News of Doom 2.0

SHALTOM CITY -- The Tarrant County medical examiner's office has ruled that the death of an 8-month-old girl in her baby sitter's care was a direct result of being left in an unventilated closet and covered with a blanket on a hot summer day, records show.

Brittaney Stembridge's lifeless body was found July 24, next to a hyperventilating 10-month-old in a closet strewn with clothing, by baby sitter Jayne Lynn Stephans, according to an arrest warrant.

The 18-year-old had put the infants in the closet so they would stop crying and go to sleep, the arrest warrant affidavit states, adding that Stephans had turned off the air conditioning in the apartment and was checking on the children periodically.

Stephans gave Brittaney cardiopulmonary resuscitation for about four minutes, but it was too late, 911 recordings indicate.

Preliminary findings led investigators to believe that the child's body had overheated. Now her death has officially been ruled as hyperthermia, or heat exhaustion.

Stephans was arrested Aug. 3 on suspicion of two first-degree felony counts of injury to a child causing serious bodily injury and one count of endangering a child, a felony, in another incident involving a toddler in June.

COLUMBUS, Ga. - Police in Columbus, Georgia, have arrested three women, including an Alabama woman, who are accused of forcing a pregnant 16-year-old to drink turpentine in an attempt to cause an abortion.

Authorities charged the girl's mother and two cousins Friday on charges of criminal abortion.

Investigators have NOT determined whether the turpentine has had any toxic effects on the teen -- who is three months pregnant -- or her unborn child.

Columbus Police Sergeant Debra Bohannon says there is NO medical evidence that would support you can induce an abortion by giving her turpentine. Bohannon alleges the girl's mother and cousins twice forced her to drink turpentine between September 12th and September 20th.

Arrested were 44-year-old Rozelletta Blackshire of Columbus, the girl's mother. Two others were charged in the case -- 26-year-old Shonda Blackshire of Columbus and 28-year-old Monica Johnson of Eufaula, Alabama.

Police were notified after the girl told her school counselor that her mother made her drink turpentine.

A man repeatedly stabbed his toddler and estranged wife along an interstate while horrified people watched from their cars in rush-hour traffic Friday night, police and witnesses said.

The 2-year-old girl was in a car with her parents when her father started stabbing his wife with a kitchen knife along Interstate 110 near the Governor's Mansion, said Cpl. L'Jean McKneely, a Baton Rouge Police spokesman.

When the 26-year-old woman got out and ran for help from an East Baton Rouge Parish sheriff's deputy in squad car just ahead of them, her husband stabbed his daughter, McKneely said.

'He kept stabbing her until the knife was stuck in her head,' witness Gloria Spears told WAFB-TV.

The man then put the girl on the highway and drove off, side-swiping the deputy's car and striking his wife, police said. He sped into downtown Baton Rouge and knocked down at least three utility poles before his car hurtled through the air and overturned on top of another vehicle.

All three were taken to Our Lady of the Lake Medical Center. The child was in 'extremely critical' condition, with a cut 'along her midsection and a kitchen knife lodged in her head,' McKneely said.

Her mother, who was thrown 20 to 40 feet by the impact of the car, also had numerous stab wounds, he said. She was expected to live. The man was being treated for minor injuries, McKneely said.

MILFORD, Michigan — An ex-prison officer in Michigan has been charged with pimping out and raping his 26-year-old daughter, according to a media report.

The suspect advertised his daughter's sexual services on the Internet, and sexually assaulted her and three others, authorities told the Detroit Free Press.

The daughter is serving time in jail after pleading guilty to prostitution.

"It's a mess," Milford police Lt. Tom Callahan told the Free Press on Thursday. He said the investigation began several months ago, and police are trying to learn whether there were other victims.

"If everything that is alleged is true, he's pretty sick," Callahan said.

Their names are being withheld to avoid disclosing the identity of a sexual abuse victim.

EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. Sep 23, 2006 (AP)— A woman was charged Saturday in the deaths of a pregnant acquaintance and the fetus authorities believe she cut out from the slain woman's womb.

Tiffany Hall, 24, was charged as authorities searched for the dead woman's three children, ages 7, 2 and 1. Authorities say they were last seen with Hall on Monday, three days before she was taken into custody.

