Warning: The following entries contain disturbing material and may not be suitable for everyone.
Detective work isn't all fun and games. While many are entertained by a good mystery book, movie, or show, real life crime can be extremely disturbing. Some detective are unlucky enough to be faced with cases so violent and scary that it stays with them forever.
Redditor u/ThunderPheonix21 asked detectives to share the creepiest cases they've worked on, and professionals in the field did not disappoint.
20. A whole new warrant
"A lot of my work is actually based on cell phone dumps. I once got a request from a Detective to dump a guys phone because he was attempting to sell our county jail jumpsuit...
Problem was, there was way more on the phone that what we had bargained for. Turns out the guy was REALLY into under-aged girls. To the point that he had thousands of images of CP on the device. So I called the detective up and informed him that he was going to need another warrant to cover the CP for the device. So he did, and began creating a CP case against the guy."
19. A love triangle
"I once got a case spying on a lady's husband. She thought he is cheating on her. Wanted the proof to present before judge in court. While investigating I found the husband cheating on the wife with HER boyfriend! Both were having an affair with the same guy. Needless to say I minted money from all the three. PS. The boyfriend was also their divorce attorney!"
18. A crazy fetish
"Some guy was killing women by making them explode just right so he could keep the hands, he had a fetish with them."
17. This poor woman...
"Not a detective... but my uncle was a cop... Essentially they got a call to a house... the neighbour's had called the police and told them there was a strong Odour coming from the apartment next door. They got a little worried... as this was an older woman, who only really left her home for essentials...
Police get there... after many times knocking and calling... no answer. So they had the landlord unlock her door... they weren't necessarily thinking she was dead initially.... not sure how.. it's seems fairly obvious...
hey get inside, and the odour is just awful.. like burnt hair and cooked meat..."
"The woman was taking a shower... she went to adjust the heat to be more hot... she slipped and fell on a loofah that was on the floor of the bath. And hit her head on the tap... somehow in the fall she managed to turn the heat tap WAY to much.
Essentially... she passed out. And then died from brain hemorrhaging... and then the hot shower boiled her.... the hot water was running on her for about a day and a half."
16. Life is so short...
"Girl stopped breathing in her bed, potential suffocation murder.
Turned out to just be a lung failure but it still creeped me out."
15. The mole people
"Insurance adjuster here. I'm not a detective, but I do lots of fraud investigations. The ones that aren't fraudulent sometimes just turn out to be really weird. The winner for me hands down is the man who claimed he was terrorized by mole people...
My in-person interview was about two hours. I had more than enough in the first five minutes and was trying to leave for most of it, but he kept blocking the door or directing me to wrong way to keep the mole people off my scent. It was kind of sweet in a twisted way; he genuinely thought the mole people would come after me if I didn't follow his rules.
He directed me to park ye olde company car about a mile away on a concrete parking flat he had made. We couldn't walk on the dirt road there; the mole people constantly changed where it went. The claims he filed were all in similar veins.
We decided there was no fraud, but a call to adult protective services was merited."
14. A terrible accident
"Detective here, attached to a coastal town with a fishing wharf. Started work one day when we get a call from the water police who have responded to a abandoned boat floating off the coast. They have towed it into the bay where they requested our assistance and they would advise us further on arrival.
We head down thinking someone had stolen the boat or something else routine. When we get there we are told that no one went further than the enterance before it was sealed off as a crime scene. We have a quick look below the deck and see why..."
"3 people, clearly dead with one slumped over the wheel one on the floor and the other in a chair. No struggle, no injuries and nothing out of place. Completely silent other than the water on the hull and the fenders squeaking against the police launch.
Turned out to be an accident. Lack of upkeep on the very old engine meant fumes leaked in and the 3 were poisoned, at which point the engine just ran until the diesel was gone."
13. This close call
"Someone dumped a body in an alley right by the PD, but in a spot that no one frequented. So after a few days in mid-summer heat the body melted so bad they couldn't ID by looks or tattoos, just the clothes and hair, and DNA once they figured out who she was.
Long story short it was a serial killer who had dumped her, and they found CCTV of him stalking people at the local shopping center right after he dumped the body. They watched him spend over four hours walking around, leaving to his car and changing clothes/hat and going back in, following women for a bit, changing his mind... He left empty handed, and ended up getting caught a couple states away the following week.
Creepiest part for me was that I went shopping there the same day."
12. A story from Michigan
"My teacher was a detective and he told our class that one case that he wish he got but his partner or friend or something like that did it was called jack in the box and this guys wife killed her husband with help from some dude and then they put him in a locker and burnt him if your in Michigan you've probably heard of it"
11. This is horrifying
"I was working midnights in a neighborhood with a high violent crime rate, and we got sent to a dispute at a bar... We make our way through the bar systematically booting people out, and get to the bathrooms. I open the door to the men's room and it's empty (single stall bathrooms). My female partner goes to open the women's bathroom door but it's locked. She knocks on the door and a female says, 'I'll be out in a minute.'... Female partner knocks on the door again and the female agrees to open the door. When she comes out, we ask her what took so long..."
