BLACKSBURG, Va. – A graduate student from China was decapitated with a kitchen knife in a campus cafe at Virginia Tech by another graduate student who knew her, police said Thursday.

Xin Yang, 22, was killed Wednesday night after arriving at the campus from Beijing on Jan. 8 to begin studying accounting, Virginia Tech Police Chief Wendell Flinchum said.

Her accused attacker, 25-year-old Haiyang Zhu of Ningbo, China, knew the victim but no motive for the slaying has been determined, Flinchum said. School records showed that Haiyang was listed as one of Xin’s emergency contacts.

Haiyang was charged with first-degree murder and was being held without bond at the Montgomery County Jail. His attorney, Stephanie Cox, did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

Haiyang and Xin had been having coffee in a cafe in the Graduate Life Center, where Xin was living. About seven other people who were in the coffee shop told police that the two hadn’t been arguing before the attack.

Police received two 911 calls shortly after 7 p.m. Wednesday, Flinchum said, and were on the scene in a little more than a minute to take Haiyang into custody.

Flinchum said Haiyang was not known to the campus police or to the university team that deals with mentally disturbed students.

University officials said Haiyang arrived on campus last fall and was a Ph.D. student in agricultural and applied economics.

The stabbing was the first killing on campus since a mass killing on campus in 2007, when a student gunman shot 32 people and then took his own life.

“An act of violence like this brings back memories of April 16,” university President Charles Steger said. “I have no doubt that many of us feel especially distraught.”

University spokesman Larry Hincker said a campus alert system put in place after the mass shootings by Seung-Hui Cho in 2007 sent out messages to 30,000 subscribers by e-mail, text messages and telephone voice mails Wednesday night.

Because a suspect was in custody, the messages were sent out as notifications rather than as emergency alerts, he said.

Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine offered condolences to the campus.

“My thoughts and prayers are with the friends and family of Xin Yang today — and with the broader Virginia Tech community,” he said in a statement. “The tragic attack on campus this week has no doubt revived terrible memories for countless members of the Hokie family.”

This happened last night!

Seven people watched Zhu decapitate Yang with a kitchen knife in the school cafe! And no one made an attempt to stop this?

More from Roanoke.com

When Virginia Tech authorities arrived Wednesday night at a cafe inside the Graduate Life Center, they found a decapitated female victim who had arrived on campus just two weeks ago and a young man they have now charged with killing her.

Authorities, including Virginia Tech Police Chief Wendell Flinchum, outlined some of the gruesome details of Wednesday night’s murder on campus at a press conference this morning.

They said Xin Yang, a 22-year-old graduate student from Beijing, arrived Jan. 8 to begin her studies in accounting at the Pamplin College of Business. She lived in the graduate life center.

Haiyang Zhu, 25, a graduate student from China, was charged late Wednesday with first-degree murder and is being held without bond. He is a Ph.D. graduate student majoring in agricultural and applied economics. He began his studies at Virginia Tech at the start of the 2008 fall semester. Tech officials said the victim and suspect knew each other and Yang listed Zhu as an emergency contact.

Flinchum said the two were sitting at a table at the Au Bon Pain cafe in the Graduate Life Center when the disturbance began. There were seven witnesses to the events and two called 911 at 7:06 p.m.

When authorities arrived less than two minutes later, they discovered Yang’s dead body, Zhu and a large kitchen knife that they believe is the murder weapon. Zhu did not resist arrest. There is no record of him being called to the attention of Tech or Blacksburg police or the university’s threat assessment or CARE team before Wednesday.

Classes were not canceled today and the graduate life center is open. The windows and glass doors of Au Bon Pain are blocked from the inside and the cafe is closed.

Holy crap!

Hat Tip: The Jawa Report

breitbart.com

NEW YORK (AP) - A man who died of lymphoma and lung disease more than seven years after he was exposed to toxic dust from the World Trade Center collapse was added to the Sept. 11 death toll, the New York City medical examiner said Friday.

Leon Heyward, 45, died Oct. 13 of lymphoma that was complicated by the lung disease sarcoidosis and the use of the chemotherapy drug cyclophosphamide, the medical examiner’s office said.

Ellen Borakove, a spokeswoman for the medical examiner’s office, said Heyward was near the twin towers when they collapsed. She did not say how long Heyward had been ill or whether he worked in the trade center.

His family could not immediately be reached Friday.

Deaths may be reclassified when “people die of disease that is caused by exposure to the dust that occurred in the time of the collapse,” Borakove said.

