People Who Knew Murderers Are Sharing “The Moment They Knew Something Was Off,” And Holy Crap
A while back, we shared stories from people who knew murderers[1]. Then, readers began sharing their own chilling stories, here are the most interesting ones:
Some stories include topics like sexual assault, substance abuse, domestic violence, and suicide.
1."I met Paul Bernardo once. It was at a Christmas Party that a neighbour threw.
He was one of the Ken and Barbie Killers[2], along with his ex, Karla Homolka. You could tell he thought he was so very charming, but I found him off-putting because he had an overbearing confidence, like he just expected every woman to be swooning over him. Now, I was already married at the time and had no interest in him or any affair in general, but when I rejected his advances at first, he was taken aback, like he didn't expect me to say no.
He pushed a little, turned up his flirting. His wife was literally in the room, but he persisted. I could tell he was getting a little annoyed that I wasn't interested, but he kept talking."
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"The conversation finally ended when my husband made his way over to me to steal me away, thank god. He told me that he could tell I was uncomfortable when he looked over at me, so he decided to step in and save me.
A year or so later, Paul gets arrested, and when my husband showed me the paper, he said, 'Wasn't this the guy from the Christmas party?' and he says I went white as a sheet. I felt sick over what he had done, but also felt sick thinking about what could have happened to me if my husband hadn't stepped in."
--Anonymous, 55, St. Catherine's, Ontario
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2."In middle school, I spent one class each day as an assistant in the attendance office. The main attendance lady had a son who would drop in occasionally, and he always gave off bad vibes. I even remember joking with some friends at one point, saying, 'That kid is gonna grow up and kill someone.' Fast forward to his senior year of high school.
He came home drunk from a party, got into an argument with his father, and eventually shot and killed him, then did the same to his mother. Then, in what I can only assume was a drunken panic, he decided to set his house on fire."
"He then drove to a mutual friend's house to get help cleaning up the evidence but was immediately refused. After much forensic investigation and subsequent trial, he's now in prison for the foreseeable future."
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3."I taught a kid, 'Jimmy,' in 6th grade, whom I really liked. Poor home life, not a great student, but not a troublemaker.
Another kid brought oregano to school and tried to sell it for weed. Jimmy beat him up and reported him. Years later, I ran into a parent who asked if I knew 'Jimmy' was on death row.
He had broken into the home of an older neighbor to rob her for drug money. She woke up and discovered him, and he grabbed a kitchen knife and stabbed her. His sentence was later commuted to Life because he was high at the time and didn't come armed to kill.
Some time later, he escaped, and the news said he was the most dangerous man to ever escape from the Texas maximum prison. Two days later, he was found hiding out in the prison laundry room."
--Anonymous, 78 Katy, TX
Related: I Desperately Need To Bleach My Eyes After Looking At These 31 Absolutely Cursed Items People Found In The Thrift Store[4]
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4."I had traveled for work with a guy who was supposed to be an expert software developer. After a few visits with potential partners, I was really concerned about his expertise.
He just walked around and didn't ask many questions, just sort of did a walk-through of each facility. We came back, and the project failed not long after. He stayed on but was demoted as his performance was seriously subpar.
He was trying to complete a Ph.D., but that was not going well, and after spending a lot of money, he was dropped from the program. He was a severe narcissist, as I realized, and rather than face his wife with his failure, he strangled her and drove to a park to kill himself, too. He couldn't do it and called the police himself.
He was a total milquetoast, and I was shocked, but I realized he was living a lie all along. My evaluation of his 'skills' was accurate, and he had been hiding his incompetence under the cloak of narcissism." Advertisement
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--Anonymous, 68 New York
5."I dated a guy in high school and then again when we were in our 20s. He was a typical 'good ol'boy,' but nothing was weird about him. He would say he would kill his friend if he touched me, but I just laughed it off.
I knew he got in fights, but he was always sweet to me. We split up and got back together, and his ex's shampoo was still in the shower. He said I could use it because we both had red hair, and she wasn't coming back to get it.
