Friday, January 18, 2013
Joseph Canazaro co-owned Finn McCool's in Ambler. Suspects believed to have fled in victims' pickup truck; described as armed and dangerous
Update, 5:03 p.m. The last murder that occurred in Hilltown Township was in 1990 at 12 Key Drive, when Eric Motis stabbed his neighbor Louise C. Hoopes, 42, a secretary at Grand View Hospital, and her sons Douglas, 16, and Daniel, 14, in their beds. Motis, 26, committed suicide in prison in 1998. Motis was facing three life sentences after pleading guilty at trial in 1991. Update, 4:23 p.m. The Reporter reports the black pickup truck has been located in Upper Bucks County. The truck has been located behind Quakertown Plaza Shopping Center on the 1400 block of West Broad Street in Quakertown. Update, 4:14 p.m. Chief Chris Engelhart has identified the victim as Joseph Canazaro, 48. Canazaro lived at the Swartley Road home with his girlfriend…
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
Losses preceded alleged ransom scheme
- POLICE & FIRE
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Wednesday, November 28, 2012
The man accused of killing a 10-month-old girl and her grandmother in an Upper Merion apartment tower in October had reportedly lost $15,000 gambling at casinos in the week before the crime. The Associated Press reports that 26-year-old Raghunandan Yandamuri told authorities about his gambling losses in a videotaped statement he made following his arrest. The statement was played at his preliminary hearing on Wednesday morning. Authorities have said the murders of Saanvi Venna and her 61-year-old grandmother, Satyavathi Venna, were part of a botched ransom scheme in which Yandamuri planned to demand $50,000 from Saanvi's parents for her safe return. Several copies of a ransom note were found at the murder scene. The Montgomery County …
Thursday, November 22, 2012
Raghunandan Yandamuri remains held without bail at the Montgomery County jail.
- POLICE & FIRE
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Thursday, November 22, 2012
The man accused of killing an infant girl and her grandmother in an Upper Merion apartment last month may face the death penalty. Phillyburbs.com reports that the Montgomery County district attorney's office is considering seeking a death sentence for Raghunandan Yandamuri, who allegedly killed 10-month-old Saanvi Venna and her 61-year-old grandmother, Satyavathi Venna, on Oct. 22 in a botched ransom plot. Yandamuri remains held without bail at the Montgomery County Correctional Facility in Lower Providence. He is scheduled for a preliminary hearing on Nov. 28. Yandamuri has reportedly been assigned as a "mitigation counsel," whose job it would be to defend him against the death penalty. Montgomery County Assistant District Attorney Kevin …
Friday, October 26, 2012
The 10-month-old had been missing since Monday. A family friend has been charged in the murders of the child and her grandmother, who reportedly attacked the would-be kidnapper as he tried to take her granddaughter.
The body of Saanvi Venna, the 10-month-old girl who disappeared from the Marquis Apartments in King of Prussia on Monday following the murder of her grandmother, was found at about 4:30 a.m. Friday in a sauna room inside the apartment complex, Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Ferman said. Raghunandan Yandamuri, 26, described by Ferman as a friend of the Venna family, has been charged in the murders of Saanvi and Satyavathi Venna. Ferman said Yandamuri told authorities that he intended to kidnap the child and hold her for $50,000 ransom. See this article's photo section to see a copy of the ransom note. "He believed the family was of sufficient means to pay that ransom," Ferman said. As he was leaving the scene of the elder Venna's …
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
10-month-old Saanvi Venna's family had just moved to King of Prussia in June of this year. Authorities seek to identity anyone with a motive to harm the family.
Local authorities on Tuesday were working with the FBI to identify any suspects of motives in Monday's suspected abduction of 10-month-old Saanvi Venna from her home in a King of Prussia apartment tower on Monday. Authorities said Saanvi's 61-year-old grandmother, Satyavathi Venna, was found murdered in the home when Upper Merion Township Police arrived at the scene early Monday afternoon. Satyavathi Venna, who was visiting from India, had been staying with her son, Venkata Konda Siva Venna (Saanvi's father) and her daughter-in-law, Chenchu Latha Punuru, Saanvi's mother. The elder Venna was scheduled to return to India in January. Her body was being autopsied on Tuesday, authorities said. The family had been living in the apartment since …
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
After spending over a decade on the run, one of Puerto Rico's 'Most Wanted' was arrested in HV.
On Thursday, Sept. 6, a fugitive connected with a murder stemming back to 1998 was finally caught after 14 years on the run. Carlos Rodriguez Alcala was arrested after U.S. Marshals received information that he may have been hiding out in Huntingdon Valley working at a car dealership; and he was eventually captured behind Feretti Motors on Philmont Avenue. "We got a call in the morning from the U.S. Marshal, and they said they had an arrest warrant for a guy named Carlos Rodriguez Alcala from Philadelphia," Lower Moreland Police Detective Sergeant John MacDonald said. "The warrant was for murder that occured in Puerto Rico in 1998." Based on this photo, it appears Alcala was captured behind the Service Center building. MacDonald said bail …
40.1242
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3001 Philmont Ave, Huntingdon Valley, PA
/articles/man-connected-with-murder-caught-in-huntingdon-valley-14-years-later
/locations/7773367
Thursday, June 21, 2012
Rope, candy wrappers shoved down deceased woman's throat lead to arrest of her 70-year-old roommate
Philadelphia Police arrested a Roxborough woman on murder charges Wednesday after a Willow Grove funeral home discovered rope and candy wrappers stuffed down a deceased woman's throat, police said. Geraldine Cherry, 50, was arrested on homicide and possession of criminal instrument charges June 20, in connection with the death of Kathleen Mcewan, police said. Cherry and Mcewan, 70, both lived at 300 Parker Ave. in Roxborough, when Mcewan died of presumably natural causes June 10, police spokesperson Officer Jillian Russell said. Employees at John J. Bryers Funeral Home in Willow Grove were embalming Mcewan when they discovered rope and candy wrappers lodged in her throat. Medical examiners determined the death was from suffocation and …
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Montco DA announces the arrest of 10 members of the Norristown-based "Gangsta Killer Bloods."
On Wednesday morning, Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Ferman announced the arrest of 10 alleged members of the "Gangsta Killer Bloods," including the alleged leader of the gang, 23-year-old Augustus Anthony Simmons, of Brooklyn, NY. The arrests cap off six months of work by a Montgomery County investigative grand jury, who traced the alleged criminal enterprise back to Simmons' arrival in Norristown in July of 2010. "When Simmons came in last summer, his goal was to organize criminals on the streets behind him," said Ferman. "He came down with the purpose of establishing and solidifying a Blood set in Montgomery County." A large scale investigation was launched on Dec. 15 2010, after a pair of fire-bombings on Stanbridge Street. …
40.116063
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Montgomery County Courthouse
493 Swede St, Norristown, PA
/articles/urban-terrorists-crippled-by-grand-jury
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John W.
5:23 pm on Thursday, February 28, 2013
I entertain my clients at Finn's McCool regularly and thought the owner was doing fine. If it is true that Joe owed so much to SOMEBODY, we all know the answer now. Organized crime should be viewed differently. General public should worry about random petty crime rate in the community. more ›