The Human Lost and Found, March 1999, (Found)
chest...@my-dejanews.com
somewhere, but it has not shown up in my part of the world.
The Human Lost & Found
For March 1999 (roughly)
Part 3 of at least 3
Note: The future url of The Human Lost & Found is
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Nook/7412 .
FOUND
New South Wales, Australia. 03/27/99. A headless and handless
body found in the Colo River last November has been identified as
Peter Grahame Astill, of Kandos. Last Saturday, police raided
the home of Bruce Patterson, 37, who has now alledgedly confessed
to the murder. According to Patterson, Astill attacked him with
an axe. Patterson says he shot Astill. He then removed Astill's
hands and head, loaded the body in a "green wheelie bin" and dumped
it in the Colo River. Not finished, Patterson lit Astill's house
on fire. The two men were next-door neighbors. (Australian Broadcasting
Corporation.) HLFID=175
Verknyaya Salda, Russia. 02/10/1999. In the dead of night, grave
robbers broke into the tomb of the former director of the Verkhnesaldinksy
Metals Unit, Russia's largest producer of titanium. The robbers
toppled a bust of the director and left with its 660-lb titanium
base. There is a large black market in precious metals in Russia. (.)
HLFID=174
Pittsburg, California. 03/23/99. Early Wednesday, in this small town
between Oakland and Sacramento where a serial killer is thought to have slain
at least three women, a motorist driving to work found the body of a
19-year-old man lying in the middle of the street. The victim has been
identified as Victor Lee Conger. Residents heard gunfire prior to the
discovery. Police roped off the area for 20 solid hours as they collected
evidence and searched for suspects. Lieutenant Andrew Steanson said, "We are
trying to find the last people who saw him alive to get a better clue of what
happened." (.) HLFID=171
Calumet Island, Quebec. 03/07/99. Some time after 9 p.m. the three
sons of Lindsay Stewart, 55, returned to their snowbound ranchhouse
in this placid, cattle-farming town. Their father's car was parked
outside and his bedroom door was locked. They called out for him
but he did not answer. His outdoor clothes and a hunting rifle
were missing, so they assumed he had gone hunting, something he
had talked of doing. However, the next afternoon he had not returned.
The eldest son related to the others that their father had recently
said he was quitting his lifelong job. He had telephoned the elder
son and asked him to tell his boss. Such odd behavior was not
new. A devotee of riddles, Mr. Stewart seemed "jolly" to some
people, mentally ill to others. In addition, In recent months
he had become increasingly depressed after separating from his wife.
The sons began to suspect their father might have committed suicide.
They called the police and reported him missing. Over the next
few days many people assisted in the search for him. But the snow
was deep and cold, and nothing turned up. However, two weeks later,
as the sons drove into their driveway, they spotted tracks in the
snow. The tracks led to a mound of snow 70 yards from the house.
The snow had melted, exposing the shoulder of a man inside the
mound. The sons ran to their grandmother's house and tearfully
told her the news. The police came and unearthed the frozen body
of Mr. Stewart. But the mystery, like the snow, only deepened.
Mr. Stewart had died, not in his outdoor clothes, but in his underwear.
His clothes and his rifle were nowhere to be found. And he had
been shot multiple times. Police cordoned off the farm, erected
a tent over the murder scene and barred the sons from entering the
house other than to perform routine chores. In the week since
that time the town itself has become fear-ridden, incredulous that
such a dark and troubling crime could be committed in their peaceful
neck of the woods. "It's all totally bizarre and there are so many
unanswered questions," the Calumet Journal reported Mr. Stewart's
wife, Barbara, saying. "We're all trying to be strong but in a case
like this you just don't know what's going to happen next." The
newspaper reports Stewart's cousin Marie as saying, "Everyone is
really upset and shocked. For something like this to happen in such
a small community is unbelievable." A few days ago Mr. Stewart's
brother Percy dug his grave at the local cemetery, and this time
Mr. Stewart was formally buried. Meanwhile a police search has
failed to turn up the rifle. So as of Friday, police had no murder
weapon, no motive and no suspects in the murder of Lindsay Stewart. (.)
