History TearJerker / UnsolvedMysteries

* The story of a junior-high school student named Deloris and her music teacher, Madeline Strauss. Madeline helped bring the shy, awkward Deloris out of her shell and instilled in her a love of music. Sadly, Deloris' life took a turn for the worse after she graduated from junior high, and she ended up dropping out of school and becoming a ward of the court. Deloris and Madeline would meet a few more times, but Deloris had recently suffered from an ailment which had left her in a coma for a month and caused partial amnesia, and she didn't recognize or remember her former teacher. Deloris managed to get her life together and become a nurse, and her memories of Madeline returned after an unexpected reunion with a former classmate. However, her attempts to locate Madeline via the show were unsuccessful. (Deloris Brooks; Unsolved)

** Though a recent development elevates this to BittersweetEnding-- Kristin's killer and the family members who helped him cover up his despicable deed have finally been arrested as of May 2021, 25 years after she vanished, convicted as of October 2022, and sentenced to life in prison as of March 23.

** Though a recent development elevates this to BittersweetEnding-- Kristin's killer and the family members who helped him cover up his despicable deed have finally been arrested as of May 2021, 25 years after she vanished, and convicted as of October 2022.

** Though a recent development elevates this to BittersweetEnding-- Kristin's killer and the family members who helped him cover up his despicable deed have finally been arrested as of May 2021, 25 years after she vanished.

* The story of a junior-high school student named Deloris and her music teacher, Madeline Strauss. Madeline helped bring the shy, awkward Deloris out of her shell and instilled in her a love of music. Sadly, Deloris' life took a turn for the worse after she graduated from junior high: she lost touch with Madeline, and she ended up dropping out of school and becoming a ward of the court. Deloris and Madeline would meet a few more times, but Deloris had recently suffered from an ailment which had left her in a coma for a month and caused partial amnesia, and she didn't recognize or remember her former teacher. Deloris managed to get her life together and become a nurse, and her memories of Madeline returned after an unexpected reunion with a former classmate. However, her attempts to locate Madeline via the show were unsuccessful. (Deloris Brooks; Unsolved)

* Sharon Stevens case finding her foster parents, Bill and Cynthia Zelinski. Sharon's mother died when she was an infant and had to live with her abusive father. The details of the abuse that she gives (including hitting her with a belt buckle that she had given him for christmas) and the actors in the re-enactment scenes makes it heartbreaking. The fact that social services took her away from the Zelinski's, the only loving family she knew because her dad re-married, after they already took her away from him and the abuse continued until he was finally arrested due to the school reporting a giant gash on her face. Made even worst that she had her young second child die to due another abusive relative. She at least got a happy ending in that she married a loving husband and was able to reunite with the Zelinski's.

* The ''Lost Loves'' section had some really big ones. A good example is a case where a former IllGirl was searching for her hospital roommate to fulfill a promise they made: since the latter girl was rendered unable to have kids in adulthood, the former promised that when she herself had children, she would share them with her friend and name her first girl after her. [[SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments Nikki Wade-Crowder gave birth to a daughter and was able to find Charita Harding-Buckner, who stood godmother to Charita Kennedy Crowder, aged three.]]

* The Gordon "Gordie" Page, Jr., story. If there was ever a young man who deserved a happy ending because of all he'd endured in life up to that point, it was him; sadly, it was not to be. Always considered "slow" by his family, Gordie's high school years and early 20s were difficult, with him first losing his friends and then his job, then being misdiagnosed as schizophrenic, placed on medication that made the problem worse, and picked up by the police after fleeing the group home where he lived, wrecking a car, and barging into a nearby school. Finally, he was correctly diagnosed as autistic and accepted into another group home, which insisted his family have no contact with him for his first two weeks (to give him time to adjust). In May 1991, four days into his stay, Gordie apparently fled the group home and has not been seen since. Investigators believe he is dead, but his family still hold out hope that he somehow made it to safety and may still be alive under a different identity. As an additional sad footnote to the story, Gordie's father died in 2018, without knowing what happened to his oldest son.

