today we're counting down four true crime tales with more dramatic twists and turns than a soap opera the difference however is that these chilling stories are painfully real and just wait because you won't believe the ghastly outcome waiting at the end of the video but first let's discuss the unbelievable case in fourth place which involves a small town a beauty queen and a killer hiding in plain sight nona dirksmeyer was born on december 26th 1985 as one of paul and carol dirksmeyer's six children she was raised in the small town of russellville arkansas with many
describing her as very sweet kind and shy in high school nona began dating a boy named kevin jones who she had known since kindergarten and the two immediately became inseparable around this time she started competing in beauty pageants using her platform to help prevent violence against kids nona even volunteered her free time as a member of the big sisters organization the beauty queen started college at arkansas tech university in 2004 majoring in music and got her own apartment keep in mind that nona her mother and kevin were given keys to this apartment kevin enrolled at
the university of arkansas around 90 minutes away but the couple kept up their relationship on december 14 2005 kevin came home for christmas break to visit nona and they discussed their plans for the following day nona had a couple of finals to wrap up at school and then was expected to meet with her little sister kevin had plans to accompany his mother janice to a school holiday dinner in the evening the next morning kevin received a text message from nona reading good morning cuddle muffin i love you and hope you have a great day naturally
he expected to hear from nona again when her exams were finished but she never called after nearly five years together this struck kevin as odd because she usually responded right away so around four in the afternoon he sent her a text message saying you alive interesting choice of words kevin continued calling and messaging her phone until around six when he and his mother headed out for their christmas party during the drive he grew increasingly concerned and contacted a friend who was out delivering pizza in the area kevin asked his friends to go to nona's apartment
and see if her car was parked outside the friend reported back that her car was there and the upstairs lights were on but strangely nona wasn't answering the door when he knocked alarmed by the findings at her apartment kevin and janice went to check it out themselves first they tried to pry open the front door but it wouldn't budge and unfortunately kevin had forgotten his spare key at home so they ran to the sliding glass door in the back which nona always reinforced with a burglar bar but on this night it was suspiciously missing kevin
forced open the sliding door and ran inside noticing blood on the venetian blinds as he moved towards the living room there he saw nona lying face down in a puddle of her own blood wearing nothing but a small pair of white socks kevin rushed over and without thinking hugged her lifeless body authorities soon arrived at the apartment and found nona with several stab wounds to her neck and shoulder but that wasn't her cause of death she had also been viciously beaten in the head and there was no question about what the murderer had used for
a weapon beside the body was an extremely heavy lamp broken into three pieces with blood on the base and the light bulb also despite nona being completely nude there was no indication of non-consensual intercourse and there was no sign of forced entry into the apartment however there was evidence that someone had attempted to strangle her and cut her throat before inflicting the brain-damaging blow to her head additionally detectives collected an open condom wrapper from the table next to the body but they never located the actual condom now some people believe detectives dropped the ball on
this case because certain blood samples were overlooked such as those on the venetian blinds furthermore the doors and blinds were never dusted for prince and they failed to look for any evidence upstairs but it quickly became apparent that the police already had a prime suspect in mind for the heinous crime any guesses i'll give you a hint it was kevin investigators viewed the entire scene including his emotional reaction and the use of his mother and friend is an elaborate cover-up not to mention they walked in and saw kevin covered in nona's blood which let's face
it doesn't look good so they brought him down to the station right away for hours of intensive questioning they also checked kevin's body for injuries as nona had defensive wounds indicating she had bought her attacker but he had none the distraught boyfriend never requested a lawyer and adamantly proclaimed his innocence the entire time but the police still weren't buying it however investigators knew they needed to look at everyone in nona circle so they started by examining her other lovers wait what yes you heard me right unbeknownst to kevin his high school sweetheart had been casually
seeing other men a harsh side effect of many long-distance relationships police stated that they also looked at anyone in the area who might have had contact with the beautiful young woman still when they were all ruled out the focus was shifted back to kevin who they now thought had a clear motive for killing nona desperate to clear his name kevin voluntarily went to the russellville police department on the eve of nona's funeral he told investigators i'll do anything that you guys want me to do i'll do a dna test i'll do anything he also willingly
