Tag: unsolved mysteries

The mystery of missing ‘French Madeleine McCann’: Estelle Mouzin disappeared aged nine on her way to school amid fears she was snatched by ‘Ogre of Ardennes’ killer… but her body has never been found

Over a span of more than 15 years, a series of killings of women and young girls haunted parts of France and Belgium, but perhaps none more than the murder of nine-year-old Estelle Mouzin – France’s Madeline McCann.

Between 1987 and 2003, at least 11 people disappeared across the region, with several of the cases seeming – at least at first – to be unconnected.

The first woman disappeared in Auxerre, in December 1987. The second vanished 90 miles away in Vitry-sur-Seine, a suburb of Paris, in 1988. 

Another woman went missing in Auxerre that same year, but then more vanished further north in Châlons-en-Champagne (1988) and Charleville-Mézières (1989. Then one in Saint-Servais in Belgium, then another in Rezé, over in the West of France.

After a flurry of eight disappearances from 1987 to 1990, there was a ten-year pause, but they restarted in 2000, in Charleville-Mézières again, then another in Sedan in 2001, and one more in Guermantes in 2003.

Of the places where the women went missing, only two appeared on the list more than once: Auxerre (three women) and Charleville-Mézières (two). When plotted on a map, the locations are spread across a vast area of 21,500 square miles.

It is easy to see, therefore, why authorities struggled to connect them to the culprit: dreaded serial killer Michel Fourniret, known as ‘the Beast of Ardennes’.

Finally arrested in 2003 in Belgium, Fourniret was convicted to life in prison in 2008 for the murder and rape or attempted rape of seven teenagers and young women, after he admitted to killing several women and girls.

Fourniret would go on to be convicted again after confessing to more killings, and he confessed to three more he was never convicted of – including 20-year-old British tutor Joanna Parrish, who was killed in Auxerre in 1990.

But of all of Fourniret’s horrific killings, one stood out in particular: That of nine-year-old Estelle, who went missing in 2003. The whereabouts of her body remain a mystery to this day, and is a secret that Fourniret took to his grave.

The youngest of Fourniret’s victims, Estelle’s disappearance has been likened to that of Madeleine McCann‘s, the three-year-old British girl who went missing in 2007.

As with McCann, who vanished in Portugal, Estelle disappeared without a trace, leaving investigators stumped while capturing the attention of the public and media.

The girl had been returning from school on January 9, 2003 in the commune of Guermantes, some 15 miles east from the centre of Paris.

The nine-year-old was last seen that winter’s day in front of a bakery, en route to the house belonging to her mother, Suzanne Mouzin.

Suzanne, who was in the middle of a divorce from Estelle’s father Eric, raised the alarm with the local police station at around 7pm that evening.

Little did she know, in going to the police she had lit the touch paper on an investigation that would span seventeen years, spark huge media coverage in France, and yet would never truly discover what had happened to her little girl.

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Could ‘baby in the post’ mystery finally be solved? 60 years after newborn’s rotting corpse was found in package sent across Australia, detectives have made a major move

One of Australia’s most gruesome unsolved cases dating back almost 60 years is a step closer to being solved. 

The body of a baby boy was found wrapped up in a parcel outside of a Darwin post office, in the Northern Territory, on May 11, 1965. 

The package was sent from Melbourne eight days earlier with staff making the grisly find inside the parcel after noticing a putrid smell emanating from it.

Mystery surrounded the identity of the baby with The Missing podcast making a breakthrough in June revealing the parcel had been addressed to a ‘J Anderson’.

Amelia was listening to the audio series when she immediately recognised the recipient was her father – former Aussie Rules player Jimmy Anderson.

She immediately offered to supply DNA samples to help put the case to bed.

In the latest development, the remains of the baby were exhumed from the cemetery in November – with a DNA test of the corpse set to be undertaken within days.

Ms Anderson said was shocked when she first found out the parcel was addressed to her father.

