ccused him of cheating on her with other women, even though Alex wasn't that kind of person and never showed any interest in anyone else. She also falsely told him that her mother had been informed by his family that his grandfather had passed away, but upon seeing how upset he was, she later admitted that she had lied. Why she did this? Nobody knows. Despite all of this, the couple decided to find their own place in 2016, and they moved to Stewardby. For a while, everything seemed perfect. Alex and Jordan were getting along, their son was healthy, and they loved their new house. Since relationships seemed to be better than ever before, they decided to have another baby, and soon Jordan was pregnant once again. While everything was going great during these days, their house of cards would soon come crashing down, and Alex could have never expected the terror and turmoil that his life was about to crash into. Jordan was still in college at this time. She had classes nearly every day, but as time passed by, she began to grow concerned that Alex may have been sneaking around behind her back while she was gone for the day. As it would turn out, she was right, but Alex wasn't sneaking around with other women, he was sneaking around to visit his family. When Jordan found out about this, she was beyond livid. From this point on, she forced Alex to attend all of her classes with her, so that she would always be able to keep an eye on him. Alex hesitantly agreed, because he couldn't stand the thought of shaking the foundations of his already fragile family. It wasn't long after this that Jordan had set up a fake Facebook profile in Alex's name, and in the months that followed, she contacted his friends via private messages, stating that he wanted nothing to do with them, and that he'd never really considered them as his friends in the first place. Luckily, they quickly caught on and replied that they knew Jordan was the one messaging them, resulting in them being blocked from the fake profile. She also messaged his family pretending to be Alex, telling them that he didn't want any contact with them and that they should just leave him alone. Again, it seems the family knew that these messages weren't from Alex, but from Jordan. By this time, Alex's family had had enough, and they made up their minds to intervene. They knew that the couple had relocated to Stewartby, but when they finally tracked Alex down at his new address, their knocks were ignored despite the couple clearly being home. They were under the impression that Alex didn't want to see them, and so they had no choice but to leave. In the meantime, Jordan's behavior had gotten worse than ever before, and on one occasion, she forced Alex to swallow an entire packet of sleeping tablets, which left him with memory lost for the rest of the evening.  A few days later, the two were driving in their car when, without provocation, Jordan picked up her hairbrush and started assaulting Alex with it, resulting in one of his teeth breaking off. She would later admit to the assault, but maintained that she had never been abusive towards him before, nor she ever kept him from contacting his family. The investigation into this incident more or less ended right there, but things would only get far, far worse from here. During the nights when Alex had fallen asleep before Jordan, he would repeatedly be awoken by blows to his head, which would leave him with scars afterward. During one of these attacks, Alex was unsure what had even happened, and to his shock, he realized that Jordan had assaulted him with a hammer. When questioned by the police later on, Jordan would admit that she had in fact used a hammer to assault him, but inexplicably stated that she never meant to hurt him. But then, investigators found out that she had taken things a step further on a couple occasions, pulling out a knife. Her response to this accusation was even more baffling. She stated that, yes, she had used a knife to assault him, but she only ever cut him and never jabbed him with it, as if that would make things better. It would seem that in her mind, the two actions were vastly different, but in reality, regardless of how things specifically played out, Alex's life was in constant danger. By this time, Alex had started to lose weight in a dramatic way, since Jordan would sometimes not allow him to eat. This would usually be when she wasn't hungry, and so she didn't see the point preparing dinner, and it would seem that she prevented Alex from preparing dinner either. She also started prohibiting him from sleeping in their bed, instead forcing Alex to sleep on the floor. She would later make the excuse that there wasn't space for Alex, since she was sharing their bed with their baby, but this was an obvious lie. Alex knew that he was in trouble by this point. There was no doubt in his mind that he was going downhill physically, but his judgment had become so clouded that he didn't know what to do. He saw no other option than to contact his family for help, and in February of 2017, he contacted his father out of desperation. But when his father arrived at the couple's house, all of the lights were suddenly switched off, and Alex asked him to leave, but he refused to do so. Instead, his father phoned the police since he suspected that Jordan was keeping him from coming outside. He didn't know how right he was. He would seem that for weeks or months leading up to this, Jordan had prevented Alex from leaving the house at any point without her accompaniment or approval. He was to remain in her line of sight at all hours of the day, no exception. When officers arrived later on, they spoke with the couple and told Alex's father that the couple had merely had an argument that the issue had been resolved. They did, however, mention that Alex was seen walking with a limp, but stated that there wasn't much that they could do other than to ensure that the fight was well and truly over. Disappointed by the outcome, Alex's father had no choice but to leave empty handed. It would seem at this point Alex was desperate to get out of the relationship, but Jordan's controlling behavior had gotten so out of control that he had no idea how to deal with it or how to escape the nightmare that he was living. He was now a prisoner within his own home. He couldn't leave. He couldn't sleep. It almost felt as though he couldn't breathe without Jordan's permission.  Alex would later recall that he and Jordan went to see a band perform in Leeds one night, and he thoroughly enjoyed himself. Not only because it was his favorite band, but because he and Jordan were having a good time and he felt as though he didn't need to worry about being abused for once, even if only for one night. But his relief was short lived. The following morning, he woke up in their hotel room to the horrific realization that Jordan was pouring boiling water down his back for reasons unknown. He would later state that he'd started screaming in pain and couldn't understand why she had done this. When Jordan was confronted about this by investigators later on, she merely stated that it was untrue since she had never poured boiling water on Alex while they were in Leeds, with her exact words being quote, never in Leeds, never. On another occasion, Jordan purchased a cheap lie detecting device, which she told Alex to strap to his hand. She quizzed him on things about all kinds of stuff, all the while standing ready with the kettle of boiling water, which she intended to use if he was found by the machine to have been untruthful. To make matters worse, Jordan would reveal a short while later that she'd fallen pregnant yet again. But while most of us would recoil in horror at the thought of this, Alex believed that having another baby together might bring about a change in Jordan's behavior. But as is to be expected, this simply wasn't the case. Their second child, a girl, was born in May of 2017. And for the first few days, Alex did see a change in her behavior. But this wouldn't last long. The couple had started arguing yet again and one night their neighbor had had enough and decided to call the police. The caller would tell the 999 dispatcher that he was certain someone was being assaulted since he heard a man asking someone to stop hurting him and to get off of him. When officers arrived at the scene, they had to knock and call out several times before the door was opened by Jordan. The first officer to see her stated that she didn't seem in any way distressed. And she calmly stated that there had been an incident in which Alex had hurt himself. She added that he had a history of self-harm, which was of course untrue. But when the officer asked Alex whether this was the case, he stated that it was, likely out of fear that he would be assaulted if he contradicted her. It would later come to light that Jordan had been assaulting Alex with a bread knife. In an effort to defend himself, he had to put his hand in front of his face to avoid being cut and in the process sustained a serious injury to his hand. After the police left, Alex went to a local hospital where he received stitches. And since the police officers couldn't see any evidence that a crime had been committed, they took the couple's word that the injury was self-inflicted, and hence could do nothing further. The injury to Alex's hand was so severe that he needed surgery. But before this could happen, Jordan arrived and decided that he needed to go home instead. Hospital staff were quick to realize what was going on, and they tried to convince him to stay if only to undergo the necessary procedure. Alex was then seen by a consultant who asked him if he was sure that he wanted to leave since he felt that it would be unsafe. But Alex assured him that everything would be all right, so he left the hospital and went home with Jordan. He would later admit that in that moment, he knew he had a chance to reveal everything that had been done to him, but he was frightened at what the repercussions would be the next time that he was alone with Jordan. A few days later, the same officer who had been called to the house before returned to the property for yet another domestic incident report. In this time, he sat Alex down to ask him whether he was being abused while he ordered Jordan to stay downstairs. But Alex stated that he and Jordan had merely been arguing since they were under a lot of stress. In body cam footage of the incident, it becomes clear that the officer doesn't believe him and decides to take Alex out of the house. He escorted Alex to his patrol car and asked him to finally tell the truth since they were in a safe environment where they couldn't be overheard. Alex stuck to his story for a short while, but eventually relented and admitted that he had been suffering abuse at Jordan's hand for years. But he pleaded with investigators to only rely on neighbors' reports since he didn't want Jordan to find out that he'd been the one to accuse her of a crime. Officers returned to the house and informed Jordan that she was being placed under arrest for assault and that she would be taken to the police station for questioning, where she would be allowed to tell her side of the story. The officer would later report that Jordan mistakenly thought that she would only be out of the house for an hour or so, and that she'd be allowed to leave as soon as she had, quote, cleared everything up. Alex was then taken back to the hospital, where the true horrific nature of his injuries was revealed. Due to the head trauma that he had sustained, fluid had built up on his brain, and doctors informed him that if he hadn't received treatment when he did, he likely would have lost his life in about 10 days. When interviewed later by investigators, Alex stated that he never lashed out at Jordan in self-defense since he didn't want to hurt her. He added that he never reported the abuse since he believed it would stop one day and that the relationship would turn out to be okay. After being questioned by police and admitting to the abuse that she'd inflicted on Alex, Jordan was charged with 17 counts of grievous bodily harm and controlling or coercive behavior. She pleaded guilty to three of the charges, and in April of 2018, she was found guilty and handed two seven-year sentences to be served at the same time. She also received six months for the controlling or coercive behavior, becoming the first woman in UK history to be convicted of that charge. After being released from the hospital, Alex moved back in with his family, who were all too happy to see him home and safe. Jordan would eventually be released in 2023 after serving just five years of her sentence when it was found that she'd no longer posed a risk to her surrounding community. She'll never be allowed to contact Alex again, and Alex has since gone on to become a football or soccer coach and is now an ambassador for a charity against domestic violence called the Mankind Initiative, who also sponsors his football team. Alex is vowed to do everything within his power to spread the word of Jordan's abuse, but in a positive way, hoping to inspire other victims to take any opportunity they can to get out of an awful situation, such as the one that he had to live through. He's also started hosting talks in which he informs others of the signs of domestic abuse, and he's since stated that he's learning how to cope with the trauma and the memories of the abuse against him. He's now concentrating on the life ahead of him and creating a promising future for his children. There's been no word on what happened with Jordan after her release, but considering she's now prohibited from ever speaking to Alex again, I think I can speak for everyone when I say who even cares what happened to