Postmortem Family Photos: The Keller Family

 

 

This photo is owned by Thanatos.net as you can clearly see on this, and every other copy of this photo in existence.

In the Victorian era, postmortem photography, also known as ‘mourning portraiture’ was a common practice. Often, these photographs would be sent to family across the country with the expectation that they would be proudly displayed as a way to remember the deceased. Due to the extremely high cost of film in the nineteenth century, death was often one of the few occasions deemed important enough to photograph a relative or friend and violent death resulting in disfigurement was not cause to forgo the photo op. These photos ranged from a portrait of only the deceased subject, to an entire family posing with one, sometimes more than one member who had recently passed. If an entire family was killed in a tragic event, the outcome was a rare, postmortem family photo.
At 8:30pm on January 25,1895 Adolph Hickstein, a piano maker, was playing games with his family in the living room of their home located at 10 1/2 Burt Avenue in Auburn, New York. At 8:30pm the entire family heard a gun shot followed by a cry for help in the residence of their neighbors, the Kellers, who lived at 10 Burt Ave. Immediately, Adolph and his wife rushed next door to investigate. The Hicksteins found the kitchen door open and lying there in the doorway, the body of 30-year-old Emil Keller. As soon as the Hicksteins made the grisly discovery, a second gunshot was heard. Adolph entered the bedroom where he discovered Mary Keller, 29,  with her lower body in the bed and her head leaned over the crib of the couple’s nine month old daughter, Anna. There was a large amount of blood coming from Mrs. Keller’s forehead and a 22 caliber revolver clutched in her right hand.

  An article published the following day in The Auburn Bulletin described the grisly discovery in horrific detail, “Going into the bedroom Mr. Hickstein was horrified to see Mrs. Keller, her lower extremities in the bed and her head in the crib of her infant by her bedside, the blood issuing from her forehead. The clothes of the child were in flames which Mr. Hickstein quickly extinguished. Neither he nor his wife, even at that time, entirely comprehended the horrible spectacle presented.” After the fire which was burning nine-month-old Anna’s clothing had been put out, Adolph ran to the residence of Ferdinand Sibus at 24 Elizabeth Street and informed the Sibus family, who had been close with the Kellers, of the grim discovery. Accompanied by Mr. Sibus and a small group of neighbors, Adolph Hickstein returned to the Kellers’ home, the police arriving soon after. A group of men raised Emil Keller’s dead body from the floor and found he had a bullet hole in his left side. They then moved the upper-half of Mary Keller’s body into the bed and found she was still breathing despite a self-inflicted gunshot wound located just above her right temple. Doctors Sheldon Voorhees and J.M. Jenkins who tended to the Keller Family knew there was no chance of recovery for Mrs. Keller. Mrs. Sibus found Anna Keller in the crib next to her mother, crying; She wrapped the baby up and took her back to the Sibus’ residence but shortly after arriving, Mrs. Sibus discovered the baby had been shot on the right side of her stomach and hastily returned to the crime scene where doctors were present. A large crowd of curious and concerned neighbors began to gather outside the Keller home, offering to assist in any way they could. Police asked the crowd to disperse and an ambulance was called to transport Mary Keller to the  hospital while Dr. Voorhees drove baby Anna Keller to the same hospital in his own car. When Mary Keller arrived at the hospital, no time was wasted in calling Coroner Tripp to take Mrs. Keller to Gross’ undertaking rooms. Mrs. Keller was still alive when she arrived at the funeral home, clinging to life until midnight. Anna Keller was made as comfortable as possible at the hospital, but she was not expected to survive the bullet which had penetrated her right lung and exited the left side of her body. She died the day following the incident at 6:00pm.
Emil and Mary Keller had left their native Zurich, Switzerland five years before the fatal tragedy. First living in Philadelphia, then Washington D.C., Emil was a talented gardener whose work attracted a lot of attention. He moved with his wife to Auburn, New York two years before his murder to work for Mrs. D. M. Osborne, mainly tending to trees in the greenhouse at her residence. When Emil left for work every evening at 8:30 pm, Mrs. Keller would already be in bed asleep. Every evening before he left his home for the Osborne residence, he would go into the bedroom and kiss Mary goodbye. Investigators believe on the night of the murder/suicide, Mary shot Emil as he kissed her. Emil cried for help as he stumbled 35 feet (10 meters) to the kitchen door, on his way to find assistance before collapsing on the floor. This was the gunshot and cry for help The Hickstein Family had heard from their  next door apartment. As they raced to the Keller residence, Mary leaned over her daughter’s crib and aimed the gun at Anna’s heart but slightly missed, her clothes being lit on fire by the blast. Mr. and Mrs. Hickstein entered the residence as Mary Keller turned the gun on herself. According to their friends and neighbors, Emil and Mary Keller loved each other and had a wonderful relationship. One friend of the couple described Mary as, “the perfect lady”; She was well-educated, an expert in the piano, violin and zither and well-trained in many other musical instruments; The two had shared a passion and talent for music. However, people also said Mary Keller was insane. One week to the day before the murder/suicide took place, Mary had just arrived home from a hospital where she had spent the last four weeks. Her physician, Dr. Hickey said when admitted, Mrs. Keller “did not talk rationally” and “was all run down, restless and could not sleep. She showed evidence of insanity in that particular but was not violent. Despite the fact that she was not violent and did not  make any threats, doctors “thought best to have her undergo treatment”. During Mary Keller’s stay in the hospital, her daughter, Anna Keller stayed with her. Emil Keller boarded with the Sibus’s during the month his wife was in treatment and it seems the family moved homes one week before Mary Keller’s release from the hospital. Previously, the couple had resided at No. 96 South Street and according to reports, had not entirely moved into their new home at the time of their unfortunate deaths. When Mrs. Keller returned home after four weeks of treatment, locals believed it to not be in the best judgment of Doctor Hickey. One doctor at the hospital told reporters he believed Mrs. Keller had needed, “Several months of quiet and rest to recover fully from her run-down condition.”. Emil Keller was happy his wife was back according to Mr. Sibus and said that after she returned, “she was bright and cheerful to her husband and to her friends.”.
A coroner’s inquest took place on the day after the murder/suicide in Undertaker Gross’ funeral home with jurors F. Sibus, Vol Astman, John S. Duanigan, Richard Boehme, William Doyle and James W. Pratt, H. Fliachman. The first witness called was Mrs. Emma Boehme, the wife of Juryman Boehme. She had been hired by Mrs. Keller to assist with the housework. “Mrs. Keller cried hard yesterday morning”, began Mrs. Boehme, “and said she had a stone in her stomach. She was very good and loving and threw her arms about my neck and kissed me. She was in her night dress ready to go to bed and I was talking with her husband when I left. I did the washing the day before. She took care of the baby.”. Next, Dr. J. M. Jenkins was called to provide his findings on the death of Emil Keller; Investigators discovered a hole through his clothing above his heart. The shot had penetrated his heart but Dr. Jenkins was certain he could have been alive for some time before succumbing to his injury. Officer Benjamin B. Roseboom then provided his account of the evening, “I reached the house about the time Mr. Silbus and some others entered. Found Mr. Keller on the floor dead and Mrs. Keller in the bedroom partly out of the bed with the revolver in her hand. Took it out and put it in my pocket. The smoke was fresh in the room at the time I arrived. Heard the neighbors and others say she was insane. The baby was in the crib crying when I entered the home. When Dr. Voorhees arrived he said that the woman could not live.”. Fred Meyer, a piano tuner, then testified that on the morning of the murder/suicide he had been to the Keller’s. He claimed that after he had tuned the piano, Mrs. Keller began playing the piano mechanically and “crying bitterly”. When he questioned her, she asked to change the subject then cheered up and told him she felt well. Fred Meyer that although the family was always happy and pleasant, Mary was always worried for the safety of her child, “very fearful that something might happen to it.”. The couple had a child together several years before Anna was born but the infant died after only thirteen days. This could have greatly contributed to Mary’s fear for Anna and her alleged “insanity”. John Thomas of Burt Avenue was called next to give his testimony. When the Kellers had first moved to Auburn, New York, they had lived with Mr. Thomas for a few weeks. He said, “They were always happy. She was a perfect lady.”, before revealing the reason behind Mary’s hospitalization and the family’s sudden move, “I met Mr. Keller on Christmas and wished him a Merry Christmas. He said it was a bad Christmas for him, that his wife was at the hospital. I asked what was the matter. He said that she was out of her mind, that she imagined someone was in the house and was going to kill her and the baby. He said he would get her out of that house as soon as possible. I met him yesterday and he said that his wife was feeling better but it would take some time before she would be well again.”. The inquest adjourned for 45 minutes after John Thomas’s testimony because bizarrely, Dr. Voorhees had wandered off and could not be found. Where he was found remains a mystery; A mystery which will haunt me to the day I die (I spent over an hour searching for the answer to that). With Dr. Voorhees located, Coroner Tripp turned things over to the jury who agreed, “That the deceased came to his death by means of a ball from a pistol at the hands of Mary Keller.”, but made no mention of the mental state they suspected her to be in at the time.

