murder

Famous Serial Killers

palmeely000 True Crime , , , , , , , 0 Comment
Famous Serial Killers

Serial killers are people who kill multiple people and often don’t have a real motive. They also tend to follow behavior patterns with their murders. Although Serial killers are very terrible people it is interesting to see into the life of one. These are some famous US serial killers and a small look into their lives.

Jeffery Dahmer-

Jeffery Dahmer

Jeffery Dahmer was born in 1960 and started killing in 1978, when he was 18 years old. His childhood has been debated but most people believe he was neglected as an infant. Jeffery usually killed young, gay, black men. Jeffery Dahmer killed 17 people before a a man named Tracy Edwards escaped him, and his story led to jeffery’s arrest. Jeffery Dahmer was sentenced to 15 life sentences and he served 3 years and 4 months in prison before he was killed. Jeffery Dahmer was beaten to death by a man named Christopher Scaver who was also a prisoner.

 

Harold Shipman-

Harold Shipman

Harold shipman (Also known as Dr. Death) was born in January, 1946. It is estimated that he killed about 250 of his patients. He mostly killed elderly woman, and they were supposed to have died in there beds. Harold Shipman was caught after trying to forge the will of one of the patients he killed. Harold was arrested in the year 2000 and sentenced to Life in prison. He served 4 years in prison before he decided to hang himself.

 

H.H. Holmes-

H.H. Holmes

H.H. Holmes was born in 1861 and moved to chicago in 1893 where he started outfitting a three story hotel (Later to be known as the Murder Castle). He put all kinds of things in the hotel including gas lines, secret passages and trapdoors, hallways to dead ends, chutes to the basement, soundproof padding, and torture devices put throughout a maze. Holmes used the gas to knock out his victims before  bringing them to his surgical tables. He disposed of the bodys with a furnace in the basement. Despite Holmes admitting to killing 27 people he was only sentenced for the murder of his business partner Benjamin Pitezel. Holmes was executed by hanging him in 1896. It was said that he killed anywhere between 20 and 200 people.

 

Pedro Lopez-

Pedro Lopez

Pedro Lopez (aka Monster of Andes) was born in 1948 and was said to have killed at least 110 people from 1969 to 1980. Pedro mostly killed young girls between the ages of 9 and 12 years old. Despite his terrible crimes he only served 16 years before being released for “good behavior”. Even today Pedro Lopez’s whereabouts are unknown.

 

Ted Bundy-

Ted Bundy
Florida Photographic Collection

Ted Bundy was born in 1946 and loved attention for his kills. Bundy had a complicated childhood, for starters his sister was actually his mom. Although according to a article written by Ann Rule bundy had known. And it it suspected that Bundy’s grandfather had abused him psychologically and physically, although bundy later claims to have a good relationship with him. Bundy killed and raped mostly collage aged woman. Ted bundy admitted to killing 30 people even though it is believed that he killed more. One woman named Carol Deronch was able to escape from ted bundy and later identify him in a police lineup. Ted bundy was arrested during after speeding in a stolen car. Ted bundy was sentenced to death in 1979. He was in prison for 9 years before being executed via electric chair.

 

SOURCES:

https://www.britannica.com/list/7-of-historys-most-notorious-serial-killers

ttps://www.biography.com/crime/hh-holmes#murder-castle

https://www.biography.com/crime/ted-bundy-childhood

https://www.crimeandinvestigation.co.uk/article/the-women-who-survived-ted-bundy

The Case of Sherri Rasmussen

hawkikad000 True Crime , , , , , 0 Comment
The Case of Sherri Rasmussen

The Murder

On the evening of February 24th, 1986, John Ruetten would return home from work to find his wife, Sherri Rasmussen, laying dead on the floor. She was shot 3 times and had a bruise on her face, with a porcelain vase being broken over her head. Sherri also had a bite mark on her arm, that an investigator noticed and obtained a swab of, which was then determined to belong to a female. The case was eventually dropped, being decided as a burglary.

In 2009, however, Jim Nuttal and Pete Barba brought the case back up as their burglar theory was invalid, because of the female DNA. As they investigated the case, more evidence appeared that proved the burglar theory to be incorrect.

Another Investigation

The evidence, before the 2nd investigation, suggested that a struggle began upstairs between Sherri and the culprit, ending at the 1st floor with Sherri dying. More evidence appeared in the 2nd investigation that proved this wrong. At the top of the staircase was a pile of stereo equipment on top of a VCR. If the struggle first began upstairs, leading downstairs, the stack of the equipment would likely have been knocked over, however the equipment was standing upright. For this to happen, the culprit would have had to go back up the stairs and re-stack the pile of the equipment. This is very unlikely to happen as when a burglar succeeds, their main priority is most likely to flee as soon as possible, proving that there was no burglar.

To support this theory, a fingerprint was found on the stack of equipment, but it had no print, suggesting that the culprit had gloves on. The blood was later proved to be Sherri’s, meaning that after she was shot, the culprit stacked the stereo equipment at the top of the stairs to make the case look bigger than what it really was.

From this, the detectives narrowed down their suspects to five females. One of these suspects was a woman named Stephanie Lazarus.

Stephanie Lazarus

Stephanie had dated John before Sherri. Both had never considered that they had major relationships. A bit into their relationship, John had accepted a job to be a hard drive manufacturer, and Stephanie had applied to be a LAPD uniformed officer, and was accepted.

Eventually, John had met Sherri and was then dating her behind Stephanie’s back. Stephanie later learned that John and Sherri have had a serious relationship. Stephanie wrote to John’s mother, “I wish it didn’t end the way it did, and I don’t think I’ll ever understand his decision.”

