Maryland man says he ate heart and brain of murder victim

  KASEY JONESBALTIMORE -- A 21-year-old college student accused of killing a housemate told police he ate the victim's heart and part of his brain after he died.

Alexander Kinyua hid the head and hands of the dead man in his family's basement laundry room in a suburb of Baltimore, according to the Harford County Sheriff's Office. Kinyua, a student at Morgan State University, was charged earlier in May in another attack in which the victim was brutally beaten but survived.

Kinyua, a Kenya native, is charged with first-degree murder and other charges in the death of 37-year-old Kujoe Bonsafo Agyei-Kodie. He was ordered held on no bail.

His public defender did not return a call seeking comment, and a voicemail left at Kinyua's home was not returned.

Sheriff's spokeswoman Monica Worrell said the chief medical examiner had not yet officially identified the body parts, but that authorities believe they are those of Kodie, who was reported missing May 25. His cellphone and wallet were left in the home and police were initially told he had gone for a run.

On Tuesday, Kinyua's father, Antony Kinyua, called detectives and reported that another son, Jarrod, found what he thought were human remains in the house where they all lived in Joppatowne.

Jarrod found two metal tins, which held a human head and two human hands. Police say Jarrod confronted his brother, who said the remains were animals.

According to charging documents, Jarrod and his father went to the basement, where Jarrod "observed that the items he observed were gone and Alex Kinyua was cleaning the container he observed them in."

Detectives obtained a search warrant and found the head and hands in the house. Police say Alexander Kinyua admitted to killing Kodie by cutting him up with a knife and eating his heart and part of his brain.

Authorities say Kinyua told detectives the rest of the body could be found in a trash container at the Town Baptist Church in Harford County where they discovered remains.

The attack comes in the same week as a man in Miami chewed away another man's face along a busy highway and wouldn't stop until an officer shot him to death. Witnesses say 31-year-old Rudy Eugene growled at the officer and continued to chew away. The victim, identified as 65-year-old Ronald Poppo, a homeless man who lived under the causeway, was in critical condition and will be permanently disfigured.

On May 19, Kinyua beat a man with a baseball bat on Morgan's campus, fracturing his skull and making him lose sight in one eye, according to Baltimore police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi.

Kinyua was arrested May 20 and released on $220,000 bail.

Morgan officials say Kinyua studied electrical engineering and was also in the ROTC.

According to court records, the victim, Kodie, a native of Ghana, was convicted in November 2008 in Baltimore County of sex offense and assault in September 2007 and harassment, stalking and telephone misuse for making repeated calls in 2007 and 2008 to a woman. He was sentenced to at least a year and a half in jail.

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Hernandez charged with murder in Etan Patz case

  COLLEEN LONGNEW YORK -- Thirty-three years to the day after 6-year-old Etan Patz vanished without a trace while walking to catch a school bus, a man accused of strangling him and dumping his body with the trash was arraigned on a murder charge on Friday in a locked hospital ward where he was being held as a suicide risk.

A lawyer for Pedro Hernandez, who was a teenage convenience store stock clerk at the time of the boy's disappearance, told the judge that his client is mentally ill and has a history of hallucinations.

Hernandez, now 51, appeared in court on Friday evening via video camera from a conference room at Bellevue Hospital, where he was admitted earlier in the day after making comments about wanting to kill himself. The legal proceeding lasted only around 4 minutes. Hernandez didn't speak or enter a plea, but his court-appointed lawyer, Harvey Fishbein, told the judge that his client was bipolar and schizophrenic and has a "history of hallucinations, both visual and auditory."

A judge ordered Hernandez held without bail and authorized a psychological examination to see if he is fit to stand trial.

Hernandez was expressionless during the hearing. He wore an orange jumpsuit and handcuffs. A police officer stood behind him.

The prosecutor who appeared in court, Assistant District Attorney Armand Durastanti, said it was "33 years ago today that 6-year-old Etan Patz left his home on Prince Street to catch his school bus. He has not been seen or heard from since. It's been 33 years, and justice has not been done in this case."

