The Colleen Ritzer Murder: Is Philip Chism a Serial Killer?

The investigation into the murder of Colleen Ritzer, 24, by her student Philip Chism, 14, continues. But are police asking the right questions?

"Officer Hovey conducted a pat frisk for safety reasons and discovered that Philip Chism had a knife on his person ... [he then] inventoried the contents of Philip Chism's backpack and a bloodstained box cutter was found. Officer Hovey asked the defendant where the blood on the box cutter came from. Chism responded, "The girl." Also located from the possessions of Mr. Chism were many credit cards and two Massachusetts Driver's licenses belonging to Colleen Ritzer ... a pair of woman's bluish/green sheer underwear were found in Chism's backpack as well...

"A search of the school grounds and adjacent wooded area were conducted in the early morning hours of October 23, 2012. The body of Colleen Ritzer was subsequently found in a wooded area near the school. ... Detective Robert Sullivan of the Danvers Police observed the body and he said that it was found in a supine position covered with leaves and debris in manner consistent with attempts to hide the body ... The victim's throat was slit. A green recycle bin consistent with what was observed in the video was found approximately twenty yards from Colleen Ritzer's body. Detective Sullivan said that the victim's shirt was lifted above her breasts, and the bra pulled below her breast. No clothing was observed on the victim's body from the waist down. 

"He also advised me that the victim's legs were spread apart and slightly bent in what appeared to be a 'sexually staged' or 'sexually positioned' manner. He said that he also observed what appeared to be an approximate three foot long by inch in diameter [sic] barkless tree branch inserted into her..." READ MORE HERE

MISSING PERSON ALERT: Jesse Larson

BREAKING NEWS: The body of Jesse Larson has been found on the family farm in Crosby Minnesota today. The young man disappeared this past summer while hunting and hadn't been seen or heard from since. Condolences go out to the family who never gave up searching for their lost loved one. Read FULL COVERAGE HERE and the original missing person report below.

7/20/13: Killing Killers is re-posting this 7/2/13 missing person alert for Jesse Larson who disappeared from his rural property in Crosby, Minnesota under unusual circumstances on the 20th of June 2013.

The 27-year-old's family has been concerned for his welfare ever since his black Labrador, Annie, returned home in somewhat ragged condition, just days after the two had ventured by truck into the woodlands together, presumably to go hiking or hunting.

Thereafter, the Larsons conducted a search on their own and discovered another of their dogs inside the missing man's abandoned vehicle.

That was almost two weeks ago and though police performed a few flybys over the young man's last known location, as of the date this missing person alert was published, they have yet to launch a ground search for him.

Typical in these cases, Larson's has received scant attention from the media as well, although Senator Udall's missing brother, gone less than a week while hiking in Wyoming, is currently making front page news today.

The city of Crosby Minnesota, where Citizen Larson hails from, was once known for its rich deposits of iron and commercial mining enterprises. As a result, there are many old mines and ore pits still to be found throughout the area, some of which could potentially pose hazards.

Larson, 27, is described as a Caucasian male, about 5'9" tall and 175 pounds, with brown hair. He is believed to be wearing jeans, a tee shirt, and brown work boots. Anyone who knows what happened to him and/or his current whereabouts is urged to contact the Crow Wing County Sheriff’s Office at 218-829-4749.
 

Eponymous Rox

[Updated 2:57 PM from 10:05 AM to include Facebook link]
[Updated at 8:15 AM on July 20, 2013 - STILL MISSING]
[Updated November 23, 2013 - Jesse Larson found dead]

Shellie Zimmerman Says George Zimmerman Is Berserk

Shellie Zimmerman, the estranged wife of Trayvon Martin's killer, claims George Zimmerman has gone wacko since being acquitted of the unarmed Florida teen's assault and murder last summer.

She also said that, on the night preceding that infamous shooting, she'd actually left her husband because he once again ridiculed her in public, adding that "life would be very different now" if she hadn't foolishly returned to his aid in the aftermath of the contentious killing.

Zimmerman, who's had regular brushes with the law both before and after that undeniably life-altering event, was once more detained and arrested this month on charges of domestic violence.

This time it involved a live-in girlfriend who he allegedly threatened at gunpoint when she attempted to throw him out of her apartment. 

