http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3412065/Dads-call-to-mum-Ive-killed-the-kids.html

Stabbed to death ... Rolls, 10, and Regina, eight, were found by police in father's flat

Killer stopped ex-wife's fresh start

EX-WIFE was days from escaping Aram Aziz when he murdered her and their two kids

By MIKE SULLIVAN, ALEX WEST, GARY O’SHEA and CAROLINE GRANT

Published: 15 Feb 2011

A JILTED father allegedly knifed his two children to death then rang his estranged wife to say: "I've killed the kids."

Horrified police are said to have found Jean-Francis Say, 61, sitting in a chair in his flat a few feet from the bodies of son Rolls, ten, and daughter Regina, eight.

It is thought the children died of multiple stab wounds.

A source said: "The scene inside the house was harrowing. It's hard to imagine how terrified these poor children must have been.

"Why ring up your ex-wife afterwards and tell her what you've done? She is devastated with grief. She thinks her life is at an end."

Neighbours said Say was heartbroken when wife Antoinette left him for another man two years ago and took the children with her.

He told them he only realised something was wrong with his marriage when he got home and found Antoinette had gone. He went straight to the children's school to pick them up - and learned Antoinette had taken them with her.

Sylvia Murphy, 39, who lives in the same apartment block in Southwark, South London, said of Say: "He was very friendly and approachable, always dressed in a suit and looking smart and presentable I always thought he was a really nice man.

"When I found out what happened I was in complete shock, I couldn't sleep. I can't believe anyone could do that to children. The kids were both lovely. Rolls was an adorable little boy."

Sylvia said Say fought a custody battle for the children but was only allowed to see them on weekends.

She added: "The dad seemed like the busier parent. He always took them to school and picked them up.

"He always said he was the one who did everything for the kids and all his wife did was sleep and go to work."

Crime scene ... Say's apartment

DAN CHARITY

French-speaking Say, believed to be from West Africa's Ivory Coast, recently confided his troubles to Sylvia and begged her to help him in his ongoing struggle for more access to the children.

She said: "He seemed absolutely devastated and poured his heart out to me about the kids.

"He said 'I gave them everything at Christmas, a Nintendo Wii and a Nintendo DS.'

"He asked me to write a good character reference for him to give to his solicitor as he was trying to get the children back.

"He wanted a shoulder to cry on, I don't think he had anyone to turn to. He thought I would be able to help him get the children back."

Antoinette, who is thought to have dialled 999 after Say allegedly phoned her on Sunday, was yesterday too upset to speak at her new home in Holloway, North London.

A friend said: "She's crying and can't speak to anyone. It's such a difficult time and she's so shocked."

Horror find ... flats where Say lives

A neighbour of Antoinette's said Rolls, who was autistic, and Regina were polite children who had clearly been well brought up.

She added: "They were always with their mum and were so well behaved. I never saw them out on their own. Most of the kids round here are terrible. But these two were the kind who opened doors for you. They seemed intelligent." Police were yesterday searching a communal garden outside the housing association flats in Empire Square where the children were found dead.

Polite

Others who live in the flats described Say as quiet but cheerful and polite. A caretaker said: "He was a nice man and was always smiling. I think he worked as a security guard and occasionally did stewarding at football matches."

Plumber Scott McEwan said: "We knew something had gone badly wrong because there were lots of police around on Sunday.

"Then we saw officers in paper suits going in and out of the flat. I just couldn't believe it when I heard that two kids had died." Police sources said Say, who is accused of murder, has not yet spoken to officers attempting to interview him. He appeared briefly at Camberwell Green Magistrates' Court yesterday.

Balding and powerfully-built, he confirmed his name, address and other personal details through a French interpreter. He was remanded in custody. Say was last night said to be on suicide watch after allegedly threatening to harm himself.

English Martyrs School in Southwark, which Rolls attended before he moved away with his mum, declined to comment.

http://www.johnsoncitypress.com/News/article.php?ID=86607

Family tragedy: Murder/suicide leaves infant without parents

By Becky Campbell
Press Staff Writer
bcampbell@johnsoncitypress.com

Johnson City police are wrapping up their investigation into a weekend shooting that is now classified as a murder/suicide.

The argument between Frankie Hughes, 31, and Rebecca Pugh Markland, 33, that led to the Saturday morning shooting was apparently over custody of the couple’s 10-month-old son, according to JCPD Sgt. Billy Church.

