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Latest Posts by shinytalecherryblossom - Page 2
Austin Yogurt Shop Murders • December 6, 1991
On December 6, 1991, in Austin, Texas, four teenage girls were murdered inside of I Cant Believe its Yogurt. Jennifer Harbison, 17, and Eliza Thomas, 17, were both employees of the shop working the evening shift. Jennifer’s sister, Sarah Haribson, 15, was visiting her sister after shopping with her close friend Amy Ayers, 13, and waiting to get a ride home together after closing up shop.
Just before midnight, a patrolling officer in the area noticed a fire coming from the shop and called it in. After firefighters arrived and extinguished the fire, 4 nude female bodies were found, each shot execution style in the head with a 22 lead bullet. Each body had been found bound and gagged, except for Amy who was found in a different part of the shop. Amy was found with 2nd and very early 3rd degree burns on almost 30 percent of her body. She had a sock around the neck, and had been shot twice when the first bullet missed her brain. It is believed that the bodies had all been stacked on top of each other, however investigators believe Amy had been able to pull herself up and drag herself to a different part of the store. Accelerant was used in an attempt to destroy evidence.
Oddly enough, over 50 people have confessed to committing this disturbing crime. Included are Kenneth Allen McDuff, a known serial killer who was executed for his crimes, and two Mexican nationals, all of which were ruled out in court.
On Wednesday, October 6, 1999, 4 suspects were arrested in connection to the murder. Robert Burns Springsteen Jr, 24, Michael James Scott, 25, Maurice Pierce, 24, and Forrest Wellborn, 23. Using DNA found at the scene, more than 70 people including these men were all tested and none were a match. The Austin grand jury failed to indict Wellborn, leading to the charges against him being dropped. Later, only Scott and Springsteen were brought to trial, as the charges against Pierce also were dropped. Austin police struggled with internal complications when Detective Hector Polanco was fired for coercing confessions, but was later reinstated for suing the city for discrimination. In 2009, Scott and Springsteen were both released on bond pending the upcoming trials, however on October 28, 2009, all charges against them were dropped and they were all free men.
To this day, no new leads have come of the unfortunate case, and the four main suspects are free men with the exception of Maurice Pierce, who was shot during a routine traffic stop gone bad on December 13, 2010.
The killing of Elsie Frost is one of the UK’s most violent unsolved murders. On Saturday 9 October 1965, Elsie, 14, set off home on the outskirts of Wakefield from a nearby youth club sailing event. Dressed in a bright red anorak, yellow cardigan and floral skirt, Elsie walked along the canal towpath – so she didn’t get her new leather shoes muddy. But she never made it home.
As she walked through a 30ft tunnel beneath a railway embankment she was attacked. Struck from behind and stabbed – twice in the back, twice in the head and once through the hand. One of the blows pierced her heart. Fatally injured Elsie stumbled through the tunnel to the bottom of a steep flight of stone steps – known as the ABC steps as there are 26 – that led up to the main road.
That’s where she was found, dying by a local dog-walker. Others soon appeared on the scene. An ambulance was called, but Elsie was dead by the time they arrived. The hunt for the killer was national news. Elsie was intelligent, bookish, close to her family – police couldn’t establish any motive.
Officers went door-to-door, interviewed 12,000 men and teenage boys – but her killer was never found. Decades past, her parents, Arthur and Edith, died without seeing justice for their daughter. The case is still one of the UK’s most violent unsolved murders, and Elsie’s family continue to push for justice. Still, over half a century on, the killer, murder weapon and motive remain unknown.
Susan Margaret Long was born and lived with both her parents in Aylsham, Norfolk.
At about 5.15am on the 11 March 1970, Susan’s body was found by a milkman approximately 1 ½ miles from Aylsham Market Place on the Burgh Road. She had been sexually assaulted and strangled.
Susan was 18 and employed as a clerk at Norwich Union in Norwich. She had a boyfriend who also lived in the city. She would therefore regularly travel into Norwich by bus for work and to see him.
On the evening of 10 March 1970 she went with her boyfriend to the Gala Dance Hall in Norwich. She left at about 10.25pm to catch the bus back to Aylsham. The bus arrived in Aylsham Market Place at 11.10pm. Other passengers confirmed that Susan had got off the bus.
It is believed that Susan was driven to where her body was found but officers do not know if she went voluntarily or was abducted. However, it is generally believed she would not accept a lift from strangers.
A full scale murder enquiry was launched, led by New Scotland Yard.
