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?

A girl I know (Paige) was murdered in a Deli on her way to work. It was all over the news.

A murder happened about 100 yds from our house wheni lived in Bristol in themid 90's. Apparently 2 men who had been drinking together had an argument and one stabbed the other.
We were out for the night so didn't see or hear anything

Yes I recognised Arlene's story.
It's always stuck in my mind to the extent I can still see her picture in my minds eye and remember the story in quite a lot of detail.
Absolute tragedy. And so dreadful for her children and her family.

Protests which have included men throwing Nazi salutes. Were a small town in Scotland, didn’t think I’d see that in my lifetime.

Very, very little where we live.
But a few years ago a mother killed herself and her daughter which was very sad.

The murder of Rachel Nickell. We used to walk to school and regularly see Colin Stagg on his way to Wimbledon common to walk his dog. After he was arrested Mum always said he was such a nice man who couldn't have killed anyone. Turns out she was right!

TW by any chance?

Child murderer lived opposite me. Wouldn't say boo to a goose he abducted the child from a caravan when her mum left her alone for the evening.

It really is so awful.

The fact that Nat still denies it so hasn't given her family, and his own children, any sort of closure as to what happened or where she is, is shocking.

Not sure when he is due for release, probably in the next few years, bet he will still live around here swanning around like the arrogant prick he did before he was jailed.

Arthur Labinjo-Hughes

Loads of things, but the one that's stuck with me was the death of Arthur Labinjo Hughes. I live around the corner from the house the family lived in. I still think about that poor little boy every time I walk down that road.

Back in the late 90s, a friend of mine was caught speeding on his motorbike on the A96. He was called to court in Elgin on a Monday morning and his was the last case to be called. We sat for about three hours listening to case after case of ABH, GBH, aggravated assaults etc. There was about 15 of them, all from the previous week or two. I made my mind up at that point never to go out drinking in Elgin of a weekend!

Mick Philpott murdering 6 children by setting fire to the house in a bid to get a bigger council house.
Utterly evil man and his mate and girlfriend/wife.
Just vile.

He certainly came over as a totally arrogant, cold hearted bastard.

A double murder and mutilation circa 90s in a nearby tower block where my freind lived, followed by the abduction and rape of two down syndrome girls by the same person. He lived opposite me & police searched my garden for the murder weapon.

Harold Shipman was the local GP.

Lots of UFO sightings / unexplained happenings.

Katrina monk

Quite a few tbh as a Londoner who was born, educated & has lived in various parts of SW London. Sarah Everard was the most shocking, at the time I lived about 10 mins walk away.

The murders of Barnaby Webber, Grace O'Malley Kumar and Ian Coates.

Nothing too shocking but a good many years ago a bank vault in our town was broken into (drilled through the walls of a nearby shop) and 15 million stolen from safe deposit boxes (some of it belonging to two separate mob families - bad idea). Turns out it was a few cops from our town who did it. The headline read Cops Were The Robbers.

I remember that. Utterly shocking too. We as a country need to crack down on this abhorrent, ridiculous behaviour.

Name changed as it is a pretty small town! A murder in the 1990s and another earlier this year which was in the national press as it was initially a “no body” case though remains were found recently. There is also a high security prison here and there was a murder there earlier this year, as well as various other crimes that have happened in there. A woman who lives very close to me went to prison a few years ago for defrauding an elderly neighbour.

A wildfire that caused the evacuation of 82,000 people and destroyed over 2000 homes.

Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka.
Canadian Serial Rapist and serial killer.
Utterly disgusting.

We lived a couple of streets away from Shannon Matthews at the time she was missing.