73 Unsettling True Stories That Belong In A Horror Movie Or Netflix Documentary

On December 2, 2001, three woodcutters collecting firewood in a remote forest near Lia, Georgia, discovered two metal objects giving off intense heat. There was little or no snow immediately around them, despite the winter conditions. The men had no reason to suspect the objects were dangerous and decided to use them as makeshift heaters while spending the night in the forest.

The cylinders were actually unshielded strontium-90 radioactive sources from abandoned Soviet-era radioisotope thermoelectric generators. Within several hours of being near them, the men developed nausea, headaches, dizziness and vomiting. Over the following weeks, severe radiation injuries began developing where their bodies had been closest to the sources.

All three were eventually hospitalized with radiation injuries. Two required lengthy specialized treatment abroad, and one remained seriously ill for more than two years before d***g on May 13, 2004, 893 days after the exposure. Recovery crews later had to approach the abandoned sources under tightly controlled conditions because of the radiation levels.

In 2019, 30-year-old Kathleen Jo Henry was m******d in Anchorage, Alaska. The case broke open in an extraordinary way when a woman who had taken Brian Steven Smith’s phone from his truck discovered disturbing photos and videos showing the k*****g and brought the evidence to police.

Investigators identified Kathleen from the footage and recovered her body near railroad tracks. While Smith was being questioned, he also admitted k*****g another Alaska Native woman, Veronica Abouchuk, about a year earlier. Police said the evidence on the device, along with Smith’s confession, ultimately connected him to both m**ders.

In February 2024, Smith was convicted on 14 counts, including two counts of first-degree m****r, a*****t, evidence tampering and misconduct involving a corpse. In July 2024, a judge sentenced him to 226 years in prison.

Robert DuBoise was just 18 years old when he was arrested in Tampa, Florida, in 1983 for the m****r of 19-year-old Barbara Grams. His case relied heavily on supposed bite-mark evidence and testimony from a jailhouse informant. He was convicted in 1985 and sentenced to d***h, despite the jury recommending life imprisonment.

DuBoise spent three years on d***h row before his d***h sentence was overturned and replaced with life imprisonment. Decades later, experts concluded that the supposed bite-mark evidence used against him was scientifically unsupported and that the injury wasn’t even a human bite mark.

In 2020, biological evidence previously believed to have been destroyed was discovered and tested. The DNA excluded DuBoise and instead pointed investigators toward another individual. He walked out of prison at 55 after nearly 37 years behind bars and was officially exonerated weeks later.

Shortly after midnight on January 1, 2021, Morgan Metzer awoke at her Canton, Georgia home to a masked intruder dressed in black. He attacked her, restrained her wrists with zip ties and disguised his voice with a low, Batman-like sound before leaving her bound on the back porch.

Roughly 40 minutes later, Morgan heard someone approaching and feared her attacker had returned. Instead, she recognized the voice of her recently divorced ex-husband, Rodney “Rod” Metzer, who appeared to have discovered her and called 911. Investigators soon determined that Morgan’s supposed rescuer was actually the masked attacker.

Evidence piled up quickly. Investigators found matching zip ties in Rod’s apartment and surveillance footage showing him purchasing them at Lowe’s about 36 hours before the attack. Rod ultimately pleaded guilty to 14 charges and was sentenced to 25 years in prison followed by 45 years of probation.

In May 2011, 27-year-old Michelina Lewandowska was attacked at her home in Huddersfield, England, by her fiancé, Marcin Kasprzak, with the help of his friend Patryk Borys. Michelina was restrained, gagged and forced into a cardboard computer box before being placed in a car and driven into the countryside.

The men buried the sealed box beneath dirt in a wooded area and left Michelina underground. Trapped inside, she remembered the diamond engagement ring Kasprzak had given her. She used the ring to cut through the tape and restraints, then tore through the cardboard box and pushed her way through the dirt covering it.

Michelina emerged alive and reached a nearby road, where she was able to get help. Kasprzak and Borys were later convicted of attempted m****r. The engagement ring given to Michelina by the man who tried to k**l her had ultimately become the tool she used to escape.

