She Was Murdered

by David Howard

DavidHoward@aol.com

By looking at the victims of murder and listening to their survivors, we may find a way out. —Eric Schlosser

1

You can’t understand until it happens to you.

The families of murder victims—the survivors—often say this with the grave conviction that they are right and the forlorn hope that they are wrong.

They wish we could, but they know we don’t, won’t and can’t understand.

Until it happens to us.

God forbid.

If we could understand, it is reasonable to suppose, we’d do something about their anguish and their plight.

We’d help.

Or at least we’ll show some respect.

“Murder is not entertainment.”

2

Survivors know we can’t understand, in part, because they remember how they didn’t understand until it happened to them.

They once were us. Unscathed.

Inviolate.

Safe.

But the murderer—-oblivious-—changed them.

Forever.

All murder is mass murder. The mortal wound seeps to brother, sister, friend, mother, cousin, lover.

Murder infects the bloodstream, dreamstream, soulstream.

All murder is molestation, epitomizing the most inappropriate of touching.

Omnirape.

The invasion and annihilation of the heart, mind, voice.

3

Murder is filthy.

Smelly.

Slimy.

Hideous.

Final.

4

Only the voicelessness of the victim and the imperfect pitch—the murmur and gasp—of the survivor make murder intimate, palpable, audible, human.

Numbers numb. Who can empathize with six million Holocausted Jews, ten million slaves wasted on the Middle Passage to America?

Numbers numb.

We empathize with one.

Or one at a time.

Anne Frank must stand for the Jews.

Kim Phuc, naked, napalmed, on the run, must stand for 4,000,000 Vietnamese.

Let each female here remembered stand for our dead: murdered mother, murdered daughter.

She needs us; we need her.

We need to pick up her scent.

5

In 1963 the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama was attacked by terrorists.

An eleven-year old girl, Carol McNair, and three fourteen-year-olds, Addie Mae Collins, Carole Robertson and Cynthia Wesley, were murdered.

Martin Luther King—-five years before his own murder-—spoke at their funeral.

The girls, King explained, “have something to say.”

“They say to us that we must be concerned not merely about who murdered them, but about the system, the way of life, the philosophy which produced the murderers.”

“Death is not a blind alley,” Reverend King told the girls’ parents, “It’s an open door.”

6

The best among us open a door, close a wound.

We hold a survivor’s hand for as long as it takes.

It takes forever.

* * *

The mediocre among us—me, maybe you—are appalled by murder and its industries, the facile killing porn.

The least we can do is abstain: from the smirk of our culture, infatuated with murderer swagger, blithely sowing murder seed.

We, the mediocre, cringe and cover our ears.

* * *

The good among us labor on. Some are compelled; some are compassionate; some are gifted.

Some are just doing their job: teachers, psychologists, sociologists, criminologists, physicians and nurses, police officers, legislators, chaplains, journalists, attorneys, judges, activists, advocates, counselors, first responders, and—most of all—the survivors themselves.

* * *

The worst among us revel and profit in murder.

Then, the murderer rises: huffing, puffing, snuffing, annihilating.

For every murder there is an implicit lynch mob—lookie lous, investors, pimps, enablers, purveyors.

7

The survivors guide us, even when they are misguided. Most often they are not. They are just us. Imperfect, dazed, overwhelmed, aching.

Just us, the day after. The decade after. The lifetime after.

Like four Birmingham girls laid out in plain coffins, they have “something to say.”

8

Is there a light within us capable of healing the pain of life after murder?

Is there a darkness within us capable of reckless disregard, depraved indifference, heinous premeditation with malice aforethought?

Murder one. Murder two. Personslaughter.

How heinous? How depraved? How indifferent?

Jurors in capital cases are instructed to consider and calculate the mitigating and aggravating features of a murder.

The Supreme Court of Florida:

"It is our interpretation that heinous means extremely wicked or shockingly evil; that atrocious means outrageously wicked and vile; and, that cruel means designed to inflict a high degree of pain with utter indifference to, or even enjoyment of, the suffering of others.”

* * *

In 1985 Cristy was a 13-year old paper girl, making her rounds in Tempe, Arizona. Donald, an apartment custodian on her paper route, abducted, sexually assaulted and suffocated Cristy. He kept her body for three days, and when she started to smell bad, he threw her out, behind the building’s trash dumpster.

At death, the body begins to decompose. Bacteria go to work on the tissues and by 24 to 36 hours the smell of rotting flesh appears and the skin takes on a progressive greenish-red color. By 3 days, gas forms in the body cavities and beneath the skin, which may leak fluid and split (Dr. Douglas Lyle).

* * *

In 1998, at a motel in Bullhead City, Michael was babysitting Shelby, his girlfriend’s 19-month-old daughter. Michael told police that Shelby fell out of bed and stopped breathing. Doctors at the hospital, however, reported that Shelby had suffered anal and vaginal trauma. A medical examiner concluded that Shelby died from blunt force trauma or suffocation. Michael then admitted he had placed his index finger in Shelby’s vagina and rectum. Later, he admitted that it had actually been his penis. Finally, he confessed that he also put his hand over Shelby's mouth to “stop her crying.”

* * *

In September of 1994, Eugene claimed that he woke up and found a dead woman in his bedroom. She was 39-year old Karen, the mother of a seven-year-old girl. Karen’s nipple had been cut off. She suffered major trauma to her vagina and rectal area. Her nose was broken and she had a two-inch cut that exposed her skull. She was covered in blood and fecal matter. A bloody steak knife was found on the bathroom sink. A bloodstained brass pipe and a broom handle were found in the living room. These instruments are believed to have caused Karen’s vaginal and rectal injuries. Eugene claimed he had no idea what happened. He said he had been drinking, but his blood samples showed no presence of drugs or alcohol.

* * *

Michael’s murder of Shelby, Donald’s murder of Cristy and Eugene’s murder of Karen all met Arizona’s aggravation standard of being “especially cruel, heinous and depraved.”

9

Is there—within us—an absolute zero vacuity of conscience? The sociopathic killer.

A relentless sadist? The psychopathic killer.

Will glimpsing—within ourselves—the potential for this sin (what else can we call it?) exorcise it? Keep it at bay? Teach us to forgive? Make us better?

* * *

Should we forgive?

Yes.

But there is nothing harder.

* * *

Should the murderer live, recover, breathe another 50 years, another 450,000,000 breaths, after her last breath?

Yes. For we have forgiven him.

There is nothing harder.

10

Incantations

Serial murder. Spree murder. Rampage murder. Multiple murder. Mass murder. Proxy murder. Contract murder. Drive-by murder. Intimate partner murder. Revenge murder. Thrill murder. Initiation murder. Sexual murder.

Random murder.

The irregular verb: Slay, slew, slain.

Infanticide, fratricide, matricide, patricide, filicide, eldercide, genocide.

Femicide.

Instruments: blunt object, sharp object, firearm, finger, fist.

Murder: Origin Old English morder, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch moord and German mord, from an Indo-European root shared by Sanskrit mará death and Latin mors; reinforced in Middle English by Old French murdre.— Oxford American Dictionary.

11

You can’t understand until it happens to you.

But I want to understand, and I don’t want it to happen to me.

I want everyone to understand, so it happens to fewer of us.

I believe that if we do understand, deeply, we will prevent it from happening to others.

If one of us understands, and if that understanding helps prevent the death of another one of us, it’s worth a book of murders.

12

“A culture of murder surrounds us, like a dark, poisonous cloud,” Schlosser says.

We, in our safety, real or merely presumed, line up to buy a ticket.

We send our children to murder’s amusement park. We buy them toy guns, sporting guns, real guns. We give them murder simulator games for Christmas.

We sing them femicide hymns:

Don’t you get it, Bitch? No one can hear you. Now shut the fuck up and get what’s coming to you. Bleed, bitch, bleed (Eminem).

In the video game Duke Nukem you can shoot naked and bound prostitutes.

In Postal, you can randomly shoot anyone—people coming out of church or members of the high school band.

In Postal 2, you get to chop a woman's head off with a shovel. While another woman begs for her life, you urinate on her.

Vince Desi, the developer of Postal, says he's just trying to make people laugh, provide them with fun.

13

Do we think our voyeurism, our acting out, our pre-adolescentization of murder is a game, a talisman, a vaccine? Is murdertainment the opium of the masses or the crack cocaine? Stimulant or sedative?

Do we propitiate the murder god by watching televised reenactments, or do we procure future victims for him by rearing assassins? Are we pimps of our grandchildren?

Or, is it all just fun?

14

Are we inured to murder?

Scared to death? Stun-gunned?

Aroused or de-libidinized?

There is a murder every half hour in the United States.

Who were the 15 slain last night while we slept?

According to Schlosser, there are more murderers in the United States than doctors, college professors or police officers.

15

Each victim teaches me something different.

But not how to stop bullets or resurrect the dead.

Prevention, intervention, enforcement, litigation, legislation, incarceration, forgiveness, rehabilitation?

Yes, but not now. Not here.

This book is cemetery and sanctuary. A bell tolling for her. A candle.

