True Crime Cases

Infamous, Wicked, Heinous, Vicious, Cruel, Solved & Unsolved. Also the occasional just plain weird/paranormal/unexplained.

[pissvortex]

DUDE WHAT

[maybetheyregiants]

[pissvortex]

What the fuck

[nogodsnokingsnomasters]

Kent State University

[tiredtransgal]

“The Kent State shootings (also known as the May 4 massacre or the Kent State massacre)[3][4][5] were the shootings on May 4, 1970 of unarmed college students by members of the Ohio National Guard at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio during a mass protest against the bombing of Cambodia by United States military forces. Twenty-eight guardsmen fired approximately 67 rounds over a period of 13 seconds, killing four students and wounding nine others, one of whom suffered permanent paralysis.[6][7]”

“There was a significant national response to the shootings: hundreds of universities, colleges, and high schools closed throughout the United States due to a student strike of 4 million students,[10] and the event further affected public opinion, at an already socially contentious time, over the role of the United States in the Vietnam War.[11]”

Student strike of 4 million students! Let’s do that again lol

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kent_State_shootings

[solarpunkcast]

Don’t forget that basically half the country thought the students deserved it…

[captain-rez]

Another picture from Kent State.

But it was not just Kent State, eleven days later Mississippi Police fired 150 rounds into a dormitory at Jackson State College, killing 2 and wounding 15 black protesters.

[saurons-optometrist]

Btw half of the students killed at Kent State weren’t even protesting, they were just there

[bando--grand-scamyon]

What in the absolute fuck

[wuh2k]

When the Irish guy has known about this since he was like 8, but it’s suspiciously hard for Americans to learn about…

[particularly-stupid-angel]

Some of the most famous musicians in the country wrote songs about it, and it’s still obscure.

https://youtu.be/6FpakQiF2Jk?si=1m7oJRgVaTmUYm9N

[son-of-drogo]

The only reason I know is because I’m from Ohio, my dad was born that day, and my great uncle was going to college there when it happened.

He said he woke up to a fucking tank outside his door and called his parents to take him home. I’m pretty sure he knew one of the students who was killed.

My high school also did band camp there and we regularly walked by the memorials.

[bingle-bongle-scrinkle-skroo]

so I’m Canadian and like, the anniversary of the Kent state shooting was a feature on national radio… plus the “obsession with new wave” thing means I’ve been aware for awhile #DEVO

[infamousandunforgivable]

Chowchilla bus kidnapping: Rare photos from one of the largest abductions in U.S. history

A look inside the truck trailer where 26 abducted school children and their bus driver were buried alive -- and later escaped.

[labelleperfumery]

Arby's Manager Who Died In Freezer Beat Hands Bloody Trying To Escape, Lawsuit Claims

The employee found dead in a freezer at an Arby’s restaurant got trapped inside, and beat her hands bloody trying to escape … according to a new lawsuit from her family. The manager was Nguyet Le and now her family members are suing Arby’s and… from TMZ.com https://www.tmz.com/2023/05/31/arbys-freezer-death-manager-beat-hands-bloody-trying-escape-lawsuit/

View On WordPress

[uvmagazine]

A Pennsylvania man who plead guilty to fatally shooting 18-year-old #BiancaRoberson in a road-rage incident on a Chester County highway was sentenced Thursday to 20 to 40 years in state prison, the statutory maximum for third-degree murder.

#DavidDesper ,29, shot Roberson in the head in West Goshen Township last year after they jockeyed for space on a highway merger.

CBS Philly reports, the emotional sentencing lasted several hours as Roberson’s family, prosecutors, and the judge were in tears. Even Desper’s defense attorney could not hold back tears.

During sentencing, prosecutors talked about the day Roberson was killed in June 2017. They say it started as one of the happiest days of her life, as the recent Bayard Rustin High School graduate went shopping with her mother and grandmother at a West Chester Walmart for college supplies.

Roberson’s mother told her daughter to drive straight home because she had a surprise for her, but she never made it because she was gunned down by Desper in a road rage shooting, prosecutors said.

Bianca’s father asked Desper, “Why did you pull that trigger and kill my daughter? Was it because she was young? Because she was black? Because she was a woman? Because you wanted to go first in a lane?” Desper later told the court he “was just afraid. Her car swerved at me a few times, I squeezed the gun, couldn’t believe what happened. Though, ‘Why is this happening to me?‘”

At the end of the hearing, the judge said in a tearful statement, “I listened to everything that was presented here. Mr. Desper, I believe you are sorry. I believe you would take it all back if you could. I don’t believe you were afraid. If you are afraid when driving, you hit the break.”