It turns out he strangled her, and his buddy helped him bury the body. We split up, and he got married and moved. He ended up stabbing his (now ex) wife in the throat and throwing her out of the car on the highway.
He's in prison now, still awaiting trial. They eventually found the body of his ex as well. When I saw a picture of her, the resemblance to me was uncanny.
It's creepy to say the least. He still writes to me because someone gave him my address without my permission. His letters are scary."
--Anonymous
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6."One of my friends' ex-boyfriends stabbed a guy to death.
This was a few years after they broke up. A mutual friend told us he got in with the wrong crowd and started doing cocaine. He got sentenced to life in prison.
It was so bizarre to hear, as when they were together, he was the nicest guy! And treated us all with so much kindness and respect." Advertisement
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7."I used to work for a music retailer with a brilliant guitar player from a local band. He was 21 years old. He and his girlfriend, on a cocaine-fueled binge, picked up someone at a strip club, brought him home, shot him in the head, and slit his throat.
They then dumped his body under a mattress and attempted to clean their truck and apartment. However, brain matter was found in the bed of the truck. They admitted everything.
He's in prison for life."
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8."In the late '90s and early 2000s, my aunt was in the military, single with no kids. Because of this, she would spoil all of her nieces and nephews with whatever they wanted. My cousin and I were considered her favorite niece and nephew.
We would spend weekends and summers with her, going shopping, having fun, or just enjoying time together at grandma's house (my favorite place on the planet growing up). My cousin was the closest thing to a brother I've ever had. He was always known for being a funny and charismatic kid who would always bring joy to anyone he was around.
Fast forward to me being 12 and he's about 18. By this point, he's been kicked out of regular school and just completed his program at an alternative school for behavior." Advertisement
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"The school suggested that he should stay until he was 21 because of the progress that he made, and they were confident that there was nothing in the city for him but old friends and new habits. To their credit, they have seen many young men leave their program and end up dead or in jail. My uncle, my cousin's dad, refused to let him stay and withdrew him right after the graduation ceremony.
Well, less than a year later, the US Marshals came to my house, my grandmother's, and my aunt's house looking for my cousin, who was now a fugitive on the run for murder.
A drug deal gone wrong with his older brother and a friend. They came to our home with the biggest guns I've ever seen and looked in every closet and under every bed with those same guns and bright flashlights. I was used to him being in trouble for petty theft and stuff like that, but this was totally different.
My aunt is still hurt by my cousin's actions, considering that he never needed or wanted for anything. But after he made the front page of the newspapers, I think she had a change of heart and let god handle it. I always wonder what could've become of my cousin had he not gone down that path.
Instead, he's been locked up for 16 years, and his mental and physical health have taken a sharp decline."
--Anonymous, 28, Pennsylvania
Related: 20 Of The Greatest, Most Wholesome Posts From The Internet This Week That You've Gotta Read Right Now If You're In Need Of A Mood-Booster[7]
9."I worked with a guy who was married with kids. He claimed he was happy, but then he suddenly left his wife for another co-worker and moved to Texas with her. I always thought he seemed like a bad husband and a liar, TBH.
He was also kind of aggressive. Anyway, he had a kid with the new woman after a few years and seemed OK until they broke up. He apparently continually harassed her and threatened her new boyfriend before finally showing up at the guy's house and shooting him multiple times in January 2023.
I think he ran out of bullets because the police found him wandering. He's in jail for murder." Advertisement
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--Anonymous, Colorado
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10."When I was younger, we moved to a different part of the country and developed a social circle of people who were from our hometown, also living in the new area. Through a friend, my mom met a woman whom she got to know a little. Because we were all away from our families, she invited her to have Christmas dinner with us.
The woman brought her boyfriend, who gave off really bad vibes. He was not nice to her, and we didn't like him at all."
