A Blog For Curious Minds

I started this blog to talk about things I'm interested in. God, Mysteries, History, True Crime and the Paranormal.

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The Oakland County Child Killer is an unidentified serial killer responsible for the murders of four or more children, in Oakland County, Michigan in 1976 and 1977. During a 13-month period, four children were abducted and murdered with their bodies left in various locations within the county. The children were each held from 4 to 19 days before being killed. Their deaths triggered a murder investigation which at the time was the largest in US history. Fear and near mass hysteria swept southeastern Michigan as young people were inundated with information on "stranger danger", and parents clogged streets around schools dropping off and picking up their children. The few who did walk, walked in groups and under the watchful eyes of parents in "safe houses", where children could go if they felt uncomfortable. Children even avoided using a playground directly behind the Birmingham police station. After the discovery of the third victim's body, Kristine Mihelich, authorities realized they were dealing with three related cases and evidence that was similar. Reports were released publicly of the possibility a serial killer operating in the Oakland County area. The Michigan State Police led a group of law-enforcement officials from 13 communities in the formation of a task force, devoted solely to the investigation. The task force checked out more than 18,000 tips, which resulted in about two dozen arrests on unrelated charges and the busting of a multi-state child pornography ring operating on North Fox Island in Lake Michigan. However, task force members were unable to make much headway in the investigation. The task force disbanded in December 1978 and the investigation was turned over to the State Police. The killer never struck again and the murders remain unsolved.

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The Springfield Three is an unsolved missing person case that began on June 7, 1992, when Sherrill Levitt, Suzie Streeter and Stacy McCall went missing from their home. Stacy McCall and Suzanne Streeter graduated from Kickapoo High School on June 6, 1992. They were last seen at around 2:00 am on June 7th as they left a graduation party at a friend’s house. The pair planned to spend the night at a friend’s house, but when the friend’s house became too crowded, they instead left to go to Suzie’s mother’s house, Sherrill Levitt. It appeared that they arrived at the residence, because their clothing, jewelry, purses and vehicles were still at this location. The parents of Stacy McCall, contacted police in reference to their daughter’s disappearance from the home of Sherrill Levitt and Suzanne Streeter, at least twelve hours after the women were last seen. Other friends and family began calling and visited the house during the day. The police later admitted that the crime scene had possibly been tainted by the twenty or so people who visited Sherrill’s house. Upon officers’ arrival, the house bore no signs of a struggle, except for a shattered porch globe (the light bulb was still illuminated) that was cleaned up by well-meaning friends of the missing women. Springfield police now believe that the broken glass from the porch light might have given some hint of what transpired that night. All personal property was left behind including purses, money, cars, keys, cigarettes, and the family dog. Suzanne’s mother, Sherrill Levitt, was last heard from at approximately 11:15 p.m. on June 6, 1992, when she talked with a friend about painting a chest of drawers. Levitt’s car and the furniture she was refinishing as well as her personal belongings were found inside the residence, and it appeared her bed had been slept in when friends and police arrived to check the residence. Despite over 5,000 tips from the public, neither their whereabouts or their remains have ever been found.

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On July 27, 1981, Adam Walsh entered a Sears department store with his mother, Reve Walsh. She allowed him to watch a group of older boys play video games in the toy department while she shopped nearby. When she returned for him less than 10 minutes later, he was gone. Investigators learned a teenage security guard had asked the older children to leave because they were causing trouble. Adam, reportedly a timid child who might have been afraid to speak up, followed one of the older boys out and didn’t tell the guard his mother was in the store. He was likely kidnapped outside the store after the other children left. Adam’s parents launched a massive hunt for their son; however, on August 10, 1981, his severed head was discovered by two fishermen in a drainage canal in Vero Beach, Florida. His body was never found. In October 1983, career criminal Ottis Toole confessed to Adam’s abduction and murder. However, investigators were unable to locate Adam’s body where Toole claimed to have buried it and without any physical evidence the Florida state attorney couldn’t prosecute the case. Several months later, Toole recanted his confession. In the years that followed, Toole repeatedly confessed to killing Adam Walsh and then took back his stories. He died in 1996 in a Florida prison, where he was on Death Row for another murder. On December 16, 2008, the police department in Hollywood, Florida, announced that the case against Toole was strong enough to close the investigation into Adam’s death. Adam’s father John Walsh channeled his grief into advocacy work for crime victims. He was a founder of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and in 1988 he became host of America’s Most Wanted, a show that has since helped law enforcement officials track down hundreds of fugitives. On July 27, 2006, President George W. Bush signed the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act into law, which created a national database of convicted child sex offenders, strengthened federal penalties for crimes against children and provided funding and training for law enforcement to fight crimes involving the sexual exploitation of children via the Internet.