"She's not providing any substance in her answers. She's wearing tight yoga pants, and we notice that she has a large bulge in the back of her pants/crotch... When we question her about it, she's very evasive and won't answer us. Female partner begins to search her. As she pulls back the female's pants and shines her flashlight down to look, my partner says, '****!' She sees a baby arm sticking out from the female's vagina and up through her ass cheeks. This chick had been drinking and smoking crack all day. She had a stillborn and continued to stay at the bar and drink/smoke crack."
10. That's not a turtle...
"A buddy of mine worked on this
He said there was this guy who liked to shoot turtles on a pond on his property. He sees a turtle and shoots it 2 times with a .22 rifle. He had a hunting dog that would go fetch the turtles. He would make turtle soup with them
The dog goes out and gets the turtle and an arm pops up. The 'turtle' he shot was the back of the mans head who was dead in the pond."
9. Someone was watching
"My brother, not me. I usually tell this long and dramatic, but here is the quick to the punch version.
Schizophrenic woman reported being watched by ghosts at the abandoned funeral home...
Turned out when investigating, someone (or something. dum dum dum) was actually watching the people in her building and keeping crude log books of their coming and goings and left some of them in the place. My brother's theory was that they were discovered / almost discovered and fled."
8. That's a ton of money for cartoon porn
"I had a client whose employee had used the company account for payments to a graphic designer. Except instead of marketing materials, he had commissioned $15k worth of Loli and Sonic porn."
7. Sounds like an Alfred Hitchcock movie
"My boyfriend was the detective in this case. An officer doing a wellness check on an elderly woman spoke with her son. He said she was out at the moment, but she was doing well. He spoke in detail about what she was up to lately and all that. The officer noticed a strong smell coming from the yard though. I'm sure you see where this is going, as I don't think pretending a deceased relative alive to keep receiving their benefits is uncommon..."
"The officer turned the case over to a detective (my boyfriend), who returned with a warrant. There were two houses. A main house, and a small apartment-style house in the back yard where the mother once lived. When they entered, the son seemed calm. Showed them right to the mother. Continued to speak as if she was still alive and well. In the bed, they found the body, that had clearly been there for a long time. It was like a putrid puddle. The stench was unbearable. The son adamantly refused that she was dead. Insisting she had just been up and around the main house yesterday."
6. A surprise in the basement
"They were undercover in a mob and gathered enough evidence to search a house the guys used a lot - the search led them to a basement filled with water halfway up the stairs. They shone flashlights and didn't see anything at first, then saw something glinting in the water. They turned to go up the stairs to get a brighter light and along the walls and the door frame were gouges, the back of the door too. They got their bright lights and went back down and it turns out the bad guys had 2 crocodiles in there and when someone pissed them off they put them in the basement and locked the door. Gouges had skin particles in them."
5. A mystery tenant
"A friend of mine grew up in a big family house with her immediate family plus an uncle and grandparents. Sometimes her and her brother would wake up with things written on their faces in permanent text. Just random phrases nothing too shocking. The kids were about 8 or 9 years old, they both denied doing it and no one looked any further into it.
Anyway eventually the uncle is killed in his bed, stabbed to death. The police investigate and it turns out there's a dude living in their roof."
4. Cannibalism on the lawn
"We had a case where a guy killed 5 -6 members of his family and when the police came to the scene he was eating one of his family members on the front lawn, I suppose to get their strength."
3. How was this not in the news?
"I used to work with a retired LAPD beatcop of 30 years in his retirement funmoney gig working on an ambulance. He told me this story that sent chills down my spine.
He pulls over this sedan for expired tags, and neither the driver or passenger has any paperwork, driving illegally and they're both acting shady as ****, so he calls for backup, detains them, and searches the car....
He finds two dead young teenage girls in the trunk. They're naked, bound, and gagged and had been mutilated, and there was tons of devices obviously meant for torture..."
"He calls in the homicide detectives, and the cavalry comes, the two guys are hauled away to jail, and his day wraps up after all the normal procedures and paperwork has been filed.
And he says that was the last he ever heard of that case. Nothing. No subpoenas. No testimony to a grand jury. No interviews for the homicide detectives. No stories in the paper. NOTHING."
2. This killer wanted to be Dr. Frankenstein
"My dad was a detective and told me and my siblings briefly about a case where a killer would take a different part of each body. He had collected two legs, a torso, and one arm. His motive was that he wanted someone to play with."
1. A psycho with big plans
"Private investigator here. Looking into a liability stabbing case. They were blaming the apartment complex for the resident getting stabbed by another resident. Turns out the dude was planning a mass shooting and was part of multiple right wing white supremacist groups, Trump 2020 guy, wanted to attach a gun to a drone and kill a ton of people. Instead, he was so racist he couldn't help but stab his black neighbor before he pulled it off. His social media was essentially a manifesto and the cops found a bunch of firearms laid out, fully loaded and ready to go. I feel bad for the neighbor but their getting stabbed likely saved multiple people's lives."
