Tears



Mark	Tildesley	7	CRIME: Mark, from Wokingham, Berks, disappeared from a fairground on May 31, 1984. He was subjected to multiple rapes. His body has never been found. KILLER: In 1992, a member of a paedophile ring, Leslie 'Catweazle' Bailey, then 40, confessed to the manslaughter of Mark. He had also taken part in the abuse and killing of Jason Swift (see right) and six year old Barry Lewis. SENTENCE: Given two life sentences, but was killed a year later in prison by fellow inmates.



Jason	Swift	14	CRIME: Went missing from his sister's flat in London in July 1985. His body was found five months later at a picnic spot in Essex. KILLERS: Sidney Cooke, Leslie Bailey, Robert Oliver and Steven Barrell. SENTENCE: Between 13 and 19 years for manslaughter. Cooke was freed in 1998 but, fearing he would be lynched, confessed to more crimes and is back in prison. Oliver was released in 1997; became a voluntary patient at a special unit in Nottingham jail. Barrell was released in 1995. Vanished after discovered living near a Northampton school.



Sarah	Harper	10	CRIME: Sarah was abducted 150 yards from her home in Morley, Leeds, on March 26, 1986. She had gone to the corner shop at about 8pm to buy bread. She was sexually assaulted and then thrown into the River Trent. Two weeks later her body was found in the river 70 miles away from her home. KILLER: Lorry driver Robert Black who had been making deliveries in the area when he spotted Sarah. (See Susan Maxwell). SENTENCE: Ten life sentences.






Anna	Humphries	15	CRIME: Anna was walking home from school in Penley, Clwyd, in November 1988 when she was abducted, assaulted, strangled with her own underwear and dumped in the Severn. KILLER: David Evans, a 31-year-old farm labourer. Had been jailed for five years for attempted rape, but released on parole. Six months later he raped a teenager and was jailed for 13 years. In May 1988, freed after remission for good conduct. SENTENCE: Life, with recommendation that he serve at least 30 years.



Karin	Griffin	8	CRIME: Karin was snatched from near her home in Mansfield, Notts, on February 15, 1991. She was raped, her throat was cut and her body was dumped in an oil drum full of water. KILLER: Terence McCready, a 30-year old psychopath. He had 11 previous convictions for sex attacks. He abducted Karin four weeks after he had been released from prison - doctors had ignored his own warning that he was a 'time bomb waiting to explode'. SENTENCE: Life imprisonment.



Nikki	Allen	7	CRIME: Abducted and battered to death on October 7, 1992. Found in a derelict building yards from her home in Hendon, Sunderland. SUSPECT: Jobless George Heron, who lived a few doors away, was cleared of killing her after the judge refused to let the jury hear his taped confession because of the 'oppressive' police interrogation. Nikki's mother later won a private prosecution against Heron. SENTENCE: None, but Heron was ordered to pay pound sterling8,000 compensation for battery leading to Nikki's death.



Daniel	Handley	9	CRIME: Daniel was cycling home through East London in October 1994 when he was abducted, sexually assaulted and strangled. Body found near Bristol six months later. KILLERS: Lovers Timothy Morss, 33, and Brett Tyler, 30. They met in prison where Morss was serving seven years for raping twin boys and Tyler four years for sexually abusing a brother and sister. Tyler later went to the Philippines to abuse more children. SENTENCE: Three life sentences each in 1996.



Rosie	Palmer	3	CRIME: On June 30, 1994, Rosie went to buy an ice lolly from a van in Hartlepool, Cleveland. Her battered, partially clothed body was found three days later in an airing cupboard. KILLER: Jobless Shaun Armstrong, 32. A social worker had warned the previous year that he was likely to prove a danger to children - although no allegations had been proved - yet social services gave him a council flat in an area populated with young families. SENTENCE: Life imprisonment.



