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Archives > Volume 7 Issue 14 - February 27, 2008 Facebook, MySpace reveal pain of musician's daughters before shocking murder-suicide... A day after four members of a Miami family were found shot to death in an apparent murder-suicide by the musician father, those who knew the Amadors say they're baffled about what led to their violent end. Fox News story here 
But the MySpace and Facebook pages of the daughters of Pablo Josue Amador, 54, shed light on the inner turmoil his daughters were apparently feeling mere hours before the murders.
"Crying/hurting inside. Don't know how to deal. Not even gonna try attempting anymore," wrote Amador's oldest daughter Beula "Bea" Beatriz Amador, 20, on Facebook at 1 a.m. Wednesday, according to the Miami Herald. She didn't go into detail in the posting written just five hours before her mother Maria Amador and younger sisters Priscila and Rosa were killed. Bea Amador, a student at the University of Miami, was not home and not among the victims of the massacre–nor was her 16-year-old brother, who escaped. "I have gone through so much and yet I still try to stand tall, because this whole world is coming down on me, and me blocking it hurts more and more," Priscila, 14, wrote on MySpace. "That's why I don't care anymore." The Miami Herald reports that a few weeks before Pablo Josue Amador shot and killed his wife and two daughters before taking his own life, 14-year-old Priscila Amador told two classmates her father had molested her since she was in elementary school. Miami Herald news story here One student advised her mother of the allegation and then told reporters about it outside the Amador home in Perrine on Wednesday, hours after the killings. The other classmate alerted her father, who told The Miami Herald on Thursday that Priscila had given a "desperate" letter to his daughter before her death. Holyoke teacher, kidnapped teen found in West Virginia motel... A Massachusetts teacher and her 15-year-old student, who disappeared a week ago after the boy's parents complained about the woman's relationship with their son, have been found in Morgantown, W.Va. MSNBC News story here 
State police in West Virginia said they arrested Lisa Lavoie, 24, of Ludlow, Massachusetts, shortly before midnight Monday after she was located at a Super 8 motel.
"My office received notification from the state of Massachusetts, the police department there, that they had a child abduction and that they were currently in the Morgantown area in a local motel," Corporal T.W. Goodnight said. "We responded to the motel and found her vehicle there. Confirmed with the desk clerk that they were in fact there. We went to the room and took her into custody." Lavoie was being held in West Virginia Northern Regional Prison on a kidnapping charge and was scheduled for a hearing later Tuesday. In Massachusetts, authorities said she will face a charge of child enticement. In other news... 
Three people in Louisiana agreed to swap two young children for a $1500 cockatoo and $175, police charge. The Smoking Gun story here The exchange was hatched after Donna Greenwell, a 51-year-old trucker, learned that the bird was being offered for sale by Brandy Romero, 27, and Paul Romero, 46. According to Evangeline Parish Sheriff's Office investigators, Brandy Romero told cops that Greenwell contacted her and said that while she could not afford the cockatoo's price tag, she did have children to trade (in a bid to sell the bird, the Romeros posted a flyer at a barn, where Greenwell spotted the notice, which included a photo of the cockatoo). Investigators have determined that Greenwell is not the mother of the children, a four-year-old girl and a five-year-old boy. It appears as if the children, whose mother is a criminal fugitive, have resided with various families over the past several years, and have spent the past year in the custody of Greenwell, a convicted pedophile with a lengthy rap sheet. Greenwell and the Romeros have each been charged with aggravated kidnapping.
Teenagers who are preoccupied with their Internet time may be more prone to aggressive behavior, researchers reported Monday. Fox News story here In a study of more than 9,400 Taiwanese teenagers, the researchers found that those with signs of Internet "addiction" were more likely to say they had hit, shoved or threatened someone in the past year. The link remained when the investigators accounted for several other factors–including the teenagers' scores on measures of self-esteem and depression, as well as their exposure to TV violence. The findings, published online by the Journal of Adolescent Health, do not however prove that Internet addiction breeds violent behavior in children. 
