This is a list of murdered American children that details notable murders among thousands of cases of subjects who were or are believed to have been under the age of 18 upon their deaths. Cases listed are stated to be unsolved, solved or pending and, in some cases, where the victims' remains have never been found or identified. This list is inclusive only of subjects who have an existing article on the English-language Wikipedia.
Victim(s) | Date of death | Age | Location | Status | Description |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Elsie Paroubek | c. April 8, 1911 | 4 | Chicago, Illinois | Unsolved | Murdered and dumped into a drainage canal. [1] |
Little Lord Fauntleroy | 1920 or 1921 | 5–7 | Waukesha, Wisconsin | Unsolved, unidentified | Found dead in a quarry. [2] |
Babes in the Wood murders (Pine Grove Furnace) | November 24, 1934[ failed verification ] | 8–12 | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania | Solved | Murder–suicide and familicide. [3] |
Victim(s) | Date of death | Age | Location | Status | Description |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Joseph Augustus Zarelli | February 1957 | 4 | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania | Unsolved, identified | Unidentified until 2022. [4] |
Maria Ridulph | December 3, 1957 | 7 | Sycamore, Illinois | Unsolved | A suspect was convicted in 2012, but was eventually exonerated in 2016. [5] [6] |
Sharon Lee Gallegos | c. July 17–24, 1960 | 4 | Congress, Arizona | Unsolved, identified | Kidnapping and murder victim, snatched from right in front of her house. Her body was found in the desert 10 days after her abduction. The exact cause of death remains undetermined, but was ruled a homicide. [7] |
16th Street Baptist Church bombing | September 15, 1963 | 11–14 | Birmingham, Alabama | Solved | Four girls killed in a bombing by the Ku Klux Klan. [8] |
Sylvia Likens | October 26, 1965 | 16 | Indianapolis, Indiana | Solved | Her caretaker Gertrude Baniszewski was sentenced to life imprisonment and released on parole in 1985. [9] |
Jane Durrua | November 5, 1968 | 13 | Keansburg, New Jersey | Solved | [10] |
Marina Habe | December 30, 1968 | 17 | Los Angeles County, California | Unsolved | Daughter of writer Hans Habe and actress Eloise Hardt. Possible victim of Charles Manson’s followers. [11] |
Victim(s) | Date of death | Age | Location | Status | Description |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Dean Corll victims | September 25, 1970 – August 3, 1973 | 13–17 | Houston, Texas | Solved, unidentified | One victim remains unidentified, Harris County John Doe (1973). [12] |
Rhonda Johnson and Sharon Shaw | August 4, 1971 | 14, 13 | Galveston, Texas | Solved | Michael Self convicted in 1975, however murderer Edward Bell later confessed to killing them. [13] |
Alphabet murders | November 16, 1971 – November 26, 1973 | 10–11 | Rochester, New York | Unsolved | The victims were Carmen Colón, Michelle Maenza, and Wanda Walkowicz. [14] |
Timothy McCoy | January 3, 1972 | 16 | Chicago, Illinois | Solved | Victim remained unidentified until 1986; the first known victim of at least 33 of serial killer John Wayne Gacy and the only victim of his to be stabbed. [15] |
Martha Morrison | September 1974 | 17 | Portland, Oregon | Unsolved | Victim remained unidentified until 2015. [16] |
Linda Pagano | c. 1974 | 17 | Akron or Strongsville, Ohio | Unsolved, identified | A teenager who disappeared from her home in Akron, Ohio, on September 1, 1974, following an argument with her stepfather. Initially, Pagano was thought to have run away. On February 5, 1975, a partial skeleton belonging to a young white female was discovered in a park in nearby Strongsville. The young woman had been killed by a gunshot to the head. However, the case was never connected to Pagano's disappearance. Due to a clerical error, the skeleton was not added to NamUs or other databases until 2016, when the case was rediscovered by an amateur genealogist. In 2018, forensic DNA analysis confirmed the remains as belonging to Pagano. Her stepfather, the only potential suspect, died in 1990. [17] |
Gypsy Hill killings | January 24 – February 2, 1976 | 14, 17 | San Mateo County, California | Unsolved | Victims of an unidentified serial killer. [18] |
Oakland County Child Murders | February 1976 – March 1977 | 10–12 | Oakland County, Michigan | Unsolved | During a 13-month period, four children (two girls and two boys) were abducted and murdered with their bodies left in various locations in suburban Detroit. Each child was held alive from 4 to 19 days before being killed. The boys were sexually assaulted. Their deaths triggered a murder investigation which at the time was the largest in U.S. history. [19] The murders are still unsolved. |
