The Weirdest, Most Baffling Unsolved Murders of All Time

In May 2008, 18-year-old Josh Maddux told his sister that he was going for a walk in their Woodland Park, Colorado neighborhood and never came home. Seven years later, his body was found stuffed in the chimney of an abandoned cabin that was in the process of being demolished. His death was ruled an accident.

The position of Maddux’s body inside the chimney, with his feet above his head, didn’t match up with someone trying to climb from the top down. Further, he was wearing only a ribbed thermal shirt, while the rest of his clothing was found inside the cabin. And the chimney itself had been barricaded, by a large metal grate on top and a heavy wooden breakfast bar that had been dragged from the kitchen to block the fireplace opening.

On April 18, 1943, four boys in Hagley Wood came across a large wych elm while they were bird-nesting. When one of the boys climbed to the top and looked inside the hollow trunk, he discovered a human skull. Being that they had been on the property illegally, they were reluctant to tell their parents what they had found.

When police arrived, they discovered the nearly complete skeleton of a 35-year-old woman with a shoe, gold wedding ring, and pieces of clothing. A piece of taffeta had been stuffed in her mouth. The remains have never been identified, and at some point along the way, both her remains and the original autopsy report have disappeared.

In February 1957, the nude body of a 3-7 year-old boy was found in a furniture box in the woods beyond Fox Chase, Philadelphia. He had been wrapped in a plaid blanket and showed signs of severe abuse. He was malnourished and there were scars on his ankle, groin and under his chin.

In February 2002, a woman with a history of mental illness who went by "M" contacted police. She claimed the boy had been purchased by her mother in 1954 and was physically and sexually abused for two and a half years. Details of her account matched unreleased police information, including what would have been the boy’s final meal, but police were unable to verify her story.

Chuck Morgan was the successful owner of an escrow agency in Tucson, Arizona. In June 1977, Morgan’s body was found in the desert, having been shot once in the back of the head while he was wearing a bulletproof vest. His death was ruled a suicide.

Two months before Morgan’s death, he told his wife that he had been kidnapped and tortured. A woman who went by the name “Green Eyes” had called Morgan’s wife and told her, “Chuck is alright, Ecclesiastics 12: 1-8.” On Morgan’s body, a $2 bill was found with the same passage written on it, along with seven Spanish names. It’s unknown if Morgan had been involved with the cartels, the FBI, or perhaps both.

On the morning of June 10th 1912, six members of the Moore family and two of their houseguests were found murdered in their home in Villisca, Iowa. Of the eight victims, six had been children, and all of them had suffered axe wounds to the head.

Throughout the years, there have been several possible suspects in the murders, with one man — Reverend George Kelly — standing trial twice for the crime but ultimately being acquitted. It’s been theorized that the Villisca axe murders are related to a larger string of axe murders that occurred throughout the country for over a decade.

In March 1922, five members of the Gruber family and their newly hired maid were murdered on the Hinterkaifeck farmstead just outside Munich, Germany. They had been killed with a pickaxe, four in the barn and two in the house.

In the months leading up to the murders, the family maid had quit, claiming the property was haunted. The head of the family, Andreas Gruber, discovered a newspaper on the property that appeared out of nowhere, as well as tracks that led from the woods to the home. One of their house keys went missing a few days before the murders, and the family claimed to hear footsteps in the attic, but Gruber could find no one.

On January 2nd 1935, a man with no luggage going by the name Roland T. Owen checked into room 1046 at the Hotel President in Kansas City, Missouri. Two days later, a bellboy would discover Owen in a pool of blood, claiming “no one” had harmed him. His clothing was missing. He died in the hospital, and his identity was proven to be false.

The first night Owen checked into the hotel, a maid discovered a note that read, “Don, I will be back in fifteen minutes. Wait.” The next night, she overheard him having a conversation with “Don” over the phone. It took a year after his death before he was identified as a missing man named Artemus Ogletree, although no one has figured out who Don is.

From May 1918 to October 1919, a serial killer murdered six people and injured six more around New Orleans, Louisiana via bludgeoning with an axe. Most of the victims were of Italian descent, which has led many historians to believe the crimes were ethnically motivated. 

On the night of March 19th 1919, the Axeman promised to spare any residences that played jazz music. One popular theory as to his identity is that he was Joseph Momfre, who had been killed in 1920 by the widow of the Axeman’s final victim. No records exist, however, of any such crime having occurred. 

Between 1968 and 1985, 14 to 16 people were murdered around Florence, Italy. The crimes mirrored those of the Zodiac Killer, in that “Il Mostro” would target couples parked on lovers’ lanes. The crimes were carried out with a .22 caliber gun and a knife.

In many cases, the female victims would have their sexual organs removed, and in at least one instance, those organs were mailed to state prosecutors. Four local men were tried and convicted of the crimes, but speculation remains as to their actual involvement.

In the spring of 1946, an unidentified serial killer known as the “Phantom Killer” terrorized residents of Texarkana, Texas. Over the course of ten weeks, eight people were attacked, and five were killed. Youell Swinney, the only major suspect in the crimes, was never convicted.

Residents were so frightened of the Phantom Killer, a man described as being six feet tall and wearing a white mask, that Texarkana became a ghost town at night. Residents heavily armed themselves and stayed locked indoors. But after three months without incident, Texas Rangers decided to quietly leave town.

At 6:30 am on December 1st 1948, a man was found dead on Somerton beach, just outside of Adelaide, South Australia. He had no wounds, was well-kept, and as far as the coroner could tell, he had possibly been poisoned, although it was uncertain with what.

A piece of a book page found in his trouser pocket had the words “Tamam Shud” printed on it, which translated means “ended” or “finished.” When authorities tracked down the copy of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam that the page had been torn from, they found handwriting indentations that included a phone number, an unidentified number, and an encrypted message.

From the end of 1884 to the end of 1885, 16 people were the victims of an axe murderer in Austin, Texas. Eight died, with the majority of the victims being young black women. The bodies were all posed similarly, and six of the women had a sharp object inserted into their ears.

The Servant Girl Annihilator was one of the earliest examples of a known serial killer in the United States. The murders occurred three years prior to the Jack the Ripper killings in White Chapel England, and according to an editor with the Atlanta Constitution, the two men are one and the same.

Between February 1st and 2nd 1959, a nine-person hiking group led by Igor Dyatlov died mysteriously while camping in the northern Ural Mountains in Russia. Authorities determined six died of hypothermia, while the other three sustained fatal injuries.

On February 26th, the hikers’ tent was discovered, having been cut open from the inside. The bodies were recovered over the next two months; most were only partially clothed, and those that had sustained injuries showed no outward physical signs. Except for one hiker, who was missing her tongue, eyes, and part of her lips.