346,000 Unsolved Homicides in America.
The national homicide clearance rate has fallen from over 90% in the 1960s to approximately 54% today. Nearly half of all murders in America go unsolved — leaving families without answers and communities without justice.
The State of Unsolved Crime
Key data points from the Murder Accountability Project and FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) data, highlighting the scale of unsolved violent crime in the United States.
Browse Cases
Explore documented cold cases and historic crimes from across the United States. Filter by type, state, decade, or status.
Carrie Brown
Carrie Brown, a prostitute known as 'Old Shakespeare,' was found murdered and mutilated in her New York City hotel room. She was initially suspected as a Jack the Ripper copycat victim but the timing didn't align. Ameer Ben Ali was convicted but pardoned after 11 years. The actual killer was never conclusively identified.
Andrew & Abby Borden
Andrew Borden and his wife Abby were found hacked to death in their Fall River, Massachusetts home. Their daughter Lizzie was acquitted of the murders. The case became one of the most famous unsolved murders in American history and spawned decades of debate, books, and plays.
Stanford White
Prominent architect Stanford White was shot in front of hundreds of witnesses at Madison Square Garden's rooftop restaurant by millionaire Harry K. Thaw, who was enraged over White's past relationship with his wife Evelyn Nesbit. Thaw was found not guilty by reason of insanity and confined to an asylum. The case was dubbed 'The Trial of the Century' of its era.
Virginia Christian Case
Seventeen-year-old Virginia Christian became the first woman executed in Virginia's electric chair for the murder of her employer. The case raised questions about juvenile justice and racial disparities. She was executed in August 1912.
New Orleans Axeman Victims
The New Orleans Axeman murdered at least eight people and attacked several others between 1918 and 1919. He sent a letter to newspapers saying he would spare any household playing jazz music on a particular night. The killer was never identified. The case remains one of America's most famous historical unsolved serial murder cases.
Virginia Rappe
Silent film actress Virginia Rappe died following a party at the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco. Actor Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle was charged with her rape and murder three times; all trials ended in acquittal or hung jury. The actual cause of death remains disputed between a bladder rupture or assault.
William Desmond Taylor
Silent film director William Desmond Taylor was found shot in his bungalow in Los Angeles. The murder implicated several silent film actresses, including Mabel Normand and Mary Miles Minter. Suspects were never prosecuted and the case became one of Hollywood's oldest unsolved murders.
Bobby Franks
Fourteen-year-old Bobby Franks was murdered by wealthy University of Chicago students Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb as a thrill kill. Attorney Clarence Darrow's defense saved them from execution; they received life sentences. Loeb was killed in prison; Leopold was eventually paroled in 1958.
Judge Joseph Force Crater
New York Supreme Court Justice Joseph Force Crater disappeared in New York City after dining with friends. He hailed a cab and was never seen again. Despite massive investigation, no trace of him was ever found. He was declared legally dead in 1939 and the mystery became a cultural touchstone for unexplained disappearances.
Starr Faithfull
Starr Faithfull was found drowned on a Long Beach, New York beach. Her diary revealed an ongoing relationship with politician Andrew James Peters who allegedly abused her. The death was undetermined — possibly homicide, suicide, or accident. The case inspired multiple novels and continues to be debated.
Charles Lindbergh Jr.
The infant son of aviator Charles Lindbergh was kidnapped from the family estate in Hopewell, New Jersey. A ransom was paid but the baby's body was found two months later. Bruno Richard Hauptmann was convicted and executed in 1936. Some historians have questioned whether Hauptmann acted alone or was innocent.
Paul Bern
MGM film director Paul Bern was found shot at his Beverly Hills home. It was ruled a suicide but a note was found that some interpret as a murder. Theories point to Dorothy Millette, his common-law wife who was found drowned days later. MGM allegedly covered up details of the investigation.
Cleveland Torso Murders
The Cleveland Torso Murderer killed at least 12 people in the Kingsbury Run neighborhood of Cleveland between 1934 and 1938. Victims were decapitated and dismembered; most were never identified. Despite legendary detective Eliot Ness leading the investigation, the killer was never caught.
