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Archives > Volume 7 Issue 61 - October 23, 2009 7-year-old missing girl Somer Thompson's body found in landfill...Florida police have tentatively identified a child's body found in a landfill as that of a 7-year-old girl who vanished while walking home from school on Monday. Fox News story here 
Sheriff Rick Beseler said Thursday that Somer Thompson was identified based on clothing and a birthmark that matched an "odd-shaped" mark on her left shin.
The little girl was found partially covered in a Georgia landfill near the Florida state line, after investigators followed garbage trucks leaving the neighborhood where Somer disappeared. Beseler told an early-morning news conference that investigators searched through 100 tons of garbage before finding the missing child. The sheriff said he had told the girl's mother to prepare for the worst, and called her Wednesday night after receiving the news that the body was Somer's. Somer's father, Samuel Thompson, gave an emotional interview Wednesday before the remains were identified saying he knew it was probably his daughter in the landfill. "I'm so angry. I'm so hurt," Thompson, of Graham, North Carolina, told the Florida Times-Union as he wept. "My baby daughter laying in trash. Discarded like a piece of trash. God help the sons of bitches who hurt my daughter. They better find them." The cause of death hasn't yet been released, but the Georgia Bureau of Investigation planned an autopsy Thursday in Savannah. "We hope to learn the cause and manner of the death that will assist us in the criminal investigation we are actively undertaking at this time," Beseler said. "The early discovery will be tremendously helpful in this investigation to help find the person or people responsible for the death of this beautiful child." Beseler said he still fears for the community until a suspect is caught. "This is a heinous crime that's been committed," the sheriff said. "And we're going to work as hard as we can to make this community safe." He wouldn't talk about what evidence police have recovered, or whether investigators believe the crime was committed by one or more people. He said police have questioned more than 70 registered sex offenders in the area, and that process was continuing. Report: Five children die each day from abuse or neglect... A new report out today found that on average, five children died from abuse or neglect every day in the United States between 2001 and 2007. ABC News story here 
The report by the advocacy group Every Child Matters, estimated that more than 10,000 children died over the same time frame.
In 2007 alone 1,760 children died, a 35 percent increase over the death rate in 2001. And, due to poor reporting and record-keeping in many states, the actual number is estimated to be as much as 50 percent higher. Texas was found to have the highest number of deaths, 228, attributable to child abuse in 2007, but Kentucky had the highest per-capita rate at 4.09 deaths per 100,000 children. The full report is available online at http://www.everychildmatters.org/images/stories/pdf/wcdb_report.pdf. Armed with these grim statistics, experts and activists are mobilizing this week to demand expanded federal efforts - including more money and tougher oversight - to reverse a recent rise in the number of children dying from abuse and neglect. AP News story here In other news... 
Missouri authorities are looking for a 9-year-old girl who did not return home after visiting a friend. Columbia Missourian story here Cole County Sheriff Greg White says Elizabeth Olten did not arrive home Wednesday evening after leaving a friend's home about 6:15 p.m. She was supposed to walk a quarter mile to her home on Route D near St. Martins, just west of Jefferson City. Her family called police when she had not arrived by 7 p.m. Elizabeth Olten has long brown hair and was last seen wearing a pink sweater, T-shirt, blue jeans and white shoes. Anyone with information regarding this incident should contact the Cole County Sheriff's Office. Authorities believe no foul play was involved in the disappearance of the Jefferson City-area girl, and they continue to search a wooded area in St. Martins near her home. Jefferson City News-Tribune story here
Two Ohio teenagers forced to sleep in cages (see vol3_iss52, vol3_iss53, vol3_iss54, and vol3_iss59) have sued their adoptive parents and caseworkers who arranged the adoptions. Fox News story here The lawsuit was filed Tuesday in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court in Cleveland on behalf of 18-year-old Sharen Gravelle and 17-year-old Michael Gravelle. Their adoptive parents, also named Michael and Sharen, are now serving two-year prison terms for abusing some of their 11 adopted special-needs children. The suit also targets caseworkers and the Hamilton County Department of Job and Family Services in Cincinnati. The suit says the Gravelles were unfit to be parents and should never have gotten custody of the children.
A south Kansas City man allegedly used sedative-laced ice cream to drug young girls and pose them for pornographic pictures, according to court documents. Kansas City Star story here Images of at least eight girls who appeared to be unconscious were found by investigators after they seized a computer from the home of James Phillip "Phil" Edwards, federal prosecutors revealed in court documents. Some of the images were contained in a file entitled "Consuming the date rape drug." A federal grand jury Wednesday indicted Edwards, 60, on charges of advertising, possessing and attempting to distribute child pornography. The indictment replaces a criminal complaint filed last week against Edwards after authorities searched his home and arrested him. Police and prosecutors declined to say how many potential victims there were or how Edwards had gained access to them. Officials said the investigation was ongoing.
A federal judge this week threw out Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart's lawsuit seeking to force Craigslist to pull online ads Dart says sell sex. Chicago Sun-Times news story here U.S. District Judge John F. Grady ruled that ads offering "adult services" aren't explicitly offering sex, and Craigslist is an "intermediary," and is not "culpable for aiding and abetting" customers who "misuse their services to commit unlawful acts." "Sheriff Dart may continue to use Craigslist's Web site to identify and pursue individuals who post allegedly unlawful content," Grady wrote in his ruling. "But he cannot sue Craigslist for their conduct." Dart filed suit earlier this year, seeking to force the San Francisco-based site to eliminate the erotic services section that he said his officers have monitored to make hundreds of arrests for prostitution, juvenile pimping and human trafficking.
The 6th child sex abuse case against a former teacher at Shanley High School is now filed. This after a Fargo man came forward saying he was assaulted on a school sponsored trip in the 70's, when he was 14. WDAY news story here The suit blames Raimond Rose, the Fargo Diocese, Shanley, and the Christian Brothers of the Midwest province which runs Shanley and employs Rose. The complaint made by the now 47-year old David Gaffaney charges that the three Catholic institutions committed negligence and fraud because they represented to students and families that Rose was safe, when they knew he had sexually abused at least one boy before coming to Shanley. Gaffany's attorney, Patrick Noaker, says the goal of this case is to stop Rose from harming anyone else and to get money for treating Gaffany's drug and alcohol abuse and other issues he says stem from his interaction with Rose. The cleric has worked in North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin and California, and faces accusations of molesting children in each one of them. Two cases were settled in California. For more on related issues, see eGuide/clergy abuse and eGuide/educator abuse.
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