U.S.

Yeadon police have charged a Northeast Philadelphia man with raping a dying 70-year-old nursing-home patient with Alzheimer's disease and a brain tumor. Doctors say she has less than six months to live.

Timothy Patrick White, 46, waived his preliminary hearing yesterday and was held for trial on 15 counts of rape and related charges.

Police say that White took the victim from the Manor Care Nursing Home to a Southwest Philadelphia bar for rum-and-cokes, then to Cobbs Creek Park, where they drank beer until 5:30 a.m. on July 22.

When he drove the woman back to the nursing home, staffers went to help her out of the car and noticed that White was "not wearing a shirt and his pants were unbuttoned," according to the affidavit for his arrest. They also found bruises on the victim's mouth, neck and arms, and discovered that she was not wearing any underwear. White told workers he was "a friend of hers," then drove away, police said. It was unclear how White was able to leave the home with the woman.

A DNA sample taken from White matched semen recovered from the victim's anal cavity, according to police.

Splain said that the victim doesn't have the ability to form consent - which automatically makes it a rape case - and that doctors believe that she suffers from vascular dementia in conjunction with a brain tumor.

ATLANTA -- An Atlanta mother of eight was murdered outside an Atlanta check-cashing store this weekend, police said. The family made an emotional plea for help Wednesday to find her killer.

Someone shot Stephanie Seabrum in the back as she left a check-cashing store in Hightower Plaza in southwest Atlanta Saturday. Police said two men jumped her as she left the store and one of the men was caught on camera.

Seabrum’s mother said Stephanie had really pulled her life together. Stephanie had gotten a job she loved last year as a dental assistant after going to school for it in her mid-30s. “Stephanie was doing great,” said Sharon Seabrum.

“After I heard the shot, they started running around, you know, running this way, getting ready to bend the corner so I started running behind them,” said Stephanie’s boyfriend, Gregory Parks. “But when I got around the corner, I didn’t see anybody.”

Parks was in the car in the parking lot when the shooting occurred. “I was saying, ‘Please don’t leave me, don’t leave me baby,’ and she started squeezing my hand real, real tight,” said Parks.

“With the help of God, I’m doing pretty good...so far,” said Sharon Seabrum.

Stephanie Seabrum had eight children -- ages 19 to 2 years old. Stephanie's family said her 19-year-old is in his freshman year of college.

Atlanta police are asking anyone with information to give them a call. Police said the right tip could bring a reward of up to $2,000.

PALM BAY, Fla. -- A crying Brevard County teenager faced a judge Tuesday morning for allegedly killing and nearly decapitating his neighbor. The 16-year-old boy, who calls himself a psychotic killer, was arrested Monday for allegedly breaking into a Palm Bay woman's home and then slashing her throat.

Alan Michael Tanguay shivered and cried as he appeared before Judge Bruce Jacobus during Tuesday morning's court appearance. He was given a public defender and ordered to be held for 21 days, which is not unusual with juvenile offenders facing such charges.

The boy bragged about crimes long before the horrible murder and police said he even claimed he's murdered before. He told his friends that, so in addition to investigating the murder that took place, police have contacted authorities in several other states the teenager lived in to see if he committed other murders similar to the one here.

After a pre-dawn raid on the teen's Palm Bay home, Alan Michael Tanguay was led away to jail, arrested for allegedly killing 58-year-old Patricia Kaliszeski in one of the bloodiest murders detectives can remember. His neighbors couldn't believe he was responsible.

Police said the high school dropout spent his days smoking marijuana, drinking beer and playing violent video games.

"I like gory (expletive), like people getting their neck slit and tounge (sic) pulled out," Tanguay wrote on his MySpace page.

Investigators said Tanguay walked to the woman's house and followed through with a personal rule that he would kill the homeowner if they caught him burglarizing their house. Police said he stabbed Kaliszeski multiple times, but during his confession said he was trying to ease her suffering when he nearly decapitated her.

