Rape charge may have triggered domestic homicide

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4-22-2014 Indiana:

GRIFFITH | Police continue to look for what triggered a murder-suicide Monday outside St. Mary's School where a Gary man killed his estranged wife

He later turned the gun on himself when confronted by police outside his garage.

"We are still trying to find the specific cause of the event," Griffith Police Chief Greg Mance said. "At this time, everything still points toward a domestic situation that turned violent."

The violence took place 10 days before the killer, Remanard Castro, would face a judge and the possibility of a 20- to 50-year sentence on charges he had raped his victim, Nina Castro, in November.

Laura Berry, executive director of the Indiana Coalition Against Domestic Violence in Indianapolis, suggested Tuesday the upcoming court hearing may have been the trigger.

She said if the rape took place last fall and the charges were only recently filed, Remanard may have deluded himself "into thinking he got away with it, and once he knew he had an initial hearing coming up, all of a sudden he is facing incarceration."

Coroner releases identities of bodies found in East Side apartment

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5-20-2013 Indiana:

EVANSVILLE — A man and woman whose bodies were found in their northern Vanderburgh County apartment Monday afternoon were identified Wednesday by the Vanderburgh County Coroner’s Office as Holly L. Usrey, 56, and Thomas H. Zinni, 65.

Usrey died from blunt force trauma to the head, according to the Coroner Annie Groves, and her death is listed as being a homicide. Zinni died from a self-inflicted wound, Groves said.

The couple were found Monday in their apartment by a maintenance employee of the Delaware Trace Apartments, however, their date of death is listed as May 20.

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

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8-31-2012 Florida:

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

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

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

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

2 Killed in Gulfport, Suspected Shooter Found Dead

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10-11-2011 Mississippi:

GULFPORT, Mississippi -- Police in Gulfport are investigating a double murder-suicide.

Gulfport Police say the crime happened on Monday around 1pm at a home on Kent Ave.

The victims have been identified as a minister's wife 45-year-old Karen Ferguson, and her son 21-year-old Trevor Cole, who has cerebral palsy. Both were found shot to death inside their home.

The alleged shooter, 70-year-old Paul Buckman, was found dead inside an apartment at Creekwood North Apartments on Oneal Road just blocks away. Police say Buckman died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Investigators say Karen Ferguson is the wife of Minister Les Ferguson who works at the Orange Grove Church of Christ. Police say Buckman previously attended their church, but was accused of molesting their disabled son Trevor. Buckman was sent to jail, but bonded out a few days later.

Investigators say the couple's 5 year-old son was also home when the suspect entered the house, but Mrs. Ferguson told the child to run. The child was able to escape to a neighbors house. The neighbor called police.

Police are still investigating the case. News 5 will bring you more details as they are released on wkrg.com and News 5 at 5pm and 6pm. ..Source.. by WKRG Staff

Missing Cleveland Mother Latasha Jackson, 13 MO Chaniya Wynn Killed by Thomas Lorde in Double Murder-Suicide

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2-19-2012 Ohio:

Cleveland, OH, police have confirmed Latasha Jackson and her 13 month old daughter, Chaniya Wynn, who were kidnapped by her ex-boyfriend, Thomas Lorde, 35, yesterday afternoon, were found dead Sunday morning in a double murder-suicide. The bodies were found with Thomas Lorde’s in a closed garage of an unoccupied structure on Union Avenue. All were found with gunshot wounds to the head.

The Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner Office will determine the official cause of death for all three individuals, Fox 8 reports. Latasha Jackson and Chaniya Wynn were taken at gunpoint by Thomas Lorde on the streets at about 11:44 a.m. Saturday and were last seen walking south down East 72nd Street. This is a sad, sad case and the mother and child didn’t deserve the hand they were dealt by Thomas Lorde, who is a registered sex offender with a long and violent criminal history.

'Incestuous' Sex Images Found on Josh Powell's Computer Before Murder-Suicide

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2-10-2012 Washington:

(NewsCore) - Images depicting incestuous sex between a parent and child were found on Josh Powell's computer and handed over to Washington investigators just days before he brutally murdered his two children and then killed himself.

The material stored on the computer was deemed to be so disturbing that one psychologist working on the Powell's custody case recommended that the court prevent the children from being returned to their father, KING 5 reported late Thursday, citing Thomas Shapley of Washington's Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS).

The images included very realistic "lifelike" simulations of incestuous sex acts, Pierce County officers said, and may have prompted a judge to order that Josh Powell undergo a psychosexual evaluation, according to the report.

