MORGUE ARCHIVES OCTOBER, 2000 October 30, 2000 - Cleo Colvin - A construction worker with a gun on each hand opened fire in the middle of a trailer park in Tellico Plains, Tennessee, killing three people and critically wounding a fourth before killing himself. Neighbors said Cleo Colvin, 60, allegedly went postal when he arrived home to find his girlfriend moving out of their trailer with the help of three men. The victims were, the girlfriend, Mary Ann Presley, 41; her friend Garland Charles Stamey, 59; and his relative Ronald Scott Guilliames, 31. Another man, Tommy Stamey, 30, was in critical condition with several gunshot wounds. Witnesses said that Colvin then went to the mobile home of his best friend and shot himself in the bedroom. October 27, 2000 - Gabriel Garza Hoth - A Mexican man known as The Black Widower was sentenced to 45 years in prison after being convicted of homicide in the 1997 death of his fiancee. Gabriel Garza Hoth was also sentenced to pay fines totaling $2,200 for shooting his fiancee, Ana Gloria Gomez, and then trying to collect on a $400,000 insurance policy. Garza Hoth initially told police that Gomez had been killed by armed assailants who tried to rob the couple on a Mexico City street in August 1997. According to prosecutors, in 1991 Garza Hoth collected on a $125,000 insurance policy when his former wife, Soledad Valdes, died of an apparent heart attack. Another girlfriend, Marcela Munoz Palacios, was found dead of gunshot wounds in a Mexico City parking lot a year later. Munoz Palacios had life insurance policies totaling about $400,000, but it remains unclear whether Garza Hoth claimed it. Garza Hoth fled Mexico after a warrant was issued for his arrest in the Gomez case, and was arrested in Spain in November, 1998, and was extradited back to Mexico last January. October 27, 2000 - Stuart Alexander - Sausage factory owner Stuart Alexander, 39, pleaded innocent to the murder charges in the Alameda County District Court. Alexander is accused of killing of three U.S. Department of Agriculture meat inspectors who were about to close down his Linguisa sausague factory for health violations. October 26, 2000 - James Allen Kinney - Police in Delray Beach, Florida, are searching for suspected serial killer James Allen Kinney who is believed to have been living in Delray Beach since May. Kinney, 51, is suspected of killing women in Washington, Michigan and Iowa, has been in . "He lives somewhere between Boynton Beach and north Broward county," said Detective Robert Stevens at a news conference. The Vietnam veteran has stayed at Veteran's Administration Hospitals and homeless shelters throughout the U.S., and most recently he befriended an elderly Delray man confined to a wheelchair, who he met at a local VA hospital. Investigators said he typically hangs out at American Legion halls or Veterans of Foreign Wars halls. October 26, 2000 - Robert L. Yates - Spokane serial killer Robert L. Yates was sentenced to 408 years in prison after striking a deal with prosecutors and cofessing to 13 murders. "I pray that God will right the wrongs that I have committed and that justice will bring closure," the repentant prostitute killer told a small courtroom packed with sobbing relatives of his victims. "He has disgraced and dishonored every uniform he ever wore," said John Joseph, father of Jennifer Joseph, killed in 1997. October 25, 2000 - Robert L. Yates - Spokane County Prosecutor Steve Tucker said DNA testing has failed to match two blood stains found in his truck to any of the victims Robert Yates confessed to killing. Tucker added that Yates has taken a lie detector test, showing he was not lying when he said there were no more victims. But there are still unaccounted for blood stains in one of Yates vans. October 25, 2000 - Larry S. Dame - Police said that Donna Mimbach called Lino Lakes police for help the night before she and her family were killed by her brother. "We did everything legally possible to assist Donna Mimbach on the night of October 18," said Lino Lakes Police Chief Dave Pecchia addressing the fact that officers could not legally arrest Larry S. Dame from her home unless she evicted him. According to the police report the morning after Dame beat the Mimbach family with a hammer and stabbed all but his sister with a kitchen knife as they slept. October 24, 2000 - David Corneau - Massachusetts investigators using cadaver-sniffing dogs found the remains of two children buried in little coffins in the Baxter State Park in Maine. The children are believed to be victims of a religious sect that rejects the use of conventional medicine. The search of the 200,000-acre wilderness preserve began