her. Good riddance. It's not often that cases like this have a happy ending, so let this be a lesson to all of us. You're worth a lot more than you probably give yourself credit for. We're all above being abused, talked down to, or physically assaulted. I've said it in past videos, it can never be too early to get out of a bad situation, but it can always be too late. Holly Bobo was a 20-year-old girl from Tennessee who was studying to become a nurse. Midway through her studies, Holly unexpectedly went missing in April of 2011. The last time anybody saw Holly alive was when she was spotted by her brother inside the family's garage, speaking with a man sounding distraught and terrified. This unidentified man kidnapped Holly and forced her into a nearby patch of woods. Police recall that it was too late. By the time they arrived, the man was gone. Holly Bobo was your average girl from Darden, Tennessee. She loved all things outdoors, as is evidenced by the many photos showing her and her family in camouflage outfits wandering the wilderness. But Holly wasn't the outgoing woman that she may have appeared to be on the outside. She was actually quite shy and timid, but was certainly confident in herself as an individual. Holly grew up in Darden, Tennessee, a relatively small community with a population of just under 3,000 people. Darden appears to be a fairly quiet, secluded area as far as I can tell, a great place to raise a family. Most people regard Darden as a middle class community, with crime being very low and the cost of living being equally low. All things considered, Darden is the perfect place to settle down and begin life with the people that you hold close. When she wasn't spending time with her family in Darden, Holly was attending her usual college classes in Parsons at the University of Tennessee's Martin Parsons Center, studying to become a nurse. This center was a relatively small building that housed a few hundred students, predominantly teens and young adults, who were studying for a profession in the medical field. You could think of this campus as somewhat of an outlet, so to speak. For example, you may see large clothing stores in major cities take coals for example, but in smaller towns you may only have access to a coals outlet, which is more or less just a smaller version of coals with fewer options. Well, that's essentially what the Martin Parsons Center is, just a small outlet version of the much larger University of Tennessee, which is several cities away in Knoxville. Despite being a small town with a large college community though, Parsons wasn't too far off from Darden, both in terms of location and amenities. Parsons is also a very small town, and there isn't much really going on here outside of college classes and a few small shops. Parsons would be a great place to visit to get away from all the noise and interference of daily life, but it certainly wouldn't be the place where you would expect a strange, shockingly violent crime to occur, one that would gain nationwide attention and lead police on a multi-year hunt for a dangerous criminal. It was the morning of April 13, 2011. Holly woke up early that morning at around 4.30 a.m. to begin studying for an upcoming exam. Everything went as expected for several hours.  By this point, Holly's parents had already left for work, and Holly's brother, Clint, was asleep in his bedroom. It would be just 12 minutes later at about 7.45 a.m., when Holly would make her final phone call. After this, every call and text that rang through would remain unanswered, leaving Holly's family desperately wondering what could have happened. Just minutes after Holly ended the call with her boyfriend, neighbors reported hearing screams coming from the Bobo household. The neighbor, a young man who lived with his parents, called his mother to report what he had heard. The mother, in turn, called Holly's mother to let her know that something was wrong. By this point, Holly's brother had been woken up by the family dogs barking and growling, so he jumped up to go see what was going on. As he looked out the window, he reported that he saw Holly and an unidentified man standing near the family's garage. He mentioned that the man looked remarkably similar to Drew, Holly's boyfriend. In fact, at first, he believed the man was Drew. He said that it seemed as though the two were kneeled down looking at one another. They were talking back and forth, but he couldn't make out anything that they were saying. All he knew was that Holly sounded incredibly upset, but she wasn't saying much. The man was doing most of the talking. The only thing Holly's brother was able to make out was that Holly at one point replied to the man saying no, then later began asking him why. At some point during the argument, Holly's brother Clint received a call from his mother. Clint detailed everything that he had seen to his mom, adding that he thought Holly and Drew were breaking up in the garage. It was clear at this point, Clint had no idea that Holly was in danger, but that's when Holly's mother told Clint that's not Drew. Clint was then ordered by his mother to fire at the man, but Clint was in disbelief. While he couldn't see the man clearly, he fully believed that this was Holly's boyfriend.  It seems likely Holly's mother grew frustrated at this point because she hung up the phone and called the police. But because she was calling from her work phone, her number rang through to the wrong county of officers, wasting precious time and ultimately giving the unidentified man further time to conceal the situation even further. By the time Clint was informed of all this and looked out the window again, the two had already left the garage and were headed towards the nearby woods. It was at this point that Clint finally realized for himself this man was not Drew. He was much larger than Drew, but Clint still couldn't get a good look at him. Clint tried to call Holly's phone at this point, but she obviously didn't answer. He tried to call Drew as well, but Drew wasn't answering. By this point, Holly's mother called Clint once again, saying that she was having no luck contacting the police. She asked Clint to call the police instead, and Clint then grabbed his weapon and headed outside. And that's when he found red stains near the garage that presumably belonged to Holly. It was at this point that he agreed to call the police. It would take investigators around 10 minutes to reach the Bobo household, by which point Holly and the suspect were long gone. Police searched the area, but they didn't find anything that would lead them to either Holly or the criminal. Police requested phone records for Holly's phone, and they soon began using the GPS data from her device to pinpoint her last known location. They quickly determined that her cell phone had traveled through the woods near her home just as Clint had suggested. Movement stopped near Interstate 40, then picked up again, returning in the direction from where the device originally came from. Detectives were sent out to investigate the section of woods where the phone movement had stopped, but they came up empty handed. The area didn't appear to have been recently disturbed, and there were no signs of Holly. Unfortunately, this left officers at a dead end, as the case reached its first roadblock. But search teams were about to uncover mountains of evidence pertaining to Holly's case. After they uncovered Holly's personal items that had been scattered all throughout the town, almost as if the suspect was taunting the family and the locals. When officers went back to the family home and began speaking with Clint, he described the unidentified man as being about 5'10 and maybe as tall as 6 feet, weighing about 200 pounds with dark hair and a hat. He added that the man appeared to be wearing mossy oak brand camouflage and that he had a very deep low voice. He couldn't make out any distinguishing features about the man's face. And considering Parsons was a fairly rural town filled with hunters and outdoorsmen, the description that Clint gave police essentially described every male living within a 30 mile radius. Search teams were sent all over the town to search for any clues or possible witness sightings. It didn't take investigators long to come across several pieces of evidence scattered all throughout the town. As police patrolled the area, they found several items that belonged to Holly abandoned throughout the town. They found her lunchbox, a receipt with her name on it, a card from her school and some reports even claimed that they found her cell phone and later her SIM card, though other reports indicate that the phone and SIM card were found in the woods much closer to Holly's home, so take that as you will. Police initially narrowed down their list of suspects and began investigating one man in particular named Terry Britt. Terry was a registered offender who fit the bill of the man that Clint had seen in the garage that day. Investigators went as far as wiretapping Britt's home and searching his property, but they ultimately found nothing of interest and he was cleared as a suspect. It wouldn't be until three years later in 2014 that the case would see any more progress. Gen scene hunters were traveling through the woods near Interstate 40 when they came across a crime scene unlike anything they could have ever expected. Police were called to the scene and they unfortunately revealed that they had uncovered the partial remains of Holly Bobo. She was about 20 miles away from Darden. When investigators spoke with the owner of the property, he revealed it wasn't uncommon for locals to hunt in the area without permission, so he wasn't too terribly shocked that the hunters and investigators managed to find her there all these years later. When investigating the scene of the crime, police revealed that bones had been scattered all throughout the area, but that Holly had likely lost her life after taking a single round to the head. It was at this point that police revealed that they'd honed in on their primary suspect, but as it would turn out, they'd been investigating the man for at least six months prior to this discovery. But what makes things incredibly strange is that he was just one of six men who are believed to have had connections to Holly's case, and that's only the tip of the iceberg. The first of the arrests in Holly's case took place in March of 2014, several months before the discovery of the crime scene. Zach Adams, his brother Dylan, and their friend Jason were all suspected of aggravated kidnapping. On top of this, police had enough evidence to suggest that the men had taken advantage of Holly before claiming her life. After bringing these three in for questioning, police also arrested two other men who they believed helped to conceal Holly's remains. There was another man who investigators believed may have been involved as well, but he claimed his own life before he could be properly investigated. One detail that we don't know much about is what led police to suspect any of these men had any connection to the case. For some reason, police have never explained this aspect of the investigation, though it's probably safe to assume that it's either none of our business as it may have been a private matter or to protect the integrity of the investigation or both. We just don't know. The only thing we know for sure is that Dylan Adams had been arrested on an unrelated weapons charge in 2014. While he was speaking with police, Dylan explained that he had seen Holly alive at his brother's house quite some time after her abduction. The details of a search warrant claimed that Dylan had witnessed Holly at Zach Adams' home on April 13, 2011, the same day that Holly disappeared. Dylan revealed that he'd visited his brother's home that day to borrow his truck, but when he went inside, he noticed Holly sitting in a chair in the living room in a very bad state. Dylan claims that his brother then revealed that he'd taken advantage of Holly and recorded the entire ordeal, but this recording has never been found. Dylan also explained that Zach had been wearing camouflage clothing that day, which matched the description that Holly's brother had given to investigators. The only problem with all this information is that Dylan would later recant his confession, claiming he was coerced by investigators. Worse yet, this seems to be true because some of the finer details that he'd shared with police simply don't add up with the evidence that's been uncovered, and this may be why the aforementioned video has never been found because it doesn't exist. Regardless of this, the confession proved to be useful enough to allow investigators to arrest Zach Adams, Jason Autry, and Shane Austin, all three of which were men who police heavily suspected were involved in the case, with Shane being the man that I mentioned a moment ago who took his own life before going to trial. This left Zach and Jason to tell their side of the story. In a dramatic turn of events, it didn't take police long at all to convince Jason that he would be looking at spending the rest of his life behind bars if he didn't help investigators close the case. Naturally, he changed his tune rather quickly once he was in police custody, and offered to testify against Zach in exchange for a lesser sentence. Police agreed to these terms and it was at this point that the case was blown wide open. In the months leading up to the trial, an attorney for Shane Austin, the man who took his own life, spoke out against the police who were investigating the case, and announced that detectives had no evidence against Shane whatsoever. He claims that police were pursuing theories, hearsay, and rumors rather than actual