JOHN CORNYN: WHAT I HEARD AT THE PETRAEUS-CROCKER HEARINGS

April 09, 2008, 0:40 p.m.

What I Heard at the Petraeus-Crocker Hearings
Seeing the mission through.

By John Cornyn

America's top military commander and chief diplomat in Iraq reported Tuesday that we are making significant progress there. They added that we cannot afford to squander our gains by losing our resolve. But was anybody really listening?

Just this morning, Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid said the following on the Senate floor: "Is the war in Iraq making America safer? By all accounts, the answer…is `no.'

"Senator Reid's statement stands in direct contradiction to Amb. Crocker's testimony on Tuesday. "Al-Qaeda is our mortal and strategic enemy. So to the extent that al-Qaeda's capacities have been lessened in Iraq and they have been significantly lessened, I do believe that makes America safer."

Gen. David Petraeus and Amb. Ryan Crocker said the advances in security are fragile, and we must be patient in securing them.

(snip)

We all want to bring our troops home — there is no disagreement over that goal. The question is whether they will return after defeating the threat, or whether they'll return to an America that is less safe and more vulnerable to another terrorist attack.

If we give up too soon, according to Petraeus and Crocker, Iraq would become a breeding ground for terrorists, much like Afghanistan before 9/11. Last month, Osama bin Laden declared Iraq would be a "perfect" base for al-Qaeda. But thanks to our volunteer military, we now have al Qaeda on the run, as Gen. Petraeus declared: "We have our teeth into the jugular, and we need to keep it there."

— Senator John Cornyn (R., Tex.), is a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. He traveled to Iraq and Afghanistan earlier this year.

READ MORE OF THE TRUTH ABOUT IRAQ, ABOUT OUR TROOPS, ABOUT OUR COMMITMENT TO FREEDOM...

National Review Online - http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MjQ2MTBiMDQzNGViYWM2MzU4OWU0ODBlMmQwODZjZWI

POLYGAMIST CULT, HUNDREDS OF KIDS: A PEDOPHILE'S DREAM

AP/ Leroy Johnson Steed, 41, on charges of felony tampering with evidence in connection with the investigation at the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

AP/ Levi Barlow Jeffs, 19, who was arrested for interfering with the duties of a public servant during the investigation of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Court Documents Show Polygamist Sect Married Girls at Puberty
Tuesday, April 08, 2008
ASSOCIATED PRESS

ELDORADO, Texas — A polygamist compound with hundreds of children was rife with sexual abuse, child welfare officials allege in court documents, with girls spiritually married to much older men as soon as they reached puberty and boys groomed to perpetuate the cycle.

The documents released Tuesday also gave details about the hushed phone calls that triggered the raid, by a 16-year-old girl at the West Texas ranch who said her 50-year-old husband beat and raped her. Days after raiding the compound, officials still aren't sure where the girl is.

(snip)

• Click here for photos.

• Click here for Maggie Lineback's On the Scene blog.

Court documents said a number of teen girls at the 1,700-acre compound were pregnant, and that all the children were removed on the grounds that they were in danger of "emotional, physical, and-or sexual abuse." Another 139 women left on their own.

"Investigators determined that there is a widespread pattern and practice of the (Yearn for Zion) Ranch in which young, minor female residents are conditioned to expect and accept sexual activity with adult men at the ranch upon being spiritually married to them," read the affidavit signed by Lynn McFadden, a Department of Family and Protective Services investigative supervisor.

McFadden said the girls were spiritually married to the men as soon as they reached puberty and were required to produce children.

UNBELIEVABLE STORY...WHERE ARE THE MOTHER'S OF THESE CHILDREN? http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,348148,00.html

RELEASE INGRID BETANCOURT: FARCS SAY NO, FRANCE LEAVES

MS. BETANCOURT BEFORE CAPTURE BY COLUMBIAN FARCS

INGRID BETANCOURT, SICK AND DEPRESSED:
FARCS REFUSE HER MEDICAL CARE

6 April 2008 - The mission to save the French-Colombian hostage held by the FARC comes with a three point plan: the release of Ingrid Betancourt, an offer by France to accept a handful of rebel leaders held by Bogota and French support for FARC’s removal from Europe’s list of terrorist organisations.

