Many true crime cases have multiple layers; whether these are theories for an unsolved case or just bizarre coincidences, a number of infamous cases offer shocking plot twists.
For instance, some believe the 1946 disappearance of college student Paula Jean Welden is also linked to supernatural activity in an area of Vermont known as the Bennington Triangle. Then there's a theory positing that serial killer John Wayne Gacy had multiple accomplices who aided in his crimes, although the official story claims he acted alone. There are even the connected cases of the Stayner brothers - one was the victim in a kidnapping case that made national news, and the other committed murders in a national park.
Whether they're theories or facts, the true crime cases on this list all have much deeper (and often more unsettling) stories than what meets the eye.
One Of The Boston Bombers Was Originally A Suspect In The 2011 Waltham Murders
On September 11, 2011, three friends met at an apartment to watch a football game. Sometime over the course of the evening, all three men were brutally murdered. The three men - Brendan Mess, Erik Weissman, and Raphael Teken - were found in Mess's apartment with their throats slit; in fact, they were nearly decapitated.
Money was strewn across the bodies, along with marijuana. Because the men allegedly sold marijuana, authorities believed the crime was not a random act of violence; however, they didn't immediately take any suspects into custody.
Then, just two years later on April 15, 2013, the fatal Boston Marathon bombing occurred, resulting in three deaths and 260 injuries. Brothers Tamerlan Tsarnaev (26) and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev (19) were quickly considered suspects and involved in a police shootout on April 19. Tamerlan died after Dzhokhar ran over him with their getaway car. Dzhokhar was later sentenced to death for his involvement in the bombings.
It wasn't until after Tamerlan's death that he was implicated in the murders of Mess, Weissman, and Teken. Tamerlan was known to be best friends with Mess, and another friend, Ibragim Todashev, told the FBI that he and Tamerlan went to the apartment on September 11 and bound the three men. However, Todashev never admitted to murdering the men and was killed by law enforcement after attacking an FBI agent on May 22, 2013.
- Photo:
- San Quentin State Prison
- Wikimedia Commons
- Public Domain
Kidnapping Victim Steven Stayner’s Brother Eventually Became The Yosemite Killer
On December 4, 1972, a man named Kenneth Parnell abducted 7-year-old Steven Stayner near the boy's home. Over the next seven years, Parnell posed as Stayner's father, moving around with the boy and even enrolling him in school, all while sexually abusing him at home.
After seven years, the abuse ended on March 1, 1980, when Stayner escaped Parnell's home along with 5-year-old Timothy White, whom Parnell had abducted shortly before. Parnell was sent to prison and died years later from natural causes. Sadly, Steven Stayner died in a motorcycle accident when he was just 24.
Nearly a decade after Steven's death, his brother, Cary Stayner, was charged with murdering two women and two girls at Yosemite National Park. Cary murdered Carole Sund along with her teenage daughter, Juli, and a foreign exchange student named Silvina Pelosso in February 1999. On July 22, 1999, the decapitated body of 26-year-old Joie Armstrong was also found in the national park.
Law enforcement eventually connected Armstrong's death to Cary Stayner, who confessed to all four murders. He received a life sentence for Armstrong's murder and later the death penalty for the murders of Carole Sund, Juli Sund, and Silvina Pelosso.
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A Suspect In Natalee Holloway's Disappearance Was Later Convicted Of Murdering A Different Woman
On May 30, 2005, 18-year-old Natalee Holloway went out to a club with friends during a vacation to Aruba and was never seen again. At the time, authorities believed Joran van der Sloot was the last person to see Holloway alive - and was potentially her killer.
Police even secured a recording of van der Sloot claiming Holloway had a seizure while they were together, and he threw her body into the ocean; however, van der Sloot claimed he made the story up while under the influence of drugs.
Five years later, on May 30, 2010, then-22-year-old Joran van der Sloot murdered 21-year-old Stephany Flores Ramirez in his hotel room in Lima, Peru. While van der Sloot initially claimed innocence, he eventually confessed to murdering Ramirez, who he said became upset when she saw a message on his computer asserting he murdered Holloway.
Although van der Sloot offered to tell authorities where to find Holloway's body so he could avoid a murder trial in Peru, he was eventually sentenced to 28 years in a Peruvian prison for Ramirez's murder. Authorities pronounced Holloway legally dead in 2012.
In January 2023, van der Sloot was sentenced to an additional 18 years in prison for drug smuggling.
