January 31, 2006 - Unnamed Ex-Postal Worker - A female ex-postal worker opened fire at a huge mail processing plant in Southern California, killing five people and critically wounding another before committing suicide in what's believed to be the deadliest workplace shooting ever carried out by a woman. The woman reloaded her 9 mm handgun at least once during the rampage and managed to get inside the fenced and guarded center of the sprawling Santa Barbara Processing and Distribution Center.

Authorities found two people dead outside the plant, blocks from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Another body was just outside the door, and a fourth was just inside. Two more bodies -- including that of the killer -- were found farther inside. A sixth person was in critical condition with a gunshot wound to the head. All of the woman's victims were believed to be postal center employees. About 300 people are employed at the Goleta plant where the rampage ocurred. The woman had not worked at the plant for more than two years.

January 17, 2006 - Mataviejas - There's a serial killer stalking elderly women in Mexico City. To date the killer has strangled at least seven elderly women with stockings or telephone cables. The latest murder ocurred in October of 2005. Police are investigating whether 22 other slayings of older Mexico City women since 2003 are also related.

November 16, 2005 - Alfred Gaynor - An online auction of artwork by a serial sex killer, Alfred Gaynor, has triggered an outrage in Massachusetts where lawmakers have proposed to block criminals from profiting on what they called "murderabilia." The artwork - a colored pencil sketch of Jesus Christ kneeling in a desert entitled, "A Righteous Man's Reward," - will be auctioned starting at $15 at The Fortune Society's Web site.

November 14, 2005 - David Ludwig - Chalk one up to the Christian Right. David Ludwig (with or without the help of his 14-year-old girlfriend, Kara Beth Borden) killed her parents and then hit the road with the his teen lover in tow. Both home-schooled youngsters were, by all accounts, deeply religious.

The Pennsylvania teenager allegedly killed the girlfriend's parents in an argument over her curfew and was captured in Indiana, some 600 miles from where the killings took place, after a police chase that ended when he crashed his parents' car head-on into a tree. It is unclear if Kara was abducted or went along willingly, but police said they were dealing with the situation as a kidnaping.

Authorities said Ludwig shot Kara's parents, Michael F. and Cathryn Lee Borden, on December 13 after they and their daughter argued about her curfew. The shootings happened at the family's home near Lititz, Pa., about 60 miles west of Philadelphia. Kara's 13-year-old sister, Katelyn, told investigators she saw Ludwig shoot her father, and then ran into the bathroom, where she heard a second shot, presumably the one that killed her mother. Ludwig then ran through the house calling for Kara. Then Kara's 9-year-old brother ran to the neighbors, who called 911.

November 9, 2005 - Andrea Yates - Texas' highest criminal court today let stand a lower court ruling that threw out Andrea Yates' murder convictions for drowning her children in a bathtub in June 2001. Harris County Assistant District Attorney Alan Curry says the case will be retried or a plea bargain considered. The First Court of Appeals in Houston overturned Yates' 2002 convictions because of false testimony from a forensic psychiatrist.

November 8, 2005 - High School Shooting in Jacksboro - A 15-year-old boy went to his school in Jacksboro, Tennesseee, carrying a .22-caliber handgun and fired at three adults, killing an assistant principal and wounding two other school officials.

August 11, 2005 - Mitchell Johnson - Middle school rampager, Mitchell Johnson, walked free from prison seven years after he and fellow student Andrew Golden opened fire outside the Westside Middle School in Jonesboro, Arkansas, killing four students and a teacher.

January 11, 2003 - The Monster of Atwater - The LA Times reported that a Los Angeles gang leader was wanted in connection with 12 homicides. According to police, 29-year-old Timothy Joseph McGhee, the Monster of Atwater, has either overseen or pulled the trigger in the executions of gang rivals, witnesses and others simply unlucky enough to have crossed his path. "He likes killing people; it's his high and he does it for kicks," said Los Angeles Police Department Detective Andy Teague.

January 9, 2003 - John Lee Malvo - Defense attorneys for sniper suspect John Lee Malvo asked a judge to bar the public and the media from a preliminary hearing that will outline some of the evidence against him. Fairfax County Commonwealth's Attorney Robert Horan Jr. said that he would oppose the motion. "The Virginia Supreme Court decided long ago that the Virginia Constitution requires an open hearing unless there's some truly remarkable reason," Horan said. The purpose of the above-mentioned preliminary hearing is for prosecutors to demonstrate probable cause and present enough evidence against Malvo to convince a judge to send the case to a grand jury so Malvo can be prosecuted as an adult.

