We hear about terrible crimes so often that it’s easy to feel numb. You might read about a shocking murder, then flip the page or click away, the horror quickly fading. But some cases have details so chilling, they stick with you. They remind us that true evil can be terrifyingly real. Get ready to explore ten such horrific murders, each with a detail that will send shivers down your spine.
10 Giggling While Reporting Murders
Imagine a luxury golf estate in Stellenbosch, South Africa. On January 26, 2015, loud arguments echoed from the Van Breda family home. The next morning, a horrifying scene unfolded: three family members brutally murdered with an ax. The daughter, Marli, was critically injured, and the youngest son, Henri, had only superficial wounds.
Henri quickly became the focus of the investigation. Marli, suffering from retrograde amnesia due to her severe head injuries, couldn’t recall the attack. The truly chilling detail emerged from Henri’s call to emergency services. He made this call more than three hours after his family was brutally attacked. In the audio recording, Henri actually giggled after saying, “My…my family and me were attacked…by a guy with an ax.”
His initial claim that an unknown intruder dressed in dark clothing, gloves, and a balaclava was responsible quickly fell apart. Prosecutors highlighted inconsistencies, especially the significant delay in calling for help. When police arrived, Henri, who reportedly had a drug problem, was covered in his family’s blood. He was ultimately found guilty of murdering his parents and brother and attempting to murder his sister, receiving three life sentences. His attempts to appeal were unsuccessful.
9 Message from Beyond the Grave
On August 13, 2018, Shanann Watts, who was 15 weeks pregnant, and her two young daughters were reported missing by a concerned friend, Nickole Utoft Atkinson. Shanann had missed a doctor’s appointment and wasn’t responding to texts after Nickole dropped her home from a business trip. Shanann’s husband, Chris, initially appeared on TV, pleading for his family’s safe return.
However, Chris Watts was arrested just two days later after failing a polygraph test. He then confessed to killing his wife. Initially, he claimed Shanann had strangled their daughters after he revealed his affair, and he, in a rage, strangled her. He led authorities to an oil-storage site where their bodies were found. It was later revealed that Chris himself had smothered his daughters with a blanket. He stated he killed his family to be free to pursue a relationship with his lover.
A 2020 Netflix documentary on the murders sparked a bizarre theory. Viewers on social media pointed to a scene where police reviewed CCTV footage. As the footage was turned off, a ghostly image resembling a fetus and a skull floating in oil briefly appeared on the dark TV screen. Many believed this was Shanann sending a message from beyond the grave about how she and her unborn child died.
8 “It was too cold outside to bury her.”
William Devin Howell’s killing spree began months before he murdered 44-year-old Janice Roberts on June 18, 2003. After inviting Roberts into his vehicle and attempting a sexual act, he discovered she was transgender and strangled her. Before being caught, Howell murdered five more women, bringing his victim count to seven.
While awaiting sentencing, Howell chillingly confessed details to a cellmate. He referred to himself as a “sick ripper” with a “monster” inside him. The most disturbing revelation was that he kept one victim’s body in his van for two weeks. He slept next to her corpse because, as he stated, it “was too cold outside to bury her.” He eventually dismembered her, removing fingertips and teeth, before dumping her remains in Virginia.
Howell called his 1985 Ford Econoline van his “murder mobile.” After being found guilty and receiving six consecutive life sentences, he told the court he deserved the death penalty and offered an apology to the victims’ families.
7 “Tell the police that I had something stolen today around 4 pm.”
The tragic case of eight-year-old Sandra Renee Cantu began on March 27, 2009, when she failed to return home. Her body was discovered on April 6 in a suitcase at the bottom of an irrigation pond. An autopsy revealed she had been sexually assaulted with a foreign object, strangled, and had Alprazolam (a sedative) in her system.
Investigators initially profiled a male suspect. However, a strange text message sent by Melissa Huckaby, a Sunday school teacher and mother of one of Sandra’s friends, shifted their focus. On the day Sandra went missing, Huckaby texted Sandra’s mother: “Tell the police that I had something stolen today around 4 pm. I don’t know if that makes a difference or not.” The next day, Huckaby approached police claiming to have found a note implicating a stolen suitcase in Sandra’s disappearance and reported her own suitcase missing.
What Huckaby didn’t realize was that surveillance footage captured Sandra walking towards Huckaby’s home. Minutes later, Huckaby drove off; this coincided with her phone call reporting the stolen suitcase. Witnesses also saw her at the irrigation pond. A search of the church where Huckaby taught revealed a bloodied rolling pin with Sandra’s DNA. Huckaby pled guilty to avoid the death penalty and received a life sentence without parole.
6 A Secret Ingredient
Joe Metheny’s rage ignited when his drug-addicted wife left him, taking their son. His hunt for them led him to a bridge where his wife used to use drugs. There, he encountered two homeless men. When they couldn’t provide information about his family, Metheny brutally murdered them with an ax and disposed of their bodies in a river. He was arrested but later acquitted due to lack of physical evidence after nearly two years in prison.
Shortly after his release, Metheny murdered two prostitutes. The chilling detail here is what he did next. He dismembered their bodies and mixed some of their flesh with beef and pork. He used this grotesque mixture to create hamburger patties, which he then sold from a roadside stand over several weekends.
