Aichi

He was 14 when he beat his 8-year-old neighbor with a baseball bat, cut her throat and pushed her body inside the frame of his waterbed. Then he slept on that bed for a week while the whole street searched for her. Jacksonville, Florida. November 3, 1998. Maddie Clifton went outside to play and never came home. Volunteers searched the woods and ponds for days. Joshua Phillips lived across the street. Police came to the house. A sergeant later recalled that Phillips sat on that bed petting his dog, "cool as a cucumber." Maddie was right underneath him. Seven days after she vanished, her body was found inside his bed. In the video below, Phillips stands in court in an orange jumpsuit and reads a letter to Maddie’s family. "I did something horrible. I’m so sorry." He was sentenced to life without parole in 1999. After the Supreme Court ruled out automatic life without parole for juvenile offenders, a judge resentenced him in 2017. He received life, with a sentence review possible after 25 years. This May, Phillips withdrew his request for that review. He said he still believed he could live a productive and meaningful life if released, but wanted to address concerns about his rehabilitation before returning to court. Maddie would have been 36 this year. Did the boy who slept on that bed grow into a different man, or should some things close the door for good? Follow for more stories behind the world’s richest people