Condemned Dahlonega murderer dies

12-8-2009 Georgia:

Pruitt died after hanging himself weeks ago

A man awaiting execution for the 1992 rape and murder of a 10-year-old Lumpkin County girl has died after hanging himself.

Timothy Woodrow Pruitt, 43, died Sunday at a medical prison in Augusta, several weeks after he tried to hang himself with a bed sheet while on death row, Lumpkin County District Attorney Stan Gunter confirmed Tuesday.

Pruitt was sentenced to death by a Cherokee County jury in 1996 for the April 10, 1992, murder of Wendy Nicole Vincent. The trial was moved out of Lumpkin County due to pretrial publicity.

According to court records, Pruitt, whose ex-wife lived next door to the girl, snuck into Vincent’s trailer home late at night while her mother was away. He raped the girl, then stabbed her and cut her throat. DNA evidence at the scene connected Pruitt to the crime.

Pruitt had been at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification prison in Jackson – the home of the state’s death row – until he unsuccessfully tried to hang himself. He died from complications from the suicide attempt Sunday, Gunter said.

Pruitt was nearing the final stages of his federal appeals, said Russ Willard, a spokesman for the Georgia Attorney General’s office, which handles post-conviction appeals in death penalty cases.

Pruitt’s attorneys filed a federal habeus petition Nov. 23, Willard said. The petition would likely have gone to the U.S. District Court, then the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court.

Following that, if Pruitt’s appeals were denied, an execution date would have been set.

Willard said the family of Pruitt’s victim was notified Monday of his death. ..Source.. by Stephen Gurr

Suspect Emerges in Child Killer Case

12-7-2009 Michigan:

After 33 years, a possible suspect is emerging in the Oakland County Child Killer case.

Could Christopher Brian Busch be the Oakland County Child Killer? He died in 1978, and most of his family members have passed away. So relatives of the victims want to know what’s taking so long for police to finish investigating Busch.

[Barry King/Father of Timmy King] “I can accept Timmy being dead. I can’t accept anyone having him for six days, and keeping him away from his family and torturing him.”

Barry King’s 11-year-old son, Timmy, was the last victim of the Oakland County Child Killer. Between 1976 and 1977, four children were abducted and murdered.

Christopher Busch was polygraphed and cleared by the original child killer task force in the 70s. But a chance meeting by two men (who were neither suspects nor family members of the victims), 2,000 miles from Detroit, helped bring Busch's name to the top of the list of potential suspects.

In 2006, a polygraph examiner named Patrick Coffey says he happened to run into a Southfield polygrapher named Lawrence Wasser at a conference in Las Vegas. Coffey says he told Wasser the reason that he got into the field was because his neighbor in 1977, Timmy King, was murdered.

[Patrick Coffey/Polygraph Examiner] “(Wasser's) response was, 'I guess I can tell you this now, because the attorney who represented the guy is dead, and the person who did it is dead.' He said, 'I tested the guy who confessed to killing your neighbor boy.' ”

Coffey spoke to Action News Investigative Reporter Heather Catallo by phone from California, and said once he had the conversation, he immediately contacted his old friends, the King family.

From there, the Kings told the police, and Christopher Busch’s name emerged. Busch would have been 25 in 1976, and he lived in a home in Bloomfield Township.

Christopher Busch's father, Harold, was a top financial executive with General Motors, and those close to the case say the family had a great deal of money, and that the parents were often away from the Bloomfield home.

In early 1977, Flint police arrested Christopher Busch and a friend of his, 26-year-old Gregory Greene, for criminal sexual conduct charges. Newspaper accounts from 1977 show Flint police arrested them for allegedly forcing dozens of boys to commit sex acts and engage in lewd photography.

Greene was kept in custody on a $75,000 bond, and eventually served a life sentence. Christopher Busch’s bond also started at $75,000. But a copy of his jail inmate record shows that someone crossed that out, reducing it to only $1,000, and he walked free.

One of the cases that may have been tied to the Flint bust ended up in Oakland County. Records uncovered by Catallo show that Busch pleaded guilty to both 3rd and 4th degree criminal sexual conduct. As part of the plea deal, he got two years of probation, had to pay an $800 fine, and the charges were dropped.

