Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

Spooked People Share Their Scariest 100% True Stories

Heck no! Not today Satan!!


Okay. Put down whatever it is your doing or eating and go get yourself a bottle of vodka; or whatever libation or sin you need to cope. The things you will read will be some Dateline NBC/ID Discovery/20/20 drama.


The world is full of scary and crazy and these stories are living proof. We aren't safe pretty much ever. We still have to go on and live but be vigilant. **WARNING**... don't read this after dusk.

Redditor OneStarvingEli wanted to know... What's the scariest story you know that is 100% true? This is why Dateline NBC tells you... "Don't watch alone!"

Submissions have been edited for clarity, context, and profanity.

Don't read this while eating...

Giphy

A woman was abducted by 2 men who stabbed her over 30 times. Her neck muscle completely removed, her guts spilling out. She crawled to the hospital WITH HER HEAD ALMOST DETACHED and survived. She wrote a book and now is a motivational speaker with 2 kids.

OneStarvingEli

Netflix, Pizza Guy & Chill.

That Netflix documentary "Evil Genius" about the pizza guy in Erie, Pennsylvania who had a bomb collar put around his neck then was forced to rob a bank. As a former delivery driver I was scared the entire time, but also super intrigued by the investigation and the people involved.

DatBowl

There was a young girl kidnapped in the middle of the day on a neighborhood street in a Springfield, MO. Someone in the street witnessed the event and tried chasing the car on foot to at least get the plate number and call the police. They sent out an amber alert after a few hours, identified the owner of the vehicle and his residence but by the time they got to his house, they found her body in a plastic tub in his basement and she had been shot dead.

The most messed up thing was that this guy was a middle school coach. We found out at my catholic high school that the murderer was the son of our theology teacher. Our teacher left school for over a week I'm sure trying to fathom how his own son could commit such a heinous crime.

The murderer was sentenced to death this year for the death of the girl, Hailey Owens. Her family, as well as the family of the murderer, lobbied to change amber alert laws so they can be issued faster after a kidnapping is reported.

Hailey Owens kidnapping and murder

bbill53

Lord the things you can find on YouTube.

Giphy

There was a serial killer known as the Weepy Voiced Killer. He would kill people then call 911 from a payphone, crying and begging them to catch and stop him. You can find the recordings of his 911 calls on YouTube.

Youcatthewrongpurrsn

Why must people take others with them?

This is a hometown story that stayed with me. It happened literally right around the corner from where I grew up, maybe a two minute drive away.

Judy Kirby murdered six children and one adult by intentionally driving the wrong way on a divided highway in an attempt to commit suicide. She had been hospitalized for depression, but had also just ended a relationship with her ex husband's brother and was by some reports involved in drug trafficking and fearing an imminent arrest.

She picked up her sister's son, who was celebrating his tenth birthday that day. She then loaded her three children into the car, supposedly to pick up a gift for the nephew. Instead, she went missing with the carload of kids. A short time later, calls started coming in to 911 about a car going the wrong way down the highway at a high rate of speed. They made it about 90 seconds before a head-on collision with another vehicle, driven by a father with two children and another child along for the ride.

The crash annihilated both vehicles. The only survivors were Kirby herself, and the child who was along for the ride in the other car. She was sentenced to 215 years in prison.

legitOC

Talk about family issues...

Giphy

My great-aunt and her husband owned a successful horse farm and found out that their son was stealing money from them. After he found out he went into their house while they were asleep and shot them to death, first my great-uncle while he sleeping and my great-aunt was found shot in her back laying across the front porch steps. He's currently in jail for a long time.

holymoltguacamole

Mind-boggling

The 2011 San Fernando massacre. Mexican cartel members (Los Zetas) abducted people from buses in Mexico. They executed the old and weak, tortured the women, threw the children in acid, and separated the men. The men were then forced into gladiatorial combat to the death, all in some kind of game to find new cartel recruits. They even forced the bus driver to run the bus over living people. It still blows my mind that this happened right there in Mexico, just a few years ago.

2011 San Fernando Massacre

kingofforest

Don't be cheap... PAY FOR THE UBER!

A friend of a friend was traveling in the UK and had to hitch-hike. The guy dropped her off at home. The next day police came knocking and proceeded to take her to the station and demand how she knows this man, what is their relationship etc. She finds out that the man had killed another female hitch-hiker that same day and had her in the trunk at the same time he was driving her (the friend). For some unknown reason he hadn't killed her. She couldn't sleep and cried for days and her home was placed on watch.

this-is-nice

Grandpa's got it!

