True Crime On This Day October 2nd

October 2nd

On October 2nd, in true crime, Buzz Lightyear was arrested, there were macabre discoveries, a child murder, and a cannibal killer.

1978

Hollywood comedian and the voice of ‘Buzz Lightyear’ Tim Allen was arrested at Kalamazoo Airport in Michigan for cocaine possession. He pleaded guilty to drug trafficking charges and exchanged information for a lower sentence.

He served over two years in prison before being paroled in June 1981. He carried on his former comedy career shortly after his release.

1979

In San Dimas, California, the partial remains of a three to eight-year-old boy were discovered in a shallow grave. The macabre discovery was found by hikers along the Glendora Mountain Road beside the San Gabriel Mountains.

The boy had died around two weeks earlier. Due to the way the body was found, investigators believed that he was met with foul play. The identity of the boy and circumstances surrounding his death remain a mystery to this day.

1980

In Texas, Diana Lumbrera walked into the Bovina emergency room with her three-year-old daughter, Melissa, in her arms but the child was dead on arrival. Lumbrera claimed that Melissa was convulsing before she died.

The doctors had no reason not to believe her and classified Melissa’s death as asphyxia due to stomach contents. The truth of her death was far more disturbing. From 1976 until her arrest in 1990, Lumbrera suffocated six of her own children.

Every time, she would rush the child to hospital, saying they had been convulsing before their death. She even blamed the medical staff each time for not being able to resuscitate them.

Upon her arrest, she claimed that her former mother-in-law had placed a curse on her, which meant that all her children would die. Lumbrera was convicted in 1991 of six murders and sentenced to life in prison.

1981

In Abilene, Texas, 20-year-old Theresa Elizabeth Bishop vanished without a trace after last being seen at the Diamond Jim’s Club in the city. She was witnessed talking to at least two unidentified men but mysteriously vanished after leaving.

Serial killer Henry Lee Lucas was identified as a possible suspect after being convicted of the 1979 murder of an unidentified female in Texas. Despite confessing to numerous other murders, he vehemently denied involvement in Bishop’s case.

The circumstances surrounding Bishop’s disappearance remain a mystery to this day and no trace of her has ever been found.

1982

In Estonia, cannibal and serial killer Johannes-Andreas Hanni was captured after a taxi driver survived a brutal attack and lived to give a description of Hanni to police.

Hanni murdered three people in the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1982. He fried and ate the thigh of his first victim in March. In May, he killed a pensioner, cut off his penis, and used it as a dildo upon himself.

Hanni killed himself a month after the arrest before he could go to trial. His wife, Pille Hanni, was an accomplice to the murders. She spent 12 years in prison on charges of being an accessory to murder.

1983

In Broken Bow, Oklahoma, two teenage sisters vanished without a trace and were never seen again. 16-year-old Josephine Yvette Cogburn and 15-year-old Joyce Irene Cogburn were staying with an adult male friend of the family when he reported them missing.

He claimed the sisters ran away after last being seen headed to the local library. All of their personal belongings, including documents, were left behind in the apartment.

After a brief investigation, it was concluded that the sisters had indeed run away. Over time, their older sister discovered they may have been involved in drugs and accused the friend of killing them in a rage. He has since been interviewed several times but there is no evidence linking him to the crimes.

Josephine and Joyce’s social security numbers and names have never been used since their disappearance. The case is now open and unsolved.