The police identified the arrested as Gokul, 25, and Muthukumaran, 22, both natives of Thanjavur, and Mustafa, 26, of Vellore. 
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

The police said the couple was travelling along the Kumaran Nagar Main Road, when a huge branch from a roadside tree suddenly snapped and crashed onto the vehicle.
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

A 14-year-old boy in the United States has pleaded guilty to breaking into a 91-year-old woman’s home and sexually assaulting her at night. According to People, Jesse Stone, who was charged with sexual assault and burglary, entered the plea last week. Marion County Sheriff’s Office said that the teenager was arrested in June after the woman called police to report that she was sexually assaulted in her Florida home. She was awakened to find the 14-year-old sneaking through her home and was then beaten and sexually battered by the boy, the 91-year-old told the cops. 

After the attack, the 14-year-old told the cops that a neighbour captured a video of a person wearing a dark T-shirt and shorts jogging in the area the night before. Though he denied that it was him in the clip, a detective noted that he was wearing similar clothes to the person in the footage. 

According to People, Jesse Stone was arrested after forensic investigators identified him through DNA evidence. The 14-year-old later admitted to “unlawfully entering the victim’s home, striking the victim, and then sexually battering her”. He told the investigators that he entered the home through the living room door and had watched pornography on her iPad. 

The woman, on the other hand, told the police that she had spoken to the teen in the past and considered him a “good boy”. 

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“This type of unimaginable violence is still shocking to me after all of my years in law enforcement,” Sheriff Billy Woods said after the arrest. “It came as a shock that any individual would commit such an act on a 91-year-old, but it is truly disturbing when we see the young age of the arrestee. Although I firmly believe he should be held accountable for his crime, as a father, my compassion goes out to his family. Hopefully his arrest will lead to getting him help that prevents any further such acts,” he added. 

After being arrested, the 19-year-old was delivered to the Department of Juvenile Justice. According to The Mirror, the teen has been charged as an adult with one count each of sexual assault by someone under 18 years toward a victim over the age of 12 and burglary of a dwelling with battery. He is due back in court to be sentenced on December 19.

Melody Sasser, a 48-year-old Tennessee woman, was sentenced to 100 months in prison for attempting to hire a hitman to kill the wife of a man she met on a dating website. According to People, Sasser used the dark website “Online Killers Market” to seek a hitman, offering $9,750 in Bitcoin for a “random” or “accident” killing. According to court documents, Sasser met David Wallace on Match.com and became obsessed after he revealed his engagement. 

Mr Wallace told investigators that their relationship was limited to hiking companionship. Sasser had assisted him on an Appalachian Trail hike and they had also explored trails together in the Knoxville area before he relocated to Alabama and married his now-wife.

However, Sasser’s interest evolved into an unhealthy obsession. After learning of his engagement, she showed up at his Alabama home, making disturbing threats and beginning a campaign of harassment against his now-wife. Sasser monitored the couple’s activities using a fitness app and harassed the wife with six phone calls in one day.

”It needs to seem random or accident. or plant drugs, do not want a long investigation. She recently moved in with her new husband,” she wrote on the website, including details such as the couple’s license plate numbers and the wife’s workplace. 

Sasser also notified the website administrator when he left her home for a mere two-mile walk.

“I have waited for two months and 11 days and the job is not completed. 2 weeks ago you said it has been worked on and would be done in a week. The job is still not done. Does it need to be assigned to someone else? Will it be done? What is the delay? When will it be done,” Sasser wrote in a follow-up message to the website’s administrator.

Ultimately, the plan was unsuccessful. During the search of her home, law enforcement uncovered incriminating evidence, including a journal detailing multiple hitman websites and a handwritten account of her communications with the notorious “Online Killers Market”. Additionally, investigators found a stash of cash hidden beneath a sticky note bearing a Bitcoin address. 

As a result, a federal grand jury indicted Sasser in June last year for utilising interstate commerce facilities to facilitate murder-for-hire. Sasser ultimately accepted responsibility for her crimes through a plea deal. On Wednesday, she received her sentence: 100 months in prison, accompanied by an order to pay over $5,300 in restitution to the victim.

A woman from the United Kingdom pleaded guilty to murdering her parents and living in their home for several years after, as per a report in the Independent. Virginia McCullough, 36, entered a guilty plea to the murders of Lois McCullough, aged 71, and John McCullough, aged 70, between June 17 and June 20, 2019, during her appearance via prison video call at Chelmsford Crown Court on Thursday. She hid their bodies inside the house and kept residing at that location.

The woman lied to the doctors and relatives that her parents were unwell, on holiday or on vacation to cover her tracks. Her actions came to light on September 15, 2023, when Essex police executed a warrant at the Pump Hill residence after her parents’ doctors expressed concerns about missing visits. At that point, the 36-year-old admitted to stabbing her mother and poisoning her father with prescription drugs, according to the cops.

McCullough confirmed her identity, entered guilty pleas to both counts and stated that she understood the judge’s remarks. She will be sentenced on October 10 and 11.

As per the outlet, Judge Christopher Morgan said, “You will understand that there is a single sentence that can be passed upon you in these circumstances. Consideration however has to be given to the minimum term.”

Meanwhile, people living around the neighbourhood described the woman as “quite chatty” and a “little bit odd”, according to The Guardian. Dave Oldershaw, a neighbour, said McCullough was “carrying on, going up to the Chinese (takeaway) like nothing has happened”. He “thought she lived on her own” at the house and stated that he “only knew her to say hello to – she wasn’t trouble.”

A worker at a nearby shop said the woman had told him her parents had moved to be by the seaside. He said he had not seen them since the Covid-19 pandemic but would previously “see them two or three times per week”.

According to the employee, McCullough appeared “a little bit odd sometimes.” “She would come in and go ‘do you want a coffee’ then five minutes later, there would be a coffee sitting there,” the worker continued.