Following forensic recovery of semen left at the scene, it was established that the offender was from a rare blood group and blood samples were taken from men living in the Aylsham area. Another significant line of enquiry was linked to car paint flakes found on Susan’s clothing which showed that the paint had originally been pompadour blue and then been re sprayed metallic maroon. These lines of enquiry did not reveal the offender
Bobby Mackey’s Music World is a haunted nightclub found in Wilder Kentucky. In 1850 Bobby Mackey’s Music World was once a slaughterhouse and once it closed in the 1890′s people believe a cult started meeting there. In 1896 a girl’s headless corpse who was later identified as Pearl Bryan was discovered in a field 2 miles from the former slaughterhouse. Pearl was pregnant and her boyfriend Scott Jackson and his friend Alonzo Walling attempted to give her an abortion however something went wrong so they dumped her body in a field and decapitated her. Eventually the two were caught due to them leaving the shoes on the body which made her identifiable to the authorities; the two were sentenced to death and Alonzo Walling right before his death said that he would haunt the area forever. In the 1950′s a girl named Johanna fell in love with a singer named Robert Randall; eventually Johanna got pregnant and wanted to run away with him however her father forbade and had the singer killed; Johanna was so upset she poisoned her father then killed herself in the basement and she is said to haunt the building to this day with the smell of her rose scented perfume and Bobby Mackey even wrote a song about her called “Johanna”. Bobby Mackey eventually bought the building in 1978. People believe that the nightclub has a portal to hell in its basement. The headless ghost of Pearl Bryan and Alonzo Walling are also said to haunt the nightclub. Possessions and exorcisms have taken place there and one night the club’s manager was closing for the night and the jukebox started playing the Anniversary Waltz even though it was unplugged and did not have the song listed. Ghost Adventures did an investigation here.
Waverly Hills Sanatorium is thought to be one of America’s most haunted buildings, and due to it’s imposing appearance, it isn’t hard to see why. Officially opening it’s doors to the public in 1910, it was originally built to house “40 to 50″ tuberculous patients after Jefferson county suffered a severe outbreak. At the time, the swampland surrounding Louisville made the perfect breeding ground for TB bacteria, and the disease quickly spread amongst the population. Sure enough, Waverly Hills was inundated with sick, dying, patients so the government had to intervene.
An expansion was ordered to hold an extra 400 patients, however the doctors didn’t have sufficient training and were swamped with the dead and dying. Reportedly, many patients suffered from depression and committed suicide before the disease could take them, whilst others simply succumbed to the gathering fluid in their lungs.To make things even more horrific, the dead were stripped from their dignity and transported via the infamous death chute (an underground tunnel in complete darkness) as part of their final journey to the grave.
To this day, Waverly Hills Sanatorium remains a terrifying looking building, and has featured on many paranormal shows, hoping to capture the huge building’s long-suffering patients, nurses, and doctors.
Located in Central Pennsylvania near the Maryland border lies Rehmeyer’s Hollow. Before being renamed, it was ominously called Hex Hollow.
A two-storey wooden house tucked in among the forest still stands. This house was the home of Nelson Rehmeyer. On the night of the 27th of November, 1928, it was the scene of his murder. Another resident, John Blymire, had been unable to sleep or eat for a prolonged period. Believing he was under some kind of curse, he went to local witch, Nellie Noll (also known as the River Witch of Marietta), for advice. Nellie told John that he was correct: he had been placed under a curse. But by who? Nelson Rehmeyer, Nellie replied.
There was a strong believe in witchcraft and curses in Pennsylvania at the time with many people practicing a form of folk magic called “powwow.” However, powwow focuses on healing ailments as opposed to creating them. It certainly was true that Nelson practiced magic but he practised powwow magic and had once allegedly cured Nelson of an illness. Nevertheless, Nellie said Nelson had placed this curse on John which was causing his ailments. He needed to kill him to life the curse, he believed.
On that fateful evening, John and two accomplices, John Curry and Wilbert Hess, made their way to the “hex house.” Once inside, the trio strangled and bludgeoned Nelson to death before mutilating his corpse and setting fire to his home. Somehow, the house survived the blaze, citing so-called further evidence of Nelson’s association with the supernatural. The three killers were soon apprehended; the trial garnered widespread notoriety. John and John were sentenced to life imprisonment while Wilbert was sentenced to 10 to 20 years.
All three of the killers were released from prison early and went on to live quiet and unassuming lives. The hex hysteria became a distant memory and then transformed into something of an urban legend. Powwowing still exists today.
Hoia Baciu Forest is thought to be the most haunted forest in the world. Located in Romania, hundreds of people have gone missing, UFOs have been seen and phantom laughter is heard. At the centre of the forest, there is a circular patch of land where no trees or plants grow, and scientists still remain baffled as to why this is. Some people believe that the area is used for UFO landings, while others think it is a portal to another dimension.
