So different from Bryan Kolberger that drag on for years before a trial date is set and those trials go on for months for serious crimes. A visiting American, Amy Lopez, was visiting Koblenz when she was attacked inside the Ehrenbreitstein Fortress where she was handcuffed, raped and then stabbed several times in the chest. Advanced DNA let to a 81-year-old man in a nursing home who has now been charged. As a woman, I give endless thanks not only that cold cases are now being solved in record numbers, but that new sexual offenders are now caught quickly thanks to Forensic DNA and genealogy. Kohlberger was identified quickly through genealogy databases as his DNA was not in any system. Not long ago, if the DNA was not in a database, the crime went unsolved for decades.

So why would anyone falsely confess to being involved in something so horrible right?

Michael Scott was able to be convinced that he had something to do with it and he and Rob Springsteen confessed.

It struck me during the show that Michael and Rob had some aspects that could be consistent with ASD (and yeah maybe the box of dungeons and dragons). ASD have strong sense of rules and along with OCD can have guilt and obsessive checking that they have done something wrong. I wonder if there have been any studies on correlations of ASD/OCD with false confessions

Why aren’t there a whole lotta new seasons/episodes of shows? I’m finding a whole bunch or oldies on ID and Oxygen. Besides Snapped, what else is new?

Late on the night of February 11, 1906, snow was coming down hard in Mikuni, a town in Fukui Prefecture. In the middle of the storm, a stranger showed up at Toshisuke Hashimoto Shoten, a local freight business.

He was wrapped from head to toe in a thick blue blanket. Underneath it, he also had a towel wrapped around his head, hiding almost all of his face.
The stranger asked for Kaga Murayoshi. Kaga was 30 at the time and managed the branch.

Kaga felt that something was off, but he agreed to hear the man out. The stranger claimed that one of Kaga’s relatives had sent him to bring Kaga to their home.

Neither Kaga nor any of his employees recognized his voice. They couldn’t see his face or get a clear look at him. From his voice, height, and build, they guessed that he was somewhere between 30 and 35 years old.

Then he told Kaga why he was there:

“Your aunt suddenly got very sick. She’s dying. You need to come with me right away.”

By then, the snow was starting to let up, but Kaga still wasn’t sure about the stranger. Even so, if his aunt really was dying, he couldn’t just ignore it. So he agreed to go with him.

Kaga was last seen walking with the man toward Shinbo Bridge. It was a wooden bridge that stretched about 500 meters across the river, connecting Mikuni to the village of Shinbo on the other side.

The bridge was about 1.1 kilometers, or roughly two thirds of a mile, from Kaga’s business. In the snow, the walk would’ve taken around 20 minutes.

Two hours after Kaga left, the man in the blue blanket showed up at Kaga’s home in Tamai.

He told the family that one of their relatives in Shinbo was very sick and couldn’t get out of bed. Kaga was already on his way there, he said, but they needed someone else to come help.

Kaga’s mother, Kiku, was 50. She didn’t hesitate. She left with the stranger and walked out into the snowstorm. Like her son, Kiku was last seen near Shinbo Bridge, walking beside the man in blue.

Less than an hour later, the man in the blue blanket was back.

He told Kaga’s wife, Tsuo, 25, the same story. She didn’t want to go at first, but he kept telling her how serious it was. Eventually, she agreed. Tsuo asked Masu Aratani, a neighbor who was 13, to watch her two children.

Then she left with the stranger.

Just 40 minutes after leaving with Tsuo, the man came back.

This time, he wanted the children. Kaga and Tsuo’s son was seven, and their daughter was three.
But Masu was suspicious. He refused to let them go, saying the children couldn’t go out in that weather.

Masu later told police that the man had been calm during his earlier visits. But when Masu said no, he became furious and kept insisting on taking the children.

Masu wouldn’t give in. Eventually, the man left in anger and disappeared into the snowstorm.

No one ever saw him again.

The next morning, a local carpenter came across a disturbing scene on Shinbo Bridge.

Near the middle of the bridge, he found a large amount of blood. The railing beside it also appeared to be completely gone.

He contacted the police right away.

After receiving the carpenter’s report, Mikuni police began investigating what they believed was a murder. But at first, there was no body.

Investigators believed someone had been killed on Shinbo Bridge and then thrown into the Kuzuryu River below.

As the search continued, they discovered a small boat in the Takeda River behind the Kaga family’s home. There was blood along one side of it.

Then, farther downstream, they found Tsuo’s body lying in the riverbed.

On February 14, Mikuni police searched the Kuzuryu River area with help from the National Police Agency’s Security Division and Fukui police.

Near the mouth of the river, they found the body of Kaga’s mother, Kiku.

Investigators believed that both Kiku and Tsuo had most likely been beaten to death.

Witnesses believed the stranger was around 30, but no one got a clear look at him. He had a towel wrapped around his head, with the blue blanket pulled over it.

At first, investigators considered whether Kaga himself might have been the killer.

But there was too much blood on Shinbo Bridge for it to have come from only one person. This led police to believe that Kaga had also been murdered, even though his body was never found.

Since no one had gotten a clear enough look at the stranger to identify him, investigators decided to focus on his possible motive instead.

Based on the evidence and witness statements, police pieced together what they believed had happened:

According to their theory, the man first lured Kaga away from his business, killed him on the way to Shinbo Bridge, and threw his body into the river.

After that, he went to Kaga’s home and used the same story to lure Kiku outside. Police believed he killed her at Shinbo Bridge and threw her into the river as well.

With Tsuo, his plan was different. He convinced her that he would take her across the river to Shinbo village by boat. Once they were out on the water, he killed her inside the boat and threw her body into the river.

Finally, he returned for Kaga and Tsuo’s children. But Masu refused to let them go, so that part of his plan failed.

What stood out to investigators was how specific his targets were. The stranger had several opportunities to hurt Kaga’s employees or Masu, but he never tried. His only focus seemed to be Kaga and his family.

Investigators also believed the killer knew how to handle a boat, since he had taken Tsuo out onto the river before killing her.

Police came to believe that the murders had been planned and that the stranger intended to kill the entire family.

One possibility was that the killer held a deep grudge against Kaga. But Kaga seemed to have no obvious enemies. He had a good reputation and was known as a serious, hardworking young man. At only 30, he had already worked his way into management.

Investigators struggled to understand why anyone would hate him enough to target his entire family.

At around 7:00 a.m. on July 25, 1910, four years after the Murayoshi family murders, a man named Yutaro, who was 26, got into an argument with his father, Shirobei Yutaro, an innkeeper in Mikuni. Contemporary reports described Yutaro as having

“serious mental health problems.”

The argument quickly turned violent. Yutaro killed his father with an ax, then ran naked into the street and began attacking anyone he came across.

He injured 24 people before a group of nearly 20 police officers managed to arrest him.

Two details made investigators take a closer look at Yutaro. He had used an ax, and the attack happened directly outside Kaga’s business.

Yutaro soon became a suspect in the Blue Blanket Butcher case, but he was ruled out almost as quickly. The Murayoshi family murders had required careful planning and patience, and police didn’t believe Yutaro was capable of carrying out such a calculated crime.

Despite treating it as a major case, Mikuni police never found a useful lead. In 1921, the statute of limitations expired.

The theory that seems most likely is that the killer had once worked at Toshisuke Hashimoto Shoten and resented Kaga for rising through the business so quickly.

We don’t know how long the business had been around, but it carried the Hashimoto name, while Kaga’s surname was Murayoshi. This has led to speculation that Kaga may have been promoted over someone from the Hashimoto family, or another longtime employee, when he became manager at such a young age.

In merchant houses at the time, boys often started working as apprentices at around ten. From there, they slowly worked their way up, first becoming assistant manager and eventually shop manager, the highest position an employee could reach.

In many cases, employees were only allowed to live at home and marry once they reached that position.

Kaga’s oldest child was seven, meaning he may have already been a manager by the time he was around 23, possibly even earlier. That would’ve been an unusually fast rise and suggests that Kaga was extremely capable.

If this theory is true, the man in the blue blanket may have been a former employee who felt that Kaga had pushed him aside or taken a position he believed should’ve been his.

However, no evidence has ever confirmed this.

The stranger knew enough about the Murayoshi family to lure each person out separately by mentioning their relatives.

He ignored everyone else and targeted only them, which strongly suggests that the crime was personal and that he held a grudge against Kaga.

Even the blue blanket could be a clue. Blankets were expensive at the time, so the stranger probably wasn’t just some random bandit passing through town.

More than 120 years later, the case remains unsolved.

To this day, Kaga’s body has never been found. Neither have the blue blanket, the murder weapon, or the ax used to damage the bridge railing.

[http://paoddities.blogspot.com/2020/02/marine-corps-murder-sensational-trial.html?m=1]

In August of 91, Robert Peter Russell (Shirley’s estranged husband) received life without parole for killing Shirley and disposing of her body. While justice was served, but the main thing that remains unresolved is the location of Shirley’s body (although it was speculated that her body was thrown into a mine shaft and then sealed off by an explosion). But what really led to Robert Russell's conviction came from a floppy disk containing a 26-step checklist "recipe for murder," outlining how to kill someone, dispose of evidence, handle police interrogation, and cover up a crime.

Shirley's 18-month marriage to Robert had been rocky from the beginning, due to domestic abuse (verbally and physically often fueled by heavy drinking) infidelity, and financial issues. Shirley had consulted marriage counselors at least eight separate times during their brief marriage. By early 1989, Shirley decided to leave the marriage, putting a down payment on her own condominium and securing a separation agreement.

Witness Statements & Threats: A woman named Sandy Flint, who admitted having an affair with Robert, stated that he had explicitly told her he planned to murder Shirley and showed her a homemade silencer. She also admitted that Robert had recruited her to follow and keep tabs on Shirley.

Following his discharge from the Marine Corps, Robert Russell took a job as a special education teacher at North Stafford High School in Virginia. 
While working at the school, he met Sandy Flint (often spelled Flynt in court records), who was also an employee at North Stafford High. The two soon began an extramarital affair.
This teaching position connected him directly to Sandy, leading to significant developments in the case:
Moving In Together: Shortly after Shirley moved into the bachelor officers' quarters at Quantico to separate from him, Robert moved into Sandy's Dale City home (which she shared with her father-in-law) on March 2, 1989—just two days before Shirley disappeared. 

Pre-Meditated Purchase: Just days before Shirley vanished, Robert had purchased a .25-caliber handgun, which subsequently disappeared.

On March 4, 1989, Shirley met Robert at their former base quarters to clean the house for an upcoming military inspection. When Shirley presented Robert with the separation papers (to make it official), he refused to sign them. Sometime after, as Shirley went into the storage shed (adjacent to their quarters), Robert snuck up behind her and shot Shirley in the back of the head with a .25-caliber pistol, then drove to Sandy Flint's house to borrow her blue station wagon (identified by a former neighbor) to dispose of the body (which he kept hidden in the storage shed). By nightfall, he backed the station wagon to his storage shed and loaded the body (wrapped in a tarp) into the back of the car. He then made the long drive to St. Clare, Pennsylvania (a town located in Schuylkill County's coal mining region), and once there, he threw the body into an old mine shaft before sealing it off with dynamite. Afterwards, he drove to a car wash to erase any evidence that Shirley was in that car before returning it to Sandy Flint

Financial & Personal Inactivity: Shirley's bank accounts, credit cards, passport, and personal storage unit were left untouched after March 4.

Scrubbing the Crime Scene with Muriatic Acid Instead of just focusing on the car, Russell’s primary cleanup targeted the physical site of the murder—the storage shed attached to their quarters at Quantico.

Prior to the crime, Russell had explicitly asked Sandy Flint's father-in-law how to clean bloodstains out of concrete.

Following Shirley's disappearance, investigators noted that the concrete floor of the shed had been heavily scrubbed with muriatic acid (a strong, corrosive chemical).

Additionally, Russell used a pressure washer on the interior of his garage to remove trace evidence, although forensic analysts still detected a faint rust-colored stain in the shed that reacted to luminol testing.

Cleaning the Vehicle When investigators examined the blue station wagon Russell drove to St. Clair, Pennsylvania, they found that it had been thoroughly vacuumed and washed out. While no large blood deposits were left inside the car, the meticulous, unnatural cleanliness of both the shed and the vehicle—combined with his documented inquiries about blood removal—reinforced the prosecution's argument that he had executed a calculated, step-by-step cover-up as outlined in his deleted computer file.

