Serial Killer in Conneticut

[SIXFOOTERsez]

I looked but didn't find anything on this, if there is please merge it.

Authorities say at least 7 victims found in Connecticut serial killer investigation

Police in Connecticut said Monday that the remains of at least seven people have been found in an area that they described as a dumping ground for a serial killer.

Authorities said that the remains of three women had previously been found in the area behind a strip mall in New Britain in 2007. New Britain Police Chief James Wardwell said Monday that the remains of a fourth woman had been identified, while the other remains had been turned over to the state medical examiner.

"This is certainly the burial site," Wardwell told reporters.

The Hartford Courant reported that police are focusing their investigation on a single unidentified suspect who is already in prison. Authorities did not release the suspect's name but said that there is not a threat to the public.

If the serial killing theory proves true, the case would rival that of Connecticut's most notorious serial killer, Michael Ross, who admitted to murdering eight women and girls in Connecticut and New York in the 1980s and was put to death in 2005 in New England's first execution in decades.

The latest victim to be identified was named as Melanie Ruth Camilini, a mother of two from Seymour, who like the other identified victims had last been seen in 2003. The three victims found in 2007 have previously been identified as 53-year-old Diane Cusack, 23-year-old Joyvaline Martinez and 40-year-old Mary Jane Menard.

Investigators have returned to the site annually since the skeletons' discovery in 2007, but a specially trained FBI dog helped locate the new victims. Wardwell said testing on the remains found behind the shopping center on April 28 showed they belonged to four new victims.

Menard's son, Brian McKinney, said it was sad to know other families would be enduring the pain of learning loved ones had been killed but he was glad to learn there is no threat to the public.

"It's a relief to know that it's not going to happen again," he said

Menard's sister, Anna Santiago, said: "At least we know that pretty soon we will have justice."

Chief state's attorney Kevin Kane said it was a sad day for all the families.

"Now they have some answers, but the answers that they have aren't good, either. And that's what I hope people pay attention to today, how sad this really is," he said.

Wardwell has said Cusack, Martinez and Menard had substance abuse problems. All three women were known to frequent the same downtown New Britain neighborhood.

Cusack, of New Britain, had been out of contact with her family for years and was never reported missing, police said.

Martinez was last seen in October 2003. Her family has said she was unemployed and was living with her mother, and relatives became concerned when she didn't show up for her birthday party.

Menard, of New Britain, was a substance abuse counselor who had a daughter serving oversees in the military when she disappeared that October, police said.

In a strange coincidence, the body of a teenage girl, Elizabeth Honsch, was found behind the strip mall in 1995. A week later, the body of her mother, Marcia Honsch, was found near an entrance to Tolland State Forest in western Massachusetts. Each had been shot in the head.

Police have said they don't believe those two killings are related to the cases of Cusack, Martinez and Menard.

Marcia Honsch's husband and Elizabeth Honsch's father, Robert Honsch, was charged with murder. He pleaded not guilty and awaits trial. Authorities say he killed his family and then started a new life and a new family.

[Maggot]

Its hard to imagine what goes through these freaks heads when they do things like this.

[Duchess]

It satisfies something in them. We get our satisfaction in a more sane manner.

[F.U.]

I think I found a pic of the cereal killer.

[SIXFOOTERsez]

LOL

[HairOfTheDog]

Interesting story Six. I hope the new development provides the victims' families with some answers.

I also hope authorities release the name of the suspect soon. Not only for the families of the dead victims, but also because it could help investigators working cold missing person cases. There may be more women whose bodies haven't been found yet.

The story kinda reminds me of Anthony Sowell, the Cleveland serial killer who lured middle aged women with substance abuse problems to his home and then killed them, with most of their families just assuming they'd taken off at the time. Sounds like maybe this guy in CT is the same kind of predator (only Sowell stuffed the women into the walls of his home instead of dumping them in a killing field).

[Blindgreed1]

They are certain that he's behind bars, so i'm wondering if he's cooperating.

[HairOfTheDog]

They are certain that he's behind bars, so i'm wondering if he's cooperating.

That could be, Gunnar.

I'm curious about how authorities were led to the sites of the remains and have linked them all together too. Maybe the suspect is cooperating, or he talked too much and got snitched out, or a tip led police to the killing field and evidence linked the suspect to the bodies.


^ William Devin Howell, 45, has been identified as the suspect.

Howell is currently serving a 15 year sentence for a 2003 manslaughter (he was charged with murder and pleaded down).

Four of the seven victims found behind the shopping center ^ have been identified – all as women who vanished in 2003.


^ The first three sets of remains, found in 2007, belong to Diane Cusack, 55, Mary Jane Menard, 40, and Joyvaline Martinez, 24.


^ Melanie Camilini, who was 29 years old when she disappeared, was the the fourth set of remains. They were uncovered late last month. Monday would have been her 42^nd birthday.

A medical examiner is working to identify the other three newly discovered skeletal remains.

Authorities did not directly answer the question on Monday when asked whether the victims were linked by anything other than the person who killed them. But, blood matching two of the victims was reportedly found in the suspect's truck.

Police Chief James Wardwell said during the news conference on Monday that the remains had apparently been buried for at least a decade.

http://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/local...30541.html

[HairOfTheDog]

ARRAIGNMENT - 6 MURDERS


Looks like ^ Howell couldn't help bragging about all the women he killed and dumped, including one whose body he kept for two weeks in a van he called the "murder mobile".

That was his undoing and led to him being charged with 6 counts of murder (he was behind bars already serving 15 years for manslaughter of another woman).

