Jessie Davis' body was found Saturday in Cuyahoga Valley National Park, still carrying her dead, nearly full-term fetus, a girl she planned to name Chloe.

Davis' boyfriend, Canton Police Officer Bobby Cutts Jr., the father of her son, was charged with two counts of murder and due in court Monday. Davis' relatives have said they believed Cutts also was the father of her fetus.

Ohio law allows a murder charge against someone accused of killing a fetus that would be able to live outside the womb.

The Stark County Sheriff's Department said in an affidavit filed Sunday that Cutts is accused of killing Davis and the fetus June 14 at Davis' home in nearby Lake Township. The document does not say how they were killed.

Davis' mother last spoke to her by phone a day before.

Davis, 26, of Lake Township near Canton, was reported missing after her mother found her grandson home alone, with bedroom furniture toppled and bleach spilled on the floor. The boy, Blake, gave investigators some of their first clues, saying: "Mommy was crying. Mommy broke the table. Mommy's in rug."

Messages left Monday for Davis' family and Cutts' attorney were not returned.

One of Cutts' former high school classmates, Myisha Ferrell, was jailed for allegedly hindering the investigation and also due in court Monday. She is accused of giving false statements to investigators, according to an inmate biography form.

Ferrell, 29, was arrested and jailed Sunday, but authorities declined to release other information, including whether she had a lawyer.

Also Monday, Davis' father, Ned Davis, thanked the thousands of volunteers who helped search for his daughter and said he was overwhelmed with grief.

"It's been, at best, it's been very, very difficult," Ned Davis said on NBC's "Today" show. "I don't believe I can really quantify what our family's feeling."

"The loss of Jessie has been overwhelming. There are no words," he said.

Sheriff's deputies and FBI agents with a search warrant broke down the door of Ferrell's apartment Saturday night, agent Scott Wilson said. She was not home during the search.

Justin Lindstrom, 27, an upstairs neighbor of Ferrell's, said officers spent two hours searching the woman's apartment Saturday night before leaving with several full, brown paper bags and bottles of bleach from the basement. Authorities would not describe what the deputies seized.

Ferrell worked at a Denny's restaurant until quitting her job Friday, Lindstrom said. A manager at Denny's confirmed that Ferrell had worked there as a dishwasher.

Lindstrom said Ferrell lived in the apartment downstairs with her 11-year-old daughter. He said she had parties every night.

Cutts also has a 9-year-old daughter with another woman, Nikki Giavasis, who now lives in Los Angeles. The two lived together for awhile, but when she began seeing another man in 1998, Cutts was accused of breaking into her home while she was inside with former NBA player Shawn Kemp of the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Cutts pleaded no contest to a disorderly conduct charge and was sentenced to three years' probation. Giavasis told police she feared for her safety. The pair are involved in a custody dispute.

Giavasis told The Associated Press they were together about four months, and confrontations began after she broke off their relationship. Giavasis said the two had several physical confrontations.

Over the weekend, people placed flowers and red and yellow ribbons just below a sign identifying Cuyahoga Valley National Park. Just down the road from where the expectant mother's body was found, someone posted a sign saying, "God bless you Jessie and Chloe, forever in our hearts."

Davis' body was found in an area with a dirt road, a small dirt parking area and a couple of benches overlooking a grassy field.

"Somebody found her and for that, I'm very appreciative," her father said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070625/ap_on_re_us/pregnant_woman_dead;_ylt=Ag5aumDvxlnNumjJWHPi9JLMWM0F

Halbach disappeared in October 31, 2005. Prosecutors say Dassey and his uncle Steven Avery murdered Halbach and burned her remains in a burn pit behind Dassey's trailer home in Manitowoc County.

A jury of nine women and three men chosen from Dane County deliberated for about four-and-a-half hours before announcing it had a verdict shortly after 9 o'clock Wednesday night. The verdict was read at ten minutes after 10 in Manitowoc County court:

Party to the crime of first-degree intentional homicide
Party to the crime of second-degree sexual assault
Party to the crime of mutilation of a corpse
The jury had the option to consider a first-degree reckless homicide charge.

Finding Dassey guilty of the more serious charge means a mandatory life sentence. At his sentencing August 6th he'll find out if he'll spend all of that in prison or if he'll eventually be eligible for parole.

**************************************************

A Manitowoc County jury convicted Avery of murder last month. "He who helps the guilty shares the crime," special prosecutor Tom Fallon quoted to begin his closing argument, then he tried to prove it during the hour and 15 minutes he addressed the jury.

Fallon told the jury he was going to show them "the big picture." He walked them through the last day of Halbach's life, pausing to point out times when, he says, Dassey had the chance to walk away or "do the right thing."

"The defendant was not someone who was in the wrong place at the wrong time; he was in the right place at the right time. He was the only person who could have saved her -- and he chose not to."

