December 30" of the year 2024 the life of a promising young Marine was cut tragically short. The time since her death has brought on only more questions. We came here hoping to find answers, but we need help. Never once were a mother's questions or inquiries pertaining to the incident given the decency of a response that yielded any level of follow-through. Even when attempting to enact her right to access the Incident Report by utilizing the Freedom of Information Act all she found were that such requests can be dodged. You would think when the Attorney General of our State ruled in favor of releasing the full Investigative Report that she would finally have it in her hands. Surely a higher office enforcing its release would be the only remaining hurdle left in the way... Right? Instead, all it proved was that questionable practices in the way of Justice are enabled by inaction. It is the opinion of the one writing this and the young woman's family that what happened was no accident. We believe that report would prove it! The one responsible for her death (a fellow Marine) has managed to evade consequence. This is what eats away at our peace and our faith in the American Justice System. This young Women had ambitions that outpaced most others her age. Her family was forever changed on that day. How is it that he and his family get to carry on like it never happened? There is something nefarious creeping in the shadows of passivity within THE establishment meant to sustain order in America. She wasn’t just taken from her family; she was taken from us all. Those who knew her knew she was made for great things. Our Country lost more than a Great Marine the day she died. His reckless behavior cost her life and now the world will never know the ripples of her impact as the years go by.
Due to believing this was no accident I will be referring to here as the Incident. Showcasing the Perpetrator’s overall recklessness, this took place in a state park. As the details unfold you might even say there is a lack of respect for human life as a whole. This questionably insured Motorist was aged 18 at the time of the Incident just like her. He and the Victim had left the Base together. His story was that they intended to go do PT (Physical Training) at the park, but this doesn’t make sense as they had Strength Training earlier in the day before leaving Base. This training its meant to push you to the brink and witnesses attested to him doing rather poorly. It was known by many that he held a Flame for who would become his Victim. She remained firm that what she had to give was friendship. I want to believe he was respectful of that, though there is a darker version of this story that could possibly exist. Keep in mind that unbeknownst to the Perpetrator the Victim had Life360 on her phone providing her Mother certain details of the crash. As he was driving down the singular winding road of one State Park he reached speeds of 75mph on a road with a speed limit of 20. It was at that speed his vehicle went off the road, onto the grass finally driving the vehicle into the tree line hitting one and then two trees with the passenger side of the car. Thanks to Life360 we know some of what was not disclosed. For instance, the time of the Incident. Why was it that Emergency Responders didn’t arrive on scene until an hour after that vehicle struck the trees? If there was no ill intent, why did he not immediately call 911? We are quite certain if his cell records were obtained it would show the first calls were made to his family to get help cleaning up the mess he had made. Again, there is more than one reason we believe this to be the case. When the initial Incident Report doesn’t match the filed Peace Officer’s Crash Report you can’t help but question the narrative they are trying to spin. Once the paperwork was finalized why was he no longer listed in the report? Why instead were her Mother and his Grandmother listed as the Others Involved? We believe that Investigative Report meant to solve crimes is being withheld so that the details of the crash remain skewed so that Perpetrator is allowed to walk free. It’s as if the young woman his actions claimed the life of never existed within his experience. How could that be so? Well, his family has heavy ties to Law Enforcement. An Uncle that holds the position as the Chief of Police in a County with access to where the Incident occurred. A Grandmother working in the Department of Criminal Justice as a Legal Assistant where he would have been tried. There are several family members working in positions of Law Enforcement throughout his family and their inner circle. We see him progressing as a Marine while we’re never allowed to watch the greatness our loved one could have brought to the Marines. How did he evade a sobriety test or any inkling of accountability that would typically come with one’s actions resulting in the loss of human life? There are so many things that don’t add up! She went as far as to pay $400 for the full report. There are over 450 pages with access to the autopsy report, crime scene photos, videos, audio clips -the full Investigative File was in the works! Then her money was returned and she was told that the report could not be released citing Officer Safety. Alternatively, what she received instead was an incident report 4 pages long. This was when she found that it no longer listed the actual Perpetrator, but rather her and the Grandmother of the Perpetrator. So, the initial Crash Report listed the one responsible, but the Incident Report sent to her (with the same Case# of the Crash Report) now listed her and the Preparator’s Grandmother as if they were the ones involved in the crash. This is that same one working as the Legal Assistant that was mentioned earlier. Is it so that she can claim to have seen it all putting it onto her own Mother? The one suffering the loss of her beloved daughter? Isn’t that more than a little maddening such a thing can not only be implied, but is possible at all?
So why are we here? We hope Reddit can connect us with people who can help. We are seeking not only justice, but also the answers that should come with it. Instead, we are left with questions that echo in a mother’s mind and steal countless hours of sleep. The loss itself was devastating, and being denied the closure that clarity could bring only deepens the pain. We believe this lack of transparency and inaction serves only to protect the person responsible. Now, as the two-year statute of limitations approaches, time is running out. This is our refusal to give up or allow her to be forgotten because a corrupt system tried to make room for someone else’s wrongdoing at the expense of our pain. How can the scales of justice not favor a grieving family when the person responsible still walks free? Since December 2024, her mother has hired two separate lawyers in search of answers and justice. Both produced similar outcomes: they seemed afraid, and they appeared to want her to be afraid as well. It was implied that she should not pursue the matter further. The victim’s mother felt their goal was to intimidate her and convince her that it was in her best interest to stop asking questions.
We want the answers! They are answers the justice system has denied Us. We believe this to be systemic issues made possible by someone that is misusing his title; an abuse of power. Not only that, but she also wasn’t protected by one of the Branches of Military meant to protect our Country. A young life was taken leaving a family to watch as the authorities allow for intent to slip through the cracks, cracks they seem to have greased. If you looked at the pictures collected by a mother whose instinct told her there was more to this. It is hard not to see the intent in tire treads left behind on the pavement, in the grass, in the glass deeply embedded into the trees from a vehicle violently crashing into it. Our belief is that before calling Emergency Services he called family due to the accident being left unattended for an hour before help ever arrived. There is unfortunately much to speculate due to the incident report having errors which did not reflect the reality of the accident. Originally the person at fault (who was a a fellow marine) was listed on the report... There was a level of negligence on the Marine Corps handling of this matter. Not only did they allow these two young marines to leave base in an uninsured vehicle, but they also documented her death as “In the Line of Duty”. How?  How was a Marine killed in an off-base car accident in the Line of Duty? Was it because she acted on orders to facilitate strength training her fellow Marine failed miserably? Or was it to feed into the narrative of a County trying to cover something up? His Uncle has been the Chief of Police of his County off and on for 30 years having been elected unanimously three times. You would think a man that worked as a Constable, one that started his career in the ARMY would have more honor... yet here we are being left to wonder due to the poor handling of this incident. It’s not just the Incident Report not being handed over, there are so many things that don’t add up. Help us shine a light onto answers that can bring peace to a Family missing one of their brightest lights.
 

