Posted on 03/05/2005 8:24:14 AM PST by Valin
March 5, 2005 -- The youngest member of the massacred Jersey City Coptic clan was butchered after recognizing a neighbor as one of the men who invaded her home. The sighting, which came as the girl made a desperate escape bid, sparked the slaughter of her entire family.
Monica Armanious, 9, bravely struggled out of the duct-tape bonds that the two thieves wrapped around her wrists and eyes in the Jan. 14 robbery.
But before she could make it to freedom, she saw accused attacker Edward McDonald, a 25-year-old father of two who rented the family's upstairs apartment, law-enforcement sources said.
He and his alleged accomplice, Hamilton Sanchez a 31-year-old convicted drug importer decided that little Monica, dad Hossam, 47, mom Amal Garas, 37, and sister Sylvia, 15, all had to be eliminated, prosecutors said.
Then, in a stunning act of callousness, McDonald went back to his upstairs apartment and spent the next three days living there with his own child and his girlfriend while his alleged victims' bodies slowly rotted in the home below.
(snip)
The attackers left behind a crime scene that Jersey City law officers called one of the most gruesome and disturbing they had ever seen.
Suspicion initially fell on Muslim extremists, because Hossam was an advocate for Coptic Christian rights in his native Egypt and had made pro-Christian Internet postings that angered some Muslims and elicited some online threats.
The suspicion led to tension between Jersey City's Coptic and Muslim communities and prompted the FBI to get involved. The FBI reportedly visited Egypt as part of the probe.
But DeFazio said the crime had no religious overtones.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
"But before she could make it to freedom, she saw accused attacker Edward McDonald, a 25-year-old father of two who rented the family's upstairs apartment, law-enforcement sources said".
Did they bring in a psychic? This seems like an extremely detailed report of unseen things. Sorry, I'll hang on to My tinfoil hat until this case plays out.
Yeah, the fact that the islamists were happy to assume that one of them did do it and crow all over the world certainly did not help matters any, but from what the article showed (and I am presuming more evidence will be forthcoming) that yes, sometimes ordinary, penney-ante lowlifes do commit extraordinary atrocities. The ATM card clinches it, no mention of the stolen jewelery, though. The cops probably had it figured out within hours but they had to keep from spooking him until he made a mistake, so the DA had to prevaricate and take the bad publicity. They are owed an apology.
When you kill a man as a point of (twisted) honor. You don't run off with his silverware.
The pair met at the federal prison in Fort Dix, N.J. Sanchez was sent there in 2000 after being sentenced in 1995 to 121/2 years in prison for conspiracy to import more than three kilos of cocaine and a kilo of heroin.
McDonald was sent there after a 2001 drug conviction.
Gosh do you think it MIGHT be drug dealers he was scared of? NAH, couldn't be it has to be Muslims
Do they really think a NJ jury is going to believe this?
Click on the link, and you'll find out they were looking at these two from the start.
You betcha.....this really stinks
But a lot of people will go into "see I told you so!" mode if it turns out to be Islam behind this after all.
I'm a big boy.
And the reverse is also true.
Maybe the cards were either given to these perps, or "left" somewhere for them to find.
Naw, these brainiacs are too smart to be set up.
Not much, now, I'm afraid.
The duty of government agencies seems to be the calming of any fears that those agencies believe would "unnessessarily" upset the populace.
As an example, should a body be found in a county park (when I was on the job) the county would issue little information about it. In fact the article wouldn't even say it was found in the park.
I don't see that much is changed.
The initial assessment was it was retribution for internet activities, in which the father was told they would hunt him down and make an example of him. See http://michellemalkin.com/archives/001248.htm
There are links to original reports, etc.
Well, that's a tortured sequence but not totally impossible. They would still have to have the PIN and these guys would have to somehow receive the card and PIN of the landlord who, by the time they used it, was known to have been murdered.
Yes, these Perps are incredibly stupid but not in the way you suggest (i.e., 'Set up').
The crooks then decided they had to eliminate the rest of the family. Sanchez allegedly did the deed with knives found in the kitchen.
$$$$$
Looks like McDonald sang to the cops and gave up Sanchez. He must have told them about the little girl trying to hide in the bathroom. Now he is asking for protective custody. What scum!
Just a thought, in the beginning of the article it says they killed the young girl, because she could id the neighbor. Then, it says that the pair donned masks. Of course, if they have a good picture of the one suspect using the family's ATM card on tape, that's a whole different story.
Whatever the case, the fact that her wrists were slit, was downright gruesome.
:)~
You need to get in the jury pool.
This sentence sounds like something one sees on the cover of Weekly World News . . .
Good point about the PIN. I wonder if the ex-con was a muslim? Our prisons are full of that crap, what with Calypso Louie and all.
In another article (I think its the NYTimes edition today), it says they bound the family at gunpoint. Yet when one thief was recognized by the girl, he slight her throat and then the second guy slit the throats of the other three.
Why would thieves who get scared/startled slit the victims throats when they could have quickly killed them with the gun, especially if they had to get the knives from the kitchen?
Also, the second guy accused of murdering the three others was crying that he didn't do it. That he didn't kill anyone. That struck me as odd. Ruthless, heartless butchers don't usually cry like this guy did (Scott Peterson's remorseless demeanor comes to my mind).
Based on the pieces we know so far, my gut tells me something isn't right. I'm doubting this story.
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