Top 5 Dumb Ways Killers Were Caught
Dumb Ways Killers Were Caught - Written by Mandeep Rai
5. Scott Purk and Oversharing
In March 2009, police were called to the home of Scott Purk to investigate reports of a fire. Purk had burned down his own house for the insurance money, but that's not all he told cops that night.
When being questioned by police, Purk made a passing comment about his first wife, and how she had committed suicide by hanging while she was 9 months pregnant. Something felt off about the way Purk had mentioned the apparent suicide, which had occurred 24 years prior.
Police would go on to exhume his first wife's body and find that marks on her neck were inconsistent with suicide by hanging.
4. Stacey Castor and the Word Document
In 2003, Castor's second husband was also found dead, with Castor claiming that he had become very depressed. His body was found next to a bottle of antifreeze. The coroner ruled his death as a suicide, however police found Castor's DNA on the antifreeze, and her husband's DNA on a turkey baster. It was believed that she had used this to force feed him the antifreeze as he grew weaker.
Police would then exhume the body of Castor's first husband, and found that he too had died from antifreeze poisoning.
So what did Castor do when she found out police were looking into the death of her first husband? She panicked and tried to frame her daughter Ashley for the murders. She offered Ashley a drink, and would later be found lying comatose in her bedroom 17 hours later. Her sister immediately dialled 911, and when she returned to the body, she found what appeared to be a suicide note which mentioned the murder plots, supposedly written in Ashley's handwriting. Castor was quick to make paramedics aware of the note.
When Ashley woke up, police questioned her about the events. Ashley stated that her mother had made her an alcoholic drink, which was unusual, and denied writing the note.
So what gave it away? Ashley had been living away from home for college, and the note had been written on Castor's home computer, and she kept making changes to it. Another giveaway was the word "antifree" which only Castor would misprounce everytime it was bought up.
3. Gary Michael Heidnik and His Live In Victims
Serial rapist and murderer Gary Michael Heidnik spent the late 80s abducting and raping women, and had wanted to impregnate his victims. This became impossible as the constant torture and abuse the women faced at the hands of Heidnik would cause them many health problems, including not being able to get pregnant.
One of the women befriended Heidnik, and gained his trust. Her plan was to ask if she could meet his family, and raise the alarm about what Heidnik was doing to his victims. Fortunately her plan worked and the police arrested Heidnik.
So what do you do when you have a bunch of women living in your house, claiming you've tortured, starved, and abused them for years? Instead of coming clean straight away and confessing his sins, Heidnik told the police that the women were already in the house when he moved in!
Heidnik tried to go down the insane route, but after a lengthy trial, he was proven as legally sane and sentenced to death in 1999.
2. Chris Watts and The Long List of Clues
Watts carried his deceased wife's body to his truck.. the truck alone raised flags because Watts never parked there, and he was caught on camera via his neighbor's doorbell camera. Watts himself had cameras in his own home. Watts then took the body, along with his 2 young daughters to his worksite, where he would dispose of his wife's body, and murder his children. So far, he's been picked up by the neighbour's camera, and now he's travelled to the scene of his second and third crime (the murder of his children), disposed of the bodies and drove away in his truck, which had GPS tracking.
If that wasn't enough, Watts then phoned his children's school and informed them that his daughters would not be attending anymore. Watts also looked into selling the family home the same day.
When Watts was being questioned, he was asked if he would agree to take a polygraph test. The woman conducting the polygraph test told Watts that it would be pretty stupid of him to take the test if he had been involved in the disappearance as he would be found out, and he agreed, assuming he could pass the test. Like everything else, the test did not go as Watts had planned. All signs pointed at Watts being involved in the disappearance, from his strange behaviour to his eventual failing of the polygraph test, investigators were sure they had their man.
Watts confessed and was given 5 life sentences in November 2019.
1. Mark Smich and the Rap
In 2012, Mark Smich was in his garage with his girlfriend and neighbours. They were all smoking weed when Smich decided to take out his iPad and start rapping. He'd written down some disturbing lyrics and was keen to recite them to his teenage neighbours. And what was the rap about?
"The bitch started off all skin and bone, now the bitch lay on some ashy stone. Last time I saw her outside the home, and if you go swimming you can find her phone."
Smich repeated the lyrics over and over again in a recorded video which was later used as evidence in court.
When Smich's girlfriend left the garage, he began sharing details of the murder of Laura Babcock with the 3 teenagers. They didn't know whether to believe it or not as they felt Smich could be lying to make himself look "hard".
The teenagers kept the information to themselves for 2 years, until one of them was arrested for shoplifting. He told police he would give them information on an unsolved crime if it meant he could get out of custody.
Smich, along with his accomplice Dellen Millard, was arrested and charged with the murder.
Comments
Post a Comment