Tag: Americas

BILLINGS, Mont. (TCD) — A 55-year-old woman stands accused of plowing into a religious group of 10 men who were demonstrating on a sidewalk over the weekend.

According to a news release from the Billings Police Department, on Saturday, Dec. 9, shortly after 12:30 p.m., officers received multiple calls reporting the alleged vehicular assault at the intersection of 6th Avenue North and North 27th. The suspect, Genevienne Rancuret, allegedly drove into the group repeatedly, causing damage to equipment and injuring a 45-year-old man.

The wounded victim, who sustained minor injuries, was part of a group called Israel United in Christ, The Associated Press reports.

According to the Anti-Defamation League, Israel United in Christ is a sect of the Black Hebrew Israelite movement, which believes Black people, Hispanics, and Native Americans are descended from the 12 Tribes of Israel and that Jews are not. Israel United in Christ is seen as promoting “extremist, racist, antisemitic, homophobic, and sexist elements” of the Black Hebrew Israelite movement.

Prior to the alleged assault, Rancuret reportedly told a convenience store employee she believed the group was racist against white people and implied she was going to strike them with her car, according to The Associated Press. Court documents obtained by the news source allege she said to police that the group called her a derogatory term, and she purposefully ran over them because she felt threatened.

Police said Rancuret fled the scene, but witnesses provided a suspect description. Officers later found Rancuret in the 700 block of Central Avenue at around 2:31 p.m. and took her into custody. She was booked into the Yellowstone County Detention Facility on eight counts of felony assault with a weapon, felony criminal mischief, and DUI.

According to The Associated Press, Rancuret pleaded not guilty on Wednesday, Dec. 13. She was ordered to remain held on $250,000 bond.

Police said the FBI is looking into the case, but it is still under review of the Yellowstone County Attorney’s Office.

Prior to the incident, Rancuret reportedly threatened someone with a bread knife in 2021 and pleaded guilty to felony assault with a weapon. A judge gave her a deferred sentence of seven years and placed her on probation.

MORE:

• Assault with a weapon/criminal mischief – Billings Police Department
• Woman who Montana police say drove repeatedly through religious group pleads not guilty – The Assoicated Press
• Woman arrested after driving her vehicle through a religious group on a sidewalk, Montana police say – The Associated Press
• Extremist Sects Within the Black Hebrew Israelite Movement – Anti-Defamation League

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MANHEIM TOWNSHIP, Pa. (TCD) — An 18-year-old was arrested on suspicion of murder this week for allegedly beating one of his parent’s roommates to death.

Court records show Brian Deante Gray was taken into custody Tuesday, Dec. 12, on a charge of criminal homicide in connection with the death of 68-year-old Michael Pfender.

According to the affidavit cited by Penn Live, in the early morning hours of Dec. 11, Manheim Township Police went to a home on the 1000 block of North Duke Street after someone called to report their son admitted to killing Pfender. The caller allegedly said Gray “snapped out” and beat Pfender.

Police reportedly did not mention in the affidavit which parent contacted police. He also allegedly spoke to another roommate about how Pfender was unresponsive.

Gray allegedly made “far-fetched” comments about trying to get rid of Pfender’s body.

One of the roommates reportedly told police Gray became upset with Pfender because Pfender allegedly made comments Gray found “disrespectful.” The roommate believed the two men made up.

Gray and one of the roommates reportedly started playing video games at around 3:15 a.m.. Forty-five minutes later, Gray allegedly said he “needed to go,” and didn’t log back on. Shortly after that, he told one of the roommates Pfender was not breathing.

WHTM-TV reports investigators noticed Pfender had blunt force trauma injuries to the head and face, as well as defensive wounds on his hand.

Court records indicated a judge denied Gray bail.

MORE:

• Commonwealth of Pennsylvania v. Brian Deante Gray
• Teen ‘snapped,’ beat 68-year-old man to death in central Pa. garage: court docs – Penn Live
• Lancaster man charged with killing family member’s roommate – WHTM

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LAKE COUNTY, Ill. (TCD) — A 37-year-old Chicago man allegedly fatally strangled a pregnant 39-year-old woman during an argument, left her body in his car for days, and then dumped her remains on the side of a road in Lake County last month.

According to the Lake County Sheriff’s Office, on Nov. 29 at around 7 a.m., deputies responded to the area of Hunt Club Road south of Route 173 in reference to possible human remains on the side of the road. Once there, deputies found a woman’s body and determined she had died of homicidal violence and was dumped there in the early morning hours.

The Lake County Coroner’s Office performed an autopsy and concluded the victim, Megan Lewis, was 16 weeks pregnant at the time of her death.

