moonbuggy

`A judge has sentenced a man to life in prison for fatally shooting his elderly mother with a crossbow. [..]

After fighting with his mother over her will, Neal shot her with the crossbow in the chest, authorities said. [..]

“I loved my mother,” Bruce Neal said in court Wednesday. “What I did to my mom was a horrible crime.”

[The judge] said the love that Neal expressed for his mother made his actions more disturbing.’

`A prosecutor put on a black leather mask and re-enacted a bondage session Friday at a dominatrix’s manslaughter trial, telling the jury the woman did nothing to help her client when he suffered a heart attack. [..]

“After a gasp, his head went forward and she did nothing, nothing for five minutes,” Nelson said, his voice muffled as he spoke through the zippered mouth opening.

Lord’s attorney objected, and Judge Charles Grabau agreed.

“That’s enough, Mr. Nelson,” the judge said. “Thank you for your demonstration.”‘

`Joshua Philip Martin was in his fourth day on the job as a rescue-squad worker in Russell County when, in a playful mood, he decided to reach into the front seat of the ambulance and zap one of his co-workers with the defibrillator paddles. The rookie’s mistake was fatal.

Yesterday, in Russell Circuit Court, a judge convicted Martin, 25, of involuntary manslaughter, warning the burly but pink-faced young man that when he returns to court in March, he likely will be sent to prison. He faces a maximum sentence of 10 years.

The target of Martin’s prank was Courtney Hilton Rhoton, a 23-year-old mother of two small children who had worked her way through school to become an emergency medical technician. She went into cardiac arrest seconds after Martin placed the paddles on her chest and shoulder. Three days later, on June 4, she died.’

`Mexican police hunting the country’s most-wanted serial killer have arrested a female wrestler. [..]

Juana Barraza, 48, was held as she allegedly fled the scene where a woman in her 80s had been strangled with a stethoscope, police said. [..]

She reportedly admitted to Wednesday’s killing, but denied a murder spree in which at least 30 women may have died. [..]

After reports that a woman had carried out the killings, police suspected a man in woman’s clothes.

It meant months were spent detaining and questioning transvestites.’

` Since I was a little girl, I’ve always been drawn to cemeteries. I’ve been intrigued by the one across the street from where I live and have dubbed it “my” cemetery since the age of five years. As I grew older, my interest in exploring cemeteries expanded into a greater interest in the forgotten, hauntingly beautiful, mysterious and simply unknown, as well as the supernatural. The explorations included on this site are of abandoned places on small and large scales, cemeteries, roadside attractions, the allegedly haunted, just plain weird, and more. The need to photograph these places and things and share their stories is an undying one. And you never know what (or who!) will show up in photographs.’

`A Colombian man accidentally shot his nephew to death while trying to cure his hiccups by pointing a revolver at him to scare him, police in the Caribbean port city of Barranquilla said on Tuesday.

After shooting 21-year-old university student David Galvan in the neck, his uncle, Rafael Vargas, 35, was so distraught he turned the gun on himself and committed suicide, police said.’

`[..] From the transcript of radio communication among Israeli soldiers near Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip. The recording was submitted in January 2005 in the trial of the company commander, whose name has been withheld due to a military court order. He faces a maximum of three years in prison. [..]

SENTRY: We spotted an Arab female about 100 meters below our emplacement, near the light armored vehicle gate.

HEADQUARTERS: Observation post “Spain,” do you see it?

OBSERVATION POST: Affirmative, it’s a young girl. She’s now running east.

HQ: What is her position?

OP: She’s currently north of the authorized zone.

SENTRY: Very inappropriate location.

[Gunfire]’

`An Indian man is being refused entry to his house – because his family say he is a spirit come back to haunt them.

Raju Raghuvanshi was greeted with cries of “ghost” and neighbours locking doors when he returned from a short spell in jail to his village in Madhya Pradesh.

He had fallen ill in prison and was taken to hospital. Relatives heard he had died and performed his last rites.

Now, unable to convince them he is alive and well, he is staying nearby and has asked the police for help.’

`She survived brutal Nazi and Communist regimes to ultimately be brought down by a banana.

Slovenian migrant Ivanka Perko died in hospital last week in bizarre circumstances – she suffered complications after she dropped a banana on her leg.

Comical to the end, the 73-year-old old quipped to friends and family while on her deathbed: “I can’t believe after all this time it was a bloody banana that killed me.”

A family friend told The Saturday Daily Telegraph yesterday that Ms Perko – who was treasured by her Blue Mountains community – had been ill for several months with a condition that made her skin delicate and fine.

“She had tried to open a banana and dropped it,” the friend said. “The pointy end scraped down her leg and she died from complications.”‘

`Police arrested a man accused of faking his death more than 25 years ago to avoid paying child support.

