Much is known about the two infamous serial killers never caught: Jack the Ripper and the Zodiac Killer. What is talked about less are the similarities between the cases.

Both cases involved five confirmed victims, letters taunting officials, and weekend killings that ended abruptly without a clear reason. There are also unconfirmed victims associated with both killers.

The Zodiac killer claimed he killed as many as 37 people, although authorities have tentatively connected four others to his MO: Robert Domingos and Linda Edwards (1963), Cheri Jo Bates (1966), and the disappearance of Donna Lass (1970).

Jack the Ripper has been connected to another four murders through his signature and MO: Annie Millwood (attacked 25 February 1888), Ada Wilson (attacked 28 March 1888), Emma Elizabeth Smith (attacked 3 April 1888), and Martha Tabram (attacked 7 August 1888).

Was the Zodiac killer a copycat of Jack the Ripper? Stranger things have happened in the world of True Crime.

Lake Herman Road Attack

When Betty Lou Jensen (16) and David Arthur Faraday (17) were discovered on 20 December 1968, the police had little to go on. The scene was devoid of physical evidence; it was simply two teenagers who went for a romantic drive and never returned.

A passing driver spotted them on the roadside, their bodies illuminated by their headlights. David had been shot behind the left ear, execution-style, but was still breathing; he was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital.

Betty had made a run for it and was gunned down 8.5 metres from the rear of their car. Bullets had hit her torso from a skilled marksman, and she was pronounced dead at the scene. There was no other evidence; no sign of a struggle, and no tyre tracks.

Blue Rock Springs Attack

On 4 July 1969, Darlene Elizabeth Ferrin (22) and Michael Renault Mageau (19) were sitting in their car when a light brown Corsair or Mustang pulled up at an angle to them. This was not unusual, as the area was known locally as a “lovers’ lane”. The couple expected an officer to ask to see their ID.

Darlene reasoned she might even know the officer, as she worked in a diner popular with local law enforcement. She was described as friendly with many people in the town—some would say too friendly and trusting.

Michael’s window was lowered, and a man approached from that side, shining a bright light into the cabin that blinded the couple. Almost immediately, the unknown man started shooting into the car. Nine bullets tore through the vehicle, many passing through Michael and striking Darlene, who slumped against the steering wheel.

The killer turned and began walking away, before returning to discharge another four bullets. Michael attempted to hide from these shots by pushing himself into the back of the car.

That same night, switchboard operator Nancy Slover received a call stating there had been a shooting at Blue Rock Springs. The man reporting the shooting gave Slover the creeps; she noted he spoke with a flat, calm tone and no distinct local or regional accent. It was during this call that the killer mentioned the two previous unsolved killings of Betty and David.

Right after the shooting, three teenagers looking for their friend happened upon the car. Michael had crawled out of the vehicle by this point. They called emergency services and Michael survived his injuries; Darlene was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital.

Lake Berryessa Attack

Bryan Calvin Hartnell (22) and Cecelia Ann Shepard (22) were supposed to be in San Francisco, but they left too late and decided to head to a local picnic area instead. The lake was not completely deserted, but it was quiet on that fateful evening.

The couple abandoned their car and strolled to a small peninsula, spreading their blanket and discussing their future. Neither saw the figure lurking by a cluster of oak trees until it was too late.

Cecelia first noticed the stranger, but Bryan ignored her until she shouted that he had a gun. The stranger approached wearing an executioner’s hood featuring a crosshair symbol. He told them he was an escaped convict from a state prison and tied them both up with a plastic clothesline. Bryan asked if the gun was loaded and was shown that it contained bullets, though the firearm was never fired.

The assailant then produced a wooden-handled knife and stabbed them both repeatedly. Bryan survived the savage attack, but Cecelia died from her injuries two days later in hospital.

