Grandmother charged with murder of her two grandsons
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News.com.au
3 hours ago
- News.com.au
Idaho murders: Prosecutor reveals why he believes killer Bryan Kohberger left 2 of 6 friends alive
The lead prosecutor on the Idaho murders case believes quadruple killer Bryan Kohberger did see the surviving housemate that saw him but left her alive because he 'was scared'. Kohberger, now 30, killed four Idaho State University students in their share house in Moscow, Idaho at around 4am on November 13, 2022. He was sentenced to prison for the rest of his life last month for murdering Madison Mogen, 21, Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20 and Ethan Chapin, 20. Two other flatmates, Dylan Mortensen and Bethany Funke, were unharmed. Kohberger came to a plea deal that saw him admit to the murders and waive his right to appeal in exchange for not getting the death penalty. Still many nanswered questions remain about the gruesome case that captivated the world — mainly Kohberger's motive, but also why Ms Mortensen and Ms Funke were left alone. Especially given Ms Mortensen saw the man, later identified as Kohberger, in their house the night of the murders. In an interview with local newspaper Idaho Statesman, prosecutor Bill Thompson, who put off retirement to see the case through, said Ms Mortensen's recollection of seeing a man in black with a face mask and bushy eyebrows walking towards the second-floor sliding glass door was consistent over several interviews. 'From what Dylan described, I have a hard time imagining that the killer did not see Dylan,' Mr Thompson told the newspaper. 'At that point, he'd been in the house probably longer than he planned, and he had killed more people than he planned … It wouldn't surprise us that the killer was scared at that point and decided they had to leave, not knowing if law enforcement already had been called.' Mr Thompson told Idaho Statesman the order of the victims' death is not entirely clear. It is believed Ms Goncalves or Ms Mogen may have been who Kohberger was targeting because it appears he immediately went to the third floor. The house had three floors. The top floor was where Ms Goncalves and Ms Mogen lived. Ms Mortensen and Ms Kernodle lived on the second floor, and Ms Funke lived on the first floor in the 'basement'. Mr Chapin was Ms Kernodle's boyfriend. Ms Mortensen had moved from her room to stay in Ms Funke's room in the basement during the night after seeing a strange man in the house. Late in the morning, she called Emily Alandt, a friend who lived across the road, and asked her to come check out the house, saying something strange had happened during the night but she didn't know if she was dreaming. 'She was like, 'something weird happened last night, I don't really know if I was dreaming or not but I'm really scared, can you come check out the house?'' Ms Alandt said on Amazon Prime's docuseries One Night in Idaho: The College Murders. Ms Alandt and two other friends, Josie Lauteren and Hunter Johnson, met Ms Mortensen and Ms Funke outside the house. Mr Johnson went into the house and found bodies, telling them to call 911. 'What if it happens again?': Survivor speaks publicly for first time An emotional Dylan Mortensen spoke publicly for the first time since the brutal murders at Kohberger's sentencing. 'What happened that night changed everything,' Ms Mortensen said through tears. She described her friends as 'beautiful, genuine, compassionate people' and did not address Kohberger by name. 'He didn't just take them from the world. He took them from me. My friends. My people who felt like my home. The people I looked up to and adored more than anyone,' the now 21-year-old said. 'He took away my ability to trust the world around me. 'What he did shattered me in places I didn't know could break. 'I was barely 19 when he did this. We had just celebrated my birthday at the end of September. I should have been figuring out who I was. I should have been having the college experience and starting to establish my future. Instead, I was forced to learn how to survive the unimaginable.' She continued: 'I had to sleep in my mom's bed because I was too terrified to close my eyes. Terrified that if I blinked, someone might be there. I made escape plans everywhere I went. 'If something happens, how do I get out? What can I use to defend myself? And who can help?'' She went on to describe debilitating panic attacks — 'the kind that slam into me like a tsunami out of nowhere'. 'I can't breathe, I can't think, I can't stop shaking,' she said. 'All I can do is scream because the emotional pain and grief is too much to handle. My chest feels like it's caving in. 'Sometimes I drop to the floor with my heart racing, convinced something is very wrong. 'It's far beyond anxiety. It's my body reliving everything over and over again. My nervous system never got the message that it is over, and it won't let me forget what he did to them.' Ms Mortensen said she is forced to scan every room she enters and flinches at sudden sounds. 'He stole parts of me I may never get back. He took the version of me who didn't constantly ask 'what if it happens again? what if next time I don't survive?'' She referred to Kohberger as 'a hallow vessel, something less than human, a body without empathy, without remorse'. 'He chose destruction. He chose evil. He feels nothing. He tried to take everything from me: my friends, my safety, my identity, my future,' she said. She said speaking was her way of getting justice for Ms Mogen, Ms Goncalves, Ms Kernodle and Mr Chapin. 'He may have taken so much form me but he will never get to take my voice,' she said. 'He will never take the memories I had with them. He will never erase the love we shared, the laughs we had, or the way they made me feel seen and whole. Those things are mine.' She said she would go on to live her life while he would stay 'empty, forgotten and powerless'. 'Why did I get to live?' While fellow surviving housemate Bethany Funke did not speak, a statement was read out on her behalf by friend Emily Alandt. 'I thought that we were going to wake up and go upstairs see them and tell them how they had scared us and they were going to tease us about how we are constantly scaredy cats and make jokes about it as we would go to Taco Bell as always,' Ms Funke said in her statement. She said she woke up with 'no idea what happened' but it turned out to be her 'worst nightmare'. 'I still carry so much regret and guilt for not knowing what happened and not calling (911) right away even though I understand it wouldn't have changed anything, not even if the paramedics had been right outside the door,' she said. Kohberger was not arrested until more than a month after the quadruple murder. In the meantime, strangers online turned on the surviving housemates and their friends. Ms Funke said she received death threats and attacks online while 'trying to survive emotionally and grieve'. She also noted she was scared that the murderer would come for her next. She expressed feeling survivor's guilt. 'I hated and still hate that they are gone but for some reason I am still here and I got to live,' she said. 'I still think about this every day: Why me? Why did I get to live and not them? For the longest time, I could not even look at their families without feeling sick with guilt.' She said she had not slept through a single night in years, constantly waking up in a panic. 'I slept in my parent's room for almost a year. I made them double lock every door, set an alarm, and still check everywhere in the room just in case someone was hiding, and I still check my room every night,' she said. She said while she is still scared to go out in public, she forces herself to live for her late friends and does everything with them in mind.
