Update on suspected murder-suicide near Galesburg (MI)

Man kills 16 yo, shot 15 yo; then himself April 29, 2009

Original: http://www.wwmt.com/articles/galesburg-1361990-suicide-suspected.html

April 30, 2009 - 3:17 PM

NEAR GALESBURG, Mich. (NEWSCHANNEL 3) - New information is emerging about a suspected murder-suicide near Galesburg.

Two people are dead, a man and a teenage girl. Detectives are looking into reports that two teenage girls had been hired by Nicholas Arbutina on Miller Drive to do some cleaning.

The two teens, 16-year-old Tanika Heard, and 15-year-old Brianna Washington, were visiting the home.

67-year-old Nicholas Arbutina is believed to have pulled a gun on the girls, shooting and killing Tanika Heard with a shotgun.

Brianna Washington was also shot, but managed to take off running down the road, going to the gas station complex at Miller and 35^th Street for help.

Newschannel 3 cameras were there to capture the police presence that rushed into the area around 7:00 Wednesday night.

Nicholas Arbutina ultimately shot and killed himself.

Investigators say he lived alone at the home on Miller Drive.

The folks at the Kalamazoo County Sheriff's Department just released the name of that shooter late Thursday afternoon.

Newschannel 3 also spoke to the father of the 16-year-old girl who was killed. He says his daughter had been working for the shooter for about a year, doing chores at the house.

On Thursday, the father described his daughter as a beautiful, outgoing girl. Tanika Heard had just turned 16. Her 15-year-old foster sister, Brianna Washington, was her best friend.

The pair was at the house on Miller Drive Wednesday evening when the violence started.

Tanika was shot dead in the driveway of the home, and when Brianna took off running, her foster dad says she was shot in the back as she headed for the gas station complex to get help.

Police rushed to the scene, finding Tanika outside the house, along with the shooter.

67-year-old Nicholas Arbutina was a caretaker living in a house next to the main home on the Miller Drive property.

"We're still trying to put it all together," said Kalamazoo County Sheriff Richard Fuller, "knowing they were familiar with each other, the people at the house had all been there before."

Tanika's father says the teenage girls had been doing chores for Arbutina for about a year. The only witness to the scene is Brianna, who is recovering in the hospital after being shot in the torso.

Tanika's father says Brianna told him that Arbutina tried to sexually assault one of the girls, and when Tanika hit him, he pulled a gun.

Newschannel 3 looked into Arbutina's criminal history, and back in 2004 he pleaded guilty to soliciting a prostitute. Investigators say Arbutina's family lives out of the area.

Investigators say they are looking into the allegations of assault, but have not confirmed anything at this point.

Newschannel 3 has been told that funeral arrangements for Tanika Heard are being handled by Langeland Funeral Homes.

Brianna Washington is currently in the hospital being treated for a one gunshot wound to the torso, she is listed as being in stable condition. Newschannel 3 has been told that she was able to talk to detectives and may be the one with the answers as to what exactly occurred.

Interestingly enough, I found this article: On day of victim's funeral, an alleged stalking victim comes forward. Apparently this man had a habit of trying to get young girls to work for him; and police confirmed that there may be others

Police Investigating Suspicious Death In Leesburg Home (VA)

Husband kills wife, then himself April 29, 2009

Original: http://www.wusa9.com/news/breaking/story.aspx?storyid=85053&catid=158

LEESBURG, Va. (WUSA) -- Detectives have identified the couple found dead in their Leesburg townhouse early Wednesday morning, leaving their three young children without parents.

A spokesperson for the Leesburg Police Department tells 9NEWS NOW they found the couple in their upstairs bedroom. Inam Uddin, 47, was found dead along with his wife, Nusrat Uddin, 36, died at the hospital.

Police say they received a call from the house at 844 Smartt Lane in the Potomac Crossing subdivision around 4:45 a.m. Police are calling the deaths suspicious but are looking into the possibility this could be a murder suicide. They say they are not looking for any suspects.

Police say the wife ran a daycare in the home, but no daycare children were inside. Parents trying to drop their kids off this morning were turned away by police. Police cannot say whether the home was a licensed daycare at this time.

Police say the couple's children ages 5, 12 and 14 were asleep during the incident and were told about their parents death by child protective services.

9NEWS NOW talked with neighbors who have been on edge with recent crimes in the area. Potomac Crossing is four miles away from Lansdowne, the scene of where William Bennett was beaten to death in March. Police say the incident on Wednesday in Leesburg has no connection to any current investigation going on in the county.

