Murder investigation under way after pregnant woman found dead in Co Down
Officers received a report of an unconscious woman with a serious injury inside a house in Elmfield Walk, Donaghadee, on Saturday afternoon.
Police attended the property along with ambulance staff who provided medical treatment to 27-year-old Sarah Montgomery.
But the mother-of-two was pronounced dead at the scene.
A 28-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of murder and remains in police custody.
Detective Chief Inspector Tom Phillips said Ms Montgomery was confirmed to have been pregnant at the time of her death.
He said: "Enquiries are at an early stage into this deeply tragic case.
"Our thoughts are also with Sarah's family during this incredibly difficult time - as they struggle to come to terms with what has happened.
"Sarah's family are being supported by specially trained officers as the investigation continues."
Chief Inspector Yvonne McManus added: "We understand this news will cause shock and concern within the community. Local people will see our officers in and around the area - with cordons still in place today."
She added: "We recognise the profound impact that violence against women and girls has on individuals, families and wider society."
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The Sun
6 minutes ago
- The Sun
I probe the minds of evil killers… infamous cat slayer signed his letters with sick moniker & lives in cloud cuckoo land
HE'S the psychopathic killer who filmed himself feeding a live kitten to a python and suffocating another in a plastic bag in a chilling bid for internet notoriety. But the sickening videos were a prelude to monstrous Luka Magnotta 's final act - stabbing a lover to death, chopping up his body and posting out the severed body parts to schools and politicians. 13 13 13 Yet the Canadian, now 42, who was jailed for 25 years in 2014 for murdering Chinese university student Jun Lin, 33, remains remorseless according to true crime expert Teemu Saarenpää. After exchanging letters with Magnotta, real name Eric Newman, he believes the 'extremely ego-centric' killer 'lives in la la land' and remains in denial that he committed any wrongdoing. Teemu, 41, who runs blog Forenseek, tells The Sun: 'He lives in a totally upside-down, candy land world where he believes he's accused of something he didn't do. 'He's in denial, doesn't take responsibility for what he did and portrays himself as someone misunderstood by an evil society that set him up. 'He was unreflective of his deeds and is clearly a wannabe celebrity who wanted to be famous and a glamorous god. 'Because he wasn't able to obtain that fame through any real talent, he decided to become infamous instead.' Magnotta, who was the subject of hit 2019 Netflix docuseries Don't F*** With Cats, is one of many monsters Teemu has been able to see inside the mind of by writing letters to them in prison. Other notable inmates he's probed include Charles Bronson, who made a distasteful quip about hostage-taking, and 'Night Stalker' serial killer Richard Ramirez, who was the 'most evil person' he's spoken to. Speaking to The Sun for our Meeting a Monster series, Teemu admits he was particularly surprised by Magnotta's absolute refusal to acknowledge his callous crimes. In one letter Magnotta, known as 'Canadian Pyscho', refuted claims he was an animal killer - despite being captured on film - and brushed it off as jealous rivals who were 'very good with Photoshop'. Pathetic last days of Rose West revealed as serial killer monster can barely walk, has no friends & has new fake identity 13 13 13 Among the incriminating clips was '1 Boy 2 Kittens', which showed him putting the animals into a plastic bag before using a vacuum to suffocate them. Yet Magnotta told Teemu: 'I never in my life harmed any animals – I actually adore them… I was falsely accused of willingly participating in some bizarre animal videos. I'm completely bewildered.' Chillingly, he also signed off his letter: 'Luka, aka cuddle cat'. Magnotta snubbed doctors, who diagnosed him as schizophrenic, claiming they were 'self-serving' and created 'misleading reports'. One medical professional, he alleged, was 'obsessed with making a name for himself' - when in fact, according to Teemu, it was Magnotta who possessed a 'desperate obsession with getting a personality cult on the internet'. Magnotta, who says he has a 132 IQ score, also denied having created multiple online aliases - despite police reporting as many as 80 existed - claiming it to be the work of deranged fans. 'If these idiots copied photos of me and impersonated me online, that's on them, that's their problem… I'm told people posing as me is an epidemic online,' he told Teemu, who's from Finland. 'I find it so pathetic and have always ignored it. I never, I repeat NEVER had any fake accounts, nor did I ever pose as anyone other than myself.' When Magnotta was snared for murdering Jun Lin, cops discovered an 11-minute snuff film titled '1 Lunatic 1 Icepick', which showed him repeatedly stabbing his victim with a screwdriver and dismembering him. Sickeningly they revealed the killer used one of Lin's body parts to perform a sex act, then carved up his body with a knife and fork and fed bits of it to a dog. Teemu considered Luka deluded, describing him as 'in his own munchkin world' - unlike his other killer pen pal Richard Ramirez, who 'was aware he was evil and didn't give a s***'. 'The most evil person I've written to' 13 13 The monster, dubbed 'the Night Stalker ', murdered at least 14 people and raped multiple women at knife-point, often in front of their partners and children. Teemu wrote to Ramirez, who plagued California during the Eighties, in a bid to understand how someone 'so tangibly evil' thought. 'He was definitely the most evil person I've written to,' Teemu says. 'Ramirez embraced being as depraved, as horrible, as deplorable as a human being could be. 