Slain Texas teen Shania Gray had sexual assault charges pending against murder suspect

9-10-2012 Texas:

A Texas man has been charged with murdering a 16-year-old girl who police believe was killed to keep her from testifying at the man's sexual assault trial for raping her.

Police in the Dallas suburb of Carrollton say Franklin B. Davis, 30, of Irving, was charged with capital murder Sunday after confessing to the death of Shania Gray. Gray was last seen alive Thursday afternoon at Hebron High School in Carrollton. Her body was found Saturday in a secluded area near the Trinity River.

Carrollton police spokesman Jon Stovall told The Associated Press in an email that police believe Davis killed Gray because she was about to testify against him.

A spokeswoman for Gray's family, Sherry Ramsey, told The Dallas Morning News that Gray met Davis when she babysat his two children. Ramsey said that later, afer the teen declined many requests to babysit, Gray told her grandmother that Davis had raped her.

The crime was reported to Mesquite police, and Davis was charged with four counts of sexual assault of a child.

Ramsey said Davis had warned Gray he would kill her if she told anyone about the assault.

According to an arrest warrant, Davis contacted Gray through social media and pretended to be someone else in an attempt to get information about the sexual assault case. Davis then used a pre-paid cellphone to set up a meeting with Gray at her high school on Thursday.

Davis told WFAA-TV in a jailhouse interview that he tracked Gray down because he wanted to prove his innocence in the sexual assault case.

"I needed to get some kind of evidence, some kind of proof myself to show I did not have sex with her and that she's lying," Davis told the television station.

Davis told authorities that Gray was surprised to see him but got into his car when he told her he wanted to talk to her about the sexual assault case.

Cops: Slain teen was to testify against man found dead with her

Posted in Related Deaths

10-29-2010 Michigan:

He had been charged with sexual assault against her

Taylor Manley was found in a minivan with Raymond Bush, 38. The teen was supposed to testify against him Wednesday morning in trial for allegedly sexually assaulting her, but she disappeared before that happened, police and prosecutors say.

Bush died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, the Wayne County Medical Examiner’s Office said.

Taylor's father told the Free Press earlier he believes his daughter wouldn’t have committed suicide. She was afraid of Bush, he said.

Robert Manley said Bush had threatened her against testifying.

The bodies of the two were found in Bush’s minivan parked in St. Charles Cemetery, on North Dixie Highway in Newport, according to State Police.

Autopsies are scheduled for today by the Wayne County Medical Examiner’s Office.

The 15-year-old moved in with her father two weeks ago because of the ongoing sexual assault case, Robert Manley said. He said it was time for her to be a kid again and added he was “trying to take her away, trying to hide her, so this kind of thing wouldn’t happen.”

He said he doesn’t think his daughter left willingly with the 38-year-old and said she didn’t seem to have a problem with testifying against Bush, who police said had a tattoo on the back of his neck with Taylor’s name.

Robert Manley came home Wednesday around 7:30 a.m. after working an overnight shift and said he knew something was wrong because his daughter wasn’t there. She was scheduled to testify at 10:30 a.m and wasn’t supposed to go to school for that reason, he said.

Clare County Prosecutor Michelle Ambrozaitis said Bush never showed in 80th District Court in Harrison on Wednesday to face a charge of third-degree criminal sexual conduct charge from Aug. 22 for an alleged sexual relationship with Taylor.

Because of fears he might stop her from attending that hearing, an Amber Alert was issued Wednesday when she went missing, Michigan State Police Sgt. Joe Cairnduff said

Report clears Fond du Lac officers

Posted in Related Deaths

3-20-2011 Wisconsin:

Fond du Lac - The Fond du Lac County prosecutor says Officers were justified in defending themselves and firing at a gunman who had shot and killed a police officer in March, the Fond du Lac County district attorney's office ruled Monday.

A report issued by the DA's office says the gunman, James Cruckson, 30, sexually assaulted his girlfriend and refused to return her 6-year-old daughter. Several police officers responded. The report says Cruckson shot and wounded one officer who entered the home, and he riddled another officer's squad car with bullets.

As a third officer ran to investigate the sounds of gunfire, Cruckson shot him twice and killed him. One shot hit Officer Craig Birkholz, 28, in the abdomen below his bulletproof vest, and the second hit the top of the vest with fragments entering his torso.

Mississippi investigator killed serving warrant on pedophile

Posted in Related Deaths

5-1-2012 Mississippi:

PEARL, Miss. — A police investigator was killed Tuesday in a shootout with a suspect, officials said.

Senior Investigator Mike Walters was shot in the head as he and other detectives tried to serve warrants on a suspect wanted for sexual battery.

Upon entering an apartment in Pearl, police located a man hiding in a bathtub who began to resist arrest, according to The Officer Down Memorial Page.

Officers used a TASER against the subject, who opened fire on the officers and struck Walters in the face. Another officer returned fire and killed the man.

A helicopter airlifted Walters and two other injured officers to the University of Mississippi Medical Center, but Walters was declared dead, The Clarion Ledger reports.

Paying tribute to the fallen officer, Mayor Brad Rogers told a news conference,"It's a job most of us probably wouldn't do."

The two officers injured in the incident are reportedly in stable condition. ..Source.. by PoliceOne Staff

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Slain officer may be 1st in Pearl killed in line of duty

A slain officer is the first from Pearl Police Department to die in the line of duty since the town’s incorporation in 1973, said Chief Ben Schuler.

