·

The Crime Ledger: September 28, 2026

Daily Breaking True Crime Briefing
As of: September 28, 2026 (late afternoon ET)
Scope: Monday’s board covers cases from Sunday morning through Monday afternoon ET, plus Saturday killings that moved on Sunday or Monday. The stories come from police, court and prosecutor statements, wire services and local newsrooms in South Africa, Ghana, the United States, Britain, France, Spain, Germany, Japan, Malaysia, Australia and New Zealand.

Wedela’s toll rose to 18 on Monday, and Gauteng police said flatly that no one has been arrested for the Saturday-night attack on Dora’s Tavern, while the commissioner said detectives are working a second, linked crime scene. In Manhattan, NYPD charged Jonathan Robles, 36, with murder after a 63-year-old woman was found beaten under a gazebo near the Central Park Boathouse during Sunday’s nor’easter. Counter-terrorism police released on bail the five London men in their 20s arrested near RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire; none has been named or charged, and police say the investigation isn’t over. Twelve teenagers were shot at a birthday gathering in Macon, Georgia, and nobody is in custody. In Dublin, California, a married couple, both 77, are booked in their son-in-law’s shooting in a sports-park lot. Queensland police charged the woman arrested after Sunday’s Fernvale death with domestic-violence murder. Further down the board: a Wichita triple killing, a Darlington remand, a Courbevoie stabbing, a teahouse shooting in Marl, Germany, a standoff after a woman’s killing in La Campana, Spain, a husband jailed in Obertshausen, a fugitive caught in Ota, Japan, a child-murder charge in Kota Tinggi, a capital-murder charge in Athens, Alabama, three arrests in Accra’s Teshie case, the Lwandle venue’s apology, a Tembisa suspect still unnamed, and a matricide trial for a Papatoetoe man in Auckland.

Wedela: Toll Rises to 18, Police Say No Arrest Yet

One more patron shot at Dora’s Tavern in Wedela, near Carletonville on Gauteng’s West Rand, has died in hospital, bringing the toll from Saturday night’s attack to 18, Gauteng police confirmed Monday. The shooting ran on The Crime Ledger: September 27, 2026 with 17 dead. Only four of the dead have been identified, two South Africans and two Lesotho nationals, police spokesperson Brig. Brenda Muridili said. Every wounded patron still in hospital has been identified. Five who were shot in the upper body are critical and the rest are stable. The case now lists 18 counts of murder, 18 of attempted murder, two of malicious damage to property (the two torched vehicles) and armed robbery.

“No arrests have been made at this stage,” the police statement said Monday, and Muridili told IOL the same. That settles Sunday’s talk of an arrest, which police never confirmed. Provincial commissioner Lt. Gen. Tommy Mthombeni has put a dedicated team on the case: murder-and-robbery detectives, Crime Intelligence and crime-scene investigators, led by the senior brigadier who runs Crime Investigation Services in the province. Operation Prosper, which folds in the SANDF, the Tactical Response Team and Public Order Policing, has stepped up operations in and around Wedela. Mthombeni told SABC that four more wounded had been found at Leratong Hospital, putting the injured count at 18. He said detectives had found a second crime scene linked to the attack, the source of “some of the scientific evidentiary material,” and that the motive appears to have been robbery. The eight gunmen are still being hunted.

Sources:

Central Park: Murder Charge After Woman Beaten Near Boathouse

A 911 caller reported an unconscious person near East Drive and East 74th Street at 9:43 a.m. Sunday, with the nor’easter still soaking Manhattan. Central Park Precinct officers found a 63-year-old woman with head trauma in the wooden gazebo by the Boathouse, and EMS pronounced her dead around 10 a.m. Police first said she had been stabbed. They’ve since walked that back, and detectives now believe she was beaten with a wooden stick, amNewYork reported. A tent and clothing around the structure suggested she had been living in the park. Her name is being withheld until her family is notified.

Jonathan Robles, 36, was arrested Sunday night and charged with murder and criminal possession of a weapon, NYPD said. His listed address is the Barbour Hotel, a homeless shelter in Hell’s Kitchen. WABC reported he was being evaluated at a hospital ahead of an expected arraignment. Police haven’t said whether the two knew each other. Robles is presumed innocent.

