Here is her email that she sent a few days before her murder.....
Date: Mon, 25 Aug 2008 08:04:54 -0400
From: ktp131
Subject: Weekend
I just wanted to share with you the most scariest thing that happened to me this weekend. Saturday evening around 7pm and man was knocking at my door (as all of you may know I live alone). I asked who it was and he didn't answer, so once I got close to the door and looked out of the peephole I saw a male figure that was not familiar to me at all. I asked who he was and all he stated was that he was from the FBI and that he was looking for Kanika Powell. It freaked me out completely because this man knew my name. he held a shield up but no picture ID and he never gave his name. he told me he was looking for me in regards to a investigation. I told him that I had no idea as to what he was talking about and that he would need to show me documentation as well as a warrant of some sort. So he left and I looked out my bedroom window and saw him walking. I also heard a voice tell him to walk in the opposite direction. the whole situation was scary and seemed so false. So because of this incident not only did I get NO sleep for the rest of the weekend I am trying to get a alarm system installed in my apartment. I had one in my old apartment, but I just hadn't had it transferred over to my new one.
As far as everything that happened with the guy. I did call the FBI they told me that it was more than likely bogus because they never come to your door by themselves and the always leave a card of some sort so that you can contact them. I called the local police as well to give them a description just incase someone is out there trying to rape or harm single woman.
pass this on ladies.. This is not a fake Forward this happened to ME Kanika...Who knows who these guys are and what they are doing and what areas other than mine.
Kanika Powell suspected something when the man knocked on her door claiming to be an FBI agent. He held a badge up to her peephole but walked away when Powell refused to open up without seeing a photo ID.
Five days later, there was another knock at the door of her Laurel area apartment. This time a different man, who said he was delivering a package. When Powell again refused to open the door, he also left -- no package, no note where it could be claimed.
Five hours later, Powell was outside her door after returning from errands. Someone was waiting in the hallway and opened fire, riddling her with bullets. She died a day later, this past Friday, and police have no idea why she was killed.
Her slaying has all the trappings of a television drama: e-mail messages Powell, 28, left behind about the strange men coming to her door; her mysterious career at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, where she worked as a security specialist; the FBI's insistence that none of its agents approached the woman; and investigators who say they can find no apparent motive for her killing -- no spurned lover, no robbery, no signs of gang activity, nothing.
"At this point, we haven't ruled out any avenue of investigation or motive, other than that it was random," Detective Kelly Rogers of the Prince George's County police said yesterday.
Rogers said police arrived at Powell's home four minutes after she called 911 Aug. 23, after the encounter with the man who identified himself as the agent. Officers canvassed Powell's apartment complex but found no one matching the description she'd given them.
Powell had also reported the incident to the apartment complex and told friends and colleagues. "It appears she did everything she could," Rogers said. Yesterday, Rogers and Powell's family began circulating fliers announcing a $25,000 reward for information leading to an arrest or indictment. Police are asking anyone with information to call the county's Crime Solvers hotline at 866-411-TIPS (8477).
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Powell's family and friends say they cannot fathom a reason for the killing. Her wallet and keys were found with her. They said she had no enemies.
"She was just living a normal life," said her mother, Judy Forrest. "It doesn't add up. Somebody knows something, and they're holding on to it, and we don't know why."
Powell was a 1998 Largo High School graduate who enlisted in the Army in 2000, served in Korea and worked as a security contractor and then at the Hopkins laboratory. Powell still had a close group of girlfriends from high school. She had never married and had no children. Court records show no criminal record, and police say they found nothing unusual or illegal in her apartment.
Michael Buckley, a spokesman for the Hopkins laboratory in Laurel, where scientists work on more than 400 homeland security and other research projects, said it was premature to speculate on whether Powell's death had any connection to her work.
Buckley said Powell had started at the lab as a contract worker in 2004 and had become a lab employee in 2006. He declined to name the lab Powell worked in or her title, citing the "nature of the work."
Powell signed her e-mail to friends and colleagues as "Kanika T. Powell, Special Security, 13-S448 JHU/APL."
Forrest said her daughter was a security specialist who would not talk about her work. Powell would occasionally leave town for a couple of days to pick up things for the lab, she said. "I would ask her where she was going, and she would say, 'Mom, you know I can't tell you that.' "
Powell did tell her mother about the strange men who came to her door. Forrest said her daughter installed a security system after the first man came to the door. She might have thought she was being set up for a scam after the first visit, Powell's mother said, but the second one made her feel targeted.
"She said, 'Why are these people bothering me, Ma?' " Forest said, recalling that her daughter wondered whether she had angered someone. "But she didn't seem scared."
Still, Powell sent e-mail warnings to colleagues and friends about the men who came to her door. "The most scariest thing that happened to me," she wrote. "Pass this along ladies . . . who knows who these guys are."