France Ends Mission to Rescue Betancourt
By ANDREW O. SELSKY – 1 hour ago

ASSOCIATED pRESS/ 8 APRIL 2008

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — France called off a humanitarian mission Tuesday to treat and possibly free ailing hostage Ingrid Betancourt after Colombian rebels said they wouldn't unilaterally release any more captives.

France's Foreign Ministry said late Tuesday that there was no longer any reason to keep the mission by France, Spain and Switzerland in Colombia. A French government plane has been waiting on a Bogota airstrip for days with doctors hoping to reach Betancourt, who was said to be depressed and suffering from hepatitis C.

In a four-paragraph statement released Tuesday, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia repeated what they have insisted on since 2005: that the government demilitarize two counties as the first step toward a broad hostage-prisoner swap. Only as part of such an exchange, they said, would Betancourt go free.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy's office said he is "deeply disappointed" he was unable to save Betancourt, who holds French and Colombian nationality.

IS THIS THE END FOR MS. BETANCOURT? WHO CAN SAVE HER?

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jMdY0la2D68NjF07S0FOyxbXAl7gD8VU0VT05

ELDORADO: 400 KIDS TAKEN INTO CUSTODY FROM ISOLATED SECT

AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez

400+ kids taken from polygamist compound
Apr 7, 10:28 PM EDT
By MICHELLE ROBERTS / Associated Press Writer

ELDORADO, Texas (AP) -- More than 400 children, mostly girls in pioneer dresses, were swept into state custody from a polygamist sect in what authorities described Monday as the largest child-welfare operation in Texas history.

The dayslong raid on the sprawling compound built by now-jailed polygamist leader Warren Jeffs was sparked by a 16-year-old girl's call to authorities that she was being abused and that girls as young as 14 and 15 were being forced into marriages with much older men.

Dressed in home-sewn, ankle-length dresses with their hair pinned up in braids, some 133 women left the Yearning for Zion Ranch of their own volition along with the children.

State troopers were holding an unknown number of men in the compound until investigators finished executing a house-to-house search of the 1,700-acre property, which includes a medical facility, a cheese-making plant, a cement plant, a school, numerous large housing units and an 80-foot white limestone temple that rises discordantly out of the brown scrub.

(snip)

"Once you go into the compound, you don't ever leave it," said Carolyn Jessop, one of the wives of the alleged leader of the Eldorado complex. Jessop left with her eight children before part of the sect moved to Texas.

Jessop said the community emphasized self-sufficiency because they believed the apocalypse was near.

The women were not allowed to wear red - the color Jeffs said belonged to Jesus - and were not allowed to cut their hair. They were also kept isolated from the outside world.

They "were born into this," said Jessop, 40. "They have no concept of mainstream society, and their mothers were born into and have no concept of mainstream culture. Their grandmothers were born into it."

READ MORE OF MICHELLE ROBERTS ARTICLE...

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/P/POLYGAMIST_RETREAT?SITE=CODER&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

ELDORADO, YFZ RANCH: 200 REMOVED, SEARCH FOR DALE BARLOW

Authorities are looking for evidence that this man, Dale Evans Barlow, married and impregnated a 16-year-old girl.

Nearly 200 taken from sect's West Texas ranch
By BILL HANNA
Star-Telegram staff writer

ELDORADO -- After several anxious hours late Saturday, tensions appeared to be easing at the YFZ Ranch in West Texas as state troopers streamed past checkpoints and escorted another busload of girls from the secretive polygamist sect's compound.

(snip)

Earlier Saturday, officials said they had removed 137 children and 46 women from the ranch. Investigators said they planned to keep searching until every child was accounted for at the YFZ (Yearn For Zion) Ranch.

The second full day of searching at the property had investigators going building to building in the hunt for more children. State officials have blocked access to the ranch since Thursday in response to a report of physical abuse of a 16-year-old girl, law enforcement officials said Friday.

(snip)

Timeline of the sect

1890 - After the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints rejects polygamy, some followers defy the church's edict and continue to practice plural marriage.

1914 - Settlement begins in Short Creek, an Arizona town that becomes a haven for polygamists.

1953 - Arizona officials raid Short Creek in an attempt to prosecute polygamy, but the move is heavily criticized.

1961 - Short Creek is renamed Colorado City and grows across the border to include what is now Hildale, Utah.

1986 - Rulon Jeffs becomes the prophet of the fundamentalist sect.

