This Day In History

May 17 1924
Two youths discover a human skull on the banks of the Leine in Hanover, Germany. And although two more skulls are found a month later, police ignore it until a sackful of bones turn up on the riverbank. Dragging the Leine yields another 500 bones, belonging to about 27 victims. Eventually, police arrest Fritz Haarmann for the crimes. He would lure runaway boys back to his apartment, where they would be raped, killed, and cut into steaks. Then the unlicensed butcher would sell the meat as beef on the black market. All told, he killed between 40 and 50 boys.

May 17 1965
Magazine The Nation publishes Hunter S. Thompson's first-hand experiences with the Hell's Angels motorcycle club. The bikers would eventually stomp Thompson when they demanded payment for his time spent. A year later, Random House published his book Hells Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs.

May 17 1974
During a gun battle with members of the Symbionese Liberation Army, the LAPD fires tear gas into their Watts hideout. The canisters ignite a fire which soon consumes the house. Three other SLA members, including kidnapped heiress Patty Hearst, watch the events unfold on TV in their motel room down the street from Disneyland.

May 17 1980
A three-day race riot breaks out after an all-white jury acquits four white Miami police officers of killing Arthur McDuffie, a black insurance salesman. The cops had beaten him with their flashlights and billyclubs, and he died in the hospital. 18 fatalities and more than $100 million in property damage are the final result.

Two Juveniles Rob and Rape 80 Year old Woman

Sickness!!

RICHLAND COUNTY, SC (WIS) - Two male juveniles are arrested after authorities say they broke into an 80-year-old woman's home, stole some property, and raped her.

It happened in the Trenholm Acres Subdivision around 9:00pm Tuesday night. "We really think they were just up to no good that day, and then it just got out of hand," says Richland County Deputy Monique Mack.

Deputies say the 14 and 15-year-olds broke into the woman's home and demanded money. "She gave them whatever they wanted," says Mack, "She was being very cooperative."

They say one of the teens was armed with a shotgun. The teens proceeded to vandalize the inside of the home and took some electronics, jewelry, and money before sexually assaulting the woman in a bedroom. They then fled on foot.

Sheriff Leon Lott says, "The acts committed in this incident were both vicious and were carried out with malicious intent." He claims he's never seen anything more devastating.

Deputies say the woman is out of the hospital. They say she's still recovering but is surrounded by family.

She was able to give a detailed description of the suspects, and deputies began questioning neighbors Wednesday morning about unusual activity. "At which time we had neighbors saying, 'Yeah, we saw two juveniles walking through. They looked like they were looking in and out of homes and saw some suspicious activity.'," says Mack. The sheriff's office says several individuals were able to identify the teens, who happened to live nearby.

Deputy Mack says your watchful eye can always help in cases like this. "We're in the holiday season," says Mack, "We're going to have students out for the next two weeks. If you see them doing something they shouldn't be doing, then give us a call. We'd rather go and address them than anyone else becoming a victim."

Both young men attend the Richland Two School District, but district officials aren't releasing what grade the boys are in. One of them was eventually located in the subdivision while the other was found at school. Both are in custody and being charged first-degree burglary, criminal sexual assault, kidnapping, and armed robbery. Sheriff Lott says right now the teens will be charged as juveniles, but investigators are working with the solicitor's office to decide if the teens should be charged as adults.

Elizabeth Smart Says She's 'Thrilled' After Guilty Verdict

SALT LAKE CITY — Elizabeth Smart waited more than eight years for the word she heard Friday.

"Guilty," after a federal jury deliberated five hours to convict street preacher Brian David Mitchell of snatching Smart from her bed, at knifepoint in the dead of night, and having sex with her while he held her captive for nine months.

Smart smiled as the verdict was read, while a bedraggled, bearded Mitchell sat at the defense table, singing hymns with his hands before his chest, as if in prayer.

“Today is a wonderful day,” Smart said outside the courthouse hours later, adding “I am so thrilled to be here, so thrilled of the verdict."

"I hope that not only is this an example that justice can be served in America, but that it is possible to move on after something terrible has happened," Smart said.

It was a dramatic end to a tale that captured the nation's attention since she disappeared in June 2002: A 14-year-old girl mysteriously taken from her home, the intense search and her eventual discovery walking Salt Lake City's streets with her captors.

Smart, now 23, flew back from her Mormon mission in Paris to take the stand, and recount her "nine months of hell."

"The beginning and the end of this story is attributable to a woman with extraordinary courage and extraordinary determination, and that's Elizabeth Smart," federal prosecutor Carlie Christensen said outside the courthouse.

"She did it with candor and clarity and a truthfulness that I think moved all of us," she said.

Smart described in excruciating detail how she woke up one night to the feel of a cold, jagged knife at her throat and being whisked away by Mitchell to his camp in the foothills near the family's Salt Lake City home.

Within hours of the kidnapping, she testified, she was forced into a polygamous marriage with him. She was tethered to a metal cable and subjected to near-daily rapes while being forced to use alcohol and drugs.

The five-week trial turned on the question of Mitchell's mental health.

The thinly built, gray-haired Mitchell was routinely removed from the courtroom after loudly singing hymns and Christmas carols and taken to another room to watch the proceedings on closed circuit TV.

He kept his eyes closed in court and never spoke to anyone, including his lawyers.

His lawyers did not dispute that he kidnapped Smart but wanted him to be found not guilty by reason of insanity. Such a verdict would have sent him to a prison mental hospital.

Prosecutors countered that Mitchell was faking mental illness to avoid a conviction, labeling him a "predatory chameleon."

Smart testified she believed Mitchell was driven by his desire for sex, drugs and alcohol, not by any sincere religious beliefs.

Jurors did not buy the insanity defense, deliberating for roughly five hours to find him guilty of kidnapping and unlawful transportation of a minor across state lines for the purposes of sex.

As the verdicts were read, the shackled Mitchell sat singing about Jesus Christ on the cross. Smart then turned to her mother and both smiled. Elizabeth Smart later hugged prosecutors.

"It's real!" father Ed Smart said on his way out of the packed courtroom, giving a thumbs up.

Smart and her family had hoped for the guilty verdict and a long sentence.

"(Mitchell) has left a trail of misery behind him," Ed Smart said.

Mitchell could face up to life in prison when he is sentenced on May 25. However, a judge also could impose an unspecified, lesser sentence, prosecutors said.

To the chagrin of the family, the case was delayed for years after Mitchell was declared mentally incompetent to stand trial in state court and a judge refused to order involuntary medications.

