everythingtruecrime

[everythingtruecrime]

Luigi Mangione's notes on his debilitating back injury. Luigi had L5 spondylolisthesis which is a condition where the L5 vertebra (the last vertebra in the lumbar spine) slips forward or backward over the sacrum (the bone at the base of the spine). This can result in pain, nerve compression, or instability in the lower back. In Luigi's case, the L5 vertebra has shifted forward over the S1 vertebra (first sacral vertebra, which is part of the sacrum) due to the pars fracture.

Spondylolisthesis is classified by the degree of slippage, ranging from Grade 1 to Grade 5. Grade 5 would be a complete slippage, where the vertebra falls off entirely. Luigi has a 30% slippage, meaning his injury is Grade 2.

Not much is known yet about how Luigi sustained this back injury--or whether it's genetic--although sources say he experienced back issues since childhood, which exacerbated during physical activity and affected romantic relationships and intimacy. He had a back surgery in 2023, and shortly after, he fell out of touch with friends and family.

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Luigi Mangione's Linkedin Profile. His last known employment was at TrueCar, Inc. However, this company stated Luigi has not worked for them since 2023. It's unknown if he worked anywhere else since then.

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Mekayla Bali's disappearance on April 12, 2016, from her hometown of Yorkton, Saskatchewan, has remained a haunting mystery, capturing the attention of both law enforcement and the public. The 16-year-old Canadian was last seen at a local bus stop between 1:00 and 1:45 p.m., sparking a frantic search effort that has yet to yield any definitive leads. The day before her diappearance, she visited the bank to have $25 wired to her account. Later, she texted several friends that she was upset and needed help with something, but no further explanation was provided. The day she went missing was marked by a series of perplexing events, adding layers to the enigma surrounding her case. She texted a friend at around 6:41am asking for a ride to the bank again, but the friend declined since the bank was closed. Her grandmother then drove her to school at around 8:10am. Surveillance cameras showed her putting her binder in her locker and then slipping out the back entrance. She hiked all the way to the bank, where she withdrew $55. She then went to a Wendy's/Tim Horton's restaurant, where, for the next hour or so, she exhibited strange behaviour. Footage shows her disassembling her phone and then reassembling it. Multiple times she left the restaurant, wandered around, and then re-entered. She spent much of her time talking on the phone and texting, including a friend whom she asked for help with something, only to follow it up with ''Nevermind I figured it out''. She also asked a random customer for help with renting a hotel room, but was turned down. At around 11am, she went to the bus stop and asked a stranger when the next stop to Regina would be. Since the bus wasn't going to arrive until 5pm, she left without purchasing a ticket and went back to school for the lunch period, where she met with friends and told them she was planning a trip to Regina. At around 12:03pm, she departed from school and went to a Trail Stop Restaurant, which was attached to a bus stop. She ordered food and left about an hour later. She was never seen by eyewitnesses again, nor was she captured on surveillance footage anywhere. Police were able to confirm she did not get on any bus that day, either. Over the years, various theories have emerged regarding Bali's disappearance, ranging from the possibility of her running away to concerns about human trafficking or falling victim to an online predator. Despite reported sightings and extensive police investigations, including the review of hundreds of hours of surveillance footage and interviews with potential witnesses, Bali's whereabouts remain unknown, leaving her family in agonizing uncertainty.

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When Dr. Darryl Sutorius, a prominent heart surgeon in Cincinnati, Ohio, first met Dante Britteon, he had no idea the trouble he was getting into.

Darryl had been married to another woman for 30 years, with whom he had four kids with. While he was a highly-regarded surgeon, being one of the best in his field, he had horrible people skills and a short fuse, making him a nightmare to be around both at work and home. This caused his marriage to become strained, resulting in a divorce.

After the divorce, Darryl struggled with intense loneliness, fearing he would die alone. He took to an online dating service, hoping to find love there, and was matched with Dante Britteon, a petite blonde woman in her 40s who had a degree from UCLA and used to run her own daycare centre. For Darryl, it was love at first sight. 