Presidio Heights Attack

Similar to Jack the Ripper, the Zodiac’s last confirmed kill was in complete contrast to his previous crimes. On 11 October 1969, cab driver Paul Stine picked up his murderer at Mason and Geary Streets in San Francisco. He was asked to drive to Maple Street, before continuing one block further to the darker intersection of Washington and Cherry Streets.

It was here that a gun was placed against the back of his head, and he was shot dead.

Again, in an eerie parallel to Jack the Ripper, the killer took a grisly souvenir which he would later mail to a local newspaper alongside his taunting letters. This was not a piece of a victim’s kidney, but a bloodstained swatch of Stine’s shirt.

Letters

One of the greatest similarities between the two serial killers is how they taunted the public and authorities through written correspondence. Much has been written about the complex cyphers the Zodiac sent. In 1969, high school teacher Donald Harden and his wife, Betty, decoded the first of the four major cyphers, the Z408.

Both killers sent threatening letters to newspapers, demanding publication. We assume these letters were genuine. Forensic evidence supports the Zodiac’s letters, while many historians suspect Jack the Ripper’s were hoaxes. However, the public and police believed the Ripper letters were authentic when they were received.

In these communications, both killers gave themselves names. The Zodiac’s name was taken from a watch brand, not astrological signs, as many initially thought. Both sets of letters have strange spelling errors, which researchers believe were deliberate misspellings meant to hide the killer’s intelligence and education level.

Investigations

The Zodiac killer’s investigation was led primarily by Inspectors Bill Armstrong and Dave Toschi of the San Francisco Police Department. It grew into a complex, multi-agency homicide investigation spanning several cities and counties.

Because the Zodiac committed crimes in different geographical jurisdictions, it created an immediate administrative headache. The Ripper had caused a similar crisis when he murdered Catherine Eddowes in Mitre Square. While his other canonical murders occurred within the jurisdiction of the Metropolitan Police, the Mitre Square murder fell under the jurisdiction of the City of London Police. This cross-border friction created significant operational hurdles 81 years before the Zodiac terrorised California.

In both eras, officers from different departments were often reluctant to share information, leads, and suspect files smoothly. There was no central coordination, so vital clues weren’t shared in real time. The slow pace of justice was further hindered by administrative friction in these two famous cases.

Suspects

Three main figures often dominate discussions surrounding the Zodiac’s identity. The first and most prominent is Arthur Leigh Allen. Allen became a suspect ten days after the Blue Rock Springs attack and was investigated thoroughly again in August 1971. A mountain of circumstantial evidence pointed towards him, alongside a background of severe criminal behaviour. However, fingerprints and partial DNA samples retrieved from the letters failed to match him. Allen died in 1992 without ever being charged.

Jack Tarrance was another name publicly linked to the case. Tarrance was accused in 2007 by his stepson, Dennis Kaufman, who claimed to have found damning evidence among his late stepfather’s belongings. However, official DNA and forensic comparisons once again ruled out a definitive match.

A former state trooper also came forward suspecting real estate salesman George Russell Tucker, but concrete forensic evidence failed to support the claim.

The Zodiac case seems destined to remain unsolved. The last known letter from the killer was received in January 1974. Like Jack the Ripper, the Zodiac’s identity remains a mystery. While a direct copycat link is unlikely, the Zodiac probably knew the Victorian killer well and used media manipulation to create public fear. Using the playbook of Jack the Ripper.

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It should have been a normal family holiday, but it ended in tragedy. Saad al-Hilli caravanned with his family in France in September 2012. They had spent the summer there the year before and had a wonderful time.

Their eldest daughter, Zainab, should have been at school, but like many families, they believed the time away would be beneficial, and it was only a week.

On 29th August, Saad drove his car onto the ferry and the fun began; it was the last time many of them would see the British coastline.

Camping

The family spent time in several locations. Upon arriving at Village Camping Europa, the family met Sandy Rambout, who would later become a key witness to the events that unfolded.

While staying at the campsite, Sandy observed a man dressed in a suit hanging around Saad’s caravan. She saw the two arguing, and the stranger then stormed over to the family’s BMW and banged on the bonnet.

