WHERE THE BODIES ARE BURIED
BODIES FOUND AT HOME OF MILITARY HISTORIAN FLASHER
The remains of two people have been found in the garden of a North Yorkshire farmhouse once owned by a gun-toting flasher and military historian. Kenneth Ward, 72, who now lives in a York caravan park, was jailed for five years in 2011 after a sustained campaign of harassment and intimidation against his neighbour Mandy Dunford. She says he tormented her for nine years, flashing at her every day, standing half-naked or following her around dressed only in boots and socks. On one occasion he pointed a rifle at her and, as she fled, fired five shots. When Ward was arrested 10 years ago, police searching his home found an array of illegal weapons, including a loaded Luger pistol. Now, two jawbones and other human remains have been dug up at Ward’s former property of Appletree Cottage in Chop Gate village near the North Yorkshire moors.
Police in nearby Middlesbrough have expressed interest in the finds, as in 2018 they launched a cold case investigation into the deaths or disappearances of three young women. The naked body of sex worker Vicky Glass, 21, was discovered in Danby, less than 20 miles from Chop Gate in 2000. Rachel Wilson, 19, another sex worker, was found dead in a ditch near Middlesbrough in 2002. And 17-year-old Donna Keogh disappeared after a Middlesbrough house party in 1998; her body was never found. However, forensic archaeologists’ initial findings suggest the remains found at Appletree Cottage are decades old. Sun, 4 Apr 2020.
FERRY CORPSE
A British man described as a recluse was apprehended trying to cross the Channel by ferry with his mother’s body. Simon Odgers, 53, was about to board a ferry at Calais with the corpse of Barbara Odgers, 86, in the passenger seat of his car. She had apparently died some hours previously, and Mr Odgers told officials he thought she was asleep, and that she was ill with cancer and suffered repeated falls. But, on finding cuts and bruises on her body, Mr Odgers was suspected of murder. He was taken to a secure mental facility where has was said to be in a “confused” state. Mother and son lived on the Isle of Wight and owned three French properties. One of these, a chateau in Vernon, in the Ardèche, was searched by French police who say they found traces of blood on the staircase. Neighbours reported hearing shouting the evening before Mr Odgers’ abortive cross-Channel trip, and describe him as a reclusive individual who did not socialise with them. D.Telegraph, 26 Nov 2019.
CURSE OF THE KENNEDYS CONTINUES
Maeve Kennedy Townsend McKean, 40, and her son Gideon, eight, were found dead after failing to return from a canoeing trip at Chesapeake Bay, Maryland. Maeve is the granddaughter of Bobby Kennedy, shot dead in Los Angeles in 1968; his brother John F Kennedy was of course assassinated in Dallas in 1963. Their third brother Edward was embroiled in the 1969 Chappaquiddick incident, a traffic accident in which his female passenger died. Nine other Kennedys have died prematurely since 1944, succumbing to plane crashes, skiing accidents, drug overdoses and other misfortunes. Metro, 6 Apr 2020.
SWEDISH WOMAN’S DEATH ‘CLASSIFIED AS SECRET’
On 4 December 2005, Annie Borjesson, 30, was found dead on Prestwick Beach, near Glasgow Prestwick Airport. The Swedish woman was lying face down and was fully clothed.
Police searching his home found an array of illegal weapons
Her bag, passport, and wallet were discovered next to her. She had moved to Edinburgh to study English the previous year. Scottish and Swedish authorities stated her death was most likely due to suicide by drowning, but her family did not believe this.
A number of conspiracy theories appeared in the following years. One theory was based on the fact that Prestwick Airport was then being used for CIA rendition flights, to transfer ‘extralegal’ prisoners between countries. Documents that formed part of a year-long investigation by the Swedish and Scottish authorities recently emerged, but are heavily redacted, apparently because Borjesson’s death is deemed “classified as secret” by the Swedish foreign ministry, and “that the information concerns Sweden’s relations with a foreign state and a foreign authority”. It was stated that full disclosure of the redacted information “will damage Sweden’s international relations or, in other ways harm national interests”.
Borjesson’s mother, Guje Borjesson, told reporters she was “troubled” by Sweden’s secrecy and plans to appeal to Swedish authorities for the full release of all files relating to her daughter’s death. She is also asking to see post-mortem photographs, which the Scottish Crown Office has so far refused to release. dailymail.co.uk, 6 Mar 2020.
TWELVE TRIBES BURIALS
Police investigating the Australian Twelve Tribes
religious sect say they have discovered the remains of at least one baby in a coffinlike box. The searches at two Twelve Tribes properties, one at Peppercorn Creek Farm in Picton, and at a 78.5-hectare property near Bigga, southwest of Sydney, followed claims of stillbirths and burials amongst the secretive group, which rejects birth control, modern medicine and technology, relying instead on homeopathy and natural remedies. The Bigga site has no running water or electricity, and is used only when the sect wishes to exile errant members.
The Twelve Tribes organisation, a registered charity, has about 120 members in its Picton, Katoomba and Coledale communes and runs cafes in Sydney and the Blue Mountains. It has been in Australia since the 1990s, where it has been under investigation by police since 2019. It began in 1975 in Chattanooga, Tennessee, when former carnival showman Gene Spriggs left the First Presbyterian Church; he disapproved of services being cancelled for the
Super Bowl. It has
3,000 members worldwide, in the USA, Canada,
France, Spain, Argentina, Brazil, Germany and
England.
Twelve
Tribes practices a hybrid of primitive Christianity and Judaism, mixed with Spriggs’s own teachings.
The group aims to bring about the return of Jesus (or, as they call him, Yahshua) by re-establishing the 12 tribes of Israel and the early Christian church, as described in the Acts of the Apostles. These tribes would include 144,000 ‘perfect male children’, accounting for the group’s obsessive and controversial child-rearing practices.
Twelve Tribes is guarded and secretive, and members of the sect are expected to live by a set of strict guidelines that rule virtually every aspect of their lives. All members must sell their possessions and give the proceeds to the group. They are assigned a Hebrew name instead of their old ones: Spriggs himself is known as ‘Yoneq’. Communication with the outside world is forbidden, as is TV or any other entertainment media. Women are expected to be subservient to men and everyone must marry within the group. They follow strict dietary laws in accordance with Jewish tradition, and abstain from alcohol, tobacco, and drugs. Children are not allowed to play with toys and are supervised at all times, beaten with a 50cm (1.6ft) rod for every infraction by any adult present, not just their parents. They are all taught at home and do not attend university, which is considered a waste of time. Instead, children work in the community from a young age, which has led to accusations of child labour. Estée Lauder and other businesses cut ties with the organisation after learning children were involved in the manufacture of their products.
The Bigga raid came about when former member Rosemary Cruzado revealed her late-term stillborn baby was buried there. She believes her baby’s death could have been avoided if she had had access to a doctor earlier in her pregnancy.dailymail. co.uk, 8 Mar; dailypost. co.uk, 31
Mar 2020.