Peggy Sue	Altes	11	GREENFIELD, Ind. -- For the fifth time in four years, Hancock County authorities are facing the possibility they have charged the wrong man with murdering 11-year-old Peggy Sue Altes two decades ago. This week, prosecutors dismissed charges against William L. Beever, 47, of Danville, their most recent suspect in the Indianapolis girl's murder. In exchange, Beever has waived a rule that would limit prosecutors to a one-year time frame to re-file those charges against Beever. Prosecutors want more time, said Scott Sirk, a deputy prosecutor. "We've found additional information that we need to investigate," he said. Beever remains in jail in Marion County on unrelated charges of child molesting. This is a case that has vexed prosecutors since the day Altes was molested, stabbed to death and left in a Hancock County field in 1984. The first suspect was Jerry Watkins of Indianapolis, who was convicted of rape and murder in 1986 and served 14 years in prison before DNA evidence prompted a judge to free him at the age of 43. Altes was a step-sister to Watkins. The episode was believed to be the first time in Indiana's history that DNA evidence had helped overturn a conviction. Watkins later sued county authorities in federal court, winning $475,000 for wrongful prosecution. In 2000, investigators shifted their focus to Joseph McCormick of Indianapolis, a suspect implicated by new DNA evidence. He was arrested in August 2001 at the age of 39. But police subsequently became convinced he was not the killer. Under a plea agreement, McCormick admitted to molesting the girl before her death and agreed to testify against other suspects. He has completed most of a six-year sentence, which concludes in August. It was McCormick who led authorities to three other men: Beever and two brothers -- Hugh Perry Munson III, now 45, of Keystone Heights, Fla., and Kenneth Wayne Munson, now 42, of Indianapolis. By March 20, 2003, police had all three men in custody. Hugh Munson was arrested March 17, 2003. Kenneth Munson was already in the Marion County jail when he was charged. And Beever was arrested in Danville. All three were charged with murder. In July 2003, Hugh Munson was cleared of charges after police interviews and lie detector tests. Kenneth Munson went on to plead guilty to lesser charges, admitting to conspiracy to commit battery resulting in serious bodily injury to a child. He is serving a six-year sentence. Family members of the victim could not be reached for comment. On Monday, Hancock County authorities will hold a press conference to discuss the case. "It's been a frustrating case," said sheriff's department Capt. James Bradbury, who was the first officer on the scene Nov. 17, 1984, five days after the girl disappeared from her Eastside home. Rabbit hunters discovered her body in a rural Hancock County field. Despite what he called some initial mistakes, however, Bradbury believes authorities have made headway in recent years, he said. "People act like it's completely open. But there's two people that have pled guilty to participating in that murder case," he said, referring to McCormick and Munson. After all these years, prosecutors still want to see justice done, Sirk said. "This is a tragedy, and we want to find out everyone that was involved in killing this little girl. And that's why the investigation is ongoing," he said. "We believe there's very valid reasons to continue the investigation with a hope for resolution."


