Chris Coleman Updates

Remember that douche, Chris Coleman? Strangled to death is wife and kids? Yeah, there's some updates in this case as well to report!

The house he murdered his family in is now on the auction block... Big surprise: No bids!! They should tear it down and put a garden in place.

No Bids On Coleman Family House
COLUMBIA, IL — The infamous Coleman house in Columbia, Illinois was put up for auction on Tuesday at the courthouse in Waterloo, Illinois. No bids were made. The home is still owned by the bank.

Sheri Coleman and her two sons were murdered inside in 2009. A Chicago law firm is handling the sale for Wells Fargo. The mortgage is more than $229,000. Grisly spray painted messages still mark the walls.

Some neighbors want the home torn down to build a park in memory of Sheri and her boys. Chris Coleman, the husband and father in the case, remains behind bars awaiting trial on murder charges.

New search warrants issued for Coleman murders
Oct 27, 2010 COLUMBIA, Ill. -- Police obtained fresh search warrants last week for cell phone data as they press their case against murder defendant Christopher Coleman.

Associate Judge Stephen Rice signed off on the warrants on Oct. 20, which enable investigators to access "PIN" messages, a form of text messages specific to Blackberry phones, from the mobile devices of Coleman, his wife, Sheri, and his mistress, Tara Lintz.

The warrants apply to all PIN logs from May 4, 2009, a day before the murders, to Oct. 13, 2010.

The documents don't indicate what information, if any, was gleaned from the message logs. Police have declined to discuss the case.

Chris Coleman, a former security chief for international televangelist Joyce Meyer, is accused of killing wife and two sons on May 5, 2009 at their home in Columbia, Ill. Police allege that he was trying to escape his marriage without a divorce, to be with Lintz, a girlfriend in Florida. He has pleaded not guilty.

The new search warrants indicate police are attempting to re-create a timeline of the minutes leading up to the discovery of the bodies.

Police arrived at the Coleman home in Columbia to check on the family's welfare after Christopher Coleman called a police officer from a gym. He had said he was alarmed that he couldn't reach his family and asked the officer to check his home, police said.

At the time of the call, police said Coleman reported that he was crossing the Jefferson Barracks Bridge into Illinois, which is a few minutes from his home.

Police arrived at the home and discovered Charles Manson-style messages spray painted on the home's walls. They found the dead bodies in the upstairs bedrooms. Coleman arrived about 13 minutes after he told police he was crossing the bridge, according to the documents.

Police purchased eight Blackberry devices to recreate the calls to determine if Coleman "took a longer route home to ensure that members from the Columbia Police Department" discovered the bodies.

Coleman is expected to stand trial in March 2011 in Waterloo.

Judge weighs hearsay evidence in Coleman trial
December 8, 2010 -Any right Christopher Coleman has to cross-examine his murdered wife about statements she had made about him to friends was forfeited when he killed her, prosecutors said in court documents filed Tuesday.

Prosecutors released new details concerning the case as part of a motion to use such statements as evidence in his upcoming first-degree murder trial.

Coleman, the former security chief for the Joyce Meyer Ministries, is charged with strangling his wife, Sheri, and two preteen sons, Garett and Gavin, in their home in Columbia, Ill.

Monroe County State's Attorney Kris Reitz said Sheri Coleman told friends that her husband beat her up, and texted at least two of them, saying: "Chris wants a divorce. He said me and my kids are in the way of his job. He told me he's leaving me for his job! But if Joyce (Meyer) finds out she will fire him. It got so bad I told Joyce. He was [angry] to say the least but that was the breaking point. She forced him into counseling."

Coleman's defense attorneys are trying to block such material as inadmissible hearsay, in part because Coleman would have no way to confront his accuser, Sheri Coleman. Hearsay rules restrict what a witness can tell a jury about what someone else said.

Police allege that Coleman was trying to escape his marriage without a divorce, to be with a girlfriend in Florida. They say he staged the May 5, 2009, crime scene to look like the work of a deranged enemy of the ministry, and previously reported getting threatening letters and e-mails that he secretly generated.

He has pleaded not guilty.

As part of his motion to support the testimony, Reitz filed an outline of the evidence that provided some new information, such as:

• Tara Lintz, the girlfriend, told police she listened on a speaker phone as Coleman told his wife he didn't love her and wanted a divorce. Police said Lintz reportedly overheard Coleman's conversations with his wife a "handful of times" in the months before the murders.

• Robert A. Leonard, a forensic linguist and professor at Hofstra University, linked Coleman's language patterns to threats directed at the family and placed in their mailbox in the months before the killings.

• Robert LaPlante, a family friend, told police that Coleman had showed him a DVR surveillance recorder in the basement on the Friday before the murders — one that was missing from the crime scene. LaPlante said a faceplate that police found on the Jefferson Barracks Bridge "looked like" the one on the missing Coleman recorder. Coleman's route to a gym the morning of the murders would have taken him over that bridge.

