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ABOUT KILLING KILLERS' BLOGGER: Eponymous Rox covers cops, curs and killers and has been featured in Crime Magazine and on NBC. The author is also a regular paid-contributor to CrimeMagazine.com, the Gather News agency and Yahoo's Associated Content. JUMP IN: The majority of cases presented on this site are unsolved so your opinion counts -- you don't need permission to start or join discussions, vote in crime polls or submit tips on Killing Killers, and can even do so anonymously if you prefer.

Friday, March 29, 2013

Body Found in Milwaukee River Likely That of Nick Wilcox

NEWEST UPDATE: 4/1/13:  Wilcox funeral to be held April 6th. - 3/30/13: Medical examiner  rubberstamped "accidental drowning" as the cause of Nick Wilcox's suspicious disappearance and death. His corpse was retrieved from the Milwaukee River decomposed beyond recognition, yet the coroner claims there "is no sign of trauma or injury to the body." Toxicology reports are still pending; little doubt they will claim a "high BAC" reading, too.
 
 
 
3/29/13: Body found in river is Nick Wilcox
[read original report below]

MANSLAUGHTER IN MILWAUKEE AND
ANOTHER CONVENIENT DROWNING:
 
The body of "a man in his twenties" was retrieved from the Milwaukee River last night, not far from the disreputable bar that 24-year-old Nick Wilcox was dragged from by bouncers on New Year's day 2013.
 
Wilcox vanished after the troubling event which was witnessed by many including his friends but not fully captured on any surveillance videos. The bar has since lost its operating license.
 
An autopsy will be performed on the "badly decomposed" corpse now in order to positively ID the victim, although the Wilcox family has already been notified by police that it's probably their missing young man.
 
If it is Wilcox, that's additionally suspicious because the inordinate length of time between his sudden disappearance and refloat suggests that the body was recently dumped or else had been anchored. Otherwise it would have surfaced much sooner than three months and, with the strength of spring currents, most likely would not have been found in the exact same area where the victim purportedly entered the water and went under.
 
Milwaukee is infamous now for missing/drowned young male patrons, like Wilcox, and, not incidentally, for police brutality too. As a result, Milwaukee's concerned citizens have introduced sweeping new reforms this year striving to take the hiring, firing, and disciplining of cops out of police hands permanently.
 
Unfortunately, since many bouncers are off-duty officers and work in conjunction with their uniformed colleagues, citizen activists will need to focus their efforts on these rogue enforcers next.
 
Nobody, not even a cop, has the right to just take the life of another human being, even if the victim was indeed intoxicated.
 
 
Bookmark - updates to this developing story will be posted here.

Thursday, March 28, 2013

The "Sunil Tripathi is Missing" Hype

When there are so many young men whose suspicious disappearances aren't being investigated, why the costly hunt for a suicidal college-dropout who's made it clear to his wealthy family he doesn't want to be found...?
 
The beguiling 'Find Sunil Tripathi' Facebook campaign that instantly transformed a mundane family melodrama into a major missing-persons saga not only showcases the value of mastering social media, but also the disparity in the way rich and poor are treated by the press and police agencies.
 
To wit: From the start, 22-year-old Sunny Tripathi, the son of a wealthy software CEO, has been shrewdly marketed by his tech-savvy family as a "missing Brown student" who mysteriously vanished one brisk March morning while strolling his college campus.
 
In reality, however, this young man isn't missing, per se, and he's not a student at Brown University either...read more
 

Monday, March 25, 2013

HUNTING SMILEY

What's Natalie Wood got to do with it?

 
Continuous coverage of the “Smiley Face Killers” investigation;
with breaking news, updates, photos, and brand new evidence.
 
