Unsolved News Round-up: 01.12.20
A potentially active serial killer stalks South Africa, a legend's death questioned & more ice-cold murders solved...
Africa
🇲🇿 Mozambique: A father’s dogged private investigation into his daughter’s murder uncovers a suspect
Australian woman Elly Warren, 20, was murdered and possibly raped in Mozambique whilst on a diving and volunteering program in the village of Tofo in 2016. Since then, the local investigation has come up short. Frustrated, Paul Warren, Elly’s father has spent over $50,000 conducting his own investigation and has identified a local gangster as the prime suspect. More here.
🇿🇦South Africa: Is there an active serial killer in Kwazulu-Natal?
Several women have been killed in a matter of weeks, including the brutal beheading of an unidentified woman. Is there an active serial killer on the loose? True Crime South Africa delves into the circumstances surroundings these murders, investigates possible motives and analyses the theory that these incidents may not be isolated. More here.
Asia
🇮🇩 Indonesia: Missing children bring shamen performing rituals
After three children disappeared in North Sumatra on October 18, shamans from across Indonesia flocked to their village to perform rituals to find them. Authorities have banned all paranormal activities in the area to restore calm. The children aged seven and eight from the same family are thought to have been kidnapped. More here.
🇹🇭 Thailand: Hitman arrested in 14 year old murder of New Zealand businessman
Businessman and bodybuilder Stephen Miller was shot to death in 2006. Miller’s common-law wife Jintana Wichachai planned the murder with Varathip Kasawong and the arrested hitman — Yiamwut ‘Pokpong’ Julapong. More here.
🇹🇷 Turkey: Kurdish human rights advocate & lawyer’s murder remains unsolved
Elci was a key figure in Turkey’s human rights movement and was also known globally for his efforts to represent human rights’ violations before the European Court of Human Rights. He was assassinated on Nov 28th, 2015. More here.
Europe
🏴 England: Suburban murder of jeweller associated to gangs — reopened
Solly Nahome, who worked in London’s infamous Hatton Garden jewellery district was allegedly associated with money-laundering for one of London’s most notorious underworld gangs, the Adams. Nahome was shot & killed outside his own home on a quiet suburban street in November 1998. Police have reopened the investigation. More here.
🏴Scotland: New insights in 1968 ‘Kinky Cottage’ murder
A missing wealthy farmer, who hosted sex parties at his private nudist club “kinky cottage” at Alford in Aberdeenshire, was found dead in a castle tunnel three months after he was reported missing in May 1968. His wife and two accomplices were eventually jailed for his murder. The intricacies and interwoven stories of the murder are explored in a new podcast. More here.
🇳🇱 Netherlands: Man sentenced in 1998 kidnapping of 11-year-old
Jos Brech, 58, was found guilty of kidnapping 11-year-old Nicky Verstappen “in an act that led to his death”, sexual assault and being in possession of child pornography. He was given 12 years. However, he was not charged with manslaughter despite causing the boy’s death. Brech was found via DNA in 2018. More here.
North America
🇨🇦 Canada: Police focus on one suspect in Billionaire couple’s bizarre murder
Barry and Honey Sherman, were found hanging by belts near their indoor pool on Dec. 15, 2017. Early in the investigation, police had initially classified the deaths as a murder-suicide; there was no evidence of forced entry or a note left behind. But the couple’s children hired private investigators who cast doubt on that theory, and law enforcement later said homicide was suspected in both deaths. More here.
🇯🇲 Jamaica: Desiree Gibbon, a US woman on vacation disappeared around thanksgiving in 2017
Desiree’s body was found on Thanksgiving Day 2017 in the heavy brush adjoining an overgrown local roadway in Montego Bay, her throat slit ear to ear. Desiree’s mother Hollis’ Andrea Cali-Gibbon is fighting for answers but has hit a number of brick walls with the Jamaican investigation. More here.
