CrimeCaseFiles.com Forum - Unusual Cases http://www.crimecasefiles.com/forum Mysterious and Unusual Crimes en Thu, 09 Sep 2010 04:03:10 GMT vBulletin 60 http://www.crimecasefiles.com/forum/images/skilltest/misc/rss.jpg CrimeCaseFiles.com Forum - Unusual Cases http://www.crimecasefiles.com/forum Body of Las Vegas woman found in clutter at home http://www.crimecasefiles.com/forum/unusual-cases/20376-body-of-las-vegas-woman-found-in-clutter-at-home.html Sat, 28 Aug 2010 05:42:11 GMT Image:...


A pick-up truck and dumpster are seen parked outside the home of Billie Jean James.
The Clark County Coroner's office said Friday the corpse found in the clutter-filled
home belongs to 67-year-old Billie Jean James. A spokeswoman says
it could take weeks to determine when and how she died.
(AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)

LAS VEGAS — A four-month search for a missing Las Vegas woman came to a ghastly end this week when her husband found her corpse in their home amid a labyrinth of squalor that had been impassable even to search dogs.

Bill James apparently had no idea that the body of his pack-rat wife, Billie Jean, was under the same roof as he helped police scour the home and the Nevada desert for any sign of her. Then he spotted the feet of the body poking out of a floor-to-ceiling pile of junk Wednesday, revealing in shocking detail the woman's penchant for hoarding.

Police say they searched the home several times — even using dogs from a unit that helped locate bodies at ground zero after Sept. 11 and Hurricane Katrina. But they were unable to find the body of amid the piles of clothes, knickknacks, trash and other junk.

"For our dogs to go through that house and not find something should be indicative of the tremendous environmental challenges they faced," police spokesman Bill Cassell said.

Clark County Coroner's office spokeswoman Jessica Coloma said it could take weeks to determine when and how the 67-year-old woman died. The husband has been cooperative throughout the investigation and quickly notified police of his discovery.

One thing is not in doubt about the case: Billie Jean James loved to hoard. It's a behavior that has received new attention this year with two popular reality TV shows — "Hoarding: Buried Alive" and "Hoarders" — that chronicle the lives of people who live in absolute squalor because they cannot bring themselves to throw anything away.

A similar situation could be seen at the James' home in a desert-front cul-de-sac near the Las Vegas Strip. In the driveway sits two huge trash bins that require industrial-sized trucks to haul them away. The front patio is filled with knickknacks including old chairs, smaller trash bins and a 10-foot basketball hoop.

Inside, Cassell said James' piles of clutter left just small pathways to walk and strong odors that hindered their search — generated by animals, decomposing garbage, food, clothes and other stuff.

"If there had been any indication that there was a remote possibility that somebody was back underneath that stuff we would have taken the appropriate action," Cassell said.

Sari Connolly, who walked dogs with James and her husband daily at a nearby park with a group of friends, said the woman bought things at thrift stores each day and accumulated them in the house.

"She became this hoarder person and she wouldn't let anyone come in her house," Connolly said.

Connolly said one of Billie Jean James' closest friends once asked to use the bathroom at the home after a camping trip, but James wouldn't let her in.

"It sounds like it was beyond control," said Connolly, who had a big banner made to help find James during the search.

Approached at the home Thursday, Bill James declined to speak with an Associated Press reporter.

Cassell said initial reports had James last seen walking away from the house in late April. He said along with the dogs, police visited the house several times and searched the desert with a helicopter equipped with infrared detection.

Friends and family searched the nearby desert several times on foot, horseback and with all-terrain vehicles. They created a Facebook page to help coordinate efforts, while the family offered a $10,000 reward in hopes of finding a woman described as a peace activist who to loved hiking, camping and the arts.

Nine digital billboards publicized her search amid the bright lights of Las Vegas to draw attention the search, and Connolly said they hired someone to hold a banner in a spot near the home where a woman reported possibly seeing James.

"This was certainly something that was not glossed over," Cassell said. "We did everything that we could."

But Connolly said she and friends think police may have botched the search.

"I'm trying to figure out how a body couldn't smell so bad — that's what everyone's saying," she said. "It's the million-dollar question right now."

