Persons Unknown

It was nearly 2am on Sunday November 15th 1970  when 18 year old college freshman Robin Graham ran out of petrol on  Hollywood freeway, California.  A couple of highway patrol officers pulled up to assist her and directed Robin to the nearest emergency phone, from where she called her parents' home. They had not yet returned from an evening out so Robin left a message with her sister that she...

Part 2 of the episode Kyllikki Saari (Unsolved Murder). If you haven't already, please go back and listen to part 1 before continuing. See show notes in Part 1 for episode desription. All sources for the episode can be found here Support the show Follow  Persons Unknown:  Instagram and Facebook Email: personsunknownpod@gmail.com Website with Transcripts: https://personsunknown.buzzsprout.com/

*PART 1 of Kyllikki Saari (Unsolved Murder). Part 2 will be released Friday Nov 17th, 5:00am GMT. Though it was 10pm it was still light as 17 year old Kyllikki Saari and her friend Maiju started their cycle home. It was Sunday May 17th 1953 and the pair had just attended a church youth event near the rural town of Isojoki, in southwest Finland.  At a crossroads on a lonely forest road the friends...

Sandy Drummond was a down to earth, bright and likeable former British soldier. The 33 year old worked at a paper mill and shared an isolated cottage with his brother just outside St Andrews in Fife, eastern Scotland. In the spring of 1991 Sandy’s relaxed demeanour suddenly altered and a cloud of sadness seemed to descend on him. A few months later Sandy abruptly resigned from his job and a few da...

Segametsi Mogomotsi lived in the village of Mochudi, just outside the capital city of Gabarone in Botswana. On a Saturday in November 1994 the 14 year old disappeared while selling oranges to raise funds for an upcoming church excursion. Less than 24 hours later her dismembered body was found a short distance from her home. It appeared Segametsi had been been the victim of a ritual murder. This ho...

Dr Danuta Kaczmarska was loved and respected by her patients. In January 1986  the 52 year old was found brutally murdered at her home in Hall Green, Birmingham, in what looked like a frenzied but premeditated attack. The community and police were baffled. Then sensational and often judgemental stories began to surface that the kind, amiable doctor was leading a double life. It is suspected that D...

Brian McDermott left his home in East Belfast and promised his mum he would be back for Sunday lunch. It was the last day of the summer holidays in 1973 and the 10 year old was headed to the playground at nearby Ormeau park. Brian was spotted there by several witnesses but he never returned home. Six days later his partial remains were found in a hessian sack floating on the River Lagan. At the ti...

On an early spring evening in 1982, 8 year old Toya Hill went out to play in front of her family's apartment block in south eastern Baltimore.  At some point she wandered to a local grocery store to buy some sweets. Toya never returned  home and it was as if the thrid grader had walked off the face of earth.  No sign could be found and the police were baffled.  Toya's mother Annette had...

The evening of December 18th 2008 was Mellory “Mel” Manning’s  first shift on the streets of Christchurch’s red light district for months. The 27 year old had turned to sex work at a young age to fund a destructive drug habit. Recently a family tragedy had led Mel to take steps to change her life. Tonight was a one off, she  was off the drugs but wanted extra money to buy Christmas presents. At 9....

10 year old Adre’anna Jackson disappeared on a snowy morning in December 2006. She had left her family apartment in Lakewood, Washington State early to see if classes were still on for the day. The fourth grader never made it to the school. A desperate search began but it was as if Adre’anna had vanished off the face of the earth. Four months later two 9 year old boys discovered human remains on a...

Born in the first decade of the twentieth century, siblings Martha (known as Patti) and Griffith Thomas lived together their entire lives. By 1976 both Patti and Griff were retired and, although relatively wealthy, they led a simple and frugal life in their farmhouse near Llangolman, West Wales. In December that year the siblings were both found dead in their home in mysterious circumstances. An i...

* This episode deals with a crime committed against a child. Please exercise self-care when choosing to listen. At 8.30pm on Wednesday 22nd April 1981, 15 year old Kelly Cook left her house in the village of Standard, Alberta for the last time. She got into a waiting car driven by a man she had never before met and disappeared into the night. That morning Kelly had received a phone call from a man...

