Fear has gripped R1 village where nine women and girls have been axed to death so far in a killing spree that has forced people to abandon their homes and flee from the area. All the murders  have taken place in the last three months and the similarities of the cases have prompted talk that it is the work of a serial killer. Police have since formed a task team to investigate the murders.

Another cold-blooded murder has rocked the R1 Village outside Butterworth, with a 79-year-old woman being hacked to death. The body of Norah Dyantyi was found by villagers in the early hours of yesterday morning. She is a 10th victim killed in this village in the last four months.

The murders started in December last year when Nolundi Monakali was raped and killed. Shocked villagers said “it was the first of its kind”. Then, on December 28, Sibongile Ngambi died in a similar attack. On January 21, 47-year-old Nokhwezi Nogaya and her six- year-old daughter Sesethu were raped and hacked to death, and her only son, Anele, 14, was severely injured. A week later, the decomposed bodies of Nobandla, Zintle and Lazola Mafika were found in their home. Then on Sunday, Ntombomzi Gubevu, 70, and her 13-year-old granddaughter Nonelelwa were raped and murdered.

In each case the victims suffered two wounds – a gash to the head and a severed artery in the neck. “These are acts of a serial killer, but nobody cares about us in this village. Police seem to be scared of coming closer and protecting us,” said Gomba, the relative of the last victim.
“We are living in danger. Our lives are at risk and we don’t know who will be killed next. Police are doing their job, but we need a lot of them to be deployed here.”

Butterworth police spokesperson Captain Jackson Manatha said police could not speculate on the motive behind the most recent murder.

-article by Bongani Fuzile rewritten and adapted by admin-

A man police suspect is a serial killer is awaiting trial in Los Angeles for two murders and an attempted murder. Authorities are investigating whether there are more victims in a spree that may have lasted 15 years or more.  They’re also seeking the public’s help in identifying a woman photographed with the alleged murderer — a woman they believe may be a victim of Michael Gargiulo.

Michael Gargiulo, 32, an air conditioning repairman from Santa Monica has been in custody since July for a separate knife attacks and could face murder charges as soon as next week, police said.

Santa Monica police Lt. Darrell Lowe said DNA collected from a crime scene last spring helped link Gargiulo to the stabbing deaths of women from Los Angeles, suburban Chicago and Monterey Park. Even though these murders didn’t seem connected at first, there was a pattern: women stabbed late at night, alone in their homes, with no apparent motive.

Allegedly, his first victim was Ashley Ellerin – she was found stabbed to death in her apartment. In 2005, just 40 miles away, another young woman, Maria Bruno, was killed in a similar manner – a stabbing so vicious it shocked police: “I’ve been a murder cop almost 18 years,” says Detective Mark Lillienfeld of the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Homicide Bureau, “and it’s the most violent murder I ever saw, bar none.”

Last year, in Santa Monica, Calif., Kauffman continued, a woman was stabbed, but managed to fight back. DNA from blood at the scene led to the arrest of Gargiulo, and tied him to another murder, in Chicago, 15 years ago.

Gargiulo’s attorney, Anthony Salerno, said his client denies involvement in any of the attacks and “thinks the police are out to get him. There’s nothing physical that in any way substantially links him to any of these crimes, It’s simply a matter of the fact that he lived nearby and knew the victims. If there is any DNA evidence, that would be a surprise to me,”he said.

However, police believe there may be at least one additional victim, but they have no idea who the woman is – “Photos shown on the broadcast depict the woman posing with Gargiulo and, says Lillienfeld, come from the hard drive of a computer shared by Mr. Gargiulo and a former girl friend.”

“We believe the photograph(s) (were) taken in Southern California, probably in 2001 or 2002. … (They) look like they were taken in a park or some kind of outdoor setting. But … we have been unable, at this point in time, to identify who this woman is.” Police is afraid that she fits the pattern, since she appears physically very, very similar to those he is charged with murdering or attempting to murder.

Anyone who might have information about the woman’s identity is asked to call Los Angeles detectives at (323) 890-5500.

-article from CBS news rewritten and adapted by admin-

In order to catch a serial killer who has claimed the lives of at least 11 South L.A. prostitutes, police announced that they will release a recording of the mysterious phone call to the public; After murder of Barbara Ware, an informant called the police, telling them about the body.

It’s been over two decades since LA detectives were trying to solve the murders of at least 11 prostitutes, with no luck, as there were no clues to follow. One night in 1987, however, offered a tantalizing, agonizing clue. Shortly after midnight on Jan. 10, a man called police from a pay phone to report that he had seen someone dump a woman’s body out of the back of a van and leave it in an alley. He gave the address, a description of the van and its license plate number.

“Is that T like Tom?” the dispatcher asked, according to several Los Angeles Police Department detectives who have heard a recording of the call.

“No, P like puppy,” the man said, speaking in a raspy, deep voice.

The call lasted no more than 30 seconds. At the end, the dispatcher asked for the man’s name.

He chuckled nervously at the question. “I know too many people. OK, then, bye-bye,” he said, hanging up the phone.

