As you know by now, October is National Crime Prevention Month! Did you know that more than 250,000 cold cases in the U.S. remain unsolved? This includes well-known cases like who killed JonBenét Ramsey, the identity of the Zodiac Killer, the infamous Black Dahlia murder, and how the heck D.B. Cooper hijacked a plane and escaped unscathed.
A case is considered “cold” when it remains unsolved after three years and all available investigative leads have been exhausted. Cases go cold for a variety of reasons: Lack of law enforcement resources; incomplete documentation; investigators getting tunnel vision and focusing on the wrong lead, allowing the path to the true perpetrator to go cold; and even discrimination against the victims for race, ethnicity, or other factors.
Here are 3 interesting but lesser-known unsolved mysteries that might have been prevented with some smart crime-stopping tactics.
The Mysterious Death of Tiffany Valiante
A recent high school graduate, Tiffany went missing one summer night in New Jersey in 2015 and was later found dead after being hit by a train. To her family’s dismay, the police immediately ruled it a suicide, despite evidence that kept popping up indicating foul play—including an axe (!?!) near the scene, the train conductor’s ever-changing account of events, and the fact that Tiffany was deathly afraid of the dark and would never have been wandering around in the woods at night.
However, finding out the truth might be impossible at this point, thanks to law enforcement’s mishandling of the case: For one, this was a perfect example of tunnel vision (they settled on suicide before a thorough investigation), and key evidence (including the axe!) went missing. They even ignored a witness’s account that he overheard frat bros talking about their encounter with Tiffany after she disappeared—and laughing about what they did to her. The Valiante family hasn’t given up the fight, though, and hopes that keeping the case in the news will prompt someone who knows something to come forward.
The Alphabet Murders
Also known as the Double Initial Murders, these are a series of unsolved deaths in Rochester, N.Y. in the 1970s where all three victims were young girls whose first and last names started with the same letter. Each victim had been sexually assaulted and strangled before her body was discarded in or near a town—and here’s where we bypass coincidence entirely—starting with the same letter as the girl’s name.
Law enforcement interviewed more than 800 men suspected of being involved, identifying a handful of good possibilities—including a man in California who was arrested and convicted for killing four adult women who had double initial names—but authorities couldn’t prove any of them were the killer. Even today, there’s debate over whether the murders are connected or are just one big, fat coincidence.
The Disappearance of Maura Murray
In 2004, 21-year-old nursing student Maura Murray was in a car crash in New Hampshire on a snowy February night. Witnesses saw Maura at the scene, and one even stopped to ask if she needed help, but when police arrived at the scene shortly thereafter, the car was empty and Maura was nowhere to be found. The investigation unearthed strange details—cryptic phone calls, Maura’s claims of taking time off work due to an unknown family emergency, and unusual evidence found in the car—but to this day, Maura has not been found. Was she kidnapped, murdered, suicidal, or just looking for a new life? A six-episode Oxygen documentary in 2017 delved into this mysterious unsolved case.