2000 - Jeffs' son, Warren, orders members to separate themselves from nonbelievers and compels children to stop attending public school.

2002 - Warren Jeffs succeeds his deceased father as church leader.

2003 - David Allred, a member of the sect, purchases 1,691 acres in Schleicher County near Eldorado.

2005 - A Utah judge appoints Salt Lake City accountant Bruce Wisan as the special fiduciary of the United Effort Plan Trust, which controls the church's holdings in the Colorado City and Hildale area.

2006 - In June, Warren Jeffs is placed on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted Fugitives list. He is arrested in August during a routine traffic stop outside Las Vegas.

2007 - Jeffs is sentenced to two life sentences for the arranged marriage of a 14-year-old girl to her 19-year-old cousin.

2008 - Authorities enter the compound outside Eldorado.

Source: Star-Telegram archives
bhanna@star-telegram.com
Bill Hanna, 817-390-7698

READ MORE...
http://www.star-telegram.com/275/story/565539.html

HSER NAY MOO'S FAMILY CAME TO AMERICA FOR A BETTER LIFE

From Myanmar to U.S., trials follow girl's family
By Julia Lyon The Salt Lake Tribune
Article Last Updated: 04/02/2008 01:27:29 AM MDT

The family of slain 7-year-old Hser Nay Moo fled an authoritarian regime in Burma and spent 20 years as refugees in a camp in Thailand before arriving in Utah last summer.

More than 2 million Burmese, primarily ethnic minorities, have left since military leaders seized the impoverished country, now called Myanmar, in the 1980s, according to Human Rights Watch.

The Wah family are members of the Karen minority ethnic group. Karen villages were destroyed as part of the State Peace and Development Council's plan of "forcibly relocating" minorities, especially in areas with active insurgents or targeted for development, the international rights organization charges.

Utah has welcomed about 400 Burmese refugees, which include members of the Karen and Chin ethnic groups, since last year. Most have been in camps more than 10 years, according to Aden Batar with Catholic Community Services, one of Utah's resettlement agencies.

Camp conditions typically include limited schooling for children, no running water and primitive living conditions.

READ ABOUT THE LIVING CONDITIONS IN MYANMAR (BURMA)...
COULD YOU SURVIVE IN THESE PRIMITIVE CONDITIONS?
http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_8779273

HSER NAY MOO: PLEASE, HELP THE GRIEVING FAMILY

A donation fund has been set up for the family of Hser Nay Moo at Zions Bank. Donations can be made to a fund in her parent's names, Cartoon and Pearlie Wah.
You can donate at any Zions Bank location

Zion’s Bank
701 East 400 South
Salt Lake City, UT 84102

ref. Hser Nay Moo - donation

Read my Fellow Blogger's connection to Hser Nay Moo's Family, and his loving recollections.
http://bobaagard.blogspot.com/2008/04/my-personal-connection-to-hser-nay-moo.html

HSER NAY MOO: WHY DO MEN KILL CHILDREN? WHY!

AP/ A makeshift memorial made up of teddy bears, candles, flowers and notes lies outside the apartment complex of Hser Nay Moo.

Man Who Confessed to Causing Death of Missing 7-Year-Old Utah Girl Knew Her Family
Thursday, April 03, 2008 / Fox News

SOUTH SALT LAKE, Utah — The man who admitted to keeping a missing 7-year-old girl against her will in his apartment and later killing her knew the girl's family, police said.

Esar Met, 21, was booked on charges of aggravated murder, kidnapping and evidence tampering after confessing to the crime.

Police on Tuesday night found the body of Hser Nay Moo, who disappeared Monday from the apartment complex after an argument with her 10-year-old brother. Hser's body was found in the bathroom of Met's basement apartment, which is in the same complex where her family lives, MyFOXUtah reported.

Hser was killed within an hour of when she left her home, South Salt Lake Police Chief Chris Snyder said at a press conference Wednesday.

Hser went to Met's apartment, where she often played, according to police.

"We do not know how she got in, whether or not she was invited in or whether or not she asked to go in," Snyder said.

Met hid the body and left the apartment after a physical altercation with Hser that led to her death, Snyder said. Snyder would not release Hser's cause of death or if she was sexually assaulted.

READ AND CRY FOR THIS CHILD, AND PRAY FOR HER FAMILY...