The case is not completely surprising given the fact that 2 to 5 percent of Americans are chronic hoarders, said Dr. David Tolin, a hoarding expert from Hartford Hospital who co-wrote "Buried in Treasures" to help people who compulsively collect things.

"Every year, there's at least a few deaths that can be attributed to hoarding," he said. ]]> Unusual Cases LUCKY13 http://www.crimecasefiles.com/forum/unusual-cases/20376-body-of-las-vegas-woman-found-in-clutter-at-home.html Man shot ... but only notices years after http://www.crimecasefiles.com/forum/unusual-cases/20217-man-shot-but-only-notices-years-after.html Wed, 25 Aug 2010 11:16:36 GMT *Man shot ... but only notices years...
Man shot ... but only notices years after


A Polish man living in Germany went about his business for about five years without noticing he had been shot in the head because he was drunk when it happened.

Police in the western city of Bochum said on Tuesday that doctors found a .22 caliber bullet in the back of his head after the 35-year-old went to have what he thought was a cyst removed.

Presented with the 5.6mm projectile, the man recalled he had received a blow to the head about midnight at a New Year's party "in 2004 or 2005", but had forgotten about it because he had been "very drunk", a police spokesman said.

"He told us he remembered having a sore head, but that he wasn't really one for going to the doctor," the spokesman said.

The wound later healed around the bullet and it was not until the man decided to have the lump examined due to recurring pains that the discovery was made.

Police said they were not treating the incident as suspicious as the bullet might have got lodged in the man's head when a reveler fired a gun in celebration.

"It may have been a shot fired up in the air which entered his head on the way down," the spokesman said.

The resident of Herne, who has lived in Germany for several years, was expected to be released from hospital later this week after the bullet was removed on Friday, police said. ]]> Unusual Cases realjem http://www.crimecasefiles.com/forum/unusual-cases/20217-man-shot-but-only-notices-years-after.html The bodies of two infants hidden more than 70 years ago were discovered in an LA basement near MacArthur Park http://www.crimecasefiles.com/forum/unusual-cases/19906-the-bodies-of-two-infants-hidden-more-than-70-years-ago-were-discovered-in-an-la-basement-near-macarthur-park.html Wed, 18 Aug 2010 22:01:38 GMT *The bodies of two infants hidden more than 70...
The bodies of two infants hidden more than 70 years ago were discovered in an LA basement near MacArthur Park


The bodies of two infants hidden more than 70 years ago were discovered in an LA basement near MacArthur Park. The infants were newborns, found at the bottom of steamer trunks and wrapped in newspapers from the 1930s. "We got all excited because the first thing we found was a crystal dish," said one of the two women who found the first baby and called police.

"I saw something not very pleasant and very unusual," said the other woman. "It didn't have any shape to it. But it seemed like a dried-out body." Police have opened a "death investigation" but stopped short of calling it a homicide probe. The trunks had an array of other objects, including documents with a woman's name. "We'll put detectives on this case for the long term," the police chief tells the Los Angeles Times.* ]]> Unusual Cases realjem http://www.crimecasefiles.com/forum/unusual-cases/19906-the-bodies-of-two-infants-hidden-more-than-70-years-ago-were-discovered-in-an-la-basement-near-macarthur-park.html Adam Mann battered ex-wife over Facebook taunts http://www.crimecasefiles.com/forum/unusual-cases/19853-adam-mann-battered-ex-wife-over-facebook-taunts.html Tue, 17 Aug 2010 22:21:10 GMT *Adam Mann battered ex-wife over Facebook...
Adam Mann battered ex-wife over Facebook taunts


A man has been convicted of murdering his ex-wife after she taunted him on Facebook about paying child support.

Adam Mann used a hammer to batter Lisa Beverley, 30, before slashing her neck with a knife, the Old Bailey was told.

Jurors heard she had been online at her home in Plumstead, south London, on 15 September but the session came to an abrupt end at 2200 BST.

Mann, 29, of Springfield Road, Welling, Kent, was found guilty of murder and is due to be sentenced on 4 October.

During the trial the court was told Miss Beverley, of Coupland Place, had no chance of surviving after being hit on the face, head, neck and body.

Jeremy Donne QC, prosecuting, said Miss Beverley's five-year-old son was confronted with a scene of "unimaginable horror" when he found her the next day.

Mr Donne said the boy found his mother in a pool of her own blood on the floor of her living room.