PRINT ONLY $7.99

 
IN THIS ISSUE:
 
DEAD IN THE WATER FEATURE ARTICLE – examining new proofs and a new ruling in the Natalie Wood “accidental drowning” investigation - autopsy analysis and comparison with the November 2012 disappearance and drowning death of 22-year-old Joshua Swalls from Indianapolis, Indiana  /  page 47
Wrongful Death, or Bloody Murder? – investigating the David Gerken disappearance and drowning behind the Buffalo Bills’ stadium in upstate New York mid November 2012  /  page 1
Drowning In Neglect – why it’s always “an accident” ‒ crime exposé on the cozy relationship between the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department and the Marion County Coroner’s Office  /  page 7
Voices For the Dead (Interview #1): in depth Q&A with the family of Indianapolis drown victim Walton Matthew Ward, 23, who vanished in October 2012 during an altercation with a bar bouncer and was found dead 11 days later in the White River  /  page 13
BLOOD ALCOHOL: Smiley Strikes Again – close up examination of postmortem toxicology findings for Matt Ward – drowning while intoxicated…when hardly even drunk  /  page 25
Voices For the Dead (Interview #2): in depth Q&A with the family of Indianapolis drown victim Joshua Swalls, who mysteriously disappeared and drowned in November 2012…while sober  /  Page 33
SMILEY INTERNATIONAL: Seeping and Creeping ‒ new faces, new cases, new places  /  page 57
Is Keyes Key To the Gillis Disappearance? a missing youth, and his link to a dead serial killer  /  page 60
10 Tips For Eluding the Smiley Face Serial Killers ‒ complete survival guide + sample profiles  /  page 65
Odd Drownings & Drowning Odds:  calculating the statistical chances of dying in freshwater  /  page 71 
 
 

Sunday, March 24, 2013

MISSING PERSONS ALERT: Sunil Tripathi

UPDATE 3/27/13: The Tripathi family concedes that "Sunny" Tripathi suffers from chronic depression, dropped out of university over a year ago, and left a suicidal-sounding note for them before intentionally disappearing in mid March this year. CLICK TO READ FULL STORY HERE.

 Brown student missing 

The FBI has joined the search for a Brown student missing since last Saturday.

Sunil Tripathi, 22, vanished without a trace from the Brown campus at around 11 in the morning on March 16th.
 
Brown University is located in Providence Rhode Island, the very same town that 'Smiley Face Killer' victim Gregory Hart, 23, disappeared in mid March of 2010.

Hart was found a few days later "drowned" in the nearby river.
 
Sunil Tripathi is described as tall and thin with dark hair and eyes. When last seen he was wearing jeans, a black ski jacket, glasses and a woolen cap.

Anyone with information about what may have happened to him is urged to e-mail sangtrip@gmail.com, or to telephone (917) 774-9208.
 
 

Friday, March 22, 2013

Steubenville Rape Crew's Head Coach Reno Next To Do the Perp-walk?

Ohio's state attorney doesn't think the Steubenville rape scandal is a minor thing. He's going after everyone of all ages now who knew, should have known, or definitely saw the crime going down and yet failed to intervene or report it...
 
 
Is Big Red's head coach Reno Saccoccia next to do the perp-walk?
 

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Body in Bay Jacob Samusenko?

UPDATE: 3/21/13 -

 
Coroner has ruled Jacob Samusenko's odd disappearance and drowning death "accidental" read full news article HERE (original story below)
 
He wasn't drinking, wasn't partying with his friends, wasn't hanging out at a bar until all hours of the evening. Instead the honor student disappeared form his parents' home two months ago while taking out the trash...

Now the family of Jacob Samusenko, 17, is awaiting confirmation today that the body retrieved from the Presque Isle Bay near to where he vanished in late January is in fact the missing teen. The decomposing cadaver was spotted yesterday afternoon by a passerby and the Samusenkos promptly notified by police...click to read the full article here, PLUS continued coverage posted in the article's comments section.

 

Friday, March 15, 2013

The Ides of March - a Deadly Time of Year for Young Men

The Ides of March have arrived at last, and in particular Saint Patrick day festivities, so Milwaukee's notorious police force plans to be out in "full force" this year, they've already begun warning.
 
Considering their reputation for brutality, this could be interpreted as a serious threat or seen as a genuine promise to protect, but, whichever, it's mostly being done in the name of two prominent missing person cases--that of Tom Hecht and Nick Wilcox.

Both young men were only in their middle twenties when each mysteriously vanished while painting the town with their friends.
 
In Hecht's case he was found floating in the river a few days after he vanished during St. Patrick celebrations in 2012. But Wilcox, who was last seen on New Year's day 2013 being hauled out by security personnel from the ill-famed and defunct Irish Rec Room, still remains unaccounted for.

This, despite the Wilcox family recently posting a $10,000 reward for information that will lead to his return, dead or alive.

