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Saturday, June 27, 2009

Investigators Search Haleigh Cumming's Family Property

Firstcoastnews.com

June 26, 2009
http://www.wesh.com/


GLEN ST. MARY, Fla. -- Investigators searched the property and a lake of Haleigh Cummings' maternal grandmother in Baker County west of Jacksonville on Friday.

About 40 investigators, including the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office dive team and cadaver dogs, searched a small pond on Marie Griffis' 30-acre property and dug up several areas with a bulldozer, according to a report on the Web site of First Coast News.

The area was searched about a week after 5-year-old Haleigh was reported missing from her home in Putnam County in February. But police told First Coast News that they recently were told the family buries animals on the property, so a new search was ordered.

Police said they have no reason to doubt the family's assertion about animals but want to be thorough. Only animal remains were found on Friday, but the search continues on the property of another relative who lives nearby.

Haliegh's mother, Crystal Sheffield, lives on the property...

Ron Cummings trying to deflect attention off of himself and on to Crystal and her family.
It seems Satsuma has gone 'radio silent'. Even Art Harris has not had anything to report lately.

Search for Haliegh in Baker County continues.
Haliegh Cummings--missing in Florida.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Haylee Donathan, Candace Watson Found at Twelve Tribes Ranch in California


June 24, 2009 by Saul Relative

Police Tipped to Haylee Donathan's Whereabouts by Twelve Tribes Resident Who Recognized Fugitives on a Billboard

Haylee Donathan, the 4-year-old Ohio girl that went missing May 28 with her mother and a convicted sex offender, was found Tuesday at the Morning Star Ranch ran by the Twelve Tribes in California, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune.
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The nationwide search for Haylee Donathan, her mother Candace Watson, and sex offender Robbi Potter ended at a Christian ranch (the Twelve Tribes) outside Los Angeles after authorities followed up on a tip.
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Haylee Donathan was unharmed.
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A resident at the Twelve Tribes ranch, a Christian retreat, saw the pictures of Haylee Donathan and the two adults on a billboard and recognized them from the ranch. They immediately called the Twelve Tribes ranch manager, who checked the plates of the pickup the fugitives arrived in. After verifying the plates and that Candace Watson and Robbi Potter were indeed visitors at the ranch, the manager called 911.
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Police responded and found Haylee Donaldson unharmed and in good spirits, according to Deputy U.S. Marshal Omar Castillo. He added that she may have just gotten over the chicken pox but otherwise seemed fine. Haylee Donathan will be returned to Ohio and placed in custody of her grandmother, who was awarded emergency custody of the child as a precaution pending developments in the case.
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Castillo said the three had been at the Twelve Tribes Ranch for about a week. According to a second tipster, the three may have even visited a Wild Animal Park together a few days previous to their discovery and capture. The U. S. Marshall Service had a $10,000 reward posted to go to anyone with information leading to the whereabouts of Haylee Donathan.
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The hunt for Haylee Donathan and her mother, Candace Watson, began on May 28, when Robbi Potter walked away from the halfway house he was assigned to in Mansfield, Ohio. Three people were later arrested for being involved in Potter's escape, including Haylee Donathan's father and uncle. The uncle, who served time in prison with Robbi Potter on sex offender charges, said he believed his niece could be in some form of danger.
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I think we were all ready for a happy ending. What a relief.

Phil Spector in 'sensitive needs' area of Calif. prison

June 23, 2009
cfnews13.com

Music legend Phil Spector...was taken Monday to the California Substance Abuse Treatment Facility and State Prison at Corcoran, corrections spokeswoman Terry Thornton said...

She said Spector...doesn't have a cellmate. As a medium security inmate, Spector can make some requests for items he wants in his cell, and his wife acknowledges her husband is already creating a list.

"He wants a TV and an iPod or something like that for listening to music," Rachelle Spector said Tuesday. "And he would like to be able to receive e-mail."

Prison Lt. Stephen Smith said Spector's notoriety probably got him into the sensitive needs facility. He said the typical inmate there needs protection after dropping out of a gang.

Spector, 69, is serving 19 years to life for the fatal shooting of actress Lana Clarkson...Rachelle Spector said she was relieved her husband was out of North Kern State Prison, where he has been undergoing evaluation.

She said he wrote a letter alleging abuse at the prison such as being forced to sleep naked on the floor for two nights and to eat out of a bowl with his hands "like a dog." I wonder what he did to get that treatment? Crazy old coot.

Thornton said the prison does not mistreat inmates and the actions described by Rachelle Spector "would be a violation of policies and laws." She said, however, any report of misconduct would be investigated.

Corcoran is near Fresno.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Casey Anthony case: Prosecutors want trial date set in fraud case

Right: the Prairie Chickens favorite photo of Casey, in chains. Hey, that might make a good title for a rap song. Casey in chains.

The state wants the trial set within the next 60 days.

Orlando Sentinel
Sarah Lundy
Staff Writer
June 22, 2009

Prosecutors want the fraud case against Casey Anthony to go to trial within the next two months, according to a request filed today by the state.

Anthony, 23, is charged with more than a dozen fraud charges, including fraudulent use of personal identification information, forgery of a check and uttering a forged check.Anthony's friend, Amy Huizenga, told investigators that she loaned her car to Anthony while Huizenga was on vacation last summer. When she returned, Huizenga learned checks were missing from her car and that her bank account had a zero balance.

Authorities say Anthony used her friend's check to buy more than $400 worth of clothes and groceries at area Target and Winn-Dixie stores. According to investigators, she also withdrew $250 from the bank and attempted to pay a $574 phone bill, but there wasn't enough money left in Huizenga's account.


Prosecutors don't want to wait to resolve the fraud case with the murder case...Last month, attorneys said the murder trial won't likely happen until next year. "Given the complexities of the two cases, it is unreasonable to allow the forgery case to languish another year without a resolution," Assistant State Attorney Frank George wrote in the two-page request.

No trial date has been set yet...

In the murder case, George filed a separate request for the state.

Prosecutors want a picture of Anthony's tattoo of the words "Bella Vita," which means "Beautiful Life." She got the tattoo around July 3, which is after her daughter disappeared.

A picture of the tattoo "would be relevant and material in evaluating issues to be presented in connection with the upcoming trial," he wrote. What are the Anthony's up to now? Do they want the tattoo issue to work for the defense in some way? Am I understanding this article correctly, that George is requesting the photo of the tattoo on behalf of the state?

Orange Circuit Court Judge Stan Strickland has not responded to the request.

Saturday, June 20, 2009

FBI: Test Confirms Michigan Man Not Long-Missing New York Boy


June 20, 2009

DETROIT — DNA testing disproved a Michigan man's suspicions that he was a toddler kidnapped on New York's Long Island in 1955, the FBI said Thursday, closing a chapter in a bizarre mystery that started after he began researching his roots on the Internet.

The FBI said in a statement that a test showed John Barnes, an unemployed man in his 50s who lives in a trailer in northwest Michigan, is not Stephen Damman, who disappeared at age 2 from outside an East Meadow market while his mother shopped.

The sample showed Barnes could not have the same mother as Pamela Damman Horne, the sister of the toddler who was with him when he disappeared, the FBI said. She was found in her stroller, unharmed, around the corner from the market.

The case had raised the hopes of the toddler's father, Jerry Damman, who runs a 440-acre farm in Iowa, and stunned the community where the Halloween kidnapping occurred. Damman, now 78, had said he hoped for a resolution after five decades of silence. "It's too bad we had to go through all of this for actually nothing in the end," he told The Associated Press.