‘I’m 53 years old and to hear a cold case that…and if that’s got a connection to do with our father, well I want closure for that Detective who’s been on the case for so long,’ she said. 

Jim Anderson was a champion footballer who played for the Darwin Buffaloes in the Northern Territory Football League during the 1950’s and 60’s and won three premierships with the club. 

After Ms Anderson came forward, police and council staff began digging up the baby’s unmarked grave at the Darwin Central Cemetery in Jingili on Wednesday. 

The package, which was posted from a post office on Russel Street in Melbourne on May 3, 1965, emanated a putrid smell which alerted staff. 

The decomposed and naked body of the newborn was found wrapped inside a bunch of newspapers. 

The umbilical cord was still attached while a stocking was tightly wrapped around his neck. 

Police were notified of the shocking discovery and have been unable to close the case ever since.  

The return address claimed the parcel had been sent by a JF Barnes from 2 Woodridge Avenue in Mentone, Melbourne’s south-east.

Detectives quickly learned the address was a fake.  

Police were unable to extract fingerprints from the packaging – further delaying the closure of the case. 

Officials are now hoping the DNA test between Ms Anderson and the body of the baby could finally solve the mystery.

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Fears ‘woman with the flower tattoo’ Rita Roberts’ murder could be linked to serial killer known as The Scalp Hunter and The Canal Murderer


The family of “the woman with the flower tattoo” has been told her murder may be linked to a serial killer known as The Scalp Hunter and The Canal Murderer.

John Sweeney dismembered two former girlfriends before dumping their bodies in canals in Rotterdam and London.

He was known to be living in Belgium and Holland at the same time as the body of Rita Roberts was found washed up at a water treatment plant in Antwerp.

Police say she met with an extremely violent death – similar to Sweeney’s two victims who were about the same age as Cardiff-born Rita.

Interpol are already looking at Sweeney who is serving a whole life sentence for hacking to death Melissa Halstead, 33, and Paula Fields, 31.

The remains of Miss Halstead, whose head and hands were missing, were found in the Westersingel canal in Rotterdam after she vanished from her Amsterdam flat in 1990.

She was only identified in 2008 after Dutch detectives carried out a cold case review and matched familial DNA.

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Mystery over ‘the woman with the flower tattoo’ deepens as friend reveals she’d been told of her death 30 years ago – as Rita Roberts’ body was identified this week

The mystery around a British woman murdered in Amsterdam 31-years-ago deepens as an old school friend has come forward with new information. 

31-year-old Rita Roberts, know as the ‘woman with the flower tattoo’, was violently killed and her body was dumped in the Het Groot Schijn river in Antwerp, Belgium, on June 3, 1992.

However, she remained nameless for over three decades until an international appeal for information from Interpol lead to her identification this year because of her distinctive flower tattoo. 

Now an unnamed person has come forward saying they were told she drowned in a canal in Amsterdam thirty years ago. 

‘I was confused to see the stories about Rita because I was told she had drowned in a canal in Amsterdam 30 years ago,’ the school friend told the Mirror.

‘I got on with my life not thinking anything other than it was a tragedy. 

‘I don’t know why this has only come out now.’

This friend is now working with the police to see if it will help catch Ms Roberts killer.  

Ms Roberts had moved there from Cardiff and her last known correspondence was a postcard sent home in May 1992. 

When an appeal to uncover her identity began in May this year, detectives described her as being aged between 20 and 50 years old, around 170cm in height and of a stout build.

She had light-skin and had mid-length dark hair, and was wearing a t-shirt and dark blue Adidas training trousers.

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First photos reveal the COCAINE found in the White House: Images of the baggy in cubby hole that sparked White House investigation – and the culprit has still not been found

Photos of cocaine found in a phone locker in President Joe Biden‘s White House this summer can be revealed by DailyMail.com for the first time. 

The Secret Service included images of the bag of white powder that was found in a cubby hole used to store personal belongings near the White House’s West Executive entrance in response to a Freedom of Information Act request. 