Hernandez, a churchgoing father now living in Maple Shade, N.J., was arrested Thursday after making a surprise confession in a case that has bedeviled investigators and inspired dread in generations of New York City parents for three decades.

Etan disappeared on May 25, 1979, on his two-block walk to his bus stop in Manhattan. It was the first time his parents had let him walk the route by himself.

Next to the bus stop was a convenience store, where Hernandez, then 18, worked as a clerk. When police, acting on a tip, interviewed him this week, he said he lured Etan into the basement with a promise of a soda, choked him to death, then stuffed his body in a bag and left it with trash on the street a block away, police said.

Etan's remains were never found, even after a massive search and a media campaign that made parents afraid to let their children out of their sight and sparked a movement to publicize the cases of missing youngsters. Etan was one of the first missing children to be pictured on a milk carton.

Hernandez's confession put investigators in the unusual position of bringing the case to court before they had amassed any physical evidence or had time to fully corroborate his story or investigate his psychiatric condition.

Police spokesman Paul Browne said investigators were retracing garbage truck routes from the late 1970s and deciding whether to search landfills for the boy's remains, a daunting prospect.

Crime scene investigators also arrived Friday morning at the building in Manhattan's SoHo section that once held the bodega where Hernandez worked. Authorities were considering excavating the basement for evidence.

They were also looking into whether Hernandez has a history of mental illness or pedophilia.

Browne said letting Hernandez remain free until the investigation was complete was not an option: "There was no way we could release the man who had just confessed to killing Etan Patz."

Legal experts said that even though police have a confession in hand, they are likely to work hard to make certain Hernandez isn't delusional or simply making the story up.

"There's always a concern whether or not someone is falsely confessing," said former prosecutor Paul DerOhannesian.

As Fishbein arrived at the courthouse, he asked reporters to be respectful of some of Hernandez's relatives there, including his wife and daughter.

"It's a tough day. The family is very upset. Please give them some space," Fishbein said.

Etan's father, Stanley Patz, avoided journalists gathered outside the family's Manhattan apartment, the same one the family was living in when his son vanished.

Former SoHo resident Roberto Monticello, a filmmaker who was a teenager when Patz disappeared, said he remembered Hernandez as civil but reserved and "pent-up."

"You always got the sense that if you crossed him really bad, he would hurt you," Monticello said, although he added that he never saw him hit anyone.

Monticello said Hernandez was also one of the few teenagers in the neighborhood who didn't join in the all-out search for Etan, which consumed SoHo and the city for months. "He was always around, but he never helped. He never participated," Monticello said.

Hernandez, who moved to New Jersey shortly after Etan's disappearance, suffered a back injury that has kept him on disability for years, according to police.

The Rev. George Bowen Jr., pastor at Hernandez's church in Moorestown, N.J., said he attended services regularly.

"I would judge him to be shy and maybe timid. He never got involved in anything," Bowen said.

He said Hernandez's wife, Rosemary, and daughter, Becky, a college student, went to see him Thursday morning after he was taken into police custody.

"They were just crying their eyes out," Bowen said. "They were broken up. They were wrecked. It was horrible. They didn't know what they were going to do."

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said Hernandez gave a detailed confession that led police to believe they had the right man. He also said Hernandez told a relative and others as far back as 1981 that he had "done something bad" and killed a child in New York.

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Associated Press reporters Julie Walker in New York, Patrick Walters in Moorestown, N.J., and Michael Virtanen in Albany, N.Y., contributed to this report.

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Man convicted of rape, murder freed by DNA evidence

  Eyewitness NewsGRAND JUNCTION, Colo. -- Robert Dewey was 33 when he went to prison for the 1994 rape and murder of a Colorado woman. The 51-year-old walked away free Monday, after new testing of DNA evidence pointed to someone else as the suspect.

At a court hearing Monday, a judge dismissed charges against Dewey and declared him a free man. Dewey flashed a small smile through his trim beard.

