On February 20, 2009, US Air Force service member Jason Klinkenberg murdered his wife Crystal Louise Gray and then committed suicide in North Las Vegas after a stand-off with police. Jason was stationed at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada. The family believes that Jason was never the same after returning home from a deployment to Iraq in 2005. Jason was plucked from his base to be a member of Detachment 2632, a unit assembled to augment the Army and provide security for cargo trucks on Iraq’s bomb laden roads. Jason witnessed a fellow soldier die after the vehicle they were driving was struck with a rocket-propelled grenade. The family shared that Jason had Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and continued to see images of his friend in his last moments. Jason’s sister shared that Jason attempted to get help for PTSD but the Air Force called him a liar. The Air Force denied this assertion. They claimed they regularly assess for mental health issues and referred Jason to counseling off base.
“Veterans advocates like Manji Varghese say nothing excuses violence. But they say military and veterans officials too often ignore a pattern of problems that has played out again and again, with deadly results.” -Salt Lake Tribune
Susana De Jesus and Nicholas Michael Jean, US Army Veteran
The murder of Tina Davila was the start of a scourge of violence in Houston, Texas. On April 16, 2008, Tina Davila, a mother to five children. was out running errands with her four month old daughter. She made a quick stop at the cellphone store. After exiting her vehicle, two guys pulled up beside her and one of them jumped out and ran up behind her. A struggle ensued for Tina’s car keys because Tina immediately went into mother mode and began worrying about her baby she left in the car. The assailant was able to take the keys away from her so Tina ran after him in an attempt to get her keys back. It was at this time she was stabbed and the assailant changed plans and took off in the car he came in.
Tina stumbled to the front desk of the cellphone store and asked the employees to get her baby from the car. The employees got her baby for her and laid the baby next to her mother on the floor. The cellphone store employees called 911 and Tina was rushed to the hospital. The family was notified and arrived at the hospital only to learn that Tina had died; they also learned from media reports that she was stabbed during an attempted carjacking. Tina’s family was devastated. Fortunately, there was an eye witness who was able to provide a good description of the attacker and driver of the car. They were both described as Hispanic males and a composite sketch was created. A $10,000 reward was offered for any information leading to an arrest.
Meanwhile, the Houston police learn that there was a robbery at a beer store four hours before Tina was stabbed. Both the store and the parking lot had surveillance cameras and a witness identified two Hispanic males in the aggravated robbery. The witness also provided a license plate number and police learned the car was registered to Stacy Bailey. She reported her car stolen the day before the robbery of the store and the stabbing of Tina Davila. Stacy also described the two assailants as Hispanic males. Police were able to determine that this was the same car used in the aggravated robbery and homicide. The police fed leads to the media in an attempt to get more tips but they got no new information and the cases went unsolved.
Ten months later on February 2, 2009, as Susana De Jesus was leaving her place of employment with a co-worker, she was accosted by a masked gunman parked. He demanded that she get in her car and drive; Susana’s co-worker Karen Davis retreated in her own car where she remained until she felt safe. Karen called the police but could only provide a vague description of Susana’s car. While Susana was driving, the assailant demanded she go to a bank and was worried about her On-Star tracking system. Susana didn’t know if it was working and said she needed to call her boyfriend. He knew something was wrong because of her impersonal phone call.
Susana’s boyfriend called On-Star to find out whether or not they were able to track her but they couldn’t give out any information unless there was a missing person’s report. Susana’s boyfriend then went to her apartment and her car was not there. He was very worried now and went to the police station to file a missing person’s report. The car was tracked down in a parking lot but Susana and her abductor were gone. Police were concerned the assailant would cross state lines so the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was contacted to assist because they have more resources. These attacks were random and it illicited fear in the community.
The FBI learned that Susana’s debit card was used to purchase fuel and the gun left in Susana’s car was stolen the same day Susana was abducted. The woman who reported the gun stolen also reported the assailant tied her up, gagged her, and shoved her in a closet. She managed to get herself untied and escaped while the assailant was robbing her home. She ran to a neighbor’s home then called the police. The assailant was gone by the time the police arrived and only managed to steal the gun. These two crimes were now connected. The police wondered if Tina’s case was connected too. After three days, there was still no sign of Susana. Texas Equusearch was called in to help them find Susana. The search lasted for three weeks but came up empty.