Cocaine was found on Sunday, July 2 while the Biden family – including son Hunter – was spending the weekend away at Camp David ahead of the Fourth of July holiday.

The discovery prompted an evacuation of the West Wing and street closures surrounding the White House and then triggered an 11-day investigation once the substance was identified as the illicit drug. 

Documents obtained by DailyMail.com also show the Deputy Director of the FBI was involved in the investigation, which clouded the Biden administration in scandal this summer. 

The Secret Service closed the investgation in less than two weeks due to a ‘lack of evidence.’ 

The list of suspects had been narrowed down to 500, but security footage wasn’t able to determine the owner as cameras do not face the locker area. 

It is unclear if any suspects were interviewed during the short investigation. 

There also weren’t usable fingerprints or other DNA evidence on the ‘dime-sized’ zipper-lock bag that contained less than a gram of the drug. 

It had been sent to the FBI’s lab at Quantico for this analysis, the documents show. 

The Secret Service said the cocaine was sent for ‘destruction’ on July 14, a day after the probe wrapped up. 

Initial reports about the incident said the cocaine was discovered in the White House library, then the West Wing lobby and then finally the cubbies by the West Executive entrance.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre’s initial response to questions about whether the cocaine could belong to a Biden came in the form of pointing out that they weren’t home. 

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Thelma “Polly” Melton: Vanished From the Great Smoky Mountains

Thelma Pauline “Polly” McAllister was born in Alabama on February 26th, 1923, to parents Fred and Luella. She was one of six children.

Those who knew Polly described her as friendly, intelligent, and generous. She loved the outdoors and was an avid hiker. She had previously worked as a teacher.

Twice divorced with no children, Polly married Robert “Bob” Melton, a man 20 years her senior, in 1975. The couple resided in Jacksonville, Florida, for most of the year, but spent each fall living in their Airstream trailer in North Carolina’s Deep Creek Campground, near the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Bob had two adult sons from a previous marriage.

Polly was a two-pack-a-day smoker on medication for nausea and high blood pressure when she went missing. Additionally, she was no longer permitted to drive alone, for undisclosed reasons.

While staying in North Carolina, Polly Melton was a frequent volunteer at the Bryson City Presbyterian Nutrition Center, where she served meals to elderly people. She reportedly never missed a day of working at the food bank.

For this reason, it was undeniably odd when Polly chose not to sign up to volunteer on September 25, 1981. However, she offered no explanation for this decision.

In another uncharacteristic move, she reportedly used the phone at the center the day before—the first time she’d ever done so in all of the years that she’d been volunteering there. To whom she made the call and what they spoke about is unknown.

Neither her friends nor family could remember speaking with her on the phone that day. No long-distance charges appeared on the bill, suggesting the call was local.

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Madeleine McCann detectives ‘fear their probe into prime suspect paedophile Christian Brueckner is close to collapsing and have just weeks to save investigation’

Detectives investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann fear that their case against prime suspect Christian Brueckner is ‘close to collapsing’. 

German police probing convicted paedophile Christian Brueckner, who was officially named as a suspect in the three-year-old’s disappearance in April 2022, reportedly have until the new year to find a new lead before their investigation falls through. 

A source close to the investigation told The Sun: ‘The next few weeks are make or break for the detectives investigating Christian B. 

‘Publicly they are saying they remain convinced he is linked to Maddie’s disappearance… but, privately, the case is close to collapsing.’

Brueckner is yet to be formally charged by police but was named as a suspect after his campervan was reportedly spotted near the Praia da Luz resort in Portugal where Maddie vanished from in May 2007.

The police’s case is largely centred around his former friend Helge Busching’s testimony that Brueckner chillingly told him when they were discussing Madeleine’s disappearance that ‘she didn’t scream’. 

The source told The Sun that the case is now in jeopardy as there are ‘no new leads’ and their primary witness Busching ‘has totally gone offside’. 

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Jimmy Hoffa may be buried at site of demolished MLB stadium: cold case group

A nonprofit group of cold case crime investigators believes it has located a site in Milwaukee where former Teamsters President Jimmy Hoffa is buried.

