TEXAS: ERIN CAFFEY, 17, GETS PLEA DEAL, ELIGIBLE FOR PAROLE AT 59

Alba, Texas: Listen to father's 911 call for help from neighbor's house.

At 16 Erin Caffey murdered her mother and two brothers. At 17 Erin Caffey is sentenced to two life sentences plus a 25 year third sentence. "As for Erin Caffey, two life sentences, will she ever parole out? I can't answer that," said Rains County Attorney, Robert Vititow. "And if she did, she would still have another 25 year sentence to serve and so the odds are that she may never get out."


Teenage girl gets 2 life terms in family slayings
Associated Press
Jan. 3, 2009, 11:43AM

EMORY — A teenage girl has been given two life sentences and an additional 25 years in prison for her role in the murders of her mother and two young brothers in the family’s home.

Erin Caffey, 17, could be eligible for parole when she’s 59 under a plea agreement reached Friday, said defense attorney William McDowell. Her trial was scheduled for next month in nearby Hopkins County, and prosecutors had said they didn’t plan to seek the death penalty against her.

(snip)

Authorities said the murder plot was hatched because Erin Caffey’s parents didn’t want Wilkinson to date their daughter, who was 16 at the time of the crime.

In November, Wilkinson and Waid avoided the death penalty by pleading guilty for their involvement in the killings. McDowell said both will most likely receive life sentences with parole. All four defendants were initially charged with three counts of capital murder.

WHAT'S NEXT FOR THIS TEENAGE KILLER?
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/hotstories/6192597.html

TEXAS: ERIN CAFFEY AT 16 KILLED FAMILY WITH HELP FROM "FRIENDS"

Erin Caffey, shown in her booking photo, was 16 at the time her mother and two brothers were found slain in their Alba, Texas home. (AP Photo/Rains County Jail)

Courtesy Rains County Sheriff / Waid, Johnson, and Wilkinson helped Erin Caffey kill her family.

Caffey Murder Trial Moved, Date Set
By COSHANDRA DILLARD / TYLERPAPER.COM Staff Writer
Friday, December 05, 2008

EMORY -- The capital murder trial of a Rains County teen allegedly involved in the deaths of her mother and two young brothers has been moved to Hopkins County, officials said Thursday.

Eighth District Court Judge Robert Newsom officially transferred the trial, as the prosecution and defense agreed.

The jury selection for Erin Caffey, 17, will be Feb.2-5. Newsom also scheduled the trial to begin Feb. 9 and said it is expected to last until Feb. 17.

In November, Charles Allen Waid, 20, and Charlie James Wilkinson, 19, pleaded guilty to capital murder for their involvement in the killings.

Prosecutors are not seeking the death penalty for Ms. Caffey, a minor at the time she allegedly helped kill her family. Prosecutor Lisa Tanner indicated that was the only reason they were not asking for the death penalty.

Ms. Caffey's father, Terry Caffey, 41, was shot five times but got out of his burning house and reached his neighbors, still conscious enough to tell them he recognized Wilkinson shooting him and his wife in their bed, sheriff's officials said. He has since recovered from his gunshot wounds.

(snip)

Penny Caffey, 37, a church pianist, and sons Mathew, 13, and Tyler, 8, were shot and stabbed to death.

Their bodies were removed once firefighters extinguished the flames of the home, which burned to the ground, officials said.

READ TYLER PAPER.COM FOR UPDATES OF CAFFEY MURDER, TRIAL, SENTENCING...

http://www.tylerpaper.com/article/20081205/NEWS01/812050338

READ ARTICLE BY TYLER PAPER.COM STAFF WRITER, LAUREN GROVER

http://www.tylerpaper.com/article/20080303/NEWS01/429461743

ASPEN, CO: JAMES BLANNING RUINS NEW YEAR'S EVE WITH BOMBS

James Blanning's mug shot was taken in 1996 by state corrections officials. (Department of Corrections). He was sentenced in Rio Blanco District Court in 1996 to 16 years in prison for racketeering and white collar crimes encompassing forgery of deeds and wills, fraudulent security sales and forged money, according to Colorado Bureau of Investigation records.

Photo by Aspen Times
Surveillance video by a Vectra Bank camera in Aspen captured suspect, Jim Blanning, at 2:37 p.m. Weds.

WRITING ON ENVELOPE LEFT AT FRONT DOOR OF THE ASPEN TIMES NEWSPAPER.Photo by The Aspen Times
An envelope containing a typewritten letter was left at the front door of The Aspen Times office. This handwritten note was on the envelope containing the typed letter.

TYPEWRITTEN LETTER LEFT AT FRONT DOOR OF THE ASPEN TIMES NEWSPAPER.

Photo by The Aspen Times
An envelope containing a typewritten letter was left at the front door of The Aspen Times office. This is the typed note and is not censored.