Church said Hughes had recently been released from prison after serving a sentence for a forgery conviction, and also had a 2002 conviction for obtaining narcotics by fraud.

The shooting occurred at 901 Long St. a little before 10:30 a.m. Church said that Markland went there to ask Hughes for some money.

While she was there, the two began to argue, Church said. That’s when Hughes shot Markland and then himself.

Angela Wilcox, a friend of Markland’s who rode to the house with her, was apparently outside when the shooting occurred.

She told police she heard what sounded like “firecrackers,” so she drove a few blocks down the street — with Markland’s son — and called 911.

The man who lives at that house, Eddie Yakley, was home when the shooting happened but told police he was in his bedroom when he heard the shots.

Yakley told police that he saw Hughes put the gun to Markland’s face, but didn’t see her get shot. Yakley also told police that he didn’t see Hughes shoot himself.

According to Church, police found a note on Hughes indicating that he intended to kill himself.

It was the second suicide note police found in connection to the case in as many days.

On Friday, Markland flagged down a police officer near Johnson City Medical Center.

She told the officer that Hughes had held a gun to her and threatened to shoot her while she was holding their child.

Markland and her son got away unharmed. She gave police a handgun case for a 9mm pistol. She told officers it was the case for the gun Hughes used to threaten her.

Police escorted Markland to that hotel room so she could get her belongings. Hughes was gone, but officers found a note indicating he intended to kill Markland and then himself.

Markland also told police that Hughes had stolen her prescription for clonazepam. Police found the empty prescription bottle in the room, according to the report on the incident.

Hughes died a short time after the shooting and Markland died Saturday night from her injuries.

The Department of Children’s Services was called to find an appropriate custodian for the couple’s son.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/15/health/research/15pregnant.html

February 15, 2011

Report Details Sabotage of Birth Control

By RONI CARYN RABIN

Men who abuse women physically and emotionally may also sabotage their partners’ birth control, pressuring them to become pregnant against their will, new reports suggest.

Several small studies have described this kind of coercion among low-income teenagers and young adults with a history of violence by intimate partners. Now, a report being released Tuesday by the federally financed National Domestic Violence Hotline says 1 in 4 women who agreed to answer questions after calling the hot line said a partner had pressured them to become pregnant, told them not to use contraceptives, or forced them to have unprotected sex.

The report was based on answers from more than 3,000 women, but it was not a research study, those involved said.

“It was very eye-opening,” said Lisa James, director of health at the Family Violence Prevention Fund in San Francisco, which worked with the hot line on the report. “There were stories about men refusing to wear a condom, forcing sex without a condom, poking holes in condoms, flushing birth control pills down the toilet.

“There were lots of stories about hiding the birth control pills — that she kept ‘losing’ her birth control pills, until she realized that he was hiding them,” Ms. James added.

One respondent described having to hide in the bathroom to take her pill. Another said that when she got her period recently, her partner was “furious.”

The hot line’s report did not include a comparison group and did not gather information about the participants, who were questioned anonymously; nor was it published in a peer-reviewed journal. It was based on answers to four questions posed to 3,169 women around the country who contacted the domestic violence hot line between Aug. 16 and Sept. 26, 2010, who were not in immediate danger and who agreed to participate. About 6,800 callers refused to answer the questions.

Of those who did respond, about a quarter said yes to one or more of these three questions: “Has your partner or ex ever told you not to use any birth control?” “Has your partner or ex-partner ever tried to force or pressure you to become pregnant?” “Has your partner or ex ever made you have sex without a condom so that you would get pregnant?”

One in six answered yes to the question “Has your partner or ex-partner ever taken off the condom during sex so that you would get pregnant?”

The questions were devised by Dr. Elizabeth Miller, an assistant professor of pediatrics at the School of Medicine at the University of California, Davis, whose earlier papers on reproductive coercion prompted interest in the subject.

“It’s really important to recognize reproductive coercion as another mechanism for control in an unhealthy relationship,” Dr. Miller said. At the same time, she added, younger women and girls dating older men may be confused by the pressure to become pregnant.

“If you can put yourself in the shoes of a 15-year-old dating an 18- or 19-year-old man, which is not an unusual scenario, and he says to her, ‘We’re going to make beautiful babies together,’ that’s pretty seductive.”

But Dr. Miller said more research was needed to understand the men’s motivations.

