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Jenna Nielsen (22) was weeks away from giving birth to her third child when she was brutally murdered on June 14th, 2007. The young woman was killed while delivering newspapers in Raleigh, North Carolina—a job she did every single morning. Jenna’s body was found shortly after she had been killed, behind the AmeriKing Food Mart on Lake Wheeler Road. Her car was still running nearby, with all of her personal belongings inside. Jenna had been stabbed in the neck.

Police called Jenna’s death ‘completely random’. They have followed numerous leads in the case, but they have not been able to charge anyone for Jenna’s murder. The lead detective on the case told reporters, “every single lead starts to become a dead end and that’s why the case has gone for as long as it has. We just keep having to dig.” The same detective also confirmed that they do have DNA evidence from the crime scene, and they think that it will one day help them solve the case. Still, over a decade has passed since Jenna’s murder and police do not appear to have any suspects.

There is a $15000 reward in place for anyone with information that could lead to the arrest of a suspect. If you have any information that could help solve Jenna’s case, please contact Crime Stoppers at 919-834-4357.

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A lot of people around me are having kids and every day it becomes more apparent that hitting your children to punish them is insane because literally everything can be a horrible punishment in their eyes if you frame it as such.

Like, one family makes their toddler sit on the stairs for three minutes when he hits his brother or whatever. The stairs are well lit and he can see his family the whole time, he’s just not allowed to get up and leave the stairs or the timer starts over. He fucking hates it just because it’s framed as a punishment.

Another family use a baseball cap. It’s just a plain blue cap with nothing on it. When their toddler needs discipline he gets a timeout on a chair and has to put the cap on. When they’re out and about he just has to wear the cap but it gets the same reaction. Nobody around them can tell he’s being punished because it’s in no way an embarrassing cap, but HE knows and just the threat of having to wear it is enough.

And there isn’t the same contempt afterwards I’ve seen with kids whose parents hit them. One time the kid swung a stick at my dog, his mother immediately made him sit on the stairs, he screamed but stayed put, then he came over to my dog and gently said “Sorry Ellie” and went back to playing like nothing happened, but this time without swinging sticks at the nearby animals.

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A photograph of Rosemary Kennedy before her father forced her to have a lobotomy at the age of 23. The lobotomy went wrong and left her paralyzed and unable to speak. Her father then placed her in a mental institute where she remained until she passed away at the age of 86. After the surgery, her family, including JFK, never spoke of her again.

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𝐋𝐢𝐬𝐧𝐚𝐦𝐮𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐏𝐫𝐢𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐲 𝐒𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐨𝐥 Lisnamurrican Primary School was situated in Broughshane, just outside Ballymena. Enrolment peaked at 30 pupils before it closed its doors in 2006 due to dwindling numbers.

Local celebrity, James Nesbitt, attended the school as a youngster. His father, James ‘Jim’ Nesbitt was the headmaster.

The school comprised of 2 classrooms, a canteen, restrooms, and a small outbuilding.

Full report here: https://urbexhub.com/lisnamurrican-primary-school/

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In 1991, 16-year-old Laurie Show became the victim of stalking and harassment by her classmate, Lisa Michelle Lambert. Lambert was enraged that Laurie had briefly dated her boyfriend, Lawrence “Butch” Yunkin, who she was currently expecting a baby with. 

Lambert became obsessively jealous, believing that Laurie was attempting to steal him away from her, when in reality, Laurie wanted nothing to do with him as she had told her mother that he had date raped her while dating. Nevertheless, Lambert continually harassed and threatened Laurie, even showing up to her work. Multiple witnesses reported that Lambert had spoken of her desire to slit Laurie’s throat. 

On 21 December, 1991, Laurie’s mother, Hazel, received a phone call from somebody who she believed was the school counsellor, asking her to come down to the school to talk about the problems between the two girls. In reality, this phone call was a diversion by Lambert to get Hazel out of the house so that Laurie was alone. 

When Hazel returned home later, she found Laurie in a pool of her own blood with “a five-inch gash to the throat; a stab wound that punctured a lung and another that grazed her spine; several wounds to the head; and a number of defensive wounds.” Miraculously she was still alive and managed to tell Hazel that Lambert had done this to her before passing away. 

Lisa Lambert was sentenced to life imprisonment. Lampert’s boyfriend, Lawrence, who had dropped Lambert off at Laurie’s house, was paroled in 2003 after testifying against Lambert.

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Jill Dudley appeared outwardly to be the perfect wife and mother but behind closed doors, she lived a life of depravity. Her husband, John Lewis, suddenly died in a car accident just days after she gave birth to their twin boys, Marcus and Alex. Jill went on to marry a man twenty years her senior, Jack Dudley. Jack was a very strict man who evidently preferred his own children with Jill over the twin boys, who he often treated as servants. 

