Spring break: a much-anticipated escape for college students. It’s a time for sun, fun, and freedom from demanding studies. Friends pack their bags, heading to beaches or exciting new cities, ready to create lasting memories. For many, it’s a week of carefree celebration. But beneath the sunshine and parties, a darker side can emerge. Late nights and unfamiliar places can sometimes lead to vulnerability. The stories that follow are haunting reminders of spring breaks that took a tragic, mysterious turn, leaving behind questions that linger to this day.
10. The Vanishing of Reny Jose
Reny Jose, a student from Rice University, was looking forward to a classic spring break trip in Panama City, Florida. He arrived with friends on March 1, 2014, ready for a week of fun. However, just two days later, Reny disappeared. His friends reported him missing the next morning, March 3, around 11:00 am, though he’d last been seen around 7:00 pm the previous evening. They explained the delay by saying they thought he’d just turn up.
Police found Reny’s clothes on a Panama City beach, but this discovery raised more questions. Beach cleanup crews had swept that exact area only five hours earlier and hadn’t seen any clothes. This suggested Reny’s clothes were placed there after the cleaning. Further complicating matters, one friend alleged Reny had taken LSD the night he vanished and had spoken of being suicidal. Reny’s family strongly disagreed, saying suicide was completely out of character for the engineering major. Many of Reny’s friends left town before police could interview them thoroughly, and several later hired lawyers. To this day, what happened to Reny Jose remains an unsolved mystery.
9. The Tragic End of Amy Gellert
On March 20, 1994, Bob and Bunny Lehton returned to their Cocoa Beach, Florida, home to a horrifying scene. An intruder, masked and dressed in black with white tennis shoes, confronted them with a gun and an “ornate” knife. He forced them to lie on the floor and took some money, but seemed more focused on waiting for a ride. He strangely declined their offer to use their car.
Shortly after, their daughter, Amy Gellert, arrived home from college, planning a quiet spring break with her parents. As Amy pulled into the driveway, the intruder attacked Bob and Bunny, stabbing them repeatedly in the head, neck, and back. Bunny managed to fight back, and Bob, despite his injuries, ran for help. The attacker then went outside and fatally stabbed Amy in the driveway. She died in a nearby parking lot. Though her parents survived, Amy did not. The gun turned out to be a prop, and the unique knife provided no leads. Amy’s killer, who was never clearly seen due to the mask, remains unknown nearly three decades later.
8. The Puzzling Death of Susan Jacques
In April 1986, 18-year-old high school student Susan Jacques traveled with nine friends to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, for spring break. On the night of April 25, after a night out, the group returned to their motel. About an hour later, Susan decided to take a walk on the beach alone. Her friends, believing the area was safe, expected her back soon. She never returned.
After a few hours passed without Susan’s return, her worried friends alerted the police. A search began immediately, but it wasn’t until three days later that Susan’s body was discovered 35 miles away, dumped in a canal in a remote area. Due to being in the water for three days, her body was severely decomposed, making it impossible for investigators to determine the cause of death or find evidence of injuries. There were no reliable toxicology reports. Theories range from an accidental drowning, with her body carried by the current, to foul play during her late-night stroll. Nearly 40 years later, Susan Jacques’s death remains an unsolved mystery.
7. The Unsolved Murder of Rachel Taylor
Rachel Taylor’s case is a grim milestone: she was the first student ever murdered at Penn State University. In March 1940, Rachel, a young and hopeful student, was returning to campus after her spring break. Around 1:30 am, she got off a bus in town. Witnesses saw her get into a car, presumably to get a ride back to her dorm. She never arrived.
Hours later, Rachel’s body was found on the side of a road outside of town. She had been brutally beaten and stabbed to death. Police suspected a screwdriver might have been the murder weapon, but this was never confirmed. Despite witness accounts of her hitching a ride, the specific vehicle she entered remained unknown. A local man in jail, Jack Ray, confessed to the murder, but his confession proved false as he couldn’t provide accurate details about the crime. Investigators were back at square one, and no credible leads have surfaced since. Over eighty years later, Rachel Taylor’s murder is still unsolved.
6. The Disappearance of Karen Wilson
Karen Wilson, a student at SUNY-Albany, was eagerly preparing for her spring break trip to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in March 1985. On March 27, she went shopping for vacation clothes and had a tanning salon appointment. That night, she vanished. She was expected back at her dorm to finalize her preparations for leaving the next day, but she never made it.
Initially, police were so baffled they considered if she had already left for Florida and gone missing there. Florida detectives even tried tracing potential routes she might have taken south. A breakthrough seemed to come when an eyewitness reported seeing a woman resembling Karen on the SUNY-Albany campus around 8:15 pm on March 27. This led investigators to believe she never left New York and was possibly abducted from her dorm or as she was about to leave. Her Florida-bound belongings were also missing. An anonymous tip pointed to a person of interest, but he was found not to have been in the area. Rumors of a suspicious man on campus persisted, but he was never identified. Decades later, Karen Wilson has not been found, and her family still hopes for answers.