The Desper and Roberson families left the court agreeing with the judge’s sentencing.

Via: #CBSPhilly https://www.instagram.com/p/BrWIFJmgZVM/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1tyrk51jg45pd

[vintagecoldcases]

The Case of Blanche Monnier

tw: crime scene photos, starvation

Blanche Monnier was a french socialite born on March 1st, 1849 to Emile and Louise Monnier. She and her family were from Poitiers, France. Her father, Emile, was the head of the local arts facility. Blanche was renowned for her physical beauty and brought on many possible suitors. Emile later passed away in 1879.

In the year of 1876, when Blanche was 25, she fell in love with a lawyer who was much older. Her mother often referred to him as “penniless” and did not want her marrying such a man of a lower class than she. Blanche’s mother, Louise, tried all she could by any means to get her not to marry him. She tried to change her mind, forbid her from marrying him, even plotted against her own daughter but nothing prevailed. In order to stop the wedding, Louise and her son, Marcel, had tricked Blanche into a room and padlocked it shut, only promising to open it again if she swore to call off the wedding to this lawyer.

Blanche’s disappearance from Paris did not go unnoticed. But when questioned, Madame Louise Monnier would always say that her daughter had gone insane (As it was a regular practice to lock up mentally ill family members in this period of time). Louise and Marcel eventually returned to their daily lives and Blanche was soon forgotten among the people of Paris. The lawyer Blanche so loved, also passed away in 1885, but this did not relent her capture and psychological torture.

In 1901, nearly 25 years after Blanche’s disappearance, the attorney general of Paris, received an anonymous note, stating; “Monsieur Attorney General: I have the honor to inform you of an exceptionally serious occurrence. I speak of a spinster who is locked up in Madame Monnier’s house, half-starved and living on a putrid litter for the past twenty-five years – in a word, in her own filth.” As expected, Police were shocked by this claim as Madame Monnier was an upstanding citizen in society. Louise Monnier was from a well-respected family and was also awarded for her generous contributions to the city by the Committee of Good Works.

On May 23rd, 1901 Officers were sent to investigate the claim at the Monnier residence. Although upon arrival, and knocking on the door Madame Monnier did not answer the door, they were able to break it down and enter the home. They searched the home and upon entering the second floor, they found a dark, foul-smelling, padlocked room. They busted the padlock off and were met with a putrid stench requiring them to pry the windows open to relieve it. Through the beam of sunlight, they found an emaciated, Blanche Monnier. She was completely naked and covered in food and feces. There were bugs all around her bed, as well as a thick crust of excrement and rotten food dried to the mattress. Vermin of all sorts (mostly rats and mice) had gathered around due to the rotting food around her. At this point, Blanche was 50-years-old and weighed only 50-55lbs. Blanche was malnourished, she lacked social contact for 25 years, and she had not been getting sunlight. It had been reported that Blanche could not speak properly and was completely delirious. One of the police on the scene commented that, “The unfortunate woman was lying completely naked on a rotten straw mattress. All around her was formed a sort of crust made from excrement, fragments of meat, vegetables, fish, and rotten bread…We also saw oyster shells, and bugs running across Mademoiselle Monnier’s bed. The air was so unbreathable, the odor given off by the room was so rank, that it was impossible for us to stay any longer to proceed with our investigation.”

Louise and Marcel Monnier were both arrested on the scene. Whilst Marcel was later acquitted, Madame Monnier became ill and died in prison 15 days after her arrest. Before her death she admitted to the inhumane treatment of her daughter. Marcel was originally sentenced to 15 months in prison, but his acquittal was based upon the fact that he never restricted his sister’s movement. Some even believe that he had sent the anonymous note to the police. Others believe that it may have been the partner of a family servant that had sent the note in.

After her discovery, police discovered the description that Louise and Marcel had given to them, of Blanche being “angry, foul, overly excited, and full of rage,” was unfounded and not truthful. Nurses who had given Blanche a bath after her rescue have stated that she was calm and happy. It is reported that upon arrival to the hospital, she mentioned how lovely it is to breathe fresh air. After extended care she gained weight and was able to talk in short sentences. Although she never made a full recovery, she lived 12 additional years in a sanatorium in Blois, France. She passed away on October 13th, 1913.

