Crime News: The Human Lost & Found, for January 27, 1999
chest...@my-dejanews.com
divided into three sections: Updates, Lost, and Found. ID numbers are used
to identify cases that may be mentioned in previous or future HLF posts.
A website is near completion. It will show HLF items by ID as well
as by date, and will feature maps, photos and other enhancements.
Note that these HLF digests are posted to alt.true-crime a few days after
being posted to the mailing list, but at some point in the future they will
be delayed by a week or will only be available on the mailing list.
To subscribe to The Human Lost and Found mailing list, visit this
url: http://www.onelist.com/subscribe.cgi/hlf
-- Chester
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UPDATES
Dixon, California: 01/23/99 -- The woman whose body was found last week in an
irrigation ditch near this town between Oakland and Sacramento has been
identified as Shannon Eileen Cruz, 31, of Fairfield, California. She had
been shot, and she was not a prostitute, which appears to rule her out as a
victim of the serial killer who has slain four women in nearby Pittsburg and
Bay Point. None of the serial killer's victims had been shot, and at least
two were engaged in prostitution. Meanwhile, in Pittsburg, police have
started a campaign to warn prostitutes along the Pittsburg-Antioch Highway
about the serial killer. They are still waiting for a prostitute to recover
from a brutal beating she suffered at a rest stop, on suspicion her attacker
may have been the serial killer. (hlfID=28; Source: Contra Costa Times,
APB)
Alpole, Massachussetts: 01/23/99 -- The police's chief suspect in the
maniacal slasher-slaying of 75-year-old Irene Kennedy has been cleared by
fingerprinting and DNA tests. Edmund F. Burke, a 48-year-old handyman who
lived nearby in a run-down Pleasant Street house with his mother and 30 cats,
was released from jail after tests determined prints, bite marks and saliva
found on the victim did not match him. Bloodhounds had traced a scent from
the murder scene straight to his house, and witnesses claimed to have seen
him in the park the morning of the murder. (hlfid = 37)
Fresno, California: 01/23/99 -- Authorities determined the identity of the
young boy found in a vineyard near Fresno last week. He was 4-year-old
Dustin Haaland (pronounced Holland), son of Douglas Haaland Jr., 25, and
grandson of Doug Haaland , 46, a successful Republican political consultant.
The boy was buried this week with his grandfather attending to him. "I'm
caught between heaven and hell," the grandfather is reported saying. Hell
because not only was his grandson murdered, but his son and daughter-in-law
turned out to be the murderers. "This, now, is a grandfather's loss. But
what do I do with my son? Wait and let the process work. I'm a relative of
the victim and a relative of the suspect. I'm just as likely to be a witness
for the prosecution as I am to be a witness for the defense. In demanding
justice for my grandson, understand I cannot participate in putting my son in
the gas chamber." Police arrested Douglas Haaland Jr. and his wife, Kathy
Haaland, 23. An earlier child had been given up for adoption by the state
after the couple was arrested for felony abuse. The mother is now pregnant
with a third child. (hlfid = 36; source: Fresno Bee)
Kildare, Ireland: 01/19/99 -- Irish police have requested FBI help in
profiling the serial killer they believe may have abducted Deirdre Jacob and
several other young women in the small towns. country lanes, and misty bogs
of this county east of Dublin. The Irish Gardai hope the FBI's expertise in
psychological profiling may point them in the direction of the murderer of at
least six and perhaps more young women. A special squad was set up in the
latter months of 1999 to hunt the killer. However, Assistant Police
Commissioner Hickey, famed for catching journalist Veronica Guerin's slayers,
confessed the gardai do not yet have a viable lead. (hlfid = 20)
Ringold, Georgia -- 01/19/99 -- Alvin Ridley, the eccentric who
kept his wife hidden in his dilapidated house for 30 years, was
acquitted of her murder last week. Ridley had told various untrue
stories about his wife's whereabouts over the years, but insisted
at the trial that his wife had become a recluse after an Orkin exterminator
had burst in on her while she was dressing. His lawyers claimed
she died of an epileptic seizure, not deliberate suffocation, and
introduced the autopsy of track star Florence Griffith-Joyner among
their evidence. The jury agreed unanimously.
