1. Lula Cora Hood
In 1970, a single mother named Lula Cora Hood left her home in Galesburg, Illinois after
a family argument and never returned. She left behind her 15-year-old daughter. Cora suffered from mental health problems
and was in and out of her children's lives even before she disappeared. But this time she never returned to her family,
who believed they would never hear of her again. There were no leads, no tips, no sign of what
had happened to her. She simply vanished. Then, 15 years ago, mushroom hunters found
human remains in a Galesburg brickyard. After making a facial reconstruction, detectives
believed that the bones belonged to Lula. However they were unable to confirm this through
DNA analysis as testing on bones could not be done at the time. Nonetheless Cora was assumed dead and the
family buried the remains and held a memorial service to say goodbye. It seemed as if the mysterious vanishing had
at last been solved. For 13 years that grave would be considered
to be Lula’s, and the mystery would be case closed, Untill 2009 when a fresh DNA analysis
showed the remains interred 15 years ago were not those of Lula’s at all, and belonged
to another unidentified individual. After DNA ruled out Cora as a match for the
remains, police reopened their investigation with an online database search using her first
and middle names and her date of birth. Authorities were able to discover that an
84-year-old woman living in Florida was in fact the long missing Lula Hood, and that
she had a new family and had eventually had 14 children. Even though Cora did not remember her daughter
after all these years, they eventually reunited. Incidentally, in 2013, the female remains
were finally identified as another missing woman named Helen “Ruth” Alps. 2. Wendy Von Huben
Sixteen-year-old Wendy Von Huben lived in Woodstock, Illinois, with her family. She was dating a nineteen-year-old boy named
Jesse Howell, who had recently moved into his own home. On February 22, 1997, Wendy told her parents
that she was staying over at a friend's house. In reality, however, Wendy and Jessie ran
away, after Jesse promised to take her around the world. When wendy didn't come home the next day,
her parents reported her missing. They later learned from her school that she
had skipped classes up to a week prior to her disappearance. Wendy and Jesse went on a trip along with
another couple. During the trip, they slept in their friend's
car and stopped in different states. They ended up in Bradenton, Florida where
they parted ways with the other couple. Shortly after they ran out of money and lived
under a bridge near Dade City for few days. On March 19, Wendy called her parents and
asked for $200 for a bus ticket back home for her and Jesse. A few days later, Jesse called his parents
from a nearby truck stop. He said that they were on their way home. However, two days later, on March 23, Jesse
was discovered bludgeoned to death near the railroad tracks in Marion County, Florida. He had been struck from behind and there was
no evidence of a struggle. There was still money in his pocket and a
half-smoked cigarette on the ground. A small drop of blood on his jacket was believed
to belong to Wendy. However wendy was nowhere to be seen. Several weeks later, on June 4, Wendy's parents
received a phone call from Wendy in which she said, "It's me, Wendy!" and then hung
up. She then called again and told her father
that she was at a gas station in Kankakee, Illinois. However, the conversation was so short, her
father was not sure that it was actually her. Police tracked the phone to a Phillips 66
gas station. After viewing surveillance videotape, they
spotted a teenage girl that matched Wendy's description. Her parents watched the tape and agreed that
the girl was Wendy. Police estimated that the tape was filmed
within minutes of the phone calls. Some local drifters told police that Wendy
was travelling with a one-legged railroad car rider known as "Bob," who has since been
identified as Bobby Ray Taylor. In April of 1998, the drifter named Bobby
Ray Taylor was located. He denied ever being with Wendy and it was
determined that he was not involved in the case. In July of 2000, Angel Resendiz, also known
as "The Railroad Killer", confessed to killing Wendy and Jesse. He claimed he met Wendy and Jessie on March
21, 1997, in a large railway yard in Baldwin, Fla., where hobos and the homeless are known
to live. Sometime that night, they got on a grain car
heading south. Wendy and Jessie began asking Resendiz where
they could get jobs without having identification. He told them he was going to work the orange
fields and told them he could show them where they are. By March 23, they had traveled about 85 miles
when the train stopped just short of Ocala. Resendiz got off, and Howell followed him. Resendiz then took a rubber hose lined with
heavy metal that is used to connect rail cars and hit Howell over the head, killing him
with one or two blows. Resendiz said he got back on the train alone,
and he and Wendy went on. Wendy didn't knew what happened to Jessie
at this point. Resendiz told investigators he and wendy got
off the train in Oxford, where he tied her up, then choked her to death with his arms
about 35 feet from the tracks. He said he covered her body with a military
jacket he was wearing and a blanket. Resendiz led police to Wendy's remains, which
were found fifteen miles from the spot where Jesse was found. DNA and jewelry found on the remains confirmed
her identity. Resendiz confessed to at least nine other
