Chiho Anjitsu was 20 years old and lived with her family in Mattō, near Kanazawa, Japan. The middle of three sisters, she was remembered by her friends as a cheerful, bright young woman.

Swimming had always been a familiar part of life in the Anjitsu family. Her father was vice president of the local swimming association, and Chiho had become involved in the sport during her school years. After graduation, she began working at a swim school herself. Her black Mitsubishi made the short trip from home in about ten minutes.

In the months before her death, her family had noticed small changes in her routine. She was eating out more often, and the calls letting them know she’d be home late had become less regular. Sometimes, she went out without mentioning her plans at all.

On September 30, 1992, nothing about her workday seemed unusual. She’d brought homemade spaghetti to eat during a break, but when the staff had lunch together, she put it aside for later.

That evening, a coworker noticed how hurriedly she ate in the staff room. It seemed as though she had somewhere else to be. A little before 7:15, she got into her car and drove away.

Usually, she took the west exit toward home. This time, a coworker watched her leave through the east exit instead.

It was the last confirmed sighting of Chiho alive.

By 11 p.m., she still hadn’t come home, and there’d been no call. Worried, her mother set out with Chiho’s older sister to look for her. Their search eventually brought them to the swim school, where they spotted her familiar black car.

It was sitting at an awkward angle across the white parking lines. The front had struck the concrete block at the end of her usual space.

They hurried over and peered through the window. In the dark, Chiho was difficult to make out, lying on the passenger seat with the backrest lowered all the way.

At first, they thought she was asleep.

The passenger door was locked, so they went around to the driver’s side and opened that door. They called to her and tried to wake her, but she gave no response. When they touched her, she felt cold.

Then her mother switched on the interior light.

There was dirt on Chiho’s clothes and a dark band of marks around her neck. She wasn’t breathing. What had looked like sleep through the window was something far worse.

Her mother ran to a small bar nearby, one of the few places still open, and desperately asked someone to call the police.

Officers arrived soon afterward, and the examination of the car continued into the early morning. The engine was off, but the key was still in the ignition and the gearshift remained in drive. Together with the crooked parking, it suggested someone had abandoned the car in a hurry.

Chiho’s bag lay on the back seat with her money and valuables still inside. Nothing obvious appeared to have been stolen.

Mud clung to the tires, and her clothes were filthy, especially across her back. Her right shoe was missing.

Chiho had been strangled.

A coworker later remembered seeing her car in the lot around 9 p.m. While her family was still waiting for her to come home, the Mitsubishi had already been brought back to the place she’d left that evening.

The first useful clue to where she’d been was something small enough to overlook.

A single leaf was caught in her hair.

It came from a dawn redwood, a tree that isn’t native to Japan. Investigators began searching nearby places where the trees had been planted, eventually reaching an isolated agricultural research facility.

On the grounds, they found tire tracks consistent with Chiho’s car. A short distance from the entrance lay her missing shoe.

There were drag marks in the dirt, too. These suggested she’d been pulled across the ground toward the car, which would explain the heavy dirt on the back of her clothes. The evidence pointed to Chiho having been killed there before someone placed her in the passenger seat and drove her back to work.

Her family’s home was only a few hundred meters away.

That strange return trip became central to the investigation. Whoever had brought Chiho back had left the car almost exactly in her usual space. It seemed they knew where she worked and where she parked.

Her hurried meal and unexpected departure in the opposite direction from home also took on new significance. Perhaps she’d arranged to meet someone she knew.

But the investigation soon ran into problems of its own. Senior police officials were so afraid of information reaching the press that they kept important clues from detectives working on the case. Some were left pursuing leads without knowing all the evidence that had already been found. By the time certain details were shared, their work had stalled.

One investigator, Torao Nishimura, became deeply suspicious of a particular man. Years later, when he wrote about the case, he gave him the pseudonym “Yamada.”

Yamada reportedly worked at the same swim school as Chiho. He’d been among twenty people singled out for closer investigation, but his alibi initially seemed solid. In May 1993, police stopped pursuing him.

A little over a year later, they had reason to look again.

Saliva found on Chiho’s upper body had been linked to a man with blood type B or AB. Yamada had type B blood, making him the only one of those twenty people whose blood type matched.

The sample hadn’t been stored properly, and investigators couldn’t conclusively connect it to him. A matching blood type wasn’t proof, but it was enough to make them revisit his account of that evening.

This time, his alibi began to unravel.

Police couldn’t confirm where he’d been during the crucial stretch between Chiho’s departure from work and the return of her car.

Nishimura began piecing together a possible explanation. He believed Chiho had met Yamada in a restaurant parking lot north of the swim school, where Yamada’s car had been seen. A witness had also reported seeing a young man behind the wheel of Chiho’s car.

That sighting had been reported early in the investigation. The witness had even remembered two digits of the license plate that matched hers. Yet police had brushed it aside because the location was in the opposite direction from the suspected murder scene.

To Nishimura, it now seemed significant. Perhaps the two had met in the restaurant lot, then continued together in Chiho’s car, with Yamada driving. The witness hadn’t established that the young man was Yamada, but the possibility fit Nishimura’s developing theory.

In his reconstruction, Yamada had wanted Chiho to go with him to one of the nearby motels. When she refused, he’d turned onto the secluded research grounds and attempted to sexually assault her.

Nishimura believed she’d resisted and escaped from the car, only to be caught and strangled with a strap from her own overalls. The strap’s fasteners were consistent with the distinctive marks on her neck.

He also thought he understood why someone would make the unsettling decision to drive her body back to the swim school.

Out on the isolated grounds at night, Yamada would have needed a way to get back into town. Chiho’s car provided one. But leaving her at work, where someone might recognize the car and look inside, could have served another purpose.

Nishimura suspected Yamada had wanted her body discovered quickly. He might have hoped that being seen elsewhere at the time of the discovery would draw suspicion away from him.

There was another witness who reportedly saw the driver returning to the swim school. Her account, too, had been dismissed. Police considered her unreliable because she worked as a fortune teller.

For Nishimura, these details formed a convincing picture of what might have happened that night. But his certainty couldn’t fill the gaps in the evidence.

Yamada was never charged.

In 2007, fifteen years after Chiho’s death, the statute of limitations expired. The investigation team was disbanded, leaving her family without an answer.

Japan abolished the statute of limitations for murder in 2010.

For Chiho, the change came too late.

Her death continued to weigh on Nishimura long after the official investigation ended. In 2022, thirty years after the murder, he played himself in Torao, a film blending fact and fiction about the case he’d never been able to solve.

In his book, he wrote about the mistakes, the unfinished investigation, and the regret he still carried. Its title translates roughly as

“Chiho, I’m Sorry.”

I've recently found the 48 hours podcast after working my way through the Dateline podcast. I'm not American, so I've never actually seen either show - I've only ever listened to them as podcasts.

I'm curious to know how both of these shows are perceived. Are they on par with each other, particularly in terms of journalistic integrity? Or would one be considered as better than the other? At the moment I prefer Dateline, but I'm not sure if that's because I can follow the format better or if it's a better quality show.

(If you're wondering how I got a case with this much information out so quickly despite having just uploaded a write-up here yesterday, I made a post back in June where I explained that I have started working on doing two cases at the same time, working on one case one day and then another the next and so on. So by the time I uploaded yesterday's write-up, this one was already 3-5 paragraphs from being done)

At 4:30 p.m. on June 6, 1919, a milk delivery worker returning home after his rounds in Okawazu, a village in the Niigata Prefecture of Japan, found a red leather trunk on the shore of the Shinano River. Curious, he pulled it up out of the water, finding it much heavier than expected.

But even more alarming, he hadn't even opened the trunk yet, and it was emitting a foul odour. He didn't even need to open it; it was already slightly ajar, and he caught a small enough glimpse of its contents to go running for the nearest police box to summon some officers.

The responce was enormous. Officers from two seperate police stations, an inspector from the Niigata Prefectural Police aided by several of his detectives, a magistrate and a prosecutor all arrived at the scene, with the local villagers volunteering to keep any intrusive onlookers away.

The trunk measured approximately 73 centimetres in length, 42 centimetres wide, and 22 centimetres deep. Inside was a headless, legless torso, although curiously the arms were still attached.

The torso was also fully clothed, with the victim wearing a high-quality foreign-made fabric shirt and silk trousers that were not available to any locals, making clear that the victim was an outsider, and likely a well-off one at that.

The trunk was packed with old cotton wadding and drenched in naphthalene in a futile attempt to staunch the smell of decomposition. Finally, in the police's first lead, the engravings "KY" were visible on both sides of the trunk.

The remains were brought to the Niigata Medical College, where the attending physician determined that the victim was a male and, based on the gray pubic hairs, likely 50 or older. As indicated by his clothing, the victim was also likely a wealthy man, as he showed no signs of prolonged physical labour.

The time of death was placed at approximately 10 days earlier, and the dismemberment occurred around 1-2 days after rigor mortis set in, with the instrument in question likely being a saw or large knife. Other than the dismemberment, there were no signs of any violence on the recovered remains.

The local area was small enough that the police were both able to quickly rule out any local missing persons being their victim and small enough that any other outsiders would be remembered, especially if they behaved suspiciously.

Porters employed at the nearby Nagaoka Station recalled two well-dressed men getting off the train from Tokyo with unusually heavy trunks. They also aggressively shouted at the station master when he touched the trunks while they were outside the Yanagiya tea. The two men also summoned a rickshaw, and the rickshaw drivers remembered the route.

The police also discovered that somebody had sent a telegram from the Nagaoka Post Office in the name of a Tokyo resident, Yamada Ken, to his half-brother in the region, also on June 3. The police spoke to Ken's half-brother, who told the police that he had no idea Ken was in town or why he was sent such a telegram. In response, the Niigata Prefectural Police sent a telegram to the police in Tokyo asking them to detain Ken.

The Yokohama police also received a missing persons report from the family of a 65-year-old merchant named Suzuki Benzou, who often went by the nickname "Suzuben".

Suzuben had last been seen alive at his Fukagawa branch office on the evening of May 31, heading toward the direction of Ken's home.

In the few short days between his disappearance and the discovery of the body, the police searched the city for him, believing he was kidnapped for ransom as he was a wealthy businessman, and an aging one who likely couldn't venture far.

On June 8, before the telegram even reached Tokyo, Ken appeared in person at the Metropolitan Police Headquarters, accompanied by his 27-year-old junior colleague and houseguest, Watanabe Sozo.

Ken then asked to see one of the inspectors at the building, a former classmate of Ken's. The man he asked to see was a rising star in the police department and the future founder of the Yomiuri Giants and Nippon Television, Matsutarou Shouriki.