Shortly after this incident, Saad left with his family, staying in several locations before arriving at the Solitaire Du Lac campsite on the edge of Lake Annecy.

Saad al-Hilli

Saad, born to a wealthy Baghdad family, fled his homeland with his father and brothers during Saddam Hussein’s rule. The reasons for his sudden departure remain unclear.

The family settled in London initially before moving to Surrey, where they bought a huge house. The house was then given to Saad as his family home when he had a young family—a fact that caused a great dispute between him and his brother when his father died.

Saad worked for various companies before securing a long-term contract with Surrey Satellite Technology Limited.

On 23rd August 2003, Saad married Iqbal, who was already married despite claiming to be single. The divorce papers were filed after her second marriage, adding to the mystery surrounding the couple.

In 2005, Zainab was born, followed three years later by Zeena. The two sisters were said to be inseparable.

Mountain Pass

At 14:30, Saad drove his car out of the campsite and headed towards the lake. Zainab sat up front with her father because she suffered from car sickness. Iqbal, her mother Suhaila, and her younger sister Zeena sat in the back.

The family’s possessions showed photos were taken at 15:15; thirty-three minutes later, the bodies would be found in a bullet-riddled car.

Witnesses recall seeing the car depart Chevaline and turn onto a winding, dead-end track. Did they make a mistake, or was there a reason for their choice of road?

Brett Martin was an ex-RAF pilot who decided to take his bike out for a ride. While riding out from the campsite, he was overtaken by a faster cyclist, forty-five-year-old Sylvain Mollier. As Brett crossed a bridge a few hundred metres from a lay-by, he heard gunshots. The running water drowned out much of the sound, and Brett continued on his way. He came around the bend and saw a car with the wheels spinning in reverse and a biker lying on the ground in front of the car.

He slowed down and went to help the biker; that was when Zainab staggered out in front of him, covered in blood. Having moved both the biker and Zainab to safety, Brett went back to turn the car off, but the doors were locked. He pushed the glass, and that is when he saw the massacre within the car.

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The foothills of the Sierra Nevada, although only a four-hour drive away, are in complete contrast to San Francisco. The area was a hitchhiker’s paradise and the ultimate place to escape.

In Quincy, Sierra Nevada, there is a small place called the Keddie Resort. The resort was popular for its barbecue food and fine dining. However, during the 1980s, it fell on harder financial times, and the owner, Gary Mollath, started renting the cabins to low-income families. With these families came low-level crime, mainly the sale of cannabis.

However, no crime was as horrific as the murder and kidnapping that occurred there.

The Families of Keddie

In November 1980, the Sharp family moved in. Glenna Sharp and her five children, aged five to fifteen, settled in. The children were clearly well-loved and emotionally supported by their mother, despite some comments about their lack of discipline.

Living close to their family was chef and occasional drug dealer Martin Smartt; he lived with his wife, Marilyn, and their children. His youngest stepson was Justin, who would be in the cabin during the murders.

Murder

On 11th April 1981, in Cabin 28, three people were found murdered and one missing. The three victims were Glenna Sharp (36), her son John Sharp (15), and his friend Dana Wingate (17). Dana was a troubled kid with a bad home life, known to the police. Tina Sharp, who was twelve at the time, went missing from the scene.

Also in the house at the time were: Greg, Rick, and Justin. Sheila, the other daughter, had arranged a sleepover at her friend Seabolt’s house next door.

The murder was brutal and occurred with some other cabins only mere feet away. It defies belief that no one heard anything that happened on that fateful night.

All three victims were found bound with medical tape and electrical cords. The victims had been beaten and mutilated. There were some inconsistencies, though: Dana had been strangled and his head placed on a pillow. Glenna’s murder showed signs of remorse, as she was covered with a blanket.

Two bloodied knives and one hammer were found at the scene. One of the knives, a steak knife, had been bent to a thirty-degree angle. Blood spatter showed that all three had been murdered in the living room.