[vintagecoldcases]

The Disappearance of Etan Patz

Etan Kalil Patz, was born on October 9th, 1972 to Stanley and Julie Patz. His family lived in the SoHo neighbourhood of Lower Manhattan, New York. On the morning of May 25th, 1979, Etan walked two blocks from his home at 113 Prince Street to his bus stop at the crossroad of West Broadway and Prince Street before school. This was the first time he was ever allowed to walk alone. On this day, he was wearing a black “Future Flight Captain” pilot cap, a blue corduroy jacket, blue jeans, and blue sneakers with fluorescent stripes.

At school, his teacher noticed he had not shown up but had not reported the absence to the principal. Julie had called the police when she had noticed that Etan did not return home from school that day. Police suspicion was first turned on the Patzes, thinking they may have something to do with Etan’s disappearance but that was quickly overturned. Police began to search that evening with over 100 officers and a team of bloodhounds. This search continued for weeks and generated no leads, from even the missing children’s posters. Stanley was a photographer and had an array of portraits of Etan that were published on missing children’s posters and even shown in Times Square. Etan’s disappearance even started the missing children's movement. He was also one of the first children to have his photo displayed on a milk carton. Ronald Reagan also declared the anniversary of his disappearance, May 25th, in 1983 to be National Missing Children’s Day. His disappearance also played a role in founding the National Center of Missing and Exploited Children.

In 1985, after the case had been turned over to Assistant US Attorney General, Stuart R. GraBois, Jose Antonio Ramos was pointed as the primary suspect. Ramos was a convicted child predator who had been a friend of Etan’s former babysitter. Before this, in 1982, police were told by multiple boys that Ramos had been trying to lure them into a drainpipe in the area near where he lived. In 1990, GraBois was deputized as a deputy state attorney general in Pennsylvania. This was to help prosecute a case against Ramos for the sexual abuse ofyoung boys and to try to gather more information about Etan's case. When first questioned, Ramos stated that, on May 25th, 1979, he had abducted a young boy and taken him back to his apartment to rape him. Ramos said that he was "90 percent sure" it was Etan, due to the photos he’s seen on the tv. However, Ramos did not use Etan's name and only referred to him as “the boy on tv”. This made Ramos’ confession quite problematic since there was not a definitive link in the case. Ramos also claimed he had "put the boy on a subway" and that he had left him alive.

In 1991, while Ramos was incarcerated, an informant reclaims that Ramos bragged about knowing more about what happened to Etan. Ramos claimed he knew intimate details of Etan’s disappearance and even drew a map of Etan's school bus route, showing that he knew that Etan's bus stop was the third one on the route. This alerted police that Ramos was further involved in the case but with no substantial evidence, he could not be charged. Etan’s body was never found but he was declared legally dead in 2001. Julie and Stanley pursued and won a civil case against Ramos in 2004 where they were awarded $2 Million which they never collected. Ramos was never criminally prosecuted for the murder of Etan as there was no substantial evidence in order to do this. Every year, on Etan's birthday and the anniversary of his disappearance, Stan Patz would send Ramos a copy of his son's missing-child poster with the same message typed on the back, “What did you do to my little boy?". Ramos has adamantly denied that he killed Etan. Hedid serve a 20-year prison sentence in the State Correctional Institution in Dallas, Pennsylvania, for child molestation. He was released from prison on November 7, 2012. Soon after his release he was arrested on a Megan's Law violation.

On May 25th, 2010, Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance Jr, officially reopened the Etan Patz case. On April 19, 2012, FBI and NYPD investigators began excavating the SoHo basement of a nearby neighbor of the Patzes at 127-B Prince Street. This residence had been newly refurbished shortly after Etan's disappearance in 1979. Before, the basement had been the workshop and storage space of a handyman. After a four-day search of the property, investigators announced that there was "nothing conclusive found."

On May 24, 2012, New York Police Commissioner, Raymond Kelly, announced that a man was in custody who had implicated himself in Etan's disappearance. A law enforcement official identified the man as 51-year-old, Pedro Hernandez of Maple Shade, New Jersey. Hernandez allegedly had confessed to strangling the child. He stated in his written confession to police, "I’m sorry, I choke him." According to a 2009 book written about the case, After Etan, Etan had a dollar and had told his parents he planned to buy a soda to drink with his lunch. At the time of Etan's disappearance, Hernandez was an 18-year-old convenience store worker in a neighborhood bodega. Hernandez said that he later threw Etan's remains into the garbage. Hernandez was charged with second-degree murder. According to a New York Times report from May 25, 2012, the police at that time had no physical evidence to corroborate his confession.