Kelly Easter, one of Powell's co-workers, said he last had lunch with her Aug. 26. "She was busy working on stuff, trying to get police involved. She was really messed up about the whole thing," he said. The man claiming to be an FBI agent had come to her door only a few days earlier. "She just had no idea who would do that."
That is very odd and reminds me of the Nairn banker who was shot on his doorstep. This will never be solved.
Here's a strange case of what appear to be two very gruesome murders a year apart, with the same MO. No one was ever brought to justice and no suspects emerged, despite the brutality of the killings:
Brosso was living at the time with her boyfriend, and had gone out for a bicycle ride about 7 p.m. that Sunday. Her boyfriend reported her missing about 4½ hours later. The next day, her headless body was found in the park south of Cactus Road. Brosso's abdomen and chest were cut open, she was decapitated, and her head was missing. Also, the 21-speed Diamondback mountain bike she rode was gone.
On Friday, Nov. 20, Brosso's head was found in a stretch of the Arizona Canal about two miles south of where her body was found. Detectives scoured the areas where Brosso's body and head were found, but no significant leads or suspects developed.
Then, on Wednesday, Sept. 22, 1993, less than a year later, another young woman was killed in the same area and in much the same manner as Brosso.
Melanie Bernas, a 17-year-old Arcadia High School student, was murdered while riding her bicycle along the Arizona Canal. Bernas' body was found floating in the canal near the point where it crosses under the Black Canyon Freeway, about a half-mile north of Dunlap Avenue, and about 2 miles south of where Brosso's body was found.
The murdered girl suffered stab wounds similar to the wounds Brosso suffered, police said, but they kept details to themselves. Bernas' bicycle also was missing.
Police investigators determined that the same man killed both women.
Anyone have any idea what the thing in this video might be? It did the rounds in the newspapers a few weeks back and is allegedly a 'Nessie' type creature in Ireland's Lough Foyle. Ireland has a history of these lake monsters, usually called 'horse eels' over there. The thing in this video doesn't seem to move in the way I'd expect an animal to, though. That said, if it's a hoax, I have no idea how they'd have the thing move at speed and submerge - I can't see any sign of it being dragged.
Anyone have any idea what the thing in this video might be? It did the rounds in the newspapers a few weeks back and is allegedly a 'Nessie' type creature in Ireland's Lough Foyle. Ireland has a history of these lake monsters, usually called 'horse eels' over there. The thing in this video doesn't seem to move in the way I'd expect an animal to, though. That said, if it's a hoax, I have no idea how they'd have the thing move at speed and submerge - I can't see any sign of it being dragged.
It seems like every big lake, loch and lough in the British isles boasts its own monster - and yet not a shred of evidence beyond grainy videos and eyewitness accounts has ever turned up from a single one! Lake monsters must be the rarest, cleverest and most shy creatures on the planet!
Apologies if this one's been mentioned already - especially by me! (not read through the thread - too lazy ):
I remember a few years ago reading an article about a family (American I think) with a three year old son. The little boy kept coming out with really detailed things about some WW2 aircraft, things that he couldn't have known or picked up himself. The family did some research into things he came out with (names etc) and found out that there had been someone just like the boy described, who died as a young adult years before.
I remember one quote was about the little boy saying something like "I knew you'd be a good mummy and daddy when I chose you, I saw you in the pink house and knew you'd be my mummy and daddy....." (something along those lines) - apparantly years before the boy was born the parents had a pink beach house.
I'm not one for buying into all these stories, but this one was so incredibly detailed without any other logical explanation, and it's stuck with me ever since I read it.
That's really intriguing. I want to read more but wouldn't know what to search for
The Amelia Earhart mystery always intrigues me - the story of her VHF radio transmissions bouncing off the atmosphere to certain points around the globe, and the veracity of said claims is a good read.
The Amelia Earhart mystery always intrigues me - the story of her VHF radio transmissions bouncing off the atmosphere to certain points around the globe, and the veracity of said claims is a good read.
Some of the things the parents withheld are fishy, and so was their decision to seek out a psychologist who was known for her belief in reincarnation. On the other hand, some of the things they claim the boy said are inexplicable. I guess it all comes down to whether we believe the parents are honest, deluding themselves or outright liars trying to make a fast buck!
Some of the things the parents withheld are fishy, and so was their decision to seek out a psychologist who was known for her belief in reincarnation. On the other hand, some of the things they claim the boy said are inexplicable. I guess it all comes down to whether we believe the parents are honest, deluding themselves or outright liars trying to make a fast buck!
hmm interesting. Wonder what's the story with the kid now that's he's much older
Does anyone remember the case of the girl in America who kept reporting strange happenings at her home and was found bound up but it was reported she was doing these things to herself until she was found murdered.
