Daily Breaking True Crime Briefing
As of: September 15, 2026 (evening ET)
Scope: Worldwide sweep — last ~24 hours preferred; major court and investigative moves stretched to ~48. Brentwood, Kempton Park, Adelaide, Accra, Tamenglong, Delray Beach, Lee County, Cincinnati, Brandon, Cuautla, Glasgow, Hartlepool, Houma. LawAndCrime’s homepage was politics-led at check; People.com/crime returned thin same-day crime traffic. The New Yorker homepage carried no fresh crime lede. Tabloid tips confirmed through police, court, prosecutor, AP/wires, or independent locals.
Los Angeles prosecutors said they will not seek death against Nick Reiner in the stabbing deaths of his parents, Rob and Michele Reiner, capping a Tuesday court day that also pushed any trial into next year. South Africa’s East Rand body count climbed again as police folded more cases into a seven-woman probe around Kempton Park and President Cyril Ramaphosa ordered no stone left unturned. In Adelaide, a parole review commissioner cleared Snowtown killer James Vlassakis for conditional release after the attorney-general’s challenge failed. Accra’s Adabraka District Court remanded General Corporal Robert Katey Koranteng on a murder charge in the Tema Motorway death of Central University law student Ivan Apprey Baidoo. Gunmen killed two Kuki women in Manipur’s Tamenglong district two days after four other civilians died nearby. Palm Beach County is holding life coach Alexander Harrington without bond in the Monterey Lane stabbing of his mother, Susan Baratto. Lee County booked a second man in the buried-body killing of Steven Roth. Cincinnati cleared two defendants for trial in the torture death of seven-year-old William Evans-Ellis. Brandon’s Gabriel Heymans was convicted of second-degree murder in his mother’s hatchet killing. And Cuautla’s hunt for Claudia Tacoronte Aguilera’s attacker sharpened as Spanish and Mexican outlets published CCTV of a man in white fleeing the Casa de la Cultura.
Brentwood: No Death Penalty for Nick Reiner
Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said Tuesday prosecutors will not seek the death penalty against Nick Reiner, 33, who faces two counts of first-degree murder and a multiple-murder special circumstance in the December 2025 stabbing deaths of his parents, director Rob Reiner and producer Michele Singer Reiner.
Hochman told reporters the office made the call after a rigorous review and after speaking with Reiner’s siblings, Jake and Romy. Life without parole is now the maximum if he is convicted. Reiner has pleaded not guilty. Hochman also said trial will not begin until next year. Tuesday’s calendar included a fight over whether grand-jury transcripts stay sealed; the siblings have asked to keep the details private. Reiner is presumed innocent.
Sources:
- BBC News — Prosecutors will not seek death penalty for Nick Reiner if convicted of killing parents
- CNN — Nick Reiner will not face death penalty in killings of his parents, prosecutor says
Kempton Park: Seventh Body, President Intervenes
South African police on Tuesday said their East Rand investigation now covers seven women’s bodies found since mid-July around Kempton Park and nearby Springs, after another decomposed body — a woman about 30 — was recovered in KwaThema and an earlier Sept. 7 river find was folded into the probe.
Most of the women were found partially or fully naked. Only two have been publicly identified, including runner Elizabeth Moselakgomo, 38, whose relatives confirmed her on Monday. SAPS still refuses to call it a serial killer case and says a group or copycats remain possible; one man arrested over the first July body is still in custody. President Cyril Ramaphosa vowed “no stone will be left unturned,” and Brig. Athlenda Mathe warned women against walking or running alone in isolated stretches near OR Tambo.
Sources:
- BBC News — South African president vows justice as more women’s bodies found near Johannesburg
- The Citizen — Sixth woman found dead in KwaThema as Ramaphosa vows ‘no stone unturned’ in East Rand killings
Adelaide: Snowtown Killer Cleared for Parole
Parole Administrative Review Commissioner David Cameron Lovell on Tuesday dismissed South Australia Attorney-General Kyam Maher’s challenge and affirmed the Parole Board’s August 2025 order releasing James Spyridon Vlassakis on conditional parole.
Vlassakis, the youngest of the Snowtown “bodies in the barrels” killers, pleaded guilty to four of the 11 murders between 1992 and 1999 and was sentenced in 2002 to life with a 26-year non-parole period that expired in August 2025. He was a key Crown witness against John Bunting and Robert Wagner. Maher said the board must now set final conditions. Vlassakis remains under the parole system’s supervision once released.