Amy Schulz		10	BELLEVILLE, IL July 1987— Defense attorneys for a man accused of the rape and murder of a 10-year-old girl said evidence shows the girl’s step-grandfather is the real killer. Cecil Sutherland began his second trial Monday in connection with the death of Amy Schulz south of her home in July 1987. Amy disappeared while walking near her rural Kell home on the evening of July 1, 1987, and her body was found on a nearby oil field access road the next day. She had been raped and strangled, and her throat was cut multiple times. Sutherland was sentenced to death for the crime in 1989, but the Illinois Supreme Court granted a new trial in November 2000. Though the high court ruled prosecutors overstated hair and fiber evidence found at the crime scene, Jefferson County State’s Attorney Gary Duncan said in his opening argument new technology since the original case bolstered the link between the hair and Sutherland. However, Sutherland’s attorney, John Paul Carroll, said evidence points to William Willis, who pleaded guilty in 1994 to charges he molested a 12-year-old Boy Scout. He said one investigator into Amy’s death practiced karate with Willis, and that is why the man was never a suspect. “The evidence will show they never looked at Willis because he was their buddy,” Carroll said. Willis was accused in 1991 and 1993 of molesting Amy’s older brothers, Adam and Ryan Schulz. He was never charged in connection with the allegations. However, Jefferson County State’s Attorney Gary Duncan said hairs found on Amy’s body were recently found to be a “match” to Sutherland, and eliminated Willis as a suspect. He said mitochondrial DNA testing advancements allowed prosecutors to bolster their argument Sutherland was Amy’s killer. Duncan said mitochondrial DNA not only proves the hair on Schulz could only have come from 0.07 percent of the population — or one in 10,000 people. Carroll said he plans to contest the state’s DNA statistics with a biological statistics expert who will show the 0.07 percent figure is “totally bogus.” “Nobody said the hairs are a match,” Carroll said. Willis also volunteered as a karate instructor, Carroll said, and owners of the school where he helped teach linked damage to Amy’s thumb and throat to a submission technique Willis allegedly knew. Four months after Amy’s death, authorities investigated Sutherland, who lived south of the Schulz home. Duncan said Sutherland’s tires and boots were similar to those that left imprints at the murder scene. Carroll said a Cooper Tire engineer said the tires on Sutherland’s car are not likely the same as the ones that left marks near Amy’s body. The defense also contends footprints at the crime scene are from a size seven boot, while the prosecution contends the prints were a size 12. Carpet fibers found on Amy’s clothing were “identical” to those from the interior of Sutherland’s Plymouth Fury, Duncan said, and dog hair found on her clothing was linked by mitochondrial DNA to Sutherland’s dog. Dennis Schulz, Amy’s father, was on the verge of tears as he identified his daughter’s clothing found on the road leading to her body. He said he sent his daughter to look for his son, Ryan, at about dusk to tell the boy their missing dog, Biscuit, had returned. “Right when Ryan came in, I expected Amy to be right behind him,” Schulz said, his voice wavering. He later added “it was just automatic panic” when she did not return. Carroll said in his opening statement police overlooked a report three young men driving into Kell to make a phone call saw a man pull a child into a pickup truck and make a U-turn toward where Amy’s body was found. He said the young men told Schulz what they saw, but Schulz said they only told him they had not seen his girl. “I asked if they had seen Amy,” Schulz testified. “They said no. That’s all.” Defense attorneys plan to prove Willis left his home minutes after she began walking down the road at about 8:30 p.m. and had until 10:15 to be at work. Willis allegedly told investigators he stopped at a grocery store before work, Carroll said, but his estranged wife, Gwen, testified Monday she does not remember if the man brought home groceries the night Amy disappeared. Carroll frequently compared a sketch given to police of tail lights from a “suspicious” car a woman who lived near Amy saw multiple times on the road between Kell and Amy’s home. He compared the grid-like lights to the single light bars on the rear of Sutherland’s car, as well as the similarly grid-like taillights of a 1984 Chevrolet Cavalier, a model owned by William and Gwen Willis. The woman who helped create the sketch following the murder testified Monday Sutherland’s car was not the one she saw. Duncan said after Monday’s proceedings it was the “start of several days,” but would not comment further on the case. Carroll said he was glad to get his theory about Willis’ involvement in the murder presented in court, a strategy that was allowed by the state supreme court late last year. The trial was moved to St. Clair County due to intense media publicity in Jefferson County.