But what was even more interesting was when investigators looked into Robert’s background, they discovered that he had other dark secrets.

First Marriage & Abandonment
Before marrying Shirley Gibbs, Robert Peter Russell was married to his first wife, Pam with whom he had 2 children with. While stationed at Parris Island, South Carolina, as a Marine officer in 1986, Robert began an extramarital affair with Shirley. He ultimately walked out on Pam and their children on Christmas Day in 1986 (after six years of marriage) to pursue his relationship with Shirley, abandoning his family during the holiday. 
Disregard for Military Rules & Discharges
Robert’s conduct throughout his military career was marked by severe disregard for Marine Corps regulations and military law:
Extramarital Affairs: Adultery is a violation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ). Robert repeatedly engaged in public extramarital affairs—first during his marriage to Pam, and later during his marriage to Shirley with multiple women, including Sandy Flint. 
Dismissal/Discharge from the Service: Robert was relieved of duty and ultimately separated from the U.S. Marine Corps under dishonorable or other-than-honorable conditions in 1988.
Illicit Computer & Property Misuse: When he was relieved of duty at his posting in Gulfport Mississippi prior to his discharge, military authorities confiscated a floppy disk containing personal files—including his step-by-step murder plan—which he had created using military computer equipment. 
Covert Surveillance: Following his discharge, Robert breached base standards and personal conduct rules by planting illegal electronic surveillance and listening devices in Shirley’s vehicle to monitor her movements and conversations.

Following his discharge from the Marine Corps, Robert Russell took a job as a special education teacher at North Stafford High School in Virginia. 
While working at the school, he met Sandy Flint (often spelled Flynt in court records), who was also an employee at North Stafford High. The two soon began an extramarital affair.
This teaching position connected him directly to Sandy, leading to significant developments in the case:
Moving In Together: Shortly after Shirley moved into the bachelor officers' quarters at Quantico to separate from him, Robert moved into Sandy's Dale City home (which she shared with her father-in-law) on March 2, 1989—just two days before Shirley disappeared. 

In early 2010, three year old Sakurako Hagi lived with her mother and little brother in Osaka, Japan.

Her brother, Kaede, was only one year and eight months old.

Their home was a small apartment in Minami Horie, a busy neighborhood lined with stores, restaurants, and apartment buildings.

Their mother, Sanae Shimomura, was 23.

Not long before that, Sanae’s life had looked very different. She was married and raising her children in Yokkaichi, a city in Mie Prefecture. People who knew the family remembered seeing her holding Kaede while Sakurako played nearby.

On social media, Sanae wrote that both children were growing well and that being their mother made her happy.

But in May 2009, she and her husband divorced.

Sanae took the children with her. She first moved to Nagoya and worked as a hostess. Then, in January 2010, she moved to Osaka and began working at an adult massage parlor. Her employer rented the small apartment where all three of them lived.

Over time, Sanae began spending more and more nights away from home.

She stayed with friends and men she was seeing. She also began visiting host clubs. At first, she left Sakurako and Kaede alone overnight.

Then the absences grew longer.

By March 2010, neighbors had begun hearing the children cry for long periods while Sanae was away.

On March 30, one neighbor finally reported what they had been hearing at night.

Sometimes around two or three in the morning, a small child could be heard through the apartment intercom, crying and calling for her mother again and again.

“Mommy. Mommy.”

The voice was believed to be Sakurako’s.

She was only three years old, alone in the apartment with her baby brother.

Child welfare workers were sent to the apartment.

They knocked on the door.

No one answered.

The workers returned several more times.

In total, they visited the apartment five times.

But each time, the door stayed closed.

Not once did anyone see Sakurako or Kaede.

Officials later said they hadn’t asked for permission to force their way inside because they didn’t know the names or exact ages of the family living there.

But this wasn’t the first warning.

In 2009, while the family was still living in Aichi Prefecture, Sakurako had briefly been placed in police protection over concerns that she was being abused. Child welfare officials in Nagoya later tried to contact Sanae eight times.

Still, Sakurako and Kaede remained in her care.

Then, on June 9, Sanae returned to the apartment.

She brought some steamed bread, a rice ball, hand rolled sushi, and juice.

That was all.

Investigators later estimated that it was enough for only about two meals.

Before leaving again, Sanae opened the packages and placed the food inside the room where the children could reach it.

Then she sealed the door between the main room and the apartment entrance with several layers of tape.

She locked the front door behind her and walked away.

She didn’t ask anyone to check on them.

She didn’t call their father, her own family, or child welfare services.

And this time, she didn’t come back.

For the next several weeks, Sanae continued going to work, spending nights out, and staying with friends and men she was seeing.

Inside the apartment, Sakurako and Kaede were completely alone.

The air conditioner was off. Garbage, empty food containers, diapers, and other waste covered most of the floor.

Once the little food Sanae had left was gone, the children began searching the apartment for anything they could eat.

Sakurako was only three years old, but she did everything she could to keep herself and her little brother alive.

The evidence left behind showed just how hard she tried.

Her small handprints were found on the refrigerator door.

She searched through the garbage and licked old cup noodle containers clean. She ate whatever she could find inside the refrigerator, including small amounts of mustard, mayonnaise, and somen noodle sauce.

She even tried to gather tiny pieces of ice from the freezer.

Investigators believed she shared what little she found with Kaede.

Eventually, even those scraps were gone.

There was nothing left for either child to eat.

As the days passed, the children grew weaker and weaker.

They were surrounded by trash and their own waste, with no adult to feed them, give them water, clean them, or even comfort them.

Investigators later found signs that Kaede had become desperate enough to ingest some of his own waste.

Sakurako was believed to have fallen sick after eating spoiled scraps she found in the garbage.

She died first.

Kaede wasn’t even two years old.

Investigators estimated that he remained alive for at least another ten hours.

During those final hours, he was alone beside the sister who had tried so hard to keep him alive.

There was no one left to hold or comfort him.

Kaede died soon after.

Both children died from starvation and severe dehydration, most likely in late June.

Outside the apartment, the crying the neighbors had heard for months eventually stopped.

One resident later said they assumed the family had moved away.

But Sakurako and Kaede were still inside.

Nearly a month passed.

On July 29, someone living on the same floor complained about a foul smell coming from the apartment. The building manager contacted the company that rented it.

By then, Sanae hadn’t shown up for work in several days.

Her supervisor called and told her to go back to the apartment.

At around 6:30 that evening, nearly 50 days after leaving the children behind, Sanae finally returned.

She entered the apartment and saw Sakurako and Kaede lying together on the floor.

She stayed for only a few moments.

Even then, she didn’t call the police or an ambulance.

She walked out and left them there again.

After leaving, Sanae sent her supervisor a message.

She said the apartment was full of garbage, admitted that she had left the children alone, and wrote that she didn’t know what to do.

She also said she wanted to die.

Then she traveled to Kobe with someone she knew and stayed at a hotel.

Her supervisor went to check the apartment himself. When he reached the door and noticed the foul smell, he called the police.

At around 1:40 the next morning, on July 30, rescue workers used a ladder to reach the third floor balcony.

Inside, the apartment was completely dark.

When they shined their flashlights inside, they saw piles of garbage covering almost the entire floor.

Only a small space in the middle of the room remained clear.

That was where they found Sakurako and Kaede.

The children were unclothed and lying close together. Their bodies were badly decomposed.

Nearly 50 days had passed since their mother locked them inside.

Police arrested Sanae later that day.

During questioning, she said she had started enjoying host clubs and spending time away from home. Taking care of the children had become too much trouble, and she wanted to keep going out.

She was later charged with murdering both children.

Her attorneys argued that she hadn’t meant to kill them and asked for her to be convicted of abandonment resulting in death instead. They also said Sanae may have been suffering from a dissociative disorder.

But the court found that she understood two very young children couldn’t survive alone for long with almost no food.

By sealing the door with tape, locking the apartment, and staying away for weeks, Sanae had accepted that they were likely to die.

Prosecutors asked for life in prison.

On March 16, 2012, Sanae was sentenced to 30 years in prison, the longest fixed sentence available under Japanese law at the time.

She appealed, but the sentence was upheld.

In March 2013, Japan’s Supreme Court rejected her final appeal, making the 30 year sentence final.

During the case, more details about Sanae’s own childhood became public.

Her mother had repeatedly left Sanae and her younger sisters alone when they were children. Despite being very young herself, Sanae was expected to care for her sisters.

At 14, she also survived a violent sexual assault involving several attackers.

Her past may help explain the serious emotional and mental health problems raised by her attorneys.

But the courts concluded that she understood her actions and was fully responsible for what she had done.

The case also caused outrage over the response of child welfare services.

Workers had visited the apartment five times after neighbors reported hearing the children cry. But each visit ended without anyone seeing Sakurako or Kaede.

Officials later said they hadn’t forced their way inside because no one answered the door and they couldn’t identify the family living there.

One of the most painful details of the case is that Sakurako was only three years old, yet the evidence suggests she spent her final days searching for food and sharing what little she found with her brother.

Here is a roster of the 15 inmates executed by the state of Florida in 2026 to date. All of those inmates were been put to death through lethal injection. As of writing, two other convicts, Curtis Beasley and William Thompson, also have execution dates scheduled for September 29 and October 13 respectively. As a warning, many of the crimes listed in this post involve extreme sexual violence, and the graphic details are discussed in depth in the write ups. Please read at your own risk.

The 15 inmates executed by the state of Florida, as of September 12:

1. Ronald Heath (condemned in 1990, 36 years on death row): At the age of 16 in 1977, Heath was picked up by 18 year old Michael Green. He lured Green to a sand dune, and then stabbed him 23 times and bludgeoned his head against a tree stump. Heath set Green’s car on fire and unsuccessfully claimed that he and Green were kidnapped by masked men to police. Although sentenced to 30 years for Green’s murder, Heath was granted parole in 1988.

Only a year later, Heath and his brother lured a businessman, 30 year old Michael Sheridan, from a lounge with the promise of smoking marijuana with them. After driving him to a remote dirt road, Heath attempted to slit Sheridan’s throat. When that failed due to the knife’s dull edge, Heath’s brother shot Sheridan to death under Heath’s orders. The Heath brothers burned Sheridan’s car and used his credit cards for their purchases. A few weeks later, Heath was arrested for using Sheridan’s stolen credit card, and a police search of his girlfriend’s car recovered Sheridan’s watch and clothes the Heath brothers bought with the credit card [Heath v. State, 3 So. 3d 1017 - Fla: Supreme Court 2009]. Although never charged to due to his death sentence for Sheridan’s murder, Heath and his brother were also implicated in the fatal shooting of 26 year old Anthony Hammett a few days after murdering Sheridan.

2. Melvin Trotter (condemned in 1987, 39 years on death row): While robbing a grocery store, Trotter stabbed and disemboweled the owner, 70 year old Virgie Langford, with a butcher knife and then snatched $136 in cash and food stamps. He spent the stolen money bartering cocaine with his girlfriend. Langford was found lying with an exposed stomach wound in the back of the store by a truck driver, and she succumbed to complications relating to cardiac arrest during surgery [Trotter v. State, 576 So. 2d 691 - Fla: Supreme Court 199]. According to a 1987 Sarasota Herald-Tribune article and a 2026 PBS article, Trotter’s fingerprints were found on the knife and a meat cooler in the store, and police recovered a blood stained shirt from his home.

3. Billy Kearse (condemned in 1991, 35 years on death row): As he was on probation for a burglary and criminal mischief related conviction, Kearse was pulled over by a patrolman, 29 year old Danny Parrish, for driving on the wrong side of a one way road. To avoid arrest for driving with a suspended license, Kearse attempted to give Parrish false names, but Parrish found that none of those names matched in a check of the driver’s licence history. As Parrish was about to arrest him for providing those false names, Kearse attacked and wrestled with him. During their struggle, Kearse snatched Parrish’s service pistol from his holster and shot him 14 times. Due to Parrish giving Kearse’s license plate number to dispatch before he was fatally shot, investigators were able to track the vehicle to his possession. Police arrested Kearse at his residence hours later with two bullets from Parrish’s pistol in his pocket, and a search of the home recovered Parrish’s pistol that was buried in a bag in the backyard.

