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While many criminals flee the scene after committing their crimes, some take it a step further by engaging in unsettling actions with the bodies of the deceased. They often attempt to conceal the remains, believing they can outsmart law enforcement. In some cases, they even keep the deceased nearby or within their immediate surroundings.
It remains a mystery why certain murderers go to great lengths to hide their victims, especially since history demonstrates that many bodies are eventually found, leading to the capture of the perpetrators. The victims listed here were no different, but the horrifying acts inflicted upon their bodies were truly nightmarish.
10. Her Son Remained Nearby
In 1946, a tragic story emerged from London about a mother’s devastating loss.
Mrs. Berresford owned a house and rented out rooms to tenants. Her son, Harry, a 19-year-old soldier, visited her home one day and encountered Sheminant, a lodger who acted as though he ruled the household. A disagreement must have occurred, as Harry was never seen alive after that.
Time passed, and Harry was declared a deserter, though his mother found it hard to believe. She wondered if he might be hiding in his bedroom, especially since Sheminant kept the door locked and refused to let her enter.
Two months later, Mrs. Berresford forced open the bedroom door. While she didn’t see her son, she noticed a loose floorboard. Reaching inside, she felt what she thought might be a knee, though she couldn’t be certain.
The mother returned to the room multiple times and eventually detected a “foul odor.” It was then that she understood the horrifying truth and contacted the police.
Sheminant was arrested, charged with murder, and brought to trial.
9. Precisely Dismembered and Packaged
During the early 1900s, the idea of a woman committing murder was deeply shocking, as society largely believed women incapable of such brutal acts.
In 1915, Mrs. Mary Pamais invited a disabled peddler, Michael Weinstein, into her apartment while her husband was absent. Weinstein threatened to expose intimate letters she had written, sending her into a panic that led to his murder.
Typically, murderers either flee or dispose of the body. Mrs. Pamais did neither. She dragged the body to her bedroom, concealed it in a box couch, and that night, she and her husband slept in the same room as the hidden corpse.
The following day, while her husband was away, Mrs. Pamais removed the body from the couch. She meticulously dismembered it, wrapped each piece in newspaper, and returned them to the couch.
Despite her busy schedule, Mrs. Pamais rented a new apartment the same day and ordered a trunk to transport the dismembered body. Her plan to escape was thwarted when she confessed everything to her husband that night. Being a man of integrity, he spent hours urging her to turn herself in. By the third day, she was at the police station, admitting to every horrifying detail.
8. Hidden in the Cupboard
In 1925, Dr. Pierre Bougrat ran a medical practice in Marseilles, France. To the outside world, he appeared respectable, but his financial troubles eventually revealed a darker side.
The doctor first betrayed his wife, divorcing her—the daughter of a fellow physician—for another woman. Initially, his new marriage seemed perfect, but their lavish lifestyle outpaced his earnings, leading to accusations of issuing fraudulent checks.
Strange occurrences also plagued his practice. One of his patients, a young man named Jacques Rumede, visited him and vanished without a trace. Another patient, a woman, accused him of attempting to poison her after she loaned him a significant sum of money.
As suspicions grew, the police moved to arrest Dr. Bougrat for issuing fraudulent checks. While in custody, officers searched his office. Everything seemed normal except for a peculiar damp spot on one of the walls.
Intrigued, the officers peeled back the wallpaper, revealing a concealed cupboard. Upon opening it, the body of young Jacques Rumede tumbled out. The victim’s wallet, reportedly holding a substantial amount of cash, was nowhere to be found.
The doctor quickly offered an explanation for the hidden corpse. He stated that the young man had approached him, distressed over losing a significant amount of money: “He asked me to lend him the money. [ . . . ] I tried to calm him down and left the room briefly. When I returned, he was dead . . . Fearing I’d be accused of his murder, I concealed the body in the cupboard and covered it with wallpaper.”
Dr. Bougrat was taken into custody. While awaiting trial, investigators uncovered evidence suggesting he might also be responsible for the deaths of a cook, an American bar manager, and a hospital nurse.
7. The Unmistakable Odor
Fred Eschle, a resident of St. Paul, Minnesota, was an alcoholic and former convict who relied on theft to get by. One day, he encountered what he considered the ideal target.
In 1908, Fred met and killed a local ragpicker inside the victim’s shack, using a shotgun to blow off the top of his head. It was claimed that Fred stole $70 from the victim’s pocket before burying the body beneath the shack’s floorboards. Without hesitation, Fred settled into the shack, eating the victim’s food and sleeping above the corpse.
Suspicions soon arose, and while Fred was away, the police searched the shack and uncovered the body. Fred was apprehended and admitted to the murder, arguing that he couldn’t be fully accountable because he was intoxicated. When questioned about the stolen money, Fred revealed it had been of little use—a pickpocket had taken it shortly after the murder while he was, once again, drunk.
