February 13, 2004
Doctors removed chain from inside dogs neck
Full story: The Kinston Free Press
No one can be sure how long the once-fluffy white dog was chained. Weeks? Months? A year or more? It certainly had been there since he was a puppy, digging into his neck as he grew, month by month, until his skin grew over it, in and around the links of his grotesque necklace. Animal workers in Kinston are outraged, calling it the worst case of animal abuse they've ever seen.Posted @ 09:16 PM
SJ School Bus Driver Busted For Child Porn
Full story: kron4.com
Jerome Brian Armstrong, 48, was arrested at his home in San Jose's Willow Glen neighborhood at approximately 10:30 a.m. Thursday after investigators from the county's Sexual Assault Felony Enforcement task force executed a search warrant on the residence. They found magazines, DVDs and VHS tapes containing child pornography, according to sheriff's spokesman Terrance Helm. Armstrong has worked as a bus driver for the San Jose Unified School District for the past 10 years, according to the sheriff's office. Local authorities became aware of his alleged possession of child pornography after a U.S. Postal Service investigation in Florida turned up his name on a child pornography mailing list.Posted @ 08:03 PM
Woman Says Devil Responsible For Stabbing Granddaughter
Full story: NewsNet5.com
Mildred Battles, 74, of Austintown was charged with attempted murder and felonious assault. Zabrina Battles was in stable condition at Children's Hospital Medical Center in Akron. Police say Battles stabbed the girl three times in the chest with a kitchen knife Friday night at the apartment they shared in Austintown, near Youngstown. The knife was found lodged in a stuffed toy horse. According to a police report, Battles told officers that the devil was responsible for the stabbing.Posted @ 07:51 PM
Teen, 15, accused of killing
Full story: Winnipeg Sun
A 15-year-old boy has been charged with second-degree murder in the killing of a pregnant St. Theresa Point teenager last month. The body of the 14-year-old girl was discovered on Jan. 21 on a secluded trail in a wooded area near the reserve, about 460 kilometres north of Winnipeg. She hadn't been seen since the previous Saturday and family members became worried she had fallen victim to foul play.Posted @ 07:44 PM
February 11, 2004
Cheerleading Coach Accused Of Having Sex With Teen
Full story: TheDenverChannel.com
A 30-year-old cheerleading coach at Longmont Christian School is facing charges of sexual assault on a child by a person of trust after the girl's mother discovered their relationship by reading through the girl's journal. James Jeffrey Britton was being held Wednesday at the Boulder County Jail on $25,000 bond. Longmont police said it appears that Britton's relationship with the 14-year-old girl had been going on for a couple of months and was consensual, but because the girl is underage, she cannot legally consent to sexual contact. Police were notified of their relationship by the girl's mother. The girl, who is a member of the cheer squad, cooperated with officers by participating in a monitored call with Britton, asking him to come over her house to have sex, Longmont police Cmdr. Craig Earhart said.Posted @ 07:13 PM
Ukrainian goes on trial in serial killing of 11 women
Full story: Borneo Bulletin
Khamarov was arrested in March 2003 after the disappearance of a 17-year-old girl and admitted at the time to the other disappearances, saying he had disposed of their bodies in a well in his backyard. The 31-year-old said that he wanted to "purge society from lewd women" and claimed to have been inspired by Hollywood films such as "Silence of the Lambs".Posted @ 06:55 PM
Dad Goes To Prison For Daughter's Cocaine Death
Full story: NBC 4
The father of a 3-year-old Wilmington girl who died after ingesting cocaine allegedly left around the house pleaded guilty Tuesday to voluntary manslaughter and was sentenced to nearly nine years in prison. Guillermo Elizarraraz, 34, also pleaded guilty to two counts of felony child endangerment. His sentence of eight years and eight months was the midterm of guidelines, said Deputy District Attorney Allen Fields, who runs the Long Beach branch of the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office. On Aug. 10, 2002, Victoria Elizarraraz found powdered cocaine wrapped in paper and ate some of it. She died nine days later after being taken off life support. Seven other children were removed from the home and taken into protective custody in the aftermath of the tragedy.Posted @ 06:44 PM
Boy's eyes plucked out in withcraft ceremony
Full story: www.theage.com.au
Four Nigerian men were charged with plucking out the eyes of a 13-year-old schoolboy for use in witchcraft, the state news agency reported today. They face charges ranging from criminal conspiracy to grievous bodily harm and permanent disfigurement for the attack on the boy, who was taken to hospital in the north-eastern state of Bauchi. Police suspect the attack was commissioned by one of the defendants to make a charm believed to make people invisible.Posted @ 06:38 PM
Who is killing the animals at Sao Paulo zoo?
