“He Killed His Son, Niece, And Brother Later That Day”: 37 Stories From People Who Knew Murderers Before They Committed Their Crimes

We asked members of the BuzzFeed Community who’ve known murderers to share their stories. The following responses are both disturbing and devastating.

Warning: This post contains graphic descriptions, violent subject matter, frightening scenarios, and substance abuse.

“I live in a popular college town, so Tinder is obviously a huge thing. I knew no one when I first moved to the town, so I tried my luck on Tinder. One day, I matched with this guy and had my Snapchat username in my bio. Along with the match notification from Tinder, I noticed he added me to Snapchat as well. I don’t remember if we had any type of conversation on Snapchat, and we never met in person, but I do remember that he would post on his story A LOT. He was in a fraternity, so he posted parties, nights out, drunk Snaps, and occasional workout pics. A few months passed, and I noticed he started posting weird things, like saying he believed he was a superhero sent down to save the earth. He also became weirdly obsessed with death. He would draw several detailed superhero masks and capes on himself while also talking about drugs.”

“A week later, I was watching the news and saw that some fraternity guy from my town was visiting home, murdered two people in their garage, and ate their faces. It turned out to be the guy I matched with on Tinder. I had watched his mental health decline on Snapchat.”

—Anonymous

“My mom’s best friend has a son my age. He’s the nicest, most laid-back guy you’ve ever seen. Picture a dude who only wears flip-flops and Hawaiian shirts and plays the bongos while smoking pot. Universally liked, great with kids and animals…just a loveable guy. It came as a great shock to everyone, then, when he and another dude were arrested on first-degree murder charges last year. Apparently, it was some kind of drug deal, and my friend and the other guy shot this person point-blank and left the body in a hiking area. I couldn’t have been more surprised if they had told me Santa Claus was accused of the crime.”

“It’s not been proven yet in court, but it’s just been wild. His mother’s house got SWAT’d, he has to wear a monitoring bracelet, his vehicle was seized, the whole nine yards. I really hope it isn’t true.”

—raylewisblocker

“A guy from my (tiny) hometown murdered his girlfriend, who he shared a baby with. He was a year above me in school and had a brother in my grade, so he was one of those guys I’d see around town randomly and at parties. He was very handsome and charming and seemed like a normal, nice guy. I even remember a few girls having a crush on him, myself included. He never gave off any bad vibes at all, which is why his actions a few years later were such a shock. He was with his girlfriend for a while, and she was from the next town over. They had a baby who was a few months old at the time. He wanted to marry her, but she said no.”

“He snuck into her bedroom one night (where the baby also slept in a crib) through her window and assaulted her before strangling her and leaving her there. Her parents found her the following day. Fast forward a bit, and the entire town was divided about whether he did it because this guy was just that charming. One of my friends even went to the trial to support him because she was one of the girls who crushed on him back in the day.

As more evidence emerged, it became apparent he was guilty, and the rest of his family had to move away. The guy is rotting away in jail, but I don’t remember the details and don’t really care to bother googling his name to find out. I saw the little brother who was in my grade a few years after this all happened at a classmate’s funeral, and he seemed to be doing alright.”

—sapphire96

“During my second year of teaching, there was a long-term sub across the hallway from me that I had a good relationship with. He always came to me for help when he needed it. He was a former college football star at our local university and was a volunteer coach for the football program at a nearby high school. On the last day of school, the day after students left and we were all wrapping things up before leaving for summer, we walked past each other in the hallway, and I greeted him by simply asking, ‘What’s up?’ Not a word back from him; he didn’t even look at me. He just had a thousand-yard stare down the hallway. Two days later, I turned on the news, and the headlining story was, ‘Local substitute teacher arrested for triple murder.’ He killed his son, niece, and brother later that day.”

—zwood320

“My great-aunt lived in Washington back in the day and actually had worked side-by-side with Ted Bundy. I’m not sure exactly what the job was (this great-aunt died when I was a baby; my grandmother told me this), but I think it was some type of filing/desk-type job. He wasn’t there long, and the eeriest part is that he liked my great-aunt enough to walk her to her car every night when they were done but also enough to spare her. Very, very creepy. I also think this was a few years before he started his spree.”

