10 Most Notorious and Infamous Crimes of the 2000s
The Disappearance of Natalee Holloway
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2005 On May 26, 2005, Alabama teen Natalee Holloway arrived in Aruba with 124 fellow graduating high school seniors. Four days later, she didn’t make her return flight home. Classmates remembered last seeing her leaving a nightclub and getting into a vehicle with three young men around 1:30 that morning. Joran van der Sloot and brothers Deepak and Satish Kalpoe were arrested multiple times but never charged. However, due to van der Sloot’s lies and attempts to extort money from Holloway’s parents in exchange for information, he remained the prime suspect. In January 2012, he was convicted of the first-degree murder of a woman in Peru. The day after he pleaded guilty to that murder, a judge in Alabama granted the request of Holloway’s father to declare Natalee officially deceased.
The Virginia Tech Shooting
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2007 The campus of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University was never the same after April 16, 2007. That morning, undergraduate student Seung-Hui Cho shot two people in his dormitory before chaining the doors of the Norris Hall building and taking another 30 lives, then his own. Almost two dozen more students were injured, some while trying to flee. The tragedy sparked criticism of America’s gun laws and mental health resources. Four years later, the US Department of Education fined the university for failing to alert everyone on campus in the two hours between the first and second attacks. While it wasn’t the first and far from the last, Virginia Tech is still considered the deadliest school shooting in the U.S..
The Murder of Meredith Kercher
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2007 In 2007, American exchange student Amanda Knox was studying abroad in Perugia, Italy when she and her Italian boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito were accused of murdering her roommate Meredith Kercher. The couple were ridiculed in the Italian press, particularly Knox, who was painted as a devious seductress motivated by sex. In 2009, both Knox and Sollecito were convicted of multiple charges, including murder and sexual violence, with Knox sentenced to 26 years in prison, and 25 for Sollecito. Italy’s legal process and interrogation tactics were widely criticized, eventually leading to Knox’s acquittal and release in 2011. But it wasn’t until 2015 that she and Sollecito were officially exonerated.
The Murder of Laci Peterson
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2002 On December 24, 2002, soon-to-be mom 27-year-old Laci Peterson went missing. Her body wasn’t found until April 14, 2003, one day after her unborn son Conner was discovered a mile away. Since the beginning of the investigation, Laci’s husband Scott Peterson was a suspect, due to his odd behavior in the midst of his wife’s disappearance. Investigators learned that he was having an affair when his girlfriend Amber Frey came forward. She had been unaware that he was married. Scott was arrested on April 18th and charged with the first-degree murder of his wife and second-degree of Conner. He was found guilty and sentenced to death in December 2004. However, he was resentenced in 2021 to life in prison without parole.
Bernie Madoff’s Investment Scandal
2008 After decades of a seemingly successful career as a stockbroker, former chairman of the NASDAQ stock exchange Bernard Madoff admitted it was all “one big lie.” In December 2008, he confessed to his sons Mark and Andrew, who both worked for him, that the business’ wealth management arm was actually a multi-billion dollar Ponzi scheme. Madoff defrauded thousands of clients, including charitable organizations. In the years since, a number of clients reportedly took their own lives including his son Mark in 2010. Madoff died of natural causes in 2021 while serving a 150-year sentence.
The Disappearance of Madeleine McCann
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2007 While vacationing in Praia da Luz, Portugal, British couple Kate and Gerry McCann experienced a parent’s worst nightmare. On the night of May 3, 2007, the McCanns went to dinner at a restaurant with friends while their children slept in the apartment nearby. The parents took turns checking in on them throughout the night. When Kate went in, her twin toddlers were asleep but 3-year-old daughter Madeleine had vanished. Portugal authorities launched an investigation that was later criticized because residents weren’t interviewed and the crime scene wasn’t properly secured, among other mistakes. A media circus ensued, with tabloids turning on the McCanns. The search for Madeleine continues, and in 2020, German police announced they had a potential suspect. As of 2023, no charges have been filed.
The Enron Scandal
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2001 Considered one of the largest bankruptcy filings in U.S. history, the fall of Houston-based energy company Enron is synonymous with scandal. For years, executives used fraudulent accounting practices and inaccurate financial reporting to cover up debts and failed ventures amounting to billions of dollars. On December 2, 2001, Enron filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Thousands of Enron employees lost their pensions and 401ks, along with their jobs. Several executives were charged with federal fraud with some sentenced to prison, including CEO Jeffrey Skilling and CFO Andrew Fastow. Enron’s founder Kenneth Lay died of heart disease before his scheduled sentencing.
The Death of Caylee Anthony
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2008 On July 15, 2008, just one month before she turned 3, Caylee Anthony was reported missing by her grandmother. But according to her mother Casey, she’d actually been missing since mid-June, supposedly kidnapped by a babysitter - a story that was immediately suspicious. Casey was charged with murder in October, and Caylee’s remains were found near the Anthonys’ home in December. Because of her conduct and lies to authorities, Casey became the most hated mom in America. The case was a media sensation, especially during the 2011 televised trial. Her defense team argued that Caylee had accidentally drowned, and that Casey and her father tried to cover it up. Perhaps the most shocking part of the case was the verdict: not guilty.
London 7/7 Bombings
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2005 In the early hours of July 7, 2005, Londoners made their commutes during the city’s morning rush hour. Within seconds of each other, there were three explosions on the London Underground just before 9:00 AM, orchestrated by Islamist terrorists. Bombs were detonated on three train cars outside different stations – Liverpool Street, Edgware Road, and between King’s Cross and Russell Square. Almost an hour later, a fourth explosion happened on a double-decker bus in Tavistock Square. The bombings took the lives of 52 victims, in addition to the four perpetrators, and left 784 injured. Later that month, more attacks on the transit system were carried out, but fortunately didn’t fully detonate.
September 11 Terrorist Attacks
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2001 Since the tragic events of 2001, September 11th has become a day of mourning for Americans. The first attacks took place that morning when 19 Islamic terrorists hijacked four flights traveling to California. Two planes were redirected to New York, crashing into the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers. The third plane crashed into the Pentagon in Virginia, while a passenger revolt on the fourth caused it to crash into a field in Pennsylvania, rather than its intended target, believed to be the White House or State Capitol. Between the four locations, 2,996 people were killed, and many thousands more injured. 9/11 remains the deadliest terrorist attack in history.
