Bryon Drennan; Stefanie Casey

Williamson, NY – On Thanksgiving, the mother of Bryon Drennan, 36, called police to report that he and his wife of one month were missing. Later in the day, Drennan returned to his parents’ home, where he and 28-year old Stefanie Casey had been living, and reported that everything was hunky dory. No need to worry, folks! He’d driven Casey in his maroon 2008 PT Cruiser to the airport so she could make an impromptu visit to family in Texas. After all, it’s no big deal to just walk into the airport on Thanksgiving and get a dirt-cheap seat on the very next flight to your destination of choice, right?

Except, of course, that’s not what really happened.

Lakewood Drive is just a short distance from the Drennan home; from the map I saw, part of it runs parallel to and very near Lake Ontario. The street ends in a cul de sac, which probably explains the quietness of the neighborhood and the alertness of the residents to unusual events. Police apparently received more than one call from area residents on Thanksgiving reporting “suspicious circumstances” involving a maroon PT Cruiser. For example, after observing a man in such a car carrying a white trash bag into the woods, a woman living on Townline Road sent her son out for a look-see. He found the bag, which contained, among other things, bloody clothes.

Police took Drennan in for questioning Friday night. He admitted that things hadn’t been all lovey-dovey between him and Casey the day before, unless you count “I hit her with a 10-pound barbell plate” and “Then I stabbed her with a wooden heart” as the epitome of devotion. Whatever the case, Drennan insisted that although Casey was bleeding when he left her, she was alive and conscious. He declined to tell them where exactly it was that he left her, but my bet is the airport, because I really prefer to do my long-distance traveling when bloodied by an attack by my spousal unit using unlikely weapons (not to mention the awesome fares and ease of booking mentioned previously). Hoping for the best but fearing the worst, police arrested Drennan and charged him with assault.

Saturday morning, police began searching the wooded areas near where the maroon car had been sighted on Thursday. Early that afternoon, they discovered the body of a woman covered with rocks near the shoreline of Lake Ontario and Lakewood Drive. While the body is believed to be that of Stefanie Casey, authorities are awaiting official confirmation, at which time additional charges are expected to be filed against Drennan.

There isn’t a lot of backstory out in the Webiverse regarding the couple, except that they’d met in Texas, known each other three or four months, and been married about a month. Casey was not employed at the time of her death, and it is believed Drennan was unemployed as well. There may have been previous signs of trouble, as media reports suggest that Drennan had previous domestic violence charges in Hawaii and Texas.

The truth of the matter is that Bryon Drennan almost certainly did kill Stefanie Casey. However, was Stefanie Casey his wife? A search of Denton County, Texas, court records shows that a Bryon D. Drennan filed for divorce from a Rhonda Drennan in August of this year. The final hearing in the matter is scheduled for February 2009. Is Bryon Drennan a bigamist as well as a murderer, or was the marriage of Drennan and Casey a fairy tale told for unknown purposes?

Unamused Cat says, “Bah!” over in the forums.

Mobile, AL – On Monday night, Anthony Hopkins, 37, preached forgiveness at a church revival in Jackson.  Seven of his eight children sat on the front row, and Hopkins looked his kids over and asked them to forgive him for his sins, “past, present, and future.” Right after church,  Hopkins was arrested for incest, rape and sodomy against his daughter and for the murder of his wife, Arletha, who was found frozen in the family home while Hopkins was preaching his sermon.    She’d been there for as long as three years. 

The family home at 258 Rylands Lane was a quiet one, mostly.  There was music, but everyone knew that was because Anthony Hopkins was an evangelist.  What they didn’t know is that Hopkins was routinely raping at least his oldest daughter.  They also didn’t know that Anthony Hopkins’ wife and the mother of his children was dead in a large freezer.   That’s how you teach the kids to behave in the Hopkins house.

Hopkins’ oldest daughter wasn’t at Monday night’s revival.  She wasn’t there because instead, she went to the Child Advocacy Center and told them that her father had been raping her for years.   She also told them where her mother’s body could be found – in a freezer in a utility shed behind the house.

While Hopkins was preaching his sermon on forgiveness, while his other children, teenagers down to age four,  were dutifully singing and playing instruments, police were being led to Arletha Hopkins’ frozen corpse.  It was just where the oldest girl said it would be, wrapped in a sheet, frozen solid.

Arletha Hopkins was never reported missing, and no family of hers has yet been located. All eight Hopkins children were homeschooled, and Anthony Hopkins worked as an itinerant evangelist, spreading the word of God between sessions in his daughter’s bed.   Pastors at the churches where Hopkins preached were told that Arletha Hopkins had died giving birth to the couple’s youngest son, now four.   I guess they weren’t told she was in the freezer.