To prevent more such casualties the MPD will be beefing up their presence and patrolling the downtown section, in the hopes of making it "safer" for revelers this holiday.
Especially for young male bar-patrons who seem to have a penchant in that city for being dragged out of pubs and clubs by bouncers and disappearing shortly thereafter.
 
As to what exactly the cops will be doing to prevent similar incidents this time around, "I'm not going to get specific as to what our deployment strategy is, but there will be a heightened presence out here," Milwaukee police Officer Jose Alba vaguely reiterated.

Well, that's cool then. Extra security for a 'Smiley Face Killer' hot zone like the city of Milwaukee can't be a bad idea.

Just one more question, though: Who'll be policing the police...?
 

Monday, March 11, 2013

MISSING BARTENDER MAY BE IN CANAL: Sarah Majoras a victim of mistaken identity?

UPDATE 3/12/13: Majoras drowning "accidental" due to "very
high blood/alcohol levels at her time of death - case closed"
(This discussion is ongoing and has been bumped up for ease of posting)
UPDATED 2/17/13 - POLL QUESTION: Was Sarah Murdered?
*Scroll side panel to vote, and comment section for all updates:
BREAKING NEWS posted 2/1/13: Body ID'd as Sarah Majoras
 
With her customary cap, camouflage coat, leather boots, unisex eyewear and blue jeans, this short-haired bartender might've easily passed for a drunken youth, if you glimpsed her trudging home, hunched in the gripping cold of late January, at around three in the morning. She's been missing ever since then. 
 
Divers resumed searching the canal near the Delaware River community of Lambertville, New Jersey today. Evidently convinced this is where they'll find the body of Sarah Majoras, 39, who disappeared shortly after leaving John & Peter's Bar where she'd bartended for 15 years.
 
Majoras was off duty for the evening; drinking with her friends and enjoying live music, which the pub is locally famous for.

Afterward, at around two o'clock in the morning, she walked home and is said to have been just a few blocks shy of her residence when, in a 'Smiley Face Killer' scenario usually reserved only for intoxicated young males, she vanished without a trace.
 
If authorities are correct in their suspicions and Majoras did end up in the canal, then she would be the second hospitality industry worker from this particular region to mysteriously drown in cold waters in as many weeks.
 
On January 7th the corpse of Manuel Antonio Guevara, 26, was fished out of neighboring Watchung Lake. Tactical divers found him beneath a layer of ice near the lake-bottom. His shoes and wallet were recovered just a short walking distance from the lakeside restaurant where he was employed as a waiter.
 
Guevara's family had reported him missing the last week in December. So far there's been no ruling on the cause and manner of the young man's death, as police are still investigating.
 
More coincidences
 
If she drowned in the frigid morning hours without any witnesses, Sarah Majoras would also be the second resident of the virtually crime-free community of Lambertville to meet such an icy and bizarre fate.
 
In 2000, David Anderson, 31 years of age, was also walking alone in the wee small hours of the morning when he vanished and was later found dead in one of the nearby spillways.
 
Anderson's death was ruled an accident, but his friends, of which he had many, never believed it. They insisted his body could neither have entered nor drifted to the place it was found floating in.
 
They also said that the victim was super-cautious around the canal and river, whether sober or drinking, because he was deathly afraid of water and didn't know how to swim.
 
David Anderson was a very popular musician in this New Jersey/Pennsylvania border town, and he and his band played most of the local venues there because they cranked out great tunes and could really pack a place with customers.
 
One of his most frequent gigs was at...yep, you guessed it, John & Peter's.
 
That's were Anderson departed from--at three in the morning--when he was last seen alive.
 
Even more coincidences
 
Interestingly enough, both of John & Peter's pub-favorites, Sarah Majoras and David Anderson, took the same path on their journey homeward. And they also had the same destination in mind when each of them mysteriously disappeared: They were going to the house they shared with a guy named Adam Baker.
 
Baker was buddies with Anderson and reportedly the two roomed together, and he is also Majoras' live-in boyfriend of several years.
 
That ought to send up red flags for the authorities and strongly suggest to them that both victims did in fact make it back home and thereafter went missing. But police claim these two cases "aren't related" and that Baker, who is currently not thought to be a suspect, is fully cooperating with investigators.
 
