It seems like just about every town, no matter how big or small, has that one story. For a lot of people that story can be brushed off as a local urban legend - but not for the people in this article.
Reddit user PatrickBateman asked
What follows are some of the scariest and most horrific responses we could find and confirm. Honestly, it's stuff like this that terrifies people. Warning: The responses you're about to read through include mentions of murder, suicide, harm to children, racism, unexplained death and more. We've even got werewolves and Slenderman in here.
Proceed with caution.
Sister's Jog
My sister found a teen who had just committed suicide when she was running once. She heard the gun and was just rounding a turn and thought someone was shooting at her. He shot himself in the head.
If you or someone you know is struggling, you can contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
To find help outside the United States, the International Association for Suicide Prevention has resources available at https://www.iasp.info/resources/Crisis_Centres/
Minor Mysteries
This isn't exactly the scariest thing but it's an unsolved mystery and it creeped me and my dad out then.
We just came home to see all the lights in the house were on. The TV was on the Netflix profile select, and the glass on the fireplace was on the opposite side of the room. Nothing was taken, nothing else was out of place.
In my room, the computer was on and logged into my password-protected account. And I turned it off before. Also, most of my printer paper was gone and the TV in there was on the Netflix select too.
I still don't know what happened.
- MP8_YT
Werewolf Murders
Giphy
Some 22 year old guy who claimed to be an immortal werewolf, was "dating" a tween. The two of them came up with a plan to kill her whole family, and did. Both parents and her younger brother were murdered in their sleep.
A Lot Of People Assume I'm Racist
My town is known for a hate crime that happened in 1998, I was only three years old at the time but three white supremacist chained a black man to the back of a truck and drug him down the street. It was pretty horrible stuff and got brought back into the news this year because the last guy was finally executed. A lot of people assume that I'm racist when I tell them where I am from which is pretty awkward considering I work in social services.
- liza5335
"That Guy"
Sat next to a kid in high school who killed his mom by stabbing her over 100 times. It was a Microsoft class so we were on computers talking all day and became buddies. He would show me pictures of bombs he made from 2 liters, home-made flamethrowers from squirt bottles, etc. I never thought he was "that guy" though.
He was sentenced to 35 years because he admitted guilt and refused to plea insanity even though the judge advised him to. In trial he didn't try to defend himself. Walked in, said "I'm guilty and deserve prison" - seriously. Judge asked why he did it and he told her that his mom was verbally and physically abusive to him and he just lost mental stability for a bit. Told the judge that despite that, she didn't deserve death and he deserved prison. I don't think he opened up too much about what type of abuse she did because he wasn't trying to defend himself saying he was in the okay.
Please note this was many years ago before the time you'd make teachers aware of these types of things.
To Hide The Evidence
A guy I went to school and hung out with and his precious two year old daughter where found dead in his car after it had caught on fire. I am not sure if it was ruled a homicide, but I know tons of people who believe they were murdered and then their bodies where burned to hide the evidence. I cannot imagine the pain the mother is going through. She lost her precious little girl and boyfriend.
- Aubs71993
Blame The Aboriginals
A little boy was bashed to death by his mother and stepfather in front of his younger siblings. After the little boy died in hospital, the "parents" were questioned by the police and claimed that he'd been attacked and beaten by a group of young Aboriginal boys in a nearby park.
My brothers in law, who are Aboriginal, were about 12 & 13 at the time. They were pulled aside on the street by police and interrogated aggressively/accused of killing the little boy. There was excessive police force involved. My younger brother in law up to this point had been a very happy, trusting boy...he has never been the same since.
- Trin20k
Just Started Stabbing
Two girls were randomly stabbed at one of the high schools here. The guy who did it didn't go there, didn't know them. Just walked in an started stabbing. A video of it ended up online... it's all our town was talking about for weeks.
One girl lived, but the second unfortunately died in the hospital. She was my aunt's neighbor and we had gone trick or treating together as kids. Less than a year after it happened there was a publication ban put on the name of the girl who died. Her family was furious. The killer was getting all of this attention and she, the victim, was just some nameless teenager.
- Ta5hak5
Gutted
When I was in high school a girl I knew worked at a gas station in town, which I went to everyday after school. She was murdered.
She went missing and they found her at conservation site naked on the edge of the river. They didn't find her murderer until he tried to kill another girl I knew, luckily she survived him gutting her like a deer.
Apparently, he and the first girl got into an argument and he proceeded to hit her with the hatchet he had. The first blow didn't kill her so he "decided to put her out of her misery" (his words) and hit her again. To cover his tracks he opted to undress her and hide her in the tall grass along the river.
The second girl's boyfriend was "friends" with the guy. I believe he showed up when the boyfriend wasn't there or had just left (I'm not totally sure what the situation was this was probably nine years ago) but he got in an argument with the second girl and he gutted her.
