Bizarre Crime of the Week : Investigation Discovery

Gay Rapist/Serial Killer Ronald Joseph Dominique Sentenced to Live

Ronald Joseph Dominique, 43, literally terrorized gay communities in many of Southern Louisiana's parishes, some not far from New Orleans, by murdering at least 23 men over nearly a 10-year period that began in 1997 and continued until his arrest on December 1, 2006.  Dominique seemed to be most active in Terrebonne Parish, Lafourche Parish, Jefferson Parish, and Iberville Parish.  By his own admission, the gay serial killer from the Bayou Blue region of the Cajun settlement of Houma (located in Terrebonne Parish, approximately 60 miles southwest of New Orleans) claimed that he selected his victims by hanging out at gay bars and focusing his attention on men he believed would be eager to have sex in exchange for money.

According to investigators, Dominique also enticed his victims by showing them a photo of an attractive woman he claimed was his wife whom he wanted the men he selected to have sex with while he watched.  After getting the victims inside his home, he would ask permission to tie them up - presumably for bondage games.  If they did not agree to be tied up, he allowed them to leave and that would be the end of it.  On the other hand, if the victim agreed to be bound Dominique would rape them and either strangle or suffocate them afterward.  He dumped several of his victims in sugar cane fields, frequently without shoes - which served as an important clue that allowed the cops to connect the cases.

Police believe that 19-year-old David Levron Mitchell was among the first, if not the first, of Dominique's victims.  Mitchell's body was found in 1997, near the community of Hahnville.  Several months later the body of Gary Pierre, 20, was discovered in St. Charles Parish, and in July 1998 the body of Larry Ranson, 38, was also found in St. Charles Parish.  Over the following nine years, the bodies of many additional victims ranging in age from 19 to 40 were found dumped in remote areas including the aforementioned sugarcane fields as well as in bayous and drainage ditches.  Other victims included Oliver Lebanks, 27, Manuel Reed, 19,  and Christopher Sutterfield, 27.  Lebanks' body was found on October 5, 1998, in Metairie; Reed's body was found inside a garbage container on May 30, 1999, in Kenner; and Sutterfield's body was found on October 15, 2006, in the vicinity of a boat launch near White Castle.

When police began seeing similarities in many of the murders, including the dumping locations, causes of death, and the fact that many of the men were barefoot when found, they realized that they had a serial killer on their hands and a task force was formed - but not until March 2005.  Sheriff's departments from nine of Southern Louisiana parishes comprised the bulk of the task force, which received assistance from the Louisiana State Police and the FBI.  The fact that many of the 23 victims were homeless men who participated in drug and prostitution activities also helped investigators link the cases together and had eventually allowed them to more clearly see Dominique's modus operandi.  The straw that broke the camel's back, so-to-speak, and had put the cops onto Dominique's trail had been one of the victims that had refused to be tied up and that Dominique had subsequently allowed to leave.  That man, it turned out, had gone to the police and filed a report of the incident.

Maryland's Bizarre Case of the Bodies in the Freezer

"My mother beats me-she just beats me to death," the 7-year-old girl said to a neighbor as she walked down a Lusby, Maryland street near her home on Friday evening, September 26, 2008. 

The girl, adorned in pigtails held in place by pink barrettes, had a number of bruises and cuts on her body that were visible to the neighbor who had called her over to his front yard.  She was wearing only a T-shirt, which was covered with blood and feces.  She claimed that she had escaped from her house by jumping out of a second-story bedroom window, and had been going door-to-door throughout the somewhat secluded and wooded neighborhood seeking help from anyone when she encountered the Good Samaritan.  She told him that she had not eaten for days, and he subsequently ordered a pizza for her. 