16

A Footnote

Empathy precedes and supercedes principles.

Nevertheless, I feel obliged to articulate a principle:

I believe it is morally wrong to intentionally take the life of another human being.

There are three ways to do it: war, capital punishment and murder.

All wrong.

Gandhi said, “I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent.”

Einstein said, “I believe in taking a holy oath never to participate in any act of violence.”

* * *

This book is not about oaths, objections or lofty moral judgments.

It is about her.

17

This is a book about femicide in our country. The victims range in age from 3 months to 84 years.

If you count the pregnancies, the age of the fetuses ranges from four weeks to nearly nine months.

The murders occurred between 1926 and 2006.

18

On what grounds these exhumations?

I mean to respect and love these women.

I mean to apologize.

On behalf of humanity.

We are sorry.

19

A Note on Method

I started out googling the exact phrase “She was murdered.”

“She was 18 years old when she was murdered and her body burned to ashes.”

“Before she was murdered, [she] was raped and sodomized.”

“She was murdered by her boyfriend…”

“She was murdered by the Klan.”

“Even after 50 years, he can’t understand why she was murdered.”

“She was murdered protecting her land.”

“She was murdered on the Reservation.”

“She was murdered trying to hitch a ride to Boston.”

“She was murdered on Tuesday.”

This is an easy book to write. There is a surfeit of raw material, raw meat.

* * *

In 2004 there were 16,137 murders in the United States.

70% of the murders involved guns.

An average of 8 or 9 females were murdered every day.

Most murder victims know their assailant.

One out of three sleeps with him.

* * *

There is bias in “random” Internet searches. First, there’s the bias of the English language. Second, there’s the bias of notoriety. Or the bias of a “compelling” story that appeals to journalists. White victims are reported on much more frequently than victims of color. Eroticized murder sells; young and pretty victims and killers get more media attention.

On the Internet it’s survival of the fittest. Even among the dead.

There is the bias of sensationalism—the spectacularly brutal.

All murder is spectacularly brutal.

Politics complicates murder coverage. I have been cautious about politicized cases.

The murders chronicled here occurred in the USA or to US citizens outside the USA.

Some cases are settled in law but still disputed by the parties involved. Often the perpetrator’s version differs from the law enforcement version; witness narratives differ. I have tried to avoid cases where “alleged” would have been the most prudent phrasing.

Many of the sources are newspaper accounts. But sometimes I ignored the media in favor of a loved one’s remembrance. Often the strongest voice is the survivor, writing in first person.

The book is divided into six sections: Infants and Toddlers (age three and under); Children (ages four through twelve); Teenagers; Adults (ages 20-50); Elders (over 50); Multiples.

None of the murders are composites. Each is an individual case.

Nothing is embellished. No names are changed.

Often I clicked to additional links and made expanded searches from the “She was murdered” point of departure—to follow-up, fact-check, add detail, learn an outcome.

I experimented with search terms. Eventually, I discovered I could search under virtually any first name and get quite a few hits:

“Maria was murdered; Marta was murdered; Miriam was murdered; Myra was murdered; Myrna was murdered” etc.

Try it with your own name, your mother’s, your daughter’s. It’s quite remarkable.

* * *

The nuclear bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki resulted in the immediate deaths of perhaps 200,000 civilians. Some of those human beings who vanished—vaporized to carbon dust—left ghostly images on the ground.

I want to show the ghostly images of our slower degradation.

I wrote this book not for a cause but to cause contemplation.

I wrote it to prevent a murder. Myra’s, Maria’s, Marta’s, Miriam’s, Mary’s. My mother’s. Your girlfriend’s. His sister’s. Her daughter’s.

This book is a prayer.

ADULTS

Pam

Johnny rode his bike to Pam’s house.

Then he raped, beat and stomped her.

He stabbed her in the chest with a scissors and ruptured her kidney.

Johnny killed Pam so she wouldn’t “squeal” about the rape.

* * *

Johnny’s retarded.

When he was little his mom burned him with cigarettes.

She broke his left arm and made him drink urine.

* * *

The day Johnny stabbed, raped and stomped Pam, she and her mom were planning to go to Wal-Mart, right after bible study, to buy a leather jacket.

Pam wanted the jacket as her birthday present.

Mom bought it for her.

She wore it in her casket.

She was 22.

* * *

Johnny was sentenced to death at two separate trials for Pam’s murder.

Once he came within three hours of execution.

In 2002, 23 years after Johnny killed Pam, the execution of the mentally retarded was ruled unconstitutional by the US Supreme Court.

* * *

Johnny is in prison.

Pam is dead.

Heather

Heather was 22.

She liked rap music, and she loved to dance.

She was gifted.

She spoke Spanish.

She played musical instruments.

She had an 18-month-old baby named Kiven and a 4-year-old son, Xavier.

* * *

Heather worked as a waitress at a steak house in Isla Verde, Puerto Rico.

In April 1999 Tony assaulted Heather in the parking lot.

He wanted to steal Heather’s money so he could gamble.

When Heather wouldn’t give Tony the money, he broke her left wrist and threatened to kill her.

* * *

Four days later, when Heather came home from work, Tony was waiting for her in her bedroom.

He broke her nose, slit her throat and stabbed her over and over till she died.

Heather was Linda’s only daughter.

Linda believes Heather is in heaven.

Linda wrote Heather a letter five years after her death: “I am so happy that God gave you to me, as my daughter for twenty-two years.”

Noelle

Noelle was found by two fishermen.

Her body was decomposed; she was naked.

She had been in Piney Creek for weeks.

One of her tennis shoes was hanging from a nearby tree.

* * *

Noelle was 26.

She had been living with a man.

Mike, the sheriff, said, “We don’t know if he was a boyfriend or what. She ran around with many people.”

* * *

Noelle had a five-year-old daughter.

Noelle was known to accept rides from strangers.

Noelle was an alcoholic.

Noelle was arrested for public intoxication.

Noelle had stayed in rescue missions.

Noelle was 5’8”.

Nicole weighed 120 pounds.

Nicole had long brown hair.

Noelle had filed complaints with the Huntsville police about a man who had assaulted her.

* * *

A stranger was seen near the creek where Noelle’s corpse was found.

He was acting suspiciously.

He had salt-and-pepper hair and wore glasses.

A witness said he was “up to no good.”

Sheriff Mike says, “We believe there are people in Huntsville who know something.”

Janet

Janet was a good mom.

She had a 14-year-old daughter and an 11-year-old son.

She loved to oil paint.

* * *

Janet was 40 when Robert beat her to death.

She had 121 separate injuries.

But her death was caused by one tremendous blow to her chest.

Her heart got stuck between her breastbone and spine. It was torn in two places.

* * *

Robert testified in court that Janet had called him a bitch.

Robert’s attorney explained,“Being called a bitch by the woman you care about has a dramatic effect on a man.”

Robert cared about Janet.

“That goes after your manhood,” the attorney said. “You start feeling your own inadequacies.”

Ginny

Ginny had been a cheerleader at Badin High School in Brookfield, Ohio.

She graduated college, taught high school English and trained with the Red Cross to serve in Vietnam.

On August 2, 1970 Ginny flew to Saigon from Travis Air Force base in Texas.

When the plane stopped in Hawaii, Ginny saw a woman with a baby.

She asked the mom if she could hold him; she wanted hugging a baby to be her last memory of home.

* * *

Ginny was sent to Cu Chi, northwest of Saigon.

She was a Donut Dolly.

Donut Dollies were American women who visited combat troops at fire support bases.

They brought the troops treats: doughnuts and soft drinks.

They boosted morale.

* * *

Ginny was stabbed to death by a US soldier.

She had been in Vietnam for a week.

General Abrams, US Commander, wrote to Ginny’s parents.

He expressed his regrets.

Linda

Linda was a pretty girl with green eyes.

She got married at 17 because she wanted a family and a home.

A week after her wedding she came running naked through the woods.

It was a cold, dark night; her sister Carolyn had never seen her that scared.

* * *

One day her husband told Linda to get a 9/16 wrench.

She found lots of wrenches, but not the 9/16.

So he told her to put her arm on the kitchen table and he broke it in two places with a baseball bat.

An another occasion he made Linda eat a mouthful of cockroaches.

He never called Linda by her name. He called her “Old Lady.”

He abused their two boys.

He beat one of the boys with a wooden club and got a year in county jail.

Junior became abusive like his dad; he threatened to kill Linda and stash her body under the house.

Linda was worried, so she took away all the boys’ guns.

But on Oct. 18, 1991 Junior borrowed a .20 gauge “to go hunting.”

That evening he put the gun in Linda’s face and told her, “I’m ready to go, bitch.”

* * *

The next day at 7 a.m. Linda was found dead on the kitchen floor.

Her brain was a foot and a half from her head.

She had been cooking sausage and washing dishes.

Junior got a $130 fine and five years probation.

Linda’s husband and the boys got $80,000 in life insurance.

* * *

The following year Junior murdered a police officer.

Susan

Last March Susan was shot in the head and shoved into the trunk of her car.

