Picture this: you’re strolling through your hometown, maybe heading to your local grocery store, when suddenly, you stop dead in your tracks. You’re face-to-face with the stark reality of death — a lifeless human stare. It’s a chilling reminder that people die every second, leaving behind mere shells of their former selves. 

What’s even more gruesome is when people stumble upon pieces of a body — fragments of what was once a whole person, now a huge, haunting question: Who was this person? Particularly bone-chilling are finds of severed heads, bearing eyes that once saw and mouths that once spoke. Here are ten instances of ordinary days turned horrifying upon the discovery of a decapitated head and the stories that ensue.

San Bernardino Jane Doe

One day in February 2010, a man in San Bernardino County, California, was scouring a desert road in Barstow for cans to recycle for cash. He found a backpack and, driven by curiosity, decided to check its contents. To his utter shock and horror, he found it contained a severed head. The police arrived on the scene to examine the head, which had been wrapped in plastic bags before being stashed in the backpack. 

Despite the police’s best efforts, their investigation into the apparent murder hit a dead end. Even after constructing a visual approximation of the woman’s appearance before her death, they were unable to identify her. She remains an unidentified Jane Doe of San Bernardino County to this day.

Jeremy Jerome Jackson

On the morning of June 10, 2017, in Jackson, Mississippi, a horrifying discovery was made: a severed head sat on someone’s front porch. Police quickly arrived on the scene, bringing the head to the medical examiner for investigation. The examiner found that the cause of death was decapitation, meaning the victim had been alive when his head was severed. At the time, the identity of the victim was unknown. 

Later that day, a shocking twist unfolded: in a nearby wooded area, children found a burned, headless body. The police, recognizing the grisly connection, identified the victim as 30-year-old Jeremy Jerome Jackson. The police called in federal aid and announced a $20,000 reward for any information leading to the apprehension of Jackson’s killer.

Pennsylvania Jane Doe

On December 12, 2014, a decapitated head was discovered in Economy, Pennsylvania, setting off a bizarre and unsettling series of events. The eyes of the elderly woman had been replaced with red balls, and the head was so well preserved it resembled a “deteriorated Roman statue” more than a human. Despite artist renderings of the woman’s likely pre-embalmed appearance and numerous tips, police were unable to identify her. 

The search for the rest of the body continued, stretching from days to weeks, weeks to months, and months to years. They were never able to identify her, but they did determine her body parts were likely sold on the black market. She was laid to rest about a year after the discovery, with a headstone reading, “Jane Doe. Found Dec. 12, 2014.”

Osakan Woman

In a strange and unsettling incident, the severed head of an unidentified 27-year-old woman was found in Osaka, Japan, leading to the arrest of a 26-year-old man from Long Island. On February 27, 2018, Yevgeniy Bayraktar was detained for allegedly “confining” the woman in question. A search of his Osaka apartment led to the grim discovery of her decapitated head. Surveillance camera footage revealed the woman entering Bayraktar’s residence with him but never leaving. 

The pair had connected on a dating app and planned to travel together, but things took a terrifying turn. While the woman was never observed leaving his apartment, Bayraktar was later seen departing with a sizable bag. The woman’s torso, arms, and legs were subsequently found in the mountains of Osaka and Kyoto.

Heidi Balch

Back in March 1989, a woman named Susan Spencer was employed as a prostitute in New York when she suddenly disappeared. Shortly thereafter, a golf course in New Jersey became the gruesome scene of a severed head discovery. The victim was determined to have AIDS, but her identity remained unknown, and the case quickly went cold. Her skull, in the meantime, was kept on an evidence shelf. 

Fast forward to 1996, and serial killer Joel Rifkin admitted to contracting AIDS from a prostitute, which he claimed spurred his murderous spree. He also confessed to killing a woman named Susie.  

In 2013, New Jersey detectives began to connect the dots. They visited an aunt who had reported her niece missing years ago. DNA tests finally proved that the head belonged to a woman named Heidi Balch. Known as “Susan Spencer” in her line of work, Balch’s identity finally surfaced, solving a cold case that had remained unresolved for 24 years.