Hall was charged with first-degree murder and intentional homicide of an unborn child in the death of 23-year-old Jimella Tunstall, said St. Clair County State's Attorney Robert Haida.

An autopsy showed Tunstall bled to death after sustaining an abdominal wound caused by a sharp object, believed to be scissors.

EDWARDSVILLE, Illinois (AP) -- A man who admitted in court to tearing off the head of a kitten after a fight with his girlfriend has been sentenced to two years in prison.

When it comes to animal abuse cases, "we don't get prison sentences all the time, so it's always good when we do," Stephanee Smith, a spokeswoman for the Madison County state's attorney's office, said Tuesday of the case against Jacob Thornton.

Thornton, 21, was to have had a preliminary hearing last Thursday on the felony animal torture charge but instead pleaded guilty, Smith said.

A judge ordered Thornton's sentence to run concurrently to a prison term related to a parole violation on a 2005 aggravated battery conviction.

Authorities say that after a July 28 dispute between Thornton and his live-in girlfriend, the 30-year-old woman left the home before returning to find her kitten's head and detached body in the front yard.

The student credited with stopping a conspiracy to attack Green Bay East High School came forward publicly Wednesday.

Matthew Atkinson, a senior at East High, says he knew it was the right thing to do. In the eyes of the mayor and school superintendent he is a hero, but the 17-year-old doesn't see himself that way.

"I think of it as, I'm just saving my fellow students' lives."

The potentially life-saving move to tell authorities about an alleged Columbine-like plot wasn't an easy one for him. Atkinson says he knew about the plot since at least last Wednesday, maybe sooner -- the district attorney cautioned him and reporters not to go into detail about the case, which is under investigation -- but he went home, and then he went to his mother.

He told her what he'd heard, and asked her what to do. She left it up to him. "I was told this, went home, and it was on my mind for a while. Told my mom about it and everything I had heard. She said, 'Do the right thing. It's up to you.'"

"This was in no way easy for Matt. I mean, he was very upset knowing about this and really needed to talk. I think it really just comes down to, like he said, do the right thing, think of your conscience, and that's what he did," mom Nancy Dury says.

The next morning, he went to his associate principal and told him what he knew.

Atkinson says he is overwhelmed and shocked to learn so many details of the alleged plot and about all of the weapons and ammunition police say they found at the suspects' homes. He says now he realizes he did the right thing by telling.

The mayor, district attorney, and school administrators said they hope his coming forward sets a good example for other people to do what he did. The mayor went so far as to suggest creating a Matt Atkinson hero scholarship fund.

Atkinson's mother says she hopes other parents and students can learn from her son so next time they, too, do the right thing.

Atkinson says, "Whether you think it's going to happen or not, go for it, there's no harm in telling somebody about it."

DENVER, Colorado (AP) -- A woman was tied to a vehicle with a rope and dragged through suburban streets in a gruesome crime that left a trail of blood more than a mile long, police said.

Neighbors discovered the woman's body before dawn Monday about 20 miles south of Denver. On Tuesday, sheriff's deputies were still trying to learn her identity.

The victim's face was unrecognizable and an orange tow rope was found around her neck.

Preliminary autopsy results indicated the woman died of asphyxiation and head injuries from being strangled while dragged by a vehicle, sheriff's spokeswoman Kim Castellano said. Toxicology results could take three weeks.

Castellano said investigators Tuesday detained several witnesses for questioning. No one had been arrested or identified as a possible suspect, she said.

A photo of an unidentified couple was found nearby, but investigators did not know whether it was connected to the death, Castellano said.

The blood was cleaned off the paved road, but traces remained, upsetting neighbors.

SALEM, New Hampshire (AP) -- A Maine couple accused of tying up their 19-year-old daughter, throwing her in their car and driving her out of state to get an abortion were upset because the baby's father is black, a Maine sheriff said Tuesday.

Katelyn Kampf, who is white, told Cumberland County Sheriff Mark Dion that her mother "was pretty irate at the fact that the child's father was black, and she had made a number of disparaging remarks about that," he said.