Chief medical examiner Charles Hirsch listed Heyward’s death as a homicide. The family did not formally request to add Heyward to the Sept. 11 death toll, Borakove said.

Hirsch last added the illness death of Felicia Dunn-Jones to the official toll in 2007 after her family made the request several times, but the judge has declined to make similar rulings in half a dozen other cases.

Dunn-Jones, a 42-year-old civil rights attorney, was caught in the dust cloud that enveloped lower Manhattan on the day of the attacks.

Medical experts researching the severity of post-Sept. 11 illness have said the risk of exposure was greatest on the day of the attacks, although thousands of people have said they developed respiratory illness, cancer and other ailments from breathing in fumes during the nine-month cleanup.

Dunn-Jones developed a persistent cough shortly after Sept. 11 and died in February 2002.

Hirsch cited research that showed a link between sarcoidosis and ground zero dust exposure and said that Dunn-Jones’ exposure contributed to her disease.

Later in 2007, however, Hirsch reversed a New Jersey medical examiner’s decision that a retired city police detective’s death was caused by exposure to toxic dust. Hirsch ruled that James Zadroga’s improper use of prescription drugs exacerbated his lung disease.

The 34-year-old Zadroga’s name was later added to the New York Police Department’s memorial wall as an official Sept. 11 victim.

Many victims’ family members have said they wanted symbolic recognition that their loved ones’ deaths were caused by the terrorist attack. Researchers studying Sept. 11-related illness also have watched the cases closely, as they establish direct links between trade center exposure.

The death toll from the trade center attacks now stands at 2,752.

I believe all of these people that die due to lung disease caused by World Trade Center dust exposure should be added to the death toll.

They were physically injured and internally injured on that day.

Charles Patrick Payne, 26, accused of killing a Dallas Police Officer is claiming self-defense for the shooting.  He claims that he heard a knock at the door and the person knocking (the police officer) used a fake name to identify himself.  When he opened the door, he claims that the police did not announce who they were and he fired a shot killing the officer.

Drugs and weapons were found in the home.

Yes, ok, self defense.  My theory:  If you wasn”t doing something illegal, the police wouldn’t have been at your house.  Thus, one can safely assume, the officer would still be alive.  Guilty of murder!  Oh yes, another wanted felon was found in the apartment.

Dallas Morning News

breitbart.com

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) - Orlando authorities: DNA tests confirm remains are missing 3-year-old Caylee Anthony.

Authorities believe that Baby Caylee Anthony was killed deliberately, but they do not know how she was killed.

Caylee Anthony’s body may not yield much in the toxicology report, such as traces of chloroform.

Prosecutors may put the death penalty option back on the table against Casey Anthony.

Breaking News…

Developing…

UPDATE 1: breitbart.com

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) - Orlando authorities say DNA tests confirm the skeletal remains recently found in the woods belong to missing toddler Caylee Anthony.

A county medical examiner said at a news conference Friday that the remains match Caylee’s DNA profile, and that the death is considered a homicide.

A utility worker stumbled upon the remains last week, less than a half-mile from where the girl lived. Caylee had been missing since June.

Caylee’s mother, 22-year-old Casey Anthony, was indicted in October on first-degree murder and other charges, even without a body. She has insisted that she left the girl with a baby sitter in June, but she didn’t report her missing until July.

A search team said they did not check the wooded area sooner because it was submerged in water.

Hopefully, all the people affected will have time to mourn.

MSNBC

HOLLYWOOD, Fla. - A serial killer who died more than a decade ago is the person who decapitated the 6-year-old son of “America’s Most Wanted” host John Walsh in 1981, Florida police said Tuesday.

The announcement brought to a close a case that has haunted the Walsh family for more than two decades, launched the television show about the nation’s most notorious criminals and inspired changes in how authorities search for missing children.

“Who could take a 6-year-old and murder and decapitate him? Who?” John Walsh said at Tuesday’s news conference. “We needed to know. We needed to know. And today we know. The not knowing has been a torture, but that journey’s over.”

The suspect, Ottis Toole, had twice confessed to the killing, but later recanted. He claimed responsibility for hundreds of murders, but police determined most of the confessions were lies. Toole’s niece told the boy’s father, John Walsh, her uncle confessed on his deathbed in prison that he killed Adam.

The Walshes long ago derided the investigation as botched, and John Walsh has said he believed Toole killed his son. Still, he praised the Hollywood police department for closing the case, and said it was not a day to place blame.

“This is not to look back and point fingers, but it is to let it rest,” he said.

Adam Walsh went missing from a Hollywood mall on July 27, 1981. Fishermen discovered his severed head in a canal 120 miles away two weeks later. The rest of his body was never found.

