A cold case is a crime, or a suspected crime, that has not yet been fully resolved and is not the subject of a current criminal investigation, but for which new information could emerge from new witness testimony, re-examined archives, new or retained material evidence, or fresh activities of a suspect. New technological methods developed after the crime was committed can be used on the surviving evidence to analyse causes, often with conclusive results.
The Lake Bodom murders is one of the most infamous unsolved homicide cases in Finnish criminal history. On 5 June 1960, at Bodom Lake in Espoo, Uusimaa, Maila Björklund and Anja Mäki and Seppo Boisman (18) were killed by stabbing and blunt-force trauma to their heads while sleeping inside a tent. The fourth youth, Nils Gustafsson, then aged 18, was found outside the tent with broken facial bones and stab wounds. Despite extensive investigations, the perpetrator was never identified and various theories on the killer's identity have been presented over the years. Gustafsson was unexpectedly arrested on suspicion of committing the murders in 2004, but he was found not guilty the following year.
The Claremont serial killings is the name given by the media to a case involving the disappearance of an Australian woman, aged 18, and the killings of two others, aged 23 and 27, in 1996–1997. After attending night spots in Claremont, a wealthy western suburb of Perth, Western Australia, all three women disappeared in similar circumstances leading police to suspect that an unidentified serial killer was the offender. The case was described as the state's biggest, longest running, and most expensive investigation.
The backpacker murders were a spate of serial killings that took place in New South Wales, Australia, between 1989 and 1993, committed by Ivan Milat. The bodies of seven missing young people aged 19 to 22 were discovered partially buried in the Belanglo State Forest, 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) south-west of the New South Wales town of Berrima. Five of the victims were foreign backpackers and two were Australians from Melbourne. Milat was convicted of the murders on 27 July 1996 and was sentenced to seven consecutive life sentences, as well as 18 years without parole. He died in prison on 27 October 2019, having never confessed to the murders for which he was convicted.
Cold Case Files is a reality legal show/documentary on the cable channel A&E Network and the rebooted series on Netflix. It is hosted by Bill Kurtis and the original series produced by Tom Golden. The show documents the investigation of many long-unsolved murders through the use of modern forensic science, and criminal psychology, in addition to recent breakthroughs in the case(s) involving previously silent witnesses.
The Wanda Beach Murders, also known simply as "Wanda", were the unsolved murders of Marianne Schmidt and Christine Sharrock at Wanda Beach near Cronulla in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, on 11 January 1965. The victims, both aged 15, were best friends and neighbours from the suburb of West Ryde, and their partially buried bodies were discovered the next day. The brutal nature of the slayings and the fact that they occurred on a deserted, windswept beach brought massive publicity to the case. By April 1966, police had interviewed some 7,000 people, making it the largest investigation in Australian history. It remains one of the most infamous unsolved Australian murder cases of the 1960s, and New South Wales' oldest unsolved homicide case.
Joseph James DeAngelo Jr. is an American serial killer, serial rapist, burglar, peeping tom, former police officer, and former mechanic who committed at least 13 murders, 51 rapes, and 120 burglaries across California between 1974 and 1986. He is responsible for three known separate crime sprees throughout the state, each of which spawned a different nickname in the press, before it became evident that they were committed by the same person.
Haunting Evidence is an American documentary television series following the travels of a psychic profiler, a spirit medium, and a paranormal investigator. The trio travels the United States investigating "cold case" homicide and missing persons cases. The premise of the series was that this "team of unconventional investigators" could shed new light on unsolved crimes.
The Easey Street murders, often simplified to just Easey Street, refer to the knife murders of two women in Collingwood, Victoria, Australia, an inner suburb of Melbourne, in January 1977. Described as "Victoria’s most brutal crime", the case remains unsolved despite a A$1 million reward being posted in 2017.
The Crawford family murder was the killing of pregnant mother Therese Crawford and her three children at their home in Glenroy, Victoria, Australia, in July 1970. The family car was located at the bottom of a cliff at Loch Ard Gorge in Port Campbell on 2 July with the bodies of the four victims still inside. The husband and father of the decedents, Elmer Kyle Crawford, is the prime suspect in the murders and has not been seen since.
Michelle Eileen McNamara was an American true crime author. She was the author of the true crime book I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer, and helped coin the moniker "Golden State Killer" of the serial killer who was identified after her death as Joseph James DeAngelo. The book was released posthumously in February 2018 and later adapted into the 2020 HBO documentary series I'll Be Gone in the Dark.
My Favorite Murder is a weekly true crime comedy podcast hosted by American comedians Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark. The first episode was released in January 2016. The podcast debuted at #25 on the iTunes podcast charts and peaked at #3 on April 27, 2018. Weekly episodes regularly land within the iTunes' Top 10 Comedy Podcast chart. As of 2020, the podcast gets 35 million downloads per month.
Casefile, is an Australian crime podcast that first aired in January 2016 and is hosted by an Australian man who remains anonymous. The podcast, produced by Casefile True Crime Podcast, is usually released on a Sunday (EST) for three consecutive weeks, with a bonus episode on the fourth week. The series deals with solved or cold criminal cases, often related to well-known murders and serial crimes. Unlike a number of similar podcasts, the series is fully scripted and narrated, while relying primarily on original police or mass-media documents, eyewitness accounts, and interview or public announcement recordings.
I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer is a true crime book by the American writer Michelle McNamara about the investigation of the Golden State Killer. The book was released on February 27, 2018, nearly two years after McNamara's death and two months before an arrest would be made in the case.
Barbara Rae-Venter is a New Zealand-born American genetic genealogist, biologist, and retired patent attorney best known for her work helping police and investigators identify Joseph James DeAngelo as the Golden State Killer. Born in New Zealand, she earned a doctorate at the University of California at San Diego and later completed law school at the University of Texas at Austin. After retirement from her law career, Rae-Venter started researching her family history as a hobby in an attempt to help a family member find his biological family. As part of this work, she was asked to help identify a woman who had been abducted as a child. Her efforts in this case eventually identified Terry Peder Rasmussen as the suspect in the Bear Brook murders in New Hampshire. In 2019 she was included in the Time 100 list of most influential people and in 2018 was recognized in Nature's 10, a list of "people who mattered" in science by the journal Nature. Barbara authored the book I Know Who You Are: How an amatueur DNA sleuth unmasked the Golden State Killer and changed crime fighting forever in 2023.
Bear Brook is an American true crime podcast covering crimes in New Hampshire. The podcast is hosted by Jason Moon and was released through New Hampshire Public Radio.
Joseph William Kappen, also known as the Saturday Night Strangler, was a Welsh serial killer who committed the rape and murder of three teenage girls in Llandarcy and Tonmawr, near his home town of Port Talbot, in 1973. Kappen is also suspected of committing a fourth murder in February 1976.
Jonathan Allore, usually credited as John Allore, was a Canadian actor and podcaster, most noted for his true crime podcast Who Killed Theresa. The podcast started out as a personal exploration of the Death of Theresa Allore, his sister, and later expanded its focus to cover other unsolved crimes.
