Michigan resident Elias Abuelazam, 33, was identified as the suspect in a series of 18 vicious stabbings that included five deaths in three states. He is reportedly apprehended trying to leave the U.S.

Elias Abuelazam, Israeli-Arab, is accused of stabbing 18 people in three states, killing five. He was arrested at 10 p.m. Wednesday at the Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta, where he was attempting to board a Delta flight to Tel-Aviv, Israel, where it’s believed he was born. Abuelazam has been charged one count of assault with intent to murder in connection with a July 27 attack in Flint, Mich. Though that charge can carry a life sentence, further charges are expected as the investigation continues.

Abuelazam worked at the Kingwater Market in Mt. Morris Township, was last at work Aug. 2. He told coworkers that he had to go to Virginia, where he has family. Authorities received a tip Wednesday that Abuelazam had not returned to work and had gone to Virginia. Police watched surveillance tapes and saw he matched the physical description of the suspect. Earlier this month he was charged for an assault against his brother-in-law. His green Chevy Blazer, colored green over gold – matching the suspect’s vehicle description – was impounded and police there found a knife and a hammer.

Police believe he came to Michigan in May, just days before the attacks began. Most of the stabbing victims were black men, but police declined to say the attacks were racially motivated: “We don’t have a motive yet but, as you know, many times the motive doesn’t appear until later in the investigation,” Leyton said. “Jury instructions don’t require us necessarily to have a motive.”

Those who knew him here say he was a serious flirt, and a quiet, “regular” guy, but his ex-wife’s family, former neighbors in Israel and court records show he was rough around the edges — and no stranger to the law. Not much is known about how Abuelazam made a living. Over the years, he moved around from Michigan to Virginia to Florida, and held multiple jobs, including mental health technician at a psychiatric facility. On July 5 of this year, he walked into Kingwater Market and asked for a job. Though he only worked at the party store for less than a month, regular customers said he was an OK guy who didn’t show any aggression or unusual behavior toward black customers. No one suspected a thing until an anonymous tip led to his arrest, and everyone — from his ex-mother-in-law to his buddies in Israel to his boss — is floored Abuelazam is suspected of being the internationally notorious Flint serial stabber.

-articles by Melissa Burden and Ron Fonger, and form abcnews.com, rewritten and adapted by admin-

Michigan State Police released a composite drawing of a suspected serial killer believed to be responsible for stabbing 14 men in the Flint area since May, five of them fatally. A 16th stabbing victim of a suspected serial killer came forward to police Monday night.

The sketch of a white man wearing a baseball cap, with a mustache and goatee, is shown with a stud through the top of his left ear. The drawing is dated from Wednesday. He had earlier been described as being a muscular, light-haired man, between 5-foot-11 and 6-foot-2. Today, Michigan State Police, leading a task force, added that the man weighs between 180 to 210 pounds and is in his late 20s to early 30s.

Survivors have told police their attacker approached them with a story about needing help. Some said they were stabbed multiple times without warning. “He’s killed five people,” Flint Police Sgt. J. Leigh Golden said Thursday. “He’s just killing them, not robbing them.” Investigators said that since May, the serial killer has been targeting vulnerable, small-framed African-American men. Two of the men he stabbed had special needs, police said. “To me, he’s a bully. He’s picking on people smaller than him or somewhat vulnerable. He doesn’t give a warning; he doesn’t rob them. He gives them no reason at all,” said Flint police Lt. Tim Johnson during a news conference Thursday.

Most of the stabbings have occurred late at night or early in the morning near major roadways in Flint and Flint Township, where authorities said it is easier for the killer to stalk people and flee quickly. The last victim, a 26-year-old male, told the task force investigators that he had been stabbed by a suspect matching the serial killer’s description at about 3 a.m. July 27. The victim told police he was walking on Pierson Road near Fleming Road when the suspect approached him and stabbed him repeatedly. The suspect asked him for help with his vehicle before the attack. The victim told police the vehicle description was similar to the description released by police Monday — a Blazer-type vehicle, dark green over tan.

Authorities are working with a forensic psychologist to determine whether the stabbings are racially motivated hate crimes. Police say no other developments have occurred in the case since Monday evening. Anyone with information is asked to call the Flint Police Department or the Michigan State Police at 866-246-9500.

-articles from skcentral.com rewritten and adapted by admin-

American fugitives William Dathan Holbert and Laura Michelle Reese were arrested in Costa Rica as suspects in as many as nine murders in Panama.

William Dathan Holbert and his girlfriend Laura Michelle Reese, were arrested by authorities as they attempted to make their way into Nicaragua via Costa Rica, officials said. The two are wanted in connection with the deaths of seven fellow Americans in Panama, as well as two Panamanians, authorities said.

Holbert and Reese have quite a past. The couple operated a series of scams in the U.S.—including one that involved Holbert stealing a $200,000 house that didn’t belong to him—before fleeing the country in 2006. Panamanian police got suspicious after officers discovered two bodies near a house that Holbert and Reese were living in under fake names. The woman has been identified as Cheryl Lynn Hughes, from St Louis, Missouri, who had been living in Panama for 10 years but has been missing since March. The man was identified as Bo Icelar, who has been missing since November and is thought to be from New Mexico. Prosecutors allege Mr Holbert befriended Ms Hughes and Mr Icelar by posing as a potential investor before murdering them and taking over their properties – a hotel and a house.

