10 Terrible hammer murders
More americans are beaten to death than murdered by guns each year, according to FBI statistics. Of these brutal killings, hammers are the most common instrument. Their construction makes them almost perfect delivery systems for death. This cruel method of murder speaks to something deep in the human psyche – something primal and not yet developed for the modern world.
10 tough negotiator
In late november 2016, nassau county authorities charged 36-year-old raphael oyague with the murder of a craigslist prostitute. Prosecutors allege he attacked deeana wingender, 25, with a hammer. The attack occurred during a sex-for-cash rendezvous. A dispute arose over compensation for services rendered. Oyague beat wingender several times and killed her.
A trail of blood led authorities to oyague's back door. Prosecutors allege oyague murdered wingender in his baldwin, new york, apartment at 10 p.M. He then dragged her body downstairs and tossed it into the weeds behind the building. A couple pizza man discovered her battered body the following afternoon.
There are records of wingender bringing a car service to oyague's apartment and correspondence between them. Oyague has already racked up four arrests for criminal contempt of a protective order, DWI, and assault. He has pleaded not guilty and is being held without bail.
9 clandestine corpse
Photo credit: los angeles times
In the summer of 2015, police discovered the remains of raven joy campbell in an apartment wall in lomita, calif. The secretive body was found at the harbour hills housing project, where campbell, 37, had been reported missing six years ago. Autopsy found she died from blunt force trauma to the head from a hammer.
In 2009, her family knew something terrible had happened when they discovered her purse in the apartment, held compulsively to her chest. Missing persons investigation yielded no clues.
Neighbors had complained for years about a foul odor coming from the apartment. Campbell's sister tipped off police to search residence. An investigation with cadaver dogs led police to the hidden body of.
The los angeles district attorney charged campbell's former boyfriend randolph garbutt, 43, with the murder. Authorities allege garbutt killed campbell with a hammer before hiding her in the wall. Garbutt faces life if convicted.
8 brutalized bosnian
In 2014, four teenagers from st. Louis a bosnian immigrant to death with hammers. Zemir begic, 32, was on his way home from a bar when a group of teenagers approached and began vandalizing his car. When begic confronted the teens, travis kidd, who was 16 at the time, jumped into the back of begic's car and punched him in the back of the head. Then the other teens jumped into the fray.
Kidd, robert mitchell, then 17, juan carlos fabian-lutz, then 16, and darrian johner, then 16, were charged with first-degree murder in the killing. Some believe the killing was racially motivated. The suspects are black and hispanic, and the attack took place a week after the acquittal of a white police officer who shot and killed a black teenager in ferguson, missouri. The bosnian community of st. Louis considers begic's hammer killing a hate crime.
7 utah rampage
In october 2016, a utah man pleaded guilty to murdering a stranger on the street with a hammer. 20-year-old gerardo perez was "suffering from delusions due to mental illness" when he attacked leslie beus, 68.
Witnesses reported that perez acted like a zombie when approached outside his west valley city home with beus. Perez repeatedly hit the victim in the head with a hammer and a large knife as beus retreated to his home.
Perez charged with aggravated murder. Additional charges were dropped as part of his plea, including obstruction of justice, aggravated assault and interfering with an arresting officer. Beus suffered multiple skull fractures and was on life support for four weeks before dying from his injuries.
6 disintegrated ex
Photo credit: montrose review
In 2015, the dismembered remains of 37-year-old kimberley mackenzie were found in montrose, scotland. Body parts were hidden in trash cans all over the city. Police discovered more gruesome special items hidden in a safe deposit box.
Prosecutors accused her ex-boyfriend steven jackson, 40, and his partner michelle higgins, 29, of murdering mackenzie with a hammer and dismembering her with a saw, knives and a screwdriver.
Jackson's ex-wife barbara whyte, 43, told authorities that jackson confessed to her murder. Whyte and jackson met for the first time in 17 years at a bed and breakfast where jackson announced he had slaughtered mackenzie the previous week.