Fallon pointed out that Dassey instead, at the urging of his uncle, raped Halbach before cutting her throat, then helped carry her to the garage.

"At that moment, the defendant becomes the silent sentinel for the last moments of Teresa Halbach's life. Steven Avery returns to that garage and shoots her ten or eleven times on the floor of that garage, and in the blink of an eye the killers become pallbearers, carrying her out on the blackjack creeper to the fire that's already been started, the fire that's all ready to go."

That fire, Fallon reminded the jury, as Dassey told the investigators during his confession, contained tires and brush and other things from the family salvage yard -- items Fallon said Dassey helped to collect.

"He gets the cart. He gathers the fuel, as we've just said, and they burn her -- they incinerate her in an effort to destroy the evidence. The mutilation was made and done for the purpose of concealing these brutal, heinous acts."

Fallon says while Avery and Dassey may have tried to destroy all the evidence, they couldn't destroy the memories. He says those memories were eating away at Dassey when he confessed to investigators.

"The richness of the detail provided by the defendant in that confession tells us that it's true. You can't have that rich of detail unless you were there, unless you experienced it, unless you lived it."

"He could have called 911 at that point. He probably wasn't going to call 911, but he could have said, 'No, I don't want to do it.' He could have left. He could have gone back to his trailer but he didn't."

Fallon said the "heinous acts" were clearly Avery's ideas but reiterated to the jury that Dassey agreed to participate.

"This case is about the acceptance of that invitation -- and the acceptance of that invite speaks to the defendant Brendan Dassey."

http://www.wbay.com/Global/story.asp?S=6425441&nav=menu24_1_2

His headlines:

The VT Massacre, Cho Seung-Hui...

I've confined posts about the VT Massacre to CrimeBlog.US:

I. "Campus Shooting at Virginia Tech"
II. "Massacre at Virginia Tech: The Victims."
III. (related) "Making sense of losses: Guest blog by Kathryn Casey."
IV. "Ismail Ax and the North Korean President."

I am working on a couple of separate new entries for this particular weblog -- the last blog entry about Tom and Tillie Steeples and their crimes, and a post about complex and strange case that unfolded in Arizona just prior to the Virginia Tech massacre.

A police car met Nowak's plane on the tarmac, and the astronaut, her head covered by a jacket, was escorted down the stairs and into the waiting squad car, then driven away.

"She looked thin, looked tired," said John Gruttadaurio, a passenger who was aboard Nowak's flight from Orlando, Fla.

Nowak was charged in Orlando on Tuesday with attempted first-degree murder, attempted kidnapping and three other crimes stemming from what police described as a love triangle involving a fellow astronaut. She was released on bail but ordered to stay away from the other woman and to wear a monitoring device.

Early Wednesday, Nowak was escorted through the Orlando airport by police. She boarded the plane before everyone else and sat in the back with chief astronaut Steve Lindsey, remaining extremely quiet, passengers said.

Her arrest was a remarkable downfall for a woman whose life seemed to be on a perfect trajectory until a few months ago.

Nowak became an astronaut after winning a series of U.S. navy service awards. She had flown on the shuttle Discovery, and was a mother of three children. She said in a September interview with Ladies Home Journal that her husband, Richard, "works in Mission Control, so he's part of the whole space business, too. And supportive also."

But there were signs that not everything was right in her life.

In a NASA interview last year, before her mission aboard Discovery, she spoke about the strain her career placed on her family. She has twin five-year-old girls and a teenage son.

"It's a sacrifice for our own personal time and our families and the people around us," she said. "But I do think it's worth it because if you don't explore and take risks and go do all these things, then everything will stay the same."

In November, a neighbour reported hearing the sounds of dishes being thrown inside Nowak's Houston-area home, and the police came. And weeks ago, Nowak and her husband separated after 19 years.

The final unravelling came this week after police arrested her for allegedly trying to kidnap a woman she believed was her rival for the affections of astronaut William Oefelein.

"Perplexed is the word that I'm sticking with," said astronaut Chris Ferguson, who attended Nowak's bail hearing in Orlando with Lindsey.

Jon Clark, a former NASA flight surgeon who lost his wife, astronaut Laurel Clark, in the Columbia disaster in 2003, told CNN on Wednesday that Nowak supported his family then and he supports her now.

"She was a mother before she was an astronaut. I mean, she really was into family life, and what's happened in the last few days has just been totally a shock. She is a really wonderful, good, caring person," he said. "You have to find forgiveness and love in your heart to get her through this."

NASA needs a stronger psychological and behavioural health support system for shuttle astronauts, Clark said.

"They don't have to have any evaluation before or after a mission, and it is only when something catastrophic happens does this ever even come to light."