Mesa, Arizona: 01/16/99 -- As the hunt continues for 11-year-old
Mikelle Biggs, the girl who vanished while waiting for a phantom
ice-cream truck, her father has taken and failed a voluntary lie
detector test. Michael Darien Biggs is still not an official suspect
in the investigation, according to police, who acknowledge Biggs'
emotional state could have affected the results of the FBI-administered
test. The 85-detective investigation has also ruled out the driver
of a copper-colored jeep seen in the area at the time of the girl's
disappearance. (hlfID=21; Source: The Arizona Republic)
LOST:
Moscow, Idaho: 01/24/99 -- William Hendrick, an openly gay student
at the University of Idaho, was last seen around 3:30 a.m. Sunday
at a party. When he failed to appear Monday, Hendrick's roommate,
Jerry Schutz Jr., called police. By Monday evening, police had
found Hendrick's 1984 Pontiac in a parking lot behind the Moscow
Hotel with his car keys in the ignition. But Hendrick was still
nowhere to be seen. He failed to pick up a financial aid packet
and to audition for a play. Since then police and friends have
searched the area, going door-to-door in neighborhoods around the
trailer where Hendricks lived, combing the woods nearby, but have
not found the popular, artistic student. By week's end, Police
and Hendrick's friends decided he was already dead or being held
captive somewhere. They asked residents to search their basements,
barns and outbuildings in case Hendrick is being against his will.
An Indian, Hendricks is 5' ll", medium-build with blue eyes and
brown hair, with a crest of bleached blond. He was wearing casual
black clothing when he was last seen. (hlfid = 41)
Houston, Texas: 01/23/99 -- At 4:35 p.m. Sunday, 18-year-old Wanda May Pitts,
described as a sweet and popular young girl by all who knew her, finished
sharing a pizza with her boss and some family friends. As the other people
drove away, Pitts locked the door to the lobby of the Lodge Motel on
Interstate 45 where she worked, and then vanished. Police found $80 and a
pager belonging to Pitts on a coffee table in the motel lobby, her personal
items undisturbed in the motel room where she lived, and $150 missing from
the cash register. Pitts had no car, which led police to conclude she left
on foot or in someone else's car. Pitts was 5' 10", 130 lbs with blond hair
and green eyes. Crime Stoppers offered a $1,000 reward for information
leading to Pitts' whereabouts. Police set up a search command post at the
motel, and every day last week a battallion of searchers marched into the
heavily wooded environs of the nearby Sam Houston National forest, much as
they had done in early December for Melissa Trotter (see previous hlf
digests). But the searches yielded nothing. The only lead police have is a
robbery at a motel across the street the night prior to Pitts' disappearance,
in which a man with a white cloth wrapped around his head took $100 at
gunpoint. Although Trotter's body was found and a suspect arrested for her
murder, Pitts joins a grow list of young, upright women who have disappeared
from the Houston area: Laura Smither, 12, an aspiring ballerina was abducted
while jogging on a rural road, her body later found in a pond; Jessica Cain,
17, was last seen driving home in her truck from a restaurant; and Michelle
Prasek, 12, disappeared on her way to school in December 1997. (hlfID = 42;
Source: Houston Chronicle)
New York, NY: 01/15/1999 -- Five silk tapestries vanished from the
Alitalia lounge at Kennedy Airport on Thursday. They were no ordinary
airport wallcoverings, but rather 7th-century antiques which had
once hung in the Sistine Chapel. The culprit, however, was not
exactly a master thief. In fact, he had inadvertantly left a dental
appointment card with his name nearby. The thief turned out to
be one Frank DiSanto, 24, a baggage clerk from Brooklyn. Police
found the tapestries in a garbage bag in his bedroom. Under questioning,
DiSanto admitted he had taken the tapestries but claimed he thought
they were going to be thrown in the trash. Police admit DiSanto
was simply planning to hang the tapestries in his bedroom and had
no idea they were worth US$5 million. DiSanto has been charged
with grand theft anyway. ( (hlfid = 43; Source: AP)
Washington, D.C.: 01/09/99 -- At 8:30 p.m. January 9, a friend dropped off
Joyce Chiang, 28, three blocks from the apartment she shared with a younger
brother. Chiang, an upbeat and hard-working lawyer for the Immigration and
Naturalization Service, was headed to a Starbucks coffee shop at the time.
What happened to her after that is a mystery. On January 10, a woman found
Chiang's government ID card in Anacostia Park in the southeast part of the
city and turned it over to park police. Police searched the park and
apparently found more of Chiang's belongings. They dredged the Anacostia
river and recovered a body -- but it was not Chiang's. (Apparently, there
are bodies all over the river bottoms of America.) Chiang's friends and
co-workers are offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to her
whereabouts, and are distributing fliers in the area asking for the public's
help. "America's Most Wanted" aired a segment last Saturday on Chiang's
disappearance that is said to have produced three tips. (hlfid=44; source:
Washington Post)
FOUND:
Pretoria, South Africa: 01/17/99 -- A decomposed male corpse was
found yesterday morning in Pretoria's Capital Park and has been
linked to a suspected serial killer who was arrested last week.
