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Reminder: Stories in this blog b/c these folks who are NOT sex offenders, -crossed paths with- a former sex offender or someone accused of a sex offense, and circumstances (see article/s) resulted in their death. Deaths of any, RSOs or Accused SOs mentioned, are counted in our Murders/Suicides blogs, not in this blog.
Showing posts with label Blunt Force Trauma. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Blunt Force Trauma. Show all posts

Double murder suspect/child rapist claims his roommates were thinking of grooming boys

Posted in Related Deaths
8-18-2014 Washington:

TACOMA — A child rapist from California allegedly admitted killing his two roommates in their Spanaway-area home Sunday, telling police he suspected they were interested in grooming young boys for sex, according to court documents released Monday.

Richard Atkisson, 40, appeared in Pierce County Superior Court Monday. He was ordered held in the county jail without bail while deputies continue investigating the murders. He is wanted in California on $50,000 arrest warrant for a sex charge, the documents state.

Court documents say Atkisson used a pipe Sunday to beat both Joseph Moisa, 60, a registered sex offender, and Michael Henderson, 20, inside the Spanaway-area home he had shared with them for the past year.

Henderson died after Atkisson allegedly forced him to his knees and continued beating him. Moisa didn’t die from the beating, according to the documents, so Atkisson used a plastic bag over his head to suffocate him.

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



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

Dania Beach man kills girlfriend, hangs himself at Greenbelt Park, police say

Posted in Related Deaths
8-31-2012 Florida:

A man found hanging from a tree in Greenbelt Park on Sunday morning apparently first killed his girlfriend before turning to suicide, authorities said.

The body of Louise Attardi-Cramer, 50, dead from blunt force trauma, was discovered in her bedroom early Sunday, said Keyla Concepcion, a spokeswoman for the Broward Sheriff's Office.

About four hours later, Michael Kanuf, 49, was found by a couple taking a morning stroll through a secluded area of the park adjacent to Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, Concepcion said.

Police say Kanuf left a note outside a relative's home admitting to the crime and saying that he was going to commit suicide.

After receiving a call at about 6:30 a.m. requesting that the Sheriff's Office perform a welfare check of Attardi-Cramer, police found her body in her home in the 5300 block of Southwest 29th Way, Concepcion said.

Police spent the next several hours, Concepcion said, searching for Kanuf, the father of Attardi-Cramer's teenage son.

When the couple made the grisly discovery in the park, they called 911. The body was confirmed to be Kanuf, Concepcion said.

When reached by telephone Sunday afternoon, a relative of Attardi-Cramer's declined to comment: "This is a time of mourning for the family and nobody wants to talk about what's going on."

Records from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement show that Kanuf is a registered sexual offender stemming from a 1993 conviction out of Miami-Dade County for lewd or lascivious fondling of a child younger than 16.

The murder-suicide investigation is ongoing. ..Source.. by Tonya Alanez, Sun Sentinel

Man who plunged from tower was suspect in 3 slayings

Posted in Related Deaths
4-8-2012 Mississippi:

BAY ST. LOUIS -- Authorities suspect a twice-convicted felon killed his mother, stepfather and girlfriend at their home on Citizen Street before he climbed a cellphone tower in Waveland and plunged about 300 feet to his death.

The triple homicide and two other homicides Saturday in Hancock County marked what is believed to be a record of five homicides reported in a single day in the coastal counties.

“It was like a double full moon,” said Waveland Police Chief Kenny Hurt, previously chief investigator of the Hancock County Sheriff’s Office.

“All of us officials and investigators have been talking about how we don’t recall ever having this many at a time. We had a double homicide several years ago, but never anything like this,” Hurt said.

No motives have been revealed in any of the killings.

Authorities on Sunday identified victims in the slayings on Citizen Street as Wilton Bernard Jr., 69, his wife, Jeanie Bernard, 66, and Kathleen Deese, 50.

Deese was the suspect’s girlfriend, said Bay Deputy Police Chief Christine Johnson.

The suspect, Anthony Garrett, 46, died later Saturday night as authorities tried to talk him down from a tower and a crowd gathered to watch. Investigators are considering the possibility that he slipped and fell while trying to get down.

Witnesses reported Garrett shouted at onlookers and law enforcement officers, claiming he had killed his family with a hammer, and said he had been in prison a number of years.

Garrett was convicted of sexual battery in 1985 and again in 1988. He had given officials his mother’s home address as his address for the Mississippi Sex Offender Registry. The website said his picture was last updated March 27.

Back-to-back autopsies were performed Sunday, but authorities have not yet said how the three on Citizen Street were killed.

The Bernards were retired and mostly kept to themselves, said their next-door neighbor, who asked not to be identified. She said the couple had lived there about 10 years and had recently finished planting flowers in their yard.

Crime-scene tape was still tied around the yard Sunday afternoon. An American flag waved in the breeze from a short pole on a tripod-style planter of flowers in front of the light-colored stucco home, where sego palms grow underneath a set of double windows in front.

Three vehicles were parked on the property. A pickup truck and station wagon were in the front yard, and a car was parked under a lean-to built adjacent to a shed.

Public records show Garrett and Deese had previously lived in Meridian.

They apparently all lived together in a house at the corner of Citizen Street and Old Spanish Trail. Citizen Street is a dead-end road. Numerous motorists passed by and slowed down to look at the house Sunday and turned around and left.

Police said the three were found dead at 7:42 p.m. Saturday.