—theicebox720

“My aunt told me about playing a work softball game and being on second base right next to Ted, who was playing for the opposite team. The full list of his known victims includes one that shares the same name as my aunt.”

—Anonymous

“My grandma met him when she was in high school. Her friend’s younger sister disappeared a day after she’d hung out with her, and he admitted to killing her while he was on death row. One of the first lessons I learned was to always travel in a group and never trust a charming man.”

—boredandinclass

“In middle school, I spent one class each day as an assistant in the attendance office. The main attendance lady had a son who would drop in occasionally, and he always gave off bad vibes. I even remember joking with some friends at one point, saying, ‘That kid is gonna grow up and kill someone.’ Fast forward to his senior year of high school. He came home drunk from a party, got into an argument with his father, and eventually shot and killed him, then did the same to his mother. Then, in what I can only assume was a drunken panic, he decided to set his house on fire.”

“He then drove to a mutual friend’s house to get help cleaning up the evidence but was immediately refused. After much forensic investigation and subsequent trial, he’s now in prison for the foreseeable future.”

—exodus509

“When I was younger, we moved to a different part of the country and developed a social circle of people from our hometown. Through a friend, my mom met a woman who she got to know a little. Because we were all away from our families, she invited her to have Christmas dinner with us. The woman brought her boyfriend, who gave off really bad vibes. He was not nice to her, and we didn’t like him at all. Not very long after that, the woman went missing, and the boyfriend was immediately the prime suspect. The cops did what’s called the ‘Mr. Big’s’ operation, where they befriend him and pretend to be recruiting him for an organized crime network to draw a confession out of him. Essentially, it worked, and the information he gave them led them to find the woman’s body rolled in a carpet at the landfill. He went to prison, but this was almost 30 years ago so that he might be out by now.”

—loissanborn

“My cousin went to jail for murdering his dad in a relatively famous case in the state where it happened. It was a brutal murder. He obviously had accomplices, but we think he didn’t give them up to protect his brother and mom. Our family is pretty well known in that town. It happened in the ’90s, and he went to jail. I believe in my heart of hearts that he’s guilty. He was one of the scariest people I knew as a kid. He was one of the biggest bullies ever. The only thing that protected me from him was the fact that he was bullying my brother once, and my mother lost her cool on him, so he was afraid of her.”

“I am against the death penalty, and I hope he rots in prison. He’s a waste of human skin. Also, there was talk of turning this into a TV movie or something, but thankfully, it never happened.”

—mrmurphy68

“I grew up in Harrisburg, Illinois in the ’70s and ’80s before leaving for the military life. One of my classmates always seemed eager to get into a fight. You didn’t want to get on his bad side. Several years after graduating high school (still way before the advent of social media), we had a class reunion. This guy was the talk of the class. Now, there’s a crime series about him, and he’s currently serving a life sentence in North Dakota for kidnapping and murdering a man with an axe. Since he’s been in prison, he’s also been extremely violent. He even stabbed a corrections officer with a knife. His name still occasionally comes up in discussions and our online ‘classroom.’ We all still can’t believe how close any of us were to becoming his first victim.”

—Anonymous

10.

“When I was a teenager, a family joined my dad’s church and quickly became involved with the youth group and Sunday school, which I was a part of. In my senior year of high school, the husband was shot and killed by his wife. She claimed it was accidental, but during the subsequent trial, it was revealed this was her second husband to have been killed under very similar circumstances. She killed her husbands for their insurance money and is serving life.”

—ncfitnessguy

11.

“I knew Alex Murdaugh (just as an acquaintance). I saw him in court a fair amount. I had a case with his brother and found him to be a pretty decent guy despite my frustration with the system in their area. It’s hard to believe Alex did what he did. Still can’t wrap my head around it.”

—snugglykittens

12.

“I was good friends with this guy in high school. He was always friendly and super helpful. We ran track together, and he always encouraged all the team members. He joined the military right after high school. When he returned after a few tours, I saw him a few times around when I’d come home to visit my parents, but he wasn’t the same. One night, he showed up at a local jewelry store right at closing and ended up killing the owner and torturing his wife. Luckily, he was caught almost immediately; the last I heard, he was imprisoned for life. Such a sad end for so many.”

—joyb4975e328b

13.

