We’ve all heard of “cold cases,” especially when it comes to homicide investigations. Here are 9 murders that remain unsolved and in which the victim has not even been identified by name:
1. Little Lord Fauntleroy
In March 1921, the body of a young boy was pulled from a pond in Waukesha, Wisconsin. The victim wore a gray sweater, black stockings, a boy’s blouse, and leather shoes, which suggested he probably came from a wealthy family. Blunt force wounds were visible on his head. Police theorized he’d been in the water for several months.
In 1949, a medical examiner theorized a connection between the unidentified murder victim and the mysterious case of Homer Lemay. Lemay disappeared around the same time authorities discovered the body in the Waukesha pond. Homer’s father claimed his son died in South America while traveling with family and friends, but there was never any evidence to prove the veracity of this claim.
2. Little Miss Nobody
In July 1960, a family searching for precious stones in the deserts of Arizona stumbled across the body of a young girl who had been partially buried in the sand. Although her body had badly decomposed, her nails retained their bright red nail polish and her hair had been dyed Nameless and unknown, the community raised enough money for a proper burial. During the eulogy, someone said:
“Somewhere, someone is watching to see what happened to a little girl left in the desert.”
3. Boy In The Box
On February 25, 1957, in the Fox Chase neighborhood of Philadelphia, a shocking discovery was made:. A boy no more than 6 years old was found in a box along the side of a road. Naked and wrapped in a blanket, no one recognized his face. Police were so desperate to solve the mystery that they even consulted a psychic. To this day, the boy’s grave reads, “America’s Unknown Child.”
4. Girl With The Peach Tattoo
On Long Island in 1997, police recovered a headless torso of a female murder victim. The absence of the rest of her body made identification virtually impossible. One detail set her remains apart: On her left breast was the tattoo of a peach, with a single droplet of juice dripping out. The crime remains unsolved to this day.
5. Orange Socks
In 1979, a Texas motorist noticed a set of feet in bright orange socks along Interstate 35. The feet belonged to the naked body of a woman who had been strangled and thrown over the guardrail. On her finger the victim wore a mother-of-pearl ring. Police assumed she was a drifter. Serial killer Henry Lee Lucas confessed to her murder, but authorities doubt his involvement since he was not in Texas at the time.
6. Eklunta Annie
Robert Hansen, also known as the Butcher Baker, was an Alaskan serial killer who wreaked havoc between 1971 and 1983. The body of a young woman was found dead under a row of power lines in 1980. She was adorned with Native American turquoise jewelry and had died by a single stab wound to the back. Hansen admitted to the murder after his arrest in 1983, but the identity of the victim remains a mystery.
7. Lady Of The Dunes
On Cape Cod in the summer of 1974, a female murder victim was found half-buried in the dunes. The body had been brutalized beyond recognition, with numerous teeth removed and both hands chopped off. The Lady of the Dunes has been exhumed three times in an attempt to reveal who she is. Serial killer Hadden Clark has said:
“The murder is still unsolved and what the police are looking for is in my grandfather’s backyard.”
Police, however, consider Clark’s remarks to be nothing but a fabrication.
8. Bear Brook Murders
In 1985 the bodies of a young woman and little girl were found stuffed into a barrel in New Hampshire’s Bear Brook State Park. In 2000, a detective reopened the case, reexamining the wooded crime scene. Not far from the original discovery, another barrel was found with the bodies of two more young girls. DNA testing concluded that the woman from 1985 was related to at least two of the three children. But all four victims remain unknown, nameless, to this day.
9. Bella In The Wych Elm
In 1943, a group of boys were playing in the Hagley Woods of Stourbridge, England, when they discovered a skull. It belonged to a woman who had apparently been dead for some time, her body stuffed in the hollow trunk of a witch elm tree. The local community was shocked by the discovery, but since it was during the Second World War, the strange murder was quickly forgotten.
A few months later, however, something strange happened: Anonymous graffiti popped up on brick walls throughout the region. The scrawled messages all asked the same question:
