Unforgotten Casebook — One case. Every angle. One place.

Unforgotten Casebook

Unforgotten Casebook

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.

Explore the case library
Read the booksWatch the adaptationsListen & investigateGo to the sources

THE CASE LIBRARY

Start with a story.

236 cases in the collection

10 of 236 cases

More media formats first · Book-only cases last in each section

U.S. cases, plus the Bernardo–Homolka case in Canada.

Multiple & serial murders

1 cases

Teen & school

1 cases
CASE 141West Virginia & Pennsylvania

2012

Skylar Neese

Skylar Neese left her West Virginia home with friends Rachel Shoaf and Shelia Eddy in 2012 and did not return. Investigators eventually learned the two had killed her in Pennsylvania. Their guilty pleas exposed a planned murder behind months of misleading accounts about her disappearance.

Abduction & survival

1 cases
CASE 151Manassas, Virginia

1993

Lorena Bobbitt

Lorena Bobbitt severed her husband John’s penis in Virginia in 1993 and described years of abuse during the ensuing proceedings. She was acquitted by reason of temporary insanity. The heavily sensationalized coverage later became the subject of documentaries examining domestic violence and media treatment.

Disappearances & cold cases

1 cases

Disputed justice

1 cases
CASE 059Virginia, United States

1985

Derek & Nancy Haysom

Derek and Nancy Haysom were stabbed to death in their Virginia home in 1985. Their daughter Elizabeth and her boyfriend Jens Soering fled abroad before being arrested. Elizabeth pleaded guilty as an accessory, and Soering was convicted of murder. His later challenges to the case fueled a long-running dispute over responsibility and evidence.

Public health & patient rights

1 cases
CASE 220Virginia and the Appalachian region

1996–2007

Appalachian communities & the opioid crisis

Patients, families, clinicians and investigators confronted a growing opioid crisis as prescription painkillers spread through communities. Beth Macy’s reporting follows the human consequences and the practices of the pharmaceutical industry. Dopesick dramatizes the history through a mixture of real events and composite characters.

Civil rights & equality

3 cases
CASE 186Caroline County, Virginia, and Washington, D.C.

1958–1967

Mildred & Richard Loving

Mildred and Richard Loving were prosecuted under Virginia’s ban on interracial marriage after marrying in Washington, D.C. Their challenge reached the U.S. Supreme Court. In 1967, Loving v. Virginia struck down state bans on interracial marriage, changing constitutional protections for couples nationwide.

CASE 197Washington, D.C., Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi

1961

The Freedom Riders

Interracial groups rode buses through the South to challenge segregation in interstate travel. Riders endured mob attacks, arrests and imprisonment while demanding enforcement of existing court rulings. The campaign helped force federal action against segregated interstate bus facilities.

CASE 193Topeka, Kansas; South Carolina, Virginia and Delaware

1951–1954

The families behind Brown v. Board of Education

Families and NAACP lawyers challenged segregated public schooling through cases that reached the Supreme Court together. Brown v. Board of Education rejected racial segregation in public schools in 1954. Simple Justice follows the legal strategy and the people behind that constitutional decision.

Science, education & exploration

1 cases
CASE 188Hampton, Virginia

1943–1969

Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson & NASA’s Hidden Figures

Black women mathematicians and engineers at Langley contributed to American aviation and the space program while working within racial and gender barriers. Hidden Figures brings together the stories of Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson and their colleagues; the film focuses on a smaller group and shorter period.

BEYOND THE HEADLINE

A good story invites curiosity.
A good source gives it direction.

How we approach true stories