Police made horrific discovery after boy, 6, sounded car horn for hours on end
Julia Banim & Isla Storie
Police discovered a horrific scene in the basement of a house after a young child sounded the horn of a car parked outside for several hours.
Concerned locals in the town of Vinton, Iowa, had called emergency services after hearing other unusual noises from the property, including “popping” and hammering.
The boy, aged six, told officers and a social worker when they arrived at 9pm that his mother had gone inside a few hours before, but had not returned.
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His grandparents were called, and waited with him at a neighbour’s house while police investigated. Such incidents were rare in the quiet farming community.
The house was cordoned off, and neighbours told to go inside and turn off their lights, out of fear there may have been an active gunman in the area, the Mirror reports.
However, a search of the house revealed nobody, until they accessed the basement and uncovered a horrific scene that would haunt the chief of police for the rest of his life.
A woman’s body lay on a punctured water bed, with a bullet hole in her skull. After lying there for several hours, her blood mixed with the water had bloated her body so badly officers struggled to lift it.
This was the boy’s mother, 28-year-old Crystal Hawkins. At her feet was the body of a Doberman pinscher, which had also been shot.
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Inside a cupboard, officers found the body of Crystal’s ex-partner, 27-year-old Scott Johnson, who had a single bullet wound to his head, with a note which read: “Give my cat to my dad.”
The harrowing murder-suicide case in May 1993 sent shockwaves through the small town. However, for author and journalist Rachel Corbett, it is more personal, as she knew Johnson when she was a child.
In her new book, The Monsters We Make: Murder, Obsession, and the Rise of Criminal Profiling, she recalled how Johnson had dated her mother after her marriage broke up.
13 years after the murder, upon looking at a picture of her and Johnson, Corbett said: “Scott looked in the picture exactly as I remembered him. Quiet, melancholic. He was in his mid-20s, much younger than my father, which had made him seem like a cool older brother.
“It was the early ’90s, and he wore a single hoop earring and rode a skateboard. He played Altered Beast with my brother and me on his Sega. He was six feet tall, and in my memory, he’s slouched, hands jammed in jeans, wearing a thinned-out T-shirt.”
As the relationship strengthened, Johnson spent most days with Corbett’s family along with his dog Astro – who he would tragically later kill. He claimed to be against violence, and she and her brother “felt safe” around him.
Corbett later carried out her own research into the case, interviewing witnesses, examining police records, and even returning to the scene with Crystal’s son.
She spoke to forensic psychologists and sociologists, trying to understand why the man she knew could have committed such a horrific crime.
She added: Still, however shocked I was by Scott’s fate, he fit the profile of his crime precisely: More than 90 per cent of murder-suicides are committed by men, and about two-thirds of the victims are current or former female partners, according to a 2008 report.
“Recent separation is one of the biggest risk factors, along with unemployment. Guns are almost always the murder weapon [in the US]. Rural areas have higher incidences of murder-suicide than cities; in Iowa between 1995 and 2005, they made up nearly a quarter of all homicides. And at least one study showed that the men tended not to have prior abuse records.
“What did all this information tell me? The man in the photo still looked like the same Scott Johnson I always knew; I still couldn’t ‘see’ the murderer.”
For confidential support, call the 24-hour National Domestic Abuse Freephone Helpline on 0808 2000 247 or visit womensaid.co.uk.
Up next
Merseyside woman ‘jailed for life’ in Dubai after ‘very stupid mistake’ is ‘coming home’
Wesley Holmes
Mon 8 December 2025 at 5:21 pm GMT+7
5 min read
A 23-year-old woman who was “jailed for life” in Dubai has been set free, her mum has said. Law student Mia O’Brien, from Huyton, was detained in Dubai’s central prison in September after making what her mum described as a “very stupid mistake”.
Mia O’Brien, from Huyton, was detained in Dubai’s central prison after being allegedly caught with 50 grams of cocaine in October last year, her mum Danielle McKenna claimed.
