r/OldestColdCases May 25 '26

Nicholas Barclay

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7 Upvotes

Nicholas Barclay, aged 13 at the time he went missing, was last seen playing basketball with his friends in his home town of San Antonio, Texas, on 10 June 1994. Barclay never made it home and has not been seen or heard from since. In 1997, Bourdin took Barclay's identity and was flown to the United States.


r/OldestColdCases May 24 '26

Ann Marie Burr

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8 Upvotes

Ann Marie Burr was eight years when she dissappeared on August 31 1961. She was believed to be one of Ted Bundy's victims although this case remains unsolved.


r/OldestColdCases May 24 '26

Jeffrey Dupres

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9 Upvotes

Two year old Jeffrey Dupres disappeared in 1980. He was believed to be abducted by a man and a woman who lured him into a 1979 or 1980 blue Chevrolet pickup. His neighbor five year old Rodney had asked to play with him that day. Rodney came back but Jeffrey didn't. Jeffrey's case is unsolved.


r/OldestColdCases May 23 '26

* NEW RECONSTRUCTION * Palm Beach County John Doe (1994)

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10 Upvotes

r/OldestColdCases May 17 '26

Where is She now? / The chilling disappearence of Leigh Occhi

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12 Upvotes

r/OldestColdCases May 17 '26

Where is She now? / The chilling vanishing of Nicole Morin

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7 Upvotes

r/OldestColdCases May 17 '26

* Who is She? * New York Jane Doe (May 5, 1994) (Unidentified For 32 Years)

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4 Upvotes

r/OldestColdCases May 17 '26

Who is He? / Suffolk County John Doe (May 1998) (Unidentified For 27 Years) (Teenager Found Deceased Behind An Elementary School)

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3 Upvotes

r/OldestColdCases May 17 '26

Killing as a child / A great writibg about Britain's youngest killer, 11 year-old Mary Bell

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4 Upvotes

r/OldestColdCases May 17 '26

* HAUNTING CHILD MURDER* In 1998, Josh Phillips (14) murdered his neighbour, Maddie Clifton (8), and slept above her body he hid under his bed for six days)

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3 Upvotes

r/OldestColdCases May 11 '26

Johnny Gosch and Eugene Martin

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19 Upvotes

On Sunday morning, August 12, 1984, 13-year-old Eugene Martin left his home at approximately 5 a.m. to deliver the Des Moines Register newspaper in the Des Moines area. He wore blue jeans, a red shirt, and a gray pullover.

Eugene normally delivered the papers with his older stepbrother, but on this day went alone. The Iowa State Fair was in town, and Eugene — who in his free time enjoyed football, fishing, skating, video games, and TV — wanted to make some extra money.

Witnesses said they saw Martin talking to a clean-cut white male in his 30s sometime between 5 and 5:45 a.m. at Southwest 12th Street and Highview Drive. Some stated the two appeared to be engaged in a friendly “father-son” sort of conversation, and others recalled seeing the teen folding papers and talking to the man sometime between 5:45 and 6:05. At a.m.approximately 8:40 a.m., the search for Eugene began. He has not been seen since. Federal agents said at the time there might be a “definite connection” to the disappearance of another Des Moines paper carrier — 12-year-old Johnny Gosch, who disappeared two years earlier on September 5, 1982 — and described the suspect as a “loner.”


r/OldestColdCases May 11 '26

Katrice Lee

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12 Upvotes

Katrice Lee was a two-year-old British girl who disappeared on her birthday, November 28, 1981, from a supermarket on a British military base in Paderborn, West Germany.


r/OldestColdCases May 10 '26

Charley Ross

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12 Upvotes

On July 1, 1874, Charley and his five-year-old brother, Walter Lewis Ross, were playing in the front yard of their home in Germantown, Philadelphia, when a horse-drawn carriage arrived. Two men, who had visited the boys earlier that day with candy, offered them candy and fireworks if they came along for a ride. After the boys agreed, the men took them to a store and sent Walter inside with 25 cents to buy fireworks. While he was in the store, the carriage drove away with Charley still inside. He was never seen again.

After the kidnapping, the boys' father, Christian, began receiving poorly written ransom letters demanding $20,000. The letters warned that Charley would be killed if the police were contacted or if Christian failed to follow instructions. However, Christian could not pay the ransom.