Sources:

RAF Fairford: Five Men Bailed After Suspected Airbase Plot Arrests

The five men arrested near RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire early Sunday were released on police bail Monday afternoon, UK time, after what Assistant Commissioner Laurence Taylor, head of Counter Terrorism Policing, called “extensive interviews and inquiries.” He announced it outside New Scotland Yard. None has been charged or named. “To be very clear, this does not mean the investigation is over,” Taylor said. The men remain under investigation and face “stringent conditions on their movement and contact with others.” Counter Terrorism Policing said earlier Monday that all five are British nationals from London. Three are 24, one is 25 and one is 23. Three live in Westminster, one in Camden and one in Willesden.

Gloucestershire Police took a call at 12:45 a.m. BST Sunday about three suspicious vehicles heading toward the base, which the US Air Force has been using in its operations against Iran. The men were arrested near Whelford, a village about two miles south-east of the base, on suspicion of Explosives Act offences, then further arrested on suspicion of preparing terrorist acts under section 5 of the Terrorism Act. Taylor said the three vehicles had been subject to “extensive examination” overnight. Eighty-five Whelford households were evacuated Sunday. Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood told the Labour conference Monday that the scene is “now safe” and residents can go home. Iran’s embassy in London said it “categorically rejects” attempts to link Iran to the arrests.

Update, Sept. 29: Counter Terrorism Policing said Tuesday that no improvised explosive devices were found and that “a quantity of petrol” was recovered from the vehicles. The five men remain on bail and under investigation. See The Crime Ledger: September 29, 2026.

Sources:

Macon: Twelve Shot at Birthday Gathering in Carolyn Crayton Park

It started as an 18-year-old girl’s birthday party at an Airbnb in Jones County, until the owner told the group to leave because people had firearms, Bibb County Sheriff David Davis said. They regrouped near the skate park in Macon’s Carolyn Crayton Park, and the 911 call came in at 12:06 a.m. Sunday. Another group arrived and opened fire, Davis said, and people in the party group fired back. Eleven were hit: four 18-year-old men, two 18-year-old women and five 17-year-old boys. An 18-year-old man and a 17-year-old boy are in critical condition. At 12:24 p.m. a 19-year-old man arrived at a hospital with a gunshot wound that investigators later tied to the park, bringing the count to 12. He is stable.

No one has been arrested. Casings show several weapons were fired, and Davis said there’s no evidence so far that any of the wounded fired shots. The FBI is assisting because of the number of victims, though Davis said everything so far indicates the shooting was local. He said he’ll pursue charges against adults who knew their children had guns, and he would back charging juvenile shooters as adults, which is the district attorney’s decision. He “can’t remember the last time we’ve had this many people shot at one time.”

Update, Sept. 29: The Bibb County Sheriff’s Office has since arrested five people, including a 15-year-old charged as an adult, each facing 12 counts of aggravated assault. See The Crime Ledger: September 29, 2026.

Sources:

Dublin, Calif.: Couple, 77, Booked in Son-in-Law’s Shooting

At 3:08 p.m. Saturday, a Dublin Police Services sergeant driving past the Dublin Sports Grounds at 6700 Dublin Blvd. saw a man lying in the middle of the parking lot and stopped. At the same moment, 911 calls about a shooting started coming in. Jonathan McKinsey, 40, of Dublin, had been shot several times and died at the scene, in a lot facing a playground and youth fields on a busy game day.

With help from witnesses, officers detained two people within minutes. Both had stayed nearby: Shouyong Zhang and Shili Chen, both 77, of Dublin, a married couple police identify as McKinsey’s parents-in-law. Both were booked into Santa Rita Jail early Sunday on suspicion of murder. Pleasanton Weekly, citing police and jail records, reported that conspiracy, grossly negligent discharge of a firearm and child abuse are also listed. The Alameda County District Attorney’s Office hadn’t announced a charging decision by Monday, and arraignment is set for 9 a.m. Wednesday in Dublin. Police haven’t given a motive. Both are presumed innocent.

Update, Sept. 29: Both remain held without bail at Santa Rita Jail ahead of Wednesday’s arraignment, and Alameda County jail records list them on suspicion of first-degree murder. See The Crime Ledger: September 29, 2026.

