Kenneth Douglas Pleads Guilty to Sexually Abusing Two Corpses

October 23, 2009

In the 30 years that I've been researching criminal cases and writing about them I have, almost needless to say, come across some pretty sick and demented individuals.  The case you are about to read about surely has to fall somewhere on my Top 20 list, making it a contender for the grand prize winner as the sickest of the sickest.  It was covered thoroughly by my colleague, David Lohr, on his Criminal Report Daily blog, and I am thankfully merely updating this ghastly case here without having to go into a lot of detail.  Having said that, readers beware—this case is disturbing.

To recap this sordid affair, nearly 27 years ago, in 1982, 19-year-old Karen Range opened her door to salesman David Steffen, who beat her and slashed her throat so severely that he nearly decapitated her.  Because of the presence of semen found inside Range's body, police at the time believed that Steffen had also raped her.  Steffen was originally convicted of Range's rape and murder and was sentenced to death.  Steffen was cleared of Range's rape, however, because of DNA analysis that was completed later on (please see Accused Necrophiliac May Have Violated Other Corpses as well as Convicted Necrophiliac Charged in Two Additional Cases) criminal issues involving Kenneth Douglas.  Douglas, it turned out, had been convicted of drug trafficking in 2008 and had been ordered to provide a DNA sample which was then matched to the semen found inside Range's body.

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Pastor Curtis Watts Chopped Off Deputy's Hand

October 01, 2009

The Rev. Curtis Watts, 48, pastor of the Shining Light Baptist Church in Clay County, Alabama, was shot and killed on Friday, September 25, 2009, at about 9:30 p.m. when deputies from the Clay County Sheriff's Office Special Response Team showed up at the cabin located on Saw Mill Road, where Watts resided, to arrest the minister on a domestic violence warrant signed by a relative.  Deputies had been to his home earlier in the day to make the arrest, but Watts was not there when they arrived.  They returned that evening, however, when a family member notified them that he had returned home.  When the deputies arrived, they followed proper procedure by identifying themselves and making their presence known.  Watts, who helped establish and build the church where he preached, attacked Sgt. Jason Freeman—who had been with the department for three years and led the team that had come to arrest the preacher—with a brush ax and chopped off Freeman's hand when he tried to serve the warrant, as well as a protection order also signed by a relative, and make the arrest.  Another deputy who witnessed the incident shot and killed Watts.

The story of this tragedy actually began 10 days earlier, according to Clay County Sheriff Jean Alexander.  On September 15, 2009, another group of deputies responded to the Watts home on a domestic violence call in which Watts allegedly greeted them with a high-powered rifle.  One of the deputies used his taser on Watts in that incident and, with the help of other deputies subdued Watts and took him to jail.  He was released a short time later after making bail.

"He was a good Christian man," a longtime friend said.  "I have no idea, no clue…something happened to him, but I don't know what…I never knew him to act violent.  He was always easy going…I never thought that this would happen.  We don't understand these things sometimes."

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Mystery in Kentucky: The Death of William Sparkman

September 28, 2009

William E. Sparkman, Jr., 51, affectionately known as "sparky" by some, of London, Kentucky, was found dead at about 6:30 p.m. in a remote area of the Daniel Boone National Forest, not far from a cemetery in southern Clay County on Saturday, September 12, 2009.  He reportedly had been hanged, and had "fed" written onto his chest with a felt pen.  The single father worked two jobs—one as a substitute teacher in the Laurel County school system, and also as a field representative for the U.S. Census Bureau.  He was also a Boy Scout leader.  The area where his body was discovered was described by Clay County Deputy Sheriff Gary Harris as "sparsely populated," and is known to have ongoing drug activity such as methamphetamine labs and outdoor marijuana growing operations.  The police at this time, however, are reporting that they have not yet found any links to Sparkman's death and the drug activity.

Although police have not yet confirmed many of the details surrounding Sparkman's death, his body was purportedly discovered by a man, his wife, and daughter who had paid a visit to the nearby cemetery.  Although his body was hanging from a tree, his feet touched the ground.  According to one of the witnesses, Sparkman's body was nude and his hands and feet were reportedly bound with duct tape.

"The only thing he had on was a pair of socks," the witness said.  "And they had duct-taped his hands, and his wrists.  He had duct tape over his eyes, and they gagged him with a red rag or something.  He was murdered.  There's no doubt….they even had duct tape around his neck…they had…his identification tag on his neck…duct-taped to the side of his neck on the right side, almost on his right shoulder."

His body was approximately 50 yards from a 2003 Chevrolet S-10 pickup truck.  The police were not yet saying who the truck belonged to, or whether it was even Sparkman's.

The question on the minds of his family and those who knew him, as well as that of detectives investigating his death, is:  Who would want to kill a middle-aged census-taker and teacher and scrawl "fed" on his chest?  Was the killer or killers trying to send some type of message?  If so, what was it?  Stay out of that area?

One of Sparkman's co-workers at Johnson Elementary School, a retired state trooper, had warned Sparkman to use caution "when you go over to eastern Kentucky to do your census work." His co-worker had purportedly told him that some of the people residing in that area may not understand that his business there was to simply collect statistics.

At this point, the circumstances of Sparkman's death remain a true mystery.  Sparkman's body has been sent to the state medical examiner's office for an autopsy, according to Clay County Coroner James Trosper, which will hopefully shed more light on the circumstances surrounding his bizarre death and will perhaps be able to officially determine the cause of his death.  Preliminary reports, however, said that he likely died from asphyxiation.

Kentucky State Trooper Don Trosper said that even though it was obvious that Sparkman's death was not a result of natural causes, investigators were not rushing to judgment and were consider all possibilities.

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