HLFID=170
Cape Town, South Africa. 03/26/99. For the last week, this city
has been gripped by a manhunt for the mayor of one of its districts.
Philip Mashi, mayor of Ventersdorp, vanished into thin air last
Saturday. There were public fears that Mashi, a black, was the
victim of a white supremist group headquartered in Cape Town. But
police suspicion narrowed to Mashi's last known companion, Johannes
Monatle. On Thursday, Monatle led police to Mashi's decomposing
body in a tranquil field of sunflowers on the outskirts of the city.
The knife with which Mashi was murdered lay nearby. Monatle will
be tried for murder in May. (.) HLFID=169
Laguna Beach, California. 03/26/99. U.S. marshals arrested antiques
dealer Mark A. Booher, 35, suspected of murdering antiques collector,
Timothy Laflen, 37. On January 12, two work colleagues found Laflen
lying in the snow outside his Indiana carport. He had been stabbed
several times in his house, struggled to his carport and died, leaving
a trail of blood in the snow. His truck had been taken by his murderer
and driven to a nearby pancake house. Investigators said Booher
had tried to lure Laflen into a deal to buy a house full of antiques
last summer. Laflen had opted out, and Booher then allegedly decided
to murder Laflen and take his money. Marshals found Booher hiding
under patio furniture at a Laguna Beach home, after he had eluded pursuers on
foot.
(.) HLFID=168
Kota Baru, Malaysia. 03/15/99. Local fishermen venturing out onto
the majestic pre-dawn South Pacific in their reed boats came across
an odd sight: The body of Hussain Mamat, 52, in the water, impaled
on the snout of a Tylosurus crocodilus crocodilus, otherwise known
as the "ikan todak" and in English as the hound needlefish. A post-mortem
on Mamat indicated he did indeed die from a punctured lung caused
by the hound needlefish. The needlefish can leap out of the water
and spear its prey with its long, sharp, needle-like snout. It
is theorized that Mamat was sailing at night toward Thailand to
sell his previous day's catch when he crossed paths with the hound
needlefish, which was probably attracted to his lantern. (.) HLFID=167
Jersey City, New Jersey. 03/26/99. Police here went looking for
Elaine S. Carrillo, 31, a computer technician from Monterey Park,
California. She had gone to New Jersey to meet a computer programmer
named Kevin Lee, 32, with whom she had developed an Internet romance,
and then she had vanished. Police determined Lee and Carrillo had
been in a Manhattan dance club the night she disappeared. There,
club surveillance tapes showed, Lee had slapped Carrillo after she
danced with several other men. Under questioning, Lee confessed
to stabbing Carrillo in his apartment and directed police to a weed-infested
spot in Liberty Park, where they found Carrillo's corpse. AP (.) HLFID=166
Everglades, Florida. 03/26/99. Sheriff's investigators have learned
the identity of the woman found naked in a carboard box along an
alligator-infested stretch of the Everglades. A fisherman had found
the box nearly submerged next to a boat ramp. Evidence at the scene
sent the police to the Dollhouse nightclub in North Miami Beach,
where Jeanette Anne Smith, 22, was a nightclub dancer. Her black
1997 Mazda was found late yesterday in Ft. Lauderdale. Detectives
have focused their investigation around people who might have seen
her between the night she left the club and the time she was asphyxiated,
packed in the cardboard box and submerged in the alligator fields. (.)
HLFID=165
Fort Lauderdale, Florida. 03/19/99. Neighbors of Michael Steven
Barber called the building manager when they saw Barber's dogs running
loose and begging for food. The building manager, Bob Vivalamore,
entered Barber's home, smelled a bad odor coming from the bedroom,
and there found Barber lying on the floor face down, naked and wrapped
in a garment bag which was zipped up to his shoulders. Barber was
the second gay man in the area to be murdered in such fashion since
September, when 64-year-old Charles Squires was found stabbed and
similarly wrapped in a plastic bag. Barber's Maroon truck was missing.