after David Corneau -- sect member and father of one of the two missing babies -- agreed to lead authorities to the bodies in exchange for immunity from prosecution for himself and his pregnant wife. Acting on tips from former sect members, police had searched Baxter State Park several times last year but found nothing. Authorities have been looking into the deaths of Corneau's son, Jeremiah, at birth, and Samuel Robidoux, who allegedly starved to death at age 10 months after he stopped nursing. Corneau, 33, was one of eight members of the group jailed for refusing to respond to the grand jury's questions about the disappearance of the two infants. October 24, 2000 - Zainulabedin Zaidi - A tape of a 999 emergency call with a terrified child screaming "Don't kill me, Daddy" was played in the trial of Zainulabedin Zaidi in the UK. Prosecuting attorney Adrian Redgrave said the voice in the tape was either Zeshan Zaidi, six, or his sister, Saba, seven, moments before their familicidial father -- who had just killed their mother and former wife -- stabbed them to death. The triple murder occurred March 17, during the Muslim religious festival of Eid.
October 23, 2000 - Possible Denver Homeless Killer - Denver detectives said they were investigating the death of a man found in a field in Lower Downtown as a homicide. Because the acute state of decomposition of the corpse, detectives believe the man may have been dead three to six weeks. As of now there have been no links have been determined to any of the four unsolved transient murders from last September. October 23, 2000 - Robert L. Yates - Police agencies around the state of Washington are trying to determine if confessed serial killer Robert L. Yates Jr. is responsible for more deaths than the 15 deaths already attributed to him. "We're not convinced we have all the victims," state Atty. Gen. Christine Gregoire said. Investigators from Washington, Oregon and British Columbia met recently to discuss two large gaps -- from 1975-88 and from 1988-96 -- in Yates' the murderous timeline. October 21, 2000 - Dexter Alonzo Levingston - Though authorities have not released the identity of the five people killed in a suburban Tampa home, neighbors and friends have confirmed the victims were 57-year-old Nancy Marlins, her sister and brother-in-law, Lillie and Barry Cacciamani, Lillie's adult daughter, Connie, and Marlins' grandson, Dexter Levingston. October 20, 2000 - Kip Kinkel - Teenage rampager Kip Kinkel has emerged as a central figure in the debate over an Oregon ballot measure that could reduce the sentences of thousands of inmates. "If Kip Kinkel is resentenced, I will be living in fear every day, along with my family and fellow victims, that if he is released he will hunt us all down," Jennifer Alldredge, a student wounded by Kinkel, wrote in the state's official voter guide. The Republican candidate for attorney general is also featuring Kinkel in TV ads that accuse the incumbent of supporting the earlier guidelines, which theoretically could reduce Kinkel's 112-year prison sentence to one that frees him at 21. October 20, 2000 - Newton Slawson - In hopes of a speedy execution, convicted mass murderer Newton Slawson has been ruled mentally competent to represent himself in court allowing him to fast-track his appeals all the way to the death chamber. Slawson, 45, was arrested in 1989 after murdering an entire east Tampa family. Peggy and Gerald Wood, casual acquaintances of Slawson, were shot in their apartment, along with their son, Glendon, 3, and their daughter, Jennifer, 4. Peggy, who was 81/2 months pregnant with another son, was also stabbed and her stomach was sliced open, but she crawled next door to her mother's apartment and told her "Newt did it" before she died. Since his conviction for first-degree murder, Slawson has said several times he wanted to waive his appeals and get on with the execution. Although local judges have granted his requests to represent himself and waive his appeals, the Florida Supreme Court ruled that Slawson must undergo a psychiatric evaluation. Last month, two doctors testified that Slawson was legally competent to represent himself. A third testified that he thought Slawson was incompetent. October 20, 2000 - Lawrence Scott Dame - Police in Minnesota have arrested an ex-convict suspected of killing his sister, her husband and their three young children. The suspect, Lawrence Scott Dame, had been released the day before the killings from the Anoka County jail where he was being held for allegedly stealing one of the family's cars. October 19, 2000 - Four Migrant Workers Dead in Tennessee - Four migrant workers were found shot to death at a