Police charged Nowak with attempting to murder Colleen Shipman based on weapons and other items found with Nowak or in her car: pepper spray, a BB-gun, a new steel mallet, knife and rubber tubing.

"We believe that the items that we found certainly would have caused Colleen Shipman serious bodily injury or death," Orlando Police Sgt. Barb Jones said. That was enough for probable cause, she said. The state, which has the burden of proving a case beyond a reasonable doubt, will decide on formal charges to pursue.

Nowak posted $25,500 bail Tuesday evening, and NASA put her on a 30-day leave and removed her from mission activities.

In court Tuesday in Florida, Shipman filed a request for a protective order against Nowak, asking that Nowak be prohibited from going within 500 feet of her. In the handwritten request, she described Nowak as "acquaintance of boyfriend," but did not identify the man. She said Nowak had stalked her for two months.

Nowak and Oefelein, who both live in the Houston area, had trained together as astronauts, but never flew into space together. Shipman works at Patrick Air Force Base near Kennedy Space Center.

Earlier, Nowak was quoted by police as saying she and Oefelein had something "more than a working relationship but less than a romantic relationship."

Police found a letter in Nowak's car, however, that "indicated how much Mrs. Nowak loved Mr. Oefelein," an arrest affidavit said. And Nowak had copies of e-mails between Shipman and Oefelein.

Neither Oefelein, a 41-year-old navy commander, nor Shipman, a 30-year-old engineer assigned to the 45th Launch Support Squadron, could be reached for comment Tuesday.

Nowak's home was unlit Tuesday, and her husband could not be located.

Nowak, accustomed to wearing astronaut diapers during the space shuttle's launch and return to Earth, wore them on the drive from Houston so she would not have to make bathroom stops as she raced to confront Shipman at the Orlando International Airport, police said.

Then, according to police, Nowak donned a wig and trench coat, boarded an airport shuttle bus with Shipman and followed her to her car. Nowak sprayed a chemical into the car, and Shipman drove to a parking lot booth for help.

A police affidavit made public Tuesday said Nowak had "stealthily followed the victim while in disguise and possessed multiple deadly weapons."

http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/story.html?id=43169498-25ce-4c4d-8672-53c61e56556f&k=60393

McCulloch did not name the victims during his announcement, as is common in such cases. But he acknowledged that other charges against Devlin have been filed in the kidnapping of Shawn Hornbeck in 2002 and Ben Ownby last month.

"We recognize that overall their identities are not a national secret," McCulloch told a news conference in Clayton, "and it makes it difficult for us to file these charges."

McCulloch said his office based the charges on interviews with the victims and with Devlin, who, he said, "acknowledged committing these acts."

Altogether, McCulloch said, Devlin was charged with one count of kidnapping and 17 counts of forcible sodomy relating to the abduction last month, and a second count of kidnapping and 52 more counts of forcible sodomy relating to the abduction in 2002. Each count carries a penalty of up to life in prison.

He said the kidnapping charges he filed are not substitutes for those already filed in Franklin and Washington counties. He said he filed the St. Louis County kidnapping charges to cover the forcible and continuing restraint of the victims.

"There are two ways to commit kidnapping," he said, citing Missouri law. "One is to take someone from a place where they are located, and another is to restrain them from leaving. That's the purpose of our kidnapping charges."

McCulloch spoke several times of the sensitivity of identifying victims by implication in his statement. He noted that his office rarely identifies the victims of sexual offenses, but he said he had spoken to the families of both victims and that they understood the need to press the charges.

Under normal circumstances, the Post-Dispatch would not identify such victims either.

"The family is relieved that the speculation and the wondering with respect to what happened over four years is now over," Scott Sherman, a lawyer representing Shawn and his family, said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press.

He said Shawn is "absolutely" willing to testify if the case goes to trial.

"I think he's committed to justice, as painful as it might be."

In a written statement, defense attorneys Ethan Corlija and Michael Kielty said they have explained the charges to Devlin and that he understands they are "very serious."

"We have also told Mr. Devlin that we have received no evidence from any of the prosecutors about any of the charges," the statement said.

"Common sense and the Constitution would suggest that everyone should wait to hear any evidence before reaching any final judgment."

Devlin, 41, of Kirkwood, already faces kidnapping charges in the abductions of Hornbeck of Richwoods, Mo., and Ownby of Beaufort, Mo. Washington County charged him in the abduction of Shawn, then 11, while he was riding his bicycle near his home on Oct. 6, 2002.

Franklin County charged Devlin with child kidnapping, which carries a higher penalty, in the abduction of Ben, 13, moments after he stepped off his school bus on Jan. 8. Missouri did not enact the special child-kidnapping law until after Shawn was kidnapped.