During John and Sherri’s engagement, Stephanie would often visit the apartment that John and Sherri shared. Stephanie would make excuses like her skies needed waxing. Sherri was bothered by Stephanie’s visits and was beginning to question their relationship. She eventually asked John to tell Stephanie to stop the visits. John responded to her cries by saying that, “They were just friends” and “You should just ignore her.”

It eventually escalated even farther. Stephanie would start to stalk Sherri on the streets. According to Sherri’s father, Nels Rasmussen, Stephanie would visit Sherri in her office and tell her that her relationship with John was not over, and “If I can’t have John, no one else will.”

The two detectives, Jim and Pete, learned that Stephanie was a LAPD Officer, and had been promoted to work on art theft cases as a detective. She was one of the only two detectives in the nation’s full time unit that were devoted to this specialty. She was noted as one of the least promising suspects by the detectives, however, since Stephanie was still in the department, they had to work carefully.

As the investigation continued, they narrowed down the suspects as more evidence appeared. At the end of this, the only suspect left on the list was Stephanie. Now they had to be extra careful; they referred to Stephanie as “No. 5” and would only work after hours.

They proceeded to look into details about Stephanie’s life back in the mid-80’s. They gathered intel from another detective and learned that at the time, the weapon that most officers would use as a backup was a .38. Stephanie used that type of gun. Jim and Pete then supposed that the best time to commit a murder like this, while working for the LAPD, was to commit it on a day off. Sherri had been murdered on one of Stephanie’s days off.

To add even more to the evidence, the murder weapon had been disposed of after the crime. For a police officer to lose or dispose of a major weapon would cause severe penalties, so using a backup weapon would be the obvious choice. As stated before, Stephanie had the same type of backup weapon that was used in the crime.

It was now clear to Jim and Pete that Stephanie was the murderer, but they had to prove it. They worked discreetly and informed superiors about the investigation. The detectives wanted to take a DNA sample from Stephanie. When Stephanie disposed of a cup that she had been drinking from, the detectives swiped a DNA sample from it. When tested, the DNA had matched the DNA from the bite mark on Sherri’s arm. They had found the culprit.

The Arrest

With the careful planning for the arrest, officers waited outside of Stephanie’s home. A short time after they had all lined outside, they received a call from the department headquarters. They requested that the officers would wait at the headquarters instead of Stephanie’s house, as she would be required to give up her equipment there. This would limit the risk of Stephanie retaliation when learning that she was the prime suspect of the murder.

When she arrived, she was asked to talk in an investigation room just to “tie some loose ends” in the Sherri Rasmussen case. While the interrogation went on, she said she didn’t remember most things about the case, since it had been many years since, but seemed to remember some. She admitted to visiting Sherri’s office and seeing John at his condo. The interrogation eventually escalated to the point where Stephanie decided to leave the room altogether. While walking down the hallway, she was met with officers that swiftly put her under arrest.

In early 2012, the trial began for Stephanie. The prosecutors accused that the murder was committed over jealousy from Sherri’s relationship with John. Defense said that Stephanie’s friends denied that she had any violence towards the failed relationship with John. They called their last witness who said that some fingerprints found in the investigation did not belong to Stephanie.

Prosecution showed the jury photos of Sherri and her found body. They said the fight wasn’t fair. The prosecutors reminded that there was no alibi for Stephanie at the time of the murder. Some time in March, Stephanie Lazarus, was convicted of first degree murder. She was sentenced to 27 years to life in prison. She is currently serving her sentence in the California Institution for Women in Corona.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Sherri_Rasmussen

44 Days of Pure Torture – The Case of Junko Furuta

ianweidauer Uncategorized , , , , 0 Comment
44 Days of Pure Torture – The Case of Junko Furuta

 

The case of Junko Furuta is a very dark, soul-crushing story. This girl was subject to torture, murder, and many other heinous crimes. 

  • Junko Furuta is a 16-year-old girl, living with her parents, and her older and younger brother. As she grew up, she attended Yashio-Minami High School, a private high school in Yashio, Japan. She worked part-time jobs at a plastic molding factory after-school to afford her school expenses and to save up for a trip after graduation. Furata later accepted an after-graduation job at an electronics retailer. While at school, Junko was very liked and appreciated by her schoolmates. She was very popular and people idolized her for her effort put into school work and her dreams of becoming a Japanese singer. The night of the attacks, Junko noted that she was looking forward to watching the final episode of Tonbo (Dragonfly) とんぼ, a Japanese drama, while not being able to watch it.

On November 25, 1988, Miyano and his friend, Minato, both perpetrators in the trial, wandered the streets of Misato intending to rape the local woman who were walking home at the time. They later found Furata, riding her bike home after a long shift at her job. Minato later was ordered to kick Junko off her bicycle and rob her by Miyano. Under the assumption that Miyano witnessed the attack by accident, he ran up to Furata and helped her up, offering to walk her home safely.

  • Hiroshi Miyano, an 18-year-old male, had frequent run-ins with the law. He had problematic behavior since his childhood, such as damaging school property and shoplifting. These offenses gave Miyano a bad reputation in his small community. Later, in April 1986, he enrolled in a private high school in Tokyo, Japan, which is where he converged with the other men connected to this crime. Even though he dropped out of this school after only a year, he continued to commit multiple crimes during his school time, slowly escalating over time. At this time, he was living with his girlfriend, the older sister of Yasushi Watanabe, another perpetrator in this crime. He picked up jobs working as a tile worker, attempting to save up enough money to later propose to her. Dissatisfied with the pay he was making, he frequently became involved with gangs and started committing sex offenses. This behavior later was the reason that his girlfriend started losing interest, ending the relationship soon after.

