NEWS CHOMP

TACOMA, WA: SUSAN POWELL'S SONS, CHARLIE AND BRADEN, MORE THAN A THOUSAND AT FUNERAL

2012-02-12T18:58:00.000-08:00

AP / Feb. 11, 2012: Photos of Charlie, right, and Braden Powell are displayed next to the casket they shared during their funeral service.

Kids Choir Sings At Charlie And Braden Powell's Funeral
More than a thousand remember Powell boys at public funeral
Published February 12, 2012 / Associated Press /FOX NEWS

TACOMA, Wash. – More than a thousand people mourned the deaths of Charlie and Braden Powell at a public funeral Saturday, nearly a week after the young boys' father killed them and himself in a gas-fueled blaze.

"We want to celebrate their innocence today," said the Rev. Dean Curry, lead pastor of Life Center Church in Tacoma. "We want to be grateful for the moments we had with these children."

The boys' grandfather Chuck Cox thanked police, social workers, teachers and everyone who cared for Charlie, 7, and Braden, 5, as well as people who had prayed for the boys after they died.

It "helps us to know that there are good people in the world -- good people who fight against evil," Cox said.

At the front of the church's sanctuary, the boys were in a single casket topped with a large flower arrangement that included daisies, roses and sunflowers.

"We know that they're with their mother," Cox said, remembering his daughter, Susan Powell, who has been missing for two years and is presumed dead.

The boys' father, Josh Powell, was in the middle of a custody battle with Cox when he torched his rental home in Graham last Sunday.

Josh Powell was a person of interest in his wife's disappearance in Utah two years ago, and prosecutors consider the fire an admission that he killed her.

Cox gained custody of the children more than five months ago after police arrested Josh Powell's father, Steve, on voyeurism and child pornography charges.

The kids were arriving for a supervised visit when Josh Powell blocked a social worker from entering the home. He then attacked the boys with a hatchet and torched the house, authorities said.

Pierce County sheriff's spokesman Ed Troyer said Saturday that Josh Powell's body will be released to a cousin Monday.

About 1,200 people attended the boys' funeral at Life Center Church in Tacoma. Many of them wore purple and blue ribbons in memory of Susan, Charlie and Braden.

READ: MEMORIAL FOR SUSAN POWELL'S BELOVED SONS, CHARLIE AND BRADEN...

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/02/12/thousands-remember-powell-boys-in-public-funeral/

GRAHAM, WA: JOSH POWELL, WHOSE BLOOD FOUND IN STORAGE UNIT?

2012-02-10T16:38:00.000-08:00

Friday, Feb. 10, 2012

Comforter in Powell unit tests positive for blood
Friday, Feb. 10, 2010 / kirotv.com
By MANUEL VALDES / The Associated Press

SEATTLE —
Police in Washington state who searched a storage unit rented by Josh Powell found a stained comforter that tested positive for blood in initial exams, according to documents filed in court Friday.

Pierce County detectives reported finding a gray-blue-pink comforter with a stain. The search warrant documents say the comforter tested positive for blood. Investigators planned to perform further tests.

Powell killed himself and his two young sons in a gas-fueled inferno Sunday, and Pierce County authorities consider the murder-suicide an admission that he killed his wife.

Investigators had considered Josh Powell a person of interest since his wife, Susan Powell, disappeared in Utah in 2009. At the time, Powell said he took his two sons ice camping in subfreezing temperatures.

Also on Friday, the sheriff's department released a timeline that spans from Saturday, the day before the blast, to Monday, the day after. Among the details that police are trying to determine is if Powell bought the gas cans at a local Fred Meyer store the night before the house fire.

This past week, investigators have tried to piece together Powell's last days, serving search warrants for his sister's cell phone and a local Bank of America branch where security cameras captured him withdrawing money.

READ: MORE MYSTERIES ABOUT LAST DAYS OF JOSH POWELL AND SUSAN POWELL..http://www.kirotv.com/ap/ap/crime/comforter-in-powell-unit-tested-positive-for-blood/nHZbx/

JOSH POWELL: BOTH JOSH AND DAD, STEVEN POWELL, HAD SEX IMAGES ON COMPUTERS

2012-02-10T07:08:00.000-08:00

Powell had 'incestuous' images on his computer, police say Published February 10, 2012
Associated Press / FOX NEWS.COM

SEATTLE – Before Josh Powell was going to try to win back custody of his children last week, Washington state authorities received materials from Utah police that had been discovered on a computer in Powell's home two years ago. Authorities say the images depicted "incestuous" sex and were disconcerting enough that they prompted a psychologist to recommend that Powell undergo an intensive psychosexual evaluation.

But a lawyer for Powell's in-laws, who had custody of the boys, wasn't invited to see the materials before the custody hearing - even though a Utah judge had specified in a sealed court order that he was one of the few people allowed to see them.

Had he seen the images, attorney Steve Downing said, he might have asked the court to change the terms of Powell's supervised visitation with the boys, such as by asking for the visits to be in a public place. Instead, Downing said he didn't learn until Thursday morning - four days after Powell killed himself and the boys in a house fire - that he was allowed to see them.

"That would have absolutely given me the opportunity to submit a declaration about our deep concern. I was approved ... to view those pictures and I was never notified," Downing said. "I could have gone into all the reasons why the visitation could have or should have been restricted."

(snip)

Last year, authorities searched Steve Powell's home, computer and cars for evidence in Susan Powell's disappearance - and instead said they found thousands of voyeuristic pictures and videos, including child pornography recorded by Steve Powell. The state took custody of the boys and turned them over to Susan's parents, Chuck and Judy Cox.