Full story: Yahoo! News
The zoo in the Brazilian city of Sao Paulo is facing a murder mystery worthy of an Agatha Christie novel. Since late January, the zoo, one of the most modern in Latin America, has lost 10 animals, including an elephant -- fatally poisoned by what police are calling a "serial animal killer". So far, laboratory tests have shown the animals were killed with sodium fluoroacetate, a banned rat poison. According to the Sao Paulo State University, where autopsies were performed, the poison caused the animals to stop breathing and led to cardiac arrest. What troubles investigators is that tests on the animals' food and water could find no trace of the poison.Posted @ 06:35 PM
Mom arrested for having 10-year-old drive her home
Full story: WBIR-TV
A designated driver is good idea for people who've had too much alcohol. Designating a ten-year-old isn't great plan. A Surgoinsville woman was arraigned yesterday in Hawkins County on child endangerment and DUI charges. Police say they saw a car creeping along early last Tuesday and the driver appeared very small. Police stopped the car when an officer saw it scraping along a wall. They found a ten-year-old girl behind the wheel.Posted @ 06:23 PM
Woman fatally shot in Detroit driveway
Full story: Detroit Free Press
A day after Detroit officials reassured the public that most of the recent slayings in the city were not random, a 28-year-old woman was fatally shot in an ambush that her family and friends believe was random. It was 3 a.m. Monday, and Ethel Faye Ford had just parked her Ford Explorer in her driveway in the 5000 block of Somerset on Detroit's east side. Someone shot her three times in the chest, thigh and leg. She later died at St. John Riverview Hospital in Detroit.Posted @ 06:12 PM
Man tried to have wife, 2 kids killed, police say
Full story: Tennessean.com
A Nashville man has been accused of trying to arrange the murders of his wife and teenage children. Matthew R. Hakoda, 32, was already in Metro Jail on charges of violating orders of protection taken out against him by his estranged wife, police said in a statement. Domestic Violence Unit detectives launched an investigation into allegations of intended hits on Hakoda's wife, 13-year-old son and 15-year-old daughter after receiving information from the Davidson County Sheriff's Department. The attacks were not carried out.Posted @ 06:08 PM
February 09, 2004
Hirte Ordered to Stand Trial for Kopitske Murder
Full story: WBAY
A court commissioner ordered a Weyauwega High School honor student and star athlete to stand trial for murder. Gary Hirte, 18, is accused of killing Glenn Kopitske. Police say Kopitske was dead for several days before he was found in his rural Fremont home last August. Hirte smiled briefly at his relatives as he walked into the courtroom for Monday's preliminary hearing. Sitting right behind them were Kopitske's parents and relatives. Two important items led police to arrest Hirte. They were a recorded telephone conversation between Hirte and an ex-girlfriend in late January, and a set of keys that belonged to Kopitske that were found in Hirte's home. Winnebago County sheriff's detective Cherilynn Eischen testified about the phone conversation, "He had admitted several times he had killed Glenn Kopitske," she testified. "He stated that he had shot Glenn Kopitske in the back of the head with a 12-gauge shotgun, had stabbed him two times in the back and once in the heart." Earlier, detectives had told Action Two News the only person who could have known about Kopitske's fatal wounds was the killer because those details were not made public.Posted @ 09:40 PM
Minister orders inquiry into school's caging of boy
Full story: The Australian
THE West Australian Education Department will investigate the case of a 12-year-old boy who was repeatedly locked in a cage at a Perth school, as experts yesterday denounced the practice as "child abuse". The department's announcement came as the behavioural expert who advised the school distanced himself from the incident, saying he played no role in the design, construction or operation of the enclosure. As revealed in The Australian yesterday, Perth woman Sheila Simons has waged an ongoing battle with the department since discovering her intellectually disabled grandson, Neil, had been locked in the enclosure at Kenwick School. The department recently agreed to remove the enclosure but has refused Ms Simons' requests to stand down the teachers involved and provide an assurance outdoor enclosures will not be used again. State Education Minister Alan Carpenter said he had asked the department director general Paul Albert to undertake a "complete investigation into all aspects of the issue". Assistant director of student services John Brigg said he was not aware of any outdoor facilities of that type being used at other WA government schools but could not rule out that possibility.Posted @ 09:30 PM