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,345708,00.html

UTAH: HSER NAY MOO, BODY FOUND

The South Salt Lake Police are looking for Hser Nay Moo (pronounced Sin-Na-Moo), a 7-year-old Asian girl. She is 3 feet 8 inches tall, 45 pounds, with long black hair, and is missing her two front teeth. She was last seen wearing a pink coat, blue jeans and black and pink sneakers. Hser Nay Moo was last seen Monday at 2 P.M. in the area of 2250 South 500 East.

Body of Missing 7-Year-Old Utah Girl Reportedly Found
Wednesday, April 02, 2008 / Associated Press

KSTU-TV in Utah is getting witness reports that the body of missing 7-year-old Hser Ner Moo was found Tuesday night. The television station is also hearing reports that three people may have been arrested in connection with the death.

A news conference on the case is expected Tuesday night.

Click here for more on this story from MyFOXUtah.com.

An army of volunteers joined police in the search for the girl who disappeared Monday after an argument with an older brother.

Police issued an Amber Alert for Hser Ner Moo on Tuesday.

SAD OUTCOME TO THIS AMBER ALERT... 5 ARRESTED!
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,344469,00.html

DITH PRAN DIES: SURVIVOR OF CAMBODIAN "KILLING FIELDS"

DITH PRAN

AN EXTRAORDINARY MAN

Dith Pran, Cambodian 'Killing Fields' survivor, dies of cancer at 65 BY ERIN EINHORN DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Updated Sunday, March 30th 2008, 10:21 PM

The daring New York Times photojournalist whose story became the basis of "The Killing Fields" - and the inspiration behind his "one-person crusade" to tell the world about the Cambodian genocide - died Sunday.

Dith Pran, 65, who suffered from pancreatic cancer, was best known for his work with Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Sydney Schanberg covering the murderous 1975- 1979 Khmer Rouge reign that killed as many as 2 million Cambodians.

Among the dead were 50 of Pran's own relatives - his father, his sister, three brothers and their families.

In a letter to Times staffers Sunday after Pran's death in a Jersey hospital, Executive Editor Bill Keller called Pran a hero.

"Pran reminds us of a special category of journalistic heroism - the local partner, the stringer, the interpreter . . . who knows the ropes, who makes your work possible, who often becomes your friend, who may save your life, who shares little of the glory, and who risks so much more than you do," Keller wrote.

Schanberg has credited Pran with saving his life and the lives of other journalists for insisting that he come along when the group was taken captive.

When Schanberg received the 1976 Pulitzer Prize, he accepted on behalf of Pran, who was in prison in Cambodia, where he endured four years of torture until fleeing to Thailand in 1979.

His reunion there with Schanberg was recreated in the 1984 Academy Award-winning movie "The Killing Fields."

"There was no way I could have done the work I did without him," Schanberg told Reuters. "We became more than friends. We became brothers."

Pran followed Schanberg back to New York and was hired by The Times, where colleagues Sunday celebrated his kindness and joy for life.

READ MORE OF DITH PRAN'S EXTRAORDINARY LIFE...

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2008/03/30/2008-03-30_dith_pran_cambodian_killing_fields_survi.html

VIRGINIA SNIPERS: SLADE WOODSON,19, SECOND TEEN,16, ARRESTED

AP / March 27: Virginia State Police investigate the scene of a shooting on Greenwood Station Road, near Crozet.

Slade Allen Woodson/ Virginia State Police Photo
Virginia Police Arrest Teens Linked to Random Shootings, Including Interstate
FoxNews/ Saturday, March 29, 2008

Two Virginia teenagers have been charged with several felonies in connection with a shooting spree along Interstate 64.

Authorities believe a pair of troublemaking teens were behind a series of random shootings in an area where memories of the Washington-area sniper shootings six years ago are still fresh.

One of the suspects, Slade Allen Woodson, 19, of Afton, Va., was taken into custody Friday morning. The other has been identified only as a 16-year-old boy from Crozet, Va.

They each face 10 felony counts that include malicious wounding and maliciously shooting at an occupied vehicle.

"We've taken some mighty big steps toward the resolution of this," Flaherty said at a news conference Friday. "Everyone can, I think, rest compared to the state that we were in overnight."

Investigators said they now believe the shootings that slightly injured two drivers were part of a long night of random gunfire in which the pair also shot at a credit union and a residence.