On the 19th, Detroit police arrested one Andrew Frank Delaney "in
connection" with the Barber murder. (.) HLFID=164
Hillborough County, Florida. 03/25/99. Mary Duff's partially nude
body was found in a ditch by two bikers last week. She had been
a victim of "trauma to her upper body." Detectives have learned
Duff was a crack-addicted hooker. They are also hunting for a green
pickup with a chrome toolbox, last seen where the body was discovered. (.)
HLFID=163
Palm Beach, Florida. 03/26/99. Last November 11, Christopher Benedetto
and his wife, Janette Piro, were no-shows at a neighborhood dinner.
Their family reported them missing several days later. On November
21, their car was found at the Embassy Suites Hotel in Palm Beach
Shores. Warrants in hand, police searched the family's home, boat
and other car. They found nothing. While shutting down the house
the next day, family members found Piro, strangled, inside the freezer.
One suspect was Piro's brother-in-law, one Michael Koblan, 49.
Koblan, however, was found today in a New Jersey parking lot, beaten
and unconscious. He was listed in critical condition Thursday,
suffering from "blunt force trauma" to his head and "abrasians"
to his body. Said West Orange, N.J., lieutenant Jim Laing, "He
was in pretty bad shape." Police believe Koblan, a big man, put
up a struggle against his assailants, who did not bother to take
his wallet. A police investigator noted the obvious when he said
there had been speculation Piro's murder was connected to organized
crime. A friend of the Benedetto family denied his family was involved;
"I can tell you that if there's any speculation that the Benedetto
family had anything to do with this, that's just not true." (.) HLFID=162
Tampa, Florida. 03/25/99. Friends were wondering where 71-year-old
John Batchelor was. He was supposed to show up for a regular weekend
gabfest with his friends. So one of his friends went to his home,
were he found Batchelor murdered. Detectives concluded it was a
robbery, but believe Batchelor may have known the robber. (.) HLFID=161
Las Vegas, Nevada. 03/19/99. It appears that one of the surest
ways to encounter a dead body is to be a refuse worker. A bulldozer
driver at the Apex landfill 20 miles north of Las Vegas noticed
a human head jutting up through a hill of trash. Workers had to
bulldoze roads over the mountains of refuse so investigators could
reach the dead body, a small Asian male in his 30s carrying no ID.
He had been dead less than a day. Detectives believe he was deposited
at the landfill by a garbage truck whose rounds were in the southwest
corner of Las Vegas Valley. (.) HLFID=160
Raleigh, North Carolina. 03/25/99. A man picking trash beside
a dirt road next to a creek found a woman's body wrapped in a blanket.
The victim, identified through dental records as Rebecca Denise
Jones, 16, had been murdered elsewhere and dumped. (.) HLFID=159
Forest Park, Georgia. 03/23/99. A skeleton found in the woods
off a dirt road in south Fulton County has been identified as Beverly
Watson, missing for over two years. The victim was murdered.
Her divorce attorney, Jim Bischoff, came forward with confidential
evidence given to him by Ms. Watson under instructions to show it
to police should she ever show up dead. No one will say what the
evidence is, but suspicion is focusing on the husband, Jim Watson.
He insisits he does not know what happened to his wife. Her family
is planning a civil suit against him. (.) HLFID=157
Grants, New Mexico. 03/19/99. At 4 p.m. on Wednesday a motorist
spotted the body of a man lying along a rural road. The man, still
unidentified, had been shot. A white Dodge pickup was seen leaving the scene.
