True Crime On This Day May 21st

Last Updated on September 23, 2022 by Ben Oakley

May 21st

On May 21st in true crime, mystery kidnapping, white night riots, brutal murder, unsolved homicide, unsolved mysteries of crime.

1978

In Macau, a massage therapist named Anocha Panjoy was kidnapped by North Korean agents. She had been on her way to meet a Japanese tourist when a group of men grabbed her, forced her onto a boat and headed out to sea.

It remains unclear to this day why Panjoy was taken to North Korea, who have constantly denied claims of kidnapping.

In recent years, Japan has increased and extended sanctions on North Korea due to the amount of Japanese people being abducted by the North Koreans.

Investigators managed to find out that Panjoy was forced into a still mysterious programme directed from the very highest levels of the North Korean regime.

Hundreds of people have vanished behind the closed doors of the communist country. All have been women, and almost all of them were Japanese.

1979

The White Night Riots in San Francisco were a direct result of the light sentencing of Dan White. In November 1978, White had assassinated San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and Harvey Milk.

At his sentencing, White was convicted of voluntary manslaughter, based on mental instability due to eating too many Twinkie’s, which became known as the Twinkie Defence.

The sentencing caused an outcry in the city and resulted in one of the most violent reactions by gay Americans since the 1969 Stonewall Riots in New York.

What started out as a peaceful protest, ended in violence, when a march arrived at San Francisco City Hall. Dozens of officers and members of the public were injured. The police department retaliated by raiding a gay bar in the city.

1980

In Floyd County, Georgia, 75-year-old Grace Perry, was brutally tortured and murdered by her neighbour James Randall Rogers.

Rogers had broken into her home with the intention of killing her. He beat her before shoving a rake handle so forcefully into her vagina that it punctured her lung, killing her instantly.

Rogers was caught the same day, convicted of murder, and sentenced to death. He has been the subject of numerous appeals ever since, due to his mental instability.

1981

In Denver, Colorado, 53-year-old Calvin Castleberry was shot dead near a barbers at the 2600 block of Welton Street. Police officers responded to reports of a shooting and found Castleberry laying on the ground.

He was rushed to hospital with a gunshot wound to the chest, and later died of his injuries. Despite witnesses, no suspect has ever been caught and Castleberry’s murder remains unsolved.

1982

In New Brunswick, Canada, an abandoned car was found off the Trans-Canada highway near Moncton. The car belonged to 29-year-old Jacques Joseph Duguay, of Saint John, New Brunswick, who was never seen again after this day.

He was only reported missing on May 30^th when he didn’t check in with his family. He was known to have been an associate of 29-year-old Gary Hazen Dow, who disappeared in August of 1981 and was reported missing around the same time Duguay was.

Dow’s skeletal remains were discovered in June 2000 in St. Martins, New Brunswick. It is suspected that both men had been killed and their bodies dumped in remote locations. No trace of Duguay has ever been found.

1983

In Dawson City, Canada, the body of an unidentified white man aged 22-years-old was discovered near the Northfork Dam.

he body had been buried just a few metres from a road beside a woodland brush. He had wavy hair, gold teeth, and visibly hairy legs. He had been buried just days earlier.

Despite having recognisable features, the identity of the man and the circumstances of his death and burial remain a mystery.

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