Randall Reffett and Samuel Stapleton | May 14, 1976 | 15, 14 | Chicago, Illinois | Solved | Victims of serial killer John Wayne Gacy. [20] |
William Carroll Jr. | June 13, 1976 | 16 | Chicago, Illinois | Solved | Victim of serial killer John Wayne Gacy. [20] |
James Haakenson | August 5, 1976 | 16 | Chicago, Illinois | Solved | Unidentified until 2017; victim of serial killer John Wayne Gacy. [20] |
Kenneth Parker and Michael Marino | October 24, 1976 | 16, 14 | Chicago, Illinois | Solved | Victims of serial killer John Wayne Gacy. [20] |
Evelyn Colon | c. December 13–19, 1976 | 15 | White Haven, Pennsylvania | Pending | Unidentified until 2021; alleged killer has been charged. [21] |
Oklahoma Girl Scout murders | June 12, 1977 | 8–11 | Mayes County, Oklahoma | Unsolved | Three girls murdered while at a summer camp. The prime suspect has since died and DNA samples from the killer are now insufficient to process. [22] |
Robert Winch | November 10, 1977 | 16 | Chicago, Illinois | Solved | Victim of serial killer John Wayne Gacy. [20] |
Brian Glenfeldt and Belinda Worley | January 8, 1978 | 17 | Hialeah, Florida | Solved | Victims of serial killer John Errol Ferguson. [23] [24] |
Bear Brook murders | c. November 1978 | 11 months, 2–4, 7 | Allenstown, New Hampshire | Unidentified (one child) | Four victims total, three were children and one was an adult female. [25] The adult, oldest and youngest victims were identified in June 2019 as Marlyse Honeychurch, Marie Vaughn and Sarah McWaters. Honeychurch was the mother of the two now-identified children, who were half-sisters. The middle child, determined to be the daughter of serial killer Terry Peder Rasmussen, remains unidentified. [26] |
Kerry Graham and Francine Trimble | December 1978 | 15, 14 | Willits, California | Unsolved | Victims remained unidentified until 2015. [27] [28] |
Robert Piest | December 11, 1978 | 15 | Chicago, Illinois | Solved | Final victim of serial killer John Wayne Gacy. [20] |
Devonna Nelson | c. 1979 | 14 | Missoula, Montana | Solved | Presumed victim of probable serial killer Wayne Nance. She remained unidentified until 2009. [29] |
Etan Patz | May 25, 1979 | 6 | New York City, New York | Solved, body never found | Perpetrator sentenced to 25-years-to-life in April 2017. [30] |
Atlanta murders of 1979–81 | July 21, 1979 – March 12, 1981 | 9–14 | Atlanta, Georgia | Solved | Victims of a serial killer. [31] |
Tammy Vincent | September 1979 | 16 | Tiburon, California | Unsolved | Victim remained unidentified until 2007. [32] |
Tammy Alexander | November 9, 1979 | 16 | Caledonia, New York | Unsolved, identified | Teenager shot and left in a cornfield in upstate New York. Alexander was a hitchhiker, having run away from a broken home in Florida, and was never reported missing until years after her death. Known previously as only "Caledonia Jane Doe" or "Cali Doe", Alexander remained unidentified until 2015. [33] |
Sherri Jarvis | November 1, 1980 | 14 | Huntsville, Texas | Unsolved, identified | Victim remained unidentified until 2021. [34] |
Carol Cole | December 1980 | 17 | Bellevue, Louisiana | Unsolved, identified | Victim remained unidentified until 2015. [35] |
Adam Walsh | c. July 27, 1981 | 6 | Indian River County, Florida | Solved | Victim of serial killer Ottis Toole. [36] |
Frieda Powell | c. 1982 | 15 | Ringgold, Texas | Solved, body never found | Henry Lee Lucas, now deceased, confessed to killing his teenage girlfriend while in Texas. Authorities believe his confession, yet efforts to confirm the remains identified by Lucas to be hers were inconclusive. [37] [38] |
Shannah Wicklund | April 14, 1982 | 9 | Clearview, Washington | Solved | Murdered along with her mother and a neighbor in a revenge killing. [39] |
Dawn Olanick | c. Early July 1982 | 17 | Blairstown, New Jersey | Solved | A teenaged murder victim found at the edge of a cemetery. A couple confessed in 2005 to killing her, but without her identity there was not enough information to put a case together. [40] [41] Following Olanick's identification, the couple who confessed in 2005 was charged with her murder. |
Ricky Stetson | August 22, 1982 | 11 | Portland, Maine | Solved | The first of three victims of John Joubert and the only victim murdered in Maine. [42] |