Katelyn Kampf escaped Friday at a Salem shopping center and called police, who arrested her parents, Nicholas Kampf, 54, and Lola, 53, both real estate developers from North Yarmouth, Maine.

The Kampfs were apparently taking their daughter to New York to try to force her to get an abortion there, police said.

If convicted of kidnapping, the Kampfs face 7-1/2 to 15 years in prison. Dion said he expects to bring charges in Maine also, after investigators consult with the district attorney Wednesday.

The couple's attorney has said there was no evidence the parents threatened their daughter or her unborn child.

"What we're dealing with here is a terrible family tragedy with some unfortunate misunderstandings and some overreaction, perhaps on all sides -- but not an attempt to terrorize anybody," Sisti said at Monday's arraignment.

According to a police affidavit, there was no evidence the daughter remained tied up by the time the Kampfs entered New Hampshire, he said. The affidavit also said Katelyn Kampf told police she was not hurt and that she and her parents "had been talking cordially" during the trip.

Dion said Katelyn Kampf told him her parents got upset when she called them Thursday night and told them she was pregnant. The Kampfs had met her boyfriend before and been friendly, but the pregnancy apparently "changed the dynamic," he said.

Katelyn Kampf said her mother "kept referring to the baby as a thing, as 'It,' and there were other comments made," he said.

The boyfriend, 22-year-old Reme Johnson, last week began serving a 6-month sentence for theft at the Androscoggin County Jail in Auburn, Maine. He also has previous felony convictions for burglary and receiving stolen property, the Portland Press Herald reported.

Peggy Johnson did not return a message Tuesday morning, but she told The Boston Globe in Tuesday's editions that Katelyn was telling the truth about the chain of events.

"She has no reason to lie. They found all the stuff in the car. She would not have gone with them," she said.

Investigators said rope, duct tape, scissors and a .22-caliber rifle were found in the Kampfs' Lexus and Nicholas Kampf had a loaded .22-caliber magazine clip in his pants pocket.

Authorities in Maine said the parents apparently thought that, in light of their daughter's stage of pregnancy and the different abortion laws in each state, the abortion should be performed in New York. It was unclear how many weeks pregnant she was.

(CBS/AP) A man suspected of kidnapping a 14-year-old girl and keeping her in an underground bunker was charged Sunday with raping the teen, Kershaw County Sheriff Steve McCaskill said.

Kershaw County Sheriff Steve McCaskill said Vinson Filyaw had eluded police with an elaborate system of hideouts and bunkers since November 2005, when he was charged with criminal sexual conduct on a 12-year-old girl.

He surrendered Sunday morning to police as he walked along Interstate 20 near Columbia, about five miles from where investigators found the teenager.

Police say Filyaw, 36, abducted the girl as she walked home from a school bus stop on Sept. 6.

Investigators arrested Filyaw in neighboring Richland County about 24 hours after rescuing the girl, who sent a text message to her mother on Filyaw's phone while he was a sleep Wednesday, McCaskill said. The sheriff said Filyaw woke up and the girl still had the phone, but she told him she was simply playing with the phone.

The girl was found Saturday about a mile from her home, hidden in a booby-trapped, 15-foot-deep hole carved out of the side of a hill and covered with plywood.

From the outside it looked like nothing more than a hole in the ground, reports CBS News correspondent Jim Acosta. But inside, there were lanterns, a small stove and food.

The chamber had a hand-dug privy with toilet paper and shelves made with cut branches and canvas, the police said.

McCaskill said it looked like Filyaw was trying to dig another bunker under that one as a possible backup hiding place, but had to abandon it when it filled with water.

Filyaw had dug two bunkers in his own yard and two in the woods and had used them to hide out since he was charged in the assault case in November.

His girlfriend Cynthia Hall has been charged as an accessory and with neglect in the earlier case, McCaskill said. Investigators say she allowed the earlier assault to take place in her home and provided Filyaw with supplies to live in the bunker.

Police were tipped off to Filyaw's location Sunday after getting a call from a woman who said he tried to carjack her about 2 a.m. outside a pizza restaurant, authorities said.

Filyaw was on foot — about five miles from his house — carrying a pellet gun, a Taser and a long hunting knife when police captured him. He gave up easily, McCaskill said, adding that he doesn't think the suspect had any help escaping.

