Tag: serial killers

Fresh fears Texas serial killer could be on the loose as three more bodies pulled from bayous

Fears of a Texas serial killer resurfaced in Houston after three more bodies were recovered from the city’s bayous this week.

The latest discoveries bring the number of bodies found in the waterways in 2025 to at least 34, according to KTRK, just one less than last year’s total.

Authorities have repeatedly denied that the high figure is the work of a mystery murderer, as terrified locals have demanded answers.

On Monday, a body was found in the Buffalo Bayou near the 100 block of Crawford Street, per Houston Public Media.

The deceased was recovered after someone spotted a body in the water and called 911, bringing a response from the Houston Police Department’s dive team.

That same day, another body was found near the Brays Bayou at the intersection of Texas Spur 5 and Old Spanish Trail.

The person was found on Christmas Eve in the Buffalo Bayou around 3500 Memorial Parkway, Houston police said on X.

Since 2017, at least 198 dead bodies have been found in Houston’s bayous, per Harris County Medical Examiner’s Office records obtained by KPRC 2.

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Female serial killer admits to fatally drugging, robbing men she met for sex

A female serial killer and mom has pleaded guilty to drugging four men with fentanyl and robbing them after meeting them at hotels for sex.

Rebecca Auborn, 36, of Columbus, Ohio, admitted to the grisly string of fatal drug overdoses at a hearing on Friday.

Her murderous rampage was only brought to an end after one of her victims survived the overdose and went to the police, according to court records seen by the Columbus Dispatch.

Auborn killed her four victims — Joseph Crumpler, 30; Robert Snoke, 54; Wayne Akin, 64; and Guy Renda, 42 — by dosing them with narcotics, including the extremely potent synthetic opioid fentanyl, after luring them to hotels for sex.

She told detectives in one case she mixed fentanyl in a man’s crack pipe during their encounter, court records show.

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Fears New York handyman is a serial killer as he’s charged with third murder… and cops warn there could be more victims

An upstate New York handyman who has already pleaded guilty to murdering two women is now feared to be a serial killer, as he was charged with a third homicide.

Richard Fox, 62, has been charged with second-degree murder for the death of 32-year-old Crystal Curthoys after her decomposed body was found in a home he once owned in Niagara Falls, WBKW reports.

The former handyman is already behind bars for the murders of 40-year-old Cassandra Watson in 2003 and 50-year-old Marquita Mull in 2021.

He had pleaded guilty to killing the two women and dumping their bodies off the path of Chautauqua Rails to Trails, near where he grew up.

Chautauqua County Sheriff James Quattrone said he now considers Fox to be a ‘serial killer,’ noting that there are still about two or three homicides in the New York county that remain unsolved.

‘I do believe that there [are] other victims,’ he said in September, when Fox was sentenced to 40 years to life in prison, according to WIVB.

‘We’re hopeful that Richard Fox will hopefully try to ease his conscience a little bit and give us some more information.’ 

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The Zodiac killer and Black Dahlia murderer were the SAME man: Explosive investigation unmasks single suspect behind two of America’s darkest murders

Two sadistic crimes that were the stuff of nightmares.

Two reigns of terror over California.

Two of the most notorious cases in history left unsolved for more than half a century.

But now, after all this time, one suspected killer is unmasked.

In a world exclusive, the Daily Mail can reveal that a new investigation has concluded that the Zodiac killer and the murderer of the Black Dahlia were the same man.

The FBI and California police departments are reviewing the explosive theory – and a trove of damning evidence has been unearthed by independent investigators and is undergoing forensic analysis.

If the evidence passes scrutiny, it would mean that two of the world’s biggest murder mysteries will finally be solved.

Between 1968 and 1969, the Zodiac killer terrorized northern California, murdering at least five victims while claiming to have slaughtered dozens more. The phantom taunted the media and police with letters and ciphers, daring the public to unravel his identity.

Two decades earlier in 1947, another slaying cast a shadow of fear over the state.

Aspiring Hollywood actress Elizabeth Short, who became known as the Black Dahlia, was found dead near a lovers’ lane in Los Angeles. Her body had been mutilated – severed clean in half at the waist, with a grotesque smile carved into her cheeks.

Now, after more than a half-century of mystery, countless law enforcement and amateur investigations, unsuccessful attempts to harness DNA testing, and the world’s brightest codebreaking minds left defeated, investigative consultant Alex Baber believes he has finally solved both cases.

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Staggering data reveals almost 200 bodies have been pulled from Houston bayous – as officials insist there is no serial killer

Bone-chilling data has revealed nearly 200 corpses have been pulled from Houston’s bayous in the last eight years prompting terrified locals to demand answers.