Detectives allege Juan Vega-Montoya killed Lewis. According to the sheriff’s office, investigators reviewed surveillance video and learned Vega-Montoya allegedly picked up Lewis on Nov. 26 near Cicero and West Belden avenues in Chicago. They reportedly began arguing in the car, and Vega-Montoya fatally strangled Lewis.

The sheriff’s office said investigators believe Vega-Montoya drove home after Lewis’ death and kept her body in his car for around two days. He allegedly dumped her body on the side of Hunt Club Road late on the night of Nov. 28.

According to the sheriff’s office, detectives performed a traffic stop on Vega-Montoya on Monday, Dec. 11, and took him into custody. They recovered further evidence inside Vega-Montoya’s car.

The Lake County State’s Attorney’s Office reviewed the case and approved a charge of concealing a homicidal death. Because Lewis’ strangling death occurred in Chicago, the sheriff’s office said they sent over the investigative information to the Chicago Police Department, but they anticipate murder charges will be filed.

Lake County Sheriff John Idleburg said in a statement, “It is simply unconscionable to kill someone then dump their body on the side of a roadway in a humiliating fashion.”

Vega-Montoya remains held in the Lake County Jail. 

MORE:

• Sheriff’s Detectives Identify and Arrest Homicide Suspect – Lake County Sheriff’s Office
• Lake County Jail Records

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TROUP COUNTY, Ga. (TCD) — A cold case has come to a close almost exactly 16 years after an unidentified woman was found dismembered inside a bag that was set on fire.

According to the Troup County Sheriff’s Office, on Dec. 6, 2007, deputies responded to Whitfield and Stitcher roads for a call about a “suspicious black bag that appeared to be burning.” Deputies got to the scene and found human remains along with the bag on fire. The person’s hands, feet, and head were cut off.

Investigators were only able to identity the victim as an adult Black female and concluded her death was an “obvious homicide.” The remains were sent to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) Crime Lab for assistance in identifying the woman. Detectives worked an “extensive investigation,” but the case eventually went cold from a lack of leads.

Investigators reopened the case this year and sent the woman’s DNA to Innovative Forensic Investigations and Gene by Gene Laboratories for genetic genealogy and analysis. Detectives then sent the new results to the GBI. On Dec. 13, the bureau confirmed they were able to match DNA from the testing to the victim’s remains.

The sheriff’s office identified the victim as 24-year-old Nicole Alston. She lived in New York City but moved to Atlanta in July 2006. Her family had not heard from her since the relocation.

Alston’s death will continue to be investigated as a homicide.

MORE:

• 2007 Cold Case Homicide Victim Identified – Troup County Sheriff’s Office

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MARION COUNTY, Fla. (TCD) — A jury recently convicted a 36-year-old man of killing his girlfriend with a baseball bat outside a hotel three years ago.

On Wednesday, Dec. 13, the Florida State Attorney’s Office for the Fifth Judicial Circuit announced that a jury found Chad Anciaux guilty of a “vicious attack” that killed his then-girlfriend, Jennifer Powell, in November 2020. According to court records obtained by WKMG-TV, a judge sentenced Anciaux to life in prison after he was convicted of first-degree murder and resisting an officer with violence.

On Nov. 6, 2020, Marion County Sheriff’s Office deputies responded to the Stage Stop Inn off Silver Springs Boulevard after a caller reported a man beating a woman with a baseball bat. At the scene, deputies found Powell “lying on the sidewalk with a large amount of blood near her head.”

Witnesses told investigators “Anciaux had chased the victim out of the hotel room,” and then he “struck her repeatedly with a metal baseball bat.” The state attorney’s office said officials reviewed surveillance from the hotel that verified the witnesses’ accounts.

After chasing Powell out of the hotel room, the state attorney’s office said Anciaux “brutally struck her nearly 20 times with a baseball bat.”

Powerll was transported to a hospital, where she died from her injuries on Nov. 16, 2020.

Anciaux was initially booked into the Marion County Jail on Nov. 7.

Prior to the attack, Anciaux pleaded guilty to a charge of failure to register as a sexual offender and was sentenced to prison, the state attorney’s office said.

Fifth Judicial Circuit State Attorney William Gladson said Anciaux will spend the rest of his life behind bars, and it’s “an appropriate sentence that reflects the severity of this heinous crime.”

MORE:

• Jurors Deliver Guilty Verdict in Fatal Battery Case – Florida State Attorney’s Office for the Fifth Judicial Circuit
• Marion County Jail Records
• ‘Heinous crime:’ Marion man gets life sentence after beating girlfriend to death with bat – WKMG

TRUE CRIME DAILY: THE PODCAST covers high-profile and under-the-radar cases every week. Subscribe to our YouTube page and don’t forget to follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. You can also subscribe to our True Crime Daily newsletter.

