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Jenner and Dolezal: Vanity Fair for the Gander But Not for the Goose

Bruce Jenner and Rachel Dolezal have each made the news this month for their spectacular quick-changes, but each has pending legal matters to attend to as well:

For Mr. Jenner, who was sued in May for vehicular manslaughter by the relatives of his victim, that crime and its resulting litigation has been overlooked by the media, in an effort to laud him now as the world's "most courageous woman."

It seems all he had to do to achieve such a *credible* switchover besides picking a more girlish-sounding name, was slap on 10-pounds of makeup and some skimpy lingerie ... then hide his man-sized mitts behind his back during his photo shoot for the cover of Vanity Fair.

The 65-year-old will also have to take female hormones for the rest of his life, and, somewhere down the yellow-brick road he's traveling, undergo surgical alteration.

For Caucasian-born Dolezal, however, whose choice to convert to being *black* requires merely a tan and a perm, applause from the political-correct press has been noticeably lacking, and accolades nonexistent.

Indeed, although she identifies as strongly with being African American as Jenner supposedly identifies with being female, Dolezal's gotten nothing but ridicule and accusations of "identity fraud," a prejudicial treatment which is, unto itself, a total crime.

But even before that so called "black-face" scandal blew up in her white face this week, the former head of Spokane's NAACP chapter was already embroiled in a criminal matter that would have had her testifying against her accused child-molesting older brother.

Attempting to thwart Rachel Dolezal from making that courtroom appearance is reportedly what lies behind her estranged family's sudden urge to publicly out her as a nonblack citizen, of course.

Now, as a result of their unorthodox strategy, she may face charges herself for failing to properly fill in certain blanks on job applications which compelled her to fully disclose what race she really is.

Hmmm ... is it actually legal for prospective employers to ask questions like that? 

Eponymous Rox

What really happened to Lauren Spierer?

For Lauren Spierer, June 3rd 2015, will mark four years and thousands of dead-end tips since she disappeared without a trace from Bloomington Indiana, after a calamitous night of booze and drugs and carousing:

Some people theorize that this now-famous missing person was murdered, and her body dumped someplace.

Others believe the petite young blonde was abducted while staggering home to her nearby apartment.

They're the ones holding out hope that she may still be alive today, albeit living a desperate existence as somebody's hostage and sex slave.

After all, things like that have been known to happen from time to time, as Ariel Castro and his Cleveland kidnappings of Michelle Knight, Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus prove.

But I don't think such a fate befell young Lauren Spierer.  She wasn't as lucky...
 

[click to read/share "The Auto-Assassination of Lauren Spierer"]

The parents of missing person Lauren Spierer filed a lawsuit this week against the trio of young men who were last seen with their daughter on the day that she vanished: 

Robert and Charlene Spierer claim that the negligence of Corey Rossman, Mike Beth and Jay Rosenbaum -- who all lawyered up within hours of Spierer being reported as missing -- is what ultimately "resulted in her disappearance, death, or injury."

Attorneys representing the Spierers say a statute of limitations barring such a civil action was bound to kick in soon and, since the young woman still remains unaccounted for, they felt legally compelled to file suit for the wrongful acts of these former students.

All three defendants named in the suit had either admitted to being with a grossly inebriated Spierer the day she vanished without a trace, or were witnessed by others as being in her company in the hours before she went missing.

Many fellow revelers that evening had observed Spierer -- bruised from repeatedly falling down and practically incoherent -- being escorted and even carried at times by her three male comrades. 

However, all the men insist that Spierer somehow made a full recovery later on, then left their apartment for her own, barefoot, at around four in the morning. After which, they say they don't know what may have happened to her.

One of the youths in fact has alleged amnesia: He was punched in the face earlier that fateful night by an interceder who apparently hoped to convince him, through physical force, to take the visibly incapacitated woman safely back to her home so she could sleep it off.

He declined to do so, unfortunately, and Lauren Spierer continued to party with Rossman, Beth, and Rosenbaum for several more hours.

The Spierers insist none of those key players have ever been 100 percent forthright about the predawn events which led up to their daughter's disappearance, and they now firmly believe she never left the youths' apartment at all.

(0riginal story above published on the 2-year anniversary of Spierer's disappearance)
6/28/13 9:17 AM

DYING TO BE WILD: Johnathan Croom and Chris McCandless

Young Johnathan Croom was obsessed with Chris McCandless and the Sean Penn movie Into the Wild which dramatizes the Alaskan misadventure that left the famed survivalist dead at 24.

