Pictured above: A damaged Malaysia Airlines guide at the crash site
When: July 2014
Where: near Hrabove, Ukraine
Background
In the February of 2014, a crisis in Crimea began when Russian military troops led by Putin began to annex the Ukrainian territory. Ukraine was extremely politically vulnerable at the time after a short revolution consisting of protests, shootings, and riots.
The annexation ended in late March but left behind many pro-Russian separatists with access to Russian military weapons. By then, many airlines had already changed flight paths to avoid flying over Crimea and the south-east area of Ukraine. Neither of those areas included the future crash site of MH17.
Three days before, a Ukrainian air force transport plane flying at over 21,000 feet was shot down. It was claimed via social media that itâd been shot down with a Buk missile launcher - the same missile found to have later crashed MH17. U.S. officials soon suggested that the missile had been fired from within Russian territory.
Two days before, Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs RadosĆaw Sikorski warned people of the danger of pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine and their use of ground-to-air missiles.
Just one day before MH17 crashed, another Ukrainian air force was shot down. It was alleged by the Ukrainian government that Russian militants were responsible.
Flight and crash
On Thursday, 17 July 2014, 283 passengers and 15 crew boarded Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 at Amsterdam Airport from approximately 11 AM to 12 PM. The flight left the gate at 12:13 PM and departed at 12:31 PM.
The aeroplane flew over Germany and Poland before entering Ukrainian airspace. The following are photographs taken on the flight.
While flying over the region of Donetsk, Ukraine, Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was shot down by a group of pro-Russian separatists who assumedly mistook the commercial passenger plane for a plane belonging to the Ukrainian air force.
All 298 people onboard died within ninety seconds of the hit. 57 of those passengers were children. Three of them were infants.
The Suicide Plant: "The worst pain you can imagine"
Pictured above: Dendrocnide moroides, also known as the suicide plant or gympie-gympie
Where: rainforest areas in QLD, Australia
A common plant in Queensland rainforests, D. moroides is a leafy plant that has infamous stinging hairs on the stems, leaves and fruit that reportedly causes such immense pain when touched that it drives people to suicide. Therefore itâs nickname: the suicide plant.
The sting
The pain has been described by one victim, Ernie Ride as âalmost unbearable. ⊠The stinging persisted for two years and recurred every time I had a cold shower.â Ride had been slapped in the face and torso with the plant in 1963. Another victim, Marina Hurley, described it similarly as âthe worst pain you can imagine.â At the time sheâd been investigating the surviving creatures that ate the plant.
Itâs been found that its multiple bioactive compounds (such as moroidin) are what poisons the local area of the sting via the hollow silicon hairs stabbing their victim. However, it still remains much of a mystery as to what chemicals causes the notorious pain.
Deaths
One of the earliest documentation of a sting was in 1866 by a man called A.C. Macmillan. Heâd reported to his boss that his packhorse was âstung, got mad, and died within two hours.â
However, itâs a story by Cyril Bromley that properly secured âthe suicide plantâ as another of D. moroidesâ many nicknames. The story goes that an officer in the Australian army had used the plantâs leaves for âtoilet purposesâ and experiencing the great pain, shot himself.
The Backpacker Murders is one of the worst serial killings in Australiaâs history after Ivan Milat killed seven backpackers across the span of four years. Due to the lack of the death penalty in Australia heâs still alive residing in Australiaâs most secure prison Goulburn Correctional Centre.
Lead up to crime
Milat was raised by his Yugoslavian father and Australian-born mother among thirteen other siblings.
Heâs been described by a brother as showing psychopathic tendencies at a young age but, however, that commentâs been disputed many times by several other family members.
As a teenager he had a fascination in hunting and guns, and later on he was involved with crimes varying from home break-ins to armed robberies. Police regularly visited the Milat household to follow-up on crimes Milat and his brothers had been committing. However, none of those crimes were anywhere as bad as the crimes heâd later commit in his adulthood.
In 1971 at age 26, Milat was accused of raping two female hitchhikers and was consequently put on trial. The two women testified saying that he had even held them at knifepoint, but the prosecution failed to make a convincing case against Milat which resulted in him getting acquitted.
Fifteen years later in 1985, Milat married teenage Karen Duck and subsequently divorced four years later in 1989, the year Milatâs first victims went missing.
Paul Onions
In 1990, Paul Onions, a British backpacker, hitchhiked with Milat. Milat introduced himself as Bill and seemed friendly to Onions at first but soon started making racist and xenophobic remarks. Luckily when Milat pulled over the car to the side of the road, Onions escaped in another vehicle despite Milat pulling out a revolver and threatening to kill him if he left the car.
In an interview with British media he said this of the experience:
As the car sped off, I just remember this stupid grin on Milatâs face and that look has stayed with me ever since.
