People Open up About the Terrifying Crimes That Took Place in Their Small Towns

It’s October which means it’s officially not too early to talk about Halloween season. If you live for the screams and the scares, you’re in good company. We’ve compiled some texts from the dead that will send chills down your spine, and some real-life paranormal experiences that might have you sleeping with the lights on. But today we bring you the scariest true crime stories, told by people who live in the towns where they occurred. 

This story is for adult appreciators of Halloween and might not be suitable for children. Read on for 11 true small-town crimes that might have you on the next train out to the nearest big city.

10 years ago a woman called 911 from the J.C. Penney parking lot, claiming to had just given birth. She had a baby in her backseat and the umbilical cord and everything. Took her to the hospital and it was obvious she had not just given birth.

They found the real mother of the baby, dead, on a popular walking trail at a park in town. The woman had cut the baby out of the other's stomach and tried to pass it off as her own.

As far as I know, the baby survived.

- blahblahblahjpg

You can read more about the chilling story here.

I've said this on here before but in my town, there was a woman who was [sexually abused] by a friend. The boyfriend of the woman got pissed and the [abuser] felt bad, so he let the boyfriend tie him up and beat the [crap] out of him. 

After, the night goes on and the two men end up smoking weed and then meth together, so naturally they both get in the car for a ride. 

After this odd change of events, the boyfriend and driver of the car starts faking motor issues so they pull over. They check under the hood, and the boyfriend of the girl slams the hood down on the [abuser] friend's head. He then proceeds to cut the man's head off and throw it in the woods.

You can read more about this very wild turn of events here.

The judge was basically throwing all kids in juvie for pay. It was national news called kids for cash or cash for kids. 

Anyway I went in front of this very judge when I was younger. He told me flat out the only reason I wasn't sent away was because I was signed up for the Marines. He told me "You got six months till you graduate don't make trouble in my town ever again." 

To give you a sense of how corrupt he was, I only got caught driving 15 minutes after curfew.

- Kardagain

When I was in high school, my boyfriend's mother was kidnapped and strangled by two men that she had kicked out of the library she worked at. They were part of a really close-knit small rural community and despite almost everybody in it knowing who did it, no one would speak up about it, and to this day, her murderers have gone unpunished. Can't imagine the pain her family went through.

- SuperRadPsammead

To read more about this unjust neighborhood crime, follow this link.

Small east coast town. My mom broke up with her serious boyfriend and moved us kids to grandma's house. Less than a week later, the boyfriend had a coworker over to look at buying his stereo as he was trying to get his life in order and win my mom back. 

The coworker was secretly gay, hit on the boyfriend, and when the boyfriend politely declined, the coworker grabbed a maglite and beat him to death. Apparently he didn’t want his secret getting out at work... I was maybe 6, and didn’t find out what happened to him until I was 12 and a friend of the family slipped up and mentioned him being murdered while I was in earshot.

- SanSoo

If you're interested in this story, wait until you see American Beauty. Just kidding.

There was a car accident that killed five cheerleaders when they were in a head on collision with a truck.

The truck driver was vilified as a monster and they literally referred to the dead girls as the [town name] Angels. People had bumper stickers, plans were made for a memorial statue etc.

Then the news came out all five girls were drunk, high and on coke at the time of the accident and the girl that was driving was texting. The truck driver was the real innocent victim.

- RXL

I'm from a small town in central Utah. To my knowledge, there are at least three operating polygamist cults in and around that town. Some of which are known for marrying children and many other [messed] up things.

Suicide pacts have been acted out by children in retaliation to being raised such a way. And tons of creepy [stuff happens] behind closed doors. Some of the houses are outfitted with carpeted walls to dampen any sounds that come from there. Tons of other extremely [messed] up cults exist everywhere in Utah, Idaho, and northern AZ. [It] is still rampant.

Town in question is Manti, Utah if you're interested in looking into it.

- PanthraxIV

I used to live in St. Joe, MN. Everybody in the state knows what happened there, and I assume lots beyond that: it was national news. In 1989 three boys had a gun pulled on them by a man with a mask and told to face away. He picked one of them, Jacob Wetterling, and then Jacob was never seen alive again.

Jacob's parents created the Wetterling Foundation to advocate for child safety. The federal 1994 Jacob Wetterling Act created the sex offender registry.

In 2016, as part of a plea deal involving a single child [skin mags] charge where he didn't get charged with the murder of Jacob, a man who is now in jail for 20 years with the option to hold him in a facility afterwards as a sexual predator, told authorities where Jacob's body was.

A few days ago, everything related to the case was released and now local authorities and the FBI are arguing over why it took them so damn long. None of it would have saved Jacob though. Jacob was dead the day he was abducted, his murderer saying he panicked after seeing a police car go by.

- fastinserter

If you're interested in learning more about this case, you can read about it here.

Not very secluded and only "smallish" (~35k people at the time of the crime), but [messed] up nevertheless.

One day when the elementary school kids were let out of school and heading home, a woman lured an 8-year-old girl into her car with the promise of showing the girl her new puppy. The girl was reported missing and security footage of the woman luring her was released, but no Amber Alert issued. There was a massive search for her. I remember seeing police helicopters hovering over the town and getting stopped by a blockade on the main street — they were handing out "Missing Child" flyers to all of the vehicles passing through.

Roughly three months later, the girl's body was found in a wooded area 1.5 hours away. Police ended up discovering that a couple had worked together to lure her into their car and drove to a hardware store to buy a hammer and rope. The poor girl was sexually assaulted by the boyfriend and then killed with the hammer.

It happened about eight years ago but the story's been making waves again because the girlfriend was transferred to a medium security healing lodge and people are [upset] about it.

- riali29

You can follow along with the updates to the girlfriend's sentence and learn more about the case here.

Popular siblings, he was a basketball player and she was a cheerleader. They were driving home together from an away game when he decided to race another car, on a busy highway at night. He lost control and drove under the trailer of a semi that had pulled out. The trucker didn't realize the car was traveling over 90 mph. Both kids were beheaded in the accident. Right before Christmas.

Last summer, a 19 year old took his friend up in his dad's plane and crashed in a field. They weren't found for hours after the crash and both were dead. He had coke and alcohol in his system and was just a student pilot. The dad had lost his wife in a freak accident on their property nine months prior. Then his only son died. His house is for sale and he left the area.

We live in a village with under 2,000 people, but a lot happens here. A newborn corpse was found in an abandoned van on the teen mom's property. People's firearms go off accidentally a lot. One guy cleaning his gun shot himself in the leg and another, out for a morning stroll with his wife, dropped his gun and discharged shooting her in the leg. My husband is a paramedic and there's never a dull moment here.

- katgib13

Can’t quite remember how many years ago this was, but there is a story of a woman who would swing on a swing in her backyard holding her baby while singing very loudly, I’m guessing loudly enough for the neighbors to hear. The weird thing about it was she would do it very late at night. One night a neighbor called the police due to a noise complaint and when the police arrived the police noticed the baby she was swinging with was dead. The baby had died and caused such mental trauma to the mother, she thought her baby was still alive, or couldn’t bear to come to terms with their death.

- JWallz714