Police ID bodies found at Oceanfront hotel

Posted in Related Deaths

12-25-2013 Virginia:

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) - Police have identified two homicide victims found at an Oceanfront hotel last week.

According to James Cason with the Virginia Beach Police Department, the bodies were discovered in a fifth-floor room Thursday by a housekeeping employee at the Comfort Inn in the 2300 block of Atlantic Avenue.

Monday, police identified the victims as 31-year-old Lenny McDannell, of New Castle, Delaware, and 32-year-old Joshua Zettles of Virginia Beach.

Before Zettles went down to the Oceanfront hotel, he spoke with his sister Jackie, who did not want her last name revealed.

"The last time I saw him was earlier [Thursday] afternoon," said Jackie. "We were making plans to get together the following day as a family."

Jackie said Zettles was going to the Oceanfront to see his friend, McDannell, who is a registered sex offender in Delaware.

10 On Your Side could not get in contact with McDannell's family.

Two men sentenced to prison for 2013 murder

6-22-2015 New York:

ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10) – Two Albany men will spend at least 25 years in prison for a brutal 2013 murder.

Authorities said it was a revenge killing. The killers thought they were taking down a rapist but instead killed an innocent man.

Sylvester “Soup” Scott was shot and killed on Grand Street in December 2013 just days before Christmas. Russel Palmer and his nephew Kareem Murray were found guilty of the crime.

In court on Monday, Scott’s family members said Scott was a good guy and a dedicated father whose mission in life was to help out kids as a mentor and basketball coach. So it came as a huge shock to those who knew him that he was shot dead.

Albany police said Palmer and Murray believed Scott had raped Murray’s girlfriend, and they planned to hunt him down. But prosecutors said Palmer and his nephew got it wrong when they pegged Scott as the rapist.

Winston Co Sheriff: 2 of 4 people found dead were charged with child porn in Tennessee

Posted in Related Deaths

10-3-2013 Alabama:

WINSTON COUNTY, AL (WBRC) - The Winston County Sheriff saysthat two of the four people found dead in a vehicle near Double Springs were have been charged with child pornography and molestation-related crimes in Tennessee.

Investigators are looking into the possibility that four people who were found dead on Wednesday night near Double Springs were part of a murder/suicide.

Sheriff Rick Harris tells FOX6 News that those persons were set to go to trial Wednesday in Tennessee. Authorities now believe they were on the run and that these people have family in Empire (Walker County) and Hamilton (Marion County).

A forensics team has been on the case since late Wednesday evening. Harris says they are examining the vehicle in which the four bodies were found. At this time, is appears that all of the violence happened inside the vehicle, not outside.

Autopsies of the four bodies will be completed Thursday night in Huntsville.

Harris says the four bodies were found inside a vehicle off of County Road 327 Wednesday night. On Thursday morning, he said that the bodies have all been identified and their names will be released as soon as family members are notified.

According to Sheriff Harris, the four victims were three men and one woman, all from Tennessee. Their ages range from 25 to 50-something and the victims knew each other. Authorities in Tennessee are contacting family members of the victims to get more information and try to determine a motive.

High school football captain, 18, who 'stabbed 27-year-old gay lover to death', says he was sexually assaulted by victim

Case of Sexual Circumstances

12-11-2013 Connecticut:

The captain of the Bloomfield High School football team, who is on trial for the murder of a 27-year-old with whom he had been having a sexual relationship, claims to have been sexually and physically assaulted by the man in the past.

Tarence Mitchell, 18, of Bloomfield, Connecticut, has admitted to stabbing Ronald Taylor Jr - known as 'City' - five times in the torso with a steak knife out the front of his home on November 21, after trying to break off their two-year relationship.

The athlete was recently released from jail and placed under house arrest after his mother posted his $1 million bail with the help of a bail bondsman.

In a 20-page document filed to the Superior Court, Mitchell's lawyer Morgan P. Rueckert, said his client's admission to police supports a their defense that Mitchell was defending himself and didn't intend to kill Taylor, according to Courant.

However Judge Joan Alexander questioned the self-defense suggestion during Mitchell's court appearance and noted that Mitchell initially lied about what had happened, blaming unidentified people wearing hoodies for the stabbing.

In his motion, Rueckert wrote that Taylor, 'an adult, provided drugs to and sexually assaulted the defendant when he was a minor, and then attempted to use the threat of disclosing the defendant's past victimization, along with the threat of, and actual, physical violence to force the defendant to engage in sexual contact'.

The assault was not elaborated further.

