Unforgotten Casebook — One case. Every angle. One place.One case. Every angle. One place.
Explore books, movies, podcasts, news coverage, and court records—organized by true crime case and real-life story, together in one place.
THE CASE LIBRARY
U.S. cases, plus the Bernardo–Homolka case in Canada.
2006
Cassie Jo Stoddart was killed while house-sitting in Idaho in 2006. Classmates Brian Draper and Torey Adamcik had recorded their plans and discussed horror films before the attack. Both were convicted of murder, and the recordings became central to later accounts.
2006
Fourteen-year-old Elizabeth Shoaf was abducted in South Carolina in 2006 by Vinson Filyaw, who posed as a police officer. While held in an underground enclosure, she obtained access to his phone and contacted her family. Her messages helped bring about her rescue.
2006
Unresolved disappearanceJennifer Kesse disappeared from Orlando in January 2006. Her car was found elsewhere, and surveillance captured a person whose face was obscured by a fence. Her family’s search and efforts to obtain investigative records have become central to coverage of the unresolved disappearance.
2006
Matthew Winkler, a minister at Selmer’s Fourth Street Church of Christ, was fatally shot in March 2006. His wife, Mary, was found with their three children in Alabama the following day. At trial, she alleged abuse and said the shooting was accidental; prosecutors disputed that account and sought a murder conviction. The jury instead found her guilty of voluntary manslaughter in 2007. The linked reporting and book explore the trial without treating contested testimony as established fact.
2006
Michelle Young was killed in her North Carolina home in 2006 while pregnant, with her young daughter in the house. The investigation examined her husband Jason’s travel and conduct. He was convicted of murder in 2012 after an earlier trial ended with a hung jury.
2006
While playing football and studying at Clemson, Ray McElrathbey took responsibility for his eleven-year-old brother Fahmarr in 2006 amid difficulties at home. Teammates and the wider community helped him manage school, football and caregiving. Safety dramatizes the brothers’ experience, with Clemson’s historical reporting offering a separate account.
2006
Five girls were killed and five others wounded when a gunman attacked the West Nickel Mines Amish School in October 2006. Families and neighbors’ response to the loss drew attention to Amish understandings of forgiveness. The nonfiction book Amish Grace examines that response; the similarly titled film is a dramatization with fictionalized characters.
2005
James “Jimmy” Michael died at the couple’s Morgantown home in November 2005. A house fire initially shaped the investigation, but toxicology evidence led investigators to examine a drug his wife, nurse Michelle Michael, could access at work. A jury convicted her of murder and arson in 2007. She maintained her innocence. In 2023, she sought a new trial over her lawyer’s performance. Snapped and John Glatt’s book revisit the evidence and competing accounts.
2005
Nine-year-old Jessica Lunsford was abducted from her home and murdered in 2005. John Couey was convicted in 2007. Her father Mark campaigned for stronger child-protection measures, and Florida enacted legislation bearing Jessica’s name.
2005
Melissa James, 28, worked as a personal assistant to bodybuilding competitors Craig Titus and Kelly Ryan in Las Vegas. Her death in December 2005 led to an investigation that followed the couple across the country. They entered different guilty pleas in 2008: Titus admitted second-degree murder, kidnapping and arson, while Ryan pleaded guilty to arson and battery. The distinction matters when reading accounts that describe them together. Killer Couples revisits the case; contemporary reporting records their separate sentences.
2005–2009
Los Angeles columnist Steve Lopez met musician Nathaniel Ayers in 2005 while Ayers was living on the streets. Their relationship became the subject of Lopez’s reporting, the book The Soloist and a film adaptation. The story examines music, friendship, mental illness and the limits of one person’s efforts to help another.
2005–2007
Stacey Castor poisoned her husband David with antifreeze and later tried to kill her daughter Ashley while framing her for the death. Ashley survived. Investigators challenged the supposed suicide accounts, and Castor’s prosecution became the subject of a Lifetime dramatization and crime reporting.
2005
Steven Avery was exonerated of an earlier sexual-assault conviction before being convicted of Teresa Halbach’s 2005 murder. His nephew Brendan Dassey was also convicted. Making a Murderer brought international attention to disputed evidence and Dassey’s interrogation, while the convictions remained the subject of legal challenges.
2005–2008
A group of investors questioned the mortgage market’s apparent strength and bet against securities tied to risky home loans. Their perspective became one way to examine the housing crash and the failures of financial institutions. The story also sits within a crisis that cost many Americans homes and livelihoods.
2005
Tosha Lampkin vanished during a late-night food trip while visiting family in Shreveport. Her burned rental car and remains were later found; security recordings became an important investigative lead.
2004
Unsolved homicideAlonzo Brooks disappeared after a party near La Cygne in April 2004. His family found his body a month later. The FBI continues to seek information about the homicide.
2004
Unresolved disappearanceBrianna Maitland disappeared after leaving work in Vermont in March 2004. Her car was found backed into an abandoned building, but she was gone. Her family and investigators have continued seeking information, while documentaries and podcasts revisit the circumstances without an established solution.
2004–2007
Kathleen Savio’s 2004 bathtub death was initially treated as an accident. Investigators reexamined it after Stacy Peterson, the next wife of former officer Drew Peterson, disappeared in 2007. Drew was convicted of Kathleen’s murder; Stacy’s disappearance is a separate, unresolved case.
2004
Unresolved disappearanceMaura Murray disappeared after a car crash in New Hampshire in February 2004, before police reached the scene. The uncertain timeline and absence of a confirmed explanation have generated extensive coverage. Podcast and book theories remain theories rather than a resolution of the case.
2004
Unsolved homicidePatrice Endres disappeared from her hair salon in April 2004. Her remains were identified after their discovery in Dawson County in 2005. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation lists her death as an unsolved homicide.
2004
William “Bill” McGuire disappeared from Woodbridge in April 2004. The discovery of his remains along the Virginia coast brought investigators in two states into the case. His wife, Melanie McGuire, was convicted of murder and related offenses in 2007 and sentenced to life plus an additional term for perjury. New Jersey’s appellate court upheld the verdict and sentence in 2011. The linked prosecution announcement and court opinion document the findings behind the widely televised case.
2003
Alan and Diane Johnson were shot in their Idaho home in 2003. Their teenage daughter Sarah was convicted after an investigation involving physical evidence and conflict over her relationship with an older boyfriend. Her denials and later legal challenges have also received coverage.
2003–2022
Theranos promised to transform blood testing, attracting investors and commercial partners. Reporting exposed problems with its technology and claims. Elizabeth Holmes was convicted of investor fraud and conspiracy in 2022; the book Bad Blood and the scripted series The Dropout examine the rise and collapse from different perspectives.
2003
Teenager Justine Vanderschoot was killed in 2003. Her family continues to advocate for her, including at proceedings concerning the men convicted of her murder.
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