The oldest daughter says that her father murdered her mother, and police believe her.  After all, no death report or 911 call was ever made.  It seems that Arletha Hopkins died with nobody but her children to mourn her. Police say it will be several days for the body to thaw enough even for positive identification.

Hopkins was arrested and taken to Mobile County Metro Jail, where he is charged with rape, sodomy, and first degree murder.  He is being held without bond, and the investigation at the Rylands Lane home is continuing.  All eight of the Hopkins children are now in the custody of the Department of Human Resources.

Update 10/28/08 – 3 months after Nancy Cooper’s body was found, her husband, Brad Cooper, has been charged with her murder. More info at bottom of article.

Cary, NC – According to her husband, Brad, Nancy Cooper, 34, left for a jog at around 7 a.m. Saturday morning and was supposed to return by 9. She did not take a phone, ID or keys with her when she left. She never returned. Search crews were formed and searched in and around Regency Park, Lochmere Lake, Lake Wheeler and Lake Johnson. They were looking for a woman described as 5 feet 9 inches tall, 120 pounds, hazel eyes and brown hair. She was wearing a T-shirt, running shorts and light blue running shoes. She was not located over the weekend. Around 7:30 pm Monday evening, a man walking his dog in an undeveloped area, discovered a body floating in a pond in The Oaks at Meadowridge off Holly Springs Road. This area is still under construction and no one lives in the few houses in that area. It is only a mile from where Nancy lives, so chances are Nancy may have been found.

Aside from Brad seeing Nancy leave that Saturday morning, no one else has seen Nancy since a cocktail party held at the home of Diana Duncan. The gathering ended late Friday night and Nancy was described as looking tired. A friend, Jessica Adam, reported Cooper missing at 2:15 p.m after she failed to show up for a visit. She was supposed to help Jessica Adam paint her dining room on Saturday morning. When she failed to show up, she called Brad Cooper. Brad told her that Nancy had went running with a friend, and wasn’t sure who the friend was. Jessica got an uneasy feeling and felt that something was wrong. At 2:15 pm Saturday, Jessica called police to report Nancy as missing.

Questions as to why Brad Cooper, Nancy’s husband, did not report her missing are being asked, but police have stated that he is not a suspect and that he has cooperated fully, giving police full access to the home and vehicles. But did let investigators know that him and Nancy were experiencing marital difficulties.

The body has being taken to the State Medical Examiner’s Office for a positive identification and autopsy.

Here is one of the initial reports detailing the search efforts:

Update 9/30/2008 - Autopsy report points to strangulation as cause of death. “Based on the history and autopsy findings, it is in my opinion that she
died as a result of external causes, homicidal violence, most likely
asphyxia by strangulation,” Dr. John D. Butts wrote. No arrests have been made in this case. Also. a custody battle is in progress in regards to Nancy and Brad’s two children.

Update 10/28/08 - Not really a big shocker to anyone following this case, but Brad Cooper was arrested on Monday, charged in his wife’s murder.

“It has been a case of domestic violence of the very worst kind,” Chief Pat Bazemore said in a brief news conference Monday night.

The Coper’s two girls will remain in Canada with their mother’s twin, Krista, and her husband, Jim Lister. More information over at The Charlotte Observer

Couty Alexander; Couty & Christa Alexander

Livingston Parish, LA – On the surface, Couty Lamar Alexander looked like such a nice young man. Definitely a church-going young man. Back in 2004, he was part of team of youngsters who traveled to Jamaica to conduct Vacation Bible Schools. Afterward, he said, “It was a wonderful mission field experience. The kids we worked with were great. I can’t wait to go back and see the kids again.” Don’t know if he got to return to Jamaica to see the kids again, but as of last week, he had a special child to think about—his own. Married at the beginning of March, he and Christa Ann (nee Baker) were expecting a baby in December. Looking at the pictures of Christa on Couty’s MySpace, it’s easy to imagine a dark-haired, fair-skinned baby with her mother’s sweet face and smile. It’s also easy to imagine that baby growing up to conduct Vacation Bible Schools in another country just like Daddy did, since both Christa and Couty grew up in God-fearing homes and were active in their Missionary Baptist church.