Written by Surae Chinn
9NEWS NOW & wusa9.com

Pumpkin's father faces court

• April 24, 2009 - 9:20AM

A New Zealand man accused of murdering his wife in Auckland and abandoning his infant daughter in Melbourne has faced court in preparation for his trial.

Nai Yin Xue, 54, is accused of strangling his 27-year-old wife, An An Liu, in Auckland in September 2007 before fleeing to Melbourne and dumping his three-year-old daughter at Southern Cross railway station.

Qian Xun Xue, nicknamed Pumpkin, was found wandering the station alone after her father fled to the United States.

Xue, dressed in a crumpled white shirt and looking thinner than he once was, appeared in Auckland's High Court today to hear discussions on preparations for his case, set down to start in early June.

He listened through an interpreter while crown prosecutor Aaron Perkins told the court evidence would be presented from "a very large number" of witnesses in three countries - New Zealand, Australia and the United States.

Justice Hugh Williams adjourned the case until May 14 to discuss which witnesses would be called and how their evidence would be heard.

Xue was on the run in the United States for more than four months before he was apprehended in February 2008 and returned to New Zealand.

He pleaded not guilty to the murder.

His applications for bail have been denied as the court judged him a serious flight risk.

Pumpkin now lives in China with her grandmother.

Four killed in Baltimore hotel room in apparent murder-suicide (MD)

Man kills wife and two daughters, then himself April 20, 2009

Original: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2009/04/21/2009-04-21_four_killed_in_baltimore_hotel_room_in_apparent_murdersuicide_were_family_from_l.html

BY Andrew Zaleski In Baltimore and Nicholas Hirshon and Rich Schapiro In New York
DAILY NEWS WRITERS

Updated Tuesday, April 21st 2009, 2:20 PM

Sweeney/AP/Baltimore Sun

A Baltimore County Police officer gets supplies from a forensic van to aid in the investigation into the deaths of a family from Long Island at a Sheraton hotel tin Townson, Md.

Mother Betty Parente with daughters, Stephanie and Catherine

A beloved Manhattan lawyer killed his wife and two daughters in a Maryland hotel room and then took his own life in a sickening murder-suicide, cops said Tuesday.

A hotel worker found the bodies of 59-year-old William Parente; his wife, Betty, 58, and daughters - Stephanie, 19, and Catherine, 11 - in their hotel room in Towson on Monday, Baltimore County cops said.

Police refused to disclose the cause of death but noted the victims were not shot or stabbed; they also would not reveal ifthere was a note. It remained unclear what triggered William Parente, a tax and estate planning lawyer, to do the unthinkable.

"The why and the motive in this is just a big blank right now," said Police Cpl. Michael Hill.

Investigators were examining a complaint they received Tuesday from a Queens lawyer about William Parente's financial dealings, said state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo.

The Parentes' neighbors along their quiet block in tony Garden City, L.I., were stunned by the sudden and violent end to what seemed to be a picture-perfect family. "They loved each other, they loved those girls and the girls loved them," said next-door neighbor Robert Krener, 64, whosaid he was unaware of anystress - financial or otherwise - that William Parente wasunder.

The family also had a home in Westhampton Beach, L.I.

"It's completely incomprehensible," said Krener, who, with his wife, would occasionally dine with the Parentes.

Marianne Quinn, 53, who described herself as Betty Parente's "best friend," said she thought William Parente may have been depressed over his mom's death; the one-year anniversary of her passing was last week.

Most friends said the deeply religious Catholic couple was outgoing and warm - the type of neighbors who brought gifts to new families on the block.

"If you were in a bad mood, they snapped you right out of it," said Catherine Grasman, who runs a kennel in Floral Park, L.I., where the Parentes would bring their two Maltese pooches, Buttons and Cupcake.

"When they came in, they lit up the room."

Police said the family was lastspotted alive Sunday afternoon, not long after they shared what seemed to be a pleasant breakfast together. The Parentes were visiting Stephanie, a sophomore at Baltimore's Loyola College.

The teenager's death left the Catholic campus shaken."She was the last person you would think had anything wrong in her life," said sophomore Pooja Bhatnagar, 19. "I saw her Friday, before she was going to meet with her family, and she was happy. Everything seemed okay."

Betty Parente, a stay-at-home mom who moved with her family from Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, to Long Island a dozen years ago, was on the board of the Tri Town Auxiliary of United Cerebral Palsy of Nassau County.

"She loved her daughters with every fiber of her body," said neighbor Linda Mattei.

