Buzz
At Mytour, mysteries have always been a favorite among our readers. Since our inception, we’ve explored countless enigmatic stories, but something extraordinary has happened recently. In the last year and a half, a significant number of the mysteries we’ve featured have seen breakthroughs or major updates. What’s even more astonishing is that some of these were cold cases that had remained unsolved for years. These developments suggest that Mytour might just bring a touch of luck to unresolved mysteries.
10. The Vanishing of the McStay Family
The McStay family's vanishing act in 2010 left investigators scratching their heads for almost four years. Joseph McStay, Summer McStay, along with their kids, Gianni and Joseph Jr., aged four and three respectively, disappeared without a trace from their Fallbrook, California residence on February 4, 2010. Their car was later discovered close to the Mexican border, and surveillance tapes showed a family that looked like the McStays crossing into Mexico. Initially, the authorities speculated that the family had chosen to disappear. However, both the car and the footage were misleading clues.
Human remains were found on November 11, 2013, in two shallow graves in a secluded desert near Victorville. The remains were confirmed through dental records to be those of the McStay family. It is suspected that they died from blunt force trauma, likely murdered in their home before being moved to the desert for burial.
Almost exactly a year after the discovery of the remains, law enforcement made a breakthrough by arresting Charles “Chase” Merritt for the murders of the McStay family. Merritt, who was Joseph McStay’s business associate, had received a call from Joseph's phone the night the family went missing. Authorities believe he left the family's car near the border to mislead the police. Merritt is now awaiting his trial for these charges.
9. The Disappearance Of The Jamison Family
Just four months prior to the McStay family's disappearance, Oklahoma faced its own perplexing case of a missing family. Bobby Jamison, along with his wife Sherilynn and their six-year-old daughter Madyson, vanished without a trace from their Eufaula home on October 8, 2009. Their truck was later discovered on a remote dirt road near Red Oak, with the family dog trapped inside, close to death from starvation. The Jamisons had reportedly gone to the area to buy land, and a significant sum of $32,000 was found under the front seat. Before their disappearance, the couple had been acting strangely, and there were whispers of their involvement in drug trafficking, leading to widespread speculation about their fate.
In a strange twist of fate, both the McStay and Jamison family cases were resolved in the same week. On November 16, 2013, mere days after the McStays were found, hunters stumbled upon human remains in a forested area about 5 kilometers (3 miles) from where the Jamisons' truck was abandoned. Investigators found no evidence of violence, but the remains were later confirmed to be those of Bobby, Sherilynn, and Madyson Jamison. To this day, the cause of their deaths remains unknown, leaving the mystery of what truly happened to the Jamison family unsolved.
8. The Murder Of Baby Hope
On July 23, 1991, a cooler was found near the Henry Hudson Parkway in New York City, revealing the badly decomposed remains of a young girl. The girl had been sexually assaulted and died from asphyxiation. A witness had earlier reported seeing a Hispanic couple carrying a cooler near the Parkway. Despite public appeals for information, the child’s identity remained unknown for over two decades, earning her the name “Baby Hope.”
In 2013, the Baby Hope case was revisited and publicized again. This led to a breakthrough when Margarita Castillo came forward, stating her four-year-old daughter, Anjelica, had disappeared in 1991. Margarita revealed that Anjelica’s father had taken the child, but she had never reported her missing. DNA tests confirmed that Baby Hope was indeed Anjelica, as the samples matched perfectly with Margarita’s.
The investigation eventually pointed to Margarita’s cousin, Conrado Juarez, a 52-year-old dishwasher in Manhattan. Under police interrogation, Juarez admitted to sexually assaulting Anjelica and then suffocating her. With assistance from one of his sisters, he concealed her body in a cooler and abandoned it near the Parkway. Juarez was charged with the crime and is awaiting trial. After 22 years, Baby Hope was finally given a proper burial under her true name, Anjelica Castillo.
7. The Caledonia Jane Doe
On November 9, 1979, the body of a teenage girl was discovered in a cornfield near Caledonia, New York. She had been killed by two gunshots to the head and had no identification on her. Witnesses recalled seeing her hitchhiking the night before her body was found. Analysis of microscopic pollen grains in her clothing revealed they came from another state, indicating she had traveled to New York from elsewhere. Despite extensive investigations, her identity and the identity of her killer remained unknown for over 35 years, leaving her known only as “Jane Doe.”