Sabrina Piña was the third person accosted in a parking lot in the course of a couple years in Houston. In this case, she was taken but her car was left behind and there were no witnesses. Texas Equusearch was called again, this time to look for Sabrina. And then a $30,000 reward was offered for the resolution of Susana De Jesus and Sabrina Piña’s disappearances. Then two days after Sabrina’s abduction, someone found an unidentified woman’s body laying in a ditch. On February 2, 2009, Sabrina Piña was found with duct tape wrapped around her eyes and wrists, and she had been shot in the back of the head. Forensic scientists were able to extract a finger print from the duct tape that matched Theodore Schmidt. He was arrested. Police learned Schmidt knew Sabrina from college and had an unhealthy obsession with her. When she didn’t appear to recognize him in the parking lot, he got angry and kidnapped her. Schmidt was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to life without parole.
A month after Sabrina Piña was found, another man contacted police to report an attempted abduction and murder. This assailant forced him into the trunk of his own car but when the gunman has trouble starting the car, the victim was able to escape. When the assailant realized he escaped, he began chasing him down and shooting at him but he made it to safety. The police responded and an intensified attempt to find this dangerous assailant was initiated. Police asked people in the surrounding area to stay in their homes and report any suspicious activity. Ten hours later, a woman called to report a person wearing a mask in a carport. The Police responded, apprehended the suspect, and learned it was Nicholas Michael Jean.
Jean’s behavioral problems in the U.S. Army also are likely to surface during the trial. He served at Fort Sill, Okla., for three months before being discharged two weeks prior to De Jesus’ murder because his supervisors found him “unfit for military service,” according to a military separation letter. Army records show Jean was accused of fighting with and threatening other soldiers in his platoon, trying to choke another serviceman, hitting another private in the face and abusing sick leave time. He had also been discharged from the U.S. Navy in 2006 for a serious offense of misconduct, court files show. –Houston Chronicle
Nicholas Jean was an Army veteran who was recently discharged for being unfit for military duty after only three months of service. According to the Army, he did not respect authority and punched an officer. Investigators questioned Nicholas who tried to stick with the story that he was only a driver for the gang. After a few hours, Detectives began to lose their patience and demanded that Jean tell them what happened because they knew he had information. At this point, they had tons of evidence and knew all these crimes were connected. In this case, two crimes remained unsolved: one was dead; one was missing. and perpetrators were still on the loose. They needed Jean to give up the names of those who were involved. Jean eventually told the detectives that ‘the group’ took Susana in a semi trailer and killed her. Jean led the police to Susana De Jesus’ body.
On March 10, 2009, police found the badly decomposed remains of Susana De Jesus in an abandoned semi trailer. Nicholas Jean admitted to murdering Susana within two hours of her abduction. Jean also admitted to killing Susana so he could give her vehicle to the girl he wanted to marry as a wedding present; she turned him down. Jean was charged with capital murder and was facing the death penalty. But the jury spared his life and he was instead sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Wallace Ledet drove Jean to the abduction so he was apprehended too and charged with manslaughter. Ledet pleaded guilty and was sentenced to thirteen years in prison. Neither Ledet or Jean could be tied to Tina Davila’s murder.
