5 Chilling Murders

 

5. Amber Lundgren

Amber was last seen on June 7th, 1997, leaving the nightclub called Bar Code, in Ashville, NC. Unfortunately, her remains were found later that same day off of Azalea Road.

Police believe that Amber would have disappeared between 2:30 and 3:30 am, her body was found in a ditch on the side of Azalea road by a person walking their dog around 8:30 in the morning. She had a single stab wound to her neck, defensive wounds on her hands and arms which indicated a struggle, and her clothes were scattered on the ground around her. 

Amber had asked the bartender if he had seen her friends when he said no, he hadn't seen them Amber left the bar, that was around 3 in the morning. Amber was seen walking along Broadway or the next street over which was Lexington Avenue. 

There are reports that Amber got into an unknown vehicle, but these reports don't make any sense at all, because Amber wasn't the type of person who would do that. Amber wasn't a risk-taker and was always cautious. She'd never done anything risky in her life. 

It was Amber's friend Nadia, that had first noticed Amber was missing. The two friends had been planning to share an apartment and the plan was to meet up to sell off some of their things at a yard sale, but Amber didn't show up. This sent up red flags, and Nadia started calling around places looking for her friend. She called Amber's work, her boyfriend Paul, Mission Hospital, and Amber's family. By 5 PM, Nadia knew something was very wrong, so she called the police and filed a missing person report. 

As this was going on, detectives were at Mission Hospital trying to identify the body of a young woman. After Nadia gave police Amber's description they began showing her photos of tattoos. Particularly a band circling the arm, and sun around the belly button. It took a while for Nadia to realize that police were showing her pictures of Amber. Nadia figured that Amber had just been mugged or attacked, the thought of murder did not even come into her mind. 

Detective Kevin Taylor, who is now retired, still continues to work on this particular case. He has been dedicated to solving it, and therefore it is very important to him that he does. He has confirmed that dozens of people have been questioned concerning this case. There have always been suspects, and those suspects remain today. DNA evidence was of course collected from the crime scene, and Taylor is confident that using modern technology could open new leads that they just couldn't have made possible 24 years ago. 

Detective Welborn who had worked the case claimed there was no evidence of a sexual assault. It was also stated that the killer carried Amber to the ditch because the water would cover the body (and likely wash away evidence).  

This case remains unsolved. 

4. Helen Clevenger

Helen graduated from Tottenville High School and continued her education at New York University. She dreamed of following in her father's footsteps and becoming a Chemist. Helen had been in Ashville, visiting her uncle. She had been staying at Battery Park Hotel. She had been staying in Room 224. It was in the early morning hours on July 16th, 1936, that her life would come to a tragic end. Even though hotel guests heard a woman screaming from her room at 1 am. It wouldn't be until daybreak that her uncle found her. Her pajama-clad body was found stabbed, shot, and bludgeoned beyond recognition. 

It wasn't long before the police suspected Martin Moore, a 22-year-old black man that worked in the hotel as a hall boy, claiming that he had confessed to the murder. The investigation was focused solely on Moore's skin color, and nothing else mattered. According to Moore police beat him until he would confess to the murders. He maintained his innocence in the killing right up until his execution, on a cold December day in 1936. 

3.  The Boy in the Box

In February 1957, the body of a boy aged 4-6 years was found wrapped in a plaid blanket. The naked body was inside a cardboard box that once held a bassinet sold by J.C. Penney. The boy was found in the woods that was just off Susquehanna Road in Fox Chase, Philadelphia. The boy's hair had been cropped short, possibly done after death as clumps of hair clung to his body. He was severely malnourished, had surgical scars on the ankles and groin, and a scar shaped like an L under his chin. 

John Stachowiak had first encountered the boy when he was out in those woods checking on his muskrat traps. However, he did not report it to the police. A few days later a college student named, Frank Guthrum was driving through the area. He stopped his car when he saw a rabbit running into the brush. He had known there were traps in the area. When he discovered the body he too was reluctant to report what he found but decided to after he heard about the disappearance of Mary Jane Baker. 