In addition to his new bride and church activities, Couty recently completed paramedic school and was employed by Acadian Ambulance as an EMT. I don’t know at what level he was certified, but I know if I fell down the stairs or started having chest pains, I’d be damn happy to have him show up to get me to the hospital. Let’s face it, an EMT can be the difference between life and death, so I can see myself thinking of him as a true blessing while he splinted my leg or got the bleeding stopped. Couty must’ve been pretty proud, too, based on the number of pictures he has on MySpace of his classmates and coworkers.

Allow me a quick detour, folks. You know it as well as I do—lots of public servants have a sort of split life. Think about the cops and firefighters you know or have heard about. Their jobs are hard in ways most of us never have to deal with—getting to know the local psych ward candidates, talking down the chick who is on suicide attempt Number 7, understanding that Bubba’s promise to lay off whatever’s killing him is just empty air, knowing that if the little girl you just interviewed were you own daughter, you’d wind up with your hands around someone’s throat…you get my point. Same’s true of EMTs. You hear about them developing a special bond with one another and relying on dark and/or raunchy humor to help get them through the day.

Couty’s MySpace appears to be a reflection of the professional side of his life, since pretty much all his friends there are EMTs. And, yeah, maybe there’s a few slightly risqué comments, some references to booze—nothing alarming, but not really what you’d expect from a young man living a Christ-centered life.
Now, 99% of the time, everything I’ve written up till now would be neither here nor there. Nice young man raised in the church with a beautiful Christian bride, soon to be a father, and having dedicated his professional life to doing good for others. Who cares if his MySpace—which completely lacks any reference to his Christian life and doesn’t even feature his wife as a friend—suggests that when he’s on the job he adopts a slightly different and more accessible persona, maybe worries a little less about a dirty joke or two? Right. Nobody would care. Hell, how many of you reading this have a MySpace profile on which your age is slightly, ahem, deflated? Nobody would care, except that what happened this past Saturday has a lot of people wondering what the fuck was going on with Couty Alexander.

On Saturday evening, while Christa Alexander was gathering clothing for church from her closet, her husband of three months went from being a nice guy to a cold-blooded murdering sonofabitch. Because what Couty did was shoot his 24-year-old pregnant wife in the back of the head with a nine-millimeter pistol. In the back of the head. Did you get that? He shot her in the head, from behind. If this were a novel, we’d say he shot her EXECUTION STYLE. And then? Then, he went to work. A twelve-hour shift as an EMT. Somewhere in Louisiana are people who worked with and people who were cared for by Couty Alexander in the 12 hours after he shot his pregnant wife to death from behind. I would fucking hate to be one of those people today, because that’s just creepy.

We might not know any of this except for the fact that Couty turns out to be not only a cold-blooded murdering sonofabitch but also a pretty damn stupid cold-blooded murdering sonofabitch. Once he finished his shift and got back home, he dialed 911 and reported that he’d returned home to find his wife dead. Dude. You’re an EMT? Did you pay any attention? Are you not aware that time of death can be pinpointed? Naw, he ransacked the house and claimed it was a burglary gone awry and even went so far as to tell police he’d sold a nine-millimeter pistol to some guy named Steve the previous Friday. Alas for Couty, the authorities weren’t buying it. On Sunday, he admitted to shooting Christa. He currently is charged with second-degree murder, first-degree feticide, and obstruction of justice.

As is so often the case, it’s the why that gets me. Why, Couty, why? What could be so horribly wrong in a four-month old marriage that the solution is a bullet? It seems unlikely that after so short a time and while expecting a child, Christa would be planning to leave you. Even if there were problems, there are your families, your church fellowship, your colleagues, somebody could’ve helped, if you’d asked. Why didn’t you ask?

Funeral services for Christa are Thursday at TrinityBaptistChurch in Abita Springs.

Litchfield, Poston, O’Conner

S.C. - My favorite story of the week. Police learned via an anonymous tip, that Matthew Jason Litchfield Jr., 27, had employed two men, James O’Conner, 33, and Martin Wayne Poston, 30, to help kill his wife, her unborn child and her boyfriend. So they set up a nice sting that got all three men arrested before anyone got hurt. But before we get to that portion of the story, here is a bit of background.

Litchfield was already in trouble with the law because of a May of 2007 arrest on charges of criminal sexual conduct with a minor and lewd act upon a child under 16. As a condition of his bond, he had to wear an ankle bracelet. Later, in July, he was arrested for grabbing his wife of 9 years, Elana Clark, by the neck and choking her at knifepoint. It was this incident that led to Clark leaving Litchfield and taking their two daughters aged 8 and 4, with her. She eventually moved in with her current boyfriend.