Discovery

When Sheila arrived home at 7 am, she found the bodies. Sheila woke the three boys in another bedroom and helped them climb out of the window to avoid the carnage in the lounge. Greg, Rick, and Justin went out of the window and ran to the caretaker at Cabin 25, who called the police. Tina was missing from the scene.

Justin told the police that Tina was missing, but how did he know that if he had not seen the murders? He later said she had fallen overboard, and it was found that the family had watched The Love Boat before going to sleep. Blood was also found in their room, which indicated they must have been into the lounge. Justin was just a child, and his story kept changing.

Tina’s jacket and shoes were missing, along with various tools from a toolbox. There was no sign of the missing Sharp sister. The house showed no sign of forced entry.

Tina

Initially, police believed that Tina could have been involved in the murders, as items she was attached to had also left the cabin at the same time as her. This would also explain how the perpetrators had entered the building without force if Tina had let them in.

John Douglas, the profiler, even stated that he believed the murders were not premeditated due to the equipment used. Had Tina let someone into the cabin, and the murders occurred as a result of this?

The police continued this line of enquiry until her partial remains were recovered on 22nd April 1984. The skull and mandible were found a hundred miles away in Butte County. This discovery produced even more questions.

Martin Smartt

Martin Smartt was a chef and drug dealer. To anyone who listened, he would say he suffered from PTSD due to the Vietnam War. The truth was that, as a chef, he was nowhere near the fighting; he was, however, near the drugs and became a frequent user.

His behaviour on returning to the world was erratic, violent, and unpredictable. His wife and children were terrified of him.

A month before the killings, he befriended John Boubede at a local rehab facility. He moved Boubede into the family cabin without asking, and the two became inseparable. Whether they killed together remains to be proven.

Boubede was a convicted criminal with a long charge sheet for crimes such as breaking and burglary. On the night of the murder, they had asked Marilyn to invite Glenna with them for a drink, as Boubede had taken a liking to her. Glenna refused, and Marilyn later stated this put the two men in a temper.

Police questioned the two, but they each provided alibis, leading to no further charges. Smartt claimed a claw hammer, one of the murder weapons, was stolen from his house.

Many locals believe Martin Smartt was responsible for the killings and that Justin made up the two perpetrators to protect his stepfather.

Theories

Several other theories have been suggested for the murders.

Had John and Dana brought the killer home with them? On 11th April, the boys were seen hitchhiking by Glenna and given a lift home. Two hours later, around 3:30 pm, the pair hitchhiked back to Quincy to visit friends and party. Some speculate they were hitchhiking home when they gave the killer a lift home.

Was the murder a drug deal gone wrong? Dana had also allegedly stolen a quantity of LSD from a local drug dealer.

Famous serial killers Henry Lee Lucas and Otis Toole were also investigated as potential suspects; they have since been ruled out.

Despite these theories, the murder remains unsolved. Criticism of the police has stated that they failed to secure the crime scene, leaving DNA evidence at the scene to be missed.

The Keddie Resort never recovered from the murders. Cabin 28 became known as “Murder House”. Teenagers would dare each other to break in and spend a night. The owners put the resort up for sale in 1984, but no one would pay the $1.8 million asked.

Vagrants started moving into it, and the resort effectively became a ghost town. Cabin 28 was destroyed in 2004. The rest of the Sharp family have tried to move on from that horrific night; however, every part of their existence is plagued by the murder.

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Jill Dando was born in 1961, in Weston-super-Mare. She rose quickly through the media ranks, from her local newspaper to radio, and then into television. She hosted programmes such as Holiday, nightly news and the hugely successful Crimewatch.

Crimewatch, for those who are unaware, was a monthly show that showcased unsolved crimes and asked the public to help solve them.

Dando won accolades such as BBC’s Personality of the Year. She had a warmth on camera that drew people to her. Resembling Princess Diana, she had her appeal and was considered the nation’s favourite.

