From The Star: Independence police were called after someone found a dead body beneath a highway overpass today. The body was reported about 9:30 a.m. at Interstate 70 and U.S. 40. Further information, including whether police suspect foul play, was not immediately available.
Story is from Milwaukee, and the suicidal party was an off-duty policeman. When the officer put a gun to his head, a sergeant on the scene tried to stop him by shooting the man in the leg. Unfortunately, as he fell, the man was able to kill himself after all, the Pioneer Press reports.
I know, I know ... "amazing" isn't a term usually associated with suicide. But this guy was able to shoot himself in the back of the head using helium balloons and a gun. (Authorities think he might have gotten the idea from "CSI.")
From KCPD: On today’s date at about 7:30am KCMO Police Officers were called to the 4900 block of Euclid on a man who reported that he had returned to his residence this morning (after being away all night) there and found his rear entrance door kicked in and a man who was not breathing laying inside the house.
Officers arrived and found an unidentified black male laying inside the house deceased. Cause of death was has not been determined. Detectives are at the scene gathering evidence and canvassing the area for any possible witnesses.
Anyone who may have information about this incident is asked to call the TIPS Hotline at 474-TIPS (8477).
He was apparently upset because his house was being demolished to make way for a new development.
Hat Tip: Many thanks, You're A Mean Drunk R2D2!
No word yet on cause of death. The corpse was found in a wooded area near 24 Highway and South Hardy, KCTV reports.
From KCPD: The former “Chief” of the streets of downtown Kansas City has passed away.
Retired Officer Willis “Whitebear” White died July 6 at age 77. Officer White was an icon of the downtown business district, where he worked as a foot-beat officer for 30 years and was known and loved by the many business owners he encountered.
Officer White, a Sioux Indian called “Chief” by many downtown regulars, retired in 1990. So beloved was “Chief” White that dozens of his downtown friends and the local media showed up to his retirement party.
In 2005, Officer White said in an article in KCPD’s monthly newsletter, “Informant,” (full story at http://www.kcpd.org/masterindex/informant/williswhitestory.pdf) that walking around downtown for 30 years was the best assignment he could have imagined. “All I ever wanted to do was walk a foot beat,” he said. “I volunteered for foot beat patrol because I never liked the idea of being stuck in a car.”
Visitation for Retired Officer White will be from 7 to 9 p.m. Tuesday, July 15, at the Passantino Brothers Funeral Home, 2117 Independence Avenue, Kansas City, Mo. Services are scheduled for 10 a.m. Wednesday, July 16, at the Miracle Valley Church, 5240 East 30th Street, Kansas City, Mo. Burial will be in Watson, Missouri.
Which could be pretty handy as an average of 20 people jump off the bridge every year, the Chronicle reports. (Last year, however, the number climbed to 35.) Among the proposed changes? Safety nets on either side of the bridge, to catch people after they jump.
Down near the 8400 block of Main. No word yet on cause of death.
UPDATED with notes from KCPD:
On Wednesday, July 9, 2008 at about 8:20pm KCMO Police Officers were called to the 8300 block of Main Street on a disturbance call where two men were fighting with chains.
On arrival officers made contact with a woman who lived nearby who said she was contacted by a man who came to her front door and asked her to call the police because he and another man had been fighting, and the other man was not breathing.
Officers located the man who contacted the woman near the scene and he showed them where the man he had been fighting with was laying. After the man was located MAST Ambulance was called to the scene and pronounced him dead at the scene. Cause of death had not been determined.
The man who alerted the woman to call police was taken into custody and is being interviewed. No other people were reported to have been involved.
That's how one poor soul in St. Petersburg, Russia, bought it. He was drunk and lying on their couch, which folds up into the wall as a space-saving measure. Apparently, his wife was yelling at him for BEING DRUNK, so she kicked the folding-up handle, not realizing she'd just crushed him to death.
Video on the television channel's website showed emergency workers sawing away the side panels of a couch to remove a man in his underwear lying headfirst between the cushions.
