These are previous criminal cases, now closed or adjudicated, where were previously top crime stories followed on the About.com Crime & Punishment site.

The Aurora Colorado Theater Shootings
On July 20, 2012, a man dressed as "The Joker" set off two tear gas containers during a midnight premier showing of the Batman movie "The Dark Knight Rises" at the Century 16 in Aurora, Colorado and then opened fire.

The Trial of George Zimmerman
On Feb. 26, 2012, George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch captain, shot to death teenager Trayvon Martin after an encounter inside a Sanford, Florida gated community.

The Death of Michael Jackson
On June 25, 2009, less than a month before he was scheduled to begin a series of comeback concerts, paramedics were called to Michael Jackson's rented home in Holby Hills near Los Angeles where they found him unconscious and not responding.

The Case of Jaycee Lee Dugard
On June 10, 1991, Jaycee Lee Dugard was last seen waiting at a school bus stop near her in South Lake Tahoe, California. She was found 18 years later.

The Appeals of Death Row Inmate Troy Davis
On Aug. 19, 1989, an off-duty Savannah, Georgia, police officer Mark Allen MacPhail was working a moonlighting job as a security guard for a Greyhound bus terminal when he heard a homeless man cry out from the Burger King parking lot next door.

The Phil Spector Case
Legendary rock and roll music producer Phil Spector was charged with the fatal shooting of former actress Lana Clarkston Feb.

3, 2003 at his Los Angeles mansion.

The Legal Saga of O.J. Simpson
On Sept. 13, 2007, Simpson and four other men entered a Las Vegas casino hotel room where some of his sports memorabilia was being offered for sale by two collectors. Police arrested O.J. Simpson on kidnapping and armed robbery charges.

The Elizabeth Smart Case
Elizabeth Smart was kidnapped from her Salt Lake City home on June 5, 2002 and was found nine months later with the man and wife, Brian David Mitchell and Wanda Barzee, who have been charged with her abduction.

Brian Nichols: Atlanta Courthouse Killer
On March 11, 2005, Brian Nichols was on trial for rape at the Fulton County Courthouse in Atlanta when he overpowered a female deputy, took her gun, and shot his way to freedom.

The Jennifer Hudson Family Murders
On October 24, 2008, the bodies of Academy Award-winning actress Jennifer Hudson's mother and brother were found in the family's home on Chicago's South Side. Jennifer's former brother-in-law, William Balfour, was arrested for the murders.

 

The Death of Kelsey Miller
On Nov. 27, 2014, during the early hours of Thanksgiving Day, 28-year-old Kelsey Danielle Miller disappeared after she sought help from a shelter for domestic violence victims.

The Murder of Somer Thompson
On September 18, 2009, 7-year-old Somer Thompson was walking home from her Orange Park, Florida school with her twin brother and 10-year-old sister when she disappeared.

The Crimes of John Albert Gardner III
John Albert Gardner III has been charged with the rape and murder of 17-year-old Chelsea King, the attempted assault of another in the same San Diego park and could be involved in the disappearance of other young girls.

The Craigslist Killer Case
Philip Markoff, a 22-year-old medical student was arrested by Boston authorities in connection with a series of crimes against women who were advertising erotic services on the online classified service Craigslist.

The Murder of Lance Corporal Maria Lauterbach
On Dec. 19, 2007, Lance Corporal Maria Lauterbach, a Marine stationed at Camp Lejuene, North Carolina, was reported missing by her stepmother who had not heard from her since Dec. 14.

The Brianna Denison Case
Brianna Denison, a 19-year-old Santa Barbara City College student, who was home in Reno, Nevada, on winter break, disappeared from the home of friends on Jan. 20, 2008.

The Collarbomb Robbery Case
On August 28, 2003, pizza delivery man Brian Douglas Wells was locked into a bombing device when he robbed a bank branch near Erie, Pennsylvania. When he was stopped and handcuffed by state police following the robbery, the bomb exploded.

The Trial of Melissa Huckaby
On March 27, 2009, 8-year-old Sandra Cantu disappeared from the mobile home park where she lived in Tracy, California. She was last seen on a video surveillance tape skipping toward her best friend's home.

The Murder of Anchorwoman Ann Pressly
On October 20, Anne Pressly, a popular morning anchorwoman at KATV television, was found badly beaten in the bedroom of her home in the Pulaski Heights section of Little Rock.

The Murder of Kelsey Smith
On June 2, 2007, Kelsey Smith stopped at an Overland Park, Kansas, department store to buy items for a high school graduation party, but she never made it home to the event. Her body was found four days later in a shallow creek 20 miles away in Missouri.

