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'House of Horrors' father confesses

2008-04-28T04:58:00.001-07:00

AMSTETTEN, Austria (CNN) -- A 73-year-old man has confessed to holding his daughter captive in his home cellar for nearly 24 years and fathering seven children by her, Austrian police say.

Austrian police spokesman Franz Polzer told CNN, the man, known as Mr. F., admitted holding his daughter hostage in a windowless cell in the basement of his home for more than two decades.
Mr. F. also told police that one of the children he fathered with his daughter Elisabeth F. was a twin who died.

The dead baby's body was burned in an oven inside the house, Mr. F. told detectives.
He was making an extended confession to investigators Monday, according to Polzer.
Further DNA tests will now be carried out to confirm fatherhood, Polzer said.
Elisabeth F., 42, is described as "very disturbed" and having trouble talking to police about her ordeal, reports CNN correspondent Fred Pleitgen.

She went missing in 1984, when she was 18 years old, police said at a news conference Sunday.
The situation came to light earlier this month after her daughter -- a 19-year-old woman, identified as Kristen F. -- was hospitalized in Amstetten after falling unconscious, according to police.
She was admitted to a hospital in Amstetten, outside Vienna, by her grandfather with a note from her biological mother requesting help. Amstetten is a rural town about 150 km (93 miles) west of Vienna.
But police said a DNA test later revealed her grandfather, Mr. F., was also her father, according to ORF, Austria's state-run news agency.
That sparked a police investigation, which revealed that Mr. F. may have fathered at least six children with his daughter, forcing her and three of the surviving children to live in the cellar of his house, according to ORF's Peter Schmitzberger.
The children are now between 5 and 19 years old.

Polzer told ORF that the 73-year-old led police to several hidden rooms in his cellar accessible only by an electronic passcode that he provided to police. Watch a report on the discovery »

On Sunday, police searched the hidden rooms where Mr. F. admitted he kept his daughter and their children, Polzer told ORF.
The rooms included sleeping quarters, a kitchen and a bathroom, which Mr. F. told police he built, Polzer said.
Conditions in the 50-60 square meters cellar were described as "very dark, narrow and damp, " reports Pleitgen.
Kerstin, 19; Stefan, 18; and Felix, 5, remained locked in the basement with their mother, according to police. None had seen the light of day during their entire time in captivity, she told police.
Shocked residents of the neighborhood -- a tidy, middle-class district of homes with -- said there were no indications of the horrors taking place in the house.
The suspect "was friendly -- that's why this is so unbelievable," said Franz Redl, 56, who owns a shop across the street. "I'm sure the authorities did all they could. He planned everything so perfectly," he told The Associated Press.
While a woman identified as Gabriele H. told Austria's Kurier newspaper she thought Mr. F. was a devoted grandfather doing his best to look after his abandoned grandchildren.
"One who looks after their grandchildren whilst their mother just ran away. We were all asking ourselves what kind of mother would do that to their children?," she said.
Another local, Berhard E , who lives opposite the family, told Kurier: "I am appalled, this is unimaginable and simply not comprehensible."
Mr. F. and I grew up together" said Erika Manhalter who lives a few meters away from their house. "We thought this would be a family just like others, but you cannot look through people," she told Kurier.
News of the cellar captivity case has also prompted much soul searching in a country still reeling from the 2006 case of teenager Natascha Kampusch, who was kidnapped and imprisoned in a basement cell outside Vienna.
Kampusch was 10 years old when she was kidnapped in Vienna on her way to school in March 1998. She was held for more than eight years by Wolfgang Priklopil, who later killed himself when Natascha escaped.
"How is it possible that no one has ever heard or seen anything?" Der Standard newspaper asked.
"What does it say about the neighbors, relatives, family and friends, but also those who had to deal officially with the family? How could he have been successful keeping people fooled?"
"The entire nation must ask itself just what is fundamentally going wrong," the paper said in a commentary.
Amstetten police say they apprehended Mr. F. and Elisabeth F. on Saturday near the hospital for questioning, after receiving a "confidential tip." Once police assured the daughter that she would never have contact with her father again, "she was able to tell the whole story," Schmitzberger said.
Mr. F. lived upstairs with his wife, Rosemarie F., who police said had no idea about her husband's other family living in the cellar.
Mr. F. and Rosemarie F. had adopted three of the children that he had with his daughter, according to police. He told his wife that his missing daughter had dropped the unwanted children off at the house because she could not take care of them, police said.
After she was detained Saturday, Elisabeth F. gave police a "psychologically and physically disturbed impression," police said in a statement.
She said her father began sexually abusing her at age 11. On August 8, 1984 -- weeks before she was reported missing -- her father enticed her into the basement, where he drugged her, put her in handcuffs and locked her in a room, she told police. For the next 24 years, she was constantly raped by her father, resulting in the six surviving children, she said, according to the police statement.
She also told police she gave birth to twins in 1996, but one of the babies died a few days later as a result of neglect, and Mr. F. removed the infant's body and burned it.
She told police that only her father supplied her and her children with food and clothing, and that she did not think his wife knew anything about their situation.
When Kerstin fell ill earlier this month, Mr. F. apparently told his wife and the hospital that his "missing" daughter had dropped off the sick girl on his doorstep.
In an effort to find out what might be ailing 19-year-old Kerstin, the hospital asked the media to put out a bulletin requesting any information about the girl or her missing mother, attorney general Gerhard Sedlacek told NTV.

