Did fake fiancee's secret conceal murder?

Mihoko Manabe, longtime girlfriend of Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter, tesifies at Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center in Los Angeles. Source: AP

A WOMAN whose former fiance is on trial for murder has told jurors she never knew the true identity of the man who called himself by multiple names.

Mihoko Manabe told the court that by the time she met the man, who posed as a member of the fabled Rockefeller family and whose true name was Christian Gerhartsreiter, he had a terrible secret to hide.

Manabe said she met her boyfriend in 1987 when they worked at a New York brokerage firm. She was a translator; he was head of the bonds desk. She knew him as Christopher Crowe until he began using the Rockefeller pseudonym.

She didn't know until recently that he was Gerhartsreiter and had been charged with the murder of a California man who vanished in 1985.

"He was an unusual person," she said, but after police began calling to interview him, she said he became downright odd.

Gerhartsreiter became paranoid and said they had to go into hiding. Manabe described a cloak-and-dagger existence in which he had her dye his hair blonde, grew a beard, exchanged his glasses for contact lenses, and made plans to leave the country.

He proposed marriage and she accepted, she said, but they neither left the country nor got married. "The plans all fell by the wayside," she said.

Her fiance quit his job at another major brokerage house and never worked again. She said she supported him while he stayed home and got him a credit card in the name Clark Rockefeller.

Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter sits in court at Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center in Los Angeles.

"Why did you stick around that long and go along with it?" asked Deputy District Attorney Habib Balian.

"He had asked me to marry him and I was loyal," she said.

But their relationship deteriorated and in 1994 she left to marry another man.

Manabe appeared nervous and said she would have preferred not to testify.

"It's not a part of my life I like to talk about or remember," she said.

Gerhartsreiter is charged with the murder of John Sohus, the son of a woman who rented her San Marino, California guest house to the defendant.

Sohus and his wife, Linda, disappeared in 1985, and bones were dug up in the yard of the home in 1994. No sign of Linda Sohus was ever found.

View the original article here

Teens, 14 and 15, charged with man's murder

Police at the scene in Mandurah where 28-year-old Tauri Litchfield was found fatally wounded.  Source: PerthNow

THREE teenagers - two 14-year-old boys and a 15-year-old - have been charged with murder following the bashing death of Tauri Litchfield in Mandurah last week.

The teenagers were taken into custody yesterday after a series of raids across the metropolitan area in connection with the 28-year-old's death.

A 15-year-old boy from Mandurah, a 14-year-old boy from Leda and a 14-year-old boy from Thornlie have all been charged with murder and will appear in the Perth Children’s Court today.

Several other people taken into custody were released, however investigations are continuing into other people that may have been involved.

Anyone with information they believe could assist this investigation is asked to call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000. Callers can remain anonymous.

Mr Litchfield was found critically injured in a car park on Pinjarra Road on the night of St Patrick's Day with severe head injuries.

He died a short time later in hospital.

A 17-year-old girl was also found beaten, just metres away from Mr Litchfield's body.

Police believe he was at the Brighton Hotel in the hours before the attack with friends and his partner Lisa, who was the last person he spoke to.

Lisa said he had planned to walk home from the bar.

Last week, Mr Litchfield's sister Kirra said her brother had a passion for the outdoors and was like a magnet to those around him.

"My little brother, he was just such an outgoing and charming man. He had such a passion for people and the outdoors, he spent so much time outside and he had this huge enthusiasm that just kind of sprung out of him," she said.

"You can see it in his smile, you'll see it from the photo. Even when it's on a two-dimensional piece of paper, it hits you in the face.

"He was so caring and he was so loving and loved by so many people .... people have come forward and supported us .... it's just been so overwhelming."

Kirra said her brother was an avid surfer and kitesurfer - an all-round adrenalin junkie.

"It was all about the water sports and when he couldn't get in the water then he was trying to create some sort of water sport-esque thing on the land," she said.

"He was a sail-maker, he loved it. When he was a kid all he really wanted to do was get on boats and then he found a job that he could do on boats."
 