Authorities made a series of crucial errors, losing the bloodstained carpeting in Toole’s car — preventing DNA testing — and the car itself. It was a week after the boy’s disappearance before the FBI got involved.

“So many mistakes were made,” John Walsh said in 1997, upon the release of his book “Tears of Rage,” which harshly criticized the Hollywood Police Department’s work on the case. “It was shocking, inexcusable and heartbreaking.”

For all that went wrong in the probe, the case contributed to massive advances in police searches for missing youngsters and a notable shift in the view parents and children hold of the world.

Adam’s death, and his father’s subsequent activism on his behalf, helped put faces on milk cartons, shopping bags and mailbox flyers, started fingerprinting programs and increased security at schools and stores. It spurred the creation of missing persons units at every large police department.

It also prompted national legislation to create a national center, database and toll-free line devoted to missing children, and led to the start of “America’s Most Wanted,” which brought those cases into millions of homes.

It is great that Adam Walsh’s murder has finally been solved and everyone can be at peace.

John Walsh has done a great job with America’s Most Wanted. It is a great tribute to his son, Adam.

The remains of a small child have been found in a garbage bag near Casey Anthony’s Orlando home.

Police believe that these are the remains of Baby Caylee Anthony.

Breaking News…

Developing…

Thanks to Scoop This reader Andrea for the tip.

UPDATE 1: local6.com

ORLANDO, Fla. — A utility worker on Thursday found the skeletal remains of a child in Orange County in a wooded area located less than half a mile from the home of the George and Cindy Anthony, whose 3-year-old granddaughter, Caylee, has been missing since mid-June, authorities said.

Orange County sheriff’s deputies said it’s too early to tell if the body is that of Caylee.

Local 6 News reporter Jessica D’Onofrio confirmed that the remains are likely that of a girl. D’Onofrio said the worker saw the garbage bag, opened it, saw the remains of a child and called 911.

A skull was found nearby, and there was duct tape in and around the garbage bag, D’Onofrio reported.

“Deputies did respond to that area, and once we were on the scene, we determined that we do have the remains of a young child. Obviously, our concern is that it’s in close proximity to some recent activity in that part of the county, and it’s incumbent upon us to determine what we have,” said Orange County sheriff’s spokesman Jim Solomons, referring to the Casey Anthony case.

The age and gender of the remains are not known.

The area of the discovery has been blocked off, and FBI agents, along with sheriff’s detectives, are investigating the wooded area.

Tim Miller, the leader of EquuSearch, a Texas-based group that has performed numerous searches for Caylee’s body, said he talked with FBI agents, who told him that they believe the remains belong to Caylee.

“It would be inappropriate to speculate,” Orange County sheriff’s Capt. Angelo Nieves said. “Our investigators are on scene, evaluating and processing the situation. It’s very early.”

Nieves said that George and Cindy Anthony have been notified about the discovery.

Caylee’s mother, Casey Anthony, 22, remains jailed in her daughter’s disappearance.

The garbage bag was found 15 houses away in a vacant lot!

UPDATE 2: Fox News is reporting that the home of Baby Caylee Anthony’s grandparents is now a crime scene and that no one is being allowed inside of the house.

I also heard that the grandparents were on some type of vacation in California. Who the hell goes on vacation when their grandchild is missing?

UPDATE 3: breitbart.tv

I heard when the utility worker picked up the garbage bag, the skull rolled out!

Horrible!

UPDATE 4: There is speculation that today’s heavy rains in Orlando might have brought the garbage bag to the surface of the vacant lot.

wftv.com

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — Eyewitness News uncovered new information about who’s cashing in on the Casey Anthony case. Sources extremely close to the family told Eyewitness News that the Anthonys have signed a $2 million movie deal with the Lifetime Movie Network.

There are also claims that Casey’s attorney is purposely trying to create drama in the case.

A movie director wouldn’t have to make up the drama of Casey Anthony’s first release from jail. When faced with Eyewitness News’ tough questions, Casey turned away and nuzzled her face into her attorney’s neck as he hugged her and shielded her from the rain and reporters.

It’s the stuff that movies are made of.

The California bounty hunter who sprung her says that’s what attorney Jose Baez is counting on, which is why his hired security force stood back and let the drama unfold. After that, Baez hired bodyguards for Casey at what Eyewitness News was told was $1,500 a week.

Bounty hunter Leonard Padilla told Eyewitness News on Wednesday that Baez made him sign away any rights on movie or book deals, that Baez is banking on the entertainment industry and so is his mysterious public relations man.