evidence. He claims that they continually threatened Shane, leading him to believe he was going to be pinned for a crime that he didn't commit. His attorney claims that this is the reason why Shane took his life, and his family holds the police responsible for his demise. There's been no word of any lawsuits that may be filed, but I think it's safe to say that those will eventually be coming sooner or later. But by September of 2017, Zach Adams was sent to trial. During his trial, it was alleged that Clint, Holly's brother, actually knew her attackers. Jason, the man who agreed to testify against Zach, claims that he, Zach, and Dylan had all visited the Bobo household that day in order to teach Clint how to make illegal substances. At some point during this process, Holly found out about it and began to freak out, exiting the house while shouting. These would have been the shouts that the neighbor initially heard prompting the police to be called a short while later. This would have explained why Clint was so reluctant to spring into action when it became painfully clear that his sister was in trouble because he knew the attackers and what they were capable of. Once Holly began shouting and trying to flee the home, the man allegedly grabbed her and abducted her in order to keep her quiet. They later took her to a barn where they took advantage of her and took her life. The only problem with these allegations is that Clint claims they're untrue and there's no real evidence to suggest that things took place one way or the other, so we're ultimately forced to take them as nothing more than hearsay and false rumors. Both Jason and Dylan gave conflicting accounts about what took place on the day that Holly disappeared. The most accurate form of the story that I can gather seems to suggest that following whatever took place at Holly's home that day, Holly was taken to the aforementioned barn. Zach, Dylan, and Jason were all involved somehow or another, with Zach being the mastermind behind the operation. Zach eventually attempted to claim Holly's life, then rolled her up in a rug, placed her in the back of his truck, taking her out to the woods off of Interstate 40. But once the trio arrived in the woods, they learned that Holly was still alive. This is what led to the single round to the back of her head. This weapon was later found abandoned in a body of water cleared of any fingerprints or DNA. Before his trial, Zach's girlfriend had spoken out against him, claiming that he had admitted to the crime and claimed he'd do the same thing to her if she mentioned a word of it to anyone. Zach had allegedly also threatened his brother, Dylan, with the same consequence if he spoke to anyone about the case. In the end, Zach was found guilty of all charges. He was sentenced to life in prison, with Dylan, his brother, being given 50 years, serving 35 before parole will be considered. Jason, on the other hand, doesn't appear to have played any active role in the crime outside of helping the two brothers cover their tracks. For his participation in the trial and the conviction, it appears as though he was allowed to walk away a free man. I need to reiterate, the story of Holly's abduction and her subsequent demise have not been fully proven. There were so many lies and rumors being tossed around during the trial that it's difficult to make heads or tails of the situation. The story I shared regarding the consequences of events leading to Holly being dumped in the woods is purely the aspects of the story that make the most sense based on the evidence that's been found. In the end, there's so much more to the story that I couldn't share here because it would take literal hours to cover every aspect of the investigation and the arrests. So I'd urge you, if you're interested, take a closer look at this case on your own and establish your own conclusions. All we know for sure is that, for one reason or another, Holly was taken from this world far too soon by two sadistic and evil brothers who had nothing better to do with their time than wreak havoc on a small town and torment a young woman who just wanted nothing more than to live her life in peace. Holly's tragic demise has left a permanent scar on an otherwise beautiful town and her memory will not be soon forgotten. Alexis Rasmussen was invited to the home of Eric and Dee Millerburg one night in 2011 under the pretense of babysitting for the couple while they spent the night out. Alexis needed the extra money and knew the couple well so she agreed. But Eric and Dee had no plans of heading out that evening and instead subjected Alexis to a night of terror like nothing she could have ever imagined. This case is going to be very difficult to cover, but it's also a very important case to talk about. Alexis Rasmussen was, by every definition, your typical teenage girl. She was born in January of 1995, making her just 16 years old at the time of the crime in 2011. Alexis was a girl who seemed excited about what the future had in store for her. Some of her favorite hobbies included reading, dancing, and shopping, but more than anything she loved hanging out with her friends. Alexis had a strong support system of girls her age, friends she could tell anything to, but Alexis' life was far from perfect. We don't know much about Alexis' home life or her relationship with her parents, but what we do know is that she had a brother that she loved dearly. The two would fight all the time, but not in any serious way. It was always your typical sibling rivalry and things rarely ever got out of hand. Alexis knew that she had a family that cared about her deeply, and she knew she could depend on most of her family members when she needed them the most. But unfortunately, Alexis was battling demons that her parents never knew about.  Alexis met Dee and Eric Millerberg in the spring of 2011. She'd been looking for a way to make some extra pocket money for when she went shopping with her friends, and she felt like babysitting would be a great way to make some extra cash. So when she found out that the Millerbergs were needing someone to watch over their children every once in a while, she jumped at the opportunity. It didn't take long for the Millerbergs to become close friends with Alexis. After all, she had a strong, likeable personality and the Millerbergs seemed like great people. But Alexis would soon learn that there was far more going on within the Millerberg family than she could have ever imagined. The problem is that Alexis looked up to the couple. Now, Alexis had parents who loved her dearly, and she seemed to have been well aware of her parents' love and support for her. But as I'm sure we all know, when you're a teen, you're looking for literally anyone to look up to except your parents. It's a time in life when you're doing your best to discover your own identity outside of your family and your parents. So Alexis dove headfirst into the Millerbergs' lifestyle and friendship, feeling like she'd finally found a place where she truly belonged, a place where she could discover new things about herself and begin blossoming into an adult. She had a lot of respect for the Millerberg family, so she began spending more and more time with the couple. But what began as a simple babysitting opportunity quickly turned into much more, more than Alexis could have ever bargained for, and certainly more than Alexis' parents knew about. As it would turn out, even though Alexis looked up to the Millerbergs as role models, Eric and Dee were far from being model citizens. In fact, if you ask me, they proved themselves to be some of the worst people I've ever talked about on true crime stories, and you guys know that's certainly saying a lot. Eric and Dee, in a span of about six months, would turn a beautiful 16-year-old girl into a shell of her former self. Alexis became someone her friends could barely recognize, losing all sense of self and purpose and becoming trapped in an addiction that few people are able to make it out of. Before I go any further, I need to make one thing clear that the timeline of events and specifics of this case all come from testimonies given by the perpetrators, not the victim or her family. Alexis' family has been largely silent about this case, and that's to be expected. Her family was grieving a loss that most of us couldn't even fathom, so you can't blame them for just wanting to maintain their privacy. Unfortunately, that means that we don't have much clarity on certain aspects of the case, and we basically just have to take the Millerbergs word for it. So if any of you guys happen to have known Alexis' family, or maybe lived in the area where this occurred, then feel free to clarify any details that may be inaccurate in the comments below. But according to the Millerbergs, after Alexis had babysitted for the family a handful of times, their relationship began to grow. Instead of only coming over to babysit, Alexis began coming over just to hang out with the family. It was during one of these visits that the Millerbergs offered Alexis alcohol. Keep in mind, Alexis was only 16 and the legal drinking age in the US is 21. Now, it's no secret that teens often end up finding alcohol at a much younger age anyway, but the Millerbergs openly offered it to Alexis on a regular basis, so she considered their home to be a place to get away from all the rules and regulations of her everyday life. It was a place where she could just hang out and be herself without being judged by everyone around her. Now, I'm sure most of us can get over the idea of alcohol, but the Millerbergs very quickly began upping the ante.  Now, I'm not talking about the typical stuff that your uncle probably grows in the back of his garden, I'm talking about the stuff that you often hear about in trailer parks and what not when someone's house explodes in the middle of the night. The Millerbergs had quickly turned Alexis into an addict, a functioning one, but still an addict nonetheless. In fact, towards the end of her life, Alexis would begin accepting payment in the form of these substances rather than asking the couple for cash. These mind-altering experiences turned an innocent teenage girl into a fragment of the girl that she used to be. And soon enough, things got even worse if you could possibly imagine such a thing. Now, I'm gonna be very careful how to word this next statement because it's not something most of us need to hear, but it is important in painting an accurate picture of Eric and D. I'm sure we all know that when you're married, there are certain aspects of your relationship that you want to keep behind closed doors. But in the Millerberg household, doors were always open and anyone was allowed to join in. Sometimes it was even encouraged and Alexis was around for all of this. To call this sickening would be a disservice to children everywhere. This by all accounts is maddening and I can't wrap my head around how broken a human being must have been to be involved in something like this, but the worst is yet to come. It was September 10th, 2011. Alexis had been invited over to the Millerberg home because the couple needed to head out to go shopping for their daughter's birthday. But no sooner than Alexis arrived, plans changed. No babysitting or shopping ended up happening that day. Within minutes of Alexis arriving at the house, Eric offered her a mixed cocktail of various things. He injected her at least three times within a matter of minutes.  Eric and Alexis then went to the bedroom for some private time away from D, but after a short while, Alexis' mind had begun to shift. She went from having the time of her life to feeling like she was living in a nightmare. Her thoughts began to spiral and D says that she began to freak out. Before long, she was completely disoriented and it started to get extremely cold. Blankets and sheets weren't nearly enough, so she asked the Millerbergs if she could take a hot bath to try to get warm. After about 45 minutes, D came in to check on her and found that she was still cold. D helped her get out of the bath and wrapped her in a blanket, helping her lie down in another bedroom. The couple reportedly assumed that she would be fine and would snap out of it, but she never did. She only got colder and colder, but there wasn't much the Millerbergs could do for her, at least not in their eyes. After a short while, Eric and D stepped outside for a cigarette. They came back inside about 30 minutes later and found Alexis completely unresponsive. D was the only person who even remotely tried to help her. When she noticed Alexis wasn't breathing, she attempted to perform CPR, but it didn't help. The obvious choice here would have been to call 911 for help, but neither D nor Eric were prepared to do this. According to D, her first thought was that the two were going to lose their kids. Their lives, as they knew it, would essentially be over. They didn't feel like there was any hope for Alexis, so they never called anyone. What's really interesting about this decision is that D is a registered nurse and Narcan would have been an obvious option. Narcan can be administered after an overdose like this, and most of the time, it can bring someone back from the break. I've seen the miracles that it can work firsthand. Most ambulances keep it on hand for situations like this, so a simple 911 call would have almost certainly saved Alexis' life. But the Millerbergs weren't willing to do this. Instead, they let Alexis lose her life cold, alone, and terrified. Police revealed later on that at the time of the crime, Eric was on parole for a prior burglary charge and a firearm charge. He was also known to be in a prison gang. D, on the other hand, had outstanding court dates after she was arrested