10 Killers Who Couldn’t Leave the Bodies Alone

While most killers commit their crimes and attempt to flee or cover their tracks, a disturbing few linger. They don’t just kill—they cling to the aftermath, tampering with corpses in ways that defy reason and morality. Some hide the bodies, others live alongside them, and a few even take perverse pride in what they’ve done. History shows that no matter how clever a killer thinks they are, the truth has a way of surfacing—often in the most horrifying fashion. These ten cases offer chilling examples of murderers who couldn’t let go, and the gruesome things they did with the bodies.

10. Hidden Beneath the Floorboards

In 1946, in London, Mrs. Berresford rented rooms in her home, one of which belonged to her son, Harry, a young soldier. When Harry suddenly vanished, he was listed as a deserter. His mother wasn’t convinced. Her lodger, a man named Sheminant, had locked Harry’s room and refused to let her enter. Two months later, she forced the door open and found nothing at first—until she lifted a loose floorboard. Beneath it, she felt what might have been a knee. A foul smell soon confirmed her suspicions. Her son had been murdered and hidden underfoot. Sheminant was arrested and charged with Harry’s murder.

9. Boxed and Wrapped

In 1915, Mary Pamais murdered a peddler named Michael Weinstein after he threatened to expose personal letters she had written. Instead of fleeing, she hid the body in her box couch and slept in the same room alongside it. The next day, she dismembered the body, wrapped the pieces neatly in newspaper, and put them back into the couch. She then planned to move the parts using a trunk, but confessed after her husband begged her to go to the police.

8. The Cupboard Corpse

Dr. Pierre Bougrat ran a practice in Marseilles, France, and lived beyond his means. When a patient named Jacques Rumede vanished after visiting Bougrat, police grew suspicious. A damp spot on the wall of Bougrat’s office led them to a wallpapered-over cupboard. Inside, they found Rumede’s corpse. Bougrat claimed the man had died of natural causes, and he had panicked. He was arrested and later linked to multiple other suspicious deaths.

7. Sleeping Above the Dead

In 1908, Fred Eschle—a known alcoholic and ex-convict—committed a brutal murder in St. Paul, Minnesota, targeting a ragpicker living alone in a small shack. After blowing off the top of the man’s head with a shotgun, Eschle buried the body beneath the floorboards of the very shack his victim had lived in. Rather than flee the scene, Eschle made himself at home. He ate the dead man’s food, slept in his bed, and carried on as if nothing had happened—all while the corpse lay decomposing just feet below. The stench eventually became unbearable, drawing the suspicion of neighbors who alerted the police. When officers raided the shack, they discovered the body and arrested Eschle.

During his interrogation, he admitted to the killing but downplayed it, blaming the act on a drunken haze and claiming he couldn’t be held fully responsible. His attempt to excuse the murder as a booze-fueled accident did little to lessen the horror of what he’d done, or how long he’d lived with the body.

6. A Mouthful of Lead

In 1869 Paris, Pierre Voirbo—a man known for his erratic behavior and reclusive lifestyle—committed a murder so grotesque it shocked even seasoned investigators. Struggling with debt and unable to repay a large sum he owed, Voirbo lured his creditor, Mr. Bodasse, to his apartment under the pretense of repaying him. Instead, Voirbo bludgeoned Bodasse with a heavy object, cut his throat, and proceeded to dismember the body with chilling precision. Determined to prevent any chance of identification, he took a horrifying extra step: he filled the victim’s mouth and ears with molten lead, hoping to destroy key features and dental evidence.

He then disposed of the head by sinking it into the Seine River and dumped the rest of the mutilated remains down a nearby well. Authorities eventually caught up with Voirbo, and when confronted, he confessed in full detail to the killing. However, he never faced trial—before justice could be served, Voirbo took his own life in prison by slitting his throat with a knife reportedly hidden inside a loaf of bread. His death closed the case but left behind a gruesome legacy of murder, mutilation, and calculated evasion.

5. Trunk of Terror

In 1931, Winnie Ruth Judd became the center of one of America’s most sensational true crime cases after she killed two of her close friends, Anne LeRoi and Hedvig Samuelson, in Phoenix, Arizona. The killings reportedly followed a heated confrontation—possibly fueled by jealousy and rivalry over a shared romantic interest. Instead of notifying the authorities, Judd made a series of shocking decisions that would earn her national notoriety.