Federal prosecutors later stepped in and took the case to trial.

Christensen, the U.S. attorney, said one of the biggest challenges of the case was the six years between the time of the kidnapping and the time the case came into the federal justice system.

A parade of experts took the witness stand to say Mitchell had an array of diagnoses, from a rare delusional disorder and schizophrenia to pedophilia, anti-social personality disorder and narcissism.

Mitchell's former stepdaughter told reporters that she was shocked that jurors didn't see that he was mentally ill.

"He honestly believes God tells him to do these things," Rebecca Woodridge said. "He's upset and frustrated that the Lord is making him go through this."

Jury Deliberating Elizabeth Smart Kidnapping Case

Salt Lake Tribune- In the face of damning evidence that he kidnapped, raped and degraded Elizabeth Smart, Brian David Mitchell’s attorney had difficulty saying anything positive about the 57-year-old, self-proclaimed prophet.

“He is not a good person,” Robert Steele told a federal court jury Thursday during closing arguments at Mitchell’s trial.

Instead, Steele claimed that Mitchell was mentally ill and suffering from the delusion that he was commanded by God when he abducted then-14-year-old Smart at knifepoint from her Salt Lake City home in June 2002.

“I don’t think he has the free will to say, ‘God, I’m not going to do it.’ ” Steele said in asking the jury to find Mitchell not guilty by reason of insanity.

Twelve jurors began deliberating at 5:35 p.m. Thursday, but they went home for the night three hours later. They will resume deliberations Friday morning.

Mitchell is charged with interstate kidnapping and unlawful transportation of a minor to engage in sexual activity for allegedly holding Smart captive for nine months, including near-daily rapes and a trip to California and back.

During their closing arguments, prosecutors argued against the notion that Mitchell was insane when he committed the crimes.

U.S. District Attorney Diana Hagen told jurors that, according to trial testimony, Mitchell disobeyed revelations from God “all the time.”

Facebook Page Prompts Police To Reopen '84 Cold Case

LYNBROOK, NY (WPIX) — Nassau County police say recent postings on the social networking site Facebook have prompted them to reopen a case of a missing child that was left unsolved for more than 20 years.

Kelly Morrissey disappeared on Jun 12, 1984 after buying cigarettes at a Lynbrook gas station. The attendant was the last person who reported seeing the 15-year-old, police said.

During the months following her disappearance, two other girls went missing - one was a friend of Morrissey, police said. Both girls were later found dead. Detective say determined that the young women had been raped and strangled.

In the death of Morrissey's friend, Theresa Fusco, police arrested three suspects who were convicted in her killing, but those convictions were eventually overturned.

Now police have been paying close attention to a Facebook page about Hot Skates Rink in Lynbrook, where Morrissey used to hang out regularly. There have not yet been any specific clues, police say, but they are hopeful that by starting a conversation new information will come to light.

Discussion topics on the rink's Facebook page such as "Former & Current Staff" and "Back In The Day," piqued the interest of authorities several months ago when several Facebook friends brought up the disappearances.

Police are urging anyone with information to contact 1-800-244-TIPS. There is a $10,000 reward for information leading to the case's resolution, police say.

Sandra C. Hoyt Murdered While Babysitting in Stamford

From a Parents of Murdered Children memorial page:

On February 13, 1979, Bruce D. Williams, Jr. brutally raped and murdered fourteen year old Sandy Hoyt. Williams calculated and planned his crimes by telephoning Sandy and introducing himself as a doctor who required her to baby sit his son at his home.

He stated to her that he just received a call to attend an emergency for one of his patients. Williams met Sandy on his street while using his ten month old son as a decoy to convince her that this was a legitimate baby sitting job.

In his home, while Sandy was occupied with his son, he put a rope around her, tied her to his bed and raped her. After he completed his savage rape he warned her not to disclose to anyone what he did to her. She told him that she would tell her parents and the police.

In an angry rage, Williams strangled her to death, dumped her body in a wooded area to cover and conceal his tracks. He never showed any remorse or responsibility for his crimes. At the time, he was employed as a US Postal worker and special policeman. His father was a Stamford police officer.

After a plea bargain, without our knowledge or consent, he was convicted of second degree murder and sentenced to 20 years to life. His first parole hearing was held in September 1988. He was denied parole release. We presented over 25,000 petition signatures along with over 100 letters to the parole board protesting his release.

His second hearing was scheduled for September 1994. Williams postponed this hearing a week before, after we presented over 20,000 new petition signatures. We are waiting for reschedule.''



Yet another murder I never heard about before in my life! Then again, I wasn't born until 1985.. But still!

13 Haig Avenue, Stamford, CT

Cop held in slaying of girl, 14
Feb 16, 1979


Stamford Man Submits Record Petition To Keep Daughter's Killer Behind Bars

Sept 21, 1988

The Ravisher: Edward Haight

Not only was I shocked to learn of the Stamford "Bra Murders", I was shocked when I read about this Stamford teenager who became infamous in the 1940s: Edward Haight.

Accoring to Trutv, he is known as "One of the most reviled killers to ever sit on death row at Sing Sing". He was executed for his crimes, and here's why:

"His shocking story, which generated national headlines in the autumn of 1942, began in the tranquil village of Bedford in Westchester County. On September 15, 1942, two girls, Margaret Lynch, 7, and her sister Helen, 9 were seen getting into a Ford station wagon that was reported stolen in nearby Stamford, Connecticut. They were never seen alive again.

By late night, a massive search for the missing girls was conducted in New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts. Hundreds of cops and volunteers, armed with shotguns, rifles and clubs scoured the countryside. Police investigation revealed that several other children had observed the same station wagon cruising in the area.

Soon, police located a young woman who said she was driving on the Merritt Parkway earlier that day when she experienced a scary incident with another motorist. She told police that a young man who was driving a Ford station wagon had forced her over to the side of the road. When she asked him what he wanted. The man replied, "I want you!" As the suspect tried to assault her, the woman's dogs, who were in the back of her car, tried to bite him. The man jumped back into his car and sped away. But she was able to provide police with a description.

The very next day, a Connecticut state trooper was driving along a road in north Stamford when he observed Edward Haight, 16, drive by in a small truck. The Haight family was well known to the police since they had many run-ins with local cops. When Haight was pulled over, police found a gas ration book from the stolen Ford station wagon in his pocket. He was taken into custody and soon confessed to the murder of both Lynch sisters.