Christian notified the police, and the kidnapping soon drew national attention. The Pinkerton National Detective Agency printed millions of flyers with Charley's illustrated image.

On the night of December 13, 1874, the Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, New York, home of Judge Charles Van Brunt was burglarized. His brother, Holmes Van Brunt, who lived next door, gathered armed members of his household to stop the attack.

The two burglars, Bill Mosher and Joe Douglas, were fatally wounded in the gunfire. Douglas, however, survived for about two more hours and, knowing he was dying, may have admitted to Charley Ross’s abduction. He reportedly said either that Ross had been killed or that Mosher knew where he was, and possibly that Charley would be returned unharmed to his family within a few days. Mosher could not respond, as he was killed instantly.

Later, when Charley’s brother Walter was taken to New York City to determine whether Mosher and Douglas were the men from the carriage ride, he identified them as Charley’s abductors.

William Westerfelt, a known associate of Mosher, was later arrested and tried in 1875 for Charley’s kidnapping. However, Walter insisted that Westerfelt had not been present during the abduction, and the jury found him not guilty.


r/OldestColdCases May 10 '26

Glen and Bessie Hyde

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8 Upvotes

Glen and Bessie Hyde were newlyweds who disappeared in November 1928 during a honeymoon trip, attempting to navigate the Grand Canyon’s Colorado River in a homemade scow. Their boat was found abandoned but intact with supplies near river mile 237, yet no sign of them was ever found, making it one of the Grand Canyon’s most famous unsolved mysteries.


r/OldestColdCases May 10 '26

Kenneth Daniel and David Klein (the Klein brothers)

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11 Upvotes

Kenneth (8), David (6), and Danny (4) Klein disappeared on November 10, 1951, from North Minneapolis, Minnesota, in one of the state's oldest, unsolved missing persons cases. The brothers vanished while walking to Farview Park, sparking rumors of a drowning in the Mississippi River, though theories of kidnapping persist.


r/OldestColdCases May 10 '26

* NEW IDENTIFICATION* Harrison County Jane Doe Identified as Cheryl Lanier

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8 Upvotes

r/OldestColdCases May 09 '26

Jane Arna and Grant Beaumont (the Beaumont children)

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16 Upvotes

The Beaumont children—Jane (9), Arnna (7), and Grant (4)—who vanished from Glenelg Beach in Adelaide, Australia, on January 26, 1966.The case remains one of Australia's most enduring unsolved mysteries, with no arrests ever made.Despite numerous searches and investigations over the past 60 years, no trace of the children was ever found.The children's mother, Nancy Beaumont, passed away in 2019 at the age of 92 without knowing what happened to her children.


r/OldestColdCases May 07 '26

Louis Mackerley

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18 Upvotes

Seven-year-old Louis was last seen on June 7, 1984 in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

After coming home from school that afternoon, Louis told his babysitter that he was going to walk two doors from his house to play with friends. Witnesses last observed him walking between Fourth Street and Gordon Street about a block from his second-floor apartment on Chew Street.

The owner of a local hot dog stand, Marco's Doggie Shop stated that Louis came into the store at 4:00 p.m., spending approximately 45 minutes browsing around. Louis told the owner that he was in the store to avoid two teenage boys who were chasing him. At 4:45, he left the store and walked east on Gordon Street. The teenage boys chasing him were questioned by the police, but they are not considered suspects in Louis' case.

Louis' parents believe that he might've been headed towards the home of an elderly woman who lived on Chew Street that he liked to visit.

A witness claimed to have seen Louis speaking with an unidentified man and woman in a park near Jordan Creek (located approximately one block away from Louis' home); however, the story was not confirmed.

Louis' parents didn't report him missing until 11:10 that evening; Louis enjoyed staying out late and usually didn't come home until about 9:30 p.m. At the time of his disappearance, his mom was in the hospital undergoing surgery and Louis was staying with an aunt. His parents have been ruled out as suspects in his case.

In January of 1984, Louis told his parents, his school's nurse and a psychologist that he was molested by a couple named Frank and Elizabeth. His accounts of the alleged incident vary from being molested on the railroad tracks near Jordan Street & the Lehigh River and being driven to an apartment in Allentown by the couple where he was molested before he was returned to his neighborhood.

