Bizarre Crime of the Week : Investigation Discovery

Update on Brianna Denison Case

Earlier this year, I reported that Brianna Denison, 19, had been found raped and strangled to death a month after she disappeared from a friend's house in Reno, Nevada (see Snatched in the Dead of Night). Readers will recall that Brianna's body was found in a vacant field on Reno's southeast side in February 2008. Two pairs of panties that did not belong to her were found nearby. Last week Reno police announced that they had arrested a man for the alleged rape and murder of Brianna Denison, a man that investigators are looking at in a number of additional similar unsolved cases in other states.

According to Reno Police Lt. Robert McDonald, an anonymous tipster called in on November 1, 2008 to report that James Michael Biela, 27, had been fingered as a potential suspect in Brianna Denison's rape and murder by Biela's girlfriend and mother of his 4-year-old son. Apparently Biela's girlfriend had found a pair of women's panties that did not belong to her inside his truck's console in mid-September while returning to the Reno area from Washington State, and she had told the tipster about the discovery and her suspicions about the man with whom she'd been living. Biela had apparently departed Reno a short time after Brianna's body had been found.

McDonald, in an interview with ABC News, indicated that detectives did not know who the panties found inside Biela's truck belonged to, but that he fit a general profile that Reno homicide detective Adam Wygnanski and others in the department had put together over the past several months. Because the tipster had told police that Biela's girlfriend had said that Biela had displayed odd behavior and fit the suspect details in Brianna's case, Wygnanski wanted to know more. He called Biela and set up a meeting outdoors in a parking lot because Biela did not want cops coming to his house.

"My suspicion began with that phone call," Wygnanski recently told a reporter with the Reno Gazette-Journal. "I told him we were conducting an investigation, and I needed a few minutes of his time. I didn't tell him what it was about, and he hung up. It was strange he never asked me what the investigation was about. If the police come to your house and leave a card that says they're from the robbery-homicide unit, wouldn't you want to know what it was about?"

Wygnanski said that Biela was nervous, fidgety, and was reluctant to make eye contact during the meeting. He was also sweating. Admittedly, it wasn't much, but it was sufficient to convince the detective that Biela was the man he had been looking for.

"He said he had no involvement and refused to give me a DNA sample," Wygnanski said. "He said he didn't trust it. I told him it was a quick way to eliminate himself (as a suspect) and that we had a lot to do and would like to move on with the investigation."

Two "Heads" Are Better Than One? Not Necessarily!

James and Stuart Head, 35-year-old British identical twins, were known by the Bromley football (soccer to us Yanks) team, of which they were fans, as rowdy, verbally abusive and disrespectful toward other fans.  It was not uncommon for the Head brothers to swear at other avid sports enthusiasts like themselves that had come to watch the team play against their various opponents.  The twins, who had reportedly been born with learning problems, were known by residents in the Orpington area-just southeast of London, where they lived—but not in a positive manner.  Some people characterized them as bullies who would resort to fighting to get whatever they wanted.

According to the details that came out at their trial late last month inside London's Old Bailey, the brothers apparently had a disagreement with Nigel Stemp, 54, a disabled photographer who used walking sticks to help him get around.  Stemp had apparently agreed to exchange homes with the Heads in April 2007, but without the knowledge and consent of the government housing agency responsible for administering housing regulations. 

After about a week of residing in each other's homes, government officials forced each of the residents to return to their own residences, but not before the Heads had allegedly caused approximately £150 worth of damage to Stemp's dwelling, including setting his sofa on fire.  Stemp had demanded that he be paid for the damage they had caused, which resulted in their disagreement.  In usual form taken to the extreme, the Heads literally took the matter into their own hands-the two brothers allegedly hit Stemp over the head with wood planks, possibly backed up that murderous effort with a hammer, and attempted to cut his throat before setting him on fire in his bedroom.  Firemen called to the scene to put out the fire discovered Stemp's charred body and realized that they had a serious problem for the police to investigate.

"They were known to be aggressive football fans who caused trouble," Detective Inspector Stewart Kingston said.  "Because they had learning difficulties, people were reluctant to deal with them...They were well known...and were often seen swearing, being abusive and using threatening behavior."

Gay Rapist/Serial Killer Ronald Joseph Dominique Sentenced to Live

Ronald Joseph Dominique, 43, literally terrorized gay communities in many of Southern Louisiana's parishes, some not far from New Orleans, by murdering at least 23 men over nearly a 10-year period that began in 1997 and continued until his arrest on December 1, 2006.  Dominique seemed to be most active in Terrebonne Parish, Lafourche Parish, Jefferson Parish, and Iberville Parish.  By his own admission, the gay serial killer from the Bayou Blue region of the Cajun settlement of Houma (located in Terrebonne Parish, approximately 60 miles southwest of New Orleans) claimed that he selected his victims by hanging out at gay bars and focusing his attention on men he believed would be eager to have sex in exchange for money.

According to investigators, Dominique also enticed his victims by showing them a photo of an attractive woman he claimed was his wife whom he wanted the men he selected to have sex with while he watched.  After getting the victims inside his home, he would ask permission to tie them up - presumably for bondage games.  If they did not agree to be tied up, he allowed them to leave and that would be the end of it.  On the other hand, if the victim agreed to be bound Dominique would rape them and either strangle or suffocate them afterward.  He dumped several of his victims in sugar cane fields, frequently without shoes - which served as an important clue that allowed the cops to connect the cases.

Police believe that 19-year-old David Levron Mitchell was among the first, if not the first, of Dominique's victims.  Mitchell's body was found in 1997, near the community of Hahnville.  Several months later the body of Gary Pierre, 20, was discovered in St. Charles Parish, and in July 1998 the body of Larry Ranson, 38, was also found in St. Charles Parish.  Over the following nine years, the bodies of many additional victims ranging in age from 19 to 40 were found dumped in remote areas including the aforementioned sugarcane fields as well as in bayous and drainage ditches.  Other victims included Oliver Lebanks, 27, Manuel Reed, 19,  and Christopher Sutterfield, 27.  Lebanks' body was found on October 5, 1998, in Metairie; Reed's body was found inside a garbage container on May 30, 1999, in Kenner; and Sutterfield's body was found on October 15, 2006, in the vicinity of a boat launch near White Castle.

When police began seeing similarities in many of the murders, including the dumping locations, causes of death, and the fact that many of the men were barefoot when found, they realized that they had a serial killer on their hands and a task force was formed - but not until March 2005.  Sheriff's departments from nine of Southern Louisiana parishes comprised the bulk of the task force, which received assistance from the Louisiana State Police and the FBI.  The fact that many of the 23 victims were homeless men who participated in drug and prostitution activities also helped investigators link the cases together and had eventually allowed them to more clearly see Dominique's modus operandi.  The straw that broke the camel's back, so-to-speak, and had put the cops onto Dominique's trail had been one of the victims that had refused to be tied up and that Dominique had subsequently allowed to leave.  That man, it turned out, had gone to the police and filed a report of the incident.