In 2012, Hernandez’s brother-in-law, Jose Lopez who hails from New Jersey, reached out to investigators stating he believed that Hernandez was in fact responsible for Etan's disappearance. Statements also collected from Hernandez's sister, Nina Hernandez, and Tomas Rivera, a leader of a Charismatic Christianity group at St. Anthony of Padua, a Roman Catholic church in Camden, New Jersey, indicated that Hernandez may have publicly confessed in the presence of fellow parishioners in the early 1980s to murdering Etan. Nina claimed that Etan’s murder was “an open family secret that Pedro had confessed in church.” A grand jury indicted Hernandez on November 14, 2012, on charges of second-degree murder and first-degree kidnapping. His lawyer has stated that Hernandez was diagnosed with schizotypal personality disorder, which included hallucinations. The lawyer has also stated that his client has a low IQ of around 70, which is "at the border of intellectual disability.”

After a long gruelling process of many years, Hernandez was found guilty of kidnapping and felony murder on February 14th, 2017. Hernandez’s sentencing hearing was scheduled for February 28, with Hernandez facing up to 25 years to life in prison. However, Hernandez's attorneys were granted a temporary delay so as to be able to challenge the verdict, and no new sentencing date was set. Finally on April 18th, 2017, Pedro Hernandez was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for 25 years.

[dailyunsolvedmysteries]

The Missing Paper Boys

On Sunday, September 5, 1982, in the suburb of West Des Moines, Johnny Gosch left home before dawn to begin his paper route. Although it was customary for Johnny to awaken his father to help with the route, the boy took only the family’s miniature dachshund, Gretchen, with him that morning. Other paper carriers for The Des Moines Register would later report having seen Gosch at the paper drop, picking up his newspapers. It was the last sighting of Gosch that can be corroborated by multiple witnesses.

A neighbor named Mike reported that he observed Gosch talking to a stocky man in a blue two-toned Ford Fairmont with Nebraska plates; Mike did not know what was discussed because he was observing from his bedroom window. As Gosch headed home, Mike noticed another man following Gosch. Another witness, John Rossi, saw a man in a blue car talking to Gosch and “thought something was strange”. He looked at the license plate, but could not recall the plate number. He said, “I keep hoping I’ll wake up in the middle of the night and see that number on the license plate as distinctly as night and day, but that hasn’t happened.” Rossi underwent hypnosis and told police some of the numbers and that the plate was from Warren County, Iowa

John and Noreen Gosch, Johnny’s parents, began receiving phone calls from customers along their son’s route, complaining of undelivered papers. John performed a cursory search of the neighbourhood around 6 a.m. He immediately found Johnny’s wagon full of newspapers two blocks from their home. The Gosches immediately contacted the West Des Moines police department, and reported Johnny’s disappearance. Noreen, in her public statements and her book Why Johnny Can’t Come Home, has been critical of what she perceives as a slow reaction time from authorities, and of the policy at the time that Gosch could not be classified as a missing person until 72 hours had passed. By her estimation, the police did not arrive to take her report for a full 45 minutes.

Initially, the police came to believe that Gosch was a runaway, but later they changed their statement and suggested that Gosch was kidnapped, but they were unable to establish a viable motive. They turned up little evidence and arrested no suspects in connection with the case.

A few months after his September 1982 disappearance, Noreen Gosch has said her son was spotted in Oklahoma, when a boy yelled to a woman for help before being dragged off by two men.

In 1984, Gosch’s photograph appeared alongside that of Juanita Rafaela Estevez on milk cartons across America; they were the second and third abducted children to have their plights publicized in this way. The first was Etan Patz.

Another missing paperboy

On August 12, 1984, Eugene Martin, another Des Moines-area paperboy, disappeared under similar circumstances. He disappeared while delivering newspapers on the south side of Des Moines.

Authorities were unable to prove a connection between the three cases, yet Noreen Gosch claims that she was personally informed of the abduction a few months in advance by a private investigator who was searching for her son. She was told the kidnapping “would take place the second weekend in August 1984 and it would be a paperboy from the southside of Des Moines

[morbidology]

At approximately 7PM on 12 August, 1985, 8-year-old Equilla Hodrick ran from her home in the Bronx, New York. She was playing in her front garden when an ice cream truck passed by. She asked her mother if she could get one to which her mother told her no because she had given her money earlier in the day. Nevertheless, Equilla took off after the ice cream truck. As it vanished around the corner, Equilla vanished after it, never to be seen again.

