Normal Looking Photos With Disturbing Backstories

today we're covering three final photos with the most chilling backstories i could find and i have to warn you that the last moments of the people in these pictures only get more disturbing as we go when david alexander johnston turned his passion and geology into a career he had no idea that the very thing he loved most would lead him straight into an absolute nightmare which ended in his doom by 1978 david had earned a phd in the field and joined the united states geological survey working mostly out of the pacific northwest where he could monitor volcanic emission levels so when earthquakes began to shake mount saint helens on march 16 1980 david springs into action as he knew that there was always a possibility that there could be an eruption after the quakes david drops everything and rushes to the then dormant volcano even taking the time to escort interested reporters to a place nearby in fact he was actually the first geologist on the volcano though he is more excited than he has been in a long time he is wholly unprepared for what is about to happen on the afternoon of march 17th david is at an observation post just outside an area deemed the red zone with his field assistant harry harry and david are cracking jokes and excitedly discussing the possibility of what is before them but as the evening begins to loom over the two men david makes an executive decision to send harry on his way for the night saying that he'll cover his post instead perhaps david could feel something that no one else could or perhaps it all comes down to the fact that david is just so excited that he simply can't make himself leave either way harry agrees to follow david's orders but just before harry leaves he turns toward david yells for him to say cheese and snaps his photo it's the perfect shot as you can see his casual demeanor and excitement can almost be felt through the picture as david smiles at the camera little did david or harry know this photograph would be the last picture of david ever taken while he's on his own during the evening david starts to grow frustrated he knows that looking at gas emissions is an important part of understanding the nature of volcanic activity but he just can't seem to find the levels that he'd been expecting you see in 1980 the science surrounding volcanic studies was extremely limited as the subject itself was so new and that is exactly why no one on david's team knows the reason emission levels are off at the same time that david is monitoring everything from the ground the inside of the volcano is actually completely waterlogged after years of inactivity by the time the next morning rolls around david knows that anything could happen even if the volcano has been dormant for over 100 years based on his analysis it's likely nothing will even occur although he continues to tell his friends and colleagues that the whole volcano is a dynamite keg with a few slit but then again there aren't any distinct changes in the data he's looking over that says whether or not something if anything is going to happen armed with his trusty binoculars david spends hours looking over the volcano hoping there will be some kind of sign that there would be an eruption so that he could alert his friends and his team in time he's not too worried though as most volcanic activity could be determined hours or even days in advance except the waterlogged volcano makes it almost impossible to determine anything let alone a specific time that the whole thing would erupt which is why david nearly falls out of his seat when he sees it there in the distance mount saint helens is alive and angry david's whole world stands still for a second and then everything happens all at once as lava is launched into the air before him david grabs his handheld radio and shouts vancouver vancouver this is it those few excited and fearless words turned out to be david's last and vancouver never even heard them his last words that he had hoped would have been transmitted clearly were quickly whisked away with david himself as the eruption from mount saint helens quite literally blew him off of the ridge he had been perched on his final radio transmission was only ever picked up by a ham radio operator who had managed to record those words as the eruption itself had interfered with their transmission that same radio operator attempted to relay the message and re-establish contact with the excited voice on the other end of the line but dr david johnston never responded 57 people died in the eruption and though some campers and scientists around mount saint helen managed to escape and survive the eruption david was not among them in fact his body was never even recovered from the scene of the eruption though bits and pieces of his remains have been discovered over the years and to think that just 13 hours before his death he had been smiling and excited as seen in the last photo that anyone would ever take of him but you know if i were david's family i think i would really cherish this last piece of david especially if i never got to say goodbye twenty-five-year-old ann faber of the netherlands was a creative artistic type with dreams of one day becoming the director of the rix museum but in her free time she loved embarking on outdoor adventures with her boyfriend unfortunately not all adventures turn out the way you hope if you're someone who enjoys going out into the woods by yourself i'll just say watch this one at your own discretion because after learning about this case you might find yourself looking over your shoulder to make sure you're really alone on september 29th 2017 anne sets out on a bike ride alone after her boyfriend