Sources:
- InDaily — Breaking: Snowtown killer wins parole
- ABC News — Snowtown serial killer James Vlassakis gets parole after attempt to block release fails
- The Guardian — Youngest Snowtown murderer to walk free from jail after 26-year sentence as parole upheld
Accra: Officer Charged in Law Student’s Death
Adabraka District Court on Tuesday remanded General Corporal Robert Katey Koranteng, 34, of the Traffic Management Enforcement Unit, on a murder charge in the Aug. 27 death of Ivan Apprey Baidoo, a 20-year-old Central University Level 200 law student.
Prosecutors say Koranteng chased a Yango motorbike after a red-light run at the UPSA intersection, then kicked the bike on the Tema Motorway after the old tollbooth, sending rider Samuel Wesley Arthur into a concrete barrier. Baidoo was pronounced dead on arrival at Tema General Hospital; Arthur was treated and released. A Sept. 3 post-mortem cited haemorrhagic shock from blunt chest and abdominal trauma. The court took no plea and set a return for Sept. 29. Koranteng, arrested Sept. 12 after homicide took the file, is presumed innocent. Burial is set for Saturday.
Sources:
- Ghana News Agency — Policeman remanded for allegedly causing death of law student
- Citi Newsroom — Central University law student’s death: Police corporal charged with murder
- MyJoyOnline — Police officer charged with murder over death of 20-year-old law student
Tamenglong: Two Kuki Women Shot in Fields
Manipur police said two Kuki women were shot dead Tuesday afternoon by unknown gunmen at Muktakhan / Leisangphai village in Tamenglong district, about 55 km west of Kaimai police station.
Kuki Inpi Manipur identified the dead as Phalneichong “Chonga” Sitlhou, 60, and Kimjalhing / Kimboi Singson, about 30, who had gone to jhum fields or to collect firewood. Bodies were sent to Silchar Medical College in Assam. Kuki groups alleged NSCN-IM and ZUF-K cadres; police said perpetrators are not yet ascertained. The killings came two days after four people died in related Tamenglong / Noney attacks, including a couple whose six-year-old son was wounded. No arrest had been announced Tuesday evening.
Sources:
- Hindustan Times — Two Kuki women shot dead by unknown gunmen in Manipur’s Tamenglong: Police
- India Today — 2 Kuki women shot dead in Manipur’s Tamenglong, farmhouses set ablaze
Delray Beach: Son Held in Mother’s Stabbing
Alexander Harrington, 50, is held without bond on a first-degree premeditated murder charge after Palm Beach County deputies say he stabbed his mother, Susan Baratto, 77, to death inside their Monterey Lane home in west Delray Beach on Sept. 11.
An arrest affidavit reviewed by CBS12 and Law & Crime outlets says Harrington called Boca Raton’s non-emergency line about 2:03 p.m., told a PBSO dispatcher he had just murdered his mother with a knife, and later told paramedics, “I killed my mom.” Deputies found Baratto on the living-room floor with multiple stab wounds and a black-handled knife nearby. Harrington refused his Monday first appearance; next date is Oct. 11. Relatives describe long mental-health struggles. He is presumed innocent. No motive is pleaded in the affidavit.
Sources:
- CBS12 WPEC — ‘I killed my mom’: No bond for man charged in mother’s stabbing death in west Delray Beach
- Us Weekly — Florida Life Coach Fatally Stabbed Mother 1 Day After Posting Video About Forgiveness
Lee County: Second Arrest in Buried-Body Killing
Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno announced Tuesday that Justin Kight has been charged with second-degree murder and tampering with or fabricating physical evidence in the killing of Steven Roth, 46, whose remains were excavated near Cypress Lake Drive and U.S. 41 after months of searching.
Gabriel Leon-Torres was arrested in August on the same counts. Marceno says both men knew each other, that a verbal dispute near South Cleveland and Cypress Lake turned violent, and that both helped move and bury Roth after a beating that left stab-wound trauma. Roth was reported missing Oct. 23, 2025; FDLE ground-penetrating radar led to the March recovery. The medical examiner ruled homicide. Both suspects are presumed innocent. The State Attorney’s Office is still working the file.
Sources:
Cincinnati: Two Cleared for Trial in Boy’s Killing
Hamilton County Judge Christian Jenkins ruled Tuesday that Kirby Rankin, 33, and Nessa Keaney, 23, are competent to stand trial in the August death of seven-year-old William Evans-Ellis in Oakley’s Madison Road apartment.
No competency exam was ordered for the boy’s mother, Kaitlin Evans. All three have pleaded not guilty to aggravated murder, conspiracy to commit aggravated murder, and kidnapping, and each faces life without parole if convicted. Prosecutors say Rankin outlined a kidnap-and-kill plan on Signal in July; the coroner ruled blunt-force trauma to the head and catalogued bruises, a broken bone, and possible burns. Bond sits at $1.1 million each. All three are presumed innocent.