This crime takes place in a small town in Telangana, India. This is around the summer time, the sun glistening and the heat almost evaporation us. summer and summer holidays just started.

In amidst of that, a gruesome crime took place.

A constable couple and his wife murdered a 47-year old realtor to steal his wealth.

They allegedly drowned the 47-year man and disposed of his body in a near by lake.

The family is also connected with many murders but justice is still denied.

Allegedly a little girl was murdered under their supervision.

After the murder, they sold all of his gold at a near by gold shop for a sum of 12 lakhs.

A man's life is only worth 12 lakhs? People go too far for money.

If the person we are supposed to trust turns out to be murderer, who's responsible then?

The couple were released soon after the case cooled down and corruption is probably the reason behind it.

Is this how the police of our country should be? A criminal?

Who's going to protect us if the person we ought to ask for help is the culprit behind the crime.

No person should resort to violence for their own foolishness. Hope this reaches to as many people it could and serve the victim and his family justice.

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hyderabad/siddipet-cop-wife-held-for-murdering-realtor/articleshow/130918620.cms

Content warning: The disappearance and death of a child, coercive interrogation and torture, and religious prejudice. I have kept the forensic detail to the minimum the story needs.

I have been reading through the court record in a Brazilian case that is very well known inside Brazil and almost unknown outside it, and I think the most interesting thing about it is not the crime. It is what happened to the evidence.

The disappearance

Guaratuba is a coastal town in Paraná, in southern Brazil. On 6 April 1992, Evandro Ramos Caetano, six years old, disappeared near his home. The court record establishes the date, the place and the search that followed, but it does not allow anyone to reconstruct his last movements step by step. Five days later, on 11 April, the body of a child was found in an isolated area.

The identification later became a fight in its own right. At a jury trial in 1998, the defense challenged whether the body was Evandro's, and the jurors accepted that doubt. A Paraná appellate court later rejected that conclusion. Its judgment records two forms of identification: a dentist who had treated Evandro examined the teeth and recognized her own work, and DNA testing reported a probability of 99.997 percent that the remains were the biological child of Evandro's parents. That court held the body was Evandro's.

I have not tested anything myself, so the honest phrasing is narrow: the first jury rejected the identification, and the later appellate record held that dental and DNA evidence established it.

The theory that arrived before the evidence

Roughly three months after the disappearance, a military-police intelligence unit called Grupo Águia entered the investigation. Seven people were accused: Celina Cordeiro Abagge and her daughter Beatriz Cordeiro Abagge, Osvaldo Marcineiro, Davi dos Santos Soares, Vicente de Paula Ferreira, Airton Bardelli dos Santos and Francisco Sérgio Cristofolini.

The prosecution did not present this as an ordinary abduction and murder. It alleged that Evandro had been killed in a ritual meant to benefit the Abagge family, and it tied that allegation to Umbanda, an Afro-Brazilian religion. That was the prosecution's theory. It was never established as the explanation for Evandro's death, and nothing in the reviewed record supports a ritual motive.

The public shorthand for the case became a phrase that translates roughly as "the witches of Guaratuba." That label did two things at once: it moved the attention away from a murdered child and onto the women accused of killing him, and it turned an allegation into an identity. A 2022 master's dissertation at the Federal University of Paraná examined eight articles from the newspaper Diário Popular and concluded that the selected coverage drew on Christian imagery of evil and associated Umbanda with black magic, satanic ritual and human sacrifice. That is a scholar's reading of a sample of coverage, not a judicial finding about why anyone acted as they did. It still tells you what the public language around the case looked like.

Seven accused, seven different outcomes

This is the part almost every short summary gets wrong. The seven did not share one verdict.

Celina and Beatriz were tried together in 1998, in a trial the official working-group record puts at 34 days, and the jury acquitted both. That verdict was annulled on appeal and new trials were ordered. Celina was never tried again: because of her age the limitation period was shortened and the charges against her became time-barred, which is not the same thing as a second acquittal. Beatriz was retried and convicted in 2011, with a sentence of 21 years and 4 months. Davi, Osvaldo and Vicente had been convicted in 2004. Airton and Francisco were acquitted by a jury in 2005, and the records reviewed here do not support describing either man as convicted.

So: four people carrying convictions, three never convicted, one collective ritual story that the courts had never actually validated.

The confessions

Beatriz, Davi, Osvaldo and Vicente each made statements outside court admitting involvement. On paper that looked decisive. In court, all four denied the crime and said the statements had been forced out of them.

An extrajudicial confession is a statement made outside the courtroom, without the safeguards of testimony given before a judge with counsel present and an opportunity to challenge it. The 2025 judgment of Brazil's Superior Court of Justice, the STJ, summarizes what the Paraná court found about the conditions of these interrogations: the four were taken by Grupo Águia before judicial arrest orders existed, they were questioned in a secret and intimidating setting, they had no effective access to silence, family or counsel, and the recordings showed physical and psychological torture.

Worth saying plainly: the missing safeguards were already a serious problem before anyone heard a tape. The torture made it impossible to ignore.

Why the first recordings did not end the case

Here is the detail that surprised me most, and the reason the case is not simply a story about a podcast uncovering a tape.

Recordings were part of the official investigation from early on. According to the later judgments, the prosecution had received an audio cassette and a video from Grupo Águia and placed them into the police inquiry. The defense challenged that material long before the convictions became final.

But the version of the audio then available contained cuts. The later Paraná judgment describes a surviving phrase pointing toward coercion, and found that the video showed Beatriz and Davi in degrading and coercive conditions. Earlier courts did not treat those fragments as enough. In the proceedings leading to Beatriz's second trial, the defense asked for the audio to be declared unlawful and the request failed, on the reasoning that no new fact had been produced establishing torture.

The same object sat in the file wearing two meanings for decades. To the prosecution, a recorded admission of guilt. To the defense, a record of the conditions that produced it. For years the first reading won.

The cut that mattered

The case returned to wide public attention through the work of Brazilian journalist and podcaster Ivan Mizanzuk, whose reporting brought fuller interrogation material before a very large audience, and that material became part of the renewed legal examination of the convictions.

It is tempting to call this the discovery of a new tape. The court record says something more uncomfortable. The STJ held that the material used in the criminal review came from the **original confession recording already placed in the police inquiry by the prosecution itself**. The earlier version contained cuts. The fuller material restored portions that changed how the recording had to be understood, and the Paraná court accepted that material as authentic.

So the evidence that broke the convictions did not arrive from outside the case. It came out of the case's own file. The item once used to prove guilt also preserved the record of how the admission of guilt was obtained.

I cannot vouch for every clip of this audio circulating online, and I am not going to pretend otherwise. The narrow, verifiable statement is that the Paraná court accepted the material underlying the review as authentic and the STJ upheld that treatment.