READ: JOSH POWELL HAD INCESTUOUS PICS ON HIS PERSONAL COMPUTER. WAS HE A CLONE OF HIS PERVERTED FATHER?
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/02/10/powell-had-incestuous-images-on-his-computer-police-say/?test=latestnews

JENNIFER WALSTRAND: KILLER DANIEL THREADGILL GUILTY OF 1ST DEGREE MURDER

2012-02-08T18:25:00.000-08:00

UPDATE: Guilty verdict in 2010 slaying of Des Moines woman

Threadgill faces a minimum of 30 years in prison

By Ty Swenson / 02/08/2012 / The Highline Times

Update for Feb. 8

From Master Sgt. Bob Bohl, Des Moines Police:

On Monday, Feb 6, a jury convicted Daniel A. Threadgill 12/17/87 of Murder 1st Degree for the brutal stabbing death of Jennifer Walstrand. Jennifer was discovered at her residence in the 24000 block of 25 Ave S on August 31, 2010. In June 2011, the Des Moines Police Department Investigations Unit received information from “Crime Stoppers of Puget Sound” relating to the murder of Jennifer Walstrand. The Des Moines Police Department’s Investigations Unit followed up on this information and arrested Daniel Threadgill.

From the King County Prosecutor's Office:

A King County jury convicted defendant Daniel Threadgill of the crime of Murder in the First Degree for the brutal stabbing and beating death of Jennifer Walstrand in August of 2009. Walstrand was stabbed at least 63 times and her head was severely stomped on, leaving brutal injuries. Police uncovered Threadgill as the murderer only after several cooperating witnesses who were present at the time of the attack came forward. The attack was motivated by jealousy and a dispute over prostitution.

Senior Prosecutor Carla Carlstrom also obtained a guilty finding that the murder was committed with deliberate cruelty. A sentencing date has been set for March 23rd. Threadgill faces a minimum of 30 years in prison.

READ: UPDATE ON JENNIFER WALSTRAND, KILLER THREADGILL GUILTY...
http://www.highlinetimes.com/2012/02/08/news/update-guilty-verdict-2010-slaying-des-moines-wom

JOSH POWELL: KILLS SELF AND 2 SONS; DOES NOT REVEAL LOCATION OF MISSING SUSAN POWELL

2012-02-06T09:23:00.000-08:00

Susan Powell and sons (Photo: Hardman Photography/Facebook
SUSAN POWELL, LOVING MOTHER OF SONS, BRADEN, 2, AND CHARLES, 4

                                                                                       PETER HALEY / AP
                                                    Firefighters work around the smoldering remains of the house
                                                    where the bodies of Josh Powell and his two sons were found.

Elaine Thompson/AP
JOSH POWELL, EVIL INCARNATE, KILLED SELF AND 2 YOUNG SONS IN FIRE EXPLOSION

Josh Powell Tragedy: Son Said Mom Was In Trunk of Car, Lawyer Claims

By KEVIN DOLAK, OLIVIA KATRANDJIAN, DEAN SCHABNER and COLLEEN CURRY

Feb. 6, 2012

The young sons of Susan and Josh Powell, who died with their father when he ignited an explosion in their Washington home, were beginning to verbalize that their mother was in the trunk of their father's car on the night that she disappeared in 2009, a lawyer for the missing woman's parents said.

Attorney Steve Downing told the Associated Press that Braden and Charles Powell, who were 2 and 4 at the time of Susan Powell's disappearance, were beginning to tell their grandparents details about the night that their father took them on a late-night camping trip during a blizzard, including the fact that their mother disappeared after leaving in the car with their father.

"They were beginning to verbalize more," Downing said. "The oldest boy talked about that they went camping and that mommy was in the trunk. Mom and dad got out of the car and mom disappeared."

Sgt. Mike Powell of the West Valley City Police Department in Utah did not return phone calls inquiring about the children's assertions about their mother's presence on the December 2009 camping trip, AP reported.

"Quite frankly, this has obviously quickly unfolded up in Washington and we're obviously just working through the details ourselves here," Powell, who is not related to the family, said earlier on Sunday.

Josh Powell set off an explosion at his home Sunday that killed himself and his two sons, who were there for a supervised visit.

(snip)

Graham, Wash., Deputy Chief Gary Franz told ABC News that a Child Protective Services (CPS) worker had just dropped off Powell's two sons at the house for a supervised visit. Powell took his two sons inside the house and then locked the CPS worker out.

"The children were just right in front of her as she was walking up to the door," Child Protective Services spokeswoman Sherry Hill said. "They went into the house and Josh shut the door right in front of her and locked it."

The CPS worker smelled gas, stepped away and the house exploded. The case worker was not physically harmed.

"He grabbed the kids, locked her out of the house, and immediately the house went up in flames, very quickly, very big, so we believe that Josh Powell intentionally set this fire," Troyer said.

READ: DETAILS OF JOSH POWELL'S PLANS TO KILL YOUNG SONS...
http://abcnews.go.com/US/josh-powell-tragedy-son-mother-trunk-car-lawyer/story?id=15520394

CANADA: TOOBA YAHYA, SON GUILTY; HONOR KILLING BARBARIC AND UNACCEPTABLE

2012-01-29T23:50:00.000-08:00

Jury finds Afghan family guilty in 'honor' killings
Published January 29, 2012 / Associated Press

KINGSTON, Ontario – A jury on Sunday found an Afghan father, his wife and their son guilty of killing three teenage sisters and a co-wife in what the judge described as "cold-blooded, shameful murders" resulting from a "twisted concept of honor" in a case that shocked and riveted Canadians.

Prosecutors said the defendants allegedly killed the three teenage sisters because they dishonored the family by defying its disciplinarian rules on dress, dating, socializing and using the Internet.

The jury took 15 hours to find Mohammad Shafia, 58; his wife Tooba Yahya, 42; and their son Hamed, 21, each guilty of four counts of first-degree murder. First-degree murder carries an automatic life sentence with no chance of parole for 25 years.

After the verdict was read, the three defendants again declared their innocence in the killings of sisters Zainab, 19, Sahar 17, and Geeti, 13, as well as Rona Amir Mohammad, 52, Shafia's childless first wife in a polygamous marriage.

Their bodies were found June 30, 2009, in a car submerged in a canal in Kingston, Ontario, where the family had stopped for the night on their way home to Montreal from Niagara Falls, Ontario.
The prosecution alleged it was a case of premeditated murder, staged to look like an accident after it was carried out. Prosecutors said the defendants drowned their victims elsewhere on the site, placed their bodies in the car and pushed it into the canal.

Ontario Superior Court Judge Robert Maranger said the evidence clearly supported the conviction.

