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5 Disturbing True Crime Stories That Will Keep You Up Tonight

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2 weeks ago

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cold smooth tasty 5

I’m obsessed with all things creepy, macabre, and dark. If you live for the unsettled feeling of a good horror mystery, you aren’t alone. Here is a look at some of the most haunting cases currently circulating in the world of the strange and unusual.

1. If you’ve noticed “The Backrooms” trending everywhere lately, it’s because the powerhouse studio A24 just dropped a trailer for an upcoming horror film, Backrooms. The teaser is already pulling in millions of views, but the lore behind it is arguably more unsettling than anything Hollywood could produce.

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A24 / Via youtube.com

The phenomenon began in 2019 with a single anonymous post on 4chan: a picture of empty, yellow-hued office rooms stretching into infinity under the hum of fluorescent lights. The caption introduced a simple, terrifying concept—if you “glitch” out of reality in the wrong areas, you’ll end up there, trapped in a maze of identical rooms with no exit and something potentially predatory lurking in the shadows.

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Anonymous / Via archive.4plebs.org

What makes The Backrooms so disturbing is the specific psychological dread it triggers. These spaces feel familiar in the worst way—like a place you’ve visited in a dream but can’t quite place. It’s the “liminal space” aesthetic: empty, wrong, and claustrophobic. Between the constant buzzing of the lights and the feeling of being watched, it taps into a primal fear. The internet transformed this image into a massive horror mythos, and now it’s becoming a feature film. Honestly, I’m ready for the nightmare.

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A24 / Via youtube.com

2. In 2011, a law student named Stephen McDaniel was interviewed by a local news crew regarding his missing neighbor, Lauren Giddings, who had vanished from her apartment in Macon, Georgia.

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WGXA / Via youtube.com

During the segment, the reporter mentioned offhand that a body had just been discovered. McDaniel, who had been speaking calmly until that moment, suddenly froze. He began breathing heavily and looked like he was about to collapse on camera. It was a visceral, physical reaction that went far beyond the shock of a “concerned neighbor.” It was the reaction of a man who realized he’d been caught.

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WGXA / Via youtube.com

(You can watch that haunting interview right here, if you’re interested):

WGXA / Via youtube.com

Investigators eventually discovered that McDaniel had become obsessed with Lauren, stalking her and secretly filming her through her windows. There was never a real relationship—just a terrifying, one-sided fixation that escalated into violence.

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Macon Telegraph / Tribune News Service via Getty Images

Following his arrest, the evidence against McDaniel was overwhelming. Police found the tools used to dismember Lauren Giddings’s body and surveillance footage of him watching her. He was charged with murder and initially maintained his innocence, but in 2014, just before the trial, he accepted a plea deal to avoid the death penalty.

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Macon Telegraph / Tribune News Service via Getty Images

As part of his confession, he admitted to using a master key to break into Lauren’s apartment while she slept. He strangled her, then dismembered her in her own bathtub with a hacksaw. He confessed to disposing of “some of her body” in a dumpster while leaving her torso elsewhere. McDaniel was sentenced to life in prison, with his first chance at parole coming in 2041.

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Macon Telegraph / Tribune News Service via Getty Images

3. The cold case of Laureen Rahn is one of the most chilling missing persons mysteries in history. The 14-year-old disappeared from her Manchester, New Hampshire, apartment in April 1980 while her mother was out for the evening.

WMUR-TV / Via youtube.com

On the night she vanished, Laureen had been hanging out with friends, but she seemingly evaporated into thin air, leaving all her personal belongings behind. There were no signs of a struggle, but there were eerie clues: every lightbulb in the apartment hallway had been unscrewed, and doors were left wide open.

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WMUR-TV / Via youtube.com

In the months following her disappearance, her mother received several cryptic phone calls traced to motels in California, including one linked to a teen hotline. However, it was never confirmed if Laureen was the one calling. Despite numerous leads over the decades, the case remains unsolved, though authorities strongly suspect foul play.

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Shaunl / Getty Images/iStockphoto

What makes Laureen’s case so haunting is the evidence that she was being hunted. Reports indicated a strange man had been seen loitering near the building in the days prior, leading some to believe he gained her trust. The unscrewed lightbulbs suggest the abduction was meticulously planned to ensure the perpetrator could move through the dark undetected.

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José Amorim / Getty Images/iStockphoto

Forty years later, the mystery of Laureen Rahn still lingers without answers. It remains one of the most tragic disappearances in New England, defined by strange clues and a lack of closure. Whether she was taken or met another dark fate, the truth remains buried.

WMUR-TV / Via youtube.com

4. If you want a truly grim deep dive, look up the Wikipedia page for the death of Hedviga Golik in Zagreb, Croatia.

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Xbrchx / Getty Images/iStockphoto

Golik was a nurse who passed away alone in her apartment sometime in the 1960s. The truly disturbing part? No one noticed she was gone for over 40 years. In 2008, workers entered her attic apartment to clear it for renovations and found her skeletal remains still sitting in her chair, exactly where she had died decades earlier.