Sources:
- FOX19 WXIX — Suspects found competent for trial in Cincinnati boy’s murder
- Local 12 WKRC — 2 of 3 charged in Cincinnati 7-year-old’s killing found competent to stand trial
Brandon: Son Guilty in Mother’s Hatchet Killing
Court of King’s Bench Justice Elliot Leven on Monday found Gabriel Heymans, 47, guilty of second-degree murder in the October 2023 hatchet killing of his mother, Maureen Heymans, 71, inside their Brandon, Manitoba apartment.
An autopsy showed five chop wounds to the head plus arm and hand cuts. Heymans told police an unknown attacker used a hatchet he kept in a bedroom bag; a forensic psychiatrist ruled him fit for trial and ineligible for a not-criminally-responsible defence despite a 1998 brain injury. Maintenance found Maureen’s decomposing body on Nov. 3, 2023. Sentencing is later. Heymans retains appeal rights and is presumed innocent of any remaining issues before the court.
Sources:
- Winnipeg Free Press / Brandon Sun — Son found guilty in hatchet slaying of his mother
Cuautla: CCTV Tightens Hunt for Student’s Killer
EL PAÍS on Tuesday published security-camera stills and reporting on the Saturday-night stabbing of Spanish exchange student Claudia Tacoronte Aguilera, 21, outside Cuautla’s Casa de la Cultura during a medicinal-plant festival.
Footage reviewed by the paper shows a man in a white T-shirt with a black backpack pause, vanish for about a minute, then run at 8:50 p.m. Tacoronte, a University of Granada early-childhood education student on exchange at UAEM, is the fourth UAEM student murdered in seven months. Morelos prosecutors are treating the case as femicide; no arrest had been announced. Spain’s government again demanded justice. The man in white remains wanted.
Sources:
- EL PAÍS English — The hunt for the alleged killer of Spanish student Claudia Tacoronte in Morelos
- UPI — Mexico expands investigation into killing of Spanish exchange student
Glasgow: Indictment in Loch Lomond Dismemberment
David McColl, 51, and Linda Kelly, 48, are to stand trial at the High Court in Glasgow in January 2028 on charges they murdered Graham Wright, 38, at a Gorbals flat on Aug. 21–22, 2025, then dismembered him with hand and electric saws.
Indictment papers, read Tuesday, say remains were moved through a Castlemilk cellar, driven in a hired van to Loch Lomond near Firkin Point and Rubha Dubh beach, and that Wright’s torso was left in a shopping basket at the former Blairbeth Golf Course in Rutherglen. His head and feet have not been found. John Joseph Roarty, 54, faces related attempting-to-defeat-the-ends-of-justice counts; a reduced plea was rejected. McColl and Kelly deny the accusations through counsel. All are presumed innocent.
Sources:
Hartlepool: Third Man Charged in 2019 Shooting
Dani Kadiu, 35, of Kilburn Road, London, appeared Tuesday via video link at Teesside Crown Court charged with the 2019 murder of Hemewand Ali Hussain, found dead in a derelict Charterhouse Street house in Hartlepool on Sept. 14, 2019.
Kadiu was remanded for a plea and trial-preparation hearing next month. Co-defendants Armando Marku, 27, and Sajmir Dodoveci, 41, have denied murder and are due for trial in February 2027. Cleveland Police’s Det Insp Lyndsey Dale said the force worked with the National Crime Agency and international partners. Kadiu is presumed innocent.
Sources:
Houma: Formal Warrants for Ashland Drive Suspect
Terrebonne Parish Sheriff Tim Soignet confirmed Tuesday that detectives have active arrest warrants for Kaegan Jude Solet, 47, of Houma, on four counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted first-degree murder in the Sept. 12 Ashland Drive stabbing that left four adults dead and a juvenile critically wounded.
Solet remains under continuous TPSO detention in an out-of-area hospital for injuries detectives tie to the fight. Soignet said discharge will not mean release — deputies will book him at the Terrebonne Parish Criminal Justice Complex the moment medical staff clear him. The DA’s office previously flagged Solet’s 2019 no-bill and 2023 acquittal history and reserved Oct. 27 for grand jury. He is presumed innocent.
Sources:
- The Times of Houma/Thibodaux — Kaegan Solet to be formally arrested for recent Ashland Drive murders following medical discharge
- FOX8 WVUE — Terrebonne DA acknowledges past failed prosecutions of quadruple murder suspect
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