The Keller Family Grave, Fort Hill Cemetery in Auburn, New York

The Keller Family funeral took place two days after the murder at 8:30pm at the Universalist Church. The casket was special ordered, 4 inches (10cm) deeper and 9 inches (23cm) wider than an ordinary coffin so that Mary, Emil and Anna could be buried together. The bodies were thoughtfully placed so as to hide any wounds; Mary’s head rests on Emil’s left shoulder in order to hide the gunshot wound above her right temple and the slight discoloration of her right eye.

Below is the original article from The Auburn Bulletin reporting the incident, courtesy of FultonHistory.com

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If you enjoyed this article, you might also like Life Before Death: Overcoming the Fear of Death Through Modern Postmortem Photography, Burying the Dead is Killing the Planet, Everybody Poops: The Postmortem Edition, and Pray the Decay Away: Incorruptible Corpses and Other Forms of Natural Postmortem Preservation

 

  
  
  
  

Everybody Poops: The Post-Mortem Edition

After a person has been declared clinically dead and biological death occurs, long after our sentient personality has left this world, certain bodily functions just keep on keepin’ on. Old habits die hard, and in the case of the human body, some habits won’t die just because you do.

1. Brain Activity & Our Five Senses
You may have heard at one point in your life that after death, brain activity continues for a period of time. This is true to some extent, though most of the postmortem brain activity is actually the brain making one last attempt to keep itself alive by using all the oxygen left inside the deceased body. In doing this, brain cells cause irreparable damage to themselves. consciousness can be retained for approximately 15-20 seconds following death- this is true even in the case of people who are decapitated. This short period of consciousness following death is most likely when your “life flashes before your eyes”. Although it is difficult to understand how a person may feel they are literally reliving their entire life in a matter of seconds, it’s very similar to how we perceive time in a dream. Have you ever fallen asleep and had a bizarre dream that felt like it lasted forever, only to realize you’d been sleeping for just a few minutes? That is most likely what is experienced by people who are dying, or having a near death experience. With brain activity continuing after death, our five senses slowly fade after death, as well. The first sense to go is sight, followed by taste, smell, touch and finally, hearing. That means even if you didn’t get a chance to say goodbye before your loved one passed, if you told them something shortly afterwards, they probably still heard it.

2. Post-Mortem Movement and Breathing
Just because your brain has died and all activity has ceased, that doesn’t mean your nervous system has stopped functioning entirely. Often corpses will retain reflex action, causing muscle twitches, spasms, even what appears to be shallow breathing (which is sure to turn anyone’s Wake into an exciting event). These movements are caused when nerves send signals to the spinal cord, but you might want to keep that to yourself and see if you can convince everyone at the Wake that your grandmother is turning into a zombie.

3. Skin
Skin cells do not need constant circulation to survive, which means they’ll outlive you by several days. Unfortunately, you won’t be able to grow and new skin cells, so any wounds you previously have or acquire during death will not heal. That means any tattoos, piercings, plastic surgery, microdermabrasion etc. that you were considering having don postmortem to look good for your last hoorah probably wont look as great as you may have imagined.

4. Hair and Nails Appear to Grow
…they don’t really, but it certainly looks that way. Same as your skin, no new hair or nail tissue will grow. A body begins to lose all its moisture following death. When all that water weight starts dropping off, you get a postmortem face lift. The pulling back and tightening of your skin from lack of moisture gives the appearance of hair and nail growth, when in actuality you are just shriveling up and shrinking.

5. Vocal Chords
When you die, the bacteria in your body that once digested your food begins eating you from the inside out. This causes a tremendous build-up of gasses inside your body which has to escape somehow. There are many ways in which these gasses evacuate the corpse, one of the less disturbing methods being through your windpipe… And yes, that is one of the less disturbing ways. It causes moans, groans, even squeaks to come from the deceased.

6. Pee/Poo/Farts
There is a common misconception that some people urinate when they die. Luckily, we’re here to dispel those kind of rumors; The truth is, almost everyone pees themselves when they die. The urinary sphincter is held shut by a part of your brain, so when your brain stops functioning, your sphincter opens up and everything left in your bladder at the time of death is released. After you die, if you gotta go well… You really gotta go because your brain is no longer able to “hold it”. If it helps ease your mind, you won’t necessarily “pee your pants”. Assuming you live a long life and die a natural death, this postmortem urine could very easily be collected by a catheter. Another misconception is that some people defecate one last time at the moment of death- this is just a flat out lie… Due to the fact that the bacteria in your body that digests food won’t begin eating you until all the food is gone, almost everyone poops for days following their death. Remember when I said there were many more disturbing ways built-up gas can escape a corpse? Pooping is one of them. Excess gasses often expel themselves through the anus, taking with them whatever is in their path… which is usually human waste. More commonly refered to as “poop”. The expulsion of gasses through the anus can also cause lots of postmortem farting. I think the disgusting child in all of us can appreciate the fact that even in death, we can (and will) fart up a storm in the coroner’s office.

7. Death Erections (and Ejaculations)
After all the blood in your system has stopped circulating, it begins to pool. The effects of this are most evident during the 4th stage of decomposition known as “Livor Mortis”, which you can learn all about here on The Post-Mortem Post on Thursday April 9th. All you need to know now is that after death blood pools in the lowest (in relation to the rest of the world) regions of the body. This means if you die standing up or laying face down, one place blood will pool is in the genitalia. When a male’s penis- living or dead fills with blood, it causes an erection. In the days of public hangings, when bodies were not always removed in a prompt and courteous manner, people became very familiar with the phenomenon of “death erections”, sported by many men who were hung to their death. During the 3rd phase of decomposition, Rigor Mortis (come back Wednesday April 8th to learn more) every muscle in the body begins to harden. The hardening causes contraction of the muscles and sometimes all that hardening and contracting can cause a corpse to ejaculate.

8. Coffin Birth
As we all know, pregnancy and childbirth used to be an incredibly dangerous experience for women. In a time before prenatal vitamins, ultrasounds and blood transfusions (with the correct type of blood) it was all too common for a woman to die during some stage of her pregnancy. Unfortunately, in those times, not everyone was able to receive a burial soon after death, or in some cases, ever. Due to this, there were a few rare accounts of women who had given birth, postmortem. These “Coffin Births”, as they became known, were caused by a combination of softening, deceased flesh and a build up of gasses within the cadaver. In some instances, this gas escaped through the vaginal canal of a female corpse, bringing a living, breathing baby out with it. Yes, you guessed it- the expulsion of postmortem gasses through the vaginal canal could also cause corpse queefs.