After gaining Junko’s trust, Miyano later raped her in a warehouse, and later again in a nearby hotel, threatening to kill her if she spoke about the attacks to anyone. Miyano later called his friends over to the hotel, Shinji Minato, Yasushi Watanabe, and Jō Ogura, to report and brag about the rape. Ogura offered the idea of holding her captive, allowing multiple people to sexually assault her during the time they held her. Their group had many crimes against them, recently kidnapping another girl before Furuta, releasing her after only a couple of days.

3:00 a.m., Miyano took Junko into a nearby park, where the rest of the gang was waiting for her to arrive. The boys discovered her home address in a notebook kept in her school bag, threatening to murder the rest of her family while inside the house if she tried to escape the boys’ grasp. The boys overtook her, later taking her into a small house and gang-raping her. This house, which was owned by Minato’s parents, later became their regular gang hangout spot.

On November 27, Junko’s parents notified the police about their daughter’s disappearance. To demoralize her parent’s hope of finding her, the perpetrators forced Junko to call her mother and claim that she had run away, threatening to kill her if she didn’t follow their orders. She also was forced to say that she was safe and hanging out with some friends, those “friends” being Minato, Watanabe, Miyano, and Ogura. Junko was also forced to act as Minato’s girlfriend while his parents were around. They dropped this claim as Minato’s parents stopped caring about what he was doing with his life. His parents later admitted that they did not wanna intervene with Minato’s antics because they were fearful that he would become violent towards them.

On the night of November 28, Miyano invited two other boys to the gang house, Tetsuo Nakumara, and Koichi Ihara respectively. They walked up the stairs, noticing Junko sitting, wearing a long sleeve t-shirt and a skirt that Miyano previously had stolen from a clothing store a couple of days prior. The boys later drank cough medicine, pretending it was drugged, and acted high for a long period. As Junko realized this fact, she tried to run away, screaming in fear and knocking items over. Miyano later grabbed her legs and Koichi Ihara quickly put a pillow over her face. This awoke Miyano’s parents and they proceeded to check on Junko and the boys: Miyano claimed it was nothing and not important. The group then proceeded to gang-rape the woman into a state of unconsciousness: staring at the ceiling while not blinking.

  • This group held Junko captive in Minato’s residence for more than 40 days, where they repeatedly, every day, beat, raped, and tortured her. They also invited other men and young teenagers to come over to the home and encouraged them to take turns having intercourse with her.

According to the groups’ statements in court, they admitted to shaving her pubic hair, forcing her to dance to music while she was naked, and masturbate in front of the boys. They also left her on a balcony in the middle of the night with little to no clothing. They inserted objects into her vaginal crevice and anus, such as a lit match, a metal rod, and an empty alcohol bottle. The boys also force-fed her copious amounts of beer, milk, and water. She was also forced to smoke multiple cigarettes at once and inhale paint thinner, which causes skin, eye, and respiratory system irritation, along with many other side effects. In one incident, Miyano repeatedly burned Junko’s legs and arms with a lighter and a large amount of lighter fluid. 

  • By the end of December, Junko was extremely malnourished after being only fed small portions of food and later being forced to only milk. Due to her several injuries and infected burns, she became unable to walk on her own or even use the toilet. She became confined to only Minato’s room and lay there for 40 days in severe weakness.

Her appearance substantially altered due to the brutality of the acts put upon her. Her face was so swollen that it was difficult or even impossible for her to talk. Her body also became seriously crippled during the months of the attacks, leaving a rotting smell that caused the boys to lose sexual interest in her. As a result of the smell, the boys later found and gang-raped a 19-year-old woman who, just like Junko, was picked up on her way home from work.

January 4, 1989, after losing a game of mahjong, a Chinese game of collecting winning sets of tiles placed on a board, Miyano decided to take his anger out on Junko by again pouring lighter fluid on her swollen body and setting her on fire. Furuta made attempts to put out the fire, gradually becoming responsive after not being able to extinguish it. The boys continued to beat her up, soon igniting a candle and dripping hot wax over her face. They also placed two short candles on her eyelids and forced her to drink her urine.

After she was kicked multiple times, she fell onto a stereo unit and collapsed into a sudden fit of convulsions, and large involuntary movements of the limbs. As she bled profusely while pus emerged from her infected burns, the boys continued to beat her, now donning plastic bags over their hands. They soon dropped an iron exercise ball onto her stomach continuously. These attacks lasted multiple hours and she later succumbed to her wounds and died shortly after the two-hour mark.

Less than 24 hours after Junko’s death, Minato’s brother called him to report that Junko appeared to be dead. Afraid of being convicted of murder, the gang wrapped her swollen body up in blankets and shoved her into a travel bag, also packing a VHS copy of Tonbo (Dragonfly) とんぼ. The boys then later put her body into a 210-liter drum and filled it with wet, uncured cement. Around 8:00 p.m. the same day, they loaded Junko’s cement-covered body into Minato’s car and eventually disposed of the body in a cement truck in Kōtō, Tokyo. 

Image of Minato via https://www.tokyoreporter.com/crime/junko-furuta-killer-again-on-trial-chaos-in-the-courtroom/

  • While being held captive, Junko mentioned to her captors several times that she regretted not being able to watch the last episode of her favorite show, Tonbo (Dragonfly) とんぼ. This was the motive of Miyano placing the VHS of the show in her travel bag. He placed it in her bag not because he pitied her, but because he wanted her to be able to watch it after she died and not haunt the boys.

January 23, 1989, Miyano and Ogura were convicted and arrested for the gang-rape of the 19-year-old girl whom they had kidnapped in December while still having Junko. Not knowing if Ogura confessed to the crimes against Junko, Miyano told the police exactly where to find her body. The officers were puzzled by the confession, believing that he was referring to the murder of a different woman and her seven-year-old son that happened nine days before Junko’s abduction, a case that remains unsolved to this day.

