CRIME HUNTER: Tourist from Hell butchered Canadian mother and son

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Sheila Mae Demude and her son Darin shared a row of seats on a flight from Bangkok to the tourist hotspot of Phuket with a charming Englishman.

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Sheila worked as an administrator at the Pacific Christian School in Victoria, B.C. while her son was a college student.

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For his spring break, they were meeting for the trip of a lifetime in Thailand.

On March 15, 1995, mother and son befriended a man called John Martin Scripps, 36 at the time. The trio checked into Nilly’s Marina Inn with beachfront views of famed Patong Beach. He was in Room 48, the Canadians were in the adjacent Room 43.

Sheila, 49, and Darin, 22, had breakfast the next day and were never seen alive again.

Their new friend told the front desk the tourists had left and that he wished to take over their room. He would pay their bill.

Scripps — using the surname Martin — flew to Singapore on March 19, 1995. Later that day, the dismembered remains of the Damudes were discovered around 10 km away. Because of decomposition, visual identification was impossible.

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Scripps was born in 1959 in Herfortshire, England. All was well until his father committed suicide when Scripps was a teenager, sending him down the path of criminality. Small time at first, then the utter worst.

A marriage to a Mexican woman ended in divorce after Scripps had been jailed for petty crime one too many times.

By the late 1980s, he was working as a heroin smuggler for a criminal syndicate, making trips between Asia and Europe. In 1987, he was arrested at London’s Heathrow Airport and that put him on the radar of cops in Singapore.

Investigators discovered a key to a safety deposit box in Singpaore. Inside was 1.5 kg of heroin with a street value of around $1 million. Scripps was convicted and sentenced to seven years in prison.

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He escaped and was rearrested. Inside the joint, he learned the butchering trade. Scripps then escaped again.

His mother gave him around $500 to flee overseas. Using the birth certificate of a fellow inmate, Scripps landed in Mexico and swindled the British embassy there to get a new passport.

Next stop: Singapore via San Francisco.

In the city-state, Scripps met South African George Lowe who was a chemical engineer for a brewery. He was in Singapore to purchase equipment related to his job.

At Changi Airport, Lowe was approached by Scripps. He suggested they share a room to save money.

The two checked into Singapore’s River View Hotel. The following morning, Scripps asked the receptionist to delete Lowe’s name from the guest log. He had been booted from the room for being a homosexual.

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Then, Scripps went to work forging Lowe’s signature to withdraw $8,400 in cash from a bank. He bought new Nikes and attended a performance by the Singapore Symphony Orchestra.

He ripped off Lowe for another $13,500 via Thomas Cook and transferred the money to a San Francisco bank account under the name John Martin. Scripps also bought a $485 return ticket to Phuket, leaving Singapore that night.

On March 13, 1995, cops found a pair of legs severed at the knee floating in the water. Over the next few days, thighs and a torso were found. Detectives linked a missing persons report on Lowe to the body parts. His arms and legs were never found.

A forensic pathologist said the dismemberment was done “expertly.”

On March 19, 1995, fresh from murdering the Canadian tourists, Scripps returned to Singapore to get his money transfer from Thomas Cook. But the cops were waiting and Scripps was done like dinner.

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On his person, he had passports belonging to the Canadian mother and son, Lowe and his jailbird buddy. All had his photo attached. He also had their credit cards.

Detectives caught Scripps with his killing kit: A hammer and an electroshock gun. He went on trial for murder in Singapore in October 1995, claiming that the Lowe murder was the result of a homosexual come on by the victim.

Besides, Scripps declared, he could not physically dismember the South African.

“I may have worked in the (prison) butchery, but cutting up a human body is another thing. When I saw the photographs (of Lowe’s body parts), it made me feel sick,” he testified.

No one believed him and he was sentenced to death.

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On April 19, 1996, after a final meal of pizza and hot chocolate, Scripps was hanged at Changi Prison alongside two drug traffickers.

Investigators believe he also murdered in Belize, Mexico and the U.S.

His ex-wife told reporters after he was hanged: “John disappeared on several trips and went to the United States and Southeast Asia. I knew something awful was happening, but I could not believe he had started killing people.”

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