 

So much so that, when 18-year-old Croom disappeared mid August after apparently ditching his vehicle roadside near a remote Oregon town called Riddle, his loved ones immediately feared he'd taken off for the wilderness himself.

 

But the reality is, the situation was even worse than expected -- Johnathan Croom was found dead yesterday, less than a 1000 feet from his car.

 

His camping gear, hiking guide and a wallet with $200 cash was still inside, undisturbed.

 

 

Oddly, that secluded area had already been combed by volunteers helping Croom's father hunt for his missing son, so it isn't clear why the boy's body wasn't found before this.

Police, however, say they are investigating the Croom death "as a suicide" based in part from recent statements made by relatives of the deceased which portrayed the teenage wilderness buff as being "heartbroken."

 

Posthumously, Croom's dead idol Chris McCandless has inspired thousands of other would be adventurers to follow his Spartan ways, too. Despite his own demise, creating a cult of believers willing to discard all their worldly possessions for roughing it in the wilderness, just as he had done years before he met a tragic end.

 

Into the Wild

 

McCandless, an experienced outdoorsman, encountered disaster in 1992 while braving the wilds of Alaska. There, he'd taken up residence in an abandoned old bus, hunting game and feeding on berries or wild legumes to survive.

 

His emaciated corpse was eventually discovered by locals who'd grown concerned about his welfare. An autopsy determined he weighed only 65 pounds when he died.

 

For years it was presumed that Chris McCandless had simply underestimated the harsh Alaskan frontier and starved to death. A theory seemingly supported by his final diary entries and the fact that he had embarked on the grueling quest without so much as a compass.

 

As well, lab analysis conducted on McCandless' meager food stores, which in his final weakened days was mainly grasspea vegetation, debunked the belief held by admirers that he'd slowly perished from inadvertently ingesting plant mold or other natural alkaloid poisons.

No such toxins were found in any of the food samples tested.

 

But then a decade later, Ronald Hamilton at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, whose curiosity was piqued by McCandless' notes detailing what his diet consisted of and a subsequent inability to stand, walk or forage anymore, began suspecting a different type of toxin may have been the real culprit.

 

A deadly one with a sordid past that stretched all the way back to Nazi Germany, and which, because it was a protein instead of an alkaloid, hadn't been detected.

A gruesome Nazi experiment solves a modern day mystery

 

During WWII, at a concentration camp in German-Romanian occupied Transnistria in the Ukraine, a few sadistic scientists decided to conduct an awful experiment on their Jewish inmates, the results of which they already knew in advance.

 

They cruelly substituted horse feed made from the Lathyrus Sativus grasspea as the main staple of the unwitting prisoners' diet, a legume known for its drought resistant qualities as well as possessing a botanical toxin that, when consumed in excess by humans, can cripple and even kill them.

That neurotoxin is called beta-N-oxalyl-L-alpha-beta-diaminoproprionic acid, or simply ODAP, and the devastating condition it brings on is called "Lathyrism". 

Especially vulnerable to the dire effects of prolonged consumption of grasspea and its notoriously toxic protein ODAP: Young males with a physically taxing lifestyle who are already malnourished. 

 

As expected, within days and weeks of eating only meals prepared from pea fodder, hundreds of young men at the camp developed pronounced limps and weakness in their lower extremities. 

 

Some victims fashioned crutches to remain semi-ambulatory; some became bedridden as irreversible paralysis set in; some went on to develop quadriplegia; some just died, unable to lift their heads to eat or breathe.

Out of the wilderness

 

Aware of this obscure Nazi-era medical atrocity and seeing in Chris McCandless' case identical circumstances and symptoms as well as a common food source, Ronald Hamilton retested the hedysarum alpinum and mackenziei varieties of grasspea McCandless was eating the year that he died.

And, lo and behold, these allegedly "harmless" cousins of Lathryus Sativus were chock full of the very same toxin, with astoundingly high concentrations of ODAP found in their seeds. 

 

Berry and seed-eater McCandless had not "starved out of stupidity" or "arrogance" after all, Hamilton realized. Instead, the otherwise savvy survivalist had unfortunately presented as the ideal candidate for severe grasspea poisoning: He was a young man, living an extremely rigorous existence and grossly underweight, when he began depending solely on the toxic plant for his sustenance.

 

Moreover, there was no way that McCandless could've known about the risk of contracting Lathyrism from it -- even a team of forensic pathologists and chemists had been unable to pinpoint that Alaska's grasspea legume, and specifically its miniscule fruit, was potentially poisonous. 

Nor did any of them grasp that, under Chris McCandless' special set of circumstances, eating it exclusively and on a daily basis would turn out to be fatal for him.

