Porn actress' death may have been in 'snuff' film

AP via Houston Chronicle ^ | April 24, 2004, 3:16PM | no byline

[weegee]

WHITEMARSH, Pa. -- A Canadian porn actress found stabbed to death last month may have been killed while shooting a film that was to have simulated the murder of a woman during sex, prosecutors said.

DNA clues and a scrawled note referring to a "snuff" video connect photographer Anthony J. Frederick to the death of 23-year-old Natel King, whose body was found in a trash-filled ravine in March, District Attorney Bruce Castor said at a preliminary hearing Friday.

Frederick's attorney, Daniel-Paul Alva, said his client had nothing to do with snuff videos.

"We don't know who killed her," he said. "What we do know is that my client is in the unsavory business of photographing women in very compromising positions. But that kind of business was entered into voluntarily by the victim."

Frederick, 46, was being held for trial on first- and third-degree murder charges. His assistant, Jennifer Mitkus, 29, was held on charges of lying to authorities and hindering apprehension.

King, who was from the Toronto area, disappeared Feb. 29 after posing for Fredericks in a hard-core bondage shoot that had been arranged over the Internet, authorities said. Her body was found nearly a month later, naked and slashed and still wearing bondage devices.

Castor said police found a note in a camera bag in Frederick's home that served as a contract between a photographer and an actor. It listed various types of video and photo shoots and used the phrase "snuff vid."

A snuff video is a pornographic film depicting someone being murdered, but prosecutors believe King was supposed to only simulate death in the video.

Detectives obtained several bloodstained items from Frederick's car and from his apartment in the Philadelphia suburb of Conshohocken, and the DNA matched that of Frederick and King, authorities said.

Authorities said still photos Frederick provided to police after his arrest show King displaying bondage paraphernalia similar to a leather device found with her body.

[weegee]

Murder is illegal but it didn't stop Larry Flynt from putting a contract hit on Bob Guicione. High profile people too!

[My2Cents]

Dead soul. Look at her eyes.

[weegee]

The problem is the way you phrase it. The notion is false. "Snuff film" is a murder film. They have been shot.

Trying to say that it has to be sold or have a fictional story leading to the real murder is just buying into urban rumor and explotation cinema ad campaigns.

Murders have been filmed by the killers and that is the product.

A woman was killed here and likely while making a sex video. Maybe the filmmaker didn't want to shoot snuff but it could be what he ended up with. Wouldn't be the first time as even the Straight Doper admits.

[cherry]

that's hardly good news.....

people, "they" all say that porno is not bad, not sinful, and it doesn't "hurt" anyone....

I say it is an insidious evil, destroying men worldwide....let alone women....

what next?.....films of raping and then killing children?....

of course,we can do all sorts of animalistic things to "virtual" chilren....

[Cacique]

After the failed plot to kill Hitler with a bomb. When the perpetrators were arrested and summarily tried, they were hung with piano wire and then hung on meat hooks. Hitler had the entire procedure filmed for his own amusement. I think it would clearly qualify as a snuff film.

[RonHolzwarth]

yes, "Child suicide bombing is a legal business" if you are Palestinian.

[RonHolzwarth]

You commented: "Hardcore Muslim wackos are extremely repressed. Who knows what they get off on?"

I met a guy who spent a lot of time in Saudi Arabia, do you really want to know?

Other guys.

[RonHolzwarth]

re: Hitler had the entire procedure filmed ,,,

I remember reading about that. I believe he happily watched them over and over.

I hope those films are preserved, but not viewed for at least another hundred years. I hope they are preserved for posterity, they may be of some use for future generations. But I'm not sure WHY, really.

[nickcarraway]

What Al Goldstein doesn't know could fill the Alexandria Library. I wouldn't take that as proof. At some point, it's probably hard to tell which is real. Didn't they tape the murder of Daniel Pearl?

[HitmanLV]

Very true. To date I don't think a genuine snuff film has ever been unearthed. Frankly, I always found that hard to believe: in a world where life is worth so little in so many places, I can't imagine that a genuine one has never been made.

My best guess is that it's been made but has never been widely distributed. But it's only a guess.

For sure, they tend to be the stuff of urban legend. Though that's not to say at least one genuine article doesnt exist, somewhere.

There are sick people out there.

[HitmanLV]

No.

[HitmanLV]

I agree with what you say, especially that the film would document a capital crime. That being said, it's a big, nasty world out there, with a big, nasty underground and underground economy.

Who knows?

[My Dog Likes Me]

Well, as George C. Scott once yelled in a certain movie:

"TURN IT OFF, TURN IT OFF, TURN IT OFF!!!!!!"

[backtothestreets]

Just for the record....

Six or seven years ago, when I was still new to the Internet, and used newsgroups for most communicating, I happened upon a link that horrified me. There was no text, just pictures. It was in a garage, and there was a guy standing next to a women lying flat on the ground. In the next photo, there was blood everywhere, the body was dismembered, and in pieces. The guy was standing off to the side with a bloody knife in his hand. His jeans were soaked in blood.

I called the FBI and spoke with an agent at length. She informed me that it was not an FBI matter and I needed to report it to whatever state it occurred in. She wouldn't even help me locate the state of origin. As I mentioned, I knew very little about the Internet, and it took me days to locate where the site originated from. I finally found it was from a military facility in the Midwest. I called authorities in that state and was told it was a federal matter. I again called the FBI and was told it was a military matter. I placed calls to the DOD, left a messages, and never heard word.

To this day I am convinced someone got away with murder. I hate the images I saw.

[TheSpottedOwl]

I saw something online, and I too wanted to call the cops. I can't remember how I ended up seeing this video clip, but I'll never forget it. A young woman was in a bathrobe and pyjamas, seated in a wheelchair.

She was in a room with yellow ceramic tile walls. As she begged for her life, an unseen man shot her in the head with a handgun. I replayed that damn video over and over looking for the camera trick, because my brain kept saying it was fake. Well exactly how do you fake an exploding head and brains all over the wall? I really wanted to call the cops, but as I see from your experience, it wouldn't have done any good.

I saw this back in '98. Does this qualify as a "snuff film"? She was wearing a baby blue bathrobe.

[Lazamataz]

What an unsavory looking trio.

[Lazamataz]

What is done in the privacy of the bedroom is no ones business you know.

That's right, and if that chipmunk testifies, I want everyone to know beforehand that she's lyin'.

[LanPB01]

According to this (scroll down), two men were arrested in Germany in 1999 for making a snuff film. I remember reading an article about it when it happened, because it was supposedly the first time such a film had turned up.

http://www.tranquileye.com/historyofporn/snuff.html

[Dustbunny]

Geeze, words escape me.

[Lazamataz]

Geeze, words escape me.

("Crocodile Hunter" accent) That's alright, missy! I'll round those words up! We won't let any of them escape! Crikey!!! There's a big-un right there! LOOK at those nasty t's and v's in it! I better approach this one carefully!