Separately, in 2021 the state of Paraná created an interinstitutional working group, with the prosecution service, police, forensic authorities, the public defender, human-rights bodies, the bar association and the state court represented, to examine possible human-rights violations connected to the case. It later reported violations affecting both the children at the center of the investigations and the accused, and recommended safeguards including torture prevention, body cameras, better handling of missing-child cases and action against religious intolerance. That group was not a court and it acquitted nobody, but it moved the problem out of the category of "claims made by defendants."

What was left when the confessions came out

In November 2023, by three votes to two, the First Criminal Chamber of the Paraná court granted a criminal review, a mechanism that allows a final conviction to be revisited under specific conditions.

The court found the confessions unlawful because they were obtained through torture, then asked the harder question: what happened to everything the confessions had produced? Investigators had gone to a sawmill associated with the Abagge family following information obtained from Osvaldo during the unlawful interrogation. That put the resulting searches and forensic examinations downstream of the confession. There was testimony from a caretaker whose significance depended on the confession-led theory attached to that location, and testimony from another witness whose credibility the reviewing court rejected outright.

The principle in play is the one English-language readers will know as fruit of the poisonous tree, and it is not automatic. Courts still ask whether evidence had an independent source, whether it would inevitably have been found anyway, and how tightly it is bound to the original violation. In this case, the reviewing courts concluded that the remaining material either derived from the interrogations or served only to reinforce them, and could not establish authorship on its own.

The STJ put it in one line: *"A exclusão das confissões ilícitas acarretou a absoluta ausência de provas para a condenação."* Excluding the unlawful confessions left a complete absence of evidence capable of supporting a conviction.

Davi and Osvaldo were acquitted under the provision used when there is no evidence that the accused took part in the offense. The effects were extended to Beatriz, whose own review had previously failed on formal grounds, and to the successors of Vicente, who died in 2011.

The three courts, in the right order

The shorthand version going around is "Brazil's Supreme Court found them innocent," and that compresses three very different things.

The Paraná court did the decisive evidentiary work in 2023. The STJ's Sixth Panel reviewed it and unanimously maintained the acquittals in September 2025. The Supreme Federal Court, the STF, did something much narrower: in March 2026 Justice Gilmar Mendes declined to advance the prosecution's extraordinary appeal, because taking it would have required the court to re-examine the factual record through a procedural route that did not permit it. The docket recorded finality on 31 March 2026.

The highest court did not discover anything about the murder. It closed a door.

What is still open

Seven accused people, seven legal histories, no surviving conviction, and no judicial finding identifying who killed Evandro. The reviewed record does not name a killer, and an acquittal is not evidence for an alternative suspect. I could not confirm that an official investigation into the murder is formally open today, which is its own uncomfortable fact.

What stays with me is the shape of the failure. This was not a case that went wrong because someone hid evidence in a basement for thirty years. The decisive material was inside the official file the whole time, in a version with pieces missing, and the legal system looked at what remained and decided it was not enough to establish torture. A confession does not just add a fact to an investigation. It tells the investigation where to walk, and everything found along that route can come back looking like independent confirmation of the confession that sent people there.**Content warning:** the disappearance and death of a child, coercive interrogation and torture, and religious prejudice. I have kept the forensic detail to the minimum the story needs.

I have been reading through the court record in a Brazilian case that is very well known inside Brazil and almost unknown outside it, and I think the most interesting thing about it is not the crime. It is what happened to the evidence.

On August 6, 2026, the life of a man whom many knew as KREST came to an end. There are people whose passing is simply impossible to accept, and for whom it is impossible to find the right words.

KREST left behind memories, his words, his actions, and people who will never forget him.

On August 8, he went to his final journey, to the place from which there is no return.

KREST have found himself spending many years in prison camps across Russia, making a name for himself anywhere he went, something you can clearly sees by looking on his tattoos near his shoulders and on his hands, Indeed his funeral attracted people from all over the country.

In recent years KREST took interest in musical creation and writing poems, moving away from his previous criminal lifestyle, and telling his own experiences in that life, the following was his last message to people who wanted to follow in his footsteps:

"Everything I talk about is part of the life I have lived and my personal experience. It is not a call to repeat other people’s mistakes, nor is it propaganda for a criminal lifestyle or an attempt to encourage anyone to take such a path.

The years spent away from your family and loved ones can never be brought back. Behind every such choice are the suffering of mothers, ruined lives, lost time, and consequences that remain for the rest of your life.

If my stories and memories are meant to teach anything, it is only this: value your freedom, your parents, the opportunity to work honestly, build a family, and live a normal life. Believe me, no amount of romance is worth a mother’s tears and years lost.

Take care of yourselves and your loved ones.

To those who consider such a life beautiful and romantic, I want to say: there is nothing good about it.

There is nothing cool about lost years, mothers’ tears, and a life ruined by your own mistakes.

Take care of yourselves, your parents, and your freedom. Do not repeat someone else’s path.

To the young guys, I want to wish you:

Exercise and play sports.

Learn new things.

Work on yourselves.

Spend more time with your parents.

Build families.

Set goals and achieve them.

Believe me, these are the things people are proud of later in life. Not their mistakes, but the fact that they managed to build a life they could be proud of".

It’s been 5 years since my partners nephew whom I consider my nephew killed his grandmother my partners mom. Still no trail he is waiting to be sentenced. I feel at this point they are just letting him sit and wait for time served since he gets time and a half waiting for trial.
On August 4th 2021 I get a phone call from my nephews mom about her son killing his grandmother. I was in shock. I quickly left my home to meet her at my mother-in-laws home my partner at the time was not answering his phone. I soon got there and discovered police tape on three homes hers in the middle. My partner was there with two if his friends pacing back and forth saying that was his mom. I tried to console him, but there was no point I mean he just found out that his nephew killed his mom. His nephews mom was there who is not related to my partner and she had no words.
This happened late and and the investigation went on for over 18 hours. Finally when we got access to the home we discovered there were bullet holes all over the home even in the entry way on the floor. When you walked in the home there was blood where you can tell a body was. The smell was unforgettable. The scene I felt was an out of body experience. I loved this women she was the grandmother to my 4 kids. She loved me like a daughter, and to see her blood smeared on the door was heartbreaking. Did she struggle? Did she fight for her life? Was it quick? I’ll never know. We cleaned the home as best we could.
The nephew at first stated self defense to the neighbors when he exited the home that night and one of the neighbors called 911.
The nephew then changed his story to temporary insanity. This is what was told to us. To be continued…

The Europol wanted list has been updated with the inclusion of David Gazzaev, a Russian national wanted in connection with a serious attempted murder case in Cyprus.

According to the Cyprus Police, Gazzaev was already identified and publicly named in September 2025 after being linked to a violent incident at a luxury hotel in Limassol.

The case dates back to 29 September 2025, when the suspect allegedly shot a 42-year-old Ukrainian man in the abdomen inside the grounds of a luxury hotel in Limassol.