In January, after numerous court appearances where both Litchfield and Clark accused the other of being shitty parents, a judge granted custody of their two children to Litchfield’s mother. I would love to know why. Up to this point, Clark had kept her location hidden from Litchfield, but two weeks ago, she was made to state her address in public court.

So now we are in April. Litchfield wears an ankle bracelet and living with O’Conner and Poston. Clark is living with her boyfriend and is now 8-months pregnant, and Litchfield knows where she lives.

On Wednesday, deputies got an anonymous phone call from someone alerting them to a murder-for-hire plot involving Litchfield and Co. They learned that Litchfield had told O’Conner and Poston that a pickup truck would be waiting for them in a convenience store parking lot. They would use this pickup truck to drive to the Clark’s location and use a shotgun to kill the inhabitants. That was the plan. A fairly simple plan. Here is what the men did not know.

They did not know that Clark and her boyfriend were already in protective custody. They also didn’t know that police had immeditately started surveillance on both parties after the anonymous tip. They also didn’t know that before they had got there, police had switched the truck in the convenience store parking lot with one of their own, complete with a nifty wire to record whatever was being said inside it. They were compeltely oblivious to the fact that they were followed to Litchfield’s house where they were observed walking out of the house with a shotgun. They didn’t notcie that parts of the highway they were on was closed down. Since deputies already knew where the two men were headed, they had done this in case the upcoming traffic stop turned hairy and one of the men decided to start using the shotgun they had. But that didn’t happen.

When O’Conner and Poston were pulled over and surrounded by a gaggle of barking S.C. cops with their guns drawn, they gave up without incident. Meanwhile, in front of a church somewhere in South Carolina, Litchfield was just about to attend Wednesday service. Before he could get through the doors, police arrested him in the parking lot.

Both men who were to carry out the deed both have criminal records, Poston’s worst offenses are involving DUI’s and bad checks. O’Conner, on the other hand, proves that looks can be decieving and has a lengthy criminal record and a history with confidential stings.

Litchfield has been charged with three counts each of soliciting to commit murder and conspiracy to commit murder and is being held without bond in the Berkeley County detention center after waiving his right to a bond hearing. James O’Conner and Martin Wayne Poston are both charged with three counts of conspiracy to commit murder. Their bond was set at $1.5 million each.

David Cobb and Vincent Smothers

DETROIT — Vincent Smothers, 27, has confessed to the killing of a police officer’s wife. Rose Cobb, 47, wife of Sgt. David Cobb, was shot multiple times while she sat inside the couples minivan outside of a CVS on Dec 27th of last year. David Cobb had been inside the store at the time. Smothers has now said that the murder of Cobb had been a hit, and David Cobb was the one who paid him to do it.

Smothers described himself as a professional hitman and claims he was paid $1,500 by Cobb to murder Rose Cobb. Smothers had an arrest warrant on charges of first-degree murder, felony murder, assault with intent to murder and firearm offenses. He and an accomplice allegedly shot three people, killing two at an apartment complex last June. Smothers has served time before on concealed weapons charges. He has now confessed to the murders of nine other people.

His family states that Vincent changed after his 15-year-old sister, a promising athlete who had been offered volleyball scholarships, was shot to death in the family’s driveway by a neighbor while she played basketball. They say he lost it.

“That boy must have felt the world was nothing but murder and if someone could murder his baby sister like that … he may hate the world enough to murder people.”

David Cobb was arrested only hours after the arrest of Smothers. Police went to his home on Sunday morning and Cobb was arrested without incident. He is currently being held while waiting to be arraigned on felony charges. Family members and friends of David and Rose Cobb are shocked over the arrest.

DreaminDemon isn’t fond of mixing “mistakes” with “criminality”, but what do we do when someone is criminally stupid? We make fun of it! Ronald Long wasn’t thinking ahead when he killed his wife while hooking up his home with Satellite TV. After fumbling with several methods of getting a hole through his house, through which to run his cable, he decided to whip out his trusty .22 pistol.

After firing twice through the wall, he called out for his wife, Patsy Long, and got no response. He rushed outside to find that he had cleverly placed a hole in his wife’s chest as well! Great job Ronald!

The only good news here is that Ronald can now get a bigger TV, without having to stomach is wife’s bitchin’. And for those who think having handguns at home makes us safer, go make like a Dendrobaena rubida.

Source

Now with yummy video goodness (he is never shown, but his neighbor is!)

Almost like a plot device out of the televisions show, Rescue Me.

