|
Archives > Volume 7 Issue 59 - October 16, 2009 Forensic artists got Jaycee's age-progression picture right...People magazine has made public the first image of Jaycee Dugard as an adult since the woman was kidnapped 18 years ago when she was just 11 years old. ABC News story here 
On the cover of the magazine, which hits newsstands Friday, a smiling Dugard with long auburn tresses looks remarkably like the age-progression image forensic artists at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children created to help in the search for the missing woman.
Click here to visit People magazine's Web site to see the cover and read more about the exclusive interview. Though Dugard and the two children she had with her alleged kidnapper, Philip Garrido, ultimately were rescued thanks more to the quick thinking of a police officer who met the suspect in August than to the image, similar age-progression photos have been instrumental in the recovery of more than 900 missing children. "The real photo of Jaycee and the age-progression are remarkably similar considering it's been 18 years," said Ernie Allen, president of NCMEC. Allen called the process by which forensic artists create digital versions of what a person might look like years after they went missing "half art and half science." Short of her hair's color and style, Dugard had many of the facial features - including the shape of her nose and mouth - experts predicted she would when they created the digital image. The NCMEC has been creating digital age-progressions of missing children since 1989, because, Allen said, "the public has a hard time imagining what a two-year-old might look like at six or eight years old and these images help the public recognize and identify missing children who have gotten older." The center works in conjunction with the FBI and distributes the age-progression images through thousands of police departments and more than 400 private distributors that plaster the images on milk cartons, mass mailings and in well-trafficked public areas like Wal-Mart stores. Forensic artists create a composite image using photos of the missing child, photos of the child's parents when they were the age the child would be today, images of the child's siblings and a vast database of 35,000 images of children of all races and ages. The most important feature in creating an age-progression image of a young child over a long period of time is the growth in his skull and face, Allen said. "If you look at the face of an infant, it's all skull and forehead. Over time, there is a lengthening of the skull. We use family photos to simulate that cranial-facial growth and then we select out features that are uniquely inherited," said Allen. "That old saw that a child has his mother's eyes or father's nose is accurate more often than not," he said. Before the image is completed and circulated, artists consult with the child's parents, particularly the mother, about personal tastes that might influence what the older child looks like since she was abducted. "In some cases a parent might say: 'I'm sure my daughter would have bangs, or I think her hair would be longer," Allen said. The NCMEC updates age-progression images every two years for children under 18 years old and every five years for adults older than 18. Though the center previously used specially designed software, today forensic artists at the center typically use the popular photo-effects software Adobe Photoshop. For more on Jaycee Dugard's story, see vol7_iss48, vol7_iss49, vol7_iss50, and vol7_iss52. For more information on NCMEC visit www.ncmec.org. Transgendered woman who posed as 15-year-old boy may have had connections to pedophile groups... He is known as Jack Stones on his Facebook page, and authorities said he used that alias last Friday when he tried to enroll as a 15-year-old freshman at Marion High School in Illinois. ABC news story here 
But by the following Monday, suspicious school officials had called the FBI and learned that Jack was born Jennifer May, and was actually 24-year-old Jack Jay Kaiser, a California woman in the midst of switching her gender to a man.
Today, Kaiser is being held in Williamson County jail on $20,000 bail, charged with lying to officials at the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services about his age and about having been abandoned or homeless. "It's really sketchy," said Marshall Stone, supervisor special agent for the FBI's Springfield, Illinois unit. "We were initially involved because we were concerned if he was a trafficking victim and needed to be identified." Now authorities are looking at a Web site created to research the "identities and pursuits" of pedophiles that may contain information about Kaiser. "We are still investigating all aspects of this case. If warranted, more charges could be filed," said special federal officer Eric Breeze, who is working with the FBI Cyber Crimes Task Force assigned to this case. The site, Wikisposure, came to light after local ABC affiliate WSIL-TV reporter Rachel Gartner reported on the story, and was alerted to it by a viewer. WSILTV News story here Wikisposure, which is part of Perverted Justice, a nonprofit group that targets alleged sexual predators, described a 24-year-old Jennifer "Jack" Jay Kaiser who was transgender and used the online name "Lyrical Cancer," and who allegedly had associations with pedophile groups. Gartner passed on the information she found on the site to the FBI, who said some of what was there matched what they were learning about Kaiser. "A lot of the information on that Web page about that person is the same information we have about Jack Kaiser," said Breeze. "Especially that he was born female and was in the process of transgender and legally changing to Jack Kaiser." "It's crazy," said Breeze, who said others in the task force, which handles child predator and computer intrusion crimes, likened the case to an episode of "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit." When the school counselors interviewed him, his responses were not typical of a 15-year-old," Marion District Superintendent Wade Hudgens said. "The person just snapped off answers that were fairly full of detail, almost like the answers were practiced. Usually, you get 'I don't know' or 'just because.'" When asked, the pair gave school officials telephone numbers from where Kaiser had attended school in Sacramento, Calif., two or three years ago. The number was "no good," according to Hudgens. But when they eventually reached the school - a junior high - they confirmed that Kaiser had attended eighth grade as a male. Later, police determined he had been "21 or 22" at the time, he said. See how this story began at vol7_iss58. In other news... 