“A few years ago, I found out that a guy who gave me bad vibes in college ended up murdering his girlfriend outside of a storage unit. He shot her multiple times point-blank in his car, and as she tried to run away (I have no idea how she managed), he continued to shoot her in the back. In school, I would pass by him and get that feeling of ‘hackles up, watch out.’ He did not have a girlfriend then, and I felt like he was eyeing me. He initiated a conversation through a direct message online, and nothing stood out to me in his messages as a warning. Yet, he would only engage online, never in person, despite seeing him almost daily. I was polite and would smile or wave in passing, but he would never do the same.”

“He asked to hang out with me once, and I turned it down because I felt like it was too weird that he didn’t acknowledge me in person, even with a simple smile. I was in charge of club meetings and a few bonfire parties, so instead, I invited him to join in for some group events (in case he was just socially awkward and looking for friends), but he never came to any. He would only ask me afterward how they were. The only warning sign was my intuition and the weird way he exclusively wanted to talk online yet would never engage in person. It was like his reality only existed online. Physically, he was small in stature and not threatening in appearance. The main takeaway is that no matter how dumb it may seem, always trust that gut feeling.”

—Anonymous

14.

“In undergrad, a class requirement was to select a criminal trial, then go observe the proceedings. I attended the trial of a former classmate who was being charged with robbing and murdering his older neighbor by beating him to death with a wooden dining room table leg. The day I observed was hours upon hours of very detailed, graphic testimony by a blood spatter expert, including demonstrations, crime scene photos, and other illustrations. The number of blows, who was where, the roles of velocity and gravity…it was both fascinating and disturbing. In the end, my former middle and high school classmate, who I knew to be a late-bloomer, quiet, soft-spoken, shy, and neither a fighter nor a troublemaker, was convicted and sentenced to 80+ years in prison.”

—Anonymous

15.

“My ex-best friend murdered his date after a night out and then buried her body in his backyard. I hadn’t had any contact with him for over 10 years. Then, one day, my cousin texted me out of the blue an article link accompanied by, ‘Isn’t this your friend?!’ I couldn’t believe it, but when I saw it on the news with footage outside the house and helicopter cam footage of the property, reality finally set. He’s doing 26 to life now.”

—Anonymous

16.

“I worked with a guy who murdered his wife with a hammer and hid it in the toolbox on our work truck. We found out when the cops came, removed the hammer, and told us what happened.”

—Anonymous

17.

“A guy from my high school murdered an older lady just last year. We had a class together, but he graduated before me. He had been in honors/advanced courses with my older sibling. He was smart and known as a big flirt and ladies’ man. He didn’t have particularly bad vibes or anything like that; he was just a normal guy. It was pretty surprising when it came out in the news, especially since it’s a small town and everyone knows everyone. He apparently started using drugs and got into it pretty badly. He broke in to rob his victim using his own son as the lookout! He assumed the home was empty and was caught off guard when the victim was there, and he killed her.”

—Anonymous

18.

“When I was 15, I worked at a sandwich shop in Minnesota. One night, a very drunk man came in, holding a tennis racket bag. He flirted with me, my manager, and the assistant manager. The next day, we saw he had shot a man at a bar about two miles away. He’s serving 20 years.”

—Anonymous

19.

“I went on a blind date with a guy who ended up being accused and convicted of the murder of five people. He said he was ‘defending helpless victims,’ but there was no evidence any of them were abusive in their lives.”

—Anonymous

20.

“When I was growing up, my second cousin was locally famous and generally well-liked (in some cases beloved) in the city. I’d known him my whole life but mostly saw him at family funerals and wakes. When I was in middle school, he shot and killed his estranged wife across the street from my school. It was very premeditated. He had a TO-DO list written down of how he was going to get away with it. He was sentenced to life. Even as a kid, I got bad vibes from how he treated his wife and daughter, but I never thought he would actually do something like that. After he was convicted, I had many people come up to me saying they believed he was innocent/wanted me to get letters of support to him in prison. Obviously, I did not, in any way, appreciate that.”

—Anonymous

21.

“My youngest brother. This kid used to sneak into bed with me at night when he was scared. We grew up in a chaotic, abusive household. He joined the Army, and that really messed him up even more. Drugs were involved. The Army used him, destroyed him, and then kicked him to the curb. He murdered his girlfriend’s uncle over drugs and will be in prison for 40 years. He’s doing drugs inside, and I have frequent nightmares he will die.”