• Marc Rogers, a cyber forensics professor at Purdue University, determined that two threatening e-mails sent to the Coleman family came from Coleman's personal laptop computer, and that the sender had signed in using Coleman's personal ID.

Jury selection is set to begin Feb. 15, Circuit Judge Milton Wharton expects to rule on the hearsay motion later this week.

Casey Anthony Updates

It's been a while since I reported any updates in the Casey Anthony case.. I was so frustrated with waiting for the trial to proceed that I really started losing interest in following the petty defense motions and other technical crap that just prolongs the whole damned thing.

So here are a few things I've found recently on the case:

DA Adds New Names To Casey Anthony's Witness List
ORLANDO, Fla. -- Prosecutors have added the name of Zenaida Gonzalez to their witness list for the murder trial against Casey Anthony.
-click for article-

E-mail spat leads to new motion in Anthony case
A disagreement in the Casey Anthony case has led to an email spat between the defense and state prosecutors, who filed a motion Wednesday accusing the defense of trying to avoid complying with a judge's order.

The controversy comes after the court on Monday ordered Anthony's defense team to provide prosecutors with information about the subject matter of planned expert testimony. Since then, the disagreement arose about just how detailed that information needs to be.
-click for article-

New Casey Witnesses Come With Doubt, Cost
Defense Team Uses Up Investigative Hours Finding New 'Key' Witnesses
ORLANDO, Fla. -- Casey Anthony's defense team revealed this week it has new witnesses that could unravel the prosecution's claim Anthony dumped her own daughter in the woods, but finding those witnesses may be coming at a cost to taxpayers.

Anthony's lawyers filed a motion on Wednesday asking that Judge Bevin Perry approve funding for even more investigative hours.

Perry approved more hours in late October. Defense attorney Jose Baez requested 300 hours. Perry approved 30 hours at a cost of $40 per hour.
-click for article-

The Mystery of David Paul

January 2, 1988 was a cold, bitter day and while many people were busy recuperating from celebrating the New Year, a horrible death had just occurred.

While walking along a wooden path in the southern part of Meriden, a woman thought she saw a little doll wrapped in pink and white blankets nestled against a tree in an empty company parking lot. As the woman approached closer she made the startingly discovery that it was a dead 7 1/2 pound blue eyed, blonde haired boy.

The newly born infant had died from the extreme cold in a few short hours. The boy was given the name, David Paul by a pastor at a local church. The name means beloved little man. It's been almost twenty years, since David Paul's lifeless body was found. It is suspected that he was abandoned by a female (most likely his mother) and police are looking to find her. There is a 20,000 dollar reward being offered in this case.

If you have any information about the death and abandonment of David Paul, please call the Meriden Police Department at 203-634-3784.

Child Thrown From Balcony To His Death

Oh how I wish I could be the one to put this woman out of her misery...

NY Times- A 2-year-old boy was thrown to his death from the balcony of a seventh-floor apartment in Queens on Tuesday night by a distraught woman who had been living with his family, the authorities said.

The woman, whom the authorities identified as Xiao Aiu Cai, 53, had a confrontation with someone else in the apartment and — for unknown reasons — lashed out at the boy, grabbed him, ran onto the balcony and threw him from it about 8:35 p.m., the authorities said.

Richard A. Brown, the Queens district attorney, said at the scene that the woman had been fighting with her daughter just before she turned to the boy and threw him from the home.

He said that the woman had been on medication and was very depressed.

The woman was taken into custody and was expected to be charged with murder.

The boy, whose name was not released, landed on the sidewalk in front of the building, at 35-06 Leavitt Street, a condominium tower in Flushing, the police said. He was pronounced dead at New York Hospital Queens.

The woman was not related to the child, but she and her daughter had been living in the multi-bedroom apartment along with the boy and his parents, the police said.

The woman had a history of depression and had recently been under psychiatric care, the police said. They said she had no prior criminal record.

A neighbor across the street, Young Kim, 60, said she was at home when the boy was thrown and heard a woman screaming in Chinese and crying.

“She was screaming, ‘Somebody call 911,’ ” she said.

Another neighbor, Anna Zheng, 26, a cashier who lives across the street, said the building where the boy died was relatively new and was known to be very family-friendly.

She said she often saw many families with small children coming in and out of the building in the summer.

“It was fine over there,” she said. “I never heard anybody fighting. It’s so sad.”

Late Tuesday night, directly below the balcony, a pink slipper lay near a blue cap.

Baby Killed For Interrupting Facebook Time

And my boyfriend said I was obsessed with the game..

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- A north Florida mother has pleaded guilty to shaking her baby to death after the boy's crying interrupted her game on Facebook.

Alexandra V. Tobias pleaded guilty to second-degree murder on Wednesday and remains jailed.

The Florida Times-Union reports that she told investigators she was angered because the boy was crying while she was playing the game FarmVille.

