Celebrate Halloween with some chilling murder cases
Grab your favorite Halloween candy, and turn the lights off for these spooky murder cases. Many of the murders occurred on Halloween, at parties, at bars, or when trick-or-treaters ate poisoned candy, and some involve dark nights filled with vampires, paganism, and other elements scary enough to keep you away from Halloween celebrations and trick-or-treaters. From Homicide for the Holidays to Bizarre Murders, these episodes offer something spooky for every true crime junkie.
Homicide for the Holidays: “Halloween Horror” (Season 4, Episode 5)
On Halloween morning 2010, in Oak Harbor, Ohio, Laurie Morse is having trouble getting in contact with Derek Griffin, her nephew, and her sister Sue Liske. When Laurie calls her other nephew, Devon, who is at home, he checks his parents’ bedroom and finds blood. Sue and her husband Bill Liske are dead in the bed. They had been shot multiple times. Upon further investigation of the house, police find Derek dead in his bedroom from blunt force trauma. There is no evidence of forced entry or burglary. Neighbors had heard a banging noise that morning. Police consider whether the murders were part of a cult activity because they occurred on Halloween. When police question Devon, they discover that his stepbrother BJ Liske was at home that morning but was gone by the time Devon returned from church. Further investigation reveals troubling family dynamics and that the killer is close to home.
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Homicide for the Holidays: “All Hallow’s Evil” (Season 4, Episode 5)
It’s Halloween 2012 in Mount Pleasant, Michigan, and Rebekah Gay doesn’t show up for work. Her manager checks her home, but she’s missing and her purse is there. He then finds her car at a bar near her home, but no one had seen her there, and the driver’s seat had been pushed back. Police talk to John White, Rebekah’s mother’s boyfriend, who went to her home to babysit Rebekah’s son on Halloween morning. He says that he talked to Rebekah from another room until she left for work but never actually saw her. Police find blood in the back of his truck, as well as a necklace. They also discover that he had been convicted of attempted murder and involuntary manslaughter in the past.
Dateline NBC: “Under a Halloween Moon” (Season 22, Episode 6)
In this episode, Josh Mankiewicz details the murder of Joel Lovelien, which occurred outside a bar he went to with his fiancée for a Halloween party in 2007 in North Dakota. Lovelien was beaten to death in the parking lot, and police search for the killer among the large group of people in costume. This one has a surprise ending.
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Dateline NBC: “The Halloween Party” (Season 26, Episode 5)
Keith Morrison lends his spooky narration to the story of Chelsea Bruck, who attends a Halloween party as Poison Ivy at a rural property in Michigan in 2014. She disappears that night, and police find her body several months later. She had been sexually assaulted and died from blunt force trauma.
Dateline NBC: “The Night Before Halloween” (Season 19, Episode 53)
It’s Halloween morning 1984, and Robin Hoynes is found dead at Kentucky Fried Chicken in Torrance, California, where she worked as assistant manager. Police find evidence of tampering on the restaurant safe and surmise that Robin had been stabbed in an attempted robbery, yet there were no signs of forced entry. They also discover a few drops of blood on the safe and some foam rubber on the floor. They question William Marshall, a former assistant manager who had been recently fired, but his girlfriend provides him an alibi. Police find a boning knife in his backpack and arrest him, but the district attorney says there isn’t enough evidence to prosecute him, and he is released. With no other evidence, the case goes cold until 2003, when detectives re-interview a key witness and link the foam rubber to the killer.
True Nightmares: “My Beloved Smother” (Season 2, Episode 4)
In 1974, 8-year-old Timothy O’Bryan and his sister Elizabeth went trick-or-treating on Halloween with their father Ron in Pasadena, Texas. At home, they examine their spoils. Tim chooses one piece of candy to eat that night: a giant Pixy Stix. Later that night, Tim becomes very sick and is taken to the hospital, where he loses consciousness and dies. Doctors run tests and find cyanide in his blood. Police canvass the neighborhood and take all the candy from the children and parents, finding a total of four Pixy Stix with cyanide. But none of the neighbors had given them out. So who poisoned Timothy? Further investigation reveals a dark plot.
Dead of Night: “Nothing to Hide” (Season 2, Episode 1)
In Bend, Oregon, it’s Halloween night in 2004, and 21-year-old Nicole Hutchings goes to a Halloween party but doesn’t come home. Her parents call the police, who search for Nicole and talk to other people who attended the party, with no answers. After several months, they notice activity on her credit card but find out that it was her mother using the card. Two and a half years later, Nicole’s friend Suzanne comes forward and tells them more about the Halloween party and who killed Nicole.
Killer Kids: “Vampire and the Essay” (Season 4, Episode 8)
Handsome Devils: “Blood Lust” (Season 1, Episode 4)
The 16-year-old leader of a vampire cult murders Naomi Ruth Queen and Richard Wendorf in 1996 in Florida, the parents of a 15-year-old girl who ran away from home with his group. Although the ringleader was convicted of murder, she was never charged.
City Confidential: “Monsters on Main Street” (Season 7, Episode 1)
Cold Case Files: “Little Girl Lost” (Season 1, Episode 1)
An 11-year-old girl, Shauna Howe, disappears on the way home from a Halloween party in a small town in Pennsylvania in 1992. Police discover her body three days later, but the murder goes unsolved until 2003. The town banned nighttime trick-or-treating for 15 years after the murder.
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Snapped: “William Dennis” (Season 26, Episode 9)
In 1984, pregnant mother Doreen Erbert is murdered on Halloween in California by a man in a wolf mask wielding a machete. The episode is rare coverage of a male killer on the female-focused series.
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Bizarre Murders: “Who Done It” (Season 1, Episode 5)
It’s Halloween night 2006 in Seattle, Washington, and a detective discovers a dead body behind a dumpster at a church, along with a cryptic message on a poster. Police find more messages around the church alluding to other victims. They identify the body as that of a local drug dealer, who had died of a drug overdose. But police learn that the victim had recently converted to Christianity after becoming sober. So why was he dead from a drug overdose? And what about the messages found with the body? Was it murder or accidental? A bag of drugs at the scene reveals the answer.
Bizarre Murders: “Vampire Diaries” (Season 1, Episode 22)
In a ritualistic killing, a teen interested in the occult kills an elderly woman, removes her heart, and drinks her blood. The episode is based on the story of the murder of Maybel Leyshon in the UK in 2001.
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Killer Cases: “Murder Under a Blue Moon” (Season 1, Episode 2)
Family Massacre: “The Smith Family” (Season 1, Episode 8)
American Justice: “Bad Blood” (Season 15, Episode 13)
This case involves the triple homicide by a man who kills his mother, Voncile Smith, and two half-brothers, Richard Thomas Smith and John William Smith, in Florida in 2015. The murder occurs close to the blue moon, and the positioning of the bodies and the killer’s pagan practices make detectives mistakenly think it is a result of witchcraft.
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