Dante had only been married twice in her life and was serious about finding a life partner. Darryl was absolutely smitten with his new girlfriend, pampering her with all the exquisite vacations and designer labels she coveted. Months into dating, they decided to marry. But soon, the marriage started taking a turn for the worse, when Darryl’s daughter began planning her own lavish wedding and requested her father’s financial help. Dante took great issue with Darryl spending money on his own kids, resulting in many heated arguments that escalated into death threats from Dante. 

Darryl, fed up with his wife’s controlling ways, lawyered up to begin the process of a divorce. That’s when he found out her real name was Della Faye Hall. Not Dante. Darryl took it upon himself to call Della’s mother, whom she was essentially estranged from, and found out some terrifying details about his wife’s past. Della lied about being married twice. She’d actually been married 4 times, with many boyfriends in between. She abused all of them, threatening nearly all of them with a gun. She set one boyfriend’s bed on fire while he was asleep, and burned down another boyfriend’s house when he broke up with her. She also never attended UCLA. She hadn’t even finished high school. Whoever she dated or married, Della squeezed every penny out of them. 

Hearing these details about his wife made him fear for his life. He tried to speed up the divorce process and planned to serve his wife with divorce papers. But he never got to do that. Della knew that if she and Darryl divorced, she’d only be granted around $2000 in alimony payments per month. But if he died…she’d inherit $900,000. 

So Della bought a gun and then shot her husband in the head, staging the scene to appear like a suicide. 

But the forensic evidence came through, pointing toward Darryl’s death being a homicide–not a suicide. Della was arrested and sentenced to 23 years to life in prison, where she died in 2010 at the age of 60.

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A photo of a 106-year-old woman guarding her house with an automatic weapon in Armenia as armed conflicts took place in her area.

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Bryan Kohberger - What We Know So Far

In the early morning hours of November 13th, 2022, the bodies of four college students were found stabbed to death in their off-campus rental home in Moscow, Idaho. The students were identified 21-year-old Madison Mogen, 21-year-old Kaylee Goncalves, 20-year-old Xana Kernodle, and 20-year-old Ethan Chapin, who were all studying at the University of Idaho. 

Forensic evidence and surveillance footage linked 28-year-old Bryan Kohberger to the quadruple homicide, a criminal justice PhD student at the University of Washington, leaving many to wonder what Bryan’s connection was–if any–to the victims. 

As it’s so early on in the investigation, not much is known about Bryan’s life before his arrest on December 30th. He grew up in eastern Pennsylvania’s Pocono Mountain. He grew up with his father, who was a maintenance worker, his mother, who worked in the school system, and two older sisters. 

Former high school friends of Bryan say he was bullied for being overweight. In his senior year of high school, he lost 100 lbs. But with his physical transformation also came an attitude switch. He became more physically aggressive and arrogant toward others. Not long after, he developed a heroin addiction, which made him more secluded and self-destructive. 

Years later, Bryan tried to sober up and get his life back on track.He worked security for the Pleasant Valley School District and was attending Pennsylvania’s Northampton Community College, where he received his associate’s degree in 2018 before completing his undergrad at DeSales University in Allentown, Pennsylvania in 2020. He graduated with a master of arts in criminal justice in June 2022 where he studied under forensic psychologist Katherine Ramsland who interviewed the BTK serial killer and wrote a book on him.

During his master studies, Bryan made the following post on Reddit:

Hello, my name is Bryan and I am inviting you to participate in a research project that seeks to understand how emotions and psychological traits influence decision-making when committing a crime.

In particular, this study seeks to understand the story behind your most recent criminal offense, with an emphasis on your thoughts and feelings throughout your experience.