* The Blind River Killer case. In June 1991, an elderly couple, Gordon [=McAllister=] and his wife Jacqueline, were sleeping in their camper at a rest stop during a vacation trip across Canada. They got a knock on the door at 1 am from a man claiming to be a police officer, and when they opened the door he came in with a shotgun and a rifle, and told them he was going to rob them and then kill them. After they handed over their valuables, he shot Jacqueline and then shot at Gordon as he leapt out the door and rolled under the camper. Another man, Brian Major (who had a wife and son), happened to drive into the rest stop at the time, and was also shot and killed. Gordon survived, but the segment makes it clear he is long over the DespairEventHorizon: he's aware that the killer may come after him for identifying him and he ''doesn't care'', because he doesn't know how to live his live without Jacqueline after more than thirty years of marriage, and if the killer comes for him then at least there is a chance they'll catch him. Gordon passed away 2012 with no one being charged for the pointless, cold-blooded murder of his wife.

* The Blind River Killer case. In June 1991, an elderly couple, Gordon McAllister and his wife Jacqueline, were sleeping in their camper at a rest stop during a vacation trip across Canada. They got a knock on the door at 1 am from a man claiming to be a police officer, and when they opened the door he came in with a shotgun and a rifle, and told them he was going to rob them and then kill them. After they handed over their valuables, he shot Jacqueline and then shot at Gordon as he leapt out the door and rolled under the camper. Another man, Brian Major (who had a wife and son), happened to drive into the rest stop at the time, and was also shot and killed. Gordon survived, but the segment makes it clear he is long over the DespairEventHorizon: he's aware that the killer may come after him for identifying him and he ''doesn't care'', because he doesn't know how to live his live without Jacqueline after more than thirty years of marriage, and if the killer comes for him then at least there is a chance they'll catch him. Gordon passed away 2012 with no one being charged for the pointless, cold-blooded murder of his wife.

* The Gordon "Gordie" Page, Jr., story. Despite an apparent learning disability that rendered him unable to do even simple arithmetic (though he had an excellent memory), he was a popular, well-liked young man until high school, when he lost his friends due to his inability to keep up with them intellectually and then lost his grocery store job because he had trouble interacting with customers. Thereafter, his life went from bad to worse: he was misdiagnosed as schizophrenic and placed on medication that made his life hell, and then was picked up by cops after fleeing his group home in a stolen car, wrecking said car, and then barging into a nearby school. Finally, his condition was correctly diagnosed as autism, and he was accepted into another group home, but on the condition that his family could not contact him for the first two weeks, to give him time to adjust. When Gordie's father, Gordon Sr., dropped off his son, Gordie seemed to want his father to stay with him longer, but Gordon Sr. chose to leave quickly, which he would come to regret, as four days into his stay, Gordie disappeared from the group home. He has not been seen since May 1991. Investigators believe Gordie is dead, but his family is hopeful that he somehow made it to safety, possibly not knowing who he was and starting afresh with a new identity. Gordon Sr. died in 2018 without ever seeing his son again or finding out what happened to him.

* The Gordon "Gordie" Page, Jr., story. Despite an apparent learning disability that rendered him unable to do even simple arithmetic (though he had an excellent memory), he was a popular, well-liked young man until high school, when he lost his friends due to his inability to keep up with them intellectually and then lost his grocery store job because he had trouble interacting with customers. Thereafter, his life went from bad to worse: he was misdiagnosed as schizophrenic and placed on medication that made his life hell, and then was picked up by cops after fleeing his group home in a stolen car, wrecking said car, and then barging into a nearby school. Finally, his condition was correctly diagnosed as autism, and he was accepted into another group home, but on the condition that his family could not contact him for the first two weeks, to give him time to adjust. When Gordie's father, Gordon Sr., dropped off his son, Gordie seemed to want his father to stay with him longer, but Gordon Sr. chose to leave quickly, which he would come to regret, as four days into his stay, Gordie disappeared from the group home. He has not been seen since May 1991 and as of 2021 would be 56 years old. Investigators believe Gordie is dead, but his family hopes he somehow made it to safety. Gordon Sr. died in 2018 without ever seeing his son again or finding out what happened to him.

