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Jul 15

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This is Lauren McCluskey, a 21-year-old University of Utah track athlete. A few moments ago, she received a message from someone claiming to be a deputy chief, urging her to come to the police station.

She was on campus, and moments after she left, a man she had broken up with was seen on CCTV walking into campus buildings carrying a black, seemingly weighty bag. He had been carrying the black bag again while wearing Deadpool gear during his earlier stalking.

Lauren McCluskey was a 21-year-old senior at the University of Utah, a dedicated track and field athlete from Washington state, majoring in communications. On September 2, 2018, while out with friends in Salt Lake City, she met a bouncer named Shawn Fields at a local bar. He told her he was 28, charming and attentive, and they hit it off quickly, starting to date soon after. Fields visited her dorm often, met her friends, and seemed like a good match.

By early October 2018, during a visit home for fall break, McCluskey decided to look up Fields online. What she found shocked her: his real name was Melvin Rowland, he was actually 37, and he had a criminal record as a registered sex offender from 2004 convictions for attempted sexual abuse and enticing a minor. Back on campus, she confronted him on October 9; he admitted the lies but spent the night in her dorm. The next day, October 10, she ended the relationship definitively.

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Jul 14

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This is Paul Thijssen, a 24-year-old former student and sports coach at St Andrew's Cathedral School in Sydney, Australia. Days earlier, his colleague Lilie James, 21, had just ended their brief casual relationship. CCTV footage captured him in a hardware store selecting a hammer after testing several for weight, then practicing swings and lunges outside the gym bathroom at the school.

Paul Thijssen, born in 1999 in the Netherlands and raised in Sydney, Australia, was a former student at St Andrew's Cathedral School, a prestigious private school in central Sydney. He captained the cricket and hockey teams there. After studying abroad, he returned in 2023 at age 24 to coach sports at the school and a nearby college. Lilie James, born in 2002, was a 21-year-old water polo coach and assistant at the same school, studying commerce and law at a local university while living with her family in a southern Sydney suburb.

In September 2023, Thijssen and James, who worked together in the school's sports department, began a casual romantic relationship that lasted about five weeks. By mid-October, James decided to end it, telling Thijssen it wasn't working out due to their professional overlap. The breakup occurred just days before October 25, 2023.

Following the breakup, Thijssen told colleagues he was "going through something." Later evidence showed stalking behavior: security footage captured him lingering outside the gym bathroom in the days prior, rehearsing aggressive motions like lunges and hammer swings, indicating premeditation. He rented a white Volkswagen Golf car and purchased a hammer and duct tape from a hardware store on October 23.

On October 25, around 7 p.m., James entered the gym bathroom at the school to collect water polo equipment after hours. Thijssen followed her in shortly after. Inside, he attacked her with the hammer, inflicting severe blunt force trauma to her head and face, causing her death.

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Jul 11

In this CCTV footage from July 24, 2024, 57-year-old Anita Rose, a mother of three, is seen calmly walking her dog along a quiet path in Suffolk, England, wearing a bright pink jacket and earphones. Just behind her, a man can be seen following at a careful distance — almost blending into the background. This would be the last moment Anita was ever seen alive. What happened next would leave an entire country in shock.

On July 24, 2024, 57-year-old Anita Rose, a mother of three, left her home in Suffolk, England, around 5 a.m. to walk her dog. In CCTV footage from that morning, Anita can be seen in her bright pink jacket, earphones in, as she sets off on what seemed like a normal early walk. Behind her, a man quietly follows.

Around 6:25 a.m., a cyclist found Anita lying severely injured on a footpath. Her loyal dog was still beside her, and her dog’s lead was found tightly looped around her ankle. She was rushed to Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge, but after four days in critical condition, she died on July 28 from catastrophic head injuries described by doctors as similar to those from a high-speed car crash.

Investigators opened a murder inquiry immediately. Initial arrests were made in October 2024 but led nowhere. Then in May 2025, police announced a breakthrough: forensic evidence and CCTV footage identified 56-year-old Roy Barclay as the man who had been following Anita that morning.

Barclay had been evading authorities for years, wanted on a prison recall since 2015 after a violent assault on an elderly man. He had been living in makeshift woodland camps, changing his appearance and using showers at sewage works to avoid detection.

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Jul 10

On the morning of July 23, 2007, Jennifer Hawke-Petit was captured on CCTV at a bank in Cheshire, Connecticut. She was alone, withdrawing $15,000 after telling staff her family was being held hostage at the Petit family home. A bank employee immediately called police to report the ongoing crime. These would be the last moments Jennifer was ever seen alive.

On the evening of July 22, 2007, Dr. William Petit was sitting on a porch chair at his family home in Cheshire, Connecticut. Two men, Steven Hayes and Joshua Komisarjevsky, who had targeted the house after seeing Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her daughter Michaela shopping earlier that day, approached. Komisarjevsky later admitted he had followed them home and chosen the house because it seemed affluent and easy to access.