Murder

On 26th April 1999, she left her fiancé’s house to pop home. She needed to pick up some more clothes and deal with a fax she was expecting from her agent. The trip home was not part of a routine; it was a spur-of-the-moment plan. She was selling her house to move in with her fiancé, Alan Farthing.

At 11:30, she walked to her front door with her keys in her hand when she was approached by an unknown assailant and shot in the head once. A single bullet to the left temple. The killer left a single bullet casing on her doorstep. The assassination occurred in broad daylight.

A friend who worked in television spotted her unconscious body on the doorstep and called 999. Despite the attempts of the paramedics she died shortly after.

Witnesses remember seeing a tall man of Mediterranean appearance, aged between 35 and 40, in the area.

Theories ranged from a jealous ex-boyfriend, a professional hit from someone she had featured on Crimewatch, to a crazed stalker. After a year of getting nowhere, the one the police concentrated on was the stalker angle, especially when they met Barry George.

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On 3 January 1970, George Brown and his ten-year-old son found the decomposing body of a young woman wearing a navy-blue skirt and white slip. She was lying on her back and had a winter coat on.

The skirt was bunched up, suggesting sexual assault; her undergarments, a single shoe, and a purse lay a few feet away from her.

The remains had been partially consumed by animals. Snow had obliterated all tracks to and from the body that might have been visible.

It was not long before Captain Bud Roemer identified the body as Sister Cathy Cesnik.

On the surface, the case looked like another example of an unsolved homicide. Over the years, though, the case has grown into something much more sinister.

Sister Cathy

Sister Cathy was a twenty-six-year-old nun and high-school teacher who had vanished on 7 November 1969. Everybody remembers her as a fearsome teacher. Her students regard her as an inspiration, revering her as a saintly figure.

Catherine Cesnik is the reason I became a teacher. I still regard her as the finest teacher I ever had. - Gemma Hoskins

Her life was not without scandal. She became involved with Father Gerry Koob. She also worked at Archbishop Keough High School, which became best known for the abuse suffered by the young women there at the hands of high guidance counsellor Father Joseph Maskell.

Sister Cathy left Keough in autumn 1969 to teach at Western High School. Many noticed she seemed different in spring 1969. She appeared stressed, exhausted, and extremely nervous. Whether this was why she moved schools, we will never know.

Sister Cathy was aware of the school’s crimes, as students visited her apartment after she left to discuss them.

One student, who remains anonymous, speaks of an incident when she was at the apartment with Sister Cathy when Father Maskell and Father Neil Magnus burst in and threatened everyone with a gun. The girls were sharing stories about their abuse.

The day after this event allegedly happened, Sister Cathy was murdered and her body dumped. It was discovered two months later.

Investigation

The autopsy gave the cause of death as blunt force trauma. One blow to the throat caused suffocation, and she also had another blow to the head.

During the investigation, Father Koob, who Cathy had a relationship with, and Father Pete McKeon came forward saying that during a walk in the early hours, they had spotted Cathy’s car near her apartment block.

If the attack had been random, then how had the killer known where to return the car to and where Cathy lived? The killer must have been someone who knew Cathy, and the lack of signs of a struggle further supported this theory.

Father Koob, Father McKeon, and Sister Helen Russell Phillips, her former housemate, were the main suspects. Sister Helen had called Koob when Cathy did not return home, rather than the authorities. Why?

The two men stated they had an alibi for the night of the murder: they were watching the film Easy Rider in the cinema. Many found it unusual for men of the cloth to watch a film, like that. Koob and McKeon were giving each other alibis, but no one, not even the cinema staff, remembered seeing them there.

Koob’s relationship with Cathy was also a factor. Initially denying it, letters between them revealed their sexual relationship.

However, the priests were polygraphed several times and always passed.

Scandal

During the investigation, the church got involved and told the police they had to charge Koob or back off. By the mid-1970s, the case had died down with no fresh leads.

Theories persist that Sister Cathy was about to expose the abuse at the school and this is why she was murdered. However, we cannot be sure. Who would she have reported the abuse to?

