Daily Breaking True Crime Briefing
As of: September 22, 2026 (evening ET)
Scope: Tuesday’s board covers cases from Monday evening through Tuesday evening ET, plus Monday verdicts and earlier killings that drew Tuesday charges, arrests or court steps. The stories come from police, court and prosecutor statements, wire services and local newsrooms in Sri Lanka, Australia, the United States, Canada, Britain, Malta, Thailand, India and Brazil.

Sri Lanka’s High Court convicted fifteen of twenty-four defendants over the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings, with sentences following the same day. NSW Police charged the Valley Heights mother at a Westmead bedside hearing. Jackson County jurors convicted Fredrick Scott of four Indian Creek Trail murders and acquitted him of two. Ontario’s SIU confirmed Sean Ward died in hospital after Sunday’s gunfire outside Belleville’s Sons of Jacob Synagogue. Dual Monroe County juries convicted two brothers of murdering an Irondequoit family of four. Frederick, Md., held 87-year-old Irwin Joseph Dickstein without bond in his roommate’s death. A Monday Burlington jury convicted Jason Eaton of attempting to murder three Palestinian students. Suffolk County gave Victor Panebianco twenty-five years for the Stony Brook Yacht Club killing. That was Tuesday’s board.

Colombo: Fifteen Guilty in Easter Sunday Bombings

St. Sebastian’s Church, Negombo, one of the churches attacked in 2019. Photo: MKoala / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Sri Lanka’s High Court convicted fifteen of twenty-four men Tuesday over the April 2019 Easter Sunday bombings of three churches and three luxury hotels. Al Jazeera, citing AFP and AP, put the toll at 279 dead, including forty-five foreigners, and more than five hundred injured; The Guardian reports 267 dead.

A three-judge bench found fourteen defendants guilty on all counts, including murder, conspiracy, and firearms and explosives charges under the Prevention of Terrorism Act; a fifteenth was convicted on some counts, and nine were acquitted. One of the original twenty-five charged had died in custody. Prosecutors identified Mohamed Naufar, convicted on all charges, as the ringleader who backed the eight-member attack squad. Sentences followed later Tuesday. Catholic priest Jude Fernando told AFP, “Finally, we have justice.” All convicted defendants retain appeal rights; the acquitted leave without those convictions.

The Daily FT reports that 25 people were indicted in 2019 on more than 23,270 charges, including conspiracy, aiding and abetting, murder and firearms and explosives offences under the Prevention of Terrorism Act, and that 2,309 prosecution witnesses testified in hearings that closed on Aug. 24. The court weighed evidence of extremist lectures, weapons training, workshops and safe houses before the attacks, which were carried out by nine suicide bombers including National Thowheed Jama’ath figure Zahran Hashim.

Sources:

Daily FT: 15 Easter Sunday attack accused convicted
Al Jazeera / AFP / AP: Sri Lanka court convicts 15 over deadly Easter Sunday bombings
The Guardian, Sri Lanka Easter bombings: 15 sentenced to hundreds of years in prison each over deadly terror attacks

Valley Heights: Mother Charged Over Child Stabbings

NSW Police charged a 42-year-old woman Tuesday with domestic-violence murder and two counts of domestic-violence wounding or grievous bodily harm with intent to murder after Sunday’s stabbing of three children found with her in a car on Waratah Road, Valley Heights.

Bystanders called Triple Zero about 12:45 p.m. Sunday. The five-year-old boy was dead at the scene; the one- and three-year-olds were critical but stable at Westmead Children’s Hospital. Police allege the woman’s wounds were self-inflicted. She was charged at a bedside hearing at Westmead Hospital, refused bail, and listed for Penrith Local Court on November 20. Police say they are not looking for anyone else. She is presumed innocent.

Update, Sept. 24: NSW Police said the one-year-old died in hospital Thursday and the mother now faces an additional murder charge; the full development is on The Crime Ledger: September 24, 2026.