Investigators said Filyaw posed as a police officer when he met the 14-year-old girl and the teen was walked around in the woods by her captor until she became disoriented. He used handmade grenades and a flare gun to threaten her while she was in the bunker, McCaskill said.

The bunker was protected by a booby-trap.

Filyaw also has been charged with kidnapping, possession of an incendiary device and impersonating an officer, McCaskill said.

A one-armed teenager managed to transform a Center City mall's extra-large bathroom stall into his very own pedophile haven where, cops say, he sexually assaulted his 6-year-old niece on Monday.

The little girl - clad in a navy- blue uniform - lay stiff on the floor as her uncle knelt below her with his face between her legs, witnesses said.

His jeans, the witnesses said, were pulled down around his thighs.

The horror took place inside the second-floor men's restroom near the food court at the Shops at Liberty Place on Chestnut Street near 16th, police said.

Witnesses said there were a half dozen people in the restroom at the time, but only one man alerted a mall worker.

The 19-year-old uncle, who is missing his left arm, was quickly arrested and charged with rape, statutory sexual assault, false imprisonment and other crimes, police said.

The girl was treated at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital and released to relatives, police said.

"It was a sick thing to see," said mall housekeeper Roland Harris, 57, who led police to the girl.

Harris said there had been a handful of guys in the restroom during the attack. However, he said, only one ran up to him to tell him what was going on.

The housekeeper said he raced into the stall and saw the little girl "stretched out on the floor."

"I shouted, 'What the hell are you doing to this little girl?' " said Harris.

Harris asked a co-worker, Sami Arrington, 29, who ran into the restroom behind him, to guard the uncle while Harris ran to the nearby food court to find a cop.

Arrington said he watched in disgust as the teen struggled to buckle up his pants.

Arrington said he had yelled at the teen, "What are you doing?" He said the little girl was sitting on a toilet seat sobbing.

"I am not raping her," Arrington said the defendant had told him. "I was helping her to use the bathroom."

Police said it wasn't the first time the teen had attacked the child.

"He had the confidence and trust of this little girl," Darby said, "and we believe that he molested this child more than once."

MAUCHE, Kenya (Reuters) - Kenyan followers of a U.S.-based religious sect which predicted the world would end after a September 12 outbreak of nuclear war moved into bunkers on Wednesday despite the failure of their prediction.

Dozens of members of the House of Yahweh -- dressed in gas masks, gloves and long overcoats -- have built a network of underground hideouts in the small highland village of Mauche.

They have stocked the bunkers with dried fermented flour meant to feed them for a year, by which time sinners would have been wiped off the Earth, according to their beliefs.

"Those who have been doubting us will in hours be ashamed and if the effect of the war is not felt here, then let the police arrest us," Mosheh Sang, leader of the sect in Kenya, told journalists while packing sacks of flour into a bunker.

"We shall stay in the bunkers for a period of one year."

According to Sang, a nuclear war between the United States and North Korea only failed to kick off Tuesday as expected due to difference in international time zones.

"Members of our sect who are in the U.S. will not be affected as they are protected by Yahweh," Sang added.

"September 12...You need to put this date on your bathroom mirror. You also need to make preparations for the dark days ahead, which will affect every person on earth," the site says.

"There is a place of safety but like their unbelief in the Sabbath, the world will not believe this message, neither will they repent of their sins of murder, fornication, or theft. You need to start training now in the ways of Yahweh."

Deep underground on the Franco-Swiss border, someone will throw a switch next year to start one of the most ambitious experiments in history, probing the secrets of the universe and possibly finding new dimensions.

The Large Hadron Collider - a 27km-long circular particle accelerator at the CERN experimental facility near Geneva, will smash protons into one another at unimaginable speeds trying to replicate in miniature the events of the Big Bang.

"These beams will have the kinetic energy of an aircraft carrier slammed into the size of a zero on a 20p piece," Brian Cox of Manchester University told the annual meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science.

"We are going to make mini Big Bangs.

If the theories are correct, the machine will create tiny black holes that evaporate and possibly even find particles that offer evidence that the three dimensions known to mankind are just a fraction of those that exist.