The AP has a big takeout on the trend here. Something like 157 people in the college-age cohort drank themselves to death between 1999 and 2005. You've got to feel bad for the families, and there ARE cases where friends keep pouring beer down a kid's throat longer after they should've stopped, but I just have a hard time imagining a person NOT knowing when to quit.
From Arizona, where a police dog died after a 40-foot fall at a loft-construction site. He was chasing suspects believed to have been stealing copper. Sad snip from the story:
After the fall, Baloo was rushed to an emergency animal hospital. He remained in critical condition while every effort was unsuccessfully made to save his life, police said.
| Sara Shepherd
Hat Tip: Thank you, eephus
From CNN:
State and federal investigators said Tuesday that they spent the past two days gathering evidence in the last documented mass lynching in the United States: a grisly slaying of four people that has remained unsolved for more than six decades.
On July 25, 1946, two black sharecropper couples were shot hundreds of times and the unborn baby of one of the women cut out with a knife at the Moore's Ford Bridge. A KKK member bailed one of the men -- who had been accused of stabbing a white man 11 days prior -- out of jail and drove him and his family to the bridge.
| Sara Shepherd
Hat Tip: Thanks, JUNGLE JIM!
In this AP file photo from 2005, Rosa Ingram, right, Roger Malcom's aunt, and Annie Smith, a cousin of the George Dorsey's, pose on the new Moore's Ford bridge in Walton County, Ga. On July 25, 1946, George Dorsey, Mae Murray Dorsey, Roger Malcom and Dorothy Malcom were lynched by a mob on the old bridge that spanned the Apalachee River some 60 miles from Atlanta.
It wasn't a quiet death, either. I hope they burn the damn hospital down.
A grand jury has cleared Horn, a Texas man, of charges that he was wrong to shoot two burglars in the back as they ran away from his neighbor's house. The case was seen as a test of Texas' laws on lethal force and self-defense.
More here from the AP and the Houston Chronicle.
AP Photo/Lambright & Lambright
The Emporia Gazette has the best coverage of this case, where Kent was convicted of fatally shooting a young hunter near Americus last year. The specific charges were involuntary manslaughter, hunting without permission and criminal discharge of a firearm.
A little OVER half, according to the 2005 statistics, while homicides were about 40 percent of those deaths. Psychologists were among those supporting the D.C. gun ban because, statistically, the odds of a suicide go up in homes where a gun is kept. Guns are 90 percent effective as a method of suicide, compared to 34 percent for jumpers and 2 percent for ODs.
Story is from Emporia and involves the death of Beau Arndt, 18, a hunter who was shot and killed near Americus last year. From The AP:
The jury took about three hours Monday to find 57-year-old Theron Thomas Kent guilty of involuntary manslaughter, hunting without permission and criminal discharge of a firearm ...
In Emporia, a Topeka man is facing trial on charges that he shot and killed Beau Arndt, 18, of Americus last year while Arndt was hunting. Theron Thomas Kent is accused of involuntary manslaughter -- authorities contend he shot Arndt while Kent was illegally hunting. Closing statements are expected this morning.
Kiddo was staying with his aunt and uncle, but he was being watched by a baby sitter when he was attacked by the dog. The sheriff is investigating to see if the dog was properly housed.
Hat Tip: Many thanks, T-Bone!
Instead of involuntary manslaughter, though, the charge has been changed to aggravated battery for Dustin Howard. The judge still has to approve, but the deal calls for Howard to spend 18 months under supervised, intense probation, Diane Carroll reports.
One boy is dead, the other faces an involuntary manslaughter trial starting Monday. Laura Bauer has a really good story about the case this morning, the most detailed account I've seen so far. What a tragic, tragic story ...
Mom blames the Web site where the teasing occurred. Snip:
The grieving mother blamed Bebo for Sam's 'utterly pointless death' as she revealed how the family only discovered the extent of the bullying after checking his webpage following the tragedy.
'He was such a loving boy', she said. 'We all loved him very much and he was always telling us how much he loved us.
