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Man Fatally Shoots Himself After Attempted Sexual Assault and Police Standoff

7-22-2012 California:

Santa Cruz Police responded to a report of an attack at a private residence on Mountain View Avenue on Sunday morning, at approximately 11:44 a.m.

When they arrived at the residence, they learned that the victim, a 32-year-old woman who was in town to run the Wharf to Wharf, had been taking a nap on the couch when she awoke to the man ransacking the house.

The woman, who was home alone, confronted the intruder, and at this point he attempted to strangle and sexually assault her, according to Santa Cruz Police.

The woman had no weapons and fought viciously for her life, according to Steve Clark, Deputy Chief of the SCPD. She was successful in fighting off the suspect twice during the attack, which Clark said was very violent.

Eventually, the victim broke free, running to a neighbor's home to call the police.

Officers matched the description of the attacker to a man who lived in the neighborhood: Richard Andrew Glanzman, Sr., 55.

Officers searched the suspect's home, and found live ammunition was spilled on the floor of a bedroom, and the suspect barricading himself in the room.

After securing the perimeter, officers began attempted to contact Mr. Glanzman, verbally and even telephoning the house. Glanzman failed to respond. Meanwhile, approximately 20 nearby homes were evacuated.

The SCPD's Emergency Services Unit (ESU) was called to organize a hostage negotiation team, and simultaneously obtained an arrest warrant for the suspect.

The arrest warrant charged him with Attempted Sexual Assault, Attemped Homicide, Burglary, and False Imprisonment with a bail amount of $1,000,000.

After the arrest warrant was obtained, the ESU made entered the home around 6:30 p.m., finding Glanzman deceased in an upstairs bedroom. He sustained a fatal self-inflicted gunshot wound.

The suspect shot himself with a semi-automatic weapon, according to Deputy Chief Steve Clark.

Detectives are continuing to investigate the scene of the attack as well as the scene of the suicide. At this time it is not yet known if the suspect stole anything from the house where he attacked the victim. It is also unknown what time the suspect may have shot himself.

"Nobody heard a gun shot. But depending how it was done, it's entirely possible that it could have been muffled," said Deputy Chief Clark.

The victim was treated for her injuries at Dominican Hospital and is in recovery.

"I can't say enough about her bravery," said Deputy Chief Clark. "She fought for her life, and won. It was a very violent attack."

SCPD is also looking into the entire history of the suspect.

"We only had contact with him once, and it was for a non-criminal issue," said Deputy Chief Clark.

A Santa Cruz Sentinel report says that the victim was staying with her friends in the house they rent from Glanzman's father. ..Source.. by Maria Grusauskas

Suspect in Mich Sisters' Deaths Dies in West Virginia

7-18-2012 West Virginia:

An Iraq war veteran suspected of killing his ex-girlfriend and her pregnant sister in Michigan fatally shot himself in a remote West Virginia cabin after seeing investigators closing in, authorities said Wednesday.

Deputy marshals and Tyler County sheriff's deputies were approaching the cabin in night in Sistersville, W.Va., Tuesday evening when they saw Thomas Fritz run inside holding a rifle, said Alex Neville, a deputy marshal in Clarksburg, W.Va. Seconds later, they heard a gunshot.

Not knowing whether the 38-year-old Fritz had shot himself or fired on them, special units from Wetzel County and the State Police who were better equipped to deal with the potential standoff were sent in to help, Neville said.

"It would not have been prudent for the deputy marshals or local law enforcement to engage him in that cabin, with several hundred yards of open field around the cabin," Neville said. "To approach it would not have been a good tactical approach on our part."

Several hours after the gunshot rang out, officers fired tear gas into the cabin and stormed it, finding Fritz dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in a rear bedroom, Neville said. There were two assault rifles and a shotgun in the home.

Authorities warned after the Friday killings that they considered Fritz armed and dangerous. Fritz served in the Ohio National Guard beginning in 1997 and later the Army Reserve. He then spent nearly a year in Iraq with the guard's military police unit from the spring of 2003 through early 2004.

Fritz had once worked for the man who owns the cabin, which is in a remote area near the Ohio border about 80 miles southwest of Pittsburgh, Pa., and he had been there many times, Neville said.

"He was familiar with the area. He returned there obviously to hide," he said.

Authorities contacted the cabin's owner, whose name they didn't release, Tuesday night to get its layout. The owner was not at the cabin at the time, Neville said.

Authorities said Fritz's ex-girlfriend, Amy Merrill, broke up with him about three weeks ago. On the night of the killings, he went to her Blissfield, Mich., home, where he had lived with her since last winter, to speak with her. The two had a child together, who is a toddler, and Merrill's two sons from a former marriage also lived there.

Police say Fritz shot Merrill, 33, her 24-year-old sister, Lisa Gritzmaker, who was eight months' pregnant, and their mother, Robin Lynn McCowan, who were all at the home. The sisters died and McCowan is recovering from surgery at a hospital.

