HOMICIDAL SLEEPWALKERS

          

     

            There are many different mysteries without any plausible logical explanation this so called mysteries torment “man animal” since the begins of times the inquisitive nature of man and the exotic nature of life on planet earth created an explosive combination a mix of knowledge and doubt… a mix of science and fiction…mystic and Spiritual… fact and hoax…. something that we here at Paradox like to called “Ludicrous Bizarre Psycho-Circus”.

In the future I will write about all of them but for today I choose to write about Homicidal Sleepwalkers.
One of the most intriguing aspects of man animal are the different pardons of sleep and that on it’s own is by itself  is enough material for thousand of other posts but Homicidal Sleepwalkers has to be one of the top 10.
For those that are clueless about Homicidal Sleepwalkers is the act of killing someone during an episode of sleepwalking.
Sleep, love, sex; what is a person capable of without even knowing it?
So here are some of the weirdest cases I know:

STEVEN STEINBERG CASE

In 1981 a Scottsdale, Arizona man named Steven Steinberg was accused of murdering his wife, Elena, with a kitchen knife. She was stabbed 26 times. The trial took place in Maricopa County Superior Court in 1982. Steinberg acknowledged the murder, claimed he did it while sleepwalking, and therefore was not sane at the time. Dr Martin Blinder, a California psychiatrist, testified that the murder was committed under a scenario of "dissociative reaction," when Steinberg repeatedly stabbed his wife.

Steinberg didn't deny the fact that he had killed her, but he pleaded 'not guilty' because he claimed not to remember the crime. He was sleeping, and must have been sleepwalking at the time. Steinberg was found innocent by the jury; on the ground he was temporarily insane when he killed his wife. He walked away a free man.

KENNETH PARKS CASE

Kenneth Parks, a 23-year-old Toronto man with a wife and infant daughter, was suffering from severe insomnia caused by joblessness and gambling debts. Early in the morning of May 23, 1987 he arose, got in his car and drove 23 kilometres to his in-laws' home. He stabbed to death his mother-in-law, whom he loved and who had once referred to him as "a gentle giant." Parks also assaulted his father in law, who survived the attack. He then drove to the police and said "I think I have killed some people . . . my hands," only then realizing he had severely cut his own hands. Under police arrest he was taken to the hospital where he underwent repair of several flexor tendons of both hands.

Because he could not remember anything about the murder and assault, had no motive for the crime whatsoever, and did have a history of sleepwalking, his team of defence experts (psychiatrists, a psychologist, a neurologist and a sleep specialist) concluded Ken Parks was 'asleep' when he committed the crime, and therefore unaware of his actions. Parks' sleepwalking defence proved successful and on May 25, 1988, the jury rendered a verdict of not guilty. Subsequently Parks was also acquitted of the attempted murder of his father-in-law.

  

SCOTT FALATER CASE

In 1997 another Phoenix man, 43-year-old Scott Falater, was accused of murdering his wife. On the night of January 16, 1997, neighbour Greg Koons saw Mr Falater hold his wife's head under water. Not clear on what was going on, but having heard screaming, Koons called the police. The police arrived to a gruesome crime scene -- a bloodied pool and Mrs Falater dead with 44 stab wounds. Scott Falater, present at the crime scene, with blood on his neck and Band-Aids on his hands, was brought to the police station to undergo questioning. He denied any knowledge of the brutal murder and thus began his celebrated sleepwalking defence. Police video from the night of the murder shows Falater saying he is unaware why he is being questioned.

Like Steinberg before him, Falater claimed he had been sleepwalking at the time of the murder. Also like Steinberg, he acknowledged the murder, but said he remembered nothing about what happened; he was asleep at the time. "He was sleepwalking at the time the event occurred and he had no consciousness operating in his mind at the time, in fact, his brain was, in fact, asleep," said defence attorney Michael Kimerer during opening statements at the murder trial.

Prosecutor Juan Martinez told a Maricopa County Superior Court jury that Falater "had an agenda" when he stabbed his wife, Yamila, 44 times. According to the prosecution, the defendant changed clothes and placed his bloodied clothing along with the murder weapon -- a hunting knife -- in a Tupperware container. He then put the container in a trash bag with his boots and socks and stashed the bag in the spare tire well in trunk of his car. After he killed her he took ... all of the items that showed that he was the person that actually killed her and he hid them," said Martinez. Prosecutors said when police searched Falater's Volvo, they found "one neat little package" of evidence, including the gloves.

In this case there was also an eyewitness: his neighbour. After hearing moaning, the neighbour saw Falater pull on gloves, drag the body over to the pool and roll it in. He said he saw Falater hold his wife's head under water and then the neighbour called 911.

Defence attorneys did not dispute that Falater killed his wife of 20 years and the mother of his two children. But Attorney Kimerer said the evidence would show that Falater should be acquitted because he was sleepwalking when the murder happened.

