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

On March 29, 2019, 21-year-old Samantha Josephson left a bar in Columbia, South Carolina, and got into a black Chevrolet Impala she believed was the Uber she had ordered. The car was actually driven by Nathaniel Rowland, and prosecutors said Samantha became trapped in the back seat because the child safety locks were engaged.

Hours later, Samantha’s body was found about 65 miles away. Investigators recovered her blood inside Rowland’s car, along with her cellphone and other evidence. Prosecutors also said Rowland later tried to use Samantha’s debit card after the k*****g.

In July 2021, a jury found Rowland guilty of Samantha’s m****r after roughly an hour of deliberation. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. The case later became closely associated with rideshare safety campaigns urging passengers to verify a driver and vehicle before getting inside.

On May 26, 1990, 40-year-old Marlene Warren was having breakfast with her son at their home in Wellington, Florida, when an unexpected visitor pulled into the driveway. A person dressed in a colorful clown costume approached the front door carrying flowers and two balloons, including one that read “You’re the Greatest.” Thinking it was a harmless surprise, Marlene opened the door and accepted the gifts. Moments later, the clown pulled out a handg*n and sh*t her in the face. Her son witnessed the aftermath as the k**ler calmly returned to a white Chrysler convertible and drove away. Marlene d**d in the hospital two days later.

Investigators quickly focused on Sheila Keen, a woman who worked for Marlene’s husband, Michael Warren, at his car dealership. Witnesses claimed the two were having an affair, although both denied it. Detectives discovered that a woman resembling Sheila had purchased clown supplies shortly before the m****r, and the getaway car had been stolen from Michael’s dealership. Orange wig fibers were also recovered from the abandoned vehicle. Despite the suspicious evidence, prosecutors did not have enough to charge anyone. Then, in 2002, something extraordinary happened: Sheila married Michael Warren, the widower of the woman k****d by the clown.

The m****r remained unsolved until investigators reopened the case using newer forensic technology. In September 2017, police arrested Sheila Keen-Warren in Virginia, where she and Michael had been operating a restaurant. In April 2023, she pleaded guilty to second-degree m****r and received a 12-year prison sentence, although she continued to maintain her innocence. On November 2, 2024, Sheila was released from prison after receiving credit for time already served and good behavior. More than three decades after Marlene was m******d by someone disguised as a clown, the woman convicted of k*****g her was once again free.

In October 2023, 43-year-old Kristil Krug began receiving terrifying messages from someone claiming to be an ex-boyfriend she had dated more than 20 years earlier. The messages became increasingly threatening, with the sender claiming to watch her movements and even threatening her husband, Daniel. One particularly disturbing message included a photograph of Daniel getting out of his car at work, seemingly proving that the mysterious stalker was watching them both.

On December 14, 2023, Kristil was found m******d inside the garage of her Broomfield, Colorado home after dropping her children off at school. Investigators discovered that someone had disabled the home security system and covered the doorbell camera with blue masking tape. But the strangest evidence came from the threatening photograph. Digital forensic experts determined that Daniel had actually taken the picture himself using a phone’s selfie timer, then sent it to his wife while pretending to be her stalker.

Detectives eventually traced the threatening emails and burner phones back to Daniel, discovering that he had spent months manufacturing the stalking campaign to frighten his wife and manipulate their failing marriage. He had even scheduled text messages from Kristil’s phone to arrive after her d***h, making it appear she was still alive. On April 17, 2025, a jury convicted Daniel of first-degree m****r, stalking and criminal impersonation. The following day, he was sentenced to life in prison without parole, plus an additional nine and a half years.

On December 19, 1979, 18-year-old high school senior Michelle Martinko went shopping at Westdale Mall in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Early the following morning, she was discovered inside her family’s car in the mall parking lot. Michelle had been s***bed repeatedly, but despite an enormous investigation, detectives could not identify her k**ler.

