10The Suspicious Deaths Of Helen Smith And Johannes Otten
In 1979, Helen Smith was a 23-year-old British nurse working at a hospital in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. On the evening of May 20, Smith attended a party hosted by Dr. Richard Arnot, a surgeon at the hospital, and his wife, Penny. At some point, Helen and a 35-year-old Dutch tugboat captain named Johannes Otten died after an apparent 20-meter (70 ft) drop from the sixth-floor balcony of the Arnots’ flat. Helen’s body landed on the street, while Johannes was impaled on a spiked railing. It was initially believed that the two had become intoxicated and accidentally fell to their deaths while having sex on the balcony. The party caused a major scandal because it had alcohol and fornication, which are both illegal in Saudi Arabia. As a result, the Arnots and most of their guests spent four months in jail. Since Penny Arnot allegedly had sex with another man at the party, she was sentenced to a public lashing for unlawful intercourse. Helen Smith’s policeman father, Ron Smith, thought this overshadowed the investigation into his daughter’s death. Ron believed there was a cover-up and that Helen had been raped and murdered. Medical evidence suggested that Helen’s injuries were inconsistent with a fall from a high place. She may have been already dead when she was placed in the street. There were signs of sexual assault, and she had received a sharp blow to the head. The balcony was also high enough to raise doubts that anyone could have fallen from it accidentally. For 30 years, Ron Smith kept his daughter’s body stored in a Leeds mortuary so a thorough investigation could be conducted. An inquest into the case returned an open verdict, so the circumstances surrounding the two suspicious deaths remain murky.
9The Nude Disappearance Of Wojciech Fudali
On the evening of December 5, 2008, Wojciech Fudali, a 22-year-old Polish-American graduate, went to a party at a friend’s house in Narragansett, Rhode Island and decided to spend the night. The next day, Wojciech’s friends awoke to discover that he was no longer there. All of his belongings, including his car keys, phone, and driver’s license, had been left behind. They initially assumed that Wojciech had just gone for a walk until they noticed something very strange: all of Wojciech’s clothes had also been left behind and were neatly folded on the floor. That same morning, witnesses spotted Wojciech in the area. He was sitting on a nearby dock, completely naked. Sometime after that, he was seen streaking through a bird sanctuary. This was the last time anyone ever saw him. Given the freezing temperatures that day, Wojciech could not have survived very long without clothing, but his body has never been found. Even though Wojciech’s friends thought he seemed depressed and had been exhibiting strange behavior prior to his disappearance, there is still no explanation for his bizarre decision to venture outside during the middle of winter while in the nude.
8The Disappearance Of Randy Leach
High school senior Randy Leach left his Linwood, Kansas home on April 15, 1988 to attend a friend’s party, which was located in a rural area. He borrowed his mother’s sedan to drive there. It is believed that Randy disappeared from the party sometime around 2:00 AM, but no one could confirm seeing him leave. Witnesses reported that Randy looked intoxicated and had trouble walking. At one point, a friend guided him toward his car and was planning to drive him home, but Randy couldn’t find his keys. When this friend tried to find him later on, Randy and his vehicle were already gone. Randy did not return home, and his mother’s sedan was never found. Over the years, a lot of bizarre stories have surrounded this case. The morning after his disappearance, Randy’s parents saw a man who had attended the party driving slowly past their house. After Randy was reported missing, police went to the house where the party was held and were surprised to see that it had already been cleaned up. In the ensuing months, this same house would be destroyed in a fire. Rumors started circulating that Randy had been abducted and murdered by a satanic cult. Another man told police that he had been kidnapped by this cult and had been held in a cave for two weeks, where he saw a body resembling Randy. When authorities searched this cave, they found no evidence to back up his story. In 1993, three men were arrested for the alleged kidnapping and murder but were soon released due to lack of evidence. After more than 25 years, there are still no answers about what really happened to Randy Leach.