Barnes has said he has long suspected the couple who raised him are not his biological parents, and the FBI took his DNA sample after he connected with Horne and took a trip to Iowa to try and catch a glimpse of the man he believed to be his father. He said he began investigating his origins years ago because he believed he never fit in...

Barnes did bear a striking resemblance to a photo of the missing toddler... But his father, Richard Barnes, immediately dismissed the speculation as "a bunch of foolishness," and said John Barnes was born in a Navy hospital in Pensacola, Fla., on Aug. 18, 1955.

Cheryl Barnes, John Barnes' sister, said she was not surprised by the test results. Mending fences, she said, won't be easy. "He pretty much lost two families today," she said.
use above links for the entire article or read it here

Friday, June 19, 2009

Caylee Anthony Autopsy report released


Medical Examiner Says Manner Of Death Points To Homicide
June 19, 2009
wesh.com


ORLANDO, Fla. -- The medical examiner who studied Caylee Anthony's bones can't say for sure what killed the toddler, only that her death was a homicide, an autopsy report released Friday states.

Judge Stan Strickland ordered the report released after rejecting an emotional plea from the Anthony family during a hearing earlier Friday to keep the document private.

During 12 days of examination, Dr. Jan C. Garavaglia concluded that there was no evident trauma to Caylee's skeleton. The duct tape found on the head of the skeleton was clearly placed prior to decomposition, according to the autopsy report.

The autopsy report indicated that Caylee's remains were completely skeletonized, meaning no soft tissue or ligaments were found....
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The forensic report for Casey Anthony's 1998 Pontiac Sunfire was also released... One chemical found in the trunk of Casey Anthony's car is the kind emitted when someone is possibly deprived of oxygen, the report said.

...[the reason] the state is seeking the death penalty is because Caylee Anthony, no matter how she died, whether it was from the duct tape or from being in the trunk, suffered. For a few minutes, she knew she was dying. She knew she was in pain. She suffered tremendously," defense attorney Richard Hornsby said.
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...Meanwhile, the state has filed a motion requesting a picture of Casey Anthony's tattoo that reads "La Bella Vita." They will travel to the Orange County Jail to visit Anthony and photograph the tattoo.
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read article here
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Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Missing: Haylee Donathan, 3 years old



June 10, 2009




Haylee Donathan is 3 years old and hasn’t been seen since May 28, 2009. The child is in the companionship of her mother, Candace Watson age 24, and registered sexual offender Robbi Douglas Potter, age 27.


Candace Watson allegedly met the sexual offender, Robbi Potter while he was in jail for sexual battery of a minor. He served less than three years for his crime and within hours of being released, disappeared with Watson and her 3-year-old daughter, Haylee Donathan.


Now, Crestline, Ohio police believe that Haylee’s life is in extreme danger and they are asking the public’s help in finding her.


Robbi Potter is not allowed to be around children and a warrant has been issued for his arrest. It is believed that Potter met Watson only several days before the three left for a supposed camping trip in the in Delaware County, Ohio.


Candace Watson’s grandmother states that she received a phone call from Watson on May 31, 2009, but no one has seen or heard from her or Haylee Donathan since. When Watson spoke with her grandmother she told her that they would be back from the trip a week ago. They never returned and no one has heard from them. Authorities believe that the trio might be headed as far away from Ohio as Arizona or Colorado.


Though Robbi Potter had been charged for sexual battery on a minor, he has a rather extensive rap sheet that includes charges that were dismissed. In 2002, Potter was charged with unlawful sexual conduct with a minor, that charge was ultimately dismissed. He faced two sexual battery charges in 2005, one charge of interference with custody, and was serving three years on three counts of sexual battery form 2002. Authorities state that Robbi Potter has served time in both federal and local prisons and jail.


No Amber Alert has been issued in the case because Haylee Donathan’s mother is traveling with them; she has legal custody. Authorities, however, want to emphasize that the child is in extreme danger, even though there has been no Amber Alert.


If you have any information regarding the whereabouts of Haylee Donathan, Candace Watson, or Robbi Potter you are advised to contact your local law authorities or 911. Consider the suspects armed and dangerous and do not try to apprehend them yourself.


Look for dark/black 1988 Chevy pickup, yellow lights in a line across the top of the windsheild, Ohio plates ENS9729.


WGN Radio Presents "The People v. Drew Peterson"


This is interesting...


WGN Radio will re-air a commercial-free presentation of the mock trial of the closing arguments in the prosecution of Drew Peterson for the death of his third wife, Kathleen Savio, Sunday, June 21 from 11am to 12:45pm.

The video of the mock trial is now posted. (watch it at the Chicago Tribune link below) The trial was recorded on May 28th at the IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law featuring Chicago attorneys Greg Adamski and Karen Conti, hosts of WGN Radio's Legally Speaking.

"The People v. Drew Peterson" features Greg Adamski as moderator, Karen Conti as prosecutor, and lawyer Joseph R. Lopez as Drew Peterson's defense attorney. The broadcast will include the deliberations of the twelve jurors which were selected from the audience by a professional jury consultant and the verdict will be read at the conclusion of the broadcast. This event was intended as an educational exposition, based solely on the facts that have been publicly reported...

For more information or to listen online visit http://www.wgnradio.com/

John Barnes/Stephen Damman: Man bears striking resemblance to missing NY boy

June 17, 2009
By JOHN FLESHER, Associated Press
news.yahoo.com

KALKASKA, Mich. – The same chubby cheeks. The same round face and bright, blue eyes. And, most important, the faint scar on his chin.

John Barnes does indeed bear a striking resemblance to photos of a 2-year-old boy who was snatched from outside a bakery on New York's Long Island in 1955. And he hopes DNA tests will confirm the suspicions he's harbored virtually his entire life — that the couple who raised him were not his biological parents.

"I'm really glad that I'm finally finding all of this out, finding out who I'm related to. Because I didn't want to get old and die and not know," Barnes, a laborer who is now in his 50s, told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

Barnes said he never really bonded with the mother and father who raised him. They didn't look like him, and they just didn't seem like family. "They would say, 'Oh, you look like your grandpa so-and-so or your uncle so-and-so.' But they never had any pictures to show me to compare it with. ... I just had a hunch that something was fishy," Barnes said.

"I never asked them if they kidnapped me. I asked them why I was so different from them," Barnes said of his parents. Asked about a possible abduction, the man who raised Barnes called the idea "a bunch of foolishness." "I'm his dad," Richard Barnes said. He shook his head and replied, "no, no," when asked by a reporter if he had kidnapped John Barnes.

John Barnes said the woman who raised him hinted before her death about a decade ago that she was not his biological mother. "She requested that I come over there by myself, and she wanted to talk to me. I think that's what she was trying to tell me," he said.

Years earlier, Barnes had started his own investigation...

..."This story's really strange. I can't believe it myself sometimes." Barnes said he was born in 1955 — the same year a 2-year-old Stephen Damman disappeared — but only saw his birth certificate once and no longer has a copy. He said the FBI is looking into the discrepancy as part of its investigation. I wonder if he requested a birth certificate from the state of Florida and it came back 'not found'?

Richard Barnes is retired and lives in a rural subdivision just eight miles from his son, although the two have not talked in about a year. Richard Barnes said his son was born in a Navy hospital in Pensacola, Fla., on Aug. 18, 1955. "We brought him home two days later, and he's never been out of our sight," the elder Barnes said, referring to John's childhood.

