Vergès, a French-Vietnamese lawyer, left his wife Djamila Bouhired and cut off all ties with friends and family. He was last seen on February 24, 1970, until he reappeared in 1978 and refused to explain his disappearance or whereabouts during that period.[1] It appeared in December 2017, in a Barbet Schroeder interview, that he was with extremist Palestinian militant Wadie Haddad in Palestine.[2]
English secretary who vanished after hitchhiking along the M1 motorway on March 8, 1970. Her body was found days later in some woodlands, and detectives believe her murder is linked to that of fellow hitch-hiker Barbara Mayo, who was killed under similar circumstances in the same year. It is often reported that the two murders were linked by DNA in 1990; however, DNA was only ever extracted in Mayo's case, and not until 1997.[3][4]
Two British children who disappeared from Enfield, North London, on the afternoon of 31 March 1970 while playing.[5] Seventy-eight days later their bodies were found in a copse in Sewardstone, Essex.[5] Erroneously thought for nearly 30 years to have possibly died from exposure, causing the murdered children to be called the "Babes in the Wood" in the press, pedophileRonald Jebson confessed to their rape and murder from prison in 1998, and was convicted in 2000.[5]
Argentine army general who served as the acting president from 1955 to 1958, Aramburu was kidnapped and later killed by Montoneros terrorist Mario Firmenich. His body was found a month after his disappearance at an abandoned farmhouse in Timote.[6]
Guatemalan economist, politician and founding member of the Social Democratic Party who served as Minister of Public Finance in the 1960s. He was briefly kidnapped by a FAR rebel on February 27, 1970, but released without harm shortly after.[7]
Harvey and Jeannette Crewe, a New Zealand farming couple, were reported missing from their bloodstained farmhouse at Pukekawa, Lower Waikato on June 22, 1970, where their unharmed 18-month-old daughter was found in her cot. Jeannette Crewe's body was found, wrapped in a duvet and bound with copper wire, in the Waikato River on August 16, 1970, and her husband's body was retrieved upriver on September 16, 1970.[8] The initial indications from the crime scene pointed to foul play, occurring between June 17 and 22, but it was not until the bodies were recovered that it was established that both had been shot to death.[9]
Laporte, a Canadian politician and deputy premier of Quebec, was kidnapped by members of the terrorist Front de libération du Québec group on October 10, 1970, and held for ransom. A week later, when the government refused the group's demands, they killed him, with Laporte's body later found in the trunk of Paul Rose's car.[10]
Lass, a nurse who worked at Sahara Tahoe Casino, disappeared on September 6, 1970, from Stateline, Nevada. Her disappearance has been associated with the Zodiac Killer case, despite the lack of evidence. In December 2023, South Lake Tahoe Police Department announced that human remains found in 1986 near California State Route 20 in Placer County was positively identified to be belonging to Lass. The department did not reveal a reason of death or an indication of foul play.[11][12]
The first of twenty-eight known victims of serial killer Dean Corll. Konen was last seen hitchhiking from the University of Texas to his parents' home on the evening of September 25, 1970. His body was buried at High Island Beach. Corll's accomplice, David Owen Brooks, led police to Konen's body on August 10, 1973.[13]
Mayo was an English schoolteacher who vanished while hitchhiking on the M1 motorway near Catterick, North Yorkshire on October 12, 1970. Days later, her partially clothed body was found in the woods, and was later linked to the murder of Jacqueline Ansell-Lamb committed months prior. It is often wrongly reported that the two murders were confirmed to be linked by DNA in 1990; DNA was only ever extracted in Mayo's case, and not until 1997.[3][4]
Ronald Hughes was an American attorney who represented Manson family member Leslie Van Houten and disappeared in November 1970 during a camping trip.[14][15] On March 29, 1971, his body was found by two fishermen in Ventura County wedged between two boulders in a gorge.[16]
German entrepreneur who was the co-founder of the Aldi supermarket chain. In 1971, he was kidnapped by lawyer Heinz-Joachim Ollenburg and Paul Kron, who demanded seven million German marks in exchange for his return. He was later released and his kidnappers arrested, but as a result, the Albrechts became reclusive and avoid publicity.[17]
Shelagh McDonald, a Scottish folk singer and songwriter, who vanished in 1971. Following the reissue of two of her albums on CD in the mid-2000s, articles were written about her work and disappearance.[18] In 2005, McDonald read one of these articles and contacted the press to explain that following an LSD trip, which had left her with long-term severe flashbacks and disorientation, she had returned to her family who kept her isolated while she recovered.[19][20]
Brazilian civil engineer, politician and congressman for the Chamber of Deputies who was arrested by police on January 20, 1971, for opposing the military dictatorship. He was then tortured and killed, and his body was never located.[21]
New York mobster and associate of Lepke Buchalter who disappeared on April 8, 1971, in Miami, while expecting extradition to his home state on various charges. His body was later found sealed in a steel drum at the bottom of a rock pit in Hallandale Beach. His killer, John Alvin Baxter, was convicted and sentenced to death for the murder, but it was later reduced to life imprisonment.[22]
Spinks was the first known victim of an unidentified serial killer known as the Freeway Phantom. Spinks was abducted, sexually assaulted and murdered while walking home from a grocery store; her body was found six days later on an embankment behind Southeast Washington, D.C. alongside I-295.[23]
13-year-old Colette Anise Wilson disappeared from the Alvin Bus Stop on County Road 99 and Highway 6 in Alvin, Texas after she was dropped off by her band director on June 17, 1971. Wilson's body was found five months later on November 26, 1971, near the Addicks Reservoir. She had been shot in the head.[24]
The second known victim of the Freeway Phantom. Johnson was abducted was abducted while en route to her summer job at a recreation center. Her body was discovered on July 19 just 15 feet (4.6 meters) from where victim Carol Spinks had been discovered two months previously.[25]
Last seen in the grounds of Washington State University. Her skeletal remains were found wrapped in two blankets and discarded in a ravine south of Pullman, Washington, on April 16, 1972. Serial killer Ted Bundy is considered a suspect in LePage's murder, although he denied any culpability in this case. Her murder remains unsolved.[26]
Rhonda Renee Johnson and Sharon Lynn Shaw were two teenage girls who disappeared in Harris County, Texas, on the afternoon of August 4, 1971. In early 1972, skeletal remains of both girls were discovered in and around Clear Lake near Galveston Bay. A local man, Michael Lloyd Self, was charged with their murders in 1972 and convicted of Shaw's murder in 1975. Controversy arose in 1998 when serial killer Edward Harold Bell confessed to the murders. Bell's confession—and corroboratingstatements from both law enforcement and prosecutors that Self had been coerced into a false confession—led many to believe that Self had been wrongfully convicted.[27] Self died in prison of cancer in 2000.