I have looked back in this thread but cant seem to find it anywhere - any ideas folks?
Does anyone remember the case of the girl in America who kept reporting strange happenings at her home and was found bound up but it was reported she was doing these things to herself until she was found murdered.
I have looked back in this thread but cant seem to find it anywhere - any ideas folks?
Cindy James. Mentioned (briefly) way back on page 64 (so no wonder you couldn't find it!)
I love this thread, it's easily my favourite on DS. Think I'll spend this evening reading through all the latest posts.
Me too! I remember spending hours reading through it when I discovered it - haunting, spooky, intriguing. It's pretty much become an excellent repository of just about every big 'mystery' (from the historical to the paranormal to the criminal) of the last several hundred years!
I first posted this in "What's the Creepiest Thing to Ever Happen to You" and was totally ignored :D
Just one more shot at seeing if anyone has had anything similar happen to them, as I said, it wasn't "creepy" but weird in the extreme and it's totally 100% true:-
I've been wondering for some time whether to post this, as I have been told that the story is "lame" among other adjectives, however both my friend and I can honestly say it's the strangest most inexplicable thing that's ever happened to us.
Three of us were in a bar in Krakow in Poland, chatting and on our (first) beer. My friend Jane, who does ceramics, mentioned how nice a large pot was that was attached to the wall. I turned around and saw it clearly and mentioned that a neighbour of mine has some just like it on her fence and when they have plants in them they look lovely. The pot was empty, 100%, no doubt in our minds at all.
My friend then got her phone out to take a photo to try and make one when she got home. This would have taken around 10 seconds. I carried on chatting to the other person in our group who had not/could not see the pot because of the position of her seat. Jane then slowly tapped me on the shoulder and said "don't look, but was there anything in that pot when you looked at it?" I said no, and she told me to turn around - the pot has long flowing plants coming out of it and was full of earth. I should say that this pot was about 10' up on the wall and would need a ladder to reach it.
We freaked out. I went and asked a waitress if the pot had ever had plants in it, she said yes and I thought it was solved (though it would still have been an incredibly quick total emptying of the pot, i.e about 10 seconds!) but then she added, "about 6 months ago". We were asking total random strangers sitting in the bar if they had seen anything, or if they had seen plants in the pot a minute ago, of course nobody had the slightest idea what we were talking about.
Like I said, in the scheme of things, not exactly creepy but still the oddest most inexplicable thing that has ever happened to either of us.
I first posted this in "What's the Creepiest Thing to Ever Happen to You" and was totally ignored :D
Just one more shot at seeing if anyone has had anything similar happen to them, as I said, it wasn't "creepy" but weird in the extreme and it's totally 100% true:-
I've been wondering for some time whether to post this, as I have been told that the story is "lame" among other adjectives, however both my friend and I can honestly say it's the strangest most inexplicable thing that's ever happened to us.
Three of us were in a bar in Krakow in Poland, chatting and on our (first) beer. My friend Jane, who does ceramics, mentioned how nice a large pot was that was attached to the wall. I turned around and saw it clearly and mentioned that a neighbour of mine has some just like it on her fence and when they have plants in them they look lovely. The pot was empty, 100%, no doubt in our minds at all.
My friend then got her phone out to take a photo to try and make one when she got home. This would have taken around 10 seconds. I carried on chatting to the other person in our group who had not/could not see the pot because of the position of her seat. Jane then slowly tapped me on the shoulder and said "don't look, but was there anything in that pot when you looked at it?" I said no, and she told me to turn around - the pot has long flowing plants coming out of it and was full of earth. I should say that this pot was about 10' up on the wall and would need a ladder to reach it.
We freaked out. I went and asked a waitress if the pot had ever had plants in it, she said yes and I thought it was solved (though it would still have been an incredibly quick total emptying of the pot, i.e about 10 seconds!) but then she added, "about 6 months ago". We were asking total random strangers sitting in the bar if they had seen anything, or if they had seen plants in the pot a minute ago, of course nobody had the slightest idea what we were talking about.
Like I said, in the scheme of things, not exactly creepy but still the oddest most inexplicable thing that has ever happened to either of us.
Comments
That is very odd and reminds me of the Nairn banker who was shot on his doorstep. This will never be solved.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polybius_(video_game)
I'd never heard of this before and now I can't stop reading about it!
Brosso was living at the time with her boyfriend, and had gone out for a bicycle ride about 7 p.m. that Sunday. Her boyfriend reported her missing about 4½ hours later. The next day, her headless body was found in the park south of Cactus Road. Brosso's abdomen and chest were cut open, she was decapitated, and her head was missing. Also, the 21-speed Diamondback mountain bike she rode was gone.
