Remembering Renee Pagel three years after her murder

GRAND RAPIDS (WZZM) - It's been three years since Renee Pagel was found stabbed to death inside her Courtland Township home.

For those three years, friends and family had no closure in the murder, but what they do have is a sense of community.

"Just get together to support one another and laugh and obviously cry, and we have other survivors of murder," said Chris Crandle, who hosted a meeting with family and friends Wednesday.

Leading up to the murder, 41 year old Pagel was in a heated divorce with her husband, Michael Pagel. The murder is an active investigation and Michael Pagel is the prime person of interest.
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Newlywed Wife Should Have Filed For Divorce; Her Murder-For-Hire Plot Ends In Her Arrest

MIAMI (AP) — A South Florida woman was arrested Wednesday for allegedly hiring an undercover police officer to kill her husband of six months, authorities said.

Dalia Dippolito, 26, was charged with solicitation to commit first-degree murder and taken to the Palm Beach County jail, Boynton Beach Police Department spokeswoman Stephanie Slater said. Bond had not yet been set and it was unclear if she had an attorney.

Married life isn't always what it's cracked up to be...but why not file for divorce? The other way is so....permanent.

Dippolito gave an informant pictures of her husband, 38-year-old Michael Dippolito, and $1,200 for a hit man to purchase a handgun, according to a probable cause affidavit. She also offered to create an alibi for herself and detailed her husband’s daily schedule.

An undercover officer posing as a hit man called Dippolito on Monday afternoon and arranged a meeting. The officer asked for $3,000 in cash and a key to the couple’s home. The undercover officer later met Dippolito in a pharmacy parking lot and asked if she was sure she wanted her husband killed.

She laughed, according to the according to the affidavit, and said: “I will be very happy.”
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'Depressed cop attempted suicide'

Hanti Otto
August 06 2009

She gave the police a fit and emotionally well man and they returned to her someone sick and broken.

These are the sentiments of Minnie Vincer, whose son, a former inspector, stole a police pistol with the aim of committing suicide.

Raynier Weimer, 43, has pleaded guilty to theft for stealing a semi-automatic firearm in the Pretoria Regional Court.

Police realised he had stolen the firearm only when, seven months later, they were called to stop him from shooting himself.

The court heard that the horrors Weimer had been exposed to in his job, and his wife's unfaithfulness, made him realise he might do something "irresponsible", so he handed in his service pistol.

Although a doctor found him unfit to do duty in the SAPS in 2006, Weimer was not medically boarded.

He was placed in the logistics department.

In 2007, his former wife, who apparently had had no contact with the children since their divorce, demanded contact and custody of the children.
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Guilty verdict in upstate NY murder trial

OWEGO, N.Y. (AP) — A jury has convicted an upstate New York businessman for a second time on charges he murdered his estranged wife, whose body has never been found.

The Tioga (tye-OH'-gah) County jury deliberated for almost nine hours over two days before finding 48-year-old Calvin Harris guilty of second-degree murder. Outside the courtroom Wednesday, defense lawyer Terrence Kindlon called Harris an innocent man and vowed an appeal.

Harris' first conviction in 2007 was set aside when new evidence surfaced in the September 2001 disappearance of Michele Harris.

Prosecutors say Harris killed his wife because of their impending divorce.

District Attorney Gerald Keene says Harris faces a maximum sentence of 25 years to life and a minimum of 15 years to life.

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Wife had order of protection against husband prior to murder-suicide

HARRIS, Minn. -- In rural Chisago County, houses are far apart, but neighbors are close.
Roland and Mavis Ramberg thought they knew the neighbors down the road, Doug and Candice Ouellette, who were both 38 years old.

Their grandchildren and the Ouellette's 10-year-old son and 8-year-old twin girls were friends.
"They seemed like a nice couple," says Mavis.

Then on Wednesday night, the Rambergs realized that something was clearly wrong.

"All I saw was squad cars, upon squad cars and helicopter," says Roland

One of the Ouellette's little girls had called 911. Investigators say Doug strangled Candice to death in their home, then hanged himself in an outbuilding.

"I can't imagine anything worse than having your dad kill your mom and then kill himself," says Chisago County Chief Deputy Bob Shoemaker.

Court documents filed in Chisago County detail the couple's troubled marriage. In June, police were called to the Ouellette's home for an attempted suicide.
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One Man's "Final Solution" to the Alimony Problem

James S. Irwin called it a "death sentence."The 73-year-old international businessman and philanthropist would have to pay his wife alimony and attorney fees totaling more than $2 million, as part of their ongoing divorce proceedings.

That decision, Irwin wrote in a letter mailed to the Sun, would be his undoing.

And he wanted the judge who signed the order to know it.

Irwin, chairman of Integrated Control Systems Inc. and IMPAC University in Punta Gorda, shot and killed himself Monday at his Litchfield, Conn., farm.

Earlier that day, a two-page letter with Irwin's name and Connecticut address was sent to 20th Judicial Circuit Judge John Dommerich, cursing his handling of Irwin's divorce. A copy was forwarded to the Sun.