19-year-old Gloria Ann Gonzales was last seen alive near her apartment in Houston, Texas on October 28, 1971. On November 23, 1971, Gonzales's skeletal remains were found near Addicks Reservoir in the area where the body of 13-year-old Colette Anise Wilson was also found. Gonzales had died from blunt force trauma to the head.[29]
12-year-old Allison Anne Craven was reported missing by her mother on November 9, 1971, when she returned home to their apartment in Houston, Texas near Interstate 45 after completing shopping errands for one hour. Three months later, police found partial remains in a nearby field – two hands along with bones from an arm and some teeth. On February 25, 1972, the rest of Craven's skeleton was found in a Pearland, Texas field, also near Interstate 45 and ten miles from where she was last seen.[30]
An American teenager who disappeared in Chicago, Illinois on January 2, 1972, after encountering a man named John Wayne Gacy. A few hours later, in the early hours of January 3, 1972, McCoy was stabbed to death by Gacy and was buried in the crawl space of his home. Gacy would go on to become a serial killer, murdering, raping and torturing at least 32 more victims between 1974 and 1978. McCoy's corpse was not found for nearly seven years until December 1978, where his body along with several others were recovered and was conclusively identified on May 9, 1986, via dental records, 14 years after his death.[31]
A Vancouver, Washington hitchhiker last seen alive on February 11, 1972. Derry is suspected of being a victim of serial killer Warren Forrest. Her stabbed body was discovered within a gristmill silo in Woodland on March 29 and was identified on April 3.[32]
Oberdan Sallustro was an Italian-Paraguayan Director General of FIAT Concord in Argentina as well as an entrepreneur who was kidnapped by six people on March 21, 1972[34] and found dead on April 10, 1972, after being murdered.
Barbara Storm was a young German woman from Schüttorf who disappeared on 13 May 1972 was found dead on 17 May 1972 in a forest that was close to Schöppingen after being beaten and strangled.[35] She is believed to have murdered by the "Münsterland Killer".
Abducted while hitchhiking from Capitol Hill, near Seattle in June 1972. Her skeletal remains were discovered by construction workers buried close to a golf course in Roslyn on September 6, 2010. May-Hardy's murder has been linked to serial killer Ted Bundy, although he never confessed to her murder.[36]
Dolores Della Penna was a schoolgirl from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania who went missing on July 11, 1972. Her limbs and torso were later found in different parts of New Jersey a week later, but her head was never found. She had allegedly been abducted by a gang of drug dealers who accused her of stealing from them.[37]
Jeannette DePalma was a girl who disappeared on August 7, 1972, after telling her mother she was going to visit a friend. Her body was discovered on September 19, 1972, and it is believed she was killed some time around August 7 in Springfield Township, New Jersey.[39][40]
17-year-old Susan Carol Place and 16-year-old Georgia Marie Jessup both disappeared on September 27, 1972, after encountering Gerard John Schaefer at an adult education center in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Place and Jessup told the former's mother that they wanted to go to the beach with Schaefer. The girls were reported missing after not returning home within four days. On April 1, 1973, the remains of Place and Jessup were discovered in Port St. Lucie; they were formally identified via dental records on April 5. On May 18, Schaefer was formally charged with first-degree murder in the deaths of Place and Jessup. He was found guilty and sentenced to two terms of life imprisonment.[41]
Wright and McKee were Belfast-based members of the Provisional IRA. Both were suspected of being informants for the British Army’s Military Reaction Force; they were executed and secretly buried in County Meath. Their remains were discovered in June 2015.[42]
14-year-old Mary Alice Briscolina and 13-year-old Elsie Lina Farmer both disappeared while hitchhiking to a Commercial Boulevard restaurant from a Lauderdale-by-the-Sea motel on October 26, 1972. Their bodies were discovered separately in undergrowth close to Sunrise Boulevard in January and February of the following year. Both girls had been bludgeoned to death and likely raped. Briscolina and Farmer may have been victims of Gerard John Schaefer, a serial killer active in Florida.[43]
Roseann Quinn, a 28-year-old schoolteacher was reported missing after she was stabbed to death in her New York apartment on New Year's Day 1973. Her body was found on January 3 by another teacher and the building superintendent. John Wayne Wilson, whom Quinn had brought to her apartment and smoked marijuana with, was arrested in connection with her death; he later died via suicide by hanging.[46]
Daughter of General Mohamed Oufkir who was detained along with most of her family under arrest from 1973 to 1991, due to her father's actions against the monarchy of Morocco in the 1972 coup d'état attempt. A few years after her release, she emigrated to France and became a writer.[47]
Andrews was kidnapped from his family home in Portsmouth, Virginia on January 11, 1973, by pedophile Richard Ausley, who stuffed him in a wooden box and only brought him out when he wanted to assault him. On the eight-day, Ausley left Andrews unattended, giving him enough time to call for help, drawing the attention of two hunters who rescued him. Ausley later turned himself in and was sentenced to 48 years' imprisonment, while Andrews later became an advocate for rape survivors.[48]
Dawn Magyar was abducted while she was grocery shopping in Owosso, Michigan in Shiawassee County on January 27, 1973, and her body was discovered in a wooded area in Saginaw County, Michigan on March 4, 1973.[49] The case was resolved 28 years after her body was found when a DNA match was made of her killer.[50]
Lyles was abducted and murdered by serial killer Dean Corll on February 1, 1973. His body was buried on a stretch of beach in Jefferson County, Texas, although his remains were only discovered in 1983. Lyles's body was identified in November 2009, although as several bones were never recovered, his actual cause of death was never established.[51]
Gloucester woman who disappeared in April 1973. She had been a lodger of a couple called Fred and Rose West. Following her disappearance, Gough's mother travelled to the home of the Wests to enquire as to her daughter's whereabouts, only to find Rose wearing her daughter's clothes and slippers. In 1994, Gough's body was found buried at the home during investigations into the disappearance of the couple's daughter. Fred and Rose West were found to have murdered 12 young women between them and buried most at the home.[52]
Marlies Hemmers was a female German high school student who disappeared in from Nordhorn, Hemmers on 6 August 1973 and her remains were found on 22 December 1973 across from a horse breeding ground in a small wood.[53] Since her body had decayed it could not be determined what her death cause was. It is believed though that she may have been murdered by the "Münsterland Killer".
A grandson of American oil tycoon J. Paul Getty. Getty was kidnapped within the Piazza Farnese in July 1973 in Rome and held captive for five months. A $17 million ransom was demanded for his safe release. When Getty's grandfather refused to pay this sum (stating his fear that if he did so all 13 of his grandchildren might become kidnapping targets),[54] his captors severed one of his ears, which they posted to a local newspaper. Following a $2.2 million ransom payment, Getty was released by his captors in December. He later suffered from drug- and alcohol-related issues caused in part by the trauma of his ordeal; becoming a partially blind quadriplegic by 1981. He died in 2011.