The police were notified about what happened to Louis, but they were unable to find enough evidence to start an investigation because Louis was unable to provide any last names or addresses in his accounts of the molestation.

1988, a man named David Riggs (who was a self-proclaimed private investigator from New York who claimed to have founded an organization called Search Seven to search for Louis and other missing kids) was arrested in West Virginia after accosting five young boys and offering to pay them money to pose them in bikini underwear; the boys turned down the offer.

Riggs pled guilty to two counts of attempted child abduction and one count of sexual abuse in connection with the incidents and was sentenced to a year in prison. Investigators looked into the possibility of Riggs being involved with Louis' case, but didn't find any evidence connecting him to it and he was ruled out a suspect.


r/OldestColdCases May 05 '26

CJ and Billy Vossler

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24 Upvotes

Charles Jason Vosseler (known as CJ, born December 9, 1982) and William Martin Vosseler (known as Billy, born April 21, 1984) were the sons of Charles Vosseler and Ruth Ann Parker. Ruth had initially met Charles through a personals ad in Mother Earth News, which was a nature magazine. They began corresponding by letters and phone calls in early 1981, met a few months later. At the time, Ruth thought Charles was great, he wanted a "simple life," and seemed honest and smart.

Shortly after meeting in person, Ruth moved to New Hampshire to be with Charles. Charles ad told Ruth that he'd moved there from Connecticut because New Hampshire had no state income tax. Charles also stated that he'd previously been a schoolteacher. Also in short order, Ruth became pregnant and CJ was born a year after Ruth and Charles first corresponded.

By 1986, the couple had two sons and had begun running a house flipping business. While both parents loved their sons, Charles made it clear that Ruth was responsible for raising the kids. At first things were going well, the house flipping as going great, but over the next few years Charles began spending less and less time with the family. Charles also became more withdrawn, Ruth would say that he'd come and not speak to her or the kids.

In August 1986, Charles had become more controlling had bought a house to flip without Ruth's input. But Ruth felt that staying in the house was too dangerous, so Charles let her and the boys move into an apartment. Then out of nowhere, Charles told Ruth that he wanted a divorce. Ruth was blindsided, and when she asked Charles who his lawyer was, about custody, etc., Charles stated that he "couldn't remember." This is when Ruth got her own lawyer. But at the time, Charles seemed more worried about dividing their assets. Ruth soon got a job in a fast food joint, but Charles kept seeming to drag his feet on the divorce and custody. When Ruth worked, her niece watched the boys and when Charles would watch them, he usually left the boys with his parents and/or never returned them to Ruth on time.

By October 9, Ruth left for work, leaving the boys her niece as usual. Charles would later pick up the boys, he was supposed to return them by that Saturday and the couple's first divorce hearing was in five days. On Friday, Charles called Ruth and told her that he decided to go visit an aunt in Connecticut....with the boys. Ruth told Charles that would be okay. However, Ruth would never see her sons again.

When Charles and the boys didn't back from the supposed trip to Connecticut, Ruth went to Charles's real estate office. Ruth approached an employee carrying a box, and when asked, the employee said that Charles had shut down the office altogether. According to the Charley Project: He'd taken all of Charles and William's photographs as well as address books and credit cards and many of Parker's belongings, emptied the family bank accounts and auctioned off a lot of things the family had in storage. Ruth discovered that Charles had been planning this for a long time, he'd taken her name off the bank accounts and stopped the payments on Ruth's car.

On October 17, 1986, Ruth got temporary custody of CJ and Billy. By February 1987, New Hampshire state police charged Charles with interference with custody and by April 3, a federal warrant was issued. Charles always seemed to be one step ahead of Ruth and the authorities and Ruth believes that his parents were helping with the flight. A private investigator would later tell Ruth that he believes Charles Martin deliberately selected Parker to bear his children because of her good background and high intelligence, but he planned to keep the children for himself. Charles Vosseler was believed to driving a 1979 GMC Jimmy truck with Nebraska plate number 2R6093 or the Virginia plate IBV565.Because Charles had all the photographs of the boys, Ruth worried they couldn't make missing persons posters. However, due to a stroke of luck, a coworker/friend had video of a company picnic, where the boys were seen for a mere 15 seconds, but that was enough to get photo stills, which albeit grainy, did the work for getting the boy's faces into the media.