Jackson explained that brain matter had stormed across the room when higgins hit mackenzie in the back of the head with a hammer. Jackson slit mackenzie's throat before dismembering the body. Initially, whyte was suspicious of her husband's report because of his penchant for true crime stories.
5 quadruple homicide in greenville
Authorities in north carolina accused 39-year-old dibon toone of murdering a mother and her three daughters in the summer of 2016. Autopsy says victims died of 'traumatic head injury from assault'. Police believe a claw hammer was the murder weapon .
Toone and victim garlette howard, 32, were married. The two youngest victims, ayona (7) and mayona (6), were toone's daughters. Bryana carr, 11, was howard's child from a previous relationship.The victims' bodies were discovered in the greenville home the couple shared.
About four hours after the bodies were discovered, toone was arrested in richmond by a joint force of U.S. Marshals and virginia state police. He drove howard's work vehicle. Investigators disabled the car through onstar technology.
4 hammer hitmen
Photo credit: naples daily news
In june 2015, 46-year-old dr. Teresa sievers murdered in the kitchen of her home in bonita springs, fla. A hammer matted with blood and hair was found next to the dead mother of two children. Her husband, mark sievers, 47, was not initially charged with the murder. His childhood friend curtis wright jr., 47, and an accomplice jimmy rodgers (25) were.
The district attorney alleged that wright and rodgers dr. Sievers was ambushed while returning home from a family reunion in connecticut. Wright pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in exchange for 25-year prison sentence. He also suggested sievers.
Authorities arrested sievers and charged him with second-degree murder for plotting to kill his wife. Prosecutors say money is the motive. Dr. Sievers had a life insurance policy in the amount of $4.43 million.
3 macias brothers
In 2015, the macias brothers were arrested and charged with murdering their neighbor with a hammer in unincorporated west valinda, calif. Prosecutors allege 23-year-old jonathan macias was on the lookout while his brother, flavio macias jr., 28, attacked the neighbor luis segura (44). Segura died of his injuries at a nearby hospital.
Flavio has a criminal history with convictions for violating a cohabitation, carrying a dagger and possession of a controlled substance. If flavio is convicted, he will spend 28 years behind bars. Jonathan has a maximum sentence of 25 years. The brothers both found not guilty.
Segura's wife told detectives she saw the brothers trying to drag her injured husband into his own van. She called 911 and the brothers fled. When the deputies came to arrest the brothers, they had already barricaded themselves in their residence. Tear gas and a police dog were used to remove them.
2 los feliz murder mansion
The los feliz murder house is one of the most notorious houses in los angeles. Left untouched since a murder-suicide in the late 1950s, the spanish hills revival has been uninhabited for more than 50 years.
Am 6. December 1959 murdered dr. Harold perelson his wife with a ball peen hammer and brutally beat his 18-year-old daughter before taking his own life by laying down two nembutal and 31 sedatives. Some suspect that financial problems led dr. Have perelson crack. Others suspect he had a secret history of mental illness.
In 1994, rudy enriquez inherited the los feliz murder house from his parents, emily and julian enriquez, who had purchased the house a year after the murder and used it for storage. You have never spent the night. Intruders peeking through the windows can still see the dust-covered living room, which remains just as it was the night of the horrific suicide.
1 squatter slaying
Kassandra ochoa, 21, was beaten to death with a hammer in the garage of a vacant east los angeles home in 2015. A massive manhunt began for her fugitive boyfriend antonio medina (28), who authorities believe committed the heinous attack.
Witnesses reported that medina had argued with ochoa before she bled and did not respond. They also saw him fleeing the scene. Investigators learned that the couple had tried to stay the night illegally in the empty converted garage.
Medina had recently been released from prison at the time of the murder. He had been convicted of grand larceny car. Ochoa's family revealed that ochoa and medina had been living together at the time of the murder. According to friends, the couple was in a downward spiral and ochoa feared for her life. Days before her murder, she had written in her diary, "god, I need you now."