Police in West Valley, Utah, discovered the documents and sent them to the Pierce County Sheriff's Department under a restrictive court order Feb. 1.

On Feb. 5, Josh Powell blew up the family home in Graham, Wash., with his sons, seven-year-old Charlie and five-year-old Braden, inside. Authorities believe he hacked his sons in the head and neck with a hatchet before the explosion took place.

Washougal update: Case ruled a murder-suicide; suspect dead

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12-10-2011 Washington:

Deputies said Saturday the Washougal house fire and gunfire-filled standoff has been ruled a murder-suicide and that homeowner and suspect Steven Stanbary is believed dead.

The Clark County Sheriff’s Office issued a release saying the heavily burned remains of at least two people have not been positively identified, but it’s believed Stanbary is one of them.

“Based upon the totality of information known to detectives at this time, investigators believe strongly that Steve Stanbary is the suspect and this his remains have likely been recovered,” the press release said.

Investigators believe Stanbury is dead because of circumstantial evidence and identifying items found close to the body. Physical evidence and video also show that Stanbary was found in one portion of the residence, while other remains were found on the opposite side of the house, said Clark County sheriff’s Sgt. Kevin Allais.

Exclusive: Mother Of Murdered Union Woman Speaks

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7-28-2011 South Carolina:

UNION, SC -- July 28th Update 5:30 p.m. The mother of a woman who police said was killed by her ex-boyfriend spoke exclusively with 7 On Your Side, and she said there were warning signs the man wanted to hurt her daughter.

Over 100 people gathered Wednesday night at Foster Park in Union to remember 21-year-old Rosemary Lee with a candlelight vigil, speeches, and songs.

Police said 34-year-old Kerry Devon Brown shot and killed Lee Tuesday afternoon and then took his own life.

Brenda Davis said her daughter, Rosemary Lee, was pregnant and had a young daughter who left the park before the shooting.

"When he shot my daughter to death I stood and I watched and there's nothing in this world I could do to get to her and all I could hear my baby say was mamma", said Davis.

Murder-suicide suspected in 2 Jamestown deaths

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11-22-2011 Colorado:

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

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

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

Man kills girlfriend, self

2-14-2011 Indiana:

Folks may remember the recent British report which shows a link between, people involved with the criminal justice system and suicide. Well here is an example of such a case, and where there is also a "Other Death," the innocent girlfriend of the person accused of a sex offense.

Posted in Related Deaths.

2-14-2011 Indiana:

Local man was facing felony child molestation charges

CHESTERFIELD, Ind. — A local man who shot his girlfriend before killing himself at her Chesterfield home Sunday morning was facing charges for child molestation, police said Sunday.

At 6:39 a.m. Sunday, police responded to reports of a shooting at 419 Vassbinder Drive in Chesterfield.

Inside the home, police found the body of 36-year-old Aaron L. Wagers, who had been living at the location with his girlfriend, Megan Rider, 25.

Stepmother of 38-year-old man accused of shooting teen girl in murder-suicide says he snapped, 'was just a lost soul looking for someone to love him'

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11-4-2010 Michigan:

MONROE -- Family of 38-year-old Raymond Bush, who police say abducted and fatally shot a 15-year-old Evart girl before taking his own life, defended him today as a good person who simply snapped.

Bush and the girl, Taylor Manley, had been in a relationship for about a year, said Bush's stepmother, Maryann Bush.

"I think he was just a lost soul looking for someone to love him," she said.

Bush was the father of a 17-year-old daughter and 11-year-old son from previous relationships. He bought and fixed-up a van for his daughter, who recently gave birth.

Maryann Bush said her stepson was afraid of going to jail after he was charged with sexually assaulting Taylor.

She is upset that others are portraying Bush as a pedophile.

"We all know that two families are suffering, but people are portraying him like he's a real bad person. But that's not like it was," Maryann Bush said.

She claimed Bush, who was not working, did not have a criminal record.

Oseceola County prosecutors say Taylor planned to testify against Bush at a probable cause hearing Wednesday, but Bush believed she would not.

Bush and Taylor got to know each other because she once lived next door to the grandparents of his son, in the Monroe area.

On Wednesday, Bush talked to his ex-girlfriend on the phone and later stopped at her home. Bush allegedly told the ex-girlfriend he killed Taylor and planned to kill himself because "that was the only way they could be together."

Maryann Bush believes the stress of the criminal charges and being under order not to contact Taylor made him snap. ..Source.. by John Tunison | The Grand Rapids Press

Triple murder followed fight in Clarksville

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3-28-2010 Tennessee:

The smiling faces of Diamin Shanklin, 8, and Paul-Nellom Vullo, 3, greet their grandmother Linda Shelton every morning as she looks at her bedroom dresser scattered with their pictures, angel figurines and candles.