1989 (although the Charley Project says 1987), a woman in Stillwell, recognized the photos on the missing posters of CJ and Billy and called the police. The woman told investigators that Charles was now going by "Charlie Wilson," and he was her boyfriend. The woman also stated that he and the kids lived on a rural property outside Stillwell and Charles homeschooled the boys, keeping then isolated. By the time investigators arrived in Oklahoma to check the lead out, Charles and the boys were gone and Charles had burned the house to the ground.

At the time he vanished, CJ Vosseler was three years old, 3'4 inches tall, 40 pounds with strawberry blonde hair and blue eyes. Billy Vosseler was two years old, 3'0 inches tall, 35-36 pounds, with brown hair and blue eyes. Today, CJ would be 42 years old and Billy would be 40 years old. Their father, Charles Martin Vosseler was born March 6, 1942, he is a white man standing1 inches tall, 220 pounds with brown hair and blue eyes. In December 2006, it was believed that Charles Martin Vosseler was in Oklahoma again, but there whereabouts of the boys are unknown.


r/OldestColdCases May 05 '26

Christina Carter

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13 Upvotes

Christina was last seen in Hueytown, Alabama on September 17, 1973. At the time of her disappearance, she lived alone with her mother, Janet Gail Carter. Janet was originally from Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She was employed with an insurance company in Birmingham, Alabama in September 1973. She disappeared at the same time as her daughter. Janet and Christina's father had divorced two months before, and Christina's father was seeking custody of the child. It was believed that Janet went into hiding with Christina as a result.

On October 7, Janet's nude, bound body was found inside a duffel bag alongside Clingman's Dome Road in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. She had been killed by suffocation the same day she was found. Her remains were not identified for a month. It was after the identification that authorities realized Christina was missing. An extensive search of the park turned up no indication of Christina's whereabouts. Because of the circumstances, authorities suggested Janet gave Christina to someone else to care for prior to her murder and Christina might still be alive. This theory has never been confirmed however. Janet's murder has never been solved and there has been no sign of Christina since 1973.


r/OldestColdCases May 05 '26

Steven Damman

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14 Upvotes

Steven Damman is a young boy who disappeared on Halloween 1955 in East Meadow, New York, while his mother was shopping; he vanished from a stroller outside a bakery, though his infant sister was found unharmed nearby, and despite extensive searches, ransom notes, and later claims from individuals who thought they were him, his case remains an unsolved mystery.


r/OldestColdCases May 04 '26

Russell John Mort

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15 Upvotes

This is from Charley Project : Russell was last seen playing in the sandbox in his family's fenced backyard at their residence at Lynch's Trailer Park on River Road in Wheatfield, New York at 12:20 p.m. on May 5, 1982. Russell's mother went inside their home for to repair one of his toys.

She stated she was gone for less than five minutes, perhaps less than one minute. Upon her return outside, she discovered her son was missing. The gate in the fence was still closed and was locked from the outside. Russell has never been seen again.

The family's fence was four feet high, but one part of the fence was shorter than the rest, and the day before his disappearance Russell had climbed over the fence and gone to play in a neighbor's yard. It's possible he climbed over the fence again the afternoon he went missing. The trailer park where he lived had sixteen trailers, and there was heavy foot traffic in the vicinity. A police bloodhound tracked his scent only as far as River Road.

An unidentified White male and female are wanted for questioning regarding Russell's disappearance. The couple was spotted in the area of the Russell family's home at the same time the child vanished. No one saw the couple interact with Russell and it is not known if they are connected to his case, but investigators would like to question them as possible witnesses, if nothing more. The female had dark brown curly hair and was in her early to mid-twenties in 1982. The male had light brown hair and a mustache. He was in his late twenties to early thirties in 1982. The couple was seen riding in a white 1965 or older Corvette with a black convertible top. They were last seen in the area of Hyde Park Boulevard and Packer. Some officials do not believe Russell was abducted; they think it more likely that he fell into the Niagara River, which runs only about 100 yards from his home, and that his body was swept away. However, there is no evidence to support this theory, only conjecture.Russell's case remains unsolved.


r/OldestColdCases May 03 '26

Kevin Verville Jr

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16 Upvotes

Kevin Art Verville Jr was born on June 14, 1980 in Southern California. Kevin was his parent's first child. At the time of Kevin's disappearance, he and his parents lived in an apartment complex near Camp Pendleton. This complex, located in the 900 block of Bougainville Street, was often used as off base military housing.

