Category: Metro

DECATUR, Ala. (TCD) — A 36-year-old woman is in custody after police reportedly found a newborn baby dead inside a dumpster this week.

According to a news release from the Decatur Police Department, on Monday, Oct. 16, officers were called to perform a welfare check on Cindy Crow, who was believed to have given birth recently. Police said they gathered evidence to confirm she had been pregnant as early as February, but her “newborn baby was unaccounted for.”

Investigators searched a dumpster outside Wally World Mini Mart on Point Mallard Drive SE and reportedly found a trash bag with a dead baby girl inside. Police said the trash bag had been stuffed to the bottom of the dumpster under other large trash bags.

The Alabama Department of Forensic Science will perform an autopsy on the newborn’s body.

On Wednesday, Oct. 18, police obtained a warrant for Crow’s arrest and apprehended her on a charge of abuse of a corpse. She was booked into the Morgan County Jail and remains held on $200,000 bond.

The investigation is ongoing, and further charges are possible pending more evidence and autopsy results.

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RESTON, Va. (TCD) — Police arrested a 23-year-old family au pair this week in connection with a double homicide following a months-long investigation.

According to a news release from the Fairfax County Police Department, on Feb. 24, at approximately 8 a.m., a family au pair called 911 and reported that her “friend was hurt.” Police said a man then got on the phone and claimed he shot an individual who entered the home and stabbed his wife.

Officers responded to the residence in the 13200 block of Stable Brook Way and found 37-year-old Christine Banfield in an upstairs bedroom suffering from stab wounds to her upper body. Banfield was transported to a local hospital, where she was pronounced deceased.

According to police, officers also found 39-year-old Joseph Ryan suffering from an apparent gunshot wound to his upper body, and he was pronounced dead at the scene.

Police called it an “appalling scene.”

According to Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis, there was a 4-year-old girl in the home at the time. She was unharmed.

Davis also said investigators do not believe it was a home invasion and that all four adults in the home knew each other.

In an update posted Oct. 19, police said they determined that the au pair, Juliana Peres, shot Ryan. She has been charged with second-degree murder and was booked into the Adult Detention Center without bond.

Police said the investigation is ongoing, and they’re looking into what led up to the fatal stabbing of Banfield.

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HAMILTON COUNTY, Ind. (TCD) — A man who went missing in 1993 was positively identified this week and named as the likely victim of a suspected serial killer who died in 1996.

WTHR-TV reports Hamilton County Coroner Jeff Jellison announced Allen Livingston’s remains were identified thanks to a DNA sample a relative provided to investigators near the end of 2022.

Livingston, 27, was reported missing in 1993. His bones were among the thousands of remains found at Fox Hollow Farm, which was once owned by suspected killer Herb Baumeister.

Jellison told WTHR, “We identified a man that was reported missing 30 years ago whose remains were part of 10,000 remains that were burnt and crushed, and we identified that person.”

Baumeister reportedly targeted gay men in Indianapolis during the 1980s and ’90s.

According to the Indianapolis Star, Livingston’s mother, Sharon Livingston, has terminal cancer, so Livingston’s cousin helped send the mother’s DNA to authorities. The cousin, Eric Pranger, told the Indianapolis Star he was “happy and sad at the same time” after learning Livingston was positively identified.

He said, “Happy because Sharon got some closure, and I’m sad because we got confirmation that it’s Allen. We were all just hoping that Allen was out there alive somewhere, but he’s not.”

Livingston’s relatives sent in the DNA after Jellison called on relatives who believed their loved ones could have been among Baumeister’s victims. The Indianapolis Star reports there were remains from at least 25 people found in 1996 at Fox Hollow Farm, but officials had only been able to identify eight of them until now.

Not all of the victims had been buried at Fox Hollow Farm. Other men, who were only partially clothed, were reportedly found in shallow water in Central Indiana and Ohio around the same time Baumeister was believed to have been targeting his victims.

The Associated Press reports Livingston’s remains were the first bones out of 44 sent to the Indiana State Police Laboratory. Thirty other families have sent in samples in the hope their loved ones will be identified.