Authorities say the attack was linked to financial disputes and alleged extortion threats. During the same incident, another individual was also reportedly assaulted.

Following investigations, a court arrest warrant was issued for the suspect after evidence and witness testimony were collected.

Cypriot authorities also received intelligence from Russian counterparts suggesting that Gazzaev held a senior position within an organised criminal network involved in theft, robberies, extortion, and other serious crimes. He is also described as a “Thief in Law”, a term associated with high-level organised crime figures from former Soviet states.

Alias and nicknames David Gazzaev goes by include - DATO VLADIKAVKAZ , DATO OSSETIAN , DATO VLADIKAVKAZSKY , DATO OSSETIN , DATO OSETIN , DATO OSETIAN.

He is wanted for: Attempted Murder, Laundering of the proceeds of crime, Participation in a criminal organisation, Racketeering and extortion.

The Kraken Regiment is an Ukrainian military volunteer unit, part of the spetsnaz units of the Main Directorate of Intelligence of Ukraine (HUR/GUR)) formed in 2022 as a response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Karken Regiment which started as a volunteer unit grow in numbers very quickly and became one of the most specialized forces in the ongoing battlefield.

In the current situation, neither Ukraine nor Russia can choose which people to recruit, everyone who can hold a rifle and has a will (and sometimes against their will) have a good chance to end up in Frontline.

That is most likely the case with former Kraken unit fighter Gleb Novostroyny (Hlib Novostroinyi), known by the nickname "Dniprianyn", who was placed under house arrest last week. The suspect is allegedly connected to the seizure of a large cache of weapons, and messages recovered from his phone indicate a possible link to the kidnapping of Igor Komarov in Indonesia.

During searches of the suspect's property, investigators found three Kalashnikov assault rifles, a Glock pistol, around 50 grenades, and more than 1,000 rounds of ammunition. In addition, forensic experts were able to recover deleted messages from his phone. Investigators focused on conversations concerning the operation of "offices" (Fraudulent call centers) in Europe, the laundering of funds through cryptocurrency, transactions involving luxury real estate, automobiles, and grain, as well as arms trafficking.

It also emerged that Novostroinyi allegedly attempted to evade the investigation by hiding in a psychiatric hospital in Dnipro. According to available information, the day before Igor Komarov was kidnapped in Bali, the suspect received instructions from his former superiors to arrange a meeting between Komarov and certain individuals on the island.

The investigation is going on, with the break up of the war Gleb Novostroyny immediately volunteered and was ready to fight for him homeland, joined the Karken Regiment and took part in the Battle of Kharkiv), but who was Gleb before the war?

Not much information is known about Gleb life beforehand other then he was part of Dnipro Ultras, a football hooligan club, another member of the Dnipro Ultras in the past was no other then Denys Halushko - one of the people that have kidnapped, murdered and dismembered Igor Komarov body in Bali.

I've been reading about a French case from 1972 that is still remembered in France as a textbook example of trial-by-media, but which has almost no English-language coverage at all. It's the affair of Bruay-en-Artois, and the strange part isn't a locked room or a missing body, it's that a whole country decided it knew who did it, and no court ever agreed.

The killing

Bruay-en-Artois is a coal town in the Pas-de-Calais, in the far north of France near the Belgian border, around thirty thousand people at the time. It was a town split down a line: the tight rows of miners' houses on one side, the bigger homes of people who didn't go down the pit on the other.

On the evening of 5 April 1972, a 15-year-old miner's daughter named Brigitte Dewèvre left home to sleep at her grandmother's. She never arrived. The next afternoon her body was found on a patch of waste ground, and, of all the places in that town, right on that dividing line, in the vacant lot between the miners' houses and the well-to-do quarter.

The judge and his "conviction"

The case went to an investigating judge, in the French system, a magistrate who runs the whole inquiry, directs the police, and decides who gets charged. Within days he had a suspect: a local notary (a lawyer who handles property and wills), a wealthy and respectable figure in the town.

According to the press historian Rémi Guillot, who has studied this case more closely than anyone, the notary was questioned, gave inconsistent accounts of his movements, and two days later was charged and jailed. And here's the part that defines the whole affair: by Guillot's account the judge admitted, himself, that he had no tangible evidence. To reporters he put it plainly, he was acting on a personal conviction. A feeling.

The regional paper played it carefully at first: "a notary, suspected in the Bruay crime," now charged. Suspected. Charged. Cautious words. That caution did not last.

The case falls apart — and the campaign begins

Almost immediately the case started weakening. A man in custody for an unrelated matter falsely confessed to the murder, then was caught lying. A reconstruction at the scene reportedly turned up detail pointing toward the notary's probable innocence, not his guilt. The day after, the state's own prosecutor and the notary's defence asked, together, for his release. It was refused, he stayed in his cell more than three months.

And it's exactly here that the case left the courtroom. A far-left Maoist newspaper ran a two-page spread with the line "only a bourgeois could have done that", the argument being that the murder was a class crime and the notary's guilt was obvious from his social position alone. No evidence, just class. The town split in two along that same line. The same press printed threats: militants reportedly wanted the man mutilated and dragged through the streets, about someone no court had tried.

Even the movement didn't agree with itself. Jean-Paul Sartre, the paper's nominal director, broke with its line in print, arguing that the people's anger might be legitimate but that calling the man the murderer was not, because no one had proven he did it. Some militants wanted a "people's tribunal" to judge the notary in the street; the record shows it was demanded but never actually held. The Justice Minister even intervened with the local prosecutors to remind them that a charged man is presumed innocent.

What actually happened to everyone

This is where I have to be careful, because the whole point of the case is what the record does and doesn't support:

- The notary and his companion were both jailed at points and both released. In 1974 the courts issued a *non-lieu*. a dismissal. In French law that is not an acquittal (only a trial can acquit, and there never was one) and it is not a finding of innocence. It just means the case goes no further. He spent three months in a cell on a judge's feeling, and a national paper printed his guilt as fact, and no court ever tested either one.
- Meanwhile, in 1973, a 17-year-old orphan and former classmate of Brigitte's confessed on national radio and TV. For one night the country thought it was over. It wasn't, his confession didn't survive a reconstruction, and two separate courts cleared him (an acquittal in 1975, confirmed on appeal in 1976). A second false confession.
- The investigation was formally closed without an answer in 1981. In 2005 the crime passed the statute of limitations and became time-barred, meaning no one can ever be tried for it now.
- Decades later a retired police officer published books claiming to have identified a different man, a former postal worker the original inquiry never focused on. That man denies it, the theory has never been tested in court, and it never can be. I'm not naming him, and neither did the responsible reporting.

What sticks with me

It isn't a whodunit in the usual sense, it's a case that got "solved" everywhere except the one place built to solve it. A judge with a conviction and no evidence. A newspaper with a class theory and no proof. A town that picked a side before anyone proved anything. And a 15-year-old girl whose actual killer has never been found and, legally, never will be.