Tanguay began bragging to friends before the body was discovered and, once they learned he wasn't joking, they turned him in.

Police said Tanguay told his friends precise details about the crime that only the killer would have known and showed them his batting gloves he wore and the Vans tennis shoes that left the Vans imprint in the blood stains on the floor of the house.

Investigators said Tanguay stole around $6 and that he intended to use it to purchase beer.

DETROIT -- Police are investigating the death of a 4-month-old infant, who was shot in the head after armed gunmen sprayed a hail of bullets into the picture window of his mother's apartment early Sunday.

The incident happened at about 4:30 a.m. at the Premier apartments in the 18000 block of Lasher on the city's west side, Deputy Chief Marshall Lyons said. About 10-13 bullets shattered the picture window, with at least one slug striking Walter Bogan III. The child was taken to Sinai-Grace Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Police believe the shooting was a result of an argument between two groups of men, but officials do not know the nature of the conflict.

The infant was lying on the couch next to his 25-year-old mother near the front door when the shooting happened. They were the only people inside the apartment, police said.

"We are trying to figure out why they were targeted. But this was not random," Lyons said. "The mother is helping the best she can. She is naturally distraught."

There was no known drug activity at the apartment or any reports of calls for police service at the complex, police said.

Other neighbors said they were awakened by the sound of several shots Sunday morning but declined to comment, fearing the shooters' return.

EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. - A 34-year-old woman with the mental capacity of a 6-year-old was virtually defenseless to beatings inflicted by live-in, teenage cousins, and could not cry out for help in a home that had no telephone, investigators say.

She weathered the floggings for more than a year, absorbing blows from everything from a broom to iron pipe and extension cord -- all of it directed by an aunt whose death last week from a massive heart attack left the victim an escape hatch, police said.

On Tuesday, two days after police entered the picture, the victim was hospitalized with broken bones, bruising and malnutrition that sent her weight below 100 pounds. But she was expected to recover from the ordeal that an investigator found quite easy to categorize.

"This is bizarre," police Detective Michael Floore told reporters, after prosecutors charged two of the victim's cousins with aggravated battery.

Police say the victim and three of her cousins -- ages 17, 16 and 13 -- lived with the aunt and an uncle. The aunt directed the beatings because the victim gave the woman "a hard time" and didn't wash the dishes, they said.

Additionally, Floore said, the aunt "had a bad heart and couldn't do (the beatings)" herself.

The aunt's husband tried to intervene, "but his wife turned against him," Floore said.

"He had a bad heart himself, so he left it alone," the investigator said.

St. Clair County prosecutors charged 17-year-old Davion Cutler on Tuesday with aggravated battery, accusing him in the criminal complaint of striking the victim on the back with an extension cord. He was jailed on $50,000 bond, and it was not immediately clear if he had an attorney.

Davion Cutler's 16-year-old brother was charged with battery as a juvenile and was in youth detention, his name not released because of his age. Police also were looking for the boys' 13-year-old sister although they did not say whether she was involved in the abuse.

The abuse surfaced Sunday, when workers at a hospital told police they were treating a malnourished, mentally challenged woman with beating-related injuries, investigators said.

When police went to the home, the teenagers tried to flee. But officers quickly caught Cutler and his brother, who admitted they had beaten the victim with a broom, pipe and "a switch," police Detective Orlando Ward said.

The two teenage boys, without being encouraged, also beat the 13-year-old girl several times a day, Floore said.

The victim told police the home had no telephone, crimping her ability to call out for help, Floore said.

"She said she sat on the front porch a few times but would never tell anybody about what was going on, mostly because she was mentally challenged and didn't know what to do actually," Floore said. "She can talk, but she's slow capacity. She may have the mind of a 6-year-old."

A young cancer patient is putting out a call for help after someone broke into his family's home and stole his brand new puppy.

What's worse, investigators believe whoever did it knows the family and the fact that the little boy is sick.

Ryan Morgan was first diagnosed with neuroblastoma four years ago, and he has been fighting his cancer on-and-off ever since.