Passing cyclists found the scene and gave first aid while calling for help, and Deputy Commissioner Peter McKenna said police believed the children were attacked inside the car but did not know why it was parked there. Update, Oct. 11, 2026: The one-year-old died in hospital on Sept. 24 and the mother faces an additional murder charge, ABC News reports. The three-year-old remained in critical condition. She is due at Penrith Local Court on Nov. 20 and is presumed innocent.

Sources:

ABC News: Second child dies after Blue Mountains stabbing
Nine.com.au: Woman charged with murder after three children allegedly stabbed
ABC News: Mother charged with murder after three children stabbed in the NSW Blue Mountains
The Guardian: Mother charged after allegedly fatally stabbing one child and seriously injuring two others in Blue Mountains
ABC News (update): Second child dies after Blue Mountains stabbing, mother remains before the courts

Kansas City: Jury Convicts Scott in Four Indian Creek Killings

Indian Creek in Kansas City, Missouri. Photo: USEPA Environmental-Protection-Agency / Wikimedia Commons, Public domain

A Jackson County jury on Tuesday found Fredrick Scott, 31, guilty of four counts of first-degree murder and armed criminal action in killings along south Kansas City’s Indian Creek Trail system between 2016 and 2017, and not guilty on two other first-degree murder counts.

The victims named in the case were John Palmer, Mike Darby, Karen Harmeyer, Steven Gibbons, David Lenox, and Timothy Rice; the panel acquitted Scott in the Lenox and Rice deaths. Prosecutor Melesa Johnson said families waited nine years. Jurors later recommended life without parole on each murder conviction and fifteen years on each armed-criminal-action count. The judge sets final sentence Nov. 23. Scott retains appeal rights.

Prosecutors said Scott stalked and shot men he didn’t know at or near the trails in 2016 and 2017; Mike Darby was shot in the back of the head while walking his dogs. The trial ran from Sept. 3 with more than 70 witnesses. Scott denied the killings but admitted using the trail and being on it around the time Darby was killed, KSHB reports. The jury of seven women and five men recommended life without parole on each of the four murders plus 15 years on each armed-criminal-action count. Formal sentencing is set for Nov. 23.

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Belleville: Synagogue Suspect Dies in Hospital

Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit confirmed Tuesday that Sean Ward, 29, of Quinte West: the man the SIU says opened fire with a shotgun on Const. Jeff Smith outside Sons of Jacob Synagogue at the start of Yom Kippur, died in hospital Monday night of injuries sustained in Sunday’s exchange of gunfire.

SIU spokesperson Kristy Denette said an autopsy was set for Wednesday in Kingston. InQuinte reported Smith in serious but stable condition in intensive care Tuesday and expected to recover. National Post reported Ward was a former Canadian Armed Forces corporal, released in 2022. Synagogue president Norm Weddum called Smith a hero. Ward was not charged before his death. Motive, and whether the synagogue was the intended target, remained under investigation Tuesday.

Update, Sept. 24: Belleville Police Chief Murray Rodd said Thursday the shooting was a deliberate, hate-motivated attack on the Jewish community; the full development is on The Crime Ledger: September 24, 2026.

Sources:

InQuinte: Suspected shooter in Belleville Synagogue confirmed dead Tuesday
National Post: Belleville synagogue shooting suspect, a former Canadian soldier, dies in hospital
CBC News: Belleville synagogue president vows after shooting
Global News (update): Belleville synagogue shooting a ‘hate-motivated attack,’ police say

Irondequoit: Brothers Convicted in Family-of-Four Killings

Dual Monroe County juries on Tuesday convicted Julio Cesar Pimentel-Soriano, 36, and Luis Francisco Soriano, 33, of murder, arson, kidnapping, and burglary in the Aug. 31, 2024, deaths of Fraime Ubaldo, Marangely Moreno-Santiago, and the couple’s two young children at a Knapp Avenue home in Irondequoit, N.Y.

Prosecutors said a dispute over missing drugs led the brothers to fatally stab their cousin and his family, then set eight fires; they argued surveillance video showed the brothers entering with zip ties and duct tape and leaving after the fire. Sentencing is set for Nov. 16 (Luis) and Nov. 23 (Julio). Both retain appeal rights.

