Tag: murders
Woman allegedly kills roommate over texts to ex-fiancé
An Oklahoma woman is accused of killing her roommate after she found text messages with her ex-fiancé, according to officials.
Kristen Elizabeth Jones, 21, allegedly shot her 23-year-old roommate, Miranda Pederson, in the head then covered up the murder by setting their house in Luther on fire, The Oklahoman reported.
Jones’ ex-fiancé, Bryson Harrington, lived at the house with both women, according to the newspaper.
The alleged shooting occurred when Jones discovered Pederson had been exchanging texts with Harrington.
In a phone call monitored by authorities, Jones told Harrington that Pederson first stabbed her in the hand.
Jones then allegedly grabbed a gun and shot Pederson in the back of the head, according to police. She also reportedly admitted to burning down the home to “cover it up because she got scared.”
Hickory Hills Fire Protection District responded to the home around 9:45 a.m. Monday after the fire chief spotted smoke, news station KFOR reported.
“While at the scene, putting out the fire, they discovered a body inside the home,” Oklahoma County Sheriff spokesman Mark Opgrande told KFOR. “They immediately called the sheriff’s office, and we called our homicide investigators to the scene.”
Authorities said they learned Jones fled the state and pulled her over Monday afternoon at a traffic stop in Gainesville, Texas.
She was booked Tuesday into the Oklahoma County jail on suspicion of murder, arson and desecration of a human corpse.
via: https://nypost.com/2018/08/01/woman-allegedly-kills-roommate-over-texts-to-ex-fiance-cops/
Woman poisoned baby in twisted plot to get husband back
A South Carolina woman — who admitted to murdering her baby by feeding the toddler a deadly amount of salt in a twisted plot to win her husband back — was sentenced Wednesday to 30 years in prison.
Kimberly Martines, of Fingerville, must serve 85 percent of her sentence before she is eligible for parole, FOX Carolina reported. The 25-year-old pleaded guilty to homicide by child abuse following her daughter’s death in July 2016.
Martines’ 17-month-old daughter, Peyton, arrived at the hospital with an inflated amount of sodium in her blood. The child, suffering from acute salt poisoning, died three days later after doctors took her off of life support.
Martines initially told investigators Peyton ingested large amounts of salt when the toddler and her twin sister got into a bag that was left on a bookcase. But Martines’ 4-year-old son later told officials he watched his mother feed his sister a spoonful of salt.
Police found a bag of salt under a sofa cushion.
Martines later confessed to giving her daughter the poison dose of salt to “get her husband back into her life” after the couple separated. She chose Peyton as her victim because she was near her at the time, FOX Carolina reported.
via: https://nypost.com/2018/07/26/woman-poisoned-baby-in-twisted-plot-to-get-husband-back-cops/
Ex-con stabbed his sister 53 times for taking too long in the bathroom
An ex-con stabbed his 15-year-old sister 53 times last month, killing her, because she took too long in the bathroom, a detective testified Monday.
Gavin Henderson, 27, moved in last year with his mother and siblings at the Lacota Apartments in Dunwoody, Georgia, after being released from a Florida prison following a several-year stint for violent crimes. Henderson turned to his relatives because he had no other options, a Dunwoody Police Department detective testified, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
But Henderson soon had alarming physical confrontations with his family, including pulling a knife on one of his sisters and a deadly dispute with another, Keaira Henderson, on June 18 — when he needed to use the bathroom and she apparently wasn’t finished, Detective Jesus Moldonado testified.
“She said there was an altercation about Keaira taking too long in the bathroom, which led to the fighting,” Moldonado testified in reference to a police interview with Henderson’s 12-year-old sister.
Henderson then allegedly grabbed a 10-inch hunting-style knife and chased Keaira outside the apartment, where the teen started banging on neighbors’ doors for help. Responding police officers would later be unable to count the number of times the teen was stabbed, but the medical examiner’s office counted 53 stab wounds in all, according to the newspaper.
Henderson, according to statements he later gave investigators, knew the stabbing would undoubtedly send him back to prison, so he acted as if there was “no turning back” after stabbing his younger sister once and just kept attacking her, Maldonado testified.