agreed to take a notoriously unreliable polygraph test as long as he could leave in time for nona's visitation that night which he had helped coordinate this choice ultimately proved a huge mistake when the polygraph examiner announced he failed miserably he actually said to him kevin there's no doubt in my mind that you killed her seven grueling hours later kevin was still at the station and had missed the visitation of course many people including known as parents started speculating that he skipped the ceremony because he was guilty but as you can see that wasn't the case
at all nonetheless authorities asserted that kevin had murdered nona in a fit of rage after discovering her infidelity firsthand they even held a press conference to declare that all potential suspects had been cleared but won and we all know how news travels in a small town further testing showed kevin's fingerprint and blood on the light bulb next to the body so on march 31st 2006 he was arrested and charged with her murder kevin's legal team called in to question the condom wrapper which had been tested for fingerprints but never checked for dna and wouldn't you
know there was some dna left behind and it wasn't kevin's instead it belonged to an unknown male now this wasn't exactly a slam down for the defense because the jury could view this evidence two ways the first is that it came from a total stranger and the second is that it fits in perfectly with the prosecution's theory that kevin had got known a cheating the prosecution and defense argued back and forth but the entire case ultimately came down to that light bulb while prosecutors claim kevin left the print after bludgeoning nona to death his defense
maintained that he didn't even remember touching the bulb insisting that it must have happened during the chaos of finding her body finally it was time for the jury to deliberate and while they were initially split on the decision they returned the following day with a not guilty verdict then shockingly a local man named gary dunn was arrested for burglary in september 2007 and eyebrows were raised when the police recalled him being questioned during the initial investigation he had provided an alibi and was released without incident but detectives noticed something very alarming when they took a
second glance the date on the receipt he gave them to account for his time didn't account for the time frame in which nona was murdered furthermore dunn had been living in the same apartment complex as nona at the time of her death so the condom wrapper was retested and authorities said the testing indicated a partial profile of dunn's dna was found with the incomplete alibi it was enough for police to arrest dunn and charge him with known as murder in april 2010 his trial began with dunn's ex-wife testifying that he was allegedly violent and obsessed
with nona frustratingly it ended in a mistrial and he was set free he was arrested again in 2011 for attempted kidnapping and indecent exposure landing him 15 years in prison well it seems like most people have a pretty good idea of who they believe committed this brutal crime there's yet to be justice for nona alright let's keep moving on to case number three and please be mindful that the details involved in this one are exceptionally tough to hear however an unbelievable twist restores hope that good can triumph over evil regardless of the terrible circumstances so
on that note let's dive in jennifer hawk pettit was born in morristown new jersey on september 26 1958 after college she met her soul mate dr william a pettit jr while working as a pediatric oncology nurse at the children's hospital of pittsburgh william was born september 24 1956 in connecticut and over time became one of the top endocrinologists in the world the power couple said their i do's on april 13th 1985 and together they furthered their medical professions on october 15 1989 the pair welcomed their first child a daughter they named haley elizabeth and then
on november 17 1995 another little girl was born michaela rose around this special time jennifer began working as a nurse at a private boarding school which is how the pettit family found themselves raising their two children in the idyllic and seemingly safe suburban community of cheshire connecticut in the summer of 2007 haley was a bright and ambitious 17 year old preparing to head off to college in the fall her little sister michaela was a happy 11 year old eagerly awaiting the start of middle school now let's talk about the day that changed this family forever
july 22nd 2007 it was a day like any other and michaela who loved cooking decided to make dinner for the family so jennifer drove her to the local stop and shop to buy ingredients around 7 30 that evening surveillance footage shows the pair calmly walking through the store collecting items from their list but it also reveals something far more ominous unbeknownst to the mother and daughter a strange man had spotted them in the parking lot and was stalking them around the storm even followed them out to their car and all the way home where he
hatched a sinister plan meanwhile the petted family ate dinner around 8 30 and watched a television show before jennifer and her daughters went off to bed william chose to stay up and study some medical journals which resulted in him falling asleep on the couch in the living room around three in the morning the stalker returned with an accomplice and entered the home through the cellar dorm the two intruders wore masks and were armed with a baseball bat and a rifle as they moved around they were caught off guard by william who they had expected to
