Missing Fla. Baby Found Alive Under Baby Sitter's Bed
Thursday, November 05, 2009
CHIPLEY, Fla. — A baby missing for five days was found alive and well under her baby sitter's bed, and Florida authorities said Thursday they plan to charge the sitter, her husband and the child's mother.
Investigators found 7-month-old Shannon Dedrick in a box tucked under a bed surrounded by items intended to hide the child at Susan Elizabeth Baker's home near Chipley, a rural Panhandle town, Washington County Sheriff Bobby Haddock said in an interview early Thursday. The baby was placed in protective custody.
"Statistically speaking this should not have ever happened, that we found this child alive, especially after so many days. Time was against us," Haddock said.
Shannon was taken to a hospital but appeared healthy, Haddock said.
"It was very emotional for us, because once got her to the hospital, we called our wives and every one of us was crying. Grown men crying. It's just such a relief," he said. "We've had missing children cases in the past, but nothing like this."
Haddock said deputies were working to charge Baker, her husband James Arthur Baker and the child's mother, Chrystina Lynn Mercer. He wouldn't provide details about the possible charges but said more information would be released later Thursday. Authorities don't believe the child's father, James Russell Dedrick Jr., was involved but the case is still under investigation, Haddock said. He said Susan Baker and the father are related.
Haddock confirmed that Baker was the Susan Elizabeth Baker cited in court records as being convicted of assault in South Carolina in 1987, and questioned but not indicted in 2000 for a 3-year-old child's disappearance, also in 1987. He confirmed that Baker wrote an e-mail to Florida Gov. Charlie Crist's office in August, pleading for the governor to help Shannon Dedrick.
"And my response is, 'We saved the child, Ms. Baker," Haddock said.
Court documents released Wednesday showed that child welfare workers in Florida began looking into allegations Shannon was being abused less than two weeks after she was born.
Her parents reported her missing around 11 a.m. Saturday. They told authorities that they had not seen her since about 3 a.m.
About 100 law enforcement agents and others scoured the woods around the couple's home, Haddock said. Investigators contacted the Bakers again on Wednesday and they allowed them into their home, Haddock said.
"They gave us consent to search the home and found the baby in a box under a bed, with stuff pushed around the box to hide the baby," he said.
Court records released Wednesday said investigators frequently went to the infant's home from August to late September and reported that both parents used marijuana and kept a messy home.
But investigators reported that Shannon seemed to be cared for and repeatedly cited that the risk to the baby was "intermediate." In September, an investigator said a physician determined that the child was healthy and expressed "no concerns regarding the baby."
Court records show Elizabeth Baker was charged in South Carolina with assault and battery with intent to kill and assault and batter of a high and aggravated nature in 1987. After being convicted, she was sentenced to 10 years in prison. The sentence was suspended to 80 days.
She was extradited to South Carolina from Chipley in 2000, and charged in the disappearance of 3-year-old Paul Leonard Baker. The child was never found, according to the Beaufort County, S.C., sheriff's office.
Police reports don't indicate the child's possible relation.
A sheriff's investigator from Beaufort County was sent to Florida to assist in the missing child case, sheriff's spokeswoman Robin McIntosh said Wednesday
Young mother, 23, raped in front of her three-year-old son by man she met on the internet
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 11:53 AM on 05th November 2009
Wanted: A police e-fit of Derek, who is wanted in connection with rape
Police are hunting a man who allegedly raped a woman in front of her three-year-old son after they arranged a meeting online.
The mother, 23, had seen the man, known as Derek, in person several times after they initially met via the internet.
On the morning of 30 September the woman, who had her son with her, followed 'Derek' in her car from the M2 to a block of flats near Sutton town centre.
As she drank tea in a flat there he punched her in the face, knocking her unconscious before apparently raping her. When she came to she managed to flee with her son.
A police spokesman said today: 'The suspect is described as a white man, in his late forties and of muscular build.
'He drove an old green Land Rover with a canvas roof. The spare wheel attached to the rear had a cover with an eagle design.'
The incident is the latest in a series of attacks that have occurred after meetings arranged over the internet.
Last month 17-year-old Ashleigh Hall was allegedly killed by a stranger she met on a social networking wesite.