She was able to get herself to a neighbor, survived, and was able to I.D him. When they arrested him he confessed to the first girls murder. It was crazy because I knew both girls, I knew the guy and went to school with his younger sister. I also lived about a minute away from where he attempted to murder the second girl.
I felt so bad for his sister because she continued to tell everyone what a great guy he was. She had to deal with all the people at school who hated her brother because the first girl was well loved in our small community.
Free Baby Clothes
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A pregnant Colorado woman responded to a Craigslist ad for free baby clothes. When she arrived the woman that lived there stabbed her and cut out her baby. She left her there to die but she was still some how able to call 911. They ended up finding the crazy lady at the hospital with the baby and she had told the doctors she had a miscarriage. The baby unfortunately did not make it but the woman was able to recover after surgery.
The lady just recently was sentenced to 100 years. Apparently this has happened several times in several different places.
How'd He Get There?
A young man went missing in the city I went to university in. He was a first year student and vanished walking back home from a night out in town. This is a long walk (about three miles from the pubs and clubs in the centre to the campus) and it was January, so very cold. General theory was that he had passed out drunk and frozen to death, but no body was found in any of the nearby areas.
Our campus is surrounded by mountains, forests, trails, cliffs... there's a big lake in the middle of it. Lots of places for a drunk person to get into trouble, but still nothing showed up.
Not even any clues, like some of his belongings or something. Abduction was briefly considered, but again no evidence. It kind of faded out of the forefront of everyone's minds, though the search was never called off.
Finally the body was found. It was in a remote area of forest, and I believe it was spotted either from the air, or from someone walking at some distance and seeing bright clothing in the snow/frost. The body itself was in an area inaccessible by foot or road, far past the distance he could have walked without succumbing to hypothermia (he was only in jeans and T-shirt). Nobody knows how he managed to get up there, or survive long enough to get anywhere near it, but an autopsy showed nothing suspicious. I know there's probably a rational explanation, but it was incredibly unnerving. It was a long walk, too, and not a single person saw him while he was making it.
D And His Dad
A kid that I went to school with started doing meth with his dad and one day, in a paranoid state, they kidnapped a woman and her daughters. They kept them in a house just a few streets up from me, had them tied up and beat them to get some kind of "revenge."
One of the girls escaped and ran to a neighbor to call 911. The kid (we'll call D) and his dad took off, ended up in a city about 20 minutes away. They stole an older man's work truck and kidnapped the man as well. They then drove to nearby Wyoming where they stopped in a secluded wooded area, beat the old man to death and abandoned the truck.
They were caught about a week later. D ended up receiving a life sentence and his dad killed himself in his cell before trial.
Scared Of You
So I work as a nursing assistant. I approached a new patient introducing myself but she looked terrified and said "I don't know why but I'm scared of you". After we laughed about it.
Anyway, the next day I checked her blood pressure etc and everything was fine. She asked to go to the toilet so I helped her across. 5 minutes later I go to check on her and she's lying on the floor, no pulse, no breathing but her eyes are wide open staring at me as I begin chest compressions and I snap her ribs within the first few. Never forget the feeling of her bones moving under the skin and looking at her eyes. That's why she was scared of me. I genuinely think she had a premonition.
Unfortunately after the crash team came and an extensive effort of resuscitation the decision was made to stop. It was about 6 years ago but I still remember her name. Autopsy said she died from a blood clot in the lung - sudden and not something I could have picked up when I checked her before walking.
The Star Athlete
Star athlete at my high school executed his girlfriend with a single gunshot to the back of her head. His case garnered national attention for some time because he was about to join the US Olympic team, until he got locked up. He was released several years later after he was exonerated. But those of us in his class know beyond all doubt that he did it.
- AJNSD619
Creepypasta
Giphy
I live in the city in Wisconsin where the Slenderman stabbing happened. For those unfamiliar, two middle schoolers lured their friend into the woods at a sleepover, they then stabbed her multiple times and left her there to die because "Slenderman told them to." Slenderman is, essentially, a creepy meme. The girl was found the next morning by a man riding on a bike trail and she somehow survived.
Not just multiple. 34 times. They stabbed their friend 34 times as a sacrifice to a creepypasta.
Bruce
I used to live across the street from Bruce McArthur.
He's a serial killer that killed at least eight LGBTQ+ men who were in Toronto. He also preyed on LGBTQ+ men who were homeless.
He buried victims' body parts on his property and apparently in a nearby ravine that I used to play in with my friends.
They Still Don't Know
In my village, there's a railway that goes along a forest and a road. On that railway, there's a bridge for cars to cross. One day someone found a puddle of blood with traces of dragging. Thinking it was an attempt at suicide or a boar that got hit by a train, the person that found it called the mayor and the mayor called the cops. The police also assumed it was a suicide, so they came with a forensic team to get samples, etc.