According to the woman, he also deliberately broke some of her possessions.

Weeks ago repeat offender George Zimmerman narrowly escaped similar charges from Shellie Zimmerman herself when he assaulted her and her father at their home whilst brandishing a firearm.

Read more about the latest incident here.

MISSING IN ILLINOIS: Emmanuel Dominguez

BREAKING NEWS 11/21: Missing Chicago bartender Emmanuel Dominguez ID'd as beaten, stabbed and burnt body found in Gary Indiana. Full news coverage HERE. Original story below:

MISSING PERSON ALERT: Emmanuel 'Manny' Dominguez, 30, has been missing in Illinois since leaving a Halloween party last month with his ex-girlfriend and associates.

His car was found abandoned a few days later, but apparently there were no clues inside or around the vehicle to aid the young man's worried family members and investigators.

Now, as Dominguez's uncharacteristic absence nears the one month mark, the worst is being feared, and his loved ones are desperately trying to get the word out about "Manny's" odd disappearance.

Emmanuel Dominguez is employed as a bartender at the Dana Hotel on Chicago’s Near North Side. 

He is described as a 5-foot-8 light skinned male, approximately 175 pounds, with dark hair and brown eyes.

Investigators say the 30-year-old attended a Halloween party at a warehouse near Damen and Walnut in the West Town neighborhood on October 31st.

That's where he ran into a former girlfriend and then left with her and her associates by car for Bucktown.
 

Along the way, Dominguez reportedly got out of the automobile, the woman claims. His cell phone last pinged at the intersection of Division and Halsted.

Anyone who sees this missing person or knows of his current whereabouts is urged to call 911 or the Summit Police Department at 708-458-1313.

E.R.

BREAKING NEWS: Missing McStay Family Finally Found

The mysterious disappearance of the McStay family in 2010 appears to have finally been solved -- California police announced today that they believe they've just uncovered the missing foursome's skeletal remains.

The doomed couple and their two young children had all been buried in shallow graves. 

Autopsy results are still pending, but officials have already stated that the victims' deaths were apparently due to homicide.

That sad find was made in the sands of the Southern California desert, not too far from where the McStay's had originally vanished.

Over the past three years investigators pursued hundreds of tips in an effort to solve the McStay family's inexplicable disappearance, eventually drawing the conclusion that they'd abruptly left their San Diego home for Mexico.

In fact, adding to the riddle of their sudden departure, and helping to bolster the official theory of a voluntary absence, the McStay family vehicle had been found parked at the Mexican border. 

Authorities were further convinced that four people seen on poor-quality surveillance video entering at the Tijuana checkpoint on foot together in 2010 were the McStays.

But it now looks like they were dead wrong.

Posted 11/15/13: Story is developing; bookmark for more updates.
Update 11/18: Did serial killer Israel Keyes slay the McStays?
ISRAEL KEYES STRIKES AGAIN

Montana Bride Played Blindman's Bluff to Kill Hubby

The case against killer Montana bride takes another ghastly twist:

If the murder case of Montana bride Jordan Graham wasn't odd enough, it's about to get even stranger, as prosecutors now try to prove she not only shoved her new husband over the edge of a cliff, but blindfolded him first.

Initially Graham, 22, had misled police about her groom's mysterious disappearance and subsequent death, saying she had seen new husband Cody Johnson, 25, drive away one afternoon with his friends, never to return again.

Then, four days later, the bad Montana bride told a ranger in nearby Glacier National Park that she had in fact located Johnson's body herself  -- lying bruised and bloody at the bottom of a rocky ravine.

"It was a place he wanted to see before he died,” she then explained to puzzled investigators.

Not long after this weird episode and gruesome discovery, Jordan Graham, who'd previously expressed serious doubts about getting married, was booked for ...

Health Crisis Looms in Philippines: 'Help Us'

The situation in storm-ravaged Philippines is drastically worsening, as a bottleneck of aid workers and supplies in the decimated city of Tacloban and surrounding areas threatens to produce more fatalities than the 10,000+ already feared from Typhoon Haiyan:

Deaths from disease, starvation and neglected injuries will soon begin to mount if the massive numbers of displaced Filipinos cannot find food, water, shelter and medicine pronto, warn humanitarian agencies familiar with the issues and logistics of administering disaster relief to stricken countries.