After completing his master’s, he enrolled as a PhD student in the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology at Washington State University in August, where he also worked as a teaching assistant. But it wasn’t long before Bryan ran into some trouble. Several times, meetings were arranged with faculty members to discuss Bryan’s misogynistic attitude in the way he interacted with women and graded their papers versus their male peers. Furthermore, Bryan reportedly had gotten into many altercations with one of his professors. Days before his arrest, Bryan was eventually fired as a TA for his behaviour. 

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It was New Year’s Eve of 2018 and Tyrone Hassel III, aged 23, who was an army sergeant, was spending it with his family in Benton Harbour, MI, where he grew up. He and his wife, Kemia Hassel, 22, had just completed an 8 month deployment in South Korea. Together, they shared a 1-year-old son. The family was stationed at Fort Stewart in Georgia, but made the drive over to Benton Harbour to spend the holidays with Tyrone’s family, crashing at his father’s house. 

Sergeant Hassel went to spend the evening with some relatives where they cooked dinner for New Year’s Eve while his wife stayed behind at Tyrone’s father’s house with their son. Shortly before 11 PM, Tyrone’s father, Hassel Jr., prepared a plate for Tyrone to bring to wife back at the house. Hassel Jr. implored his son to make it back to the family gathering before midnight. Within minutes of leaving the house, Hassel Jr. received a phone call from a very distraught Kemia, who claimed Tyrone had just been shot in their driveway. 

Police quickly arrived at the scene, where they found Kemia sobbing and grasping her husband who had been shot multiple times and was barely clinging onto life. She explained to police that Tyrone had just arrived to deliver some food and he had barely made it back to his parked truck when she heard gunshots. It was clear Tyrone was brutally executed by somebody who intended to target him, only nobody could think of even one suspect. Tyrone didn’t have bad blood with anybody. He was well-respected by all who knew him. 

Police received a tip from an elderly couple that lived just one block over from the Hassel home. They claimed they witnessed a strange vehicle parked across the street at a vacant home with a for-sale sign. They saw a man dressed in all black exit the vehicle and head toward the street where the Hassels lived. Minutes later, they heard 6 gunshots. When they peeped outside their window once again, the suspicious vehicle was gone. 

Police received an additional tip about a week into the investigation. The woman claimed she overheard rumors that Kemia had a secret affair with a fellow soldier who was in the same unit as Kemia and Tyrone, although she didn’t know this soldier’s name. Police later learned the man was 24-year-old Jeremy Cuellar. Immediately, they brought Kemia in for questioning, where they got her to confess her role in her husband’s death. She admitted that her affair with Jeremy began while the three of them were deployed in South Korea. They began plotting Tyrone’s death so that they could be together, communicating mostly via Snapchat to ensure the messages would be erased. Part of why she wanted him dead was so she could receive Tyrone’s $400,000 life insurance. 

The suspicous vehicle that was parked in the neighbourhood was confirmed to belong to Jeremy. He drove to Michigan several times to assassinate Tyrone but kept getting cold feet. Eventually, he seized the perfect opportunity to get the job done when Kemia alerted him that Tyrone was going to be arriving at the house alone to bring her dinner. That’s when Jeremy ambushed Tyrone in the driveway. 

Both were arrested in their involvement in Sergeant Tyrone’s murder. Tyrone’s father visited Jeremy in jail where Jeremy confessed to murdering Tyrone. Even more surprising, he revealed that his affair with Kemia began even before their deployment in South Korea. 

Jeremy pleaded guilty to first-degree murder; Kemia pleaded not guilty, but was convicted and sentenced to life in prison. 

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Chandler Halderson, 23, seemed to have a bright future ahead of him. At such a young age, he had already accomplished tremendous milestones. A recent college graduate in IT, he worked remotely from home for a local insurance company. He was also on the police suba diving team and, even more impressively, recently landed a job at Elon Musk’s company, SpaceX. Suffice to say–Chandler’s parents, Bart and Krista Halderson, were exceptionally proud of their son.