The paper also reports that she told investigators she shook the boy, smoked a cigarette to compose herself and then shook him again.

She will be sentenced in December. State guidelines call for 25 to 50 years, but a prosecutor said it could be shorter than that.

A telephone message and an e-mail sent by The Associated Press to her attorney weren't immediately returned.

Dad Charged With Murder In Toddlers' Deaths

ALLEN PARK, Mich. -- A metro Detroit man declared, "I didn't hurt my babies," after he was arraigned on murder charges Friday in the drowning deaths of his two toddlers.

Steven Nicholson sobbed as he entered the 24th District Court in Allen Park and listened as a judge read the charges against him: two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of felony homicide and two counts of child abuse. If convicted, he could spend life in prison.

His daughter, 15-month-old Ella Stafford, and his son, 13-month-old Jonathon Sanderlin, were discovered unresponsive in Nicholson's Allen Park apartment on Tuesday -- after Nicholson called 911at about 2 a.m..

When officers arrived, Nicholson was sitting on the floor with the bodies in front of him, Allen Park police Detective Jeff Miller told a judge.

Nicholson told police that he woke up and found the kids in the bathtub but his statements are "inconsistent with evidence found at the scene," Miller said without elaborating.

The Wayne County medical examiner ruled that the toddlers died from drowning and scalding.

Nicholson was being held without bond. No defense attorney was present at the court and it was unclear if he had retained one.

“The alleged facts in this case have affected even the most seasoned prosecutors in this office," said Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy. "We stand ready to bring this case to justice in a court of law."

Local 4 has learned Ella Stafford's mother, Taylor Stafford, was questioned by Allen Park police in connection with the case.

Police said they asked the mother pointed questions about where she was the night the children died.

Several neighbors reported to police that Taylor Stafford was at the home and fighting with Nicholson in the hours before the children were found dead. However, police said Nicholson told investigators he was the only adult home when the children died.

Stafford said she was supposed to go to a movie Monday night with Nicholson, but when he didn't call, she went to bed. The next morning, she found a missed call from him -- about the time police said he called 911.

"Right now, I'm trying to get them to give me a polygraph test, get my phone numbers, get my phone records. They have permission to do all that," Taylor Stafford said.

Nicholson's aunt, Sandra Kirby, told Local 4 she spoke to him on the phone while he was in police custody.

"He was broken down. He was crying, hysterically crying, and the words he said to me, 'Aunt Sandy, I did not hurt my babies. You know what those babies meant to me' and I do believe him because I seen him with them," she said.

“I’ve never been through this before. So, my first instinct, because I know Steve Nicholson so well, was that it was done intentionally,” said Jonathan’s mother, Sara McGee.

The children's mothers said they had talked recently about concerns for their children’s safety.

In one e-mail, she wrote to McGee that she thought the children were being abused.

“We’ve been fighting so hard to get the babies out of the house, but nobody would listen to us,” McGee said.

Police said Nicholson had full custody of Jonathon and court-ordered visitations with Ella.

McGee said she never trusted Nicholson and didn’t want him to be a part of raising her son, so she moved to Cadillac, Mich.

She said she was contacted by the court and told that Nicholson had been given sole custody because it had been decided that she was attempting to kidnap the child by leaving the area and refusing to allow Nicholson to see him.

“I’ve been through the police, I’ve been through the friend of the court, I’ve been through Child Protective Services numerous times, and nobody would listen to me,” McGee said. “Even when I brought evidence, they didn’t do anything.”

Police said Nicholson maintains that the children somehow turned on the tub and got in.

“He was such a good dad. Every time I seen him, he was feeding them or bathing them or taking care of them,” said Nicholson’s cousin, Dawn Hood.

Hood said Nicholson has called family members from jail and told them exactly what happened.

“He went toward the bathroom to open the door and found his baby girl on the floor and his baby son in the bathtub,” she said.

According to court records, Nicholson has convictions for possessing and distributing cocaine and drunken driving. His license has been suspended numerous times.


More than 50 people gathered Tuesday night for a candlelight vigil in Champaign Park outside the Valley Springs Apartments.

The public vigil was organized with help from Allen Park police.

Ella Stafford’s grandmother, Renne Demery, said Nicholson treated her granddaughter better than Jonathon, and that she had contacted Child Protective Services recently.

"Because over the summer, he sat him on one of the chairs on the back and the baby fell on his head and he grabbed him by the arm and yanked him," Demery said.

Police said officers have been called to Nicholson’s home several times for reports of domestic abuse.

Demery said she is estranged from Nicholson because he is dependent on alcohol and has been abusive.

"He would drink all day. Sip on a fifths all day. I would say, 'You can't do that. When you have children you have to give up your good life. You can't do that,'" Demery said.

Neighbor Candice Curcio said she often found the father roughhousing with the children.

"He would push them away, like, 'Come on, let's go, get in the house.' He was just very rough with them," said Curcio.

