Celebrities Who Died Under Mysterious Circumstances

Celebrities spend their lives under excessive public scrutiny. Not a single event of their lives can be protected from the prying eyes of media or the anxious public. Which is why, it is quite surprising that some of the celebrities died under mysterious circumstances and still their actual cause of death hasn’t been identified. Homicide cases do get solved at some point in life but it can take years and even decades. But, we believed that the police took keen interest in solving the cases of famous celebrity’s’ deaths given the immense public pressure. However, the yet unsolved death mysteries of the following 25 celebrities prove that when it comes to solving cases, the investigators employ a totally unbiased approach. Let’s check them out.

Mary Meyer was the ex-wife of a CIA official Cord Meyer, an American socialite, and rumored mistress of President John F. Kennedy. She was murdered brutally on 12 October, 1964, and the police haven’t identified the murderer or the cause of her death even today. It is believed that her murder has something to do with Kennedy’s assassination, but there is no such evidence to prove this aspect.

Reportedly, Meyer went for a walk in Georgetown, along the Ohio Canal and Chesapeake after completing work on a painting. An eye witness by the name of Henry Wiggins claims that he was fixing a car on Canal Road when he heard a female’s cry for help and two gunshots. Hiding behind a low wall, he overlooked the road and saw a black male wearing dark slacks, light jacket, and dark cap standing over a female’s dead body.

Colby, an American actress, was shot dead in the parking lot while she was walking to her car along with one of her colleagues James Kiernan on 24 July, 1975. As per media reports, the Phyllis star was to attend an acting class in Venice, California with her co-star Kiernan, who also got shot but survived long enough to describe the attackers to the police and then died later. Both were shot just once.

Colby, however, died on the spot.  Before dying, Kiernan told the police that two black men who drove in a light colored van opened fire without any warning, incitement or motive. The police couldn’t determine the motive as well since the deceased were not robbed. The case remains open to investigation even today.

On March 3, 1983, the New Wave Theater host Peter Ivers was bludgeoned to death in his own bedroom in downtown Los Angeles. Upon investigation, the Los Angeles Police Department couldn’t find any clue to identify the killer because several of Ivers’ friends rushed to visited the house to mourn his death and unknowingly tampered with critical evidence of the crime scene. Hence, there were only a few theories to direct the course of investigation. Speculations suggest that Peter Ivers was either killed by a burglar in a robbery gone wrong or that perhaps one of his theater attendees perhaps it was the owner of the theater who was the murderer.

The same night that Peter Ivers died, he was to meet with David Jove to give his resignation as host of the New Wave Theater as he had just sold a screenplay. He was no long struggling financially and now wanted make his own way in Hollywood. Peter was found dead less than five hours later from his meeting with David Jove. This case is still open and police have not been able to find the killer.

Anna Nicole Smith was a very popular American model, TV personality, actress and the 1993 Playmate of the Year. She was one of the most famous Playboy models during the early 90s and made Guess brand one of the hottest clothing line when she modeled for them. After the death of her son in September 10, 2006 due to a drug overdose, just four day after the birth of her daughter, Dannielynn, Anna’s behavior changed drastically and six months later, on February 8, 2007 she died after consuming a similar drug cocktail that took her son’s life. Anna Nicole Smith was 39 years old.

Her death was declared by many as a suicide as she suffered from severe depression and anxiety but the actual ruling was an accidental overdose. However, the fact that the mother-son duo died in similar manner sparked controversy and the mystery isn’t solved until today.

Nance was a famous American actor, best known for acting under the direction of David Lynch in the movie Eraserhead. Nance mysteriously died on 30 December, 1996 in South Pasadena, California. According to some of his friends with whom Nance lunched a day before his death, he complained of being beaten by a young, homeless man outside the Winchell’s Donuts store earlier that day.

His friends also noticed a crescent like bruise under one of his eyes. Nance went home after lunch because of headache and was found dead in his home the next morning. Investigation revealed that his death was caused by a subdural hematoma that resulted from the injuries, but the investigators couldn’t find evidence of the fight.

Stompanato’s death on April 4, 1958 received immense media attention primarily because he was the bodyguard and enforcer for the notorious Mickey Cohen and the Cohen family. He was also in an tumultuous relationship with famed actress Lana Turner, and associated with the Jewish Mafia. Stompanato was rumored to be an aggressive bodyguard and an abusive boyfriend. Investigation revealed that he was stabbed by Turner’s 14-year old daughter Cheryl Crane with a kitchen knife at Turner’s house to stop him from attacking her mom.

