TheTrenchcoat Chronicles

Tag: murder

  • Witnesses sought in Jamie Lynn Drake case

    Detectives seek potential witnesses in Jamie Drake case:

    Sheriff’s major crimes detectives are looking for four persons that homicide suspect Kevin Wayne Newland said he spent the day with on the day Jamie Lynn Drake was killed.

    According to Newland, he has been living a transient lifestyle and spending nights in city and county parks. On Thursday, June 22, he was at Chief Garry Park at Mission and Greene when he met four people who invited him to go drinking with them.

    One of the men was named “John” and drove a dark blue Ford F-150 pickup.

    A second man was called “Louis” and a woman was called “Boo.” The fourth person, another male, went unidentified. These last three were in a dark gray or black Acura.

    Newland and the four drove to a spot along the Little Spokane River north of Commellini’s Restaurant where they drank alcohol. At some point there was a disagreement and John used his pickup to drive Newland to Jamie Drake’s apartment so he could talk with her roommate who was his girlfriend.

    Detective Jim Dresback asks that these four people call him at the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office major crimes unit, 509-477-2714.

    In addition to these four potential witnesses, detectives asked that anyone else who had contact with Kevin Wayne Newland on Thursday, June 22, to call the sheriff’s office.

    An autopsy was performed late Friday afternoon, but the medical examiner is awaiting further tests before announcing the cause of death in Jamie Drake’s homicide.

    Transient yet he has a MySpace profile. Anyway, it sounds like he’s trying to shift the blame to his new drinking buddies, even though he was found driving Jamie Lynn Drake’s car and her body was found in his family’s cabin. If he didn’t kill her, he sure was involved.

  • Jamie Lynn Drake’s body found

    Missing woman’s body believed found:

    Jamie Lynn Drake, who I told you about here, has been found but sadly not alive…

    ADDY, Wash. — The search for a 19-year-old Mead woman ended Friday in rural Stevens County, where detectives apparently located the body of Jamie Lynn Drake under the floorboards of a tiny cabin.

    The suspect, 20-year-old Kevin Wayne Newland, allegedly led detectives to the site in a late-night drive through the forested back roads northwest of Addy, Wash.

    “They said, ‘OK, why are we here?’ He walked over and pulled open the hatch and walked away,’” said Sgt. Dave Reagan of the Spokane County Sheriff’s Department.

    The discovery of the body, wrapped in a blue plastic tarp, ended the statewide search for Drake, who disappeared on June 23. Reagan said detectives believe that Drake was killed at her apartment and her body moved to the cabin.

    Drake’s family released a statement on Friday thanking law enforcement for their work and urging families “to celebrate what they have.”

    “We should all be reminded that life is very precious and we should let all of those around us know how special they are to us,” the family said.

    After a statewide alert, Newland was arrested Tuesday in King County when he was found driving the Mustang.

    According to a search warrant filed in Spokane County District Court, Newland told one acquaintance that he bought the car in Kennewick, Wash., for $3,200 from someone a guy who just got out of prison; he told a second friend that he bought it in a bar.

    The court documents said Newland later told a detective that he bought the car from a man male in Spokane named Jamie, who did not have the car’s title.

    Arrested on suspicion of possessing stolen property, Newland was transferred to Spokane on Thursday afternoon. Within hours, he led detectives to the cabin, Reagan said.

    “They just kept talking to him and chipping away,” Reagan said.

    Stevens County sheriff’s personnel guarded the cabin overnight, as Spokane County officers worked to secure a search warrant.

    “We had great teamwork throughout the state,” said Spokane Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich, who traveled to the site himself. “It brought this to a very, very short resolution.”

    By mid-afternoon on Friday, sheriff’s deputies had finished the recovery at the cabin, which they believe is owned by Newland’s mother. The small red cabin, ringed with white Christmas lights, is on Marble Valley Basin Road.

    In Stevens County, Newland has prior convictions for second-degree theft, vehicle prowling and theft of a firearm, according a bench warrant issued on Thursday.

    Reagan declined to discuss a possible motive or the cause of death, pending an autopsy.

    The Sheriff’s Office said additional charges are expected to be filed against Newland in the coming days.

    On Friday, about 70 friends gathered at MEAD Alternative High School, where Drake had graduated in the spring.

