Journalist charged with rapes and murders he reported

UPDATE:  Suspect found dead

(June 24, 7:55am PST) “Murder he wrote” (ABC News)

“The last victim, a 65-year old female, was found with 13 deep wounds on her skull and multiple rib fractures,” Kotevski told ABC News. -ABC News

(June 23, 4:45pm PST):  “The shocking story of a newspaper crime reporter who knew too much” (The Guardian UK)

When Vlado Taneski wrote about the serial killer stalking his hometown in Macedonia, his eye for detail was such that the story was soon riveting readers. The journalist’s inside knowledge of the brutal murders of three elderly women in the tiny town of Kicevo ensured that newspaper editors gave his columns prominence. -The Guardian UK

(June 23, 4:51am PST):  The BBC is now reporting that murder suspect Vlado Taneski has been found dead in jail.  According to the BBC’s Web site, police say Taneski committed suicide by “putting his head in a bucket full of water.”

-additional news articles:

Belfast Telegraph:

“Vlado Taneski committed suicide. He put his head in a pail full of water.

“It is unclear how none of his cell mates or guards noticed while he was doing so.

“He ended like in a horror movie,” a police spokesperson said.

The Guardian (UK):

Taneski was arrested on Friday at his home in Kicevo. Police found pornography in his home and took “biological material”, which they allege is a DNA match for samples taken from the victims, from his summer cottage in a nearby village on Saturday.

(also from The Guardian)

Ljupco Popovski, the editor-in-chief of Utrinski Vesnik told the Associated Press everyone there was “shocked” by the news.

“I know him as an exceptionally quiet man and I would never believe that he is capable of doing something like that,” Popovski said.

“He used to work for us till January this year. He was for more than 20 years a correspondent for the daily Nova Makedonija and he got the highest merits for his journalistic job there in the mid 80s. I remember that because I was at the same daily at that time.”

( June 22, 2008 ) A sensational story is emerging in Macedonia, where a newspaper reporter is charged with raping and murdering two women.  Police believe the suspect is linked to at least one additional murder.

Initial reports suggest the suspect had a severely poor relationship with his late mother and took out his anger on the victims, ultimately cutting them into pieces.

The investigation appears to have turned its focus on 56-year-old journalist Vlado Taneski after his stories included unreleased details about the murders.

According to the British Broadcasting Corporation’s Web site:

Police allege that he kidnapped and abused the women, in their 50s and 60s, before cutting them into pieces and dumping them in plastic bags.

“He is also suspected of being involved in… [the disappearance of] a 78-year-old female who is still missing,” said police spokesman Ivo Kotevski.

“All victims were found naked, strangled, wrapped with phone cables,” the spokesman said.

All the women apparently had similarities to the suspect’s late mother, with whom he reportedly had a poor relationship.

More information about this story is available at the BBC’s Web site.