Investigators preserved Michelle’s clothing and evidence from inside the car. Years later, improved testing revealed something crucial: male DNA from blood on Michelle’s dress matched male DNA recovered from the gearshift. Detectives believed her attacker had cut himself during Michelle’s struggle, meaning he had unknowingly left investigators a genetic fingerprint at the crime scene.

Investigative genetic genealogy eventually led detectives to Jerry Lynn Burns. Police secretly obtained Burns’ DNA and matched it to the crime-scene profile. He was arrested on December 19, 2018, exactly 39 years after Michelle went shopping at the mall. Burns was later convicted of first-degree m****r and sentenced to life in prison without parole.

On April 20, 2019, 21-year-old Angela Valle was inside her Brooklyn apartment with her friend Savannah Rivera when Angela’s boyfriend, Jerry Brown, attacked both women with an axe. Angela’s four-year-old daughter was also inside the apartment but was not physically harmed. Rivera, who was pregnant, was k****d.

Angela survived severe injuries including a fractured skull, broken ribs, collapsed lungs and multiple wounds. After Brown left, she managed to get out of the apartment and approached an Uber vehicle stopped nearby. The driver called 911, and Angela was rushed to Elmhurst Hospital in critical condition.

Brown later surrendered to police and admitted attacking Rivera, according to prosecutors. In June 2024 he was convicted of second-degree m****r, second-degree attempted m****r and first-degree a*****t, and that August he was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.

In October 2009, 39-year-old Dawn Viens disappeared from Lomita, California. Her husband, chef David Viens, told people she had simply left, but investigators quickly became suspicious when Dawn never contacted her family again and no clear trace of her turned up.

Years later, David gave a horrifying account of what happened inside their home. Prosecutors said he bound Dawn during an argument, and after she d**d, he tried to get rid of her body in one of the most disturbing ways imaginable. He later admitted he had cooked her body for days in an attempt to destroy the evidence.

Dawn’s body was never recovered, but David Viens was ultimately convicted in connection with her d***h. The case became infamous because of the sheer horror of the disposal method and the cold way he described it, turning a missing wife case into one of California’s most grotesque m****r stories.

On June 16, 2019, Indian magician Chanchal Lahiri, known professionally as “Jadugar Mandrake,” prepared to perform a dangerous escape stunt in the Hooghly River in Kolkata, India. Wearing a bright yellow and red costume, he allowed assistants to wrap his body in thick ropes and steel chains secured with multiple locks. His plan was to be lowered underwater, escape his restraints and emerge before a crowd of spectators. Photographers captured him smiling and preparing for the stunt.

Lahiri had successfully completed a similar underwater escape 21 years earlier. But this attempt would be different. Shortly before being lowered into the river, he told reporters that succeeding would be magic, but failing would be tragic. At approximately 12:30 p.m., a crane lowered him headfirst into the murky water. His family, assistants and spectators waited for him to resurface. Minutes passed, but he never returned. Witnesses reported seeing someone struggling in the river, prompting an emergency search.

Police divers searched the river throughout the following day. On June 17, Lahiri’s body was discovered approximately one kilometer downstream, reportedly still bound by his chains. Investigators examined whether insufficient safety precautions had contributed to his drowning. The photographs taken moments before the stunt became especially haunting, showing a man willingly allowing himself to be restrained for a performance that would ultimately cost him his life.

On October 21, 2021, 28-year-old Ana Abulaban was inside her San Diego high-rise apartment with her friend Rayburn Cardenas Barron when her estranged husband, TikTok creator Ali Abulaban, arrived and sh*t them both. Ali had built an online following of nearly one million people under the name JinnKid, where he was known for comedy videos and impressions.

Prosecutors said Ana had recently asked Ali to leave the apartment. Before the k**lings, he secretly installed a listening app on their 5-year-old daughter’s iPad, allowing him to remotely hear conversations inside the home. After hearing Ana talking with another man through the device, prosecutors said Ali drove to the apartment and k****d Ana and Rayburn.

Ali admitted during his trial that he fired the s**ts but argued that he had acted in the heat of passion. In May 2024, a jury convicted him of two counts of first-degree m****r. He was sentenced in September 2024 to spend the rest of his life in prison, with consecutive m****r sentences and additional firearm enhancements.