Defense: Dustin Musso did kill his grandfather

Case of Sexual Circumstances

12-3-2013 Louisiana:

BATON ROUGE - Defense attorneys told a jury of 12 men and women today that Dustin Musso killed his grandfather in May of 2009. Musso beat him and set his house on fire.

However, Lance Unglesby said his grandfather's actions over many years prompted Musso to kill him. He asked jurors to not find his client guilty of first degree murder, but rather manslaughter which carries a lower penalty.

In court a 23-year veteran police officer testified that she doesn't get rattled easily, but Dustin Musso rattled her. She also said that he was the most "evil and malicious" person she has ever encountered.

Unglesby blamed Musso's family and grandfather for his unstable childhood. As he was being raised, he lived in nearly 23 foster homes.

"Pete Musso molested children," Unglesby said. "He molested lots of children, molested Dustin. The sins of his past finally caught up with him."

Prosecutor Prem Burns doesn't buy it.

"The old molestation, that's what the Menendez brothers did in their case," Burns said. "To pull it out of the woodwork, 'Oh we were molested by out father' to try to get off on first degree murder, it's an easy thing to do against a dead person."

Coroner releases identities of bodies found in East Side apartment

Posted in Related Deaths

5-20-2013 Indiana:

EVANSVILLE — A man and woman whose bodies were found in their northern Vanderburgh County apartment Monday afternoon were identified Wednesday by the Vanderburgh County Coroner’s Office as Holly L. Usrey, 56, and Thomas H. Zinni, 65.

Usrey died from blunt force trauma to the head, according to the Coroner Annie Groves, and her death is listed as being a homicide. Zinni died from a self-inflicted wound, Groves said.

The couple were found Monday in their apartment by a maintenance employee of the Delaware Trace Apartments, however, their date of death is listed as May 20.

Groves said they coroner’s office has not been able to find next of kin for Usrey. Anyone with information is asked to call the coroner’s office at 812-435-5746. ..Source.. by Courier Press

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Man in murder-suicide case was subject of child molestation investigation

Evansville Police have released new information about the bodies found in a Vanderburgh County Apartment complex.

They say based on the causes of death for the two people found in the apartment on June 3rd, the case has been classified as a murder-suicide.

Investigators say that Thomas Zinni killed Holly Usrey and then killed himself.

The department has also released that at time of the deaths, Thomas Zinni was being investigated for child molesting.

Zinni had been interviewed by a sex crimes detective a week before the deaths.

Detectives were preparing a case file in an effort to get an arrest warrant based on information gathered during the investigation.

Both investigations will be closed due to the suspect in both cases being deceased. ..Source.. by Brad Conaway

Sheriff: Man killed couple because husband was sex offender

Vigilantes were members of Crew 41: Note article: "Killing Sex Offenders: The Apparent Hypocrisy of Crew 41"

Posted in Related Deaths

7-24-2013 South Carolina:

JONESVILLE, SC (FOX Carolina) - Union County Sheriff David Taylor said two arrests were made in a double-homicide case after two people were found dead inside a Jonesville home Monday.

Taylor said a neighbor called 911 at about 8:40 p.m. and wanted deputies to check on the residents in a home on Furman L. Fendley Highway.

He identified the victims as Gretchen Parker, 51, and Charles Parker, 59, and said they lived in the home where they were found dead.

Taylor said surveillance video helped them identify and arrest Christine, 36, and Jeremy Moody, 30, in connection with the Parkers' deaths. Both were arrested and charged with two counts of murder.

Jeremy Moody told deputies he killed Charles Parker because he was a registered sex offender and planned to kill another registered sex offender on his list on Wednesday had he not been caught, Taylor said. Taylor said Gretchen Parker was killed because she was with Charles Parker.

According to the State Law Enforcement Division website, Charles Parker is listed as a registered sex offender, convicted in 1991 of criminal sexual conduct third degree.

Deputies, neighbor discover bodies in Jonesville home

Taylor said a neighbor had stopped by a few times Monday, but no one came to the door so he called deputies, Taylor said.

Taylor said in a press conference on Tuesday that both victims were shot and also stabbed multiple times but so far, investigators have no leads and have not made any arrests in the case.

"Anytime you have dead bodies, and you don't know who's done the act, it's a threat," Taylor said.

An autopsy done on Monday morning determined that Charles Parker was shot twice, once in the neck and once in the chest, and also suffered from stab wounds, Taylor said. Gretchen Parker was shot once in the chest and stabbed multiple times, according to Taylor.

