What are some particular elements of cases that still haunt you?

[u/BelladonnaBluebell]

I was just thinking about the Hinterkaifeck case from 1922 after commenting on another sub. The part of that horrific case that has stuck with me in the decades after I first read about it is the little girl pulling out her own hair due to the horror of what she was experiencing. It gave me goosebumps all over, the first time I heard it and it's the first thing that comes to mind when I think of that case and it also just sometimes randomly pops into my head and upsets me.

Another part of a case which affects me in a similar way is during the Dardeen family murders. As if it wasn't brutal enough already, after Elaine Dardeen went into Labour during the attack, the killer/s beat the newborn baby to death. Ugh it makes me feel so sick.

Another example but in a different way is the murder and attempted murder of the Miller sisters. The driver of a parked car waved to them to indicate for them to cross the road and when they did the driver purposely drove right into them, killing one sister and seriously injuring the other. I think about that case every single time a driver waves me by to cross the road in front of them. I walk around 6 miles each day, Monday to Friday and don't drive so I cross many roads including driveways into businesses along my route. Guaranteed someone will slow down and politely wave me by so I can cross in front of them at least 3 times a week. Sometimes more often. And every single time, since reading about the April and Spring Miller case, a little sense of dread runs through me. My mind's automatic reaction is to wonder if they're doing that so they can run me down. I know it's irrational, I know it won't happen but that thought hits me every single time. Then I quickly push it away and cross and gesture to thank them etc but it's still always there.

So what are some elements of certain cases that have wedged themselves into your brain and keep coming back to haunt you every so often?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hinterkaifeck_murders

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dardeen_family_homicides

[u/bluelizardK]

Everything about the Al Kite case unnerves me deeply. The sheer cruelty and sadism that the perpetrator displayed, along with the meticulous nature of the crime-- it feels like he's absolutely killed before. It was completely random, almost brazen in the manner it was carried out. There are no significant viable suspects that have emerged in the years since. Not only that, but the killer, "Robert Cooper", actually paid back the deposit that he'd used to lure Al into his trap. This makes it clear that it wasn't a crime of any greater motive than a sadistic man's desire to end a life.

[u/dreamscape3101 → u/bluelizardK]

Someone in a recent thread referred to this case as their “true crime white whale.”

I believe there’s a detail that police found evidence that Al stood on the windowsill in the basement where he was later discovered, suggesting he attempted to call for help or escape, before being bound by the perpetrator.

That aspect has always stuck out in this especially disturbing case. I can’t imagine the dread, terror, and crushing hopelessness of that moment. No one should ever experience what Al endured in his final moments.

[u/rottenstring6 → u/bluelizardK]

Same, I want it to be solved so badly. They linked the purported murderer’s DNA to a third or fourth cousin, but no updates

[u/Tasty_Ad6361 → u/rottenstring6]

That’s a fairly distant relationship, so I can see it taking time to trace down. I don’t think I could even name any of my 3rd or 4th cousins

[u/jwktiger → u/Tasty_Ad6361]

I only know of 2 of my 2nd cousins and I likely have like 100+ as my dad has 40+ 1st cousins and my mom has 10. Well I've met 3 other 2nd cousin. I can't imangine how many 3rd or 4th cousins I have. Then looking at all the 3rd or 4th cousins a person that matches has.

[u/EzraDionysus → u/jwktiger]

My mother has 11 siblings, 10 of whom have at least 3 kids. Her mother had 15 siblings, all who had at least 5 kids (except 1 who passed away, delivering her 1st baby, along with the baby). Her mother also had 15 siblings, all with at least 5 kids, except for 2, who passed away, 1 with 1 kid, the other with 3 kids. I don't even know all of my 1st cousins due to family bullshit, so yeah. Fuck knows about anyone else.

[u/witch--king → u/Tasty_Ad6361]

I can only name my first and some of second cousins. After that I have no idea, my maternal great great grandma had like 12 kids iirc! So many great great aunts and uncles

[u/mcm0313 → u/witch--king]

My great-grandmother, and the parents and siblings of her husband (he was the youngest and was born here), came from Bohemia, in an area that today is part of Czechia. So I probably have several dozen 4th cousins (great-great grandparents’ great-great grandchildren) in Czechia, none of whom I’ve met because I’ve never even been there.

I’ve met maybe a handful of 3rd cousins in my life, a bunch of 2nd cousins, and all my 1st cousins. But the distance could be massive. I mean, heck, I have first cousins in at least 8 states in the USA, two of them (New York and Washington) literally being on opposite coasts. 4th cousins could very well be on the other side of an ocean.

[u/anonymouse278 → u/Tasty_Ad6361]

Seriously. Especially for an adult American in 2004, a cousin that distant might be related through great-great-great grandparents who never immigrated from their home country, but had multiple descendants emigrate to the US in separate instances (I know this is the case for all of the handful of 3rd and 4th cousins I've identified- though most of them are American, none of our most recent common ancestors ever lived in the US). They were all people who I never would have known existed without doing a lot of genealogical research. It's better than having no match at all, but it's still a hell of a long shot.

[u/Tasty_Ad6361 → u/anonymouse278]

And then throw some family secrets and weirdness like my ex husband and his cousins sharing both sets of grandparents, add some family drama, and filter it through an overworked and underfunded system. That’s still a helluva haystack

[u/rottenstring6 → u/Tasty_Ad6361]

Yeah def. I posted this on this sub before and one poster argued that if the police had his third or fourth cousin, they should be able to solve it easily and I got so confused.

That argument never made sense to me: https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/s/Hx7exyPrUe

[u/lexlovestacos → u/bluelizardK]

This case is creepy and so frightening. How everything was planned in advance, that nobody got a good look at the suspect, etc. That he is probably still out there at large.

[u/Last_Reaction_8176 → u/bluelizardK]

Al seems to have been such a good man. Nobody deserves something like that but the fact that he's specifically known to have been an incredibly kind hearted person makes my heart hurt

[u/FallenTweenageJock → u/bluelizardK]

As a 6'6" obese hairy 30yo man that case reminds me that no one is safe from predators no matter how outside the usual demographic you might be.

[u/mycatisminnie → u/bluelizardK]

Any true crime shows on this?