Major Crimes and True Crime

On the night of April 5, 1986, 19-year-old Jeanne Clery left the door to her dorm room unlocked because her roommate had lost a key and was expected to return later. Jeanne was a freshman at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. She was the youngest of Howard and Connie Clery's three children. Jeanne had been born the day before Thanksgiving in 1966, and her family lovingly called her their “turkey baby.” That night, a Lehigh sophomore named Josoph Henry entered Stoughton Hall. Jeanne did not know him. Although the building had automatic locking doors, students reportedly often kept them open by placing things like pizza boxes in the doorways. Henry was able to enter the dorm and make his way to the third floor. According to the case, he walked along the hallway trying different door handles until he found one that was unlocked. That door belonged to Jeanne. She woke up and discovered him inside her room during a burglary. Henry then violently attacked Jeanne. She was beate...

Nazi guards confiscated eyeglasses from prisoners almost immediately upon arrival at the camps. As soon as the cattle trains arrived at Auschwitz, the SS guards ordered everyone out and told them to dump anything they had with them. In the Nazi hierarchy, humanity was not sacred. All personal property belonged to the state and was destined to become part of the German war effort. All confiscated glasses were collected in large warehouses, Kanada, and sorted by the prisoner workforce. If the frames had any proportion of gold or silver, the SS would melt the metal for the Reich's treasury. Other frames were sorted according to the degree of inscription and sent to Germany with the prisoners' labor. If the prisoner was sent directly to the gas chamber, his glasses could be found in the undressing room. Still, there was a good chance to retain possession of the frames if the camp guards allowed the prisoner to work sort of glasses. However, the guards could also beat the prisoner t...

Auriane was only 20 years old.  When she was found, she was wearing a beige sweatshirt and leggings.  A bag of marshmallows was lying beside her.  Her body was curled into a fetal position on the dusty floor of an abandoned chapel in the mountains above La Salle, in Italy’s Aosta Valley. For a moment, the person who found her thought she was sleeping. She looked almost like a young traveler who had entered the old chapel simply to find somewhere quiet to rest. But Auriane was not sleeping. She was dead. Investigators soon began looking at the circumstances surrounding her death. According to prosecutors, this was not believed to be a sudden or accidental death. They described the case as one connected to a history of control, abuse, and violence. Authorities believe Auriane died sometime between March 26 and March 27. Attention eventually turned to her former partner, 21-year-old Teima Sohaib. He was later arrested in Lyon, France. According to his lawyer, Sohaib was not ...

In late 1955, an old German woman sank to her knees on a dusty airfield near Bonn, sobbing into Chancellor Adenauer's trousers. He'd just stepped off a plane from Moscow with fantastic news-they were finally getting back the last 10,000 German war prisoners after a decade-long ordeal. When Germany surrendered in May 1945, approximately 11 million soldiers were taken as prisoners of war. Your fate depended on who captured you. The Soviets took about 3 million men to toil in rebuilding their ruined cities and towns. Private Helmut Jung was caught near Stalingrad and didn't see the front lines again for eight years of chopping firewood and digging coal in a subzero Siberian labor camp. He survived by eating sparse, watery cabbage soup and moldy bread. More than 1 million Russians died in transit or in cold, dank prison camps. The Americans took 3 million prisoners of war and housed them in large "mud hole" camps along the Rhine River. There were no tents or even blan...

In February 2015, 18-year-old Daylenn Pua set out to hike Oahu's forbidden 3,922-step "Stairway to Heaven" — also known as the Haiku Stairs — and vanished without a trace. He left behind only a few photos, including one showing a mysterious figure in the background. In February 2015, 18-year-old Daylenn Pua set out to hike the Haiku Stairs — a stunning but illegal trail on Oahu known as the "Stairway to Heaven." The 3,922-step metal staircase was closed to the public decades ago, but that didn’t stop Pua from trying to reach the top. That morning, he texted photos from his hike to friends and family, then the messages suddenly stopped. When Pua failed to return, authorities launched an extensive search of the mountains, using helicopters, ground teams, and volunteers. But no trace of him was ever found. Even stranger, one of the last photos Pua sent showed a mysterious man standing in the background, half-hidden by branches. No one has ever identified him.

Thomas Patterson was a 21-year-old antisocial who desperately wanted a girl for company. Instead of following the normal path of meeting a woman, he decided to kidnap a 13-year-old girl, Jayme Closs. In the early morning hours of October 15, 2018, Patterson went to the home of  Jayme Closs 's family  in Barron, Wisconsin, to kidnap her.  He shot and killed her parents to leave no witnesses. He took her home and kept her as his own; he would force her to stay under the bed whenever he needed to go out. Patterson claimed that they only played games together, watched TV, slept in the same bed, talked, and cooked together a lot. There was no sexual assault. On the day of Jayme's escape, January 10, 2019, Patterson pushed her under the bed before leaving his house. As soon as he was gone, she mustered enough courage to try to escape. Once outside, she found someone who  transported her  to a safe place. Patterson was arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment.

A British woman left her career as a criminal-defense paralegal and now says she earns up to $530 a day walking dogs in the U.K. Liz East, 30, spent four years as a paralegal in criminal defense before moving into consulting. She dreamed of becoming a criminal defense lawyer, but the demanding schedule made her question the career. Her days could last more than 12 hours, while commuting to London added another two hours. East also disliked corporate life. Seeing her husband enjoy his dog-walking business made her realize she wanted a different lifestyle. She left her corporate job, bought a van and took a job at a pub while building her dog-walking business. She now walks 20 to 30 dogs a day across four outings. East charges around $19 per hour per dog and says she earns roughly $400 to $530 a day. According to East, she now makes thousands more per month than she did in corporate work while working about half the hours. She says she loves her career and does not regret leaving law. Al...

More than 21 years have passed since 13-year-old Mélina Martin disappeared from Farnham, Quebec. Her family is still waiting for answers. On the afternoon of January 23, 2005, Mélina's mother dropped her off near Roch-Bourbonnais Park in Farnham. A winter festival was taking place in the area that day. Mélina had plans to enjoy the festival and was supposed to meet her mother later that afternoon at a nearby Valentine restaurant. But when the agreed time came, Mélina did not arrive. Her mother waited for her. After some time, she had to leave briefly to pick up Mélina's brother. When she returned, there was confusion about whether Mélina had actually been inside the restaurant. A restaurant employee initially believed that she may have seen Mélina there. Later, however, the employee could no longer say with certainty whether the sighting had happened on that particular day. That uncertainty became one of many unanswered questions surrounding Mélina's disappearance. From the...