Oregon man accused of child sex abuse commits suicide

3-25-2011 Oregon:

CAVE JUNCTION, Ore. - The defendant in a child sex abuse shot himself in the chest and died in his front yard after telling his family he was going outside to drive to court.

Frank W. Andrew Wilson, 64, of Cave Junction was found dead in the front yard of his Redwood Highway home Friday morning, the victim of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest, the Josephine County Sheriff's Office said.

Wilson was the defendant in a 2009 case invovling a female victim. Wilson was accused of abusing the girl from the time she was 5 until she was 13. ..Source.. by KVAL.com staff

Untimely Death of Sex Offender Likely Overdose

3-25-2011 Connecticut:

Police Say 31-Year-Old Man on Hoyden's Hill Died Thursday Morning

The untimely death Thursday morning of a sex offender who lived in Fairfield was likely due to an overdose, according to police.

James Pinson died on his 31st birthday after police responded to a medical call at the Hoyden's Hill Road house where he lived with his stepfather and mother, police said. He had been depressed on and off for about five years and had been drinking and taking sleeping aids, police said.

Pinson, who was convicted in 2001 of risk of injury to or impairing the morals of children, was found on a couch in the home and suffered cardiac arrest about 6:10 a.m. as officers arrived, police said. He was taken by AMR Ambulance Co. to St. Vincent's Medical Center in Bridgeport and was pronounced dead, police said. The conviction stemmed from a 1999 case in Fairfield, details of which were not immediately available.

The State of Connecticut's Sex Offender Registry says Pinson was convicted March 12, 2001 and was released from custody on July 27, 2001. He was six feet, four inches tall and weighed 375 pounds, according to the registry. ..Source.. by Andrew Brophy

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Apparently, readers of the article who knew this man were upset
at this report of his death, a few of their comments follow:

this article is extremely offensive and disrespectful. this man's legacy shouldn't be framed in such a bias and unfair way. you should be ashamed of yourself for even posting a death notice as insensitive and inhumane as this. one incident from 12 years ago should not be the sole information that we receive about this person's life. learn how to do your job and maybe you won't be writing for the fairfield patch.

It is funny how he owned one of fairfield's best Breakfast/Lunch restaurants, but not once is that mentioned. Andrew no respect was given due to your poor reporting. His offense was 10 years ago. Could had been more respectful.

In CT if someone is under 16 they are considered a child. Jim was 19 at the time of the incident thus "impairing the morals" although the girl was at the house on her own free will. What Andrew Brophy fails to mention is that Jim was kind, generous to a fault and very bright. That entire incident ruined his life. I would like Mr. Brophy to do a little investigative reporting and find out what the "payout" was to the "child's" family. You don't have to give her name...just the $$$$. To write about Jim's accidental death in such a manner is shameful.

Andy- I appreciate all the really good reporting you have done over the years, but you missed the boat on this article and you are better than this. Please don't just grab headlines by focusing on something that happened when someone was 20 years old. In fact, Jim was a productive member of society: he was a responsible small business owner who was married and provided tax revenue and jobs to our local community. He just catered the Fairfield Garden Expo this past weekend and has over the years provided superb food to local non profits, free of charge. I knew him personally as a kind and generous individual. At a time when his family is facing a horrible loss, lets not pile on with unecessarily negative reporting. My thoughts and prayers go out to his grieving family.

Andrew Brophy you are an animal. This article says nothing about the real Jim. To even headline this disgraceful article with such a title is the most disrespectful thing anyone could do. You should be ashamed of yourself and this newspaper should be ashamed to have printed such a disgusting article.

Jim was an amazing guy with a funny and warm heart. Jim was the most sarcastic and funny character around, and considered everyone that went into Lucy's his friend. Theres was no way you could leave his place with out a laugh. Its a shame the way he is profiled in this article and ridiculous that this is the way he was portrayed. He was a great guy who made a mistake at a young age and should in no way be remembered so negatively. Rest in peace Jimbo, you will be greatly missed, and positively remembered by those who knew you!!

Checked if there was a journalists code of ethics. There is: http://www.spj.org/ethicscode.asp. Seems Andrew Brophy needs to review them.

There are quite a few comments here and I can't respond to all of them, but I would say that if a Fairfield man convicted of robbing a bank had died at an untimely age, the headline would have identified that he was a convicted bank robber.As for journalistic ethics, a journalist who has far more years of experience than I do headlined his newspaper's article: "Fairfield sex offender's untimely death may be drug related" and contained the same information as this article.This was a news article - not an obituary or death notice that provides a comprehensive overview of someone's life. If I receive an obituary from the funeral home, I would be happy to publish it. In the meantime, the comments above are accomplishing what you feel is lacking in the news story.