However, people didn’t accept this reason and it is speculated even today that Turner killed Stompanato in her house in Beverly Hills and put the blame on her under-age daughter. Stompanato’s death was ruled a justified homicide because it was in self-defense.

Ronni Chasen was one of the most sought-after American publicists from the early 2000s, and represented many famous celebrities including Hans Zimmer, Mark Isham and Michael Douglas in her brief career. On 16 November 2010, Chasen was shot dead in Beverly Hills at approx. 12:28 a.m. while she was driving back home after attending the Hollywood premiere of the movie Burlesque.  The reason and motive behind her murder is a mystery even after a decade.

Neighbors in the the prestigious neighborhood hear gunshots. The coroner’s office cited that there were three gunshot wounds to the chest and one shot to the back; it was suspected that her death was a random act of violence and that the murdered was looking to rob Ronni. A month later a suspected was confronted and he committed suicide after her case appeared on America’s Most Wanted.

Carradine was found dead in a Bangkok hotel room on 4 June, 2009. He was staying at the hotel to shoot for a movie, and his body was found hanging weirdly in the closet as his hands, neck, and genitals were tied with a rope. It is claimed that he died while practicing autoerotic asphyxiation.

After his death, two of his former wives, Marina Anderson and Gail Jensen claimed that Carradine did have a liking for self-bondage and deviant sexual behavior. However, Anderson investigated the incident and concluded that Carradine was murdered.

 A very famous British journalist and television host, Jill Dando was associated with the BBC for nearly fourteen years. On 26 April, 1999, soon after leaving her fiancé’s residence a bullet was shot to her head in front of her doorstep as she exited to leave her house and Dando died on the spot.

Operation Oxborough was launched to investigate her murder, which turned out to be the largest ever murder inquiry in the UK since the Yorkshire Ripper hunt. However, the killer was never caught. 

Chris Trickle was a NASCAR driver whose murder still remains a mystery because of a Nevada Law. The 24-year old Trickle was one of the victims of the February 9, 1997 shooting in an Los Angeles drive-by and succumbed to his injuries a year later, on 25 March, 1998. However, according to the law the gunmen couldn’t be prosecuted for Trickle’s death as it had occurred over a year after the shooting.

This particular law was modified later on but due to it, the murder of Trickle remained unsolved and the case is now declared cold. Talk about being at the wrong place at the wrong time. Chris Trickle was a rising star that died just too young.

Spencer was a professional famous hockey player from Canada and part of several NHL teams in his 10-year long career, which lasted until 1979. On 2 June, 1988,  just a year after getting acquitted in a 1982 kidnapping and murder case, he got shot allegedly while buying cocaine from a dealer in Riviera Beach, Florida. Cops claim that he was shot by robbers but rumor has it that there is something fishy about the way he was killed, and it could probably be a payback act.

He was killed seating on the passenger side of the car, the fatal bullet went through his upper right arm, traveled into his chest cavity, went into and through the heart and exited into the right lung.

Sweden’s prime minister and Swedish Social Democratic Party’s leader, Sven Olof Joachim Palme was loved by his countrymen and was a popular political personality. On 28 February, 1986 at around 11:00 p.m. Palme was shot in the back with the only .375 magnum gun when he and his wife were walking back home in Stockholm, from a movie theatre. Nobody still knows who killed him and why.

Throughout the years, there have been an array of suspects, from a small time criminal to the country of South Africa to wanted Palme dead. But the most probably suspect was a witness to the scene. The case has now been closed because the most viable suspect committed suicide.

Many remember Rogers as the Beautiful Cigar Girl. On 28 July, 1841 her dead body was discovered in the Hudson River. Her murder remained the talk of the town as it was sensationalized for a long time and it also inspired the poem The Mystery of Marie Rogêt written by Edgar Allan Poe in 1842. Her murderer was never caught.

Mary Rogers was a lovely girl of just twenty-one years old when she was found drown. It was suspect that she may have been a victim of gang violence. But more probable theory was that she was dumped in the Hudson River after a botched abortion. It was rumored that her boyfriend may have been involved in her death but no charges were ever filed.