(.) HLFID=156
Sicily, Italy. 03/19/99. Forty-eight kilometers out to sea from
the port of Mazaro del Vallo, fishermen caught a massive object
in their nets. It turned out to be a superhuman-sized, ancient
statue of Aeolus, mythical god of the winds. Cast in bronze with
white stone eyes, the statue was missing its arms and a leg. (.) HLFID=154
Kingwood, Virginia. 03/19/99. Marine Corporal Eric Fox was found
dead behind a school, the victim of a self-inflicted gunshot. He
was once assigned to President Clinton's helicopter detail. (.) HLFID=152
Mattapan, Boston. 03/26/991. Already grief-stricken mourners found
the semi-nude body of a woman in the New Calvary Cemetery. The
victim is described as white and in her 20s. Police have concluded
she was dumped at the cemetery. (.) HLFID=149
Dumplin, Tennessee. 03/19/99. Tree trimmers found the burned and
mutilated body of a 30-year-old woman beside a road. The murder
has initiated an epidemic of fear in this scenic farming town, WVLT
TV in Knoxville reports. (States News Service.) HLFID=147
Huntington Beach, California. 03/11/99. On January 14, the owner
of a motel in this beach community south of Los Angeles found an
abandoned vehicle behind his business. He called the police, who
impounded the blue, trash-filled 1962 Dodge. The truck stayed,
unclaimed by its registered owner, on the premises of Huntington
Auto Tow until this week, when employees began preparing it for
auction. While cleaning it out, however, they discovered a rusty-lidded
jar filled with a murky liquid and what turned out to be part of
a human brain. "There's nothing that points to this being a crime,"
Huntington Beach Police spokesman Lt. Chuck Thomas was quoted in
the Los Angeles Times. "But we're just not quite sure why someone
would have a brain." A medical pump was also found. Police theories
ranged from a medical student to a "Hannibal Lecter." Detectives
and the Orange County coroner's office investigated and determined
the brains were not human. The case was then closed. (.) HLFID=121
Chicago, Illinois. 02/10/1999. A pre-1999 HLF item concerned body
parts that had been discarded in and around Chicago and Memphis.
The deceased has been identified as Rafael Rush of Chicago. One
Elvis Buford, 41, was arrested in Memphis and has now been charged
in the murder. (Chicago Tribune.) HLFID=117
Chicago, Illinois. 02/10/1999. An earlier HLF item mentioned a
Michigan man found dead on Chicago's north side. The dead man has
been identified as Marc Goldasich. An autopsy determined the cause
of death to be a lethal mixture of opiates, cocaine and probably
alcohol. (Chicago Tribune.) HLFID=116
Rancho Cucamonga, California. 03/20/99. Gunshots are uncommon
in this quiet, upper-class neighborhood. So neighbors came running
when they heard five shots. They found H. George Taylor, 68, ambushed
in the driver's seat of his Mercedes-Benz in the driveway of his
home. One or more shotgun blasts had destroyed the front window
of his car, which had continued moving into the garage and crashed
. His wife Lynda had apparently come out to see what happened and
been shot. She lay in her bathrobe on the garage floor. Robbery
was not a motive, as nothing was taken. A car was seen speeding
down the street shortly afterward. Taylor was a court commissioner
who oversaw divorce, custody and estate cases. Police are trying
to connect this seemingly motiveless slaying to a series of arson
fires the business of family law attorney Edward Wilson. Both men worked at
the same courthouse.
(AP.) HLFID=113
Cape Town, South Africa. 03/20/99. A group of boys playing cricket
went searching for their ball and found instead the naked body of
a murdered young girl. Carmen Seppie, 11, had been badly beaten
and killed by blows to the head. Police believe she was raped and
murdered elsewhere. They have offered a reward leading to the identification
and conviction of her killer. (Independent Online/Cape Argus.) HLFID=111
New Delhi, India. 03/20/99. Anil Rattan, 42, was found in a pool
of blood in his bathroom. Police found stab wounds and strangulation
marks on his neck. A free-lance journalist who specialized in bridge
tournaments, Rattan is the third journalist to be murdered in New
Delhi in the last two months. Irfan Hussain, a cartoonist, was
abducted, stabbed and dumped along a highway. Shivani Bhatnagar,
a female investigative reporter, was murdered by two people who visited her in
her home.
(AP.) HLFID=109
Miami, Florida. 03/18/99. Marco Rodriguez, father of 4-year-old
Pilar Rodriguez, called police when his daughter disappeared along
with her babysitter, Melissa Cooper. Cooper, 22, told police that
she and her boyfriend, Keith Wilson, had taken the young girl with
them on a two-week vacation to Punta Gorda, in southwest Florida.