With his hands and T-shirt soaked in blood, Henderson later walked to a nearby convenience store and asked a clerk to call the police, saying there had been an “accident,” Moldonado testified. He is now facing charges of murder, aggravated assault and first-degree cruelty to children, the Ledger-Enquirer reports.
Henderson’s family did not attend Monday’s hearing and his attorney did not address the court on his behalf. A judge ruled that prosecutors had enough evidence to proceed in the case and remanded him into custody, according to the Journal-Constitution.
Keaira Henderson, meanwhile, was remembered as an aspiring attorney who attended Alpharetta High School, according to a GoFundMe page created to help offset funeral expenses. The campaign had raised more than $4,700 as of Tuesday.
“Keaira had a way with words but sadly her voice has been silenced,” the website reads.
Mom who strangled newborn, threw body in trash sentenced
A New Jersey woman was sentenced to eight years in prison after she admitted to strangling her newborn daughter to death two years ago.
Jade Fanz was sentenced on Friday, People reported. The now 21-year-old strangled her daughter when she was just “minutes old,” according to NJ.com. She then put the infant’s body in a dumpster behind her home in Franklin Township.
Fanz’s crime came to light after she visited a local hospital due to a medical complication related to giving birth, according to ABC13. The young woman was initially charged with murder, unlawfully disturbing, moving or concealing human remains and abuse or neglect of a child, NJ.com reported.
She was later charged and pleaded guilty to second-degree manslaughter in April.
Fanz has been in jail since the incident occurred, according to FOX5.
She must serve at least 85 percent of her sentence before she will be eligible for parole, per the terms of her plea agreement, according to People.
via: https://nypost.com/2018/06/26/mom-who-strangled-newborn-threw-body-in-trash-sentenced/
Teen accused of killing dad who teased her for being fat
An 18-year-old woman from Indiana is accused of brutally killing her dad who teased her for being fat.
Ameera Stokes reportedly called 911 early Sunday to confess that she murdered her father, Donald Stokes, while visiting his home in Mt. Morris Township, Michigan, according to news station WJRT.
Police said the pair was fighting over “life issues” when the teen attacked her dad with a hammer then stabbed him, MLive.com reported.
Authorities arrived at the home to find the father’s body in the stairwell. He appeared to have suffered blunt force trauma, according to police.
The teen was arrested and charged with first-degree murder in the Mother’s Day slaying. She is being held without bail.
Her mother, Gretchen Brasher, said she sent the teen to live with her dad as a child. However, the 18-year-old’s relationship with her father was fraught.
“He was very verbally abusive,” Brasher told news station WJRT. “She had a belly, so he would tease her about being fat.”
via: https://nypost.com/2018/05/18/teen-accused-of-killing-dad-who-teased-her-for-being-fat/
Man dismembered girlfriend’s body, made necklace with her teeth
A man in England was sentenced to life in prison Tuesday after being found guilty of murdering his girlfriend, dismembering her body and admitting to police he made a necklace out of her teeth.
Devon & Cornwall Police said in a news release that Dean Lowe, 33, was convicted last week of killing his girlfriend, 32-year-old Kirby Noden, in January 2017.
The 33-year-old then lived with the evidence of the murder for months, and told family and friends that Noden had left him for another man.
In May 2017, authorities were contacted by concerned members of Lowe’s family after they received “disturbing” messages from him on social media, saying there had been a body on the floor, which he had cut up and put into bins, according to police.
“Either I’m getting set up or I’ve murdered Kirby. I had a blackout, hazy memory and woke up with a body on the floor. I am scared so I just got rid,” he wrote to a cousin, according to Sky News. “I put the body in the bins down the road. I remember the binmen finding all the meat and didn’t know what it was. The carpet was lifted because of the body matter.”
When investigators searched Lowe’s home, they found blood spattered on the walls, a metal pole and rock used to kill Noden, in addition to stains on a mattress the 33-year-old continued to sleep on.
He also told police he made a necklace of Noden’s teeth, according to Sky News.
“Miss Noden’s family have been put through a living hell with Lowe not disclosing where he disposed of Kirby’s body and denying all knowledge in court. Lowe added to their upset by insisting that Kirby was still alive,” Detective Inspector Ian Ringrose said in a statement. “We hope today’s verdict gives them some comfort in the conclusion of the case and our thoughts and sympathies are with them.”