Dr Rosalind Cartwright, a sleep disorder expert who examined Falater, said it was possible. "Sometimes they hurt themselves. Sometimes they hurt other people. But this is a state in which they are confused. They're not conscious. They think something terrible is happening and they have to defend themselves so, often, they will fight," she told CNN.

The defence argument was that sleep tests conducted on Falater showed he fit the profile of a sleepwalker and had a history of sleepwalking. Kimerer said Falater was undergoing severe stress related to his job as a product engineer at Motorola, sleeping only two or three hours per night at the time.

As the defence explained it, Falater returned home from work on the night of January 16, 1997, had dinner with his family and tried to fix a faulty pool pump. After getting his tools -- including the knife -- and work clothes out of the Tupperware container in the trunk of his car, he decided to do the repair later, Kimerer said. Kimerer said Falater went to sleep exhausted. His explanation for what happened next was that Falater was trying to fix the pool pump as he was sleepwalking and reacted in a rage when his wife came across him. Kimerer called Falater's actions after the killing "nonsensical and illogical," which he said were typical of a sleepwalker.

Testifying after opening arguments, neighbour Koons said Falater's motions appeared fluid and natural. Kimerer said Koons stated before the trial that Falater appeared "robot-like and mechanical," but Koons denied he used those words.

The prosecution and defence also portrayed differing views of the relationship between Falater and his wife. Prosecutors hinted at marital discord over the family's Mormon religion, with Yamila wanting to be less involved with the church. The defence, however, said the two were "soul mates" and there was no discord at all in the marriage.

At the trial two experts backed his story. Then on June 16, 1999 Falater testified on his own behalf. Falater was asked about the gloves he put on after he stabbed his wife but before he dragged her body to the pool. Would he have thought to wear gloves if he were sleepwalking? On the other hand, if this were premeditated, wouldn't he have put them on before the stabbing?

On June 18, 1999 a prosecution expert testified that Falater's actions were "too complex" to have been carried out during sleepwalking.

On June 25, 1999 the jury returned its verdict: Guilty of First Degree Murder. On January 10, 2000 Scott Falater was sentenced to life imprisonment with no chance of parole.

BURGESS CASE

Less dramatic, but no less interesting, is the sleep walking defence when murder has not been committed. In 1996, in Queensland Australia, a man named Burgess hit a woman in the head with a bottle and tried to strangle her. She was injured, but not fatally. Burgess' defence was that he had been sleepwalking at the time. Burgess was found not guilty just as Parks and Steinberg were, but this time the accused was found not guilty by reason of insanity. In Burgess' case, the sleepwalking and the resulting violence were deemed not normal. The following discussion of this case is from

Sleepwalking is not the only sleep-related defence against murder. The case referred to above, of a man who shot his wife and then claimed he did it on an arousal from sleep apnea and therefore not under wilful control.

Although this post is about Homicidal Sleepwalking I thought that it gives me also space to talk about other sleepwalking cases not necessarily murder.

 SUICIDAL SLEEPWALKING

            Just recently, in May 2009, a sleepwalking teenager stepped out of the bedroom window at her historic castle home and plunged 25ft to the ground. Rachel Ward had got out of bed and pulled on a jumper before making her dramatic, unconscious exit from the first floor of the 19th century house.

She landed feet first on a narrow strip of grass next to her car, leaving six-inch divots in the ground, before collapsing. Semi-conscious, she screamed for help and her parents took her to hospital. There, to the amazement of doctors, tests revealed she hadn't broken a single bone. It was only the following day that Miss Ward, an 18-year-old A-level student, properly woke up.

THE SLEEPWALKING ARTIST

Meet Lee Hadwin, by day a nurse, at night he's a "sleepwalking artist" who produces strange and fantastical artworks which he has no recollection of drawing when he wakes up the next morning.

Dubbed 'Kipasso', he says he is utterly mystified by his nocturnal talent, while at the daytime he shows no interest or ability in art whatsoever. Major galleries have been asking for examples of his work, which they hope to market on its artistic merit as well as its novelty value.

Hadwin first started sleepwalking when he was four years old, but his parents believed it was a normal childhood phase. When he was in his teens, he began producing artwork while asleep, at first on his bedroom walls. Once, staying over at a friend's house, he covered the kitchen walls with doodles in his sleep, an embarrassing discovery at breakfast time the next day. In his late teens and early 20s, the intensity of his sleepwalking increased and Hadwin would wake to find everything in the vicinity: tablecloths, newspapers, clothes and walls, covered in artwork.

Hoping to harness the strange ability, he started leaving artists' materials out when he went to bed and, sure enough, when he awoke he says he would find full-blown pictures beside him. Now, he leaves his home prepared for nocturnal wanderings, with sketchbooks and charcoal pencils scattered around the house, particularly under the stairs, a favourite venue.