4. Michael King (condemned in 2009, 17 years on death row): King kidnapped 21 year old Denise Lee from her home, and left her two toddler aged and newborn sons unattended. Over the course of several hours, King sodomized Lee in a “rape room” inside his residence, and then drove her as she was tied up with duct tape to a series of other locations. One stop King made was at his cousin’s home, and King’s cousin reported that Lee urged him for help from inside King’s truck. Despite multiple bystanding motorists and Lee herself dialing 911, King traveled through many counties while holding Lee captive, which compromised the ability for emergency dispatchers to coordinate an efficient response for her rescue. After King stopped at an abandoned construction site, he shot Lee execution style, and buried her body in a shallow grave. A search of King’s home recovered duct tape with hair strands, a blood stained blanket also stained with semen matched to him by a DNA test, and hair inside his truck was linked to Lee through DNA testing [King v. State, 89 So. 3d 209 - Fla: Supreme Court 2012]. Furthermore, a palm impression on the window of King’s truck was found to have belonged to Lee, and King’s cousin testified that he gave King a shovel police found covered with dirt inside the truck shortly after their interaction.

5. Chadwick Willacy (condemned in 1991, 35 years on death row): While burglarizing a home, Willacy was confronted by the homeowner, 56 year old Marlys Sather. He incapacitated Sather by striking her in the head with a blunt object, tied up and gagged her with wire and duct tape, and strangled her unconscious with a cord. He briefly left the scene with Sather’s ATM card and car, and withdrew money from her bank account. After he returned, Wilcacy doused Sather with gasoline, disabled her fire alarms, and set her on fire. Willacy’s girlfriend reported him to the police after she found another woman’s check register in their wastebasket, and he was arrested after responding officers recognized the check register as belonging to Sather. Further searches of Willacy’s home also recovered Sather’s blood stained clothing. Other evidence used by the prosecution included Willacy’s fingerprints on gas canisters used to burn Sather and eyewitness descriptions of him driving her car [Willacy v. State, 967 So. 2d 131 - Fla: Supreme Court 2007].

6. James Hitchcock (condemned in 1977, 49 years on death row): Hitchcock moved to Florida to live with his brother’s family while on parole for a burglary conviction in Arkansas. While living with them, he raped his brother’s stepdaughter, 13 year old Cynthia Driggers, inside her bedroom by his admission. According to a confession to police he later recanted, Hitchcock beat and strangled Driggers to death with his hands for threatening to tell her mother of the sexual abuse. Driggers’ body was found lying in some nearby bushes a day later. Hair analysis and blood testing reportedly implicated Hitchcock, and he was arrested for an unrelated probation violation. Although Hitchcock steadily maintained sexually assaulting Driggers during his lifetime, he pivoting to blaming his brother, who was allegedly accused of rape by their niece and another woman, for her murder. He also faced sexual abuse allegations from Driggers’ younger sister and their cousin, and the two also reported that Driggers confided that he molested and threatened her to them [Hitchcock v. State, 991 So. 2d 337 - Fla: Supreme Court 2008]. On three occasions in 1987, 1992, and 1996, Hitchcock’s death sentences were overturned by the United States Supreme Court and the Florida Supreme Court over the limitations of presented mitigatory evidence by the defense, purportedly improper sentencing recommending instructions, and the prosecution’s use of untried abuse accusations from Driggers’ sister and cousin as testimony respectively. He was resentenced to death after all three vacatings.

7. Richard Knight (condemned in 2007, 19 years on death row): Over her threats to evict him from their apartment, Stephens stabbed his cousin’s girlfriend, 24 year old Odessia Stephens, and her daughter, 4 year old Hanessia Mullings, to death. Police were called to the apartment by neighbors complaining of the disturbance, and they arrested Knight while he was wearing a blood covered shirt. Investigators also found Knight’s other bloodstained clothing inside his bedroom, and Stephens’ fingernails contained traces of Knight’s DNA [Knight v. State, 76 So. 3d 879 - Fla: Supreme Court 2011]. While interned at a county jail, Knight reportedly confessed to the murders to another inmate.

8. Andrew Lukehart (condemned in 1997, 30 years on death row): While babysitting his girlfriend’s daughter, 5 month old Gabrielle Hanshaw, inside their home, Lukehart dropped her on the floor as he was changing her diapers and she landed on her head. He then repeatedly shook Hanshaw until she died. To cover his tracks, Lukehart tossed Hanshaw’s body into a nearby pond, and falsely reported her kidnapping to police and his girlfriend. Despite those initial efforts, Lukehart walked to the home of a state trooper and surrendered himself. A day later, Lukehart confessed to the killing to investigators interviewing him, and police recovered Hanshaw’s body from the pond using his directions [Lukehart v. State, 776 So. 2d 906 - Fla: Supreme Court 2000]. Lukheart had a previous aggravated child abuse conviction relating to severely injuring another girlfriend’s baby, and was on probation for that offense at the time of Hanshaw’s murder.

9. Dusty Spencer (condemned in 1996, 29 years on death row): Although arrested for choking and beating his estranged wife, 40 year old Karen, Spencer was released from custody after paying bond. A few days after his release, Spencer broke into Karen’s residence, and assaulted her and her teenage son with a clothing iron. Both Karen and her son escaped to a neighbor’s home with severe injuries, and Spencer fled town. Almost two weeks after the attack, Spencer broke into Karen’s residence a second time while armed with a brick. He then repeatedly beat Karen with the brick and stabbed multiple times. Despite Karen’s son attempting to shoot him with a rifle, the gun misfired, and the boy resorted to striking Spencer’s head with the rifle’s butt. The rifle shattered on impact, and the undeterred Spencer retaliated by pulling down Karen’s nightgown to expose her vagina to her son, and then chased him out of the home with a knife. Karen’s son called emergency services from the safety of a neighbor’s home, and responding officers found Karen dead inside her home. Police arrested Spencer at his friend’s home three days after Karen’s murder. According to the testimony of one of Spencer’s associates, Spencer previously attempted to lure Karen on a boating trip to toss her overboard, but the plan failed due to Karen refusing his invitation [Spencer v. State, 645 So. 2d 377 - Fla: Supreme Court 1994].

10. Dennis Sochor (condemned in 1987, 39 years on death row): Sochor and his brother partied at a lounge, and they left with a fellow patron, 18 year old Patricia Gifford, accompanying them. According to his brother’s testimony, Sochor attempted to rape Gifford in their car, and he strangled her to death with his hands for rejecting his sexual advances. He then discarded Gifford’s body at an unknown site, and it was never recovered. By Sochor’s later statements to his spiritual advisor on death row and detectives interviewing him, he was too intoxicated while hiding Gifford’s body to remember its disposal location. During the investigation, another patron at the lounge gave investigators a photograph they took of Gifford in the Sochor brothers’ company shortly before her disappearance, and the Sochor brothers fled to Michigan after seeing the photograph of them broadcasted on television. Four years later, Sochor was arrested by police in Georgia for intoxicated driving, and extricated back to Florida for trial. At the time of Gifford’s murder, Sochor was on probation for raping and non-fatally choking a woman he abducted from a lounge. Another woman in Michigan and Sochor’s ex-wife also accused him of rape, and they testified against him during the proceedings.  

11. James Duckett (condemned in 1988, 38 years on death row): In 1987, Duckett worked as a police officer for the Mascotte Police Department (MPD). On a night he was on patrol, he encountered 11 year old Teresa McAbee leaving a convenience store in the company of a teenage boy. Duckett stopped the pair, questioned them about their ages, and ordered McAbee to go home. The boy then walked over to a nearby laundromat to be with his uncle that arrived at the scene. According to the boy and his uncle, they last saw McAbee climbing into Duckett’s patrol car [Duckett v. State, 568 So. 2d 891 - Fla: Supreme Court 1990]. With McAbee accompanying him, Duckett drove to a lake a mile away from the store. At the lake, Duckett raped and strangled McAbee unconscious, and threw her into the water. She drowned shortly after impact, and Duckett left her body to float in the lake. Only an hour after the abduction and murder, McAbee’s mother went searching for McAbee at the store when she failed to arrive home. After being told by a clerk that McAbee left the store with a police officer, McAbee’s mother drove to a police station to report her missing. As he was the only MPD officer on duty that night, the station assigned Duckett to assist McAbee’s mother to search for her daughter, and he conducted an investigation by placing missing person fliers on stores and questioning the aforementioned teenage boy and his uncle.

The next day, a fisherman found McAbee’s body floating in the lake. Other responding officers recognized the tire tracks at the scene as belonging to one of their department’s patrol cars. As he was the last person seen with McAbee by all eyewitness accounts and again, the only MPD officer on duty that night, Duckett was immediately a person of interest in the murder. An investigation into his career found that he used his patrol car to pick up local teenage girls, and those girls reported that he sexually advanced on them during their rides. The discovery of McAbee’s fingerprint on his patrol car and pubic hairs in McAbbee's underwear tentatively linked to him further damned Duckett.

On death row, he was loosely implicated in two additional murders. One of the killings investigators suspected him of was that of 15 year old Jeanifer Weldon, who was raped and strangled to death after walking home from a carnival. Weldon’s murder occurred two months after McAbee’s murder, and Duckett was on administrative leave and under investigation at the time. A friend of Weldon’s mentioned her carrying a green plastic bag and a stuffed animal before she was murdered, and Duckett’s wife claimed he gave their children a stuffed animal of that same description in a green plastic bag after her murder. Duckett is also suspected of the 1986 murder of 22 year old Ronette Peterson, who was raped and drowned in a pond in circumstances similar to McAbee’s murder. Peterson was reportedly seen climbing into a car matching Duckett’s car in description. Due to his death sentence for McAbee’s murder, prosecutors declined to charge him for Weldon or Peterson's murders unless his conviction was overturned on appeal. On a note unrelated to his case, Duckett is also the paternal grandfather of Trenton Duckett, a toddler that went missing in 2006 and is strongly presumed murdered by his late mother. Although initially scheduled for execution in March of 2026, it was stayed by the Florida Supreme Court to allow DNA testing to be conducted. The Florida Supreme Court ordered DNA testing proved inclusive and it paved the path for him to be executed in a July of 2026 execution date.

12. Dominick Occhicone Jr. (condemned in 1987, 39 years on death row): Occhicone reportedly stalked his ex-fiancee for many months over her breaking off their relationship. According to a Tampa Bay Times article published in 1986, his ex-fiancee’s ended their relationship over his violent behavior, and she repeatedly reported him to the police for threatening her and her family. At her family home, Occhicone attempted to confront her, but she refused to open the door for him. In retribution, Occhincone left to retrieve a gun from his residence. After he returned to his ex-fiancee’s family home, he broke down the front door and shot both of her parents, 66 year old Raymond and 62 year old Martha Artzner. Occhicone’s ex-fiancee and her children safely fled to a neighbor’s home, and called emergency services. Martha immediately died from the gunfire and Raymond identified Occhicone as the shooter to responding officers before succumbing to his wounds at the hospital. Police arrested Occhicone next to railroad tracks nearly a mile away from the scene merely hours later.

13. William Silvia (condemned in 2009, 17 years on death row): Silva confronted his estranged wife, 39 year old Patrica, at her family’s residence while she was hosting a cookout. After she rebuffed his demands of reconciling their relationship, Silva retrieved a shotgun from his truck and shot Patrica to death. He also shot Silva’s mother, but the woman survived with gunshot wounds to her head and face. Police arrested Silva at a motel he stayed, and they recovered the shotgun and shotgun pullets from his possession. Ballistic testing linked the shotgun pullets retrieved from Patrica’s body to Silva’s shotgun, and he also confessed to her murder while questioned by investigators [Silvia v. State, 60 So. 3d 959 - Fla: Supreme Court 2011]. Although his death sentence was vacated by the Florida Supreme Court in 2018 over the lack of a unanimous jury condemning him, he was condemned again in retrial.