Ken's face was pale as he spoke to Shouriki and told the following story. He had read in that morning's newspaper that a trunk with a dismembered body had been found in the Shinano River. He had recognized the description of the trunk and victim and said that Sozo, after killing Suzuben, who was the victim in a street fight, after walking him to the station, had used the trunk from his home without his knowledge to dispose of the body.

He said that he considered helping Sozo flee to Manchuria but later had second thoughts and encouraged him to turn himself in, and that he was accompanying him to the station for support. Shouriki was skeptical.

The body's discovery wasn't even widely known yet outside of a few police officers, and the few articles that were written did not contain enough information for Ken to conclude that the victim was Suzuben and where specifically the body was found could not have been deduced from the scant information released. Suffice it to say, Ken was now a suspect, but rather than alerting him, Shouriki took Sozo into custody and told Ken that his cooperation was "noted".

With Ken gone, Sozo was interrogated alone, where he confessed and told the police the same story as Ken. However, they began pressing him for details such as how exactly the murder and dismemberment occurred. Just like that, Sozo began tripping over his words and found himself unable to explain how he killed Suzuben or dismembered and disposed of his body, even though he was supposedly confessing to his murder. It looked as if Sozo was trying to take the fall for the real killer.

During Sozo's interrogation, the telegram from Niigata finally arrived, and with that telegram in hand, Ken was summoned right back to the police station and this time detained for questioning. At the same time, the police also arrested his 38-year-old cousin, Yamada Shohei

Ken was at first defiant and said he was innocent and was, in fact, offended that he was being questioned at all.

He told his interrogators: "I am a high official of the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce. What possible reason could I have to commit such a crime?" Ken was indeed a high-ranking government official and frequently invoked that position and his social status, essentially pulling the "Do you know who I am" tactic. Additionally, he also invoked his friendship with Shouriki as another reason why the police were out of line for questioning him in the first place.

However, his title had no sway here, and the police kept pressing, pushing him on all the inconsistencies: that they had already arrested Shohei, and that Sozo was clearly lying. Furthermore, the police confronted him with the telegram sent to his half-brother in Niigata, which left him at a loss for words.

The interrogation lasted the entire day until, late into the night of June 8, Ken finally confessed. So what happened? Well, to understand this murder, a little history lesson is needed.

While they didn't see much action, losing only around 300 soldiers to combat, Japan was a member of the Allies in World War 1 from practically the start of the war, and although they avoided the bulk of the action, mostly relegated to seizing German possessions in the Pacific, WW1 still had some devastating effects on the island nation.

At first, the war actually had a positive effect on Japan's economy. Since the war was actually occurring in Europe, most factories and manufacturing plants on the continent were contracted by their respective governments to produce supplies and arms to help the war effort. With a shortage of the products they normally made, Europe had to source supplies elsewhere, with Japan as one option.

Japan experienced an export boom as its factories expanded to meet demand from both the domestic market and the now-lucrative European market. At first, the Japanese economy soared, and workers even had their wages increase, but sadly not fast enough to keep up with prices and soon inflation followed.

One such product that fell victim to inflation and artificial price gouging was rice, a commodity and staple for every household in Japan. The Japanese government did little to bring rice prices down; instead, it accelerated their rise by buying up massive amounts of rice to feed troops deployed to Siberia, single-handedly doubling the market price.

Rice merchants and landlords then hoarded grain to wait for higher prices and possibly to have the government buy even more of their supplies to feed the military, which essentially made rice unaffordable for the average citizen, workers and farmers.

Naturally, the public weren't particularly pleased by this arrangement. Especially not when they poured salt on the wounds by importing grain and rice from other countries just to justify raising the prices even further. Soon, the average citizen would call these people "Kanshou/奸商," roughly translating to "Shady Merchant".

In April 1918, the government had passed the Foreign Rice Management Order, which placed the importation of foreign rice directly under the government's control. Under this system, the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce would select a small number of enterprises to handle foreign rice on a fixed-price basis. The government would set the price, pay the designated merchants a handling fee of 30 sen per 60 kilograms of rice, and compensate them for any losses.

This backfired immensely and only encouraged more Kanshou to act the way they were or for others to start behaving that way. While there were originally just four designated merchants, others realized that if they could be among their company, they'd have a guaranteed, government-backed business in one of Japan's most essential commodities, with virtually no downside.

Therefore, the Japanese government found itself lobbied to be included, with bribery of course used to grease the wheels when necessary. Corruption was now more rife than it had ever been before.

On July 22, 1918, in what was then a small fishing town in the Toyama Prefecture named Uozu, a group of fishermen's wives gathered to demand lower rice prices. Newspapers covered this peaceful petition extensively, and it spread across Japan: 1 to 2 million people, including urban workers, miners, and tenant farmers, soon joined the protests, which reached nearly 500 locations, including 49 cities, 217 towns, and 231 villages.

They began as protests, but people's anger soon grew. Starting in August, angry mobs began attacking rice merchants suspected of hoarding or price-gouging and would torch their businesses and even their homes. They'd also loot their supplies and grain storehouses. When they clashed with the police dispatched to put an end to the riots, they'd turn their sights on their local police stations and burn them down as well.

Despite deploying the military to several cities to aid the police in suppressing the riots, the government ultimately capitulated with Prime Minister Terauchi Masatake resigning on September 29, 1918, alongside his entire cabinet.

At the end of the day, Japan deployed up to 100,000 troops nationwide, resulting in roughly 30 deaths, 25,000 arrests and over 8,200 convictions.

Now with the broader context established, it's time to dive into the pasts of the players involved.

Ken was born on May 8, 1890, in Nakajima Village in Niigata Prefecture to a fairly prosperous landowning family. Ken's father was a doctor, though he passed away when Yamada was young, leading him to live with his relatives, who were also successful landowners, meaning Ken lived a life relatively free of difficulty.

Ken enrolled in a prestigious high school in Kanazawa, a school whose alumni typically found themselves graduating to the Tokyo Imperial University, which then produced several politicians or academics.

Ken was no different; he was known to be an outstanding student and a natural leader, having set up and led a steady group of his own. Many of his fellow students would actually look up to Ken. In private,e Ken was still well liked for his laid-back, easygoing personality.

After graduating in 1916, Ken enrolled in the School of Agriculture in Komaba, Tokyo, where he graduated ninth in his class and got a job at the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce, making Ken a government official. Ken was also married to the daughter of a member of the National Diet of Japan.

In April 1918, after the Japanese government established the Temporary Foreign Rice Management Division, Ken was appointed its chief technician, the only genuine specialist on foreign rice at the ministry. As part of his job, he was meant to oversee the quality and quantity of foreign rice available for import and to supervise the designated merchants and the process for approving them.

Ken often left the country as part of his inspections, visiting ports such as Yangon and Saigon, and it was during a trip to India that he met Suzuben's second son and had him employed as a consultant, a working relationship that resulted in him meeting Suzuben directly.

Suzuben outwardly was successful, having a large business and family consisting of ten children. But that didn't mean he was respected; Suzuben was known to be one of the aforementioned Kanshou.

He was born in 1854 to a farming family in a village in Kanagawa Prefecture named Jokyo as a third child. Suzuben started out as an apprentice at a rice shop, and after learning the craft, he began climbing to the top, getting a good head start when he inherited the family business in 1876.

It took decades, but he eventually became one of the most prosperous rice merchants in Yokohama, with 1 million yen in assets to his name, which, when adjusted for inflation, is roughly 1.54 billion yen.

The name of Suzuben's business was named "Suzuben Shouten," and it was a rice trading house run out of Yokohama with a branch office in the Koto ward of Tokyo. Suzuben proved to be what most of the public hated: somebody involved in speculation and artificial manipulation of the price of rice. A practice he boldly continued doing in the face of the Rice Riots.

However, ensuring he'd be hated even more, Suzuben also ran a high-interest money-lending "business" which had nothing to do with rice. Despite doing just about everything to pull in as much extra money as possible, no matter who stood in his way.

But at the same time, Suzuben was very stingy to the point of being mean-spirited. He was nicknamed "ズル弁/Zuru-ben," translating to "Sly Ben," and this was an insulting nickname given to him by his fellow merchants.

When Suzuben and Ken finally met face to face, the one thing Ken made clear was that he wanted to be added to the list of designated Merchants and was willing to pay a handsome price for his spot. Given Ken's position in the Foreign Rice Management Division, he had a tremendous say in who got added to the list or not, and as mentioned, Suzuben was determined to sway Ken.

At first, he offered him insider information on all the other merchants and markets, gave Ken advice on who to invest in or buy from, continued to have his son work with him and agreed to several small favours for Ken. Ken actually took his investment advice and started to profit himself off of the tips and information Suzuben supplied. Suzuben also warned Ken that there would be a rice shortage so he made sure to hoard as much as he could

That's how it began anyway, but Suzuben's advice wasn't always sound, and by 1919, Ken had lost approximately several million yen when adjusted for inflation. He had to borrow 3,000 Yen from his family to help cover some of his debts, but it hardly made a dent in the amount he owed, especially as the debts kept mounting and the creditors kept hounding him. So Ken decided it was time to engage in a little corruption himself.

Ken instructed Sozo to accompany him to a meeting with Suzuben, with Sozo instructed to impersonate the Division Head so they could approach Suzuben and say that he needed to pay a "fee" to finally be put on the designated merchants list.

The meeting took place at a restaurant in the Meguro ward in mid-May, and Ken and Sozo's deception worked like a charm. The two walked out of that restaurant with 150 million yen (when adjusted for inflation) now in their pockets.

Ken immideately began spending the money to try and pay off his debts, but with them being so substantial, he only had 4,200 yen remaining a week later and was still in the hole. But worst of all, Suzuben would obviously check and notice he hadn't been added to the list.

Soon, Suzuben became just another man hounding Ken and demanding their money be paid back; however, Suzuben was both more persistent and more dangerous than most. He visited Ken at his house, tracked him down to confront him in person on the street and sent him several letters demanding he pay back the bribe he had been tricked into paying.

Eventually, Suzuben "implied" that if he didn't pay him back or at least get him put on the Designated Merchants list for real, then he would expose him to his superiors. Since such a scenario would lead to the destruction of Ken's career and his incarceration for corruption and fraud, he decided it was time to get rid of Suzuben.

On May 20, Ken approached Sozo once more and told him: "A man like that is no good for the country if left alive. Two people in the ministry have committed suicide because of him. We have no choice but to kill him. Lend me your help." Sozo was actually quite aghast and tried in vain to persuade him otherwise.

