Crime

QUITO, Ecuador (AP) — Ecuador’s government on Sunday offered a $100,000 reward for information on the whereabouts of a lawmaker whom authorities accused of raping a minor.

The case against Santiago Díaz Asque became public when he was expelled from an opposition party earlier this week. Interior Minister Jhon Reimberg in a post on X said the reward is for “true and verifiable” information on Díaz’s location.

Authorities on Wednesday raided three properties linked to the case, but prosecutor’s have declined to provide details of the investigation.

Díaz requested unpaid leave from the National Assembly after he was kicked out of the Citizen Revolution party, but it was denied. He also published a letter in which he rejected the accusation and characterized it as at attempt to “silence my incorruptible and critical voice.”

Three men have been found guilty of an arson attack on a London warehouse linked to Ukraine on behalf of Russian mercenary group Wagner.

Jakeem Rose, 23, Ugnius Asmena, 20, and Nii Mensah, 23, were found guilty at the Old Bailey of aggravated arson with intent to endanger life after the blaze at the unit, which sent aid and internet satellite equipment to Ukraine.

The attack was orchestrated by Dylan Earl, 20, and Jake Reeves, 23, who had already admitted aggravated arson on behalf of the Wagner Group.

Around £1m-worth of damage was caused in the attack on the warehouse in east London last year, the Old Bailey heard.

I consume a lot of true crime... There are ones that are worse than this, objectively. For instance, the prolonged torture of Junko Furuta as retold by Dire Tripe immediately comes to mind as one of the most extreme & brutal...

I also immediately think of:

• The Toy-Box Killer
• Dean Corll, also known as the Candy Man Murders

But for me one of the most horrifying and mind-blowing crimes is the one attached - a man who has just watched his own daughter and wife drown so animalized & possessed by a demon as to asphyxiate another woman while assaulting her.

I can't explain stuff like that.

Do you guys have any "Holy cow that is horrifying" crimes you often think back to..?

Authorities say the woman who was found dead in a northern New Hampshire restaurant on Sunday was the victim of a murder-suicide.

The New Hampshire Attorney General's Office said police responded to La Casita at 4 Hillside Ave. in Berlin at about 9:45 a.m. after receiving a 911 call for reported gunshots.

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Sandra Marisol Fuentes Huaracha, 25, was found dead with multiple gunshot wounds behind the bar by officers.

Michael Gleason Jr., 50, was later found dead in one of the bathrooms with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.

The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner conducted autopsies Monday morning and ruled Fuentes Huaracha's death a homicide and Gleason's death a suicide.

Authorities said Fuentes Huaracha and Gleason were engaged in a prior domestic relationship.

Court documents obtained by WMTW sister station WMUR state that Fuentes Huaracha filed a criminal complaint in April accusing Gleason of sexual assault and stealing thousands of dollars she had saved to start a business. Gleason was later charged with aggravated felonious sexual assault, kidnapping and theft and was out on bail pending next steps in his case.

In a Facebook post, Berlin Mayor Robert Cone said Fuentes Huaracha was a beloved member of the community who opened the restaurant up for various fundraising efforts on multiple occasions.

"I was witness to how hard she worked to put together a very special Dia de Los Muertos celebration this past fall, as well as her generous, heartfelt efforts in helping with Guadalupe's Soup Kitchen," Cone said in his Facebook post. "She was a beacon of light, an inspiration, and an example of God's grace here on Earth. Her positive spirit and dedication to her family, friends, our community, and her profession will be sorely missed."

Sean “Diddy” Combs got a standing ovation from fellow inmates upon his return to jail after winning acquittals on potential life-in-prison charges, according to his lawyer.

Combs, 55, remains jailed after his Wednesday conviction on prostitution-related charges and could still face several years in prison at an upcoming sentencing after being credited for 10 months already served.

He was, however, found not guilty on the more serious counts of sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy.

In an interview over the weekend, Diddy’s attorney Marc Agnifilo claimed the verdict might have been the best thing he could have done for Black incarcerated men in America.

“They all said: ‘We never get to see anyone who beats the government,’” Agnifilo said.

The jury in the mushroom poisoning trial of Erin Patterson will start deliberating next week after judge Christopher Beale continued giving it instructions on Thursday.

Ms Patterson, 50, has pleaded not guilty to murdering her former in-laws Don and Gail Patterson and Gail’s sister, Heather Wilkinson, by allegedly serving them death cap mushrooms in a beef wellington lunch in July 2023.

Her in-laws and Wilkinson died in the days after the meal from the effects of mushroom poisoning. Wilkinson’s husband survived after weeks in hospital.

Mr Beale reminded the jury of Ms Patterson’s alleged incriminating conduct, which the prosecution has argued demonstrates her guilt.

This included lying about using dried mushrooms from an Asian grocery, disposing of a dehydrator at the local tip, handing police a secondary phone and not her primary phone – which was never found – as well as lying that she fed her children leftovers from the beef wellington with the mushroom paste scraped off.

Mr Beale also told the jury that Ms Patterson initially refused treatment and left the Leongatha Hospital against medical advice during her first presentation. During her second visit, she was again reluctant to receive medical care and seemed hesitant to seek treatment for her children.

“The prosecution argues the only reasonable explanation for her unwillingness to receive emergency treatment … is that she knew she hadn’t consumed death cap mushrooms because she had deliberately poisoned her guests … making sure she also did not consume toxins,” Mr Beale told the jury.

A 44 year old man has been handed a death sentence in Tarrant County, Texas after being found guilty by a jury of the horrific murders of three individuals.

In addition to executing the savage killings, he also dismembered his victims and set their bodies alight.

Over a seven-day period in September 2021, Jason Thornburg murdered David Lueras, 42, Maricruz Mathis, 33, and Lauren Phillips, 34, later claiming that the trio needed to be sacrificed for religious purposes.

During the lengthy trial, details emerged about what transpired at the Mid City Inn in Euless. The three victims were separately brought into the room Thornburg was renting and subsequently killed.

The killer slit the throats of two of the victims and strangled Phillips before sexually assaulting her dead body. He also consumed part of David's heart and severed his penis, reports the Mirror US.

Once the victims were deceased, Thornburg dismembered their bodies in the motel bathtub and stored their remains in rubbish bags under the bed.

In the early hours of September 22, the murderer then transported their body parts, which he had stored in plastic storage tubs, to a dumpster on Bonnie Drive in Fort Worth.

He placed the remains inside the dumpster, ignited them and drove off. Firefighters were summoned to the blaze and put out the fire where they discovered the victims' burnt bodies.

Law enforcement nabbed Thornburg for placing the bodies in the dumpster and igniting it, thanks to CCTV footage showing his Jeep Grand Cherokee nearby at the crucial time. He chillingly returned the containers used to the shop they were purchased from after meticulously cleaning them out.

Four people have been arrested after a London scientist was found dismembered in a suitcase in Colombia.

Alessandro Coatti, who worked for the prestigious Royal Society of Biology (RSB), was found by a group of children in Santa Marta in April.

The 42-year-old’s head, hands and feet were all found inside the suitcase and his torso and other parts of his body were found more than two weeks later.

Colombia’s attorney general’s office and Rome’s prosecution office have confirmed four people have been arrested, Colombian media reports.

Oswal Moisés Ospino Navarro, Isaac Enrique Márquez Charris, Andrea Camila Berdugo Escorcia and Brian Augusto Cantillo Salcedo have all been detained on suspicion of aggravated homicide.

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The Italian-born scientist had been a post-graduate neuroscience researcher at University College London.