Edward Haight took cops to the place where he disposed of the little girls after he tried to rape them. Helen's body was fished out of the Kensico Reservoir. Margaret had been strangled and her body was located in the woods near the reservoir. "I put a handkerchief in Margaret's mouth to stop her from screaming," he said. When he tried to rape her, the little girl fought and Haight mutilated her with a large hunting knife. With the body still in his car and Helen tied up in the trunk, he cruised into the village of Bedford to get some food. Haight then drove to a deserted wooded area and sexually assaulted Helen. He then placed the terrified girl under the car and drove over her several times, killing her. "I threw her off the bridge into the creek," Haight said, just as an ambulance drove by on its way to an unrelated car accident. Then he abandoned the stolen car in nearby Stamford and walked home.

Haight was charged with two counts of first-degree murder and locked up in the Bedford jail. At his arraignment the next day, Haight smiled and showed no remorse. He was talkative to reporters and freely gave out details of the crimes. On September 24, Haight pleaded not guilty in White Plains County Court. "It was hard to believe that the coverall-clad, black-haired youth was Edward Haight, self-confessed ravisher and slayer of two small Bedford girls 10 days ago in brutal crimes that rocked the nation!" said a story in a local newspaper.

During the trial, which opened on October 29, both the prosecution and defense psychiatrists offered conflicting opinions on the defendant's sanity. Haight had a wretched upbringing and lived in a place that was "as bad as a shack on a public dump" said one attorney. Meanwhile, the teenage killer alternately grinned, smiled and twiddled his thumbs in the courtroom. When the prosecutor held up photographs of the dead girls for the jurors, Haight actually broke out into a laugh. On November 5, Haight was found guilty of first-degree murder. "Edward Haight, still amused and apparently proud of his brutal, cold-blooded murder of two little girls, started down the last mile of his short life," said the Citizen's Register newspaper. Deliberations lasted less than one hour. As the guilty verdict was read, Haight smiled broadly at the jury. When his father came over to talk to him, Edward shrugged his shoulders and said "So what?"

He was taken immediately over to death row in Sing Sing. Ironically, Edward's father, Arnold Haight, once did four years at Sing Sing for a burglary back in 1932. Over the next eight months, Edward maintained an ongoing attitude of bravado and indifference. He lay in his bunk most of the day and spoke to almost no one. He ate vigorously though and gained over 50 pounds on prison food. When asked if he wanted anything, Edward said to the guards, "I'm not asking for nothing!"

But when he was interviewed on the day of his execution, he told reporters: "I was a fool. I don't know why I did it. I'm pretty sure this is my last day. And I'm only 17!" On July 8, 1943, he became the youngest person to be executed in Sing Sing's electric chair. His father was unable to claim his body and Edward Haight was buried in a plot of quick lime in nearby Peekskill."

Teen Rapist Sentenced To 28 Years In Prison

HAMILTON -- A teen convicted of assaulting and raping a neighbor was sentenced Friday morning to 28 years in prison.

Alex Ramirez was 14 when he beat, robbed and raped a 64-year-old woman who lived near his home.

Ramirez, standing trial as an adult, pleaded no contest and was found guilty of the assault in August.

He faced up to 83 years in prison. Ramirez, who will not be eligible for parole, was determined to be in the country illegally and will be deported when he completes his sentence.

Prior to sentencing, Ramirez, his mother, his victim and his victim's son all made statements to Judge Keith Spaeth.

"Basically, her heart hurts for what he did," said the teen's mother, Ava Ramirez, through an interpreter.

His victim, Phyllis Mays, told the judge that Ramirez was after only one thing that night, sex.

"I offered him $5; it was all I had," said Mays, who has agreed to be identified in media reports. "I offered him a diamond ring and he wouldn't take that, and I offered him a charge card and he wouldn't take that. either. He was there expressively for sex."

Ramirez, speaking publicly for the first time, did not ask for mercy or leniency, but he apologized and said he wanted to change.

"What can I do to make her stop suffering? I don't know what to do," Ramirez told the court. "I can't live with myself. I hate myself. I can't change what I did. People look at me as a monster. They have every right to. I did something wrong. I hurt her."

The judge described Ramirez, who must remain in prison until he is 43 years old, as someone whose internal compass was broken and could not be repaired.

The victim's son said the teen's crimes continued to have an impact on his family.

"It sent a shockwave, like if you drop a rock in a pond and you just see the ripples, and it's still rippling," said John Feltner.

Sex Offender Pleads Guilty to Killing Two Teen Girls

LA Times- A 31-year-old registered sex offender pleaded guilty Friday to murdering two teenage girls in northern San Diego County in a deal that spares him from the death penalty.

John Albert Gardner III, who previously served five years in prison for beating and molesting a 13-year-old girl, pleaded guilty to the murders of Chelsea King, 17, and Amber Dubois, 14, both during rape attempts. In exchange for his plea at the hastily arranged hearing, Gardner will be returned to prison for life, without the possibility of parole.

Chelsea, an honor student at Poway High School, disappeared Feb. 25 while jogging near Lake Hodges. Gardner was arrested Feb. 28, and on March 2 law enforcement searchers found Chelsea’s body in a shallow grave 10 feet from the water's edge.

Amber's skeletal remains were found four days later buried in the rugged Pala area northeast of Escondido. She had disappeared Feb. 13, 2009, while walking to class at Escondido High School.

With his head bowed, Gardner admitted Friday to Superior Court Judge David Danielsen that he strangled Chelsea and stabbed Amber. He also admitted to attacking a female jogger Dec. 27 in a rape attempt at Rancho Bernardo Community Park. The victim managed to escape Gardner's grasp.

The parents of both murdered girls were in the courtroom, as were a dozen supporters, some wearing T-shirts and buttons with pictures of the two victims.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Kristen Spieler told Danielsen that Dist. Atty. Bonnie Dumanis agreed to the plea bargain after "careful consideration of the feelings and opinions" of the victims' families.

In a news conference after the plea, Maurice Dubois, Amber's father, said the agreement allowed "justice and closure" for his daughter. Brent King, Chelsea's father, said lengthy court proceedings would have had a "destructive effect" on their 13-year-old son, Tyler, and the community and distracted from the family's campaign for tougher laws for sex offenders.

Dumanis said that without Gardner's guilty plea, her office would not have had enough evidence to take him to trial for Amber's murder.

Gardner and his attorney declined the judge's offer to comment on why Gardner agreed to plead guilty. He had pleaded not guilty to the murder and rape of Chelsea on March 3. The discovery of Amber's remains, which followed months of search efforts by hundreds of volunteers, so soon after Gardner's arrest had led to speculation that he had led authorities to her body, but until Friday his indictment for her killing was not public.