Woodson was charged in the shootings at the home and the credit union, as well as shootings along the Interstate 64 highway. He and the other teen were charged with two felony counts of malicious wounding, one count of attempted malicious wounding, two counts of the use of a firearm in a felony and five counts of maliciously shooting at an occupied vehicle.

State and county police searched Yonder Hill Farm near Crozet in Albemarle County just before 5 a.m. Friday. Another person confronted them with a handgun and was shot by a county law enforcement officer, police said. Woodson was taken into custody, and the man was taken to a hospital. It wasn't immediately clear whether the other person was the 16-year-old.

WHY DID THESE TWO TEENS TRY TO KILL?
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,342748,00.html

UPDATE...

ATF: Tests link casings to Va. suspect

USA Today/ Saturday, March 29, 2008

RICHMOND, Va.(AP) — Shell casings recovered near a series of six highway shootings in Virginia match casings found inside a suspect's vehicle, state police said Saturday.

The random shootings along Interstate 64 and potshots taken at a credit union and a home early Thursday led investigators to shut down a 20-mile stretch of the highway between Waynesboro and Charlottesville, reopening it around dawn. Two people were slightly injured.

The shootings stirred memories of the Washington-area sniper shootings six years ago that killed 10 people.

The ballistic analysis by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives linked shell casings from a Ruger .22-caliber magnum rifle to casings found near the interstate and in a 1974 AMC Gremlin owned by Slade Allen Woodson, 19, of Afton. The weapon was seized at a farm in Crozet where Woodson was arrested Friday. Authorities also charged a 16-year-old from Crozet whose name was not released.

READ...

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-03-29-va-shootings_N.htm

STEVEN SUEPPEL: KILLS FAMILY OF FIVE, COMMITS SUICIDE

Steven and Sheryl Sueppel with their children.

Police identified the children as Ethan, 10; Seth, 8; Mira, 5; and Eleanor, 3.
Suicidal Iowa Man's 911 Call,
Other DetailsOffer Possible Answers to Brutal Family Killings
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Associated Press

IOWA CITY, Iowa — An embattled former bank executive committed suicide by crashing his van after killing his wife and making failed attempts to asphyxiate their four children in a garage, then slaying them individually, authorities said Tuesday.

Steven Sueppel, who had been charged with embezzlement, was missing after his family's bodies were discovered Monday morning. His van was found wrecked and ablaze on Interstate 80 about nine miles away, and police said they used dental records to identify the burned body inside as Sueppel's.

(snip)

Sueppel left a long note in the family's kitchen addressed to no one in particular. He also left voice mail messages at the family's home, at the bank where he once worked and at the law office of his father and brother.

One of the messages indicated Sueppel believed his family was in heaven, Steffen said.

"He did indicate in his note that ever since his problems came to light that he was having trouble dealing with this issue, but again no specific incident or cause was identified as to why it happened now," Steffen said. "He apologized ... numerous times."

Police identified the children as Ethan, 10; Seth, 8; Mira, 5; and Eleanor, 3.

(snip)

Court records show that Steven Sueppel, 42, was indicted last month on charges of stealing about $560,000 from Hills Bank and Trust in Johnson County, where he was vice president and controller.

He pleaded not guilty to embezzlement and money laundering in U.S. District Court and was released on a $250,000 personal bond. The government was also seeking the forfeiture of the money he was accused of stealing.

CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS STORY!
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,341530,00.html

ALASKA RANGER: SEATTLE FISHING BOAT SINKS OFF DUTCH HARBOR

A crew member of the Alaska Ranger is taken on board the Coast Guard Cutter Munro. The Alaska Ranger began taking on water 120 miles west of Dutch Harbor. (March 23, 2008)
Credit: U.S. Coast Guard

The Alaska Ranger is seen at a port in Dutch Harbor, Jan. 2006. The Coast Guard said four crew members died Sunday, March 23, 2008, and another was missing after the 184-foot Alaska Ranger began sinking in high seas off Alaska's Aleutian Islands. (AP Photo/Jim Paulin)

The Ranger's sister ship, the Warrior (Courtesy photo)
Four dead, one missing after boat sinks off Alaskan coast
Sunday, March 23, 2008 10:47 PM
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — A fishing boat sank off Alaska's Aleutian Islands today, leaving four crew members including the captain dead and another missing, the Coast Guard said.