Her mother has demanded more protection for internet users and has urged popular websites to do more to deter sex offenders and paedophiles from attempting to groom vulnerable users.
The Government's Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre wants sites to sign up to its alerts system which enables users who come across something suspicious to warn child protection professionals.
But safety campaigners say the onus is on internet useres to be aware of potential abusers on social networking sites and chatrooms.
Users are warned not to divulge personal information to people they do not know and never to arrange meetings.
Chilling New 911 Tape Released in New Jersey Priest's Murder
Wednesday, November 04, 2009
NEWARK, N.J. — The muffled voices are heard only for a few seconds, but are chilling nevertheless.
"This is the state police, you called 911, do you have an emergency?" a woman's voice asks.
"No, we don't, thank you," a man's voice answers.
"Yes, we do," a second man seems to say in the background.
"No, thank you," the first man repeats.
The 911 cell phone call made by the Rev. Edward Hinds moments before he was fatally stabbed last month in the rectory kitchen of his New Jersey parish captures the final moments of a man's life and the attempts to untangle what led up to them.
Jose Feliciano, a janitor who had worked for St. Patrick Parish in Chatham, Morris County, for 17 years, has been charged with murder and is being held on $1 million bail. Prosecutors say he stabbed Hinds 32 times, possibly after Hinds discussed terminating his employment. They believe he was the man heard on the call telling the operator there was no emergency.
State police released recordings of the 911 call and two subsequent calls by the operator Wednesday after requests under New Jersey's Open Public Records Act by The Associated Press and other news organizations.
On Hinds' initial call, on the evening of Oct. 22, the operator asks the 61-year-old priest, "911, what is your emergency?"
Hinds is heard trying to give an address: "Washington Avenue" is all he can get out.
After some static, a quick "Help!" before the line goes dead.
Next, the operator calls the number back and gets Hinds' voice mail. On a second attempt, a man prosecutors say is Feliciano answers the phone and assures the operator there is no emergency.
The operator's actions were the subject of a state police investigation after Hinds was found the following morning when he didn't show up for Mass. No police were dispatched to the scene after the calls.
"A preliminary investigation indicated that she followed the proper procedure," State Police Lt. Gerald Lewis said.
The 64-year-old Feliciano, of Easton, Pa., whose two children attended the parish's school, confessed to the crime, prosecutors said. They said he had been using fake names and identification to cover up a two-decade-old arrest warrant in Philadelphia for indecent assault on a minor.
Court documents revealed that Hinds had discussed firing Feliciano with a St. Patrick School official one day before his death, and mentioned an irregularity in Feliciano's personnel file regarding a criminal background check.
At Feliciano's initial court appearance last week, prosecutors described finding Hinds' cell phone in a trash can near the janitor's house, as well as blood stains on clothing and in sinks at his house.
Notes left behind: The heartbreaking messages a six-year-old cancer victim hid for her family to find after she died
By Mail Foreign Service
Last updated at 12:56 PM on 05th November 2009
These are the heartbreaking notes a six-year-old cancer victim hid for her family to find after she died.
Elena Desserich was diagnosed with inoperable brain cancer when she was just five years old.
During her nine-month struggle with the illness, Elena, from Wyoming, hid hundreds of notes between the pages of books, in cupboards, drawers, bags, and clothes stashed away for the winter.
'I love Grace': Elena with her little sister at Christmas in 2005, before her heartbreaking diagnosis
Brave: One of the pictures hidden by Elena in the last nine months of her short life
She died in August 2007 - but her parents Keith, 34, and Brooke, 35, and her younger sister Gracie, who was five at the time, say they have been finding the notes and drawings she left behind ever since.
'We found the first ones a few days after she died,' said Mr Desserich, who runs a construction company.
'But then they kept on showing up everywhere and now we have three large boxes full of them.
'We even found them in the bags of Christmas decorations.'
Now Elena's family have put a collection of the touching messages together with diary entries they made during her struggle in a book, Notes Left Behind.
All proceeds from the book will go to cancer research.