Alisha Heinrich | December 3 or 4, 1982 | 18 months | Moss Point, Mississippi | Unsolved | A toddler thrown from a bridge into a river. Known only as "Delta Dawn", Heinrich remained unidentified until 2020. Her mother, who disappeared alongside her, remains missing. [43] |
Redhead murders | c. 1981–1992 | 9–17 | Various | Unsolved, unidentified | Victims of an unidentified serial killer that were left on the side of highways. Not all presumed victims have been verified to be linked. [44] |
St. Louis Jane Doe | February 1983 | 10 | St. Louis, Missouri | Unsolved, unidentified | Found decapitated and naked from the waist down in the basement of an abandoned building. [45] [46] |
Danny Joe Eberle | September 18, 1983 | 13 | Bellevue, Nebraska | Solved | Second victim of John Joubert. [47] |
Christoper Walden | December 2, 1983 | 12 | Papillion, Nebraska | Solved | Third and final victim on John Joubert. [48] |
Colleen Orsborn | March 19, 1984 | 15 | Daytona Beach, Florida | Solved | Victim remained unidentified until 2011. [49] |
Marcella Bachmann | c. September – October 1984 | 16 | Missoula, Montana | Solved | Presumed victim of probable serial killer Wayne Nance. She remained unidentified until 2006. [29] |
Shari Smith | May 31 / June 1, 1985 | 17 | Lexington County, South Carolina | Solved | A 17-year-old who was abducted from the driveway of her home. Her killer called her family repeatedly to taunt them; even after the victim's death. Larry Gene Bell was later convicted of her murder and executed. [50] |
Debra Helmick | June 15, 1985 | 9 | Richland County, South Carolina | Solved | A girl abducted from her front yard and subsequently murdered by Larry Gene Bell, also responsible for the abduction and murder of Shari Smith. He was later convicted and executed for her murder. [50] |
Aroostook County Jane Doe | December 7, 1985 | Newborn | Frenchville, Maine | Pending | Infant born alive then abandoned who remained unidentified until 2022. Her mother, Lee Ann Daigle, was charged with murder. [51] |
Darcie Frackenpohl | 1987 | 17 | Sacramento, California | Solved | Victim remained unidentified for several months. [52] |
Deanna Criswell | c. November 23, 1987 | 16 | Marana, Arizona | Solved, identified | Victim remained unidentified until 2015. [53] |
April Tinsley | April 1–2, 1988 | 8 | Fort Wayne, Indiana | Solved | Suspect arrested on July 15, 2018. [54] |
Aundria Bowman | c. March 11, 1989 | 14 | Hamilton, Michigan | Pending | A teenager listed as a missing person for over thirty years, after her adoptive parents reported her as a runaway. Her remains were located in February 2020 after her adoptive father confessed to her murder. He was previously charged with the 1980 murder of a woman in Virginia. [55] |
Sue Ann Huskey | c. September 1989 | 17 | Williamson County, Texas | Unsolved, identified | Victim remained unidentified until January 2020. [56] |
Jacob Wetterling | c. October 22, 1989 | 11 | St. Joseph, Minnesota | Solved | Victim remained a missing person for nearly 27 years before the location of his remains was disclosed by Jacob's murderer. [57] |
Victim(s) | Date of death | Age | Location | Status | Description |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Anjelica Castillo | c. July 18, 1991 | 4 | Astoria, New York | Solved | Victim remained unidentified until 2013. [58] |
Mandy Lemaire | August 22, 1991 | 11 | Tazlina, Alaska | Unsolved | Suspect's conviction was overturned in 1999. He died before the completion of the second trial. [59] |
Megan Pratt | c. September 1991 | 3 | Brooksville, Florida | Solved, body never found | [60] |
1991 Austin yogurt shop killings | December 6, 1991 | 13-17 | Austin, Texas | Unsolved | Four girls raped, shot, and burnt in an I Can't Believe It's Yogurt shop in Austin, Texas. [61] |
Holly Piirainen | August 5, 1993 | 10 | Sturbridge, Massachusetts | Unsolved | [62] |
Kori Lamaster | August 1993 | 17 | California | Unsolved | Victim remained unidentified until 2013. [63] |
JonBenét Ramsey | December 26, 1996 | 6 | Boulder, Colorado | Unsolved | [64] |
Amber Creek | February 1997 | 14 | Burlington, Wisconsin | Solved [65] | Subject remained unidentified until 1998. [66] |
Peaches | c. June 15, 1997 | 15–30 | Lakeview, New York | Unsolved, unidentified | Possible victim of an unidentified serial killer. [67] |
Christina Marie Williams | June 12, 1998 | 13 | Seaside, California | Solved [68] | |
Columbine High School massacre | April 20, 1999 | 14–17 | Littleton, Colorado | Solved | A mass shooting where ten children (including Rachel Scott and Cassie Bernall) were murdered, along with two 18-year-old students and a teacher. [69] [70] |
