Category: Metro

SULPHUR, La. (TCN) — A 75-year-old woman was arrested last week following a yearslong investigation into her toddler son’s death in 1970.

KPLC-TV reports Sulphur Police Department officers took Alice Bunch Idlett into custody on March 27 on a charge of second-degree murder for the death of her son, Earl Dwayne Bunch III. The department started investigating his death in 2022 following a request from the 16-month-old victim’s family. Officials initially said Bunch died when he fell from a crib, and there was not enough evidence at the time to prove otherwise.

Detectives reportedly recently exhumed the boy’s body and sent his remains to the FBI, who listed his death as a homicide.

Bunch’s father, Earl Bunch Jr., was deployed overseas in Thailand during the Vietnam War when the boy died.

According to court documents shared by KPLC, Bunch Jr. filed for divorce in 1983, citing “mental cruelty.” During his custody appeal of their daughter, Bunch Jr. said Idlett wrote him letters that “were of a threatening nature, both toward herself and her son.” The court document cites excerpts from her correspondence where she talks about hating their son and herself.

On Nov. 19, 1969, she allegedly told her husband she never wanted to be a mother, adding, “I honestly wish he had never been born. He knows he won’t get his way around me. I’ll kill him before he becomes spoilt. I honestly mean that…”

In a letter two days later, she reportedly said, “If he (Earl Dwayne) starts crying when I put him down to play, I’m going to whip him until his darn seat is red. I can’t put up with this mess… I hate your son, I wish he was dead.”

She wrote that Earl Dwayne Bunch “ruint [sic] my life” and that he “needs love but I can’t give it to him.”

Bunch Jr. said he attempted to fly back to Louisiana to be with his wife, but he could not get an emergency leave order.

On Jan. 19, 1970, Idlett took Earl Dwayne Bunch to the emergency room because he was “limp and gasping for breath.” A doctor who examined him said the boy was “in a comatose condition.” He also noticed bite and burn marks on the child’s body. The doctor reportedly noted Earl Dwayne Bunch’s wounds “looked more like a child that had been beaten; that perhaps somebody had taken it by the feet, and swung it against a piece of furniture or the wall.”

Idlett allegedly appeared “stoical” and not emotional.

He was transferred to another hospital for X-rays, which showed he sustained several skull fractures and a right shoulder fracture. Earl Dwayne Bunch was taken to a third hospital in Texas, where he died during emergency surgery the next day.

Bunch Jr. returned to Louisiana for his son’s funeral, and he “accepted his son’s death as accidental, because he could not believe that the woman he loved could have harmed her own son.”

According to KPLC, a grand jury returned an indictment to the Calcasieu Parish District Attorney’s Office charging Idlett with second-degree murder.

Idlett is being held at the Calcasieu Parish Correctional Center on $950,000 bond.

• Mother arrested for murder in 1970 cold case – KPLC

Source: True Crime Daily

NightCap Scrunchie Drink Cover

Source: True Crime Daily

THOMAS COUNTY, Ga. (TCN) — A woman was recently convicted of fatally poisoning her husband and will spend the rest of her life behind bars.

According to a March 27 news release from the Thomas County Sheriff’s Office, a jury found Torii Fedrick guilty in connection with the death of her husband, Phil Fedrick, and a judge sentenced her to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Per WJCL-TV, she was convicted of malice murder, felony murder, and aggravated assault.

In September 2021, the victim was reportedly taken to Archbold Memorial Hospital, and medical staff “suspected poisoning.” He died approximately one week later.

The sheriff’s office worked with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation for two years on the case before determining that the defendant poisoned her husband with ethylene glycol, which is commonly found in antifreeze and brake fluid.

The sheriff’s office said the hospital staff’s “quick assessments and requesting of proper testing” was “crucial in the case being discovered.”

• News Release – Thomas County Sheriff’s Office
• Murder by Poison: Georgia woman sentenced to life in prison for killing husband – WJCL

Source: True Crime Daily

MIDDLESBORO, Ky. (TCN) — A man and his wife face several charges for allegedly abusing and subjecting the man’s 5-year-old son to “cruel confinement and cruel punishment” because he did his homework incorrectly.

According to the Middlesboro Police Department, officers arrested Ricky North and Nichole North on March 30 for first-degree criminal abuse, tampering with evidence, first-degree strangulation, and failure to report child neglect/abuse.

Investigators allege the couple “intentionally abused” the victim by binding him with duct tape, forcing him to take cold showers, slapping and punching him in the head and face, choking and body slamming him, and whipping him as punishment for “coloring outside of the lines on homework/schoolwork.”

Middlesboro Police also say the couple allegedly held the boy by his ankles and slammed his head on the ground several times.

Bell County Jail records show they are both being held on $100,000 bond.

• News Release – Middlesboro Police Department

Source: True Crime Daily

GEORGETOWN, Texas (TCN) — A 47-year-old man will spend the rest of his life behind bars for killing his father, a former judge, and his mother last year.