The children were Evangeline and Sebastian Ubaldo-Moreno. Both brothers were convicted on all 14 counts, including first-degree murder, 13WHAM and WHEC report. The Wayne County District Attorney’s office was brought in to try the case. Neighbours held a remembrance for the family hours after the verdicts.

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Frederick: 87-Year-Old Charged in Roommate’s Death

Downtown Frederick, Maryland. Photo: Bohemian Baltimore / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

City of Frederick police charged Irwin Joseph Dickstein, 87, with first- and second-degree murder in the death of his roommate, Michael Roy Bushnell, 63, whose body was found Sunday at their Franklin Street home. Court records reviewed by WTOP on Tuesday show Dickstein held without bond and ordered to undergo a competency evaluation.

Charging documents cited by The Frederick News-Post say a church associate pastor called a sheriff’s deputy after a congregant said he had killed someone; Dickstein allegedly gave the deputy the address and told the man who drove him to church that he had shot Bushnell. A warrant search of the car’s trunk turned up a Beretta handgun case containing a weapon. A neighbor reported loud bangs about 5:30 a.m. Sunday. A competency hearing is set for Oct. 13, with a preliminary hearing Oct. 21. Dickstein is presumed innocent.

Update, Oct. 11, 2026: A grand jury has indicted Dickstein on first-degree murder and use of a firearm in a crime of violence, WFMD reports. He has been held without bail since a Sept. 21 hearing and ordered to undergo an inpatient competency examination, with a competency hearing set for Oct. 13. He is presumed innocent.

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Burlington: Eaton Guilty in Palestinian Students Shooting

A Chittenden Superior Court jury on Monday convicted Jason J. Eaton, 51, of three counts of attempted second-degree murder for the Nov. 25, 2023, shooting of Palestinian college students Hisham Awartani, Tahseen Aliahmad, and Kinnan Abdalhamid while they walked in a Burlington neighborhood.

Awartani was hit in the thumb and chest and left paralyzed; Aliahmad was shot in the chest; Abdalhamid was shot while running. Jurors deliberated about two hours and rejected Eaton’s insanity defense. He faces up to life without parole, prosecutors say; sentencing is pending. No hate-crime counts were filed. Eaton retains appeal rights.

Eaton did not dispute that he was the shooter. He claimed the CIA and Mossad sent him orders over FM radio and that God told him to protect his Jewish neighbours, AP reports. The three men, all 20 and visiting Awartani’s family for Thanksgiving, testified that Eaton approached without a word and opened fire; two were wearing keffiyehs and they were speaking English and Arabic. Federal agents said that when they knocked on his door the next day he came out with his hands out and said, in effect, “I’ve been waiting for you.” The presumptive minimum is 20 years on each count. Judge John Pacht jailed him pending sentencing.

Sources:

Vermont State’s Attorneys: State v. Jason Eaton press statement
Vermont Public: Jury finds Jason Eaton guilty of attempted murder
Vermont Department of State’s Attorneys: State v. Jason Eaton press statement
Vermont Public: Jury finds Jason Eaton guilty of attempted murder in 2023 shooting

Stony Brook: 25 Years for Yacht Club Manslaughter

A Suffolk County judge on Tuesday sentenced Victor Panebianco, 33, of King, N.C., to twenty-five years in prison plus five years’ post-release supervision after his Aug. 11 guilty plea to first-degree manslaughter in the Nov. 10, 2025, stabbing death of Christopher Millwater, 52, of Selden, in the Stony Brook Yacht Club parking lot.

District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney said the court imposed the maximum his office requested. Prosecutors say co-defendant Kacy Corso crashed her car into Millwater’s as he tried to drive away; surveillance video showed Panebianco chasing him with a knife, and Millwater died of two stab wounds to the chest. Corso, who pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter in July, was expected to be sentenced Wednesday to seven years.

Update, Sept. 23: Corso was sentenced Wednesday to seven years, the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office said, per Patch.

Update, Oct. 11, 2026: Corso, Millwater’s ex-girlfriend, pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter in a deal to cooperate against Panebianco and was sentenced to seven years, the New York Post and Patch report.

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