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Pabbles / Getty Images/iStockphoto

Medical examiners determined she likely died of natural causes. Neighbors had assumed she moved away long ago, and because she lived such a solitary, quiet life, her absence was never questioned. She was finally given a proper burial nearly half a century after her death.

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Claire Bock / Getty Images

5. Finally, we have the gruesome history of serial killer Stephen A. Nash, a man whose crimes shocked the nation.

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Bettmann / Bettmann Archive

Nash was a notorious “thrill killer” who murdered at least 11 people throughout California between 1955 and 1956. He wasn’t motivated by money or revenge; he was driven purely by a desire for extreme violence. His victims included 10-year-old Larry Rice, whom he brutally stabbed more than 30 times under the Santa Monica Pier. Nash was eventually caught in 1956 after a victim managed to escape a hotel room and find the police.

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Bettmann / Getty Images

During his trial, Nash was completely unrepentant, even bragging about the murders. The presiding judge described him as the “most evil person” to ever step foot in his courtroom. His total lack of empathy and the clear enjoyment he took in his cruelty disturbed the public and investigators alike.

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University Of Southern Californi / Corbis via Getty Images

He was executed in the gas chamber at San Quentin State Prison on August 21, 1959.

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Bettmann / Getty Images

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Why Trump Stayed Onstage Longer Than JD Vance After Shooting

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24 minutes ago

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April 29, 2026

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President Donald Trump suggested he may have intentionally slowed down U.S. Secret Service agents, causing Vice President JD Vance to be evacuated from the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner noticeably faster than the commander-in-chief following a nearby shooting.

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Nathan Howard / Getty Images

“I wanted to see what was happening,” Trump explained during a high-profile interview with 60 Minutes on Sunday. “And I wasn’t making it that easy for them. I wanted to see what was going on. And by that time, we started to realize maybe it was a bad problem,” he noted regarding the security breach.

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CBS / Via x.com

Trump commented on the frantic ballroom scene shortly after CBS anchor Norah O’Donnell pointed out that it took security details roughly 20 seconds longer to usher him offstage compared to his VP. “What was happening?” O’Donnell questioned. “Well, what happened is it was a little bit me,” Trump admitted.

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CBS / Via x.com

Footage from the event depicts the audible sounds of gunfire echoing from outside the main ballroom while the president and first lady Melania Trump, alongside others at the head table, observed a performance by mentalist Oz Pearlman. Moments later, several agents emerged from the wings before accelerating their pace to surround the Trumps.

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KCRA3 / Via youtube.com

Security personnel then assisted Trump from his chair before escorting him offstage behind a protective curtain. Vance had been rushed out about 20 seconds prior after agents grabbed him by his suit jacket while he was still seated and hurried him away from the dais. Trump told O’Donnell he felt “surrounded by great people” but claimed he forced the agents to “act a little bit more slowly.”

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Andrew Harnik / Getty Images

“I said, ‘Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Let me see. Wait a minute,’” Trump recalled. The president further noted that as they exited, agents instructed him to “please go down on the floor.” He and the first lady took cover on the ground, he said, before rising shortly after to be led by the protective detail to a secure holding room.

CBS / Via x.com

As the current administration faces intense scrutiny regarding the reported lower level of security at the dinner compared to other presidential appearances, White House officials are scheduled to review security protocols this week for upcoming major events involving the president.

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Mandel Ngan / Getty Images

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Karoline Leavitt Hitler Comment Sparks Brutal Online Rebuttal

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2 hours ago

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April 29, 2026

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White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Monday tried to blame what she called a “left-wing cult of hatred” against President Donald Trump for political violence in the nation, including the shooting at Saturday’s White House Correspondents’ Association dinner.

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Andrew Harnik / Getty Images

But one of her complaints caught the eyes and ears of critics. “Those who constantly falsely label and slander the president as a fascist, as a threat to democracy, and compare him to Hitler to score political points are fueling this kind of violence,” she declared.

Anna Moneymaker / Getty Images

As many were quick to point out, one of the most prominent examples of someone comparing Trump to Hitler is already in the White House: Vice President JD Vance. In 2016, when Trump was running for president for the first time, Vance told a friend via private message that he wasn’t sure if Trump was “a cynical asshole like Nixon” or if he could be “America’s Hitler.”

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Brendan Smialowski / Getty Images

Vance has since said he was wrong about Trump. But many are reminding Leavitt of what he said in the past:

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Is Taylor Swift Calling Out Fans for Lyrical Paternity Tests?

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3 hours ago

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April 29, 2026

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Taylor Swift has officially earned her spot on the New York Times list of the 30 Greatest Living American Songwriters, joining the ranks of icons like Mariah Carey, Nile Rodgers, and Jay-Z.

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Monica Schipper / Getty Images

As Taylor’s massive discography has expanded, her dedicated fanbase has made it their mission to analyze every single lyric, hunting for secret clues about the singer’s private life.