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LAS VEGAS (TCD) — A woman pleaded guilty to abuse-related charges last week after two children were found locked inside a dog crate and other kids had been abused. 

KLAS-TV reports Amanda Stamper entered the plea for three counts of child abuse, neglect, or endangerment. Court records show she was initially indicted on seven counts of the child abuse charges. Stamper’s husband, Travis Doss, will head to trial for 40 charges, including 38 counts of child abuse. He is also being charged with sex trafficking and living from the earnings of a prostitute.

According to KLAS, on June 11, Stamper called 911 from a store near her apartment said her husband “threatened to kill her” and that he “already beat up the kids.” She said Doss was “super violent to all of them.”

Stamper and Doss have one child together, but he has six other children. Doss reportedly did not abuse their 2-year-old. She said Doss beat the children with extension cords, skillets, and other objects.

Las Vegas Metro Police went to Doss and Stamper’s apartment on South Valley View Boulevard for a welfare check and knocked on the door, but no one answered, KVVU-TV reports. The building manager let the officers into the apartment, where they found two children inside the dog crate that had been shut with a padlock. A maintenance worker brought bolt cutters to help cut through the lock and rescue the two kids.

One of the victims got out, but the other could not walk on his own. The second child, who police said looked emaciated, reportedly was covered in bruises and his eyes were swollen shut.

The child reportedly told police Doss locked hm in the crate because he stole food at night. Medics transported the child to a hospital for treatment. Medical tests indicated he was in critical condition to due being “extremely malnourished.” He also had swollen kidneys and required surgery. The doctor said the child would have died had he not been taken to the hospital.

KLAS reports a doctor said he hadn’t “seen a child this severely beaten since his military tour in Afghanistan where he observed children who had been dipped in hot oil.”

Doss reportedly believed one of the children in the crate was dead because he “kicked him in the head too hard.”

Police noted in their report the skillet used to hit the children “has dents in it from the children’s heads.”

Additionally, Stamper told police Doss “is her pimp and he makes her prostitute for money.”

Stamper is pregnant and faces several years in prison.

MORE:

• Wife pleads guilty after children found locked in cage in Las Vegas – KLAS
• Las Vegas couple arrested after children allegedly found locked in dog cages, 6/14/2023 – KVVU
• Las Vegas couple thought child locked in cage was dead, 5 others severely beaten: police, 6/13/2023 – KLAS
• ‘He’s super violent,’ mom says in 911 call before Las Vegas police find kids in cage – KLAS
• State of Nevada vs Amanda Stamper
• State of Nevada vs Travis Doss 

TRUE CRIME DAILY: THE PODCAST covers high-profile and under-the-radar cases every week. Subscribe to our YouTube page and don’t forget to follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. You can also subscribe to our True Crime Daily newsletter.

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GOULD, Ark. (TCD) — A cold case has recently come to a close after a 48-year-old inmate pleaded guilty this week to killing a 19-year-old woman more than three decades ago.

According to the Arkansas State Police, Rick Headley pleaded guilty on Monday, Dec. 11, to the first-degree murder of Sabrina Underwood. A judge sentenced him to 40 years in prison in the Arkansas Department of Corrections.

Headley was charged last month after he confessed to killing Underwood. He was already serving life in prison without the possibility of parole in connection with the 2018 stabbing death of his estranged wife, Kristie Headley.

According to state police, in January 1991, Underwood’s mother informed officials that she dropped her daughter off near Bear Creek in Boone County. Underwood was planning to hitchhike to the North Central Unit prison to visit an inmate but was later reported missing to the Madison County Sheriff’s Office.

Months later, in April 1991, a hunter reportedly discovered some of Underwood’s belongings near the Gum Springs Cemetery in Fulton County. During a search, deputies from the area found human remains and called in state police to assist. The Arkansas Medical Examiner positively identified the remains as Underwood’s.

According to state police, in July 2022, Headley told a fellow Varner inmate that he had killed Underwood. Headley was subsequently interviewed and provided details regarding Underwood’s death.

In an affidavit obtained by KATV-TV, investigators said Headley told officials Underwood attempted to extort him for money, but he couldn’t “let her ruin his life.” Headley reportedly said that he fatally stabbed Underwood, hid her body, disposed of the knife he used, and drove to his home in Mountain Home.

According to KATV, Headley told investigators he threw away his clothes, showered, and then tossed the clothes in a dumpster near a mall.

