Mummified bodies found in Lehigh

By ADAM KOVAC, akovac@news-press.com

For three years, neighbors ignored the tall grass and drawn shades at a Lehigh Acres house, unaware that the bodies of two people and their dog were decomposing inside. A calendar and rotting food found Wednesday inside the home at 3000 E. Fifth St. indicates the mother, her son and their German shepherd died in 1999, Lee County sheriff’s detectives said.

Authorities found German passports belonging to an elderly woman and a man in his 30s. Their identities were not being released late Wednesday pending notification of family. But a family friend, Heinz Rubin, said the mummified bodies are Josef Fuchs and his mother, Liz, who frequently visited Florida from their home in Aachen, Germany.

Rubin made Wednesday’s gruesome discovery when he became suspicious after the taxes on the property went unpaid on the house, which the county was preparing to sell. He found Liz Fuchs, 70, on the floor next to the dining room table. Josef , 34, who suffered from a nervous disorder, was tucked into bed, his dog curled up at his side. The lights inside were on and air conditioning flowed through the two-bedroom house.

Rubin, 66, of Fort Myers, said he last saw the Fuchs alive in January 1999. “They were in good spirits, I would say,” Rubin said. “There was nothing wrong. (Josef) said “I’d like to go back to Germany.” Aside from the dust that had accumulated over the years, detectives said the interior of the house was clean and well-kept.

They also found cheese and milk — that expired in 1999 — and blueberries in the refrigerator. A calendar was marked up to Feb. 28 of that year. The two appeared to have died peacefully, but the cause of their deaths won’t be known until the results of an autopsy today. “No knives, no gunshot wounds that are obvious,” sheriff’s Maj. Richard Chard said. “There are some medications, there appears to be insulin and syringes.” The two may have been reported missing in 2000, but no one suspected anything because most of the bills were paid electronically.

Two years ago, police in Germany found the Fuchs’ residence near the Belgian border empty. They contacted Rubin, who said he wasn’t aware the mother and son had returned to the United States. “I’d like to to know ... if it was a murder-suicide,” Rubin said. “It’s a pity.” Residents in the German enclave in east Lee County recalled seeing Liz Fuchs walking her dog.

They said the property always was maintained until about three years ago. That’s when workers fenced in the backyard pool and posted signs advising the Fuchs to mow their grass. But property inspectors never bothered to look inside the house, said Rudi Giessbeck, 58. “I’m surprised nobody went looking for them in Germany — that’s so unusual,” Giessbeck said. “We were just wondering where they were.”

Police find 9 bodies, mostly children's

Response to domestic disturbance finds victims in suspect's home

Saturday, March 13, 2004 Posted: 10:08 AM EST (1508 GMT)

FRESNO, California (CNN) -- Police found a pile of nine bodies --seven of them children -- in the Fresno, California, home of the man police believe is the father of the victims. Fresno police were responding to a domestic disturbance call Friday afternoon when they found the bodies.

They said Marcus Wesson, 57, who lived at the house, was taken into police custody Friday afternoon after a short standoff. Ten empty wooden caskets stacked one on top of the other were found at the front of the house, Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer said.

The motive for the killings is unknown. Dyer said it might have been a ritual killing and Fresno Mayor Alan Autry said it appeared to be a domestic situation. When Wesson opened the door to the police, they saw four or five adults sitting in the front part of the house, Fresno Police Sgt. Greg Sanders said.

Wesson then barricaded himself in the rear bedroom and police took the people they saw in the front of the house outside. The nine victims include one adult, a teenager, and the other seven "appeared to be infants or toddlers" ranging in age from one to 8 years old, Dyer said. The majority of the victims are female, he said.

Most of the bodies were "intertwined and stacked on top of each other," Dyer said. The victims' clothing was wrapped around the bodies, and scattered around the bedroom where the victims were found, complicating the identification process, he said.

Three children found decapitated in apartment

Friday, May 28, 2004 Posted: 4:25 AM EDT (0825 GMT)

BALTIMORE, Maryland (AP) -- It was a scene that horrified even veteran police officers: three children decapitated.

The two 9-year-old girls and 10-year-old boy were found by their mother when she returned to their apartment late Thursday afternoon. The first officer on the scene "couldn't handle it" and had to give the call to another officer, Blackwell said.

The children had returned home from school about 3:30 p.m., Blackwell said. A weapon was found outside the apartment. The mother, who speaks Spanish and little English, notified a neighbor when she made the discovery about 5:45 p.m. The neighbor called 911.