Then one day a high school principal called the Houston police to report a student thought her boyfriend may have been involved in Tina Davila’s murder. She named seventeen year old Kennedy Escoto. As a result, Escoto was arrested and admitted to his involvement but tried to pin everything on his passenger Timoteo Rios. Escoto also admitted they stole some beer in the morning and because they were getting low on gas, they needed another car; Tina was a victim of opportunity. Kennedy Escoto was convicted of aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon and sentenced to forty years. Timoteo Rios was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
In April 2008, 39-year-old Houston native and mother of five, Tina Davila, runs errands with her 4 month old infant when she’s attacked in a parking lot. In the next year, a rash of similar crimes breaks out across the city. Are they related? -Investigation Discovery
Critics say the military needs to do more about domestic violence against women. A CBS News investigation found more than 25,000 women have been victimized over the past decade. Katie Couric reports. -CBS
Army veteran Allan Kowalski, 51, was found buried in a shallow grave on his Ingram, Texas property on November 6, 2008. A routine traffic stop on October 22, 2008 lead police to learn of Al’s fate. Charlie Tidwell was pulled over by the police and presented with Al’s identification. The police found Al’s birth certificate, credit cards, and Tidwell was driving Al’s vehicle. Charlie Tidwell also forged Army 1st Lt. Al Kowalski’s active military ID by cutting out Al’s picture and inserting his own. As a result, Charlie Tidwell was arrested for failure to present an ID and an outstanding warrant. Initially, Charlie Tidwell told investigators Al was in Africa. The police were concerned about him because no one had seen or heard from Al since August 26 and his dog was still at his house. Al never went anywhere without his dog. Police visited Al’s house and it was ransacked, furniture had been stolen, and all of Al’s cars were gone.
They also found most of Al’s personal effects in trash bags. The police suspected a murder but now they had to find the body. They brought in a cadaver dog and the dog hit on a spot on the property; Al was buried in a shallow grave not far from the house. Charles Tidwell was charged with murder and after several interviews, Charlie admitted shooting Al but he claimed it was self-defense. An autopsy revealed Al was shot twice in the back of the head; authorities were unclear of motive. In the end, twelve people were indicted in the theft of Al’s property including Charlie’s wife Lisa. Lisa Rassi was sentenced to 10 years in prison for organized crime; Jeremiah McGregor was sentenced to 10 years in prison; and Wayne Christiansen was sentenced to 20 years in prison. In 2010, Charlie Tidwell was found guilty of murder and sentenced to 45 years in prison.
Other individuals who were indicted are: Wayne Earl Christiansen, 35 and Jeremiah Jason McGregor, 31 (both charged with aggravated assault and organized crime). The rest have been charged with organized crime: Theresa Jo Bruffett, 43; Elizabeth D. Carmona, 43; Amanda Rassi Contreras, 20; Raymundo Daniel Contreras, 24; Andrea Helen Cooper, 25; Michael Rene Garcia, 25; Richard Alcorta Garza, 39; Silver Star Hernandez, 24; Danita Dee Horner, 20; Kelli Rae Lagrone, 52; John Centeno Moreno, Jr., 26; and Lisa Gale Rassi, 41. Charles Tidwell and Ricado Ricky Giovannetti are both being held on charges of murder, with a $500,000 bond, and of organized crime (theft) with another $100,000 bond. Hierholzer said that there are likely more charges to be filed on several defendants. –West Kerr Current (2008)
Investigation Discovery:
Al Kowalski is new to Hill Country, Texas. He plans to spend his early retirement hunting and fixing his vintage vehicles. Al welcomes meth-addicted mechanic Charlie Tidwell into his home to help with the cars, but Charlie has a different plan. -Buried Secrets, A Stranger in My Home (S1,E3)
Editor’s note: With a cable subscription, you can download the free ID Go app and watch Investigation Discovery programming at your convenience. And for those who do not have cable, you can watch “unlocked” episodes on the ID Go app including the latest premieres. For those who prefer commercial free programming during your binge session, Prime Video has an ID channel: ‘True Crime Files by Investigation Discovery” available for $3.99 a month. It’s a compilation of older seasons but totally worth the cost if you are a true crime addict. Download the ID Go app or purchase ID True Crime Files & binge away.
