Tag: crime

6 Women Under Age 40 Found Dead Within 100 Miles of Each Other Around Portland Raising Speculation of Serial Killer on the Loose

Authorities are investigating the deaths of six women, all under age 40, that have been found within 100 of each other in forested or rural areas around Portland according to KGW8 News.

The tragic discoveries have led to speculation that a serial killer is on the loose.

The New York Post reports:

Five different law enforcement agencies are investigating the women’s deaths — and at least three of the agencies have said they are working with the others to determine if the cases could be connected and have a single perpetrator, according to officials and the local publication.

In the most recent case, 22-year-old Ashley Real was found dead in a heavily wooded area near Eagle Creek on May 7 after she was last seen at a transit center in late March.

Another woman, Joanna Speaks also vanished in late March and her body was found in a rural area of Clark County on April 8. She died of blunt force trauma to the head and neck, according to the Clark County Medical Examiner’s Office which declared her death a homicide.

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What to Know About the Case of the Missing Missouri ER Doctor Found Dead in Arkansas

A doctor in the Missouri Ozarks went missing for over a week until his body was found in an Arkansas lake. But the case remains shrouded in mystery as investigators have released few details to his family or the public.

What’s Known So Far

Dr. John Forsyth, 49, was last seen alive on May 21, when security cameras in the parking lot of a public pool in Cassville show him getting into a vehicle, after leaving his own car unlocked with his wallet, two phones, a laptop, and other items inside. That’s according to his brother, Richard Forsyth, who said the doctor had texted his new fiancee that morning saying he would see her soon.

His car was found later that day. Investigators haven’t said who was driving the other vehicle.

A search began after the emergency room physician didn’t show up for his May 21 shift at Mercy Hospital in Cassville. There was no sign of Forsyth until a kayaker noticed his body in Arkansas on May 30, at a spot on Beaver Lake some 20 miles (32 kilometers) away from his last known location.

His body had an apparent gunshot wound, authorities in Arkansas say. Although Benton County Coroner Daniel Oxford said an autopsy was completed Thursday, the results won’t be released until the investigation is over.

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‘Trunk Lady’ murder victim identified over 50 years after she was found strangled to death with bolo tie

After over half a century, investigators in St. Petersburg, Florida, say they have learned the identity of the city’s oldest and most notorious cold case victim. Sylvia June Atherton, a 41-year-old mother of five from Arizona, was the woman whose body was discovered in a wooden trunk 53 years ago on Halloween, authorities announced.

According to a press release from the St. Petersburg Police Department, two officers found a black steamer trunk in the woods behind a restaurant on Oct. 31, 1969, in the 4200 block of 34th Street South.

Inside, officers found a woman wrapped in a large plastic bag. She had visible head injuries, was strangled with a man’s Western-style bolo tie, and was partially clothed in a pajama top. The unnamed victim was buried as “Jane Doe” in Memorial Park Cemetery.

The case quickly gained notoriety, with the victim being dubbed the “Trunk Lady,” and was featured in various television shows, articles, and cold case conferences.

Forty years after discovering the “Trunk Lady,” a doctor with the University of Southern Florida’s Department of Anthropology assisted authorities in exhuming her remains. Efforts to identify the victim using teeth and bone samples over the years proved challenging due to their degraded state. However, earlier this year marked a breakthrough when a St. Petersburg police cold case detective discovered original samples of the victim’s hair and skin, which had been taken during the victim’s initial autopsy.

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AK-47 recovered from man trespassing at school who said he was headed to CIA: police

Fairfax County police recovered an AK-47 after a Florida man was found trespassing at the Dolley Madison Preschool in McLean on Tuesday.

Authorities said 32-year-old Eric Sandow told officers he was making his way to the CIA.

Sandow was detained and a search warrant was executed on his vehicle, police said. Two firearms were reportedly recovered from inside the car.

Sandow is charged with felony possession of a firearm on school property.

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DOJ Mysteriously and Dramatically Downgrades Charges Against ‘White Supremacist’ Who Rammed White House Barricade

On Tuesday, a U-Haul crashed into a barricade outside the White House grounds. Immediately, speculation that the driver was a “white supremacist” after a Nazi flag was allegedly pulled from the wreck. In fact, the flag was spread out and displayed for reporters by the FBI agents on the scene.