Peter Wilson was an Irish man who was abducted on August 1, 1973, and killed by the Provisional Irish Republican Army. After receiving reliable information his remains were found on November 2, 2010, buried at a beach in Waterfoot, County Antrim.[55]
South Korean dissident leader who was kidnapped by the KCIA on August 8, 1973, during a conference in Tokyo, Japan. Dae-jung was drugged and moved from Japan to South Korea, but was eventually rescued by the Japanese authorities.[56]
Young Northern Irish child who disappeared from Belfast on 2 September 1973. His body was found a week after he went missing in a sack in the River Lagan. His murder remains unsolved but his brother is the prime suspect in the case.[57]
Cooper was a child that was staying at a Worcester children's home. On 10 November 1973, she was allowed to travel to visit her grandmother but disappeared after boarding a bus back to the home. Extensive police enquiries failed to locate her. In 1994, her body was found in the cellar of notorious serial killers Fred and Rose West. She had been abducted by them during her journey and murdered.[52]
Kidnapped, sexually assaulted and ultimately murdered by her neighbor, Gerald Miles Turner Jr., while out trick-or-treating on Halloween. French's body was later found stuffed in a garbage bag in a field near Taycheedah, Wisconsin.[59]
Swedish aid worker who disappeared in Southern Chile following the 1973 Chilean coup d'état. He later resurfaced in Argentina, as part of a guerilla group fighting against the regime of Augusto Pinochet.[60]
Brazilian politician and founder of the Communist Party of Brazil who later started recruiting guerilla fighters to fight against the government. According to military reports, he was killed in Tocantins on December 25, 1973, but his body was never recovered.[61]
21-year-old University of Exeter student Lucy Partington, cousin of writer Martin Amis, disappeared from a bus stop on the night of December 27, 1973.[62] At 9am on March 6, 1994, her remains were found buried under the cellar at 25 Cromwell Street Gloucester, the home of notorious serial killers Fred and Rose West. It is believed she had been tortured, sexually abused and then murdered around January 2, 1974, as Fred West checked himself into Gloucester Hospital with a serious wound to his right hand that needed several stitches at 12.25am on January 3, 1974[63][64] that was probably received while he dismembered her body. Seventy-two of her bones had been removed by West.[65][66]
Hernán Valdés was a Chilean writer kidnapped by civilian agents in a case of mistaken identity following Augusto Pinochet's coup d'état in February 1974. After spending more than a month in prison, where he was tortured by the guards, he was released and fled to Europe, where he would later write a book on the Chilean dictatorship.[67]
Carol Platt Valenzuela disappeared on August 4, 1974, during a hitchhiking journey from Camas, Washington to Vancouver. A married woman and mother to two young children, she had no known involvement in prostitution or any documented criminal history. A hunter found her skeletal remains in the Dole Valley, just outside Vancouver, on October 12, 1974. Interestingly, her remains were located in close proximity to those of Morrison.[68]
Student who was kidnapped from her boyfriend's car in Fort Worth on February 17, 1974. Her body, showing signs of rape, torture and strangulation, was found in a drainage ditch three days later. Her killer, Glen Samuel McCurley, was identified via DNA in 2020 and sentenced to life imprisonment.[69]
Woman who disappeared while hitchhiking from London to Ireland during Easter 1974. A police investigation that lasted a number of years failed to find her. In 1994 her body was found in the Gloucester home of serial killers Fred and Rose West. They had abducted and murdered her, along with 11 other women.[52]
Victim of serial killer Ted Bundy. Healy was beaten unconscious, and Bundy dressed her in her blue jeans, a white blouse, and boots; and was carried away by him. She was then decapitated and dismembered post-mortem and her mandible was recovered at Taylor Mountain, Washington site in 1975 and was matched through dental records.[70][71]
Victim of serial killer Ted Bundy. Manson was abducted while she was walking to a concert at Evergreen State College and her body was left (according to Bundy) at Taylor Mountain site and she was never found.[72]
Victim of serial killer Ted Bundy. Rancourt disappeared after attending an evening advisors' meeting at Central Washington State College;[73][74] her skull and mandible were recovered at Taylor Mountain site in 1975.[71]
On 9 May 1974, 53-year-old Quek Lee Eng mysteriously disappeared after she last departed her home to go to her sister-in-law's house, and she was reported missing by her family. Two days later, a severed pair of legs belonging to Quek were discovered at a disused toilet in a mosque at Aljunied, and the police arrested 44-year-old Sim Joo Keow, Quek's sister-in-law who was the last person together with Quek before she went missing. Sim later confessed that she strangled Quek after they argued over a S$2,000 debt which Sim owed to Quek. Quek's upper and lower torso were both found hidden in the earthen jars placed in Sim's house, and a parcel containing Quek's severed head and arms was also found alongside Kallang River. Originally charged with murder, Sim pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of manslaughter and concealing evidence, and sentenced to ten years in jail on 27 January 1975.[75]
A student who disappeared while walking home from a Vancouver, Washington nightclub on May 31, 1974. Her body was discovered close to Lacamas Lake in May 1978. She is strongly believed to have been murdered by suspected serial killer Warren Forrest.[76]
Lord Donoughmore was a former Member of Parliament (MP). He and his wife were kidnapped from Knocklofty House, Clonmel in the Republic of Ireland in June 1974 by the IRA. The objective behind their kidnapping was to add pressure on both the British and Irish Governments to address the demands of IRA prisoners on hunger strike in British prisons. Both were held captive for five days before being released unharmed by their captors.[77]
Argentine journalist who condemned the actions of both right and left-wing paramilitary organizations during the Dirty War in 1974. On June 25, 1974, he was kidnapped by the Montoneros, a left-wing paramilitary organization, and later killed by them when police raided their hideout.[78]
Victim of serial killer Ted Bundy. Naslund was abducted four hours after Ott from Lake Sammamish State Park in Issaquah;[79] her skeletal remains were recovered at the Issaquah site in 1974.[80]
On July 26, 1974, the decomposing body of a woman was found by a 12-year-old girl in Provincetown, Massachusetts. The woman, who is believed to have died from a blow to the head, was missing both hands, a forearm, and several teeth. The body was exhumed in 1980, 2000, and 2013 in unsuccessful efforts to identify the woman. On October 31, 2022, the FBI announced the identification of the decedent as 37-year-old Ruth Marie Terry, who had been reported missing by her husband in the summer of 1974. Terry's murder remains unsolved.[81]
Moussa and her partner, Ibrahim Shaheen, were an Egyptian couple who, from June 1967, worked for the Israeli intelligence service Mossad. Both were arrested by Egyptian Intelligence Services in August 1974; each was tried and sentenced to death by hanging. Shaheen was executed in 1977, whereas Moussa was pardoned following an appeal to Anwar Sadat by Israeli authorities the same year. Moussa subsequently disappeared and then relocated to Israel with her three children. She later converted to Judaism.[82]
Pagano was a teenager who disappeared from Akron, Ohio on September 1, 1974, following a fight with her stepfather, Byron Claflin, the previous night. Initially, law enforcement thought Pagano had run away. On February 5, 1975, an unidentified partial skeleton was found in Strongsville, Ohio. The skeleton belonged to a young white female, and the cause of death had been a gunshot to the head. The case was never connected with Pagano, and due to a clerical error, the unidentified body was never added to NamUs or other databases of unidentified. In 2016, the skeleton was rediscovered by an amateur genealogist looking through records of the cemetery where the young woman was buried. In 2018, forensic DNA analysis confirmed the remains found in 1975 as belonging to Pagano. The key suspect in her case has since died.[83]
On September 1, 1974, the Cowden family mysteriously vanished from a campground in Copper, Oregon. Their bodies were found Carberry Creek, with the adults shot in the head, one of the children bludgeoned and the other dead from an unknown cause. Convicted murderer Dwaine Little is the prime suspect in the murders, but has never been charged.[84]
Martha Morrison disappeared some time in September 1974. On October 12, 1974, the remains of two women were found in Dole Valley near Vancouver, Washington. One victim was quickly identified as Carol Platt Valenzuela, who had been reported missing, but the other set remained unidentified. In 2015 Martha Morrison's remains were identified by means of DNA profiling after they were found to have been mislabeled by the police as Carol Platt Valenzuela.[85][86]
12-year-old Brooks Bracewell and 14-year-old Georgia Caroline Geer were both last seen at the UtoteM convenience store off of Interstate 45 on September 6, 1974. Though some remains were discovered by police in Alvin, Texas in 1976, they remained unidentified until April 1981.[87]
A 19-year-old American newlywed who was murdered inside Stanford Memorial Church, within the grounds of Stanford University in California, on October 12, 1974. Her body was discovered displayed in a ritualistic and degrading position close to the altar of the church the following day. Her alleged murderer was identified via DNA profiling in 2018, but died by suicide before he was apprehended.[88]
Victim of serial killer Ted Bundy. Smith vanished from Midvale, Utah and her body was found nine days later on a hillside in Summit Park.[89] She was beaten, raped, sodomized, and strangled with nylon stockings. Bundy shampooed Smith's hair and applied makeup to her post-mortem.
