Does anyone know how many cases/segments aired in all from the first Raymond Burr special in January 1987 until the final Robert Stack episode in 2002?

Also, has anyone ever tried to put together a chronological order/visual timeline of when each case occurred?

If it were me, I would probably not take into account the Ghosts, Sci-Med, Lost Loves type of segments but instead focus on the segments where a crime occurred or where it's believed to be a possibility that a crime occurred (Murder, Wanted, Missing Persons, Unexplained Death, Fraud). It might just be me, but I think it would be interesting to see a visual timeline of when all of those cases occurred, just to put all of them in perspective and in relativity of one another.

That sounds like a massive, albeit very awesome, project. A lot of cases would have multiple dates too. For instance; person X went missing on X date and then person X was found dead on X date. This could go even further, you could also add updates, etc. like person X had their case solved on X date and person Y was the murderer. Person Y was executed on X date, etc.

It sounds like a LOT of work, but would be totally awesome if it were done. I imagine that once all the original Stack episodes are up on Amazon Instant Video it would make it much easier to do. Especially if you had several people collaborate on it. Have one person tackle each season or something along those lines. I'd gladly volunteer to help out if this project ever got off the ground.

Judging from your sign up date here I'm sure you've seen this. It's somewhat close (I think) to what you're describing.

http://www.sitcomsonline.com/boards/showthread.php?t=213945

I go through that thread twice or so a year.

That sounds like a massive, albeit very awesome, project.

My thoughts exactly. It would take quite a while to organize. Except for the most popular and often discussed cases that I'm sure the majority of us could recite the dates off the top of our heads.

This kind of reminds me of a thread we did a did a year or two ago here where we talked about 1989 being a "busy year" in terms of UM related crimes. In fact, I think 4 major cases took place over the period of 3 weeks. It was an interesting discussion.

There is now a UM iphone application.

Chronological view is not available currently; However they do have a geographical view of each case, which is helpful. It probably wouldn't be too much work for them to do it chronologically, since all the information is already inputted.

I looked up two years worth of missing, murder and abduction cases through the UM wiki page. They have all cases listed by year, but not in chronological order for a timeline. To say it would take an eternity to do every case...would be an understatement. But for anyone interested, here is 1988 and 1989. Years I kind of chose at random since that's when UM was getting off the ground as a series. Those were grim years for UM related crimes.

The author of this thread's original point applies. There are some interesting facts once they are put in a timeline. For instance...

1. The abductions of Amber Swartz, Angelo Desideri and Matthew Chase all took place over the course of 5 days.

2. Cathy Ford disappeared on the same day that Jim Burnside murdered Annette.

3. Several hours after Ethel Kidd's body was found, Patricia Meehan disappeared on the other side of the country.

4. Debi Whitlock and Lisa Marie Kimmel were murdered on the same day.

5. Sarah Beard, who was attacked with a hammer and raped by her boyfriend Wadada, attended the University of New Mexico the same time Tara Calico did. Sarah lived just off campus and Tara commuted from her home in Belen. Sarah was attacked 3 months after Tara disappeared. I wonder if they ever crossed paths on campus.


1988 -

February 12 – Larry George murders Janice Morris and Ralph Swaine, shoots Geraldine. (AL)
February 17 – Cathy Ford disappears. (Gormania, WV)
February 17 - Annette Burnside is murdered by Jim Burnside. (Mantaee County, FL)
February 26 – Gretchen Burford is murdered. (Palo Alto, CA)
February 28 – Neil Jennings is murdered. (Odessa, TX)
March 7 – Texas teens killing spree. (Gainsville, TX)
March 16 – Mickey and Trudy Thompson are murdered. (Bradbury, CA)
March 25 – Debi Whitlock is murdered. (Modesto, CA)
March 25 – Lisa Marie Kimmell is murdered. (Casper, WY)
April 25 – Elizabeth Campbell disappears. (Copperas, TX)
May 4 – Crystal Spencer is killed. (Los Angeles, CA)
May 7 – Stephen Sandlin is murdered. (Mountainair, NM)
May 11 – Veronica “Tina” Jefferson is murdered. (Arlington, VA)
June 3 – Amber Swartz is abducted. (Pinole, CA)
June 5 – Angelo Desideri is abducted. (Phoenix, AZ)
June 8 – Matthew Chase is abducted. (Los Angeles, CA)
June 18 – Phillip Fraser is murdered. (WA)
July 4 – Shane Stewart and Sally McNelley are murdered. (San Angelo, TX)
July 10 – Signal Mountain murders (Chattanooga, TN)
July 11 – Lester Garnier is murdered. (Walnut Creek, CA)
July 12 – Barbara Jean Horn is abducted and murdered. (PA)
July 26 – Annie Laurie Hearin is abducted (Jackson, MS)
August 6 – Jane Boroski is stabbed 29 times. (West Swanzey, NH)
August 7 – Keith Reinhard disappears. (Silver Plume, CO)
August 15 – Redwood City arsonist burns and films crime. (Stockton, CA)
August 21 – Rick Church attacks the Ritter Family. (Woodstock, IL)
August 22 – “Carol” is shot in the face. (Putnam, CT)
September 10 – Jaclyn Dowaliby disappears. (Midlothian, IL)
September 11 – James Donald King murders second wife Gloria. (Greensboro, NC)
September 14 – Jaclyn Dowaliby’s body is found. (Midlothian, IL)
September 17 – Matthew Chase’s body is found. (Los Angeles, CA)
September 28 – Tara Calico disappears (Belen, NM)
October 8 – Lee Selwyn killed by Franklin Perkins. (Los Angeles, CA)
October 31 – David Stone disappears. (Tucson, AZ)
November 4 – John Lee Martin is murdered. (Lee County, VA)
November 8 – Ron Argenti is murdered by Maria Armstrong. (Mesa, AZ)
November 12 – Dwayne McCorkendale is murdered. (Chandler, OK)
November 19 – Michaela Joy Garecht is abducted. (Hayward, CA)
December 3 – Warren Fulton and Rachel Raver are murdered. (Reston, VA)
December 8 – Sarah Beard is attacked by Wadada. (University of New Mexico)
December 23 – Four teenagers run off the road. (Greensboro, NC)