After midnight, the two men entered the home through an unlocked basement door. They first encountered Dr. Petit asleep on the couch and bludgeoned him with a baseball bat, then tied him up in the basement.

They then proceeded upstairs, where they bound Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her daughters, 17-year-old Hayley and 11-year-old Michaela, in their bedrooms. Over the next several hours, the intruders searched for money and waited for banks to open.

In the morning, around 9 a.m., Hayes took Jennifer to a local bank. Jennifer entered alone and told the teller her family was being held hostage, asking for $15,000 to satisfy her captors. Steven Hayes waited outside in her vehicle. A bank employee discreetly called 911, reporting the hostage situation and providing details about the car.

Jennifer and Hayes returned to the house. Meanwhile, police arrived near the Petit residence and began surveillance but chose not to immediately intervene, hoping to avoid provoking violence inside.

Back at the house, the situation escalated. Hayes sexually assaulted Jennifer, and Komisarjevsky sexually assaulted 11-year-old Michaela. Hayes then strangled Jennifer to death. Gasoline was poured throughout the home, and the men set it on fire.

Dr. Petit, severely injured but conscious, managed to free himself and escape through the basement door to a neighbor’s yard to get help. Hayley and Michaela, still tied to their beds upstairs, died from smoke inhalation as the fire spread.

Hayes and Komisarjevsky attempted to flee the scene in the family’s vehicle but were quickly apprehended by police at the end of the driveway.

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Jul 10

In July 2012, 19-year-old Ruth Thalía Sayas Sánchez from Huachipa (Lima, Peru) became the first contestant on the new talk-style game show El Valor de la Verdad (The Value of Truth), hosted by Beto Ortiz. She had taken a polygraph test beforehand to verify her answers.

On stage, she sat alongside her boyfriend, mother, and father as the questions became more difficult and the prize money climbed higher. No one could have predicted that her revelations that day would trigger a tragic and deadly chain of events.

Ruth Thalía Sayas Sánchez was born in 1993 in Huachipa, Lima, Peru, into a family of modest means. Her parents worked hard to support her studies, and she was known to be ambitious and eager to improve her circumstances. She dreamed of helping her family and also longed for public recognition and fame.

In July 2012, at age 19, Ruth Thalía became the first contestant on a new Peruvian talk-style game show called El Valor de la Verdad (The Value of Truth), hosted by Beto Ortiz. Before appearing on television, she took a private polygraph test to confirm her answers. During the broadcast, she sat on stage with her boyfriend Bryan Romero Leiva and her parents beside her, responding to increasingly personal and sensitive questions as the prize money rose.

Among the most shocking revelations, Ruth Thalía admitted she had worked as a nightclub dancer without her family’s knowledge, had taken emergency contraceptive pills several times, and had accepted money for sex on two occasions. These admissions caused immediate scandal in Peru and deeply embarrassed her boyfriend and family.

She ultimately won 15,000 soles (around $5,300 USD). According to Bryan Romero Leiva, Ruth Thalía had promised to share the prize money with him before the show, but after her sudden fame, tensions between them escalated. He felt humiliated and claimed she did not honor their agreement to split the money.

After the episode aired, Ruth Thalía was thrust into the media spotlight. She gave interviews on radio and television and became known throughout the country. But with the publicity came public criticism and personal stress. Shortly after, she and Bryan ended their relationship.

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Jun 28

On July 6, 2012, after her parents wished her goodnight and thought she was asleep, 16-year-old Skylar Neese was seen on grainy CCTV slipping out her bedroom window and getting into a waiting car. Her friends had told her they wanted to go for a late-night drive—but they had planned something far more sinister. That was the last time she was seen alive.

Skylar Neese was a bright, outgoing 16-year-old from Star City, West Virginia. She was close friends with Sheila Eddy and later became close with Rachel Shoaf. Over time, tension grew between them. Skylar confided in others and posted online hints suggesting her two friends were keeping secrets and leaving her out. Sheila and Rachel decided they didn’t want to be friends with her anymore — but instead of simply cutting her off, they started talking about killing her.

On July 5, 2012, Skylar returned home from her shift at Wendy’s. That night, Sheila and Rachel texted her, inviting her to sneak out for a drive, as they had done before. Just after midnight, Skylar climbed out her bedroom window. A grainy surveillance camera caught her walking across the parking lot and getting into a silver sedan. It was the last time she was seen alive.

The girls drove her to a remote wooded area in Pennsylvania, just across the state line — a spot they had chosen in advance. Once there, they suggested going for a walk. At a signal, they counted to three, then both pulled out knives and attacked her. Skylar tried to run but was quickly overpowered. She was stabbed over 50 times. After killing her, they covered her body with branches and left her in the woods.

When Skylar didn’t come home, her parents thought she had run away. Police initially treated it as a runaway case since her window was left open and nothing appeared taken. But Skylar’s phone stopped pinging, and she never accessed her bank account or social media again. As days turned into weeks, suspicion grew around Sheila and Rachel, who publicly joined search efforts and posted affectionate tributes to Skylar online.

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