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Archives > Volume 9 Issue 1 - January 5, 2011 Arrest of family acquaintance made as Jonathan Foster laid to rest...A family acquaintance has been arrested in connection with the disappearance and death of 12-year-old Jonathan Foster whose badly burned body was found in a ditch in North Hudson last Tuesday, police sources said. CBS News story here 
Mona Yvette Nelson, a maintenance worker for several different apartment complexes in Houston, was taken in custody last Wednesday morning and has been charged with capital murder for the death of the young boy.
Mona Nelson, defended herself against gruesome allegations by arguing that she is a grandmother who loves kids. ABC News story here "I'm not a monster," she told ABC affiliate KTRK. "I have five grand kids and I love kids," Nelson said. Nelson, the mother of 26-year-old twins, has been charged with capital murder and is being held without bond in Harris County Jail in Houston, Texas. Jonathan's body was identified after he vanished on Christmas Eve. His body was so badly burned that he had to be identified using his dental records. Investigators are not impressed with Nelson's plea that she is not a monster. "She is a cold, soulless murderer who showed an absolute lack of remorse in taking the life of Jonathan Foster," Houston Police Offer Mike Miller said told a press conference Thursday. "There's only been one or two people I've ever talked to that had eyes like she did; it was pretty cold." Miller also believes that Jonathan may not be Nelson's first victim. "Do I believe she's done it before? Yeah, I do. I don't believe she began and ended with the abduction of Jonathan Foster, I don't," Miller said. 
As visitors started trickling into a Garden Oaks church to pay their respects to 12-year-old Jonathan Foster Tuesday morning, family members held a brief press conference requesting a day of remembrance for a sweet, trusting boy. Houston Chronicle story here
"I just hope that he will be remembered not as the 12-year-old boy who was murdered and discarded like everyday garbage, but as the energetic young man that he was," said Jonathan's uncle, Glenn Scrimsher, 33. Archdiocese of Milwaukee files for bankruptcy... The Catholic Archdiocese of Milwaukee, which faces more than a dozen civil fraud lawsuits over its handling of clergy sex abuse cases, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Tuesday. Journal-Sentinel article here 
Archbishop Jerome Listecki, speaking on the first anniversary of his installation, said the move was necessary to fairly compensate victims and to continue the "essential ministries" of the church.
"As a result of the horrific actions of a few, there are financial claims pending against the archdiocese that exceed our means," Listecki said at a news conference at the Cousins Center in St. Francis, which houses the archdiocese headquarters. He said the recent failure to reach a mediated settlement with victims and a court decision absolving its insurance companies of liability in the cases "made it quite clear that reorganization is the best way to fairly and equitably fulfill our obligations." Victims' advocates and plaintiffs attorney Jeff Anderson characterized the filing as a ploy to protect the church and delay justice. They note that the move puts the civil fraud cases on hold, including the scheduled deposition of retired Auxiliary Bishop Richard Sklba, who has been called the "go-to-guy" for then-Archbishop Rembert Weakland in the handling of sex abuse cases. "This is about protecting church secrets, not church assets," said David Clohessy, national director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. "The goal here is to prevent top church managers from being questioned under oath about their complicity, not 'compensating victims fairly.'" Milwaukee, with an annual operating budget of about $24 million, is believed to be the eighth Catholic diocese in the United States to declare bankruptcy in response to the clergy sex abuse scandal. The others are: Tucson, Ariz.; Portland, Ore.; Spokane, Wash.; Fairbanks, Alaska; Wilmington, Del.; San Diego; and Davenport, Iowa. For more information on clergy abuse, visit eGuide/clergyabuse. In other news... 
Past allegations of child abuse, a tangled relationship history and online "chainsaw massacre role-playing" were among the subjects probed by police investigating the death of a disabled 10-year-old girl in North Carolina. Fox News story here Hundreds of newly unsealed court documents released Tuesday reveal that scrutiny in the disappearance and death of freckle-faced Australian immigrant Zahra Baker fell early on her stepmother and father, and has not wavered significantly since. Among the new information in more than 200 pages of documents is that Elisa Baker, the girl's stepmother, told Hickory police that Zahra died on Sept. 24, more than two weeks before she was reported missing. Elisa Baker's information led police to the girl's remains. Elisa Baker said Zahra had been dismembered after she died, and her remains dumped in various sites around western North Carolina. Elisa said her husband, Adam Baker, dismembered the girl and helped dump her body. Information in the warrants from cell phone records say he wasn't in the places where her remains were found, but she was. No one has been charged in Zahra's death, and the warrants don't reveal how she died. Elisa Baker is currently in jail on charges of obstructing the investigation, allegedly by writing a false ransom note. Adam Baker is free on bond after facing charges unrelated to his daughter.
An angry argument over a boy's firewood chore is believed to have triggered a 10-year-old Ohio boy to shoot and kill his mother, police indicated. ABC News story here 
The 2003 discovery of a gene variant that seems to predispose people to depression when stressed out created great excitement - and a flood of research - in the field of psychiatry. MSNBC story here In 2009, however, an analysis of research on the gene threw cold water on that enthusiasm by finding no consistent link between the gene variant and depression. Now, a new analysis restores the gene to its former reputation. The study is the most complete analysis of the research to date, said lead researcher Srijan Sen, a psychiatrist at the University of Michigan Health System. Sen and his colleagues analyzed 54 studies on the link between depression and the gene, called 5-HTTLPR. The study appeared in the January 2011 issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry, and the abstract is available online at bstract here. For more on teen depression visit eGuide/depression.
An Australian investigation has unearthed an international network of pedophile parents who abuse their own children and share images of the assaults. The Age story here The operation by Queensland police, Task Force Argos, has led to the break-up of the major international pedophile ring of parents, with arrests in the US and Britain. Children are increasingly stepping forward and telling school officials, doctors and the police when they have been the victims of crime or abuse, U.S. researchers said. Reuters article here A telephone survey of more than 4,500 U.S. children and teens done in 2008 found that nearly half who experienced violence, abuse or crime told someone at school, the police or a doctor or nurse. That compares with 25 percent of cases in a similar study done in 1992, David Finkelhor of the University of New Hampshire and colleagues reported in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine. *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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