 

The official cause of death for his diehard teen-disciple, Johnathan Croom, who also perished in the wilderness this week, has not been disclosed yet. 

 

 EPONYMOUS ROX

 

Saudi Suspect in Warrensburg Murder Mysteriously Freed

A Saudi national charged for the Warrensburg murder of Blaine Whitworth was just released from a Missouri jail where he has been held since the September 2012 slaying of the 25-year-old local bar owner.

 

Ziyad Abid, 24, was in the Warrensburg area on a student visa and, like a few of his infamous Saudi compatriots, also had a fascination with flying -- he was studying aviation at the University of Central Missouri so he too could become a pilot.

 

Accused of hiring hitman Reginald Singletary to shoot Whitworth to death in front of his home last year, inmate Abid's sudden release from jail yesterday follows on the heels of an equally surprising visit to Warrensburg, MO by Barack Obama at the tail end of July.

 

Shortly thereafter prosecutors mysteriously dropped all charges against Abid, in a carefully worded statement declaring that "our understanding of evidence previously obtained from a critical witness has changed. As a result, the state is currently left without sufficient evidence to support the prosecution at this time."

 

No further details were provided by officials and phone calls requesting legal clarification were not returned.

 

The Warrensburg murder first made national headlines when Saudi-born suspect Abid was denied bail. Then, when finally granted it on appeal, the $2-million bond was paid for by his country via a wire transfer and that payment swiftly rejected by the judge.

 

In its refusal, the court stated it was concerned about the source of the money and understandably viewed the foreign defendant as a probable flight risk.

 

Ziyad Abid's case, particularly the secretive nature of his absolution from charges of premeditated homicide, mirrors the events that took place in the immediate aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombing this past spring.

 

In that controversy, Abdul Rahman Ali Alharbi, a Saudi national in his twenties, was sought and detained by police for his role in the terror plot, only to be quietly released from custody days after amid public protest and hazy assertions of his 'innocence.'

 

Alharbi has close familial ties with a number of well known Saudi terrorists; it is believed he's since fled the United States for his homeland and affluent tribe.

 

The American government's dubious relationship with Saudi Arabia, and its frequent intervention on behalf of that oil-rich kingdom's nationals who stand accused of committing heinous crimes on our shores, has justifiably fallen under scrutiny since 9/11.

 

After all, almost every single one of the hijackers responsible for that unprecedented terrorist attack in 2001 were Saudi citizens. None were actually from later-bombed Afghanistan or Iraq.

 

And, just like Ziyad Abid, these wealthy young Saudis were all here on student visas too, learning how to navigate big planes into tall buildings.

 

The current whereabouts of aviator Abid remains unknown today...

 

EPONYMOUS ROX

 

YARNELL HILL INVESTIGATION: Where There's Smoke There's Fire

State and federal investigators in Arizona continue to probe the deadly Yarnell Hill fire which killed 19 Hotshot firefighters a week ago, leaving just one survivor from the 20-man crew unharmed -- convicted felon Brendan McDonough.

 

McDonough, who served as the team's lookout, was arrested in December 2010 for burglary and trafficking stolen goods, but also had prior problems before that date. Some of which involved alcohol and illegal substances.

 

He successfully pleaded down the three charges related to felony theft by "acting remorseful" and turning against his crime cohort, Seth Taylor. Otherwise he wouldn't have been permitted to join Granite Mountain's elite but doomed firefighting unit shortly thereafter.

 

The 21-year-old continues to maintain that he was stationed on a nearby ridge overlooking his colleagues as they were constructing a fire barricade below, and that he informed them the path of the wildfire had dangerously shifted.

 

He says he then abandoned his post and crew to flee for his own safety.

 

By today, however, officials are still unable to verify McDonough's alleged location that afternoon and are pressing him to provide further details.

 

Also hindering their inquiry into the Yarnell Fire is the fact that radio communications between Brendan McDonough and his now-dead teammates apparently weren't recorded.

 

Drought conditions and dry lightening are believed to be the initial cause of the mountainside blaze, but a dramatic change in wind speed and direction is what prevented the firefighters from reaching their established safe zone only a quarter-mile away.

 

Investigators say it appears that a wall of flames rapidly encircled the men as they were retreating, although it remains unclear why they would've waited until it was too late to begin to head for shelter.

 

All 19 victims succumbed in the field from smoke inhalation and burns. As with McDonough, most were only in their twenties.