As of June 2021, Chandler was still living at his parents’ home in Windsor, Wisconsin. He planned to move to Florida with his girlfriend soon in order to accept the job at SpaceX, but something hindered that monumental move–a nasty fall down the stairs, in which he sustained a concussion and neck injury which required him to wear a neckbrace. The doctors warned Chandler that he may need brain surgery if his symptoms worsened and discouraged him from long-distance travel until he fully recovered. Due to this, he had to cancel his move to Florida, and tragically lost his position at SpaceX as a result.

But Chandler’s parents began having suspicions. Their son worked long, hard hours at his online insurance company job, yet he never seemed to have money. Chandler always had an excuse as to why he wasn’t being paid–once claiming there was a glitch with the payroll software. He showed his father email exchanges with his employer as proof. Chandler was also exchanging emails with his school’s administrators,  Alyssa Brandt and Daniel Speith, regarding his diploma and transcripts he was trying to obtain. 

Bart’s suspicions only began growing from these emails. He took it upon himself to call Madison College, where his son graduated. Speaking directly with the enrollment coordinator, he identified himself as Chandler Halderson and explained he was trying to request his diploma and transcripts. He told the coordinator he previously exchanged emails with Alyssa Brandt and Daniel Speith regarding the issue. The coordinator did not recognize either of those names. To add to the confusion, he was told that he never graduated and had flunked out of college in the fall of 2020, still owing $2000 in tuition. 

After the phone call, Bart told Chandler he set up an appointment with school officials on July 1st to get to the bottom of everything, not telling him what he had just discovered over the phone.

Chandler knew his web of lies were about to be unraveled. Because it was true–he never completed his degree. Nor did he have a job lined up for him at SpaceX. Nor was he a volunteer for the police scuba diving team–such a thing didn’t even exist! Nor did he have an online job with an insurance company–that was just an excuse for him to stay at home playing video games all day. Those email exchanges with school officials and his employers were all fake. And his head injury? Also a sham.

When July 1st rolled around, Bart sent Chandler a text right before the appointment reading, I’m ready when you are. But this would be the last anyone’s ever heard from Bart. Chandler ended up shooting his father. When his mother returned home from work a few hours later, she met the same fate (it is not exactly known how she was killed). He then dismembered his parents’ bodies and attempted to burn their remains in the home fireplace. He then scattered his father’s remains around the property of a farm owned by his girlfriend’s family. He disposed of his mother���s remains in the forest by the Wisconsin River. 

Chandler reported his parents missing on July 7th, telling police they went up north to their cabin for the Fourth of July and never returned. Chandler was eventually caught in his lies and arrested for the murder of his parents and was sentenced to life in prison.

[everythingtruecrime]

If you’re looking for a new true crime podcast to listen to, I’d highly recommend checking out The Minds of Madness! I was recently hired as a script writer for this podcast and so far it’s been such a cool experience. Check out this episode I wrote and let me know what you think! 

On August 12th, 2014 at a luxurious resort in Bali, Heather Mack and her boyfriend Tommy Shaefer loaded a suitcase into the back of a waiting taxi.They told the driver they’d be back shortly. They just needed to finish checking out. But after waiting two whole hours, they never returned.When Hotel security popped the trunk of the cab to remove the suitcase, they noticed something smeared on the abandoned luggage…it appeared to be blood.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/4LbF817e6Q7CDi5fA2TfmX?si=7EAVHdOuRoqpZvLBaScKuQ

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Hey all, 

I’m very pleased to announced that MY BOOK IS OFFICIALLY PUBLISHED!

This book delves into the minds and upbringings of juveniles who have committed homicide, which also explores controversial topics such as how–or if–video games, pornography, brain development, abuse, or SSRIs can play a role in violent behaviour in children. In this book, you will encounter never-before-seen details that I’ve personally extracted from FBI records as well as interviews with investigators, district attorneys, and even family members who were directly involved in each of the cases. Kids Who Murder seeks to obtain as close to an answer as we might possibly ever achieve to a question that has confounded the minds of professionals for decades: why do kids kill? 