MYTH: In the late 1800s and early 1900s Optography was all the rage. Used as a plot device in many fictional murder mysteries at the time, it was also utilized in real-life crime solving. After Franz Christian Boll discovered rhodopsin, also known as “visual purple”, a photosensitive pigment in the retina which can be “fixed” similar to a photographic negative, German psychologist William Kuhne set to work researching how this could be helpful in solving crimes.There was a belief that an optogram could capture the last image seen before death on the retina of the deceased. This led investigators to believe they might have a shot at capturing an image of the killer in the eye of their victim. Kuhne did a lot of very mean, sad things to rabbits during his research that we do not condone and we don’t wanna talk about it… So instead we’ll jump to November 16, 1880 when William Kuhne finally got the shot to test this theory on a human eye. Erhard Gustav Reif was executed by guillotine after killing his children in Bruchsal. Immediately following his death, Reif’s eyes were extracted and sent to Kuhne to be analyzed. Kuhne found that on the left eye of Erhard Gustav Reif there was a vague outline of what appeared to be the guillotine blade.

Outline of optograph obtained from subject’s left retina.

This was a huge discovery in forensics… until people began to put two and two together and realized that the position in which Erhard Gustav Reif was placed at the time of his execution would not have made it possible for him to see the blade of the guillotine, not to mention he was blindfolded at the time. Despite the fact that is scientific reasoning to support how this theory would work… it just doesn’t, at least, not now. It is possible optography will be more thoroughly researched and one day, perfected as a method for solving murder.
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If you enjoyed this article (or didn’t and want to know ways to minimize you postmortem farting and corpse queefs) you may like Burying the Dead is Killing the Planet, and Demystifying the Process of Dying.
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Who Killed Kendrick Johnson?

Kendrick Johnson with parents, Kenneth and Jaquelyn.

-This article contains GRAPHIC IMAGES which may not be suitable for some-
On the evening of January 10, 2013, 17-year-old Kendrick Johnson, a sophomore at Lowndes High School did not return home from school. The following day at 9AM, his body was discovered inside a rolled up wrestling mat in the gym of his Valdosta, Georgia high school. The grisly discovery was made by two sisters, daughters of the Superintendent, Wes Taylor. The girls were sitting in the gym near an area full of rolled up mats when they noticed a pair of feet inside one of them. The mat was moved from its vertical position to the floor, horizontally, by teachers at the school. The cause of death was determined to be accidental/positional asphyxia (AKA postural asphyxia), meaning Kendrick’s body was in such a position within the mat that he was unable to breathe and eventually led to his death. According to the medical examiner at the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, the boy went into the mat head-first to retrieve his shoe, was unable to get out, and eventually died with a pair of headphones still in his hand; However, Kendrick’s parents, along with the majority of the population do not believe what investigators claim happened. The Johnsons hired a private pathologist who easily came to the conclusion after exhuming the young man’s corpse that Kendrick Johnson died due to blunt force trauma to the neck and was rolled into the mat following his death in an attempt to hide the body. Students at Lowndes High School said Kendrick had shared a pair of Adidas for gym class with another student who stated Kendrick would, “Go to the mats, jump up and toss the shoes inside the middle of the hole.”, but the question remains; Why would anyone go inside the mat to retrieve the shoe? Yes, teenagers do dumb things, but the fact is the evidence does not add up. Aside from evidence of blunt force trauma noted in the second autopsy, which was blatantly obvious even to the casual observer in crime scene photos, the shoes he was last seen wearing were found on him, next to his feet.

Kendrick Johnson’s feet and the shoes he was last seen wearing inside gym mat where his body was discovered.

 

Crime scene photo of Kendrick Johnson, postmortem.

If Kendrick Johnson went into the mat after his shoes as the Georgia Bureau of Investigation claims, how did the shoes end up on him? It doesn’t take an FBI agent to figure out there is absolutely no way the GBI’s version of the story is correct. Someone would have had to have placed Kendrick’s shoes inside the mat after Kendrick was inside it. Not to mention, Kendrick Johnson’s shoulders measured 19 inches across, whereas the opening of the mat was only 14 inches wide when the body was discovered. Although signs of postmortem bloat were evident, this was not the cause for the 5 inch difference as his shoulders measured 19 inches across in life. As we know, it is physically impossible for a 19 inch object to fit inside a 14 inch opening; Also, it does not take an FBI agent to figure that one out. During the second autopsy, it was also discovered that Kendrick’s organs had been removed and disposed of, his body was stuffed with newspaper. The funeral home which prepared the boy’s body claims his organs were removed by the GBI’s coroner because they had been, “Destroyed through natural process” and were “Discarded by the prosecutor before the body was sent back to Valdosta [to the funeral home]”. It was determined that while the funeral home did no wrong-doing in filling his body with newspaper, they had not followed the “best practice” (while it is not unusual for organs to be removed from a corpse due to liquefaction of organs, usually the body is stuffed with sawdust, cotton, or some other material less disrespectful to the deceased than old newspapers). The State of Georgia claims, however, they did turn over Kendrick’s organs to the funeral home in question. This is only one of a laundry list of inconsistencies in the case. On the morning Kendrick Johnson’s body was discovered, investigators requested the surveillance video from the school’s motion detecting cameras. These videos were supposed to be handed over that very morning but were not given to police until five days later. In November 2013, 290 hours of surveillance footage from 35 cameras in the vicinity of the school’s gymnasium were released to the public. It was discovered that two of the cameras were missing footage; One had one hour and five minutes cut, the other was missing two hours and ten minutes. Although these cameras were motion activated, the footage was cut out of the tapes, as opposed to the camera failing to record at that time. This is obvious evidence that the tapes were tampered with by the school before being handed over to investigators. What is seen on the tapes is a Lowndes High School student crisscrossing through the hallway outside of the gym on the day of Kendrick Johnson’s murder. Kendrick had previously suffered racial harassment from this student seen erratically crossing the hallway outside the gym, who is even changes his clothing at one point on the video. Complains of harassment were ignored by the school, despite the fact that this student had attacked Kendrick on a bus trip to a football game earlier in the year and on one occasion prior to that. It is said the student in question “had a history of provoking and attacking” and most interestingly of all, this student, Brandon Bell, is the son of a member of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. There were also rumors that Kendrick had a sexual relationship with Brandon Bell’s older brother, Brian’s, ex-girlfriend; Allegedly, this prompted GBI member Rick Bell to encourage his two sons and six of their friends to attack Kendrick Johnson on the bus during their football trip. The investigation into Kendrick Johnson’s death was nothing short of corrupt, to say the least and Sheriff Chris Prine has been nothing short of an utter asshole (to put it as nicely as possible) in speaking with those who question the “accidental death” B.S. Police did not wear protective footwear during the investigation, which are worn not to protect the officers’ shoes, but to protect the crime scene from potential contamination. Law enforcement did not allow Kendrick’s parents to ever identify his body, which is routine, and the coroner was not called to the scene for six hours. In investigations led by… anyone, ever, who is not corrupt and trying to hide information, the coroner is called immediately. The coroner who worked the case said the scene had most definitely been compromised, adding that the report they had written on Kendrick’s death was changed by law enforcement. Both failing to wear protective footwear and failing to call the coroner are illegal in the State of Georgia. The coroner also asserted that despite the fact police were notified that the scene should be sealed off as a murder investigation due to signs of bruising on Kendrick’s face and neck, it was ignored and foot traffic in the surrounding area continued as usual. A pair of shoes and Hollister hoodie not belonging to Kendrick was discovered in the gym next to the mat his body was inside, but the items were not taken into evidence and were all but ignored.