Police turn to black magic to solve crime
Full story: Keralanext.com
On Wednesday, police in Udaipur sought the services of a sorcerer who claims to possess supernatural powers. The sorcerer, Haricharan Acharjee, performed some rituals and set out with a "sacred stick" to look for the missing cash. After some hours of wandering the streets of Udaipur with some cops following him, the sorcerer stopped in front of a local bank and announced the money was deposited at the bank and he was not in a position to tell anything beyond that. The farce ended with the police sending the sorcerer back home with a token fee.Posted @ 08:55 PM
February 06, 2004
Man Who Fired 30 Shots Into Patrol Car, Killed Deputy Sentenced To Death
Full story: NBC 4
An out-of-work laborer who used an assault rifle to blast 30 rounds into an Orange County sheriff's patrol car and kill a deputy before he could unholster his gun was sentenced Friday to death. Judge Frank Fasel rejected claims by attorneys for Maurice Steskal, 44, that their client was delusional on June 12, 1999 and believed Deputy Brad Riches was about to harm him. "The court finds that the defendant committed the cold-blooded, first-degree murder" of Riches, "not because of his fear of police, but rather because of his anger against law enforcement," Fasel said. The "mental disorder" put forth by Steskal's attorneys "explains but does not excuse his conduct," the judge said. "Nothing affected the defendant's ability to choose a course of action, and, unfortunately, for (Riches and himself) he chose the wrong course." On Dec. 12, the second jury to consider Steskal's fate recommended that he be put to death for murdering the 34-year-old deputy. A year earlier, another jury deadlocked 11-1 in favor of life in prison without parole, but prosecutors sought a retrial.Posted @ 08:15 PM
Possible Human Sacrifice in Peru
Full story: FOXNews.com
A decapitated baby boy found on a hilltop near Lake Titicaca may have been killed last week in a human sacrifice ritual, police said Wednesday. The remains of the infant, believed to have been 7 months old, were discovered Tuesday in the Yunguyo (search) area near the Bolivian border, a police officer in the regional capital of Puno told The Associated Press. Investigators believe the killing may have been a ritualistic sacrifice meant to appease a pre-Columbian earth god, because the body was found on the hilltop surrounded by flowers, liquor bottles and containers of blood. Highland Indians consider many Andean hilltops to be the homes of deities. Tradition says the first Inca rose from Lake Titicaca (search). Police were led to the remote rural site by villagers upset by the killing, which took place last week, police said.Posted @ 07:53 PM
Girl raped at Lauderhill school by 2 fourth graders, BSO says
Full story: Sun-Sentinel
Two fourth grade boys were suspended from school after a classmate said she was raped in a bathroom at Royal Palm Elementary on Wednesday. The 10-year-old victim was taken to a sexual assault center after the attack was reported and deputies said they received back positive indications she was raped. The two boys - ages 11 and 12 -- have been turned over to juvenile authorities and each was charged with sexual battery of a child and lewd and lascivious exhibition. At a Thursday afternoon hearing, a judge ordered the two boys, both dressed in jail uniforms and fitted with shackles, held in custody for 21 days. There was no reaction from either child.Posted @ 07:51 PM
Man caught in Thailand for raping dog
Full story: PRAVDA.Ru
The man told the policemen that after leaving the bar he saw a sexual dog whose behavior was provoking. He caught the dog, took over the bushes and tried to rape it. The dog was desperately protecting itself: it bit the rapists"s nose and hands. The man quit his intention and went home. When being interrogated, Toripa Ravanda confessed to the policemen that he had raped three dogs before. He said that he always has a wild sexual desire after drinking liquor. Hard financial situation made it impossible for him to buy prostitutes, and he raped dogs.Posted @ 07:47 PM
February 04, 2004
Miami Teen Confesses to School Murder
Full story: theledger.com
A teenager has confessed to killing an eighth-grade classmate in a school bathroom, and the knife used to slash the victim's neck was found in his backpack, police said Wednesday. Michael Hernandez, 14, signed a statement saying he killed Jaime Rodrigo Gough, also 14, at Southwood Middle School on Tuesday, Miami-Dade County police Detective Randy Rossman said. Hernandez is charged with first-degree murder, which indicates premeditation. He signed the statement Tuesday after police interviewed him for several hours, Rossman said.Posted @ 07:35 PM
Teen allegedly reads as dog hangs to death
Full story: azcentral.com