During his research on the kidnapping, the younger Barnes said he drove to Newton, Iowa, where Jerry Damman, the father of the missing boy, lives. But they did not meet. "I didn't want to, you know, say, 'Well, I'm your long-lost son,'" Barnes said. "I just wanted to get a look at the guy."

Physically, Barnes resembles somewhat the Iowa farmer he believes could be his biological father, though they are far from identical. Both men have fair skin with a ruddy complexion. Both have blue eyes and wide, round faces. Reached Wednesday in Iowa, Damman told the AP "it's almost too good to believe" that Barnes could be his son.

Barnes said he has become close with the woman who could be his sister, Pamela Horne of Kansas City, and talks with her on the phone each day. They did a home DNA test in March.
"We got a really high score on it," indicating that they two could be related. "That's how the FBI got involved," he said.

See photo's here: news.yahoo.com

John Robert Barnes/Stephen Damman Photos tipped man he could be the kid snatched in '55

Right: John Robert Barnes,
aka Stephen Damman?

Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Associated Press
wfaa.com

KALKASKA, Mich. -- A Michigan man said Wednesday that pictures he found online led him to believe he could be the 2-year-old boy who vanished more than a half-century ago from a stroller outside a bakery on New York's Long Island.

John Robert Barnes told The Associated Press that he was doing online research within the past year to try to figure out who he really was, saying that from childhood he never felt as though he fit in with the family that raised him.

Barnes, who is in his 50s, saw pictures of the missing boy's mother when she was a young adult, thought the woman resembled himself at the same age and started to believe he might be Stephen Damman, who disappeared in 1955.

"I don't know if I'm related to the Dammans or the Barneses. I'm just waiting for the DNA results," Barnes said during an interview at his trailer home, located on a dirt road in Kalkaska, about 195 miles northwest of Detroit.

Police in New York's Nassau County have said a Michigan resident contacted their office in the past few months, saying he believes he is the missing toddler. The case was referred to the FBI. Barnes said the FBI took a sample of his DNA via a cheek swab in March and he's now "waiting for the FBI to tell me who I'm related to."

Stephen Damman's mother, Marilyn, left the boy and 7-month-old daughter, Pamela, waiting outside a bakery while she went inside to shop on Oct. 31, 1955, according to police and news accounts at the time. After 10 minutes, Marilyn came out of the bakery but could not find the stroller or her children, authorities said. The stroller, with only her daughter inside, was found around the corner from the market a short time later, authorities said.

The description of the child that vanished said the boy had blond hair, blue eyes and a fair complexion. It also said the boy walked with his toes turned out, and that he had a small scar underneath his chin. Barnes has a faint line, less than an inch, that runs below his chin and slightly up the right side of his face.

Investigators learned that the Michigan man who approached New York authorities also reached out to the woman he believes may be his sister, said Nassau County Police Lt. Kevin Smith, and the two conducted a private DNA test that found they could be related. Barnes said he did reach out to a sister in Kansas City, Mo., and that the two have become close...

The father of the woman and the missing boy, Jerry Damman of Newton, Iowa, has said he's hopeful the man is his son. Damann divorced the boy's mother a few years after the kidnapping and now lives on a farm with his wife, Charlotte. "After all those years, you kind of lost all hope," he said Tuesday.

Charlotte Damman's mother said Wednesday that her husband still has not talked with Barnes but that their son spoke with him Tuesday. "We'll just have to iron this out here as we go," she said.

wow. What a story. I hope this can bring John and his families some peace.

Mom: Baby Daisja Weaver was tossed from Lewisville Lake bridge

Right: Tamaira Creagh, killer or victim?
Monday, June 15, 2009
wfaa.com


LEWISVILLE — The mother of eight-month-old Daisja Weaver has told police that the baby's father threw the child into Lewisville Lake last week, a sigificant shift from her original account of assault and kidnapping. Tamaira Creagh — who is 19 years old and six months pregnant — is now under arrest.

According to the arrest warrant for her 20-year-old boyfriend, Alandus Weaver, Creagh told investigators that Weaver picked her up from work last Monday and took her to their apartment on Marsh Lane in Dallas. She said Weaver told her he had left the child alone after giving her a bath.

When they arrived, Creagh said she found the baby on the floor naked, wrapped in a towel. Daisja had no heartbeat and was cold, Creagh told police.

For the next 30 minutes, Weaver attempted to use CPR to resuscitate the child without success, Creagh said. When she asked Weaver what happened to the child, she told police, he became threatening and violent.

Creagh said he told her they had to stick together by saying the baby had been kidnapped. The following day — after she got off work — she said Weaver made her drive to Lake Lewisville with him. "He stopped on a bridge and tied [Daisja] to a sandbag and dropped her into the lake," according to the police affadavit of Creagh's account...

The 19-year-old mother told police that during the entire episode, she was afraid of what Weaver might do to her because she is pregnant with his baby, according to the affidavit...

The search there began (at the Lewisville Lake, under the I35E bridge) Sunday after Daisja's father, 20-year-old Alandus Weaver, was named as a suspect in the child's disappearance.

Creagh originally told police last week that she had been attacked in the family's Far North Dallas apartment and that her assailant fled with the infant.

On Sunday, police said Creagh had recanted her story about the kidnapping and provided investigators with the information that led to the conclusion that Weaver had harmed Daisja.
Weaver was arrested late Saturday and is being held in the Dallas County Jail on $100,000 bond on charges of tampering with physical evidence to impair an investigation. Creagh was subsequently arresed on a similar charge.

In a search warrant obtained by News 8 and The Dallas Morning News , two police detectives were said to have overheard Weaver telling Creagh that she should not have let police search their apartment "because there was blood inside."

Detectives removed ten items from the couple's Marsh Lane apartment as evidence, including sheets, a bath towel, and stained baby clothing.

An Amber Alert remains in effect for Daisja Weaver. Call Dallas police at 214-671-4268 if you have any information.

Reward offered for missing 9-month-old girl in Dallas

Saturday, June 13, 2009
wfaa.com
From staff reports

A $10,000 reward is being offered for the safe return of a missing 9-month-old girl whose parents said she had been kidnapped late Tuesday from their Far North Dallas apartment.
If Daisja Weaver is the victim of foul play, the reward offered for six months as of Friday by Schepps Dairy will be given for information leading to the arrest and indictment of those responsible, police said.

Investigators have said the parents gave conflicting accounts of the events surrounding the baby's disappearance. The mother said a man entered the apartment in the 5800 block of Preston Oaks Road and tried to sexually assault her before taking her child.

Officers have combed the area surrounding the apartment. Searchers also focused on a second apartment the family was moving into that night.

The mother, who is pregnant, said her attacker said nothing as he took her child. Police said she was unable to give a detailed description of him.

Daisja is black and has black hair and brown eyes. She weighs about 20 pounds and is about 2 feet, 4 inches long. She was last seen wearing purple clothes and a diaper.

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Woman overboard in Gulf

June 16, 2009
www.pnj.com

MOBILE, Ala. (AP) — The Coast Guard sent out ships and aircraft to search the Gulf of Mexico for a woman who reportedly went overboard from a cruise ship early today.

A 50-year-old woman was reported overboard by the Carnival Holiday at 12:04 a.m. CDT Tuesday, the Coast Guard said in a statement. The ship was about 75 miles southwest of Pensacola, Fla., at the time.