She was 26 years old, four months pregnant, and lived in Queens.

Steven was the father of Susan’s unborn child.

He wanted Susan to get an abortion.

She wouldn’t.

So he killed her.

* * *

Susan had a nine-year-old daughter, Taylor.

Susan’s brother Anthony had to tell Taylor her mom was dead.

It was the hardest thing he’s ever done.
Lynette

Lynette and Mike were getting a divorce.

They had two children, a girl and a boy.

The girl was living with Lynette; the boy was living with Mike.

Mike called Lynette and asked her to come over, just to talk.

Then he shot her dead, three times in the chest.

He also killed himself.

* * *

Lynette had been a nurse at the same clinic for 29 years.

She liked to play golf, knit and crochet.

She liked river life.

Davina

Karen was the police chief of Bald Head Island, North Carolina.

Davina was a police officer.

Karen never believed Davina’s death was a suicide.

“I know she was murdered.

I saw the drag marks.

I saw the blood splatters.

I saw the bloody handprint on the back of the truck.

I saw her hands.

I saw her wound.

I looked her over good.

She was murdered.”

* * *

Bald Head Island is located on the east side of Cape Fear.

It’s only accessible by ferry and has a population of 173.

Cars are not allowed; residents drive electric golf carts.

The speed limit is 18 miles per hour.

* * *

Davina, age 33, was investigating a stolen golf cart when she was murdered on October 22, 1999.

She was killed with her own weapon near Old Baldy Lighthouse.

The DA said Davina’s death was suicide, but the shot was fired to the back of her head.

A “blowout” of the side of Davina’s head may have led to confusion. But the blowout was really from the force of the bullet entering from the back.

When Karen protested the DA’s finding, the village manager and mayor told her to “let sleeping dogs lie.”

Six years later there was an official investigation:

A commission ruled that “the location and pathway of the gunshot wound are inconsistent with suicide.”

* * *

Davina loved being a cop and taking care of her Australian shepherds.

Crystal Lyn

Crystal Lyn was quiet and loving.

She never raised her voice.

She was valedictorian of her class.

She was 22.

* * *

Christopher stabbed Crystal Lyn 37 times.

In court, Crystal Lyn’s mom, Terri, asked Christopher why.

“She was such a good girl,” Terri said, “I just don’t understand.”

Christopher didn’t answer.

He sat silently between his attorneys.

The forensic psychiatrist said Christopher suffered from depression, diabetes, multiple sclerosis and drug addiction.

Crystal Ann

Crystal Ann was murdered in June of 2000.

She had three children: Emily, age 4, Abby, 2, and Caleb, 10 months.

Crystal Ann lived in Kansas.

She wrote in her journal and prayed every day.

She helped her dad work on cars.

She helped her mom with babysitting and housecleaning.

She was a receptionist in a beauty salon.

She had gone to floral school to learn to decorate and arrange flowers.

She was enrolled in beauty college.

She loved to make things beautiful.

Crystal Ann was strangled.

Her ex-husband, Trevor, was convicted of her murder.

Suzanne

Some witnesses heard an argument; some heard a scream.

Some saw a tan or brown van.

* * *

Suzanne was fluent in French, German, Spanish and English.

She planned to study diplomacy.

She considered herself a citizen of the world.

She was director of the Best Buddies program at her college.

Best Buddies are volunteers who make friends with mentally disabled adults.

* * *

On December 4, 1998 Suzanne went to a pizza party at the Lutheran church.

She was last seen at 9:30 p.m.

* * *

Suzanne was stabbed 17 times in the head, neck and back.

There was no evidence of sexual assault.

No money or jewelry was stolen.

Call 1-866-888-TIPS.

All calls will be kept confidential.

Bobbi Jo

Bobbi Jo loved animals.

She got a job at a pet store so she could work with fish and birds.

Later she took a factory job at Kawasaki Manufacturing.

As a sideline, she and her husband Zeb raised Rat Terriers.

Rat Terriers are descended from dogs brought to the US by English miners.

They are known for their ability to kill rats and squirrels.

* * *

Bobbi Jo was 23 years old and 8 months pregnant with her first child.

Lisa, a woman Bobbi Jo met in a chat room, also raised Rat Terriers.

Lisa was 36.

Lisa told Bobbi Jo she wanted to buy one of her terriers.

Bobbi Jo gave Lisa her address.

Lisa drove up to Missouri from Kansas.

She strangled Bobbi Jo, cut her open, and stole her baby girl.

Lisa went back to Kansas and told her husband Kevin that she had given birth.

Kevin believed her.

Now that Kevin knows the truth, he worries about Bobbi Jo’s family:

"This has to be as hard or harder on them as it is on me,” he said.

* * *

The baby was returned to Zeb.

Amanda

Amanda was born during a spring snowstorm in 1977.

She walked and talked early, and she was reading by age four.

Amanda always wanted to be a nurse, so when she graduated high school in 1995 she enrolled in a nursing program.

She became an RN in just two years.

She was 20 when she got a job at the Tucson transplant unit.

She worked there for three years.

Then she was murdered.

* * *
John and Frankie, both 18, carjacked Amanda outside the video store.

They stole Amanda’s car, money and credit cards.

Then they took her out to the desert and shot her twice in the back and once in the face.

Amanda died clutching her asthma inhaler.

Felicia

George strangled Felicia in 1986.

He stabbed her with two knives.

One had a fork tip.

He left the kinves stuck in Felicia’s chest and put a plastic bag over her head.

She was 27.

She worked at Vons in Barstow.

She was a cashier.

* * *

George worked as a handyman at Felicia’s apartment complex in Barstow.

He had been accused, arrested or convicted of 12 sexual assaults since 1977.

Most of them were women with dark hair and eyes.

Just like Felicia.

* * *

Felicia had a boyfriend, Abel.

Abel discovered Felicia’s body.

Abel was a suspect because he had abused Felicia previously, and he was a registered sex offender who’d been to prison for forcible rape.

* * *

But George pled guilty and was sentenced to 16 years.

If he behaves well, he could get out in 8.

Doris

Doris graduated from the University of Texas with a degree in pathology.

She became a schoolteacher and a sales rep.

Then she married a bookie with a lot of money.

Doris and the bookie, Robert, had twin girls, Ali and Niki.

* * *

Robert became a police informant.

He turned in his rivals to the Houston police.

* * *

Doris got tired of Robert.

She had an affair with a man she met on the Internet.

She filed for divorce.

* * *

In April 1997 Doris was shot seven times in the face and five times in the chest.

She fell down dead in her kitchen.

The twins were 12.

* * *

Doris' brother in-law, Roger, was arrested.

Prosecutors thought Robert had paid Roger to kill Doris.

Roger committed suicide in a Houston jail by cutting himself fifty times with razor blades.

In his suicide note he admitted that he killed Doris and claimed Robert wasn’t involved.

Robert was acquitted of murder.

Then he ran away to Amsterdam.

Linza

In 1986 George threatened Linza with a gun, grabbed her by the hair and punched her in the face.

* * *

In 1988 he punched her in the stomach; Linza collapsed and had a seizure.

Eight years later George and Linza separated.

* * *

In September 1996 George pushed Linza to the floor and held a knife to her throat.

He ordered her to strip naked.

Then he got on top of her.

Linza spit in his face and pushed him off.

* * *

In October, George found Linza at work and yelled, "I’m going to kill you."

* * *

In November, George chased Linza in his car.

His car hit Linza's car and knocked over several mailboxes.

* * *

On December 12, Linza was in the process of moving.

Her son was helping her load the U-haul.

George showed up and pressed a gun against his son's stomach.

The son knocked the gun away, but George recovered it.

While the son was calling the police, George shot Linza dead and drove away in her car.

* * *

When George murdered Linza he was free on $1,500 bond for spousal abuse, assault with a knife, terrorist threats and attempted rape.

Kathy

Kathy worked at Fox's Laundry and Dry-cleaning in Herrin, Illinois.

One morning in 1992 Paul came into the laundry, raped Kathy and beat her over the head with a mop wringer.

* * *

Herrin is midway between the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers.

It used to be a coal mining town.

Crab Orchard Wildlife Refuge is nearby.

Hundreds of thousands of geese stop there every year.

* * *

Kathy was 40.

She had three children: Shelly, Nathan and Bethany.

Sheng

Sheng was murdered at age 21.

She was a college student with a two-year-old daughter, Angelina.

She was separated from her husband, Moua.

* * *

Sheng went to see Moua to get her passport.

Her mother warned her not to go.

* * *

Sheng had been beaten by Moua before.

One time she was hospitalized for a beating, but she told the doctors she had fallen down the stairs.

Moua had also tried to strangle Sheng and stun her with an eletrical weapon.

She had a protective order against him.

* * *

Moua stabbed Shen to death and left her in a relative’s garage.

He left the knife stuck in her back.

Sheng and Moua had been high school sweethearts.

Molly

On the day she died, Molly checked out a fraud report at Cingular, broke up a fight between two teenagers, and served a warrant on Arctic Fox Drive.

