Have you ever known someone who went missing or was murdered?

[Spacebums]

My husband knew David Harker from Darlington, said he was just a weirdo that hung around with him and his friends. My best friend’s parents knew a lady who borrowed him the saw he allegedly used to cut that poor woman up... said he needed it for ‘gardening’. She got interviewed by the police and was horrified

 

[Anything you like]

Didn’t know her personally but it happened Not far away, a poor girl was over the park with her friends when someone mistook her for someone else over drugs and she got stabbed to death at 17 years old just randomly, was awful for the community

 

[Lulabella_Mozzarella2]

It was in Langley Mill wasn’t it Such a horrible situation

Yes, literally at the bottom of the street

 

[chandlercheesecake]

A little girl from my village, I went to school with her sister. She went missing and was found under the mums boyfriends floorboards. Very sad. Later another girl went missing with a very similar name and got a hell of a lot more coverage and I always thought it was a class divide thing.

Reminds me of when Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman were missing, and the media/news always paid more attention to Holly, as Jessica's family were more working class.

 

[Kaye1976]

Didn’t know her personally but it happened Not far away, a poor girl was over the park with her friends when someone mistook her for someone else over drugs and she got stabbed to death at 17 years old just randomly, was awful for the community

Jodie Chesney

 

[AnnaJ]

Son of a work colleague killed his very young baby and blamed the babies mum (who was best friends with my sister) he was convicted and jailed. Also, friend of my son - 16 at the time disappears along with a busker friend, they were both found days later drowned in a local pond - apparently drug related accident.

Were the pond deaths in Kent by any chance?

 

[Anything you like]

Jodie Chesney

Yeah

 

[Dragon100]

When I was 14 a lady in her 70's who used to go to our church was brutally murdered in her home, she had been struck on the head several times with what police believe to be an axe. There was no sign of forced entry and it is believed she knew her killer. A few items were taken, but she didn't have much of value to steal. Despite a huge police investigation at the time her killer was never found.
She was a lovely lady who would do anything for anyone.

 

[ChloChlo]

I think this thread is a good read and have been doing my own Googling to read more on cases such as Jodie Chesney, I wasnt familiar with.

I mentioned earlier some the ones I knew of but I would also like to add the more vague ones where I didnt actually know the murderer per se but lived near to, but does anyone remember the case of Rochelle Holness? You all may not have, as her case seemed to be ignored by media in favour of the murder of stage school student Sally Ann Bowman, who had huge coverage. Both murders happened the same week so there is definately a huge class and race divide as far as reporting goes.

It is just so sad and gruesome what happened to her and she was just so young. I had just moved to the estate and this happened perhaps a month after. My bedroom window was parallel with her murderers window and it sends shivers down my spine. Months later, a man was shot dead meters away from my doorstep over drugs.

 

[emm]

A friend of a family member was murdered in 2000. The wrong man was sent down and was exonorated by a BBC documentary a decade later! Then advances in DNA caught the real murderer.

It was a massive headfuck. I was a young teenager at the time but her and her friend were all 18/19 and it massively changed their lives forever. Some went on to great things because of it (police force etc), some turned into alcoholics. People don't think how it affects their friendship groups.

Also, we all believed for like 10yrs the wrong guy did it!!!! Just goes to show if you are fed certain evidence from the police and hidden from some you can come to the wrong conclusion.



I followed that case so closely, we were in Perugia only a couple of weeks afterwards. Everyone always forgets Meredith. Always.

i was on erasmus in italt at the time and remember waking up to about 1000 missed calls fron my parents who had just heard a british student on erasmus was murdered with no more details. they were out of their minds with worry. whether or not she is guilty amanda seems like an awful person, i will never forget her accusing that bar owner knowing his rac would count against him

 

[ChloChlo]

That’s really sad I’m sorry to hear that
A few lads I went to school with have been involved in something like that 2 of them with one punch killed someone , a drunk argument that got out of hand none of them even knew each other before the fight it’s just terrible I hate people who get angry when they drink it’s the main reason I don’t go out clubbing anymore

The uncle of a woman my sister used to date was killed in simular circumstances, by his best friend! Apparently they were both heavily under influence on drink and drugs, got into a scuffle, his best mate killed him with one single punch. Very scary.

 

[SNLGJ]

Were the pond deaths in Kent by any chance?