Thank you for taking the time to comment.
Andrew Brophy

Jail death under investigation

3-20-2011 Indiana:

SOUTH BEND -- Authorities are investigating an apparent suicide early Friday involving a 41-year-old inmate at the St. Joseph County Jail.

According to a news release, correction officers discovered Michael David Ray hanging in his medical cell from a self-made ligature about 12:08 a.m.

Officers, jail nurses and South Bend Fire Department medics responded immediately and tried to resuscitate him, but without success.

Jail video has been reviewed, the release states, noting that all proper procedures were followed for checking on inmates.

Correction officers reportedly checked on Ray multiple times between 10 p.m. and midnight, during which time he gave no indication that he might be suicidal.

The South Bend man reportedly was arrested at a local hospital early Thursday and booked into the county jail on suspicion of sexual misconduct with a minor. No charges had been filed at the time of his death.

According to the release, standard jail protocol requires that inmates taken from a hospital setting be placed into a medical observation cell for a minimum of 24 hours.

The case has been turned over to the Metro Homicide Unit for further investigation. ..Source.. by ERIN BLASKO

Victim confirms identity of sex offense suspect

3-8-2011 Missouri:

Boonville police have confirmed Todd Rehkop is the suspect for the attempted sexual assault that occurred at a Boonville gas station March 2. Shortly after the incident, Rehkop committed suicide after the highway patrolmen in Lafayette county stopped him.

“(Police) confirmed the identity through the victim,” Boonville Police Department Lt. Bob Welliver said.

David Hanaway, who is Lafayette County Sherriff’s Department Chief Deputy, said he received a message from highway patrolmen who had observed a vehicle on I-70 matching the description and license plate of Rehkop’s vehicle.

“One of my deputies, a highway patrol man, and another one of our deputies joined them, stopped the vehicle and Mr. Rehkop took his own life,” Hanaway said.

Officers at BPD are still trying to look into Rehkop’s background and past, Welliver said.

Welliver also said the incident happened about two-tenths of a mile away from Boonville High School. He said the Boonville Police Department is not taking any additional safety measures in light of the assaults.

“If you feel in danger, call 911, escape —- just your general basic rules,” he said. “There’s no way the police department is going to stop everyone that’s going to commit a crime. It’s impossible to do.”

Welliver said his best advice is for people to take caution.

“There was many, many people in (the gas station) when (Rehkop) walked in, and no one stopped him, so that just tells you how hard it is to prevent these things,” he said. ..Source.. by Teddy Nykiel

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Update: Todd Rehkop identified as suicidal rape suspect

3-2-2011 Missouri:


COLUMBIA, MO. -- UPDATE: Wednesday March 2nd at 5:45 p.m.:

Boonville Police say Lake St. Louis resident Todd Bryan Rehkop, 41, is the suicidal suspect connected to a sexual assault at a truck stop.

Columbia Police believe Rehkop could also be responsible for 2 other sexual assault cases within the past 24 hours.

A woman, 22, told authorities that a man with a handgun matching Rehkop’s description ordered her into his pick-up truck in the Conley Road Hy-Vee Shopping Center parking lot and forced her to take off her clothes and perform a sexual act on him. Somehow the woman escaped and ran naked into the supermarket and got help. Earlier in the evening, a man fitting the Rehkop’s description and carrying a handgun approached a woman, 57, in the Sam’s Club parking lot, also on Conley Road. Authorities believe Rehkop left in his pick-up truck after the woman told him to go away.

Authorities say Rehkop left Columbia and tried to attack a woman at Boonville’s Pilot Travel Center Truck Stop and Convenience Store.

A female employee told police that Rehkop tried to rape her while she was folding towels in a utility room near a shower area. The victim said Rehkop left her alone after the woman begged her attacker not to touch her. Before he left, Rehkop told the woman he was going to kill himself.

Rehkop committed suicide after a brief standoff with a Lafayette County Sheriff’s Deputy who spotted Rehkop’s pick-up truck on Interstate 70. No one knows what Rehkop did between his Boonville encounter at midnight and his suicide in Lafayette county at 2 a.m.

Boonville Police Captain Don Smith said, “Is there a victim between here and there? So far, we haven’t been able to find out. No department has reported anything. Maybe, he was at the rest area or something.”

Authorities said the Columbia businesses involved with the attacks provide a safe and secure environment. For example, Hy-Vee customers can request an employee escort to their car at any hour of the day or night.

Columbia Police Sgt. Jill Wieneke said, “Hy-Vee even has signs posted saying that there’s security surveillance on the parking lot. I think in this case, obviously, the suspect fully could realize that those things were present and still chose to do what he did.”

Hy-Vee officials have many security features at their Conley Road store in Columbia. They are going to review the situation to see if they need to make any changes to keep their customers as safe as possible.