 

EPONYMOUS ROX 

Smiley Face Killer interview with family of Jeffrey Woodruff

VOICES FOR THE DEAD:

 

Coming up next in my Smiley Face Killer question-and-answer sessions, I'll be interviewing the family of Jeffrey Woodruff who disappeared and *drowned* late April 2013.

 

The athletic 25-year-old had visited Wally's Bar and Grill in Saugatuck Michigan after finishing work on April 27th. But around 10:30 PM that same night he mysteriously vanished from the pub.

 

His bruised body was found three days later at the bottom of the Kalamazoo River.

 

The Woodruffs will discuss missing voice messages, deleted video surveillance, midnight calls to 911 about "an unconscious man" in a nearby lot, odd graffiti on the waterfront, and present other forensic evidence that will help shed light on this classic-sounding Smiley Face murder. 

 

So familiarize yourself with the case of Jeffrey Woodruff in the interim, and keep an eye out for my next Q&A session, coming soon on Killing Killers.

 

You can also read more Smiley Face Killer interviews already on file in the Voices For The Dead feature. 

 

EPONYMOUS ROX

Updated from July 3, 2013

The Mysterious Disappearance of August Reiger

WHERE ON EARTH CAN AUGUST REIGER BE?

 

Father's Day, June 16, 2013, an American family of four vacationing in Ecuador takes a jungle hike together on the scenic but hilly trails overlooking the tourist town of Banos. Two brothers suddenly race up ahead ... but only one of them returns. What happened to the other? Was he kidnapped? Did he fall? Is he a runaway? Or was he murdered?

 

Fulbright scholar, class valedictorian and Oklahoma resident, August Reiger, 18, vanished in thin air on June 16th while exploring Ecuador's picturesque countryside with his mother, father and younger brother, Laithe. 

 

At one point in the trek the two boys had dashed ahead of their parents, yet, minutes later, only the youngest son rendezvoused with them again.

 

"He was sitting there waiting," explains Mr. Reiger, "but he hadn't seen his brother."

 

The steep and winding path the Reiger family took, while secluded, is a popular tourist attraction in this region, and the small town where they were staying, dependably crime free.

 

In fact, although U.S. and Ecuadoran officials are jointly investigating August Reiger's strange disappearance as an abduction, and even offering a reward to his potential kidnappers, the reality is there's never been an abduction in this area.

 

Moreover, no ransom note has been delivered...

 

Adding to the mystery, some locals have since been claiming they might've spotted the youth riding in the back of a pickup truck, apparently headed for the Amazon rainforest.

 

But others think that's a bit farfetched. They're speculating that Reiger is probably at the bottom of a ravine somewhere, his body hidden from search parties by dense foliage.

 

What do you think? Is this brilliant young man still among the living? And, if so, where?

 

Eponymous Rox

 

[Updated on 7/2/13 from July 1st to include photo of Laithe Reiger]

CSI SUNDAY: Trayvon Martin, Odin Lloyd, Skylar Neese

WITH FRIENDS LIKE THEIRS WHO NEEDS ENEMIES?

 

Killing Killers' CSI Sunday series spotlights three not-so-friendly friends making the top crime stories for the week ending June 30th, 2013.

 

 

Apart from being brutally murdered, Trayvon Martin, Odin Lloyd and Skylar Neese have something else in common, and perhaps in their horrific deaths is a lesson we all could learn from. Albeit a hard one...

 

In retrospect, say the parents of Neese, a pretty 16-year-old who disappeared in July of 2012 only to be discovered some six months later slain by her two best friends, the warning signs were glaring:

 

First, there was the formation of a tight but toxic bond with the very girls who would plot and perpetrate her stabbing death, and who, in advance, had already severed the once-popular A-student from her other classmates.

 

Second, was the emergence of a double but brief life that included deception and deviousness and began with the seemingly harmless teenage ritual of sneaking out a bedroom window.

 

Third, troubles were developing which involved the threesome's numerous late-night joyrides and, invariably, the police.

 

But all Mr. and Mrs. Neese had wanted to do in showing their daughter Skylar such leniency was to give the growing child a sense of freedom, they said.

 

Freedom to come and go -- to be trusted -- is an essential rite of passage into maturity, but, as this now-grieving couple discovered much too late, in excess it can sometimes turn deadly.

 

At age 27, however, Odin Lloyd was an adult and therefore it's safe to assume well past growing pains and angst. So his being shot to death by sports-celebrity friend Aaron Hernandez would appear, on its face, rather unexpected.

 

Except when it becomes clear that Lloyd already knew that the pro-footballer he was so enamored with had longstanding gang ties and a predilection for extreme acts of violence.