be asleep upstairs without hesitation they brutally beat him over the head with the baseball bat and dragged his bloody unconscious body down to the basement where he was tied up and left for dead then they entered the master bedroom where jennifer and michaela were sleeping and abruptly woke them up before forcibly moving michaela to her own room next they subdued haley in her room and tied all three to their separate beds by their wrists and ankles with pillowcases covering their heads the monstrous men then went about ransacking the home looking for anything valuable to steal
but they were very disappointed not to find a safe however after locating a bank ledger stating the family's personal finances they decided to wait until morning to bring jennifer to the bank so she could withdraw cash in the meantime they went to a local gas station and filled two gas tanks we'll get back to that later the masked men returned to the pet at home and checked on their captives allowing makayla a sip of water and untying hayley so that she could use the restroom as the sun rose on cheshire the burglars knew william would
be expected at work soon so they forced jennifer to call in sick for him she did as they asked and in a grueling moment of contact with the outside world his co-worker wished her husband a speedy recovery and ended the call without concern around nine in the morning one of the intruders drove jennifer to the bank while the other kept watch over the home she was given strict instructions to stay quiet and not mention anything or the girls would be murdered believing them to be motivated by money jennifer thought that if she did what they
asked then they would soon be gone and her family would survive the ordeal still she fearlessly scribbled a quick note on the deposit slip expressing her dire situation to the bank teller she wrote that she needed to withdraw fifteen thousand dollars in cash because her family was being held hostage and she urged them not to contact the police or else they would all be killed of course when someone is trying to take out a large sum of money without proper documentation the bank manager has to get involved despite jennifer's warning she called 9-1-1 and said
we have a lady who is in our bank right now who says that her husband and children are being held at their house then the bank official watched in horror as jennifer left the bank in a car with a hooded man rather than head straight to the pet at home police rushed to the bank missing jennifer and her captor by just two agonizing minutes they made this choice based on a fleeting belief that jennifer may have been complicit in some sort of bank scheme eventually it was determined that the family was in serious trouble so
a swat team was called and authorities arrived at the home a few minutes after jennifer unfortunately they couldn't act fast enough as the intruders had already doused the home in gasoline and before long the entire house was up in flames both men ran from the front door and jumped into the pettit's suv but their escape attempt failed when they crashed into a police car and a roadblock fire trucks had to wait until the men were apprehended before they could reach the home but by that point all that was left were charred remains now are you
ready for this twist miraculously william pettit had untied himself with just seconds to spare and crawled from the basement he'd been beaten beyond the point of recognition and could barely speak when approached by his neighbor he was swiftly taken away by ambulance not knowing what happened to his wife and children when he later woke up in the hospital william was given the crushing news that jennifer haley and michaela had all lost their lives that day the two masked men joshua kamasievsky and stephen hayes admitted to assaulting and strangling jennifer to death furthermore an autopsy revealed
that both daughters died from smoke inhalation but not before michaela had endured a violent attack authorities speculate that joshua had developed an obsession with the young girl after spotting her at the grocery store this horrific crime devastated the town and had many people questioning the actions taken by police for starters there was a 33-minute gap between when jennifer left the bank and when the house erupted in flames additionally the police chief had directed all units to stay away from the home until he arrived on the scene and there was a delay with the swat team
because they forgot their bulletproof vests while it's hard to say whether or not a change in these actions would have saved lives it's easy to see why people were all up in arms in september 2010 stephen's trial began with joshua's trial the following year william pettit testified in both and the men were sentenced to death however capital punishment was overturned in connecticut in 2012 so their sentences were commuted to life without parole instead of allowing this tragedy to define him dr william pettit eventually remarried and pursued a political career he now represents plainville and new
britain in the connecticut house of representatives finally from the ashes of the petted family home came a stunning memorial garden filled with michaela's favorite flowers four o'clocks dartmouth college also dedicated a portion of its life sciences center to the memories of jennifer hawt pettit and her two daughters i think it's clear to see how deeply impacted this tight-knit connecticut community was by these untimely and tragic murders i know i know it's hard to come back from that one but we still have two more shockingly twisted cases to cover and believe me this next one will