Benazir Bhutto assassinated

2007-12-28T05:09:00.000-08:00

Bhutto died of a gunshot wound to the neck, the Pakistani Interior Ministry said. The attacker then blew himself up. The bomb attack killed at least 22 others, doctors said.
Video of the scene just moments before the explosion showed Bhutto stepping into a heavily guarded vehicle to leave the rally. Watch how the tragedy unfolded »
John Moore, a photographer for Getty Images, said Bhutto was standing through the sunroof of her vehicle, waving to supporters, when two shots rang out.
Bhutto fell back into the vehicle, and almost immediately a bomb blast rocked the scene, sending twisting metal and shrapnel into the crowd, he added.
Police sources told CNN the bomber, who was riding a motorcycle, blew himself up near Bhutto's vehicle. Watch aftermath of the attack.
Bhutto was rushed to Rawalpindi General Hospital -- less than two miles from the bombing scene -- where doctors pronounced her dead.
Her body was removed from the hospital -- carried above a crowd of supporters -- late Thursday night, and a Pakistan Air Force plane is flying the body to Sukkur, accompanied by her husband and three children, said Pakistan People's Party leader Sen. Safdar Abbasi.
Bhutto is scheduled to be buried in the ancestral graveyard of the Bhutto family at Gari-Khuda Baksh in Sindh province Friday afternoon, he added.
Chaos erupted at the hospital when former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif arrived to pay his respects to Bhutto less than three hours after her death.
Hundreds of Bhutto supporters crammed into the entrance shouted and cried, some clutching their heads in pain and shock. Sharif called it "the saddest day" in Pakistan's history. "Something unthinkable has happened," he said. Watch Benazir Bhutto obituary »
Sharif said his party will boycott Pakistan's January 8 parliamentary elections in the wake of the assassination.
President Pervez Musharraf said the killers were the same extremists that Pakistan is fighting a war against, and announced three days of national mourning.
Police warned citizens to stay home as they expected rioting to break out in city streets in reaction to the death.
Rioters burned tires and blocked roads in Karachi and other cities, police sources said. Police fired on an angry mob, killing two people, in the city of Khairpur in the Sindh province, Geo TV reported.
Bhutto's husband issued a statement from his home in Dubai saying, "All I can say is we're devastated, it's a total shock." He arrived in Pakistan late Thursday.President Bush said those responsible "must be brought to justice" and praised Bhutto as a woman who had "fought the forces of terror." He said: "She refused to allow assassins to dictate the course of her country."
The number of wounded was not immediately known. However, video of the scene showed ambulances lined up to take many to hospitals.
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The assassination happened in Rawalpindi's Liaquat Bagh Park, named for Pakistan's first prime minister -- Liaquat Ali Khan -- who was assassinated in the same location in 1951.
The attack came just hours after four supporters of former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif died when members of another political party opened fire on them at a rally near the Islamabad airport Thursday, Pakistan police said.
Several other members of Sharif's party were wounded, police said.
Bhutto, who led Pakistan from 1988 to 1990 and was the first female prime minister of any Islamic nation, was participating in the parliamentary election set for January 8, hoping for a third term.
A terror attack targeting her motorcade in Karachi killed 136 people on the day she returned to Pakistan after eight years of self-imposed exile. View timeline. »
CNN's Mohsin Naqvi, who was at the scene of both bombings, said Thursday's blast was not as powerful as that October attack.
Thursday's attacks come less than two weeks after Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf lifted an emergency declaration he said was necessary to secure his country from terrorists.
Bhutto had been critical of what she believed was a lack of effort by Musharraf's government to protect her.
Two weeks after the October assassination attempt, she wrote a commentary for CNN.com in which she questioned why Pakistan investigators refused international offers of help in finding the attackers.
"The sham investigation of the October 19 massacre and the attempt by the ruling party to politically capitalize on this catastrophe are discomforting, but do not suggest any direct involvement by General Pervez Musharraf," Bhutto wrote. E-mail to a friend
CNN's Mohsin Naqvi contributed to this report

