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Tag: murder

  • 3 Young Muslims Murdered By Atheist Neighbour In The US

    3 Young Muslims Murdered By Atheist Neighbour In The US

    A family of three young Muslims has been shot dead in their home in a quiet neighbourhood of North Carolina in the US.

    Police have named the victims as 23-year-old Deah Shaddy Barakat, his wife, Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha, 21, and her sister, Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, 19.

    Officers were called to reports of gunshots at 5.11pm at an apartment block largely housing academics and young professionals on Summerwalk Circle in Chapel Hill.

    The victims were found shot dead at the scene, while some residents described not even being aware there was an incident until police arrived. Sources told local WRAL News that all three had been shot in the head.

    A 46-year-old man, named by police as Craig Stephen Hicks, has been arrested on suspicion of three counts of first-degree murder.

    Alleged Murderer Craig Stephen Hicks

    Hicks appeared briefly in court Wednesday morning, during which he spoke only to answer that he understood the charges and to confirm an indigency affidavit.

    District Judge Marcia Morey said he would be appointed a public defender and held without bond until a 4 March hearing.

    Hicks described himself as an atheist on Facebook and posted regular images and text condemning all religions. Police said he handed himself in last night.

    In a statement released on Wednesday morning (local time), Chapel Hill Police said that a preliminary investigation suggested the crime was “motivated by an ongoing neighbour dispute over parking”.

    But the women’s father, Dr Mohammad Abu-Salha, who has a psychiatry practice in Clayton, told the North Carolina News and Observer that he believed the shooting was based on the religion and culture of the victims.

    “This was not a dispute over a parking space; this was a hate crime,” he said.

    He went on to allege that Hicks had “picked on” his daughter and her husband “a couple times before.”

    “They were uncomfortable with him, but they did not know he would go this far,” he said.

    Police chief Chris Blue called the killing “senseless and tragic” and said the force’s “thoughts are with the families and friends of these young people who lost their lives so needlessly”.

    He said: “We understand the concerns about the possibility that this was hate-motivated and we will exhaust every lead to determine if that is the case.”

    The shooting has been met with an outpouring of anger on social media, where people posting new pictures of the victims studying and playing basketball claimed they had been “murdered execution style”.

    Some compared the incident to the Charlie Hebdo shootings in Paris, and others called on Barack Obama and senior religious figures to condemn the attacks.

    An American football and basketball fan, Mr Barakat was believed to be a dental student at the University of North Carolina and volunteered with a charity providing emergency dental care to children in Palestine.

    He regularly posted on Twitter, and wrote in January: “It’s so freaking sad to hear people saying we should ‘kill Jews’ or ‘kill Palestinians’. As if that’s going to solve anything.”

    UNC officials said Mr Barakat and Yusor Abu-Salha got married less than two months ago, in late December. She had been planning to begin her own dental studies in Chapel Hill this autumn.

    The three victims were recently pictured together at the graduation of Yuzor’s sister, Razan, who ran a blog showing her interest in photography and art.

    She had started a degree at North Carolina State University last summer, studying Architecture and Environmental Design, and her Twitter biography read: “I like buildings and other stuff.”

    A community Facebook page set up in the memory of the three victims, called “Our Three Winners”, thanked people for their support and said it would carry “official announcements”.

    While it was not immediately clear if it was set up by the family, it carried news that funeral arrangements would follow pending an update from the medical examiner.

    “It sorrows us all to see what has happened here today,” another statement read. “Please rely on each other and remember these beautiful souls in your happy thoughts. Their faith meant a lot to them, and it is in fact what helps us all feel at peace with the tragedy of their murder.”

    Last night, police were forced to turn away people claiming to be family members at the scene of the crime, saying that they would not be able to confirm any more details until Wednesday.

    Kristen Boling, a UNC student who lives in the building where the shooting took place, told the Daily Tarheel she had been home since 3.45pm but didn’t see or hear anything until police arrived.

    “It was a regular day when I got off the bus,” she said. “Now it’s chaos and confusion and they’re not telling us what’s going on..”

    Another resident, Bethany Boring, said: “It’s a really quiet community, a lot of graduate students, professionals and families. I thought it was pretty safe.”

    The university reportedly put out an alert message to students last night saying that counselling services had been made available. “We know many of you may be feeling unsettled by this news,” it said.

     

    Source: www.independent.co.uk

  • 2 Foreigners Found Dead In Hotel 81 Palace Geylang

    2 Foreigners Found Dead In Hotel 81 Palace Geylang

    Two people were found dead in Hotel 81 Palace at Lorong 16 Geylang on Sunday (Feb 1), in what is believed to be a murder-cum-suicide case.