Jellison said, “What are the odds, out of 10,000 remains? Out of 10,000, we selected 44 and the first identification is a person from the family that initiated this whole thing. Where does that come from?”

According to WXIN-TV, Baumeister’s son discovered a skull on June 24, 1996, while walking on the large property. He reportedly showed it to his mother, but she said Baumeister just kept it as part of his medical business. Days later, Hamilton County firefighters located additional remains at the farm.

Baumeister and his wife were reportedly in the middle of divorcing when their son found the skull. On June 25, 1996, a judge approved a protective order Baumeister’s wife filed on behalf of her and her three kids, WXIN reports.

Then, a few days later, Baumeister fled to Canada and killed himself.

WTHR reports Jellison said Livingston’s identification is “no more or no less important than number two, number three, number 10. We’ve got to continue to put our nose back to that grindstone, get back to work.”

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JACKSON COUNTY, Ind. (TCD) — A recent burglary investigation led to the arrest of a 29-year-old woman for allegedly helping her mother poison and kill the mother’s husband in 2022.

According to a news release from Jackson County Sheriff Rick Meyer, on Sept. 19, Marsha Allen reported a burglary at her home on North State Road 135. Upon further investigation, the Sheriff’s Office identified two men, Steven White and Nathaniel Kane Napier, as the primary suspects.

It was determined that Allen’s daughter, Ashley Jones, helped the men burglarize the home.

According to an affidavit obtained by WXIN-TV, the suspects stole firearms and jewelry.

During an interview with White, he reportedly said Allen had “murdered her husband by poisoning him somehow.”

Meyer said investigators searched Allen’s cellphone and uncovered text messages between her and her daughter in which they “discussed murdering Marsha’s husband, Harold Allen, by poisoning” him in December 2022.

According to Meyer, officers confiscated additional electronic devices from Allen’s home to find further evidence. Authorities also interviewed and released Allen as they continued their investigation.

On Monday, Oct. 16, at approximately 7:52 p.m., Marsha Allen’s family contacted the Sheriff’s Department because they were unable to contact her. Officers responded to Allen’s home and found her dead with “no signs of violence.”

Officers interviewed Jones the next day, and she “confessed to ordering ethylene glycol off the Internet,” but she claimed her mother was “the person who had placed the ethylene glycol in Harold’s drink.”

On Wednesday, Oct. 18, the Sheriff’s Office arrested Jones on charges of murder, conspiracy to commit murder, attempted murder, and burglary. She remains held in the Jackson County Jail.

White and Napier were charged with burglary of a dwelling, conspiracy to commit burglary of a dwelling, and theft.

The investigation is ongoing.

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ORLANDO, Fla. (TCD) — A jury convicted a 55-year-old man this week of killing his wife in 2018 because they got into an argument about appearing on a home renovation television show.

The State Attorney’s Office for the Ninth Judicial Circuit announced Wednesday, Oct. 18, that David Tronnes was convicted of first-degree murder for killing his wife, Shanti Cooper-Tronnes, five years ago.

Tronnes beat his wife to death April 24, 2018, at their home in Delaney Park because of “a dispute concerning home renovations.” According to the statement, Tronnes “spent thousands of dollars on renovations and had hopes of appearing on the reality television show ‘Zombie House Renovations.’”

Cooper-Tronnes, however, did not want to appear on the show, which led to issues in their relationship.

They slept in different rooms during the renovation process. The State Attorney’s Office says Tronnes alleged he found Cooper-Tronnes dead in the bathtub after he was out cleaning and walking their dogs. Evidence, however, proved otherwise. Investigators said Cooper-Tronnes was beaten to death in her bedroom, then moved after Tronnes tried to clean the scene.

The medical examiner said at the trial Cooper-Tronnes sustained bruises on her eyes as well as other facial injuries.

When speaking with detectives, Tronnes “showed little remorse during his interrogation and never shed a tear over his wife’s death.”

Orlando Police officers arrested Tronnes on Aug. 30, 2018.