Without my followers’ support of this blog, my lifelong dream of becoming an author would have never become a reality, and I’m so excited for you guys to read the book that I’ve invested so much of my time, energy, and resources into. 

To order my book, please click here.

[everythingtruecrime]

Minds of Madness Podcast

Hey guys! I made this announcemet a while back, but I was recently hired as a script writer for Canadian-based podcast The Minds of Madness. 

The episode for one of the scripts I wrote for them has JUST BEEN RELEASED! 

On August 12th, 2014 at a luxurious resort in Bali, Heather Mack and her boyfriend Tommy Shaefer loaded a suitcase into the back of a waiting taxi.

They told the driver they’d be back shortly. They just needed to finish checking out. But after waiting two whole hours, they never returned.

When Hotel security popped the trunk of the cab to remove the suitcase, they noticed something smeared on the abandoned luggage…it appeared to be blood.

Please check it out on Spotify and let me know what you think! 

[everythingtruecrime]

On July 14th, 2019, the murder of a teenage girl would become viral all over the internet due to the sheer brutality of her death. Bianca Devins was a 17-year-old from Utica, NY. She struggled with her mental health for several years and was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder. She sought comfort in the online world of 4chan and discord, which ended up becoming even more toxic for her mental health as she was being groomed by much older men on these platforms.

In 2019, Bianca hit a huge milestone in her life when she graduated from high school and was preparing to go to college to study psychology. But that next milestone in her life would be taken from her on July 14th, 2019. On July 13th, Bianca Devins attended a concert in NYC with 21-year-old Brandon Clark, an older boy she had met four months back on Instagram and had developed a sexual relationship with him. During the concert, Brandon inadvertently witnessed Bianca kissing another boy. During the car ride home early next morning, Brandon suddenly pulled over and confronted Bianca about the kiss. Unbeknownst to her, he was filming the entire interaction. Bianca apologized for the kiss and reminded him that they are not exclusive and that she only saw him as a friend.

This only angered Brandon more, after which he struck her across the face. Bianca threatened to leave the car if he did not bring her home. Brandon responded by brutally stabbing her with a knife he had hidden in the car and slitting her throat–all of which was captured on video. After killing her, he took a couple of photos of her dead body and began posted them on Discord.

He then got out of the car and called 911 and told them, ‘’My name is Brandon, the victim is Bianca Michelle Devins, I’m not going to stay on the phone for long, because I still need to do the suicide part of the murder-suicide.’’

When they arrived at the scene, they spotted Bianca’s body covered by tarp on the road. Brandon then tried to slit his throat in front of the responding officers but was subdued and brought to the hospital, where he survived his injuries.

On the day of the concert, Brandon changed his Instagram bio to display his date of death and had googled how to find the carotid artery and how to incapacitate someone, suggesting the murder was premeditated all along. Brandon was said to have an obsession with murder-suicide cases, and seemed to want to be apart of one with Bianca. When the news of Bianca’s death was broadcast, online trolls began plastering images of her mangled corpse all over social media and even tauntingly shared them with Bianca’s family, stating that she deserved what happened to her. On March 16, 2021, Clark was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.

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12-year-old Lynne Harper came from a Canadian Air Force family and was used to frequently relocating all across the map in Canada. In the summer of 1957, the family settled into the Permanent Married Quarters–the PMQ, as many called them–in RCAF Station Clinton, which was once an air force base south of Clinton, Ontario, roughly 20 kilometres away from Lake Huron. All of the kids living on base attended the same school, swam in the same RCAF pool, and frolicked at the same playground. 

