R.I.P. Elizabeth Edwards

How sad she had endure all that personal crap with her douche husband before dying of such a horrific disease.... I pray for the day when we will find a cure for cancer.

WASHINGTON – Elizabeth Edwards, the estranged wife of former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, died Tuesday after a six-year fight with cancer, her family said. She was 61.

"Today we have lost the comfort of Elizabeth's presence but she remains the heart of this family," the statement said. "We love her and will never know anyone more inspiring or full of life. On behalf of Elizabeth we want to express our gratitude to the thousands of kindred spirits who moved and inspired her along the way. Your support and prayers touched our entire family."

A family friend said she died in North Carolina at 10:15 a.m.

The family asked that donations be made to the Wade Edwards Foundation which benefits the Wade Edwards Learning Lab. He was the Edwards' teenaged son who died in a car accident.

Missing N.C. Girl's Stepmother: Dad Did Something "Kinda Horrifying"

Examiner- The owner of a crime memorabilia web business known as Serial Killers Ink, has gone public with letters he says were written by the stepmother of missing North Carolina girl, Zahra Baker. Eric Gein began corresponding with Elisa Baker shortly after she was arrested on unrelated charges.

What follows is an excerpt from one of those letters: “We really didn't kill her, but what he did after the fact is kinda horrifying,” wrote Elisa Baker.

On Wednesday, the Hickory Police Department announced that they have discovered a bone that may be the remains of the missing 10-year-old girl. The bone, which was discovered in a house in Caldwell County, where the Bakers lived until mid-September was sent to the Medical Examiner's office in Chapel Hill for examination.

A few days ago, police determined that a prosthetic leg found in western North Carolina belonged to Zahra.

According to Hickory Police Maj. Clyde Deal, the leg was discovered at a home where Zahra's stepmother once lived. A scanner was used to read the electronic serial number inside the leg, which was matched to the girl’s medical records.

Zahra lost her own leg during her bout with bone cancer.

Elisa Baker was arrested a few days after she told police that her stepdaughter had disappeared from her Hickory, North Carolina home in the middle of the night. She was charged with obstruction of justice, after admitting that she wrote the bogus ransom note found at the scene, as well as several other unrelated charges.

An Amber Alert was originally issued for Zahra, but the investigation soon shifted from a missing person’s case to that of a homicide.

Prosthetic Leg Found, Believed to Belong to Missing N.C. Girl

(CNN) -- A prosthetic leg thought to be that of missing 10-year-old Zahra Baker has been found in a brushy area off a North Carolina road, Chief Tom Adkins of the Hickory, North Carolina, police said Wednesday.

Police launched a search for Zahra on October 9, but no one other than a family member has reported seeing her since September 25, when a woman saw her at a furniture store. The girl's disappearance is now being probed as a homicide.

Adkins said that the prosthetic leg is "consistent with" that of Zahra, a freckle-faced youngster who lost her leg to bone cancer. It was found late Tuesday afternoon off Christie Road in Caldwell County, he said, and authorities are using its serial number to confirm it belonged to the young girl. Zahra got the leg in Australia, where both her birth parents are from.

Prodded by what Adkins described as "new information," investigators returned Wednesday to the residence that Zahra Baker lived in with her father, Adam Troy Baker, and her stepmother, Elisa Baker.

"We're looking for any piece of evidence that can help in that investigation," said Adkins, noting several such pieces had been found Wednesday.

A day earlier, employees at Foothills Environmental Landfill in Lenoir, North Carolina, found a mattress that investigators believe belonged to Zahra and was thrown out by her parents in early October -- just days before she was reported missing.

The disappearance of Zahra, who had persevered through numerous health battles and wore hearing aids, has made international news.

Police said the missing girl's stepmother, Elisa Baker, admitted last week that she planted a fake ransom note the day after the girl's disappearance was reported.

Initially arrested on October 10 on several charges unrelated to Zahra's disappearance, including writing worthless checks, Elisa Baker was additionally charged with obstruction of justice for leaving the note. That charge is a felony.

She is now cooperating with investigators, Hickory police said in a statement issued Tuesday. The previous day, she had joined police as they searched for evidence at a site near a home she lived in three years ago.

Zahra's father was arrested just after 3 a.m. Monday in nearby Catawba County on eight charges, including five counts of submitting worthless checks and three counts of failing to appear in court.