Police had received the report and opened an investigation, but had little to go on. They took the boy's fingerprints and were hopeful his identity would be found out but no one came forward. Because it was a child, the case attracted media attention, and it wasn't long before the Philadelphia Inquirer was printing off 400,000 flyers that had the child's likeness on them. These were sent out all over and were even mailed with everyone's gas bill. Still, not a single person had come forward to claim the boy. 

Police combed the area over and over again, but they found no solid leads. In fact, the only objects that had been found were a man's blue corduroy cap, a child's scarf, and a white handkerchief with the letter "g" on it. Police had even circulated a post-mortem photograph of the boy fully clothed and as he would have looked when he was alive, and still no one came forward. In 2016, The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children had released a facial reconstruction of the boy in the box and added him to their database.

Barbara Rae-Venter, Doe Network, and Websleuths have all tried to solve this case. 

There have been many tips and theories that have surrounded the case, and while many of these theories have been put to rest. Two theories have caught the police and the media's attention. 

Theory #1 The Foster home

A psychic had led police to a foster home that was located just 1.5 miles from where the body was found. While attending an estate sale for the house, police discovered a bassinet that was exactly like the one sold at J.C. Penney. They also found blankets similar to the one the boy was found in. It was highly believed at the time that the boy belonged to the step-daughter of the man who had run the foster home and that maybe the boy died by accident. When the child died they decided to dump the body to hide the fact she was unwed. But police weren't able to make a connection. In 1998, they interviewed the man, and his step-daughter who he was now married, and the investigation into the foster home was closed. 

Theory #2 The woman known as "Martha" or "M" 

A woman came forward in February 2002, police consider her story to be likely. Yet, her testimony was disturbing. According to Martha, In the summer of 1954, her abusive mother had purchased a boy from his parents, and that his name was Jonathan. She claims that the boy was subjected to physical and sexual abuse for over 2 years. She said that one night the boy threw up his dinner of baked beans and was beaten badly. She said her mother slammed his head against the floor until he was nearly unconscious. The boy was given a bath, in which he died. These details had matched ones that up until this point only the police knew about. She said that her mother proceeded to cut the boy's hair in an attempt to conceal his identity. Her mother had of course forced her into helping get rid of the body. (which had been in the trunk) She also claimed there was a witness, who saw them dumping something there, but they concealed it from him. This matched a statement from a witness in 1957 who said that the body was dumped in a box that had already been there. 

Even though she had some major details and filled in the gaps really well. Police weren't able to verify her story. Those who lived around her at the time this death took place, said that no such boy had lived in the house. So police seemed to be at another dead end. 

2. The Lava Lake Murders

The Lava Lake Murders is a triple murder that took place in January1924, near Little Lava Lake, in Central Oregon. The victims, Edward Nikols, Roy Wilson, and Dewey Morris were out there working as fur trappers. The men made plans to stay in a log cabin for the winter of 1923 and 1924. They did this to work as fir traders. 

Just a week before Christmas, Nikols had visited the city of Bend. He was there in great spirit and happily sold a sled full of furs. He had told locals that the trapping was going good. Allen Wilcoxen was snowshoeing between, Fall River and Elk Lake. He had stopped into the cabin to see the men. He arrived on January 15th, 1924, he had spent the evening with them. He too said the three men were in good spirits, owing to their success in fur trapping. He left for Elk Lake on the morning of January 16th, 1924. He was the last one to see the men alive.

Having not heard from his brother and other two men, Innis Morris and Pearl Lynnes started to become suspicious. In April of 1924, a search team went to the cabin. They found burnt food on the stove, the dining table set for a meal, but no men. 

Outside, the sled was missing, five valuable foxes that were owned by the man they rented the cabin from was also empty. The most chilling part was that a blood-stained claw hammer had been sitting in one corner of the pen. The team checked the traps which had been unattended for quite some time having the frozen remains of several martens, foxes, and a skunk. 

The following day the investigation began, and police had found the sled, badly stained with blood at the edge of the lake. There was also a depression in the lake, having earlier been cut away from the rest of the ice. And on a trail next to the lake there were pools of blood, as well as clumps of hair and a human tooth. The lake had thawed enough so that they could search by boat, and it was Innis and Sheriff Adams who found the men's bodies, which had floated to the surface. 

