The stranger is a psychopath who kills for fun. His favorite prey was babysitters on their working nights.

Yes, this urban legend happened in 1950. On the evening of March 18, 1950, 13-year-old Janett Christman was babysitting 3-year-old Gregory Romack at his home on West Boulevard and Stewart Road in Columbia, Missouri. Sometime after Christman put the toddler to bed and before his parents returned around 1:30 a.m., an intruder shattered a window and attacked her in the Romacks' living room. Although a garden hose left outside was used to break the window, police said the furniture and light fixtures near the window were totally undisturbed, making it impossible that he entered that way. This indicated to investigators that the intruder attempted to make it look like the house had been broken into, when in reality, Christman probably opened the front door for someone she knew.

At 10:35 p.m., Officer Roy McCowan received a jarring phone call. A girl was screaming hysterically on the other end, and McCowan heard the words come quick. The connection, however, broke off before the girl could identify herself. At that late hour, the test board at the telephone company was not staffed, and the call couldn't be traced. At about 1:35 a.m., the Romacks returned home to find the front Venetian blinds open and the porch light illuminated. Both the front and back doors were unlocked, and a side window was broken open. Christman lay in a pool of blood on a shag carpet by the family piano.

In the attack, she was hit on the head with a blunt weapon, raped, and strangled with an iron cord. Several small puncture wounds on her head were consistent with that of a mechanical pencil, an item often carried by Robert Mueller, a close friend of the Romacks. He had met Christman several times and, according to court documents, expressed admiration for Christman's figure and her mature development, and expressed the opinion that she was a virgin. Mrs. Romack told police she thought Mueller had made unwelcome advances toward Christman in the past.

The prime suspect, 27-year-old Robert Mueller, was never charged, passed a lie detector test, and eventually sued the sheriff and others for holding him illegally. He lived on West Worley, less than a half-mile from the Christman murder.

The crime remains unsolved.