"It is difficult to conceive of a more heinous, more despicable, more honorless crime," Maranger said. "The apparent reason behind these cold-blooded, shameful murders was that the four completely innocent victims offended your completely twisted concept of honor ... that has absolutely no place in any civilized society."

In a statement following the verdict, Canadian Justice Minister Rob Nicholson called honor killings a practice that is "barbaric and unacceptable in Canada."

READ: TOOBA YAHYA AND SON TORTURED THE WOMEN IN HIS FAMILY, AND MURDERED THEM...http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/01/29/jury-finds-afghan-family-guilty-in-honor-killings/

LAURA GARZA: MICHAEL MELE DESCRIBES MURDER IN COURT, GETS PLEA DEAL

2012-01-24T13:27:00.000-08:00

Courtroom drama: Michael Mele admits killing dancer Laura Garza just as trial opens

Pleads guilty to manslaughter in deal with prosecutors, will serve 23 years

By Henrick Karoliszyn AND Tracy Connor / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Published: Monday, January 23 2012

He lured her from a Manhattan club to his upstate apartment, then refused to drive her home after she realized he had a girlfriend.

To silence her protests, he covered her mouth and nose with his hand until she stopped breathing, heaved her body in a laundry basket, and left it in the woods to rot.

That’s the story serial molester Michael Mele told in court Monday as he pleaded guilty to manslaughter and agreed to a 23-year sentence for killing dancer Laura Garza.

“It happened very quickly,” Mele, 26, said of the 2008 slaying.

“I put my hand over her mouth and partially over her nose, and shortly after that she stopped yelling. She stopped moving. And I realized that something very bad happened.”

The plea-bargain agreement came just before Mele’s murder trial was about to begin. The deal angered Garza’s loved ones, who had hoped he would get more time behind bars.

“For Michael Mele to get 23 years is not right,” said the victim’s brother, Ivan. “For me, there is no justice.”

Elizabeth Esquivel, mother of the pretty Texas transplant, wept as she said Mele got off easy.

“He should be put away for the rest of his life because he took my heart,” she said.

“I hope he melts in jail.”

Mele, who was on probation for a sex crime, picked up Garza, 25, who had just moved to Brooklyn, at Marquee in Chelsea on Dec. 3, 2008.

He drove her to his apartment in Walkill, but when she got there, she must have realized that she would be just a fling.

“She saw a picture of a girl and female-related items that were my girlfriend’s,” Mele said, wearing a dark suit and speaking softly.

“She was upset by being there, knowing that I had a girlfriend.”

He said she demanded he drive her back to the city, about 70 miles away, but he didn’t feel like it.

READ: MICHAEL DESCRIBES KILLING LAURA GARZA, DISPOSING OF BODY..
http://tinyurl.com/7b52k8v

JORAN VAN DER SLOOT: SUCKER OR ANGEL, DR. MARY HAMER PAYS BILLS ...AND MORE

2012-01-22T23:40:00.000-08:00

'I'm Van der Sloot's guardian angel': Divorced Florida radiologist, 55, pays bills for 24-year-old 'double killer'... and even visits him in Peruvian jail

By Daily Mail Reporter / Daily Mail.co.uk / Last updated at 8:34 PM on 12th December 2011

While authorities in Peru can lock up Joran Van der Sloot, they evidently cannot contain his charm and manipulative ways.

Though he's jailed for the murder of Stephany Flores and considered the prime suspect in the disappearance of Natalee Holloway, the 24-year-old Dutchman brags that he still gets a lot of attention from women.

One such woman is Dr Mary Hamer, 55, a radiologist from Florida who has been corresponding with Van der Sloot for more than a year.

Dr Hamer, who is divorced, was struck by Van der Sloot since the moment she heard about the Flores case, and believes he may be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

She also claims that he is the subject of an international conspiracy and has been suffering abuse in prison that has left him visibly shaken.

Dr Hamer told Newsweek: 'I have a very strong feeling about protecting. It’s a very deep natural instinct of mine that is driving me - not driving me, but allowing me the freedom - to help Joran.'

After speaking to his attorney and his mother Anita Van der Sloot, Dr Hamer sent the first of several care packages to him last year.

And she continues to send them today. They contain everything from disinfectant wipes to books on spirituality to clothing he can wear in court.

Later, Dr Hamer was given the first of several opportunities to visit him.

She told Newsweek: 'I come every six months. I will come for the rest of my life. I have even told Joran I will move here.'

READ: WHAT ELSE WILL DR. MARY HAMER DO FOR KILLER JORAN VAN DER SLOOT...
http://tinyurl.com/82zjo85

PERU: JORAN VAN DER SLOOT LOSES "SUGAR MAMA" DR. MARY HAMER

2012-01-22T01:50:00.000-08:00

Joran Van Der Sloot Loses Support of ‘Guardian Angel’ Mary Hamer

Jan 21, 2012 4:45 AM EST / THE DAILY BEAST / WORLD NEWS
Sentenced to 28 years in the killing of Peruvian student Stephany Flores, Joran Van der Sloot has been moved to a maximum-security prison—and cut off from Dr. Mary Hamer, who says she wants her money back

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On the day Joran Van der Sloot pleaded guilty to killing Peruvian college student Stephany Flores and was sentenced to 28 years in prison, he wrote his benefactor, Dr. Mary Hamer, a series of letters designed to persuade her to continue supporting him. The divorced radiologist, 55, had decided to cut him off after hearing his guilty plea, and she demanded that his attorney give back the $75,000 she had sent him for what she described as bail money.

“You will always be in my heart, but this, what you are doing to me now I do not comprehend. Why do you want to hurt me?” Van der Sloot, 24, writes in the first handwritten letter.

Hamer wants the money returned immediately, she told attorney Jose Jimenez, who received the funds in November and was supposed to hand them over to Van der Sloot. Jimenez said he never used the term “bail” with Hamer, “because it was never an option,” he said. “I said many times that we would file for habeas corpus, being that my client had been imprisoned for over 18 months without a trial. If we would have been successful, he would have had expenses to cover, like an apartment we were setting up for him, just in case.”