Johnny Sterling Martin, 58, had a relative call Family Court in 1979 and report that he died during a bar fight in Alabama, authorities said. That call came a few months after he escaped from a work detail while serving a one-year jail term for failing to pay $4,120 in support for two children.

He was captured Tuesday and jailed, and now owes more than $30,000 in child support and faces an escape charge, authorities said.’

`A dog apparently fell from a highway overpass and crashed through a car windshield, fatally injuring the driver, police said today. [..]

Investigators do not believe the 27- to 32-kilogram Labrador retriever was thrown, but rather fell while trying to avoid a car, State Police Sgt. Michael A. Shaw said.

Police questioned the dog’s owner. [..]

“We’ve had rocks and other stuff like that fall off of overpasses,” Shaw said.

“This would be the first dog we’ve had.”‘

`Investigators say a North Carolina woman instructed her two young children to stay on the bed as she fled the family’s burning home.

That woman is now charged with murder. Lisa Louise Greene, 40, is being held without bond. [..]

Addison Macemore, 8, and her 10-year-old brother, Daniel, died in the Jan. 10 fire.

Greene is also charged with arson, possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia.’

`James Zadroga spent 16 hours a day toiling in the World Trade Center ruins for a month, breathing in debris-choked air. Timothy Keller said he coughed up bits of gravel from his lungs after the towers fell on Sept. 11, 2001. Felix Hernandez spent days at the site helping to search for victims.

All three men died in the past seven months of what their families and colleagues say were persistent respiratory illnesses directly caused by their work at ground zero. [..]

“This is just the tip of the iceberg,” [an attorney] said. “Many, many more people are going to die from the aftermath of the toxicity.”‘

`A 53-year-old woman was so depressed and desperate to end her life that she agreed to pay a friend to arrange for a hitman to kill her, a court heard.

Christine Ryder ended up handing over a total of £20,000 to Kevin Reeves after he agreed to murder her himself.

But Reeves, 40, of Saltings Road, Snodland, near Rochester, failed to keep his side of the bargain and she shopped him to the police.

Now he has been jailed for 15 months after being convicted of deception.’

`A lad who only ate chips, toast and baked beans was killed by his junk diet — aged just 20.

After years of unhealthy eating, Scott Martin’s liver began to fail, he developed hepatitis and his blood would not clot.

Sixteen-stone Scott refused a life-saving liver transplant because he was too scared and was so weak he needed a wheelchair.

He finally bled to death after an op to remove three infected teeth.’

`A Texas Department of Transportation employee was killed Sunday when he stepped in front of a moving 25-ton roller.[..]

Witnesses said Hayes stepped in front of the machine as it was backing up. The machine, known as a pneumatic roller, compacts pavement.

Hayes died instantly, [a spokesman] said. [..]

“He was a very experienced man, and for some inexplicable reason, he walked out in front of one of those rollers,” [the spokesman] said. “We’re stunned.”‘

`Two deploying soldiers and a concerned mother reported Friday afternoon that the U.S. Army appears to be singling out soldiers who have purchased Pinnacle’s Dragon Skin Body Armor for special treatment. The soldiers, who are currently staging for combat operations from a secret location, reported that their commander told them if they were wearing Pinnacle Dragon Skin and were killed their beneficiaries might not receive the death benefits from their $400,000 SGLI life insurance policies. The soldiers were ordered to leave their privately purchased body armor at home or face the possibility of both losing their life insurance benefit and facing disciplinary action.’

`A mechanic standing near a Boeing 737 at El Paso International Airport in Texas was sucked into one of the engines and killed Monday, officials said. [..]

[The CEO of Continental Airlines] said the incident occurred during a maintenance check in preparation for the plane’s departure.

A spokeswoman for Boeing said Monday’s incident is not the first such accident. “It doesn’t happen very often,” spokeswoman Liz Verdier said. “It has happened in the past.”

Either way, she said, the responsibility lies with Continental: “The airlines are responsible for their safety procedures.”‘

`The Boulder Canyon home of a child-sex offender found dead with his wife Saturday of apparent suicides may become a bird sanctuary, with a parrot named Greeny the chief beneficiary of the couple’s estate.

Then again, their assets could go to a family friend who apparently turned over to the Boulder County coroner a handwritten note from the couple.’

`Sumeyya Mamuk considered the chickens in her backyard to be beloved pets. The 8-year-old girl fed them, petted them and took care of them. When they started to get sick and die, she hugged them and tenderly kissed them goodbye. The next morning, her face and eyes were swollen and she had a high fever. Her father took her to a hospital, and five days later she was confirmed to have the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu. [..]

When her mother saw Sumeyya holding one of the dying chickens, she yelled at her and hit the girl to get her away.

Sumeyya began to cry. She wiped her tears with the hand she’d been using to comfort the dying chicken.’