Remember the hit TV show from the 1950s Adventures of Superman. Reeves played the newspaper photographer Clark Kent and the role of Superman. Man of Steel in both the television shows and live-action movies from 1951-1958. Another thing for which he is remembered for is his mysterious murder. Reeves died from a gunshot on the left side of his forehead at the age of 45 just the day before he was to wed party girl socialite Leonore Lemmon on June 16, 1959.

The investigators claimed it to be a suicide case, but people still believe that it was either a murder or he got targeted in an accidental shooting. At the time of his death, there were his fiancée, Leonare Lemmon, William Bliss, writer Robert Condon, and neighbor Carol Van Ronkel. It was rumored that Reeves and Lemmon were arguing and then tragedy stuck. No charges were ever filed to any of the people who were there that fatal night.

Shakur was a world famous rapper and hip hop legend. In 1994, Tupac was shot right outside his Quad studio in Manhattan, New York but he survived. A convicted murdered claimed to be the shooter and said that he was hired by the hip-hop mogul James ‘Jimmy Henceman’ Rosemond, the head of Czar Entertainment to rob and ‘rough up’ Tupac. This sparked a hip hop war between the Eastside and Westside of the United States.

On 7 September,1996, while he was staying in Las Vegas, Nevada, an unknown man from the street shot him five times in a drive by shooting. Shakur succumbed to his injuries and died 6 days later. To this day no one knows what really happened. There is speculation that Surge Night (man driving the car) may be involved in the killing.

Christopher Wallace, popularly known as the Notorious B.I.G. died on 9 March, 1997, only a few months after the murder of Tupac Shakur. The rapper was in a Los Angeles, California and the murder took place from a drive-by where he was shot many times, and he died an hour later. His death also remains a mystery like Tupac’s.

The Hogan’s Heroes fame American actor Bob Crane was bludgeoned to death on 29 June, 1978 at Winfield Place Apartments, located in Scottsdale, Arizona. The murder weapon was believed to be a camera tripod but it was never discovered.  When a co-star found his dead body, there was an electrical cord tied around his neck.

Further probe revealed that Crane was a contributor for the underground sex industry. He was aided by an audio-visual expert John Henry Carpenter. Together, they filmed many videos of them having sex with women, some who consented and others who only discovered when the Scottsdale police informed them of their involvement. Carpenter was the prime suspect in Crane’s murder investigation but it is still unsolved.

Christa Helm’s claim to fame was her brief stints in the movies Starsky and Hutch and Wonder Woman. This beautiful blonde was famous within the Hollywood circles mostly as a party hopper. She also consorted the Shah of Iran and celebs like Mick Jagger, Warren Beatty, and Joe Namath. She documented the details of her encounters with famous personalities in her much controversial “sex diary.”

Probably the information it contained was, according to the investigators, the key motive behind her brutal murder in 1977. She was bludgeoned and stabbed twenty times on a West Hollywood street and we still don’t know who killed her and why.

Rappe was a famous American model from the early 1900s. She acted in many silent movies and was quite famous in Hollywood. On 5 September, 1921 Rapper was staying in a San Francisco hotel with fellow silent movie actor Roscoe Arbuckle aka Fatty. Both were enjoying a Labor Day party when Rappe suffered a trauma caused by secondary peritonitis and ruptured bladder. She died on September 9.

Her death caused huge media frenzy as well as gave Hollywood one of its first scandals. Arbuckle was the prime suspect and charged for her murder. It was alleged that Arbuckle either raped Rappe with a foreign object or squashed the actress with his weight while assaulting her, which caused peritonitis. However, these are mere speculations and what happened that night still remains a mystery.

The six-year old American Child Beauty Pageant winner JonBenét Patricia Ramsey was found dead in 1996, in her own home located in Boulder, Colorado. Her body was discovered by the cops in the basement about eight hours after her parents John and Patsy Ramsey reported her missing.  JonBenét was strangled to death with a garrote and was also struck on the head with a heavy object that broke her skull.

Her death was declared a homicide. Initially her parents and later her brother were suspected but DNA analysis proved they weren’t involved. However, even after numerous grand jury hearings, the case could not be solved.

Wood drowned while taking a weekend boat trip with Robert Wagner, her husband, and costar Christopher Walken during the shooting of her last movie Brainstorm. They were sailing to Santa Catalina Island, California and the boat was captained by Dennis Davern. It is still unknown how or what made her drown as nobody onboard had any idea how this happened.