blow your mind robert bierenbaum and gail katz met in the early 1980s and hit it off right away she was young beautiful and motivated working a series of odd jobs in manhattan while studying to be a psychologist he was a good-looking charming and intelligent surgical resident with passions for cooking skiing and flying planes it seemed to be a match made in heaven but unfortunately someone was hiding a dark secret nevertheless robert who often took his dates on romantic flights swept gale off her feet and the two were married in 1982 they moved into a lavish
upper east side apartment but it didn't take long for some major red flags to emerge and before long gail's family began expressing their concerns over her well-being on one occasion gail called her sister sobbing and told her that robert had tried to drown her cat in the toilet but instead of opting out of the toxic relationship she said i'm smart i'm loving my love will cure this is going to work out then in 1983 robert snapped and choked gail into unconsciousness after catching her smoking on her balcony she reported the incident to a local police
precinct but frustratingly nothing happened desperate gail urged her husband to meet with a therapist who wound up writing her a letter warning her that robber could be capable of murder finally she said enough was enough gail told her sister that she planned to leave robert but that time never came because on july 7 1985 gail disappeared without a trace gill's worried family pleaded with robert for any information on her whereabouts but all he said was that she left their apartment in the middle of a heated argument he claimed not to have seen or heard from
her since miguel's sister was immediately suspicious of the esteemed surgeon and stated in an interview she's not with me and she's not with my parents and at that moment i know that my sister's dead when months passed with no word from gail the manhattan district attorney's office started an investigation however it was impossible to charge robert without any evidence or a body and the case slowly went cold but then in may 1989 a glimmer of hope emerged when a human torso washed up on a beach in staten island however dna forensics weren't yet available so
investigators had an x-ray technician compared gail's old chest x-rays to the torso and they concluded this is gale meanwhile robert seemed unfazed by his wife's disappearance as he was busy partying and picking up women in 1990 he moved to las vegas began his own plastic surgery practice and formed a new relationship with dr stephanie youngblood who reported that their first year together was perfect eventually stephanie left robert after witnessing his rage firsthand but he wasted no time and quickly started dating again in 1996 he married a gynecologist named janet charlotte the pair relocated to north
dakota where they had a baby girl together and robert became something of a local celebrity after saving a young boy's life at the north dakota state fair back in new york detectives were revisiting cold cases when they realized it was now possible to test the dna from the torso found nearly 10 years earlier unfortunately gail's family received the gut-wrenching news that the torso did not belong to gail thus ripping away any closure they had found the determined investigators began reinterviewing anyone close to robert and one person's statement stood out from the rest a former girlfriend
from back in new york told detectives she'd been with robert when he got a phone call from port authority police saying they might have found gail after hanging up the phone he ominously told her i doubt it's gail furthermore the lead detective on the case uncovered a truly shocking clue that would take this investigation to new heights literally he found that the doctor had rented a plane from the new jersey airport on the exact same day gail went missing furthermore robert had actually doctored the flight log to make it look like he had taken the
plane out the following day so finally the pieces to this twisted puzzle were starting to come together and investigators could proceed with their case against robert fifteen years after gail vanished a grand jury charged robert with second-degree murder and at long last the case went to trial however with only circumstantial evidence it wouldn't be easy to convict him of murder moreover the jury was skeptical about whether or not robert could have physically flown the plane and pushed a body out of it simultaneously but the prosecutors recreated and recorded this scenario demonstrating to all that it
was entirely possible and you know what it worked despite the defense's best efforts to blame guild's disappearance on mental instability and drug problems robert was found guilty of second-degree murder on october 24 2000. the ruthless yet sweet-talking killer was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison and has tried several times over the years to have his conviction overturned thankfully without any success but then after decades of maintaining his innocence from behind bars robert dropped a major bombshell during a parole hearing in december 2020 he stunned everyone when he finally confessed proclaiming i wanted her
to stop yelling at me and i attacked her he then went on to say he strangled gail and went flying horrifically detectives have since disclosed that they believe robert used his surgical skills and took his time dismembering the body before renting a plane and dumping it somewhere between montauk point new york and cape may new jersey while her body has never been found gail's family believes her spirit has found its eternal resting place in an extraordinary non-profit organization called gale's house beyond honoring her memory it was initiated to raise awareness surrounding domestic violence and to