View the original article here

Off-duty cop finds crocodile murder

Senior Constable Sean Stanley tries to pull out the 4.5-metre saltwater crocodile shot dead in the Adelaide river, 70km south of Darwin. Source: Supplied

AN OFF-duty water police officer has stumbled across a murder scene while out fishing on the Adelaide River, 70km south of Darwin.

Senior Constable Sean Stanley and his mate Dan White found a 4.6m saltwater crocodile that had been shot in the head at close range and left to rot.

Rare sighting of crocodile eating crocodile

"We were just out fishing. It was right up on the floodplains," he said.

"It was upside down. It had been shot in the head.

"It had to have been shot at close range."

Menacing mega-sized crocodile shot dead

Sen-Constable Stanley said the croc was found near Beatrice Creek, about 20km upstream from the jumping croc tours, about 2pm yesterday.

He said the water was only a boat width wide and together with Mr White he went up and measured the croc with a rope and then used their fishing sticker to get an accurate size.

"Being such a big animal it would have been hard to tow back to the boat ramp so we had to leave it there," he said.

Sen-Constable Stanley said the body had started to decompose and he estimated the beast had been dead for less than 24 hours.

He said he would conduct an investigation and try to find the culprits.

"It's illegal to interfere with protected wildlife," he said. "There are huge fines.

"If members of the public have any information they should contact police."

A person convicted of interfering with protected wildlife can face fines of up to $70,500 or five years jail.

Anyone with information should call police on 131 444.

More stories at nt.news.com.au

View the original article here

Winnie Mandela faces fresh murder probe

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, seen here to the right of her former husbaned Nelson Mandela and his wife Graca Machel (left),  is back in the spotlight as investigators re-open moldering murder dockets about the fate of two young activists last seen at her home 24 years ago. Picture: AP Photo/Debbie Yazbek-Star-file Source: AP

NELSON Mandela's ex-wife Winnie is shocked to learn South African prosecutors may probe her over the deaths of two anti-apartheid youths who went missing almost 25 years ago, one of her lawyers says.

Last week, the skeletons of what are believed to be the remains of Corlett "Lolo" Sono, 21, and Siboniso Anthony Shabalala, 19, were exhumed in a Soweto cemetery.

The pair, who served as couriers for the anti-apartheid military wing of the African National Congress, were last seen alive at Winnie Madikizela-Mandela's home in 1988.

The uncovered remains had multiple stab wounds to them and had been buried as unidentified persons among paupers.

Police are still awaiting forensic and DNA tests to be carried out on the skeletons, but if the men's identities are confirmed, prosecutors have said they will consider filing charges against Madikizela-Mandela.

In the statement dated March 16 and sent to AFP, her lawyer, Pops Mageza, said his client wished "to express her surprise and shock ... that there are processes currently under way which will lead to her prosecution for the deaths" of Sono and Shabalala.

"To her knowledge, these are matters that have already been comprehensively dealt with," the lawyer wrote.

The two activists' disappearance was linked to Madikizela-Mandela during the country's Truth and Reconciliation Commission set up after 1994's democracy to address apartheid atrocities.

The body's final report concluded she "must accept responsibility for the disappearance" of the pair who were last seen alive at her home.

Madikizela-Mandela, whose husband was jailed at the time, denied any involvement in the killings.

But Sono's father told a commission hearing the last time he had seen his son was in Madikizela-Mandela's company, saying his son had been accused of spying.

During the 1980s, Madikizela-Mandela surrounded herself with a ruthless band of bodyguards known as the Mandela United Football Club.

She was convicted in 1991 on kidnapping and assault charges over the killing of a young activist three years earlier. The jail term was reduced to a fine.

View the original article here

Video reveals 'joyous' murder arrest

Video shows Jodi Arias singing, performing headstand minutes before murder charge. Courtesy: Fox News

A US woman has been captured on film laughing, playing and doing a headstand shortly before being charged with murder.

Jodi Arias of Phoenix Arizona has pleaded self-defence in the shooting and knifing of her lover in 2008.

The police video was recorded only 15 minutes after she tearfully sobbed her way through a four-hour interrogation.

