The Crime Ledger: September 27, 2026

Springs: 11th Woman’s Body Found in Open Veld

A private security patrol spotted a woman’s body in open veld near Rhokana Road in Springs at about noon Sunday and alerted police. She is the 11th woman found dead in Ekurhuleni since the first body turned up in Kempton Park on July 15. The Ekurhuleni murders task team, crime-scene management, Investigative Psychology Services, detectives and Crime Intelligence were called out, and Gauteng commissioner Lt. Gen. Tommy Mthombeni went to the scene.

Mthombeni said the woman was in her 20s, her body was not decomposed, and she was clothed with only her top pushed aside; there were signs a struggle may have taken place. She has not been publicly identified. The find came hours after the Tembisa arrest, and Mthombeni said police have yet to confirm that a serial killer is targeting women in the area. At least one earlier death is on a separate track: Fortunate Masilela, 31, and Tsakane Nester Msithini, 38, appeared in Boksburg Magistrate’s Court on Sept. 21 charged with premeditated murder and defeating the ends of justice in the death of Jabulile Ntimba, found near Dawn Park on Sept. 17; police have floated a possible love triangle, and a man first arrested with them was released for lack of evidence. The two women are due back for a bail application Oct. 1 and are presumed innocent. A R400,000 reward stands.

Augusta: Couple Charged in Harrisburg Killing

Osiel Delgadillo Noriega, 36, a North Augusta father of four, and his wife, Sully Delgadillo, 39, were caught around 2 a.m. Sunday at the Georgia Welcome Center, authorities say. Noriega is charged with murder; his wife is charged with hindering the apprehension of a fugitive. Both face auto theft charges over the Toyota RAV4 belonging to Alexandra Alston, 56.

Alston was found unresponsive at her home at 1936 Watkins Street in Augusta’s Harrisburg community; authorities believe she was attacked around 3:15 p.m. Friday and allege Noriega caused fatal injuries to her neck and chest. A Saturday flyer had sought a man in an orange hooded shirt with a clipboard who may have been going door to door looking for work; authorities now say that was Noriega. Surveillance images put him and Alston in her driveway, Flock license-plate cameras tracked her SUV to Gun Club Road about five miles away, and fingerprints in the vehicle were reportedly linked to him, The Augusta Press reported. Both are presumed innocent.

Natchez: Murder Warrant After Remains Found in Bates Case

The Adams County Sheriff’s Office said human remains believed to be those of Felicia Bates were recovered as the search for her became a homicide investigation. Family last saw her Sunday, Sept. 13. The Adams County Coroner’s Office recovered the remains; formal identification and further forensic testing are pending.

Adams County investigators obtained a warrant charging Albert Kendall Washington, 50, of Natchez, with first-degree murder; he is held in Louisiana pending extradition. He was found at a Motel 6 in Monroe, Louisiana, refused orders to leave, and barricaded himself in the room until the Ouachita Parish Sheriff’s Office SWAT team took him into custody. Search-and-rescue teams, the United Cajun Navy, Team Texas K9s cadaver dogs and Mississippi wildlife officers were among the agencies that helped. “This is not the outcome we wanted, but it is the reality that we now face,” Sheriff Travis Patten said, adding that the case is still being built. Washington is presumed innocent.

Turin: Three Stay Jailed in Colapietro Dismemberment

Turin preliminary-investigations judge Antonio Borretta declined to validate the emergency arrests of the three accused in the killing and dismemberment of Fabio Colapietro, 39, finding no concrete flight risk, but ordered them held in pretrial custody on the strength of the evidence. Christian Matheus De Oliveira Morando, 26, accused of voluntary homicide and suppression of a corpse, stays at Turin’s Lorusso e Cutugno prison with Nicole Formichetti, 47, and Keith Butig, 22, both accused of complicity in suppressing the corpse. The validation hearing that ran on The Crime Ledger: September 26, 2026 was held Saturday; the ruling came Sunday.

