This story, originally written on December 1st,2007, is about the murder and discovery of the body of Emily Sander, better known as Zoey Zane. It has been taken from the MSNBC website.
The identification of the body of Emily Sander, 18, was confirmed by a forensic orthodontist, El Dorado Police Chief Tom Boren said. The body was released to Sander's family after forensic examinations and an autopsy. The results of that examination and the cause of death were sealed by the county attorney's office, and police would not release details about the cause of death.
Police also said Saturday they were re-interviewing witnesses, family and associates of suspect Israel Mireles, 24 and his pregnant 16-year-old girlfriend. They said his whereabouts were still unknown, but they believed she was still with him. Sander, 18, disappeared late Nov. 23 after leaving a bar with Mireles outside El Dorado, and police labeled Mireles a suspect in her disappearance.
The body was found Thursday about 50 miles east of El Dorado, along U.S. 54 near the Woodson County town of Toronto. Close to the body, investigators found a bedspread that had been missing from Mireles' El Dorado motel room, Boren said. Investigators found a large amount of blood in the room.
Sander's case drew wide attention after it was revealed that she appeared on a popular adult Web site under the name Zoey Zane. In some photographs, she appears merely scantily clad in lingerie or cowgirl outfits. Other pictures, some of which require viewers to pay for, are more explicit, showing her nude, fondling herself and posing with other women.
Mireles' girlfriend is seven months pregnant. Investigators think she remains with Mireles "on her own volition, but investigators fear for her continued welfare, as well as that of her unborn child," Boren said in a statement Friday.
The rental car the pair were driving was found abandoned Tuesday in Vernon, Texas, where Mireles has relatives. Sander's grandfather, Clem Sander of El Dorado, said Friday afternoon that relatives had begun preparing funeral arrangements.
Update: (12-22-07)
Mireles has been found, and charged with the rape and murder of college student (and secret porn star) Emily Sanders. Formal charges include capital murder, rape, and aggravated criminal sodomy. Mireles had been traveling with his 16 year old girlfriend Victoria Martens, who was found unharmed. The couple was found in Melchior Muzquiz, Mexico. Under an extradition agreement, Mireles will not face the death penalty for crimes against Sanders. Mireles will also face aggravated indecent liberties with a child for thew sexual relationship with Martens.
Reference:
Cops: Found Body Is Missing Student
Update (8-20-09)
After Mireles' preliminary hearing on Tuesday, August 18, Kansas Attorney General Steve Six laid out the reasons why Mireles should get a November 2 trial date. These reasons include the brutality of the attack when Sanders was raped and killed.
On Nov. 30, 2007, coroner Jaime Oeberst conducted the Sander autopsy. She found that the two entrance stab wounds had actually caused four perforations in the chest, meaning the weapon had been plunged in more than once in each spot.
Sander had been strangled; she had two phone cords around her neck.
Blunt-force injuries had caused her brain to swell. She had circular-pattern injuries that could be consistent with being struck with one of the beer bottles found in the motel room and an abrasion on one of her breasts that was consistent with a bite mark.
Oeberst also found that Sander had extensive sexual assault injuries. Diane Schunn, an expert on sexual assaults, also examined Sander and would later testify that she had never seen such extensive injuries.
Also, the background of Sanders' last night was explained by prosecutors.
(Update 2-14-10) After a 4 day trial with graphic testimony and 75 minutes of deliberation, Mireles was convicted Friday, February 12 afternoon of capital murder. Mireles made a flimsy defense about how a "mystery guy" robbed him, stayed in the motel room with Sanders, stabbed and raped her while Mireles was driving on the streets. The Kansas Attorney General personally prosecuted this case and cross-examined Mireles after he took the stand in his defense.
"So the guy came and attacked you, tried to get your money, and you just leave him there with Emily and all your stuff?" Kansas Attorney General Steve Six asked on cross-examination. "I just left," Mireles said.
"Did you tell anyone when you were coming back... or if you were coming back?" Six pressed. "No," Mireles said.
"This mystery guy didn't know if you were going to get the police... or go to the Retreat (bar) and get some friends" and return? "No," Mireles said.
Six also went over other details of Mireles' story. Mireles said he was so panicked he grabbed a knife that had Sander's blood on it —"the murder weapon," Six called it — and Sander's body, put them in the trunk of his car and later disposed of the body.
Mireles said that was correct. "Does this make any sense to you?" Six asked. "None of it makes any sense to me," Mireles said.
The savage abuse Sander suffered in her death didn't make sense to Six.
This abuse included two stab wounds which went in so deep into Sander's body that they left both entry and exit wounds, a brutal rape at knifepoint, and sodomy with a toilet plunger handle. A crime scene technician described the murder scene Tuesday, February 9.
Crime-scene investigator David Klamm said he spent two days working with a team to collect evidence from an El Dorado motel room where Israel Mireles had been staying. "Ms. Sander had been reported missing, and we had a bloody room," he said. "But we had to see if there was some connection."
Emily Sander, 18, had been missing for two days, when Klamm arrived at the El Dorado motel. Inside were blood-soaked bed sheets, carpet, splatters on chairs and articles of clothing, including a woman's bra.
Klamm found blood stains on the floor and on the handle of a toilet plunger nearby, lying underneath the front window and by the door to the room. There also was blood splattered across the arms of chairs underneath the window. From his training, Klamm recognized the spots on the chair as a "flow pattern," which means it fell from the source.
The phone jack lay nearby, ripped from the wall, Klamm testified today in Mireles' murder trial. Klamm also found a 9-inch piece of phone cord on the floor. It had blood on it, too. Blood seemed to cover the room, when the owner of the motel first looked inside the room.The broken window first drew the attention of I.C. Patel.
The victim's mother, Clara Biedinger, made this statement moments after the guilty verdict was announced.
"When I kissed her good-bye, I promised her we'd get him. And we did. We got him today...He won't ever hurt anyone else," she said. The mother's final kiss of her daughter took place at the morgue. Mireles will be sentenced March 31 by Butler County District Judge David Ricke.
(Update 4-10-10) Ten days ago, Judge Ricke sentenced Mireles to life without parole plus 203 months for his crimes. “The disrespect in which you treated Emily Sander in your short dealings with her was and is appalling,” he said as he passed sentence.
Sander's mother and father were in attendance, but her grandfather, Clem Sander and uncle Brent Blaine gave victim impact statements before the criminal judgement.
"What you did was more like a savage animal, rather than a human being," Clem Sander said. Brent Blaine contrasted his niece's strong will with the cowardly acts of Mireles. "Her will was not broken that night, but you are still a pathetic little man." Mireles said nothing in mitigation.
Kansas DA Steve Six, who personally prosecuted the case, said “This is one of the most cruel and heinous cases my office has seen in some time. Our prayers are with Emily Sander’s family as they continue to grieve.”
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