Her statement to the man, not to mention the visible signs of abuse that he had seen which included sores and abrasions in the area of her buttocks and thighs, prompted him to call 911 after providing the girl some clothes to wear. The girl also had bruises on her lips and hands, and there were abrasions on her neck that looked like ligature marks that may have been caused by a rope or similar item.  His brief encounter with the girl had been the catalyst that had launched the investigation that would, ultimately, lead to a tragic and horrific discovery inside the house where she had lived.

Lusby, Maryland is located approximately 50 miles southeast of Washington, D.C.

When the sheriff's deputies responded to the home of Renee D. Bowman, 43, formerly of Rockville, Maryland, located in the 200 block of Buckskin Trail, no one appeared to be at home.  However, Bowman showed up at the sheriff's office later that night looking for her daughter as investigators sought a search warrant for her home. She was informed that her daughter was being held in protective custody by the children's services division.

When deputies asked her about the girl's comments alleging the beatings she had sustained at the hands of her adoptive mother, Bowman admitted that she had beaten the girl because she had "lost her temper," according to Calvert County Detective Sgt. Michael Moore Jr.  She also said that she had locked the girl inside a bedroom while she made a trip to Washington, D.C.  During interviews with investigators, Bowman also stated that she had struck the child with a "hard-heeled shoe."  Bowman allegedly told Calvert County investigators that she was angry and stressed out over her daughter's mental capacity, which was why she had purportedly beaten the girl, and stated that she no longer wanted custody of her.  Investigators later learned that the girl was one of three girls that had been adopted by Bowman years earlier.

When the sheriff's department had obtained their warrant to search the house at about 2:30 a.m., they noted that it was dirty and in disarray and was also home to four cats and a dog.  It wasn't until they had reached the basement that they made the grim discovery that none of them would ever forget.  They found what appeared to be the bodies of two children, later determined to be young girls, frozen solid in a block of ice inside a large freezer.  Later, when detectives confronted Bowman with what they had found in the freezer, Bowman told them that they were the bodies of two other adopted daughters.  She said that she had kept their bodies stored in the freezer from the time of her relocation from Rockville to Lusby in February 2008.

Meredith Kercher Murder Update

Rudy Hermann Guede, 22, a suspect in the Meredith Kercher murder investigation, is the first person to stand trial in the headline grabbing Perugia, Italy case.  Guede, fearing that the other two suspects in the case, Amanda Knox, 21, and Knox's boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, 24, have made a pact between themselves to set him up and pin the blame on him for Meredith's murder, has asked for a "fast-track" trial.  Guede's lawyers, Valter Biscotti and Nicodemo Gentile, apparently agreed with their client in asking for such a trial which, according to Italian law, is held behind closed doors with the evidence presented in the form of documents for a single judge to review and decide the guilt or innocence of the defendant-without hearing testimony from witnesses.

"We feel the urgent need to have our trial heard independently of the other two suspects," Biscotti said.  "In recent weeks a lot of poison has been spread by the defense teams and we feel the necessity to find some form of serenity in a separate hearing.  That's why we have asked for a fast-track hearing, just for our client, and we want that hearing as quickly as possible.  At this hearing we will prove that our client has absolutely nothing to do with the tragic death of Meredith Kercher."

"We have studied the evidence and there is no link between him (Guede) and the weapon found and which is said to be compatible with the wounds on Meredith Kercher," Gentile added.  "It is up to the prosecution to prove that our client is guilty of murder and in this case there is no evidence to back that up...there is the real risk of an innocent man being convicted."

To recap the case, Meredith Kercher was a student at Leeds University in England who was participating in an exchange program at the University for Foreigners in Perugia when she was murdered.  She was found partially nude with her throat slashed in the bedroom of the small Perugia bungalow that she shared with Knox.  Investigators contend that Meredith was killed by the three suspects after they allegedly attempted to force her to take part in kinky sex games.  The police claim that DNA evidence shows that Knox and Sollecito were inside the bungalow at the time Meredith was murdered.  All three suspects have pleaded innocent to charges of murder, sexual violence and robbery.