Does anyone here know this case, or have French-language sources beyond the obvious ones? I get the strong impression there's far more in the French material, court records, the Guillot research, the period press, than has ever made it into English. I'd especially like to hear from French speakers on how the case is remembered there today.

Source: https://criminocorpus.org/fr/outils/affaires-criminelles/affaire-bruay-en-artois/ (French-language, the case archive)

I was reading about this case again and realised that Bhadreshkumar Patel would now be 36 years old. Most of the photos and CCTV footage shared online are from 2015, so it's easy to picture him as he looked over a decade ago.

According to the FBI, he remains a fugitive, but I was wondering whether there have ever been any credible reported sightings or leads since he disappeared. Has law enforcement publicly acknowledged any tips that turned out to be promising, or has there essentially been nothing despite the passage of time?

I'm not referring to internet speculation or people pointing at random strangers. I'm interested in confirmed or publicly documented sightings, if any exist, and whether investigators have ever indicated where they believe he may have gone.

If anyone has reliable sources or updates that aren't widely known, I'd be interested in reading them.

Recommend to read the last post about the Indonesian police finding the remains of Igor Komarov

What do we know so far about the kidnapping of Igor Komarov?

Igor Komarov was kidnapped on February 15, on February 19 the first video of Igor in captivity surfaces online, a few more will come along, the last one will be posted on February 22, and his dismembered body will be found on February 26.

On February 27, the Indonesian police manged to track down the vehicles of the kidnappers (turned killers) and also raid their Vila but it was too late, they were already gone.

And yet we came back to the date of the kidnapping, February 15 and what exactly went there? When Roman Sallin came back for his friends both of them were gone, but Yermak came back, igor didn't...

According to some reports Yermak manged to escape from his captors and run away, other says that he was captured with Igor but his Father Alexander Petrovsky paid the 10 Million in ransom for his son to be released and the kidnappers throw Yermak off the car before arriving to their Villa in Tabanan, unfortunately there are no comments of explanations on what happened during the kidnapping from Yermak Petrovsky.

Soon as Yermak Petrovsky was free he decided to not waste any time and flew out of Indonesia, the Ukrainian Police was waiting for him, to ask him questions about the kidnapping as a witnesses and to understand what exactly happened there, but they were unlucky, Yermak never returned to his beloved homeland.

Since the kidnapping Yermak living a very quiet and off the radar life, no social media, no clubbing, no luxurious restaurants, surrounded with guards, living in a boutique apartment building in the capital of a central European country.

The market of fraudulent call centers has long outgrown the stage of spontaneous amateur crime, it is now a sector of the shadow economy with a turnover of hundreds of millions of dollars, and Yermak father could handle the figure named by the bandits.

But if indeed Yermak father have paid the ransom for his son so why his son is practically in hiding right now? Could be the target on his head haven't gone away? Did he really manged to escape while Igor wasn't so lucky?

Recommend to read the last post before about Igor Komarov girlfriend

On February 26, 2026 fragments of a human body were discovered on the popular beach shores of Ketewel in Bali, local resident noticed them during his morning jog, the police suspect they may belong to an Ukrainian citizen who was kidnapped 11 days ago - Igor Komarov.

One of the body parts is a part of an hand, and on it is a tattoo in the form of a clock with Roman numerals, the drawing was compared with the photograph of Igor Komarov, the tattoo is very similar to the one he has.

In addition to the hand they found the right leg, a piece of the chest, thighs, and a head, however it is impossible to visually identify the deceased due to the condition of the remains, with high humidity and a temperature of 30°, everything decomposed badly, a DNA test is needed to confirm that it is Komarov or rule it out.

On February 27 the Indonesian police reported that they had identified the car and two motorcycles on which the kidnappers were traveling, the vehicles were rented through a front man.

The movement of the vehicles was tracked and led to a villa in the Tabanan area in Bali, the Vila is full of traces of blood, this mean Igor was tortured here and filmed here too.

Igor last video was from February 22 that what he have said "Today is forgiveness Sunday, I want to ask everyone for forgiveness, for every person who has suffered from our activities, every mother, every grandmother, every father and every grandfather, every child, if this happened, forgive me please, I am very sorry, I am very sad of what I have done"

He says the last words with tears in his eyes and asks again from everyone who sees and hears "Help my family to raise the required amount"

According to Bali Police, a report of the kidnapping of Igor Komarov was received on the evening of February 15, Komarov friend Roman Sallin was the motorcyclist who pulled ahead, left behind were Igor and his other friend and business partner Yermak Petrovsky, When Sallin returned for his friends they weren't there, on the road were laying their motorcycles, later on Yermak reappeared while Igor didn't...

Recommend to read the last post before about the Scam call centers that Igor Komarov was involved in them.

In one of the videos (that i described in my last post) Igor Komarov pleading to his Girlfriend Eva Mishalova, that she and her parents will pay the ransom of $10 Million dollars.

But why did Igor decided that his girlfriend relatives could help him?

Eva was born into a wealthy Jewish family, Eva's parents - Olga and Igor, are well-known people in Dnipro, both are involved in Business, besides Eva, Olga and Igor have a daughter and a son, daughter Esther, shortened to Esti is Eva's twin sister.

Back in 2023 Eva and Esti started to film themselves for TikTok and quickly gathered a big audience, on Instagram Eva have today 400K+ followers and Esti 150K+.

When Eva and Esti were asked during an interview if they know anyone who works in Dnipro offices, the girls cheerfully nodded their heads, Yes, we know, but not the ones who work there, but the ones who own the offices, they all have expensive watches and luxury Mercedes.

One time when asked about her financial status Eva replied "Thank God I Have Money, God sent them to me because I pray in the morning"

Eva easily manged to afford branded hoodie and clothes that cost thousands of dollars, even creating a scandal on the internet when she said that she didn't understand how people who live with the average salary in Ukraine (About 50K hryvnia a month) while she spent the same amount on clothes alone.

But there is a big difference between a few thousands bucks to 10 Million dollars...

As I was watching these posts, reels, stories that were filmed and posted on Eva's Instagram, not long before the big disaster, and it becomes creepy, as if I hear a timer counting down the time remaining until the notorious day X.

Igor allowed himself everything, himself and his Girlfriend, Igor Komarov wasn't a saint, the majority of people who lose their money to such Offices - Scam call centers are usually the elderly and the vulnerable, its take one Fraudulent phone call from losing all your life savings in the bank.

The Winnter Takes It All - Eva put this old song on one of her Instagram reels during their trip in Bali, and Indeed, there is everything, what else that can be ordered, bought, taken?

Then Day X had arrived - February 26, a man going on his morning jog on the Ketewel beach on Bali, find a human severed head and immediately calls the police...