News.com.au
4 hours ago
- News.com.au
New Zealand woman arrested after travelling with 20yo child in suitcase
A New Zealand woman was arrested on Sunday after travelling on a bus with a two-year-old girl trapped in her luggage. Detective Inspector Simon Harrison said the woman had been charged with ill-treatment and neglect of a child. Police were called to a bus depot in Kaiwaka – 100 kilometres north of Auckland – after the bus driver became concerned about a bag moving during a scheduled stop. 'When the driver opened the suitcase, they discovered the two-year-old girl,' Harrison said. 'The little girl was reported to be very hot, but otherwise appeared physically unharmed.' The luggage had been stored beneath the bus passengers, in a separate compartment. Harrison said the girl is in hospital undergoing an extensive medical assessment. A 27-year-old woman was arrested. Harrison said the driver prevented 'what could have been a far worse outcome'. He said further charges are possible. New Zealand's Ministry for Children, Oranga Tamariki, had been notified.
News.com.au
4 hours ago
- News.com.au
Devil's Den murder suspect Andrew James McGann would ‘tickle' girls, parent at his former school says
The teacher accused of murdering two parents in front of their young daughters at Devil's Den State Park in Arkansas once put a little girl on his lap and asked her to be his 'girlfriend' at his former Texas school, a disturbed parent recalled to The Post on Friday. Andrew James McGann, 28 — who authorities say admitted to butchering Clinton David Brink, 43, and wife Cristen Amanda Brink, 41, on Saturday — put the 'little girl on his lap' and said 'things like, 'I wish I could date you, I wish you could be my girlfriend,' just really nasty like grooming behaviour', said Zacharri Polyak, whose son attended Donald Elementary School in Flower Mound when the accused killer taught there. 'This monster was around our children,' fumed the dad, who added that his son was occasionally in his class on Fridays. 'Mr McGann was giving a lot of special treatment to girls in particular. He was giving them candy, bringing them Sonic drinks, playing tag with them, tickling them, just really suspect behaviour.' The north Texas school district, Lewisville ISD, told The Post McGann was placed on administrative leave 'following concerns related to classroom management, professional judgement, and student favouritism' while he was employed during the 2022-23 school year. However, their 'internal investigation found no evidence of inappropriate behaviour with students'. McGann resigned in May 2023, according to the school district. But Mr Polyak expressed outrage that he was let off so easily. 'It should have been an immediate firing with reports to Child Protective Services,' he said. Sierra Marcum, whose son was in McGann's fourth-grade class at the Texas school, shared that the alleged murderer was strange and stand-offish during her previous encounters with him. '[He was] pretty cold. You could ask him a question, and he would give you a one-word response,' Ms Marcum said. 'Overall, just pretty disinterested in his students.' He was the 'most stand-offish teacher' she had ever met, she said. Ms Marcum reported some of McGann's behaviour to a principal after her son came home upset, she said. 'Eventually, he told me that he and some other classmates had noticed that Mr McGann was very touchy and showed a lot of favouritism to certain girls in the class,' Ms Marcum said, without elaborating. 'I guess [the murder allegations] did surprise me, because while I thought he was off, I never thought he was violent,' she told WFAA. McGann was hired the next school year to teach fifth grade at Spring Creek Elementary in Oklahoma — which told The Post that a thorough background check turned up nothing to indicate he shouldn't be hired. 'As with all district employees, McGann underwent and passed all legally required national background checks,' the school district said in a statement, adding that no alarms were raised during his interview and that there was never reason to discipline him during his tenure. McGann was set to start a new teaching job at Springdale Public Schools in a week. SPS superintendent Jared Cleveland confirmed McGann had been hired for the teaching job, but said he 'has not at any time come into contact with Springdale students or the families we serve', according to 5 News. McGann allegedly ambushed the parents and stabbed them to death while their two daughters, ages nine and seven, ran to safety. The two girls were unharmed. Police tracked down McGann at a barbershop and arrested him mid-haircut after a five-day manhunt. He was charged on Wednesday with capital murder. McGann appeared in court Friday and was ordered held without bail, according to 5 News. Investigators have yet to determine a motive for the deadly attack.