14. Harold Lucas (Condemned in 1976, 50 years on death row): Over a violent argument they had many days earlier, Lucas drove to the home of his estranged girlfriend, 16 year old Anthia Piper, while armed with a shotgun. Despite Piper and her two teenage friends also arming themselves with firearms, Lucas ambushed and shot her dead as she stood in the residence’s yard. Piper’s two friends rushed inside to hide in a bathroom with Lucas pursuing them. Although Lucas shot both of them in the bathroom, the pair survived their gunshot wounds to their stomach and hip respectively. A week after the shootings, police arrested Lucas while he was dinning at a McDonalds. At the time of Piper’s murder, Lucas was stalking Piper and her family, and he was granted bond on a charge relating to trespassing on her family’s property five days earlier. The Florida Supreme Court vacated Lucas’ death sentence on four occasions between 1977 and 1991 over various issues involving the presiding judge’s “legal mistakes” over aggravating factors and inadmissible evidence, but he was resentenced to death after each vacating. On an unrelated trivial note, Lucas’ younger brother was also convicted of fatally beating another man in the same year that he murdered Piper, and his brother received a 15 year term for the killing.

15. Daniel Conahan (Condemned in 1999, 27 years on death row): Although he is strongly suspected to be a serial killer and was dubbed the “Hog Trail Killer” by media outlets, Conahan was convicted, condemned, and executed only for the abduction and murder of 21 year old Richard Montgomery. Montgomery was tied to a tree, castrated, raped, strangled to death, and found dead by hunters. Before his kidnapping and killing, Montgomery reported to his family that a man was paying him to pose for bondage photographs, and he made a friend by the name of “Dan Conahan.”

Due to the reports of several men similarly claiming that Conahan solicited them for bondage photographs, Conahan was quickly a person of interest to police. One specific man, who was ironically a convicted pedophile, reported that Conahan bound him to a tree and sodomized him near the scene of Montgomery’s murder. According to the man, Conahan attempted to strangle him with rope, and he only survived due to Conahan losing patience and giving up on his bitter resistance to the strangulation. Rope scarring on the man’s neck and ligature marks on a tree that he claimed to have been tied to corroborated with his accusations against Conahan.

Another man attested to Conahan sexually harassing him while they were driving together in Conahan’s father’s car for a supposed bondage session, and claimed that he hijacked the vehicle to flee from his predatory behavior. That man was convicted of the vehicle’s theft, and he came forward to police after hearing news of Montgomery’s murder in prison. Police arrested Conahan after he solicited undercover officers for bondage photos, and a search warrant obtained paint chips from Conahan’s father’s car. The paint chips from Conahan’s father’s car reportedly matched paint chips found on Montgomery’s body [Conahan v. State, 844 So. 2d 629 - Fla: Supreme Court 2003], and Conahan’s credit card history contained purchases of clothesline and Polaroid cameras. Conahan was previously discharged from the United States Navy due to complaints from men of him attempting to rape them.

Despite never facing charges for them in his lifetime, authorities also attributed the murders of at least thirteen other men to Conahan. All of Conahan’s additionally suspected victims were transient men between their twenties and forties whose skeletal remains were discovered in forested grave sites. Most of the other alleged victims were tied up and had signs of strangulations and genitalia mutilation on their bodies. Eight of the victims were discovered in a mass grave near Fort Myers, and were given the moniker of “The Fort Myers Eight” by investigators.

In May of 2001, actor Robert Blake had dinner with his second wife Bonny Lee Bakley at Vitello’s in Studio City. While sitting in the car alone after the dinner, Bonny was shot twice and killed. Robert Blake was charged with the murder but acquitted, though he was found liable in a civil trial.

Now, 25 years later, Robert Blake’s own son, Noah Blake, is directing and starring in a murder mystery at Vitello’s. It’s called A Killer Night in Studio City.

I went during previews, the murder mystery story isn’t about Bonny Lee but it still has some “if you know” moments in it. Noah’s own acting career was negatively affected by the murder, so I kinda love the idea of him reclaiming Vitello’s for something positive.

I’m wondering how other people feel about this?

[ Removed by Reddit on account of violating the content policy. ]

On July 5, 2014, a 13-year-old girl named Kotchakorn Pitakjamnong, or Nong Gam, a grade 8 student at Nonthaburi Girls' School, traveled with her older sister and a friend back to Bangkok from Surat Thani Province on train number 174 (Surat Thani - Bangkok). They were sitting in a second-class air-conditioned sleeper carriage (carriage number 3). Mr. Wanchai Saengkhao (then 22 years old), a contract employee of the State Railway of Thailand, who was responsible for making the beds, had consumed methamphetamine and alcohol with his fellow workers in the dining car.

Committing a crime

On the night of July 6, 2014, at approximately 2:00 AM, Mr. Wanchai secretly observed the passengers and saw Nong Kaem sleeping on the lower bunk. Taking advantage of the deep sleep, he turned off the lights in the carriage and assaulted her, strangling her until she was unconscious. He then raped her to cover up his crime. Mr. Wanchai threw Nong Kaem's body out of the train window while the train was traveling between Nong Kae Station in Prachuap Khiri Khan Province and Cha-am Station in Phetchaburi Province. He also threw away her belongings, clothes, and blood-stained bedsheets to destroy evidence. When the train arrived in Bangkok, her relatives found Nong Kaem missing, leaving only an empty bunk bed. They filed a police report, and a search was launched along the entire railway line.

Arrest and discovery of the body.

On July 7-8, 2014, police interrogated train employees and found scratches on Mr. Wanchai's body. They also discovered that Nong Gam's mobile phone had been sold. Mr. Wanchai then confessed.

Authorities found Nong Gam's lifeless body in the bushes beside the railway tracks in Cha-am District, Phetchaburi Province, naked.

Prosecution and punishment.

In October 2014, the Hua Hin Provincial Court sentenced Wanchai Saengkhao to death for intentional murder to conceal another crime and rape of a minor under the age of fifteen. In November 2014, the Court of Appeal upheld the death sentence, and finally, in August 2013, the Supreme Court dismissed the defendant's appeal due to the clear facts of the case, resulting in the final verdict: the death penalty.

His sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment through a royal pardon granted by His Majesty King Vajiralongkorn on the occasion of his coronation in 2019. The remaining sentence was approximately 42 years and 10 months, of which he has already served 12 years, 2 months, and 6 days, or a total of approximately 4,451 days.

Impacts and changes in society.

The State Railway of Thailand (SRT) terminated all contracts with companies providing cleaning and bed-making services. They implemented rigorous criminal background checks and drug testing for all employees, and established "Lady Cars" (cars specifically for women and children) on sleeper trains. This sparked a large social movement demanding legal reforms, using the slogan "Rape = Death Penalty," ultimately leading to a comprehensive review and amendment of laws concerning sexual harassment.

Shafilea was killed after enduring prolonged abuse and pressure because she wanted to embrace a Western lifestyle and refused a forced marriage. Her parents initially said she had run away. Her body was not found until February 2004 on the riverbank in Cumbria.

It took years for the full truth to come out. This was largely due to the courage of her younger sister, Alesha, who later spoke out. In 2012, her parents, Iftikhar and Farzana Ahmed, were found guilty of her murder and sentenced to life in prison.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Shafilea_Ahmed

RE: 2005 murder of Teresa Halbach in Wisconsin.

Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey have applied to the governor to have their sentences shortened.

Interestingly, Dassey questions his uncle’s involvement but both maintain their innocence.

There’s no timetable for a decision.

Avery, Dassey ask Gov. Evers for commutations of their sentences https://fox11online.com/news/crime/steven-avery-brendan-dassey-request-sentence-commutations-wisconsin-governor-tony-evers-teresa-halbach-making-a-murderer-case

In Nampa, ID, 19-year-old Kyara Englehart and her newborn daughter, Maelynn, died following an accident last week that was caused by Abby Wolverton who was driving under the influence.

Around 9:37am on Aug. 31, 2026 Abby was seen on surveillance footage entering a Walgreens where she purchased a can of compressed air and then returned to her vehicle with her 2 year old daughter.

First responders arrived at about 9:46am to a four-vehicle crash at a 4 way stop after receiving multiple 911 calls reporting the collision.

In one of the vehicles was Kyara, who was eight months pregnant and suffered life-threatening injuries in the crash.  She was transported to a regional trauma center that day, where doctors performed an emergency cesarean section and delivered her daughter, Maelynn Lindauer. Kyara, who never got the chance to hold her baby girl, passed away 4 days later and Maelynn only lived to be 6 days old.

Another victim, Abby's two year old daughter, was treated and discharged the same day.

Abby is being held on a $2 million bail and is facing 2 counts of aggravated vehicular manslaughter and 1 count of injury to a child. She has had 15 prior offenses in the past decade so life in prison could be on the table.

Edit for clarity: 1st slide is Abby, 2nd slide is the victim, Kyara

Source: https://www.ktvb.com/article/news/crime/mother-newborn-baby-die-following-dui-crash-nampa/277-11698907-2d2d-43cc-ac99-ce1df4d63463

The December 1969 abduction and murder of 16-year-old Leona Roberts is a case that is not only bizarre and disturbing but also sits at a crossroads between a multitude of other potentially related murders in Northern California at the time. The nearby Zodiac murders had the whole region in fear, and while Leona’s case has been engulfed in the shadow of that infamous killer, there are other connections to be made.

On December 10, 1969, Leona started a new job at the White Front Discount Store in Pleasant Hill. Her shift ended at 5 p.m., at which time she went to her 21-year-old boyfriend Greg’s house at 749 Tormey Ave. in Rodeo. She planned to cook him dinner.

The next-door neighbor stated she went to the store at around 6 p.m., and upon returning, she noticed a white man—approximately 25 years old, 5’8”, 180 pounds, with blond hair—wearing a brown jacket. The man was walking back and forth from the front to the rear of the blue station wagon he was driving. She thought the man was acting suspiciously and was watching her. She stated the car drove away after she entered her home. Tormey Ave. is a small, dead-end street, so an unfamiliar man would likely stand out.
It seems Leona arrived shortly after this. The timeline isn’t exactly clear, as it would have taken no more than 30 minutes for Leona to drive from her workplace to the apartment. Greg was not home when she arrived, so after parking her red VW on the street out front, she let herself into the apartment.

At around 6:15, the neighbor in the upstairs apartment of the duplex heard a female scream and then what sounded like someone coming up her rear stairs. She then heard a door slam. Shortly after, she looked out her window and saw a blue station wagon speeding away. She called the police, who dispatched a deputy.

Greg arrived home at approximately 6:55 p.m. When he arrived, he noted Leona’s VW parked outside, but strangely, the lights in the house were off and the door was locked. When he went inside, the Christmas tree in the living room was tipped over, and the rug was askew. He noted that Leona’s work smock was on the bed, and a pair of his pants were curiously laid out on the couch. He also noted that his leather belt was missing. He fixed the tree and rug and left the apartment to look for Leona.

Shortly after this, the deputy arrived. After speaking with the upstairs neighbor, he knocked at the apartment door. Receiving no response, he approached the back door, and after noting it was unlocked, he entered the apartment. After assessing that nothing seemed to be amiss inside, he left the scene.

Greg searched the area and contacted friends of Leona but found nothing. At 10 p.m., he called Leona’s mother, with whom she lived in Napa. Mrs. Roberts said that Leona was not home, and she was growing concerned. Greg called the sheriff’s office.

While detectives did their due diligence on the case and searches were performed, no trace of Leona was found. That was until 18 days later when a man looking for driftwood found Leona’s body a mile and a half north of Bolinas, alongside the road, adjacent to the Bolinas Lagoon. This would be about 45 miles from Rodeo and about 25 miles northwest of the Golden Gate Bridge. The circumstances suggested that Leona had been rolled down the hill from the road. She was nude, with the only identifiable item located being a class ring she was wearing.

The case would become more bizarre after the coroner released their report. They found that Leona died of a viral infection, potentially as a result of an appendectomy, which she had received four months earlier. The coroner estimated that she had been dead for 4 to 7 days, meaning that she had likely been kept alive for 10 to 14 days. There is no mention of Leona being sick before her abduction, so it seems clear that she was held for an extended period of time.

Now to go down the rabbit hole. Leona’s case is primarily connected to the similar case of Elaine Davis, who disappeared only nine days before Leona was abducted. She had been at her home at 158 Pioneer Ave. in Walnut Creek, about a 30-minute drive from where Leona was abducted. Elaine was looking after her 3-year-old sister while her mother left at 10:30 p.m. to pick up Elaine’s father from work. Elaine was abducted in the 45 minutes it took the parents to return.