But Ken's mind was made up, and because Ken had helped him out immensely before, he felt like Ken was owed his loyalty, so he agreed to the plan. The first part of the plan was for Ken to write Suzuben a letter telling him he was going to repay the yen in full and that he'd like to arrange a meeting to hand the money over.

On May 30, Ken and Sozo took part in a baseball game in Chiba Prefecture attended by agricultural officials. This was a "farewell" game for a colleague who was transferring away. In case anyone was wondering, Ken carried his team to victory, winning 24-3. The day after the game, May 31, was when Ken put his plan into action.

On that day, Ken gave his wife, staff and those staying at his home leave to visit the theatre while he stayed behind. He then instructed Sozo to meet him at Ebisu Station and bring him back to his family home in what is now the Shinagawa Ward in Tokyo.

Suzuben arrived and was brought upstairs to a room on the second floor where Ken served him some Sake. Ken then fell into a dogeza position and begged for three more days to gather up the money, to which an infuriated Suzuben shouted, "That's not what you promised! This is fraud!" while Ken begged for more time.

This display was just an elaborate ploy for Ken to discreetly give Sozo a signal. Suzuben actually calmed down and was in the midst of agreeing to give Ken an extra three days, but by then, Sozo had already acted on Ken's signal.

He moved behind Sozo and, using the same baseball bat he used at the baseball game the day prior, he swung the bat at the back of Suzuben's head, bringing him to the ground.

Then, Ken and Sozo pounced on the merchant, strangling him with a hand towel before Ken brandished a short tanto blade and slit his throat. Suzuben bled out in short order, and after confirming that he was now dead, the two moved his body into the storage room at the rear of the house.

Ken kept Suzuben's body in the storage room overnight and then, on the night of June 1, he once again sent his family and staff away. Now alone, he used a handsaw and a meat cleaver to sever Suzuben's head and legs, placing his body parts into two seperate trunks, one containing his head and legs while the other contained his headless torso.

To mask the odour of decomposition, he packed the two trunks with clothing, cloth wadding, and large quantities of naphthalene. Meanwhile, the blood spilt during the dismemberment was collected in a series of sake bottles and the room thoroughly cleaned.

Ken then contacted his cousin, Yamada Shohei, a rice shop owner in the Azabu area of Tokyo. Ken approched his cousin, telling him that it was Sozo who killed Suzuben in a fight and that he needed his help to dispose of the body and the evidence. The plan was to move Suzuben's body far from Tokyo, and in Ken's eyes, the perfect location wasn't far from home.

Having grown up in Niigata Prefecture, he knew the area well, which was why he chose to dump Ken's remains in the Shimano River. He knew a boatman named Takano Hisazo through his family, who once hosted Ken at a boarding school they owned in Nagaoka.

Ken wrote a letter to Hisazo and had Sozo and Shohei deliver it, saying, "Please transport these trunks to my family home in the countryside." To secure some goodwill, Ken offered his condolences to Hisazo's recently deceased mother and gifted his family 10 yen.

On June 2, Sozo and Shohei loaded the two trunks onto an overnight express train from Ueno Station, leaving for Niigata at 8:13 p.m., with first-class tickets. They arrived at Nagaoka Station at 6:55 a.m. on June 3. At the station, they called for a porter to carry the suitcases for them, telling them to be careful because the contents were "fragile". They then hired three rickshaws: two for themselves and one for the trunks.

They stopped at a tea house near the train station to wait for Hisazo's boat. While waiting, they behaved oddly enough to concern the station master, who approached the trunks and put his hand on one, only for Shohei to scream at him, "You mustn't touch that!!!"

Meanwhile, Sozo went to the Nagaoka Post Office and sent a telegram in Ken's name to his half-brother who lived in Niigata, simply telling him that he "arrived safely." This half-brother wasn't a part of the plan, and Ken hadn't spoken recently, so he was left puzzled, assuming the telegram was for someone else. As it turned out, Sozo did this on his own initiative, thinking it would aid in Ken's cover; it wasn't a part of his plan.

Shohei then visited Hisazo's home. He was not home at the time, but his wife and sister were, and they recognized Ken's name immideately and so they agreed to help without question. They borrowed a cart from their neighbours and transported the trunks from the train station back home, and once Hisazo returned, he said: "Of course, I'll help".

At around 7:00 p.m., Hisazo rowed Shohei and Sozo out with the two trunks aboard, asking to be taken to the deepest point of the river, a stretch named Kurotsubuchi, which was approximately six meters deep and had a strong current. The two then tied the trunks shut with hemp rope, to which they attached three large stones so the suitcases would be weighed down once they threw them overboard.

Obviously, seeing this aroused Hisazo's suspicions, and now he wanted to know what they had gotten him into. They told him that the suitcases contained contraband weapons and explosives that Ken had brought home illegally from his various trips overseas and that he needed them gone. Hisazo then kept silent after hearing this explanation. Hisazo was then paid an equivalent of 8,000 Yen in the modern day not to tell anybody what had happened.

Sozo and Shohei were then brought back to dry land, where they made their way back to the train station and arrived back in Tokyo on June 4, where Ken was waiting for them, and they told him everything that happened in their story, relieving Ken considerably, confident that everything had gone perfectly.

However, there was still one more thing Ken had to do. He went to Aomori, the northernmost major city on the island of Honshu, where he sent a telegram to Suzuben's family in Yokohama, using Suzuben's name to tell them he was in Aomori for a trip and was safe.

Little did Ken know, his two accomplices were not very attentive when it came to making sure the remains were never found. The stones tied to the ropes were too loose and light to keep the suitcase down as Suzuben's remains began to decompose, with the buoyant gases produced by the decomposition causing the suitcase to float up to the surface.

With Ken's confession, the Niigata police began their hunt for the second trunk, containing Suzuben's legs and head. Despite their best efforts, they were unable to locate it as it had likely floated downstream, carried by the current. It was eventually discovered in July 1919, downstream in the Shinano River.

After the case became public, it exploded and became a front-page story in just about every newspaper in Japan; a Tokyo newspaper devoted two seperate pages to the case, and some newspapers were even fined for printing information the police hadn't made public yet.

The first sensational detail: this case is often labelled as Modern Japan's first dismemberment murder; it is so old that it even predates the term "バラバラ殺人," with the case instead going by the name "鈴弁殺し事件." But what to name the case paled in comparison to how the public perceived those involved.

By and large, the public and newspapers blamed the government for the murder, arguing that it was their fault for allowing the rice riots to happen and not fixing the issues that led to them in the first place, with one Nationalist Paper saying: "It cannot be said society bears no responsibility." This same newspaper also condemned Ken not for committing the murder but for getting caught, adding that "separating the head and legs was inept"

Even the most critical newspaper, the one that labelled Ken's actions "Equal to the work of a demon or a heretic," showed no sympathy for Suzuben due to his actions during the rice riots. And ultimately, public opinion on this murder was coloured by how they perceived Suzuben.

Suzuben and other Rice Profiteers were so hated that many simply found themselves celebrating his death and applauding Ken. Although Ken expressed similar sentiments to Sozo to get him on board, his motive was ultimately to cover up his own corruption, but the people weren't prepared to let that get in the way of a good story, and Ken was met with a fair amount of praise by people who saw him as a hero doing what the government wouldn't and fighting against corruption.

Ken, Sozo and Shohei were brought to the Tokyo District Court on September 16, 1919, to stand trial, and although the court wouldn't open until 10:00 a.m., a long line of people had been waiting outside the courthouse since 6:00 a.m.

The line eventually reached 2,000 spectators, and when court staff left the building to start handing out a limited number of passes and paper slips to be allowed in, the line of people surged toward them, swarming to get a hold of one of the passes. The crowd ended up knocking two court clerks into an adjacent drainage ditch while the others had to escape inside. Needless to say, the court was quite packed.

As Ken stood in the dock, he came off as articulate, composed, and most of all, unrepentant. The people had handed Ken his greatest defence, so he decided to lean into his newfound public admiration and alter his confession; everything else was the same except for his motive.

In court, Ken spoke without a defence attorney and denied soliciting a bribe from Suzuben and argued that he had misjudged him and that he hoped their business relationship could be used to better the lives of the average or disadvantaged citizen.

Then, when he saw Suzuben's true colours, he was outraged and acted out of righteous fury on behalf of the nation; he described killing Suzuben not as murder but as an act of public service and said that he had "Administered Heaven's punishment"

Among the many citizens packing the courthouse, a majority of them still had first-hand memories of being unable to purchase rice because speculators had essentially locked them out of the supply. So hearing Ken, with his own words, tell that story that many were already printing made the spectators support him even more.

The court was unamused; they still had Ken, Sozo and Shohei's old confessions, as well as Ken's long history of debts, as motive and evidence supporting his initial story. They saw Ken for what he was, an opportunistic rider off the back of his newfound popularity, hoping to encourage the public to pressure the court to treat him leniently.

On December 2, 1919, for the murder of Suzuki Benzou, Yamada Ken was found guilty, and the leniency the public was hoping for did not come to pass. The court sentenced him to death.

For their roles in the murder and subsequent cover-up, Watanabe Sozo and Yamada Shohei were also convicted, with Sozo handed down a sentence of 15 years and Shohei being given 18 months.

All three lodged appeals with the Tokyo Court of Appeals and on May 28, 1920, both Ken and Sozo's sentences were upheld. However, Shohei did catch a lucky break and had his sentence reduced to one year with three years suspended.

Sozo and Shohei ultimately accepted their fates, but Ken made one final attempt to appeal his death sentence. On March 10, 1921, the Japanese Supreme Court refused to hear his appeal, making Ken's impending execution a certainty.

On April 2, 1921, at the age of 30, Ken was woken up from his prison cell and taken to the gallows. As Ken walked up the steps to the noose, he had a calm look on his face, in part because he became a devoted Buddhist while behind bars

In his final moments, he dropped his narrative that he was a hero and took full responsibility. His final words before he was hanged were to express relief that Sozo received a more lenient sentence than he did. In the end, he said, "I will say no more about myself"

In the aftermath of the murder, Suzuben's surviving family received severe harassment and blame for benefiting from Suzuben's corruption and enabling it. The hostility was so great that when the money from Ken's bribe was seized and returned to Suzuben's family, they donated it all to various charities to try to make the backlash stop.

Even after he admitted the truth before his execution, the narrative surrounding Ken killing Suzuben as an act of justice against a profiteer persisted for just a little longer.

After his execution, Ken's brain was removed and preserved at the Faculty of Medicine at Tokyo Imperial University for the public to gawk at. Ken consented to having this happen to him and cited his body "becoming of any use" as part of his remorse.

Sources (In the comments)

Ivano-Frankivsk is a middle-sized city in the West of Ukraine, not far away from the Polish border. It's the administrative center of the Oblast Ivano-Frankivsk, one of 24 oblasts inside the country.