The mother gave police information about where to find the man being questioned, Blackwell said. Officers found the man a few blocks away from the crime scene. Blackwell said the man's relationship to the children, if any, was not known.

Chilean Black Metal Fan Declared 'Mentally Ill', Escapes Murder Charge

Sep. 17, 2004

A Chilean black metal fan that killed an Italian Catholic priest at the conclusion of a Mass at Santiago's Metropolitan Cathedral on July 24 was declared mentally ill and will receive psychiatric treatment instead of imprisonment, the court that investigated the crime announced earlier this week.

Judge Veronica Sabaj of the Third Criminal Court of Santiago determined that Rodrigo Orias, 25, is suffering from paranoid schizophrenia, which is characterized by paranoid delusions and hallucinations, and has decided against charging him with the murder of Father Faustino Gazziero.

Orias slit Gazziero's throat, smeared his face with the victim's blood and then stabbed himself several times in the chest and neck with the same knife while hundreds of churchgoers watched in horror, according to published reports.

Orias, who had a pentagram branded on the left side of his chest (covering his heart) and several other symbols of the occult tattooed on his body, reportedly asked DARK FUNERAL singer Emperor Magus Caligula during the Swedish black metal band's visit to Santiago last year to burn an inverted cross on Rodrigo's arm with a cigar — a "mark" which Orias later planned to make into a tattoo.

Human Remains Feared in Meat From Suspect's Farm

March 11, 2004
CNN.com

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Reuters) -- Pork products processed and distributed from the farm of accused Canadian serial killer Robert Pickton may have contained human remains, police and health officials said Wednesday.
Pickton raised and slaughtered pigs at the Port Coquitlam farm as a part-time occupation until his arrest at the property in February 2002, and police believe he gave or sold processed meat products to friends and acquaintances.
Pickton, 53, is awaiting trial in the killings of at least 22 of more than 60 missing Vancouver prostitutes who disappeared over the past decade and are feared to have been murdered at the dilapidated farm 20 miles east of Vancouver.
"Given the state of the farm, and what we know about the investigation, we cannot rule out the possibility that cross-contamination may have occurred," B.C. provincial Health Officer Perry Kendall told reporters in Victoria.
"Cross-contamination could mean that human remains did get into or contaminate some of the pork meat," Kendall said.
Officials stressed that the farm's pig slaughtering operation was not officially licensed and he did not sell processed meat to retail outlets.
"There is no evidence we are dealing with anything other than a very specific localized issue, with a specific number of local people," said Cpl. Catherine Galliford of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
Kendall said he was not contacted by the police until last month when they asked a "hypothetical question' about the potential health risk. He issued the alert when they later said it probably happened.
 Police defended the timing of their contacting health officials, saying it was needed to protect the investigation, although they also acknowledged more people may have received meat from Pickton than they had orginally thought.
"We have carefully considered all the issues," said Vancouver Police Detective Shelia Sullivan.
Pickton is officially charged with 15 murders but prosecutors have said seven more counts are waiting to be filed. Tests have identified the DNA of nine more women, but not yet resulted in charges.
The victims were among more than 60 drug-addicted prostitutes who disappeared from Vancouver's poor Downtown Eastside neighborhood. Families of the missing women expressed horror at the news, with one telling a Vancouver radio station bluntly. "I'm not eating dinner tonight."

 

'Cannibal' Horror Find in Flat

February 19, 2004  l Sims and Rebecca Smith, Evening Standard
The NHS launched an inquiry today after a psychiatric patient released from hospital was found in a flat in which a man had been hacked to death.
East London and the City mental health trust is looking into how the patient came to be discharged.
The victim was a man in his forties also believed to be a former psychiatric patient. Police said he had suffered "multiple injuries, including some dismemberment". One leg had been hacked from his body and his head cracked open with a blunt instrument.
It was also feared some of the body had been cooked. Police found parts of what was believed to be a human brain frying in a pan. Items including potential weapons were taken away by police.
The discovery was made after a 999 call to a groundfloor flat in Walthamstow on Tuesday evening. Officers were said to have been confronted with a "horrendous" scene, discovering possible weapons strewn around and blood over the walls. One said: "It's horrible. It's terrible in there."
It is understood the patient left a mental ward in Newham on Tuesday morning, to which he had been voluntarily admitted. The victim will not be identified until his relatives have been traced but he is thought to have lived alone in the flat, which he occupied for up to eight years.
One neighbour said of the victim: "He told me his mother died two weeks ago and because his dad died some time ago he was alone now. He had been here a few years. He was very quiet."

