True Crime On This Day July 18th

Last Updated on February 17, 2023 by Ben Oakley

July 18th

On July 18th in true crime, assassination attempt, cold case murder, child killer, serial killer Juraj Luptak, and a multiple murderer.

1978

In Seneca County, Ohio, 24-year-old Leslie Wurm was found murdered in his Riverbend Apartment. His death was immediately treated as suspicious and later confirmed to be a homicide.

The murder remains unsolved and is an active cold case in the State of Ohio as of 2022.

1979

In North Carolina, 10-year-old Amanda Marie Ray was kidnapped, beaten, raped and murdered by child killer Fred Howard Coffey.

He went on to be linked with at least 10 other rapes and murders of children. In 1987, he was sentenced to death but two reviews saw the sentence commuted to life in prison.

Despite his constant parole hearings, Coffey remains behind bars as more and more cases are being attributed to him.

1980

In Neuilly-sur-Seine, Paris, former Prime Minister of Iran Shapour Bakhtiar, survived an assassination attempt at his own home.

A group of five assassins, led by Lebanese assassin Anis Naccache, surrounded the home and led an attack. Despite their supposed skills in assassination, the group were outwitted by security and police.

One police officer and a neighbour to Bakhtiar were killed during the shoot-out. All five were arrested and sentenced to life in prison. They were pardoned in July 1990 by French President François Mitterrand.

1981

In Harris County, Texas, 19-year-old Sylvia Elaine Harrison was abducted and shot dead as she begged for her life. Harrison had run into car trouble and pulled over for help.

She was picked up by Danny Dean Thomas and a friend who later abducted Harrison from her own home. Her body was later dumped in the San Jacinto River.

Both men were arrested shortly after and sentenced to death. Thomas changed his name to Shozdijiji Shisinday and died of natural causes on death row in 2009. He had long claimed that he would die of boredom.

1982

In Banska Bystrica, Slovakia, 15-year-old Ivana Turová was abducted and killed by Czechoslovakian serial killer Juraj Luptak, AKA: The Strangler from Banska Bystrica.

He knocked her unconscious and was about to rape her when he saw she was on her period. When she awoke, he beat her to death in anger.

Due to media and police pressure, Luptak ran off into the mountains and lived in the wild for a week. Shortly after, he broke into a house for supplies but was arrested after being recognised from a description photo.

He was sentenced to death for the murders of three women and executed by hanging in 1987.

1983

In King County, Washington, 22-year-old Kelly Marie Ware disappeared after last being seen at a bus stop near Pacific Highway South.

She had been picked up and subsequently murdered by Gary Ridgway, AKA: The Green River Killer. Ware’s skeletal remains were found in October 1983, only 100 feet away from another of Ridgway’s victims, Constance Naon, who vanished on June 8^th.

Ridgway buried some of his victims in what he called ‘clusters’, mostly in wooded areas. He would return to the bodies to engage in acts of necrophilia with the corpses.

Ridgway was arrested in 2001, convicted of 48 murders, and sentenced to life in 2003. His true victim count is believed to be much higher.

1989

American actress and model Rebecca Schaeffer was shot dead by her obsessed stalker Robert John Bardo when he turned up at her home.

He had been stalking and threatening her for three years before deciding to kill her. He was later caught and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.