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Man drowns children, then jumps in front of train

By TIMES WIRES
Published September 1, 2006

NEW YORK - A man, convinced he was the victim of a voodoo curse, drowned his two children in a bathtub and then jumped to his death in front of a subway train, police said Thursday.

Franz Bordes, 39, died at a Brooklyn subway station. Investigators found several suicide notes indicating he was at odds with relatives of the children's mother, a Haitian immigrant like Bordes.

"They're using everything they can to destroy me, most of all voodoo," one of the notes read, according to police.

Bordes, who was unemployed, lived with Francoise Mercier, 42, and their children, Sweitzer, 2, and Stephanie, 4. Family members said he looked after the children while Mercier worked as a nurse's aide.

Elsewhere...

MINE SAFETY REPORT: West Virginia alerted its underground coal operations Thursday about potential problems with emergency air packs after decay was found inside packs carried by state mine inspectors. The nine SR100 air packs randomly tested were not equipped with a heat damage indicator and may have been damaged while stored in hot vehicles, according to the state Office of Miners' Health Safety and Training.

SCHOOL SHOOTING: In Hillsborough, N.C., a teenager accused of killing his father and opening fire outside his former high school was obsessed with school massacres and sent e-mail to the principal of Columbine High School in Colorado warning of his attack, authorities said Thursday. Alvaro Castillo, 19, faces 22 charges, including murder.

POLYGAMIST LEADER: The leader of a polygamist sect said Thursday he would not fight extradition from Nevada to Utah on charges he arranged marriages between underage girls and older men. Warren Jeffs made his first court appearance since he was arrested Monday after more than a year on the run. The religious leader with an estimated 10,000 followers spoke almost inaudibly, and his blue prison jumpsuit hung loosely off his thin frame. Jeffs, who was not represented by a lawyer, nodded when a Las Vegas justice of the peace asked whether he would be extradited to Utah. He is charged there with two counts of rape by accomplice and could get life in prison if convicted.

[Last modified September 1, 2006, 01:34:55]