The 13th Floor

Even Creepier Cases from UNSOLVED MYSTERIES

Update: UNSOLVED MYSTERIES is now streaming on Amazon Prime. I hope you read that in your best Robert Stack voice, and are prepared to delve back into the chilling series from your childhood. Nothing was more exciting than watching the show and being unexpectedly hit with an update on a case that had been solved. Now with the series available to stream almost 30 years later, it’s no surprise there have been developments in several cases featured on the show.

But with over 500 episodes in the series, where do you even start? Not long ago we revisited the Creepiest Cases from Unsolved Mysteries, and now we’re here to make your binge-watching even easier with more creepy cases from the series.

Throw on your trench coat, dim the lights, lock your doors, and join us. Perhaps you may be able to solve a mystery.

Cindy James

In 1989, the body of 44-year-old Cindy James was found on the front lawn of an abandoned house with her hands and feet tied behind her back. A black nylon was wrapped tightly around her neck, but an autopsy showed she died from a drug overdose. Police concluded that James had killed herself, but her family is adamant that she was murdered.

In the years before her death, James experienced extremely bizarre events after divorcing her husband. She often heard intruders walking around on her porch, found her lights smashed, and she repeatedly received whispering phone calls—and her phone lines were even cut.

And it gets worse. One night James was found by a neighbor who came to check up on her. James was lying unconscious with a black nylon wrapped around her neck; she had been attacked by someone when she was entering her garage. Police didn’t believe any of her claims.

James eventually moved and changed her name. Because police wouldn’t help her, she turned to a private investigator. The investigator would soon find James on her kitchen floor with a knife through her hand. James explained that it was the same people from before—they were stalking her.

The police set up 24-hour surveillance on her home, but the threatening activity didn’t occur while they were there. They continued to doubt James’ story, but strange events kept happening. She disappeared one night, only to be found in a ditch 6 miles away. A black nylon had been tied around her neck, and she had no idea what happened.

Another night when James had friends over, they woke up to noises in the house—and a fire in the basement. Authorities believed that everything that was happening to James was being staged by her. She was admitted into a mental hospital, and after being discharged she told family she would confront her attackers. She disappeared again, and was finally found dead.

Police believe that James set up the entire event to look as though she had been murdered, when she had overdosed on morphine. They never found substantial evidence of actual intruders; however, James’ family and the private investigator don’t think that a staging could have been possible. Was James murdered by her tormenters, or was it all an elaborate scheme for attention? We’ll never know.

Donna Baldeo and Her Children

When Donna Baldeo arrived at her job at Wells Fargo bank on December 22, 2001, she was shocked to find a mysterious note demanding she hand over all the money at the bank. Although there were no robbers on site, the note demanded that bank employees not go to police. Baldeo disobeyed orders, and reported the note. Just five weeks later she was dead, and police believed the robbers killed her for foiling their plans.

In the early morning of February 1, 2002, Baldeo’s apartment burst into flames. She, her 8-year-old daughter, Bunnie Sue Terry, and her 22-year-old son, Jailall Lewis, all died from severe burns and smoke inhalation. While authorities initially thought the crime was connected to the bank note, 15 more fires were started at Baldeo’s apartment complex over the course of three years. As it turned out, the fires were caused by two teenage boys—one named Timothy Perkins—who got drunk and decided to set a fire for fun.

The Wacker’s

Elderly couple Bill and Dorothy Wacker lived a happy life together in Ohio, until one night a kind act led to a decade of harassment from an unknown stranger. It all began in July 1985, when Dorothy answered the door to a young man looking to use her phone. His car had broken down, and Dorothy didn’t see the harm in helping him. Once he was done, the young man left. Or so Dorothy thought.

Moments later, the stranger attacked Dorothy, bound her, and placed her on her kitchen floor. Luckily, Dorothy got help, but their house had been robbed. Bill noticed his gun was missing, along with a camera, a watch, and several other possessions. From that night on, the couple received harassing—and creepy—phone calls of someone whispering, breathing, and threatening to harm them.

Then someone began walking outside of their house and leaving ominous notes. The items that were stolen in 1985 began coming back to them, one by one. Eventually, Dorothy was attacked again and sent to the hospital.

There was no substantial evidence to find out who was tormenting the Wacker’s over the years, and there were no suspects. The Wacker family even tried catching the guy by setting up watch from outside their house, but they failed to see anything. The Wacker’s would never learn who their attacker was.

The Murder of Monika Rizzo

One day in May 1997, Monika Rizzo walked out of her job in San Antonio, Texas, and she was never seen alive again. Two months later, police received an anonymous phone call reporting that Rizzo was dead—and she was buried in her backyard. When authorities dug up the backyard they found human bones—and believed they belonged to four different people.

The bones were eventually determined to be Rizzo’s. They had been sawed and cut, almost as if her body had gone through a wood chipper. Along with bones, police also discovered a bag of flesh on the property.

Leonard Rizzo, Monika’s husband, is the only suspect in her murder; however, authorities don’t have enough evidence connecting him to the crime. Leonard was arrested in 1999 for violently assaulting his girlfriend, something he had allegedly done all throughout his marriage with Monika.

Brazos River Attacks

Theresa and her son Zack were excited to have the Brazos River all to themselves on Memorial Day Weekend in 1994. About an hour into their canoe trip, the mother and son took a break at a beach. They were surprised to see two men canoeing toward them. The men were shouting obscenities and appeared to be drunk, so a worried Theresa and Zack got back into their canoe and left the area. When they pulled their canoe over for a rest stop several minutes later, Theresa was attacked by the two men.

The attackers held Theresa and her son for hours, tormenting and assaulting Theresa. They forced the mother to drink whiskey all night long, and at the end of the night the strangers walked away as though nothing had happened.

Theresa didn’t immediately report the incident at first, but after two weeks she went to the police. Despite being able to thoroughly describe her attackers, the two men have never been found.

I-70 Killer

Between April and May of 1992, an unknown man prowled Interstate 70 murdering people employed at specialty stores. Most of the victims were young, brunette females who were working alone at the time of their murder. The assailant would shoot his victims in the back of the head with a .22 caliber handgun, and rob the store of a mere $100 dollars before making a dash for I-70.

During the murder spree, the killer stopped at a bridal shop in Wichita and killed two women. Another customer happened to run into him following the shooting, but the killer let him go. The customer provided police with a description of the killer; however, it did not bring authorities any closer to solving the case.

The killer is described as a blonde white man around 5’7, with lazy eyelids. He would be in his late 40s to early 50s today. In total, he murdered at least 6 people at random in the Midwest, but is believed to be responsible in 9 cases all together. He has never been found.