On August 20, 2026, 34-year-old Christopher Boone Crimmins and 26-year-old Tyler Anthony L***h were working for a tree-trimming service in Apple Valley, Minnesota. Crimmins was operating a truck-mounted hydraulic grapple while L***h worked on the ground clearing branches.

According to the criminal complaint, the two noticed the sunlight casting shadows of L***h and the grapple onto the street. Crimmins began maneuvering the machine so the grapple’s shadow appeared to grab L***h’s shadow. While watching the shadows instead of the actual grapple and L***h, Crimmins closed the grapple on L***h’s head. L***h was pronounced d**d at the scene.

The following day, Crimmins was charged with one count of second-degree mans***ghter, with prosecutors alleging culpable negligence creating an unreasonable risk.

In June 1991, Charles Holden picked up a hitchhiker while driving in Delaware. After an argument between the two men, Charles left the stranger behind and eventually returned to the farmhouse where he lived with his mother, 72-year-old Dorothy Donovan. Later that night, Dorothy was found m******d inside the home.

Charles told investigators that he believed the hitchhiker had somehow located the secluded house after their encounter. Police struggled to believe the coincidence and initially scrutinized Charles, but blood evidence inside the farmhouse included a bloody fingerprint that did not belong to him. Investigators created a composite sketch from Charles’s description, but the case remained unsolved.

Years later, investigators revisited the evidence and ultimately identified Gilbert Cannon as Dorothy’s k**ler. The bizarre explanation Charles had given police from the beginning was essentially true: a stranger he had encountered on the road had managed to find the home he shared with his mother and k****d her.

In May 1999, 34-year-old Debbie Griggs disappeared from her home in Kent, England, while three months pregnant with her fourth child. Her husband, Andrew Griggs, claimed she had simply walked out after an argument, but investigators quickly doubted that story.

Years later, Andrew was convicted of Debbie’s m****r even though her body still had not been found. Then the case took an even darker turn. After his conviction, he told one of their sons where Debbie’s remains were hidden and tried to get him involved in a plan to make it look like she was still alive.

In 2022, police excavated the garden of Andrew’s former home in Dorset and found Debbie’s remains inside a barrel-shaped container buried beneath the concrete base of a shed. The case became even more disturbing because her k**ler not only hid her body for more than two decades, but later tried to manipulate his own son into digging her up.

In June 2019, 23-year-old Mackenzie Lueck, a University of Utah student, disappeared after returning to Salt Lake City from a trip and meeting Ayoola Ajayi, a man she had connected with online. Phone records placed both of them at the same park during the early morning hours when they met.

Investigators searched Ajayi’s home and discovered burned material in his backyard, including tissue that matched Mackenzie’s DNA and charred personal belongings. Authorities said Ajayi had k****d her, burned and buried her body behind the house, then later dug up the remains and moved them to a shallow grave in Logan Canyon.

Ajayi pleaded guilty in October 2020 to aggravated m****r and desecration of a human body, admitting that he had planned Mackenzie’s k*****g. Later that month, he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

In September 1999, a homeowner in Jericho, New York opened a 55-gallon drum that had been sitting in the crawl space beneath his house. Inside were the remains of a pregnant woman. Investigators eventually identified her as 27-year-old Reyna Angélica Marroquín, an immigrant from El Salvador who had disappeared in 1969.

Evidence inside the drum led detectives to Howard Elkins, Reyna’s former employer and a previous owner of the house. Elkins had also been part owner of the plastics company where Reyna worked, and investigators discovered that Reyna and Elkins had been involved in a relationship. A plastic flower stem recovered from the drum provided another connection to the factory.

Investigators learned that Reyna had been pregnant when she d**d and sought Elkins’s DNA to determine whether he was the father. Elkins refused to provide a sample and d**d shortly after detectives questioned him. Investigators later obtained DNA that confirmed Elkins was the father of Reyna’s unborn child, making him the prime suspect in a m****r that had remained hidden for 30 years.