News of Doom 2.0

CINCINNATI -- A grand jury indicted a former employee of a Cincinnati coroner’s office with the abuse of a corpse more than two decades ago, WLWT-TV in Cincinnati reported.

Prosecutors said Kenneth Douglas, 55, of Westwood, Ohio, sexually assaulted the body of 19-year-old Karen Range, who was murdered during an attempted rape Aug. 19, 1982, at her home.

She had been severely beaten and had her throat slashed with a paring knife.

David Steffen was sentenced to death in 1983 for her murder, but his attorneys had argued at trial that he did not rape her.

Investigators said they were unable to eliminate Steffen as a rape suspect by using a blood test on semen found on Range’s body, and DNA testing had not been developed at the time of Steffen’s trial.

A DNA test was performed last year, and Douglas was identified as a suspect after he was convicted March 17 of drug trafficking and ordered to provide a DNA sample.

Investigators discovered that Douglas had worked as a morgue attendant when Range’s body had been at the lab for testing, and prosecutors said he removed her body from a refrigeration unit and sexually assaulted it.

Steffen admitted to killing Range and was indicted on two charges related to her slaying, but his attorneys have argued during appeals that his death sentence should be overturned because he had not raped her.

PITTSBURGH — A woman suspected of cutting open a pregnant woman's uterus and stealing the baby has been charged with homicide, unlawful restraint and kidnapping, police said Sunday.

Andrea Curry-Demus, 38, of Wilkinsburg, is charged in the death of Kia Johnson, 18, of McKeesport. Curry-Demus is accused of taking the baby boy to a Pittsburgh hospital and claiming it was her own.

Johnson's body was found Friday in Curry-Demus's apartment. The body was positively identified through dental records, Allegheny County Medical Examiner Karl Williams said Sunday.

Police said Sunday that the two likely met during visitation at the Allegheny County Jail. Police believe they were there at the same time to visit different inmates.

Curry-Demus showed up at the hospital Thursday with a newborn that still had the umbilical cord attached, police said. Tests later proved that she was not the mother.

Police said Curry-Demus then said she bought the baby for $1,000 from the baby's mother.

In 1990, Curry-Demus, then known as Andrea Curry, was accused of stabbing a woman in an alleged plot to steal the woman's infant. A day after that stabbing, Curry-Demus snatched a 3-week-old baby girl from a hospital. The baby was found unharmed with Curry-Demus at her home the next day.

Curry-Demus pleaded guilty in 1991 to various charges from both incidents and got three to 10 years in prison, according to court records. She was paroled in August 1998.

Mazawey said he was merely seeking the scientific data to bolster a February finding by forensic psychiatrist Diana Riccoli that Zarate's diminished mental capacity may be the result of several years of continued use of marijuana laced with PCP and alcohol. The abuse could have contributed to a "state of de-realization" that would have permitted Zarate to detach himself mentally from his actions and precluded him from giving informed consent before talking to authorities.

A Louisville man charged in the deaths of his stepmother and half-sister allegedly told police that he had sexual intercourse with his stepmother’s body.

Laura Hughes, 39, and her 12-year-old daughter, Tessa, were found dead in their Zilma Avenue home Saturday morning.

Martin Hughes, 20, was quiet during his arraignment on Monday morning. He had three red marks on his neck. He told the judge he needed a public defender, but said little else about the two slayings with which he is charged.

According to the arrest report filed by Metro Police, Hughes said he was having family problems, and allegedly shot his half-sister first, then turned the gun on his stepmother.

The arrest report stated Hughes admitted to having sex with his stepmother's corpse.

MARKHAM, Illinois (AP) -- A suburban Chicago man is accused of setting an apartment fire -- killing his pregnant daughter, her husband and their young child -- because the son-in-law didn't ask permission for the marriage, prosecutors said.

It took firefighters three hours to extinguish the blaze, which gutted the 36-unit Le Claire Station Apartments.

Subhash Chander, 57, of Oak Forest, Illinois, was ordered held without bond Tuesday on three counts of first-degree murder, one count of intentional homicide of an unborn child and one count of aggravated arson.

Prosecutors allege Chander used gasoline to start the fire late Saturday. The India native told police he disliked his son-in-law because he belonged to a lower caste and had married his daughter without his consent, said Cook County First Assistant State's Attorney Robert Milan.

Milan identified the victims as 22-year-old Monika Rani, her 36-year-old husband, Rajesh Kumar, and their 3-year-old son, Vansh. Rani was five months pregnant, Milan said.

Chander told police the gasoline spilled during "a pushing match" with his son-in-law, Milan said. Chander also told police that he ignited the gas with a lighter because he was angry, Milan said.

But prosecutors said the victims may have been asleep. All other residents of the apartment building were able to escape, Milan said.

A Denver man accused in the brutal sexual assault of a 61-year old woman, who later died, was advised of the charges against him Monday.

Willie Trimble, 45, has been charged with sexual assault and felony murder.

Investigators said DNA tests link Trimble to the crime.

The victim, Judith Pyle, was working as an usher at the Pepsi Center and had ridden a bus home from work on Dec. 8.

She was assaulted in an alley near 35th Avenue and Clayton Street in northeast Denver.

"The attack left her traumatized," said the victim's friend, Mark Rands. "She was on the ground in the snow for 2 hours, in 3 degree weather."

"This is a horrible, unspeakable act no matter who it happened to," said the victim's son, Ronald Pyle. "That it happened to my mother just makes it worse."

Ronald was home cooking dinner on the night of the attack. When his mom failed to show, he assumed that she was staying at a friends house because of the snow storm.