The neighbor said she had no idea anything had happened until a string of patrol cars drove up as she sat on her porch. She said authorities were still there when she went to bed about 3 a.m. Sunday. The woman said she heard no gunshots or sounds of distress.

Authorities linked Garrett to the slayings after Waveland police and Hancock County deputies responded to a report of a man who had jumped a fence and climbed onto a cell phone tower at U.S. 90 and Kiln-Waveland Cutoff Road in Waveland.

The tower is a three- or four-mile drive from the home on Citizen Street.

The sight of a man near the top of the tower drew a crowd of several dozen from neighboring businesses including the Knock Knock Lounge.

The Hancock County Sheriff’s Office and the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation are assisting in the probe of those incidents. ..Source.. by ROBIN FITZGERALD

Murder-suicide suspected in 2 Jamestown deaths

Posted in Related Deaths
11-22-2011 Colorado:

BOULDER, Colo. — Boulder County sheriff's investigators say they believe a single mother whose body was found in Jamestown in September was sexually assaulted and killed by a sex offender who then killed himself.

County Coroner Emma Hall said Tuesday that 30-year-old Solange Haikkala died of blunt force trauma to the neck. Her body was found in her home Sept. 10, a day after she had attended a gathering that 35-year-old Thomas Altimus also attended. Altimus was found dead a few days later in a wooded area.

Hall said Tuesday that Altimus died of a self-inflicted shotgun wound to the head.

Sheriff's investigators say DNA taken from Haikkala's body was conclusively linked to Altimus. They say evidence suggests Altimus sexually assaulted and killed Haikkala. ..Source.. by FOXReno.com

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Jamestown murder-suicide: Ruling brings closure, but anger that killer 'doesn't have to face what he did'

JAMESTOWN -- Ever since two bodies were found three days apart in September, residents were convinced there had been a murder-suicide in their small mountain town.

On Tuesday, Boulder County sheriff's investigators announced that they indeed think sex offender Thomas Altimus, 35, sexually assaulted and killed Solange Haikkala, 30, at her Jamestown home before shooting himself in the woods outside of town.

Haikkala died of blunt trauma to the neck, according to Boulder County Coroner Emma Hall, who ruled her death a homicide Tuesday.

Hall ruled Altimus' death a suicide, reporting that he died of a self-inflicted shotgun wound to the head.

Haikkala's body was found Sept. 10 in her home at 18 Ward St. in Jamestown, and Altimus' body was found in the woods Sept. 13.

Witnesses told investigators that Haikkala -- a teaching assistant for Boulder Valley schools -- and Altimus were both at a party the night of Sept. 9. Altimus reportedly offered to take Haikkala home, but she declined and left with another person. She arrived at her home at around 3 a.m. and went to a neighbor's house to check on her 12-year-old daughter, who often slept over there.

The neighbor, Rich Mastran, told the Camera on Tuesday that when Haikkala came to check in on her daughter, he didn't notice anything in her behavior to indicate she was worried about her safety.

"She wasn't acting different than any other night, and she wasn't acting like she was in fear of something," Mastran said.

Investigators say sometime after she left Mastran's house, at around 4 a.m., she returned home, where Altimus sexually assaulted and killed her. Mastran and her daughter found Haikkala's body when they went to check on her at 10:30 a.m.

DNA found on Haikkala was a match to Altimus, and several neighbors reported Altimus appeared to be upset when emergency vehicles responded to Haikkala's death. They reported last seeing him wander into the woods with a shotgun, where they heard a gunshot later that day.

Although his body was not found for three days, Cmdr. Rick Brough, of the Sheriff's Office, said it appears he shot himself that day.

Warning signs

Altimus was a sex offender who had been arrested in 2006 on suspicion of sexual assault on a helpless victim and pleaded guilty to sexual contact in Broomfield. According to the police report, in April 2006, he offered to let a woman stay at his house after they met at a birthday party. The woman agreed because she felt she was not sober enough to drive home, but then she said Altimus made unwanted sexual advances and touched her inappropriately throughout the night.

Jamestown residents said Altimus, who was also arrested in 2010 for failing to register as a sex offender, never gave them his true name and always struck them as strange.

Several people interviewed by investigators also said Haikkala appeared to be afraid of Altimus and said he might have done something to her in the past. Some witnesses say they overheard her once tell him, "What you did to me I've heard you've done to others."

Brough said during the course of the investigation, deputies learned Altimus may have attempted to sexually assault another Jamestown woman after she refused his advances. Deputies were attempting to locate Altimus to question him in Haikkala's death when they found his body.

Mastran, the neighbor who found Haikkala's body, said she often mentioned to him that Altimus "creeped her out." Haikkala had told her boyfriend that Altimus had once cornered her and acted inappropriately.

"He started playing weird games with her," Mastran said. "She saw right through him, but nobody took her seriously."

Robbin Papalucas, who had known Haikkala for 10 years, said she sensed her friend was in trouble and questioned why nobody bothered to report Altimus' behavior. Papalucas said she was just about to visit Haikkala, who had moved to Colorado from Santa Barbara, Calif., in October 2010 and told her friend she was not happy in Jamestown.

"I'm just beating myself up because I couldn't get her out of there in time," Papalucas said.

Finally, an answer

The conclusion of the investigation more than two months after the bodies were found confirmed what many people in the small town had already suspected.

"I think most people in Jamestown had a hunch," Mastran said.