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Richard Colvin Cox was a cadet at the United States Military Academy at West Point who disappeared on January 14, 1950. A little after 6 p.m. Cox left his West Point dormitory to meet a friend named "George" for dinner. He never returned. Soldiers combed the campus on foot, searched the woods, drained the ponds, scouted the banks of the Hudson by air. Investigators traced nearly every "George" whom Cox had ever known, yet never located the man who visited him that night. In his dorm, Army investigators found $87 in cash, two unmailed letters and Cox's wristwatch. He disappeared wearing his dress grays, in full overcoat. To this day he is the only West Point cadet to have disappeared with his whereabouts unknown.

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Maura Murray, a nursing student at the University of Massachusetts Amherst disappeared on the evening of February 9, 2004. Around midnight, February 9th, shortly after speaking with her father, Maura used her computer to search MapQuest for directions to The Berkshires and Burlington, Vermont. At 1:24 pm Maura emailed a work supervisor at the nursing school faculty that she would be out of town for a week due to a death in her family. There was no family emergency at the time. At 2:18 pm she called her boyfriend and left a voice message promising him they would talk later. She called to check her voice mail at 4:37 pm, the last recorded use of her cell phone. Some time after 7:00 pm, a Woodsville, New Hampshire, resident heard a loud thump outside of her house. Through her window she could see a black Saturn sedan up against the snowbank along Route 112. At about the same time another neighbor saw the Saturn as well as someone walking around the vehicle. She witnessed a third neighbor pull up alongside the Saturn. That neighbor, returning home, noticed the young woman was not bleeding but cold and shivering. She asked him not to call the police and assured him she'd already called AAA. (AAA has no record of any such call.) He continued home and called the police. At 7:46 pm, a Haverhill police officer arrived at the scene. He found a AAA card issued to Maura Murray, blank crash report forms, gloves, compact discs, makeup, two sets of MapQuest driving directions, Maura's favorite stuffed animal, and Not Without Peril, a book about climbing in the White Mountains. Missing were Maura's debit card, credit cards, and cell phone, none of which have been located or used since her disappearance. On February 11th, New Hampshire Fish and Game, the Murrays, and others began to search for Maura. In October 2006, volunteers led a two-day search within a few miles of where Maura's vehicle was found. In the closet of an A-frame house, cadaver dogs allegedly went "bonkers", identifying the possible presence of human remains. In July 2008, volunteers led another two-day search but found nothing. Despite several searches and many theories Maura's whereabouts are unknown.

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Thomas and Eileen Lonergan were a married couple from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, who were left stranded in the Coral Sea on January 25, 1998. The Lonergans were scuba diving with a group at St. Crispin's reef in Australia's Great Barrier Reef. The boat that had transported the group to the dive site departed before the Lonergans returned from the water. None of the vessel's crew or passengers noticed that the two had not come back aboard. It was not until three days later, that the pair was discovered to be missing after a bag containing their belongings was found on board the dive boat. A massive air and sea search took place over the following three days. Eileen’s father, John Hains, later said that he suspects the couple ultimately became dehydrated and disoriented and in the end succumbed to drowning or sharks. The coroner dismissed suggestions that the Lonergans had either committed suicide or faked their own disappearance, and formally charged Jack Nairn, skipper of the dive boat, with their unlawful killing. He was later found to be not guilty, but his company was fined after pleading guilty to negligence. The Lonergans were never found and are presumed to have died at sea.