Gardner's arrest has sparked widespread public criticism over allegedly sloppy supervision of sex offenders.

Documents indicate that Gardner, who was released from prison in 2005, could have been sent back to prison for violating parole on several occasions, including for living too close to a school and missing meetings with his parole officer.

Other documents indicate that Gardner has long been diagnosed as having bipolar disorder and been prescribed mood-stabilizing drugs.

This week, accompanied by Chelsea's parents, Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher (R-San Diego) said he would introduce Chelsea’s Law, a bill that would allow for life sentences for first-time child molesters and for lifetime use of global positioning system monitoring of all sex offenders.

Although a gag order has prevented authorities from discussing either killing or the evidence linking Gardner to the crimes, a search warrant indicates that investigators found shovels and a pickax at Gardner's home in Lake Elsinore.

At the request of Gardner's public defender, Danielsen continued the gag order until an April 22 hearing. Danielsen said he has "grave reservations" about continuing the order but will allow lawyers to make their arguments. Danielsen made an exception to the gag order to allow Dumanis to comment to reporters.

The sentencing is not official until a June 1 court hearing. At that hearing, the relatives and friends of the victims can address the court. Under the plea bargain, Gardner is eligible to be treated as a mentally disturbed sex offender, Danielsen said.

Man Sentenced to 20 Years for 2003 Rape of Darien Jogger

STAMFORD -- A man who pleaded guilty to ambushing and raping a Darien woman as she was jogging was sentenced to 20 years in prison Thursday, nearly seven years after the attack.

Jose Amaya, 40, formerly of East Hartford, pleaded guilty to first-degree kidnapping and first-degree sexual assault in October. Amaya fled the United States and was extradited from Mexico in April. He was sentenced Thursday morning in state Superior Court in Stamford, said the prosecutor, State's Attorney David Cohen. After spending 20 years in prison, Amaya will spend 10 years on special parole.

In April 2003, authorities said, Amaya and Alejandro Mendez ambushed a 38-year-old woman as she was on a Sunday morning jog near Ring's End and Long Neck Point roads. The men punched and kicked her, smashed a bottle over her head and dragged her into their vehicle. They then drove her to a secluded spot of Noroton Heights and sexually assaulted her, authorities said.

The woman escaped and ran to a nearby church, authorities said.

Mendez pleaded guilty to his role in the attack and will serve 15 years.

An accomplice in the incident, Mendez was arrested in June 2003 in Los Angeles, and was sentenced to 15 years in prison two years later after pleading guilty to first-degree sexual assault and kidnapping.

Prosecutors at the time of the attack said both men were illegal immigrants working as day laborers in Norwalk. Within a month of the attack, police said they suspected Amaya had fled to Mexico. He could be deported after his release from prison, prosecutors have said.

Raped At 8 And Left For Dead, A Victim Raises Her Voice

(CNN) -- For nearly 20 years Jennifer Schuett has held onto every memory of the night she was abducted from her bedroom, raped and left for dead.

It was August 10, 1990. Schuett was 8 years old and lived alone with her mother in the first floor of an apartment complex in Dickinson, Texas. The bedroom windows faced the parking lot.

Investigators were never able to identify a suspect, but new DNA testing may change that.

CNN normally does not identify victims of sexual assaults. But Schuett wants to go public with her story-- and her name-- to increase the chances of finding and prosecuting her attacker.

"It's not about me anymore," she explained. "It's about all the little girls that go to sleep at night. I know there are so many girls out there who have been raped and hurt. You have to fight back."

For that, Schuett, 27, is relying on her voice, her memory and advances in DNA testing.

"I remember everything; I've always wanted to remember everything, so I can find the person that did this," Schuett told CNN during a phone interview. "If I had blocked this out of my memory, the investigation wouldn't have come this far. I'm a fighter."

Schuett says she was alone in her bed when a man came creeping in through the window. She remembers waking up in a stranger's arms as he carried her across a dark parking lot.

"When I opened my eyes, his face was the first thing I saw and he covered my face and mouth," she said. "He ran with me to his car. He told me he was an undercover cop and that he knew my family. He seemed calm -- not nervous, not aggressive."

After they left the parking lot, he drove her through the streets of Dickinson, Texas, pulling into a mechanic shop next to her elementary school.

"Watch the moon. The moon will change colors and that is when your mom will come to get you," she recalled him saying. "Oh, it looks like she is not coming."

Schuett said he drove her to an overgrown field next to the school and raped her.

"He had a knife to my throat and touched my face and offered me Reese's pieces," she said. "I was scared but I knew I couldn't be fast enough to get away. Cars would drive by but I couldn't get away to get help."

She believes she passed out. "I woke up to him dragging me by my ankles," she said. "I felt thorns ripping the skin off my back. I would see him turn to look at me and I would play dead."

She passed out again, and awoke at daybreak. "I remember feeling dew around me and I couldn't figure out why when I screamed I couldn't hear myself," said Schuett.

She lay naked on top on an ant hill with her throat slashed from ear to ear, and her voice box torn.

Much later, she said, "I heard children playing hide and seek. That is when one of the kids tripped over my foot," said Schuett.

She was found at 6 p.m. on a hot August day. She had been lying in the field for nearly 12 hours. She was rushed to the hospital in critical condition.

"Three days after the attack, I started giving a description. The doctors told me I would never be able to talk again, but I proved them all wrong," said Schuett. She believes she got her voice back so she could tell her story.

"I never wanted to play the victim role. I wanted to be a strong survivor," she said.

But the attack left its mark. "For the first two years, I had nightmares and was scared," she said. "But I never wanted sympathy. ... If I had given up, he would have won, and I wanted to show him: 'You didn't win.' "

Shuettt said she is now "on a manhunt."

Houston FBI Special Agent Richard Rennison is one of the lead investigators in the case, along with Dickinson police Detective Tim Cromie.

Both men were discussing the case, when Rinacin received a memo from the FBI's Child Abduction Rapid Deployment (CARD) Team, saying they were looking for cold child abduction cases that could be retested for DNA evidence. The Schuett case was one of the cases selected.

Rinacin, who has 10 years of experience in child abduction cases, said he has never seen a case like Schuett's.

"This is the only one that I can think of that the victim has suffered some traumatic injuries and survived," he said, "The main reason the CARD team picked this case was because she was alive. In cases of child abduction it is rare that the child is recovered alive. Frequently you recover a body and most times you never find them." Schuett is a living witness who can help put the pieces together.