The deputies who originally responded to Haikkala's death initially did not find the case suspicious. Brough said there were no obvious or conclusive signs Haikkala was murdered. He said there was some bruising on her neck, but some typical signs of strangulation were missing -- for instance, the hyoid bone wasn't crushed.

"I won't say she was strangled, but it appeared somebody put some pressure on her neck," he said.

Brough said investigators were waiting on toxicology and DNA tests from the Coroner's Office, which contributed to the delay in announcing any conclusions about the deaths.

Papalucas said she understands the investigative process can take some time, and she added that detectives were always calling her to keep her updated.

"Our main concern was coming to a final conclusion," she said.

Mastran said with the conclusion of the case, Jamestown residents can try to move on.

"People up here will be really glad to hear it's resolved," he said. "I mean, it's the worst thing that could have happened to her, but at least people can try and put it to a close."

But Papalucas said for Haikkala's family and friends, Altimus' suicide means they may never truly have closure.

"That coward doesn't have to face what he did, so on that level I'm angry," she said. "Solange was a precious person with a lot to offer, and she left behind a little girl who needs her mother. I'm dealing with the blow of the truth of this matter, and how unnecessary it was."

Friends said the daughter is staying with her grandparents. ..Source.. by Mitchell Byars, Camera Staff Writer

Dad pleads guilty in beating death of suspected molester

Posted in Related Deaths
10-4-2006 Delaware:
.A man pleaded guilty Wednesday to criminally negligent homicide for beating to death [4-17-2006] a 77-year-old man he believed had molested his young daughter. Robert Fontanez Jr., 27, had faced the more serious charge of second-degree murder in the April death of Bismark Vasquez before agreeing to the plea. He faces up to five years in prison at sentencing, expected early next year.

According to police, Fontanez became enraged when his 5-year-old daughter told him that Vasquez had touched her inappropriately. He went to Vasquez's home and punched him so hard that the older man went through the back door, police said. Investigators said Fontanez continued to beat Vasquez as he lay bleeding on the concrete outside. Vasquez died in a hospital three days later.

Police detective Scott Chaffin said there was no physical evidence to support the molestation allegation, though he said the child's comments to police were consistent with what she had told her mother. In a similar case in Fairfield, Connecticut, a man was charged with stabbing to death a 58-year-old neighbor in August whom he had suspected of molesting his 2-year-old daughter. ..more.. by Associated Press

9 Months for Killing Molestation Suspect
1-5-2007 Delaware:

WILMINGTON, Del. -- A man was sentenced to nine months in prison Friday for beating to death a 77-year-old man he believed had molested his 5-year-old daughter.

Robert Fontanez Jr. pleaded guilty last year to killing Bismark Vasquez. Police have said that although there was no physical evidence to support his daughter's allegations that Vasquez had fondled her, the account she gave police was consistent with what she had told her family.

In April, an infuriated Fontanez punched Vasquez so hard that Vasquez went through the back door of his home. Fontanez punched him several more times as he lay bleeding on the concrete outside, police said.

Fontanez, 27, of Elsmere, had been charged with second-degree murder but pleaded guilty to criminally negligent homicide.

Superior Judge Joseph Slights III sentenced Fontanez to far less than the maximum five years, telling him, "The circumstances surrounding this crime were taken into consideration by the state" and the court. ..more.. by The Associated Press

Texas prisoner set to die for killing cellmate

Posted in Related Deaths
5-18-2010 Texas:

LIVINGSTON, Texas — Rogelio Cannady was serving a pair of life prison sentences for killing teenage sweethearts in the Rio Grande Valley when the fatal beating of his cellmate put him on death row.

Cannady, 37, was set to die Wednesday evening in Huntsville for the slaying nearly 17 years ago. He was the first inmate condemned under a state law that allowed prosecutors to seek the death penalty for inmates accused of murder. Cannady says his confession to the initial slayings had been coerced, and that the wrongful conviction led him to death row.

"I should never have been in prison to begin with," the soft-spoken Cannady said in an interview with The Associated Press.

On Monday the U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal filed in February. His lawyers have another pending in the federal courts.

Cannady was condemned for the Oct. 10, 1993, killing of Leovigildo Bonal, 55, with whom he shared a cell at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice McConnell Unit in Beeville.

Records show Cannady punched Bonal, beat him with a padlock and kicked him repeatedly until he fell unconscious.

Cannady insists the older inmate — also convicted of murder — made sexual advances toward him and that the beating was in self-defense.

"I think anybody would have done the same thing, fight to protect themselves,"
he told The Associated Press recently from death row.

Corrections officers found Bonal on the floor of the blood-covered cell, and he died two days later.

Cannady was charged with capital murder under a 1993 law intended to ease prison violence.

He had arrived in prison about 2 1/2 years earlier, serving two life sentences, after pleading guilty to the 1990 murders of two runaways from a youth home.

Ricardo Garcia, 16, of Freer, and 13-year-old Ana Robles of Brownsville, were found dead in an irrigation canal near La Feria, about 30 miles northwest of Brownsville. Cannady was among four teenagers convicted in the slayings that left Garcia stabbed 13 times and Robles raped and strangled.

Herbert Hancock, the prosecutor in the prison slaying case, said he believed Cannady should have been tried for capital murder in the double slaying.

Cannady "took her by the hair and cut her throat and threw her in the bayou," Hancock said. "The young boy she was with was her boyfriend. And because he was a witness, they took him out at a different time, took him to the same bayou, cut his throat and threw him in the bayou — just execution style."