During his sentencing on Tuesday, a judge said Lower showed the “opposite of remorse” by constantly lying.
“You must have eaten, slept, watched TV and taken your drugs next to [Noden’s corpse] for several days, with two bull terriers in the same room,” Justice May said. “You cut up what remained, wrapped some in the carpet and took the rest in rucksacks to the bins.”
Noden’s family thanked authorities to achieve a conviction in the case.
“Dean Lowe has taken away from us something totally precious, and although we welcome this verdict and sentence, it will never replace our loss,” the family said in a statement.
via: https://nypost.com/2018/05/15/man-dismembered-girlfriends-body-made-necklace-with-her-teeth/
Mom, 3 kids found dead after school asked for welfare check
GRAND FORKS, N.D. — A woman who was found dead with her three children in her North Dakota home appears to have been struggling with financial problems.
Astra Volk and her children, ranging in age from 6 to 14, were found dead Thursday morning after a school asked police for a welfare check on their Grand Forks home. All had gunshot wounds; police say they aren’t looking for any suspects.
Court records in Grand Forks County list three civil judgments against an Astra F. Volk last year for about $3,750.
A woman by the same name set up a GoFundMe account in late April seeking money to help pay off medical bills. The woman said her wages had been garnished.
The fundraising account had been deleted Friday.
via: https://nypost.com/2018/05/04/mom-3-kids-found-dead-after-school-asked-for-welfare-check/
Mom allegedly killed son, buried him with sheep heads over $3M inheritance
A cancer-stricken mother allegedly killed her 29-year-old son in his sleep and buried his body in a pit with sheep heads to settle a feud over who should inherit the family’s $3 million ranch in Colorado, authorities said.
Deborah Sue Rudibaugh, 68, confessed in July to killing her son, Jacob Henry Millison, and burying his body by herself more than two years earlier, according to court records in Gunnison County obtained by the Denver Post.
But investigators at the time considered Rudibaugh’s confession to be an attempt to shield her daughter and son-in-law from being connected to the gruesome murder.
The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel reported that Rudibaugh, of Parlin, was arrested on first-degree murder charges in Grand Junction on Friday, one day after her daughter, Stephanie Jackson, 33, was arrested on the same charge. Investigators believe Jackson killed her brother in order to gain control of the family’s 700-acre ranch in Quartz Creek Valley.
Jackson’s husband, David Jackson, 34, was also arrested Tuesday on charges of accessory to first-degree murder and tampering with the body of Millison, the Denver Post reported. All three remain held in the Gunnison County jail.
The family, according to arrest warrant affidavits obtained by the newspaper, was quarreling over an inheritance from Rudibaugh’s second husband, who left behind sums ranging from $35,000 to $45,000 to four children from his first marriage and $30,000 to Stephanie Jackson.
Rudy Rudibaugh, who died in 2009, left the ranch to Deborah Rudibaugh in his will. The Jacksons then returned to the ranch in 2012 after renting out their Denver home.
Millison filed for a restraining order against David Jackson after he pulled a gun on him in January 2013. Millison later disappeared in May 2015, leaving his vehicles and dog, Elmo, behind at the ranch. An investigation into his disappearance was later launched after several people filed missing-person reports.
Rudibaugh then claimed to investigators that her son went on a motorcycle trip to California and hung with an unpredictable group of friends while he used drugs ranging from cocaine to steroids. She also claimed he took with him a book called “How to Disappear Without Leaving a Trace,” the Denver Post reports.
Rudibaugh later told police Millison “deserted” the family after she tore up a will that split the ranch between him and his sister, replacing the document with a will that left everything to her.
One month later, in July 2015, Rudibaugh admitted killing her son and took deputies to the spot where she said she buried him after claiming he tossed her in a ditch and threatened to kill her if she didn’t authorize a new will excluding the Jacksons.
Rudibaugh, who is now battling breast cancer, told investigators she shot her son in the head as he slept and later wrapped the body in plastic before using her “Yankee ingenuity” and a front-end loader to bury his body in a pile of horse manure in a livestock pen. Rudibaugh said she later moved the body to protect it from being disturbed by animals.