January 9, 2003 - Robert Pickton - DNA traces of another missing woman have been found on the pig farm of accused serial killer Robert William Pickton. The victim, 43-year-old Cindy Feliks, Feliks, disappeared in the fall of 1997. Four years after her disappearance, and after pressure from her family in Calgary, police added her name to the list of woman missing from downtown Vancouver. Pickton, whose preliminary hearing is scheduled to starts January 13, is charged with murdering 15 Vancouver women.

January 9, 2003 - Falun Gong - Police in southwestern China said they raided a secret meeting place of the outlawed Falun Gong spiritual movement, arresting five people and confiscating stacks of books, pamphlets and videotapes. The five were arrested on charges of smuggling Falun Gong materials from abroad and downloading them from the Internet. They also face charges of organizing secret gatherings of Falun Gong, which was banned -- for allegedly being a suicide cult -- four years ago after it staged a massive protest in central Beijing.

January 8, 2003 - Cannibalism in Congo - A U.N. team is investigating reports that rebel troops from the Congolese Liberation Movement and its allied Congolese Rally for Democracy-National have been killing and eating Pygmies in northeastern Congo. "The U.N. is taking these accusations very seriously," said Manodje Mounoubai of the U.N. mission in Congo. The six-person team has been sent to the mineral-rich areas of Ituri province to investigate the accusations. The two rebel factions often hire Pygmies to hunt food in the jungles as they fight the rival rebel Congolese Rally for Democracy-Liberation. If the hunters return empty-handed, rebel troops kill and eat them, the U.N. official said.

January 6, 2003 - Suspected Lousiana Serial Killer Investigators in Baton Rouge have collected saliva samples from nearly 1,000 men in their effort to find a DNA match to that of a serial killer linked to the killings of four women. Joe Cook, executive director of the Louisiana American Civil Liberties Union, said that the DNA dragnet raises questions about people's constitutional rights.

"In this case, all these people are assumed guilty until they're proven innocent," Cook said. The probable cause to determine if someone should be approached to offer a DNA sample seems flimsy, often based on anonymous tips or the type of pickup truck a man drives, Cook added. "I don't think that's credible evidence to target someone. It's been proven time and again that this type of targeting is bad police work," Cook said, "the people who have come forward would appear to have been coerced."

January 6, 2003 - Robert Pickton - The BC Pork Producers released a written complaint about how the Pickton case was being reported by the media. Disturbed by the association of the alleged serial killer spree to Pickton's pig farm, the Pork Producers remarked that the property in question had, in fact, more sheep than pigs and that Pickton himself was not associated with their organization. "Consequently, having the words 'pig farm' associated with the Robert Pickton murder trial has been and continues to be very negative to our industry," stated the press release.

January 6, 2003 - Anthony Hardy - The London Ripper suspect, Anthony Hardy appeared in court was charged with three murders including the killings of two prostitutes whose body parts were found in trash containers in London's Candem area. Police also formally identified the second prostitute as 34-year-old Brigitte Cathy MacClennan. She is believed to have lived in Camden but originally came from New Zealand. The second victim was identified as 29-year-old Elizabeth Selina Valad, originally from Nottingham. The third murder charge was for the death of 38-year-old Sally Rose White who was found dead in his apartment more than a year ago. Detectives said the search for more victims connected with the case continues.

January 5, 2003 -Six Dead in Texas - Six men were shot to death in Edinburg, texas, in a home invasion attack. Police said they believe the assailants were searching for weapons and drugs. A witness, who was tied up during the shooting, told authorities that one of the assailants wore clothing with the word "police" on it. Five of the victims were found in one house; another was found in a second house on the same property.

January 5, 2003 - Edward Morris - After a two-week manhunt throughout Oregon, Edward Morris -- charged with killing his wife and three children and dumping their bodies in a forest -- was captured in a drug store parking lot here. Though Morris, 37, had been described as "armed and dangerous," he was arrested without incident. The bodies of his wife, 31-year-old Renee and his three children, Bryant, 10, Alexis, 8 and Jonathan, 4, were found by hunters December 21 on an isolated road about 70 miles west of Portland, in the Tillamook State Forest.

January 5, 2003 - John Allen Muhammad - The Washington Post reported that prosecutors have linked sniper suspect John Allen Muhammad to at least two shootings, including one that left a man dead at a Virginia gas station. Citing four law enforcement sources who asked that they not be identified, the Post reported that investigators found Muhammad's fingerprint on a street map booklet found at the Manassas, Virginia, station where Dean Harold Meyers was killed October 9. Though the fingerprint on the map doesn't prove Muhammad fired the shot that killed Meyers, it does place him at the scene of the shooting.