"This is a shock to everybody."

rschapiro@nydailynews.com

Slain mother had blogged that husband under stress (MD)

Husband kills wife, three kids, then himself April 18, 2009

Original: http://www.examiner.com/a-1969609~Slain_mother_had_blogged_that_husband_under_stress.html

Apr 19, 2009 6:56 PM (17 days ago) By ALEX DOMINGUEZ, AP

MIDDLETOWN, Md. (Map, News) - A man who killed his wife, their three young children and himself in their northwest Maryland home had a hard time adjusting to his new manager's job for a railroad and it was causing him stress, according a blog entry his wife posted last month.

The children's grandfather discovered the murder-suicide Saturday when he went to check on the family at their Middletown home, authorities said. Francis Billotti Wood, 33, and her children suffered "traumatic cuts" and each had at least one wound from a .25-caliber handgun, Frederick County Sheriff Charles Jenkins said. Her husband, 34-year-old Christopher Alan Wood, was found at the foot of his bed, dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, authorities said.

Francis Wood grew up in the Middletown area and the family moved back last year. Her husband had been transferred from Jacksonville, Fla., for work as an account manager in the sales and marketing group at CSX Corp. in Baltimore, a company spokesman said. In a blog under her name and photo that she appears to have started in 2006, she said she thrived on the excitement that change brings, but he didn't handle it as well as she did.

"Chris is trying to adjust but he is having a hard time with the new job which makes him more of a major player at work," a March 16 entry read.

She also said she knew he worried that his traveling for the job would keep him away from the children too much.

"But I think we should focus on Quality over Quantity," she wrote.

On Sunday, members of Holy Family Catholic Community Church, which Francis Wood's parents helped found, remembered her as someone deeply involved in the parish, teaching catechism and volunteering in the nursery.

The Rev. Kevin Farmer said Wood was "the kind of parishioner I would wish for."

Authorities found the couple's two sons, ages 5 and 4, dead in their beds, and the bodies of their 2-year-old daughter and Francis Wood were in the master bedroom, Frederick County sheriff's office spokeswoman Jennifer Bailey said. On the master bedroom floor was Christopher Wood's body, she said.

Sheriff Jenkins said Wood left behind five notes before fatally shooting himself, including an apology to family members and hints that he suffered from psychiatric problems. The sheriff also said there was evidence that Wood faced financial problems.

Francis Wood wrote in the blog that her husband needed to get out of his comfort zone, but it was causing him stress.

Her last posting, dated April 1, said: "I am thinking that Chris and I will never agree on a new house to buy." She also talks about being blessed to be able to stay at home with her children and that she could give back to the community.

Joe Parker, 64, whose daughter and Francis Wood went to school together and were members of the Girl Scouts, said he wonders if there was more he could have done to prevent the deaths.

"We need to be more involved in other people's lives and we're not," Parker said.

Neighbors placed stuffed animals, balloons and flowers along the porch railing on the Woods' yellow two-story home.

Randel Edwards, 50, placed a handwritten sign that said: "Billotti and Wood families. We love you and hold you in our prayers. Your loved ones are greatly missed. May heaven dry your tears."

Edwards said he hoped some good would come out of the tragedy and lead those who are "experiencing difficulties" to realize "that there are people that want to help."

Next-door neighbor Pat Hendricks said the family moved into the rented house in January and that there were no signs of trouble.

"There were no red flags. They were a very loving family," she said.

---

Associated Press Writer Gillian Gaynair in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.

Man Killed 5 Kids When Wife Said She Was Leaving (WA)

Man kills his five kids, then himself April 4, 2009

Original: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,512581,00.html

GRAHAM, Wash. — A man who fatally shot his five children and killed himself had just discovered his wife was leaving him for another man, authorities said Sunday.

The bodies of James Harrison's children, ages 7 to 16, were found with multiple gunshot wounds Saturday in the family's mobile home, most of them in their beds. Harrison's body had been found earlier in the day with a self-inflicted gunshot wound, behind the wheel of his idling car.

The night before, the father and his eldest daughter went in search of his wife, Angela Harrison. The daughter used a GPS feature in her mother's cell phone to find her with another man at a convenience store in nearby Auburn, said Ed Troyer, spokesman for the Pierce County Sheriff.

Click here for photos.

The woman told her husband she was not coming home, and was leaving him for the man with her at the store. The father and the daughter left, distraught, Troyer said.

Sometime after the children went to sleep, he shot each of them multiple times. Four died in their beds. The fifth was found in the bathroom, surrounded by signs of violent struggle.

"He wanted the kids dead," Troyer said. "It wasn't like he shot a few rounds. He shot several rounds."