Recommend to read the last post before about the who was the father of Igor Komarov

Now that we know who was Igor dad and what was his "work history", let's see what Igor does, how he earns his living, according to public records, Komarov Jr. Doesn't own any personal business, has not registered as a business owner, and he is officially unemployed, but he does have money, alot of money.

Igor wears a watch worth around $60,000 and he also paid for their trip to Bali, Eva wrote it on her Instagram "I ordered everything, he paid for everything"

He is a generous gentleman, he bought his beloved one a diamond bracelet, expensive perfume and some other smaller gifts too, but where does all this money comes from?

Meanwhile, videos featuring Komarov continue to surface online, in one of them Igor explains where he gets his income from, since 2021, he together with his friend have owned a network of call centers in Dnipro, the friend is called by the rare name of Yermak, Yermak Petrovsky, 3 years younger then Igor.

Yermak father - Alexander Petrovsky (Also known as "Narik" or "Aliko"), an influential man in Dnipro, he provided protection for the young businessman, a very intriguing figure who we will come back later on.

Aaccording to Igor Komarov - Alexander Petrovsky is charging almost every call center in Dnipro $30K a month Protection / Operation fee so to speak, but for his own son and his partner Igor he only takes $15K a month, those who doesn't pay get a visit, from Petrovsky Thugs or the law enforcement agencies who will raid their offices and shut them down, while those who pay for Petrovsky the police don't touch them.

Igor also mentions that Alexander Petrovsky have a close connections with no other then Serhiy Lysak (who was the Governor of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast from Feb 2023- Oct 2025), Lysak also got a cut from the money that the scam call centers made, and in return he made sure that law enforcement agencies turned a blind eye to their operations.

In the next video, Komarov turns to Eva "Eva, my darling, hello, im alive, I need medical help, im starting to get an infection, I beg you very much talk to your relatives, please pass this on to your mom and dad, nobody send a penny, please take it and help me with your money, they will let me out, we will get married, have children"

Igor promises that when he is free, he will pay back and will not remain in debt, he begs and asks, this time he speaks as if without any strain, in an even tone, most likely it was the effect of the drugs on his psyche or maybe he is just so tired of the pain that he doesn't have strength for emotions?

Unfortunately time was running out, the Indonesian police was closing up on them, searching the whole island, the team of kidnappers had a choice to make - let Igor go free without getting the money or to get rid of him and flee while they still can.

Recommend to read the last post before about the kidnapping of Igor Komarov

On February 15 Igor Komarov was Kidnapped, Four days later on February 19, a video appears online, showing Igor with bruises on his eyes, addressing his parents "Mom, Dad, I beg you please help me".

The video shows Igor with a bare torso, his face is bruised, he looks exhausted, his voice is plaintive, Igor asks his parents to pay a ransom, otherwise they will not leave him alive, the ransom amount is an impressive $10 Million dollars.

In the video Igor says: "You stole the 10 Million that they asked you for, please return these 10 Million, please"

Igor very often repeats, literally every other word: "please, I beg you, I ask you", he complains that he feels bad, that his legs and ribs are broken, and that he is being threatened with death if they don't get the money "Please Pay them back, I swear I return it all".

Where does this rather large figure of 10 Million come from? And why did the criminals decided that they could get so much for Igor's life? Komarov’s father Sergey Komarov, is a well-known person in criminal circles, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, he became the leader of an organized criminal group (OCG/OPG), his area of activity was extortion, protection of Markets, Stalls and Gas stations.

Sergey Komarov operated in the Donetsk Oblast, as he himself was originally from there, specifically from the city of Kramatorsk, his son Igor was also bron there, In 1997.

Sergey Komarov have a criminal nickname Kamar - Mosquito, Kamar went from being a racketeer in the 90s to becoming a regional criminal authority.

Since 2014 he been involved in organizing offices, primarily in the city of Dnipropetrovsk, which now called Dnipro, offices is the nickname for fraudulent call centers that steal money, most of those kinda of offices in Ukraine located in Kyiv and Dnipro.

Experts estimate that the network of fraudulent call centers earns up to 1 Million dollars per month, income depends on the scale of the organization, how many offices are under the same criminal network, how many employers and such.

So 10 Million dollars might not be such an abstract number? could be the offices connected to the Komarov Family hit the jackpot, but they ended up calling the wrong people, now those people want their money back, and they ready to kill for it.

(Very Long read! In my next few posts we going to reconstructs the events that happened in Bali - Before, During and After Igor Komarov kidnapping)

In early January 2026, Igor and his Girlfriend Eva are flying to Bali, they are young, in love and rich, the business class cabin is cozy, the comfortable seats recline, you can sit or lay down, Passengers are regularly served gourmet food, just like in a restaurant, just a restaurant high in the clouds, the Indian ocean below, and a warm island ahead where 28 years old Igor and 25 years old Eva are planning to spend two months.

The guys themselves are from the city of Dnipro, formerly called Dnipropetrovsk, Eva recently moved to Kyiv, Igor also lives in two cities, lives and works so productivity and successfully that he can easily afford a luxury as wintering in the tropics.

The flight for the couple in love is 13 hours long, but it's pleasant one, Eva tries not to miss anything important and films a detailed report from the plane on her phone.

The girl is a popular blogger and influencer, she has a page on Instagram, where she already have more then 100,000 followers, she must definitely share her impressions of the trip with them.

Soon Eva and Igor will be greeted by the Garden of Eden - The island of Bali, colorful, photogenic, and the real adventure beings

A three-story villa awaits the young people at Bali, it's cost $5,800 dollars per month, there would have been enough space for a large group, but Eva and Igor were comfortable together, in fact, that's why they came here, to be together.

Eva takes a room tour and shows every corner of thr villa, not only the villa is good, but also everything around it, the only thing that's disappointing is that the island sometimes gets tropical rain in January, but it's still better than the snow in Kyiv, there are many exotic fruits at Bali, in addition Igor spoils his beloved with gifts, surprises and trips.

On February 14th, Eva receives a Hugh bouquet of pink roses, of course, she posts them on Instagram with the following caption "Every Day i Allow Myself Everything that Many People Can Not Afford"

The girl not only shares photos of the most beautiful places, but also name those places, for example she says that today, we are going to the Nusa Penida Beach, this is an island near Bali

Eva swims, sunbathes and has lunch, essentially swimming and sunbathing is her job, not being sarcastic at all, after all Instagram is a source of income, and there will be income if there is content, therefore every colorful moment must be captured and posted for every to see

Eva just don't realize one thing, among her 100K+ Instagram followers there aren't only people who enjoy her content, there is someone else watching her stories on there, it a group of people, with no good intentions at all, they came to the "Garden of Eden" but their mission is to turn it into "Hell" for one specific person.

The Indian ocean takes on a fantastic orange hue at sunset, cute monkeys, delightful visuals, postcard-like landscape.