Now, more than twenty years later, police believe that the call may still hold the key to identifying the elusive killer. “There has got to be something to this. There is just too much information here for there not to be something of value for us,” said Det. Dennis Kilcoyne, who heads a task force charged with catching the killer. “We’re hoping somebody out there will be able to help us make the connection between this body, the van and the caller.”

So far, police couldn’t find any vital information that would help them solve the case. They have the killer’s DNA profile but it failed to match any of the millions stored in state felon databases. They have even found a vain, that the mysterious caller had described – registration records showed that the van was owned by the nearby Cosmopolitan Church. It turned out that couldn’t help any in way, since the church did not keep close tabs on who drove the van, which was used to pick up elderly members from home.

In all, detectives have tracked down about 10 men associated with the now-defunct church, including one who worked as a driver, and taken DNA samples to test against the suspected killer’s, and got no results. With no blood or other physical evidence found in the van that proves it was actually used to dump Ware’s body, detectives are not dismissing the possibility that the caller that night was lying in an effort to mislead police. And Kilcoyne is the first to acknowledge that releasing the tape is a long shot, but with little else to go on, he’s hoping former church parishioners will hear the tape and come forward with clues.

-article from LA Times, rewritten and adapted by admin-

It is suspected that a serial killer is on the loose in Guwahati, leaving its streets in fear. Four beggars have been killed since the first week of January. Most of the people were attacked on this stretch, which is the city’s high security zone. Several such homeless people have been injured in the attacks.

The mysterious serial killer, killed another male beggar in the Paltanbazar area, just four days after he claimed his sixth victim, police said on February the 19th. The police said the vagrant, who was killed last night, was found with head injuries caused by a blunt weapon near the Paltanbazaar mosque today.

On of the homeless people who got attacked and survived was Rameshwar Boro. “He was attacked by something. He called out for me, I saw him lying in a pool of blood,” said Champa Boro, wife of victim. For Rameshwar Boro, the pavement has been his home for several years till a stalker attacked him three months ago. Ever since he has been immobile and in a state of shock. Like him and his wife, all pavement dwellers are now spending sleepless nights.

Police are now exploring all angles – whether the killer is a psychopath or if the killings were carried out at the behest of a larger network whose motive is to create terror among beggars and force them to form an association to exploit them for profit.

“It must a group of at least three persons. There is no apparent motive. The killings were not done for monetary benefits or personal enmity is for sure,” said Debojit Deuri, Additional Superintendant of Police. Police suspect it’s a work of a serial killer, because modus operandi in all those cases was similar. An inquest of the bodies revealed that the killer used a hard object when they were asleep on streets.

“It could be a grinding stone or a hard metallic object that can be easily gripped. The inquest also indicated that it was a single blow in all the cases and the victims did not get a chance to resist,” Deuri said. The investigation also revealed that all the four killings occurred between 3.30 a.m. and 5 a.m. He said the police have so far picked up three persons for questioning but their interrogation has not revealed much.

Till the killer is identified, for the community, however, it’s another sleepless night.

-article by Sushanta Talukdar from The Hindu, rewritten and adapted by admin-

The 35-year old Dale Devon Scheanette from Texas, convicted in a 1996 case in Arlington known as the bathtub murders is to be executed. The Dallas Morning News reported Sunday that, 13 years after the crimes, the state plans to execute him. He was found guilty of killing Wendie Prescott, 22, and Christine Vu, 26, who were found strangled in the bathtubs of their east Arlington apartment complex.

“The crime scenes were absolutely horrific – brutal and violent, the worst nightmare for anyone confronted with that kind of attack,” the homicide detective LeNoir recalls. “I don’t like to think what the ladies went through.”

First victim’s aunt and uncle, concerned when she failed to show up for a shopping appointment with her sister, went to her apartment and found her dead in a partially filled bathtub. Her neck, wrists and ankles were wrapped in duct tape and she’d been raped and strangled.

Detectives found a fingerprint on the TV stand in her apartment but couldn’t identify it until almost four years later as databases expanded and technology improved. Scheanette’s prints first became available after he was arrested in 1999 for a burglary of a car audio shop in DeSoto, just south of Dallas.

“We got a search warrant, blood samples and made a DNA hit on two murders,” LeNoir said. “From that point, we started getting hits on other cases, the sexual assaults. It just snowballed.”

The DNA and a fingerprint match tied Scheanette to the slaying of Christine Vu, 25, who was killed three months before Prescott and lived in the same apartment complex. They also tied him to five rapes in 1998 and 1999. He was charged but not tried for Vu’s slaying.

After jurors convicted him of capital murder for the Prescott slaying, prosecutors in the punishment phase of the trial called to the witness stand five women evidence showed Scheanette had raped.
“To hear and see these women talk about these events, quite honestly, I hope I never get exposed to something like this again,” said Greg Miller, the Tarrant County district attorney who prosecuted Scheanette. “I will never forget him. But most importantly, I will never forget the seven women.”

He would be the seventh condemned killer executed this year in Texas and the first of two set to die this week in the nation’s most active death penalty state.

-original article by By Michael Graczyk, from Chron.com-