Described as Van der Sloot’s “benefactor” in the Peruvian press, Hamer said in an interview with Newsweek in late November that she was drawn to the Dutch national on the day he was arrested in Chile for Flores’s murder in June 2010. She first saw his image on television, handcuffed and being led by police to his extradition back to Peru.

READ: JORAN van der SLOOT LOSES MONEY SUPPORT FROM DR. MARY HAMER...
http://tinyurl.com/6rlmdxr

DREW PETERSON: LOVE LETTERS TURN BIZARRE AND GRAPHIC

2012-01-22T01:20:00.000-08:00

Drew Peterson Writing Love Letters to Woman from Jail: Report

Published : Thursday, 07 Apr 2011
By Anita Padilla, FOX Chicago News

Chicago - It would seem Drew Peterson is working on a love connection, even from jail, according to a new report. The accused murderer reportedly has been sending some racy messages to a woman he's known for several years.

Diana Grandel, 40, told the National Enquirer she met Peterson when she was 14 years old, when Peterson was a young cop and he reportedly rescued her and her family from an abusive father.

Grandel said she reached out to Peterson in a letter to show her support following his arrest for the murder of his third wife, Kathleen Savio. She said it didn't take long before the friendship turned strange.

She started getting mail, at least a dozen letters from Peterson, that was pretty bizarre, Grandel said. He reportedly wanted photos of her in a bikini, her clothing measurements and was graphic in describing what he wanted to do with her in bed.

"I just think of your smile and holding you in the dark feeling your body against mine...I want to spend a lot of time with my lips on yours," he reportedly wrote in one letter.

"I have a closet full of new or like-new clothes Stacy left behind when she abandoned us, everything from formal dresses to sweats to bikinis," Peterson wrote in another, according to the publication. Of course the Stacy he wrote about is Stacy Peterson, Drew's fourth wife.

Stacy Peterson disappeared nearly two and a half years ago and hasn't been seen since.

READ: DREW PETERSON WRITES LETTERS TO DIANA GRANDEL ...
http://tinyurl.com/88982xh

McSTAY FAMILY VANISHED FEB 2010. NOW DEC 2011 -McSTAYS, WHERE ARE YOU?

2012-01-01T16:34:00.000-08:00

E! Investigates films segment locally on missing McStay family of four

Thursday, November 17th, 2011
Issue 46, Volume 15 / FALLBROOK - BONSALL VILLAGE NEWS
Andrea Verdin , Staff Writer

The internationally-aired program E! Investigates came to Fallbrook in mid-October to begin filming a segment it will produce on the McStay family of four that has now been missing from their home here for over 21 months. The family, last seen Feb. 4, 2010, includes Joseph McStay, 40, his wife Summer McStay, 43, and sons Gianni McStay, 4, and Joseph McStay Jr., 3.

Unless something dramatically changes between now and mid-December when the segment will air, the piece is destined to create intrigue over the family’s mysterious disappearance rather than provide new information that has been learned, as law enforcement doesn’t seem any closer to solving the case than they were at the very beginning.

The film crew has been working throughout the county interviewing individuals they feel could relate the disturbing story to their viewers. One of those they interviewed was Village News Editor Debbie Ramsey.

"I told [E! network associates] that I didn’t know anything that anyone else didn’t know at this time, but I agreed to be interviewed about the details of the case as I understood them," said Ramsey. "I am glad they are doing the segment because I am hoping in keeping the public aware of it, it could possibly ultimately turn up some new leads for law enforcement. This is a very troubling situation. Law enforcement has diligently followed up on all leads they have received and reached dead end after dead end."

The Village News has also shared all stories staff members have written relating to the case with the E! Network.

San Diego County Sheriff’s Department Homicide Detective Troy DuGal has been the lead on the case since the beginning.

"It is still a very open and active case; it always has been," said DuGal. "Nothing has ever changed on the status of the case, however. I continue to get what appear to be new leads and we exhaust every one of those possibilities."

DuGal said his team continues to work on it.

"We are current on all leads we have received to date; we have followed up on leads people have called in saying they’ve seen one or more of The family, who was living in a house they had purchased in the Lake Rancho Viejo development in Fallbrook, just east of Interstate 15, was reported missing by Michael McStay, Joseph’s brother. The family’s car, a 1996 Isuzu Trooper, was found in an impound yard just north of the Mexican border four days after they were last seen. The vehicle had been towed from a strip mall parking lot.

Officials, when reviewing tapes of the United States/Mexico border crossing point at San Ysidro, thought an image of the family walking across the international boundary had been captured on tape, but relatives didn’t agree on whether it was indeed the McStay family.

READ UPDATE: McStay family disappeared in Feb 2010. http://www.thevillagenews.com/story/59931/

E! Investigates is tentatively set to air on televsion Dec. 15, 2011.

For more information on McStay disappearance, or to report sightings, contact family website at
http://www.mcstayfamily.com/

YOUTUBE VIDEO OF FOUR PEOPLE CROSSING INTO MEXICO (see at :28 seconds)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrW223Yq6Ik

CHOMP COMMENTS: Where was this family from the time they left their house in Fallbrook (San Diego) until the time they parked their car in San Ysidro, and walked across the border into Mexico? Why not tell their family that they were leaving? Why cross the border at night? Who is "Summer" McStay really? Why did she change her name several times, and why does she wear sunglasses in photos?

PENN STATE: 1998, SANDUSKY INVESTIGATED FOR SEXUAL ASSAULT OF BOY

2011-11-12T21:00:00.000-08:00

I'm Considering Relocating to Sodom . . .
Posted by Ann Barnhardt - November 10, AD 2011

. . . because I'm absolutely convinced that this culture, right now, today, is WORSE than Sodom or Gomorrah ever were. Sodom would be a step up.

It is now all over the internet that Sandusky was running a high-dollar pedophile ring, and that "Second Mile" was merely a front and means of recruiting and enslaving young boys who were then pimped to wealthy Penn State donors for sex.