The Case Breakers said a “a dying police sergeant’s scribbled instructions on an ace of spades” playing card helped lead their yearslong investigation to the old site of Milwaukee County Stadium in Wisconsin, according to a Wednesday press release.

The alleged burial site is next to the current Milwaukee Brewers stadium, American Family Field, where they believe Hoffa’s body lies in a spot under where the demolished stadium’s third-base line previously stood.

Jim Zimmerman, a 13-year member of Case Breakers and a former police officer, is credited with locating the ace of spades playing card which they say was written by a dying police sergeant believed to be involved with Hoffa’s kidnapping.

“Independent sources in three states convinced the volunteer investigators that CSI forensics will reveal Hoffa’s remains at a little league field, in the shadow of Milwaukee’s MLB stadium,” the press release stated. Three credible witnesses are said to have claimed that six years before the demolition of Milwaukee County Stadium, Hoffa’s body was moved from another location and “secretly buried in 1995 under this old stadium’s 3rd base.”

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Is this the clue to unlock Madeleine McCann mystery? German prosecutors say sick online messages between suspect Christian and another paedophile about ‘MM’ could be a ‘hint’ as to what happened

A German prosecutor leading the Madeleine McCann investigation has revealed that sick online messages between suspect Christian Brueckner and another paedophile ‘could be a hint’ as to what happened to the toddler. 

Convicted sexual predator Brueckner has been named as the prime suspect in the 16-year long case due to his activities in Portugal at the time but is yet to be formally charged.

The three-year-old disappeared during a family holiday in the Algarve in May 2007, sparking a nationwide hunt – but 16 years later and the truth of what happened to her has still not been unearthed. 

However, Hans Christian Wolters, a public prosecutor in Braunschweig has told BBC‘s Panorama that it is their opinion that Madeleine was killed in Portugal by Brueckner. 

He told the programme: ‘I can only say that we have only have one suspect at the moment. [She died] in Portugal and we think maybe we know where it happened.’ 

Mr Wolters also described how an online exchange between Brueckner and another paedophile could be a ‘hint’ as to what happened due to the use of the letters ‘mm’ – which they say could be a cryptic reference to Madeleine McCann. 

The online chat, which was found on one of Brueckner’s computers shows a brief conversation with a paedophile. 

In the chat, Brueckener details explicitly his desires to abduct and kill a little girl and ‘document it.’ 

He then speaks about ‘destroying evidence’ to which the paedophile replies: ‘mm’. 

Commenting on the vile exchange, Mr Wolters said: ‘It could be a hint. 

‘Of course, it’s important for us. It could be piece for the big puzzle.’ 

Brueckner is currently serving a seven-year prison term in a high-security prison locally dubbed ‘Alcatraz of the North’ in Oldenburg, near the historic northern city of Bremen. 

Earlier this month it was reported that the suspect could face trial as early as February next year for a string of heinous crimes, which include three shocking rapes and two sex attacks on children. 

He is said to have filmed two of the rapes he is being tried for which are said to have taken place at his former residence outside Praia da Luz – the same area where Madeleine disappeared.  

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Blonde woman found dead face-down in Florida creek nearly 40 years ago is finally identified as wife in notorious Boston crime family after investigators match DNA from bone fragments to her daughter

A murder victim whose body was found face down in a Florida canal in 1984 has finally been identified, 40 years later. 

Lori Jane Kearsey was just 23 when she went missing after marrying into an infamous Boston crime family. 

She was found dead in a canal on the 2600 block of Southwest 130th Avenue in Davie, South Florida on February 18, 1984, having been strangled.  

Despite releasing her description, blonde, hazel eyes, 5’4 and 120 pounds, police were not able to identify the victim.

However, a breakthrough came when the use of DNA from Kearsey’s bone fragments led investigators to find a match with her daughter Maehgan Smith, who lives in Gloucester, Massachusetts.

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