In the summer of 1985, 17 year old Shari Faye Smith and 9 year old Debra May Helmick were kidnapped and murdered in neighboring South Carolina counties. Their killer taunted police and the Smith Family for weeks. In the end, a piece of evidence Shari Smith left behind, led police to her killer.
In June 1959, the discovery of two dismembered torsos terrified residents in North Alabama. The unknown victims were dubbed Mr. X and Mr. Y until a tip led investigators to a farm where they met the woman behind one of Alabama’s grisliest crimes
Walter Samples was a retired engineer who lived a quiet life in Memphis. That was until someone left a poisoned bottle of milk on his front porch in February 1941. His murder investigation revealed the 69 year old had been living a double life and dozens of people had motive to kill him.
The body of 19 year old Nell Cropsey was found floating in North Carolina’s Pasquotank River over a month after she disappeared in 1901. Her boyfriend was accused of killing her. But three people in the Cropsey home the night Nell disappeared later took their own lives. Were they hiding the truth behind her disappearance and death?
In the summer of 1963, 15 girls between the ages of 12 and 15 were held in the Leesburg Stockade for the crime of demonstrating for integration in the deep south. For weeks their parents didn’t know where they were or if they were alive.