    The Singapore Civil Defence Force said they were alerted to the incident at 7.50pm. A woman in her 20s and a man in his 30s were pronounced dead at the scene.

    Channel NewsAsia understands that the two dead are a 29-year-old woman from Indonesia and a 31-year-old man from India. Both were in Singapore on work permits.

    They were both found motionless in a room on the third floor of the hotel. The man was fully dressed, while the woman was partially clothed, with visible injuries on her body.

    The hotel’s manager declined to comment on the incident.

    Police investigations are ongoing.

     

    Source www.channelnewsasia.com

  • Murder In Tampines – Suspect A PRC National

    Murder In Tampines – Suspect A PRC National

    A Chinese national stabbed himself on the ninth-floor ledge of an HDB block in Tampines and threatened to jump after allegedly killing a woman in the bedroom of a flat in the next block.

    Residents of Block 505, Tampines Central 1, where the Chinese man had run to after allegedly committing the crime at Block 503, said they heard a loud quarrel broke out at about midnight on Wednesday.

    Madam Lim Ai Lee, who lives on the eighth floor, said that she heard at least four different voices arguing loudly in heavily-accented Mandarin.

    “They were talking very quickly and it was just tense,” added the 41-year-old teacher, who could not make out what they were arguing about.

    She said that the noise continued till about 3am when she decided to yell at the people to keep quiet or she would call the police.

    Still, the commotion continued. She peeked out of her bedroom window and saw silhouettes and red, wet splotches dripping down the ledge on the landing.

    There, the police arrested a 37-year-old Chinese national, who was bleeding profusely, on Wednesday morning for the alleged murder of his housemate, who was also from China.

    Madam Lim said: “I thought it was red paint from construction work. There was so much. Who would have thought it was blood?”

    When The Straits Times visited Block 505 on Wednesday morning, blood covered the ledge on the ninth floor and had dripped to the first level. There was also blood on the staircase landing.

    The police said they received a call at 11.43pm on Tuesday, requesting for assistance. When the officers arrived at Block 503, they found a woman lying motionless in the unit on the seventh floor. Paramedics pronounced her dead at 12.10am.

    Police have classified the case as murder and are investigating.

    Next-door neighbour Fadzilah Hanum said she did not hear any commotion when the alleged murder happened.

    “It was my husband’s birthday, so I wished him ‘happy birthday’ at about 12.05am. He had just came home then,” said the 35-year-old customer service officer.

    She said that her previous neighbours had rented their unit out a couple of years ago, and since then, many Chinese nationals have been living in the five-room flat.

    “There are many mattresses in the living room,” she said. “They never open their doors fully, leaving only enough space for them to squeeze out one by one.”

    Residents said that about 10 people live in the five-room flat. It is not known how many of the occupants were in the flat when the alleged killing took place.

    But they did not think much of this, because their new neighbours kept to themselves and did not create any problems.

    Madam Fadzillah said: “Sometimes, they smile at my kids when I take them to school.”

    Another neighbour, Mr Neo Kim Tian, said that some of the tenants are believed to be factory workers as they wore uniforms on their way to work.

    “The unit has always been quiet,” added the 54-year-old maintenance worker.

     

    Source: www.straitstimes.com

  • Aussie Chef Kills and Then Cooks Body Parts of Transvestite Wife

    Aussie Chef Kills and Then Cooks Body Parts of Transvestite Wife

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    An Australian chef killed his Indonesian wife, cooked her body parts over the stove and then slit his own throat in a grisly murder-suicide in Brisbane, Australia on Oct 5.

    It was previously reported that authorities went to the home in an upmarket area of Brisbane after neighbours had complained of a terrible smell.

    When they arrived, police found some parts of Ms Mayang Prasetyo’s body cooked up on a stove, with other parts strewn across the apartment and in garbage bins outside, The Straits Times reported.

    Her husband, Marcus Volke, reportedly fled the unit when officers arrived, before taking his own life.

    According to reports, the couple had met on an international cruise ship where they were both working as chefs, got married in Aug 2013 and had only recently moved into the apartment.

    Australian news website news.com.au reported that Ms Mayang was a transsexual “high class” prostitute and was charging up to A$500 (S$558) an hour for her services.

    She had also worked at Melbourne’s transgender cabaret show Le Femme Garcon before settling in Brisbane with her husband, according to The Straits Times.

    Ms Mayang’s mother Nining Sukarni, speaking to Brisbane’s Courier-Mail from her home in Lampung, Indonesia, mourned the loss of her eldest child, and said that she had been the family’s breadwinner and had sent money home to put her two sisters, aged 18 and 15, through school.

