Kendall Francois (July 26, 1971 – September 11, 2014) was an American serial killer from Poughkeepsie, New York, convicted of killing eight women, from 1996 to 1998. He was serving life in prison for his crimes at Attica Correctional Facility until he was transferred to Wende Correctional Facility shortly before his death. It is was revealed in his trial in 2000 that he tested positive for HIV in 1995, but this was not said to have been related to his death.
In October 1996, Wendy Meyers, age 30, was reported missing to the Town of Lloyd Police, in Ulster County, New York—across the Hudson River from Poughkeepsie. Lloyd Police Sr. Investigator Gary VanKleeck and Investigator James Janson were assigned the Myers case. She was described as a white female, with a slim build, hazel eyes, and short brown hair. She was last seen at the Valley Rest Motel in Lloyd.
In December 1996, Gina Barone, 29, was reported missing by her mother, Patricia Barone. Gina was white with a small build, brown hair and an eagle tattooed on her back. On her right arm she had another tattoo that read simply “POP.” She was last seen November 29, 1996, in Poughkeepsie on a street corner, apparently having a dispute with her boyfriend, at the time, and getting out of his car around 2am to look for a customer so she could get a drug "fix."[3]
In January 1997, Kathleen Hurley, 47, disappeared. She was last seen walking along Main Street in the downtown area of Poughkeepsie. Hurley, like the others, was white, had brown hair and a small build. The letters “CJ” were tattooed on her left biceps. The same month, City of Poughkeepsie Police, following an extensive investigation, placed Francois' home at 99 Fulton Avenue under surveillance. Area prostitutes reported that he was notoriously rough during sex.
In March 1997, a woman named Catherine Marsh was reported missing by her mother. She was last observed November 11, 1996, also in Poughkeepsie. Four months had passed since she was last seen alive. Like the other women, she was white, small build and brown hair.
A month later, Poughkeepsie Police made a decision to contact the F.B.I. for help. Although the F.B.I. investigators were interested, they were limited by the circumstances of the case: in order to establish a profile of a suspect, they needed a crime scene.
In November 1997, Mary Healey Giaccone was reported missing. This report was actually initiated by the police. Her mother died the previous month. Her father, a retired New York State corrections officer, came to the police to ask for help in locating Mary so he could tell his daughter of her mother's death. Police soon discovered that she was last seen in February 1997 on the same Poughkeepsie streets as some of the others.
On June 12, 1998, Sandra Jean French, a 51-year-old mother of three, disappeared. Her daughters reported they discovered her car three blocks from Francois' home.
In August 1998, Catina Newmaster disappeared. The circumstances fit with many of those of the other missing women: she frequented the same streets of downtown Poughkeepsie, where she was last seen, and physically resembled the other women who had been reported missing.
On September 1, 1998, Kendall Francois was strangling an abducted prostitute when she became free and fled his home at 99 Fulton Avenue. Later that afternoon, City of Poughkeepsie Police Detective Skip Mannain and Town of Poughkeepsie Police Detective Bob McCready were in their unmarked car preparing to hand out flyers asking the public for help in the Catina Newmaster disappearance. As the detectives pulled into the same gas station that Francois just left, Deborah Lownsdale came up to the car and told them that a woman, who was now walking away, said that she was just assaulted. The detectives quickly located the woman, who confirmed the attack. She was brought into the police station where she filed a complaint against Francois.
That same afternoon, the police returned to talk with Francois about this most recent attack. They asked him to come into the police department to discuss the report. He agreed and was taken to headquarters. Over the next several hours, Francois eventually made many admissions regarding the disappearance of the women. He was arrested and charged with a single count of murder in the death of Newmaster. A search warrant was drawn up and on September 2, 1998, shortly after midnight, a team of detectives, the district attorney, EMS crews, crime scene processors, and police officers searched Francois' home and discovered many bodies of his victims.
Two days after his arrest, Francois was indicted for the murder of Catina Newmaster. On September 9, he appeared in court, and a plea of "not guilty" was entered on his behalf. A month later, on October 13, he was charged with eight counts of first degree murder, eight counts of second degree murder, and attempted murder.
