- 6/23/2025
From shocking terrorist attacks to disturbing individual crimes, the first decade of the new millennium was marked by events that changed our world forever. Join us as we examine the dark side of recent history with some of the most heinous acts that shook society to its core.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Reports are just coming in of an explosion at Liverpool Street Station here in London.
00:05Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're looking at some of the most heinous, infamous crimes that defined the 2000s.
00:11All the evidence we had pointed to the fact that Casey Anthony had killed Kayleigh.
00:17The 2611 Mumbai attacks.
00:20Several countries found themselves on the receiving end of terrorist attacks throughout the 2000s.
00:24The Battle of Mumbai lasted three days.
00:26It may take a lot longer than that to piece together exactly how it was planned and carried out.
00:32One of the most infamous was the 2008 onslaught in Mumbai, carried out by the terrorist group Lushkari Taiba.
00:39It consisted of 12 coordinated strikes at various buildings, from hospitals to luxury hotels.
00:44The attacks began on November 26th and lasted for three agonizing days before the assailants were finally stopped.
00:51By then, 166 innocent people had been killed, and hundreds more had been injured.
00:56This was terror that came from the sea.
00:59Rubber boats were apparently used to ferry the attackers ashore, possibly from this Indian fishing boat, which was reported hijacked.
01:08Once ashore, the attackers fanned out toward their planned targets.
01:12While it wasn't the first act of terrorism Mumbai faced in the 2000s, the sheer scale of 2611 is what made it so infamous.
01:20The Madrid train incident.
01:21When commuters in Madrid boarded the Cercanillas train on the morning of March 11th, 2004, they could have never expected what horrors would await them.
01:29In Madrid this morning, more than 190 people were killed and more than 1,400 injured when 10 separate bombs ripped through commuter trains and railway platforms during rush hour.
01:40That day, 10 bombs planted on four separate trains exploded, killing nearly 200 people.
01:47The Spanish government and media blamed the Basque separatist group ETA.
01:51Later, a spokesman from Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility, but no concrete links were found.
01:56Several suspects were arrested and later convicted, but to this day, the coordinators have not been confirmed.
02:01Within hours of this morning's explosion, Spain's newspapers were on the streets with special editions.
02:07The headlines say that this is the worst terrorist massacre in Spanish history, and they're calling today our 9-11.
02:15Beyond the violence itself, the alleged government mishandling of the situation, including a false arrest, has made it one of the more controversial tragedies of the decade.
02:24The Craigslist Killer.
02:25For years, Craigslist was the go-to place for any service, from finding apartments to job hunting.
02:32But the site started getting heat for its personal ads during the 2000s.
02:35As prosecutors say, the 23-year-old medical student targeted women who advertise massage services on Craigslist.
02:41Things came to a head in 2009, when Philip Markoff was arrested for robbing three women and killing one of them.
02:47The discovery of a handgun and restraints in his home pointed to his involvement.
02:51He maintained his innocence, but ultimately took his own life on August 15, 2010, before his trial began.
02:57The death of Philip Markoff comes 16 months after police say he began his brutal seven-day crime spree, and one year after the weekend, he was set to be married.
03:07Following his death, more evidence came to light.
03:10And while it wasn't confirmed to be the reason, Craigslist's erotic services section was removed a month later.
03:16The Fritzl case.
03:17The act of imprisoning a stranger is horrific enough.
03:21Doing it to your own child is even more unfathomable.
03:24For over two decades, Josef Fritzl lived a double life, one as a man and one as a monster.
03:30What Elizabeth Fritzl revealed was that her father Josef had kept her locked in a cellar for 24 years.
03:37He converted his basement into a dungeon and trapped his daughter Elisabeth inside in 1984.
03:43He assaulted her constantly and told others she had joined a cult.
03:46His abuse resulted in her having seven children, three of which remained in captivity.
03:51They were finally freed in 2008, 24 years after her capture.
03:56In 2009, Fritzl was sentenced to life in prison, where he still remains today.
04:01However, a 2024 decision to transfer him to a non-psychiatric unit means he could be eligible for parole and potentially even released.
