Here are some of mine:

The George Smith case in CT. HE was the honeymooner who disappeared on the cruise. His wife was found sleeping in a hallway and there was blood on the side of the boat. They don't know if he was murdered or fell off his balcony in a drunken stupor.

The murder of those two sweethearts I believe in Oregan who were sleeping on the beach. They think it was a random shooting and that they did not know the person who shot them.

obviously, Natalee Holloway ... I would just like to see their re-enactment and take on it.

There have been a series of unexplained deaths and missing persons cases involving young male college students or young adult males in Minnesota and Wisconsin along (or in) the Mississippi River.

The scenario is eerily similar in many of the cases. These guys go out for a night of drinking with their friends. At some point in the night, the young men disappear without notifying their friends they are leaving, or leave the bar area and never return home. Some of the young men are missing and some of their bodies have turned up in the Mississippi River. The deaths were ruled as accidental drownings related to intoxication, even though in at least one case, no water was found in the lungs. There has been an outcry in the local communities (such as La Crosse, WI) that there is a serial killer in the area preying on young men, but police scoff at that possibility. They see the cases as cautionary tales about binge drinking.

Here are some websites:

http://www.vanceholmes.com/court/trial_missing_students.html

http://www.stuffmagazine.com/articles/index.aspx?id=817

It's an old case, but I would have to say the disappearance of a woman named Virginia C. Douglas. She was a resident of Lexington, MA (not too far from where I live), who disappeared in September of 1988.

Her husband, Frank Douglas Sr., claimed that he and Virginia went on a trip to Maine during the Labor Day Weekend. They arrived at a shopping mall in Belfast, ME, so that Virginia could use the restroom. However, Frank's story didn't appear to make any sense. For example, Frank was asked why he stopped at a mall to let Virginia use the restroom when he could have gone to a nearby McDonald's restaurant. He said it was because she preferred department store restrooms. Also, no one at the mall in question could verify having seen Virginia there.

Frank Douglas died in 2003. Although he denied having any involvement in Virginia's disappearance, some of his loved ones believe otherwise.

For those of you who are curious about the case, here's the profile of Virginia Douglas:

http://charleyproject.org/cases/d/douglas_virginia.html

:( It's an old case, but I would have to say the disappearance of a woman named Virginia C. Douglas. She was a resident of Lexington, MA (not too far from where I live), who disappeared in September of 1988.

Her husband, Frank Douglas Sr., claimed that he and Virginia went on a trip to Maine during the Labor Day Weekend. They arrived at a shopping mall in Belfast, ME, so that Virginia could use the restroom. However, Frank's story didn't appear to make any sense. For example, Frank was asked why he stopped at a mall to let Virginia use the restroom when he could have gone to a nearby McDonald's restaurant. He said it was because she preferred department store restrooms. Also, no one at the mall in question could verify having seen Virginia there.

Frank Douglas died in 2003. Although he denied having any involvement in Virginia's disappearance, some of his loved ones believe otherwise.

For those of you who are curious about the case, here's the profile of Virginia Douglas:

http://charleyproject.org/cases/d/douglas_virginia.html


That is terrible, he screams guilty. And it's sad to know that she may never be found and even if she did "run off" she would more than likely be dead. Very sad case, thanks for sharing.

The Smith case is interesting, but I think that what happened is obvious.

Several witnesses came forward, who were partying with the couple on that night, and said that while in the elevator going back up to the Smith's room, one of those Russian men starting groping on Smith's wife who was also quite intoxicated. It was also reported by a witness that she was in one of the men's room alone without Smith. The order in which the elevator thing and the room thing occurred, I can't remember.

It is speculated that Smith figured out what had happened, a fight ensued, they ganged up on him and threw him overboard. Smith was a big guy, was drunk, and probably got pissed that they were hitting on his wife. Since he was drunk, he probably just tore into them without much thought that he was outnumbered.

The question in this case, as far as I can tell, is what did Smith's wife know about it. Did she see it? Did she have sexual relations with one of the men prior to the fight? I get the strong impression that her story of being "too drunk to remember" may just be a way for her to avoid this whole mess.

A recent possible amnesia case in Milwaukee. (I work for the same company as he does/did). Gotta love the amnesia cases.

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=3003279&page=1

A recent possible amnesia case in Milwaukee. (I work for the same company as he does/did). Gotta love the amnesia cases.

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=3003279&page=1

Is this the guy who has a huge picture on a billboard near downtown Milwaukee on I-94? I saw that when I was in Milwaukee last month and remember thinking how sad it was and that man didn't look like someone who just up and left his family. I hope they get some leads on him fast!

The Cindy James case was one that really interested me

:(


That is terrible, he screams guilty. And it's sad to know that she may never be found and even if she did "run off" she would more than likely be dead. Very sad case, thanks for sharing.

You're very welcome. I stand by my belief that the Virginia Douglas case would have been a good story for UM.

I didn't mention this before, but during the summer of 1996, the Boston Globe did a weekly feature on unsolved cases in Massachusetts and the general vicinity of New England. Among those cases was the disappearance of Virginia Douglas. In the article (titled "Is She Missing - or Dead?"), Frank and Virginia's daughter, Marilyn Wilson, expressed her belief that Virginia was murdered, and that the killer would get off scot-free. But for legal reasons, she couldn't publicly say who the perpetrator might be. So the article implied that Frank Douglas Sr. wasn't the only suspect in the case.

I don't believe that Virginia Douglas ran off. Not only do I suspect that she was murdered, but I also believe it's very possible that Frank jettisoned her body sometime during the trip from Lexington, Massachusetts to Belfast, Maine. He may very well have hidden her body in an area where no one would have thought to search for it. This could explain why Virginia was never found in or near the Douglas residence. But of course, this is just speculation on my part.

Is this the guy who has a huge picture on a billboard near downtown Milwaukee on I-94? I saw that when I was in Milwaukee last month and remember thinking how sad it was and that man didn't look like someone who just up and left his family. I hope they get some leads on him fast!

Yes. That's the guy.

Much like Kane, my choice for a new UM would be something old indeed. I would love to see them do a "Final Appeal" segment with Walter Ogrod who is on death row for the murder of Barbara Jean Horn in the summer of 88 I believe. UM did a very brief profile of the case in the autumn of 1988, which was more like a "Special Alert" as it didn't include any re-enactments.

Many people believe Walter Ogrod is innocent and his confession was manufactured.

While I'm at it, I'd also love to see a "Final Appeal" segment on Beaver Tempest who was convicted of the 1982 murder of Doreen Picard. Again there is some doubt that he was the murderer.

Much like Kane, my choice for a new UM would be something old indeed. I would love to see them do a "Final Appeal" segment with Walter Ogrod who is on death row for the murder of Barbara Jean Horn in the summer of 88 I believe. UM did a very brief profile of the case in the autumn of 1988, which was more like a "Special Alert" as it didn't include any re-enactments.

Many people believe Walter Ogrod is innocent and his confession was manufactured.

While I'm at it, I'd also love to see a "Final Appeal" segment on Beaver Tempest who was convicted of the 1982 murder of Doreen Picard. Again there is some doubt that he was the murderer.

A "Final Appeal" for Dave Davis would be interesting as well.

Dave Davis? Isn't he the guy that was convicted of killing his newylwed wife, Shannon? If that's the case, I thought the conviction in that case was pretty solid. Were there new developments that I don't know about?

I received a bogus "rolling through a stop sign" ticket back in 1996 that I would like to see profiled as a Final Appeal.

Dave Davis? Isn't he the guy that was convicted of killing his newylwed wife, Shannon? If that's the case, I thought the conviction in that case was pretty solid. Were there new developments that I don't know about?

He has always maintained that her death was an accident. An appeal he filed a few years ago focused on the validity of the testing that found traces of debilitating drugs in Shannon's body. Here is an article I found about his appeal.