* The Gordie Page, Jr., story. Despite an apparent learning disability that rendered him unable to do even simple arithmetic (though he had an excellent memory), he was a popular, well-liked young man until high school, when he lost his friends due to his inability to keep up with them intellectually and then lost his grocery store job because he had trouble interacting with customers. Thereafter, his life went from bad to worse: he was misdiagnosed as schizophrenic and placed on medication that made his life hell, and then was picked up by cops after fleeing his group home in a stolen car, wrecking said car, and then barging into a nearby school. Finally, his condition was correctly diagnosed as autism, and he was accepted into another group home, but on the condition that his family could not contact him for the first two weeks, to give him time to adjust. When Gordie's father, Gordon Sr., dropped off his son, Gordie seemed to want his father to stay with him longer, but Gordon Sr. chose to leave quickly, which he would come to regret, as four days into his stay, Gordie disappeared from the group home. He has not been seen since May 1991 and as of 2021 would be 56 years old. Investigators believe Gordie is dead, but his family hopes he somehow made it to safety. Gordon Sr. would never see his son again, as he passed away in 2018.

* The Gordie Page, Jr., story. Despite an apparent learning disability that rendered him unable to do even simple arithmetic (though he had an excellent memory), he was a popular, well-liked young man until high school, when he lost his friends due to his inability to keep up with them intellectually and then lost his grocery store job because he had trouble interacting with customers. Thereafter, his life went from bad to worse: he was misdiagnosed as schizophrenic and placed on medication that made his life hell, and then was picked up by cops after fleeing his group home in a stolen car, wrecking said car, and then barging into a nearby school. Finally, his condition was correctly diagnosed as autism, and he was accepted into another group home, but on the condition that his family could not contact him for the first two weeks, to give him time to adjust. When Gordie's father, Gordon Sr., dropped off his son, Gordie seemed to want his father to stay with him longer, but Gordon Sr. chose to leave quickly, which he would come to regret, as four days into his stay, Gordie disappeared from the group home. He has not been seen since May 1991 and as of 2021 would be 56 years old. Investigators believe Gordie is dead, but his family hopes he somehow made it to safety.

* The Gordie Page, Jr., story. Despite an apparent learning disability that rendered him unable to do even simple arithmetic (though he had an excellent memory), he was a popular, well-liked young man until high school, when he lost his friends due to his inability to keep up with them intellectually and then lost his grocery store job because he had trouble interacting with customers. Thereafter, his life went from bad to worse: he was misdiagnosed as schizophrenic and placed on medication that made his life hell, and then was picked up by cops after fleeing his group home in a stolen car, wrecking said car, and then barging into a nearby school. Finally, his condition was correctly diagnosed as autism, and was accepted into another group home, but on the condition that his family could not contact him for the first two weeks, to give him time to adjust. When Gordie's father, Gordon Sr., dropped off his son, Gordie seemed to want his father to stay with him longer, but Gordon Sr. chose to leave quickly, which he would come to regret, as four days into his stay, Gordie disappeared from the group home. He has not been seen since May 1991 and as of 2021 would be 56 years old. Investigators believe Gordie is dead, but his family hopes he somehow made it to safety.

* Any animal lover will cry at the story of Mabel Wood, who ran a kennel for abandoned/unwanted dogs in Missouri and lost all but one of them (59 total) in a deliberately set fire. Even worse was the fact that someone - perhaps the perpetrator - continued to harass Mabel afterwards. Mabel refused to give up and did rebuild her business, but has sadly since passed away, never having received justice for the loss of her dogs.