`A dead woman dressed in white was positioned in a chair in front of a television set for 2 1/2 years because she told her caregiver that she didn’t want to be buried and planned to return, the coroner said.

“Don’t show my body when I’m dead,” Hamilton County Coroner Dr. O’dell Owens said Monday in describing Johannas Pope’s wishes. “Don’t bury me. I’m coming back.”

Pope, 61, died Aug. 29, 2003. Her caretaker and friend, whose name has not been released, left the woman upstairs in the home with the television and air conditioning on while the body slowly decayed and mummified, authorities said.’

Some family members continued to live downstairs in the house since her death.’

`An elderly man apparently upset about a parking dispute died in his burning house after trying to set fire to two of his neighbors’ homes using “homemade bombs,” authorities said. [..]

Police received a call about an explosion early Sunday and found the man standing in the street holding two handguns. One of his arm was in flames. When police told him to drop the guns, he fled into his house. Minutes later, flames and smoke came from the home, followed by several explosions, the city said in a statement. [..]

Investigators said the man had a long-standing feud with several neighbors regarding parking on the cul-de-sac. Neighbors said he also had other gripes.

“He was always mad at the whole neighborhood, always screaming at the kids especially,” [a neighbour] said. “He hated everybody. I just never thought it would get to that point.”‘

`A former Czech army doctor convicted of shooting dead Nigeria’s consul to Prague after falling prey to fraudsters has been spared his full jail term.

Prague’s public prosecutor decided not to oppose a court motion to free Jiri Pasovsky, 74, on grounds of ill health.

He was sentenced in June to eight years in jail, cut to five on appeal.

Pasovsky killed consul Michael Lekara Wayid, 50, and injured another embassy employee in 2003 after losing more than $600,000 (£340,000) to Nigerian conmen.’

`Winston Churchill wanted to send Adolf Hitler to the electric chair and let Gandhi starve to death, according to secret documents revealed today. Britain’s wartime Prime Minister believed senior Nazis should be summarily executed without trial.

In the 1940s, traitors and war criminals were hanged but he suggested borrowing an electric chair from the US.

Notes of Cabinet documents, which have just been released, show colleagues urged him to moderate his views on Gandhi, fearing repercussions if he died as a result of his hunger strike.’

`Al-Qaeda is recruiting suicide bombers who are infected with the AIDS virus, according to documents revealed to the Sunday Mirror.

Terror chiefs are also targeting fanatics who suffer other lethal blood diseases such as hepatitis and dengue fever in order to increase their “kill rate” from an explosion. The chilling new threat is revealed in papers distributed to British military camps in Iraq and across Europe.

Under the heading “HIV/Hepatitis” the document states: “There is evidence that terrorists might be deliberately recruiting volunteers with diseases that are spread by blood transference.”‘

`The following is a step by step demonstration of what happens during an autopsy procedure.

Warning: some people might find this section disturbing. It contains detailed information about what happens in an autopsy.’

It’s not particularly disturbing or detailed, actually. But still, they probably have to give a warning because people are stupid cunts looking for any reason to sue someone.

`With common items such as concrete blocks, a saw blade, bare wires and gasoline, a despondent David Moore devised systems that would first kill him and then turn his home into a funeral pyre.

Neither worked as planned.

On Monday, Belmont police discovered Moore dead in his bedroom, some 20 feet away from a homemade guillotine he had built in his living room. He had gone as far as bolting tracks of metal piping to a ceiling beam to guide the blade, authorities said.

Flawless it was not.’

`When embalming an infant, there are many factors to consider, including the proper pressure, flow rate, fluid index and incision site. The location of the incision is very important for many reasons. One reasons is that the incision’s location will have a direct effect on the distribution of the fluid. Also, more often than not, parents will likely want to hold and touch their infant. For this reason, we need to conceal and keep the incision to a minimum. The carotid arteries should be avoided at all cost. The femoral arteries can be used, but the distribution can be questionable.’

`A woman who died after a car crash had been shot in the heart minutes earlier with a pellet gun that her 14-year-old son received as a Christmas gift, police said.

Police said the teen was protecting his grandfather from his mother, Elizabeth White. She was threatening the grandfather with a pair of scissors, according to authorities.

The death was ruled a justifiable homicide, said Capt. Randy Landen of the Wichita Police Department.’

`Canadian officials, seeking to make sense of another fatal shooting in what has been a record year for gun-related deaths, said Tuesday that along with a host of social ills, part of the problem stemmed from what they said was the United States exporting its violence.

Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin and Toronto Mayor David Miller warned that Canada could become like the United States after gunfire erupted Monday on a busy street filled with holiday shoppers, killing a 15-year-old girl and wounding six bystanders — the latest victims in a record surge in gun violence in Toronto.’