10 unsolved cases that need to be heard

By Natalee O.

Unsolved cases can bring questions, tension, and more. Many students at Airport High School have the opportunity to take forensic science, criminology, or law classes where they take part in hands-on projects that allow them to understand how investigating works, or simply even just for a science credit. I’m writing about this topic because I'm interested in crime, especially those cases that have remained unsolved, and because this article may appeal to students with exhisting interests in crime. Why aren’t they being investigated? Why are they forgotten? Why aren't they being actively investigated? Here is my list of the top 10 most important unsolved cases.

10. Anthonette Cayedito

This case is a mystery: do moms check up on kids before they go to sleep? On a Sunday morning in April, 6-year-old Anthonette's mom reported her daughter missing. The previous night, Penny Anthonette’s mom went to the bar with a few friends and left her kids watching TV. Penny returned around midnight. The next morning, Penny went to wake up the girls for Bible study and noticed Anthonette was gone and the front door was unlocked. Her little sister mentioned she heard knocks around 3 a.m., but Anthonette didn't really pay attention to them. Then there was a second knock, and when her sister Anthonette got up to answer it, she heard a man at a distance saying “It's Uncle Joe,” and then heard Anthonette screaming, “Let me go!” and that was it. One year later, a 911 call came to the Gallop police station. It was a girl screaming, claiming to be Anthonette and that she was in Albuquerque. In 1991, a waitress in Nevada said a teenage girl came into the dining room with a man and a woman. After they left, the waitress noticed there was a napkin under the girl's plate that said, “Help me and call the police.” In 1994, Penny admitted she heard the knocks and told Anthonette to answer the door and went back to sleep. What's even more weird is she told the police that she knew someone was going to take her daughter. She filed a polygraph and was considered a suspect but never got arrested.

9. Russell & Shirley Dermond

In early 2014, in Putnam County, Georgia, the body of Russell was found disfigured on May 6 in the garage of his house. Some body parts were missing. His wife Shirley couldn't be found until a week later, when police discovered her body floating in a lake. Investigators were pursuing multiple potential leads to find the perpetrators and their motive for ending the lives of the Dermonds. The Putnam County Sheriff, Howard Sills, said he is convinced that multiple people are involved. Sills believes that the perpetrators went to the Dermonds’ home intending to obtain money, but nothing in the home was stolen. Sheriff Howard Sills said that that week, two DNA labs, one in Texas and another in Utah, had found DNA tied to Russell and Shirley. “I'm waiting on the results of whatever they have,” Sills said. “Hopefully we'll be able to submit it to a national criminal DNA database.”

8. Sheree Magaro

Could you imagine yourself driving home at night knowing a snowstorm was going to hit in a few hours? Sheree Magaro was on her way home in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, because a snowstorm was going to hit. She never made it home.

Sheree was known as a kind person; she had a son with her ex-fiancé that lasted about three years and later got engaged to a coworker. She was last seen at a friend's residence in Kentmore Park, Maryland, on February 22, 1987. She was discovered the next morning at around 9:45 a.m., after someone made an anonymous call to the police. Police found one inch of snow under the car, which was odd because 16 to 18 inches of snow were on the field, indicating the car had been there before the snow. Some of her belongings were found 100 yards outside of her car, and her hair, clothes, blood, and remains were found inside her car. There have been witnesses who had seen a car at the field with its hazard lights on. Another witness said they saw a guy talking to a woman near Magaro's car. Two sketches made police think it might be the same man.

7. Amy Lynn Bradley

Sometimes all you need is a vacation on a cruise, which can be fun, but for the Bradley family, it was a nightmare. Amy Lynn was a 23-year-old who vanished in 1998 on a Royal Caribbean cruise. She was last seen at a nightclub with her brother Brad. Later, at 3:30 a.m., Brad and Amy went back to the family cabin and sat on the balcony. Later, Brad went to sleep around 4 a.m. Around 5:30 a.m., her father Ron woke up and saw Amy sitting on the balcony in a chair. He went back to sleep and thirty minutes later woke up again and saw that Amy was missing. There have been theories that Amy jumped off the balcony. The police also mentioned that she may have been trafficked. The Bradleys reported their daughter missing to the ship crew and begged them not to let any of the passengers off the ship, but the crew refused. The police interviewed Alister Douglas, the bass player in the band Blue Orchid, who was seen on video dancing with Amy at the nightclub before she disappeared. The FBI has not accused him of a crime. To this day, she has not been found.

6. Vanessa Dawn Smith

On May 31, 1997, Vanessa, a 15-year-old white female with blue eyes, freckles, and blond hair, went for a walk and never returned home. Her walking stick, which was a way to protect herself, was found where she would usually walk. Police believed she was taken by someone she may have known. Vanessa was described as a good and sweet girl; she also had good grades in school and was part of the Mennonite Church. She was about 5 feet 6 inches and 130 pounds. Vanessa had Duane's syndrome, and her retina in her right eye was paralyzed. On the day she went missing, she was wearing light blue with an elastic waist, a white belt, and white sandals. A few hours after Vanessa left for her walk, her parents were worried, so they took the same path Vanessa would have taken, and about 200 feet from their house, they found her walking stick. They called the police. When the police arrived, they went to where the walking stick was found and found no evidence that showed force. There haven't been any leads.