04:09He potentially could be released from prison more quickly than he releases his daughter from this hellish downstairs.
04:17The Moscow theater crisis.
04:19Going out to see a show is supposed to be a relaxing event, not one where you fear for your life.
04:24In 2002, a performance of Nordost was interrupted by dozens of attackers firing bullets in the auditorium.
04:30This is the theater's actual recording of that fateful night's performance of a romantic comedy set in the 1950s,
04:37with a plot featuring cheerful Russian soldiers.
04:40Just a block away, four vans with a force of 40 heavily armed Chechen terrorists are closing on the theater fast.
04:48They took hundreds of Russian spectators hostage and threatened to kill them should the government not withdraw troops from Chechnya within a week.
04:55Four days and multiple casualties later, authorities released sleeping gas into the building before opening fire.
05:02While this led to the deaths of all the captors, it also resulted in around 700 captives being poisoned and some even dying.
05:09People simply didn't know what to do.
05:10They didn't imagine the scale of what needed to be done.
05:14And as a result of that, some of the hostages that could have been saved were not saved.
05:21Both the inciting incident and the violent rescue efforts have made it one of the most unfortunate and infamous events of the 21st century.
05:28The Bechlan School Siege.
05:30Just two years after the tragic Moscow theater hostage crisis, Russian citizens faced another massive tragedy.
05:36School number one in Bechlan was the victim of a multi-day attack by a guerrilla militia.
05:40Every year in the southern Russian town of Bezlan, they remember the hundreds who were killed when the school was attacked by militants in 2004.
05:49On September 1st, 2004, they took hundreds of students as hostages and even forced them to be human shields, all while destroying the interior with homemade bombs.
05:58On the third day, medical personnel attempted to enter, leading to the perpetrator setting off two large explosions.
06:04A bloody battle ensued, and when the smoke cleared, all but one of the militants had been slain.
06:09Russia was in mourning. There were days of mass funerals.
06:13But many families and victims blame authorities, partly for not doing enough to prevent the attack, but also for the botched rescue operation.
06:21He was later apprehended and sentenced to life in prison.
06:24Though investigations were launched, many criticized them for being incomplete and lacking transparency.
06:30The abduction of Elizabeth Smart.
06:32When thinking of home, many envision a safe space.
06:35No one would ever assume it would be the site of their disappearance, which was unfortunately the case for Elizabeth Smart.
06:41Her kidnapping captivated a nation.
06:44Whoever has her, please let her go.
06:46Well, this is every parent's nightmare.
06:48She was just 14 years old when she was kidnapped by Brian David Mitchell in the summer of 2002.
06:53He made her hike for miles before forcing her to marry him.
06:56Throughout her capture, she was assaulted daily, and was forced to travel to San Diego with him and his accomplice, Wanda Barzi.
07:02Months later, in March of 2003, she was finally rescued.
07:07Both captors were sentenced.
07:08Mitchell for life, and Barzi for 15 years.
07:11Both of Elizabeth's captors were sentenced to federal prison on kidnapping charges.
07:16Elizabeth testified at Mitchell's trial.
07:18He's currently serving a life sentence.
07:21Barzi was sentenced to 15 years and has since been released.
07:25Imagine having to live in fear, worried that the moment you step outside could be the last choice you ever make.
07:33That was the reality for the citizens living in or near Washington, D.C., who were subject to the whims of mystery ambushes.
07:39You know, calls from all over the world have poured into the Montgomery County Police Department.
07:44People wondering if their loved ones are victims.
07:46They began in February 2002 as a series of shootings spread out across several months, before escalating to constant sniper attacks in October of that year.
07:55Throughout the month, 10 people were randomly killed.
07:58The city lived in fear, and several precautions were taken.
08:02After a lengthy investigation, both perpetrators, John Allen Muhammad and Leiboyd Malvo, who was 17 at the time, were taken into custody.
08:10The former was executed by lethal injection, while Malvo was given multiple life sentences.