Then she had dinner with her parents, Dave and Beverly, at G&D Pizza and Steak.

From her patrol car she called her pastor, Michael, at Grace Bible Church. She wanted to set up an appointment to discuss parenting.

Molly had two step-sons with her husband Corey.

* * *

After dinner Molly checked a house alarm.

She responded to a call about a barking dog.

She stopped a guy in a black Mitsubishi.

The guy’s name was Rick.

* * *

Rick shot Molly in the shoulder.

She ran for cover, but he followed her and shot her in the neck.

He shot her again while she was lying on her stomach behind the car.

Molly was 26.

She died after two months in the hospital.

Jane Doe

A fisherman found Jane on July 11, 1995.

Her head was intact and attached to her torso, but her legs were missing.

The top half of Jane was wrapped in a quilt.

The quilt was in a maroon suitcase.

The maroon suitcase was in a trash bag.

The trash bag was found on the bank of Valley Creek in East Cain Township.

* * *

Six months later a hiker found Jane’s legs in Core Creek Park, 50 miles away.

* * *

Jane was between 25 and 30.

She was between 4’11” and 5’4”.

She weighed between 125 and 140 pounds.

She had fair skin, brown hair and brown eyes.

She was wearing a blue denim blouse.

The long sleeves were rolled up.

The buttons were copper-colored.

* * *

Jane’s legs were removed after her death by a sharp knife with serrated edges.

Jane’s killer worked like a hunter; he removed her legs by cutting through soft tissue and ligaments.

That way the legs pull easily from the hip joints.

* * *

The maroon suitcase and the quilt were sold locally at Kmart.

* * *

Nobody knows who Jane is.

Her remains are stored in an evidence room.

The evidence room is on the lower level of the Embreeville barracks.

Darlene

Darlene lived in North Carolina.

She loved animals and nature.

Her favorite animals were butterflies and horses.

Her favorite color was purple.

* * *

When Darlene got off work, she would go horseback riding.

She loved to camp and fish.

She loved to sit on the porch and listen to the rain.

She loved to watch the stars at night.

She loved her six grandchildren.

* * *

Darlene was murdered at age 43 by her boyfriend Billy.

Billy didn’t like it when Darlene was late.

So he shot her twice in the back with a .380.

Then he stuffed her in the trunk of his blue Toyota.

* * *

Darlene didn’t die right away.

She lay in the car till she choked on her own blood.

* * *

A helicopter found the Toyota after Darlene was dead for two days in 90 degree heat.

Her body was too swollen for an open-casket funeral.

Billy got sentenced to life in prison.

* * *

Darlene’s daughter Crystal stops at Darlene’s grave and talks to her.

She knows Darlene is not there, but it comforts her to talk anyway.

On Mother’s Day, Crystal thought of sending Billy a card in prison, but she was afraid she’d get in trouble for harassment.

Wanda

Wanda grew up in segregated Newport News, Virginia.

Wanda was black.

* * *

After high school, Wanda joined the Air Force.

She had some tough times.

(Her sister Valerie had been raped and murdered.)

Wanda became addicted to drugs.

After she overcame her addiction, she went to college and got a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree.

She became a close aide to the mayor of Washington, DC and a member of his cabinet.

* * *

At 45, when William murdered her, Wanda was engaged to be married.

The chief of police and almost all the city council members went to Wanda’s funeral.

* * *

William was Wanda’s neighbor. He was a diabetic crack addict.

He stabbed Wanda twice in the chest, three times in the neck and three times in the back.

He punctured her lung and severed her jugular vein.

He stole her car and credit cards.

He traded the credit cards for more crack money.

* * *

William used to work in DC’s medical examiner's office.

His job was to help pick up bodies and take them to the morgue for autopsy.

He was on DC television a lot, in the background, carrying away the corpses of murder victims.

Then he started using crack.

Before he murdered Wanda, William had never been arrested.

He was 38.

He pled guilty saying, "I'm ashamed and I'm sorry.”

Wanda’s 83-year-old mother, Arabelle, attended William’s sentencing.

Judith was the sentencing judge.

She gave William 24 years in prison.

Leah

Leah was starting to turn her life around.

She was in a methadone program.

She had signed up for her GED and parenting classes.

She was 24.

She had two sons, a nine-year-old and a four-year-old.

She was seven months pregnant.

* * *
Dan called 911 and told the police Leah shot herself in the head.

Actually, Dan had shot her.

* * *

Leah’s heart was still beating when she got to the hospital in Colorado Springs.
But the doctors knew she could not recover.

Chris, the nine-year-old, sang “You are my Sunshine” and kissed his mom goodbye.

Leah’s brother Shane believes she could still hear:
“She would react to our touches. Her pulse would raise on the monitor.”

* * *

The doctors took Leah off life support.

Her baby, Jeremiah, was delivered by C-section.

He survived two weeks.

* * *

Dan was sentenced to life without parole.

Sandy

Sandy was a waitress at Bickford’s in Medford, Massachusetts.

Steven was a frequent customer.

Steven stalked Sandy because she wouldn’t go to the movies with him.

* * *

After Steven slashed Sandy’s tires and poured antifreeze in her gas tank, Sandy installed a video camera at her home and slept with a knife by her side.

She also got a restraining order against Steven.

Steven violated the court order and went to jail for a few months.

When Steven was questioned about Sandy’s allegations he claimed she was “hysterical.”

Then he sent her a pipe bomb in a package.

She opened the package; it blew up in her face; she died.

* * *

Barbara, a college professor who employed Steven, described him as “an enormously kind and gentle person who goes out of his way to help people.”

She said Sandy’s charges against Steven were ridiculous.

But hat was before Steven blew Sandy up.

* * *

Sandy had waited tables at Bickford’s for a dozen years.

Three years before her own death, her 12-year-daughter had died of Spina Bifida.

Spina Bifida is a permanently disabling birth defect.

It occurs when the fetus’s spinal column doesn’t close completely.

Often children who have Spina Bifida have a shunt inserted to drain fluid from the brain.

Conditions associated with Spina Bifida include full or partial paralysis, bladder and bowel control difficulties, learning disabilities, depression and social and sexual issues.

* * *

Before Sandy died she participated in fund-raisers for people with Spina Bifida.

After she died, Massachusetts passed “Sandy’s Law” which made it easier to prosecute stalkers.

Carla

Carla was a tool grinder at a factory in Cleveland.

She was 4’11”, 95 pounds and 28 years old.

She had two children, John, a 10-year-old, and Christine, 6.

She worked at the factory from 3 p.m. to midnight.

She always came home and gave John and Christine a kiss goodnight.

Carla’s mom took care of the children when Carla was at work.

In 1975 Carla received six threatening letters in the mail.

On June 21, 1975 she got a phone call at work to meet someone at a bar.

She was murdered that day on her way home from work.

She was shot point blank in the chest.

* * *

A cold case detective started working on Carla’s case in 2003.

Call him if you know something.

Starlet Dawn

Starlet Dawn was born in 1971 with osteogenesis imperfecta.

Osteogenesis imperfecta is a genetic disease that causes broken bones.

Sometimes babies are born with bones broken in the womb.

Other fractures may occur any time.

Even coughing can cause a broken rib.

Or a leg can break when a child turns over while sleeping.

Starlet had many broken bones in her life and much pain.

Nevertheless, she married and gave birth in 1991 to a daughter, Mandi Kayln.

* * *

Ten years later Starlet was murdered, on June 7, 2001.

She, her brother Brent, and her husband David went to repossess a car Starlet had sold to a woman who wasn’t making the payments.

Starlet told the woman not to worry; she would give her a ride to work.

But the woman got angry.

She put the car in reverse and ran over Starlet and Brent.

Brent rolled away, and David tried to stop the car.

But the woman got the car in gear and ran Starlet over again, killing her.

* * *

The killer went to prison for three years.

Laura

Laura was found dead in her green Ford Focus in Burlington’s Old North End.

She was 31.

She was 5' 8".

She weighed 135 pounds.

She had brown hair and hazel eyes.

She was wearing a maroon and gray Northface jacket.

A purple sweater.

Blue jeans.

* * *

The night Laura died was snowy and windy.

She went to a bar to celebrate a friend’s birthday.

When she left the bar she was raped, strangled and beaten to death.

* * *

Gerald has been charged with Laura’s murder.

Laura didn’t know Gerald.

* * *

In high school Laura was on the track team; she ran and shot put.

She went to college in New York.

She moved to Vermont with her boyfriend.

In 1997 Laura got strep throat and rheumatic fever.

She almost died.

She broke up with her boyfriend.

She had some hard times.

She quilted.

* * *

In January 2005 Laura started teaching art to children.

She worked at an after-school program called Young Rembrandts.

By March, when Gerald killed her, she was applying for full-time teaching jobs.

Her mom, Joann, was helping Laura put together her resume.

* * *
Gerald hears voices.

The voices tell him what to do.

A court-appointed psychiatrist testified that Gerald is incompetent to stand trial for Laura’s rape and murder.