Investigator Mike Walter, 32, was killed by a gunman who holed up in a bathroom while police served a search warrant for sexual assault and molestation.

The suspect, Carnell Gaines, 30, did not answer the door when police knocked, so they had an apartment complex manager open his door. As they searched the apartment, they came across him in the bathroom.

When Gaines would not show his hands, an officer went for his taser, and Gaines opened fire, killing Walter, a father, husband, and former professional baseball player.

Walter is from San Diego, Calif., according to a release put out by Pearl spokesman Lt. Butch Townsend. He played professional baseball for the Houston Astros from 1993-2000.

Friends of the family said he met his wife, Jeanne, while he was playing baseball, and moved back to Mississippi so she could be closer to home.

The Walters have an 11-year old daughter, Bailey.

He was hired by Pearl in February 2009 as a patrol officer, and moved up quickly to the position of investigator, Townsend said.

“Mike was a beacon of sunshine,” said Townsend in the release. “No words can express our feelings of loss at this time.”

The other officers injured in the shooting were Investigator Dave McCarley, who was shot in the hand and the leg, and Shaun Terwilliger, who received injuries to his forearm that were not gun-related.

McCarley’s injuries are serious, but Townsend said he should make a full recovery with surgery.

“One of the bad parts about our business is the fact that it must go on,” Townsend wrote. “The thin blue line cannot be allowed to be broken. Now we face that task without our brother Mike by our side. Please keep his family in your thoughts and prayers. A good man was lost today.” ..Source.. by The Clarion-Ledger

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2 Officers shot in Pearl; Officer, Suspect Killed

A Pearl police officer was shot and killed today at the Colony Park Apartments in Pearl. Another officer was also shot and a 3rd injured. The suspect, 30-year-old Carnell Gaines Jr., was also shot and killed.

Rankin County District Attorney Michael Guest identified the slain officer as Investigator Mike Walter. He was shot in the head.

University of Mississippi Medical Center spokesman Jack Mazurak said the slain officer died at 11:56 a.m.

Mazurak said the two other officers were in good condition.

Michael Guest confirms that Officer Dave McCarley was shot in the leg and hand and transported by ambulance to UMC. His injuries do not appear to be life threatening. Officer Shawn Terwilliger was injured at the scene but not from gunfire. He also is being treated at UMC.

According to officials, just after 11 a.m. several officers attempted to serve a search warrant and an arrest warrant on 30-year-old Carnell Gaines Jr., who lived in Building 24 at the apartment complex.

When no one answered the door, police got the apartment manager to open the unit. While searching, officers discovered Gaines hiding in the bathtub of a rear bedroom and bath.

Officers reported that Gaines was uncooperative and was about to be tazed when Gaines drew a weapon and began firing. The officers returned fire.

Two officers were shot and another injured during the shootout. Gaines was shot and killed. One of the shot officers later died at University Medical Center in Jackson. The two other officers are listed in good and fair condition.

A neighbor told Fox 40 News that Gaines lived in the apartment with his girlfriend who was pregnant.

According to police, the arrest warrant was for sexual battery and the search warrant was for child pornography. Gaines also has a drug conviction from 2002.



Lieutenant Butch Townsend released this statement for Pearl Police Department:

Today the Pearl Police Department lost an officer in the line of duty. This is a sad first for our town that was incorporated in 1973.

Our beloved friend and comrade, Investigator Michael J. Walter, known to us simply as Mike, was thirty seven years old. He is survived by his loving wife Jeanne and the absolute light of his life, his daughter Bailey age eleven.

Mike also leaves behind his parents John and Judy Walter in their native San Diego, California.

Besides his family, Mike had three passions: the San Diego Chargers, professional baseball and law enforcement.

Mike played professional baseball for the Houston Astros from 1993 – 2000. Mike was hired by the Pearl Police Department in February of 09 as a patrol officer. His knowledge, intellect and inquiring mind enabled him to move to the position of investigator in rapid time, assuming that position in October of 2010.

Also injured in the same incident today was Investigator Dave McCarley. McCarley was shot in the hand and leg. His wounds are serious with surgery and extensive rehab most likely to be needed. He is expected to make a full recovery.

Investigator Shaun Terwilliger received injuries to his forearm, not fire arm related, and was treated and released.

No words can express our feeling of loss at this time. Mike was a beacon of sunshine. Nothing but kind words for all. Seldom did a smile leave his face and his smiles were never bigger than when he would speak of his wife and daughter. We loved him as much he loved them.

One of the bad parts about our business is the fact that it must go on. The thin blue line cannot be allowed to be broken. Now we face that task without our brother Mike by our side. Please keep his family in your thoughts and prayers. A good man was lost today. We’ll keep you posted on the arrangements, which are incomplete as of this time. Mike’s picture is attached. Note the Chargers logo. Thank you for thinking about us. ..Source.. by Fox40.com

Man killed while trying to stop rape

Posted in Related Deaths:

In essence, the offender (Lema) shot and killed an innocent person (Zephyrine).

2-28-2012 Georgia:

POOLER, GA (WTOC) - A man is dead and one of his co-workers is being charged in connection with his death.