7The Disappearance Of Kortne Stouffer
Kortne Stouffer, 21, lived in Palmyra, Pennsylvania with her boyfriend, Brad Herr, and they hosted a party at their apartment on July 28, 2012. Later that night, police arrived at the apartment and broke up the party after responding a complaint. At the time, Brad was under house arrest for a DUI charge, and he was taken into custody because drinking alcohol violated the terms of his probation. After going out to a bar, Kortne and a male friend returned home around 3:00 AM and ran into her neighbors, whom she accused of having called the police. They got into a heated confrontation, so the police were called in again to cool things down. Kortne and her neighbors soon returned to their respective apartments. But then, shortly after 4:00 AM, the neighbors called the police yet again to complain about some loud stomping noises coming from Kortne’s apartment. The police returned but quickly left when neither Kortne nor her neighbors answered their doors. Kortne’s male friend spent the night at her apartment and claimed that when he woke up the following morning, she was gone. Kortne left her vehicle and all of her possessions behind. One of her friends has since claimed that the person who originally called the police to complain about the party is responsible for her disappearance. She believes they intentionally got Brad arrested to search his apartment for money and drugs. They later crossed paths with Kortne and dumped her body in Memorial Lake. Thus far, there is no evidence to support this story, so Kortne Stouffer remains missing.
6The Beating Death Of Joel Lovelien
On October 27, 2007, 38-year-old Joel Lovelien and his fiance donned costumes to attend a Halloween party at the Broken Drum lounge and casino in Grand Forks, North Dakota. At 11:30 PM, Joel went out into the parking lot to take a call on his cell phone. Shortly afterward, he was severely beaten and choked to death on his own blood. A bloody piece of a yellow Halloween costume was found next to his body. The investigation led to 24-year-old nursing student Travis Stay, who wore a yellow lion costume at the bar that night but became so intoxicated that he had no memory of what happened. Travis had bruises on his face and vaguely remembered getting into a fight with someone dressed like a hunter. When DNA testing confirmed traces of Joel’s blood on Travis’s costume, he was charged with murder. However, since Travis was much smaller than Joel, there was doubt about whether he could have beaten him so severely. Travis’s defense team directed suspicion toward a charter bus transporting 40–50 costumed partiers through Grand Forks on the night of Joel’s murder. This party bus made a stop at the Broken Drum, and eyewitnesses reported seeing someone in a hunter costume attacking Travis. The defense’s theory was that people from the bus beat up Travis in the parking lot and killed Joel when he tried to intervene. This would explain why Joel’s blood was found on Travis’s costume. At trial, the jury ultimately believed this scenario and acquitted Travis. Even though some individuals from the party bus were identified and questioned, there is still no definitive evidence to tie anyone to Joel Lovelien’s murder.
5The Disappearance Of Randi Evers
In 1992, three-year-old Randi Evers lived in Las Vegas with his father, Mike, and stepmother, Tina. On the evening of February 15, several guests showed up at the Evers’ apartment to celebrate Mike’s birthday. At approximately 11:30 PM, Mike went to bed, while Tina and her friends left and continued the party at a nearby casino. They left Randi in the care of another guest, and the boy was last seen wrapped in a blanket and sleeping on the living room floor. When Tina returned at 3:30 AM, the guest tasked with watching Randi had passed out on the couch, and Randi was missing. Authorities immediately became suspicious of Mike and Tina, who seemed to show a disturbing indifference to finding out what had happened. Mike actually had to be dragged out of bed by police when he was informed of Randi’s disappearance. Tina’s alibi during the four-hour window when she was gone from the apartment had some inconsistencies, and neither she nor Mike actively participated in the search for Randi. However, even though there are numerous theories about what might have happened to him, there was never enough evidence to substantiate any of them. Mike and Tina moved away with their other two children and divorced, and Randi’s whereabouts are still unknown.
4The Disappearance Of Marie Blee
After attending a dance in Craig, Colorado on November 21, 1979, 15-year-old Marie Blee was driven to a party at a mobile home in Shadow Mountain Village by her friend, Monty Doolin. Some of Marie’s other friends were there and became concerned about the heavy drug use taking place. Marie’s friends left, but she said she wanted to stay and allegedly told Monty that she had already arranged a ride home. There were conflicting reports about whether Marie actually left the party, as witnesses claimed to have spotted her at a local store hours later. However, Marie never did come home that morning, so her parents reported her missing. One week later, Marie’s family received a phone call demanding $5,000 for her return. The call was traced to Monty Doolin, who received two years’ probation for his attempted extortion, but he maintained that hadn’t had anything to do with Marie’s disappearance. Since some witnesses claimed that Marie was doing drugs at the party, rumors circulated that she might have died of an overdose and that her body was buried somewhere. In addition to Monty Doolin, police identified two other persons of interest in the case, who were all seen with Marie on the night she disappeared. One of them, Stephen Skufca, was later sentenced to 12 years in prison on drug charges and died in 2012. However, there are still no answers about what actually happened to Marie.