The "creepy" part is that no one really cared. My grandmother even said "good riddance". I was like 12 at the time, I didn't understand anything.
I asked my mom about it when I was 17 and she explained that it was a 27 year old drunk guy that played around on the bridge and tipped over it. He got badly injured, dragged himself in the forest and died there from blood loss.
He was not really liked in the village, he was known to vandalize houses, break signs, let his dog chase teens, burn hay inside barns, shoot at cats with his paintball gun, etc. People knew because he would always brag about it, but they wouldn't complain to his parents because they were nice people.
They found the body about one week after the accident. Everyone went to his funeral but the parents were the only one to cry. To this day they still don't know that there son was hated by everyone.
Distracted With Toys
So I was best friends with this girl that lived with her wonderful grandma across the street. My friend's estranged mother just went up to the house one day, and, distracting my friend (who I think was about 8 or 9 at the time) with toys, she walked up to my friend's grandma and shot her twice, and when she was still alive, buried an axe in her head.
My dad went across when he heard the gun shots and described brain matter and blood all over the china cabinets, the walls, everything.
The killer is in jail now. And my old friend... I don't even know. I heard she's tried to attempt suicide numerous times, but I haven't seen her in almost 10 or so years. I wish I could see them both again. It makes me tear up when I think about it.
The School Pretended It Never Happened
The high school near mine had a student commit suicide over the summer the same year I graduated. The school made it worse my not commemorating him, banning any articles of clothing that were dedicated to his memory, and didn't even give him an empty seat during when he was supposed to graduate.
Info also later came out that the student went to the counselors before he died and asked for help, but they basically told him to eff off. It's scary how mental health is downgraded where I live.
If you or someone you know is struggling, you can contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
To find help outside the United States, the International Association for Suicide Prevention has resources available at https://www.iasp.info/resources/Crisis_Centres/
"What is a subtle sign that someone is really intelligent?"
The minds of really smart individuals never stop working.
Resourcefulness
"They draw wisdom from multiple sources. Wait but that might be more wise than intelligent... But I guess those two tend to be seen together a lot."
– Puzzlehead-Engineer
Inquisitive Minds
"They are curious about everything."
"To be intelligent you need to be knowledgeable and you cant be knowledgeable if you are never curious."
– soup54461
The way highly intelligent people interact with others is slightly different.
Social Adaptability
"They can switch up the way they talk to match the person they're talking to without sounding condescending. They listen to how others learn and explain it in that person's language of understanding."
– Wynonna99
Talking On Level Ground
"Talking to people as if they're intelligent at their level and without being condescending or even letting on that it's lower than their level."
"I used to work with a doctor - Tom Howard - and the day I realized he was a genius was the time he guessed every single condition a patient of mine had based on minute pieces of information about him."
– Yoodei_Mon
The Humble Professor
"No joke. The smartest professor I had in engineering school was also the most humble. She was an astounding human being. By week 2, she knew everyone's names by heart in the intro engineering course. In College. With like 180 students. Later, in upper division classes, people would occasionally ask some really stupid questions."
"Like, it happens... you get so deep into some fluid mechanics derivation or something you forget something really basic. People would ask a question like this and everyone would be thinking like; 'Wow, how did you even make it this far?' but then... it's like she would spot the flaw in their understanding so perfectly, and then respond with such clarity and wisdom that the person asking the question would look less stupid and the whole class would be enlightened."
"And here's the thing... I pride myself on being really good at that exact skill. I tutored a lot of people. I was easily one of the brightest amongst my peers. But that woman was on another level. It was mind-blowing."
"And it wasn't just her intelligence, but her organizational skills, discipline, consistency.... And yet... she was so humble. She was quiet and physically quite small. But she just exuded competence and immediately commanded every room she walked into. I've never seen anything quite like it."
– EngineeringNeverEnds
A Positive Effect
"When they explain something they make you feel intelligent."
– gwoshmi
When In Doubt
"They know when their knowledge ends and say something to the extent of 'I don't know and anything else i say on this topic is ignorant speculation.'"
–blutoboy
Some with impressive IQs may deal with questions in the following ways.
Reaction To Delayed Responses
"'You really think about everything don't you?' - a doctor, to me, after he asked me a question and I took longer than 2 seconds to answer it."
"No, I just pull something out of my ass every time and those extra seconds you waited for me to answer were purely to irritate you for my own enjoyment."
– Imakegoatnoises
The Really Good Questions
"They can ask really good questions."
"Edit: to anyone not understanding what mean, I’m talking about people who ask 'really good questions,' not just any questions, really good ones. I don’t know how one would achieve this skill(I know I haven’t)."
– milkmanbran
Taking Pause
"They spend time thinking before asking a question."