Jennifer

Jennifer was found in a stairwell of Memorial Hospital in Colorado Springs on November 5, 1999.

She worked at the hospital as a dietician.

She’d been dead for five days.

She was wrapped in heavy plastic and was covered in half-burnt cigarettes.

She was 23, the mother of a boy and a girl.

She played clarinet and keyboards.

She loved to swim.

If you have ANY information, please call.

Remain anonymous.

Receive reward.

Majorie

Majorie was born in 1947 in Pine Mountain, Georgia.

When she was 8, she learned to drive her dad’s hay truck.

When she was 16, she went to college in Alabama.

She met Bernard in chemistry class.

He became a veterinary epidemiologist; she became a chemist.

Marjorie and Bernard had two daughters, Ann Marie and Amanda.

When the World Trade Center was attacked on September 11, 2001, Amanda was living in Manhattan.

Once Marjorie found out Amanda was okay that morning, she left Bernard a voice mail at the Department of Agriculture where he worked.

Then American Airlines flight 77 crashed into Majorie’s office at the Pentagon.

She was identified a week later through dental records.

Megan

When Megan graduated from culinary school, she got her dream job as a chef at a nursing home.

She could do the two things she loved most—-cook and care for the elderly.

Her mother says Megan “was in seventh heaven.”

She had the job for five months.

Then she was murdered.

* * *

Pierre murdered Meagan on March 22, 2003.

They had met in culinary school.

They dated for a while.

Pierre was angry when Megan broke up with him.

He called her repeatedly the night she died.

The last time was at one o’clock in the morning.

* * *

Megan’s roommate Angela found her body the next day.

Pierre had stabbed her 17 times in the neck and back.

A bath mat, three bathroom towels, and the hall rug were missing.

* * *

After he killed Megan, Pierre went home to his wife and two-year-old son.

He played video games, muttered to himself, and bandaged his injured hand.

Pierre was convicted of first degree murder.

Deborah

Deborah worked for the Peace Corps.

She taught science at Tonga High School.

She was stabbed to death in her hut on October 14, 1976.


* * *

Tonga is a South Pacific island between Fiji and Samoa.

Humpback whales mate there every summer.

They have their babies; they move on.

* * *

Dennis also worked for the Peace Corps.

He wore a six-inch diving knife strapped to his belt.

People thought that was weird.

* * *

Dennis had a crush on Deborah.

He was 24; she was 23.

One night Dennis went to Deborah’s house with a metal pipe, a syringe, two bottles of cyanide and the diving knife.

He hit Deborah with the pipe and stabbed her 22 times.

The doctors tried to save her, but her body was perforated.

Her ashes were scattered in Puget Sound.

* * *

Dennis went home to Brooklyn where he got a job for the Social Security Administration.

He became the top computer guy for the Brooklyn office.

Kelly

Kelly was a 24-year-old Air Force linguist stationed in Texas.

On August 7, 1988 she went for a walk.

David and Jerry kidnapped her.

They took her to a secluded area.

They made her take off all her clothes and lie on the ground.

David raped Kelly twice, while Jerry waited in the car, listening to the radio.

Then David said to Jerry, “"All I need to do is go to jail for rape.”

He stabbed Kelly to death as she lay sobbing in the dirt.

* * *

David was executed in Huntsville on August 9, 2000.

He had an IQ of 64.

He pled for his life: "Keep me locked up, but don't kill me. I know I could help people.”

Two executions occurred at Huntsville Prison that day.

Heather, a spokesperson for the Texas Attorney, explained:

“The fact that two executions are set on the same date is just coincidence.”

Julie

Julie went to church early on the morning of April 19 and then to her job as a Spanish interpreter at the Social Security Administration.

She was hoping to go back to Marquette University soon to get her master’s degree.

She had a boyfriend.

She was one of 168 people murdered at 9:02 a.m. when the bomb exploded at the Federal Building.

She was 23.

Patricia

On Sunday Patricia and Louis went to a church picnic.

They played basketball and learned bocce.

The purpose of the game is to roll the bocce as close as possible to the pallino.

* * *

On Tuesday morning Patricia took a home pregnancy test while Louis ironed her clothes for work.

The test turned out positive.

Patricia and Louis were very happy.

They were both 25 and had been married two years.

They worked full time and went to school.

* * *

Later on that morning Louis and Patricia were talking on the phone.

Patricia said, “Oh my God.”

Then the line went dead.

She was murdered by an airplane flying through her building.

She worked on the 98th floor.

ELDERS

Elizabeth

Elizabeth was a piano teacher.

She lived alone in Bloomington, California.

She was 81.

* * *

In 1980, Stephen escaped from prison in Utah.

He cut Elizabeth’s phone line and broke into her house.

He shot her in the face with a .45 caliber handgun.

He took $100 in cash and cooked himself some noodles and eggs.

When the police arrived, he was watching television and eating dinner.

He was sentenced to death for killing Elizabeth.

* * *

On Death Row, Stephen wrote poetry, plays and short stories.

He learned Latin.

He won first prize in a national prisoner writing contest.

For his last meal Stephen ordered two grilled American cheese sandwiches; one pint of cottage cheese; hominy/corn mixture; peach pie; chocolate chip ice cream and radishes.

Addie

Addie was 84 and lived in Oklahoma City.

Loyd and Randall wanted to steal her car.

One day after she got home from church, they broke into her house.

They beat her up and stuffed her into the trunk of the car.

They drove her to a vacant lot and set the car on fire.

Firefighters came.

They found Addie naked in the middle of the lot.

Burns covered 60% of her body.

While on fire, she had moved 10-15 feet.

She died a few hours later.

* * *

Loyd gave Addie’s wedding ring to a stripper acquaintance.

* * *

Loyd was executed 16 years later in 2001.

Randall was executed in 2002.

Helen

Helen was an athlete.

She won three gold medals and set state records in the 100, 200 and 400-meter runs at the 2004 New Mexico Senior Olympics.

She was 80.

She served as a foster grandparent at Hernandez Elementary five days a week, four hours a day.

She had five children, 11 grandchildren and 24 great-grandchildren.

She disappeared on December 14 from El Guache, New Mexico.

Her body wasn’t discovered until April.

She’d been thrown down an embankment 10 miles west of Española.

* * *

The police discovered a few drops of blood on her kitchen floor.

Her purse and keys were on the table.

Her car was in the driveway.

* * *

Helen’s grandson Joshua is charged with her murder.

The prosecutor says Joshua, a heroin addict, killed Helen because she wouldn’t give him money.

A witness testified that Joshua punched Helen, knocked her dentures out of her mouth and threw her on the ground.

She may have still been alive when she was dumped down the embankment.

Rita

On their 50th wedding anniversary Rita and Reid repeated their vows.

Reid died a year later of lung disease.

Rita was murdered a week before her 83rd birthday.

* * *

Rita was Catholic.

She prayed the rosary every morning and said novenas for other people.

She would pray for anyone who asked.

She never refused or forgot.

She went to mass every morning.

She sewed and cooked for the parish.

She was a talented seamstress.

She made wedding dresses and volunteered at the church charity store.

* * *

Rita and Reid had one son.

He died in his senior year of college at age 21.

He was a pilot and he flew into a pecan tree while trying to land.

* * *

Rita was found curled up in a fetal position in her closet.

There was blood everywhere.

She had been beaten and stabbed to death by nine young men.

It was part of a gang initiation.

Handfuls of her hair were ripped from her head.

* * *

Cedric was one of the boys who murdered Rita.

He was 16.

He was sentenced to death, but the sentence was vacated in 2005 when the Supreme Court ruled the death penalty for juveniles unconstitutional.

China, Iran and Saudi Arabia are the only countries still known to execute juveniles.

* * *

Rita’s favorite flower was sweet peas.

She had a poodle named Petite.

Betty Jo

Ken’s wife called him at 5 p.m. on January 12, 1999.

“Your mother is dead,” she said.

“They think someone killed her.”

* * *

Betty Jo was 79 and legally blind.

She was hit over the head, stomped and strangled.

Ken hopes Betty Jo was knocked unconscious with the first blow.

* * *

The murderer stole Betty Jo’s VCR and some Susan B. Anthony dollars.

Marine

Marine was tiny, less than five feet tall.

She loved to cook.

She taught her daughter-in-law how to prepare hush puppies and catfish.

* * *

Marine was originally from Kansas, but many years ago she moved to Arkansas with her husband Wallace, a factory worker.

Marine worked at the Wesley Medical Center coffee shop for a dozen years.

Wallace and Marine had one son and three daughters.

Wallace died in 1984.

* * *

Marine liked playing bingo, working in the yard and going to Park City Baptist church.

She was 53 when Dennis murdered her in 1985.

* * *

Dennis broke into Marine's house.

He snuck into her bedroom.

She screamed; he strangled her.

Then he took off all her clothes and put her body in the trunk of a car.

He drove to Christ Lutheran Church where he took photographs of Marine in various bondage poses.

Then he dumped her body in a ditch near 53rd Street, between Webb and Greenwich.

* * *

The police found Marie decomposing a week later.