Victim of serial killer Ted Bundy. Aime disappeared from Lehi, Utah, her body discovered by hikers in American Fork Canyon roughly a month later. She was beaten, raped, sodomized, and strangled with nylon stockings. Bundy shampooed Aime's hair and applied makeup to her post-mortem.[90]
Girl who disappeared from Worcester, England on 14 November 1974 while walking home from work. Police investigations failed to find any trace of her. In 1994 her body was found buried at the home of notorious Gloucester serial killers Fred and Rose West, who in total killed 12 women. Hubbard had been abducted by them in their car and murdered.[52]
Mohamed Azad went missing in Singapore on 16 November 1974, after he last went to his fiancée's house to meet his future father-in-law. Five days later, his body was discovered inside a gunny sack washed up the shore of Kallang Basin, with severe open wounds on his head, indicating that he had been murdered. Nadarajah Govindasamy, a businessman and father of Mohamed Azad's fiancée, was charged with the murder, and later sentenced in August 1975 to execution by hanging at Changi Prison on 28 January 1977.[91][92][93][94][95]
Van Patter was a bookkeeper for the Black Panther Party who disappeared on December 13, 1974, and her body later found on a beach in the San Francisco Bay. It's believed she was murdered by party members when she threatened to reveal that they had major tax problems, but nobody has been charged in her murder to this day.[97]
British schoolgirl who went missing from Manchester on New Year's Eve, 1974. Two years later police found the dismembered body of a woman on waste ground in the Newton Heath area of the city, which was identified as Stewart's. She and two other women in Manchester had been killed by serial killer Trevor Hardy.[98]
Whittle was a British heiress who was kidnapped and held for ransom at a drainage reservoir at Bathpool Park by serial killerDonald Neilson on January 14, 1975. She was killed on the same day, but her body was found months later. Neilson would later be convicted of her and another three murders, receiving four life sentences.[99]
Girl Scout who was kidnapped, sexually assaulted and finally strangled while delivering cookies in Nashville, Tennessee on February 25, 1975. Her body was found on Easter Sunday, but her murder remained unsolved until 2008, when Jerome Sidney Barrett was convicted and sentenced to 44 years' imprisonment for her murder.[100]
Victim of serial killer Ted Bundy. On January 12, a registered nurse named Caryn Eileen Campbell disappeared while walking down a well-lit hallway between the elevator and her room at the Wildwood Inn (now the Wildwood Lodge) in Snowmass Village, 400 miles (640 km) southeast of Salt Lake City.[101] Her nude body was found a month later next to a dirt road just outside the resort. She had been killed by blows to her head from a blunt instrument that left distinctive linear grooved depressions on her skull; her body also bore deep cuts from a sharp weapon.[102]
Victim of serial killer Ted Bundy. On March 15, 100 miles (160 km) northeast of Snowmass, Vail ski instructor Julie Cunningham, disappeared while walking from her apartment to a dinner date with a friend. Bundy later told Colorado investigators that he approached Cunningham on crutches and asked her to help carry his ski boots to his car, where he clubbed and handcuffed her before sexually assaulting and strangling her at a secondary site near Rifle, 90 miles (140 km) west of Vail.[103][104] Weeks later, he made the six-hour drive from Salt Lake City to revisit her remains.[104][105]
Katherine and Sheila Lyon disappeared on March 25, 1975[106] while walking home from a nearby mall in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. In 2014 Lloyd Lee Welch, a criminal serving time in a Delaware prison for molesting a child in that state, became a person of interest after cold-case investigators in Montgomery County, Maryland followed up on an interview he gave to a detective at the time of the girls' disappearance. In 2015 Welch was formally indicted and in September 2017, he pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree murder "for the abduction and killing of Katherine and Shelia Lyon in 1975". Police said he had burned their bodies.
Sharron Prior was Canadian teenage girl who was abducted on March 29, 1975 from the Pointe-Saint-Charles area in Montreal, Quebec.[107] and was found dead three days later after being murdered.