A 15-year-old boy may face criminal charges after he hanged a stray dog with his shoestrings and read a book for 20 minutes while watching the animal die, authorities said Wednesday. The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office referred the case to juvenile court Wednesday. The boy, whose name is being withheld by investigators, is accused of one count of animal abuse. The dog died of strangulation on Jan. 25 after being hanged in the teenager's backyard in the 8400 block of South Calle Tomi Street in Guadalupe. The sheriff's deputies received information about the case two days after the incident and the animal cruelty unit investigated it. "It has been well-documented that a lot of killers in prison and jails start out killing animals," said Sheriff Joe Arapio. "This is a vicious kind of killing of the poor dog . . . this has become a big problem, especially with young people."Posted @ 07:28 PM
Teens Accused Of Stealing Camera, Taping Girls
Full story: TheIowaChannel.com
Police say three teenagers stole a video camera from their school in northwest Iowa and then used it to make a sexually explicit tape. Two 15-year-old boys and a 16-year-old boy were charged with assault with intent to commit sexual abuse. Authorities say they could also face adult charges of sexual exploitation of a minor. Authorities say the boys videotaped underage girls who were partially clothed and intoxicated at a drinking party last month.Posted @ 07:21 PM
'Subhuman' Murderer Must Serve 30 Years
Full story: Scotsman.com
Sexual deviant Graham Coutts, 35, was jailed for life for strangling Jane Longhurst to death with a pair of tights while fulfilling his “sordid and evil” obsession with necrophilia and asphyxial sex. Miss Longhurst’s mother Liz, 72, spoke after a jury convicted Coutts, saying the Government should now act to close or “filter” websites selling violent images of women being throttled and then raped. Part-time salesman Coutts, of Waterloo Street, Hove, surfed the net for websites such as “hangingbitches”, “deathbyasphyxia” and “rapepassion”, just hours before killing special needs teacher Miss Longhurst, 31. Coutts, who denied murder at Lewes Crown Court but admitted storing her naked body in a box for 35 days, was told he would serve at least 30 years.Posted @ 07:16 PM
CPS Caseworker: New Braunfels Boy's Genitals Mutilated
Full story: KSAT.com
A Child Protective Services caseworker testified in a Comal County courtroom Tuesday that an 8-year-old boy's genitals were mutilated by his mother's boyfriend. The caseworker testified during a hearing that the boy told her that Ray Fiero (pictured, left) abused his genitals as punishment for bad behavior. Fiero also allegedly tied the boy to a bed and ordered the youngster to spend timeouts in a doghouse, the caseworker said.Posted @ 07:09 PM
Child's Gang Rape Photos Show Up At 1-Hour Photo Shop
Full story: TheJacksonChannel.com
The alleged gang-rape of a 13-year-old girl surfaced when the Utah photo shop worker discovered photos of several men engaged in sex acts with the girl. She appeared to be unconscious. Authorities say the men were posing for the camera and flashing gang signs. A license plate in the photos led investigators to the three men.Posted @ 06:57 PM
Man guilty in sex, drug attack
Full story: TheStar.com
After a 12-day judge-alone trial, Archibald found Bell, 28, guilty of two charges of sexually assaulting a male and female and two counts of administering a noxious substance. He had pleaded not guilty. Two charges of administering a stupefying drug for the purpose of illicit sex were stayed. The two victims, now in their 20s, were competitive figure skaters at the time of the assault. They claimed that Bell, who had socialized with them for about two weeks before the attack, came to the young woman's loft on the night of July 12, 2001, where they drank heavily. They said they were immobilized by a drug and sexually assaulted. "We were all there just having a good time," Bell testified in his defence at the University Ave. courthouse. Bell's lawyer, Edward Prutschi, told the court that the loft was "party central" to the victims' peers. The young couple was "cutting loose and "trying different things," Prutschi said in closing submissions yesterday. But the judge found that Bell's testimony was "a series of lies layered upon each other." Bell's portrayal of an orgy between the three "was anything but" and his testimony was "not remotely believable," said Archibald.Posted @ 06:49 PM
February 03, 2004
Foster Child Said Forced to Serve Corpse
Full story: CentreDaily.com
A couple has been charged with forcing their 13-year-old foster daughter to take meals to an elderly relative's room for several weeks even though they knew the man had died, prosecutors said. Police were called to the house in August and an autopsy determined that the 82-year-old man had been dead for several weeks in the room where the girl was sent every day with food. Kenneth and Donna Keaveney were charged Tuesday with child cruelty and elder neglect following a five-month investigation, Union County Prosecutor Theodore J. Romankow said.Posted @ 02:19 PM
