News of Doom 2.0

A toddler suffering third-degree burns over much of his lower body may lose his legs because of his injuries.

Authorities say the boy, who is under 2 years old, suffered the burns over about 40 percent of his body after he was dipped in boiling water by his mother and her roommate.

The boy's mother, Latasha Spencer, 21, and her roommate, Krystal Swift, 23, both of the Century Woods Apartments, each face a charge of aggravated battery of a child, a Class X felony, in relation to the child's injuries. Investigators believe he was injured on April 11 at the apartment complex, 1400 5th St., Rock Island.

The boy was being treated at University of Iowa Hospitals in Iowa City, Iowa, and doctors there were unsure if they would be able to save his lower limbs, Rock Island police Detective Patti Jo Dooley said Tuesday at Ms. Swift's preliminary hearing.

Ms. Spencer allegedly dipped the boy into the water to "steam" him, in an attempt to hide beating injuries on his body, Detective Dooley testified. Department of Children and Family Services officials were already investigating the family when the alleged incident took place.

She told police she gave birth to twins in 1996, but one of the babies died a few days later as a result of neglect, and Josef F. removed the infant's body and burned it.

A South Side woman was charged Tuesday night with murder in the April 4 death of her 5-month old child that she allegedly admitted to drowning in a bathtub because being a mother was disrupting her social life.

Killed was Makalah Rodgers, of the 7800 block of South Ingleside Avenue, who was pronounced dead Friday April 4 at Advocate Trinity Hospital at 3:17 p.m., according to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office.

Rozlynn Rodgers, 19, of the 7800 block of South Ingleside Avenue, was charged with murder Tuesday at 6 p.m., according to police News Affairs Officer Laura Kubiak. She allegedly left her baby daughter to drown in their home at the Ingleside Avenue address, according to Kubiak.

Police originally believed the death was an accident because the woman said she stepped away momentarily while giving the child a bath and when she came back, the baby accidentally drowned.

Later, she allegedly admitted to she didn’t want to have a baby because it was disrupting her “night life,’’ according to Calumet Area detectives.

MIAMI -- Police are searching for a father accused of inflicting a day of torture on his 12-year-old son, repeatedly burning him with an iron.

Detectives said Cedrick Brown was reuniting with his son after Brown spent three years in prison.

The reunion allegedly turned abusive April 12 when, police said, Brown asked his son, "Are you ready for your beating?"

What followed, according to detectives, was a day of torture, with the boy being stripped naked, beaten and whipped, and then burned repeatedly with an iron. Police said Brown also threatened to castrate the boy and bit his fingers and toes several times.

Police said after the abuse, Brown and the boy's grandmother, Annette Brown, kept him home from school and away from doctors, fearing the abuse would be detected.

New Castle police charged 23-year-old Mark Strickler in connection with the death of a toddler on Wednesday.

They said Strickler beat his girlfriend's 18-month-old son inside his house so badly that it put him in a coma.

The boy was on life support for 11 days, but died Tuesday night.

New Castle Police Chief Tom Sansone said there were injuries all over the baby’s body, including the face and chest.

MERIDEN, Conn. - Two family friends accused of depriving a toddler of fluid for a week as punishment for bed-wetting appeared in court Wednesday to face charges in his death.

Police said 23-month-old Amari Jackson died of dehydration while Sharon Patterson and her brother Robert Patterson were caring for him in February.

Investigators said glasses around the house were laced with hot sauce to keep the boy from drinking.

According to an arrest warrant affidavit, Robert Patterson told police that the boy cried for his mother when he began staying with him and his sister, but "towards the end of his stay Amari was crying for something to drink."

Amari was pronounced dead at to Yale-New Haven Hospital, where medical records indicate that he "appeared wasted" and had "sunken eyes."

Sharon Patterson, 39, was charged with manslaughter, cruelty to persons and risk of injury to a minor. Her 31-year-old brother was charged with cruelty to persons and risk of injury to a minor.

Amari's mother, Sara Hicks, said she has been friends with Sharon Patterson's daughter since they were 8. She said Sharon Patterson offered to care for her son for about a week because she was sick with a fever and caring for her 8-month-old daughter.

Sharon Patterson told police she had been drinking and smoking marijuana the day before Amari died, according to an arrest warrant affidavit. She also told them she had previously lost custody of four children because of drug addiction. Attorneys said in court Wednesday that she has mental health issues.

Instead, defense attorney Richard S. Mazawey said in court Tuesday that a psychiatrist he plans to use in the case wants to consult with a toxicologist he just hired. Mazawey said his expectation is that the toxicologist would opine that Zarate couldn't knowingly waive his legal right to remain silent because of the effects of "marijuana laced with PCP lingering in his system."

WARDSBORO, Vt. — A woman reported missing with her two daughters waded into a brook carrying one of them and eluded a rescue attempt before mother and child were swept downstream to their deaths, police said Sunday. The second child's body was found later.

Searchers found the bodies of Nicole Waring and her 6-year-old daughter downstream in Wardsboro Brook on Saturday. They found the body of her 2 1/2-year-old daughter downstream Sunday.

"For whatever reason, it was a deliberate action," said Vermont State Police Capt. David Covell, who stopped short of calling the river plunge a suicide.

Waring, 40, was reported missing early Saturday after she disappeared from her parents' Wardsboro house with the two girls, the state police said.

As troopers began preparing a search party, State Police Sgt. Robert McCarthy spotted Waring and a child standing on the edge of the brook, about 100 yards from the parents' home, Covell said.

McCarthy tried to talk to Waring, but she ignored him and walked into the water holding the child, police said.

She was standing near a rock in turbulent, waist-deep water when McCarthy reached for her, but she pushed away from the rock and eluded his grasp, plunging into the brook with daughter Dakota in her arms before being swept away, Covell said.

"The sergeant tried to communicate with her. She didn't respond at all. He was in close enough proximity that she should've recognized his presence," Covell said.

Preliminary autopsy findings on Waring and the 6-year-old suggested they drowned, Covell said.

The 8-year-old boy lay in an intensive care unit bed last night, swathed in bandages, hooked to machines and comforted by relatives.

Second-grader Christian Engle, suffering broken bones and a concussion, hardly stirred. He held his mother's hand with his left hand, the good one. Much of his right side wasn't so fortunate.

The injuries were serious, but he was alive. He has Dianna L. Sharp to thank.

Sharp took her role as a Hilliard school crossing guard seriously.

As the crossing guard at Scioto-Darby Elementary School, she would usher her young charges safely across Scioto Darby Road each morning and again each afternoon, parents and neighbors said.

And some of those children would take the short walk to Sharp's home after school, where she would keep them safe until their parents could pick them up, they said.

Yesterday, shortly after 9 a.m., Sharp paid the ultimate price as a protector of those children.

Realizing that a dump truck bearing down on her and Christian was not going to stop, Sharp either pushed the second-grader clear or shielded him with her own body as the truck slammed into them in a crosswalk in front of the school, Hilliard Police Chief Rodney Garnett said.

Sharp, 41, was flown to Ohio State University Medical Center with severe head injuries. She died there at 10:20 a.m.

Christian's condition had improved from critical to poor last night at Nationwide Children's Hospital.