Tears



Alexandra	Flores	5	El Paso Police Chief Carlos Leon announced at a press conference 12.04.01 that a man has been arrested in the murder of Alexandra Flores. Chief Leon stated “A dangerous child predator has been removed from our streets and he can no longer victimize another innocent child.” 12.05.01 at 8:30p.m. officers from the El Paso Police Department’s Serious Offenders Unit along with F.B.I. Agents arrested David Renteria at his place of employment, the Lowes Home Improvement Center on Rojas. Renteria was taken into custody with out incident. Yesterday a latent print expert from the El Paso Police Department was able to match a palm print that was found on Alexandra’s body with Renteria’s prints that were on file. This discovery and further investigation by Crimes Against Persons detectives lead to the identification, of David Renteria as the suspect in Alexandra’s murderer. Detectives, through the course of their investigation, were able to confirm that Renteria was a registered sexual offender and an arrest warrant was obtained. Renteria was taken to the Crimes Against Persons office at Police Headquarters for questioning. Renteria was booked into the El Paso County Jail early this morning charged with Capital Murder and given no bond. At today’s press conference Chief Leon thanked all the law enforcement agencies that assisted with the investigation as well as Wal-Mart and Lowes Home Improvement Center for their cooperation. Chief Leon also gave a special thank you to all the news media organizations both locally and nationally for their assistance. Chief Leon also stated, “El Paso lost a truly special child in Alexandra.” On November 18th at 5:15p.m. 5ear old Alexandra Flores was abducted from the Wal-Mart at 9441 Alameda. A intensive search involving the El Paso Police Department, the Sheriff’s Department, the United States Border Patrol, and the F.B.I. was conducted throughout the night. The following morning, on November 19th at 7a.m., the body of Alexandra Flores was found at 1220 N. Oregon in an open garage, adjacent to the alley. At that point a massive investigation began involving the El Paso Police Department, F.B.I., and the District Attorney’s Office. The El Paso Police Department used all of its available resources and the F.B.I. and the Center for Missing and Exploited Children also provided valuable resources for the investigation. A massive media campaign, both locally and nationally was waged in order to enlist the help of the public. Alexandra’s story was featured on “America’s Most Wanted,” as well as other national and local news reports. More than 400 tips were received and investigated on this case.


Jennifer	Short	9	STONEVILLE, North Carolina (CNN) -- October 1, 2002 Authorities said Monday that tests on teeth from a partial skull found last week in Rockingham County show it belonged to a 9-year-old white girl, but the tests did not determine whether the teeth were those of missing Virginia girl Jennifer Short. Jennifer, 9, has not been seen since August 15, when her parents were found shot dead in their home in Bassett, Virginia, 30 miles away from where the skull was found. The medical examiner told CNN Monday that the girl whose body was found in Rockingham County died of a bullet wound to the head. A forensic dentist in the office of the chief medical examiner in Chapel Hill performed the tests on the teeth, said Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page. DNA tests on a leg bone may determine "within the next day or so" whether the body parts belong to Short, Page said. The bone was being taken to a lab in Roanoke, Virginia, for testing, he said. Investigators from Henry County, Virginia, plan to search a small pond in Rockingham County on Tuesday that joins the creek where most of the remains were found, Page said. The pond was partially drained last week in an effort to find more human remains, but heavy rains hampered the search. "We have scoured the area," Page told reporters. Page said he was not aware of any missing 9-year-olds in Rockingham County. Forensics experts reported last week that the time of death for the person whose bones were discovered was within a year. Eddie Albert found the skull when he spotted his dogs with what he initially thought was a wig. Investigating authorities found a part of a rib cage as well as the skull, which had "almost a full head of hair," according to Maj. Jim Thomas of the Rockingham County, North Carolina, Sheriff's Office. Authorities in North Carolina and Virginia initially downplayed theories that the Jennifer's remains had been found. Henry County Sheriff H.F. Cassell said Thursday that initial analysis of hair samples showed the body was probably not Short's, that teeth in the skull's jaw appeared to be larger than would be found in a 9-year-old girl, and that the remains' hair color was red. Jennifer was described as brown-haired at the time of her disappearance. But forensic experts in North Carolina now say the hair found on the skull is medium brown.
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Teresa	McAbee	11	Teresa McAbee was raped and murdered by a police officer who was found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to death.