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Tammy Lynn Leppert is an American former child and teen model, actress and beauty queen who disappeared on July 6, 1983. Just prior to her disappearance she appeared in Scarface as the girl who was a distraction at the lookout car, during the bloody chainsaw shower scene. Prior to that, among other minor roles, she had been in the teen movie Spring Break where she had a role as a participant in a boxing match. It is claimed she had plans to go to Hollywood around 1983. It has been theorized that Leppert could be a victim of the "beauty queen killer" Christopher Wilder, who searched for victims in the Florida area around the time of her disappearance. Leppert's family filed a $1 million lawsuit against Wilder before his death, but dropped the suit afterwards. Police were never able to link Wilder and Leppert. To this day her case remains unsolved. She has been missing for over 31 years.

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Amy Lynn Bradley is an American who went missing during a Caribbean cruise. Amy, her parents, and her brother were vacationing on the Royal Caribbean International cruise ship Rhapsody of the Seas. At 5:30 am on March 24, 1998, Amy’s brother left his sister sitting on the outdoor balcony and entered his cabin. She was seen a short time later by other passengers riding in the ship’s elevator with a member of the ship’s band, Blue Orchid. The ship was en route to Curaçao, Antilles at the time she was last seen. The ship docked in Curaçao shortly after she was discovered missing. Extensive searches on the ship and at sea produced no signs of her whereabouts. It is regarded as unlikely that she fell overboard and drowned, given that she was a trained lifeguard and the ship was close to shore at the time of her disappearance. It is also considered unlikely that she voluntarily disappeared to start a new life. She had recently graduated from college and was anticipating starting a new job after she returned home. Two Canadian tourists reported seeing a woman resembling Amy on a beach in Curaçao in 1998. The woman’s tattoos were reportedly identical to Bradley’s. She has a Tasmanian Devil spinning a basketball tattoo on her shoulder, the sun on her lower back, a Chinese symbol on her right ankle, and a Gecko lizard on her navel. In 1999 an American sailor reported that he went to a brothel on Curaçao and was approached by a young woman. She told him her name was Amy Bradley and asked for his help. At this point, two men in the bar escorted her upstairs. By the time the witness reported this to police several months later, the brothel had burned down. She was also potentially spotted in 2005, when a witness claimed she was seen in a department store restroom in Barbados. An image of a young woman resembling Bradley that was emailed to her parents was shown on the Dr. Phil show, and it suggests that she may have been sold into sexual slavery. In January 2011, CNN Justice raised speculation that a jawbone found in Aruba might belong to Bradley. Amy has never been found and there is a $250,000 reward for information leading to her return.

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The last photograph taken of the RMS Titanic.

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The Kaz II, dubbed “the ghost yacht”, is a catamaran which was found drifting 88 nmi off of the northern coast of Australia on April 18, 2007. On board were owner Derek Batten and his neighbors, brothers Peter and James Tunstead. The first indication that there was a problem came on April 18 when it was spotted by a helicopter, which reported that the boat was drifting in the vicinity of the Great Barrier Reef, and that its crew were potentially in distress. On April 20 maritime authorities caught up with the boat and boarded it. They found the three-man crew missing in circumstances which they described as being “strange”. In a statement delivered on the day of the boarding, officials with the Queensland Emergency Management Office revealed that the yacht was in serviceable condition and was laid out as if the crew were still on board. Food and flatware were set out on the table, a laptop computer was set up and turned on, and the engine was still running. Officials also confirmed that the boat’s emergency systems, including its radio and GPS were fully functional. On April 21 Police searched the ship for signs of foul play or third-party involvement; no evidence for this was found. After analyzing data about the Kaz II’s course from the ship’s GPS system, police say that on the morning of her departure from Airlie Beach the ship was steered in a northeast direction. Later that day, the GPS data showed her to be adrift. Australian search and rescue sent a Navy aircraft to search in the vicinity of the vessel. At the same time, Bowen Voluntary Marine Rescue launched a coastal and island search. At night, an aircraft with infrared capability was used to search the reefs and cays. Another coastline search was launched on April 23 after some new information had come in but the search proved fruitless and was called off on April 25. The fate of her three-man crew remains unknown, and the mysterious circumstances in which they disappeared have been compared to that of the Mary Celeste.