Officials continue to insist that the alarmingly high figure is not the work of a serial killer.

But since 2017, 189 dead bodies have been found in the Texas city’s swampy waters according to Harris County Medical Examiner’s Office records obtained by KPRC 2. 

Of these deaths, 17 were classified as murders with 75 deaths marked as ‘unexplained’. 

‘That’s definitely worthy of further investigation,’ Joseph Giacalone, a retired NYPD sergeant and criminal justice professor at Penn State Lehigh Valley, told the Daily Mail. 

Fears of a serial killer were ignited in late September after officials announced that five dead bodies had been recovered over the course of just five days.

On Friday The Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences said that the causes of all but one of deaths still remain undetermined, per CW39. The death of Arnulfo Alvarado was ruled an accidental drowning mixed with the effects of methamphetamine.

Since the start of the year, the death toll has risen to 27 according to the data obtained by KPRC 2.

The new figures also indicate that the most common age of decedents was 30-39, with a quarter of the bodies pulled matching this demographic. 

 ‘Just the sheer number of cases, the fact that a few of them could be connected, I think that the percentage of something being connected – at least one or two of them – is pretty high,’ Giacalone said.

He urged Houston investigators to explore the possibility of ‘companion cases, or dare I say, patterns,’ among the deaths. 

Although he added that he wouldn’t want to ‘go out and over-speculate on anything’.

Among the unexplained deaths is that of Jade Elise McKissic, 20, who was a student at the University of Houston.

McKissic was last seen alive leaving a bar to get a drink at a gas station. She left her phone behind, the Houston Police homicide division said.

Her body was found in Brays Bayou on September 15, four days later, at around 10am. Police said there were no signs of trauma or foul play.

Of all the deaths, 39 percent have undetermined causes, while 24 percent were attributed to accidental drowning. 

Thirteen percent of them have been ruled suicides, nine percent were deemed homicides and sic percent were reportedly caused by accidents other than drowning.

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Murder suspect who killed himself in jail, linked to disappearance of TV anchor, was ‘possible serial killer’: sheriff

An EMT who died by suicide in his jail cell and was named a person of interest in the disappearance of a TV anchor was found responsible for the 2006 killing of a Wisconsin woman, according to authorities, who suspect he may have been a serial killer.

Christopher Revak, who killed himself in 2009 inside a Missouri jail cell, would be charged with the murder of 21-year-old Deidre Harm if he were still alive, according to a letter posted on Facebook from Wood County District Attorney Jonathan Barnett.

“I consider this case closed,” Barnett wrote.

“I believe I had enough to charge and, if Mr. Revak were still alive, win at trial,” he said in the memorandum.

Harm, a single mother in Wisconsin Rapids, disappeared on June 10, 2006, after going out to a bar with her friends.

Revak, a former EMT and Wisconsin native, had been visiting family in the area when the young mother vanished, authorities said.

Her remains were found five months later in a wooded area five miles away from the bars downtown.

“This may provide some closure for many, but won’t bring Deidre back,” the Wood County Sheriff’s Office and Wisconsin Rapids Police said in a joint statement.

“Our thoughts and prayers will always be with Deidre’s family.”

Revak died by suicide in his jail cell in July 2009, only one day after being charged with second-degree murder for the death of mom of three Rene Williams.

Williams, 26, was last seen in a Missouri watering hole where she worked as a bartender. Revak had also been in the bar that evening, FOX 9 reported.

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Democrat mayor accused of ‘gaslighting’ entire city after dismissing claims serial killer is behind dozens of bodies pulled from bayous

The family of a man found dead in the Houston bayous has accused the city’s mayor of ‘gaslighting’ after the Democrat dismissed almost 50 bodies pulled from the waters in 21 months as a symptom of ‘homelessness‘.

John Whitmire rejected growing fears of a serial killer dumping bodies in the Texas waterways after dozens were found dead over the past two years.

One death that has baffled investigators is Kenneth Cutting Jr, 22, who disappeared after a night out in downtown Houston in June last year. 

Cousin Lauren Freedman said his body was found by police in the Buffalo Bayou a few days later, about a mile and a half upstream from where his roommates last saw him alive. 

The cause and manner of the young man’s death were undetermined by the autopsy which found no traces of physical injury or drug use. 

Cutting is just one of dozens of people that have been found dead in the waterways over the past few years. 

So far in 2025, police have confirmed 16 were pulled from Houston’s bayous, but records from the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences indicate that number is even higher, at 24. 

Six of those were found over the course of just two weeks in September.  

