Unsolved News Roundup 24.01.21
What's been happening in True Crime around the world? All the most important news distilled to a few sentences.
This week not one but two long-term Doe cases finally solved and an Indian Serial Killer free to kill again…
Africa
🇰🇪Kenya: Family annihilator says he was inspired by Killing Eve
A man who is accused of murdering five of his family members told police he was inspired to do so by the British dark comedy thriller series Killing Eve. University student Lawrence Warunge, 22, was arrested on January 8 after a three-day search. He claims his family were ‘bewitching’ him. His girlfriend was also arrested but has now become a witness in the case. More here.
🇳🇬 Nigeria: Police station notorious for missing men and unjust killings
For the past 10 years the SARS police station in Southeastern Nigeria’s Anambra State has lost an alarming amount of arrestees whom have either completely vanished or died under “mysterious” circumstances. The station is now known as the most brutal in the country and families are seeking justice for their missing or murdered kin. More here.
🇿🇦South Africa: Neighbours hear argument, body of woman found
When neighbours in Limpopo heard a couple having a loud and vicious argument, they noticed neither were to be seen over the next day, which was unusual. As the neighbour’s concern grew they investigated further, finding the wife in a shallow grave in a makeshift shack in front of the home. More here.
🇿🇼 Zimbabwe: Man murders his parents, says they “deserved to die”
In a bizarre similarity with this week’s case from Kenya, Lisani Nleya was arrested for killing his elderly parents in September 2020 because he said they were trying to ‘bewitch’. Nleya, originally from the Mangwe region of Zimbabwe had lived for the past 15 years in South Africa with virtually no contact with his family, by his own admission, he returned to murder them. Nleya reportedly has substance abuse problems and served with the army in the war against DRC. More here.
Asia
🇰🇭 Cambodia: Murdered Chinese couple caught on CCTV with their assailants
A Chinese couple who lived in Cambodian capital Phnom Penh were murdered on January 13th, 2021. It’s a mysterious case that veers between rumours of underworld links and straight up robbery. A capture of the couple being forced into an apartment on CCTV is the cop’s biggest lead. More here.
🇭🇰 Hong Kong: Unsolved murders and ghosts provide opportunities for lower real estate
The Chinese art of Feng Shui doesn’t just involve the placement of furniture, it also involves the past life of your home. Unnatural deaths in a home are thought to effect any residents of that environment. Real Estate agents cite several recent sales including an apartment in ritzy Causeway Bay recently selling for 22.6 per cent below market price because it was on the same floor as an unsolved murder case dating back to 1984. More here.
🇮🇳 India: Released Serial Killer kills again, recaptured
Maina Ramulu has been killing women for over 10 years, he’s once escaped from prison and was out on appeal at the time of his re-arrest multiple times. Each time he has been in the community, he has killed again. It’s unclear as to why the Indian authorities have failed to put this killer for life. The current death toll is estimated to be between 16-21 women, many of whom he robbed before he stabbed or strangled them. More here.
🇰🇿 Kazakhstan: Doctors jailed after freezing baby alive
Two senior doctors and a midwife have been jailed after a newborn was placed in a morgue freezer while still alive. The premature baby had been registered as stillborn yet was still alive when the hospital medics put it in the chiller. Despite seeing its leg move, the senior doctors refused to act to save the infant because the medical database already said the child was dead, a court in Kazakhstan ruled. More here.
🇸🇬 Singapore: Tip-off in 1995 murder of seven-year-old Lim Shiow Rong
Rong’s body was discovered strangled after going missing from her father’s coffee shop. The family’s appeal for any new information from the public has led to tips around a regular patron at the coffee shop. More here.
🇰🇷 South Korea: Death of 16-month old leads to public outcry at handling of child abuse
Jeong-in died in October 2020 after suffering months of child abuse at the hands of their adoptive mother. Civic groups have been staging protests and rallies across the country, calling for a special inspection on the police and the adoption agency involved in the fatal child abuse case. More here.
Europe
🏴 England: 1991 unsolved murder case evidence to be re-examined for DNA
Thirty years after Wendy Gallagher was strangled with an electrical cord at her home in Barnsley in England’s North, detectives and Wendy’s sister are launching an anniversary appeal in the hope of finally bringing her killer to justice. Wendy was 24 when she died and lived alone. Investigators are hoping for DNA links. More here.
🇲🇹 Malta: Mysterious house fire, wheelchair bound man goes missing
Marcel Pisani, 50, was reported missing on 31st, December, 2020 - just three days earlier, a fire had been reported at Pisani’s home in Mosta, a large town on the Island. The searches for Mr Pisani are still ongoing, the Armed Forces of Malta and Civil Protection are assisting. More here.