Fort Carson Deserter Sentenced For Raping Teen
Full story: TheDenverChannel.com
A former Army soldier who pleaded guilty to snatching a 14-year-old girl from a bus stop and raping her in a parking lot has been sentenced to at least 35 years in prison. Miguel Alonso Contreras-Perez, 24, pleaded guilty in November to kidnapping and sexual assault. He can be incarcerated for life if the state Parole Board deems him a continuing risk and will be on lifetime supervision if he is ever released. Police said he kidnapped the girl as she waited for a city bus to take her to school. Contreras-Perez pulled up and asked her if she wanted a ride and, when she refused, got out of the car and forced her inside.Posted @ 02:15 PM
Woman Found Guilty in Family Slaying
Full story: abc7.com
Twenty-year-old Monica Diaz has been found guilty of murdering her uncle and three cousins in a home they shared. The jury in Norwalk Superior Court deliberated for one day before convicting Monica Diaz. Prosecutors say Diaz and her former boyfriend, Michael Naranjo, planned the attack as an attempt to scare her family because they would not let the two go on a weekend trip together.Posted @ 02:11 PM
Murderer of 18 sentenced to life by Kiev court
Full story: ITAR-TASS
The Kiev Court of Appeal has sentenced to life imprisonment with confiscation of property Ukrainian citizen Georgy Suvorin who committed 18 murders and six attempted murders, kept firearms and narcotic substances. The press service of the Kiev Prosecutor's Office said on Tuesday Suvorin committed several contract murders, including the assassination of the director of the Tsentrenergo company Anatoly Chupira on July 31, 1999. Suvorin was paid 6,000 dollars for the contract killing.Posted @ 02:01 PM
Released killer murders wife
Full story: ekathimerini.com
A jealous Cretan former convict, who had been discharged after serving eight years for the murder of his mother-in-law, shot his estranged wife dead early yesterday before drinking a fatal dose of pesticide. The bodies of Haralambos Papadakis, 75, and his wife Papandini were discovered in the morning by their young granddaughter at their son's farmhouse near Ierapetra in eastern Crete, where the 70-year-old woman had sought refuge to escape her husband's jealous fits.Posted @ 07:58 AM
Slaying Suspect Is Found With a Body in His SUV
Full story: latimes.com
A man suspected of killing his wife and setting her house on fire in Long Beach last weekend was arrested Monday in San Diego with a woman's body in his sport utility vehicle. Police said they believed Dante Caldejon, 50, was heading for Mexico. Officers found him about noon parked at the Mission Bay Visitor Information Center.Posted @ 07:55 AM
Deputies subdue defendant after verdict
Full story: Galveston County Daily News
After Mallia read the verdict, Russell asked the judge to poll the jury of eight women and four men. As each juror affirmed the verdict, Barnes stepped out from behind a table cursing about the life sentence he apparently knew would apply. As members of both his and Gaines’ families looked on in tears, deputies surrounded Barnes and, after a brief struggle, cuffed him. Barnes remained quiet until deputies led him out of the courtroom, at which point he turned to the prosecutors and said, “You son of a bitch.”Posted @ 07:51 AM
FBI looks into teen-porn viewing at UT-Houston
Full story: HoustonChronicle.com
Davis wrote that her most recent investigation focused on 10 male employees viewing pornography, eight of whom visited teen sites. Noting that one was a pediatric dentist -- who from 6 to 6:30 a.m. every weekday that Davis reviewed had logged onto sites whose graphic depictions involved young teenage girls -- she wrote it was "disturbing" to imagine the dentist viewing such material and then seeing child patients later the same morning.Posted @ 07:46 AM
February 02, 2004
74-Year-Old Allegedly Groomed Teen For Sex With Inmate
Full story: Channel3000.com
A 74-year-old woman pleaded no contest Monday to one charge of conspiracy to commit sexual assault of a child under 13 after she groomed a girl to have sex with a prison inmate. The woman, from Clintonville, is scheduled for sentencing on March 24 in Waupaca County Circuit Court. She faces a maximum sentence of 40 years in prison and 20 years of extended supervision.Posted @ 07:38 AM
Kidnapper Goes on Trial for Buying Child
Full story: RockyMountTelegram
Kenneth Parnell is now 72, bald and in a wheelchair. But prosecutor Tim Wellman said Parnell hasn't changed since the days when he abducted Steven Stayner, changed the boy's name and kept him for seven years. Stayner's story was later told in a book and TV movie, "I Know My First Name is Steven.'' "There is a child predator in the courtroom,'' Wellman told jurors. Parnell was arrested in January 2003 after a woman, Diane Stevens, went to police and said he tried to persuade her to bring him a young boy for $500. He was charged with solicitation to commit a crime, trying to buy a human being and attempted child-stealing.Posted @ 07:36 AM