Molly Bish | c. June 27, 2000 | 16 | Warren, Massachusetts | Unsolved | [71] |
Iriana DeJesus | July 30, 2000 | 5 | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania | Unsolved | Presumed victim of FBI Top Ten Most Wanted fugitive Alexis Flores. [72] |
Brittney and Bobby Fisher | April 10, 2001 | 10, 12 | Scottsdale, Arizona | Unsolved | Children of FBI Top Ten Most Wanted fugitive Robert William Fisher. [73] |
Red Lake shootings | March 21, 2005 | 15–16 | Red Lake, Minnesota | Solved | Murder–suicide. [74] |
West Nickel Mines School shooting | October 2, 2006 | 7–13 | Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania | Solved | Murder–suicide. [75] |
Erika Hill | February 25, 2007 | 15 | Fitchburg, Wisconsin | Solved | Victim remained unidentified until 2015. [76] |
Daniel Benoit | June 22, 2007 | 7 | Fayetteville, Georgia | Solved | Murdered by his father, WWE star Chris Benoit, who committed suicide 2 days later. [77] |
Crandon, Wisconsin shooting | October 7, 2007 | 14–17 | Crandon, Wisconsin | Solved | Murder–suicide. [78] |
Caylee Anthony | c. June – December 2008 | 2–3 | Orlando, Florida | Unsolved | Cause of death ruled a homicide by medical examiner. [79] |
Brittney Gary | c. November 2, 2008 | 17 | Jennings, Louisiana | Unsolved | Presumed victim of unidentified serial killer. [80] |
Baby Boy Horry | c. December 3, 2008 | Newborn | Conway, South Carolina | Pending | Cause of death ruled as hypothermia, investigated as homicide. [81] The boy's mother was later arrested in March, 2020, in connection with the homicide. [82] |
Brittanee Drexel | c. Late May 2009 | 17 | Georgetown, South Carolina | Pending | A teenager who disappeared after leaving her home in Rochester, New York to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina without parental permission in April 2009. Her remains were located in 2022 after a suspect, Raymond Moody, confessed to her murder. [83] |
Victim(s) | Date of death | Age | Location | Status | Description |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting | December 14, 2012 | 6–7 | Newtown, Connecticut | Solved | Murder–suicide. [84] |
Bella Bond | June 2015 | 2 | Boston, Massachusetts | Solved | Victim remained unidentified until September 2015. [85] [86] |
Tylee Ryan | c. September 9, 2019 | 16 | Rexburg, Idaho | Solved | Murdered by their mother, Lori Vallow Daybell [87] and her lover (then husband) Chad Daybell. [88] |
J. J. Vallow | c. September 23, 2019 | 7 | |||
Jacob Hall | October 1, 2016 | 6 | Townville, South Carolina | Solved | Hall was mortally wounded on September 28. [89] |
Abigail Williams and Liberty German | February 13, 2017 | 13, 14 | Deer Creek Township, Indiana | Pending | Suspect arrested in 2022. [90] |
Bianca Devins | July 14, 2019 | 17 | Utica, New York | Solved | Perpetrator was sentenced to life imprisonment. [91] |
Tristyn Bailey | May 9, 2021 | 13 | St. Johns County, Florida | Solved | Perpetrator was sentenced to life imprisonment. [92] |
Robb Elementary School shooting | May 24, 2022 | 9–11 [93] | Uvalde, Texas | Solved | |
Covenant School shooting | March 27, 2023 | 9 [94] | Nashville, Tennessee | Solved | |
Jonathan Lewis Jr. | November 7, 2023 | 17 [95] | Las Vegas, Nevada | Solved | |
Ahmir Jolliff | January 4, 2024 | 11 [96] | Perry, Iowa | Solved | |
Gary Leon Ridgway is an American serial killer known as the Green River Killer. He was initially convicted of 48 separate murders committed between the early 1980s and late 1990s. As part of his plea bargain, another conviction was added, bringing the total number of convictions to 49, making him the second-most prolific serial killer in United States history according to confirmed murders.
Christopher Bernard Wilder, also known as the Beauty Queen Killer and the Snapshot Killer, was an Australian-American serial killer who abducted at least twelve young women and girls, killing eight of them during a six-week, cross-country crime spree in the United States in early 1984. Wilder's series of murders began in Florida on February 26, 1984, and continued across the country through Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado, Nevada and California, with attempted abductions in Washington and New York. Wilder victimized attractive young women, most of whom he would entice by promising to take their pictures. After subduing them, he would torture and rape them before shooting, stabbing with a knife, or strangling them to death. Two or more of his victims were electrocuted using a makeshift electrical cord.
