AT THE MOVIES:

Police: 'Passion' movie prompts man to admit murder (Associated Press, March 25, 2004)

The hanging death of Ashley Nicole Wilson in January was closed as a suicide and might have remained so if longtime friend Dan R. Leach hadn't seen "The Passion of the Christ."

Leach's experience viewing Mel Gibson's cinematic depiction of the last hours of Jesus Christ, coupled with a discussion with a religious adviser, caused him to walk into the Fort Bend County sheriff's department earlier this month and confess to killing Wilson, Detective Mike Kubricht said Thursday.

Leach otherwise had successfully tricked authorities and the Harris County Medical Examiner into ruling suicide, Kubricht said.

"He was very, very meticulous," Kubricht said. "It was very well-planned and well executed."

Wilson's body was discovered Jan. 19 in her apartment near Richmond, just beyond the southwest suburbs of Houston. All physical evidence pointed to suicide, Kubricht said, and Wilson had gone off several anti-depressant medications because she was pregnant.

The pregnancy apparently was the motive, Kubricht said, because Leach believed the baby was his and did not want to raise the child.

Should have gone to Dawn of the Dead instead.

Posted by Orrin Judd at March 26, 2004 12:22 AM