I WATCHED DAD MURDER MOM AND BURY BODY

NEIGHBORS KNEW

HE WAS just 5 when he watched in horror as his father strangled the life out of his mother. Robert Sturcz then watched as his father dug out a grave in their East Vancouver basement.

"I remember [my dad] calling me down to the basement," Sturcz told the Vancouver Province. "I was the only one home. I came down, he's choking her out and then I seen her collapse and he says, 'Watch her, make sure she doesn't move.' He had his fat fingers around her neck and squished it. That's what I saw."

That was 32 years ago. Now, cops and archeologists are excavating the housing unit in search of the body of Katherine Mary Brown, who

ACCUSED CONN. KILLER WANTS TO AVOID NEEDLE

DIALING FOR DEATH. One of the thugs accused of slaughtering a woman and two young girls in a botched Connecticut home invasion is begging for his life. Now, lawyers for Joshua Komisarjevsky say their client is offering to plead guilty to avoid the death penalty.
In July 2007, cops say Komisarjevsky and Steven Hayes broke into a home in Cheshire; beat and tied up Dr. William Petit; raped and strangled his wife, Jennifer Hawke-Petit; molested one of their daughters; and set the family's house on fire before attempting to flee.
Both daughters -- 17-year-old Hayley Petit and 11-year-old Michaela Petit, both of whom had been tied to their beds -- died of smoke inhalation. Petit escaped to a neighbor's home. Hayes is already destined to get the needle. Komisarjevsky's mouthpieces say Hayes committed the most heinous acts.

WEEKEND COP KILLINGS TRIGGER TEARS OF BLUE

LONG ISLAND COP

THE CARNAGE of American cops continues. On the weekend police officers were killed in New York and Virginia in three separate incidents.
* In Vansant, Virginia a gunman unleashed a barrage of bullets killing two sheriff's deputies investigating  a salvage yard robbery. Two other Buchanan County sheriff's deputies were also gunned with one having life-threatening injuries.
According to cops, the salvage yard's owner told them he was being robbed. When they arrived, the gunman started firing. The gunman was later found dead. Few details are available.
 COP SHOOTINGS IN VIRGINIA
* On Long Island, a police officer was accidentally shot and killed during a confrontation Saturday between cops and a knife-wielding thug. Geoffrey Breitkopf, 40, was shot and killed by an MTA cop in the front

HOLY NERDS! COMIC STORE ROBBER USED FAKE BOMB

VILLAIN

JOKER, Penguin, Two Face and whole host of comic book villains would probably be distinctly unimpressed by this comedy caper.
Wearing a blonde wig, glasses and a bandana, Mitchell Baum, 17, walked into a Detroit comic book store, flashed what looked like a home made bomb, before handing a note to the clerk demanding several boxes of Yu Gi Oh game cards which retail at about $90 a pop.
The clerk at the "Fun 4 All" store says the teen claimed his uncle was forcing him to do it and that if he was not given what he was asking for, his uncle would detonate the device.
Still he alerted his boss and security who quickly called police.
But rather than carry out his dastardly plan the teen actually paid for several items and left without the cards on the note.
Quickly picked up by Cops he was arrested and the Michigan State Police

"SCORE" LOSER TURNS HIMSELF IN

SCORE loser Travis Jones who allegedly shot a man over the score in a basketball game has turned himself in after more than two years on the lam.
Travis Jones, 21, was keeping score when he got into an argument over the points tally with Carleak Gibbons.
According to NY prosecutors he then left to fetch a gun and fired off six shots, hitting Gibbon's in the stomach, before escaping in a Dodge Charger driven by an accomplice who was soon caught.
While Gibbons recovered, Jones disappeared, hiding out in an undisclosed location all this time. 
But after he appeared Staten Island's most wanted fugitives, Jones' lawyer reached out to negotiate the terms of the surrender, a DA spokesman said.

AMERICAN TRAGEDY: FBI EYES '65 CIVIL RIGHTS MURDER

MLK

REV REEB

THE murder of a civil rights campaigner who's 1965 death was called an "American Tragedy" by then President Lyndon B. Johnson is being re-investigated by the FBI.
Martin Luther King Jr had invited the Rev James Reeb down to Selma, Mississippi - which was at the center of voting rights demonstrations at the time - to take part in a protest march to Montgomery.
But the Boston based minister never made it as he was set upon by angry white mob and beaten in a brutal attack, dying two days later from his injuries.
Three white men — Elmer Cook, William Stanley Hoggle and Namon O'Neal "Duck" Hoggle — were

MURDERS LOVER BY DOUSING IN GAS, SETTING ABLAZE

FIRESTARTER

A FIERY love affair literally ended in flames when a man doused his girlfriend in gasoline and set her alight, Cops say.
In front of her terrified mother, Jesus Alvarez dragged Margarita Blanco, 42, from her Miami Dade home drenched her in gas using a five-gallon container before setting her on fire.  
Her family said was a tragic conclusion to a relationship marred with violence.
Julia Mendez, Blanco's grief stricken mother said: "He came in and took her out by the hair. He grabbed her and punched her over and over and right there he threw her on the floor while punching her.
"He beat her wherever: there, here, inside my own house, in the street. He beat her in front of people. He didn't not care."
While her 19-year-old son Andrew called Alvarez: "A person with nothing in his life." 

