Bloody vengeance

'Dark Angel' kills & mutilates her stepdad over sex abuse: probers
7-30-2007 New York

She lured her stepfather to a Queens apartment, then handcuffed, asphyxiated and sexually mutilated him - all to settle a horrific score from two decades ago, sources said.

Cops investigating the twisted slaying of Eric Goodridge, 55, believe stepdaughter Brigitte Harris, 26, cut off his penis to exact revenge for alleged sex abuse when she was a girl, law enforcement officials said yesterday.

Harris, who called herself the Original Dark Angel and Lady Vengeance, left chilling notes in her Rockaways apartment accusing Goodridge of abuse and justifying her crime, sources said.

"He wrecked my life," read one note found near her stepfather's body Saturday. "At first, I blamed myself. Now I know it's not my fault," another said.

"She planned this - it was premeditated," a law enforcement source said. "In her mind, it was justified vengeance."

Police recovered a bloody knife and caught up with Harris after she checked herself into a mental hospital and ranted incoherently about the slaying.

Goodridge, an emigrant from the West African nation of Liberia, had arrests for reckless endangerment in 1978 and menacing in 1982, but no details were available.

Harris was born in 1981.

Police said Harris sent e-mails to Goodridge to lure him to her apartment. Then she handcuffed him to a chair, gagged him with duct tape and throttled him until he died, authorities said.

He was already dead when she cut off his penis, officials said, noting there would have been much more blood if he had been alive when it was severed.

"This is a homicide that had meaning and reason," said one source. "It is like a movie, let me tell you."

The cause of death was "homicidal violence, including gagging and neck compression," according to a medical examiner's spokeswoman.

Goodridge lived in Staten Island when he was married to Harris' mom. He later married another woman, who died five years ago.

That woman's mother defended Goodridge yesterday as a decent dad to his other children, who are now orphaned.

She acknowledged hearing rumors that Goodridge had abused Harris - but she didn't think it was true.

"I would die if I could believe that," said his former mother-in-law. "He wouldn't pay child support, but I wouldn't believe that."

But a former brother-in-law said he had also heard of the sex abuse claims long before Goodridge's shocking death.

"It stands to reason if someone pulls a Lorena Bobbitt, there's a good reason," he said.

Harris has twice made criminal complaints against her stepsister Carleen Goodridge, once for grand larceny and once for assault.

Carleen Goodridge said she couldn't talk about the dark family secrets behind the slaying.

"It will all come out," she said outside her home in Staten Island.

The family arranged for a lawyer to represent Harris, but the lawyer told the Daily News he had not spoken with her yet.

The relatives said Goodridge told them he worked for the government of Liberia, but a diplomat at Liberia's Mission to the United Nations said she had never heard of him.

Harris works for a private security company at Kennedy Airport and is not a government airport screener, a spokeswoman for the Transportation Security Administration said. ..more.. by ALISON GENDAR, JOE GOULD and DAVE GOLDINER

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Shrinks say 'there's a message' in brutal attack
7-30-2007 New York

She called herself Lady Vengeance and the Original Dark Angel.

And her music blared with violent lyrics: "I will be avenged/ these are the secrets/ that kill."

Brigitte Harris saw herself dispensing wrath and retribution, her MySpace online profile shows. And by sexually mutilating the man who sources say she accused of sexually abusing her, Harris acted out a bloody version of payback, experts said.

"That she killed in this particular fashion would be revenge. For a woman to do this to her stepfather, it says 'abused' all over it," said Dr. Louis Schlesinger, a professor of forensic psychology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

"Castration, there's a message there: She's basically eliminating the technique of abuse," he said.

Harris, 26, allegedly lured 55-year-old Eric Goodridge to her apartment via e-mail.

Goodridge was found there handcuffed to a chair, with his genitals cut off and duct tape around his mouth.

While authorities will investigate her sex abuse allegations, "it's extremely rare" for victims to kill their abusers, said forensic psychologist Dawn Hughes.

"Was she still being abused and still feeling controlled by this individual?" Hughes asked. "Was she acting in her own salvation to prevent a future occurrence?"

Harris last logged on to MySpace on Saturday, the same day sources believe she placed a 911 call reporting the slaying.

She lists her mood as "depressed" and says she'd like to meet "anyone who can save me."

The angry song "Ghostflowers" by the metal band OTEP plays on the page.

She declares in a June 2006 blog post that "cocaine is a helluva drug" and apologizes "2 any1 i may have hurt ... i was pretty wasted." ..more.. by JORDAN LITE