—Anonymous

22.

“A guy who went to my high school (and was the son of my favorite teacher) killed his ex’s current boyfriend, chased his ex down and shot him in the woods, then went and hid in someone’s home. When he encountered the owner of the house, he shot him too. Then he killed himself. It’s really tragic. I still think about my old teacher and hope she’s okay.”

—justgottaknow

23.

“This guy, ‘M,’ was the neighborhood playboy. He was rarely told no, was super good-looking, and very nice, but also secretly super addicted to crack. When M’s addiction got out of control, he robbed and killed a man with the man’s family nearby. M went on the run and ended up on America’s Most Wanted. His capture was truly remarkable because of how absurd it was. This man got caught at the US/Mexico border trying to smuggle marijuana INTO Mexico! While locked up, M asked the jailer if he ever watched America’s Most Wanted. When the jailer replied, ‘No, why?’ M said, ‘Because I was on it!’ He was quickly extradited, did his time, and was released a few years ago.”

—mouthofbae

24.

“My good friend, let’s call him Jake. He was the editor of our high school paper. The story is that Jake’s boyfriend was cheating on him, and he killed the boyfriend in anger. Jake was a very gentle soul. I wouldn’t have seen him killing his boyfriend, but what do I know? Several decades later, he’s still behind bars. The boyfriend’s family comes to every parole hearing, pleading for him to stay in prison. I can’t say I blame them; I would likely do the same if it were my beloved family member. Such a waste of two lives — one who had no say in the matter!”

—bravesgirl21

25.

“I used to work for a music retailer with a brilliant guitar player from a local band. He was 21 years old. He and his girlfriend, on a cocaine-fueled episode, picked someone up at a strip club, brought him home, and killed him. They then dumped his body under a mattress and attempted to clean their truck and apartment. However, brain matter was found in the bed of the truck. They admitted everything. He’s in prison for life.”

—savant76

26.

“I went to high school with a boy who was socially awkward and a loner. I tried to be nice and talk to him, and he always said strange things like, ‘I’m building a death ray,’ and showed me sketches of it. I also worked at an Arby’s, and he came in once a week with his mother, and I eventually knew his order by heart. Then, I saw on the news he had paid for a sex worker to come to his apartment, killed her, and left her in the bathtub, where police eventually found her. It was all premeditated.”

—wisegirlowl

27.

“I taught a student for two years who was really bright but had no interest in school. Myself and other school staff tried everything to support and motivate him. I even remember one conversation where I implored him to get his diploma and explained the school-to-prison pipeline to him, but he was convinced he knew what he was doing. He had a plan to be a barber. He dropped out his junior year and, two years later, was arrested for triple homicide. It was a drug deal gone wrong. Last I heard, he was getting his diploma in prison.”

—Anonymous

28.

“My cousin lives across the street from a house where a guy I went to grade/high school with accused his mother of being possessed by Satan. He decapitated her and set her house on fire. He’s safely behind bars now, but it shook our small town up. We only had 72 people in my graduating class, so we all knew each other pretty well. I’d like to say he’s the only murderer I went to school with, but one other guy died by suicide in prison for killing his girlfriend. It’s a fun place to live.”

—emtaylore

29.

“I’ve known two, and one was when I was in high school. He and I were friends in elementary school, but he became a bully in junior high. In high school, he ended up shooting a kid in the park a few blocks from my home in a drug deal gone bad. The second was one of my closest friends throughout my junior high and high school years. We were inseparable and spent almost every day together during the summers. His mom and dad were second parents to me. After high school, I joined the Army, and he went down a path of drugs and petty crime. In 2021, he stabbed his girlfriend to death.”

—Anonymous

30.

“This happened to a friend. Her daughter’s boyfriend showed up at 6:00 a.m. with a ring for her daughter and proposed. The ring had another girl’s name engraved inside, but he said he bought it at a pawn shop. The girl said yes, and everything was all happy. A couple of weeks later, the police asked questions about the ring, like when she got it, etc. It turns out he had beaten a girl to death, and it was her ring. After meeting him in a bar, the girl had taken him to her place. The thing was, this guy was SO FINE. When his picture was in the paper, we all said we’d take him home before we knew our friend’s daughter was involved. He’s serving life.”