On February 23, 2020, Sarah Boone and her boyfriend, 42-year-old Jorge Torres Jr., were drinking at their Winter Park, Florida home when Boone later said they began playing hide-and-seek. At some point, Jorge climbed into a suitcase and Boone zipped it shut.

Boone claimed she eventually went upstairs and fell asleep, believing Jorge could get himself out. But videos recovered from her phone showed Jorge pleading to be released and saying he could not breathe while Boone refused to open the suitcase. He was found d**d inside the following morning.

A jury convicted Boone of second-degree m****r in October 2024 after deliberating for about 90 minutes. In December, she was sentenced to life in prison. What began as an alleged game of hide-and-seek ended with Jorge suffocating inside the suitcase.

In 2009, Dalia Dippolito was recorded discussing a plan to have her husband Michael k****d. She later met with a man she believed was a hired k**ler, but he was actually an undercover Boynton Beach police officer.

Police then created an elaborate fake crime scene outside the couple’s Florida home. When Dalia arrived, officers told her that Michael had been k****d and cameras captured her emotional reaction. She was later taken to the police station, where investigators revealed that Michael was alive and that the supposed hitman was an officer.

Dippolito was eventually convicted of solicitation to commit first-degree m****r after multiple trials and appeals. The case became especially notorious because so much of the investigation was captured on video, including the undercover meetings, the staged crime scene and the moment police revealed the truth.

On April 27, 2006, 17-year-old Ashley Reeves disappeared near Belleville, Illinois. Investigators eventually questioned 26-year-old Samson Shelton, a high-school teacher who had previously taught at a school Ashley attended. Shelton admitted attacking Ashley during an encounter, breaking her neck and carrying her into a wooded area where he left her believing she was d**d.

Ashley remained in the woods for more than 30 hours with devastating injuries and covered in insect bites. Shelton eventually accompanied investigators to the area. Searchers entered believing they were looking for a body, but when they finally located Ashley in the darkness, investigator Steve Johnson noticed her take a breath. She was rushed to a hospital and survived.

While Ashley had been lying injured in the woods, Shelton was recorded line dancing at a local country music club. He later pleaded guilty to attempted first-degree m****r and received a 20-year prison sentence. Ashley endured extensive rehabilitation and had to relearn basic functions including swallowing, talking and moving parts of her body.

In 1985, 25-year-old British mountaineer Joe Simpson and 21-year-old Simon Yates became the first climbers to ascend the west face of Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes. Disaster struck during their descent when Simpson fell and severely shattered his right leg. Yates attempted to lower his injured partner thousands of feet down the mountain as worsening weather surrounded them.

Eventually Simpson was accidentally lowered over an ice cliff, leaving him hanging where Yates could neither pull him back up nor safely lower him farther. Yates was being dragged toward the edge himself and made the desperate decision to cut their rope. Simpson plunged roughly 100 feet before falling farther into a massive glacier crevasse. Yates later descended, saw the crevasse and believed there was no possibility his partner had survived.

Simpson was alive. Unable to climb back through the opening above him, he lowered himself deeper into the crevasse until he discovered another route onto the glacier. With his shattered leg, little food or water and nobody searching for him, Simpson spent roughly three and a half days crawling and dragging himself toward base camp. He finally arrived only hours before his companions were preparing to leave. Simpson later documented the ordeal in his bestselling memoir Touching the Void.

In October 2015, 27-year-old Sasha Samsudean returned to her apartment building in downtown Orlando after a night out. Two women had helped her get home because she was intoxicated, but she did not have her access key or phone with her. Surveillance cameras captured security guard Stephen Duxbury interacting with her as she tried to get inside.

Sasha eventually entered the building behind another resident. Prosecutors later showed surveillance footage of Duxbury walking through the hallways with her and accused him of entering her apartment, attacking her and k*****g her. Investigators also found his fingerprints inside the apartment and DNA evidence on Sasha.

In 2017, a jury convicted Duxbury of first-degree m****r, attempted s****l battery and burglary. He was sentenced to life in prison. The case is especially chilling because the person whose job was supposed to help keep residents safe became the man convicted of k*****g her.

Sony Millbrook, a 28-year-old mother of five, was reported missing in Memphis in January 2010 after she failed to pick up her children from school. Her family told police she had been staying at the Budget Inn, where employees said her belongings remained inside her locked room after she stopped paying for it.

