"Jonestown bodies found in Del. funeral home" Associated Press August 08, 2014
DOVER, Del. — More than 35 years after the infamous suicide-murder of some 900 people — many forced to drink a cyanide-laced grape punch — in Jonestown, Guyana, the cremated remains of nine of the victims were found in a dilapidated former funeral home in Delaware, officials said Thursday.
The grisly discovery brought back memories of a tragedy that killed hundreds of children and a US congressman and horrified Americans.
The truth would horrify them even more.
The remains were clearly marked, with the names of the deceased included on death certificates, authorities said. But Kimberly Chandler, spokeswoman for the Delaware Division of Forensic Science, declined to release the names of the nine people. She said officials were working to notify relatives.
She said the agency found the remains last week on a site visit prompted by a call from the property’s current owner. Officials found 38 containers of remains, 33 of which were marked and identified. Chandler said the containers spanned a period from about 1970 to the 1990s and included remains from Jonestown, established by Peoples Temple leader Jim Jones.
‘‘It’s simply a case of unclaimed cremains at a closed funeral home,’’ Chandler said.
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"Mother held in N.J. cold-case slaying" Associated Press August 08, 2014
STUART, Fla. — More than two decades after she reported her 5-year-old son missing from a carnival in New Jersey, a woman investigators say they long considered a suspect was arrested on the day that Timothy Wiltsey would have turned 29.
Michelle Lodzinski, 47, was held without bail by a Florida judge after a brief court appearance Thursday. She was arrested Wednesday in Jensen Beach.
It wasn’t known whether she would agree to return to New Jersey, where a judge set her bail at $2 million.
Lodzinski told authorities her son had disappeared at a carnival in Sayreville, N.J., in May 1991. Investigators at the time said her story changed as police questioned her. The boy’s skeletal remains were found in April 1992 in a marshy area in nearby Edison.
Alan Rockoff, the Middlesex County prosecutor when Timothy disappeared, said prosecutors didn’t have enough evidence to charge her previously.
Middlesex County prosecutor Andrew Carey said in a statement that the case was presented to the grand jury after a ‘‘routine, cold case review of the evidence and facts surrounding the disappearance and murder’’ of Timothy.
Meaning they have no new evidence, they are just looking for something to prosecute and might get lucky here.
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Also see: Fla. researchers ID boy who died at school in 1940s
Too much time passed to do anything there, huh?
Related: State School Cemetery
Sometimes the whole world seems like it has been turned upside down.
"Tribunal convicts Khmer Rouge leaders; Two get life terms for crimes against humanity in ’70s" by Todd Pittman and Sopheng Cheang | Associated Press August 08, 2014
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — They were leaders of Cambodia’s infamous Khmer Rouge, the fanatical communist movement behind a 1970s reign of terror that transformed this entire Southeast Asian nation into a ruthless slave state — a place where cities were emptied of their inhabitants, religion and schools were banned, and anyone deemed a threat was executed.
When the nightmare ended, in 1979, close to 2 million people were dead — a quarter of Cambodia’s population at the time.
On Thursday, a UN-backed tribunal convicted two of the once all-powerful men who ruled during that era of crimes against humanity in the first and possibly the last verdicts to be issued against the group’s aging, top members.
While not trying to minimize Cambodian convictions I'm just wondering when war crimes trials will come to AmeriKa's leaders.
Although survivors welcomed the decision to impose life sentences against Khieu Samphan, an 83-year-old former head of state, and Nuon Chea, the movement’s 88-year-old chief ideologue, they also say justice has come far too late and is simply not adequate.
That is usually the way you feel after a U.N./U.S. justice experience.
‘‘Nothing can compare to the immense suffering they imposed, no sentence can be enough. They belong in hell, not an air-conditioned jail cell,’’ said Youk Chhang, who heads The Documentation Center of Cambodia, which has collected more than a million documents related to Khmer Rouge terror.
‘‘But this gives us hope that we can learn from the past . . . that we can try to prevent this from ever happening again,’’ Chhang said.
Maybe Cambodians can; somehow we never do over here.
There was no visible reaction from either of the accused when the decisions were announced. Nuon Chea, wearing dark sunglasses, was too weak even to stand from his wheelchair. Defense lawyers insisted the case was not over and vowed to appeal within 30 days.
Summarizing the verdict, chief judge Nil Nonn said the defendants were part of ‘‘a joint criminal enterprise’’ that launched ‘‘a widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population’’ after Khmer Rouge guerrillas seized Phnom Penh on April 17, 1975.
The attack took many forms, Nil Nonn said, including ‘‘murder, extermination, enforced disappearances, attacks against human dignity, and political persecution.’’
The case, which lasted about two years, focused on just one of many mass killing sites and the forced exodus of millions of people from Cambodia’s cities and towns, where even hospitals were emptied of patients.
Top Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot had reset the clock to ‘‘Year Zero.’’ Society was to be ‘‘purified.’’ Money was abolished. Communal kitchens were introduced nationwide. The failed aim: to create an agrarian ‘‘utopia.’’
Most of those who died succumbed to starvation, medical neglect, and overwork. Marked for death were the educated, religious or ethnic minorities, Buddhist monks, and anyone suspected of ties with the former government or who questioned the new rulers.
Khieu Samphan acknowledged mass killings took place. But during the trial he claimed he was just a figurehead with no real authority. He called allegations that he ordered executions a ‘‘fairy tale.’’
Then he was very much like a U.S. president, wasn't he?
Nuon Chea, known as Brother No. 2 because he was Pol Pot’s trusted deputy, also denied responsibility, saying that Vietnamese forces — not the Khmer Rouge — had killed Cambodians en masse.
The hybrid tribunal, composed of Cambodian and international jurists, began operations in 2006. It has been criticized for spending too much — more than $200 million so far — and doing too little.
The court has convicted only one other defendant — prison director Kaing Guek Eav, who was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2011.
Related: C is For Cambodia
The current trial began in 2011 with four senior Khmer Rouge leaders; only two remain. Former foreign minister Ieng Sary died in 2013; his wife, social affairs minister Ieng Thirith, was deemed unfit to stand trial due to dementia.
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Related: For Cambodian community, Khmer verdicts strike home
UPDATE: Khmer Rouge tribunal grants Cambodia a measure of justice
Will we have to wait 30+ years for ours, Americans?