James	Trotter	13	RIVERSIDE -- 051804--A convicted, serial child molester was found guilty Tuesday of murdering a 13-year-old Orange County boy whose remains were found in 1990 in a remote area off Ortega Highway. James Lee Crummel, 60, now faces the death penalty for the murder of James "Jamey" Trotter, who disappeared from his Costa Mesa neighborhood more than 25 years ago. Jurors determined Crummel not only committed first-degree murder, but also found that the murder happened as Crummel committed lewd acts with a child, a finding that allows for the death penalty. Crummel called authorities in January 1990 to report finding human remains several hundred yards off Ortega Highway, just west of Lake Elsinore. It wasn't until 1996, however, that those remains were identified as Trotter's. It took jurors at the Riverside County Hall of Justice about three days of deliberations before they told Superior Court Judge Dennis McConaghy on Tuesday they had reached a verdict. "This is just the first step in the process," Supervising Deputy District Attorney Bill Mitchell said after the guilty verdict was announced. "It's just one of two to go to get the justice this guy deserves for killing Jamey." Those jurors will hear more testimony and see more evidence presented by both sides beginning Monday morning as part of "the penalty phase," which is expected to take about a week. After that, jurors will decide whether Crummel should be put to death or sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. "I think the jury will be convinced he deserves the death penalty for his actions," Mitchell said. Mary Ann Galante, one of Crummel's two defense attorneys in the Riverside County case, said Tuesday that she will be calling three mental health officials who will testify that Crummel has brain damage. She said she believes the jury will have "some lingering doubt" about their guilty verdict, which she hopes will lead them to keep Crummel off death row. Galante said she was "disappointed" by Tuesday's verdict and called the prosecution's case against her client "weak" and "very circumstantial." The circumstantial case, Galante said, was based primarily on the remains being found by Crummel, the fact that Crummel had lived in the same area as the missing boy, and Crummel's criminal history. "This wasn't a 'slam dunk' case for the government by any means," she said. Mitchell disagrees. He said the evidence, even being circumstantial, was "overwhelming" and that jurors obviously saw that. The prosecutor said there were just too many "coincidences" involved for Crummel not to have been the killer. Among those, he cited, were the remote area Jamey's remains were found, which is very similar to areas were Crummel's previous victims were taken. Crummel's previous victims date back to 1961, when he took two boys, ages 13 and 11, into a remote wooded area in Missouri, tied them to a tree and sexually assaulted them, Mitchell said. He was later convicted in that case, and released from prison in 1967. The same year he was released, he kidnapped a 9-year-old boy and took him to the desert in Arizona where the boy died, Mitchell said. Crummel served a short prison term in that case, but was released when an appellate court overturned the conviction. In August 1967, Crummel abducted a 14-year-old boy, tied him up and left him for dead in a remote area of Wisconsin, Mitchell said. The boy survived and Crummel was given a life term, but released in 1972. "This case circumstantially suggests that Jamey was picked up by Mr. Crummel, like he has done so many times before, and then taken to a remote location where he was molested and then killed," Mitchell said. "The probability of (Crummel) just happening to find those bones in that spot is just astronomical," Mitchell said. Between the time of Crummel's arrest and being brought to Riverside County to stand trial for the murder of Jamey Trotter, Crummel was tried and convicted in two other counties for child molestation and sentenced to life in prison. Mitchell said it was "regretful" that Jamey's remains were unable to be identified sooner, saying that it could have saved other boys victimized by Crummel from going through what they did. "This (murder conviction) should have happened a long time ago," Mitchell said.


Judy Carol	Rawlings	16	Judy, 16, was last seen on the morning of October 3, 2001 at home in Sophia, South Carolina. Her mother reported her missing on October 5. She left behind her money, and left the television turned on. Police initially thought she had run away, as she had stopped attending school and wasn't working, and there were no signs of forced entry to her house. Judy's partially clothed body was found on October 19, covered by tree limbs in the woods half a mile from her home. Police could not determine the cause of death, but they deemed her death unnatural and suspicious. A teenaged friend and neighbor of Judy's, Tony Sierra, said he saw her late in the evening on October 4 and gave her a ride in his ATV to the Farlow Oil Company convenience store, in exchange for three cigarettes. The store was closed by then but Sierra didn't ask Judy why she wanted to be there. Judy's mother says she was afraid of the dark and would not have gone out late at night like Sierra said she did. Police also think his story is suspect and have searched his house and his ATVs for evidence relating to Judy's case. Judy was a very clean-living girl. She did not drink or use drugs, or date, and she belonged to a church program whose members pledge not to have sex until they're married. As of April 2004, her murder remains unsolved.
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Shauna	Howe	11	Pennsylvania--Monday, July 5, 2004 --A third man was arrested Saturday in the kidnapping, rape and murder of an 11-year-old girl who was walking home from a Girl Scout Halloween party more than a decade ago, state police said. Eldred Ted Walker, 45, was arrested yesterday at his Oil City home and charged with homicide and kidnapping in the 1992 abduction and slaying of Shauna Howe, state police said. Charged Friday were James O'Brien, 32, and his brother Timothy O'Brien, 37, both now serving unrelated prison terms. State police said they linked the brothers to the girl's abduction through DNA evidence and a statement Walker allegedly made to authorities two years ago. Police said Walker told authorities he knew Shauna and talked with her and hugged her before Timothy O'Brien pulled her toward a car on Oct. 27, 1992, as she was walking home from an area in Oil City, Venango County.


