Esmie Tseng Overachiever Esmie is fed-up with her mother’s unrealistic demands. The answer to her problem is in the knife drawer.
Andrew Wurst: His classmates called him ‘Satan.’ Andrew Wurst was determined to live up to that billing.
Pierre Folliot: Everyone in the village called Pierre an “angel.” He turned out to be the Angel of Death.
Daniel Petric: His parents took away his favorite video game and Daniel is far from happy about it. Now the game is for real and so are the bullets.
John Odgren: A horror-obsessed nerd arrives at school armed with a knife. Somebody has to die today and he doesn’t care who.
Keith Randulich: A truly horrific murder with an incredibly bizarre motive. But what really turned Keith Randulich into a killer?
Jared Michael Padgett: Deeply religious, fervently patriotic, secretly psychotic. Gun nut Jared is about to explode.
Click the "Read More" link below to read the first chapter of
Killer Kids Volume 4
Joshua Davies
Rebecca Aylward was 15 years old, a pretty, popular teenager
who did well academically and planned to study law after she graduated high
school. Joshua Davies was one of Rebecca’s classmates. Like her, he was a
bright student who maintained an A grade average. But the comparison ended
there. Whereas Rebecca was a sensitive soul, Josh was brash and loud, a popular
kid who enjoyed being the center of attention. Rebecca thought he was
wonderful. She was delighted when he asked her to go out with him.
That was in September 2009 and, thereafter, Josh became a
regular visitor to Rebecca’s family home in Maesteg, Wales. Rebecca’s mom,
Sonia, approved of her daughter’s choice. Josh was tall and handsome; he was
intelligent; he was outgoing; he was polite and respectful. It was easy to see
what Rebecca saw in him.
But then, in late January 2010, came a hammer blow. Josh had
spent a fun-filled weekend with Rebecca and her family and had departed on
Sunday by telling Sonia that it had been the best time of his life. Just a few
hours later, he sent Rebecca a text, letting her know that it was over between
them. Rebecca was stunned. Josh had given no indication that he was unhappy in
the relationship. What had she done wrong? Was there someone else? These
questions were asked but drew little from Josh by means of explanation. It was
simply done. Rebecca would have to learn to live with it.
For Rebecca, deeply devoted to her first love, the breakup
was devastating. Worse still, Josh appeared to have launched a hate campaign
against her, both at school and on social media. He started spreading nasty rumors
about her, including the lie that she was pregnant. To his circle of
sycophantic friends, he started bragging that he was going to kill her, either
by poisoning with deadly nightshade or by pushing her from a bridge into a
nearby river and watching her drown. His friends, used to Davies’s empty
boasts, took it all as a joke. One of them even offered to buy him breakfast if
he went through with it.
But Davies wasn’t kidding. He was genuinely contemplating
the murder of his former girlfriend. Why he’d suddenly developed this
deep-seated hatred of Rebecca is not known. She was, by all accounts, a
genuinely nice person, compassionate and caring. She was also entirely devoted
to Davies.
Davies, however, appeared to have moved on. He was dating
another girl, and eventually Rebecca also started seeing someone else. Her
intention wasn’t to make her ex jealous, but that was exactly the impact it had
on him. Suddenly, his attitude towards her changed. He was the old Josh again,
the boy she had fallen in love with. He even started dropping hints that there
might be hope for them after all. By October of 2010, he was talking seriously
about a reconciliation.
On the wet autumn morning of Saturday, October 23, 2010,
Rebecca Aylward rose early. She was bubbling with excitement. Josh had asked
her to meet with him so that they could talk about reigniting their romance.
She would spend the next couple of hours getting ready for the rendezvous,
getting her makeup just right and donning the new outfit she’d bought
especially for the occasion, including a red, hooded jacket and brown ankle
boots. After hugging and kissing her mother goodbye, Rebecca left with an aunt
who was going to drop her at Sarn railway station near Bridgend. From there,
she would walk the short distance to keep her date with Davies.
But immediately, there were alterations to the plan. While
she was on her way to meet Josh, he called to redirect her to a nearby park.