 

Indeed, investigators now suspect that Lloyd's gangland-style execution may have been orchestrated by Hernandez and his notorious cronies, Ernest Wallace and Carlos Ortiz, because the victim had knowledge of this trios' role in a previous drive-by shooting.

 

If that's true, then Lloyd didn't need deep insight or a crystal ball to gauge whether his relationship with this criminally bent crew could leave him seriously maimed or dead.

 

On the other hand, Trayvon Martin, gunned down by a rabid neighborhood watchman at the tender age of 17, fared much better at the hands of his friends.

 

At least in life anyway.

 

Now, as the trial against his killer George Zimmerman progresses, some critics are complaining that Martin's star witness and childhood confident is anything but an asset to him when she's sitting on the witness stand.

 

Some beg to differ though, saying the supposedly outlandish impudence of 19-year-old Rachel Jeantel and her mumbling patois which spectators find so incomprehensible and annoying is simply a "cultural thing."

 

That culture clash underscores the crux of the issue subtly being tried, still others are attempting to explain. Because, before justice for a butchered boy can be meted out here, the world evidently needs to know first: Who was the bigger racist, the victim or his "ass-cracking" attacker?

 

Of course, this banal debate, generated by Ms. Jeantel's sudden *eccentricity" when placed in a white-dominated judicial setting, also overshadows the obvious -- the young lady's courage and loyalty.

 

But each of the three cases featured this week on Killing Killers' CSI Sunday wrap-up definitely prove that the old adage about choosing your pals wisely still holds true today.

 

Friendship really matters. Whether you're alive or dead. 

 

EPONYMOUS ROX  

 

ARMED AND DANGEROUS: Ernest Wallace wanted for killing Odin Lloyd

UPDATE 2:30 PM 6/28/13: Suspect captured in Florida.

- noontime alert below -

 

Police have issued a bulletin for Ernest Wallace, 41, considered to be armed and dangerous and a fugitive from justice in the murder of Odin Lloyd.

 

Wallace is being actively sought at this hour as shooter #3 in the execution of Lloyd on June 17, 2013. Done at the behest of former NFL superstar Aaron Hernandez who is himself being held without bond now in a Massachusetts jail.

 

Ernest Wallace, aka 'Bo' and/or 'Fish', is dark skinned with a heavy build. He is believed to have fled in a silver or gray 2012 Chrysler 300 with Rhode Island registration number 451-375.

 

Police are asking the public to be on the lookout for this individual.

 

CAUTION: The suspect has a criminal history, is considered  armed and dangerous, and felony warrants have been issued for his arrest in assisting Aaron Hernandez and Carlos Ortiz in the murder of Odin Lloyd.

 

If anyone has any information regarding Wallace's current whereabouts, or recognizes him and/or the vehicle he was last seen driving, they are asked to immediately call the North Attleborough Police Department at (508) 695-1212.

 

This story is developing - bookmark page for all updates

 

EPONYMOUS ROX

Odin Lloyd not the only murder victim of Aaron Hernandez

According to police, Odin Lloyd isn't the only person Aaron Hernandez has gunned down during one of his lethal rages:

 

In what appears to be a gangland-style of premeditated killings, the ex-pro footballer has murdered at least two other men in cold blood, investigators now believe. Seriously injuring just as many, or more, in various drive-by shooting events.

 

In Boston, for example, it's suspected that he and a homey killed two people and wounded a third in 2012. All of whom, according to eyewitnesses, Hernandez had been in a barroom altercation with earlier that same evening.

 

With these new but not-so-surprising revelations, a troubling picture has emerged. That of a violent young man with an exceptionally short fuse who squabbles with people, usually when out partying, and then hours or even days later starts gunning for them.

 

Mass murderer Hernandez rats out accomplice

 

One night in the slammer is apparently all it took to get tattooed tough guy Aaron Hernandez to sing on his cohorts:

 

Arrested today is fellow homicidal hood Carlos Ortiz, one of two hitmen Hernandez summoned to help coerce Odin Lloyd into a vehicle on June 17, 2013, so to transport him to the designated industrial park for a preplanned execution.

 

Stupidly enough, that secluded location was virtually in the former star athlete's own backyard. And, like the three hapless victims in Boston who ate lead in his vengeful spray of bullets, Hernandez had been observed verbally accosting Lloyd in public too.

 

The ex-Patriots' tight end was miffed that his jocular buddy from the lowly semipros had the audacity to chat with some as-yet-unnamed patrons of a Rhode Island pub who Hernandez reportedly "had problems with" in the past.

 

So he seethed over the perceived slight for several days in a row before finally deciding to kill his friend.