January 4, 2003 - Carl Knapp - A gunman shot and killed three people in an Albuquerque business district, then barricaded himself in a pawn shop for about three hours and shot himself in the chest. Carl Knapp, 48, was hospitalized for the wound, which was not life-threatening. Police accused Knapp of shooting two men and a woman in front of a warehouse in an area of northeast Albuquerque. The victims were identified as Jane Johnston, 42; Steven Goodwin, 49; and Greg McGuire, whose age was not immediately known. Authorities believe the killings were the result of a domestic violence situation.

January 4, 2003 - Four Dead in Virginia - A man in Richmond, Virginia, shot and killed his girlfriend and two convenience store workers before turning his assault rifle on himself. All four victims were declared dead in three different crime scenes. Police said the man went into a home in Richmond's Southside before 6 p.m. and shot his 27-year-old girlfriend in a bedroom as children and other relatives watched. The man then ran from the house several blocks to the Golden Food Market, where police said he shot and killed the owner of the store and an employee. According to police, the man then forced four men from the van they were sitting in outside the store and drove to a relative's house, where he shot and killed himself in front of several people.

January 4, 2003 - Three Dead in a Seattle Suburb - The bodies of three men were found in a vehicle along a highway in the Seattle suburb of Kent. Police do not know the men's identities or a possible motive for the slayings. Police also do not know if the victims were shot at that location. No one was in the driver's seat when the vehicle was found. Police were called to the scene to check on the dark green Chevy Tahoe after a neighbor reported that someone appeared to be sleeping on the passenger side.

January 4, 2003 - Four Dead in Chicago - Authorities are searching for suspects in the slayings of a 2-year-old boy, his parents and another man inside a home on Chicago's South Side. The four, last seen in the home at a New Year's Eve party playing cards and video games, were found shot to death three days later after one of the victims did not show up for work at a security company. Relatives identified the four as Ronald Royals, 21, Sara Perry, 18, their 2-year-old child Ronald Royals Jr. and Prescott Perry, Sara's father.

A cousin of Royals said she was at the New Year's Eve party at the house and last saw the four at about 3 a.m. . Tammie Jenkins, 22, said about eight people were at the party when she left. She said there were no arguments during the get-together, and no weapons in sight. "I knew everybody in there and I know that none of them would do this," she said. "When I left, everything was fine. Ronald said he'd call me later. Now he's dead."

January 3, 2003 - John Wolfenbarger & Dennis Lincoln - The uncle of John Wolfenbarger, a 31-year-old man accused of killing a Michigan family of five, testified in a preliminary hearing that his nephew bragged that he had done something that would make the national news. Wolfenbarger's uncle, William Smith, 36, of Detroit, said that he went to police after his nephew came to his home late on the night of the killings looking for a change of clothes and bragged that he did something that should appear on CNN.

January 3, 2003 - Huang Hu - Chinese authorities executed the owner of a failing kindergarten for mixing rat poison into salt at a rival school's kitchen and sickening 70 children. Huang Hu, 29, was executed in Zhanjiang, a city in Guangdong province, which borders Hong Kong. He was convicted in mid-December after a swift prosecution. Huang owned a failing kindergarten in the nearby city of Wuchuang and blamed competition from a nearby school. He crept into its kitchen Nov. 24 and put poison in salt that was used to make corn porridge. Students and teachers who ate the tainted food suffered spasms and vomiting. Seventy children and two teachers were hospitalized, but all were treated and released.

January 3, 2003 - Moo Chul Shin - A man stabbed his ex-girlfriend, her husband and two daughters, killing the woman and one child before police found him in a New York motel room with his wrists slashed. The killer, 30-year-old Moo Chul Shin, stabbed to death Sook Kim, 34, and Kim's 7-year-old daughter, Clara, in their apartment in the New York borough of Queens. Shin, of Springfield, Virginia, also allegedly stabbed Kim's 8-year-old daughter Estelle, who remained hospitalized in critical condition. He later attacked Kim's 38-year-old husband, Hyunsik Kim, stabbing him on the neck as he prepared to start his work day driving a fruit delivery truck.

January 3, 2003 - Anthony Hardy - Police investigating the murders of two women whose body parts were found in garbage containers in Candem, North London, arrested their main suspect, Anthony Hardy. The 53-year-old suspect was caught on closed-circuit television at University College Hospital on Wednesday asking for medicine for a diabetes-related condition called peripheral neuropathy but left when staff began to query where he lived. Detectives believed that his quest for medication was their main chance of catching him.