"He's very dangerous," Hancock said

Cannady has had numerous disciplinary cases in recent years on death row, including two last month for assault.

Trying to hold back the tears, Cannady told the AP he did not believe his final appeal would succeed.

"I don't hide from the truth. The odds against me are huge," he said.

His execution would be the 10th this year in the nation's most active capital punishment state.

Also scheduled for execution is John Alba, 54, facing lethal injection May 25 for gunning down his 28-year-old estranged wife Wendy in Allen in Collin County in 1991. ..Source.. by MICHAEL GRACZYK

Reduced sentence ordered for Chicago killer

Posted in Related Deaths
9-25-2010 Illinois:

Court rules for Chicago woman who took part in the 2004 murder of a man she believed raped her infant daughter

A Chicago woman convicted of killing a man who allegedly raped her infant daughter should get a sharply reduced sentence, an appeals court has found, ruling that the judge who sentenced her to 67 years in prison failed to properly consider the "undeniably egregious nature of the provocation" that led to the 2004 slaying.

Laquita Calhoun, now 29, was bathing her 1-year-old daughter when she noticed signs of sexual abuse and went to confront a neighbor. Alonzo Jones, 29, confessed to abusing the girl, Calhoun told police. Another neighbor revealed Jones had molested one of her children too, witnesses said.

Jones was then beaten by several people in the apartment, then tossed screaming into the trunk of a car. "Take me to the hospital," one witness said Jones pleaded from the trunk, according to records cited by the Illinois Appellate Court. "Take me to the police station. Sorry (La)quita."

"You going to die tonight," Calhoun allegedly responded. Another woman in the car turned up the radio. The women stopped at a liquor store, where Calhoun slashed Jones with a broken bottle, and several men standing nearby began kicking him after being told Jones had raped an infant.

Later, mechanics failed to hear Jones' pleas for help at a shop where Calhoun went to repair a flat tire. Jones was eventually taken to an alley near Michigan Avenue and 56th Street, beaten with a stick by Calhoun until he collapsed, and run over with the car several times.

The medical examiner's office ruled Jones died of sharp- and blunt-force trauma.

After a jury found Calhoun guilty of murder, Cook County Judge Stanley Sacks said he had never seen a more "horrendous, vicious crime" and said her vigilantism had cost Calhoun the right to "live among a free society." He sentenced her to 67 years in prison, including the maximum 60 years for murder.

But the appeals court in Chicago wrote that Sacks failed in his sentencing to recognize that Calhoun had undergone a provocation "as extreme as any mother … could sustain" and, being unlikely to reoffend, deserved a sentence closer to 20 years. The court also noted that all the other defendants in the case got more lenient sentences from Sacks. ..Source.. by Steve Schmadeke, Tribune reporter

Three men indicted in beating death

Posted in Related Deaths. This news article speaks about a person WHO IS NOT A SEX OFFENDER and was killed. (See blog title "Related to a sex offender or a sex offense" which means their life crossed paths (here by being accused of a sex offense) with a situation involving a sex offense or a sex offender. Related does not mean they are, please reread the title.
6-8-2010 Rochester, New York:

Two men charged in the fatal burning and beating of a Rochester man told police that the victim was attacked because he molested a child.

A grand jury has indicted Jeffrey L. Newton with the felonies of second-degree murder and first-degree gang assault and Peter J. Barkley and Darrel Hoffman for first-degree gang assault in a June 8 attack on Martin Quinn in Quinn's apartment on Grand Avenue.

According to court documents, Newton and Hoffman claimed that five people attacked Quinn because of allegations that Quinn had sexually abused a child they knew.

Police said Quinn, 46, was burned with a clothes iron and beaten with pipes, sticks, bottles and a television set. He was dumped in a bathtub and died 16 hours later.

Before Quinn died, Hoffman said Quinn cried out, "Help! I can't breathe! I'm not going to make it!" according to court documents.

Newton, 28, Barkley, 31, and Hoffman, 25, are scheduled to be arraigned Friday before state Supreme Court Justice Daniel J. Doyle. Newton and Barkley are being held without bail in Monroe County Jail; Hoffman is being held in lieu of $15,000 bail.

If convicted of murder, Newton faces a mandatory prison term ranging from 15 years to life to 25 years to life. A conviction for first-degree gang assault brings a mandatory prison term of up to 25 years.

Although police said five men participated in the assault, Newton, Barkley and Hoffman are the only ones to be charged so far. ..Source.. by Michael Zeigler • Staff writer

3 men indicted in beating death in NE Rochester

6-30-2010 New York:

A grand jury has indicted three men in a beating death in Rochester earlier this month.

Jeffrey L. Newton is charged with second-degree murder and first-degree gang assault and Peter J. Barkley and Darrel Hoffman are charged with first-degree gang assault in the June 8 beating of Martin Quinn in his apartment on Grand Avenue.

Police said Quinn, 46, was burned with an iron and beaten with pipes, sticks, bottles and a television set. He died in his apartment of his injuries 16 hours later.

Newton, 28, Barkley, 31, and Hoffman, 25, are being held in Monroe County Jail. They’re scheduled to be arraigned Friday before state Supreme Court Justice Daniel J. Doyle. ..Source.. Michael Zeigler

Three Men Indicted in Beating Death

A grand jury has indicted one man on murder charges and two others with assault in connection with a beating death earlier this month.