Washington County also charged Devlin with armed criminal action, allegedly for having used a handgun in abducting Shawn. Devlin remains in the Franklin County Jail near Union, Mo., on combined bonds of $4 million.

Richwoods, in Washington County, is about 40 miles southeast of Beaufort, in Franklin.

Officers found the two boys in Devlin's apartment, in the 400 block of Holmes Avenue, on Jan. 12 -- the same day Devlin was arrested and charged with kidnapping Ben. Washington County filed its charges the following week, on Jan. 17.

Investigators said Devlin confessed to having abducted Ben, although he has pleaded not guilty of the charge. Devlin's lawyers also filed pleas of not guilty on his behalf in Washington County.

Federal investigators continue to investigate the cases, as well as assist local deputies in reviewing other unsolved disappearances of children.

Devlin grew up in Webster Groves, having graduated from Webster Groves High School in 1984, and has worked at Imo's Pizza locations since he was 16. Officers took him into custody from the Imo's in downtown Kirkwood, where he had been working.

In Missouri, kidnapping carries a maximum penalty of 15 years, while child kidnapping has a maximum of life in prison.

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/laworder/story/A123E06A54904FFD86257279005C4671?OpenDocument

Mark S. Serrano, 29, of Fishkill, and Charles W. Gilleo Jr., 31, of Hopewell Junction, were each charged with a single count of second-degree murder in the death of Manuel “Tony” Morey, 33, authorities said at a Friday evening news conference.

More charges are expected after evidence is presented to a grand jury, beginning next week.

“We do not believe this was a random act,” said state police Maj. William Carey, head of Troop K in Millbrook. “We believe that we have the two people who are responsible for it and they’re currently behind bars.”

Authorities said forensic evidence and statements made by Serrano and Gilleo are part of the case but would not elaborate.

Morey and his wife Tina Morey, 30, were each fatally shot while two of their children were stabbed multiple times and the youngest, age 6, was killed by a blow to the head. The family was found Jan. 19 after a 3 a.m. fire in their rented Route 82 home, and police have said the blaze was intentionally set to cover up the killings.

Tony Morey’s car was found, burning and abandoned, less than a mile from the family’s home and, as it turns out, about a mile from Gilleo’s home on Oak Drive in the Town of East Fishkill.

A cousin of Tony Morey’s declined to comment on the arrests Friday night. Relatives of the Morey family have kept low profiles since the killings were discovered.

Police had described Tony Morey as a crack cocaine user and “low-level” drug dealer. State police Capt. Keith Corlett said authorities believe drugs were the key to Serrano, Gilleo and Morey’s relationship.

“They were acquaintances through their drug connection,” he said, noting the drugs in question were cocaine and marijuana. “It was a business relationship.”

Responding to a media report from earlier in the week, Cary stressed there was no evidence the Morey children — Antonio, 13, Adam, 10, and Ryan, 6 - were tortured.

“There are no indications that any of the children were tortured,” he said.

Serrano, an employee of Royal Carting in East Fishkill, was arrested at the state police barracks in Wappinger, either late Thursday night or early Friday. He had come in for another interview with state police, one of several authorities said they conducted with him, and was arrested during the course of the interview. Police said Serrano did not turn himself in.

Gilleo was arrested early Friday morning at his home, where state police spent the day executing a search warrant. At times, investigators appeared to be concentrating on a backyard area. It was one of several search warrants state police conducted Friday, they said.

Neighbors said Gilleo and Morey were friends, and often rode their all-terrain vehicles together around the neighborhood.

Serrano and Gilleo were being held without bail at the Dutchess County Jail. The suspects are expected to appear in Fishkill town court Thursday. Serrano also faces a charge of first-degree robbery, according to the jail - though authorities refused to address whether robbery played a part in the slayings.

The pair are accused of working together in the killings, Corlett said. Police would not say whether one man acted as a driver or what role either played during the night of the homicides.

“These two individuals acted together,” he said, adding it would be “difficult to say” if one or the other had a larger role.

Authorities refused to discuss a motive in the case, what evidence tied Serrano and Gilleo to the Morey family’s deaths or the chain of events leading to the grisly crime, which shocked the community and sparked an intensive investigation that will continue next week. They would not say if a weapon or weapons had been recovered, though earlier in the week state police had said they had an idea of what caliber weapon was used to shot Tony and Tina Morey.

Dutchess County District Attorney William Grady said authorities will seek to indict the pair on further charges in the coming weeks.

“This issue as to other additional counts and other victims will be in a future indictment,” Grady said.

State police would not comment on why troopers could be seen Friday picking through the rubble of the Morey family home, which was knocked down the night before. The house had been an active crime scene for nearly seven days when it was destroyed Thursday in less than an hour, after dark. The landlord had been given permission to demolish the building.

The gruesome crime shook the community and launched a weeklong, round-the-clock investigation by state police that included hundreds of leads.