'I'm not sure what influence these sites have but if they are a method of expressing things maybe they should be checked more.
Hat Tip: Many thanks, You're A Mean Drunk R2D2!
In the last month, more than 60 people have killed themselves in Japan by mixing detergent with other chemicals, then breathing the resulting fumes. (Police there have asked Internet providers to take down the recipe whenever they find it online.)
Ambrose said the initial investigation showed that the girl’s mother and older brother were downstairs and the girl was in the parents’ bedroom upstairs at the time of the shooting. He said he thought the girl was alone in the room when the gun discharged, although three of her girlfriends also were in the house at the time.
They're pleading no contest and getting 1 to 2 years in prison. They originally told police that a teenage babysitter was watching the kiddos -- actually, it was two 8-year-old boys. The fire was started by kids playing with matches, authorities say.
From the Wyandotte County Sheriff's Office: On 05/22/08 at approximately 6:20 AM an inmate who was in custody for a Kansas City, Kansas Municipal Court warrant was found in his cell unresponsive.
Fire department and emergency medical personnel were summoned and the inmate was transported to K.U. Medical Center where he was pronounced dead. The inmate’s name is not being released pending notification of next of kin. An autopsy will be conducted later today. The Kansas Bureau of Investigation is required by state law to investigate all correctional “in custody” deaths and they are doing so at this time.
Kansas City police were investigating a body found in Kansas City’s Northeast neighborhood late Wednesday night. The body was reported about 11 p.m. in the 3400 block of Roberts Avenue. Investigators still were trying to determine whether foul play was involved in the death, and other details were not released Wednesday.
That's according to the St. Joe station. The convict's name is John Francis, and he was sent away for a 1975 homicide out of Jackson County, though I can't find any mention of him in our electronic archive. The station says he died from natural causes. Francis was 55.
Weird story from Chicago, where a suspect in a domestic disturbance died after he fell out of a police van. A police van that was NOT MOVING. Officers say he apparently tried to escape the van, but fell and hit his head in the attempt.
Hat Tip: Many thanks, Keith G in PV and JUNGLE JIM!
Christine has a piece about Riemann, a 25-year-old from Lansing, who was apparently killed by a hit-and-run driver late Saturday or early Sunday on Ward Parkway near Westover. Snip:
About an hour later, police found a severely damaged 2003 red four-door Saab 93 abandoned along West 52nd Street near Loose Park. Investigators interviewed the owner, identified a suspect driver and interviewed a passenger.
Police on Monday were looking for witnesses who may have seen Riemann or the Saab early Sunday. Police want to determine when Riemann left the party, how he ended up more than a mile away and what time he was struck.
From KCPD: On Friday, May 9, 2008 at about 9:55pm KCMO Police Officers were called to the residence of 10318 east 43rd street on a disturbance call-subject intoxicated with a weapon.
On arrival officers met a woman who identified herself as the caller, along with a 6-year-old child standing on the front porch. The woman advised the officers that inside the house, a male relative was intoxicated and had threatened her with a gun. Officers escorted the woman off the porch, at that time a male appeared at the front door.
The officer was able to see a gun in one of his hands. The man was ordered by the officer to drop the weapon and the man raised the gun toward the officer who fired his service weapon striking the man. The officer was not injured. MAST ambulance was called and pronounced the man dead at the scene.
The officer was placed on administrative leave. No other persons were injured in the incident.
Christine's got a longer story today, with more detail about what led up to the fatal shooting. Snip:
The officer said the suspect pointed a gun at him as they stood about two feet apart in a vacant, mowed lot. The officer shot the suspect, who dropped to his knees and ejected his handgun’s magazine, which fell on the ground. He then threw the gun behind him, over the fence, before collapsing.
It happened about 3:20 p.m. near 26th and Jackson. From the Star:
Before running, the suspect reportedly had been in a car that was being driven erratically. It was unclear whether he was the driver. A police helicopter crew had been monitoring the car as it ran stop signs and a red light and also cut through a school parking lot.
