News of Doom 2.0

CINCINNATI -- A grand jury indicted a former employee of a Cincinnati coroner’s office with the abuse of a corpse more than two decades ago, WLWT-TV in Cincinnati reported.

Prosecutors said Kenneth Douglas, 55, of Westwood, Ohio, sexually assaulted the body of 19-year-old Karen Range, who was murdered during an attempted rape Aug. 19, 1982, at her home.

She had been severely beaten and had her throat slashed with a paring knife.

David Steffen was sentenced to death in 1983 for her murder, but his attorneys had argued at trial that he did not rape her.

Investigators said they were unable to eliminate Steffen as a rape suspect by using a blood test on semen found on Range’s body, and DNA testing had not been developed at the time of Steffen’s trial.

A DNA test was performed last year, and Douglas was identified as a suspect after he was convicted March 17 of drug trafficking and ordered to provide a DNA sample.

Investigators discovered that Douglas had worked as a morgue attendant when Range’s body had been at the lab for testing, and prosecutors said he removed her body from a refrigeration unit and sexually assaulted it.

Steffen admitted to killing Range and was indicted on two charges related to her slaying, but his attorneys have argued during appeals that his death sentence should be overturned because he had not raped her.

CLEVELAND - A group of teenagers beat a homeless man to death as passers-by slowed to watch the attack, some of which was caught on videotape, police said.

Anthony Waters, 42, suffered a lacerated spleen and broken ribs during the attack Wednesday night and died at a hospital, police said.

Portions of the attack were caught on a surveillance camera outside a towing company on the city's east side. Police said the videotape shows passing cars slowing to watch three teens attack Waters until he staggered into the parking lot, where he was assisted by employees of the towing company.

Waters suffered from blunt abdominal trauma, a head injury and damaged internal organs, the Cuyahoga County coroner said.

The attackers, who appeared to be between the ages of 14 to 17, robbed Waters of a music player and headphones, police said. No arrests have been made.

CLEVELAND, Ohio (AP) -- On leave from the violence he had survived in the war in Iraq, a young Marine was so wary of crime on the streets of his own home town that he carried only $8 to avoid becoming a robbery target.

Despite his caution, Lance Cpl. Robert Crutchfield, 21, was shot point-blank in the neck during a robbery at a bus stop.

Feeding and breathing tubes kept him alive 4½ months, until he died of an infection on May 18.

Two men have been charged in the attack, and Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason said Friday the case was under review to decide whether to seek the death penalty.

Crutchfield was attacked on January 5 while he and his girlfriend were waiting for a bus. He had heeded the warnings of commanders that a Marine on leave might be seen as a prime robbery target with a pocketful of money, so he only carried $8, his military ID card and a bank card.

"They took it, turned his pockets inside out, took what he had and told him since he was a Marine and didn't have any money he didn't deserve to live. They put the gun to his neck and shot him," Holt told The Associated Press.

The two men charged in the attack were identified as Ean Farrow, 19, and Thomas Ray III, 20, both of Cleveland. Their attorneys did not respond to The Associated Press' requests for comment.

Even by tough, urban crime standards it was a grisly attack: Up to 15 people chased a man, then kicked and beat him to death on the street. Before police arrived, one attacker urinated on the victim's head.

By the time Charles Gooden Jr., 41, took his final steps, the crime-hardened neighborhood had awakened and two people, talking in matter-of-fact tones, reported a man down, his clothes being dragged off.

"You got a male being assaulted by 15 other guys. He's laying on the street," one 911 caller said.

Latangia Anderson, 23, Johnny Brown, 20, and Paris Moore, 19, all of Cleveland, have been charged with aggravated murder and each pleaded not guilty Monday in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court. Bond was set at $1 million for each.

The attackers sent word that anyone helping police could face retribution, according to City Councilman Kevin Conwell, who called them gang members. Like most council members, Conwell keeps in touch with police commanders, especially on high-profile crimes that worry residents.

Police haven't mentioned a motive. Conwell said it involved an argument involving a woman and a threat by her cousin against Gooden.

CINCINNATI -- A West Price Hill man is accused of raping his 4-year-old daughter, causing sufficient injury to send her to a hospital.

Hamilton County prosecutor Joe Deters said that Christopher Lukacs, 27, is facing four counts of rape and one count of felonious assault.

Deters said that the rapes took place between Dec. 1, 2007 and March 25, 2008, when the child's grandfather found the girl naked in her home when he came to pick her and her brother up.

Deters said that on Jan. 3, the child was taken by ambulance to Cincinnati Children’s Hospital for treatment of vaginal injuries. Deters said his office is investigating why no one at the hospital noticed something was wrong in light of the girl's injuries.

Lukacs became a registered sex offender in 2000 after being convicted of gross sexual imposition for having sex with a 12-year-old girl.

The child's mother, Ambre King, 29, is charged with endangering children.

CINCINNATI -- A 3-year-old girl is recovering with relatives as police try to determine who’s responsible for getting her drunk and injuring the child.

Police said the girl, who turned 3 years old in December, had suffered a small amount of bleeding on her brain, eye damage consistent with being shaken, neck and shoulder injuries, two broken bones in her left arm, bruises all over her body.

Investigators said the child also had abrasions on her lips from being force-fed alcohol, and her blood-alcohol level measured 0.15.

Police in Covington and Elsmere are investigating the incident, but Easterling confirmed the child’s mother was among four adult relatives under investigation.