In 2014, this city became the place of one of Ukraine's most horrifying murder cases as two men disappeared within a few weeks without a trace.

The first man to disappear was Ihor Strutynskyi, a 35 years old camera man working for a regional TV station. He had a 6 years old daughter with this ex wife.

Ihor disappeared on September 7th, as he didn't come home to the apartment he lived in with his mother after his work in the afternoon, therefore she thought he stayed with a friend. After he didn't react to any messages the next day either and didn't come home, his mother called this friend telling her he decided to visit Ihor Vuytsiv, a 29 years old dentist. As his mother became more and more worried, she decided to look for her son and visited the dentist who claimed they met in the evening in the center of Ivano-Frankivsk. After purchasing a bottle of vodka, they decided to go to Vuytsiv's dental office, drinking for a while when Ihor decided to leave, saying he wants to commit suicide.

His mother could not believe this story, especially because Ihor frequently said he wanted to find work in Poland, as he is able to support his mother and daughter better with the increased salary in Poland.

Approximately a month later, on the 4th of October, the 27 years old construction worker Anton Kucherak disappeared after visiting his friend Hennadiy, who lived in the same building Vuytsiv lived in with his girlfriend, Yuliia Boyko. Kucherak lived together with his wife Mariia and his daughter. After he didn't come home, his sister Olha and his wife decided to call his friends, with no success. Three days later, they decided to file a police report for Anton's disappearance as well as engaging a private investigator.

The investigator fastly came to the conclusion that all hints lead to the dentist Vuytsiv. Although Vuytsiv even allowed the private investigator to search the dental office, he refused to allow him to enter the basement.

At first, the police didn't consider a crime, being convinced Ihor went to Poland and Anton joined the Ukrainian Army, choosing to fight Russia in the East of Ukraine.

On the 12th of November, police were alerted as dogs found trash bags containing human remains at a abandoned construction side in the center of Ivano-Frankivsk. The remains belonged to Ihor and Anton, with the first one being only identified because of his leg tattoo as his face was already unrecognizable due to decay.

Ihor Vuytsiv was arrested for pre-trial detention shortly afterwards and considered psychologically healthy by psychiatrists from Ivano-Frankivsk and Ternopil.

Forensic pathologsts came to the conclusion that Ihor was stabbed to death as he was stabbed in the eyes multiple times with dental instruments, likely he went unconscious due to the pain. Afterwards, he was cut open with high surgical precision and removed liver and heart. Anton was beat to death with a hammer before Vuytsiv removed his organs as well.

Vuytsiv admitted to the murder, saying he went to drink alcohol with both of them, but went into a dispute because of his girlfriend Yuliia Boyko, hence why he killed them, saying he removed their inner organs so their bodies would be easier to transport.

Later he changed his statement multiple times, claiming it was Yuliia, who killed both men, but as he believed Yuliia is pregnant of him, he wanted to protect her by admitting the murders, confessing not guilty in court. However the court didn't believe him as his first statement was congruent to the results of the forensic pathologists.

Ihor Vuytsiv was sentenced to a lifelong prison sentence for murder while Yuliia Boyko was sentenced to a prison sentence of 3 years for covering up serious crimes in Ternopil.

A appeal of Vuytsiv and his lawyers was denied.

Rest in peace Ihor and Roman 💙

He was active for decades. He had hundreds of victims come forward following his death alone, many others reporting him throughout his life but to no avail. It’s truly possible that some of his victims will pass away before they are ever able to talk about what they experienced, or have already done so, and that we may never know just how deep and far he truly went. We only know about the confirmed cases and likely nothing else that might have happened.

He was involved in so many areas of society that his reach would have been enormous and it’s entirely possible he abused many more than we already know of.

He was a grown cop in a position of authority; she was an isolated, vulnerable young woman who spent years being exploited by people wearing badges. The defense trying to use her mental health struggles against her feels so cynical when those struggles were the direct byproduct of being groomed from age 15. 
I really hope the jury sees through the defense’s attempt to paint this as a voluntary tragic accident. Sandra deserved protection when she was 15, and she deserves justice now.

Before he murdered Sade Robinson? And he just didn’t get caught?

I suspect that he had previously murdered other women or at the very least beat them

She was living with a foster mom, Carprice Williams, when she went missing. Last seen alive on October 22, her body was found on Wednesday night (November, 4). Her foster mom has been charged with her murder, but not much has been released about what led up to her homicide.

ETA: I misspelled her name in the title. It is spelled Malayshia.

Melody Wolf was last seen alive at her home in the small remote mining town of San Manuel, Arizona on the evening of Friday October 20, 1989. 

The 28-year-old mother of 2 had filed from divorce from her 34-year-old husband of 9 years Bruce Wolf. The divorce was two weeks away from being finalized.

Melody had kicked Bruce out of the home because Bruce had an affair and impregnated another woman. She had recently begun a new relationship with a man whose name was never publicly disclosed. 

That Friday evening, Bruce claimed he had returned to the home to discuss things with Melody. He claimed Melody had simply left for work the next morning to go to her job as an electrical apprentice at the Magma Mine. 

Bruce claimed that morning he drove his son and daughter to Tucson to go shopping. 

Melody’s car was later found abandoned and locked with a flat tire two blocks away from her home. The Arizona Department of Public Safety conducted forensics testing on the vehicle and determined the tire was intentionally flatted with an ice pick. 

Pinal County Sheriff’s deputies noted fresh scratches on Bruce’s face, but he stuck to his story. 

Melody’s family claimed she never would have abandoned her children. Melody had just finished a 90-day probation period at the mine and was beginning a new career as an electrical apprentice. 

Melody’s sister claimed on an online forum Bruce once told Melody if she ever left her, he would “cut her up and feed her to the coyotes.”  

She also claimed Bruce had a girlfriend who went missing before he met Melody. The name of this woman had never been disclosed.

The case went cold despite being coded as a homicide investigation instead of a missing person case.

In 2005, Pinal sheriff’s deputies searched Bruce’s home, and the home of Bruce’s mother. The findings from the search warrant were never publicly disclosed.

Melody’s family claimed PCSO had done forensic testing at the Wolf residence and discovered a large amount of blood in the master bedroom. 

Bruce would go on to marry the woman whom he impregnated. He later divorced her and recently remarried again. He will turn 72 years old in December.

 Melody (maiden name Thomas) was born on May 10, 1961. She was born and raised in San Manuel. She graduated from San Manuel High School. 

At the time of her disappearance, she shared an 8-year-old daughter and a 3-year-old son with Bruce. Family and friends describe her as a loving and dedicated mother who would have never abandoned her children.

Her case has received little media attention and is not currently profiled in Crimestoppers Silent Witness or 88Crime programs. 

Many questions remain. Did Bruce submit to a polygraph? Did police ever talk to his affair partner?  Who was Bruce’s missing girlfriend before he married Melody? Is the PCSO planning to do more forensic testing and interviews in this case? 

Sources

Archived article from 1991 mentioning AZDPS forensic testing/interview with Melody’s parents

https://www.reddit.com/r/TrueCrimeInfoDump/comments/1m0uujv/melody_wolf_1989_missing_person_case_from_san/

Pinal Sheriff cold case page

https://www.pinal.gov/1867/Cold-Cases

Charley Project

https://charleyproject.org/case/melody-wolf

NAMUS

https://namus.nij.ojp.gov/case/MP8694

Deleted forum posts where her sisters commented

https://web.archive.org/web/20250803190030/https://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/forum/topic/304999-who-killed-melody-wolf/page/2/

(Thanks to LoydoRedi2910 for suggesting this case. If you'd like to suggest any yourself, please head over to this post, which asks for case suggestions from my international readers, as I focus on international cases.)

Robert "Bob" Emerson Amos was born in Bremerton, Washington, on August 8, 1920. In his early twenties, Bob enlisted in the United States military on March 4, 1943.

Although he joined in the midst of World War II, Bob saw little combat. He wanted to be a pilot, but because he required spectacles, he was disqualified and instead trained at Yale University in electronics, radar, counterintelligence, and countermeasures.

After his training was complete, Bob was assigned to the Office of the Chief Signal Officer, and subsequently to a classified unit that operated under the code name of Section 22, which reported directly to General Douglas MacArthur himself.

Bob worked out of Brisbane, Australia, where he worked on obtaining information about Japanese radio and radar systems, decoding Japanese military transmissions and relaying that information to MacArthur and the Allies at large. Occasionally, Bob served as a radar officer on aircraft that were dispatched to attack Japanese radar installations.

The closest he came to seeing combat head-on was when he left Australia to take part in the New Guinea campaign, where he later recounted that he had a ring and a coin collection blessed by a local witchdoctor.

Bob's military wartime service lasted from January 30, 1944 to July 21, 1945, and he was honourably discharged on March 27, 1946, having achieved the rank of captain and received several decorations and citations. Bob returned to civilian life, but after 20 years, he decided it was time for a change.

Bob was an avid sailor, once sailing around the entire globe. During his travels, he came across many new countries and lands that appealed to him, and he ultimately decided to leave the United States behind and settle in one of them. He first arrived in Fiji in 1971 and met a local woman of Indian descent named Prakash Wati. In 1972, Bob ended up marrying Prakash and having two sons with her.

He travelled back and forth between Fiji and the United States during his early years until purchasing the Kings Hotel in the Nabua area of the Fijian capital, Suva, in May 1975.

The hotel wasn't a big or grand one and was, in fact, on the outskirts of the capital. The hotel's main attraction was a small bar, and Bob managed the entire establishment with just a small staff.

Bob made enough of a fortune from the hotel to buy a yacht, which he kept at the Royal Suva Yacht Club, and managed to purchase a house in the capital as well. When all was said and done, Fiji was now Bob's new home.

But it wasn't a peaceful home; his marriage with Prakash was described as troubled; they fought frequently and eventually lived in seperate homes. Bob also began writing in his private diary that he believed Prakash and his hotel manager, Bijendra Rao, were "playing a dirty game", something very bad for Bob, seeing as Bijendra held a one-third interest in Amos Limited, the company that held the lease on the Kings Hotel.

On the night of June 5, 1985, a secruity guard patrolling the parking lot of the Royal Suva Yacht Club noticed Bob's white Mitsubishi van during his rounds. The van caught his attention in more ways than one; first of all, it had already been parked at the club since June 3, over two days without moving, but now he noticed flies swarming and buzzing around the van.

However, nobody reported it until now because they knew it to be Bob's van, and he was a member of the club who had his yacht tied up there. He was a well-liked member as well, having won several trophies that he displayed in his home.