says he's too busy to tag along instead of being discouraged by his absence in the cloudy sky and decides to make the most of the time to herself she grabs her bicycle from her garage takes a raincoat just in case and heads out eventually making her way through the forests and deciding to head towards a small village nearby called dendolder she's hungry at this point and can't wait to grab a bite in town but just as she starts to pedal in that direction ann is shocked by the sudden forceful downpour of rain sure the sky had been rather cloudy but she hadn't really thought that it was going to rain this definitely puts a damper on her plans no pun intended and she briefly debates whether or not she should continue on her way into dendolder or head back toward the warmth of her home as she tries to make a decision anne takes out her cell phone and seeing the humor in her situation she decides to take a quick selfie to capture the ridiculous downpour in the moment in the photo anne is seen giving her best peace sign while making a rather exasperated expression as she is violently pelted with raindrops her rain jacket is soaked her socks are wet and her hair is beyond drenched she laughs briefly at the way she looks in the photo before sending it to her boyfriend to show him what he's missing she slips her phone back into her pocket around 6 50pm unfortunately that photo was the last picture anyone would ever take a van faber anne slides back into her bike and sets off down one of the nearby roads and if she does so she has no idea that she's not alone that is until she is quite literally run into by a man on a scooter and brushes herself off and starts to say my bad i guess i spaced out and didn't see where i was going for a sec there but just as she's first able to look the man in the eyes she notices something peculiar the man is wearing a jumpsuit but not just any jumpsuit the same kind of jumpsuit that psychiatric patients wore in the netherlands when they were undergoing treatment before she has time to react the man reaches out and grabs her even though she gives no sign that she's about to call for help he grabs her cell phone out of her hand and throws it to the ground when he's sure that anne's phone is useless he then grabs anne by the wrists and pulls her close to him covering her mouth the entire time he manages to pull in all the way over to a nearby wooded area where he assaults her when he's finished anne is in a lot of pain but just then she hears someone jogging by she's thinking maybe i can be saved if i can just get their attention and acting on instinct she starts to cry out for the jogger except the second she opens her mouth her captor slits her throat with a knife the poor girl who had been so goofy and good-natured on her rainy day adventure just moments before was dead the man buries anne's body under the leaves in the woods and he leaves her there until the next morning and then when he's able to get his hands on his mom's car he comes back and shoves her body into the car he then drives to his hometown that's around 35 minutes away and when he's there he cleans anne's body with chlorine and takes her into the backyard to bury her in a shallow grave to further rid himself of the evidence he disposes of anne's coat bicycle and backpack in three different areas around zeewold and cyst when anne never returns home from her bike ride her family freaks out and calls to report her missing days start to go by and there's still no sign of anne anywhere her boyfriend cannot believe what's happening because anne had just texted him hours before anyone had known that she was missing something just wasn't adding up and then investigators found anne's raincoat on october 3rd and her bicycle on october 5th and finally her backpack on october 6th that's when it became abundantly clear that something had gone terribly terribly wrong investigators sent in anne's coat for dna testing and found that a match came back for a 27 year old man named michael ponwee sure enough at the time of anne's death michael had been a patient at a psychiatric facility in dendolder village where he received ongoing treatment for his drug addiction oh and did i mention that he's a convicted sex offender yeah in 2010 he brutally assaulted two teenage girls and was subsequently sentenced to 11 years in prison after serving his time in prison he ended up in the very same psychiatric facility that led him to anne you see convicted sex offenders in the netherlands are required to have constant supervision while outside of any psychiatric facilities they are currently receiving treatment from except due to privacy laws michael was actually allowed to withhold the fact that he was a convicted sex offender at the time so no one at that facility actually knew that he needed to be watched over nor did they know what he was capable of doing on march 9th michael was arrested and charged with anne's murder after his dna was found on her belongings just days later michael openly confessed to brutally assaulting and killing anne faber and then he led investigators to her body at his trial michael acted like he had not intended to murder anne when he had killed her he claims to have gone out to refuel his scooter while carrying a variety of sharp objects because he claims that anne's death was not premeditated and that he only killed her because she screamed out for help like that makes it any better the prosecution could not prove that he had planned a killer in advance and because murder in the netherlands is defined as the intentional or premeditated killing of another person michael was convicted of qualified manslaughter instead and sentenced to 28 years in prison now the only thing