FT260

A couple were charged with battering a man to death with a statue of Santa Claus. Vuyelwa Motso, 45, allegedly beat her husband with the help of her boyfriend Williams Witbooi, also 45. Michael Grootboom, 48, died of head injuries outside his wife’s house in Uitenhage, South Africa. Sun, 22 Dec 2009.

The blackened body of Linda McGugan, 56, was found on the living room floor of her third-storey apartment in Calgary, Alberta, on 6 September 2009. A sofa nearby was burned down to the springs and some of the victim’s (unspecified) belongings had melted. Black marks extended to the outside of the building from the apartment’s windows and patio doors, but as firefighters walked through, there was neither smoke nor much heat inside.