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Most killers know their victims but recently there has been an alarming rise in 'stranger murders'. This is the shocking stories of people who were killed by someone they had never met.
2022
Twenty-year-old Tashan Daniel was waiting for a train to take him to a football match when a fateful encounter on the platform changed everything.
On 9th June, 2017, Yingying Zhang misses a bus to an appointment in Urbana-Champaign, Illinois, and is last seen getting in a car. Yingying is never seen again.
In June 1993, 11-year-old Jeralee Underwood leaves home on her local newspaper round. It's dusk when her parents become worried and soon a neighbour confirms their worst fears, she's been abducted; forced into a car by an unfamiliar man.
In February 2009, 14-year-old Amber Dubois vanishes while walking to school in Escondido, California. A year later, 17-year-old Chelsea King disappears while jogging in San Diego.
On the evening of 23rd April 2004, Robin Chard is making his way home from a quiet night out with friends in Newcastle when his life is cruelly cut short by two complete strangers, Christopher Smith and Joseph Mee.
In 2015, 69-year-old Pastor Ron Browning is home alone in Beckley, West Virginia, when he answers the door to a stranger, completely unaware he has just met the stranger who will end his life in a completely unprovoked attack.
In April 1993, 35-year-old Debbie Buxton is walking her dogs on her local riverbank in the village of Marston-on-Dove in Derbyshire when she crosses paths with the man who will end her life.
On the evening of 6th October 1998, 21-year-old student Matthew Shepard accepts a lift home from two strangers he's been chatting to in a bar in Laramie, Wyoming.
On 19th December 1995, 19-year-old French hitch-hiker Céline Figard goes missing after accepting a lift from a lorry driver on the M4 in Berkshire. Her body was discovered dumped at a layby in Worcestershire 10 days later.
In the early hours of 30th January 2016 after a night out with friends, distressed and vulnerable India Chipchase (20) is lured into a cab by a stranger promising to get her home safe from outside a nightclub in Northampton.
2025
23 year old Sean McKay is randomly stabbed to death in Dalry, Scotland, in 2021 by violent criminal Gary McVey. After killing him, McVey bragged to a friend about the act with no remorse.
In December 2004, security guard Michelle Gunshon vanishes after her shift in Birmingham. Years later, DNA ties violent offender Martin Stafford to her murder, though her body is still missing.
14-year-old Breck Bednar is murdered in 2014 by online predator Lewis Daynes, who groomed him via a gaming group. Breck's family believed the friendship had ended, until it was too late.
In 2004, 11-year-old Carlie Brucia is kidnapped while walking home in Sarasota, Florida. Her body is found days later. The killer is Joseph Smith was a released convict on probation.
After being followed from a store, the Petit family are targeted in a brutal home invasion in Cheshire, Connecticut. Three family members are murdered, and only the father survives the horrifying ordeal.
In Overland Park, Kansas, 18-year-old Kelsey Smith vanishes after a routine shopping trip. Her body is later found, revealing a horrific case of stranger violence by Edwin Hall.
18-year-old Mandy Stavik vanishes while jogging in 1989. Her body is found in the Nooksack River near Acme, Washington. In 2013, DNA leads to Timothy Bass, a local with a dark secret.
In 2014, real estate agent Beverly Carter vanishes after a showing in Little Rock, Arkansas. Her body is found days later. Police track and arrest Arron Lewis, a career criminal with violent motives.
24-year-old Philip Walsted is brutally murdered in 2002 by neo-Nazi David Higdon in Tucson, Arizona. Attacked with a bat over 50 times, his killing is revealed to be a hate crime.
On Independence Day 2017, 51-year-old Jorge Rodriguez is shot in his car while shopping in Pasco, Washington. He dies from his injuries. Pedro Cardenas is arrested two days later for the killing
2023
In 2006, 33-year-old Cheryl Moss steps outside of the hospital where she works in Essex to take a break and text her dad - but her plans to spend the evening with her family are dashed just moments later when she is stabbed to death.
In 2017, 17-year-old Hunter Smith decides to embark on a new life in order to provide for his young daughter. Hunter's dreams are dashed while hitchhiking from Oregon to Nebraska when lured out to the desert by Nicholas Vandenberg.
In 1984, 12-year-old Jonelle Matthews is dropped off safely at home in Greeley, Colorado by her best friend's father following a Christmas performance at school. When her father arrives home later that night, Jonelle is nowhere to be seen.
Father Richard and son Tyler are looking for a new truck, when they're approached by a stranger. Unbeknown to Richard and Tyler, 45-year-old Uber driver Brian Dalton is in the middle of a killing spree in the city of Kalamazoo, Michigan
Michael Hoolickin meets up with friends to enjoy a pint at a local pub in Manchester, but he has no idea it will be his last. Stepping in to defend a woman being hit by her brother, Michael sustains horrific injuries by a violent criminal.
Lauren Landavazo and her best friend are walking home from school in Wichita Falls, Texas. Meanwhile, Kody Lott, a loner who's become infatuated with Lauren, is getting ready to ensure that if he can't have her, no one can.
Conner Marshall is enjoying a holiday with friends in South Wales when he's approached one night by a dangerous stranger who mistakes Conner for his ex-girlfriend's new partner.
Mikey Rainsford is at home getting ready to meet his girlfriend with his dad waiting to give him a lift. What Mikey and his father don't know is that two strangers are lurking outside in the darkness seeking revenge.
Jermaine Cools is walking down the road with his older brother near his home in Croydon, London when a fight breaks out outside a chicken shop involving a teen brandishing a huge and horrific machete.
Reagan Tokes, a student at Ohio State University, is leaving work at a local restaurant when she's kidnapped by Brian Golsby, who has only recently been released from a six-year prison sentence.
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