SCIENCE CHALLENGED IN '89 CONVICTION -
DAVIS APPEAL SAYS TESTS FOR DEADLY DRUG A 'SHAM'
Blade, The (Toledo, OH)
November 25, 2001
Author: MICHAEL D. SALLAH
BLADE NATIONAL AFFAIRS WRITER
Estimated printed pages: 11

When NBC-TV shows reruns of the movie of his wife's murder, David Davis refuses to watch with the other prisoners.

The 57-year-old inmate says he already knows how the plot ends - and it's not his version.
Over and over, he has played her death in his mind: his young wife gasping for breath in his arms, the blood trickling down her chest, and her whispers fading into silence.

"I could never have hurt her," he says, his voice trembling.

It's been 12 years since he was convicted by a jury of injecting a powerful drug into his spouse in the woods near their farm in Hillsdale County, Michigan, after luring her outside to ride horses.

Since his arrest in 1989, he has refused to talk about the death of 25-year-old Shannon Mohr Davis, a nurse from Toledo.

He didn't take the witness stand at his trial, which drew hordes of reporters and network crews to the rolling hills of southeast Michigan.

Now, with what could be his last appeal in federal court in Detroit, the aging man with the white beard and wrinkles insists he was railroaded by zealous prosecutors and expert witnesses.

In a challenge to the intricacies of science, defense lawyers - with the testimony of four medical experts - insist the tests that turned up a deadly drug in his wife's body were a "sham" that went beyond the boundaries of evidence, a court petition states.

Davis insists his wife lost her life after falling from her 15-year-old mare and striking her head on a rock, the same version presented by his lawyers at his trial.

"I absolutely did nothing to her," he said in a phone interview from Marquette state prison, in which he's serving a mandatory life sentence.

Defense lawyer Thomas Bleakley argues that in two autopsies after her death on July 23, 1980, forensic experts found that her head injuries were consistent with a fall from a horse. At least four laboratory tests on her blood and tissues did not turn up any dangerous drugs, court records show.

The Toledo parents of the deceased woman say they are stunned the case is now in federal court and even angrier at their former son-in-law, an international fugitive until he was arrested eight years after his wife's death.

The tragedy sparked three syndicated television shows, a book, and the 1993 made-for-TV movie.

"This is unbelievable," says retiree Robert Mohr, father of the deceased woman. "I've tried to put that guy out of my mind. He disgusts me. He's a liar now, and he's been a liar from day one."

State prosecutors say Davis and his defense lawyers took their case to federal court in desperation and have found no new evidence since a jury in Hillsdale County found him guilty on Dec. 5, 1989.

"There's no question that David Davis killed Shannon Mohr," says Mark Blumer, an assistant state attorney general who prosecuted the case. "It was an extremely well-planned murder." The motive: to collect $330,000 in life insurance benefits.

But in a scientific challenge, defense lawyers insist the substance identified as the murder weapon - succinylcholine chloride - was not found in his wife's blood and tissues.

Once known as "the perfect murder weapon" because it breaks down so quickly in the body, defense lawyers argue there was no way to detect the substance in human tissues back in the 1980s.

The FBI developed a test to find traces of the drug in the 1990s, but it's not the same procedure used in the Davis case, say several independent experts.

In another twist, Dr. Robert Forney, Jr., the toxicologist who testified he found trace elements of the drug in her tissues, is being challenged in the case by four colleagues at Medical College of Ohio.

Three of the medical professors said in sworn statements within months after the conviction that they seriously doubted their colleague's work, based largely on his published papers about the novel findings.

Defense lawyers mounted appeals, but the Michigan courts ruled the professors should have stepped forward at the trial.

Twelve years later, the professors say they stand by their statements - with two saying they feel stronger today about their criticisms.

"It was a misuse of science, and it was wrong," says Dr. Keith Garlid, now a professor of pharmacology at Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland. "I'm still very upset about it."

Dr. Forney, 55, a toxicologist who travels the country as an expert witness, did not return numerous phone messages after initially agreeing to talk about the rare technique.

Several supporters say even if Dr. Forney's methods were controversial, they believe he found the lethal compound. Lucas County Coroner James Patrick says he's satisfied Dr. Forney's procedures were scientifically valid, even if other methods since have evolved with the latest technology.

In a series of delicate tests using gas chromatography and mass spectrometry, Dr. Forney and others were able to identify an "unknown substance" in the dead spouse's tissues and then compared those readings to those produced by the real drug, says Dr. Patrick.

"What they found were very similar peaks," says the coroner, who hired Dr. Forney in 1978 as a toxicologist at MCO.

Until the Davis trial, experts believed only one person in the United States had ever been convicted of murdering someone with the drug: Dr. Carl Coppolino, who was accused in a sensational trial in Florida of injecting his wife with the substance in 1965.

But 12 years after his conviction, he was released from prison when questions were raised about the credibility of the test in that case.

The key question raised by Dr. Coppolino's lawyers: How can anyone detect a drug that decomposes in minutes into succinic acid and choline - both found naturally in the body?

The Davis defense team is hoping federal Judge Paul Borman will grant a hearing based on the most recent court request.

Davis' lawyers are asking for a writ of habeas corpus - a challenge to the federal court that Davis did not receive a fair trial in state court. No hearings have been set, but the judge refused a request by prosecutors to dismiss the case in August.

Smitten

When he spotted Shannon Mohr for the first time at a Sylvania wedding in August, 1979, David Davis told a friend he was going to marry her. For her part, she was smitten by the strapping man with the piercing blue eyes who asked her to dance, her relatives recalled.

In a story with all the makings of a romance novel, the couple began dating and soon talked about marriage.

Described by relatives as young and idealistic, Miss Mohr had just broken up with her previous boyfriend, a Toledo firefighter, say relatives.

"I was a bit concerned about her, because she was on the rebound, and she had just met [Davis], and it was obvious she was in love - really in love," recalls sister-in-law Judy Mohr.

For his part, Davis says he was taken by the brunette. "She was the sweetest, most gentle person - not a day goes by that I don't think about her."

After seven weeks of courtship, the couple married in Las Vegas. After they returned, they settled into Davis' 100-acre farm in Hillsdale County, a pastoral landscape of grassy slopes and lakes.

Davis grew corn and soybeans, and his wife commuted to her nursing job in Flower Hospital in Sylvania.

Ten months after they wed, the couple went for a horseback ride on the evening of July 23, 1980 - an event that would be examined in police investigations, court, and appeals for years to follow.

The Davis' neighbor, Richard Britton, recalls the husband and wife leaving his farm on their horses after they stopped for a visit. About 25 minutes later, he says Davis returned on horseback alone.

"He said something happened to Shannon. She was hurt," recalls Mr. Britton. When the men rushed back to the woods, Mr. Britton recalls she was on the ground, her shoes off, blouse unbuttoned, and blood on her chest.

A rock covered with blood was found nearby. "He said she fell off the horse," recalls Mr. Britton.

By the time they arrived at Thorn Hospital in Hudson, Mich., with her battered body in Mr. Britton's car, a nurse said Mrs. Davis' eyes were dilated and there was no pulse.

In his recent interview, Davis talked for the first time about the events that ended in his wife's demise.

They were riding along a "path through a wooded lot, and we rode this 100 times before," he says. "It was thick and brushy and full of bugs and biting fleas, so you tried to get the horses through there as soon as possible.

"I was in front of her, and as we rode along, I heard her scream. I turned around, and I could tell she was in trouble. She was underneath the horse with one boot in the stirrup. I dismounted and went back to her as fast as I could. She was barely conscious."

Because of her head injuries and her spouse's explanation, her death was attributed to a "fall from a horse" by the local medical examiner's office, and the case was closed.

Suspicious

After the funeral and burial in Calvary Cemetery in Toledo, the Mohrs grew increasingly suspicious.

First, their son-in-law denied buying life insurance on his wife, they say. Then they learned he had taken out $330,000 in policies on her life. Second, the family learned shortly after Shannon's funeral that Davis was going to Florida with a girlfriend.