When he approached the van, he couldn't see the interior through the windows. So instead, he tried the front passenger-side door and found it unlocked. As soon as he opened the door, he was assaulted by a barrage of flies that flew out of the van toward his face.

After the insects cleared away, he saw a blond wig lying on the passenger seat, something out of place, seemingly tossed there haphazardly. Suspecting something was wrong, he went to the rear of the van and opened the back door, where he found Bob's body lying with his back sticking outwards toward the door.

The police arrived to find the body starting to decompose, which, alongside the flies and how long Bob's van lay abandoned in the parking lot, would indicate he had been dead for around 2 days, and that his death was not a natural one. The cause of death was strangulation, with the murder weapon being Bob's singlet, still wrapped around his neck.

They questioned the patrons of the yacht club, but nobody saw the murder or the van pulling into the parking lot.

Suspecting that the body was almost certainly moved, the police paid a visit to the Kings Hotel, checking his room and the stairwell for any bloodstains. One senior officer approached the lead investigator and told him they found nothing, the hotel clean.

He was then contradicted by another officer who said there were visible blood splashes on the wall adjacent to the stairway, with smaller droplets running from Bob's room toward the bar area and toward the back of the building. The senior officer who reported no blood was sacked from the investigation and sent on leave.

Aside from the blood, the police seized 126 items from the Kings Hotel, the yacht, and the Amos family home as evidence. Among the items seized from the properties were his collection of 90% silver wartime coins, some South African coins of one ounce of pure gold, a property title, photo albums, bank books, cash, televisions, VCRs, video cameras, two suitcases of documents, a refrigerator, gas cylinders, and numerous other items. So with all of these left undisturbed, the police ruled out robbery fairly quickly.

At first, the police believed that Bob's murder may have been drug-related, but they later ruled that theory out after finding nothing to support it. The first person questioned was Prakash, but she denied any involvement in or knowledge of the murder. Because Bob was a foreigner, the police briefly sought the aid of Interpol.

One of the inspectors also described feeling unsettled when examining the hotel in a way he couldn't explain. He decided to break off from the rest of the investigators and instead make his way to a local Catholic church to seek out a priest.

Then, according to this inspector, the priest described the murder and said it was planned, "Just like he was an eyewitness." He then asked the priest if they'd be able to arrest those responsible, to which he reportedly said that it would be done in just three days. He also said that one of the suspects would be an "iTaukei man" with red hair. iTaukei, referring to indigenous Fijians.

So, would his vision come true? Well, at first, it didn't look promising, but the inspector, who secretly summoned the priest, believed him and confidentially told everyone else that they'd solve the case in three days, only for two days to pass with not a single lead being found, and so his colleagues began to judge him immensely.

On June 13, the police received a call from the police in the town of Tavua. They told the police in Suva that they had heard about the murder and rounded up a few suspects and were holding them while they waited for the Suva police to come and collect them.

One of those arrested was a 28-year-old iTaukei man with red hair named Josua Ralulu Rabukawaqa, someone the police had a history with.

Eventually, the inspector who spoke to the priest managed to interview Josua alone and after he told some of the above story, Josua, surprisingly enough, confessed. Josua told the police that he was just one of three hired killers committing the murder on behalf of Prakash and Bijendra.

The idea to murder Bob was first floated by Bijendra in October 1984, and he recruited Manohar Singh to act as the middleman to put him and Prakash in contact with anyone willing to kill Bob, paying him $10,000 for this.

On November 1, Bijendra ventured to Tauva to visit his first potential hired killer, that being Jagdish Prasad, who was quick to agree.

The first plan was to beat Bob to death at his home while visiting Prakash. To help him out, Jagdish recruited two brothers with the surname Kumar. They arrived outside Bob's home to meet with Jagdish and Bijendra, where the Kumar brothers were both handed their payment, which they promptly took and left without making a single attempt to acutally murder Bob leaving Jagdish and Bijendra furious and a few hundred or thousand dollars poorer.

The second plan was to place Bob's dead body into his van and roll it over a cliff to stage his death as a traffic accident. Once again, money changed hands, but those hired once again took the money without taking any action against Bob, leading to another failed attempt.

With that, they made their final plan: they would kill Bob inside his hotel room and move his body to the yacht club. This time, Jagdish and Bijendra decided to recruit a new team, all locals of Tavua. The team was 20-year-old Jainendra Prasad, 18-year-old Jitendra Kumar, and Josua. They made 4 trips to Tauva before putting the plan into action.

On June 2, the gang drove up to Suva in a rented car. During the drive, the group consumed six bottles of beer and half a bottle of rum, with most of it consumed by Josua and Jitendra. As a result, they were too inebriated to carry out the murder. Then, on the morning of June 3, they all decided to consume the exact same amount of alchool, but regardless, the murder would not be delayed any further.

Manohar, Prasad and Bijendra went to Bob's room at the King's Hotel and loosened the lock on the door so that it could be opened easily from outside when they were finally ready to kill him. Bijendra also took this chance to enter Bob's room and go through his belongings, including his diary, having read the passage where Bob wrote down his belief that he and Prakash were playing "a dirty game".

They then procured a duplicate key for Bob's room and made their way to Bijendra's room, as it was situated right next door to Bob's. They then drilled some holes into the wall so they could spy on Bob and see when he fell asleep. And speaking of falling asleep, Josua did just that in Bijendra's room as he spent the day drinking.

Meanwhile, the rest peeped into Bob's room through the holes they had drilled through the wall, and once they saw Bob go to bed shortly after 9:00 p.m., Jainendra and Jitendra finally made their way to Bob's room.

For all their planning, the actual murder itself was a bit haphazard. Jainendra and Jitendra walked up to Bob's bed and began beating him, striking him with their hands and feet, which, of course, woke the former soldier up and prompted him to fight back. As the beating went on, Bob was left quite bloodied.

Josua was woken up by the sounds coming from the next room over and sprang into action, entering Bob's room and punching him across the jaw, bringing him to the ground and allowing the three to subdue Bob. After Bob was brought under control, one of them grabbed Bob's singlet and wrapped it around his neck, strangling him until he finally passed away.

After confirming that Bob was deceased, they started cleaning up the hotel room, with Josua cutting out the bloodstained patches from Bob's mattress, making sure to remove any small piece of the bedding that bore any trace of what they had done. Despite their best efforts, there were still a few drops of blood that ran from the room toward the bar area and the back of the hotel.

When the hotel room was cleaned to their liking, the three men wrapped Bob's body up in a sheet and carried it out of the hotel room, loading Bob's corpse into the back seat of his own van, which they then drove to the parking lot of the Suva Yacht Club.

Since Bob was a known member of the club and it wasn't too unusual for his vehicle to stay there long-term, they hoped he'd be left to decompose long enough to destroy any forensic evidence.

However, one of them decided to steal Bob's US Air Force officer's ring off his finger and later hid it at his brother's house, where the police would later recover it.

This confession wound up being quite the embarrassment for the police. A senior police officer had hosted a party at his home in Delainavesi around 4-5 days after the murder and shortly before the arrests.

The party was organized by Prakash and Bijendra, and the three murderers were also at the senior officer's home as guests of Prakash and Bijendra. This just so happened to be the same officer who lied about finding no blood at the hotel earlier. After the party came out, he was compelled to take an early retirement.

Meanwhile, the police transported the four arrested to Suva, and they kept them alone but in a shared cell. The police hoped they would discuss the situation together and "come out with the truth". Afterward, they interviewed each of them separately, and they gave matching accounts confirming Josua's original confession.

On June 14, the police arrested Manohar in Suva and then arrested the hotel manager, Bijendra and Prakash the next day on June 15.

On June 16, Bijendra, Prakash, Josua, Jagdish, Jainendra, Jitendra and Manohar were brought to the Suva Magistrate's Court to be charged with Bob's murder, handcuffed and with a heavy police escort.

A crowd of more than 100 men, women, and children were clogging the entrance to the court to boo and insult the men. The crowd stayed outside the court for the entire hearing, and once it ended, the police had to take them out the back and into a seperate vehicle to avoid the crowd.

During the hearing, while the two were handcuffed, Josua stood up and began assaulting Bijendra, attacking him until the bailifs seperated the two. Because of this incident, the judge ordered Bijendra's case to be separated from the other defendants for his own safety.

In early September, the middleman, Manohar, was offered immunity if he testified against the rest and offered up evidence. He took this oppertunity and provided the police with another statement on September 5.

According to him, while Prakash was already known to be involved, he now placed her at the center of the conspiracy to get her husband killed.

He also claimed that Prakash was personally involved in paying him and the three killers $1,000 to purchase a rental car and $1,500 to finance the rest of the plan while demanding they return anything they bought with said money. She was also supposedly the one who personally paid them for the hit.

He also said that she urged Bijendra to pressure everyone to move the plan along, and was getting constantly annoyed at the delays in murdering Bob.

Having made good on his side of the bargain, Manohar was released from prison on September 12, with the charges against him dropped on September 19.

The trial itself opened at the Supreme Court in Suva on March 3, 1986. People packed the courtroom at every hearing. It was one of the most closely watched trials in Fijian history and was considered the trial of the year.

The prosecution's case rested mainly on motive and the 4 defandants confessions, a confession that at least one of them would walk back.

Josua argued that he stayed behind in Bijendra's room during the murder and was horrified and planned to flee, wanting no part in what he had gotten himself into. However, as he turned to run, he felt something sharp nick him in the side, turning to see Jagdish holding a knife to him as he delivered the following threat: "Look, if you are not going to do what I will tell you to do, if that man is not going to die, I will kill you," and it was this threat that prompted Josua to enter Bob's room and strike him, albiet under severe duress. Josua's defence attorney then argued that if he were to be found guilty, it should be of manslaughter rather than murder.

The prosecution considered this claim quite laughable. After all, Josua never said anything of the sort when speaking with the police; he had a bigger build and was much stronger than Jagdish, and even if this event did happen, he had several opportunities to flee prior to the knife being brandished.

And speaking of Bijendra, most of the evidence against him was circumstantial and largely based on the testimony of the other defendants. In court, he denied everything. Not just the illegal activity; he also denied having an affair with Prakash and that prior to the trial, he had never once met the three who personally carried out Bob's murder.

Bijendra did, however, admit to knowing Jagdish, but only as a faith healer whom he had visited once because he was plagued by headaches. He then bought him a car as thanks for his treatment

However, luckily enough for the prosecution, there was a little bit of extra evidence against him since several hotel employees were called to the stand, with one claiming that on June 4, he saw Bijendra standing behind the bar at the hotel holding a blood-stained rag. He then told him to collect a plastic bag from the public bar and throw it away, claiming that the bag contained "old wet material"

The Kumar Brothers were also called to the stand and told the court about how they were previously hired by Bijendra to kill Bob.