Plane catches fire at airport

2007-08-21T05:23:00.000-07:00

August 20, 2007 - 2:57PM

A China Airlines jet exploded into flames at an airport in Japan after arriving from Taiwan today, but there were no injuries among the 157 passengers.

At least two crew members were rushed to a hospital, according to national broadcaster NHK.
All 157 passengers disembarked from the Boeing 737 before the fire began, a Japanese Transport Ministry official and a China Airlines official in Taipei said.

Local fire official, Eri Terukina, said the two pilots escaped, and NHK reported that all six flight attendants also made it off the plane alive.

"The fire started when the first engine below the main left wing exploded, a minute after the aircraft entered the parking spot," Transport Ministry official Akihiko Tamura said.

Tamura put the number of passengers at 157, updating the figure of 155 initially provided by China Airlines.

Flight CI120 burst into flames after all the passengers had disembarked, and NHK showed footage of a squad of fire engines and firefighters dousing the plane with extinguishers as flames and clouds of black smoke billowed from the fuselage.

"After the plane landed, there were flames, and I heard explosions a few times then saw black smoke," airport worker Hideaki Oyadomari told national broadcaster NHK.
"We felt the hot air coming our way."

The cause of the fire, which reportedly began in one of the engines, was unknown. Japan's National Police Agency said terrorism was not suspected.

"Everything was working according to normal procedure. There was nothing wrong during the flight," China Airlines spokesman Johnson Sun told reporters, adding there was no evidence of an attack on the plane.

Okinawa is a popular spot for beach holidays and the number of visitors to Japan from other parts of Asia has increased in recent years, with the lifting of visa restrictions.

The Okinawa fire is a setback to China Airlines, which in recent years appeared to have improved on its formerly unenviable safety record among international carriers.

A China Airlines 747 crashed in 2002 as it flew Taipei to Hong Kong, leading to 225 deaths, and some 450 people died in China Airlines accidents during the 1990s.

Taliban are done listening and there will be no more dialogue

2007-08-19T08:54:00.000-07:00

KABUL - The second round of talks between Taliban militants and Korean officials ended without any considerable progress Thursday when two released female hostages arrived in Seoul.

Their release was achieved as a result of the three days of face-to-face talks between the Korean delegation and the Taliban kidnappers. The first direct interaction between the two sides.

Soon after the release of the two hostages, the Taliban announced suspension of any direct dialogue. Yet despite such claims, talks resumed a day later.

The Taliban originally captured 23 South Koreans on July 19. In the meantime, two of the male hostages have been shot after deadlines for the Taliban’s demands were not met, while two ailing female hostages had been freed.