The investigators found evidence collected 19 years ago, which can be retested. It includes the underwear and pajamas Schuett was wearing, as well as a man's underwear and T-shirt, which were found in the field where Schuett was left for dead.

The clothes were tested in 1990, but the sample wasn't large enough for conclusive results. But now, modern techniques allow DNA to be isolated from a single human cell.

Once they get back the DNA results -- "any time now," Schuett said -- they will run them through the FBI's criminal database and see if they get a match.

The FBI has also offered a $10,000 reward for information that could lead to a break in the case. And last weekend Schuett appeared in "America's Most Wanted," which resulted in several leads from viewers who called in with information.

"Someone might remember something about that night," Schuett said. "Dickinson is a really small community. Everybody knows everybody. I know someone in town knows something."

Hofstra Rape Case- SICK TWIST!

Hofstra Student Recants Gang Rape Allegations

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Charges have been dropped against four men accused of raping an 18-year-old student at Hofstra University after the woman recanted her allegations, prosecutors said.

A judge dismissed all charges Wednesday night and ordered the release of the four men -- Jesus Ortiz, 19; Stalin Felipe, 19; Kevin Taveras, 20; and Rondell Bedward, 21; all of the New York metropolitan area, according to Nassau County, New York, District Attorney Kathleen Rice.

They had been arrested, arraigned and jailed, with bail set at $500,000 each. Each was facing five counts of first-degree rape.

"Late this evening, during the continuation of the Nassau County Police Department's investigation of the allegation, and under questioning by my office's chief trial attorney and chief sex crimes prosecutor, the alleged victim of the sexual assault admitted that the encounter that took place early Sunday morning was consensual," Rice said.

She said her office has launched a criminal investigation into the statements and reports given by the woman.

The student had told Nassau County police that she had been lured from a club, forced into a men's bathroom at a university dormitory, bound and assaulted.

The woman then called the university public safety office, which alerted local police.

The reported rape shocked the Hofstra University community. The university had announced that it was increasing safety patrols on campus, as well as establishing a support hotline for students and parents.

Jury: Death for Man Who Murdered Cop's Daughter

(CNN) -- A Florida jury has recommended the death penalty for a plumber who kidnapped, raped and murdered a police detective's daughter.

Michael King, 38, showed no reaction Friday afternoon as the jury's 12-0 decision was announced in Sarasota. Jurors deliberated for nearly three hours.

King was convicted a week ago of first-degree murder and related offenses in the January 17, 2008, death of Denise Lee, a 21-year-old mother of two boys.

Nathan Lee and Sgt. Dave Goff, the victim's husband and father remained composed in court. They had maintained a daily presence in the courtroom during a trial that included the heartbreaking tape of Denise Lee's frantic 911 call on her captor's cell phone.

In Florida, a jury's recommendation for a death sentence is advisory. King will be formally sentenced later. Judges rarely overturn a jury's unanimous decision.

Jurors Marcia Burns and Pat O'Quinn told reporters that defense testimony about King's head injury from a sledding accident and his low IQ carried little weight in the jury room.

Denise Lee's father and husband had hoped for the death penalty. "I don't think he should be able to live another day," Nathan Lee said Friday as he awaited the verdict.

Lee and Goff told the jury that she was a bright young woman who put aside her career ambitions to marry her college sweetheart and raise their two boys, now 2 and 3.

"She was everything we could wish for in a daughter and more," Goff said.

Several jurors had tears in their eyes as Nathan Lee described his wife as a devoted mother who was nursing one son and potty-training another when a stranger abducted her from their home.

"I was so proud to call her my wife," he said. "Denise was the love of my life, my soul mate. I knew after our first date that I had found the perfect girl."

He added that their boys "know their beautiful, courageous mommy has gone to heaven and now is an angel."

King's siblings spoke of how a childhood sledding accident left him with a head injury that contributed to a lifetime of troubles. On expert described the injury as a "divot" in his brain.

Experts testified that scans indicated that King's brain was abnormally shaped, especially his frontal lobe: the center for logic, planning and reason. His IQ was described as about 76, in the low range. A person with an IQ of 70 is considered to be mentally retarded, according to testimony.

King's brother, Greg, testified that the defendant was 6 when he crashed head-first into a post while being pulled on a sled by a snowmobile. "I felt bad for him," Greg King said. "I felt responsible, but I wasn't."

As a child, Michael King would get a faraway look in his eyes, witnesses said. Once, he fired his BB gun at witches he said he saw in the trees. Another time, he chased family members around the house with a running chainsaw. His eyes were "bugging out," his brother testified.

King also complained of headaches and hearing "a buzzing sound" in his head, Greg King told the jury.

King seemed to be deteriorating mentally in late 2007, according to testimony. He faced foreclosure, was considering filing for bankruptcy and broke up with a girlfriend on Thanksgiving Day. The ex-girlfriend, Jennifer Robb, testified that he sat on the bed staring into space and unable to dress himself.

"He acted as if he were somewhere else," she said. But she said she never knew him to be violent.

According to testimony, Lee was taken from her home during the afternoon, driven to King's home, sexually assaulted and then shot in the head and buried in a ditch.

During the trial, Lee's voice filled the courtroom as her desperate 911 call was played to the jury.

A 911 operator repeatedly said "Hello," and Lee was heard pleading with her captor: "I'm sorry. I just want to see my family. ... I just want to see my family again. Please. ... Oh, please, I just want to see my family again. Let me go."

Eventually, Lee managed to say, "My name is Denise. I'm married to a beautiful husband, and I just want to see my kids again. ... Please, God, please protect me."

Lee's heart-shaped ring, a gift from her husband, was found in King's car, and hair matching hers was found on duct tape at King's house.

According to testimony and court records, Lee fought frantically for her life, banging on the windows of King's green Camaro, screaming for help and begging one witness, "Call the cops."

Several people reported seeing something suspicious and called 911. But authorities didn't find Lee in time, and allegations that dispatchers mishandled the calls have led to criticism of the local 911 system.

The 911 communications breakdown was blamed on a shift change, and two dispatchers were suspended, according to the St. Petersburg Times.

Lee's husband has launched a foundation bearing her name that works toward 911 reform. He plans to file a lawsuit this month, a family spokesman said.

Phillip Garrido's Past Reveals ANOTHER Rape Charge

In 1972, four years before being convicted of kidnapping and rape, the suspected captor of Jaycee Lee Dugard was arrested for allegedly drugging and raping a 14-year-old girl near Antioch, Calif.