Police cleared a 16-block area of Aspen, seen here in this file photo, Wednesday afternoon after two banks reported receiving bomb threats and packages wrapped in holiday paper. (Reuters)

Photo by Janet Urquhart/The Aspen Times
Aspen Assistant Police Chief Bill Linn offers additional details on the bomb threats that forced the evacuation of much of downtown Aspen Wednesday, during a press conference Thursday morning.

Aspen police officer Bill Linn peers from behind a wall at a sled containing wrapped packages left in an alleyway between Hopkins and Hyman Avenue in Downtown Aspen on Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2008. (Aspen Daily News ZACH ORNITZ )

A photo of the clear plastic boxes containing holiday wrapped packages and pizza boxes in the bottom of this black sled. (Aspen Police Department)

Bomb suspect killed self; blasted Rove, Cheney and Bush in note

Associated Press
Published January 1, 2009

ASPEN — A man who left bomb threats and homemade bombs around Aspen on New Year's Eve, shot and killed himself in his car a few hours after his threats cleared much of the resort town, Aspen Police said.

Assistant Aspen Police Chief Bill Linn said James Chester Blanning, 72, walked into two Aspen banks Wednesday afternoon and left packages wrapped in holiday paper along with notes saying the boxes contained bombs. The notes threatened "mass death" and demanded $60,000 cash, along with criticisms of President George Bush, Linn said.

The Aspen Times newspaper reported that Blanning left a typewritten note at the newspaper's offices Wednesday evening. The profanity-laced note, which appeared to match those Blanning left at banks, said "Aspen will pay a horrible price in blood" if his demands were not met.

(snip)

Sixteen blocks, nearly the entirety of downtown Aspen, was cleared of holiday revelers Wednesday afternoon. Linn said that police bomb squads detonated the bombs once the area was cleared, and that one of the packages created a fireball outside a Wells Fargo bank when police detonated it. No one was injured.

Linn said the bombs were dangerous, containing plastic bladders of gasoline, but Linn did not describe exactly how sophisticated they were.

Blanning, who grew up in Aspen, was identified by the Pitkin County sheriff on a surveillance tape from one of the banks. Linn said the suspect was well known to police and that the sheriff remembered Blanning from a 1994 suicide threat atop the Pitkin County Courthouse.

WHAT TURNED THIS ASPEN RESIDENT INTO A BOMBER?
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2009/jan/01/suspect-dead-aspen-bomb-threats-last-will-sent-tim/

READ THE STORY IN "THE ASPEN TIMES" NEWSPAPER...
http://www.aspentimes.com/

TINLEY PARK LANE BRYANT: $100,000 REWARD IF YOU CATCH THE KILLER

It's way past time to catch this killer!
Someone, probably several people, knows this man. Won't you turn him in for $100,000 reward??? It doesn't matter if he is your husband, your brother, your son, your boyfriend. He is still an extremly dangerous killer!

Please, take another look at the sketch of the Tinley Park Lane Bryant killer of five women. Just in case that you really do not recognize the sketch, I am going to try an experiment. I have distorted the original sketch for a different view. Many sketches of criminals are not close enough to say, "That's him. That's the killer."

Detectives say this man killed five women and injured another in a brutal mass murder at a women's clothing store in a Chicago suburb. Police say the five victims were all women. They were found inside the store, bound with clothing and duct tape and shot execution-style in the head. A sixth woman was shot in the neck and miraculously survived.

Description:

Black male
Height: 5'9" - 6'0"
Weight: 200 - 230 lbs.
The killer had 3-5 puffy corn rows pulled back.
The killer had a braid over his right ear that had four light-green beads.
Cops say the suspect has a "husky" build.

Police describe the possible suspect as wearing a dark-colored, below-the-waist-length winter coat. They say he had black jeans on with embroidery on the back pockets similar to a cursive "g". The suspect was wearing a charcoal gray "skull" cap.


America's Most Wanted (AMW) has a comprehensive overview of this story. There are clues, analysis of evidence, videos, tiplines.
http://www.amw.com/fugitives/case.cfm?id=52877

Tinley Park Police Department has continued updates of this crime and other crimes in this area. Are any of these crimes connected? There are updates, reward money, past press releases.
Anyone having information regarding this crime, or who may have seen anything of a suspicious nature in or around the mall located at 191st & Harlem Avenue, between 10:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m. Saturday, February 2, 2008, call the Tinley Park Police Department at 708-444-5394, or call the Cook County Crime Stoppers at 1-800-535-7867.
http://www.tinleyparkpolice.org/

Lane Bryant Tinley Park Memorial Fund
LuAnn Via, President of Lane Bryant stated, "We have received an incredible outpouring of concern, prayers and offers of help from the community and our associates. So many have asked how they can help the families of the victims of this horrible tragedy. I would like to personally thank each and every person who has telephoned us, emailed us, or visited our stores to relay their support. I thank you all deeply for your heartfelt words."