But the details from the testimony at the preliminary exam are shocking. A young boy from Flint testified that Greene and Busch drove him in Busch’s car to a rural area in Groveland Township. That’s where the 13-year-old said Busch performed a sex act on him, and forced the boy to do the same to Busch.

Of interest in the testimony was the boy’s description of Busch’s car: “Blue Vega, White Interior, 1974, with a white stripe on the side.” After King’s abduction, the child killer task force searched for a Blue Gremlin with a white stripe. The cars are eerily similar.

And if you examine the mug shots of both Christopher Busch and Gregory Greene, they do look like the composite suspect sketch that circulated at the time of the murders.

Oakland County Executive Brooks Patterson was the prosecutor at the time of the case against Busch. He does not remember this specific case, but believes it would have been referred to the task force at the time.

[Brooks Patterson/Prosecutor at time of Child Killings] “Is two years of probation, and a fine – no jail time – a light sentence for something like that? Oh hell yes! We had a reputation of being pretty aggressive, so there had to be something that would have allowed us to accept probation.”

But Patterson says there’s no way Busch got a “deal” because of his background.

[Brooks Patterson/Prosecutor at time of Child Killings] “To suggest that my office, or the sentencing judge – Judge Templin – somehow was less than aggressive because the parents were rich – that’s absolute crap!”

Action News has learned that Busch was also arrested by the Midland County Sheriff’s Department in 1977. He was found guilty, but records show he only got probation in that case as well.

On November 20, 1978, Christopher Busch was found dead in his home. Police reports show he committed suicide with a rifle.

Sources close to the case say police at the suicide scene found ligatures, which can be used to restrain someone, and a sketch of a young boy that reportedly looked just like Mark Stebbins, one of the four young victims.

Police reports show the “task force was notified” and members came to the house that day.

The renewed interest in Busch prompted a search last year of his former home. Patterson saw the warrant that was used to gather trace evidence, like fibers and hairs from the air ducts. Patterson wants this case closed for the families.

[Brooks Patterson/Prosecutor at time of Child Killings] “You’ve got to have enough to satisfy a judge to sign that warrant. So that’s a level of proof, if you will, called probable cause. And there was probable cause to obtain a search warrant, so there’s probable cause to believe this man probably was involved."

For the last year, the Michigan State Police have been analyzing what they found inside that home, but they won’t talk on the record about Busch right now. As for the polygraph examiner who supposedly got the confession out of Busch? For some reason, he isn’t talking either, and his attorney denies that he ever said anything about the case. ..Source.. by WXYZ

Sex offender ‘killed his family’

12-8-2009 United Kingdom:

Convicted sex offender Arthur McElhill killed himself and his family in a house fire in Omagh, County Tyrone, a coroner has ruled.

McElhill burned the house down because his partner threatened to leave him, Northern Ireland coroner Suzanne Anderson found o Tuesday.

Arthur McElhill, Lorraine McGovern and their five children died in the blaze at Lammy Crescent in 2007.

He had been having sex with an under-age girl in the weeks before the fire.

The inquest also heard of McElhill’s previous suicide attempts, and his use of a Bebo social-networking account in his son’s name to groom teenage girls for sex. ..Source.. by RocketNews.com



Sex offender started death blaze after partner threatened to leave

A convicted sex offender killed himself and six other family members in a house fire because his long-time partner had threatened to leave him, a coroner ruled today.

Heavy-drinking depressive Arthur McElhill, 36, doused the hallway of the two-storey terrace house in Omagh, County Tyrone, with petrol and white spirit and lit it.

The inferno in Lammy Crescent in November 2007 claimed the lives of his partner, Lorraine McGovern, 29, and their five young children.

On the fourth day of an inquest into the deaths, Northern Ireland Coroner Suzanne Anderson said she was satisfied that the unemployed farm labourer had torched the home after Miss McGovern had threatened to walk out on him.

During the hearings it had been revealed that McElhill had been conducting an illicit sexual relationship with an under-age girl in the months before the fire.

"I am satisfied on the balance of probabilities that Arthur McElhill and Lorraine McGovern had been up all night and that she was about to leave, taking with her at least some of her children, when the fire was started by Arthur McElhill," said Miss Anderson.