murders. Police believe he was responsible for at least
fifteen murders dating back to 1986. He was executed in June of 2006. 3. Pamela Jackson And Cheryl Miller
ON the evening of May 29, 1971, 17 year-old Cheryl Miller and 17 year-old Pamella Jackson
were on their way to a high school party in Vermilion, South Dakota, driving in a beige
1960 Studebaker Lark. The car was Cheryl's grandfather's. The girls stopped at the local church and
talked to some boys after visiting Cheryl's grandmother in the hospital earlier that day. The boys were going to the same party Cheryl
and Pamella were. They agreed to follow the boys to the party
in their own car. However, the boys missed a turn and accidentally
drove past the party. When they turned around they no longer saw
the Studebaker’s headlights. They figured the girls had simply lost the
nerve to attend the party. The celebration went on, but the girls and
the Studebaker would not be seen again, until 2013. In the following weeks, volunteers and law-enforcement
officers searched the gravel pit, surrounding roads and even the nearby Missouri River. But their efforts yielded nothing. The mystery persisted, year after year, for
more than four decades. Authorities had their theories about the girls'
disappearance. At first, they believed the girls to be runaways
because of their ages. Other thought they runaway to a hippie commune
in California. Soon, A man named, David Lykken, already serving
a prison sentence on unrelated charges was indicted for murder in the deaths of Miller
and Jackson in 2007. However, the charges were dropped after it
was found out an inmate faked his confession about Lykken's involvement in the case. Then, on September 23, 2013, a fisherman who
was fishing by South Dakota's Brule Creek noticed two wheels sticking out from the creek's
embankment. Investigators recovered the car from the embankment,
which was caked with mud. The location of the creek is in an area that
is rarely traveled. It is 30 miles east of Vermillion, almost
right on the Iowa border. Record flooding followed by a drought is what
brought the upside-down car into view. Days later, it was reported that their were
two sets of skeletal remains found inside the car. The remains were later confirmed to be those
of Miller and Jackson. According to officials, the victims' vehicle
was stuck in a third gear, the lights were on, and their skeletal remains were in the
cabin. One of the tires on the car was damaged. The car keys were found in the ignition. Investigators also recovered Miller's purse,
which contained her driver's license, photos and notes from her classmates. Those factors pointed to an accident and the
case was finally closed after 43 years. 4. Lucy Johnson
In 1965 Lucy Ann Johnson, mother to a son, David, and a daughter, Linda, vanished. Her husband Marvin Johnson reported her missing
from their home in Surrey, British Columbia, near Vancouver, Canada, in 1965, but upon
further investigation police were alarmed to find that, after talking to various neighbors,
it seemed Lucy had not been seen since September of 1961. Based on witnesses reporting that Marvin had
been digging a septic field in the yard a few months prior, the Surrey Royal Canadian
Mounter police dug up the yard of the home which was located near 103rd Avenue and 145th
A Street in North Surrey, but found nothing. Lucy Ann Carvell, born in 1935 in Alaska met
her first husband Marvin Johnson and married in Blaine, Washington, later moving to Surrey. After reading a profile of her mother, considered
British Columbia’s oldest missing persons case, Linda evans, decided to take matters
into her own hands. Knowing that had her mother been alive she
would have been in her late 70s, Linda Evans committed herself to uncovering the truth
of her mother’s disappearance before she herself got too old. Linda’s father remarried after her mother’s
disappearance and later passed away in the late 1990s, and Linda’s brother David died
as a teenager, so Linda knew she was the last chance at finding out the truth. Utilizing the bare bones facts she knew, (Linda
was only seven or eight years old when her mother disappeared) Linda set out on her own
investigation. She posted an advertisement in a local newspaper,
the Yukon News near her mother’s birthplace giving her mothers name, birthdate, birthplace
and physical description (5’5, olive complexion, dark hair) as well as her grandparents names. Linda hoped to make contact with somebody,
anybody, who might know her mother’s fate. In 2013, Shortly after posting the ad she
received a call from a woman from Yukon, in the Northwesten Territory of Canada, next
to Alaska, who believed that Linda’s mother might be her mother as well. Linda was shocked to find that her mother
was not only alive but that she had a new family, With three sons and one daughter. Weeks later, Linda flew that 1,200 miles from
Vancouver to the Yukon Territory where her mother now resides. When asked why she vanished, Johnson claimed
that her husband Marvin, Linda’s father, deceased in the late 90s, was abusive and
unfaithful and unscrupulously banned her from the house without informing the children. Linda is not sure if she believes the story
as it seems highly unlikely that a mother would leave her children so voluntarily. Linda was skeptical at first but she ended
up believing her mother. Linda, now in her late fifties, is considering
moving to the Yukon Territory to Live near her mother and make the most of their years
left together.