Dark Secrets are the stock-in-trad of Deadly Women. -Dark Secrets, Deadly Women (S2, E4)
Judy Buenoano
1. Judy Buenoano
Date: June 25, 1983 (the date of the explosion that was her downfall) Victims: John Goodyear (husband), Michael Buenoano (son), and John Gentry (fiancé, survived) Location: Pensacola, Florida Circumstances: John Gentry found out his wife Judy was pregnant and he was excited about their future; then John left the house, got into his car, and the car blew up; someone blew the car up with dynamite and it got the attention of investigators; John survived the blast but the discovery of dynamite residue meant this was no accident; four days later, detectives asked John who would profit from his death; they learned his mother and his fiancé Judy did; although John never imagined Judy had anything to do with it because he thought the policy was cancelled; a reporter recognized Judy from the nail salon she went to; news of the explosion was on at the nail salon; Judy didn’t say a word and just quietly kept working on her nails; the reporter noticed she had a darkness about her; the reporter took notice of the feelings she had about her; investigators learned that Judy told John she was pregnant with his child but she was lying because she had been surgically sterilized five years earlier; investigators found an insurance policy that showed she took out $500,000 on John; John thought the policy was cancelled but it was not; John was in denial initially but began to realize this may not have been Judy’s first attempt to kill him; Judy pushed John to take vitamins and after he took them he would get sick and throw up; he went to the hospital and they couldn’t figure out what was wrong; he stopped taking them but hid it from Judy; they were Judy’s poison pills; John was shocked to learn she had a secret life insurance policy on him for half a million dollars; investigators believe Judy may have killed before; 12 years earlier, Judy was married to James Goodyear; James was an Air Force sergeant who served in Vietnam; he was home on leave enjoying some R&R with his new wife but what he got was arsenic poisoning; it had no odor and dissolved easily; Judy served up tiny amounts so it went unnoticed; it progressively damages the liver and the heart; chronic arsenic poisoning is hard to detect; within 3 months, James was dead and Judy collected a large insurance settlement; this first murder set the stage for Judy’s career as a serial killer because she killed for profit; a decade later, James spoke from the grave when he was exhumed and they found arsenic in his system; Judy got away with murder for 12 years; investigators also learned when her son Michael turned 18, he wanted to join the military; on his way to a post in Georgia, he visited with his mom at which time Judy fed him arsenic because she had several life insurance policies on her son too; sociopaths don’t feel love and lack empathy; to Judy, her son was just another check waiting to get in her bank account; Michael didn’t die but he became crippled from the arsenic and was discharged from the Army as a result; he wore braces on both his arms and legs because he was paralyzed from the elbow down and the knee down; he was back in Judy’s care at it wasn’t long before Judy took Michael on a canoeing trip; he had 15 lbs of weighted braces on his arms and legs and could barely walk, let alone swim; she took him out of site of the landing and public view and the canoe some how capsized; one of her stories was they hit a log and the canoe overturned; she also said a snake fell in the boat; Michael, weighted down by the braces, could not swim and sunk to the bottom of the lake; Judy never attempted to save her son and he drowned; most parents would do whatever they could to save their child; later Judy hailed a passing fisherman, told him about the accident and drank a cold beer; she collected from two life insurance policies; she knew the braces would render Michael helpless; the police finally pieced together Judy’s secrets; she went too far when she used the dynamite because she wanted too much, too soon; the prosecutor said he never witnessed the sense of evil he did with Judy in his 30 years of prosecuting cases; Judy insisted she was innocent to her grave but those who knew her had no question about her guilt Motive: Greed (life insurance money) Disposition: Judy Buenoano was found guilty of first degree murder and first degree grand theft and sentenced to death; Judy was executed on March 30, 1998 by the State of Florida