For weeks, nobody discovered what had happened to her. The motel eventually rented the room approximately five more times and employees cleaned it repeatedly. In March, after complaints about a foul odor, investigators searched the room and discovered Sony’s body concealed inside the metal bed frame beneath the mattress.

Sony’s boyfriend, LaKeith Moody, was eventually convicted of m**dering her. Prosecutors said he k****d Sony during an argument and concealed her body beneath the bed. The discovery also raised serious questions about the initial missing-person investigation and how a motel room containing a body could repeatedly be cleaned and rented to unsuspecting guests.

In November 2004, retirees Tom and Jackie Hawks were preparing to sell their 55-foot yacht, Well Deserved, after spending years traveling aboard it. They wanted to move back onto land to be closer to their family and new grandchild when prospective buyer Skylar Deleon contacted them about purchasing the boat.

On November 15, the Hawks took Deleon and accomplices out from Newport Beach for a sea trial. Prosecutors said the couple were overpowered, handcuffed and forced to sign documents transferring ownership of the yacht before being bound to its heavy anchor and thrown alive into the Pacific Ocean. The yacht later returned to its berth, but Tom and Jackie never came back.

The disappearance quickly unraveled after relatives noticed suspicious paperwork and activity involving the Hawks’ finances and property. Deleon and several accomplices were eventually convicted for their roles in the m**ders. Despite extensive investigation, Tom and Jackie’s bodies have never been recovered.

In November 1986, 39-year-old flight attendant Helle Crafts disappeared from her Newtown, Connecticut home. Her husband, Richard Crafts, gave conflicting explanations for where she had gone. Investigators later learned that around the time Helle vanished, Richard had purchased a freezer and rented a large wood chipper.

A snowplow driver remembered seeing a rental truck and wood chipper near Lake Zoar during a snowstorm. Investigators searched the area and recovered human tissue, bone fragments, a painted fingernail, thousands of strands of blond hair and a dental crown. The crown was positively matched to Helle’s dental records. A chainsaw recovered from the water was also traced back to Richard.

Prosecutors concluded Richard k****d Helle, froze her remains, dismembered them and used the wood chipper to dispose of them near the water. Although virtually no body remained, the forensic evidence was enough. After an earlier mistrial, Richard was convicted of Helle’s m****r in 1989 and sentenced to 50 years in prison.

In 2007, 15-year-old Carly Ryan from South Australia believed she was in a relationship with an 18-year-old musician named “Brandon” she had met online. But “Brandon” was not real. The identity had been created by 50-year-old Garry Francis Newman, who used fake online personas to groom Carly.

The deception became even stranger because Newman also posed as “Brandon’s” father or stepfather, making Carly believe she was communicating with an entire real family. After Carly rejected Newman, prosecutors said he used the fake boyfriend persona to lure her to Port Elliot, where he m******d her.

Newman was convicted of Carly’s m****r in 2010 and sentenced to life imprisonment with a 29-year non-parole period. The case remains especially disturbing because the boyfriend Carly believed she loved had never existed at all.

In March 2023, Angela Craig, a 43-year-old mother of six from Aurora, Colorado, began suffering unexplained dizziness, headaches and other symptoms that repeatedly sent her to the hospital. Prosecutors later said her husband, dentist James Craig, had been poisoning drinks he prepared for her, including protein shakes.

While Angela was still sick, a suspicious package addressed to James arrived at his dental practice. He had previously told an office manager not to open his personal deliveries, but another employee opened it anyway. Inside was a container labeled potassium cyanide with a biohazard marking. After employees realized Angela’s symptoms could match cyanide poisoning, Craig’s business partner alerted hospital staff and police.

Angela d**d on March 18, 2023. At Craig’s 2025 trial, prosecutors said he had poisoned her over roughly 10 days before administering a fatal dose of cyanide while she was hospitalized. A jury convicted him of first-degree m****r on July 30, 2025, and he was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

On October 11, 2012, 62-year-old Jose Melena was working an early morning shift at the Bumble Bee Foods tuna processing plant in Santa Fe Springs, California. His job involved loading massive industrial pressure cookers used to sterilize canned tuna. That morning, Jose entered a 35-foot-long cylindrical oven, likely to retrieve a chain used to move the heavy carts of tuna through the machine.