“One of the things that comes up a lot is: What are the guys thinking?” she said, adding that her own research suggested some answers.

“Some have an intense desire for a nuclear family, and many who had experiences of a dysfunctional family home want something better,” she said. Some young men, she said, “want to leave a legacy, and say, ‘I’m not sure how long I’m going to be around.’ Gang-affiliated young men want the status that comes with having babies from multiple women.”

Dr. Miller’s paper, published last year in the journal Contraception, reported that at five family planning clinics in Northern California, one-third of 683 female patients whose partners were physically abusive said the men had also pressured them to become pregnant or had sabotaged their birth control. Of 191 women who reported birth control sabotage, 79 percent also reported physical abuse, the study found.

The associations help explain why young victims of violence by intimate partners are at an increased risk for unplanned pregnancies and for sexually transmitted diseases.

Ms. James, of the Family Violence Prevention Fund, said that despite the new attention to reproductive coercion, she doubted it was a new phenomenon.

“I just think not enough people have been asking the question,” she said.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/northnorthwest/ct-met-wife-stabbed-20110215,0,1539658.story

A Des Plaines-area man whose wife was reportedly planning to leave him is accused of stabbing her to death on Valentine's Day as their 9-year-old daughter listened to her screams from the next room, authorities said.

Heriberto Ramirez, 48, was being held in lieu of a $10 million bond Tuesday, a day after authorities said they found his wife Alicia Ramirez dead on the floor of their bathroom with 35 stab wounds following a 911 call from the girl.

Heriberto Ramirez, of the 400 block of West Touhy Avenue, is charged with first-degree murder in the death of his 45-year-old wife.

According to court documents, the couple's daughter heard her father drag her mother into the bathroom and called police. Ramirez hung up the phone as his daughter called for help, but sheriff's police dispatched to the home found the woman's lifeless body. Family members told authorities that Ramirez's wife had planned to leave him, the court documents said.

The girl was taken into protective custody of the Department of Child and Family Services, police said.

The Cook County sheriff's police have responded twice before to the house since 2007, according to court documents.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Million-Mom-March-Mothers-Day-2011-in-Washington-DC/153380204718360?sk=info

1st Annual 2011

Location

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue

20500

About

Mothers, Expecting Mothers, Future Mothers UNITE

Description

Mothers across the nation are losing rights to abusive men in custody situations. Mothers that have no criminal, drug or violent history have been stalked in family courts across taking their children from them. We are going to converge on DC and make sure Obama does NOT fly over our protest as he did Mother's Day 2010.

General Information

AMPP is a social movement seeking justice and accountability within the family court system which includes DHHS/CPS, psychologists and other so called experts.

We as mothers demand CITIZENSHIP and our Rights to our Children. We demand that our children not be used as pawns by our abuser in a custody dispute. We demand that Mothers and Children be equally protected against court ordered visitation with an abuser. We demand that Mothers and Children be given the same rights, privileges and voice that the abuser gets in family courts!
We demand that our President take action now as can no longer afford to be silent and we won’t. We demand the same "rights and freedoms" to which all humans are entitled. Behind the closed doors of the dirty little secret of the family court system, thousands of women each year lose child custody to violent men who beat and abuse Mothers and Children. Family courts are not family-friendly and betray the best interests of the child. Until Mothers and Childrens voices are heard we will never shut up, give up or go away! (read less)

Mission

1st Annual Million Mom March!
WE NEED ALL MOTHERS TO STAND UP FOR THEIR VOICE TO BE HEARD BY OUR GOVERNMENT! WE ARE MAD AS HELL AND WE ARE NOT GOING TO TAKE IT ANYMORE!

CONTACT:

http://americanmotherspoliticalparty.org/

COME ON!!!

Carmen's mother visits toddler

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/4651473/Carmens-mother-visits-toddler

Teresa Scott ... visited recently to spend time with her grandchild.

Carmen Thomas ... slain at 32.

Brad Callaghan ... appeared in court via a video link-up on Tuesday.

Carmen Thomas' grieving mother has made another trip to New Zealand to spend time with her slain daughter's child.

South African-based Teresa Scott visited her daughter's five-year-old son, Jack, in the days leading up to the latest court appearance of the man charged over her death.

Carmen's former partner and Jack's father, Brad Callaghan, was charged with murder in September, more than two months after she was reported missing.