Two teenagers are now behind bars after a disturbing home invasion on Thursday that targeted a disabled girl.

Butler County Sheriff Richard K. Jones calls the crime one of the more disturbing crimes he's ever seen in his 30 plus years of law enforcement.

It featured two suspects he likens to juvenile "Bonnie and Clydes" preying on a disabled girl.

9News is told the two suspects entered the home on Thursday night with the intent of stealing the homeowner's car on Friday morning and then leaving the Tri-state area.

When that plan fell through after the homeowner went to work in the car, the pair allegedly took out their frustrations on a disabled 18-year-old girl found to be still inside the home.

9News was told the girl was bound, had her head shaved, was gagged, and beaten with a baseball bat over the course of several hours.

It is not yet clear whether she was also sexually assaulted.

The pair was caught soon after the girl's mother returned home, but not before the property was severely robbed and vandalized.

9News is told the victim, identified as 18-year-old Ashley Clark, required hospitalization but is expected to be fine.

"Pray to God for mercy on their [the suspects] souls," said Bobby Clark, the victim's father. He had trouble finding words when asked to describe the crime.

"It is a terrible, terrible crime. Remember, I told you that she was tied up, and was moved from room to room to room. She told them, 'Please don't hit me in the head! I have had brain surgery, please don't do that!,' and they struck her in the head more than one time. They had no remorse they didn't care," said Butler County Sheriff Richard K. Jones.

SANDUSKY, Ohio — A night-shift nurse accused of sexually abusing as many as two dozen elderly or disabled patients at a nursing home was in jail Wednesday, authorities said.

Many of the victims at Concord Care and Rehabilitation Center were unable to report the abuse, and some have since died, said Perkins Township Police Chief Tim McClung.

Police said they suspect as many as 24 victims, judging by statements suspect John Riems made under questioning.

Riems, 49, pleaded not guilty Tuesday in Sandusky Municipal Court to felony charges of rape and gross sexual imposition. The jail didn't have information on an attorney for Riems.

CINCINNATI -- A West Price Hill man is being held on $500,000 bond for allegedly causing a child to get hypothermia -- while indoors.

Police said Johaido Munoz forced a 3-year-old boy into a bathtub and turned a cold shower of water on him.

Police said Munoz also hit the boy with a belt or chain.

A police report said that the boy was beaten and kept in the cold water long enough to require the child's hospitalization.

A 16-year-old Middletown boy spent New Year's Eve behind bars after he was arrested Sunday for allegedly raping a 6-year-old girl.

The boy was baby-sitting the girl and five other children while the girl's mother and stepfather went to a movie with relatives, according to police reports.

When they returned home, the girl was crying, ran to her mother immediately and said she needed to talk to her upstairs. As they were walking upstairs, the boy ran from the home, the mother told police.

The girl said the boy had followed her upstairs where she was cleaning her room and then removed her clothing and touched her inappropriately, and that she had told him to stop.

Police found the girl's pants and undergarments and two dolls posed in a sexual position on her bed in the home.

TOLEDO, Ohio — A drunken driver from Michigan sped down a highway in the wrong direction for about seven miles before his pickup truck slammed into a minivan carrying a family home after a holiday trip, police said.

A woman and four children in the minivan, including two authorities say were from Michigan, were killed in the crash that scattered toys, stuffed animals and bits of gift wrap along the edge of the road.

Tests showed that the pickup truck's wrong-way driver had a blood-alcohol level of .254 percent, more than three times the legal limit in Ohio of .08, police said.

Michael Gagnon, 24, of Adrian, Mich., was charged Monday with aggravated vehicular homicide. His speech was slurred and he smelled of alcohol at the crash scene, according to a police report.

His truck was going north in the southbound lanes of Interstate 280 Sunday night, fire officials said.

Three of the victims were a mother from Maryland and her two children.

Bethany Griffin, 36, Jordan Griffin, 10, and Verde Griffin, 6 months, all of Parkville, Md., were killed along with Lacie Burkman, 7, and Haley Burkman, 10, both of Redford Township, Mich., near Detroit, according to the Lucas County Coroner's office.

Both drivers tried to avoid each other, but the crash ripped a side door off the minivan, throwing out some of the victims.

An infant seat wrapped with pink baby blankets landed in the roadway.

Gagnon also was taken to a hospital, but his injuries were not as serious.

An unconscious Tayvon Evans had cuts on his wrists from being restrained, a burn on his leg, bruising, lacerations, and injuries to his head and chest, police said.

The mother's boyfriend admitted to police he had beaten the child and said the abuse had occurred over the course of several days, according to court records. The toddler died shortly after being taken to the hospital.

Mitchell Moore, 20, of 1702 Ottawa Drive and the child's mother, Antionette Hairston, 25, who lives at the same address, were arrested and charged Wednesday with felony child endangering.

According to court records, the toddler was burned, beaten with a belt and a plastic hanger, and also punched and hit while his wrists were restrained.

Mr. Moore told police he abused the child because "he wouldn't behave," Captain Carroll said. The mother apparently had seen the child's injuries, but told police her boyfriend concocted a story of how the child was hurt.

Police arrested a man who they said abducted a 3-year-old girl early Sunday morning.

Police said William Francis Modafari raped the child’s mother, then abducted both and stole the mother’s car.

The mother escaped on Interstate 71 near Montgomery Road, and Modafari drove off with the child in the car.
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The child was later found unharmed in the car, which had been left running in the Travel Lodge parking lot in Newport, Ky., police said.