 

Clearly a perp as demented as that is some kind of a rabid animal, not a human being at all, and his new home in a Massachusetts jail cell is where he's always belonged.

 

Regrettably, though, in that state Hernandez can't be euthanized.

Hernandez Arrested
Career Killers: Hernandez and Deen

 

EPONYMOUS ROX 

BREAKING NEWS: Aaron Hernandez arrested in murder of Odin Lloyd

BREAKING NEWS: Aaron Hernandez arrested and charged with the premeditated murder of Odin Lloyd, plus a handful of related criminal offenses, not counting obstruction of justice in destroying his home video-surveillance system and his cell phone. The accused ex-Patriots' tight end is currently being held without bail:

 

Lloyd is the 27-year-old semi-pro football player and longtime friend of Hernandez who was found murdered in gangland style near the star athlete's mansion in Attleboro Massachusetts last week.

 

Authorities say his body was found dumped at an industrial site. He'd been shot in the back of the head.

 

All week investigators have been probing the exact circumstances of Lloyd's slaying, serving search warrant after search warrant upon Aaron Hernandez and, with his high-powered attorneys looking on, questioning him at length.

 

Anonymous sources close to the investigation but not authorized to speak publicly have repeatedly stated that an arrest -- at least for obstruction of justice for destroying crucial evidence -- was imminent, and finally the footballer is in custody.

He faces murder charges as well as a half-dozen related criminal counts including ones associated with actively hindering prosecution, to which he entered a not-guilty plea today.

 

Images of a handcuffed Hernandez being placed in a police cruiser are streaming across the web right now, a predictable outcome for a troubled player with a history of violence and some questionable ties to criminal elements.

 

Although the actual events leading to the murder of Odin Lloyd are yet to be revealed, it's likely, now that one key player is apprehended, the story will soon unravel.

One thing is known for sure though: The New England Patriots wasted no time in dealing with their embattled tight end; upon news of Aaron Hernandez arrested, they fired him.

That status places the issue of the newly-released pro-football player's multi-million-dollar contract up in the air, as it's not entirely clear if he is now in forfeiture at this point, or whether he will be when or if convicted.

Either which way, it won't take the high-profile accused murderer's team of pricey attorneys very long to eat up those earnings and benefits.

 

UPDATED to include arrest image, arraignment status, murder charges, and crime details - Bookmark this post for more updates, and add your own updates or related remarks in the comment section.

 

EPONYMOUS ROX 

 

 

George Zimmerman versus Trayvon Martin

A bloated George Zimmerman, on trial at last for the killing of Trayvon Martin, placidly observed opening proceedings this week, at one point even appearing to doze off in the middle of them.

 

His astonishing weight gain and copacetic composure aside, Zimmerman still looked as belligerent as ever. Not flinching in the slightest when his lawyer ludicrously argued that he'd shot the defenseless teenager because the boy had suddenly armed himself with a deadly weapon: the sidewalk.

 

That pathetic premise, coupled with lame knock-knock jokes and a startling string of obscenities presented in both the defense and prosecution's opening arguments respectively, is already making this one of the most bizarre legal contests of the year -- at least.

 

The former neighborhood watchman slash vigilante has been charged with second-degree homicide for menacing and then slaying Martin as the teen was innocently walking home from a convenient store where he'd just purchased a soft drink and candy.

 

Zimmerman deliberately chose to stalk Martin on that day despite a 911 operator instructing him not to. He then physically confronted the unarmed teenager with a firearm, mortally wounding him in the inevitable tussle that ensued.

 

From the start, longtime wannabe-enforcer Zimmerman has sought to hide behind stand your ground protections for the crime, a controversial state statute which allows people to resort to lethal force whenever they believe their lives are threatened by an attacker.

 

But that bogus self defense claim only further enraged victim advocates and Martin supporters, since it's more than clear that the only individual who posed a serious threat the day Trayvon Martin lost his life was defiant George Zimmerman himself.

 

Zimmerman's penchant for half truths and outright lying was exposed in the earliest stages of his arrest and arraignment. In fact, the defendant even had bail revoked and was returned to jail for *fibbing* in sworn affidavits about his finances.

 

Although his trial is now finally underway, it's still too soon to say whether this remorseless murderer will ultimately prevail.

 

But somehow I think not.

 

EPONYMOUS ROX

 

Body of David Rodgers found in Wisconsin river

MURDER OR A MISSTEP?

After many fruitless searches the corpse of David Rodgers, 20, has finally been located this week, badly decomposed and snagged on debris in Wisconsin's Chippewa River. 

