8 Terrifying Rural True Crime Stories

Crime is typically associated with larger cities, but small towns, vast fields, and lonely roads provide the perfect setting for terrifying crimes in less-populated areas. Keep reading for some of the more unsettling cases from the police files of rural America.

1. Texarkana Moonlight Murders

During the spring months of 1946, a serial killer terrorized Texarkana, a town at the Texas/Arkansas state line. The murderer ambushed victims on back roads outside of town, near a lake, and at an isolated farmhouse. The killer's rampage lasted from February to May, resulting in five murders and three victims who survived with injuries. While police forces from both states investigated a list of suspects, the killer was never caught, and their identity remains unknown. The 1977 film "The Town That Dreaded Sundown" is based on the Texarkana murders.

2. Circleville Letters

In the mid-1970s, Circleville, Ohio, appeared to be a typical American small town with a low crime rate and residents who all seemed to know each other. But in 1976, a mysterious letter writer held the people of Circleville in the grips of terror. Anonymous letters arrived in some residents' mailboxes containing violent threats, vulgar language, and private information about the recipients. None of the letters included a return address, and they were all written in the same, block-letter handwriting. The letter writer accused a Circleville woman of having an affair with the school superintendent. After the woman's husband died under mysterious circumstances and the woman survived an attempt on her own life, a man named Paul Freshour was arrested, tried, and convicted. Freshour spent 10 years in prison, but the letter writing never stopped, with Freshour receiving letters of his own during his incarceration. Even the TV show "Unsolved Mysteries" recieved a letter after airing an episode about the case. Freshour maintained his innocence until his 2012 death, preserving the mystery around the Circleville Letters case.

3. Oklahoma Girl Scout Murders

On June 12, 1977, busloads of Girl Scouts arrived at Oklahoma's Camp Scott, near the small town of Locust Grove, for a camp session full of swimming, campfires, hiking, and other summer fun. But these plans quickly turned into a horrific nightmare the first night of camp. A killer (or killers) crept into the tent of Lori Lee Farmer, age 8, Doris Denise Milner, age 10, and Michele Guse, age 9. A counselor discovered the three girls' bodies the next morning. Gene Leroy Hart, a local man with a violent criminal record, was charged with the murders, but a jury acquitted him in 1979. The case remains unsolved, and Camp Scott never reopened.

4. The Bloody Benders of Kansas

Talk of "crime" in the 19th century Wild West conjures images of horse thieves and bank robbers. But serial killers existed in this era, too. In the early 1870s, the Bender family held a gruesome reign of terror in their community of Labette, Kansas. Kate Bender and her parents, John and Ma Bender, preyed on guests at their family-owned inn. At least 11 people disappeared in the vicinity of the inn and the family's general store, and investigators eventually discovered several bodies buried on the premises. The Benders were suspected in as many as 20 murders, but the family fled Kansas and avoided accountability for their crimes.

5. Disappearance of Cleashindra Hall

Cleashindra Hall's future was bright in the spring of 1994. The high school senior was about to graduate as valedictorian of her class in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, and she planned to major in pre-med at Tennessee State University. She dreamed of becoming a pediatrician. But two weeks before graduation, Hall never returned home from her job at the home office of Pine Bluff physician Dr. Larry Amos. Hall had spoken to her mother on the phone at 8 p.m., and her mother then waited for Hall to call again when she was ready for a ride home. The call never came, and Amos later said Hall left his office at 8:30 p.m. when he saw her get into a car outside his office. Hall has never been found or heard from again.

6. Texas Killing Fields

Passersby might not even notice this nondescript piece of land near I-45 southeast of Houston, but it holds horrific secrets. Since the early 1970s, investigators have discovered more than 30 bodies here. Most of the victims are girls and women ages 12-25. Authorities have solved a few of these murders, but most of the victims' families still seek answers. Tim Miller, whose 16-year-old daughter went missing before the discovery of her body in this field, started Texas EquuSearch, a nonprofit dedicated to finding missing people. The organization has located more than 250 bodies in addition to finding missing living people.

7. Disappearance of Brandon Swanson

On May 14, 2008, college student Brandon Swanson and friends were celebrating the end of the semester in a rural area of southwest Minnesota. On his way home on a dark, rural road, Swanson drove his car into a ditch. He exited the vehicle and called his parents on his cellphone. His parents attempted to pick Swanson up, but because he mistakenly told them the wrong location, they could not find him. Swanson stayed on the phone with his parents for 47 minutes and then suddenly exclaimed, "Oh, s***" before the call was cut off. Searchers found Swanson's car in the ditch near Taunton the next day, but Swanson has never been found.

8. Disappearance of Asha Degree

Before sunrise on Feb. 14, 2000, 9-year-old Asha Degree woke up in her Shelby, North Carolina, home, gathered some things into a bookbag, and inexplicably crept out of the house. Drivers saw her walking through heavy rain and wind along North Carolina Highway 18. One motorist stopped to approach Degree, but she ran into the woods. She had walked over a mile at that point, and she has never been seen again. Less than two years later, a construction crew found Degree's bookbag when they dug it up at a construction site 20 miles from her home.

While rural areas can seem safer than urban settings, they possess unique characteristics that can increase likelihoods of certain crimes. Isolated locations, limited law enforcement, and other factors could potentially turn a serene rural area into a setting for the unthinkable.

References: Texarkana Moonlight Murders | Circleville Letters Mystery Still Unsolved | Girl Scout Murders in Oklahoma Remain Unsolved 40 Years After Tragedy | The Story of the Bloody Benders, the Serial-Killing Family That Terrorized the Wild West -- and Then Disappeared | Honors Student Leaves Doctor's Office, Disappears | The Killing Fields | Brandon Swanson Search Resumes in Western Minnesota | Looking For Asha