The Files

Open Cases.

3 files

Everything we know. Everything they didn't want us to find.

CASE FILE 001Case OpenMissing Person

The Girl Who Walked Home

Harlan County, Kentucky—1994

Sixteen-year-old Della Marsh left her friend's house on a warm September evening and started the walk she'd made a hundred times before. She never arrived. The case was quietly closed two years later. Her family never stopped asking why.

Key Facts

Della was 16, an honor student, and had no known enemies
Her route home was well-lit and less than a quarter mile
A person of interest was identified but never publicly named
The original case file has 14 pages missing from public records
A witness account from 2024 has never been officially investigated

CASE FILE 002Case OpenArson / Suspicious Death

The Burning Season

Pinebrook, Oregon—2003

Three fires in six weeks. Three different properties. One name that kept surfacing in witness accounts — and then stopped surfacing entirely after a visit from the county fire marshal. The official verdict: coincidence.

Key Facts

All three fires occurred within a 0.8-mile radius
The third fire started at 2 AM — Dunning had no history of leaving candles or appliances on
Dunning had filed a complaint against a local developer two weeks before his death
The fire marshal who closed the cases retired six months later
Original witness statements have never been released under FOIA

CASE FILE 003Case ClosedSuspicious Death

What the River Kept

Millhaven, Mississippi—1987

They found him in the water. The coroner signed the death certificate in under an hour and didn't take photographs. Twenty years later, a retired state investigator reopened the file and found something the original report had buried.

Key Facts

Cutter had testified against a local official in a land fraud case three weeks before his death
The coroner who signed the certificate had no formal pathology training
No toxicology was performed
Hollis identified injuries on Cutter's skull consistent with a blunt instrument
The judge who denied the independent autopsy request was later disbarred for unrelated corruption

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