And, logistically, the destruction to the central Philippines is an apocalyptic nightmare, they say, with barely any structures spared by the unprecedented super-storm, and rotting corpses everywhere.

Understandably, survivors have grown desperate, and even ill, awaiting much needed assistance that seemingly won't come to them. And, realistically, it's only a question of days -- or maybe even only hours -- before the island nation's worse catastrophe becomes a full blown public health crisis.

Thus, today, among the miles of rubble, carnage and decay, those Filipinos who can still stand are painting SOSs or waving placards in hopes of being saved.

"Help us," they all proclaim.

 

 

Can't donate? Then please share this slideshow and charity links.

Philippines Typhoon Haiyan Leaves Corpses In Trees

Officials in the Philippines fear super Typhoon Haiyan has killed tens of thousands of citizens, and the Red Cross projects that the lives of about 1.7 million children there have been severely impacted:

As global warming rapidly escalates now, causing, among other things, massive droughts in Africa and widespread flooding in Asia, there's little doubt the world's poorest are reeling from the excesses of the wealthiest.

In fact, global warming experts say the largest contributor by far to the problem is mighty United States itself, which, annually, produces more than one-third of all greenhouse gases.

This weekend we saw firsthand the kind of apocalyptic devastation that runaway wastefulness and resulting climate change will be bringing us -- in the form of more frequent super storms like the one that just decimated the Philippines.

The force of Typhoon Haiyan, now heading straight for Vietnam, was measured to be 3.5 times that of Louisiana's hurricane Katrina. And in its wake it left destruction of epic proportions; smashing buildings like matchsticks and flinging drowned corpses into the trees...

READ ABOUT THE STORM'S DAMAGES HERE 

Dr. Martin MacNeill GUILTY of Drugging and Drowning Wife

A Utah jury has just declared Dr. Martin MacNeill guilty of drugging and drowning his wife six years ago, as well as obstructing justice.

Jurists unanimously decided that MacNeill had indeed planned and committed the killing of his 50-year-old spouse, simply so he could take up full time with a much younger mistress. 

In a widely watched murder trial a number of key prosecution witnesses, including one of the victim's older daughters, testified that, in anticipation of killing his unwanted wife, the diabolical doctor encouraged her to have extensive plastic surgery, with the aim of staging her drug overdose.

Michele MacNeill was soon thereafter found drowned to death in a bathtub at the MacNeill residence. Her daughter, Ada, who was 6 at the time, found her dead in the tub after returning from school that day.

The traumatized girl had told investigators that the bathwater "was brown" and her mother fully clothed in it.

Initially medical examiners, finding excessive amounts of more than one painkiller in Michele MacNeill's system, deemed her drowning an accident. 

But when widower MacNeill swiftly moved a longtime lover into his home only nine days later -- giving the woman a marriage proposal and a costly engagement ring as well -- it rightfully aroused suspicions.

The doctor's paramour, who goes by the name of Gypsy Willis, was purportedly "hired as a nanny" for Ada MacNeill, although family and neighbors observed that, apart from making a spaghetti dinner for the child once, the woman spent most of her time there in the doctor's bedroom.

Dr. Martin MacNeill is, of course, not the only murderous medicine man ever to have harbored evil in his heart and malice aforethought for an unsuspecting mate.

In July 2013 neouroscientist Dr. Robert Ferrante was arrested for poisoning his wife with cyanide because he feared she was about to divorce him.

Eponymous Rox, reporting for Killing Killers from an undisclosed bunker somewhere in the Northland.

MISSING IN WISCONSIN (and found in Mexico 9 years later)

The story of a teenager mysteriously missing in Wisconsin for almost a decade, but resurfacing this week alive and well in Mexico, gives many families with similar cases cause for hope:

Connie McCallister was 16 when she disappeared in 2004. Now 25, she told police she'd been drugged at a party by an abusive boyfriend who then whisked her away to Mexico against her will.

That relationship soon ended, leaving the girl stranded in an impoverished area of a foreign country she was unfamiliar with, but eventually McCallister adapted to the new situation, marrying and having kids of her own.

This year, grown and yearning to finally return home, she made contact with the American authorities who'd been searching for her on and off since she disappeared and explained what had happened.