for writing fraudulent prescriptions and for child endangerment charges. The seemingly clean-cut couple that Alexis had looked up to were very quickly turning out to be little more than thieves and criminals. Faced with the fact that, in their eyes, they had nowhere else to turn, the couple decided to stuff Alexis into a footlocker, later taking it out to the trunk of their car. They then left the home, leaving their 6-year-old daughter behind, unattended for hours. But thankfully, they took their toddler with them. Now, I say thankfully, but really, these two were driving all over the place higher than you could imagine, and a small child was in the back seat and a body was in the trunk. There's really nothing to be thankful for here, so maybe thankfully isn't the best word to describe this situation, but at least the kid wasn't alone, though he may have been better off that way. The two eventually made their way to a remote patch of woods where they took Alexis out of the footlocker and dumped her body, face down in the dirt. They then covered her up with sticks, leaves, and dirt so that she couldn't easily be seen by passersby. The couple then drove to a dumpster and threw out Alexis's purse. They then drove to another dumpster and cut the carpet out of their car, trying to throw it away to remove any evidence that may have been left behind. They then drove home and acted like the whole thing never happened. After the couple finished up with one of the most disturbing crimes anyone could imagine, they moved on with their life. Meanwhile, the lives of the Rasmussen family were falling apart from every angle. Alexis's parents desperately waited for her to return home that day, but she never arrived. Obviously, before long, she was reported missing to the police, but there was absolutely no trace of her to be found. I'm not sure if her parents knew that she'd been heading over to babysit for the Millerburg family that day. Reports haven't really suggested where all police may have looked for her, but I would wager that her parents weren't aware of these plans, even though she planned on being out for several hours that day. What we do know is that Alexis had run away from home at least once before, so the family seems to have been operating under the assumption that she was just hiding out somewhere likely with friends. No one would ever have expected such a heart-breaking scenario would have played out behind the family's back. The truth is, police likely would have never found out the truth if it hadn't been for one man, Eric Smith, also known as Peanut. According to the police, they had no idea that Alexis was in trouble or that she'd gotten involved with the wrong crowd. Peanut was a member of the same prison gang as Eric Millerburg, and there are varying accounts about how Peanut became involved in the crime. One source claims that Peanut was with Eric and Dee when they disposed of the evidence, but another source says that Peanut was simply told about the crime after it happened. Either way, Alexis had been missing for more than a month. The crime had begun to weigh heavily on Peanut's mind. He knew how desperate Alexis' family must have been, and when he finally came forward, he told police that he wanted to reveal what had happened to Alexis to put her family at ease. He only requested that he be given immunity for keeping the crime a secret for so long, and police agreed to this. When they asked him why he suddenly had a change of heart, Peanut responded with one simple statement, saying, I also have a 16-year-old daughter. Peanut came clean to the police, revealing every last detail he had ever heard about the case. He even offered to lead police to the dump site. When the police rode out to the patch of woods, he took them directly to the area where Alexis had been left behind, finally bringing this nightmare to an end, at least for investigators. The truth is, for the Rasmussen family, the nightmare had only just begun. Police were quick to track down the Millerburgs, arresting them both and sending them to trial. The court case had a bit of a twist that I for one certainly didn't see coming. When Dee was asked about what had taken place that day, she responded that she was willing to open up about everything, but she wanted to be protected from her husband during the trial, and she wanted a lighter sentence in exchange for her cooperation. Her husband, on the other hand, wouldn't say a single word to investigators or detectives. Dee then turned her back on her husband and explained everything, every last detail about the couple's relationship with Alexis, and the events that transpired on that fateful day in September. In exchange for her participation, Dee received descendants of just five years in prison. Eric, on the other hand, didn't get off so lightly. He may be expecting that he was sent to prison for life, but he wasn't, well, not really anyway. Eric was found guilty of three major crimes, homicide, obstruction of justice, and one charge for having relations with Alexis when she was still a teen. Even though Alexis technically consented to it, though she was obviously under the influence of who knows what so consent is highly debatable, but one of these charges has a sentence of one to 15 years, another has a sentence of up to five years, and the final charge has a sentence of five years to life. The only problem is that Eric will be eligible for parole in 2046. While this may seem like a long way away, it's not. There isn't a sentence long enough for Eric, and a mere five years certainly isn't long enough for Dee either. In fact, Dee has already been released, and she's now a free woman. But the Rasmussen family will never be free. Nothing can ever bring back Alexis, and nothing could ever atone for the nauseating crimes that Eric and Dee committed. Alexis had such a bright and vibrant future ahead of her, but she lost it all because of these pathetic, repulsive monsters. Rachel Barber was 15 years old in 1999 when she went missing after a dance recital. She was last seen alongside her babysitter that afternoon, but investigators found no trace of her after this. But detectives did find a disturbing diary entry written just days before she vanished, in which her babysitter confessed to what really happened that day. Rachel Barber was born on September 12, 1983. She was the oldest of three sisters and had parents who were deeply involved in her life, doing their best to provide her with everything she could have ever wanted. Her mother, Elizabeth, and her father, Michael, had been together for many years, and Rachel's home life was the very definition of healthy and typical for a girl her age. Sometime around 1992 or 1993, Rachel and her family moved to Mont Albert, hoping for better opportunities. It was around this time that the family met a young girl named Carolyn Reed Robertson. Carolyn quickly became a friend of the family, with Rachel's parents often hiring her to help babysit the children. Carolyn would grow up alongside Rachel and her siblings, but she was around four years older and certainly more mature than the young Barber girls were at the time. Rachel was just 15 years old by 1999. She spent much of her childhood training to become a dancer, and she was incredibly talented. Not only was she a great dancer, but she aspired to be a model as well. Her goal in life was to eventually interact in classes and work her way into musicals across the globe, particularly musicals in the US, as most of her favorite venues and performances were taking place in Chicago. Rachel had become a full-time student at the Dance Factory in Melbourne, Australia. She was known for her beauty as well as her popularity and her athleticism. She was in great shape and was often in the top of her class, becoming a world-class dancer at a strikingly young age. While Rachel may have been quite popular in school, she was actually a quite shy young girl. She didn't take too well with strangers and would often seem withdrawn around people that she didn't know very well, but she was always very nice and respectable. Even though she was quite shy, Rachel had been dating her boyfriend Manny for several months, and it seemed that the two were closer than ever. Despite her timid nature, she had no problems opening up to Manny, who seemed to make it easy for Rachel to just be herself. Caroline Robertson, the babysitter I mentioned a moment ago, was right there alongside the Barber family for about seven years or so. She watched Rachel turn from a shy young girl into a vibrant young woman who was bound for success in her dance career. Caroline adored Rachel, but she had other feelings towards Rachel that were less than loving. Caroline was a very jealous teenager. She had trouble dealing with other people's successes, especially considering that, in all honesty, she didn't have much going for her at the time. She was a perfectly good-looking girl, but she didn't have the magnetic energy and charisma that Rachel had, and this bothered Caroline deeply. As she watched over the girls for most of their childhood, it seemed that this resentment toward Rachel grew. When it began as a simple feeling of jealousy, something all of us struggle with from time to time, grew to something far more dangerous and far more sinister. Caroline wanted to live Rachel's life, and if she couldn't live it, either could Rachel. Caroline's troubles with self-worth and jealousy would reach new heights as her teenage years drew on. By the time she was in her mid-teens, she began to feel horrible about herself, and not just in the typical way that most teens will at some point or another, it seems that by all means she had begun to develop a genuine hatred toward herself. She didn't look the way that she wanted to look, she didn't feel smart enough, and she certainly didn't feel worthy of being loved. According to those around her, she'd always put herself down, referring to herself as a loser, as unwanted, fat, dirty, or even dumb. In fact, she created a self-portrait around the age of 14 that had several of these words written on it, with misfit being written in bold letters at the very top. Caroline was reaching an all-time low, and was happening quickly. But as she got a little bit older, some of this hate turned away from herself and was beginning to surround her father, this being after her father walked out on the family, leaving Caroline and the rest of her loved ones to fend for themselves while her dad started a new, better life elsewhere. Caroline would take her anger and write it down in letters to her estranged father. I don't know if she ever mailed these letters, or if they were purely therapeutic, but the letters grew very vicious, with her one time blaming her father for her feelings of alienation, writing, quote, I feel like a troubled, tortured, lost soul that's been thrown into an alien environment full of angels. These terrible feelings of self-hatred that Caroline held on to would eventually lead her to plotting a crime of disastrous proportions.  It was March 1st, 1999. Rachel's father drove her to a tram stop that morning around 9.30 a.m. so that she could attend her classes at the dance factory in Melbourne. She left home wearing her favorite gold necklace, having only $13 in her wallet. She told her boyfriend, Manny, that after classes she was going to head out for a secret job offer that she wasn't allowed to talk about. The sheer fact that she even mentioned the job to Manny was against the rules, but she felt like he needed to know. This secret job was supposedly to pay incredibly well, but this was the only information that she was willing to share with anyone. She left the dance factory that afternoon headed off for this secret location. Her parents had no idea that she had any other plans after classes that day, outside of hanging out with her friends as she normally did. The last reported sighting of Rachel came just after she left the dance factory, when she was spotted walking around a tram station with a woman. Hours passed by and Rachel had not returned to the tram station to meet her father that evening, and her parents grew very worried. Rachel had never missed curfew before and she was reported missing right away. Manny quickly opened up to Rachel's parents and the police and admitted that she told him about a secret job offer, but he didn't know anything else about this job, so this information wasn't very helpful with the investigation. By all means, Rachel simply vanished off the face of the earth, and no further updates would be released until 13 days later, when some shocking news would leave the Barber family and shambles. It was March 14th when police approached the Barber family with news that they could have never expected. Keep in mind, at this point the Barbers had no idea that police were investigating the case as a potential homicide, so you can imagine their surprise when officers knocked on the door of the Barber family home and revealed that they had arrested a suspect in connection with Rachel's disappearance. When police revealed that the suspect was none other than Carolyn Robertson, their jaws hit the floor. Carolyn had been a close family friend for the better part of a decade, so how could she have been involved in Rachel's disappearance? Unfortunately, the follow-up statements from detectives only made things far worse. Carolyn had been arrested because police had found remains buried in a shallow grave near Kilmore, and they had evidence connecting Carolyn to the scene of the crime. Investigators would soon learn that Rachel had been ambushed with a telephone cord, then buried under less than 12 inches of dirt. One of the most unexpected twists in this case came after police brought Carolyn to the