08:16Malvo was sentenced to six consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole,
08:21but rulings from the U.S. and Maryland Supreme Courts and a mandate from the Maryland General Assembly made those sentences illegal.
08:29Now, no longer can minors be sentenced to life without parole.
08:32Crispin was familicide.
08:34On the surface, Crispin was seemed to have it all as a highly successful wrestler and family man.
08:39In the ring, with the body of an Adonis, he was slamming opponents, being slammed, and putting on a show.
08:47Outside the ring, the former WWE World Wrestling Entertainment Champion was quietly spinning into depression.
08:56The nation was shocked when it was revealed that he not only took his own life, but also killed his wife and son in 2007.
09:03While he didn't leave behind a clear motive, several theories cropped up from both the medical community and fans.
09:09Some speculated that the constant concussions he received at work could have played a role, while others insisted it was the result of steroid use.
09:16As a result, World Wrestling Entertainment made all of their content rated PG and removed him from most of their published media.
09:23You didn't want to believe it, can't believe it, can't be true, but it was.
09:29The Ariel Castro kidnappings.
09:31It may not have come to national prominence until 2013, but this series of heinous crimes first began over a decade beforehand.
09:38From 2002 to 2004, Ariel Castro kidnapped three young women, Michelle Knight, Amanda Berry, and Gina DeJesus.
09:46Between 2002 and 2004, school bus driver Ariel Castro kidnapped three women and held them prisoner in the Tremont neighborhood of Cleveland, Ohio.
09:59They were imprisoned in his home and subjected to constant abuse, with Berry being forced to have his child.
10:04Despite their suspicious disappearances, there were several systemic flaws that caused them to slip through the cracks,
10:10including the removal of Knight from a victim database and the lack of an Amber Alert for DeJesus.
10:15In May of 2013, they were finally found and rescued.
10:19Castro was apprehended and given a life sentence, but only served a month before dying by his own hand.
10:25For some, that's still not long enough.
10:28The Disappearance of Natalie Holloway
10:30On May 26, 2005, Alabama teen Natalie Holloway arrived in Aruba with 124 fellow graduating high school seniors.
10:40Four days later, she didn't make her return flight home.
10:43Classmates remembered last seeing her leaving a nightclub and getting into a vehicle with three young men around 1.30 that morning.
10:49She was never seen again.
10:51Joran Vanderslaut and brothers Deepak and Satish Kalpo were arrested multiple times but never charged.
10:57However, due to Vanderslaut's lies and attempts to extort money from Holloway's parents in exchange for information,
11:03he remained the prime suspect.
11:06On January 11, 2012, he pleaded guilty to the murder of a woman in Peru.
11:11The next day, Holloway was officially declared deceased.
11:14In October 2023, Vanderslaut finally confessed to killing her.
11:19No closure, perhaps, but Beth says she has found peace.
11:23The Virginia Tech Incident
11:25The campus of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University was never the same after April 16, 2007.
11:33That morning, undergraduate student Sung Hui Cho shot two people in his dormitory
11:37before chaining the doors of the Norris Hall building and taking another 30 lives, then his own.
11:43Almost two dozen more students were injured, some while trying to flee.
11:48The tragedy sparked criticism of America's gun laws and mental health resources.
11:52Traditionally, the university would host several events to honor the lives lost that day.
11:57Four years later, the U.S. Department of Education fined the university for failing to alert everyone on campus
12:03in the two hours between the first and second attacks.
12:06While it wasn't the first and far from the last, Virginia Tech is still considered the deadliest school shooting in the U.S.
12:1432 innocent lives lost.
12:15The murder of Meredith Kircher
12:17In 2007, American exchange student Amanda Knox was studying abroad in Perugia, Italy,
12:24when she and her Italian boyfriend, Raffaele Solicito, were accused of murdering her roommate Meredith Kircher.
12:30The couple was ridiculed in the Italian press, particularly Knox, who was painted as a devious seductress motivated by sex.
12:37In 2009, both Knox and Solicito were convicted on multiple charges, including murder and sexual violence,
12:45with Knox sentenced to 26 years in prison and 25 for Solicito.