Ryan turned 10 in July, and his parents gave him a miniature dachshund for his birthday to help him keep his spirits up.

"Whenever I went to the hospital or something, I would always think of her, and it would make me happier," he said. "I really like her. She's cute."

Ryan and his family were stunned when they returned to their Barrow county home two weeks ago to find that someone had broken in and stolen the puppy named "Dixie" from inside her crate.

Investigators were able to recover a fingerprint and a footprint from the scene.

They told the Morgans they believe teenagers who know the family are responsible.

Along with Dixie, who's 13 weeks old, the thieves also took Ryan's Wii entertainment system, his mom's computer which was filled with photos of ryan and her jewelry case with some of the trinkets Ryan made for her over the years.

"We're just trying to get Dixie back," Ryan said. "That's pretty much all I want."

"He just loves here to death, we all do," said Missy Morgan. "We desperately want her back."

To contact investigators with information, call the Barrow County Sheriff's Department at 770-307-3084.

Authorities today released new details about the arrest of a man suspected of keeping a 13-year-old girl as a sex slave near Moorpark.

Shawn Damon Barth, 46, was arrested Monday morning when Ventura County sheriff's deputies, who were watching him, stopped his pickup truck in the Ventura area, said Detective Eric Buschow.

Authorities suspect Barth raped the girl daily for the past three months in a motor home parked in an orchard near the 4000 block of Hitch Boulevard west of Moorpark, Buschow said at a press conference at the Sheriff Department's Thousand Oaks station.

The suspect was scheduled to be arraigned in Ventura County court this afternoon on charges of child rape, oral copulation on a child and continuous sexual abuse. He was being held in Ventura County Jail today in lieu of $1 million bail.

Barth allegedly kept the girl isolated in the motor home, parked more than a mile from the road, except when he allowed her to go to school, authorities said.

Barth claimed he was the girl's guardian, though he does not have legal custody of her, said Moorpark Police Chief Capt. Ron Nelson.

Authorities did not say exactly how the girl ended up living with Barth.

She was not kidnapped or reported missing, Buschow said.

Buschow said Barth previously had a relationship with the girl's mother, but he did not elaborate.

He declined to discuss the girl's mother other than to say she is a witness in the case and that she is cooperating with police.

The girl did not tell anyone about the abuse.

After she was taken into protective custody, she told authorities Barth threatened her and she was afraid to leave, Buschow said.

"She was a psychological prisoner," he said.

Barth first had contact with the girl in San Bernardino County, and investigators believe they may have traveled around Southern California in the motor home, Buschow said.

The abuse may have gone on for years, Nelson said.

He does not have a permanent job, and supports himself by collecting various items and selling them them at swap meets, Nelson said.

The motorhome where the alleged abuse occurred has a small surveillance camera above the door.

MESA, Ariz. — A baby is recovering after a carjacker tossed her from a stolen car, Phoenix police said.

It happened Saturday after two armed men carjacked a woman in Phoenix. One of the men flung the woman's 4-month-old child from the vehicle while trying to escape, police said.

The pair are also accused of shooting a man in the arm during a botched carjacking attempt just 30 minutes before.

The suspects are identified as Arthur Galindo, 29, and Romulo Cardona, 23, said Sgt. Andy Hill, a Phoenix police spokesman.

Galindo, armed with a shotgun, fired the weapon at the vehicle's window, Hill said. Broken glass rained down on top of the woman's 4-month-old daughter, who was still strapped in a car seat.

Galindo climbed into the driver's seat and attempted to flee in the woman's vehicle, Hill said, while Cardona drove off in an Impala.

As Galindo drove off, witnesses yelled that a child was in the back seat.

Witnesses said Galindo stopped and flung the infant to the pavement while still in her car seat. The child received only minor injuries, Hill said.

Police followed Galindo in the stolen Monte Carlo through south Phoenix where he bailed out and into the passenger seat of the Impala driven by Cardona.