Original Story:

Mid-Missouri police are investigating multiple sexual assault reports in the past 24 hours.

Columbia police said they got two reports last night from stores in the Conley Road shopping complex. The first report came in at 7:35 Tuesday night. A 57 year old female said a man approached her when she was loading groceries into her car in the Sam's Club parking lot. The victim said the man pointed a handgun at her. She yelled at the man and he got in his truck and left the scene.

Around 11:00 Tuesday night, officers got a report of a 22 year old female running into the Hy-Vee grocery store screaming for help. The victim told police she was loading groceries into her car when a man approached her with a handgun. The victim said the suspect forced her into the back seat of a vehicle and sexually assaulted her. The victim was able to escape and run into Hy-Vee for help. The description of this suspect matched the one from Sam's Club earlier in the night.

Around midnight, Boonville Police contacted Columbia Police about a similar incident that occured at a local gas station. Boonville police were able to get a license plate on the truck involved in that incident.

Around 2:00 a.m. a Lafayette County Sheriff Deputy spotted the suspect's truck on I-70, and stopped the truck. After a short standoff with deputies, the suspect shot and killed himself.

The investigation continues and police are working to confirm that suspect in Lafayette County is the same suspects from the Columbia and Boonville incidents. ..Source.. by Mark Slavit

Accused sex offender kills himself

3-4-2011 North Carolina:

WHITSETT — A Whitsett man accused of raping a child killed himself Thursday night at his home on Cook-Stewart Road when sheriff’s deputies knocked on the door.

Ryan Gohn, 24, was the subject of an ongoing Guilford County Sheriff’s Department investigation involving sex offenses with a child. The sheriff’s department obtained warrants on Gohn, charging him with three counts of first-degree rape of a child, three counts of first-degree sex offense of a child and one count of indecent liberties with a minor, according to a sheriff’s department release.

Deputies attempted to serve those warrants to Gohn as well as warrants to search at his home on Cook-Stewart Road at about 10:30 p.m. Thursday.

“When deputies approached Mr. Gohn’s residence, they knocked and announced their presence at which time they heard a single gunshot and a woman scream from inside the residence,” the release states.

When deputies went into the house, they found Gohn dead from a single self-inflicted gunshot wound. The woman wasn’t injured.

While deputies had their weapons drawn when they entered the house, they didn’t use them. The woman is also a witness to the incident. As a result, sheriff’s department officials won’t be asking an outside law enforcement agency to investigate, said Guilford County Sheriff’s Col. Randy Powers.

The sheriff’s department only asks another agency to investigate if deputies fire their weapons, Powers said.

“No one had to fire any shots,” he said. ..Source.. by Times-News

Suicide jumper was target of sex crimes inquiry

8-25-2010 Florida:

The man who jumped to his death from the 21st floor of a downtown West Palm Beach office building last week was under investigation by a sex crimes task force, authorities and his employer told Page Two.

Brett Hall, 24, who was buried Tuesday in Valhalla, N.Y., was questioned by members of the Palm Beach County Sexual Predator Enforcement Task Force about two hours before he committed suicide Thursday.

The secretive Boca-based unit is made up of detectives from the state attorney's office, Boca Raton and Boynton Beach police, the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

Through advanced data-mining techniques, the group investigates mainly child porn distributed via the Internet.

A spokeswoman for the Boca Raton Resort & Club, where Hall worked as an accountant, said detectives served a search warrant at Hall's work station about 9 a.m. Carole Boucard, the resort's director of public relations, said she didn't know what the investigators were looking for. A source close to the probe told me they mainly searched Hall's work computer.

A resort employee described how Hall was walked to his car by hotel security after the detectives left. He was stripped of his employee ID and sent on his way.

Boucard couldn't confirm that, but said Hall was not fired.

Uniformed Boca cops, meanwhile, were dispatched to Hall's apartment off Palmetto Park Road, according to Boca PD spokeswoman Sandra Boonenberg. The officers, however, never made contact with Hall there. ..Source.. by Jose Lambiet

Former Emery County sheriff's captain facing sex abuse charges commits suicide

3-11-2011 Utah:

FERRON, Emery County — A 74-year-old former Emery County sheriff's captain was found dead in his home Wednesday afternoon, within a month of being charged with sexual abuse.

David F. Owens, of Ferron, was charged in 7th District Court with four counts of aggravated sexual abuse of a child, a first-degree felony, and was scheduled for a status conference on those charges Tuesday, deputy Emery County attorney Brent Langston said.

Langston said the charges, which were filed Feb. 9, have been dismissed in light of the man's death, which came as the result of "an apparent, self-inflicted gunshot wound."

Owens retired from the sheriff's office in 2000. It is alleged that the abuse took place between 1997 and 2007. Langston said the victim came forward only recently.

