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The Crime Ledger: September 12, 2026

THE CRIME LEDGER cover for September 12, 2026. Distressed noir dossier with gothic skyline and evidence scraps for Merrylands West, Jackson, Chicago, Launaguet, Delray Beach.

Daily Breaking True Crime Briefing
As of: September 12, 2026 (evening ET)
Scope: Worldwide sweep — last ~24 hours preferred; major court and investigative moves stretched to ~48. Merrylands West, Jackson, Chicago, Launaguet, Delray Beach, Townsville, Forbes, Topeka, Verona, Villeurbanne, Los Angeles, Burlington. LawAndCrime homepage thin on fresh homicide leads. People.com/crime returned a paywall/402. The New Yorker homepage carried no fresh crime Lede today (Clancy mistrial path still in archive). Tabloid tips confirmed through police, court, prosecutor, AP/wires, or independent locals.

NSW Raptor Squad locked an 18-year-old brickie’s apprentice into a murder charge after alleging he flew a commercial drone as surveillance eyes for the Sept. 2 Merrylands West shooting that killed tradesman Joshua Macdonald in a botched underworld hit. Jackson police booked Jarques Ratliff on a homicide count after the medical examiner finally ruled Tasia Fortune’s hanging death a homicide, with Chief RaShall Brackney promising more arrests. In Chicago, a 15-year-old girl stayed locked up after Cook County found probable cause that she and two others pushed Amazon worker Kyle Bickham from a moving Red Line car onto the third rail. Near Toulouse, the parquet confirmed the 54-year-old husband suspected in a Launaguet féminicide had already done time for assassinating an ex-partner in Guyane — and that the latest victim had a Téléphone Grave Danger she never activated. Palm Beach deputies took Alexander Harrington after he called them to say he’d stabbed his mother on Monterey Lane. Queensland charged Gary Joseph Vandenburg with domestic-violence murder in the Narangi Street stabbing of his cousin Mark Trbusic. Orange Supreme Court gave Daniel Billings 28 years for killing Molly Ticehurst while on bail for offences against her. Topeka booked Kristen Knight Wahquahboshkuk on two first-degree counts for the NOTO Arts District shooting of Larry Smutney and Warren Eteeyan. Verona police charged Anterrious Gray with first-degree murder and his mother as accessory after Timothy Price II was shot at a Super C store. Lyon’s parquet put a suspect into provisional detention over the May Bel-Air Villeurbanne killing that left a body burned in a car. And a federal jury in Los Angeles cleared Lil Durk on murder-for-hire while keeping him for an October racketeering trial.

Merrylands West: Drone Eyes on Macdonald Shooting

Jimmy Schulz, 18, was refused bail Saturday at Bail Court after NSW Police charged him with murder over the Sept. 2 daylight shooting of Joshua Macdonald, 40, outside a Bruce Street home in Merrylands West.

Raptor Squad arrested Schulz and Cronulla Sharks Jersey Flegg player Ratu Viliame Koroitamana, 19, about 5:30 a.m. Friday in West Hoxton with a commercial camera drone, phones, and encryption gear. Police say Schulz flew the drone from roughly two streets away and relayed information to the shooters in what they call a mistaken-identity underworld hit — Macdonald was a tradie with no organised-crime links. The man who pulled the trigger is still unnamed. Koroitamana faces participating in a criminal group and driving while disqualified, not Macdonald’s killing. Schulz’s lawyer called the murder case “extremely weak.” Back Nov. 5 at Parramatta Local Court. He is presumed innocent.

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Jackson: Arrest in Tasia Fortune Hanging Death

Jarques Ratliff, 51, of Jackson, was arrested Friday on a murder charge after Mississippi’s medical examiner ruled Thursday evening that Tasia Fortune, 29, was a homicide victim. Police found her hanging from a tree behind an abandoned home on Aug. 3.

Chief RaShall Brackney said Ratliff had an “association” with Fortune and that more arrests are coming. He is due in Jackson Municipal Court by Monday. Fortune’s mother, Christy Spivey, said she cried with thanks when told of the arrest and still has no motive from investigators. Fortune was a mother of four, a former cross-country runner, and had struggled with homelessness in Jackson. Ratliff is presumed innocent.

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Chicago: Teen Charged in Red Line Push

A 15-year-old girl remained in custody Saturday after Cook County Juvenile Court found probable cause on first-degree murder, mob action, murder by other forcible felony, and aggravated battery to a transit employee. Chicago police say she was one of three people who forced Kyle Bickham, 29, from a moving CTA Red Line train near the 69th Street station around 2:40 p.m. Monday.

Bickham was heading home to Lansing from an Amazon warehouse shift in Cicero when he hit the electrified third rail and was struck by another train. The medical examiner ruled homicide. CPD arrested the girl Friday; the other two people have not been named. Her name is withheld as a juvenile. Next date Sept. 14. She is presumed innocent.

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Launaguet: Recidivist Suspect in Garage Féminicide

The Toulouse parquet confirmed Friday that the 54-year-old husband suspected of assassinating his 40-year-old wife at Launaguet on Sept. 8 had already been convicted by the Guyane assizes in 2002 for shooting an ex-partner to death in 1999.

Firefighters called to a garage fire about 5:45 a.m. found the mother of two partly burned; autopsy showed an immediately fatal head shot, then accelerant. Gendarmes recovered a 7.65 casing. The husband was found more than a kilometre away with a critical head wound and remains hospitalised. The couple had separated after her July 25 complaint for malicious calls and psychological violence; he was under contrôle judiciaire with a weapons ban, and she held a Téléphone Grave Danger issued Aug. 5 that she never activated. Inquiry continues for assassinat by conjoint in legal recidivism. He is presumed innocent pending charges as his condition allows.

