New Van Gogh painting identified

9 September 2013 Last updated at 11:59 GMT The painting will go on display on 24 September A previously unknown landscape painting by Vincent van Gogh has been identified by the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.

Sunset at Montmajour - which depicts trees, bushes and sky - had spent years in a Norwegian private collector's attic after he had been told the work was not by the Dutch master.

The museum said the painting was authenticated by letters, style and the physical materials used.

It is the first full-size canvas by Van Gogh discovered since 1928.

Museum director Axel Rueger called the discovery a "once-in-a-lifetime experience'' at an unveiling ceremony.

He said the institution had previously rejected the painting's authenticity in the 1990s partly because it was not signed.

However thanks to new research techniques and a two-year investigation, it concluded the artwork was by the artist.

Cobalt blue

Researcher Teio Meedendorp said he and other researchers "found answers to all the key questions, which is remarkable for a painting that has been lost for more than 100 years".

The piece can be dated to the exact day it was painted because the artist described it in a letter to his brother, Theo, saying he had painted it the previous day - on 4 July 1888.

He added he painted it "on a stony heath where small twisted oaks grow".

The details in the letter had previously been attributed to another of Van Gogh's works - entitled The Rocks - despite that work missing some of the elements he describes.

The painting had spent years in a Norwegian private collector's attic after he had been told the work was not by the Dutch master

But researchers have now identified the location Sunset at Montmajour depicts as being near Montmajour hill, near Arles in France, where the artist was living at the time.

Writing in The Burlington Magazine, Meedendorp said almost all the pigments used in the artwork were ones he "habitually had on his palette at this time", including a cobalt blue he began using from the summer of 1887 onwards.

The painting was also listed among Theo van Gogh's collection as number 180 - and that number can still be seen on the back of the canvas.

After the work was sold in 1901, it apparently vanished until it re-appeared in the estate of Norwegian industrialist Christian Nicolai Mustad upon his death in 1970.

According to Mustad's family, the French ambassador to Sweden visited the collector soon after he bought the painting and suggested it was fake or had been wrongly attributed.

Consequently, Mustad banished the piece to the attic.

After his death, the collector's family contacted the Van Gogh museum in 1991 to verify its authenticity, but it was eventually decided it was not by the artist.

The painting will be on display at the museum from 24 September.

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Second Ohio murder victim identified

23 July 2013 Last updated at 21:52 GMT Shetisha's was the second death in the Sheeley family in the past year The second of three women found dead wrapped in rubbish bags last week in an Ohio suburb has been identified.

Shetisha Sheeley, 28, had been missing since September. Her mother told local media that Sheeley had a 12-year-old daughter who was living with family.

Michael Madison, a convicted sex offender, has been charged with the murder of all three women.

The bodies were found in separate but nearby locations in East Cleveland, Ohio, on Friday and Saturday.

The first victim to be named was Angela Deskins, 38.

Both Deskins and Sheeley, who was found in a field, were ultimately identified by their fingerprints, the Cuyahoga County medical examiner said on Tuesday.

'Pray for me'

All three corpses were severely decomposed, including the third victim's remains, which are still unidentified.

Sheeley had been arrested in June 2012 for firing a weapon from a vehicle, but the case was dismissed three months later because there were no witnesses.

Her mother, Kim Sheeley, said she had told police her daughter was missing in September.

She also told a local broadcaster she feared the worst when her daughter did not appear for her own brother's funeral after he was shot and killed in December 2012.

Michael Madison previously pleaded guilty to attempted rape

"I don't know why this person did what they did to my daughter," Kim Sheeley said. "But I ask everyone to pray for me. This has been really, really hard on me."

Shetisha Sheeley's court-appointed lawyer, Michael Nelson, told the Associated Press the deceased woman had been unemployed and vulnerable.

"The streets are just mean," Mr Nelson said. "She was a vulnerable person, and with that it probably multiplied her risk."

During a press conference on Tuesday, East Cleveland Mayor Gary Norton said he had known Angela Deskins' family for 15 years, and that they had been very supportive of her.

Deskins was reported missing last month.

