8 Of The Creepiest Things Caught On Surveillance Cameras

1. Elisa Lam was a Canadian student struggling with bipolar disorder and depression when she took off for Los Angeles. On the day she was expected to check out of the Cecil Hotel, she was nowhere to be found. While she was missing, police released elevator surveillance video that showed Lam acting very strange – flapping her hands, appearing to play hide-and-seek with an unseen figure, jumping in and out of the elevator when the door wouldn’t close. The video was widely discussed and debated, with some people seeing a girl who was struggling with mental health issues and others convinced she was hiding from a stalker, or even something paranormal. During the search for Lam, hotel guests had begun to complain about the color and taste of the water as well as the low water pressure in the showers. On the morning of February 19, 2013, Lam’s body was fished from one of the four 1,000-gallon tanks that provided water to guest rooms. The video had recorded Elisa Lam’s very last moments.

2. Missy Beverswas a 45-year old fitness instructor who was murdered inside Creekside Church in Midlothian, Texas on April 18, 2016. She was at the church very early in the morning, getting ready for her 5am Camp Gladiator class that was set to begin at 5am. But when her students arrived, they found her lifeless body; her death was attributed to puncture wounds to the head and chest. During the investigation, police released surveillance video from inside the church that depicted a figure wearing fake police tactical gear aimlessly wandering the corridors with a hammer in his or her hand, opening doors and peeking inside the dark rooms. What pinged many people’s radar was the fact that the person in the video has a very similar and distinctive gait as Bever’s father in law, Randy Bevers. So far, nobody has been arrested for the murder, and Bever’s husband says he is no longer searching for the killer.

3. Lars Mittank was a German student who vanished in Golden Sands, Bulgaria on July 8, 2014. He had been involved in at least one fight with a group of local people, and was unable to fly home with his friends as he had planned. Alone in Bulgaria, he had begun to exhibit some strange behaviors, including telling his mom he was being followed by four men who were “demanding to know where the pills were.” He also asked her to cancel his credit card. On July 8, 2014 he appeared at Varna Airport. He was carrying a backpack and a duffle bag, and looked normal – until he suddenly ran outside, without his luggage. Video caught him climbing a fence, running into a field, and then vanishing. He has never been seen since.

4. Jennifer Kesse was a beautiful, accomplished 24-year old woman who vanished without a trace on January 24, 2006. On the morning she vanished, a surveillance camera caught Kesse’s car being driven into a parking lot near her home. A figure emerges from the car and walks away. Unbelievably, in every frame, the driver’s face is obscured. Jennifer Kesse is still missing and no one has been arrested in her disappearance.

5. On February 1, 2004, 11-year-old Carlie Bruciawas walking home from a friend’s house when she was abducted as she passed the back of Evie’s Car Wash in Sarasota, Florida – an act that was caught on haunting video by the car wash’s surveillance system. Joseph Smith was later convicted of strangling the schoolgirl behind a church.

6. Lauren Giddings was a vivacious young woman who graduated from Mercer law school in May 2011 in Macon, Georgia. That summer, she was studying for her bar exam and getting ready for the next phase of her life. As part of her prep for the bar, she routinely met with her study group at the library, but by the middle of June, no one had seen her for a while. She wasn’t answering emails. As her disappearance became publicised, her neighbour Steven McDaniel, appeared on the local news to express how dismaying it was that Lauren just dropped off the face of the earth. But when the reporter told him that a body had been found, he’s clearly unnerved. Later, he would be found guilty of stalking her, shooting her and dismembering her body. He had been sexually obsessed with her. He had a master key to the apartment complex and would practice breaking into her house, spent hours online looking for information about her, and generally being a complete psychopath. As part of the investigation, police released some video, shot by Steven McDaniel, of him stalking Lauren Giddings.

7. Colleen Ritzerwas a high school math teacher who was loved by just about everyone. One of her students, Philip Chism was just 14 years old when the school CCTV system caught him stalking her as she walked down the hallway to the bathroom. He hesitated for just a moment before following her, strangling her, stabbing her 16 times, then raping her. CCTV then records him carrying her body in a trash can out to some woods behind the school.

8. Abby Williams, age 13, and Liberty German, 14, were school friends who planned to enjoy the last day of winter break with a walk in the woods. On February 13, 2017 in the early afternoon the girls were dropped off at a disused old railroad bridge in Delphi, Indiana. When the girls didn’t show up for their pick-up time, a search was launched for them. The next morning the girls were found about half a mile from the bridge. Police were shocked when they realized that Liberty German had used her phone to actually recorded their assailant – and possibly their own murder. Police released an audio clip of the murderer ordering the girls, “Down the hill,” but so far, there have been no arrests.