small, wood-frame house they shared in Monterey, a rural town east of Nashville. The men were apparently Guatemalan immigrants working at the town's Perdue Farms Inc. food-processing plant, Putnam County Sheriff Jerry Abston said. They have not yet been identified. A motive remained unclear. There was no sign of forced entry and investigators did not find any weapons or drugs in the home. "These guys didn't have anything but bedrolls in that house," Abston said. "They were hard working." Each man had two or three identification cards, suggesting they were illegal immigrants. The bodies were found by a roommate. October 19, 2000 - Daniel Blank - Louisiana serial killer Daniel Blank was formally sentenced to death by lethal injection for the May 14, 1997, murder of 55-year-old LaPlace resident, Joan Brock. Last April Blank was found guilty of stabbing Brock in her back yard and leaving her to die. Blank is accused of killing six River Parishes residents during a 10-month crime spree between 1996 and 1997 fueled by his gambling addiction. He has already been sentenced to death for one murder and has three more trials pending. October 19, 2000 - Hadden Clark - Investigators in Cape Cod found no evidence that convicted killer Hadden Clark had buried any bodies in his family Wellfleet property. Cape and Islands District Attorney Russell Rollins said police will not continue to search the property unless the cross-dressing Clark provided them with new credible information. October 18, 2000 - Michael Swango - Serial killing doctor Michael J. Swango pleaded guilty to aggravated murder in the 1984 death of Cynthia Ann McGee, 19, who he injected with a deadly dose of potassium at the Ohio State University hospital where she was recovering from a car accident. Swango was sentenced to the maximum of life in prison with no hope of parole for at least 20 years. Not a stranger to physician-assisted death, Swango, 45, has already pleaded guilty to three murders at a Long Island veterans hospital. In a plea bargain that spared him from the death penalty, he was sentenced to life without parole. He also is suspected of poisoning patients in Zimbabwe and served time in prison for the nonfatal poisoning of co-workers in Illinois. In all, Swango is suspected of killing up to 35 people in various hospitals in the U.S. and Zimbabwe. October 18, 2000 - Reinaldo Rivera - Police in Agusta, Georgia, believe they have arrested a serial killer responsible for the murders of at least four women in South Carolina and Georgia. Reinaldo Rivera, a 37-year-old former sailor who -- among other things -- worked for the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff in Washington, D.C., was arrested in a motel room after a woman whom he stabbed and raped helped authorities locate him. The woman said she went with Rivera to her house last week, where he allegedly raped her and stabbed her three times in the neck with a steak knife. When police found Rivera he was unconscious with his wrist slit. October 18, 2000 - Robert Lee Yates - In a deal that would spare him the death penalty Spokane serial killer Robert L. Yates pleaded guilty to thirteen murders -- including three that were previously unrelated to him -- and directed investigators to a body buried in his own side yard. According to the agreement, prosecutors would not consider the death penalty only if the body found in the yard was that of Melody Murfin, 43, a suspected victim missing for two years. However, even if the Spokane agreement is honored, Pierce County Prosecutor John Ladenburg said he intends to pursue aggravated first-degree murder charges in the two Tacoma killings which are not included in the Spokane charges. October 18, 2000 - Heinrich Pommerenke - German serial killer and child rapist Heinrich Pommerenke is being considered for release after convincing a prison priest of his "saint-like" qualities. Pommerenke was jailed in 1960 for murdering four women and trying to kill 12 others in an attempt to kill seven people - his lucky number. In one incident, he pushed a 21-year-old victim out of a fast-moving train jumped off after her and slit her throat before raping her as she died. Pommerenke now sings in the prison choir and has been described as "a thinker and a saint" by a former prison priest. October 16, 2000 - Boston Strangler - Thirty-six years after her death, the last victim of the Boston Strangler was been exhumed and her body is being examined for signs of her killer's real identity. A private autopsy on Mary Sullivan, who was killed in 1964, was conducted following a request by her family and the family of Albert DeSalvo, who confessed to killing her and 10 other women. DeSalvo