Shoe NOT belonging to Kendrick Johnson found in gym. Blood splatter is visible on the toe.

Blood on the scene was also looked past by investigators. Blood could be clearly seen beneath the mat in which Kendrick’s body was discovered and blood was on the shoe he had supposedly dove in to retrieve. More blood was found on a vertical beam inside the gym and a trashcan in the gym’s restroom was full of bloody paper towels. Investigators and school employees dismissed the blood saying it had come from a female student who had injured herself in the gym the day before. The blood in the trashcan was tested and found to not be Kendrick’s, yet there was no further investigation into who the blood did belong to. No female student ever came forward to say she was this “female” who had reportedly injured herself.

Blood on vertical beam in gym, evident in crime scene photos.

Regardless of whether or not the blood belonged to Kendrick, when blood is present at a crime scene, in actual investigations, those sort of things are not overlooked, no matter how inconsequential they may end up being to the investigation. Police on the case claim 25 students from the wrestling team, including Brandon Bell, were not at the school when Kendrick went missing due to a competition in Macon, Georgia. They claim the wrestling team members were excused from classes at 11:32 AM on January 10th to make the 152 mile trip, which would have taken approximately 2 hours and 11 minutes. However, there is video evidence that at least some of these 25 wrestlers, including Brandon Bell, were at the school cafeteria from 11:32-12:02 and three separate school documents show evidence that the wrestling team actually departed at 4:00pm. The school did eventually admit the bus was running late and did not leave for the wrestling competition until 12:30 PM (noon) on January 10, which confirms they had, for some reason, attempted to convince police and the public that the bus had departed immediately following lunch, one half hour prior than it actually did (according to their story now, which may be subject to change as most the information from LHS on this case has). According to police, the wrestling coach’s cell phone records indicate the team was in Cordell, Georgia at 1:53pm, which is 85 miles north of the school and more than an hour away. Quite frankly, all that indicates is that the wrestling coach’s cell phone was in Cordell, Georgia at 1:53pm, or perhaps that the investigators working on this case pulled that out of their ass like much of the “evidence” presented in an attempt to validate the offensively false claim that Kendrick’s death was accidental.

Shoe which Kendrick Johnson allegedly went into the rolled up gym mat to retrieve, covered in his blood.

Following his death, many African-American students at Lowndes High School were instructed by school staff to not speak with police. These students were threatened that if they did, they would not be allowed to graduate, despite the fact that most Caucasian students at the school were required to speak with police regarding their memories of that day. In fact, Brian Bell and his brother Brandon, a graduate of Lowndes High School, were the only Caucasian students who were forbidden from speaking with police due to their FBI daddy, Rick Bell, swooping in and threatening hell and high water if anyone made his spoiled brat boys do anything they didn’t want to do- like speak to police about a murder in which they appear incredibly suspicious. Luckily for Brian, Brandon, Rick, and mother, Karen Bell, being a spoiled brat with racist tendencies is not a crime, but as more information is uncovered in this case, there may only be so much having a father in the FBI can do to protect you. Afterall, take a look at Robert Durst; Money and Power can take you a long way in America, but there’s only so far you can go until enough of the public takes notice and begins to demand law enforcement does the dame instead of turn a blind eye.

Wounds and blood clearly visible on Kendrick Johnson’s fingers.

One person who has most certainly not turned a blind to this case is Adam Floyd, who was a teacher at Lowndes High School when Kendrick Johnson was murdered and left the school shortly afterwards to work at the Valdosta Daily Times has become the lead writer on the Kendrick Johnson story. Jaquelyn and Kenneth Johnson, Kendrick’s parents, filed a $100 million dollar civil suit on January 12, 2015 against local and state federal officials, Wes Taylor (School Superintendent of Lowndes County), Valdosta-Lowndes crime lab, Police Chief of Valdosta and multiple Sheriff’s deputies, state medical examiner, Georgia Bureau of Investigations and its five agents, FBI agent Rick Bell, and three of Kendrick’s classmates [names undisclosed, most likely the Bell Brothers and a friend involved in the bus trip attack]. Quite frankly, the investigation (or lack thereof) into the BLATANTLY OBVIOUS MURDER of Kendrick Johnson disgusts me in ways I cannot express. I sincerely hope Kenneth and Jaquelyn Johnson are successful in their lawsuit against any and everyone involved in their son’s death and the coverup which followed it. Hopefully in the process, the true story of what happened to Kendrick Johnson will come to light and he will receive justice.

Photos courtesy The Valdosta Daily Times, New York Daily News and CNN.
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If you enjoyed this article, you may also like Germanwings Crash, Andreas Lubitz Suicide was a Mere Side Effect to the Murder of 149 People, Possible Relatives: Tina Enghoff Photographs Homes of the Recently Deceased, Boris Nemtsov Murdered in Moscow and Herb Baumeister and the Horrors of Fox Hollow or to learn more about how investigators can differentiate between bruises sustained in life and those seen in postmortem blood pooling read about Livor Mortis and Putrefaction

Laura Belle Devlin

Laura Belle Devlin, born September 7, 1874 murdered and dismembered her husband in 1947 at the age of 72.

On January 5, 1947 C.G. Butcher, a postman in Newark, Ohio delivered mail to the Devlin residence at 78 King Avenue. That day, seventy-two year old housewife and avid collector of old lace, Laura Belle Devlin, received a letter from relatives in Philadelphia informing her that her 75-year-old husband, Thomas Devlin, had passed away during a recent visit. Made suspicious by the fact that this letter had no stamp and a postmark which was obviously hand-written, C.G. Butcher took the widow to the local police station. When Mrs. Devlin was questioned, she admitted to having murdered her husband, Thomas, in the parlour of their two-story home.

Emotionless, she described the killing, saying she pounded Thomas Devlin with her bare fists until he was unconscious the attempted to break his bones with a sickle. Afterwards, she dismembered the body with a handsaw and burned parts of him in the stove. She scattered the rest of the pieces of her husband’s body in the backyard.

 After being arrested on charges of first degree murder, she told police, “[Thomas Devlin] tried to kill me so many times that I decided to end his life.” then immediately asked, “And now can I go home?”. Mrs. Devlin was temporarily incarcerated at the Licking County Jail where she refused to be fingerprinted because, “That ink will make my hands dirty.”. In another attempt to take the 72-year-old killer’s fingerprints while photographers snapped pictures, she simply asserted, “NO!”. When informed of her incarceration, she just shook her head in disapproval of law enforcement’s decision on the matter and later told reporters she “disliked” jail. Despite her feelings on being locked up, she was described as “mild-mannered” throughout her incarceration. On January 11, 1947 Mrs. Devlin was admitted to the Lima State Hospital for the Criminally Insane for a 30 day observation period. There, she was diagnosed with “Senile Psychosis: Confused Type”, which is more or less an old-timey way of saying “Dementia”.

 Sadly, on March 29, 1947 Laura Belle Devlin passed away at the Lima State Hospital from a bout of pneumonia which she had been battling for one week after having had an attack of influenza.

