Hi, friends. I'm Crystal, and I write the That Got Dark newsletter, BuzzFeed's weekly roundup of all things creepy, macabre, and horrible AF. And if you looooove this kind of content, you should subscribe!!!!!

Here's what the newsletter is covering this week:

Warning: Graphic content ahead, including stories of murder.

1. An aspiring director obsessed with television crime dramas, Mark Twitchell spent years trying to break into the film industry while producing fan films based on franchises like Star Wars. But in 2008, his ambitions took a horrifying turn after police accused him of luring 38-year-old Johnny Altinger to a rented garage in Edmonton, where prosecutors said he murdered and dismembered him.

Police said Twitchell lured Altinger to the garage through a fake online dating profile, where prosecutors argued he carried out a meticulously planned killing. When Altinger suddenly stopped contacting friends and family, those close to him refused to believe he had simply disappeared, prompting an investigation that ultimately led detectives to Twitchell.

During their investigation, police discovered a document on Twitchell's computer titled SK Confessions, which described the thoughts and methods of a fictional serial killer in chilling detail. Prosecutors argued the document closely mirrored the murder itself, while Twitchell maintained it was simply an unfinished screenplay.

Because of his fascination with the television series Dexter and the similarities investigators found, he quickly became known as the "Dexter Killer." He was convicted of first-degree murder in 2011 and sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years.

2. Rachel Mellon was just 13 years old when she disappeared from her home in Bolingbrook, Illinois, on Jan. 31, 1996. She had stayed home from school that day because of a sore throat, leaving her alone with her stepfather, Vincent Mellon.

He later told police he had left the house for about 30 minutes to walk the family dog, but when he returned, Rachel was gone. Authorities eventually named Vincent their primary suspect, citing inconsistent statements, scratches on his body, and the results of multiple polygraph examinations. Investigators also recovered Rachel's diary, which contained a disturbing entry from August 1995 alleging that Vincent had kissed and inappropriately touched her.

Investigators spent years following leads and searching for Rachel, but no physical trace of her has ever been found. Friends, family members, and law enforcement have long maintained that someone likely knows what happened, though the case has remained frustratingly short on definitive evidence. Prosecutors have repeatedly said they do not have enough evidence to file criminal charges despite Vincent remaining the primary suspect.

Despite decades of investigation, Rachel's disappearance remains unsolved. Vincent has repeatedly denied any involvement, claiming the inappropriate contact described in Rachel's diary was merely a "lesson" about how predators behave, and he has never been arrested in connection with the case. Nearly 30 years later, investigators continue to ask anyone with information to come forward, hoping to finally learn what happened to the teenager.

3. Rebecca Schaeffer was a rising star known for playing Patti Russell on the CBS sitcom My Sister Sam. After beginning her career as a teenage model, she quickly found success in Hollywood as an actor and was on the verge of breaking into films.

At just 21 years old, Schaeffer had recently landed a role in the film Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills and was preparing to audition for The Godfather Part III when her life was cut tragically short.

On July 18, 1989, Schaeffer was shot and killed at the front door of her West Hollywood apartment by 19-year-old Robert John Bardo, an obsessed fan who had stalked her for years. Schaeffer had answered the door believing a courier had arrived with the script for The Godfather Part III, which she was expecting ahead of her audition.

Instead, she found Bardo, who had obtained her home address through California DMV records. He had visited her apartment just days earlier and left after she politely asked him to leave, but returned that morning and fatally shot her.

Schaeffer's murder shocked Hollywood and ultimately led to California's first anti-stalking law, tighter restrictions on access to DMV records, and the creation of the LAPD's Threat Management Unit. More than three decades later, her case is still regarded as a turning point in how stalking is recognized, investigated, and prosecuted in the United States.

4. Long before the internet made disturbing videos just a click away, a film called Faces of Death became one of the most controversial movies ever released. Released in 1978, Faces of Death was a pseudo-documentary that claimed to show real footage of death from around the world, blurring the line between reality and fiction in ways that shocked audiences for decades.

While many of its most infamous human death scenes were later revealed to have been staged, the film also incorporated authentic footage of real autopsies, accident victims, corpses, war atrocities, and animals being slaughtered, making it all the more disturbing.

The film was banned or heavily censored in multiple countries and became an underground VHS sensation throughout the 1980s and '90s. For years, people debated which scenes were real and which were fake, helping cement Faces of Death as one of the most notorious exploitation films ever made. Decades later, it still has a reputation for being one of the most unsettling movies in horror history.

And yes, if the title sounds familiar, there was a recently released 2026 film of the same name that's actually a meta-reimagining.

5. Finally, Gerald Stano was an American serial killer who confessed to murdering 41 women across Florida, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania during the 1970s, though investigators believed the true number of victims may have been significantly higher. He was ultimately convicted of nine murders. Many of his victims were young women and teenage girls whom he targeted while they were hitchhiking or walking alone before strangling them. Their bodies were often left in remote fields, wooded areas, or along rural roads, making many of the cases difficult to connect for years.

Investigators spent years trying to determine the full extent of Stano's crimes. Although he confessed to dozens of killings after his arrest, authorities were unable to verify many of them because some victims were never identified and others lacked enough evidence to conclusively link them to him. As a result, exactly how many women Stano killed remains unknown.

After spending nearly two decades on death row, Stano was executed by the electric chair at Florida State Prison on March 23, 1998. Rather than apologizing, he maintained his innocence in a final written statement, claiming he had been coerced into making false confessions.

His last meal: A Delmonico steak, a baked potato with sour cream and bacon bits, a salad with blue cheese dressing, lima beans, a half-gallon of mint chocolate chip ice cream, and two liters of Pepsi.

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