A high school student who vanished after leaving Nederland High School in Nederland, Colorado on April 15, 1975. Her body was discovered in Coal Creek Canyon on May 2. She had been bludgeoned with a large rock and strangled. Cooley's murder has been tentatively linked to Ted Bundy, although her murder remains an open case.[108]
Priscilla Ann Blevins was a 27-year-old woman who was last seen alive at her home in Charlotte, North Carolina on July 7, 1975. Her remains were discovered nearly a decade later along Interstate 40 in Waynesville, North Carolina on March 29, 1985. Blevins remained unidentified for an additional 27 years; her identity was determined via DNA and dental records in 2012.[109]
A PDM Contractors employee who vanished without a trace in July 1975. The day before his disappearance, Butkovich confronted John Wayne Gacy about overdue wages. Gacy strangled Butkovich to death on July 31, 1975, and buried him under the concrete floor of the tool room extension of his garage. Butkovich's remains were recovered on December 22, 1978; his body was conclusively identified on December 29, 1978.[110]
Molloy was abducted by the Provisional Irish Republican Army on 1 July 1975. The IRA accused Molloy of being an informant and his remains were recovered on 28 May 1999.[111]
British child Helen Bailey disappeared while playing near her home in Great Barr, Birmingham, on 10 August 1975. The next day her body was found on a farm, her throat had been cut. An inquest in 1976 concluded she may have died as a result of an "accident or practical joke gone wrong", but it has since come to light that she was strangled before her throat was cut and her case has been reclassified as murder. No one has been convicted of her murder as of 2021, despite a prisoner making a plausible confession in 1979.[112]
Student and frequent runaway who vanished from her home in Alexandria, Virginia in the summer of 1975. Her body was found on September 11, 1976, in Woodlawn, Maryland, showing signs of sexual assault and strangulation, but her killer(s) have not been arrested. She was not immediately identified, and was known as "Woodlawn Jane Doe" until her positive identification in 2021.[113]
Harmon was the first victim of serial killer Larry Ralston; she disappeared on her way to school. Her skeletal remains were discovered one month later.[114]
Candace Starr was kidnapped from her home in Los Angeles by her former boyfriend on September 21, 1975 Michael Singh; for approximately three days she was held hostage before she was killed at a convenience store in New Mexico. She was not identified until 2009, when she finally identified through DNA analysis.[115]
Pat Lowther was a Canadian poet from Vancouver, British Columbia who disappeared on September 24, 1975. Her body was found three weeks later in a creek near Squamish, British Columbia and her husband was convicted in 1977 of killing her.[116]
Dutch businessman who ran a factory in Limerick, Ireland, who was abducted by the Provisional IRA near his home in Castletroy on October 3, 1975. He was held in a house in Monasterevin during a two-week standoff between his kidnappers and the police, but was eventually released without incident.[117]
Molseed was an English girl who was kidnapped from her home in Rochdale, on 5 October 1975 and subsequently sexually assaulted and murdered by her abductor. Molseed's body was found three days later, and a mentally ill man was erroneously convicted of her murder but later exonerated in 1992. Molseed's actual killer, Ronald Castree, was identified via DNA evidence in 2006, and sentenced to life imprisonment.[118]
The body of Native American civil rights activist Anna Mae Aquash was found at Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota on February 24, 1976. She had been missing for two months.[121]
Menheniott, a British teenager with severe learning difficulties, disappeared from his home on the Isles of Scilly on Christmas Day 1975. His parents claimed he had gone to the mainland to visit a girlfriend, but his dentist had been troubled by the injuries he had seen on Menheniott and reported his concerns to the police. His body was found on 1 March 1977, crudely buried in the local graveyard. He had been murdered by his abusive parents, most likely in the first weeks of 1976. The case gained notoriety because it was a rare example of murder on the islands.[122]
Terry Peder Rasmussen was last seen by his family in Christmas of 1975 or 1976 with an unidentified woman. Rasmussen, under multiple aliases, would go on to commit numerous crimes, including the Bear Brook murders and the murder of his wife Eunsoon Jun. While serving a 15 years to life in prison for Jun's murder, Rasmussen died in 2010 under a pseudonym. His name would not be tied to the Bear Brook murders until 2017, and his real name would also not be revealed until later that year through the use of Y-DNA testing.[123][124]
17-year-old Deborah Diane Smith disappeared in Salt Lake City, Utah in early February 1976. Her body was discovered by a Utah Power and Light worker checking on poles in an open pasture near Salt Lake City International Airport on April 1, 1976. Serial killer Ted Bundy is believed by some to be responsible for Smith's homicide, though he was never convicted of this murder.[125]
Hungarian Jesuit priest kidnapped by a death squad in Argentina during the Dirty War. He and another hostage, Orlando Yorio, were held captive for five months before being released by their captors.[126]
Student at the National Institute of Technology Calicut who was abducted and tortured by Indian police on March 1, 1976, succumbing to his injuries. His remains were never retrieved, despite repeated inquiries from his family which brought the case to national attention.[127]
Argentine Peronist politician who served as the Provincial Senator for the Tucumán Province until the 1976 Argentine coup d'état, when he was abducted by security forces. He has never been found, but two officers were later convicted of his suspected murder and sentenced to life imprisonment in 2008.[128]
Darrell Samson was last seen alive on April 6, 1976, in Chicago, Illinois. That same day, he was kidnapped and murdered by John Wayne Gacy. Gacy buried him underneath his dining room, with cloth lodged in his throat.[110]
A mobster in the Chicago Outfit, on April 23, 1976, Roselli was called before the committee to testify about a conspiracy to kill President John F. Kennedy.[129] Three months after his first round of testimony, the Committee wanted to recall Roselli, only to learn he had been missing since July 28, 1976. On August 3, Senator Howard Baker, a member of the new SSCIA, requested that the FBI investigate Roselli's disappearance.[129] On August 9, 1976, Roselli's decomposing body was found by a fisherman in a 55-gallon steel fuel drum floating in Dumfoundling Bay near Miami, Florida.
On May 14, 1976, Randall Reffett disappeared in Chicago, Illinois, shortly after returning home from a dental appointment. Just hours after Reffett was last seen alive, Samuel Stapleton also vanished without a trace as he walked home from his sister's apartment; the two teenagers were close acquaintaces with each other. They were both murdered by John Wayne Gacy in the same evening and buried underneath his crawl space.[110]
Argentine architect who was kidnapped in August 1976 during the Dirty War and held in various detention centers, where she was physically and mentally tortured by military officers. She was later released following an Executive Decree.[130]
A victim of serial killer Larry Ralston. Grigsby is believed to have been abducted while hitchhiking in Clifton, Ohio on May 4, 1976. Her skeletal remains were discovered in woodland in Clermont County six months later. Grigsby's murderer is known to have become acquainted with her through drinking at a tavern frequented by both in the year prior to her disappearance.[131][132]