The wife and mother of three is currently in the process of being reunited with a relieved and overjoyed family in the U.S. and arranging for her Mexican husband to also join her here.

Statistically, the chances of someone going missing in Wisconsin -- or anywhere -- and showing up nine years later alive are quite slim. So Connie McCallister's surprising tale of survival today has renewed the dashed hopes of many who've long been searching for their lost loved ones in vain.

The Killing Killers news site aids those searching for the missing: Read next about the hunt for missing teen Abigail Hernandez who just disappeared from New Hampshire on October 9th 2013, and follow the still unsolved case of Jessica Heeringa, 26 of Michigan, who was abducted from her workplace this past spring.

E.R.

BREAKING NEWS: More Arrests in Mississippi Family Slayings

BREAKING NEWS IN MISSISSIPPI FAMILY SLAYINGS:  Police have arrested a second male suspect in the gunshot deaths of a missing Mississippi family this week.

Cedric D. Mason, 30 of Jackson, was charged with two counts of capital murder and two counts of kidnapping late last night. 

Mississippian authorities say they are still trying to determine the precise events that led up to the triple homicide of Atira Hughes-Smith, her 7-year-old son Jaidon Hill and husband Lattery Smith, but indicate that Mason criminally acted in concert with 42-year-old Timothy Burns already in custody.

Burns originally led police to the family-of-three's dead bodies, after which he was arrested on suspicion of murder. 

He has been charged with two counts of murder and arson -- investigators believe it was Burns himself who wrecked the SUV of the missing Mississippi family and then set it on fire to destroy evidence.

It is not clear if the victims were in the vehicle with him at the time, when they were all actually killed, or if the three were somehow connected to the suspects. 

The motive for the slayings also remains unknown at this time, although police continue to investigate.

"The preliminary investigation indicates Laterry Smith was murdered in a house in southwest Jackson. The crimes were committed in Hinds and Copiah counties and the district attorneys in those jurisdictions are conferring on the best manner to move forward with the prosecution of Mason and Burns," a department spokesman reported tonight.

"We have theories," he added, "but the investigation will ferret out the facts."

ONCE AND FOR ALL: Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito ARE Innocent

Italy's trial #3 of Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito flails and fails to prove she's a homicidal seductress, or he her murderous slave ... but that isn't going to put an end to their persecution:

This is because, more than just trying to pin Meredith Kercher's brutal rape and murder in Perugia on the pretty American and her hapless ex-lover, Italy's legal and law enforcement community is actually trying to save their own self-sullied reputations.

That'll be quite a task now, however, since they've made fools of themselves. In front of the whole world exposing not only their corruption and unjust criminal *justice* system, but the extremely dangerous misogyny that informs their draconian mindset regarding women.

Especially the much-too-libertine ones who hail from the USA.

Thus, the relentless pursuit of two obvious innocents via a ridiculously perverse prosecution theory about some "sex game gone wrong" as well as the outright vicious character assassination of an American beauty Italy just loves to hate.

And trial after trial after trial.

Evidently, in the Italians' seemingly endless quest to redeem their hopelessly tarnished image over the Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito debacle, they've completely forgotten that these two innocent youngsters were both falsely imprisoned for years.

Enough already -- time to move on, Italy -- nothing more to see here.

E.R.

JONATHAN MARTIN: Richie Incognito versus Dolphins' Coaches

In bullying Jonathan Martin off the field, Richie Incognito accuses his coaches of ordering the abuse -- what did the Dolphins know, and when did they know it?

Mention bullies and it conjures images of school children heartlessly picking on their less popular peers, not grown men -- really, really grown men -- harassing their teammates to the point of quitting.

But, as if the NFL doesn't have enough problems already with rogue players like Aaron Hernandez, illegal hits, and repeat concussions, locker-room bullying is the latest kind of vexing behavior the league is being forced to publicly atone for this week.

Making matters worse, in the Dolphins' Jonathan Martin / Richie Incognito contest, a number of the team's head honchos, such as coach Joe Philbin, stand accused today of actually inciting the out-of-bounds bullying that forced newbie Martin to walk away.

At least that's what disgraced and discharged Incognito now claims ... Read my special coverage of this developing story here.

E.R.