By then, the family pleaded with the Hillsdale County Sheriff's Department to investigate.

Thirty-five days after the funeral, Mrs. Davis' body was exhumed, but the autopsy did not turn up anything new. No evidence of foul play was reported.

The case was dropped.

The family was livid and began a letter-writing campaign that led to one of the most far-reaching investigations ever waged by the Michigan attorney general's office.

"I poured my heart out," recalls Judy Mohr. "I wrote that it was so important to not let this case die. She was a beautiful and trusting person who didn't deserve to die that way."

The Mohrs then went to federal court in Detroit to try to ban Davis from collecting his deceased wife's insurance benefits. In the weeks after their daughter's death, they say they found out other things about Davis: He was not a Vietnam War veteran as he told everyone in the family, and he was not an orphan.

Worse, he had been married before with two small daughters - something his wife didn't learn until a week before she died. "He told us so many lies, it makes me sick," recalls Mr. Mohr.

Davis has his own story.

He insists that when he was asked at the hospital whether his wife carried life insurance, he thought the nurse was inquiring about health insurance. "We were at the hospital, and I was in a fog," he says.

After the funeral, he says he wanted to get away from Michigan "to clear my mind," and decided to go to Florida. A former girlfriend asked to go along, he claims.

Though the same woman, Jeanne Hohlman, testified at the trial that Davis told her he was a CIA agent living a dual life, he denied ever saying that.

Davis says she fabricated the story "to get back at me for putting her on a plane after we got to Florida, and she has been mad at me ever since."

He says he bought life insurance for his wife and himself. "The agent came to us. I did not go to him," says Davis, claiming it was a way to cover farm expenses in case one of them died.

In November, 1980, the state attorney general's office jumped on the case, but by then Davis was living on a sailboat in a Fort Lauderdale, Fla., marina.

"I was tired of being targeted. I decided to sell my farm and move away," he says.

With Davis sailing between Florida and the Caribbean in 1981, investigators turned to the laboratory.

Using a gas chromatograph, which shatters a sample into tiny components, two Medical College of Ohio toxicologists say they discovered something in the dead woman's tissues but couldn't identify it.

After several failed tries, Dr. Robert Forney and an assistant, Tom Carroll, turned to private labs that use mass spectrometers, instruments that smash molecules into fragments and identifies them.

But even those machines failed to pinpoint the substance.

After reviewing a list of dangerous drugs, the scientists noticed the name succinylcholine, which is used by veterinarians to relax animals.

That's when they decided to go to Sweden.

In experiments at the Karolinska Institute, the two MCO researchers, under the direction of toxicologist Bo Holmstedt, say they identified traces of succinylcholine in the dead woman's tissue.

The findings led to another exhumation on July 1, 1981, when doctors cut out several bruises - possible injection points - and gave the evidence to Dr. Forney.

Dr. Forney later said that tests in Sweden on the new evidence confirmed his suspicions: succinylcholine was present in bruises in the upper right arm and the right wrist.

With the strength of the findings, Davis was indicted on a first-degree murder charge three months later.

At the time, he says he was living on his boat in Haiti. "My attorney told me that I was wanted," he says. "I was tired of it. I had done nothing wrong, but I knew they were out to get me. I decided to leave."

He says he paid people to watch the boat and flew to Los Angeles. Eventually he moved to Santa Monica, where he took flight lessons.

He grew a beard and adopted the name David Meyer Bell. Over the next eight years, he became one of the nation's most celebrated fugitives as he moved to Alaska, Hawaii, and eventually American Samoa.

Investigators flew to Florida, the Bahamas, and elsewhere hunting for him, passing out flyers and posters.

Their break came nearly eight years later: NBC showed a rerun of an Unsolved Mysteries show about the Shannon Mohr Davis case. A woman who dated Davis in Hawaii and knew he had moved to American Samoa - 3,200 miles away - saw the episode and called police.

On Jan. 6, 1989 - more than seven years after he fled - he was nabbed as he showed up for his job as a pilot for an island airline. He was married to a 23-year-old woman and living in a one-room shack.

Witness

By the time the trial began on Nov. 28, 1989, Dr. Forney was the star witness.

While the jurors listened to testimony about Davis' life of deceit and years as a fugitive, the key evidence was the succinylcholine, they later told reporters.

It took the jury only two hours to seal Davis' fate: guilty.

Three weeks later, a controversy arose that would shadow the case for another 12 years - leading to the present appeal.

For several years leading to the trial, it was learned a group of professors at Medical College of Ohio had seriously questioned Dr. Forney's work on the breakthrough research.

The four professors said they found numerous errors and incomplete information in three of the published papers by Dr. Forney, Mr. Carroll, and three other researchers about the detection of succinylcholine.

"I was shocked that this was being passed off as science," says Dr. Garlid.

Various facts in the papers were wrong, the professors said, including the melting point of key substances. One professor, Dr. Amir Askari, wrote a letter to one of the scientific journals, saying he had "grave concerns" about scientific discrepancies.

Dr. Steven Britton, no relation to the Davis' neighbor, said he talked to Dr. Forney about a series of "errors" and "sloppy" reporting in one of the studies in the Journal of Forensic Sciences.

"This is a discredit to us because it was known that it was wrong," Dr. Britton said in a sworn statement.

Mr. Bleakley, the lawyer for Davis, says he was unaware of the simmering dispute at MCO before the trial. He asked Dr. Forney during the trial whether anyone had criticized his work on the process.

Dr. Forney responded: "Not to my knowledge."

Mr. Bleakley says the toxicologist should have been banned from testifying, since his findings were not accepted by the scientific community.

In one of his papers, Dr. Forney surmised that succinylcholine may have been preserved - instead of quickly dissolving - because the embalming fluid in the human tissues was acidic. However, a witness said the embalming fluid used on Shannon Mohr was the opposite: alkaline.

The professors who criticized Dr. Forney's work said they tried to keep the controversy within the medical college community. But when a Blade editorial praised Dr. Forney's testimony after the trial, Dr. Askari said he felt compelled to write a letter to the editor explaining "there are some of us who have serious problems with this kind of science," he says.

Controversy

During the height of the controversy in 1990, a three-member panel in the medical college was appointed to review Dr. Forney's work.

In the end, the panel members acknowledged they were not experts in the field, but after interviewing Dr. Forney, who shared his data with the group, it appeared his conclusions were supported.

However, the panel added that much of the earlier criticism of Dr. Forney and his assistants was justified: The three papers they wrote about the detection of the drug "were very poorly written," and the questions raised about them "were certainly justified."

Lastly, the group concluded: "While the data presented by Dr. Forney to this committee are consistent with his conclusions, it's likely the validity of this method will only be accepted widely after its reliability is confirmed by an independent laboratory."

Dr. Fredric Rieders, a recognized expert on finding succinylcholine in human tissue, says the testing procedures today are different from those used by Dr. Forney in the Davis case, and they since have been accepted in the courts. "They are more advanced with new technologies. And there is considerably more precision."

Though he didn't see the tests in the Davis case, he says he believes that Dr. Forney, with the assistance of the Swedish experts, used credible procedures at the time.

"I talked to Bo Holmstedt about the tests [in the Davis case], and I'm aware of what they did. I'm satisfied that they found [succinylcholine]."

Davis' lawyer says he will ask the judge to hold an evidentiary hearing to decide whether Dr. Forney's findings should have been accepted by the trial court.

Prosecutors say it's doubtful the judge will hold such a hearing. Mark Blumer, the prosecutor at the trial, says Davis was convicted "on a host of powerful evidence" beyond science.

The Mohrs, who divide their time between Toledo and St. Petersburg, Fla., say they want Davis locked up for the rest of his life. "He did it," says Mr. Mohr, who ultimately was awarded his daughter's life insurance benefits.