Friends and family of Carmen, 32, revealed Scott's most recent visit to New Zealand on a Facebook tribute page to the young mum.

Her aunty, UK-based Carol Louise Lavagna, recently wrote: "Well Carmen your mum's off to see your little man – just making sure he's okay and also making sure he doesn't forget his good old gran.

"They are going to have a grand time and I'm sure they will be talking about you lots and making sure you are never forgotten xxx."

A friend, Gail Stewart, then wrote last week: "Hi Carmen ... I saw beautiful pictures of Jack ... he is the image of you ... you must be really proud of him ... he lookes [sic] so healthy and happy when he was with your Mam. xxxxxx."

Jack is being cared for by members of Callaghan's immediate family.

But Scott revealed on the Facebook page in September, just days after Callaghan's arrest, that she was determined to ensure Jack made his new home in South Africa.

She simply wrote: "Jack is coming home to us."

The boy has been taken to the remand wing of Auckland's Mt Eden Prison on several occasions to visit his father.

Callaghan became a father for the second time when his partner, Tanith Butler, gave birth to a baby boy just days before Carmen's remains were found in the Waitakere Ranges.

The 32-year-old appeared in the Auckland District Court via a video link-up to the remand centre at Mt Eden on Tuesday.

The structural engineer was further remanded in custody until April 12.

His lawyer, Stuart Grieve, QC, successfully argued for an extension of time before Callaghan has to make a plea as it would take a considerable amount of time to go through the items of evidence he had received from the prosecution in disclosure.

Ad Feedback

The items include 19,000-plus A4 pages of documents, 20 photograph books, CDs and DVDs including bugged telephone calls and 132 formal briefs from prosecution witnesses.

Callaghan's family could not be reached for comment.

By George Mathis and Tim Eberly

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

http://www.ajc.com/news/gwinnett/father-charged-with-murder-836349.html

The father of two young boys stabbed to death in their home also stabbed himself and tried to blame the murders on the current boyfriend of the boys' mother, Gwinnett police said Saturday.

Enlarge photo

Gwinnett County jailElvis Noe Garcia-Nelasco, 23, is charged with murder in the stabbing death of his two children.

More Gwinnett news »

• Father charged with murder in child deaths
• North Gwinnett girls rally to take down No. 1 Norcross
• Stab victim had reported threats
• Rick Badie: Heart hits the jackpot if you pay it forward

On Saturday, Elvis Noe Garcia-Nelasco, 23, was taken into custody and charged with murder in the Wednesday deaths of Bradley Garcia, 3, and Edward Garcia, 1.

Antonio Cardenas-Rico, 28, initially faced murder charges, but had them dropped once police attention shifted to Garcia-Nelasco. However, Cardenas-Rico remained inGwinnett County jail on drug charges. Both men are believed to be in the country illegally.

On Wednesday, police answered a 911 call at 1110 Bridle Path Drive in the Huntington Falls subdivision near Lawrenceville and found the badly wounded boys in a basement. A third boy, Bradley's twin, 3, was in critical condition, and was airlifted to Children's Healthcare of Atlanta. He remains in critical condition.

Garcia-Nelasco and his former girlfriend were fighting over custody of their three sons, according to police reports obtained Friday by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The man, who had not legally established paternity, said he wouldn't return the sons to their mother because of his drug activity concerns involving her and her current boyfriend, Cardenas-Rico.

On Feb. 2, Garcia-Nelasco had approached Gwinnett Countypolice and filed a complaint that indicated Cardenas-Rico had threatened his life.

Following the stabbings, Garcia-Nelasco ran across the street and, referring to Cardenas-Rico, screamed at his neighbor, "He killed my children!" Suffering from stab wounds himself, Garcia-Nelasco was transported by ambulance to Gwinnett Medical Center.

The neighbor, Lewon Thomas, said Garcia-Nelasco entered his garage "with a hole in his chest," and talked to a 911 operator on a cellphone.

"He wanted me to go back and see what happened," said Thomas, who went to the house accompanied by another neighbor. "It was horrific."

When reached by phone Saturday, Thomas said he was "shocked" to learn that the man who came to him for help has now been charged with murder.

"Oh wow," he said. "That is so sad."

Thomas added that the news was "just disappointing." He said he never would have guessed that Garcia-Nelasco was lying to him about what happened.

"There was no indication whatsoever," he said. "That was the farthest thing from my thoughts."