"She had been savagely beaten and stabbed to death," Mr Donne said.
The court heard the couple divorced in 2007 and were involved in a bitter dispute.

Miss Beverley was trying to get Mann to contribute towards raising their son, through the Child Support Agency (CSA).

She told the CSA he had lied about being unemployed and he had subsequently been sent a letter demanding payments of about £400.

The day before her death, Miss Beverley's Facebook profile was updated to say: "Now whose laughing? U've got done big time by the CS, so now leave us alone for good, your son hates u and so do I."

Hours before the victim's death, Mann telephoned the CSA saying he had no money and would not pay, said Mr Donne.

Jurors are still considering an allegation that Mann's new partner, Elizabeth Kilgallon, 27, perverted justice by giving him a false alibi. ]]> Unusual Cases realjem http://www.crimecasefiles.com/forum/unusual-cases/19853-adam-mann-battered-ex-wife-over-facebook-taunts.html <![CDATA[Addlethorpe recycling baby had 'amateur birth']]> http://www.crimecasefiles.com/forum/unusual-cases/19852-addlethorpe-recycling-baby-had-amateur-birth.html Tue, 17 Aug 2010 22:18:02 GMT
Addlethorpe recycling baby had 'amateur birth'

A baby whose body was found at a Lincolnshire recycling plant probably died after an "unprofessional attempt" at delivery, an inquest has heard.

The newborn boy, named Jacob by a local businessman who paid for his funeral, was discovered at Addlethorpe's Greenstar facility in October.

No cause of death was established but an expert said she believed he died in the birth canal or directly afterwards.

Coroner Stuart Fisher recorded an open verdict into the death.

The baby is thought to have been left in a wheelie bin in nearby Skegness before he was found in a bin liner at the plant. Medical tests showed he had not been stillborn.

Home Office pathologist Dr Elizabeth Turk, who carried out the post-mortem examination, told the inquest at Horncastle Registration Office that Jacob had a pair of jogging bottoms tied around his neck - consistent with an amateur delivery.

'Very emotional'

His mother has never been traced and no DNA matches were found on the national database, the hearing was told.

Det Insp Andy Wardell said the investigation had been "very emotional and very difficult" for officers.

Mr Fisher said the case was "deeply tragic" for both the baby and mother, and that he was satisfied police had made exhaustive efforts to trace the parents.

A funeral for baby Jacob was held at St Nicholas Church in Addlethorpe last month. ]]> Unusual Cases realjem http://www.crimecasefiles.com/forum/unusual-cases/19852-addlethorpe-recycling-baby-had-amateur-birth.html Boy shot in neck by father with air rifle http://www.crimecasefiles.com/forum/unusual-cases/19851-boy-shot-in-neck-by-father-with-air-rifle.html Tue, 17 Aug 2010 22:16:26 GMT *Boy, two, shot in neck by father with air...
Boy, two, shot in neck by father with air rifle

A 29-year-old man has been released on bail after shooting his two-year-old son with an air rifle.

Police were called to an address in Winthorpe, in Skegness, Lincolnshire, by the father, shortly before 1900 BST on Monday.

The boy was taken to Glenfield Hospital in Leicester for surgery where his condition is believed to be improving.

Officers said investigations were continuing but all indications were that the shooting was an accident.

Police said they were interviewing a number of witnesses, some of whom are children.

Det Insp Andy Wardell, from Lincolnshire Police, said: "This is being described to us as a tragic accident where a boy has been shot by his father.

"You cannot begin to guess how bad the family feels and I think it's something any parent would fear, ending up in such a situation."

An air rifle is being examined by experts, police said. ]]> Unusual Cases realjem http://www.crimecasefiles.com/forum/unusual-cases/19851-boy-shot-in-neck-by-father-with-air-rifle.html Should the Catholic church scrap its celibacy rule? http://www.crimecasefiles.com/forum/unusual-cases/19810-should-the-catholic-church-scrap-its-celibacy-rule.html Tue, 17 Aug 2010 02:42:38 GMT *Should the Catholic church scrap its celibacy...
Should the Catholic church scrap its celibacy rule?