Police said that on Friday afternoon, inside the OA Logistics warehouse on Clyde Alexander Way, Christopher Lema, 23, fatally shot 28-year-old Nickifor Zephyrine.

According to the police report, Lema was trying to rape a female employee when Zephyrine interceded, causing Lema to shoot him.

A former employee of OA Logistics, who doesn't want to be identified, said that according to another source: "[Zephyrine] was trying to get [Lema] off the girl and [Lema] turned around and punched [Zephyrine] in the eye and [Lema] just pulled a gun out and shot [Zephyrine] in the head."

Man found dead with former Harrison girl faced sex charge in Clare County

Posted in Related Deaths

10-28-2010 Michigan:

A 15-year-old Clare County girl was remembered Thursday as a kind, caring girl who was in Mid Michigan Community College’s Students of Promise program before moving to Osceola County a few weeks ago.

Meanwhile, the 38-year-old Newport man accused of killing Taylor E. Manley before killing himself Wednesday was out of jail on bond after being charged with having sex with the girl in July.

Christy McKinney of Clare said Manley was a friend of her son’s and often spent time at their home.

“She was a great kid,” McKinney said. “She was a very sweet girl.”

Tammy Alvaro, MMCC’s Students of Promise coordinator, said Manley was well known among students and that she was a sweet girl.

Alvaro saw Manley at MMCC’s Fall Festival and Barbecue recently and spoke to her about her plans for college in a few years, offering to help her in any way she could.

Suspect's Suicide Note and New Victim Emerge in Bonne Terre Killings

Posted in Related Deaths:
UPDATED 12-22-2010

12-2-2010 Missouri:

Bonne Terre, MO (KTVI - FOX2now.com) — There were stunning developments Wednesday in the shooting rampage in Bonne Terre that happened on day earlier: another possible victim, a suicide note, and an apology from the suspected shooter's family.

It appears 25 year old Nathan Fortner was distraught over a breakup with the mother of his son, Danielle Bement. His suicide note reads in part, "I pray to God, God forgives me"... "I can't take it"... "We're not going to get back together". Fortner obviously felt helpless, and now his mother does.

"I'm so deeply sorry," said his mother Mary Anne, "words can't express the sorrow in our hearts."

Police found another body believed to be linked to Fortner's crime spree late Tuesday night. 19 year old Ericka Wade was discovered in a vacant home on Doc Wallen Road in Washington County. Wade was a freshman cheerleader at Mineral Area College.

"Everyone loved this girl," said Nick Basinger, a friend of Ericka's. "A girl like Ericka, what do you do? What do you do?

Tuesday morning, police say Fortner shot and killed Bement, her mother Christine Snider and Snider's boyfriend Derek Nash. Then he killed himself. Police were led to the home on Doc Wallen Road by their investigation. Before her death, Bement had reported to police Fortner had raped her at that location.

Police are not yet saying for sure Fortner was Ericka Wade's killer.

"She was just a blast to be around," said her prom date, 19 year old Justin Clemons. "No matter where she was she was having a good time. And she had a wonderful smile. We pretty much danced the entire time."

Fortner was supposed to go on trial in April for a rape charge. Police say the victim in that case was not involved in Tuesday's crime. Fortner's parents say he was bipolar and had stopped taking his medication.

Clemons and Basinger say their entire community is in mourning.

"She'll always be remembered," said Clemons. "Especially by me, from the experiences we had together. Those are milestones that she shared with me. I'll never forget her." ..Source.. by KTVI-TV

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Missouri gunman blamed in fourth shooting death

12-22-2010 Missouri:

Missouri investigators said Tuesday they have linked a man who killed himself after shooting three people to death in eastern Missouri to the shooting death of another victim, whose body was found after the rampage.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol said in a statement that unspecified DNA evidence and telephone records link gunman Nathan Fortner, 25, to the shooting death of 20-year-old Ericka Wade. Sgt. Al Nothum, a spokesman for the patrol, later declined to elaborate on the release, which said no one other than Fortner appears involved in the deaths.

“It was DNA evidence. That's about as specific as we can get,” Nothum told The Associated Press. “We normally don't get into that. (But) it pretty much puts him at the crime scene.”

Police said Fortner broke into a duplex apartment Nov. 30 in the 7,000-resident former mining town of Bonne Terre about 55 miles southwest of St. Louis and opened fire, killing his former girlfriend, 19-year-old Danielle Bement, along with Bement's mother, Christine Snider, 37, and Snider's live-in boyfriend, Derek Nash, 32. Snider and Nash lived in the duplex on a quiet, secluded cul de sac, and Bement had been staying there. Two boys at the home were unharmed.

Fortner turned a handgun on himself as police closed in.

The body of Wade, a Fortner acquaintance, was found later that day in an abandoned house near Bismarck in neighboring Washington County. Wade had been reported missing the previous night.

Fortner's sister, Angie Fortner, has said her brother was unemployed, bipolar and overcome with despair over the breakup with Danielle Bement. After the shootings, the couple's 18-month-old son was found unharmed in the same sport utility vehicle as his fatally injured mother, who police say died trying to protect the boy.

Angie Fortner said her brother left three Post-it notes at her house.

“We will never get back together and it hurts so bad I just can't take that,” read one. “I know you all are going to be very mad at me but I just can't take it anymore,” read another.

In the third note, Fortner expressed his innocence in a pending rape case against him. Fortner was free on bond on that 2008 rape charge and was scheduled to go on trial in April.