Police have also confirmed that throughout 2024, there was a total of 24 bodies recovered from the waterways. 

All of these deaths have caused Houston residents to speculate that there may be a serial killer on the loose, but mayor Whitmire has publicly disputed those fears. 

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The Freeway Phantom murdered six girls and was never caught….so why did the case barely make headlines?

He was the faceless predator who hunted children on the streets of Washington D.C., snatching, raping, and strangling at least six little girls during his 17-month reign of terror.

The serial killer, who called himself the Freeway Phantom, tortured and murdered his young victims – one just ten years old – before dumping their bodies on the side of the freeway. 

From April 1971 to September 1972, he terrorized the nation’s capital and to this day has never been identified. His heinous crimes should place him among America’s most notorious serial murderers: Son of Sam, the Zodiac killer, the Boston Strangler or now the Gilgo Beach killer. 

Yet outside of D.C., very few people have even heard of the mystery murderer or his killing spree.  

The reason, investigators now admit, is as disturbing as the murders themselves: the killer’s victims were poor black girls from neglected neighborhoods, and didn’t matter to law enforcement at the time. 

‘Those black girls didn’t mean anything to anybody – I’m talking about on the police department,’ Tommy Musgrove, who had once headed the D.C. homicide unit, told the Washington Post in 2018.

‘If those girls had been white, they would have put more manpower on it, there’s no doubt about that.’

Now more than half a century after the murders America chose to forget, the case has been dragged into the spotlight thanks to a podcast, Monster: Freeway Phantom, which explores the shocking failures of the investigation.

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Residents take matters into own hands and launch ‘Scooby-Doo’ hunt for ‘serial killer’ after 22 bodies found

Houston residents launched their own ‘Scooby-Doo’ style investigations to find an unconfirmed ‘serial killer’ after the discovery of six bodies since September 15 bringing the total found in the city’s bayous area to 22 this year.

Rumors of a mystery mass murderer came to a peak in the community in late September after officials announced that five dead bodies had been found over a five-day period.

Police said that had brought Houston’s total for the year to 14, but KPRC-TV reported using medical examiner records that the real number for 2025 was actually 22. 

Various bayous scattered around the city were listed as their places of death.

This latest development came as Houston locals launched their own far-fetched efforts to track down the supposed serial killer.

TikTok user Darius Stcyr said: ‘Let’s set up a trap. As you know, we have a serial killer on the loose.’

He continued: ‘Just the thought that could possibly be my baby girl one day [who] gets snatched up and found in a bayou. That really bothers me, you know? 

‘The police is clearly having a problem doing their job. I’m not understanding after the first body. Why aren’t there people staking out and watching?’ 

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Killer’s Death A Cover-Up? Investigators Reopen Cold Case…

Hamilton County Coroner Jeff Jellison is questioning whether notorious serial killer Herb Baumeister’s 1996 death was actually suicide, reopening one of America’s most disturbing cold cases that authorities prematurely closed nearly three decades ago.

Coroner Challenges Decades-Old Death Ruling

Hamilton County Coroner Jeff Jellison has publicly questioned the circumstances surrounding Herb Baumeister’s 1996 death in Canada, which was officially ruled a suicide. Jellison’s renewed investigation focuses on whether law enforcement adequately examined all aspects of Baumeister’s death before declaring the case closed. The coroner’s skepticism stems from the abrupt halt of the investigation immediately following Baumeister’s death, despite thousands of unidentified human remains at Fox Hollow Farm. This represents a concerning pattern where justice is denied simply because a suspect dies before trial.

Massive Crime Scene Reveals Investigation Failures

Fox Hollow Farm in Westfield, Indiana, contains the second-largest collection of unidentified human remains in the United States, exceeded only by the World Trade Center site. Baumeister allegedly killed numerous men throughout the 1990s, with only eight victims officially identified before the investigation ceased. The Hamilton County Coroner’s Office now uses advanced forensic genealogy through GenGenies to match DNA from bone fragments to living relatives across the nation. This technological breakthrough exposes how poorly the original investigation served victims’ families, who deserved thorough identification efforts regardless of the suspect’s fate.

Modern Technology Delivers Overdue Justice

Jellison’s office has successfully identified two additional victims using DNA analysis and genealogy techniques unavailable in the 1990s, with three more identifications pending verification. GenGenies provides these specialized forensic services at no cost, demonstrating the private sector’s commitment to solving cold cases abandoned by government agencies. The renewed investigation leverages cutting-edge technology to provide closure for families who waited nearly thirty years for answers. This progress highlights how institutional accountability and modern forensic methods can resurrect cases that bureaucratic inertia left to gather dust.

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