On June 9th, 1957, Lynne came home for dinner and asked her parents if either one of them could take her to the local RCAF pool. All children were required to be accompanied by an adult when attending the pool for a swim. However, both of them objected, causing much of a fuss on Lynne’s end. Lynne left to go to the pool by herself, but was turned away by the pool’s supervisor. She then returned home and begrudgingly helped with some chores before leaving  the house again without telling anyone where she was going. 

Lynne found herself at the local playground, where she approached 14-year-old Steven Truscott. The two were classmates but never really interacted. Steven was your average 8th grader who was physically active and never got himself into trouble. Lynne asked if he could give her a lift on his bike to Highway 8, and he agreed to do so. On the way there, Lynne mentioned her intention to visit Mr. Lawson’s barn on Highway 8 to see the ponies. 

As per her request, he dropped Lynne off at the intersection of a country road and Highway 8. On the way back to Clinton, Steven would later claim he looked over his shoulder to see Lynne getting into a mysterious vehicle. 

Lynne never came home that night. The next morning, she was still missing. Lynne’s parents notified police and an investigation ensued. On June 11, two days after Lynne’s disappearance, her body was found close to a bush on Lawson’s property. She had been sexually assaulted and strangled with her own blouse. 

The following day, Steven was arrested for her murder, as he was the last person to be seen with her. During the trial, the defense and Crown brought on many witnesses, plenty of which were children. One female classmate claimed that Steven had repeatedly invited her to meet him at Lawson’s barn. When she finally went there, he never showed up. The following day at school, she confronted him about it, and he responded by shrugging his shoulders. 

The defense and Crown argued endlessly about the timeline of the murder. But ultimately, Steven was found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging, making him the youngest person in Canada to face execution. 

Steven has maintained his innocence for years and believed he was given an unfair trial. Many people advocated on his behalf and fought for his conviction to be overturned. In 1960, Steven’s death sentence was commuted to a life sentence. In 2007, his conviction was overturned and he was exonerated as it was argued that the forensic evidence presented at his trial was weak and circumstantial. 

To this day, Lynne Harper’s death remains unsolved, with Canadians divided on their beliefs about whether Steven was truly the culprit. 

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On the morning of September 20, 1988, Tara Calico left her home in Belen, New Mexico, to go on her customary bike ride. She told her mother to come and get her if she was not home by noon. Her mother went searching for her daughter along her usual bike route, but could not find her and contacted the police. Pieces of Tara’s Sony Walkman were found along the bike route and her mother believed she was marking her trail. Several witnesses who did spot Tara riding her bike that day recall seeing a light-coloured pickup truck with a camper shell following closely behind her.

The case nearly went cold until June 1989 when a peculiar Polaroid photo was discovered in a Florida parking lot outside of a convenience store. The Polaroid photo featured a young woman and young boy, both gagged with black duct tape and bound. The person who found the photo said it was in the place of a white windowless cargo van that had been parked there before. The woman in the photo bore a striking resemblance to Tara. Tara’s mother pointed out a scar on her leg that was identical to the scar Tara had. Also resting by the female’s side was a copy of the book “My Sweet Audrina” by V.C. Andrews, which was said to be one of Tara’s favourite books. An FBI’s analysis of the photo could not conclusively identify the woman as Tara.

In 2008, the sheriff of Valencia County reported that he was given information that Tara was accidentally hit by a couple of teenage boys in their truck, and they had panicked and killed her to cover it up. However, without a body, the sheriff was unable to pursue those leads.

In 2021, both Valencia County Sheriff’s Office and the New Mexico State Police announced that they have a new lead on the case and have a sealed warrant for a residence in Valencia County. Since then, there have been no updates on the case. To this day, Tara remains missing and is presumed dead for obvious reasons.