The sisters grew up in the Blissfield area and were well known. Merrill took her two oldest boys to youth baseball games and Boy Scouts meetings. She and her sister were extremely close, friends said.

Before moving in with Merrill, Fritz was living in Sylvania, Ohio, a Toledo suburb where he grew up, which is about 12 miles from Blissfield.

In 2004, the year he completed his stint in Iraq, Fritz received an associate of applied science degree in criminal justice from Owens Community College in suburban Toledo.

In 2006, Fritz was convicted of sexual battery, deemed a sex offender and sentenced to a year in prison in Ohio. Paul Dobson, a Wood County, Ohio, prosecutor, said a woman accused Fritz of having sex with her at a party while she was passed out. ..Source.. by MIKE HOUSEHOLDER

Cobb jail inmate dies

7-18-2012 Georgia:

A Cobb County inmate recently given three life sentences died Sunday night after he was found unresponsive in his cell, the Cobb County Sheriff’s Office announced Monday.

Robin Tracy Harrington died Sunday. Credit: Georgia Department of Corrections

Robin Tracy Harrington, 37, was in the Cobb County Adult Detention Center when sheriff’s deputies found him unconscious around 10:30 p.m., and staff and medical personnel started resuscitation efforts, the news release said.

Harrington was transported to WellStar Kennestone Hospital, where he was pronounced dead an hour later.

Cobb Sheriff Neil Warren said there was no evidence of foul play.

Harrington had been in the facility since being returned from the state prison system Dec. 1, 2011 to face charges of rape, aggravated sodomy, aggravated assault with a weapon and burglary. A DNA match led investigators to Harrington in a 2003 rape case, the AJC reported in 2010.

He was convicted and sentenced Thursday to serve three life sentences plus 20 years, authorities said.

“Any time there is a death of an inmate in custody, it is a tragedy for both the family and the staff of the Sheriff’s Office,” Warren said. “My thoughts and prayers are with Mr. Harrington’s family.”

Harrington’s criminal history included convictions for armed robbery, robbery, aggravated assault of a peace officer and fleeing/eluding police, according to the Georgia Department of Corrections website.

An investigation of the man’s death is being conducted by the Sheriff’s Office Inspectional Services Division, with assistance from the GBI and the Cobb County Medical Examiner’s Office, the sheriff’s office said. ..Source..

Authorities: Sex offender inmate commited suicide

7-12-2012 Massachusetts:

The first sex offender in the state convicted under Jessica’s Law apparently took his own life behind bars yesterday, authorities said.

A corrections officer found Robert Giglio, 49, hanging in his cell at Old Colony Correctional Center at about 4:23 p.m. He was pronounced dead about an hour later at Morton Hospital, said Department of Corrections spokeswoman Diane Wiffin.

Giglio had been serving 15 to 20 years after he was convicted of indecent assault and battery of a child under 14 in Middlesex County Superior Court on Oct. 26, 2009. Giglio received a minimum sentence of 15 years under Jessica’s Law because he had a previous conviction for indecent assault and battery on a child under 14 years old. Gov. Deval Patrick signed the law in 2008, named after a Florida girl who was raped and murdered in February 2005 by a repeat sex offender.

Wiffin said Giglio wouldn’t have been eligible for parole until 2024.

Giglio was being held in a single cell at the medium security prison away from the general population for disciplinary reasons since July 4, according to Wiffin. Corrections officials and the Plymouth County District Attorney’s Office are investigating the unattended death, but the case is believed to be a suicide. ..Source.. by Erin Smith

Radnor police find decomposing body of rape suspect

7-10-2012 Pennsylvania:

You've probably read the line in crime novels or heard it on police procedural TV shows: Cops telling a suspect to stay where they can find him while they conduct the investigation.

Robert Hendricks hadn’t gone anywhere in weeks. Didn’t move an inch. The 63-year-old Radnor resident apparently blew a hole in his head – likely sometime in May – after cops raided his Highland Lane home near the Haverford border and seized several computers as part of a sexual-assault investigation involving a teenage girl.

Hendricks’ body wasn’t discovered until last Saturday when one of his daughters knocked on the door, got no response and called police. Radnor Police Lt. Andrew Block said Hendricks died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. He’d likely been dead six to eight weeks, Block said.

“It’s a pretty sordid story,” said Fifth Ward Commissioner John Nagle, who sent an email to township residents Monday explaining the police and Delaware County Medical Examiner activity outside Hendricks’ house over the weekend.

“That house must’ve been ripe,” Nagle said.

Investigators are awaiting the completion of a forensic analysis of Hendricks’ computers. They're looking for any evidence related to the alleged assault, including photos or messages.

“She was picked up by him and he brought her back to the house. Allegedly, over the course of several hours, the sexual assault occurred,” Block said. “Just because this person at this point is no longer alive, we’re thorough and we’ll continue the investigation.”

