Murder. Just the word sends a shiver racing down your spine, and the notion that strangers might kill for pure, twisted pleasure can make anyone think twice about stepping outside. From shootings and stabbings to stranglings, poisonings, and even being pushed from bridges, homicide occurs every single day across the globe. Families are shattered, detectives work round‑the‑clock, and while some cases crack in a matter of days, countless others linger in the shadows forever. Below we dive into ten lesser known murder mysteries that still leave investigators scratching their heads.
10 Lesser Known Cases Overview
10 Arthur “Buddy” Schumacher
Eight‑year‑old Arthur Louis “Buddy” Schumacher was a bright, energetic kid who loved school and his friends at Lincoln Elementary in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin. On July 24, 1925, Buddy and a handful of neighborhood boys hopped onto a freight train, hoping to ride it to a nearby swimming hole. That reckless adventure turned out to be his final one.
When Buddy didn’t come home that evening, his family reported him missing. The police, joined by volunteers, scoured the area nonstop for seven weeks. Eventually, a mile from his house, officers uncovered his body hidden beneath some bushes. His clothing was ripped, a handkerchief was thrust into his throat, and he had suffered a brutal sexual assault and mutilation.
Investigators initially zeroed in on a drifter spotted in the vicinity, but when witnesses retracted their statements, the suspect was freed. No further arrests were ever made, and the case remains an open wound for the Schumacher family, forever without closure.
9 Elaine Nix
In 1999, 18‑year‑old Elaine Nix was a typical high‑school senior who chatted daily with her boyfriend Billy, who lived in Cleveland while she called from Georgia. The long‑distance calls quickly piled up, costing about $75 a month. When her mother blocked the long‑distance line, Elaine found a cheap workaround: she drove to Zack’s Food Rack and used their 35‑cent payphone for unlimited calls.
Elaine’s routine was to call Billy around 11 p.m., talk for an hour, then drive home. On September 20, 1999, after a conversation about an upcoming camping trip, she should have headed back. Instead, she vanished. Her parents didn’t panic at first—Elaine often stayed over with friends—but when she failed to show up for work the next day, worry set in.
Driving past Zack’s Food Rack, her parents spotted her car parked with the key still in the ignition, the driver’s window rolled down, and Elaine’s purse and a pack of cigarettes left untouched on the passenger seat. Unaware of the evidence being destroyed, her mother drove the vehicle home.
After reporting her missing, police erected roadblocks and searched the area. Nine days later, a worker trimming grass behind a park stumbled upon Elaine’s naked, badly decomposed body, hidden just inside a tree line, 17 miles from the payphone she frequented.
Because the remains were severely decomposed, a definitive cause of death could not be established, though strangulation or smothering were suspected. The murder investigation stalled, and despite a few leads, the case went cold, leaving Elaine’s killer at large.
8 Jenny Low Chang
Nineteen‑year‑old Jenny Low Chang was a diligent student at San Francisco State University in 1977. One September evening, she booked a study session in the library’s basement and arrived at 6 p.m., determined to hit the books.
The following morning, her roommate awoke to find Jenny’s bed untouched and the girl missing. Within three hours, a professor discovered Jenny’s naked corpse in a fourth‑floor reading room. Her head bore severe bruising, multiple stab wounds were evident, and a clear sign of sexual assault was present. Furniture in the room was broken, indicating a violent struggle, and her clothes and textbooks lay beside her.
Investigators noted that the reading room would have been locked around 5 p.m. on that Sunday, meaning someone with a key or coded card must have opened it. Over 200 staff members and 1,200 faculty possessed access, yet only two individuals—a campus security guard and a faculty member—were ever questioned. Some speculated the infamous Zodiac Killer might be involved, but the police never secured any solid leads, and the case remains unsolved decades later.
7 Don Henry and Kevin Ives
On August 23, 1987, a cargo train thundered through Alexander, Arkansas. The engineer spotted two bodies on the tracks and slammed the horn, trying desperately to halt the train. Despite his efforts, the locomotive’s momentum carried it over the two victims.
The deceased were identified as 16‑year‑old Don Henry and 17‑year‑old Kevin Ives. Initial theories suggested the boys fell asleep after heavy marijuana use, but their parents demanded a second autopsy. The new examination revealed Don’s shirt bore stab wounds, while Kevin’s skull showed crushing trauma likely caused by a hunting rifle.
Witnesses recalled seeing a man in military attire both a week before and on the day of the train incident. One prevailing theory posits the boys unintentionally uncovered a drug‑dealing operation and were silenced. Despite exhaustive police work, every lead fizzled, leaving the murders shrouded in mystery.
6 Zigmund Adamski
In June 1980, 56‑year‑old Zigmund Adamski left his Tingley home, near Wakefield, England, for a simple shopping trip. He never returned.
After an intensive five‑day search, his body was discovered atop a coal pile in a Todmorden yard. Dressed in a suit but missing his shirt, his wallet and watch were gone. The coroner noted burns on his head, neck, and shoulders, yet could not pinpoint their origin. Strangely, Zigmund’s facial hair showed no five‑day stubble, and a mysterious ointment appeared on the burns, its composition unknown.
