Latest news with #DNAevidence
Daily Mail
11-07-2025
- Daily Mail
Bali cops uncover crucial clue in investigation into alleged gunman accused of killing Aussie gangster in luxury villa
The DNA of the Australian man executed in an alleged gangland killing in Bali has been discovered on the shoe of a suspect. Zivan 'Stipe' Radmanovic, 35, was shot dead in front of his wife Jazmyn Gourdeas shortly after midnight on June 14 at a villa in Munggu, in Bali's south. A second man staying in the villa, Sanar Ghanim, 34, was left seriously injured in the alleged attack. The episode is understood to be connected to Melbourne 's feuding Middle Eastern crime syndicates. Senior Commissioner Ariasandy said on Friday that officers were one step closer to establishing who killed Mr Radmanovic. 'We found evidence linking the perpetrator to the items found at the crime scene... DNA on the suspect, which turned out to be the victim's DNA,' he said. 'This is one of the strongest pieces of evidence that indicates the suspect is the perpetrator, the executor of the crime.' Three Australian men – Paea I Middlemore Tupou, 26, Mevlut Coskun, 23, and Darcy Francesco Jenson, 27 – have been arrested and may face the firing squad if found guilty. The three accused remain in custody while police build their case which is now waiting on test results, Snr Comr Ariasandy said. 'Our investigators are still working to find the connection of all the pieces of evidence found so that we can confidently assume that they are the culprits,' he said. 'There are still some test that haven't been complete, and these will later be used by investigators to reconstruct the incident, which we suspect to be premeditated murder.' The DNA breakthrough by investigators adds to evidence found at the crime scene including CCTV footage, invoices, rented vehicles and hotel bookings. The revelation comes after a skin–care clinic in Melbourne's south, owned by Ghanim's partner and Ms Gourdeas' sister Daniella, was firebombed at 11.15pm on Thursday. Nobody was in the Toorak Road shop and police are now searching for those responsible who currently remain at large, Nine News reported. Daniella had been in Bali with her boyfriend and sister when the alleged murder occurred. She told Bali Police she woke up as the gunmen burst into Ghanim's bedroom and she heard an 'explosion'. The shop owner said she heard more gunshots and a window being smashed as the hit squad ran from room to room in the villa before she fled for her life. 'The witness [Daniella] ran out of the villa where she saw two motorcycles [or scooters] parked outside while she heard more gunshots,' a police officer said at the time. '[She ran to] the main road where she asked for help.' When Ms Gourdeas returned to the villa with other bystanders, Jazmyn was trying to stem Ghanim's bleeding as emergency services arrived. At the scene Police found 17 bullet casings and 55 bullet fragments at the scene. Bali Police revealed how the gang of suspects allegedly fled across Indonesia after the shooting, escaping the scene on motorbikes before switching cars twice on an 18–hour, 1200km getaway to Jakarta. The three can be held without charge for months while police investigate the killing. Ms Gourdeas also has links to Abdulrahim, who was shot dead in Melbourne in an ambush by an underworld hit squad in January. He was a regular on her social media account, frequently praising her photographs online before his brutal execution as he drove out of an underground car park at the Preston apartment block where he was secretly living.