More original articles from the Laura Belle Devlin murder below. Photos courtesy Parajail.com

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Imaginary Murders on the Rise

On May 12, 2015 a man in Jacksonville, Florida turned himself in to the local Sheriff for the murder of his best friend. Thirty-seven year old Geoff Gaylord stabbed his friend of seven years repeatedly with a kitchen knife before dismembering the body with a hatchet and burying him in the backyard. Geoff Gaylord told police of the murder, “It was an overreaction. I should have listened to the neighbor lady and got us into counseling, but no, I did the unthinkable and killed my best friend. I’m a terrible, terrible person and I need to be punished.”. Despite his gruesome confession for the murder, Mr. Gaylord will not be charged with homicide because the friend he killed happens to be imaginary. Geoff’s imaginary friend, Mr. Happy, was suffering from drug and alcohol addiction at the time of his murder and it became too much for Gaylord to handle. According to the statement given to police, the two friends had not had a “real conversation” in at least a year and had begun to drift apart as Mr. Happy’s addictions intensified. Geoff Gaylord claimed, “His room was a mess all the time with his toys and dolls. He left his empty vodka bottles all over the kitchen… Never picked up his empty cocaine baggies… He messed up my apartment to the point where I just couldn’t get it clean… Before Hap started doing drugs and acting weird he was my BFF… We’d go dancing, play on the children’s park equipment, both huge fans of doom metal- listened to it for hours with the lights turned off.” and that Mr. Happy “left the toilet seat down when he peed.”. The breaking point came when Mr. Happy crashed Gaylord’s Nissan ALTIMA after the two had been out celebrating Mr. Happy’s birthday at a local Hooter’s. Geoff Gaylord was ultimately arrested for the incident despite the fact that his imaginary friend had been the one driving. Gaylord stated, “That drunk driving incident I got unfairly blamed for and just how messy he had become put me over the edge and I murdered him.”. Horrified by his own crime, Mr. Gaylord, who was incredibly intoxicated at the time of his confession, insisted upon the death penalty “right now” and threatened police when they refused to sentence him as he desired; Instead he was arrested for threatening police, possession of drug paraphernalia and possession of an illegal machine gun discovered inside his home. Disappointingly, it is more likely than not that this story which was originally published on Moron.com is nothing more than a hoax. Geoff Gaylord’s mug shot is in fact a photo of a man named Billy Southern which appeared in a gallery of “Crying Mugshots” that went viral in 2011.

  Recently, fake stories on imaginary murders have become somewhat popular. According to a fake story published in 2013, Doug Byron, a resident of Bangour, Maine went to his local police station and confessed to the murders of eight people who he claimed had occurred over a span of two years. M. Byron led police to eight shallow graves just outside the town of Milford and turned over journals in which he detailed how he had selected and stalked his victims before murdering them. The descriptions of the killings were so detailed and gruesome police believed him to be a serial killer… Until they dug up the graves of his victims and found nothing but dirt. Police Chief Lou Foster stated, “This is weird even for Maine. I mean, he’s so sure he committed a crime, but he hasn’t. He led us to eight graves in the woods, but all he’d done was dig a big hold and then refilled it. The journals are packed with grisly details, and I probably wont sleep for a week, but they’re just works of fiction.”. Although these stories are just as real as the victims, let’s pretend for a moment Geoff Gaylord and Doug Byron did murder and dismember the bodies of their imaginary friends. As we all know, it is perfectly normal for children to have an imaginary friend or two or ten. During childhood, imaginary friends are used as a device to experiment with early socialization. In the hypothetical case of Geoff Gaylord, it seems Mr. Happy began as a substitute for authentic socialization. As Gaylord recalled, he and Mr. Happy spent a lot of time going out dancing and listening to doom metal music together. While it seems Mr. Gaylord did in fact have some underlying mental and/or addiction issues, many mentally stable adults have imaginary friends to help them cope with loneliness and social anxiety. As Geoff Gaylord’s struggle with addiction and hoarding intensified, it was easier for him to blame Mr. Happy than to face his own problems. In killing his imaginary friend he was, in a way, “killing” the bad habits which he had projected onto Mr. Happy; If Mr. Happy dies, there will be no more DUIs, no more drugs or trash in the apartment. Murdering Mr.Happy may have also been an indirect attempt by Gaylord to punish himself for the bad behavior which he is, at the very least, subconsciously aware he is responsible for. He permanently ended the illusion of Mr. Happy by “murdering” his imaginary (and possibly only) friend. Doug Byron, it seems, had different motives behind the manifestation and murders of his imaginary friends. Despite his confession and remorse for committing the murders, they were all meticulously pre-meditated. Usually, serial killers who get away with their crimes are highly intelligent; Perhaps planning and “getting away with” killing was gratifying for Doug Byron’s ego. He may have begun killing in hopes it would boost his self-confidence. Murders often claim the “god-like” feeling they experience from having control over another human’s life and death is their primary motivation to kill. For Mr. Byron, creating imaginary people to murder  may have been a way to replicate this feeling of total control without actually having to harm anyone. As with any serial killer who turns themselves in, Doug Byron would have only done so after he felt, for whatever reason, he could no longer continue his way of life. The eight innocent, imaginary people Doug Byron created and killed were very likely created based on who he pictured as his ideal “type” to kill. As police stated, his journals detailed how he selected and murdered his victims. For Doug Byron, the journals were a way to document and relive his imaginary fantasies over and over, each time making them just a little better, by his standards; Very similar to an actual killer. Since these stories were just hoaxes, sadly we will never have the opportunity to read the detailed journals of this mind-boggling “murderer”. But it we just close our eyes, we can imagine all the bizarre and unbelievable things it would say…

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Where Are They Now? Amarjeet Sada, The World’s Youngest Serial Killer

Amarjeet Sada, World’s Youngest Serial Killer. Murdered three infants in India at the age of 8.

Amarjeet Sada (sometimes referred to as ‘Amardeep’ Sada) is the world’s youngest known serial killer, having committed three murders at the age of 8. Amarjeet was born in 1998 to an impoverished family in Begusaray, Bihar, India; His father is a laborer in the village of Musahri. In 2006 Amarjeet murdered his 6 month old cousin, the daughter of a maternal uncle. Shortly after, he murdered his own 8 month old sister. While Amarjeet’s family and some villagers were aware of the child’s involvement in these two murders, they were considered “family matters” and went unreported. In 2007 Amarjeet killed again, this time a neighbor’s 6 month old daughter named Kushboo. Kushboo’s mother, Chunchun Devi, left her daughter at the village primary school to sleep while she tended to her chores. When she returned, her daughter was gone. Villagers who knew of Amarjeet’s past murders confronted him regarding Kushboo’s disappearance. Amarjeet, seemingly proud of his actions, happily recounted the gory tale of how he killed the infant. He then led villagers to the shallow grave he had dug for Kushboo. Amarjeet told police, “Khapda de mar mar ke sura deliyay” meaning “I killed by beating her with a brick”. He told police he had laid her down in the grass before beginning to smash her face with a brick, then covered the body in grass and leaves before returning to his home. Reportedly, all three murders were conducted in this manner. It is believed he also strangled his two previous victims, which may have been the cause of death prior to beating with a brick. Unfortunately, because his first two murders went unreported and there was no official investigation into them, details remain unclear. Police say, “He [Amarjeet] said he took the children to the fields and hit them with a stone and killed them. He has been charged with the murder [of Kushboo Devi].” Amarjeet was arrested on May 30, 2007 and “spoke little but smiled a lot” when asked about the murders. While being further questioned he, “Just smiled a lot and asked for biscuits.”