On June 8th, 46-year-old Martin Quinn was found dead in his first floor apartment on Grand Avenue. Neighbors said they heard a commotion in the home. Police said Quinn was tortured with sticks, bottles, hit with a TV, and burned with an iron, before he was killed.

28-year-old Jeffrey Newton (pictured) is charged with gang assault and murder. 31-year-old Peter Barkley and 25-year-old Darrel Hoffman are charged with gang assault. ..Source..

Elderly Bithlo man beaten to death after being mistaken for sex offender

5-13-2010 Florida:

Deputies arrested Michael Garay, 32, in connection to the beating death of Hugh Edwards, an elderly Bithlo man.

An elderly Bithlo resident was beaten to death with a black Louisville Slugger baseball bat because the killer mistakenly thought the man was a sex offender, the Orange County Sheriff's Office said.

Deputies arrested 20-year-old Robert Pascale on Thursday on a charge of first-degree murder with a weapon after deputies with dogs tracked him to a muddy pond near Sixth Street in Bithlo, where he was hiding. Pascale was submerged in the water, only his face exposed.

The dead man, Hugh Edwards, 78, had no criminal history. It's unclear why anyone thought he was a sexual offender.

Details about Edwards' killing became public in the arrest report for Pascale's friend, 32-year-old Michael Garay, charged with accessory to murder.

Deputies were alerted to a possible homicide when Christa Limerick called 911 early Wednesday and said she thought her acquaintances had killed a man inside a trailer, reports show.

Officers were dispatched to Fifth Avenue in Bithlo around 4:24 a.m. and found Edwards dead in a pool of blood. Officers noted signs of a struggle.

Limerick told deputies she was drinking with a group of friends when Pascale asked her what she would do if she had kids and lived next door to a sex offender, the report shows. Limerick said she would kill the person, according to the report.

Shortly after that conversation, Limerick said, she watched Pascale and Garay walk into the elderly man's fenced yard and return a short while later.

Garay later told deputies they returned to the home to get a baseball bat. Then they walked back over to the man's trailer, and Pascale "jimmied" the lock open, the report says. Garay told deputies he waited outside while Pascale went inside.

Garay told deputies that he heard several "thumping" sounds come from the trailer.

After the beating, Garay, Pascale, Limerick and another woman, Amber Baker, got into Limerick's car. The group drove to a nearby retention pond where Pascale dumped the baseball bat, according to the report.

Next, the group drove to Pascale's mother's house so Pascale could change clothes. Once back in the car, they drove over to an area known as "Dead Man's Trail" where the two men got out of the car, reports show.

Garay told deputies he and Pascale walked along a dirt path and Pascale walked into the woods to ditch the bloody clothing. Garay's jacket, which also had blood on it, was discarded, according to the affidavit.

The men then met up with the women at a nearby Circle K convenience store about 20 minutes later.

Deputies have recovered the bat and the clothing, the report says.

Records show Garay's criminal history includes arrests on charges of battery of a law-enforcement officer.

Pascale has a violent criminal past and spent two years in a state prison for stealing a car, burglary, robbery with a deadly weapon and battery on a detention-facility staff member, according to the Florida Department of Corrections.

He was released from prison in March, records show. Three weeks later, he was arrested on a charge of possession of marijuana and held overnight at the Orange County Jail. ..Source.. by Sarah Lundy and Susan Jacobson

Suspect caught in Bithlo murder over mistaken identity

5-13-2010 Florida:

Orange County Deputies got a tip that murder suspect, Robert Pascale, 20, was hiding out near 8th St. and Belvedere Rd. in Bithlo.

They arrived at the scene around 4:00 pm Thursday, and the suspect fled into the wood. Deputies chased after using bloodhounds to track his scent.

"We went down about 200 yards, found him laying on his back in the mud," said master deputy Gary Dolton. "Just a little bit of his face was showing and that was all."

Deputies say Pascal beat Hugh Edwards, 79, to death with a baseball bat in his Bithlo mobile home. Investigators say the killing was likely a case of mistaken identity. Rumors swirled through the community that Edwards was a sex offender who molested children. Records show he had no history of sexual crimes.

Michael Garay, 32, was arrested as an accessory to the murder. He told detectives that he waited outside while Pascal went in the trailer with the bat. ..Source.. by Drew Petrimoulx

Stevensville Teen arraigned on murder charge

10-21-2010 Michigan:

Motive said to be alleged molestation

Today brought new information as to why a Stevensville teen allegedly killed his mother’s boyfriend last September.

15 year old Josh Wayne Smith was arraigned in a Berrien County courtroom on Wednesday.

Smith is charged with the September 23rd beating death of 44 year old David Loveland.

Smith and Loveland lived in the same home at the time.

According to today’s testimony Smith had been told that Loveland may have molested a niece of Smith’s.

Smith then confronted Loveland inside the home, according to Lincoln Township Police Officer Todd Hopke. “He told me he confronted David Loveland as he was sitting on the couch, over an allegation that David Loveland may have molested a niece of his. “He told me he walked up to him and he called him a sick mother ------ and at that time David got up off the couch and shoved him, and then sat back down. “From there, Josh said that he just started punching David.”

According to Hopke, Smith also said he had Loveland in a headlock when Smith used his knee to strike Loveland in the head.

Loveland died from a blunt force trauma head injury.

Hopke described the physical confrontation as being one sided: that Loveland raised his arms to cover his head and curled his body up into a fetal position.