BREAKING NEWS: Missing Mississippi Family Was Murdered

Police say they have a 42-year-old man in custody for the triple homicide of a missing Mississippi family of three that had inexplicably vanished over the weekend.

The bodies of all three members of that missing family -- including a small child -- were found this afternoon in an abandoned house not far from where their car had been discovered ablaze in a ditch on Saturday morning.

Each had been shot to death multiple times.

Authorities searching for the three missing persons were already bracing for the worse ever since recovering the family's personal items, smeared with blood, from a nearby dumpster on Monday morning.

This afternoon, police and FBI questioned a prime suspect in the family's disappearance who, they claim, then willingly led them to the bullet-riddled corpses of the missing Mississippi family. 

Shortly thereafter, that same individual was arrested on suspicion of ... read more of this breaking news story here.

MISSISSIPPI MYSTERY: Family of Three Missing After Fiery Crash

Mississippi police and the FBI continue the quest to find a family missing after their car was mysteriously found afire and personal items later spotted in a nearby dumpster.

MISSING PERSONS ALERT: A frantic search for a family missing after a weird roadside accident and fire is currently underway in Copiah County, Mississippi.
  

The missing trio's overturned SUV was found ablaze at the side of a main highway on Saturday morning, and some of their belongings were later discovered by a vagrant in a nearby dumpster.
 

Those items were said to be smeared with blood, some media outlets are now reporting.

Thirty-year-old Atira Hughes-Smith, her 7-year-old son Jaidon Hill, and her husband 34-year-old Laterry Smith vanished into thin air shortly after Hughes-Smith telephoned her loved ones on Friday night to say the three were leaving town together for the weekend.

That trip was evidently unplanned and authorities now suspect foul play in the threesome's uncharacteristic disappearance because ... read and share the rest of this special bulletin here.

"I'm really good at killing people" Obama brags

Hardly sounding like the leader of a first-world democracy, the latest Obama boast "I'm really good at killing people" may be too over the top for even his most diehard supporters to defend.

And dying hard goes to the crux of the matter when we're talking drone strikes on civilians.

A number of White House aides recently confirmed in a scathing new biography about the Kenyan-born American president that if it seems Barack Obama is a bit trigger-happy, well, that's not a coincidence.

"I'm really good at killing people" the unabashedly bloodthirsty commander-in-chief was overheard bragging in the Oval Office one day. 

Bloody Barry already *enjoys* the worst record on free speech and privacy rights of any U.S. president to date. And with damaging disclosures from former defense contractor Edward Snowden being leaked almost every single week now, he really can't afford anymore embarrassing revelations.

Obama's approval rating is already at an all time low, and continues to steadily plummet.

Rightly so, human rights advocates state, because the unconscionable conduct of President Obama, and his perverse pride about those shameless ways, is scarily on par with that of many third world dictators.

Maybe even worse, since this would-be-king is pilfering the tax dollars of the richest nation on the globe to achieve his evil objectives.

Do you think the president's murderous boasts are shocking and undignified? Call the Washington hotline at 202-456-1111 and let him know today!

CSI SUNDAY: Severed Finger Points Coppers To Copper Thief

Today's CSI SUNDAY spotlight proves (again) that some criminals are stupid and some criminals are unlucky ... and some are a combination of the two:

That would obviously describe 29-year-old Joshua Goverman perfectly -- on the evening of October 7th the would be petty thief was inexpertly attempting to abscond with a spool of copper wire when his fingers got caught in it.

During the botched burglary and ensuing struggle to free his hand, he inadvertently lost one of his digits, taking a moment to photograph the grisly spectacle for Facebook before hastily leaving the severed finger behind at the scene entangled in the wiring.

When the owner of the spool returned in the morning he spied the young man's mangled fingertip in a snarl of copper wires and called the police.

"It was caught on the tire here and I went to the sidewalk," he said. "And that's where I found the finger on the end."

CSI detectives arrived, retrieved the severed finger and promptly sent it for forensic analysis and fingerprinting.

"They took a popsicle stick and were able to attach it to that finger, and they were able to roll that finger and get a print..."

Which then led to the arrest of the now nine-fingered Joshua Goverman a week later.

The estimated value of his bungled copper haul would have been no more than 300 dollars.