The 10 Most SHOCKING True Crime Cases of 2025
10 Shocking True Crime Cases of 2025
Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re exploring the most shocking, disturbing, and infamous true crime cases across the world that took place in 2025.
Texas Terror Teachers
When parents drop off their children at school, it’s expected that they’ll be well looked after. However, for one child at Tyler High School in Texas in March 2025, that really wasn’t the case when their grandmother picked them up after school and saw their distress and injuries. The unnamed student, who has Down Syndrome, was allegedly punished by the special education teacher, Krystina Haas, and her two aides, Prisicilla Gutierrez and June Tryon, after apparently making a rude gesture. So, they reportedly forced the student to walk in circles for over four hours, tied their hands with tape, and shouted at them, which was captured on the school’s CCTV. The terrible trio was fired and criminally charged.
The Hamburg Train Station Attack
On a Friday evening in May 2025, the Hamburg Central Railway Station in Germany was packed with people. However, rather than a typical train journey, passengers were soon thrown into chaos. Identified as “Lydia S.” in reports, she reportedly began attacking people at random with a knife. After 18 individuals sustained injuries, two people, teenage Syrian refugee Muhammad Al Muhammad and Abu Bakr Siddik Agaev from Chechnya, managed to disarm and subdue Lydia until the police arrived shortly after. Thankfully, no one was killed in the attack. Lydia was charged with multiple attempted manslaughter offences as details emerged about her history of mental health issues and that she’d been released from a psychiatric hospital the day before the attack.
The Murder of Sana Yousaf
Teenager Yousaf was a big social media star in Pakistan as she promoted education for girls and the Chitrali culture, earning her over half a million followers on Instagram. According to her family, the bright star would use the cash from her work to help others. This popularity, unfortunately, drew Umar Hayat’s attention. He contacted her to offer to meet up, which Yousaf rejected. In June 2025, Hayat broke into Yousaf’s home in Islamabad. After an argument, he fatally shot the influencer with her family around. After fleeing the scene, Hayat was arrested and confessed to his crime, leading to a murder charge. This incident sparked fear among Pakistani women that there are no safe spaces for them, either online or in public.
The Karen Read Case
In 2022, John O’Keefe, a police officer in Boston, Massachusetts, was found severely injured outside another cop’s home. The night before, he and his partner, Read, had been at a party there until O’Keefe vanished. Sadly, he didn’t survive. Read was arrested and charged with fatally running over O’Keefe with her vehicle. However, she alleged that she was being set up by the police. In April 2025, after the first trial ended in a hung jury, Read was acquitted of murdering O’Keefe. In November, Read issued a lawsuit against the Massachusetts State Police and others for allegedly setting her up for O’Keefe’s murder and protecting the real killers. Shortly after, the case was moved to the federal court.
The Amsterdam Attack
It was a typical afternoon in the Sint Nicolaasstraat area near Dam Square in Amsterdam, Netherlands, as tourists and locals wandered the streets in March 2025. However, screams echoed around as a person reported as “Roman D.” began his attacks. Armed with multiple knives, the man from Donetsk, Ukraine, allegedly indiscriminately attacked people. After five people were injured by him, Roman attempted to flee. However, an unnamed British tourist tackled Roman, injuring the attacker’s leg, and held him until the police arrived to arrest the Ukrainian. Thankfully, no one was killed. In the aftermath, reports emerged that Roman was a soldier who deserted the Ukrainian army after a brain injury, which, according to his former colleagues, led to him demonstrating concerning behavior.
The Morgue Horror in Houston
In February 2025, shortly after passing away the month before, Charles Roy Rodriguez’s body arrived at the Memorial Mortuary and Crematory in Houston, Texas. Working as the embalmer was Amber Paige Laudermilk, who was meant to prepare Rodriguez for cremation. However, when she discovered he’d been charged with assault in 2001 and was on the register, Laudermilk snapped. She attacked the body, focusing on the lower half, in particular. When an embalming trainee saw what was happening, Laudermilk allegedly threatened them by stating they didn’t see anything. However, after the funeral director also examined the damage to the body, the police were called. Laudermilk was charged with abuse of a corpse and fired by her workplace.
The Villach Attack
In February 2025, Alaaeddin Alhalabi, a food delivery worker from Syria, was driving down the street in Villach, Austria, when he spotted injured people, and the alleged perpetrator, identified as “Ahmad G.,” also from Syria. Alhalabi reportedly rammed his vehicle into Ahmad to stop the violence. However, before he could get out to make sure Ahmad stayed subdued, people swarmed the car, believing Alhalabi was involved as well. Instead, after driving away, he called the police, who arrested Ahmad. He confessed to having attacked five people with a knife, taking one life. The investigation found that Ahmad had extremist views and sought to take as many lives as possible. Alhalabi, for his heroics, received death threats from extremists, but received awards for his bravery.
Iran’s Black Widow
Throughout her life in Iran, Kulthum Akbari seemed to be one of the world’s unluckiest people. After all, despite having many husbands, 11 of them died from natural causes. However, it wasn’t at all natural. Akbari had been poisoning her husbands with medications, leading to them receiving medical care and recovering, adding to the deception. Upon returning home, she’d purposely increase the dose until they perished. However, when the son of a surviving victim spoke to the son of her last murder victim about the poisoning, the police were informed and arrested her. Akbari confessed to taking the 11 lives, but there’s speculation she may have taken more. In September 2025, Akbari received ten death sentences and had to pay one victim’s family “blood money.”
The Haitian Island Invasion
In November 2025, news broke about the disturbing charges against Texas duo Gavin Weisenburg and Tanner Thomas. For a year, they’d planned to recruit people in D.C.’s homeless community to aid them in invading Haiti’s Gonâve Island. The duo wanted to take over the land, leading to them killing the men and enslaving the women and children. They signed up for classes to develop skills to achieve their alleged twisted plan, such as Thomas joining the Air Force and Weisenburg getting firefighting training. On top of all this, Weisenburg and Thomas were also charged with developing indecent material. While both have denied the charges and have stated their intentions to plead not guilty, they could face up to 30 years in jail.
The Louvre Heist
Filled with valuable artifacts, you’d expect the Louvre Museum in Paris, France, to have the highest security features. Yet with cameras that didn’t survey the area properly and the password to the security system being “Louvre,” it wasn’t. In October 2025, a group of thieves took advantage of this. Dressed as construction workers and using a moving lift, they broke inside. The group stole several historical pieces, valued at around $102 million, all within four minutes inside the building. However, they dropped and damaged the Crown of Empress Eugénie, which is the only recovered item so far. In November, after four people had been charged with the heist the month before, another four suspects were detained for their possible involvement.
What was the most shocking news story of 2025 that happened locally to where you live? Let us know in the comments!