– ParkMan73
"Some of the smartest people don’t comment at all."
– metric-poet
I agree with many of the comments saying a really intelligent person knows how to cater the conversation towards another person's level of understanding.
They do have the impressive skill to convey something in a way that can easily be understood. Some of the most venerated professors at my university were like this, and their classes were always the hardest to get in to.
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I'm on the fence about high school. I want to hate it, but nostalgia haunts me. I saw a lot of violence, there is that.
We were on CNN.
don lemon nodding GIF by Red Table TalkGiphy"They started charging us for ketchup in the cafeteria. Most of the school boycotted cafeteria lunch and brought all manner of condiments from home. We were on CNN. They eventually caved." ~ Ash3Monti
No one liked him.
"I was big into drama club and musical theatre when I was in high school. There was a girl in the drama club in her freshmen or sophomore year who was super nice and everyone loved her. Her older brother on the the other hand, was a complete and total douchebag. No one liked him."
"He always made inappropriate comments or jokes and no one liked to be around him. One night, he was driving him and his sister back from school when he took a steep curve going around 100 mph. He lost control and hit a telephone pole. His sister died instantly and he was in a coma for a few weeks but ultimately survived."
"Myself and my friends in the drama club were devastated. She was one of the sweetest girls you'll ever met and we all loved her. A year or two later, the brother messages my sister and tries to use his sister's death as leverage to get laid. F**k you, you piece of crap." ~ FearTheKeflex
Bribes
"Guidance counselor was taking bribes to change grades (Both money and sexual favors). Invited one male student over to his house. Had the student tie him up and hang him by chains in his basement "dungeon." Student was homophobic and while the counselor was tied up, bludgeoned him to death." ~ monthos
H2O Issues...
"This is not that extreme, but it's still disgusting. We have drinking water taps instead of fountains. One parent was suspicious of whether they were cleaning the tanks or not. So they made an announcement that the tank was being cleaned every single day."
"A lot of us didn't believe it, so a group of boys decided to see for themselves if it was true or not. So they put a dead frog in the tank when there was no one around. I don't even know where they found the frog but they swear they didn't kill it. Anyway the frog was there for a few weeks. And obviously the water started tasting weird."
"After the teachers got multiple complaints, they opened the tank and found the frog. The boys were punished, but they fired back with the fact that they lied about cleaning the tanks. They were still punished, because they proved it in a disgusting way. They could've put literally anything in the tank, but they chose a dead frog." ~ R00mTemperature
The Quad
Acds2 Look Away GIF by Anime Crimes DivisionGiphy"A worker doing stuff on the roof. He fell off. Landed in the 'quad' at lunch. A large piece of machinery fell and squished his head. Like a cartoon, only funny. Like 150 Kids saw this." ~ LordInventus
Threats
"The Latin kings gang threatened my cousin and his friends and they had 10 squad cars guarding the whole school and dismissed us the same day early." ~ Terrykrinkle
“it’s gonna blow”
"I had just moved in from Egypt to the states in my senior year of high school. A teacher thought it would be funny to fold a bunch of papers and wrap them in duck tape to make it look like a bomb and threw it my direction and went under his desk saying 'it’s gonna blow.' Everybody started laughing and I was so clueless then I just laughed along. It infuriates me to this day that I didn’t call him out on it or report him." ~ ezzabousaif
Go Fish
"Someone somehow made a bomb threat on a Swedish fish candy. Like one single piece. I don’t know how it happened but he got arrested." ~ ts_13_
Masternid
"A couple weeks before graduation, this kid hacked into the school system and put a Hitler quote and a Boston bomber reference in the senior quotes for the yearbook. One of the affected parties was a trans girl, and we're still not sure if it was a targeted act because of that."
"Administration didn't find out until the entire senior class had received their books. Some people turned theirs in to get their pages replaced, but some kept it because it was a 'limited edition item' or some stupid sh*t like that. Kid got arrested and charged with cybercrime, since he hacked everyone in our school system's school passwords."
"He was so close to graduating too, but got expelled like two weeks before he could. Looked like a rat too. It was all over the news, and everyone in the state of CT basically knows about this now. Got out on bail for $5000." ~ kocorpsie
Season 3 What GIF by On My Block"Apparently one student brought drugs to school and was selling it to her friends. A completely unrelated student caught on and stole the drugs while everyone else was in class. She was caught snorting the drugs in the bathroom by the group selling the drugs and got the crap beat out of her."
"We also had a recently graduated student murder his parents for insurance money . He hid the bodies in a chicken coop and told everybody they were on vacation. It wasn't until 7 months later the bodies were found by the landlord because the rent was late." ~ randomgenericcow
Enjoy high school, at least try too. Maybe if more kids do that, it wouldn't be so insane.
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