“This was certainly not an average homicide,” Carey said. “The Morey family was attacked and viciously murdered within the confines of their home.”

http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070127/NLETTER02/70126046

FISHKILL — State police need the community's help in solving the brutal killings of a family of five in Fishkill — homicides that shocked the southern Dutchess County town.

The bodies were found in the ashes of a home at 203 Route 82 Friday morning. The Morey family — Manuel A., 33, Tina, 30, Manuel, 13, Adam, 10, and Ryan, 6, have been tentatively identified, though no forensic identifications have been made, state police said.

The five homicides are historic for Dutchess. Only the eight killings committed by Kendall Francois from 1996-98 surpass the Fishkill tragedy, according to Journal research.

Meanwhile, a mysterious car fire connected to the case was being probed.

The Dutchess County Medical Examiner's Office has ruled the deaths as homicides, state police said.

Autopsies Friday by the medical examiner's office revealed two children suffered violent deaths.

Medical Examiner Dr. Kari Reiber said one boy, approximately 10, died of multiple stab wounds. A second boy, approximately 6 or 7, died of blunt blows to the head, Reiber said. She did not specifically name each victim.

An autopsy on a third family member was planned for Friday, but will be completed today, along with autopsies for the other family members.

As police investigated the rental home owned by Tom Skaarva, who lives a few houses down from the site, roads were closed, passers-by observed the activity and word spread.

The fire was reported at 3:12 a.m. by a passer-by on Route 82.

Responding at about 3:20 a.m., the Rombout Fire Department found the house "heavily involved" in flames, according to the department. A second alarm brought neighboring fire departments to the scene and put them in place to cover those fire stations.

The Rombout department was unsure if the occupants were home and firefighters searched the structure. The fire was under control about an hour later.

The fire damage and scope of the emergency response — it drew more than a half-dozen fire departments — complicated matters for police investigators, who had to wait for the house to be cleared as a fire scene before they could begin their forensic investigation, said Maj. William Carey of the state police Troop K, based in Millbrook.

No details about possible motive or suspects in homicides were released.

"We're just starting the investigation at this point," he said.

State police, assisted by Fishkill and East Fishkill police, also are investigating a car taken from the property and found burned out on nearby Lomala Lane in East Fishkill.

"There was a subsequent report about 20 minutes later of a car fire not far from here that appeared to be related," Carey said Friday morning, standing about 150 feet from the fire scene.

All the home's windows were smashed and the inside was completely charred. The white two-story cement house has gray shingles and is about 50 feet from Route 82. The rear roof of the house was partially collapsed.

On Friday, the Wappingers Central School District dealt with the loss of three students, providing grief counseling and alerting parents to the tragic fire. Two of the boys attended Brinckerhoff Elementary School and the third boy was enrolled at Van Wyck Junior High School.

Neighbors were shocked at the sudden loss of the family, though many weren't familiar with the Moreys.

They also watched as media, including news crews from New York City, descended on the neighborhood.

The state police Forensics Identification Unit, the Dutchess County Cause and Origin Team and the state Office of Fire Prevention and Control were still at the scene late Friday.

http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070120/NEWS05/701200325

The bodies were found after fire partially collapsed the roof of the wood-frame house in Fishkill, 60 miles north of New York City.

It was not clear how the victims were killed, State Police Maj. William Carey said.

No other information about the victims was immediately available. Neighbors said the victims were renting the modest house, which is set back some 50 feet from a busy roadway amid tall trees.

"A lot of families come and go there," said Louanna Bell, who lives down the road but did not know the victims.

State police said a burned-out car found about a half-mile from the house played a role in the slayings, though it was not clear how.

http://www.dailytimes.com/wire.lasso?report=/dynamic/stories/H/HOUSE_FIRE

James C. Koepp, 47, was arrested on suspicion of killing the 38-year-old woman, her 17-year-old daughter and her 14-year-old son, Sheriff Bob Spoden said. They were found dead in their home on the outskirts of Janesville by a relative last week after they failed to show up for work and school.

Authorities have said they died of "complex homicidal violence."

Prosecutor David O'Leary said he planned to charge Koepp with three counts of first-degree intentional homicide.

Koepp was captured Tuesday evening after a sheriff's deputy spotted his vehicle weaving. An eight-mile chase reaching speeds up to 80 mph ensued. It ended after Koepp ran over spike strips, Spoden said.

Koepp was taken into custody on suspicion of drunken driving and was arrested in connection with the deaths Wednesday afternoon.

Detectives had interviewed Koepp early in the investigation as a "person of interest," Spoden said.

Killed were Daynetta Lentz and her children Nicole and Scott. Spoden and O'Leary would not comment on a motive.

There was no answer at the public defender's office late Wednesday, and the sheriff did not say whether Koepp had an attorney. No one answered the door at the Koepp home.