ANSA reports the killing allegedly happened Sept. 21, days before the remains, in bags and masked with cement, were found overnight Sept. 24-25 in Formichetti’s flat in the Borgo Vittoria district; she is a teacher. ANSA reports Morando has confessed, while saying the death was the unintended result of a fight; his lawyer, Wilmer Perga, is weighing a prosecutor interview or a Riesame challenge to the charge’s legal classification. Prosecutor Lea Lamonaca and the squadra mobile are working out each suspect’s role. All three are presumed innocent.

Norwich: Life for Man Who Murdered Estranged Wife Tania Williams

Raymond Williams, 61, was sentenced Friday at Norwich Crown Court to life with a minimum of 27 years for murdering his estranged wife, Tania Williams, 49, a mother of four, near her home in Thorpe St Andrew, Norfolk, in January. Judge Bate called it “plainly a targeted ambush” and a “brutal attack.” The sentence followed a 17-day trial; he had denied murder.

Williams, born in Texas, married Tania in 2000; they had three children together, and he moved out when the relationship broke down. The night she died, he searched Norwich city-center bars for her and found her; they were seen walking together, then separated. Shortly before midnight, neighbors heard screams and found her on the ground with significant blood loss; she was pronounced dead at the scene. He was arrested at his home on Dereham Road hours later. Her niece, Abigail Larkowsky, said outside court the family would “never get over” the murder. Williams retains appeal rights.

Saanich: Guilty of Two Murders in 2022 Knife Attacks

B.C. Supreme Court Justice Jennifer Power on Friday found Christopher Douglas Cathcart guilty of the second-degree murders of his girlfriend, Stephanie Elk, and acquaintance William “Billie” Bradshaw in Saanich on Oct. 19, 2022, citing “overwhelming proof” that he used the same knife on both, minutes and metres apart. All three had been unhoused and tenting on unused land near Uptown.

Bradshaw was found with multiple stab wounds to the chest at the campsite. Cathcart and Elk fled, then fought in suburban Saanich, where he stabbed her 21 times inside a home in what the judge called an “unrelenting assault.” He then blocked and locked the front door, put a separate knife beside her body, discarded the murder weapon, hid and lied to police, conduct Power called “as calculated as it is, chilling.” Cathcart represented himself through a turbulent 44-day trial, was removed from court over outbursts, and said he would look into an appeal. Sentencing (mandatory life, with parole eligibility set between 10 and 25 years) is scheduled for Dec. 14 and 15. He retains appeal rights.

Travis County: Capital Murder Charge in Wells Branch Double Killing

Michael Robinson, 24, of Mississippi, was taken into custody Friday and charged with capital murder in the shooting deaths of Anecia Kay Thacker, 37, and Lamonica Webb, 32, both of Austin, the Travis County Sheriff’s Office said. The manager of a complex in the 3400 block of Shoreline Drive in the Wells Branch area saw an apartment door ajar about 8:45 a.m. Sept. 23, pushed it open, saw a body and called 911. Deputies found both women shot; they were pronounced dead at the scene.

The sheriff’s office first treated the case as a possible murder-suicide; evidence at the scene turned it into a double homicide. Detectives say Robinson had likely been in the apartment when the shooting happened. Sheriff Sally Hernandez credited crime-scene specialists and detectives for quickly connecting the evidence to a suspect. Robinson is presumed innocent.

The sheriff’s office said the manager had gone to the unit at the Parkside Crossing Apartments to serve a writ, and KXAN reports deputies found one woman in the entryway and the other in the dining area, with a gun near each of them. An arrest affidavit reported by CBS Austin and KXAN says Robinson told detectives he went to the apartment early Sept. 21 after answering an online advertisement and paid $120 for sex. He claimed Thacker pointed a gun at him, that he took it during a struggle, that Webb then came at him with a second gun, and that after he put Thacker’s gun down on a kitchen counter she picked it up again and pointed it at him, at which point he fired multiple shots and left. He told detectives he later worked out that he had fired eight times. That account is his and has not been tested in court. Court records show Thacker was out on bond on an aggravated assault charge. Robinson is presumed innocent.

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