Top Eight Cold Cases in Europe That Remains Unsolved Till Date
World has witnessed infinite number of cold cases since ages. It has been observed that the developed and developing nations in every era have come across the most heinous types of crimes, that are gruesome in nature too.
Europe has always been the center of attraction in every aspect, whether positive developments or some of the most famous cold cases of the world. Many crime-related shows have always tried to capture these incidents and outside of infotainment documentaries like Unsolved Mysteries.
Internet detectives have dedicated many hours, words, and posts to solving cold cases that have been long forgotten. So let’s go through some of the most chilling unsolved crime mysteries of Europe.
Top Eight Unsolved Cold Cases in Europe
1. Murder of Auli Kyllikki Saari
On 17th May 1953, a 17-year-old Auli Kyllikki Saari from Finland left for church on her bicycle. She also worked in the church office and attended prayer meetings. On this particular day, Auli returned from the church service and immediately retired to her bedroom, stating she was tired and wanted to rest. Her parents found this very unusual. Later the same day, she left for a prayer meeting with her friend Maiju.
Later, Maiju claimed that Auli had seemed nervous and anxious the entire day. On their way back home from the church, the two girls split at a crossroad section, and a man called Tie-Jaska saw Auli traveling along 1.6 kilometers. He was the last person to see her alive.
A missing persons report was only filed a few days after, as Auli’s parents were used to her sleeping over at Maiju’s place and weren’t concerned when she didn’t come home that Sunday. In the weeks that followed Auli’s disappearance, witnesses reported seeing a cream-colored car with a bicycle in the trunk, while others claimed to have heard cries for help and gunshots near a lake in Kaarankajarvi.
In July, Auli’s bike was found deep in the forest, and in October, her remains were discovered at the place she was last seen alive after her shoe, scarf, and a man’s sock was discovered there. She was half-naked, and her coat was wrapped around her head. After her body was found, her other shoe was also discovered.
There were many suspects, including a vicar, a policeman, and a ditch-digger, but nothing panned out from investigations into their involvement. Auli’s murderer seemingly got away with his crime and hence the case remains unsolved till date.
2. Double Murder in Linkoping
On 19th October 2004, Anna-Lena Svensson, 56, and an eight-year-old schoolboy by the name of Mohammed Ammouri were going about their day in Linkoping, Sweden. Suddenly, a commotion startled passersby. The woman collapsed, having been stabbed in her stomach.
Minutes after this, while people rushed to her aid, Ammouri also started screaming. Then everything was quiet. Both had been attacked in the street in broad daylight. The little boy died immediately, while the woman lost the fight for her life in the hospital a few days later.
The police collected several pieces of evidence from the scene, including the murder weapon (a butterfly knife) and a piece of clothing. They were confident that they would find the murderer within 24 hours, having set their sights on a suspect who was thought to be mentally ill.
Almost 14 years later, police have questioned more than 7,000 suspects, but the murderer is still on the loose. With no apparent motive for the crimes, it seems unlikely at this stage that the case will ever be solved anytime soon.
3. Where’s Beverina Castle?
Latvian history states that Estonians stormed and attacked Beverina Castle in 1208 in the district of Trikala. The Estonians retreated and settled down for the night at a lake near the road of Beverina. However, the crusaders and the Kaupo happened upon them here and chased them away. After this, they had a morning meal at the same lake.
The name of the lake remains unknown as well as the destination to which the road of Beverina led to. However, the biggest mystery remains the location of Beverina Castle. The castle is mentioned 16 times in the Chronicle of Henry and was the residence of Talivaldis.
The exact location of the castle is never mentioned. It is thought by archaeologists that the castle may be located on two foothills near Lake Vaidava, but research has never been completed to validate this theory.
4. The Monster of Florence
Active through 1974 up until 1985, the Mostro di Firenze, terrorized the citizens of Florence. This individual, who is still unknown, would seek out couples parked in country areas during the nighttime. He would wait until they were distracted before he would attack, usually shooting his victims and then stabbing them.
Afterward, he would disfigure the female victims. In total, The Monster of Florence killed 14 people. The last anyone heard from the killer was in 1985 when he sent a body part from his last victim to a female prosecutor.
A man named Pietro Pacciani was arrested and charged for the murders. He was later acquitted for lack of evidence. Following that, Norberto Galli and Giancarlo Lotti were arrested in relation to the murders. The two men were convicted based on a confession from Lotti, who has since been dubbed an unreliable witness. In the public’s opinion, The Monster of Florence case is still unsolved.
5. Jack The Ripper
1888 was a bad year for a prostitute. Between August 7 and November 10 of that year, five women were killed in the Whitechapel district of London’s East End with their throats slashed and their bodies mutilated in a way that indicated they all met their fates at the hands of the same person.
One victim’s kidney was even mailed to the police, along with a series of taunting notes penned by someone calling himself Jack the Ripper. Serial murder was a relatively new phenomenon and the attacks were highly publicized.
The failure to identify the killer led to such an outcry that both the home secretary and London police commissioner resigned in disgrace. Jack the Ripper, whoever he was, has been the subject of hundreds of books and articles. The theories surrounding his identity vary from a covert Masonic plot to a member of the royal family but the identity of Jack the Ripper remains a mystery till date.
6. The Crime of Los Galindos
A gruesome discovery was made at Cortijo de los Galindos, in Pardas a mall village not far from Sevilla. It was 22nd July 1975, when a farm worker found two cremated corpses. Soon after police found two more bodies with their heads crushed.
The prime suspect for the murder was Antonio Zapata but he was also found dead three days later near the estate. No criminal or scientific has been able to adequately explain the deaths till now.
7. Torso In The Thames
On the afternoon of Friday, 21st September 2001, the dismembered torso of a young child was discovered floating towards Tower Bridge in the River Thames. The boy’s limbs and head had been removed and the only clothing was a pair of orange shorts around the stumps of his legs.
In the absence of positive identification, police named the body Adam. Police believed that Adam was from Nigeria and was murdered as part of a West African magic ritual.
Despite having potentially identified Adam as Patrick Erabor, a child brought to London from Germany after his parents had been deported back to Nigeria, nobody has been charged with his murder and the case remains open.
8. The Dead Bunny Girl
Eve Stratford, who worked as a bunny girl at the Playboy Club in London’s Park Lane, was raped and killed in her home on the evening of March 18, 1975. She was found with her throat slashed by her boyfriend Tony Priest, the lead singer with the pop band Onyx.
The 22-year-old glamourous model’s throat had been slashed about 8-12 times. Detectives believe she may have known her killer and invited him into the flat she shared with Tony. Six months after Eve’s death, Lynne Weedon, a 16-year-old, was brutally attacked and raped in an alleyway near her home in Hounslow at 11 pm on September 3rd.
She died after being found barely alive at an electricity sub station the next day. Former Met Police detective Colin Sutton believes a third woman, Lynda Farrow – who was knifed to death in her home four years later in 1979 – was also a victim of the same killer.
Eve and Lynne’s murders were linked in 2007 after matching DNA was discovered on the victims, who did not know each other. The Met Police have confirmed that there are no recent updates on her death.