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After 29-year-old Keith Dardeen failed to show up for his shift on November 18th, 1987, and repeated attempts to contact him via phone went unanswered, his supervisor took it upon himself to phone Keith’s parents. Keith’s father, Don Dardeen, phoned the police to do a wellness check at his his son’s mobile home in the small town of Ina, Illinois, where he lived with his pregnant wife, Elaine (aged 30), and their toddler, Peter. Don himself had a spare key and agreed to meet with the deputies there and grant them access into the home. Once they did enter the home, however, they walked into one of the most gruesome scenes that no father should ever have to witness. Tucked into bed was Elaine and her son, Peter. Both had been bludgeoned to death with a baseball bat. Elaine herself was gagged and bound. She had been battered so severely that she went into labor, giving birth to a baby girl that was also killed. There was no sign of Keith anywhere, nor his vehicle. It was reasonably presumed that he was responsible for these murders. A manhunt ensued, which ended the next day when Keith was found–but not alive. Discovered in a wheatfield not far from his home, he, too, had met a similar fate as his wife and two children, being shot three times and having his penis severed. Police eventually located his blood-splattered vehicle, which was parked right in front of the Benton Police Station. It was also concluded from the autopsy that the murders of Keith and his wife and children occurred within the same hour.

Investigators struggled to find a motive for these brutal slayings. They ruled out the possibility of an extramarital affair or involvement in any sort of drug crimes. There were no signs of forced entry or a robbery, as cash and jewelry were laid out in the open. The police do believe that whoever was culprit, they had purposely targeted the Dardeens. After tracking down over 1000 leads, the police turned up empty and the case went cold. That was until Tommy Lynn Sells was arrested in 1999 for killing a 13-year-old girl. He claimed to have a whopping 70 murders under his belt, including that of the Dardeens. Initially, the details he shared about the case were inconsistent, but then he began revealing information that was never revealed to the public, including a set of watermelon ceramics that was in their home. Eventually, Sells claimed that Keith was involved in a massive drug conspiracy trial. No further details were ever unveiled, and Tommy was never charged for the Dardeen murders. Some are skeptical as to whether he is the true killer, including relatives of the Dardeens. The perpetrator(s) of this horrific familicide is still at large.

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On March 26th, 2018, an SUV containing a family of eight veered off a cliff in Mendocino County, California, plunging 100 feet into the Pacific ocean and killing everybody inside. The victims of this horrific accident were identified as Jennifer Hart, the driver, along with her wife, Sarah, and their six adopted children: Ciera (aged 12), Abigail (aged 14), Jeremiah (aged 14), Devonte (aged 15), Hannah (aged 16), and Markis (19). To all those who knew the Hart family, whether directly or indirectly, this was a tragic accident. Jennifer and Sarah, who were very public with their children on social media, often sharing their views on politics and social injustice, were the poster women for a modern-day progressive family. After years of being in the closet, the two finally came out in 2004 and got married in 2009. Just before they got married, they adopted six children from Texas. In 2014, a photo went viral of Devonte tearfully embracing a police officer during a BLM protest being held in Portland, Oregon, following the police shooting of Michael Brown. The photo was nationally dubbed “the hug felt ‘round the world”.

After most of the Harts’ bodies were recovered, the coroner discovered that Jennifer was drunk at the wheel, and Sarah and three of the children had a toxic amounts of diphenhydramine in their systems. The police also found incriminating google searches made from Sarah’s phone just before the family began their trip, such as, How easily can I overdose on over the counter medications? and Can 500mg of Benadryl kill a 125lb woman?, and How long does it take to die from hypothermia while drowning in a car? It became very clear to police that this was not, in fact, an accident. Their deaths were ruled a murder–suicide. Police and the public began peering behind the façade of this supposedly perfect, happy, progressive family to find out what events led to the tragedy. It was soon discovered that the Harts had a history of child abuse and neglect documented by CPS, dating all the way back to 2008. The children were reportedly beaten with belts and starved on a regular basis. They were also not allowed to wish each other a happy birthday, laugh at the dinner table, or speak without raising their hand first. When school officials would catch on to the abuse, the Harts began homeschooling their children and relocating to new states to distance themselves from the abuse allegations. In 2017, Hannah escaped from her house and ran to her next-door neighbours, pleading for them to help. Around this time, Devonte began begging these same neighbours for food, revealing that their parents abuse them and withhold food. The neighbours reported the Harts to the authorities and CPS. CPS attempted to contact the Harts but nobody answered the door. The following morning, on what would be the last day of their lives, the Harts loaded all of their children into their SUV and drove off with them. They did not bring luggage, toothbrushes, or even lock their doors. Cruising down California State Route 1, they eventually parked at the top of a cliff overlooking the ocean and milled about for four hours before driving over the cliff, ending all their lives.

