5 Internet Cold Cases Reddit Finally Solved

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5 Internet Cold Cases Reddit Finally Solved      #InternetMysteries  #SolvedOnReddit  #DigitalDetectives  #OnlineColdCases  #RedditInvestigations

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00:00On the 24th of April, 2022, at around 3 p.m., 10-year-old Lily Peters left her home to visit

00:06her aunt on her own. The aunt's house was just a three-minute bike ride from Lily's home in

00:11Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin. And since she lived with just her father, Alexander, after her parents'

00:16divorce, Lily often went to her aunt's house on the weekends to play around. So it wasn't unusual

00:21for her to make this journey on her own. Unfortunately, what started off as an ordinary

00:25weekend was about to end in a horrific tragedy. Things took a turn for the worse when Alex

00:31noticed that it was getting dark and Lily still hadn't come home. It wasn't like her to stay out

00:35late. He called his sister, assuming Lily was still at her place. But, to his surprise, she told him

00:41Lily had already left over an hour ago. He then called the parents of Lily's friends, hoping she

00:46might have stopped at one of their houses on her way back. However, none of them had seen her either.

00:51Fearing for the safety of his daughter, Alex began searching the route Lily would have taken to and

00:55from her aunt's house. He also contacted the police and reported his daughter missing at around 9pm.

01:01While the authorities didn't issue an Amber Alert, they quickly formed a search party to help look

01:05for her in the surrounding area. And, after hours of searching, Alex finally discovered the first

01:10clue to his daughter's whereabouts, her bike, abandoned in a nearby wooded area. By it, Lily herself

01:16was nowhere to be found. Police deployed drones and rescue dogs to search the woods and investigate

01:21the hiking trail that ran through the area. Then, at around 8.45am, Alex received the news he had been

01:27dreading all night. Lily was deceased. A volunteer had discovered her body hidden under a pile of leaves

01:33just a few feet from the trail. After a brief examination, police ruled her death a homicide and

01:38began looking for the perpetrator. Unfortunately, they had nothing that could lead them in the right

01:43direction. That is, until someone made a post about Lily's case in the True Crime subreddit.

01:48While everyone else was speculating on what could have happened to Lily, user HomesliceNation4 came

01:54forward with a crucial piece of information in a now-deleted comment that read,

01:58What's scary is I was playing Pokemon Go in the park that day and walking along that very same trail.

02:04My stomach turns when I think that I saw that girl in a pink-slash-purple hoodie on her bike with

02:09another kid on my way out. I have a suspicion that it could be another kid that did it.

02:13Another user called the police tip line to report HomesliceNation4's comment.

02:19And, to everyone's surprise, this was the breakthrough the investigators needed to solve

02:23the case. Because, just a few hours later, police arrested Carson Peters Berger, Lily's 14-year-old

02:29cousin, as the prime suspect in her murder. Not long after he was taken into custody,

02:33Carson admitted to everything. However, just what happened to Lily that night was more horrifying

02:39than anyone could have ever imagined. According to Carson, he followed Lily as she was heading home

02:44and told her to follow him into the woods. He'd been planning this for months. Once they were off

02:49the trail, he punched her in the stomach, hit her several times with a large stick, and strangled her

02:54until she took her final breath. He then went back home as if nothing had happened. But, when he heard

03:00about the search for Lily, he panicked and went back into the woods to move her body further from the

03:04crime scene and hid it under a pile of leaves. Though, all thanks to one Reddit comment, he was

03:09thankfully caught. Given the severity of his crimes, and the fact that it was all premeditated,

03:15prosecutors decided to try Carson as an adult. He's still in custody, awaiting his trial set for

03:20some time in 2026. On May 1st, 2013, Reddit user ShadyBusiness15 posted on the What Is This Thing

03:31subreddit, seeking answers for a strange device he found inside his power strip. The post read,

03:37Violently blew a fuse in my extension cord, took it apart to see the damage, and found this inside.

03:43Alongside this, the OP shared pictures of two circuit boards connected to each other with wires,

03:47and what appeared to be a SIM card. He also cross-posted this in the Reddit Bureau of Investigation

03:52subreddit, where users noticed a microphone on one of the circuit boards, and figured this was a

03:57spying device of some kind. With one comment providing more details about how it worked,

04:01stating,

04:02Your extension cord is a room bug. Someone calls the phone number on that SIM, and the extension

04:07cord auto-answers and listens to the room. Put simply, one of the circuit boards was a cut-down

04:13version of a phone that used the SIM to transfer audio from the built-in microphone. The second board

04:18was a power delivery module, allowing the device to run directly off of the wall power without needing

04:23any batteries. However, this raised more questions than it answered, especially about the OP's true

04:29identity, with some users speculating if he was involved in some shady business. After all,

04:34why else would someone go through the effort of planting a bug to listen in on his conversations?