Then he phoned again and said that he would meet her in the village of Sarn. At
this point, Rebecca called her mom and told her about the new arrangement.
Sonia was appalled that her daughter was all alone in an area that would be all
but deserted at this time of day. She insisted on staying on the line with
Rebecca as she walked back to the village center. Eventually, Rebecca told her
that she saw Davies approaching. “Are you sure it’s him?” Sonia asked.
“Yes,” Rebecca replied. “He’s standing right in front of
me.” Then she told her mother that she loved her and said goodbye. That was the
last time that Sonia ever spoke to her daughter.
At around 5 p.m. that evening, Sonia got a call from her
sister, concerned that she hadn’t been able to contact Rebecca. Sonia then
tried calling herself, but the phone went directly to voice mail. The concerned
mother then started phoning her daughter’s friends, becoming more and more
frantic as one after the other indicated that Rebecca was not with them. Sonia
was particularly eager to speak to Josh Davies since she knew Rebecca had gone
to see him. After hours of trying, she eventually reached him at around eight
that evening.
Davies, however, swore that he had not seen Rebecca. When
Sonia referred to her earlier conversation with her daughter, when Rebecca had
said that Josh was standing right in front of her, Davies insisted that she
must have been mistaken. He said that he had been at his grandmother’s house
all day, watching TV with a friend. It was after hanging up that call that
Sonia contacted the police and reported Rebecca missing.
What followed would be a sleepless night for Rebecca’s
family. Even as the police were beginning their investigation, the family hit
the streets and started to search Sarn and the nearby village of Aberkenfig.
They also called Rebecca’s phone at regular intervals. Sometimes it would ring
and at other times it would go directly to voice mail. But the voice that they
longed to hear on the other end of the line, remained silent.
As word began to spread about Rebecca’s disappearance,
family and friends started posting messages of support and concern on Facebook.
One of those who posted was Joshua Davies, who said that he felt sorry for
Sonia. He also sent several texts to Rebecca’s phone saying that he was worried
about her. Those words would soon be exposed as a cruel and calculated ruse.
On the morning of Sunday, October 24, one of Josh Davies’s
friends confided in his parents that he thought Davies might have harmed
Rebecca. After listening to the boy’s story, his parents called the South Wales
Police and directed them to the woods outside Aberkenfig. There, officers found
Rebecca’s body, lying face down on the ground, the hood of her new jacket
pulled over her head. Pulling back the hood revealed the extent of her horrific
injuries. The petite 15-year-old had been bludgeoned on the back of the head
with a heavy object which had shattered her skull, exposing the brain. The
murder weapon, a bloodstained, football-sized rock, was found nearby.
Joshua Davies and the boy who had reported the crime were
taken into custody and charged on suspicion of murder. But while the other teen
appeared distraught at what had happened, Davies was entirely calm, almost
removed from the horrific event. He also had a ready story. He claimed that he,
Rebecca, and the other boy had entered the woods together. He and Rebecca had
then played a prank on the other boy, who had become so enraged that he had
attacked her, beaten her with a rock, and killed her.
Unfortunately for Davies, the available evidence did not
back up his version of events. Far more likely was the story the other boy had
to tell. He said that Davies and Rebecca had gone into the woods while he had
waited on an adjacent road. Later, Davies had emerged from the trees alone and
had told the boy to follow him. He’d led him back to where Rebecca’s body lay.
He’d then described the murder to his shocked friend, saying that he had struck
Rebecca from behind and had kept on hitting her until her screams stopped. Text
messages that had passed between Davies and his friends, both before and after
the murder, supported this story. So too did the forensics.
And yet, despite the overwhelming case against him, Joshua
Davies refused to admit culpability. At his trial, held at Swansea Crown Court
in July 2011, he appeared disinterested, even bored. At other times, he was
seen laughing and joking with his defense team. When he took the stand, it was
only to repeat the story he’d been telling all along – that he was innocent and
that it was his best friend who had committed the atrocity. The jury didn’t
believe him.
Joshua Davis was found guilty of murder and sentenced to
life in prison with a minimum tariff of just 14 years. That means that he could
be free by his early thirties, a frightening prospect since he is quite clearly
a psychopath.
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