Why did they do that? Someone will have to ask them, but the narrative became a lot more complicated after the driver was identified as Sai Varshith Kandula. Needless to say, he didn’t exactly fit the “white supremacist” profile.

Now, in a move that is sure to spark much speculation, the DOJ has suddenly downgraded the charges involved. The original charges were as follows.

While authorities have not provided specific details on the alleged threat, the US Park Police said the man faces the charge of threatening to kill, kidnap or inflict harm on a President, vice president or family member.

The driver also was also arrested on charges of assault with a dangerous weapon, reckless operation of a motor vehicle, destruction of federal property and trespassing, according to the Park Police.

According to a new report (The New York Post), those charges have all been wiped away, and Kandula only faces a single count of depredation of property of the United States.

He had allegedly planned the attack for six months, with his goal to “get to the White House, seize power, and be put in charge of the nation,” records show.

Kandula was accused of threatening to “Kill the President If that’s what I have to do,” and praised Nazism and Hitler.

He was originally charged with threatening to kill, kidnap or inflict harm on a president, vice president or family member, as well as assault with a dangerous weapon, reckless operation of a motor vehicle, trespassing and destruction of federal property, US Park Police said.

His federal charges have since been downgraded to a single count of depredation of property of the United States in excess of $1,000.

Prosecutors told the court Kandula is not a US citizen, according to Fox News.

The first thing that jumps out when reading that excerpt is that Kandula is clearly mentally ill. To the extent that he has any actual ideology, it’s overshadowed by the fact that no sane person would think they could seize the White House and be installed as the nation’s leader. That makes the media’s rush to paint this as some kind of right-wing “white supremacist” attack appear rather silly in retrospect. There was no plan here, and I’m pretty sure a guy named Sai Varshith Kandula isn’t actually a white supremacist. Whether he’s a real proponent of nazism at all is even in doubt.

The other thing to note is that Kandula is not a US citizen. Given that, it sure does feel like the federal government is just looking to sweep all this under the rug, after the preferred narrative collapsed in on itself. Of course, I’m speculating, but why else would they go so soft on the charges after the fact?

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Where The Most Death Penalties Are Carried Out

At least 883 people are known to have been put to death last year, according to Amnesty International’s annual review of the death penalty. However, as Statista’s Anna Fleck reports, the true number is likely far higher, as several countries do not publish accurate figures – including North Korea, Vietnam and Belarus.

In China, where numbers remain a state secret, thousands of people are believed to be executed and sentenced to death each year.

As Statista’s chart shows, Iran comes second only after China with at least 576 people known to have been executed in 2022, up 55 percent from the year.

The crimes behind these executions are mostly related to drugs and murder, while 18 were for moharebeh (enmity against God), which can be connected to the protests surrounding the death of Mahsa Amini.

Amnesty International notes that Saudi Arabia also saw a significant increase in death sentences since 2020, rising from 27 to a record high of 196 deaths, 83 of whom were executed for terrorism-related crimes. In total, 55 countries still have the death penalty, 20 of which recorded executions in 2022.

In the U.S., 18 executions were recorded in 2022 across six jurisdictions. These were Alabama (2), Arizona (3), Mississippi (1), Missouri (2), Oklahoma (5), and Texas (5). Meanwhile, there were 21 new death sentences recorded across 12 states. These included: Alabama (3), Arizona (1), California (2), Florida (5), Georgia (1), Louisiana (1), Mississippi (1), Missouri (1), North Carolina (2), Oklahoma (1), Pennsylvania (1) and Texas (2).

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No jail time for axe-wielding black man who set Asian UC Berkeley students on fire with blowtorch

A California man found guilty of lighting UC Berkeley students on fire inside a boba tea shop in 2020 with a blowtorch has been released from custody and will avoid jail time, The Berkeley Scanner reports.

Brandon McGlone, 49, was referred to the Veterans Treatment Court and will be participating in a “diversion treatment” program as part of his plea deal, according to Alameda County Superior Court records.

Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price, who ran on “racial equity”, agreed to the plea deal after reaching an agreement with the public defender’s office, the outlet reports.

At a court hearing on April 28, Judge James Cramer said that all charges “will be dismissed” if McGlone succesfully completes the diversion program. According to The Berkeley Scanner, if McGlone does not complete the program he will be sent to prison for up to eight years.

“He must successfully engage in and complete whatever course of therapy is prescribed by the treatment team and abide by whatever conditions are set forth,” Judge Cramer said. “If he fails to do so, he could be terminated from the Veterans Treatment Court program and sentence will be imposed.”