Carnival Corp. said a passenger reported hearing a splash in the water about 11 p.m. CDT, prompting a cabin-by-cabin search aboard the Holiday. Crew members lowered lifeboats to look for the woman but found nothing.

The Coast Guard search included two cutters, two airplanes and a helicopter. The Holiday, with a capacity of 1,452 passengers, is due back in Mobile on Saturday after a five-day trip to the Yucatan Peninsula.

The woman’s disappearance marked the second time in less than a month that a passenger went overboard from a Carnival ship based in the Gulf.

A Louisiana teenager on a high school graduation cruise aboard the Carnival Fantasy out of New Orleans went over the rails on May 24 about 150 miles southwest of Tampa, Fla. Authorities suspended a search after two days without locating his body.

Caylee Marie Anthony Rest in Peace


Caylee Marie Anthony August 9, 2009--June 16, 2008
It has been one year ago that little Caylee Marie Anthony was murdered.

You fly, sweetheart. Fly away.

Anthony Document Dump June 12, 2009--Prairie Chicken version

Gonzalez vs. Anthony April 9, 2009
Transcript of the already released video of George behaving badly during his deposition.

Gonzalez vs. Anthony April 9, 2009
Transcript of the already released video of Cindy behaving badly during her deposition.


Gonzalez vs. Anthony Case No: 08-CA-24573
Transcript of Video deposition of Lee Anthony. March 3, 2009

Attorney For plaintiff: John B Morgan, Keith Mitnik; for defendant: Thomas Luka

Between Lee Anthony’s overall boring demeanor, his pompous attitude, and curiously arrogant choice of words and Mr. Morgan’s sugary-sweet, southern-gentleman manners and annoying way of asking the same question a dozen different ways, this is a very, very dry read. 183 pages. We've already seen this but I'm hitting the highlights anyway.

Lee's testimony:

The first time he heard the name Zenaida Gonzalez was after the phone call that Casey and Cindy had after Casey had been arrested. Cindy gave him that name after they got off the phone. Cindy had heard Zanny before; he had heard neither name.

Refuses to answer who he thinks Caylee’s father was, says he's not 100%.

Casey told him that whomever had Caylee had reset Casey’s MySpace and Yahoo password to Timer55, to indicate that Casey had 55 days to change some behavior and get Caylee back (it was 55 days from June 15 to Caylee’s birthday August 9.

Casey deleted all communications on MySpace on July 4, the day after Lee tried to find her at the Dragon Room by reading her page. Everything from the end of April through July 3. Casey claimed to Lee that Z had done the deleting.

Pertaining to imaginary Jeff Hopkins from Jacksonville, “…we had different PI’s and things like that so they would run the name.” Names Dominic Casey as primary PI.

Tells the Jay Blanchard Park abduction story. That she went to drop Caylee off at Blanchard, so the alleged abduction was between 12 noon and 2:00pm on June 16, 2008.

My own thoughts, in Gonzalez defense, why would she meet Casey at a park to have this whole drama filled episode, with her nieces in the backseat? Why in a public park where there could be witnesses anywhere? Why risk the chance of a car chase, or Casey to follow dialing 911? She says Zani loved Caylee, then why would Zani traumatize Caylee in that way? Would have been so much better to have simply hidden out with the child somewhere without the confrontation.

“Casey said that she sat down on a bench with Zenaida kind of watching the kids play and whatnot. Z and C were in a conversation at one point and she remembers Z grabbing Casey’s arm, like forcefully, like to hold her down in a way. That’s when she told her, I’m going to take Caylee from you, I will give her back to you, but you need to follow my instructions. And she made her—threatened that, if you go to the PD I will, hurt your parents, your brother, Caylee, I’ll do whatever. Then the sister herded all the kids to the car.”

This was a particularly telling statement, “…this whole time it’s about trying to make my sister feel comfortable so she can remember everything, tell me everything so I can find my niece. So I will placate to everything and anything that I need to do. If it does not make sense to press, I’m sure as hell not going to press.”

And this one is interesting—has Casey told her family that Z actually came into the Anthony house? “Q. Did she ever tell you that she had given Z a key to your parents’ home? A. She never told me specifically, but I did hear my sister, mention it before to my folks or to my dad, that same question ‘well, how did she get in the house?’ ‘well, mom, I had given her a key a long time ago…’”

Mr Morgan tells Lee he doesn’t want to joust with him, because he is good at it. Buttering him up, as he did James Hoover. Slap him with a compliment.

An AHA moment: Mr Morgan gets Lee to admit that Casey stole money with a question about her white lies. Something Cindy will not own up to. Pg 132.

Mr Morgan asks if Lee might have been told that Jose Baez asked a reporter from People Mag for $500,000 for an exclusive to that story? Lee: “that’s news to me.”

Casey has a public attorney named Mr. Kasen as well as criminal attorney Jose Baez. !

Lee explains the CMA statement with a non-answer about all three CMA’s in his life, but adds that he made a promise to Caylee’s spirit that he would find out the truth.


Gonzalez vs. Anthony
Transcript of Video deposition of James D. Hoover by John’s Morgan and Dill, March 25, 2009
and here.

It takes many pages of the document to establish that James Hoover is and has been a Private Investigator for about 35 years and that he had worked for the Anthony’s pro-bono and his job was to assist Dominic Casey. His usual job is contract work for Class Action Detective in Tampa.

These are mostly statements James Hoover made about Dominic Casey.

Dominic had once gone in to the jail with Baez to see Casey. Dominic said on several occasions that he thought that Baez has an inappropriate relationship with—or was trying to have, with Casey. And that Dominic said he had warned Baez that he wouldn’t tolerate that kind of activity.

Then discussed the licorice incident and said that he had told Baez that it has been inappropriate behavior and he wasn’t going to tolerate it; however, Dominic was angry at Baez for non-payment, so he could have made it up.

Dominic told him he had contracts with George and Cindy, and with Casey.

He drove George and Cindy to be fingerprinted and while George was thus engaged, Cindy and Dominic were sitting in chairs close together holding hands, caressing and she was talking about "he’s her rock. If it wasn’t for him, she wouldn’t be able to get through this."

After they left there—Dominic had taken his car to the church, left it there. He asked Hoover to take him back to his car, which he did. Then Hoover took George somewhere and Dominic asked Cindy to ride with him, so she got in the car and drove with Dominic. Hoover took George out to the hotel. He stayed in the lobby for a long period of time and had tried to call Dominic several times. He didn’t answer his phone, but eventually called back.

He said he had gotten lost. He was with Cindy. In Orlando.

Nov 15 Dominic calls and says he knows where Caylee is…drove him right to it…

“Then all the different answers that he gave about why we were out there on November 15, and different people he had talked to, I think that he is less than truthful, first he was talking to his daughter, and a psychic and a friend of Casey’s.” He believes Dominic was being directed by Lee Anthony.

He feels like Dominic was “showboating” during the Nov 15 search, trying to impress Cindy.
Hoover talks about finding the three concrete “pavers” 12x12x2, obviously laid out in straight row. Then going to the creepy house where they find, in the backyard, three more lined up pavers—Dominic flipped them over and dug with a spade underneath.

Hoover states that although there were tips coming in from Ohio, Atlanta and Miami, no one actually followed up on any of them. On Nov. 15, Dominic says he did not know he was being videoed, but that he was aware. He says Cindy was calling Dom 12 times a day with tips.