Eventually both men attempted to flee from the Impala. Officers were able to arrest them after a brief chase on foot, Hill said.

Police believe the pair were recently released from the Department of Corrections for prior armed robbery convictions, Hill said.

NEW ORLEANS -- Jefferson Parish sheriff's deputies arrested a baby sitter on Thursday in connection with the death of a 5-month-old boy.

Ariel Smith, 19, had been babysitting Andre Jenkins and his 18-month-old brother, said Col. John Fortunato. The children's mother had left the two boys in Smith's care at her Harvey home and proceeded to work.

Fortunato said Smith told them she put the baby in a clothes dryer because she was frustrated with the child.

The mother, Brandy Dozier, received a phone call from Smith later in the day alerting Dozier that the boy had stopped breathing, Fortunato said.

Emergency responders reported the boy was dead when they arrived at the home.

Smith repeatedly claimed the infant had been burned in an accident involving a pot of boiling water, but later confessed to placing the child in the dryer, Fortunato said.

An 84-year-old Upper Darby woman was found suffocated, beaten and left to die in her home, police said Thursday.

The body of Jane Morgan was found in her apartment by her driver on Tuesday, according to authorities. But what was first believed to be a death by natural causes took a more sinister turn after autopsy results indicated she had been suffocated, brutally beaten and sexually assaulted.

At a late-morning press conference, Police Chief Michael Chitwood called the person responsible for the woman's death "an animal."

Morgan was well-known in the area and had apparently lived alone in the fourth-floor apartment with her cats for years. She was known to leave her door unlocked, according to authorities
"This was a brutal and sadistic beating and sexual assault," Chitwood said. "The person who committed this heinous crime is a sadistic animal."

Police have search warrants for several locations in the area.

It is believed the suspect may have lived in the apartment or at least be very familiar with the complex.

A $5,000 reward for information in the case has been posted. Anyone with information is urged to contact Upper Darby police at 610-734-7762.

As the SEPTA subway train rocked forward, a thirty-something guy leaned over near the doorway and gently planted a kiss on the little boy at his side.
When the train neared the Fairmount Avenue stop shortly after midnight on Thursday, the man reached out like an adoring parent and directed the 3- or 4-year-old tyke to an open seat.

Then he flew into a monstrous rage.

Without uttering a word, police said, the unidentified man whipped out a double-claw hammer and began bludgeoning a 20-year-old man who was dozing off in his seat.

For five long minutes, SEPTA surveillance cameras captured the deranged attacker - who was still on the loose late last night- digging his hammer into the man's head and neck.

Through it all, disgusted investigators said, at least 10 passengers stood by and did nothing as the random attack moved from the train to the platform, when the hammer-wielding maniac tried to push his victim down onto the train tracks.

When the beating was finished and the suspect fled with the little boy, the victim staggered back onto the train, bloodied, confused and alone, said Detective Kenneth Roach, of Central Detectives.

And even then, no one tried to help him.

The attacker - a bearded, stocky, 5-foot-9-inch black man who wore a yellow shirt and black pants - also got on at City Hall, with a youngster who may or may not be his child.

The victim and the hammer-toting psychopath never exchanged a word or a glance, Roach said.

The hammer was hidden in a black-and-yellow book bag that the attacker clutched throughout the short subway ride.

The little boy dashed off the train with the other passengers during the brutal beat-down, but was later seen running back on to recover the book bag. The boy and the suspect are seen on camera leaving together.

A Boggs Township man, arrested on Tuesday on charges of possessing child pornography, now faces additional charges for allegedly having sex with a then- 6-year-old local girl and videotaping the acts, state police said.

State police at Rockview said they also have footage of David James Hollenback taping young girls through window blinds, and they are still investigating the possibility that additional local children were sexually abused.

“There were hundreds of pictures of children being sexually abused. There was video after video on DVDs,” said Trooper Leigh Barrows, the investigating officer. “... I never saw anything so sick in my life.”