station for questioning. It didn't take them long to get Carolyn to open up, and she admitted to everything. Well, almost everything. Within a few short hours, Carolyn admitted that she had, in fact, taken the life of Rachel Barber, but she claimed it was an accident. Carolyn says that she met up with Rachel that day, shortly after her classes at Inden. I'll admit, I don't fully understand the specifics of what Carolyn was explaining here, but the best I can make out is that she explained to police that she'd convinced Rachel to come to her apartment for some sort of psychological exercise, but it's not clear why Rachel thought this was a job offer or why she thought she'd be receiving any payment for this. The rumor is that Carolyn had invited Rachel over and promised her $500 to take part in a highly confidential survey of some sort. But this was only mentioned in one source, so I can't verify that this is true. But either way, Carolyn explained that the two rode the tram together, then got out at her apartment after promising Rachel that she'd have pizza and drinks ready for them. And sure enough, when Rachel entered the apartment, pizza and drinks were ready. But Rachel was blissfully unaware that Carolyn had spiked the pizza with high doses of anhystamines, causing Rachel to become more and more delirious the more she ate. After Carolyn was satisfied with Rachel's impairment, she began her attack. She told Rachel that she was ready to begin the psychological survey, asking Rachel to close her eyes and think of happy and pleasant thoughts. As soon as Rachel was lost in a dream state, Carolyn ambushed her from behind with a telephone cord. Carolyn then stuffed Rachel inside of a wardrobe, keeping her there for several days while she worked out the next steps in completing the crime. She would eventually wrap Rachel in two rugs and enlisted the help of an innocent taxi driver to help her move what she called a heavy statue to her father's property. Obviously what the taxi driver helped her haul away was no statue. But once the two arrived at Carolyn's father's house, Carolyn took the so-called statue out to the back of the property, and after the taxi driver left, she buried the remains in the family's pet cemetery, next to Carolyn's former dog, Lucy. In the days after Rachel Barber had gone missing, Carolyn became very withdrawn from her normal activities. She went to work the day after the crime, March 2nd, but one of her co-workers ended up driving her home after Carolyn reportedly looked very ill and wasn't able to function well enough to get her job done. Carolyn would call out of work for the next few days as well, claiming that she was sick. During this time, investigators were hot on the trail of Carolyn, tracing Rachel's last moments and getting witness testimonies from everyone who had seen her at the tram station that day. As they dug into phone records, they soon noticed that Rachel had spoken with Carolyn on the day of her disappearance. In fact, she'd spoken with her within hours of her last known whereabouts, meaning Carolyn may have been the last person to see Rachel alive. Witnesses from the tram station also reported that they'd seen Rachel walking alongside a quote plain-looking young woman. Detectives went to Carolyn's apartment on March 12th, but they weren't getting any response at the door, even though they knew that Carolyn was inside. They eventually made their way into Carolyn's apartment and found her unconscious on her bedroom floor. They soon learned that she had suffered an epileptic seizure which had likely been caused by the severe stress that she'd been under while trying to hide Rachel's body. While inside the apartment, they searched through Carolyn's belongings and soon came across her diary. Now, if you've been watching True Crime Stories for the last few weeks, you'll know that this is the third case I've covered in less than a month where the criminal was found because either they or the victim kept a detailed diary of events leading up to the crime. I don't know how so many of these cases ended up leading to the exact same situation, but that's exactly what happened here as well. When investigators took a closer look at Carolyn's diary, they realized that she'd been deeply obsessed with Rachel, and certainly not in a playful way or in any sort of innocent infatuation, Carolyn had kept detailed records of Rachel's recent life and had even written down several possible ways that she planned on taking Rachel's life. She scribbled several options down with one of the options claiming that she planned on incapacitating Rachel then placing her into an army bag and dumping her out in the middle of the woods somewhere. These clues were a bit too suspicious for investigators and they soon began investigating Carolyn's recent movements, tracking down her connection with her father's property and the aforementioned taxi driver. Detectives were able to prove that Carolyn had been spending days, maybe even weeks, plotting to take Rachel's life and in essence, become Rachel. This was only amplified when detectives later found an application for a copy of Rachel's birth certificate in Carolyn's apartment. This is likely why she tricked Rachel into thinking she was offering her a job, as it would have been the easiest way to get personal information about Rachel, including her social security number, ID cards, and everything else she needed. Well, everything except for her birth certificate obviously. Alongside this application was documentation for a bank loan for $10,000, as well as detailed plans on what Carolyn had planned to do. Her plans for the day claimed that she needed to clean up her father's farm, including the area where she had placed Rachel in the pet cemetery. She also planned to secure the bank loan on the following Tuesday, as well as rent a moving van, dye her hair to match Rachel's, then thoroughly clean her house and carpet. She then planned to disappear and begin life under Rachel's name. By October of 2000, Carolyn was still in police custody. In a surprising twist, Carolyn had opened up to investigators and admitted to taking Rachel's life, even pleading guilty during her trial. She was ultimately given 15 years behind bars. During her court sessions, she explained how much she hated herself and wanted to be someone else, so much so that she was willing to go to great lengths to achieve this. She was diagnosed with a personality disorder just before the trial, with a judge claiming that she was a danger for anyone she became fixated with. But what's really interesting about her time in prison is that she never once showed any kind of remorse for her actions. In fact, while she was in prison, she progressively made herself look more and more like Rachel. She began styling her hair differently, she appears to have lost weight, and did her best to become the spitting image of Rachel, at least as much as she realistically could. Rachel's own mother even spoke out about the uncanny resemblance after Carolyn was released from prison in 2015, after fulfilling her sentence. Carolyn is now a mostly free woman. She still lives under the surveillance of the court system, but she's now allowed to continue on with her life, or rather Rachel's life. While she never successfully claimed Rachel's identity, she's done her best in the years since to continue living in the shadow of Rachel, and her fixation doesn't seem to have faded over the last 23 years. Honestly, I don't understand how someone like this is allowed to live in the free world after there was such a massive amount of evidence proving that she'd been plotting this crime for years, but I guess the laws in Australia only allow the court system to do so much to someone so young. Thankfully, after all this, Rachel's memory is still very much alive in the minds of those who knew her, but unfortunately, one of those minds belongs to Carolyn Robertson. Before, Brooke Willberger was anything but your average teenager. She was an avid churchgoer, always did right by her family, and put her faith in God above everything else in her life. Unfortunately, the criminals in her area didn't have the same set of values. One fateful day in May of 2004, Brooke had her innocence, her future, and her life taken away from her at the hands of a disgusting criminal in one of the most heartbreaking and grotesque ways possible. It would take investigators the better part of a decade to finally get this case solved, but detectives are still trying to wrap their heads around the motive all these years later. Brooke Willberger was born on February 20, 1985, to Greg and Cammie Willberger, and she grew up in Fresno, California. She had a relatively sheltered childhood, as her family were extremely devout members of the Church of Mormon, more commonly known as the Church of the Latter-day Saints, or LDS for short. Church and their dedication to God was always the primary focus of the Willberger family, setting their sights on things much higher than the world around us. Brooke went to school in the Fern Ridge School District, eventually graduating from Elmira High School sometime around 2002 or 2003. After leaving high school, Brooke decided to continue her education, but we don't know for sure what her major was. All we know is that she decided to enroll at Brigham Young University in Utah, a Christian school sponsored by the LDS Church. It was around this time that Brooke began to date her longtime boyfriend, Justin Blake. Much like Brooke's family, Justin also had dedicated his life to his church, becoming a Mormon missionary in Venezuela. Brooke and Justin were incredibly close, and it seemed as though their long-distance relationship was working out quite well for the two. When Justin eventually headed off to Venezuela, he left Brooke behind for the summer while she worked for her sister and brother-in-law to make some extra money before her upcoming school year began. This was around May of 2004. Brooke's sister and brother-in-law had been managing an apartment complex in Corvallis, Oregon. They needed help around the apartment during the summer months, so they offered Brooke a job doing various tasks around the property, usually cleaning or restocking supplies, simple things. Brooke was excited about her new job and the freedom that the new found income would provide for her, but unfortunately, her freedom was about to be taken away in an unexpected and shocking turn of events that would lead to one of Oregon's most publicized missing person cases in the state's history. Corvallis, Oregon isn't a place that you typically associate with a high rate of crime, but while researching this case, they actually found out that crime is actually a pretty big issue in the area. The only exception to this fact is that it's mostly petty theft or other property crimes that run rampant in the area. Violent crime is actually much lower than the national average. With this in mind, it doesn't seem like most people in the area really pay much mind to keeping themselves safe from criminals. Yes, everyone locks their cars and their doors at night, but the area doesn't put its residents in any particular danger, at least not any more so than any other part of the country. Because of this, Brooke and her family never thought much about Brooke's safety when she worked at the aforementioned apartment complex. Brooke would spend a lot of time outside, cleaning buildings, picking up trash, and making sure the place looked the best that it could. This also happened to be what Brooke was doing on the morning of May 25th, 2004. Brooke showed up for work that morning just like it was any other day. She was outside near the parking lot, cleaning up some lamp posts in the surrounding areas, when without notice, she went missing. I'm not sure who noticed that she vanished first, but her family would soon discover her sandals had been left behind a lamp post in the parking lot, almost as if she'd walked right out of them. Her sister and brother-in-law searched the whole property, but there was no sign of Brooke. She had vanished into thin air, leaving zero trace behind outside of her shoes. One of the most interesting aspects about her disappearance is that the apartment complex was located on the edge of Oregon State University, so close in fact that you should have been able to see the school from the parking lot of the apartments, according to several reports. This area was presumably very well-policed, considering there were thousands of college students running around. It was an area where Brooke should have felt the safest, but that safety had quickly been turned on its head when Brooke's family decided that it was time to call in the help of the police. When officers arrived at the scene of the crime, they collected a little bit of evidence that they could, and began their investigation immediately. What ended up being fairly unusual in this case was that the police pursued every lead with the utmost urgency. According to Lieutenant Ron Noble, this case was very unusual. In the past, it was the Corvallis Police Department's policy to wait a full 24 hours before pursuing a missing person case. It's their belief that adults are allowed to come and go as they please, and they don't treat any case as suspicious until 24 hours have passed by. But in Brooke's case, they knew something was wrong. After all, a 19-year-old girl isn't typically going to walk out of her sandals in the middle of a parking lot on a hot summer's day and just disappear. This case was bizarre from beginning to end. Police agreed with the family.  