Police earlier acknowledged that Adam Baker faced bad-check charges, which are unrelated to the disappearance of his daughter. But they did not initially arrest him, as he had been helping authorities in their search.

Adam Baker was at Charlotte/Douglas International Airport picking up a family member Sunday before he voluntarily went to the Police Department in Hickory, about 60 miles northwest of Charlotte, to talk to authorities.

Family members and neighbors have told reporters that Zahra's stepmother abused her. Her attorney has denied the allegation.

Police have said they had been in contact with Zahra's biological mother in Australia and asked for the girl's medical records.

Police End Landfill Search in Case of Missing N.C. girl

(CNN) -- Authorities ended their search at a North Carolina landfill Friday for a mattress connected to the case of a missing 10-year-old girl, police said. They did not recover it.

Investigators had hoped to use the mattress to confirm information from interviews conducted as part of their investigation, Hickory police said in a news release. They had also hoped it would provide some DNA evidence related to the case.

Zahra Clare Baker was reported missing October 9. However, no one other than a family member has reported seeing her since September 25, when a woman saw her at a furniture store, police say.

The missing mattress, which belonged to Zahra, was thrown out by her parents in early October, days before she was reported missing, police say.

A team from Hickory police and agents from the North Carolina Bureau of Investigation and the FBI participated in the search at the Foothills Environmental Landfill in Lenoir, North Carolina.

Authorities say the girl's disappearance is being investigated as a homicide.

Police said last week that her stepmother, Elisa Baker, admitted that she wrote a fake ransom note that was left at the family's home.

Elisa Baker was arrested October 10 on unrelated charges, including writing worthless checks. More recently, authorities charged her with obstruction of justice, a felony, after she admitted writing the note, according to Hickory Police Chief Tom Adkins. She remains jailed on those charges.

Police said the girl's father, Adam Baker, also faces bad-check charges, but he has not been arrested. He is assisting police in their search.

The disappearance of Zahra, a freckle-faced youngster who wears a prosthetic leg and hearing aids, has made international news. The girl lost her leg to bone cancer, according to CNN affiliate WCNC.

Family members and neighbors have told reporters that Zahra's stepmother abused her -- an allegation her lawyer has denied. Police say Elisa Baker has declined to speak with them.

They have also said they had been in contact with Zahra's biological mother in Australia and asked for the girl's medical records.

"Our team will continue to pursue leads called in to our tip line and go wherever and do whatever we need to find Zahra and bring justice for her," Hickory police said in their Friday release.

Search for Zahra Baker: Where to Look Next?

ABC News- Authorities charged with the gruesome task of searching for the body of missing North Carolina girl Zahra Baker have had to continually expand their search after previous efforts turned up little.

"It's a science," said Ernie Allen, president and CEO of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

"They've searched kind of the obvious places nearby," he said. "The approach in cases like this would be to expand the radius."

Hickory. N.C., police, aided by teams from area sheriff's offices and NCMEC's Adam Team, which deploys specialized search units, have already combed through the family's home, the wooded areas nearby and the property where the 10-year-old's father worked.

Today, Hickory police removed three pieces of bedroom furniture -- including a bed frame, mattress and box springs -- from the house where Zahra Baker lived with her parents, according to the Hickory Record newspaper. Police also carried out two bags of evidence.

Neither area police nor sheriff's offices returned calls seeking comment today.

Allen said those searches and the expanded efforts are all based on a profile of the family and Zahra herself -- where they went, who they talked to, what they liked to do.

And in a case like Zahra's, where police aren't sure exactly when she may have been killed, finding "where was the child last seen alive" can pose difficulties.

"Basically, what you're doing is ruling things out," he said.

And "you always hope you are wrong," said Allen. "You hope you don't find a body."

The search for Zahra, who had lost her hearing and left leg to cancer, was reclassified Tuesday as a homicide investigation.

Zahra's stepmother, Elisa Baker, was jailed on a felony obstruction of justice charge the same day. Baker was already in custody, having been arrested over the weekend on several charges unrelated to her stepdaughter's disappearance.

Though police said she admitted Tuesday to writing a ransom note after demanding $1 million, she has since denied she had anything to do with Zahra's disappearance.

In many of the high-profile missing children's cases, such as Chelsea King's or Elizabeth Smart's, the family becomes an ally to authorities.

That's not necessarily the case in Zahra Baker's.

Though Hickory police have told local media that Zahra's father, Adam Baker, had cooperated he still remains an unofficial suspect for some, along with his wife.