Italian Villagers Call for Exorcist to End 'Demon' Fires

Feb 12, 2004
NewsScotsman.com

AN ITALIAN village was evacuated yesterday as investigators attempted to explain an outbreak of spontaneous household appliance combustions, which have left locals fearing for their safety.
Fridges, cookers, televisions, washing machines, mobile telephones and furniture have burst into flame for no apparent reason at a dozen houses in the Sicilian village of Canneto di Caronia near Messina.
Authorities initially suspected the fires were caused by overhead cables on a nearby railway line, but the outbreaks continued even after the village’s electricity supply was cut off, leading some locals to blame supernatural forces.
Pedro Spinnato, the village mayor, has ordered the evacuation so further investigations can be carried out.
"This has been going on for three weeks now and there is no explanation for it. We cannot risk a tragedy through these fires, so I have no other option but to evacuate the village," said Mr Spinnato.
"We have had electrical engineers in to examine cables and wires but they can find no explanation. It is not just electrical items, furniture is also catching fire for no reason.
"Already people are blaming the events on evil spirits and I am being asked to get the local priest to perform an exorcism."
The civil protection chief, Tullio Martella, said: "For the time being there is no scientific explanation for it and I have never heard of anything like this happening before in Italy. The fires continued even when we cut power to the village to see if that was a possible cause."
Last night more than 100 engineers were in the village and geologists were also due to carry out underground surveys.
Nino Pezzino, 42, one of 39 villagers evacuated yesterday, said: "Twelve of our houses are uninhabitable. Fortunately, for the time being, the only damage has been to houses and no-one has been hurt, but you can sense the growing fear.
"How can anyone live in a house where any minute something can catch fire for no apparent reason?"
Father Gabriel Amorth, the Vatican’s chief expert on exorcisms, said: "With cases of demon behaviour it is normal for domestic appliances to be involved and for demons make their presence known via electricity."

German Cannibal Gets 8 1/2 Years
Killed, ate a willing victim

Jan. 30, 2004 - USA Today

KASSEL, Germany (AP) — A German who confessed to killing, dismembering and eating another man who allegedly agreed to the arrangement over the Internet was convicted Friday of manslaughter and sentenced to 8 1/2 years in prison.
A state court ruled that Armin Meiwes, a 42-year-old computer expert, had no "base motives" in the crime — sparing him a murder conviction.
Prosecutors had sought a life sentence, calling Meiwes a "human butcher" who acted simply to "satisfy a sexual impulse."
The defense argued that since the victim volunteered to be killed and eaten, the crime should be classified a mercy killing, which carries a five-year maximum penalty.
Before the verdict Meiwes looked calm, chatting with his attorney and occasionally grinning for cameras allowed inside the courtroom before the session began.
When his trial opened Dec. 3 in the central city of Kassel, Meiwes confessed in detail to killing Bernd Juergen Brandes, 43, in March 2001 at Meiwes' home in the town of Rotenburg.
Brandes traveled from Berlin in reply to an Internet advertisement seeking a young man for "slaughter and consumption." Meiwes testified that Brandes wanted to be stabbed to death after drinking a bottle of cold medicine to lose consciousness.
"Bernd came to me of his own free will to end his life," Meiwes said in his closing statement in court on Monday. "For him, it was a nice death."
A grisly video he made of the act was shown to the court during a closed session.
A doctor testified that Brandes died from loss of blood and that the medication, along with a half-bottle of liquor and 20 sleeping pills he took beforehand, could not have lessened his pain.
Several experts have testified that Meiwes was fit to stand trial and was not mentally ill.
Police tracked down and arrested him in December 2002 after a student in Austria alerted them to a message Meiwes had posted on the Internet.
"If I hadn't been so stupid as to keep looking on the Internet, I would have taken my secret to the grave," Meiwes said in his closing statement.

Cannibal Recipes For Book

Jan. 23, 2004 - The Sun UK

THE cannibal killer who fried his victim’s willy is planning to detail his vile human flesh recipes. Monster Armin Meiwes, 42 — on trial in Germany — aims to list them in his memoirs. The sick dishes include biceps in Marsala, loin schnitzels braised with garlic and lemon juice and breaded young man’s liver.
Sources close to the cannibal yesterday said Meiwes expects the planned autobiography to rake in a fortune. Meiwes butchered computer expert Bernd Juergen Brandes, 43, after meeting him on the net. The fiend, who videoed the horror, denies murder in Kassel — claiming his victim consented. The trial continues.