Calif. man charged with sex assault on girl
Full story: York Dispatch Online
State police arrested a 55-year-old California man Saturday and charged him with statutory sexual assault after they say he met a 14-year-old girl on the Internet then took her to a West Manchester Township motel.Posted @ 07:24 AM
Trial begins for man charged abduction, rape, slaying
Full story: StarNewsOnline.com
Andre Edwards, 34, is charged with abducting Ginger Hayes and her 18-month-old baby in June 2001 from outside the store and forcing her to drive to a remote area. Along the way, he forced the woman to withdraw cash from a teller machine in Rocky Mount. Police said Edwards raped the woman and beat her to death with a tire rim and left the baby boy for dead. Nicholas Hayes, now 4, suffered severe sunburn in 90-degree heat but did survive. Authorities tracked Edwards through his use of the ATM card.Posted @ 07:23 AM
Man 'raped for stress relief'
Full story: news24.com
The Rabie Ridge serial rapist raped women for "stress relief", it was heard in the Johannesburg High Court on Monday. Jonathan Plaatjies was convicted in August 2003 on 27 counts including kidnapping, rape and aggravated robbery and one count of murder.Posted @ 07:10 AM
Mother, infant slain in Groton; Sailor charged with murder
Full story: norwichbulletin.com
A Navy submarine technician who recently returned from a six-month deployment in southwest Asia was arrested early Sunday after the bodies of a woman and baby were found in the basement of an apartment, police and Navy officials said. Charles A. Davis Jr., 21, was being held on a $3 million bond on two counts of murder and one count of capital felony, which carries the possibility of the death penalty. He was scheduled to be arraigned today in New London Superior Court.Posted @ 07:04 AM
Man convicted after plunging toddler into scalding water
Full story: NBC25
29-year-old Michael Shanholtz was convicted Friday of aggravated malicious wounding of a minor and refusing to care for a minor. Shanholtz was caring for the girl on August 27th when she suffered second and third-degree burns.Posted @ 06:56 AM
Serial killer blamed for 67 deaths
Full story: The Advertiser
Yang committed his crimes in Henan and three other provinces after his release in 2001 from a police labour camp where he had been sent on rape and theft charges. He was arrested on November 3 in the northern province of Hebei after police matched him with the description of a killer they were seeking.Posted @ 06:53 AM
February 01, 2004
Baton used for sex, officer told
Full story: STUFF
A former Rotorua policewoman says the police baton she lost in the mid-1980s was returned to her by a policeman who said it had been used for deviant sex on a young girl. Aucklander Carolyn Butcher was a police officer in Rotorua serving in the same squad as Bob Schollum, one of three men accused by Louise Nicholas of raping her and violating her with a police baton in about 1986. The three men - Mr Schollum, Auckland police chief Assistant Commissioner Clint Rickards and Tauranga city councillor Brad Shipton - last week issued renewed and vehement denials of the allegations. All were police officers at the time of the alleged incident. In 1995 an inquiry found that former head of Rotorua CIB, John Dewar, had failed to record or investigate properly Mrs Nicholas' allegations that she had been raped by the men and violated with a baton.Posted @ 02:37 PM
Pasco: Rapist faked survey to get into home
Full story: St. Petersburg Times Online
The man, who came to the victim's front door about 1:45 p.m., claimed to be taking a survey, Detective Travis Vail said. Vail gave this account of what followed: The woman unlocked the door and put her two large dogs in another room. She was returning to the door when the man came inside. She tried to run back to let the dogs free, but the man knocked her to the floor and began beating her. She punched and kicked, but the man overpowered her. He had a 6-inch knife sheathed to his waist, which the woman did not notice until he pulled it out. The man was also armed with some sort of wooden dowel. Though the victim did not recognize him, the man called her by her first name and told her he had been watching her. The man, who had a heavy, muscular build, dragged her into the garage, where he found some bailing twine. He used the twine to tie her wrists behind her back and ran the end of it up around her neck. Then he dragged her to the living room and raped her, wearing a condom. "You call the police," he said, "and I'll be back for you." Then he fled though the back door. Still bound, the woman managed to get to a phone, knock it off its cradle and dial 911, possibly using her mouth, Vail said.Posted @ 02:30 PM