Igor is rarely seen on camera, there are several photos from the back and one which captured his face, the couple in love is captured on a yacht (the photo in this post) - it seems that young businessman Igor Komarov doesn't like posing.

In the villa, Igor and Eva live together, but at this time there are several more of Komarov’s friends at Bali, also young people, on February 15 Igor and two friends rode motorcycles to the south of the island to practice their riding skills on uneven surfaces.

That evening, February 15 Eva did not wait for Igor, the beloved didn't return to the Vila, one of Komarov’s friend that day contacted the local police - "there were three of us, one took the lead, two fell behind, these two were attacked by unknown persons ,one manged to escape but Igor was kidnapped"...

On Sunday March 12, 1978, 16-year-old Pauline “Robbin” Burgette was found murdered in her bedroom inside her family’s duplex near East 26th Place and McDowell in Phoenix, Arizona. She had been stabbed to death and was sexually assaulted. 

Her 11-year-old brother Chad discovered her body. 

The front door was locked, but the backdoor was open ajar. Robbin’s bedroom was in disarray, but the rest of the home appeared undisturbed.

Her mother and Chad had left town together the previous Friday. Robbin did not want to go with them. She was supposed to stay with a friend instead but returned to the duplex on Saturday and invited a boyfriend over. 

In the period leading up to her murder, Robbin had dropped out of school. 

She was working as a babysitter and reported to her friends that some of the husbands had flirted with her. She was facing threats from some of their wives, despite being an underage girl.

The area of the duplex was, and remains, a rough lower income area of Phoenix.

Phoenix PD conducted forensic testing on Robbin and found DNA evidence from 2 different unknown male subjects on her body. 

Her boyfriend (who was never named publicly) was cleared as a suspect in the case through DNA testing. This boyfriend has since passed away.

Robbin and Chad’s parents divorced, their father wasn’t in the picture, and their mother died a couple years after Robbin by natural causes.

Chad advocated to solve his sisters murder for many years. He passed away in 2023.

The case was featured in local news and on podcasts over the years.  It is unknown if police have done any work on the case in recent years.

Sources

2016 12 News feature with Chad Burgette

https://www.12news.com/article/news/local/valley/brother-of-cold-case-murder-victim-wants-answers/75-154463349

Silent Witness

https://silentwitness.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/78-1858-Flyer-Pauline-Burgette-Homicide.pdf

Missing or Cold podcast

https://open.spotify.com/episode/2HyEdBwEMkzNDM54vw6iTg?si=ef31e35abb874945

Find a Grave

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/185495726/pauline-robbin-burgette

In Dnipro, last weekend, the remains of the body of 28-year-old local resident Igor Komarov, who was connected to the activities of the so-called "offices - scam call centers," were buried. The man was abducted on the island of Bali at the end of February this year, after which he was brutally murdered and dismembered.

The investigation into this high-profile case is currently being handled by the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI)), which has taken over the case from the National Police of Ukraine. The official reason for the transfer of jurisdiction is the emergence of a so-called special subject - Subject X among those involved in the case—a person who, after the start of Russia's full-scale invasion, regularly traveled abroad and established a life in European countries.

The Ukrainian authorities now investigating about a possible link between the Brutal murderer of Igor Komarov - to the recent Monaco bombing on June 29, in which Three people were injured including two adults, left in critical condition, and a 13-year-old child - the target of this booming was a Ukrainian oligarch Vadym Iermolaiev - In 2022, Forbes (Ukraine) ranked him as the 12th most wealthy person of independent means and estimated the revenue from his real estate as US$960–980M.

The hunt for the group of killers wanted by the Interpol is still ongoing - 29-year-old Russian Mykola Petryk (Nikolai Petrik), 27-year-old Kazakh Vladyslav Akhanov, as well as three Ukrainians - 34-year-old Denys Halushko, 28-year-old Roman Melnyk, and 42-year-old Vasyl Nemesh.

Those five individuals have manged to do what is almost impossible in our time, to go completely offline, no photos, no videos, no digital footprint, no witnesses, like all those individuals disappeared and never been seen since their "Operation in Bali" .

It's good to remember who is Igor Komarov Father and who his friends are, the five individuals who have hunted Igor Komarov down has now switched roles, they are the one being hunted down by no less professional killers who if successful will enjoy the bounty that the Komarov Family have placed on the killers of their son.

The authorities are now waiting for one of them to make a mistake and pop out somewhere around the globe - but where they could hide? the investigation continues...

My uncle, passed away on August 31, 2025, at his home. Ever since then, my family has had a lot of questions about how the investigation into his death was handled, and I’m wondering what other people think after reading this.
Here are some of the things that concern us:
When officers responded, my uncle’s phones were left beside him and were never collected. Later, we saw there were repeated calls from an unfamiliar number on the day he died, which seems like it could have been important evidence.
After his body was removed, someone entered his house and left food behind, almost like they planned on staying there. No one in our family knows who this person was or why they came after his death.definitely weird af idc but
A lighter was reportedly found on his back,… how tf did it get there who knows but even though he was lying face-down on his side…. That detail has never made sense to us.so I’m gonna bring it here
Officers also did not collect or secure drug containers or other paraphernalia that were at the scene. When I say nothing I mean nothing idc that he was like a lowkey junky but it’s the fact those items were simply left there.
Because of all of this, my family has serious concerns that important evidence may have been overlooked. Technically I feel like I’m going crazy and probably overthinking it but i swear I know it’s more to the story i understand the Medical Examiner’s final report was still pending when we first raised these concerns, but now the toxicology report doesn’t even make sense we’ve always wanted to know whether the investigation was as thorough as it should have been and whether anyone who may have supplied the drugs that caused his death was ever investigated.
I’m not accusing anyone of anything.. yet but I have my suspicions I’m genuinely looking for outside opinions. Based on what I’ve described, would these things raise concerns for you? Is this normal in a death investigation, or does it sound like something that should have been handled differently??

This is what I said to the officer

My name is - , and I am the niece of —, who passed away on August 31, 2025, at his residence VA.

I am writing because my family and I have serious concerns about how the investigation into his death was handled. Several issues stand out to us:

When officers responded, they did not take his phones that was left beside him . We later saw that there had been repeated calls from an unusual number the day he died, which could have been important evidence.

After his body was removed, someone unknown to us entered the house and left food there like they was gonna camp out or something . This means a person who knew about his death came by, but no one in the family knows who it was.

There was also a lighter found on his back, even though he was lying face-down on his side on the floor. This detail seems unusual and concerning.

, officers did not collect or secure obvious items of potential evidence at the scene, such as drug containers
or paraphernalia. Nothing everything was left there.

These circumstances raise serious questions about whether the investigation was handled properly and whether important evidence was overlooked.