Monkeys Make a Meal of Human Babies

January 1, 2004
From The Times

Chimpanzees struggling to survive amid the destruction of their forest habitat are snatching and killing human babies.
At least eight children have died in Uganda and Tanzania after being taken by chimpanzees and a further eight have been injured. The children were found with limbs and other body parts chewed off.
Primate experts blame deforestation and human encroachment on the chimpanzees' habitat for the aggressive behaviour, but are divided on whether the animals are defending their territory or seeking a replacement food source.
Chimpanzees were believed to be largely vegetarian until British ape expert Jane Goodall discovered in the 1960s that they are predatory animals who often hunt smaller primates in packs.
Further studies have identified striking similarities between chimp and human aggressive behaviour, including rape, wife-beating, murder and infanticide. Attacks on human young, however, are a recent development.
The attacks in Uganda have been documented by Michael Gavin, a conservation biologist, in an eight-month study reported in the January edition of BBC Wildlife magazine. In one of the most recent fatalities, Jackson Alikiriza, a three-month-old baby, was snatched as he was being carried by his mother, Anet, while she harvested potatoes.
Mrs Alikiriza fled when she saw a chimp approaching but could not outrun the animal. She said: "It grabbed my leg and I fell. Then it took my baby." By the time help was summoned and the chimp was chased away by a man armed with a spear the baby's nose and upper lip had been eaten away. He died a week later.
Another chimp carried out several attacks until he was hunted down and stabbed to death by villagers.
 Until the 20th century Uganda boasted a chimp population of several million, but an 86 per cent reduction of forest has cut that number to fewer than 5000. As their habitat disappears so do their food supplies and that, combined with greater proximity to humans, has led them to discover that small children and babies are easily caught and a good source of protein, according to experts.

 

I Asked Cannibal To Eat Me, Says Would-Be Victim

Dec. 16, 2003 - The Telegraph News UK

A London-based hotel worker told a German court yesterday how he was chained to a bed by a self-confessed cannibal and had his body marked out for butchery before changing his mind and being released.
Dirk Moller, 27, a conference organiser for an international chain, described his encounter with Armin Meiwes, 42, who is on trial for killing and eating a man.
Mr Moller and Meiwes, a computer expert, met via the internet and confessed their cannibalistic tendencies to each other in regular emails, court sources said after the hearing in Kassel, which was held in private. The pair finally came face to face at a hotel after Mr Moller outlined his desire to be killed and eaten by Meiwes.
"He wanted to be sentenced to death," Meiwes had told the three judges. "So I printed out a death sentence for him."
They met in the Etap hotel in Mannheim, western Germany, two years ago, months after Meiwes killed and ate 43-year-old Bernd Jurgen Brandes at his house in Rothenburg, after advertising for willing victims on the internet. He videotaped the act.
Meiwes argues that Mr Brandes was a willing victim.
Mr Moller told the court that after he arrived at the hotel from London, they went to a McDonald's before going back to the hotel where they undressed.
According to Meiwes, Mr Moller "wanted to be chained to the bed" at which point he stuck pins in his body, marking out his liver, kidney and other organs. They had agreed these were to be cut out for consumption.
Then they went to the cinema. On their return, Meiwes showed the hotel worker a video of a previous would-be victim, Jorg Bose, whom he had strung up in a slaughter parlour at his house.
At that point Mr Moller got cold feet, and, according to Meiwes's lawyer, "decided the fantasy was enough, reality too much".
"He watched it, and said to me, 'You can do this but not that'," Meiwes had told the court. Realising Mr Moller's reluctance, Meiwes backed down from killing him.
Mr Moller, who sat next to a witness-protection officer, spoke only to confirm his name, age and profession before saying he wanted his evidence heard in camera.
Earlier, a police officer told the court that Mr Moller was one of Meiwes's more regular of about 200 email contacts.
Mr Bose, one of several other would-be victims, appeared in court wearing skiing goggles and a baseball cap with ear flaps to avoid being recognised. The 34-year-old cook, from Villingen, in southern Germany, is reported to have told the court - also in camera - that he had lost the courage to be cannibalised, despite agreeing to the act.
Meiwes's lawyer said Mr Bose confirmed Meiwes's previous testimony, that the cook was "strung up" on a pulley but was taken down because he felt queasy.
"I lifted him down," Meiwes said. "His ankles hurt. We tried again. I put on my steel-capped boots and taped it on video. I found the video particularly beautiful."
It was after watching this video that Mr Moller retracted his offer to be a victim.
 "In the case of Mr Bose, he was hanging from the ceiling, naked," he said. "My client could have done anything he wanted but he got him down as he wished. He put his trust in my client and he was not disappointed".

