3 Disturbing Stories from Cold Case Investigators

A missing former Army engineer was secretly recruited by the CIA post-9/11 to serve as an interrogator, employing 'advanced interrogation techniques' (euphemism for torture) in Fallujah, Iraq. The unsupervised unit engaged in brutal acts, leading to the deaths of detainees and profound moral injury for the operatives. The realization that their actions were 'for nothing' after the WMD claims proved false and Fallujah fell to ISIS drove the missing man to severe alcoholism and despair, culminating in his likely suicide by jumping from 'Dead Man's Bridge'.

The missing man's fast-tracked discharge post-9/11, his recruitment into the CIA as an 'interrogator', the Fallujah unit's unsupervised 'payback mode' leading to torture and deaths, the subsequent guilt, heavy drinking, and his final conversation with his army buddy after Fallujah fell to ISIS on January 4th, 2014, the day he disappeared.

A Belgian prosecutor's experience investigating the Rwandan genocide revealed the overwhelming scale of the atrocities and the immense difficulty of achieving justice. Her team uncovered a 'kill house' where over 280 people, including children, were murdered, with evidence of systematic slaughter and incineration. Despite eyewitness accounts and some physical evidence, the lack of a paper trail, witness intimidation, and the integration of perpetrators back into society made widespread convictions nearly impossible, leaving a lasting sense of failure and trauma for the investigator.

The discovery of a 'kill house' in Bugesera with hooks, drainage tables, a crematorium with charred bone fragments, and thousands of blood-stained clothes including children's items. Witness accounts of trucks arriving at night and screams, and the observation of perpetrators living freely in the community.

In 1979 Houston, a series of brutal murders, dubbed the 'Orchard Apartment Murders,' terrorized the city. The killer targeted women, often decapitating them and taking their heads as trophies. The initial victim, Alice Rankin, was found decapitated, and a second victim, Mary Calcutta, was attacked in the same building two weeks later. Subsequent murders, including a teenage boy whose head was also missing, were linked by the detective. However, due to the limitations of forensic technology at the time (no DNA testing) and the killer's careful execution, no suspects were ever named, and the cases remain unsolved, leaving families without closure.

The murders of Alice Rankin (July 27, 1979) and Mary Calcutta at Orchard Apartments, both involving decapitation or attempts. The subsequent murder of Doris Threadgill and a teenage couple, with the boy's head also missing. The lack of DNA technology and the absence of any named suspects or arrests.