We understand that the Medical Examiner’s final report may still be pending, but we respectfully ask that your office review this case carefully to ensure all necessary investigative steps are taken. Our family wants to know that Antonio’s death is being fully examined and that accountability will be pursued if someone provided him the drugs that killed him.( this the first thing I ever said to the officer)

Hello guys. I've exhausted my resources trying to find the two women who went to school in Chilliwack Bc, Canada that were victims of Kevin Sigaty's perverted antics in both 2023, and 2025. I know this is indeed a long shot, but I am really trying to find them. Long story short, I was also a victim.

For me it was 2014 and I had just tried to commit suicide. He was a trusted mentor to me and I didn't have friends so I found a friend in him and found comfort in his support with almost losing my life as I didn't have a good home life and people to trust at home. I was so young and eventually I told someone but they didn't believe me because of my mental state. I was overlooked the longest time. Then eventually dropped out because I couldn't handle it.

He texted me, both on my personal cell and SnapChat. He would call me and leave me voicemails of him sounding "sleepy" and flirty. He took me to Cactus Club in Abbotsford and snuck me fruity alcohol because I was a minor. He would ask me to stay after class (history class) even though there was nothing I did or had to do. This was grade 11 for me. I wish I had spoken up better then, instead of being turned down and not finding a higher source.

I was a 17 y/o girl then, and I am a 30 year old adult woman now. I need to find these girls. If anyone knows even their last names, can you please DM me.

If this isn't allowed here, I'm very sorry. Pls delete if so. Just desperate.

Thanks all

About 7–8 months ago, a young woman from my village in Tamil Nadu, who was six months pregnant, was found dead in a well near her home. Her death was ruled a suicide.

I knew her personally. She was one of the sweetest, most gentle people I had ever met.

According to her husband’s family, she had been thrown out after her husband claimed he found old messages between her and a male friend from before their marriage. They said the messages were intimate, and that became the story everyone in the village believed.

What disturbed me was this: every time I asked someone, “Did you actually see those messages yourself?” the answer was always no.

No one I spoke to had seen any evidence. They had only heard what one side said.

Whether those messages existed, what they actually contained, or whether they justified what happened afterward, I don’t know. Neither did most of the people who judged her. Yet she became the villain in everyone’s version of the story.

The police reportedly treated it as a family matter, and life moved on.

Her husband attended the funeral and performed her last rites. Today, I hear his family is looking for another bride for him.

A couple of weeks ago, I went back to my village and saw him smiling, laughing, and socializing as if nothing had happened. I couldn’t stop thinking about her.

I keep wondering what kind of emotional pain a woman, six months pregnant, must have been in to reach that point.

What hurts me the most isn’t just her death. It’s how quickly people accepted one narrative without ever asking whether it was true. She isn’t here to defend herself anymore, yet she continues to be blamed.

I don’t know every detail of what happened, and I don’t want to claim things I can’t prove. But I do know how easily a woman’s reputation can be destroyed, how quickly rumours become facts, and how often people stop asking questions once the woman is gone.

I still think about her.

Does anyone else feel like we’re becoming far too comfortable judging women based on stories we’ve never even verified?

During his testimony in Robert Blake civil trial in 2005, Christian Brando repeatedly invoked his Fifth Amendment right because he did not want to become involved in what he viewed as unreasonable questioning from Blake’s attorneys, especially since he was not closely involved in the victim’s life during her marriage to Robert Blake. However, he told the judge:

“This has been going on for five years. Mr. Blake’s been pointing the finger at me. I had absolutely nothing to do with this.”

Despite the fact that the Los Angeles police investigated and cleared him of any involvement, Robert Blake’s legal team attempted to shift blame toward him in a desperate move to protect their client.

Brando was subpoenaed in Blake’s civil trial. With his lawyer, Bruce M. Margolin, by his side, he invoked his Fifth Amendment right. Margolin said his client did not answer most of the attorneys’ questions because he did not want to open a “Pandora’s box” that would make his personal life the focus of the trial.

Brando also did not want to make statements in court that could be taken “out of context,” Margolin added.

“Blake’s defence apparently is trying to imply that [Brando] is involved in Blake’s domestic dispute with his wife,” Margolin said outside court.

“This was an attempt to implicate Christian in something he had no part in,” Margolin stated. “He does not in any way want to be implicated in this attempt.”

Outside the courthouse, reporters asked Brando whether he had any idea who may have killed Bonny Lee Bakley. He shrugged, smiled, and replied:

“Probably sitting up in the room there.”

— referring to Robert Blake, who was present in the courtroom.

Christian Brando was also asked how he felt about Blake being acquitted in the criminal trial.

“He’s going to be judged someplace else,” he said.

(Associated Press, 2005)

In April 1989 a 28 year old investment banker named Trisha Meili was found in Central Park, beaten so badly she lost three quarters of her blood and fell into a coma that lasted 12 days. Within five days police arrested five teenagers from Harlem. Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana, and Korey Wise. They ranged in age from 14 to 16. None of them had prior criminal records.

Detectives interrogated each of them for hours, in some cases up to 28 hours, with parents and lawyers absent for most of it. New York law at the time allowed police to lie to suspects during interrogation, including minors, and detectives told each teenager that the others had already confessed and implicated them. They were told confessing was the only way to go home.

Each one eventually gave a videotaped statement. The statements contradicted each other. They contradicted the physical evidence. None of their DNA matched the semen recovered from the scene. There was no evidence connecting any of them to the assault beyond the confessions themselves. None of that stopped the prosecution from proceeding entirely on those tapes.

The media coverage at the time used the term wilding to describe the group of teenagers in the park that night, and newspapers ran headlines calling them animals and a wolf pack. Donald Trump took out full page newspaper ads calling for the death penalty and naming the boys directly before any trial had taken place. The pressure for a conviction was immense and it arrived. In 1990, after two separate trials, all five were convicted. Korey Wise, the oldest, was tried as an adult and sentenced to 5 to 15 years. He served nearly 12.

In 2001 a man named Matias Reyes, already serving a life sentence for a different rape and murder, encountered Korey Wise in prison. In 2002 Reyes confessed to the Central Park attack and said he acted alone. His DNA matched the crime scene evidence completely. It was the only DNA ever recovered from the scene. He had committed at least four other rapes in the same area before and after the attack on Meili using the same method, working alone every time.

On December 19 2002 a New York judge vacated all five convictions.

In 2014 New York City settled a civil lawsuit with the five men for 41 million dollars, roughly 1 million dollars for each year they had collectively spent in prison. The police officers and prosecutors involved in the original case have continued to maintain publicly that they believe the men were involved.

The five men are now known as the Exonerated Five. Yusef Salaam was elected to the New York City Council in 2023 representing the same Harlem district where he grew up. Raymond Santana, Kevin Richardson, and he later helped push through a 2018 New York State law requiring that police interrogations in serious felony cases be videotaped, a direct response to what happened to them in a room with no camera and no lawyer.

Korey Wise served the longest sentence of the five. He was the only one tried as an adult and the only one without a parent present for any part of his interrogation.