Crimes So Shocking You May Never Sleep Again

In late September 2017, Alton Nolen was found guilty of first-degree murder for beheading 54-year-old Colleen Hufford at an Oklahoma food plant with a butcher knife. On Dec. 15, 2017, Nolen was sentenced to death by lethal injection.

In September 2016, 25-year-old Misty Velvet Dawn Spann married her 42-year-old mother, Patricia Spann, according to Oklahoma District Court records. The marriage was later annulled. 

Spann was sentenced to two years in prison after pleading guilty to incest. 

In January 2018, California couple David and Louise Turpin were charged in the abuse and torture of their 13 children, who were allegedly starved and kept locked in their home for years. Both David and Louise have pleaded not guilty to the charges.

An Iowa couple was charged with the murder of their 4-month-old son after medics found his body infested with maggots in their home in August 2017. 

Both Harris and Koehn pleaded not guilty.

James Close, a Pennsylvania nurse, was charged in February 2017 with secretly videotaping female patients, including a 17-year-old, while they were naked at the dermatology office where he worked. Close pleaded guilty. 

In 2016, a then-20-year-old Pontrey O’Neal Jones stabbed and killed his stepmom after she had been “gloating” about a Dallas Cowboys victory, police said. Jones was charged with murder, and in 2017, he reportedly tried to escape jail by hiding in a recycle bin. Jones has not yet entered a plea, but after his arrest, he admitted to the crime. 

Known in the media as the “Womb Raider,” Brook Crews pleaded guilty in December 2017 to luring her pregnant neighbor into her apartment and killing her in a plot to kidnap her unborn baby. Crews was sentenced to life in prison.

In 2017, ex-soldier Marinna Rollins and her boyfriend, Jarren Heng, were charged with animal cruelty and conspiracy for allegedly tying her service dog to a tree and shooting it to death. In May 2017, Rollins was found dead in an apparent suicide. 

In 2017, Wuttisan Wongtalay, brought his 11-month-old daughter to a Phuket, Thailand, hotel, where he hung her and recorded it on Facebook Live. After posting the clip to Facebook, Wongtalay took his own life.

John David Cain and Deanna Lynn Greer, of Tennessee, were arrested in March 2017 for allegedly trying to sell their infant on Craigslist for $3,000. They were arrested and charged with criminal attempt to commit aggravated child abuse and aggravated child neglect or endangerment. Their trial is scheduled for late August 2018.

A New York liquor store owner, Charlotte Lahr, was beaten to death with a wine bottle in 2017. Kevin Quander, the man who robbed the store and murdered her, was sentenced to 36 years to life after pleading guilty.

In January 2018, a video surfaced of Ming Ming Chen admitting to beating her 5-year-old daughter to death after the girl's body was found in the family’s restaurant. Chen was sentenced to 22 years in prison after pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter and other charges. 

In December 2017, Timothy Blake was charged with stalking women inside a Walmart and then spraying them with a syringe containing his own semen. Blake was found guilty of pandering obscenity, menacing by stalking, and sexual imposition and sentenced to 180 days in jail and three years of probation. 

In December 2017, Timothy Blake was charged with stalking women inside a Walmart and then spraying them with a syringe containing his own semen. Blake was found guilty of pandering obscenity, menacing by stalking, and sexual imposition and sentenced to 180 days in jail and three years of probation. 

Rebecca Rivera was accused in June 2018 of driving to Galveston, Texas, with her girlfriend and the dead body of her 4-year-old son, and dumping the body into the ocean. Rivera and her girlfriend were charged with fabricating or tampering with physical evidence. Authorities have not released information on how Jacob died, but police say he was abused prior to his death. Rivera has admitted to dumping the boy's body in the water, but has not yet entered a plea in the case. 

In February 2018, Mickey Sparks and Patricia Law, of Tennessee, were arrested and charged with aggravated child abuse after authorities found a 10-year-old girl with autism locked in a filthy, wooden cage. The couple was responsible for the girl as her caretakers. Their trial is set for October 2018.

In 2018, 31-year-old Erin Macke was sentenced to two years probation after she went to Germany for a vacation and left her four children at home. Macke was charged with four counts of child endangerment. 

In April 2018, Yoselyn Ortega, 55, was found guilty of murdering Lulu, 6, and Leo Krim, 2, on Oct. 25, 2012 in New York City. The mother of the deceased children came home with their 3-year-old sister to find the two children dead in the bathtub. 

In November 2016, a then-14-year-old Jacob Remaley allegedly shot and killed his mother, Dana, and his younger brother, Caleb, at their Pennsylvania home. In May 2018, two doctors testified that Remaley had four alternate personalities. Psychiatrist Dr. Bruce Wright described the personalities as crazy voice, old man, benign woman and Wrath. Remaley's lawyer is arguing that Wrath committed the crime. A judge is deciding whether Remaley will be tried as an adult or a juvenile.