Mexico

In November 2016, a grisly scene emerged when Mexican authorities discovered a mass grave bearing the distinct signs of drug cartel activity. A total of 32 bodies were uncovered, including nine decapitated heads believed to be victims of botched ransom kidnappings. Initially, the nine heads were found, followed by the bodies which bore clear indications of torture, a well-known calling card of the local drug cartels. 

This horrific episode was just one of many similar atrocities happening around that time, a violence epidemic that continues to afflict many parts of Mexico. Not even military personnel were safe, as cartels began abducting soldiers around the same period as the nine severed heads were discovered.

Hervey Medellin

On a beautiful January day in 2012, a couple of women were out walking their dogs in Griffith Park, located in Hollywood, LA. One of their dogs started to mess with a plastic bag they’d come across. They were in for a horrific surprise. The bag contained the severed head of a 66-year-old man named Hervey Medellin. As the dog tugged and shook the bag, the head tumbled out, leaving the women in shock. 

Cops sprung into action, and soon, severed hands and feet were discovered at the site. Medellin’s boyfriend, lover, and roommate, a man named Gabriel Campos-Martinez, quickly became a person of interest. Eventually, Campos-Martinez was charged and found guilty for the murder of Hervey Medellin.

Texas And Louisiana

In a twist of events, a woman’s decapitated head was discovered by volunteer cleaning crews around Lake Houston in Texas. Volunteers came across a plastic bag containing the severed head in March 2018, with a pistol found nearby. The police sketched an image of what they thought the victim looked like before her death. 

Just a few weeks prior, another severed head, packed in a plastic grocery bag, was found at a lake in Louisiana, about 240 kilometers (150 mi) away. After seeing the news about the two eerily similar cases, police departments promptly reached out to each other and started cooperating. A sketch of what the Louisiana victim might have looked like was also created, showing the two women had a striking resemblance. 

At Lake Houston, a man in a run-down teal pickup truck was spotted tossing a plastic bag near where the head was found. Hoping to question this man, the police released his description, but as of now, they haven’t found any leads. 

Halloween

In October 2018, while folks across the United States were getting ready for Halloween celebrations, a pair of Oakland residents made a startling claim at the local police station: they’d found a human head. Cops brushed it off as a Halloween prank initially, chuckling at the supposed jest. But the joke was on them—it was no prank. The severed head was, indeed, genuine. The two Bay Area folks had been visiting an apartment complex in Oakland when they came across the head, barely covered with flesh, in the yard. They then decided to hand it over to the police. 

Later, when police spoke to the residents of the apartment complex where the head had been found, no one had a clue how it ended up there—it had just mysteriously appeared. Earlier in September, a partially mummified, decomposing torso was discovered, so the police immediately believed they had a probable match.

Adam Walsh

In a heartbreaking and infamous true crime case, a severed head was found—the head of six-year-old Adam Walsh. Adam’s dad, John Walsh, following his son’s tragic end, would go on to host the TV show “America’s Most Wanted,” aimed at bringing the real-life monsters roaming our streets to justice. It was August 10, 1981, when the nightmare of the Walsh family and investigators became reality: The severed head of young Adam Walsh was discovered in Florida, two weeks after his disappearance from a shopping mall. 

It was only years later that a savage cannibalistic serial killer, Ottis Toole, confessed to Adam’s murder and revealed where he’d buried the rest of the body. There was just one snag: The police couldn’t locate the remains where Toole claimed they’d be, and without that evidence, they couldn’t convict Toole for Adam’s murder. Toole later withdrew his confession. 

Toole was the crime partner of another ruthless serial killer, Henry Lee Lucas, and they embarked on a frenzied killing spree before parting ways. In 1996, on his deathbed, Toole confessed once again to Adam’s murder as he was dying from liver failure. Yet, it wasn’t until 2008 that the case would officially close. Investigators finally pieced together the puzzle of Walsh’s severed head and Toole’s final confession that had occurred over a decade earlier. 

Adam Walsh’s murder led to the well-known Code Adam drills, which are conducted in various places worldwide. During these drills, exits are sealed off when a child goes missing in a public place.