Koepp is listed in the state's sex offender registry as having committed a sex crime in the early 1980s. Details of the crime were not available, but he was sentenced to 10 years in prison, plus probation, and was released in 1993.

http://www.officer.com/article/article.jsp?id=34463&siteSection=1

Michael Devlin, 41, accused of holding one boy for four days and another for four years, could face additional charges stemming from the find, law enforcement sources told the New York Post.

The latest discovery came as it emerged that while his alleged kidnapper was working, teenager Shawn Hornbeck had access to a computer and may have put photos of himself online and posted a message on a site created by his desperate parents. At 1.59am on December 1, 2005, someone using the name "Shawn Devlin" asked on the Shawn Hornbeck Foundation website: "How long are you planing (sic) to look for your son?"

Shawn's parents, Craig and Pam Akers, started the foundation to find him and other missing youngsters.

Investigators refused to comment on the postings. It was not known if they were created by Shawn.

Shawn, 15, was 11 when he was kidnapped in 2002 near his rural home. Ben Ownby, 13, was held for four days after being snatched at a school bus stop in the town of Beaufort, about 80km away.

Police found the two boys on Friday in a St Louis apartment. Shawn's discovery, just one hour from his parents' home, has raised questions over why he did not seek help and how neighbours failed to make the connection between the boy who did not go to school and the high-profile campaign to find him.

As the mystery deepened yesterday, London's Daily Telegraph reported claims that Mr Devlin was abusive towards Shawn.

"For the past six months there's been a lot of banging, a lot of weird sounds, some whimpering and pleading," neighbour Harry Reichard, 33, was quoted as saying by the newspaper. "My room-mate confronted both of them about the banging but they said they were not making noise and we were mistaken."

Tom Garner, 49, said when he complained about the noise, which sounded like "a baseball bat being struck against a wall", Shawn had answered the door. "He said there was nobody there and he was sleeping. There was no non-verbal communication at all," the newspaper reported.

Mr Reichard said he only ever saw Shawn with Mr Devlin together outside the apartment but about a year ago had run into the boy on his own.

"He came up and looked at me as if he was going to say something to me but then Devlin came out and he didn't. It was very strange."

Mr Devlin, now being held on $US1million ($1.27 million) bail, was due in court last night. Lawyer Michael Kielty said he would plead not guilty.

Mr Devlin has been segregated from other prisoners at Franklin County jail in Missouri and placed on suicide watch. Mr Kielty voiced fears his client could be attacked in jail.

Mr Devlin, nicknamed Devo, grew up as one of four adopted boys in a family of six children in Webster Groves, the next town to Kirkwood.

While at school, he got a job delivering for Imo's Pizza and worked there for 25 years, rising to become the manager.

None of his co-workers suspected anything, even when Shawn once came looking for him at the pizzeria.

Bill Romer, his landlord, said: "It's strange because, frankly, he's one of my best tenants. He was a very pleasant, kind of low-key, regular guy."

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21071977-2703,00.html

The bodies of the family members were discovered Friday morning at Jacob's Mobile Home Park south of Janesville.

Danyetta Lentz, 38, her daughter, Nicole, 17, and her son, Scott, 14 were found dead in their mobile home at 3225 South Highway 51 around 9:30 a.m. by Lentz's father, said Angela Puckett, neighbor and longtime friend of Danyetta.

“Right now our detectives are reaching out and finding out what the facts are,” said Rock County Sheriff Robert Spoden.

Deputies also are gathering background details about the victims and their Thursday activities. Spoden said they had a normal day Thursday with Danyetta going to work and the children going to school. Investigators also are speaking to the victims' family members and friends, Spoden said.

An autopsy will be done on all three bodies this morning in Madison, he said. It is unclear as to when the autopsy results will be available, Spoden added.

It is still unknown how long the victims has been dead, he said. The autopsy should reveal that information.

Puckett said Nicole's boyfriend called the Lentz residence Thursday night but no one was answering the phone. The boyfriend got worried and called Puckett to find out if she knew anything.

The next morning the daycare center Danyetta worked at, Community Kids Learning Center in Janesville, tried to find out why she hadn't come to work, Puckett said. The children's school, Janesville Parker High School, also called Danyetta's father after attempts to reach Danyetta herself failed, to find out where the children where, she said.

“Danni's dad discovered his daughter and her children in the trailer,” Puckett said.

Spoden said the father immediately called 911.

“Her dad broke down,” Puckett remembers. “I don't believe this, it just makes me sick.”

The sheriff's department, along with Wisconsin State Crime Lab technicians, worked through Friday night to determine how the family of three were left dead in their home, Spoden said.

“This is in the initial stages, so we are trying to determine what happened in the last 24 hours,” Spoden said. “We want the community to know we're going to work around the clock to ensure their safety.”