"Two little babies lost their lives and that's the long and short of it," said the Valley Springs Apartments owner Nancy Dascenzo. "I am destroyed that this could happen here, anywhere. Two little babies lost their lives."

A burial fund has been set up for Ella Stafford. Donations can be made to the Ella Gray Stafford fund at any Fifth Third Bank in metro Detroit.

Ella Stafford's funeral was Friday at the Martenson Funeral Home on Allen Road. Services will be held at the same home Saturday at 10 a.m.

The funeral for Johnathan Sanderlin will be at 11 a.m. on Saturday at the Peterson Funeral Home in Cadillac, Mich. Visitation was Friday afternoon.

Judge: Death Penalty Not Sexist in Anthony Case

(CNN) -- Casey Anthony will face the death penalty, a Florida judge ruled, rejecting defense arguments that capital punishment in her murder case was sexist and unduly harsh.

Judge Belvin Perry Jr. also rejected defense arguments that prosecutors were seeking the death penalty as a means to bankrupt Anthony's defense.

The judge did grant one defense request -- that prosecutors disclose evidence supporting the aggravating factors they intend to cite if Anthony is convicted of premeditated murder and they ask jurors to return a death sentence.

In death penalty cases, jurors are asked to weigh aggravating circumstances that make a crime especially heinous against mitigating factors that favor the defendant, such as a lack of prior offenses.

Anthony, 24, is accused of killing her daughter, Caylee, who was 2 when she disappeared in June 2008. Caylee's body was found that December in a vacant lot near the Orlando, Florida, home where she lived with her grandparents.

Casey Anthony's trial is scheduled to begin on May 9, 2011.

The defense maintains that prosecutors had originally said they would not seek death in the Anthony case but reversed that position in March 2009 when they learned that Anthony had $205,000 for her defense.

The bulk of the money came from ABC News for the licensing of photos and videos, Baez testified during a previous hearing.

"The court has the authority to bar the death penalty where the prosecution exercises its discretion in bad faith, for impermissible motives and in order to prevent the defendant from exercising her constitutional rights," the defense argued in court papers.

Judge Perry denied the motion, saying that judges are prohibited under Florida law from interfering with the state's decision to seek death. Although one exception includes circumstances in which bad faith can be documented, Perry said Anthony's defense had not proven bad faith.

The defense also argued that prosecutors sought the death penalty against Anthony because she is a woman, and that focusing on Anthony's lifestyle before she was arrested is gender bias.

Defense witness Elizabeth Rapaport, a University of New Mexico law professor and author, testified that the lifestyles of white middle-class mothers charged with killing their children receive much more media attention than those of defendants in other cases.

Under questioning by Anthony attorney Andrea Lyon, a nationally known death penalty expert, Rapaport said a mother perceived as "deviant" by a jury has a more difficult time defending herself.

Anthony teared up when Lyon noted in court that despite her client's "party girl" reputation in the media, most of the witnesses have acknowledged that "Caylee was happy and healthy."

"Do you have any evidence that there is gender bias in this case?" prosecutor Jeff Ashton asked Rapaport in cross-examination. The witness responded that she didn't know much about this case and had only read a few press reports.

The defense argued that Anthony is facing more serious charges and harsher punishment than a man in the same position would receive.

Responding to Ashton's questions, Rapaport said that men who kill their children usually are acting in a rage.

Women, Ashton argued, tend to premeditate a child's killing and have underlying psychological issues. Cases in which women kill without evidence of psychological disturbance are rare, he added.

"In my 30 years" as a prosecutor, Ashton said, "this is the first time we have had the evidence for the jury to determine if death is the appropriate penalty."

FBI Lab Notes Among Latest Batch of Casey Anthony Evidence

Orlando Sentinel- More evidence logs and laboratory notes from the FBI were included in the latest batch of records released Friday by prosecutors in their first-degree murder case against Casey Anthony.

The State Attorney's Office released 289 pages of discovery, which adds to the more than 13,000 pages already released.

Casey Anthony, 24, is accused of killing her 2-year-old daughter Caylee Marie in the summer of 2008. Caylee's remains were found in December 2008, several months after the toddler's family reported her missing.

According to a report, FBI analysts looked for human hairs that had signs of decomposition in evidence they collected, including from a steam cleaner and vacuum. The report said none was found.

The FBI also analyzed hair samples belonging to Orange County Sheriff's Office crime-scene investigators. That evaluation was done to determine who a strand of hair — found with evidence — came from.

Evidence logs from the Sheriff's Office again detailed items taken from the woods where Caylee's remains were ultimately found, including dirt, soda cans, bugs and electrical tape.

Also released Friday was a transcribed interview with Cecilia Benhaida, sister of the woman who sparked a close relationship with Casey Anthony's father George Anthony.

Benhaida told sheriff's investigators she met Casey Anthony while both women were jailed in Orange County.

She said she had no idea that her sister, Krystal Holloway, knew the Anthonys.