Penn State should be shut down. Not just the football program - the entire university. Shut it down immediately. Any student of Penn State with any sense should be making arrangements to transfer to another university, because graduating from Penn State would necessitate that said person list Penn State on their resume, which will now be a major, major strike against that person. Why? Because they knowingly entered and subsidized a cult that worshiped an old man who "coached" a football team. And, as it turns out, that old man facilitated and enabled a massive pedophile ring. Further, said students, even after learning of this and seeing that "old man" fired, RIOTED last night IN SUPPORT OF THE CULT LEADER / PEDOPHILE RING ENABLER.

TIMELINE:
1998: Sandusky is investigated for an incident involving himself sexually assaulting a young boy in the Penn State showers. Child Protective Services investigate. The university is fully notified.

READ: MORE TIMELINE OF PENN STATE PEDOPHILE RING AND SANDUSKY INVESTIGATION...
http://barnhardt.biz/

BELLEVUE, WA: SKY METAWALA DISAPPEARS FROM MOM'S CAR, FBI SEARCHING

2011-11-07T09:47:00.000-08:00

Bellevue police search for missing 2-year-old boy

Aided by search dogs, police from Bellevue and King County combed a part of Bellevue known as Northtowne Sunday looking for 2-year-old Sky Metalwala. The boy's mother said she left the child in the car after she ran out of gas and went to get help, but that when she returned the boy was missing.
By Sanjay Bhatt / Seattle Times staff reporter / November 6, 2011
Seattle Times reporters Lynn Thompson and Craig Welch contributed to this report.

Police and search dogs fanned out in a wooded area of Bellevue on Sunday, looking for a 2-year-old boy after the child's mother discovered him missing from a car parked near the 2600 block of 112th Avenue N.E.
The parking lot of nearby Bellevue Montessori School, in a part of Bellevue called Northtowne near I-405 and Highway 520, filled with emergency vehicles as the search continued into the afternoon and then into the chilly evening. Officers suspended the search around 6 p.m. and had no immediate plans to continue in the morning.

"King County felt like they had done a very thorough search of a pretty wide area for the boy and were confident that he wasn't there," said Officer Carla Iafrate, spokeswoman for the Bellevue Police Department.

The search began after Bellevue police responded at 9:50 a.m. to a call from a woman who said she had run out of gas and left the child, Sky Metalwala, buckled into a car seat while she and her 4-year-old walked about a mile to a Chevron gas station.

There, police said, the mother called a friend. The mother told police the friend picked her up as she was walking back to her 4-door silver Acura, but when they reached the car, the boy was no longer there. The mother told police the car was not locked.

There was no sign of forced entry, police said.

"We don't know much, other than that the child is still missing," Iafrate said. "I don't know if the child got out on his own. We don't have very much information."

Police did not find a gas can at the car, Iafrate said.

The child has brown eyes and dark buzz-cut hair and was wearing a dark-green hooded sweatshirt and blue and gray striped pants.

READ: BELLEVUE, WA: MOM LEAVES SON, SKY METAWALA, IN CAR; HE VANISHED...
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2016707302_missingchild07m.html

POTEAU, OK: PARENTS OF 9 ARRESTED, INCEST BABY DISAPPEARED.

2011-11-07T07:46:00.000-08:00

Okla. Officials Continue Search for Infant's Body

By JEANNIE NUSS and JUSTIN JUOZAPAVICIUS / Associated Press

TULSA, Okla. November 5, 2011 (AP)

Investigators plan to scour a vast patch of land in rural eastern Oklahoma this weekend in search of the body of a baby born to a young girl whose parents were arrested on child abuse charges.

The girl told authorities her father helped her deliver the child at home, told her it was dead and buried it behind a goat pen. Goats and cows mulled about the property Friday while officials used a backhoe to dig for answers.

The girl's parents, who were taken into custody Tuesday in a grocery store parking lot near Mena, Ark., were arrested on multiple charges of child abuse and endangerment. An application for exhumation of a body filed by Smith's office alleges that one of the nine siblings taken into emergency custody by the state because of "extreme physical and educational neglect" told investigators she and her younger sibling had been sexually abused by their father.

(snip)

Court documents from Kansas show that the father arrested this week was charged with aggravated incest nearly two decades ago. In the 1993 court filing, Montgomery County prosecutors charged that the man "willfully, wrongfully, unlawfully and feloniously engage(d) in an unlawful sex act" with his 8-year-old daughter. The girl's mother, who divorced the man and is not the woman arrested this week, is listed on the court filing as a witness.

READ: OKLAHOMA COUPLE ARRESTED, DAD CHARGED WITH INCEST 20 YEAR AGO, STILL HAS KIDS...
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/okla-officials-continue-search-infants-body-14887066

CHOMP COMMENT: Why was a sexually abusive father given custody of the children in the divorce? What court, what judge would give custody to the abusive parent?

KANSAS CITY: BABY LISA IRWIN, DOG FINDS CADAVER SCENT IN HOME ???

2011-10-29T21:04:00.000-07:00

Cadaver dog has 'hit' inside baby Lisa's home

Court documents gives details of search; still no sign of missing 10-month-old Kansas City girl
Associated Press / 10/21/2011

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — An FBI cadaver dog reacted to the scent of a dead person inside the Kansas City home where a baby girl disappeared nearly three weeks ago, and investigators discovered soil in the backyard that had been "recently disturbed or overturned," police said in a court document released Friday.

But the lawyer for the family questioned the significance of the report.

The affidavit, filed earlier this week in support of a search warrant targeting the family's home, also stated that the girl's mother, Deborah Bradley, "made the statement she did not initially look for her baby behind the house because she 'was afraid of what she might find.'"

Those details and others in the affidavit, publicly released Friday, led to a daylong search Wednesday of the family's home, where the parents say then-10-month-old Lisa Irwin must have been snatched in the middle of the night as the mother and two other boys slept. Bradley and the baby's father, Jeremy Irwin, reported the girl missing on Oct. 4 and have denied any role in the disappearance while insisting police have pointed the finger at them.

The affidavit stated that an FBI cadaver dog taken into the house Monday indicated a "positive 'hit' for the scent of a deceased human in an area of the floor of Bradley's bedroom near the bed."

The FBI dogs, which often are used at both disaster and crime scenes, are trained "specially to recognize the scent of decaying, decomposing human flesh," retired FBI special agent Jeff Lanza said Friday.