In addition to the felony charges, Owens had been struggling with health issues, Langston said.

"He was pretty much bed-ridden." ..Source.. by DEseret News

Reports show breakdowns in care at 2 prisons

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Inmate, 19, hanged self after 'grossly inadequate' care

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Man Suspected In Sexual Assaults Kills Self After Standoff

3-4-2011 Missouri:

LAFAYETTE COUNTY, Mo. -- A man suspected of a pair of armed sex assaults and approaching another woman with a gun shot and killed himself in Lafayette County on Wednesday morning after a short standoff.

At around 7:35 p.m. Tuesday, a woman reported that a man had approached her while she was unloading groceries into her car at the Sam's Club in Columbia at 101 Conley Road, police said. The woman said the man pointed a handgun at her and the victim said she yelled at him to get away from her, according to police. The woman said the man smiled at her and then got into his truck and drove away, police said.

Around 11 p.m. Tuesday at a Hyvee grocery store in Columbia at 25 Conley Road, a woman ran into the store screaming for help, police said. Police officers said the victim said she had been unloading groceries into her car when she was approached by a man with a handgun. The man forced the woman into the back seat of the vehicle and sexually assaulted her, police said. The woman was able to escape the car and run inside the store for help, police said.

Both women described the truck as large and dark in color.

Around midnight, Boonville police contacted Columbia police about a similar incident that occurred at a local gas station. Boonville police were able to get the license plate of the truck and the information was passed on to law enforcement along the Interstate 70/Missouri Highway 63 corridor.

Around 2 a.m., police said a Lafayette County sheriff's deputy spotted the truck on Interstate 70 and pulled the vehicle over on a traffic stop. After a brief standoff with deputies, the man shot himself in the head, police said. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Columbia police detectives and the Boonville police are currently working to confirm that the man who killed himself is the same suspect in the Columbia and Boonville incidents. ..Source.. by KCTV5.com

Man took his own life in deadly duplex fire

3-1-2011 Georgia:

LAWRENCEVILLE, GA -- A man who was killed in a deadly duplex fire over the weekend apparently took his own life.

"Investigators found evidence to indicate that the man used gasoline to ignite the blaze which claimed his life," Gwinnett County Fire Department spokesman Tommy Rutledge said in a statement on Tuesday.

Earlier in the week, the Gwinnett County Medical Examiner identified the man as Kevin Haynes. On Tuesday, Gwinnett County Police confirmed he was a registered sex offender.

A passerby first noticed the duplex fire on Curtis Road at about 6 p.m. Sunday. When firefighters arrived, they found Hayne's body on a couch in the living room.

"[He] did not appear to have been trying to escape from the home," Rutledge said.

The medical examiner determined Haynes died of smoke and soot inhilation.

No one else was hurt in the fire. ..Source.. by Ron Nakfoor

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Fatal duplex fire victim ID’d

LAWRENCEVILLE — Officials on Monday identified the man found dead in a Lawrenceville duplex fire Sunday evening as Kevin Haynes, 26.

Firefighters found Haynes’ body when they responded about 6 p.m. to a one-story duplex in the 50 block of Curtis Road, off Hurricane Shoals Road near downtown Lawrenceville.

A cause of death had not been determined early Monday, said Ted Bailey, chief forensic investigator with the Gwinnett Medical Examiner’s Office.

A passerby reported the fire, and responding fire crews found Haynes’ body inside among heavy smoke and heat. Haynes is believed to have lived at the residence, where damages were mostly contained to contents inside the unit. Nobody else was home, officials said.

The fire was brought under control at 6:28 p.m. No other injuries were reported, and the adjoining unit was spared from damages, said Fire Department spokesman Capt. Thomas Rutledge.

Circumstances surrounding the fire are under investigation, Rutledge said. ..Source.. by Josh Green, Staff Writer

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Man took his own life in deadly duplex fire

LAWRENCEVILLE, GA -- A man who was killed in a deadly duplex fire over the weekend apparently took his own life.

"Investigators found evidence to indicate that the man used gasoline to ignite the blaze which claimed his life," Gwinnett County Fire Department spokesman Tommy Rutledge said in a statement on Tuesday.

Earlier in the week, the Gwinnett County Medical Examiner identified the man as Kevin Haynes. On Tuesday, Gwinnett County Police confirmed he was a registered sex offender.

A passerby first noticed the duplex fire on Curtis Road at about 6 p.m. Sunday. When firefighters arrived, they found Hayne's body on a couch in the living room.

"[He] did not appear to have been trying to escape from the home," Rutledge said.

The medical examiner determined Haynes died of smoke and soot inhilation.

No one else was hurt in the fire. ..Source.. by 11Alive.com