When Angela Lyons arrived at the emergency room, she could barely keep a towel pressed to her face as blood streamed from her nose. The medical staff moved quickly, ushering her into an examination room. As she tilted her head…
On the afternoon of January 22, 2024, an elderly woman named Janet Lee sat at her computer on the second floor of her home in Newcastle, England. She was trying to focus on reviewing her recent bank statements, but it…
On April 5, 2018, a young man named Luis Hernandez sat inside a small stone shack with a metal roof, located on a remote property in northern Venezuela. Luis was a painter, and for the past year or so, this…
On the afternoon of October 11, 2023, a 48-year-old man named Samuel Gomez stood in the lobby of the Moxy Hotel in Portland, Oregon, chatting with the concierge. Samuel had flown in from Phoenix earlier that morning to speak at…
At 10 p.m. on January 31st, 2012, a 23-year-old man named Chen Rong-Yu walked into an internet café in New Taipei City, Taiwan. The café had a front counter where a cashier would check you in and sell snacks and…
On the afternoon of May 21st, 1974, a 39-year-old man named Polar Gomez was walking through a dense forest in Argentina. In one hand, he carried a machete, and in the other, an axe. As he made his way through…
At 6:30 p.m. on July 29th, 2023, 15-year-old Talia Deila Diaz stood just outside the back door of her house, staring into the thick, shadowy rainforest that made up her backyard. She lived in a tiny, isolated village in Peru—right…
On the evening of December 24, 2001, 48-year-old businessman Kevin Butler was in the kitchen of his Dallas, Texas home, preparing food for a Christmas party he planned to attend the following day. As he focused on the task, he…
On the morning of August 30th, 2001, a middle-aged police sergeant named Alan McGregor drove with his partner, Officer Mark David, toward the Huron National Forest — a sprawling nature preserve in northern Michigan. The two officers were headed there…
At 7:20 p.m. on Friday, January 12th, 2007, 19-year-old college freshman Wade Steffey walked into Ford Dining Hall, one of five dining halls on Purdue University’s campus. Purdue, a prestigious university in Indiana, is well known for its excellence in…