"Not very long after that, the woman went missing, and the boyfriend was immediately the prime suspect. The cops did what's called the Mr.
Big operation, where they befriended him and pretended to be recruiting him for an organized crime network to draw a confession out of him. Essentially, it worked, and the information he gave them led to the woman's body being found rolled up in a carpet at the landfill. He went to prison, but this was almost 30 years ago, so he might be out by now."
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11."I knew Cathy Henderson[9], her husband, and her daughter. I also had a neighbor three houses down who killed her boyfriend by setting him on fire while he was sleeping, and I knew two of the girls killed in the yogurt shop murders[10] in Austin, TX.
I ended up working with one of the suspected killer's wives. I also had a friend of mine killed in a drive-by by another person from my high school, and I was also grazed by a bullet. I love when people look at me and think I have always been in upper-middle-class life, like no, I grew up around murderers, thieves, and violent felons."
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12."During my second year of teaching, there was a long-term sub across the hallway from me that I had a good relationship with, and he always came to me for help when he needed it.
He was a former college football star at our local university and was a volunteer coach for the football program at a nearby high school. On the last day of school, the day after students left and we were all wrapping things up before leaving for summer, we walked past each other in the hallway and I greeted him simply by saying, 'What's up, Mr. Johnson!' Not a word back from him.
He didn't even look at me, just had a thousand-yard stare down the other end of the hallway. Two days later, I turned on the news, and the headline story was, 'Local substitute teacher arrested for triple-murder.' He had killed his own son, niece, and brother later that day that I last saw him in that hallway."
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13."I am married to one. My husband has been in prison for almost 24 years. He shot and killed a man who was sexually abusing mentally impaired teen boys.
The guy would have these teens over to his house and told the community he was giving them music lessons. No one believed the boys, not even after the guy killed one of them - the teen tried to fight back when the guy tried assaulting him. The guy locked him in his garage and set it on fire.
My husband walked into the guy's house and shot him."
"The police and the judge condemned my husband. The community brushed it aside. But you know what, the guy he shot, his family has always supported my husband.
They even told the judge that my husband saved countless teens from being abused & that they will always stand by my husband and fight for his release from prison."
--Anonymous
Related: 29 Photos That Never, Ever, Ever, Ever, Ever, Ever, Ever Fail To Make Me Laugh[13]
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14."I was good friends with this guy in high school. He was always friendly and super helpful. We ran track together, and he always encouraged all the team members.
He joined the military right after high school. When he returned after a few tours, I saw him a few times around when I'd come home to visit my parents, but he wasn't the same. One night, he showed up at a local jewelry store right at closing and ended up killing the owner and torturing his wife.
Luckily, he was caught almost immediately; the last I heard, he was imprisoned for life. Such a sad end for so many." Advertisement
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15."In undergrad, a class requirement was to select a criminal trial, then go observe the proceedings. I attended the trial of a former classmate who was being charged with robbing and murdering his older neighbor by beating him to death with a wooden dining room table leg. The day I observed was hours upon hours of very detailed, graphic testimony by a blood spatter expert, including demonstrations, crime scene photos, and other illustrations.
The number of blows, who was where, the roles of velocity and gravity...it was both fascinating and disturbing. In the end, my former middle and high school classmate, who I knew to be a late-bloomer, quiet, soft-spoken, shy, and neither a fighter nor a troublemaker, was convicted and sentenced to 80+ years in prison."
--Anonymous
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16."My youngest brother. This kid used to sneak into bed with me at night when he was scared.
We grew up in a chaotic, abusive household. He joined the Army, and that really messed him up even more. Drugs were involved.
The Army used him, destroyed him, and then kicked him to the curb. He murdered his girlfriend's uncle over drugs and will be in prison for 40 years. He's doing drugs inside, and I have frequent nightmares he will die."
--Anonymous
17."A guy who went to my high school (and was the son of my favorite teacher) killed his ex's current boyfriend, chased his ex down and shot him in the woods, then went and hid in someone's home.
