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-

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-

The “Grim Sleeper” case has dogged police even though they had the killer’s DNA, a description from a survivor and had offered a $500,000 reward. The victims were shot, strangled, or both, usually after some kind of sexual contact. Ten victims were women and several were prostitutes. Police have said it’s possible that the male victim, Thomas Steele, who was shot in 1987, was a friend of another victim or discovered the killer’s identity. All the bodies were found outdoors, often in alleys a few miles south of downtown Los Angeles.

Lonnie David Franklin Jr., 57, was arrested at his home in South Los Angeles on Wednesday morning after police said they made DNA matches linking him to the killings of 11 people over the last three decades. Prosecutors said they have charged Franklin with 10 counts of murder, noting that he is eligible for the death penalty. Dozens of police officials closed off a block around the 81st Street house where the arrest was made. Neighbors described the man who lives there as friendly and quiet. They said he was often seen working on cars in his front yard and would sometimes stop to chat with passers-by.

In recent days, the LAPD received the results of what is known as a familial DNA search, which trolls through state felon databases for partial DNA matches that would indicate a match to a relative. The suspect in the killings had left DNA evidence at several of the crime scenes. The LAPD learned that a man in state prison showed a strong familial match. Detectives questioned the man, who was too young to have committed several of the older murders, and he led detectives to his father, Franklin. Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley said detectives got a piece of discarded pizza with Franklin’s DNA to make the link.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4CP8WfzabM

The series of killings included victims, mostly female, in the city of Los Angeles, in unincorporated areas of L.A. County and in Inglewood since the 1980s. A survivor in 1988 described her attacker as black, in his 20s, 5-foot-8 to 5-foot-10, about 160 pounds, soft-spoken and articulate, with neatly trimmed hair and a pockmarked face. DNA and ballistics evidence have connected the killings of 10 women and one man from 1985 to 2007, police said. After 1988, the killer did not commit any known homicides until 2002 and last struck on Jan. 1, 2007.

Franklin has twice been convicted of felonies, according to court records, both for receiving stolen property. One was in 1993 and the other was 2003. He served a year in jail for the first conviction and was sentenced to 270 days in jail in the 2003 case.

Franklin was expected to be arraigned Thursday.

-articles from various sources rewritten and adapted by admin-

On February 9, a five-year-old girl’s body was found stuffed in a gunny bag at a staircase in a Nehru Nagar building. A month later, on March 7, a riot-like situation had erupted in Kurla (east) after a nine-year-old girl Anjali Jaiswal was found raped and murdered on the terrace of the police quarters opposite the Nehru Nagar police station – the DNA shows both murders have been carried out by the same person.

The police is now waiting for the reports from the vaginal swabs of nine-year-old girl Nusrat Khursheed Alam Sheikh. Sheikh had been missing since June 6 was recovered dead in a decomposed condition at an abandoned room at Vatsalatai Naik Nagar on June 19. “We are now awaiting reports of the third rape and murder to confirm the role of the same person,” added the officer. They already arrested Mohammad Ajmeri, who is known for his violent behaviour, for allegedly raping and murdering one of the girls. The medical reports however, and a DNA test of Ajmeri proved negative.

The police has stated that citizens are coming forward to help them and not creating any law and order problems in Kurla. “Citizens are cooperating with us. This is a time when the entire force is working to crack the case,” added the officer.

So far, since the first rape and murder in February, police has tested the DNA samples of over 300 people – with no luck. They believe the man responsible for these crimes is a local and was aware that over 70% houses at Vatsala Tai Nagar and the nearby slum remain locked for three months during summer. That helped him hide and leave the place after committing the offenses.

In further investigation they discovered that the killer left a two-rupee coin next to each of the three girls’ bodies. “We are investigating this angle. It might yield a glimpse into his mind,” officials said. Bar owners are asked to provide information on any suspicious visitors. A policeman added that people often reveal many things under the influence of alcohol and information overheard in bars by informers or cops has in the past helped nab many criminals. The officer said that apart from bars and sensitive locations, a team of police officials are keeping a continuous vigil at schools in the locality.

Kamlesh Sharma, a new suspect, arrested on Wednesday by the Vinoba Bhave Nagar police in Kurla for trying to entice a minor girl to accompany him, was remanded in police custody till June 29 by the Kurla Metropolitan Magistrate. Officers said they need his custody to verify if he could be the rapist-killer. “Sharma, 41 and bearded, does not match the description of the wanted rapist, supposed to be in his twenties and clean-shaven. However, we are taking no chances and have sought police custody so we can have DNA tests done and keep Sharma available for an identification parade before the girl who had escaped the rapist,” said an officer with the VB Nagar police. So far, there are no other leads in the case.