The only thing related to the Gonzalez case in this deposition was a question to Mr. Hoover about how many times in all his work with Dominic Casey, the Official Private Investigator, mentioned the name Zenaida Fernandez Gonzalez, to which he answers “one”. No one ever searched for her, or tried to contact a ZFG.

Is is my opinion that this entire line of questioning was meant to discredit Dominic Casey, expose an inappropriate relationship between Dominic and Cindy, and to suggest that Dominic was helping the Anthony's develop an alibi of some sort.

Transcript of taped interview of Sean Krause from Wisconsin (from a blog/website called the Daily BS) by Det. Yuri Melich, Sgt. John Allen, December 2, 2008, case 08-74777

Mr. Krause says that Cindy Anthony became active with his Caylee coverage on his blog, Daily BS. Cindy contacted him through his web contact e-mail. They corresponded for some time through e-mail and telephone.

She admitted to him at one time (maybe at a low moment) that she believed Casey had killed little Caylee. She had sent him some photographs and video of Caylee. Later she denied the transgression and wanted all of the stuff back as it had a monetary value, a request he refused.

He didn’t give a good reason why, but he told her he had deleted them, when he really had not.

This interview does expose Cindy's true feelings on Caylee's disappearance and shows that Cindy is ok with selling what she has left of Caylee for money. But does it matter what she really believes? She is Casey's mother, blood is thicker than water.

Transcript of taped interview of Ricardo Morales Pages 38-52 by Det. Yuri Melich, Corp Eric Edwards, Sgt John Allen. November 4, 2008.

Law enforcement had ‘borrowed’ Morales computer on Oct 27 to copy and examine. He had called the morning of the interview (Nov 4) to see if he could have it back.

Melich asks about communication Morales had with the Globe magazine, Morales admits that he sold photos to Globe. He shows all of the e-mails between himself and the Globe.

He says he was once in the Anthony home.


Transcript of taped interview of Michelle Murphy by Det Yuri Melich January 19, 2009.

Michelle has known Casey since 1st grade, used to date Lee and is still a friend.

She talks about Caylee having separation anxiety when Casey would walk out of a room, she was at the 2nd birthday party.

She never really believed that Casey worked at Universal, because she was using Cindy’s laptop then started saying Universal had given it to her. Says Casey was known to lie a lot, about big things and many little doesn’t-matter-anyway things.

Says that Cindy had threatened before that she was going to get custody of Caylee and at the memorial George mentioned that if they had only gone ahead and taken custody…

Michelle spoke about the phone call where Casey told her she was feeling crazy and needed help. Michelle was concerned and offered to come get Caylee, it didn’t happen, but the next day Casey seemed fine and acted as if it had never happened.

She remembered the whole “tumor” story when Casey was pregnant with Caylee, and the 2nd imaginary pregnancy, which Casey claims she miscarried, and which Cindy threw a huge hissy about when she heard about it from Lee.

She said Lee would not have ever babysat, because “Lee is not really a kid person that much.”

Michelle was part of the planning of the ambush on July 3 when Casey dramatically ran out of the Dragon Room to avoid Lee, Mallory and Lee’s roomie Brian. She states that by July 3 the family was already actively trying to find Caylee and that if they had found Casey at the club, Lee would have forced her her produce the baby.

She states that Casey was "afraid" of Cindy. She said that although Casey screwed up a lot, it was the possibility of Cindy finding out about her failures that frightened Casey the most.
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I think in Casey's mind, every time she screwed up, Cindy was proven right about her and it was Cindy's being right that bothered Casey the most.


Transcript of taped interview of Joy Wray by Sgt John Allen October 1, 2008

In the first pages Joy Wray, 30, tells Allen he is scaring her, where after he softens his tone up a bit.
Thought that was kind of funny.

This woman says she is a friend of Tim Miller (with Equusearch) and was on the search at Blanchard Park the day that Leonard Padilla found the beads on the tree, the bag of animal bones and toys. She believes that Leonard planted things for the camera and that he is a “media whore”.

Ms Wray interjected herself into the case, first in helping Mr. Miller’s group, and then becoming “close” to the Anthony family through vigils, etc. She said she was “brainwashed” by “George and them” into believing that Caylee was kidnapped. She had lots of photos of searches, including some outside of the location where Caylee was eventually found.

She was irritated that the Anthony’s had not been interested in any of the items that she had found (a baby blanket, a smelly pillow, and other misc) or the photo’s, because they believed the baby was alive. She gave LE the baby blanket; she found it during an early landfill search. There was apparently (to me anyway) not much learned here. The photos were of the searches, bits of trash, people in the search--nothing that would seem relevant to Caylee's actual disappearance.

The police report concludes with a note that the person making the report had been previously involved with in a police chase, caused by a mental condition.

Some thoughts on this mess. The question that Cindy asked, per Lee above, "how did she get in the house?" (referring to Zani) shows that the family concurs with the police theory that Caylee was killed at the Anthony house. Of course, Caylee being found wrapped in a laundry basket liner from the house pretty much tells THAT story. Every person interviewed by the police has been questioned about whether they have been IN the house or not. It has long been my theory that Casey and Caylee went back to the house as soon as George left for work.
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The Anthony's have requested the autopsy report not be released to the public, and the court should be making a final decision this week. It will be public knowledge during the trial anyway. How much can we read into what Michelle Murphy says above? Hmmm. Cause for more research--I'll go back to the report of what bones were found.
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Thanks to all for stickin' with me.

Monday, June 15, 2009

Man falls from cruise ship, found clinging to buoy


Monday, June 15, 2009
PINELLAS COUNTY (Bay News 9) -- A man who fell from a cruise ship Monday morning was rescued after he was found clinging to a buoy, nearly three hours after he went overboard.

According to reports, at 4 a.m. Monday, Larry Miller, 46, fell overboard from the Carnival Inspiration as it was returning to the Port of Tampa.
The crew of a pilot boat found Miller clinging to a buoy in the shipping channel near the Sunshine Skyway shortly before 7 a.m.

Miller was taken to the Fort DeSoto boat ramp, where an emergency vehicle picked him up and took him to Bayfront Medical Center. He was treated for minor injuries.

A spokesperson for Carnival said Miller fell overboard when he climbed on a railing to get a better view of a boat as it passed by. He slipped, then fell overboard...
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It is good to hear from one of these boneheads. I've often wondered, how in the hell can so many people fall overboard? It certainly doesn't seem like a reasonable way to kill oneself. This one was lucky. I hope he'll stay behind the railing from now on.

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Orange County Medical Examiner: No Change In Caylee's Cause Of Death


June 14, 2009

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Orange County medical examiner Dr. Jan Garavaglia said Friday that the autopsy report on the remains of Caylee Anthony draws no new conclusions as to her cause of death.
Garavaglia reported in December that the toddler's death was a homicide of unknown origin. However, she added that she included a summary in her 30-page report that draws some conclusions about what happened to Caylee based on tests and other evidence gathered since she made her initial findings.

