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THIS JUST IN ~ CURRENT CRIME STORIES #2 (9 Viewers)

This case is known as the "baby found dead in a Lidl bag for life". They have finally been convicted. This case has been sub judice for more than a year but reporting restrictions have now been lifted. More details at BBC link.

(Previous reporting on this case from 2023 can be found in the first crime thread post numbers 5492, 5502, 5503 and 5508. Here's a link to post 5492.

Post in thread 'THIS JUST IN ~ CURRENT CRIME STORIES' THIS JUST IN ~ CURRENT CRIME STORIES

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www.bbc.co.uk

Constance Marten and Mark Gordon guilty of gross negligence manslaughter over baby's death

Victoria's body was found in a shopping bag in a Brighton allotment shed in March 2023, two months after the couple went on the run.
www.bbc.co.uk www.bbc.co.uk


  1. Constance Marten and Mark Gordon's failures as parents are revealed by damning court papers, which have been released to BBC News.
    A years-long family court case ended in January 2022 when their four children were permanently placed into care.
    A turning point in the proceedings came when a family court judge ruled, "on the balance of probabilities", Gordon had caused Marten to fall from a first-floor window while she was pregnant - we'll bring you more on this shortly.
    Until recently, family court hearings have taken place in private and journalists have not been permitted to report on them.
    BBC News led a legal challenge which resulted in the publication of the documents.
    The family court judgments, made across five years, provide an important insight into the couple's chaotic life together and the danger judges decided that posed to their four children.
    Family court proceedings began in south Wales, where the couple's first baby was born, and continued in London, when Marten and Gordon moved there.
    The papers reveal:
    • Gordon did not call 999 after Marten fell from the window and he refused to let paramedics into their home to treat her
    • Afterwards, Marten, pregnant with their third child, fled to Ireland to avoid contact with social services
    • The couple put their children's health at risk by refusing standard antenatal and newborn healthcare
    • Once their older children were in care, they repeatedly missed contact sessions with them
    • Faced with permanently losing her children, Marten told a court she would separate from Gordon in a desperate bid to keep them - but the judge did not believe her
    Share

  2. Baby Victoria was found in bag in shed on allotment sitepublished at 16:08
    16:08​

    After Marten and Gordon were arrested, police began a frantic search to find their baby. At that point, it was not known whether she was alive or dead.
    Investigators asked the parents where she was - but both refused to say. Gordon repeatedly asked for food instead, police say.
    Hundreds of officers searched the area around where the couple were arrested. On 1 March, Victoria's remains were found in a Lidl bag for life inside a shed on an allotment site.
Continued at BBC link above.
 
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RELEASED TO OFFEND AGAIN? ​

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Prosecutors in Colorado plan to drop charges against a registered sex offender accused of trying to kidnap a child from an elementary school because he was found incompetent to stand trial.​


The 18th Judicial District Attorney’s Office said on Friday that it intends to dismiss charges against Solomon Galligan. The 33-year-old faces one count of attempted kidnapping after he allegedly tried to take an 11-year-old boy during recess at Black Forest Hills Elementary School in April 2024. Aurora police previously reported that Galligan is a registered sex offender, with his registration tied to the Pueblo County Sheriff’s Office.

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After his arrest, Galligan underwent a mental competency evaluation that determined he was unfit to stand trial. As a result, prosecutors claimed they have no choice but to drop the charges.
Galligan's guilt is not the issue for prosecutors. The alleged crime was captured on video that showed a man chasing after and grabbing at a student as other children ran away.

www.foxnews.com

Prosecutor to let registered sex offender walk free after elementary school kidnapping attempt

Charges could be dismissed against a registered sex offender after a mental competency evaluation found him unfit to stand trial for attempted kidnapping at an Aurora school
www.foxnews.com www.foxnews.com
 

Pastor’s wife, daughter identified as victims of deadly shooting at Kentucky church​


Police said 72-year-old Beverly Gumm and 32-year-old Christina Combs were killed in the shooting at Richmond Road Baptist Church in rural Lexington.
Family members said Gumm was the pastor’s wife and Combs was their daughter.

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Officials also identified the suspected shooter as 47-year-old Guy House, who was shot and killed by police.

According to Lexington police, the situation started when House was pulled over around 11:40 a.m. by a Kentucky State Police trooper due to a license plate alert on traffic cams. He shot the trooper and then immediately fled the scene, police said.

House then allegedly carjacked another vehicle and switched cars, drove to the church, then shot four people who were in the basement cooking lunch. Gumm and Combs were pronounced dead at the scene.

Family members identified the other two victims as the church pastor, Jerry Gumm, and his son-in-law Randy Combs. They were taken to the hospital, one with critical injuries and one with non-life-threatening injuries.

House was shot and killed by responding police officers and pronounced dead at the scene.

The trooper that House shot during the initial traffic stop was also taken to a hospital in stable condition.

The community said House has ties to the church.

Star Rutherford, the victims’ daughter and sister, told WKYT she was downstairs in the church cooking lunch with her mother when House bolted in and demanded to speak to her sister, Angel.