Fortner's criminal background included probation for 2003 charges of burglary, property damage and tampering with a motor vehicle. In 2006, he again got probation after pleading guilty to third-degree assault and disturbing the peace. ..Source.. by KansasCity.com

Man, 12-year-old daughter found dead

Posted in Related Deaths

5-31-2007 Pennsylvania:

A few weeks ago 12-year-old Mandie Coco told friends her father was molesting her.

On Wednesday afternoon, Mandie and her 41-year-old father, Christopher Coco, were found dead lying on his bed, both shot in the head, in an apparent murder-suicide, Stroud Area Regional police said.

Police said they were looking for a motive, but Mandie's friends and others in the Normal Street public housing development in East Stroudsburg said they always thought her father was an odd man who screamed at children and sported a pistol strapped to his hip.

The father and daughter were found about 2:30 p.m. in the front bedroom of their home at 453 Hill St.

Police went to the apartment to check on Mandie at the request of KidsPeace, where she was enrolled, because she had not been seen at school since Friday, Capt. William Parrish said.

Police got no response when they knocked on the door Wednesday morning and when an officer returned about six hours later and noticed flies clumped on inside windows, he became suspicious, Parrish said.

The officer got the Monroe County Housing Authority, which runs the development, to get him inside the two-story apartment, Parrish said.

The bodies were found upstairs next to each other, Parrish said, and a 9mm semiautomatic handgun was found under Coco.

Police were not certain how long they had been dead, but they believed it was more than 24 hours.

''I would not say it happened today based on what we saw inside,'' Parrish said.

There were no signs someone had broken into their apartment, Parrish said. The windows were locked and both doors were deadbolted from the inside, police said. One door had a snow shovel wedged under the doorknob and another door had a crutch jammed under the knob, police said.

Coco and his daughter lived alone in the apartment, police said.

Mandie's friends rode bicycles and gathered on the other side of the yellow crime scene tape around her apartment, which had a crucifix dangling above the doorway and what appeared to be big towels with pictures of angels hanging in the front windows.

They recalled Mandie as a happy girl and her father as someone to avoid, especially on the days when he screamed at neighborhood children.

''Something was wrong with that man,'' said Dannell Wallace, 30, of 466 Hill St. ''He was crazy. Everybody thinks he's crazy.''

Diana Abreu, 30, of 452 Normal St., said Mandie told her daughters that she was being molested by her father.

''I reported he was molesting her,'' she said. She said she called Monroe County Children & Youth ''a good five weeks ago.''

''I think his secret was going to come out,'' she said.

Wallace said she heard ''pop, pop'' sounds that sounded like gunshots Friday night after 11 o'clock but was half asleep and didn't give it a second thought until Wednesday afternoon when she heard what happened inside the Coco residence.

''I always thought he was a pervert because he was too protective of his daughter,'' Wallace said.

A friend of Mandie's, 12-year-old TaNiro Lundy, said he will always remember her as a ''nice, caring girl.''

''She was very confident in herself,'' TaNiro said.

But, TaNiro said, Mandie was always walking around with bruises on her arms and legs.

''You could tell he beat on her,'' TaNiro said. ''She always came outside with new bruises…and made-up excuses.''

About a week ago, he said, she started wearing a cast on her arm.

Eleven-year-old Arthur Malin said Mandie told him ''over 20 times'' that her father had molested her, and said it happened on birthdays and holidays.

Sometimes Coco made veiled threats to neighborhood children, warning them about what happened to his wife, Arthur said.

''He told us, 'I killed my wife,' '' Arthur said. ''He said: 'She's buried out in the back of the house.'''

It all added up to one thing, said 9-year-old Raven Stewart.

''He was mean,'' Raven said. ..more.. by Joe McDonald Of The Morning Call

MI- Accused child molester kills stepdaughter, commits suicide

Posted in Related Deaths

9-18-2001 Michigan:

MONITOR TOWNSHIP (AP) A man apparently killed the stepdaughter he was accused of molesting before turning the gun on himself, just hours before he was due in a Bay County courtroom on a sex charge, police said.

The bodies of Herbert O. Sweebe and Christine Pickelmann, 21, were found early yesterday in the mobile home where the stepfather had lived with his wife and Pickelmann.

Pickelmann was killed by a rifle blast, and arriving police officers heard a second shot before finding the bodies, The Bay City Times said. Lt. John Parker, commander of the Bay City Post of the Michigan State Police, said troopers found the bodies of Pickelmann and Sweebe at opposite ends of the home.

Gail Sweebe, Pickelmann"s mother and Herbert Sweebe"s wife, was treated for a hand wound. It wasn"t clear how she was injured.

Sweebe was to be arraigned Monday by Bay County District Judge Timothy J. Kelly on a charge of fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct. Pickelmann had accused Sweebe of groping her and offering to buy her a car if she would have sex with him, according to a Michigan State Police report.

But Pickelmann also had told police about sexual assaults she said were made by Sweebe when she was 15, shortly after he married her mother, police said. Bay County Sheriff"s Sgt. James Chlebowski said his department was about to charge Sweebe with first-degree criminal sexual conduct. A conviction on that charge carries a maximum sentence of up to life in prison.

Police went to the home Pickelmann shared with her mother and stepfather on Aug. 26 to handle a domestic dispute.