On June 3, 1976, Michael Bonnin disappeared while traveling from Chicago to Waukegan. He was killed by John Wayne Gacy, who strangled with him a ligature and buried him underneath his spare bedroom.[110]
Stack was a hitchhiker who was killed on June 9, 1976, by unknown assailants while travelling from Colorado to Utah, with his body found one day later in rural Tooele County. His body remained unidentified until 2015, and his killers remain unknown.[133]
On June 13, 1976, John Wayne Gacy lured teenager William Carroll Jr. to his home; he was never seen alive again. Gacy shortly thereafter murdered him. Carroll was buried in a common grave in Gacy's crawl space.[110]
Bloch was an Israeli-British citizen who was held hostage during the hijacking of Air France Flight 139 on June 27, 1976. She suffered an illness during the process and the plane was landed in Kampala, Uganda for treatment, but an indeterminate amount of time later, Bloch's body was found in a sugar plantation. It was determined that she had been killed on orders of then-President Idi Amin.[134]
British woman who went missing from her Cumbria home on 17 July 1976. Her husband, Gordon Park, did not report her disappearance for six weeks, claiming she had gone to live with another man. In 1997 amateur divers found her body in Coniston Water, where Park was known to sail, and her case became known as the "Lady in the Lake". Gordon Park was convicted of her murder.[135]
High school student abducted, raped and murdered by serial killer John W. Hopkins. Her body was buried in a shallow grave, and was discovered by hunters three months later.[136]
On August 5, 1976, James Haakenson was last heard phoning his family, possibly from John Wayne Gacy's home shortly before his murder. Haakenson died of suffocation. He remained unidentified for four whole decades, before his identification on July 19, 2017.[110]
On August 6, 1976, just 24 hours after the murder of James Haakenson, Rick Johnston was also murdered by John Wayne Gacy. His body was buried in Gacy's crawl space on top of Haakenson's body.[110]
On October 24, 1976, teenage friends Kenneth Parker and Michael Marino disappeared after last being seen on Clark Street in Chicago, Illinois. They were abducted and killed by John Wayne Gacy.[110]
On October 26, 1976, two days after the deaths of Kenneth Parker and Michael Marino, construction worker William Bundy also disappeared after informing his family he was to attend a party. He was suffocated by John Wayne Gacy. He remained unidentified for 35 years before his November 2011 identification.[110]
Scottish woman Renee MacRae and her son Andrew were last seen on 12 November 1976. Their bodies have never been found. In September 2022, William MacDowell was found guilty of the murder of MacRae and her son and sentenced to a minimum of 30 years in prison.[137]
Sometime around c. December 1, 1976, Francis Alexander was murdered by John Wayne Gacy. His last contact with his family was a phone call to his mother sometime in November and his family did not report him missing as they believed he had moved to California shortly thereafter and started afresh. He remained unidentified for 44 years before having his identity confirmed on October 25, 2021.[110]
George Seitz was an American military veteran of World War I who disappeared on December 10, 1976, in Jamaica in New York City after he was murdered. Some of his remains were discovered and identified in 2019.[138] Martin Motta pleaded guilty to his murder in October 2022, and received a 20-year sentence.[139]
In December 1976, Gregory Godzik disappeared. He was last seen alive by his girlfriend outside her house. Godzik had started working for John Wayne Gacy less than three weeks before his disappearance; he was later murdered by Gacy on December 12, 1976. Godzik's car was later found abandoned and his family had contacted Gacy about Godzik's disappearance, with Gacy claiming that Godzik had expressed desire to run away from home; he also claimed to have received an answering machine message from Godzik shortly after he had disappeared. When asked if he could play the message for Godzik's parents, Gacy said he had erased it.[110]
The dismembered remains of Colon, a pregnant teenager from New Jersey, were found stuffed in several suitcases in White Haven, Pennsylvania in 1976. She remained unidentified for over four decades, known only as "Beth Doe". In 2021, she was officially identified, and in response, authorities arrested her then-boyfriend, Luis Sierra, and charged him with the murder. He is now awaiting trial for the murder.[140]
Bear was the fourth victim of serial killer Larry Ralston; she disappeared while hitchhiking home. Her nude, frozen remains were discovered in a Clinton County creek bed six weeks later.[131]
On January 20, 1977, John Syzc was never seen alive again after being lured into John Wayne Gacy's car on the pretext of buying Syzc's Plymouth Satellite. Gacy later confessed to strangling the youth in his spare bedroom, as well as selling Szyc's car to an employee.[110]
Swedish-Argentine teenager who was kidnapped, tortured and later killed by Argentine military officers during the Dirty War on January 27, 1977. Her death is believed to be a result of mistaken identity.[141]
Physicist, university professor and researcher who was kidnapped and detained by the Argentine military dictatorship on February 4, 1977. She was released together with her newborn daughter on April 28, and was the first witness to testify at the later Trial of the Juntas in 1985.[142]
On March 15, 1977, Jon Prestidge disappeared and was last seen alive exiting a Near North Side restaurant in Chicago. John Wayne Gacy likely murdered him in the hours that followed. Shortly before his disappearance, Prestidge had mentioned he had obtained work with a local contractor.[110]
Italian politician and member of the Socialist Party who was kidnapped and held hostage by the Camorra, but was released after the ransom of one billion lire was paid.[143]
Gordon Sanderson's body was found in a septic tank in Lindbrook, Canada on April 13, 1977. He had been shot to death, possibly up to a year before his body was found. Until his identification in 2021, he was referred to as "Septic Tank Sam".[144]
Argentine political scientist by a member of the Air Force on May 7, 1977, and held in detention by the military dictatorship. After her release, she went into exile in Mexico, where she has continued work to this day.[145]
Nairac was a British Army officer in 14 Intelligence Company who was abducted from a pub in Dromintee, County Armagh, during an undercover operation on May 15, 1977, during his fourth tour of duty in Northern Ireland as a Military Intelligence Liaison Officer. It was later revealed that Nairac was killed by the Provisional Irish Republican Army. Although several individuals were convicted of Nairac's murder, his body has never been found. He is one of three individuals murdered by the IRA whose graves have never been revealed.[146][147]
Spanish industrialist and writer who was kidnapped by ETA separatists from his home in Bilbao on May 20, 1977. While he was initially held for ransom, Ybarra was later killed by his captors and his body dumped in a farmhouse, where he was located by authorities. His killers have never been apprehended.[148]
On July 5, 1977, Matthew Bowman disappeared after his mother last saw him at a suburban train station; he had intended to travel to Harwood Heights, Illinois for a court appointment. Shortly after vanishing, he was killed by John Wayne Gacy.[110]
Elizabeth Roberts, formerly known as "Precious Jane Doe", was a teenage girl who went missing on July 25, 1977[151] from Roseburg, Oregon and was found dead in Everett, Washington on 14 August 1977 after being murdered. She was not identified until 43 years later.