Yahoo
10-07-2025
- Yahoo
Suspects in JonBenet Ramsey's Murder Identified in Spreadsheet Created by Late Homicide Detective
Nearly three decades after the horrific Christmas Day murder of 6-year-old pageant princess JonBenét Ramsey, dedicated investigators have identified her killers and are gathering critical DNA evidence that they believe will lead to an arrest. The National Enquirer can reveal that the names of dozens of suspects are detailed in a spreadsheet compiled by late homicide detective Lou Smit, who before his 2010 death was hired by JonBenét's father, John Ramsey, to investigate the case. Armed with the spreadsheet, which contains approximately 600 critical line items — including suspect names and important evidence details — Smit's daughter, Cindy Marra, is heading the team of sleuths, who are relentlessly tracking down leads and chasing DNA. 'They should restart the investigation from scratch using Lou's list of suspects,' a source familiar with the spreadsheet tells the Enquirer. 'They had the name of the person of interest during the first week of the investigation, so that alone says the suspect is on Lou Smit's list because he had access to the police files.' Marra told Denver 7 News, 'We decided the best thing we could do is work off the spreadsheet he developed. 'We have been able to eliminate from our list probably 25 people based on DNA.' The explosive new breakthrough reignites one of America's most haunting murder mysteries that made international headlines after JonBenét's strangled, beaten and abused body was discovered on Dec. 26, 1996, in the basement of her family's home in Boulder, Colorado. John and his wife, Patsy, who died of cancer in 2006, were initially considered suspects but were eventually cleared. But critics have long accused blundering lawmen of allowing the true culprits to get away with the brutal crime. Smit, a seasoned Colorado Springs homicide detective, began compiling the vital information after being pulled out of retirement by JonBenét's frustrated dad, who insisted she was attacked by intruders who left behind DNA evidence on the child's underwear and underneath her fingernails — and that the DNA didn't match any of the Ramsey family. Before his passing, Smit implored anyone who visited him, 'Please don't let this die,' and revealed to his daughter and others a list of approximately a half-dozen 'priority one' suspects, the insider exclusively tells the Enquirer. In December, the Enquirer revealed that one of Smit's suspects was David Cooper, the alias of a man who contacted Ramsey 20 years ago and claimed to be a professional killer hired by one of his disgruntled ex-employees. Cooper first contacted Ramsey by telephone, providing chilling details about his family home that had never been made public. Despite the compelling details, Boulder police shockingly asked the grieving father to do their jobs for them — even suggesting he bring the creep to the stationhouse for questioning. 'The police had no interest in looking at him,' Ramsey, 81, told the Enquirer in December. After the Enquirer's exposé, Ramsey and a DNA expert met with new Boulder Police Chief Stephen Redfearn to discuss running existing forensic evidence through a commercial genetic lab to see if the killers' relatives can be identified. 'It was a good meeting,' Ramsey told Denver 7 News about his two-hour showdown with the chief in January. 'I was impressed. They were not arrogant, cocky, big egos. They were eager to talk and get the case solved.' Ramsey, however, admitted to the outlet that the police didn't openly 'talk about everything they're doing.' Investigators have received more than 21,000 tips, analyzed hundreds of DNA samples and traveled to 19 states to question more than 1,000 people. Still, they remained tight-lipped about the case when contacted by the Enquirer, refusing to say if they've identified a person of interest. 'Because this is an open and ongoing investigation, the Boulder Police Department is unable to give any interviews or comment on specific aspects of this crime,' Public Information Officer Dionne Waugh told the Enquirer via email.
CBS News
04-07-2025
- CBS News
An Oregon woman disappeared 42 years ago. DNA advancements lead to ex-boyfriend's indictment on murder.
A 72-year-old man was indicted on murder charges this week in connection with the disappearance of his former girlfriend 42 years ago after new DNA evidence emerged. Teresa Peroni was 27 years old when she disappeared on or around July 4, 1983, in Selma, Oregon. According to the Josephine County Sheriff's Office, she was last seen with her then-boyfriend Mark Sanfratello, who was 29 at the time, walking into a wooded area while attending a party. Teresa Peroni was 27 when she disappeared on or around July 4, 1983 after a fight with her then-boyfriend. National Missing and Unidentified Persons System "Following an argument over Peroni having another lover, Peroni and boyfriend went into the woods at 1270 Illinois River Rd," her profile on the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System says. "Peroni never returns." An investigation was launched soon after her family reported her missing. Despite the sheriff's office determining that Peroni's disappearance was "suspicious in nature," the Josephine County District Attorney's Office determined there was not enough evidence to file charges. At the time, a body was not found. Teresa Peroni was photographed about a year before her disappearance. National Missing and Unidentified Persons System For 14 years, Peroni's disappearance remained cold until a human skull was found on a nearby property in 1997. A search with a cadaver dog did not locate any other human remains and the skull was sent for DNA testing through the University of North Texas. In a news release last week, the sheriff's office said it had reopened the investigation last year, saying it started looking for any known individuals still alive who had "some type of involvement with the cold case." Additional DNA was obtained, which helped the University of North Texas to confirm that the skull was that of Peroni. A grand jury indicted Sanfratello on a murder charge on June 27 after it was presented with new DNA evidence and the investigation, the sheriff's office said. Teresa Peroni's boyfriend at the time of her disappearance in 1983 was arrested in Chico, California, on an indictment of murder 42 years after she went missing. Josephine County Sheriff's Office Police in Chico, California, located, detained and questioned Sanfratello. He is awaiting extradition to Josephine County.
