5 of the Most Famous Unsolved Murders in U.S. History
Updated September 25, 2026
Not every famous murder stays unsolved. JonBenét Ramsey’s 1996 murder, the Notorious B.I.G.’s 1997 killing, and the Zodiac Killer’s Bay Area spree remain open cases. Tupac Shakur’s broke the pattern: a Las Vegas jury convicted Duane “Keffe D” Davis of his 1996 murder in September 2026. D.B. Cooper’s 1971 hijacking is one the FBI stopped actively pursuing in 2016.
Forensic science has closed the gap on what used to be the perfect crime: DNA databases, digital paper trails, and decades of patient detective work have cracked cases nobody expected to solve. We’re leaving off the world’s most famous unsolved case, Jack the Ripper, since he never set foot on this side of the Atlantic — this list stays domestic. But a handful of headline murders and disappearances have outlasted all of it, and a few status updates below might surprise you if you haven’t followed these cases in a while.
What Happened to D.B. Cooper?
On November 24, 1971, a man calling himself Dan Cooper hijacked a Northwest Orient flight out of Portland, collected a $200,000 ransom and four parachutes during a stop in Seattle, then jumped out the back stairs of the Boeing 727 somewhere over the Cascade foothills. He was never found. Most of the money wasn’t either, though $5,800 of it surfaced along the Columbia River in 1980, still bundled in decaying rubber bands.
The FBI investigated for 45 years before closing active work on the case in 2016, redirecting agents to cases with a realistic shot at prosecution. The FBI stopped actively investigating the case in 2016 but asks to be contacted if specific physical evidence related to the parachutes or ransom money emerges. Nothing has surfaced since, and Cooper’s identity remains the coldest case on this list.
Who Killed JonBenét Ramsey?
On December 26, 1996, JonBenét Ramsey’s mother found a ransom note and reported the 6-year-old missing from their Boulder, Colorado home; her father found the girl’s body in the basement later that morning. She’d been strangled with a garrote made from a paintbrush handle and cord. Boulder County prosecutors named her parents, John and Patsy Ramsey, “persons of interest” in 1997, and the family lived under public suspicion for over a decade.
In 2008, Boulder County District Attorney Mary Lacy said DNA evidence supported exonerating John, Patsy, and Burke Ramsey and pointed to an unidentified male contributor instead. Patsy Ramsey had died of ovarian cancer two years before that statement, still publicly suspected of a crime the evidence had already begun to clear her of. The case remains open, and investigators have explored whether forensic genetic genealogy can be applied to the Ramsey evidence as DNA technology advances.
Was the Adam Walsh Case Really Closed?
On July 27, 1981, 6-year-old Adam Walsh disappeared from a Sears store in Hollywood, Florida. His remains were found two weeks later, 130 miles away. Drifter Ottis Toole confessed to the killing more than once, then recanted more than once, and was never charged before he died in prison in 1996 on unrelated charges. In December 2008, Hollywood police officially closed the case and named Toole as the killer, citing what they called a “vast amount” of circumstantial evidence.
That closure didn’t end the debate. No physical evidence ever tied Toole to the scene, and a bloody carpet sample pulled from his car was lost by police years before DNA testing existed. Investigators and researchers still call it “closed by decision” rather than solved in any evidentiary sense, which is why it sits on this list even though the department’s file says otherwise. Adam’s father, John Walsh, turned the aftermath into “America’s Most Wanted,” which ran for 24 years and helped close cases nationwide.
Who Is the Zodiac Killer?
Between December 1968 and October 1969, a killer calling himself the Zodiac Killer murdered at least five people in the San Francisco Bay Area, ambushing couples parked on rural roads and, in one case, calling police minutes after a stabbing to report it himself. He mailed cryptic, cipher-coded letters to Bay Area newspapers taunting investigators. A team of civilian codebreakers finally solved one of those ciphers in December 2020, more than 50 years after it was mailed, though it named no suspect.
The case remains open with the San Francisco Police Department. Investigators have periodically revisited DNA evidence in this and other long-running cases as forensic technology has advanced, though no arrest has ever been made.
What’s the Status of the Tupac and Biggie Murder Cases?
Tupac Shakur was shot on the Las Vegas Strip on September 7, 1996, and died six days later. For 27 years, no one was charged. That changed in September 2023, when Las Vegas police arrested Duane “Keffe D” Davis, a former Compton gang member who had described his own involvement in interviews and a memoir. A Clark County jury convicted Davis of first-degree murder in September 2026, nearly three decades after the shooting; sentencing is scheduled for October 2026.
Nick Broomfield’s 2002 documentary ‘Biggie & Tupac’ investigated both killings side by side, long before Davis’s arrest gave one of them a defendant. The Notorious B.I.G.’s murder six months later, on March 9, 1997, in Los Angeles, remains unsolved. Theories connecting his death to Death Row Records, retaliation for Tupac’s killing, or corrupt LAPD officers have circulated for decades without an arrest, and the LAPD’s case stays open.
Frequently Asked Questions
What’s considered the most famous unsolved murder in the U.S.?
Ask ten investigators and you’ll get different answers, but the Zodiac Killer case usually tops the list: a confirmed serial killer, taunting letters mailed straight to newspapers, and a cipher that took over 50 years to crack. JonBenét Ramsey’s 1996 murder runs a close second for how much physical evidence exists without a named suspect.
Are any of these cases still being actively worked?
JonBenét Ramsey and the Zodiac cases remain open with their original departments. D.B. Cooper’s case is the exception. The FBI stopped actively investigating it in 2016 and now only asks to be contacted if specific physical evidence, like a parachute or the ransom cash, turns up.
How has DNA testing changed old murder investigations?
Genetic genealogy, the same technique that identified the Golden State Killer in 2018, lets investigators run decades-old crime scene DNA against public genealogy databases instead of waiting for a direct match. Boulder police have said they’ve looked at whether it could apply to the Ramsey evidence, though that’s different from confirming it’s been used.
Why is a “closed” case like Adam Walsh’s still called unsolved by some?
Police can close a case by naming a suspect they’re confident committed the crime, which is what Hollywood, Florida police did with Ottis Toole in 2008. That’s different from a conviction built on evidence tested in court, which never happened here because Toole died in 1996 without being charged. Both things can be true: officially closed, and still debated.
Key Takeaways
- “Closed” doesn’t always mean “solved.” Adam Walsh’s case ended with a named suspect and no physical evidence tested in court.
- Some cases do get resolved. Tupac Shakur’s case went cold for 27 years, then ended in a murder conviction in September 2026.
- Investigators keep circling back to old DNA. Long-running cases like JonBenét Ramsey’s and the Zodiac’s have seen periodic evidence reviews as forensic technology advances, though that’s different from a case being actively solved.
- The FBI doesn’t chase everything forever. D.B. Cooper’s case has been effectively closed since 2016, reopening only for concrete physical evidence.
Curious how cases like these actually get worked? Our forensic science degree programs guide covers what the job requires and where the training happens, for anyone thinking about doing this kind of work themselves.