DREW PETERSON: COURT TAKES SUSPECTED WIFE-KILLER'S GUNS

Stacy and Drew with children Lacy, Kris, Tom and Anthony in a Christmas portrait.

Bolingbrook police Sgt. Drew Peterson holds Thomas Peterson, his oldest child with ex-wife Kathleen Savio.

(Courtesy of the Peterson family)

Drew Peterson Charged With Felony Weapons Offense After Surrendering to Police
FOX NEWS/ Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Prosecutors have charged the prime suspect in Stacy Peterson's disappearance with a felony weapons offense.

Drew Peterson, 54, turned himself in to Illinois State Police Wednesday, after a judge issued a warrant for his arrest.

The former Bolingbrook, Ill., police sergeant was processed and then released later in the afternoon after one of his son's posted bail.

Peterson walked into the police station shortly before 1 p.m. CDT, accompanied by his attorney, Joel Brodsky. He was taken shortly afterward to the Will County jail.

The weapons charge, a class three felony, stems from the fact that one of the 11 guns authorities seized Nov. 1 in their investigation into Peterson's fourth wife Stacy's disappearance is shorter than allowed by Illinois law, according to Brodsky. Specifically, the rifle's barrel doesn't meet the 16-inch length requirement.

Brodsky said the weapon in question is an AR-15 semiautomatic assault rifle that Peterson used while he was a police sergeant.

Peterson claimed he legally owned the rifle as an officer, and the law only pertains to civilians.

If convicted of unlawful use of a weapon, Peterson faces up to five years in prison. A court date hasn't yet been scheduled.

His son posted $7,5000, or 10 percent of a $75,000 bond, to secure his release pending trial.

THIS STORY KEEPS ROLLING ALONG...
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,356926,00.html

TRENT BENSON: "IDEAL FATHER," DANGEROUS ARIZONA KILLER

The Lindsay Water and Ice store is closed one day after Mesa police arrested the owner, Trent Benson, in a series of killings and sexual assaults.
Tim Hacker, Tribune

'Ideal father' held in rape-murder string
By Katie McDevitt, Gary Grado and Nick R. Martin
EAST VALLEY TRIBUNE
Tucson, Arizona Published: 05.16.2008

MESA — Sometimes he bought a hot dog from her deli, and other times she bought ice from his store.

They were two business owners in the same Mesa strip mall — both single and both trying to make a living.

But on Thursday morning deli-owner Hgourtlande Just found out her "nice and friendly" neighbor, 36-year-old Trent Benson, was arrested in one of Mesa's biggest crimes in more than a decade.

A DNA match linked Benson to a string of rapes and slayings dating to November 2004, according to police.

(snip)

Outside Benson's six-week-old business — called Lindsay Water and Ice and located near Lindsay Road and University Drive — a woman sat on a table Thursday waiting for the store to reopen. A "Closed" sign was prominent in the front window.

Lucia Barry's eyes opened wide when she learned of his arrest.

"He looks so nice, so handsome ... very gentle," said Barry, a regular customer at the tidy store that sold ice cream, snow cones and candy as well as water and ice.

The manhunt for the accused serial predator intensified last December after police linked two homicides through DNA. It expanded about two weeks ago when more rape victims were identified.

Both homicide victims were strangled and raped, and one of the rape victims was beaten nearly to death and left in a Phoenix street.

A fourth victim, who survived, was kidnapped in daylight at a busy intersection.

BE GLAD THAT DNA WAS INVENTED...

http://www.azstarnet.com/metro/239258

FOR A PERSONAL INSIGHT INTO TRENT BENSON, READ THIS BLOG...

http://thefreelanceobserver.blogspot.com/2008/05/arizona-serial-strangler-rapist-ran-my.html

GRANADA HILLS, CA: FERNANDO DIAZ SHOOTS 3 AT CHURCH FESTIVAL

Emergency services respond to a shooting Saturday at St. John Baptist de la Salle Parish.

Gene Blevins / Associated Press

Los Angeles police officers examine the scene where a man shot three people at a church festival in the Granada Hills, May 17, 2008.

Rifleman opens fire before festival at Granada Hills church

By Andrew Blankstein and David Pierson, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

7:51 PM PDT, May 17, 2008

A rifleman angered by a custody dispute with his ex-girlfriend opened fire at a parish school festival in Granada Hills this morning, wounding the woman and two other fairgoers before being tackled by bystanders and arrested by an off-duty police officer, authorities said.

Witnesses described scenes of terror and panic as the rifleman nonchalantly brandished a 0.22-caliber rifle made to look like an M-16 assault rifle and fired into booths at the fair.

The shooting took place shortly before the 11 a.m. start of the festival on a baseball field at St. John Baptist de la Salle Parish at Chatsworth Street and Hayvenhurst Avenue, authorities said.