Forty-two of the 47 crew members on board the Seattle-based Alaska Ranger were rescued, but the search continued for the missing person, said Chief Petty Officer Barry Lane.

The 184-foot vessel started taking on water shortly before 3 a.m. after losing control of its rudder 120 miles west of Dutch Harbor, which is on Unalaska Island.

In a statement, the ship's owner, the Fishing Company of Alaska, said it did "not have sufficient information to determine why the vessel foundered."

Seas with up to 8-foot waves and 25-knot winds were reported at the time the ship sank, Lane said. The Coast Guard was investigating the cause of the sinking, he said.

The company identified those killed as ship's captain Eric Peter Jacobsen, chief engineer Daniel Cook, mate David Silveira and crewman Byron Carrillo.

"They were incredibly brave, hard-working men. Our hearts are broken," the company said. The men's ages and hometowns were not released.

(snip)

The Coast Guard also told harbor officials to have an ambulance ready, but didn't specify the degree or nature of any injuries, Harvey said.

"I figure there's quite a bit of hypothermia going on," he said.

The Alaska Ranger is owned by Seattle-based Fishing Company of Alaska.

VERY SAD STORY FROM ALASKA...

http://www.columbusdispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2008/03/23/alaska.html

CHOMP: I feel such pain over this tragedy. I work with people who work with Anchorage and Dutch Harbor. I watch the Crab Boat shows on tv, and see how dangerous a job they have. Some of these boats come into Seattle after crabbing season. This vessel was based in Seattle, and the heroic Captain and his family live just north of Seattle.

TINLEY PARK LANE BRYANT: AMW SHOWS ENHANCED PHOTO/VIDEO

AMERICA'S MOST WANTED TIPLINE

1-800-CRIME TV

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.

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.This could be the best clue to the killer's identification.

An eyewitness told cops that she saw the killer had a braid over his right ear.

The end of the braid had four light-green beads on the end.

A police sketch artist incorporated those clues into this rendering.

• 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.

READ THE CRIME DETAILS, VIEW THE VIDEOS, CATCH THE KILLER...

http://www.amw.com/fugitives/video_photos.cfm?id=52877

CHOMP has a word on this. Someone knows this guy!

He has a mother, a father, a sister, a baby's momma, a pastor, a school pal, a jail "pal." He lives somewhere, so he has a neighbor. If his tooth hurts, where is his dentist? Where does he buy his clothes, his shoes? Who fixes his car or van?

He braids his hair? Who does his hair? Who saw this guy walking around with one braid over his right ear...the braid with the four green beads!

Please, come forward. He is big-time dangerous! After someone has killed, he has nothing to lose; he may kill you just because you know him.

CHARLES MANSON: BARKER RANCH SEARCH FOR MORE BODIES

March 15: The abandoned Barker Ranch house in the Panamint Mountains west of Death Valley National Park, Calif. Charles Manson and his followers retreated to the Barker Ranch after a killing spree during the summer of 1969.

Charles Manson in 1949 at the age of 14.This photo was in an Indianapolis newspaperalong with the headline "Boy leaves'sinful home' for new life in Boys Town."He escaped three days later.

AP/ Charles Manson, seen here in a 1986 court hearing.

Experts Find Possible Evidence of More Manson Family Murders
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Associated Press

DEATH VALLEY NATIONAL PARK, Calif. — Bone-white stretches of salt, leached up from the lifeless soil, lay like a shroud over the high desert where a paranoid Charles Manson holed up after an orgy of murder nearly four decades ago.

Now, as then, few venture into this alkaline wilderness — gold-diggers, outlaws, loners content to live and let live.

But a determined group of outsiders recently made the trek. They were leading forensic investigators searching for new evidence of death — clues pointing to possible decades-old clandestine graves.

• Click Here for Photos

And the results of just-completed followup tests suggest bodies could indeed be lying beneath the parched ground. The test findings — described in detail to The Associated Press, which had accompanied the site search — conclude there are two likely clandestine grave sites at Barker Ranch, and one additional site that merits further investigation.

Next step, the ad hoc investigators urge: Dig.

For years, rumors have swirled about other possible Manson family victims — hitchhikers who visited them at the ranch and were not seen again, runaways who drifted into the camp then fell out of favor.

(snip)

Last month, equipped with cutting-edge forensic technology, the investigators assembled in the ghost town of Ballarat for a 20-mile ride in all-terrain vehicles to the ranch.