 Superintendent Amit Lodha, a resident of Begusarai (90 miles/145 kilometers east of Bihari, the capital of Patna) said Amarjeet Sada appeared to be a psychiatric case. He was evaluated by professionals and found to be suffering from a conduct disorder. Panta-based psychoanalyst Shamshad Hussain found that this conduct disorder causes Amardeep to behave in a sadistic manner. Due to a severe chemical imbalance in Sada’s brain, he receives a sense of gratification from inflicting injuries on others. A psychologist working on his case explained, “such aggression may be hereditary and may be caused because of great chemical upheavals in the brain.”. According to a former psychology professor at Patna University, Sada did not have a sense of right or wrong when he committed the murders due to his conduct disorder. It is believed with medication, levels of chemicals in his brain can be balanced. Ultimately, the boy was charged with murder and tried as a juvenile. Sada’s story lost steam for most of the world after that point so there is not much information available on what became of him. Although Amarjeet’s current status is “unknown”, we can assume from his graphic and proud confession, he was eventually charged with the murder. Since the boy was tried as a juvenile, in accordance to Indian law, he could not have been imprisoned any longer than three years. Due to his mental state at the time the crimes took place, it is possible he served his sentence in a psychiatric institute in lieu of a juvenile detention center. After his sentence had been served, it is also possible that his parents chose to keep him in a mental health facility; However, considering they did not seek mental health for him after either of the first two murders, it is unlikely he received more therapy than was required. Amarjeet Sada would be approximately 17 years old now (no exact date of birth available, only birth year) and more likely than not, a free young man. There are rumors he may have changed his name to ‘Samarjit’, which is common when young children commit a horrendous crime and are later rehabilitated. Hopefully Amarjeet Sada has been, and will continue to be able to manage his conduct disorder through therapy and medication and live a new life under a new name, scrutiny-free.
UPDATE: After writing this article I was contacted by Amarjeet Sada who claims he is currently living in a children’s home in India where he will remain until he is 18 years of age. No other details at this time.
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America’s Next Top Model’s Mirjana, Murdered

On Tuesday February 24, former America’s Next Top Model contestant Mirjana Puhar was one of the victims of a triple-homicide in Charlotte, North Carolina. Mirjana, who was only 19 years old, was shot to death alongside her boyfriend, Jonathan Alvarado (23) and his best friend/roommate, Jusmar Gonzaga-Garcia (21). The shooting took place in the home of Alvarado and Gonzaga-Garcia shortly after Mirjana had moved in with her boyfriend, who she had only been seeing for a short time, according to those closest to the murdered model. Their bodies were discovered by friends of the couple after hearing gunshots coming from inside the home. The friend who saw the crime scene before police also noted large amounts of money scattered throughout the house. The murderer, 19 year old Emmanuel Jesus Rangel is currently in police custody and has been charged with three counts of 1st degree murder. Rangel has also been charged with a separate murder which he committed on the morning of Sunday February 22, although it is unclear if the shootings are in any way related. Investigators claim Emmanuel Rangel knew the victims of the triple-homicide and their shooting deaths may have been drug-related. Mirjana Puhar, who was born in Serbia, was the 8th place finalist on the recent 21st Cycle of America’s Next Top Model: Guys & Girls. Coming into the competition with a “boyfriend back home”, Puhar immediately struck up intimate relations with Matthew, a fellow competitor, cuddling with him in her bed at night. Once Matthew learned of Mirjana’s relationship status, he broke things off with her. On the very next episode, Mirjana turned her affections towards Denzel, another male model in the house (the man with the horrible beard weave) and quickly began referring to him as her “boyfriend”. As the two continued their affair, flagrantly advertising their sexual relationship, Mirjana would occasionally comment that she should call her long-term boyfriend back home to end her relationship with him. After learning Denzel was not interested in a serious relationship with her, she ended their courtship and called her boyfriend to admit to her unfaithfulness. Failing to mention Matthew, or the fact that she and Denzel had engaged in intercourse on several occasions, her boyfriend forgave her. It would seem that relationship ended as well after he watched the reality show and found Mirjana had been openly cheating on him for quite some time and had not been entirely truthful in her confession. Mirjana’s North Carolinian boyfriend during her time on America’s Next Top Model had nothing to do with her murder and that of her new beau as far as police know. When interviewed by The Charlotte Observer, Marjana stated she was a “wild child” and did not “have the best influences around” her. More information on the murder of reality TV star Mirjana Puhar as it becomes available.

