Five of the most twisted true crime stories that have ever happened

True crime lovers, you might want to sit up for this one, as the bone-chilling new nine-part series A Friend of the Family is coming exclusively to 7plus October 25.

The new show tells the harrowing true story of the Broberg family, whose daughter Jan was kidnapped twice during the 1970s by a charismatic, obsessive family friend.

In anticipation of the highly awaited series, we’ve decided to count down to five of the most twisted true crime stories that shook the world.

Not everything gritty unfolds on the big screen. Sometimes, there are curve balls in true crime stories that would even have M Night Shyamalan himself double-take.

Jan Broberg

As mentioned above, Jan Broberg is one of the most chilling cases of all time.

Simply because it begs the question, how well do you know your inner circle?

The Idaho teenager was abducted by her decades-old neighbour, Robert Berchtold, after he preyed on Broberg’s religious family.

He could convince them on just about anything and even coerced the family to drop the abduction charges against him.

However, in a shocking turn of events, Jan was kidnapped again.

The Granny Killer

This is one of Australia’s most notorious serial killers of all time.

John Wayne Glover targeted six elderly women in Sydney’s North Shore from 1989 – 1990.

Glover had a tumultuous relationship with older women, particularly his own mother, who disapproved of him.

During his crimes, Glover worked as a salesman for the iconic Four’N Twenty meat pie company, looking for victims along his regular North Shore sales route.

Glover was married for 20 years with children, and his wife had no idea about his horrifying murders. After each killing, the serial killer would return home and go about his daily life.

Finally, he was arrested in 1990 and sentenced to consecutive terms of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

Suzanne Sevakis

Suzanne Sevakis, abducted by a federal fugitive, Franklin Delano Floyd at the age of four, who then raised her as his daughter.

Floyd kept Sevakis’ real identity a secret as she went by 'Sharon Marshall'.

Over the next two decades, she was frequently sexually assaulted by Floyd and forced to marry him.

However, Sevakis was killed in a hit-and-run accident in 1990.

Her case was shrouded in mystery for years before her real identity was uncovered in 2014.

Though Floyd was a suspect in Sevakis’ murder, police couldn't tie him to the case, and he faced no criminal charges.

James Bulger

When you think of a cold-blood killer, you rarely associate this phrase with a child.

That’s why the James Bulger case remains one of the most shocking murders of all time.

At just 10 years old, Jon Venables and his school friend Robert Thompson were charged with the murder of two-year-old James Bulger.

The two boys snatched the toddler at a shopping centre in Merseyside in 1993 after his mother took her eyes off her son.

It all happened quite literally in the blink of an eye.

His body was found two days later on a railway four kilometres away in Walton, Liverpool.

Less than a week later, the two boys were charged with the murder of Bulger on February 20 and were found guilty on 24 November, making them the youngest convicted murderers in modern British history.

Amy Lynn Bradley

Amy Lynn Bradley was on a family cruise to the Caribbean when she went missing from the Royal Caribbean International Cruise Line's ship Rhapsody of the Seas on March 24, 1998.

We know what you’re thinking: how could someone go missing on a boat?

The 23-year-old was last seen drifting off in a chair on the private balcony of her family cabin.

Shortly after she went missing, the family notified the crew, prompting them to search common areas on the cruise ship.

While the search ended March 29, her body was never found, and Amy was legally declared dead 12 years later.

But many believe there is more to the story, as there have been a few alleged sightings of the missing woman.