In the letter, Irwin blames Dommerich and his wife, Linda Scott-Irwin, for his "financial destruction."
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Wife had order of protection against husband prior to murder-suicide

"I can't imagine anything worse than having your dad kill your mom and then kill himself," says Chisago County Chief Deputy Bob Shoemaker.

Court documents filed in Chisago County detail the couple's troubled marriage. In June, police were called to the Ouellette's home for an attempted suicide.

In her own words, Candice tells the court that Doug locked himself in the pole barn with guns, held a revolver to his head and threatened to kill himself.

At that time Candice received an order for protection, an order authorities say was later terminated by the agreement both she and her husband.

But at the end of June, Candice filed for divorce, with a no contact provision.
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Overstreet indicted in wife's South Roanoke stabbing death

By Neil Harvey
The Roanoke Times

The estranged husband of a woman found fatally stabbed in South Roanoke on July 23 has been indicted on a charge of murder.

Heath Wayne Overstreet, 43, has been in custody since that day for apparently violating a protective order that his wife, Susan Overstreet, 45, sought after she said he attacked her in June. Susan Overstreet filed for divorce in early July and moved into an apartment on 24th Street.
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Newlywed accused of hiring hit man to murder husband

August 5, 2009...7:30 pm

By Calvin Palmer

A South Florida woman was arrested today shortly after she believed her husband of six months had been murdered by a hit man she allegedly hired.

Dalia Dippolito, 26, turned up at her home in Boyton Beach this morning to find police and crime scene tape everywhere. Believing her 38-year-old husband to be dead, she began sobbing.

But it was all part of an elaborate hoax set up by the police. The hit man she met with was an undercover police officer.

A friend of Dippolito tipped off police about her murderous intentions and arranged for her to meet the supposed hit man.

The undercover detective met with Dippolito on Monday and asked for $3,000 in cash and a key to the couple’s home.
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2 Shot to Death Near Thornville

The Perry County Sheriff's Office says Grant Barnhart shot Eva and then turned the gun on himself.

"It sounds like he might have been a little bit jealous and was accusatory of her thinking that she had been having an affair on him," Sgt. James McCall, Perry County Sheriff's Department.

Sgt. McCall though there's no documented history of domestic violence the couple was having problems and Eva had been threatening divorce.
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Grisly Evidence Presented in Turner Murder Trail

By Julie Luck FOX8 News
August 5, 2009

MOCKSVILLE, N.C. - Dr. Kirk Turner watched intently as prosecutors and defense attorneys recreated the events from September 2007 during the fourth day of testimony Wednesday. Turner is charged with murdering his wife Jennifer at the Davie County home they once shared. The two were reportedly in the middle of a heated divorce case at the time.
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'Only person who can dispute claims is dead'

By Sherlissa Peters

Breaking down on the stand, Jaiseelan (Jason) Govindsamy wept as he portrayed himself at the Pietermaritzburg High Court as a "victim" of his marriage.

Govindsamy, 41, is charged with the murder of his wife, Anthea, 35, who was stabbed to death at the Howick Falls on March 27, 2007, in front of the couple's two young children.

He has pleaded not guilty to the murder, but admits stabbing his wife. He maintains he could not appreciate the wrongfulness or unlawfulness of his actions at the time.
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Elmarr found guilty of murder

By Pierrette J. Shields
© 2009 Longmont Times-Call

BOULDER — After deliberating since Friday, a Boulder County jury on Tuesday afternoon found Kevin Elmarr guilty in the 1987 first-degree murder of his ex-wife, Carol Murphy.

When Boulder District Judge James C. Klein read the verdict, Kevin Elmarr’s wife began to cry while he remained stoic. He faces 40 years to life in prison, with the possibility of parole.

Sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 5.

The verdict concluded a trial that included nearly two weeks of testimony and arguments.

Hikers found Murphy’s nude body facedown near a trail in Left Hand Canyon on May 23, 1987. She had been strangled and her throat cut.

Elmarr was a suspect at the time of her death, but he was not arrested until January 2007 when a re-examination of evidence revealed his DNA in samples taken from her body.

Prosecutors argued that a tumultuous divorce and ongoing legal entanglements over the couple’s two children motivated him to kill Murphy.
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Nevada Family Court Judge Allegedly Shot Over Divorce Ruling

The shooting of a family court judge this week in Nevada points to an alarming phenomenon in which those involved in emotional and acrimonious cases are taking their frustrations out on the judges.

Nevada Family Court Judge Chuck Weller is recovering from a gunshot wound. The suspect was allegedly frustrated by his divorce ruling.
(ABC News)On Monday Nevada Family Court Judge Chuck Weller was shot in his office by a man he dealt with in a divorce case.

The suspect, Darren Mack, is a multmillionaire father of three whose relatives say was deeply upset over Weller's rulings in his divorce case.
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DIVORCE VS. MURDER : A Little Humor

A nice, calm and respectable lady went into the pharmacy,
walked up to the pharmacist, looked straight into his eyes, and said, 'I
would like to buy some cyanide.'

The pharmacist asked, 'Why in the world do you need cyanide?'
The lady replied, 'I need it to poison my husband.'