During cross examination Smith’s defense attorney emphasized that there was no evidence that any weapon had been used in the beating.

Officer Hopke was the first officer called to the scene on the night in question.

Hopke said the initial complaint had to do with a group of teens walking down the street.

When Hopke arrived on scene, he saw Smith run away.

Officer Hopke pursued the suspect and found Smith hiding in the back seat of a friend’s parked car at the Pizza Hut.

According to Hopke, Smith explained that he ran away because he “just beat the ---- out of David Loveland and didn’t want to get in trouble.”

That led Officer Hopke back to Smith’s home, where the body of Loveland was first discovered.

Judge John Donahue today determined that there was sufficient evidence to support the charge that Smith was behind the beating death of Loveland.

While Smith today came to court to face a serious legal situation—he didn’t have to face it alone. About a dozen Smith supporters sat in the gallery, six of them had customized t-shirts with Smith’s photograph on the front, while the back of the shirt carried the phrase “Support Josh Wayne.”

For his part, Smith today spent much of the 22 minute hearing staring straight down into his lap. At one point Smith appeared to be crying as he was handed a tissue by a court worker.

The judge set November 17th as the date for Smith’s next hearing. That’s when prosecutors will ask to have the case moved to adult court. In the meantime, Smith will undergo a psychiatric evaluation. ..Source.. by Mark Peterson

FL- Palatka pair found slain

Posted in Related Deaths

A very odd case. Police say it was not a murder-suicide but, a FSO and his wife were murdered, and it may be related to another case where he worked. At very least, it is in this blog to report the death of the FSO's wife.
7-28-2007 Florida:
A man and woman were found dead Friday in a mobile home outside Palatka in what authorities say appears to be a double homicide.

The Putnam County Sheriff’s Office identified the victims as 36-year-old Terrance Eugene McCloud and 30-year-old Carley Ann Collum. Investigators don’t yet know when they died or how they were killed.

Friday night, investigators believed it was not a murder-suicide, said Maj. Gary Bowling, a spokesman for the sheriff’s office.

Worried co-workers of Collum, who was employed at the PRC call center in Palatka, led to the grisly discovery shortly after noon.

During their lunch break, the co-workers went to Collum’s home in the Silver Lake Oaks Mobile Home Park and became concerned when they saw her car parked outside and got no response at the door.

The park’s manager then opened the mobile home and discovered McCloud’s body inside.

Collum also missed work on Thursday. That prompted a welfare check call to deputies, who went to the home and saw nothing unusual from the outside, Bowling said.

Investigators confirmed Collum was alive late Wednesday and early Thursday.

The mobile home is in Lot 43, next to a vacant lot where four cars were parked.

Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigators spent Friday afternoon taking photographs and collecting evidence. Yellow crime scene tape kept neighbors from getting close.

Family members of both McCloud and Collum were called by police to the area, but knew little more than investigators.

“I don’t know anything,” said Carmelia Mauesby, McCloud’s aunt. “It’s a total shock. There were no problems. He was always a happy person. He didn’t bother nobody at all.”

Mauesby was called by her daughter, who lives across the street from McCloud.

The last time she said she had spoken with him was last week, she said.

“Whatever happened, they need to get to the bottom of it, because he doesn’t bother anybody,” Mauesby said. “It’s just not good for the family at all.”

Mauesby said that McCloud’s grandmother, the woman who raised him, was seriously ill and may not live long. His grandmother last spoke with him on Wednesday, she said.

Family members said McCloud worked at Matthews Moving and Storage, where he had been employed for more than 10 years. He had lived at the Silver Lake Drive residence a couple of months, they said.

Collum is the second PRC employee slain this month.

On July 6, Stephen Richardson was found stabbed to death in his Palatka apartment. No arrests have been in his death and a $2,000 reward is being offered for information.

As of Friday night, authorities had no link between the two slayings, Bowling said.

The state Department of Corrections shows McCloud was convicted in 1997 of sexual battery without injury and lewd and lascivious conduct on a child younger than 16. He is listed as a sexual offender on the FDLE Web site. His offender status and his new address at Silver Lake Drive were updated Thursday, the site says.

There is no indication McCloud’s slaying was linked to his sex-offender record, Bowling said.

McCloud also was on probation for felony driving with a suspended license, according to the Department of Corrections. ..more.. by Larry Sullivan and Ron Bartlett

Leads sought as police probe double slaying
7-31-2007 Florida
Two people found dead in a local mobile home park last week were beaten to death, authorities say.

The bodies of Terrance Eugene McCloud and Karley Ann Collum were found discovered Friday morning off Silver Lake Road near Palatka.

Based on autopsies, medical examiners ruled McCloud, 36, and Collum, 30, died from blunt force trauma to the head, said Maj. Keith Riddick, chief of detectives and a spokesman for the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office.

Crime scene specialists worked through the weekend inside the trailer in Lot 43 at the Silver Lake Oaks Mobile Home Park

No arrests have been made, but investigators are following up on leads, Riddick said in an interview Monday.


Information from the public is welcome, Riddick added.

“If anyone heard anything or saw anything that would be helpful in solving these deaths, we’d love to have it,” he said.

Investigators have confirmed Collum was alive late Wednesday night, when she told a friend she was going out with McCloud.

A neighbor heard a woman scream from McCloud’s home about 5 a.m. Thursday, but Riddick said authorities were not called.