"While I was sitting there waiting and cooking her food and wondering, she was just a block and a half away in the alley screaming for help."

A neighbor finally heard her cries and called police.

Pyle was taken to a hospital, but died from exposure.

A man killed two women and left their bodies in the basement of a house, then beat and raped the daughter of one of the victims in the same home, authorities and a relative of the victims said.

Fabian Hands, 46, was booked on two counts of homicide and two counts of use of a weapon to commit a felony.

Officers were called to the house in north Omaha Monday night. When they arrived, a 20-year-old woman came out of a bedroom and said she had been sexually assaulted. Hands followed her out of the bedroom and assaulted her in front of officers, according to a police report. Officers subdued him and took him into custody.

Police found the bodies of the woman's 36-year-old mother and 48-year-old aunt in the basement during a search of the house, authorities said. Paramedics pronounced the women dead at the scene.

WOODBURY, N.J. -- A woman charged with slashing her 6-year-old son's throat Saturday is being held on $500,000 bond.

Martina Harding, 42, also wounded herself after the attack, which claimed the life of her son, according to police and prosecutors. She remained hospitalized under police guard, with a self-inflicted neck wound.

Harding's 9-year-old daughter called 911 about 7:30 a.m., reporting that her brother had been injured. Police said she made the call at the direction of her father, Christian Harding. Neither was injured.

Prosecutor Thomas Sullivan said Christian Harding told detectives he had witnessed at least part of the attack, but was "too distraught" to continue talking.

Police searched the house late Saturday afternoon and took a 13-inch kitchen knife they said they believe is the weapon used in the killing.

Police said they had no motive for the attack. But they did confirm that both Hardings recently lost their jobs.

Milwaukee, WI (LifeNews.com) -- A Wisconsin pastor has been murder because she refused to fund her step-grandson's request for his girlfriend to have an abortion. After the woman, identified as 75-year-old Anne Gordon, said she wouldn't give him the money, 30-year-old Eric Henry allegedly took her life.

According to police, Henry killed Gordon by using duct-tape to seal a plastic bag over her head and binding her hands and feet with the tape so she would be unable to remove it.

Police say Gordon asked God to forgive Henry for what he was doing as he allegedly bound and killed her.

Authorities say Henry asked Gordon for $300 to pay for his girlfriend's abortion and she refused him the money.

According to WTMJ-AM, a criminal report indicates Henry told police another unidentified man forced him to kill Gordon, but officials say they doubt that story and have no evidence that Henry did anything other than act alone in the murder.

Henry told police that he told Gordon the money would be used for a paternity test, not an abortion, but she would not give him the money. Instead, Gordon asked Henry to pray with her about the situation.

Afterwards, Henry left Gordon's home and later returned to her apartment with another man with the intention of robbing Gordon. As he stayed by the front door, the man went upstairs to steal money from Gordon but came away empty-handed.

LAKE WALES, Fla. -- A woman who was set on fire during a robbery of a Polk County insurance office last week died on Tuesday night, according to authorities.

Yvonne Bustamante, 26, died at about 10 p.m. after suffering burns over 80 percent of her body.

Luciano's baby, who was delivered by Caesarian section after the incident, died Thursday night at an Orlando hospital. The baby, who was born more than three months premature, weighed 1 pound, 2 ounces.

Leon Davis Jr., 30, was charged in the incident and officials said they believe Davis killed two employees of a BP gas station in another Polk County city on Dec. 7.

A 22-year-old mother was charged with capital murder Tuesday after she admitted to police that she killed her 4-year-old daughter because the child wouldn't stop crying, police said.

Tamika Cantu was arrested after police said they found Makala Cantu dead on the couch in an apartment.

Nobody else was at home when the child died, police said.

Two traveling salesmen robbed an elderly Albuquerque couple before beating and suffocating the wife and stomping on the husband's head, according to criminal complaints.

Michael Lee, 21, who was born in Boston, and Travis Rowley, 23, a native of Glendora, Calif., have been charged with two open counts of murder and tampering with evidence in the killings.

Korean immigrants Tak Yi, 79, and his 69-year-old wife, Pung Yi, were killed in their home Tuesday.

Lee and Rowley worked for IntegrityPGM, a Las Vegas, Nev.-based company that contracts young people to sell magazine and book subscriptions nationwide.

According to the criminal complaints, Rowley and Lee were dropped off in the Yis' neighborhood to sell the subscriptions when they saw Tak Yi working in his backyard. Rowley told police that Lee said he was going to "steal an item from the home."

Lee allegedly punched an elderly woman who fell to the floor, and Rowley reportedly dragged her into the home. Then Tak Yi entered the home and tried to call police, Rowley told police.

After punching the man twice, Rowley said Lee suffocated the woman and then walked over to the man and stomped his foot on his head, the complaint said. Rowley said he believed the "blow was fatal."

First, he burned his 3-year-old daughter's feet, and when the child whimpered from the untended wounds, he beat her to death with his cane, authorities said Friday.

Jason Marcelle lowered his head and said nothing as he limped out of Brooklyn's 79th Precinct stationhouse on the way to be arraigned on murder charges.

His bloody cane was held as evidence in the killing of little Tkai Marcelle in their Bedford-Stuyvesant apartment.

Marcelle beat Tkai in front of his three other children - ages 4, 3, and 2 months - in their Marcus Garvey Blvd. apartment, law enforcement sources said.

The teen described her attacker as a black man in his 20s who stands about 5 foot 10 inches tall with a muscular build. He has shoulder-length dreads and has gold teeth on top and one gold tooth on the bottom. He also has scars on his lower back.

If you see the man or have information about the case, call Crime Stoppers at (704) 334-1600.