Uncategorized – Steve Huff's True Crime Post

Four Phoenix-Area Murders Possible Work of a Spree Killer

There may be a spree killer at work in and around Phoenix, Arizona. So far he’s killed at least four: Noted forensic psychiatrist Steven Pitt, who consulted in famous cases like the murder of JonBenet Ramsey; a pair of paralegals; psychologist Marshall Levine.

The combination of victims–all apparently shot, two in legal work, two in psychology–suggests a single killer with a grudge. It may be that he’s going down a list. Spree killers, even more than mass murderers (there is a difference) are often working directly from a grievance. With the world, with a profession, with any particular group of people. From AZCentral.com:

Police were still investigating whether Levine’s killing is connected to the other three.

The scene at Levine’s office, Peak Life Solutions, was secured with crime tape shortly before noon Saturday. Multiple police cruisers were parked outside of the office complex. Two cars were parked in the lot behind the tape.

This is a case to watch, to say the least.

Murdered Teacher Rachael DelTondo’s Death Called a ‘Crime of Passion’

The murder of teacher Rachael DelTondo wasn’t random, it was a “crime of passion.” That’s what investigators say—DelTondo likely knew the killer who pumped six rounds into her chest on May 13. CBS Pittsburgh quoted Beaver County DA David Lozier, who said investigators “could not be taking this more seriously.” Detectives are interviewing neighbors and studying any available surveillance and reportedly trying to crack her cell phone. While Lozier emphasized to the press that police are certain she knew her killer, he said nothing about a suspect.

In 2016 police spoke with DelTondo after finding her with an underage student. Lozier indicated that the incident has been completely mischaracterized and that she shouldn’t have been suspended from her job at Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School. He said it was “shameful” that DelTondo “was painted with a police report that had been written that did not result in criminal charges.” He then said she was the victim of “a personal vendetta against her at the time.” Of course, that leaves a huge question dangling over what the public knows about the case so far: Whose vendetta? It would be interesting to know if the fiance who broke up with DelTondo after she was found with the student had any connection to Aliquippa police.

Source: [CBS Pittsburgh]

Murdered PA Teacher Was Suspended From Job Over Info Allegedly Leaked By Police

Rachael DelTondo, KDKA screengrab

This is strange. A teacher in Aliquippa, PA was shot six times in her driveway Sunday night. Rachael DelTondo had just come home from an ice cream shop, CBS reports, when someone opened fire, six shots to the chest. Here’s why it’s so strange: DelTondo was involved in at least two controversies, including one linked to the Aliquippa Police. In 2017, CBS Pittsburgh reported on a beef she had regarding a wedding dress. She later broke up with her fiance. CBS reports that after the breakup, someone leaked info known only to the Aliquippa PD regarding some kind of past relationship between DelTondo and an (ex?) student. She was suspended from her teaching job and Pennsylvania State Police launched an investigation into Aliquippa police. To state the obvious: no way this was a random homicide.

Source: [CBS]

Heads of Two Redheaded Women Found 150 Miles Apart

One was found on Lake Houston. The other close to Calcasieu Lake. Two locations, 150 miles, the heads of two redheaded women. The Houston Chronicle reported they had good teeth and their heads were in plastic bags. Perhaps stranger still, the heads reportedly weren’t far from RV parks. The women were around the same age, as well. One woman’s hair was dyed, as she had dark roots. Forensic examination determined she may have been hispanic. An official said the Louisiana head was “real similar.” Police already have an unknown person of interest: a young man driving a blue-green Chevy Silverado. It’s just too soon to say it’s the beginning of a trail of heads spreading across several states. Perhaps these women were targeted for something unrelated to similar appearance. But it’s still horrific, and strange.

[Chron.com]

Tennessee Waffle House Shooter Travis Reinking In Custody

I grew up about a mile from the location of the Waffle House where Travis Reinking opened fire Saturday night, killing four. Naturally, I’ve paid extremely close attention to the hunt for Reinking. He was captured today by Metro Nashville Police. He was roaming in a semi-rural area a mile or two from the Waffle House. I’ll be writing more about this crime for Real Clear Life Wednesday, but had to say it’s been surreal hearing the name of the community where I lived from birth through age 19 mentioned so often on the news. When I was a kid, Antioch, Tennessee was Nashville’s forgotten outer rim. No one outside the city knew it was there, and Nashvillians, by and large, viewed it as a dangerous, redneck-filled no-go zone. It was where Nashville ended and the countryside began. Right now it’s home to a tragedy with a national profile. It’s very strange, and truly awful.