“He’s representing that, to the family and to Jose, that ‘I can get two million dollars.’ Well, to be honest with ya, Hollywood will throw $2 million at anything that’s, you know, sensationalized as something like this. Believe me,” Padilla said.

Sources close to the Anthonys told Eyewitness News a $2 million contract with the Lifetime Movie Network has been signed. Padilla also said Baez broke his promise to beef up security because of the protesters to ramp up the drama the night Casey was arrested at her parents’ house. He showed up after her arrest and held a marathon news conference slamming investigators for the show.

Lifetime Network told Eyewitness News there is no such deal and Cindy and George Anthony’s attorney said that they are not involved in any financial deals involving the case, but Baez’s PR firm won’t answer any questions.

Most everyone knows the plotline of the story. Everyone’s now waiting to see how it ends.

Disgusting.

Casey Anthony and her family are trying to cash in on Caylee Anthony’s disappearance and likely murder. I thought the grandparents just wanted to be left alone? And now they are trying to bring even more attention to themselves?

There are rumors that one of Casey Anthony’s ex-boyfriend’s and a few of her friends smelled a horrible stench coming from the garage where Casey’s car was stored in. Casey said that she hit two squirrels inside the garage. Yeah-fucking-right. I really believe that!

Make sure to check out the previous blogs on this case, brought to you by Scoop This!

Casey Anthony PARTIES HER ASS OFF while her daughter is missing!

Baby Caylee Anthony is dead!

Baby Caylee’s hair found in trunk of car.

The use of chloroform killed Baby Caylee!

The body was decomposing in the car!

Breaking News…

Developing…

UPDATE 1: wesh.com

Results Say Body Was Decomposing In Anthony’s Trunk

ORLANDO, Fla. — Much-anticipated results from the University of Tennessee Body Farm reveal that a body was decomposing in the trunk of Casey Anthony, mother of missing 3-year-old, Caylee.

On Aug. 10, air sample tests were taken from taken Anthony’s trunk and sent to the facility.

Initially, Cindy Anthony said her daughter’s car smelled like a dead body, but later the Anthonys argued that it was a combination of smells — rotting pizza and cleaning fluid left in a hot car for fifteen days.

This is the first scientific test giving investigators another signal that a dead body was indeed in Casey Anthony’s car.

Anthony was arrested in mid-July and was held on charges of child neglect until a Sacramento-based bounty hunter posted up her $500,000 bond on Aug. 21.

Sources close to the investigation also exclusively told WESH 2 that time is running out on a deal offered by the state to give Casey Anthony limited immunity for statements she makes, if it would help investigators find Caylee. The State Attorney’s office confirms an offer was made on Wednesday afternoon. According to WESH 2’s source, that deal will run out at the end of the business day on Thursday afternoon.

Anthony has been a focus in the investigation into her daughter’s disappearance since her arrest. Investigators also searched the back yard of parents’ home.

George and Cindy Anthony have stood by their daughter from the beginning and have repeated the message that the priority should be finding Caylee, passing out fliers and wearing T-shirts featuring the toddler’s face.

I wonder if Casey Anthony will be re-arrested now that she is out on bond.

Will the grandparents face charges?

UPDATE 2: Here is a pic of Baby Caylee.

UPDATE 3:

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Court documents show the mother of a missing Florida toddler wanted to give the girl up for adoption before she was born.

Documents released by prosecutors Monday show Casey Anthony’s mother insisted that she keep the child. Three-year-old Caylee has been missing since June.

Police say the 22-year-old Anthony didn’t report Caylee missing for more than a month and then lied to them. Caylee’s grandmother finally reported the disappearance in July.

Anthony faces charges of child neglect, making false statements and obstructing an investigation. She was released from jail on $500,000 bail last week and returned to her parents’ home.

She has told detectives she didn’t immediately report Caylee missing because she was conducting her own investigation.

If Caylee was put up for adoption, she would most likely be alive today.

Once again, life is stranger than fiction.

Fox News.com

BALTIMORE — A toddler whose remains were found inside a suitcase in Philadelphia this spring was starved to death by members of a religious cult, including his mother, in part because he refused to say “amen” after meals, police said.

Ria Ramkissoon, the mother of Javon Thompson, was charged Sunday with first-degree murder in the boy’s death, and Baltimore police said Monday that three other members of a group called 1 Mind Ministries have also been charged with first-degree murder. Police and Ramkissoon’s family say the group is a cult.

