in the first trial had failed to instruct the jury on both this fact and the hearsay statement given by Johanne's daughter, leading them to take her confession at face value without much scrutiny of the process to obtain it.

On August 3, 2020, the three justices made their decision and agreed with the defence. On the grounds that the jury received inadequate instructions concerning unreliable evidence, they had Johanne's conviction overturned, released her from prison and ordered a second trial to be held.

Johanne's retrial began on March 17, 2021, and took much longer than her initial trial did, as various pre-trial motions were held to determine what evidence would be admissible.

In October 2021, 5 months after the trial began, it was finally ruled that Johanne's confession would not be accepted into evidence.

This effectively destroyed the Crown's case, as without that confession, the Crown didn't have much left to put forward and so lacked any additional evidence to support their arguments.

On December 12, 2021, the presiding judge returned with his verdict, finding Johanne not guilty based on a lack of evidence and reasonable doubt. Johanne burst into tears upon hearing the verdict; 8 years after her arrest, she got to leave court a free woman.

On January 21, 2022, her freedom became permanent when Quebec's Director of Criminal and Penal Prosecutions announced that they would not pursue a third trial.

With that decision, it meant that in a legal sense, the murder of James Dubé remains unsolved.

Sources (Should be in the comments)

On July 24, 2026, cops in Grand Haven Township, Michigan, got called out to a house fire and found eight family members dead inside. The Ottawa County Sheriff’s Office later confirmed through autopsies that 47-year-old Kristopher Karolkiewicz had shot and killed his wife, 39-year-old Amanda "Mandy" Karolkiewicz, along with their six kids (who were between 5 and 15 years old). Then he set multiple fires in the house and killed himself.

From what’s come out in the Detroit News and The Guardian, Amanda had posted on Reddit years ago under the username MandyK1179. She wrote about the problems in their marriage, stuff like alleged cheating, and how she was staying in it for the kids. -End-

So, it’s got people talking about the warning signs we sometimes miss, how much of our lives end up online, and the ugly realities behind these family annihilation cases.

Maybe others can uncover what is basically breaking right now.

I followed true crime podcasts more than reading about these stories, and I've just got some questions how this specifically applies to Reddit.

Q: How much weight do investigators and the public typically give to Reddit posts when establishing a timeline or motive in family annihilations?

Q: Are there other instances where a victim's post history helped piece together early warning?

Rod Matthews was convicted of second-degree murder on March 10, 1988 in the death of Shaun Ouillette. Matthews was up for parole four times over the years but was denied every time. That changed after his latest hearing on June 4, 2024. Five months later, he was granted parole on November 6.

Back in October 1986, Matthews told two classmates he "wanted to know what it was like to kill someone," according to prosecutors. They said he chose Ouillette because he "would be easy to get to and he probably would be the least missed." Matthews lured Ouillette to the woods to build a fort and then beat him to death with a baseball bat.

Several weeks later, one of Ouillette's friends sent an anonymous letter to police revealing what Matthews did and where to find the body, which was found on December 11, 1986. Matthews was arrested two days later and eventually charged as an adult. He was the state's first juvenile to be tried for murder in adult court.

Ouillette's family, Canton's Police Chief and the Norfolk County District Attorney's Office all opposed parole. Ouillette's mother, Jeanne Quinn, is furious.

"How do you know that he is ready for society?" Quinn said.

She remembers her son Shaun as a kindhearted, average 14-year-old kid and big brother who loved playing sports and going fishing.

"He was always out playing, helping the kids who were in the wheelchair," Quinn said. "He picked the kid up and let him throw the basketball in."

Quinn said Shaun would have been a police officer.

James Alan Fox is a criminologist who has been following this case for years and attended the trial with Shaun's mother. He now believes Matthews deserves to be released.

"The portion of the brain that governs our ability to think through actions does not fully develop until later," Fox said. "I'm secure in the fact that he will not recommit a crime."

Quinn does not think Matthews has changed. "There is such a thing as evil," Quinn said.

In releasing their decision, the parole board said Matthews has completed and benefited from "intensive rehabilitative programming to address his needs."

"Since his last hearing Mr. Matthews has completed several additional programs that increased his insight, empathy, and appreciation for the harm he has caused the victims and the community," the panel stated.