Police are being tight-lipped about the case because the alleged victim is a minor and no charges have been filed. But a township source said the man apparently told police that he believed the girl was 18 years old. ..Source.. by William Bender

Man Confesses To Schuett Rape Before Suicide

7-10-2012 Texas:

HOUSTON - The man accused of abducting, raping and slashing a Dickinson girl's throat in 1990 confessed to the crime before committing suicide in his jail cell, KPRC Local 2 reported Wednesday.

KPRC Local 2 obtained a copy of the three and half hour confession tape. On it, Dennis Earl Bradford takes responsibility, in graphic detail, for the attempted capital murder of 8-year-old Jennifer Schuett.

"She was innocent. I was a sick, deranged, beat-up little punk. I took that little girl out there and I raped her and cut her throat," Bradford said.

Schuett survived the attack and over the next 19 years helped investigators piece together the evidence. In October 2009, Bradford was arrested in North Little Rock, Ark.

"I didn't get caught in 20 years, but I sure didn't get away from it," Bradford told investigators.

Earlier this month, Bradford committed suicide by hanging himself in his Galveston County Jail cell.

Schuett said she is deeply disappointed she will never have a chance to face Bradford in court, but there is one thing that makes her feel better.

"I am very relieved that he will never hurt anyone else," she said. ..Source.. by Joel Eisnebaum

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Victim Feels Cheated After Accused Rapist's Suicide

Jennifer Schuett won't get to face her attacker in a courtroom but she will have the final word.

The man who is accused of raping her, slitting her throat, and leaving her to die when she was only 8 years old has committed suicide, and Schuett says she wanted the opportunity to confront him in court. Dennis Earl Bradford, 40, was found hanging from a noose in his jail cell last week.

"I am shocked and disappointed at the news of Bradford resorting to suicide, as I looked forward to facing him in the court room this Fall, and now feel as though I was robbed of that opportunity," she said in a statement on her website, justiceforjennifer.com.

Schuett, 27, had waited nearly two decades to find her attacker and bring him to justice. At age 8, she was kidnapped from her family's home in Dickinson, Texas, on Aug. 10, 1990, taken to a field, and raped. Schuett's attacker then slit her throat and left her lying naked on top of a fire ant hill.

The attack had torn Schuett's vocal chords, and so when she woke up hours later and tried to call for help, she found she could not make a sound. In the years after her assault, however, Schuett regained her voice. She became an advocate for victims of violent crime and launched what she once called an all-out "manhunt" for her attacker.

"Three days after the attack, I started giving a description," Schuett told CNN last year. "The doctors told me I would never be able to talk again, but I proved them all wrong."

In September, Schuett's case appeared on "America's Most Wanted." And then, one month later, a breakthrough. DNA evidence compiled by investigators had once been too little material to make a match in the database. But with new technology, investigators were suddenly able to find a match: Dennis Earl Bradford, a husband and father living in Little Rock, Ark.

Bradford's name was in the database because he had been convicted in 1996 on rape charges, and had served three years of a 12-year sentence before he was paroled and released in 2000. Last year, the Galveston County district attorney charged Bradford with attempted capital murder in the Schuett case.

In an interview broadcast Wednesday on NBC's "Today," Schuett spoke out about what she had planned to say to her attacker.

"You chose the wrong little 45-pound, 8-year-old girl to try and murder. Because for 19 years I've thought of you every single day and helped search for you."

Schuett said she will continue to "use her voice" to stand up for other victims.

"His plan failed," Schuett said of Bradford. "These days it's hard to get me to be quiet." ..Source.. by AOL News

Suicide follows Coupeville school volunteer's child porn arrest

5-13-2011 Washington:

A man who volunteered in the drama department at Coupeville schools killed himself after being arrested for possessing child pornography, according to the Island County Sheriff's Office.

Detective Ed Wallace said the FBI provided the sheriff's office and the Coupeville Marshal's Office with initial information that 56-year-old Coupeville resident Charles Skow was in possession of child pornography.

As part of a joint operation, investigators from both offices served a search warrant on Skow's home on April 28 and seized a computer and associated storage devices.

Wallace, the department's computer expert, said an initial examination of the computer and storage media revealed numerous images and movies of child porn.

As a result, Skow was booked and held in Island County jail. On April 29, Island County Superior Court Judge Vickie Churchill found probable cause for Skow's arrest on suspicion of possession of depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit activities.

The judge released Skow on his personal recognizance and ordered him not to have contact with minors.

On May 5, the Coupeville Marshal’s Office received a request for a welfare check at Skow’s residence. A deputy marshal found Skow dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, according to the sheriff's office.

Patty Page, superintendent of Coupeville schools, confirmed that Skow was a volunteer in the schools' drama program. He worked building sets.

"I understand that his involvement has been minimal over the last few years," she said, adding that he spent more time volunteering at the school years ago.

After being notified of the arrest, Page said she pulled Skow's volunteer status immediately. She said Skow, under district policy, never had unsupervised contact with students.

Wallace said detectives have no reason to believe any of the pornographic images involved children from Whidbey Island. He said the investigation has ended with Skow's death. ..Source.. by JESSIE STENSLAND