The Child Protection eNewsletter

Anti-social networking…

A teenager who admitted plotting a school attack near Philadelphia had communicated online about the Columbine massacre with a teenage outcast who killed eight people and himself in a high school shooting in Finland, the Pennsylvania boy's attorney said. Read More But the teen was "horrified" when he found out about the Finnish attack and said he never would have suspected him of following through with a violent act, the attorney said.

Finnish police said material seized from the computer of Pekka-Eric Auvinen suggests the 18-year-old had communicated online with Dillon Cossey, 14, who was arrested in October on suspicion of preparing an attack at Plymouth Whitemarsh High School in suburban Philadelphia. The attack never took place.

Cossey's attorney, J. David Farrell, said that he showed Auvinen's online screen name to the Pennsylvania boy and that his client remembered communicating with the Finnish teen in August or September about video games and the 1999 Columbine massacre in Colorado and exchanging videos they found on the Internet.

"They had discussed certain video games and shared videos with each other," Farrell said. "Obviously, Columbine was a shared topic of interest."

The two met through the YouTube video-sharing site, Farrell said. They also exchanged posts on a Web site dedicated to the Columbine killers, traded e-mail and likely chatted on certain Web sites, he said.

Auvinen killed six students, a nurse and the principal in Tuusula, about 30 miles north of the Finnish capital, Helsinki. He then shot himself in the head and died hours later at a hospital. (See vol5_iss73)

Sex offender's body burned, beheaded…

Residents along a cul-de-sac told police they saw a small fire near the spot where the burned and beheaded body of a convicted sex offender was found. Read More

Police said the fire was seen Wednesday night near Hidden Ridge Drive about 20 miles northwest of Detroit in Northville Township, the Detroit Free Press reported.

The body of Daniel Gene-Vincent Sorensen, 26, of River Rouge, was found about 9:30 a.m. Thursday at the end of the cul-de-sac by a township sewer and water department crew, according to the Free Press and The Detroit News.

He was identified by the Michigan State Police through a fingerprint taken from his burned hand. The print also revealed Sorensen had been a registered sex offender in Illinois.

Two teens have been charged in the brutal decapitation death in what prosecutors are calling a "thrill kill." Read More

Not guilty pleas were entered Monday in Romulus District Court for Jean-Pierre Orlewicz, 17, and Alexander James Letkemann, 18, on one count each of first-degree premeditated murder, felony murder and mutilation of a corpse in the death of Sorensen.

Prosecutors allege the men lured Sorensen to the Canton Township home of Orlewicz's grandfather. "They lured him in the garage where they prepared a space to kill him," Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said.

A tarp had been spread on the garage floor, and Sorenson was stabbed multiple times in the back. His head was sawed off and his body wrapped in the tarp, authorities said.

They allegedly used a blowtorch on his hands and feet in an attempt to remove his fingerprints, officials said.

His torso was driven in a pickup truck and dumped in a Northville Township cul-de-sac where it was set on fire with gasoline. The utility crew found it the next morning, police said.

His head was dumped in the Rouge River near the border between Dearborn Heights and Detroit. It was found Saturday.

"They made plans on how they were to clean up the blood," Worthy said. "They made plans on how they were going to dispose of the body. No matter how malicious we all think it may be, it was very thought out and very methodical."

Prosecutors say the teens killed the man for the thrill of it. Read More

Nebraska teacher who fled with student fired…

The Nebraska middle school teacher accused of having sex with a 13-year-old student and fleeing to Mexico with him has been fired. Read More Without public comment, the Lexington School Board voted 6-0 Monday night to terminate Kelsey Peterson's contract.

The sixth-grade teacher had been put on administrative leave late last month after allegations surfaced that she was having an inappropriate relationship with the student.

Peterson, 25, fled Lexington with the boy, a former student of hers, on October 26. They were found in a mall parking lot in the border town of Mexicali, Mexico, on November 2. (See also vol5_iss71 and vol5_iss72)

She faces a federal charge of crossing state lines to have sex with a minor, which is punishable by 10 years to life in prison and a $250,000 fine. A judge denied bail for her last week. Peterson also has been charged in Dawson County, Nebraska with felony counts of kidnapping and child abuse and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

Earlier Monday, Peterson's attorney said she could be guilty of nothing except poor judgment. James Martin Davis said that a kidnapping charge against Kelsey Peterson should be dropped because the boy went with her willingly, and that the boy shares more responsibility for their relationship and flight than authorities allege. "It's my understanding he was grooming her and she wasn't grooming him," Davis had the gall to claim.