—luckyangel30

31.

“In college, my sister volunteered at a shelter for unhoused people. She worked the front desk. One night, a man from our hometown came in and started chatting with her (she was wearing a sweatshirt with our high school name/mascot). Turns out she’d played softball with his sisters, knew his dad, etc. Two days later, she reads in the newspaper that he was arrested for stabbing his roommate to death. That’s why he’d come to the shelter: to hide out!”

—rachelg44ec195c4

32.

“Two guys that I’ve known since the beginning of high school. We actually were very close for many years after high school. One of the them was best man at my wedding, and they were both at the hospital when I gave birth to my son. A few years after we stopped talking (because they were both using drugs), I randomly heard rumors that they had killed this girl. Turns out that one night, the two guys were hanging with their girlfriends and the victim. A disagreement took place, and guy #1 pulled out a gun and shot the victim in the head. Guy #2 and their girlfriends were naturally in shock and scared that he could easily kill them, too, so they helped him get rid of the body, which consisted of setting her on fire in a field somewhere.”

“Guy #2 confessed to the crime immediately, and both were put away. I think one of the girlfriends got out, but guy #1 was sentenced to 50 years, and guy #2 was sentenced to 20 years. My best friend has corresponded with guy #1 in prison; he’s still out of control. I have written guy #2 a couple of times over the years. He is really trying to prepare for life when he gets out, which should be in the next eight years or so.”

—Anonymous

33.

“My mom’s uncle was convicted of murder back in the ’20s or ’30s. A man had caused the death of one of his younger siblings (a bike accident), and he chased the man to Michigan and shot him dead. He spent about 12 years in a maximum security prison. I had no idea he was a murderer until my grandma told me after he had passed. I saw this man and sat with him at numerous family functions when I was younger, but I had no idea! He was always soft-spoken and very kind.”

—Anonymous

34.

“There was a family of four brothers in the smallish Canadian city I grew up in. They were always fighting with each other and anyone else they could. They were quite good at fighting. A couple of them even took up boxing as a sport. A couple of years after graduating, the youngest brother got into an altercation at a party. He hit another guy, who subsequently died. It came out in trial that the guy he hit literally was the ‘thin-skulled plaintiff,’ as his skull had an abnormality where the bones were very, very thin in certain places. Often, these abnormalities are only detected during autopsy. This was held as a mitigating factor in favor of the defendant. However, the fact that he was a trained boxer, while his victim was just a run-of-the-mill college kid, was also taken into account. There was no question he did it. There were many witnesses. I think he got 12 years. I haven’t heard much since.”

—Anonymous

35.

“My godfather shot and killed a border patrol agent during an argument on the road, right in front of the man’s 10-year-old daughter. I was watching the local news one day when I heard my godfather’s name mentioned. I immediately yelled for my parents to listen to the story. I hadn’t seen either of my godparents since I was a baby, but my mom would talk about them over the years, so to say I was shocked when the report came out was an understatement. There hasn’t been a trial yet, and there might not even be one at this point due to all these complicated reasons.”

—auryv2

36.

“One of my friend’s ex-boyfriends stabbed a guy to death. This was a few years after they broke up. A mutual friend told us he got in with the wrong crowd and started doing cocaine. He got life (25 years in the UK). It was so bizarre to hear because he was the nicest guy when they were together and treated us all with so much kindness and respect.”

—syzil

37.

And: “A guy who liked me and who I thought was nice (but a little awkward) kept texting me to hang out and told me he wanted to date me. We went out maybe twice with friends. I kept telling him I was busy and unsure if I wanted to date anyone right now. A few days later, he sent me one last text asking if I was sure I wasn’t ready to date. I’m not even sure I ever responded, but a few days later, I found out he murdered his ex-girlfriend when she was coming to pick up some things from him. Still freaks me out.”

—angeen

Absolutely harrowing. If you know/knew someone who committed murder and want to share your story, you’re invited to do so in the comments, or you can submit your story anonymously using this form.

Note: Submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.

If you or someone you know is in immediate danger as a result of domestic violence, call 911. For anonymous, confidential help, you can call the 24/7 National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 (SAFE) or chat with an advocate via the website.

If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse, you can call SAMHSA’s National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357) and find more resources here.