"That can be the scent of an actual body decomposing, or residual scents after the body is no longer there," Lanza said.
But Joe Tacopina, lawyer for the parents, told The Associated Press late Friday he considers the report meaningless. Tacopina noted that cadaver dogs are trained to detect decomposing flesh — and even if the baby had died, decomposition could not have happened so quickly.

READ: BABY LISA IRWIN, POLICE DOGS HIT ON CADAVER SCENT IN PARENT'S HOME...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44992690/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/t/cadaver-dog-has-hit-inside-baby-lisas-home/

SEAL BEACH, CA: SCOTT DEKRAAI SHOT 9 AT SALON, 8 DIE

2011-10-15T20:50:00.000-07:00

Seal Beach shooting: Cache of weapons shows planning, police say

Los Angeles Times / October 15, 2011
Louis Sahagun and Nicole Santa Cruz

Police said the suspect the Seal Beach salon attack that killed eight people was well armed and appeared to be prepared for a shootout with police.

Acting Seal Beach Police Chief Tom Olson said Scott Dekraai was armed with handguns -- a 9-millimeter Springfield, a Heckler & Koch .45-caliber and a Smith & Wesson .44-caliber magnum -- "and wore body armor because he did not want to be shot by police."

Officials said Dekraai used at least two handguns in the attack and did not appear to be under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

Dekraai had a troubled background, according to relatives and court documents. A tugboat accident off El Segundo in 2007 left him facing multiple surgeries. Once trim and muscular, he became overweight. He was also paying $1,500 a month in child support.

Prosecutors said they would seek the death penalty against Dekraai, who is charged with eight felony counts of special circumstance first-degree murder, and one felony count of attempted murder in connection with the worst mass killings in Orange County history.

RELATED:
Suspect suffered PTSD from boat injury

Victim predicted ex-husband would kill her

Full coverage: Deadly Seal Beach shooting

READ: DEKRAAI KILLS 8, WOUNDS 1, MAY GET DEATH PENALTY...
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/10/seal-beach-shooting-cache-of-weapons-shows-planning-police-say.html

MISSOURI: BABY LISA IRWIN -PARENTS NOT COOPERATING. WHY?

2011-10-08T13:56:00.000-07:00

Lisa Irwin update: Bizarre twists in missing Missouri baby case

Isabelle Zehnder, Missing Persons Examiner / October 7, 2011

KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Isabelle Zehnder reporting) -- The case of missing 10-month old Missouri baby Lisa Irwin has taken bizarre twists Thursday andFriday.

Events over the past two days have greatly changed public opinion about the couple who says their baby was snatched from their Kansas City, Missouri home earlier in the week. Slideshow: Photos of Lisa.

On Friday, Marc Klaas, Founder of Klaas Kids Foundation for Children, wrote a blog post entitled The Strange Case of Baby Lisa saying he believes baby Lisa’s case has deteriorated due to some terrible choices her parents have made over the past 24-hours.

They have focused the attention back upon themselves, he said, and raised questions about their intent.

Couple stops talking, tempers flare

It was reported that Lisa’s distraught father, Jeremy Irwin, was seen leaving a police station Thursday afternoon. Questions arose as to why Lisa’s mother, Deborah “Debbi” Bradley didn’t leave with him.

It was later reported that the reason Jeremy left the police station was because he was tired and didn’t like the way police were handling their questioning.

Things seemed to spiral downhill from there.

At around 7 p.m. Thursday evening, the couple was scheduled to speak at a news conference. Shortly after they arrived they were called away to a wooded area near their home that had previously been searched, and that police were searching again.

Reporters said that once the parents arrived at the search scene voices were raised, arms were flailing, and the couple once again sped away in a nearby vehicle.

Police say parents no longer cooperating

Shortly after the confrontation Kansas City Police spokesman Steve Young announced the baby’s father, Jeremy Irwin, and her mother Debbi were no longer cooperating with police

READ UPDATE: KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI, 10-MONTH BABY LISA MISSING, PARENTS JEREMY IRWIN, DEBORAH BRADLEY REFUSE TO TALK TO POLICE...http://www.examiner.com/missing-persons-in-national/lisa-irwin-update-bizarre-twists-missing-missouri-baby-case

MEREDITH KERCHER: FAMILY ASKS, DON'T FORGET THE VICTIM!

2011-10-01T22:53:00.000-07:00

Kercher family remembers beloved daughter
COLLEEN BARRY, Associated Press
Saturday, October 1, 2011

PERUGIA, Italy (AP) — Meredith Kercher would have been 25. The British student would have finished her degree at Leeds University and perhaps been preparing for another Halloween, a day she loved.

Instead, her family awaits an appeals verdict expected Monday against former roommate Amanda Knox, of Seattle, who was convicted along with her Italian ex-boyfriend of murdering Kercher in 2007.

Kercher's killing has spawned one of Italy's most sensational and closely watched trials. Yet to her family's frustration, Kercher has been eclipsed in the public's eye by the 24-year-old Knox, as supporters of the photogenic American mount a high-profile campaign to free her.

By contrast, Kercher's family has chosen to remain largely silent during the years of trial and appeal, quietly honoring her memory on the Nov. 1 anniversary of her death and her birthday on Dec. 28. But they are growing increasingly agitated as the appeal verdict approaches.

In one of the few TV interviews they have granted, Kercher's sister Stephanie and mother Arline said attention should focus on justice for the victim, not Knox or her ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, who is also appealing his conviction alongside Knox.

"In this whole case — going on four years — Meredith has been forgotten," Stephanie Kercher said in a recorded interview on RAI public television this month.

"The attention has completely moved from Meredith to Amanda and Raffaele," she said. "She was lovely, kind and we lost her."

(snip)
On the last night of her life, she ate pizza and apple crumble with a small group of friends, watched a movie and went home alone around 9 p.m., according to court testimony.

Meredith was 21 when she was found the afternoon of Nov. 2 sprawled naked on the floor of her locked bedroom, throat slashed, body covered in a blanket.