It is estimated that 1,000 people in Britain and Ireland are the children of Catholic priests

Stephen was eight years old when he first heard his father disown him. The two were out for the day together when Stephen fell into a game of cricket with some local children, and another parent asked whose child he was. Stephen’s father swiftly denied he was his. The child was “the son of one of my parishioners”, said the dog-collared priest – a description that was truthful as far as it went, but omitted a vital detail. To Stephen, it felt like an outright dismissal. More than 30 years later, being the half-acknowledged son of a Roman Catholic priest has cast an enduring shadow over his life.

Stephen (not his real name) is now in his 40s and has never approached his paternal family, has never reached out to cousins and other relatives, for fear of shaming his parents. “I didn’t have a [close friendship] with my father,” he says, “and I have not found personal relationships that easy since then. None of his family in Ireland knew I existed, so you could argue I have been denied another family.”

His experience is far from unique. It’s been estimated that there are at least 1,000 people in Britain and Ireland whose fathers were priests at the time of their conception. And in May this year, dozens of Italian women who have had relationships with Roman Catholic priests or lay monks sent an open letter to the Pope calling for the abolition of the celibacy rule. The letter argued that a priest “needs to live with his fellow human beings, experience feelings, love and be loved”. It also pleaded for sympathy for those who “live out in secrecy those few moments the priest manages to grant [us], and experience on a daily basis the doubts, fears and insecurities of our men”.

This group of women aren’t the only ones questioning enforced priestly celibacy. The issue has been central to recent debate in the Catholic church, after a wave of clerical abuse scandals that have sometimes seen critics link sexual frustration to paedophilia. There has also been debate about the origins of celibacy in the early Christian church. In the face of these questions, Pope Benedict XVI, who is due to tour the UK in September, has defended the status quo. Celibacy “is made possible by the grace of God . . . who asks us to transcend ourselves,” he has said; he has also argued that forgoing matrimony helps demonstrate a commitment to the priesthood.

For the reclusive partners and offspring of Catholic priests, lack of financial support and recognition is a longstanding complaint. The few support groups that have sprung up have made little headway in their efforts to alter church attitudes. And although Stephen has never felt inspired to confront church authorities or seek financial recompense, he says that his past has left him with an “undertow of regret and sadness” at his parents’ renounced love.

“I don’t know of any picture of my mother and father together,” he says, showing me a black-and white photograph of the man he knew as “Dad”. A handsome young priest stares out of the frame. The photo was taken in the 1950s, when his father was about to depart from his home in Ireland to minister to a large parish in Yorkshire. He brings out a letter on presbytery notepaper, addressed to him and signed “Love, Dad”, and another addressed to his mother, which begins “My Darling”. This accompanied a bottle of perfume sent to celebrate her 25th birthday. These candid letters suggest that, even if only subconsciously, his father might have been somewhat relieved to have been discovered and defrocked.

Stephen’s parents met through the parish, where his mother’s family were regular churchgoers. “He would have been a junior priest,” says Stephen. “It was very risky. My mother was very guarded about it.” Their long relationship culminated in Stephen being born in 1967. “By then, she was already 28,” he says, “so she wasn’t a gymslip mum. It looks like they had had a relationship for some time, and I suspect from the intensity of the [affair] that I was a wanted child rather than a mistake. But it appears that once my mother became pregnant she backed away from my father.

“I have it on reliable sources that he indicated his willingness to leave the priesthood, but she asked him not to. In some of his letters he talks about [the fact that] if she’s pregnant it would be a good thing. Then afterwards he was very bitter that she kept him from his child. So it seems she ensured he stayed in the church.”

Stephen’s grandmother and maternal aunt knew the truth about his paternity, but the men in the family were never told. From the age of three or four, Stephen would be taken over to see his father most Saturdays, and initially, he says, “I didn’t realise he was a priest, but one day, when I was eight or nine years old, I picked up his post in the hallway and it said ‘Reverend . . .’ My mother saw I was looking at the address and she broke down as she told me.”

Pat Buckley, an excommunicated gay priest, has run what he calls an “independent ministry to disaffected and alienated Catholics and Christians” in Larne, Northern Ireland, since the mid-1980s. He runs a support group, Bethany, for women who are in relationships with priests.

