HESPERIA, Calif. — A man who authorities say killed his 9-month-old son and himself in San Bernardino County reportedly had details about his murder-suicide plans posted on facebook.

Sheriff’s officials say 25-year-old Stephen Garcia of Pinon Hills was on a court-ordered visit with his son Wyatt Sunday when he drove to a dirt road in Twin Peaks, killed the boy and committed suicide.

The Victorville Daily Press is reporting that Garcia left a chilling Facebook letter, saying he did it out of love in an attempt to save his son from a difficult life.

“I led everyone on my side of the family to believe I wouldn’t of done this because I did not want them to know…” the letter reads.

“I had been thinking about doing this for months.”

Garcia also claimed he carried out his plan in order to punish the baby’s mother, Katie Tagle, for refusing to come back to him, the Daily Press reported.

“Our deaths are a lot for her,” the post continues. “It will have to suffice as her punishment. But that is not the reason I did it. It was the only way we could be happy without Katie. I did this out of love for our son, to protect him and myself.”

The note was reportedly posted on Garcia’s profile about eight hours after he and his son were found dead.

It appeared Garcia arranged to have someone else post the letter on his behalf.

Hesperia Sheriff’s Station received a report Saturday night that Garcia took his son and threatened to kill the child and himself.

Their bodies were found inside his car the next day.

The department did not say how the pair died, only that they “sustained traumatic injuries.”

Garcia’s online post also read as a will and mentioned the use of a gun, the newspaper reported.

Anyone who may have information about this case is asked to call Detective Ryan Ford or Sgt. Frank Montanez at the Sheriff’s Homicide Detail at (909) 387-3589 or call WeTip at (800) 78-CRIME.

Source (article): CNN

Source (picture): ALISONTUCK

LEBANON, Pa. - A soccer mom who gained national attention when she openly carried a loaded gun to her 5-year-old daughter’s game was shot dead Wednesday along with her husband in what appeared to be a murder-suicide, police said.

Meleanie Hain and Scott Hain were pronounced dead Wednesday night at their home in Lebanon, a small city about 80 miles west of Philadelphia.

The couple’s three children were home at the time but weren’t hurt, police said. They were taken to stay with friends and relatives.

Meleanie Hain, 31, and Scott Hain, 33, had been having marital problems for about a week, neighbor Mark Long said. Scott Hain had left the couple’s home on Tuesday, and Meleanie Hain didn’t know where he was, but he returned Wednesday, Long said.

Autopsies on the Hains were to be conducted Thursday, coroner Dr. Jeffrey Yocum said.

Meleanie Hain made headlines after she attended a children’s soccer game in a park on Sept. 11, 2008, with a handgun in plain view holstered on her hip, upsetting other parents.

The county sheriff, Michael DeLeo, revoked her gun-carrying permit nine days later.

Hain successfully appealed the permit revocation, although the judge who restored the permit questioned her judgment and said she had “scared the devil” out of other people at the game.

Harassment
Hain sued DeLeo in federal court, alleging that he violated her constitutional rights and prosecuted her maliciously when he took the permit away. She said that because of his actions her baby-sitting service had suffered, her children had been harassed and she had been ostracized by her neighbors in Lebanon, which has about 25,000 residents.

Financial problems may have led to the murder-suicide of a woman and her sailor boyfriend who posted a controversial YouTube video of his shipmates dancing, MyFOXDC.com reported.

Electronics Technician 2nd Class Michael Joseph Missimer was shot and killed Jan. 27 by his 43-year-old live-in girlfriend, who then took her own life, police in Annapolis, Md., said.

Helen Clapsaddle had recently lost her job and was having money problems with her previous employer, police said.

“Right now we’ve determined there may have been some financial problems between the two,” said Sgt. Gilmer told MyFOXDC.com.

While serving aboard the aircraft carrier Enterprise, Missimer filmed and edited a five-minute video of his shipmates dancing and spoofing a YouTube clip known as the “Numa Numa video,” the Navy Times, reported.

Click here to see the video.

His video, called “Enterprise Numa Numa,” has been viewed almost 2 million times on YouTube.

The man in charge of Missimer’s unit told the Navy Times that not everyone liked the spoof, which wasn’t made for public distribution.

“He caught a lot of flak about that,” Petty Officer John Fallowfield said. “It was just something they pulled together when they had some time on the carrier … we did this with the understanding it would be in-house.”

Police say Clapsaddle called 911 shortly after midnight telling them that when police arrived at her apartment, they’d find two people dead — including her, MyFOXDC.com reported. She abruptly hung up.

The couple lived together at the Harbour Gates Apartment Complex in Annapolis.

SOURCE: FOX NEWS

On this day in 1888, Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh, suffering from severe depression, cuts off the lower part of his left ear with a razor while staying in Arles, France. He later documented the event in a painting titled Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear. Today, Van Gogh is regarded as an artistic genius and his masterpieces sell for record-breaking prices; however, during his lifetime, he was a poster boy for tortured starving artists and sold only one painting.

Vincent Willem van Gogh was born on March 30, 1853, in the Netherlands. He had a difficult, nervous personality and worked unsuccessfully at an art gallery and then as a preacher among poor miners in Belgium. In 1880, he decided to become an artist. His work from this period–the most famous of which is The Potato Eaters (1885)–is dark and somber and reflective of the experiences he had among peasants and impoverished miners.

In 1886, Van Gogh moved to Paris where his younger brother Theo, with whom he was close, lived. Theo, an art dealer, supported his brother financially and introduced him to a number of artists, including Paul Gauguin, Camille Pisarro and Georges Seurat. Influenced by these and other painters, Van Gogh’s own artistic style lightened up and he began using more color.

In 1888, Van Gogh rented a house in Arles in the south of France, where he hoped to found an artists’ colony and be less of a burden to his brother. In Arles, Van Gogh painted vivid scenes from the countryside as well as still-lifes, including his famous sunflower series. Gauguin came to stay with him in Arles and the two men worked together for almost two months. However, tensions developed and on December 23, in a fit of dementia, Van Gogh threatened his friend with a knife before turning it on himself and mutilating his ear lobe. Afterward, he allegedly wrapped up the ear and gave it to a prostitute at a nearby brothel. Following that incident, Van Gogh was hospitalized in Arles and then checked himself into a mental institution in Saint-Remy for a year. During his stay in Saint-Remy, he fluctuated between periods of madness and intense creativity, in which he produced some of his best and most well-known works, including Starry Night and Irises.

In May 1890, Van Gogh moved to Auvers-sur-Oise, near Paris, where he continued to be plagued by despair and loneliness. On July 27, 1890, he shot himself and died two days later at age 37.

HISTORY.COM
Date: 2008-12-23