In an online fundraiser – which has since been deleted – mum Dannielle, 46, said: “Mia has been given a life sentence over in Dubai and she is now in central prison. As you can all probably imagine, as her mother I am absolutely devastated. I haven’t seen my daughter since last October.
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“Mia is only 23 years old and has never done a bad thing in her life. This is a young girl, who went to university to do law, and unfortunately got mixed up in the wrong so-called friends and made a very stupid mistake and is now paying the price.”
In an update posted to her Facebook page on December 3, Dannielle announced: “My baby girl is coming home”, adding: “Thank you so much everyone, am still in shock, am buzzing, can’t wait to give her the tightest cuddle ever.
“She’s coming home, she’s coming home, my baby is coming home.”
According to campaign group Detained in Dubai, Mia was handed 25-year prison sentence after being convicted of drug possession in a one day trial held entirely in Arabic. She denied the charge, but was found guilty in proceedings her family and legal advisers described as “deeply unfair”.
Radha Stirling, founder of Detained in Dubai, warned that Mia’s ordeal reflects the same systemic failures in Dubai’s justice system that have repeatedly harmed British nationals.
She said: “Dubai police have a history of rushing to secure convictions without the rigorous evidentiary standards we expect in the UK. We’ve seen fabricated confessions, reliance on circumstantial evidence, and a disregard for due process. I would urge the public to withhold judgement. Mia’s case could be the latest in a long line of miscarriages of justice.”
Mia was detained in the “hellhole” Al-Awir Central Prison dubbed Dubai’s Alcatraz, reportedly sharing a filthy cell with six women and sleeping on a mattress on the floor. It was reported that she had appealed her conviction.
Speaking to the MailOnline, Danielle said her daughter was “devastated” and felt like she had “completely destroyed her life”. She added: “She is absolutely devastated by what has happened. Mia is being really strong but I know she is going through a living hell.
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“The prison conditions are horrendous. There are no staff really and she has to bang on a big door if she needs anything.
“She’s seen fights and said she has been really scared. Mia said she has to sleep on a mattress on the floor and shares the cell with six others. But she’s not been ill – she has just come out in a few rashes.”
Today, Monday, December 8, a Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office spokesperson said: “We are supporting the family of a British woman detained in the UAE and are in contact with the local authorities.”
A number of British nationals have been detained in Dubai on drugs charges in recent years, Detained in Dubai reports. In 2020, 23-year-old Emirates flight attendant Derrin Crawford was jailed for two months after being caught up in her date’s arrest when police found cannabis in his flat. She tested negative for the drug, but was imprisoned nonetheless.
In another case, British Army veteran Andy Neal spent more than a year behind bars accused of being part of a drug gang before the case collapsed.
Radha Stirling said: “Both Derrin and Andy were innocent yet Andy suffered years behind bars because of the UAE’s defective policing and prosecutorial practices. Mia has pleaded not guilty from the start, but the system has already failed her. Unless this appeal is taken seriously, she risks losing decades of her life.”
According to the UK foreign office, British visitors are explicitly warned not to flout the country’s laws, singling out drug offences in particular.
On its travel advice for Dubai, the FCDO says: “There is zero tolerance for drugs-related offences. The penalties for trafficking, smuggling, using and possessing illegal drugs (including residual amounts) are severe.
“Sentences for drug trafficking can include the death penalty. Possession of even the smallest amount of illegal drugs, including cannabis, can lead to a minimum 3-month prison term or a fine of between 20,000 UAE dirham (£4,000) and 100,000 UAE dirham (£20,000).
“The Emirati authorities count the presence of drugs in the blood stream as possession.
“Some ‘herbal highs’ and products containing cannabidiol (CBD) are illegal in the UAE.
“Possessing, concealing or making transactions with money from drugs-related offences is illegal. You could get a prison sentence and a fine.
“UAE airports have excellent technology and security for detecting illegal items, including cannabis. This is also used to scan the baggage of transiting passengers. You can be arrested for carrying drugs, even residual amounts.”
