24-Year-Old Double Murder Cold Case Involving Sean Patrick McDuffy Solved

November 11, 2009

Already in a Georgia prison serving time on a first-degree attempted murder charge for trying to decapitate his girlfriend during an argument, Sean Patrick McDuffy, 48, now faces charges in North Carolina dating back 24 years for the first-degree murders of his brother and sister-in-law.  Kelly McDuffy, 24, and Bobbie McDuffy, 20, were found dead on February 21, 1985 inside their home in the 400 block of Squirrel Street in the North Carolina community known as Bonnie Doone.  Both had sustained sharp force trauma to their upper bodies, and according to old news reports there was a butcher knife in Kelly McDuffy's side.

Georgia Department of Corrections records show that Sean McDuffy was sentenced to 15 years in prison in 1996 for the attempted murder conviction—the sentencing records also showed that he had been charged with cruelty to children.

McDuffy resided with his brother and sister-in-law at the time of their deaths, and had been a prime suspect after the killings.  However, because a judge had ruled in 1986 that there was no probable cause for his arrest, he was released and the case remained closed until Bobbie McDuffy's father, who was dying, persuaded the police to reopen it.  As a result, detectives began reexamining the case files, sifting through boxes of evidence, analyzing crime scene photos, and so forth, which prompted them to focus on Sean McDuffy as the suspect in the brutal killings.

Click here to continue reading this story >

Did Fifth Grader Jordan Brown Shoot Dad's Pregnant Fiancee -Then Go to School?

October 06, 2009

Jordan Brown, 11, allegedly shot and killed his dad's fiancée, Kenzie Marie Houk, 26, who was 8 months pregnant at the time, on Friday, February 20, 2009, in the back of the head as she lay in bed—with the 20-guage shotgun that he used to practice with his father behind the rural western Pennsylvania farmhouse they rented, near Wampum.  Afterward, he reportedly placed the shotgun back in his room before going out to catch the bus to his school.  The gun was a Christmas present from his father, who had been teaching him to be a hunter.

Houk's unborn child, a boy, also died as a result of the shooting, from oxygen deprivation.

Apparently there had been problems with Jordan in the past, particularly with jealousy issues, according to a relative of the victim's.

"He actually told my son that he wanted to do that to her," the relative said.  "There was an issue with jealousy."

"An 11-year-old kid," said another relative of the victim's.  "What would give him the motive to shoot someone?  Maybe he was just jealous of (Kenzie) and the baby and thought he would be overpowered."

Pennsylvania State Police found the victim's body after her 4-year-old daughter told tree cutters who were on the property that she believed her mother was dead, according to Lawrence County District Attorney John Bongivengo.  The tree trimmers then called 911.

Jordan purportedly initially told investigators who visited him at school that he had seen a black truck on the property that morning, and said that it might have belonged to a person who feeds the cows.  The description led investigators on a wild goose chase for a few hours, but because they noted inconsistencies in Jordan's description of the black truck, investigators spoke to the victim's 7-year-old daughter who rode the bus with Jordan to school and implicated Jordan in her mother's death, according to the district attorney.

"She didn't actually eyewitness the shooting," Bongivengo said.  "She saw him with what she believed to be a shotgun, and heard a loud bang."

Investigators then returned to the school and took Jordan into custody.

Click here to continue reading this story >

Randel Thomas Charged With Murdering His Own Child

September 30, 2009

Yet another innocent child has been killed, allegedly murdered at the hands of his father, according to Bolingbrook, Illinois police.  Last Friday, September 25, 2009, a 911 call was received at 2:05 p.m. in that city's emergency dispatch center about a child not breathing.  As a result, an ambulance was sent to a home in the 100 block of Jeffrey Lane where 5-month-old Christopher Thomas was reported by paramedics as unresponsive.  The child was immediately transported to Adventist Bolingbrook Hospital, where he was pronounced dead thirty-eight minutes later.

After Christopher's death, investigators from the police department went to the residence where they found Christopher's father, Randel L. Thomas, 19, along with his grandparents, at home.  Following the autopsy that was conducted the next day, and conferences with the district attorney's office following the interviews, Thomas was arrested on Monday evening, September 28, and taken to the Will County Jail in Joliet where he was charged with first-degree murder in the death of his son.  Bond was set at $5 million on Tuesday, September 29, pending a preliminary hearing scheduled for October 26 at the Will County Courthouse.

According to the results of the autopsy performed by Coroner Patrick K. O'Neil the day after Christopher's death, the child died as a result of being suffocated.  Based on O'Neil's findings and interviews with Randel Thomas and other relatives, the boy allegedly died because of his father "pushing down on the (child's) head with his hand, thereby suffocating him."  Police believe the child had been lying on a bed, and his head had purportedly been pushed face-down into the mattress.

Click here to continue reading this story >