Suspect described murder scene as a ‘blood bath’: Police

homesafetytechpros — Thu, 21 Nov 2024 23:46:24 +0000

Inset: Charlotte Lester (Warwick Police Department); Background: Mark Perkins, center, appears in court (WJAR/YouTube).

More than two years after a Rhode Island woman went missing, her remains were found and the man suspected of her murder was finally arrested.

Mark Perkins, 64, was taken into custody on Wednesday after his vehicle’s GPS data was connected to the location of 44-year-old Charlotte Lester’s skeletal remains, which were found on Nov. 17 and identified through dental records. According to the Warwick Police Department, Perkins had been on their radar from the beginning but they lacked the evidence needed to make an arrest.

Court documents obtained by Providence NBC affiliate WJAR detailed police evidence of Perkins’ activity in the days following Lester’s disappearance around May 16, 2022, when her landlord reported her missing. The documents reportedly described a witness from a convenience store who saw that Perkins allegedly had “blood on his hands and scratches and bite marks on his arm.”

Perkins allegedly told the witness that he and Lester, with whom he had a relationship, “had the blowout of the century” and described his house as “a blood bath.” He also told the witness, “I think I killed her,” the witness reported back to police.

Perkins was interviewed by police days later, on May 20. They reportedly noted that his hands were swollen but that he seemed to be “calm and unaffected” by Lester’s disappearance. He allegedly told the police that “she had stopped texting him and he did not know where she was,” CBS affiliate WPRI reported.

Warwick police then reportedly searched Perkins’ house and wrote in their report that they witnessed blood splatters on walls, the ceiling, door, and bedframe, and an apparently bloodstained shirt hanging on a clothesline in the basement over a bottle of bleach. Testing later reportedly showed the blood matched Perkins and likely Lester based on it matching the DNA profile of Lester’s mother.

The court documents also stated that Perkins followed Lester as she drove to another man’s house on May 16, 2022, the last day anyone saw her alive. Text messages from that night reportedly show Perkins writing Lester, asking her to return home from the other man’s house. On May 18, the day after he was allegedly seen bloodied and scratched up at the convenience store, Perkins was reportedly seen on video leaving his home in his truck with an object in the back and when he returned three hours later it was no longer there.

It was not until the discovery of Lester’s skull that investigators made the connection they needed. When police began looking at the GPS tracking data on Perkins’ truck, it allegedly showed he went to the area where the skull was found four times in four months — twice in July 2022 and twice in October 2022. In one of those trips, Lester’s remains were allegedly within 1,000 feet of the area where Perkins stopped his truck, according to GPS data.

Perkins was arrested in August 2022 for a completely unrelated case when he allegedly threatened a local radio personality with his lawn mower after being confronted about Lester’s disappearance.

Perkins was arraigned at Kent County District Court where he was formally charged with first-degree murder. He did not enter a plea and is being held without bail.

Have a tip we should know? [email protected]

Source link

The post Suspect described murder scene as a ‘blood bath’: Police appeared first on Home Safety Tech Pros.

Woman accused of burning foster child in hot bath

homesafetytechpros — Sun, 15 Sep 2024 13:50:09 +0000

Inset: Ija Monae Hall. Background: The home where a foster child was allegedly burned in a bath by his foster mother (KWCH).

A Kansas home day care provider is accused of burning her foster child in a hot bath and hitting him hard enough to cause bruising.

Ija Monae Hall, 29, faces a child abuse charge after the boy suffered second-degree burns last week, authorities said. She was arrested on Monday at the Child Advocacy Center, The Wichita Eagle reported.

The incident happened at Hall’s home day care, His Loving Hands Home Childcare, on Sept. 5, officials said.

Details about the case came out in a Kansas Department of Health and Environment Emergency Order of Suspension.

The document said that the child was taken that day to a hospital’s burn center with deep second-degree burns to lower extremities and superficial second-degree burns to his buttocks, thighs, genitalia and feet.

At the hospital, Hall allegedly provided medical staff and law enforcement with “inconsistent statements as to the cause of the injuries.”

The following day, Hall’s two kids were placed into police protective custody and taken to a children’s home.

There, the staff noted that both children needed baths. One child had missing teeth and bruising on his chest and legs, the document said. The other child had a small scratch on his face, red marks on his back, neck, shoulder and knee, and a small bruise on his heel, according to the document.

In a follow-up interview with police days later, Hall admitted to smacking one of them on the back, resulting in bruising and also admitted to making him sit in a hot bathtub, resulting in the burns, the document said.

The Kansas Department of Children and Families (DCF) requested an emergency order to suspend Hall’s license to operate a family child care home — issued in June. The license suspension was immediately granted due to the severity of the case, the document said.

Local CBS affiliate KWCH reported on Friday that she posted bond and was out of custody.

Have a tip we should know? [email protected]

Source link

The post Woman accused of burning foster child in hot bath appeared first on Home Safety Tech Pros.

bath Archives - Home Safety Tech Pros

Suspect described murder scene as a ‘blood bath’: Police

Woman accused of burning foster child in hot bath