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Law and justice

9,901 articles

Murder of Kristen French

Murder of Kristen French: April 1992 abduction, sexual assault, and killing of a 15-year-old St. Catharines schoolgirl by Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka; Bernardo received life, Homolka 12 years for manslaughter.

Murder of Kristin Smart

Murder of Kristin Smart: 1996 disappearance of a 19-year-old Cal Poly freshman after an off-campus party; Paul Flores, last seen with her, convicted of first-degree murder in 2022 and sentenced to 25 years to life; her body remains unfound.

Murder of Kyle Dinkheller

Murder of Kyle Dinkheller: 1998 fatal shooting of a 22-year-old Laurens County, Georgia deputy by Vietnam veteran Andrew Brannan during a 98 mph traffic stop; dashcam video, death sentence, 2015 execution, police-training legacy.

Murder of Laci Peterson

Murder of Laci Peterson: 2002 killing of a pregnant Modesto, California teacher; husband Scott Peterson convicted of first- and second-degree murder in 2004, death sentence reversed in 2020, case now pursued by the Los Angeles Innocence Project.

Murder of Lai Ying Xin

Lai Ying Xin, a Malaysian schoolgirl, was murdered in Kulai, Johor, in 2008. The four perpetrators, who attended her school, were initially sentenced to death but later commuted.

Murder of Laken Riley

The 2024 killing of 22-year-old nursing student Laken Riley while jogging on the University of Georgia campus; Jose Antonio Ibarra, an undocumented Venezuelan migrant, was convicted of all counts and sentenced to life without parole; the case drove the 2024 immigration debate and the Laken Riley Act.

Murder of Lana Clarkson

Murder of Lana Clarkson: 2003 shooting of actress Lana Clarkson at Phil Spector's Alhambra, California mansion; Spector convicted of second-degree murder in 2009 after a mistrial and retrial, sentenced to 19 years to life.

Murder of Laquan McDonald

Murder of Laquan McDonald: the October 20, 2014 fatal shooting of a Black 17-year-old by Chicago officer Jason Van Dyke, who fired 16 shots; withheld dashcam video, 2018 conviction, and 2019 consent decree distinguish the case.

Murder of Lauren Giddings

Murder of Lauren Giddings: 2011 killing of Mercer University law graduate Lauren Giddings, 27, strangled and dismembered by neighbor Stephen McDaniel in Macon, Georgia; he pleaded guilty in 2014 to life in prison.

Murder of Layla Cummings

Murder of Layla Cummings: July 1984 kidnapping, rape, and killing of 7-year-old Layla Dawn Cummings of Elk City, Oklahoma; her former stepfather Richard Norman Rojem Jr. was convicted in 1985, sentenced to death three times, and executed June 27, 2024.

Murder of Leann Whitlock

Murder of Leann Whitlock: 1990 kidnapping and killing of 19-year-old JMU sophomore Leann Marion Whitlock in Harrisonburg, Virginia, by Tommy David Strickler (executed 1999) and Ronald Lee Henderson (life sentences).

Murder of Lee Standifer

Murder of Lee Standifer: 1981 killing of a 23-year-old intellectually disabled Knoxville woman by David Earl Miller, her date, who beat and stabbed her; convicted 1982, executed by electric chair December 6, 2018 after 36 years on Tennessee death row.

Murder of Leesa Gray

Murder of Leesa Gray: 2000 kidnapping, rape, and killing of 16-year-old waitress Leesa Marie Gray in Itawamba County, Mississippi, by Marine recruiter Thomas Edwin Loden Jr., who pleaded guilty and was executed in 2022.

Murder of Lesandro Guzman-Feliz

Murder of Lesandro "Junior" Guzman-Feliz, the Justice for Junior case: a 15-year-old Bronx teen was dragged from a bodega and killed by Trinitarios gang members in a mistaken-identity attack on June 20, 2018; 13 defendants were convicted or pleaded guilty, with sentences from 12 years to life without parole.

Murder of Leslie Mahaffy

Murder of Leslie Mahaffy: 1991 kidnapping, rape, and killing of a 14-year-old Burlington, Ontario girl by Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka; body dismembered, encased in cement, dumped in Lake Gibson; led to Bernardo's first-degree murder conviction and Homolka's controversial 12-year manslaughter plea deal.