Six charged for killing, abusing animals
Full story: Post-Crescent
The defendants are accused of obtaining an adult cat and two kittens, and buying 50 cents worth of gasoline last November before traveling to a secluded gravel pit in Pine Lake to torture the animals, court records said. The adult cat died and one 8-week-old kitten is expected to recover after successful reconstructive surgeries, officials said. Detective Glenn Schaepe of the Oneida County Sheriff's Department said no harm was done to the second kitten because some people involved in the incident hid it. The unharmed kitten was returned to its original owner, he said.Posted @ 02:18 PM
Mother ignores boy's death
Full story: Beacon Journal
After returning from a friend's house about 5 p.m. Tuesday, Johnson-Millender told investigators, she put Joshua to bed sometime between 7 and 8 p.m. and then gave him ``a bottle of half water and half milk.'' When she returned to the child's room at 11:30 p.m., she said, Joshua was not breathing and was unable to open his hand or close his eyes. ``Mother knew he was dead,'' the complaint stated, ``and sat up all night and smoked cigarettes.'' Sometime after a 911 call at 4:50 p.m. Wednesday, Canton Fire Department paramedics arrived at the apartment in the 800 block of Alan Page Drive Southeast and found Joshua dead in his crib, according to the complaint. ``The child's comforter was completely saturated in urine,'' the complaint stated, ``and a full bottle was underneath the pillow.'' Police arrested Johnson-Millender that night and charged her with involuntary manslaughter and felony child endangering. Police said she remained in the Stark County Jail on Friday in lieu of a $500,000 cash bond. The complaint stated that Johnson-Millender and a friend were watching television on the morning after Joshua died, that the friend called a relative hours later, and that the relative was the one who made the emergency call. Stark County Chief Deputy Coroner P.S.S. Murthy, who performed an autopsy on Joshua on Thursday, said the child weighed only 10 pounds, 4 ounces. He said the cause of death was ``a severe case of malnourishment'' -- medical terminology for starvation. Murthy said the child's stomach contained only a ``brown material'' that he presumed to be milk. Johnson-Millender admitted to investigators that she had not given Joshua solid food since New Year's Eve ``because she was tired of cleaning up puke,'' the complaint stated.Posted @ 02:11 PM
Women abducted, sold as brides
Full story: Delhi Newsline
When Sandhya (name changed) lodged complaint with the Chandni Chowk police station late Monday night, stating she had been sold in Panipat, it was a new face of human trafficking that was revealed, say the authorities. The women are being abducted and sold as brides among agricultural communities of Haryana. Sandhya had been abducted from Delhi, and sold off to agriculturists in Karnal. Says Secretary Health, Haryana, Raj Kumar : ‘‘Foeticide, largely practised among the large agricultural communities in Haryana and Punjab is most common in the more affluent communities, who can afford sex determination. This has led to an adverse sex ratio in Haryana, which is at 860 women per 1000 men.’’Posted @ 02:09 PM
Doomsday cult chemist sentenced
Full story: CNEWS World
A chemist was sentenced to death on Friday for leading efforts by a doomsday group to develop the nerve gas used in a 1995 attack on the Tokyo subways that killed 12 people, a court official said. Masami Tsuchiya, 39, was the 11th member of the Aum Shinrikyo cult that carried out the attack to be sentenced to death. Prosecutors said Tsuchiya's responsibility in the killings was second only to that of the group's guru, Shoko Asahara. Tokyo District Court spokesman Hideyuki Itoh said Tsuchiya had been given the death penalty. It wasn't immediately known if Tsuchiya's lawyers would appeal the decision. Tsuchiya, convicted on charges of murder and attempted murder in the subway gassing and other attacks, was accused of heading the cult's drive to develop an arsenal of chemical weapons -- including VX, mustard and sarin gases -- intended to trigger Armageddon. Sarin was used in the March 1995 attack on the subways, in which cult followers punctured plastic bags of the gas on rush-hour subway trains. In addition to the deaths, the attack sickened some 5,000 people and shocked the country.Posted @ 01:58 PM
Mom To Stand Trial For Allegedly Drowning Children
Full story: CBS 4 Denver