The Guardian
02-07-2025
- The Guardian
Six Chicago men exonerated in 1987 stabbing death of government official
A Chicago judge threw out the convictions today of six men who served a combined 124 years in prison for the 1987 stabbing death of a local government official. Attorneys for the men successfully petitioned a Cook county court to overturn the convictions based on new DNA evidence as well as allegations of misconduct by a now retired Chicago police detective linked to at least 51 other wrongful convictions. Attorneys for the six men convinced a court in 2021 to have the murder weapon – a cake knife found in the victim's apartment – tested for DNA. Those tests found DNA from an unknown person on the weapon but excluded each of the convicted men. The convictions of Fernando Gomez, Lowell Higgins-Bey, Michael McCastle, Harry Rodriguez, and brothers Gregorio and Robert Cardona, were based largely on confessions they claim were coerced when Chicago police detectives physically and psychologically abused them. 'This is a sad case. It's just a tragedy,' said Cook county judge Carol Howard, who presided over the exonerations. The men had been convicted of murdering Raymond Carvis, a 47-year-old who held several high-ranking positions within Cook county government agencies. Carvis was found with at least 19 stab wounds, including a fatal wound to his neck and head with a blow so forceful that the tip of the cake knife broke off and remained in his body. 'In a crime of this extremely physical nature, the likelihood of the perpetrator cutting themselves while handling the knife is extremely high,' attorneys for the men wrote in a court filing. Lauren Kaeseberg, an attorney representing the men, said her clients jumped at the chance to give their DNA. 'From Day One, every single one of them said, 'Test everything, there's nothing that scares us,'' she said. ''We were never in that house.'' In the hours after Carvis's murder, police seemed to be zeroing in on a suspect. Witnesses pointed to a handyman who had previously done work for Carvis and with whom he had told friends he had 'a date' with the day of his murder. The handyman was also suspected in a nearly identical murder four months earlier of another older man with whom he was allegedly romantically involved, according to court papers. The case switched gears three days later when detective Ernest Halvorsen entered the investigation. Halvorsen 'steered the investigation away' from the handyman and toward the six men, according to a legal filing by the men's attorney. 'They were forced to confess with promises of not only can you go home but they were also beaten into their confession,' Michael Oppenheimer, another attorney representing the men, said in court. Sign up to Headlines US Get the most important US headlines and highlights emailed direct to you every morning after newsletter promotion Some of the statements he collected implicated a man named Amador 'Pee Wee' Torres. But when detectives learned that Torres had an airtight alibi – he was in police custody at the time of Carvis's murder – detective Reynaldo Guevara found another man with the nickname 'Pee Wee', in this case, Gomez, to take Torres's place in the investigation. Dozens of people convicted of murders from the late 1980s through the early 2000s on Chicago's predominately Puerto Rican neighborhoods on the city's North West Side have had their convictions overturned based on claims that Guevara beat and threatened suspects and witnesses into making false identifications or confessions. An Illinois appellate court called Guevara a 'malignant blight' on the city's criminal legal system. In many of those cases, Halvorsen was his partner. The Carvis murder case is the first of the Guevara-related exonerations in which DNA testing helped overturn convictions. Defendants in those cases – most of whom spent decades in prison – have filed lawsuits against Guevara, Halvorsen and the city of Chicago. The city has paid nearly $100m in settlements and legal fees. Some legal experts estimate that these lawsuits could cost the city up to $2bn. An attorney for Guevara declined comment. The detective has repeatedly invoked his fifth amendment right to remain silent when questioned in the cases. Halvorsen died in 2020. Not all of the defendants were in court today for the exoneration. Rodriguez, who was 19 years old when arrested for Carvis's murder, died of muscular sclerosis in 2019 while in prison serving a life sentence in the case. His son, Daniel, wore a shirt with his father's picture on it to court to hear his father's name be cleared.
BBC News
30-06-2025
- BBC News
Ryland Headley guilty of murder in ‘UK's oldest cold case'
A 92-year-old man has been found guilty of the rape and murder of a Bristol woman in a case that remained cold for nearly six Dunne, 75, was found strangled on her living room floor by a neighbour on Britannia Road in Easton, Bristol, on 28 June rapist Ryland Headley, of Clarence Road in Ipswich, has now been found guilty of Mrs Dunne's murder following a trial at Bristol Crown Court. Senior investigating officer Det Insp Dave Marchant said Headley, who was in his 30s when he killed Mrs Dunne, was "predatory" and said his other crimes were "eerily similar". Headley is set to be sentenced on Tuesday. He was only linked to the mother-of-two's murder in 2023, when a review of the case uncovered new DNA Insp Marchant said it was now believed to be the oldest cold case to be solved in the UK."This is a marrying of old school and new school policing techniques," he added.