Back in the 90's, my mom was on the highway heading home from a friends house late at night. She was driving a really nice thunderbird. After a while this big white van drove next to her and the driver started performing some very rude gestures and being young and dumb, my mom reciprocated the gestures. Then the dude pulled up a big Bowie knife to the window. My mom started panicking and sped up to get away and the van was following right along. Then the guy tried to run her off the road. Keep in mind they're probably going about 100 miles per hour. She gets on the exit to get home and he's still following her. When she does get back to her house, which she shared with my grandparents, she pulled into the drive way honking the horn and screaming trying to wake someone up. The van pulls into the driveway just as my grandfather comes out in his underwear with a gun. The dude got scared and drove off. My mom wouldn't leave her house for month except for school, but never at night.

PuSSiBoi420

This is a thing? I'm in trouble...

Giphy

Fatal Familial Insomnia. The whole story is crazy and perhaps the most terrifying Wikipedia rabbit hole I've ever gone down. Only a few families have this genetic disorder, iirc, and once you develop it, that's it, you die an agonizing death from an inability to sleep. It starts off like regular insomnia, but progresses over a few years until you legit go insane and finally shut down. NOTHING, not even the most potent drug, can induce sleep. Even when they tried to put them in comas, the brain remained completely active.

Kafkamazov

Well Japan is OFF my travel itinerary!

Issei Sagawa, the Japanese cannibal who admitted he still fantasizes about killing and eating women (after killing and eating a woman in Paris) walks free unmedicated and unmonitored in Japan to this day. Pretty creepy to know people like that walk around freely. Here's the Wikipedia entry

Juddston

Fido for the win!

Giphy

When I was younger (like 3 or 4) and she was home alone with me some guy came up to the door. This was before cellphones and people were nicer so she answered it even tho it was like 8 or 9 at night. Well, the guy was asking if he could come in and use her phone but she said no. He asked a couple more times before walking in and immediately got stopped by the family dog grabbing his hand and holding it tightly.

He started to get nervous and my dad's dog led him back to the door (he had walked further in at this point) my mom was able to push him out and lock the door before running upstairs and calling the police. The cops picked him up a little while later and they found out he had been in a bar fight and stabbed a guy a bunch of times. Without my "older brother" my mom and I could've been seriously hurt. He was the best dog ever and lived till the ripe age of 15.

WhiskeyTangoFaxtrot

Next time check for a pulse.

I lived in an apartment in Marina del Rey, California. 9 years ago, just before Halloween, a third-floor balcony was decorated with a prop of a dead man slumped over in a chair. For a few days, every time I'd come home I'd look up and think how cool looking it was and wondering why they didn't have lights shining on it at night. After a few days, people realized it was actually the resident of the apartment who killed himself. I was looking at a corpse thinking how cool it was.

markeees

What if...

Giphy

This is a incident that happened to me about 10 years ago. I live in Melbourne, Australia.

I was driving home from work one night around 9pm midweek so the roads were quiet. As I was driving downhill I heard a sound that was like a jet engine roaring behind me. The next thing I know a car goes flying past me going twice the speed limit. It looked like a fairly old crappy car. The car started to get the speed wobbles and then one of the tyres came flying off and rolled at speeds downhill whilst the car spun out and crashed. I stopped my car to make sure whoever inside was ok. A guy got out of the car and looked over at me then started moving extremely quickly towards me. I dont know why but I hit my internal locks on the car which was fortunate because no more then 2 seconds later the guy started grabbing at the drivers side door and smashing on my windscreen with his fists trying to get in, ill never forget the crazy look he had in his eyes. I put my foot down on the accelerator and drove off back home.

I decided to swap cars once I got home and drove back to see what was going on. I saw 2 fire trucks and about 4 police close to where the incident happened. When I got back to the crash site the guy was no longer there so I decided to head home.

The next day at work I was online bored reading the news when I saw an article that shocked me. The article was about a guy who had been in a police chase for 1 hour and the police stopped chasing him because it was becoming to dangerous. Turns out the guy was high on meth, had stolen a car an hours drive away and had been in a hot pursuit since. After crashing the car the guy apparently crossed to the other side of the road and hailed the first car that appeared which was a taxi. He got into the taxi and stole it, in the process he pushed the driver out of the driver side door and the driver got stuck and dragged at speeds. The driver died from the incident. I called the police and had a detectiive assigned to me. He fingerprint checked my car and got a statement.

I had to testify in the supreme court as a key witness in a murder trial. The guy got 30 years and they told me that my testimony was one of the main factors in convicting him. I often think back to that night and wonder if I hadn't locked my doors would I have been the one who got murdered.

bottlewash

I once received a random phone call from a girl who found my number from a google search of my address listed on a resume.

