We have seen a lot of crazy crime stories in the movies, but sometimes, weird things can happen in real life as well. These 5 true crime stories have such plot twists that even Hollywood directors can be left in awe.
5. Double homicide or what?
On August 3, 2017, in Authon-du-Perche in northern France, two bodies were found dead on a dinner table. The first assumption by the police was that the 69-year-old Lucien Perot and 38-year-old Olivier Boudin died from food poisoning. However, after the examination, the authorities concluded that food on the scene was completely normal.
Their deaths suddenly became a mystery as the police found no signs of a struggle. According to the neighbours and relatives, the two men didn’t have any enemies according and led simple lives.
In the end, the doctors determined the real cause of death. Namely, Perot choked on a large chunk of beef steak, while at the same time, Boudin had a heart attack, probably triggered by the site of his friend dying in front of him. Some of the locals described this as a “stupid death”.
4. Who killed Agnes Westlund?
Agnes Westlund was a 68-year-old Swedish woman who lived near the tiny village of Loftahammer. She was found beaten to death near a forest lake close to her home. Her death was reported by her husband Ingemar who said that he found her in the snow. He was immediately arrested when the police arrived, as there wasn’t another person around for miles.
Even though he was the prime suspect, the authorities had to release Ingemar as there was no hard evidence that connected him to the killing. Regardless of that fact, the neighbours from the village didn’t like to live next to a suspected murderer so he had to move out of his home.
However, the results of the forensic analysis showed that there were hair and saliva of a European elk (or moose) on the body of Agnes. It turned out that she was struck and kicked to death by a moose during her evening walk. In general, they are shy creatures, but at the time of death, local gardens were strewn with fermented apples, which could have made the moose a bit drunk and aggressive.
3. The killing of officer “G.I. Joe” Gliniewicz
American police lieutenant Charles Joseph Gliniewicz aka “G.I. Joe” was only one month away from retirement when he called for backup during a routine patrol near Fox Lake, Illinois. On the police radio, he stated that he was in hot pursuit of three suspicious unidentified men. When his colleagues arrived, they found Gliniewicz lying dead on the ground in the woods. He had been shot two times, once in his bulletproof vest and once in his head. The officer was buried with full honours and “G.I. Joe” was hailed as a local hero.
As the investigation by the FBI went on, they realized that his personal life was a bit shady. His personal file suggested acts of misconduct and a word spread that he feared an upcoming audit. The feds discovered that he had been embezzling money out of a police youth program for years.
It turned out that Gliniewicz tried to hire a gang member to kill him before his dark side was revealed. However, this plan didn’t go as planned, and then the forensics showed that the two shots came from a very close distance – just about an arm’s length. The authorities then realized that there was no real hot pursuit with criminals and that Charles Joseph Gliniewicz, in fact, committed suicide before all of his dirty deeds were discovered.
2. The Angela Diaz story
Angela Diaz married U.S. Marshal Ian Diaz in 2016 and she was pregnant with twins. It all appeared to be a good life when things started to turn upside down. Suddenly, she started receiving threatening emails and disturbing photos of dead babies. Angela also reported to the police that suspicious people were showing up around her house threatening to rape her. Soon afterwards, she was found in an alley with bruises on her head and Diaz told the police that she fended off someone who assaulted her. She even recognized the attacker as Michelle Hadley – the ex-fiancee of her husband.
Hadley had motives as Angela Diaz stole her husband and started living in the apartment that Ian and Hadley bought for themselves. So, the police arrested Hadley and the case seemed to be closed.
However, the authorities soon discovered that the IP address used for the threatening emails was, in fact, used by Angela Diaz and it appeared that she was sending the messages to herself. As they dug further, they also found that Angela was organizing her own assault on Craigslist, where she was trying to convince people to rape her even if she resisted. She also revealed her address and walking routines in the communication.
It turned out that Angela Diaz was a pathological liar. She also lied about her family, her work and even her pregnancy was a fake. She had bought fake sonograms which she showed to her husband and his parents.
After seizing her computer, the police arrested Diaz and exonerated Hadley, who had spent 88 days in a cell. Angela was sentenced to five years in prison after pleading guilty to multiple charges including perjury, grand theft, kidnapping and false imprisonment.
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The Whitakers murders
The Whitakers of Sugar Land, Texas were an apparently happy upper-middle-class family. The oldest son Bart announced that he graduated from Sam Houston State University in December 2003. The entire family went out for a dinner to celebrate the graduation.
After they got home, Bart stayed in the car to look for his missing phone, while his parents Kent and Tricia, along with his brother Kevin went inside. Soon after, gunshots were heard from the house where an armed robber shot all of them. Bart rushed inside and managed to drive away the attacker – getting a bullet in his arm during the fight. Tricia and Kevin were dead, but Bart and his father Kent survived.
The police investigation found some very suspicious evidence which gave the whole story an unexpected twist. For example, nothing was stolen from the house, except for Bart’s phone. It was later discovered that Bart didn’t actually graduate nor did he attend the university. Instead, he spent the year in Mexico under the name Rudy Rios.
After the murders, one of Bart’s friends called the police and said the Bart tried to hire him to kill his family and make it look like an unsuccessful robbery attempt. He refused the offer, but one of their neighbours didn’t. Steven Champagne panicked during the investigation and confessed everything to the police. He even turned in Bart’s hidden phone which contained incriminating evidence.
Bart aka Rudy Rios was already in Mexico, but after two years, he was eventually arrested and deported to the USA. As the mastermind behind the murders, he was sentenced to death.
However, the story took yet another strange turn. The survivor of the attack, Kent Whittaker (Bart’s father), started campaigning for his son’s freedom. He told the authorities that he would be “victimized again if the state put to death his last remaining immediate family member”. Kent even wrote a book about the entire case where he said “My son, I love you. All is forgiven.”
In the end, Bart’s sentence was changed to life in prison just before his lethal injection was about to take place.