Los Angeles Police Department Capt. Steven Ruiz said Fernando Diaz Jr., 33, arrived at the scene and sought out his 9-year-old son, who attends the school, and his estranged live-in girlfriend, who were both near a booth in center field.

Diaz "walks up carrying a tennis bag on his shoulder, puts it down, embraces his child, and then removes the rifle from the bag and aims it" at his ex-girlfriend, Ruiz said. "He fires multiple rounds, hitting her and two others. People were screaming, running and ducking for cover.

"He is being held on $1.5-million bail at the LAPD Van Nuys station on suspicion of three counts of attempted murder.

The ex-girlfriend, 29, was shot in the arm and listed in stable condition. A 45-year-old man who was shot in the leg and a 43-year-old man who was shot in the chest also were in stable condition. The victims were not identified, Ruiz said.

Diaz was subdued by half a dozen bystanders after he appeared to have difficulty firing his weapon, he said.

IT'S A MIRACLE NO ONE DIED...

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-shoot18-2008may18,0,2906491.story

ARIZONA: DNA TIES TRENT BENSON TO MURDER AND RAPE

Trent Benson picture on MySpace.com

Alisa Marie Beck, 25, was found partially clothed in an alleyway on Nov. 1, 2004. Karen Jane Campbell, 44, was found naked on a roadway on Oct. 24, 2007. Both had been raped and murdered. Authorities today identified and charged Trent Benson, 38, with first-degree murder in their deaths. DNA tied Benson to their deaths, as well as two more sexual assaults. (Courtesy Mesa Police/ABC15.com)

Mesa police officers stand outside one of the units in an apartment complex east of Brown Road and Country Club Drive where a search warrant was being served Wednesday in connection with a serial strangling and rape case. (Ralph Freso, Tribune)

May 16, 2008 - 1:34AM
Suspect in serial slayings, rapes identified
Gary Grado, Nick R. Martin, Tribune

Sometimes he bought a hot dog from her deli, and other times she bought ice from his store. They were two business owners in the same Mesa strip mall - both single and both trying to make a living.

Secrecy in serial killings arrest draws fire

Police arrest serial strangler suspect

VIDEO: Mesa Police Chief George Gascon talks about the arrest

But on Thursday morning, delicatessen owner Hgourtlande Just found out her "nice and friendly" neighbor, 36-year-old Trent Benson, was arrested in connection with one of Mesa's biggest crimes in more than a decade.

A DNA match linked Benson to a string of rapes and slayings dating to November 2004, according to police.

"I was shaking," said Just, a native of Haiti, while gripping the counter top and lowering herself in shock. "I couldn't believe it."

The man accused in the stranglings and rapes appeared in court Thursday and will be jailed without the chance to post bail.

(snip)

On Thursday, Benson's neighbors gathered in small groups at the apartment complex where he lived at 222 W. Brown Road. They shook their heads in disbelief and chatted about how their longtime neighbor was a "family guy" and "the ideal father."

"He's kind of the go-to guy for the neighborhood," said Heather Miller. "We were hoping that it was someone else."

WHO IS THIS "MISTER-NICE-GUY" ...YOU KNOW, THE ONE WHO KILLS WOMEN...
http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/story/116389

IRINA YARMOLENKO: POLICE RELEASE CLUE IN SEARCH FOR KILLER

Police release one new detail in slaying
Irina Yarmolenko went to a Goodwill store on day her body was found
Staff Reports / Posted on Thu, May. 15, 2008

In the two-hour period before her body was found on May 5, Irina Yarmolenko made a stop at a Goodwill store.

The detail -- released Wednesday by police -- is an additional piece in the puzzle of Yarmolenko's killing.

The 20-year-old UNC Charlotte student was found in the Water's Edge community, near the Stowe Family YMCA in Mount Holly, authorities said. Police said she died from asphyxiation, but wouldn't say whether she was strangled or smothered.

Police haven't released a suspect's name or a motive, but Mount Holly Police Chief David Belk said both front doors of Yarmolenko's blue Saturn sedan were open when her body was spotted by a woman riding a personal watercraft.

http://www.charlotte.com/local/story/624830.html
WCNC contributed

CHOMP: I'LL HAVE MORE ON THIS STORY THIS WEEKEND. CAN YOU HELP CATCH IRINA'S KILLER?

IRINA YARMOLENKO: NORTH CAROLINA STUDENT ASPHYXIATED

IRINA YARMOLENKO, 20

UNC Charlotte sophomore Irina Yarmolenko was found dead Monday next to her car on the banks of the Catawba River.

A jet skier on the Catawba River spotted Ira Yarmolenko's body around 1:15 p.m. Monday.

