Women Who Kill - Mona Fandey 

Politician Mazlan Idris wanted to boost his career, so he sought help from a witch doctor, Mona Fandey. The former pop star was well known among the middle classes in Malaysia for her spiritual witchcraft activities. On the 2nd of July 1993, Mazlan went to Mona’s home, where she was performing the ritual with her husband Mohamad Rahman and assistant, Juraimi Hussan. Mazlan was asked to lay on the floor, close his eyes and wait for the money to ‘fall from the sky’. As soon as he shut his eyes, Juraimi beheaded the politician before being partially skinned and dismembered into eighteen parts once his eyes were closed. After the heinous crime, Mona went on a shopping spree where she had a facelift and purchased a Mercedes.

A John Doe who remained unidentified for over 60 years finally got his name back thanks to DNA technology.

On the evening of Monday, March 27th, 1961, a motorist picked up a hitchhiker around the area of Centreville, Alabama. The boy was young- between the ages of 15-18 and he walked with a limp. He had dark hair but parts of it had been bleached blonde. He mentioned to the driver he had run away from home after his parents’ divorce in North Carolina.

While the pair were driving across the Cahaba River, the car smashed into the guardrail and tumbled into the river below. The motorist was able to swim to safety and survive the accident, but tragically the young boy had broken his neck and drowned. Upon recovering his body, there was little to go on in terms of identifying him, however it was clear he was dearly loved and was religious. In his pocket, he carried a photo of himself and a girl of a similar age with the inscription: “Think of me always and remember how we used to go places together.”  Unusually, this photograph has never been released to the public and the identity of the girl has not been discussed. He also had the message “RY+ LOVE” carved into his left arm. 

For decades, the Bibb County John Doe has remained in the thoughts of locals and internet sleuths alike. Being unidentified for so long, it seemed unlikely that he’d ever get his name back as the likelihood that his relatives had all passed away became a depressing reality. With the hopes of new DNA technology, funds were raised and his body was exhumed in 2016 and DNA testing was performed in order to identify him. They used bone fragments to extract the DNA, but the process of linking it to any relatives proved difficult, and for over 4 more years nothing turned up. Finally, a breakthrough came after the DNA was sent to a different lab in California. The had found a match: A brother, now 77, who lives in Florida. When his brother ran away, he had been in the army and had always wondered what happened to him. He was “very emotional” to learn the truth about his sibling, who we now know was called Daniel Paul Armantrout, a 15-year-old from Tennessee who wanted to start afresh after life with his mother and stepfather became too much.

Pictured left: Amber DuBois, age 14 (2009) Pictured right: Chelsea King, age 17 (2010)

Amber disappeared while walking to school on February 13th, 2009. She left her Escondido, California home around 7am that morning and began heading towards Escondido High School, where she was enrolled as a freshman. Around 7:10am, two separate sets of parents reported seeing Amber walking towards the school. However, when the school’s bell rang at 7:30am, Amber was not in class as expected. The school called Amber’s mother to notify her of Amber’s absence, but the message was not heard until 4pm when her mother’s boyfriend returned home from work and realized Amber was not there. She was report missing shortly thereafter.

The first evening of her disappearance, Amber’s mother had Verizon Wireless reset the password on Amber’s cell phone so she could access her daughter’s voicemail. Nothing of significance was found within her messages. Then, the following day, Amber’s cell phone was turned on for less than 30 seconds, pinging off a cell tower in North Escondido. Whoever turned her phone on tried to access voicemail but could not because the password had already been reset. The phone was turned off immediately after that.

As time passed, police had very few leads to work with in Amber’s case. They then began to focus on the people inside Amber’s home–more specifically, her mother’s boyfriend Dave Cave. Amber and Dave had not been getting along in the months prior to her disappearance, but they had apparently called a truce shortly before she vanished. Dave adamantly denied being involved in Amber’s disappearance, but that did not stop Amber’s mother from having doubts. Six weeks after Amber was reporting missing, her mother broke up with Dave and moved out of his home. She maintained that she did not believe Dave had carried out a premeditated plan to kill Amber, however she felt there was a possibility that something bad could’ve happened to Amber during a confrontation with Dave that was covered up.