was never charged in the murders, which took place between June 1962 and January 1964. He was killed in prison in 1973 while serving a life sentence on an unrelated rape conviction. The two families believe that DeSalvo was not the feared Boston Strangler and that he confessed to being the killer only because he thought his family could make money from book and film deals about the murders. October 14, 2000 - James Hicks - The remains of a third victim of convicted killer James Hicks were located after two days of digging at roadside sites in Aroostook County, Maine. The remains of two other victims were discovered earlier in the week at Hicks' former home in Etna. In 1983, Hicks, 49, was convicted of killing his first wife, Jennie Hicks, who disappeared in 1977 and was never seen again until two days ago. Hicks served six years in prison for her murder. Maine authorities have also suspected him in the disappearance of two other women ‹- 34-year-old Jerilyn Towers of Newport in 1982, and 40-year-old Lynn Willette of Orrington in 1996 -- but never had enough evidence to charge him with murder. October 13, 2000 - Myra Hindley - England's Lord Chief Justice, Lord Woolf, said the incorporation of the European Convention on Human Rights into law meant that Home Secretary Jack Straw could no longer block the release of "reformed" child murderer Myra Hindley. Straw, who has staunchly opposed any sort of clemency for the convicted killer, has ruled repeatedly that in Hindley's case, life in prison should mean life in prison. October 12, 2000 - Byran Uyesugi - Xerox repairman and office rampager Byran Uyesugi said he wants his seven murder convictions overturned because he was denied a fair trial. Uyesugi 40, asked the Oahu public defender's office to file an appeal on his behalf. In June, a jury rejected defense arguments that a delusional disorder had convinced Uyesugi that co-workers were sabotaging his career, spying on him for the federal government and mutilating his prize goldfish that led to his November 2, 1999, deadly workplace massacre. October 12, 2000 - Stuart Alexander - According to an unsealed grand jury transcript Stuart Alexander, the San Leandro sausage-plant owner charged with killing three government meat inspectors, said months before the deadly rampage that he wanted to shoot the inspectors with a machine gun and stick them in a meat grinder. Two days before the killings Alexander, 39, whose Internet screen name was "Sausage King," ranted in an e-mail to a friend that the meat inspectors were "fucking with me" and that he would be "picketing at City Hall" the next day. Instead Alexander loaded up with weapons and opened fire at a group of state and federal meat inspectors who paid a visit to his sausage factory.
October 9, 2000 - Angel Maturino Resendiz - In an Interview with Maria Elena Salinas, Angel Maturino Resendiz said he had committed many more than the 11 murders authorities have attributed to him. However, he refused to reveal the exact number or the identities of his victims, with the exception of Daryll Kolojaco, whom he identified as "a homosexual who had to die." In fact he stated that many of his victims were homosexuals adding that, "according to the Bible, homosexuals must die because they will never enter the kingdom of God." In true rambling serial killer fashion he also said he started killing after the government's assault on David Koresh and his followers in Waco. "I was upset over the deaths of the kids in Waco, of the prophet ... Everyone has already forgotten the deaths of those innocent children, but I keep reliving them. They are always on my mind." Stay tuned for the next dispatch from Radio Resendiz. October 9, 2000 - Bible John - Scottish press reported that investigators have received new information in the case of the Bible John case that might lead to the possible identification of the notorious killer. According to reports the suspect whose name was given to the police is still alive. The new lead was given to criminal psychologist Ian Stephen by an expatriate Scot living in America who suspects the killer is a member of his extended family. The suspect, whose father was a police officer, was married in the Glasgow area and lived in Lanarkshire with his wife and two children until 1970 when he moved to England. October 9, 2000 - Dustin Honken - Four bodies found buried in a wooded area near Mason City may be the victims of a drug dealer awaiting trial in Iowa. Federal officials believe that in 1993 five people were killed by Dustin Honken, who was awaiting trial when they disappeared. Two of the victims were planning to testify against Honken, who was accused of bringing