All the evidence alluded to the fact that Brooke was taken, kidnapped. As soon as Brooke's church heard about the crime, they organized a team of volunteers to help search the area in Corvallis. Unfortunately, the search team wasn't able to come up with any leads, nor did they find any evidence to further the case. But it wouldn't be long before police found their first person of interest. A very strange man that police seem to have had their eye on for quite some time, and you won't believe what they found when they brought him in for questioning. Police had narrowed down their search efforts, and it honed in on a man by the name of Sung-Koo Kim. I wasn't able to determine specifically what led police to this man, but as they began investigating him, they uncovered mountains of evidence that proved that this man was, by all means, pretty unusual. By many people's definitions, he was a bit of a creep. Sung-Koo Kim was heavily questioned by police regarding Brooke's disappearance. Kim continually pleaded his innocence, but police weren't letting up. After days of interrogation, police had found that there was far more to Kim than he was letting on. After a few weeks of research and detective work, police connected Kim to dozens of thefts and crimes all across the state of Oregon. Each of these crimes specifically targeted women. For investigators, this was all they needed to know to believe that they had found their man. But there was just one problem. Even though they were able to prove that Kim was a criminal, they still had no evidence that directly linked him to the disappearance of Brooke. But this is when things went from strange to bad to just plain weird. As they dug deeper into every aspect of Kim's life, they learned that he had a collection, so to speak. As it would turn out, the breaking and entering charges that were now being placed against Kim were not the result of him stealing money, electronics, or even cars. Rather, he'd been stealing women's underwear. You're not going to believe this, but the research and detective work uncovered more than 3,400 pairs of women's underwear in the possession of Kim. That's more than your average woman would wear in a decade. I could understand if he had a few pairs in his apartment, maybe even a couple dozen. Not saying that it isn't weird, I'm just saying I could understand how a creep may be able to procure something like this and keep it hidden. There's some pretty strange people out there after all, but 3,400 pairs I can't wrap my mind around how he could have stolen so many. He would have needed an entire room in his home to dedicate just to this type of collection. It just doesn't make sense, but it's the truth. After all was said and done, Sung-Koo Kim was sent to trial and was convicted for various charges, including the theft of the underwear. He was given an amazing 11 years behind bars, but not before his family filed a lawsuit of their own, claiming that police used excessive force during their interrogation and their arrest of Kim. The Kim family ended up winning this lawsuit, being awarded over $300,000 in compensation. But this is all little more than a side note in the case of Brooke Wilburger. While Kim was certainly a man that police need to keep their eye on, they were forced to exclude him from their investigation after they found no evidence tying him to Brooke's disappearance. With this, police reached a dead end in the investigation, but they weren't willing to give up just yet. By this point, it was November of 2004. Police were left scratching their heads, desperately hoping for a new lead in the disappearance of Brooke Wilburger. It would be November 30th before this lead would finally arrive, and it would be yet another heartbreaking turn that no one could have ever expected. On November 30th, 2004, a foreign exchange student who'd been attending the University of New Mexico several states away, contacted police after being kidnapped, beaten and taken advantage of. She was able to survive the ordeal, but naturally her life would never be the same afterward. Thankfully, didn't take police long to track down the culprit, a man named Joel Patrick Courtney. Joel was sent through all the typical hoops of the American court system, and it would be nearly three years later in 2007 before he was finally sent to prison, being given a sentence of 18 years, then an additional five years parole after his release. But it was during this time that Joel was awaiting trial that police in Oregon began to notice a few connections between the foreign exchange students kidnapping and the disappearance of Brooke Wilburger. In particular, police were interested in the victim's report of being taken away in a green minivan. Investigators would soon reveal that in Brooke's disappearance, witnesses had also reported seeing a green minivan that may have been a bit suspicious. Worse yet, investigators soon learned that Joel was a native to Oregon, making it very likely that he would have been in the area on the day that Brooke vanished. Court documents explained that, in fact, detectives were able to place Joel in Corvallis on the exact date of Brooke's kidnapping, further stating that his van had been witnessed by multiple people, with these witnesses claiming they'd never seen the van before or since the crime. To make matters worse for Joel, an OSU employee identified Joel in a lineup, saying that he witnessed him acting suspiciously on the day that Brooke was taken. Investigators eventually tracked down Joel's green minivan, but not without all the usual hurdles that you would expect during a multi-state investigation. When detectives finally gained possession of his vehicle, they managed to find Brooke's DNA all throughout the van, as well as a strand of her hair. Mind you, all of this unfolded in mid-2005, but investigators weren't able to do much with this information until April of 2008, as they were forced to wait for all the paperwork to be filed and all the usual legal hoopla in order to extradite Joel from New Mexico to Oregon. But all throughout this process, there was a much bigger problem than investigators still had not been able to solve. Where was Brooke? Her body had never been located, and Joel certainly wasn't going to admit to anything. But that's when everything changed for Joel, and he had a sudden change of heart. Prosecutors were interviewing Joel in the case when they revealed something to him that shook his world to its core. They explained that they weren't just looking to get Joel sent to prison. They were pursuing capital punishment, and it certainly seemed as though they had enough evidence to secure this type of conviction. Joel rather obviously changed his tone after this and began to cooperate with police. Joel was finally willing to talk about Brooke's disappearance. After an intensive interrogation, Joel admitted to kidnapping Brooke on May 24th. He said that he had noticed her in the parking lot of the apartment complex. And when no one was around, he jumped out of his car, overpowered her, then restrained her in the back of his van. He then drove her out to the woods just outside of town, but after a short while, he returned to town to grab some food. All the while, Brooke was bound in the back of his van, unable to escape or even call for help. This twisted man literally drove all over town with the victim in the back of his van, playing it off as if nothing was unusual, and the people that he encountered along this journey never thought anything about it. Joel says that he hadn't done anything to Brooke at this point. He kept her alive throughout the remainder of the night, seemingly unsure of what he planned on doing, but the following morning, he had made his decision. Joel says that his intentions were simply to take advantage of Brooke, then let her go, but Brooke wasn't going to make things easy for him, and she fought him every step of the way. In the end, he grew so angry with her resistance that he claimed her life, did the deed that he'd been waiting for, then buried her on a logging road where she presumably would never be found. After Joel learned that police had been seeking capital punishment, he cut a deal with investigators. In exchange for taking capital punishment off the table, he would reveal where he had buried Brooke's remains. Both parties accepted this deal and Brooke's location was determined in late 2009. The trial had been set for February of 2010, with Joel pleading guilty to all charges and being given life in prison with no possibility of parole. After five long years, the case was finally closed. Brooke's family were finally able to begin seeking the closure that they so desperately wanted, knowing that this monster would be locked behind bars for the rest of his life. The only mercy in this case is that Brooke's suffering appears to have been over relatively quickly, but the pain and agony that her family are left with is something that they'll likely never recover from. But we also need to keep in mind the innocent foreign exchange student who had all hopes of a normal future stolen from her on that chilly November day. All she wanted to do was come to America in the hopes of getting a better education, but instead her dreams were crushed in her future forever changed course. I'm sure Joel's arrest makes little difference to this young woman at this point what's done is done, but maybe at the very least she can rest a little bit easier at night knowing that the man who stole so much from her will never be able to lay a hand on her again. Hannah Cornelius was a 21 year old woman from South Africa who was spending the evening out with her friend, Cheslin. As they were sitting in their car talking about the great time that they just had together, four unidentified men approached their vehicle and kidnapped them. Only one of the two friends would make it out alive. Detectives soon uncovered a crime scene unlike anything they had witnessed before. So I want to be clear, this case is by far the worst, most heartbreaking, and most disgusting case I've ever covered. And I'm not saying that to hype up the video, I say that as a warning. This case is just awful from beginning to end, so much so that I strongly considered scrapping the whole thing and just covering a different story. But the truth is, no matter how tragic and how haunting these cases are, the victim's stories deserve to be heard and Hannah deserves to be remembered. With that said, this is the story of Hannah Cornelius. Hannah Cornelius lived in Stellenbosch, South Africa, but was born in Western Cape. From a young age, Hannah was always a very happy young girl. She was very close with her family, most of whom appeared to have lived in Cape Town about 45 minutes away from Stellenbosch. Anyone with eyes understands that Hannah was a beautiful young woman, and her parents, Willem and Anna, were incredibly proud of her. She'd done great in school as a teenager and was destined for success. According to one source, Hannah was doing remarkably well in her university studies, getting an 85% on her most recent final, studying for a BA in humanities, a field that's predominantly focused on human history and literature. Outside of her schooling, Hannah was an excellent piano player and always dreamed of traveling to Paris to see all the historic sites that the town is to offer. She was also an advocate for animal welfare, but I don't note to what extent she was involved in the more recent animal rights movements. Hannah came from a well-established family, with her father being the former magistrate of Simonstown. While her childhood appears to have been great, all things considered, she did have a somewhat difficult whole life at times, due to her younger brother, who suffers from severe autism. While many people with autism are able to still live relatively normal lives, her brother wasn't so lucky, as he requires round-the-clock care and has more recently been sent to an assisted living facility. Hannah had a number of friends who looked up to her and were there for her whenever she needed them. One of these friends was Cheslyn Marsh. The interesting thing about Cheslyn is that we don't really know how close he and Hannah were though. I've seen various reports about the two, with some saying that the two were in a relationship, while others say that they were just friends. In fact, one report claims that the two had only met the night before the crime. Regardless of their relationship status, though, it seems safe to assume that these two had a very tight bond with one another, and Cheslyn cared for Hannah deeply. As fate would have it, Cheslyn was with Hannah on the evening that things went terribly wrong for her. What was supposed to be a relaxing, fun night out in town ended in what could very easily be described as one of the most gruesome heinous crimes in Stellenbosch's history. It was May 27, 2017. Hannah and Cheslyn had spent the night out drinking and dancing and had returned to their home at around 3.30am that Saturday morning. CCTV footage shows the two pulling into a parking lot in Hannah's blue and white Volkswagen Golf. After pulling into the lot, Hannah and Cheslyn spend a fair amount of time chatting with one another, waiting to head inside to get some much needed rest. As they're sitting in their car though, four men walk by. Men who were later identified as suspects in this case. These four men were on their way to a nearby apartment when they happened to walk by Hannah's car, noticing that two people were inside. It was at this point that their plans for the evening changed. The four men approached the car and without hesitation began to attack both Cheslyn and Hannah. Police say that Cheslyn was forced into the back seat of the car while Hannah was pinned in between the front two seats. After a few moments, CCTV footage shows Hannah's car driving away after one of the four men had fled the scene, catching