“I couldn’t run after her because I was pregnant, but I figured that she was just going down the block and would be back,“ said her mother. When Equilla never returned, her mother called the police. Sniffer dogs were able to pick up her scent and led police to Webster Avenue, by the train tracks of the Metro-North line. It wasn’t an easy feat to get permission to search the train tracks. Metro-North bureaucracy were concerned more about the inconvenience of their commuters than the life of a little girl.

The disappearance of Equilla, an Africa American, garnered little to no media attention. Compare it to the disappearance of Etan Patz or Adam Walsh, both white boys who disappeared several years before Equilla. Their faces were plastered all over posters and milk cartons countrywide. Everybody knew of their disappearance. However, Equilla’s disappearance barely even made the local newspapers. As a matter of fact, after the train tracks were eventually searched, local newspapers published articles about how police had held up the commuters, making them late for dinner.

When she disappeared, Equilla stood at 4 feet 9 inches and weighed 80 pounds. She has hazel eyes and brown hair. Her identifying features included a scar on her right cheek and another under her right eye. To this day, what became of her still remains a mystery.

[morbidology]

On 23 August, 1937, new mother, Dorothy Lucas, was out shopping in Chicago with her three-month-old daughter, Diane. In a brief lapse of character, Dorothy left Diane in her pram outside the grocery store as she quickly paid for something. When Dorothy came back, Diane was gone. Astonishingly, Diane was discovered unscathed 23 hours later - authorities had received an anonymous call which said where Diane could be found. A couple of days later, the Lucas family received an anonymous letter from somebody who described themselves as a 28-year-old woman. She confessed that her husband and daughter had both recently died and when she saw Diane alone outside the shop, her heart broke. She explained that she had planned to raise Diane as her own but seeing how distraught Dorothy was, had a change of heart. She signed off with “My only crime, if you can call it such, was too much motherly love.”

[morbidology]

The victims of the Birmingham church bombing shall forever be written in the history books as a clear example of racial violence. However, the related killing of another young African American boy, seems to have been completely forgotten about. On 15 September, 1963, 13-year-old Virgil Lamar Ware, an eighth grader that dreamed of becoming a lawyer, was returning home from a shopping trip with his older brother, James. Virgil was riding on the handlebars of his brother’s bike when they tragically encountered Larry Joe Sims and Michael Lee Farley, two white teenagers who had just attended a segregation rally. Sims reached for his gun and shot the oblivious Virgil in the cheek and chest. He died on the Docena-Sandusky Road on the outskirts of Birmingham. A true tale of injustice, the two killers received no prison time. Convicted by an all white jury, they were sentenced to a measly two years probation.

[morbidology]

Many residents of the rural town of Cokeville, Wyoming, believed that this town was a safe place to raise children. That was until 16 May, 1986, when 43-year-old former town marshal, David Young, and his 47-year-old wife, Doris Young, entered the only elementary school of the town, Cokeville Elementary School, armed with an arsenal of weapons and a gasoline bomb. 

They took 136 children and 18 adults hostage inside one classroom. It was Doris who rounded many of the students up under the pretense that they were required for assembly. Many of the children were so young that when they entered the room and saw David standing in the middle of the room armed with weapons and a bomb, they believed the assembly was going to be about weapons. 

Sadly, they were wrong. Once everybody was in the classroom, David began to hand out his manifesto which was entitled “Zero Equals Infinity.” Inside this manifesto he wrote how he wanted to reign over intelligent children and was very well aware of the above average achievement scores from Cokeville’s education system. David also sent a copy of this manifesto to President Ronald Reagan and demanded a ransom. 

The teachers attempted to keep the young children calm and entertained by playing games and even praying. One child was celebrating his birthday and the class, including the hostage takers, sang him happy birthday. The bomb, which was being held by David, contained a trigger mechanism attached to a shoelace tied around his wrist. He explained he couldn’t make any sudden movements due to this. 

After two and a half hours, David gave Doris the bomb as he went to the bathroom. While in the bathroom, Doris suddenly moved her hand, causing the bomb to explode. David burst through the bathroom door after hearing the explosion and saw his wife, writhing in pain. He shot her dead, shot a teacher, John Miller, who was attempting to escape, and then shot himself. Everybody, except for David and Doris Young, managed to escape.