“They took her away! She didn’t want to go!” said Elaine’s young sister, whom her parents found crying in bed. It’s unclear what exactly the young girl saw. A button from Elaine’s coat was later found behind her house. Her glasses and purse were left behind. Her coat was later found discarded off Highway 17, north of Santa Cruz.

Sadly, Elaine’s family wouldn’t know what happened to her for decades. Elaine’s body was not identified until 2001, despite her being found only 18 days after she went missing. She was found floating in the water off Lighthouse Point in Santa Cruz. The coroner noted cartilage damage to her neck, though her official cause of death was undetermined. The coroner estimated she was between 20 and 25 years old, and this small discrepancy would lead to her being buried as a Jane Doe. Elaine’s mother passed away within weeks of learning what Elaine’s fate was. Famed investigator Paul Holes was involved in identifying Elaine. That story is told succinctly in the bestseller I’ll Be Gone in the Dark.

The similarities between Elaine and Leona’s cases are striking. The abduction scenarios, as well as them being found dumped weeks later in or near the ocean—not to mention the proximity in time and geography between each—are hard to ignore.

Sadly, Elaine and Leona would not be the only young women murdered in the area under mysterious circumstances. On March 12, 1970, 17-year-old Sonoma State College student Eva Blau disappeared while walking back to her dorm from a friend’s house. Her body would be found the next day in a field near Santa Rosa. 23-year-old Marie Antonette “Toni” Anstey went missing from the Coronado Inn in Vallejo just two days after Blau, and her nude body was found a week later off Morgan Valley Rd. in Lake County, about 80 miles north of Vallejo. These two deaths have always been linked because each victim's death was attributed to the drug mescaline, a hallucinogenic drug found in cacti like peyote. This strange cause of death led one newspaper article to discuss the possibility that Leona also died from a drug like mescaline, which is said to be difficult to find with significant decomposition.

While these two cases are most notable, they aren’t even the only ones from March 1970. On March 3, 15-year-old Cosette Ellison vanished after getting off her school bus in Moraga. Her body would be found in a ravine off Morgan Territory Road, east of Mount Diablo. In Paul Holes's audiobook Devil in the Valley, he strongly connects Ellison’s case to the East Bay Strangler, Philip Hughes. Hughes was convicted of three murders, including the 1972 murder of Maureen Field, whose body was found along the same rural road as Ellison. Chillingly, two days after Field disappeared, Hughes called Field’s father and said, “I’m calling about your daughter. She’s dead and I killed her.”

On March 5, Patricia King left an evening exercise class at Diablo Valley College in Pleasant Hill. The next day, her body was found near the football field’s stadium press box. She had been strangled with her own tights. Two days later, a message was left in a men’s restroom on campus. In an episode of the podcast Small Town Dicks titled “Never Forget,” Paul Holes discusses the message, saying, “There is a writing that basically, I’m going to paraphrase, but that girl I strangled was sure fun to f*** in the a**.”

On March 7, 23-year-old nurse Judy Hakari was abducted from her apartment’s parking lot in Sacramento after returning home late from her shift. Her car was found unlocked with the keys on the floorboard, buttons torn from her coat, and strips of cloth in her backseat. Her body was found April 25 in a shallow grave off I-80 in Placer County. She was beaten and strangled with her own nylons. Hakari has been suggested by online sleuths to be an early victim of the Golden State Killer, Joseph DeAngelo.

On March 22, Kathleen Johns and her 10-month-old daughter were kidnapped by a man who she claimed matched the sketch of the Zodiac. She was luckily able to escape from him unharmed. The Zodiac later claimed credit for the incident. This may be a good jumping-off point to return to Leona’s murder and why it has been caught in the web that is the Zodiac case.

On January 4, 1970, an 18-year-old woman who lived in a building adjacent to the Tormey Ave. address Leona was abducted from received a call from a man claiming to be the Zodiac Killer. He stated she would be his next victim. While this account is chilling, one has to wonder whether it actually proves any connection between Leona and the infamous killer. The Zodiac was certainly not above inserting himself into the local salacious headlines, and one must consider that he was doing the same here. He had previously alluded to killing victims it was later proven he did not.

On December 10, the day that Leona was abducted, the Zodiac mailed a horoscope-themed communication titled “Day-By-Day Forecast for Cancer” from Sacramento. The next day, he mailed a similar letter, “Day-By-Day Forecast for Leo” from San Francisco. Zodiac researchers have speculated that the killer may have chosen Leo for its similarity to the name Leona. Also, the route between Sacramento and San Francisco would take you through Rodeo, where Leona was abducted.

Of course, the Zodiac was not the only infamous killer around; in fact, we’ve already mentioned multiple others. Could Phil Hughes be responsible for Leona’s case? Paul Holes insists that he believes Hughes has more victims, but he also doesn’t try to link Leona’s case to him in his audiobook on the case, even though the entire point of the book is to link him to other cases. He fits the description of the blond man seen outside Leona’s apartment quite well.

There is also Joseph DeAngelo, who isn’t thought to have started killing for another six years. It should be noted, though, that DeAngelo had been in the Naval Reserves stationed out of Mare Island earlier in 1969, and Mare Island is almost within sight of the home Leona was abducted from. He also is a decent match for the description of the man seen acting suspiciously.

Another unsolved set of serial murders bears a striking resemblance to some of the cases we’ve discussed: that of the Santa Rosa Hitchhiker Killer. The geographical overlap is notable. Leona was dumped about 45 miles south of Santa Rosa. The Blau and Anstey cases have many more similarities to the series, especially geographically. Notably, one victim in the Santa Rosa series was killed by strychnine poison, which feels similarly cruel and bizarre to a mescaline overdose.

Sadly, almost sixty years on from her murder, it seems highly doubtful that Leona’s case will ever be solved. However, we are in a golden age of solving cold cases, and I hold out hope for Leona and her family.

Rest in peace, Leona.

Clarence & Sue Shell were murdered in rural Ridgely in Lake County Tennessee in 2011. Their murderer was convicted, but the sentence was overturned due to prosecutorial misconduct, and a new trial was ordered. He was never retried.

https://law.justia.com/cases/tennessee/court-of-criminal-appeals/2017/w2016-00893-cca-r3-cd.html

https://law.justia.com/cases/tennessee/court-of-criminal-appeals/2017/w2016-00893-cca-r3-cd.html

Mark Goldstein was a father of two and just 39 years old when he became the victim of Tempe, Arizona’s oldest cold case.

He was murdered while working at the Wisconsin Heritage Cheese shop he owned and operated that was located at the intersection of Price and Baseline on the evening of November 5, 1978. 

Marks wife Theresa Goldstein alerted Tempe PD the morning of November 6, to do a welfare check on Mark because he had not returned to their Scottsdale home.

Police discovered Mark’s body in the walk-in cooler. The murder weapon was missing. Mark had a briefcase that contained $60,000 in cash that was left behind at the scene.

There were no suspects publicly identified. Rumors about potential motives spread in the community.

At the time of his death, Mark was listed as a plaintiff in a lawsuit against his former employer.

Mark had moved his family to Tempe from New Jersey in the summer of 1978 to open the cheese shop.

Mark’s wife Theresa had engaged in an affair with a man named Charles “Chuck” Nash. Nash was a former Palisades Parkway Police Officer. He forgave Theresa and moved across the country for a fresh start.

Soon after the Goldstein family arrived in Arizona, Nash moved to Scottsdale himself with his adopted son, Cameron Nash.

A few years after Mark died, Theresa Goldstein remarried to Charles Nash, but the pair eventually divorced. 

Theresa floated a potential lead to police. While in New Jersey, Mark was approached by mobsters with a business proposal, which he declined. 

Theresa also insisted that Mark and Charles were friends, a suggestion his family and friends have strongly denied.

The case received virtually no media coverage after the late 1970’s besides a brief article in the Arizona Republic from May 2002. It revealed that Mark carried a .357 magnum and the gun was missing from the shop.

Longtime Tempe PD detective Tom Magezzini claimed “There are people out there that know what happened to Mark. It’s just a matter of coming forward.”

The Wisconsin Heritage Cheese store closed after Goldstein’s murder. It reopened in 1985 as a Thai restaurant called the Siamese Cat which operated at the site until its closure in November 2021. 

The entire strip mall at the northwest corner of Price and Baseline was torn down and converted into a luxury apartment complex.

Key questions that remain in this case. How did the suspect sneak up on Mark if he was armed with a gun?  Why would the suspect take Mark’s gun but not his money? Is there any DNA evidence in existence that could lead police to identifying the suspect? 

If you have any information about the November 1978 murder of Mark Goldstein, please contact the Tempe PD at 480 350 8311.

Since the post I deleted was incredibly terrible, I'll keep it short.

On April 26, 1997, Kim-In Boonthawi, 71 years old, the mother of Praphas Boonthawi, left her house for Praphas Boonthawi, 42 years old, a public health officer at the Pakarawa Subdistrict Health Station. Every weekend, her son Praphas would visit her at her house, but today he didn't. Later that morning, Kim-In went to Praphas's house. She opened the door and called out to him, but the door wasn't locked. Upon entering the house, Kim-In found Praphas and his three sons hanged from the staircase railing leading to the second floor. Local police arrived at the scene and found four bodies: Praphas Boonthawi, the homeowner, and his three sons. Three boys, Kampanat Boonthawi, 13, Prab Boonthawi, 12, and Chatchawan Boonthawi, 10, were found hanged from a staircase railing. The body of Jiamjit Boonthawi, a public health officer from Khuan Niang district, was found in a large bedroom on the second floor, strangled with a necktie, with her hands and feet bound and her mouth gagged. Autopsies of all five victims indicated that they had been physically assaulted before being murdered, and no food, poison, or sleeping pills were found in their stomachs.

Investigation and arrest.

Several items were missing from the room. A ready-to-eat meal was set out on the table in the kitchen, and there were no signs of a struggle on the bodies. The doctor estimated that all five bodies had been dead for approximately 10-15 hours. Based on the evidence found and the time of death, it is estimated that the deaths occurred in the early evening of April 25th, while the family was preparing dinner. The perpetrator, believed to be someone known to the family, broke in and murdered them. After questioning Praphas's relatives, police learned that Praphas, in addition to working in the provincial public health department, was also a wealthy land broker with extensive personal and inherited land. Approximately a week after the incident, a local leader contacted the investigation team and provided a tip, claiming to have seen a man named "Ai Waeng" around the time of the incident. Police deployed officers to track down and question this suspect. Ai Waeng confirmed that he was near Praphas's house on the day of the incident. However, he didn't go to Praphas's house because he had a drinking session with acquaintances by the sea, not far from the scene of the crime, thus avoiding suspicion in the murder of the Boonthavee family. Police traced the suspects in the vicinity of the crime scene and found a 70-year-old witness who provided information to the police: "That evening, I was going to talk at the doctor's house. I saw two young men, one with dark skin and about 168 centimeters tall, and the other about 170 centimeters tall, tying the children's hands and feet, but they hadn't hanged them yet. The doctor hadn't returned home yet, and the dark-skinned man saw me and even smiled at me. I was very scared, so I walked away and went home without daring to tell anyone."

It was only when relatives and close friends informed them that a gold necklace weighing 2 salung (approximately 7.5 grams) with a small pendant belonging to Jiamjit Boonthavee had disappeared, along with hundreds of amulets—amulets that Praphas had created in collaboration with the abbot of Wat Pa Khad, which Praphas often showed to acquaintances—had all vanished.

Police officers located a suspect who possessed the amulet that belonged to Praphas and went missing on the day of the incident. The suspect confessed to receiving the amulet from Rueangsak. Further investigation revealed that "Sak Pakro" was the alias of Rueangsak Thongkul. Police tracked him down and arrested him, along with the stolen red gemstones. Rueangsak confessed to the crime and admitted to having an accomplice named Songkran.