However the coroner said she could not prove conclusively that McElhill had intended to commit suicide, noting that he had broken an upstairs window in an apparent bid to escape the home as the blaze took hold.

After the findings, Mr McElhill's parents released a statement indicating the impact the fire has had on their lives.

"The events of two years ago have devastated and shattered our lives beyond belief," Charles and Patricia McElhill said in a joint statement issued by their lawyer.

"Our pain is immeasurable and it will endure for the rest of our lives.

"We love and miss Arthur, Lorraine and our grandchildren every day. We will always remember them as a happy family."

They also expressed their gratitude to the emergency services and asked for their privacy to be respected and for people to keep both families in their prayers.

Outside Omagh Courthouse, Miss McGovern's parents, Theresa and Kevin, gave their reaction to the findings.

Flanked by other family members, they stood with heads bowed as their solicitor read out their statement.

"We are thankful and relieved that these proceedings have now concluded, which, we trust, will bring us closure on this awful tragedy and enable us get on with our lives.

"We are mindful that the McElhill family have also suffered greatly and we extend to them our sincere sympathy."

They also paid tribute to the firefighters and other emergency services who battled in vain to try to save the family. ..Source.. by David Young, Press Association

Patient drowns in pool at RTC

12-5-2009 Minnesota:

ST. PETER — A 40-year old patient at the Minnesota Security Hospital drowned at the St. Peter Regional Treatment Center’s swimming pool on the afternoon of Nov. 24.

Police records indicate St. Peter Police received a report a 4:22 p.m. of the drowning by investigators at the St. Peter Regional Treatment Center.

A lifeguard on duty informed investigators there were six patients in the pool at the time of the incident when he noticed Richard John Erickson, 40, of Minneapolis, floating near the edge of the pool, which is located in Tomlinson Hall.

According to Patrice Vick, public information officer for the Minnesota Department of Human Services, Erickson was a patient who was in the Forensic Transition program at the hospital. That program is for patients who are transitioning out of the Minnesota Security Hospital.

The lifeguard stated Erickson liked to push off from the opposite edge of the pool and float face down to the other side of the pool. He said it was normal for Erickson to swim that way.

When he observed that Erickson was floating still he tapped him to see if he could get a response and when he didn’t respond the lifeguard jumped in the pool and pulled Erickson out.

According to Vick, the preliminary autopsy report indicates the death was accidental. Vick also stated this was the first incident of this type at the Tomlinson Hall pool in about five years when another patient suffered a heart attack while swimming and died. ..Source.. by St Peter Herald.com

Man who shot himself faced trial for molestation

12-2-2009 Illinois:

COLUMBIA, ILL. -- Gary Wessel, 55, who authorities said fatally shot himself Sunday while reaching for tools to change a flat tire on his pickup, was a defendant in a child molestation case set for trial the next day in St. Louis Circuit Court, officials confirmed Tuesday.

Illinois State Police said they took that into account before deciding that the death of Wessel, found along Interstate 255 at the Fish Lake overpass in Columbia, was accidental.

He was shot once in the chest with a shotgun. Wessel had been charged with two counts of child molesting and one of statutory sodomy that were filed Sept. 23, 2008, according to a database of court records. Officials said he had addresses in Waterloo and St. Louis. ..Source..

Sex offender shot in Nipomo

12-2-2009 California:


A registered sex offender, Michael John Dominguez, died of a gun shot wound earlier today, less than a day after being arrested for sex crimes against a 16-year-old.

Dominguez, 52, is suspected of committing suicide after being arrested for allegedly molesting the victim over a two year period of time that began when the child was 14 years old.

“The preliminary investigation leads us to believe the gun shot was self inflicted,” said Brian Hascall, San Luis Obispo Sheriff’s Department Commander, in a press release.

Dominguez posted $250,000 bail and was released at 11:33 p.m. on Tuesday. He was found dead at his 1335 La Loma Drive home in Nipomo earlier today.

Dominquez operated Shine It Auto Detail in Oceano. He had previously been convicted of committing lewd or lascivious acts with a child under 14, according to Megan’s List. ..Source.. by Cal Coast News.com

‘Sexting’ bullying cited in teen’s suicide

12-2-2009 Florida:

13-year-old Hope Witsell hanged herself after topless photos circulated

Hope Witsell was just beginning the journey from child to teen. The middle-school student had a tight-knit group of friends, the requisite poster of “Twilight” heartthrob Robert Pattinson and big plans to become a landscaper when she grew up.