-articles from various sources rewritten and adapted by admin-

Police are yet to nail the rapist who has been driving terror into the hearts of Nehru Nagar residents in Kurla. At 9.30 am on Saturday, residents of Vatsalatai Nagar hutment near Nehru Nagar tipped off police when they found a stench emanating from a shanty, which has been unoccupied for the past three months. When police broke open the door, they found the body of a minor bound by a copper wire. The body was too decomposed to be identified. According to police, there were wounds on the thighs but it will only be ascertained after the post mortem if she was raped. Police called in the parents of eight-year-old Nusrat Shaikh, who had been missing since June 6, to identify the body. Nusrat’s father Khurshid Alam Shaikh, 42, identified the body when he saw her clothes. The room had been sold three months ago. Though there is the possibility of someone dropping a body into the room through a gap in the roof, the police are questioning the owner, hoping he’s the key that will help them unlock this mystery and find the current owner.

“We have detained 30 people in this case,” said Jailendra Khandagale, ACP, Kurla. Nehru Nagar police have also issued a sketch of the suspect. They believe Nusrat’s murderer could be the one behind the other five crimes involving minors in Nehru Nagar. However, they can’t even be certain whether it’s one person, two persons, a group of people behind these 6 cases, or if it’s all just a plain coincidence. The only man authorities have actually arrested in connection with the case is a local goon named Ajmeri, who has been a frequent guest at the police station for several years now. Ajmeri is notorious for breaking into homes in the night and stealing money, mobile phones, and small household articles to support his supposed drug addiction. It’s such an accepted fact that his family doesn’t even make excuses for him.

Other five cases include:

February 9: Body of a five-year-old girl was found in a gunny bag on the staircase of a building in Nehru Nagar, Kurla (E). The post-mortem report revealed that the girl was raped and killed.

March 7: A nine-year-old girl was first murdered and then raped. The accused had dumped the victim’s body on the terrace of the residential quarter of senior police inspector Prakash Kale.

April 27: The father of a seven-year-old girl lodged a complaint with Nehru Nagar police that his daughter was kidnapped by unidentified men who had attempted to rape her.

April 28: An eight-year-old girl was playing near her house in Makadwala compound in Kurla (W) when an unknown person lured her on the pretext of buying her a cold drink. He took her to the terrace of the railway police quarters in Kurla (E), right in front of Nehru Nagar police station, and molested her. However, she managed to escape.

May 12: At Vatsalatai Nagar in Kurla (E), an unidentified man lured a girl aged four-and-a-half to a remote place and tried to molest her. The girl was playing outside her house at around 5.30 pm when a man approached her with a chocolate and five rupees and took her to an isolated place.

-article from SKCentral rewritten and adapted by admin-

The shooting frenzy began close to Bird’s home village of Rowrah early in the morning. It is understood he shot dead his twin brother David, of Lamplugh, a former mechanic working as a lorry driver. He also killed Kevin Commons, the family solicitor. He set off for Whitehaven, where one of his first victims was Darren Rewcastle, 43, a taxi driver who had worked with Bird for years. Friends said they never had any problems in the past.

A taxi driver in Whitehaven, Cumbria, where Bird shot and killed two people, said last night: “From what I’ve been told, there was an argument between him and other drivers.” Afterwards Derrick shook all their hands and said: “There’s going to be a rampage tomorrow.” Bird then told his friend Peter Leder: “You won’t see me again.”

Turning the gun on two other taxi drivers, Bird killed one and injured another, believed to be Terry Kennedy, who is in his 40s. He moved on to the town of Egremont where he came across Susan Hughes, 57, who has two daughters, one of whom is understood to be severely disabled. She was walking home from a local shop when he killed her. Bird climbed out of the vehicle and shot her twice in the stomach with a .22 rifle before driving half a mile and shooting dead Ken Fishburn, a retired security worker who was in his 70s. He was believed to be on his way to a betting shop when he was killed. As he drove to Wilton, Bird killed a man, named locally as Spike Dixon. Last night it emerged that a couple named locally as Jimmy and Jennifer Jackson, both church stalwarts in their 60s, had also been shot dead at a house in Wilton, just outside Egremont. His next victim was Garry Purdham, 31, a former professional rugby league player, who played for Whitehaven and Egremont as well as Workington. Mr Purdham had been mending a fence on his father Jack’s farm near Gosforth. Bird fired twice and killed him.