“My mother said, ‘Angel is not here.’ He said, ‘Well I guess someone is gonna have to die then’ and shot twice at her,” Rutherford recalled. “The first time, she ducked and missed. Second time hit her in the chest.”

Records show House had a lengthy criminal history in multiple Kentucky counties. In 2022, he was involved in an hours-long standoff with police on I-75 after he was pulled over for outstanding warrants. Most recently, House was scheduled to appear in court this week for a domestic violence case.

www.kptv.com

Pastor’s wife, daughter identified as victims of deadly shooting at Kentucky church

Officials have identified the victims who were killed in a shooting at a church in Kentucky on Sunday as a mother and daughter.
www.kptv.com www.kptv.com
 
I looked for a thread but there doesn't seem to be one so am posting this here. Crazy story.

www.nytimes.com

Son of Ex-Hollywood Agent, Jailed in 3 Murders, Dies by Suicide, D.A. Says

Samuel Haskell, 37, was accused of dismembering his wife and his in-laws. He was the son of Sam Haskell III, an Emmy-winning film producer and veteran talent agent.
www.nytimes.com www.nytimes.com


​

Son of Ex-Hollywood Agent, Jailed in 3 Murders, Dies by Suicide, D.A. Says​


Samuel Haskell, 37, was accused of dismembering his wife and his in-laws. He was the son of Sam Haskell III, an Emmy-winning film producer and veteran talent agent.​
Listen to this article · 5:59 min Learn more

  • Share full article​
A man with long hair appears shirtless in a court room.

Samuel Haskell, who was facing murder charges in three killings, in court in Los Angeles in 2023. The authorities said he was found dead in jail on Saturday and that he had taken his own life. Credit...Pool photo by NBC LA
Neil Vigdor
By Neil Vigdor
July 14, 2025

Two days before his next court appearance in the dismemberment of his wife and his in-laws, the son of a once prominent Hollywood producer was found dead on Saturday at a Los Angeles jail, according to the authorities, who ruled the death a suicide.​
The inmate, Samuel Haskell, 37, had been scheduled to return to court in Los Angeles on Monday morning for a preliminary hearing to determine if he should stand trial in the 2023 murders.​
According to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, detectives from its homicide bureau were called on Saturday to the Twin Towers Correctional Facility to investigate the death of an inmate whom the agency identified as Mr. Haskell.​
The Sheriff’s Department did not say how or when Mr. Haskell, the son of Sam Haskell III, an Emmy-winning film producer and veteran talent agent, had died.​
But the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office confirmed on Monday that Mr. Haskell, who could have faced life in prison if convicted, had killed himself.​
“Instead of standing before a judge and answering for the crimes he’s been charged with, the defendant managed to escape justice,” Nathan J. Hochman, the district attorney, said in a statement. “This is one last cruel act by someone who did the most horrific things for reasons we will never entirely know.”​
Mr. Haskell had pleaded not guilty to three counts of murder as well as a separate charge, the special circumstance allegation of multiple murders.​
Prosecutors said that they had been preparing to present evidence on Monday that Mr. Haskell had murdered and dismembered his wife, Mei Li Haskell, 37; her mother, Yanxiang Wang, 64; and his wife’s stepfather Gaoshan Li, 71, in the Tarzana, Calif., home they all shared on or about Nov. 6, 2023.​
The next day, Mr. Haskell paid $500 to several day laborers to haul away several heavy black plastic trash bags from his home, according to the district attorney’s office. When they looked inside one of them, they found human body parts, prompting them to return the bags and money to Mr. Haskell, whom they photographed — along with the bags — and reported to the police, prosecutors said.​
That same afternoon, investigators said, Mr. Haskell was seen in security camera footage removing a trash bag from the trunk of his Tesla and disposing of it in a dumpster in a parking lot in nearby Encino, Calif. A person sifting through the dumpster the next day found a beheaded torso, which the authorities said were the remains of Mr. Haskell’s wife.​
Additional security footage showed Mr. Haskell transferring other trash bags to a rented S.U.V., where investigators found a loaded .357 revolver, 32 rounds of ammunition, a blood-encrusted military-style knife, a headlamp, a firearm sight and passports for Mr. Haskell, his wife and their three children, the police said.​
The blood on the knife matched all three victims, according to prosecutors, who said that investigators also found trash bags at the family’s home containing bloody bedding, towels, a large machine saw, a machete and canes that belonged to Mr. Haskell’s in-laws.​
When investigators searched Mr. Haskell’s phone, they discovered that he had been having an affair with a 27-year-old woman whom he had wanted to accompany him on a trip to Japan, prosecutors said. He bought a one-way ticket for himself before his arrest, the authorities said.​
During an initial criminal proceeding in December 2023, Mr. Haskell appeared shirtless in court, wearing a smock intended to prevent inmates from using it to hang themselves. At the time, his lawyer told Fox News that the Sheriff’s Department had forced him to appear that way, creating speculation that Mr. Haskell might harm himself. The lawyer, Joseph A. Weimortz Jr., disputed that his client was a suicide risk.​
In a statement on Monday, Mr. Weimortz said that his client was burdened by impact of the case on his children.​
“My client was not afraid of prison, but he was afraid of an even larger media spectacle,” Mr. Weimortz said. “He was not afraid for himself, he was afraid for his boys. He was afraid that every photo taken, every word written, would be a permanent scar his children would have to live with. He was afraid that every gory, salacious detail, regardless of its truth or falsity, would be used for public entertainment.”​
Mr. Haskell’s father was an executive vice president at the William Morris Agency in the late 1990s. He had several A-list clients, including George Clooney, Ray Romano and Whoopi Goldberg.​
As a producer, he oversaw a number of television pageant shows and several films and shows about Dolly Parton, including a 2019 Netflix series inspired by her songs.​
He was also the longtime head of the Miss America Organization until 2017, when he resigned amid reports that he and other pageant leaders had made misogynistic and derogatory comments about the competition’s contestants.​
Samuel Haskell’s mother, Mary Haskell, is an actress who has appeared in a host of television shows and movies beginning in the early 1990s. She also played a character in one of the episodes of the Dolly Parton Netflix series.​
 
