I use to think I was the only person obsessed with true crime tales. I've been an avid watcher of Dateline NBC, 20/20, 48 Hours, etc, for over a decade. In fact when I've moved cable providers the last few times, I chose the plans that only included the ID Discovery channel. I can't even begin to tell you amount of shows I watched there. Then of course I'd top it off with a marathon of Law & Order: SVU. And this was all before the podcast frenzy. And I tell you, I've never had a peaceful night's rest since. Why do I do this? Correction... why do WE do this?
Redditor u/KyrieEleison_88 wanted everyone to compare notes about which blood curdling cases they can't shake off by asking... What true crime case lives rent free in your head and why?***WARNING - THE FOLLOWING STORIES CONTAINS SOME INFORMATION THAT REALLY SHOULD ONLY BE READ BY THOSE OVER 17***
So many of the stories I've followed have left me shook to the core. Some because they were never solved, which always keeps me on high alert, because who knows then where these psychos are. And mostly because these tales aren't fiction. True evil does exist and it just casually walks among us. These stories make you confront the fact that... none of us are ever really safe.
Signs
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Zodiac. We've cracked one cypher. Will we ever know who it was? Did they actually make a cypher with their name, or is it just another cryptic cat and mouse game? Are they still out there? To be so bold to give us messages, cyphers, and yet leave no evidence of who did it.
Shivers...
The Hinterkaifeck murders. It just makes *me so, so uncomfortable that multiple people in the house noticed things were strange or amiss in the days before they died but they brushed it all off.
The note that send shivers down my spine was when the father mentioned seeing footprints in the snow coming to the farm, but couldn't find any prints leaving.
No Words...
Ok here's something that is gonna traumatize you. I live in Greece so I doubt anyone else outside of here knows about this. A father killed his 4 year old daughter cause her mother loved her more than she loved him. We don't know how he killed her but after he did, he cut her up into pieces, boiled them with other ingredients and tossed that into the toilet and to garbage bins around the city to make it seem like thrown out food and so that stray dogs would eat it.
Sometimes I think about it and it makes me sick to my stomach. He says that he didn't kill her and that she just found her dead and that he did all that to avoid being targeted as the killer but come on... no one ever believed that.
Horror
The murder story of Junko furuta, it's extremely disturbing. I can't get it out of my head. And all of them got away with it. It shows how messed up this world is.
His mother vandalised her grave as well and said she ruined her son's life. You know... The guy who tortured her for like 48 days simply for rejecting him.
No Justice
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The murder of Shanda Sharer. The girls who murdered her are so evil, and all free.
A group of girls killing their own "friend" and getting nothing more than something akin to a slap on the wrist? Sounds totally fair to me.
The wiki article on her led me to the case of Bobby Kent, who was killed by his former best friend he started bullying.
Oof, I remember several of those stories and now they'll be back to the forefront of my psyche. It makes no sense. Well, tonight's sleep is ruined. We might as well continue...
In Australia...
The backpack murders in Australia. Saw some true crime documentaries years ago and this one disturbed me the most. Je, Ivan Milat, picked up hitchhikers and then brutally murder them. I remember he stabbed a guy in the back, paralyzing him, and then beat and killed his girlfriend. He did something similar with 2 girls: stab one and then shoot the other a dozen times in the head (target practice).
Parts
There was a torso found sealed in a barrel in the woods in my hometown. Never any explanation. Literally no one ever talks about it.
Apparently some guy also stalked a lady and then set himself on fire and died when he got caught.
They found a torso, arm and a leg (don't quote me on that) in my hometown in the late 1800s on the banks of the thames. Murders go unsolved to this day all I can remember is that there were 4 victims and only 1 was identified.
Years Ago
Delphi murders. They have video and audio of the perpetrator, yet no arrest in four years.
Definitely this case! Since it happened I check up on this regularly; it horrifies me how with video and audio they still have not found this guy, and based on what we've seen from ISP I doubt they have anything else to go on.
Rusty
Andrea Yates drowning her five kids because she thought they were full of sin and needed saving. Rusty took her off the meds and they had another child despite doctor's warnings about her condition.
He should have been held criminally liable for all of this. He treated her like a broodmare. He was specifically told to not leave her alone with the kids; so he makes all of them live in a freaking SCHOOL BUS. He goes to work and leaves her alone w/ the kids. All day. Every day. Pulls her meds. Keeps impregnating her.
All the warning signs were there. I mean, I have to wonder if on some level he wanted this to happen??? Because it was very clear for a very long time that this was exactly how it was gonna end.
Not to mention that someone in her state of mind, likely wouldn't be able to truly consent. She was very very sick.
My heart breaks for that woman and her kids. But her husband should be rotting in prison.
That Guy!