1989 -

January 19 – Michael Francke is murdered. (Salem, OR)
January 22 – Jeffrey Digman is killed. (San Diego, CA)
March 1 – Kristi and Bobby Baskin are abducted by Sandra & Marvin Maple. (Murfreesboro, TN)
March 9 – Kevin Huges is murdered. Sammy Sadler is shot. (Nashville, TN)
March 10 – Sharon Rogers barely escapes her car bombing. (San Diego, CA)
March 14 – Gladys Owens is last seen alive. (Seattle, WA)
March 15 – Tracy Kirkpatrick is murdered. (Frederick, MD)
March 31 – Tracy Wofford-Bunn is murdered. (Baton Rouge, LA)
April 12 – Ethel Kidd is abducted. (Burr Hill, VA)
April 20 – Ethel Kidd’s body is discovered. (Burr Hill, VA)
April 20 – Patricia Meehan disappears. (Circle, MT)
May 25 – Cindy James disappears. (Richmond, British Columbia)
June 1 – Joan, Michelle and Christie Rogers are murdered. (Tampa, FL)
June 4 – Russell Evans is killed. (Spokane, WA)
June 7 – Adam Hecht disappears. (Los Angeles, CA)
June 8 – Cindy James’ body is discovered. (Richmond, British Columbia)
June 21 – Nicholas Koroplous is abducted by mother Levia Molinari. (San Francisco, CA)
July 16 – Kaitlyn Arquette is murdered. (NM)
July 22 – Pam Page disappears. (Peoria, AZ)
August 6 – Donna Callahan is abducted after leaving convenience store. (Gulf Breeze, FL)
August 9 – Todd Kelley is murdered by Mahfuz Huq. (IN)
August 21 – Norman Ladner is killed. (Pearl River, MS)
September 9 – Paloma Gibson is abducted by Melody Martin. (Pasadena, CA)
September 18 – Darlene Messer is abducted from convenience store. (Lake City, FL)
September 19 – Eileen Mangold is abducted from gas station. Body found the next day. (Tampa, FL)
September 20 – Darlene Messer’s body is discovered.
October 22 – Jacob Wetterling is abducted. (St. Joseph, MN)
December 24 – Boston rapist strikes. (Boston, MA)
December 27 – Boston rapist strikes. (Boston, MA)

Good job of listing all of the UM crime cases/segments for 1988 and 1989. It does put things in perspective of what specific crimes were happening at that time. I don't want to seem like I'm trivializing these events because these are real people and these things really happened to them and I know family members of victims occasionally visit and post on these forums. It's just more of a way to put these cases in perspective, from an outsider's point of view.


Just an anecdote: I've been fortunate to never be the victim of a serious crime but the only time I've witnessed a major theft was when a man opened the unlocked front passenger door to a van I was sitting in when I was four years old. I was in a van with my sister in a library parking lot (my mom went inside, to return books I presume) and a man that I recall looking like Michael Biehn's character from the original Terminator movie (may not have actually looked like him but that's what I visualized from my brief eyewitness account) opened the front passenger door and I think he might have said "I'll take this!" and took my Mom's purse (don't know why she left it in the van).

She ended up finding all of her stuff scattered around the perimeter of the library. Anyway, the point is that this happened in early 1988 (I think February or March) and I've lived in the same city and the same area of the city my entire life, so maybe crime was just on an uptick during that time for some reason. Okay, I'm done rambling.

An amazing idea, way too much work for one person but e.g. by using a wiki could be kept tidy if not the most aesthetically pleasing.

I suppose that it might be slightly easier to do it the way that Dynoguy did in the above post. Most of the crime cases featured occurred in the U.S. and I believe ALL of them were within North America. So, a corresponding map with the timeline would be ambitious but not impossible.