When Jose’s supervisor noticed he was missing, he asked another employee to finish loading the oven while he searched for him. The coworker had no idea Jose was still inside. Workers pushed approximately 12,000 pounds of canned tuna into the enormous machine, sealed its heavy metal doors and activated the pressurized steam. The temperature climbed toward 270 degrees Fahrenheit. Meanwhile, employees searched the factory and parking lot, unaware that Jose was trapped inside the operating cooker.

After roughly two hours, workers finally shut down the machine and discovered Jose’s body inside. He had d**d from thermal burns. Investigators found that the factory lacked adequate safety procedures to prevent workers from being trapped inside the ovens. In 2017, Bumble Bee Foods pleaded guilty to a workplace safety violation following a $6 million settlement that included equipment upgrades and compensation for Jose’s family. California investigators also released actual photographs of the enormous oven and its interior, documenting the machinery where Jose lost his life.

In October 1985, 17-year-old Michele “Missy” Avila was found d**d in a creek in California’s Angeles National Forest. Investigators initially had no clear suspect. Two young women who had known Missy for years, Karen Severson and Laura Doyle, publicly acted devastated by her d***h and attended her funeral.

Karen became especially close to Missy’s grieving mother, Irene. She brought flowers to Missy’s grave, talked about finding whoever was responsible and eventually moved into the Avila family’s home to comfort them. Laura also sent Irene a sympathy card. Neither woman told the family that they themselves had participated in Missy’s m****r.

Nearly three years later, witness Eva Chirumbolo finally came forward. Karen and Laura were arrested, and in 1990 both were convicted of second-degree m****r. They received sentences of 15 years to life. The horrifying truth meant that while Irene had been mourning her daughter, one of the people responsible had been living under her roof and presenting herself as another grieving friend.

In September 1978, 15-year-old Mary Vincent accepted a ride while hitchhiking through California. The driver, Lawrence Singleton, a***ulted her before severing both of her forearms with a hatchet and leaving her for d**d in a remote ravine.

Despite her injuries, Mary climbed out of the ravine by pressing her arm stumps against the dirt to stop herself from falling. She then walked approximately three miles until she found help, surviving blood loss that doctors believed should have been fatal.

Singleton was convicted of attempted m****r but, because of California sentencing laws at the time, served only eight years in prison. Mary later testified against him, rebuilt her life with prosthetic arms, and became an artist, while Singleton was later convicted of an unrelated m****r in Florida.

On December 7, 2007, 37-year-old Alcides Moreno and his younger brother Edgar were preparing to wash windows on a Manhattan skyscraper when their suspended platform failed. Both men plunged from the building, falling nearly 500 feet. Edgar d**d, but when rescuers reached Alcides, they discovered he was somehow still alive.

Alcides suffered devastating injuries, including multiple broken limbs, a shattered vertebra, a collapsed lung, internal injuries and bleeding around his brain. His condition was so unstable that doctors performed his first operation without even moving him from the emergency room. He eventually underwent numerous additional surgeries and received roughly twice his body’s normal blood volume in transfusions.

Against extraordinary odds, Alcides recovered movement in all four limbs, regained his ability to speak and eventually walked again. Doctors believed remaining with the falling window-washing platform may have helped distribute some of the impact, although precisely how he survived could not be established. NewYork-Presbyterian’s president described surviving a 47-story fall as “virtually beyond belief.”

In February 2002, Forrest “Butch” Bowyer and his 12-year-old son, Brett, were at their home in Phenix City, Alabama, when Michael David Carruth and Jimmy Lee Brooks Jr. arrived posing as narcotics officers. Using fake documents, the men gained access to the house, restrained the father and son and demanded money.

The attackers eventually drove Butch and Brett to a rural construction site. There, Butch’s throat was cut and Brett was sh*t. The father and son were placed together in a shallow grave and covered with dirt. Brett d**d, but Butch remained alive beneath the ground.

After his attackers left, Butch managed to dig himself out of the grave despite his injuries. He crawled to a nearby highway and found help, then gave investigators information that helped identify the men responsible. Both attackers were convicted for the crimes.