04:39But, according to a later comment, he was just a normal university student who was living in the

04:43university's dorms, and that he took this extension cord from his home when he moved. But also mentioned

04:48that there are other people with access to his room who could have planted the bug without his

04:51knowledge. With this, the focus shifted towards finding out who planted this in the OP's power

04:56strip and why. Some users suggested putting the SIM in a spare phone, but doing so only deepened the

05:02mystery further. Apparently, it had a 10-pound credit, suggesting that it was being used at some

05:07point. However, it didn't have any contacts, voicemails, or call logs. And judging from the network

05:13messages, the device had been active since October 2012. This also helped the OP retrieve the SIM's

05:18number, but calling it returned an automated message, stating,

05:22The service is now closed, and if you have voicemail, you can turn it on. Nothing else.

05:27The OP tried leaving it active in a spare phone as well. But even after days of waiting,

05:31he didn't receive any calls or messages. It's possible the person who planted it had already

05:36gotten the information they needed, or perhaps they found out the OP had discovered it and decided

05:40to back off. In either case, the OP's only remaining option was to contact the SIM's carrier,

05:45O2. Unfortunately, they weren't much help either. He would have needed a police warrant to access the

05:50call logs, something he didn't want to deal with. Without access to the call logs, the only real

05:54suspects OP had were his own parents. However, he didn't find the spy SIM's number in either of their

06:00phones when he checked later. This left a single possibility that's also the most likely explanation

06:05for the whole thing. Put simply, the spy device was never meant for the OP in the first place.

06:10As many on Reddit hypothesize, the bug was likely intended and used for corporate espionage at some

06:15point. From there, it somehow found its way into the OP's home. Maybe one of his parents brought it

06:20home from work or purchased it in a corporate clearance sale without realizing what it actually

06:24was. But by then, the device had already fulfilled its purpose and wasn't being used. Unfortunately,

06:30while Redditors were quick to identify and solve what the device was, they weren't able to find a

06:35concrete answer for who planted it and why. The last update from the OP was in May of 2013.

06:41Chances of getting an answer now, over 12 years later, are practically zero.

06:48On the morning of August 9, 2018, 66-year-old Susan Rainwater set out on her usual cycling route

06:54in Eatonville, Washington. But unlike the countless times she'd followed this routine,

06:59that day, she didn't come home on time. Worried, her husband David Rainwater went out looking for her.

07:05Only to come face to face with the aftermath of a tragic accident. Just off the side of the road,

07:10David discovered the mangled remains of his wife's bicycle. As he got closer, he saw an injured

07:15Susan lying on the ground, not far from the bike. Sadly, it was already too late. Susan had succumbed

07:22to her injuries and passed away before David could get to her. He eventually gathered himself enough to

07:27call the police, who after examining Susan and her surroundings, were able to piece together what

07:31had happened. And according to their investigation, this was a classic hit and run case. Susan was

07:36likely struck from behind by a fast-moving car, resulting in her getting severely injured.

07:41However, instead of stopping and helping Susan, the suspect decided to save himself and fled the

07:46scene. Unfortunately, there were no witnesses or nearby CCTV cameras leading investigators with no

07:52leads to follow. The only clue they found on the crime scene was this one piece of black plastic

07:57that likely broke off of the suspect's car from the collision. Investigators tried their best,

08:02but they weren't able to figure out what this was supposed to be, let alone what car it belonged to.

08:06With no other options, one of the troopers at the scene turned to the internet for help,

08:09stating,

08:10Troopers and detectives are still looking for a black vehicle believed to be involved in this

08:14morning's tragic bicyclist's fatality. If you know anything regarding this collision,

08:18please call the Washington State Patrol. While this post received little attention on Twitter,

08:23someone reposted the query on the WhatIsThisThing subreddit, where it went viral and received valuable

08:27input from hundreds of users. And it didn't take long for Redditors to figure out that this piece

08:32came from the car's headlight bezel, as it had the notch used to access the headlight adjusting screws.