A judge ruled Tuesday that a 32-year-old nurse is competent to stand trial on first-degree charges in the bathtub drowning deaths of her two children. Prowers County District Judge Douglas Talman set a preliminary hearing for Rebekah Amaya for March 31, prosecutors said. Talman issued his decision after a psychiatric evaluation of Amaya was conducted by doctors at the state mental hospital in Pueblo. Investigators say Amaya drowned Grace, 4, and five-month-old Gabriel in a tub at the family's home Oct. 16. In an arrest affidavit, Amaya told investigators she felt peace, not fear, when a spider crawled across her hand -- and she took that as a sign she should kill her children.Posted @ 01:52 PM
Teenage rapist guilty of murdering 79-year-old woman
Full story: Ananova
A teenager has been convicted of raping and murdering a 79-year-old grandmother before burning her body on the pensioner's cooker at the bungalow where she lived alone. Lee Brown, sat slumped in the Northampton Crown Court dock and gave no reaction as the jury returned the verdict on the first anniversary of the Joan Biggs' death.Posted @ 01:48 PM
Visalia man found guilty in slaying
Full story: visaliatimesdelta.com
Bratsch said that on the day of the murder, April 25, Juan Delgado was driving his car when he saw Perez, who was his girlfriend at the time, and Navarez walking on the side of the road. He picked them up and then went to pick up his brother. They drove to several places in the Visalia and Goshen area, "searching for a place to crash," Bratsch said. While they were driving around, all three defendants testified that Perez became "annoying" and at one point swung a sharp object and pulled on the steering wheel. Alejandro Delgado testified that he thought Perez was going to pull on the steering wheel again and he shot her in the head. He was sitting in the back seat behind his brother. Perez was seated in the front passenger seat. The three of them then pulled into an orchard near Goshen where they dumped her body. The car ran out of gas a few minutes later and the car was left nearby, with all their belongings still inside. Bratsch said the three men then hitchhiked back to Visalia where they were later arrested.Posted @ 01:42 PM
Porn ring linked to Williamson County
Full story: The Southern Illinoisan
Griffith, a Woodlawn junior high school basketball coach, was arrested Friday. He was the sixth man arrested and is not likely to be the last, authorities say. Griffith, who signed a letter of resignation Friday while in jail, was hired as assistant boys basketball coach at the school in October and coached seventh-and eighth-grade boys. He is a 2000 graduate of Woodlawn high school. Jefferson County authorities uncovered the child pornography ring Jan. 15. They were acting on a tip provided by a 13-year-old Harrisburg runaway who told authorities she had participated in a pornographic video in Mount Vernon.Posted @ 01:38 PM
Alleged Killer, Child Rapist Caught
Full story: 11Alive
Atlanta police say 36-year-old Shawn Louise Goodman robbed a National Bank of Commerce in Duluth, Ga., on December 16. Bank video cameras captured pictures of Goodman committing the crime. Sometime afterward, police say Goodman traveled to Salisbury, N.C., and committed a murder. It's suspected that Goodman stabbed his girlfriend - Kristina Mack - to death in the presence of her 2-year-old daughter. Authorities say the child remained in her apartment with her deceased mother for nearly two days before police discovered the woman's body. Police say the child may have been sexually assaulted by Goodman.Posted @ 01:33 PM
Police: Abused 5-Year-Old Fla. Girl Nearly Died Of Shock
Full story: local6.com
A 5-year-old girl was recovering Monday at All Children's Hospital in St. Petersburg after being found with a broken arm, cuts, open sores and near death with septic shock, police said. There also was evidence she had been choked with a cord, said deputies who arrested her father and stepmother. Mary Elizabeth Vanfleet, a kindergarten student, was barely conscious when taken from her home late Friday, Charlotte County sheriff's deputies said. They said she was in septic shock, a condition that occurs when infection lowers blood pressure and decreases blood flow.Posted @ 01:20 PM
Man Convicted in Multiple Killings
Full story: 11Alive
A man convicted of murdering an Augusta woman and accused of raping and killing three others was sentenced to death Monday. Reinaldo Rivera, 40, of North Augusta, S.C., showed no emotion when the Superior Court jury returned its verdict after more than eight hours of deliberation. On Saturday, Rivera asked the jurors to sentence him to die. "I took the lives of so many people. By God, the right decision for you to make is to give me the death penalty," Rivera said during the sentencing phase of his trial. The same jury convicted Rivera on Friday of 14 counts in the fatal Sept. 4, 2000, attack on Fort Gordon soldier Sgt. Marni M. Glista, 21, and an Oct. 10, 2000, assault on Chrisilee Barton. Rivera, of North Augusta, S.C., said that given the chance, he would likely kill again. "I still fantasize about hurting the same girls that I killed," he testified.Posted @ 01:15 PM