Alice Lynne "Lindy" Chamberlain-Creighton is a New Zealand–born Australian woman who was wrongfully convicted in one of Australia's most publicised murder trials. Accused of killing her nine-week-old daughter, Azaria, while camping at Uluru in 1980, she maintained that she saw a dingo leave the tent where Azaria was sleeping. The prosecution case was circumstantial and depended on forensic evidence.
A presumption of death occurs when a person is believed to be dead, despite the absence of direct proof of the person's death, such as the finding of remains attributable to that person. Such a presumption is typically made by an individual when a person has been missing for an extended period and in the absence of any evidence that person is still alive—or after a shorter period, but where the circumstances surrounding a person's disappearance overwhelmingly support the belief that the person is dead. The presumption becomes certainty if the person has not been located for a period of time that has exceeded their probable life span, such as in the case of Amelia Earhart or Jack the Ripper.
The disappearance of Genette Tate is a missing person case in which a 13-year-old girl disappeared while delivering newspapers in Aylesbeare, Devon, England, on 19 August 1978. Despite extensive searches, Tate's body has not been found and the cause of her disappearance remains unknown.
On 21 March 2002, Amanda Jane "Milly" Dowler, a 13-year-old English schoolgirl, was reported missing by her parents after failing to return home from school and not being seen since walking along Station Avenue in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, that afternoon. Following an extensive search, her remains were discovered in Yateley Heath Woods in Yateley, Hampshire, on 18 September.
On 18 June 2001, Danielle Sarah Jones, a 15-year-old English schoolgirl, disappeared from East Tilbury, Essex, England. There was a large and exhaustive search to find Jones' body and it was considered one of the biggest cases Essex Police had to deal with at the time. Despite the police's best efforts, her body was never found.
The Springfield Three refers to an unsolved missing persons case that began on June 7, 1992, when friends Suzanne "Suzie" Streeter and Stacy McCall, and Streeter's mother, Sherrill Levitt, went missing from Levitt's home in Springfield, Missouri, United States. All of their personal belongings, including cars and purses, were left behind. There were no signs of a struggle except a broken porch light globe; there was also a message on the answering machine that police believe might have provided a clue about the disappearances, but it was inadvertently erased.
Lois Martha Roberts was an Australian murder victim, whose death near Nimbin, New South Wales in 1998 remains unsolved.
On April 21, 2015, the remains of a woman found in South Blooming Grove, New York, were identified as those of Ramona Moore. The 21-year-old woman had last been seen on July 31, 2012, re-entering her apartment in a house near Crotona Park in the Bronx, New York City. In 2014, New York City police had charged her building superintendent, Nasean Bonie, with her murder although there was no body.
Peter Britton Tobin was a Scottish convicted serial killer and sex offender who served a whole life order at HM Prison Edinburgh for three murders committed between 1991 and 2006. Police also investigated Tobin over the deaths and disappearances of other young women and girls.
The Gilgo Beach serial killings were a series of killings between 1996 and 2011 in which the remains of 11 people were found in Gilgo Beach, located on the South Shore of Long Island, New York, United States. Most of the known victims were sex workers who advertised on Craigslist. The perpetrator in the case is known as the Long Island Serial Killer.
Sian Emma O'Callaghan was a 22-year-old British woman who disappeared from Swindon, Wiltshire, England, having last been seen at a nightclub in the town in the early hours of 19 March 2011. Her body was found on 24 March near Uffington in Oxfordshire. On 19 October 2012, at Bristol Crown Court, Christopher Halliwell, 48, of Nythe, Swindon pleaded guilty to O'Callaghan's murder.
Helen Elizabeth Bailey was a British author who wrote the Electra Brown series of books aimed at a teenage audience.
Jenny Nicholl was a woman who disappeared sometime on or after 30 June 2005 from the Richmond area, North Yorkshire, England. In February 2008, David Hodgson was convicted of her murder despite the lack of a body, crime scene or body deposition site. Hodgson was jailed for life, with a recommendation that he serve at least 18 years, after being convicted on DNA and fake text messaging evidence which involved his travelling many miles so as to appear that Nicholl was still alive and camping some distance away from her home town.
Kirsty Marianne Bentley was a teenager living in Ashburton, New Zealand, who went missing while walking her family dog on the afternoon of 31 December 1998. After an extensive search lasting several weeks, her body was found in dense scrub approximately 40 km away. The New Zealand Police consider the case to be a homicide, and it remains one of the highest-profile unsolved murders in New Zealand.
Joy Morgan was a British university student who was murdered by a fellow member of her church. Morgan was reported as last seen on the 26 December 2018, at her local church in East London at a Feast Celebration, but was not officially reported as missing to the Metropolitan Police Service until the 7 February 2019. Shohfah-El Israel, who attended the same church as Morgan, was found guilty of her murder on the 5 August 2019. Morgan's body was later discovered, despite Israel's refusal to reveal its location.
The death of Chan Yin-lam occurred during the 2019 Hong Kong protests, and gave rise to speculations by protesters about its cause. Lam was a 15-year-old student who died on or shortly after 19 September 2019. Her naked corpse was found floating in the sea near Yau Tong, Hong Kong, on 22 September 2019. Following a preliminary autopsy, police asserted that no foul play was suspected and that Chan had killed herself, while there were allegations that she was murdered by Hong Kong authorities in connection with her participation in the 2019 Hong Kong protests. The coroner's inquest concluded with the jury unanimously returning an open verdict, after Magistrate Ko Wai-hung ruled out both homicide and suicide as possible causes due to insufficient evidence to support this.
Mamie Stuart was a 26-year-old English woman who disappeared from her home in Caswell Bay, Wales, in 1919 and whose disappearance became known via the media as the Chorus Girl Mystery. Her husband, George Everard Shotton—who had bigamously married Stuart in 1918—was considered the prime suspect in her disappearance. Although investigators strongly suspected foul play, as no body could be found, Shotton could not be tried for Stuart's murder. He was instead convicted of bigamy and sentenced to eighteen months' imprisonment.
Jessie Earl was a 22-year-old student who disappeared from Eastbourne, England in May 1980. It was not until 1989 that her remains were discovered in thick undergrowth on Beachy Head, where she would regularly take walks. The inquest into her death was criticised and attracted considerable controversy in the long term after it was concluded that there was "insufficient evidence" to determine whether she had been murdered, despite the fact that she had been found with her bra tied around her wrists and without any of her other clothes or belongings. Her parents insisted she must have been murdered, but the inquest into her death recorded an open verdict, leading to the key forensic evidence being destroyed in 1997 since the case had not been classed as murder. Despite this, in 2000 Sussex Police opened a murder investigation after further forensic, scene, witness and pathology inquiries, saying that they believed she was murdered.
On 27 January 2023, British woman Nicola Bulley disappeared whilst walking her dog in St Michael's on Wyre, Lancashire, UK. Lancashire Constabulary said that there was no evidence of either suspicious activity or third party involvement in the disappearance and quickly stated that their working hypothesis was that she had fallen into the River Wyre. However, an extensive search of the river and surrounding land involving police divers, helicopters, sniffer dogs and drones found no body. On 19 February, Bulley's body was found in the river by a man and a woman walking in the area, about one mile downstream of St Michael's on Wyre. The inquest, which concluded in June 2023, determined that Bulley's death was due to accidental drowning.
Rachel Joy Antonio was an Australian teenager who is believed to have been murdered in Bowen, Queensland on 25 April 1998.
