If you’re a longtime reader of Stories of the Unsolved, odds are you’ve noticed that the site hasn’t been updated since June 2022, with little said regarding what happened. For that, I’d like to apologize. It was never my intention to take such an extended break – in fact, I never planned to take one at all.
I’m sure many of you have experienced or know someone who’s suffered poor mental health. I myself have had my own journey, and while I’m much better than I used to be, I do still suffer from bad bouts of anxiety. I typically experience this when I’m going through a particularly stressful time, but the feeling can also come out of nowhere.
Toward the end of June, I was suffering from pretty bad anxiety, a mixture of stress from work and other things happening in my life. When I feel this way, I tend to shut down – I know, not the best coping mechanism. Outside of performing the tasks required of me from my day job, I’m usually unable to muster up the energy for my extra-curricular/pet projects. This included Stories of the Unsolved.
I’d hoped to only take a short break from the site, but it unintentionally wound up being nearly a year. While my anxiety has since improved, I’ve been faced with another problem: how do I start up the site again? It had been so long that it felt strange to begin posting without any update or context for the prolonged pause in articles. On the flip side, I try to keep my personal experiences and feelings separate from Stories of the Unsolved, as I want the focus to be on the cases, not myself.
As you can see, I’ve decided to give you all some insight into what’s been happening over the past few months. I’m still struggling with some things, but I feel better enough to begin posting. I also feel comfortable sharing this with you all. I’m a big advocate for mental health, and this was the perfect opportunity to bring that to this part of my life. If anything, taking care of your mental health should be one of the top priorities for everyone in the True Crime sphere, as the topics we cover can be pretty dark and heartbreaking.
To sum everything up, I’m happy to return to writing for Stories of the Unsolved and raising awareness for these cases. I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again: I’m not in this for the money or recognition. I run the site because I have a passion for it and want to do all I can to help the families of those who are missing or have been murdered. My hope with each post is that one person will read what I’ve written and be spurred to either speak with police, should they have information, or share the articles on social media, so more awareness is generated.
I want to thank you for taking the time to read this post, if you’ve made it this far. I, again, apologize for taking such a long break. I’m not planning on taking another one anytime soon – and if I happen to need one, I’ll be sure to let everyone know. Bear with me for the next few weeks, as I update the cases that have seen arrests, conclusions or have had new information released.
Thank you!
Clare Fitzgerald – Founder, Editor & Writer
Stories of the Unsolved 