Speaker 1: Crime Alert. I'm Nancy Grace, breaking crimes now. Brandy Elliott
Speaker 1: spends a week at her Tennessee home alone with her
Speaker 1: seven year old daughter Piper. Her husband, John is in
Speaker 1: the hospital. Elliott draws Piper a bath, hoping for alone
Speaker 1: time for herself, but Piper asked Mommy to stay and
Speaker 1: help her instead. Brandy Elliott holds Piper under the water
Speaker 1: for minutes. When Piper stops struggling, Elliott calls nine one
Speaker 1: one to start CPR, but the seven year old little
Speaker 1: girl is dead.
Speaker 2: Nancy Elliott and Piper had just been to visit John Elliott,
Speaker 2: a disabled veteran, after he was moved from critical care.
Speaker 2: Piper plastered her father's room with coloring book pages and
Speaker 2: well wishes. Just a few hours later, Piper was killed.
Speaker 2: Brandy Elliott claims to have previous issues with mental health,
Speaker 2: but her attorneys do not want her to undergo an
Speaker 2: evaluation at this time.
Speaker 1: Brandy Elliott thirty three, now charged with murder. Matthew Pancake
Speaker 1: breaks into multiple Ohio businesses like a shoe store, a restaurant,
Speaker 1: a pet store, and every time he's always wearing leper print.
Speaker 1: One ZPJS cops Hot on his trail, had to take
Speaker 1: a brief pause to wrangle bunnies, birds, puppies and a
Speaker 1: ferret running loose in the parking lot. Officers finally find
Speaker 1: pancakes sleeping on a bench nearby. A brief search reveals
Speaker 1: four gerbils hidden in pancakes pajama pockets. None of the
Speaker 1: animals are hurt, but pancakes taken to the hospital to
Speaker 1: get several bites and scratches looked at. Matthew Pancake thirty one,
Speaker 1: now charged with breaking and entering in vandalism? What about
Speaker 1: ferret kidnap? More crime and justice news after this Now
Speaker 1: with the latest crime and justice breaking news, Crime Onlines
Speaker 1: John Lemley.
Speaker 3: A seventy six year old Connecticut woman, has been found
Speaker 3: dead at her Burlington home, just hours before she was
Speaker 3: scheduled to be sentenced for the killing of her husband.
Speaker 3: We turned to Sydney Sumner of Crime Online for more.
Speaker 2: Connecticut State Police are investigating Linda Kassuda Biggatzi's quote untimely death,
Speaker 2: which occurred after officers were called to her residence for
Speaker 2: a welfare check. Kasuda Bagatsi had reached a plea deal
Speaker 2: and was expected to be sentenced to thirteen years in
Speaker 2: prison for the twenty seventeen death of her eighty four
Speaker 2: year old husband, doctor par Luigi Bigatzi, a professor at
Speaker 2: Yukon Health. In March, she pleaded guilty to manslaughter and larceny,
Speaker 2: having initially been charged with murder. She was free on
Speaker 2: more than one point five million dollars bail. In writings
Speaker 2: founded her home Kasuda, Bagatzi claimed she killed her husband
Speaker 2: with a hammer and self defense during a dispute over
Speaker 2: home repairs. Police discovered doctor Bigotzi's body in the couple's
Speaker 2: basement in February twenty eighteen, wrapped in plastic showing advanced decomposition.
Speaker 2: The medical examiner determined the cause of death was blunt
Speaker 2: trauma to the head. Investigators believed doctor Bagotzi died in
Speaker 2: July twenty seventeen, and his paid The checks continued to
Speaker 2: be deposited into a joint account until his body was found.
Speaker 3: An internal investigation at Yukon resulted in disciplinary action against
Speaker 3: a medical official who failed to monitor doctor Bigatzi's work
Speaker 3: during that period. Now to Texas, where a former US
Speaker 3: Army employee has been sentenced after stealing nearly one hundred
Speaker 3: nine million dollars to fund a lavish lifestyle. Once again
Speaker 3: crime online Sidney Sumner.
Speaker 2: Fifty seven year old Janet Yamanaka Melo was sentenced to
Speaker 2: fifteen years in federal prison after admitting to embezzling nearly
Speaker 2: one hundred and nine million dollars from a youth development
Speaker 2: program for children of military families. Mello, a former financial
Speaker 2: manager at Fort sam Houston and San Antonio, used the
Speaker 2: stolen funds to support a lavish lifestyle, purchasing luxury items
Speaker 2: including multiple mansions, a fleet of high end vehicles, and
Speaker 2: designer accessories. US District Judge Xavier Rodriguez handed down the
Speaker 2: sentence after Mello pleaded guilty in March to multiple counts
Speaker 2: of mail fraud and filing false tax returns. The court
Speaker 2: heard that Melo had created a fictitious organization named Child
Speaker 2: Health and Youth Lifelong Development to siphon grant money from
Speaker 2: the military program, submitting over forty fraudulent applications over six years.
Speaker 2: US Attorney Jamie Esparza for the Western District of Texas
Speaker 2: described Melo's actions as a profound betrayal of trust, highlighting
Speaker 2: her exploitation of her position and expertise. Melo's extravagant spending
Speaker 2: included a single day purchase of nine hundred and twenty
Speaker 2: three thousand dollars in jewelry in twenty twenty two, in
Speaker 2: the acquisition of eighty two vehicles, including a Maserati Mercedes
Speaker 2: in a vintage nineteen fifty four corvette. Melo's defense attorney,
Speaker 2: Albert Flores, stated that his client is remorseful and intends
Speaker 2: for the items bought with the stolen funds to be
Speaker 2: sold to repay the government. He also mentioned that the
Speaker 2: defense does not plan to appeal the sentence.
Speaker 3: This case has drawn close attention due to the scale
Speaker 3: of the theft and the breach of trust involved, with
Speaker 3: prosecutors noting that Mela all of his actions were facilitated
Speaker 3: by her deep knowledge of the grant system and the
Speaker 3: trust she had built within her workplace.
Speaker 1: Thanks John Jacqueline Jackie Rays thirty, moves to Boyt In Beach,
Speaker 1: Florida to get to know her bio dad, Denzil Dixon.
Speaker 1: She quickly becomes close with her aunt Joy Dixon, then
Speaker 1: moves in with her. Two months later, Denzel passes away
Speaker 1: from a terminal illness. Jackie doesn't take it well and
Speaker 1: begins to lash out at the ant. They argue often,
Speaker 1: especially over Jackie's unemployment, as the aunt Joy struggles to
Speaker 1: keep up with the bills. After one argument, Jackie storms
Speaker 1: out of the house with a purse and laptop. Joy
Speaker 1: assumes she's taking the night to Blue Off Steam, but
Speaker 1: Jackie never comes back. Police believe Jackie is still in
Speaker 1: the area, but have not been able to confirm she's safe.
Speaker 1: Jackie Rays missing two years, five eight, one hundred and
Speaker 1: ten pounds, brown eyes, brown curly hair. Anyone with info
Speaker 1: on j Jackie Reyes called Paul Beach, Florida Sheriffs five
Speaker 1: six one six eight eight three seven four zero. For
Speaker 1: the latest crime injustice news, go to crimeonline dot com
Speaker 1: and join us on our daily podcast, Crime Stories with
Speaker 1: this crime alert. I'm Missy Grace.