Lois Riess, dubbed the “Killer Grandma,” spent five weeks on the run after allegedly killing her husband in Minnesota and then killing 59-year-old Pamela Hutchinson in Florida in an attempt to steal Hutchinson's identity, cops said. She has pleaded not guilty to all charges. Prosecutors say they will seek the death penalty if Riess is convicted. 

Erick Almandinger was found guilty in the murder of 16-year-old David Grunwald on Nov. 13, 2016. Grunwald was pistol-whipped with Almandinger’s Ruger .40 caliber pistol, driven into Alaska woods and then shot execution-style in the head.

Forty-six-year-old Michael Jones pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in May 2017 after admitting he killed his 7-year-old son and fed the boy's body to pigs. The child’s stepmother, Heather Jones, also pleaded guilty first-degree murder. 

In 2016, Christian Clark, of Pennsylvania, allegedly smothered her son with a mattress and attempted to kill her daughter. Clark and the children's father, Andre Price Jr., were reportedly having an argument when she texted him a video of the 17-month-old boy's body. Clark was charged with homicide and attempted murder. She is awaiting trial. 

In November 2016, Tiffany Alberts of Indiana allegedly injected her teenage son’s IV with feces while he was undergoing cancer treatment. Alberts was discovered when staff placed video surveillance in his room and saw her in action. She admitted to placing feces in the IV. Alberts was charged with attempted murder and is awaiting trial. 

In January 2017, Alexander Delgado Herrera’s twin brother was visiting him in jail when Herrera drugged him and walked out of jail, assuming his identity. Herrera was serving 16 years for child sexual abuse in Peru. Herrera was on the run for 13 months before he was caught. His brother was not charged.

Nurse Mary Bennett of Georgia pleaded guilty in 2016 to one count of theft by deception and one count of forgery for making up the fact that she had stage 4 ovarian cancer. She tricked her friends and family into donating thousands of dollars to her, along with gifts and free trips.

A South Carolina woman who had been previously missing with her boyfriend for several months in 2016 was later found alive inside a metal container, chained like a dog. The woman was found on Todd Kohlhepp's property, and once she was free, she explained that the sex offender and serial killer had killed her boyfriend, Charlie Carver. In May 2017, Kohlhepp pleaded guilty to seven counts of murder, two counts of kidnapping and one count of criminal sexual assault.

In March 2017, Randy Herman Jr. was accused of stabbing and killing his roommate, Brooke Preston, after hugging her goodbye. Herman then placed a 911 call and confessed to murdering Preston. He was arrested and charged with first-degree murder. He is being held without bond, and has not yet entered a plea. 

When she was just 11, Mary Bell strangled two small boys in England merely for “the pleasure and excitement” of killing. In December 1968, Bell was convicted of manslaughter. The jury ruled she was mentally impaired, and she was not found guilty of murder. She was released at the age of 23 and lives under several assumed names.

In January 2017, teens Jerry Johnsey and Byron Lasiak, of Florida, allegedly met 67-year-old Donald Merkley through a Craigslist sex listing. Cops allege that the meeting was a plot for the teens to extort Merkley, but it ended in his death. In May 2018, Lasiak pleaded guilty to the murder and agreed to testify against Johnsey, who will go on trial in November.

In January 2014, West Virginia teen Shelia Eddy pleaded guilty in the murder of Skylar Neese, who was once her best friend. Eddy stabbed Neese to death and left her body in the woods. Eddy was sentenced to life with the possibility of parole. 

Four people were shot to death, including two children, in a murder-suicide on New Year’s Day 2017 in South Carolina. Authorities said Marissa Hope Reynoso, 4-year-old Elijah Chavez and a 12-month-old Ezra Chavez were all killed by Reynoso's estranged boyfriend and father of the children, Jorge Luis Chavez, 25, who then killed himself.

In February 2018, 22-year-old medical student Deane Stryker was quietly studying in Massachusetts' Winchester Public Library when she was allegedly stabbed to death by a stranger who approached her from the back. The alleged attacker, Jeffrey Yao, pleaded not guilty and was held without bail. 

On May 26, 1990, Marlene Warren was at her Florida home with her 20-year-old son when she opened the door to a clown offering her balloons and flowers. Without warning, the clown shot her in the face. It wasn’t until 27 years later that an arrest was made. Sheila Keen, now married to Warren’s husband, was arrested in 2017 and as of April 2018, remains in jail without bond. She has pleaded not guilty. 