Sources:

Fernvale: Murder Charge After Husband Struck in the Street

Queensland police on Monday charged the 45-year-old Fernvale woman arrested at the scene Sunday with one count of murder (domestic violence) and one count of disqualified driving. The first report ran on The Crime Ledger: September 27, 2026. The dead man, 50, was her husband, NCA NewsWire reported. He was struck outside their home on Stoneywood Street at about 5:55 p.m. Sunday, local time, and died at the scene. NCA NewsWire reported that the vehicle was a white Commodore station wagon.

An Ipswich detective inspector told reporters there had been “a disturbance at the address” before he was hit on the street. The inspector said the couple were known to police, who had been to the house before “for domestic and family violence related matters.” NCA NewsWire, citing Nine News, reported that the couple’s adult son was home. She was remanded in custody to appear in Ipswich Magistrates Court on Tuesday, Sept. 29, and is presumed innocent. In Australia, 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732) answers domestic and family violence calls around the clock.

Sources:

Wichita: Capital-Murder Booking After Three Relatives Shot at Home

Just before 11:30 a.m. Saturday, Sedgwick County Emergency Communications took an open-line 911 call. A moment later the caller said people had been shot in the 5000 block of East Blake, near Pawnee and Oliver in southeast Wichita. Officers found a 49-year-old man, a 40-year-old woman and a 25-year-old woman shot dead inside. Six people besides the suspect were in the house, and the other three weren’t hurt. Police say all three dead were relatives of the man they arrested, Juan Valenzuela-Silva, 21. They haven’t released the victims’ names or how they were related to him.

Police say he drove off in a black 2014 Infiniti QX60. Flock plate readers tracked it heading south, and within two hours Butler County deputies, with a Kansas Highway Patrol aircraft overhead, stopped it just south of Augusta. He wasn’t armed. He’s held without bond in the Sedgwick County Jail on a capital-murder booking. The Sedgwick County District Attorney’s Office hasn’t filed formal charges and was expected to this week. He lived at the house, police say, and had no record with them beyond a traffic accident. Valenzuela-Silva is presumed innocent.

Update, Sept. 29: Wichita police have identified the three dead as Juan Valenzuela-Ayala, 49, Brenda Silva-Cervantes, 40, and Daisy Valenzuela, 25, the suspect’s father, mother and sister. See The Crime Ledger: September 29, 2026.

Sources:

Darlington: Man Remanded Over Care Worker’s Murder

Andrew Bell, 44, of Parkgate, Darlington, appeared at Newton Aycliffe Magistrates’ Court on Monday morning charged with murdering Leanne Park, 44. He spoke only to confirm his details, and no pleas were entered. District Judge Steven Hood remanded him in custody to Teesside Crown Court at 10 a.m. Tuesday, and The Northern Echo reports a plea hearing is listed there for Oct. 26. Durham Police charged him over the weekend.

Park was a mother and grandmother who worked at Ventress Hall Care Home. She was found dead in a flat above The Greyhound pub on Parkgate after emergency crews were called at about 9:15 p.m. last Wednesday, Sept. 23. The care home said she “would do anything for anybody, especially our residents.” Her family called her the “best mam, nana, daughter and friend we could wish for.” A 27-year-old man arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender was released on bail and hasn’t been charged. Bell is presumed innocent.

Sources:

Courbevoie: Cousin Held Over Woman’s Knife Death

Nanterre prosecutors say a 37-year-old woman “received several dozen stab wounds and could not be revived” after an attack overnight Saturday into Sunday in Courbevoie, in the Hauts-de-Seine just west of Paris. Her 25-year-old cousin was placed in garde à vue, or police custody, and so was the person who had been putting them both up, the parquet told AFP. Prosecutors say the motive hasn’t been established.

The parquet said the cousin would be brought before an investigating judge Monday to be placed under formal investigation (mis en examen) for murder, and that it would ask for pretrial detention. An autopsy was scheduled for Monday. No outcome from the judge had been made public by Monday evening in Paris. Under French procedure, mise en examen is a formal step toward trial, not a verdict. Nobody in the case has been named. The cousin is presumed innocent.

Update, Sept. 29: The cousin has been placed under formal investigation for murder and remanded in pretrial detention, the Nanterre parquet said. See The Crime Ledger: September 29, 2026.