San Francisco - Phillip Garrido, who was convicted in a 1976 kidnapping and rape, was arrested four years earlier for allegedly drugging and raping a 14-year-old girl near his hometown, police in Antioch, Calif., revealed Thursday for the first time.

Garrido was arrested last week on suspicion of kidnapping and raping Jaycee Lee Dugard, who was 11 when she was snatched from her street in South Lake Tahoe in 1991 and was allegedly kept in a hidden backyard warren of sheds and tents for 18 years.

At a news conference Thursday, Antioch police revealed previously unknown details of the 1972 arrest that they had learned from the alleged victim, who contacted police after Garrido's recent arrest.

"She has a lot of concern about the things Mr. Garrido has done since the time of the '72 incident," Antioch Police Lt. Leonard Orman said.

Also on Thursday, Dugard's aunt spoke at a news conference in Los Angeles about how her niece has fared since she turned herself in to Antioch police last week, prompting the arrest of Garrido, 58, and his wife, Nancy, 54.

"This is a joyful time for my family," said Tina Dugard, the sister of Dugard's mother.

Antioch police were aware of the 1972 arrest before the woman contacted them but needed to talk to her to verify information that had been lost or destroyed. "It's been 37 years and those reports have not been saved. The case was dead back then," Sgt. Steve Bias said. "A lot of the information came from the victim herself."

The victim, whose name was not released by police, was with a male friend at the Antioch Public Library in April 1972 when she encountered Garrido, Orman said. Garrido offered the pair a ride, then took them to a nearby motel, now called the Riverview Motel, where he supplied them with barbiturates.

The victim went willingly, although she did not know Garrido, Bias said. "It's our understanding that it was a let's-go-party situation," he said.

He said the victim passed out in the motel room. She awoke to discover that she had been raped by Garrido, who was still there, Bias said, adding that police believe the rape continued at that point.

The girl's parents later found her at the motel and called police, who responded and arrested Garrido, Orman said. Garrido was charged with rape, contributing to the delinquency of a minor and providing narcotics to a minor, but the charges were later dropped, Orman said.

Bias said the victim did not want to testify. "A lot of victims of sexual assault just don't want to get up there and go over the details," he said.

The victim also did not want to speak publicly, Bias said.

"She's very emotional about it," he said. "This lady wants to be left alone."

Riverview Motel owner Chetan Patel, 38, said his family bought the 64-year-old, 23-room, single-story motel in 1984. Although the low-cost motel is in a seedy area, Patel had never heard about sexual assaults there and said he was surprised to be inundated with calls and visits from reporters after the police announcement Thursday.

"We haven't had any situation like that ever since we've been here," Patel said.

Four years after Garrido's arrest in the rape of the 14-year-old, he was arrested again on charges of kidnapping and raping Katherine Callaway, 25, whom he abducted in South Lake Tahoe and held captive in a Reno storage shed.

Prosecutors tried to introduce evidence that, about an hour before Garrido abducted Callaway, he had attempted to abduct another woman. As he did with Callaway, Garrido had approached the woman for a ride, got in her car, directed her to another street, then grabbed and handcuffed one of her wrists, according to federal court documents. Before Garrido could handcuff the woman's other wrist, she jumped out of the car and escaped, court records show.

Garrido was sentenced to 50 years in federal prison in the 1976 case, but was paroled in 1988 and allegedly abducted Dugard in 1991. Police say she bore him two daughters, now 11 and 15.

Dugard and her daughters are now in seclusion at an unknown location with her mother. Tina Dugard, her aunt, said she recently visited with them.

"We spent time sharing memories and stories and getting to know each other again," she said. "Jaycee remembers all of us. She is especially enjoying getting to know her little sister, who was just a baby when Jaycee was taken."

Tina Dugard described Jaycee Dugard's daughters, who have never been to school, as "clever, articulate, curious girls" who were home-schooled by their mother during their captivity.

"We are so proud of her," Dugard said.

She said her sister has been savoring her time with her daughter and granddaughters.

"The smile on my sister's face is as wide as the sea," Dugard said. "Her oldest daughter is finally home."

Jaycee Dugard's Aunt: 'This is A Joyful Time'

LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- A California woman who turned up alive 18 years after being kidnapped at age 11 is reconnecting with her family after nearly two decades apart, her aunt said Thursday.

Police said Thursday that the man charged with abducting and raping Jaycee Lee Dugard had been accused of raping a 14-year-old in 1972, but those charges were dropped for unknown reasons.

"I think there's a good chance of that, yes," Antioch Police Lt. Leonard Orman said when asked whether he believed that other victims would be found.

Dugard is spending time in "a secluded place, reconnecting" with her mother and younger sister, said Jaycee's aunt, Tina Dugard, who spent time with them.

The two children born to her during her captivity are "clever, articulate, curious girls," she said.

"This is a joyful time for my family," she said. "Jaycee remembers all of us."

Jaycee Lee Dugard was kidnapped in 1991 from a bus stop near her home in South Lake Tahoe, California, and discovered last week. Authorities say a couple kidnapped her and raised her in a compound of tents and outbuildings in the backyard of their Antioch, California, home for 18 years.

Nancy and Phillip Garrido have been charged with a total of 29 felonies, including the rape and kidnapping of Dugard, who police say gave birth to two daughters fathered by Garrido during her captivity. The Garridos have pleaded not guilty. Philip Garrido is a registered sex offender.

Tina Dugard appeared in Los Angeles on Thursday to read a statement on behalf of her family.

"Jaycee is a remarkable young woman who has raised two beautiful daughters," she said. "They are clever, articulate, curious girls who have a bright future ahead of them."

The girls are 11 and 15.

"Although they have no formal education, they are certainly educated," she said. "Jaycee did a truly amazing job with the limited resources and education that she herself had, and we are so proud of her."

Tina Dugard said Jaycee's mother's smile is "as wide as the sea."

"Her oldest daughter is finally home," she said.

Dugard, now 29, is enjoying catching up on the years missed with her family, Tina Dugard said.

"She is especially enjoying getting to know her little sister, who was just a baby when Jaycee was taken," she said. "Not only have we laughed and cried together, but we've spent time sitting quietly, taking pleasure in each other's company."

The Dugard family statement thanked the law enforcement and social agencies involved in reconnecting them. "Their support and professionalism have been invaluable," it said.

A trust fund has been established for donations to help Dugard, the aunt said.

