Major Crimes and True Crime

Natasha Anne Ryan (born 1984), is an Australian woman who disappeared on 31 August 1998 at the age of 14. A local serial killer Leonard Fraser, was later charged with her murder although her body was never found. In 2003, police received a letter saying that Natasha was alive and also listed the address where she could be reached. Police raided the location mentioned in the letter and Ryan was found alive in her boyfriend's house hiding in a wardrobe, almost five years after she disappeared and while the trial of the man accused of her murder was underway. It was discovered that 14-year-old Ryan had left home voluntarily to be with her older boyfriend, Scott Black, a 22-year-old milkman and had been living and hiding in his house for years. Despite becoming known as "The Girl in the Wardrobe" and the media leading people to believe that Ryan spent most of her time in a closet, it was soon learned that she only used a closet to hide if visitors called to vi...

On February 24, 1986, John Ruetten, from Van Nuys, California, came home from work like any other day, only to find his wife, Sherri Rasmussen, dead on the floor. There were signs that a brutal struggle had taken place, like a broken vase on her head and a bloody handprint on the wall near the burglar alarm. When the Los Angeles Police Department arrived, they quickly decided it was a burglary gone wrong. But Sherri’s family wasn't convinced. For one thing, nothing valuable was stolen. Even more troubling, Sherri had complained for years about being stalked by a woman who had once dated her husband and still wanted him. That woman was LAPD officer Stephanie Lazarus. Sherri’s family urged the LAPD to investigate Lazarus, but they were told they were "watching too much television." The murder of Sherri Rasmussen went unsolved for decades, as the LAPD ignored key evidence, until Lazarus was finally caught as the killer. Continue reading

The most terrifying real footage you've ever seen Let me tell you the story of Tatiane Spitzner and how the footage of her death shocked the world and opened many eyes to what domestic violence really looks like. Tatiana is a 29-year-old lawyer who lives with her husband Luis Filipe in Guarapuava. Looking at the photo of the couple, they look like a happy and loving couple: But behind these photos lies a truly shocking reality that ends in a horrific way. On July 22, 2018, the couple went out partying and when they returned (around 2.30am) they were seen parking their vehicle in front of the building. They talked for a while and then her husband suddenly hit her three times, with considerable force, on the head. She then tried to run and open the door, but her husband forced her to close it and put the seat belt around her neck, while pulling her hair and punching her head repeatedly. Then they went to the garage, her husband parked the car, got out, d...

Reasons why the Nazis shave people's heads at Treblinka and the other Reinhard Camps If it was to prevent lice... why would they do that to people they planned on gassing immediately? It had nothing to do with the removal of lice. That's only what they were told. Generally for extermination camps, which is what the Reinhardt camps were, the Nazis did not want prisoners to realize they were going to be gassed until the very last moment. As you can probably imagine, it's much easier to transport a large quantity of people if they are not under mass hysteria trying to prevent their impending death.  Their heads were shaved, they were told they were getting a bath to remove lice, etc. As mostly Polish Jews stripped down they were told what to do by sonderkommandos who were also prisoners that helped the officers do the dirtier parts of mass genocide; aiding the young and elderly in getting undressed, calming prisoners and leading those who had figured out they w...

The Murder of Rasputin, 100 Years Later Though he was born to a peasant family  Though he was born to a peasant family in a small village in Siberia, the self-proclaimed mystic and holy man Grigori Rasputin eventually became one of the most powerful people in Russia. After captivating church leaders in Saint Petersburg and getting the attention of the ruling Romanov family in 1905, the royals began seeking his counsel and even welcomed him into their family. For the next ten years, his influence and his power grew and grew. By the time Tsar Nicholas II left the capital in 1915 to command Russia's armies fighting World War I, many believed that Rasputin was effectively running the country.⁠ ⁠ Finally, on December 29, 1916, a group of nobles who feared Rasputin's influence summoned him to the home of conspirator Prince Felix Yusupov. Their plan was to quickly poison him to death, but that was not the way it went down.  Learn the astounding true story of Rasputin...

Harvey Glatman and the Disturbing Murders Of The 'Glamour Girl Slayer He would approach women posing as a photographer and then act out his murderous desires. His first victim was 19-year-old model Judy Ann Dull. Harvey Murray Glatman (December 10, 1927 – September 18, 1959) was an American serial killer active during the late 1950s. He was known in the media as the Lonely Hearts Killer and the Glamour Girl Slayer. He would use several pseudonyms, posing as a professional photographer to lure his victims with the promise of a modelling career. Harvey Glatman, also known as the Glamour Girl Killer, was a serial killer who posed as a fashion photographer to lure in women. He went to modelling agencies, claimed he needed women to pose for pulp fiction magazines, took them to his apartment, tied them up, and shot disturbing photos of them before sexually assaulting and killing them. He met this victim, Ruth Mercado, 24, through a modelling agency...

