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Archives > Volume 7 Issue 34 - May 27, 2009 No abduction: They went to Disneyworld...The first bulletin Tuesday that a Bucks County woman and her 9-year-old daughter had been kidnapped made national news because it was all just so unbelievable - a car crash on a busy street, mysterious men in a black Cadillac and a mom who made a frantic 9-1-1 call while trapped inside a trunk. Philly.com news story here 
Yesterday, the world learned exactly why the saga of 38-year-old Bonnie Sweeten and her 9-year-old daughter, Julia Rakoczy, was so incredible.
It just wasn't true. And in an ending that was ironic beyond belief, mother and daughter were tracked down last night in America's ultimate land of make-believe, Orlando's Disneyworld, where police learned the pair had fled Tuesday on one-way airline tickets with $12,000 in cash. "I think I'm in a dream," her husband, Richard Larry Sweeten, told a reporter from 6ABC before his wife and stepdaughter were found. "This has taken me by such a surprise. I just want her to know she has tons of support, and whatever it is, we can work through it." He then implored: "Don't do anything stupid." The husband, like other family members and friends, seemed at a loss for Sweeten's bizarre behavior. The kidnapping ruse began to unravel early yesterday, when investigators found Sweeten's undamaged SUV on a Center City street close to where she'd apparently made the frantic phone call. A parking ticket on the windshield called into question her entire account. They also learned yesterday about Sweeten's recent and abrupt withdrawal of her 9-year-old daughter from the elementary school she attended in Bensalem - and about her alleged money problems. Last night, Sweeten's former employer, a Bucks County attorney named Debbie Calitz, who also runs a charity, alleged to the Daily News that her ex-assistant Sweeten "stole money from my law practice." Indeed, Bucks County D.A. Michelle Henry confirmed that Sweeten was under investigation for theft and was also dealing with domestic problems. Last night, the suburban mom had already been charged with making a false report and with identity theft for allegedly using a friend's driver's license to buy the airline tickets. Philadelphia hunt for missing mother and 9-year-old daughter...Pedophile is suspect in Madeleine McCann disappearance... Investigators probing the disappearance of Madeleine McCann in Portugal have identified a British pedophile as a possible suspect, a spokesman for Madeleine's parents told British media. Fox news story here 
Raymond Hewlett, 64, was reportedly living less than an hour away from the resort of Praia da Luz when 3-year-old Madeleine disappeared in May 2007, The Sun reported. Hewlett closely resembled an artist's impression of a man seen near the McCanns' holiday apartment.
He was originally given an alibi by a 15-year-old girl at the time of Madeleine's disappearance, but has since "made bizarre comments about the case to his friends and family," according to The Sun. He allegedly told a British couple vacationing in Praia da Luz that "gypsies" had offered him money to sell one of his own six children. Hewlett was jailed for a year after raping a 12-year-old girl in 1972, then got four years for attacking another girl at gunpoint in 1978. He later served a six-year sentence for a 1988 sex attack on a girl of 14 and is currently in Germany being treated for cancer. Kate and Gerry McCann's spokesman confirmed that Hewlett was "of interest" to British investigators working for the couple. "We are aware of Raymond Hewlett and the claims that have been made about him in some newspapers," spokesman Clarence Mitchell said. "The investigators searching for Madeleine are currently looking into the circumstances surrounding these claims." Madeleine's parents earlier this week announced they are going to sue former Portuguese Police Chief Goncalo Amaral for defamation. Kate and Gerry McCann are taking the action over comments made by the man who previously led the inquiry into Madeleine's disappearance. They want a gagging order to prevent further publication of Amaral's "deeply offensive" book "The Truth of the Lie." See more at vol5_iss34, vol6_iss23, vol6_iss49, and vol7_iss31. Study: Abuse, provocative images increase Internet risks for girls... A history of childhood abuse and use of a provocative online identity increase the risk that girls will be victimized by someone they meet on the Internet, according to a study appearing in the June issue of Pediatrics. CNN News story here 
While highlighting the dangers that exist for adolescent girls, the study's authors also offer a word to parents: You can lessen the risks to your children by monitoring their Internet use.
The authors sought to identify risk factors connected to increased rates of Internet-initiated victimization of girls. They also wanted to find out whether abuse victims showed increased vulnerability to online victimization. They found that girls are more likely to experience online sexual advances or have offline encounters if they have previously been abused or have a provocative avatar, which is a digital image meant to represent the user online. Those two factors pose a greater risk to adolescents than perhaps more traditionally considered risks, such as Internet naivete and sexual innocence, the study says. The authors say many Internet-initiated sex crimes originate on social networking sites, which require users to create online identities. Some sites, such as Second Life, require users to create a character to represent them in the virtual world. The program presents users with hundreds of possibilities spanning all shapes and sizes; users can choose anything from a fully dressed persona to a scantily clad one. They also can select features such as hair color and figure. Other sites, such as MySpace and Facebook, allow self-descriptions and photographs. But even there, users can choose what to post, and those identities can shape behavior and interaction online, the study says. "The extent to which provocative self-presentations ... translate into increased online advances or offline encounters is unknown, but it is plausible that these types of presentations constitute an initial invitation for exploitation and a familiar avenue by which sexual advances are initiated," the study says. The study's lead author was Jennie G. Noll of the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center in Ohio. The report appears in Pediatrics, the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics. The study is available online at http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/123/6/e1078. For more on internet safety see eGuide/introduction to online safety and eGuide/what you need to know about MySpace. In other news... 