methamphetamine from Arizona into the area. The other three were victims of circumstance. U.S. Attorney Stephen Rapp said that an informant gave them the general location of the bodies. Investigators used land sonar technology and dogs to locate the bodies. "Identification is not complete and evacuation is not complete," Rapp said. "We'll be here several more days." The original drug charges against Honken were dropped, but he was arrested three years later on separate charges of manufacturing and dealing methamphetamine and is now serving a 27-year federal prison term. Honken had been the primary suspect in the murders all along, but "he was in prison for 27 years and he was not going anywhere," Rapp said. Honken's girlfriend, Angela Johnson, 36, was charged in July with aiding in the deaths of all five victims. She was seen by an unnamed witness at the scene of four of the slayings, a state investigator told a grand jury. Johnson and Honken have been charged with the slayings of Lori Duncan, 31, her daughters Amber, 6, and Kandi, 8, and Duncan's live-in boyfriend, Gregory Nicholson, 34, who was to testify against Honken. Officials believe they are the bodies buried in the woods. Officials were still searching for the body of Terry DeGeus, 34, who authorities believe was killed in November 1993. DeGeus also was scheduled to testify against Honken. October 9, 2000 - Robert Spangler - Prompted by being diagnosed with terminal lung cancer, Robert Spangler, 67, admitted to authorities that he killed two of his previous wives and two stepchildren in two separate incidents. Spangler told Arapahoe County detectives he shot to death his 45-year-old first wife, Nancy, and their children, 15-year-old Susan and 17-year- old David, in their Littleton home on December 30, 1978. He also confessed to pushing his second wife, Donna Spangler, off a ledge along the Grandview Trail at the Grand Canyon on April 11, 1993. His third wife, Sharon, died in 1994 in Durango of an apparent drug overdose. Spangler has not been implicated in her death. Judith Hilty, his fourth and current wife, said she never feared her husband and had no idea he was involved in the deaths of two of his previous spouses. "I had no indication that he was capable of this sort of thing," Hilty said in an interview with KNZZ radio. "He always seemed a very gentle person, always has been with me. He's great with me." Those who knew Spangler in Grand Junction said he had a passion for theater. This summer, he played John Hancock in a production of 1776, and several people who saw the musical said he performed well. In August, Spangler was preparing for a role in a production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. He was having trouble remembering his lines, so he went to his doctor, who diagnosed the cancer. October 9, 2000 - Five Dead in India - Five people were hacked to death by a middle-aged man during a religious ceremony in northeast India. The attacker, who police said appeared to be mentally disturbed, was later beaten to death by a crowd in Margherita in the northeastern state of Assam. Carrying a hatchet, the man entered a tent where devotees were gathered for prayers to the Hindu goddess Durga. Five people including a woman were killed on the spot before the crowd descended on the man. "The identity of the man could not be established but it seems that he had lost his mental balance," a police spokesman said. October 9, 2000 - Karla Homolka - A Canadian Federal Court cleared the way for the transfer of convicted sex killer Karla Homolka from a Quebec prison to another institution. Justice Pierre Blais made the ruling, rejecting arguments from Homolka's lawyers that her life would be in danger if she were taken from her current prison in Joliette. Blais did not spell out his reasoning for turning down the request to block the transfer of Homolka, who is serving a 12-year term for her role in the deaths of three Ontario teenage girls, including her own sister. Federal authorities have not confirmed Homolka's prison destination but the most likely spot is Saskatoon's Regional Psychiatric Centre, a forensic facility that accommodates women. October 9, 2000 - Malawi Serial Killers - The trial of three men accused of being behind the serial killing of women in the southern Malawi district of Chiradzulu came to a climatic end with two men being found guilty of multiple murders and a third being acquitted. The three were charged with murdering at least six women and selling their genitalia in the black market. Residents believe the accused could be responsible for up to 20 deaths. One of the accused Bokhobokho was charged with killing the women and selling