She was freaking out and wanted me to check up on her father who lived a few doors down in an apartment complex I resided in. While she was still on the phone with me I walked over to his door and knocked on it, no answer. She pleaded for me to enter the unit and I got nervous and refused, instead reporting the incident to the building manager. The manager said she would call the police to perform a wellness check. The father had killed himself.

KingOfBlingBling

This is why I only fly...

Guy was killed and cannibalized on a Greyhound bus by another passenger because apparently there were voices telling him to do it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_Tim_McLean

Taygr

Knock. Knock. Hey neighbor.

Giphy

My grandmother used to work at a mental illness facility when I was little, it was a place prisoners went after committing crimes that were so horrific they were deemed very mentally unstable and not suitable for a prison. One of her patients (who was VERY fond of her) was put into this place because he had strangled his mum and dad one night, hid their bodies under the floor boards. He was caught after a few months because the smell of rotting corpses had reached the neighbors, and they were cornered that they hadn't seen them in a while.

My grandmother lived within walking distance from this facility and so the prisoners that were deemed well enough to roam around the grounds were able to see her walking home. One of the other patients most have told him about where she lived because one night he escaped and went straight to my grandmother's house, knocking on the door and begging to come in.

Safe to say he was caught very quickly and my grandparents later moved house. Still scary to imagine though.

Too close for comfort...

My mom stayed in a hospital for a week at the same time that a serial killer worked there that was killing patients. The scariest part is I didn't even realize how close of a call she could have had until 20 years later when I was researching famous serial killers.

It was Charles Cullen.

PBandJoe

Always trust your gut!

Giphy

A year or two ago, I was living in the suburbs. I would walk the 20 minutes to the cheap grocery store and walk back if I didn't have that much stuff. Otherwise I would call a cab. I was a 21/22 year old boney female

Anyway, I noticed this man following me through the parking lot as I made my way across the parking lot to the store. He's huge. Probably late 30's or early 40's. Starts asking me questions, like what my name is, what my plans are and the like. I brush him off and keep walking. He's tailing me now. Follows me into the store. As I'm walking around, I notice him handling things in the produce section but not really paying attention to them.

I go to the cracker isle, and he's doing the same thing. As I go towards the till go pay, he leaves the store. I call my dad and he comes to get me. We see the man standing in a corner, where I would have had to walk through to get home. The man was waiting for me to leave.

tigerlily38

REDDIT

More from Trending/best-of-reddit

Cover of Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary
Brandon Bell/Getty Images

People's Response To Merriam-Webster's 2024 Word Of The Year Just Proved Their Point

Merriam-Webster dictionary nailed it with their 2024 Word of the Year selection that accurately defined the divisive reaction to the 2024 presidential election results.

The dictionary's account on X (formerly Twitter) declared this year's Word of the Year was, "Polarization," and joked:

Keep ReadingShow less
Nancy Mace
Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images

Nancy Mace Rages After Nobody Will Print Her Transphobic Holiday Wrapping Paper Design

South Carolina Republican Representative Nancy Mace was called out after sharing a photo of her anti-trans wrapping paper design to lament that "no company" would print it due to its "offensive" nature.

Mace, who has courted significant controversy for her efforts to bar Sarah McBride, the first transgender member of Congress, from using the bathroom that corresponds with her gender identity, shared on social media that she attempted to create custom wrapping paper, seemingly intended for raising campaign funds.

Keep ReadingShow less
Eugenio Derbez; Selena Gomez
Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images, Amy Sussman/Getty Images

'Coda' Star Apologizes After Selena Gomez's Classy Response To His 'Emilia Pérez' Criticism

Actor Eugenio Derbez walked back his harsh review of Selena Gomez's Spanish in the new musical crime comedy film Emilia Pérez after she responded with class to the tough criticism of not being a fluent speaker.

Gomez stars as Spanish-speaking character Jessi Del Monte, the wife of a cartel kingpin who undergoes gender-affirming surgery to start a new life as the titular Emilia Pérez.

Keep ReadingShow less
Screenshot of Donald Trump
NBC

Trump Dragged After Claiming He 'Started Using' The Word 'Groceries' During The Election

President-elect Donald Trump was dragged after claiming he "started using" the word "groceries" during the election—before asking, "Who uses the word?"

Trump, in an interview with Meet the Press host Kristen Welker, emphasized the soaring grocery prices affecting millions of Americans as a pivotal factor in his victory over Vice President Kamala Harris in the race for the White House.

Keep ReadingShow less
man pointing up
Alex Sheldon on Unsplash

People Break Down Their 'I F*cking Knew It!' Experiences

Sometimes you feel like you just know something is true, even if you can't prove it.

You may find out you're completely wrong. People usually don't like to talk about or acknowledge when that happens.

Keep ReadingShow less