367 articles
Shanghaiing
Shanghaiing was the practice of kidnapping men, usually by drugging or trickery, to serve aboard merchant ships; crimps sold them to captains for a fee called blood money.
Sheena Bora murder case
Sheena Bora murder case: 2012 alleged killing of 24-year-old Mumbai executive Sheena Bora by her mother Indrani Mukerjea, with Sanjeev Khanna and driver Shyamvar Rai; surfaced in 2015, investigated by the CBI, trial still ongoing.
Siders case
The Siders case is the 2026 Vinton County, Ohio prosecution of Gary Siders Jr., Elizabeth Siders, Gary Siders Sr., and Christina Siders after 16 children were found in squalid Hamden home; endangerment and sexual-abuse indictments, competency findings, and prior welfare contact.
Sister Abhaya murder case
Sister Abhaya murder case: 1992 death of a 21-year-old Knanaya Catholic nun found in a well at St Pius X Convent, Kottayam, Kerala; closed as suicide, probed by the CBI, and in 2020 Father Thomas Kottoor and Sister Sephy were convicted of murder.
Slender Man stabbing
Slender Man stabbing: May 2014 attempted murder in Waukesha, Wisconsin, where Morgan Geyser and Anissa Weier, both 12, stabbed classmate Payton Leutner 19 times to please the fictional creepypasta character; both were found not guilty by reason of mental disease.
Soham murders
The Soham murders: the 2002 killings of 10-year-olds Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman by school caretaker Ian Huntley, his 2003 Old Bailey conviction, the Bichard Inquiry, and his 2026 prison death.
South African farm attacks
South African farm attacks, or plaasmoorde, are violent crimes against farmers, farmworkers, and visitors on South African farms; the official motive finding is overwhelmingly criminal rather than political.
Spree killer
Spree killer: a multiple-homicide offender who kills several victims at two or more locations in a short, continuous episode without a cooling-off period; FBI dropped the category in 2005, but researchers such as Safarik and Ramsland still classify spree killers separately from serial and mass murderers.
Stabbing
Stabbing: assault or homicide with a pointed or bladed weapon, counted in UK statistics as knife-enabled or sharp-instrument offences; 54,587 recorded offences in YE Dec 2024, 41% of homicides, concentrated in London.
Stacey Castor
Stacey Ruth Castor, the New York "Black Widow," convicted in 2009 of antifreeze-poisoning her second husband David Castor and attempting to murder daughter Ashley Wallace; sentenced to 51 1/3 years to life, died in prison 2016.
Steven Pladl triple murder and suicide
Steven Pladl triple murder and suicide: on April 12, 2018 Pladl killed his infant son Bennett in Knightdale, NC, shot his daughter-wife Katie Pladl and her adoptive father Anthony Fusco in New Milford, CT, then died by suicide in Wingdale, NY, after incest arrests.
Steven Stayner
Steven Stayner, American kidnapping victim abducted at age 7 from Merced, California, on December 4, 1972, by Kenneth Parnell; escaped March 1, 1980, with fellow victim Timmy White; brother Cary Stayner later became the Yosemite murders serial killer.
Strangling
Strangling is compression of the neck or restriction of breathing, causing loss of consciousness or death; non-fatal strangulation is a domestic abuse risk indicator now a specific offence in England and Wales (2022), New York (2010), and New Zealand.
Strangulation in domestic violence
Strangulation in domestic violence is neck compression by an intimate partner or family member; it can kill within minutes and often leaves no visible injury.
Susan Smith
Susan Leigh Smith, South Carolina woman convicted in 1995 of drowning her sons Michael and Alexander in John D. Long Lake after a false Black-carjacker claim; life sentence, parole denied 2024.
Susan Wright (murderer)
Susan Lucille Wright, Houston woman convicted in 2004 of murdering her husband Jeffrey, whom she stabbed 193 times in January 2003; claimed self-defense as a battered wife, sentenced to 25 years, resentenced to 20 in 2010.
Suzane von Richthofen
Suzane Louise von Richthofen, Brazilian convicted of planning the 2002 murder of her parents Manfred and Marísia von Richthofen in São Paulo with the Cravinhos brothers; sentenced to 39 years, in open regime since 2023, subject of films and a Netflix documentary.
Tate–LaBianca murders
Tate–LaBianca murders: seven killings by Charles Manson's Family in Los Angeles, August 8–10, 1969, killing Sharon Tate and four others, then Leno and Rosemary LaBianca; 1971 convictions.
Theresa Knorr
Theresa Jimmie Knorr (née Cross), also known as Theresa Cross, an American mother of six who tortured and murdered daughters Suesan Knorr (1984) and Sheila Sanders (1985) in Sacramento, was arrested in Utah in 1993 and sentenced in 1995 to two consecutive life terms.
Thousand Oaks shooting
The Thousand Oaks shooting was a November 7, 2018 mass shooting at the Borderline Bar & Grill in Thousand Oaks, California, in which 12 people died.
Timothy White (abduction victim)
Timothy (Timmy) White, kidnapped aged 5 in Ukiah, California, by Kenneth Parnell on 14 February 1980, escaped 1 March 1980 with Steven Stayner, later an LA County sheriff's deputy, died 2010.
Tracie Andrews
Tracie Andrews, British woman convicted in 1997 of murdering her fiancé Lee Harvey in Alvechurch, Worcestershire, in 1996 after inventing a road-rage attacker; sentenced to life, minimum 14 years, released 2011.
Turpin case
The Turpin case: 2018 Perris, California prosecution of David and Louise Turpin for torturing and starving their 13 children; guilty pleas, 25-years-to-life sentences, and the 2022 Larson Report on Riverside County's failed aftercare.
Uxoricide
Uxoricide is the killing of a wife by her husband or partner, from Latin uxor + -cide; contrasted with mariticide. Covers its etymology, legal history, and global prevalence and risk-factor research.
Villisca axe murders
The Villisca axe murders were the unsolved June 1912 bludgeoning deaths of eight people, the Josiah Moore family and the two Stillinger sisters, in Villisca, Iowa. Reverend George Kelly was tried twice and acquitted; Senator Frank F. Jones, William Mansfield, and Henry Lee Moore were also suspects.
Vincent Brothers
Vincent Brothers, Bakersfield vice principal and convicted mass murderer, killed his wife Joanie Harper, her three children, and her mother on July 6, 2003; convicted 2007, sentenced to death by Judge Michael Bush.
Vinson Filyaw
Vinson Wayne Filyaw (1969-2021), the 'Girl in the Bunker' kidnapper, abducted 14-year-old Elizabeth Shoaf in South Carolina in 2006 while posing as police, held her ten days underground, and received a record 421-year sentence before dying in prison.
Virginia Tech shooting
The Virginia Tech shooting, also called the Virginia Tech massacre, occurred April 16, 2007, when senior Seung-Hui Cho killed 27 students and 5 faculty and wounded more than 17 at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia, before killing himself; it led to Virginia mental health and background-check reforms.
Vizconde murders
Vizconde murders (Vizconde massacre): killings of Estrellita, Carmela, and Jennifer Vizconde in Parañaque, Philippines, June 1991; Hubert Webb and six others convicted in 2000, acquitted by the Supreme Court in 2010; case remains unsolved.
Wanda Holloway
Wanda Webb Holloway, the "Texas Cheerleader Mom" or "Pom-Pom Mom," tried in 1991 to hire a hit man via Terry Harper to kill Verna Heath; convicted, overturned on juror ineligibility, 1996 no-contest plea.