“These problems have been hidden for centuries,” he says, “but there’s been so much in the news that people are getting a bit more courage to come forward.” In 1992, for instance, there was uproar at the case of Eamon Casey, the then-Bishop of Galway, when it emerged that he had used diocesan funds to pay maintenance to the American mother of his love child; in the years since then, the church has been racked with controversy. “There are three common Irish names,” Buckley continues, “McEntaggart, McAnespie and McNab, that translate as ’son of the priest’, ’son of the Bishop’ and ’son of the Abbot’, so it’s been around for some time.”

Buckley believes that the Vatican wants to “hang on to celibacy for reasons of power and control. St Paul said in one of his letters that a bishop should be the husband of one woman. If a man does not have the experience of running a human family how can he run a church? Celibacy was unusual during the first 12 centuries of the Catholic Church. It was introduced [in the Middle Ages]. It’s often very sad for the women and children in these relationships. A lot of them want some form of resolution, to sort out the baggage. Anybody who is abandoned by a parent suffers a very large injustice.”

There are, of course, many who defend celibacy, including Father Stephen Wang, dean of studies at Allen Hall seminary in London. In a blog post earlier this year, he wrote that “there are practical aspects to celibacy. You’ve got more time for other people, and more time for prayer. You can get up at three in the morning to visit someone in hospital without worrying about how this will affect your marriage . . . But celibacy is something much deeper as well. There is a place in your heart, in your very being, that you have given to Christ and to the people you meet as a priest.”

For Stephen, his relationship with his father never really blossomed. He was provided with occasional financial support, small gifts of money, while his father carried on being a priest. He died in his 60s. “I saw him shortly before his death,” says Stephen, “and spoke to him. He was in a pretty bad way . . . My mother went to visit him in hospital regularly and insisted she should be the one looking after him. I don’t think she ever stopped loving him. When he died she was devastated.

“I was denied a father, my mother was denied a partner and my father was denied a son . . . My father and mother loved each other intensely, and she never recovered from it. My mother dedicated her life to me and her work. She never fell in love with anyone else. She started to drink and . . . that was another measure of the burden.” She died four years ago.

Stephen is not a practising Catholic, but says there is no residual bitterness towards his father. “Some people might say he deceived the church, but I don’t think he was a bad man.” He can still recall an afternoon playing in the presbytery’s garden, around the same time that his father denied his paternity.

“It was large and overgrown, and I would go down this path that led to the church and there was a statue of an angel. That day I bumped into a nun who was coming in at the gate. ‘What are you up to?’ she asked. ‘What are you doing in a priest’s garden?’ I said I was visiting my father. She assumed I was going to visit the church and had meant to say ‘Holy Father’. It’s amazing what you can get away with.” ]]> Unusual Cases realjem http://www.crimecasefiles.com/forum/unusual-cases/19810-should-the-catholic-church-scrap-its-celibacy-rule.html <![CDATA[NY police find live cat 'marinating' in car trunk]]> http://www.crimecasefiles.com/forum/unusual-cases/19527-ny-police-find-live-cat-marinating-in-car-trunk.html Wed, 11 Aug 2010 03:16:07 GMT *Cat ‘marinating’ in trunk comes off the...
Cat ‘marinating’ in trunk comes off the menu
Police: Man doused pet with oil, peppers and planned to cook him




Navarro, a four-year-old cat found "marinating" in oil and peppers in the trunk of a car in Buffalo, N.Y. on Sunday night.
Photo provided by the SPCA Serving Erie County./ AP

BUFFALO, N.Y. — Police say a traffic stop led to animal cruelty charges after they found a live cat "marinating" in oil and peppers in the trunk of a car.

Buffalo police say officers heard the cat meowing when they stopped 51-year-old Gary Korkuc of Cheektowaga to ticket him for running a stop sign Sunday night.

They say they checked the trunk and found 4-year-old Navarro in a cage, his fur covered with oil, crushed red peppers and chili peppers.

Police say Korkuc told them he did it because Navarro was ill-tempered. Korkuc was charged with cruelty and released; his phone number isn't listed.

Police say he told them he was going to cook Navarro. Korkuc also told officers a number of things that didn't make sense, including that his neutered male cat was pregnant.

Animal advocates have cleaned Navarro and put him up for adoption.

MSNBC ]]> Unusual Cases LUCKY13 http://www.crimecasefiles.com/forum/unusual-cases/19527-ny-police-find-live-cat-marinating-in-car-trunk.html