Caroline Clarke and Joanne Walters
In September 1992, two orienteers found a decaying corpse in a part of Belanglo State Forest known as Executioners Drop. The day after, two police officers discovered a second corpse less than fifty metres away from the other.
At first media reports had suggested the corpses belonged to two British backpackers Caroline Clarke and Joanne Walters who had been missing since April that year. However, there were five other people who had gone missing in the nearby area during the past three years.
It didnât take long for police to confirm the identity of the corpses as indeed being Clarke and Walters. Both had been stabbed repeatedly and Clarke had been shot ten times. A wound to Waltersâ spine is believed to have paralyzed her during the attack. Clarke also had a similar wound to the spine.
Waltersâ jeans were found unzipped which potentially meant she was sexually assaulted by Milat. However, her remains were so decomposed that it couldnât be established if a sexual assault had even occurred.
Four bullets that remained in Clarkeâs skull were preserved by detectives for forensic analysis. This evidence provided a confidence boost that theyâd find the killer.
Near the bodies detectives found .22-caliber cartridge cases, cigarette butts and a brick fireplace. Despite no more bodies being found after an extensive search, the press speculated that there was a serial killer on the loose.
Sadly the police made little progress with the case despite the colossal amount of evidence they had gathered from the scene.
Deborah Everist and James Gibson
Only a year later, two more dead bodies were found in the same forest. The remains were identified as Deborah Everist and James Gibsonâtwo Australian nationals who had been missing since 1989.
Gibsonâs zipper was found unzipped and the first button fastened, in a similar manner to Joanne Waltersâ. Autopsies of the corpses revealed similar spinal wounds to the previous victims. Again, there was the killerâs signature brick fireplace near the bodies.
Simone Schmidl, Anja Habschied and Gabor Neugebauer
After the discovery of Everist and Gibsonâs corpses, police started a manual search across the extended part of the Belanglo State Forest. Less than a month after the beginning of the search, the body of Simone Schmidl, a German hitchhiker, was found after being missing since January 1991.
Near Schmidlâs body, there was a brick fireplace and shells of .22-caliber ammunition. Her remains also had the trademark spinal injury.
The search continued and three days later, two more bodies were found. Anja Habschied and Gabor Neugebauerâs corpses were found after their disappearance two years prior. The couple were also German hitchhikers.
Habschiedâs corpse was missing the skull completely; sheâd been decapitated with a sword or machete.
Yet again, .22 ammunition was found near the bodies.
Search by police
The superintendent had to announce to the public that the police were now looking for a serial killer. However, due to the range of methods used to kill the seven victims, it wasnât going to be easy for them to find the killer.
Police was suspicious that Ivan Milat was linked but they had no evidence against him at the time. Due to international media coverage, Paul Onions contacted Australian authorities recounting his encounter with Milat.
After Onions was flown to Australia he picked Milat in a video line-up. Not long after, the Milat home was raided where a vast amount of the victimsâ personal belongings were found. Police also found a .22-caliber rifle, and at Milatâs motherâs home, a curved cavalry sword.
Arrest and trial
On 22 May 1994, fifty police officers surrounded Milatâs home on Cinnabar Street at Eagle Vale along with Tactical Operations Unit officers. Among his home, numerous of Milatâs siblingsâ homes were searched giving police enough evidence to bring Milat and two of his siblings into custody.
Milat was charged with all seven murders and the attempted murder of John Onions. He hired the defence attorney he used in his last trial in 1971, John Marsden. Marsden suggested he plead guilty and got sacked by Milat for the suggestion. Milat pleaded not guilty to all eight charges.
Wolf Creek
Ivan Milat inspired the main character Mick Taylor in 2005 horror movie, Wolf Creek. The character (played by Australian actor, John Jarratt)Â is a âsadistic psychopathâ that befriends and tries to kill three backpackers in the Australian outback.
Robert Wykel, a 65-year-old retiree, was a local of Burien, Seattle and former sheet metal worker. Originally from Illinois, he had moved several times before settling in Burien during the early 1990s. His ex-wife, however, remained in Illinois to stay close to their daughter and her family.
He spent his pension regularly by buying classic cars at auctions, restoring them and reselling them for a larger profit. Wykel had a 1989 Mercedes Benz heâd restored himself.
His social life included meeting other retirees over coffee at McDonaldâs. Around January, Myron Wynn, a younger man, had joined them. Not soon after, Wynn had started to try associate himself with Wykel specifically. At this time Wynn was unemployed but supported by a girlfriend.
Disappearance
A few weeks before Wykelâs disappearance, Wynn had told him about a soldier at Fort Lewis who was selling a mid-50s Ford Thunderbird. However, as the days went on, Wykel was growing impatient with his middleman.