    “There are a lot of people who were touched by Jamie,” said Dave Vaughn, a counselor at Mead High School. “One person said, ‘If you met Jamie once, you were impacted for life.’ “

    After graduation, Drake moved in with her friend Jordan Sheffield at Deer Run Apartments and was looking toward the future.

    Newland can now be added to the MySpace Rogues Gallery.

    My thoughts and prayers go out to the Drake family.

  • Reward offered in Brooklyn murder

    Reward offered in Brooklyn murder

    12G for tips in teen’s slay:

    A reward is being offered for information in the murder of Chanel Petro-Nixon…

    Cops are offering a $12,000 reward in last week’s shocking murder of a promising 16-year-old Brooklyn girl.

    Chanel Petro-Nixon was last seen on June 18 when she left her apartment on Fulton St. to fill out a job application at an Applebee’s only a few blocks away. She never made it there and was reported missing.

    Chanel’s body was found last Thursday, strangled and stuffed in a garbage bag on Kingston Ave. in Crown Heights.

    A straight-A 10th-grader at Boys and Girls High School, Chanel was a devoted Seventh-Day Adventist. Cops are examining her MySpace page for clues.

    Family members were stunned that the talented girl could be plucked from the bustling commercial strip without anyone noticing.

    Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS. All calls will be kept confidential.

    Hopefully, someone will give police the information needed to bring her killer to justice.

  • Cops using MySpace to search for Brooklyn girl’s killer

    Cops using MySpace to search for Brooklyn girl’s killer

    In murder investigation, police search MySpace.com:

    (Crown Heights-WABC, June 24, 2006) – The NYPD is trying to solve a murder mystery involving a 16-year-old girl from Brooklyn. They are now looking on the popular web site MySpace.com for any leads.

    Police at the 77th Precinct in Crown Heights say they’re still looking for 16-year-old Chanel Petro Nixon killer. They believe it may be someone the victim knew.

    Chanel Petro Nixon will remain sweet-16 for eternity and that’s just how her heart-broken family wants her to be remembered.

    “It’s already out that she was chopped up and she was not. Her body was whole. Her body wasn’t even cut. She wasn’t stabbed or anything,” said Errol Wilson, the victim’s cousin.

    Her family is now in shock. Relatives are trying to cope with the gruesome way the body was found.

    Officials say her remains were discovered stuffed inside a garbage bag that was dumped on Kingston Avenue, just one mile away from home. Police say when they found Chanel’s body she was partially clothed but there were no signs of sexual assault.

    Investigators are now looking into conversations the teen had on MySpace.com, an internet web site popular with teens. Her cousin says the Boys and Girl’s High School student loved to chat online. Still, no one knows who would want to strangle Chanel and put her body in a garbage bag.

    Neighbors say they saw Chanel Sunday morning as she crossed the courtyard in front of her building. She was dressed in her Sunday best and on her way to church.

    “She had a long life. A prosperous life ahead of her,” said Wilson. “Unfortunately, it was cut short.”

    I couldn’t find her MySpace at this time, but I will keep you up to date on any developments in this case.

    My prayers and condolences go out to the Nixon family.

    UPDATE: Chanel’s MySpace is here.

  • Jamie Rose Bolin’s autopsy results

    Jamie Rose Bolin’s autopsy results

    Report: Okla. Girl Died of Lack of Oxygen:

    The autopsy results of Jamie Rose Bolin have been made public. You may not want to read this, as some of the details are quite disturbing…

    OKLAHOMA CITY — A 10-year-old girl who prosecutors say was killed by a neighbor who wanted to eat human flesh died from a lack of oxygen but also suffered other injuries, the medical examiner’s office said.

    Jamie Rose Bolin was struck in the head, her neck was cut to the bone from ear-to-ear and she was sexually assaulted, according to an autopsy report released Thursday.

    Prosecutors have charged her neighbor, 26-year-old Kevin Ray Underwood, with first-degree murder. A preliminary hearing has been scheduled for August.

    Police and prosecutors allege Underwood abducted the child as she was going to the library and killed her to fulfill a fantasy of becoming a cannibal. Law enforcement officers found her body unclothed April 14 in a plastic storage tub in a bedroom closet of Underwood’s apartment.

    According to a police affidavit, Underwood confessed that he killed Jamie.