December 31, 2002 - John Lee Malvo - Lawyers for sniper suspect John Lee Malvo scored a legal victory when Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court Judge Kimberly Daniel ruled that prosecutors had to turn over statements the teenager may have made to police during a seven-hour interrogation session about two Virginia shootings.

December 30, 2002 - Suspected Serial Killer in Lousiana - Police in Lafayette, Luisiana, who are searching for an elusive serial killer, will ask up to 100 men in the area to voluntarily submit DNA samples. Lafayette Parish Sheriff Mike Neustrom said the list of men was drawn up after police received more than 400 tips following last week's discovery of killer's latest victim. An FBI profiling team has said the killer likely is a white male, 25-35 years old, who acts awkwardly around women and does blue-collar work. Authorities have taken DNA samples from more than 800 men in the Baton Rouge area -- where the first three murders ocurred -- and have ruled out 600 of them as suspects.

December 27, 2002 - The Raelian Cult - Though not necessarily a killer cult yet, the alien-worshipping Raelian Cult found a spot in the Cult's r Us Hit List when their company, Clonaid, announced it had created a healthy baby girl cloned from her 31-year-old mother. "I'm very very pleased to announce that the first baby clone is born," Clonaid director Brigitte Boisselier, a former research chemist in France, said at a news conference in Hollywood, north of Miami.

December 26, 2002 - Ernest Wholaver - A Pennsylvania man awaiting trial on charges he molested his two daughters was taken into custody for questioning in the execution-style murders of his daughters and their mother. Documents detailing the sexual abuse charges against Ernest Wholaver, 42, say the sisters were afraid to come forward because they feared he would harm them. "We just want to know what he knows," said District Attorney Edward M. Marsico Jr. Autopsies showed that Jean Wholaver and her daughters, Victoria, 20, and Elizabeth, 15, each died of a single gunshot wound to the head at their home in Middletown. The coroner said the women were apparently shot on Christmas Eve. Victoria Wholaver's 9-month-old daughter, Madison, was left in the house unharmed.

Wholaver was arrested in July after his daughters told police he had sexually abused them over several years. He was later released on $100,000 bail and ordered to stay away from them. A police affidavit said both Victoria and Elizabeth Wholaver were "very emotional" during interviews in which they said their father kissed, fondled or had sex with them. "Both are very fearful of their father and (indicated) that he is going to get them for telling," the affidavit said.

December 26, 2002 - John Wolfenbarger & Dennis Lincoln - Two men were charged with murdering five family members during a robbery at their suburban Detroit home. John Wolfenbarger, 31, and Dennis Lincoln, 27, were charged with five counts each of premeditated murder and felony murder of jeweler Marco Pesce, 38, his mother, Maria Vergati, 68; and Pesce's three children, Melissa, 6, Sabrina, 9, and Carlo, 12. The killings happened after Pesce dropped his children off at his house in Livonia, then went to his office without entering the home, prosecutors said.

December 23, 2002 - John Lee Malvo - Prosecutor Robert Horan Jr. of the Fairfax County Commonwealth denied the New York Times report that said 17-year-old sniper suspect John Lee Malvo was responsible for most of the DC-area sniper shootings. "I don't think that anybody in the investigation is responsible for the leak, because so much of it was dead wrong," said Horan, who is overseeing the case against Malvo.

December 23, 2002 - Suspected Serial Killer in Lousiana - Authorities in Lousiana said they believe a woman whose body was found last month in a field near Lafayette was slain by a serial killer responsible for the deaths of three other women in Baton Rouge. The apparent fourth victim, Trineisha Dene Colomb, 23, was reported missing November 22 after her car was found in Grand Coteau, a small town near Lafayette. Two days later, her body was found about 20 miles away by a hunter. DNA evidence from the scene matched genetic evidence from the three other killings, which occurred in Baton Rouge, about an hour's drive east of Lafayette.

December 23, 2002 - Possible Pre-Christmas Falimicide - Oregon authorities are searching for a man whose wife and three young children were found dead in the snowy woods outside Portland. Though police are unsure whether the father is a victim or a suspect, familicide is not an uncommon holiday ocurrence. The victims are Rene Morris, 31, and her children, Bryant, 10, Alexis, 8, and 4-year-old Jonathan. Police are looking for Edward Morris, 37, and the family's gray 1993 Dodge Caravan.

The family lived in a single-story white home in north Portland which was strung with Christmas lights. Neighbors said they were very religious and that the kids were very well-behaved. According to Reverend Philip Hawk, the pastor of the church the family attended several times a week, Rene was home schooling the children and was was helping lead the children's Christmas musical for the church. The father, a former landscaper who had recently started a job in a Target store, was described by neighbors as a loner who had difficulty keeping a job.