Benhaida told investigators she had befriended Casey Anthony because she was "trying to be nice to her."

"I kind of felt bad that all the inmates there were in that building … would be screaming murderer," Benhaida told sheriff's Cpl. Yuri Melich.

She also told detectives she had passed letters from other inmates to Anthony.

Earlier this month, prosecutors released dozens of letters Anthony wrote to former inmate Robyn Adams.

Benhaida did not tell investigators the contents of the letters she had passed to Anthony.

She did tell detectives that when she was released from jail she became friendly with the Anthonys.

One day, she said, Cindy Anthony told her that Caylee's death was an accident.

"She did tell me that [George Anthony] told her that um, it was something about an accident," Benhaida said. When asked about what kind of accident, Benhaida responded: "The child being killed by accident."

The next hearing in the Casey Anthony case is scheduled for Friday.

Man With Knife Attacks Kindergarten in China

(CNN) -- At least 28 children were injured when a man with a knife attacked a kindergarten in east China on Thursday morning, state media said.

Most of the victims were 4-year-olds, the state-run Xinhua news agency said. Three of the children were in critical condition.

Police said they have arrested a 47-year-old suspect.

The incident happened in Taixing city in Jiangsu province.

It comes a day after a man attacked 18 students and a teacher with a knife at a primary school in southern China's Guangdong province, Xinhua said.

It was not immediately known how many people were injured or whether there were any fatalities Wednesday. The man, described as being in his 40s, entered Leicheng First Primary School Wednesday afternoon and committed the attack before he was seized by police, Xinhua reported.

A man who stabbed eight children to death and wounded five others at an elementary school in eastern China last month was executed Wednesday, Xinhua said. Zheng Minsheng, 42, was shot in Nanping City for the March 23 attack.

Authorities said he carried out the attack because he was frustrated at "failures in his romantic life," Xinhua said.

Documents Released to Casey Anthony's Defense

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Prosecutors released more than 2,000 pages of investigative documents and pictures to the defense team of a Florida mother charged with killing her daughter.

Casey Anthony, 23, is charged with first-degree murder in the death of her daughter, Caylee. The remains of the 2-year-old were found in December in woods less than a mile from her family home.

The state gave her defense team 29 compact discs, which included aerial photos of where the girl's remains were found and pictures from a picture-sharing Web site, according to paperwork filed this week.

Prosecutor: Opportunities Missed To Save Boy's Life

OMAHA, Neb. -- A Lincoln prosecutor who investigated child deaths said Nebraska Health and Human Services missed opportunities to save an Omaha boy’s life.

Two months ago, Omaha police found Michael Belitz, 12, dead in the bathtub of his home. His mother, Angela Manns, is charged with first-degree murder in the case.

KETV NewsWatch 7 filed a Freedom of Information Act request to compel the state to release two critical incident reports. Those documents showed Manns called HHS twice in the months before the crime. In both cases she didn’t get the help she needed.

Lancaster County Attorney Gary Lacey was appointed by former Gov. Mike Johanns to investigate 30 child deaths in the state. Lacey said the state failed to protect Michael Belitz.

“Yeah, he fell through the cracks. He wouldn’t be dead if he didn’t fall through the cracks,” Lacey said. “There’s no question to me, in this case, something immediate should have happened.”

The incident reports obtained from the state showed Manns left a voicemail message on March 27 requesting that her son be put in foster care. She called again less than a week later.

In both cases, HHS workers returned her calls and Manns was told to call the child abuse hotline. The documents indicate the process stopped there.

In a second critical incident report NewsWatch 7 learned Manns had a history with HHS. The report indicated Manns slapped her daughter in 1999, but police officers found no evidence of abuse.

In February, 2007, the critical incident said somebody reported Manns was drinking and being physically and verbally abusive. HHS said those allegations were unfounded. Later that year, Mann’s oldest daughter became guardian for her 15-year-old sister after mother kicked the girl out of the house.

Monday night, an HHS spokeswoman said the department received a series of e-mails from Michael’s older sister indicating she was worried about his well being. The spokeswoman indicated social workers were limited on what they could do for Michael since he wasn’t a ward of the state.

“It’s a red flag to do something because you’ve got a history, and there’s nothing more reflective of conduct than history,” Lacey said.

Kerry Winterer was recently appointed as the new head of HHS. He said a new department policy will make sure parents are connected with experts. He said that policy that policy will send a social worker or police to the home when they get calls from people like Angela Manns.

“All we’re trying to do is be more proactive,” Winterer said.

Previous Stories:
July 17, 2009: Grim Details Revealed In Belitz Slaying
July 16, 2009: HHS: No Evidence Of Abuse During 2007 Check
July 16, 2009: Mother Charged With Murder In Son's Death
July 13, 2009: UPDATE: Body Found In House, Woman Booked For Murder

3 Infants' Remains Found Under Texas Mobile Home

(CNN) -- The skeletal remains of two infants were found underneath a rural Texas trailer, police said Monday, in the same area where another set of infant remains was found last year.