In January 2015, the Caledonia Jane Doe was finally identified as Tammy Jo Alexander, a 16-year-old runaway from Brooksville, Florida. The breakthrough came when a former classmate attempted to locate Tammy and learned from her sister that she had disappeared in the late 1970s. Surprisingly, no missing persons report had ever been filed for Tammy. Given her history of running away from a troubled home, it was likely her family never reported her missing, or authorities dismissed her as a runaway and didn’t document her disappearance.
In 2014, Tammy was officially reported missing, which drew the attention of Carl Koppelman, a member of the online group Websleuths. Koppelman noticed a remarkable similarity between Tammy and forensic sketches of the Caledonia Jane Doe and alerted the police. DNA testing later confirmed they were the same person. To this day, Tammy Jo Alexander’s murderer remains unidentified.
6. The Unidentified Grateful Dead Fan
On June 26, 1995, a van crash in Greensville County, Virginia, resulted in the death of driver Michael Eric Hager and a young male hitchhiker in the passenger seat. The hitchhiker had no identification but was wearing a Grateful Dead Anniversary Tour T-shirt and carried a ticket stub from a recent Grateful Dead concert, earning him the nickname “Grateful Doe.” He also had a note from two women addressed to someone named “Jason.” Despite these clues, efforts to identify him were unsuccessful.
In January 2015, Grateful Doe’s story was posted on Imgur. A user noticed a sketch of Grateful Doe and thought it resembled a former acquaintance named Jason, who had vanished in 1995. Photos of Jason were shared online, showing a striking resemblance to Grateful Doe. The man in the photos was identified as Jason Patrick Callahan, whose mother lived in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
When interviewed, Jason’s mother admitted she had lost touch with her son since 1995. She never reported him missing because Jason led a nomadic life, often traveling, and she wasn’t sure which jurisdiction to contact. DNA tests are currently being conducted to confirm if Grateful Doe is indeed Jason Callahan, though many believe the results will confirm a match.
5. The Wrongful Conviction Of Ryan Ferguson
For nearly a decade, Ryan Ferguson was imprisoned for a crime many believed he didn’t commit. In 2001, at age 17, Ferguson spent Halloween night at a bar in Columbia, Missouri. Later that night, Kent Heitholt, a sports editor for the Daily Tribune, was brutally beaten and strangled with his own belt in his workplace parking lot. In 2004, Chuck Erickson, a friend of Ferguson, confessed to the murder, implicating both himself and Ferguson. Despite numerous inconsistencies in Erickson’s confession, he testified against Ferguson in exchange for a reduced 25-year sentence. Ferguson was convicted and sentenced to 40 years in prison.
Years after the trial, Erickson withdrew his confession. Additionally, a witness who had claimed to see Ferguson and Erickson fleeing the scene also retracted his statement, alleging he was coerced by prosecutors. With no other evidence linking Ferguson to the crime, his supporters campaigned for his freedom. Kathleen Zellner, a lawyer renowned for overturning wrongful convictions, took up his case and filed an appeal.
On November 5, 2013, the Missouri Court of Appeals overturned Ferguson’s conviction, and he was freed a week later. Since his release, Ferguson has pursued a federal civil rights lawsuit and become a voice for those wrongfully convicted. While Ferguson is now free, Chuck Erickson remains imprisoned for a crime he likely didn’t commit, and Kent Heitholt’s murder case remains unresolved.
4. The Disappearance Of Brian Carrick
On December 20, 2002, 17-year-old Brian Carrick disappeared without a trace from his workplace, Val’s Foods market in Johnsburg, Illinois. Traces of Carrick’s blood discovered at the scene indicated foul play. Years later, Shane Lamb, a coworker, confessed that he and Carrick’s supervisor, Mario Casciaro, had killed Carrick in the store’s produce freezer following a drug debt dispute. Lamb received immunity in exchange for testifying against Casciaro, who was convicted in November 2013 and sentenced to 26 years in prison.
Brian Carrick’s body has never been found, but recent developments suggest Mario Casciaro may be innocent. In October 2014, shortly after Carrick’s story was featured on Mytour, Shane Lamb retracted his confession, now claiming neither he nor Casciaro were involved in Carrick’s murder.