In 2010, University of Alabama-Huntsville biology professor Amy Bishop shot and killed three colleagues and wounded three others during a faculty meeting. She was sentenced to life in prison. She is one of few women who have carried out a mass shooting. 

Gypsy Rose Blanchard, is serving 10 years in prison for murder of her mother, Dee Dee, who had convinced Blanchard that she was terminally ill and required a wheelchair.

In 2017, the documentary "Mommy Dead and Dearest" was released. It explored Dee Dee's murder and the life of Blanchard.

Two brothers in Georgia were allegedly chased down by at least two men wearing clown masks in 2016. One of the boys said it was around 6:30 a.m. when they noticed someone walking toward them in black clothes, a clown mask and a red wig. Another man ran out, chasing the boys as they screamed. 

In 1988, babysitter Laurie Dann exhibited odd and violently dangerous behavior weeks before she went on a rampage, sending arsenic-laced snacks to a frat house and to the homes of previous babysitting clients. Dann then set a home on fire, traveled to an Illinois elementary school and shot six children, killing one. After this, Dann killed herself in a nearby home.

Walking into his family's Ohio home on Halloween 2010, Devon Griffin thought he was being pranked when he found the bodies of his brother, his mother and his stepfather. Upon realizing the truth, the 16-year-old contacted police through an aunt. Griffin's stepbrother, William Liske Jr., who had a history of mental illness, was arrested, pleaded guilty to the murders and was sentenced to life in prison. In 2015, he was found dead in his prison cell in what police classified as a suicide.

On Halloween night in 2013, 27-year-old Quentin Patrick shot 12-year-old TJ Darrisaw at least a dozen times with an AK-47 in South Carolina. Patrick, an alleged drug dealer, mistook the trick-or-treater for a rival narcotics supplier. He was found guilty of voluntary manslaughter and sentenced to 16 years.

In March 2018, a 6-month-old Pennsylvania girl was found dead in a trash bag, stored in a container filled with cat litter. Her parents are facing criminal homicide charges and were previously charged with concealing the death of a child, abuse of a corpse and conspiracy. They are awaiting trial. 

On Halloween night in 1974, Ronald O’Bryan of Houston gave Pixy Stix to five children, two of whom were his own. Timothy, O’Bryan’s 8-year-old son, said the Pixy Stix tasted bitter, and an hour later he was dead. The Pixy Stix were found to be filled with cyanide. O’Bryan was found guilty and executed on Mar. 31, 1984.

John White, a Michigan ex-convict and former minister, killed his fiancee’s 24-year-old daughter, Rebekah Gay, in 2013 to allegedly fulfill his fantasy of having sex with a dead body. He pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to 56-85 years in prison.

On Oct. 31, 2004, an intruder entered a peaceful Napa home and brutally stabbed two 26-year-old female roommates to death, leaving a third alive. A friend of the women, Eric Copple, later turned himself in. He pleaded guilty to the two murders and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Police searched the closet of self-described Earth Day founder Ira Einhorn in 1979, finding the body of his long-missing girlfriend. He evaded authorities for years after fleeing the United States for Europe, but was ultimately extradited to the U.S. by France in 1997. Einhorn was convicted of murder and sentenced to mandatory life without possibility of parole.

In 1991, Charles Albright murdered a Dallas sex worker, Shirley Williams, and removed her eyes. Authorities also charged Albright with two similar murders — both sex workers who were shot and had their eyes removed — between 1990 and 1991. A jury, however, only found Albright guilty in Williams' murder. He was sentenced to life in prison.

A Pennsylvania man faces a murder charge after allegedly killing a woman over a failed marriage proposal. Police say Christopher Tucker, 34, confessed to snapping his girlfriend’s neck and gouging out her eyes after she spurned him in 2017.

In February 2017, teacher Brian Kornbluth was caught kissing one of his 10-year-old students on the lips. Police say Kornbluth, who had used candy to lure children, admitted to the act and pleaded guilty to a battery charge. He was sentenced to a year of probation.

Ruby Kate Coursey of Georgia is serving life in prison for leaving her paraplegic ex-boyfriend to die in the woods. She pleaded guilty to felony murder in June 2017.

In March 2017, upstate New York couple Ernest Franklin II and Heather Franklin allegedly started a fire to conceal the murder of their 16-year-old adopted son, Jeffrey Franklin. The couple formed the plan after watching the film “Manchester by the Sea,” authorities said. The couple has been charged with second-degree murder, arson and tampering with physical evidence. The Franklins have pleaded not guilty.

A California father is serving 25 years to life after killing his 5-year-old son. Aramazd Andressian pleaded guilty in August 2017 to killing the boy after a trip to Disneyland. The boy was missing for two months before Andressian was arrested. He told police where to find the boy’s body, which he had buried.