Another of Elena's notes, which were found hidden in briefcases and bags, between books on the bookshelf, in the corners of dresser drawers, or between dishes in the china cabinet
When little Elena was diagnosed with the rare and terminal form of paediatric brain cancer in 2006, her parents were told she had just 135 days to live.
The distraught couple vowed to make each moment special for Elena and her sister Gracie, then four.
'We wanted to protect her so we never told her she might not make it,' said Mr Desserich.
'We didn't want to focus on the cancer, we wanted to focus on being a family and doing all the things that Elena wanted to do.'
Mr and Mrs Desserich were worried Gracie might grow up and not remember Elena, so they began to write a journal about their kind little girl who loved books and art.
Loss: The Desserich family pose for a portrait just after Elena, sitting on her mother's lap, was given 135 days to live
'She was a wonderful little girl,' said Mr Desserich. 'She loved books, they were her passion. She said she wanted to grow up to be a teacher and a mother.
'She loved to nurture people and she was always so bright.'
While the Desserichs were forming their own tribute, Elena was secretly writing notes and tucking them away in nooks and crannies in her house and the houses of relatives.
'She was a child who was wise beyond her years,' said Mr Desserich. 'I hate to think she knew she was dying but I think she did.'
'I think the notes were her way of telling us that everything would be OK,' added Mrs Desserich. 'It feels like a hug from her every time we find one.'
Legacy: The family have published Elena's notes in a book to raise money for cancer research
Despite a month of radiation therapy, Elena's condition deteriorated rapidly. She lost the ability to speak and gradually became paralysed.
But the brave child would not be silenced. She continued to hide the love notes and drawings for her mother, father, sister, grandparents and her favourite dog Sally, who belonged to her auntie.
Some read simply 'I love you' or have pictures of hearts and flowers.
Many are addressed for Gracie and one reads 'I love you Gracie, Go Go.'
'We don't ever want to find the last note,' said Mr Desserich. 'I hope we keep on finding them for years to come.'
In fact, both parents have saved one unopened note from Elena which they carry with them in their briefcases.
'It's our way of saving the last note,' said Mrs Desserich.
The Desserichs have published the notes as a tribute to Elena and to help Gracie remember her big sister.
All proceeds from the book are going to the Cure Starts Now Cancer Foundation, one of the only charities dedicated to finding a unified cure for all forms of cancer.
Court Documents Reveal Calif. Teen Killed Little Boy
Wednesday, November 04, 2009
MENDOTA, California — A 14-year-old with a baby face told investigators he drowned his 4-year-old neighbor in a bathtub then hid the body in a dryer because the child was going to reveal the teen molested him, according to an affidavit released when he appeared in court Wednesday.
Raul Renato Castro, dressed in a purple T-shirt issued at the juvenile jail, appeared emotionless while staring at his hands in Fresno County Superior Court.
He was guarded by five bailiffs and two officers outfitted in paramilitary gear.
"He won't cry, he won't cry, he won't," said a woman who identified herself as his aunt but refused to give her name because she said the family had received death threats. Police could not confirm there had been threats.
Police said searchers found Alex Mercado on Saturday stuffed in the clothes dryer in the small farm town of Mendota.
The affidavit said Castro, a student at Mendota Junior High School, initially told police he knew nothing of the boy's disappearance. When investigators said the boy had been found in the dryer, the teen suggested someone had broken into the house and put him there.
Castro eventually told police he had enticed the dimpled, brown-eyed boy into his house across the street and sodomized him, the affidavit states. He said he killed Mercado after the child fell and hit his head, started crying, then threatened to tell his mother, the document states.
"Castro said he panicked and decided to kill the victim by drowning him in the bathtub," the affidavit says.
The teen, who is 5-feet tall and weighs 170 pounds, put Mercado's body over his shoulder and carried him to the dryer, hoping everything "would go away," the affidavit states.
Castro had been scheduled for arraignment as an adult on charges of first-degree murder, sodomy, child molestation, kidnapping and murder to silence a witness.
The arraignment was rescheduled for Tuesday after his acting public defender, Kathy Marousek, said she had not seen the paperwork.
"He told me he was scared," said Marousek, who spoke with the teen as he sat in the jury box. "He could be in shock."