Sources:

Marl: One Dead, Two Wounded in Teahouse Shooting

Neighbours called police at 3:06 a.m. Monday after hearing shots at a teahouse on Karlstraße in Marl, a Ruhr city of about 86,000 northwest of Recklinghausen. A 39-year-old man from Recklinghausen was killed. Officers found two more injured men, a 35-year-old from Oberhausen and a 40-year-old from Herne, and ambulances took them to hospital. T-online reports both were shot and seriously hurt. Several people fled the scene, according to a joint statement from Essen prosecutors and Recklinghausen police, who’ve set up a homicide squad.

No arrest had been announced by Monday afternoon, and a police spokeswoman told t-online she couldn’t yet say anything about a motive. The site notes that shots were fired at a Porsche near the same spot in mid-August, leaving a 62-year-old man unhurt, and that the two men sought over it are still at large. Whether the two shootings are connected is unclear. The dead man hasn’t been named.

Update, Sept. 29: The teahouse gunmen are still at large. Separately, prosecutors announced arrests of three suspected helpers in the August shooting at a car nearby, and police say the perpetrators of the two attacks are very likely not the same people. See The Crime Ledger: September 29, 2026.

Sources:

La Campana: Man Surrenders After Standoff Over Partner’s Stabbing

A 47-year-old woman was stabbed to death in the street in La Campana, a town of about 5,000 people in Spain’s Seville province, at about 10:40 p.m. Saturday. The Guardia Civil detained her partner, a 56-year-old man, around noon Sunday after roughly 12 hours barricaded in the family home. Francisco Toscano, the central government’s sub-delegate in Seville, said negotiators talked him out and that he was being treated, under guard, for serious self-inflicted wounds. Her teenage son and the man’s father were there and tried to stop him, Guardia Civil sources told Europa Press. Diario de Sevilla reports the father was slightly hurt.

She was pronounced dead at a local health clinic at about 11:30 p.m. Toscano said the main line of inquiry is gender violence. Spain’s Equality Ministry was gathering details Sunday before deciding whether to count it officially; if it does, she’ll be the 39th woman killed by a partner or ex-partner in Spain this year. The town hall called it sexist violence, declared Monday a day of mourning and called a noon vigil outside city hall. Authorities haven’t released either name. The man was still in hospital Sunday night, and he’s presumed innocent.

Update, Sept. 29: Spain’s Government Delegation against Gender Violence has officially confirmed the killing as gender violence. See The Crime Ledger: September 29, 2026.

Sources:

Obertshausen: Husband Jailed Over Wife’s Death Outside Frankfurt

A judge in Offenbach ordered a 57-year-old man held on Monday on suspicion of Totschlag, the German offence roughly equivalent to manslaughter, in the death of his 51-year-old wife. That’s according to a joint statement from Southeast Hesse police and the Darmstadt prosecutor’s Offenbach branch, which sought the warrant. Officers called to a home in Obertshausen at about 11:10 p.m. Saturday found her badly hurt, with apparent sharp-force injuries. She was taken to hospital under CPR and died shortly afterward.

Patrols and a helicopter searched through the night, and the husband was arrested without resistance in nearby Klein-Krotzenburg. He’s now in a state prison. Investigators ordered an autopsy and say they’re still working out the background and the sequence of events. They’ve asked witnesses to call 069 8098-1234. Neither spouse has been named, and he’s presumed innocent.

Sources:

Ota, Japan: Fugitive Arrested After Woman Stabbed at Home

Police arrested Riki Mihara, 30, at about 2:30 p.m. Sunday in a pachinko parlour in Takasaki, about 30 kilometres from the scene, ending a nationwide manhunt in Gunma Prefecture. He’d been on the wanted list on suspicion of attempting to murder the 26-year-old son of Yuka Tezuka, 52, who was found with about a dozen stab and slash wounds at her home in Ota shortly after noon Friday. The son was cut on the back of the head, but his wound isn’t life-threatening. Mihara is the ex-husband of Tezuka’s 28-year-old daughter, who wasn’t hurt. The warrant covers the attack on the son, and no charge over Tezuka’s death had been announced.

TV Asahi reports the daughter told Tochigi police on Sept. 19 that he’d threatened to kill her mother and brother and then himself. Tochigi officers warned him and passed the information to Gunma police, who say they gave her crime-prevention advice the day before the attack, when she told them she couldn’t leave because she was caring for her mother. Police say Mihara has admitted the attempted-murder allegation. He’s presumed innocent.

Update, Sept. 29: Gunma police sent Mihara to prosecutors Tuesday on the attempted-murder allegation. No charge over Tezuka’s death has been announced. See The Crime Ledger: September 29, 2026.

Sources:

Kota Tinggi: Uncle Charged in Five-Year-Old Niece’s River Death

Abadi Mohd Yasro, 37, a roti canai maker and father of three, was charged Monday at the Kota Tinggi Magistrate’s Court in Johor with murdering his five-year-old niece. The charge sheet says she was killed at about 8:20 a.m. on Sept. 21 at a river in Kampung Padang, Tanjung Sedili. Kota Tinggi district police chief Supt. Yusof Othman said after the arrest that the man allegedly threw the girl into the river and then chased a 40-year-old man with a machete. A police officer was hurt in the struggle to arrest him.

He nodded as the Section 302 charge was read before Magistrate Nur Najihah Hamidi. No plea was recorded because murder is tried in the High Court, and he had no lawyer. Deputy Public Prosecutor Wan Nuraini Mohd Shapee asked that he be referred to Hospital Permai in Johor Bahru for assessment over suspected mental health issues. The magistrate fixed Nov. 26 for the examination at Hospital Permai and the post-mortem report. The charge carries death, or 30 to 40 years in prison with at least 12 strokes of the cane. Abadi is presumed innocent.

Sources:

Athens, Ala.: Capital Murder Charge After Overnight Apartment Death

Athens police answered a call at about 12:52 a.m. Monday at Fifth Avenue Apartments, 700 Fifth Avenue, a complex run by the City of Athens Housing Authority, and found Michelle Lee Turner, 44, dead in her bedroom, according to the department. The city describes it as an apparent “domestic-related” homicide.

Calvin Troup, 47, of Athens, whom police describe as Turner’s ex-boyfriend, was found soon afterward in Decatur, brought back to the Athens Police Department and charged with capital murder. He has since been moved to Limestone County Sheriff’s Office custody. Decatur police and the sheriff’s office helped with the investigation. The city hasn’t released how Turner died or what makes the charge capital, and police said no further details are coming for now. Troup is presumed innocent.

Sources:

Teshie: Three Held in Accra Phone Dealer’s Killing

The Ghana Police Service said Monday it has arrested three people over the kidnapping and killing of Nana Yaw Kyere, 33, a phone dealer at Accra’s Kwame Nkrumah Circle whose family reported him missing on Sept. 22. Police named them as Philip Dzifa Kofi Tefe, Sarah Osei Adams and Josiah Obodai. In the police account, Kyere drove off from his home in Kokomlemle on Sept. 19 and was lured by Adams to Tefe’s house at Teshie Agbleza, where Tefe allegedly hit him with a metal object during a confrontation and left him in a room. He died there, police say, and two of the suspects have admitted involvement.

Investigators say the body was taken in a Kia Morning to bush near the motorway on Sept. 20 and set alight. It was found partly burned at Community 18 the next day, and his mother and an uncle identified him on Sept. 24. Obodai is being investigated over the disposal of the body, and police impounded his father’s car. A man who allegedly bought Kyere’s iPhone for GH¢100 is detained on suspicion of dishonestly receiving it. The three are due to be put before a court and haven’t entered pleas. Each is presumed innocent.

Update, Sept. 29: The three appeared at the Teshie District Court on Monday and were remanded into police custody, and the case was adjourned to Oct. 16. See The Crime Ledger: September 29, 2026.

Sources:

Lwandle: Venue Says It Stayed Open Late for Heritage Day

There are still no arrests in the Sunday-morning shooting at KwaNdelu Shisanyama in Lwandle, Strand, which killed 10 and wounded 11. Western Cape police spokesperson Brig. Novela Potelwa told EWN on Monday that “no arrests have been effected yet, and police have increased deployments in the area.” EWN reports that two gunmen came in through the back just before 2 a.m. and shot at patrons at random, killing eight men and two women. Provincial commissioner Lt. Gen. Sizakhele Dyantyi told reporters at the scene that the owner’s early account pointed to business rivals in the area. The attack ran on The Crime Ledger: September 27, 2026.

KwaNdelu has apologised to the victims’ families and asked for their forgiveness. In a statement carried by IOL, it said it is a food business built around braaied meat, doesn’t sell alcohol and normally trades until 10 p.m. It said the premises stayed active past those hours that night for a Heritage Day celebration. It won’t speculate while the investigation runs and says it will cooperate with police. Serious violent crime detectives lead the provincial team, and the dead haven’t been publicly named.

Sources:

Tembisa: Limpopo Suspect Still Unnamed Ahead of Court

Police still haven’t named the man arrested asleep in Mohlabaneng village, near Tzaneen in Limpopo, late Saturday over the killing of Nxumalo, whose body was found that morning at Mooifontein Cemetery in Tembisa’s Vusimusi section. The arrest ran on The Crime Ledger: September 27, 2026. Police have described the case as murder but hadn’t announced a charge or a court date by Monday afternoon.

Police say Nxumalo had been drinking at a local tavern with a female acquaintance and left with an unidentified man, and that residents near the cemetery heard a woman screaming and pleading for her life at about 11 p.m. National police spokesperson Brig. Athlenda Mathe said the tracing of suspects linked to the other women found dead across Ekurhuleni is still under way. Police haven’t linked the arrested man to those cases. He is presumed innocent.

Update, Sept. 29: The accused, Victor Matome Rampedi, 36, appeared in the Thembisa Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday charged with murdering Ntombifuthu Nxumalo. He remains in custody, and bail was postponed to Oct. 6. See The Crime Ledger: September 29, 2026.

Sources:

Papatoetoe: Son Admits Killing Mother, Denies Murder

Phillip Beale, 51, went on trial Monday in the High Court at Auckland, charged with murdering his 84-year-old mother, Joan Beale, at the Papatoetoe home they shared in South Auckland on Aug. 7, 2025. In a brief opening, defence lawyer Kelly-Ann Stoikoff told the jury her client killed his mother but is not guilty of murder, because he never intended, planned or “wanted” to kill her. She asked jurors to hold off deciding until the end of the trial.

Crown prosecutor Chris Howard told the court that Beale’s behaviour had become “more and more erratic” in the days before. He said Beale had tried to source methamphetamine that day, though it was “unclear” whether he did. Howard said blood-spatter analysis showed the assault began in the living room and continued in a bedroom, and that she died of blunt force trauma to the head. According to the Crown, she was found two days later, after Beale allegedly told a Middlemore Hospital nurse he had killed her. Howard said police found a petrol can on the bed, matches through the house, a porcelain rabbit covered in her blood and the words “lady killer” on a calendar in the garage. He told jurors Beale either meant to kill her or “consciously ran the risk that she would die.” The trial continues, and Beale is presumed innocent of murder.

Sources:

Discover more from The Dark Side of Humanity

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Latest Posts

THE CRIME LEDGER cover for September 24, 2026. A brass hotel front-desk bell sits below the masthead and date, beside a wooden key rack of brass keys and cream and wine-red tags naming Jarosław, KwaMakhutha, Bangkok, The Hague, Strasbourg, Newmarket, Valley Heights, Belleville, Nottingham, Broward, Upper Darby, Belfast and Boise.

The Crime Ledger: September 24, 2026

Daily Breaking True Crime Briefing As of: September 24, 2026 (evening ET) Scope: Worldwide sweep — last ~24 hours preferred; KwaMakhutha’s Tuesday-night…
THE CRIME LEDGER cover for September 23, 2026. An open card-catalog drawer with index tabs for Colombo, Ipoh, Nairobi, Huntsville, Haifa, Grangetown, Mississauga and Belleville.

The Crime Ledger: September 23, 2026

Colombo gave 15 Easter-attack plotters 220-year terms; Texas executed Ker’Sean Ramey in Huntsville; Loudoun charged Roger Bradford in Lisa Bradford’s death.…

YouTube Channel

A round black and red site icon with halftone Marilyn Monroe artwork and the words Cults, Killers, Crime.

YouTube @Dark.Side.Humanity

Stalk Us On Instagram

A round black and red site icon with halftone Marilyn Monroe artwork and the words Cults, Killers, Crime.

@dark.side.humanity

Go toTop