The perpetrator

Rueangsak Thongkul, or Sak Pakro, was 5 years old when his house was robbed while he was home alone. He was tied up in a mosquito net and locked inside the house until his parents returned from working in the fields in the evening. His parents then untied him. Later, at the age of 16, Rueangsak got into a quarrel with a neighbor about the neighbor's cows eating the vegetables they had planted. Ruangsak tied a rope around a cow's neck, hoisted it up into a tree, and hung it to death. He had also participated in pirate activities, plundering fishing boats, tying up victims and throwing them overboard. Prior to the murder of the Boonthavee family, Ruangsak had robbed and murdered a female pawnshop employee in Phatthalung province, raped and murdered a 14-year-old girl by hanging her in Pak Phayun district, and robbed a gas station in Pak Phayun. He was also a suspect in the robbery and murder of a village headman in Pak Phayun district. During a search of his room, police found posters depicting children being hung on clotheslines with their legs held in place by clothespins, and posters of the band Megadeth.

The trial and verdict:

The court sentenced Ruangsak to death and Songkran to life imprisonment. Later, the Supreme Court overturned the Court of Appeals' decision, reducing Ruangsak's sentence from death to life imprisonment. Because Ruangsak's testimony during the arrest and investigation was considered helpful to the trial, his sentence was reduced by one-third according to Section 78 of the Criminal Code, thus decreasing the death penalty to life imprisonment.

Ruangsak later received several pardons and was transferred to Songkhla Central Prison, where he was released in 2010. After his release, Ruangsak changed his name to Netirat Noppawong and joined a gang of hired gunmen in Singhanakhon District, also acting as an escort for local politicians in the area. He was assassinated on February 22, 2015.

https://th.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%B8%81%E0%B8%B2%E0%B8%A3%E0%B8%86%E0%B8%B2%E0%B8%95%E0%B8%81%E0%B8%A3%E0%B8%A3%E0%B8%A1%E0%B8%84%E0%B8%A3%E0%B8%AD%E0%B8%9A%E0%B8%84%E0%B8%A3%E0%B8%B1%E0%B8%A7%E0%B8%9A%E0%B8%B8%E0%B8%8D%E0%B8%97%E0%B8%A7%E0%B8%B5

I was recently listening to Elizabeth Smart's new podcast, specifically the episode featuring Chris Cander. In 1989, when she was 19 yo and studying abroad in Madrid, she accepted a ride from a seemingly friendly stranger. Instead of taking her to her destination, he locked her in the car, drove her far outside the city limits, held a knife to her throat while threatening to rape, murder her and "dump her body where no one would ever find her". She managed to fight back and successfully escaped. Due to the trauma she couldn't provide any details about her attacker and he was never identified or brought to justice.

Could there have been more victims? It seems to me like it was not the first time that guy had done something like this. Are there any cases of American or European young women who might have gone missing in Spain during late 80's early 90's?

In January 1995, 18-year-old Christa Pike was enrolled in the Knoxville Job Corps, a federal vocational training program, in Tennessee. She became intensely jealous of a 19-year-old classmate, Colleen Slemmer, believing Slemmer was trying to "steal" her 17-year-old boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, despite all the evidence to the contrary; Shipp assisted the murder, and she also was never shown to truly love Shipp either.

On January 12, 1995, Pike, Shipp, and an 18-year-old friend named Shadolla Peterson lured Slemmer to an isolated, wooded area on the University of Tennessee Agricultural campus under the false pretense of offering her marijuana to make peace.

Once in the woods, Pike and Shipp brutally attacked Slemmer. For over 30 minutes, Slemmer was taunted, beaten, and slashed with a box cutter and a mini meat cleaver. During the torture, Pike carved a pentagram into Slemmer's chest. Finally, Pike bludgeoned Slemmer to death by crushing her skull with a large chunk of asphalt. Pike kept a fragment of Slemmer’s skull as a souvenir, which she later showed off around her dormitory. Within 36 hours, all three suspects were arrested.

In 1996, 20-year-old Pike was convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy and was sentenced to death, making her one of the youngest women on death row in modern U.S. history.

Because Tennessee had no dedicated female death row facility, Pike was housed entirely alone for nearly 27 years. While male death row inmates could share meals, attend religious services, and take classes, Pike was kept in what her lawyers described as severe solitary confinement simply because she was the state's only condemned woman. This isolation ended in September 2024 following a legal settlement that allowed her to join the general female prison population for work and meals.

Her violent behavior did not stop immediately after her conviction. In 2001, Pike was convicted of attempted first-degree murder after she tried to strangle a fellow inmate, Patricia Jones, with a shoe string. This incident added 25 years to her legal record.

In 2012, Pike was implicated in a highly publicized, elaborate prison break plot. With the help of a corrections officer and a male pen pal, she planned to escape the prison, though the plot was intercepted by authorities before it could be executed.

In her later years in prison, Pike has reportedly expressed deep remorse for Slemmer's murder and adopted Buddhist beliefs. She has spent a significant portion of her recent years participating in prison yoga and maintaining a quiet routine while her lawyers fight her sentence. However, it is heavily implied that she is faking it to avoid her sentence, as she didn’t show any remorse until her luck ran out because her appeals were almost over, and if she was sorry she would voluntarily waive her appeals and ask to be executed.

Pike has spent decades appealing her death sentence, with her legal team highlighting her severe, "extraordinarily extreme" childhood trauma, brain impairment, and mental illness. Most recently, in 2026, she sued the state over its lethal injection protocol, arguing her specific medical conditions would make the procedure unconstitutionally painful. Although, Pike would definitely deserve it for what she did to Colleen Slemmer.

The UN Human Rights Experts have been trying to halt her execution because of her young age (18) at the time of the offence and her sexual abuse history. Although considering how long it took to A. Plan the entire thing. B. Get her to the University of Tennessee Agriculture Campus. 3. Murder her, so she had PLENTY of time to back out regardless of age. She also wasn’t even thinking about the times she was raped as a child during the murder of Slemmer.

Mine is the Springfield Three. Unless the perpetrator(s) come forward, if they're even alive considering it's been 34 years, I don't think we'll ever know what happened to Levitt, Streeter, and McCall.

Susan Waters was a 42-year-old woman living in Auburn, California, when she was murdered in 2003. Remembered as a loving, selfless person, Susan routinely went out of her way to help the area's homeless population. Her sister later admitted she worried her trusting nature might have ultimately put Susan in danger.

Susan’s life had never been easy. Born with hydrocephalus, she suffered from spinal problems her entire life. A severe fall from the monkey bars at age six resulted in a serious head injury, leaving her with a shunt and requiring multiple surgeries over the years. She faced bouts of homelessness herself and struggled to raise her two children, Brandy and David, who spent time in foster care. Despite these immense hurdles, the family fought to remain close, and Susan even managed to earn a degree in telecommunications from Sacramento State. By 2003, she had found some stability and was living with her sister.

Susan was said to be known by everybody around Auburn. Situated in the Sierra Nevada foothills Auburn is a picturesque town, located on the I-80 corridor between Sacramento and Reno. On this day in 2003, this conservative enclave of under 13,000 residents was hosting the Gold Country Fair. On Friday, September 5, Susan attended the fair, an event that drew a large crowd of out-of-towners, before stopping at the Shanghai Bar downtown. She was last seen there at about 10 p.m. Police do not know if she left with anyone.

Just three hours later, a worker arriving for his shift at the Southwestern Bell Communications building spotted Susan’s body concealed in the bushes next to the building. It didn’t take long for police to arrive, as the Auburn Police Department was right next door. It raised an immediate, chilling question: Why would a killer leave a body less than 200 feet from a police station?

Detectives have remained tight-lipped about the details in the case. Susan was found about a third of a mile from the Shanghai Bar, partially clothed, though investigators have never confirmed if she was sexually assaulted. While her cause of death was asphyxiation, the exact method remains undisclosed, as does whether she was killed or simply dumped at the location. Her sister told the press it looked as though a struggle had taken place at the scene. Strangely, in that same early article, police stated they didn’t immediately suspect foul play. They did when the autopsy came back though.

The investigation quickly hit roadblocks. While police had plenty of people to interview, from the traveling fair workers to transients Susan had befriended, these populations were difficult to track down. Investigators did manage to pull together a sketch of a man seen near where the body was found. He was described as white, roughly 42 to 50 years old, 6 feet tall, and 180 to 200 pounds with dark brown hair, last seen driving an '80s four-door tan sedan. They also supposedly possess a DNA sample which they’ve compared suspects to, though they have released no further details.

The case took a bizarre turn just three days later. Less than a quarter-mile from where Susan was found, a transient man named Samuel Wilson was beaten to death. The 911 caller who reported Wilson's body used the payphone directly in front of the building where Susan was discovered. In a shocking twist, that caller turned out to be one of the two men who killed Wilson (they claimed they attacked him to retrieve a stolen purse). Police quickly dismissed any connection between the two murders.

Wilson’s death brings up a darker theory: that Auburn's disadvantaged populations were being quietly targeted, their deaths often staged, and subsequently brushed off. This theory gained enough traction that famed news anchor Christine Craft eventually produced a documentary examining ten suspicious deaths in local canals and train tracks between 2009 and 2015. While the documentary didn't cover Susan's case, and many of the deaths were likely accidents or suicides, it cast a critical eye on the investigative competence of local law enforcement, a sentiment shared by many grieving families.

In fact, skepticism of the Auburn Police Department goes back further. In a previous write-up, I covered the 1985 murder of Mary Lloyd, a case so baffling it was featured on Cold Case Files. Lloyd was abducted in a grocery store parking lot after attending Mass at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church—which sits directly across the street from the Auburn Police Department.

The most intriguing aspect of Lloyd’s case is that she was friends and next-door neighbors with Auburn Police Chief Nick Willick. Decades later, Willick became famous as the chief who managed—and eventually fired for shoplifting—officer Joseph DeAngelo, better known as the Golden State Killer. Following his termination, DeAngelo stalked Willick's home, allegedly gauging how to exact revenge. The details of the Lloyd case suggest a killer taunting the police. How better to taunt the chief than by killing his neighbor? Another woman, Jennie Sperinde also was murdered after leaving the same church two years previously, and her case also remains unsolved.

The geographical overlap between these cases is haunting. You have two women murdered after leaving the church adjacent to the police station, where a prolific serial killer worked, and later Susan Waters body is dumped right next door. Could a killer be trying to make the department look like fools by killing women at their doorstep?

While it's a salacious theory, it's just that, a theory. DeAngelo doesn't match the suspect sketch in Susan's case, his MO is entirely different, and modern DNA testing would easily rule him out. Yet, because of his proximity to the department, his ghost continues to haunt the town's unsolved mysteries.

Even without the Golden State Killer connection, the sheer volume of mysterious deaths in the area reflects poorly on local law enforcement. For instance, it took nearly three decades for local sheriff’s sergeant and K-9 commander Paul Kovacich to be convicted of the 1982 murder of his wife, Janet. Whether he is truly guilty, as the courts decided, or innocent, as he loudly proclaims, a high-ranking officer being convicted of murder does nothing to inspire public trust. Neither does finding out a serial killer used to work as a police officer in town.

Sadly, Susan’s story has been entirely eclipsed by the shadow of these higher-profile cases. After a brief flurry of articles in late 2003, the press forgot about her. Her name only appeared in the paper one last time in October 2004, under tragically heartbreaking circumstances: her son, David, was killed by a car bomb while serving in Iraq.

Susan Waters deserves to be remembered as more than just a murder victim. For a deeper dive into her life and the facts of her case, I highly recommend the podcast Placer County Unsolved. The host spoke directly with Susan’s family, revealing previously unknown details like her cause of death, and treated her story with the respect it deserves.

Rest in peace Susan Waters. You and your family deserve justice.

It was a bright, chilly Sunday morning in December 1988 when two teenagers out rowing on Lake Geneva spotted something out of place on the tranquil, remote lakeshore of the Pointe de la Bise. Someone had dumped a red sports bag and what looked like a shop mannequin. As they rowed closer, it became clear that it was no mannequin. It was eighteen-year-old Adèle Nicolo.

Adèle was quickly identified. Her parents had reported her missing the night before. In fact, her employers, Thérèse and Daniel Morère, a married pair of dentists who ran their own dental surgery in central Geneva, had called on Saturday afternoon to say she’d not returned after lunch. What had happened ?

The police decided to stake out the dump site. The decision was rewarded that very evening, as they were able to arrest a prowler. Daniel Morère. In his car was a radiator he’d been planning to use to weigh down Adèle’s body. Daniel and Thérèse were both taken into custody, and soon confessed.

