Odd, strange, or bizarre news stories from Florida

they tied a white rag to the end of the pole, for safety...

Miami Man says girlfriend’s mutilated body with missing organs is blow-up doll with human flesh
By Charles Rabin
October 30, 2017 5:47 PM

When police found Deanna Clendinen’s mutilated body on Friday, her boyfriend told them there was a misunderstanding: The body, he said, was that of a life-size, blow-up doll with human flesh.

The cops didn’t buy it.

Instead, after searching the man’s home and finding a scene resembling the film Silence of the Lambs, they arrested Jerome Ernest Wright, 32, and charged him with abusing a dead human body. The woman’s stomach had been lacerated and many of her internal organs removed, police said.

As of Monday, Jerome Wright had not been charged with the woman’s murder. He not only denied killing her — he claimed the body wasn’t even human. Still, police said, a murder charge is on the table.

“Pending the [Miami-Dade County] medical examiner’s report, we’ll know which way the investigation will go,” said Miami-Dade Detective Alvaro Zabaleta.

According to police, they arrived at the home at 6268 NW 23rd Ave., just past 7:30 p.m. Friday after being notified of a foul smell. Wright’s mother Della Rosalie Wright had called the police.

She told police she lived alone with her son and led them to his bedroom, where she said the odor was coming from. As the cops got closer, Jerome Wright walked out of his room, “naked and sweaty,” police said.

He told them he had a stomachache.

Inside his room, police said they found body fluids on a trash can and on a mattress. Then, inside a closet, they found a badly mutilated body covered in sheets. A decomposed leg was sticking out, police said.

Then, police said, they began questioning Della Wright, who told them she lived alone with her son and that his girlfriend, Clendinen, 52, often stayed with her son.

She told police that when she asked her son what the smell was, he said “he saw a rat in his room, had diarrhea and that the dog defecated on the floor.”

That’s when police began questioning Jerome Wright, they said. He told them that whatever was in his room was not real. Then, the defendant stated that there was a life-size blow-up doll in the closet, and that the doll was made of flesh.

Police said Jerome Wright also repeatedly said that “if you find something in my room it’s from the Internet.” Before he was arrested, he also told police he hadn’t seen Clendinen in five months.

When police took a closer look at Clendinen’s body, they said they found a large laceration across her midsection and that several of her internal organs were missing. They said they found them outside in a garbage can adjacent to the home.

Jerome Wright was arrested last March and charged with aggravated battery against Clendinen. He was on probation when police found her decomposed body.

'Transracial' man, born white, says he feels Filipino
USA Today NetworkGarin Flowers, WTSP-TV, Tampa-St. Petersburg, Fla.
Published 11:33 a.m. ET Nov. 13, 2017 | Updated 2:30 p.m. ET Nov. 13, 2017



TAMPA, Fla. — Ja Du, born a white male named Adam, now considers himself a Filipino.

He even drives what he calls a Tuk Tuk, an Asian-derived vehicle used for public transit in the Philippines.

Ja Du is part of a small but growing number of people who call themselves transracial. The term once referred only to someone (or a couple) of a one race adopting a child of another, but now it’s becoming associated with someone born of one race who identifies with another.

Ja Du says he grew up enjoying Filipino food, events and the overall culture.

“Whenever I’m around the music, around the food, I feel like I’m in my own skin,” he said.

“I’d watch the History Channel, sometimes for hours ... nothing else intrigued me more but things about Filipino culture.”

the term transracial started to become more widely known after the much-publicized story of Rachel Dolezal. Dolezal, born white, identified as black and portrayed herself as such. She was even the president of the Spokane, Wash., chapter of the NAACP.

...

Face-biting killer: Florida deputy describes efforts to control accused murderer

Meghan McRoberts
3:19 PM, Feb 5, 2018
11:13 AM, Feb 7, 2018


MARTIN COUNTY, Fla. - It’s a case first responders in Martin County still consider one of the most horrific crimes they have seen.

On Aug. 15, 2016, first responding deputies laid eyes on accused killer Austin Harrouff attacking John Stevens and his wife Michelle Mishcon at their house.

Deputies arrived at the home shortly after the couple’s neighbor, Jeff Fisher, tried to intervene and help the couple.

One of the first deputies on scene, Wayne Trocan, describes quickly walking up to a gruesome sight. “I saw a huge giant trail of blood, probably 8 feet wide.”

He then saw his fellow deputy, Grace Zopf.

“Grace was standing right here pointing her gun to the ground,” Trocan said.

The deputy explained to investigators with the Martin County Sheriff’s Office that he told Zopf not to shoot.

“Grace said, 'I’m going to shoot him.' Based on the angle I saw I said, 'stop.' There was no good shot, it would have went into him, the victim," Trocan said.

Trocan described Harrouff’s stronghold on Stevens. “He had his legs intertwined, his arm wrapped around him. He had his fingers like a fish hook in his mouth trying to pull his cheek apart. He was growling.”

Trocan said he and fellow law enforcement officers tried everything they could to get Harrouff off of Stevens. He deployed his Taser, which was ineffective. Harrouff, Trocan said, was also unfazed by a K-9.

"The dog grabbed him arm and pulled it off [of Stevens]. The suspect ripped it out of the dog's mouth and went in for a deeper hold,” Trocan said.

Trocan then started stomping or kicking Harrouff’s face to try to get him to stop attacking Stevens.

“I kicked him in the head. His head came off for a second and then he went right back in and took a deeper grapple hold,” Trocan said.

Trocan said he might have kicked Harrouff more than 10 times before Harrouff flung his arm back, and deputies were able to get a handcuff on his wrist and drag him away.

“As I finally was pulling him off of him, he was screaming, 'Kill me! I’m eating people, kill me!' Very loud,” Trocan said.

The deputy also described finding multiple potential weapons at the scene, including a knife underneath Stevens' arm, scissors on the driveway and a screwdriver in the garage.

Harrouff is facing first-degree murder charges for the deaths of Stevens and Mishcon, and attempted murder for the attack on Fisher.

Florida boy gets trapped inside arcade claw machine



A young boy who was really set on getting a stuffed toy from a claw-style vending machine at a Florida restaurant ended up getting stuck inside it on Wednesday, according to officials.

Titusville Fire and Emergency Services said in a Facebook post the incident happened at a Beef O'Brady's restaurant on the state's Atlantic coast.

"This evening little Mason was enjoying some food and decided he wanted a stuffed animal," the rescue agency said. "He wanted it so bad, he climbed into the game to get that toy!!"

Fire officials said the boy was "never in any distress," and an off-duty firefighter who happened to be there eating dinner contacted his colleagues.

The boy's age was not released.

Mason was in the machine for about 5 minutes, and sat on top of the toys while firefighters worked to get him out, Battalion Chief Gregory Sutton told The Associated Press.

"He went in, but obviously he couldn't come back out the same way," Sutton said.

The machine sustained minimal damage from the rescue, and Mason was able to rejoin his family for dinner, although he was a bit embarrassed. But the ordeal wasn’t entirely fruitless – he was given a toy afterward.

“We love a happy ending,” the fire agency said, “and are glad everything worked out.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

The footage, filmed in Florida, shows the lady perched on the edge of the water where just feet away, children are swimming past as the razor brushes against her leg.

The woman is also then seen depositing her stubble into the hotel pool in the video.

Meanwhile, the Houtens were cited for failing to get JoJo a rabies vaccine and for letting her bite someone in a restaurant in the first place.