The team included two national lab researchers carrying instruments to detect chemical markers of human decomposition, a police investigator with a cadaver-seeking dog, and an anthropologist armed with a magnetic resonance reader.

WHAT A "CRIME FIND"...

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,338208,00.html

EVE CARSON: LAURENCE LOVETTE, SECOND KILLER ONLY 17

AP Photo/Sara D. Davis
Lawrence Alvin Lovett Jr., a suspect in the slaying of Eve Carson, is escorted by Durham police officers out of the police department, March 13.

Laurence Alvin Lovette Jr., 17, is escorted by Durham police officers out of the Durham Police Department in Durham, N.C., Thursday, March 13, 2008. Lovette, the second suspect charged with murdering University of North Carolina student body president Eve Carson surrendered peacefully to police early Thursday, authorities said. Lovette and Demario James Atwater, 21, of Durham, are both charged with first-degree murder in Carson's death. (AP Photo/Sara D. Davis)

Suspects in UNC Death Had Criminal Past
By MIKE BAKER – 1 hour ago / Associated Press

DURHAM, N.C. (AP) — A teenager's arrest Thursday ended a violent crime spree, authorities said, that included the slaying of a graduate student at Duke University and the University of North Carolina's student body president.

Police tracked Laurence Alvin Lovette Jr. to a Durham home, where he surrendered before dawn. He is charged with first-degree murder in the college students' deaths.

Court records show that Lovette, while on probation, had been arrested several times and charged with felonies ranging from burglary to car theft during the months between the two slayings. He was released on bond in those cases and court hearings were pending.

A manhunt started after Eve Carson, 22, a popular student leader at UNC, was found shot death last week on a street about a mile from the campus in nearby Chapel Hill.

Tips generated by several ATM and convenience store surveillance photos led to charges against Lovette, who police said appeared to be driving Carson's Toyota Highlander, and a second suspect in the back seat.

Police have not said whether they think Lovette or the second man charged in her death, 21-year-old Demario James Atwater, pulled the trigger.

Durham Police Chief Jose Lopez said while investigators worked on Carson's death, Lovette became a suspect in the death of Abhijit Mahato, 29, who was found shot to death in January inside his apartment a few block south of Duke's campus. His wallet, cell phone and iPod had been taken.

Mahato, originally of Tatangar, India, was a doctoral student at Duke in computational mechanics.

READ THIS TEEN'S LIFE OF CRIME

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iU3IVnyNBpy8ooTN4OutE2rKG1pgD8VCT16G0

EVE CARSON: SUSPECTS - 1 CAUGHT, 1 SOUGHT

EVE CARSON

Police are also seeking Lawrence Alvin Lovett Jr. in the case

Demario James Atwater, 21, appears at his bail arraignment in Hillsborough, North Carolina, Wednesday.

Police take Demario James Atwater into custody in case of UNC student's murder. (FNC)

Suspect charged in UNC student's death; second sought

(CNN) -- One suspect has been charged and police are hunting for another in connection with the killing of University of North Carolina student Eve Carson, police said Wednesday.

Demario James Atwater, 21, was arrested early Wednesday at a residence in Durham, North Carolina.

Authorities were watching the home after receiving a tip that Atwater was inside.
He was charged with first-degree murder in Carson's death.

Atwater is believed to be the man in a convenience-store photograph released by police.
A second suspect, Lawrence Alvin Lovett Jr., 17, is being sought in Carson's death, police said.
He also faces a first-degree murder charge.

Lovett could be armed and dangerous, police told CNN affiliate WRAL.

Police believe Lovett was the man seen in a surveillance-camera photo possibly using Carson's card at an ATM, Chapel Hill Police Chief Brian Curran said.

The pictures showed a young man wearing a hooded sweatshirt and baseball cap. There also appeared to be a large, shadowy form of another person in the back seat of the vehicle, which may have been Carson's SUV.

Police believe Atwater was in the back seat, Curran said.

STAY TUNED FOR THE SECOND CAPTURE!
http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/03/12/unc.arrest/index.html

EVE CARSON: COLOR PHOTO OF SUSPECT REVEALED

EVE MARIE CARSON

UNC/ As part of her platform for student body president, the Athens native campaigned to locate a local frozen yogurt place in the student union.