A 23-year-old woman suffocated her son and then buried his body beneath the sand of a playground, police in Albuquerque, New Mexico, said Thursday. CNN News story here Police arrested Tiffany Toribio about 4 a.m., just hours after they said they wanted to speak to her about her missing 3-year-old son, Ty. Family members had contacted authorities, saying her son matched the description of a boy found Friday at an Albuquerque playground. Police Chief Ray Schultz said she confessed to killing the boy soon after being apprehended. "She placed her hand over her son's mouth and nose and suffocated him. She had second thoughts about what she did. She performed CPR on her son, brought him back to life and then decided to go forward with that original act she had started to commit," Schultz said. "What makes this story especially sad is, when asked the reason why she took Ty's life, Tiffany said that she did not want him to grow up with no one caring about him, the same way that she had grown up where nobody had cared about her." See also vol7_iss33.
Eighty-five percent of college students surveyed in an Associated Press-mtvU poll reported feeling stressed in their daily lives in recent months: Worries about grades, school work, money and relationships were the big culprits. CBS News story here At the same time, 42 percent said they had felt down, depressed or hopeless several days during the past two weeks, and 13 percent showed signs of being at risk for at least mild depression, based on the students' answers to a series of questions that medical practitioners use to diagnose depressive illness. Among the poll results: Nine percent of students were at risk of moderate to severe depression. That's in line with a recent medical study that found 7 percent of young people had depression. Almost a quarter of those with a parent who had lost a job during the school year showed signs of at least mild depression, more than twice the percentage of those who hadn't had a parent lose a job. More than twice as many students whose parents had lost a job said they had seriously considered ending their own life, 13 percent to 5 percent. Among those who reported serious symptoms of moderate depression or worse, just over a quarter had ever been diagnosed with a mental health condition. More than half of those who reported having seriously considered suicide at some point in the previous year had not received any treatment or counseling. Just a third of those with moderate symptoms of depression or worse had received any support or treatment from a counselor or mental health professional since starting college. Nearly half of those diagnosed with at least moderate symptoms weren't familiar with counseling resources on campus. The AP poll is available online at AP survey here. See also eGuide/depression.
A coroner's investigator says a 15-year-old student who shot himself in the head after firing a shot over a teacher last week at a Louisiana middle school has died. AP News story here Mark Goldman, the chief investigator for the Lafourche Parish Coroner's office, says eighth-grader Justin Doucet died Saturday morning at Terrebonne General Medical Center in Houma. Police say Doucet entered Jessica Plaisance's seventh-grade class and fired one shot over her head, missing her. He then walked into a nearby bathroom and shot himself with his father's nickel-plated pistol. Investigators found a suicide note and plans for a rampage in the teen's journal. ABC News story here The teacher had never taught the teen. Lafourche Parish Sheriff Craig Webre said investigators found a note describing the boy's plans to "gear up" before his spree, along with a drawing of how he'd dress. The boy also scribbled "I am king" and "y'all will die!" on a sheet of paper investigators found. Although he apparently was intent on killing people, he was armed with only four bullets for the .25-caliber, semiautomatic pistol he had taken from his father's home during the weekend. The boy's mother noticed he seemed nervous before school, but he said he was just worried about seeing his standardized test results, which were released Monday, Webre said.
Although De Jesus Melisio-Camacho had blood on his shirt when a South Sioux City police officer stopped him early Saturday morning, he had a reasonable explanation - he was walking home after a scuffle with friends. And, since Melisio-Camacho didn't fit the description of the man the officer was looking for, he let him go. Sioux City Journal story here South Sioux City Police Chief Scot Ford said that interaction probably happened just minutes after a 3-year-old girl was sodomized, raped and killed in her South Sioux City home while her family slept, unaware. But police did not yet know of the deadly assault. At 4:40 a.m. they received the initial call about the killing, from Mercy Medical Center - Sioux City, where the girl was pronounced dead after being taken there by her parents. The timing and location of the killing, coupled with "sketchy information" from the girl's brother, just a few years older than she, jibed with that of the man with the blood on his shirt. Eighty minutes after the call from Mercy, Sioux City police were arresting Melisio-Camacho as a suspect in the assault and death of the toddler. 
Following a three-day investigation by the Jacksonville, Texas Police Department into the aggravated sexual assault of two infants, a mother and son have been arrested - the son for allegedly committing the assaults and the mother for not taking action to prevent or report the abuse. Jacksonville Progress story here Dickie Paul Bellanger, 21, and Candi Jean Bellanger, 36, were taken into custody Friday morning at their home. He was charged with two counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child and two counts of injury to a child. She was charged with two counts of child endangerment. Further examination of both children, an approximately 1-year-old male and an approximately 2-year-old female, showed that their injuries were consistent with sexual assault," Detective Jason Price said. "The children were treated and released from the hospital and Child Protective Services was called. An emergency placement put the children in the custody of their paternal grandparents, who do not reside in Jacksonville." The mother of the children had been dating Dickie Bellanger, but the children do not belong to him. The two had been living together in Candi Bellanger's home. According to Price, one of the children was injured so severely that it was "having trouble moving." JPD officials said they are still investigating the victims' mother, and have not yet decided what, if any, charges will be brought against her.
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FBI Special Agent J.J. Klaver at the same time said, without elaboration, that investigators are following a number of leads in the hunt for Bonnie Sweeten and her daughter Julia Rakoczy.
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