Thanksgiving, for many Americans, is a time of gratitude and togetherness with the family — and the huge feast is a huge plus as well. Unfortunately, that’s not entirely the case for everyone. The holiday season can also be a time of violence, murder and mysterious disappearances. The following article will highlight some of the worst crimes to take place around Thanksgiving.
Haile Kifer and Nicholas Brady Broke Into The Wrong Home
On Thanksgiving Day, 2021, 18-year-old Haile Kifer and her 17-year-old cousin Nicholas Brady broke into the home of 64-year-old Byron Smith. The Minnesota teens had apparently intended to burglarize the home, which was inhabited by the armed homeowner at the time. According to Byron Smith, he was in the basement with his firearm at the time of the break-in, and he waited for the teens to enter the basement — where he reportedly shot them. This would otherwise seem like a standard case of a homeowner defending his safety, but it was revealed that Smith had not only shot the teens, but he taunted and executed them after wounding them. He also kept their bodies in his closet for an entire day before confessing to killing them. Because of the various circumstances of the teenagers’ deaths, Smith was convicted of murder and sentenced to two life sentences.
Omaima Nelson Didn’t Eat Turkey For Her Thanksgiving Feast
Omaima Nelson was a beautiful Egyptian model and nanny who married an older man named Bill Nelson. Their honeymoon period was a shortlived one, however, because Omaima murdered the man just under a month into their marriage. On Thanksgiving, 1991, she reportedly stabbed her husband to death with a pair of scissors and beat him with a clothing iron, before castrating and dismembering him. Omaima famously admitted to cooking and eating her husbands ribs with barbecue sauce, but she later denied it.
The Jupiter Thanksgiving Murders
On Thanksgiving Day, 2009, Florida man Paul Michael Merhige gunned down four of his own family members just after they finished eating dinner. The 35-year-old man is quoted as saying that he “waited 20 years to do this,” as he murdered his twin sisters, his elderly aunt and a six-year-old girl that was in the home. The murders rocked the town of Jupiter, Florida and it went down as another horrifying case of familial homicide around the holiday season. It’s now been over a decade since the murders, and Paul Michael Merhige remains incarcerated — where he will remain for the rest of his life.
The Unsolved Disappearance of Martha Jean Lambert
On November 27, 1985, a 12-year-old child vanished from St. Augustine, Florida. That little girl was Martha Jean Lambert, and foul play has long-been suspected in her disappearance. Her disappearance occurred on the day before Thanksgiving. Martha Jean Lambert was last seen after she left school to spend time with a friend at her friend’s home. Reports aren’t entirely clear if she’d actually gone to her friend’s house or if she’d stayed there for a while before heading to her own home. What’s known for certain is that she never did make it home that day, and she hasn’t been seen since. Read more about this sad disappearance here. This is a truly disturbing unsolved disappearance, with a lot of evidence pointing toward foul play. Interestingly enough, the brother of the missing child has confessed to killing her two times, but his claims have never been proven.
Chelsea Hoffman is a true crime writer with over a decade of professional writing experience. She is best known for her coverage of missing people including the tragic disappearance of Madeleine McCann as well as the heartbreaking cases of Dylan Redwine, Heather Elvis and many others.