 

Man Nabbed for 'Killing, Cooking' Woman

Sept. 3, 2003
iafrica.comnews

The man accused of mutilating a woman and then cooking her body parts was arrested on Tuesday night, KwaZulu-Natal police reported on Wednesday.
Inspector Jay Naicker said the 30-year-old man was suspected of murdering at least two women in Esikhawini, near Eshowe on the province's north coast.
This followed the discovery of a woman's remains next to a pot filled with body parts on Tuesday. Her husband had reported the woman's disappearance on Saturday.
Naicker said a woman told the husband she had seen his wife's handkerchief and scarf in a bush.
When the husband went to investigate he found his wife's mutilated body next to a pot containing body parts believed to be hers.
Naicker said that this was the second woman's body that was butchered in the area over the last two weeks.
The man is expected to appear in court soon.

Mother Who Cannibalized Daughter Spared From Prison
July 21, 2003
NANAIMO, B.C. -- A Nanaimo woman slit her two-year-old daughter's throat before cutting up the body, cooking it with other ingredients and eating the soup.
Laurina Marie Aune cannibalized her daughter "so Kyla would be with me forever."
Details of the Nov. 1, 2002 killing and its aftermath were revealed in B.C. Supreme Court yesterday. Justice James Taylor ruled that while Ms. Aune knew she killed her daughter, she was not criminally responsible by reason of mental disorder -- she didn't know it was morally wrong.
Ms. Aune, 26, was remanded to the Forensic Psychiatric Institute in Port Coquitlam, where she will face a disposition hearing within 45 days. She suffers from schizophrenia.
This was the first time the public heard details of Ms. Aune cutting up the body. Judge Taylor ruled the information should be made public because people needed to know the reasons behind his decision.
In delivering his judgment, Judge Taylor said Ms. Aune was asked why she ate her daughter. She responded by saying: "I don't know. I felt compelled to do it. I didn't want to forget her ever."
 When asked how it was the family didn't pick up earlier signs of Ms. Aune's mental illness, they always explained it as "that's Laurina."
About a dozen family and friends of Ms. Aune attended the hearing, including Ms. Aune's mother Linda Aune and her former boyfriend, Scott May.
It was Mr. May who alerted the Ministry of Child and Family Development that he suspected something was wrong. He had not seen Kyla for six weeks, since taking her out at Halloween.
The social worker contacted Nanaimo RCMP, who visited Ms. Aune.
Police brought Ms. Aune to the RCMP detachment, where a two-hour interview took place.
The following day, during an interview with a doctor at Nanaimo Regional General Hospital, Ms. Aune confessed to killing Kyla.
 She told police she cooked the bones "to have Kyla with me forever."
Police said Aune told them she ate a piece of the heart because she felt that's where her child's spirit was.
The child's head was found in Ms. Aune's bedroom.

'Gay Militia' storms Christian meeting
Convention was discussing bill that could make Bible 'hate literature'

Posted: April 22, 2004
1:00 a.m. Eastern

© 2004 WorldNetDaily.com

Masked members of a group called the "Gay Militia" stormed into a meeting of Christians discussing a bill that would criminalize certain opposition to homosexual behavior in Canada.

A videotape of the incident shows the intruders with bandanna-covered faces bursting into a meeting room at the Coast Plaza Hotel in Calgary, Alberta, where the Concerned Christian Coalition Inc. was holding its national convention Saturday night, the Calgary Sun reported.

"Right-wing bigots go away, Gay Militia is here to stay," the intruders chanted.

The Calgary paper said about seven females and one male from the homosexual group were in the room as about 25 members of the convention held hands and prayed aloud.

The female Gay Militia members unfurled a banner that read: "Liberation: Queer Invasion."

Calgary police are reviewing several videotapes of the meeting and an investigation is underway, according to police Const. Doug Jones, the hate-bias crime coordinator for the police cultural resource unit.