12:49The court sentences Knox to 26 years in prison and Solicito to 25 years.
12:55Italy's legal process and interrogation tactics were widely criticized,
12:59eventually leading to Knox's acquittal and release in 2011.
13:03But it wasn't until 2015 that she and Solicito were officially exonerated.
13:09Fully exonerated only last year by the Italian Supreme Court.
13:13The murder of Lacey Peterson
13:14On December 24, 2002, soon-to-be-mom 27-year-old Lacey Peterson went missing.
13:21She's considered a high-risk missing person under suspicious circumstances.
13:25Her body wasn't found until April 14, 2003, one day after her unborn son Connor was discovered a mile away.
13:33Since the beginning of the investigation, Lacey's husband Scott Peterson was a suspect,
13:38due to his odd behavior in the midst of his wife's disappearance.
13:42Investigators learned that he was having an affair when his girlfriend Amber Frye came forward.
13:46Scott told me he was not married.
13:49We did have a romantic relationship.
13:52She had been unaware that he was married.
13:55Scott was arrested on April 18 and charged with the first-degree murder of his wife and second-degree of Connor.
14:01He was found guilty and sentenced to death in December 2004.
14:05However, he was re-sentenced in 2021 to life in prison without parole.
14:10The California Supreme Court reduced his sentence to life without parole
14:14because his trial judge had excluded potential jurors opposed to the death penalty.
14:20Bernie Madoff's investment scandal.
14:22After decades of a seemingly successful career as a stockbroker,
14:26former chairman of the Nasdaq stock exchange Bernard Madoff admitted it was all, quote,
14:31one big lie.
14:33In December 2008, he confessed to his sons Mark and Andrew, who both worked for him,
14:38that the business's wealth management arm was actually a multi-billion dollar Ponzi scheme.
14:42He gathered them in the study and confessed that he had been running a Ponzi scheme.
14:48Madoff defrauded thousands of clients, including charitable organizations.
14:53In the years since, a number of clients reportedly took their own lives, including his son Mark in 2010.
15:00Madoff died of natural causes in 2021 while serving a 150-year sentence.
15:07At his 2009 sentencing, Madoff turned to his victims.
15:10I'm sorry, he said.
15:12I know that doesn't help you.
15:14It didn't.
15:15And neither does Bernie Madoff's death.
15:17The Disappearance of Madeline McCann
15:19While vacationing in Praia de Luz, Portugal, British couple Kate and Jerry McCann experienced a parent's worst nightmare.
15:27On the night of May 3, 2007, the McCanns went to dinner at a restaurant with friends,
15:32while their children slept in the apartment nearby.
15:34The parents took turns checking in on them throughout the night.
15:37When Kate went in, her twin toddlers were asleep, but 3-year-old daughter Madeline had vanished.
15:43Madeline McCann was nearly 4 when she disappeared from the family's holiday apartment in Portugal in 2007.
15:50Portugal authorities launched an investigation that was later criticized because residents were not interviewed,
15:56and the crime scene wasn't properly secured, among other mistakes.
16:00A media circus ensued, with tabloids turning on the McCanns.
16:04The search for Madeline continues, and in 2020, German police announced they had a potential suspect.
16:11As of 2025, no charges have been filed.
16:15For all the theories, Madeline's parents cling to one simple fact.
16:20There is no evidence their daughter has come to any harm.
16:24It gives them hope that she is still alive.
16:27The Enron Scandal
16:28Considered one of the largest bankruptcy filings in U.S. history,
16:33the fall of Houston-based energy company Enron is synonymous with scandal.
16:37Some other companies fold because of products not selling, or something happened.
16:44But this was done.
16:46This company collapsed because of greed, corporate greed.
16:49For years, executives used fraudulent accounting practices and inaccurate financial reporting
16:54to cover up debts and failed ventures amounting to billions of dollars.
16:59On December 2, 2001, Enron filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
17:04When Enron declared bankruptcy in December 2001, 4,000 employees lost their jobs that day.
17:10Thousands of Enron employees lost their pensions and 401ks, along with their jobs.
