True Crime On This Day January 6th

January 6th

On January 6th in true crime, bomb attack, slaughtered family, missing person, murder in Georgia, double murder in Louisiana.

1978

In the Waterloo region of Ontario, Canada, bakery owner John McNichol vanished without a trace and was reported missing by his family.

Although no foul play was suspected, McNichol has never been seen since. At the time of his disappearance, it was claimed that he was under extreme stress and in a state of financial difficulty.

It has long remained unclear if McNichol had taken his own life, created a new identity or met with foul play. As of 2022, it remains a missing persons case.

1979

In Singapore, all four children of the Tan family were found dead in their flat. It became known as the Geylang Bahru Family Murders.

All of them had been slaughtered and hacked to death with their bodies piled up on top of each other. They were aged between five to 10-years-old and their parents were at work at the time of the murders.

Over 100 suspects were interviewed by police but no charges were made. As of 2022, the murders remain unsolved and are one of Singapore’s most notorious crimes.

1980

In County Down, Northern Ireland, three Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) soldiers were killed in a bomb attack.

Private Richard Wilson, Private Roy Smith, and Private James Cochrane died when their Land Rovers triggered an explosive device that contained one ton of explosive material.

The first vehicle in the two-vehicle convoy took most of the blast, while the second Land Rover drove straight into the 30-foot crater left by the explosion.

The bomb had been set by the IRA and was triggered by a command wire in a house over 200-metres away. Four other soldiers were injured in the large explosion. The IRA claimed responsibility but no one was ever arrested for the attack.

1981

In Elbert County, Georgia, a neighbour discovered the body of 72-year-old Susie C. Rucker, lying on her kitchen floor.

She had been brutally raped and strangled to death a day earlier by 42-year-old Stanley Edward Allen and his 18-year-old accomplice Woodrow Davis. They had broken into Rucker’s home in the early hours with the intention of robbing her.

Allen had previously been sentenced to ten years in prison for rape in 1975 but was released after only half that time.

Both men were arrested shortly after due to multiple witnesses and Rucker’s blood on their clothing. Davis was sentenced to life in prison while Allen was sentenced to death. Despite numerous appeals, Allen remains on death row.

1982

In the Rocky Mountains, Colorado, 30-year-old Barbara Jo Oberholtzer was shot dead by an unknown assailant. She had last been seen hitchhiking south in the middle of the evening from Breckenridge.

Her body was discovered the next day near a small parking lot on the summit of Hoosier Pass, which rests at an elevation of 11,000 feet. She had been shot dead in the same location she was found.

The temperature the night before was below freezing and would have been pitch black in an area with no streetlights. An autopsy revealed she had been killed with a .38/.357 handgun using a Remington/Peters copper jacketed hollow point bullet.

Despite a large investigation, no suspect has ever been identified, and her murder remains unsolved.

1983

In Webster Parish, Louisiana, fugitive Jimmy L. Glass was captured and arrested for the 1982 Christmas Day murders of 55-year-old Newton Brown, and his wife, 51-year-old Erlene.

Glass and fellow convict, Jimmy Wingo, had escaped from the Webster Parish Jail on Christmas Eve and found their way to the Brown residence where he shot the middle-aged couple dead during a burglary.

Wingo was arrested a few days after Glass. Both men were sentenced to death and Glass was executed in the electric chair on June 12^th, 1987. Wingo was executed in the electric chair four days later, on June 16^th.

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