5. JonBenet Ramsey

JonBenet was a six-year-old girl. She was sweet. She was also a beauty pageant contestant and won many titles. She was the youngest and had a brother named Burke Ramsey, who was 9 years old at the time. On December 26, 1996, she was reported missing. They also found a note saying their daughter was missing and demanding money. Several hours later, they found JonBenet's body, revealing that she had been hit on the head. At the time of her disappearance, there had been many people walking in and out, which may have obstructed the evidence. Some people even suspected the Ramseys had something to do with her death because JonBenet was found inside her house, and the dad was the first one to find her.

4. The Villisca Axe

On the night of June 9 to the morning of June 10, 1912, in the town of Villisca, six members of the Moore family—the parents Josiah Moore and Sarah Moore and their kids Herman, Kathleen, Boyd, and Paul—along with two other guests, were found dead. The cause of death was severe head wounds from an axe that was found in their backyard. Before fleeing the scene, the killer covered the mirrors, placed garments over their bodies, cleaned a little, and made himself a snack. The Moore's neighbor was the first to notice something was off that day. The children hadn't left for school, and the animals hadn't been tended to. She went to their house and knocked several times, but no one answered, so she called Josiah's brother. When he arrived, he was shocked at what he had found. The police stated nothing was robbed, but it did seem that the perpetrator was around the barn waiting for them to return home from their evening activities. Several suspects were named, but none were convicted. To this day, the murder remains unsolved.

3. Madeline McCann

Imagine being on vacation with your parents and not knowing what could happen the next day. Madeline McCann, a 3-year-old British girl, disappeared from an apartment room located in Praia da Luz, Portugal, on May 3, 2007. She vanished around 9:30–10 p.m. while the parents were about 100 feet away dining with friends. The McCanns called the police and detectives who conducted a search for physical evidence. Jane Tanner, one of the McCanns' friends, went to check on their daughter around 9:10 and saw a man carrying a sleeping girl across the street, but later a British man came forward saying he was carrying his daughter. In September 2007, the Portuguese police named the McCanns as suspects but later cleared them. A former police chief in Portugal, Gonçalo Amaral, wrote a book in which he claims that the McCanns faked their daughter's abduction. The McCanns sued him for libel and won. By 2012, officials reviewed more than forty thousand documents from British and foreign authorities and private investigators. In 2020, German authorities named Christian Bruckner as the primary suspect. Bruckner was living near the resort at that time and had an extensive criminal history, and there were phone records that had placed him near the crime scene. No formal charges were filed. Today, there haven't been new leads.

2. Alcatraz Escape

In 1962, prisoners Frank Morris and brothers John and Clarence Anglin escaped from Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary on an island in San Francisco Bay, California. They had been planning this escape for six years. Behind the cells was a common unguarded utility corridor. They made their way down this corridor and climbed to the roof of their cell block. They used paint and cardboard, and when working at the prison, they used toilet paper and soap to make fake head shapes. They were also able to make a raft. To this day, it isn't really known what happened to them or if they made it to Angel Island, which is where they were headed. People believed they saw them in Brazil. But still, no leads.

1. Black Dahlia

Have you ever heard about this case? A 22-year-old woman named Elizabeth had moved to Los Angeles and hoped to one day become an actress. She didn't really become famous, but she was known for her black hair and her attractiveness. Then the unbelievable happened. Elizabeth was found by a woman named Betty Bersinger on a vacant lot while she was walking with her daughter near Leimert Park. She was found on January 15, 1947, in Los Angeles. When she was found, she looked badly shaped, and there were signs of severe torture. The police stated there was no blood at the scene, which indicated the body was just placed there and staged. The Black Dahlia case remains unsolved. Over the years, there have been theories, but none of them have been linked to the case.

While writing about unsolved cases, I remembered one of my classmates, Scarlett, mentioned she loved watching missing person cases on Hulu and Netflix. I met with her and asked her to explain how she started watching cases like these, and this is what she had to say: “I had Law Education with Ms. Reed, and we would do trials about finding out who did what and what was their motive, and ever since that class, I started looking up cases that haven't been solved.”

Additionally, there were several articles that got my attention, but there was one specific one that caught my eye from The 74 - American Education News, which is a nonprofit organization that covers America's education system from early childhood through college and career. In this article, high schoolers at Elizabeth High School solved a nearly 40-year-old serial murder mystery. The cold case was brought up by Alex Campbell, a high school sociology teacher who gave that case as an assignment.

These real-life unsolved mysteries can remind us that behind all these stories, there are unanswered questions and even horrible impacts on families. Reading about these cases isn't just a matter of curiosity, but also of developing critical thinking skills and awareness. Just like the students at Elizabeth High School who helped solve a 40-year-old case, we all can use curiosity and reasoning to make a difference. Analyzing these crimes can help us learn about human behavior and even teach us to never give up and find answers.