Herb Baumeister and the Horrors of Fox Hollow

Whether you have an avid interest in serial killers or not, when the subject arises, many names initially come to mind: Jack the Ripper, Ed Gein, John Wayne Gacy, Ted Bundy. The names of these killers are embedded into our mind and our pop culture due to the shockingly large scale and horrific nature of their crimes. They’ve officially earned a place on everyone’s mental list of people-you-don’t-want-to-run-across-in-a-dark-alley, making their name and reputation as infamous as Marie Antoinette. One person that should be on that mental list, but probably isn’t is Herb Baumeister. As a person who has always been fascinated by serial killers and was allowed to watch the eleven o’clock news at far too young an age, I hadn’t heard about Herb Baumeister and his crimes until about a year ago. Since then, I have been obsessed. His story, and that of Fox Hollow Farm, the estate where the murders took place, is one that begins in Herb’s childhood and has outlived him by multiple decades. The case of the “I-70 Strangler” will easily continue to unfold with seemingly unending macabre evidence and details for the next half-century.
Baumeister’s bizarre behavior was recounted by a childhood friend who recalled an instance in which Herb found a dead crow in the road on his way to school and later that day, dropped it on his teacher’s desk when she wasn’t looking. According to those who knew him, “playing” with dead animals was a favorite pastime of his, as well as pondering what human urine tastes like. Herb once urinated on a teacher’s desk, although it is unclear if his malicious actions were aimed at multiple instructors, or one in particular. When Herb Baimeister reached his teens, he was diagnosed with schizophrenia and was suspected of having multiple personalities, but did not receive treatment. Theses disorders would become more apparent as Herb matured. While attending college for one year at Indiana State University, he met Juliana Saitor. The two were drawn to one another due to their incredibly conservative ideologies. In 1971, the two were married, but only six months afterwards Herb was committed to a psychiatric institute where he spent two months. Over the next several years, the couple produced three children: Marie (1979), Erich (1981), and Emily (1984). In 1974, Herb Baumeister began working for the Bureau of Motor Vehicles and displayed symptoms of his mental illness. One year, he and a coworker appeared on the company Christmas card dressed in drag. Obviously, simply dressing in drag is not a sign of mental illness, however it was out of character for Mr. Baumeister and in hindsight, disturbing, considering the nature of the crimes he would go on to commit. Herb worked his way up to the title of Program Director, but was terminated from this job in 1985 when he urinated on a letter which was to be sent to then-governor of Indiana, Robert D. Orr (Republican). It was the same year the body of Eric Roetiger, a seventeen year old white male was discovered in Indiana. He may or may not have been serial killer Herb Baumeister’s first victim. On September 3, 1985 he committed a hit and run while intoxicated, though he received no severe punishment. Less than one year later on March 27, 1986 Herb was charged with auto theft and conspiracy to commit theft, avoiding implications of his actions a second time and beating the charges against him. In 1988, Herb’s mother loaned him $4,000 to open a thrift store, ‘SAV-A-LOT’, which made him $50,000 in its first year alone, allowing for a second location.  In 1991, ‘SAV-A-LOT’ was so successful Herb, Julie, and their three children were able to move to Fox Hollow Farm: An eighteen acre, one million dollar estate in the prestigious Westfield district, a suburb of Indianapolis. For the first time in his life, Baumeister was viewed as a pillar in the community. The town recognized Herb as a family man and charitable entrepreneur. He owned a popular business that had recently become a small chain, and a dream home complete with a pool house, which included a wet bar. This area was decorated lavishly and filled with mannequins dressed by Baumeister to appear as if they were guests attending an upscale pool party. Herb began to frequent the local gay bars in search of potential victims to lure back to his pool house. He would pose as an autoerotic asphyxiation fetishist (someone who receives pleasure from choking/being choked, or having air cut off/restricted by other means during intercourse and/or masturbation) and invite the unsuspecting men to engage in this act with him. Once he got these men back to Fox Hollow Farm he would ensure they were intoxicated, invite them in the pool and strangle them to death. Their remains were discarded in the woods behind his home. Reports of missing gay men in the area began piling up, and bodies continued to be discovered throughout Indiana and Ohio. Unfortunately, at this time police did not put much effort into investigating the murders and disappearances of gay men. Most investigators and members of the community believed the ones who had simply gone missing decided to run off to a big city where they may be more widely accepted by society without informing their families. Finally, law enforcement began to connect the dots and in 1992 received their first tip from a man named Tony Harris. Tony called the Indianapolis police and claimed a gay bar patron by the name of “Brian Smart” had murdered his friend and tried to kill him, as well. Unable to locate a “Brian Smart”, the killings continued. In 1994, life took a downwards turn for Herb Baumeister. His business, which had previously been flourishing, began to fail. This could have been caused by a sudden, vastly superior attitude he began to display towards his employees, and by his habit of leaving work, only to return later in the day reeking of booze. He was also arrested for drinking and driving in Rochester, Indiana, which earned him three days in jail and one year of probation.  To make things far worse, Herb’s son, Erich, who was thirteen at the time, found a human skull on their property while walking through the woods. Erich showed it to his mother, Julie, who inquired about the skull to her husband. Herb’s answer was that had come from a medical skeleton belonging to his deceased father which he had acquired many of throughout his long career as an anesthesiologist. Although there were problems at this time in Herb and Julie’s relationship, surprisingly, this was not one of them. Later, when Julie went looking for these remains, they could not be located. Assuming they had been carried off by a wild animal, she accepted her husband’s explanation without giving it a second thought. In 1995 Tony Harris had another run in with Brian Smart at a local gay bar and this time he got a license plate number. Police ran the plates and learned “Brian Smart” was an alias of Herb Baumeister. When police arrived at the Baumeister home and asked to search the property without a warrant, both Herb and Julie refused. Herb told his wife he was being falsely accused of theft and ordered her not to allow police onto the property. One day, investigators were able to speak to Julie alone and explained they were really there; Her husband was suspected of multiple murders. Even after learning this and knowing a human skull had been lying in the woods on their property, she remained unwilling to a search. However, as Herb’s luck began to run out, his mood swings and odd behavior reached a climax and began to disturb his wife. In 1996, both of Herb’s SAV-A-LOT stores shut down and he became depressed, even threatening to take his own life. Julie was filing for divorce and suing for sole custody of their three children when she finally contacted police and agreed to a full search of the property while Herb was away on vacation. During the initial search, which lasted a few days, law enforcement recovered 5,500 bones, bone fragments, and teeth from four different victims in the wooded area of Fox Hollow Farm. Many of the remains had been concealed beneath piles of leaves and garbage. A second search was prompted by the Baumeister’s neighbor, who informed police he had discovered skeletal remains near a drainage pipe separating the two properties. When police arrived, they immediately noticed several somewhat intact skeletons protruding from the muddy ground. 140 more bones (including several intact rib cages and vertebra) from seven additional bodies were found in this location along with many cans of Miller Genuine Draft, Mr. Baumeister’s favorite drink. In all, eleven bodies were found but only eight could be identified: Johnny Bayer (20), Allen Wayne Broussard (28), Roger A. Goodlet (33), Richard D. Hamilton (20), Steven S. Hale (26), Jeff Allen Jones (31), Michael Kiern (46), and Manuel Resendez (31). While Eric Roetiger was never confirmed as one of Herb’s victims, Baumeister is suspected to have killed many more men who fit the profile and were dumped along rural roadsides throughout Indiana and Ohio during his active years. According to Julie Baumeister, Herb took a hundred or more trips to Ohio on store business. There would have been plenty of time for Herb to commit these murders that took place on the property, undisturbed. Usually during the summer, sometimes for several months at a time, Julie and the kids would go out of town to stay with Herb’s widowed mother. When asked by investigators about the human skull her son Erich had found on the property a few years prior, Julie informed them of the story Herb provided her with and stated, “It wasn’t like I was sitting at home with nothing else to think about.”. While searching Fox Hollow Farm, police discovered a video camera hiding in a corner of the pool house where Herb had committed multiple murders. Despite no tapes being found, police believe this camera was used to record the deaths of his victims. Still away on vacation, Herb contacted his older brother. He claimed he was away on a business trip and needed more money immediately. A few days later, Herb called his brother a second time to request more money. By this time, he had caught wind that corpses were being discovered on his brother’s property. Herb’s brother informed him that the local police wanted to have a chat regarding all the bodies uncovered on Fox Hollow Farm. Having run out of options, Herb quickly escaped to Canada. One evening, while sleeping in his car under a bridge, a Canadian trooper approached him. Baumeister told the trooper he was a tourist who was just passing through, and had stopped to get some rest. The trooper noted that there was a large stack of what appeared to be video tapes in the backseat of his car. The next day, on July, 3 1996 Herb Baumeister killed himself with a shot to the head from a .357 magnum in Pinery Provincial Park, Grand Bend, Ontario, Canada. He left a three page suicide note on yellow note paper giving his reasons for the suicide: A failed marriage and business. He made note of the fact that he had originally planned to kill himself elsewhere, and apologized for “messing up” the park. He mentioned he would have a peanut butter sandwich for his last meal and afterwards he would “go to sleep”. Herb Baumeister never confessed to any of the murders, though there was more than enough sufficient evidence to convict him. The video tapes spotted the previous evening by the trooper were not in the car and were never found. It is believed Herb disposed of them in the river before committing suicide. His body was found eight days after his death.
That seems like the end of the story, but this is where things become even more bizarre. In 2009, Rob and Vicky Graves purchased Fox Hollow Farm. They moved in and soon began renting out an apartment on the property to Joe LeBlanc. Shortly after getting settled in, Vicky spotted a man in a red T-shirt wandering about near the tree line on their new property, close to the spot investigators had exhumed many of Herb Baumeister’s victims. Assuming the man had a morbid curiosity with the location and murders, the new homeowners were prepared to confront the trespasser. Once she got a better look at the man, Vicky noticed he had no legs- he was just floating, then disappeared into thin air. The two searched the wooded area in the direction he had last been seen, but found nothing. The Graves installed a security camera following the incident in hopes that they could catch any future trespassers on their property. Joe and his dog, Fred, later saw the same man with the red T-shirt in the woods. Fred went chasing off after the man, and Joe ran after him. Eventually Joe came face to face with the trespasser, but as before he had done before, he suddenly vanished. On another occasion, Fred ran back into the woods, and Joe followed behind him. When his dog stopped, Joe noticed something peculiar: a human femur. The police were contacted to collect the bone and informed the new owners it may only be the first in a long series of human remains they would discover on their property. While law enforcement recovered thousands of bones and bone fragments from Baumeister’s victims, there are undoubtedly countless more skeletal remains still buried. Afterwards, the sightings of the man in the red T-shit ceased, but the activity on the property did not. Joe had been experiencing instances of a constant knocking at his door. While the knocking would become growingly intense, no one would answer when he asked who was outside. Anytime Joe opened the door, he would find no one was there. One night when it began, Joe asked who it was and as always, did not receive a response. The knocking grew louder, and more violent. When he opened the door, he saw the knocker was hanging straight out as though someone were still holding it. It would certainly not be a paranormal event for a door knocker to simply stick and hang in a position that seems to defy gravity, but if Mr. LeBlanc’s story is to be believed, there would be no way the door knocker could repeatedly move up and down by itself, before freezing in a perpendicular position. Joe closed his door, locked it and waited, hoping for it to stop. He noticed the knob twisting, like someone outside was trying to get in. The doorknob finally quit turning to his relief, but only a moment later the door burst wide open, sending woodchips flying into his apartment. Moving outside to confront whoever it was, Joe was met at the door frame by a young Caucasian man in soaking wet clothing. The man was terrified, screaming and went running for his life through Joe’s apartment, then just vanished. Not long after this occurred, Joe was able to identify the man he had seen tearing through his apartment that evening as one of Herb Baumeisters victims. The strange events at the property escalated when Joe invited his friend, Jeremy, to come for a swim at the infamous Fox Hollow Farm pool, which Joe had access to as a tenant. Jeremy was a hardened skeptic who wanted to put to rest the rumors of hauntings on the property. In the water, Joe felt someone touch his back immediately before he claims to have been pulled under the water by an unseen force. He felt like he was being choked, as Herb Baumeister’s victims had been years before in the same pool. Jeremy, who witnessed the events, says Joe was clawing at his throat as though he were trying to get someone’s hands off his neck. Having known Joe a very long time, Jeremy is confident that his friend was genuinely scared for his life, and that something unseen had been trying to cause him harm. Bizarre events had become very mundane for Joe LeBlanc who was beginning to feel a constant presence in his kitchen and was hearing footsteps in the room. Frustrated, he finally faced the presence in his home after he investigated a metal scraping sound only to find a knife on the kitchen counter along with cuts in the wooden wall. Attempting what he had seen done on paranormal investigation shows, Joe turned off anything in his house that could make noise, and began to record audio from his computer. Although he felt silly, he asked who had been hanging out in his kitchen. Later, he got his answer from the recording, “The married one.”. Of all Herb Baumeister’s known victims, none of them were married- they were all single gay (or assumed gay) men. LeBlanc believes the voice he captured is that of Baumeister. It is true Herb did not die on the property and many are under the impression this is irrefutable evidence that the voice could not possibly that of the serial killer; However, many parapsychologists strongly believe, assuming the existence of spirits is real, it is not a requirement that a ghost be attached to the location of their death. It is possible that a spirit would, in certain situations, be more likely to return to the place they were most happy during their physical life, as opposed to spending a good chunk of eternity exactly where they met their demise. In Herb Baumeister’s case, it is very likely the best years of his life were those spent at Fox Hollow Farm, killing to his heart’s content. Despite his depression and his awareness that he had reached the end of the line and lost everything, Baumeister did not seem incredibly emotional about taking his own life. As he put it, he was just going to “go to sleep.”, perhaps hoping when he woke up he could return to his property and continue to torment his victims without fear of ever being caught. That being said, police think it very likely Baumeister murdered many more whose bodies have yet to be discovered on his property, or were dumped along the rural roads of Indiana and Ohio and were never officially identified as one of his victims. Therefor, it is possible Herb did at one point kill a married man, unknown to investigators. According to the Graves, the femur bone they located on the property was unable to be identified, and strange happenings still regularly occur at the estate.

