SEATTLE: PETER GULLBERG STRANGLES GIRLFRIEND WHO HAD MS

White Center man charged with manslaughter in girlfriend's death
Suspect was victim's caregiver
By SCOTT GUTIERREZP-I REPORTER/ Last updated April 25, 2008 10:53 p.m. PT

A White Center man was charged Friday with first-degree manslaughter for the death of his girlfriend, who had muscular dystrophy and relied on him as a live-in caregiver.

Peter E. Gullberg, 41, faces at least 6 1/2 to 8 1/2 years' imprisonment if convicted. Prosecutors likely would seek an exceptional prison term because the wheelchair-bound victim was especially vulnerable, said Dan Donohoe, King County Prosecutor's Office spokesman.

Gullberg called 911 Tuesday and reported that his girlfriend, Stephanie Campeau, wasn't breathing at their 14th Avenue Southwest home. He told sheriff's deputies that he had struck her on both sides of the head with his hands during an argument, court documents say.

He was arrested and taken to jail, with bail set at $1 million. Gullberg is scheduled for arraignment May 8.

The couple had known each other for 12 years and lived together for the past six. They've dated off and on and Gullberg was her paid caregiver, court documents say.

In an interview with detectives, Gullberg said the victim was egging him on by ramming her wheelchair into furniture and running over his toe. She kept shouting: "What are you going to do, hit me? Hit me, just hit me," court documents say.

"I finally snapped this morning. I did it, I did it," the defendant allegedly told investigators.

HIS OTHER CHOICE: JUST LEAVE, JUST WALK AWAY...
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/360696_caregiver26.html

SEATTLE: DAVID TORRENCE, RAPIST ON THE LOOSE

David J. Torrence

Darren Breen / The Herald
The 92nd Street SE bridge over U.S. 2 is where the state Department of Corrections assigned a level-3 sex offender to live.

Why rapist got put under Snohomish bridge
High-risk sex offender had no place to go, now on the lam
By Jackson Holtz and Jerry Cornfield, Herald Writers /Published: Saturday, April 26, 2008

SNOHOMISH -- They tried motels. They tried relatives. They tried homeless shelters.

When a high-risk sex offender was about to be released from prison, he had no place to stay. The state told him to sleep under a bridge beneath U.S. 2 near Snohomish.

"That's not an acceptable place to be living," Snohomish Police Chief John Turner said. "There is an issue. Where do sex offenders live? Where can they live?

"There's another issue, too.

Three days after being released from prison, David J. Torrence, 43, on Wednesday cut off the electronic monitoring bracelet he was issued and stopped reporting to his parole officer.

A nationwide no-bail arrest warrant has been issued for Torrence. He's a level-3 sex offender and considered at the highest risk of reoffending.

(snip)

The bridge near Snohomish was selected because it was convenient for Torrence to check in with parole supervisors and get transportation to other services, Rehberg said, adding there were no other alternatives for the homeless offender.

"I didn't want him under that bridge either," she said.

In 1995, Torrence pleaded guilty to second-degree rape. He was accused of grabbing a 16-year-old Snohomish County girl off Fifth Avenue near Casino Road. He threatened to shoot her and then sexually assaulted her, according to court records.

"He's a stranger rapist, which is the worst of all kinds," Snohomish County sheriff's detective Joseph Beard said. Beard tracks sex offenders in the county.

(snip)

Torrence's case isn't unique.

In the first three months of 2008, the state Department of Corrections (in Washinton state)released 34 level-3 sex offenders. Of those, 15 were homeless at release, said spokeswoman Anna Aylward.

FIND DAVID TORRENCE: LEVEL 3 SEX OFFENDER...
http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20080426/NEWS01/497109135&news01ad=1

ATLANTA: GEORGIA AND SEQUITA THORNTON BRUTALLY BEAT TEACHER

Georgia Thornton /Fulton County Sheriff's Office
Sequita Thornton / Fulton County Sheriff's Office

Mother, Daughter Charged With Attacking Teacher
POSTED: 3:39 pm EDT April 21, 2008

ATLANTA -- A high school teacher tells WSB-TV Channel 2 she was brutally attacked in her classroom by one of her students and the girl's mother.

Police charged Georgia Thornton, 44, and her 17-year-old daughter Sequita with attacking Felecia Williams, a teacher at Southside High School on February 28. The official charges against the mother include battery on a school teacher, disrupting a public school, criminal trespass and theft by taking in connection with the alleged attack on teacher.

Sequita Thornton was charged with battery on a teacher and disrupting a public school.