Sarah Majoras is described as five-foot-four and 140 pounds, with blue eyes, blonde hair, and a fair complexion. She disappeared in the early hours of January 26th, 2013 and was last sighted by surveillance cameras on foot at the intersection of Bridge Street and Lambert Lane in Lambertville. 
 
Anyone with any information as to what happened to her after that, and/or her current whereabouts, is urged to call the Lambertville police at 609-397-3132, or the Hunterdon County Prosecutor’s Office at 908-788-1129, and ask for Detective Lacey.  
 
(Any breaking news/updates in all 3 of the above cases will be posted below.)
 
UPDATE 1/30/13, morning: Parents of missing/drowned Lambertville resident, David Anderson, 31, who in 2000 went to the same person's home as Sarah Majoras was heading when he also disappeared, have spoken up about her case.
 
"It’s unbelievable. It’s really eerie what’s happening. It does seem strange she [too] crossed the bridge and no one knows what happened,” said Elizabeth Anderson. "This is the same pattern," her husband Carl Anderson added.
 
The 'Find Sarah" Facebook-group administrators are, however, aggressively discouraging any active theorizing on that page. They are trying to keep everyone's attention and dialog focused on "finding Sarah alive" they repeatedly state, despite that officials from the local DA's office as well as police divers being active on the scene shows that this is by now considered a "recovery operation" with indications of foul play. (DA's don't usually get involved on the ground without suspecting abduction or murder.)
 
It's not unusual for a citizen's group to micro-manage a missing person's case on the mistaken belief that simply "talking positive" will bring about positive results. Unfortunately that rarely occurs, and cutting off public debate about a case can often result in thwarting the public's interest in it as well. Something which can make the crime trail grow cold in a hurry.
 
Discussion concerning foul play here is warranted since there is obviously a number of glaring similarities and connections in Anderson's and Majora's disappearances that are impossible to ignore and which will justifiably cause speculation in all quarters, including on the part of police.
 
On that note, people familiar with the Lambertville terrain are expressing themselves elsewhere on the web. The following individual observations are of interest to those actively sleuthing this case. Both comments concern the appearance of a parked vehicle at the intersection where Sarah Majoras was last seen which appears to suddenly turn its parking beams on, as if engaging its engine:
 
“When I saw the still and that SUV sitting there immediately I thought of course thats a cop car! Thats where they always sat during my college days! It really does look like a cop car. Its black in front and has the white towards the back and there appears to be something on top of the vehicle.”

“When these bars let out at 2am, there is always a heavy police presence on the New Hope side as petty arguements break out among the 20 somethings however Ive never seen any real violence or fights, just drunken arguements. There is also a heavy police presence on the Lambertville side as the police often sit directly over that bridge and try to catch drunks coming over from New Hope. Its quite common to see people pulled over in this short area between the bridge and rt. 179 at this time of night.”

BREAKING NEWS - January 30th 2013, afternoon: Investigators reported that Sarah Majoras' leather boot has been recovered today from the ice on the Delaware River canal, near where she was last sighted on camera, and sources say a body has also just been retrieved matching Majora's description. No official confirmation as yet, but the vicitim is believed to be the missing bartender. The FBI is now fully involved in the Lambertville investigation.

NOTE: at this time I am flagging the Find Sarah facebook site on new evidence: Visitors to that page should be aware that one or more of its administrators has a vested interest in the outcome of this missing persons inquest, bringing doubt on the integrity and impartiality of their entire online "search" effort there. One or more Find Sarah admins also appear to be not only deleting "speculative" comments from the facebook page in question, but also "dropping in" on similar online discussions actively taking place elsewhere. This attempt to thwart critical dialog and info-sharing is strange in a missing-person's case and, IMHO, the individual or individuals engaging in it are not acting in good faith. Please keep in mind that boyfriends and husbands are always the prime suspects in missing women scenarios, since, statistically speaking, abductions and/or murders are rarely ever perpetrated by strangers. This would now be especially true for Majoras' boyfriend, Adam Baker, who has had at least one other "dear friend" go missing and then die in the same manner. (That deceased friend and Majoras are also said to have been friends, by the way. Yet another evidentiary fact that has caused the Federal Bureau of Investigations to "speculate" apparently.)