But, Allen noted, "you always look at those closest to the child first."

- read more-

Police: Stranger Abduction 'Less Likely' in N.C. Missing Girl Case

(CNN) -- Authorities said Sunday that "a stranger abduction is less likely than once anticipated" in the case of a missing 10-year-old North Carolina girl.

Zahra Clare Baker was reported to have last been seen sleeping in her bedroom about 2:30 a.m. Saturday. She was reported missing from her Hickory, North Carolina, home about 2 p.m. Saturday by her father, Adam Baker, and stepmother, Elisa Baker.

"Although nothing is being ruled out at this point, there have been details that have surfaced in the past 12 hours indicating that a stranger abduction is less likely than once anticipated," Hickory police said in a statement Sunday.

An Amber Alert was issued for Zahra on Saturday and will remain in effect until the girl is located, police said. "We are deeply concerned for the welfare of Zahra but remain hopeful that we will locate her safe and unharmed," the statement said.

The Bakers were interviewed early in the investigation, and investigators are following leads to corroborate statements the two made to authorities, police said.

Elisa Baker was arrested Sunday morning "on outstanding charges not related to this case," the statement said. "Inconsistencies developed over the course of this investigation have not eliminated her as a person of interest."

Zahra is described as being about 5 feet 1 inch tall and weighing 85 pounds. She has a prosthetic left leg, and also is hearing impaired, requiring hearing aids that she does not have with her, police said.

Hickory Police Chief Tom Adkins told reporters he believes it is very unlikely the girl would have left the house on her own accord. He also said there was a small fire reported at the residence the morning Zahra is thought to have vanished. It was unclear what connection, if any, the fire might have to the girl's disappearance.

The FBI is assisting Hickory police in the investigation, officials said. Members of the public who have information were asked to contact the Hickory Police Department.

NC Woman Arrested After Boyfriend's Body Found in Freezer

AOL News- (Oct. 8) -- The girlfriend of a missing North Carolina man has been charged with murder after police found the man's body stuffed in a freezer in their home. Investigators are trying to locate the couple's missing son.

Wendy Edmond Green, 41, is being held without bond in the Wake County Jail on charges of first-degree murder in the death of her live-in boyfriend, 52-year-old David Reuben Green Jr.

Investigators had been looking for David Green since early September, when family members reported him missing. On Sept. 7, authorities conducted a search of the couple's Raleigh home but were unable to locate him, Wake County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Phyllis Stephens said.

"They continued to investigate, and went back out there [Wednesday] to do another search," Stephens told AOL News. "[Investigators] were looking around, and they saw a freezer. They opened [it up], and there he was."

Wake County Sheriff Donnie Harrison told The News & Observer that investigators detected a "powerful smell" during their second search of the home. The power inside the home had been shut off in August.

On Thursday, authorities found found Wendy Green living at a home in nearby Robeson County. She was arrested and taken into custody without incident.

A preliminary autopsy by the state Medical Examiner's Office in Chapel Hill found that Green died of blunt-force trauma. Investigators suspect he was killed sometime in April. Authorities do not yet have a motive in the case. Stephens said.

Although the Greens were not married, police say Wendy Green had assumed her boyfriend's last name. The couple had two teen children, a daughter, Alexis, and a son, David Reuben Green III.

Alexis Green, 17, has been incarcerated at the Wake County Jail since Sept. 16 on multiple charges, including contempt of court and failure to appear, stemming from a July arrest on burglary charges, WRAL-TV in Raleigh reported.

Stephens said 15-year-old David Green III is missing and investigators are concerned about his safety.

"We do not have a photograph of him, but I wish we did," Stephens said. "We may find one as we continue our investigation, but we would like to know if anybody knows of his whereabouts. Is he safe? We would like to know that."

UNC Fraternity President Shot, Killed During Traffic Stop

Trinity, N.C. — A University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill student was shot and killed by a police officer during a confrontation after a traffic stop on Interstate 85 in Randolph County early Sunday, authorities said Monday.

The State Bureau of Investigation said Officer Jeremy Paul Flinchum of the Archdale Police Department shot Courtland Benjamin Smith, 21, of Houston, Texas.

A wreath hung on the door of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity on the Chapel Hill campus, where an unidentified alumnus said Smith, a junior biology major, was the chapter president. He said the fraternity brothers were stunned by the shooting and didn't want to comment.