MONROEVILLE, Pa. — Described as a happy couple with a sound marriage, friends and family were shocked when firefighter, John Lang, shot his wife, Tracy Lang and one of his best friends and fellow firefighter, Louis Goldenson, outside of a restaurant, killing them both. He is now in jail and charged with criminal homicide.

Lang had went to a fire in East McKeesport, returning around 10:30 p.m. Firefighter stated that Lang spoke with his wife on the phone and that she told him she was at the home of a friend who had been diagnosed with cancer. Lang told police that he was suspicious of the story and checked by the friends home and did not see his wifes car. Lang then went to Don Pablo’s restaurant to see if she was there, as that was the place she said they had went to earlier. What he found was his wife and friend, Goldenson, kissing in the parking lot. He pulled up beside the two, said, “Hi,” and shot them both. Seeing that they were not dead, it is reported that Lang then got out of his vehicle and shot them both repeatedly until they were.

Goldenson’s family have released a statement stating that him and Tracy Lang were not romantically involved, and that he was simply helping out a friend. The rest are saying that they never would have expected this level of violence from Lang, and that no one ever suspected that there were any problems with the Lang’s marriage.

Obviously there was though, or John Lang would not have been suspicious in the first place.

Robert and Kristina Robertson

ELWOOD, Ind. – 26-year-old Robert Lamberson’s About section of his Myspace page states “My MiSsIoN 2 sPeAd MoRe SmiLeS tHeN tEaRs UtAhLiZe LeSsOnS LeArNd fRoM mY cHiLd HoOd YeArS“, a raped quote from 2-Pac’s song, Hold Ya Head. The other day, Robert decided to not take 2 Pac’s advice and went to the residence of his estranged wife, 26-year-old Kristina Lamberson, and killed her, then killed himself. He did this while Kristina’s 4-year-old daughter was in the home.

The little girl was unable to unlock the front door for help, so she called her Aunt. Her Aunt then called 911. “My 4-year-old niece just called me and said her mommy needed help and I needed to come and get her right now,” the aunt told a 911 dispatcher. “She thinks mommy was dead and she can’t get her up.”

Police broke into the home and found the couple, both dead from the shotgun found underneath Robert’s corpse. Robert had just been released from jail after being arrested Saturday for calling Kristina, a violation of a protective order she had against him. Lamberson bonded out of jail a few hours after his arrest. Police say there were no signs or evidence of any possibilites of violence on Robert’s part, but friends say that isn’t true. They state that threatening phone calls had been recorded and played for police. The couple had only been married for about a year.

“He liked to run his mouth a lot and I don’t think anybody took him serious,” a family friend said. And after browsing around his Myspace page, I can honestly say that I wouldn’t have taken him seriously either.

The little girl’s relatives say she has repeatedly talked about how her mother died. Kristina’s daughter and 7-year-old son are now staying with her family.

Robert Lamberson

Fuck me? lol, no fuck you, Robert.

Memphis, TN – On Valentine’s Day, a woman’s body was found off of US 78 in Mississippi near the Coldwater River. The body was missing its head, hands and feet. Two days earlier, James Hawkins, 30, had reported his longtime girlfriend Charlene Gaither, also 30, missing. On Monday, Hawkins and Gaither’s 12-year-old daughter told police that after she “watched Dad kill Mom”, Dad made her help him dispose of the body.

On being questioned, Hawkins admitted to “being there” when Gaither died on Feb. 9 at their home near Memphis, Tennessee. He also admitted to severing her head, hands and feet and then throwing them out of his car in random spots over the Mississippi state line. But of course he didn’t kill her. I know, right? Have your child help you dispose of one little corpse and people just assume the worst.

Gaither’s head, hands and feet are still missing. Preliminary medical findings show that the dismemberment took place after Gaither died, and there’s no firm cause of death. (I’ll take blunt force trauma or gunshot to the head for $5000.)

The daughter was insistent that yes, her father had killed her mother. She said she witnessed the murder and the dismemberment, and that her dad made her go with him to get rid of her mother’s body.

Ten years ago, Hawkins pleaded guilty to numerous counts of aggravated robbery and aggravated assault under the alias James Thomas. He was sentenced to 15 years and got out after serving just over four years of that term in 2002. He remained on probation through December of 2009.

Just last month, Charlene Gaither sought a protection order against Hawkins to prevent him from approaching or contacting her. The case was dismissed the same day.

James Hawkins has been charged with abuse of a corpse, tampering with evidence, filing a false report, and first-degree murder. He is being held in Shelby County Jail on a $500,000 bond. His daughter has already received a life sentence of nightmares and a need for intense therapy. Thanks, Dad!

and thanks to you, Ells.