May 23: A young drug informant disappears in Kansas City
Plus: the massacre in Isla Vista, disappearance of a mom-of-two, and more.
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1934: Bonnie and Clyde die in a hail of gunfire
It was a “sensational encounter,” the newspapers said: outlaw lovers Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow were zooming along a Louisiana highway when a posse of police officers, hiding in the bushes, opened fire. Both tried to raise their guns, but were shot instantly.
The two had fallen in love in Texas. He was a small-time crook determined to make it big; she was the wife of a locked-up murderer who dreamed of a more exciting life. During their two-year crime spree, they’re thought to have killed 13 people, including cops.
They also pulled off a series of robberies and heists all across the country. This—and the fact that they were a couple who liked to take photos of each other posing with guns—made them famous, and before long the headlines were following their every heist.
They were great at the getaway: fast cars, machine-gun fire, the whole Hollywood-esque shebang. The irony is that they weren’t very good criminals. They robbed mom-and-pop stores, they and their friends got horribly injured during their sprees. The criminals lived in poverty, but the newspapers glamorized them anyway.
This last time, though, their getaway smarts failed them. Barrow, who had started to open the driver’s door, was found slumped over the steering wheel, still holding his revolver.
Parker’s body was positioned with her head between her knees, like she was ducking to avoid the fire. She was holding a machine gun.
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Short read: Clyde Barrow, Bonnie Parker Die With Hands Clutching Guns, The Tampa Tribune
Long read: Go Down Together: The True, Untold Story of Bonnie and Clyde, Jeff Guinn
Listen: BONNIE & CLYDE Ep. 1 | “The Fairytale”, Infamous America
Watch: How They Were Caught: Bonnie and Clyde, BuzzFeed Unsolved Network
2000: Alison Thresher disappears after voicing her suspicions
When mom-of-two Alison Thresher disappeared, she was struggling with a horrible suspicion: she was sure that her 12-year-old daughter Hannah was being sexually abused by her Spanish teacher.
Thresher had made these concerns known, writing both to the teacher, Fernando Asturizaga, and to her daughter’s school. But so far no one was taking her seriously, and young Hannah denied that there was anything going on between her and her teacher.
There was, though—she was just being groomed to deny it to authorities. A few months after Thresher disappeared, Asturizaga said, eerily, “I thought things would be easier for us now that she’s gone.”
It wasn’t until 2010 that Hannah was able to admit the truth. She went to the police and told them that Asturizaga had indeed groomed and abused her from 1999 to 2000. Asturizaga was sentenced to more than 100 years in prison for his crimes.
In 2018, he was named a person of interest in the death of Alison Thresher. But on the same day the police publicly named him, Asturizaga killed himself in his prison cell.
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Read: Cold Case Update: Detectives Investigating the 2000 Disappearance of Alison Thresher as Homicide; Name Person of Interest in Her Murder, Montgomery County Police
Listen: The Search for Alison Thresher, Episode 1: Missing Bethesda Woman, Missing Pieces
2014: Elliot Rodger, self-identified “victim,” commits massacre in Isla Vista
In the deranged, self-indulgent manifesto he emailed around to friends and family before shooting himself, 22-year-old Elliot Rodger declared, “I am the true victim in all of this. I am the good guy.”
His victimhood? He was the wealthy son of a Hollywood filmmaker. His family bought him a BMW. He had struggled with mental health and rage toward his peers—convinced that everyone had a better life than him—for his entire life.
And he was really, really angry that he’d never kissed a girl. So he decided to go on a killing spree to make the whole world pay for his virginity.
First, he stabbed three young men to death: his two roommates at the University of Santa Barbara, and their friend. As each one came home, he jumped out and slaughtered them. Then he went to Starbucks for a vanilla latte. Then he uploaded a YouTube video and emailed around the manifesto, explaining his plan for violence.
As his parents read the email and drove frantically toward Santa Barbara to stop what was already happening, Rodger drove to the sorority with the “hottest” girls—retribution, he said in his manifesto, for the fact that they were the sort of girls he wanted but couldn’t have—and shot three of them, killing two.
Then he began driving around randomly, killing a man in a deli, shooting at certain pedestrians, hitting others with his car. He injured 14 people total before shooting himself in the head.
Because of his YouTube video and manifesto, he became a hero in various incel communities, with other angry young men agreeing—yes, he was the victim here.
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Read: The Secret Life of Elliot Rodger, ABC News
Listen: The Bloody: The Isla Vista Massacre, More Than Murder
Watch: Santa Barbara Shooting: Who Was Elliot Rodger?, ABC News
2022: Abbi Schaeffer last seen by her mother
Twenty-two-year-old Abbi Schaeffer had an ex-boyfriend in jail on drug charges, and she clearly knew some things.
In fact, she told her mom that she was getting ready to tell the FBI everything she knew about her ex’s drug ring. But clearly someone other than her mom found out that she was planning to become an informant.
The last day that Schaeffer was seen in Kansas City, Missouri, surveillance camera footage showed her walking back and forth from her apartment toward a gray BMW parked outside. Eventually, she got into the BMW with her cat, drove away, and was never seen again.
Her body wasn’t found until a year later.
As it turned out, the gray BMW belonged to someone who knew Schaeffer’s ex. And Schaeffer’s cat was found at an apartment building where the BMW driver’s girlfriend had been living.
Coincidence? Those two—the driver and the girlfriend—left town before Schaeffer’s body was found. The case is being treated as a murder investigation.
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From the Headlines
Prosecutors to seek death penalty against defendant in Alabama ‘Seven Deadly Sins’ murders, AL.com
TikTok star Ali Abulaban on trial for murdering wife and her lover ‘snapped’ after finding them cuddling, New York Post
More remains identified at suspected serial killer's Indiana estate, now 13 presumed victims, CBS News
29 Years Later: Arrest made in connection to Fulton double-murder, News and Sentinel
‘You’re going to get a DUI,’ Kerry Roberts says she warned Karen Read before search, Boston.com
Two Defendants Sentenced to Life Imprisonment in Murder-For-Hire of Perceived Business Rival, Department of Justice
Unsolved for nearly 40 years, disappearance of Cindy Louise Moore still haunts Oakland Co., Detroit Free Press
Missing UC Davis student last seen in San Francisco, KTVU FOX 2
What to Read & Stream
The Most Anticipated Crime Books of Summer 2024, CrimeReads
Tennessee's only woman on death row featured in 'Mean Girl Murders.' Here's what to know, USA Today
Only Murders In The Building Season 4's Plot Perfectly Pays Off 2 Characters' Backstories, Screen Rant
Why Is True Crime Still Negating Black Victims and Their Loved Ones From the Story?, CrimeReads
How to watch ‘Murder at the Motel,’ new true crime series for free on A&E, Mass Live
Stuff Group launches paid audio subscriptions with blockbuster new true crime podcast, The Lost Boy, Podnews
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