True Crime On This Day December 25th

Last Updated on September 19, 2022 by Ben Oakley

December 25th

On December 25th in true crime, Christmas Day murders, invasion, macabre Christmas discoveries, and cold cases across the world.

1978

On Christmas Day in 1978, Vietnam launched a full-scale invasion of neighbouring Cambodia. It utilised 13 divisions and 150,000 soldiers with heavy artillery and air power.

Cambodia’s Kampuchean Revolutionary Army fought back only with traditional fighting methods causing the loss of half of their forces in just two weeks.

International outcry was followed by a draft resolution for a ceasefire from the UN Security Council. But the war raged on and by the end of it, would leave approximately 350,000 dead. Fighting would last for over 10 years.

In February 1979, China invaded Vietnam, in order to force a Vietnamese withdrawal from Cambodia. It was known as the Sino-Vietnamese War.

The Chinese captured major cities, but announced it would not move deeper into Vietnam, due to the well-trained Vietnamese using Soviet and American weapons. Although China didn’t exactly win, they did succeed in driving most of the Vietnamese out of Cambodia.

It wouldn’t be until the Paris Peace Agreement of 1991 that all sides found a way to fix the area. In the same year, Vietnam and China would find peace.

In 2016, American President Barack Obama announced the lifting of an arms embargo on the country.

1979

In Skagit County, Washington, the decomposing remains of 26-year-old Dutch national Gisbert ‘Ben’ Kistemaker were discovered.

A group of hunters out on a Christmas Day hunt found the body in a gravel pit. Back in May 1979, Kistemaker travelled to the United States to tour the country. In New York he purchased a faded blue and white Chevy van and began his tour, travelling from East to West Coast.

In September 1979, his van was found abandoned in Oregon. Sometime between September and December, he was shot dead and his body dumped in Washington, just North of Oregon. As of 2022, his murder remains a mystery.

1980

In Surrey, British Columbia, the decomposed remained of 12-year-old Christine Weller, were discovered by hikers. On November 17^th, she was abducted by Canadian serial killer Clifford Robert Olson Jr., who had strangled her with a belt and stabbed her multiple times.

Olson was arrested in 1981 and confessed to the murders of 11 children between the ages of nine to 18-years-old. He was convicted of multiple murders and sentenced to life in prison. He died on September 30^th 2011, from natural causes.

1981

On Christmas night, in West Ouachita Parish, Louisiana, Sergeant Major Hubert Ester was shot dead on a rural road. His body was discovered early the next morning.

An autopsy showed he had died from massive blood loss caused by a shotgun blast to the victim’s arm and chest, along with being beaten around the head. He had been murdered by Danny Weeks and his younger brother Mark Weeks, after they had been hired as amateur hitmen by Hubert’s wife, Patricia Ann Ester.

She lured Hubert to the rural road where the brothers killed him. They were all arrested on February 4^th 1982. Mark was a juvenile, and leniency was shown in return for a testimony.

Patricia and Danny were convicted of first and second-degree murder and were sentenced to life in prison.

1982

In Belshaw, Indiana, 25-year-old John Johnson, was murdered by American serial killer Larry William Eyler, AKA: The Highway Killer.

Johnson’s body was found the same evening, he had been strangled and stabbed to death. Eyler murdered between 21 and 24 teenage boys and young men between 1982 and 1984.

He was captured on August 21^st 1984 and sentenced to death. He died of AIDS-related complications on death row in 1994.

1983

In Metro-Dade, Florida, 25-year-old Detective Robert L. Zore was shot and killed with his own weapon by a robbery suspect.

Zore was in plainclothes and had been assigned to the Hot Spot Squad, who were checking shopping malls for retail crime during the Christmas holidays. They got word that a robbery had taken place at the Dadeland Shopping Mall.

Zore came across a man matching the description of the suspect and approached him. During a fight, when Zore attempted to arrest the suspect, the man was able to overpower him, and shot him with his own service weapon.

The suspect then stole Zore’s vehicle and radio. Zore raised the alarm from a nearby payphone but died of his wounds in hospital shortly after. The suspect was arrested and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

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