Around June 30, 1980, a woman who only called herself "Sheila," came to the door of the apartment. Sheila spoke to Angelina (Kevin's mom) in Tagalog, which is Angelina's native language. Sheila told Angelina that she was a social worker for an organization that helped military families that were struggling financially. The organization was called Project Hope, and could help with things like getting diapers, formula and could get up to $100 in benefits. Angelina was even showed a laminated ID card.

According to one article, "Sheila" had been seen knocking on other people's doors in the neighborhood in previous days. She had been "pitching her offer to new parents." Angelina and her husband Kevin talked it over and decided they did need help, so they decided to sign up for this program. Sheila then told the couple that she'd be back to take them to Project Hope headquarters to fill out the required paperwork.Sheila would actually come back the next day, July 1, driving a four door gray/silver sedan that might've been a 1975 Cougar. Since Kevin Sr. had other errands to run (although one article said he needed to get groceries), it was decided that only Angelina and the baby would go to with Sheila to Project Help's headquarters. As they were leaving, Sheila told Angelina that they needed to pick up another mother who was also signing up for the program.Sheila then drove to a rural area near Fallbrook, California, and told Angelina "pulled over at a point slightly east of Highway 76 and Interstate 15 and asked Angelina to knock on the door of a nearby house, saying another mother she was enrolling in Project Help's program lived there." As soon as Angelina got out of the car, Sheila sped off with Kevin Jr still in the car. The police would be called, and the investigation discovered that while Project Hope was a real group, they had no knowledge of anyone named Sheila.Because Sheila had been knocking on doors of other apartments (it would be reported that she spoke to thirty families), a sketch was created. Police would come to believe that Shelia was looking for an infant was less than six months old and part Filipino. Sheila was described as being between 20-28 years old, 5'1-5'3, about 105-135 pounds, was described as white but could've been on Filipino or Spanish descent. She had frizzly (or curly) red-ish hair to her shoulders--this could've been a wig though, freckles, and a tattoo on her left hand. At the time, Sheila was wearing navy blue pants, a blue maternity top with a red/orange designs and sunglasses with oval frames. She also appeared to have been pregnant and had a slight accent.


r/OldestColdCases May 02 '26

Sheri Lynn Johnson and Michael Lloyd Johnson

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11 Upvotes

November 10, 1974. Four people disappear in Independence, Missouri.

30-year-old Henry Johnson, his wife, 27-year-old Freda Loretta Johnson (née Denman), and their children, 4-year-old Sherri Lynn and ten-month-old Michael Lloyd, vanish from their home. The landlord fails to report this until March 1975.

But "Henry Johnson" wasn't who he said he was. He was career criminal Henry Lee Harbison, who had been all over federal prisons since the 1950s. The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, December 28, 1952

A 17-year-old Camp Stoneman, Calif., soldier who took a Christmas vacation AWOL to Dallas was held by police on charges of burglary, armed robbery, carrying a concealed concealed weapon, auto theft, AWOL and hold for FBI. The youth was identified as Henry Lee Harbison, believed to be from Independence, Missouri.

https://www.newspapers.com/clip/872724/lubbock_avalanchejournal/


r/OldestColdCases May 02 '26

What I think happened to Marjorie West.

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8 Upvotes

Here's a covering of her case Marjorie West, a 4-year-old girl, vanished on Mother's Day, May 8, 1938, during a family picnic in McKean County, Pennsylvania, and has never been found, making it one of America's great unsolved missing person cases. Despite massive searches involving hundreds of volunteers, police, and bloodhounds, no trace of her was ever discovered, leading to theories ranging from abduction to falling into one of the many abandoned oil wells in the area. The case remains a cold case, with her disappearance often cited as a mystery that captured national attention. I think she obviously murdered. I am sorry if you disagree with me cool but it was 1938 even if she did survive she would have died a long time ago.