5. The Six Lost Boys of Pickering, Ontario
The disappearance of one person is tragic; the vanishing of six is profoundly unsettling. This occurred in Pickering, Ontario, on March 17, 1995. High school students were celebrating the start of spring break with a party. During the event, a group of six boys—Michael Cummins, Robbie Rumboldt, Daniel Higgins, Jamie Lefebvre, Chad Smith, and Jay Boyle—decided to leave.
Some reports suggested they planned a joyride on a motorboat, while others claimed they were simply tired of the party. Regardless of their reason, they walked away and were never seen again. When their girlfriends couldn’t reach them hours later, they were reported missing. Police searches yielded few clues. Surveillance footage from a local dock showed at least three boys, believed by family to be part of the group, walking by around 2:00 am. However, the footage was grainy. Years later, a body wearing red pants similar to Jay Boyle’s washed up on the Niagara River banks, but DNA tests were negative. The fate of the six boys remains a baffling mystery.
4. The Dorm Room Murder of Sarah Ann Ottens
Sarah Ann Ottens chose a quiet spring break in March 1973. Instead of joining friends on a trip to Mexico, the University of Iowa student stayed in her dorm to focus on her studies. On March 13, two fellow students noticed her dorm room door was wide open. Upon investigating, they made a horrifying discovery: Sarah Ann’s body was on the floor, strangled and hastily covered with a bedsheet.
Police quickly focused on James Hall, a former University of Iowa football player. Hall was charged, tried, and convicted. However, his conviction was later overturned. It was found that prosecutors had withheld key evidence and made unproven claims about fingerprints. Police detectives were also criticized for dishonest practices regarding witness identification. After a legal battle, Hall was released in 1983, and a grand jury declined to re-indict him the following year. He even received a settlement from the prosecutor’s office. Sarah Ann Ottens’s killer was never definitively brought to justice. Ironically, in 1993, Hall was convicted for the 1992 murder of another woman and sentenced to life in prison.
3. The Tragic Hitchhiking Journey of Lisa Eisman & Kim Vaccaro
Hitchhiking, once more common, carries significant risks. College students Lisa Eisman and Kim Vaccaro tragically learned this in March 1985. Ready to escape their studies at New York’s State University of Buffalo, they planned to hitchhike to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, for spring break. They set off on March 29 and by the next day had reached Hagerstown, Maryland, where they mailed a postcard home. After that, they vanished.
They were expected in Florida on March 31 to meet a friend but never arrived. The friend, aware of their travel method, waited a couple of days before raising an alarm. On April 2, the bodies of Lisa and Kim were found in the Hillsborough River in a swampy area of central Florida. Their bodies were badly decomposed, but forensic investigators determined they had suffered blunt force trauma. Police speculated they were dumped from a nearby bridge. No significant leads ever emerged, and it remains unknown if they were victims of a long-haul traveler or attacked after reaching Florida.
2. The Apartment Slaying of Dana Bailey
Dana Bailey, a Penn State University student, was spending her 1987 spring break at her apartment near campus. She planned to catch up on schoolwork and relax. On March 5, her mother, worried after not hearing from her for a few days and prompted by Dana’s concerned fiancé, checked on her. She discovered a horrific scene: Dana was dead, tied to a chair in her kitchen, having suffered multiple stab wounds to her chest.
Investigators, arriving days after the murder, determined the killer likely entered through an apartment window and used a knife from Dana’s own kitchen. Police have released few details but have cryptically stated the crime was “lust related,” suggesting a sexually motivated attack or a peeping incident that escalated. Over 30 years later, a group of Penn State students created a documentary about the case, hoping to generate new leads. While the film renewed attention, Dana Bailey’s killer remains at large.
1. The Baffling Disappearance of Brian Shaffer
Brian Shaffer was a medical student at Ohio State University with dreams of becoming a doctor. During spring break in 2006, he planned to unwind before returning to his demanding studies. On the night of April 1, 2006, Brian went to a bar in downtown Columbus with a friend. Around 2:00 am, surveillance footage showed him outside another bar, talking to two women. After their conversation, he walked back towards the bar’s entrance and appeared to go inside. He was never seen on camera leaving, and he vanished without a trace.
Friends tried calling his phone all weekend with no answer. When they couldn’t find him, they alerted the police, who officially declared him missing on Monday. Despite professional investigations, no answers emerged. Theories abound: did he slip out unseen, perhaps through a back door near a construction site? Or did something terrible happen inside or near the bar? Occasional reported sightings over the years have led nowhere, and age-progressed sketches have not yielded results. Brian Shaffer seemingly disappeared into thin air, leaving an enduring mystery.
These unsolved spring break cases serve as chilling reminders that even times meant for joy and relaxation can take unforeseen, tragic turns. For the families and friends of these individuals, spring break is not a time of celebration but a period marked by unanswered questions and enduring grief. The hope for closure, for answers, remains, even as years turn into decades.
Which of these unsolved spring break stories do you find the most unsettling? Share your thoughts or any theories in the comments below.