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Mary Celeste was an American merchant brigantine which was discovered on December 5, 1872 in the Atlantic Ocean, apparently abandoned by her captain and crew. Its lifeboat was also missing. It was found by the British-North American brigantine Dei Gratia, Mary Celeste in a dishevelled but seaworthy condition, under partial sail; the final log entry was ten days earlier. She had left New York for Genoa, Italy a month previously, and was well provisioned. Her cargo of denatured alcohol was apparently undisturbed, as were the captain's and crew's personal belongings. At the salvage hearings in Gibraltar following her abandonment, the court's officers suspected various kinds of foul play, including alcohol-fuelled mutiny by Mary Celeste's crew, piracy by the Dei Gratia crew or others, and collusion between the two captains to carry out a fraudulent salvage claim. No evidence was found to support these theories, but unresolved suspicions led to a relatively low salvage award. The inconclusive nature of the hearings helped to foster decades of speculation as to the nature of the mystery, and the story has repeatedly been embellished with false detail. After the Gibraltar hearings, Mary Celeste continued in service under new owners. In 1885, she was destroyed when her captain deliberately wrecked her off the coast of Haiti, as part of an attempted insurance fraud. The story of her 1872 abandonment has been dramatized and fictionalised many times, in novels, plays and films, and the name of the ship has become synonmous with unexplained desertion. The last entry in the captain's log shows that the Mary Celeste had been nine days and 500 miles away from where the ship was found by the Dei Gratia. Apparently, the Mary Celeste had been drifting toward Genoa on her intended course for 11 days with no one at the wheel to guide her. Captain Briggs, his family, and the crew of the vessel were never found, and the reason for the abandonment of the Mary Celeste has never been determined. (The Mary Celeste still outfitted as The Amazon before ownership change.)

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Apollo Spaceflight Training Suits in Houston, Texas, 1978.

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Astronaut Dave Scott in the open hatch of the Apollo 9 command module on March 6, 1969.

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STS-127 Endeavour Space Shuttle

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On May 29, 1953, Edmund Hillary a New Zealand mountaineer, explorer and philanthropist and Nepalese Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay became the first climbers to reach the summit of Mount Everest. They were part of the ninth British expedition to Everest, led by John Hunt. Both Hillary and Tenzing were named by Time as two of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century.

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The Burke and Hare murders, or West Port murders, were a series of murders committed in Edinburgh, Scotland, over a period of about ten months in 1828. The killings were attributed to Irish immigrants William Burke and William Hare. The murders made them the most famous body snatchers Scotland has ever seen. Edinburgh was then, as it is now, renowned for its spearheading of medical science. Unfortunately the cadavers needed for research were in short supply in the early 1800’s, and fewer than five corpses were allocated to the Edinburgh Medical College for medical research each year. This led to a doctor at Edinburgh College – Robert Knox paying for illegally exhumed corpses, and body snatching flourished. It became so reviled among ordinary Edinburgh residents that recently buried relatives would be watched over 24 hours a day until such time that the body was decomposed enough to be no use to the body snatchers. High walls and watchtowers were even constructed around many of Edinburgh’s graveyards. Spurred on by the requirements of Robert Knox, Burke and Hare no longer waited for their victims to die of natural causes. They first preyed upon tenants of Hare's boarding house before moving on to prostitutes and strangers on the streets of Edinburgh. They developed a trademark method of suffocation which would later become known as ‘Burking’. The crimes were eventually detected when a body was found under the bed of William Burke. William Hare was granted immunity in return for testifying against burke, who was found guilty and executed in Edinburgh by hanging on January 28th 1829. He was then publicly dissected at Edinburgh Medical College and his skeleton remains on display at the college museum. Perhaps more gruesomely, a book was made from his skin, and can be viewed to this day in the police museum on The Royal Mile in Edinburgh. Hare fled to England and the last reported sighting of him was some years later in Carlisle. The Burke and Hare Murders became a catalyst for changes to the way cadavers were provided for medical science.

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Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow were American outlaws during the height of the Great Depression. From 1932 to 1934, their gang evolved from petty theives to nationally-known bank robbers and murderers. Though a burgeoning yellow press romanticized their exploits, the gang was believed responsible for at least 13 murders, including nine police officers, as well as several robberies and kidnappings. Their spree ended when they were betrayed by a friend and shot dead in an ambush at a police roadblock in Louisiana on May 23, 1934.