MI MI - JAMES C BROWN, Backpage Killer, Sterling Heights, convicted Feb 2014

[Reader]

4 women found dead in car trunks; Detroit police tie 3 to escort services

http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2...runks-detroit-police-tie-3-to-escort-services

DETROIT -- The deaths of two women found inside a burning vehicle on Christmas morning are connected to the deaths a week earlier of two other women, Detroit's police chief said Monday.

All four deaths were ruled homicides and three of the four women were involved in an escort website, Police Chief Ralph Godbee told reporters.

 

[Reader]

http://www.freep.com/article/20111226/NEWS01/111226006/detroit-women-found-in-trunk

One December week. Two car trunks. Four women dead.

Detroit police who found themselves investigating the strikingly-similar deaths this month may now be on the hunt for a killer targeting escorts.

Three of the four women found dead are linked to escort advertisements on Backpage.com, police said today.

The website offers dozens of come-hithers from metro Detroit escorts offering exotic fantasies and erotic playtime.

“This tie for us is disconcerting,” Detroit Police Chief Ralph Godbee Jr. said today. “We’re stopping short of calling it a serial pattern.”


More at link...

 

[jjenny]

It sounds like a serial killer or a couple of them working together (since there were two women each time).

 

[Norwegian]

When I read this I thought about Kalisha Madden who have not yet been found.

http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?t=156191&highlight=kalisha

She wasn't an escort, but she was an exotic dancer.

 

[tfrohning]

Demesha Hunt, 24; Renisha Landers, 23, found Dec. 19
Two more women, 28 and 29, found Dec. 25 in Detroit
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...eek-posting-online-ads.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

 

[billisbobby]

Another heartbreaking story. I hope the perp is caught soon. He won't stop. imoo

 

[Reader]

Detroit police: Killer may be targeting escorts

Some more information...the 2 new victims are not ID'd yet.

.........The latest victims were found Christmas morning, when Detroit firefighters discovered their badly burned bodies in the trunk of a car that had been set ablaze in a garage. They were identified as women ages 28 and 29, and police were awaiting a determination from the medical examiner's office on the exact cause of death.
-----

Relatives of Hunt, who had a 10-month-old daughter, and Landers did not immediately respond to messages from The Associated Press. Their mothers told the Detroit Free Press on Tuesday that the cousins weren't escorts.

"These were good girls. They were not on the streets. They had homes," said Landers' mother Chikita Madison.
------

The attorneys general of Michigan and Illinois were among those across the country who wrote Backpage.com on Aug. 31 demanding that it show it was not promoting illegal sexual activity. Attorneys general and others had raised similar concerns about Craigslist, which agreed to close its adult services section last year.
-----

James Alan Fox, a criminologist at Northeastern University in Boston who has written about serial killers, said Detroit police could be dealing with a case of a serial killer or a copycat double-killing. Because the bodies were found in pairs it's possible, he said, that more than one person was involved.

He said the women may have been killed elsewhere and their bodies dumped, a common way that serial killers operate. He noted that online ads for escort services are risky for those involved because they're dealing with strangers. And he said the police warnings for caution might not be heeded.

 

[sherbetjello]

Who's cars are these?

 

[Reader]

Who's cars are these?

This link doesn't state whose car the last 2 victims were found in; the first 2 victims were found in a car belonging to one of the victims. The sites were located only 3 blocks apart. All 4 deaths have been ruled homicides but no cause of deaths have been released yet.

http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/...ated/-/4714498/6891306/-/w6dxt5z/-/index.html


On Sunday, Detroit firefighters responded to a call on a fire at Lannette Street and Queen Street at about 1 a.m. The two bodies were found inside the trunk of a burning Buick LeSabre, which was inside the garage of a home.
-----

On Dec. 19, 23-year-old Renesha Landers and her 24-year-old cousin, Denesha Hunt, were found dead in the trunk of Landers' 2009 Chrysler 300 parked between abandoned houses on Promenade Avenue near Chalmers Street.


More at link with video....

 

[Norwegian]

Mothers of Kalisha Madden and Cherice Gorden believes their daughters' disappearances are connected

The link that has been brought to our attention where three of the four females have a connection to the website deal specifically with prearranged adult dating services or escort services," Detroit Police Chief Ralph Godbee said on Monday.

That page is backpage.com

The timing isn't the only coincidence. Both families are confident Kalisha and Cherice knew each other. At one time, they both danced at the same club on Detroit's east side and did private parties together.