Date: September 28, 1917 Victim: Annie Burkett (wife) Location: Australia Circumstances: Harry Crawford was barely scraping by in life; he had a lot of different jobs and moved often; if people asked too many questions, he would move again; Annie Burkett was married to Harry and he was a stepfather to her son; they were a typical family and Annie didn’t know Harry was living a lie; his name really wasn’t Harry Crawford because he wasn’t even a man; his name was Eugenia Falleni, and she wasn’t a Scotsman, she was an Italian woman; it was a secret he would kill to protect; he deceived everyone for decades; Eugenia was a woman living as a man at a time transsexuals were not accepted; she could be discovered at any time and jailed for living as a deviant; what she was doing was actually quite dangerous in those times because she would experience a lot of hostility; the marriage to Annie was actually null and void because she entered into a marriage as a man under false pretenses; Annie had no idea her husband was a woman because Eugenia hid it from her in the bedroom too; but after 4 years of marriage, Annie realized she’d been duped and she was devastated; she discovered the true gender of her life partner and threatened to expose Harry; he was afraid he would go to prison; Harry lured Annie to a secluded park for a picnic and smashed Annie over the head with a bottle, then she panicked; while Annie was still alive, Eugenia set her body on fire in a campfire because she believed she could burn the body beyond recognition; but Eugenia’s body was found yet not identified right away; Eugenia’s motivation for killing was to save herself and her standing in the community, she wanted to protect her identity; now her biggest concern was Annie’s son Harry; with Annie out of the way, there was only one other obstacle so she took Harry to a notorious suicide spot and tried to lure him to the edge; Harry hung back and it literally saved his life because she couldn’t convince him to go to the edge; the fear and panic was not enough to drive her to kill Harry; Eugenia kept this dark secret hidden for another 3 years; she went on to marry another woman and after 12 months, she was arrested by the police and charged with the murder of Annie Burkett whose body was finally identified; after the arrest, she became a freak show and even the media referred to her as a “freak,” “monster,” and “pervert” Motive: Wife Annie threatened to reveal the true identity of Eugenia; she did not want to go to prison or lose standing in the community Disposition: On July 5, 1920, Eugenia Falleni was charged with the murder of Annie Burkett; on October 6, 1920, she was convicted of murder and sentenced to death; although in the end, she was spared execution and released after 11 years in prison; she lived the rest of her life as a woman
Date: 1977-1982 Victims:Chelsea McClellan (Genene is suspected of killing up to 60 infants) Location: Bexar County, Texas (San Antonio and Kerrville) Circumstances: Babies were dying without cause at a medical center in San Antonio, Texas; they saw an increase in pulmonary arrests in the children’s ward; the death rate went from one a week to 3-5 a week; staff knew they had a murderer inside the hospital and the prime suspect was nurse Genene Jones, a 31 year old vocational nurse who had a hero complex; she liked the idea that she could save lives in an emergency; when someone has a strong need to be seen as a hero or savior, this is the hero complex; when someone creates a scenario where they can rush in and save the person, that’s dangerous; Genene used a variety of drugs to stress her patients like blood thinners and cardiac arrest agents; she didn’t necessarily want to kill her victims, just make them sick enough so she can rescue them; this was her way of getting attention; she would call a code red and people would rush to the scene; she would resuscitate them and bring them back to life when she could but all too often Genene miscalculated her poison; she was searching for respect; she felt important and powerful when she was tending to defenseless children; perhaps Genene was overcompensating for previous losses; soon after birth, Genene was abandoned by her natural parents and given up for adoption; at 16, her closest brother died in a car accident; another brother succumbed to cancer 8 years later; cancer also took her father at age 56; if someone feels unloved, they may spend the rest of their adult life trying to acquire the attention they did not get as a child and engage in various behavior including criminal behavior to gain the attention; in one two week period at the San Antonio medical center, 7 children died; but co-workers started to connect the dots and asked questions; they