"There's no doubt in my mind he did it. To this day, I still wonder how we overlooked this guy. We thought he was going to watch over our daughter and protect her. We thought he was going to be a good husband."
Caption:
Shannon Mohr Davis died July 23, 1980, near her farm in Michigan.
THE BLADE
David Davis insists his wife fell from her horse and struck her head on a rock.
A family photo shows Shannon Mohr Davis enjoying a day with her horse on her farm in Hillsdale County, Michigan, in 1980.
THE BLADE
Dr. Robert Forney, Jr., a toxicologist, testified at the 1989 trial that he had found trace elements of a fatal drug in the tissue of the dead woman. THE BLADE
David Davis, left, speaks with his lawyer, Thomas Bleakley, during the trial. Mr. Bleakley says that Dr. Forney should have been banned from testifying.
THE BLADE
Edition: CITY FINAL
Page: A1
Index Terms: SPECIAL REPORT
Copyright, 2001, The Blade
Record Number: 0111250045

OpenURL Article Bookmark (right click, and copy the link location):
SCIENCE CHALLENGED IN '89 CONVICTION
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Huh. Thanks, Justin. That's really interesting.

Now I'm starting to wonder... ;)

Here are some of mine:

The George Smith case in CT. HE was the honeymooner who disappeared on the cruise. His wife was found sleeping in a hallway and there was blood on the side of the boat. They don't know if he was murdered or fell off his balcony in a drunken stupor.

The murder of those two sweethearts I believe in Oregan who were sleeping on the beach. They think it was a random shooting and that they did not know the person who shot them.
The George Smith case has fascinated me since it became news. I would love to see that.

I received a bogus "rolling through a stop sign" ticket back in 1996 that I would like to see profiled as a Final Appeal.

:lol:

freshwater, that's the second post of yours in the last couple days that's cracked me up.

yeah, those rolling stop pull-overs are absurd. I got one last year. Nothing coming 100 miles in any direction, yet he felt it was worth it to pull me over. bunk.

P.S. is there a story behind your avatar? just wonderin'

Wow, what a good article. High drama! I still think he is guilty as hell, otherwise why run? Why not take the stand in your own defense? I tell you, if I was standing trial for a murder I did not commit I cannot think of any circumstances under which I wouldn't testify! If only to attempt to clear my own name!

Even though Dave Davis (hambone name if there ever was one) comes up with pseudo-plausible sounding excuses for his behavior (i.e. "I thought they were asking about health insurance, not life insurance" and "She turned on me because I told her to take a plane home early from Florida"), all evidence neatly lines up against him. Yet, according to Davis, the whole world is against him, he is innocent and this is one big misunderstanding, a confluence of forces against him. I think deep down inside he actually has convinced himself of his innocence.

But me? I just don't buy it. Even if the lab findings are somewhat less precise than technology available today, in a nutshell what the scientists are saying, it does little to detract from the case against him. They still found succinylcholine chloride in her system.

Guilty as sin.

Guilty as sin.

Either that, or he is the unluckiest man in the world. If Dave Davis is innocent, then Shannon Mohr-Davis is still alive. :rolleyes:

:lol:

freshwater, that's the second post of yours in the last couple days that's cracked me up.

yeah, those rolling stop pull-overs are absurd. I got one last year. Nothing coming 100 miles in any direction, yet he felt it was worth it to pull me over. bunk.

P.S. is there a story behind your avatar? just wonderin'


My avatar is Rev. Pat Robertson leg pressing 2,000 lbs. I found that story very amusing. His amazing strength could be an UM segment!

My avatar is Rev. Pat Robertson leg pressing 2,000 lbs. I found that story very amusing. His amazing strength could be an UM segment!

:lol: I had heard about that, but had never seen it. That's the third time this week you've cracked me up. :lol:

Yeah Dave Davis is definitely guilty. His behavior was very suspicious after the wedding since he showed no remorse and vehemently fought to have Shannon cremated and Shannon's parents threatened to go to court to stop him!

If Davis had his way Shannon would be a bunch of ashes so he would've destroyed all the evidence against him!

If Davis had his way Shannon would be a bunch of ashes so he would've destroyed all the evidence against him!

That's one of the reasons why I think Dave Davis is guilty. He had to have known ahead of time that an autopsy would detect what really happened to Shannon. And he didn't want that to happen. Otherwise, why would he insist that her body be cremated?

I posted this in another thread, but this is definitely one I'd like to see covered on a "New" Unsolved Mysteries:

The case I would want profiled comes from my home town, Philadelphia. It seems that two years ago a couple, Richard Petrone and Danielle Imbo from New Jersey, were out with friends having drinks at a bar on South Street, a hip section of the city with lots of nightclubs. Anyway, they left the bar (a place where I've been a few times myself), evidently got into their black Dodge Dakota pickup truck, and have never been seen since. The car has never turned up either.

Link: http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?se...cal&id=5044330

There are a lot of current missing person's cases that would probably fit the bill for UM. There is a new missing persons case in Kansas where an 18 year old girl was snatched in the parking lot of a Target this past Saturday. Part of it was caught on store surveillance tape. Greta and Nancy have been on this one for the last day or two. Something rotten is going on in Kansas. Wasn't there another Kansas girl of the same age who went missing in the past few months? Her car was found in a lake/pond/river but no sign of her has been found to my knowledge, though her car in the lake means the probability of her being dead is around 99%.

The problem I have with the current coverage of cable news is that Greta and Nancy butcher the stories. They take the "entertainment" value out of the cases. This may sound callous, but the entire reason the cable news networks run stories like this is for entertainment value and ratings. Moreover, I don't want to hear speculation from a bunch of TV lawyers, but would rather see an accurate reenactment that covers "just the facts." Sadly, as I've said before, the huge audiences that Nancy and Greta have would make it hard for a revamped version of UM to compete.

I wish the old days of news reporting would make a return. The national news should not cover local stories unless they are of some significance to the country. When I was a child (80's) I never remember national news coverage of local murders, unless it was something bizzare like Son of Sam or Dahmer.

Kelsey Smith, missing Kansas girl. Last night this case was solved and an arrest made. It breaks my heart. I thought it would be a good UM when I heard about it Monday as well, but here it is Thursday and already solved. Very sad case, I'm wondering this guy's motive. He didn't appear to be a skeezy old perv, but a young guy. Crazy. God be with her family.

kamy,

One doesn't have to be an old geezer to be a perv. Look at Ted Bundy.

In the Kelcy Smith case, I think the man arrested is not an experienced killer. He may have been guilty of sexual assault in the past, but my bet is that he has never killed before. It is interesting to note, however, that there have been a couple more cases recently of girls Smith's age dissapearing in Kansas and Missouri. Kelcy Smith's body was found just 6 miles from the home of one of the missing girls.

This Hall character could be a serial killer, but I am doubting it based on the sloppiness and amateurish nature of this crime. Nothing he did seemed to "go right" for him. He was caught on clear color video, his truck was caught on video, the kidnapping was caught on video, he allowed her cell phone to be pinged, he left tire tracks and footprints at the scene where he dumped the body, and I would imagine he left DNA or fingerprints in Smith's car. He is finished for sure. I am not aware of whether Kansas or Missouri has the death penalty, but this is a case where I'd prefer the justice system to undertake public hangings.

I think if more women would pack a .38 or .357 revolver on their person, crimes like this would reduce dramatically and we would see more dead criminals, which would be great. The travesty in these cases is that the victims didn't have guns.

I am not aware of whether Kansas or Missouri has the death penalty, but this is a case where I'd prefer the justice system to undertake public hangings.

The last I checked, both states have the death penalty.

I think if more women would pack a .38 or .357 revolver on their person, crimes like this would reduce dramatically and we would see more dead criminals, which would be great. The travesty in these cases is that the victims didn't have guns.

Robert Stack would probably have agreed. In fact, he was very pro-Second Amendment.

Robert Stack would probably have agreed. In fact, he was very pro-Second Amendment.

That´s the importance of the National Rifle Association, although a lot of people don´t like them.

That´s the importance of the National Rifle Association, although a lot of people don´t like them.