Tracey	Poindexter	15	Nov. 29, 2001 -- Shirley Kendall waited 16 years for justice to come to the man who killed her daughter. Science and technology -- in the form of a new DNA database -- finally gave her a break. "I never gave up hope," Kendall said. Justice arrived Wednesday when a Marion Superior Court judge sentenced Sterling Riggs to 115 years in prison for the 1985 murder of Tracey Poindexter. "Thank the Lord!" the victim's sister, Tianna Kendall, screamed outside the courtroom. The 15-year-old Shortridge Junior High School student was found bound, gagged and drowned in Fall Creek on April 13, 1985. Authorities found semen on her body but had no suspect. Late last year, Sgt. Michael Crooke of the Indianapolis Police Department compared the DNA found on Tracey's body with an Indiana State Police database of blood samples taken from criminals serving time. Riggs was a match. In 1996, State Police began collecting blood samples statewide. The samples are shared with a national database, known as the Combined DNA Index System. Authorities began running searches a year ago, and the database has matched suspects to crimes in 49 cases, State Police 1st Sgt. Dave Bursten said. The state database has the DNA profiles of 25,000 violent criminals and burglars and grows with each conviction. A search takes about two hours, Bursten said. "We are finding out every day how this is revolutionizing law enforcement," Bursten said. "It's probably the most significant development in law enforcement in the last hundred years." When police learned of the DNA match, Riggs was on parole for a shockingly similar crime -- a rape and kidnapping committed just nine days after Tracey's body was discovered near the 30th Street bridge. In 1985, Riggs lived in a house three blocks from the bridge and directly behind the home of Tracey's aunt. Riggs denied killing the girl, but on Oct. 31 a jury found him guilty of murder and criminal deviate conduct. "The court can only imagine what the horror of a 15-year-old girl could be in these circumstances," acting-Judge Robert York said before handing Riggs the maximum sentence on both charges. "He should never visit our streets again."

Amber	Pond	11	Just two days before the first anniversary of the murder of 11-year-old Amber Pond, Dana H. McAlpine Jr. was sentenced to 50 years behind bars for raping and strangling her. "The prognosis for Mr. McAlpine to ever become a productive or useful member of society is very, very poor," Franklin County Superior Court Justice John Atwood said before the sentence was announced. In a brief statement before a courthouse gallery packed with more than 80 people, many of them relatives of Pond, McAlpine, 37, apologized for his crimes. "I'm very sorry," he said. "I wish I could bring her back to her family which I cannot do, and I am willing to accept whatever the court gives me today." Less than 15 feet away in the stuffy, hot courtroom sat Amber's younger brother, Alvin Pond, who was one of the last people to see his sister alive. "You don't have to look at him if you don't want to," a state victim's advocate, Mary Farrar, said to Alvin before McAlpine entered the courtroom in handcuffs that were shackled to his waist during the entire proceeding. On one side of Alvin sat his father, Delmar Pond, and on the other Elaine Levasseur, his mother. Elaine Lavasseur was married to McAlpine at the time of the murder; Alvin and Amber were visiting her at the mobile home she shared with McAlpine off Route 2 in Farmington when Amber was murdered. According to police records, McAlpine left with Amber to take her for ice cream, leaving Alvin behind. The sentence is the result of a plea arrangement between McAlpine's state-appointed attorneys and state prosecutors. The maximum sentence for murder in Maine is life in prison. State prosecutor Fern LaRochelle said the state agreed to the plea arrangement "in order to ensure certainty of conviction of this horrific crime." On the prosecutor's table stood a framed photo of Amber Pond. McAlpine was also sentenced to 25 years for gross sexual assault. That time will be served concurrently with the murder sentence. Based on good behavior laws, the earliest McAlpine could be released from prison is after 42 years. He will be 79 years old and required to register as a violent sex offender upon his release.