A police spokesman said hunters found the first body in Tillamook State Forest, and called authorities from a convenience store. The Oregon State Police forensics team arrived and found the other three in the near vicinity. Dozens of police, FBI agents and volunteers have fanned out through a five-mile area looking for the missing father and/or more victims.

December 22, 2002 - John Lee Malvo - According to a published report in the New York Times, most evidence in the sniper shootings points to teenager John Lee Malvo as the triggerman in most if not all of the shootings. "There is not much pointing to Muhammad, and that is going to make it really hard to show that he was the triggerman," one senior law enforcement official involved in the case told The New York Times. "There are other ways to attempt to obtain a death sentence, but this lack of evidence has been one of the most perplexing things about the case."

December 19, 2002 - John Allen Muhammad & John Lee Malvo - A judge has imposed a gag order prohibiting Fairfax County police from publicly disclosing their investigation into sniper suspects John Allen Muhammad and John Lee Malvo. The order, dated December 11 from Circuit Judge R. Terrence Ney, bans police from disclosing any "information which may jeopardize the successful conclusion of the investigation." Muhammad's lawyers sought the injunction against Fairfax County police and the FBI following a report last month in The Washington Post saying that Malvo, 17, had confessed to being the triggerman in some of the sniper sniper shootings.

December 15, 2002 - Cary Stayner Feared Yosemite handyman-killer, Cary Stayner, recieved three death sentences for killing Carole Sund, 42, her daughter, Juli, 15, and their Argentine friend, Silvina Pelosso, 16, while they stayed at the motel where he worked outside the gates of Yosemite

December 13, 2002 - John Allen Muhammad & John Lee Malvo - The mother of teenage sniper suspect John Lee Malvo has been deported to Jamaica. A Justice Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Associated Press that Una James, 38, had left Seattleand was en route to Jamaica, her home country.

In related news, a judge barred television cameras from Muhammad's trial scheduled to begin Oct. 14. He is charged in the shooting of Dean Meyers on Oct. 9 outside a gas station in Manassas, Va. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Jan. 14 in Fairfax County, Va., to determine whether Malvo will be tried as an adult and face the death penalty in the shooting of FBI analyst Linda Franklin.

December 12, 2002 - German Cannibal Killer - A man in the central German town of Rotenburg, near Kassel, confessed to murdering and eating another man. Prosecutors said the accused and the victim were apparently homosexuals who shared cannibalistic tendencies. The 41-year-old cannibal-killer videotaped the murder. The victim, also in his 40s, answered an Internet post which said: "Seeking young, well-built men aged 18 to 30 to slaughter." The man, a computer engineer, then sold all his possessions including a car before disappearing.

The killer chopped up his friend and kept the parts in his fridge. Police believe the murder occurred in spring 2000. Police found deep-frozen human flesh, skeleton parts and video recordings at the scene.

December 6, 2002 - Robert Pickton - Judge David Stone denied an application by Robert William Pickton's lawyer Peter Ritchie to impose a publication ban on the suspected serial killer's preliminary hearing. Pickton, a 53-year-old Port Coquitlam pig farmer, has been charged with murdering 15 of the 63 missing women from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. Investigators have hinted at finding body parts, DNA and personal items in Pickton's ramshackled farm. Defence attorney argued that the prosecution's evidence against his client was so explosive, that it would be impossible to find an unbiased jury of 12 for his trial.

December 4, 2002 - Robert Pickton - One of the 62 women believed to have disappeared from the Downtown Eastside has been located alive. Tanya Colleen Emery, 38, was located living in Central Canada, said the joint RCMP-Vancouver city police task force investigating the disappearances. "She was located as part of our ongoing investigation," said RCMP Const. Catherine Galliford, spokeswoman for the task force. Emery, who was number 46 on the list, was reportedly last seen in December 1998. Officially, the list now includes the names of 62 women. The task force is reviewing the case of one more woman woman fitting the same profile who could be added to the list.

November 29, 2001 - Christian Stephen Fuhr - Columbus police arrested, 33-year-old Christian Stephen Fuhr and charged him with the murders of two women. Fuhr, a tree trimmer, had been previously questioned by police and released. When he returned home, he gloated to his neighbors that he no longer was a suspect in the slayings of three South Side women. "I'm vindicated. They don't have nothing on me," neighbor Thomas Ward recalled Fuhr saying.

Several days later, police returned with arrest warrants for the murders of Shawna L. Sowers and Lisa A. Crow. He also is a suspect in the slaying of Kimberly Rodgers.