True. In fact, a lot of anti-gun people (especially Rosie O'Dumbbell) come across as nutjobs. But I'm not trying to knock them just for hating guns, because whether or not they want to own a gun is their business. It's just that it never fails to annoy me when they try to shove their anti-gun agenda down people's throats.

Although I don't own any guns, I like the fact that the Constitution gives us the right to bear arms. You don't have to be a gun owner to support the Second Amendment. :cool:

For me just any UM segments would be great to see.

Well I see my prediction of Kane and phillipscurve becoming good friends is correct;)

*snicker* Good observation, Mr. Bob Bean. :)

The case of the West Memphis Three would be a FANTASTIC segment to feature:


Shortly after three eight-year-old boys were found mutilated and murdered in West Memphis, Arkansas, local newspapers stated the killers had been caught. The police assured the public that the three teenagers in custody were definitely responsible for these horrible crimes. Evidence?

The same police officers coerced an error-filled "confession" from Jessie Misskelley Jr., who is mentally handicapped. They subjected him to 12 hours of questioning without counsel or parental consent, audio-taping only two fragments totaling 46 minutes. Jessie recanted it that evening, but it was too late� Misskelley, Jason Baldwin and Damien Echols were all arrested on June 3, 1993, and convicted of murder in early 1994.

Although there was no physical evidence, murder weapon, motive, or connection to the victims, the prosecution pathetically resorted to presenting black hair and clothing, heavy metal t-shirts, and Stephen King novels as proof that the boys were sacrificed in a satanic cult ritual. Unfathomably, Echols was sentenced to death, Baldwin received life without parole, and Misskelley got life plus 40.

For over 13 years, The West Memphis Three have been imprisoned for crimes they didn't commit. Echols waits in solitary confinement for the lethal injection our tax dollars will pay for. They were all condemned by their poverty, incompetent defense, satanic panic and a rush to judgment.

But there's still hope for them, and you can help.


More info can be found at:

http://www.wm3.org

Although I don't own any guns, I like the fact that the Constitution gives us the right to bear arms. You don't have to be a gun owner to support the Second Amendment. :cool:


No it doesn't. You're not a militia.

I don't think women carrying firearms would result in much of a reduction of these types of crimes. Not unless the woman knows she's gonna be abducted and has her gun out, loaded, cocked, and ready to fire. Most of those types of crimes are quick and takes the woman by surprise. They wouldn't have time to get their gun outta their purse or pocket or wherever it's suggested they hold it. All this would do is probably put more guns in the hands of the sick people that commit these acts, after they do what they do to the woman and kill her, they would find the gun and probably keep it or just throw it out. Take the Kelsey Smith girl from Kansas incident. On the video you can see how the guy totally surprises her outta nowhere, she never woulda had a chance to get her gun out.

kamy,

One doesn't have to be an old geezer to be a perv. Look at Ted Bundy.

In the Kelcy Smith case, I think the man arrested is not an experienced killer. He may have been guilty of sexual assault in the past, but my bet is that he has never killed before. It is interesting to note, however, that there have been a couple more cases recently of girls Smith's age dissapearing in Kansas and Missouri. Kelcy Smith's body was found just 6 miles from the home of one of the missing girls.

This Hall character could be a serial killer, but I am doubting it based on the sloppiness and amateurish nature of this crime. Nothing he did seemed to "go right" for him. He was caught on clear color video, his truck was caught on video, the kidnapping was caught on video, he allowed her cell phone to be pinged, he left tire tracks and footprints at the scene where he dumped the body, and I would imagine he left DNA or fingerprints in Smith's car. He is finished for sure. I am not aware of whether Kansas or Missouri has the death penalty, but this is a case where I'd prefer the justice system to undertake public hangings.

I think if more women would pack a .38 or .357 revolver on their person, crimes like this would reduce dramatically and we would see more dead criminals, which would be great. The travesty in these cases is that the victims didn't have guns.

Dear Lord, this man is a maniac. I guess you really can't judge a book by it's cover! Young guy with a family + a myspace profile detailing how you like to "eat children and harm small animals" = psycho!
I can't even look at his mugshot, it literally makes my skin crawl!

OMG, Dislimb! When you told me that I was going to laugh at your new avatar, I KNEW it was going to be JJ Hollywood! :lol:

...I know you too well! Better start mizing it up! (and nice work on my Meehan pic... looks great.)

No it doesn't. You're not a militia.

I don't think women carrying firearms would result in much of a reduction of these types of crimes. Not unless the woman knows she's gonna be abducted and has her gun out, loaded, cocked, and ready to fire. Most of those types of crimes are quick and takes the woman by surprise. They wouldn't have time to get their gun outta their purse or pocket or wherever it's suggested they hold it. All this would do is probably put more guns in the hands of the sick people that commit these acts, after they do what they do to the woman and kill her, they would find the gun and probably keep it or just throw it out. Take the Kelsey Smith girl from Kansas incident. On the video you can see how the guy totally surprises her outta nowhere, she never woulda had a chance to get her gun out.

There are plenty of examples that illustrate the reverse. Remember the Appalachian School of Law Massacre? If it wasen't for a couple of students getting their guns from the trunks of their cars many more would have been killed. I am convinced that the Virginia Tech killer would have been stopped earlier if security or a student had guns. Remember the Bosnian Muslim who shot many people in the Salt Lake City Mall? He was stopped because an off duty cop happened to be eating dinner while this happened. If he didn't kill the killer many more would have been killed. There are plenty of more examples. This includes old people who defended their property against burglars with rifles.

In my opinion, there are atleast 100 UM cases where a gun would have helped either curtail the casualties or saved lives. Take out your pen and do the scorecard while watching the bowling alley massacre, NH serial killings, and many of the women that were killed by their abusive spouse.

The 2nd Amendment reads: A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

The States and Courts have agreed that people have the right to bear arms. Many Gun Control advocates claim the National Guard are the militia. But they are a govenment entity so it can't replace the individual liberties of each person. In fact, it would make more sense to have individuals and not militas be armed currently. As over 200 years ago, the situation would make more sense to have militias. This has been the position of 40 of the 50 states where Gun rights are protect. Many of the liberal states that have strict gun control also happen to have some of the highest crime rates. I believe in strict background checks and some regulation, but why should I someone who has never been convicted of a felony or misdemeanor be denied the right to protect myself and need to wait for a cop to do something that I can excercise through protections afforded within the bill of rights. :rolleyes:

OMG, Dislimb! When you told me that I was going to laugh at your new avatar, I KNEW it was going to be JJ Hollywood! :lol:

...I know you too well! Better start mizing it up! (and nice work on my Meehan pic... looks great.)

Yeah, I figured you had me pegged... but I had to do it anyway!

"Where my money at G?"

I always remembered this case because of those home video clips. They say January 23rd in the corner and that's my birthday so it just kind of stuck with me.

And you are welcome for your new avatar. It's perfect for a Montana gal like you. :)

There is a case of a missing girl in New Liskeard, Ontario, Canada that would be a great one for UM to do if the show were to return. The teenage girl, named Melanie Ethier, disappeared one fall night back in 1996 after she left a party and was presumably making the short trip home. No trace of her has ever been found to this day. A couple of interesting things about this case: the murder rate in that part of the country is incredibly low as murders are almost unheard of and the girl in question is black and there are very few visible minorities in that area. This is case that would be tailor-made for a new Unsolved Mysteries. There are actually a number of great Canadian cases, including the one that I have mentioned, that have been featured on Court TV Canada's Cold Case program but nobody does these kinds of shows better than UM IMO.