'He was a Satanist. He embraced everything evil and spoke about worshipping the Devil, who he believed to be a real entity. 'He didn't give a s*** about anything, killing was for fun for him, and even after he received the death penalty, he said, 'Big deal, death always came with the territory, I'll see you in Disneyland'.' But in Ramirez's letter, Teemu claimed he came across 'more like a chilled Californian surfer' or ' Keanu Reeves in the Bill & Ted movies' than a depraved murderer. He says: 'There are some killers who are very verbose and self-reflective, but Ramirez was the exact opposite. "He liked AC/DC, Eighties muscle cars, chicks, beer, that sort of thing.' Teemu suspects Ramirez was either not very intelligent or masquerading with a 'mundane mask of sanity' to pretend he was normal. Teemu found one element of Ramirez's letter particularly chilling - the question: 'So any nieces or nephews in your life?' 'It was such a weird and specific thing to say that I looked it up online and Ramirez has a habit of asking penpals that question before trying to get them to send pictures of them,' Teemu explains. He fears this was a ploy to solicit snaps of underage children - and suspects it shows Ramirez - who died of natural causes in 2013 - was a paedophile. The death row inmate was known to have previously molested two kids in a lift and forced a three-year-old boy, who he tied up, to watch his mother being raped. Shock discovery Teemu's fascination with dark subject matter began after meeting a sweet old lady who he became friends with during his childhood - only to discover she was a murderer. 'Sometime later I heard from my parents that she killed her husband and buried him in the garden of her home,' he says. 'You absolutely wouldn't believe it if you met her. It made me realise there is no 'killer gene' or anything categorically different in the brains of killers to the rest of the public, which I found really intriguing.' The revelation set him on a path to try to get inside the minds of famous killers, initially through reading books and watching documentaries, before deciding to write to them. 'I find the dark side of human life, full of stories so different from my lived reality, so fascinating,' Teemu says. 'I'm a normal, middle class dude, a bit like Milhouse from The Simpsons, so finding out about these people is like looking into the inverse mirror. 'It makes me think how my life could have been if I was born in a warzone, watched people die, gone through a traumatic childhood or lived in an abusive family.' 'Violent psychopath' 13 13 Teemu also exchanged letters with Charles Bronson, who he says came across like a 'jolly British bloke' and acted like 'someone you'd meet in a pub after an Arsenal match'. He wrote to the crook because he found his 'totally relentless one-man war against the authorities' fascinating. 'If you told him, 'You can turn right to gold and chocolate and left to hell', he would turn to hell and refuse to obey, even if the decision did not help him,' Teemu says. Bronson sent Teemu a piece of artwork depicting himself topless on a beach musing about no longer being in prison. It featured the Latin phrase 'Candor dat viribus alas', which translates to 'Candour gives wings to strength', and the sketch of a book titled 'Freedom is Wonderful by Charles Bronson'. Additionally he sent a short letter quizzing Teemu about his life, and was 'charismatic, verbose and always making jokes'. 'You can see how he would have a certain magnetism and women would want to be with him,' he says of the lag, who has married twice while behind bars and had several girlfriends. But beneath the surface, Teemu noted a darker side. Bronson made a distasteful joke in response to him disclosing he had worked with refugees from Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq. Bronson wrote: 'You mention that you work with folks from the Middle East. That's funny because you reminded me of a story where I took someone hostage – that person was Middle Eastern.' Teemu adds: 'He didn't elaborate but... he said it like someone would say, 'I went to Italy the other day,' but being Bronson he's like, 'Oh yeah, I took an Iranian guy hostage'.' He adds he would never meet the "violent psychopath" in person, admitting: 'I wouldn't want to be anywhere near him. If he was in a 10km radius, I'd get on a bus in the opposite direction.' Who are the UK's worst serial killers? THE UK's most prolific serial killer was actually a doctor. Here's a rundown of the worst offenders in the UK. British GP Harold Shipman is one of the most prolific serial killers in recorded history. He was found guilty of murdering 15 patients in 2000, but the Shipman Inquiry examined his crimes and identified 218 victims, 80 per cent of whom were elderly women. After his death Jonathan Balls was accused of poisoning at least 22 people between 1824 and 1845. Mary Ann Cotton is suspected of murdering up to 21 people, including husbands, lovers and children. She is Britain's most prolific female serial killer. Her crimes were committed between 1852 and 1872, and she was hanged in March 1873. Amelia Sach and Annie Walters became known as the Finchley Baby Farmers after killing at least 20 babies between 1900 and 1902. The pair became the first women to be hanged at Holloway Prison on February 3, 1903. William Burke and William Hare killed 16 people and sold their bodies. Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe was found guilty in 1981 of murdering 13 women and attempting to kill seven others between 1975 and 1980. Dennis Nilsen was caged for life in 1983 after murdering up to 15 men when he picked them up from the streets. He was found guilty of six counts of murder and two counts of attempted murder and was sentenced to life in jail. Fred West was found guilty of killing 12 but it's believed he was responsible for many more deaths.
