What’s the most shocking thing to happen in your neighbourhood/home town.

[Choclabratwatowner88]

Had the police around earlier to fill in a quick questionnaire in regard to a serious incident that just happened locally. As we live on the main road they wanted to know if we saw anything, the usual. My mum then pipes up that’s she’s been through this years ago when they were investigating a murder in our home town (not our current hometown) I was shocked as I’m 37 and never heard of this murder in my whole life, granted I was 3 at the time but still… things like that usually spread for years. I then went down a rabbit hole, turns out the murder happened right across the street from our old estate. The woman murdered was called Penny bell. She was found stabbed more than 50 times in her car, they still haven’t caught the killer. I never knew this whole time and it kinda threw me.
what’s the most shocking thing to happen in your hometown?

That was so awful for his parents.
It was probably the weird child molester at the little youth club.

Nobody is "glorifying violence" by mentioning or talking about it. It's human to share experiences of horrible things that have happened nearby (in some cases to people you know) because the experience and knowledge stays with you. Would you rather everyone pretended that the world was lovely and never spoke about anything that wasn't blue sky and sweet so you don't have to know it isn't always? That's the way coverups used to happen, you know. Being outraged that the thread even exists is not morally superior of you. If people were getting off on the violence that would be a different matter, but that's not the case here.

A mass murder. A man killed his wife, their four children, then himself.

It was so sad she was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Celine Figard, my village was right by it, she was so young and near my age.

I remember that house coming down too...awful chapter in hometowns history. Felt so bad for the surviving children.

And then Fred West, they dug up the garden next door in the search for victims.

I listened to a podcast where his Dad was interviewed and my heart just went out to him. How awful to not even know.

It’s crazy to think it actually happened- still feels made up! I’ve known tourists to go down there and take pictures outside of the house and I just don’t get it!

@FeetLikeFlippers I still miss Sarf Landon but, the other day, I popped to the shop while having a coffee. I left my stuff, phone and tablet included, on my table outside the café, confident they'd still be there in five minutes. There is something to be said for uneventful market towns!

I'd still rather have to be careful in a vibrant city, mind, but I'll take my wins where I find 'em. I feel sorry for the local paper; the only thing they get to investigate is the bypass controversy. That's been going on for 18 years, perhaps the backhanders aren't big enough yet 👀

A mass murder of teenage boys in my small city and all victims were from my school. I’m going back 30+ years but a boy from my school was murdered in a derelict house. A boy I knew well was arrested for his murder and held for several months until he was eventually released. Over the next few years 3 more teenage boys were murdered and eventually someone else was arrested & charged with their murder. It took more than 20 years before he was also convicted of the earlier murder.

The park where Brianna Ghey is in the town I live in.

Is this Luke Durbin?

Tv producer from The Bill plotted to have his wife murdered, they live in my village, well she still does

Luke Mitchell/ Jodi jones murder

I don't live there now, but when we bought our first home, in a nice area, we were unaware that several years earlier 2 children had been murdered not far away, within about 1/2 a mile.

It always spooked me, since learning of that, whenever I walked passed there. We only learned about it because after we moved in the local newspaper, which people would get back then, had a remembrance piece about what happened.

My old home town, in the 80s (not the most shocking as there was a much more documented case 10 years or so later, but personal to me). An 18 year old pregnant woman was raped, murdered and then her body set on fire. I had known her since we were 5, we went to school together and were friends. The man who did it was caught.

I always wonder if these guys think on this a bit harder while sitting in prison like, maybe she had a point keeping the daughter away...?

My neighbour was stabbed to death by her fiancé. Horrendous.

This is exactly who I thought of while reading the OP. Absolutely awful, she was only a wean. Poor wee lassie and her poor family

-lived in the town next to madeline mcanns parents
-a teen boy who murdered then dismembered another child and left body parts around, left one at the end of my old street.
-was friends with someone when i was a teen who turned out to be a paedophile

Deepcut Four

A house at the end of my road was set alight and a body was found in bed.

rumour there was a cannabis farm in the loft and a disagreement amongst crooks.

it was a semi detached. The poor neighbours moved out for over a year but in the first few weeks were in a caravan on their drive.

barely anything about it in any papers. Really weird!

Mark Hobson. His daughter was in my form class at school. That really unsettled me.

A man was stabbed over 60 times, and almost beheaded, very close to my house. The perpetrators were the sons of the victims partner. The whole story is very dark with a lot of unpleasant family dynamics. It almost seemed inevitable.