January 24, 1989, the police found the exact drum containing Furuta’s body. She was identified through fingerprints. On April 1, 1989, Ogura was arrested for a separate sexual assault case and re-arrested for the murder of Junko. Watanabe, Minato, and Minato’s brother’s arrests followed. Several other perpetrators’ arrests followed for abusing and raping Junko, including Tetsuo Nakamura and Koichi Ihara, who was charged with rape after their DNA was found inside and out of Furuta’s body.

Image of Junko’s body finally being found inside the concrete drum via https://japaninsides.com/44-days-of-hell-the-story-of-junko-furuta/

Sources:

https://yen.com.gh/facts-lifehacks/biographies/227111-what-happened-junko-furuta-killers-everything-know/

https://www.tokyoreporter.com/crime/junko-furuta-killer-again-on-trial-chaos-in-the-courtroom/

https://kileystruecrime.squarespace.com/kileystruecrimeaddict-blog/the-murder-of-junko-furuta

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Junko_Furuta

https://japaninsides.com/44-days-of-hell-the-story-of-junko-furuta

The Skinning of Katarzyna Zowada

riossop000 Uncategorized , , , , , 1 Comment
The Skinning of Katarzyna Zowada

 

0-1.jpgOur story begins on January 7th, 1999, in Kraków, Poland. A large tugboat is chugging down the Vistula river when one of the operators has to open the hatch to the propeller to get something out. It seems as though something had been stuck in it since the night before &  but hadn’t worked itself out yet. Expecting to find debris or branches the operator is stopped in his tracks. Not sure what he’s looking at, he thinks it is a pale sack. Then he noticed the human ear at the top of the sack & the rancid smell. 

 

00.PNGUpon further investigation, it was confirmed that those were the remains of a Polish 23-year-old religion study student named Katarzyna Zowada (cat-er-a-zee-na). Her legs were missing as well as her arms & face. What was found was just her torso connecting her neck & ear. But what was even weirder was that it was like a skin suit. As in she was skinned, & a bodysuit was made out of it, leaving all the internals behind. This is why the operator thought the body was a sack. The medical examiner concludes that this portion of her skin had been in the water for roughly 2-3 weeks before getting stuck in the propeller. Investigators found a part of her sweater at the scene & one of her legs was found nearly a week later in a dam. 

 

The Investigation

It’s concluded that Katarzyna was Skinned alive & a lot more. It is also discovered that she was reported missing on November 12th, 1998 but police told her mother to hold off. They assumed she had just run away. She was going to Jagiellonian university but two weeks prior had stopped attending. At the time though she wasn’t missing because people were still seeing her, she just wasn’t going to class. She had been diagnosed with depression as well after the death of her father in 1996. All of these combined led her mother to be extremely worried about her wellbeing for those two months before her body was found. 

Investigators & experts from other counties were eventually asked to help because they had no leads. Even the FBI helped for a while but still nothing. The case was then dropped about a year later & considered cold. It isn’t until 15 years later, in 2014, when the FBI decides to take another look at the case. 

 

The reopen

In 2016 they decide that the murderer must have been trained in a specific type of martial arts because of the way she was beaten but they never disclose how she was beaten or what that has to do with martial arts. In 2017, 19 years after the murder, police finally arrest after finding new evidence. 

The man was 52-year old Robert Janczewski. He lived off of the bank where Katarzyna’s body was found, he fit the profile, & was trained in martial arts in this specific category. He also knew Katarzyna before the murder. In the past, he worked in a dissection lab so he knew how to dissect human bodies. He had also worked at a zoology lab, specifically how to prepare animal skins. He was even fired from that same job for killing all of the test rabbits during one of his shifts for no reason. He was even a person of interest in 1999 but was not looked into enough.

The police were made aware of Robert because one of Robert’s friends had written them a letter about him and the case. The contents of the letter were never disclosed publicly beyond that quick summary. 

 

What we do know (TW)

Although much of the case remains a mystery, we do know how it all went down or at least, how she was killed. Experts concluded that she was beaten profusely, had her groin, armpits, & neck cut, had her organs taken out, limbs cut off, skinned, and mind you, all of this occurred while she was still alive so she felt all of it. She would eventually die of blood loss. 

 

Current status

To this day, Robert has still not been charged & is in jail until his inevitable trial. So we still don’t truly know why he did it or if it was even him. The case is still going but justice is yet to come. 

T.V True Crime Time

heinzale000 Uncategorized , , , 0 Comment
T.V True Crime Time

True crime T.V shows are cool stories to watch in your free time or when getting something done. True crime can be stealing, murder, robbery, etc. In the shows, it can be about justice, how they did it, what was going on in their minds when they did it. True crime T.V shows aren’t fake set up crimes, they are things that did happen. There are a few true-crime series that most people would recommend others to watch so here they are.

 

Forensic Files

Forensic Files is a 14 season show about technical experts that find every little detail using forensic science to solve crimes. The show follows each murder case to the courtroom for the criminals to receive justice. They interview family, friends, people from the investigation, and guest members to talk about the murder and how they solved it. Forensic files go into detail about how they solved the murder using forensic science. The show started on April 23, 1996, and ended on June 17, 2011. The creator of the show was Paul Downing and the writers were Paul Downing, Tom Jennings, Vince Sherry, William J. Flood, and Michelle Katz. Finally, about 93% liked the show and 7% disliked the show.

 

Criminal Minds

Next is Criminal Minds, the show is 15 seasons long and is about the FBI getting into the minds of the criminals and trying to outsmart them before the criminals strike again. Each member of the “mind hunter” team brings his or her expert mind to pinpoint their motivations and find emotional triggers to stop them. The core group includes an official profiler, he is highly skilled at getting into the minds of criminals. He is a quirky genius, the former media liaison who manages to adeptly balance family life and his job, and is amazing with computers. The show started September 22, 2005, and ended in 2020 on February 19th. Lastly, 6% didn’t like the show while 94% did enjoy the t.v show.

