30 ordinary photos behind which chilling stories are hidden (31 photos)

Sometimes a photo is taken literally a moment before a tragedy. And sometimes behind people's smiles there can be a terrible secret that becomes known many years later. This collection contains photographs that at first glance seem innocent. But as soon as you learn the story behind them, they acquire a sinister meaning.





1. The last photo of my daughter. Two hours after we celebrated her 21st birthday, she was hit by a drunk driver



2. Children walking into the gas chambers of Auschwitz



3. The last photo of my family, a few months before she was killed during Holocaust



4. If you've ever wondered how the American bison population could have dwindled from 30 million to 300 million in the last 50 years, this photo might give you some insight



An 1892 photo of a pile of bison skulls in Detroit, Michigan, being ground up and used as fertilizer.

5. Blanche Monnier



Blanche was kept in a tiny attic room by her mother for 25 years. When she was discovered, she was covered in feces. There were bugs on the bed and floor, and she weighed only 25 kilograms.

6. The last photo of my brother and his wife



Three weeks later, she passed away in my brother's arms from complications with her lungs. And exactly four months later, my brother committed suicide.

7. An Armenian man dances in the mountains in memory of his son, who was killed during the 1915 genocide of Armenian Christians by the Ottoman Turks



8. Mechanics embrace before dying at a burning wind turbine on the island of Goree-Overflakkee in the Netherlands



They were doing maintenance when the fire suddenly broke out due to a short circuit in the engine room.

9. An American researcher studies volcanic activity on Mount St. Helens



13 hours after this photo was taken, on May 18, 1980, the volcano erupted, killing 57 people, including a volcanologist.

10. Shadows of Hiroshima



A human shadow is on display at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum in Japan. It is believed to be the shadow of a man who was sitting outside the Sumitomo Bank branch when the atomic bomb was dropped on the city.

11. The crew of the shuttle Challenger on November 15, 1985



STS-51-L - the 25th flight of the shuttle, the tenth mission of the shuttle Challenger. On January 28, 1986, 73 seconds after launch, an explosion occurred, destroying the shuttle. All seven astronauts died.

12. Andersson family portrait, April 5, 1912



Soon, Anders and Alfrida Andersson and their five children (ages 2 to 11) boarded the Titanic to emigrate from Sweden to Canada. All seven perished in the sinking.

13. The brothers pose for a photo in Sequoia National Park moments before they are struck by lightning, August 1975



14. The Last Selfie



The girls were posing on the railroad tracks. A train passed by them, and they did not hear another train approaching from the opposite direction.

15. The last photo of Uruguayan Flight 571 before it crashed in the Andes on October 13, 1972



Of the 45 people on board, 27 survived and were forced to feed on the dead. Another 8 died when an avalanche hit their "home," and 3 died later from their wounds. Rescuers found 16 survivors 72 days later, when two passengers met a Chilean farmer after a 10-day trek in the mountains.

16. Harold Agnew with the plutonium core of the Fat Man bomb dropped on Nagasaki, 1945



17. Peter, Sue Kim, and Christine Lee Hanson's Last Christmas Photo (2000)



They were on board United Airlines Flight 175 when it crashed into the South Tower of the World Trade Center. Christine, who was just two and a half years old, became the youngest victim of the September 11 attacks.

18. The last photo of 17-year-old Jonna, Finland, 2015



Jonna broke up with her 25-year-old boyfriend because of the age difference. He became depressed and decided to take revenge on the girl. He kidnapped her and took her to an abandoned barn, where he tied her to a table, doused her with gasoline and set her on fire. He watched the painful death of his beloved, but tried to convince the judge that Jonna herself walked into the fire.

19. The last photo a 21-year-old posted on social media before he went missing during Texas floods



Darren Mitchell was the man who was said to have tried to help another person in trouble during the floods. Unable to help, he returned to his car, which was soon carried away by the current over a bridge. The next morning, his overturned car was found, but Mitchell was not inside.

20. The last photo of 11-year-old Everly Livingston and her 14-year-old sister, Alydia. They died along with their parents Donna and Peter in a plane crash that occurred on January 29, 2025 in Washington.



21. The Murder of the Lawson Family



In 1929, a few days before Christmas, Lawson took his wife Fanny and their seven children, Arthur, Marie, Carrie, Maybelle, James, Raymond, and Mary Lou, into town to buy new clothes and take a family portrait. On the afternoon of December 25, Lawson first shot his daughters, Carrie and Maybelle, as they were heading to their aunt and uncle's house. He then returned to the house and shot Fannie, who was standing on the porch. Marie and two small boys, James and Raymond, sought cover. Lawson shot Marie and then found and killed the two boys. He then killed the baby, Mary Lou. After the murders, he went into the nearby woods and shot himself a few hours later. The only survivor was his eldest son, 19-year-old Arthur, whom he had sent on an errand shortly before the crime.

22. My great-uncle. He was killed in World War I. His sister, pictured with him, died in 1918 from the Spanish flu



23. A Japanese student moments before falling into Niagara Falls



24. This church in Germany has three cells left over from the 1500s years



In 1536, three leaders of the rebellion were executed and their remains were left to rot in these cages.

25. 18-year-old Jolie Callan



This is the last photo of the girl, taken in August 2017 on the Pinhoti Trail, Alabama.

A few minutes after this photo, her boyfriend Lauren Banner pulled out a gun and shot Jolie twice in the back of the head.

26. August 20, 2022. This man and his girlfriend took a selfie in Rozo, Italy



After that, he dropped his phone and tried to get it. Losing his balance, he fell off a cliff and died instantly.

27. The photo shows US First Lady Rosalynn Carter shaking hands with serial killer John Wayne Gacy. At the time, he was actively involved in politics



John Wayne Gacy Jr. is an American serial killer and rapist. In the 1970s, he raped and murdered 33 young men in the village of Norwood Park, near Chicago, Illinois.

28. Stormy Waters



Shannon Nunez took this photo before jumping off a cliff in Hawaii. After jumping, she was swept away by a strong current and drowned.

29. Alan Hruby, a freshman at the University of Oklahoma, in 2014



The day before this photo shoot, he shot and killed his parents and sister. He went to Dallas, Texas for the weekend, trying to get an alibi. It didn't work, and he got multiple life sentences.

30. Jim Jones with the Martin Luther King Jr. Peace Award



James Warren Jones is an American preacher and the founder of the destructive cult "Peoples Temple". On November 18, 1978, his followers committed mass suicide. 909 people died, including 270 children.