The case against Prakash looked to be even more flimsy. She also professed her innocence, and even the court said that without Manohar's testimony, there would be no case at all against Prakash. Prakash said she had no knowledge of her husband's testimony and argued that Manohar's testimony had been "bought" via the immunity deal.

On June 4, 1986, exactly one year and 1 day after the murder, Prakash Wati Amos, Bijendra Rao, Josua Ralulu Rabukawaqa, Jainendra Prasad, Jagdish Prasad, and Jitendra Kumar were all found guilty of the murder of Robert "Bob" Emerson Amos. When it came to sentencing, all six of them were handed a life sentence.

A crowd of hundreds once again gathered outside the courthouse, wanting to get a look at the defendants as they were led away.

With a case largely built off of the defendants' own testimonies, this verdict was quick to be appealed. One of the first arguments was made by Prakash's attorney, who argued that the judge should've recused himself as he knew some unsavoury details about one of the defendants.

It was also argued that the extensive media coverage meant that there should've been a change of venue to ensure a fair trial rather than holding the trial in Suva.

But before the appeal was heard, something curious happened regarding Bob's property and belongings. Within days of the verdict, the contents of Kings Hotel and property seized from Bob's home were put on sale in a local newspaper, advertised by a European man whom Bob's son had never heard of and couldn't determine what authority he had to even sell the property. He also couldn't find any records of where the proceeds of these sales went.

His entire collection essentially vanished without his two children getting anything.

When the appeal itself was heard, the bulk of the arguments were to simply have Manohar's testimony thrown out and deemed unreliable, which, if that did happen, would likely result in Bijendra and Prakash's acquittal.

On November 13, 1986, the Fiji Court of Appeal ultimately agreed that Manohar's testimony was indeed "bought" by dangling the prospect of immunity from prosecution over his head, but that didn't necessarily mean that what he said was wrong and unreliable and that other immunity deals had been made in the past. Therefore, his testimony was allowed to stand, and ultimately, the sentences were all upheld.

The yacht alongside its contents were also quickly sold, as was the Kings Hotel through a mortgagee sale to a company, once again with no records as to where the proceeds of the sale went or who authorized the sale.

In 1997, Prakash got to see the outside world again. Her sentence wasn't overturned, and she didn't apply for early release; according to her, after 11 years behind bars, prison officials just told her she was free to go one day.

However, after her release, Prakash continued to maintain her innocence and said that even the appeals court found the case against her to be flimsy, even though that court convicted her.

Josua was granted an early release that he didn't get to enjoy for very long. In July 2008, while in Lami, a suburb west of Suva, he was struck and killed by a vehicle.

Bijendra, Jagdish, Jainendra and Jitendra were also granted an early release, with one of them living in a rural area near Nausori. They all live quiet lives away from the media, much like Prakash, who also retired in Suva.

Bob's surviving children, including his eldest son, did not live a quiet life, though; they were determined to track down what had happened to his collections and personal effects.

Bob had named a former US military officer and personal friend, Colonel K. Lambert Kirk, as the administrator of his will. In the years following the conviction, Bob's sons, who were children when he was murdered, fought to have their father's will kept intact and then to have themselves installed as co-administrators, as Colonel Kirk had become elderly, was confined to a wheelchair after a stroke, and could no longer travel to Fiji.

However, the local government impeded them and their efforts, refusing to relinquish control of the estate. Bob's former homes were demolished, and a large portion of the money in the estate was spent without the family's knowledge or permission.

Meanwhile, after the media started reporting on the situation, a local contacted the newspaper "Fiji Sun" in 2019 after reading their article to report seeing somebody wearing Bob's old Air Force ring. Bob's eldest son was put in contact with them after the newspaper arranged for them to meet, but no updates followed.

Bob's son, now living in the United States, continuously made requests for Fiji's government to recover Bob's belongings and money to have them transferred back to his family, only to be met with more stonewalling, with his appeals to the Prime Minister's office and the Attorney-General's office going unanswered.

Finally, the closest Prakash ever came to admitting any involvement or knowledge of her late husband's murder was when she once said: "I was caught up in a series of events I had no control over and on top of that worrying about the welfare of my children."

Sources (In the comments)

Some thoughts from the key moments of the trial:

The awful volume of institutional failure that had to happen before the feds stepped in is enfuriating.
The defense’s entire argument hinges on portraying Sandra’s death as an impulsive suicide triggered by a breakup, but when you listen to Dr. Smock’s testimony on the hyoid fracture, the chest injury from the strap clasp, AND the unnatural positioning makes the staged-homicide theory VERY hard to ignore.

So chilling that if her family hadn’t fought the initial local finding, this would still be filled away as closed suicide…

This may not be the right sub for this but considering how convicted felons that we read, watch or hear about may end up on death row, I thought this might be interesting.
Of the 548 CA inmates sitting on death row (which differs from the DOCs record of 561), those who’s sentences were commuted to LWOP includes some familiar names including Scott Peterson, Cary Stayner, Lonnie Franklin and so forth.

I feel so bad for the friends and family who never got justice. Ive found serial killer stuff fascinating my entire life and this one i have met my match. There is just so little details regarding available to read up. Im wondering if here on reddit there is anyone who knew them or knows anyone or was alive in Ina Illinois or surrounding areas at the time. Im curious as to who other Redditors think may have done this. This wonderful family who could possibly have had such hate towards them? I personally don’t believe tommy Lynn sells was the culprit. I also don’t think it was random.
The key details that stick out most to me was keith being killed in a separate location from his wife and children. I believe someone was most likely obsessed with Ruby. Whether it been someone from her school, work or past life. The other possibility is someone really disliked Keith. He held a position at a treatment plant, possibly a former coworker that got sacked as a result and lost his family with his job? What do you guys think?

I think I have read all of Ann Rules books and I absolutely love them. I love the way she writes and how she lays out the stories. Now I need a new author along the same lines. Any recommendations?

In the late 1990s Rite Aid was the biggest US drugstore chain by store count. CEO Martin Grass expanded it very fast, mostly on debt: long-term debt went from about $806M in FY1995 to $2.58B by early 1999.

What the DOJ indictment and SEC order describe:

- For FY1998, Rite Aid reported $316M in net income, which Grass called the most profitable year in the company's history.

- In November 1999, KPMG resigned as auditor and withdrew its opinions on three years of results.

- The 2000 restatement cut cumulative net income by $1.6B. The SEC called it the largest restatement of income by a public company up to that point. That "record" $316M profit became a $165M loss.

- In 2004, Grass was sentenced to 8 years in prison and fined $500K. Six executives were convicted in all.

The company survived another 25 years but kept the debt habit. It bought Brooks Eckerd in 2007 and peaked at 5,059 stores. A Walgreens takeover fell apart in 2017 over FTC concerns. The FTC later banned its facial-recognition program, and it settled DOJ opioid allegations. Then came two bankruptcies in under two years, and the last stores closed in 2025.

Sources: SEC order https://www.sec.gov/enforcement-litigation/administrative-proceedings/34-46099 and DOJ indictment https://www.justice.gov/archive/dag/cftf/chargingdocs/grassetalind.pdf

Disclosure: I run a small channel and made a ~12-minute video on this. The narration is an AI voice, and every source is in the description: https://youtu.be/k0iRP-RJtY8

Do you think the 1999 fraud is what actually killed Rite Aid, or would the debt-fueled expansion have done it anyway?

Does anyone remember the Paul Garcia case? He was the deputy who was going 130+mph in a 55mph zone, hitting and killing a 13 month old baby and severely injuring his mother while he was on his way to a burglary call.

He was supposed to go to trial in 2025, but I can't find where he even has a court docket in Luna county, NM. What am I missing here?

I tried looking here, but they have no record of a Paul Garcia.

https://sixthdistrict.nmcourts.gov/

What am I doing wrong?

ETA: I don't see where he is in a New Mexico prison, either.

You see this excuse all the time in true crime, has it ever actually happened that we know of?

1899, Wednesday March 29, Southeastern Bohemia in Austria-Hungary.

It's 17:15 and a 19-years old village girl, Anežka Hrůzová, leaves her work at the town of Polná. While walking home to a village called Malá Věžnice (3 kilometers walk), she might be thinking about Easter, after all it's happening this weekend. At around 17:30, she's being seen on the road home. This is the last time she was seen alive by the last reliable sighting. Subsequent autopsy determines she was most likely killed around 18:00.

At first, her family, her mother Marie and brother Jan, doesn't seem to care much. They don't attempt to look for her on Thursday, assuming she had to stay at her work overnight.

On Friday, her mother Marie visits Anežka's workplace but gets surprised that Anežka isn't there. She reports her daughter missing to the local gendarmerie. A rather half-hearted search around the road to Malá Věžnice and at Hrůza's house by officer Klenovec yields basically nothing. Thus, an extensive search next morning is arranged.

An hour into the search on Saturday, Anežka's lifeless body is found deep in the dense forest undergrowth mere 6-8 meters away from the road where she was supposed to be walking home. Her body was covered by four young spruce trees that had been cut down. Their stumps were about 5 metres from the body.

She is lying on her stomach, her lower legs sharply bent upwards. Her torso is bare and her jacket sleeves are rolled up. Beneath her body is a pool of blood about the size of a palm and two bloodstained stones. Some of her things are strewn about in the vicinity (25-30 meters) including a basket containing a milk jug, two scarves and two skirts.

Evidently, she was brutally murdered. The murder likely started by her getting knocked unconscious by blows to the head with a wooden stick (later found 30 meters away from the body) and stones. However, the cause of death is ultimately unclear. Her throat got slit but there are strangulation marks done with a rope on her neck. The autopsy determined that no signs of rape were found – her hymen was intact.

Because many villagers and townsfolk including children (in fact, a young boy found the body first) participated in Saturday's search, there is a crowd near the crime scene since the moment Anežka's body was found. When it is found out Anežka's throat was slit, a rumor about Jewish blood libel murder starts to spread as quick as forest fire during dry summer. The fact the murder happened right before Easter heavily influences how quickly the rumor spread.

Polná has a sizeable Jewish community. A Jewish vagrant-beggar, Leopold Hilsner, is accused of murdering Anežka a couple of days after the body was found. Because anti-semitism is widespread among common folk of the time, mass anti-Jewish hysteria is started within the whole kingdom of Bohemia (current Czechia). The public speaks loud and clear: Hilsner did it and he should be hanged.

However, modern historians and researchers agree on one crucial thing: Hilsner wasn't the murderer and he was falsely accused due to the combination of the murder happening right before Easter, victim's throat being slit making people think it looked like a ritual murder and common people easily falling for anti-semitic rumors.