From the same demented mind that brought you The Post-Mortem Post: FREAK

Victims of Terror

On the morning of April 19, 1995, Timothy McVeigh parked a Ryder truck, rigged to explode, outside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. 168 people were killed in this attack, and until September 11, 2001, which killed 2,977 people, it was the largest terrorist attack on American soil. Understandably, for those involved, the events of that day will never be forgotten, as is the case with 12 year old, Carson, and 7 year old, Cade. You may be wondering how these children could possibly be survivors of attacks which occurred before their birth- they are not survivors, they are both victims, reincarnated.
When Carson was 5 years old she was sitting at the kitchen table painting when she said, “Okla-Oklahoma” she then turned to her mother and asked, “Do you remember the man who acted nice, but was really mean, and he drove his truck into the building?”. She showed her mother the picture she had been painting and explained, “This is the building, and you can go out here on the top.”. The painting she showed her mother was of the Murrah Building, complete with its prominent rooftop exit. Not knowing what else to think, her mom, Beth, asked Carson’s older sisters Chloe and Claire if they had told their little sister about the Oklahoma City Bombings. Not only did they not tell her, they had no idea there had ever been a bombing in Oklahoma City until Carson began recalling memories of her past life. Gradually, Carson’s memories became more specific as she informed Beth that at the time of the bombing, she was in the “baby part” of the building, referring to the America’s Kids Day Care Center which was located on the 2nd floor, and that the building caught on fire and “it all fell down”. 16 children and 3 day care employees died that day in the attack, and although Carson does not remember her name from her last life, it is likely she was one of those 19 people. Carson stated, “I just remember I missed my mom. Not my mom now, my mom from Oklahoma and how I missed her a lot.” Carson has always wanted to visit Oklahoma City, and recently she visited the memorial there with her mother. Since returning from the trip, Carson hasn’t mentioned her past life and how it ended, finally finding closure, her mother hopes.
At 2 years of age, Cade was using complex words and was capable of holding intelligent conversations with adults. By the age of 3, the topic of many of those conversations was his traumatic death in the World Trade Center attacks. His parents, Rick and Molly, became concerned when their son began crying in the middle of the night and would wake up from nightmares, screaming. He had recurring dreams that he was working in an office in a tall building where he could see the Statue of Liberty from his window. Then, something hits the building and he falls down, along with the building. It was around this time he informed his grandmother, Fae, “If you’re falling a long way, you can hear your insides rattle.”. As his dreams became increasingly vivid, he told his parents that whatever had hit the building he was working in exploded, and that when he fell, he saw himself from above, hitting the ground and described seeing his brains come out of his head before being covered in rubble adding, “I didn’t feel it because I died”. Cade had not yet begun school, his family had no connections to anyone involved in 9/11 in any way, nor had he ever even visited New York. Rick and Molly were baffled by their son describing events he was unaware had ever taken place, and they were beginning to believe he may have been a victim of the terrorist attack. In addition to the nightmares, he is scared of planes flying overhead, worrying they will fall out of the sky, a fear which began long before he had seen video of a plane crash, or had even learned planes could crash. Tall buildings also make him uncomfortable and he hates going into downtown areas. In a video of Cade driving through an urban area with his family, he is seen cowering in the backseat of the car, staring down at the floorboard and shaking his head. Momentarily looking up at the buildings he says, “It feels creepy. I just don’t like to look up. I would not like to go in that tall building, oh no… That big, shiny one looks just like the twin tower. It brings back a lot of memories. I’m not going in, okay?”. He has even insisted to his mother that his name is not Cade, and he doesn’t like it. When he asked her to change his name and told her what he’d like to be called, Molly did some research. Sure enough, it was the name of a man killed in 9/11 whose details match up exactly to Cade’s description of his past life and how it ended. His parents have not attempted to contact the man’s family. They do not want to risk damaging his family’s grieving process and do not know how to tell them they believe their son is his reincarnation. While Caleb’s nightmares about his death continue, he says he “feels more and more comfortable being 7 years old.”.
It is widely believed that because children are so uninhibited, they are more likely to remember and share memories of a past life; However, as with most theories about what happens when we die, there is no way to prove or disprove reincarnation. So many young children have recalled detailed memories of past lives, which they would have absolutely no way of knowing, unless they experienced it themselves. It is it difficult to believe all the claims are false. Aside from ridicule, there is not much to be gained from faking a reincarnation story. Whether this phenomenon is real or not, thousands of children believe they have been here before, and are traumatized by memories of their death. Unfortunately, many of them are discouraged from speaking about how they died before they were born again and with age, lose these memories; Therefore, they are unable to resolve fears left over from another lifetime. Despite what you believe, if your child believes they were reincarnated, at least do them the courtesy of allowing them to share what they remember. Often, in order to truly begin living their current life, they must feel they’ve received closure from the last.

Read the update on Cade’s story.

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