Yes, In Canterbury

 

[Anything you like]

Although all these stories are extremely sad it’s interesting to google them as most of them are cases I’ve never heard of

 

[Welsh1]

I used to bother with a girl when I was about 18 and she was a part of a large friendship group along with a boy we all knew. Years later, she had a son and her and the boy we knew got together. I remember thinking it was random but wished them well. He was a known drug user but was always a decent guy, about a year after they got together I woke up one morning to a Facebook post from her saying how her little boy had passed away. We were all told that he fell down the stairs and broke his neck. I remember feeling sick and sooo sorry for her as I had a young son around the same age, I cried over it for weeks, we did a fundraiser to help towards his funeral and it was such a sad time. Woke up one morning to a message saying they had both been arrested on suspicion of murder. Turned out the little boy was abused for months and the boy had killed him and she tried to help him cover up the murder of her son!!! Her own mother stood by her. She is now free and posts all over her Facebook about her darling boy and he got 20 years. Makes me sick!!

 

[DoctorWho]

I used to bother with a girl when I was about 18 and she was a part of a large friendship group along with a boy we all knew. Years later, she had a son and her and the boy we knew got together. I remember thinking it was random but wished them well. He was a known drug user but was always a decent guy, about a year after they got together I woke up one morning to a Facebook post from her saying how her little boy had passed away. We were all told that he fell down the stairs and broke his neck. I remember feeling sick and sooo sorry for her as I had a young son around the same age, I cried over it for weeks, we did a fundraiser to help towards his funeral and it was such a sad time. Woke up one morning to a message saying they had both been arrested on suspicion of murder. Turned out the little boy was abused for months and the boy had killed him and she tried to help him cover up the murder of her son!!! Her own mother stood by her. She is now free and posts all over her Facebook about her darling boy and he got 20 years. Makes me sick!!

shes been released? That’s disgusting. Didn’t they find cocaine & cannabis in the little boys system too

 

[Goodchilddiamond5]

Have never spoken about this before but last year in February I went on a date with a guy I met via tinder, anyway he was really weird and creepy when we met up and nothing like his tinder profile, anyway after me trying to be nice and make conservation I asked him about his family, he said his parents died in a car crash when he was 16 and the rest of family lived so far away he lost touch with them all after he said all this he went even weirder and wouldn’t look me in the eye so I made my excuses and left the date, when I got home I decided I’d google his name and I found out he had murdered his mum after his dad had died in a car accident, his mum lost her mind with the grief and he stabbed her one night and hid her body in the shed! He was 15 when it happened and he told the courts his mum had been abusing him so he wasn’t charged with anything! So no wonder the rest of his family have nothing to do with him! Safe to say I deleted tinder after this!!

 

[l2mhb0]

I’m sorry if this sounds offensive to anybody, but reading these posts puts the idea back into my head that these are people’s lives lost, people are affected by it all over the country and possibly the world, and it’s not just a form of entertainment. For me, I think it’s easy to get caught up in the ‘entertainment’ story telling side of true crime because I watch a lot of documentaries and crime youtubers tell the case.

Reading this thread has put it back into perspective for me and reminded me that so many deaths happen every single day at the hands of the sick people who kill them, and that so many people go missing, and it’s not all about the ones you forever see in the news like Madeline McCann. For anybody who has been affected by a loss that is so heartbreaking and horrific, I truly send my condolences and I’m sorry that people, like me, can get so sucked into the case and see it as entertainment.

Edit: I’m not saying I don’t feel sympathy for the circumstances and don’t find them so heartbreaking and disgusting, just saying that it’s easy to get caught up in the case as a form of entertainment. Hopefully I make sense and don’t sound completely tone deaf!

 

[Welsh1]

shes been released? That’s disgusting. Didn’t they find cocaine & cannabis in the little boys system too

Yes, she only did about 12 months. Yes they did. Disgusting.

 

[Mag83]

I used to go out with someone who's ex was the daughter of Hazel Stewart. Hazel is woman in Northern Ireland who conspired with a dentist she was having an affair with to kill her husband and his wife. James Nesbitt was in the ITV drama about it a few years back. The whole case was sad but I was shocked at how much this girl stood by her mum after she killed her father. Not only that she was super possessive of the guy I was seeing and would regularly ring him when I was with him. He felt quite bad for her mental health as after her mum finally went to prison for the murders her husband divorced her and she was left with no one but her brother apparently.

 

[orangelolly]

I watched Moorside again recently on Brit Box. I wonder what happened to Shannon Matthews and how she's coping with life now.

I guess this doesn't technically count as murder but a girl I went to school with got in a car with a drunk man and his friend at the end of a night out. The car crashed in to a big old tree. The driver and passenger legged it, knowing they were over the limit, and left her in the back seat to die. I presume they were taking her home as the road they were on was the route you'd take. The car was an absolute mangled wreck but the tree barely had a mark!