Authorities were called about 3:30 p.m. Sunday to the trailer south of Kennedale, about 15 miles southeast of Fort Worth, Texas, in rural Tarrant County, said Terry Grisham, spokesman for the Tarrant County Sheriff's Office. There is a group of about five mobile homes there, he said, that are leased by the property owner.

One of the mobile homes had recently become vacant, and the owner was cleaning it up, Grisham said. The owner pulled back the metal "skirt" around the bottom of the mobile home and was "digging around in there," and found a plastic bag, Grisham said.

When the man opened it up, he found a box, and inside the box he found the "bones of a very young infant," Grisham told CNN. He continued to look, and found another plastic container with more remains inside, of a "similar-aged infant," before calling 911, Grisham said.

In 2008, the same man called police to report that he had found a suitcase in the same area, in an overgrown field a distance away from the mobile homes, while dumping leaves. When he used a knife to cut into the suitcase, a set of infant bones were found, Grisham said. The medical examiner's office was unable to determine a cause of death because the remains were skeletal, although no bones were broken, he said.

"We worked the thing as best we could, without any more to go on than we had," but the investigation stalled, Grisham said.

Police have contacted the two people -- a brother and sister -- who recently moved out of the trailer, he said. The two have been cooperative with authorities, he said. They were interviewed separately, but both told police they had no idea the remains were there, Grisham said.

Authorities and the medical examiner's office remained at the scene Monday, Grisham said, and plan to use cadaver dogs at the site Monday afternoon in an effort to determine whether more remains were present.

"This ground is pretty brushy and overgrown," he said. A county work crew was brought in to carefully cut down the brush to aid the search, he said.

Young Girl Beheaded 'In Land Dispute'

News.com - A THREE-year-old girl has been beheaded in Papua New Guinea in an attack thought to be over a land dispute.

Police made the shocking discovery yesterday in Madang province, on PNG's northeastern coast, after residents reported that up to seven men had abducted the girl from the coastal village of Bogia.

Four men have been arrested over her killing.

The police commander of Madang province, Chief Inspector Anthony Wagambie, told PNG's The National newspaper that he was "disgusted'' by the gruesome killing, which he he said was linked to tensions over land.

"Police will continue investigations until all seven suspects are apprehended,'' he said.

The men allegedly attacked the mother, who managed to escape with another child, an infant, Wagambie said.

The body of the girl was still missing.

The murder is believed to be connected to conflict between resettled Manam islanders and Bogia locals.

A series of volcanic eruptions in 2004 forced 15,000 islanders to flee to the mainland and settle in Bogia.

Earlier this year four islanders were reportedly killed during land disputes between the groups.

Kuluguma local ward councillor Charles Yanda said local people want PNG Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare to settle the matter through better land allocations.

"Under no circumstances will the Manam people return to the destroyed island,'' he said.

Lawrence Konaka, president of the Iabu local government area, has also appealed to Mr Somare to intervene on behalf of the islanders.

"The Bogia people hate us and we cannot return to the island because it is in a terrible state,'' he said.

Man Accused Of Drowning Girl At Metro Lake

OKLAHOMA CITY -- A metro man has been arrested in connection with the drowning of a 2-year-old girl Thursday at Lake Stanley Draper.

Donald Michael Reeser, 29, was booked into the Oklahoma County Jail on one count of first-degree murder in the death of Allie Croom.

Police were called to Midwest City Regional Hospital at about 5:30 p.m., and investigators from the Crimes Against Children Unit also responded.

Investigators said Reeser, who is the boyfriend of the toddler's mother, was at the lake with the victim. They believe Reeser repeatedly forced the child under water until she drowned.

A fund for the girl's family has been established at Tinker Federal Credit Union.

Mom's Boyfriend Arrested In Child's Death

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- The boyfriend of a 5-year-old child's mother has been arrested in connection with the boy's death.

Eduardo Zamora, Jr. was booked into the Sacramento County Main Jail on two felony charges. He is facing charges of murder and assault resulting in the death of a child under eight years of age.

The Sacramento County Sheriff's Department said the child was found unresponsive in a home in the 3600 block of South Port Drive. Zamora Jr. told paramedics he called 911 because the boy had stopped breathing.

The child was pronounced dead at the UC Davis Medical Center. Staff told deputies that the boy had injuries that indicated child abuse.

"The injuries were very severe. Both medical personnel, fire paramedics and our personnel were very affected by the injuries that this child had sustained," Sgt. Tim Curran said.

Deputies said Child Protective Services had not been to the location before on any previous calls.

Zamora Jr., 31, is not the child's father.

The boy's 25-year-old mother was also questioned in the case.

Sources tell KCRA 3 that the father is probably in state prison.

The child's death is under investigation.

Zamora Jr. is being held without bail. He is scheduled to be arraigned on June 22.