Smith's family also didn't want to talk about the shooting Monday, said Rick Rivers, spokesman for Smith's high school, Strake Jesuit College Preparatory in Houston.

Archdale police said in a statement that a man in his early 20s called 911 from a car on I-85, between Trinity and Archdale, shortly before 5 a.m. Sunday to say he was suicidal. When officers stopped his car near the Hopewell Church Road exit, police said, the man became confrontational, and an altercation ensued in which an officer shot the man.

Smith was transported to High Point Regional Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Police Chief Darrell Gibbs said Monday that the vehicle didn't immediately stop when Flinchum tried to pull it over, but there was no chase involved. A second officer arrived at the scene before the shooting, he said.

Gibbs said he didn't know if Smith was armed because officers didn't search the car before turning the case over to the SBI.

The SBI normally investigates officer-involved shootings.

Flinchum, who has been with the Archdale police since April 2008 and previously was a Randolph County deputy, has been put on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation.

Dennis Gerber, national director of chapter operations for Delta Kappa Epsilon, said he spoke with Smith Saturday afternoon to plan a visit to the UNC chapter. Smith sounded excited about the upcoming year and recruitment efforts, he said.

“We are extremely upset about the situation, and we are there to support the undergraduates and help them in any way possible,” Gerber said.

UNC Chancellor Holden Thorp said in a statement that the university community was "deeply saddened" by Smith's death.

"There is nothing worse than losing a young person. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends as they grieve and cope with such a great loss," Thorp said.

Classes are scheduled to start Tuesday at UNC, and the university planned to have counselors available for students.

"It's just one of the those things where you have to take a step back and understand that this is one of our colleagues. We definitely are grieving for him, you know, and for his family too," student body president Jasmin Jones said. "It makes you look at one another and say, 'I need to give you a hug today.'"

FBI Puts Brazen Bandit's Face on Billboards

(To me, he kinda looks like that actor from the Dave Chappelle Show, lol)

(CNN) -- He has been captured by bank surveillance cameras in four states, sneering and holding a pistol sideways during heists.

Now authorities hope to catch the serial bank robber by plastering his image on electronic billboards throughout the South.

The FBI is searching for the suspect, who they say has robbed at least 10 banks in Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee.

"This is a unique instance in which the subject in these bank robberies has not used a mask ... or any type of a gimmick," FBI agent Kevin Keithley said Tuesday in Johnson City, Tennessee. "It is really uncommon just to come into a bank and show his face like he has."

The brazen bandit has been captured in surveillance footage sporting the same close-cropped hairstyle and goatee in many of the holdups. He does not seem to make any effort to cover his face and sometimes is seen aiming a handgun sideways, showing his tattoos on both forearms as he gestures at bank employees.

The FBI has mapped the bank robber's path on a map that crisscrosses the southern United States.

The billboard that went up Monday roughly follows the path that bank robber took, the FBI said.

His odyssey has spanned more than 600 miles north, from Charleston, South Carolina, to Louisville, Kentucky, and about 500 miles east, from Knoxville, Tennessee, to Edenton, North Carolina.

The robberies started in May and the most recent one was last week in Tennessee, Keithley said.

The suspect has not yet harmed anybody in the robberies, but the FBI considers him extremely dangerous.

"This guy has made no effort to hide the gun," Keithley said . "He has threatened the use of it in every bank robbery that he has committed. He has put the gun in the faces of tellers, threatened to use the gun against them.... So certainly we need to get this guy in custody before he does harm someone."

The suspect is described as white, about 25 years old, 5 feet 9 to 5 feet 11, 170 to 175 pounds. He has short, reddish-brown hair and an unshaven goatee, the FBI said.

The bureau asks anybody who knows the bank robber to call 423-282-8090.

Woman left kids home alone to drink, police say

GASTONIA, N.C. -- A 31-year-old mother accused of leaving seven kids home alone to have drinks with friends was arrested and charged with child abuse, police say.

Shannon Sullivan was arrested Tuesday morning after police were called to her home for a welfare check.

"Yeah, it scared me when the police pulled up, but as far as a surprise, no," said neighbor Julie Allen.

Officers found seven children, ranging in age from 3 to 10-years-old, home alone in the apartment on Sims Circle. Five of the children were Sullivan's and two belonged to friends.

"A small child came to the door and they asked where the parent was. She said that the mother was gone," said M.A. Chambers with the Gastonia Police Department.