Columbus police were led to Fuhr on Thanksgiving morning through a pickup truck found near the crime scene where Crow's body had been discovered that morning. The truck belonged to Fuhr's boss, Terry Laymon, who told investigators that he had loaned it to Fuhr a couple days before.

Fuhr had spent Thanksgiving Day and the night before at the home of his ex-wife, Terri D. Byers. She said they knew police were following them. "I was giving him a ride to his trailer, and they were following us," Byers said. "It was an unmarked car with tinted windows. There was no mistaking it." Byers, 27, and Fuhr married in August 1999. She said his cocaine addiction destroyed their marriage.

November 28, 2002 - Robert Pickton - Vancouver'se missing women task force wants the public's help in locating four women who disappeared from Vancouver between 1978 and 1999. Two of the four match the profile of the women who have vanished from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside in that they were involved with drugs or the sex trade. The other two do not match the profile, but investigators are still hoping to find out what happened to the women to bring closure for their families.

Meanwhile, the B.C. Corrections Service is investigating reports that former inmates of the North Fraser Pre-trial Centre where Pickton is incarcerated are trying to sell poetry they claim he wrote. Wayne Willows, of the Corrections Service, said he would look into it, but said it is likely a hoax as Pickton does not have access to other inmates.

November 24, 2001 - Three Dead Women in Ohio - Police in Columbus, Ohio, have alerted the public of a possible predator hunting crack-addicted prostitutes in the city's South Side. Though they stopped short of saying they were looking for a serial killer, they did contact the FBI for help. All three women were discovered nude or partially clothed within a half-mile of each other and within the past two weeks. The three women are Lisa Crow, 36, Kimberly Rodgers, 29, and Shawna Sowers, 30. Besides having criminal records for prostitution and drug arrests, all three women were white.

"There are apparent similarities in these crimes. However, at this time, the investigations have not proceeded to a degree where they would be officially termed the result of a serial killer," said a news release from Columbus police spokesman Sgt. Earl Smith.

November 15 , 2002 - Myra Hindley - Moors murderer Myra Hindley died of bronchial pneumonia due to problems with her heart. Home Office pathologist Dr Michael Heath said the 60-year-old smoked too much, suffered from high blood pressure, and her coronary arteries were blocked.

One of the most reviled prisoners in Britain's history, the tabloid press held her in contempt even after death -- "The Final Injustice: She Died Peacefully," read the front page headline of the Daily Mail. Though some people -- including the late Lord Longford, Britain's leading prison reformer -- lobbied for her release after serving 36 years, most remain horrified about her claims of "having paid her debt to society." Ironically, by the time her smoked-ravaged lungs gave out, she was on the threshhold of being released.

November 12, 2002 - Coral Eugene Watts - Serial killer Coral Eugene Watts was again been denied parole. Watts, who admitted to 13 murders, is due to be released from prison in 3 1/2 years. Because of a quirk in Texas law, Watts is scheduled for mandatory release in May 2006. He could be discharged even before that -- after his next parole hearing in December 2005 -- if he continues to show good behavior, said Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesman Larry Todd.

October 25, 2002 - Robert Flores - A student flunking out of the University of Arizona nursing school shot three of his professors to death, then killed himself in front of dozens of terrified students. Tucson police said Robert Flores Jr., 41, specifically targeted the instructors, killing one in her office on the second floor and shooting the others in a fourth-floor classroom as students dove for cover. Flores walked to the front of the classroom and shot the first victim several times, then went to the back of the room and killed the second victim. University Vice Provost Elizabeth Irvin said Flores -- not the best student -- had failed a pediatric nursing class and was struggling in a critical care class.

The victims -- Robin Rogers, 50, Barbara Monroe, 45. and Cheryl McGaffic, 44 -- all were Flores' instructors, Police Chief Richard Miranda said. Flores, a Gulf War veteran, worked at the Southern Arizona Veterans Administration Health Care System as a licensed practical nurse, and was studying to become a registered nurse, officials said.

October 25, 2002 - Jose Antonio Rodriguez Vega - Spain's granny killer, Jose Antonio Rodriguez Vega, was stabbed to death by two fellow prisoners in the courtyard of Topas jail in western Salamanca province. Rodriguez Vega, 44, was convicted in 1991 of raping and strangling 16 elderly women in the northern city of Santander over a space of 10 months in 1987 and 1988. Though sentenced to 440 years, by law one can serve a maximum of 30 years in jail. The granny killer was due to be released in 2008.