Dave remained a person of interest in the public eye for the next year as Amber remained missing. Then, on February 25th, 2010, another young girl from the area went missing: 17 year-old Chelsea King. That afternoon, Chelsea went for a run near Lake Hodges–just 10 miles from where Amber disappeared–and never returned home. Police immediately searched the area where Chelsea was last seen and found a pair of her socks and her underwear. Those items were sent to forensic testing, where investigators found a DNA match to somebody who was already in CODIS: registered sex offender John Albert Gardner III. Police brought Gardner into custody as the search for Chelsea continued. Then, on March 2nd, 2010, police announced that Chelsea’s body was found in a shallow grave located just 10 feet from the lake’s shore. Gardner was then charged with rape and murder in Chelsea’s case. He was also charged with the attempted rape of another woman at Lake Hodges months before Chelsea’s disappearance. He pleaded not guilty to both charges.

Police inevitably questioned Gardner about Amber’s disappearance as well. While he initially denied involvement, he eventually lead investigators to Amber’s remains in a rugged, remote area of north San Diego on March 5th, 2010. Gardner was then charged with Amber’s abduction and murder as well. After this, prosecutors began seeking the death penalty against him.

The next month, Gardner was offered a plea deal which he accepted. On April 16th, 2010, Gardner plead guilty to both Amber and Chelsea’s murders in exchange for the death penalty being taken off the table. In court, Gardner admitting to kidnapping, raping, and stabbing Amber to death in February 2009. He also admitted to dragging Chelsea to a remote area around Lake Hodges, where he went on to rape, strangle, and bury her there in February 2010.

Prior to his sentencing, Amber’s mother decided to meet face-to-face with Gardner inside the San Diego jail. She wanted to ask him for an explanation of what, exactly, happened to her daughter on February 13th, 2009. Gardner told her that he was angry about some things going on in his personal life that morning and went looking for a victim near Escondido High School. He spotted Amber walking in an area where no houses close enough for people to hear her scream, which is why he chose her as his victim. Amber’s mother later told reporters that Gardner told her how he got Amber into his car that morning. She explained, “Gardner pulled up and threatened her with a knife and said to get in the car or something worse would happen.” He took her to the remote area where she was eventually found, then raped, stabbed, and buried her there.

On the morning of February 4, 1995, Consuelo Valença de Lima Vieira (35) went to her sister’s house and didn’t eat breakfast with her husband Aloísio de Lima Vieira Filho and their four children. That morning, all five were poisoned with potassium cyanide. Once Consuelo was the only one who wasn’t at home when the tragedy happened, she became the main suspect of poisoning her family.

Aloísio de Lima Vieira Filho (35) had been unemployed for six months and didn’t know how to deal with the financial difficulties — he thought the easiest way out would be suicide. He had already attempted suicide months before the tragedy. After being notified that he didn’t get the job he applied for, Aloísio decided to put an end to his suffering. The next day, he put potassium cyanide in the breakfast and served to his children Rebeca (9) Raquel (10) Renata (12) and Rita (13), besides himself. He went into a coma and Rita was his last daughter to die, on Feb 14.

The mysterious death of conspiracy theorist Max Spiers

Spiers had been interested in conspiracy theories from a young age. He later recalled various events including out-of-body experiences which he used to justify conspiracy theories, including the belief that he had been given supernatural powers at birth. Spiers also suffered severe anxiety, which sometimes left him completely debilitated.

Max was known as a ‘supersoldier’ by his followers and those in the conspiracy and supernatural community. Father-of-two Max Spiers, 39, was found dead on a sofa in Poland, where he had gone to give a talk about conspiracy theories and UFOs. He was ruled to have died from natural causes despite no post-mortem examination being carried out on his body. 

In a chilling text message to his mother Vanessa just days before his death, Max wrote: ‘Your boy’s in trouble.” and “If anything happens to me, investigate.“ 

Max had been working with science fiction writer Madlen Namro and Monika Duval, who he is also believed to have been staying with whilst in Poland. Vanessa said: ‘He was making a name for himself in the world of conspiracy theorists and had been invited to speak at a conference in Poland in July.' 

He was staying with a woman who he had not known for long and was found him dead on the sofa. According to the Polish prosecutor handling the case, Spiers’s friend called an ambulance. A doctor attended the scene but was unable to revive Spiers. He did not take steps to inform police about the incident. 

Debunking two myths about the massacre perpetrated by Wellington Menezes de Oliveira at Tasso da Silveira school in Rio de Janeiro, on the 7th of April 2011, that took the lives of 12 children and left dozens injured.

1- HE PASSED AS A SPEAKER TO ENTER THE SCHOOL.

It was widely reported by the Brazilian media that Wellington Menezes had identified himself as a speaker outside the school entrance, thus receiving permission to enter the premises. However, that is not true. He was a former student and planned every step he would take to carry out the massacre, especially how he would get there.