Marousek said after the hearing that she doubted the teenager understood the Miranda Rights read to him by investigators, which could put his confession in doubt.
Earlier the teen had nodded without expression when Judge Jon Kapetan asked him if he understood the proceedings. Bail was set at $2.1 million.
California law says suspects 14 and older can be charged and tried as adults. About 20 percent of murders in the state are committed by people between the ages of 11 and 17.
Castro, who turned 14 on July 29, cannot face the death penalty but could be sentenced to as long as 47 years-to-life if convicted
Daughter commits suicide on rail track three days after father took own life at same spot
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 5:05 PM on 04th November 2009
A grieving daughter committed suicide on a railway line just three days after her father killed himself on the same stretch of track.
Colleen O'Connor, 39, was found dead on the outskirts of Kidderminster, Worcestershire, on Sunday evening.
The body of her father Barney O'Connor, 64, was discovered at the same location three days earlier.
Double tragedy: The railway line in Kidderminster where Colleen O'Connor and her father Barney committed suicide three days apart
Mr O'Connor was from nearby Halesowen, West Midlands. He is believed to have spiralled into depression after his marriage collapsed and his ex-wife re-married.
His daughter is thought to have travelled from her home in Poole, Dorset, to the spot near Husum Way.
A statement from the O'Connor family said: 'We have been devastated by this double tragedy and the family is rallying round to support each other.
'Both Barney and Colleen will be sadly missed by the entire family and we would ask that the media allows us grieve collectively in private at this extremely difficult and emotional time.'
British Transport Police are not treating the deaths as suspicious.
A spokesman said: 'British Transport Police can confirm that two people who died on the railway line in Kidderminster within three days of each other were father and daughter Barney and Colleen O’Connor.
'Mr O’Connor died after being struck by a train near to Husum Way, Kidderminster, at about 6.30pm on Thursday October 29.
'Miss O’Connor, 39, of Poole, Dorset, died at the same location at about 8.30pm on Sunday 1 November.
'Neither death is being treated as suspicious by BTP. Inquests have been opened and adjourned at Redditch Coroners’ Court.'
In a statement issued today by British Transport Police, the family of Barney and Colleen O’Connor, said both would be sadly missed.
The family said: 'We have been devastated by this double tragedy and the family is rallying round to support each other.
'Both Barney and Colleen will be sadly missed by the entire family.'
Meet Britain's tallest schoolgirl
Emma Cahill is Britain's tallest school, measuring 6ft 5ins and she is still growing.
Published: 6:30AM GMT 05 Nov 2009
Emma Cahill, 16, towers over everyone at her school - including the teachers. Photo: SWNS.COM
The 16-year-old has just started sixth form at St Mary's Convent School in Worcester. She is the star player on the netball team but needs shoes specially designed to fit her size 14 feet, while she also had to have her new uniform tailored to fit her 36in legs. But she says she wants to get even taller despite being bullied over her size.
Her father Andrew, 45, is 6ft 6ins while her mother Jane is 5ft 11in.
"I am really proud to be the tallest schoolgirl in Britain. I like being a bit different but I reckon I'm still growing," she said.
''I'd like to grow an extra inch to catch up with my dad.
''I have been bullied but I try not to think about it. People call me names, laugh at me. Sometimes people do things they wouldn't do to a short person but I just laugh it off.''
Mr Cahill, who runs a software company in Droitwich Spa, Worcs., said: ''Emma was always a big child but in the last few years she's shot up.
''We keep joking we'll have to buy a bigger house so we can all fit in it.
''She was born a normal size but genetics must have kicked in. My parents and my wife's parents were tall so she must have got her height from there.''
Despite wanting to get taller, she does admit that being tall has disadvantages. She has to get her clothes made in Germany and America, while she added that it was affecting her love life.
"I haven't got a boyfriend at the moment. I think I scare them off with my height.
''I'll probably always be bigger than anyone I go out with but I'll still wear heels - I'm proud to be tall.''
Despite her mother suggesting she become a catwalk model, Emma says she wants to study to become an occupational therapist.
Louise Ross, from the Tall Persons Club, said: ''Emma should enjoy being the tallest teenage girl in the country. Women like her are the future and she should be proud and never stoop.