She had been concealed by tall grass and an evergreen tree.

Matty

Susan was driving home from work one night four years ago.

A car jumped the median and hit her head-on.

She was in a coma for several days.

The doctors thought she would die.

Her husband and her mother cared for her.

Even though Susan’s mother, Matty, had cancer and was 67, she stayed with Susan to feed and bathe her.

* * *

The following year Matty was murdered.

* * *

Billy beat Matty, cut her throat and kicked her in the head.

Matty had gone shopping on the day Billy killed her; she had plenty of food in her pantry.

Billy stole it.

He also stole Matty’s wheelchair.

* * *

It was a few days before anyone knew Matty was dead.

Susan and her children, Jeremiah, Amanda and Jennive, went to check on Matty.

It was Jeremiah who found his grandmother’s body.

“Mom, she’s here,” he told Susan.

* * *

Matty had two black eyes and had swallowed her own blood.

“She was on cancer medication, and she bled faster," Susan explained.

"She lay there gurgling, and he kicked her anyway."

INFANTS AND TODDLERS

Erica

Erica’s stepdad got mad at her because she wouldn’t go to bed.

He kicked her in the head.

She didn’t move for a couple of days, and then she died.

* * *

Her body was found in the woods near a church.

She had been decapitated.

* * *

A few days later, Erica’s head was found wrapped in a trash bag.

Her stepdad had cut it off with hedge clippers.

Erica was almost four.

Katelyn

Katelyn, age three, was at home with her parents, Soukanh and Kaycee.

Soukanh beat Kaycee, threatened her with his gun, choked her, and tied her up.

But Kaycee escaped through a basement window.

Then Soukanh killed Katelyn and himself.

Kaycee recovered from her injuries.

Rose Marie

John called the sheriff to report that his daughter, Rose Marie, wasn’t breathing and had blood coming from her nose.

She had injuries to her scalp, chin, torso and vagina.

She was three months old.

* * *

Rose Marie’s injuries were consistent with shaking and sexual assault.

John had been convicted in 1990 of molesting a female child.

He served two years probation for that crime.

* * *

John admitted to shaking Rose Marie five or six times and putting his finger in her vagina three times, just to stop her crying.

A jury in Minnesota convicted him of murder in April 2005.

Michele

Linda choked Michele with a bathrobe belt.

Then she held her under water till she died.

Michele died of asphyxiation and drowning.

Linda was Michele’s mom.

She was sentenced to 30 years in prison.

Tesslynn

Stella and Jesse tortured and sexually abused Tesslynn.

Jesse was the disciplinarian in the family; he inflicted most of the injuries.

He broke Tesslynn’s back, ruptured her liver and burned her vagina and rectum.

Sometimes he burned Tesslynn with a propane torch.

He used electric shock on her.

He beat her with belts and spatulas.

He stabbed her repeatedly.

He stomped and punched her.

* * *

Tesslynn was three years old when she was died in 1997.

Jesse and Stella buried her in the woods.

They planned to tell authorities Tesslynn had been kidnapped.

But Jesse’s sister, who had helped bury Tesslynn, led police to the gravesite.

* * *

At Jesse’s trial one of the juror’s was excused when she couldn’t stop crying during final arguments.

She kept repeating, "God, that poor baby."

The judge replaced her with an alternate juror.

TEENAGERS

Bethena

Bethena was a 19-year-old daughter, sister, granddaughter, great-granddaughter, aunt, niece and cousin.

She grew up in Dallas.

She sang in the choir.

She took AP courses.

She wrote poetry.

She worked in customer service for Web-TV and took classes at the University of North Texas.

She wanted to major in astronomy, the science of celestial objects and space.

* * *

One of the last things Bethena did before she died was buy a bathing suit with matching sandals, a gift for her friend’s eight-month old daughter.

She was a giving person.

* * *

Steven shot Bethena in the knee.

He slashed her throat three times.

He shot her twice in the head.

* * *

A passerby found Bethena around 7 a.m.

She lived for 36 hours.

She was pronounced brain dead at 4:30 PM on May 3, 2001.

She donated 7 organs.

Brandy

Brandy was an honor roll student.

She wanted to be the first African American president.

She was 14.

* * *

Brandy lived with her mom in Michigan.

In the summer she traveled to Comanche County to be with her dad.

* * *

One day Ken, 27, and his cousin Ron, 16, came to visit Brandy’s dad.

As they drove away from the house, they spotted Brandy on the street.

They offered her a ride.

They took her to a field.

They raped her.

Twice each.

* * *

Ron tried to strangle Brandy with a rag.

When that didn’t work very well, he got a sledgehammer from the trunk of his car and hit her over the head.

Ken also whacked Brandy a few times with the hammer.

She died.

Esmeralda

Esmeralda was a 15-year-old sophomore at Lamar High School.

She danced ballet.

She wanted to become a lawyer.

Walter and Edgardo found her at a pay phone outside a convenience store.

Walter grabbed her, shoved her into his car, and put a wool cap over her face.

* * *

Esmeralda’s body was found three days later in a remote part of east Harris County.

She had been raped and shot in the head.

Walter and Edgardo were charged with her murder.

They had also murdered a couple of waitresses: Roxana and María.

They are still suspects in several other homicides, including the disappearance of 13-year-old Laura.

* * *

Walter is on Death Row in San Quentin.

He would like to find a pen pal.

His interests are “football, lifting weights, swimming, writing, reading and doing artwork.”

Sara

Sara ran away from home in the summer of 1997.

She was 16, but her fake ID said she was 21.

Over a two-month period in Las Vegas she was arrested 13 times for prostitution-related charges.

The police never found out she was a juvenile.

* * *

After Sara was murdered a couple of her friends came forward to identify her.

“Thank goodness,” said Wayne, a Las Vegas homicide detective.

“She could have easily been buried here as a Jane Doe.”

* * *

Jim, Sara’s lawyer on the prostitution charges, said, “These girls are often 15 or 16, but when they get dressed up they can easily pass for 21 or 22.”

Sara was arrested at Las Vegas resorts: the Mirage, the Rio and the Luxor.

“She was very streetwise,” Jim said.

* * *

Sara’s body was found by a maid at the Luxor.

Michael, a 30-year-old painter from Oakland, confessed to killing her.

While he was choking her, Sara begged Michael not to murder her.

But then she lost consciousness and died.

* * *

Michael made sure Sara was dead by standing on her throat for about 10 minutes.

He used a table for leverage.

Then he had sex with Sara’s corpse in a variety of ways.

Finally, he stole $70 from her purse and took a Greyhound bus back to Oakland.

* * *

Stewart, the District Attorney in Las Vegas, commented on the dangers of prostitution:

“The woman never knows when they pick up somebody whether it is going to be an honorable assistant pastor from Des Moines, Iowa, or some freak psycho killer."

“To be frank,” he said, “it is surprising to me that we don't have more cases like this."

There are an estimated 300,000 child prostitutes in the United States.

Nicole

Nicole liked to go to Mexican dances.

She loved taking care of children, and she loved animals.

Her family called her Coco.

* * *

Nicole wanted to become a veterinarian.

She had three sisters: Andrea, Briana and Alysa.

Alysa has the same laugh as Nicole.

* * *

Nicole wanted to break up with Lionel because he was too jealous.

On September 25, 1999 she told him she wouldn’t have sex with him anymore.

He got mad and shot her, point blank in the vagina.

* * *

Nicole died slowly.

She was 17.

She had been planning to go to Alysa’s baptism the next day.

Tracy

David was a police officer in Kern County.

Tracy was a 15-year-old Bakersfield prostitute.

She was pregnant.

David thought prostitutes were “scumbags”; so he shot Tracy and dumped her body in a canal.

Jeanine, a 21-year-old prostitute, was fished out of the same canal.

She had been shot several times with .38 caliber hollow point bullets.

Ballistic analysis traced them to David’s gun.

In 1987 David was convicted of the murders of Tracy and Jeanine.

He was sentenced to death.

Shannon

Shannon was a 17-year-old high school senior.

She wanted to be a doctor.

She had applied to Florida State University.

She was a defensive back on the soccer team.

She had a part-time job at the Hampton Inn.

She had dated a boy named Chasen.

* * *

After work one night, Shannon and her friend James went to the Sunset Auto Bath to wash Shannon’s car.

Chasen confronted Shannon there.

He slammed her head into a wall.

James made Chasen leave, but he came back 15 minutes later with a 9 millimeter hand gun.

He yelled, “You want to play games now?”

* * *

Chasen shot Shannon in the chest, severing the main artery of her heart.

She died instantly.

* * *

Grief counselors were brought into her high school.

People left flowers at the car wash.

Shaline

In August 1995 Shaline borrowed a friend’s bike.

She went for a ride and never came back.

* * *

Shaline was 13.

She was an honor student.

Her body was found in some tall weeds near the junior high school she attended.

She had been stabbed to death, mutilated.

The murder occurred during a heat wave in Camden.

After three days of lying in the weeds, her body was decomposed beyond recognition.

The police relied on dental records.