911 Calls Provide Disturbing Details in Death of 2-Year-Old Cleveland Girl

Fox 8- Shocking 911 calls show the chaos that occured when the unidentified adults with the child, called for help.

One caller says, "Lady I told you, maybe the little girl is dead, you know, died."

A 911 dispatcher tries to give the adults in the room with the two year old, instructions on how to perform CPR.

The dispatcher senses the adults are not following her instructions. "Are you doing what I'm asking you to do?" she asks.

Emergency responders seem to be shocked by what they find when they arrive at the apartment complex.

They immediately tell dispatchers that the child is dead and that this is a clear case of child abuse.

One first responder tells the dispatcher about the child's condition.

"The kids got bilateral burns on the hands, bruising across the whole forehead," he said.

He went on to say, "She's got a bitemark on the right elbow. She's got, what else, a lot of bruising."

The Cuyahoga County Coroner's office has identified the little girl as, Iris Rivera .

The Director of Children and Family Services tells Fox 8 News, "Iris died of blunt force trama to the abdomen." Her death has been ruled a homicide.

We're also told that the other four children have been placed in the emergency custody of their father.

Police say the child's mother was in the hospital at the time of her death.

So far, police have not identified any suspects in this case.

Pregnant Mom's Stabbing Still a Mystery

(CNN) -- Jenna Nielsen was 22 years old, 8½ months pregnant and looking forward to bringing her third child into the world when her life came to a violent and abrupt end on June 14, 2007.

She was working her new job on a newspaper delivery route she'd taken to help her young family make ends meet. That's when police say she was stabbed to death in front of a convenience store in Raleigh, North Carolina -- a crime that has police and family members still looking for answers.

Marking the two-year anniversary of his wife's death, with no arrests and no named suspects announced by police, Tim Nielsen can only shake his head when he ponders who may have targeted his wife.

"I believe she was just at the wrong place at the wrong time," said Nielsen, who has returned to his native Utah, where his family helps him raise his two children -- Schyler, 5, and Kaiden, 2. "My wife had no enemies."

Police say that two years ago last Sunday, Nielsen arrived at the AmeriKing Food Mart about 3:30 a.m. to deliver papers.

She'd parked and just finished loading the newspaper vending machine when she was attacked on the way back to her car.

Nielsen was stabbed in the neck. Two of her car doors were left open and her purse and car keys were still inside, police said.

Authorities will not publicly speculate on a motive. But Jenna's family believes the attack may have been an attempted sexual assault and that Jenna fought back.

Investigators say they have received thousands of tips and interviewed hundreds of people, but they still don't have a clear picture of a suspect.

Laura Hourigan, spokeswoman for the Raleigh Police Department, said investigators remain confident the case can be solved.

"This case is actively being investigated still," she said. "But we have a few missing pieces and hope for the public's help."

Early in their investigation, the police released a composite sketch obtained from two witnesses who saw the attacker fleeing the scene of the crime.

But they have since backed away from the image, saying it was misleading people. They describe Nielsen's attacker as a short, slightly built man in his late teens or early 20s with black hair pulled back into a long ponytail.

He was wearing a dark sleeveless shirt and baggy blue jeans shorts, according to witnesses.

Shortly after Nielsen's death, a knife was found by a homeless man not far from the scene of the crime. Police won't comment on whether the knife might be the murder weapon. There has been other evidence collected.

"They found DNA, but I can't say more than that," Tim Nielsen said.

Other members of Nielsen's family quote police as saying they have DNA evidence from the killer, but have not been able to match it with anyone they've interviewed over the years.

The family has stayed active in keeping Nielsen's case in the public eye.

They've held "Vigils Against Violence" the last Sunday of every month and maintain justice4jenna.org, a Web site devoted to her memory and to the effort to track down her killer.

"It's hard to believe that it has been two years since someone selfishly stole you from our family," reads the site's home page. "There isn't a day that goes by that you and Ethen [the name planned for her unborn child] are not in our thoughts.

"Schyler and Kaiden are growing so fast. They look like you, act like you and laugh like you -- for that we are able to see you each and every day through them. Schyler asks about you often and helps Kaiden remember Mommy."

The family also have been advocates for the so-called Unborn Victims of Violence Act, state legislation that would create a fetal homicide law in North Carolina.

Currently, state law does not consider a killing a double homicide when an expectant mother is slain.

Jenna Nielsen's father, Kevin Blaine, takes every chance he can to plead for help from the public

"Help find the people that did this to her," he said. "The person who did this is still out there."

The family is offering a $15,000 reward for the arrest and conviction of the individual responsible for Nielsen's murder.

Anyone with any information on this crime is asked to call the Raleigh Police Department at (919) 227-6220.

Queens Baby Dies After Falling into Mop Bucket at Day Care Center

Daily News- Police were investigating the death of a Queens baby who perished Monday when he fell headfirst into a mop bucket at his baby-sitter's house.