A 12-year-old Canadian boy of Portuguese ancestry who worked as a shoeshine boy in an impoverished district of Toronto. Jaques was abducted, sexually assaulted and murdered by three men on July 28, 1977. He was murdered approximately twelve hours after his abduction. Three men were ultimately convicted of Jacques' murder, while a fourth was acquitted.[152]
German business executive and industry representative with SS ties who was kidnapped by RAF guerillas on September 5, 1977. His kidnappers demanded that the Germans free several of their members, but after learning that they had died in prison, they drove towards Brussels, executing Schleyer near Mulhouse, France, on October 18.[153]
18-year-old Robert Gilroy Jr., the son of a Chicago police sergeant, was last seen alive on September 15, 1976. He was murdered by John Wayne Gacy and lived four blocks from Gacy's house. He was buried in Gacy's crawl space.[110]
On September 25, 1977, former U.S. Marine John Mowery disappeared after leaving his mother's house. John Wayne Gacy strangled Mowery and buried his body beneath his master bedroom.[110]
On October 17, 1977, Russell Nelson disappeared after last being seen outside a bar in Chicago, Illinois, looking for contracting work. He was never seen alive again. He was murdered by John Wayne Gacy and buried his body underneath his guest bedroom.[110]
A seven-year-old schoolgirl who went missing after she went out running an errand for her father late in the night. Her family searched for her but to no avail, and they subsequently reported Usharani missing. The next day in the morning, Usharani was found dead nearby her home in Toa Payoh. An autopsy revealed the child had been sexually assaulted and strangled to death. Her uncle, Kalidass Sinnathamby Narayanasamy, was arrested two days later and due to sufficient evidence linking him to the crime, Kalidass was sentenced to death for his niece's murder.[155][156][157][158]
Two school friends abducted by the Hillside Stranglers while returning home from the Eagle Rock Plaza on Colorado Boulevard in Southern California on November 13, 1977. Their strangled bodies were discovered close to the Dodger Stadium on November 20.[159]
Cheng Geok Ha was a ten-year-old schoolgirl abducted from a car park close to her home at Chai Chee, Singapore, on 25 November 1977. Her body was discovered beneath a manhole on 7 December. An autopsy revealed the child had been sexually assaulted and strangled to death. Her neighbour, Quek Kee Siong, was later sentenced to death for Cheng's murder.[160][161]
Fogar, an Italian sailor, was stranded in the Atlantic Ocean after being capsized by orcas. He survived more than 10 weeks on a life raft with his friend and journalist Mauro Mancini, who died of pneumonia two days after they were rescued.[162]
Romanian painter who was kidnapped by North Korean agents while doing a supposed art exhibition in Pyongyang, North Korea. She was later forcefully married to American defector James Joseph Dresnok, with whom she had two children. She died of cancer in January 1997, having never returned to her homeland.[163]
Scibetta was a New York mobster who was killed by his brother-in-law, Sammy Gravano and disappeared on New Years Day 1978. Part of the motive for the murder was that Scibetta was suspected of being gay. Scibetta was dismembered and except for an arm, his body was never found.[164]
Brian Glenfeldt and Belinda Worsley were both last seen leaving for a Youth-for-Christ meeting and they never turned up at an ice cream parlor, where they were supposed to meet some friends. The two youths were found dead with gunshot wounds in nearby forests. John Errol Ferguson, the serial killer who had killed another six people at least, was arrested, convicted and sentenced to death. Ferguson was executed in 2013.[165]
Guatemalan politician and member of the National Liberation Movement who was kidnapped and held hostage by a leftist militant group who accused him of organizing the murders of guerilla leaders and repressing teachers' strikes. He was released without incident after a ransom and a commander of theirs was released.[166]
Latvian-German impostor who pretended to be a deposed crown prince, for which he would be put on trial, but later acquitted. After experiencing a short term burst of popularity, he disappeared from public view until 1933, when it was learned through Dutch author Jef Last that he was living in the Netherlands under the pseudonym "Victor Zsajka".[167] After Domela was last seen alive in 1978[168] it has now been clarified that according to research done by Jens Kirsten who is a Weimar-based scholar that Domela had died in Maracaibo on October 4, 1979.[167]
Shin, a South Korean film director, and Choi, an actress and his wife, were both abducted six months apart by North Korean agents on orders from Kim Jong-il. After spending three years in prison, the pair were reunited and ordered to direct movies to boost the North Korean film industry, which they did until their escape in 1986.[169]
Canadian girl from Quebec who disappeared from her native village of Massawippi on January 27, 1978. Her body was found on March 24, but the cause of death was never ascertained. Some theories suggest that she had been kidnapped and murdered.[170]
French-Belgian industrialist and the CEO of the Schneider-Empain industrial holding company, Empain was kidnapped[171] and held captive by a group of men, who demanded ransom in exchange for his release. Empain would eventually be rescued and most of his abductors arrested, but would be left permanently traumatized by the event.
On February 16, 1978, John Wayne Gacy killed 19-year-old William Kindred, who disappeared after telling his fiancée, who knew Gacy, that he was going to a bar. He would be the final victim to be buried in Gacy's crawl space.[110]
Amati was kidnapped by a trio of French gangsters, led by Jean Daniel Nieto, and held for ransom, during which she was allegedly raped by the ringleader. She was released on April 27, 1978, after the ransom of 800 million lire was paid, but the kidnappers were all later caught, including Nieto, with whom Amati had fallen in love. She later became a professional racing driver and the most recent female driver to enter the Formula One World Championship.[172]
On May 23, 1978, Charles Hattula was found deceased in the Pecatonica River near Freeport, Illinois. He had been missing since May 13. Des Plaines authorities had suspected that Hattula may have possibly been murdered by John Wayne Gacy; Hattula was known to have conflicts with Gacy. At the time of his death, Gacy had murdered at least 29 young men and boys and had disposed of many of the bodies in his crawl space. As no more bodies could fit in the crawl space, it left the possibility that he may have disposed of Hattula's body in the Pecatonica River. However, Des Plaines authorities were told Hattula had fallen to his death from a bridge, and his death was ruled as asphyxia by drowning.
McClory and McKinney were abducted and murdered by the Provisional IRA (PIRA) on May 25, 1978. Their remains were discovered in Colgagh Bog, County Monaghan, on 29 June 1999. McKinney is believed to have been murdered due to his having stolen weapons from the PIRA; McClory is believed to have been abducted due to his known association with McKinney.[174]
Sometime between June 16–23, 1978, Timothy O'Rourke disappeared after last being known to have left his apartment to purchase cigarettes. Shortly before his disappearance, O'Rourke had told his roommate a contractor on the Northwest Side of Chicago, Illinois, had offered him a job. He was murdered by John Wayne Gacy and his body was dumped into the Des Plaines River, as Gacy had no more space for bodies in his crawl space.[110]
On June 18, 1978,[175] Serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer picked up a hitchhiker named Steven Mark Hicks, who was almost 19.[176][177] Dahmer lured the youth to his house on the pretext of drinking. Hicks, who had been hitchhiking to a rock concert at Chippewa Lake Park, Ohio, agreed to accompany Dahmer to his house upon the promise of "a few beers" with Dahmer as he had the house to himself.[176]
According to Dahmer, the sight of the bare-chested Hicks standing at the roadside stirred his sexual feelings, although when Hicks began talking about girls, he knew any sexual passes he made would be rebuffed.[178] After several hours of talking, drinking and listening to music, Hicks "wanted to leave and I didn't want him to leave."[179] Dahmer bludgeoned Hicks with a 10-pound (4.5 kg) dumbbell. He later stated he struck Hicks twice from behind[180] with the dumbbell as Hicks sat upon a chair. When Hicks fell unconscious, Dahmer strangled him to death with the bar of the dumbbell, then stripped the clothes from Hicks' body before exploring his chest with his hands, then masturbating as he stood above the corpse. Hours later, Dahmer dragged the body to the basement.[180][a]