While all three men had been shot, they suffered slightly different injuries. Wilson had been shot in the right shoulder, and again in the back of the head. Nikols' mouth had been shattered by a shotgun. He also had a bullet hole, which was probably caused by a revolver, in his head. Morris had been shot in the arm, and had a fracture to his skull, likely from the claw hammer. 

Now, the police assumed that these men were murdered sometime between December and January. It was believed that at least two men were not killed at the cabin, but rather lured away from it. Police had suspected a woodsman, and moonshiner that lived in the area named Indian Erikson, but was cleared by providing an alibi. So who killed these men?

It was the owner, who pointed the police in the right direction, towards a fellow trapper by the name of Lee Collins. This man had fought with the three men over a stolen wallet. Sometime during the argument, he threatened to come back and kill Nikols. When police looked into the man it turned out that Collins wasn't even his real name. His name was Charles Kimzey, who had been arrested in Bend, in 1923 for robbery and attempted murder. He had thrown a stagecoach driver down a well. The man fled before it went to trial. 

To make matters much worse, a traffic officer had recognized the man, having approached him on January 24th, 1924. The man had asked the traffic officer to point him in the right direction of a dealer. The man was carrying a gunnysack and looking to sell his furs. The officer pointed him in the direction of the Schumacher Fur Company, where he sold his furs for $110. Police issued a reward for his arrest in connection to the murders but the case went cold. 

Nine years after the murders, Kimzey was arrested in Montana and transported back to Oregon where he was questioned about the murders. Even though the police had circumstantial evidence against him, the fur dealer could not identify Kimzey as the man he bought furs from that January day. He was charged however with robbery and attempted murder. He was sentenced to life in prison. The case remains unsolved to this day. 

1. Black Dahlia

Elizabeth Short is known to the world as the Black Dahlia was murdered in the Leimert Park area in Kos Angeles California. Her murder became known due to the violent nature of the murder. She was badly mutilated and cut in half. 

It is said that on January 9th, 1947, Elizabeth had returned home after a short trip to San Diego, with Robert Manley her current boyfriend. According to Manley, he had dropped Elizabeth off at the Biltmore Hotel, in the morning and she was supposed to meet her sister who was visiting from Boston, later that afternoon. Staff recalled Elizabeth using the lobby telephone at some point that day, and patrons saw her at the Crown Grill Cocktail Lounge, which was close to the hotel. 

It was on the morning of January 15th, 1947 that her body was found naked and cut in half on a vacant lot between  Coliseum Street and West 39th Street. Her body was discovered by Betty Bersinger while walking with her three-year-old daughter. At first, she thought it was a mannequin but after discovering it was a body she quickly went to the closest house and called the police. 

Her severally mutilated body was cut off at the waist and completely drained of blood, giving her a pallid look. She had been dead for at least 10 hours before she was discovered. Which meant that she died sometime on January 14th or the early morning hours on the 15th. The body was washed, her face had been slashed in the Glasgow smile, she had cuts on her thighs and breasts where chunks had been cut away. The body had been positioned most strangely. Her hands over her head with her arms bent at right angles, the bottom half a foot away, her intestines tucked beneath her buttocks her legs spread apart. Police found a red heel print on the ground next to tire tracks, and a cement sack that was filled with watery blood. 

January 21th, 1947, was a strange day in the case. A person who claimed to be the killer called into the office of the Examiner, congratulating them on the coverage. The person proceeded to tell them that they would turn themselves in soon, but not before a police pursuit. Also adding that they could expect some souvenirs from the victim in the mail soon. 

On January 24th a mysterious envelope was discovered by a postal worker. The envelope was addressed to the Examiner and other media outlets. It was done in cut out words from various newspaper clippings. The envelope contained all of the following: her birth certificate, business cards, photos, names written on pieces of paper, and an address book with the name Mark Hansen on the cover. It had been carefully cleaned with gasoline, which made police believe it really was sent by the killer. A handbag and a black shoe were discovered on the top of a garbage can, close to the crime scene. These too were cleaned with gasoline. The killer was toying with the police. The killer continued to send letters to the press. 

Over 500 people have confessed to the murder, some of them weren't even born when it happened. Many of those confessors have been charged with obstruction of justice. There have been many suspects over the years, but all of them had been cleared including Mark Hansen.  This case remains unsolved.