Every day Shelton, 62, lights a candle. Often she sobs, knowing that the pictures are all she has left of Diamin, Paul and her daughter Natalie.

Among the memorabilia is a blue urn filled with the ashes of her 30-year-old daughter, Natalie Ann Vullo, who, along with her children, was found murdered inside her Cal Court home on Feb. 20, 2009.

Gerrard E. Robinson, 31, a man with whom Vullo had had a sexual relationship, was charged with the murders. He later confessed to strangling Vullo and her children.

Cops: Man kills newlywed wife, then himself

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This is a very odd suicide, something is missing. Whatever caused this man to kill his new wife is unknown, but after doing that it is likley he -knowing what prison is like for sex offenders- decided life was not worth living. It is a good thing his wife's daughter was staying elsewhere that night.

11-27-2009 Illinois:

A West Side man apparently shot to death his newlywed wife and then turned the gun on himself, Chicago police said this morning.

Antwone Coleman's body was found first late Thursday night, in the street in the 3300 block of West Monroe Street, a couple of blocks from the couple's residence in the 3400 block of West Madison Street. He had an apparent self-inflicted bullet wound to his head, police said.

As police investigated, they found the body of his wife, Claudette Coleman, 30, in the couple's third-floor Garfield Park apartment with a gunshot wound to her head.

Police came to the apartment about 1:55 a.m.

The couple were married Oct. 10, according to police.

Police said Antwone Coleman, 28, had a criminal record that included convictions for domestic battery and aggravated battery to a police officer. He was also a registered sex offender.

The older brother of Claudette Coleman said this morning that they were shocked to learn of her new husband's lengthy criminal record and said they knew nothing of any possible violence between the couple.

"It was news to us," said a distraught Artis Wilson outside his sister's apartment building in Garfield Park.

Wilson said that the couple had just spent Thanksgiving with family Thursday and that there were no signs of any trouble.

They were as "normal as you can get," Wilson said.

The couple grew up together, but Wilson said the family did not know of Antwone Coleman's criminal history.

Claudette Coleman was the mother of a 10-year-old daughter, Wilson said.

A friend of the family said Claudette Coleman's daughter had stayed with her great grandmother last night. ..Source.. Erika Slife and staff

North Attleboro motel scene of apparent murder-suicide

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1-17-2010 Massachusetts:

NORTH ATTLEBORO - A man and a woman are dead after an apparent murder-suicide at a Route 1 motel this morning.

Police say they went to the Pineapple Motor Inn about 9:30 a.m. to execute an arrest warrant at Room 27 and, after knocking on the door, heard gunshots.

The Bristol County District Attorney's office says the 23-year-old man inside apparently shot the 20-year-old woman and then himself. Police had gone to the motel to arrest the man on a rape charge.

Authorities are not identifying the victims pending notification of family. They did, however, say one of the victims was a Seekonk resident. ..Source.. by STU SKERKER/FOR THE SUN CHRONICLE AND MICHAEL GELBWASSER/SUN CHRONICLE STAFF


Police release names of victims in apparent North Attleboro murder-suicide

NORTH ATTLEBORO - Police this morning released the names of the victims in what police say was an apparent murder-suicide in a room at the Pineapple Inn on Route 1 Sunday.

Investigators believe Jose Vidal Jr., 23, of Seekonk, shot his girlfriend, Ashley Purdy, 20, of Attleboro, before turning the gun on himself around 9:30 a.m. Sunday as police responded to the motel to serve an arrest warrant for Vidal, North Attleboro Police Chief Michael P. Gould Sr. said.

Gould said police heard two gun shots in quick succession from inside the room after officers knocked on the door and announced themselves.

The couple had checked into the room on Friday and both left notes to family and loved ones indicating they were despondent, according to police.

State police and a state police SWAT team arrived to assist local police. Once police were able to enter the room they found the couple in bed. Both were shot in the head, according to police. Purdy was pronounced dead at the scene and Vidal was later pronounced dead at Rhode Island Hospital.

Gould said police have no motive for the incident.

Vidal was wanted on a superior court warrant for a 2007 rape in Seekonk. Police responded to the motel after learning Vidal was staying there.

Vidal was classified as a Level 2 sex offender and on probation for indecent assault and battery when Seekonk police arrested him Aug. 10 for allegedly raping a 17-year-old girl in Seekonk, The Sun Chronicle reported at the time.