"It has come to my family's attention that there may be unauthorized solicitation of funds to support Jaycee and the family," she said.

The family released three photos of a young Dugard. One was taken at her grandmother's home when she was 3. A second showed her dressed as a punk rocker the Halloween before her abduction.

Tina Dugard said she snapped the third photo at the 1991 Rose Bowl Parade when she asked her niece to "make a face for me, and she did."

Watch Jaycee's aunt speak to the media »

Garrido Victim: 'He Had Me for 8 Hours. He Had Her for 18 Years'

(CNN) -- Katie Callaway Hall trembled for four hours when she heard Phillip Garrido was arrested.

His name sent a flurry of emotion running through her mind.

"I screamed," she told CNN's Larry King on Monday night. "I started screaming 'Oh my god, Oh my god, it's him.' "

She has thought about him every day since November 22, 1976 when he asked her for a ride at a supermarket in California, before handcuffing her, binding her and taking her to a mini-warehouse in Reno, Nevada, where he raped her.

Garrido was convicted for kidnapping and raping Hall, but was released after serving just over 10 years of a 50-year sentence. He was labeled a sex offender and put on lifetime parole.

"In many ways, the capture of Phillip Garrido has closed a chapter in my life," Hall wrote for a Larry King blog. "I don't have to hide anymore. I don't have to live every day of my life wondering if he is looking for me. I am finally free from the fear I have lived with since the day I learned he was paroled."

Garrido and his wife Nancy were charged last week with crimes relating to the abduction of 11-year-old Jaycee Lee Dugard in 1991 and her captivity in a hidden shed-and-tent compound in the couple's backyard in Antioch, California.

"With all the joy I should feel, I want to scream from the depths of my soul," she said. "Scream because my fears turned out to be justified -- he struck again."

While Hall has tried to suppress some of the memories of what happened to her that night, Garrido's arrest took her mind back to that night in November.

"A man tapped on my window and asked for a ride," she said. "I agreed."

When she stopped the car to drop him off, Garrido took the keys out of the ignition, according to court documents from Garrido's appeal in the case.

Garrido, then 25, "told [Hall] it wasn't intentional that he had taken her, but that it was her fault because she was attractive," according to the documents.

"Soon after, I was cuffed, bound, gagged, and taken to a warehouse," Hall told CNN.

She was kept in the 6 by 12-foot storage facility, which Hall remembers was stacked with half-opened boxes with China-type dishes inside.

Large, heavy carpets were hanging from the ceiling, spaced apart every few feet.

"It was like a maze," she said. "And in the back of the mini warehouse where he had me, he had it set up to keep someone for awhile."

"Most of the details about what happened to me after I entered that warehouse have been repressed."

She told Larry King that she feared for her life.

"I thought I was dead," she said.

Hall was held in the small storage facility for five hours before she heard a noise.

"My recollections begin around 3 a.m. Someone banged on the door. I remember thinking, 'Oh my God, his friends are coming,' " she said. "Garrido said, 'Do I have to tie you up or are you going to be good.' "

She told him she would be good, but she knew if it was the police banging outside, she was going to "have to try something."

"I barreled my way out of the warehouse completely naked. I could see the officer and Garrido standing there. They both looked at me like I was crazy," she said. "I couldn't see the officer's car. I thought 'Oh God, he's not a real cop.' My state of mind was such that I couldn't fully embrace what I was seeing. Finally, I saw his police car."

Garrido tried to tell the cop Hall was his girlfriend.

"I screamed, 'No I'm not -- help me, help me,' " she said.

"The officer told me to back in and put my clothes on. When I went inside, Garrido must have convinced the officer we were both on drugs, because he let Garrido go back into the building alone," Hall said. "I had already put some of my clothes on. Garrido came back in and begged me not to turn him in."

Half-dressed, Hall said she maneuvered passed him and asked the police to keep him away.

"They asked if I was brought there against my will," she said. "I told them I was, that he had handcuffed and bound me. An officer shined a light on my wrists, saw the sores from the handcuffs, and arrested Garrido."

Though Garrido was put behind bars for what he did, Hall said that night changed her life forever.

"For years, I walked around like a zombie," she said. "I had to tell everyone I met what had happened to me -- because I didn't feel like myself. It was as if I had to explain why I wasn't 'normal.' "

For her, that's the biggest pain Garrido put her though.

"I was a good person. I lived right, and treated others well," she said.

"He changed my life in an instant. I don't feel like I can ever be that person again. Being victimized is something that only a victim can understand. I hate that he did this to me, and I doubt I'll ever get over it."

Though the trauma of her kidnapping has stayed with her all of these years, Hall said she couldn't even begin to imagine the pain Garrido has caused Dugard and the two children she had with him.

"The only thing I can think of worse than what happened to me, is it happening to my child," she said. "I can't imagine what Jaycee is going through. He had me for 8 hours. He had her for 18 years.

"I was an adult, with instincts that helped me deal with the situation. She was a child. This is going to be with her for the rest of her life. I can only wish her the best."

Accused Child Kidnapper's Blog Boasts of Sound Control

ANTIOCH, California (CNN) -- The man accused of abducting an 11-year-old girl in 1991 apparently maintained a blog in which he claimed to control sound with his mind.

The blog now has profanity-laced responses from people outraged over Phillip Garrido's alleged actions.
Police say Garrido, 58, confessed to abducting Jaycee Lee Dugard when she was 11 and fathering two children with her. Police say Dugard and the children, 11 and 15, were kept in several enclosures hidden behind his home in Antioch, California.

Garrido and his wife are in police custody.

Garrido's blog entries are posted by "THEMANWHOSPOKEWITHHISMIND." He refers to "God's Desire," which is a church based out of his home in Antioch, according to CNN affiliate KCRA of Sacramento.

In a post on August 14, he writes that during a "powerful demonstration" in July in Pittsburg, California, "the Creator has given me the ability to speak in the tongue of angels in order to provide a wake-up call that will in time include the salvation of the entire world."

"You too can witness what the world believe's [sic] is impossible to produce!" he writes, providing an e-mail address. "DON'T MISS OUT!"

Several news outlets, including The New York Times, have reported on the blog since the case started making international headlines Thursday.

In another posting last year, Garrido claims to have a "new insight that has the potential of helping people who hear voices to possibly stop and reexamine their thinking before committing a violent act on themselves and/or others."

This technique, he writes, could help prevent tragedies, such as the woman who threw her three children into the San Francisco Bay in 2006 and later claimed to have been following directions from the "voice of God."