But one impetuous move robbed Hope of her childhood, and eventually, her life. The 13-year-old Florida girl sent a topless photo of herself to a boy in hope of gaining his attention. Instead, she got the attention of her school, as well as the high school nearby.

The incessant bullying by classmates that followed when the photo spread put an emotional weight upon Hope that she ultimately could not bear.

Hope Witsell hanged herself in her bedroom 11 weeks ago.

Her death is only the second known case of a suicide linked to bullying after “sexting” — the practice of transmitting sexual messages or images electronically. In March, 18-year-old Jesse Logan killed herself in the face of a barrage of taunts when an ex-boyfriend forwarded explicit photos of her following their split.

Hope Witsell’s grieving mother, Donna Witsell, is now coming forward to offer a cautionary story in hope of sparing others the loss she endures. Appearing on TODAY Wednesday with attorney Parry Aftab, a leading Internet safety expert, Witsell told Meredith Vieira how her daughter’s life, once so promising, unraveled after one mistake.

The Witsells, from the small rural suburb of Sundance, Fla., are a churchgoing family. Donna admitted to Vieira she knew little to nothing about “sexting” before her daughter’s drama, but she and her husband, Charlie, tried to teach Hope and Donna’s three children from previous relationships right from wrong in the cyberworld.

“As far as training them on the Internet and what to look at and what not to look at, yeah, we talked about it,” Witsell told Vieira.

But Hope got involved in a dangerous, all-too-typical teen game. In June, at the end of her seventh-grade year at Beth Shields Middle School, she sent a picture of her exposed breasts to a boy she liked. It’s an act that is becoming more and more commonplace among teens (a poll recently showed some 20 percent of teens admitting they’ve sent nude pictures of themselves over cell phones).

But a third party intercepted the photo while using the boy’s cell phone, and soon, not only had many of the school's students gawked at the picture, but students at the local high school and even neighboring schools were ogling it.

While Hope’s photo spread, her friends rallied around her in the midst of incessant taunting and vulgar remarks thrown Hope’s way. Friends told the St. Petersburg Times, which originally chronicled Hope’s story, that they literally surrounded Hope as she walked the hallways while other students shouted “whore” and “slut” at her.

“The hallways were not fun at that time — she’d walk into class and somebody would say, ‘Oh, here comes the slut,’ ” Hope’s friend, Lane James, told the newspaper.

Clearly, the taunts were getting to Hope. In a journal entry discovered after her death, Hope wrote, “Tons of people talk about me behind my back and I hate it because they call me a whore! And I can’t be a whore. I’m too inexperienced. So secretly, TONS of people hate me.”

Shortly after the school year ended, school officials caught wind of the hubbub surrounding Hope’s cell phone photo. They contacted the Witsells and told them Hope would be suspended for the first week of the next school year.

Donna Witsell told Vieira that she and her husband practiced tough love on Hope, grounding her for the summer and suspending her cell phone and computer privileges.

Choking up with tears, Witsell told Vieira, “She received her punishment for a mistake she’d made. You set rules and boundaries in the household ... You punish them and then you let it go. You love them. You continue to talk with them, you continue to try to keep that line of communication open, but most of all you continue to love them. You don’t shame them.”

Still, Hope had a very trying summer. A student adviser for the local Future Farmers of America chapter, Hope was allowed by her parents to attend the FFA convention in Orlando. But in a display of just how prevalent teen pressure is when it comes to “sexting,” Hope gave in to incessant badgering from a group of boys staying across from Hope and her friend in a hotel room to provide them with a picture of her breasts.

Mounting pressure

The downward spiral of Hope’s life was unstoppable. When she returned to school this fall after serving her suspension, the school informed her she could no longer serve as a student adviser to the FFA. She finally admitted to her parents the abuse she was taking.

On Sept. 11, Hope met with school counselors, who noticed cuts on Hope’s leg they believed to be self-inflicted. They had her sign a “no-harm contract,” in which she promised to talk to an adult if she felt the urge to hurt herself. But, attorney Aftab told TODAY, the school didn’t inform Hope’s parents of the contract. “In this case, the school blew it,” Aftab said. “They never told the parents how at risk she was.”