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Chris Watts. I don't know why I am so invested in it. I just can't wrap my head around a seemingly normal person can murder his whole family and think that he's going to start a new life with his girlfriend.
Now there a few new ones I'm going to have to read up on. Also, I'm going to go join a karate class, just in case. The last thing I want to be is a victim in one of these stories.
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Try not to follow the bad advice given here, because you don't want to get the results that these guys did.
U/Duckerton375 asked: What's the worst advice someone ever gave you, but you still followed?
The workplace can bring a cornucopia of terrible advice. Don’t follow these unless you want to get fired.
Bad jobs are usually not worth it.
Stick with a job no matter how bad it is. I stayed with a terrible job working retail, dealing with horrible customers and sexual harassment. I was told I wouldn't find anything better.
"No, no, you misunderstand. I said you wouldn't find anything better at making you feel like complete garbage."
This gets really creepy really fast.
frustrated workplace GIFGiphy"After you put in a job application, you need to call them at least once a day every day until they hire you."
Note: this did not get me hired. It got me called out by the HR person I was calling and forbidden to ever contact their facility again.
I work for a law firm that employees over 1500 people in the home office alone. Once I received a call from the building security saying, "Insert Name is here to speak with the owner." Well we are run by a committee so that's odd. Found out they just applied for a job and wanted to talk directly to the person that would potentially hire them. Told him the firm will contact them to schedule an interview. They refused to leave without "talking to the owner." Had security escort them out of the building.
This is absolutely not true.
"Sleep is for people who do not want success" great words from my uncle, it almost killed me.
Now I may be oversleeping.
Interpersonal relationships are also a big breeding ground for terrible advice. Don’t listen to any of these.
Heartbreaking.
My father always tought me and my brother that "having friends is bad and in the end they will never be there for you" so everytime I told my father about my friends he would get kinda mad and give me the advice to stop talking to them.
Now I am afraid of people and have several trust issues, thanks dad.
This won’t end well.
A Christmas Story GIF by filmeditorGiphyIn the fifth grade my teacher was talking about bullying, then she said "if anyone tries to bully you just agree with them." So the next time I got bullied I agreed with the bully and they bullied me more.
Dude one time I saw an anti bullying video that told the victims to just BE NICE TO THE BULLY. Like the bully was hurling insults and the victim was smiling and complimenting him. My first thought was about how much I hated the mere thought that this would work. My second thought was of how the people who came up with that method had clearly never been bullied.
Oof.
When I met my now wife at the age of 19, one of my coworkers said that it's very important to start at the bottom with presents and work your way up, she still has the socks I gave her on our first anniversary on the wall over our bed as a reminder...
I'm still trying to teach my boyfriend about good presents and bad presents. Biscuits from the supermarket = bad present. Cheap unbranded laptop battery from China as my only present = bad present (and only lasted 2 months). Anything off my 7-page wishlist = good present. It's literally a list of things I want to receive as presents.
Can tell you from experience that this is a bad idea.
Had a falling out with some friends. My husband recommended I reach out to an old friend who ghosted me suddenly in a manner that induced some pretty severe abandonment trauma. Went for it anyways because "it's been so long, surely they changed". Am now experiencing the same things as last time.
When you follow bad advice, it can lead to mistakes that you just can’t come back from.
Buying a house is tricky.
for sale dancing GIF by Lisa VertudachesGiphy"Buy a home now before the prices go up!" -my FIL in 2006.
We bought in 2007 and paid $259,500 for our 1,300 sq ft house (we really couldn't afford it and had an 80/20 so we had 8% interest for one loan and 6% on the other) and in 2008 it was worth $97,000 so refinancing wasn't even an option. We watched all of our neighbors walk away or get foreclosed on but we kept paying our bills and as of this very moment our house is worth $462,000. I'm so happy we stuck it out, we both worked our @sses off and the house will be paid off in 2 years.
It worked out for us, it's a horrible idea. Especially since 1300 sq ft houses are $460+k
My heartbreaks for future generations, I honestly don't know how people are going to afford housing in the future.
It’s there for a reason.
"Never apply for any government assistance."
Cue years of suffering trying to work full-time with a painful disability. Quit a particularly terrible job, and wanted to apply for food aid until I could find another gig; a friend with lots of DHS experience recommended I apply for Social Security "just to get in the system." Turns out my disability was bad enough to get accepted the first time, which I wasn't expecting. Really could've used that support, oh, the 30+ previous years of my life.
Credit is important to have.
I was told to not get a credit card until after college. I was super fortunate to have my college paid for so I had no loans, car paid in cash, no credit card or anything to start building credit. Found myself out in the world at 22 years old with a credit score of 0.
So while a lot of this bad advice came from trusted people, oftentimes they were too misinformed to give that advice in the first place. Don't trust the word of one person--do your research, and make decisions for yourself.
It'll be way better in the long run