Vidal had pleaded innocent to the charges. ..Source..

NY- Author Jim Tully's Son Joins Wife in Suicide

4-20-1950 New York:

"We can't go on living like this. If I find him, I'll try a suicide pact. He hasn't the guts to do it himself -- he's not fit to live in this world."

The speaker was Mrs. Margaret Tully, 43, a nurse. .... The man referred to was her husband, Thomas A. Tully, 39, son of the late Jim Tully, hobo author.

BODIES IDENTIFIED:

Mrs Tully found her husband. ... Troopers said today after identifying the bodies of two carbon monoxide victims in a car ...

A hose had been led in from the car's exhaust and the windows stuffed with rags. ...

Mrs. Garner described her neighbor as heartbroken because Tully, who had a long record as a sex offender was being sought by Nassau County Police ...

Mrs. Tully had announced to Mrs. Garnier her plan to try to find her husband and persuade him to die in her company. "I',m going to church." Mrs. Tully added. "If I don't come home for dinner tonight, I may never come back.."


Source: Newspaper clipping, Los Angeles Times dated 4-20-1950.

VA- Man police say is behind murder-suicide had criminal history

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6-3-2009 Virginia:

Other than a strip of crime tape, there’s no sign of the murder-suicide police say happened behind the G & S Mart in the Motley area of Pittsylvania County Tuesday afternoon.

Many are talking about David Pippin, 46, and his past criminal record [RSO].

Police believe Pippin shot and killed his ex-girlfriend Norma Henley, 36, before turning the gun on himself.. ..Source.. by Lindsey Henley, WSLS10 Reporter

AL- Victim, shooter identified in Good Hope murder

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4-6-2009 Alabama:

The Cullman County Sheriff’s Office has released the names of the victim and shooter involved in a murder-suicide in Good Hope Saturday evening.

Cullman Sheriff Tyler Roden confirmed Sunday that Sarah Francis Smithson Wren, 63, was shot and killed outside her home in a trailer park on Megan Lane. Roden also confirmed Johnny Ellis Mayo, 46, of Good Hope as the shooter.

Deputies received a call concerning a shooting in Good Hope at approximately 8 p.m.

Roden said Mayo, who also lived on Megan Lane, walked across the street to Wren’s residence and shot her with a 12-gauge shotgun while she was on her front porch. Roden said Mayo then walked to the back yard of his own house and shot himself.

CO- 3 found dead in Firestone home

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3-29-2009 Colorado:

Morning gunfire brings swat team

FIRESTONE — Police believe a 47-year-old man shot and killed his former wife, a friend of hers and then himself inside a Firestone home early Saturday morning.

SWAT team members found the bodies of 41-year-old Sharla Pierce, 38-year-old Michael Federico and Pierce's ex-husband, Michael Acker, inside her home several hours after neighbors first reported hearing gunshots, according to Firestone police Lt. Stacy Davis.

Davis said Pierce and Acker had been divorced for several months.

Federico did not live at the home, Davis said.

Firestone is east of Interstate 25 in Weld County about 30 miles north of Denver.

AR- Molestation suspect found dead in hotel

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3-11-2009 Arizona:

An Oceanside barber suspected of child molestation was found dead in a Flagstaff, Ariz., hotel yesterday after local police heard gunshots inside the room, authorities said.

Flagstaff police found Andone Hairabedian, 62, and a woman dead in the hotel room. It was unclear if the woman was Hairabedian's wife, Yvonne.

Oceanside police Officer Kim Rainwater said that on Feb. 19 the department's family protection unit began to investigate allegations that Hairabedian, already a registered sex offender, had molested a relative under age 14 at his home. The next day, investigators searched Hairabedian's home on South Coast Highway and his barbershop on Mission Avenue.

Detectives later found out Hairabedian and his wife had fled Oceanside, Rainwater said.

VA- Preliminary ID given for man found in home!

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1-1-2004 Virginia:

Preliminary ID given for man found in home! A man (Dwain O. Sharpe, 37, sex offender) who police believe fatally shot himself after critically wounding his girlfriend inside her Chesterfield County home on Tuesday was a felon.

Although police are awaiting positive identification from the state medical examiner, investigators believe it was Sharpe who was found dead Tuesday afternoon in a home he shared with 41-year-old Kathy Green.

Police believe Sharpe shot Green in the head, then fatally shot himself, after apparently believing Green had died. But Green was able to get up at some point and walk outside the front door of her house in the 6400 block of Gatesgreen Drive. ..more.. MARK BOWES, TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER