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The Crime Ledger: September 29, 2026

Daily Breaking True Crime Briefing
As of: September 29, 2026 (evening ET)
Scope: Tuesday’s board covers cases from Monday afternoon through Tuesday evening ET, plus a few Monday court appearances that landed overnight. The stories come from police, court and prosecutor statements, wire services and local newsrooms in the United States, Canada, Britain, Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Slovakia, South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana, Mexico, Colombia, Brazil, Argentina, Pakistan, India, South Korea, Japan and Australia.

Counter-terrorism police said Tuesday that the three vans stopped near RAF Fairford held petrol and no explosive device, and defended bailing the five London men who remain under investigation. Macon’s sheriff has now jailed five people over the park shooting that wounded 12 teenagers. A Tennessee man was denied bail in Warren County, Kentucky, charged with murdering Trooper Hayden Phillips on I-65. Slovak police say a 13-year-old pupil stabbed a teacher to death at a primary school in Staškov. In Tembisa, the man accused of killing Ntombifuthu Nxumalo made his first court appearance. New South Wales detectives charged two men and a boy with murder in Marco Tapia’s mistaken-identity shooting in Glen Alpine. An Ohio jury in Tipp City convicted Caleb Flynn of murdering his wife, and in Nashville the Supreme Court refused to stop Christa Pike’s execution. Further down the board: new booking details for the in-laws held in Dublin, California, five men in court over the Mount Edgecombe ambush of two Crime Intelligence officers, not-guilty pleas in Nairobi’s Mutiso killing, new Ayotzinapa arrests in Iguala, the Duxbury case back before a judge, a year-old Vaughan killing charged, a 93-year-old’s rape and killing in Toulouse, a family arrested in Lahore, a dissident commander caught in Tibú, a charge in Courbevoie, arrests tied to Marl’s earlier shooting, a Teshie adjournment, the Wichita victims named, a double murder charge in Gurranang, a second plot charge against a teenager arrested in West Hoxton, a police officer charged in Blue Downs, a sergeant killed during a stop-and-search in Egbeda, Lagos, court appearances in Downend and Banbridge, arrests in Hogsthorpe and North Kensington, perjury charges in Dublin, Ireland, a murder charge in Palavas-les-Flots, a mother killed in Pellezzano, La Campana’s case formally counted, a sentence in Kingsport, Nova Scotia, a trial opening in Calgary, arrests in Hyderabad and Jaipur, a chauffeur jailed in Namyangju, a retired detective held in Cáceres, Brazil, a mother’s killing in Rosario, and the Ota suspect sent to prosecutors. That was Tuesday’s board.

RAF Fairford: Police Find Petrol, No Bomb, in Vans

The vans stopped near RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire early Sunday carried “a quantity of petrol” and no improvised explosive device, Assistant Commissioner Laurence Taylor, head of Counter Terrorism Policing, said in a statement at 6 p.m. BST Tuesday. The five London men arrested beside them, all British nationals aged 23 to 25, were released on police bail Monday and remain under investigation. None has been charged or named. The bail story ran on The Crime Ledger: September 28, 2026.

Taylor said searches of London properties are finished and he expects the investigative scenes around RAF Fairford to be closed down completely by Wednesday. He pushed back on the surprise over bail: “it was an investigative decision, and one which is grounded in experience and careful consideration of policing powers.” He also said Sunday’s armed response followed “a range of information received,” including a call from a member of the public about vehicles acting suspiciously near the base. The BBC understands that one of the five called 999 himself at 12:45 a.m. BST, almost an hour before a farmer dialled 999 after seeing men in balaclavas. The Times first reported the suspect’s call, and The Guardian understands police found several barrels in the vans, one holding petrol. President Donald Trump said he was “disappointed” by the bail decision, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio said a “foreign actor” was involved, without giving details. Iran’s embassy in London has rejected any link. Evacuated households in Whelford were going home Tuesday.

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Macon: Five Jailed Over Park Shooting That Wounded 12 Teens

The Bibb County Sheriff’s Office has made five arrests since Monday in the shooting that wounded 12 teenagers at Carolyn Crayton Park just after midnight Sunday. The case first ran on The Crime Ledger: September 28, 2026, when no one was in custody. David Pitts, 24, and Jaquez Bailey, 20, were arrested Monday. Bailey faces 12 counts of aggravated assault, and Pitts faces 12 counts as a party to a crime. On Tuesday the sheriff’s office announced charges against Justin Green, 19, who faces 12 counts of aggravated assault and a probation violation, and a 17-year-old charged with 12 counts.

A fifth suspect, 15, was interviewed Tuesday, processed through the Bibb County Jail, charged as an adult with 12 counts of aggravated assault and moved to the Macon Regional Youth Detention Center. The other four are held without bond. Sheriff David Davis told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that some of the guns may have been modified to fire automatically, which could help explain how so many people were hit. The AJC reports that one of the accused was due to stand trial next month in a 2023 shooting. The U.S. Marshals’ Southeast Regional Fugitive Task Force and the FBI helped serve the warrants. None of the five has been convicted.

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Warren County, Ky.: Bail Denied in Trooper Hayden Phillips’s Killing

Kentucky State Police Trooper Hayden Phillips, 28, was shot Monday afternoon during a traffic stop on a Honda Civic near mile marker 38 on northbound Interstate 65 in Warren County. Police say the driver fled. Emonnie Dion Branch, 51, of Portland, Tennessee, was arrested in Louisville late Monday after an extensive manhunt, about 95 miles from the scene, and charged with murder of a first responder. Under Kentucky law that’s a capital offense, eligible for the death penalty or life without parole.

Branch was wheeled into Warren District Court in Bowling Green on Tuesday morning. Judge Kim Geoghegan entered a not-guilty plea for him, noted that the criminal complaint says the stop was captured on video, denied bail and set a preliminary hearing for Friday. The Warren County commonwealth’s attorney told the court Branch is believed to have given a false name when stopped, and asked for a substantial cash bond, calling him a flight risk and a danger to the community. AP reports prosecutors called him a repeat offender who’s named in an August probation-violation warrant from Sumner County, Tennessee. Police say they aren’t sure why Phillips made the stop. Phillips, who would have turned 29 on Wednesday, had three years with KSP after serving with the Glasgow and Russell Springs police departments, and he leaves a wife and three children. Branch is presumed innocent.

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Staškov: Teacher Killed in Primary School Knife Attack

Slovak officials say an eighth-grade pupil attacked two teachers and a classmate with a knife after the first lesson Tuesday at the primary school in Staškov, a village of about 2,750 in Slovakia’s Čadca district near the Czech border. A 61-year-old teacher was killed. Another teacher, stabbed in the chest, is out of danger, Interior Minister Matúš Šutaj Eštok said, and a schoolgirl is in critical condition. Al Jazeera, citing AFP, reports the attacker is 13. Police arrived within minutes and apprehended the attacker, and the Office for Combating Organised Crime is handling the case as premeditated murder.

Police Corps vice-president Rastislav Polakovič said the attacker “can’t be held criminally responsible,” and police said they’d release nothing more for now. Šutaj Eštok credited the head teacher with following the emergency manual “to the letter” and said the school’s CCTV wasn’t working because of a planned power cut. He wouldn’t discuss a motive. President Peter Pellegrini said he was shocked that “this is yet another case in which a student attacked teachers and a classmate.” Last year an 18-year-old killed a deputy principal and a student at a school in northern Slovakia. No one involved has been named.

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Tembisa: Man Accused in Cemetery Killing Makes First Appearance

Victor Matome Rampedi, 36, appeared in the Thembisa Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday charged with murdering Ntombifuthu Nxumalo, whose body was found at Mooifontein Cemetery in Tembisa’s Vusimusi section on Saturday morning. The case is listed under Schedule 5 of the Criminal Procedure Act, so Rampedi has to show why he should get bail. He told the court he’ll apply, the state said it will oppose, and the application was postponed to Oct. 6 for further investigation. He stays in custody. Police arrested him in Mohlabaneng village, near Tzaneen in Limpopo, late Saturday. The arrest ran on The Crime Ledger: September 28, 2026 before police had released his name.

Police believe she was stoned to death. Outside court, her family was angry that Rampedi arrived without handcuffs. “He must rot in jail,” her uncle, Vincent Nxumalo, told TimesLIVE. Relatives say she was unemployed and had no funeral cover, and they’re raising money to bring her body from Johannesburg to Nongoma in KwaZulu-Natal for burial. The case has added to concern over the number of women found dead in and around Ekurhuleni in recent months. Rampedi is presumed innocent.

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Glen Alpine: Three More Charged in Marco Tapia’s Murder

Homicide detectives drove to Junee, about 40 kilometres north of Wagga Wagga, on Tuesday and arrested two men, 22 and 23, and a 16-year-old boy over the Sept. 1 killing of Marco Tapia, 23, a biomedical engineering student shot in his bed at his family’s home on Mount Sugarloaf Drive, Glen Alpine, in Sydney’s southwest, at about 3:40 a.m. Each is charged with murder, two counts of special aggravated break and enter, a serious indictable weapons offence and possessing an unauthorised prohibited firearm. All three were remanded in custody to appear in court Wednesday.

Police say the wrong house was targeted and Tapia had no link to crime. They’ll allege the three broke in and one carried a pistol. Detective Superintendent Joe Doueihi said the trio had already been extradited from Victoria over unrelated shootings at Turrella and Hurstville on Aug. 31, and alleged they were “contracted as hired guns by an organised crime group.” Two boys, 14 and 16, were charged with murder on Sept. 16. Police allege they helped with the preparation and clean-up, and they’re due in children’s court Nov. 13. Tapia’s parents and sister were home when he was shot. None of the five has entered a plea.

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Tipp City: Jury Convicts Caleb Flynn of Murdering His Wife

A Miami County jury took a little over two hours Tuesday to convict Caleb Flynn, 40, a former music pastor and “American Idol” contestant, on all nine counts in the death of his wife, Ashley Flynn, 37. That covers aggravated murder, three counts of murder, two of felonious assault and three of tampering with evidence, with gun specifications. She was shot twice in the head, apparently while she slept, early on Feb. 16 at the family’s home on Cunningham Court in Tipp City, north of Dayton.

Common Pleas Judge Jeannine Pratt revoked his bond and set sentencing for Oct. 5. He faces life without parole on the aggravated-murder count. Prosecutors used activity on his iPhone and Apple Watch, police body-camera footage and more than 100,000 texts with Alleigha Botner, whom he met while she was an intern at his church. She testified that she now believes he murdered his wife. The defence called no witnesses and pressed the lead detective on missing physical evidence, including the gun, which was never recovered. Ashley Flynn taught middle school and coached volleyball. Flynn retains his appeal rights.

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Nashville: Supreme Court Won’t Halt Christa Pike’s Execution

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday denied Christa Gail Pike’s application for a stay, less than a day before Tennessee plans to put her to death by lethal injection Wednesday morning. Gov. Bill Lee said Monday he’s “upholding the sentence” and won’t intervene. Pike, 50, is the only woman on Tennessee’s death row. She’d be the first woman the state has executed in more than 200 years.

She was 18 in 1995 when she and two others killed Colleen Slemmer, 19, a fellow Job Corps student, on the University of Tennessee Agriculture campus in Knoxville. A jury convicted her of first-degree murder in 1996. Her lawyers pointed to her documented childhood sexual abuse and argued that “an 18-year-old brain is not an adult brain.” Tennessee’s reply to the Supreme Court said that “after three decades of litigation, Pike seeks to further delay her execution.” Slemmer’s mother has said she wants the execution to go ahead so her daughter “finally can be resting.”

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Dublin, Calif.: In-Laws Booked on First-Degree Murder Suspicion

Alameda County jail records now list Shouyong Zhang and Shili Chen, both 77, on suspicion of first-degree murder, negligent discharge of a firearm and child endangerment in Saturday’s killing of their son-in-law, Jonathan McKinsey, 40, at the Dublin Sports Grounds, Patch reports. Chen is also booked on suspicion of conspiracy to fraudulently obtain money. Both are held without bail at Santa Rita Jail. Arraignment is set for 9 a.m. Wednesday at the East County Hall of Justice. No formal charges have been announced, though NBC Bay Area reports both are expected to face murder charges. The first report ran on The Crime Ledger: September 28, 2026.

The New York Times confirmed that McKinsey headed engineering for New York Times Games. Witnesses told CBS News Bay Area that a masked man shot McKinsey and then handed the gun to a masked woman, who also fired. NBC Bay Area reports he was in a custody fight with his estranged wife, and The New York Times has reported on restraining-order filings in the dispute. Police say there are no other suspects and haven’t said whether the family dispute bears on the shooting. Both 77-year-olds are presumed innocent.

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Mount Edgecombe: Five in Court Over Crime Intelligence Ambush

Five men made a first appearance in the Verulam Magistrate’s Court north of Durban on Monday over the April 30 ambush that killed two SAPS Crime Intelligence officers, Capt. Louis Nel and Sgt. Khuzwayo, on Flanders Drive in Mount Edgecombe. Nel died at the scene, and Khuzwayo died in hospital weeks later. Court documents say the officers had collected about R900,000 in Crime Intelligence secret-service funds and that the men took the cash and a pistol.

The accused are Simangaliso Tembe, 39, Mduduzi Myeza, 46, Bongani Zulu, 61, Wandile Nyawo, 38, and Sibusiso Sibisi, 46. They face conspiracy to commit robbery with aggravating circumstances, robbery with aggravating circumstances, murder, and unlawful possession of automatic firearms and ammunition. The state alleges common purpose and planning from February to April. They were arrested Friday in Pinetown, Amanzimtoti, Mandeni and Newlands West. A sixth suspect was shot dead in Inanda after a three-hour standoff, police spokesperson Col. Robert Netshiunda said, and a Special Task Force officer was shot in the hand. Bail applications are set for Oct. 16, and the state will oppose them. All five are presumed innocent.

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Nairobi: Five Plead Not Guilty in Dr Victoria Mutiso’s Murder

Five people charged with the July 29 murder of Dr Victoria Nthunya Mutiso pleaded not guilty Tuesday before Justice Alexander Muteti at the High Court in Nairobi. They are Rose Mbithe Mulwa, her son Chris Mulwa and daughter Angela Mulwa, Police Constable Elijah Kibelion Kimoi and Maritim Kimutai. The DCI and the ODPP oppose bail. An affidavit from a Homicide Investigations Bureau officer cites fears of witness interference, evidence tampering and flight, and says several alleged accomplices are still at large.

Investigators tie the killing to a long dispute over a 20-acre parcel in Mlolongo involving Mutiso, her husband and the first three accused. They allege four months of surveillance and planning, backed by phone and other electronic records. Before bail could be argued, lawyers Danstan Omari and Cliff Ombeta withdrew from representing the Mulwas, who didn’t object. The defence also raised claims of torture in custody. The state asked for more time to respond. Each of the five is presumed innocent.

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Iguala: Funeral-Home Operators Arrested in Ayotzinapa Case

Mexico’s special Ayotzinapa prosecutor, Mauricio Pazarán Álvarez, said Tuesday that investigators have tied the El Ángel funeral home and the Iguala forensic medical service to the disappearance of the 43 students of the Raúl Isidro Burgos Rural Normal School. The home’s concession holders, a father and son identified as Rodolfo “N,” have been arrested. At a joint news conference with Interior Ministry undersecretary Arturo Medina, officials said about 100 bone fragments were recovered from the funeral home and the morgue. Medina said none has yet been matched to any of the students.

Officials said a new analysis of phone traffic from the night of Sept. 26–27, 2014, has flagged 17 people who hadn’t been identified before and are now under investigation. They said the evidence puts the students in the Iguala police lockup, and that Judge José Ulises Bernabé, whom Mexico wants extradited from the United States, hasn’t told the truth about the case. On the military side, 20 arrest warrants have been issued. Seventeen have been served, two are pending and one has been halted by an amparo. The two arrested men are presumed innocent.

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Duxbury: Clancy Judge Weighs Not-Guilty Motion After Mistrial

Lindsay Clancy was back in court Tuesday for the first time since her murder trial ended in a mistrial more than three weeks ago. The jury couldn’t agree on whether she should be held criminally responsible for killing her three children in their Duxbury home in 2023. Defence lawyer Kevin Reddington, who ran an insanity defence at trial, argued under Rule 25 that prosecutors never proved she killed the children, let alone that she was fit to face first-degree murder charges, and asked Judge William Sullivan to enter not-guilty findings before any retrial. Prosecutors opposed it, citing “voluminous” evidence that she strangled the children in the basement. A second defence lawyer, Martin Weinberg, asked for the case to be dismissed on double-jeopardy grounds, arguing the mistrial shouldn’t have been declared.

Sullivan took the motions under advisement. Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy Cruz said his office hasn’t decided whether to try her again. Prosecutors also want limits on the defence’s public comments, especially Reddington’s remarks about the juror said to have refused to join the other 11 in finding her not criminally responsible. Reddington said afterward that he does “not need any gag orders.” More arguments are set for Nov. 2. Clancy is presumed innocent.

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Vaughan: Two Charged in 2025 Killing at Commercial Unit

York Regional Police announced Tuesday that Daniel Fearon, 40, and Sherrie Donovan, 41, both of Toronto, are each charged with first-degree murder in the death of Deuvane Donald Francis of Toronto. Officers called to a commercial property near Langstaff Road and Jane Street at about 2:36 p.m. on Aug. 27, 2025, found him dead inside a unit with obvious signs of trauma. Investigators determined he’d been killed the day before.

One suspect was arrested Sept. 22 and the other a day later. A search warrant at a home in the Niagara Region turned up nine firearms and ammunition, more than 900 grams of suspected cocaine, more than 200 grams of ketamine and more than 20 grams of methamphetamine. Police say six of the guns are prohibited. Fearon also faces trafficking and firearms charges. York police believe at least two more suspects are still out there. Fearon and Donovan are presumed innocent.

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Toulouse: Autopsy Finds 93-Year-Old Was Raped and Strangled

A 93-year-old woman found dead in her Toulouse home Saturday was raped and strangled, Toulouse prosecutor David Charmatz said Tuesday. The autopsy found signs of sexual violence, a rib fracture and a spinal fracture, bruising, and neck injuries consistent with asphyxia. A 34-year-old man was arrested at the scene. 20 Minutes reports he’d been drinking. The prosecutor said he was “totally undressed and very agitated” when arrested and hurt one of the officers.

He was brought before an investigating judge Tuesday. The parquet asked that he be placed under formal investigation for murder “preceded or followed by another crime, in this case the crime of rape,” and held in pretrial detention. The judge’s decision hadn’t been made public by Tuesday evening in France. Neither the woman nor the man has been named, and he is presumed innocent.

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Lahore: Father and Three Siblings Arrested in 18-Year-Old’s Death

Lahore police have arrested the father, two brothers and a sister of Maham, 18, who was brought to Ganga Ram Hospital in critical condition on Sept. 26 and later died. Police say the suspects left her at the hospital and fled. Police registered the murder case on their own complaint in the Sanda area. A spokesperson for the DIG Operations said a preliminary post-mortem found signs of sexual abuse and severe assault. Police allege she had been subjected to repeated violence with pipes, iron rods and other objects.

Police say all four have confessed during questioning. Those statements haven’t been tested in court. Police say Maham was raised by a paternal aunt after her mother died when she was a baby. The investigation is continuing, and further legal action will follow the evidence, police said. The four arrested are presumed innocent.

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Tibú: Dissident Commander ‘Pollo’ Captured Over Recruited Girl’s Killing

Colombian soldiers, air force and police captured a man known as “Pollo” in the Villa Paz neighbourhood of Tibú, Norte de Santander, on Monday. The government says he commands a unit of the Jorge Suárez Briceño substructure of the FARC dissidents and is linked to the killing of a girl the group forcibly recruited. Armed men took her from her home in rural Tibú on April 2. On Sept. 20 her family was told she had been killed. One account says she had tried to escape the armed group with other teenagers.

He was handed to the Fiscalía to face a judge on illegal gun possession, conspiracy, forced recruitment and aggravated homicide of a protected person, El Tiempo reports. Troops seized a pistol and 12 rounds. The government says he was on its most-wanted list. The girl’s father had pleaded publicly for her return. The suspect hasn’t been named beyond his alias, and he’s presumed innocent.

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Courbevoie: Cousin Charged With Murder and Jailed

The 25-year-old cousin of the 37-year-old woman stabbed to death in a building lobby in Courbevoie overnight Saturday into Sunday has been placed under formal investigation (mis en examen) for murder and remanded in pretrial detention, the Nanterre parquet told actu.fr on Tuesday. Prosecutors had asked for both steps. The parquet said he wasn’t her partner. The first report ran on The Crime Ledger: September 28, 2026.

She had “several dozen” stab wounds. A second man, who had been putting the pair up, was also held in garde à vue. Nothing has been made public about any step against him. The département’s judicial police are investigating, and no motive has been given. Neither the woman nor the accused has been named. Mise en examen isn’t a verdict, and the cousin is presumed innocent.

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Marl: August Shooting Arrests as Teahouse Gunmen Stay Free

The gunmen who killed a 39-year-old man from Recklinghausen at a teahouse on Karlstraße early Monday are still at large. He bled to death from a gunshot to the lung, a police spokeswoman said after the autopsy. The two wounded men, 35 and 40, didn’t need to stay long in hospital, dpa reports. The shooting ran on The Crime Ledger: September 28, 2026.

On Tuesday, Essen prosecutors and Recklinghausen police announced arrests in the Aug. 11 attempted murder nearby on Otto-Hue-Straße, where shots were fired at a car. A 16-year-old from Verden and a 21-year-old with no fixed address were arrested in Hannover and Wuppertal and are in pretrial custody. A 20-year-old was arrested abroad after a public appeal. The three are suspected of helping prepare the attack, including scouting the area. The alleged shooter is believed to be abroad and is being sought with photos. Police say the perpetrators of the two shootings are very likely not the same people, and whether the cases are linked is still open. Nobody has been named.

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Teshie: Three Remanded as Phone Dealer’s Murder Case Is Adjourned

Philip Dzifa Kofi Tefe, Sarah Osei Adams and Josiah Obodai appeared before the Teshie District Court in Accra on Monday over the kidnapping and killing of Nana Yaw Kyere, 33, a mobile phone dealer known as Dinero. The charge sheet was read, all three were remanded into police custody and the case was adjourned to Oct. 16. The arrests ran on The Crime Ledger: September 28, 2026.

Police allege Adams lured Kyere to Tefe’s house at Teshie Agbleza on Sept. 19, where Tefe allegedly struck him with a metallic object during a confrontation. Kyere was moved to another room, left unattended and later died, police say. Investigators say his body was driven in a Kia Morning to bush near the motorway on Sept. 20 and set alight. Obodai is accused over the disposal. A man who allegedly bought Kyere’s iPhone 12 for GH¢100 has been cautioned and detained. The three have not been tried and are presumed innocent.

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Wichita: Police Name Parents and Sister Shot at Home

Wichita police have named the three people shot dead Saturday at a home in the 5000 block of East Blake Street: Juan Valenzuela-Ayala, 49, Brenda Silva-Cervantes, 40, and Daisy Valenzuela, 25. Police say they were the father, mother and sister of Juan Valenzuela-Silva, 21, who is booked on requested charges of capital murder. A 17-year-old boy, a 17-year-old girl and a 2-year-old girl were in the house and weren’t hurt. The arrest ran on The Crime Ledger: September 28, 2026.

“This is an unimaginable tragedy for a family that lost three loved ones in a single act of violence,” Police Chief Joe Sullivan said. He said officers’ first priority was making sure the 2-year-old and the two teenagers were safe. Flock plate readers tracked the suspect’s 2014 Infiniti QX60 south, and deputies stopped it just south of Augusta in Butler County with a Kansas Highway Patrol aircraft overhead. The case goes to the Sedgwick County District Attorney’s Office for formal charges this week. Valenzuela-Silva is presumed innocent.

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Gurranang: Double Murder Charge After Second Body Found in Shed

A 32-year-old man has been charged with two counts of murder and stealing a motor vehicle over two bodies found about two weeks apart on the same property on Summerland Way at Gurranang, north of Grafton in northern NSW. A 79-year-old man was found dead inside the house on Sept. 13. Officers went back Monday afternoon and found a 59-year-old man in a shed.

Supt. Joanne Schultz said the 59-year-old wasn’t local and appeared to have died within the previous 24 to 48 hours. She alleged it was “evident those people have met with foul play” and said the scene hadn’t been held before the second discovery. Strike Force Faneel detectives arrested the man at Grafton Base Hospital around midday Tuesday. He didn’t apply for bail when he appeared in court Wednesday, Australian time, and is next due at Grafton Local Court on Dec. 8. Police haven’t named either dead man. The accused is presumed innocent.

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West Hoxton: Teen Drone Pilot Charged Over Second Murder Plot

Jimmy Schulz, 18, already charged with murder over the Sept. 2 mistaken-identity shooting of Joshua Macdonald, 40, was charged Monday with conspiring to murder a man linked to the Haouchar crime family. Police allege he was running drone surveillance for that second plot on Sept. 11, the day he was arrested in a car at West Hoxton.

The new counts also cover participating in a criminal group, possessing a dedicated encrypted criminal communication device and flying a drone beyond visual line of sight. He was refused bail Tuesday and is next due at Parramatta Local Court on Nov. 5. A stood-down PE teacher, Ashleigh Ann Seeney, 28, was charged last week over the same plot. Police allege she kept “constant contact” with the teenagers and relayed police movements. Det. Supt. Jason Box said the plot targeted a man living nearby. The SMH reports police had warned that man to fear for his life. Schulz and Seeney are presumed innocent.

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Blue Downs: Off-Duty Police Officer Charged With Two Murders

Keegan Petersen, an off-duty officer believed to be stationed at Mfuleni SAPS, made his first appearance in the Blue Downs Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday. He’s charged with two counts of murder, three of attempted murder and illegal possession of ammunition. “The State alleges that he fatally shot his girlfriend’s brother and the man he was with and attempted to kill three others, including his girlfriend,” said Eric Ntabazalila, the Western Cape NPA spokesperson. More charges may follow.

The dead men are Leando Fortuin and Wesley Carolissen. A relative told IOL they had gone to the house on Velvet Crescent on Saturday evening to fetch the girlfriend during a domestic dispute. Police later found four shotgun rounds in a safe at Petersen’s home. He handed himself over at Kleinvlei police station on Sunday. The court refused his lawyer’s request to hold him in the Mfuleni cells and sent him to Pollsmoor Prison. Bail will be argued on Oct. 6, and the state will oppose it under Schedule 6. IPID is investigating. He is presumed innocent.

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Egbeda, Lagos: Driver Paraded Over Sergeant Dragged Under Lexus

Lagos State Police Commissioner Fatai Tijani said Monday that Sgt. Johnson Okediji was on stop-and-search duty on Olugbede Street, Egbeda, at about 2:20 p.m. on Saturday when a Lexus ES 350 that had stopped suddenly sped off as he stepped to the driver’s side. Tijani said the car knocked him down and dragged him for several metres. Okediji suffered multiple fractures and head injuries and was pronounced dead on arrival at Lagos State University Teaching Hospital.

The driver, Olumide Olushola, 21, was chased down and arrested. At his parade at police headquarters in Ikeja, he told reporters the brakes had failed and denied hitting the sergeant on purpose. Police recovered the car to the station, and the body is at the Mainland Hospital mortuary for autopsy. No court charge had been announced. Olushola is presumed innocent.

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Downend: Man, 68, in Court Charged With Woman’s Murder

Geoffrey Billett, 68, of Overnhill Road, Downend, appeared at Bristol Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday charged with murdering Jill Billett, 69, and with causing unnecessary suffering to a protected animal, a dog named Daisy. Emergency services were called to an address on Overnhill Road in the early hours of Sunday. She was found injured and died in hospital. He was arrested at the scene.

He spoke only to confirm his name, date of birth and address. No plea was entered. Members of his family attended, and he made a heart shape with his fingers and mouthed “I love you” on his way out of the dock. He was remanded in custody to Bristol Crown Court on Wednesday. Billett is presumed innocent.

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Hogsthorpe: Two Men Arrested After Woman Found Dead

Lincolnshire Police arrested two men, one in his 50s and one in his 60s, on suspicion of murder after a woman in her 30s was found dead at a property on Thames Street in Hogsthorpe, a village between Skegness and Mablethorpe. Officers were called at about 9 a.m. BST Tuesday. Both men are in custody. Police say there’s no wider risk to the public, and specialist officers are supporting her family. Nobody has been named or charged.

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North Kensington: Two Arrested Over E-Bike Rider’s Death

The Metropolitan Police arrested a 19-year-old man and a 17-year-old boy on Monday on suspicion of murder over the death of Kariem Abdelhalim, 24. He was found seriously injured on North Pole Road in North Kensington in the early hours of Sept. 25 and died at the scene. Detectives believe a moped was chasing him, and they’re appealing for witnesses. Both remain in custody, and neither has been charged.

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Dublin, Ireland: Couple Charged With Perjury Over McGregor Appeal

Gardaí arrested Samantha O’Reilly, 38, and Steven Cummins, 39, at their home in Cherry Orchard Green on Tuesday morning and charged them with making false statements in a judicial proceeding. The statements were evidence Conor McGregor tried to introduce in his failed appeal against a High Court civil jury’s finding that he raped Nikita Hand in a Dublin hotel in December 2018. O’Reilly faces two counts, for statements in January and May 2025. Cummins faces one count, for January 2025.

At Dublin District Court, Judge Michele Finan was told the DPP has directed trial by jury in the Circuit Criminal Court. Both were remanded on bail. They must sign on weekly at Ballyfermot Garda Station, keep a phone number with gardaí and stay away from witnesses. They return Nov. 9 for service of the book of evidence. The Court of Appeal had referred the material to the DPP last year. Both are presumed innocent.

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Banbridge: Second Man Denies Manslaughter of Nurse Karen Cummings

Glenn Robert King, 34, whose address is given as HMP Magilligan, pleaded not guilty at Belfast Crown Court on Tuesday to the manslaughter of Karen Cummings and to possessing a firearm in suspicious circumstances. Cummings, 40, a children’s nurse at Daisy Hill Hospital in Newry, was found unconscious with a serious head injury at a house in the Laurel Heights area of Banbridge, County Down, on the evening of Dec. 14, 2024, and was pronounced dead a short time later.

Kevin McGuigan, 44, whose address is given as HMP Maghaberry, denied five charges earlier this year, including her manslaughter and possessing a firearm in suspicious circumstances. A Crown barrister has told the court the trial should run about two weeks. Both men are presumed innocent.

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Palavas-les-Flots: Murder Charge in Airbnb Knife Killing

A man was found dead on Sept. 9 in an Airbnb rental on rue du Ponant in Palavas-les-Flots, on the coast south of Montpellier, with multiple knife wounds, including a cut to the throat. Montpellier prosecutor Thierry Lescouarc’h said Tuesday that two people were arrested together in a car at Roquemaure, in the Gard, on Sept. 26. DNA traces recovered at the scene helped investigators.

Both went before an investigating magistrate on Sept. 28. One was placed under formal investigation for murder and jailed pending trial. The other, who was with that person at the arrest, was placed under investigation for shielding a criminal from arrest and released under judicial supervision. A judicial inquiry into aggravated homicide had been open since Sept. 11. Nobody has been named, and both are presumed innocent.

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Pellezzano: Son, 53, Held Over Mother’s Killing

Carabinieri from Mercato San Severino detained a 53-year-old man in Pellezzano, near Salerno, on Monday on a Salerno prosecutors’ order that names him as a suspect in the aggravated homicide of his 85-year-old mother. Carabinieri say he killed her overnight in the home they shared, walked out, then called the 112 emergency line himself to report it. Officers found him on foot in the town’s streets minutes later.

Il Mattino reports he’d been the sole carer for his mother and an older brother with psychiatric illness for four years, and that he told carabinieri, “I couldn’t take it anymore.” He’s being held at Salerno’s Fuorni prison. The carabinieri stress that the detention can be challenged and that the accusations will be tested in court. Neither has been officially named.

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La Campana: Spain Counts Stabbing as Gender-Violence Killing

Spain’s Government Delegation against Gender Violence, part of the Equality Ministry, has officially confirmed that the 47-year-old woman stabbed in the street in La Campana, Seville province, late Saturday was killed by gender violence. It has added her to the national count of women killed by partners or ex-partners. Her 56-year-old partner, detained by the Guardia Civil after about 12 hours barricaded at home, is the suspect. The standoff ran on The Crime Ledger: September 28, 2026.

Francisco Toscano, the government’s sub-delegate in Seville, said she was registered in VioGén, Spain’s risk-monitoring system, because of an earlier relationship. The man wasn’t in the system and had no prior gender-violence complaints against him. Her son, a minor who was there, is in the care of neighbours until child-protection services take over. Neither she nor the man has been officially named. He is presumed innocent.

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Kingsport, N.S.: Six Years for Wife’s Manslaughter

Douglas Smith, 75, was sentenced Tuesday in Nova Scotia Supreme Court in Kentville to six years in prison for the manslaughter of his wife, Iris Dodd, 72, at their home in Kingsport on April 30, 2022. He pleaded guilty in April, days before his second-degree murder trial was due to start. According to the agreed statement of facts, the couple had been married 33 years and were to be evicted the next day with nowhere to go. Dodd used a wheelchair, was losing her eyesight and lived with chronic pain, and her health had been failing since a 2018 stroke.

The court heard that she told him that night she didn’t want to spend her last years in care, planned to take all her medication, and made him promise to help her end her life. He smothered her. Smith retains his appeal rights. In Canada, the 9-8-8 suicide crisis line answers calls and texts around the clock.

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Calgary: Crown Says Victim Was Beaten and Injected With Fentanyl

A four-week jury trial opened in Calgary on Monday for Shaun Folk, charged with second-degree murder in the death of Christopher Stevenson, and Ali El-Sayed, charged with being an accessory after the fact. In her opening, prosecutor Donna Spaner said Folk believed Stevenson owed him money and arranged a meeting with him at Folk’s apartment on Aug. 24, 2023. CCTV footage shows Stevenson entering the building but not leaving.

The Crown alleges Stevenson was assaulted in apartment 907, and that “his death was caused by the injection of fentanyl into his body” as he lay badly hurt. Prosecutors say his body was then taken to a rural area and burned in a barrel. Spaner said jurors will hear from Kenedee Taylor, who was in the apartment and saw the killing. Spaner said the Crown’s theory is that Folk “directed and participated” in the events that killed Stevenson. Both men are presumed innocent.