discovered all of the deaths were on the same shift and were taken care of by Genene; they thought it was suspicious and reported it to administrators; but administrators failed to report the information to the medical examiner’s office and didn’t instantly remove Nurse Jones; she was left on the ward even after they knew what was going on; they finally did something when staff insisted but they were fearful of getting sued more than saving the lives of the children; according to the medical examiner at the time, Genene was the worse serial murderer in the history of Texas; and what’s worse is that a nurse could murder and it was covered up; no one is sure how many children died because a lot of the records disappeared and the deaths were not reported or autopsied; eventually the hospital raised the qualifications for nurses in the ward and Genene no longer qualified so they let her go but gave her an excellent letter of recommendation; she was free to kill again; soon she was working in a pediatric facility in Kerrville, Texas; her new boss had no idea about Genene’s past; Genene was asked to look after a child with a cold and suddenly Chelsea stopped breathing; she saved her and was hailed a hero; the need to do this is a bottomless pit that is never filled; one month later, Chelsea is once again in respiratory arrest after another routine check up by Nurse Jones; she was rushed to the ER but didn’t survive this time; death was incidental to all the excitement Genene got from trying to save a child; Chelsea’s death was initially ruled Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) but upon closer inspection, Genene’s secret was discovered; the death was suspicious and Genene was once again investigated; the autopsy revealed that the baby suffocated to death from Succinylcholine poisoning; and after Chelsea’s death, Genene visited Chelsea’s grave and appeared genuinely remorseful; Chelsea’s mother happened to visit at the same time and she was curious why this nurse was at the gravesite, so distraught; more evidence was discovered; hospital staff noticed pinholes in the agent used to kill little Chelsea; she replaced what she took with saline solution; Chelsea’s body revealed traces of Succinylcholine (anectine); Genene’s colleagues at her last job confirmed that she was a suspected killer long before she arrived at the Kerrville clinic; Chelsea’s murder was the one that finally put her way for good but no one was ever charged for the several deaths at the medical center in San Antonio; to this day, Genene insists that she’s innocent; professionals acknowledge this is a common form of denial that comes with who have the hero complex; they need to be incarcerated for the rest of their lives because there is no way to know if they won’t kill again Motive: Attention, hero complex Disposition: Genene Jones was found guilty of first degree murder and causing injury to seven other children; she was sentenced to 99 years in prison
Dark Secrets are the stock-in-trade of Deadly Women (S2,E4)
Editor’s note: With a cable subscription, you can download the free ID Go app and watch Investigation Discovery programming at your convenience. And for those who do not have cable, you can watch “unlocked” episodes on the ID Go app including the latest premieres. For those who prefer commercial free programming during your binge session, Prime Video has an ID channel: ‘True Crime Files by Investigation Discovery” available for $3.99 a month. It’s a compilation of older seasons but totally worth the cost if you are a true crime addict. Download the ID Go app or purchase ID True Crime Files & binge away.
Full Episode: Virginia Beach police arrive at the Makdessi apartment to find Elise Makdessi and her lover, Quincy Brown, dead. Elise’s husband Eddie had reported that he killed Quincy Brown in self-defense after Brown had murdered Elise. Eddie gave the police a videotape Elise had made a week before, alleging that she had been the victim of sexual harassment. -Double Cross, Forensic Files (S13,E5)
Editor’s Note: Full episodes of Forensic Files are available on a variety of media platforms. FilmRise Channel and Forensic Files Channel both feature full episodes of Forensic Files on YouTube. You can also find full episodes of Forensic Files on both Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. On Netflix, the seasons are grouped as collection 1-9. On Amazon Prime Video, you can find Season 1-10 here; Season 11; Season 12; Season 13; Season 14; Season 15; Season 16; Season 17; Season 18; Season 19; Season 20; and Season 21. Start bingeing and see for yourself why Forensic Files is such a hit!