 

The Vow

The Vow is 1 season, the show is about the experiences of people deeply involved in a self-improvement group, the NXIVM. It is an organization under siege with charges including racketeering conspiracy brought against its highest members and founder Keith Raniere. About 84% of people liked the show and 16% did not. It began on August 23, 2020, and it is still going to this day. Finally, the producer and creators of the show are Victor Buhler, Jehane Noujaim, and Karim Amer.

 

Fear City

Last but not least Fear City, is also 1 season long and it is about the mafia. Five Mafia families controlled New York in the 1970s and ’80s until a group of federal agents worked to take them down. The show has been running since July 22, 2020. The show even got its movie called, “Fear City: New York v.s The Mafia” The producer is Bernadette Higgins and the show has a few nominations and Awards for the British Academy Television Craft Award for Titles & Graphic Identity. Finally, about 62% enjoyed the t.v series while 38% disliked it.

 

Conclusion

In conclusion, these are very popular and amazing true crime t.v shows. Watching it all go down with the evidence, the twists, and turns, and just knowing that they receive their justice is incredible. It’s amazing to watch it all unfold in front of your eyes. From Fear City to Forensic files it is truly amazing how we have found ways to deal with these situations. In the end, true crime shows are one of the best series to watch, if you run out of t.v. show to watch, start with these.

Part 2: The Murder of Sydney Loofe

riossop000 Uncategorized , , , , , 0 Comment
Part 2: The Murder of Sydney Loofe

On November 30th, the FBI finds Bailey & Aubrey in a hotel in Missouri & takes them back to Nebraska on their other charges. It is discovered that at 10:35 am, the day of Sydney’s disappearance, both Aubrey & Bailey purchased a hack saw, duct tape, utility knives, bleach, drop cloths, & tin snips. They were inside the Home Depot for a total of 12 minutes. They are seen clearly on video surveillance. Later, after they had purchased these items, Aubrey is seen going to Menards during Sydney’s shift. He looks at her, into his pocket, back at her, & then calls Bailey.

On December 4th, 2017, the first of Sydney’s remains were found. A search team comes across a trash bag in the middle of a ditch with an arm sticking out of it. It wasn’t her whole body that was found because it had been dismembered. Her organs were missing including her tongue, kidney, & heart. They were able to identify the body fairly quickly because Sydney had a tattoo on her arm that read “ Everything will be wonderful someday.”

Around six months after the first of her remains were found, Aubrey & Bailey are charged with the murder. Aubrey’s defense team immediately tells the media that it was a sex act gone wrong & Sydney had died accidentally of asphyxiation. 

Aubrey & Bailey said that her death was not premeditated & when she died they panicked, put the body in the trunk, cut her up, & dumped her. A note from Aubrey to Bailey tells her what to tell the police & to put the blame on him. This immediately shuts down their story because if it were true Aubrey wouldn’t have to tell her what to tell the police.

It comes out at trial that Aubrey was the leader of a sex cult, Bailey being his sidekick. At the time they were the only two in the cult but several women were in it prior. They wanted Sydney to join the cult. Aubrey claims he also had a history with Sydney. 

Aubrey also claims he is a vampire with special powers & can fly & read minds in the trial. He says only witches could join the cult & if they killed & tortured other women they would also gain special powers like him. He says these killings had to be done as a ritual in the forest under certain moon phases for it to work. 

Three women come forward & testify about the sex cult on trial. One claims she met Bailey on TInder in 2017 & convinced to join the cult. She was given an allowance of $200 a week, lived in the house with them, taken on spa days & overall treated very well. With that though, came some rules like she had to walk naked around the house, she had to participate in any of the events they wanted to do, she had to steal with them, etc.

The prosecution claims at trial that while Sydney was on a date with Bailey, Aubrey came out & strangled Sydney with an extension cord. They claim that she didn’t know Aubrey like he previously claimed. They then cut her body into 14 pieces & dump her into trash bags about an hour and a half away from her home. To this day only 13 of the 14 pieces have been found, that being her upper left arm. 

At trial, Aubrey pleads guilty to unlawful disposal of a body but not guilty to murder & to conspiracy to commit murder. Still claiming that the death was accidental. But there were marks on the back & top of her head & had restraint marks on her wrists.

In the middle of trial one day, Aubrey sitting in the corner of the room yells “Bailey is innocent & I curse you all!” & slits his own throat. Everyone jumps up & freaks out of course & he is immediately taken to the hospital where he survives.

Once Aubrey is done healing he is taken back to finish the trial, this time handcuffed to his seat.

After only three hours of deliberation, Aubrey is found guilty by the Jury of first-degree murder & conspiracy to commit murder. He was then sentenced to the death penalty. 

Bailey was found guilty of first-degree murder, Unlawful disposal of a body, & conspiracy to commit murder. In early November 2021, Bailey was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. She too showed little sympathy but was grateful she wasn’t getting the death penalty for the sake of her daughter whom she had with her ex-husband.

Part 1: The Murder of Sydney Loofe

riossop000 Uncategorized , , , , , 0 Comment
Part 1: The Murder of Sydney Loofe

In honor of the fourth anniversary, & a sentencing occurring only earlier this month, I thought it would be good to inform people about this case. 

The day is November 14th, 2017, in Lincoln, Nebraska. 24-year-old Sydney Loofe who worked as a cashier at Menards had just matched with a girl named Bailey. They talk on Tinder back & forth & share roughly 140 messages before deciding to meet up that night. They hung out, smoked a bit, but in all, they hit it off & had an amazing time. The next day they decide to go on another date. She is extremely excited to go on another date & is telling her friends all about the first one & how happy she is. The last message from Bailey to Sydney is at 6:45 pm stating that she is outside waiting to pick up Sydney Loofe.