Mario Casciaro is now represented by Kathleen Zellner, the attorney who successfully freed Ryan Ferguson. Zellner has shifted the focus of the investigation to Robert Render, another Val’s Foods employee at the time of Carrick’s disappearance. While no physical evidence ties Casciaro to the crime, DNA tests confirmed that some blood in the freezer belonged to Robert Render. Render died of a drug overdose in 2012, but Zellner is pushing for further DNA testing to clear Casciaro’s name.
3. The Identity Of Suzanne Davis/Sharon Marshall/Tonya Dawn Tadlock
When a young Oklahoma woman died in a hit-and-run accident in April 1990, investigators unraveled a deeply disturbing mystery. The woman had lived under multiple aliases, including “Suzanne Davis,” “Sharon Marshall,” and “Tonya Dawn Tadlock.” She was raised by Franklin Delano Floyd, a career criminal, and later married him as an adult. DNA tests revealed she was not Floyd’s biological daughter. Even more puzzling, she had a son named Michael, but Floyd was not his father. After Michael was placed in foster care, Floyd kidnapped him in 1994. Floyd was eventually arrested, but Michael remains missing. Floyd was sentenced to death for an unrelated murder but never revealed the true identity of the woman he raised as his daughter.
This strange tale was documented in the book A Beautiful Child, and its author, Matt Birkbeck, worked tirelessly to uncover the woman’s identity. In October 2014, Birkbeck announced she had been identified as Suzanne Marie Sevakis.
In the 1970s, Suzanne lived in North Carolina with her divorced mother and three siblings. Her mother later married Franklin Delano Floyd. In 1975, when Suzanne was six, her mother was jailed for 30 days for a minor offense. While incarcerated, Floyd took her four children and fled. Two children were left at a social services agency, but Suzanne’s younger brother was never found.
For the next 15 years, Floyd raised Suzanne as his daughter and subjected her to constant abuse until her death in 1990. In 2014, Floyd finally spoke about his marriage to Suzanne’s mother. After locating the mother and identifying Suzanne in a photograph, DNA tests confirmed her identity as Suzanne Marie Sevakis.
2. The Origin Of ‘Twas The Night Before Christmas’
The beloved Christmas poem, “Twas the Night Before Christmas,” first appeared in Troy, New York, on December 23, 1823, titled “A Visit from St. Nicholas.” It was submitted anonymously to the local newspaper, The Sentinel. For decades, the author remained unknown until Clement Clarke Moore claimed authorship in 1844. However, centuries later, historians began to question Moore’s claim, presenting evidence suggesting the true author might have been Henry Livingston Jr., a Poughkeepsie farmer who died 16 years before Moore took credit.
Shortly after this story was written for Mytour, a significant development occurred before its publication. In 2013, Troy hosted a mock trial to determine whether Clement Clarke Moore or Henry Livingston Jr. authored “Twas the Night Before Christmas.” Both sides presented evidence, but the trial ended in a hung jury, leaving the question unresolved. Funds were later raised via Kickstarter for a second mock trial the following year, which yielded an unexpected outcome.
On December 7, 2014, a jury of two men and four women concluded that Henry Livingston Jr. was likely the author of “Twas the Night Before Christmas.” While the trial was conducted in good fun and the verdict held no legal weight, it bolstered the argument that Livingston deserves recognition for penning one of history’s most famous poems.
1. The Disappearance Of Kyle Peterson
On February 20, 2014, 29-year-old Kyle Peterson was driving through Troutdale, Oregon, when he crashed his SUV into a guardrail. When police arrived, Peterson admitted he had been distracted by his cell phone. However, the situation took a bizarre turn when Peterson suddenly snapped without warning. He got back into his SUV, revved the engine, then exited the vehicle and fled into the nearby woods. Despite extensive searches, no trace of him has ever been found.
The article detailing this story appeared on Mytour on July 16, 2014. Remarkably, the mystery surrounding Kyle Peterson was resolved just two days later. On July 18, the body of a young man was discovered floating in the Sandy River, about 6 kilometers (4 miles) from the crash site. The remains were confirmed to be those of Kyle Peterson.
Some speculate that Peterson may have sustained a concussion during the crash, leading to erratic behavior due to a lack of immediate medical attention. While foul play has not been officially suspected in his death, the exact details of what transpired remain unclear.