Daily Mail
33 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
My father was bludgeoned to death in bed in a random attack as I slept blissfully unaware just feet away - now I'm hoping to finally track down his killer
A woman whose father was brutally bludgeoned to death while he slept just feet away from his family has revealed her agony as she's still without answers 35 years on. As a little girl, Emma Childerley was terrified by the fitted wardrobes in her bedroom. But, while most children fear monsters lurking inside cupboards, she visualised a killer. Emma was too afraid even to flush the toilet at night - in case she alerted a murderer. Aged five, she was asleep in the next bedroom when her parents, Kevin and Denise, were brutally bludgeoned in their beds with what's believed to be an axe or a cleaver. Kevin, aged 30, died at the scene in Nottinghamshire in February 1990. And though Denise, then 32, miraculously survived, she was horrifically hurt and left with life-changing injuries - so much so that Emma didn't recognise her. The killer has never been caught and Emma, 40, is now appealing for someone to come forward with the information necessary to deliver the justice her family needs. In April, police officers arrested a 62-year-old woman on suspicion of perverting the course of justice, who has since been bailed pending further investigations. Mother-of-three Emma, based in Blackburn, Lancashire said: 'I was a "daddy's girl", we were so close, and his murder tore our family apart. 'We were robbed of a lifetime of memories, and instead I had a childhood filled with pain and fear. I missed him so much. 'Because Dad's killer was never caught, I became terrified that the murderer was hiding in my built in bedroom wardrobes, or in the garage outside. 'Mum was so badly injured that I didn't even recognise her when she came out of hospital. 'Those months afterwards were hard, and though we've moved on with our lives, the pain never goes away. I think of my Dad every day. 'I'd ask anyone with information to please speak out. I need justice and closure, for Dad and for me.' The attacks took place on what seemed to be a regular evening. Emma's parents had been out to a nearby social club and the babysitter slept over in her room. Her baby brother, just five months old, was in a cot in his parents' bedroom. She recalled: 'I was woken in the night by a police officer waking me and telling me to get dressed, and not to switch on the light or open the bedroom door until he told me to. I did as he said, without questioning. 'I was taken to a neighbour's overnight. The next morning, I went to a police station for my fingerprints and hair samples to be taken, and later I was placed in a foster home. A social worker told me Mum had broken both her legs and Dad was looking after her so I couldn't go back home. 'I was only five years old, and I accepted that. But I hated being in the foster home, I was away from my family, and I missed them so much.' It was several weeks before a social worker informed Emma that her father was dead and her mother was in hospital. Neighbours had alerted police on the night of the attack. Speaking about her reaction to the blow, she recalled: 'I locked myself in the bathroom and sobbed. I couldn't take it in.' Emma was then told her mother was out of hospital and coming to take her home. 'I was over the moon at first but the woman who arrived had a shaved head, an eye patch and scarring all across her face,' Emma explained. 'I screamed - I didn't recognise my own mother, she was so badly hurt. It wasn't until she spoke that I realised who she was.' The family moved house to try to escape the memories and rarely spoke of their trauma. Emma added: 'Nobody even told me dad had been murdered. But at school, the other kids would say: "We found your dad's head on the banking" and I would run up the banking, thinking it was true. 'I didn't want to ask Mum any details because I didn't want to upset her. I refused to go to Dad's funeral because I was in denial. 'I found a newspaper photo of a woman on life support, and I remember saying how poorly she looked. I didn't realise then it was a picture of my own mother. I was too young to be able to read the article.' The family moved home again, hoping for a fresh start. But aged 11, Emma came across newspaper cuttings which explained her father had been brutally murdered in a savage attack, with the motive unknown. Two men had been arrested at the time but the case against them was discontinued. Emma said: 'I was horrified, and frightened that the killer was still out there. I started to worry the killer was hiding in the built-in wardrobes around my bed. 'I convinced myself he was in the garage at the bottom of our garden. I wouldn't even flush the loo at night in case I alerted the murderer. 'I'd slept through the attack on my parents, and I was worried I might sleep through my own murder too. I became very anxious and defensive. 'If someone stared at Mum's injuries, I'd get annoyed and confront them, even though I was only a child. I had so much pent-up anger and grief.' Emma said she and her father Kevin were best friends and used to watch Top Of The Pops together and sing Madonna songs. She said Kevin, a miner, worked hard for the family and they'd play tricks on Denise to make her laugh. 