He told reporters he just wants to kick back, ride his motorcycle and spend time with his family.

"Contrary to popular belief, the world doesn't stop when you go to prison," said Dewey, wearing glasses and with his hair in two long braids. "There's a lot for me to catch up on."

Dewey was sentenced in 1996 to life in prison without parole after he was convicted of killing 19-year-old Jacie Taylor, who was found dead in her bathtub in Palisade on June 4, 1994.

DNA technology at the time gave jurors conflicting information to consider, according to news accounts at the time. At his sentencing hearing, Dewey had said there was still a killer out there.

The Colorado Attorney General's Office's Justice Review Project, which reviews cases where post-conviction DNA testing could exonerate a person, took up Dewey's case last year. The advanced DNA tests that cleared Dewey have led to an arrest warrant being issued for Douglas Thames, who is accused of first-degree murder and first-degree sexual assault.

Thames had lived near Taylor, and his DNA profile is linked to evidence found in Taylor's apartment, according to an affidavit.

Thames told investigators in a prison interview that he didn't know Taylor but that his girlfriend at the time had gone to classes with Taylor at Palisade High School, The Daily Sentinel reported (http://bit.ly/IjrMgL).

Thames is already serving a life sentence for a 1989 murder in Fort Collins.

On Monday, Dewey thanked his legal team and said DNA evidence should be reviewed in more old cases, noting inmates around the country have been freed by new testing.

"Who else is out there?" Dewey said.

Dewey said he tried to stay positive while behind bars. "It threw me into a dark tunnel," he said of his conviction. His first two years in prison, he didn't make his bed.

Now, he's trying to understand why people text each other on their phones instead of just talking and where he might find work as he starts over.

"There's going to be trials and tribulations out here too," Dewey said.

Dewey added he wants to ride his motorcycle but has no specific plans for where. "As long as it's in the wind, I'm happy," he said.

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Forensic expert testifies in Anthony murder trial

  By KYLE HIGHTOWERORLANDO, Fla. -- An FBI forensic expert testified Saturday in Casey Anthony's murder trial that a hair removed from the woman's car showed signs consistent with hair from a dead body.

Anthony is charged with first-degree murder in the death of her 2-year-old daughter, Caylee.

The single, 9-inch strand of light brown hair was the only hair of several collected by investigators to show signs of decomposition, Karen Korsberg Lowe told jurors.

Lowe, who specializes in microscopic hair examinations, described a dark banding seen on hairs from people known to be dead. She said the hair sample she examined showed this banding.

"It has a darkened band at the root portion of the hair. This is consistent with apparent decomposition," Lowe said.

The hair was similar to one pulled from Caylee's hair brush and was not similar to a hair sample from Anthony, she said.

Before Lowe took the stand Saturday, Anthony's attorney, Jose Baez, challenged her qualifications and tried to block her testimony.

Under cross-examination from Baez, Lowe said it was not unusual to find hairs in cars, as the average person loses 100 head hairs a day, and people can transfer hairs to other people.

"I couldn't say how the hair got there," Lowe said. "It's consistent with transfer or contact of some sort, but I don't know from whom."

When questioned again by prosecutor Jeff Ashton, Lowe said the hair showed characteristics of one that had been forcibly pulled.

Lowe was the first of two witnesses called Saturday.

Mike Vincent, an assistant supervisor with the Orange County Sheriff's Office crime scene unit, explained how he collected air samples and a stain from Anthony's car in 2008.

Another crime scene investigator testified Friday that he smelled the odor of human composition when he first opened the door to examine Anthony's car days after her initial arrest in July 2008. Caylee's skeletal remains were found in a wooded area near her grandparents' Orlando home in December 2008.

Anthony, 25, faces the death penalty if convicted.

Prosecutors say Caylee suffocated after duct tape was placed over her mouth. They contend that Caylee's decomposing remains were at some point in the trunk of Anthony's car.

Anthony's attorney says that the child accidentally drowned in the family's pool, and that Anthony's father, George Anthony, disposed of her body. George Anthony has denied that allegation.