Ahmadi said his group would resume talks only if the South Korean delegation and the Afghan government were ready to discuss a prisoner swap.
“This is the clear indication of the Taliban leadership’s stern warning to the regional commanders against killing any of the remaining hostages lest any such step undermine their image among common Afghans,” argued the insider.

“This is the question which stops both sides from taking a step forward to untie the knot,” said Khan Haidar, a journalist in Ghazni Province who has closely observed the situation since its beginning.

The Afghan government was severely criticized at home, as well as on the international front, for a similar compromise for the release of Italian journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo in March.
Although ransom is the only option in such a complex situation, a source said that the Taliban are demanding $500,000 for the release of each hostage besides the release of their prisoners.
Though the second round of talks was concluded on Thursday without a new date for the next meeting and a reiteration of the Taliban demand for the release, observers believe that something is still going on behind the scenes.

Kabul has not ruled out use of force to free the hostages should talks fail. The Taliban have split the captives into several groups and have warned that any use of force would put their lives in danger.

by Google News

Plane Crash in Brazil Leaves at Least 189 Dead

2007-07-18T23:11:00.000-07:00

SAO PAULO, Brazil — The pilot of an airliner that burst into flames after trying to land on a short, rain-slicked runway apparently tried to take off again, barely clearing rush-hour traffic on a major highway. The death toll rose Wednesday to 189 and could climb higher.
The TAM airlines Airbus-320 flight that originated in Porto Alegre in southern Brazil on Tuesday cleared the airport fence at the end of the runway and the busy highway but slammed into a gas station and a TAM building, causing an inferno.

The 6,362-foot runway at Sao Paulo's Congonhas airport has been repeatedly criticized as dangerously short. Two planes slipped off it in rainy weather just a day earlier. Pilots call it the "aircraft carrier" — it's so short and surrounded by heavily populated neighborhoods that they're told to take off again and fly around if they overshoot the first 1,000 feet of runway.
By contrast, New York's LaGuardia Airport has a 7,003-foot runway that accommodates similar planes, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

"What appears to have happened is that he (the pilot) didn't manage to land and he tried to take off again," said Capt. Marcos, a fire department spokesman who would only identify himself by rank and first name in accordance with department guidelines.

Temperatures reached 1,830 degrees inside the plane, and officials said there was no way passengers could have survived.

"All of a sudden I heard a loud explosion, and the ground beneath my feet shook," said Elias Rodrigues Jesus, a TAM worker who was walking nearby when he saw the crash. "I looked up and I saw a huge ball of fire, and then I smelled the stench of kerosene and sulfur."

TAM Linhas Aereas SA said 186 were on the Airbus-320 — 162 passengers, 18 TAM employees and a crew of six — and officials said three bodies of people killed on the ground had been recovered. There were fears of more dead on the ground, with 14 others taken to hospitals, where their conditions were not known.

Ninety badly charred bodies, along with the flight data recorder, had been pulled from the wreckage by midmorning, firefighters said.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva declared three days of national mourning for Brazil's second major air disaster in less than a year. In September, a Gol Aerolinhas Inteligentes SA Boeing 737 and an executive jet collided over the Amazon rain forest, killing 154 people. Wednesday's crash now replaces that tragedy as Brazil's worst air disaster.

Silva's government is under increasing pressure to deal with Brazil's aviation woes. In September, a Gol Airlines Boeing 737 collided with an executive jet over the Amazon rainforest, causing the passenger jet to crash, killing 154 people.

Since then, congressional investigations have raised questions about the country's underfunded air traffic control systems, deficient radar system and the airlines' ability to cope with a surge in travelers. Controllers — concerned about being made scapegoats — have engaged in strikes and work slowdowns to raise safety concerns, causing lengthy delays and cancelations.

Presidential spokesman Marcelo Baumbach said it was premature to declare a cause, but critics have warned for years of the danger of such an accident when large planes land in rainy weather at Congonhas airport, Brazil's busiest.