UPDATE JANUARY 31st 2013: The body retrieved yesterday from the canal in Lambertville has been formally identified as missing bartender Sarah Majoras. Her family was notified and autopsy and toxicology reports are still pending. Majoras was found in the same area of the canal as her friend David Anderson was 13 years ago. Both were coming from the same bar and going to see the same person when they disappeared and drowned. The FBI is still investigating  Majoras' case, but local law enforcement agencies are already announcing her death a "tragic accident" even though full test results have yet to come in. Anderson's drowning in 2000 was ruled "inconclusive" in part because he had facial lacerations and other perimortem injuries not typical for water fatalities, yet for some unknown reason the authorities did not pursue an explanation as to his manner of death. The Bureau is currently reviewing that identical drowning now as well.

UPDATE February 1st 2012: In a "tragic" rush to judgment, local law enforcement agencies are trying to push through a ruling of accidental drowning in order to swiftly close the Majoras death inquiry. Namely because they say they didn't note any significant injuries to the body. David Anderson's identical death 13 years prior is "not related" they still insist, and Adam Baker, a troubling link in both drownings, "has been ruled out as a suspect." However, the  same bar, the same hour, the same trek, the same canal area, the same destination, the same friend, the same kind of accident...the statistical improbability of all this presents the strongest hint of foul play. So detectives probing this matter are reminded that in all theorizing, "everything should be kept as simple as possible, but no simpler." (Albert Einstein) Operating on a theory of Majoras' disappearance and drowning being merely an *accidental* coincidence with Anderson's in 2000 is obviously too simplistic.

UPDATE February 5th 2013: Formal rulings on cause and manner of death as well as toxicology reports are still pending, but the police investigation into Sarah Majoras' disappearance and drowning is said to be ongoing. The Lambertville canal with suspected pathway Majoras took is shown in the image below. (Note that locals are emphasizing that there was significantly less snow and ice covering the water on the night that she vanished, and the canal area she's alleged to have "fallen" in is only about three feet deep.)

 
3/12/13: The drowning death of Sarah Majoras has now been
ruled an "accident" due to high concentrations of alcohol in her
blood at the time of death. Case is considered "closed" by LE.
 

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Casey Anthony Bankrupt and Going for Broke

Casey Anthony, bankrupt and the world's most hated woman, says she's gone totally broke since winning her freedom in 2011 and depends entirely "on the kindness of strangers" for her day to day needs.
At least until the much coveted "normal" life she now claims to crave will someday become available once more. 
Sadly, it's doubtful that the normalcy Anthony says she's seeking—which she once had as a single mother, if she recalls—will ever be coming her way again. Mainly because the accused baby killer is still receiving weekly death threats and therefore remains in hiding.
But, never mind the what-fors and the whys, she's a genuine pauper now, Caylee's acquitted killer personally informed the bankruptcy court this week. She’s got only about a $1000 worth of assets left to her name.
Some of that *fortune* comes in the form of furniture over a decade old, according to Anthony's court papers. These presumably donated by, or else pilfered from, her long lost parents from whom she is still believed to be completely estranged.
Some of it's technology with traditionally little or no resale value whatsoever, except perhaps for hard drive components or memory chips which may hold the kind of sordid secrets highly prized by magazines and tabloids.
In fact, only a few of the possessions Anthony lists can be deemed semi-valuable in the scheme of things: a solitary strand of bona fide pearls, a bicycle she rarely gets to use anymore, what with being penniless and unable to afford a body guard and all...and some memorabilia.
Still, for a person who is said to owe nearly a million dollars to creditors, these won't get her very far out of the hole.
Plus, she lamented, she's not been offered any lucrative book contracts or movie deals, either.
All of these desperate declarations, filed just in time to thwart lawsuits currently pending against her now from various folks she libeled and defamed throughout her murder proceedings, seem just a tad farfetched, however.
And the part about being scorned by Hollywood, an industry that's never met a murderer they didn't love, also seems hard to swallow.
So, is Casey Anthony bankrupt and broke like she poignantly claims to be; a misjudged soul searching for mercy from a world that has wrongly hated her guts for years?
Or is she outright lying about how dire her situation has become, in hopes of escaping future judgments?
"I don't pay rent, I don't pay utilities. I guess you could say I'm living free or off the kindness of others," she swears.
Yeah, she's probably spinning another of her elaborate tales. She's done that before. Remember?