Madison, who is being held in Cuyahoga County jail on $6m (£3.9m) bail, was charged with three counts of aggravated murder and three counts of kidnapping on Monday. He pleaded guilty to charges of attempted rape in 2002.

On Friday, Madison was arrested at his mother's home hours after the first body was found nearby in a garage at his apartment block.

Police searched backyards and abandoned homes for more victims

Officials said the three dead bodies were found about 300-600ft (100-200m) apart.

The mayor also said the suspect indicated he had been influenced by a previous multiple murder case in neighbouring Cleveland.

Anthony Sowell, 52, was sentenced to death in 2011 after being convicted of killing 11 women, the remains of whom were found around his home.

Madison could face the death penalty or life in prison if convicted of the charges of aggravated murder.

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Third female victim in Ohio slayings identified

EAST CLEVELAND, Ohio The last two of three female victims whose bodies were found wrapped in trash bags last week in northeast Ohio have been identified, family and authorities said Tuesday.

One of the victims was 18-year-old Shirellda Helen Terry, the teen's grandmother told The Associated Press. Officials identified the other as Shetisha Sheeley, 28, of Cleveland.

This undated family photo provided by the Cleveland police shows Shirellda Helen Terry.

/ AP Photo/Cleveland Police

Both their bodies were found last week along with that of another woman in a dilapidated East Cleveland neighborhood pitted with abandoned houses.

Rosetta Terry said authorities notified the family Tuesday that her granddaughter was one of the victims. She said Shirellda was last seen July 10, leaving a Cleveland elementary school where she had a summer job.

Rosetta Terry described her granddaughter a caring person who would frequently attend Bible study groups and called and texted her mother.

"She was a good girl; she was a hugger," said Rosetta Terry. "We used to tease her that we were gonna put her on a hug diet."

The county medical examiner's office did not confirm Shirellda Terry's identity, saying the family had asked for time to inform relatives.

Earlier Tuesday, East Cleveland Mayor Gary Norton identified Sheeley as among the victims. The identification was made through fingerprints and information from the tattoos, which "permitted the comparison" that led to her identification, said Thomas Gilson, Cuyahoga County's medical examiner.

Gilson said his office hoped to release information on how the women died within a few days.

Sheeley's mother, Kim Sheeley, asked for prayers and told WEWS-TV that her daughter's death "has been really, really" hard on her.

Shetisha Sheeley was arrested June 30, 2012, on a charge of firing a weapon from a vehicle but the case was dismissed three months later. Her court-appointed attorney, Michael Nelson, said there were no witnesses who saw her firing the weapon.

Nelson told The Associated Press that Sheeley came from a troubled family background and never got help posting her $1,000 bond, keeping her locked up while the case moved through the courts.

"She lived on the edge," said Nelson, who recalled her as unemployed, living in an apartment alone and vulnerable as she struggled to make a life.

"The streets are just mean," he said. "She was a vulnerable person, and with that it probably multiplied her risk."

10 Photos

Police on Monday identified the first known victim as Angela Deskins, 38, of Cleveland, whose body was found Saturday. Norton said in brief remarks that he realized on hearing her name that he knew her family and went to school with some of her relatives.

The Deskins' family supported Angela and provided a place for her to live, the mayor said.

"She always had a place to rest her head, they always assured that she had money to live with," Norton said. "And just when she trusted herself — she was a very trusting person — entrusted herself to someone who had the worst of intentions, then and only then did this fate befall her."

Her family said in a statement that she was much loved, WEWS-TV reported.

"She was a wonderful daughter, sister and aunt who truly cared about her family and friends. She is loved so much and will be missed by everyone who knew her. Our family would appreciate privacy during this time."

Michael Madison, 35, is in custody facing preliminary charges of aggravated murder and kidnapping in the slayings. He is a registered sex offender who served four years in prison beginning in 2002 for attempted rape and attempted possession of drugs.

Madison was moved from the East Cleveland jail Tuesday to Cuyahoga County Jail.

East Cleveland police responded to a call about a foul order on Friday and discovered a body in a garage. Within hours they identified Madison as a suspect and went to his mother's house where he was arrested after a brief standoff.

They found the additional bodies Saturday after their questioning of Madison led them to renew their search.

Authorities searched again Sunday but called it off without finding additional bodies.

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