The two boys were forced to sleep outside in the shed as opposed to inside the family home. Jack was brutal towards them both but he was nothing compared to Jill, who began sexually abusing the twins when they were just young boys. This progressed to Jill inviting her male friends over to sexually abuse the twins as well as herself. Marcus and Alex confessed what their mother had done to them after she passed away and they found numerous explicit photos of themselves as children in her home along with a numerous sex toys. 

The brothers went on to write a book about their abhorrent upbringing, Tell Me Who I Am.

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𝐌𝐨𝐫𝐛𝐢𝐝𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐏𝐨𝐝𝐜𝐚𝐬𝐭 - 𝟏𝟓𝟒: 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐓𝐨𝐝𝐭 𝐅𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐲

In January of 2020, residents of the quaint community of Celebration in Florida awoke to find their neighbourhood overrun with swarm of police cars.

For weeks, family members of the Todt family had been trying to get in contact with them. When police finally gained entry to the home, they would be met with a scene none would forget.

This week’s episode of Morbidology takes a look at the tragic case of the Todt family. Listen to episode 154 of Morbidology on all podcast platforms:

https://apple.co/3ajgssX

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In 2002, Declan Lyons’ body was discovered outside the restaurant he worked - he had been shot through the head. For weeks, the case went unsolved; Lyons was a popular guy and apparently had no enemies. The murder seemed motiveless. 

A month after the discovery, Isaac Turnbaugh, a co-worker of Lyons, admitted that he had killed Lyons after taking mushrooms at a party. He also admitted that he was behind the 9/11 attacks. Unfortunately, this was brought up during his trial and the jury believed that the confession was just the drugs talking and acquitted him.

The case went unsolved until 2011, when, apparently racked with guilt, Turnbaugh handed himself into the police and confessed that he had indeed killed Lyons. Regardless of this, due to “double jeopardy” Turnbaugh cannot be tried for the same crime twice and still remains a free man.

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On 19 August, 1989, police officer Mark  McPhail was shot and killed in a Burger King parking lot in Georgia after attempting to intervene in a fight. 20-year-old Troy Davis, who was there at the time but fled before the shots were fired, was apprehended after nine witnesses claimed to see him shoot the officer.

Despite missing crucial evidence, which included the murder weapon, Davis was convicted of the murder. Over the years, seven out of the nine witnesses retracted their claims that they witnessed Davis shoot the officer. Nevertheless, Davis was executed on 21 September, 2011.

He had many supporters who believed in his innocent and due to this, his execution had been successfully delayed twice, but sadly not for a third time regardless of the fact that nearly one million people had signed a petition for clemency. His last words were:

“Well, first of all I’d like to address the MacPhail family. I’d like to let you all know, despite the situation – I know all of you are still convinced that I’m the person that killed your father, your son and your brother, but I am innocent. The incident that happened that night was not my fault. I did not have a gun that night. I did not shoot your family member. But I am so sorry for your loss. I really am – sincerely. All I can ask is that each of you look deeper into this case, so that you really will finally see the truth. I ask my family and friends that you all continue to pray, that you all continue to forgive. Continue to fight this fight. For those about to take my life, may God have mercy on all of your souls. God bless you all.”

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Celebration is a 10.7-square mile master planned community located in Florida. It was designed by Disney in the 1990s, so it’s probably not much of a surprise that it’s just a stone’s throw away from the theme parks.

The community is extremely charming, and was inspired by Walt Disney’s dream of creating a “perfect Utopian city” and it looks like small-town America of the mid-20th century.

In January of 2020, however, residents of Celebration awoke to the grisly news that a mass murder had taken place in their picturesque community, a mass murder that would show that oftentimes, outward appearances can be deceiving…

This is the heartbreaking story of the Todt family. Listen to episode 154 of Morbidology on all podcast platforms and YouTube:

https://apple.co/3ajgssX

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Barbara Graham was born in 1923 in Oakland, California. As a teenager, she spent time at a reformatory and attempted to change her troubled ways. In 1939, she married but within two years, the marriage had fallen apart. She then drifted into sex work and eventually married a mobster by the name of Henry Graham. It was Henry who introduced Barbara to Jack Santo, who was a gang leader.

 Barbara, her husband, Jack Santo, and two other accomplices - Emmett Perkins and John True - set out one night to rob a wealthy elderly woman, Mabel Monahan. Enraged that they could not find any valuables, they smothered and beat the elderly woman to death.

They were quickly apprehended and Barbara became known as “Bloody Babs” in the press. She was sentenced to death after John True testified against the group. She was told that she may receive a stay of execution, to which she replied: “I never got a break in my whole goddamned life and you think I’m going to get one now?” 

On 3 June, 1955, her execution was pushed back from 22:00 to 23:30, to which she said: “Why do they torture me? I was ready to go at ten o’clock.” She was led to the gas chamber and pronounced dead at 11:42. Her last words were: “Good people are always so sure they’re right.”

