My Head Hurts, Like, A LOT After Learning These Dark, Terrible, And Horrifying Things
Crystal Ro
Mon, January 12, 2026 at 1:46 AM UTC
5 min read
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. So, the other day, it came to my attention that in 1947, Kix cereal offered children an Atomic Bomb ring as a prize. And yes, it contained real radioactive material. That’s right. A cute little toy commemorating humanity’s newest way to erase entire cities and kill hundreds of thousands of people.
Related: People Who Were Kidnapped Are Sharing How They Escaped, And Oh My God
According to experts, though, the amount of radiation in the ring wasn’t enough to actually cause harm (unless ingested). Kid-tested, mother-approved…and somehow still a bad idea. Anyway, let’s get into this week’s other strange nightmares.
2. The story of Lacey Fletcher, a 36-year-old autistic woman from Louisiana, who was found dead in January 2022 after years of extreme neglect. Authorities were called to her parents’ home after they reported her unresponsive, but when first responders arrived, they determined she had already died.
Investigators believe Lacey had been left sitting on a couch for an estimated 12 years. She was found partially fused to the sofa, severely malnourished, and suffering from extensive, untreated medical conditions. Her death was ruled sepsis caused by prolonged immobility, malnutrition, and untreated infections.
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Her parents were initially charged with second-degree murder, though the charges were later dropped as part of a plea deal, sparking widespread outrage and questions about how such long-term neglect went unnoticed.
Shoutout to That Got Dark reader Andrea Ives who shared this story with us!
3. The eerie missing persons story of Jennifer Kesse, a 24-year-old woman who disappeared from Orlando, Florida, on Jan. 24, 2006.
She was last seen leaving her condominium complex for work but never arrived at her destination. Her car was later found parked about a mile away at a nearby apartment complex.
Surveillance footage from the complex showed a person of interest exiting Jennifer’s car and walking away. But in an incredibly eerie coincidence, the person’s face was blocked by fence posts in every single frame of the video, making them impossible to identify. Despite years of investigation and national attention, no trace of Jennifer has ever been found.
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4. This creepy Wikipedia page about Bloody Bones, a centuries-old bogeyman from British and American folklore that parents used to scare kids into behaving.
Depending on the story, he would hide in wells, ponds, cupboards, or under the stairs, waiting to grab children who wandered too close. In some Southern versions, another creature named Rawhead and Bloody Bones are described as two connected beings that steal kids and make sure they don’t come back. TL;DR, he’s the reason looking into dark places has never felt like a great idea.
5. This person's freaky story about growing up next to a sex cult:
"I grew up next door to the highest-ranking female members of the NXIVM cult. The oldest daughter, Lauren, babysat for my sister and me on a few occasions while she was a teenager and prior to the cult being established. But when I was a teenager, some of the neighbors and I started becoming suspicious. I told my parents I thought that the people next door were in a cult, but they laughed it off, thinking it was teenage dramatics. About 15 years later, the FBI showed up, and it was all exposed!"
—Submitted by Anonymous, Clifton Park, NY
Presenting itself as a multi-level marketing organization that "offers personal and professional development" seminars, NXIVM is generally believed to have been a front for a sex cult that was founded by convicted sex trafficker Keith Raniere.
Some of the cult's members included heiresses, powerful CEOs, and even Hollywood actors, such as Allison Mack, Grace Park, and Kristin Kreuk, among many others. HBO released a popular docuseries in 2020 called The Vow that delved into NXIVM's shady practices via former members.
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6. Finally, the story of John Joubert, an American serial killer responsible for the murders of three boys in Nebraska and Maine between 1982 and 1983.
A former Air Force airman, Joubert stalked and killed his victims using knives and ligatures. He was arrested after the murder of 13-year-old Danny Joe Eberle in Omaha, when police matched tire tracks and fibers to Joubert’s vehicle and home. He later confessed to two additional murders committed years earlier.
Joubert was convicted and sentenced to death, and in 1996, was executed by electric chair.
His last meal: Pizza with green pepper and onions, strawberry cheesecake, and Coca-Cola.
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SEE MORE SERIAL KILLERS' LAST MEALS HERE
Do you have a dark or shocking story you want to share? Perhaps there’s a strange Wikipedia page you want to talk about? Tell me all about it at thatgotdark@buzzfeed.com, and who knows, maybe it’ll be featured in a future edition of That Got Dark!
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