back up with the gang later on. At 4.30am, the car is seen pulling into a gas station parking lot. This was about an hour after the initial altercation, even though the footage was taken only a few miles away. By this point, Cheslyn had been forced into the back of the car, with Hannah being restrained in the front passenger seat. As far as we know, this was the last time Hannah would be seen alive. One of the suspects soon exits the vehicle and enters the gas station, heading towards an ATM. He had stolen Cheslyn's bank card and attempted to make a withdrawal from his account, but Cheslyn had given him the wrong pin number, meaning the suspect left empty handed. The man was obviously angry about this and vowed that Cheslyn would be punished later on. The men drove away from the gas station and police ultimately lost track of them for several hours. One of the suspects would later reveal to officers that Hannah remained quiet and stoic for the remainder of the drive. She didn't say one word to any of the men, nor did she obey any of their demands. She simply stared straight in front of her, silent for the remainder of the drive. It would be around 5.30am to 6.00am that the men pulled over into a secluded area, with Cheslyn saying that it was still dark out at this point. He had been stowed away in the back of the car for nearly two hours by now, but the perpetrators soon opened the hatch and forced him out of the car, telling him to lay down on the ground and place his head onto a brick. We don't know for sure what took place next, but Cheslyn says that the last thing he remembers is closing his eyes and praying, begging for forgiveness for whatever he had done to end up in this situation. He mentioned seeing two of the men holding bricks in their hands, but he has no idea what they did with these bricks, though I think it's pretty safe to assume what took place. The criminals believed that Cheslyn had lost his life, so they abandoned him and drove Hannah several more miles away to an even more secluded location, this time in a patch of woods located just behind a paintball venue. Hannah pleaded with her attackers, offering to allow them to do whatever they wanted to her, only asking in return that she be allowed to leave with her life. The suspects say that despite her pleas and bargaining, she fought back every step of the way and wasn't going to make things easy for them. She refused to willingly exit the car once they arrived at the paintball venue, with the men prying her from the hatch before tossing her into the woods and taking advantage of her time and time and time again. After the men were done, they put her back inside of the car and drove her several more miles out to an area of secluded farmland. By this point, it's safe to assume that the sun had begun to rise, so the men needed to act quickly if they wanted to get away with their crimes without getting caught with Hannah's stolen car. Once they arrived on the farm, they pulled Hannah from the car, then attempted to enter suffering using a knife. When that began to take too long, the men forced her to lay on the ground all the while she was begging with her every breath for the men to just leave her be. It was at this point that the men picked up an 80-pound rock from nearby and dropped it on top of Hannah, bringing the worst night of her life to a tragic, horrific conclusion. The gang then abandoned the crime scene, but their night of terror still wasn't over. Early the next morning, the men arrived back in town and chased down a woman who was walking to work. They ran after her until she ultimately tripped and fell, stealing her purse and other belongings and leaving her there, thankfully not going any further than just stealing her possessions. Unfortunately, a third woman wouldn't be quite so lucky. A few miles away, a third victim was kidnapped and robbed, but we don't know the extent of her injuries. As best I can tell, she seems to have gotten away without anything serious happening, it's safe to assume that her life would never be the same after this, regardless of her making it out alive and with her dignity intact. By the following day, around 2pm, only two of the four men remained with Hannah's car. The men had been traveling through Stelenbosch once again. By this point, it appears as though police had been on the lookout for Hannah's missing car, and an undercover agent happened to notice the car pass by, with two unidentified men inside of it. The undercover cop called for backup, and before long, a high-speed chase ensued. The men drove police dozens of miles down the road to yet another area of farmland where they would abandon the car near a field and take off on foot. Thankfully, the two men were captured by officers and they were taken in for questioning. By the following morning, Cheslin had finally woken after being so badly beaten by his kidnappers. He somehow survived the horrific encounter with these men, but he certainly left the scene of the crime with more than a few scars and an unbelievable story to tell investigators. As he woke up, he headed toward a nearby series of houses and began begging for help. When he was taken to the hospital, doctors revealed that he, by all accounts, shouldn't even be alive. He ended up going deaf in one ear, but as far as I can tell, he didn't have any other lasting effects from the attack and appears to have made a full recovery. I can't confirm this with any certainty, but he seems to be doing okay these days. Cheslin obviously went to the police and reported what had happened. Thankfully, police had already picked up two of the perpetrators and it didn't take long for the suspects to begin to turn on one another, each of them blaming the others for the crimes. At this point, it doesn't appear that police knew that Hannah had lost her life, but they would soon uncover all of the gruesome details of that evening and what these four men had truly been up to that night. Now, unfortunately, this is where the case gets a bit muddied. Every source I've found seems to tell a different side of the story and most of these stories don't align with one another. All I can say for sure is that the four men continually blamed one another for the crimes, with each of the men pleading their innocence at trial. In fact, two of these monsters confessed to certain aspects of the crime during their interrogation, but when it came time for their trial, they claimed they weren't guilty. I'm not sure how they thought they were going to get out of this after being filmed during their confession, with this confession being used against them as evidence in court. They also had Cheslin as an eyewitness testifying against them, but regardless, they all claimed that they had nothing to do with the crime. Thankfully, though, Cheslin managed to heal enough in time for the trial that he was able to tell the judge and jury everything that he had gone through, though he appears to have been nearly suffering a panic attack throughout the entirety of his testimony. The only problem is that he wasn't around for Hannah's final moments, so he couldn't help out much in that aspect of the case. But in reality, it doesn't seem like police needed much help in pinning these men for the crime. After all, their DNA and fingerprints were all over Hannah's car. Their DNA was found across every inch of the crime scene, and two of the men were caught red handed in Hannah's vehicle. This case was about as open and shut as it could possibly be, but if that weren't enough, there were also the two additional victims that the suspects attacked the following morning. I can't wrap my head around how any of these four men thought they would get away with even one of their crimes. Someone had witnessed almost every single aspect of the case, obviously excluding what took place in the woods that night, but the DNA that was found at the scene painted a very clear picture for detectives. At trial, three of the four men who took Hannah's life were given a life sentence. One of the men got away with a slightly lesser sentence because there was no evidence tying him to Hannah's final moments. In total, the men received a combined 358 years in prison, with the crowd of people who attended the hearing cheering as their sentences were read. But honestly, one of the worst aspects of this case is how the suspects acted during the trial. All throughout their time in the stand, they were making faces at the victim's family, telling jokes to one another, laughing and smiling and throwing hand gestures at the crowd of people. One of the men even made suggestive remarks toward the judge who was reading the gang's sentence. These four men were all the lowest of low, true monsters that deserve everything they'll get behind bars, but the story isn't over just yet. As I'm sure all of you know, one of the biggest crimes in a situation like this, believe it or not, isn't actually what happened to the victim. It's what happens to the victim's loved ones who were left to face another day without the people they hold closest. The real tragedy is the families and friends of those who were taken away far too soon, who now have to figure out how their world is going to keep turning when such a pillar in their lives has been stolen. You may have heard the phrase, the mercy of life is that it just keeps going, but for some people it doesn't. Hannah's mother, Anna, lost her way after Hannah lost her life. Hannah was so deeply involved in her parents' lives that for Anna, it was just too much to bear. Anna had a remarkably difficult time coming to terms with the loss of her daughter. She went through all of the daily motions, but nothing mattered anymore. In the words of Hannah's father, when Hannah died, so did our family. The following year in 2018, Anna would head out on one of her daily swimming exercises, but on this particular day, she didn't make her usual rounds. She didn't make her usual laps around the ocean. Instead, she jumped into the water, swam into the distance, and just kept swimming. Her body was found washed ashore several days later. The pain of her daughter's loss was too much to bear, and Anna would ultimately lose her battle with depression. Anna's father would later speak about the loss of his wife and daughter, saying, me and my son were not a family, were the survivors who live in the ruins of what once was. If all of this weren't bad enough, Willem would soon be diagnosed with cancer. He fought a short battle before the illness overtook him, and he too lost his life. This left behind Hannah's brother, who's now being cared for in an assisted living facility due to severe autism. It's very likely her brother's unable to comprehend what his family went through, and why his parents and sister no longer come to see him. This, this is the true tragedy in cases like this. Natalie McNally was over the moon when she found out that she had a child on the way. Her boyfriend and parents were equally excited. But on a cold December morning in late 2022, this excitement was taken away from her. In the still of the night, a criminal broke into her house and claimed Natalie's life in one of the most disturbing ways imaginable. Detectives have been on the hunt for the suspect responsible for the crime, and while the case remains under investigation, police believe they may have found their man, and he was a lot closer to home than anyone would have expected. Natalie McNally was, by every definition, a happy and independent young woman. She had grown up in Lurgen, located in Northern Ireland. Alongside her three brothers, Natalie had a fairly typical childhood, growing up in a great community surrounded by family who cared for her. Lurgen may not be a very well known town, but it's only about 18 miles from Belfast, so pretty much anything you could ever need or want was within driving distance. With a population of around 28,000 people, it would be difficult to describe Lurgen as a small town, but the community was very strong and very close. It's been described by many in the area as a place where no one bothers to lock their doors because crime is never really an issue. It's been the perfect place to raise a family for decades, and this is likely why the population of Lurgen continues to grow every year. Natalie McNally loved it here. She had countless friends that she could always count on, but more importantly, she had family. While she was certainly close with her friends from work and her former years at school, she was closest with her mother. The two did everything together, shopping, crafts, housekeeping, local events, everything. As strange as it may seem to some people, Natalie and her mother were best friends. Even though Natalie was close with her mother, her mom says that Natalie was also fiercely independent. While she always hung out with her mother, she made it clear that she didn't need help or expect anything from anyone.  According to her friends, Natalie was also an animal lover. She had a house full of cats, but she was closest with her dog, a German shepherd named River. The two of them went everywhere together, and Natalie was dedicated to giving River the best life possible. To top all of this off, Natalie had been in a great relationship with her boyfriend, Stephen. The two seemed closer than ever, and things had been going smoothly for quite some time. I don't know if the two were engaged or not, but it may be safe to assume that if they weren't, an engagement was likely imminent. The two were deeper in love than anything you could imagine, and they were expecting their first child in just a few short months. But unfortunately, before they could begin their family together, tragedy would strike the town of Lurgen. Just days before Christmas on December 18th of 2022, Natalie, now 15 weeks pregnant, went missing. She stopped answering calls or texts, and no one was able to get in touch with her. When a friend decided to check her home to check on her, they walked into a crime scene unlike anything you could ever imagine. Traumatic is the only way that I can put this crime scene into words. Desperate and emotional are two other words that come to mind, describing this horrific violence that was displayed to her Natalie and her final moments on this earth. Natalie's parents say that in the weeks leading up to her demise, Natalie was the happiest that she'd ever been. She was just 32 years old and knew that she had the world in the palm of her hand.  