Puckett said Danyetta not only worked at the daycare but she also worked at her father's restaurant. They've been close friends since Puckett moved to the mobile home park five and half years ago. Puckett said the Lentz family had lived in the park for the last 14 years.

Danyetta and Nicole baby sat Puckett's kids on occasion, she said.

“I'm in shock and I'm devastated,” Puckett said.

Danyetta didn't date because she was so dedicated to her children, she said.

“Her life was her kids. She was the best, 200 percent, devoted mother you can meet,” Puckett said.

Fifteen-year-old Desiree Meade went to school with the Lentz children.

“I've known them pretty much all my life,” she said.

The atmosphere at Parker High School Friday was one of shock and sadness. Nicole had been a junior and Scott a freshman.

“There were a lot of people crying, like people who knew them but didn't to talk them,” Desiree said. “At first when I heard about it I felt really bad about it. I'm all right right now, but it's really sad.”

Counselors were at the high school Friday to help students, she said.

“The fact is when you have three homicides, it's horrendous,” Spoden said. “It's obviously a horrific crime.”

http://www.beloitdailynews.com/articles/2007/01/13/news/news01.txt

Authorities say Kimberly Michelle Nack is a former truancy
officer for Moorhead (Minnesota) schools. They say she met the boy
while working at a youth treatment center.

Nack also is charged in East Central District Court with one
count of harboring a runaway minor.

Cass County Sheriff's Department detective Steve Gabrielson says
Nack lived in an apartment in Fargo until a few days ago. He says
she may be living in Moorhead now.

Authorities say they got a tip that a runaway 16-year-old boy
was at Nack's apartment in Fargo.

Officers checked and found the boy in Nack's apartment on
December 23rd.

Nack told authorities she met the boy while working at a Fargo
treatment center for youths.

Authorities say Nack told an investigator that when she was with
the boy she felt 16 again.

http://www.kxmb.com/getArticle.asp?ArticleId=83439

Authorities Tuesday morning confirmed that they had found "significant" evidence in those areas but had not, contrary to rampant rumors, located Jodi Sanderholm or her car. They did not specific what evidence was found.

Jodi was last seen at Subway in Ark City Friday afternoon and her car was last spotted minutes after headed east on Kansas Avenue, family and police have said.

She has not been heard from since.

Late this morning a helicopter was brought to the search area. U.S. 166 was closed while the helicopter landed.

A sheriff's deputy went up in the helicopter and it circled around the Cowley State Fishing Lake several times before landing again. It seemed to focus on the dock area.

Also, two wreckers from Arkansas City came to the lake.

Horses were added to the search efforts Tuesday. Texas-based EquuSearch helps find lost and missing people with volunteers on horseback.

"The company is providing air support, horses and other sophisticated equipment free of charge," Ark City Police Captain Sean Wallace said in a press release Tuesday.

Evidence found over the weekend led police to focus on the lake and Oklahoma state line south of the lake. They searched on foot and in the air, and used divers and search dogs to try to locate Jodi and her vehicle, Wallace said.

"It is imperative that the press and civilians stay out of areas where police are searching as their presence could destroy evidence and/or tire and foot impression that will help lead police to Jodi," the press release states.

Wallace continues to ask that rural Cowley County residents check their garages, out buildings, barns and abandoned structures on their property for Jodi's black 2003 2-door Dodge Stratus, with a license plate WOT 921.

"Basically, I think right now, they're concentrating near the state line," Kay County Undersheriff Bud Thomas said Tuesday. "But we're standing by in the event it needs to come back south again."

Cowley County Sheriff Bob Odell said that rumors are spreading quickly but aren't resembling the truth.

"Unfortunately there's a lot of rumors, and they're really not doing any service to anybody but making people anxious," Odell said.

On Monday Odell said authorities were investigating information that a letter with Jodi's name on it had been found at the bathroom at the state lake.

On Tuesday he said he could not confirm that information but said searchers had talked about mail connected to Jodi found at the lake.

Anyone with information about Jodi or her vehicle is asked to call (620) 441-4444 or 1-800-KSCRIME.

Cowley County Crimestoppers has named the Sanderholm case the crime of the month.

The group said an award will be paid for information that helps find Jodi. The award amount has not been determined.

Crimestoppers can be reached at (620) 442-7777 or (620) 221-7777.

EquuSearch has about 350 members who help find lost and missing people with volunteers on horseback.

The group started in 2000 and is dedicated to the memory of Laura Miller, who was abducted and murdered in North Galveston County in 1984. Laura was the daughter of EquuSearch director Tim Miller, the group's Web site states.

The organization in recent years has participated in searches for Tara Grinstead, Natalee Holloway and Renee Fox.