their body parts to the second convicted suspect. The third suspect -- the one that was acquitted -- is believed to have acted as a go-between between the two men. In court Bokhobokho said he admitted to the crime under duress following excessive police torture. The demonstrative killer said he wanted to undress in court to prove to the jury that police tortured him to extract a confession. Police alleged that Bokhobokho ate some of the human parts and sold the others. It is uncertain if the suspects are indeed the serial killer that has been plaguing this African nation, or merely scapegoats used by authorities to placate the public's anger. October 6, 2000 - Sandi Nieves - Infanticidal mom Sandi Nieves was formally sentenced to death for the arson murder of her four daughters. The 36-year-old mom will be transferred to the state's death row for female inmates at the Central California Women's Facility in Chowchilla. "We believe this woman should have received the death penalty and she did. She killed four of her children," said Sandi Gibbons, spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office. October 3, 2000 - "The Original Night Stalker" - California investigators have determined through DNA testing that a serial killer was responsible for the deaths of 10 people, most of them couples, between 1979 and 1984. Dubbed "The Original Night Stalker," the killer is believed to have carefully selected his victims from upscale communities in Orange, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties. Using cutting-edge technologies investigators at the Orange County Sheriff's Department have linked six separate murder scenes and 10 victims to a single suspect. October 2, 2000 - David Ray Camm - According to a court affidavit, a bloody shirt linked former Indiana state trooper David Ray Camm to the shooting deaths of his wife and two children. The affidavit said a T-shirt worn by Camm on the day of the killings had "high velocity blood mist, which occurs in the presence of a gunshot at the time of the shooting." It also said one of the victims, Camm's 5-year-old daughter, had a "recent tear in the vaginal area consistent with sexual intercourse." Camm was charged with murder in the deaths of his wife, Kimberly, 36, and their two children, Bradley, 7, and Jill, 5, just hours after he issued a public plea for the killer to surrender. "I don't know if it was a personal attack on me or meant to be or a personal attack on my wife. But if they have any decency, any compassion in their body at all, they'll turn themselves in," Camm told Louisville television station WLKY after attending Sunday church services with his mother and friends. "I want my family back. I want my babies back. I want my wife back," he said. Camm said he cherished memories of a daughter who liked to play "tackle wars" with her daddy, of a son who could out-swim a fish and of a wife who had taken his breath away the first time he laid eyes on her more than 12 years ago. October 2, 2000 - Stephen Akinmurele - An investigation into the hanging death of suspected British serial killer Stephen Akinmurele concluded that he committed suicide . Akinmurele, 21, was discovered hanging by a ligature from a window in his cell in Manchester Prison. Akinmurele was due to stand trial for murdering five pensioners. "I can't help the way I feel, what I did was wrong - I know that and I feel for them - but it doesn't mean I won't do it again," the Nigerian-born serial killer wrote in a note he left for his mother. "I couldn't take any more of feeling like how I do now, always wanting to kill." Akinmurele, a former barman, had been charged with killing his former landlady, 75-year-old Jemima Cargill, who died in a house fire in Blackpool in October 1998. He was also accused of the murders of a nearby couple, Joan Boardman, 74, and her husband Eric, 76. They were discovered battered to death in the town a month later. He was also charged with the murder of 68-year-old Dorothy Harris, who died in a house fire in Ballasalla on the Isle of Man in February 1996, and 72-year-old Marjorie Ashton, who died in a house fire in the same town in 1995. October 2, 2000 - Joshua Wade - A man in Anchorage, Alaska, was charged with first-degree murder in the death of an American Indian woman, and police say he may be linked to other recent slayings of women in the city. Joshua A. Wade, 20, was taken into custody without incident at an apartment building in the city, police said. Wade was charged in the death of Della M. Brown, whose body was found in a shed in the city's Spenard neighborhood on September 2. July-August 2000 - Morgue Archives - Previous entries to the Morgue Archives. |