People are killed every single day. Some are murdered in horrific fashion, feeding the insatiable appetites of true crime fanatics but traumatizing the victim's surviving family members.
Many murders happen in cities of course but others happen in small towns, which many people consider idyllic safe havens from urban crime. Of course, you or your loved ones can be the victim of a crime at any time. A sad and scary fact.
People shared some info with us after Redditor RookTheBlindSnake asked the online community,
"What's your small town murder story?"
"They broke in at night..."
"The Stove Top Murder."
In Northern Ontario, in the '40s, four men got it into their heads that an old woman had a bunch of money hidden in her house. They broke in at night and tortured her for the money's location by pushing her face onto a hot stove top. She didn't have any money and died later at the hospital. Three of the men were hanged and one got life in prison."
RookTheBlindSnake
This is horrific. That poor woman.
"No one saw enough of the person..."
"An elderly woman's house was broken into and she was beaten to death inside. Nothing was stolen, she didn't have any living family to suspect, and according to neighbors she was very kind but generally kept to herself.
No one saw enough of the person leaving her house to be much help. The only info the police got was "probably male" and "left in a car or suv no one recognized". No updates or news stories on the case since about a month after it happened."
jupiter-mint
This is incredibly heartbreaking for the victim's family.
"There was an old woman..."
"There was an old woman in a small town just north of Toronto who was decapitated and her house set on fire. They still don't know who did it and this was just a couple months ago."
ToastedMaple
Scary! The killer is likely still out there, barring extraordinary events.
"He was murdered..."
"In the 90s I went to elementary school with Kirsten Hatfield- an 8-year-old girl who was abducted from her bedroom while she slept next to her three-year-old sister. The girls’ mom was on drugs and hung out with sketchy people so the community wrongly assumed her mom had something to do with her disappearance."
"In 2015, Kristen’s neighbor Anthony Palma was arrested for her abduction and murder after her bloody panties were found buried in his backyard. In 2019, two years after being sentenced to life in prison, Palma was found dead in his cell. He was murdered by another inmate."
CinnyButta
This is awful. That poor child.
"Johnny Cash's great niece..."
"Johnny Cash's great niece was murdered next to my grandma's house. Dude stuffed her body into a box."
Reddit-username-here
And the family is still seeking answers in the murder case.
"My parents..."
"My parents got a good deal on a house because the lady that lived there killed her two kids, sister and herself in a very very small town."
i-love-uwu
That's often how it works. Many people don't want to live in homes where murders occurred.
"In 1988 William Mellin, the man who owned and ran the general store in the very small town of Millican, OR was murdered by a shot to the back of the head."
"Not really a particularly remarkable story except for the fact that Millican was such a very, very small town. So small, in fact, that the official population was "1" - William Mellin. And then, after his demise, the population of Millican was "0."
JuzoItami
Wonder how in the world that happened. How will we ever know?
"I was good friends with..."
"I was good friends with the mayor's son growing up, but after he left office, the former mayor got on heavy drugs and was later murdered by his sex worker's pimp."
CoolJeweledMoon
This was a rollercoaster ride!
"I'm about 15 minutes away..."
"I’m about 15 minutes away from Delphi, IN. The murders of Abby Williams and Liberty German in 2017 are still unsolved and will probably remain that way. Such a sad and scary case."
andronicus_14
This is a remarkably creepy case and it's so disturbing that there haven't been any significant developments.
"I remember helicopters..."
"Poughkeepsie Killer - Kendall Francois was a serial killer from Poughkeepsie, New York, convicted of killing eight women, from 1996 to 1998. I remember helicopters hovering over my neighborhood for days when he was arrested."
Upyours
Terrifying.
Francois died in prison in 2014 of an AIDS-related illness at the Wende Correctional Facility in upstate New York.
Chances are your own town has secrets of its own. It's awful when a town's claim to fame is something so horrific and painful.
Have stories of your own? Feel free to share them with us in the comments below!
As Adele sings it... "In my hometown..." we appreciate our towns more.
I grew up in New York City so small town USA is not my wheelhouse.
But I've been told plenty of tales, stories, and scandals that come out of the heartland.
(Mostly thanks to Dateline NBC)
Much of the craziest in life happens in towns with only a handful of stoplights.
Let's hear some...
Redditor jvniper666wanted to hear all the mess and drama about small town USA. So they asked:
"What’s your small town drama?"
When I was growing up in Astoria one summer. We had a kidnapper on the loose. That was intense.
"Trips"
gay men GIFGiphy"Several prominent men were caught having gay orgies during 'hunting trips.'"
Drained
"I lived in a smallish town (about 5000) in the 90s. We had one of those big water towers in the middle of town. Sometime in the 80s a town worker, who was unsatisfied with his job and life, decided to take his own life. One May night he jimmied himself up to the ladder that was 12 ft from the ground, climbed to the top, unscrewed the man hole at the top, and jumped in."
"Subsequently he drowned and wasn’t found for a few months. I wasn’t living in the town during the event, so I don’t know of any funny tasting or discoloured water from the taps, but the town assures the people that the filtration system had down its job and very minimal human waste made it through the filters. Everything was drained and disinfected."
dazedNdizorientated
Punched
"In the span of 4 months in a town of 800 someone was murdered and someone broke into the undersheriff’s house (presumably to rob the place) but his daughter was home the guy punched her in the face and ran. According to his daughter the guy 'punched like a little *itch."
birdofswag2
Rich Kid
"Rich kid son of local Chamber of Commerce president tries to burn down a homeless encampment, fire ends up burning right up to an expensive neighborhood. Gets arrested, released on bail, charges brought for trying to kill homeless, charges dropped, charged again with lesser crimes, eventually judge gently slaps his wrist and says he isn’t a criminal because he is mentally ill. Whole community is miffed, but not enough to get out pitchforks because only homeless people got hurt."
ThisIsDen
And Recliners?
Season 17 Television GIF by The SimpsonsGiphy"The city government is trying to outlaw burning couches on your front lawn. I didn’t know this happened often enough to be an issue, but it’s getting a ton of push back."
handsthefram
Burning couches. That has to have an even more interesting story.
Manhunt
money run GIF by Juan BillyGiphy"I also should probably mention in the city, there’s a guy stealing catalytic converters all over the city and it’s having a city wide manhunt for this man that’s just ripping them off of anything he can get away with."
Link_hunter9
Crazy Year
"Our mayor got killed and it's possible to hear the gunshots on a local radio recording. He was being interviewed on that radio, left to his car and got shot seconds after leaving, it seems that he owed a lot of money to someone and got killed, it became news on the whole country, that was a crazy year."
Regular-Attorney-310
Vote on It
"City had a vote on whether to change the school mascot (a Native American with headdress). People who wanted to keep it rallied behind the son of the Native American man who initially created the mascot years ago. Then census evidence came out casting doubt on whether that guy was actually Native American."
scrotdust
The Spiller
"At one point in my hometown a Domino's manager was arrested for arson after burning down a Papa John's in an attempt to increase revenue."
Realistic-Cheetah-14
Rivals
Angela Bassett Burn GIFGiphy"At one point in my hometown, a Domino's manager was arrested for arson after burning down a Papa John's in an attempt to increase revenue."
Grentain
Any place you live holds secrets. And you place you live (big or small) has history. So embrace it all and spill that tea.
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/
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