    Police and prosecutors allege Underwood struck Jamie in the head with a cutting board, then smothered her with his hand and duct tape. They also accused him of trying to decapitate and possibly molesting her corpse.

    The autopsy report supports all the descriptions but the post-mortem sexual assault, which a deputy state medical examiner said would be difficult to determine.

    Dr. Inas Yacoub found that the girl suffered blunt force trauma to the back, right arm, right thigh, left thigh and left ankle, as well as the top of the head.

    Underwood’s trial can’t come soon enough.

  • Supporters react to Esmie Tseng’s sentence

    Supporters react to Esmie Tseng’s sentence

    Friends stand by Tseng, call sentence poor:

    Some supporters of Esmie Tseng react to her sentencing…

    “Nobody’s really better served by this (sentence),” Horwitz said. “When the judge talks about rehabilitation in the prison system … She needs help (after) years and years of challenges and what many argue to be abuse in the home situation.”

    Another Tseng family friend, Grant Mallett, said his daughter used to play with Esmie. He said Esmie would not be forgotten.

    “We’re committed to stay in touch and help her out as best we can,” Mallett said. “I saw her last week. Her spirits seemed to be quite good, and I was pleased and impressed with how she seems to be doing personally.”

    Horwitz said real friends would not abandon Esmie.

    “Everybody wants to visit her and write her. She has a lot of true friends,” he said. “She’s been in the community since kindergarten and the people who have known her her whole life know that this is a really good kid and a terrible set of circumstances.”

    I am neither a supporter nor detractor of Esmie Tseng, but I can sympathize with Esmie. I really do. I also grew up in a house of abuse, so I know to some extent what she went through.

    However, it doesn’t change the fact that she stabbed her mother with a kitchen knife and when her mother got the knife away from her, Esmie picked up another knife and stabbed her again. I have to agree with what the assistant D.A. said…

    Assistant District Attorney Richard Guinn said the sentence, considering all factors, represented a “fair and just outcome.”

    “We feel for the family, we feel for the dad, we feel for (Esmie) in terms of her situation at home,” Guinn said. “But we are also taking a very strong position here.”

    Guinn said stabbing someone multiple times should draw prison time as opposed to the shorter sentence, perhaps three years, available through the juvenile justice system. With good behavior and considering time already served, Esmie faces about seven years in an adult prison, he said.

    In prison, Esmie could advance herself academically through college classes, Guinn said.

    “It’s up to her what she chooses to make of this time,” he said. “My impression in talking with her attorney is that she has put this chapter of her life behind and is now doing everything she can to make a worthwhile life for herself.”

    I know I said I would never do one again, but I may have a special podcast on this sometime this weekend.

  • Esmie Tseng sentenced

    Esmie Tseng sentenced

    Esmie Tseng sentenced to prison:

    The Overland Park teen-ager who pleaded guilty to killing her mother was sentenced today to eight years and four months in prison.

    Esmie Tseng, 17, declined to say anything during the brief hearing in Johnson County District Court. She had pleaded guilty in March to voluntary manslaughter.

    The sentence imposed by Judge Brenda Cameron was recommended by both sides last month as part of a plea agreement.

    Esmie’s mother, 55-year-old Shu Yi Zhang, died after being stabbed to death on Aug. 19.

  • Underwood gag order issued

    Underwood gag order issued

    Gag Order Issued in Murder Case:

    A gag order has been issued in the ongoing case of Kevin Ray Underwood, who murdered 10-year-old Jamie Rose Bolin…

    A McClain County District Judge has ordered a gag order be put in place in the case against Kevin Ray Underwood.

    Underwood is charged with first-degree murder in the death of Jamie Rose Bolin.

    Special Judge Gary Barger met with attorney’s from both the defense and prosecution Monday and ordered them to refrain from making any statements regarding the case.

    In his order, the judge stated that both parties be prohibited from discussing evidence, potential evidence, anticipated evidence, opinions on evidence already obtained or evidence obtained in the future.

    The judge will allow all involved to discuss general information regarding procedure, hearing dates, and anticipated trial dates.

    The preliminary hearing for Underwood has not been set. Attorneys from both sides will meet on May 3, 2006, for a preliminary hearing conference, that’s when a preliminary hearing date will be set.