She dismembered Samuelson’s body, packed both corpses into steamer trunks, and boarded a Southern Pacific train bound for Los Angeles under an alias, hoping to dispose of the evidence far from the crime scene. When baggage handlers noticed a foul smell leaking from the trunks, Judd abandoned the luggage and fled. She spent five days hiding in a Los Angeles funeral home before finally turning herself in. Her claim of self-defense was immediately met with public and legal skepticism, and her gruesome attempt to hide the murders made headlines across the country. Though she was initially sentenced to death, she was later declared insane and spent decades in a mental institution, escaping several times and eventually being paroled.

4. Stitched and Smashed

In 1909, a quiet patch of countryside near Dungog, New South Wales, became the backdrop for a murder so brutal it shocked even hardened investigators. A passerby spotted a large, lumpy bundle caught in a creek and, curious, decided to investigate. As he poked at the object, it became horrifyingly clear that it wasn’t just discarded debris—it was a human body. Police were called, and what they uncovered defied belief. The corpse of a middle-aged man had been wrapped in a blanket, which was then crudely sewn into several cement bags to form a makeshift burial shroud.

The man’s body showed signs of extreme violence: the back of his skull had been crushed, his face was severely disfigured, and his jaw was shattered. His throat had been slashed from ear to ear, and his limbs had been broken and mutilated—likely to fold the body into the confined space. The effort taken to conceal the corpse was as disturbing as the murder itself. After some time, authorities identified the victim as a local laborer, and with the help of witness accounts, they were eventually led to the suspect behind the gruesome crime.

3. Baby in the Cloakroom

In 1924, Charles Travis, an American man vacationing in London with his wife and ten-month-old son, committed a horrifying crime that stunned the public. Struggling to cope with the stress of parenthood, Travis became increasingly agitated by his infant son’s constant crying, which reportedly disrupted his sleep and strained his nerves. One night, in a fit of frustration, he entered the baby’s room and smothered the child to death. Instead of reporting the death, Travis placed the lifeless body into a kitbag and boarded a train to Birmingham, where he left the bag in a station cloakroom under a false name.

Back in London, the sudden silence of the baby raised suspicions among the hotel staff, who alerted authorities. Under questioning, Travis initially claimed the child had died of scarlet fever, but the truth eventually came out, and he confessed to the murder. Despite the brutality of the act, Travis was convicted not of murder but of manslaughter and was sentenced to just five years of penal servitude. The leniency of the sentence and the shocking nature of the crime drew public outrage and remains a disturbing footnote in early 20th-century criminal history.

2. Dismembered and Discarded

Some killers will go to extraordinary lengths to conceal their crimes—sometimes dragging the evidence across miles of countryside in hopes it will never be found. Such was the case in 1905, when a grisly discovery was made in the irrigation channels of Girgarree, Victoria. While making his routine rounds, a channel guard named Mr. Crawford spotted a suspicious bran sack floating in the water. Curious and concerned, he hauled it to the bank and opened it—only to be met with a horrifying sight: human remains, dismembered and decomposing.

Authorities were called to the scene, and what they uncovered was gruesome even by the standards of early 20th-century crime. The torso, still clothed in two shirts, had been disemboweled. The head was missing, as were both legs, which had been severed cleanly at the thighs. Forensic analysis suggested the body had been submerged for roughly two months. With no identifying features left and limited forensic tools available at the time, the victim’s identity was never confirmed, though it was speculated he may have once lived in the nearby Waranga Basin area. In the end, the dismembered corpse was recorded as yet another unsolved death.

1. Sleeping on the Evidence

In 1909, James Hazelton committed a chilling act of domestic violence that shocked the residents of New Haven, Connecticut. During what was described as a heated argument with his wife, the confrontation escalated beyond words. In a sudden fit of rage, Hazelton grabbed a hammer and struck her on the head, knocking her unconscious. Not satisfied, he then retrieved a knife and repeatedly stabbed her until he was certain she was dead. Rather than report the crime or attempt to flee immediately, Hazelton stuffed her body into a large trunk and left it in their home. In a deeply disturbing detail, he didn’t just store the evidence—he used the trunk as a makeshift bed, sleeping on top of it for several nights. Eventually, Hazelton fled the state and was tracked down and arrested in New York City. When authorities questioned him about his motive, he offered no remorse or elaborate justification. Instead, he gave a chillingly casual response: “Because we couldn’t get along.”