Pickelmann told police Sweebe had been sexually grabbing her and that she had evidence on tape Sweebe agreed to leave the home, the newspaper said.

The following day, Pickelmann obtained a personal protection order against Sweebe, preventing him from approaching or harassing her. The order did not prevent Sweebe from being at the mobile home.

Sweebe was arrested Aug. 31, and freed on a $10,000 bond on Sept. 3.

Early yesterday, neighbors gathered outside the home.

Linwood Krueger, 53, said he heard someone running through his back yard yelling, "Why are you doing this?" ..more.. by The Michigan Daily

AZ - Couple accused of molestation found dead

Posted in Related Deaths

8-12-2007 Arizona:

A Mesa couple suspected of molesting a 10-year-old girl has been found dead, the apparent victims of a murder-suicide.

Paul and Myrtis Gauthreaux were found Thursday morning on U.S. 60 in Gila County near Globe in their parked car.

The Gila County Sheriff's Office is investigating.

The couple had been the subject of an FBI investigation but had not been positively linked to Internet pictures of a girl being molested, said FBI spokeswoman Deborah McCarley.

Law enforcement found the couple dead of apparent gunshot wounds.

They were found holding hands and with a suicide note explaining their motive, a Gila County Sheriff's Office spokesman said. The spokesman declined to elaborate on the note's contents.

The couple was being investigated under the "innocent images" program operated by the FBI. The program seeks to investigate cases of child pornography on the Internet. ..more.. by

CO- Details from Colo. school shooting emerge

Posted in Related Deaths

9-28-2006 Colorado:

53-year-old shooter’s attack was ‘sexual in nature,’ sheriff says

BAILEY, Colo. - The gunman who killed a student and committed suicide during a high school standoff methodically selected six girls as hostages — apparently favoring blondes — and sexually assaulted at least some of them, authorities and witnesses said Thursday.

Sheriff Fred Wegener said the assaults went beyond touching or fondling.

“It was pretty horrific,” Wegener said.

"He did traumatize and assault our children," he added. "I'll only say that it's sexual in nature."

The killer was identified as 53-year-old Duane Morrison, a petty criminal who had a Denver address but had apparently been living in his battered yellow Jeep when he walked inside the school Wednesday with two handguns and a backpack that he claimed contained a bomb. Investigators did not immediately say what was in the backpack.

Authorities said they knew of no connection between Morrison, his hostages or anyone else at Platte Canyon High School in this mountain town of about 3,500.

During the siege, he took the girls hostage in a second-floor classroom and eventually released four of them. Morrison, still holding two girls, soon cut off contact and warned that “something would happen at 4 o’clock,” authorities said.

About a half-hour before the deadline, a SWAT team used explosives to blow a hole in a classroom wall in hopes of getting a clear shot at him, but they couldn’t see him through the gap, and they blew the door off the hinges to get inside, said Lance Clem, a spokesman for the state Department of Public Safety.

Morrison fired at the SWAT officers, shot 16-year-old Emily Keyes in the back of the head as she tried to run away, and then killed himself, authorities said. During the lightning-fast gun battle, police said, they shot Morrison several times.

'We had to go try and save them'
A sorrowful Wegener defended the decision to try to take Morrison by force.

“My decision was to either wait, with the possibility of having two dead hostages, or act to try and save what I feared he would do to them,” the sheriff said. “We have confirmed he did traumatize and assault our children. ... This is why I made the decision I did.

“We had to go try and save them.”

Classes were canceled for the rest of the week as the community tried to come to grips with the bloodshed, which evoked memories of the 1999 shooting rampage at Columbine High School, less than an hour’s drive away, that left 15 dead.

“This is — this is something that has changed my school, changed my community,” the sheriff said. “My small county’s gone.”

Teen's text-message
Louis Gonzalez, a spokesman for the Keyes family, said the girl’s father was among scores of parents anxiously awaiting word from their children inside the school during the standoff. John Keyes had just bought Emily and her twin brother cell phones for their 16th birthdays.

“How are U?” a volunteer text-messaged Keyes on her father’s behalf.

At 1:52 p.m., she messaged back, “I love you guys.”

Police stormed into the classroom less than two hours later.

“In memory of Emily we would like everyone to go out and do random acts of kindness, random acts of love to your friends or your neighbors or your fellow students because there is no way to make sense of this,” Gonzalez said. “It’s what Emily would have wanted.”

Residents gathered at the Platte Canyon Christian Church for support and others stopped by the cafe where Keyes had worked for about two years.

“It’s very sad here. You know, the family lost their daughter but as a community, we lost a child,” said Bobbi Sterling, a waitress and cook. “We’re just sitting here, numb and in shock. We’re all just kind of stunned.” ..more.. by MSNBC

HI- 2 Bodies Found On Lanai

Posted in Related Deaths

7-25-2006 Hawaii:

Maui detectives are on Lanai investigating an apparent murder-suicide. The bodies of a teenage girl and adult male were found Saturday morning in a field near the Lanai Police station. The couple went missing Friday morning and their bodies were found Saturday morning.

Today police identified the victims as 15 year-old Ariel Aki and 24 year-old John Estrata. Aki was a student at Lanai High and Elementary School. They died from gunshot wounds. Today Lanai Principal Pierce Myer told News 8 they will have counselors available for traumatized friends.