Student Dead at Crash Scene Was Murdered
Cops Say Young Woman Found Dead Monday Along River Embankment Was Asphyxiated
By DAVID SCHOETZ / ABCNews /May 9, 2008

A 20-year-old North Carolina college student found dead next to her car at the edge of a wooded river embankment was murdered, authorities announced Thursday.

Preliminary autopsy results found that Irina "Ira" Yarmolenko, a sophomore at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte, died of asphyxiation, David Belk, police chief in Mount Holly, N.C., said at a press conference.

A jet skier on the Catawba River spotted Yarmolenko's body around 1:15 p.m. Monday. She was in the grass next to the open door of her 1998 Saturn, which had crashed into a tree stump at the water's edge.

"There's a car that's run off the embankment and a body laying there," a frightened caller told a 911 dispatcher. "I don't know if they're alive or not."

WHAT HAPPENED TO IRINA? DO YOU KNOW ANYTHING?
http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=4818800&page=1

Anyone with information about her activities Monday is asked to call the Mount Holly Police Department at 704-827-4343.

HOUSTON: BODIES OF 2 ADULTS, 3 KIDS FOUND

5 Bodies Found At Northeast Houston Home

A family of five is found dead at a northeast Houston home, KPRC Local 2 reports.

Five bodies, including 3 children, found in Houston
AP Texas News / May 10, 2008, 8:31PM
By JUAN A. LOZANO
Associated Press Writer © 2008 The Associated Press

HOUSTON — Police were still trying to determine what happened to five people, including three young children, whose bodies were found Saturday afternoon in a home in rural northeast Houston.

Although a .22 caliber rifle was found in the lap of an adult male, whose body was found on the porch, police declined to speculate on whether this might have been a murder-suicide, saying it was still early in their investigation. Besides the gun, shell casings were found around his body, police said.

Houston police Sgt. John Chomiak said investigators believed all five people lived in the home. Neighbors said the five people were a husband, wife and their three children.

Police did not immediately release the identities of the victims.

The bodies of a woman between 20 and 30 years old and a boy thought to be about 10 were found in one part of the home, Chomiak said.

The bodies of a boy thought to be between 3 and 5 and a girl believed to be between 4 and 6 were found in another part of the home, described by authorities as a simple wooden structure that was divided in the middle by the porch. A wooden fence and large trees in the front block a view of the home from the street.

WHAT'S GOING ON? WHO KILLED THIS FAMILY...AND WHY?
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/5770189.html

MYANMAR REFUSES AID: CYCLONE KILLS 22,000+, 41,000 MISSING

MYANMAR, formerly called BURMA

Pedestrians walk past debris on a street after tropical cyclone Nargis passed through Yangon, May 4, 2008. Source: Democratic Voice of Burma via Bloomberg News

Myanmar Buddhist Monk makes his way past a fallen tree following a devastating cyclone, Sunday, May 4, 2008, in Yangon. The death toll from the cyclone has risen to almost 4,000, a Myanmar state radio station has said. The radio station broadcasting from the country's capital Naypyitaw said Monday that almost 3,000 more people are unaccounted for in a single town in the country's low-lying Irrawaddy River delta area. (AP Photo/Barry Broman)

The cyclone wrecked boats in Yangon Harbor.

Buddhist monks move branches from an uprooted tree blocking a street in Yangon.

Myanmar cyclone death toll exceeds 22,000

A news broadcast on the state-run station said Tuesday that 22,464 people had been confirmed dead from Cyclone Nargis. The broadcast added that 41,000 more were missing.
The U.N. estimated up to a million could be homeless.

China's state-run Xinhua news agency, quoting officials, reported a death toll of 10,000 alone in the township of Bogalay.

CNN's Dan Rivers, the only western journalist in Bogalay, said he had seen nothing but destroyed homes for 30 kilometers and people were now sheltering under canvas covers. They had little food bar a small amount of eggs and rice.

Watch family huddle in ruined home »

Rivers said he had seen the army and Red Cross in the area, but the weather remained awful and conditions were miserable.

The aftermath has pushed Myanmar's normally secretive ruling military junta to ask for aid and release details of the devastation. However, the U.N. said its aid workers were still waiting for visas to enter the country. It, the Red Cross and other aid organizations have been gathering supplies to ship to the country.

(snip)

"No food. No water," an exasperated man told him. "So you have to find everything."

See photos of the destruction »

WHY DOES MYANMAR REFUSE HELP?

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/05/06/myanmar.cyclone/index.html

WENDELL LOY NIELSEN: POLYGAMIST HAS 21 WIVES, 36 KIDS

At the age of 18, Carolyn Jessop was forced to marry a 50-year old man who already had three wives.

Polygamy roll shows 21 wives for one member

By Susan Roesgen (CNN)/ Mon May 5, 2008

(CNN) -- In the secretive, illegal world of American polygamy, life has been good to 67-year-old Wendell Loy Nielsen of Eldorado, Texas.