The next day, November 16th, 2017, Sydney doesn’t show up for her shift at Menards. Friends & family begin to worry & panic as no one can get a hold of her. It was all so unlike her & everyone knew something had gone wrong. Sydney’s mom reported her as missing after no one in Sydney’s life had heard from her since before the date. With not much to go off of & Sydney being an adult, her family didn’t know what to do. No one knows the name of the tinder date she went on but it seemed like a good place to start since that was the last time she had been seen. Since Sydney had shown some of her friends a picture of the girl she was going on a date with one of them thinks maybe if they were to see the picture again they could identify her so the way they do that is by making a tinder account & swiping until they see the picture. 

This is when they find 26-year-old Bailey Boswell. They take her contact info & give it to the police since Bailey is the last known person with Sydney before her disappearance. Upon investigation, they find out Bailey has a 51-year-old boyfriend named Aubrey Trail whom she lives in Wilber, Nebraska. They try to locate Bailey after seeing that Sydney’s phone last pinged in Wilber but it seems as though Bailey & her boyfriend have taken off. This is seen to law enforcement as suspicious behavior; they are granted a search warrant to the couple’s home after the landlord stated there was an extremely strong bleach-like odor coming from the home. They find the apartment has been cleaned with bleach on every surface & even bleach smears throughout. The police then decide to announce that they are suspects in the case. News outlets start sharing this information. Aubrey & Bailey then see these news stories.

While still in hiding, Aubrey & Bailey post a series of videos on social media stating their involvement with the case. They seem to be in a car in the videos wearing black hoodies with the hood on & Bailey is wearing large sunglasses. They talk about how their names are being slaughtered because of Sydney’s disappearance & think they get to have their side of the story shared. They say they aren’t hiding out from police like what is being said & have spoken to the police several times (which was untrue). Bailey says she dropped Sydney off late that night at a friend’s house due to request after having yet another wonderful time & hasn’t seen or heard from her since. They also mention how they have other warrants out for them which would mean they could get arrested for those offenses since you can’t get arrested if you are just a person of interest. People are confused as to why they kept saying they weren’t in hiding even though they basically had disguises on, were not living at home, & even brought up the fact that they could be arrested if the police found them. At this point, the FBI gets involved in the case.

Part 2: The Missing Student, Yingying Zhang

riossop000 Uncategorized , , , , , 0 Comment
Part 2: The Missing Student, Yingying Zhang

Hours turn into days and no one is even one step closer to solving this case. But then, a campus police officer finds a piece of evidence that ends up solving this case. 

SGT James Carter spends hours looking over the footage of the car. But on June 14th, five days after she climbed into that car, he saw something no one had noticed yet. He was looking at the wheels on the car & noticed on the passenger side hub cap there was a black spot near the edge. The spot was not on any of the other hub caps & assumes it was an oddity with this specific car. It looked like almost a piece of the hub cap was broken off. This sets the car aside from the other 57 cars in the state. There were 18 cars & people that they originally suspected but cleared, but with this additional evidence, they decided to reinvestigate them. 

The first car they double-check fits the description of the car exactly. The owner of this car is named Brendt (pronounced Brent) Christensen. Brendt was a 27-year-old student at the school. They knock on his door this time with a warrant. He seems extremely calm though and invites them in. Brendt has a wife who is half-naked on the couch & they tell her to go put clothes on because she didn’t do it upon seeing the police. They immediately see mirrored sunglasses sitting on a table. 

They asked Brendt to come to the & he cooperated. The two interrogators play good cop bad cop with him but he sticks with his alibi of playing video games. He also insisted that it wasn’t him even though he had the same car. Once they can convince him that they know it was him he goes silent for a couple of minutes. He says he did pick up an Asian girl but he thought it was on Saturday so he didn’t say anything. He also said he didn’t recognize her photo which is also why he didn’t say anything. He says he saw a girl on the side of the road looking distressed & pulled over & asked if she was okay. He told her he would give her a ride so he got in. According to him she randomly freaked out & he pulled over to let her out & that’s the last time he saw her. Throughout this explanation, Brendt was stuttering a lot & very fidgety but beforehand he was very calm & confident almost as if he knew they were onto him. But eventually, he asks for a lawyer. 

They arrest him for lying to the FBI & although 100% certain that they have their guy, they still don’t have their victim. They can hold Brendt for 24 hours before having to decide to prosecute & they decide not to as they don’t have enough evidence.

Brendt & his wife & recently started an open marriage as their last hope before getting a divorce. His wife was on a trip with her boyfriend at the time of the disappearance & Brendt had a girlfriend named Terra. Terra genuinely seemed to believe he could have done it & the FBI asked her to try & get information from Brendt, They wanted her to “wear a wire”. She agrees but when she asks him he still sticks with his story about her freaking out & getting out. But no new information was found.

There is a memorial walk being held near campus & Brendt invites Terra to go. She is really confused as to why he would want to go when he is the main suspect in this case. But she still goes, once again as a spy. Once she gets there Brendt is drinking & she thinks she actually will get a drunk confession out of him. Yingyings brother performs a song at the vigil & Brendt didn’t get up or clap for it when it was over. Towards the end, he was so egotistical about being there & thought everyone was “there because of him”. Eventually, he does brag to Terra about it & says “no one here knows what happened, I am the only one.”

He goes on to say “ The family will leave empty-handed because no one will ever find her.”

Terra obviously knows what this means but doesn’t make a big deal about it yet because she wants to see what else he will admit to. He goes on to talk about how hard Yingying fought back & was basically boasting about it.