Florence Broadhurst was a flamboyant artist and designer. On the afternoon of October 15th 1977 the 78 year old was working in the office of her luxury wallpaper factory situated in Paddington, Sydney, NSW. Florence was left alone on the premises at 4pm. The following morning, after a report that the door to the premises had been open all night, Florence’s battered body was found posed in a degrad...

Between 1978 and 1996 eight infant abductions were connected to Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia. All the children were black and the average age of their mothers was just 18. Six of the infants were found safe and well and returned to their families. Two of the babies remain missing. Raymond Lamar Green was abducted in November 1978 and Tavish Sutton in March 1993. Their abductors were...

On a damp autumn evening in 1945, Caroline Evans made her way on foot from her home in Coedpoeth, North Wales to the neighbouring village of Minera.  Since her father died the 38 year old school teacher made the trip every Saturday evening to visit her mother. She always took the same shortcut on a narrow, secluded footpath through Pant Tywyll, or Dark Hollow.  This time Caroline didn’t arrive saf...

In March 1980 19 year old Marine Alan Addis travelled to the Falkland Islands with  the Royal Navy. The remote archipelago lies 480km east of the southern tip of Argentina. Alan was there as part of a detachment to train local volunteers in defence skills and equipment. Five months later, after an evening out at a social club in North Arm settlement, East Falkland, Alan vanished without a trace. A...

On the morning of July 21st 1961, six year old Hattie Jackson and her older brother Herbert, set off with a packed lunch for Rock Creek Park. It was just a six block walk from the siblings’ home in north Washington D.C. After meeting up with Herbert’s friends the group played on the playground and then went swimming in the creek. After a little while the children split up and Hattie was left alone...

On the evening of November 9th 1995 Jo Jo Dullard found herself stranded in Dublin after she missing her last bus home. The 21 year old had just moved back to her family home in Callan and was determined to make the 145km journey that night. Through a combination of bus journeys and hitchhiking she made it as far as the town of Moone. Still an hours drive from Callan she found phone box to call a...

On a cold and foggy night in November 1967 Rita Ellis made her way across a road to an awaiting red car. The 19 year old then disappeared into the gloom and was never seen alive again. Rita was a cook at RAF Halton in Herefordshire and lived in the women’s accommodation block onsite. That evening she had arranged to babysit for Wing Commander Watson but she failed to turn up for the appointment. H...

Kirsty Jones dreamed of seeing the world. In May 2000 the 23 year old left her home in mid Wales and embarked on a global trip of a life time. After visiting Singapore and Malaysia, Kirsty travelled to Chiang Mai in the north of Thailand. Kirsty had been in the city less than a week when a maid found her murdered body in her bedroom at the backpackers guesthouse where she was staying.  DNA was fou...

Guistina Macari was known as Christina by family and friends. On May 17th 1941 the three year old disappeared from outside her family’s fish and chip shop in Swansea, South Wales. Her little body was found 5km away in a wood the following day.  Many witnesses came forward to say they had seen the little girl in the company of a man with long hair who walked with a stoop. It wasn’t long before a pr...

At approximately 1.25am on  January 27th 1974 the San Francisco police received an anonymous call saying a man’s body was lying near the water line on Ocean Beach. The police arrived and discovered the caller was telling the truth. It was the start of a reign of terror targeting the LGBT+ community that would leave at least six gay men murdered and many more lives destroyed. They were victims of a...

In the spring of 2001, 9 year old Peggy Knobloch vanished from the small Bavarian town of Lichtenburg on her walk home from school. Despite a massive search operation no trace was found of the little girl. Three years later a neighbour of Peggy’s with pronounced learning difficulties was found guilty of her murder. The local community felt a miscarriage of justice had occurred and set up about try...

In the early hours of September 1st 1990 a person or persons unknown entered the Sousa family home in Cumberland Beach, Ontario, Canada. 13 year old Leah was assaulted in the living room before being dragged to the yard and killed. Her mother Lora was beaten and left for dead, but miraculously survived. Lora’s nine month old baby son was left unharmed in his cot. Despite police believing Lora saw...

The last official sighting of 26 year old Maria Christina Requena was on New Year’s Day 1991. A week later her dismembered body was found at a beauty spot 24 km away. The location was only a couple of km away from where the mutilated  body of 31 year old Linda Donaldson had been found in October 1988. Both women were sex workers and worked opposite ends of the East Lancs road that connects the cit...