VICTORIA GOTTI PINCHED IN NYC TOW TRUCK SCAM

GOTTI

DAPPER Don Jon Gotti's daughter, Victoria faces trouble after an army of crooked tow truck drivers nabbed cars from Big Apple streets and sold them to a junkyard that pays rent to her.   
Nearly two dozen vehicles, mostly heavy cars made of a lot of metal and then dumped them at A&J Scrap Metal Processing for between $200 and $400 a piece.
The vehicles were flattened by a crushing machine. A&J sits on a lot co-owned by Gotti, the daughter of the late "Dapper Don" John Gotti, records show. She took it over last April from ex-husband Carmine Agnello for just $10 using the company name "Three Sons Real Estate," the New York Post revealed.

The scrap yard has a Web site that offers "instant cash for all vehicles

FIVE TEENS GUNNED DOWN IN NEW ORLEANS

CARNAGE erupted in a Big Easy bar when gunman walked in and blasted five teens, killing one in a bloody shootout.
Cops said late Saturday a lone gunman walked into a bar and started shooting, leaving an 18-year-old man dead. 
A16-year-old girl was in critical condition and two other girls ages 14 and 17 and a 15-year-old boy were hospitalized in stable condition.
All had gunshot wounds.
Police spokesman, Officer Gary Flot, told The Associated Press by phone early Sunday that he had no immediate details about the circumstances, a motive or the suspect's whereabouts.
Those shot were not immediately identified.

CRAIGSLIST KILLER IS "PURE EVIL": DETECTIVE

PURE EVIL

A CRAIGSLIST killer described as "Pure Evil" by the cop who busted him has been sentenced to more than a century behind bars.
Kiyoshi Higashi butchered Jim Sanders and his family in deadly robbery after he advertised a diamond ring for sale on the popular trading website.
Cops called him the "main player" in the four strong team, three of whom are awaiting trial, who shot Sanders after he broke free and began to fight the robbers.   

Detective John Jiminez, the case's lead investigator, described Higashi as "pure evil."

He said: "He's earned every second of every day he will spend in prison."
The 23-year-old was unrepentant in court Friday according to Tacoma's The

NEW DNA FIND TORPEDOS CASEY ANTHONY'S DEFENCE

OH DEAR.Things seemed to be getting worse by the day for accused child killer Casey Anthony. New court documents reveal that a former high school pal of the party girl par excellence served as a secret informant for cops. He said she did not admit killing or having any role in the disappearance of her daughter Caylee, 2, in the summer of 2008.
According to the WESH in Orlando, the new evidence is a staggering setback for sexually adventurous Casey. DNA evidence came back negative for any evidence of a male being involved. The tests were requested on a laundry bag and shorts found with the little girl's remains. Her defence said someone else put the child's remains there.

WESH HAS A TREASURE TROVE OF EVIDENCE LINKS

MARSHALS SEEK EX-COP IN SC HOMICIDE, SEX CRIMES

HE LOOKED like a police recruiting poster but something sinister lurked beneath the surface of Daniel William Hiers Jr. On Nov. 24, 2004 the 32-year-old Charleston, SC cop was arrested for molesting a 10-year-old girl. He was immediately suspended. Slated to surrender to his lawyer on March 15, 2005

COPS GET TO TOOTH OF BIZARRE MASSACHUSETTS THEFT

Robert Ester, president of Mensa's Massachusetts chapter, sure liked the looks of those teeth. And why not, when you don't have teeth they all look pretty good--particularly if they're gold and shiny. 
Ester, 46, is accused of stealing another man's grill. The tooth came out when Ester and an accomplice confronted a 24-year-old outside a Springfield liquor store (go figure) and demanded everything he had.
Cops say Ester then pistol whipped the young man and the dynamic duo stole his watch, chain--and gold teeth. But while our Robert may have been brilliant in debates, a poor crook was he. The victim told cops to look for a black man in a puffy blue coat with missing teeth.

SERIAL KILLER JOEL RIFKIN'S HOUSE OF DEATH SOLD

JOLLY JOEL

IT IS A house of death. And it could have been yours. The East Meadow, NY onetime home of serial killer Joel Rifkin has been sold. The monster was alleged to have slaughtered some of his victims in the 1951 vintage home. It sold for $322,000.

 Monster Joel went on a four-year rampage in the late 1980s and early 1990s in which he murdered nine women--mostly prostitutes. Rifkin, now 52, claimed he had murdered 17 times. He was busted for a traffic violation in June 1993 and lo and

TARANTINO SUES NEIGHBOUR OVER WEIRD SCREAMS

'OBNOXIOUS'

TOP Hollywood director Quentin Tarantino maybe well known for his bloody movies but he's now taking court action against his neighbor because of "blood curdling screams."
 Tarantino filed a lawsuit against Alan Ball, a screenwriter who wrote the Academy Award winning film American Beauty and created the HBO hit True Blood because his macaw birds  make "obnoxious pterodactyl-like screams," reports TMZ.
He claims the racket is affecting his ability to focus on his job.
In documents filed at LA County Superior Court, Tarantino says the noise has "seriously disrupted ability to work as a writer in his home."
Tarantino says he tried to resolve the issue directly with Ball, but that hasn't given Tarantino the results he is looking for. Tarantino states Ball has "done little