- Photo:
- The Charley Project
- Wikimedia Commons
- Public Domain
Paula Jean Welden’s Disappearance Was Just One In A Series Of Disappearances In The Bennington Triangle
Paula Jean Welden was an 18-year-old sophomore at Bennington College in Vermont when she went missing on December 1, 1946. It was the end of the fall semester, and Welden told her roommate she was going on a walk.
Multiple witnesses saw Welden that afternoon near a popular walking trail and noted she wasn't dressed to be out in the cold New England weather for long. Despite an extensive search involving the National Guard, Welden was never found.
There are some who associate Welden's disappearances with a series of strange events alleged to occur within an area known as the Bennington Triangle. Over the years, multiple sightings of UFOs and Bigfoot have been reported in the Bennington Triangle. At the triangle's center sits Glastenbury Mountain, which some claim carries a centuries-old curse.
Additionally, Welden was the third of six people to go missing in the Bennington Triangle between 1945 and 1950. All six cases remain more or less unsolved to this day.
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- Photo:
- John Doe
- Wikimedia Commons
- CC BY 2.0
One Homicide Was Reported On 9/11, And It Remains Unsolved
On the night of September 11, 2001, only hours after the attack on the World Trade Center, a man named Henryk Siwiak was murdered in the Bed-Stuy neighborhood of New York City. Siwiak was a 46-year-old Polish immigrant who was on his way to a new job at a grocery store.
Unfortunately, wrong directions took him to the opposite side of the city, where a gang member killed him shortly after he exited the subway. Due to the limited police resources on 9/11, no arrests were ever made, and Siwiak's murder remains unsolved.
Earlier that day, 31-year-old doctor Sneha Philip disappeared blocks from the World Trade Center and was never seen again. Authorities initially believed Philip left her Manhattan apartment to provide aid to victims, and her name was even included in the more than 2,600 fatalities from that day; however, some began to suspect Philip had purposely disappeared in the aftermath of the attacks.
Philip was having marital issues, and her career seemed to be in jeopardy due to substance abuse problems. Since 2001, Philip's name has been periodically added and removed from the list of 9/11 victims.
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- Photo:
- Dallas Police; Warren Commission
- Wikimedia Commons
- Public Domain
Lee Harvey Oswald Attempted To Assassinate A US Army General Before Targeting JFK
On November 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated while riding in his motorcade during a trip to Dallas. Authorities believed at the time that the assassin was a man named Lee Harvey Oswald. Oswald went on to shoot a police officer and was arrested in a movie theatre about 90 minutes after the assassination.
Two days later, Oswald himself was killed by Dallas nightclub owner Jack Ruby. For decades, speculation has flown regarding whether or not Oswald was actually the one who shot President Kennedy.
Regardless of the conspiracy theories surrounding Oswald's involvement in the Kennedy assassination, he was involved in the attempted murder of Major General Edwin Walker on April 10, 1963. Walker was known to be an outspoken anti-communist and segregationist who was extremely critical of President Kennedy.
The Warren Commission, which was set up to investigate the Kennedy assassination, determined Oswald aimed his Mannlicher-Carcano rifle at a window of Walker's home, where the major general was sitting reviewing tax documents. Oswald shot but the bullet glanced off the window frame and missed. Oswald's wife also confirmed that Oswald viewed Walker as a “fascist” and wanted the major general dead.
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The Police Department Investigating Heather Bogle’s Murder Was Exposed For Multiple Instances Of Misconduct
On April 9, 2015, 28-year-old Heather Bogle went missing after she left her job at the Whirlpool factory in Sandusky County, OH. The next day, her beaten body was found in the trunk of her car with two fatal gunshot wounds to her back.
Although police immediately launched an investigation, her murderer wasn't charged until June 2017. This person was fellow Whirlpool employee Daniel Myers, who abducted Bogle as she was leaving work. He eventually confessed to the crime on February 14, 2019.
While Myers walked free, the lead investigator in Bogle's murder, Detective Sean O'Connell, accused three innocent people of murdering Bogle. These innocent suspects included a resident of the apartment complex where Bogle's body was found, Bogle's brother, and Bogle's ex-girlfriend.
The public later learned O'Connell had tampered with evidence in order to make the investigation match his theories. O'Connell resigned from the police force and was later sentenced to two years in prison. He was released in July 2020.