Do you have something to confess to George? Text "Secrets" or "
" to +1 (310) 299-9390 to talk to him about it.
The old wives' tales.
They are the stories of legend.
I think we all need a big DEEP Google dive though.
Where did they originate?
WHO ARE THE OLD WIVES!
You don't hear about them as much anymore.
It's like science and logic are suddenly a thing.
But they sure are a good way to keep your kids and their behavior in line.
Redditor the_spring_goddess wanted to discuss the tall tales we've all been fed through life, so they asked:
"What is an old wives tale that people still believe?"
"Wait an hour to swim after eating."
What a crock!
So many summer hours wasted.
I want revenge for that one.
Say Nothing
Giphy
"An undercover cop has to tell you he's a cop if you ask him."
LonelyMail5115
"Pretty much most advice when it comes to cops are old wives tales. I’m not even a cop but most of the advice you hear is pretty off."
I_AM_AN_A**HOLE_AMA
Say Something
"That you have to wait 24 hours to report someone missing."
Severe_Airport1426
"I really think this one is important and should be the top regardless. As it’s a piece of advice that needs to be relearned and the only way to do that is through awareness."
crappycurtains
"This used to be true. I think they changed it after some guy named Brandon went missing back in the '80s or '70s. You used to have to wait 24 hours if the missing person was an adult because they had 'a right to be missing' and then everyone realized that was stupid and stopped doing it."
AlbinoShavedGorilla
Body Temps
"That drinking ice cold water after eating oily foods will solidify the oil and permanently remain in your body. I informed my coworker that if your body temperature ever reached that point, you’d have bigger problems than weight gain."
chriseo22
"Oh, I have a cousin who 100% believed this. One of those guys who believed every early 2000s internet rumor and old wives tale. One night I chugged a big glass of ice water after dinner and he started freaking out and saying my guts were gonna harden."
"I sarcastically told him to drive me to the hospital if that happened. Obviously, nothing happened and the next morning I said something like 'Thanks for being on standby in case my guts filled with hardened oil.' He just walked off muttering under his breath."
apocalypticradish
Arms Down
"When I was pregnant, I was told by young and old alike that I should NOT raise my arms above my head or exert myself in such a manner because it could cause cord strangulation to my unborn sons and daughters."
Fatmouse84
10 Years Actually
Unimpressed Uh Huh GIF by Brooklyn Nine-Nine
Giphy
"Chewing gum stays in your stomach for 7 years."
"I remember accidentally swallowing a piece of gum when I was a kid in like 1995 and just accepting my fate like welp, gonna have this in my stomach til high school I guess."
Gecko-911
I was so afraid to sallow my gum when I was young.
This tale is haunting.
High/Low
Hungry Debra Messing GIF by Will & Grace
Giphy
"You can tell the sex of the baby by how you carry."
LeastFormal9366
"Pregnancy certainly wins awards for the most old wives tales. So much absolute BS was repeated to us by everyone we talked to."
IllIIIlIllIlIIlIllI
The Cursed
"If you’re a woman and you wear opal jewelry but opal is not your birthstone (October), you’ll never be able to have children, or will be widowed, or just generally have bad luck or something. You can counteract this by having a diamond in the same piece of jewelry as the opal, though."
"I have a nice opal ring that my parents gave me years ago, and I’ve had other women give me this 'advice' unprompted more than once when I’ve worn it. I have absolutely no idea where it started, but I’m pretty sure this little chunk of silicate rock has no concept of what month I was born in, let alone of how my reproductive organs work."
SmoreOfBabylon
Stay In
"Going outside with wet hair will make you get pneumonia. Or an earache. Or maybe arthritis. Depends on which old wife you listen to."
"Jokes on them - I haven't blow-dried my hair in decades and usually leave the house with wet hair in the morning. On winter mornings, the tips of my hair get frozen. No ear infections or pneumonia or arthritis yet."
worldbound0514
Dreams and Facts
"You never make anyone up in your dreams you've seen everyone in your dreams somewhere else before and never make anyone up entirely."
"How would you possibly prove that to be true? My partner adamantly believes this and tells me this 'fact' whenever I have a dream about someone I've never met before."
mattshonestreddit
"My late wife used to tell me that before she met me she would have dreams of standing at an alter on her wedding day but could never see the guy's face, no matter how hard she tried. After meeting me the face was filled in with mine. Don't know if it's true but one of those things I like thinking of every now and then when I miss her."
Darthdemented
Cracked
Getting Ready Episode 2 GIF by The Office
Giphy
"Some people still believe cracking knuckles causes arthritis."
Choice-Grapefruit-44
"There's a doctor (Donald Unger) that cracked his knuckles a couple of times a day for 60 years, but only on one hand, just to prove it. Both hands remained exactly the same."
MacyTmcterry
I love my knuckles.
Do you have any tall tales to add to the list? Let us know in the comments below.