08:37However, figuring out what car this belonged to was still going to be a tall order. After all,

08:42there are dozens of manufacturers with hundreds of different models. Not to mention aftermarket parts,

08:48which would have been practically impossible to track down. But just when it seemed like all hope was

08:52lost, the post reached perhaps the only person capable of identifying the suspect's car model

08:57from that tiny broken piece. Two hours after the original post was made, user Jeff's nuts dropped

09:02a comment that single-handedly brought the search to a close. As it turned out, Jeff was a state

09:07inspector in Maryland, where his job was to make sure vehicles were up to code before issuing

09:11registration. So, he'd seen his fair share of headlight bezels at work. And according to him,

09:17the piece police found belonged to a 1988 Chevy Silverado. After spotting the resemblance,

09:22users forwarded the information to the investigators, prompting a search for a vehicle that matched

09:26this new description. Then, just five days later, the state trooper announced what everyone was waiting

09:31for. They had located the vehicle that struck Susan and arrested its owner. The man responsible for

09:36a death was 37-year-old Jeremy Thomas Simon. He first claimed that he had fallen asleep at the

09:41wheel and thought that he'd hit a deer instead of a person. However, his story later changed to where

09:45he knew he hit a person, but didn't get out to help because he, quote,

09:48did not want to see a body. It was clear he was just making excuses, since authorities also found

09:54a small bag of hard drugs in his car, suggesting he may have been under the influence at the time

09:58of the crash. In the end, he was sentenced to four and a half years in prison. Not exactly a harsh

10:03penalty for a deadly hit and run, but it is better than nothing. Especially considering that if the

10:08Reddit user Jeff hadn't identified the make and model of Simon's vehicle and posted his findings

10:12to Reddit, there's a good chance he would have gotten away with it entirely.

10:19In October 2024, someone noticed that one of their electrical outlets in their home looked

10:24different from the others. It looked like it had a camera inside, but it wasn't super obvious.

10:29So, they turned to Reddit and posted photos of the outlet, hoping someone would either confirm or

10:33deny their suspicions. They also explained their situation further in a comment reading,

10:38I've had a stalker and my apartment broken into in the past. I got a camera detector for peace of

10:43mind, not knowing it would read anything, but it led me to this and detected radio waves and reflected

10:48back with the infrared. The bottom ground looks different than the other GFCI plugs in the rest

10:53of the complex. Right away, several people agreed with the OP in that something was definitely off

10:58about the outlet. Then, just 40 minutes after the post went up, one user confirmed the OP 100% had a

11:04hidden camera in their home by tracking down the exact model for sale online. And according to its

11:09product page, it's a wireless camera that could transmit 4K video completely over Wi-Fi. Given the

11:14OP's history with a stalker, the same person was likely behind installing the hidden camera as well.

11:19Many strongly suggested the OP get out of the house and call the police. Unfortunately, what happened

11:24next remains a mystery. The account that made the post was a throwaway the OP created solely for this

11:29purpose. And after confirming their suspicions, they never posted any new updates.

11:38In July of 2012, user DelverOfSecretsReddit account made a post in r slash ask reddit looking

11:44for answers on a strange encounter they recently had. It stated,

11:48Today, a homeless-looking man handed me $50 and this note. Do any of you have any idea what it means?

11:55Dear Reddit, I work in New York City and was dragged into a very curious situation today.

11:59I was taking the one train from Midtown to the Financial District and as usual the train was

12:04pretty packed. I bumped into a raggedy-dressed man as we got on and he shot me a quick smile.

12:09I thought nothing of it until he went to get off at 14th Street and he handed me a $50 bill along

12:14with a note. Before I could even open my mouth to ask him a question, he was gone. Below you find

12:19pictures of both the front and back of the note. I've been looking at the note all day and needless to

12:24say I have no idea what it means. It's handwritten on a 3x3 square piece of paper with no identifying

12:30marks and no watermarks. There's a hand-drawn grid and in a couple of spots the cells of the grid are

12:35combined. The note has random characters written throughout it and the bottom quarter is filled

12:40with random shapes and numbers. Maybe I'm just reading way too far into things and he was just

12:44another crazy New Yorker, but I figured it would be neat to see if anyone has run into this similar

12:49situation. Do any of you have any idea as to what the note says, if anything? After taking a good

12:55look at both the note and the $50 bill, some users figured out that the note was what's known as a

12:59bifit cipher. And deciphering it revealed a message that read, There's plenty more money to make.