''Around 98 per cent of tall people are bullied but the trick is to literally rise above it.''
The world's tallest teenager is 17-year-old American Brandon Adams who stands at 7ft four-and-a-half inches.
Albatross killed by junk food
Published: Today
PLASTIC junk lies amid the remains of an albatross which starved after mistaking the trash for food.
In danger ... albatross
Thousands of the huge seabirds die every year after scoffing rubbish that washes up on their isolated Pacific island breeding ground.
It blocks up their digestive systems and poisons them.
University of Hawaii researcher Dr Lindsay Young said: "Each person must examine how the lighter or bottle cap they toss away can ultimately end up in the stomach of an albatross."
Frown if you dare ...
By STAFF REPORTER
Published: Today
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A DESIGN student has created a high-tech hat that forces its wearer to SMILE.
The woolly headwear detects a user's facial expression and jabs a sharp metal SPIKE into their head if they stop grinning.
Inventor Lauren McCarthy describes her tongue-in-cheek Happiness Hat as "a wearable conditioning device".
She said: "A smile is a simple action that has the power to make you and everyone around you feel better.
"Just using the muscles to smile can make you feel happier. Seeing someone else smiling triggers mirror neurons in your own brain, causing you to smile yourself.
"Through repeated use of this conditioning device you can train your brain to smile all the time."
The battery-powered hat places a bend sensor against the wearer's cheek and measures smile size.
A tiny motor moves a metal spike into the back of the head when the happy expression starts to fade.
Miss McCarthy, who is studying at the University of California, says the Happiness Hat is "the first in a series of tools for improved social interacting".
A video of herself using the bizarre device has become a viral hit online.
Bricklayer 'killed' in car crash stuns grieving family... by turning up at his own funeral
By Mail Foreign Service
Last updated at 11:02 AM on 05th November 2009
Relatives of Ademir Jorge Goncalves were stunned - and relieved - when he turned up alive and well at his own funeral
A Brazilian bricklayer reportedly killed in a car crash shocked his mourning family by turning up alive and well at his own funeral.
Relatives of Ademir Jorge Goncalves, 59, had identified him as the victim of a Sunday night car crash in Parana state in southern Brazil.
As is customary in Brazil, the funeral was held the following day, which happened to be the holiday of Finados, when Brazilians visit cemeteries to honour the dead.
What family members didn't know was that Goncalves had spent the night at a truck stop talking with friends over drinks of a sugarcane liquor known as cachaca, his niece Rosa Sampaio told the O Globo newspaper.
He did not get word about his own funeral until it was already happening on Monday morning.
A police spokesman in the town of Santo Antonio da Platina said Goncalves rushed to the funeral to let family members know he was not dead.
'The corpse was badly disfigured, but dressed in similar clothing,' said the police spokesman.
'People are afraid to look for very long when they identify bodies, and I think that is what happened in this case.'
Sampaio told O Globo that some family members were not sure the body was Goncalves.
'My two uncles and I had doubts about the identification,' she said.
'But an aunt and four of his friends identified the body, so what were we to do? We went ahead with the funeral.'
The police spokesman confirmed there were doubts: 'His mum looked at the body in the casket and thought something was strange. She looked and looked and couldn't believe it was her son,' he said.
'Before long, the walking dead appeared at the funeral. It was a relief.'
The body was correctly identified later on Monday, the police spokesman said, and has already been buried in another state. He declined to release the actual victim's name.
Jaycee Lee Dugard 'tried to hide identity from police'
Jaycee Lee Dugard repeatedly tried to mislead parole and police officers as they tried to unravel the relationship between her and the man accused of abducting her almost two decades earlier.
An official report into the handling of the Phillip Garrido case said, as she was being interviewed alone by officers, Ms Dugard gave her name as Alyssa and told officers that she was the mother of the two other girls, Angel and Starlet.
"The parole agent believed that Alyssa looked too young to be the mother and asked her age. Alyssa said that she was 29 years old, laughingly explaining that she often gets that comment and that people believe she is the girls’ sister," the report said.
While Mr Garrido was being questioned in another room, "Alyssa" initially refused to cooperate with the agent questioning her, who then called the local police department.