* While the Harper Ferry's steam trunk doe is considered one of the most [[NightmareFuel frightening]] cases of the series, it's also this once you learn the details. As bad as it is to be gruesomely murdered and have your body hidden away without i.d, but to have a computer-rendered composite made just to figure out who you are since a visual i.d. can't be done is even worse. Moreso, one of the investigators surmised that the motive for the killing was that the man's only caretaker decided that they didn't want to help him anymore and felt that [[WouldHarmASenior murdering him was the best option.]]

* The original run of the show ran from 1988 to 2002. By this point all of these cases are at least 20 years old, most of them 30 years older or more. As time goes on, witnesses and evidence will become even harder to come by and interest in solving them will fade as law enforcement agencies accept the likelihood that no new information will ever be found to help solve them. The loved ones of murdered and missing persons will die never knowing what happened to the one they lost, lost families will never be reunited, and criminals who committed heinous crimes have gotten away with them, and even if they were arrested and put in prison or executed on a separate charge, they will never face accountability for the crimes no one knows they did. Then one realizes that ''more'' unsolved mysteries are happening every day, and like these cases, decades from now some of them will still be unsolved.

* By this point, many cases featured on the show happened more than 30 years ago, and evidence and witnesses will only become harder to come by as more time passes, so odds are high that they will forever remain unsolved. People who committed crimes have gotten away with them and will never be brought to justice, relatives of murdered and missing persons have died without closure on what happened to their loved one, and people who are trying to locate lost relatives may never find them.

* The cases of Kristin Smart and April Gregory. Both women were college students who disappeared on the same day on opposite sides of the country in 1996. Seeing April's father talk about how he cries everyday over losing his baby girl and how he knew she was dead was heartbreaking, and years later her remains and her killer were found and sentenced to 25 years to life. Meanwhile, both investigators and Kristin's family ''know'' who likely killed her, but can't arrest him due to lack of evidence. Making it all the more painful is how both he and his family continue to antagonize and harass her family over their grief even years after disappearance.

* A moment from the episode "Stolen Kids" of the Netflix revival, where the mother of Shane Walker, breaks down in front of the camera, blaming herself for his abduction, because he was snatched in front of her.

* The ''Lost Loves'' section had some really big ones. A good example is [[spoiler: a case where a former IllGirl was searching for her hospital roommate to fulfill a promise they made: since the latter girl was rendered unable to have kids in adulthood, the former promised that when she herself had children, she would share them with her friend and name her first girl after her. [[SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments Nikki Wade-Crowder gave birth to a daughter and was able to find Charita Harding-Buckner, who stood godmother to Charita Kennedy Crowder, aged three.]]]]
* [[spoiler: A straight version would be the story of [[https://unsolvedmysteries.fandom.com/wiki/Dolores_Ford Dolores Ford and Irene Love]], who grew up in the same 1950s neighborhood and were close like sisters, believing themselves to be cousins, until Dolores moved away with her family. Years later, 16-year-old Irene discovers that she's adopted, and Dolores ''was'' her sister. To the best of anyone's knowledge, Dolores died in 1991, before Irene could find her; and Irene died in 2012, having located other family members.]]

* The ''Missing Person'' case that involved the Music/NewKidsOnTheBlock turned out to be this. [[spoiler: It featured a missing girl who was supposedly caught on tape in the video for ''My Favorite Girl'', so the Knight brothers (Jonathan and Jordan) showed up on the show asking for info about her whereabouts. According to an update, however, the girl on tape was an IdenticalStranger... and the actual one [[DownerEnding had been murdered the same day she disappeared]]. The only good thing is that the poor girl's killer was found and brought to justice.]]
* The case of Joseph Schambier searching for his long-lost daughter Alberta Elaine; she was taken from him as an infant and put up for adoption when Joseph had been thought to have been mistakenly killed in World War II. [[spoiler: Schambier learned Alberta died at the age of 18 in 1957, murdered by Alberta's estranged husband.]]