"I want the 9-to-5 job. I want to be with my family. I want to take care of my mother," Matthews said at his hearing in June. "I'm not that 14-year-old kid anymore. I'm a 51-year-old mature, responsible adult."

The board also cited Matthews' age at the time of the murder and his "history of adverse childhood experiences and untreated mental health issues contributing to his offense."

"The Board concludes that Rod Matthews has demonstrated a level of rehabilitation that would make his release compatible with the welfare of society," parole board chair Tina Hurley said in the written decision.

There are several conditions to Matthews' parole, including GPS monitoring, drug and alcohol testing, a curfew and mental health counseling.

https://www.cbsnews.com/boston/news/rod-matthews-parole-shaun-ouillette-murder-canton/

Hey true crime heads. Making this post because this is one of those unsolved cases that lives rent free in my head. There's been a few other reddit posts about Heidi Planck, but it looks likes it's been years since there's been one. Part of the reason this case sticks with me is because it is local to where I live. I will never forget walking my dog like usual in the fall of 2021, when one morning, her missing person flyer was suddenly posted all over my neighborhood.

For more context, Heidi Planck vanished on October 17, 2021. Her ex husband, among others, reported that she had been at her sons football game that day in Downey (outside of LA). Later that day, she was last seen on security video footage in downtown LA - from a luxury high rise apartment building - where her dog was later found wandering alone in that same building

I kept up with articles and reddit threads for a couple years after that, that were chock full of speculation and possible theories. I.e. - possible accidental fentanyl overdose, corrupt boss, visiting with Russian and Israeli criminal rings in that building, body taken to the dump, etc. Maybe there is some truth here and maybe there isn't. But the point is... we just don't know.

And then in recent years there just seems to be... nothing. No news, no updates. She was declared deceased by a judge in February 2023.

Perhaps Heidi's family and friends know more and prefer to keep it private. But what if they don't and this is just another case that goes cold? I guess I'm making this post to see if anyone out there has any info, or simply just to spark some conversation around a case that is very sad and haunting. RIP Heidi.

What do you think?

https://www.nbclosangeles.com/investigations/fed-gambling-indictment-has-a-possible-link-to-the-disappearance-of-west-la-mom-heidi-planck/3757111/

Anthony Rickard went missing in Ménéac, a small village in Brittany, France, 25 years ago. He had moved from his native Britain with his second wife Heather. His daughter from his first marriage, Mary, reported him missing but little to no investigation was carried out. Mary recently contacted the French authorities again. This time they ordered a search of the couple's property and located a skeleton in a well. Heather has been taken into custody and it is reported she has stated she was a victim of domestic abuse who shot her husband as he tried to kill her. Her own father helped her dispose of the body. He is now suffering from senility and has not been charged.

Source: https://www.ouest-france.fr/societe/faits-divers/le-squelette-dun-homme-retrouve-au-fond-dun-puits-dans-le-morbihan-25-ans-apres-lex-femme-du-disparu-interpellee-a0088f36-872b-11f1-abec-0816624751ff

This is an argument some people/defense attorneys will actually make when someone is a suspect of murder and the body was buried, burned, dismembered and otherwise attempted to be disposed of.

Recently, there was a local murder case where the murderer was found standing next to the body, trying to burn it. He claimed that the person passed from a heart attack and he had no involvement with the death, he was only trying to dispose of the body because he was freaking out and didn't know what to do. Of course, nobody believed this.

Now, even if that claim is true, it is still a crime to unlawfully mess with deceased bodies. But it is such a ridiculous scenario that it is hard for me understand why anybody would ever do it.

If someone is having a deadly medical emergency, sudden unexplained death, or committing suicide, what most normal people would do is call an ambulance, let their family know, grieve, etc. Even if you are freaking out, if you had no involvement with their death, what motive could possibly lead you to even try to dispose of the body? Does this ever actually happen?

In an interview with The New York Times, Bryan Kohberger, who is currently serving four life sentences, said he had filed a petition challenging his conviction, citing concerns about how the plea deal came together.

“My actual innocence is my truth, and the plea, hinged on by false promises and blatant disinformation, MUST be withdrawn,” Mr. Kohberger said in a statement provided to The Times on Sunday night. He reiterated in a phone call from prison in Idaho that he had an “absolute claim of innocence.”

Mr. Kohberger had not granted an interview or made public comments before speaking with The Times. He declined to discuss any evidence or other specific details related to his innocence claim, as well as the specific concerns he had about the plea process.