READ: MEREDITH WAS LOVED BY FAMILY AND FRIENDS... REMEMBER HER LIFE, NOT HER KILLER'S
http://www.seattlepi.com/news/article/Kercher-family-remembers-beloved-daughter-2196394.php#photo-1636345

JENNIFER WALSTRAND: BRUTAL KILLERS PLEAD NOT GUILTY

2011-09-07T21:24:00.000-07:00

UPDATE 3: Two charged with first degree murder in 2010 slaying of Des Moines woman

Court documents reveal an alleged brutal and premeditated murder
By Ty Swenson / 06-30-2011

Update for July 8

Synae Araya McMillon-Cooper, 21, Threadgill's co-defendant in the murder case of Jennifer Walstrand, pleaded not guilty as well on July 7. McMillon's case setting is on July 20, same day as Threadgill's.

Update for July 6
According to King County Prosecutors, Daniel Threadgill pleaded not guilty to first degree murder charges on July 5. Threadgill's case setting is scheduled for July 20 (where they decide on a trial date).

Threadgill's co-defendant Synae Araya McMillon-Cooper's arraignment was postponed until later this week.

Update for June 30
Daniel Alexander Threadgill, 23, and Synae Araya McMillon-Copper (referred to as McMillon from here on out), 21, have been charged with first degree murder in the slaying of Jennifer Walstrand in Des Moines in August 2010.

Charging documents released on June 24 by the Superior Court of Washington for King County reveal Des Moines detectives used anonymous tips, witness testimony and wiretap surveillance in building a case against the accused.

Walstrand, 28 years old at the time of her death, was found brutally stabbed and beaten in her Des Moines apartment on August 31, 2010. Senior Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Scott M. O’Toole requested that bail be denied for Threadgill and McMillon, with an alternative of $5 million bail for each defendant.

In O’Toole’s words, “The vicious attack on Jennifer Walstrand – 63 stab wounds, in addition to the substantial injuries from having her skull stomped on – and the defendants’ total lack of remorse are further evidence of the extreme danger that they present to the community.”

READ: COMPLETE UPDATE OF JENNIFER WALSTRAND'S CASE
http://www.highlinetimes.com/2011/06/30/news/update-3-two-charged-first-degree-murder-2010-sla

SEATTLE: DR. LOUIS CHEN, WHO STABBED THEM? "I DID!"

2011-08-17T21:46:00.000-07:00

Doctor charged in knife deaths of partner, son
newsobserver.com / published Weds August 17, 2011
BY CHRISTINE CLARRIDGE - Seattle Times

SEATTLE -- Former Duke University doctor Louis Chao Chen was charged Tuesday with two counts of aggravated murder in connection with the deaths of his partner and their nearly 3-year-old son last week in a Seattle high-rise apartment.

If convicted, Chen, 39, could face either life in prison or the death penalty.

The bodies of Eric Cooper, 29, and the couple's son, Cooper Chen, were found Thursday in their penthouse in Seattle's First Hill neighborhood. In charging documents, prosecutors allege that Cooper was stabbed at least 100 times, including on his face, neck, chest, back and hands. The child suffered numerous cuts to his neck, documents say.

(snip)

Chen, Cooper and the child had just moved to Seattle from Durham in July. They spent two years in Durham while Chen had a two-year clinical fellowship in endocrinology at Duke. Cooper apparently stayed at their Ivy Meadow Lane home with the child while Chen worked.

Cooper Chen was conceived with Chen's sperm and the egg of an anonymous donor, then was carried to term by a surrogate mother. When the child was born nearly three years ago, he was adopted by Eric Cooper.

The two men met about 12 years ago when Chen was attending the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine and Cooper was a 17-year-old high-school senior in Tinley Park, Ill.

The men moved in 2000 to California, where Chen did his residency in internal medicine at the University of California, San Diego. They also had lived in Minneapolis, where Chen was granted a faculty appointment at the University of Minnesota and served as an attending physician at the VA Hospital, while Cooper earned his bachelor's degree from the university.

The child was born while they were living in Minnesota.

After the move to Durham, Chen obtained a grant to study diabetics with gastric problems, according to publications.

READ: LOUIS CHAO CHEN KILLS ERIC COOPER AND SON
http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/08/17/1417691/doctor-charged-in-knife-deaths.html

DOUGLASVILLE,GA: BOY,14,HACKS GREAT-GRANDMOTHER WITH SWORD

2011-08-16T21:10:00.000-07:00

14-year-old slays great-grandmother with sword, stabs grandmother over video game dispute

BY Philip Caulfield
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Tuesday, August 16th 2011

A deranged Georgia teen hacked his great-grandmother to death with a sword and stabbed his grandmother after they told him to stop playing a video game, cops and neighbors said.

Douglas County police said the boy, 14, was stalking the front lawn of his Douglasville, Ga., home with a sword and a pellet gun when they showed up on Monday afternoon, CBS Atlanta reported.

His 77-year-old great-grandmother’s body lay on the lawn, while his grandmother, who was in her 50s, had barricaded herself in a room, police said.

"He came out with a pellet gun and shot two windows out of a patrol car that was sitting there. He was shooting at us with the pellet gun and swinging the sword around in the air," Douglas County Sheriff Phil Miller told CBS.

Deputies managed to distract the teen before sending a police dog to take him down.

"We sent a K-9 unit in and he hit the K-9 with the butt of his gun. At that point, we Tased him then took him into custody," Miller told CBS.

The grandmother was taken to a hospital and expected to recover, police said. The great-grandmother was pronounced dead on the scene. No one involved was identified.

READ: GEORGIA TEEN HACKS GREAT GRANDMOTHER WITH SWORD
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/2011/08/16/2011-08 16_14yearold_slays_greatgrandmother_with_sword_stabs_grandmother_over_video_game_di.html?r=news

SEATTLE: DR. LOUIS CHEN STABS MALE PARTNER AND THEIR SON

2011-08-15T23:15:00.000-07:00

Police: Doctor admitted to killing partner, son By LEVI PULKKINEN, SEATTLEPI.COM STAFF
Monday, August 15, 2011

As prosecutors weigh charges in the case, Seattle police say a First Hill doctor admitted to killing his partner and 2-year-old adopted son.

In court documents filed Monday, investigators say Dr. Louis C. Chen told officers he killed the boy and his partner after Chen was discovered naked and covered in blood at their apartment Thursday morning.