By his own account, Nielsen has 21 wives -- and 36 children.

His oldest wife is 13 years older than he is, and his youngest wife is 43 years younger -- she's just 24.

His oldest child is 21 years old, and his youngest is a 6-month-old baby.

That's one of the longer, single-family genealogies uncovered in a CNN review of the "Bishop's List" -- a series of documents listing the age, marital status, children and address of the members of the Yearning for Zion polygamist ranch in Eldorado, Texas.

The ranch is owned by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a Mormon offshoot that practices polygamy.

The Bishop's List was found among nearly 1,000 boxes of paperwork taken from the ranch by investigators who are considering child-abuse charges against some of the sect members.

Investigators don't believe there is a "bishop" on the ranch. Instead, they believe sect members take orders from the man they call their "prophet"-- convicted polygamist Warren Jeffs. Jeffs is in prison for forcing a 13-year-old girl to marry her 17-year-old cousin.

Investigators say Jeffs still exerts control from prison through one of the men on the ranch, Merle Jessop. One of Jessop's wives is a former sect member, Carolyn Jessop, who left a polygamist compound and later wrote a book about her experience, called "Escape."

THIS STORY IS GOING TO TAKE A LONG, LONG TIME...

http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/05/05/polygamist.families/index.html

EASLEY, S.C.: NATHANIEL DICKSON SHOOTS PARENTS, SIBLINGS

EASLEY, SOUTH CAROLINA
Easley is located in Pickens County at the base of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Like so many towns in South Carolina, the completion of the railroad brought growth, and in 1874, the town of Easley was established. As of 2007, Easley's population is 19,194 people.


Investigators process evidence outside Easley, S.C. home where police say an 18-year-old man murdered his father, stepmother and two siblings

Teen arrested after 4 family members found dead at SC home
11 hours ago

EASLEY, S.C. (AP) — An 18-year-old man gunned down his father, stepmother and two siblings at the home they shared in suburban South Carolina, authorities said Saturday.

Nathaniel Dickson, 18, was arrested 8:30 p.m. Saturday at a home in Belton about 20 miles from where the bodies of his family members were found, Anderson County Sheriff's spokeswoman Susann Griffin said. He was charged with four counts of murder.

Less than 12 hours earlier, a 911 call led paramedics to find the father dead in the yard. Inside the home they found the other three victims, all shot to death.

The youngest victim, Dickson's 14-year-old brother, was apparently trying to hide behind a clothes dryer when he slain, authorities said.

Investigators have not determined a motive for the killings, Griffin said.

Griffin said Dickson does not have a lawyer. She would not say if he is cooperating with investigators.

The coroner's office identified the victims as Dickson's 46-year-old father, Samuel Andrew Dickson Jr.; his 46-year-old stepmother, Martiza Hurtado Dickson; his 19-year-old stepsister, Melissa Giliam Salazar; and his 14-year-old brother, Taylor Alex Dickson.

THERE WILL BE MORE TO THIS TRAGIC STORY...

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5h_C5kLMRc0Den_glpePau1O11lKQD90A09M80

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

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LOS ANGELES: TWO OLD WOMEN GUILTY OF KILLING TWO OLD MEN

Luis Sinco / AP
Helen Golay, 77, listens as guilty verdicts are read against her in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom on Wednesday.

Pool / Getty Images file
Olga Rutterschmidt walks into Criminal Court last Thursday in downtown Los Angeles.

Elderly women guilty of conspiring to murder
Calif. jury convicts pair in scheme to insure homeless men, run over them
Associated Press / updated 2 hours, 9 minutes ago

LOS ANGELES - An elderly woman was convicted Wednesday of murdering two homeless men to collect insurance payouts, and she and a co-defendant were found guilty of counts involving conspiracy to murder for financial gain.

Partial verdicts were being read in the case against Helen Golay, 77, and Olga Rutterschmidt, 75. The judge decided to take five initial verdicts as the jury struggled with Rutterschmidt's murder counts.

Golay was convicted of the first-degree murders of Kenneth McDavid, 50, in 2005 and Paul Vados, 73, in 1999. Golay was also convicted of the conspiracy counts in both killings.

Rutterschmidt was convicted of conspiracy to murder McDavid for financial gain.

During the verdict readings, the jury was sent back into deliberations to clear up a finding. The panel had asked earlier in the day for readings of testimony by three witnesses, and jurors also asked for a laptop so they could review DVDs entered into evidence.

Prosecutors said the women collected $2.8 million from insurance policies on the lives of two homeless men who were killed in staged hit-and-runs.

Prosecutors said the women recruited their prey from among the homeless of Hollywood, invested thousands of dollars in insurance policies on them and in putting them up in apartments, then drugged them and ran them over in secluded alleys.

MY, WEREN'T THESE BUSY LADIES!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24167527/