Autopsies are scheduled for tomorrow. Police say Estrata was under investigation since July 16th in connection with the sex assault of a minor. ..more.. : by KHNL8

NJ- State report says DYFS could have done more to protect victims of 2006 murder-suicide

Posted in Related Deaths

10-24-2007 New Jersey:

The state Division of Youth and Family Services could have done more to protect Melanie and Scott McCarter, a report released by the New Jersey Office of the Child Advocate said Wednesday.

Wendy Bennett McCarter, 35, was shot and killed on the morning of May 25, 2006, by her husband, Scott McCarter, who also killed their two children, Scotty, 12, and Melanie, 6, before shooting himself in their Nabb Avenue home in Millville.

Scott McCarter had been barred from living with Wendy and his children because of a court order stemming from charges he allegedly molested two teenage girls from 2001 to 2004.

One of the girls was Wendy McCarter's daughter, Amanda Bennett, who has filed a lawsuit against DYFS over the deaths of her mother and two siblings. Bennett had moved out, and was not at the Nabb Avenue home at the time of the murder/suicide.

In the report, it is stated that the opinion of the Office of the Child Advocate that:

-- Scott and Melanie's deaths were possibly preventable.

-- During the time that there was an active DYFS case with this family (between July 2004 and May 2006), there were numerous missed opportunities for DYFS and the courts to offer this family protection, services and intervention.

-- DYFS was deficient in its case handling, evidenced by a failure to thoroughly assess the family, failure to recognize key inherent safety and risk factors, failure to conduct required visits with the family members and failure to adhere to agency policies for best practices to ensure child safety and well-being.

Recommendations were made by the OCA to help correct these issues should they come up in the future.

In a one-sentence statement from the Department of Children and Families, spokeswoman Mary Helen Cervantes said, "Whenever a child dies, we grieve that loss deeply, and we are committed to doing everything humanly possible to strengthen this system for the tens of thousands of children who rely on us everyday." ..more.. by JAIME MARINE

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Book delves into NJ sex abuse, murder-suicide case

11-29-2009 New Jersey:

MILLVILLE — In an instant, veteran reporter Eileen Bennett's life went from byline to headline.

On May 25, 2006, her son-in-law, Scott McCarter, was set to take the stand to answer charges that he had sexually molested his stepdaughter, Amanda Bennett.

He never made it to court. Instead, investigators say he fatally shot his wife, Wendy, and their two children, Scotty, 12, and Melanie, 6, before turning the gun on himself.

"I felt like a broken reporter, after being through this, I didn't know if I could ever be fully objective again," said Bennett, a retired Press of Atlantic City reporter and editor.

It was Amanda Bennett who coaxed her "Mom-Mom" back to writing. Bennett was inspired by her granddaughter's ability to cope with her loss, focus on the positive and move forward with her life.

She recalled a candid moment when Amanda Bennett was talking about her lost family members and feeling so many things had been left unsaid.

"I feel like I should write a letter... but I don't know who I would send it to," Bennett recalled her granddaughter saying. That sparked a three-year labor of love that resulted in the book, "Amanda's Voice." Fireside Publications of Lady Lake, Fla., released the 210-page publication earlier this month.

The book details Amanda Bennett's decision to publicly name her stepfather, McCarter, as a sexual abuser and how she coped with the devastating ramifications.

"She's an extremely private person, but I think she came to the realization that speaking out would help others," Bennett said. "She threw herself in the public arena, I know other girls are going through this -- it has to be revealed, it can't be cloaked in secrecy."

Before coming forward to confront her stepfather, Amanda Bennett lived in fear.

"The thing that may have pushed her over edge was she was extremely worried about Melanie and that (Scott) may have done something to her," Eileen Bennett said.

Amanda Bennett was aware there would be consequences in speaking out.

"She was afraid her world would implode -- and it did," Bennett said, first with an estranged relationship with her mother and the eventual slaying of her family.

With the determination she gathered to face her stepfather in court, Amanda Bennett also took on the N.J. Division of Youth and Family Services. She filed a civil lawsuit against the agency charged with improperly handling the case, winning a $750,000 settlement.

"I want to help some other girls out there," Amanda Bennett said.

The 21-year-old is in her final semester at Cumberland County College, where she is studying to be a paralegal.

Compiling the book took about three years of listening to more than 200 hours of court transcripts, interviewing police, the prosecutors and all the others whose lives were intertwined with the case.

Amanda Bennett was spare with her words, but she wanted them to matter.

During the process, Eileen Bennett recovered her reporter instincts.

"I wanted to make sure everything was quoted correctly," she said, noting she also extended an invitation to the McCarter family to be included in the book. They declined.

"When I read some of the passages, I cringe but it is what it is," Bennett said. "Amanda is a very strong-willed person, if she thinks something is right, she will do it."

"I don't think of it as the story of her abuse, it is the story about the beautiful person she has become," she said. "I see the beautiful young lady picking herself up and getting on with life -- there are not many people that can do it." ..Source.. by DEBORAH M. MARKO • Staff Writer

SC- Children's throats slashed in S.C. fire..

Posted in Related Deaths

8-10-2004 South Carolina:

ROCK HILL - Three children who were found dead in a Monday housefire were murdered, authorities announced today.

The three children, tentatively identified as Jairo, Denise and Denia Meza all died from having their throats slashed, York County authorities said.