Jameika	Porch	4	Four-year-old Jameika Porch vanished in the early morning hours on Aug. 14, 1994. April 29, 2000 -- Elizabeth Dixon said she was stunned when her son Greg called with the news that her granddaughter Jameika was dead. "I couldn't say anything right then," said the grandmother of five. "I couldn't cry, even though Greg was crying on the other end of the line." Chattanooga police announced that DNA testing of bones found last October off Riverside Drive revealed they belonged to Jameika Porch. The 4-year-old child disappeared from her maternal grandmother's home in Eastdale early on the morning of Aug. 14, 1994. The missing person case was featured nationally on "America's Most Wanted" and "Unsolved Mysteries." Police said the case now will be handled as a homicide. Detective Tim Carroll said the cause of death was "ligature strangulation," but he wouldn't say what was used to strangle the girl. He said police believe the child was killed shortly after her disappearance. The condition of the remains suggested Jameika had been dead for years, Sgt. Carroll said. For more than five years, Ms. Dixon said, she was tormented by the uncertainty of Jameika's fate. Knowing now that the child was slain makes her angry, she said. "I know she's in Heaven," Ms. Dixon said. "She's a little angel that nobody can hurt anymore." Mr. Dixon said he's still in shock. "All these years I was holding on to hope ... that we would be able to be reunited," he said. But when police found human bones in October, Mr. Dixon said, it "woke up old thoughts and I had a weird feeling. "There's something about the spirit when you're connected with a child that you can feel," he said. When Mr. Dixon learned that forensic anthropologist Tom Bodkin had examined the bones and determined they were those of a young, black child, it "took the breath out of me," he said. Efforts to reach Jameika's mother, Joyce Porch, were unsuccessful. Ms. Porch's sister, Janice Underwood, said that Ms. Porch didn't want to speak about Jameika. Ms. Underwood said the family supports the police department in its investigation, and asks that anyone with any information report it to authorities. Police will now go back and review the extensive evidence that was gathered from the Tunnel Boulevard home where Jameika was last seen, Sgt. Carroll said. From the very beginning of the investigation, police treated the case as something more than a missing person case, Sgt. Carroll said. "We processed what we had like we normally would in an undetermined death," he said. "In this case we had no body, but we processed it like there had been a body." Sgt. Carroll said that the crime scene on Tunnel Boulevard had been "compromised." He said the family first noticed that the child was missing at about 7 a.m. on a Sunday. Jameika wasn't reported missing until about seven hours later. By then family members had touched things, and had replaced a broken-out Plexiglas panel in an outside door. Members of the family routinely would remove the panel to get in the house, Sgt. Carroll said. Jameika's family had an explanation for the time gap, he said. Anne Tatum, the child's maternal grandmother, thought Jameika was with her mother, Sgt. Carroll said. When she spoke with Ms. Porch she found out that the child wasn't with her. Ms. Porch came home and searched the neighborhood without success. That's when police were called, Sgt. Carroll said. Mr. Dixon said he is hopeful the person responsible for his daughter's death will be caught. But with five years having passed between the crime and the discovery of the body, he's realistic. "I've got strong faith in law enforcement," Mr. Dixon said. "But it's going to be a tough nut to crack."