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Jeremy Wade Delle was a 15-year-old sophomore who had just recently been transferred to Richardson High School in Richardson, Texas, from Bryan Adams in Dallas. On the 8th of January, 1991, Jeremy came to school armed with a .357-caliber Magnum.

That morning, Jeremy arrived to class late and the teacher in his second-period English class, Fay Barnett, told Jeremy to get an admittance slip from the school’s office. Instead of retrieving the admittance slip, however, Jeremy went to his locker and retrieved the gun he had brought along with him.

When Jeremy arrived back in class, he walked directly to the front of the classroom, stated: “Miss, I got what I really went for,” and the placed the barrel of the gun in his mouth and pulled the trigger, killing himself in front of his teacher and 30 of his classmates.

𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐌𝐨𝐫𝐞:

https://morbidology.com/the-suicide-of-jeremy-wade-delle/

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19-year-old Nathan Leopold and 18-year-old Richard Loeb were both law students at the University of Chicago when they decided that they wanted to commit the “perfect crime.” 

During the summer of 1924, the two young men rented a car and drove to a local private school where they met 14-year-old Robert Franks and offered him a ride. They had picked Robert in particular due to the fact that he was the son of a wealthy watch manufacturer. The murderous duo had already written a ransom note when they picked the young boy up and it was delivered to his father, Jacob, the following morning. 

Before Jacob even had a chance to respond to the ransom note, the body of his son was found in a culvert. Found near his body was a pair of glasses which were traced back to Leopold. They confessed that they had attempted to knock the boy unconscious with a chisel but they had hit him too hard, killing him. 

Loeb died in prison in 1936 and Leopold was released in 1958.

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On 16 April, 1996, 17-year-old Kelly Anne Bates was drowned in a bathtub after suffering weeks of torture at the hands of her 48-year-old “partner”, James Patterson Smith, who had began grooming her when she was just 14-years-old.

After realizing that Bates was dead, Smith went to the police station and said he had accidentally killed her after an argument. An investigation showed that Bates’ blood was in every room of the house and her autopsy showed that there was over 150 separate injuries on her body.

She had been kept locked in the house and brutally tortured for up to a month prior to her death. She had been burnt with cigarettes and a hot iron. She had multiple stab wounds caused by a knife and scissors. Her hands and kneecaps had been crushed, rendering her unable to walk. She had been partially scalped. She had been stabbed inside her mouth. Her ears, nose, mouth, lips, and genitalia had been mutilated. Both of her eyes had been gauged out and her empty eye sockets had been stabbed. She had also been starved and hadn’t been given water for several days before she died. 

Before she drowned, she had been beaten over the head with the shower head. When asked why he had tortured her so much, he claimed she had dared him to. Smith had a history of violence towards women he dated. 

He was convicted of the murder and sentenced to life imprisonment.

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When former Miss Wyoming, Joyce McKinney, was 25-years-old, she met 19-year-old Kirk Anderson at a drama course they were both students of at Brigham Young University.

Anderson was a Mormon missionary and McKinney become infatuated. The duo had a brief fling and afterwards, Anderson felt so guilty that he fled to England after speaking to his bishop. McKinney was furious and refused to let him get away from her that easily. She subsequently hired a detective to track him down. 

The detective gave her the details of where Anderson was located and she went to pursue him with a fake gun and a bottle of chloroform. She took along a friend, Keith May, and they rented a cottage in Devon, England. McKinney gave May the chloroform and gun and told him to kidnap Anderson, which he managed to do outside of a church. 

Once in the cottage, McKinney chained Anderson to the bed where she sexually assaulted him for three days. She told Anderson that she intended to get pregnant by him. He managed to escape from the cottage after promising McKinney that he would marry her if she would remove the chains. 

After being apprehended, McKinney skipped bail and fled to Atlanta. Anderson went back to work with the church and seven years after the incident, McKinney was arrested again for stalking Anderson.

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When Daniel Joe Hittle was 23-years-old he stabbed his adoptive parents to death. He claimed he was angry due to the fact that their dog scratched his car. He was paroled in 1984 after serving nine years. 

After his release he moved to Garland, Texas, where on the 15th of November, 1989, he got into an argument with his wife and sped off in his car. He was pulled over by police officer, Gerald Walker. Hittle shot Walker in the chest with his shotgun. He then made his way to the home of his drug dealer, Mary Gross, and slashed her tires. She quickly called the police before he shot her dead. 

Before police arrived, Hittle made his way around the other occupants, killing them. He first killed 36-year-old Richard Cook and then 19-year-old Raymond Gregg. He then came across 4-year-old Christy, Mary’s daughter. He reloaded his gun and shot her dead. 

He was executed on 6 December, 2000.

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This tiny shoe was found by a farmer on a remote sheep trail in Ireland in 1835. It measured two and seven-eights inches long and seven-eights of an inch at its widest. It was black and showed wear and tear at the heel which led the farmer to believe it belonged to “the little people”. The shoe was examined by scientists at Harvard University who found it to be hand stitched and made of mouse skin.