Two adults also found dead at the scene died of smoke inhalation and burns, according to York County Coroner Doug McKown.

The father, Jose Denis Meza, 39, was positively identified from fingerprints. The mother has been tentatively identifed as Marbely Zeldon Meza, 30.

Authorities said they believe either the mother or the father killed the three children.

The body of the adult female, believed to be the mother, had knife wounds that could have incapacitated her, officials said.

Meza was charged July 16 with fondling his eldest daughter and had been ordered to move out of the home. He was scheduled to appear in court Monday on the sexual molestation charges. ..more.. by Dan Huntley

TN- Police say man killed self, two daughters

Posted in Related Deaths

3-25-2006 Tennessee:

Local man shoots, kills himself as officer discovers rape charge

The bodies of two young girls and their father, a Clarksville man wanted on rape charges, were found in a car in Oak Ridge Thursday following what police are calling a murder-suicide.

Richard Alfonso Howard, 32, was approached Thursday morning in his car by a TVA police officer patrolling a parking lot at the Bull Run Fossil plant, about 15 miles west of Knoxville in East Tennessee, said Jim Carver, director of TVA police.

The officer asked Howard why he was there, and Howard said he had run out of gas and was waiting for someone, Carver said.

The officer initially did not notice the girls, who were covered in the back of the vehicle, Carver said. After the officer ran a check on Howard's plate numbers, he discovered the outstanding rape warrants.

When he returned to Howard's Ford Crown Victoria he found him slumped over the steering wheel, dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot.

Police searched the car and found the bodies of Howard's daughters — Brionna, 3, and Markayla, 2 — with a suicide note in which he admitted to killing them, police said.

Investigators declined to say when or how the toddlers died. Howard had two outstanding rape warrants involving a 15-year-old girl at a local motel last summer.

The teen told Clarksville police in August Howard took her to the Holiday Drive motel on July 4 and forced her to have sex with him against her will, according to a report by CPD Detective Shane Dortch. ..more.. by HEATHER DONAHOE

TX- Man may have caused crash that killed him, four others

Posted in Related Deaths

6-2-2006 Texas:

HOUSTON (AP) - Investigators now believe a May 16 crash that killed five people on a rural Southeast Texas road might have been intentionally caused by one of the drivers, a man whose stepdaughter had accused him of sexual abuse.

The collision happened after a pickup truck veered off the road, came back on and slammed into an oncoming tractor-trailer rig. The wreck happened near Liberty, about 50 miles northeast of Houston.

Authorities said William Pete DeShayes III "intentionally" swerved his pickup into the path of the tractor-trailer, possibly because a 15-year-old stepdaughter not involved in the crash was preparing to go public with her accusations against him of sexual abuse.

Killed in the accident were DeShayes, 40, from Splendora; his 11-year-old daughter Mariah; and 10-year-old daughter Hayven. Another daughter, Deborah Nicole DeShayes, 14, survived the crash. Also killed were the couple driving the big rig.

"I think he may have been trying to kill the children, too," said Trooper Sean Cheshire of the Texas Department of Public Safety. "The evidence points to it. He took no evasive action. He thought warrants were out for his arrest."

Nicole DeShayes told authorities the last thing she heard her father say before he turned the steering wheel and headed toward the 18-wheeler was that his chest was hurting and that he was "sorry." She told the DPS investigator later that she felt her father had intentionally caused the accident.

Mary DeShayes, William DeShaye's ex-wife, said that on the night of the accident she and her 15-year-old daughter went to police in Rockdale after the girl said her stepfather had abused her for the past four years.

Police note that in the days and hours before the wreck, William DeShayes had repeatedly telephoned and sent desperate text messages to the girl. He called Rockdale police at least three times wanting to know if "assault charges" had been filed against him.

The dead man's mother, Linda Gilmore, vehemently denied the allegations of a murder-suicide, blaming the attack on a possible heart attack.

"I know he would not deliberately try and hurt them babies," she said. "They were his life, his world."

But Mary DeShayes said "he felt if he died that he'd be glorified and nobody would know his secrets."

Child Protective Services has opened an investigation into the sexual abuse allegation against William DeShayes, and into the wreck.

"We will look at the accident report to try to figure out what happened," said Chris Van Deusen, CPS spokesman in Austin. "We will make sure the two surviving girls are cared for and given counseling." ..more.. by AP

WI- Wis. charges say gunman had `nothing to lose'

Bizarre story of a Michigan man, after committing a sex offense, goes nuts because he fears the label of "Sex Offender," so he goes out and kills innocent teens to bait police into coming within range of his gun so he could kill them as well.

8-7-2008 Wisconsin:

MARINETTE, Wis. (AP) — Scott J. Johnson hid in the woods knowing police were coming after him.

He had nothing to lose, plotting to kill as many officers as he could after luring them to a nearby river by ambushing a group of teenagers, according to a criminal complaint.

Johnson gunned down three teens as they relaxed near a bridge spanning the Menominee River between Wisconsin and Michigan's Upper Peninsula that is a popular swimming site, prosecutors said Wednesday.

"His plan was to shoot anyone who showed up to help," Marinette County District Attorney Brent DeBord said.

But Johnson apparently reconsidered after shooting the teens, the complaint said. Following an all-night manhunt, he surrendered to authorities, disabling his military-type rifle in a way that would be obvious to them, DeBord said.