The University of Wisconsin sophomore inexplicably fell from a campus footbridge into the rushing waters below in mid April 2013 -- just one day before his former classmate Becky Kasper was bound and brutally bludgeoned to death by a psychotic boyfriend in Arizona.

 

Kasper and Rodgers were both 2011 graduates from Northfield High School in Northfield Minnesota, and are in fact shown together in a yearbook photo of the Varsity football team.

 

He as a player; her as a cheerleader. 

Murder most foul

 

In April 2013 Arizona State University student Becky Kasper was endeavoring to terminate her stormy relationship with Luis Soltero, age 22.

 

The two had lived together near ASU and neighbors describe their life together as one big argument. Indeed, Kasper's coworkers and employer said she often came to work covered with bruises.

 

After April 20th, however, she neither showed for work again nor attended any of her college courses, and a few days later her family, friends and neighbors learned the reason why: A deranged sounding Soltero turned himself into the police, telling them where they could find his murdered lover's remains.

 

The demented young man had handcuffed and tortured Casper before beating her face and head into a bloody pulp with an exercising dumbbell.

 

Police found Kasper's body in the couple's bathtub hidden beneath blankets and a yoga mat.

 

Soltero had also tied a plastic bag around his victim's mangled head and left a written confession before fleeing the crime scene to who knows where:

"I did not treat her right. She deserved better but never accepted it. So I had to make the choice for her. She died on 4/20 not because of drugs, but because a sociopath talked and treated her nice … I don’t know where to go from here. Do I kill again, end it with myself or become invisible."

 

Clinging for his life

 

On the evening of April 19, 2013, Wisconsin University freshman Jesse Kreger and friends were crossing a pedestrian bridge spanning the Chippewa River in Eau Claire when they spied David Rodgers desperately clinging to the guardrail.

 

"We pretty much were walking across the bridge and I saw this guy straddling the railing and I was like, this better not be what I think it is," Kreger said.

 

A spring thaw had brought the Chippewa to just a few feet below flood level and its waters were rushing and dangerous. When Rodgers fell into the deluge he disappeared with the current and hadn't been seen or heard from since.

 

It is still a mystery as to how or why the youth became so precariously poised on the footbridge to begin with...

 

EPONYMOUS ROX

Smiley Face Murder Mystery: masonic eye tattoo key to IDing John Doe

Can you solve this Smiley Face Murder mystery?

Man with all-seeing mystic eye tattoo found drowned in Harlem's river

 

 

Detectives from New York  City's police department won't say exactly how they happened to stumble upon the partially clad and decomposing body of an adult male floating near the Bronx shore of the Harlem River early this May.

 

But they are asking for assistance from the public in identifying him. Something which, for those who knew the deceased man well, should be pretty easy to do -- he's got a very distinct eye and accompanying phrase tattooed in black ink on his shoulder.

 

Police say they've found no outward indication of any trauma on the cadaver, although they're still mystified as to how the mystic-eyed gent ended up dead in the water.

 

The meaning of his compelling tattoo has them a bit stumped, too.

 

Is it emblematic of membership with the secret order of the Masons? Is it an icon borrowed from the back of a dollar bill that the man merely found intriguing?  Or is he an assassinated Illuminati?

 

No one but the Smiley Face Killers can say, at the moment. But for anybody else who may recognize this graphic image, the NYPD asks that you call their anonymous Crime Stoppers hotline at (800) 577-TIPS.

 

EPONYMOUS ROX for Killing Killers

 

Cullen Finnerty Famed College QB Found Dead

UPDATE 6/14/13:  Cullen Finnerty toxicology tests negative;
Cause and manner of athlete's death still undetermined; 
Preliminary autopsy revealed a "slightly enlarged heart"
but coroner says there was no evidence of a heart attack.

Finnerty found face down in the woods with arms spread;
Had been fleeing "two men" allegedly following his boat.

-  5/29 story below; join active case discussion via comment section -

Cullen Finnerty, 30, a former star college QB found dead while fishing on Baldwin River in Michigan: Snakebite? Suicide? Psychosis? Or just another run-of-the-mill 'Smiley Face' serial killing?

 

Finnerty spent the weekend vacationing with his family and, in a classic Smiley Face Killer scenario -- absent an outright drowning -- somehow got  separated from them on Sunday, May 26th, while boating downriver.

 

Shortly thereafter the panicked-sounding athlete cellphoned his wife to vaguely inform her he was "in danger." He then left his watercraft and fled on foot into the adjacent woods ... promptly disappearing.