Murder of Leslie Preer

Murder of Leslie Preer: 2001 killing of a 49-year-old woman in Chevy Chase, Maryland, unsolved for 23 years until genetic genealogy linked DNA to Eugene Gligor, her daughter's ex-boyfriend, who pleaded guilty in 2025 and received 22 years.

Murder of Linda Reaves

Murder of Linda Reaves: January 24, 1985 Oklahoma City killing of 35-year-old schoolteacher Linda Reaves by Bigler Stouffer, who also shot Douglas Ivens; Stouffer was executed December 9, 2021.

Murder of Lindsay Buziak

Unsolved 2008 killing of Lindsay Buziak, a 24-year-old Saanich, British Columbia realtor stabbed at 1702 DeSousa Place during a staged showing by an unidentified couple; police call it a targeted, planned murder.

Murder of Lindsay Hawker

Murder of Lindsay Hawker: 22-year-old British teacher Lindsay Ann Hawker, killed by Tatsuya Ichihashi (市橋達也) in Ichikawa, Chiba, Japan, March 2007; body in sand-filled bathtub; fugitive caught 2009; life sentence 2011.

Murder of Lizbeth Medina

Murder of Lizbeth Medina, 16-year-old Edna High School cheerleader found stabbed in her Edna, Texas bathtub on December 5, 2023; Rafael Govea Romero pleaded guilty in 2025 and received two life sentences plus 20 years.

Murder of Lonetta White

Murder of Lonetta White: 73-year-old Lexington, Kentucky woman bludgeoned to death March 15, 1998 during a robbery by Virginia Caudill and Johnathon Goforth, who blamed each other; both sentenced to death in 2000; Goforth died in 2025.

Murder of Lori Hacking

Murder of Lori Hacking: Salt Lake City woman, 27 and pregnant, killed July 19, 2004 by husband Mark Hacking after she exposed his false medical school claims; remains found in a landfill; he pleaded guilty and got six years to life.

Murder of Lori Smith

Murder of Lori Smith refers to two homicides of women named Lori Ann Smith: an unsolved 1992 killing in St. Louis, Missouri, and a 1976 killing in Smyrna, Georgia.

Murder of Louis Davidson

Murder of Louis Davidson: 1994 murder-for-hire killing of St. Petersburg pediatrician Dr. Louis A. Davidson, arranged by estranged wife Denise Davidson and Leo Cisneros; hitmen Robert Gordon and Meryl McDonald got death sentences.

Murder of Louisa Dunne

Murder of Louisa Dunne: 1967 rape and strangulation of a 75-year-old widow in Easton, Bristol, unsolved for 58 years until DNA from her skirt identified Ryland Headley, 92, convicted in 2025.

Murder of Lynsey Quy

Murder of Lynsey Quy: 21-year-old Southport woman strangled by husband Mitchell Quy in December 1998, dismembered with brother Elliot, remains found at Southport Pleasureland in 2000; life sentence, minimum 17 years, parole repeatedly denied.

Murder of Mackenzie Cowell

The murder of Mackenzie Cowell was the 2010 killing of a 17-year-old Wenatchee, Washington, beauty school student whose classmate Christopher Scott Wilson pleaded guilty to manslaughter.

Murder of Mackenzie Lueck

Murder of Mackenzie Lueck: 2019 killing of a 23-year-old University of Utah student by Ayoola Ajayi, whom she met on Seeking Arrangement at Hatch Park; he pleaded guilty in 2020 and received life without parole.

Murder of Madeline Soto

Murder of Madeline Soto: 13-year-old Orlando student, also called Maddie Soto, killed February 2024; Stephan Sterns pleaded no contest and received 21 concurrent life sentences on July 21, 2025.

Murder of Mandy Lemaire

Murder of Mandy Lemaire: 1991 killing of an 11-year-old girl in Tazlina, Alaska, also called the Charles Smithart case; Smithart's 114-year sentence was overturned in 1999 and charges dismissed after his 2000 death.