On Friday, Nov. 20, Brosso's head was found in a stretch of the Arizona Canal about two miles south of where her body was found. Detectives scoured the areas where Brosso's body and head were found, but no significant leads or suspects developed.
Then, on Wednesday, Sept. 22, 1993, less than a year later, another young woman was killed in the same area and in much the same manner as Brosso.
Melanie Bernas, a 17-year-old Arcadia High School student, was murdered while riding her bicycle along the Arizona Canal. Bernas' body was found floating in the canal near the point where it crosses under the Black Canyon Freeway, about a half-mile north of Dunlap Avenue, and about 2 miles south of where Brosso's body was found.
The murdered girl suffered stab wounds similar to the wounds Brosso suffered, police said, but they kept details to themselves. Bernas' bicycle also was missing.
Police investigators determined that the same man killed both women.
http://www.azcentral.com/specials/special14/articles/1104coldcase-brosso04.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=DNsNtrYOOj4
That's interesting. The Irish Nessie
It seems like every big lake, loch and lough in the British isles boasts its own monster - and yet not a shred of evidence beyond grainy videos and eyewitness accounts has ever turned up from a single one! Lake monsters must be the rarest, cleverest and most shy creatures on the planet!
That's really intriguing. I want to read more but wouldn't know what to search for
http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/08/20/amelia-earhart-discovery/
http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/06/01/previously-dismissed-radio-signals-were-credible-transmissions-from-earhart/
The story is that of James Leininger:
http://www.iisis.net/index.php?page=semkiw-reincarnation-james-leininger-carol-bowman
http://abcnews.go.com/Primetime/Technology/story?id=894217#.UZPwtkruyNY
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1209795/Reincarnated-Our-son-World-War-II-pilot-come-life.html
The family wrote a book, Soul Survivor, which told the tale. That they sought financial gain kind of makes me a bit suspicious.
Then stop doing it !!
Seriously , it's a very interesting thread . I just wish I had to time to read through it all .
Thanks, that was a good read. Not sure what to make of it!
Agreed. And was this woman Amelia?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irene_Craigmile_Bolam
There's a more skeptical view of the case here:
http://skeptico.blogs.com/skeptico/2005/07/reincarnation_a.html
Some of the things the parents withheld are fishy, and so was their decision to seek out a psychologist who was known for her belief in reincarnation. On the other hand, some of the things they claim the boy said are inexplicable. I guess it all comes down to whether we believe the parents are honest, deluding themselves or outright liars trying to make a fast buck!
hmm interesting. Wonder what's the story with the kid now that's he's much older
I have looked back in this thread but cant seem to find it anywhere - any ideas folks?
Cindy James. Mentioned (briefly) way back on page 64 (so no wonder you couldn't find it!)
http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showpost.php?p=58793631&postcount=1578
Thank you so much xxx;)
No problem, interesting and very odd case! I feel for the woman's family, who do not believe she committed suicide.
Me too! I remember spending hours reading through it when I discovered it - haunting, spooky, intriguing. It's pretty much become an excellent repository of just about every big 'mystery' (from the historical to the paranormal to the criminal) of the last several hundred years!
Just one more shot at seeing if anyone has had anything similar happen to them, as I said, it wasn't "creepy" but weird in the extreme and it's totally 100% true:-
I've been wondering for some time whether to post this, as I have been told that the story is "lame" among other adjectives, however both my friend and I can honestly say it's the strangest most inexplicable thing that's ever happened to us.
Three of us were in a bar in Krakow in Poland, chatting and on our (first) beer. My friend Jane, who does ceramics, mentioned how nice a large pot was that was attached to the wall. I turned around and saw it clearly and mentioned that a neighbour of mine has some just like it on her fence and when they have plants in them they look lovely. The pot was empty, 100%, no doubt in our minds at all.
My friend then got her phone out to take a photo to try and make one when she got home. This would have taken around 10 seconds. I carried on chatting to the other person in our group who had not/could not see the pot because of the position of her seat. Jane then slowly tapped me on the shoulder and said "don't look, but was there anything in that pot when you looked at it?" I said no, and she told me to turn around - the pot has long flowing plants coming out of it and was full of earth. I should say that this pot was about 10' up on the wall and would need a ladder to reach it.
We freaked out. I went and asked a waitress if the pot had ever had plants in it, she said yes and I thought it was solved (though it would still have been an incredibly quick total emptying of the pot, i.e about 10 seconds!) but then she added, "about 6 months ago". We were asking total random strangers sitting in the bar if they had seen anything, or if they had seen plants in the pot a minute ago, of course nobody had the slightest idea what we were talking about.
Like I said, in the scheme of things, not exactly creepy but still the oddest most inexplicable thing that has ever happened to either of us.
Wow..how bizarre!