Johnson, 38, of Kingsford, Mich., was charged Wednesday with three counts of first-degree intentional homicide. The charge carries a maximum penalty of life in prison.

Johnson's public defender, Len Kachinsky, said he plans to hold his first meeting with Johnson before a court hearing Thursday.

"I think people should maintain an open mind and withhold judgment until the evidence is in," Kachinsky said.

The complaint tells a chilling story of a disaffected man who had thought about committing a random shooting for the past four or five years and prepared by stashing weapons in the woods.

"He stated that the sole purpose of his hiding this equipment was for when a day like this came," DeBord said.

Johnson finally decided to execute his plan last week after suspecting that a woman he had recently sexually assaulted would tell her ordeal to police, the complaint said.

He has not been charged with sexual assault, but more charges could still be filed, DeBord said at a news conference Wednesday at which he read the complaint but declined to take questions.

The complaint gives the following account:

Johnson said he lured the woman near the bridge the evening before the shooting, sexually assaulted her and tried to talk her out of calling police. He decided to wait there and kill any law enforcers who arrived to investigate. When none did, he returned home.

He left his home the next day and when he returned, his mother told him police were looking for him. Expecting to go to jail and fearing the label of sex offender, he decided "he had nothing to lose and the only power he had in this life was `to take.'"


He returned to the bridge, where he counted eight teenagers. He recovered his hidden Armalite 7.62 mm military-type rifle and an ammunition box with .308 cartridges that he had stowed at least a year before.

He found a hill on the Wisconsin side where he could shoot. He planned to wait until the youths were back on the Michigan side and shoot them as "bait" to lure law enforcers he could then also shoot.

But he was startled when four of the teens began to climb up toward him, instead of taking the path he expected. When the teens approached, he felt trapped and jumped up, firing about 17 shots. He saw people fall as he began to reload but decided not to fire again.

Johnson spent the night in the woods and turned himself in the next morning as an intensive manhunt was under way.

"Before exiting the woods, he disabled the firearm in a way so that law enforcement could see that the gun was disabled," DeBord said.

Two teens, Tiffany Pohlson, 17, and Anthony Spigarelli, 18, died instantly from single shots to the head. The third, Bryan Mort, 19, died of a shot to the torso. A 20-year-old man suffered superficial shrapnel wounds. All four were from Michigan.

The location of the wounds suggested all four were fleeing, said Scott Celello, undersheriff for Dickinson County, Mich.

Johnson's mother, Judy Johnson, had said her son was honorably discharged from the Army in 1994 without serving overseas and has been unemployed. She described him as despondent since his wife left him in 2001 and took their two children with her. She said she worried he might "do something stupid."

DeBord is handling the case because the shots were fired from the Wisconsin side. Michigan authorities are still investigating and could file additional charges, he said.

Christopher Ninomiya, the Dickinson County district attorney, did not immediately return a message left Wednesday seeking comment. ..News Source.. by DINESH RAMDE

CT- Man sentenced in Milford motel shooting

6-12-2009 Connecticut:

MILFORD -- A South Carolina man's alleged sexual relationship with the man he fatally shot in a local motel was at the heart of the case, the victim's family said Friday.

The parents and brother of Tony Lee Simons contend that James Street, who fatally shot Simons on July 12, 2007, had been sexually abusing him for years.

Street was sentenced to 10 years in prison for second-degree manslaughter by Judge Eddie Rodriguez Jr. in Milford Superior Court.

Street, 68, will get credit for the 23 months he has been in custody, the judge said.

Christine Simons held a photo of her son as she addressed Street in court. "You posed as the Mr. Rogers of our neighborhood, but as time went by I learned that you are a master manipulator and a child molester,'' she said.

Simons, who was 37 when he was killed, had gone to live with Street when he was young, and the older man had financially supported him. Later, he also helped to support Simons' wife and children, according to testimony Friday.

But Christine Simons said that Tony was only one of several boys and young men that Street had taken advantage of, and that the defendant had gotten her son hooked on drugs as a way to control him.

Relatives of Street, in a wheelchair and clad in a beige prison uniform, also were in court Friday, offering their support and a very different image of the defendant.

The two men became acquainted in Pacolet, S.C., but Simons later moved to Virginia.

The shooting took place when Street was staying in a Milford motel and working on a Bridgeport job site. Simons had come to visit him here and tried to get him a job, police said.

When officers were dispatched to the motel to investigate the shooting, a dying Simons had told them that his father shot him, court records show. Street had referred to Simons as his stepson. The men apparently quarreled over Simons' plans to return home, police said.

Jeff Simons told Rodriguez that none of the hotel staff had seen his brother drunk or angry that night, and if Simons intended to leave the motel using Street's truck, "why would he go back into the room?''

"Whether there was an inappropriate relationship between the two, and there were overtones of that, it's never been proven,'' said Charles Stango, the chief assistant state's attorney.

"I'd like the court to focus on what happened in that room that night,'' Stango told Rodriguez. The case was on the verge of going to trial when Street accepted a plea deal. Stango said the defendant likely would have claimed self-defense, and that Street's age and poor health might influence a jury.

"How do you get justice?'' the prosecutor asked. "How do you put your arms around all that?'' ..Source.. by Frank Juliano, STAFF WRITER