Tabitha	Potter	11	Dec. 10, 1999 -- An out-of-work bricklayer who hanged himself days after an 11-year-old Lowell girl was found raped, strangled and partially buried at a Lowell park was identified by police as her killer. Police said that DNA evidence left on clothes, beer cans and a rare brand of cigarettes discovered at the crime scene in Shedd Park proved James Howley, 32, of Lowell was Tabitha Potter's murderer. "We believe Tabitha Potter was the victim of her youth, her gregariousness, and the predator James Howley," said Middlesex District Attorney Martha Coakley. But Howley's father said his son was an easy scapegoat. "Dead men tell no tales," said James Howley of Tewksbury. "He's a perfect patsy. They'll villainize him as much as they can so people can say, `Boy, they did a good job."' "I'm not saying it's a frame," he added. "I'm just saying there are a lot of questions." Potter's killing shocked the city, and left residents wary of visiting the park, fearful that the killer was still on the loose. The news that Howley had been named as the murderer reached many neighborhood residents. "They're relieved," said Wayne Hayes, president of the Belvidere Neighborhood Association, which includes Shedd Park. "They're excited to have this kind of news, to have closure. And of course they're upset about what happened." Potter was killed after she met Howley in a remote area of Shedd Park on the afternoon of Aug. 31, 1999, police said. She was found Sept. 3 fully clothed and partially covered with leaves and timber. About a week later, Howley was found hanging from a tree behind the Mother Hubbard Dog Food Factory near the Concord River. He didn't leave a suicide note. Because the suicide came so close to the Potter killing, detectives took fingerprints and blood samples from Howley's body. That later proved critical in identifying Howley as the killer, police said. Police Superintendent Edward Davis said police questioned a friend of Potter's who lived in the same Hanks Street building as Howley just days before he committed suicide. Police are still investigating whether the visit made Howley believe he was about to be caught, Davis said. Howley had no history of sexual violence, and had just motor vehicle violations on his police record, Davis said. Potter's grandmother, Shirley Gendreau, declined to comment. Potter lived on Fairmont Street, a short walk from the basketball court she liked to play on at Shedd Park. Police believe that Potter met with Howley willingly, and they went to a remote area of the park to drink beers and smoke cigarettes. Howley then attacked Potter and raped her, police said. Police believe he killed Potter because he was afraid she would turn him into authorities, according to Coakley. Howley's semen was found on dungarees recovered in the park, and his saliva was taken from beer cans and cigarettes discovered at the scene. Potter smoked M.S. cigarettes, an Italian brand which can be purchased at just one store in Lowell. Police found the same brand of cigarettes in Howley's apartment. "We thought it was an important link," Davis said. Though police had collected the forensic evidence they needed weeks ago, they had to wait until the DNA evidence was returned from state police labs before identifying Howley as the killer. Davis said high demand for DNA analysis created a backlog at the lab.


Andrea	Hall	18	Forensic psychiatrist Dr. Robert Markman examined Lawrence Bittaker before trial and rejected the earlier findings of borderline psychosis. He branded Bittaker a “classic sociopath.” As Markman explained that term later, in his memoir Alone with the Devil (1989), the diagnosis simply meant that Bittaker “was incapable of learning to play by the rules, he would never learn by experience, and he would just keep butting his head against the barriers of acceptable behavior.”
Cindy	Schaeffer	16