Williams told WSB-TV Channel 2 that the teenager was failing her TV Production class. The teacher claims Georgia Thornton visited the school to complain about the girl's treatment and attacked her during the meeting, knocking her to the ground, kicking and punching her and pulling her hair. Williams claims Sequita Thornton joined the attack.

“And then she threw the book back and just took me like this and then started flinging me everywhere,” said Williams.

Williams said eventually two of her students stepped in and stopped the attack.

READ MORE ABOUT THIS VICIOUS ATTACK...
http://www.wsbtv.com/news/15948462/detail.html

WHO WAS DENNIS GERWING? EMBEZZLER, MURDERER, SUICIDE

This 2003 file photo released by IWL Photography shows Dennis Gerwing. Gerwing, the accountant who killed himself after being questioned by police in the disappearance of two Hilton Head Island clients had embezzled $2.1 million from the couple and seven other companies, his former employer said Tuesday April 22, 2008. Gerwing committed suicide March 11 after police questioned him about the disappearance of John and Elizabeth Calvert, a couple who live part-time on a yacht on the resort island and in a home in Atlanta. (AP Photo/IWL Photography, Bill Littell, File)

In this July 2006 photo provided by Hilton Head Monthly Magazine, John and Elizabeth Calvert are seen as part of a story about their leasing of space. (AP Photo)

March 7: The cruiser ‘Yellow Jacket’ sits unattended on Hilton Head Island, S.C. The boat has been left abandoned since the owners disappeared. (AP Photo)

Audit: Man Took $2.1M From Missing S.C. Couple, Others
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Associated Press

COLUMBIA, S.C — An accountant who killed himself after being questioned by police in the disappearance of two Hilton Head Island clients had embezzled $2.1 million from the couple and seven other companies, his former employer said Tuesday.

An audit ordered by management company The Club Group found that chief financial officer Dennis Gerwing took money from its clients for four years, depositing it into a hidden checking account, the company said.

Gerwing committed suicide March 11 after police questioned him about the disappearance of John and Elizabeth Calvert, a couple who live part-time on a yacht on the resort island and in a home in Atlanta. The couple were last seen in early March and searches of the resort island, its harbor and in Georgia have been fruitless.

Police have said Gerwing, 54, was the last person to see the couple together.

Mark King, president of The Club Group, said he met last week with the clients who lost money and promised to repay them using money from Gerwing's estate, insurance settlements and his own assets.

"I am still in shock over the betrayal of trust and the death of my partner of 21 years. I have no idea what might have prompted Dennis to engage in this behavior, but as chief executive, I want to apologize on behalf of our company to all who were adversely affected," King said in a statement.

Gerwing stole from eight of The Club Group's 10 Hilton Head Island clients by using wire transfers, checks and other transactions that mixed investment money with his personal funds, King said.

A MURDER MYSTERY WORTHY OF TV SCRIPT...
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,352202,00.html

MAN KILLS WIFE, TAKES KIDS: SOME MEN ARE HEROES, SOME ARE COWARDS!

Sofia Garcia's body was found Monday afternoon, April 21, 2008, at a home in the 1700 block of North Harding Avenue in Chicago. Police are looking for Benito Casanova, and issued an Amber Alert Monday after they say he picked up Garcia's three children from school Friday and hasn't been seen since. (Memorial photo)

A memorial for Sofia Garcia was put together Tuesday at Yates Elementary School where she used to take ESL classes. Garcia was found murdered and her three children are missing. (Tribune photo by Candice C. Cusic / April 22, 2008)

Benito Casanova is sought in the abduction of three children; Oscar Casanova, 6; Karla Casanova, 7; and Fernando Casanova, 11. Their mother, Sophia Garcia, was found dead in the 1700 block of North Harding Avenue about noon Monday with a plastic bag over her head. (Photo courtesy National Center for Missing & Exploited Children)

Oscar Casanova, 6, (from left) Karla Casanova, 7, and Fernando Casanova, 11, are reported to have been abducted at 2:30 p.m. on Friday from the 1800 block of North Richmond Street in Chicago. They may be in a a silver/gray Dodge Dakota with single Illinois license plate, No. 86196HB. (National Center for Missing & Exploited Children photo)

Slain Chicago woman had order of protection against husband
Amber Alert: Father sought in connection with children's abduction
By Angela Rozas, Ofelia Casillas and Dan P. Blake Tribune reporters
4:50 PM CDT, April 22, 2008

A mother of three found dead with a plastic bag over her head had an order of protection barring her husband from contacting her, according to court records.