James Farrior, who would have been 1 year old next month, was declared dead at Jamaica Hospital at 11:25 a.m.

"What can I say, he was my baby? We're trying to cope," said his devastated mom, Chrisann Josiah. "We don't know what happened yet."

It was not immediately clear if James drowned or broke his neck. An autopsy will be performed today.

"I saw the firefighters bring the boy out. He was gasping for air," said neighbor Billy Casares, 41. "It's heartbreaking."

Baby-sitter Kristal Khan, 28, who normally took care of two neighborhood kids along with her small son and daughter in an informal but legal day care arrangement, was charged with endangering the welfare of a child, a misdemeanor, police said.

Police sources said Khan told cops James and her two kids, ages 3 and 4, were in the living room with the bucket when she went to fetch a mop.

When she came back, she found James had fallen headfirst into the blue 7-gallon mop bucket that was three-quarters full of water.

Neighbor Liz Rivero, 31, a mother of three, said she began to pray when she saw a firefighter running Monday morning with the baby, limp and faceup, to an ambulance waiting a block away.
"I started to cry when I saw that. I am a mom," Rivero said.

Khan and a man neighbors said was her brother were taken away for questioning.

"They looked sad," Rivero said.

At Khan's green two-story house on 108th St. in South Richmond Hill, colorful stickers on the door advertise, "Childcare, All Day, Everyday."

The operation had no permits or license, but did not require any because there were fewer than three outside kids and the caregiver was older than 18.

Neighbors said Khan is well-known and well-regarded.

"She usually takes good care of the kids," said William Munoz, 40. "She's a very responsible person."

Khan's Web site says she is a married, convent-educated immigrant from Trinidad who taught elementary school for eight years and has a teacher certificate.

Because children can drown quickly and virtually silently in small amounts of water, drowning is the second leading cause of accidental death in children, after car crashes.

2 Children Found Dead In Car Trunk

SPRINGDALE, Ark. -- Two children are dead after police said they were found in the trunk of a car at an apartment complex.

The victims were found at about 5 p.m. and declared dead at the scene.

The children were described as a 5-year-old boy and a 4-year-old girl.

Their mother told investigators she last saw them at about 3:50 p.m. Monday.

Police got the call about 35 minutes later.

The complex is located at 347 Sage Street, which is near the intersection of East Emma Avenue and Old Missouri Road

Autopsy: Newborn's Mother Died From 'Homicidal Violence'

(CNN) -- A woman whose body was found in the crawl space of an Oregon home -- the mother of a newborn who also died -- died from "homicidal violence," the state's deputy medical examiner said Monday.

An autopsy showed causes of 21-year-old Heather Snively's death included blunt-force trauma and "sharp-force injuries," Dr. Christopher Young said. Sharp-force injuries mean cut or stab wounds. Young said additional information will not be released until test results are received.

Korena Roberts, 28, is charged with murder in Snively's death. She was scheduled to appear in court Monday afternoon.

Medics received a call Friday from Roberts' Washington County, Oregon, home of a newborn in distress, authorities said. When they arrived, they found Roberts' boyfriend trying to revive the baby boy. Roberts told deputies the baby was hers, according to the county sheriff's office.

Roberts and the baby were taken to a hospital after medics noticed a lot of blood at the home, officials said.

"Doctors at the hospital could not revive the baby," said sheriff's Sgt. David Thompson. "They also discovered that Ms. Roberts had not delivered the baby at any time in the recent past."

Deputies returned to the home and found Snively's body in a crawl space beneath the kitchen. Police said she had been pregnant; authorities determined she was the baby's mother.

"At this time, it has not been determined if [Snively] died because of head wounds she received or as a result of cutting injuries she received to her abdomen," said a Monday statement from the Washington County, Oregon, Sheriff's Office. "The autopsy determined that Ms. Snively's son was removed from her womb after she had been cut open."

Additional testing is needed to determine whether the infant died before or after he was removed from Snively's body, the statement said.

Roberts had been telling friends and family for months that she was pregnant, police said, and had told many of those people, including her live-in boyfriend, that she was carrying twins.

Young said an autopsy was completed on the baby, but he would not release information Monday. Authorities said Sunday the outcome of the autopsy could result in another murder charge against Roberts.

Heidi Kidd, Snively's mother, told CNN affiliate KPTV that her daughter met Roberts on Craigslist, a classified ads Web site, and the two were to exchange baby clothes.

Residents in Roberts' neighborhood told KPTV that she had told them she was expecting a child.

"She didn't appear to be pregnant to us," neighbor Doug King told the station.

Police think Roberts may have had contact with numerous pregnant women in the Portland, Oregon, metropolitan area, the statement said, and police ask anyone who has had contact with her, either in person or over the Internet, to call the Washington County Sheriff's Office.

Roberts' boyfriend is cooperating with police, and has not been charged in the case, authorities said.

Washington County is about 30 miles west of Portland, Oregon.