Eve, a native of Athens, Ga., was a Morehead-Cain scholar, a member of the Phi Beta Kappa honor society and was a pre-med major studying both political science and biology.

PERSON OF INTEREST

AP/Chapel Hill Police Department/ March 10:

This undated image made from a surveillance camera shows a man police call a "person of interest" in the murder of Eve Carson.

AP/Chapel Hill Police Department/ March 10:

This undated image made from a surveillance camera shows a man police call a "person of interest" in the murder of Eve Carson.

"Person of interest"

Digitally enhanced color photo released by police.

Have you seen this cap?

Do you know the man in the photo who is wearing this cap?

Copyright 2008 WRAL.com

Police have also issued a bulletin for Carson's blue 2005 Toyota Highlander with Georgia license plate AIV-6690.

Anyone with information about the case is asked to call the Chapel Hill Police Department at 919-968-2760 or Crime Stoppers at 919-942-7515.

America's Most Wanted Tipline1-800 CRIME TV
UNC offers a $25,000 reward in the Eve Carson murder case.

MEMPHIS: JESSIE DOTSON KILLS BROTHER, CECIL DOTSON, AND FAMILY

Jessie Dotson, ex-convict, kills brother Cecil Dotson, including 2 of Cecil's children

Cecil Dotson

Brother Charged in Deaths of 6 in Memphis Shooting
Sunday, March 09, 2008

Associated Press

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A convicted killer recently released from prison was charged Saturday with fatally shooting his brother during an argument and then killing five witnesses, including two of his brother's children, police said.

Three remaining children were critically wounded in the attack last Sunday, but one of them was able to tell investigators about their assailant, an arrest warrant affidavit said.

Jessie L. Dotson, 33, was arrested on Friday — five days after the six bodies were discovered in a small rental house in a rough neighborhood called Binghampton. The affidavit said Dotson admitted to the killings.

"He tried to kill everyone in the house. He thought everyone in the house was dead," police Lt. Joe Scott said.

Dotson was charged with six counts of first-degree murder and three counts of attempted first-degree murder, police said. Among those killed was Dotson's brother, Cecil, 30, who was the father of all the children, ages 9 to 2 months.

Also killed were Hollis Seals, 33, Shindri Roberson, 25, and Marissa Rene Williams, 26, the mother of four of Cecil Dotson's children. Police identified the dead children as Cemario Dotson, 4, and Cecil Dotson, 2.

The surviving children remain under police custody at a children's hospital, but police declined to reveal their identities or their conditions.

One of the children "implicated Jessie Dotson as the person responsible," an arrest warrant affidavit said.

WHY DID THIS TRAGEDY HAPPEN?

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,336233,00.html

LAUREN BURK: COURTNEY LOCKHART'S MOM APOLOGIZES

AP
Police have charged Courtney Lockhart, 23, with the murder of Auburn University freshman Lauren Burk.

Courtney Larrell Lockhart, 22, arrested and charged in murder of Lauren Burk, 18

MyFOXAtlanta.com
March 4: Auburn firefighters put out fire in Lauren A. Burk's car.

Lauren Burk

Mom of Auburn Slaying Suspect Apologizes to College Student's Family
Sunday, March 09, 2008

FOX NEWS

The mother of the man charged with killing an Auburn University student said her son was an Iraq war veteran who was changed after his service, and offered an apology to the freshman's family.

Catherine Williams, the mother of suspect Courtney Lockhart, made the apology to Lauren Burk's family in an interview with Columbus, Ga., television station WTVM.

"I am sorry that Courtney did that. ... First let me say I'm sorry to the Burk family for Courtney taking, taking their child. ... My heart goes out to her family," Williams said in the tearful interview.

But she also said her son did not confess anything to her.

The 23-year-old Lockhart has been charged with capital murder in the death of an 18-year-old Auburn University student and could face the death penalty if convicted.

Lockhart also faces charges of kidnapping, robbery and attempted rape, Auburn Assistant Police Chief Thomas Dawson said at a news conference. He affirmed that authorities have strong evidence to prove that Lockhart killed Lauren Burk, a freshman at Auburn University.

Dawson declined to identify the evidence or potential motives for the crimes, and he wouldn't say conclusively whether Burk had been targeted or was the victim of a random crime.

THIS STORY IS NOT OVER...

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,336273,00.html

Courtney Lockhart has hurt more people than he will ever realize!

CHOMP