When he encountered the owner of the house, he shot him too. Then he killed himself. It's really tragic.
I still think about my old teacher and hope she's okay."
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18."This happened to a friend. Her daughter's boyfriend showed up at 6:00 a.m. with a ring for her daughter and proposed. The ring had another girl's name engraved inside, but he said he bought it at a pawn shop.
The girl said yes, and everything was all happy. A couple of weeks later, the police asked questions about the ring, like when she got it, etc. It turns out he had beaten a girl to death, and it was her ring.
After meeting him in a bar, the girl had taken him to her place. The thing was, this guy was SO FINE. When his picture was in the paper, we all said we'd take him home before we knew our friend's daughter was involved.
He's serving life."
19."Two guys that I've known since the beginning of high school. We actually were very close for many years after high school. One of the them was best man at my wedding, and they were both at the hospital when I gave birth to my son.
A few years after we stopped talking (because they were both using drugs), I randomly heard rumors that they had killed this girl. Turns out that one night, the two guys were hanging with their girlfriends and the victim. A disagreement took place, and guy #1 pulled out a gun and shot the victim in the head.
Guy #2 and their girlfriends were naturally in shock and scared that he could easily kill them, too, so they helped him get rid of the body, which consisted of setting her on fire in a field somewhere."
"Guy #2 confessed to the crime immediately, and both were put away. I think one of the girlfriends got out, but guy #1 was sentenced to 50 years, and guy #2 was sentenced to 20 years. My best friend has corresponded with guy #1 in prison; he's still out of control.
I have written guy #2 a couple of times over the years. He is really trying to prepare for life when he gets out, which should be in the next eight years or so."
--Anonymous
Related: 17 Of The Most Chill-Inducing, Inexplicable Events That People Have Actually Lived Through[17]
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20."In college, my sister volunteered at a shelter for unhoused people. She worked the front desk.
One night, a man from our hometown came in and started chatting with her (she was wearing a sweatshirt with our high school name/mascot). Turns out she'd played softball with his sisters, knew his dad, etc. Two days later, she reads in the newspaper that he was arrested for stabbing his roommate to death.
That's why he'd come to the shelter: to hide out!"
21."My godfather shot and killed a border patrol agent during an argument on the road, right in front of the man's 10-year-old daughter. I was watching the local news one day when I heard my godfather's name mentioned. I immediately yelled for my parents to listen to the story.
I hadn't seen either of my godparents since I was a baby, but my mom would talk about them over the years, so to say I was shocked when the report came out was an understatement. There hasn't been a trial yet, and there might not even be one at this point due to all these complicated reasons."
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22.Finally, "A guy who liked me and who I thought was nice (but a little awkward) kept texting me to hang out and told me he wanted to date me. We went out maybe twice with friends.
I kept telling him I was busy and unsure if I wanted to date anyone right now. A few days later, he sent me one last text asking if I was sure I wasn't ready to date. I'm not even sure I ever responded, but a few days later, I found out he murdered his ex-girlfriend when she was coming to pick up some things from him.
Still freaks me out."
Responses have been edited for length/clarity.
If you or someone you know is in immediate danger as a result of domestic violence, call 911. For anonymous, confidential help, you can call the 24/7 National Domestic Violence Hotline[21] at 1-800-799-7233 (SAFE) or chat with an advocate via the website.
If you are concerned that a child is experiencing or may be in danger of abuse, you can call or text the National Child Abuse Hotline[22] at 1-800-422-4453 (4.A.CHILD); service can be provided in over 140 languages.
The National Alliance on Mental Illness[23] helpline is 1-800-950-6264 (NAMI) and provides information and referral services; GoodTherapy.org[24] is an association of mental health professionals from more than 25 countries who support efforts to reduce harm in therapy.
If you or anyone you know has information on a missing person case, call local law enforcement first. You can also contact the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children at 1-800-843-5678 (THE-LOST) or visit the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System site for regional case assistance[25].
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