The Williamson County District Attorney’s Office announced March 31 that Seth Carnes pleaded guilty to capital murder in connection with the deaths of his father, 74-year-old retired District Court Judge Alfred Carnes, and his mother, Susan Carnes. He received a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

According to prosecutors, on the night of Jan. 8, 2024, Williamson County Sheriff’s Office deputies responded to a call made by the defendant’s 19-year-old daughter, who said her dad had shot her grandfather. Responding deputies found Alfred Carnes and his wife deceased with gunshot wounds. They recovered the weapon used to kill the victims.

The district attorney’s office said Seth Carnes lived in a converted garage next to his parents’ home and admitted to killing the victims at the scene. Authorities immediately took him into custody.

In an initial release, the Williamson County Sheriff’s Office said investigators believe the shooting “resulted from a disagreement, escalating into family violence and death.”

According to prosecutors, Alfred Carnes presided as a district judge in Williamson County from 1989 to 2013.

In a statement, District Attorney Shawn Dick said, “Judge Carnes and his wife Susan were beloved members of the community where they lived and served. The loss of their lives in this manner devastated not only their family but many within the community who loved and respected them. While nothing can undo the profound loss suffered by the family of Judge and Mrs. Carnes, this outcome brings a measure of justice and finality to a deeply tragic situation. We hope this resolution can offer some small degree of peace to the family members as they continue to heal.”

• Seth Carnes Pleads Guilty to Capital Murder in Death of Parents – Williamson County District Attorney’s Office
• Former Texas judge and his wife allegedly killed by son in their home, 1/10/2024 – TCN
• Media Release Shooting in Georgetown, TX, 1/9/2024 – Williams County Sheriff’s Office

Source: True Crime Daily

POTOMAC, Md. (TCN) — A 27-year-old man was taken into custody on suspicion of murder after he allegedly confessed to killing his grandmother over the weekend.

On Sunday, March 30, just after 8 a.m., Spencer Hamilton reportedly walked into the Montgomery County Police Department’s Rockville City station and said he killed one of his family members. Emergency responders went to a home on Tribunal Lane and found 87-year-old Pauline Titus-Dillon in a bathroom. Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service officials declared her deceased at the scene.

Detectives from the department’s Major Crimes Unit responded and identified Hamilton as the suspect in Titus-Dillon’s death. He was arrested at the police station and charged with first-degree murder.

According to WTTG-TV, Hamilton allegedly hid in his grandmother’s closet until about 4 a.m. when she came back to her room from the bathroom. He reportedly stabbed her in the face and back, then strangled and punched her several times. Afterward, he allegedly moved her body to the bathroom and tried to clean up the area. He allegedly left her house with her phone, credit card, and laptop.

WTTG reports Hamilton said at his court hearing Monday that he planned on representing himself even though the judge, defense attorney, and his family tried to advise him otherwise.

• Potomac Man Arrested for Grandmother’s Death – Montgomery County Police Department
• Maryland man turns himself in after brutally murdering his grandmother in her home, police say – WTTG

Source: True Crime Daily

LAKE CHARLES, La. (TCN) — A mother faces charges after allegedly leaving several children home alone in dirty conditions in the middle of the night and falling asleep at a friend’s house.

According to the Calcasieu Parish Sheriff’s Office, on March 28 at approximately 10 a.m., deputies performed a welfare check at an apartment on Winterhalter Street after receiving a report of four unsupervised children under 6 years old. Detectives arrived and noticed the home was “covered in feces with a bucket of urine inside.”

Authorities said the children were soiled, and the youngest victim had severe diaper rash.

The children’s mother, 25-year-old Daionjanee Young, returned to the residence around two hours into the investigation. She reportedly told detectives that she left at around 2 a.m. or 3 a.m. to pick up food while her kids were asleep. Young allegedly said the restaurant was closed, and she went to a friend’s house but fell asleep there.

Officials arrested Young and booked her into the Calcasieu Correctional Center on four counts of cruelty to juveniles and four counts of child desertion.

Sheriff Stitch Guillory said, “It is heartbreaking to see children living in these conditions. We appreciate the community members who alerted us to this situation. The children have been placed in state custody by the Department of Child and Family Services.”

• CPSO Arrests Woman for Child Desertion – Calcasieu Parish Sheriff’s Office
• Calcasieu Correctional Center

Source: True Crime Daily

This Week on True Crime News The Podcast: Meggan Sundwall allegedly spent years convincing her friend Kacee Terry that Kacee was terminally ill, then injected her with a lethal dose of insulin to “end her suffering.” Police say Kacee never had cancer, and that Meggan was motivated by a $1.5 million life insurance policy she thought she would receive after her friend’s death.

Alison Triessl joins host Ana Garcia.

YouTube: Nurse allegedly convinces friend she’s terminally ill and kills her for insurance payout

Source: True Crime Daily