A missing persons case which I would like to see profiled on a new edition of UM would be Brian Shaffer of Columbus, OH. His case was profiled not only on Dateline, but also on E! in a program entitled "Spring Break Nightmares". Apparently he was a med student at OSU and at the beginning of Spring Break 2006, he and several friends went to a local bar called the Ugly Tuna Salloona. He called his girlfriend and told her he was looking forward to being w/ her over Spring Break. He left his friends in the bar and walked outside and vanished. Adding to the mystery is the fact that videocameras recorded all of the public entrances/exits and showed him arriving, then briefly walking outside the main entrance, and apparently turning around and walking back inside the bar. Very heartbreaking case, as his girlfriend was shown holding out hope. Court TV has a msg. bd. relating to this case. His family's website is www.findbrianshaffer.com

Yeah, I've heard about this one. It is really sad. I wonder what happened to him. From what I understand, he was NOT the type to just "up and leave." He was apparently in good relations with everyone he was close to.

wasn't there a theory that he got into a barfight and was killed?

I just read about this on Websleuths and had no idea! If UM does indeed come back, this would be a good case to feature....

Highway of Tears (http://www.themanitoban.com/2007-2008/0822/116.The.highway.of.tears.and.others.canadian.secrets.php)

Amnesty International Report (http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/ENGAMR200012004)

I just read about this on Websleuths and had no idea! If UM does indeed come back, this would be a good case to feature....

Highway of Tears (http://www.themanitoban.com/2007-2008/0822/116.The.highway.of.tears.and.others.canadian.secrets.php)

Amnesty International Report (http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/ENGAMR200012004)


Eirie, I love it!

After seeing this on Forensic Files, I've gone over this case a number of times in my head.
Aside from Mr. Davis ending up as one of the FBI's top 10 fugitives, its interesting to me that the parents ended up pushing for the homocide- and they are the ones who ended up with the insurance money.

But- whether or not they should have the insurance money, I suppose is unimportant.
**HERE'S** how you will know if he was innocent or guilty:

**Was there bloodflow in the body of Shannon Davis at the time of her death??**

Specifically- when a living body encounters blunt force trauma, it will still have flowing blood, and that blood will typically cause bruising consistent with the aforementioned trauma.
Whereas, a body that is already deceased will *not* have blood flow, and therefore not be able to cause bruising.

If Mr. Davis is in fact innocent, one would imagine that the autopsy of Ms. Davis would show bruising from the blunt force trauma.

UNSOLVED

On the evening of Sunday, March 20, 1994, Charlotte "Bunny" Lehton and her husband, Robert, returned home from church to their residence located on South Orlando Avenue, Cocoa Beach, Florida where they were met inside the residence by a masked intruder. The intruder was armed with a knife and a semi-automatic handgun. While in the residence, the intruder took money and credit cards belonging to the Lehton's.



During his stay in the residence, the intruder advised that he was waiting for an accomplice. The intruder became more agitated as time went by and the accomplice did not show up. After approximately 30 minutes, the victim, Charlotte "Amy" Gellert, the daughter of Mrs. Lehton, pulled her car into the driveway where her headlights could be seen from the living room. The intruder then attacked the Lehton's with a knife, severely wounding them.



As "Amy" exited her car, she was attacked by the intruder, who had run from the residence. "Amy" sustained multiple stab wounds, which caused her death. The intruder then fled the area by running south on South Orlando Avenue, Cocoa Beach, Florida. The intruder was described as a white male, early twenties, 5'07" - 5'10" tall, weighing between 165 to 185 pounds, wearing dark clothing, gloves, and a black ski mask.



The handgun, which was not recovered, was later determined through investigation to be a blue in color, blank firing stage prop, which is a replica of a 9mm semi-automatic pistol. The Homicide Unit is looking for any information on persons who may have owned or possessed such a weapon or may have had a similar weapon stolen in a burglary.

This isn't a current case, at all. But I was always surprised why the Texarkana MoonLight Murders that took place in the 1940s in Texas were never mentioned on the show. It's a baffling serial killer mystery of the suspect, who was never caught. A writer wrote about the similarities between this case and the Zodiac case.

The disappearance of Linda Peugeot and her daughter Lori Mae in 1969 from LaVale, Maryland. Stanley Barton Hoss Jr confessed to being responsible, but their bodies were never recovered. Hoss committed suicide in 1978.

It is a really fascinating case and one the locals have never forgotten about. My parents were children at the time and both vividly remember the news stories and searches for Linda and Lori. It is sad that they were never found, but it is possible they turned up as Jane Does somewhere else in the country. Hoss was arrested two weeks after Linda and Lori disappeared, in Iowa. He was driving Linda's car, so he could have dumped them anywhere.

Both Doe Network and the Charley Project have profiles on the case. It's very creepy to say the least, especially the photo of Hoss!

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/p/peugeot_linda.html
http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/p/peugeot_lori.html

http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/2134dfmd.html
http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/2135dfmd.html

The George Smith case in CT. He was the honeymooner who disappeared on the cruise. His wife was found sleeping in a hallway and there was blood on the side of the boat. They don't know if he was murdered or fell off his balcony in a drunken stupor.I may be alone here but I think George was trashed and fell over. I think it was an accident. People on cruise ships get hammered all the time (a lot of folks, not all!) and there is no sense of time so it is easy to keep drinking with no sense of time. I have been on a few cruises but no, I am not a drinker. I did get a lot of entertainment by watching all teh drunk people, though!

Natalee Hollway? I don't in any way want to sound like I am blaming the victim, because I am not, but she left with two strange men late at night. Sadly, she is probably deceased.

Does anyone know if Brian Schaffer's case was ever investigated as a Smiley Face Gang crime?

The Ugly Tuna Saloona is located here: 1546 N. High Street
Columbus, Ohio 43201 Which is less than a mile from a big river, the Olentangy River.

According to this article: http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/05/21/smiley.face.killer/index.html they were active in 25 cities in 11 states and were definitely committing their crimes in the 2000s.

Drunken college age men were the targets, and one of the investigators said this: "I believe these young men are being abducted by individuals in the bars, taken out, at some point held for a period of time before they're entered into the water," Gannon said.

I found nothing on Brian's website www.findbrianshaffer.com to indicate that the smiley face killers has been considered.

BTW, Brian's father died last fall 9/14/2008 when a tree fell on him during a windstorm.

Brian's dad died? No way... that's so sad! His case has always bugged me. I hope that the family is given SOMETHING in the years to come... or better yet, tomorrow.

There's a case in Hays, Kansas that's over 20 years old. The thing is, there is absolutely nothing on the net about it.

A woman who worked as a secretary for a lawyer named Mary Lang, disappeared one day. It was in broad daylight, and all they've found have been her car, which the door was wide open and her purse. Over 20 years and they haven't found anything else. Like any town there were a lot of rumors about this case.

Margie Dabney, an elderly woman with advanced Alzheimer's, disappeared from a Dallas airport in 2001. Her husband was wheelchair bound and had requested an airline attendant to assist him and his wife. Accounts vary, she either vanished after going into the bathroom or she wandered off into the crowd.

In 2007, her remains were found in a field 15 miles from the airport; she had died of blunt force trauma to the head:

http://www.bakersfield.com/1380/story/613776.html

Some additional information about the case (when she was still classified as a missing person):

http://articles.latimes.com/2002/mar/10/news/mn-32099

I just wanted to suggest two cases which I remember from the medium sized city (Topeka, KS) in which I grew up.

The first case has been or will be profiled on 48 Hours and was a cold-blooded murder of a one-time neighbor (and mother of a classmate) of mine, Karen Harkness, and her boyfriend, Michael Sisco. They were both shot to death while they slept. The night before, they had been out gambling and had won a substantial amount of money, but few feel that robbery was a motive. As soon as the murders occurred, rumors spread like wildfire of a scorned ex-girlfriend or ex-wife and a love-triangle turned murderous. It is rumoured that police have a good idea of the perpetrator but lack enough hard evidence to arrest this individual.