* * *

The murderer was caught in 2000 and sentenced to life in prison.

Plus 20 years.

Kacie

Kacie’s dad, Rick, a police officer, was on patrol the night she died.

His shift ended at 2 a.m.

But Kacie was abducted around 9:30 p.m. from her home in Holland, Arkansas.

Holland has a population of 597.

People often don’t lock their doors.

Kacie usually stayed with her older brother or her Aunt Teresa when her dad worked late.

But that night she was alone.

* * *

Kacie played alto sax and sang in the school choir.

She was 13, a seventh grader at Greenbriar Middle School.

Kacie met Dave in a Christian teen chat room.

Dave said has was 18, had wavy shoulder-length hair and played the guitar.

Really, he was 47, balding, and had just been fired from a San Diego Saturn dealership for looking at child pornography.

Dave traveled all the way from California to Arkansas to abduct, rape and murder Kacie.

He covered her face with a rag he soaked in chloroform, broke her glasses and dragged her through the snow to his rented minivan.

After Dave raped Kacie, he shot her in the head with his 9 mm Luger.

When the police caught up with him, he killed himself.

Kacie’s corpse was found in the back of the van. Her wrists and ankles were chained to the floor.

* * *

Aunt Teresa knew Kacie was dead before the police told her.

At 6 a.m. she had seen an owl.

In her Alaskan husband’s clan, an owl means death.

Rebecca

Rebecca was a good student and a cheerleader.

She had lots of friends.

She was 16.

On July 20, 2004 she was leaving her home for a doctor’s appointment, when Cody shot her in the heart and left her dead in the driveway.

She was about 10 weeks pregnant.

Cody said it was an accident.

* * *


The lawyers debated whether to charge Cody as a juvenile or an adult.

The scientists and ethicists debated whether to try Cody for two murders or one.

* * *

Ronald, the medical examiner, said that the length of the fetus was the best way to determine age.

But Rebecca’s fetus fell apart during testing.

Ronald estimated it was an inch long and iweighed two grams.

* * *

The state of Oklahoma ended up charging Cody as an adult.

He was charged with first degree murder in the death of Rebecca and manslaughter in the death of the fetus.

The prosecutor is asking for life without parole.

* * *

Kimberlie

Kimberlie was 4 feet 8 inches tall.

She weighed 80 pounds.

She was 14.

* * *

Kimmie loved sunflowers.

She planted some just before she died.

She was an all-star softball player.

She wanted to be a carpenter when she grew up.

She never grew up.

* * *

On June 30, 1998 she left her house on Evans Street at 9 p.m.

She was supposed to meet a friend at Versailles Cemetery and then go buy hair color at Giant Eagle.

Six days later her decomposed body was discovered on an overgrown hillside in the cemetery.
It was only a block from her house.

Her jeans were below her waist.

After she died the townspeople put flowers, candles, cards and teddy bears on the hillside.

There still are no suspects in the case.

* * *

Kehndra

Kehndra was 19 when she was shot and killed at a party on September 29, 2001.

Kehndra had an 18-month old daughter, Angel.

She lived with her boyfriend Joey, the father of her child.

She was worked at General Electric as a dispatcher.

Tiliaia crashed a party that Kehndra, her 16-year-old sister Lindsay and Joey had attended.

Tiliaia was playing dice with his gangbanger friends.

He got mad because he thought someone had cheated.

So he took out his gun and started firing wildly.

On his way out of the house, three eyewitnesses said they saw him aim at Kehndra, shooting her in the chest.

Kehndra died in Lindsay’s arms.

Joey and three other people were wounded.

Angel now lives with her grandparents.

* * *

Emily

Emily was born in Killeen, Texas on July 27, 1977.

Emily liked music, dancing, and art.

She liked the color red.

Her favorite meal was lamb stew.

On February 12, 1993, Emily was on her way to a doctor’s appointment.

She never returned.

She was fifteen years old and three months pregnant.

She was found two weeks after her disappearance by a road crew clearing brush in Canyon Lake.

She was naked and identified as a Jane Doe.

She was buried in a potter’s grave.

A potter’s grave is a burial site for strangers and paupers.

It is a reference to Matthew 27:7-8. The Priests take the 30 pieces of silver Judas received for betraying Jesus.

And they took counsel, and bought with them the potter's field, to bury strangers in. Wherefore that field was called, The field of blood, unto this day.

A year after her death Emily was finally identified because of the tattoo on her hand.

She was exhumed and buried in Rambie Grove Cemetery, at the family plot.

Ten years after Emily’s death, her mom Sheila got to see the autopsy report. It confirmed that Emily had been raped and strangled.

There were abrasions on her skin, vagina and rectum.

Tommy, a detective in Comal County, says, “One day I'll put someone in jail for killing Emily.”

Emily’s mom says, “After her being murdered, no one seems to have ever heard of her--No one knows anything. It was like she vanished or never really was.”

Dawn

Dawn was discovered on April 15, 1969 near Geal and Vreeland Road in Ypsilianti.

She was naked except for her white blouse and bra, which were pushed up around her neck.

John raped her.

Then he strangled her with copper wire.

He slashed her breasts and buttocks.

He also stabbed her in the heart after she was dead, just to make sure.

Dawn was 13 years old and in the eighth grade.

* * *

One of Dawn’s shoes was found fifty yards from her body. Another was in a ditch on the other side of the road.

Dawn’s orange sweater was found in a nearby abandoned farmhouse.

So was her blood.

A few weeks later the police called on Peter, a famous psychic, to help with the case.

Peter was not helpful.

* * *

John also murdered Mary, Joan, Maralynn and Karen.

He stabbed Joan 47 times and cut off Mary’s hands and feet.

Stacie

Stacie was murdered on January 29, 1999.

She was murdered at home by an acquaintance named Paul.

Paul was a white supremacist.

Stacie’s boyfriend was black.

Paul got angry.

And jealous.

But Stacie was brought up not to be prejudiced.

She had accepted Christ as her Savior.

* * *

Stacie was a frog collector.

Stacie loved frogs.

Stacie was a freshman in high school.

* * *

Paul tried to rape Stacie.

When Stacie resisted, Paul stabbed her through the heart.

Then Paul attacked Stacie’s 14-year-old sister Kristie.

Paul tied Kristie’s hands and feet with her shoe laces, and he choked her until she passed out.

He raped her on the cement floor of the basement.

He slashed her throat and wrists and stabbed her in the stomach.

He left her for dead.

But Kristie survived, called the police and identified Paul.

* * *

After Paul murdered Stacie and raped and stabbed Kristie, he and a friend bought some drugs and ordered a pizza.

While the pizza delivery was on the way, the police found Paul and arrested him.

* * *
Paul got three life sentences.

He wrote to the prosecutor from prison, explaining what he did to Stacie.

"I told her all I wanted to do was fuck her and then I would leave and that we could do it the easy way or the hard way.”

So he stabbed Stacie and stomped on her throat.

"When I didn't see her breathing anymore I left the room and got some iced tea,” Paul wrote.

Because he had now confessed to a capital offense, Paul was retried and sentenced to death.

Paul prefers to die in the electric chair.

He would like to “ride that lightning bolt into the sky."

The state of Virginia allows condemned inmates to choose between electrocution and lethal injection.

According to Amnesty International,

“Electrocution produces visibly destructive effects as the body´s internal organs are burned.

The body changes color, the flesh swells and may even catch fire.

The prisoner may defecate, urinate or vomit blood.

Witnesses always report that there is a smell of burning flesh.”

Sakia

Sakia was a sophomore at West Side High School in Newark.

She was 15.

She wanted to be a professional basketball player in the WNBA.

She wanted to join the high school marching band.

One night she and her friends were waiting for their bus, near Broad and Market Streets, across the street from a police booth.

The booth was empty.

Two men in a white station wagon approached Sakia.

The men flirted with the girls. The girls were lesbian, and they rejected the men’s advances.

One of the men, Richard, got out of the station wagon and started choking one of the girls.

Sakia defended her friend.

So Richard stabbed Sakia.

A couple of thousand people, including the mayor of Newark, attended Sakia's funeral.

The mayor made some promises about building a gay and lesbian center in the city.

That way kids wouldn't have to be out so late at night.

MULTIPLES

Myiesha and Brenda

In July 2003 Brenda called the Houston police to report that Derrick was having sex with her daughter, Myiesha.

That made Derrick, who was on parole, angry.

So Derrick murdered Myiesha, Brenda, and Brenda’s dad, Obie.

Derrick strangled Myiesha and beat her with stereo speakers.

He also dropped a television on her head.

He tied up Brenda and made her watch Myiesha’s murder.

Then he raped and murdered her too.

A Houston police sergeant, Mike, said, “The elderly gentleman apparently walked in and was beaten to death.”

Obie was 77, Brenda was 44 and Myiesha was 15.

Brenda was a janitor at Monahan Elementary School.

Myiesha was a freshman in high school.

Obie was retired.

Derrick was sentenced to death.

Regina and Chiquita

Regina and her sister Chiquita were both pregnant.