Wagner claimed that Wood wasn’t in the room when he entered. Wood’s dead body was discovered on 29 November, 1981 at 8.a.m at a mile’s distance from the boat. According to the autopsy report, she had bruises on her entire body and a scratch on her left cheek. Fans believe that her jealous husband murdered her and then threw her body in the water.

Hoffa evolved from a dangerous gangster to becoming one of the most powerful labor union president in America. His death until this day remains the biggest unsolved mystery of the 20th century. Reportedly, the last time he was seen alive was in 1975, at the Red Fox restaurant’s parking lot, located in Bloomfield Township in Michigan. He was expecting to meet a New Jersey union leader and a local gangster to settle a feud but they never showed up.

The next day, cops only found Jimmy Hoffa’s car in the restaurant’s parking lot and he was missing. In 1982, the cops gave up as they couldn’t find him dead or alive, and he was legally declared dead. Until this day, we still do not know where or what happened to Jimmy Hoffa.

On 20 July, 1973 the 32-year old martial artist and Hong Kong’s famous imported actor, Bruce Lee complained of a headache and was prescribed Equagesic, but instead of getting rid of the headache, he went into an coma soon after taking it and couldn’t be revived. As per the coroner’s investigation, Lee was seriously allergic to one of the ingredients of the medication. After consuming it, the reaction caused an increment in his brain’s cerebrospinal fluid leading to his death. At the time of his death, he was shooting for the movie Enter the Dragon.

His fans didn’t buy the explanation. Many believe that Lee either died from a death strike called Dim Mak that he received from his master when he was a young Shaolin Monk, or he was murdered by a Hong Kong-based transnational Chinese criminal organization Triads. We was well loved and respected from the A-listers of Hollywood that fans in America. Steve McQueen and Bruce Lee were the hottest star during the 1970s Hollywood era. They were rivalries but had immense respect for one another, so much so that Steve McQueen was one of the pallbearers at Bruce Lee’s funeral.

There’s no need to introduce Princess Diana, fondly remembered as the People’s Princess. Diana died in 1997 in a deadly car crash in France. However, her death still remains a mystery because it isn’t clear whether he Royal Family staged her death as she was preparing to marry her Muslim boyfriend Dodi Al-Fayed, son of the billionaire Mohammad Al-Fayed, or she became the victim of the headline hungry Paparazzi.

The world still awaits the reason behind her death and despite many investigations, the case still remains open. Was ‘the firm’ involved? Did Charles play a hand in Diana’s death? Or was it just a sad unfortunately accident driven by the media’s obsessive intent for the latest dirt on Diana and her boyfriend at the time?

On 5 August, 1952, Marilyn Monroe’s psychiatrist Dr. Ralph Greenson found her dead body in her Brentwood home’s bedroom. The 36-year old Hollywood actress apparently took an overdose of barbiturate and committed suicide. However, there have been many conspiracy theories surrounding her death circumstances and fans believe that she was murdered because of her connection with President John F. Kennedy and that perhaps it was his brother Robert Kennedy who put the hit out on Marilyn.

There have been some evidence suggesting that the President’s assassination and Monroe’s murder are connected. Whatever happened to this most beautiful actress, the industry lost one of its brightest stars and nobody until this day still knows why.

This is by far the most mysterious unsolved cold case murder that ever occurred. Dubbed the “Black Dahlia,” Elizabeth Short was an aspiring actress that never quite made it in Hollywood the way she had dreamt of when she left her home town in Medford, Massachusetts to the glimmering lights of Hollywood. Instead her fame came at her cost when her body was found on January 15, 1947 on the local street of Los Angeles; severed in half and her face with mutilated in the most horrific way.

Over the years, nearly sixty men have confessed to Elizabeth Short’s murder making the investigation insanely difficult. Several suspects have been questioned over the years, they included Daniel S. Voorhees who confessed to her murder 15 days her body was found. The most notorious suspect was Dr. George Hill Hodel who’s daughter claimed that he had raped her and was responsible to several murders including that of Elizabeth Short. In Until this day, the murder has remained unsolved. Elizabeth Short never got the fame she aspired to in her life but her death have made Hollywood history when Brian de Palma made a movie about her called the Black Dahlia based on same book that was written by local crime writer James Ellroy by the same name.