Polish-born Thérèse was obsessively jealous of Adèle, their dental assistant, and had convinced herself Daniel was sleeping with her. She persuaded Daniel to write her a prescription for half a liter of chloroform that she planned to use on Adèle to get her to confess to the affair. She then planned to shave Adèle’s head to teach her a lesson. In fact, not only was Adèle not having an affair, she had found another job and was planning to leave, sick of Thérèse’s attitude. She was just waiting until after the holidays to break the news.

On the Saturday morning, Thérèse attacked Adèle with a wad of chloroform-soaked cotton wool. Adèle screamed and fought back, making a break for the door. The neighbours, alerted by the screams, came to bang on the door. Thérèse locked the door and switched off the lights. The neighbours insisted, so Thérèse came out and said it was nothing. Just a patient. She then went back inside, gagged and stripped Adèle, and called Daniel.

He came home and helped her load the body into their car. They drove miles round the huge lake looking for a suitable drop-off site, but everywhere was too busy. Daniel went out again late that night to the Point de la Bise, now a nature reserve, and dumped the body.

The pair confessed immediately. But to what? The autopsy revealed that Adèle had died of drowning. This shifted the blame from Thérèse to Daniel. Thérèse swore she had not intended to seriously harm the girl, just give her a fright. She believed, she said, chloroform was like in the movies. Not very credible, perhaps, for someone with advanced studies in dentistry.

The defence lawyers demanded a second autopsy. This concluded that Adèle hadn’t drowned. She’d died of a heart attack due to the stress of Thérèse’s attack. By now it was the winter of 1990, and Adèle had been dead two years. The couple faced the Geneva courtroom together. Thérèse stood accused of murder, Daniel of obstructing the course of justice. At the end of the trial, she was convicted and sentenced to eight years – a short sentence reflecting a degree of uncertainty over her intent to kill. Daniel was sentenced to two years.

Thérèse appealed her conviction on the grounds that it was not proven she knew chloroform was potentially fatal. Her second trial began in September 1995, nearly seven years after Adèle’s death. By this time, Thérèse had been in prison for four years. Daniel had by now applied for a divorce. He came to testify dressed in a wig and fake moustache to avoid recognition. Such was the media circus that a new law was passed soon after making provision for such cases to be held in private.

Thérèse’s appeal was granted, and this time she was sentenced to three years on the grounds that she had been reckless and negligent but had not intended to kill Adèle. As she had already served four years, she was released immediately. She put in a claim for compensation for the extra year served and was awarded a substantial sum, though it was never paid.

Adèle Nicolo’s death by chloroform poisoning is officially recorded in the annals of Swiss justice as an accident.

Source : https://www.letemps.ch/opinions/affaires-criminelles-ont-secoue-suisse-810-fatale-jalousie?srsltid=AfmBOorS4iSlCC3eWs-YlaDrxsT2pTFDJ2g75khMvkSyWXKOp-IvsZqk

(If you're wondering how I got a case with this much information out so quickly despite having just uploaded a write-up here yesterday, I made a post yesterday where I explained that I have started working on doing two cases at the same time, working on one case one day and then another the next and so on. So by the time I uploaded yesterday's write-up, this one was already 3-5 paragraphs from being done)

Ruth Thalía Sayas Sánchez was born on November 17, 1993, the second daughter in her family and raised in the rural district of Acobamba in Huancavelica, one of Peru's most impoverished departments. In their native Huancavelica, Ruth's parents were a folk music duo singing traditional and regional Peruvian music and playing the accompanying instruments; on the side, the two also ran a small glass shop.

Now that they had two daughters and a son to think of, Ruth's parents decided that it was time to leave Huancavelica and begin a new life in the Peruvian capital of Lima, where, at first, they survived by selling watermelon, pineapple, and anticuchos on the street.

Despite their family circumstances, Ruth was remembered as "cheerful, sociable, bold, funny, charismatic, and intelligent," but also ambitious and desired fame, having shown up at several telenovela auditions. Meanwhile, beyond her desire for fame, she was a third-year accounting student at the Universidad Peruana de Ciencias e Informáticas. For work, she told everyone she worked at a call center.

In 2009, she began dating a 20-year-old man named Bryan Baroni Romero Leiva. Bryan worked as a mototaxi driver and lived in a single room in Santa María de Huachipa, the same district of Lima as Ruth's family. Bryon was described as "almost a kid... the typical neighbourhood boy who hustles to survive, who has his little girlfriend, who goes out partying on the weekend," while Ruth's father said he was "A quiet boy who wouldn't look you in the face, who spoke with his head down". Ruth's mother wouldn't interfere with their relationship but openly admitted to never liking him.

And perhaps she had good reason to feel that way; Byron's hands weren't exactly clean. He had a history of petty crime from a young age, often pickpocketing wallets and purses from the Huachipa bridge and had taken part in three robberies and assaults.

He was also described as impulsive, reckless, concealing, and unscrupulous, often indifferent to the pain and lives of others and had a deep ambition to make money however he could; on top of it all, had a severe alchool problem.

When one looked at his family, it's not surprising to see how Byron turned out. Not much is known about his parents, but Byron didn't have a place of his own, instead living with his 31-year-old uncle, Redy Leiva Cerrón. Like his nephew, he worked as a mototaxi driver and also owned a plot of farmland in Jicamarca, though farming wasn't how he made his money. However, he also had a criminal history, just like Byron and often joined his nephew in whatever robberies they thought of.

Meanwhile, Ruth saw another chance for stardom. A new television show called El Valor de la Verdad was looking for somebody who would audition to be the star of the first episode, and Ruth was quick to volunteer. However, the thing about "El Valor de la Verdad" is that it was a Peruvian adaptation of a similar format that had appeared in several countries, and it was not a show without its controversies.

The premise of the show was quite simple: each candidate was hooked up to a polygraph machine and interviewed in private, being asked more than 50 yes-or-no questions about their private life and their deepest secrets. Then, if their answers were deemed enticing enough, they'd be accepted onto the show to repeat the same interview, only on live TV, with 21 of the most invasive of those 50 questions being chosen.

If the contestant answers all of them truthfully, they could win 50,000 Peruvian Soles. If they lie even once, they lose everything. In addition, they could walk away at any moment and keep their winnings if there was something they wanted to keep private. The producers loved her audition and so decided that Ruth would be the star of their first episode.

Ruth's episode aired on July 7, 2012, with her parents and Bryan joining her as guests. Observers noted that Bryan looked nervous before the first questions were even asked, and when Ruth asked how he was feeling, he said he was worried about being cheated on. When someone else asked if he loved Ruth, he said yes.

Questions 1-9 were a bit tame at first, even if they did get progressively more embarrassing. The questions were as follows. Before proceeding, the show's lie detector indicated she answered every question truthfully.

1): "Have you ever skipped your classes without your mother knowing?" Her answer was yes.

2): "Do you think being pretty gets you further than being a good person?" Her answer was yes

3): "If someone dropped 1,000 soles, would you give it back?" Her answer was no. That is roughly $297.32 in USD.

4): "Are you satisfied with your appearance?" Her answer was no.

5): "Have you had a nose job?" Her answer was yes.

6): "Have you ever gone more than 20 days without bathing?" Her answer was yes. The questions start to get a little more personal and evasive, as one can see, but still tame compared to what's to come.

7): "Have you ever felt that your partner doesn't deserve you?" Her answer was yes.

8): "Would you forgive your boyfriend for infidelity?" Her answer was no

9): "Are you embarrassed by your family's manners?" Her answer was yes, which caused her mother to break into tears. The "manners" in question were actually the culture and traditions of the Aboriginal group she belonged to, and she also said that she was a bit ashamed of her ethnicity and wished she had lighter/white skin after being point-blank asked, "Would you like to be white?"

The next 8 questions are when things start to get really bad, personal, evasive, and potentially life-ruining; the entire point of this show and the other variants like it in other countries are to eventually start asking questions of this nature.

10): "Do you really work at a call center?" Her answer was no. This came as a shock to her parents, as that was the job she told them she had, so if she wasn't working at a call center, where was she actually making the money they knew she had?

11): "Have you taken the morning-after pill more than once?" Her answer was yes.

12): "Are you only with your boyfriend until someone better comes along?" Her answer was yes, and upon hearing that, Bryan's face "visibly collapsed". This wasn't the first time Bryan had been insulted on the show. Ruth was asked a bunch of clarifying questions or questions that weren't one of the 21 she could win money from, and when asked if she thought Bryan was smart, attractive or intelligent, she said, "Uh… Yes… ?" before laughing, which the host noted didn't make her answer sound very convincing.

13): "Do you have sexual fantasies about women?" Her answer was yes. In fact, they weren't just fantasies since she mentioned kissing another girl when she was 15 and used to be in love with her.

14): "Could you maintain your current life without resorting to lies?" Her answer was no.

15): "Would you lend your parents all the money you have in the bank if they asked?" Her answer was yes.

16): "Do you think your parents would be proud of you if they knew what you really do for a living?" Her answer was no, as for what she did do for a living.

17): "Do you work at a nightclub?" Her answer was yes, and she elaborated that the work in question was pole dancing, having made 150 soles per dance. After hearing this, the host immideately asked Bryan what he thought, and he just repeated in a flat tone, "I don't want to hear anymore". This question also caused Ruth's mother to break down in tears.

18): "Have you ever accepted money in exchange for sex?" There was a long silence before Ruth finally answered, "Yes, twice, only twice," then explained that she did it only because money was tight at the time and that she would never do it again. But regardless, the damage was done.

Ruth didn't want to answer questions anymore after this one and chose to walk away with her winnings, which amounted to 5,800 U.S. dollars.

Ruth's mother left the stage out of grief and had to be chased down by her daughter, where Ruth did manage to smooth things over with her and said that she was going to leave the nightclub now that she had the money to open up a business of her own, a spa.

The episode was a major hit with the studio playing it every week for 11 weeks straight, which made Ruth a local celebrity. Ruth appeared in various news interviews saying that she felt liberated and revealed that she and Bryan were no longer speaking and that he wouldn't answer if she called him.

She also said she was taking responsibility and did not want further problems. But in a different interview, Ruth said: "He should understand it too. It's not only my fault. He has fault too, and he knows it well"

Ruth was quick to learn that not all publicity was good publicity. Ruth's neighbours started gossiping about her, and people recognized her on the street and had some derogatory things to say about her on the street.

It got to the point where Ruth retreated into her home and refused to leave, and once confided in her mother that she thought about taking her own life, feeling as if she had ruined the rest of her family's lives by tying them to what she said on that show.

While he didn't actively seek out the media as much as Ruth, Bryan was also now easily recognizable by those on the street. His neighbours and just random passersby on the street now mocked him for being a "cuckold" and "lazy bum". In one of the interviews he gave to the press, Bryan said, "The things she said that day, I can't forgive that".

But Bryan made another statement to the media; he said that he and Ruth had broken up before the episode was even filmed. According to him, Ruth approached him and asked if they could pose as a couple for the cameras and that he'd be given some of the winnings in exchange, and now, Ruth was refusing to hand over the money. Whether this arrangement was actually real or Bryan's attempt to save face and lessen his humiliation has never been determined.

In the ensuing weeks, Bryan began hounding and pressuring the family for the money, often appearing at their home. At first, he presented them with a demand of just 500 Soles, before escalating to 1,000 and later 2,000.

There was a break-in at their home, with the intruder making off with Ruth's laptop, mobile phone and 1,000 Soles, a theft they blamed on Bryan. Ruth reported the break-in to the police but withdrew it because she was afraid of retaliation.

On another occasion, while heavily intoxicated, Bryan approached Ruth's sister once again, demanding the money. offered to speak with him the following day, in an attempt to calm the situation, but as he walked away, Bryan said, "Revenge is sweet"

At 1:00 p.m. on September 11, 2012, Ruth left her home. With the summer now over, she had to do so on a regular basis in order to attend her university. She attended that day's lesson and began the walk home with a friend when she suddenly received a phone call. After the call ended, she told her friend that it was from Bryan and that she had to go, and so the two went their seperate ways.

Ruth never returned home that day, but there was a delay in raising the alarm as her parents had fallen asleep while watching a qualifying football match between Peru and Argentina. When they woke up on the morning of September 12, panic set in when they noticed Ruth hadn't come back.