Some links about this case:

http://cjonline.com/stories/092608/loc_337023377.shtml

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4179/is_/ai_n11801186


The second case is a case which I remember quite well, the murder of Roxanne Zwiesler. Roxanne lived in a wealthy area of the city and moved in elite, political circles in the capital. It is unclear how she was able to afford her rather lavish lifestyle on her salary as a lingerie saleswoman (part-time, if memory serves me correct but I may be mistaken…) at a local, upscale department store. Newspapers made veiled references to high-class prostitution and drug related activities. Was Roxanne a high-class escort or a small-time drug dealer to the elite of Topeka? Rumours again flew through Topeka that her death was not being aggressively investigated and that the political elite of the city wanted it kept that way.

Furthermore, an amateurish attempt was made by the killer to make it look as if a break-in had occurred (slitting the screens from the inside, for example), leading police to figure that she knew her killer and had most likely invited him in. This 15 year-old case is still unsolved and is classified as a “cold-case”.

Addl info: www.coldcasekansas.com

I’d really love to see UM profile either of them, they are both intriguing cases.

A case I would like to see is the unexplained death/unsolved murder of my Wife's uncle. His name was Russell Goudy Jr. and he was killed in 1977 in Glendora, CA after hitchhiking to Huntington Beach from Downey, CA. He was found on the side of a road in some brush, nude and apparently he had been sexually assaulted, tortured and strangled. Also, there were cigarette burns on him. He was only 14 years old at the time.

William Bonin (The "Freeway Killer") was always suspected in his death, but there's some debate to as if Bonin was actually in jail at the time of Russell's death.

I have always suspected that Randy Kraft killed him, and my thoughts were also reiterated by a man who wrote a book on Kraft. The crime fit Kraft's MO, and he lived near Glendora at the time of the murder.

My Wife's family does not wish to re-open the wounds, and since Bonin was executed in the 90's, they have tried to put this to rest as well. The whole thing has been really hard on my Wife's family, especially her Grandmother and it's a pretty much "off-limits" topic for the most part. But for UM superfans like me, it's hard not to wonder just exactly what happened.

Anyways, hopefully someday the truth will come out. Randy Kraft is still on death row but apparently he will not talk to anyone about his crimes since to this day he maintains his innocence, even though when he was arrested he had a corpse in his van with him. :rolleyes:

The unsolved 1969 murder of Penn State student Betsy Aardsma in the campus library:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betsy_Aardsma

The line "Somebody better help that girl" possess great potential eeriness value...and the candle displays/odd man roaming near the site many years later

In case I haven't already mentioned it, here's another case from my home state that would be suitable for UM: the murder of Joan Webster. She was a Harvard graduate student who disappeared from the Logan Airport in November 1981. Her remains were found almost nine years later.

The suspect in the case was Leonard "The Quahog" Paradiso. Although there was never enough evidence to charge him with Joan Webster's death, he was convicted of murder in an unrelated case. He was serving life in prison when he died in 2008.

UM should have done a segment on the infamous Blackfriars Massacre.

On June 28, 1978, five men were shot and killed execution-style at the Blackfriars Pub in South Boston. Two men, Robert Italiano and William Ierardi, were tried for the murders, but both were acquitted.

No one else was ever charged in the case, but there were other suspects, aside from Italiano and Ierardi. They include: William Femia (who was killed during a botched robbery in 1983), Stephen 'The Rifleman' Flemmi, James Martorano, and - perhaps not surprisingly - James 'Whitey' Bulger.

The Blackfriars Pub eventually went out of business, and was replaced by a row of stores.

I think the word really needs to get out about this case (h/t Websleuthers (http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?t=80541)). There's a serial killer who's been operating in South L.A. since 1985. They call him "The Grim Sleeper" because there's a 13 year stretch with no known victims. He picked up women off the street (some prostitutes, some not), shot, raped, and dumped them. There was one surviving witness. Police didn't go public with their investigation until just a couple years ago, possibly putting women's lives at risk by keeping quiet. Here are two excellent articles by L.A. Weekly on the case. Believe me, you will be outraged when you read them.
First Article (http://www.laweekly.com/2008-08-28/news/grim-sleeper/)
Second Article (http://www.laweekly.com/2009-03-12/news/grim-sleeper-39-s-sole-survivor/1)

And here's a website (http://find.thegrimsleeper.com/)dedicated to the investigation.

This case has themes familiar to those of you who know the BTK, EAR-ONS, and Conn River Valley cases. They mention the Bike Path Rapist in the first article. There are so many clues that just got brushed aside in this case. It seems so solvable, that it's infuriating.

ETA: Here's AMW's page (http://www.amw.com/fugitives/brief.cfm?id=60381) on The Grim Sleeper

I always wanted UM to profile the Jacob Wetterling case. He was abducted in 1989 from a road near his house in St. Joseph, MN. I think he was with his brother and a friend on their bikes. There's been so much speculation on this case over the years, and so many leads that have gone nowhere. Jacob's mother Patty has become a very public figure and advocate for children's safety. AMW profiled the case, but UM never did. The incident caused a panic throughout the whole Twin Cities metro and surrounding areas. I remember it quite well because I'm about the same age as Jacob, and it seemed unbelievable that it could happen to kids like us.

Just because it's a local story and was the first to come to mind. This young man was missing for 5 years from the city I live in (Terre Haute, IN). Everyone had pretty much assumed he was dead but no one knew where he or his vehicle were. Then this past summer the police received a tip that there was a car underneath the water in the Wabash river. They found his car and his remains inside. So there is now a homicide investigation underway...I can't imagine he got in that river accidentally, as the terrain around where the car is found would never be somewhere you would drive a car. I hope someday they solve this case.

http://www.scottjavinsismissing.org/

I always wanted UM to profile the Jacob Wetterling case. He was abducted in 1989 from a road near his house in St. Joseph, MN. I think he was with his brother and a friend on their bikes. There's been so much speculation on this case over the years, and so many leads that have gone nowhere. Jacob's mother Patty has become a very public figure and advocate for children's safety. AMW profiled the case, but UM never did. The incident caused a panic throughout the whole Twin Cities metro and surrounding areas. I remember it quite well because I'm about the same age as Jacob, and it seemed unbelievable that it could happen to kids like us.
I agree this one would be great if it were profiled. Can you believe it has been 20 years?

Natalee Holloway
The Albuquerque West Mesa murders
The murders of Albuquerque couple Greg and Bernadette Ohlemacher
The Jacuqueline Levitz case

Those are the only ones I can think of right now. I will add more later.

There was a 20 year old beautiful blonde woman named Morgan Harrington who went missing in Virginia recently. She went to a Metallica concert with friends, got up during the concert and walked towards the back concession area and was never seen again. They found her cell phone and purse near the arena which is a bad sign.

One story here with a statement from Metallica pleading for her return. (http://www.besternews.com/related/Top%20Stories%20from%20LiveDaily.com/Woman%20goes%20missing%20during%20Metallica%20concert/?ref=feed|232|0)

The thing is, according to Nancy Grace's show, she had met some guy off the Internet that she was supposed to meet there. She was with some girlfriends but none of them saw anything or any man. They said she just got up during the concert and walked away. Apparently, she walked outside and was denied re-entry so she called her friends and said she would find her own way home.

The interesting thing is now the Police are saying that several different witnesses saw a woman matching her description hitchhiking away from a location very close to the concert arena during the time of the concert. This would fit neatly with the story that she was going to "find her own way home." It would also possibly explain why she is still missing (obviously it's not safe for a young woman to be hitchhiking at night).

Story discussing the hitchhiking theory here. (http://www.wbtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=11500726) Also several different pictures of Morgan are listed there.

Basically, I think this would be a great story for UM if it were still on the air.

I always wondered why Klaus Von Bulow never offered to appear on "Final Appeal"?

That would have been a great episode. I have to imagine it was due to movie and book rights.

First one I can think of are the five or six severed feet that appeared on beaches in British Columbia and Washington over the space of a year or so.

Took me a while to think of one but I'd like to see is the case of the Carroll A. Deering, a five masted schooner that was discovered run aground on Diamond Shoals near Cape Hatteras, N.C, in 1921. No trace of her crew was ever found.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carroll_A._Deering

I had never heard of it until I visited the Grave of the Atlantic Museum in Hatteras this October. Many similarities between this incident and the case of the Mary Celeste, which was profiled on UM.