Shortly after the police prosecutor leaves the room, her attitude dramatically changes.

She is seen laughing, toying with a rubbish bin and talking to herself. She then does a headstand.

Arias has been testifying before a 12-strong jury during the past six weeks.

She initially claimed she and her partner were attacked by masked intruders.

Arias initially told police she had nothing to do with the death, but later changed her plea to self-defence. Memory loss makes the bulk of events surrounding the death of her boyfriend Travis Alexander hazy, she says.

Jodi Arias answers a question from one of her attorneys in Maricopa County Superior Court during her murder trial, Wednesday, Feb. 13, 2013, in Phoenix. Arias stands trial accused of murdering her lover, Travis Alexander, in the shower of his Mesa home in 2008. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, Pool)

Alexander was stabbed nearly 30 times, was shot in the head and had his throat cut.

During the past few weeks, Arias and her defence lawyer have told the jury she suffered an abusive childhood and cheating boyfriends. She described a "shocking" and abusive sexual relationship with Alexander, including being choked into unconsciousness.

She says she was being sexually abused by Alexander when she fled into a closet, grabbed a gun and fired. Arias insists she has no recollection of the stabbings.

Police say Arias attempted to conceal evidence and engaged in a "passionate encounter" with another man before his body was discovered five days later.

A psychologist testifying in Arias defence said she had lied about her involvement because she had been in denial. "Where a person cannot deal with the fact that something they did is so opposite from everything else in their life," he said.

The trial continues.

View the original article here

Inheritance mum's murder mystery

Police are renewing an appeal for information into the disappearance of Blue Mountains teenager Belinda Peisley. Source: Supplied

POLICE say they are close to making an arrest in the suspected murder of missing mother Belinda Peisley, with new information into her disappearance 14 years ago.

Officers from Strike Force Belonidae yesterday began searching a number of bushland locations in Blackheath, a town at the top of Blue Mountains, where they believe Ms Peisley's body was disposed of.

They have also seized a maroon-coloured 1970 Jaguar from the Mid North Coast for forensic examination, which they believe was in the Katoomba area on September 26, 1998, the day the then 19-year-old Ms Peisley was last seen, and the following day.

 "We are searching for evidence in regards to where we believe Belinda's body may have been disposed of," Homicide Squad Detective Inspector Grant Taylor said today. "We're confident now that she has been murdered."

Ms Peisley's father Mark Wearne, who always believed his daughter had been murdered, said her family needed closure.

"We want to know what happened and why and whether there's a body so we can go somewhere to grieve," Mr Wearne said today. "To not know what actually happened... People say it gets better in time. It doesn't, trust me."

Despite inheriting a large sum of money two years before her disappearance, Ms Peisley had accumulated significant debt and became associated with people involved in drug activity.

A reward of up to $100,000 was announced by the NSW government in 2011 for information leading to a conviction.

A coronial inquest into Ms Peisley's disappearance is set to resume at Katoomba Local Court on Wednesday, with the new evidence to be presented.

Read the full story in tomorrow's Daily Telegraph.

View the original article here

Dozens of witnesses in Baden-Clay murder hearing

ALLISON Baden-Clay: the committal hearing of her husband Gerard starts Monday, March 11. Source: The Courier-Mail

ACCUSED wife killer Gerard Baden-Clay's committal hearing begins today, almost a year after the real estate agent reported his wife Allison missing.

Forty-three witnesses, including friends, business partners and staff are expected to be called in the high-profile case.

• Check here for rolling coverage of the hearing during the day

Allison Baden-Clay was reported missing on April 20, 2012. Her body was found 10 days later under Kholo Creek Bridge in Brisbane's west.

Baden-Clay was charged with murder and interfering with a corpse in June.

The 42-year-old, who has had two unsuccessful bail applications, remains in custody.

He will attend the hearing.

View the original article here

Gang-rape accused's death 'murder'

The mother of Ram Singh, the man accused of driving the bus on which a 23-year-old student was gang raped in December 2012, cries after he was found dead in his cell. Picture: AP Source: AP

RAM Singh, the 34-year-old Delhi gang-rape suspect who died in his cell, was a heavy-drinking migrant who was ready to accept his punishment for taking part in the crime, family and neighbours say.