6. Liquid Metal
Pierre Voirbo was known among his acquaintances as somewhat eccentric, but no one suspected the monster lurking within him until 1869.
Voirbo, perpetually in need of funds, borrowed a substantial amount from Mr. Bodasse. Realizing he couldn’t repay the debt, he resorted to extreme measures. Voirbo invited Bodasse to his Paris apartment for coffee, where he struck him with a flat iron and slit his throat. He then dismembered the body and disposed of some parts in a nearby well.
To ensure the police couldn’t identify Bodasse, Voirbo took the severed head and filled the mouth and ears with molten lead. He later submerged the head in the Seine River.
Luckily, Voirbo was caught and confessed to his horrific crime. It was suspected he might have been responsible for ten other murders, though this was never conclusively proven. While awaiting trial, Voirbo used a knife hidden in a loaf of bread to slit his own throat.
5. Was It Self-Defense?
After the discovery of two women she was accused of killing in 1931, police searched for Mrs. Winnie Ruth Judd for five days. Unbeknownst to them, she had been hiding among coffins in a mortuary. Eventually, driven by hunger and fear, she surrendered to the Los Angeles police.
Mrs. Judd claimed that after a night of partying, she had a heated argument with her friends. One of the women brandished a gun and shot Mrs. Judd through the hand. In the struggle, she managed to disarm them and, in self-defense, shot both women.
If her account was accurate, Mrs. Judd should have immediately contacted the police. Instead, she dismembered the bodies, packed them into two travel trunks, and, disguised, shipped the trunks via the Southern Pacific railway.
4. Stitched Together
In 1909, near Dungog, New South Wales, an unbelievable discovery was made. A man found a bulky bag in a creek and, upon closer inspection, realized it contained a corpse. He immediately alerted the authorities.
The police were met with a horrifying sight. The body of a middle-aged man was wrapped in a blanket and encased in cement bags stitched together. The victim wore only a flannel undershirt, his skull crushed at the back with a pickaxe. His face was severely beaten, and his jaw was fractured.
The brutality didn’t end there—the victim’s throat had been slashed from ear to ear. His limbs were disfigured, and the bones shattered to allow the body to be folded and stitched into the blanket and cement bags.
After some investigation, the victim was identified as a local laborer. Police interviews with potential witnesses eventually led them to the suspected killer.
3. He Began by Striking Her with a Hammer
Have you ever encountered someone so irritating that you imagined harming them? While most of us entertain such dark thoughts occasionally, James Hazelton acted on his impulses in 1909.
Mr. Hazelton and his wife were embroiled in a heated argument at their New Haven, Connecticut, home. What started as a trivial dispute escalated when his wife brought up past grievances. Unable to endure it any longer, Hazelton seized a hammer and struck her on the head. As she fell unconscious, he took a knife and stabbed her.
Once certain his wife was dead, Mr. Hazelton crammed her body into a large trunk, which he slept on for several nights. Eventually, he covered the trunk with a quilt and fled.
After his capture in New York City, Mr. Hazelton admitted to the crime, stating, “Yes, I killed her because we couldn’t get along.”
2. Packed Away
Some murderers go to great lengths to dispose of a body, as seen in a 1905 case where human remains were found in an irrigation channel.
Mr. Crawford, a channel guard, was patrolling the banks of a Girgarree, Victoria, channel when he spotted a bran bag in the water. Upon opening it, he found dismembered human remains and promptly alerted the police.
The police were met with a horrifying scene. The torso, clad in two shirts, had been gutted, the head severed, and both legs cut off at the thighs. It was estimated that the remains had been submerged in the water for approximately two months.
Given the year was 1905, identifying the body proved impossible. Authorities speculated it might belong to a former resident of Waranga Basin. The case became another unsolved death, and the remains were handed over to the local coroner.
1. Abandoned in a Cloakroom
In 1924, 21-year-old Charles Travis, an American, was vacationing in London with his wife and their ten-month-old son. However, the young couple struggled with the responsibilities of parenthood.
Their child, Dean, frequently cried at night during their stay in London. A doctor was summoned, and while the father claimed the baby had scarlet fever, the doctor confirmed the child was healthy, suffering only from minor skin irritation.
For three more weeks, the child continued to cry at night, as infants often do, but the father had reached his limit. One night, Charles woke to the sound of crying, entered the child’s room, and placed his hand over the baby’s mouth, pinched his nose shut, and pressed on his windpipe until the child stopped breathing.
The following morning, Charles placed the child’s body in a kitbag, boarded a train to Birmingham, and left the bag at a cloakroom under a false name. He then returned to London by train. Later that evening, he sent a telegram to his parents claiming the child had died of scarlet fever.
Meanwhile, their landlady grew suspicious when the baby’s cries ceased. The police were called, and the parents claimed the child was with friends. However, the inspector, skeptical of their story, eventually extracted a confession from Charles.
Charles was arrested and stood trial. He was acquitted of murder but found guilty of manslaughter, receiving a five-year prison sentence.