In 1996, a TAM airlines Fokker-100 crashed shortly after taking off from the same airport, killing all 96 people on board and three on the ground. In February, a federal court briefly banned takeoffs and landings of three types of large jets because of safety concerns. An appeals court overruled that, saying the safety concerns weren't sufficient to outweigh the severe economic ramifications for Brazil.

A320s were not covered under the judge's ban, and the TAM jet that crashed was a relatively recent model, said William Voss, president and CEO of the Flight Safety Foundation in Alexandria, Va.

"So there are no red flags coming up, it sounds like a straightforward runway overrun," Voss said.

The single-aisle, twin-engine plane, delivered in 1998, had logged about 20,000 flight hours in some 9,300 flights, Airbus said.

Still, rainy conditions were a particular concern at the airport. Globo News television played tapes of conversations between flight controllers and pilots complaining about slick conditions on the runway days before the latest accident.

Tuesday's TAM flight was landing on Congonhas' main 6,362 feet-long runway, which was recently resurfaced but not grooved to provide better braking in rainy conditions. There were plans to regroove the surface by the end of July.

In France, Airbus said it was sending five specialists to Brazil to help investigate and would provide "full technical assistance" to France's bureau for accident investigations and to Brazilian authorities.

Emergency workers searching for bodies used a crane to maintain the structure of the destroyed TAM building.
The airline released a list of most of the people on the flight early Wednesday morning, but did not specify their nationalities. Opposition congressman Julio Redecker was among those on the flight.

"TAM expresses its most profound condolences to the relatives and friends of the passengers who were on Flight 3054," the company said.

Pope Benedict XVI, who visited Sao Paulo in May, also sent his condolences.
The airline flew 67 relatives of the victims from Porto Alegre to Sao Paulo Wednesday after they passed the night in a closed room. They arrived teary-eyed and unwilling to talk to the media.
But one man who spoke with the Associated Press earlier, Lamir Buzzanelli, said his 41-year-old son, Claudemir, an engineer, had called him from a business trip to Porto Alegre to say he was in the plane. "I've been calling him on his cell phone, and all I get is his voice mail," Buzzanelli said, his eyes tearing up.

Despite the crash, authorities reopened the airport Wednesday, using an auxiliary runway.

By Foxnews.com Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Transformer explosion rattles Manhattan

2007-07-18T22:54:00.000-07:00

NEW YORK (CNN) -- One person died and 26 were injured after a steam pipe burst in midtown Manhattan Wednesday, causing a transformer to explode and sending thick plumes of steam and ash into the air near Grand Central Terminal, New York officials said.

The New York Fire Department said three firefighters and one police officer were treated on scene for minor injuries. The other 22 injured were transported to various hospitals, a fire department spokesman said.
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the person who died suffered from cardiac arrest.

The New York Fire Department said it received a call reporting an explosion at 5:56 p.m. More than 170 firefighters were dispatched to the site at Lexington Avenue near 41st Street. Map »
Hundreds of people fled as dozens of police, fire and utility workers arrived. Officials said the explosion was not related to terrorism.

Carol Bergendale, who witnessed the blast, told WABC that people immediately feared a terror attack. She said there was a loud noise that lasted more than 10 minutes, and people started driving in the wrong direction to get away.

Former CNN reporter Adaora Udoji, now with CourtTV, said the scene at the time of the blast was "pandemonium." Watch steam billow up through the street »

"It felt like an earthquake. We saw hundreds and hundreds of people running down Third Avenue," she said. "They were screaming, they were crying."

Udoji said the blast left a crater "many dozens of feet wide," comparing it to the craters she saw after bombings during a stint in Iraq. She also said a "hissing noise" could be heard for blocks. Blast leaves massive crater »

The emergency response was "instantaneous," she said -- within about 20 minutes the entire area was locked down.

Video from the scene showed steam and mud spewing from underground and a small school bus with its windows and a door blown out.

New York Police Department Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne, speaking to CNN, said the explosion was "major."

"The ground was literally shaking under your feet," he said.