THE SLEEPWALKING ADULTERER WOMAN

In 2004, sleep medicine experts have successfully treated a rare case of a woman having sex with strangers while sleepwalking.

At night while asleep, the middle-aged sleepwalker from Australia left her house and had sexual intercourse with strangers. The behaviour continued for several months and the woman had no memory of her nocturnal activities. Circumstantial evidence, such as condoms found scattered around the house, alerted the couple to the problem. On one occasion, her partner awoke to find her missing, went searching for her and found her engaged in the sex act.

 
Incredulity is the leading player in cases like this. But a combination of factors convinced the doctors that the case was a real sleepwalking phenomenon, including the distress of the couple, and an in-depth clinical evaluation. She stopped her night-time excursions after psychiatric counselling. Drugs such as benzodiazepines, which are sometimes used to treat sleep walkers, were not necessary.


 THE SLEEPWALKING CHEF THAT COOKS WHILE SLEEPING

Robert Wood, a 55 year-old chef, gets up four or five times a week while asleep and heads to the kitchen where he prepares omelettes, stir fries and chips. He has been sleepwalking for 40 years but, together with wife Eleanor, is becoming increasingly worried about having an accident while in the kitchen.

The couple from Glenrothes in Fife now cannot sleep for more than around three hours at a time. Mr Wood believes an ulcer in his intestine may be at the root of the problem. Because the condition only allows him to eat very small portions, he thinks his hunger pangs might cause him to head to the kitchen. Once he tried to fill a small bowl with a whole box of cereal and carton of milk. Mr Wood is said to be seeking help from sleep specialists in Edinburgh.

THE SLEEPWALKER WHO FROZE TO DEATH

In Jan 2009, Timothy Brueggeman, a 51-year-old electrician from Wisconsin, sleepwalked out of his home in Hayward wearing only his underwear and a fleece shirt. His body was found the next morning about 190 yards from his rural home.

 With temperatures around -16°F, Brueggeman died of hypothermia.

Investigators found a bottle of Ambien in his bedroom. Ambien is the most-prescribed sleeping pill in the country and has been linked to hundreds of cases of sleepwalking. Sanofi-Aventis, which produces the drug, insists Ambien is safe when taken as directed and not mixed with alcohol or other drugs. But a friend of the victim, Ed Lesniak, admitted that his friend, who was plagued with insomnia, sometimes drank when taking the sleep aid.

This wasn't Brueggeman's first dangerous sleepwalking incident. Last summer, he drove his pickup truck into the side of his own garage. Brueggeman's mother had advised him to stop taking Ambien after the incident.

THE SLEEPWALKER WHO MOLESTED A CHILD AND GOT ABSOLVED

In 2007, Alan Ball went to a New Year's Eve house party, drank heavily and fell asleep on a sofa. At some point during the night, he got up, went upstairs and climbed into bed with an under-age girl, whom he kissed on the lips.

After a year in which this lorry-driving father lost his job and was able to see his five-year-old daughter only during supervised visits, a judge at Preston Crown Court cleared him of sexual assault in 2009, after the 35-year-old claimed he was sleepwalking at the time of the incident and had no memory of the events.

THE SLEEPWALKER WHO MOWED THE LAWN NAKED

In 2005, a sleep-walking computer expert was reportedly caught by his wife mowing the lawn naked at 2am. Rebekah Armstrong was woken by a noise coming from the garden. When she realized her husband Ian was not in bed she went downstairs to see what was happening.

Rebekah found Ian was mowing the lawn completely starker. She was afraid to wake him up because she had always been told it can be dangerous to disturb someone who is sleepwalking. She just unplugged the mower, went back to bed and let him get on with it. Ian, 34, later got back into bed and didn't believe Rebekah when she told him what he'd been up to.

THE SLEEPWALKER WHO EMAILED FRIENDS

 

In 2005, a 44-year-old woman went to bed about 10pm but got up two hours later and walked to her computer in the next room. She turned it on, connected to the internet, and logged on before composing and sending three emails.

Each was in a random mix of upper and lower cases, not well formatted and written in strange language, the researchers said.

One read: "Come tomorrow and sort this hell hole out. Dinner and drinks, 4pm,. Bring wine and caviar only." Another said simply, "What the…"

The new variation of sleepwalking has been described as "zzz-mailing". The neurologists said that unlike simple sleep-walking, the activities their patient was involved in required complex behaviour and co-ordinated movements including typing, composing and writing the messages.

She was also able to remember her password and turn the computer on and connect to the internet, although she had no memory of the event. It was thought that the woman's sleep-walking may have been triggered by prescription medication, although the causes of the phenomenon are not fully understood.

THE SLEEPWALKING DOG

Apparently, sleepwalking is not exclusive to humans. Meet Bizkit, a cute dog who suffers from somnambulism and became an instant viral hit on the web.

So be aware you never know what can happen when you or your partner or even your dog go to sleep…Sweet dreams!