Sullivan returned home about 30 minutes after officers arrived saying she went with friends to have a few drinks, according to the Gastonia Police Department.

"Yeah, I witnessed her drinking a whole lot," Allen said.

We checked with a national database and found this is not the first time Sullivan has been in trouble. She was arrested for DUI in 1997 and in 2007 she was cited for not getting her kids to school. Both of those cases occurred in Ohio.

Sullivan is in the Gaston County Jail under $75,000 bond.

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.

One Reported Dead After Raleigh Train Wreck

Raleigh, N.C. — One person is dead after an Amtrak train struck a car on a Raleigh railroad track late Tuesday morning, an Amtrak representative says.

The train was traveling from Charlotte to New York when it struck the car near Royal and Hillsborough Streets.

The fatality was from the car, the Amtrak spokesman said. There were no reports of injuries on the train.

The train was carrying 191 people, including 23 students and five adults from a Durham day camp.

Further details were not immediately available, but a man traveling nearby at the time said he heard a horn and then a loud smack. The car was thrown about 50 feet from the train crossing into the woods, he said.

Stay tuned to WRAL News at Noon and WRAL.com for more on this developing story.

Slim Jim Blows Up

Garner, N.C. — The roof of a Garner food plant collapsed Tuesday morning following an explosion inside, authorities said.

Mayor Ronnie Williams said authorities told him 12 to 15 employees in the ConAgra Foods plant suffered from exposure to toxic fumes from ammonia leaks at the plant. Some employees also suffered chemical burns, he said.

A WakeMed spokeswoman said they were preparing for 10 to 12 patients.

The 50,000-square-foot plant at 4851 Jones Sausage Road was formerly owned by Raleigh-based GoodMark Foods and is known for making Slim Jim beef jerky products.

The cause of the explosion wasn't immediately known.

Leonard Spruill, a worker at the plant, told WRAL News that he heard a loud explosion and that several of his co-workers were badly burned. Spruill suffered burns on his leg and was headed to the hospital.

Footage from Sky 5 showed several holes in the roof of the plant, and seven or eight cars smashed under part of the front of the building, which had been blown outward. Liquid could be seen flowing from pipes along the roof and inside the plant, but it was unclear whether that was water or ammonia.

The state Highway Patrol has blocked Jones Sausage Road between Interstate 40 and East Garner Road, and troopers also closed several other nearby roads. Hazardous materials teams were responding to the area to contain and clean up leaking chemicals.

Family members of ConAgra workers were told to go to the Garner Senior Center, on Garner Road, for more information. Some relatives said workers told them they had suffered burns or had inhaled fumes.

East Garner Middle School and East Garner Elementary School are located nearby the plant, but Wake County school district officials said they were keeping students inside and didn't plan on dismissing students early.

N.C. Man Accused of Arranging Wife's Rape on Craigslist

(CNN) -- A North Carolina man is accused of arranging to have his wife raped through personal ads on the Web site Craigslist, police said Wednesday.

The 25-year-old man, of Kannapolis, North Carolina, was arrested in connection with the incident that occurred at his home early Sunday, police said in a statement.

Police responded to the home at about 2:45 a.m. after receiving a 911 call indicating a male armed with a knife appeared in the couple's bedroom and sexually assaulted the man's wife, authorities said.

The man was present at the time of the assault, and two young children were in the home, but were unharmed and unaware of the incident, the police statement said.

"During the investigation, investigators interviewed the victim and her husband," the statement said. "Investigators became suspicious when they noticed there was no sign of forced entry to the home. Investigators also developed information that led them to note specific inconsistencies in the initial statement provided by [the man]."

But on Tuesday, police found that the man "had responded to at least two personal ads on Craigslist.com in an effort to arrange for someone to come to his home and have sex with his wife using some type of scare tactic."

"Investigators believe [he] arranged this incident without the knowledge or consent of the victim," the police statement said.

The woman was taken to a hospital after the assault, where she underwent a forensic examination and was interviewed, police said. She suffered no serious physical injuries and was released shortly afterward.

Police did not release the identity of the victim. CNN is not naming the victim's husband in an effort to avoid identifying her. The incident remains under investigation, police said.

The man faces charges including first-degree rape, two counts of first-degree sexual offense and one count of attempted first-degree sexual offense, according to the police statement.

Kannapolis is about 26 miles northeast of Charlotte, North Carolina.