Had she gone to the Archbishop or the Mother Superior, would they have taken action? The church had a habit of not dealing with these claims, opting instead to shuffle priests from one parish to another or send them on retreat when speculation got too bad.

In 1970, it’s unlikely that a single nun could have caused such a significant collapse. The victims would not try to get justice until the 1994s. The victims had to take the power back themselves and reclaim their story. However, when they filed it - it was outside the statute of limitations further prompting people to speculate about a cover-up

Maskell’s brother was a lieutenant in the Baltimore Police Department; he was in the perfect position to hide allegations of sexual assault and maybe even conceal a murder.

Maskell died in 2001 with mounting suspicion against him, not just for the sex crimes he committed, but also for the murder of Sister Cathy Cesnik. Whether he was guilty or not remains a question he will have to answer to God.

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Tim Hickman heard a firecracker sound at work and knew it was from the shop next door.

Six women had recently opened the Store of Many Colours. They sold an eclectic mix of natural foods, herbal supplements, water filters, jewellery, and other items.

Tim argued with himself; maybe he had been mistaken, and surely the sound was not what he thought. Why had no one else heard it? Why could he hear no other sounds, such as arguing or screaming? What he heard was an eerie silence.

The Stranger

Despite the risk to his own safety, Tim opened his door and looked out. He saw a white man with reddish-brown hair leave the store. He casually walked to the end of the block and turned right, disappearing.

Tim had recognised the man, though; he had locked eyes with him ten minutes earlier as he walked in front of his shop. Tim remembered him because he wore a grey herringbone or tweed jacket, which seemed too warm for the weather.

Tim did not stop there; he went to The Store of Many Colours and opened the door.

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Highway 16, known as the Yellowhead Highway, is part of the Trans-Canada Highway system. The route runs from Masset on Haida Gwaii, British Columbia, in the west to Winnipeg, Manitoba, in the east; it is nicknamed the Highway of Tears.

Leaving the cities and towns behind, the view is breathtaking and vast, embodying the essence of wilderness. It has been described as the perfect place to go missing; the killer at the root of this story took full advantage of this remote landscape.

The murders started in 1969, and estimates suggest as many as thirty-three women have gone missing or been killed. Due to the vast size of the region, each disappearance was initially treated as an isolated incident rather than the work of one or more serial killers.

Systematic Racism

The murders are deeply tied to the lingering effects of colonialism, social injustice, and systemic poverty among First Nations communities. Because reliable public transport was non-existent along the corridor, hitchhiking became a necessary social norm.

Indigenous communities have faced not only the tragedy of loved ones vanishing or being found dead, but also callous indifference and institutional racism. When individuals vanished, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) frequently refused to investigate, dismissing concerns by telling relatives the victims had simply moved away to seek a better life.

Generational mistrust of law enforcement severely hindered investigations; First Nations families were accustomed to authority figures invading their homes, forcibly removing their children, and forbidding them from speaking their native languages. They were reluctant to talk to authorities.

Gloria Moody

The youngest victim on the list of eighteen women officially recognised by police is Monica Jack, a twelve-year-old who disappeared in 1978 while riding her bike home from a shopping trip. Her remains were discovered in 1995, twenty kilometres from her home.

Gloria Moody, aged twenty-six, is widely regarded as the first victim linked to the Highway of Tears cases. She was walking home from a pub in 1969 when her brother lost sight of her; he returned to his hotel room assuming she was safe. Less than twenty-four hours later, two hunters discovered her body ten kilometres away near Williams Lake. Gloria had been severely beaten and sexually assaulted; her clothing was recovered a short distance from the scene.

Three in One Year

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, young women and teenagers continued to vanish along Highways 5, 16, and 97. In 1994, the rate of violence escalated dramatically.

Leah Germaine (15), Roxanne Thiara (15), and Ramona Wilson (16) were all murdered within a six-month window. This sudden concentration of deaths forced investigators to consider whether a serial killer was operating in the area, though institutional bias persisted.