"This tragic act could have been avoided if my findings were made public before she found herself being led by a powerful internal and external [hearing] process that places the human mind under a hypnotic siege that in time leads a person to build a delusional belief system that drives them to whatever course of action they take," he writes.

He also posted several "declarations of affirmation" from 2006 signed by six witnesses "to affirm that I Phillip Garrido have clearly demonstrated the ability to control sound with my mind and have developed a device for others to witness this phenomena."

Jury Sees Car at Center of Murder Trial

SARASOTA, Florida–In the Florida death penalty trial of Michael King, the jury view took place Wednesday of the dark green Camaro belonging to the defendant.

Jurors slowly walked around the car that had been brought to the courthouse at the request of prosecutors.

While some jurors took notes, the defendant was seated at a table, shackled at his ankles, but his confinement was hidden from jurors because of a skirt in place around the table.

In other testimony, Robert Salvador admitted he had gone to a shooting range with the defendant the morning of the murder of Denise Lee and had personally placed King’s 9 mm pistol back in the defendant’s car when their target practice concluded.

The defense, on cross-examination, focused on Salvador’s lack of truthfulness when originally questioned by police and even suggested to Salvador that he met King close to the murder site later that afternoon and shot Denise Lee himself. “Absolutely not!” Salvador answered. He allowed to stand, however, the question asking Salvador if he killed Lee.

That exchange created a vigorous argument by attorneys out side the presence of the jury. The result was an instruction to the jury from Judge Deno Economou telling them to completely disregard the majority of that line of questioning by the defense.

Chilling 911 Call from Victim Played in Court

SARASOTA, Florida – The trial of Michael King, a man accused of kidnapping, raping and killing a 21-year-old Florida mother continues today with testimony from a crime scene technician.

On Tuesday, a jury reading transcripts followed along in silence as the more than 5 minute 911 call made by victim Denise Lee was played in court.

Lee was inside the defendant’s Camaro when she used his cell phone to call a 911 operator and screamed: “My name is Denise and I just want to see my beautiful husband and kids again.” She also answers the 911 operator when asked, “do you know this guy?” Crying into the phone, Lee yells “NO.”

Prosecutors say Lee had been abducted by King and was shot to death with one bullet to the head shortly after this call. Family members of Lee left the courtroom before the tape was played, but Lee’s father Detective Rick Goff stayed, telling me after court, “Its my daughter…I’m not going to leave.”

In other testimony Jane Kowalski pounded the witness stand with her fist, demonstrating the banging of what she thought was a child’s hand against the passenger window of a dark Camaro, accompanied by horrific screaming. The vehicle had pulled up to her left as she was traveling south on US 41 in Sarasota on January 17th — the date Lee was killed.

Kowalski’s emergency call to authorities was also played in court and the Charlotte County 911 operator seemed to verbally repeat to others in her dispatch room what Kowalski said as she described every street the Camaro was passing, but that information was never communicated to law enforcement on the ground in the area.

Tammy Treadway, who heads up Animal Services with the Sarasota Sheriff’s department, testified her golden retriever “actively engaged” in a rural site in the North Port area the evening of January 18, 2008.

Crime scene investigators soon found sand and dirt out of place and blood saturating the earth. Investigators had found the burial site of Denise Lee.

'Psychopath' Sentenced to 120 Years in Horrific Child Porn Case

PHILADELPHIA — A seldom-employed psychopath was sentenced Wednesday to spend the rest of his life in prison for making a huge cache of child pornography that shows him sexually assaulting a dozen children, including infants at a girlfriend's in-home day care.

The FBI found John Jackey Worman with more than 1 million images and 11,000 videos of child pornography when they arrested him in suburban Philadelphia in 2007. Worman made girls in his care perform sex acts for school lunch money.

"I cannot know ... what was going through your head while you were molesting my daughter. Was it a big joke as I pulled away each day?" the mother of one of the abused infants asked Worman during testimony Wednesday. He stared blankly ahead.

Worman has told prison doctors he feels no remorse for sexually "anointing" his female victims.

"I am totally at peace with everything I have done," he said, according to U.S. District Judge Lawrence F. Stengel, who sentenced him to 120 years in prison.

A teenager who had been abused for several years ultimately tipped off authorities, after watching an episode of "Law & Order" about child sexual abuse. She only then realized it had been wrong, Assistant U.S. Attorney Michelle Rotella said.

That led to last year's trial, when jurors, who sometimes asked for breaks from viewing the evidence, convicted Worman of 56 child-pornography counts.

The sentencing judge described Worman, 42, of Colwyn, as a psychopath who sponged off women and sadistically coerced his young victims.

Remarkably, the judge found, Worman has no mental-health diagnosis or childhood trauma that would help explain his crimes. Psychiatric tests conducted by the U.S. Bureau of Prisons revealed only that he is a pedophile with an anti-social personality disorder.

Worman described his childhood as a good one in which he was free to do as he liked. He told the medical staff he started using alcohol and marijuana at age 11, and dropped out of 10th grade.

He lived in his mother's basement in Colwyn through his 40s, sometimes with a girlfriend's three children — the woman herself never moved in. He also rigged hidden cameras at the home of another girlfriend, baby sitter Concetta Jackson.

Jackson, 46, of Collingdale is in prison awaiting sentence after pleading guilty to one child-pornography count. Prosecutors say she procured some of the victims for Worman.

Ex-girlfriend Dorothy Prawdzik of Drexel Hill, who went to trial, was sentenced to 30 years in prison for undressing and posing young girls for Worman. Prawdzik, 45, also held the camera while he tried to rape an infant and participated with Worman in a three-way sexual encounter with a 10-year-old girl.

The mother who tried to get answers from Worman in court describes herself now as a tortured, overprotective parent. Her daughter does not remember the abuse — but the woman can't forget it.

The Associated Press is not identifying her to protect her daughter's identity, and is not identifying other sexual-abuse victims in the case.

Worman declined to make a statement Wednesday. His court-appointed lawyer argued against a life term, comparing it to "putting down" an animal.

"A sentence that basically says we're putting you down does not recognize whatever degree of humanity exists in Mr. Worman," lawyer Mark Cedrone said.

Stengel nonetheless said he sought to craft a life term.

The victim who first disclosed the abuse to police is now a 21-year-old wife and expectant mother. After the hearing, she was congratulated for how she came to earn her childhood nickname, "Mouthy."

"That was the best nickname for (me)," she said as she hugged an FBI agent who worked the case. "I'm just happy that it's all over."