murder
GPS
GPS Couldn’t Prevent Sex Offender From Murder, Say Police
1:20AM Mark Wilson | In 1998, Darrin Sanford was convicted of luring minors with sexual motivation. He was released on probation and fitted with ankle GPS, but police say that technological precaution couldn’t stop him from murdering a girl. More »
Press
Chinese Graduate Student Murdered at Virginia Tech
3:15PM Elaine Chow | Just two weeks after arriving at Virginia Tech, a 22-year-old graduate student from China was murdered. The alleged killer, also Chinese, decapitated her with a kitchen knife at a local coffee shop. More »
Games
Halo 3 Shooter Daniel Petric Convicted of Murder
6:20AM Mark Wilson | Daniel Petric, a 17-year-old who was on trial for killing his mum and shooting his dad after being banned from playing Halo 3, has been convicted of aggravated murder, attempted aggravated murder and other charges. Since writing the original article documenting how Petric broke into his father’s safe to retrieve his copy of Halo 3 while equipping himself with his father’s 9mm handgun, Petric’s attempted last words to his parents have revisited me now and again—”Would you guys close your eyes? I have a surprise for you.”—my mind accompanying the chilling lines with a vivid if not necessarily accurate rendition of the evening. [AP via Kotaku] More »
Gadgets
Giz Tech Tip: Share the Karaoke Mic Or People Will Stab You
10:20AM Jason Chen | An unfortunate man in Malaysia learned the first rule of Karaoke by the painful way of being stabbed to death last week. (This is what he should have done to appease his attackers.) More »
Random Stuff
Mum Finds Macabre Use for Useless Mobile Phone Straps, Kills Son
10:30PM Jesus Diaz | You only have to take one look at this spent piece of used trash to know that nothing good can come out of her petrol eyes and twisted gesture. Kaoru Tomiishi is her name, and she has admitted that she killed her 6-year-old son with a mobile phone strap, probably the most inane and naff cheapo object of modern culture. She initially tried to cover it, but after the body was found thanks to the GPS inside the same mobile phone. More »
Gadgets
Bloody Serial Killer Shower Curtain Brings Murderous Fun Into the Bathroom
6:00AM Jack Loftus | There’s actually a lot more to this bloody shower curtain Halloween decoration than meets the eye. There’s the obvious stuff, of course, like the homage to Alfred Hitchcock classic Psycho. And the blood splatters and hand prints themselves say a lot about the owner. But beyond that, there’s a little something extra in store for guests who need to drop off the candy corn in between Trick or Treats. More »
Press
Convicted Spammer Escapes Prison, Murders Family, Kills Himself
12:38AM Adam Frucci | Well, this is terrible. Edward Davidson, the “Spam King” who was sentenced to 21 months in jail and ordered to pay US$714,139 in restitution to the IRS for spamming and tax evasion, escaped from prison with the aid of his wife only to then turn a gun on her, his 3-year old daughter, a teenage girl and finally himself. More »
Press
Madman Kills 7 In Akihabara Gadget District Rampage
4:26AM Wilson Rothman | A 25-year-old man who went berserk in Tokyo—killing seven people and wounding at least 11 others—told police, “I came to Akihabara to kill people… I am tired of the world,” according to Reuters and other news stories now hitting the wires. More »
Phones
A Mobile’s Missing Dot Kills Two People, Puts Three More in Jail
12:05AM Jesus Diaz | The life of 20-year-old Emine, and her 24-year-old husband Ramazan Çalçoban was pretty much the normal life of any couple in a separation process. After deciding to split up, the two kept having bitter arguments over the mobile phone, sending text messages to each other until one day Ramazan wrote “you change the topic every time you run out of arguments.” That day, the lack of a single dot over a letter—product of a faulty localisation of the phone’s typing system—caused a chain of events that ended in a violent blood bath (Warning: offensive language ahead.) More »
Toys