The following day, Hope wrote in her journal: “I’m done for sure now. I can feel it in my stomach. I’m going to try and strangle myself. I hope it works.”

Donna Witsell went to Hope’s bedroom to give her a kiss goodnight. She was met with the most horrifying scene any parent could face.

“It was as if she was standing right there in front of me,” Witsell told NBC News. “Her head was hanging down. I said, ‘Hope, what are you doing?’ And then I realized there was a scarf around her neck.”

Hope had knotted one end of a pink scarf around the canopy of her bed and the other around her neck. She was taken by ambulance to a local hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

Attorney Aftab is at the forefront of highlighting the very real dangers of “sexting” among the teen set. And even though Hope was incredibly young for sexual behavior, a Harris Poll shows up to 9 percent of 13-year-old girls admit they have sent nude pictures of themselves on cell phones.

Aftab, who held Donna Witsell’s hand throughout the trying TODAY interview, told Vieira it’s often upstanding children growing up in good homes who have the biggest propensity to feel guilt over their sexual actions, and most feel the stings of the bullying that comes afterward.

“Good kids are the ones this is happening to; Jesse was a great kid, and now we have Hope,” she said. “Good kids; they’re the ones who are committing suicide when a picture like this gets out.” ..Source.. by Michael Inbar, TODAYShow.com contributor

Facing rape charge, colonel commits suicide

11-24-2009 Georgia:

Fit and with chiseled good looks, he was the picture of a “squared-away” Marine Corps officer.

A reservist, he parlayed an Ivy League degree into corporate success.

He had respect, friends and family.

It all unraveled suddenly after he had sex with his daughter’s college acquaintance.

He said it was consensual. She said it was rape.

Four days after pleading innocent to related charges, Col. Mark W. Samoline, 50, was found dead of an apparent suicide at the Residence Inn Marriott in Norcross, Ga.

A maid discovered his body. He was dressed in his Marine dress “D” uniform — short-sleeve khaki shirt with blue trousers. Samoline had duct-taped a plastic bag around his head and asphyxiated himself with helium, according to the Gwinnett County Police Department.

Samoline, a logistician in the Individual Ready Reserve who commanded a Kansas City, Mo.-based unit responsible for mustering and mobilizing IRR Marines, was a vice president at United Parcel Service. He was suspended from his civilian job, however, after his employers learned about the rape allegation.

Samoline faced up to 20 years in prison. He was visiting his daughter, a student at Indiana University in Bloomington, on Oct. 18 when he had sex with one of her acquaintances in an off-campus apartment, according to police and his attorney, Megan Lewis.

The 21-year-old woman told police that she had been drinking before she went to sleep, and that she woke up as Samoline was having sex with her, said Capt. Joe Qualters, a Bloomington police spokesman. Samoline told authorities that he had sex with the woman, but called it consensual, Qualters said.

“He was remorseful that he had sex with her and also indicated that he was remorseful that he hadn’t used a condom,” Qualters said.

Samoline was married, but separated from his wife, his attorney said. He is survived by his two children and two stepchildren. Efforts to contact his family were unsuccessful.

On Nov. 2, Samoline appeared in court, pleaded not guilty, and agreed to give a blood sample so he could be tested for communicable diseases. He posted a $20,000 bond and was ordered to stay away from the alleged victim.
A prosperous career

Samoline was the picture of success — a Harvard-educated executive at UPS and a longtime Marine officer, serving on active duty from 1982 to 1991 before moving to the Reserve. His booking photo, released by Bloomington police, shows his chiseled jawline and a quintessentially Marine hairstyle.

He lived in a gated community in Johns Creek, Ga., a suburb of Atlanta along the shores of the Chattahoochee River. The street on which he lived is lined with three-story luxury town houses, some of which are currently selling for close to $500,000.

Samoline’s home of record is Atlanta, according to information provided by Marine Corps Mobilization Command in Kansas City. He earned his bachelor’s degree at the University of San Francisco and later picked up a master’s in business administration from Harvard.

