166: Three of the world's craziest cults

Today we're taking a look at some of the craziest cults the world has ever seen, including a cult in which a man worshipped coconuts... and convinced others to do the same. 

In 1992, Rachel Nickell was out for a walk with her dog and 2 year old son on Wimbledon Common in London, when a man came out of the blue and stabbed her to death. She was found with her son by her side, holding her hand. What followed was a shambles of an investigation by the Met Police, in which they decided to focus all their efforts on one (innocent) man, as the true perpetrator went on to kill others.

From the late 1970s through to the early 90s, there were a number of of victims, all young women, who disappeared along the same highway, running through Oregon in the US. It was highway 20, connecting the whole state, from west to east and running through the Cascade Mountains. It runs through cities and some of the most remote areas of the state; there are plenty of areas in which someone could run into trouble. Several stretches of the highway runs through thick, thick forest, so heavily wooded that you can walk into it and immediately find yourself lost and disorientated. Any body hidden in there would be near-on impossible to find. 

This week we're covering the cases of two Jane Does, both of whom are currently in the process of forensic genetic testing, but there's something standing in the way: it seems neither of them are from the country in which they were found, which complicates things somewhat. Who are the Bowmanville Jane Doe and Kilgore Jane Doe?

On New Years Day 1963, two teenagers come across a man lying face down next to the Lane Cover River in Sydney, Australia. At first they assume he's drunk but soon realise that's not the case. Police later find a second body, that of a woman, located just metres away, but an autopsy was unable to find a cause of death for either... all they know, is that they died from the same, mysterious cause.

In June 1980, 56 year old Zigmund Adamski left his home on home to go and grab some food shopping, and then he never came home - his body would later be found under baffling circumstances, that to this day, no one has ever been able to make sense of. The strange, strange situation around Zigmund’s death has led to countless theories over the years, none of which quite make sense but there is one theory that people seem to focus on more than the rest: alien abduction. 

In September 1890, French inventor Louis Le Prince was supposed to be travelling back to New York City to see his family for the first time in three years after finally completing his invention: the motion picture camera. His brother waved goodbye as he dropped Louis off at Dijon train station, to travel to Paris and begin his long journey home. But somewhere along the way, Louis disappeared, never to be seen again.

In December 1996, 12 year old Celina Mays went off to bed and was never seen again, her younger sister finding her bed stuffed with pillows the next day. But Celina wasn't like your regular 12 year old: she was 9 months pregnant and living in a cult-like church, under the thumb of her aunt. Did Celina run away, or did something darker happen?

In 1974, a decapitated body is found hidden underneath a plastic sheet on a quiet county road in Cockley Cley, Norfolk. Despite a massive investigation, there have been few leads over the years and the Norfolk Headless Doe remains unidentified. Who was she?

In 2010, Lori Erica Ruff ended her own life, leaving her husband to clear through all her belongings. And in doing so, he found out that his wife was not who she claimed to be... but who was she? What was she running from?