- Photo:
- Florida Department of Corrections
- Wikimedia Commons
- Public Domain
Sharon Marshall Died In An Unsolved Hit-And-Run While Still Under Her Kidnapper’s Thumb
In April 1990, a woman named Tonya Dawn Hughes was crossing a busy Oklahoma City highway when a hit-and-run driver struck her. She survived for a few days, and during this time hospital staff noticed strange behavior from her husband, Clarence Hughes.
When Tonya ultimately succumbed to her injuries and authorities informed her family, they stated Tonya Hughes died as a baby 20 years prior. Meanwhile, Clarence seemingly disappeared. The hit-and-run was never officially solved.
The public eventually learned Tonya Hughes was known to most people as Sharon Marshall, and her husband's real name was Franklin Delano Floyd. Floyd was previously married to Marshall's mother and abducted Marshall when she was only 7 years old. After Marshall turned 18, Floyd forced her to marry him.
Floyd was later convicted of murdering Marshall's friend, Cheryl Ann Commesso in 1989, only a year before Marshall's own death. Before her death, Commesso attempted to help Marshall escape from her abusive home life with Floyd. Floyd died in prison on January 23, 2023.
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- Photo:
- Des Plaines Police Department
- Wikimedia Commons
- Public Domain
John Wayne Gacy May Have Had Multiple Accomplices And Ties To A Trafficking Ring
In 1978, the bodies of 29 young men and boys were found in the crawlspace of John Wayne Gacy's Chicago-area home. Gacy was eventually sentenced to death in 1980 and executed in 1994.
Although most believe Gacy acted alone in these crimes, he maintained he had four accomplices, including employees of the construction company he ran. In fact, Gacy asked police who else they had at the station when he was arrested.
Decades later, some wonder if Gacy - a notorious liar - was actually telling the truth. Gacy's own defense lawyer, Sam Amirante, even admitted he couldn't completely rule out an accomplice or two. Jeff Ringall, a victim of Gacy's who survived, thought there was another person in Gacy's home with them but couldn't be sure. In 2012, two Chicago-based lawyers also concluded that Gacy had at least one accomplice.
In 2021, the documentary John Wayne Gacy: Devil In Disguise looked into John David Norman's possible connection to Gacy. Norman ran a national sex-trafficking ring, and Gacy had named him as an accomplice in a 1992 interview.
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The Golden State Killer Began His Crime Career As A Burglar Called The Visalia Ransacker
Known most commonly as the Golden State Killer, East Area Rapist, and the Original Night Stalker, Joseph James DeAngelo Jr.'s first alias was the Visalia Ransacker. DeAngelo, whose true identity was finally revealed in April 2018, was subsequently charged with 13 counts of murder and 13 counts of kidnapping. Due to California's statute of limitations, he was not charged in 50 rape cases and 120 burglaries which took place between 1974 and 1986.
In 2020, DeAngelo confessed to 13 counts of first-degree murder and received multiple life sentences while avoiding the death penalty.
DeAngelo first caught law enforcement's attention in the mid-1970s, when he began burglarizing homes in Visalia, CA. The Visalia Ransacker was known to steal small items, such as jewelry and women's underwear, while leaving behind valuable items. Police also noted the Visalia Ransacker sometimes spent hours in a home, often eating ice cream if it was in the freezer.
DeAngelo's time as the Visalia Ransacker came to a head when he murdered journalism teacher Claude Snelling in 1975. Despite an exhaustive police investigation, law enforcement was unable to catch DeAngelo, allowing him to continue his crimes for another decade.
The 'Korean Zodiac Killer' Was Caught Years After His Imprisonment For A Separate Crime
In 1988, Yoon Seong-yeo was arrested for the rape and murder of a 13-year-old girl in what South Korean police called the Hwaseong murders. Authorities believed the same perpetrator was responsible for a total of 10 murders, but Yoon was only convicted of the one.
After serving 20 years in prison, DNA evidence proved Yoon's innocence. The public also learned South Korean police had beaten Yoon's confession out of him.
Because of DNA testing, the true killer was identified as Lee Chun-jae. Lee had been in prison since 1994 for the rape and murder of his sister-in-law and told law enforcement he was surprised he wasn't linked to the Hwaseong murders sooner. Lee ended up confessing to 14 murders and more than 30 rapes or attempted rapes.
As for Yoon, he was granted a retrial, which is extremely rare in the South Korean judicial system. In 2020, Yoon was found innocent more than 30 years after his arrest.