Under New York State law at the time of the trial, the District Attorney was given the option of pursuing the death penalty for first degree murder. Though the D.A. could make the decision to ask for that sentence, it could only be imposed by the jury which had heard the case; Francois' attorneys chose to plead guilty on December 23, before the D.A. had decided whether to seek the death penalty, thereby avoiding trial by jury and therefore the possibility of execution.
On February 11, 1999, the Dutchess County Court ruled that the guilty plea could not be accepted. Later it was discovered that Francois contracted HIV from one of his victims. His defense team took the case to the State Court of Appeals, which upheld his guilty plea in a ruling in March 2000.
On August 11, 2000, Judge Thomas Dolan formally sentenced Kendall Francois to life in prison without the possibility of parole. He was incarcerated in Attica Correctional Facility until shortly before his death.
He died of apparent natural causes at Wende Correctional Facility on September 11, 2014, at the age of 43.
The man responsible for one of the most notorious criminal cases in Dutchess County history is dead.
Francois Kendall, who killed eight women and stored their remains in his Town of Poughkeepsie home, died in prison Thursday.
The state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision said Friday that Francois died of natural causes at 6:15 p.m. Thursday 9/11/2014 at Wende Correctional Facility 's Regional Medical Unit in Alden, Erie County.
He was 43 years old. A spokesman at the Erie County Medical Examiner's Office declined to provide a specific cause of death Friday.
However, during his plea in 2000, it was revealed that Francois had been diagnosed HIV-positive in 1995.
Francois killed eight women over a two-year period between 1996 and 1998, after soliciting them for sex in the Town and City of Poughkeepsie. He secreted their remains in his home on Fulton Avenue.
"Obviously, it was a very involved and heart-breaking case for us," City of Poughkeepsie Police Chief Ron Knapp said Friday. "Dealing with that many victims and their families and going through the whole process, there were a lot of emotions involved in that case."
Fishkill resident James DeSalvo, the brother of Kathy Hurley, one of the victims — a city resident who disappeared in 1997 — said "it was a bit of a surprise," when his other brother called Friday evening to say Francois had died.
"I think about my sister every day, but we didn't expect him to suddenly go like that," he said.
Francois admitted to committing the crimes on June 21, 2000 in a deal that allowed him to avoid the death penalty.
Some of the victims' family members later said they did not want to endure a prolonged legal battle that surely would have followed a sentence of death.
On Aug. 7, 2000, he was convicted of eight counts of first-degree murder and eight counts of second-degree murder, and sentenced to life without any possibility of parole.
Francois had been serving his sentence at Attica Correctional Facility . He was transferred to the regional medical unit at Wende on July 31, state officials said.
The case is one of the most notorious in Dutchess County history. It sparked international attention and a debate on the death penalty.
It began as a search for missing women.
A break came after Francois picked up a woman and tried to attack her in his car. The woman escaped, ran to a nearby gas station and notified authorities.
That incident allowed authorities, whose investigation into the missing woman had pointed them to Francois as a suspect, to obtain a search warrant for his home.
There, in the early hours of Sept. 2, 1998, they found the decomposed remains of the missing women.
"For two years, we were hunting a ghost," said former City of Poughkeepsie Detective Lt. William Siegrist, who retired in 2009. "Nobody really knew what happened to these women. We had no crime scene, no bodies, no nothing — until the day we arrested Francois."
Siegrist said one of his lasting memories of the case is the cooperation that emerged between numerous agencies, including the Town of Poughkeepsie police, state police and others.
Marsh said she hoped to hear an apology from the killer, but never got one.
And yet, she said, she forgave him.
"I guess it is not really pleasant to be in prison for life and I am pleased it wasn't any longer than it has been for him," the 85-year-old Schenectady resident said Friday after learning of his death.
"I know that I am supposed to forgive if I am expected to be forgiven," she said. "Jesus said, 'Forgive them for they know not what they do,' and I had to apply that to Kendall."
Knapp, the city police chief, said Francois' death may have an impact on one of the city's cold cases — the disappearance of Michelle Eason.
Most of Francois' victims had either used drugs or been arrested for prostitution.
Eason, who disappeared in 1997, was also a known drug user and prostitute.
However, Eason was black. All of Francois' victims were white.
City police had interviewed Francois about Eason's disappearance, but he had denied killing her.
"It's the one open case that we felt he may have had more knowledge on," Knapp said.
Now some pictures:
No comments:
Post a Comment