The Brooke Wilberger Case
Brooke Carol Wilberger was last seen on the morning of May 24, 2004, in Corvalis, Oregon working outside an apartment complex near the campus of Oregon State University.

The 'Baby Grace' Case
On October 29, 2007, a fisherman found a plastic storage box washed up on an island in Galveston Bay that contained the body of a two-year-old girl the police called "Baby Grace."

The Beheading of 'Precious Doe'
On April 28, 2001, the nude, decapitated body of 3-year-old girl was found near an intersection in Kansas City, Missouri. Two days later her head, which had been removed with hedge clippers, was found nearby in a plastic garbage bag.

The Zoey Zane Murder Case
On Nov. 23, 2007, 18-year-old Kansas college student Emily Sander was last seen leaving a bar with a 24-year-old man. Her body was found six days later about 50 miles east of El Dorado.

The Lisa Nowak Case
On Feb. 6, 2007, U.S. Navy Capt. and NASA Astronaut Lisa Nowak, 43, was charged with trying to kidnap a woman she regarded as her romantic rival for the affection of a space shuttle pilot.

The Legal Troubles of Joe Francis
Joe Francis, who has made millions with his 'Girls Gone Wild' videos and magazines, has found himself entangled in legal trouble in civil and criminal courts on the state and federal levels.

The Trial of Joseph Edward Duncan
Joseph Edward Duncan III was out on a $15,000 bond in Minnesota for molesting a 7-year-old boy, when three people were killed in an Idaho home and their two children kidnapped. Six weeks later, Duncan was arrested after he was spotted in a restaurant with eight-year-old Shasta Groene.

The Trials of Darryl Littlejohn
On February 25, 2006, Imette St. Guillen, a graduate student at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, was last seen around 4 a.m. at The Falls, a bar in the SoHo section of New York City. Her nude body was found 14 miles away near a Brooklyn street.

The Appeals of Wayne Williams
Between 1979 and 1981, 29 children and young black men were killed in a series of murders that terrorized the community in a case known as the "Atlanta Child Killings."

The Jessica Lunsford Case
Nine-year-old Jessica Lunsford disappeared from her bedroom at her grandparents' home in the middle of the night Feb. 23, 2005. Her case would inspire new laws across the nation.

Duke Lacrosse Team Rape Scandal
On March 13, 2006 members of the Duke University lacrosse team held a party at an off-campus house and hired two strippers to perform. One of the dancers later claimed she was raped.

The Trial of James Ford Seale
On May 2, 1964, Charles Eddie Moore and Henry Hazekiah Dee, two 19-year-old black teenagers, were hitchhiking near an ice cream stand in Meadville, Mississippi when they were abducted by members of the Ku Klux Klan.

The Murder of Pamela Vitale
On Oct. 15, 2005, famous defense attorney Daniel Horowitz returned home from work to find this wife, Pamela Vitale, 52, bludgeoned to death in the entry way of the mobile home the couple was living in while building their dream home nearby.

The Trial of Andrea Yates
In 2002, Andrea Yates was convicted of murder for three of the deaths of her five children who were found drowned in her home in 2001. In April 2005, her conviction was overturned.

The BTK Serial Killer
The BTK Strangler claimed credit for a series of seven murders in Wichita, Kansas in the early 1970s, then seemingly disappeared in 1977, and resurfaced again in March 2004 to claim responsibility for an eighth murder in 1986.

The Trial of Edgar Ray Killen
Edgar Ray Killen, a reputed member of the Ku Klux Klan, was charged with the shooting deaths of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner during the "Freedom Summer" of 1964.

The Trial of Michael Jackson
Pop singer Michael Jackson faced charges of conspiracy to commit child abduction, false imprisonment and extortion, three counts of committing lewd acts upon a child, attempted lewd acts upon a child, and four counts of administering intoxicating agents to assist in the commission of a felony.

The Scott Peterson Trial
Scott Peterson was charged with the murder of his pregnant wife Laci Denise Peterson and their unborn son Conner Peterson sometime between Dec. 23 and Dec. 24, 2002.

The Robert Blake Case
Robert Blake faced trial for the murder of Bonny Lee Bakley and soliciting two other men to kill her. Bakley, 44, was shot to death on May 4, 2001, as she sat in Blake's sports car behind a restaurant where the couple had just dined.

The Eric Rudolph Case
Eric Rudolph was charged with the 1998 bombing of a Birmingham abortion clinic that killed an off-duty police officer and critically injured a nurse. Rudolph was arrested May 31, 2003.