The body was found in the same area other bodies were found in last
year. The discovery brings to six the number of bodies linked to
the alleged killer, one Samuel Sadano, 36. How exactly Sadano was
caught, the police are not saying at this point. However, they
do say that South Africa's own version of Robert Ressler, Dr Micky
Pistorius, a female police psychologist and serial killer expert,
confirmed that Sadano's profile fit the murders. At least four
other people are believed to be victims of the serial killer: a
woman in her early 20s, found behind Pretoria Zoo by a passerby
on December 14; a 12-year-old boy and two young men in their early
20s, also found behind the zoo by police investigating the first
body; and a woman of about 20, found on a hill in the same vicinity.
Some of the bodies were too decomposed for the identities or causes
of the death to be determined, but the less-decomposed bodies displayed
signs of strangulation. (hlfid = 45; Source: Independent Newspapers)
Quebec City, Canada: 01/19/1999 -- In 1980 George Boka, a Canadian
art historian, purchased an anonymous painting from an antique dealer
in St-Janvier for $100. Eighteen years and thousands of dollars
worth of scientific tests later, Boka is the recognized owner of
a genuine Rembrandt worth $55 million. For the financially obsessed,
that is a 55,000-percent return on investment. Carbon dating, x-rays
and pigment tests have confirmed the painting's authenticity. Titled
"Adoration of the Shepherds," the painting depicts shepherds marveling
at the baby Jesus under the Star of Bethlehem in aquamarine and
golden hues. Pigments are apparently identical to those used in
a 1632 Rembrandt painting, "The Incredulity of Thomas," and the
initials of Rembrandt and an associate, Jan Lievens, were discovered
inside the frame. (hlfid = 46; source: Reuters)
Tolono, Illionois: 01/19/99 -- A septic service worker found the
dismembered parts of a young black man in a septic tank behind a
gas station. Investigators are now trying to "connect" the body
parts to a pair of severed hands found last month by a fisherman.
On December 18, a fisherman found a pair of severed hands from
a black man in a cardboard box in the Little Wabash River. The
septic worker had last cleaned the tank on December 1. (hlfid = 47)
Portland, Oregon: 01/18/99 -- Residents of a suburban neighborhood in the
southeastern section of the city called police about a large bag lying in the
driveway of a vacant home. Police found a body inside the bag. (hlfid = 48)
Kent, Washington: 01/19/1999 -- It was raining heavily last Monday
morning in this city on the Seattle-Tacoma corridor. At 4 a.m.,
a man bicycling home from his job along a cyclist's trail came across
a dead man lying on his back, his face covered with blood. The
victim, a male in his 40s, died of a hard blow to the head. Because
of the rain, police believe the murder must have occurred moments
before the cyclist arrived at the scene. A car thief was reported
the night before just 100 feet from the murder scene. Police dusted
the cars for fingerprints on the theory the victim interrupted the
thief, but admit they don't have many clues. (hlfid = 49; source: AP)
Benidorm, Spain: 01/20/1999 -- Spanish police raided a villa in L'Alfas del
Pi, 230 miles southeast of Madrid, to break up a hashish-trafficking ring.
They found a ton of hashish, US$45,000 in cash, and a safe, inside of which
were two letters written by Napoleon Bonaparte and two Papal bulls from the
17th and 18th centuries. The items are believed stolen from a London
antiques dealer. (hlfid = 50)
Long Beach, California: 01/19/1999 -- Police officers investigating
a gray 1985 Nissan Maxima in an alley found the car's owner in the
back seat, shot to death. The victim turned out to be Huong Ngoc
Tran, a 45-year-old newspaper carrier. He had been shot once in
the chest. Apparently, Tran was on his paper route for the Long
Beach Press-Telegram and was not carrying any money, leaving police
wondering about a motive or a suspect. (hlfid = 51)
Molalla, Oregon: 01/18/99 -- A construction worker digging a drainage
ditch near this rural town along a railroad line unearthed a skeleton.