Driving on to Seascale, Bird collided with a Land Rover being driven by Harry Berger, the landlord of the Woolpack pub at Boot. Bird fired two shots through his window. Mr Berger was hit but survived. Moments later, as he approached the village of Drigg, he came across Jane Robinson, 66, who was delivering catalogues. Bird passed and opened fire, killing her. Moments later Michael Pike was shot dead as he cycled past. Heading out of the village Bird opened fire once more, hitting a woman named locally as Jacqui Lewis.

It is believed Bird’s bloodbath claimed 12 victims and left 25 wounded with eight people in hospital, three fighting for their lives. By 12.41pm, Bird would have heard radio reports naming him as the gunman. From Seascale, he made the short journey to the hamlet of Boot where he left his car, walked into to a wood where he shot himself in the head.

Those who knew Bird said he was a quiet, “normal bloke” with two grown-up sons, one of whom had just become a father. He lived alone in Rowrah, near Frizington, Cumbria, and liked tinkering with his car. Bird was teased over his sex life and for being a “mummy’s boy”, later executing a friend who had taunted him for being a failure with women.

After a three hour manhunt, police found the serial killer lying in a pool of his own blood at 1.40pm.

-articles by Chris Riches, Rod Mills and Nick Fagge rewritten and adapted by admin-

Stephen Griffiths is charged with the murder of Ms Blamires, Susan Rushworth and Shelley Armitage, all of whom worked as prostitutes in the Yorkshire city. Now detectives fear the crimes could be linked to the murders of Michaela Hague, 25, and 19-year-old Dawn Shields, who vanished from Sheffield’s vice zone 50 miles away. Street walkers befriended by Griffiths as they plied their trade near his flat have told detectives he was a regular visitor to red-light districts in South Yorkshire. He even offered to accompany one prostitute to other towns where he told her she could make extra cash because there were more men there. The 35-year-old said she was stunned when Griffiths – who was doing a Bradford University PhD on serial killers – appeared in court on Friday, introducing himself as “the Crossbow Cannibal”.

“I can’t believe he’s the same man who was like a brother to me for years. He fed me, washed my clothes and took me in when I was on the streets and had nowhere else to go. He never harmed me and even offered to protect me while I was out on the streets. He told me I’d do much better business if I went with him to Sheffield, Barnsley and Doncaster. He said he went regularly to red-light districts there and there was more cash to be made than in Bradford.”

Griffiths was arrested last Monday after a caretaker in the block of flats where he lived in Bradford discovered shocking CCTV footage of Suzanne Blamires being beaten by a man who then fired a crossbow into her skull. Her dismembered body has since been recovered from the River Aire four miles away in Shipley. Police are also probing claims that part of her body may have been eaten by her killer. They are still searching for the remains of the other two women.

While searching the perimeter detectives have also found a “Ripper kit” of knives and hacksaws stashed inside a bag and dumped in a river. Inside were the razor sharp blades which may have been used to dismember the street-walker victims. Human tissue may also be inside but police are waiting for the bag to dry to avoid damaging DNA evidence before opening it. It was pulled from the Aire in Shipley, West Yorks – four-miles from self-proclaimed Crossbow Cannibal Stephen Griffiths’ flat.

Griffiths is on suicide watch in a single cell in a health care unit in the “Mansion”, a top-security Wakefield, West Yorks, which houses some of Britain’s most notorious serial killers and sex offenders. “Crossbow Cannibal” Stephen Griffiths said he had a vision that he would be locked up in the jail dubbed “Monster Mansion”. A prison insider revealed: “He said he used to look up at the high walls and bars over the windows and think what it would be like to be inside. Griffiths said the last time he walked around the jail was about three weeks before he was arrested. He said he had a sort of vision that he would be locked up in Wakefield very soon.”

-Griffiths will next appear before Bradford crown court, via videolink, on 7 June.-

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

Mr Griffiths, who was brought up in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, was educated from 1983 to 1986 at the town’s fee-paying Queen Elizabeth Grammar School. He later gained a degree in psychology at the University of Leeds. For the past six years he has been studying at the University of Bradford, he was comparing modern policing methods with investigations by detectives in the 19th century.

Stephen Griffiths, described as a model student by those who knew him at Bradford University, was charged yesterday with the murders of Ms Blamires and two more women, Shelley Armitage, 31, and Susan Rushworth, 43. He was arrested on Monday after police obtained CCTV footage of one of the alleged murders as it unfolded in the block of flats where he lived on Thornton Road, in the heart of the red-light district.