That autopsy report was to be included in the hundreds of pages of new evidence released by the state attorney's office in the case against Casey Anthony Friday morning. However, George and Cindy Anthony succeeded in the effort to at least temporarily block the release of their granddaughter's autopsy report.
A deposition from Internet blogger Sean Krause was also included in Friday's release. Krause had a crime blog called The Daily BS, and, one point, had daily phone conversations with Cindy Anthony. Krause told investigators that on the day that bounty hunter Leonard Padilla was searching Blanchard Park for signs of Caylee, Cindy Anthony called him, crying. He said he took that opportunity to say to her, "You know, I really strongly believe that you know your daughter murdered Caylee." Krause said that on that particular day, it "was the first time that she agreed that she actually really believed that her daughter...did something to Caylee." The next day, according to Krause, Cindy Anthony "retracted her statement."
...Krause said he asked Cindy Anthony about a rumor he heard that Casey Anthony had worked for an escort service called Universal Entertainment and he said that she responded that she "knew nothing of it." ...In his interview, Krause also told investigators that he and Cindy Anthony got into a dispute over videos and pictures sent to him anonymously of Caylee and Casey Anthony. "She wanted these videos," Krause told investigators. He said he gathered that Cindy Anthony wanted to "release some videos of Caylee for profit -- maybe to pay for Casey's defense fund."

Also from Wesh2, Autopsy release blocked

Friday, June 12, 2009

Casey Anthony Document Dump--June 12, 2009









June 12, 2009

These are the links that orlandosentinel.com have posted so far. I'll add to, if there are more and be back later with highlights.



Casey Anthony discovery documents Multimedia
READ IT NOW: 6/12: Discovery documents released in the Casey Anthony case
READ IT NOW: 6/12: Discovery documents released in the Casey Anthony case
READ IT NOW: 6/12: Discovery documents released in the Casey Anthony case
READ IT NOW: 6/12: Discovery documents released in the Casey Anthony case
READ IT NOW: 6/12: Discovery documents released in the Casey Anthony case
READ IT NOW: 6/12: Discovery documents released in the Casey Anthony case

Amanda Knox gives evidence in Meredith Kercher murder trial


June 12, 2009
...Miss Knox was giving evidence for the first time in her trial in the Umbrian hilltown of Perugia, where British exchange student, Miss Kercher, 21, was found stabbed to death in November 2007.

Dressed all in (virginal) white (with a HUGE herpes on her lip), Miss Knox smiled as she walked into a courtroom packed with dozens of reporters, cameramen and photographers from Italy, the UK and the United States.

In the witness box, she said that statements she made to police in the days after the murder, on November 2, 2007, were made under pressure from Italian detectives...
“I was confused,” she repeatedly told the court. "The declarations were taken against my will, so everything that I said was said in confusion and under pressure. "They called me a stupid liar, they said that I was trying to protect someone. But I was not trying to protect anyone," she said...
Miss Knox said she became so confused that after hours of interrogation, which lasted all night, she could no longer tell the difference between her imagination and reality...
She admitted that she and her boyfriend at the time, Italian IT graduate Raffaele Sollecito, had smoked marijuana in his apartment on the evening of the murder. She said she used the drug “from time to time, with friends”... I think even people who don't smoke marijuana now know that it doesn't make people murderous.
Prosecutors claim that Miss Knox and Mr Sollecito murdered 21-year-old Meredith Kercher during what began as a sex game (I don't believe this version either, sex games? come on, why not the satanic cult theory? Both ridiculous.) They deny any involvement but face life imprisonment if convicted of murder...

Answering in Italian questions put by her lawyer, Luciano Ghirga, Miss Knox described how she spent the evening of November 1.

She insisted to the court she went to her boyfriend Sollecito's apartment where they watched a film, she checked her emails on his computer, they listened to music, ate dinner, smoked a joint and made love.
"The next morning I went home and saw the door was open and thought it strange," she said.
"I called 'Is anyone there?' No one answered.
"I went to my room and changed, went to the bathroom and saw spots of blood there.
"I had a shower and on the way back to my room I saw blood on floor. I thought: 'Hm, strange.'
"I put on my clothes in my room, then I went to the other bathroom to brush my hair. I saw traces of faeces in the toilet."
She said she was disgusted by this.
She went on: "I called Meredith, who didn't answer."
She said she then called her flatmate Filomena Romanelli, who returned to the house and found her window had been broken.
"We found Meredith's door was locked," said Knox.
"Filomena was saying 'Mama mia, it's never locked!'. I said that sometimes Meredith locked it when she had a shower or when she went to England."
But she added: "I felt strange, it was a strange situation."
She said she had not seen the murder scene but everyone was talking about it.
"I heard there was a body in there. There was lots of confusion," she said. "I was in shock. I couldn't believe what had happened, couldn't accept it."

The trial began in January and is expected to last at least until autumn.

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Phil Spector's mugshot June 5, 2009


June 9, 2009

Looks like they de-loused him.

And it looks like he's 5'2". Oh, yeah, the platform shoes are gone. They probably were not very good for his feet anyway.

This photo released by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation shows music producer Phil Spector on Friday, June 5, 2009, in prison in Kern County, CA.

He can't take his wall of wigs with him.

Shocking new mug shots show legendary music producer Phil Spector sans hairpiece.
And it's not a pretty sight...

The Bronx native, now 69, is serving a 19-year sentence for the 2003 murder of actress Lana Clarkson at his castle-like mansion here.

The new pic was taken last Friday at his new digs, North Kern State Prison...

Tuesday, June 09, 2009

Nevaeh Buchanan's mother talks to CNN


Nancy Grace spits back.
June 9, 2009
She faces tough questions on the 'Nancy Grace' show
By Tanveer Ali, Steve Pardo and Mark Hicks
The Detroit News
Monroe --In her first national, sometimes heated, interview, Nevaeh Buchanan's mother was grilled by CNN Headline News' Nancy Grace about her relationship with a convicted sex offender.

During the Monday night broadcast, Jennifer Buchanan, the mother of the 5-year-old, missing since May 24 and whose body is believed to have been found along the River Raisin in Monroe on Thursday, said: "... I have made a lot of bad choices. ... And who hasn't? And I know that somehow," she said of her relationship with George Kennedy, 39.

Grace interjected: "Whoa, you know what? You can stop right there. You can just stop right there, Miss Buchanan, because most mothers that I know have never knowingly exposed their little girl, a 5-year-old little girl, to a sex offender. So when you say who hasn't? I for one haven't. I haven't."

Buchanan then replied: "Well, I just believe that everyone deserves a second chance." Earlier in the broadcast, Buchanan said she wonders if an acquaintance could have been involved. "All these scenarios are just running through my head constantly," she told Grace. "All these thoughts are just running through my head."

Buchanan described the last time she saw her daughter. But her responses sometimes did not fully address Grace's hard-charging queries. Grace pointed out discrepancies in her recounting the exact time Nevaeh left, and what she was doing.

In the interview, according to transcripts, Grace asked... "So your child is out. It's been 30 minutes since you last saw her. Did you think maybe I should check on my preschooler? See if she's dead or alive? I mean did that cross your mind?"

Buchanan responded, "No, because I knew that she was upstairs at her friend's house until the little girl came up to me and said that Nevaeh was out riding her scooter in the road. That's the point I'm. .."

Grace interrupted: "How did you know she was upstairs? Did you check on her? Did you go up there ever?" "No, she's -- I watched her walk in through the door," Buchanan said, to which Grace replied, "Really? Because earlier you said she went out the door..."

After several more exchanges and trying to defend herself, the show went to commercial break. During the break, Buchanan and a friend who had joined her both exited the interview.

Earlier, when Grace asked Buchanan about another interview in which Buchanan said Kennedy "may have owed somebody some money," Buchanan said: "I'm not too sure... I'm not too sure on anything."