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Delray Beach: Son Calls Deputies After Mother’s Stabbing

Alexander G. Harrington, 50, sat without bond Saturday in Palm Beach County’s Main Detention Center on first-degree murder after, deputies say, he phoned law enforcement just after 2 p.m. Friday and reported that he had killed his 77-year-old mother at a home in the 5100 block of Monterey Lane west of Delray Beach.

PBSO took him without incident, then found his mother dead inside with apparent stab wounds. Violent Crimes detectives took the case. Inmate records show a booking shortly after 10:15 p.m. Friday. Local10 noted a Facebook profile branding him an “intuitive healer” and life coach in Boynton Beach. He refused a Saturday first appearance; next attempt Sunday. He is presumed innocent. PBSO has not publicly released the mother’s name in the materials reviewed.

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Townsville: Cousin Charged in Narangi Street Stabbing

Gary Joseph Vandenburg, 47, was charged overnight with murder as a domestic-violence offence after Mark Trbusic, 53, a grandfather, died of a leg stab wound at a unit on Narangi Street in Heatley about 3 p.m. Friday.

Queensland Police say Vandenburg, known to Trbusic and described in local reporting as his cousin, was taken at the scene. Officers gave first aid; Trbusic died shortly after. Detective Inspector David Barron said there was no known DV history between the men and no ongoing community threat. Trbusic’s former partner Tracey Perry told 7NEWS she hid in a bedroom and heard him shout that he was dying. Vandenburg did not appear Saturday at Townsville Magistrates Court; remanded to November. He is presumed innocent.

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Forbes: Billings Gets 28 Years for Ticehurst Murder

Daniel Billings, 31, was sentenced Friday in Orange Supreme Court to 28 years with a 20-year non-parole period for the April 21, 2024, killing of childcare worker Molly Ticehurst in Forbes, NSW.

Justice Natalie Adams found he broke through a bedroom window just before 11:30 p.m. while on bail for sexual assault, stalking, and intimidation charges against Ticehurst and while subject to an AVO, then stabbed her in the face and neck. Adams called it a high-end revenge murder of a sexual-assault complainant and rejected any claim he only went to talk. Total head sentence 35 years, discounted for the guilty plea, backdated to April 20, 2024. Eligible for parole April 19, 2044. The case helped drive NSW domestic-violence bail reforms; former prosecutor Phil Donato publicly urged an ODPP appeal as too soft.

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Topeka: Two Counts After NOTO Double Shooting

Kristen Knight Wahquahboshkuk, 21, of Mayetta, was booked Friday into Shawnee County jail on two counts of first-degree murder after Larry Smutney, 75, and Warren Eteeyan, 74 or 75, were shot Thursday evening in the 900 block of North Kansas Avenue in Topeka’s NOTO Arts District.

One man died at the scene; the second died at hospital. Assistant Chief Jennifer Cross said a local business supplied photos of a person of interest and that tips led to a swift arrest. Wahquahboshkuk is presumed innocent.

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Verona: Son Charged, Mother Accessory in Store Shooting

Anterrious Dae’Quon Gray, 21, of Tupelo, was arrested Friday night and charged with first-degree murder in the Wednesday afternoon shooting of Timothy Price II, 27, at the Super C convenience store on Raymond Avenue in Verona, Mississippi. His mother, Leandra Guyton, 40, arrested Wednesday, faces accessory after the fact.

Chief Marsenio Nunn said witnesses saw Gray flee in a dark-coloured car driven by his mother. Price was pronounced dead at North Mississippi Medical Center. No bond set; initial appearances expected early next week. Gray is presumed innocent.

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Villeurbanne: Suspect Held in Bel-Air Burned-Body Killing

Lyon’s parquet confirmed to Le Progrès that a suspect has been arrested, mis en examen, and placed in provisional detention over the May 1 murder at résidence Saint-André on avenue Bel-Air in Villeurbanne.

Automatic-weapon fire tore through common areas near midnight; attackers set a car alight and the blaze jumped to five vehicles. Firefighters later found a carbonised body in the driver’s seat of the first car. Neighbours glimpsed two people on scooters. No victim identity has been released; investigators link the hit to narcotrafic that already forced the Flora-Tristan crèche inside the complex to close. The suspect is presumed innocent.

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Los Angeles: Lil Durk Cleared on Murder-for-Hire

A federal jury in downtown Los Angeles acquitted Durk Banks — Lil Durk — Friday on all five counts of murder-for-hire, conspiracy, and stalking tied to the August 2022 gas-station ambush near the Beverly Center that killed Saviay’a Robinson, 24, cousin of rival Quando Rondo.

Prosecutors said Banks ordered a revenge hit after Dayvon “King Von” Bennett’s death; defense blamed a former assistant and cooperating “snitches.” Co-defendants Deandre Wilson and David Lindsey were cleared of murder-for-hire but convicted on stalking counts resulting in death. Banks stays in custody for an Oct. 5 racketeering-and-weapons trial. First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said the office was disappointed on Banks but would press the next case.

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Burlington: First-Degree Charge After Wellness Check

Halton Regional Police charged a 46-year-old Burlington man with first-degree murder after a wellness check about 6:30 a.m. Thursday found a woman dead in an apartment near Guelph Line and Glencrest Road. Niagara Regional Police arrested the man, known to the victim, about an hour later in the Niagara Falls area after he fled. His name is under a publication ban. No other suspects sought.

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