Date: October 30, 1985 Victims: Recife Cosmen, 2, Ernest Trout, 67, and Augusto Ferrara, 64 (she also injured 7 others in the shooting incident) Location: Springfield Mall, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Circumstances: Sylvia dressed in fatigues began shooting at people in the Springfield Mall with a 22 caliber rifle; victims were diving behind racks of clothing and hiding in the backs of stores; store owners realized that it was a familiar face; Sylvia would go into the Springfield Mall and complain to store owners that the bright lights bothered her; she would also march up and down the hall in the mall; Sylvia was obsessed with the military and the Army discharged her early; the Army recognized that Sylvia was not right in her mind; she muttered to herself and used obscenities because Sylvia had schizophrenia; she couldn’t perceive reality for what it was; she responded to the negative voices in her head; she was diagnosed 10 years earlier but refused to take her medication; Sylvia’s mother tried to get her to take the medication but she wouldn’t; her delusional system involved military power and control over people; her history revealed the potential for violence; she had been working up to the violence at the mall for a long time; Sylvia was driven by paranoid schizophrenia, the delusions centered around the fact that one is being persecuted and people are after them; she was in and out of mental institutions for years and feared her mother wanted to send her back; she refused to take medication and was suspicious of the medication and anyone who wanted her to take it; she thought her family wanted to hurt her and was out to get her, she was fearful that they wanted to send her back to the hospital; to Sylvia, the shooting was a ticket to a better life in prison; for some reason she decided that the hospital was worse than prison and she would do something to get her to prison instead; thankfully someone in the mall walked up to her and took the gun from her thinking it was a prank; John Loufer was an accidental hero; once medicated again, Sylvia displayed remorse for her actions; she was angry that she was free to buy a gun despite her mental illness; but she checked “no” on the form and was able to purchase a gun with no problems whatsoever; Sylvia criticized her ability to buy a weapon and wrote to Congress, the President, etc telling them she should not have been allowed to buy the gun Motive: Mental Illness (paranoid schizophrenia) Disposition: Sylvia Seegrist, 24, was found guilty but mentally ill of 3 counts of murder and 7 counts of attempted murder; she received 3 life sentences
Date: November 4, 1997 Victims: Justin Thomas, 5, and Shelby Alexis Riggs, 2 Location: Sherwood, Arkansas Circumstances: Single mother Christina Riggs killed her own children; something snapped in her mind because she killed two defenseless children that didn’t know what was coming; Christina was going to kill her children with potassium chloride which she thought would stop their heart; what she didn’t understand is that a diluted form through IV would burn the skin and destroy the vein in the process; the potassium chloride binds and burns all of the blood vessels on the way to the heart; trouble followed Christina through her entire life; Christina was separated from her siblings and raised alone by her mother; in her diary, she wrote of sexual abuse by a neighbor and a family member; by 13, she was desperately unhappy and overweight; it was a psychological barrier for offenders; if I look unattractive, they won’t be interested in me; when she got older, she turned to sex because that’s all she knew; she got pregnant at 20 with her son Justin and his father skipped town; she married John Riggs and had another child Shelby but the marriage didn’t last; she was alone and raising the children by herself; she lost a cousin to suicide, her mother made a suicide attempt when she was growing up, and she had a grandmother who was institutionalized; potassium chloride is often used in prison executions; she thought she would give the children a quick and painless death but Justin was in pain and agony; she reached for another injection and tried to give him morphine; he was in so much pain and wiggling about that it was impossible for Christina to get the needle in the vein; Christina was a nurse known for always helping people; her sister wanted to know why she did this (filicide); her sister said she was great with her kids and worked long hours at the hospital to provide for her kids; after her divorce, she started another relationship but this guy broke her heart and stole her credit card; he left her broke and destitute; she told a doctor she was depressed and was prescribed Prozac; it was unclear if she was taking meds at the time of the homicide; the combination of mood swings, irritability and depression was the perfect storm; her plan to poison her two children failed so she resorted to suffocation and smothered both the children; she carefully laid their bodies on her bed and then tried to take her own life; she took 28 anti-depressants and injected herself with potassium chloride but it burned a hole and collapsed the vein; she decided to kill her children 2 days before she did it; she was afraid if she died, the children would be separated and go with their respective fathers, she thought she would prevent future sadness; 19 hours after the suicide attempt, Christina’s mom found her shortly before she died; Christina was demonized once the community learned what she had done; if she had died, nobody would have cared and would have wrote this off as another horrible tragedy; her sister hopes to shed light on the issue to help others learn from their experience; at trial, many discounted Christina’s state of mind and thought she wanted to rid herself of the children; in the end, the State of Arkansas finished what she started; Christina was obsessed with a black depression and didn’t want her children to live the same way Motive: Mental Illness (depression) Disposition: Christina Riggs, 26, was found guilty of two counts of first degree murder and sentenced to death by the State of Arkansas; she was executed by lethal injection (potassium chloride) on May 2, 2000