Singh was accused by police of being the ringleader in the fatal gang-rape of a 23-year-old student on a moving bus in New Delhi last December in a case that prompted outrage and soul-searching over India's treatment of women.

He, along with his younger brother Mukesh - another of the six suspects on trial for murder, rape and kidnap - moved to the capital in the early 1990s to escape grinding poverty in their native village in the western state of Rajasthan.

The family found a place in the Ravi Dass Camp slum - a maze of narrow lanes, open drains and mud-and-brick houses with corrugated metal rooftops - while the brothers went on to look for jobs as bus drivers or labourers.

"He made a mistake - he admitted that to us - but even God forgives one mistake," Singh's distraught mother Kalyani Devi said after hearing of his death in top-security Tihar Jail on Monday morning.

"He was not even given a chance to repent," she sobbed, despite the fact that Singh, along with his co-accused, had denied all charges.

On the night of the December 16 attack the suspects allegedly gathered at the family home for dinner and drinks before taking the bus for a joyride, luring on board passengers who mistook the vehicle for genuine public transport.

Indian policemen stand guard as an ambulance leaves the main entrance of Tihar Jail in New Delhi. Ram Singh, accused of the fatal gang-rape of a student on a bus in New Delhi in December 2012, has reportedly been found hanged in jail while in solitary confinement, prompting outrage from the victim's family. Picture: AFP

After her male friend was beaten up the victim was repeatedly raped before being sexually assaulted with an iron bar, leading to severe internal injuries that would claim her life 13 days later.

Some neighbours recalled Singh, who was slightly built with narrow, slanting eyes, as a troublemaker whose drinking grew worse after his wife's death in 2008.

"They used to drink and get into fights with people," said Kajal, a 21-year-old college student who lived next door to the Singh brothers.

"When I got to know about his death this morning, I felt nothing. He would have died anyway. It is just that he decided to end his life a little earlier."

Singh's father Mange Lal said that his son had been resigned to facing the death penalty when sentences are handed down by the court, which has been hearing the case since January.

"My son told me that he was ashamed by what had happened on 16 December. He said that he would accept whatever punishment was given to him by the court," he said.

An artist works on a banner calling for the death sentence for rapists who fatally attacked a woman on a bus, promoting national outrage. Picture: AFP

Singh leaves behind a young boy aged four or five whom he legally adopted, neighbours said. The child is thought to be the son of Singh's late wife from a previous relationship.

Singh was the first of the accused to be arrested when police pulled over the private bus allegedly used in the attack, which was normally used to ferry schoolchildren.

Detectives' suspicions were aroused because the seats of the bus had been freshly cleaned.

"He pretended as if it was just another normal day and he was back to work," Chhaya Sharma, a deputy commissioner of police who was in charge of the gang-rape investigation, told AFP in a recent interview.

On Monday, journalists crowded outside Singh's shack while a small group of policemen stood nearby and watched.

People in the area said they resented the spotlight the case had shone on their locality.

"We live in constant fear of the unknown. We don't like the sudden attention. We are used to our normal, everyday life," said Seema Singh, a 24-year-old neighbour.

During a life of anonymous labour and poverty common to many migrants to the capital, Singh had once previously entered the public limelight when he appeared on a reality TV show hosted by former top police officer Kiran Bedi in 2010.

On the program the widower was publicly accused by a former employer of drink driving and irresponsible behaviour.
 

View the original article here

'House of horrors' doctor murder trial

Dr. Kermit Gosnell at his attorney's office in Philadelphia in 2010. Source: AP

AN abortion doctor is going on trial on eight counts of murder three years after drug agents searching a suspected "pill mill" at a Philadelphia clinic instead found a medical "house of horrors".

Dr. Kermit Gosnell, 72, the clinic owner, is charged with killing a pregnant refugee and seven viable newborns. He also faces a separate federal trial on prescription drug charges.