Elisabeth	Brichet	12	2004-07-06- Belgium--Police dug up the remains of two bodies from the grounds of a French chateau on Saturday after a suspected serial killer dubbed the Ogre of the Ardennes showed them where to look. Investigators said they believe the remains were those of Elisabeth Brichet, a Belgian girl who vanished in 1989 at the age of 12, and Frenchwoman Jeanne-Marie Desramault, who disappeared in the same year at age 22. The find at Sautou chateau near the Belgian border came after hours of digging at locations shown by a handcuffed Michel Fourniret, a 62-year-old forest warden who confessed this week to nine murders after his estranged wife denounced him. "We don't have scientific proof yet that these are the two bodies we were searching for, but there are very strong grounds for presuming so; we have elements that confirm it," said Cedric Visart de Bocarme, a Belgian state prosecutor on the case. Fourniret says he kidnapped, raped and strangled Brichet in 1989, according to the Belgian prosecutors who revealed details of the killings and accusations by his wife Monique Olivier. Yves Charpenel, a French prosecutor leading inquiries, said the find was just a start. "We don't know at this stage whether he is responsible for the death of nine, 10, more or fewer." Fourniret has been in custody in Belgium since last year over the attempted kidnapping of a young girl but confessed this week to nine murders dating from 2001 back to at least 1987. He and his wife were brought under heavy police security from Belgium to the chateau where the pair lived in the heavily wooded Ardennes border region in the late 1980s. Belgian and French investigators, now working hand-in-hand on the case, are seeking more details from Fournier's wife, about a possible 10th victim. Olivier, who is also under investigation, told Belgian investigators this week her husband had killed their au pair and buried her near their house in Sart-Custinne, Belgium. Fourniret met Olivier, then a prison visitor, while he was jailed in France from 1983 to 1987 for raping minors. Investigators said one of the victims was a salesman they believe was killed for money, but the others were all female and most of them young girls - some of them raped. Fourniret's past was not known by Belgian authorities when he took a job as a school supervisor after leaving France and the Sautou chateau some 12 years ago. The case emerged just days after Belgium's most hated man, Marc Dutroux, was convicted of the kidnap, rape and murder of young girls and sentenced to life in prison. France was also shaken on Saturday by the discovery in the nearby Alsace region of the body of a teenage girl whose disappearance two weeks ago led to the arrest of a sex offender who had been recently released early from jail. Belgian public prosecutor Anne Thily gave a chilling report on Wednesday of Olivier's accusations against Fourniret. "He would say to his wife 'I'm going out hunting. So there you have it. I'm going out and you know very well that it means I am going to look for a young girl, pretty, maybe virgin," Thily said. "Then he brought her home, kept her two or three days, raped her ... and then strangled her." French newspaper Le Parisien quoted a man who said he was an unsuspecting acquaintance of Fourniret for decades and who spoke of a semi-nomadic character who married three times, spoke many languages and taught himself Russian from a book. Yves Charpenel called Fourniret a cold and unshakeable character who mixed fact and fiction. Investigators say they are trying to verify reports that Fourniret bought the Sautou chateau with money snatched from the hiding place of a far-left guerrilla group. They say one of the people Fourniret says he killed is Farida Hamiche, a partner of a guerrilla gang treasurer who Fourniret met while in prison in France.


Samantha	Detzler	12	He's accused of killing 12-year-old Samantha Detzler, and it turns out his criminal history includes more than just a short stay in prison. The list starts in 1991 when Steven James Gilbert was just 23 years old. Gilbert pleaded guilty to one count of felony burglary and was fined $100 and thirty months probation. Thirteen months later, he got a misdemeanor for driving drunk. He paid $320 and spent 90 days in jail. In 1995, Gilbert was arrested for felony kidnapping, pleaded it down, and was sentenced five to 10 years in prison. He spent just shy of four years in prison, but would soon return. In March of 2001 he was charged with another felony assault; this time it was pleaded to a misdemeanor assault. He spent 30 days in jail then another two years in prison. His last conviction occurred in Montcalm County last June, a felony stolen vehicle charge pleaded down to driving on a suspended license for the second time. He was fined $1500 and 120 days in jail. A local attorney helping us sort through the charges says it looks like Gilbert went through the appropriate channels every single time. Gilbert is now being held in Clinton County without bond. His next court date is March 10, 2005.