The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "stabbing" ...
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The Deadliest Place in Mexico
The Juarez Valley, a narrow corridor of green farmland carved from the Chihuahuan desert along the Rio Grande, was once known for its cotton, which rivaled Egypt’s. But that was before the Juarez cartel moved in to set up a lucrative drug smuggling trade. “The Deadliest Place in Mexico” explores untold aspects of Mexico’s drug war as it has played out in the small farming communities of this valley. The violence began in 2008, when the Sinaloa cartel moved in to take over the Juarez cartel’s turf. The Mexican government sent in the military to quell the violence — but instead the murder rate exploded. While the bloodshed in the nearby City of Juarez attracted widespread media attention, the violence spilling into the rural Juarez Valley received far less, eve as the killings began to escalate in brutal ways. Community advocates, elected officials, even police officers were shot down in the streets. Several residents were stabbed in the face with ice picks. By 2009, the valley, with a population of 20,000, had a murder rate six times higher than Juarez itself. Newspapers began to call the rural farming region the “Valley of Death.” This investigation uses extensive Freedom of Information Act requests, court documents, and difficult-to-obtain interviews in Spanish and English with current and former Juarez Valley residents, Mexican officials, narcotraffickers and U.S. and Mexican law enforcement officials, to reveal that many of these shocking deaths were perpetrated with the participation of Mexican authorities. It shows scenes of devastation — households where six members of a single family were killed, without a single police investigation. It uncovers targeted killings by masked gunmen of community activists and innocent residents for speaking out against violence and repression facilitated by corrupt military and government officials. And it gathers multiple witnesses who describe soldiers themselves, working in league with the Sinaloa cartel, perpetrating violence against civilians. "The cemeteries are all full. There isn't anywhere left to bury the bodies," one former resident said. "You'll find nothing there but ghost towns and soldiers."
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"Making a Killing"
A 26-year-old bipolar student enrolled in a drug trial at the University of Minnesota. However, Carl Elliott reveals that the professors who were ran the study knew that the student was probably "not competent to give his consent" because he suffered from "severe psychotic delusions." He was given a powerful antipsychotic and eventually stabbed himself to death. Elliott is "a professor of medical ethics at the University of Minnesota," and believes that the professors who were running the drug study would profit from it and that the student who committed suicide was "coerced" into participating.
Tags: bipolar; drug trial; antipsychotic; Seroquel; University of Minnesota; AstraZeneca
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Baby-Faced Butchers
Realtor Michael McMorrow was murdered on May 23, 1997 in Central Park after being stabbed 34 times, disemboweled and thrown into the lake. The two killers were teenagers: a spoiled rich girl, Daphne Abdela and her working class boyfriend Christopher Vasquez.
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Scientology: A Question of Faith
"The report is an hour-long investigation into the Church of Scientology's vehement opposition to the practice of psychiatry, and how that many have contributed to the brutal murder of Elli Perkings..." Perkings was a Scientologist whose son, Jeremey, suffered acute schizophrenia. He went without any formal psychiatric treatment. He stabbed his mother to death because he believed she was evil.
Tags: psychiatric; faith; Scientology; schizophrenia; murder; family; mental illness; modern medicine; religion
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Is Esmie Evil
In August 2005, Esmie Tseng was arrested for the stabbing death of her mother. Due to evidence at the scene indicating that the crime may have occurred in multiple sections of the house the 16-year-old Esmie lived in with her parents, the Johnson County, Kansas prosecutor tried Esmie as an adult. The local community's outpouring of compassion for Esmie as "a good girl who had snapped under pressure from her harsh parents" is only part of the story as the writer delves into Esmie's unhappy life, her diaries at Livejournal.com and Xanga.com and her "use of illegal drugs such as ecstacy (which) might have contributed to Esmie's faltering mental stability in the days leading up to her mother's murder." Esmie Tsang is now serving eight years after being convicted of voluntary manslaughter.
Tags: Esmie Tsang; juvenile offenders; patricide; ecstacy; Livejournal.com; Xanga.com
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The Gangs of Westchester: Boyz in the Burb
The 2 part series investigated the growing problem of gangs in the affluent suburban county of Westchester, right outside of New York. Despite the median price for a house resting at $700,000, violent drug gangs such as the Bloods, Crips, MS13, Vatos Locos, and Latin Kings have integrated themselves into the community. The city hierarchy refused to acknowledge the problem even with a rash of gang related shootings and stabbings.
Tags: gangs; Bloods; Crips; MS13; Vatos Locos; Latin Kings; drugs; Westchester County; gang violence; Yonkers
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Campus crime
This WMAR investigation into the amount of crime on Maryland college campuses was prompted by the stabbing death of a Johns Hopkins University student while he slept in his dorm. The TV station wanted to take a more in-depth look into campus crime, so it analyzed data from the U.S. Department of Education's Clery Act to determine a rate of crime at state college campuses. The investigation also showed footage of campus crimes after a series of challenging negotiations with some college campuses to release surveillance video under state open records laws.
Tags: TAPE; TRANSCRIPT; campus crime; students; colleges; Clery Act database; crime statistics
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"Rescuing Private Lynch (The Story Behind the Story)"
This investigation revealed that the Pentagon had exaggerated some of the details about the rescue of Private Lynch from Iraq. A helicopter pilot involved in the rescue contradicted earlier reports of a firefight, saying the rescue team found it pretty quiet around the hospital from where she was rescued. Furthermore, Iraqi doctors who treated Lynch said her injuries were likely caused by a traffic accident -- not a stabbing and shooting as earlier reported.
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The Valessa Strategy
A two-part series on the Valessa Robinson murder case. Ms. Robinson, a 15-year-old girl, was charged with brutally stabbing her mother to death. However, the jury rejected the first-degree murder charge, and convicted her instead of third-degree murder. The article probes into what took place leading up to that verdict, and how Valessa's defense team was able to play down her extensive drug use and sexual experience, and paint her instead as a victim, a vulnerable child. And how on the other hand, her boyfriend -- who wound up on death row -- became the true villain.
Tags: valessa robinson; matricide; jury; stabbing; murder; makeover; adolescent
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SFPD Dead Last
A San Francisco Chronicle three-part series found that the San Francisco Police Department solves just 28 percent of the city's violent crimes--the worst big city record for violent crime clearance in the U.S. "People who are robbed, stabbed or shot in San Francisco have no guarantee that detectives for the San Francisco Police Department will even investigate the crimes. In fact, the department routinely files away with no investigation some 70 percent of the robberies and serious assaults that occur in the city."
Tags: San Francisco Police Department; police; violent crime; violent crime clearance; crimes solved; detectives; crime statistics; SFPD