The boy remains in Mexico because of his immigration status but might be able to return to Nebraska, at least temporarily, if he is granted a "U" visa. The visas are used to encourage illegal immigrants to report crimes against them.

Back in August, the rumor around Lexington Middle School was that 25-year-old math teacher Kelsey Peterson had a boyfriend -- a 13-year-old former student. Read More People had complained to administrators three months earlier that Peterson spent too much time hanging out with the kids.

When new complaints reached administrators linking her to the student in August, her principal gave her a verbal warning, but that was it. "We did not put an investigator on her and watch her," said district Superintendent Todd Chessmore, who has ordered all school and district employees to not speak with reporters. "We did not see this as something except for something we needed to deal with in a very informal manner."

Experts who study sexual misconduct by teachers say district officials should have seen a bad situation when they first fielded complaints, and done more. "If a school district has reason to give warning, you conduct an investigation," said Robert Shoop, director of Kansas State University's Cargill Center for Ethical Leadership. "You don't just say 'Be a good person,' and then go about your business as if nothing has ever happened. You have to pay attention to what's going on."

In other news…

Social networking giant MySpace stumbled to its knees at the hands of a cyber superbug recently, falling ill to a severe phishing epidemic that is plaguing a vast and vulnerable segment of its membership. Read More

The viral scam, which targets the site's younger users, promises victims a free $500 Macy's gift card. It sounds like a steal. And actually, it is. It's the stealing of a member's identity. The spam scam involves users unknowingly sending their MySpace friends e-mails and posting comments on their profiles that plug a ploy for the supposedly free gift card that they'll never actually see, touch, or spend.

A man charged in the rape and murder of his 9-year-old stepdaughter told investigators he took part in the crimes, according to court filings. Read More Barry County prosecutor Johnnie Cox declined Monday to call David Spears' statement a confession, saying that the term can be vague and misleading. Spears, 25, and his friend Chris Collings, 32, are charged with first-degree murder, forcible rape and statutory rape in the death of Rowan Ford. Her body was found in a southwestern Missouri cave about 10 miles south of her home in the village of Stella.

A missing 15-year-old Salt Lake City girl helped police find her and catch her alleged kidnapper this week by sending text messages to her family throughout her ordeal. Read More

Ginna Pineda disappeared Monday, leaving a note that said Martin Melendez-Borunda, her 19-year-old boyfriend, had forced her to go with him by threatening to kill her family if she didn't. "I have to do this even if I don't want to do it," the note said, according to court documents. "I love you all and I have to sacrifice myself for you all, love you. If you go to Mexico one day, look for me." Police used the girl's text messages to track them to New Mexico, where Melendez-Borunda was arrested. Charges of second-degree kidnapping were filed against him Wednesday in the 3rd District Court in Salt Lake City. Pineda's family believed Melendez-Borunda was angry because they had kicked him out of their house for being verbally abusive to the girl, according to court documents.

The Diocese of Scranton, Pennsylvania has agreed to pay $3 million to settle claims brought by a former altar boy who said he was sexually abused by a priest. Read More The victim said former Roman Catholic priest Albert M. Liberatore Jr. sexually abused him from 1999 to 2002, when he was a teenage altar boy at Sacred Heart of Jesus Church in Duryea. Liberatore, now 42, pleaded guilty in 2005 in Luzerne County and New York to sexually abusing the victim. He was given 10 years probation and defrocked.

Meanwhile, a 79-year-old nun has pleaded no contest to two counts of indecent behavior with a child for incidents involving male students at a Milwaukee elementary school where she was principal in the 1960s. Read More A complaint filed against Norma Giannini said many of the incidents took place at a church convent and the St. Patrick's School office while the boys were middle-school aged. The two boys, who are now adults, said Giannini had sexual contact with them dozens of times.

*for access to member only sites like the New York Times, use the ID "JohnDoeID" and the password "whatever". On sites asking for an email address, feel free to use "info@childprotectionprogram.org"