Tronnes’ trial lasted six days and the jury deliberated for about five hours before reaching their verdict.

According to WESH-TV, prosecutors said during the trial Tronnes cracked his wife’s skull, then strangled her to death. WESH reports Cooper-Tronnes’ family did not want prosecutors to seek the death penalty against Tronnes.

Tronnes was sentenced to life in prison.

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MODESTO, Calif. (TCD) — Police arrested a 34-year-old woman after she allegedly killed her 4-year-old daughter and attempted to do the same to her 10-year-old son.

On Sunday, Oct. 15, the Modesto Police Department received a report of a potential assault and responded to the Crown Ridge Apartments in the 3900 block of Scenic Drive. Upon their arrival, officers found the deceased girl and another child who was unharmed.

Police determined the mother, Mina Nazari, allegedly stabbed her daughter to death and tried to kill her son.

According to KOVR-TV, the girl’s father initially called 911. A family friend reportedly identified the girl as Fatima Sana Akram and said that Nazari suffers from mental illness.

On Oct. 17, the Stanislaus County District Attorney announced his office was charging Nazari in connection with the killing. According to a criminal complaint, Nazari faces charges of murder, child abuse causing death, attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon, and permit child to suffer under circumstances likely to cause great bodily injury or death.

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MITCHELL COUNTY, Iowa (TCD) — A 24-year-old man will spend the next several decades in prison for killing a missing 29-year-old woman, decapitating her, and leaving her head on a stick in a park.

Court records show Nathan Gilmore was sentenced Oct. 16 to 50 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder for the death of Angela Bradbury. He was initially charged in August 2022 with first-degree murder.

Bradbury’s family reported her missing to the Cerro Gordo County Sheriff’s Office on Feb. 1, 2022, and said she had not been seen since April 6, 2021. A body was found in July 2021 at the Greenbelt Trail, and in March 2022, the Cerro Gordo County Sheriff’s Office announced the remains were positively identified as Bradbury’s.

The Iowa Department of Public Safety said in a statement last year that Mitchell County Sheriff’s Office deputies and officials from the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation executed several search warrants in Osage and St. Ansgar on Aug. 19, 2022, as part of their investigation into Bradbury’s disappearance. Investigators arrested Gilmore three days later on Aug. 22, 2022.

According to the criminal complaint, in the early evening of July 12, 2021, a teenager was reportedly walking on the Greenbelt Trail when she noticed “what appeared to be a human skull, which had been placed on a stick.” The teen called her mother, who then contacted the Mitchell County Sheriff’s Office. A deputy arrived at the scene and “took custody of the skull.”

DNA testing showed the skull was that of a female.

Bradbury’s family submitted DNA samples to law enforcement after reporting her missing. The Iowa Office of the State Medical Examiner positively identified Bradley on Feb. 4, 2022. Investigators discovered some of her other remains in the same park two months later. The medical examiner determined Bradbury died by homicide.

The criminal complaint says Bradbury was arrested late at night on April 5, 2021, for trespassing at a car dealership. She was released at noon the next day. She was reportedly last seen leaving a friend’s house at approximately 5 p.m. April 6 and getting into Gilmore’s car.

Detectives spoke with Gilmore on Aug. 19, 2022, and he “provided an accurate description of the skull.”

He reportedly said he knew the details because of what he read in news articles and what people in town were saying, but he said he did not know anything else about the human remains or who they belonged to.

Then, during the interview, Gilmore walked back his previous remarks and confessed to picking up Bradbury, then changed his story a third time. GPS data showed Gilmore was in the Greenbelt Trail area the night of April 6, 2021.

According to the complaint, investigators discovered a drawing that “depicted a satanic goat’s head in the shape of a pentagram with what appears to be blood spatters drawn on it.” Then, next to the drawing, Gilmore had written “04-06,” “0590,” and “43.3, -92.8.”

The complaint says 04-06 refers to the date Gilmore was last seen alive, 590 is an acronym from Urban Dictionary that means “someone is tired of living,” and the last numbers are coordinates for Greenbelt River Trail Park.

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