The area around the site was "frozen" because the explosion may have released asbestos in the air, Bloomberg said.

Power company ConEdison was checking the area for any asbestos and expected to have test results in Wednesday night.

Andrew Troisi of the New York Office of Emergency Management said people in the area who do not need to be there should leave.

"This is a rescue operation. We have not begun to really detail the possible contaminants in the area, but there's a very good chance that hazardous materials are in the air," he said. "Let's not take any chances."

The pipe that exploded was installed in 1924 and there is speculation that "there was cold water getting into the pipe, and cold water apparently causes these to explode," Bloomberg said.
"It might have been bursts of cold water from the rain or because of another water main break," he said.

ConEdison crews inspected the pipes earlier in the day for vapor conditions and found nothing wrong, company Chairman Kevin Burke said.

ConEdison provides steam power to about 1,800 commercial and residential customers in Manhattan from the Battery to 96th Street, according to the utility's Web site. Steam sales account for less than 10 percent of ConEdison's sales.

By cnn.com

U.S. firefighters honor fallen Charleston comrades

2007-06-22T07:06:00.000-07:00

NORTH CHARLESTON, South Carolina (AP) -- A long procession of fire trucks wound through streets lined with mourners Friday morning, passing firehouses and a gutted furniture store on its way to a memorial service for nine firefighters who died.
As bagpipers rehearsed in a parking lot, thousands of firefighters from across the nation began arriving in dress uniforms to honor their brethren.
The blaze that swept through the Sofa Super Store on Monday night created the single largest loss of firefighters' lives since the September 11 terror attacks. (Watch why the fire department's chaplain says, "We're kind of numb, but we'll come through it" )
Its nine victims were friends: Capt. William "Billy" Hutchinson, 48; Capt. Mike Benke, 49; Capt. Louis Mulkey, 34; Mark Kelsey, 40; Bradford "Brad" Baity, 37; Michael French, 27; James "Earl" Drayton, 56; Brandon Thompson, 27; and Melvin Champaign, 46.
Ahead of the memorial service, more than 250 firefighters lined up to form a human passageway for the men's families at the entrance to the North Charleston Coliseum.
"When we lose one, it affects us all," said Lt. James Diego, who drove from the Newport News, Virginia, Fire Department with several colleagues. "Most of us have suffered some sort of loss in our careers, and it's a way to pay back the people who supported us when we had a line of duty death."
Black bunting hung over the lighted signs around the 9,000-seat arena, and officials planned to broadcast the service to screens outside and inside an adjacent performing arts center and nearby convention center.
Nearby, a retired Marine stood with an American flag.
"I joined the Marine Corps when a couple of these kids were just being born. If that don't make you cry, you're not a human being," said Robert Turner, 47. "These guys do the same thing that we did in the Marine Corps. It's all duty. It's all honor. It's all for your country or for somebody else. You don't join the service to get rich. You don't become a firefighter to get rich."
Among those expected for the service were former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee -- both presidential candidates -- as well as Barbara Richardson, wife of Democratic New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, who is also running.
But South Carolina Firefighters Association President Joe Palmer said dignitaries would be seated at the back, well away from firefighters' families.
"This event is about the firemen who were lost -- honoring them and their families. It is not a political event and shouldn't be politicized in any way," said Jeff Zack, a spokesman for the International Association of Firefighters. He said firefighters were coming from as far as Arizona and Alberta, Canada.
The investigation into the warehouse fire was still under way Friday.
Officials on Thursday released tapes of several 911 calls about the fire. While federal investigators have not confirmed where the blaze, some of the 10 recordings bolster the assertion several city fire officials have made that it likely started at the back of the store in a covered space between the showroom and a warehouse crammed with furniture.
A store employee told The Associated Press that workers frequently smoked cigarettes in that area and were strongly cautioned to carefully throw them away.
Federal investigators have not discussed possible causes for the fire, and have not revealed if they are considering whether a cigarette could have started the blaze.
"We have made fantastic progress in this investigation, however, it still has to be a very systematic, deliberate investigation," said Earl Woodham, a spokesman for the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
In a gesture of solidarity, medics from the Framingham, Mass., Fire Department hung their department T-shirt at a makeshift memorial outside the charred store.
The first of the nine funerals was planned later Friday.