Members did not seek medical care for Javon when he stopped breathing, and the boy died in his mother’s arms, according to court documents that described police interviews with a confidential informant and two children. He would have been about 19 months old when police say adults stopped feeding him in December 2006.

The people at 1 Mind Ministries have lost their collective mind! The baby is 19 months old! He cannot speak when he is starving! Also, a baby’s first words are never “amen”.

Continuing…

Ramkissoon, 21, was being held Monday in the psychiatric ward of Baltimore’s Central Booking and Intake Center, and a bail review was postponed until Tuesday. Her public defender declined comment.

The three other people charged in Javon’s death — Queen Antoinette, 40, also known as Toni Ellsberry or Toni Sloan; Marcus Cobbs, 21; and Trevia Williams, who turns 21 Tuesday — were already in custody. They were arrested in May in New York City on warrants charging them with failure to appear in court in Baltimore. Those charges stemmed from a scuffle with police in a child custody dispute.

No one answered the phone Monday afternoon in the office of a public defender assigned to Antoinette, Cobbs and Williams.

A fifth alleged cult member, Steven Bynum, has been charged in a warrant with first-degree murder and remains at large, police said Monday. He was believed to be in New York.

These people do not need psychiatric counseling. They need prison time, and lots of it.

If you live in New York, help the police to try to find Steven Bynum. Scoop This will post any breaking news regarding Steven Bynum’s arrest.

Continuing…

Ramkissoon’s family said she should not be held responsible for her son’s death.

“She had no control over that situation at all,” her stepfather, Craig Newton, said Monday.

Ramkissoon’s mother, Seeta Khadan-Newton, told The (Baltimore) Sun on Sunday that it wasn’t her daughter’s decision not to feed the boy.

“My daughter was a victim, just like my grandson,” Khadan-Newton said. “Somebody made that decision to not feed that child, and my daughter had to follow instructions.”

Of course the mother has control of the situation! All she would have had to do is pick up her baby and run away! There are good Samaritans in this country who will gladly call 911 to help this woman and her son. The daughter being called a “victim” is plain crap. The only victim is little Javon Thompson.

Continuing…

Members of 1 Mind Ministries wore all white, swore off medical care and referred to some members with titles including queen and princess, according to court documents. The group was also accused of insisting that a pregnant woman give birth without access to doctors.

Ramkissoon joined 1 Mind Ministries after Javon was born. Ramkissoon’s mother last saw her in April 2006; she later sued for custody of her grandson, writing in a letter to a judge that “the cult leaders” were preventing her from contacting her daughter.

The documents show police interviewed two school-age children who had been part of the group but were taken away from members by Philadelphia police. The children told investigators that members stopped feeding Javon in December 2006, in part because the boy refused to say “amen” after dinner. Members also viewed Javon as “a demon.”

Another unnamed informant told police that after Javon died, Antoinette left the boy’s body in a room for more than a week, claiming “God was going to raise Javon from the dead,” the documents show.

The only “demons” are the ones at 1 Mind Ministries! They deliberately let this baby die! And I highly doubt that God would raise Javon from the dead if Javon was going back to the “care” of 1 Mind Ministries. Javon is happier in Heaven than he ever was on Earth.

Continuing…

Afterward, Antoinette burned the boy’s clothing and a mattress and placed his body in a green suitcase, which she would periodically open and spray with disinfectant to mask the odor, police claim in the court documents.

In early 2007, the group members left Baltimore for Philadelphia. They left the green suitcase and other luggage inside a shed belonging to a man they befriended while there, police said, and then relocated to Brooklyn, N.Y.

Police recovered the suitcase in April after they got a tip from the confidential informant. The remains of a small child were inside. DNA tests are pending to confirm the boy’s identity.

How can people in 1 Mind Ministries live with themselves? Their actions led to this child’s death. What’s worse, they will most likely escape the death penalty by claiming they are “insane”.

I’m sure most parents have been there.  Especially new parents.  Especially young parents.

You have something you really want to do, but wait!  You have children and don’t have a babysitter.  So, what do you do?  You stay home.

The party at your friends house may have been the best one this year.  Shopping with your friends sounded really fun.  Or, like in 27-year-old Jermaine Canada’s case, you really needed to kill the local 7-Eleven clerk. 

Canada had two children, no babysitter, but he didn’t let that foil the plan.  With his two-year-old in hand and his six-year-old at his side, Canada entered a Phoenix, Arizona 7-Eleven store and fatally shot the cashier.

The 62-year-old victim was an immigrant from India.  Canada’s apparent motive was an argument.

Fortunately, Canada was arrested at about 9 am. this morning.  The shooting had occurred during the night.