News of Doom 2.0

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.

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.”

PITTSBURGH — A woman suspected of cutting open a pregnant woman's uterus and stealing the baby has been charged with homicide, unlawful restraint and kidnapping, police said Sunday.

Andrea Curry-Demus, 38, of Wilkinsburg, is charged in the death of Kia Johnson, 18, of McKeesport. Curry-Demus is accused of taking the baby boy to a Pittsburgh hospital and claiming it was her own.

Johnson's body was found Friday in Curry-Demus's apartment. The body was positively identified through dental records, Allegheny County Medical Examiner Karl Williams said Sunday.

Police said Sunday that the two likely met during visitation at the Allegheny County Jail. Police believe they were there at the same time to visit different inmates.

Curry-Demus showed up at the hospital Thursday with a newborn that still had the umbilical cord attached, police said. Tests later proved that she was not the mother.

Police said Curry-Demus then said she bought the baby for $1,000 from the baby's mother.

In 1990, Curry-Demus, then known as Andrea Curry, was accused of stabbing a woman in an alleged plot to steal the woman's infant. A day after that stabbing, Curry-Demus snatched a 3-week-old baby girl from a hospital. The baby was found unharmed with Curry-Demus at her home the next day.

Curry-Demus pleaded guilty in 1991 to various charges from both incidents and got three to 10 years in prison, according to court records. She was paroled in August 1998.

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.

YORK, Pa. -- A York City toddler who police said suffered a fatal beating the day after her second birthday had previously been the victim of abuse, the Dauphin County coroner said.

Doctors pronounced Darisabel Baez, 2, dead at Penn State Hershey Medical Center Monday at 9:30 p.m. Police said her mother's boyfriend, Harve Johnson, 26, beat her with a video game controller and cord on Sunday at the mother's home on West Philadelphia Street.

Dauphin County coroner Graham Hentrick said there were bruises and other injuries all over Darisabel's body. Hentrick said an autopsy performed on Tuesday showed the injuries preceded Sunday's fatal beating. Hentrick called the case one of the worst child abuse cases he has ever seen.

Johnson is charged with homicide. Baez's mother, Neida Baez, 19, is charged with endangering the welfare of a child. Police said she did not do anything to prevent the abuse.

CLEARFIELD — Angry over a dispute about a stolen computer, a 20-year-old Houtzdale man beat his mother, cut her throat, then read her the Bible as she died, state police said.

Jesse James Campbell told his girlfriend he wanted to kill his mother and make it look like a burglary because she was going to tell police he stole her computer, according to court documents.

Cindy Jo Coleman, 49, was found dead in the apartment she shared with her son, at 48 Terrace Drive in Houtzdale, early Thursday morning by her parents. They went searching for their daughter after state police received a tip that Campbell intended to kill her.

Campbell took latex gloves, and told his girlfriend he “was going to make it look like a burglary.”

When he returned, Campbell told his girlfriend “it got messy,” and asked her to throw away his clothes, according to court documents.

Campbell told his girlfriend he hit Coleman in the face with a five-pound plastic weight, choked her, then cut her throat with a steak knife, court documents state.

He told his girlfriend he heard his mother choking on her blood, then read the Bible to her as she died, according to the criminal complaint.

Police arrested Campbell on Thursday morning and charged him with criminal homicide and aggravated assault. He was arraigned and sent to Clearfield County Prison without bail.

According to court documents, Campbell pleaded guilty in Clearfield County Court in 2005 to a charge of theft by unlawful taking. At the time he was a juvenile, but a judge found his “extensive prior record as a juvenile” and his “failures at rehabilitation, as well as his total disregard to court-ordered recommendations,” were cause for him to be tried as an adult.

A Johnstown man is accused of beating three young children he was trying to adopt.

Christopher Ellis, 31, of Sell Street, faces charges of assault and endangering children, a felony.

The three children, who were all younger than the age of 10, are back in foster care.

Investigators said the three children were beaten with a paddle with several air holes drilled in it. Police said Ellis' beatings caused bleeding and soreness so intense the children couldn't sit in their chairs at school.

"How many people paddle their children to the extent where they have blood coming from their rear end, or they can't sit down for a long period of time afterward? We believe that to be excessive, as well as the DA's office did, and with them we filed the charges," said Johnstown police Capt. Andy Frear.

CONNELLSVILLE, Pa. -- Police said a Fayette County man claimed he sexually assaulted a 5-year-old by accident.

Connellsville officials arrested Jeremiah McGee, 25, on Thursday and charged him with several felony counts.

Police said the girl was in McGee's care at his West Cedar Avenue home for the weekend when the alleged assault happened.

According to police, when McGee was interviewed, he told them the assault must have been an accident.

Court papers said he admitted to sleeping in bed with the girl when he heard a noise, which police said might have been the girl screaming for help.

He said the alleged assault might have happened while he was asleep, dreaming.

ERIE, PA. -- A Pennsylvania woman has been sentenced to five to 10 years in prison for swinging her infant son like a baseball bat at her boyfriend, fracturing the infant's skull.

Chytoria Graham, 28, was fighting with boyfriend, DeAngelo Troop, after a night of drinking when she grabbed four-week-old Jarron by his feet and swung him, hitting Troop.