Killer's manifesto: 'You forced me into a corner'

2007-04-18T16:45:00.000-07:00

BLACKSBURG, Virginia (CNN) -- Cho Seung-Hui said Monday's massacre on the Virginia Tech campus could have been avoided and said "you forced me into a corner," in a videotaped message he mailed to NBC News.
NBC News reported that Cho mailed the package at 9:01 a.m. Monday -- during the two hours between the shootings at the West Ambler Johnston Hall dormitory and the shootings at Norris Hall.
"You had a hundred billion chances and ways to have avoided today," Cho said in one of the videos that aired Wednesday night on NBC. "But you decided to spill my blood. You forced me into a corner and gave me only one option. The decision was yours. Now you have blood on your hands that will never wash off." (Watch Cho's menacing last messages )
In another video broadcast on NBC, Cho told the camera "When the time came I did it, I had to."
Cho spoke about the shootings in the past tense, but it is unclear when the video messages were recorded.
The package included an 1,800 word statement described as "a manifesto" and 27 QuickTime videos showing Cho Seung-Hui talking to the camera and discussing religion and his hatred of the wealthy, MSNBC.com reported. (Interactive: Cho's manifesto)
It also included several photographs of Cho posing and pointing handguns at the camera.
At least one photograph showed Cho pointing a pistol at his head. Another showed Cho holding a knife to his throat.
The package was sent by overnight mail, but did not arrive until Wednesday because the address and Zip code were wrong.
"This may be a very new critical component of this investigation," State Police Col. Steve Flaherty said.
When the network received the package, it immediately notified authorities and the original documents were sent to the FBI for analysis, Flaherty said.
CNN also learned Wednesday that in 2005 Cho was declared mentally ill by a Virginia special justice, who declared he was "an imminent danger" to himself, a court document states.
A temporary detention order from General District Court in the commonwealth of Virginia said Cho "presents an imminent danger to himself as a result of mental illness."
A box indicating that the subject "Presents an imminent danger to others as a result of mental illness" was not checked.
In another part of the form, Cho was described as "mentally ill and in need of hospitalization, and presents an imminent danger to self or others as a result of mental illness, or is so seriously mentally ill as to be substantially unable to care for self, and is incapable of volunteering or unwilling to volunteer for treatment."
A handwritten section of the form describes Cho. "Affect is flat and mood is depressed," said the order, which was signed December 14 by Special Justice Paul M. Barnett. "He denies suicidal ideation. He does not acknowledge symptoms of a thought disorder. His insight and judgment are normal."
Student complaints
Police first investigated Cho in November 2005 after a student complained about him calling her and contacting her in person, university police Chief Wendell Flinchum said. (Watch how police learned of Cho's troubles )
Cho was sent to the university's Office of Judicial Affairs, which handled the complaint, the outcome of which is confidential, university officials said.
"The student declined to press charges and referred to Cho's contact with her as annoying," Flinchum said of the November investigation.
Police investigated him again the next month when a female student complained about instant messages Cho sent her, Flinchum said.
"Again, no threat was made against that student. However, she made a complaint to the Virginia Tech Police Department and asked that Cho have no further contact with her," the chief said.
After police spoke to Cho, they received a call from a student concerned that he might be suicidal.
Officers spoke to Cho "at length" then asked him to see a counselor. He agreed to be evaluated by Access Services, an independent mental health facility in Blacksburg, the chief said.
"A temporary detention order was obtained and Cho was taken to a mental health facility" on December 13, 2005, he said.
A student asking to be identified only as Andy said he was the one who told police that Cho was suicidal. Police "took [Cho] away to the counseling center for a night or two," said the student, who used to room with Cho. (Watch Cho's roommates describe his 'crazy' behavior )
Authorities said they received no more complaints about Cho before the shootings, Flinchum said.
The university and its police continue to defend themselves against students' complaints that they weren't adequately warned about Cho -- even after two people were killed in a dormitory early Monday morning. (Watch how large universities protect students )