A week before, Oliveira had went to the school and requested a copy of his elementary school certificate. However, as the secretary said the school was out of paper for the certificate, he asked for a copy of his school record.¹ This information was confirmed by the principal, Luis Narduk, the day after the massacre:

“He went there last week and asked for his school record, which is a normal procedure, and it was scheduled for him to get the document yesterday.” ²

In fact, it is reported that Oliveira was scheduled to get his document on April 5, but, for some reason, he didn’t make it to that day. Despite that, he recorded a video in which he states:

“Brothers observed that I shaved my beard, it was necessary. I was already planning on going to the local to study, see a form of infiltration. I had already went there many months ago, I didn’t have beard yet, I went to take a look. Today is Tuesday, I went there yesterday. Today is Tuesday 5 (April 5). This was a tactic not to attract attention.” ³

It was not disclosed whether he really went to the school on April 5 or not, what might indicate that he went for a walk nearby or something similar. However, on April 7, he returned to the school carrying two firearms inside his bag. But first, he got the copy that he had requested.

After that, he asked the school staff about his former Portuguese teacher, Mrs. Dorotéia. He wanted to know if she was still teaching there and if he could come in to see her. Once he got permission to go to the reading room and talk to her, he was one step closer to execute his plan.

They had a quick conversation and then Oliveira proceeded to do what he was there for. Surveillance Cameras show him walking down the hall and entering a classroom on the first floor. According to the teacher Leila D’Angelo and her students, he didn’t knock on the door and simply said “I came to give a lecture”, before taking his two guns. ⁴

2- HE YELLED AT STUDENTS TO FACE THE WALL.

Although this is false, he did speak to some students. 13-year-old Mateus Moraes begged for his life and the shooter answered “Relax, ‘fatty’, I’m not gonna kill you”. ⁵ The boy also said that Oliveira shot girls in the head while shooting boys in arms or legs.

Thayane Tavares, on the other hand, was targeted by the perpetrator. As he shot her arm, she played dead. But once she accidentally opened her eyes, he questioned “Didn’t you die? You’re gonna die because you’re very pretty”, before shooting her more 4 times. She became paraplegic.

It was Thayane who spoke out about this myth. In a documentary produced by a Brazilian channel, she recalled:

“It’s a lie that he told to stand up and turn around to shoot. It’s a lie that he told to kneel. That’s all a lie.” ⁶

Additionally, in an online conversation we had last year, she told me:

“This thing that he asked who was virgin and told to kneel, it’s all lies that a girl made up […] he didn’t even enter her classroom.”

That girl is Jade Ramos, who was 12 at the time. She was hidden on the third floor while the shooting took place on the first floor. She gave some interviews in which she recalled the terrible minutes she had experienced. Later that day, she stated:

“He would shoot the kids in the foot so they couldn’t go upstairs and he would tell the kids to turn to the wall to shoot them. Then they said “don’t shoot me, please” and he shot their heads.” ⁷

In an interview aired the next day, she recalled:

“He yelled a lot. He yelled “I’m coming for you, I’m coming for you” and chose the kids he would kill, told them to face the wall and killed them.”

This Is The Zodiac Speaking:

October 13, 1969: The San Francisco Chronicle received a letter from the unidentified serial murderer known as the Zodiac Killer. It contained the Zodiac’s confession to the murder of taxi driver, Paul Lee Stine, and enclosed in this letter, was a piece of Stine’s bloodied shirt.

Direct Transcript of the Zodiac’s Letter:

Whenever she could, Wanda Atkeson took notes. She used anything within reach. Scraps of paper, used napkins, envelopes; anything to document information that could later be proved to be of value. As years passed, slowly turning to decades, this collection of scribbled notes grew. Wanda kept them all and hoped someday they would lead to the answers she so desperately sought.

This journey began during the summer of 1974 with the violent death of her teenage son, David Lawrence Eyman. David was a part of a large, caring family. His father, John Eyman, served in the Nacy during War World II. He passed away in 1971, leaving his behind his wife and their five children. Wanda, then known as Wanda Eyman, was the matriarch of the family. Those who knew her described her as the quiet sort, sometimes timid but always a hard worker. She raised her children in a house of love and warmth in the rural area of Kansas City, Missouri. David was one of two boys in his family. He was thought to be a kind and courteous kid. Like many teenagers, he enjoyed his free time listening to a variety of music and going out with his friends.