    She referred to Ms Mayang as her son, Febri, and had described Volke as “quiet and submissive”.

    However, it was also reported that friends had concerns that Volke was difficult to get to know and extremely cold.

    The Courier-Mail also reported that Volke’s mother, Dorothy, did not suspect that anything was amiss and that everything seemed ‘normal’.

    According to The New Paper, Ms Mayang’s friends had taken to social media to pay tribute to her, with one user, Brett Spark, writing: “RIP beautiful, the world will not be the same without you.”

    Video tributes to Ms Mayang have also been posted on her Facebook timeline.

    Source: http://news.asiaone.com/news/crime/australian-chef-kills-wife-cooks-parts-her-body#xtor=CS1-2

  • Boon Lay Murder Case, Siblings Convicted For Murder

    Boon Lay Murder Case, Siblings Convicted For Murder

    Muhammad Kadar, who has been on death row for five years for knifing an elderly housewife more than 110 times in 2005, did not get to escape the gallows on Sept 29.

    The decision by the Court of Appeal to affirm the sentence cast the spotlight once again on the long-running trial, which lasted three years and saw many twists and turns.

    Muhammad, 39, and his older brother Ismil, first went on trial in 2006, charged with murdering their neighbour, Madam Tham Weng Kuen, 69, at her Boon Lay flat while robbing her. The case took a dramatic turn when Muhammad made a stunning confession in court that he was the sole assailant. He had told police earlier that Mr Ismil was the main culprit.

    The High Court did not conclude who the assailant was but ruled that the pair were guilty of murder under the law on common intention.

    They appealed against their convictions, and Mr Ismil was freed in 2011 after the Court of Appeal cleared him of murder. But he went back to jail 15 months later for consuming drugs.

    We recap the landmark case with stories from The Straits Times archives:

    1. What is the case about

    murder5

    The brothers were sentenced to hang in 2009 for murdering Madam Tham. The elderly housewife’s husband, who was a stroke patient and bedridden, was in another room in the house when it happened and could do nothing to help. The husband died in 2006 without seeing the culprit brought to justice.

    Read about it here:

    Brothers to hang for robbery killing of elderly woman

    2. Brothers appealed against their convictions

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    The brothers appealed against their convictions. Justice V. K. Rajah, one of three judges sitting in the Court of Appeal, pointed out that many parts of the crime scene had not been checked for fingerprints – the bedroom of Madam Tham’s bedridden husband, kitchen toilet, toilet walls, kitchen window and the tap of a sink that appeared to have been used.

    Read about it here:

    Boon Lay murder: ‘Lapse’ in checks leaves unanswered questions

    3. Ismil escapes gallows

    murder2ws

    More than two years after the pair were given the mandatory death penalty, Ismil escaped the gallows in April 2011, with the prosecution’s acceptance that he was not guilty of murder.

    The story here:

    Older brother escapes gallows

    4. Ismil cleared of murder

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    Ismil – who spent six years in prison including two years on death row – was released from prison in July 2011 after he was cleared of murder by the Court of Appeal.

    The court issued a strongly worded judgment highlighting “serious lapses” by police and prosecutors. The police had been given three statements by the victim’s husband in which he said he saw only one intruder in their flat. These were not made available to the defence until very late in the trial.

    More here:

    Man accused of murder freed after 6 years in jail 

    5. From death row to new life

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    Adapting to life outside prison was a challenge for Ismil, who found work as a dispatch assistant with help from his lawyer.

    Asked about how he felt, Ismil said then: “I feel like a new person, but very out of place. I think I will need some time to get used to the sudden freedom.”

    Read the stories here:

    The unfamiliar taste of freedom

    From death row to new life 

    6. Back in jail

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    After making headlines for how he was on the road to a more normal life, Ismil was sent back to prison 15 months after he was freed. He was jailed seven years and given six strokes of the cane for consuming drugs. Ismil told the judge: “I have tried to do… my very best. I have planned for the best, but it did not work out.”

    The story here:

    He’s back in jail after wasting chance for starting a new life

    murder8

     

    Ismil’s mother, Madam Asnah Ismail, said she was neither sad nor disappointed at the turn of events. “When he wasn’t taking these things, he was a good person,” she said in Malay.

    More here:

    Mum says son was a good person when he wasn’t taking drugs 

    Source: http://www.straitstimes.com/news/singapore/courts-crime/story/boon-lay-murder-landmark-case-many-twists-and-turns-20140930#xtor=CS1-10