The Oregon state medical examiner is now examining the remains. (hlfid = 52)
Capitol Heights, Washington D.C.: 01/18/99 -- Acting on a report of a
shooting, Police arrived on the 600 block of Audrey Lane at around midnight
and found Darnell Buchanan, 28, inside a car, shot several times. No
suspects and no motives are known, although three other men have been shot in
their cars and their cars lit on fire in the same general area in the last 9
months (see previous HLF digests). (hlfid = 53)
Rahway, New Jersey: 01/10/99 -- On last Friday afternoon, the body
of a woman was found lying on Prospect Avenue. The dead woman has
been identified as Constance Cosgrave, 37, of Rahway, who had been
living with relatives in Ocean County after she separated from her
husband. The police say Cosgrave did not walk to the spot where
she was found, but rather was put there by someone. They have labeled
her death suspicious. (hlfid = 54; source: Philadelphia Online)
Lewisville, Texas: 01/19/99 -- At 11 a.m. last Monday, two missionaries
bicycling through a lightly wooded field came across the body of
male teenager who had suffered strange, fatal stab wounds. The
victim was identified as Brian David Nelson, a sophomore at Lewisville
High School. He died of a puncture wound to the neck, but police
found no weapon in the area. Police have been able to retrace his
last few hours. He left a place called Flower Mound about 6:30
p.m. Sunday, probably driving a Ford Explorer and headed to a friend's
house. He did not arrive at the friend's house and by 1:50 a.m.
Monday had failed to make it home as well, so his mother called
police. It appears that some time between 6:30 p.m. Sunday and
11 a.m. Monday, he found himself in the field near Flower Mound,
and there, according to police, he was stabbed in the neck and killed.
Police have refused to comment on the whereabouts of the Ford Explorer.
It is the second homicide of the year in Lewisville. (hlfid = 55)
Lakewood, New Jersey: 01/18/1999 -- Thursday morning, police called
to the Seaside Heights Sunburst Motel, found the naked, smothered
and knifed body of a Rutgers University coed in a room. The victim
was Marylin Ann Riavez , 19, a Rutgers University honors student.
An autopsy revealed asphyxia as the cause of death. Riavez visited
the motel to see a friend who, it turned out, was not there. Police
have already charged Emanuel C. Walton, 22, with her murder. Walton
is alleged to have met Riavez in a nearby 7-Eleven store, then followed
her back to the motel to demand cigarettes from her. Police have
recovered the knife they believe Walton used. (hlfID = 56; source: AP)
Reliance, Tennessee: 01/18/99 -- Detectives are trying to learn
the identity of a man found dead in Cherokee National Forest. Sightseers
found the body Sunday in a small building about a mile from the
campgrounds. It is unclear how the man died or how long his body
had been there. Investigators are treating this as a suspicious
death. (hlfid = 57; source: Yahoo!News)
Fauquier County, VA: 01/19/99 -- At 7:30 a.m. Saturday, a motorist near
Quantico Marine Corps Base and FBI Training grounds, found a body by the side
of the road. The victim has been identified as 16-year-old Prince William
County high school student Marcos A. Machado, of Woodbridge. Machado, a
South American emigrant who told friends he had some business to take care
of, had been shot multiple times early Saturday, then dumped by the road.
(hlfid = 58; source: Washington Post)
Ogden, Utah: 01/19/99 -- Weber County Sheriff's deputies are continuing
their investigation of a body found in a car in Weber Canyon. A
Utah Highway Patrol trooper found the body while investigating a
suspicious vehicle. Few details are being released, but deputies
are treating the case as a homicide. (hlfid = 59)
Little Rock, Arkansas -- A body found by joggers in Little Rock's
Allsop Park is being described only as a white male in his 50's.
Authorities say the body has been sent to the state crime lab for
identification and to determine the cause of death. Investigators
say the body showed no visible signs of foul play. (hlfid = 60)
El Dorado, Texas: 01/19/99 -- The body of Thomas Ray Gray was found
in a ditch by a man looking for his newspaper. Authorities say Gray
was run over by a motor vehicle, probably his own 1998 green 3-door
Chevy truck. They are searching for the truck, which they believe
the murderer is still driving. (hlfid = 61)
Louisville, Kentucky: Friday 01/15/99 -- The decapitated body of a man was
found in the intake valve of the Portland hydroelectric plant. Police as yet
have not ascertained whether it was a homicide. (hlfid = 62)
Knoxville, Tennessee: Thursday 01/14/99 -- Memphis authorities have found the
body of a 16-year-old boy in the woods several miles from his house, after
his family received a tip that he was dead. He had been shot. (hlfid = 63)
Fresno, California: 01/17/99 -- At 3 a.m. a 3-year-old boy was found
wandering outside a Denny's restaurant. Although he spoke Spanish and
English, the boy could not identify himself. But a local television station
ran his picture, and by 10 p.m. a tip had led police to the boy's home in
northwest Fresno. There they found the body of his mother, murdered. The
murderer drove the boy to the restaurant and let him go. Police are looking
for a black sedan, possibly a cadillac. (hlfid = 64)
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