At 10 a.m. the day the slayings were discovered, a co-worker of Chen’s arrived at the 8th Avenue apartment after he failed to show up to work, according to police statements. She arrived at the 17th-floor apartment to find Chen bloodied and nude, a Seattle detective told the court.

“When officers arrived they found the suspect slumped by the front door,” the detective told the court.

Chen’s partner was found dead inside the apartment, as was the men’s two-year-old son.

Police began delivering first aid to Chen, who remains hospitalized with non-life threatening stab wounds. According to court documents, they also asked Chen about his injuries.

“Who did this to you?” an officer asked.

“What?” Chen allegedly responded.

“Who stabbed you and your partner?” the officer continued.

“I did,” Chen said, according to court documents.

READ: WHY DID LOUIS CHEN STAB PARTNER AND THEIR SON
http://www.seattlepi.com/local/article/Police-Doctor-admitted-to-killing-partner-son-2015853.php#photo-2

JENNIFER WALSTRAND: 2 KILLERS REVEALED, ARRESTED

2011-07-23T15:18:00.000-07:00

Police: Jealousy prompted slaying of 25-year-old Des Moines woman / Two charged with first-degree murder in August slaying
By LEVI PULKKINEN, SEATTLEPI.COM STAFF
Friday, June 24, 2011

Nearly a year after Jennifer Walstrand was found stabbed 63 times, two people have been charged in the 25-year-old Des Moines woman’s slaying.

Filing charges Friday, King County prosecutors claim a Daniel Alexander Threadgill, 23, stabbed and kicked Walstrand to death at the request of Synae Araya McMillon-Cooper, a 21-year-old Seattle woman who had worked as a prostitute with Walstrand.

Both were arrested Tuesday and have now been charged with first-degree murder in the Aug. 31 slaying.

According to charging documents, McMillon-Cooper – also known as Araya McMillon – and Walstrand were both “high-end” call girls working for the same pimp. Investigators claim the McMillon-Cooper was jealous and angry with Walstrand, and conspired with the Threadgill, a club promoter and Bellevue resident, to kill her.

Prosecutors contend McMillon-Cooper tackled Walstrand and looked on while Threadgill stabbed her repeatedly. Witnesses – who came forward months after the killing – told investigators McMillon-Cooper urged Threadgill on as a gravely injured Walstrand begged for her life.

READ: WHAT A STUPID, STUPID MOTIVE FOR KILLING JENNIFER WALSTRAND...
http://www.seattlepi.com/local/article/Police-Jealousy-prompted-slaying-of-25-year-old-1438800.php

JENNIFER WALSTRAND: NOV 2010 -WILL KILLER STRIKE AGAIN?

2010-11-07T08:41:00.000-08:00

Search intensifies for college student's killer
by OWEN LEI / KING 5 News
KTVB.COM / Posted on October 29, 2010 at 10:53 AM

DES MOINES, Wash. -- The family of a murdered Highline Community College student, who was trying to leave behind a life of drugs and prostitution, is ramping up the search for her killer.

Jennifer Walstrand, 28, was found dead in her apartment in August.

Her mother, Lori Batinik, said friends and family will be posting Crime Stoppers posters around her neighborhood. They plan to talk to neighbors and nearby businesses, trying to generate leads on a case that is still a mystery, almost two months after Walstrand's death.

"You know, this was a really violent thing, and I understand her lifestyle, but regardless, there was just no sense to this," Batinik said. "There was no reason for it, and it scares me because there is somebody out there who did this and that person is still out there."

"And I'm convinced they'll do it again," she added.

The family has raised $5,000 to add to a $1,000 reward offered by Crime Stoppers of Puget Sound for any information leading to an arrest.

(snip)

Police spokesman Bob Collins said lab results on evidence recovered at the scene is still pending, though they have been following leads from computer and cell phone records.

Walstrand also went by the names “Roxie” and “Face.”

In a statement, Des Moines Police said they "understand individuals may be reluctant to come forward. We want to emphasize our focus is on this violent crime and not on any alleged prostitution activity. We are determined to identify and bring to justice the person or persons responsible."

Anyone with information related to this case is encouraged to call "Crime Stoppers" at 1-800-222-TIPS or 206-343-2020.

Anonymous information can also be sent online to Crime Stoppers of Puget Sound web site or by texting "TIP486" to 274637 (Crimes).”

READ MORE ABOUT JENNIFER WALSTRAND...
http://www.ktvb.com/news/regional/Search-intensifies-for-college-students-killer-106314408.html

MISTY CROSLIN: IT'S OVER! 25 YEARS IN PRISON

2010-10-09T20:11:00.000-07:00

Judge sentences Misty Croslin to 25 years
It was the mandatory minimum sentence in the drug trafficking case.
By Cindy Swirko, Staff writer
Published: Friday, October 8, 2010

ST. AUGUSTINE — Misty Croslin, the Putnam County woman who was with 5-year-old Haleigh Cummings in February 2009 when the girl was reported missing, was sentenced Friday to 25 years in prison for trafficking oxycodone.

Circuit Judge Wendy Berger handed down the sentence following testimony from Croslin and her mother, Lisa Croslin, that included details of Misty Croslin's rape, her elementary-level education, and of her growing up with drug abusing parents who often left their kids to fend for themselves.

Croslin and her attorney, Robert Fields, said the reason Croslin was investigated for drug trafficking was because of her involvement in the Haleigh case.

But Berger was not swayed.

"It is clear that you had a hard life, but lots of people have hard lives and don't always end up committing crimes," Berger said in delivering the sentence. "You may not have a lot of book smarts — you have a lot of street smarts. You did it for the money. This case is not about Haleigh Cummings, Misty. This case is about you and your co-defendants in trafficking drugs. You are here because you sold drugs."

The sentence was the mandatory minimum for the amount of drugs involved in the St. Johns County case, which stemmed from a police investigation in January. Her sentencing on seven additional counts in Putnam County is scheduled for Oct. 19.

READ MORE: MISTY CROSLIN SENTENCED IN FLORIDA...WHAT'S NEXT?
http://www.gainesville.com/article/20101008/articles/101009491