Investigators say McCloud may have known his attacker since there were no signs of forced entry of the home, Riddick said.

A friend and co-worker described Collum, a resident of Interlachen since November, as energetic and straight-forward.

“She was unique,” Heather Kaminsky said. “Just like the way she spelled her name.”

Kaminsky worked with Collum at the PRC call center in Palatka, where they met while attending a training class and quickly became close friends.

“She was like a sister,” Kaminsky said.

Kaminsky said she feared something was wrong when Collum didn’t show up for work Thursday and Friday without calling in. She and other co-workers convinced the mobile home park manager to open McCloud’s home on Friday. They were fearful because Collum’s car was parked outside the trailer but Collum didn’t answer her cell phone.

“It just wasn’t right,” Kaminsky said. “I knew something was wrong,”

McCloud was found in the kitchen and Collum, the mother of a 9-year-old boy, was dead in the hallway.

Collum’s son was with a babysitter Wednesday night. Riddick said the child has since been placed in the care of relatives in Texas.

Collum met McCloud about two weeks before they were killed, Kaminsky said.

“They were hanging out,” she said. “They weren’t dating.”

Family members said McCloud worked at Matthews Moving and Storage, where he had been employed for more than 10 years. He had lived at the Silver Lake Drive residence a couple of months, they said.

“He didn’t bother nobody or nothing,” his aunt, Carmelia Mauesby, said Monday.

“He was a loving person. Everybody enjoyed being with him.”

A report in Saturday’s paper that McCloud’s grandmother was gravely ill was incorrect, Mauesby also said.

Collum is the second PRC employee slain this month.

On July 6, Stephen Richardson was found stabbed to death in his Palatka apartment. No arrests have been in his death and a $2,000 reward is being offered for information.

There is no indication the slayings are related, Riddick said.

McCloud was convicted in 1997 of sexual battery without injury and lewd and lascivious conduct on a child younger than 16, according to the state Department of Corrections. His Silver Lake address was updated Thursday on the state’s sex-offender Web site.

Authorities also say there was no indication McCloud’s slaying was linked to his sex-offender record. ..more.. by Larry Sullivan

MO- Two women charged with beating man to death in Forest Park

6-18-2009 Missouri:

ST. LOUIS -- Two women who beat a man to death in Forest Park were reacting to an unwanted sexual advance, police said Wednesday in announcing the filing of first-degree murder charges against them.

Dawn E. Fulks, 25, and Mellonie D. Jones, 20, both of St. Louis, were held in jail without bond.

Police described the women as lovers, and said they attacked Willard Bryant Payne, 26, of University City, who was found dead early Monday in the Kennedy Forest area, near the southwest corner of the park. Officials said he died of head trauma.

The defendants also were charged with armed criminal action and filing a false police report.

Police said it happened late Sunday or early Monday, after Payne went with the women to smoke marijuana in the park. When Payne made an advance at Fulks, police said, Jones hit Payne.

Payne tried to run, but the women caught him and continued to beat him with an undisclosed object, police said.

Police said both women were larger than Payne. According to data from Payne's drivers license, he was 5-foot-5 and weighed 140 pounds. Police said that the women claimed Payne had tried to rape Fulks, but that detectives did not believe it. Fulks was sentenced in March in St. Louis Circuit Court to five years of probation after pleading guilty to a child abuse charge. Further details were not immediately available. ..Source.. by Patrick M. O'Connell/St. Louis Post-Dispatch (MCT)

Two Women Arrested In Beating Death of a Man in Forest Park

6-17-2009 Missouri:

Man's body was discovered Monday morning.

ST. LOUIS, MO (KTVI - FOX2now.com) - Two women are in police custody and accused of the murder. St. Louis investigators say the women are responsible for the beating death of a 26 year old man whose body was found in Forest Park. Willard Payne's body was found in the Kennedy Forest near a jogging trail Monday morning, just west of the St. Louis Zoo.

According to police, Payne met the women at a different location and asked them to smoke some marijuana with him. They eventually ended up in Forest Park. The women told police he then made some verbal advances towards the 25-year old female. She said no, so he allegedly started doing to same to her 20-year old companion.

It was later discovered by police that the women were apparently girlfriends, both of whom were larger than the victim. Reports indicate they started beating him. Payne ran and they then caught him and beat him to death, according to police.

Police caught the pair because they initially reported that the man tried to rape them. Police now say that's not the case. The names of the women will likely be released later Tuesday. ..Source.. by John Brown Reporter

Man found dead in Forest Park: Two suspects in custody

6-17-2009 Missouri:

On Monday, June 15, a man was discovered dead on the south edge of Forest Park near the jogging trail by Wells in St. Louis. The Victim has been identified as an African-American male named William Bryant Payne.

Payne lived in the 6700 block of Chamberlain, St. Louis, Missouri. When Payne was found he was wearing only a pair of white shorts and tennis shoes. No cause of death has been released.

There were no obvious outward signs for cause of death to the victim. Minor cuts and scrapes were seen on the body. The medical team tried unsuccessfully to revive Payne during the pouring rain after finding him on a routine drive through of Forest Park. The body was discovered face down in the grass early in the morning before 7 a.m.

Not a lot is being released about this case. After the autopsy the police announced Payne's death as being suspicious. Additionally, as of Tuesday, June 16, 2009 the police have two men in custody. These men are suspected in being a part of Payne's death.

We have no information on who these men are or how they could be related to the death of Payne.