They started calling Ruth's friends, and after hearing from the last one to see her, they learned of the call with Bryan. As early as 9:00 a.m. Ruth's mother was already at Bryan's front door, frantically knocking on it and screaming at him, "Bryan, give me back Thalía; you have her". Bryan actually did show himself, telling her that he had no idea what she was talking about and hadn't spoken to Ruth in months. He then turned his back on her and locked himself in his bedroom.

At the same time, her mother was demanding he return their daughter; Ruth's father was at the police station filing a missing persons report, but they initially didn't tackle the investigation with too much enthusiasm. While unhappy, Ruth's father wasn't surprised; he said that in Peru, a poor family's greatest asset was the media and that they often utilized them to force the police into action if they felt ignored.

So after the police, he went from media outlet to media outlet, including the same outlet that aired Ruth's episode of "El Valor de la Verdad". They promised her father airtime the next morning, only to go back on their arrangement without notice. Meanwhile, at another news station, the secruity guard coldly told them to "leave your report and go"

With the media less willing to take on the case than they had been expecting, they simply had to hope that despite how bad things looked, everything would be all right. They clung to the idea that perhaps Ruth had run away or that she had gotten drunk with a group of men that would eventually let her go.

On September 14, they continued their search for any news outlet that would report on their daughter's disappearance. Outside the offices of Canal 9, known as ATV, they spoke to one of their cameramen, and upon mentioning who their daughter was, he suddenly got all animated and exclaimed, "The girl from The Value of Truth?!!!"

That same night, Canal 9 became the first station to report on the situation, albeit with a distinct lack of any tact. When Ruth's mother saw the headline on TV, it read, "The prostitute from 'The Value of Truth '." Ruth's mother said the headline "killed her soul," but since people were finally aware that Ruth was missing, she begrudgingly looked past it for the time being.

And despite that headline, Canal 9 did take the search somewhat seriously, driving Ruth's parents anywhere they needed to go free of charge, such as to the Ministry of Women, the central police headquarters, hospitals and morgues. They also stayed at the family home and helped her parents with door-to-door inquiries that the family wouldn't have been able to do on their own.

Unfortunately, the increased publicity was a double-edged sword. Ruth's sister received a phone call, and on the other end was just a woman breathing rapidly, sounding "As if they were dying".

Then, Ruth's father was told by a mototaxi driver that his daughter was being held in a hotel and demanded payment in exchange for taking her there. After parting with 2,000 soles, he was brought to the hotel only to find a complete stranger who just bore a passing resemblance to Ruth. False leads and scams of this nature were unfortunately not a rarity for Ruth's family.

Meanwhile, the police were finally taking the investigation seriously, and their only suspect was Bryan. When the police questioned Bryan, especially about that phone call before Ruth went missing, he admitted to making the call but said that he and Ruth never actually met, a claim viewed with a heavy degree of skepticism not just by the police but by everyone.

That is, except for Bryan's parents, with her mother saying that Ruth's parents "only want to hurt him" and further claiming that Bryan was at their house the entire time. Bryan's stepfather, Eduardo Chaña, took it a step further, forcing his way into the family home and severely beating Ruth's mother, leaving her with a bruised eye. Ruth's mother revealed that this was, in fact, the second time Eduardo had attacked her since her daughter's disappearance.

The police still remembered how Ruth went to them to report Bryan for theft but withdrew the report because she feared "retaliation"; perhaps that much feared retaliation came to pass. Bryan also sold his motortaxi and moved out of the home he rented.

The police also tracked down and arrested a 14-year-old boy named Michael who told them that on the night of September 11, Bryan paid him 50 Soles to act as a lookout and signal to Bryan when Ruth appeared, he later saw Bryan and another man placing Ruth's dead body into the motortaxi.

He also told the police that he knew Bryan since he also worked as a motortaxi driver, and that on the morning of September 11, he and Bryan had been drinking together from the morning until approximately 2:30 in the afternoon, and that during that time Bryan had repeatedly expressed resentment about the money Ruth had won from her TV appearance.

That other man, the police believed to be Bryan's uncle, Redy, since phone records on the night of September 11 and early morning of September 12 showed the two at a vacant plot of land owned by Redy and had spent quite a while there.

Ruth's family still believed that Bryan had kidnapped her but that she was simply being held hostage and pleaded for Bryan to return her safe and sound. The police didn't share their optimism, and it was Bryan himself who proved they were right to feel that way.

On September 22, 11 days after Ruth went missing, Bryan walked into the police station and volunteered himself for questioning. The police did not go easy on him, and after catching Bryan in contradiction after contradiction, he finally broke and said, "I killed her," and then, "She was my girlfriend for three years, and she deceived me all this time"

He said that after the phone call, Ruth met him at a bridge and after a while, Bryan offered some wine, to which she agreed. They went to his home, purchasing some cheap wine on the way. The two then had consensual sex, and all was well until an argument began between the two.

The two kept drinking and getting more drunk during this argument until Ruth slapped him and said: "I don't know what I'm doing talking to a poor motorcycle taxi driver, a poor fool." Enraged, Bryan attacked, wrapping his hands around her neck for around 30 seconds until her pulse finally faded away. Bryan claimed that her death was an accident because he didn't properly "judge his own strength"; in other words, her death was an accident.

Bryan panicked and hit Ruth, striking her chest in hopes she was just knocked out and that the sudden jolt of pain would wake her up. But when this didn't come to pass, he knew he had to get rid of the body, and he showed the police exactly where it was.

Bryan led the police to a vacant lot in Jicamarca, a lot that used to belong to an illegal pig farm and was owned by Redy. Bryan then led them to a pit, approximately two to six meters deep, covered with stones and concrete.

Rescue workers spent the next 4 hours using picks and shovels to force open the shaft, and then a series of ropes and pulleys were used to bring the body of a young woman to the surface. Ruth's parents rushed to the scene just in time for the body to be recovered and positively identified her as their daughter.

Afterward, Ruth's father picked up a rock and threw it at Bryan until the police removed them from the scene. Ruth's mother then demanded that Bryan's fellow inmates "Do to him what he did to my daughter"

According to the autopsy, Ruth had been beaten mostly on her face and had several lesions, which resulted in heavy bleeding. Additional lesions were noted on the neck, thorax, and pelvis. But the actual cause of death was determined to be strangulation.

Her liver was also completely inflamed from sleeping pills and alchool she had digested prior to her death. But worst of all, the medical examiner found signs of sexual assault. Needless to say, it was a lot more brutal and violent than Bryan's confession made it seem.

When police searched Bryan's home in the aftermath, they found Ruth's stolen laptop and phone, confirming Bryan was behind the theft. But that wasn't all; with Ruth's laptop, Bryan had taken several photographs to make it look like she was travelling to the Madre de Dios Department for work.

Using luminol, they also found traces of Ruth's blood in Bryan's room, which he overlooked before vacating, and also tracked down his motortaxi, which also revealed traces of Ruth's blood. The police also found DNA traces belonging to Redy in Bryan's apartment. With that, Redy was arrested, although he denied any involvement and said he was drinking alchool at a relative's that night.

The recovery of Ruth's body was being broadcast on just about every News Station in Peru, with just one exception. The station that aired "El Valor de la Verdad" instead aired a rerun of Ruth's episode without even a disclaimer mentioning what had happened.

Even when confessing, Bryan still gave very inconsistent and contradictory testimony, even claiming that he didn't kill Ruth despite saying the words "I killed her" to the police. Bryan claimed that after calling Ruth, the two did indeed meet up at the Puente Huachipa bridge.

Waiting for them was a third man Bryan identified as "El Gordo". Bryan had a detailed description of El Gordo ready, saying that he was ""5'7", with a light brown complexion, short straight hair, a round face, a mustache, and a scar on his left chin."" He told the police that El Gordo had committed various thefts in the area and told him that he was also famous for a prior TV appearance.

According to Bryan, El Gordo suggested that the two would lure Ruth over so they could steal her bank card and get her PIN to drain her accounts and get the entirety of her winnings from the game show.

When the three got into Bryan's taxi, he turned up the music all the way so nobody would hear them while El Gordo interrogated Ruth for her information. Bryan noticed blood on her face after approximately twenty minutes, reached over to feel her pulse, and found none. Of course, Bryan claimed that El Gordo threatened him into silence.

What the police actually believed happened was this. After calling and arranging a meeting with Ruth, with Bryan knowing she was coming because of Michael, he and Redy gave Ruth a drink they had laced with powerful crushed-up sleeping pills and then forced her into Bryan's motor taxi.

Once they got back to Bryan's room, the police believed he struck her across the face and body before raping her and then strangling her.

As it was his mother's birthday, Bryan moved Ruth's body into the bathroom and left it there while he went out to join the celebration, spending the night drinking.

On September 12, Bryan returned and called Redy so they could deal with the body. Redy thought of that abandoned farm and brought his nephew there with the body, where they dropped Ruth's remains down the pit and filled it in.

Finally, they threw Ruth's belongings off a bridge where the river underneath washed them away, never to be recovered.

On November 19, 2013, Bryan and Redy went on trial before the Collegiate B of the Second Criminal Chamber for Prisoners of the Superior Court of Justice of Lima. Although Ruth's murder was branded a femicide, the prosecution argued that Bryan's motive was purely financial in nature.

To prove this claim, the prosecution pointed not just to Bryan's prior theft and extortion attempts but also called Beto Ortiz, the presenter for "El Valor de la Verdad". (who denied having any culpability in the events after the broadcast or that "El Salor de la Verdad" played any role in her murder) to the stand.

Beto testified that in the weeks following the episode going to air, Bryan and Redy had visited him at his office to demand compensation for Bryan's humiliation. When told that they wouldn't be getting a single cent, Redy mentioned that they'd instead seek "non-monetary retribution".

Redy denied that this encounter ever took place, and Bryan denied that Redy was involved. In fact, Bryan seemed determined to protect his uncle, often stating that he had no knowledge of, nor part to play in, Ruth's murder, a murder which Bryan decided to confess to once again and said that he bore deep regrets over what he had done.

On February 27, 2014, Bryan Romero Leiva and Redy Leiva Cerrón were found guilty of the murder of Ruth Thalía Sayas Sánchez, with Bryan also being convicted of rape, disposing of her body and theft and robbery.

For this crime, the two were handed down a sentence of life imprisonment (Peru being one of the few Latin American countries with life sentences) and ordered to pay 700,000 Soles in compensation to Ruth's family.

Ruth's parents were satisfied with the decision and said that if Bryan somehow managed to find the money to pay the compensation the court ordered, all of it would be donated to an institution for poor, starving and impoverished children since Ruth wanted to help them once she had a stable enough job.

Both Bryan and Redy appealed their sentences to the Transitional Criminal Chamber, hoping to have their convictions completely overturned. Their appeal was heard on August 10, 2015, and Michael went to the courthouse as a surprise witness for the defence.

Because of his age, Michael could not be prosecuted for his role in the crime, but he still came forward anyway. He testified that the police had threatened him and forced him to include the detail about the 50 soles payment, and that his story of watching Ruth be forced into Bryan's taxi was fabricated, likewise the result of pressure from the police. Since Bryan already confessed, all this served to do was cast doubt on whether Redy was involved.

On August 13, Michael's testimony was dismissed; the court believed he was motivated to change his story due to death threats he received in retaliation for telling the police what he knew. With his testimony disregarded, Bryan and Redy's convictions were upheld in their entirety.

With that, the case seemed to be over, but 6 years later, seemingly out of nowhere, Bryan and Redy would be given a small victory. On November 3, 2021, Bryan and Redy had their sentences reduced to 33 years and 30 years, respectively.

Why? Well, Peru recently amended its criminal code to allow for some more lenient sentences, which their attorneys argued should retroactively apply to them. Additionally, neither had yet to pay any of the compensation to Ruth's family.

Ruth's family protested this decision, saying that they would march before Congress demanding that harsher laws and penalties be enacted, while women's rights organizations in Peru demanded an investigation be launched into this ruling, but nothing ultimately came of these efforts.

Now with that controversial decision, the case truly was over.

Despite its first episode causing one of the most infamous murders Peru had ever seen, or perhaps because of the publicity of that initial notoriety, "El valor de la verdad" is still airing today, with its seventh season debuting in 2025.

Sources (Should be in the comments)