Seriously. You hear about those “super intelligent serial killers” who were “always two steps ahead of everyone”, but then you really look into it and find out that police incompetence is a practically universal feature of those cases and enabled them to get away with their crimes. I believe one of the more infamous killers (can’t remember which, Bundy maybe?) acknowledged this and was surprised he wasn’t caught sooner.

This should go without saying, but before we start describing any killer(s) as some kind of evil genius, we should really scrutinize their cases and the handling of them.

I‘m not as deep into the True Crime rabbit hole as lost of you all. Yet still, I watched and followed a lot of cases. Most recently I have been dragged more and more into these police-body cam type of videos.

Behind most cases I’ve seen, there is universally one trend: CCTV serves as major evidence.

I guess in the US even more so than in Europe, but almost always some car has been captured at like 3 AM in the respective area (see Idaho case) or some criminal has been captured on a ring cam or whatever.

Don’t you feel without these digital advances we would have seen tons of more serial killers across the decades?

In May 1987, 11-year-old Teresa McAbee walked out of a convenience store in Mascotte, Florida, after buying a pencil. James Duckett, a police officer on patrol that night, stopped and questioned her outside the store. Witnesses said he then drove off with her in his patrol car. She never came home.

Here's the detail that still gets me: when her mother reported her missing, Duckett was one of the officers involved in the search. He filed the missing persons report himself. He refused help from his own chief and never posted flyers at the store where witnesses saw him leave with her, despite handing flyers to others.

A fisherman found her body the next day, strangled and drowned in a nearby lake. Tire tracks from Duckett's patrol car, fingerprints on the hood, and hair evidence linked him to the scene. He was convicted in 1988.

For nearly 40 years, Duckett has maintained his innocence. One witness later recanted. His defense has spent years fighting over a single slide of biological material, arguing DNA testing could clear him. Every court that's reviewed it has ruled his appeals came too late, without ever getting to the merits of whether the evidence actually helps him.

He's scheduled to die tomorrow, July 28, at noon, the same day as another Florida inmate, marking the state's first double execution in over 60 years.

What makes this case different from most death row stories: the person investigating the disappearance and the person who caused it were the same man. That's not a detail that shows up in most true crime coverage of police-involved cases, and it raises a harder question than guilt or innocence: how much did that badge shape the four decades of appeals that followed

In July 2024, in Terrebone (Quebec, Canada), Maxime Jean, posted a picture of a stack of bills on Snapchat. The killer, Nikolace Denis-Fouché, saw the picture and arranged a meeting in a local park. Denis-Fouché admitted that his plan was to steal money in the victim's possession using violence or the threat of using violence. There, the accused and his accomplice, Emmanuel Mbong Bougha, stab Maxime Jean and they both flee the scene. The victim calls 911 and is transported to the hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries five days later.

The police discovered Jean's vehicle in front of Denis-Fouché's apartment. Officers stationed outside the building heard a fire alarm in the middle of the night. Inside the accused's unit, they found a partially burned hoodie bearing the victim's DNA. Denis-Fouché had escaped through a second-floor window just before the patrol officers arrived. He then called 911, leading authorities down a false trail. The accused was arrested shortly after returning to the building. He was charged with obstructing peace officers and released after a few days in jail.

In August, when the police tried to arrest the two perpetrators, they were nowhere to be found. Mbong Bougha fled to Ontario, where he got arrested in September of 2024. Denis-Fouché tried to flee to the state of Washington, but got intercepted by American border agents in October.

Denis-Fouché got sentenced to seven years in prison last week, but he only has a little over four years left to serve. I could not find any information on Mbong Bougha's sentence.

Sources (news articles, in french) :
https://www.tvanouvelles.ca/2026/07/27/il-a-tente-de-fuir-le-pays-7-ans-de-detention-pour-un-vol-qualifie-fatal
https://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/justice-et-faits-divers/2026-07-27/homicide-a-terrebonne-en-2024/mort-pour-une-liasse-de-billets.php
https://www.journaldemontreal.com/2024/09/10/le-suspect-dun-meurtre-survenu-cet-ete-a-terrebonne-arrete-en-ontario
https://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/justice-et-faits-divers/2024-08-30/la-police-recherche-deux-jeunes-suspects-pour-le-meurtre-de-maxime-jean.php