The pharmacist's eyes got big and he exclaimed, 'Lord have
mercy! I can't give you cyanide to kill your husband.

That's against the law! I'll lose my license! They'll throw
both of us in jail! All kinds of bad things will happen. Absolutely
not! You CANNOT have any cyanide!'

The lady reached into her purse and pulled out a picture of her
husband in bed with the pharmacist's wife. The pharmacist looked at the
picture and replied,

'Well now, that's different. You didn't tell me you had a prescription.”

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Woman killed by husband in Kingman home

Associated Press - August 4, 2009 4:34 PM ET

KINGMAN, Ariz. (AP) - Authorities say the woman killed by her husband in a murder-suicide at a Kingman home last weekend was a Mohave County probation officer.

Authorities say 26-year-old Holly Jean Anderson was fatally shot Sunday night after handing her baby to a police officer. She had been talking through a crack in the door to officers responding to a call about a domestic disturbance.
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500 million divorcees in India by 2050

OVER 50 per cent of all marriages are breaking in all the metros and if this number is extrapolated and adjusted with population growth we are looking at over 500 million divorcees by the year 2050. Litigants in divorce cases go through depressions lasting decades as they fight it out in the glacially slow Indian judiciary system. The women in divorce cases are far better than men because their viciousness and unscrupulousness is rewarded by the Indian judiciary. The less said about the condition of men the better. They are considered expendable by judiciary.

The condition of men in India is much more deplorable than women. Although they contribute more than 80 per cent of the nation's taxes, their tax money is channeled by the government to make laws that are so horribly biased and one sided that over 120000 men have committed suicide than knocking the doors of justice.

The number of men committing suicide are twice the number of women each year and even then the government does not allocate any money for welfare schemes of men . Now, if we extrapolate the problems stated above and apply them to 500 million people we can see ourselves the kind of devastation we are looking at 50 years from now.
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Turner's Son, On Stand, Describes Couples' Relationship

MOCKSVILLE, N.C. -- The 23-year-old son of a local dentist charged in his wife's murder took the stand Tuesday afternoon, describing the relationship between his mother and father.

Kirk Turner's daughter, Wendy (blond hair at left), is seen wiping tears as prosecutors show graphic images during her father's murder trial. More

Kirk Turner's son, Gilbert "Ritchie" Turner, who has supported his father account of the incident, had been summoned as a prosecution witness.

"All he ever told me is that he remembers little snippets," Ritchie said when asked if his father had spoken to him about the incident. "He told me he wishes he was dead instead of her."

Ritchie went on to say he loved his mother, adding that after his parents separated, his mother wanted him to take sides and alienate his father.
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Police: Couple Dead In Murder-Suicide

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

NEWARK, Ohio — Police said a man shot his wife and then turned the gun on himself outside a drug store Tuesday morning.

The shooting occurred shortly before 8:30 a.m. in the parking lot of a CVS store, located at 1370 W. Main Street, 10TV's Lindsey Seavert reported.

"(Police) found two vehicles, one person in each vehicle, and what appears to be a murder-suicide," said Newark police Capt. Steven Cochran.

The man, who was identified as Robert Channel, was pronounced dead at the scene. His wife, Vicky, was transported to Licking Memorial Hospital where she later died.

The couple has two children, one of whom attends school in Columbus. A family friend who wished to remain anonymous said the woman had been trying to break away from her husband.
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Standoff detailed in samurai sword murder trial

By Will Bigham on June 15, 2009

RANCHO CUCAMONGA -- Jurors heard detailed testimony today about the five-hour standoff at Michael Burton's home following the death of his wife, who Burton allegedly stabbed 10 times with a three-foot samurai sword.

Today was the second day of testimony in the West Valley Superior Court murder trial for Burton, a former Pasadena firefighter.

Burton and his wife, Otilia Burton, were in the midst of a contentious divorce when he allegedly stabbed her to death following an argument on July 16, 2006 at the couple's Rancho Cucamonga home.
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Sidney Greenbush's Husband Committed Suicide

Child star of Little House on the Prairie, Sidney Greenbush, recently lost her husband. Her husband, William “Rocky” Foster committed suicide few days after Sidney Greenbush asked for a divorce.
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Loveland man gets life term for killing man serving divorce papers

By Monte Whaley
The Denver Post

Posted: 06/08/2009FORT COLLINS — A man who brutally beat a process server to death in May 2008 and then tried to kill his two young children was sentenced to life in prison today without possibility of parole after being called heartless and a monster by the victim's friends and family.

James Whitler also was sentenced to two consecutive 24-year-sentences for the attempted murder of his son, 11, and daughter, 13.

Larimer District Judge Daniel Kaup told Whitler he could have merely accepted the divorce papers from Stephen Allen on May 28, 200,8 and moved on with his life. But instead, Whitler beat Allen to death with a baseball bat and then tried to stab his daughter and strangle both children unconscious.

"This didn't have to end this way," Kaup told Whitler before passing sentence.

A Larimer County jury convicted Whitler last month of first-degree murder and two counts of attempted murder. Whitler's lawyers argued that he "snapped" when he got his divorce papers and didn't plan to kill Allen.
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