🇳🇱 The Netherlands: Reinvigorated investigation into Els Slurink’s 1997 murder brings new tips
Els Slurink, a 33-year-old psychologist, was found murdered in her house on March 21, 1997 in Groningen, a city in the North of the Netherlands. Els had been stabbed in the heart, DNA was found under her fingernails. Neighbours raised the alarm after she failed to turn up for an appointment at work. More here.
🇺🇦 Ukraine: Murder of Journalist connected to Belarusian special forces
Ukrainian police have visited an undisclosed EU state to collect fresh evidence on a potential Belarusian link to the murder of one of eastern Europe's best-known journalists, Pavel Sheremet, four years ago. The investigation points to links with international agencies. More here.
🏴 Wales: Five more possible cases linked to Pembrokeshire Murders killer John Cooper
Recent True Crime dramatisation, The Pembrokeshire Murders covered murders perpetrated by John Cooper. However, the real investigation behind the drama hasn’t ended for everyone as investigators are convinced more unsolved/mysterious cases can be connected to the serial killer. More here.
North America
🥇California: Sister vows to keep fighting for an answer in sister’s unsolved murder
Angel Turner was just seven-years-old when her older sister Georgia Lee Moses went missing in August 1997 but memories of her are still vivid. Georgia was also a child at just 12-years-old, more than a week after she went missing — a Caltrans worker fixing a broken guardrail off Highway 101 in Petaluma, California, discovered Georgia’s body in a grove of trees. More here.
🚢 Massachusetts: Fugitive accused in Boston Chinatown Massacre in 1991 still at large
On Jan. 12, 1991, Hung Tien Pham allegedly entered a club on Tyler Street in Boston with two accomplices and shot six men at close range, five of them died. All were apparently involved in organized crime networks. Pham’s accomplices were apprehended seven years later in China but Pham remains at large. More here.
🧤 Michigan: Husband of 1982 axe murder victim arrested 40 years on
Cathy Schlosser was found by her husband on Feb. 19, 1982, with an axe embedded in her head. In the following years the case went cold until Edward Laraby, a convicted sex offender, confessed before his 2014 death. Authorities however didn’t believe his deathbed confession (which also included a confession to the murder of Stephanie Kupchynsky in 1991). Cathy’s husband James Krauseneck was arrested in 2019, his defence lawyer insists the case is weak. More here.
🚤 Minnesota: 2020 murders 60% unsolved
The clearance rate (the number of solved) of homicides is usually over 50% but with reduced resources to investigate, cases are suffering. Many officers are retiring or taking leave for things such as PTSD. Families are holding out hope that their cases eventually get solved. More here.
🛩️ Ohio: 1983 murder gets another look
An ice-cold case, the stabbing of Carol Zastudil, 36, has been cold for decades. Carol’s husband Richard came back from picking up their son on Dec. 21, 1983, to find her body, she had been stabbed repeatedly in the face, neck, chest and back. Investigators are hoping fresh eyes and potential scientific advancements may help bring some answers. More here.
🌴 South Carolina: Infamous Sumter County Does identified over 40 years after their bodies were discovered
The 44-year-long mystery of whom the 1976 Sumter County John and Jane Does were has come to an end after the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office and the DNA Doe Project announced their identities. The autopsy report showed the victims were each shot three times in the chest, back and head. The woman, Pamela Buckley, who was 25 at the time, was originally from Minnesota and was reported missing from Colorado Springs, Colorado, in 1975. The man, James Freund, who was 30 at the time, was from Langston, Pennsylvania, and also reported missing in 1975. More here.
⭐ Texas: 1966 Jane Doe identified through genetic DNA
Police in Pecos, Texas announced that an unidentified teenager found dead in a motel swimming pool in 1966 has been identified. The 17-year-old girl, identified through DNA matching and genealogy tracing, is Jolaine Hemmy. Police are now looking for leads to identify if the man she was seen with had anything to do with her death. More here.
Oceania
🇦🇺 Australia: Techniques used to snare convicted criminals probed as potentially unjust
The technique is known as the Canadian Technique as it was developed by the RCMP in the 1990s. It involves using a complex network of undercover officers to create a bogus criminal fraternity that the target suspect is drawn into — but before they are allowed to be officially taken in, they must “confess” any past crimes so the criminal network can “protect them”. These types of stings are illegal in the USA & UK but continue to be used in Canada, Australia and New Zealand. More here.
🇳🇿New Zealand: Was notorious bank robber Les Green also a murderer?
The late convicted bank robber Les Green has been revealed as a suspect in the unsolved disappearance of Marion Granville in 1980. Unfortunately, Green was never questioned in the mystery and his part unconfirmed. More here.
Want to see me cover a case as part of the detailed newsletters? Please email me at tips@unsolvednews.com — I would love to hear from you. Look out for the next investigation in the Unsolved News newsletter next Wednesday.
2021 Publishing schedule:
Bi-Weekly on Wednesday — Long form investigation/report on an unsolved case
Weekly on Sunday — Round-up of true crime news
Weekly on Friday — True Crime content recommendations
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