provide support for women in need all right we made it to the top of our list and believe me this last case will take you on a twisted journey you won't soon forget ready or not here we go we're traveling back in time to october 17 2006 in new orleans louisiana a guest at the omni royal hotel looks out his window after hearing a loud thud and is horrified to see a man's body lying on the parking garage roof below police rushed to the rooftop and found the fatally mangled body of 28 year old zachary
bowen an iraq war veteran who had apparently jumped five stories to his death as they surveyed the scene detectives located army dog tags house keys and a folded up note in zack's pocket reading this is not accidental i had to take my own life to pay for the one i took if you send a patrol to 826 north rampart you will find the dismembered corpse of my girlfriend addie in the oven on the stove and in the fridge along with full documentation on the both of us and a full signed confession from myself wait say
what beyond the very unexpected admission it was clear that zach had been living with some demons based on the 28 cigarette burns found on his body he wrote that they were meant to symbolize his shortcomings in school jobs military marriage parenthood morals and love for every year of his life however according to his friends zach appeared in fine spirits the day before his lethal leap so what happened well hotel security footage captured him drinking for hours at the omni rooftop bar before eerily pacing back and forth by the railing it appeared as though he was
contemplating his fatal choice but then at around 8 30 in the evening cameras rolled as he suddenly threw himself over the edge leaving behind a mass of unanswered questions of course authorities immediately went to the address in zack's note and much to their horror discovered that every gruesome detail was true in various areas of the french quarter flat they found the partially cooked remains of a young woman while she couldn't be immediately identified it was suspected to be zack's missing girlfriend thirty-year-old addie hall now let's talk about these two for a second adrian matthias addie
hall was a free-spirited and passionate dance teacher poet and seamstress from durham north carolina who worked in a local pub as a bartender zack a carefree los angeles native moved to new orleans and enlisted in the army in 2000 he served in kosovo in iraq as a military policeman earning several awards for his heroic bravery however his experience in the army left him severely depressed and led to alleged increased use of drugs and alcohol nevertheless after receiving a general discharge he had no trouble finding bartending jobs based on his good looks and charming nature zach
and addie met in 2005 at a bar and it's believed by some sources that they quickly bonded over a mutual desire to have a good time which allegedly included using copious amounts of different drugs and alcohol before long they were madly in love and dependent upon one another but then hurricane katrina happened in the time leading up to the devastating hurricane zach and addie garnered media attention for the resistance to the evacuation saying they plan to ride out the storm from home despite all warnings furthermore once the storm had passed they chose to stay without
electricity running water or any essential supplies while at first the couple seemingly grew closer in the chaos many regard this as the start of zack's downward spiral as residents of new orleans began returning to their homes and life crept back toward normalcy zach and addie became increasingly rebellious they enjoyed living a survivalist lifestyle without responsibilities and when that all came crashing down intense fighting commenced the volatile relationship included both physical and mental abuse with several friends expressing concern for their well-being some people believe things got even worse when zack started frequenting gay bars and entered
a secret homosexual relationship as you can probably imagine addie wasn't happy when she found out he was cheating on her and after breaking up with zach they got into a massive fight over ownership of their shared apartment then in the heat of the moment zack snapped and strangled addie to death at the apartment police located a series of strange messages spray painted on the walls and a full written confession from zach stating i scared myself not by the action of calmly strangling the woman i've loved for one and a half years but by my entire
lack of remorse then horrifyingly they opened the oven and discovered a pair of charred feet and legs in a tinfoil lined pan oh but that wasn't all they also found hands and a severed head in separate pots on the stove as well as a torso wrapped in a plastic bag and packed into the refrigerator something of a silver lining new orleans chief of detectives anthony canatella denied reports there was cannibalism involved in the crime citing an autopsy that showed no evidence of body parts and bowen's system regardless just let that sink in for a second
now as if this case isn't already twisted enough addie was very best friends with a woman named margaret sanchez who appeared as a narrator in the documentary zach and addie but shockingly in 2012 margaret and her boyfriend terry speaks were charged with murdering and dismembering a dancer named jaron lockhart in any case the tragic tale of addie hall and zac bowen's whirlwind romance in new orleans french quarter is a harsh testament to how abruptly a person can snap