🟨 Alabama: Suspect in 1987 case of Tammy Tracey arrested
19-year-old Tammy Tracey disappeared from a local park in Rockford in May 1987, her remains were not found until April, 1988. Police said she had been shot and stabbed to death. Jessie Smith, 64, was arrested in November, he was known to the family. More here.
🥇California: Man tries to escape arrest on a sea scooter
Matthew Piercey is suspected of being the ringleader in a $30M Ponzi scheme. When the FBI came to arrest him on Nov 16th Piercey made off in his vehicle. Like something out of a slapstick comedy — once he felt the truck was not sufficient, he stopped by Lake Shasta and proceeded to hop onto the bright red sea scooter - hoping it would make good his escape. However he was inevitably caught. More here.
☀️Florida: Convicted killer of Carlie Brucia, suspect in unsolved 2000 murder
Joseph Smith is currently on Death Row at the Florida State Prison in Raiford for the 2004 abduction, rape and murder of 11-year-old Carlie Brucia in Sarasota. Four years prior to Brucia’s murder, on March 28, 2000, 25-year-old Tara Reilly was found lying dead and naked in a pond behind a Walmart in Bradenton. While Smith isn’t the only suspect, his own brother thinks he is guilty. More here
🐓Kentucky: Detectives determined to hunt down killer in 1966 murder
18-year-old Linda Pierson was attacked and killed not far from her home in Dayton. Evidence indicated that Pierson had been raped and strangled somewhere else before she was dumped, nearly naked, by the Ohio River. Detectives believe there are people out there who have information that they have not reported. They say one witness coming forward could help them crack the case. More here.
🚢 Massachusetts: Transgender Boston woman honored as murder remains unsolved
Rita Hester was brutally murdered in 1998 and the police investigation woefully insufficient. When police responded to a call at Hester’s apartment on the day of her death, she was still alive but police waited more than an hour to get her to the hospital. The murder led to the creation of the annual International Transgender Day of Remembrance to honor those who have lost their lives to transphobia. The case was reopened in 2019 with new detectives determined to get justice. More here.
⭐Texas: 1996 Thanksgiving murder of Kristen Wilson still unsolved
Kristen Wilson, 29, was supposed to meet her parents, cousins, aunt and uncle at her grandparents' house on Thanksgiving in 1996, but after she went to buy supplies the evening before, she was never seen alive again. An intruder supposedly lay waiting in her apartment and upon her return that evening, brutally murdered her. The murderer has never been caught. More here.
South America
🇦🇷 Argentina: Suspicions arise over legendary footballer Maradona’s death despite his hectic lifestyle
Maradona lived large, a self-confessed cocaine addict and party-animal he ascended to football’s elite in the 1980s and remained a legend ever since. His death in late November from a heart attack raised suspicions with Health chiefs who told first responders to “call prosecutors and the police. We don’t want another Garcia Belsunce case.” More here.
Oceania
🇦🇺Australia: The disappearance of Sydney businesswoman Melissa Caddick yields little clues
Millionaire Melissa Caddick was being investigated at the time of her disappearance for misappropriating millions of dollars from friends and associates. She left her home with nothing, not even her phone, and vanished without a trace. Leading many to speculate if she has absconded or faked her own disappearance. She has not been found on any CCTV footage. More here.
🇳🇿New Zealand: Prime suspect in 1999 murder, arrested for torture chamber crime in the Netherlands
William Jan H Haanstra, 43, has been named as one of nine arrested after Dutch police discovered seven shipping containers converted into a makeshift prison and a sound-proofed “torture chamber”. Haanstra allegedly shot & killed Terri King in Wellington, New Zealand, 1999, but was never tried for the crime. More here.
Want to see me cover a case as part of the detailed newsletters? Please email me at tips@unsolvednews.com — I would love to hear from you. Look out for the next investigation in the Unsolved News newsletter this Wednesday - note there will be a double week of long form investigations as we missed last week.
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