On September 14, 2020, McGlone entered the Feng Cha Teahouse at 2528 Durant Ave and set two Asian men on fire after attempting to set fire to two others outside of the store, according to court documents.

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NYPD reportedly stood by, failed to help Chinatown woman as homeless man stabbed her to death in her own home

In a recently filed lawsuit by the family of 35-year-old Christina Yuna Lee, the Chinatown woman who was killed early in the morning on February 13, 2022 by a homeless man who followed her into her apartment, the victim’s family alleged that two NYPD officers heard her screams “for at least five minutes” and did nothing.

The New York Post reports that two unidentified cops dispatched out of the 5th Precinct responded to Lee’s 911 phone call, which she made while being attacked, and the cops responded within four minutes, “heard Ms. Lee screaming for help” but “failed to gain entry to Ms. Lee’s apartment until Ms. Lee had been stabbed more than 40 times by her attacker and succumbed to her injuries,” according to the lawsuit. 

According to the lawsuit, made against the city and the NYPD, the cops allegedly spoke to the killer “through the closed door of Ms. Lee’s apartment” and “Despite having reason to believe Ms. Lee’s life was in imminent danger, (the officers) failed to gain entry to Ms. Lee’s apartment or otherwise provide her with any potentially life-saving police or medical assistance at that time.”

The lawsuit, filed with the Manhattan Supreme Court, is seeking unspecified damages.

The victim’s aunt, Boksun Lee, said in the court filing that the cops did not enter her niece’s apartment until after she died.

Christina Yuna Lee, a digital producer originally from New Jersey, entered her Chrystie Street apartment around 4:20 am that morning and was allegedly followed by 25-year-old Assamad Nash, a homeless man out on bail for previous alleged violent crimes and who had been convicted of petty larceny and robbery. Nash has been charged with murder for Lee’s killing.

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Ex-Biden Nuclear Official Sam Brinton Arrested As ‘Fugitive From Justice’ For Luggage Theft

Sam Brinton, the “nonbinary” activist tapped by Joe Biden for a key nuclear role before he was fired for stealing women’s clothes, was arrested again Wednesday night as a “fugitive from justice” for allegedly stealing luggage, The Daily Wire has learned.

Montgomery County, Maryland, police arrested him at his home on Wednesday, police logs show. He is currently in jail and being held without bond. A judge denied Brinton’s request to turn himself in and ordered him extradited to Virginia on grand larceny charges.

A neighbor told The Daily Wire that “four unmarked police showed up last night, they would not let his spouse Kevin leave. After about an hour Sam Brinton was escorted out in handcuffs.”

The former Biden official pleaded “no contest” to misdemeanor theft last month after he was caught on video allegedly stealing luggage at Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas. Brinton was initially charged with a felony when police believed he allegedly stole $3,670 worth of items, but he agreed to pay the victim more than $3,500 in restitution and received a suspended 180-day jail sentence, which meant he would serve no time behind bars as long as he stayed out of trouble.

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Canadian man charged with aiding suicide by selling lethal substance online

Canadian police have charged a 57-year-old man with two counts of counseling or aiding suicide after he allegedly marketed and distributed a lethal substance online to individuals at risk of self-harm.

Peel Regional Police in Ontario arrested and charged Kenneth Law on Tuesday after an investigation involving the alleged online sale and distribution of sodium nitrite, a white, chemical substance that is commonly used as a food additive but could potentially lead to death.

Police say they arrested Law in connection with the deaths of two victims in the Peel region, just outside Toronto.

“Investigators are working in collaboration with multiple jurisdictions across Ontario, nationally and internationally as we believe there could be more victims. The suspect is currently in our custody awaiting a bail hearing. He will be charged with two counts of counseling or aiding suicide,” Marc Andrews, deputy chief of the Peel Regional Police, said at a news briefing Tuesday evening.

Andrews said authorities are aware that packages, potentially containing lethal substances, were shipped to more than 40 countries and are not ruling out further charges as the investigation continues.

Police released details of the alleged online company names and identified them as Imtime Cuisine, AmbuCA, Academic/Academic, Escape Mode/escMode and ICemac, alleging that Law owned or was associated with them.

Police advised if anyone around the world who received packages from businesses going by those names to contact local law enforcement immediately.

CNN could not reach representatives from any of the companies either by phone or online.

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