Sanderholm is a valedictorian and 2006 graduate of Arkansas City High School. She is a freshman at Cowley College and member of the danceline Tigerette team.

Her vanishing has jarred and spread grief throughout the community, which is dotted with pink ribbons and and missing posters for Jodi.

A candlelight vigil at the Ark City Dance facility on Summit Street attracted more than 400 people Sunday evening where sadness and uncertainty mixed with hope and prayer.

An Ark City man in custody on charges unrelated to the Sanderholm case has been questioned about Jodi's disappearance, Wallace said this weekend.

Wallace described the man as a "groupie" of the danceline team and said that police had been aware of his interest in the group. No update on his status in the case was provided Tuesday.

He remained at the jail in Winfield on Tuesday on $33,000 bail on three charges -- none related to Sanderholm's case, sheriff officials said.

Sanderholm's parents talked to her Friday by phone at about 10 minutes to noon, just before her disappearance.

The conversation with her mother centered around lunch plans. Jodi decided not to go with her mother to eat because she had just finished dance practice and was dirty and sweaty, Cindy Sanderholm said.

They agreed to see each other later. But she did not come home, nor did she stop by the glass company. They called her several times but received no answer.

She was last seen at Subway around 1 p.m. in her Tigerette dance jacket with her name on left side, black leggings, gray cut-off sweat pants and flip flops, the family said.

http://www.arkcity.net/stories/010907/com_0001.shtml

Sentencing on the three counts of first-degree murder was withheld until Duncan's federal trial, Kootenai County Prosecutor Bill Douglas said. If the federal trial does not produce a death sentence, Duncan could be brought back for a death penalty hearing in state court, Douglas said.

Federal prosecutors have said they intend to charge Duncan, 43, with kidnapping Shasta and Dylan Groene, and with the killing of 9-year-old Dylan in 2005.

Shasta and Dylan were taken to a remote campsite in Montana where Dylan was later found dead. Shasta was rescued after Duncan walked into a Denny's restaurant with her in Coeur d'Alene seven weeks later.

The agreement announced Monday slightly changes a plea deal Duncan's lawyers offered last week in that it keeps the death penalty option in Idaho, should a federal jury not opt for capital punishment, Douglas said.

The deal also means that the only survivor, 9-year-old Shasta, will not have to testify. She was expected to be a primary witness against Duncan at trial.

Duncan pleaded guilty to three counts of first-degree murder and three counts of first-degree kidnapping in the slayings by hammer blows of Brenda Groene; her fiance, Mark McKenzie; and Groene's 13-year-old son, Slade, in May 2005 at their home outside of Coeur d'Alene.

Under the agreement, Duncan is to cooperate fully with law enforcement officers on the state charges and the anticipated federal counts. Duncan will also provide the key to unlocking coded files in his computer that could present additional evidence in the case.

"We essentially gave up nothing," Douglas said of the plea negotiations. "It is virtually guaranteed he will face two death juries."

http://www.kirotv.com/news/10085817/detail.html

Sonoma County Superior Court Judge Rene Chouteau ordered Karr released immediately, bringing an end to his two-month odyssey in the U.S. criminal justice system after he was extradited from Thailand on suspicion of killing the 6-year-old beauty queen.

Karr, 41, was returned to California last month to face the five-year-old pornography case after DNA evidence cleared him of killing the girl in her Boulder, Colo., home in 1996.

The misdemeanor pornography case fell apart almost as quickly, as investigators admitted losing vital computer evidence that was seized from Karr in April 2001 when he was working as a substitute teacher in Sonoma and Napa counties.

Defense lawyers tried twice unsuccessfully to get the charges dismissed and were seeking to have evidence barred from trial when prosecutors gave up.

"The impression that we've had all along is that the prosecution had every intention of getting this case to trial, regardless of the evidence," said defense lawyer Robert Amparan. "I am pleasantly surprised by them having done the right thing."

Prosecutors acknowledged that if Karr were convicted he would not have served any additional time in jail, because he spent several months behind bars awaiting trial in 2001. They said they were seeking to have him register as a sex offender.

Karr fled the state after being released from jail and had been on the lam until his arrest in Bangkok, which caused a sensation when he told reporters he was with JonBenet when she died.

Karr, who moved to California from Alabama with his wife and three sons, first came to the attention of Sonoma County officials after an informant told authorities about alarming e-mails he had been sending her.

Investigators looked at Karr in connection with the unsolved 1997 murder of 12-year-old Georgia Moses, whose body was found dumped along a highway in Sonoma County, Karr's lawyers said.

The sexually explicit pictures of children were later found during a search of his home, authorities said.

His arrest led school officials to strip him of his teaching credential, and his marriage ended in divorce later that year.

http://www.ksdk.com/news/world/us_world_article.aspx?storyid=104895