Grace said, "How could that possibly be linked to your daughter's disappearance, the fact that this sex offender, friend of yours, owed somebody some money? How could that remotely be linked to your child's disappearance?" Buchanan replied, "I honestly don't know..."

Meanwhile Monday, stuffed animals and artificial flowers, a Precious Moments princess and a fairy with butterfly wings share space on a guardrail on the remote, two-lane Dixon Road.
Fifteen feet from the guardrail, the ground drops a precarious 60 degrees, falling 30 feet to the River Raisin.

It's a muddy climb down to the water, but several made it. There are more artificial flowers. And someone planted a cross on or near the spot where a body was found, covered with quick-set concrete.

"It's a violation. A violation of humanity," said David Marietta, who lives off the river a few miles away. "People here, they're hugging their babies a little harder now." But answers to the tragedy remain elusive.

Wayne County Medical Examiner Carl Schmidt said in a statement Monday that it could be weeks before test results come in. Tissue samples were sent for special testing.

Investigators have also been stymied by a lack of fingerprints or dental records for the girl, forcing them to rely on time-consuming DNA identification. Though authorities say the body appears to be Nevaeh's, the delay in testing puts off the closure that the family has sought since the girl went missing May 24.

"It's lonely now not hearing her voice in my back seat. I just hope nobody else has to go through this again," said Sherry Buchanan, Nevaeh's grandmother and legal guardian.
Tuesday, 09 Jun 2009

The mother of missing five-year-old Nevaeh Buchanan did not stick around to answer viewer questions after her first segment on CNN's 'Nancy Grace' Monday night.

Jennifer Buchanan, 24, came under fire with a barage of questions from Grace on the situation surrounding Nevaeh's disappearance in the city of Monroe, south of Detroit...

Host Nancy Grace replied most mothers haven't "knowingly exposed their little girl" to sex offenders. Buchanan and a friend exited during a commercial break

The family and community are still waiting autopsy results on the body of a little girl matching Nevaeh's description.
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Nancy Grace was completely out of line. I had flashbacks of Melinda Duckett when Nancy grilled her, just before she went home and killed herself. The way I see it, thanks to Nanc, we'll never know what really happened to little Trenton.
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Now she gets another mother in front of national news camera's and deep-fries her. Maybe Navaeh's mom would never be mother-of-the-year, but she didn't want her child to be murdered. Nancy Grace is nothing but a bully herself.

Monday, June 08, 2009

Kansas: Butler County judge sets $250,000 bond in Carol Mould homicide

JUDGE FEARS SUSPECT COULD POSE THREAT TO SELF, FAMILY
Butler County judge sets $250,000 bond in Carol Mould homicide
BY TIM POTTER
The Wichita Eagle
Saturday, May 23, 2009

EL DORADO - William "Bill" Wherry Moore -- a former Cub Scout and Boy Scout leader and Benton-area youth-sports coach -- looked distressed as he sat in shackles Friday and a judge read the charge against him: Premeditated murder in the first degree in the September 2004 killing of Carol Mould, a 43-year-old wife and mother of three.

The prosecutor, Butler County Attorney Jan Satterfield, told District Judge John Sanders that she was requesting that Moore remain in jail under a $250,000 bond because of the nature of the charge and concern that he could pose a threat to himself and others, including his wife.
Satterfield said Moore -- a 55-year-old aircraft worker (Cessna), according to a jail booking sheet -- has no criminal history.

Sanders set Moore's bond at $250,000 and appointed a public defender for him. Sanders said he was aware that Moore's "mental state" has been a concern but didn't elaborate.

On Sept. 22, 2004, authorities responding to a report of a fire found Mould's badly burned body in her Benton-area home off K-254. Authorities have not said how she died but have said her body was set on fire after she was killed. The fire didn't destroy the house.

The Mould house sits a couple miles from Moore's rural Benton home. Butler County Sheriff Craig Murphy announced that early that morning his investigators arrested Moore in Mould's killing.

Moore's wife, Tammy, said, "You can print that my husband is having a nervous breakdown, and he does not know what he is saying. My husband is not a murderer."

Neither Murphy nor Satterfield said what prompted the arrest.

After Moore's court appearance Friday, Mould's husband, Doug, said he wanted to thank investigators for "working extraordinarily hard in trying to solve Carol's case."
He also thanked Circle school district staff for supporting his children...

Shooting deaths of Oklahoma girls remain a mystery one year later


By Emanuella Grinberg
CNN
June 8, 2009

(CNN) -- William Whitaker is certain that somebody in the central Oklahoman community where he lives knows who killed his daughter.

The dirt road where the bodies of 11-year-old Skyla Jade Whitaker and Taylor Paschal-Placker, 13, were found is too remote for the killings to be the work of a stranger passing through, he says.

"There's absolutely no way that somebody from out of the area could've just stumbled upon the place," Whitaker said. "I know whoever did it told somebody, whether they were drinking or bragging or whatever, and whoever knows just needs to bring the information forward."

It has been a year since the two friends were shot multiple times in the stomach and chest less than a half a mile from Taylor's home in the rural community of Weleetka, with a population just over 1,000.

"Taylor was shot five times. My daughter was shot eight times. Thirteen shots between two little girls who never did anything to anyone," Whitaker said. "I don't know how a person can go to work, eat or sleep knowing what they did. I couldn't live with that on my conscience, but they've been doing it for a year now."
In the beginning, hundreds of tips poured in. Authorities pursued leads and analyzed evidence, but a year later, they have no suspects or witnesses leading them to any viable conclusions.
Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation spokesperson Jessica Brown said during a press conference Monday that authorities have "good evidence" in the case but lack the final piece to make an arrest...

"What we are frustrated about is the lack of cooperation we're getting from members of the public," Brown said. She stressed Monday that a $36,000 reward is being offered for information that leads to a conviction.

The girls were shot with two different guns, leading to the possibility that two people were involved, Brown said. The OSBI released a sketch of a person wanted for questioning last year, but they have not received information leading to him, she said.

But the killings remain fresh in the minds of Oklahomans. A billboard with the girls' faces and a tip hotline has loomed over Interstate 40 for several months. A memorial service was planned for Monday, June 4, in Weleetka to mark the anniversary...

Weleetka Police Officer Stacey Rice will never forget the image of the dead girls. He was the second officer on the scene after a relative called 911 around 5:30 p.m. that day.

"I really hope I never see anything like that again. It's just emotionally and visually traumatic. You see two small children lying on the ground like that and it's kind of hard to explain. Makes you want to go find your children," said Rice, a father of two teenage boys.

"It took me several minutes to realize what happened, but after a while, it kind of sank in, and that's when emotions started running ... anger, lots of anger, sadness, disbelief. Nobody wanted to believe what had happened."...

Whitaker finds solace in visiting the memorial site set up at the crime scene, where people leave bouquets of flowers, stuffed animals, cards and other mementos. The most recent addition to the site is an 8-foot cross donated by members of the community. stuff people

"I just get a feeling whenever I'm there. It's real quiet out there, and I see the brought and it's kind of comforting, it really is. I know she's in a better place right now, she don't feel sickness, don't feel pain. She's in a better place, and it's my way of remembering."

