On May 15, 1948. A three-year-old’s brutal murder begins an unusual investigation. On May 15, 1948, 3-year-old June Devaney, recovering from pneumonia at Queen’s Park Hospital in Blackburn, England, is kidnapped from her bed. Nurses discovered her missing at 1:20 a.m. the next day, and police were immediately summoned to investigate. Two hours later, her body was found with multiple skull fractures. The medical examiner determined that Devaney had been raped and then swung headfirst into a wall. Two significant clues were found in the children’s ward that would prove helpful in catching the killer: footprints on the freshly cleaned floor and a water bottle that had been moved. Although there were several fingerprints on the bottle, police were able to account for all but one set. These prints also failed to match any of those in the police’s database of known criminals. Investigators fingerprinted over 2,000 people who had access to the hospital. Still, they couldn’t find a match. Detective Inspector John Capstick then went even further: He decided that every man in the town of Blackburn, a city with more than 25,000 homes, would be fingerprinted. A procedure such as this would be impossible in the United States where Fourth Amendment protections prevent searches without probable cause. But the plan went into effect in Blackburn on May 23, with police assurances that the collected prints would be destroyed afterward. Two months later, the police had collected over 40,000 sets of prints yet still had not turned up a match. Checking against every registry they could find, authorities determined that there were still a few men in town who hadn’t provided their prints. On August 11, police caught up with one of these men, Peter Griffiths. His footprints matched the ones found at the scene. When his fingerprints also came back a match, he confessed to the awful crime, blaming it on alcohol. Griffiths was found guilty of murder and was executed on November 19, 1948. #Crime, #Kidnapped, #Missing, #Killer, #Alcohol,

1987 Torture chamber uncovered in Philadelphia. Responding to a 911 call, police raid the Philadelphia home of Gary Heidnik and find an appalling crime scene. In the basement of Heidnik’s dilapidated house is a veritable torture chamber where three naked women were found chained to a sewer pipe. A fourth woman, Josefina Rivera, had escaped and called police. Gary Heidnik was a former mental patient and sex offender who had managed to become a wealthy stock investor. He owned a Rolls Royce and beat Uncle Sam on his income taxes by making himself the bishop of his own church. The sign on the front of his house read, “United Church of the Ministries of God.” One room in his house was partially wallpapered with money. At the end of 1986, Heidnik decided to create his own harem and began kidnapping women off the streets of Philadelphia. Six women were kidnapped and held in Heidnik’s dungeon. All were raped and tortured while the others were forced to watch. He killed one of the women by putting her in a pit, filling it with water and putting a live electrical wire into the water. Another of the women was killed when Heidnik let her starve to death while chained to the wall. In perhaps the most grisly and horrid episode of the entire incident, Heidnik dismembered one of his victims, cooking parts of her body and feeding it to his other captives. The women who were found alive recovered after being treated for dehydration and malnutrition. Although Heidnik was clearly mentally disturbed, he was found guilty and convicted of murder on July 1, 1988. He received a death sentence, and was executed on July 6, 1999. Heidnik was one of the inspirations for the Buffalo Bill character in Thomas Harris’ Silence of the Lambs. #TrueCrime #Murder, #Torture, #Disturbed, #Convicted, #Guilty, #Executed, #Death,

Rochelle Gluskoter (April 10, 1940 - February 15, 1946) Rochelle passed away when she was 5 years old. She was sadly kidnapped from her home in Los Angeles, California as she was playing in her front yard. The abductor, who is believed to have been a stranger, drove up and lured Rochelle into his or her car, and she was sadly never seen again, despite the city's efforts to find her. A year later, her skeleton was discovered, and she was identified by the dress that she had been wearing when she went missing. Sadly, Rochelle's murder remains unsolved. Rochelle was a bright, happy, playful, and loving little girl, who is greatly missed by her family. Rest in peace, Rochelle! #TrueCrime