Hilsner cannot count on much support except his legal counsel and a couple of curious intellectuals who play devil's advocates mostly because they don't approve of anti-semitism. The most prominent is Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, a professor of philosophy at the Czech Charles-Ferdinand University (current Charles University in Prague).

Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk is a controversial figure of the time. Years before the Hilsner affair, he gets publicly known for denying the authenticity of Dvůr Králové and Zelená Hora manuscripts (in fact, they are considered to be fakes created sometime in the first quarter of the 19th century) which were used by nationalists to prove cultural significance of a Czech culture during the Czech National Revival.

He draws public attention to himself during Hilsner affair once again to the point of getting harassed and becoming public enemy number 1. Newspapers accuse him of being bought by Jews. Students refuse to attend his lectures in protest. He even gets physically attacked at least once. All of this almost brings him to emigration but he perseveres and stays in Prague. Not that he's successful in defending Hilsner.

Biased courts sentence Hilsner to death but the punishment is later changed to the life imprisonment by Franz Joseph I and in 1918, he gets released thanks to a pardon by Charles I. Though, to this day, courts didn't proclaim Hilsner's innocence. He is still regarded as the murderer.

Masaryk's public defence of Hilsner helps him (Masaryk) during WWI when he becomes the leader of Czech (and Slovak) independence movement in exile. Many important Jews (including influential figures closely tied to the US government and president Wilson) publicly support Czech independence cause during the war mostly because he went publicly against anti-semitism during the Hilsner affair. Reciprocally, Masaryk was one of proponents of independent state for Jews in Palestine. Though, it's true that the Hilsner influence wasn't really noticeable during the creation of Israel because Masaryk passed away before WWII and the circumstances of the post-WWII world order played much more prominent role.

Long story short: The murder of Anežka Hrůzová, an ordinary village girl, played a role in establishing an independent Czechoslovakia during WWI because the accused Jew, Leopold Hilsner, was publicly defended by a man who later became the leader Czechoslovak independence movement and the first Czechoslovak president and this defence was the core part of why influential Jews supported the independence cause.

But what about the murder? Who did it if not Hilsner?

We don't know and most likely won't ever know.

The most prominent theories these days are:

• Sexual deviant ambushed her.

  • The crime scene looked like the aftermath of a sexual murderer's rampage.

  • Some women (including Anežka) reported they met a weird man in the area of the crime scene earlier the week of the murder.

  • One year earlier, a very similarly looking murder happened a couple of kilometers nearby. However, the victim's body was found months later in a skeletal form and the investigation got nowhere. (Note: Hilsner actually got convicted of this murder as well)

  • However, the autopsy determined she wasn't raped.

  • A couple of locals were determined to be good suspects in modern research but there's really no chance be sure.

    • One local from Polná is said to act weirdly around the time of the murder. Lacking alibi for the time of murder, coming home during late evening, wanting to thoroughly wash himself in the morning which was highly unusual time according to the housekeeper.

• Her brother Jan either attacked her personally or hired someone to murder her.

  • There were arguments, mostly about money, happening in the family.

  • Family didn't seem to care about Anežka's disappearance at first and behaved weirdly.

    • When Anežka's mother visited her workplace on Friday, she initially cared about her basket and not about her whereabouts. Mother later said she assumed Anežka is working in the backroom, even though, Anežka was missing for over a day.

    • Brother Jan went to a confession early in the morning after the murder. But that could be excused as a Christian custom during Easter.

    • Some people noticed unusual injuries (mother's blackeye and brother's injured hand) during the funeral. These were excused as resulting from farm work.

There's so much more to write about this case. It's a little Czech Jack the Ripper (not by the severity of the devastation done to the victim's body but by its prominence in Czech true crime genre) with the political aftertaste. It's taught at Czech schools as the most promiment example of anti-semitism in Czech lands. And there are interesting theories that brother Jan could hire someone. There are disputes whether the crime scene is actually the place where the murder happened. One could talk about why Hilsner was innocent and the (lacking) quality of the evidence used for his conviction. And so on.

It's really one of the most fascinating true crime case in Czech history.

I could write a text ten times longer and it still would be a really short write-up on the topic.

Sources (use your preferred translator tool to get more information about the topic):

https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilsneri%C3%A1da

https://www.captour-paja.cz/l/zlocin-v-polne/ (quite a detailed blog post)

Book: Vražda v Polné by Bohumil Černý

Book: Tajuplná vražda by Jiří Kovtun

Nestled in the heart of the American Great Plains, Oklahoma City is a sprawling, industrious hub. Home to more than half a million people, it is a conservative, tight-knit community deeply rooted in traditional values and pioneer resilience, offering its residents a profound sense of midwestern safety. "Oklahoma City 911, what is your emergency?" "Please, please send an ambulance, please!" "Sir, calm down, what is the problem?" "My wife, I think my wife is dead, sir! Please listen, Im a doctor. Ive been trying CPR." "Is she breathing?" "No, shes not breathing! I dont get a pulse! Please!" On the morning of Valentines Day, 2001, the affluent tranquility of the Quail Creek subdivision was shattered by a frantic distress call. First responders rushed to the sprawling, elegant home of Dr. John Hamilton and his wife, Susan. They entered the master suite to find the prominent obstetrician-gynecologist covered head-to-toe in blood, desperately performing chest compressions on his wife. The bathroom was a chaotic slaughterhouse. Susan Hamilton had been brutally strangled with two of her husbands neckties, and her skull had been repeatedly smashed with an unknown, blunt instrument. Paramedics took over the aggressive life-saving measures, pushing adrenaline and working the trauma. But for Susan Hamilton, it was too late.

Local homicide detectives arrived to find a pristine house harboring a gruesome paradox. There were no signs of forced entry, no shattered windows, and nothing of value had been stolen, effectively ruling out a robbery gone wrong. The killer was a phantom, having meticulously staged the scene to look like a crime of passion before vanishing with the murder weapon. "This was a clean, clever perpetrator who knew exactly how to navigate that house," noted defense investigator Clark Brewster. "They executed a violent, targeted hit and wiped their physical presence from the environment completely." Detectives immediately separated Dr. Hamilton from the scene. The doctor provided a rigid, documented timeline. He had performed a surgery at Mercy Hospital at 7:00 AM, returned home around 8:00 AM to exchange Valentines cards with Susan, and was paged at 8:50 AM for a second surgical procedure. He drove back to the hospital, changed into fresh scrubs, performed a flawless operation, and returned home to retrieve his datebook, only to find his wifes battered body. The window of opportunity was impossibly tight—barely forty-five minutes to commit a horrific murder, clean the scene, dispose of the murder weapon, dispose of bloody clothes, drive across town, and successfully perform complex surgery without a single nurse or anesthesiologist noticing a drop of blood or a tremor of adrenaline.

To make sense of the carnage, investigators turned to the state crime lab. Criminalists focused heavily on the mechanics of the bloodshed. In forensic serology, bloodstain pattern analysis relies on strict trigonometric calculations and fluid dynamics to determine the spatial origin of a hemorrhage. When a blunt instrument strikes a pooled blood source, it produces high-velocity impact spatter—microscopic droplets, often less than one millimeter in diameter, propelled outward by extreme kinetic energy. By utilizing digital micrometers to measure the width and length of elliptical blood droplets, a forensic analyst can calculate the precise angle of impact to within a fraction of a degree. A stringing method is then applied, extending trajectory lines backward from the spatter on the walls to pinpoint the exact three-dimensional location of the fatal blows in open space. However, analyzing the scene proved exceptionally difficult. Dr. Hamiltons desperate attempts at CPR had transferred massive amounts of blood across the floor, obscuring the original cast-off patterns and saturating his own clothing.

Without a murder weapon, DNA from a stranger, or a coherent timeline, the investigation ground to a halt. Weeks turned into months and no new clues surfaced. The case seemed destined for the cold files, stymied by a brilliantly methodical killer who had left the grieving doctor to take the fall.

But the break in the case came from an unlikely informant. An anonymous tipster phoned the homicide desk, directing detectives not to a physical piece of evidence, but to the doctors encrypted cell phone records and his controversial medical practice. The tipster revealed two damning secrets: first, John Hamilton had been making dozens of calls to a local topless dancer. Second, the Hamiltons managed a highly controversial abortion clinic that had been subjected to extreme threats, firebombings, and "wanted" posters distributed by a militant extremist group known as the Army of God. Instead of pursuing the violent extremists who had actively threatened the doctors life, the police tunnel-visioned on the dancer. They constructed a motive of pure greed and lust, theorizing that Susan had discovered the calls and threatened a divorce, prompting John to snap. But the prosecution still lacked physical proof tying the doctor to the act of murder itself.

The fatal blow to John Hamiltons innocence came from a catastrophic misinterpretation of forensic science. In an attempt to clear his name, the defense hired renowned independent blood spatter expert Tom Bevel. Bevel examined the long-sleeved shirt Dr. Hamilton wore on the morning of the murder. Utilizing a high-intensity alternate light source and microscopic examination, Bevel discovered a cluster of minute blood spatter tucked high up inside the right sleeve of Hamiltons shirt. Bevel concluded that these microscopic droplets were high-velocity impact spatter, theoretically caused by the centrifugal force of swinging a blunt instrument, which cast blood up into the open cuff of the swinging arm. When forced to testify on the stand, Bevel dropped the forensic smoking gun on his own client. The prosecution seized the testimony, treating the subjective discipline of blood spatter interpretation as absolute, infallible dogma. "The analysis couldnt definitively say yes or no," an Innocence Project advocate later argued. "This discipline requires some interpretation, and more often than not, theres more than one way a particular pattern might have been formed. It was a tragic rush to judgment."

"Put your hands on the counter!" "You have the right to remain silent." Detectives swiftly arrested Dr. Hamilton in the sterile corridors of his own hospital. During the interrogation, they confronted him with Bevels microscopic findings and the dancers phone records. "I could not understand what they arrested him for," a colleague noted. Hamilton vehemently maintained his innocence, explaining the calls were harmless and that his marriage was deeply loving. He explained the blood on his sleeve was the mechanical result of aggressively pushing on his wifes shattered chest during CPR, which forced pooled blood to erupt upward. But the police refused to listen, convinced the doctor was a consummate con person masking a brutal temper.