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Hyderabad: Man Held Over Woman’s Death in Madhapur Hotel Room

Madhapur police arrested Srinivasa Ravi Teja of Visakhapatnam on Tuesday over the death of Sharon Nikhita Topno, 29, a private-sector employee who had checked into room 304 of a hotel on Road No. 5, Siddiqui Nagar, with him on Sept. 21. The next morning he told staff she’d fallen unconscious. With their help he took her to a hospital in Kothaguda, where she was declared dead, and then he fled. Her body had injuries, and police registered a murder case under Section 103(1) of the BNS.

Inspector K.V. Subba Rao said Ravi Teja was traced to Visakhapatnam, where he’d been hospitalized after drinking floor cleaner. He was brought to Hyderabad on a transit warrant after his discharge Monday. Police say he admitted a four-year relationship and told them he hit her head against a wall during an argument because he didn’t want to marry her. He was sent to judicial remand Tuesday. His account to police hasn’t been tested in court, and he is presumed innocent.

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Jaipur: Man Arrested After Pregnant Partner Found Buried

Jaipur police arrested Pravesh Kumar, 20, on the Agra–Lucknow Expressway on Tuesday on suspicion of strangling his pregnant partner, Kiran Rawat, on Sept. 23 and burying her in the courtyard of their rented house in Prestige Garden Colony, Bindayaka. DCP (West) Prashant Kiran said the landlord found her body on Sept. 27. Police say the two were related, had been living together as partners and had moved to Jaipur from their village about two months earlier.

Police say Kumar suspected her of seeing another man and first claimed she had taken her own life and that he’d buried her in a panic. Investigators say he went back to work at a factory from Sept. 24 to 26, then collected Rs 500 in wages and fled on Sept. 27, suspecting the body had been found. CCTV and phone analysis tracked him. He is from Barabanki district in Uttar Pradesh and is presumed innocent.

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Namyangju: Chauffeur Jailed Over Chuseok Stabbing at Villa

The Namyangju branch of the Uijeongbu District Court issued an arrest warrant on Monday for a chauffeur in his 50s, citing flight risk. He’s accused of stabbing a woman in her 70s repeatedly at a holiday villa in Sudong-myeon, Namyangju, at about 11 a.m. Saturday during the Chuseok break. The Hankyoreh reports that her husband heard her scream, came down from the second floor and called police, who arrested the driver at the scene. She died at about 4 p.m. Sunday, and police changed the charge from attempted murder to murder.

The Hankyoreh reports he had driven for the couple for more than 10 years as an employee of a national sports body, was facing dismissal and told police he resented being made to work over the holiday. It says he brought the weapon from home. On his way into the warrant hearing he told reporters, “I committed an unforgivable crime,” and stayed silent when asked whether he’d prepared the weapon. Korean police haven’t released either name. He is presumed innocent.

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Cáceres, Brazil: Retired Detective Held in Ex-Wife’s Hotel Shooting

A judge in Cáceres, Mato Grosso, about 220 kilometres from Cuiabá, on Tuesday converted the arrest of Ricardo de Souza Pessoa, 62, a retired Polícia Civil investigator, into preventive detention. He’s suspected of shooting his ex-wife, Noeli Simsen, 50, in a hotel room on Monday. Hotel staff and witnesses told military police they saw him arrive, go to her window and then heard about four shots. She was found dead with gunshot wounds to the chest.

He left and later turned himself in at a police station in the city. The investigating delegado, Higo Rafael, said the couple had separated about five months earlier and that Pessoa didn’t accept the breakup. Police seized four guns from his home. The case is being investigated as feminicídio. Judge Antonio Carlos Pereira de Sousa Junior of the 2nd Criminal Court issued the order. Pessoa is presumed innocent.

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Rosario: Autopsy Confirms Mother Found by Her Teenagers Was Killed

Natalia Andrea Giménez, 35, was found face down in the kitchen of her home on Avenida Grandoli in Rosario on Sunday afternoon by her two teenage children, who ran to a neighbour and their father, who is separated from her. The autopsy found she died of head, face and neck trauma with multiple stab wounds. Prosecutors are investigating it as a possible femicide, though they say that isn’t their only line of inquiry.

Investigators found no forced entry and no general disorder in the house. They found no spent casings, although neighbours said they heard shots in the hours before. Her phone and her house keys are missing, and police believe the attacker took both. No arrest had been announced by Tuesday.

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Ota, Japan: Suspect Sent to Prosecutors; Second Knife Found

Gunma police sent Riki Mihara, 30, to prosecutors Tuesday on suspicion of attempting to murder the 26-year-old son of Yuka Tezuka, 52, who was found dead with multiple stab wounds at her home in Ota on Friday. Mihara is the ex-husband of Tezuka’s daughter. The Takasaki arrest ran on The Crime Ledger: September 28, 2026. Police believe he was also involved in her death, the Japan Times reports, but no charge over it has been announced.

Investigative sources told Nippon TV that a second kitchen knife was found near the house, in addition to the one recovered at the scene. Mihara has said he brought that one himself. Shoes believed to be his were also found on the property. He fled the scene in his socks, and it isn’t clear when the shoes were left there. He is presumed innocent.

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