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Kimster said:
I don’t know what’s wrong with me, but I can’t find any updates on this case. Can anyone help? I’m just wondering if it went to trial.

Judge denies bond for couple charged in Pendleton quadruple murder

On Friday, a judge denied bond for the couple accused of killing four family members in Pendleton in 2015.
www.foxcarolina.com www.foxcarolina.com
Click to expand...
I haven't found much and i don't think it can have come to trial yet. All I found was this Reddit link which is 6 months old but is from a daughter of one of the accused, supposedly.


 

July 15, 2025
Dan Serafini, a former pitcher and first-round pick of the Minnesota Twins, was convicted on Monday in the 2021 execution-style shootings of his wealthy in-laws at their home at Lake Tahoe.​
On the third day of deliberations in the high-profile case, a jury in Placer County, Calif., convicted Mr. Serafini, 51, of first-degree murder in the killing of his father-in-law, Gary Spohr, 70, and attempted murder of his mother-in-law, Wendy Wood, who survived being shot in the head. She died by suicide in 2023 at age 70, according to her family.​
Mr. Serafini, who has denied being involved in the shootings, was also found guilty of special circumstance allegations of lying in wait and first-degree burglary.​
He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison without parole. Sentencing is scheduled for Aug. 18.​
During his six-week trial in Superior Court in Auburn, Calif., prosecutors described Mr. Serafini as having had an acrimonious relationship with his in-laws, who were worth millions, and said that he had once been overheard offering $20,000 to have them killed.​
The prosecutors presented testimony from Samantha Scott, the family’s former nanny, with whom they said that Mr. Serafini was having an affair and who helped commit the crime. Ms. Scott, who was initially charged with murder and attempted murder, pleaded guilty in February to being an accessory to a felony and is awaiting sentencing.​
Jurors also viewed security camera footage from June 5, 2021, the day of the shootings. The recordings showed a masked and hooded man, who prosecutors said was Mr. Serafini, waiting for his in-laws, who were out boating, to return to their home. Both of the victims were shot in the head at close range, execution style, the authorities said.​
Rick Miller, the assistant chief deputy district attorney for Placer County, said during his closing arguments that there was a “mountain” of corroborating evidence connecting Mr. Serafini to the shootings.​
“You know why he did it,” Mr. Miller said. “You know he did it. You know his motive. You know his opportunity.”​
Mr. Serafini’s lawyer, David Dratman, did not immediately respond on Tuesday to a request for comment about the verdict.​
In his closing arguments, Mr. Dratman had argued that an analysis by an F.B.I. expert had determined that the person on the surveillance video was 6 feet 2 inches tall, accounting for shoes and hood, which he said was shorter than Mr. Serafini’s height as measured by investigators.​
“There is no way a 6-foot-3-inch man is the person on the video,” Mr. Dratman said.​
During the trial, Mr. Serafini’s wife, Erin Spohr, testified that she and her husband had an open marriage and that she still supported him, the television station KCRA reported. Ms. Spohr also acknowledged how her mother had wanted Mr. Serafini to sign a postnuptial agreement while she and her husband were having marital issues.​
After the jury reached its verdict on Monday, Adrienne Spohr, another daughter of the victims, told the news media outside the courthouse that she was relieved by the trial’s outcome.​
“It’s been four years of just hell,” she said. “Today, finally, justice was served.”​
Mr. Serafini, who was arrested in 2023, is being held at a county jail.​
During his Major League Baseball career as a left-handed pitcher, he played for six teams, making his debut with the Twins in 1996. In 1992, he was selected in the first round of the amateur draft, the same round that included Derek Jeter and Johnny Damon.​
Mr. Serafini struggled to live up to his high draft position, finishing his career with 15 wins and 16 losses. In 2007, he was suspended for 50 games after testing positive for a performance-enhancing drug.​
In 2009 and 2013, he was a member of the Italian team during the World Baseball Classic. His grandparents were born in Italy, SFGate.com reported.​
 
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