Police are looking for the man, Benito Casanova, and issued an Amber Alert Monday after they say he picked up her three children from school Friday and hasn't been seen since.

The order of protection, granted by authorities in February 2007 and in effect until 2009, came after Sofia Garcia, 30, alleged Casanova choked her in her home and told her he would kill her if she wouldn't take him back."

He had entered my home and hid until I returned," she wrote in the petition, ". . .[choked] me telling me that he was going to kill me because I did not want to be with him. He ALWAYS tells me that he is going to KILL me if I don't take him back, then kill himself."

WHAT KIND OF MAN KILLS THE MOTHER OF HIS CHILDREN?

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-amber-alert-webapr22,0,2876911.story

(Tribune reporters Jeremy Gorner and Kristen Kridel contributed to this report.)

AMBER ALERT:

Benito Casanova, described as about 6-foot-1, 230 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes.

The children were identified as: Fernando Casanova, 11, Karla Casanova, 7, and Oscar Casanova, 6. Police said Benito Casanova is the father of Fernando and Oscar Casanova. Fernando is described as 5 feet tall and 130 pounds. Oscar is described as 4 feet tall and 60 pounds. Karla is about 4 feet tall and 75 pounds.

The three children are Hispanic with brown hair and eyes.

They may be traveling in a 2002 silver or gray Dodge Dakota,

with Illinois license plate 86196HB, police said. One plate is missing from the car.

ALASKA RANGER: US COAST GUARD INVESTIGATES SINKING

Ex-captain grilled at hearing on Alaska Ranger sinking
By Hal Bernton / Seattle Times staff reporter

Contact Hal Bernton: 206-464-2581 or hbernton@seattletimes.com

Saturday, April 19, 2008 - Page updated at 12:00 AM

Steve Slotvig is a burly veteran of the Bering Sea fisheries with a gold anchor earring and, as former captain of the Alaska Ranger, an insider's knowledge of the vessel and crew.

Slotvig said he quit the command March 5, less than three weeks before the Alaska Ranger sprung a stern leak and went down in the Bering Sea. His abrupt midseason departure was spurred by fatigue and a troubled relationship with a Japanese fishmaster.

"I needed the break. I had been up there a long time, and when he got angry with me, I asked to be put on another vessel," Slotvig testified to Coast Guard officials Friday in Seattle.

Slotvig is a high-profile witness in the marathon Marine Board of Investigation hearings into the circumstances surrounding the sinking that claimed the lives of five of the 47 crew aboard the factory trawler. The hearings began in Alaska on March 28.

His Friday testimony triggered some of the most testy, combative exchanges yet as Coast Guard investigators pressed Slotvig to describe the widespread ice during the winter fishing season and his relationship with fishmaster Satoshi Konno, a representative of Japanese seafood buyers who died when the vessel sank.

Konno's influence on the vessel has been a point of contention because federal laws require licensed American captains such as Slotvig to be in command. Seattle-based Fishing Company of Alaska, which operated the Alaska Ranger, has fishmasters assisting American captains to find and catch fish.

WHAT REALLY HAPPENED? THE INVESTIGATION CONTINUES...

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2004359699_ranger19m.html

COLUMBIA, S.C.: TEEN HAD ALL THE SUPPLIES TO MAKE BOMB

South Carolina Teen Arrested for Alleged High School Bomb Plot
Sunday, April 20, 2008

COLUMBIA, S.C. — A high school senior collected enough supplies to carry out a bomb attack on his school and detailed the plot in a hate-filled diary that included maps of the building and admiring notations about the Columbine killers, authorities said Sunday.

Ryan Schallenberger, 18, was arrested Saturday after his parents called police when 10 pounds of ammonium nitrate was delivered to their home in Chesterfield and they discovered the journal, said the town's police chief, Randall Lear.

The teen planned to make several bombs and had all the supplies needed to kill dozens at Chesterfield High School, depending on where the devices were placed and whether they included shrapnel, Lear said. Ammonium nitrate was used in the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 that killed 168 people.

"The only thing left was delivering the bombs," the police chief said.

Schallenberger kept a journal for more than a year that detailed his plans for a suicide attack and included maps of the school, police said. The writings did not include a specific time for the attack or the intended targets.

He also left an audio tape to be played after he died explaining why he wanted to bomb his school. Lear wouldn't detail what was on the tape except to say Schallenberger was an angry young man.

SCARY STORY! READ ON...

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,351894,00.html