Teen Suspected of Murder Led Search For Victim

Victim Jeremy Sanchez

Seventeen-year-old Jeremy Sanchez was allegedly murdered by the friend who reported his disappearance. Stranger still, the so-called friend supposedly attempted to evade suspicion by helping search for the victim. He ended up finding Sanchez’s ‘s body and telling the victim’s dad. Sanchez’s absence from school was the first indication something was wrong. His parents looked to his friend–a still unnamed 16-year-old–for help. The suspect found Sanchez on the San Gabriel River Trail, reports the Washington Post. The teen was facedown by the river. The alleged killer’s odd behavior is reportedly what first drew police attention. Police say they believe it was a well-planned murder. [WaPo]

The Murderous Trail of Lois Riess

Lois Riess is 56 years old. In a driver’s license photo released by police, she looks like a kindly grandmother. She has a pleasant smile, blonde hair, brown eyes. She doesn’t look like a killer.

Police say she is a killer, and she’s on the run, and no one is safe.

Riess is the alleged killer of Pamela Hutchinson, age 59. The Bradenton, Florida woman was only guilty of one thing: resembling Lois Riess.

Police in Fort Myers Beach, Florida found Hutchinson dead from gunshot wounds last Monday. As reported by multiple media sources including the Associated Press, no one is aware of any social connection between Riess and Hutchinson. Riess may have killed Hutchinson to assume her identity. A Lee County official reportedly said Hutchinson’s purse “was found to be in disarray and all cash, credit cards and identification appeared to be removed.”

The buried lede is this: Hutchinson isn’t Riess’s alleged first victim. Her first victim may have been her husband, David Riess.

In late March, David Riess was found shot to death at the Blooming Prairie home he shared with his wife. After she allegedly wrote checks amounting to $11,000 on David Riess’s account, Lois Riess—who is said to have a gambling addiction—visited an Iowa casino, then vanished for a while.

Investigators think she popped up again in Florida, where she met Pamela Hutchinson.

The AP reports that after abandoning her Escalade, “Riess is believed to be driving Hutchinson’s car, a white Acura TL with Florida license plate Y37TAA.”

So far there have been sightings of the Acura TL in Louisiana and Texas.

Can a gambling addiction make someone snap like that? Several reports quote police as saying Lois Riess’s m.o. is to steal identities—as if she’s done it before.

She may look like a plump, friendly middle-aged woman, but it sounds like Lois is as dangerous as any wild-eyed psycho.

‘Let me get my heads’

Roena Cheryl Mills just wanted to get her heads. The AP reports police in Princeton, WV have charged the 41-year-old woman with the murder of Bo White, age 29. White was reportedly decapitated. It’s unclear as to whether that was the cause of death. The AP reports the blood-soaked woman had came out of the woods and went to someone’s home. Naturally they called police, since no one wants a blood-soaked woman hanging around their yard. Mills was taken in. During interrogation, she reportedly said, “you have to take me back and let me get my heads.” Mills and White were acquainted, police say, though the nature of their relationship isn’t clear. She’s in jail and being held on a nearly quarter-million dollar cash bond. I’d like to know why she said “heads” instead of “head.”

[AP]

What I’m Doing Here

logosmall I explained some of this here, but decided to make a slightly more comprehensive post.

For now I’m just making simple, short posts as something catches my eye. In the past I’ve made the mistake of starting a new blog and attempting to go whole hog, writing full, comprehensive articles—while maintaining a writing job elsewhere. I can be really productive, but that’s not easy to do, and I don’t want to be parked at my computer all the time.

Yet I still feel the need to do more, past my once-a-week column for Real Clear Life.

The short posts keep me doing it, in the habit (I’m also not tasking myself to always have an image, something blogging best practices say you must do), and I’ll be working toward longer aggregated and reported posts in the future.

So, for now the True Crime Observer is in beta mode. That’s just to give me a chance to rev up, figure out my direction. Some of this will be what I’ve always done. But I may also add some things new to me, like a weekly podcast. (I know, I know, there are a million true crime podcasts, and I mostly hate them. I even hate the format. But still.)

About the blog name: A week ago I had what felt like an inspiration, I guess. This site was previously called True Crime Wire and I thought people would get it, but over time realized there was something kind of vague and dated about that name. The AP and UPI used to be referred to as “newswires,” so it’s a familiar term to old dudes like me, but it seems that term is slipping out of use.

I probably had the idea for True Crime Observer in the past but it was either taken or I concluded—for reasons I don’t understand now—it wouldn’t work. But when I had the idea of changing the blog name to that and saw the URL and was available, it felt like the right thing to do.

Hopefully I was right about that.

Dismembered Body Found in Brooklyn Park

He thought it was a doll. Or maybe a mannequin. But the last thing a man walking his dog in a Brooklyn Park expected was a dismembered woman’s body. Police say after the man saw the body he called them from home,perhaps really realizing what he’d seen. She was found face down, no arms or legs. Today New York is a surprisingly safe city, so a dead body alone would have been a shock, but dismemberment is rare. The New York Times had few other details as of early Tuesday morning.

[nyt]