Global True Crime

On the 9th of December 1988, 40-year-old Hollywood cameraman Robert “Bob” Samuels was found murdered inside his home in Northridge, California. He and his wife, Mary Ellen, had been separated for more than two years, but their divorce had never been finalised. After Bob’s death, Mary Ellen received hundreds of thousands of dollars through life insurance and other assets, and she quickly began spending the money on clothes, expensive cars and luxury trips. But as investigators looked more closely at Bob’s murder, they began to uncover something far darker. And before long, it would become clear that Bob was not the only person standing in the way of Mary Ellen’s new life.

On the night of July 29, 1995, thirteen-year-old Thad Phillips is asleep on the couch when he wakes up to the familiar feeling of his father picking him up to carry him to bed. But he soon realizes that the person carrying him isn't his father, and that he's being carried out of the house in the middle of the night. This marked the beginning of nearly 48 hours of horrific torture at the hands of the person who would later become known as The Bonebreaker Killer.

On the 30th of April 1991, Conor and Sheila Dwyer, a married couple in their sixties, were seen at a church close to their home in the small Irish town of Fermoy. The following day, Sheila spoke to her sister on the phone. After that, the couple vanished without a trace, along with their white Toyota Cressida. More than 35 years have now passed. Witnesses have passed away, investigators have retired, and there are still no answers as to what happened. The case remains one of Ireland’s most baffling and long-running unsolved mysteries.

In 1980, a young couple disappeared together with their baby daughter. They left everything behind, their families, their lives, every trace of themselves. For more than four decades, their relatives held on to one explanation: that the couple had been drawn into a religious group and had chosen to disappear voluntarily. Years passed. But there were no signs of life. No proof. No answers. Only silence. Then, more than 40 years later, a shocking discovery was made. Two unidentified bodies, found murdered shortly after the disappearance, were identified through groundbreaking DNA technology, as Dean and Tina Clouse. And that raised a new, even more frightening question: What happened to the baby?

In early July 2012, two horrifying discoveries were made on the beach in Southsea, in southern England. More specifically, human remains that were later identified as belonging to a 30-year-old man who lived in the area. The discovery marked the beginning of a major murder investigation, a highly controversial trial, and a case where one of the key pieces of evidence would turn out to be something as unusual as cat DNA.

Clowns are supposed to make us laugh. Colourful wigs, exaggerated expressions and oversized red shoes are things we associate with birthday parties, circuses, and children’s entertainment. But what happens when a clown knocks on your door carrying flowers, balloons, and a gun? Marlene Warren seemed to be living a safe and comfortable life with her family in an upscale neighbourhood in Florida. But one morning in May of 1990, she was shot and killed inside her own home, right in front of her son. The person behind the trigger? A clown.

In the early hours of 12 March 1992, Jack and Caren Koslow were woken by two unknown men entering their bedroom. Within minutes, their home in the affluent Rivercrest neighbourhood of Fort Worth, Texas, had become a brutal crime scene. At first, it looked like a violent break-in that had spiralled out of control. But as the investigation continued, it became clear that the truth was far more shocking than anyone had first imagined.

On the night of December 13 into December 14, 2020, 21-year-old Jason Landry got into his car to begin the three-hour drive from college back to his parents’ home for Christmas break. Investigators were later able to trace his route through GPS data until contact was lost about 30 minutes before he disappeared. Just over an hour later, his crashed car was found on a remote rural road. His clothes were lying in the roadway, but there was no sign of Jason. More than five years have passed, and the questions remain: was it an accident? Was a crime committed? And above all, where did Jason go, naked and alone in the middle of the night?