13:05Figure this out and prepare to meet July 19, 56 and 6 hot dog stand outside Rue 57 Cafe. Ask for Mr.

13:13Input. However, before anyone had the time to figure out the true meaning behind this note,

13:18Delver of Secrets received a coded message on Reddit. It was likely from the same guy that

13:23handed him the note earlier that day. When decoded, this message read,

13:27You have managed to find the message with the help of friends. You changed the rules, now so will I.

13:33July 12, 4 PM. Find the Blue Jay at 6.5 and 56 and tell him you are the last.

13:40This was packed with clues pointing in multiple directions. For starters, 6.5 and 56 corresponded to

13:476.5 Avenue on 56th Street in New York. And at that location, there was a salon named Gotham Skincare.

13:54This led many to believe that this whole thing was a marketing stunt for something related to Batman.

13:59Especially since the date given in the original note, July 19th, was one day short of the release

14:03date for The Dark Knight Rises. One person even called the marketing company for that movie in hopes

14:09of getting them to admit the truth. So basically, I was one of the people who got caught up in the whole

14:14homeless man, give me $50. We had to figure out some sort of code. So after staying up for hours

14:19and reading all the comments, I definitely came to the conclusion that this reeks of a marketing

14:25campaign. And I have a sneaking suspicion that it's a certain company. Hey guys, what's up? Alright,

14:32so it's 916 here in New York. And I'm about to call it Leveraged Marketing Corporation of America.

14:40If you look up the address that we're all supposed to meet at later today at 4, this is actually a

14:46marketing agency that's right next to it. So it just makes sense that it might be them. And the Dark

14:52Knight thing just makes sense too because the movie's coming out so soon. Hi, how are you?

14:56I'm fine, thank you. I'm calling to make sure that everything is going to be set up for the Dark

15:01Night campaign later today. What is the Dark Night campaign? Is it New York City?

15:05Yeah, yeah, it's actually right next to your office at about 4 o'clock today, actually.

15:12Oh, I mean, yes, I know what that is. Please give Margie a call. I'm challenged.

15:17He just admitted to knowing about it? I don't know, you figure it out.

15:21While this didn't lead to anything substantial, Reddit users found the next clue hidden within the

15:25Reddit message. You see, the username that sent the message was

15:29222-09-44379. One user converted this to an IP address and it led to Fort Wachuka in Arizona,

15:37a military base that's primarily focused on intelligence training.

15:41So, could it be that Delver of Secrets was being recruited as a spy or something along those lines?

15:46For some, this was certainly a possibility. However, another user discovered that a spy

15:51exhibition was happening at the nearby Discovery Times Square Museum on July 12th.

15:56Maybe this was a marketing stunt for that instead. But this idea was also shot down by another user

16:01who claimed to work for the museum, stating that they had nothing to do with this. With no other

16:05leads, a group of curious New York-based Redditors decided to meet at the specified location on July

16:1012th to see if anything would actually happen. However, despite dozens of people showing up,

16:15including Delver of Secrets, no one noticed anything out of the ordinary and had to go back in

16:19disappointment. Now, if this was some legitimate espionage-related matter, a large crowd would

16:24have instantly scared off anyone planning to meet Delver of Secrets at that location. So,

16:29the whole thing was kind of pointless in that regard. But on the other hand,

16:32the gathering all but confirmed that this wasn't some marketing stunt. Because if it were,

16:36the media attention and large crowd would have been the perfect moment for a big reveal that never

16:40happened. Then, something happened that no one saw coming. On July 13th,

16:46Delver of Secrets removed everything from his post and replaced it with a single ominous passage,

16:50reading,

16:51Received a phone call today threatening violence against me and my family,

16:55going as far as to name members of my family and their addresses unless I delete this post.

17:00The caller also told me not to show up on the 19th and to inform anyone planning to show up on the 19th

17:05that nothing would happen. This will be my last message from this account before I delete it.

17:09I'll also be changing my number later today. I am sorry if a resolution to this never happens,

17:14but I'm not willing to risk my family's safety for a few extra dollars.

17:18With that, Delver of Secrets vanished from the internet. While Reddit did solve layers of coded

17:23messages and uncover clues hidden within other clues, they were ultimately left with nothing

17:27but speculation and an unsolved mystery.

17:33?

17:37?

17:39?

17:41?

17:42?

17:45?

17:46?

17:47?

17:48?

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