When deputies arrived, they found the back door open and heard dogs inside the home, Taylor said. He said deputies discovered the bodies of a man and woman in the living room, guarded by several dogs.

Taylor said investigators had to wait for Animal Control to take eight dogs, some puppies, two cats and chickens out of the house and secure warrants before going inside.

State Law Enforcement Division investigators were brought in to help process the crime scene, Taylor said.

Taylor said from everyone investigators have talked to, no one had talked to the Parkers since Saturday. He also said there were no signs of forced entry, though the door was left wide open.

"From everything that we can tell, nothing is missing at this time," Taylor said. "Everything appears to still be intact. The house was not ransacked. So it doesn't appear to be robbery."

Sheriff: Surveillance video shows suspects at scene of crime

According to Taylor, Jeremy Moody said he wanted to kill Charles Parker a year ago but he "chickened out" and then decided to kill him on Sunday. Taylor said Jeremy Moody got the tools necessary to go through with his plans, including a gun, knife, gloves and boots.

Taylor said the Parkers' exterior surveillance cameras showed the Moodys pull up to the home, pop the hood on their vehicle as if it was broken down then encounter Gretchen Parker.

Sex Offender Shot Dead by Police After 37-Hour Hostage Standoff — 2 Bodies Found in N.J. Home

Posted in Related Deaths

5-12-2013 New Jersey:

TRENTON, N.J. (TheBlaze/AP) — Police stormed a New Jersey home early Sunday and fatally shot a registered sex offender who had held his girlfriend’s three children hostage, ending a 37-hour ordeal and recovering the bodies of the girlfriend and one of her children, authorities said.

As TheBlaze reported yesterday, officers initially went to the South Trenton home Friday afternoon and found a man was barricaded inside. A relative Carmelita Stevens, 44, said she hadn’t spoken to her in weeks and was worried, authorities said at a news conference Sunday. Upon further investigation, authorities then discovered her children hadn’t been to school in 12 days.

Police entered the home through a rear door and smelled an odor consistent with that of a decomposing body, Trenton Police Director Ralph Rivera Jr. said. The officers also noticed maggots throughout the residence.

They found 38-year-old Gerald “Skip” Tyrone Murphy in an upstairs bedroom and he told them he was armed with a gun and explosives and had three children with him, Mercer County Prosecutor Joseph L. Bocchini Jr. said. Officers noticed one of the dead victims before they retreated from the second floor and rescued Stevens’ 19-year-old son from the basement, who said he hadn’t seen her or his siblings since about April 24.

Homes on the surrounding block were evacuated as a precaution, and police tape cordoned off the street in front of the house. A SWAT team was called, and an arson bomb unit was also on the scene. Police said Murphy could be seen from a window holding a black handgun.

Police remained in contact with Murphy throughout the standoff and passed food into the home through an upstairs window, state police Col. Rick Fuentes said. Murphy kept the captives with him inside the roughly 10-foot-by-11-foot bedroom throughout the standoff, authorities said.

As the standoff stretched into a third day, officers entered the home around 3:45 a.m. Sunday after noting Murphy’s “deteriorating state of mind” and deciding it was necessary to enter to help ensure the captives survived, Fuentes said. An officer shot Murphy because he was threatening one of the children, he said.

Murphy was taken to a hospital and later died of his injuries. No law enforcement personnel were injured during the standoff or the confrontation with Murphy.

“This was a very complex matter, considering the space (where the hostages were) and that three children were involved,” Fuentes said. “Our mission over those 37 hours was to save innocent lives.”

Authorities found the bodies of Stevens and her 13-year-old son in separate bedrooms. Stevens’ body was in an advanced state of decomposition, and police said she and her son may have been killed two weeks ago. Police didn’t say which of the bodies they had seen inside the home Friday afternoon.

Three of Stevens’ children – an 18-year-old woman, a 16-year-old girl and a 4-year-old boy – were rescued and taken to a medical center for evaluation and treatment. Murphy had abused and assaulted the captives, Bocchini said.

Murphy and Stevens had been dating for a few months, and both lived in the house, police said. He was not the father of any of her children.

Authorities wouldn’t comment on a possible motive or say how the victims died, citing the ongoing investigation. They also would not say whether any bombs or other explosives were recovered at the residence.

Attempts to contact the victims’ relatives and neighbors were unsuccessful on Sunday.

Murphy had a long criminal history including convictions for aggravated assault and criminal conspiracy, Bocchini said. He had previously been arrested for robbery and weapons offenses and child endangerment. He also had an arrest warrant in Pennsylvania for failing to register as a sex offender. ..Source.. by Dave Urbanski