He faces numerous charges, including rape, statutory sexual assault, indecent exposure, obscene and other sexual material and performances, invasion of privacy and endangering the welfare of children.

During the course of the investigation, police also looked inside a locked tin Hollenback kept in his closet, she said. They found hundreds of pictures and videos of children being sexually abused.

Hollenback was arrested on Tuesday and charged with possession of child pornography and related charges.

As police continued to examine evidence, they found seven suicide notes and footage of Hollenback taping himself having sexual intercourse with a then-6-year-old girl.

They also found some footage of Hollenback peering through window blinds and taping girls’ private regions, she said. Some of the videos date back more than five years.

“He has never been in trouble. This is his first time,” she said. “You would never think that he would be like that.”

MUNCIE -- A Muncie man upset that his girlfriend was leaving him, kicked her six-week-old kitten, fatally injuring the animal.

Zachariah White, 21, told police officer Shane Finnegan he took out his anger on the kitten after his girlfriend broke off their relationship.

White reportedly had been drinking and tested 0.089 blood alcohol level. Police also found a bag of marijuana in White's vehicle.

Besides a felony count of animal cruelty, White also was preliminarily charged with misdemeanor marijuana possession and public intoxication.

The victim told Finnegan her boyfriend was upset and drunk and began punching walls and the refrigerator when she told him she was leaving him.

She then asked him if he thought he was Muhammad Ali, and White responded, "I'm not Muhammad Ali, I'm Zach White, the tight end for the Winchester Golden Falcons."

Police responding to a drug complaint inside a south Louisville apartment said they stumbled upon one of the largest, most disturbing collections of child pornography they said they've ever seen.

"All I'll say is that these are some pretty heinous acts that we've come across," said Lt. Tom Dreher, head of the Metro Police Crimes Against Children Unit.

Dreher said detectives arrested Edward Dewey, 46, after he consented to let them search his Taylor Boulevard apartment Tuesday.

"When narcotics detectives examined the computer, just looked at some of the images on the computer, they determined that those images were of a child pornographic nature," Dreher said.

An arrest report said detectives found Dewey watching a child pornography DVD in his bedroom at the time and that they found images of children having sex on Dewey's computer and on storage devices seized from the apartment.

"We found some things there that lead us to believe that we have some actual victims of abuse at the hands of Mr. Dewey in our community," said Dreher. The arrest report said detectives found images of Dewey molesting what appeared to be a 2-year-old child.

Dewey now faces multiple charges, including distribution of matter portraying children in a sexual performance, possession of child pornography, use of a minor in a sexual performance, sex abuse, and possession of marijuana.

Records show this is Dewey's first ever arrest in Jefferson County.

Neighbors said the allegations were a surprise.

Bond was set at $500,000 each on Wednesday for a homeless couple charged with the Monday night robbery and brutal beating in the South Loop that left a woman in a drug-induced coma for 24 hours.

Cook County Circuit Judge Adam Bourgeois set the $500,000 bonds for Derrick King, 46, and Joyce Burgess, 38, both of the Pacific Garden Mission at 1458 S. Canal St., according to Cook County State's Attorney's office spokeswoman Tandra Simonton.

Each is charged with aggravated battery and robbery, she said. Police said they stole a Blackberry.

A man and woman in their 30s went into a store on Roosevelt Road near Wabash Avenue to buy cigarettes about 10:30 p.m. Monday while celebrating the woman’s birthday, according to a police source.

When they left, Burgess and King, who were panhandling near the store, confronted the them. When Burgess asked the woman for a cigarette, she was told to “go get a job” by the woman or her companion, the source said.

A fight ensued and King allegedly grabbed the woman, threw her to the ground and beat her in the head, knocking out most of her upper teeth and leaving her critically inured. She was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, the source said.

Simonton, citing court records, said Wednesday that the woman was in a drug-inducted coma for 24 hours and remains in Intensive Care. She suffered bleeding on the brain and has undergone two procedures to drain the fluid and relieve pressure. She also had 14 teeth knocked out in the attack.