When arrested again, Metheny chillingly remarked that no one complained about his burgers because “the human body tastes very similar to pork.” He was eventually given two life sentences and was found dead in his prison cell in 2017.
5 Upside Down Inside a Wall
In 2009, 24-year-old Annie Le, a Yale University doctoral student, vanished just five days before her wedding. Her disappearance sparked a massive search. The horrifying discovery was made on what would have been her wedding day: her body was found inside the very lab building she was last seen entering.
The chilling detail was the manner of her concealment. Annie Le’s remains were stuffed upside down within a utility chase in a wall of the laboratory. Police at the scene were reportedly horrified by the condition of her body; she was so badly battered that she was almost unrecognizable. It was determined that she had been strangled, and her attacker had broken her jaw and collarbone while she was still alive.
Lab technician Ray Clark was soon arrested for her murder. He claimed he attacked Annie in anger because she had allegedly left dirty mice cages in the lab. Clark was sentenced to 44 years in prison but never fully confirmed his motive for the brutal attack.
4 Killer Security System
Dennis Rader, infamously known as the BTK (Bind, Torture, Kill) Killer, terrorized Wichita, Kansas, murdering ten people over nearly two decades, from 1974 to 1991. His first victims were four members of the Otero family. He often taunted police and the media, sending letters confessing to his crimes.
Rader would steal intimate items from his victims and engage in autoerotic asphyxiation rituals, sometimes taking photos of himself in these compromising positions. After a long dormant period, he resurfaced with more communications, eventually leading to his arrest in 2005 when metadata on a floppy disk he sent to a TV station revealed his identity.
The most chilling and ironic detail of the BTK case emerged during the investigation and trial: Dennis Rader had worked for ADT Security Services from 1974 to 1988. During this time, he installed alarm systems in numerous Wichita homes, many for families terrified of being targeted by the BTK Killer himself. He was literally the fox guarding the henhouse.
3 Highways of Horror
Millions of people travel California’s highways daily, unaware of a grim secret hidden beneath the concrete. Serial killer Mack Ray Edwards is believed to have abducted and murdered as many as 22 children, disposing of many of their bodies beneath the very highways he helped construct.
One of his victims was eight-year-old Stella Darlene Nolan, who vanished from a flea market in June 1953. After his arrest years later, Edwards, a heavy machine operator who worked on freeway construction sites, confessed to multiple murders. He revealed that he had buried many of his young victims under highways like the Santa Ana and Ventura freeways.
The particularly chilling detail about Stella Nolan’s murder was its two-part horror. Edwards confessed to raping and strangling her, then dumping her body over a bridge. When he returned to the site later, he found her alive and sitting up. As she tried to escape, he stabbed her to death. Her remains were found in March 1970, after Edwards provided directions to highway crews. He committed suicide in his prison cell in 1971.
2 Former NFL Player Turned Killer
On January 18, 1981, 20-year-old Shari Hull and her colleague Lisa Garcia were attacked at their workplace. A man entered the building, held Hull at gunpoint, and then encountered Garcia. He sexually assaulted both women and then shot them in the back of the head. Shari Hull died at the scene, but Lisa Garcia heroically pretended to be dead and called the police as soon as the attacker left. Incredibly, police drove right past the killer on their way to the crime scene.
Investigators believed this attacker was responsible for several other murders. Lisa Garcia’s bravery was crucial in tracking him down; she eventually identified Randall Brent Woodfield from a photo lineup. Woodfield was arrested, tried, and convicted of one murder and one attempted murder, though he has been linked to numerous other homicides and is suspected of killing up to 44 people.
The chilling detail that emerged about Woodfield was his past. He had been drafted by the NFL in 1974 to play for the Green Bay Packers. However, his football career was cut short after multiple arrests for indecent exposure. This stark contrast between a promising athlete and a brutal serial killer makes his story even more disturbing.
1 Vanishing Steps from Home
Holly Bobo, a 20-year-old nursing student, disappeared from her own backyard in rural Tennessee on April 13, 2011. Her mother, Karen, received a call from a neighbor reporting screams near their home. Karen immediately called home, and her son Clint answered. He said Holly’s car was still there, which was unusual, raising immediate alarm.
While Karen tried to reach the police, Clint looked out the kitchen window. He saw his sister, Holly, with a man dressed in camouflage. Clint initially thought the man was Holly’s boyfriend, Drew Scott. Karen, knowing Drew was elsewhere, frantically told Clint to get a gun and confront the man. Hesitant to shoot, Clint called out to them, but they vanished into the woods behind the house.
The most chilling detail is this moment of mistaken identity and helplessness. Clint then saw blood near Holly’s car as police arrived. Holly’s remains were found in September 2014; she had been shot in the back of the head. Zack Adams was eventually convicted of her aggravated kidnapping, rape, and murder, receiving a life sentence plus 50 years. His brother Dylan and another man, Jason Autry, also received sentences in connection with the crime.
These stories are a stark reminder of the darkness that can exist. The specific details, often overshadowed by the crime itself, can be the most unsettling, painting a fuller, more terrifying picture of these horrific events.
Which of these chilling details shocked you the most? Share your thoughts in the comments below.