"As they waited for the officer to arrive, Alyssa said she was sorry that she had lied. She explained that she was from Minnesota and had been hiding for five years from an abusive husband," the report recounted.
"She was terrified of being found, she said, and that was the reason she could not give the parole agent any information.."
In the other room Mr Garrido had given another story: that the three girls were sisters whom he was looking after for his brother, from nearby Oakley.
According to the AIG account, Ms Dugard maintained her story but Mr Garrido admitted under police interrogation that he was the father of the two girls.
"Eventually, Garrido admitted to kidnapping and raping Alyssa," the report said. "During further questioning, Alyssa identified herself as Jaycee Dugard and confirmed that she had been kidnapped and raped by Garrido.
"Police officers subsequently arrested Phillip and Nancy Garrido on numerous felony charges."
Ms Dugard has now been reunited with her parents.
The report revealed that Ms Dugard had known he was a convicted sex offender but told officers this summer that he was a "changed man and a great person who was good with her kids
The report from California's Office of the Inspector-General (OIG) attacks corrections officers for missing "numerous opportunities" to discover that Mr Garrido was holding Ms Dugard and the two young girls he fathered by her in a hidden compound in his backyard.
The catalogue of errors included neglecting to interview Mr Garrido’s neighbours or to investigate utility wires wires running from his Antioch house to the secret compound he used to house his victims. They also included temporarily misclassifying Mr Garrido as a low-risk offender despite his record as a rapist.
The report mocks official claims that parole agents had diligently supervised Mr Garrido and that he had never violated the terms of his parole: "While it is true that Garrido's California parole was never officially violated, our review show that Garrido committee numerous parole violations and that the department failed to properly supervise Garrido and missed numerous opportunities to discover his victims."
Ms Dugard was snatched from outside her home in South Lake Tahoe in 1991, aged just 11. Mr Garrido and his wife Nancy have pleaded not guilty to 29 counts relating to Ms Dugard's abduction and subsequent rape and imprisonment.
The state inspector-general David Shaw, appointed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to monitor the prison system, said the failures by the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation began almost immediately after the state took control of Mr Garrido in 1999. He was still on parole after his conviction in 1977 for raping and kidnapping a 25-year-old woman.
Ms Dugard's captivity finally came to an end this August, largely thanks to an employee at the University of California Berkeley police station who became suspicious of Mr Garrido when he turned up with two young girls calling him "Daddy".
Parole agents visited his house the following day but it was not until the day after that that he turned up at his parole office with his wife and "three young girls".
Reacting to the report, Matthew Cate, the State Corrections Secretary, said that he deeply regretted if the mistakes made by his department had kept Ms Dugard in captivity for even one additional day. He said he could not comment for privacy reasons on whether any disciplinary actions would be taken against the parole officers who oversaw Mr Garrido.
A statement issued by Ms Dugard’s lawyer McGregor Scott said the report “clearly sets out many missed opportunities to bring a much earlier end to the nightmare of Jaycee Dugard and her family”.
It also said that Ms Dugard is “fully committed" to holding Mr Garrido accountable for his alleged crimes.
The report said for almost the entire first year he was in the California parole system, Mr Garrido was not visited by a parole agent. It said he also was passed over between June 2001 and July 2002, and received only one visit between June 2004 and August 2005.
“Put another way, 90 percent of the time the department’s oversight of Garrido lacked required actions,” the inspector general said.
Mr Garrido had been required to register as a sex offender because of the 1977 conviction. He was paroled in 1988, supervised by federal parole authorities.
In March 1999 - eight years after Jaycee's abduction - the US Parole Administration terminated Mr Garrido’s federal parole supervision and Nevada briefly took over until June 1999, when California began his supervision.
As a parolee, Mr Garrido wore a GPS-linked ankle bracelet that tracked his movements. But the report said agents ignored alerts about violations. A review of the GPS information found that over a 32-day period from July 23, 2009, to August 23, 2009, he travelled outside of the 25-mile zone seven times.
Mr Shaw recommended that corrections officials require active GPS monitoring of all sex offenders, so that agents get near real-time updates on the whereabouts of the parolees.