The following day,[182] Dahmer dissected Hicks' body in his basement. He later buried the remains in a shallow grave in his back yard.[183] Several weeks later, he unearthed the remains and pared the flesh from the bones.[184] He dissolved the flesh in acid before flushing the solution down the toilet. He crushed the bones with a sledgehammer and scattered them in the woodland behind the family home.[185]
Kaoru Hasuike and his then-girlfriend, Yukiko Okudo, were abducted by North Korean agents from Kashiwazaki, Niigata on July 31, 1978. The two eventually married in North Korea and gave birth to two kids before the family was repatriated to Japan in October 2002.[186][187]
Hitomi Soga and her mother, Miyoshi, was abducted by North Korean agents from their home island of Sado on August 12, 1978. Hitomi was able to return to Japan in October 2002, and her American husband Charles Jenkins as well as their two daughters came to Japan in July 2004. Miyoshi, however, still has not returned to Japan.[188][189][190][191]
Marilee Bruszer went missing on August 22, 1978, from Long Beach, California. In August 2015, a body that had been discovered in Utah in September 1978 was identified as hers.[192][193]
John Dawson Dewhirst was a British teacher and amateur yachtsman. He disappeared after being captured and detained as a suspected spy by the Khmer Rouge August 13, 1978. It is known that he was killed some time after October 13, 1978. No remains were found, and it was speculated that the body may have been burned.[194]
Marlyse Honeychurch and her two daughters, Sarah McWaters, and Marie Vaughn were last seen in November 1978 with a man claiming to be Bob Evans, who would later be identified as serial killer Terry Peder Rasmussen. The bodies of Honeychurch and Vaughn were found in a metal drum near a burned down store in the Bear Brook State Park in Allenstown, New Hampshire in 1985, while McWaters' body was found nearby in 2000 together with a still-unidentified body of a little girl, whose DNA analysis showed that she was the daughter of Rasmussen. The identity of the three other victims would not be identified until 2019, and it is believed the four victims were murdered some time between 1977 and 1981.[124][195]
Theresa Allore was a Canadian college student who disappeared on November 3, 1978, from Champlain College Lennoxville in the Eastern Townships of Quebec and was found dead five months later.[196]
On November 4, 1978, Frank Landingin was last seen alive by his father walking along Foster Avenue in Chicago, Illinois; he was killed by John Wayne Gacy later that day. Eight days after his disappearance, his naked body was found close to an inlet in the Des Plaines River by two duck hunters on November 12. He was identified on November 14; he was the first victim of Gacy's to be identified.[110]
On November 24, 1978, James Mazzara disappeared after Thanksgiving dinner with his family; he was last seen walking in the direction of Bughouse Square. Mazzara had informed his sister the day before his disappearance that he was working in construction. He was killed by John Wayne Gacy and his body was discarded in the Des Plaines River.[110]
In the late hours of December 11, 1978, teenager Robert Piest was working at the Nisson Pharmacy. He was approached by John Wayne Gacy, who mentioned that his firm often hired teenage boys almost double the pay Piest earned at the pharmacy. He lured the 15-year-old youth to his house and suffocated him. Gacy stated that Piest was "crying, scared", while also admitting to having received a phone call from a business acquaintance as Piest lay dying. He was dumped in the Des Plaines River. On April 9, 1979, a man walking along a Grundy County towpath discovered a decomposed body tangled in roots on the edge of the Des Plaines River. The body was identified via dental records as being that of Robert Piest the same evening.[110]
Argentine diplomat and official of the military dictatorship who vanished on December 20, 1978. Her decomposed body was found over a month later, and positively identified by her cousin. It's believed that she had been assassinated by military officers on orders from Emilio Eduardo Massera, who believed that she had information that would reveal his connections to the Montoneros.[197]
Friends Kerry Graham and Francine Trimble disappeared on December 16, 1978, after leaving their homes in Forestville, California to visit a shopping mall in Santa Rosa. Their remains were discovered on July 8, 1979, approximately 80 miles north of Forestville, but they were not identified. In November 2015 their identities were confirmed via the use of DNA profiling.[198]
The first victim of serial killer Dennis Nilsen. Holmes was an Irish teenager whom Nilsen lured to his Cricklewood home upon the promise of drinking alcohol on the evening of December 29, 1978; he was strangled to death the following morning and his body later incinerated upon a bonfire. Holmes' identity was established in November 2006.[199]
Tammy Alexander disappeared some time in early 1979 after it is believed she ran away from her home in Hernando County, Florida. She was found dead, shot to death in a field, in the town of Caledonia, New York on November 10, 1979. She was not identified until 2015, over 35 years later, by a DNA match after an old school friend tried to locate her and a missing persons report was filed.[200]
Remington was a Spokane Community College student who disappeared from her mother's home in Richland, Washington on January 4, 1979. She was last seen in a brown sedan. Her body was found by goose hunters in a field near Benton City on December 29.[201]
Marcia Moore was an American writer, astrologer and yoga teacher who disappeared on January 14 in the winter of 1979. Her remains were found two years later in the woods near her Washington home.[202]
A victim of serial killer Terry Hyatt. Simmons was mother of seven and a night manager at a Raleigh restaurant. Simmons disappeared while travelling to her boyfriend's home on April 15, 1979. Her skeletal remains were discovered in the Pisgah National Forest on March 23, 1980.[204]
Etan Patz disappeared while on his way to school in lower Manhattan on May 25, 1979, and by 2001 he was considered legally dead. He was the first missing child featured on a milk carton.[205] In May 2012, authorities re-opened the case.[206] Pedro Hernandez, a former bodega stock clerk, was convicted in February 2017 of kidnapping and murdering the boy, based solely on his own confession. Neither Patz's body, which Hernandez said he put in the trash, nor any other relevant physical evidence was ever identified.[207]
British woman last seen in Cathedral Square, Peterborough at 2:45pm on 11 July 1979, after telling friends that she was heading to the nearby unemployment office. Her body was found in a shallow grave in a forest at Castor Hanglands, Cambridgeshire, in March 1980. It would not be until 2012 that sex offender Paul Taylor would be convicted of her murder.[211]
16-year-old British child who lived in a children's home in Gloucester. She was a frequent visitor to the home of Fred and Rose West who lived in the city. Her disappearance in August 1979 was reported to the Missing Persons Bureau and initially to the police as an absconder from care. Her body was found in the home of the Wests in 1994. Along with 11 other women, she had been murdered by the couple.[52]
A young Ohio native discovered stabbed to death in a Las Vegas, Nevada, parking lot on August 14, 1979. She had died hours prior to her discovery, but remained unidentified until December 2023. Her murder remains unsolved.[212]
Italian singer and the country's representative for the Eurovision Song Contest of 1975 who was kidnapped on August 27, 1979, and held for ransom together with fellow singer Fabrizio De André.[214] Both were held in the Supramonte mountains, but released after a ransom of 500 million lire was paid to the abductors.
Jean Seberg was an American actress who lived in France, and disappeared on August 30, 1979. Her body was found on September 8, 1979, wrapped in a blanket in the back seat of her Renault which was parked near her Paris apartment.[215]
Kenneth Ockenden, a Canadian student on a tour of the UK, was last seen in London on December 3, 1979.[219] In 1983, investigators discovered that he had become a victim of the serial killer Dennis Nilsen, who had invited him to his house and strangled him with a headphone cord.[219] Ockenden was one of the few victims of Nilsen who was widely reported as a missing person.[220]
Michelle Busha left her home in December 1979 after an argument with her father in Bay City, Texas. Busha was murdered in May 1980 while hitchhiking in Blue Earth, Minnesota and remained unidentified until 2015.[221]
Murdered
35 years
Notes
^A September 1992 FBI report on Dahmer indicates he also confessed to engaging in sex with Hicks' body prior to dismembering the corpse.[181]
References
^"Jacques Vergès". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on August 12, 2017. Retrieved August 12, 2017.