Adding a bizarre twist, local UFO enthusiast Alan Godfrey, the officer who found the body, claimed he’d personally encountered a UFO. He later quit policing to become a motivational speaker, alleging Zigmund died of a heart attack. The positioning of the body—face down on a coal heap—suggested he was placed there from above, but no one could explain how or why. The case remains unsolved.
5 Frauke Liebs
In June 2006, amid the FIFA World Cup frenzy, 21‑year‑old Frauke Liebs headed to a pub in Paderborn, Germany, to watch England versus Sweden with a friend. After borrowing a dead phone battery, she swapped it back, set out at 11 p.m., and began a 1.5‑kilometer walk home.
By 1 a.m., Frauke still hadn’t arrived. Her roommate received a text saying she’d be back later, but Frauke never turned up for work. Her mother filed a missing‑person report that same day.
Over the following days, Frauke called her roommate five times from different locations around Paderborn, refusing to answer questions and merely assuring she’d be home soon. In the final call, her sister heard a hesitant “yes” when asked if she was being held captive. The calls abruptly stopped.
Four months later, her remains were recovered near Lichtenau. Her bag and personal items were missing, her body severely decomposed, and the cause of death could not be determined. Police concluded she had endured captivity in Nieheim before being killed and dumped. Five suspects were interrogated, yet none faced charges due to insufficient evidence. Frauke’s murder remains a cold case.
4 Diao Aiqing
On January 19, 1996, a street cleaner in Nanjing discovered a bag of meat buried in snow. When she opened it, three human fingers emerged, prompting an immediate police call.
Further investigation uncovered a gruesome cache of body parts scattered across two other locations, totaling over 2,000 fragments. Among the remains were a boiled head and limbs. The victim was identified as 19‑year‑old university student Diao Aiqing, who had vanished on January 10 after a dispute with fellow students over electrical appliance usage.
Police launched an extensive probe, but the perpetrator remains unidentified, and the motive behind this horrifying dismemberment has never been uncovered.
3 Terry Sutter
On September 1, 1973, 15‑year‑old Terry Sutter finished his chores, including mowing a lawn, and waited for his mother to pick him up. When she didn’t appear, he walked home, later joining friends at a movie and bowling alley in Frankfort, Michigan, with strict instructions to be at his grandmother’s house by 11 p.m.
The next morning, Terry’s grandmother reported that he never arrived and no one had heard from him. Police initially dismissed the case, assuming he was merely hiding to avoid school. However, a tourist later discovered Terry’s body on a Michigan beach, where he had been held down in sand until he suffocated—his lungs and eyes were filled with sand, and he bore multiple bruises on his head and neck.
His parents, devastated, requested minimal media coverage. Terry was buried in Lake Township cemetery, but his grave was repeatedly vandalized—flowerpots shattered, plants ripped out. Eventually, his remains were moved to an unmarked grave. The identity of his killer, and whether the grave vandalism is linked, remains unknown.
2 Ida Lowry
On the night of April 23, 1960, around midnight, Edwin Smith was driving between Clybourn and St. Paul avenues in Milwaukee when he heard a scream. He pulled over, followed the cries into an alley, and found 76‑year‑old Ida Lowry lying in blood, bruised, and barely conscious.
When Smith tried to lift her, she screamed in pain, prompting him to call the police. Officers arrived, transported Ida to a hospital, but she died an hour later. Before she passed, she managed to tell them that a large white man who “worked at the bridge” had assaulted her—hitting her with a heavy object, raping her, and then abandoning her to die.
Police investigations uncovered that Ida was a solitary woman who liked rummaging through trash cans. She had two sisters who hadn’t seen her in years. Six men were quickly identified as persons of interest, yet none were ever charged. A 24‑year‑old falsely confessed, and numerous others were questioned, but the murder case remains unsolved.
1 Tristan Brübach
Tristan Brübach grew up as an only child in Frankfurt, Austria, attending Walter Kolk Primary School until fifth grade before moving to a school in Sindlingen. Tragedy struck early when his mother, a drug addict, committed suicide when he was ten.
His grandmother moved in to help care for him and his father. Bored and seeking excitement, Tristan spent evenings wandering the neighborhood, playing video games, and caring for his pet rabbit. As he entered his teens, he began smoking to appear “cool,” yet still faced bullying from peers.
On March 26, 1998, Tristan asked his father for a doctor’s appointment, claiming a sore back, but his father insisted he attend school. He showed up at 9 a.m., later requesting early dismissal to see a doctor, which was granted. He was last seen alive at a park in front of the Frankfurt‑Höchst railway station.
Later that day, classmates discovered Tristan’s lifeless body in a pedestrian tunnel near the station. He had been brutally beaten, strangled, and his neck bore a deep cut. Shockingly, his testicles had been removed, and flesh from his thighs and buttocks was cut away. The murder weapon lay nearby. Three teenagers claimed they saw the killing from a distance and gave a description of the assailant. Despite a massive fingerprint operation, several persons of interest, and a monetary reward, the case remains unsolved.