Jackie	Gilliam	15
			In short, he was a hopeless case, beyond any known treatment or rehabilitation. Dr. Markman also warned that Bittaker was bound to escalate his criminal behavior, moving on to more serious crimes. He was “a highly dangerous man, with no internal controls over his impulses, a man who could kill without hesitation or remorse.” Bittaker later reinforced this surmise, telling a cellmate that someday he planned to be “bigger than Manson.” Prison psychiatrists concurred with Markman. A 1977 jailhouse evaluation found Bittaker “more than likely” to commit new crimes upon his release. A year later, in July 1978, another psychiatrist dubbed Bittaker “a sophisticated psychopath” whose prospects for successful parole were “guarded at best.” Again the warnings were ignored, and Bittaker was released in November 1978. But not before he had made a special friend. Still awaiting disposition of his previous assault cases, Roy Norris attacked a young woman in May 1970, on the campus of San Diego State College. He tackled the student from behind, clubbed her with a stone, and then slammed her head repeatedly into a concrete sidewalk. This time the charge was assault with a deadly weapon, and it was finally enough to take Roy Norris off the streets. He was confined to Atascadero State Hospital as a mentally disordered sex offender. He spent five years there before being released on probation. Officially he was described as someone who would bring “no further danger to others.” Norris proved the prediction wrong three months later, in Redondo Beach. Cruising the streets on a motorcycle, he spied a 27-year-old woman walking home from a restaurant after a quarrel with her boyfriend. Norris stopped to offer her a ride, which she declined. Undeterred by the rejection, Norris leaped off his bike and attacked the woman, strangling her into semi-consciousness with her own scarf. Dazed, she did not resist as Norris dragged her behind a nearby hedge and raped her. Police were unable to act because of her vague description of her attacker. But one month later the woman saw Norris again. She memorized his license number. Convicted of forcible rape, Norris was shipped to the California Men’s Colony at San Louis Obispo. It could have been worse. The “colony” is easy time, as California prisons go--a cakewalk compared to Soledad, Folsom, or San Quentin. Norris also met a friend at the colony who would change his life. Reminiscing years later, Norris would claim that Larry Bittaker twice saved his life at San Louis Obispo. The experience bound him to Bittaker, although the details are vague. The “prison code” demanded that Norris follow any plan Bittaker devised, no matter how bizarre. It helped, of course, that they shared near-identical fantasies of domination, rape and torture. Next time a woman fell into his clutches, Bittaker confided, he would kill her afterward, a sure-fire method of evading punishment. In fact, he thought, it might be fun to play a game, selecting one victim for each “teen” year, 13 through 19, and to see how long each victim could be kept alive and screaming. Bittaker was paroled on November 15, 1978, returning to Los Angeles, where he found work as a machinist. Norris was freed exactly two months later, on January 15, 1979. He moved in with his mother at an L.A. trailer park, and used his navy training to find work as an electrician. Bittaker wrote to Norris in February 1979 and arranged a rendezvous at a cheap downtown hotel. Over drinks, they renewed their prison friendship and repeated their dark desires. The fates of these girls are so horrid, I can not begin to describe them here. One thing is for sure that these predators, Norris & Bittaker, should never have been released from prison and so it is with all predators.
Leah	Lamp	13

Lynette	Ledford	16


Elana	Goldstein	14	Quail Hollow, FL - Elana was shot twice as she walked home from a school bus stop. She was 14, an honor student, making plans to help decorate the family Christmas tree that night. Prosecutors and sheriff's detectives are convinced the shooter was Ronald Allen Clark, who died in prison in while serving multiple sentences for the rape of girls about Elana's age in nearby areas and who was seen near the scene of the Goldstein shooting within minutes of its occurrence.


JonBenet	Ramsey	5	According to the Ramsey's testimony, they drove home the few blocks from a party at a friend's house on Christmas night. JonBenet had fallen asleep in the car so they carried her up the stairs to her room and put her to bed at 9:30 p. m. Shortly after, Patsy and John went to bed as they planned to get up early to prepare for a trip to their holiday home on Lake Michigan. The next day, Patsy woke just after 5: 0 am and walked down the stairs to the kitchen. At the foot of the staircase, she found a two-and-a-half page ransom note that said that JonBenet had been kidnapped by a "small local faction" and was being held for a ransom of $118,000. She was to be exchanged for the money later the same day. The letter warned that if the money was not delivered, the child would be beheaded. Patsy yelled to John as she ran back up the stairs and opened the door to JonBenet's room. Finding she wasn't there they made the decision to phone the police. The 911 dispatcher recorded Patsy's call at 5:25 am. The police arrived at the house seven minutes later. The next question to be answered is, if the Ramseys didn't do it, who did? There are two main theories. The first is that JonBenet was murdered by an unknown assailant who entered the house, presumably via the basement window. JonBenet was found lying in the middle of the basement floor wrapped in a blanket. She had duct tape across her mouth. She lay with her arms above her head and a white cord was wrapped tightly around her neck. The same cord was tied loosely to her wrists. The broken handle of a paintbrush, measuring approximately 4.5 inches in length, had been looped into the cord to form a garrote. At the time of her death, JonBenet was wearing a sweatshirt over a long sleeve shirt. The lower half of her body was clad in white pajama bottoms over white panties. There was a thin gold ring on the middle finger of her right hand and a bracelet with her name engraved on one side and the date "12/25/96" on the other. A red heart was drawn on the palm of her left hand. Around her neck was a gold chain with a single gold cross attached. The evidence suggests that either someone took the girl from her bedroom by force, or lured her to the kitchen with the promise of food, which would explain the undigested remnants of pineapple found in her stomach at the time of her death. She was then taken to the basement, had tape placed over her mouth and bound with the nylon cord. She was then sexually assaulted after which she was strangled with the garrote and bashed about the head. The killer or killers then wrote out a two and a half page "ransom" note on a pad from the house demanding $118,000 and left it at the foot of the staircase.