The film is understood to show Suzanne Blamires, 36, being murdered by a man who attacked and knocked her to the ground before using a crossbow to fire a bolt into her head. He then dragged her from view. A man was later seen carrying bin bags and a rucksack from the block of flats. Parts of Ms Blamires’ dismembered body were found on Tuesday, floating in a river three miles away. Further body parts were recovered in the last few days.

“An examination of human remains recovered from the River Aire have confirmed a positive match to Suzanne Blamires,” a police spokesman said. “Inquiries into the incident remain ongoing and a 40-year-old man remains under arrest in custody. He is being questioned on suspicion of the murder of Suzanne Blamires, Shelley Armitage and Susan Rushworth.” Detectives questioning Mr Griffiths are initially focusing on those three cases but intend to include further unsolved murders of sex workers in the area dating back several years. These include the cases of Rebecca Hall, 19, the mother of a four-month-old son, whose badly-beaten body was found in an alleyway near Holmfield Court in April 2001, and Yvonne Fitt, 33, who was last seen alive in Bradford before she was found stabbed to death in 1992.

Neighbors described Griffiths as a loner. He is thought to have regularly posted on web forums under the name “Ven Pariah” and to have posted pictures of himself on social networking sites. On one social networking site, which has been taken down since his arrest, he described himself as “the misanthrope who brought hate into Heaven”. In a separate posting, he wrote: “Humanity is not merely a biological condition. It is also a state of mind. On that basis I am a pseudo-human at best.” The web page, on which he gave his age as 99 and listed his mood as “evil”, also included a quotation from the book of Ezekiel – “The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides” – and listed his academic interests as “aggregate homicide, multiple homicide, capital punishment and targeted political homicide”.

Stephen Griffiths has been under arrest for 24 hours and is due to appear before Bradford magistrates this morning and at the city’s Crown Court later.

For more details about this case, visit a DailyMail article I am the crossbow cannibal’: ‘Ripper’ suspect charged with murder of three prostitutes in extraordinary court appearance.

-articles from various sources combined by admin-

The shock discovery of a Soweto woman’s skull – sticking out of a shallow grave near a railway line – has unearthed a killing field of women’s bones and bodies. And police are probing the possibility that a serial killer and rapist – or two or more – is on the loose. The body of the woman, who disappeared two years ago after testifying in court against a man who had conned her, was found last week when a woodcutter noticed a skull protruding from the soil in a secluded area next to the railway line in Lenasia.

And it wasn’t the first time a body had been found in the area, he said. In February, a decomposing body was found there by a passer-by. The body is still lying in the government mortuary because nobody has claimed it. Netshivhodza said the bodies of at least five women were found in the same area last year. He did not have the exact number of bodies found in the area, but there were many, he said. “They were found in different areas, but not far from each other.” Some were naked, others half-naked, and post-mortem results revealed they had been raped. Netshivhodza said police believed the serial killer or killers had abducted the women from various areas, then raped and killed them in the veld in Lenasia near the Waterworks informal settlement. He also said most of the victims had not been identified.

Now police are investigating how the man, aged between 25 and 30, had died. “He had injuries on the face and bruises on his body. It looks like the body has been there for two days. His face was swollen and covered in blood. The injuries do not show that an object was used,” he said. The deceased was dressed in blue jeans and a long-sleeved white T-shirt.

Despite the danger in the area, people were still walking through the veld. It was not clear whether they were aware that a skeleton had been found there. Netshivhodza added: “These people don’t want to listen to us. This place is dangerous. Next to the grave, there were used condoms. The condoms looked like they have been used recently. So you never know if there is someone lurking in the veld.”

He also urged people who know of any woman who has gone missing to contact the police.

-article by Solly Maphumulo rewritten and adapted by admin-

Last November, Cleveland Police discovered the remains of nearly a dozen women inside Sowell’s house on Imperial Avenue. Bodies were found throughout the home and also in the yard. There were multiple shallow graves in the basement. Police say in addition to burying the decomposing bodies, Sowell hid them in various crawl spaces. In the living room, cops found two dead bodies out in the open, lying next to a shovel. More than 4,500 pictures were taken during the investigation by the Cuyahoga County Coroner’s office, and you can see 62 photos exclusively on Action News.

Anthony Sowell is facing an unprecedented 85 charges. The accused sex offender faces the death penalty if convicted. if you want to read more about this case, read the article Serial Killer Anthony Sowell Arrested. It is yet uncertain if he is involved in more disappearances that happened around Celeveland and police are looking into it.

-article from Action News rewritten and adapted by admin-