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Archives > Volume 7 Issue 25 - April 7, 2009 Sandra Cantu's body found...
The remains of a missing Northern California girl were found Monday in a suitcase recovered from a pond a couple of miles from where she was last seen more than a week ago, authorities said. MSNBC News story here
Farmworkers draining the irrigation pond found the suitcase containing Sandra Cantu's body, Tracy Police Chief Janet Thiessen said at an evening news conference. Thiessen said the 8-year-old was wearing the same clothes she wore when last seen on March 27: a pink "Hello Kitty" T-shirt and black leggings. Authorities planned an autopsy to determine the cause of death. Sandra's disappearance sparked a massive search effort around Tracy, about 60 miles east of San Francisco, that included hundreds of volunteers and law enforcement officials, including the FBI, and more than 1,000 tips. Before the evening's dramatic announcement, investigators cordoned off the area surrounding the pond for hours and combed it for clues, as television trucks and reporters gathered in the flat farmland nearby. See more at vol7_iss24. US Supreme Court blocks federal sex offender release... 
The Supreme Court has blocked the imminent release of dozens of sex offenders who have served their federal sentences after the Obama administration claimed many of them remain "sexually dangerous." CNN News story here
Chief Justice John Roberts on Friday ordered that the men be kept in custody while the case works its way through a federal appeals court, which had ruled as many as 77 North Carolina inmates should be released, some as early as next week. At issue is whether the government has the power to indefinitely detain prisoners who have served their sentences but could pose a public threat upon release. Such laws are known as "civil commitments." The Justice Department filed papers with the high court Friday, asking that any release be put on hold until the justices have more time to consider the larger legal issues raised in their appeal. Such an early release "would pose a significant risk to the public and constitute a significant harm to the interest of the United States," wrote Solicitor General Elena Kagan, who took office this month. The Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act passed by Congress in 2006 included a provision allowing indefinite confinement of sex offenders. A federal appeals court in Richmond, Virginia, ruled lawmakers had overstepped their authority, prompting the emergency appeal to the Supreme Court. The law was named after the son of "America's Most Wanted" host John Walsh. The boy was kidnapped and murdered by a suspected child molester in 1981. Four inmates brought suit against the law. They were serving sentences of up to eight years for sexual abuse of a minor or possessing child pornography. Their detention was to have ended two years ago, but corrections officials and prosecutors determined they remained a risk for further sexually deviant behavior if freed. The inmates argued such continued imprisonment violates their constitutional right of due process. One year later, no regrets in Texas for FLDS raid... 
The dramatic removal of 439 children a year ago from a polygamist settlement was a sound decision and the state would not hesitate to respond the same way again, Texas' top child protection official said. Houston Chronicle news story here
"Texas will not idly stand by while they sexually abuse children," Anne Heiligenstein, commissioner of Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, said, referring to her agency's findings that 12 teen girls living on the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints' ranch in West Texas were married to adult men. Heiligenstein, named DFPS commissioner in December, said her agency's staffers acted correctly, made no mistakes and returned the children to a far healthier environment than the one they were taken from on April 3, 2008. "We not only brought this issue of abuse to the light of day but we educated FLDS mothers and children about abuse, what it looks like and how to report it," the commissioner said. "The environment that the children returned to is safer than the one they left." Heiligenstein, whose agency oversees Texas Child Protective Services, made the statements at a news conference held on the anniversary of the children's removal. A year ago Friday, CPS officials were dispatched to the breakaway Mormon sect's Yearning For Zion Ranch after a caller claiming to be an underage FLDS bride said she had been sexually and physically abused by her adult husband. While the call was later determined to be a hoax, CPS workers made the decision to remove the children after they found several teens who were either pregnant or mothers. As a result of the CPS investigation, 12 men, including Jeffs, have been charged for their roles in underage marriages. Those trials begin in the fall. See more at vol6_iss78. In other news... 
Prosecutors in Florida released additional evidence Monday that they say links Casey Anthony to the murder of her 2-year-old daughter Caylee. Fox News story here The new files, released on DVDs, cover interviews with Roy Kronk, the utility worker who first alerted authorities to remains of a body in August, and the deputies who first responded to those calls. There are also interviews with jail guards who oversaw Anthony when her daughter's remains were found. A jail supervisor said in one of the interviews that Anthony asked jail medical staff for a sedative after learning of the discovery. The released documents are available online at My Fox Orlando news story here. See more on this story at vol6_iss78.
Researchers at the Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London have published new research which indicates that women with severe mental illness are more likely to have been abused in childhood that the general population. But the same association has not been found in men. Science Daily story here Women with psychosis were twice as likely to report either physical or sexual abuse compared to healthy women. But no such association was found in men. The researchers suggest that one explanation for this is that girls are more likely to 'internalize' difficulties than boys. In other words, girls who are abused may distance themselves from other people, and become overly suspicious of other people's behavior. This may put them at greater risk of psychotic symptoms in the future, such as paranoid delusions. In contrast, boys may be more likely to 'act out' following physical abuse and potentially be at greater risk for antisocial behavior.
Four Oregon teens accused of planning a school shooting were arrested Thursday on charges of conspiracy to commit aggravated murder, police said. KPTV News story here Investigators said information being shared between the suspects was found that indicated a possible plot to kill students and staff of both Cascade Middle School and Cascade High School. Investigators said they are withholding the teens' motive until the investigation is complete. Police didn't release any details on potential targets or the weapons that were planned to be used. "We believe the investigators and officials involved in this case came together quickly and did an outstanding job in preventing a very real threat to the personal safety of students and staff," Marion County Sheriff Russ Isham said. Marion County deputies said the investigation into the plot began Wednesday when the Aumsville Police Department received an e-mail warning about the potential threat.
A new drug-free therapy wipes away fearful memories in rats and humans. The simple treatment might eventually help patients with post-traumatic stress disorder, say researchers. ABC News story here The new procedure relies on a quirky property of memories called reconsolidation. The process of jogging a memory - with an emotional or sensory jolt, for instance - seems to make it malleable for a few hours. Potent drugs that block brain cells from making new proteins can erase fearful memories during this window. But these chemical are toxic, and wholesale memory erasure could do more harm than good, says Karim Nader, a neuroscientist at the McGill University in Montreal, Canada, who performed some of the drug studies. In search of a gentler way to block fearful memories, Marie Monfils, a neuroscientist at the University of Texas in Austin, tweaked a therapy sometimes used to treat PTSD, called extinction. Here, doctors repeatedly deliver threatening cues - gun shots, for instance - in safe environments in hopes of drowning out the fearful associations. Monfils theorizes that extinction therapy alone creates two parallel memories linked to the tone or blue square, one fearful, one not. Waiting for reconsolidation to kick in overwrites the original memory instead of making a parallel memory, she says.
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