Terra goes home now with evidence & immediately calls the police to tell them about the recording. She is told to go down to the station to get interviewed & to give them the evidence & when she gets there she is visibly shaken & sobbing when telling them what happened. The next day Brendt is arrested. Brendt calls his mom from prison & tells her that he didn’t do it & that they only have circumstantial evidence. At this point Brendt does not know about the recording or that Terra was against him.

They ended up finding more evidence against him after he had already been arrested. A counselor at UofI came forward after his arrest & turned over footage of a session she had done with Brendt back in March. Since she was an intern at the time she had to record it. He admits to alcohol & drug abuse. He also admits to wanting to harm others & that he had been fantasizing about it. He had even purchased stuff to do it. But he said that he didn’t want to anymore.

After confiscating his phone & laptop they find out he was in a group chat called “Abduction 101”. It was a place for people to fantasize about abduction. At this point, the evidence is as large as a mountain. 

In June of 2019, two years later, opening statements start for the trial as a death penalty case. At this point, Brendt still has not told anyone where Yingying’s body is. It comes out at trial that he ended up cutting her head off after failing to kill her in other ways. He also lets out a suppressed laugh while saying this. It also comes out that Yingying was his 13th victim & he had been killing since he was 19.

It was obvious that being here boosted his ego & felt like he was almost famous & kept referring to himself as a better & newer Ted Bundy. You could hear how proud he was of himself, almost seeping out of his voice. 

His story about having killed 12 other people wasn’t holding up though because there hadn’t been any cases that could have been him. His defense used that by saying well if he didn’t kill 12 other people then how do you know it can’t be the same with Yingying even though the evidence was astounding. 

It took eight hours but the jury still couldn’t unanimously decide so by default Brendt was sentenced to life in prison without the ability of parole. This was a huge disappointment to Yingying’s family as one could imagine because Brendt hadn’t shown any signs of remorse & they didn’t get any justice out of it. They also felt as though his counselor visit weeks prior could have prevented all of this from happening if someone just tried helping/stopping him.

To this day Yingying’s body has yet to be found as Brendt disposed of her in 3 separate garbage bags, put them in a dumpster, which then got brought to a landfill.

Part 1: The Missing Student, Yingying Zhang 

riossop000 Uncategorized , , , , , 0 Comment
Part 1: The Missing Student, Yingying Zhang 

Our case begins at The University of Illinois. It was the spring semester & 26-year-old Yingying Zhang decided to leave home & study abroad. She was a graduate of one of the top universities in China & people described it as the Harvard of China. Yingying’s decision to move across the globe was not surprising to those who knew her as she was very brave & adventurous. She was extremely smart & excelled in her studies. Days before leaving she celebrated her birthday & turned it into a farewell party, a temporary goodbye to her friends & family as she embarked on this experience. She picked The UofI because of the field she was studying which was environmental sciences. She also wanted to begin a Ph.D. program by the fall.

As she moved to a brand new country the move was as hard as you would expect. She had all summer to meet people & finalize plans before the fall semester started. She kept a journal during this time & also purchased a guitar to play in her free time. She jumped into working at the school & tried to stay busy.

On Friday, June 9th, 2017, a normal summer day, Yingying went to Turner hall that morning where she worked in a lab with some other students in her field. She told her coworker that she had an appointment that day at around 1:30 to maybe sign a new lease. She was currently living on the south campus in married housing which was not her situation. So she wanted to move more north which was less expensive &  less married couples. Over the lunch hour, she was going to tour another apartment complex & told her coworker she would be gone for roughly two hours but would be back after. 

As one o’clock rolls around Yingying leaves Turner hall & goes to her appointment. Around 1:30 she texts the manager & tells him she will be late & will get there around 2:10. But then 2:35 rolls around & she still hadn’t shown up. The manager texts her & asks if she is still coming & gets no response. Therefore, missing her appointment that Friday afternoon. 

Around 3:30-4 o’clock, her co-worker back in Turner hall gets worried since she still hasn’t returned. The time dragged on & attempted to call her but was left with no response. 

That night & still no sign of Yingying, her coworker goes to Yingying’s current apartment building to look for her but after knocking on the door several times with no response, her coworker becomes more & more concerned. Her coworker & friends decide to make their way to the university police office & report Yingying as missing.

The police department struggled to take this report too seriously as Yingying was a full-grown adult, it was the summer, & it wasn’t like she was gone for too long, it was only a few hours. But her friends & co-workers knew something was wrong but since the police wouldn’t listen they went to camp out in the parking lot of Yingying’s apartment complex hoping she would show up & it would all be a misunderstanding.

The next morning, June 10th, 2017, Yingying was still missing. No one had seen or heard from her since she messaged the manager the day before. One of her friends calls a news station reporter & tells her that their friend was missing & if there was any way they could mention it on today’s news since no one else was taking them seriously. The news reporter hears the panic in the friend’s voice & thinks running a story on the missing student couldn’t hurt. 

With the release of the article & the persistence of Yingyings friends, police finally make their way to Yingyings apartment to look around. When they arrived they said the apartment was in normal condition. It didn’t look like she was planning on moving or had moved. Since Yingying didn’t have a car & only used buses for transportation which is supposedly how she would have been getting to her appointment, police look at bus surveillance footage to see if she was ever on the bus & if so when she got off. There were about 2000 bus cameras at the time of her disappearance meaning lots of time & manpower to go through all of that footage. Luckily since they knew she would be coming from the lab & going to the appointment, also around what time, they were able to narrow down the footage a bit. 