On the 21st of February, Wykel told his friends at a poker game he was heading down to the air base the next day.
Bank records showed Wykel had withdrawn over $2,000 and given at least half to Wynn for the car.
After a week and Wykelâs absence at the weekly poker game, Wykelâs neighbour, John Ogdon called 911 to report him missing. However, Ogdon was told itâs not against the law if Wykel had chosen to disappear.
Concern among family and friends grew as phone calls went unanswered and mail stacked up. Two weeks after Wykelâs last sighting, an impoundment notice for Wykelâs 1989 Mercedes Benz was delivered to his residence.
The car was found at a park-and-ride parking lot nearby. While Wykel was known for frequenting public transport, Ogdon couldnât recall a time Wykel had driven his Mercedes there since the park-and-ride was within walking distance.
The impoundment notice also read that the car was found a few days agoâover a week since Wykel was last seen.
The Mercedes was found to suggest nothing violent had happened to Wykel. However, Wykelâs wallet was found to be completely empty of cash.
After the notice, Ogdon called the police and a missing person case was opened.
The Argentina theory
Shortly after the case was opened, Ogdon informed Rebecca Lee, Wykelâs daughter, that her father had been missing for a fortnight and a missing person case had been opened. She went to Seattle and assisted police.
Police learned of the familyâs numerous vacations to Argentina and theorised that Wykel had gone there. This theory was later supported by Myron Wynn.
Myron Wynn
Wynn had left Burien the same night Wykel was last seen. A few weeks later he called Rebecca Lee at her motel explaining that heâd just learned of Wykelâs disappearance as heâd been out of town. He told her that, as far as he knew, Wykel was on an extended vacation in California.
A trip Wykel had allegedly told no one but Wynn about, which sounded extremely out of character for Wykel.
When police managed to talk to Wynn for the first time, he told them heâd last seen Wykel on February 20th for breakfast. When asked if theyâd talked about cars, Wynn said they hadnât. When this contradicted with what people had heard of the conversation, Wynn admitted they actually had.
During Wynnâs background check, police found he had used numerous aliases and had been charged with numerous counts of drug trafficking and violence against women. âHe was basically a con-man,â said one police officer.
At one point Wynn had agreed to a lie detector test but never actually showed up for it. When a police officer investigated Wynnâs reasonâa dentist appointmentâhe found it was a lie and Wynn wasnât even a patient of that dentist.
Police started to become convinced he was a pathological liar.
During an interview with Robyn Wynn, Myron Wynnâs sister, she recalled that Wynn had driven down to the RV Park their family operated with a man who matched Wykelâs description on the 23rd, two days after Wykelâs last confirmed sighting.
When police thought that perhaps Wykel had been the victim of foul play, Wynn had left the Seattle area.
The case became cold.
Wykelâs diamond
Robert Wykel had a European-cut diamond ring he always wore, even when restoring cars. The ring had been missing for three years until Wynnâs sister told police she saw Myron wearing a ring matching the description at a family reunion in Texas.
This ring had at some point been removed from the diamond and had been sold to Wynnâs aunt for $2,000. When police asked about this, she had denied paying for it. When asked again, she told them she paid $1,500 for it. When asked yet again, she admitted to paying $2,000 for a diamond she said she thought was fake considering Wynn had been unemployed for quite a while.
When examined by a gemologist, the diamond was found to have scratches and a European cut. It was determined this was Wykelâs ring.
Search for a body
With the amount of circumstantial evidence, police had enough to arrest Wynn for Wykelâs murder. However, without a body, itâd be difficult.
They searched in Thurston County and around but unfortunately found no body.
Wykelâs family declared him legally deceased in 2003.
However, a break in Texas came from a friend of Wynnâs, now a person of interest. According to them, Wynn told them that, ânothingâs gonna happen. Theyâre not even looking in the right ballpark for the body.â
This led to Wynnâs arrest and trial.
Trial of Myron Wynn
After being extradited to Washington, Myron Wynn was put on trial in 2010 for the murder of Robert Wykel. Wynn kept pleading innocent despite the circumstantial evidence and had even suggested that perhaps Wykel had actually gone to Argentina.
The trial was ruled a mistrial after the judge couldnât reach a verdict.
Second trial of Myron Wynn
In the second trial in 2011, the defence accused the jury of juror misconduct, explaining that one juror had been caught looking at state evidence in the elevator and had âkept bumping intoâ both prosecutors and defence lawyers. Superior Court Judge Susan Craighead ruled out these allegations.
Wynn was convicted of the murder of Robert Wykel in April 2011, becoming the fifth person in Washington to be convicted of murder without a body. He was sentenced to twenty years in prison.