Wilson had then killed the girl with a punch, wrapped her in a
blanket and dumped her. Cooper also claimed Wilson had abused her
and she had finally fled from him. Wilson, however, claimed he
had come home from work February 7 and been told by Cooper that
the father had picked up his daughter. Cooper has taken a lie detector
test and acquired a high-profile lawyer, hired by her parents.
Meanwhile, a large-scale search of Punta Gorda has not turned up
Pilar Rodriguez' body. (Tampa Bay Online.) HLFID=107
Duluth, Minnesota. 03/16/99. An unidentified body was found lying
along the "Riverwalk" on the north shore of Lake Superior. (.) HLFID=103
Sacramento, California. 03/16/99. A fisherman angling along the
American River found the body of a man. Police could neither identify
the body nor determine if foul play was involved. Autopsy results are
pending. (.) HLFID=102
Stockbridge, Georgia. 03/16/99. Authorities found the body of
Tracy Fleming inside a suspicious van parked next to a motel. (.) HLFID=100
Ft. Myers, Florida. 03/16/99. A pedestrian passing a vacant lot
noticed the dead body of a girl. The girl, 16-year-old Keyana Johnson,
appeared to have been beaten to death. (.) HLFID=99
Vancouver, Canada. 03/17/99. A city parks employee spotted a curious-looking
book in a trash can. The ancient tome was filled with handwritten
notations about maritime flags and signals. The employee salvaged
the book and a week later learned it was quite old indeed. British
Captain George Vancouver, for whom the city is named, had carried
it when he explored the coast of British Columbia in 1792. It had
been stolen from the car of a maritime museum official the previous week.
(Reuters.) HLFID=98
Sao Paulo, Brazil. 03/13/99. Part of a human ear was found outside
a television studio. DNA tests confirmed it belonged to Wellington
Jose de Camargo, a disabled songwriter whose brothers are the popular
Brazilian music duo Zeze di Camargo and Luciano. Camargo was kidnapped
in the rural state of Goias in December. (Reuters.) HLFID=97
Rochester, New York. 03/17/99. A body found in a burned-out van
by firefighters has been identified as Jonathan Nales, 33. (States News
Service.) HLFID=96
Decatur, Georgie. 03/17/99. Three weeks ago a gravedigger at a
DeKalb County cemetery noticed a skeleton lying amid some pine trees.
Forensics determined it belonged to a young African-American boy,
5-7 years of age, who may have died as long ago as August. He was
wearing almost new, size-11 brown Timberland boots, introduced in
the Atlanta market in June 1998 prior to nationwide distribution
and sold in just three stores, as well as red jeans and a plaid,
hooded shirt. Today detectives released a facial reconstruction
(<http://www.accessatlanta.com/news/1999/03/17/child.jpg>) of the
boy done by noted Oklahoma crime artist Harvey Pratt. (Atlanta
Journal-Constitution.) HLFID=95
Egg Harbor City, New Jersey. 03/17/99. A Jeep Cherokee was found
submerged in the harbor. A body was inside. The investigation has
yet to determine if foul play was involved. (.) HLFID=94
Toronto, Canada. 03/17/99. Several Hispanic boys were playing
street hockey when the ball rolled under a car. A six-year-old
boy gave chase but noticed the door of the green 1989 Plymouth Sundance
was ajar. Opening it further, he spotted a plastic bag filled with
cash under the front seat. The boys called police from a payphone
across the street. Police found several thousand dollars inside
the bag, all in $5, $10, $20, $50 and $100 bills. The money was
stained red by a dye bomb. Police concluded a bank teller must
have placed the dye bomb inside the money, and after it exploded
the robber decided to leave the money and the car. Police were
checking serial numbers to see where the money came from. (Canoe.) HLFID=93
-- Chester
True crime fan? Mystery lover? K9 detective? Merely demented?
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