Edit: NM, answered my own question. :P

I agree this one would be great if it were profiled. Can you believe it has been 20 years?

I agree. It would have been great if the Jacob Wetterling case had been profiled on UM. In hindsight, it's a disappoinment that it never was. But if there's any way anyone lives with that disappointment, chances are it is the knowledge that the case got national attention at other media outlets (including - but not limited to - America's Most Wanted). Nevertheless, when you want a case solved in the worst way, you can never bring too much public attention to it.

There is another 1989 missing persons case that would have been appropriate for UM, but it's one from my home state of Massachusetts (and I have mentioned this case at this forum before): the disappearance of Melanie Jo Melanson.

Melanie Jo Melanson was a Woburn teenager who went missing on October 27, 1989. At the time, she was only 14, but just a few days shy of her 15th birthday. Melanie was last seen at an industrial park near the Woburn/Stoneham border, and was known to be in the company of two boys she knew. But the boys in question gave conflicting accounts regarding her disappearance, each claiming that the other was the last person to see Melanie.

Here are two links related to the case.

http://abcnews.go.com/2020/vanished-melanie-melanson-20-years/story?id=8927393

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/m/melanson_melanie.html

There was a 20 year old beautiful blonde woman named Morgan Harrington who went missing in Virginia recently. She went to a Metallica concert with friends, got up during the concert and walked towards the back concession area and was never seen again. They found her cell phone and purse near the arena which is a bad sign.

One story here with a statement from Metallica pleading for her return. (http://www.besternews.com/related/Top%20Stories%20from%20LiveDaily.com/Woman%20goes%20missing%20during%20Metallica%20concert/?ref=feed|232|0)

The thing is, according to Nancy Grace's show, she had met some guy off the Internet that she was supposed to meet there. She was with some girlfriends but none of them saw anything or any man. They said she just got up during the concert and walked away. Apparently, she walked outside and was denied re-entry so she called her friends and said she would find her own way home.

The interesting thing is now the Police are saying that several different witnesses saw a woman matching her description hitchhiking away from a location very close to the concert arena during the time of the concert. This would fit neatly with the story that she was going to "find her own way home." It would also possibly explain why she is still missing (obviously it's not safe for a young woman to be hitchhiking at night).

Story discussing the hitchhiking theory here. (http://www.wbtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=11500726) Also several different pictures of Morgan are listed there.

Basically, I think this would be a great story for UM if it were still on the air.

I remember seeing the case the other day when I was flipping channels and put it on Nancy Grace for a few minutes. I agree it would be a great story for UM.

I've got 2 missing persons cases. One very old skool! From 1930, when Judge Crater went missing and then a few weeks later his mistress, showgirl Sally Lou Ritz, vanished! Other case is Mitrice Richardson, a young woman who disappeared this summer.

Various unsolved murders....

*A socialite "associated" with JFK named Mary Meyer
*Betty Aardsma who was stabbed to death in her college library
*Jam Master Jay

*A socialite "associated" with JFK named Mary Meyer

Is she among the "mysterious deaths" listed in JFK assassination lore?

Is she among the "mysterious deaths" listed in JFK assassination lore?

Yes, she is!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Mastermind
Is she among the "mysterious deaths" listed in JFK assassination lore?


Yes, she is!

You could do about 100 UM segments on each of the people on that list!

There are some truly bizzare deaths that some of those people had:eek: !!!

You could get a sample of 100 random deaths of people in the US and not come up with some of the bizzare manners of death these people endured.

I'm not saying that these people were definitely killed via conspiracy, but GEEZ. :eek:

Another one I'd like to see profiled is the disappearance of Boris Weisfeiler, an American citizen who vanished in Chile in 1985. It is believed that the military snatched him, thinking he was a spy and not realizing he was an American. Once the military got him they turned him over to Colonia Dignidad, a cult compound run by ex-Nazis.

I am a friend of the Weisfeiler family, his neice told me that UM had actually expressed interest in putting the case on the show, but it never happened.

http://www.weisfeiler.com/boris/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boris_Weisfeiler

Another one I'd like to see profiled is the disappearance of Boris Weisfeiler, an American citizen who vanished in Chile in 1985. It is believed that the military snatched him, thinking he was a spy and not realizing he was an American. Once the military got him they turned him over to Colonia Dignidad, a cult compound run by ex-Nazis.

I am a friend of the Weisfeiler family, his neice told me that UM had actually expressed interest in putting the case on the show, but it never happened.

http://www.weisfeiler.com/boris/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boris_Weisfeiler

I express my condolences and my sympathies to you. But solving this case would be next to impossible.

1. If this happened during the Pinochet regime, there is no chance that the feds are going to dig up those skeletons for one individual(pardon the pun).

2. The CIA members that were involved with Colonia D, may be high ranking officials in the CIA by now. They are going to do their damnest to stonewall any investigation.

3. If he was killed, I doubt you'd even find a body. Sadly, people disappearing is an all too common occurence in dictatorships. And when you have your govt behind you...essentially anything and everything is at your disposal in terms of getting rid of a body. Heck, they may have buried him in broad daylight in an unmarked grave.

4. I don;t know what clues you could follow? After all this time are any of the people in Chile that may have partaken in the abduction, even alive.

5. if you're ordered by your govt to abduct and kill someone...Technically you are not doing anything illegal. How would you put someone in jail or prosecute them. The best you could do is some human rights tribunal for the victims of Pinochet...but i believe that's happened already, no?

I assume your interest now is just to verify whether he's alive or dead..no?

I express my condolences and my sympathies to you. But solving this case would be next to impossible.

1. If this happened during the Pinochet regime, there is no chance that the feds are going to dig up those skeletons for one individual(pardon the pun).

2. The CIA members that were involved with Colonia D, may be high ranking officials in the CIA by now. They are going to do their damnest to stonewall any investigation.

3. If he was killed, I doubt you'd even find a body. Sadly, people disappearing is an all too common occurence in dictatorships. And when you have your govt behind you...essentially anything and everything is at your disposal in terms of getting rid of a body. Heck, they may have buried him in broad daylight in an unmarked grave.

4. I don;t know what clues you could follow? After all this time are any of the people in Chile that may have partaken in the abduction, even alive.

5. if you're ordered by your govt to abduct and kill someone...Technically you are not doing anything illegal. How would you put someone in jail or prosecute them. The best you could do is some human rights tribunal for the victims of Pinochet...but i believe that's happened already, no?

I assume your interest now is just to verify whether he's alive or dead..no?


I'm really not involved with trying to solve the mystery, I am just a friend of Boris's sister and niece. Personally, I believe the people in Colonia Dignidad probably killed him soon after he was taken there because they thought he was a spy from the KGB or Mossad. When they found out that he was an American citizen and well-known mathematician, they made sure everything was covered up and the cover story of drowning was concocted.

At this point it's Boris's sister that needs closure.

As far as the people who ran Colonia Dignidad, most of them are very much still alive, including the leader, Paul Schäfer, who is now in prison in Chile for child sex abuse.

Colonia Dignidad is still in operation though it has now been re-named Villa Baviera.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonia_Dignidad

Has anyone heard of the three people who disappeared in the Great Smoky Mountains in Tennesse from 1969-1981? They went hiking and disappeared never to be seen again. I would like to see these profiled.

Has anyone heard of the three people who disappeared in the Great Smoky Mountains in Tennesse from 1969-1981? They went hiking and disappeared never to be seen again. I would like to see these profiled.

I've heard of those cases.

It's not unusual for people to disapear in Mountain territory. There are tons of dangers (bears, mountain lions, bobcats, poisinous snakes, cold expsosure, crevices, etc. ect..). Is there really a mystery here?

It has long been theorized by law enforcemnt that escaped criminals and meth dealers hide out in the Mountain areas.

I guess it's not far-fectched that some serial rapist is hiding out in the Mountains.