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In the afternoon of March 22nd, 2018, a 19-year-old woman knocked frantically on the door of dairy farmer Don Sipple who lived in Spring Brook, Wisconsin. The young woman was completely disheveled from head to toe and covered in bruises, cuts, and blood. The word BOY was also freshly carved into her arm. The barefoot woman claimed she had just been attacked and walked all the way to his house on foot. Concerned, he called the police immediately. She claimed to have no memory of what had happened to her and could not even recall her own name. She was take to the hospital for her treatments, to which she revealed her name to the police–Monica Jay. She mentioned another name: Jason Mengel. At this point, investigators began feeling skeptical of her supposed amnesia. Soon, this mystery woman before them was identified as Ezra McCandless (pictured above). But who was she, and how did she end up in Spring Brook with all her injuries?

Like many teenagers, Ezra was confused about her identity and experimented with different names and pronouns all throughout high school. For a while, she identified as a transman before switching back to female. Her name at birth was Monica Jay, but when she became an adult, she changed it to a more gender neutral name: Ezra McCandless. She moved to Eau Claire, Wisconsin, where she met 33-year-old Jason Mengel (bottom left) in the summer of 2017. The two quickly became serious and within a month she moved in with him. Around this time she also met 23-year-old Alex Woodworth (bottom right), a philosophy major, at Racy’s Cafe Lounge. In the fall of 2017, Ezra fell pregnant and underwent an abortion. Her relationship with Jason allegedly turned sour after this event. She began having a sexual affair with Alex around this time. Ezra would later claim that he would often make her dress and act as a boy during sex.

In February 2018, Ezra filed a police report against one of Jason’s friends for sexual assault, claiming he had taken advantage of her while she was intoxicated. The case was dropped when Alex told investigators that Ezra confided to him that the sex was consensual but she was just worried about Jason finding out. Jason would soon find out about her affairs by going through her phone and promptly broke things off with Ezra. Ezra also broke up with Alex and tried hard to rekindle her relationship with Jason.

On March 22, 2018, an agitated Ezra popped into Racy’s Cafe Lounge to talk to Jason, then left to go to Alex’s house. Jason, feeling like Ezra was acting off, drove to Alex’s house to see what was going on. A concerned neighbor called the police when they spotted Jason pacing outside. Police spoke with Ezra, Jason, and Alex, before determining there were no problems and leaving, including Jason. Ezra then invited Alex for a car ride to talk about things.

They stopped on a dirt road, and Ezra suddenly pulled out a knife and began stabbing Alex in the head, torso, groin, and neck. In total, he sustained 18 stab wounds and succumbed to his injuries. She then used the knife to carve the word “BOY” into her arm and began walking away from the crime scene, finding herself at Don Sipple’s house. After police discovered Alex’s body hanging out of Ezra’s car, Ezra claimed that Alex attempted to rape her and she killed him entirely in self-defense. She claimed he carved the word “boy” into her arm after an argument ensued about her gender identity. The evidence found at the scene was not consistent with Ezra’s story of self-defense, but it was consistent with cold-blooded murder.

On April 6th, 2018, Ezra McCandless was charged with first-degree intentional homicide. During her trial, she maintained her position that she killed him in self-defense. However, the prosecution argued that Ezra killed Alex because she felt he was responsible for her breakup with Jason. Ezra was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 50 years.