'We were just a normal, happy family,' she reflected. 'Dad took me to school on his motorbike each morning. We both wore helmets, but he'd keep his on as he walked through the playground, so all my friends thought he was an astronaut, which I loved.' In 2022, Emma contacted the police and pleaded with them to review the case. Kevin's murder has now been reopened - and she's now appealing for information. She now runs KC funeral services in Darwen, Lancashire, named in memory of her father. She reflected: 'I always regretted not going to dad's funeral and I decided I wanted to give dignity to people in death. I named my firm after him because this is his legacy. He lives on through me, and my three children, who I know he'd be so proud of. 'It breaks my heart that they never met him. He'd have been a wonderful grandfather. The pain from the murder carries on, through the generations. I'd like people to think about that and, if they have information, please speak to the police. 'There will be no punishment for having waited so long, we will just be so grateful for any help you can give.' In an important recent development, Nottinghamshire police officers arrested a 62-year-old woman in April on suspicion of perverting the course of justice. She was interviewed by detectives and has since been bailed pending further investigations. Detective Chief Inspector Ruby Burrow, of Nottinghamshire Police, said: 'This was a savage attack which took the life of a much-loved father and left his wife with lifelong injuries. 'Throughout our investigations we have been determined to get justice for both victims in this case, as well as for their two children and the grandchildren who never got to meet their grandad. 'Kevin was a much-loved family man described as a 'joker' with a great sense of humour by those who knew him. 'The attack tore apart the family and robbed Kevin's children of a lifetime of memories. 'The case has never been closed, and a dedicated team of detectives has been reinvestigating what happened that night using the latest investigative tools and technology. 'Following recent developments we have visited the neighbourhood to engage with a number of people we believe could help with our inquiries. 'It was a very positive exercise and I'd like to thank people for their cooperation. 'The arrest is also an important development and we have shared the news with Denise and other family members. 'We know the answer to Kevin's murder lies within the community and we also believe allegiances and loyalties will have changed after the passing of more than three decades. 'I'd continue to encourage anyone with any information, no matter how small, to please continue to get in touch with our officers or anonymously through Crimestoppers.'
Daily Mail
35 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
He was the 'perfect' co-worker but 'life of the party' architect with a sexy nickname hid dark secret
Drinking a beer and cracking jokes with colleagues, he seemed like any co-worker enjoying a night out after a busy day in a Manhattan office. But once he left the bar and headed back to his Massapequa Park, Long Island home the architect Rex Heuermann allegedly went Jekyll and Hyde and prowled his neighborhood looking for his next victim to kill as his wife and children slept. Katherine Shepherd worked with Heuermann in the same midtown Manhattan office at 525 Seventh Avenue in New York City 's Fashion District during the early 2000s. She was working for an architectural design firm and his company was providing city permits. On occasion, she and her co-workers would gather at Pete's Tavern in Gramercy Park. She remembered Heuermann acting like the life of the party which later earned him the nickname 'Sexy Rexy' amongst colleagues. 'He was fun. He was funny,' Shepherd told Daily Mail. 'He would tell funny stories and jokes that made everyone laugh.' During working hours, she said he was always professional towards her and the other female employees. 'If he ever made me feel uncomfortable, touched me in any way or would've made any inappropriate sex jokes there was no way I would have worked with him,' she said. 'Never ever did he ever make me feel uncomfortable,' she added. However, she said he liked pretty girls in the office and using them to help get what he wanted professionally. 'He knew how to get permits and was renowned for it. He knew all the people and had all the relationships,' she said. 'He had women in the office that were petite and beautiful and he would send them down to the city to get those permits.' Heuermann was arrested two years ago in July 2023 and initially charged with the murders of three women: Amber Costello, Melissa Barthelemy and Megan Waterman. Since then, he has been charged with the murders of four more victims: Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Sandra Costilla, Jessica Taylor and Valerie Mack. All the victims were working as sex workers when they vanished after going to meet a client. Their bodies were found dumped along Ocean Parkway near Gilgo Beach and other remote spots on Long Island. Some of the victims had been bound, others had been dismembered and their remains discarded in multiple locations. The 61-year-old has pleaded not guilty to all the charges against him. Shepherd said: 'It's just hard to come to grips that this is the same person. It just doesn't match. It doesn't match. 