anne's friends and family have left of her is the memory she made with them and that final photo she'd taken of herself have you ever had someone obsessed with you to the point it made you afraid our last case is the most disturbing yet not only because of how utterly horrific it is but also because it goes to show that sometimes the people you know can be far scarier than any stranger jolie collin was a sweet young girl from alabama she was well loved by family and friends alike though no one claimed to love her more than her boyfriend lauren bunner well her ex-boyfriend though he didn't like to see it that way lauren was two years older than jolie and was extremely possessive when they were together according to friends of lauren and joe lee lauren wanted jolie to spend time with him and his friends only and would get jealous if jolie didn't listen to him all of jolie's attempts to break up with lauren were unsuccessful because he emotionally manipulated her into staying with him every single time you see every time jolie would suggest a breakup lauren would threaten to take his own life if she went through with it yeah toxic is an understatement finally at some point jolie managed to break things off pretty peacefully which was surprising so jolie was freshly 18 years old in 2014 when she had finally gotten over the relationship with lauren jolie actually ended up dating a new guy who treated her far far better than she had ever been treated before and of course lauren absolutely hated that so just a few weeks before jolie was set to head off to college lauren gave her a call because he wanted to be able to say goodbye to her before she left though they had been separated the two were still friends jolie appreciated lauren's gesture and figured that there was no harm in saying goodbye besides she did kinda want some actual closure accepted lauren's offer to go hiking as just friends on august 30th 2015. the night before the hike jolie had been texting one of her best friends updating her on the drama of it all when she jokingly told her friend to be wary if something happens to her in the morning because she would be with lauren if only jolie had taken her own joke seriously the next day jolie and lauren meet up at chiha state park in the alabama countryside jolie brings her pup kiba and heads over to the penhody trail to set out on a hike she's almost nervous about going on throughout the majority of the hike the two talk about their time as a couple and reminisce over the times that were good rather than dwell on the negative parts of the past so throughout the course of the hike lauren is acting normal he cracks jokes as he always does and makes sure to take a few photos of jolie which he ends up posting on instagram among the photos that lauren takes of jolie is one where she is facing the forest with her back to lauren jolie may not have been aware of the fact that her photo is being taken jolie definitely doesn't know that this photo will be the last photo taken of her alive just moments after lauren snaps this picture of jolie he posts it on his instagram like all of the others and then everything changes and if you're sensitive to violence this is your last chance to turn back jolie finishes taking pictures of the trees around them on her phone and so she turns back toward lauren who is waiting patiently for her that's when he does the unthinkable there on the cliffside lauren pulls a gun out of the waistband of his jeans lauren fires a single bullet into the back of jolie's head jolie abruptly collapses lauren flips her rigid body over and then he fires one more shot without hesitation right between jolie's eyes and it doesn't stop there lauren then lifts up the body of his now deceased ex-girlfriend and chucks her corpse over the side of the cliff she had just been looking out over moments before after this he's calm cool and far more collected than any person should be after brutally executing their ex-girlfriend lauren makes his way back to his truck he sits down in the driver's seat pulls out his phone still filled with photos of the young woman he just shot and dials 9-1-1 lauren turns himself in by telling the 9-1-1 operator that he just killed his ex-girlfriend officers were quick to arrive at the scene where they found lauren absolutely covered in jolie's blood lauren was subsequently arrested and charged with jolie's murder before telling officers where jolie's body was at his trial in november of 2015 lauren tried to claim that he and jolie had a murder-suicide pact but he had been too scared to follow through with his end of the bargain but nobody was really buying that weird excuse i mean they weren't even dating at this point what in the world would drive joe lee to make such a strange promise and with him of all people well by july of 2017 the court finally decided that lauren was guilty of murdering jolie collin despite lauren's attorney's pleas for leniency on the basis of lauren's mental illness lauren was sentenced as an adult to serve 52 years in prison though he would be eligible for parole after serving his first 15 years jolie's family is still trying to come to terms with their daughter's sudden violent death i think this photo is the saddest in a way because while the first one was captured by a good friend and the second by a girl herself just enjoying her day this one was taken by a demented killer who was about to take a beautiful soul out of the world out of what some sick sense of ownership

Channel: EXPLORE WITH US

Views: 826,782

Rating: 4.8842273 out of 5

Keywords: Explore With Us, EWU Crew, true crime documentary

Id: UyW4zSBGulY

Length: 17min 41sec (1061 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 06 2021