There are plenty of obvious downsides to working in fast food, such as long hours, mundane work, inadequate pay, and demanding customers. Add to that list the fact that fast-food restaurants often appear as the backdrop to vicious, brutal, and unsolved murders. These crimes are particularly senseless because robbery doesn’t seem to be the primary motive in any of the cases. Some are so strange, violent, and disturbing they’re renowned among true crime aficionados. Others, while less known, are still tragic and haunting.
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Burger Chef Murders
This crime takes place in 1978, Speedway, Indiana. Four teenage employees, aged 16 to 20, vanish while closing the Burger Chef. Hikers discovered their bodies just days later, 20 miles away from the Burger Chef. The unknown assailants stabbed two of the victims, shot one, and bludgeoned the youngest to death. Police bungled the investigation early, allowing the Burger Chef to reopen the day after the kidnapping, with key evidence destroyed through the daily operation of the fast-food restaurant.
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Las Cruces Bowling Alley Massacre
While not a strict fast food establishment, this gruesome crime remains unsolved to this day, haunting Las Cruces. Two men entered the local bowling alley 40 minutes before it opened on Saturday, February 10th, 1990. Inside were seven people, including four children. The men shot everyone execution-style, at point blank range, before stealing a few thousand dollars from the safe and setting the building on fire. Despite getting shot in the head, one child remained conscious and called 911 for help.
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Pizza Hut Delivery Driver Murder
In November 2017, Wichita Pizza Hut employees grew concerned when their coworker, Hasan Rahman, didn’t return from two scheduled deliveries. In the following days, authorities found Rahman’s car abandoned, with his body locked in the trunk. The police don’t believe robbery motivated the murder, instead connecting it to a double homicide which took place nearby on the night of Rahman’s disappearance. All three murders remain unsolved.
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Dominos Delivery Driver Disappearance
While this mystery remained unsolved for 25 years, Salem cold case investigators caught a break in 2007, when an imprisoned serial killer admitted to committing the crime. Back in 1982, the Domino’s Pizza in Salem got a call for four large pizzas delivered by a woman in an orange Volkswagen. While that employee was off for the night, the fast-food restaurant sent Sherry Eyerly instead. The address was fake, and witnesses spotted Eyerly’s car with the engine still running, the headlights on, and the pizzas discarded nearby. She had vanished. Serial killer William Scott Smith told investigators he strangled Eyerly with an accomplice and dumped her body in the nearby river. He received an additional life-sentence added to the time he’s serving for three other murders.