News Stories: October 04 - October 22
ORLANDO – 10-04-07
A suspect wanted for questioning in connection with both a violent and unexplained death as well as an assault on a local exotic dancer is still at large. Xopa Kia, the suspect accused of violently attacking Ginny ‘Ginger’ Lopez at Circus Circus last month, is believed to have fled Orange County. He is also connected with the death of Dolores Gaites, 89, though police have not declared him a suspect at this present time. Officials ask that any sighting of Kia be reported immediately to the Crimewatch Hotline, at 800-677-6777.
KISSIMMEE – 10-12-07
Both the Walt Disney World Resort and Sea World Orlando have had maintenance issues regarding their electrical systems. So far, the glitches have not caused the shut-down of any major rides or facilities, but technicians are not yet able to locate the source of the trouble.
ORLANDO – 10-16-07
Local resident Howard Marshall was arrested yesterday after assaulting a taxi-driver outside a bar. Marshall , 27, was subdued by a trio of police officers who sustained minor injuries. In an odd turn of events, Marshall was considered armed due to surgically implanted rods in his forearm and charged with not only aggravated assault, but assault with a deadly weapon. Marshall was hospitalized following the arrest, though the cause of the hospitalization remains unknown.
(Includes a picture of Marshall, a bald and heavily tattooed Caucasian man.)
WINTER PARK – 10-20-07
Yet another inexplicable and unexplained death in Winter Park occurred last evening. Coby Bryson, 26, was found in his Nob Hill apartment, hanging by his neck from the ceiling fan in his vaulted-ceiling living room. His skin, states the coroner’s report, had been physically ripped from his body, and his eyes sockets bore marks of what appeared to be water damage, though no water was found at the scene of the crime. Police are baffled, and ask residents of Nob Hill and surrounding apartment complexes to take extra care to keep their doors and windows locked.
MAITLAND – 10-22-07
Two explosions, both in small strip-malls in Maitland and Fern Park, resulted in the deaths of six people last night – two at the first location and four at the second. The incidents appear to be related, but the cause of the explosions is unknown. Police have stated that arson is the most likely reason for the deaths. So far, no witnesses have come forward, but the mayors of both Fern Park and Maitland have expressed their outrage, sorrow and determination to find the people responsible for the explosions.
EDITORIAL – Enough Is Enough
by Luck Leruse, Freelance Writer for Orlando Weekly
More than a hundred years ago, terror gripped the streets of Whitechapel in London, England, when an unknown assailant (or assailants) murdered at least eleven women in the most vicious and gory of manners. Today, the name Jack the Ripper is legend, as is the story of those untimely and grisly deaths. What, then, can explain the fact that a string of murders that occurred across the ocean over a century ago can be more familiar to us than a dozen just as gory murders that occurred in our own city less than three weeks ago?
The coverage for the deaths of twelve low-level managers in the Walt Disney World Resort was relegated to a small article on page 6 of the Sentinel, and an 11:00 news bulletin that lasted thirty seconds on CNN. FOX, CBS and ABC did not even cover the story. One might suspect the mega-corporation of exercising its power to cover up the murders, but the deaths themselves are so bizarre even ‘The Rat’ can’t ignore them.
The murders were astonishingly brutal; when the bodies were found, there were enormous amounts of viscera on the walls of the rooms. The bodies themselves were almost completely drained of blood, and the attacks (according to the policeman who was at the scene but, somehow, has failed to file a police report with this particular detail) seem to have been made ‘with claws of some sort’.
Claws? Bloodless corpses? Entrails on the walls? Two months ago, ten policemen’s hearts ceased beating at the exact same moment, without logical cause or warning. Now, twelve Disney employees die from claws and vanishing blood. Is anyone else realizing that Orlando is being held in the grip of some unexplained, psychotic phenomenon? Is anyone else tired of having this nameless monstrosity wreak havoc on our home? Is no one going to do anything about it? Where is the courage in this city? Where are the people unwilling to sit and take these events sedately? It will only keep going, readers. It’ll only get worse. Do something. Write your local police precinct. Write Charlie Crist. Whatever you do, don’t wait – unless you want to be the skinless corpse hanging in your apartment, with only a single-paragraph news note on the last page of the Local & State section to alert people to your gruesome fate.
- news stories courtesy the DST, Jake T., US2002022694