Roxanne was a known sex worker struggling with addiction; she remained missing for a month before her body was discovered dumped beside Highway 16.

Ramona, by contrast, was a high school student who disappeared after hitchhiking to a local dance. In January 1995, the RCMP received an anonymous tip pinpointing a search location; police failed to locate her body at the time. Her remains were ultimately found in April, just a few kilometres from her home; she had been sexually assaulted and strangled.

Leah was found stabbed to death behind an elementary school; all three teenagers were killed in quick succession.

A Victim Worth Noticing

The ongoing tragedy finally captured widespread mainstream media attention when Nicole Hoar vanished in 2002. She was hitchhiking from a petrol station to visit her sister in Smithers; she was gainfully employed and scheduled to begin a master’s degree in the autumn. The national media took immediate notice.

A witness reported seeing Nicole at the petrol station; she had declined a lift from a man travelling with children because he was not heading all the way to her destination. She subsequently entered a yellow car driven by a white male aged between 20 and 35.

Because her trip was intended as a surprise, six days elapsed before family and friends raised the alarm. As a white, middle-class, non-Indigenous graduate, her disappearance generated an unprecedented level of press coverage.

The RCMP searched 24,000 square kilometres of terrain before scaling back ground operations after four days. Sustained media exposure brought renewed focus to the region, enabling Indigenous groups and advocacy organisations to highlight the dozens of previous victims; the investigation finally received significant resources.

The Investigation

When the three teenagers disappeared in 1994, an FBI profiler was consulted but concluded the cases were unlinked. By 2005, public awareness campaigns and solidarity marches forced a broader reassessment.

Ironically, during one of the largest solidarity walks on 17 September 2005, twenty-two-year-old Tamara Chipman vanished from the highway; she became another victim associated with the corridor.

In 2006, the RCMP established Project E-PANA to investigate the unsolved disappearances and murders along the highway network. Communication between First Nations leadership and law enforcement improved, and the task force expanded its scope from nine initial cases to eighteen.

Throughout its operation, Project E-PANA interviewed over 1,400 people of interest, collected 750 DNA profiles, administered 100 polygraph tests, and conducted 2,500 formal interviews. Despite this effort, the task force officially solved only two cases: the 1973 murder of Colleen MacMillen—linked via DNA to serial killer Bobby Jack Fowler—and the murder of Monica Jack.

By 2015, budget cuts, staffing reallocations, and organisational downsizing left Project E-PANA largely inactive, leaving families without resolution. Subsequent reviews revealed that key physical evidence and administrative records relating to the cases had been misplaced or lost.

Women and young girls continue to go missing along the corridor. Systemic failures and deeply embedded institutional racism failed vulnerable citizens; serial predators exploited these vulnerabilities with near-total impunity.

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On 27th December 1985, screams pierced the misty atmosphere surrounding a tiny tin hut in the middle of the brush. The shouts kept repeating, ‘Dian’s dead.’

The location was a remote research centre off the beaten track in east-central Africa. The fifty-three-year-old victim was a US-born primatologist Dian Fossey. Despite making enemies while studying gorillas, she self-funded one of the best facilities in the area.

Despite her reputation and the research she pioneered, her murder has never been solved. Theories are plentiful as to why she was killed, but no one knows for sure.

If this situation sounds familiar, it might be because Dian Fossey’s life was adapted into the popular film, Gorillas in the Mist. However, there’s a darker secret behind it.

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H. H. Holmes was America’s first serial killer in the late 1800s. More famously, he is known for designing and building a murder castle where he killed many women.

Although he confessed to a kill coun…

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It was 31st May 1902 when a torrential thunderstorm battered the quiet Suffolk village of Peasenhall. Under cover of a violent storm, a killer struck. The result was two trials which left no one convicted of the crime.