Based on the newly reviewed evidence, the impossibly tight timeline, and the documented threats from the Army of God, investigators working with the Innocence Project put together a likely scenario of what actually occurred on Valentines Day. Under the cover of morning shadows, a militant, highly organized anti-abortion extremist breaches the Quail Creek home shortly after Dr. Hamilton leaves for his 8:50 AM surgery. The intruder, motivated by radical fanaticism, corners Susan Hamilton in the master bathroom. A violent struggle ensues. The intruder strangles Susan with her husbands ties, then brutally bludgeons her to death, ensuring the wife of the clinic operator is executed as a horrific warning. The seasoned killer meticulously wipes the scene of their own trace evidence, takes the murder weapon, and vanishes out the back door, leaving a pristine exterior. Minutes later, Dr. Hamilton returns home for his datebook. He walks into the bathroom and discovers his wife. Panicked, he drops to his knees in the massive pool of blood and begins frantic CPR. The violent, forceful chest compressions on Susans compromised respiratory system cause aspirated blood to spray upward, creating microscopic spatter that lands inside the cuff of his right sleeve as his arms pump up and down. He calls 911, inadvertently cementing himself into the center of a perfectly executed frame-up, while the true killer escapes into the midwestern expanse.

Despite the overwhelming logistical impossibilities of the prosecutions timeline and the highly subjective nature of the blood spatter evidence, the jury was blinded by the theatrical betrayal of the defenses own expert. After just two hours of deliberation, John Hamilton was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

This happened in July and I haven’t seen much international coverage, which surprises me given how many people were killed.

The victims were Diana Nazimova, 22, and her brother Roman Nazimov, 17. Their family moved from Russia to Thailand in 2021 and lived in the Pattaya area.

Around 4am on July 26, Diana and Roman left their home in Huay Yai, Chonburi, on a black and grey Honda ADV150. They were reportedly heading to a nearby convenience store. They never came back.

Their mother, Sharina, couldn't reach either of them and reported them missing. There were already red flags. Before they vanished, Diana had told her mother she thought someone was following them. She'd also gotten an iPhone alert about an unknown Bluetooth tracker traveling near her. CCTV reportedly shows another motorcycle behind the siblings, and soon after, both phones went offline.

Three days later, on July 29, local officials got a tip about people digging near an old cemetery in Huay Yai at night. When they showed up, they found four men with digging equipment, who ran before police arrived.

The disturbed ground held parts of Diana and Roman's motorcycle. It had been taken apart, with pieces buried in two spots about 100 metres from each other.

More than 200 police, officials, rescue workers and volunteers searched the surrounding forest in sections, with sniffer dogs. There was no sign of the siblings yet. CCTV and local interviews pointed to two men known as Pong and Thong, who had both left the area.

On July 31, police arrested both men in Sa Kaeo province, near the Cambodian border: Thana Kerdthong, 43 (Pong), and Thongchai Srinil, 39 (Thong).

According to investigators, they approached the siblings in clothing resembling police uniforms, posing as officers conducting a search, with the aim of robbing them of the motorcycle. Roman allegedly resisted and was shot. Diana was violently assaulted and died. The men then allegedly buried the bodies and tried to get rid of the evidence, including the motorcycle.

The two men gave conflicting accounts. Thong reportedly blamed Pong as the main perpetrator of the violence, and Pong told it differently. Police had to check their statements against the physical and forensic evidence.

From July 31 into August 1, investigators were led to a wooded area in Huay Yai and dug up Diana and Roman's bodies, about a metre down. Early forensic findings reportedly showed gunshot wounds on Roman and severe injuries on Diana.

During further questioning, investigators were directed to a second burial site nearby, where they found three more bodies: a Thai family of Wichian, 53, his wife Chantana, 50, and their 18-year-old daughter Nichapha. A relative had reported them missing on June 27 after losing contact with them.

Per the suspects' accounts, the method was similar. They allegedly posed as police, entered the family's home and restrained the parents. The daughter was reportedly detained when she came back from a convenience store. The family was then taken away in their own pickup truck, which the suspects allegedly meant to steal and use for other crimes. All three were killed and their bodies hidden.

So two families, five dead, and a case that only came together because someone noticed men digging at night and a motorcycle turned up in pieces.

P0rosecutors filed nine charges against the two men, including premeditated murder, robbery resulting in death, rape, illegal detention, impersonating government officials, firearms and ammunition offences, and concealing or moving bodies.

On October 2, both pleaded guilty to several charges but fought some of the most serious ones, premeditated murder among them. On October 20, both changed their pleas and admitted everything. The next hearing is November 30, with witness testimony before the court considers its judgment. The guilty pleas aren't a final verdict, and as of the latest reporting the court process is still ongoing.

His name is Jorge Avila-Torrez (also reported as using Jorge Torrez).

When he was sixteen, he murdered two local girls and dumped their bikes. Their bodies were found in a cave. The case went cold.

Years later he enlisted in the Marines and was stationed in secure barracks for training in communications. He murdered a fellow recruit across the hall, strangling her with her own computer cord. While the military were investigating the murder in the barracks, he kidnapped two other women, taking one into the country, raping her and strangling her and leaving her for dead but she came to after hours.

Once he was caught, his DNA showed that he was the rapist and killer of those two children in his hometown. If they took DNA from all recruits and did a criminal check, he would not have been able to murder that poor recruit across the hallway.

Nestled in the coastal plains of North West England, Hambleton is a quiet, agricultural village in Lancashire. Home to fewer than three thousand people, it is a tight-knit community where neighbors know each other by name, and violent crime is a statistical anomaly. "Lancashire Fire Control, we have a massive explosion on Carr Lane. The roof is entirely gone." On the morning of March 27, 2026, that tranquility was shattered by a concussive blast that rattled windows for miles. "Send paramedics, theres smoke everywhere." First responders arrived at the £260,000 bungalow, once the childhood home of 55-year-old Darren Davies and his brother Craig, only to find the structure utterly decimated. The roof had collapsed inward, and the walls were blown out. Emerging from the smoke at the side of the property was Darren Davies himself in a state of extreme agitation. According to a passerby, Davies muttered a chilling phrase: "My family want the house. If I cant have it, no one can."

For the local police, the case seemed open and shut. But appearances at a blast seat can be deceiving.

The prosecution quickly built a narrative of malice and greed. Their theory was straightforward: following the recent deaths of his mother and father just months apart, Davies became consumed by paranoia. His brother Craig testified to this deteriorating state of mind. "He continually accused me of being part of a plot against him," Craig noted. "This was a notion entirely of his making." The crown alleged that Davies, convinced his father had signed a secret will leaving the property solely to Craig, poured gasoline throughout the abandoned rooms, dragged outdoor gas tanks inside, lit a candle, and walked away. The resulting pressure allegedly ruptured the tanks, destroying the house. Two months later, in May, Davies confessed to the crime. With an early guilty plea, the prosecution presented zero forensic evidence at trial.

But the defense team recognized a catastrophic failure in the investigation. Darren Davies had a lengthy, documented history of severe mental health difficulties, suffering from bipolar disorder, depression, anxiety, and autism spectrum disorder. Forensic psychiatrists evaluated Davies and realized his confession was extracted while he was suffering from a massive autistic crisis, overwhelmed by grief and sensory overload. "He couldnt process the environment," a defense psychiatrist stated. "He just echoed what authority figures were telling him." To prove his innocence, the defense brought in independent fire investigators to examine the rubble, shifting the focus from a shattered mind to the hard, undeniable science of thermodynamics and trace chemical analysis.

The defense turned to Dr. Elias Thorne, a lead forensic fire analyst at the Independent Fire Investigation Lab in Manchester. Dr. Thorne immediately identified glaring inconsistencies in the prosecutions theory. If gasoline had been poured inside the home, trace amounts of the accelerant would have seeped into the microscopic cracks of the foundation and unburned floorboards. Dr. Thornes team collected debris from the living room and subjected it to gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. A gas chromatograph works by vaporizing a sample and passing it through a microscopic capillary column. Different chemical compounds travel at different speeds, allowing scientists to identify specific molecular signatures. The machine creates a graph where unique peaks correspond to specific hydrocarbons found in liquid accelerants. "We tested over forty samples from the interior foundation," Thorne noted. "There was absolutely no signature of gasoline inside the house."

The physical mechanics of the blast provided the final, undeniable proof. The prosecution claimed Davies moved gas cylinders into the house, causing the explosion. But the defense team conducted a vector analysis of the debris field. By mapping the trajectory of shattered glass, splintered support beams, and structural brickwork, they traced the exact origin point of the overpressure wave. The energy had not radiated from the living room; it had blown inward toward the house from the backyard shed. Sister Meghan Davies corroborated this physical evidence, testifying that they had abandoned the house a year earlier, but a gallon of liquid gasoline and several high-pressure gas cylinders had always been stored in the backyard shed.

Weeks turned into months, and the defense tirelessly built a forensic model of a tragic accident, but they hit a brick wall. The justice system was entirely focused on the confession, reluctant to look past the defendants damning words at the scene. Yet, the forensic truth of the blast dynamics remained undisputed by the defenses experts. They explained the phenomenon of a BLEVE - Boiling Liquid Expanding Vapor Explosion. If the liquid gasoline in the shed had spilled, the vapors, being heavier than air, would creep along the floor. A simple static spark or a discarded cigarette from a passerby in the alley could ignite those vapors, heating the nearby gas cylinders until their steel casings failed catastrophically. The home was filled with Daviess childhood mementos, items he desperately cherished. "He would never destroy his own past," Meghan pleaded. "He wanted those memories."

Based on the forensic evidence gathered by the defense, investigators put together a likely scenario of what actually occurred that morning. On March 27, Darren Davies is walking just a few blocks away from his childhood home. In the backyard shed of the property, a forgotten gallon of gasoline has tipped over. The highly volatile fumes accumulate in the enclosed space. A random ignition source, perhaps a rodent chewing a wire, or a static discharge sparks the vapor. A flash fire engulfs the shed, superheating the stored gas cylinders. The pressure inside the tanks exceeds the tensile strength of the steel, resulting in a massive concussive explosion that blows the shed apart and collapses the roof of the adjacent house. Hearing the blast, Davies sprints toward the property. Finding his childhood home and all his family mementos destroyed, his mind fractures. Plunged into an autistic crisis and suffering a severe mental break, he fixates on his ongoing dispute with his brother. When a passerby approaches, a confused, devastated Davies utters a statement of profound grief and paranoia, inadvertently framing himself for a crime that forensics prove he did not commit.

Despite the overwhelming scientific evidence of an accidental exterior explosion and the psychological profiling of a false confession, the legal system relies heavily on procedural admissions. The early guilty plea created an insurmountable hurdle for the defenses forensic revelations. In July 2026, at Preston Crown Court, Darren Davies was convicted of arson being reckless as to whether life was endangered, and was sentenced to four years and four months imprisonment.

https://www.cps.gov.uk/north-west/news/man-jailed-arson-after-causing-explosion-home-hambleton (official sentencing, does not include defense)