[morbidology]

On 30 June, 1971, the Soviet Union were preparing to welcome the Soyuz 11 team, consisting of Georgi Dobrovolski, Vladislav Volkov, and Viktor Patsayev, back to earth. The cosmonaut heroes had just succeeded in a record breaking space mission - they had spent 22 days in orbit but also occupied the world’s first space station, Salyut 1. Nobody could have anticipated the horror that they found inside - the entire crew were dead with blood coming from their noses and ears. The capsule had de-pressurized during preparations for re-entry causing the crew to asphyxiate. The crew are the only humans to have died outside the Earth’s atmosphere.

[morbidology]

On the morning of 28 August, 1981, police in North Yorkshire received an anonymous phone call from a man detailing where they could find a “decomposed body.” True to his word, police discovered the naked body of a middle aged woman, hidden in a patch of rose bay willow herb. It was established that the deceased woman was between 38 to 40 years old, was approximately 5′2″, had dark hair, and had given birth to at least three children in her lifetime. She had been dead for up to two years; however the cause of death could not be determined. Since nobody was coming forward to identify the woman, a wax head was created from her likeness, thus earning her the moniker “Wax Head Woman.” Despite numerous theories and leads, the identity of this luckless woman and her cause of death was never uncovered.  “The whole thing was very sad and it is still a great disappointment to me that we could never put a name to her,” said a veteran detective who worked on the case.

[morbidology]

On 2 July, 1965, a little boy was discovered abandoned in a pram outside a shop in Newark, New Jersey. Authorities attempted to identify his family but this proved unsuccessful and he was placed into foster care and given the name Scott McKinley. Eventually, a connection was made between this little boy and an unsolved abduction case in Chicago which took place the following year. On 26 April, 1964, Paul Fronczak was born and the following day, he had disappeared along with a woman at the hospital who had impersonated a nurse. Paul’s parents were adamant that the young boy was their missing son and they adopted him and raised him as Paul Fronczak. As Paul grew up, he became aware that he did not resemble anybody else in his family. Eventually in 2012, Paul received a DNA test which revealed that there was no biological connection between  him and his adoptive parents. The true identity of “Scott McKinley” and what happened to Paul Fronczak still remains a mystery.

[morbidology]

Joe Ball was a unique serial killer, one could say, due to the fact that he disposed of his victims in a peculiar fashion - he fed them to his alligators. Throughout the 1930s, Ball killed as many as 30 women in Elmendorf, Texas, many of which worked for him as waitresses in his saloon, which was ironically called the Sociable Inn. 

One of the most popular aspects of this seemingly normal haunt was the pond behind it, which was the home of five alligators that Ball would charge patrons to view. He would feed the alligators on live cats and dogs and also as it later turned out, women. 

Due to the sheer number of women that worked for Ball disappearing, authorities came to question Ball in 1938. As he saw them approaching, he shot himself in the head.  

[morbidology]

It was the afternoon of 2 September, 1998, when Khoua Her picked up her six children from their babysitter, Jua Vang. Jua noted that Khoua was acting somewhat bizarre. However, nothing could have prepared her for what was going to unfollow. Khoua said she was going to quit her telemarketing job so that she could spend more time with the children, adding that she would “miss” Jua. Coming from a Hmong culture, Khoua was married at just 12 years old. By 24, she had 6 children and an estranged husband.

The following morning, Khoua slipped into her favourite dress. She had something special planned for that day and by the evening, all of her six children would be dead. She called 911; paramedics found her semi-conscious with an extension cord wrapped tightly around her neck. Throughout the house, they found the bodies of her children, ranging in age from 5-years-old to 11-years-old. They had all been asphyxiated. Each child was called into her bedroom and she strangled them one by one with a piece of cloth.

“I don’t know why I killed my kids,” she claimed. Over the forthcoming months, social workers and police paid visit to her home numerous times. On the first occasion, she had pointed a shotgun at her (now estranged) husband, children and friends after an altercation. Over 17 domestic violence calls were made. As well as her own violent behaviour, Khoua accused her husband of abuse. Before the murders, Khoua had lost her job and was dependent on public assistance, although child services never believed the children to be in danger. It was rumoured Khoua killed the children’s pets. After one child caught lice, she sloppily shaved all of their heads. She was descending into crisis and ultimately, she snapped.

During her trial, it was argued she wanted to commit suicide but was afraid nobody would want to look after her children thus she murdered them. “She thought this as an altruistic act and was doing this out of love for her six children,” declared her attorney. Khoua pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 50 years in prison.