Chiquita was only 14, but she was dating Terry who was 28.

Chiquita was one month pregnant. Regina was three months pregnant.

The two girls were walking home when Terry confronted them outside a convenience store.

He shot Regina in the shoulder and shot Chiquita in the head when she tried to run away.

Then he went back and shot Regina again, this time in the head.

She died two hours later.

Chiquita died that night.

Stacy and Taylor

Stacy was a psychology major at Winona State.

She was 29 and had a 10-year-old daughter, Taylor, a fifth-grader at Winona Middle School.

Stacy was pregnant when Paul murdered her.

He murdered and raped Taylor too.

He strangled them both.

He beat them.

Then he set the apartment on fire.

Stacy had a boyfriend Gregg.

She had parents, Tom and Cheryl.

She had a grandmother, Arvilla.

She had stepgrandparents, Floyd and Hazel.

She had a brother, Daniel, and a stepsister, Stacey.

She had a stepniece, Moriah.

She had stepnephews, Jessie and Lance.

She had many aunts, uncles, cousins and friends.

Taylor had a dad, Shad.

She had grandparents, William and Carolyn.

She had a half-brother, Cody.

She had a godfather, Shawn.

She also had many aunts, uncles, cousins and friends.

Ginger, Susanne and Kathryn

Ronald and Ginger were husband and wife.

They had two daughters, Susanne and Kathryn.

When Susanne was 13 and Kathryn was 11, Ronald struck Ginger nine times with his hatchet.

She kept screaming, so he shot her in the head.

After murdering Ginger, Ronald went upstairs to kill Kathryn and Susanne.

Because of all the commotion, the girls were wide awake.

Ronald told Susanne that there had been an intruder, but that everything was okay.

He patted her on the head, and he shot her through the brain.

Kathryn thought Dad was joking when he pointed the gun at her.

Ronald’s 38 jammed at first, but then he got it to work right.

He killed Kathryn with one shot.

* * *
Ronald, a former firefighter with a gambling problem, turned himself in the next morning.

He told the police he was sorry.

He loved the girls.

Suzanne was a good speller, he explained, and Kathryn had untapped talent for painting and singing.

“I believe I killed the flesh,” he said, “But their souls are in heaven now.”

* * *

Ronald was executed in 2001.

He told those who attended his execution that his experience as a multiple murderer had increased his faith and made his heart purer.

He had been “saved by the blood of Jesus.”

Reba, Tassy, Libby and Leona

One day Dennis asked his mother Libby if he could borrow some money.

She offered to give him $20.

That wasn’t enough, and he shot her twice in the head.

Then he killed his half sister, Reba, and his mom’s four-year-old granddaugher, Leona.

He beat Reba to death with an exercise bar and a hammer.

He also raped and murdered Libby’s boyfriend’s 14-year-old granddaughter, Tassy.

Leona and Tassy were beaten and strangled so fiercely that their necks were crushed and broken.

This happened in a trailer in Wilson County, southeast of San Antonio, near Stockdale.

Ten years later, Dennis was executed for the murders

He was 38 then.

He had a tattoo on his left arm: “MOM.”

Gloria, Dedra and Wanda Jean

Gloria met Wanda in prison.

Wanda was in prison for killing her friend Detra at a motel in Oklahoma City in 1981.

Gloria and Wanda were lovers in prison. They shared an apartment when they both were released.

But they had a fight in front of the Village Police Department in 1988.

Wanda shot Gloria in the stomach with a .38 in front of her mother, Ruby.

Gloria died in the hospital two days later.

Wanda was convicted of murder and executed on January 11, 2001.

Wanda was the first woman executed in Oklahoma since 1903.

She was the first black woman to be executed in the US since 1954.

Gwen, Christina, Katrese

Gwen became a school teacher when she got out of the army.

She was 36 when her husband, Christopher murdered her, his 15-week-old daughter, Christina and his stepgranddaughter, Katrese, 17 months old.

Christopher was angry because Gwen wanted a divorce.

Christopher shot Gwen 10-12 times with a 9 mm semi-automatic pistol.

He shot Katrese 5 times while she sat in her high chair.

He shot Christina only once because he ran out of bullets.

Betty and Corey

Betty was 15 when Shawn got her pregnant with Corey.

Shawn later married Betty in the bread aisle of the supermarket where he worked security.

When Corey was eight, in July 2003, Shawn beat Betty up because he didn’t like the way she was driving.

She got a restraining order and filed for divorce.

In December she felt sorry for Shawn because it was Christmas time and he hadn’t seen Corey.

She agreed to go to his place for dinner.

Shawn stabbed Corey in the heart and beat both Betty and Corey to death with a barbell.

A few months later Shawn was arrested 40 miles west of Charlotte, at the junkyard where he was employed.

Grace and Tiffany

Grace was born on June 3rd, 1974.

She weighed four and a half pounds.

She had blue eyes.

Tiffany was born on February 4th, 1981.

She weighed four pounds, four ounces.

She had brown eyes.

Grace was outgoing. She learned ballet and tap when she was three.

Tiffany was helpful around the house. She was sensitive to other people’s feelings.

* * *
Grace and Tiffany were murdered on June 13, 1990 by Dennis and Delton, father and son.

Tiffany was 9; Grace had just turned 16.

Delton was almost 17; Dennis was 44.

Dennis sexually mutilated Grace with a beer bottle. Then he ripped her throat out.

Delton strangled Tiffany with a rope.

* * *

At Dennis’ sentencing hearing, his two daughters, Donna and Darla, testified.

Donna said Dennis had sexually abused her when she was 4 or 5 and again when she was 15.

Darla, who was 18, said that the family had gone camping a week before the murders of Grace and Tiffany.

Dennis had threatened Darla with a knife, and he sexually assaulted her.

Dennis had been raping Darla since she was 11.

He used housefold objects, including a broom and a bottle.

* * *

Delton was sentenced to a long prison term.

While in jail he tattooed Grace and Tiffany’s names on his body.
* * *
Dennis was executed in 2001.

His final words were addressed Grace and Tiffany’s parents:

“I am so sorry for what y’all had to go through. . . .Y’all take care and God bless you.”

CHILDREN

Jessie

Jessie loved to go shopping with her grandma Ruth.

They would go to J.C. Penney and Wal-Mart.

She and grandma Ruth collected dolls together.

Jessie wanted to be an Olympic swimmer and a fashion designer when she grew up.

She loved to do cartwheels.

Jessie was nine when she was murdered in Homosassa, Florida.

She was in third grade and lived across the street from John’s trailer.

John confessed to killing Jessie.

He entered Jessie’s home at 3 a.m. through an unlocked door.

He hid Jessie in his closet for awhile, while police questioned him.

Later on he raped her.

After that, he tied her hands with stereo speaker wire, dug a hole out back, put Jessie in a black plastic garbage bag and buried her alive.

Jessie was clutching a stuffed animal when they found her, a purple dolphin.

She had poked a couple of her fingers through the black plastic garbage bag before she suffocated in her shallow grave.

* * *

John had previously been convicted of fondling a five-year-old in Kissimmee.

Rhonda

Rhonda was found in the snow.

She was wearing maroon corduroy pants, a red knit shirt, purple striped leg warmers, a blue windbreaker and tennis shoes.

She was dead.

She was 12 years old.

Her mother, Judy, was in the hospital awaiting surgery.

Judy hoped that since Rhonda had been found with her clothes on that she hadn’t been molested.

But the police found semen in her mouth, anus, vagina and stomach.

There were multiple abrasions on her neck.

She had been strangled.

Danny Joe, Rhonda’s stepdad, was convicted of her rape and murder.

He says he didn’t do it and has remained on Alabama’s Death Row for 20 years.

Quatisha

Quatisha and her mom Shandelle lived in Carol City, where Quatisha attended kindergarten.

Shandelle met Harrel at church. She didn’t know Harrel had been convicted of attempted murder twice.

Shandelle didn’t want to date Harrel, so he kidnapped her and Quatisha. He beat and choked Shandelle until she lost consciousness.

He left her for dead in a sugar cane field.

Quatisha’s body was found later in a canal with an arm missing and alligator bites to her head.

She was five.

Shandelle survived.

Mikayla

Leigh Ann and John had a daughter, Mikayla.

Leigh Ann pleaded with John to get psychiatric help.

She thought he would hurt Mikayla.

John said, “You’ll be dead. Are you stupid?”

On September 3, 2004 John had custody of Mikayla.

The divorce agreement stipulated he would have custody because it was Labor Day in an even-numbered year.

Mikayla was five. John was 41.

John drove Mikayla from Minnesota to western Wisconsin.

He parked the car.

He shot Mikayla through the head.

Then he shot himself.

Leigh Ann had written in her journal, “I worry about our daughter if she happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time when he goes into a rage."

But John had carefully planned the murder.

He rented a car, borrowed two handguns and wrote a letter to his brothers about the distribution of his property.

At 8 p.m. the night of the crime, John called Leigh Ann.

He put Mikayla on the phone to say she was going on a long journey with her daddy.

THE END