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Christopher Polk / Getty Images

Take her iconic hit “All Too Well,” for instance. The lyrics, “I left my scarf there at your sister’s house, and you’ve still got it in your drawer even now,” sparked a viral investigation. Fans quickly deduced the scarf was left at Maggie Gyllenhaal’s house during Taylor’s relationship with Jake Gyllenhaal. The internet then collectively demanded the actor return the infamous accessory.

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Jamie Mccarthy / Getty Images

The scarf saga became so legendary that music royalty Dionne Warwick even weighed in on Twitter with a hilarious offer to help:

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Mark Sagliocco / Getty Images

“If that young man has Taylor’s scarf he should return it.”

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@dionnewarwick / Via x.com

“It does not belong to you. Box it up and I will pay the cost of postage, Jake.”

@dionnewarwick / Via x.com

In a recent interview with the New York Times, Taylor finally addressed the constant decoding of her work, confessing that the obsession with her personal life “can be a little bit weird.”

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Aeon / Getty Images

“There’s corners of my fanbase who are gonna take things to a really extreme place,” Swift admitted. “There’s nothing I can do about that. There’s people who are gonna try to, like, do detective work, figure out the details — who is that about? What is this?”

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Kevin Mazur / Getty Images

“When it gets a little bit weird for me is when people act like it’s a paternity test,” she added. “Like, ‘This song’s about that person.’ Because I’m like, ‘That dude didn’t write the song, I did.’ But that’s part of it.”

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Robert Gauthier / Getty Images

Fans are currently split on Taylor’s take regarding these lyrical Easter egg hunts. For the most part, many listeners are backing her up:

“i think it’s very stupid when people waste their time trying to find out who a particular song is about.. like just enjoy the song”

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@vesperamyst / Via x.com

“maylors, joewives, and travwives all are gonna hate reading this”

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@geokonic / Via x.com

“Thank you for calling us out”

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@jadedmaroon / Via x.com

“Like how she owns it, the end of the day, she wrote the song, not the guesses.”

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@LyfAcrosBorders / Via x.com

“Those people are the Swifties. And I am guilty I am one of that people”

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@Filmfanatick / Via x.com

“People focus on the muse but ignore the creator… she clocked that”

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@BIZBoost / Via x.com

“She’s so right. People get so caught up in the ‘who’ that they forget to appreciate the ‘how.’ The songwriting stands on its own regardless of whose name is in the headlines.”

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@Me_dot_c0m02 / Via x.com

“Taylor writes from her own heart and experiences yet fans turn every line into a guessing game. Let her keep the magic instead of treating songs like detective puzzles. Shes right.”

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@PrasVector / Via x.com

“Taylor Swift really said it perfectly People love playing detective , but turning songs into a ‘paternity test’ is kinda missing the point At the end of the day, the story, the emotions, the art — it all comes from her Let the music be felt, not dissected”

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@HypeTime01 / Via x.com

“Taylor calling it a paternity test is the most accurate description of Twitter/X whenever she drops an album. People are out here with whiteboards and red string trying to prove a song is about a guy she dated for three weeks in 2014.”

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@Reika675 / Via x.com

“Not Taylor calling us detectives with fake badges We out here with red string and conspiracy boards like All Too Well 10 Min Version was about my situationship too. But she’s righ the pen belongs to her”

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@SegodiTlour / Via x.com

“I know some people in this fandom will be so mad…,lmao”

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@DeborahYeboah16 / Via x.com

However, a different segment of the internet argues that Taylor herself encouraged this sleuthing behavior for years:

“I find this a little odd of her to say… she’s the one who taught us to do that. She capitalized letters in her lyric books in the cds for us to decode… now she doesn’t want us dissecting things?”

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@JenelleLubig / Via x.com

“Taylor Swift needs to take her ego down a notch. Maybe her fanatic ‘swifties’ are all up in her business but the general public doesn’t care. Plus, songs and poems have always held a mysterious origin curiosity. Some are easy to figure out or the author says it. Others are secretive leaving the public to wonder. That’s the beauty of songs and poems.”

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@moraltreason / Via x.com

“She literally leaves easter eggs everywhere and than says this girl, you trained them that way!”

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@Claire8502 / Via x.com

“She trained detectives for years and now wants peace. Fair enough”

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@WpFactory1 / Via x.com

Throughout her storied career, Taylor’s high-profile romances have been under a microscope. She has previously been linked to stars like Harry Styles, Joe Jonas, Matty Healy, and Joe Alwyn. During those eras, fans meticulously dissected her lyrics like a team of forensic experts to find any scrap of romantic tea.

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David Krieger / Getty Images

She is now happily engaged to NFL champion Travis Kelce and is in the midst of wedding planning. With fans affectionately calling them the “English teacher” and the “gym teacher,” it’s certain that their upcoming nuptials will be the most analyzed event in pop culture history.

Kansas City Star / Getty Images

What do you think about Taylor’s thoughts on fans hunting for relationship clues in her music? Share your opinion in the comments below!

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