Many historians believe that the murderer was fortunate to escape prosecution; others have offered an alternative theory that exonerates William Gardiner. If not guilty, Gardiner lived with the stigma of a murder he had nothing to do with. If guilty, we can only hope Gardiner was haunted by his actions.

Whatever the truth, an innocent woman died, and this case remains one of the most sensational unsolved crimes in Edwardian England.

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For nearly four decades, a dark cloud has hung over Phillip Island, Australia. What was originally recorded as a murder-suicide has faced growing scrutiny, with many asking whether it was, in fact, a…

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The 1994 World Cup was not without its controversy and heartbreak. Wednesday, we looked at the massacre in County Down which occurred; today we look at another death that was a result of the 1994 tournament. This time, it was a player.

Andrés Escobar was a Colombian player who made his debut for the national team in 1988. He was a defender who was described as a team player, one who always gave his best. Like many defenders, he was a player the rest of the team relied on heavily.

He was twenty-seven when he was selected as part of Colombia’s World Cup squad in the USA.

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World Cup Fever has hit us all. England have made the semi-final and tonight will play for a chance in the final against Argentina. I will keep my prediction on this to myself, to save upsetting anyo…

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Few crimes cause more disgust than a mother who kills her own children. Initially, that is what the Esher Murders seem to be: a mother who brutally murdered her six children whilst their father was away.

However, when you study the case, you realise that the murder was not as simple as you first thought. You may even find yourself empathising with the mother and understanding her situation.

The last shock that this case will produce is why you have never heard of it. It is due to the cover-up instigated at the highest level that no one heard the name of Mary Ann Brough.

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Christiana Edmunds was one of the first famous killers to walk the corridors of Broadmoor. She was called the Chocolate Cream Poisoner, but she never considered herself one of the Broadmoor prisoners. Despite this, she remained a patient until her death, some thirty-five years after her incarceration.

Christiana Edmunds was described as a tall, handsome woman with a highly prepossessing demeanour. Unlike many of the poor women at Broadmoor, Edmunds came from an educated, middle-class background.

Some will argue that Edmunds was not mad but rather a cold, sadistic killer. This marks a sharp contrast with earlier historical poisoners like Mary Bateman, the notorious “Yorkshire Witch” who used arsenic to systematically defraud and murder vulnerable clients under the guise of magic.

While Bateman operated out of crude, calculated financial greed, Edmunds was driven by an altogether different force: an unhinged, obsessive romantic delusion. Whatever the truth, Edmunds’s criminal career started because of a man, a married man to be more precise, who was also her neighbour in Brighton.

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For more than a century, Mary Ann Cotton was the most prolific serial killer in UK history, until Harold Shipman surpassed her victim count in 2000. She was described as beautiful, charming, and ulti…

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When human body parts were found wrapped in plastic in the secluded woodland of Kersal Dale, Salford, Greater Manchester Police (GMP) immediately launched a massive operation, pulling together hundreds of officers, detectives, crime scene investigators, and specialist operations staff.

The complex and harrowing investigation began on April 4, 2024, when a member of the public found a human torso in the Salford woodland. From the outset, the Major Incident Team faced an uphill battle. They were dealing with partial remains, no immediate identity for the victim, and a race against time.

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We have all heard of Jigsaw, the popular protagonist in the Saw franchise movies. However, the UK has a real-life Jigsaw killer.

Stephen Marshall earned the nickname from the media when he stabbed his…

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My name is Thomas. I am fourteen; currently, I am lying in an alleyway in Greater Manchester, fighting for my life. It is 8 pm on Sunday 29 June 2003; the police have been called. I have multiple stab wounds.

Standing beside me is my best friend Craig; he is fifteen and staying with me until help arrives. He will tell the police that a hooded knifeman stabbed me. He is lying. They will find this out when they look at the CCTV. It was Craig who stabbed me. I asked him to, in a roundabout way. Let me start from the beginning.

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Breck Bednar represented every parent’s modern nightmare: he met someone he didn’t know online. If you have children, you understand the dread this causes. Tragically, Breck’s story ended in the most…

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