The Memorial Fund is being administered through Harris Bank, and is intended to provide financial assistance to the immediate families of the victims. The Lane Bryant Tinley Park Memorial Fund honors the women who lost theirlives in this tragic event:

-- Jennifer L. Bishop of South Bend, Indiana
-- Carrie A. Chiuso of Frankfort, Illinois
-- Rhoda McFarland, the store manager of the Tinley Park Lane Bryant store,
of Joliet, Illinois
-- Sarah T. Szafranski of Oak Forest, Illinois
-- Connie R. Woolfolk of Flossmoor, Illinois

Donations may be made by check or money order and will be accepted at all Harris Bank locations. Checks should be made payable to "Lane Bryant Tinley Park Memorial Fund", and mailed to:
The Lane Bryant Tinley Park Memorial Fund
Harris Bank
19500 S. Harlem Avenue
Frankfort, IL 60423
ATTN: Sandy Kozin

Thank you for stopping at my blog, and for reading this story.
CHOMP

NEDERLAND, CO: DERICK BONESTROO OPENS FIRE AT ELDORA SKI LODGE

Photo by Eldora Mountain Resort
Brian Mahon, General Manager of Eldora, was shot to death by a fellow employee Tuesday morning at the ski area.

Javier Manzano © The Rocky
Nederland Police shot and killed a man at the side of Peakview Road after he shot a worker at the Eldora Ski resort today. The vehicle (on the left) had multiple gunshot holes on the windshield, and police said that they opened fire after the suspect shot at a sheriff's deputy (vehicle on the right - which had three bullet holes (two on the hood and one on the windshield.

A Boulder County Bomb Squad robot maneuvers behind a suspect vehicle after the fatal shooting today at Eldora Mountain Resort near Nederland. (POOL LONGMONT TIMES-CALL RICHARD M. HACKETT)

Employee kills Eldora general manager, shot by deputy
By James B. Meadow, Rocky Mountain News, Kevin Vaughan, Rocky Mountain News
Published December 30, 2008

NEDERLAND — A black-clad worker at the Eldora ski area asked other employees about their religious beliefs before shooting the resort's general manager to death early this morning, then died a short time later several miles away in a gunbattle with a Boulder County sheriff's deputy.

Rob Linde, a spokesman for Eldora Mountain Resort, identified the dead man as Brian Mahon, the general manager at the ski area for the past five years and an employee there since 1991.

The Boulder County Coroner’s Office has identified the gunman as Derick A. Bonestroo, 24, of Nederland.

The gunman, a lift operator at the ski area this season, had been in town only a short time, several Eldora workers said.

Bonestroo entered the morning meeting of lift operators in a locker room near the ski area's base, then fired a shot through the ceiling, said Boulder County sheriff's Cmdr. Phil West. Mahon, working in an adjacent room, burst into the locker room to see what was going on and was shot in the chest and head. He died almost instantly.

(snip)

Sheriff's deputy John Seifert, on patrol in the area, sped toward the resort and met Bonestroo, who was driving in the other direction, near Nederland High School. The deputy turned around and pursued him on Colorado 119, known as the Peak to Peak Highway, south of town, where Bonestroo stopped in a long, sweeping curb.

West said that after stopping at the side of the road, Bonestroo leaned out the driver's side of the car and opened fire on Seifert's Tahoe. Seifert, a member of the department's SWAT team, bailed out of the car with his AR-15 rifle in hand, moved to the right rear corner of the vehicle, and opened fire on the gunman, killing him.

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/dec/30/officer-involved-shooting-near-eldora-ski-resort/

CHOMP SAYS: I have been up to Nederland and Eldora while I lived in Denver. The Colorado mountain towns have a unique, small town atmosphere. They are wonderful to visit...and to live there. This is a shocking story to me too!

I am including a link below to a memorial page from Eldora Mountain Resort to honor Brian Mahon...a kind and gentle family man, and a good friend to many.

http://www.eldora.com/

HARTSBURG, IL: MeLisa CLEARY - BODY FOUND BY TRAIN TRACK

Hartsburg, Illinois: Place where MeLisa Cleary's body found by train tracks.

MeLisa Cleary's body was found near railroad tracks more than 20 miles from her home.

By None
MeLisa Cleary was in the process of separating from her husband, Daniel, when she was last seen on June 6, 2008.

Body found near Hartsburg
By Staff and wire reports / The Courier
Tue Jun 10, 2008, 09:59 AM CDT

Hartsburg, Ill. -

Police reportedly have detained a Mackinaw man after a woman’s body, believed to be that of the man’s missing wife, was found near Hartsburg on Monday.