Julie Ann	Holmquist	10	Hallock, MN -- Sept. 1, 1998 -- Almost a month after she disappeared on her inline skates, Julie Ann Holmquist was laid to rest during a somber day. The funeral for Julie, whose murder gained widespread attention in her home state, was attended by Minnesota governor Arne Carlson and a major share of the town's residents. A high school class president, varsity volleyball player, choir singer and honor student, Julie was abducted on July 29 after she set out from her home for a dusk skate along a quiet country road. Despite a $100,000 reward and a search by the National Guard, FBI and local police, her body wasn't located until August 20 when a bear hunter accidentally stumbled across her decomposed body in a shallow pond. Holmquist was still strapped to her skates, which authorities concluded to likely mean that the high school junior was killed soon after her kidnapping. No suspects have been named, and police appear to have few clues to help with their investigation. Yellow ribbons were strewn all across Hallock, most of them put up during the three-week search for Holmquist. The ribbons signified the town's now dashed hopes of finding the teenager alive. According to the Minnesota Star Tribune, the brutal kidnapping has rattled this small, quiet farming community, resulting in parents requiring early curfews for their children and performing close supervision during recreation. Holmquist was last seen at 9 p.m. by a passing driver, who spotted her along a rural highway four miles from town. The route was said to be a popular stretch for local skaters. She reportedly went out on the skate as part of her training regimen for the upcoming volleyball season. As of March 2002, there have been no arrests made.


Charity	Powers	10	Long before Polly Klaas, JonBenet Ramsey and Samantha Runnion, there was Charity Powers. Charity lived a happy life with her family in the Richmond, Virginia suburb of Chesterfield County. In October of 1990, the 10-year-old was abducted from a Hardee's, raped and murdered. Her killer, Everette Mueller, received the death penalty and was finally executed in 1999, nearly a decade after Charity's murder. This page was established to remember Charity, a girl who loved rollar skating and talking on the phone with her friends. It was also created to prevent the next child from sharing Charity's fate. Please click on the Megan's Law graphic to find out if convicted sex offenders live near you. Also, please click on the graphic of the National Center For Missing And Exploited Children to help search for currently missing kids. Thank you, and please remember Charity and keep her family and friends in your thoughts and prayers.



Shannon Leigh more...	Kos	12	The last of three Ohio men prosecutors say took part in the "thrill-kill" slaying of a 12-year-old girl pleaded guilty and was sentenced to as many as 40 years in prison. David Garvey, of Struthers, Ohio, pleaded guilty to third-degree murder on Tuesday just as jury selection was scheduled to begin for his trial on charges he killed Shannon Leigh Kos, of Youngstown, Ohio, on Oct. 8, 2000. With his plea, Garvey avoided the death penalty and was sentenced to 20 to 40 years in prison. Two other men, Perry Ricciardi II and William Monday, also of Struthers, have been sentenced to life in prison for Shannon's death. After Garvey's plea, Shannon's mother, Patty Bodnar, told reporters she thought justice had been served. Police said the men had fantasized about abducting a girl Kos' age whom they referred to as "too young to date, not too young to rape." According to a taped interview with state police, Ricciardi said he and the other men would drink, smoke marijuana and talk about abducting, raping and killing someone. The discussions went so far as to include how to dispose of the body, including the possibility of cooking the victim and eating her, police said.