Rudibaugh, according to the affidavit, said she planned to leave behind prior to her death a letter detailing why she killed her son and where authorities could locate his body.
Woman accused of killing twin, pretended to be her to date her boyfriend
The Albany yogi accused of murdering her identical twin sister by driving off a cliff in Hawaii, dressed up as her dead sibling shortly after the crash and tried to hit on her boyfriend, the bereaved beau testified Tuesday.
The disturbing anecdote from the late Anastasia Duval’s boyfriend Federico Bailey came on the second day of sister Alexandria Duval’s murder trial.
“She began cuddling up on me, it seemed like she was flirting with me … she sat down beside me really close and lay her head on my shoulder,” Bailey told the courtroom in Maui, where Alexandria, 39, drove a white SUV off the road in May 2016 — a crash that killed her twin sister while she walked away relatively unscathed.
“She put on Anastasia’s clothes. I started talking to her about what happened, she avoided answering any of my questions.
“When I saw her in Anastasia’s dress it was disturbing. Anastasia had just worn that dress a few nights earlier,” added Bailey, who had lived with the two sisters and Alexandria’s boyfriend.
The three of them were on a camping trip at the time of the crash, and the siblings were fighting because Alexandria had shown up uninvited to their vacation, Bailey said.
He said the squabbling sisters drove away while he was in the bathroom — and he never saw Anastasia again.
Witnesses on Tuesday also recounted seeing the women fighting in their car after that — including one who heard Alexandria screaming “I need a psychiatrist!” just hours before the plunge.
“The girl that was on the passenger side … she was yelling and yelling and yelling. And that’s when the girl who was driving the car said, ‘call the psychiatrist, I need a psychiatrist,’” said Cecelia Kupau.
Other witnesses testified Monday that they saw the two in a hair-pulling fistfight right before the SUV careened off the cliff.
“Hair-pulling and punching is what I saw … The SUV sped up and then it jerked to the left,” said 17-year-old Joseph Toleafoa, who was in a van behind the Duvals’ car, according to Maui News.
Alexandria has already dodged a murder rap for her sister’s death, when a judge found no probable cause, but was arrested again after a grand jury indictment.
The siblings were born Alison and Ann Dadow in upstate New York, but moved several times around the country opening — and closing — yoga studios, racking up arrests for DUIs and, ultimately, changing their names.
At the time of the crash, they were living in Maui with their boyfriends.
via: https://nypost.com/2018/01/30/woman-accused-of-killing-twin-pretended-to-be-her-boyfriend/
Man gets 41 years for killing babysitter with submachine gun
A Brooklyn judge laid into a man convicted of fatally shooting a 16-year-old babysitter with a submachine gun, saying she saw no reason to show him mercy before sentencing him to 41 years behind bars Tuesday.
Convicted killer Taariq Stephens — who was named as the shooter by his victim, Shemel Mercurius, with her dying breath — had just finished whining that he didn’t kill the teen when Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Deborah Dowling cut him off.
“All the evidence indicated that it is you,” Dowling snapped. “When you take a life, what do you give in exchange for life? There is nothing to give in return for a life.”
“I am not showing any mercy,” the judge said, adding that Stephens had shown none when he pushed his way into the East Flatbush apartment where Mercurius was babysitting her 3-year-old cousin Josiah and racked the gun three times before firing a single shot through her arm and into her abdomen.
The 16-year-old’s aunt and Josiah’s mother, LaToya Mercurius-Price, said Stephens, 26, had crippled their entire family with the May 2016 shooting.
“The echoes of ‘Mommy, mommy, Shemel has been shot and Josiah is covered in blood’ pierced me with the anguish, pain, hurt, panic, confusion, grief and left me emotionally paralyzed and hyperventilating,” she told the court. “The loss of our precious gem is beyond words.”
The motive for the heinous crime was never clear.
“This defendant will now spend many years behind bars for the callous killing of an innocent teenage girl who was taken from her loved ones far too early, and for undoubtedly traumatizing the toddler she was babysitting,” Brooklyn DA Eric Gonzalez said in a statement. “Nothing can bring Shemel back to her devastated family.”
via: https://nypost.com/2018/01/16/man-gets-25-years-for-killing-babysitter-with-submachine-gun/