Random Creepy Unsolved Mysteries From Texas (12 items)

(#11) The Cross Roads Murders

On the morning of June 25, 1981, the wife of Willard Baugh went to the Cross Roads Tavern just outside of Port Lavaca to locate her husband. Reportedly, she entered the bar and found her husband, along with three women, all shot in the head.

The three women - Lennie York, the tavern owner; Lark Saylar, an occasional customer; and Marjorie Matosha, a server - were all dead. The unknown assailant had also stabbed Baugh, who died 28 days later. Police were unable to gather conclusive evidence from the scene.
(#6) The Austin Yogurt Shop Murders

On December 6, 1991, an Austin police officer saw a fire coming from an I Can't Believe It's Yogurt! shop on his patrol. After the blaze was extinguished, investigators found the bodies of four girls between the ages of 13 and 17 in the charred remains of the store. The girls had been bound with their own clothing and fatally shot.

Over 50 people have confessed to the killings, including Kenneth McDuff, a known serial killer who was ruled out as a suspect and later executed in 1998. Authorities arrested four other men. Two of them, Robert Springsteen Jr. and Michael Scott, were convicted of the crime, but the state has since released them due to 6th amendment violations and lack of evidence.
(#5) The Texarkana Moonlight Murders

Between February 22, 1946 and May 3, 1946, weekends became dangerous in and around Texarkana, Texas, now known as “the town that dreaded sundown.” A perpetrator known as "the Phantom Killer" attacked couples within a three-month period, claiming five lives. The incidents only occurred late at night and were usually three weeks apart.

The Texas Rangers, including the famous M. T. "Lone Wolf" Gonzaullas, were drafted to help catch the Phantom Killer, whom witnesses described as a man wearing a sack with cut-out eye holes. Recent investigations point to Youell Swinney as a likely culprit, but he was never arrested or convicted for the slayings.
(#4) The Lover's Lane Murders

The "Lover's Lane" murders took place in an undeveloped, wooded area of West Houston on the night of August 23, 1990. That night, 22-year-old Cheryl Henry and her 21-year-old boyfriend Andy Atkinson parked in a deserted spot popular with young couples in the area.

Law enforcement found the couple's car at the scene, with their bodies in the woods close by. Both of their necks sustained damage, and Cheryl had been sexually assaulted. The unknown assailant had attempted to bury her under a wood pile, and Andy was found bound to a tree.

In 2008, forensic investigators analyzed a semen sample taken from Henry in 1990 and matched it to another unsolved rape case. The woman provided officers with a description of her attacker. Although there have been no arrests, Houston authorities have a sketch of the suspected killer.
(#2) The Orchard Apartment Murders

On July 27, 1979, one of Alys Rankin's coworkers went to pick her up from her Orchard Apartments home in southwest Houston. The coworker, Bob Smith, arrived to find the door slightly ajar. When he entered, he found 33-year-old Rankin lying in her bed, disrobed, feet tied together, and with a pillow over her upper body. When he removed the pillow, he saw her head had been cut off. She had also been sexually assaulted. Police have never recovered her missing head.

Two weeks later, and two floors above Rankin, a friend found the body of 25-year-old Mary Michael Calcutta in her bathroom. She had been stabbed multiple times, so hard that the knife blade bent. The working theory is that these were just two of potentially many victims of an unidentified serial killer.
(#8) Amber Hagerman
- Person
On January 13, 1996, an unknown assailant abducted 9-year-old Amber Hagerman while she was riding her bike in Arlington, Texas. Four days later, a man walking his dog found her in a storm drain.

Witnesses had reported seeing Amber forced into a black pickup truck, but the time it took to alert authorities and then get the word out to the public was not enough to save her. The AMBER Alert system now used throughout the US was developed as a direct result of this crime, and over 900 children have since been found and saved.