A former Blackman High School teacher indicted for solicitation of minor students can't teach in kindergarten through 12 grades as a part of his guilty plea to four charges of "sexting" students earlier this month in Circuit Court. Murfreesboro Post story here English teacher Jason Lancaster, 36, was indicted in December on three counts of solicitation of a minor to commit aggravated statutory rape, three counts of sexual exploitation of a minor and four counts of solicitation of a minor to commit statutory rape by an authority figure. Sheriff's Detective Mickey McCullough said at the time he received complaints of inappropriate behavior by Lancaster toward students. "The allegations were of inappropriate contact with children of a sexual nature," McCullough said. Lancaster pleaded guilty to solicitation of a minor by electronic means, solicitation of a minor to commit aggravated statutory rape and two counts of official misconduct. As part of his plea, he was placed on probation four years.
There's still no firm proof that raunchy music makes kids have sex, but a new study provides another suggestion that there's at least some kind of link between "degrading" songs and teenage sexual activity. Medline plus news story here The findings indicate that "people who are exposed to certain messages in music are more likely to copy or emulate what they hear," said Dr. Brian A. Primack, a pediatrician and lead author of the study. In other words, teens who hear about degrading sexual practices in their favorite songs might decide to try them out themselves. However, it's also possible that the reverse is true: Kids who have sex just happen to like raunchy music. Expanding on previous research that linked sexually charged songs to sex itself, the researchers surveyed 711 Pittsburgh-area ninth-grade students in 2006 and 2007 about their sexuality activity and the songs they liked to listen to. The researchers then determined how many of the 279 most popular songs in 2005 were "degrading" because they referred to sex that's "based only on physical characteristics" and features a "power differential" instead of being mutually consensual.
Less than three weeks after he was sentenced on his last case, a 64-year-old Utah man has been arrested again on two counts of aggravated sexual abuse of a child. Standard Examiner news story here Michael John Taylor, of the unincorporated community of Taylor on the county's west side, was charged Tuesday for offenses alleged to have occurred December 1. North Ogden police arrested Taylor on Monday. He was again released from jail the same day on a $40,000 bail bond. Taylor was sentenced on February 2 to probation on a similar case on the condition he complete sex offender therapy and drug and alcohol counseling. The Weber County Sheriff's Office had investigated those allegations of molestations on January 31, 2008. Charges of aggravated sexual abuse of a child were originally filed against Taylor, according to court records, but were later reduced to misdemeanors in a plea bargain. While noting that victims are always advised of, and usually agree to, plea bargains by the Weber County Attorney's Office, Sheriff's Detective Sergeant John Morrow was annoyed to hear Taylor had been arrested again. "I'm not happy he's out," Morrow said. "One case should be enough. It's frustrating."
Abuse in early childhood permanently alters how the brain reacts to stress, a Canadian study suggests. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7901337.stm Analysis of brain tissue from adults who had committed suicide found key genetic changes in those who had suffered abuse as a child. It affects the production of a receptor known to be involved in stress responses, the researchers said. The Nature Neuroscience study underpins the impact of stress on early brain development, experts said. Previous research has shown that abuse in childhood is associated with an increased reaction to stressful circumstances.
A federal judge in Connecticut has ordered a man convicted of possessing child pornography to pay about $200,000 in restitution to a woman photographed as a child while being sexually abused. Fox News story here Senior U.S. District Judge Warren W. Eginton said his ruling Monday was the first criminal case in which someone convicted of possessing illegal images–but not creating them–is required to pay restitution. The case involves Alan Hesketh, a British citizen who was sentenced in October to 78 months in prison for possessing and distributing nearly 2,000 photographs of child pornography. The resident of Stonington, Connecticut was a vice president of New York-based Pfizer Inc., the world's biggest drug maker. Pictures of the victim as a child being subjected to sexual abuse turned up in Hesketh's collection, according to prosecutors. "There is a feeling of revulsion about this type of conduct," Eginton said, noting that Hesketh and his family were humiliated and his career was ruined. Eginton added, "We're dealing with a frontier here." But he said judges have discretion with criminal restitution orders. "We think this is a terrific precedent," said Ernie Allen, president of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. "The photos stay out there forever. Every time they are downloaded, every time they are distributed, the victim in that image is revictimized." *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" |
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