Homer Lemay. Credit: Wikimedia Commons
There are the well-known victims of infamous murder cases, and then there are those unfortunate souls who were killed by hidden hands, at unknown times, and whose identities remain unknown. For investigators, these are the most frustrating cases - a killer walks free while the life of the unidentified murder victim is lost in the shadows.
9. LITTLE LORD FAUNTLEROY
In March 1921, the body of a young boy was dredged from a pond in Waukesha, Wisconsin. He wore a gray sweater, black stockings, a boy's blouse and leather shoes - clothes suggesting he came from a wealthy family. Blunt force wounds marred his head, and police theorized he'd been in the water for several months.
Five weeks prior to the grisly discovery, a man and woman approached a local businessman near the pond. The upset woman asked the businessman if he'd seen a missing boy in the area, while the man paced nervously at the shore. After the boy was buried, a veiled woman frequently placed flowers on the grave.
In 1949, a medical examiner proposed a connection between the unidentified murder victim and the mysterious case of Homer Lemay (pictured above). Young Homer disappeared around the same time authorities discovered the body in the Waukesha pond. Homer's father claimed his boy died in South America while traveling with family friends, though there was never any evidence to prove this was true.
8. LITTLE MISS NOBODY
In late July 1960, a family searching for precious stones in the hot deserts of Arizona instead stumbled across the body of a young girl, partially buried in the sand. Although her body had badly decomposed, her nails retained their bright red nail polish and her hair had been dyed a distinct auburn. Nameless and unknown, the community raised enough money for a proper burial - a service attended by 70 people. During the eulogy, someone said: "Somewhere, someone is watching to see what happened to a little girl left in the desert."
A poster about Philadelphia's "Boy in a Box." Credit: Wikimedia Commons
7. BOY IN THE BOX
On February 25, 1957, in the Fox Chase neighborhood of Philadelphia, a startling discovery was made. A boy no more than 6 years old was found in a box off the side of a road. Naked and wrapped in nothing but a blanket, no one recognized his face. Police even consulted a psychic to solve this mystery - all to no avail. To this day, the boy's grave reads "America's Unknown Child."
6. GIRL WITH THE PEACH TATTOO
On Long Island in the summer of 1997, authorities recovered a headless torso of a female murder victim. The absence of the rest of her body made identification next to impossible. Yet one detail set her remains apart - on her left breast was the tattoo of a peach, with a single droplet of juice dripping out. Police distributed a photo of the tattoo across the country, hoping that a tattoo artist would come forward. Someone did come forward, claiming to be the artist, but remembered nothing about the woman's identity.
A police sketch of the unidentified murder victim found along a Texas interstate and dressed in orange socks. Credit: Wikimedia Commons
5. ORANGE SOCKS
In 1979, a Texas motorist spotted a set of feet in bright orange socks along Interstate 35. The feet belonged to the naked body of a woman who had been strangled and thrown over the guardrail. Her legs were unshaven, her nails untrimmed, and her naked body was dotted with insect bites. On her finger she wore a mother-of-pearl ring. Authorities assumed she was a drifter. Serial killer Henry Lee Lucas once confessed to her murder, but a lack of evidence and the fact that he was likely not in Texas when the woman was killed made his confession doubtful.
4. EKLUTNA ANNIE
Robert Hansen, also known as the Butcher Baker, was a prolific Alaskan serial killer who had Anchorage on edge from 1971 to 1983. When the body of a young woman was found dead under a row of power lines in 1980, both her identity and killer were unknown. She was adorned with Native American turquoise jewelry and had died by a single stab wound to the back. Hansen eventually admitted to the murder after his arrest in 1983, yet the identity of the victim remains a mystery.
Various police composites of Cape Cod's "Lady of the Dunes." Credit: Wikimedia Commons
3. LADY OF THE DUNES
During Cape Cod's high season in the summer of 1974, a female murder victim was found half-buried in the dunes. The body had been brutalized beyond recognition, with numerous teeth removed and both hands chopped off. Police theorized that the woman possessed a criminal record in life, and the killer sought to hide her identity. The Lady of the Dunes has been exhumed three times in an attempt to reveal who she is. Of the case, serial killer Hadden Clark has said: "The murder is still unsolved and what the police are looking for is in my grandfather's backyard." His statements, however, have been dismissed as a fabrication.
2. BEAR BROOK MURDERS
In 1985 the bodies of a young woman and little girl were found stuffed into a barrel in New Hampshire's Bear Brook State Park. Both had died of blunt force trauma to the head, yet police failed to identify the killer or the names of either victim. In 2000, a detective reopened the cold case, surveying the wooded crime scene. Not far away, another barrel was found with the bodies of two more young girls. DNA testing concluded that the woman from 1985 was related to at least two of the three children. Bizarrely, all four victims remain unknown to this day.
Graffiti related to the Bella Case. Credit: Wikimedia Commons
1. BELLA IN THE WYCH ELM
In 1943, a group of boys were playing in the Hagley Woods of Stourbridge, UK when they discovered a skull. It belonged to a woman who had apparently been dead for some time, her body stuffed in the hollow trunk of a witch elm tree. The Stourbridge community was shocked by the discovery - yet with England in the midst of World War II, the woman's murder quickly faded from discussion.
A few months later, however, something strange happened - anonymous graffiti popped up on brick walls throughout the region. The scrawled messages all asked the same question: Who put Bella in the wych elm?