David spent the last night of his life with this girlfriend in the Ruskin area of Kansas City. Before heading home, he dutifully telephoned his mother and informed her he was on his way. The boy, who was only fifteen, didn’t own a car, so instead, he walked home. Somewhere along those dark, gravel roads, David Eyman ran into his killer. His body was found dumped in a ditch around 3:45 A.M. on August 14th, 1974 by a police officer. The murderer used a rope to bind his arms and legs similarly to what is done during a rodeo steer tying contest. Then, he was doused in gasoline and set ablaze. David’s remains were still smoldering at the time of the discovering. The damage done to his body was so severe they loved ones were unable to recognize him by face alone. Instead, the police used fingerprints and a silver and turquoise ring officially call the identification. Investigators also recovered a small tin containing marijuana, but no the toxicology report showed no traces of drug use.

To think a fifteen-year-old died so suddenly and in such a horrendous way was unimaginable. The Eyman family now lived in fear. They remained awake during the late hours, sometimes with a gun, dreading that the unknown killer would come for another victim, and wondered who could have possibly hurt their dear David. Investigators working on the case wanted to give them those answers and try to restore some peace of mind.

They began with the man who found the body.  One theory is that the officer, whose name has yet to be made public, accidentally ran over David in his car, and to cover up the accident, he staged a murder. Others believe that he sexually assaulted the young teen. Then to avoid arrest, he silenced David by taking his life. Another concerning factor was that this officer had a history of conveniently showing up at the scenes of late-night arsons. This led some to speculate that he had a past in committing arsons and may have done the same to David to hide his crimes. However, much of this remains talk rather than verified facts. Authorities never directly proved the officer to be an arsonist, nor did he ever face any charges in the slaying. Eventually, their prime suspect left the area. No one has been able to get in contact with him since.

At the time of David’s homicide, a gang of bikers was in the area. They called themselves the Missing Links, and they developed up a notorious reputation for violent crimes. Wanda Atkeson recorded several of their names in her treasure of notes, searching for any association between them and her boy. Detectives interviewed many members of the Missing Links, but they never filed official chargers.

Forty-five have passed since the shocking murder of David Eyman, but the case remains unsolved. Wanda passed away in 2008 without learning the truth of her son’s death. Her surviving children now carry on her mission for justice. With technology advancing by the day, they hope to retest evidence by using new forensic methods. According to Kansas City authorities, many key pieces of evidence have unfortunately gone missing. This includes the rope, the clothing David was wearing at the time of his death, as well as his ring and boots. What evidence that remains in the police’s possession may now be too degraded for testing because of poor storage conditions. Currently, they are looking for witnesses or people who may have any key knowledge that may help solve this case.

The Disappearance of “The Girl in the Green Mac”

It was a warm summer’s day in Bolton, Lancashire, England, on the 18th of August, 1944. 6-year-old Sheila Fox was wearing a blue flowered dress, a green mac, stockings and shoes, when her mother waved her off to school that morning. She partook in her daily studies and played with her friends before leaving school that Friday afternoon at approximately 4PM.

When she didn’t return home at the appointed time, she was reported missing. As police started their investigation, some classmates reported to them that they had seen Sheila riding on the crossbar of a man’s bicycle. Another classmate said they had seen her walking with a man. When she asked her where she was going, she replied: “I am going with this man.” Typically shy, the friend assumed Sheila knew the man. She wasn’t one to talk to strangers never mind wander off with them. 

Over the weekend, air raid wardens and army cadets assisted in the search for the missing girl. Police were called in to offer assistance but they were unable to pickup a scent. Water supply tanks, lodges, rivers and streams were extensively searched. Over the forthcoming years, Sheila’s family clung to hope that Sheila was still alive; they kept their doors unlocked day in and day out just in case she ever returned.

Some believe that Sheila’s disappearance was connected to the murder of Quentin Smith, who was murdered four years after h the disappearance. Another theory is that her disappearance was linked with two stabbing attacks on schoolgirls the same age as her that took place in 1945 and 1948. The perpetrator of these two attacks was said to be a “tall, thin man.”

The Murder of Ana Kriegel: A Girl Who Just Wanted to Make Friends

Ana’s Story

In May 2018, years of psychological torment came to a cruel end for Ana Kriegel when she was callously murdered by two teenage boys. After being adopted from Russia at 2 years old, Ana was just 14 years old when she was subjected to horrific physical abuse and succumbed to her injuries in Lucan, Republic of Ireland. 