3The Murder Of Heather Halseth
On June 9, 1979, a group of teenagers attended a party in Milwaukee. The party featured a lot of drugs and underage drinking, and one of the teens was Heather Halseth. After leaving the party that night, Heather was attacked. She was sexually assaulted with sticks and suffocated when dirt was shoved into her mouth. Shortly thereafter, a 15-year-old boy who attended the party (and whose name was withheld from the media) was indicted with second-degree murder and sexual assault. He would be acquitted at his trial in October, but that only scratched the surface of this very bizarre case. The key defense witness at the trial was 18-year-old Jay Kelly Flom. He testified that the defendant remained at the party for most of the night and was likely still there at the time Halseth died. On October 28, shortly after the defendant’s acquittal, Flom’s nude body was found dead in a ditch in the nearby town of Inoxia. He had been shot twice in the head. Shortly before his death, Flom was seen in the company of another individual who had attended the same party. Three days after Halseth’s murder, an anonymous caller advised police to check for evidence in the basement of another 15-year-old boy who’d attended the party. Police found nothing suspicious there, though a polygraph test did indicate that the suspect might be withholding information. Shortly before Flom’s murder, this same 15-year-old was reported missing by his parents, but the report was withdrawn two days later. Officially, the murders of Heather Halseth and Jay Kelly Flom remain unsolved.
2The Disappearance Of Sam Todd
On New Year’s Eve in 1984, 24-year-old Sam Todd went out drinking and partying with his brother and six friends. They wound up at a party at the Puck Building in Manhattan. A couple of hours after the clock struck midnight, Sam told his brother that he’d had too much to drink and his head was spinning, so he’d step outside to get some air and jog around the block. Sam never returned. He left behind his wallet and jacket so was carrying no form of identification at the time. A search of the area turned up no trace of him. A couple of days after Sam was reported missing, an employee at a men’s shelter in the Bowery spotted a man bearing a striking resemblance to Sam. Another witness also claimed to have seen this same man washing car windows in Greenwich Village. Since Sam was known for volunteering in homeless shelters, some people wondered if he had chosen to disappear on his own and start a new life as a transient. However, investigators have theorized that Sam might have been assaulted and struck on the head shortly after leaving the party, causing him to develop amnesia and forget who he was. After 30 years, the whereabouts of Sam Todd are still a mystery.
1The Mysterious Death Of Clayton Miller
On the night of May 4, 1990, 17-year-old Clayton Miller attended a bush party in the community of New Waterford, Nova Scotia, Canada. The party took place in a wooded area known as “The Nest,” a popular hangout for drinking. Sometime that evening, the local police staged a raid on the party. While attempting to flee into the woods, Clayton’s hat flew off his head, and he turned around to retrieve it. This would be the last time he was seen alive. Two days later, Clayton’s body was found in close proximity to The Nest, lying face-down in a shallow stream. His cause of death was initially believed to be accidental drowning, but there were suspicious inconsistencies. Witnesses who had been at the stream the day before claimed that his body hadn’t been there earlier. Even though he had supposedly been in the woods for two days, there were no insect bites on his body. Clayton also had an unexplained gash on his forehead, was missing some teeth, and his elbows had been dislocated. The crime scene was not properly preserved by police. After an autopsy was performed on Clayton, his brain mysteriously went missing. A witness arrested on the night of the party claimed to have seen a young man matching Clayton’s description lying face-down in a cell, but police denied ever having him in custody. On the night of the party, a local resident also allegedly bragged that both he and his cousin had beaten up a kid at The Nest. Clayton Miller’s parents have spent 25 years demanding a more thorough investigation into his death and are still searching for answers. Robin Warder is a budding Canadian screenwriter who has used his encyclopedic movie knowledge to publish numerous articles at Cracked.com. He is also the co-owner of a pop culture website called The Back Row and recently worked on a sci-fi short film called Jet Ranger of Another Tomorrow . Feel free to contact him here.