The mother of a 14-year-old Oklahoma boy who says he was locked away in apartment closets over four years was charged Thursday with 29 counts of child abuse for allegedly torturing and imprisoning the teen. AP News story here Prosecutors allege LaRhonda McCall, 37, and her friend, Steve Vern Hamilton, 38, beat the boy repeatedly - with "fists, bike chains, cables, extension cords, and/or boards," leaving permanent scars. Hamilton is charged with 24 counts of child abuse. The charges also allege McCall tortured her son in various ways, including by tying him naked to a ladder and pouring sugar water over him to attract insects. Another time, the charges allege, she poured alcohol on him and lit it on fire, burning the boy. She also allegedly forced him to stand barefoot in the snow for more than 45 minutes. The boy, malnourished and covered in bruises and scars, sought help from a security guard at a National Guard armory on September 25. The teen told police he spent most of the last 4 1/2 years locked inside bedroom closets at various apartments where the family lived and never attended school or received medical attention, authorities said. For more on this story see vol7_iss54 and vol7_iss55.
FBI investigators are now looking for more victims after arresting a Massachusetts father of three in connection with an alleged online teen pornography case that they say netted victims nationwide. WCVB Channel 5 News story here Lawrence Joseph Silipigni, 41, of Saugus, is scheduled to appear in Federal Court in Los Angeles Thursday, charged with posing as a 17-year-old boy he met online to lure young girls to engage in online relationships. Prosecutors allege that Silipigni, a married father of three, downloaded pictures from the boy's social networking site without the boy's knowledge and then used the images to represent himself as a young male in order to appeal to minor girls. They said they found hundreds of computer videos of young girls between the ages of 10 and 16 at his home when it was searched in September. Silipigni allegedly enticed young girls to engage in sexually explicit conduct in front of their webcams, then captured the video recordings and, in many cases, uploaded the child pornography to the Internet.
A teacher at Spring, Texas High School has been charged with improper relations between an educator and student and sexual assault of a child. KHOU News story here In a letter to parents posted on the Spring ISD Web site, administrators said the DA accepted charges against Deanna Higgins on Monday. The then-16-year-old student was in her biology class. Records show Higgins ex-husband first learned of the relationship when he found text messages from the student on Higgins' cell phone. The teacher had given the phone to her son before a weekend visitation with his father. Investigators questioned the alleged victim, who told them he had sex with Higgins at her home and inside his pickup truck. The truck was parked outside Higgins' home while her three children slept inside, according to records. Higgins allegedly left a pair of panties in the truck, and the student turned them over to investigators.
Children under the age of two should be banned from watching television, according to guidelines prepared for the Australian government. The Telegraph news story here The guidelines warn that exposure to television at such an early age can delay language development, affect the ability of a child to concentrate and lead to obesity. The recommendations also suggest that children aged two to five should watch no more than one hour of television a day. The recommended viewing limits vary wildly from the actual amount of television and DVDs viewed by Australian children. Australian statistics show that four-month-old infants watch an average 44 minutes of television each day and that children under the age of four with pay television at home spend at least three hours a day in front of the screen. "Based on recent research, it is recommended that children younger than two years of age should not spend any time watching television or using other electronic media (DVDs, computer and other electronic games)," said a draft copy of the guidelines obtained by The Australian newspaper. "Screen time ... may reduce the amount of time they have for active play, social contact with others and chances for language development. "(It may) affect the development of a full range of eye movement (and) ... reduce the length of time they can stay focused." The government has refused to comment on the Get Up and Grow report for healthy eating and exercise in early childhood, devised by Melbourne's Royal Children's Hospital, saying only that the guidelines were still being finalized.
An LAPD officer and his son pleaded not guilty Tuesday to federal child pornography charges. KCAL 9 News story here John Deegan, 54, and his 25-year-old son, Jonathon, were out on bail. The father and son live together on a Belmont shore block in Long Beach. The elder Deegan, who has been with the LAPD for more than 20 years, was on paid leave. He was indicted by a federal grand jury on two counts of possession of child pornography. The Los Angeles Times reported that Deegan was relieved of duty in March when FBI agents alerted police officials that he was under investigation. Meanwhile, Jonathon, was indicted on charges of distribution, receipt and possession of child porn. After FBI agents served a search warrant on the Deegan home, they allegedly found illicit material on a computer owned by the son, as well as child porn images on the elder Deegan's computer.
Five Florida teenagers were charged with aggravated battery Tuesday for allegedly dousing a 15-year-old with rubbing alcohol and setting him on fire because he stopped someone from stealing his father's bicycle. MSNBC News story here Michael Brewer was hospitalized with burns on more than three-quarters of his body after the attack at a Deerfield Beach apartment complex. The Broward County sheriff's office said in a news release that 15-year-olds Matthew Bent, Denver Jarvis, Steven Shelton and Jesus Mendez and 13-year-old Jeremy Jarvis were charged with aggravated battery. Mendez was also charged with attempted second-degree murder because authorities say he flicked the lighter.
*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" |
Survivors And Victims Empowered
1725 Oregon Pike, Suite 106
Lancaster, PA 17601
(717) 569-0550 voice
(717) 569-3039 fax
http://www.childprotectionprogram.org