Authorities suspect the body is that of MeLisa Cleary, 30, of Mackinaw. She was reported missing Friday evening after family and friends could not reach her by phone. Nicole Simpson, a close friend, said her body was found in a rural area near Hartsburg on Monday morning, according to a report by GateHouse News Service in Peoria.

Logan County State’s Attorney Tim Huyett said Canadian National railroad workers found the body of a 30-year-old woman near Hartsburg, but he would not confirm her identity. Logan County Coroner Robert Thomas said the body would likely be identified today, and he said it showed obvious signs of trauma.

Authorities couldn’t locate MeLisa Cleary’s husband, Daniel Cleary, for questioning Monday, but news reports indicate he was taken into custody early this morning. MeLisa Cleary’s sister, Brandy Gerard of Washington, told WEEK TV in Peoria that neighbors saw Daniel Cleary and the couple’s three children leave their residence in a car with suitcases Monday afternoon. The three children are: Chloe Renee Cleary, 3; Jacob Thomas Cleary, 8; and Kaitlin Elizabeth Roten, 12, who sometimes goes by the last name of Cleary.

The Illinois State Police issued an Amber Alert stating that Daniel Cleary, 34, abducted his three children at 5 p.m. Monday and was possibly en route to the Peoria area.

http://www.lincolncourier.com/archive/x142954319/Body-found-near-Hartsburg

This case is open and active! If anybody has any information involving the disappearance and death of MeLisa by all means call.

The Tazewell County Sheriff's Office can be reached at 309-346-4141. The Logan County Sheriff's Office can be reached at 217-732-2156. Crimestoppers at 673-9000.

COVINA: BRUCE PARDO, KILLER SANTA PLANNED ESCAPE TO CANADA

Covina is a city in Los Angeles County, California, about 22 miles (35 km) east of downtown Los Angeles.

El Siglo de Torreon
Alicia and Joseph Ortega were born and married in Torreon, Mexico, according to El Siglo de Torreon, a local newspaper. This photo, published in that paper, shows the couple celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary. They are believed to be among the dead in the Christmas Eve attack at their home in Covina

(Ken Hively, Los Angeles Times)
L.A. County coroner's officials remove the body of Bruce Jeffrey Prado from a house in Sylmar.

Photograph shows the burned-out Dodge Caliber automobile in the Sylmar area of Los Angeles that Bruce Pardo drove to his brother's house before committing suicide. Before the suicide, Pardo used remnants of the Santa suit to booby-trap his rental car to explode. (AP Photo/Covina Police Department)

Photograph shows a charred Santa suit inside the Dodge Caliber automobile that Bruce Pardo drove to his brother's house before committing suicide. Pardo apparently intended to flee the U.S., but his plans were dashed after the inferno he created severely burned his arms and melted his red costume onto his body, police said Friday. (AP Photo/Covina Police Department)

Los Angeles County firefighters remove items from the burned home Friday, Dec. 26, 2008, in Covina, Calif., that was set on fire during a Christmas Eve murder rampage. Bruce Pardo, dressed as Santa, shot indiscriminately at partygoers and destroyed his former in-laws' house with a homemade blowtorch, ultimately leaving nine people dead before killing himself. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)

Undated photograph provided by the Covina, Calif. Police Department shows a device that suspect Bruce Pardo brought with him to the Knollcrest house. Pardo destroyed his former in-laws' home with a homemade device that sprayed flammable liquid. (AP Photo/Covina Police Department)

'Santa' Gunman's Marriage Dissolved When Wife Discovered He Abandoned Brain-Damaged Son
Saturday, December 27, 2008
FOXNEWS.COM

COVINA, California — A man plotting revenge against his ex-wife dressed up like Santa, went to his former in-laws' Christmas Eve party, shot at partygoers and destroyed his former in-laws' house with a homemade device that sprayed flammable liquid, slaughtering at least nine people before killing himself hours later.

Bruce Pardo, 45, saw his marriage fall apart this year when his wife discovered he had abandoned a brain-damaged son years earlier but continued to claim the boy as a tax write-off, the L.A. Times reported.

(snip)

Sylvia Pardo got the dog. Bruce Pardo got angry.

Police believe he intended to flee to Canada after the Christmas Eve massacre, but his Santa suit melted on his body, leaving him with third-degree burns on both arms. Pardo later shot himself at his brother's home, where authorities found $17,000 on him and a plane ticket for a flight from Los Angeles to Canada.

Police say Pardo used a homemade device to spray racing fuel around the home and that the vapor was ignited by a pilot light or candle. They found what they described as a virtual bomb-making factory at Pardo's Montrose home, and that a rented car he had been driving was full of explosives and ammo. Police, suspecting the car could be booby-trapped, fired an incendiary device into it, and the whole thing exploded and burned, MyFoxNY reported.

READ MORE...
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,473024,00.html