Panamanian authorities say they have recovered three more bodies on his property. The bodies of a man, a woman and a child were found buried in the grounds of a hostel owned by William Holbert in the Bocas del Toro archipelago. Tests were planned to identify the latest remains. On Sunday, prosecutors quoted Holbert as admitting he killed a U.S. man named Mike Brown, his wife and small son about three years ago and buried them on his property. Prosecutors say Mr Holbert, 30, has confessed to killing five people to steal their money and property, and has been giving them information about where to find the bodies. “He picked out his victims after making their acquaintance,” said Angel Calderon, a prosecuting attorney, London’s Guardian reports. “Knowing that nobody would ask about them, he got rid of them.”

It is still unclear what role Reese played in the alleged scheme. The couple were using false documents in Panama and living under the aliases William and Jean Cortez, police said.

-articles by Michael Sheridan and Brian Moylan rewritten and adapted by admin-

Police have used Facebook to help track down and capture a computer technician, Mark Dizon, 28 years old, in San Fernando City. Authorities believe they have a man suspected of killing nine people, including three foreigners.

The 28-year-old computer technician was taken into custody Tuesday in San Fernando City in La Union province, 139 miles north of Manila. A serial killer has been caught after he became a Facebook friend with the daughter of one of his victims. He was charged with killing nine people – six Filipinos, an American, a Canadian and a Briton – in three different robberies at hotels and homes this month in Angeles city. Police say the murder rampage began on July 12 when Canadian Geoffrey Allan Bennun, 60, and his Filipino girlfriend were shot to death in a hotel room. Four days later, Briton James Bolton Porter, 51, and his girlfriend were slain by a gunman inside their home. Then last week, American Albert Mitchell, 70, his wife and three Filipino domestic workers were killed inside their house.

“He had an account on Facebook and two witnesses positively identified him,” said police chief of Angeles city, Senior Superintendent Danilo Bautista, “We have an airtight case against him. I believe it is ironclad.” He said Dizon apparently closed his Facebook account after sensing police were on his heels, but two witnesses had already positively identified him using his profile picture.

The good-looking Dizon allegedly befriended the victims first to gain their trust, so they allowed him to go into their homes freely on the pretense of fixing their computers. Dizon then allegedly attacked them using a 9mm pistol and robbed them of valuables, including electronic gadgets. Angeles mayor Edgardo Pamintuan paraded a handcuffed Dizon before press photographers today and said murder charges had been filed against him: “I believe he knew what he was doing, because it was well-planned. It was good that we caught him because he would have struck again.”

-articles by Ted Ajlibe and Ayinde O. Chase, rewritten and adapted by admin-

Los Angeles police detectives are reexamining at least 30 unsolved killings of women in South Los Angeles, seeing if they can link any of the homicides to the man accused of being the Grim Sleeper serial killer, Lonnie David Franklin Jr., who appeared briefly in court Thursday, where he was charged with 10 counts of murder.

Franklin allegedly killed seven women between 1985 and 1988, when his crimes seemed to abruptly stop, authorities say. The slayings resumed in 2002, another murder happened in 2003 and a third one in 2007, police said. They suspect Franklin may be responsible for more homicides during that gap.

Detectives have spent the last two days serching Franklin’s home, collecting photo albums, documents, business cards and other records that they hope can provide a better picture of the suspect and perhaps provide links to other victims. A law enforcement source familiar with the investigation said police recovered multiple firearms from Franklin’s home and will be testing the weapons to see if there is a match to the ballistics evidence from the crime scenes. There is no DNA evidence in any of the 30 cases, which is significant because authorities said they tied Franklin to some of the 10 killings based on information from DNA databases. Many of the cases are three decades old and occurred during a period when several serial killers were allegedly operating in South L.A.

To many of his neighbors and customers, Lonnie Franklin Jr. was just a friendly mechanic who often stopped to chat as he tinkered on cars in the front driveway of his mint-green house on 81st Street. But after police identified him as a serial killer Wednesday, other neighbors recalled traits that suddenly seemed chilling. Some neighbors said Franklin made no secret of enjoying the company of sex workers, who he would often bring back to a camper parked in his backyard filled with old cars and junk. Another neighbor, Sherwood Howard, said Franklin would show off nude photos he took of the women from the neck down and talk about his exploits. He kept the pictures in the garage.

The 57-year-old man was arrested at least 15 times over four decades but was never sent to state prison despite the recommendation of probation officers, court and jail records show. He was arrested for burglary, car theft, firearms possession and assaults, but his crimes never were considered serious enough to send him to state prison or to warrant his entry in the state’s DNA database, authorities said. Despite the long and varied record, Franklin did not commit the kind of violent crimes against women that might have drawn the attention of detectives in the Grim Sleeper case. Investigators now plan to use DNA to tie Franklin to dozens more murders, looking at more than 30 cold case files dating to 1984, Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck said Friday.

“Now that we know who he is, where he lives, the cars he drove, have people to interview, we will go over all those old cases and look for connections,” Beck said.

-articles from skcentral.com rewritten and adapted by admin-