'Though I know in my heart he did it. The evidence is overwhelming. 'He was able to separate his life - somehow put a divider in-between murderous spawn of Satan to a caring father and business owner. I don't know how but he was able too.' She recalled the first time she met him and said she was stunned by his 6ft 4ins size - a client of one of his alleged victims has described him as resembling an 'ogre'. 'He's one of the biggest men you'll ever meet in your life. It is very intimidating having someone that large,' Shepherd said. 'He joked around a lot and made you feel comfortable because he knew he was big and intimidating. I think he was trying not to be intimidating,' she added. However she said he was 'soft spoken' and described him as coming off as 'arrogant and cocky'. She said: 'He was very smart. He was very confident.' Shepherd remembered how kind he was to her when she injured herself on black ice on a city street and took her to the emergency room when the pain became too much to bear. That day in the hospital, she said he waited for her for hours as she took tests, including an MRI. Once discharged, they went by cab to her apartment in Hell's Kitchen and after he got her settled, he went to the pharmacy to pick up her painkiller prescription. She remembered he made her a slice of toast when he returned before leaving her by herself. 'I was grateful for his help. I felt like he was almost taking care of me like a dad would,' Shepherd said. The day that happened was November 17, 2003, four months earlier one of Heuermann's alleged victims 20-year-old Jessica Taylor's body was found decapitated with her hands cuts off in a wooded area in Manorville, Long Island. 'He (allegedly) cut her head and hands off, spread them around Long Island and four months later took me to the hospital because I was in pain and needed help,' she said. When Shepherd learned Heuermann had been arrested for murder and was not the 'normal, everyday, nerdy guy', she thought he was but a cold blooded killer she was stunned. 'I have a totally different view of this guy because like I said, he took care of me. He helped me. He took time out of his day, his job to take me to the hospital to take care of me. I saw that as, "Wow what a good co-worker realizing that I needed help stopping his day to help me. No one else did,"' she said. In 2005, she started consulting on her own and working with Heuermann directly. She said, they'd meet at job sites and one time, the avid hunter and gun aficionado, taught her how to shoot a gun while they were at a job site in the Bronx. She said she didn't plan on it but went for it. 'It was a 9mm - the kind you see in movies all the time - the black square gangster gun,' she explained. 'Anyway that is what I fired. He was telling me where to put my hand because when you shoot the whole top part goes back and if you put your hand in the wrong spot you can hurt yourself'. On some days they'd travel in the same vehicle to a job. She said their conversations were always focused on business and that he would never talk about his wife or kids. However, she did meet them once when she went to his home to do some measuring for a home renovation project he was planning. She was horrified to later learn that she took measurements in the same area that held a secret room where he would allegedly torture his victims. She recalled her final communication with him was in summer 2011 while she was working in California. She sent an email to Heuermann for some permit expediting work she needed done. She said she jokingly called him 'Rexy' like 'Sexy Rexy' - the playful term that she and her colleagues sometimes used. It was also the time when some of the bodies were being discovered along Ocean Parkway in Suffolk County's GIlgo Beach. She said that he never responded. This month marked two years since Heuermann's arrest and the interior designer still grapples with the idea that her kind-hearted co-worker who became her knight in shining armor when she was in distress, is the accused Gilgo Beach serial killer and charged with the brutal murders of seven women. 'I didn't even know about the Gilgo Beach Killer until two years ago. It feels like someone is playing a trick on me. It feels like you are talking about someone else.' 'I am a little bit in denial, still. The practical side of me understands what happened but I just don't get it. It is really hard to comprehend. 'I didn't know he was capable of that. How is anyone capable of that? He has kids. How do you have kids and a wife and go off and do something like that,' she added. After all this time, Shepherd said her time with Heuermann still haunts her but she concluded: 'It is good to talk about it. Every time I talk about it - it is like a little therapy and it helps me.'