October 25, 2002 - John Allen Muhammad & John Lee Malvo - Authorities in Alabama have linked Washington-area sniper suspect John Allen Muhammad and his teenage sidekick, John Lee Malvo, to a fatal shooting outside a liquor store on September 21. Muhammad, 41, and Malvo are accused of killing the clerk outside the store as it closed. Dwight Johnson, an officer who heard gunshots that night, chased a man fleeing the liquor store shootings, and helped provide a composite sketch of the suspect. Muhammad is believed to be the man who was chased by Johnson.

October 25, 2002 - John E. Robinson - More than two years after the gruesome discovery of women's bodies stuffed into barrels on a rural Kansas property, the defense rested in the multiple-murder case of con-artist-serial-killer John E. Robinson Sr. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty, alleging that Robinson killed at least six women -- three of them in Kansas -- in a scheme that included sadomasochistic sex with some of the victims and the adoption of the infant daughter of one.

October 25, 2002 - Robert Pickton - Internet auction website Ebay pulled a site claiming to be selling dirt from the notorious Pickton pig farm. The seller going by the name Dizan Hamilton listed "Robert Pickton Dirt From His Pig Farm" on ebay.ca under item #727373047 in the Collectables: Rocks, Fossils, Minerals section. He was asking for an opening bid of $9.99. The site offered a brief description of the pig-farm story and claimed the seller is a local resident who has been to the Port Coquitlam farm. No bids were made prior to the site being pulled.

October 24, 2002 - John Allen Muhammad & John Lee Malvo - Bringing the sniper killings in the Washington DC area to a conclusion, John Allen Muhammad, 41, and John Lee Malvo, 17, were arrested while sleeping in a car at a Maryland rest stop. They are considered suspects in the sniper shootings that left 10 people dead andf three other wounded over a three-week period. The suspects were found asleep in a blue Chevrolet Caprice that had a hidden compartment for a rifle and the trunk modified to be a sniper's nest.

October 24, 2002 - Robert Pickton - The family of another of Vancouver's missing women was notified by E-mail that the Missing Women's Task Force had found their daughter's DNA in Robert Pickton's Port Coquitlam pig farm. The victim, Angela Rebecca Jardine, disappeared four years ago. Pickton, who turns 53 today, has been charged with murdering 15 women on the list of 63 women who have disappeared from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside in recent years.

October 23, 2002 - John Allen Muhammad & John Lee Malvo - Members of the sniper task force converged on a freeway rest stop in Maryland and arrested John Allen Muhammad, a 42-year-old Gulf War veteran, and John Lee Malvo, his 17-year-old junenile companion. Police said the two were considered suspects in the shootings that have killed 10 and wounded three in the Washington area.

October 23, 2002 - DC-Area Sniper - Police confirmed the slain Maryland bus driver was the sniper's 13th victim. Police also revealed that the sniper left an angry letter tacked to a tree behind a restaurant where the sniper wounded a man last weekend complained of six failed attempts to reach police, and threatened more killings -- of children in particular -- if millions of dollars were not deposited in a bank account within two days, according to law enforcement sources.

October 21, 2002 - Two Dead at Monash University - A man armed with several handguns opened fire at Monash University in the southern city of Melbourne, killing two people and wounding eight others. The man, in his mid-30s, was tackled by several students shortly after he opened fire. Monash University Vice chancellor Peter Darvall praised the "brave souls" who helped disarm the attacker. "All I can say is our university is as safe or unsafe as any other part of the community," he said.

October 21, 2002 - Falun Gong - A follower of the Falun Gong in northeastern China has been sentenced to death for strangling a daughter she believed was possessed by a demon. Guan Shuyun was convicted in Heilongjiang province of murder and other charges related to her alleged involvement with the banned spiritual movement. The court granted her a two-year reprieve before the sentence is to be carried out, the Legal Daily reported. The newspaper said 31 other Falun Gong practitioners were also sentenced but didn't give details. During one ceremony, the group reportedly tried to exorcise a demon from the woman's daughter while Mommie Dearest choked the girl to death.

The Chineses government considers Falun Gong an evil cult and has detained thousands of its followers. The spiritual movement was banned by China in 1999. Activists of the group abroad claim hundreds of supporters have died while detained by authorities.

October 17, 2002 - Ira Einhorn - A Philadelphia jury found former hippie guru Ira Einhorn, 62, guilty of the 1979 murder of his girlfriend, Holly Maddux. William Cannon, Einhorn's attorney, said during his closing argument that the discovery of the mummified corpse in the apartment the couple once shared 18 months after she disappeared was, "just a piece of circumstantial evidence.. It doesn't mean at all that Ira Einhorn is responsible for her murder." Prosecutor Joel Rosen said the evidence of Einhorn's guilt is overwhelming.