17:16Several executives were charged with federal fraud, with some sentenced to prison,
17:21including CEO Jeffrey Skilling and CFO Andrew Fastow.
17:25Enron's founder, Kenneth Lague, died of heart disease before his scheduled sentencing.
17:30Oh, I didn't expect that.
17:32The death of Kaylee Anthony
17:34On July 15, 2008, just one month before she turned three,
17:39Kaylee Anthony was reported missing by her grandmother.
17:41The grandmother reported that it had been a month since Casey or anybody had seen Kaylee.
17:47But, according to her mother Casey, she'd actually been missing since mid-June,
17:52supposedly kidnapped by a babysitter, a story that was immediately suspicious.
17:57Casey was charged with murder in October,
17:59and Kaylee's remains were found near the Anthony's home in December.
18:03With regret, I'm here to inform you that the skeletal remains found on December 11th
18:08are those of the missing toddler Kaylee Anthony.
18:12Because of her conduct and lies to authorities,
18:15Casey became the most hated mom in America.
18:18The case was a media sensation, especially during the 2011 televised trial.
18:23Her defense team argued that Kaylee had accidentally drowned,
18:27and that Casey and her father tried to cover it up.
18:29Perhaps the most shocking part of the case was the verdict.
18:33Not guilty.
18:34As to the charge of first-degree murder,
18:36we, the jury, find the defendant not guilty.
18:39The London 7-7 attack.
18:41In the early hours of July 7th, 2005,
18:44Londoners made their commutes during the city's morning rush hour.
18:48Within seconds of each other,
18:49there were three explosions on the London Underground just before 9 a.m.,
18:53orchestrated by Islamist terrorists.
18:56Reports are just coming in of an explosion at Liverpool Street Station.
19:00Bombs were detonated on three train cars outside different stations.
19:04Liverpool Street, Edgware Road, and between King's Cross and Russell Square.
19:09Almost an hour later, a fourth explosion happened on a double-decker bus in Tavistock Square.
19:14We're now hearing reports that a bus has been ripped apart in an explosion in central London.
19:22The bombings took the lives of 52 victims, in addition to the four perpetrators,
19:26and left 784 injured.
19:29Later that month, more attacks on the transit system were carried out,
19:33but fortunately, didn't fully detonate.
19:36But what was striking was the calmness of the crowds on the day that London suffered.
19:42Before we continue, be sure to subscribe to our channel
19:45and ring the bell to get notified about our latest videos.
19:48You have the option to be notified for occasional videos or all of them.
19:51If you're on your phone, make sure you go into your settings and switch on notifications.
19:58September 11th
19:59Since the tragic events of 2001,
20:02September 11th has become a day of mourning for Americans.
20:06The first attacks took place that morning when 19 Islamic terrorists
20:09hijacked four flights traveling to California.
20:12Two planes were redirected to New York,
20:15crashing into the World Trade Center's Twin Towers.
20:17The third plane crashed into the Pentagon in Virginia,
20:20while a passenger revolt on the fourth caused it to crash in a field in Pennsylvania,
20:25rather than its intended target, believed to be the White House or state capital.
20:29Four minutes later, Flight 93 crashes into a field near the town of Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
20:34Between the four locations, 2,996 people were killed,
20:39and many thousands more injured.
20:429-11 remains the deadliest terrorist attack in history.
20:45Thousands of lives were suddenly ended by evil,
20:49despicable acts of terror.
20:51Are any of these infamous crimes news to you?
20:53Let us know in the comments below.
20:55And I'll tell her everything's going to be okay.
20:58One day we'll get out.
21:00One day we'll be free.
21:02One day we'll be free.
21:02Two day we'll be free.
21:21One day we'll be free.
21:22Peace.
21:22Peace.
21:23Peace.
21:24Peace.
21:26Peace.
21:27Peace.
21:27Peace.
Recommended
1:35
|
Up next
27:16
1:59:00
2:01
1:32:48
1:41:49
1:04:17
1:31:24
40:24
24:13
14:12
12:24
11:40
20:11
10:55