Thelma Todd
Actress Thelma Todd was found dead in her garage from carbon monoxide. The death was ruled accidental but many believed it was murder. Theories pointed to her business partner Roland West or mob figure Lucky Luciano. The case was never conclusively resolved.
Amelia Earhart
Pioneer aviator Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan vanished over the Pacific Ocean during her attempt to circumnavigate the globe. She was declared legally dead in 1939. Multiple theories exist including the crash-and-sink theory and the Gardner Island castaway theory. Her fate remains one of aviation's greatest mysteries.
Betty June Binnicker & Mary Emma Thames
Two young girls were found murdered in Alcolu, South Carolina. George Stinney Jr., a 14-year-old Black boy, was arrested, tried, and executed in 83 days — the youngest person executed in the 20th century US. In 2014, a judge vacated his conviction, ruling his trial was fundamentally unfair. The actual killer was never identified.
Recy Taylor
Recy Taylor, a young Black woman, was gang-raped by six white men while walking home from church in Abbeville, Alabama. Two grand juries refused to indict the perpetrators. Rosa Parks investigated the case for the NAACP. Taylor lived to see renewed public attention before her death in 2017. No one was ever prosecuted.
Suzanne Degnan
Six-year-old Suzanne Degnan was abducted from her bedroom in Chicago and dismembered. William Heirens, known as the 'Lipstick Killer' for writing on walls with lipstick, was convicted in 1946 and spent 65 years in prison. He consistently maintained innocence until his death in 2012, and many experts questioned the evidence.
Texarkana Moonlight Murders
The Phantom Killer committed five known murders and two attacks in the Texarkana area across the Texas-Arkansas border in 1946. The victims were typically couples in cars on lover's lanes. Despite a massive manhunt, the killer was never identified. The case inspired multiple films including 'The Town That Dreaded Sundown.'
Elizabeth Short (The Black Dahlia)
The mutilated body of 22-year-old Elizabeth Short was found in a vacant lot in Los Angeles. Her body had been severed at the waist, drained of blood, and posed. The case became one of the most famous unsolved murders in American history, generating hundreds of confessions but no confirmed suspect.
Beverly Potts
Ten-year-old Beverly Potts disappeared from a Cleveland park while attending a neighborhood show. Despite one of the largest manhunts in Cleveland history, she was never found. The case remained one of Cleveland's most haunting cold cases for over 70 years.
Bobby Greenlease
Six-year-old Bobby Greenlease was kidnapped from his school and killed by Carl Austin Hall and Bonnie Brown Heady in Kansas City. A ransom of $600,000 was paid — the largest at that time. Hall and Heady were arrested, tried, and executed in less than three months. Half the ransom was never recovered.
Frank Olson
CIA scientist Frank Olson died after falling from a New York hotel window. It was ruled a suicide but his family believed he was killed because he wanted to leave the agency's secret mind control program MKUltra. His body was exhumed in 1994 and a second autopsy suggested possible homicide.
Janet Christman
Thirteen-year-old Janet Christman was babysitting when she was raped and strangled in Columbia, Missouri. Her body was found by the parents when they returned home. Despite the fact that a partial fingerprint was recovered, the case was never solved. It is Missouri's oldest open murder case.
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The latest cases documented in the index.
Unsolved Homicides by State
The geographic distribution of unsolved homicides across America. Data from the Murder Accountability Project based on FBI supplementary homicide reports.
About ColdCaseIndex
ColdCaseIndex exists to bring data-driven attention to the crisis of unsolved violent crime in America. With over 346,000 unsolved homicides accumulated since the 1960s and a clearance rate that has fallen below 54%, the scale of this problem is often invisible to the public.
Our mission is to provide a searchable, structured resource that honors victims by keeping their cases visible. The database focuses on unsolved cases, and also documents historically significant crimes that were solved — landmark cases that shaped forensic science, legislation, and public awareness. We believe accessible data can help journalists, researchers, advocates, and families push for answers.
This database draws from publicly available records including the Murder Accountability Project, FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) data, the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs), and state-level law enforcement reports. Case details are compiled from court records, media reports, and law enforcement press releases.
ColdCaseIndex is a research tool, not a platform for speculation. We present facts as documented in official sources and encourage anyone with information about an unsolved case to contact local law enforcement or the FBI tip line at 1-800-CALL-FBI.