  • Underwood pleads not guilty

    Underwood pleads not guilty

    1st Degree Murder: Kevin Ray Underwood in Jamie Rose Bolin Case:

    Everyone’s “favorite” scumbag du jour, Kevin Ray Underwood appeared in court…

    Kevin Ray Underwood, 26, was led into McClain County Court with his hands and feet shackled and spoke softly as he told the judge he needed a public defender. Underwood has been formally charged in the case of the murder of Jamie Rose Bolin.

    Authorities believe Underwood killed Jamie Rose Bolin last week when she disappeared after going to a library. Her funeral was scheduled for Thursday.

    The body of Jamie Rose Bolin was found in a storage bin in the bedroom closet of Kevin Underwood, 26 – in Purcell about 40 miles (64 km) south of Oklahoma City – said Tim Kuykendall, district attorney for McClain County.

    During the arraignment, a man in the hall outside the courtroom yelled, “Let’s string him up. Let’s string him up, baby killer, and hang him.” Police led the man away.

    The man, identified as Bruce Shwartz, 48, was arrested on complaints of obstructing an officer and obstructing the peace.

    Prosecutors filed first-degree murder charges Monday in court. McClain County Judge Gary D. Barger entered a not guilty plea for Underwood and appointed an attorney for him, whose court-appointed attorneys requested a gag order. He has no criminal record nor any history of mental illness.

    Court-appointed attorneys for Underwood complained that officials had made “inflammatory, prejudicial and conclusory statements” to the media that had helped fuel widespread interest in the case, reports the AP. A hearing on the gag order was to be held Tuesday.

    A not guilty plea? I can’t wait to see the defense on this one. Maybe they’ll try to blame it on Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal. That’s not meant as a joke or disrespect towards Jamie Rose Bolin. It means that I can’t imagine a legitimate defense for Underwood. But since he did plead not guilty, hopefully a jury will convict him and give him the death sentence.

  • The shy quiet type

    The shy quiet type

    If you want excellent coverage on the murder of Jamie Rose Bolin by Kevin Ray Underwood, please go to Look Who’s Tattling Now or Huff’s Crime Blog. If you want crappy coverage with a lot of loudmouthed opinions, keep it here.

    Suspect blogged about cannibalism:

    The article mainly deals with the fact that Underwood had blogged before about cannibalism, which is covered in detail in the previous two blogs I mentioned. However, I want to talk about the reaction from Underwood’s family and the people who knew him.

    I mean it’s the old “joke”, if you will, of when they catch a serial killer or some other usually white violent killer it’s always the same thing. “He was the shy, quiet type”. Kevin Ray Underwood was no exception.

    From his mother…

    Underwood’s family was shocked.

    “This is something that I don’t know where it came from,” Underwood’s mother, Connie, said through tears in a brief telephone interview Sunday with The Associated Press. “He was always a wonderful boy.

    “I would like to be able to tell her family how sorry we are. I just feel so terrible.”

    From his former employer…

    Underwood worked for nearly seven years at a Carl’s Jr. restaurant, where shift leader Bill Verdan described him as a quiet person who kept to himself. “He did a good job,” Verdan said Sunday.

    However, he said Underwood, who quit about a year ago, was a “boring” man who rarely smiled.

    “Just his tone of voice, he just sounded dull,” Verdan said. “Trying to get a smile out of him took an act of Congress.”

    Verdan said he and his wife and young daughters never suspected anything unusual.

    “He gave my wife rides home from work numerous times,” Verdan said. “We never felt uncomfortable. I talked to my girls after this happened, and they said they felt comfortable around him.”

    For those of us that live east of the Mississippi, Carl Jr’s is the same as Hardee’s.

    From his current employer…

    His most recent job was as a stocker at a Griders Discount Foods grocery store in Oklahoma City, where he arrived early for his shift Friday, said a manager at the store, Jerry Castro.

    “He was the same as always,” Castro said. “He was quiet and kept to himself. He didn’t interact with people. It just didn’t dawn on you that this was something he’d do.”

    I really don’t have much of a point, except maybe that these statements just go to show how cold and unemotional Underwood was. Because only someone who is dead inside like Underwood could commit such a heinous and brutal crime on such an undeserving victim.

    I said it before, and I’ll say it again. My message to Kevin Underwood is still, rot in hell.