The St. Louis Police Department are the ones handling this case. ..Source.. by Examiner.com

OH- Mom Accused in Baby's Death Facing Sex Charge

The prosecutor alleges she was trying to hide the fact that the father was a minor, and if true there is something else we need to find out. We need to follow case to learn if, her underlying reason was A) she didn't want family or friends to know; -OR- B) whther she was afraid of the ramifications of the laws involving sex with minors, as alleged by the prosecutor.

8-31-2009 Ohio:

A Hamilton woman held in the murder of her five week old child now faces charges of sexual conduct with a minor and allegedly killed her child to hide the age of the father.

25 year old Asuncion Villa was indicted today by a Butler County grand jury on charges of aggravated murder, tampering with evidence, and abuse of a corpse. But there was also a fourth count in the indictment, alleging that Villa had sex with a minor between the ages of 13 and 16. The alleged sex happened between September and November of 2008.

Villa called police a week ago Monday to say a family member had taken her five week old son Israel Santos from her home on Sunday and had not returned the child.

Detectives began interviewing witnesses and say they found the body of the baby early yesterday wrapped in a plastic bag in a trash can behind the family home. They filed charges against Villa, including Murder, Endangering Children, Tampering with Evidence and Abuse of a Corpse. The coroner says the child had a crushed skull and a fractured right forearm.

Today's indictment allegeds Villa killed the baby to hide the fact that she'd fathered the child with a minor.

Villa is held on a million dollars bond on the charges stemming from her baby's death and could face the death penalty if she's convicted. ..Source.. by Local12.com

Baby's death brings death-penalty charge

8-31-2009 Ohio:

A Hamilton woman killed her infant son and put him in the trash, authorities allege, because she wanted to conceal the fact that she had unlawful sex with a teen who fathered the baby.

That scenario added up to charges that could bring the death penalty for Asuncion Avila-Villa, 26, of Hamilton, if she is convicted.

Authorities believe she is the first woman facing possible capital punishment in Butler County in about a decade.

“The facts of this case are so horrific, it justifies it,” said Prosecutor Robin Piper.

Avila-Villa, who is being held in the county jail on a $1 million bond, is set to appear in court today1 on upgraded charges that were released Monday.

An indictment accuses Avila-Villa of aggravated murder in the death of her 35-day-old son, Israel Santos. He died of a crushed skull.

Police found the child’s body Aug. 25 amid trash they had taken to police headquarters from behind Avila-Villa’s Shuler Avenue apartment.

The indictment lists two reasons the death penalty could be imposed, if a jury agrees either or both conditions apply: The victim of the slaying was a child under age 13, and the killing was committed “for the purpose of escaping detection, apprehension, trial or punishment for another offense” – unlawful sexual conduct with a minor.

The latter specification refers to Avila-Villa’s conduct with the teen who is believed to have fathered the baby, Piper said.

Authorities are not disclosing the teen’s whereabouts but say they have talked to him.

Besides aggravated murder and unlawful sexual conduct with a minor, Avila-Villa also is accused of gross abuse of a corpse and evidence tampering.

A paternity test for the child was imminent when he died on or before Aug. 24, Piper said.

The test was about to be done because Avila-Villa was receiving public assistance.

In such a situation, government officials attempt to determine the child’s parentage and collect child-support payments from the parent who doesn’t have custody.

Avila-Villa killed the child and put him in the trash because she didn’t want authorities to discover her sex crime with the teen boy who fathered Israel, Piper said.

In a call to 911, Avila-Villa reported Israel missing and blamed the baby’s father, who she said was 21, for taking him.

Authorities say that report was false. They say the likely father is a boy whose age is between 13 and 16. DNA testing has not yet been completed to verify whether the teen did indeed father the child. ..Source.. by Janice Morse

Mom denies guilt in baby's death

9-1-2009 Ohio:

A Hamilton woman pleaded not guilty Tuesday to charges that she killed her infant son -- accusations that carry a possible death sentence if she is convicted.

Asuncion Avila-Villa, 26, said little except to answer questions and was expressionless in Butler County Common Pleas Court as one of her lawyers, Chris Pagan, spoke on her behalf.

She is denying charges of aggravated murder, gross abuse of a corpse, tampering with evidence and unlawful sexual conduct with a minor, the purported teen father of Israel Santos, the 35-day-old baby who was found dead last week in the trash. The indictment filed Monday alleges she had sex with a boy between the ages of 13 and 16 from September through November last year.

Israel Santos died of a crushed skull, Butler County Coroner Richard Burkhardt has ruled. Police found his body a week ago amid trash they had taken to the police station from outside Avila-Villa's apartment.

She had reported her son missing but police say that story was fabricated.

Authorities allege Avila-Villa killed the child because she wanted to conceal her sexual relationship with the teen. That relationship was in danger of being discovered because government officials were ordering a paternity test on Israel as part of the normal routine for public-assistance applicants.

Police records say Avila-Villa was born in Mexico. "She's legally here but not a citizen," Pagan said. He said she speaks English well enough that no interpreter would be needed for court proceedings.

She has four other children. Two live with relatives in Texas. Two others living with her in Hamilton have been placed with relatives nearby.

Judge Andrew Nastoff kept Avila-Villa's bond unchanged at $1 million. He set her next court date for Sept. 30.

A separate case is pending over custody of two of her children, and a hearing will be held in that case on Oct.15 in juvenile court. ..Source.. by Janice Morse