Investigators believe he then returned to the area near the convenience store looking for his wife. His body was found near the store, Troyer said.

"We think he was going to go back to kill the wife," Troyer said. "He probably didn't find her and realized the gravity of what he'd done and shot himself."

Several weapons were found in the home.

Authorities have not released the names of the family. Relatives identified the couple as Angela and James Harrison and the children as Maxine, Samantha, Heather, Jamie and James.

Ryan Peden, Maxine's classmate, had said she told him Friday night that her parents had gotten into a fight and her mother had left. The father followed the mother and tried to get her to return, Peden said.

"Maxine texted me at 11 p.m. Friday. She said: "I'm tired of crying. I'm going to bed,"' he said. His text to her the next day went unanswered.

Candy Johnson, an aunt of the mother, described Harrison as a strict, controlling husband and father who didn't allow his wife to make decisions without asking him first.

"My niece has been so controlled from the time she was young," Johnson said, adding that Harrison had impregnated Angela when she was 13.

State child welfare officials put Harrison on a parenting plan in 2007 after a "minor assault" on one of the children, Troyer said, adding that the father agreed to the plan and the case was closed.

Ron Vorak, who lives across the street from the family's trailer at the Deer Run mobile home park, said he called 911 at about 3:20 p.m. Saturday after one of the family's relatives couldn't get anyone to answer the door.

"He knocked on the door, and knocked on a couple of windows," Vorak said of the relative. "He walked around the side of the house, looked into the window. He could see somebody laying on the bed."

The home, about 15 southeast of Tacoma, became a makeshift memorial Sunday as neighbors left cards and bouquets of flowers. School officials said they were arranging to have grief counselors available when teachers and students returned Monday.

"We're going to try to get through this the best we can given the circumstances," said Jeff Davis, Orting School District superintendent. "In a small community like this, we know these kids. Teachers know the kids. All the kids know the kids."

Davis said the eldest, Maxine, was a 10th grader at Orting High School. Jamie was in the eighth grade and her sister Samantha in the sixth grade at Orting Middle School. The two youngest, Heather and James, were second-graders at Orting Primary School.

The father worked as a diesel mechanic, and the mother works at Wal-Mart, said another of Angela Harrison's aunts, Penny Flansburg. Troyer, however, said the father worked as a security guard at a casino.

One neighbor, Sheree Lund, who lives in the mobile home park, signed a community notebook left in front of the family's house. She wrote: "God Bless the five little ones. God bring peace to Mom."

Fathers Revenge Kills 5 children

Man kills five children after wife threatens to leave

Article from: Agence France-Presse

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From correspondents in Seattle, USA

April 06, 2009 07:02am

A Washington state man shot and killed his five children, between the ages of seven and 16, then turned the gun on himself after his wife told him she was leaving him.

James Harrison, 34, killed his children early Saturday inside his mobile home in Graham, 100km south of Seattle, then drove to a nearby casino and shot himself inside his car, Pierce County sheriff Paul Pastor told reporters.

Harrison on Friday looked for his missing wife and found her at a convenience store with another man.

The woman said she was leaving Harrison to be with her new boyfriend.

Alerted by neighbours, police Saturday morning found the five children dead, some shot several times, inside the mobile home's bedrooms and one inside the bathroom.

Harrison was found inside his car, the engine still running, with a rifle shot to the head.

Sheriff Pastor described the crime scene on Sunday as a "horrible thing''.

"This was not a tragedy. It was a rotten murder,'' Sheriff Pastor said.

"This appears to be the terrible work of the biological father. If that doesn't break your heart, I don't know what does.''

The murders mark the latest spasm of gun violence in the United States which has been rocked by six fatal mass shootings in the past three weeks, including three police officers killed on Saturday by a 23-year-old man at his home in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

The Pittsburgh attack came a day after a recently unemployed man stormed an immigrant services centre where he had been learning English in Binghamton, New York and went on a murderous rampage, killing 13 people before taking his own life.

On March 29, a heavily armed gunman shot dead eight people at a North Carolina nursing home, days after six people were killed in an apparent murder-suicide in an upscale neighbourhood in northern California's Silicon Valley.

And on March 10, an unemployed man killed his mother, grandmother and eight others on a vicious shooting rampage in Alabama.

Criminologist Jack Levin, of Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts, said there appears to be a link between the failing US economy and a rising body count.

"A mass killer is someone who has almost always suffered a catastrophic loss - that's the link between a recession and mass killings,'' he said, citing the loss of a job, money or a relationship.

"Catastrophic losses serve as inspiration, or precipitant,'' he said.