Testimony will continue Monday.

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Neighbor charged with rape, murder of Pa. girl, 9

In this photo released by The Montgomery County Office of the District Attorney on Tuesday, May 10, 2011, shown is James Lee Troutman. Troutman faces charges of murder, sexual assault and kidnapping in the death of Skyler Kauffman, who disappeared while playing outside in a small, quiet Philadelphia suburb. (AP Photo / AP Photo/The Montgomery County Office of the District Attorney)

  SOUDERTON, Pa. -- A 9-year-old girl who disappeared while playing outside her suburban apartment building was raped, choked and murdered by a neighbor who claimed he had a "whiteout" and just "snapped," authorities said Tuesday.

Police found the body of Skyler Kauffman in a trash bin behind the Souderton Gardens apartments about five hours after her mother reported her missing Monday evening. A 24-year-old neighbor, James Lee Troutman, was charged Tuesday with murder, kidnapping, rape and other offenses.

Onlookers jeered as Troutman was led in and out of his arraignment at a courtroom across the street from the low-rise units where he and the victim lived.

Troutman became a suspect after a detective canvassing the building spotted what appeared to be blood on his sneakers, Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman said. The detective then searched his apartment and found bloody clothes in a closet, Ferman said.

Detectives also found a pool of blood in the basement of the complex. They later found Skyler's body wrapped in a comforter in a parking lot trash bin, Ferman said.

Troutman eventually admitted to authorities that he strangled the girl with his hands and that her head hit the basement floor "a couple of times at least," according to the criminal complaint. Investigators said Troutman told them that "it was like whiteout" and that he "snapped."

An autopsy showed Skyler, for whom an Amber Alert had been issued, died of asphyxia and blunt-force trauma, Ferman said.

Troutman did not enter a plea at his arraignment or speak, except to acknowledge the charges. He is being held without bail.

He had been taken to the courthouse in a police SUV, and two police officers escorted him nearly 20 feet to its door. He was shackled and hid his face with his hands.

Across the street, a crowd of nearly 50 people yelled at him and screamed obscenities as he was led inside.

It was an unusual scene for Souderton, a borough about 30 miles north of Philadelphia that is surrounded by farm fields and newer upscale housing developments, residents said.

"The last thing I would have thought is that they would find this child dead. This is a safe little community," said Wendy Hansen, a 47-year-old mother of three girls who lives a couple of blocks away. "We're not going to tolerate this. ... It could have been any of our kids."

Josh Piston, 21, lives in the apartment building and knew Skyler, who shared a unit with her mother and grandmother. He described her as "a good kid" and "very rambunctious."

The suspect moved into the complex with his fiancee two or three months ago, Piston said, but he did not know them well.

"They were quiet, kept to themselves," he said.

Skyler's mother reported her missing around 7 p.m. Monday after she failed to come home for dinner. Police responded and began searching the area.

Troutman's fiancee told detectives that she was home Monday evening around 5:45 p.m. when she heard screams and cries of protest coming from somewhere in the building.

Troutman was not home at the time, she said. When she reached him on his cellphone to tell him about the screams, "he responded that he hoped 'everything's OK,"' according to the complaint.

Troutman returned home shortly after 6 p.m. and said he had been exercising, the fiancee told investigators.

Authorities said Troutman and Skyler had also crossed paths about three weeks ago.

Skyler and a friend were near Troutman's apartment on April 18 and needed to use the bathroom. He invited them in, but they got spooked when they saw pictures of naked women on the walls, according to the complaint.

Troutman then made a lewd comment, and the girls ran to leave, authorities said. Their parents reported the incident to police, but no charges were filed, a decision Ferman defended on Tuesday.

She also dismissed questions about whether the Amber Alert procedure went smoothly. Some media outlets reported a delay in receiving the notification.

"Everyone did what they were supposed to," Ferman said. "The crime took place very quickly, and the body was disposed of very quickly, and I can't say that there was anything anyone else could have done that would have been able to prevent this tragic event."

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