On June 12th, 2017, They end up finding footage of Yingying boarding the bus at 1:30 pm. She is seen walking towards the back of the bus & sitting down. This bus stop was right outside of her current apartment building so they assume that before she went to the bus stop, she went to her house first which is why she was going to be late. The weird thing about the bus was that it was headed East but she was supposed to be touring North apartments. They keep watching & see she gets off in the middle of campus & then is seen chasing after another bus trying to flag it down. They assume she accidentally boarded the wrong bus, got off, & tried getting on the right one. She did end up missing the bus she was chasing so she ended up having to wait for another one, pushing back her time even more. They immediately get a hold of parking garage footage next to the bus stop since of course after the buses drove away there was no more footage coming from them. You can see her waiting for the bus but before the next bus can arrive, a black sedan passes her, goes off-camera of course, but less than a minute later drives back up to Yingying & pulls over. You can see her going up to the passenger side window, talking with the driver for about a minute, & then hopping in & driving away. This missing person case had just possibly turned into a kidnapping case.

Police try to continue tracking the car with other cameras but eventually, the car would drive out of view of any surrounding cameras. Also, all of the footage was too grainy to make out what the license plate was. This is when the police knew they needed to get the FBI involved. It had only been three days but for all, we know Yingying could be in desperate need of time-sensitive help.

An FBI agent who gets put on the case identifies the car as a Saturn Astra. The cars were very unique. They were only produced for a short period of time & had to be imported into the US once you bought them. If it had been a Honda, Toyota, etc, the model would have been useless. But luckily this car was so rare there were only 58 in the whole state.

Posters began appearing around campus & news reports started to be released for anyone who could help. Luckily word was spread to the right person who had also almost been abducted by him. She identified the car & told her side of the story.

The man had disguised himself as an undercover police officer & told her to get in his car because he needed to ask her a few questions about the neighborhood. She saw this as a major red flag & didn’t cooperate. But she said he was wearing mirrored sunglasses so she wouldn’t be able to pick him out of a lineup of people.

The Gabby Petito Case

lewisbai001 Uncategorized , , , , 0 Comment
The Gabby Petito Case

22-year-old Gabby Petito and her boyfriend Brian Laundrie went on a cross-country trip, Laundrie returned without her and police are still investigating. 

 

AUGUST

In June 2021 Petito and Laundrie went on a cross-country road trip to visit the states and national parks in the western states. “She maintained regular contact with her family members during her travels; however, that communication abruptly stopped around the end of August,” North Port Todd Garrison police chief adds. On August 12 a police officer had an encounter with the couple. They were arguing and then were seen getting into a physical fight, but after the fight, the couple said they were “in love” and didn’t want anyone to be charged with a crime. The couple separated for the night and no charges were filed. A 911 call from that same day said they wanted to report a domestic violence dispute. As they were driving by, the caller said a man was hitting a girl. “The gentleman was slapping the girl. Then we stopped,” the caller added. “They ran up and down the sidewalk. He proceeded to hit her, hopped in the car and they drove off.” On August 17 Laundrie flew from Salt Lake to Tampa, Florida. “Flew home to obtain some items and empty and close the storage unit to save money as they contemplated extending the road trip,” Bertolino told CNN. On the 23 he flew back to rejoin Petito. On August 27 a Louisiana couple on vacation in Jackson, Wyoming reported seeing Petito and Laundrie involved in “commotion.” “Nina Angelo, who was at the restaurant with her boyfriend, said Petito was in tears and Laundrie was visibly angry, going in and out of the restaurant several times and showing anger toward the staff around the hostess stand.” The last week of August was the last time the Petito family was in touch with Gabby. On August 24, Petito FaceTimes with her mother and tells her she is leaving Utah and heading to the Teton range in Wyoming. “On August 25, there were multiple texts between Petito and her mother. The young woman’s family believes she is in the Tetons on this date. On August 27, there were more texts between Petito and her mother, during which her family believes she remains in the Tetons. On August 30, her family received their last text from Petito. They doubt she wrote that text. According to Stafford, the message read, “No service in Yosemite.” “ Also in the last week of August a woman claims she gave Laundrie a ride, but once he found out they were going to Jackson Hole and not Jackson he got irritated and got out near Jackson Dam. A few minutes later a Wyoming resident Norma Jean Jalovec picked Laundrie up and gave him a ride to Spread creek.

 

SEPTEMBER

On September 1st Laundrie returns to their North Port home, where the couple lives with Laundries parents. On September 6 the Laudrie family went to a campground 75 miles away from their home and stayed there from the 6 to the 7. On September 11 the Petito family, not being able to get in touch with Gabby, reported her missing. Authorities go to the Laundrie’s house asking to speak to him and his family. Taylor the police spokesperson says “we were essentially handed the information for their attorney, that is the extent of our conversation with them.” On September 16 the Petito family begs the Laudrie family to help them in their search for Gabby. “Please, if you or your family have any decency left, please, tell us where Gabby is located,” Stafford says. “Tell us if we are even looking in the right place. All we want is for Gabby to come home. Please help us make that happen.” The Laundrie family refuses to answer and give any information on where Gabby is. Finally, on the 17 the Laundries requested a private visit with the police. In this visit, the police learned that the Laundries hadn’t seen their son since September 14. On the 18 police are searching for Laundrie and on the 19 Gabby’s remains were found in Teyton Country. The next day Laundries’ parents are questioned at their home by the FBI. On September 23 there was a federal arrest warrant for Laundrie. 

 

OCTOBER

On October 12 after investigation Petito’s cause of death was determined to be strangulation. On October 20 investigators found human remains and some personal items that belonged to Laundrie. “The items were found in an area that had been underwater until recently,” McPherson said. On the 21st FBI confirms that the remains belong to Brian Laundrie. The remains had been out there for a long time and when they were found were “skeletal remains” as well as some clothing Laundrie was believed to be wearing.

Skip to toolbar