 

[mysteriew]

Mothers of missing Detroit women fear disappearances linked to string of escort murders

The mothers of Kalisha Madden, a mother of 6, and Cherice Gordon spoke to Fox 2 about their disappearances. Madden was last seen on November 28 and Gordon was last seen on November 30.
http://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/index.ssf/2011/12/mothers_of_missing_detroit_wom.html

 

[mysteriew]

Mothers of 2 Detroit women found in trunk plead for public's help solving case

The mothers of two of the victims were stunned by this revelation, insisting their daughters were never caught up in the escort world, and that they were “good kids” who were targeted in a senseless crime.

snip....Meanwhile today, in a statement, Backpage.com legal counsel Steve Suskin said it's not clear which website the suspect used to potentially contact victims.

"Law enforcement authorities now have evidence that the investigation appears to connect to at least 30 different ads or other postings on at least 15 different websites, separate and distinct from ours," his statement said. "We are not aware of the existence of any evidence that would indicate which of these many sites were used by the suspect to establish contact with his victims."

http://www.freep.com/article/C4/201...roit-escorts-bodies-in-trunk?odyssey=nav|head

 

[seattlechiquita]

I also have a feeling this is related to Kalisha Maddens disappearance. I hope LE puts good work and effort into this. Sometimes women in adult entertaining or sex work are discarded even by LE.

 

[mysteriew]

The deaths within a week of four women -- three of whom had advertised in an adult personals section of a website -- are being treated as the work of one person or group of people, Detroit's police chief said Tuesday.

"At this point, we are working it as one case or one suspect or set of suspects," Chief Ralph L. Godbee told CNN. "There are too many common links for us not to, at this point, work this as one single investigation."
http://www.cnn.com/2011/12/27/justice/michigan-bodies-online-ads/?hpt=hp_t2

Looks like maybe we can move to serial killer forum. They are now acknowledging the cases are linked.

 

[mysteriew]

This link doesn't state whose car the last 2 victims were found in; the first 2 victims were found in a car belonging to one of the victims. The sites were located only 3 blocks apart. All 4 deaths have been ruled homicides but no cause of deaths have been released yet.

http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/...ated/-/4714498/6891306/-/w6dxt5z/-/index.html


On Sunday, Detroit firefighters responded to a call on a fire at Lannette Street and Queen Street at about 1 a.m. The two bodies were found inside the trunk of a burning Buick LeSabre, which was inside the garage of a home.
-----

On Dec. 19, 23-year-old Renesha Landers and her 24-year-old cousin, Denesha Hunt, were found dead in the trunk of Landers' 2009 Chrysler 300 parked between abandoned houses on Promenade Avenue near Chalmers Street.


More at link with video....

"inside the trunk of a burning Buick LeSabre, which was inside the garage of a home."

Who owned/lived in the home?

 

[not_my_kids]

MI seems to be picking up more serials. This series of murders, the serial slasher case in Flint, and the serial rapist earlier this year also in Detroit.

I won't speculate too much, but I do think that they need to be checking recent releases from prison. This guy/guys didn't just fall out of the sky or start killing with no warning.

 

[Norwegian]

I've been surfing www.backpage.com and the escorts in Detroit today, trying to find Kalisha on there. Nothing yet.

I must say though, I'm seriously worried for some of these girls 18, 19 years of age who announces they are independent and drive alone...

 

[SurfieTX]

Madden’s mother, Pamela Johnson, said she spoke to witnesses at the club who said Madden was last seen in a white Infiniti sport utility vehicle with three men.

http://www.freep.com/article/20111130/NEWS01/111130056/Family-seeks-public-s-help-find-missing-26-year-old-Detroit-woman?odyssey=nav|head

Is there a possible connection to the Buick or the home with this vehicle or persons in it that night? Any stolen cars that evening? That's a nice ride ^up there^...Infinity SUV.

 

[Reader]

Medical examiner awaits dental records to confirm identities of 2 women found dead, burned in car trunk


http://www.freep.com/article/20111228/NEWS01/111228025/Detroit-trunk-death-women?odyssey=obinsite

........According to the Wayne County Medical Examiner’s Office, the victims’ identities still have not been confirmed as the office is awaiting dental records from the families, whose names have not been disclosed. The victims, 28 and 29, were discovered six days after police found two other women dead in a trunk, just blocks away from where the burn victims were found.

Detroit police have tied three of the victims to a website that advertises escort services, and fear the suspect, or suspects, could be targeting escorts. Still, police have stopped short of calling it a serial killing.
-------

In the latest investigative development, Detroit police said they are seeking warrants to search various IP addresses and cell phone numbers in connection with the deaths. Police would not say whose IP addresses or cell phone numbers they want to search.

As of midday today, police had not named any suspects.
------

Police said there were no obvious signs of trauma to the bodies of Hunt and Landers. A cause of death for those victims has not been determined while police await toxicology results.



More at link...


Sounds like LE is narrowing in on a suspect or suspects....

 

[Reader]

"inside the trunk of a burning Buick LeSabre, which was inside the garage of a home."

Who owned/lived in the home?

That information hasn't been released by LE as yet and it doesn't seem that the home owners are suspects.