“There is no way words can express how sorry I am for taking the lives of my babies. Now I can be with my babies, as I always intended.” -Christina Marie Riggs (last words before execution)
Date: November 1984 Victims: Aggie Marsh, 97, Stella Bradham, 85, Leathy McKnight, 85, and Mary Rae Carter, 79 (Anna Larsen, 94, was injected with insulin but rushed to the hospital and saved) Location: North Horizon, St. Petersburg, Florida Circumstances: In a 50 bed nursing facility, 12 people died in 13 days; Bobbie was an angel of death and killed her patients; she had an intense compulsion to murder because of what it did for her; Bobbie Sue had deep rooted psychological issues that surfaced after the investigation began; she used to mutilate herself to attract attention; she had Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy; she had a long history of self-harm; she had her ovaries removed, stomach tumors, a broken arm that wouldn’t heal, hysterectomy, gall bladder problems, ulcers and pneumonia; it brought her the attention she craved; she would faint in between surgeries; she craved attention so she hurt herself to get it; her mind was twisted at an early age because four of her siblings had muscular dystrophy so she didn’t get the attention she wanted; at a young age, she learned the way to get love and attention was to be sick; her life revolved around sickness; it lead her to a career in nursing; she saw the power her mother had taking care of sick children and she wanted that; her desire switched from harming herself to harming others; detectives found a common thread with each death; Bobbie Sue was working when they died; they learned she had a long history of harming herself for attention; somehow she got a license in nursing in 1975 despite being in and out of institutions for years in Illinois prior to her move to Florida; the victims in the nursing facility showed no signs of injury; the cops needed to substantiate their gut feelings; one of the individuals who died had several injection points and there seemed to be a trace of zync, maybe possible use of insulin; it’s used to help diabetic patients from becoming hypoglycemic; the use of insulin overdose would cause blood sugars to drop, stop the heart, and cause insulin death; Anna Larsen was sent to the hospital with insulin shock but she wasn’t a diabetic; someone injected the insulin and staffing records revealed Bobbie Sue was the common theme; cops investigated records and exhumed the bodies; they finally had enough to charge Bobbie Sue; they not only proved that she committed murder but they got a conviction; detectives believe that she probably has more victims that we don’t know about; Bobbie Sue died of an infection in prison on August 27, 2007 Motive: Mental Illness (Munchausen syndrome by proxy) Disposition: Prosecutors wanted first degree murder charges for Bobbie Sue Dudley, 35, but she plead guilty to second degree murder in a plea bargain and was sentenced to 65 years in prison for 4 homicides; she also received 30 years for the attempted murder of Anna Larsen to be served concurrently with the 65 year sentence; the plea bargain locked her away for the rest of her life; she died of an infection in 2007
Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Stacy Dryden, 22, died of injuries sustained in a non-hostile incident in Anbar province, Iraq on October 19, 2008. Lance Cpl. Dryden was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom on behalf of the 1st Supply Battalion, 1st Marine Logistics Group in Camp Pendleton, California. The Department of Defense announced that the incident was under investigation at the time of the press release. Media reports suggested that Stacy died of a suspected head injury she sustained during a wrestling match with a fellow Marine. In one report, a Marine public affairs officer stated that her manner of death has been ruled a homicide, but no wrongdoing was found and no charges were filed. The family expressed their frustration with the investigation of the murder of Stacy and additionally feel that no one was held accountable in an effort to protect the reputation of the Corps.
“They circle the wagons,” she says about how the military handled Maria’s murder and other female soldier deaths. “They are trying to protect their reputation.” And the military is protecting its reputation while struggling to recruit soldiers for an all-volunteer military. –City Beat (March 27, 2012)
Sgt. Jan Pietrzak, US Marine Corps, and Quiana Jenkins-Pietrzak
Honoring Marine Sgt. Jan Pietrzak and his wife, Quiana Jenkins-Pietrzak, both were slain Oct. 15, 2008. Four fellow USMC members are charged with murder under special circumstances; all face the death penalty.
MILITARY JUSTICE FOR ALL 