During the foot chase, the suspect allegedly threw a gun into weeds as he was being shot, police said.
A K9's being called to the scene to look for the gun. Story doesn't say, but I wonder if the police thought he was drawing the weapon while he reportedly throwing it away?
The Kansas Bureau of Investigation is trying to identify an unnamed dead body that was found in an Anderson County ravine about 35 years ago. The authorities believe the man was murdered. The KBI is now publicizing a reconstruction of what the man's face looked like -- take a look at the Ottawa Herald's site.
That's according to KMBC. No word on a cause of death yet.
Story is from St. Charles County, the P-D reports. No word if the guy had anything in his system, previous condition, etc.
Someone called 911, but it took police about 24 hours to find the body.
File Photo: A turtle, possibly hungering for human flesh.
After authorities find an unnamed, unclaimed set of remains, a New Mexico family fears it could be their longlost brother -- and a mitochondrial DNA test shows a link. They have a funeral, they get a death certificate. Then they learn their brother is still alive.
Hat Tip: Many thanks, sexy!
(AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)
What an unusual case. The victim here is a (so-far) unnamed Navy petty officer, 1st class, who hit a tree while racing in KCK's Rosedale Park on Saturday. Apparently, he was planning to compete in an organized, but "outlaw" race on Sunday. Instead, the race was canceled because of his death.
On Saturday, it will have been four years since KCP&L workers found a newborn's body lying under a Wal-Mart bag near Tiffany Springs Road and North Hull. Authorities called the baby boy "Precious Joe" because his real name has never been discovered. To mark the anniversary, Platte County prosecutors are asking anyone who knows something about the case to call the Crime Stoppers TIPS Hotline at (816) 474-TIPS (474-8477).
Authorities note there was a hoop earring, pictured, found next to the body. Anybody who recognizes it should call, they say.
Happened today up in Platte County, KSHB reports. Apparently, the guy had some outstanding warrants.
For whatever reason, Independence police still have not officially released the dead person's identity or told the media anything about the cause of death.
However, they've apparently told the family, who says the body is that of missing Pamela Reynolds and that police don't suspect foul play in her death.
| Sara Shepherd
From West Virginia, where woman was cleaning out her dead mother's house --- and found the decomposing corpse of another woman in the closet.
Hat tip: Thanks to The Golfer
| Sara Shepherd
Police say it's still too early to identify the corpse.
| Sara Shepherd
The Missouri man who fatally shot his wife while trying to install cable? He won't be charged.
| Sara Shepherd
The father of a Gardner teenager who died from a heart condition after a fistfight has been charged with threatening people involved with the case.
Frank Scott DeRemus was in the Johnson County jail late Sunday with bond set at $500,000 for charges of making threats and at $5,000 in a disorderly conduct case. He was arrested on Friday.
DeRemus is accused of threatening nine people, including Dustin Howard, the Gardner teenager who is charged with involuntary manslaughter in the death of Dakota DeRemus; District Judge Gerald Elliott, who has been involved in the case; four teenagers who witnessed the fistfight; and Angela Meireis, his ex-wife and the victim’s mother.
If it's true, you've got to admit, that is a LOT of people to threaten.
Georgia man gets a new heart after its previous owner commits suicide. Georgia man eventually meets -- and falls in love with -- the dead man's wife. They marry. And now? Twelve years later? The Georgia man has killed himself.
From KCPD: KCMO Police Homicide Unit detectives have advised that no positive identification has been made on any of the bodies found, due to the advanced stages of decomposition.
Autopsy revealed that the bodies are one female and two males. It is unknown when positive identification of the bodies will be determined. At this time it appears that all three bodies were taken to the site where they were found (4501 Emanuel Cleaver II Boulevard) after they were killed.
The investigation is continuing. Anyone that may information is asked to call the TIPS Hotline at 474-TIPS (8477).
Missed this from last week, but here's a KMBC interview with DeRemus' mom. She's unhappy that the defendant is going to be tried in juvenile court.
Police in Independence are investigating a body found this afternoon in the northwestern area of the city.