In May, he took command of Peacetime/Wartime Support Team Midwest in Kansas City. Before that, Samoline was deputy rear area operations group commander with III Marine Expeditionary Force in Okinawa, a position he held from May 2004 until April 2009.

Throughout his Marine career, Samoline held numerous assignments, including stints as a platoon commander with the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit and, later, as a logistics officer with the 13th MEU, both out of Camp Pendleton, Calif.

He was hired by UPS in 1994 and initially worked in Tokyo, a company spokesman told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Samoline then went on to become the company’s highest-ranking supply chain manager in Japan and South Korea. At the time of his suspension, he worked at UPS’ corporate headquarters in Sandy Springs, Ga., as a vice president of supply chain and logistics.

Mike Healy said he met Samoline when the future colonel was a junior in college. They became friends, then roommates and stayed in touch through mutual friends over the years.

Healy described Samoline as “squared away,” a “genius” who would file complicated tax returns for his friends during college and helped his friends live on slim budgets. He said Samoline was athletic. He was someone who could “outrun a deer,” Healy said.

He said Samoline’s death and the allegations against him. The decision to have sex with a college student was “poor judgment on his part,” Healy said, but he vehemently defended his friend’s character.

“When I heard about what happened … there’s no way in hell he raped anybody,” Healy said. “I still can’t quite fathom that he would take his own life like that. What could have led to this? I have no idea. He was very devoted. He was a sensitive guy.”

Healy said several mutual friends attended Samoline’s funeral Nov. 12 in the Atlanta area.
Maintained his innocence

Samoline’s arrest was detailed in newspaper and television reports throughout Indiana, and bloggers ferociously debated his case online — all of it unwanted attention that, along with his employer’s decision to put him on leave, was “too much for him to handle,” his attorney said.

“He maintained his innocence throughout,” Lewis said, adding she believed Samoline had a strong case. “This is an example of a system, through the media, where you’re guilty until proven innocent.”

Around 2 p.m. Nov. 5, Samoline checked in at the Marriott less than 10 miles from his home, but he didn’t stay the night there, according to a police report. Instead, he went out with his son, who returned him to the hotel the next morning around 7. He was scheduled to check out of his room by 11 a.m.

The maid found his body shortly after noon. A medical examiner ruled his death a suicide.

An unloaded 9mm pistol, wrapped in a white plastic bag, was found on a table near Samoline’s body — along with a note. Police declined to discuss the letter’s contents. ..Source.. by Trista Talton - Staff writer

Suicide at Washtenaw County Jail under investigation

11-24-2009 Michigan:

A man charged with first-degree criminal sexual conduct committed suicide Monday at the Washtenaw County Jail, authorities said.

Nicholas John Plennert II, 36, was found by a correctional officer about 4:55 p.m., who reported that Plennert had hanged himself, Washtenaw County sheriff's deputies said.

He was taken to St. Joseph Mercy Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Investigators have interviewed the inmates on the cell block, said Derrick Jackson, the sheriff's department's director of community engagement. An internal investigation, which is considered routine in such a case, is also under way, Jackson said.

Jackson did not know whether Plennert shared a cell with anyone and did not have details about the charge he was facing. Michigan State Police at the Ypsilanti post confirmed they are investigating the case and arrested Plennert in October, but no further details were available this afternoon.

"There's nothing that would lead us to believe it wasn't a suicide," Jackson said.

Plennert was booked at the jail on Nov. 12 and hadn't been convicted of anything, Jackson said.

Mental health support is being offered to staff and inmates, officials said. ..Source.. by Ann Arbor.com

Man found in store parking lot identified

11-19-2009 Texas:

A man found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head in the Victoria Walmart parking lot Wednesday has been identified.

Bruce L. Bragdon, 46, was a Belgrade, Maine, resident.

According to Maine's online sex-offender registry, Bragdon was convicted of gross sexual assault of a child younger than 14 and of unlawful sexual contact.

Maine state police had contacted the Victoria Police Department on Wednesday because Bragdon was missing and his cell phone had been traced to Victoria, Lt. Jason Cross said. A suicide note was found in a journal inside Bragdon's car, where he died.

Justice of the Peace Robert Whitaker pronounced Bragdon dead Wednesday and did not order an autopsy because, he said, the death was obviously a suicide. ..Source.. Victoria Advocate.com