But someone took that joy away from her and left behind nothing but a trail of destruction. We don't know which of Natalie's friends stumbled across this crime scene, but police were called immediately afterward. Emergency services were called to Natalie's home sometime around 10pm on the evening of December 19th. As we would learn soon after, the crime had been committed at the previous day, but Natalie wasn't found until about 24 hours afterward. Medics were initially hopeful that Natalie could be saved, but unfortunately they called off all rescue attempts at the scene. Natalie was gone. When police reviewed CCTV footage from the area that was recorded at the evening of the crime, they noticed a scary looking man who was acting very suspicious. He had walked down Natalie's street at about 8.52pm. By 9.30pm, he was seen leaving the street coming from the direction of Natalie's house. The best I can tell, there was no footage of Natalie's actual house, only footage of the surrounding areas. But the CCTV footage was more than enough for police to pin down their first suspect. A suspect was tracked down fairly quickly, and he was arrested the following day. By all means, police were pursuing the case with a sense of urgency, but unfortunately the man had an alibi. The lead suspect was released from police custody on December 20th, and detectives officially announced that they were treating Natalie's case as suspicious. The following day, investigators revealed more details about the state of the crime scene, confirming that they were now classifying the case as a homicide investigation. They revealed that Natalie's body was covered in wounds. She had been very badly beaten, becoming unrecognizable to her family. They found several wounds that were consistent with a knife and countless others that were defensive wounds. It appeared that Natalie had fought back against her attacker and she wasn't going down without a fight. According to one report, Natalie was so badly beaten that she had multiple broken bones in her face. Another report detailed that her neck had also been broken as well, but we don't know how all of this played out, though I don't think this information would need to be shared publicly anyway. It doesn't change what happened and how callous this criminal acted towards Natalie. By December 22nd, police had arrested another man and revealed that they'd come across another few pieces of CCTV footage. In this footage, a man was seen leaving the area of the crime while carrying a bag of some sort. Unfortunately, this suspect was released as well, but he was released on bail. Police didn't reveal his name at this point in the investigation, but it appears as though detectives had a significant amount of evidence against him, but not quite enough to secure a conviction. The only information that was revealed at this point was that the suspect was 32 years old and this revelation certainly began to turn a few heads. After this, the case stalled for a while, but investigators would announce on January 5th, 2023 that they had located the weapon used to claim Natalie's life, but here's where things get far worse. They explained that they had reason to believe that Natalie knew her attacker first hand. They explained that there were no signs of forced entry and they had no reason to believe that Natalie didn't let this person into her home willingly. But to top this off, police explained that they questioned whether or not this was a targeted attack or if it had been completely random. Because of this, they issued a warning to all of the women in the local area that there was a serious possibility that the suspect may have been a danger to other women as well, telling the locals to ensure that their doors were locked at all hours of the day and to never be out in public alone. By January 13th, police arrested another man who they believed may have been connected to the crime, but he too was released the next day on bail. At this point, the case reached another stand still, this time for a period of about two weeks. With no further information to go on and no evidence linking anyone to the scene of the crime, police appealed to the public for assistance. They revisited the previously released CCTV footage and begged anyone from the public to come forward if they felt as though they may have seen or heard anything on the night but no one ever stepped up. It wouldn't be until January 31st, over a month after the crime, that police would announce that they had the criminal in custody. But it wasn't who anyone would have ever expected. Police had arrested their first suspect, who we mentioned a moment ago, once again. This time they had new evidence against him, but we don't know exactly what this evidence was. This time they were pursuing allegations against this man far more aggressively and he was sent to the local police station for a full-fledged interrogation. Just two days later, this suspect was officially charged with homicide. A few days after this, the suspect's name was revealed and it came as a shock to everyone, especially Natalie's family. It was someone they all loved and respected and certainly the last person they would have ever expected to be capable of such a thing. After all, it was the man who claimed to love Natalie the most, her own boyfriend, Steven McCullough. Police explained that Steven was brought in for questioning after they had originally spoken to him on the night of December 19th. If you don't remember, he was the suspect who police initially arrested but they let him go after they found out he had an alibi that was virtually undeniable. And I'll be honest, his alibi for that evening was truly remarkable. Steven has a YouTube channel and it seems that he mostly used the channel for gaming. In particular, he was a big fan of the Grand Theft Auto series and it seems like he played these games quite often on his channel. Steven is also involved in the local media industry, so he knows his way around a computer and certainly knows the thing or two about entertainment. On the night of Natalie's demise, Steven said that he was at home playing Grand Theft Auto, but not only this, he said that he was live streaming his session to dozens of people. His alibi was as airtight as they come. If dozens of people remember seeing him playing video games that night, then it seems pretty apparent that he was most likely in fact playing video games. But this is where Steven got a bit crafty and I've never heard of something like this ever happening before. For those of you that may not know, when you stream to YouTube, TikTok, or even Facebook, most professionals use a program known as OBS Studio to do this. I've used it on this channel several times in the past. But the thing about OBS is that it gives you far more features than your traditional streaming app or streaming software. One of those features is the ability to live stream pre-recorded files. This is why, for example, when you see bands performing on live streams, they sound so much better than you may have expected them to sound live, because it's usually all pre-recorded and heavily edited. Well, Steven pulled off this same thing on the evening of the crime. He had pre-recorded himself playing Grand Theft Auto for more than six hours, then used this computer software to replay that file live to his viewers. As far as his viewers knew, Steven was sitting behind his desk playing Grand Theft Auto. But in reality, Steven could have been anywhere in the world doing anything, and police have reason to believe that he was at Natalie's house that evening. After all, he perfectly resembles the man that was captured on CCTV that evening. If this isn't already sounding crazy enough, it's about to get even more strange, because police say that their team of computer experts analyzed his live stream from that evening and proved that, without a doubt, it had been pre-recorded. Steven eventually admitted to this, but he claimed he'd been home drinking all night, though he never gave a believable excuse as to why he had pre-recorded the live stream. But the crazy part is what took place shortly after this. Police say, in the weeks after Natalie lost her life, Steven had visited her parents' home multiple times. On one of these visits, Steven left the home but returned about 45 minutes later, claiming he left behind his cell phone by mistake. Well, he did leave his cell phone, but it was no mistake. During that 45-minute window, Steven had been recording audio on his phone to try to determine whether the McNally family suspected him of taking Natalie's life. We don't know if Steven was ever able to find the information he was looking for, but it doesn't seem like he did. On top of this bizarre piece of evidence, police say that they have CCTV footage that follows him to a bus station in Lurgen that evening, as well as additional footage placing him in the proximity of Natalie's home during the time the crime was committed. They even claimed to have footage of him returning home later that evening. All in all, investigators have tracked Steven throughout every step of the crime. But this all begs one big question. If Steven and Natalie were as in love as everyone says, and she was carrying his child, why would he want to take her life? Well, sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction. Jealousy is a powerful motivator. For Steven, this was especially true. Bear in mind, this case is currently ongoing and there's only so much information and evidence that we can go on for now. But according to investigators, Steven McCullough was a very jealous man. When he found out that Natalie had been speaking with other men through text messages, he took great offense. According to police, Steven had found out that Natalie had been texting an ex-boyfriend through WhatsApp. In total, officers say that just 33 messages were exchanged between the two. In today's world, and in my opinion, this would lend itself to an off-the-cuff short conversation, maybe just two people catching up. But for Steven, this meant war. The problem with this story is that we don't know the content of the messages. In Steven's eyes, Natalie had crossed a line and it seems that he was under the assumption that she was cheating on him. In all reality, she may have been, we just don't know. But a total of 33 messages makes this seem like a bit of a stretch. Granted, you can say a lot in just a single text message, but 33 messages still doesn't sound like much of an affair or relationship, but that's purely my opinion. It could be that there truly was a relationship between Natalie and this ex. And maybe Natalie's child didn't even belong to Steven, who knows, there's a million ways you could look at this situation. But there's only one way to look at it properly. No matter what Natalie did, she didn't deserve what took place that evening. Police say that on the evening of the crime, Natalie's phone had been unlocked nine times between 8.52 and 9.30pm. Investigators believe that these unlocks were due to Steven scrolling through Natalie's text messages, presumably catching her in the act. Take it from someone who's been on the other end of a situation like this, whatever Steven found in those messages likely broke him in the deepest parts of his soul. He'll never be the same after seeing something like this. To be fair, that's incredibly unfortunate and for many people it could lead them down a dark path for the rest of their lives. But one of the biggest things you have to remember in situations like this is that it's never an excuse to take your anger out on someone, certainly not in a physical way and certainly not to the extent that Steven went. Relationships are complicated and one of the most dangerous parts of a relationship is admitting that you've taken your emotional well-being and placed it into the hands of someone else, someone who could tear you apart from the inside out if they felt like it, sometimes just despite you. The scariest part of a relationship is that lack of control, the lack of proof, knowing just how deeply you love another person, but never fully being able to know whether or not they feel the same way. You just have to trust and assume that they do based on their actions and the way that they treat you. But for Steven, it doesn't seem like he was willing to place this amount of control over his life into the hands of someone else. Whatever he found on Natalie's phone that evening was his breaking point and unfortunately Natalie suffered for it. Police say in the days leading up to the crime, Steven had searched on his computer most painful ways to die, so it's safe to say that whatever he did to Natalie that evening, she didn't deserve it, no one does. Keep in mind, Steven is still considered innocent until proven guilty, but let's be real, in a case like this with mountains and mountains of evidence, it seems like this case is pretty open and shut. Thankfully for Natalie, her suffering is finally over, but if Steven is found guilty, his suffering has only just begun.