When a 19th-Century 'Spirit Photographer' Claimed to Capture After the American Civil War, an opportunistic photographer named William Mumler took advantage of people who had recently lost a loved one — by claiming to photograph the deceased. For about $5 or $10, Mumler offered photos to countless grieving Americans with the "spirit" of the dead person included in the shot, sparking an eerie trend known as spirit photography.  At one point, he even photographed Mary Todd Lincoln with the "ghost" of her assassinated husband, President Abraham Lincoln. Of course, Mumler and other spirit photographers were simply using tricks like double exposure or layering photos, and they would eventually be found out. But for much of the late 19th century, the trend blew up across America and Victorian England as mourners used these pictures to alleviate their grief. Go inside the bizarre history of spirit photography with these unsettling William H. Mumler (1832–1884) was ...

At first glance, this photo depicts a happy, smiling woman leaning out a window. But, upon closer inspection, the image reveals a dark history. On the woman's left arm, there is a faint tattoo, identifying her as a survivor of Auschwitz. The woman in the photo is Margarete Kraus, a Romani woman who was deported with her family to Auschwitz when she was just a teenager. The Nazi regime persecuted and murdered Roma and Sinti because they considered them to be "racially inferior." At Auschwitz, Margarete was forced to live in the so-called Zigeunerlager ("gypsy camp") and subjected to inhumane medical experimentation. While she managed to survive, her parents did not. They were among the 250,000 to 500,000 Roma and Sinti murdered by the Nazis and their allies and collaborators. In 1966, this image of Margarete was captured by a German journalist. However, we know very little else about her life. Many Roma and Sinti survivors' sto...

Genie Wiley: The Feral Child Subjected To Extreme Isolation And Abuse For 13 years, Genie Wiley was kept isolated from the world by her abusive father, who tied her to a toilet and growled at her like a dog. By the time she was rescued by the state of California in 1970, she wasn't able to walk or talk. But Wiley's abuse was far from over — as scientists eager to study the "feral child" had no qualms about exploiting her. For four years, Wiley was subjected to scientific experimentation that many felt was too rigorous to be ethical. Though Wiley made some progress with communication during her time with the research team, she was eventually placed in foster homes, some of which were abusive. These experiences caused her to regress, and she never recovered from the trauma — even when she was removed from the homes and reunited with her mother. And while she is reportedly still alive today in an assisted living facility, she's believed to be a mere s...

'Disturbing' Halloween display at home where teen violently killed his mother, sisters On January 22, 2003, 17-year-old Jon Siesling brutally murdered his mom and two younger sisters in a gruesome triple homicide. The crimes took place in a Michigan home that's been in the family of current occupant Amanda Gee for decades. The Siesling family had been renting the home at the time of the murders, and Gee was forced to clean the victims' blood out of all three levels of the house before she moved in. Tired of people gawking at her "triple-homicide home," Gee decided to give a nod to the crimes that took place there years ago with an unusual Halloween display that many people are calling disrespectful and in poor taste. For 18 years, Amanda has lived and been harassed in the home where Jon Siesling brutally murdered his mother and two sisters. She decided to do something about it. WALKER, Mich. — In the 18 years since Jon Siesling brutally murdere...

Hundreds Of Bodies Discovered Under Rhode Island Highway During Search For Gravesite Earlier this year, Rhode Island resident Maria da Graca contacted a local news team for help investigating where her great-great-grandfather was buried. He had died at a state-run institution for the poor in the town of Cranston, and she'd been told he was buried in one of the cemeteries affiliated with it. But when she tried to locate the exact grave, she couldn't find it. And when investigators looked into it, they discovered nearly 1,000 bodies that had been buried under a highway. Then, they found an additional unmarked mass grave with 577 bodies that had been relocated in 1975 — and da Graca's great-great-grandfather was one of them.  CRANSTON, R.I. (WPRI) — A Rhode Island woman’s search for her relative’s displaced gravesite led to the discovery of nearly 1,000 people buried beneath a local highway and an unmarked mass grave containing hundreds of bodies. Both discover...