Though police have linked a gun used in Norris Hall -- where 31 people, including Cho, died -- they have yet to say he is officially accused of the first shootings. (Learn more about those killed in the rampage)
Professor recalls 'mean streak'
As tales of Cho's worrisome behavior continued to surface Wednesday, a renowned poet and author who taught the 23-year-old gunman called the notion that he was troubled "crap" and said he was "mean."
Nikki Giovanni said she immediately suspected Cho when she got word of the shootings. (Watch Giovanni declare at a Tuesday convocation, 'We are Virginia Tech' )
"I knew when it happened that that's probably who it was," Giovanni said, referring to her former pupil. "I would have been shocked if it wasn't."
Cho's poetry was so intimidating -- and his behavior so menacing -- that Giovanni had him removed from her class in the fall of 2005, she said. Giovanni said the final straw came when two of her students quit attending her poetry sessions because of Cho.
"I was trying to find out, what am I doing wrong here?" Giovanni recalled thinking, but the students later explained, "He's taking photographs of us. We don't know what he's doing." (Classmates called Cho 'question mark kid')
Giovanni went to the department's then-chairwoman, Lucinda Roy, and told her, "I was willing to resign before I was going to continue with him." Roy took Cho out of Giovanni's class.
"I know we're talking about a troubled youngster and crap like that, but troubled youngsters get drunk and jump off buildings; troubled youngsters drink and drive," Giovanni said. "I've taught troubled youngsters. I've taught crazy people. It was the meanness that bothered me. It was a really mean streak." (Watch how the cause of Cho's behavior could have been physical )
Roy, who taught Cho one-on-one after removing him from Giovanni's class, recalled Cho exhibiting a palpable anger and secretly taking photographs of other students while holding the camera under his desk. (Watch the professor tell how her student frightened her )
His writings were so disturbing, she said, that she went to the police and university administrators for help.
"The threats seemed to be underneath the surface," she said. "They were not explicit and that was the difficulty the police had."
Ian MacFarlane, who had class with Cho, said two plays written by Cho were so "twisted" that McFarlane and other students openly pondered "whether he could be a school shooter." (Read MacFarlane's blog and the two plays)
University stands by handling of shooting
Though two professors, Cho's former roommates and a classmate and police all recall Cho behaving in a disturbing manner, officials said there was nothing criminal about his demeanor.
The gun shop owner who sold him the Glock 9 mm, one of the guns used at Norris Hall, said Cho easily passed a background check last month before buying the weapon. (Watch dealer recount selling weapon to Cho )
Asked about Roy's concerns that Cho was writing troubling plays and poems in his classes, Flinchum said no official report was filed.
"These course assignments were for a creative writing course and the students were encouraged to be imaginative and artistic," the chief said. "The writings did not express any threatening intentions or allude to criminal activity. No criminal violation had taken place."
Flinchum's remarks were the latest in the university's defense, not only of its handling of situations that arose before the shootings, but also of how it handled situations in the immediate aftermath of the shooting at West Ambler Johnston dorm.
The recurring question: Why weren't students warned or the campus locked down before Cho was able to walk into Norris Hall more than two hours later and exact the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history? (Watch how Virginia Tech students will never forget Monday's massacre )
Flinchum said Wednesday that details gleaned from the investigation at the dorm led to a decision among university officials and police that the campus did not need to be locked down.
"There are a lot of details we were providing to the administration and a decision was made based on that information," the chief said.
University President Charles Steger has said police believed the incident was "a domestic fight, perhaps a murder-suicide" that was contained to one dorm room.
Police cordoned off the 895-student dorm and all residents were told about the shooting as police looked for witnesses, Steger said.
"I don't think anyone could have predicted that another event was going to take place two hours later," Steger said.
Authorities are still investigating whether Cho had any accomplices in planning or executing Monday's rampage.