WINTER HAVEN, Fla. - WESH.com

Winter Haven Police are investigating a murder-suicide that happened in a surgical ward at Winter Haven Hospital around 1:30 p.m. Monday.

According to reports, Ramon Duckworth, 77, hid a gun when he went to visit his wife, Patricia, 76.

Once in her room, investigators said he shot her and then turned the gun on himself.

Patricia Duckworth recently had surgery for a kidney infection and family members said she had a stroke a few months ago.

The couple married 57 years ago.

Some of the couple’s neighbors and family members said Ramon Duckworth was suffering from a number of illnesses including Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s and prostate cancer.

Investigators believe the couples’ declining health may have contributed to this murder-suicide.

“It’s shocking,” Maria Sykes said.

Sykes’ mother recently came out of surgery on the same floor where the shooting happened.

She found out about the murder-suicide when she called to check on her mother.

“My mother was there, and that made it worse,” she said.

Following the shooting, the hospital cleared out most patients on the floor. Twenty workers were also rushed out.

Source (article): MSNBC

Source (picture): CENTRAL-ORTHOPEDICS

A British couple held hostage by pirates for more than three months have told of brutal treatment at the hand of their captors who they say are perilously close to killing them.

In separate telephone interviews with CNN affiliate ITN, Paul and Rachel Chandler pleaded for help and spoke of their fears that they were just days away from death.

An emotional Rachel Chandler also spoke of how she thought “dying would actually be an easy way out” and how she wanted to see her husband “at least once before we die.”

The Chandlers were taken by pirates from their 38-foot yacht, the Lynn Rival, just days after setting sail from the Seychelles islands for Tanzania.

Their captors initially demanded a ransom of $7 million, but the British government — in line with longstanding policy — has refused to pay.

“Please, please find a way of helping us because it really is a very desperate situation here,” Rachel Chandler said in the latest interview, in which she said she had not seen her husband for two weeks since they were violently separated.

“I’ve broken a tooth because I was hit on the head with something, probably the butt of a gun… I don’t know… and yes, so we have been physically attacked.”

Rachel Chandler, 55, who along with her husband has been held for nearly 100 days, said the pirates had issued a new deadline.

“They’ve just told me that if they don’t get the money within four or five days they’ll kill one of us.”

Audibly close to tears, she also asked for a message to be passed on to her husband.

“The message to him is hang on for me because I hope — my biggest hope — is that I shall see him at least once before we die.”

She added: “It’s hard not to feel, well, dying would actually be an easy way out. It’s hard to explain but it is when you’re all on your own in this country and you’ve no idea where you are and no idea when something might happen and whether I’ll see Paul again. It’s just very, very despairing”

In a separate telephone interview 24 hours earlier, Paul Chandler, 59, described how they were separated and savagely beaten.

“We tried to stay together and they threw us to the ground and whipped us and beat Rachel with a rifle butt and I was dragged off, taken to a different location.

“I was allowed to telephone her about 12 days ago. Se said she was being tormented all the time and then she said she was giving up. They’ve lost patience. They set a deadline of three or four days, if they don’t hear, then they say they will let us die.

“We’re held in solitary confinement effectively. You know it’s just [like being] treated as a captive animal.”

It was not clear under what conditions the captives, who have been in sporadic telephone and video contact with journalists, had been allowed telephone access. ITN said both conversations had been shared with the British Home Office and his family.

Britain’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s official line on hostages says “the government will not make substantive concession for hostage takers, including the payments of ransom.”

Pirates have been very active off the east coast of Africa in the past several years, operating out of lawless Somalia.

Last week, pirates attempted to hijack an Indian crude oil vessel 105 nautical miles from Somalia, the EU’s anti-piracy naval force said. The pirates opened fire on the ship and were later arrested.

Piracy on the high-seas reached a six-year high in 2009, according to the International Maritime Bureau, which monitors shipping crimes.

Source (article): CNN

Source (picture): TELEGRAPH.CO.UK

BUFFALO, N.Y. - The parents of a 7-year-old boy who died after an upstate New York car crash have fulfilled his wish that they get married, and they did it at the child’s funeral.

Amilcar Hill and Rahwa Ghirmatizion got married during Monday’s funeral service in Buffalo for their son, Asa Hill. Asa died a day after his grandfather’s car was involved a chain-reaction highway crash last week.

Hundreds of people packed the church for Asa’s funeral. The couple surprised attendees by getting married, which the parents say their son had been asking them to do.

Amilcar Hill says Asa’s organs were being donated to save other young lives.

Source (article): MSNBC

Source (picture): SOLIHULL

PENSACOLA, Fla. - A wealthy Florida Panhandle couple slain in their home during a precisely executed break-in were being laid to rest Friday as investigators said they still have more people they want to talk to about the crime.

Byrd and Melanie Billings, known for adopting 13 special needs children, were shot to death and a safe was taken from their nine-bedroom home west of Pensacola last week. Six men and a teenager are charged with murder, and a woman, Pamela Long Wiggins, is charged with being an accessory after the fact.

An arrest report on Thursday said the woman’s husband told investigators that the safe was hidden in her backyard in suburban Gulf Breeze. Authorities would not say where they had found the safe or what was in it.

Long Wiggins was released on $10,000 bond and has not returned numerous phone messages.

At least one of the other suspects told investigators that her red minivan had been left near the Billings home to help the suspects get away. Some suspects said the safe and guns were transferred to the minivan, which was later spotted at an antique store she owns in Gulf Breeze.

The report said information indicated Long Wiggins was in the van with the guns and knew they’d been used during the break-in.

Family and friends gathered Thursday night for a visitation for the couple at Liberty Church west of Pensacola. A funeral was set for Friday at the church.

‘Simple’ motive
State Attorney Bill Eddins said the case was mostly wrapped up.

“In our opinion, this was a home invasion robbery where the people stole a safe,” he said. “It was as simple as that as to the motive.”

But Escambia County Sheriff David Morgan said at a news conference with Eddins that other motives may emerge and there are still people investigators want to talk to.

“We have some people of interest that we’re continuing to look at and I can tell you that those are now numerous people,” Morgan said.

Surveillance cameras at the Billings home captured footage of masked men — some dressed as ninjas — slipping into front and back doors, and one of the people investigators want to talk to may have been someone who failed to carry out an assignment to disable them.

The surveillance videos led investigators to a full-size red van — not the red minivan — used as an initial getaway car and eventually to the suspects, a loosely connected group of mostly day laborers who knew each other through a power washing business and an auto detailing operation.

Web of suspects
Morgan has said Wiggins is a friend and landlord to 35-year-old Leonard Gonzalez Jr., described as a “pivotal person” in organizing the break-in. Gonzalez, who is charged with murder, proclaimed his innocence in court Tuesday. He and the other six, including a 16-year-old male, are being held without bond on two counts of murder each.

Morgan also confirmed that the Drug Enforcement Administration is assisting with the investigation of the suspects, but he said the agency is not investigating the Billings family.

Nine of the couple’s adopted children were home during the break-in. Three saw the intruders but were not hurt. The couple also had four children from previous marriages. The adopted children are together and staying with family members.

Source (article): MSNBC

Source (picture): JODOMLEGALVIDEO