The Fritzl fiasco


Writen by Stephanie Marsh
The Times
June 9, 2009
Elisabeth Fritzl and her children could have been freed years earlier if Austrian authorities had not missed dozens of clues, writes Stephanie Marsh, author of a new book on the man who held his daughter in a dungeon for a quarter of a century...
Josef Fritzl is ruthless, and an accomplished liar, but he is also a clumsy operator, a man who, by the time he had reached his mid-40s, had been arrested twice for arson, twice more for sex offences, and jailed once for the rape of a woman at knifepoint.

And though the Austrian authorities have always insisted that they bear no responsibility for Josef Fritzl's 24-year incarceration of his daughter, Elisabeth, evidence...suggests that this often flagrant criminal left a staggering number of clues in his wake - clues that were repeatedly ignored by social workers, the police and the judiciary.

In August 1984, four months after her 18th birthday, Elisabeth disappeared. She vanished at some point around lunch-time. She was living at home in the family house in Amstetten at the time and, except for her father, the house was empty. Her mother and one of her sisters were out shopping, another sister had been sent out by Fritzl for a walk.

By the time they returned, Elisabeth was gone. It was Josef Fritzl who, the next day, would report Elisabeth's disappearance to the police, hinting, without a shred of evidence to back up his claim, that she had joined "a cult".

Notwithstanding the fact that were no cults to speak of in Austria either now or at the time, there were other factors that might have alerted the police's suspicions.

Although Fritzl's conviction for rape had by this stage been wiped from his criminal record (by Austrian law sex offences were then automatically deleted from police files after a period of 10 to 15 years), it was commonly known in the tight-knit community that he was a convicted rapist. His arrests for arson were still on record but he nevertheless legally owned two guns: a Bernadelli pistol and a rifle.

It was also known to social workers that Elisabeth had run away from home two years previously. On her return to Amstetten, however, they had chosen to discuss the matter only with her father, though Elisabeth was in the room at the time.

Additionally, some of her friends suspected Elisabeth of self-harming - another obvious outward sign of abuse - but social workers simply accepted Josef Fritzl's account.

We now know that what in fact happened on that August afternoon in 1984. Josef Fritzl had locked his daughter into a specially prepared dungeon in his cellar. About a month into her incarceration, he forced her to write a letter which he then posted to himself and showed the police.

Again the authorities accepted everything Fritzl told them at face value. The letter was never examined by a relevant expert, despite the fact that Austria's expert on fringe religions actually lived in Amstetten (he would eventually be shown all Elisabeth's letters only in 2008, declaring them obvious fakes).

In 1993, nine years after Elisabeth disappeared, the first of three babies appeared on the Fritzl's doorstep. The precise details of these "discoveries" are particularly disturbing. The child was abandoned in a cardboard box along with a letter from Elisabeth. However, in a nonsensical piece of bureaucratic logic it was decided that there would be no official search for Elisabeth because she was an adult and could "go where she liked."

Just over a year later there was a second child, this time found abandoned on the doorstep in a pram. It was Rosemarie Fritzl who discovered this second child and it was she who then described what had happened to a social worker.

She said shortly before midnight she had heard the sound of a baby crying outside the house. She discovered the child on the doorstep and returned inside with it in her arms. Suddenly the telephone began to ring. On the other end of the line a woman, claiming to be Elisabeth, was apologising for having abandoned her child. It was obviously a taped message: Rosemarie Fritzl hung up, but the phone immediately began to ring again: when she picked up the same message was played down the receiver.

What was particularly mysterious to Mrs Fritzl, she told the social worker, was the fact that she and her husband had recently changed their home telephone number and this number was not yet known to anyone else.

Although the case of the two abandoned foundlings was unusual enough to attract the attention of the national press, nothing about this chain of events seems to have caused much concern among the authorities.
At Josef Fritzl's suggestion, one of the letters was examined by a graphologist who, of course, declared himself to be satisfied that it had indeed been written by Elisabeth Fritzl.

The fact that her letters never made any mention of a cult, and that, in later years, at least one letter would bear a post-mark from a town very close to Amstetten, in which Josef Fritzl was known to own a house, still did nothing to alert social workers or the police.
A third child would appear on the Fritzl's doorstep in 1997. He, too, would be taken in and raised by his "grandparents".

Time passed. Josef Fritzl spent more and more time in the cellar but nobody questioned his increasingly unusual behaviour. He was living apart from his wife, in a separate flat within the house in Amstetten, and he would often spend the night in the cellar, claiming he was away on a business trips.

Lodgers saw him bring bags of groceries into the cellar, as well as building material, appliances, and furniture: bed frames, mattresses, a shower unit, a washing machine. Things were constantly disappearing into the cellar and never coming out.

In late March 2008, Elisabeth Fritzl's oldest child, Kerstin, became desperately ill in the cellar and her father decided to evacuate her. Had it not been for the suspicions of one of the doctors treating Kerstin in hospital, it is more than likely the case would never have come to light.

The Austrians have prided themselves on their discreet handling of the case, but there has been no inquiry, no admission of failure on behalf of the police, social workers, or the government.
The Austrian media, for their part, have been side-tracked into a largely peripheral debate about press intrusion.

And, although it is true that the British paparazzi, in particular resorted to desperate and underhand tactics to get the first pictures of Elisabeth Fritzl and her children, many sections of the Austrian press showed no compunction in either publishing Josef Fritzl's confidential psychiatric report before his case came to trial, or printing many of the intimate details of Elisabeth Fritzl's ordeal when they were first leaked to an Austrian magazine. So much for privacy.

Meanwhile, serious questions regarding the competence, gullibility and accountability of the Austrian authorities have gone unanswered.

Sunday, June 07, 2009

New York bouncer Darryl Littlejohn found guilty in 2006 slaying of student Imette St. Guillen


From Chris Kokenes
CNN
Thursday, June 4, 2009

NEW YORK (CNN) -- A Manhattan nightclub bouncer was found guilty of murder Wednesday in the slaying of a 24-year-old graduate student from Boston, Massachusetts, the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office said.

Darryl Littlejohn, 44, could be sentenced to a maximum of life in prison for the death of grad student Imette St. Guillen in 2006.

Darryl Littlejohn, 44, could be sentenced to a maximum of life in prison without the possibility of parole for the death of Imette St. Guillen, a criminology student at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

Sentencing is scheduled for July 8.

"We're going to appeal," Littlejohn's lawyer, Joyce David, told CNN after the conviction. "We're disappointed. I'm hoping this gives the family of the victim some closure. But I think that the wrong man was convicted."
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The verdict came several hours into the first day of deliberations by the jury. Before the verdict, David stressed to CNN that she believed in the innocence of her client, saying that Littlejohn was framed and that another person was a likely suspect.

"He was a convenient scapegoat who has a long criminal record," David said.

During the trial, witnesses said they saw Littlejohn and St. Guillen leaving The Falls bar in lower Manhattan together early on February 25, 2006. Hours later, St. Guillen's nude body was found in an isolated lot in Brooklyn.

Her face was covered with strips of packing tape, and a sock was stuffed in her throat. She died of asphyxiation. Investigators determined she had been raped.
Littlejohn was charged with murder after investigators linked his DNA to blood found on plastic ties used to bind St. Guillen's hands behind her back.

Littlejohn is already serving a term of 25 years to life for the October 2005 kidnapping of a 19-year-old college student in Queens. (She saved herself by hurling herself out of his van with plastic cuff ties around her wrists that also matched those on Imette, and ones found at Littlejohns home.)
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This guy doesn't deserve to draw air. What's the worst prison in New York State? That's where he needs to exist.