The body was spotted about 2 o’clock by someone walking near Short Street and Shope Avenue.
Police thought the body was that of a man, but they said they could not be definitive because the body had decomposed. A cause of death was unknown. The Jackson County Medical Examiner’s office is expected to perform an autopsy.
Jurors this afternoon found a Kansas City, Kan., man guilty of involuntary manslaughter after a pit bull that he allegedly took care of attacked and killed a woman in 2006.
Wyandotte County Attorney Jerome A. Gorman told jurors that Derick D. Lee, 34, cared for the dog, which is banned in Kansas City, Kan.
Jimmie Mae McConnell, 71, was tending her garden on July 27, 2006, when the dog allegedly vaulted over a fence and attacked her as she worked in her garden. She managed to call her son-in-law and shout, “They got me — call 911.”
More than 2,000 illegal immigrants have been buried as John Does since 2002 after dying in car crashes or from heat stroke. Many don't have identification, and it's not like anyone will filed a missing-person report in their name.
Baylor is building a DNA database of unidentified illegal-immigrant corpses, and so far, the school has been able to put names to 70 dead bodies.
A 16-year-old Gardner boy charged in the death of a peer should be prosecuted as a juvenile instead of an adult, a Johnson County judge was told today.
The recommendation regarding Dustin Howard came from Laura Brewer, a juvenile probation supervisor with Johnson County Court Services.
She arrived at her conclusion, she testified, by conducting an independent investigation.
Howard is charged with involuntary manslaughter in the Feb. 4 death of Dakota DeRemus, also 16. Both boys were sophomores at Gardner Edgerton High School when they agreed that day to fight each other at a certain and place that day after school was dismissed.
... DeRemus, who had a heart condition since he was a baby, collapsed during the fight and was found dead later. Friends and relatives said he had been picked on by other students for years.
"Good Morning America" had an interview this morning with 19-year-old Ashley Grills, a family friend of Lori Drew. Grills said that she created the fake MySpace profile and wrote "the world would be a better place without you" to teenager Megan Meier, who later committed suicide.
Grills attempted suicide, but survived. She says Drew was part of the MySpace hoax.
"She (Meier) was wanting to meet him … and me and Lori's daughter were both telling Lori that we thought it was going too far 'cause none of us can meet her, none of us are guys," Grills said.
"And she [Lori Drew] was like, it's fine, you know, we can set her up. We can have her go meet him at the mall and go there and just laugh at her, and I thought that was wrong," Grills continued.
It reportedly happened over the weekend at the Goodyear plant near Topeka. The guy allegedly had some kind of medical condition and wouldn't settle down, the Cap-Journal reports. Coroner hasn't determined an exact cause of death yet.
In Weston, Wis., police are reviewing the death of an 11-year-old girl who died from a form of treatable diabetes. The police say Mom and Dad prayed for the girl, but didn't take her to a doctor. It's not clear if the prosecutors will file charges. Snip from The AP:
The girl's parents, Dale and Leilani Neumann, attributed the death to "apparently they didn't have enough faith," the police chief said.
They believed the key to healing "was it was better to keep praying. Call more people to help pray," he said.
The mother believes the girl could still be resurrected, the police chief said.
The AP has a video on the case here.
Story is from Henry County. Apparently, the man had a hard time putting a hole in an exterior wall, so he used a handgun to shoot through, the sheriff's office reports. The second shot hit his wife in the chest, killing her. It's not clear yet in charges are going to be filed.
It happened in a grocery store. From station WSOC:
Police released a statement reading, "[Turner] was highly agitated and refused all verbal commands and began walking toward the officer." At that point, the officer used his Taser on Turner.
Turner went to Carolinas Medical Center-University, but he died a short time later.
Fontenot said her son and the manager have had problems in the past but she does not believe he became violent."When he gets upset, he is hard to talk to, but violent -- no. Act stupid, yes, mouth off, yes, but violent, no," she said.
Hat Tip: Many thanks, kbp and You're A Mean Drunk R2D2!