Gosnell, who has pleaded not guilty, saw himself as a medical missionary in the blighted neighborhood where he worked and lived for 40 years. His Women's Medical Center treated the poor, immigrants, teens and women with late-stage pregnancies who could not get abortions elsewhere.

"I feel in the long term I will be vindicated," Gosnell told the Philadelphia Daily News in a March 2010 interview, a month after the federal drug raid. "I aspire to perfection, certainly for my patients."

But some of those patients were left with infections, perforated bowels and other injuries after barbaric abortions were performed by untrained, unlicensed staff, according to numerous lawsuits and a lengthy 2011 grand jury report. And 41-year-old Karnamaya Mongar lost her life there in 2009.

Jury selection starts today in the death penalty case. All but one of the nine clinic workers arrested with Gosnell have pleaded guilty, three of them to third-degree murder, which carries a potential 20- to 40-year prison sentence.

Unlicensed doctor Steven Massof of Pittsburgh told the grand jury that he used scissors to snip the spines of more than 100 babies born alive. He worked for Gosnell for a few hundred dollars a week. He pleaded guilty to third-degree murder in the deaths of two babies allegedly stabbed by Gosnell while Massof assisted with the abortions.

In this undated photo provided by the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office, shows a procedure room at the Women's Medical Society in Philadelphia. Abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell.

Gosnell's third wife, Pearl, a cosmetologist, pleaded guilty to performing an illegal, late-term abortion and other charges. She does not have to testify, but other co-defendants have said they will.

It's not clear if Gosnell plans to testify, because a gag order has been issued in the case. But it's possible, given his posture in the Daily News interview.

"Many times people have not been able to fully pay me for my services," Gosnell said. "As a principle, I have not refused to provide them care."

Yet he made millions over the years, both from abortions and a thriving side practice where staffers allegedly dispensed his pre-signed prescriptions for OxyContin, Percocet and other highly addictive painkillers.

Related federal drug charges await Gosnell after the murder trial, which is expected to last several weeks. Opening statements are scheduled for March 14.

It's not clear if Pennsylvania jurors have ever been asked to send a man of Gosnell's age or occupation to death row. Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams called Gosnell's macabre medical clinic - where agents found fetal body parts in glass jars and staff refrigerators, and patient rooms filthy and blood-stained - a "house of horrors."

The Women's Medical Society in Philadelphia in 2010.

"Dr. Gosnell is never going to get the death penalty," defence attorney Jack McMahon said early on, noting his client's age and the cost of protracted capital cases.

The gag order now prevents McMahon from commenting about the case. But he met with Gosnell at the courthouse on Thursday, with prosecutors and the trial judge nearby, in what some viewed as late-hour plea discussions.

Mongar's family has a civil suit pending over her death. The woman from Bhutan - who did not speak English - died after allegedly receiving lethal doses of sedatives and painkillers from Gosnell's untrained workers.

She and her husband and three children had survived 20 years in refugee camps before settling in rural Virginia. She was referred to Gosnell's clinic to seek a second-term abortion.

Medical technician Sherry West, during her plea to third-degree murder and other charges, admitted she may have administered drugs to Mongar while Gosnell was off-site.

"She's very sorry about the death of that young lady," defence lawyer Michael Wallace said after her plea. "She got caught up in a series of things that probably she did not realise the significance of."

View the original article here

Baby river murder case adjourned in Qld

A MAN charged with the river-plunge murder of his baby son will remain in custody for another three months.

David Paul Fisher, 39, was last year charged with killing his seven-month-old child after the pair plunged into the Logan River at Beenleigh, south of Brisbane.

At the time, police said Fisher had pushed baby Elijah in a stroller to the river on the night of June 23.

Fisher fell from a pedestrian bridge at the Logan River Parklands with Elijah in his arms. The father swam to shore but his son was lost.

The infant's body was recovered the next morning on the scrubby banks of the river, about 1.5 kilometres downstream from the bridge.

Fisher, who is being held in a high security mental health unit, was to have appeared in Beenleigh Magistrates Court by video link on Tuesday.

However the court was told he was unable to appear.

His committal hearing was adjourned for mention on June 4.

View the original article here