Although closely treasured by her adoptive parents, Ana’s subtlety and kind nature was often taken for weakness by others her own age. As a younger child, she endured a complicated surgery to remove a tumour from inside her ear, which caused long-term visual and hearing issues. Rather than receiving support for her impairment, fellow classmates used it as an opportunity to mock Ana and prey on her vulnerability. She would also often receive criticism for ‘not having a real mum and dad’, but despite these setbacks, Ana continued to try and establish friendships. 

As Ana aged into her teenage years with little companionship, she turned to creating accounts on various social media platforms such as Snapchat, Instagram and Youtube to find people with the same interests. However, instead of making friends, the bullying continued to follow Ana online. She began receiving sexually explicit and threatening messages. One comment on a Youtube video Ana uploaded simply read “I’d have you executed”. The inappropriate behaviour she experienced transcended into real life during October 2017, when Ana was returning home from a Halloween event she had helped to organise. She was approached by four older boys in the street, who told Ana that they were going to have sex with her. She had told them “no”, and as she walked away, one of the boys retaliated by hitting her on the backside. Ana returned home very emotionally distressed, and the culprits were issued with a caution by police. However, this experience proved to be the final straw for Ana’s resilience, and a downward spiral into depression and self-harm ensued.

Just as Ana had become more socially withdrawn, she thought her life was changing for the better when she received a sudden knock at her door. It was a local 13 year old boy (Boy B)*, who informed Ana that he was going to take her to meet another boy (Boy A)*, also 13 years old. Ana learned that Boy B was somebody she had liked for some time, so she was more than happy to follow. Sadly, Ana was never to return home, and her body was found in a derelict house after a three-day search.

( * Boy A and Boy B are named as such due to their age, as their anonymity is protected by the law. )

Ana’s Murder

At first, Ana’s body was mistaken for a discarded mannequin lying amongst used condom packaging and broken glass. However, the blood on her face and bruising on her thighs quickly confirmed that the abandoned building was now a crime scene. Ana had been stripped naked down to only her socks before receiving significant injuries to her head and neck, and she had also been left with industrial tape wound tightly around her throat. Ana’s fingers were underneath the tape, as though she had been trying to prise it away at the time of her death. A more detailed autopsy found that, in total, there were around 60 injuries sustained to her body. This included numerous defensive wounds, leading prosecutors to maintain that Ana had fought extremely hard for her life.

CCTV footage was reviewed, which showed Boy B leading Ana away from her home towards the direction of the murder scene, where Boy A was already waiting. After their arrest, traces of Ana’s blood were found on Boy A’s shoes, as well as a ‘murder kit’ hidden in his bedroom which contained a mask, gloves, protective leg wear, a concrete block, and a piece of wood with nails stuck into the end. The ultimate cause of death was recorded as blunt force trauma, but horrifically Ana has also been strangled throughout this ordeal.

As well as the beating Ana had sustained, forensic examination also showed that she had been sexually assaulted, as there were signs of attempted penetration and traces of semen from Boy A were found on a torn garment belonging to Ana. Further searches of the young boys’ homes identified that both boys had developed an obsession with violent pornography. Almost 12,000 sexually explicit images were found on numerous electronic devices belonging to Boy A’s devices, and past internet searches had included terms such as “child porn” and “teen sweet Russian”, as well as “most gruesome torture methods in history” and “abandoned places in Lucan”. 

Trial and Sentencing

Despite the overwhelming evidence to indicate their involvement, both boys went on to plead not guilty. Based on what was witnessed during court proceedings, they also received the support of their parents. It was noted that, while details of the case were read out to the jury, Boy A appeared visibly upset and held his father’s hand while his mother also cried. It was also noted that Boy A walked with a limp, which was thought to be a result of his struggle with Ana. Boy B averted his gaze to the ground for most of the hearing and held on to his mother. After a guilty verdict was reached, the father of Boy B flew into an explosive rage before storming out of the courtroom. He then returned shortly afterwards to sarcastically slow clap and angrily say “an innocent child is going to prison” and shouted “you fucking bunch of scumbags!” at the prosecution team.

Boy B had previously confided to detectives that he had been approached by Boy A one month before Ana’s murder. He claimed that Boy A had asked him if he wanted to kill someone, and named Ana Kriegel specifically. Boy B claimed he did not consent to participating in her murder, but did acknowledge that he had called at Ana’s home to inform her that Boy A wanted to meet her. He then led her to the location where she would be murdered, but claimed to have run away when Boy A became violent.