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Unsolved True Crime: 10 Frightening Cases of Mystery, Murder & Mayhem has 10 chapters, each dedicated to a different case. Some of these I've never heard of, and they are intriguing. I wanted to recap and comment on each case, so I've split this blog post into 2 parts - the first 5 chapters of the book and the second 5 chapters.
Molly Bish
I am somewhat familiar with this story as I’ve seen it on ID a few times. However, I cannot make a guess as to who the killer is from reading the story in this book. The tv show (I don’t remember which one) provided much more detail and allowed me to form an opinion about the suspects and who the killer was.
What the Bish family did after Molly’s death was amazing. Their organization to prepare families in the event a child goes missing is an invaluable tool and a great idea.
Rhonda and Sharon in Texas
I did not think I was familiar with this case, but it mentions that Matthew McConaughey was in an Unsolved Mysteries episode about it. I remember seeing him in the episode (probably during lockdown) but this story does not sound familiar. It also says there was a documentary about it on A&E which I don’t think I’ve seen.
Rhonda and Sharon were 14 year old girls that went missing near Galveston, Texas in 1971. Rhonda’s headless corpse was eventually found but the medical examiner thought she was a John Doe not a Jane Doe due to the clothes she was wearing and the decomposition of her body.
First of all, What kind of ME is this to not even be able to identify a female body and assume it is male!?! I mean, even a bone can be found and it can be determined to be male or female so I don’t think a thorough examination was done.
Her head was later found but no cause of death could be determined.
When Sharon’s intact body was found, no cause of death could be determined for her either. Yet, the killer is presumed to have shot his victims in the head. So could they really not find a bullet hole in either skull? Or signs of a bullet wound? I’m seriously questioning the credibility of this ME.
My first thought when reading this story was that they were part of the Texas Killing Fields.
It reminds me of the West Memphis 3 in that law enforcement coerced a confession from a mentally impaired man who was charged with the murders and never exonerated. That makes me so angry.
I’m not sure if I believe Edward Bell’s confessions. It seems that many of his victims were found stripped of their clothes so why would he have left Rhonda and Sharon clothed? I am guessing Rhonda’s head detached from her body during decomposition or animal scavenging. Because why would one girl get decapitated and not any of the other victims?
This story poses lots of unanswered questions.
Ebby
I was not familiar with this story but I definitely want to learn more. Sounds like a lot of shoddy police work in Arkansas again!!!
Ebby was an 18 year old girl who suddenly changed her behavior after she started dating a young man. She changed schools, moved out of her parents' house, and lived among friends and family. She told one of her friends that she was sexually assaulted one night at a party by 4 guys who got the incident on video. Supposedly, Ebby confronted the guys to ask them to delete the video and told them she was going to the police.
She never made it to the police and the mystery deepens. Eventually, her remains were found but no cause of death was released because this is an active investigation. The story mentions quotes from The Vanished podcast, so I will probably check that out to see if I can learn more about this.
Rachael Runyan
I have never heard this story before. Rachael was a 3 year old girl in Utah who was kidnapped from a playground behind her house with the promise of bubble gum and candy. One month later, her body was found in a stream, naked, and hog tied. The killer has never been found.
I would like to learn more about the killer’s description and why the police named the suspects they did. From this story, I could not form any opinions about the killer without learning more details.
It also made me wonder (since I just finished discussing West Memphis 3), how often are murder victims hog tied? What is the profile of the person who does this to his/her victims?
Mr. Cruel
I had never heard this story. Maybe because it takes place in Australia? Mr. Cruel was a nickname given to the man who would randomly break into families’ homes at night. He would bound, tie, and gag the parents and some children. He would then abduct a young female who he then sexually assaulted and “returned” to a location near the sites of the abduction.
However, one girl never made it home. She was shot three times in the back of the head.
Some of the theories are that this man works in law enforcement because he knew to bathe the girls to get rid of forensic evidence before returning them, or that he worked in the girls’ schools so he was familiar with them.
I think that he was familiar with them through school. And when his last victim was killed, her mother thought it was because she could identify the abductor. I think she might have recognized him, too! And that’s why he killed her. He had even made a comment to one of his victims that his freedom was worth more than their life, which leads me to believe that he might have been a prominent person in society like a teacher, principal, cop, or preacher.
I have to hand it to him, though, he was very smart. He often left false evidence to throw police off. I don’t know why more killers don’t do this! Or maybe they do and that’s why there are so many unsolved and cold cases - because detectives are focusing on the false clues!!!!! OMG! Something to think about.
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