At his arraignment on Friday, Prosecutors said that William Devin Howell, a 45-year-old native of Hampton, Virginia, told a cellmate "there was a monster inside of him that just came out" and described himself as a "sick ripper," according to the warrant. He said if he wasn't caught, he was going to go cross-country and kill others, it said.

Howell told a cellmate the first person he killed was a woman he raped in his van, the warrant said. The cellmate, who described his conversations with Howell to authorities, said Howell told him he strangled the woman and hit her in the head with a hammer, the warrant said.

Howell told the fellow inmate he kept the woman's body wrapped up in his van because it was too cold outside to bury her, the warrant said. He also said he cut off the tips of her fingers, dismantled her bottom jaw and disposed of the body parts in Virginia, it said.

He told his cellmate he slept next to the woman's body in the van, calling her his "baby," according to the warrant.

Many relatives of the victims attended the proceeding, and several cried after Howell was brought into the courtroom in an orange prison jumpsuit, shackled on his arms and legs.

A judge set bail at $10 million. Howell did not speak or enter any pleas. The case was continued to Oct. 28.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/cops-suspect...er-mobile/
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Connecticut no longer has the death penalty, so Howell's likely facing 6 consecutive life sentences if convicted.

[SIXFOOTERsez]

Why are these assholes always bragging to their cellys?

[Duchess]

Because they are stupid.

[Love Child]

Isn't that what we want them to do?

[Duchess]

Isn't that what we want them to do?

Yes, so we can catch their stupid asses and get them off the street.

[HairOfTheDog]

Isn't that what we want them to do?

Oh yeah. I love it when they do that.

Especially if they give up unpublished/unknown details which link the talker to the crime, like Howell appears to have done. Then, it's much harder for a defense attorney to claim that the fellow convict can't be trusted because he's a criminal and is just looking for a deal or some perks.

If his fellow convict hadn't snitched, the monster Howell would have been walking out of prison in less than 5 years -- scary thought.

Instead, Howell's need to brag or relive what he'd done, in this case, means at least 6 families are likely finally getting some answers/closure and he'll probably be locked up til the day he dies.

[Blindgreed1]

Isn't that what we want them to do?

Oh yeah. I love it when they do that.

Especially if they give up unpublished/unknown details which link the talker to the crime, like Howell appears to have done. Then, it's much harder for a defense attorney to claim that the fellow convict can't be trusted because he's a criminal and is just looking for a deal or some perks.

If his fellow convict hadn't snitched, the monster Howell would have been walking out of prison in less than 5 years -- scary thought.

Instead, Howell's need to brag or relive what he'd done, in this case, means at least 6 families are likely finally getting some answers/closure and he'll probably be locked up til the day he dies.

You have to wonder how many do it for prison cred.

[HairOfTheDog]

GUILTY PLEA



Piece of shit William Devin Howell (pictured with his 'death mobile'), referred to the site behind a New Britain strip mall where he buried six bodies over a six month period in 2003 as his 'garden'. He pleaded guilty Friday to six counts of murder, saving tax payers an estimated $1 million in court costs.

After months of back-and-forth plea negotiations, Howell appeared in New Britain Superior Court Friday afternoon and accepted a plea deal that in effect is a death sentence. Howell, 47, agreed to plead guilty to six murders and will be sentenced to a maximum of 360 years when he is sentenced on Nov. 17. He has no possibility of ever getting paroled.

Authorities were led to the burial ground by another inmate Jonathan Mills, himself a triple murderer, who befriended Howell in prison and drew police a detailed map of where the bodies were buried based on several jailhouse conversations with Howell.

Howell was already in prison serving a 15-year sentence for the slaying of Nilsa Arizmendi, the first one to disappear from a grocery store parking lot in Wethersfield, when he pleaded guilty to the six other murders this week.

Three of Howell's victims were raped. Some bodies were mutilated. Others were strangled. One woman was beaten in the face with a hammer, a part of her jaw apparently buried somewhere in Virginia, where Howell had lived previously.

If Howell had not been caught, "he was going to go cross-country and kill others," the arrest warrant affidavit said.

More: http://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/...story.html

[HairOfTheDog]

Case Closed



On Friday, a state judge handed down six consecutive life sentences to William Devin Howell during an emotional hearing where victims' relatives spoke about how the killings devastated their lives. Howell pleaded guilty to murder charges in September.

"He stripped away the youth from us and made me and my brother orphans," said Tiffany Menard, daughter of victim Mary Jane Menard. She called Howell a "monster" and said she tried to kill herself two times after her mother disappeared.

The self-described 'sick ripper' sexually assaulted three of the women and kept one of the bodies in his van for two weeks, sleeping next to the body and calling the victim his "baby," according to an arrest warrant affidavit.

Police said a main connection among most of the victims was their use of drugs. Howell called the burial site his "garden" and said the victims should have known they were going to die because of the lifestyles they led, the warrant said.

Howell is believed to be the most prolific serial killer in Connecticut history - not counting mass shootings. The seven killings topped the Connecticut body count of serial killer Michael Ross, who killed six women in eastern Connecticut and two in New York, and was executed in 2005.

The 47-year-old Howell, from Hampton, Virginia, cried and apologized to the victims' families during the hearing, saying he deserved the death penalty and his acts were "monstrous, cowardly and selfish." The state Supreme Court abolished Connecticut's death penalty in 2015.

"I know what awaits me ... a slow painful death in prison," said Howell, who talked about his diabetes and possible limb amputation and organ failure in the future. "I hope that provides some comfort to each of the families." (I can only hope he's right on both counts.)

Ref: https://cbsnews1.cbsistatic.com/hub/i/r/...396265.jpg