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. One of the victims was a female toddler.
The Bear Brook murders are female American murder victims, two discovered in 1985 and two in 2000, at Bear Brook State Park in Allenstown, New Hampshire, United States. All four of the victims were either partially or completely skeletonized; they were believed to have died between 1977 and 1981.
Marcia Lenore Sossoman King was a 21-year-old Arkansas woman who was murdered in April 1981 and whose body was discovered in Troy, Ohio approximately 48 hours after her murder. Her body remained unidentified for almost 37 years before being identified via DNA analysis and genetic genealogy in April 2018. King was one of the first unidentified decedents to be identified via this method of forensic investigation.
Evelyn Colon was a formerly unidentified American teenager from New Jersey who was found murdered and dismembered in three suitcases along with her unborn daughter on December 20, 1976, in White Haven, Pennsylvania. The brutality of the crime, the fact that she was pregnant when she was killed and the length of time that she remained unidentified created national attention.
Sherri Ann Jarvis was an American murder victim from Forest Lake, Minnesota whose body was discovered in Huntsville, Texas on November 1, 1980. Her body was discovered within hours of her sexual assault and murder, and remained unidentified for 41 years before investigators announced her identification via forensic genealogy in November 2021.
Tammy Corrine Terrell was an American murder victim from Roswell, New Mexico. Her body was discovered on October 5, 1980, in Henderson, Nevada, and remained unidentified until December 2021. Her case has been the subject of extensive efforts by investigators and has been highlighted as inspiring other work to solve cold cases of unidentified murder victims.
John Ingram Brandenburg Jr. and Keith Lavell Bibbs were two young murder victims formerly known as the Newton County John Does whose remains were discovered by mushroom foragers in Lake Village, Newton County, Indiana, on October 18 and 19, 1983. Both victims were discovered alongside two other murder victims whose bodies were identified within months of their discovery. All four were victims of serial killer Larry Eyler.
Unidentified decedent, or unidentified person, is a corpse of a person whose identity cannot be established by police and medical examiners. In many cases, it is several years before the identities of some UIDs are found, while in some cases, they are never identified. A UID may remain unidentified due to lack of evidence as well as absence of personal identification such as a driver's license. Where the remains have deteriorated or been mutilated to the point that the body is not easily recognized, a UID's face may be reconstructed to show what they had looked like before death. UIDs are often referred to by the placeholder names "John Doe" or "Jane Doe". In a database maintained by the Ontario Provincial Police, 371 unidentified decedents were found between 1964 and 2015.
The Redhead murders is the media epithet used to refer to a series of unsolved homicides of redheaded females in the United States between October 1978 and 1992, believed to have been committed by an unidentified male serial killer. The murders believed to be related have occurred in states including Tennessee, Arkansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. The murders may have continued until 1992. The victims, many remaining unidentified for years, were usually women with reddish hair, whose bodies were abandoned along major highways in the United States. Officials believe that the women were likely hitchhiking or may have engaged in prostitution.
Carol Ann Cole was a 17-year-old American homicide victim whose body was discovered in early 1981 in Bellevue, Bossier Parish, Louisiana. The victim remained unidentified until 2015, when DNA tests confirmed her identity. Cole, native to Kalamazoo, Michigan, had been missing from San Antonio, Texas since 1980. Cole's killing remains unsolved, although the investigation is continuing.
Margaret Fetterolf was an American murder victim from Alexandria, Virginia, who was discovered on September 12, 1976, in Woodlawn, Baltimore County, Maryland. For 45 years, her body remained unidentified before being identified in September 2021 through DNA testing by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, Bode Technology, and Othram. Prior to her identification, she was known as "Woodlawn Jane Doe", in reference to the area of the county in which her body was found. The murderer, or murderers, have never been apprehended.
Parabon NanoLabs, Inc. is a company based in Reston, Virginia, that develops nanopharmaceuticals and provides DNA phenotyping services for law enforcement organizations.
DNA Doe Project is an American nonprofit volunteer organization formed to identify unidentified deceased persons using forensic genealogy. Volunteers identify victims of automobile accidents, homicide, and unusual circumstances and persons who committed suicide under an alias. The group was founded in 2017 by Colleen M. Fitzpatrick and Margaret Press.
Two days later, her crumpled body was found in a gully, lying against a rock, along an infrequently traveled road in the town of Riga, near the Chili border.