Investigators reportedly spoke with a witness in August 2022, who informed officials that Headley confessed to killing Underwood and wanted to get it “off his chest.”

Arkansas State Police Colonel Mike Hager said in a statement, “We will never give up on finding justice for families like the Underwood’s, who still suffer the pain of Sabrina’s absence.”

MORE:

• Murder suspect in the Sabrina Underwood investigation pleads guilty and is sentenced to 40 years – Arkansas State Police
• Arkansas man in prison for fatally stabbing his wife is now accused of killing teen in 1991, 10/23/2023 – TCD
• ASP closes 32-year-old cold case, charging suspect in 1991 death of Huntsville woman, 10/20/2023 – Arkansas State Police
• Cold case solved: Inmate charged with 1991 murder of Sabrina Underwood, 10/20/2023 – KATV

TRUE CRIME DAILY: THE PODCAST covers high-profile and under-the-radar cases every week. Subscribe to our YouTube page and don’t forget to follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. You can also subscribe to our True Crime Daily newsletter.

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PLANO, Texas (TCD) — A 33-year-old man will spend the rest of his life behind bars for killing his 25-year-old ex-girlfriend and her unborn child on Easter weekend in 2017, leaving her 8-year-old son to find her dead.

According to a news release from the Tarrant County District Attorney’s Office, on Monday, Dec. 11, a jury convicted Keith Haynes of capital murder in connection with the 2017 shooting death of Kenishia Walker, who was pregnant with his child at the time. He was automatically sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

On April 14, 2017, Haynes fatally shot Walker in her bed, and her 8-year-old son later found the body, the district attorney’s office said. Authorities arrested Haynes in his apartment days after the shooting.

At the time, Haynes worked for the Dallas County Sheriff’s Department as a detention officer in the courtesy patrol division, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports.

According to the district attorney’s office, “Walker had been afraid Haynes would kill her.”

Walker reportedly sent text conversations she had with Haynes to a friend and said, “If I ever come up dead please show the police this and other screenshots.”

Tarrant County Assistant District Attorney Allenna Bangs called Haynes “such a coward,” adding, “Kenishia is important. The unborn baby’s life was important. And they both mattered.”

In a statement to the jury, Tarrant County Assistant District Attorney Sarah Sherman said, “This case is not a mystery. All the evidence has pointed to one person.”

MORE:

• Plano man sentenced to life in prison for fatally shooting pregnant ex-girlfriend – Tarrant County District Attorney’s Office
• ‘He was such a coward.’ North Texas man found guilty of murdering pregnant ex-girlfriend – Fort Worth Star-Telegram

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VERNON HILLS, Ill. (TCD) — A 17-year-old old was found dead several days after she went missing and one day after her car was discovered inside a retention pond.

Brissa Romero was last seen Monday, Dec. 4, and was believed to be near the Bowlero bowling alley in Vernon Hills. She was reportedly on her way to a holiday party when she disappeared.

The Vernon Hills and Carpentersville police departments held a joint press conference Monday, Dec. 11, and said the two offices are working closely together in the investigation.

According to Vernon Hills Police Chief Patrick Kreis, investigators obtained Romero’s cellphone data and used that information to track her last known movements, which eventually led them to a retention pond near Executive Way and Lakeview Parkway in Vernon Hills.

An officer arrived at pond and spoke with a resident in the area who pointed out a backpack floating near the shore. The officer took possession of the backpack and determined it belonged to Romero.

Officials started a “more intense investigation” after the discovery and put their focus on the pond, Kreis said. During the search, officials located Romero’s Nissan Rogue. Romero, however, was not in the vehicle.

Kreis said evidence at the scene and the condition of the car point to the conclusion that she was most likely in the vehicle when it went into the pond.

He said, “We have not recovered Brissa, but we will continue every effort to do that.”

According to Kreis, detectives believe Romero was alone because surveillance footage from a nearby fast-food restaurant showed her parking, walking inside, walking out, and driving away. No one else was with her. The stop at the fast-food restaurant occurred about 15 minutes before her last cellphone ping.

On Tuesday, Dec. 12, the Vernon Hills and Carpentersville police departments announced investigators recovered a body amid the search and said the “female recovered from the pond matches Brissa’s description.”

Police do not suspect foul play was involved in her death.

MORE:

• News Release – Carpentersville Police Department
• Carpentersville police with update on search for missing teen – CBS Chicago

TRUE CRIME DAILY: THE PODCAST covers high-profile and under-the-radar cases every week. Subscribe to our YouTube page and don’t forget to follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. You can also subscribe to our True Crime Daily newsletter.

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