October 16, 2002 - Three Dead at the Ministry of Environment - A provincial government worker who had lost his job at the Ministry of Environment returned to his office in Kamloops, British Columbia, with a gun, taking hostages in a standoff that left three men dead. The identities of the dead men were being withheld, and it's unclear whether the 56-year-old rampager was among them.

October 16, 2002 - Mauro Antonello - A man in the northern Italian town of Chieri shot and killed his ex-wife and six others relatives and neighbors before turning the gun on himself. The gunman, Mauro Antonello, a 40-year-old construction worker, former security guard and gun collector, reportedly had a bitter breakup two years ago with his wife, 40-year-old Carla Bergamin.

October 14, 2002 - John E. Robinsons - Jurors in the trial of 58-year-old John E. Robinson watched a video of a sadomasochistic sex session between an alleged victim and the self-proclaimed Internet Slavemaster. The 40-minute video showed Robinson in a hotel room with Suzette Trouten, who performs sex acts and professes her allegiance to Robinson.

October 9, 2002 - Aileen Wuornos - Serial killer Aileen Wuornos was executed by lethal injection at 9:47 a.m. in Florida State Prison near Starke. Wuornos, 46, became the 10th woman executed in the United States since the death penalty resumed in 1976, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. "I'd just like to say I'm sailing with the Rock and I'll be back like Independence Day with Jesus, June 6, like the movie, big mothership and all. I'll be back," Wuornos, who found Christ in jail, said from the execution chamber.

October 3, 2002 - Possible DC-Area Rampage Killer - Five people were shot to death separately within a few miles of each other around the suburbs of Washington D.C. Authorities announced the killings, that occured over a 16-hour period, wer probably related. Investigators had not found any connection between the five victims.

October 3, 2002 - Robert Lee Yates - Convicted serial killer Robert Lee Yates Jr. was sentenced to death in a Pierce County court for the murders of Melinda Mercer, 24, in 1997 and Connie LaFontaine Ellis, 35, in 1998. The two cases went to court after Pierce County prosecutors refused to sign off on the Spokane plea deal and charged Yates with aggravated first-degree murder, the state's only capital crime.

October 2, 2002 - Nathaniel Bar-Jonah Confessed cannibal killer Nathaniel Bar-Jonah, accused of butchering a 10-year-old boy and feeding him to neighbors, won't face murder and kidnapping charges because the alleged victim's mother believes her son is still alive. Zachary Ramsay's mother, Rachel Howard, said she was prepared to testify she did not believe Nathaniel Bar-Jonah had killed her son in 1996, prompting prosecutors to drop their case. "I did not want Bar-Jonah to be convicted of a crime that I did not believe he did," Howard said.

September 25, 2002 - Robert Pickton - A spokesman for B.C. Supreme Court said a Canadian judge could throw U.S. reporters out of court if they defy any court ban on publishing details about Robert Pickton's preliminary hearing on November 4. According to Canadian law, details of preliminary hearings cannot be published, but the Seattle Post-Intelligencer said they intend to ignore the ban.

"What could happen," said Lloyd McKenzie, spokesman for B.C. Supreme Court justices, "is there would be security personnel checking identification, and if they are representatives of a foreign press, they could be told to leave. They could be told, 'You are now in a Canadian jurisdiction.' "Post-Intelligencer spokesman James Wright said: "We would treat this the same way we would if we were covering a case in Jakarta. We wouldn't let the local government determine what we write at home."

September 24, 2002 - Familicide in Lake Worth - Police in Lake Worth, Florida, aree searching for the nephew of a man found slain along with his girlfriend and her three children -- including her pregnant daughter. Police idd not say how the victims were killed but they were trying to identify a suspect and a motive in the slayings. Lt. Susan Wellborn said they were searching for Michael Milan Roman, 29, who lived at the home where some of the bodies were found. The body of Carmen Valentin, 42, was discovered by police in a roadway in Lake Worth, about five miles south of West Palm Beach. Police originally thought she was the victim of a hit-and-run.

Then they found the body of Ismael Gomez, 52, inside a tarp-covered truck behind their home. Gomez lived in the home and was Valentin's boyfriend of eight years. The bodies of Valentin's three children -- Juan Carlos Valentin, 17, Elizabeth Valentin, 22, and Damarus Valentin, 19, who was eight months pregnant -- were found inside the house. Relatives said a note from Roman was also found in the house. "He said he was sorry that happened and that he was going to move," said Angel Alicea, Carmen Valentin's nephew.

January-July, 2002 - Morgue Archives - Previous entries to the Morgue Archives.