 

A massive search in those dense and swampy woodlands ensued, and the young man's corpse was found three days later. He was still wearing his waders and cammies.

 

Autopsy results are pending, but Michigan authorities are already insisting there was "no foul play" involved in the famous college quarterback's premature death. Ostensibly because there are no apparent indications of trauma on his body.

 

They also emphasize, rather self-consciously, that he "was not found in the water."

 

That's because Cullen Finnerty is but one of hundreds of males between 17 and 30 to weirdly vanish under similarly suspicious circumstances over the past 16 years, only to be found deceased days, weeks or months later in or near a lake, creek, pond, stream, or river.

 

In fact, Finnerty's sinister disappearance matches the following sampling of missing/found drowned cases documented for the month of May alone:

 

May 5, 2013 - Oklahoma: The body of Jerry Lytle, 22, was discovered floating face down in a local creek. Police state the young man disappeared following an altercation with friends and was found in the water a few days later. Foul play is therefore being investigated.

 

May 6th - Indiana: While searching for a male reported to be missing, searchers found the cadaver of a man in a nearby pond. Officals say it's not clear if this unidentified victim is the same person they were looking for, as an ID is still pending.

May 9th - Arkansas: The body of a young adult male found floating in a Polk County pond has been identified as that of missing 19-year-old Benjamin Wahl. Officials say the exact cause of his death is still unknown.

 

May 12th - Texas: The man recently discovered dead beneath a Medina River bridge has been identified as Mohamad Taiym. Foul play is strongly suspected, police say, because the 23-year-old vanished under suspicious circumstances. His car is still missing.

 

May 15th - Washington: Officials state that the body found in one of their coastal rivers is that of 30-year-old Jake Simons, missing since April 5 2013. They "know of no medical reason" why the man disappeared and drowned, they've claimed.

 

May 18th - Illinois: Officials have confirmed that the decomposed corpse of an adult male found in a local lake is that of Matt Pulis, the 31-year-old man who had suddenly gone missing in October 2012 during a night out with his coworkers and friends.

 

May 19th - Michigan: Forensic analysis of the remains of an unknown male found drowned in Thornapple River are being compared to local missing person reports in hopes of identifying the victim. The nature of John Doe's death has not been announced yet.

 

May  24th -  South Carolina:  Authorities have identified the body of a man found in Lake Welchel as Terry Lynn Martin Jr. The  29-year-old's disappearance was reported by his family and is considered suspicious, although his cause of death has not yet been determined.

May 26th - Georgia: The body of Calvin Cunningham, 19, has been found in an Augustan canal, after he was reported missing only days earlier. A local police officer claims to have sighted Cunningham and then pursued him on foot, but then he says the teen fled and even "jumped in the lake" to elude capture ... so he removed Cunningham from the missing persons databank. Further details concerning this case are being withheld pending a full investigation.

 

May 26th - New York: The badly decomposed corpse of an unidentified male was pulled out of the Hudson River. The body was discovered just 20 blocks south of the George Washington Bridge, the area where Curtis Aukshunas, 25, was said to have been sighted just before he mysteriously vanished on May 8, 2013.

 

May 28th - Michigan: Following an intensive search for him, '30-year-old Cullen Finnerty college QB found dead near Baldwin River', search-and-rescuers have just announced. The star athlete vanished without a trace after placing a distress call to his spouse in which he stated a belief that he was imminently "in danger." A cause of death is unknown at this time, authorities are stating.

May 28th - Arizona: The "fully clothed" body of 21-year-old Gerrick Begay was discovered floating in Tempe Town Lake, the same river basin where a number of other men his age have similarly been found over the past few years. Police are investigating and autopsy results are still pending.

May 29th - Alaska: Authorities say the remains of a young adult male retrieved from an Alaskan lake have been tentatively identified as those of Shanon Lovell, a resident of Anchorage. The 30-year-old had been reported missing after attending a party in early October 2012.

May 29th - California: Marine patrol deputies were dispatched to Konocti Bay in Clear Lake to retrieve the drowned body of 31-year-old Cuong Minh Tran, missing a few days prior after allegedly visiting his friend. Autopsy results and a cause of death are still pending.

May 31st - Pennsylvania: Rescue divers and homocide detectives from the Pittsburgh Police Department were called to the shores of the Ohio river after a boater spied the rotting corpse of 25-year-old Vijay Rajaputana floating in the water. No report yet on the cause or manner of death.
  

(NOTE: This is a partial list; more cases will be added as additional IDs and CODs as determined. Bookmark to follow and be sure to also check out April 2013's victims as well. Use the comment sections to send notice of other cases or updates on existing ones.)