A young girl in need of a stable home. A forceful foster parent. A lack of oversight. It was a recipe for disaster… Bound in duct tape in a tipped-over high chair, 5-year-old Logan Marr died 10 years ago Monday in an unfinished Chelsea basement. The girl was in the state’s protective care system at the time, and her death sent shock waves — and spurred reform — throughout the state Department of Health and Human Services.

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http://www.pressherald.com/news/childs-death-changed-protective-care_2011-01-30.html

Five people have been charged in connection with abuse of a 17-year-old developmentally disabled girl at a Palatka group home. Police said part of that abuse at the O’Carroll Homes included burning the 17-year-old girl on her legs and ankles with a clothes iron, reports WJXT News in Jacksonville. Police said Kavarus Bellamy, 21, an employee at the home, intentionally burned the girl on Jan. 3. Investigators said Jolissia Battles, another employee, sprayed a chemical in the teen’s face, and Devin Wesley, a former employee and visitor to the facility, held the teen while she was burned.

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http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/news/specials/weirdflorida/blog/2011/01/5_charged_in_the_torture_of_a_1.html

It’s been five years since Jasmine Perez was discovered pushing a shopping cart full of food and clothes down Carson City streets. A passerby called police to report a 6-year-old child wandering unsupervised. What police discovered was much more horrifying.

Jasmine — just 4 feet tall, weighing 41 pounds — told them she was 16. She and her 11-year-old brother, David, had been held captive in the bathroom of the family’s Como Street apartment for years, starved and tortured at the hands of their grandmother, Esther Rios.

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http://www.nevadaappeal.com/article/20110130/NEWS/110129415/1070&ParentProfile=1058

Montville – A Colchester man is scheduled to be arraigned Friday in Norwich Superior Court on charges that he assaulted a 2-month-old baby boy. Joshua Murray, 22, of 57 White Oak Drive, is charged with first-degree assault and two counts of risk of injury to a minor. On Jan. 9 state police in Montville received a report from The William W. Backus Hospital that the baby was injured. The victim arrived by ambulance from a home on Anthony Street in Jewett City unconscious and unresponsive.

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http://www.theday.com/article/20110129/NWS04/301299942/-1/NWS02

MINOT, N.D. — The victims of a quadruple slaying in North Dakota were a mother, two of her children and her boyfriend, and all four suffered gunshot wounds, police said Saturday. No arrests have been made in the two Friday shootings in Minot, but authorities said they’ve questioned a “person of interest” and insist residents aren’t in danger. North Dakota averages only 11 homicides a year.

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http://newssun.suntimes.com/news/3562210-418/police-minot-north-dakota-zephier.html

MIAMI -A man and a woman were charged with murder after a two-year-old boy died from his injuries that police say were inflicted by the two Miami residents.Miami Police Department said Daquan Davis was transported to Jackson Memorial Hospital after they responded to his home at 584 NW 65th Street. Police said they suspected foul play and after further investigation they discovered that the child was hit repeatedly with blunt force. He also had visible bruising.

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http://miami.cbslocal.com/2011/01/29/toddler-dies-after-brutal-beating-2-arrested/

New York–A 38-year-old minister has been arrested and charged with raping a then 12-year-old girl after DNA results linked him to the alleged crimes. Michael Anthony Clare, of West Hamilton, is accused of impregnating the now 16-year-old victim, who is said to be a former parishioner at his church in Wakefield. According to the Wall Street Journal, the sexual relationship began sometime in 2006 when the girl was 12 and ended almost four years later after turning 16.

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http://deadkidsofmyspace.com/

A Lancaster County man is charged with sexually abusing a girl for whom he served as a babysitter. Police said Charles Bleacher, 54, sexually assaulted the child repeatedly over a 13-year period while watching her as a family friend. Bleacher had gained the trust of girl’s family as well as the child herself over that time, according to police. His charges include rape of a child, unlawful contact with a minor, and statutory sexual assault. Police said the victim is under 13 years old.

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http://www.abc27.com/Global/story.asp?S=13929003

A federal grand jury has indicted a Vancouver man — already facing trial in Clark County on allegations of abusing two young children — on 17 counts of child pornography-related charges. The grand jury returned the indictment Wednesday charging Michael Scott Norris, a former youth minister and Bible camp counselor, with 11 counts of production of child pornography relating to sexual tapes he allegedly produced of a 10-year-old girl and her 11-year-old brother, whom he met at church.

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http://www.columbian.com/news/2011/jan/28/vancouver-man-indicted-federally-on-child-porn-cha/

Newark, Ohio  – Betty Hottinger, a 35-year-old Ohio woman was jailed Saturday after police discovered her five children living in a virtual landfill, filled with trash, urine and feces. According to Newark Police, five children were removed from Hottinger’s home after police discovered an environment they described as having multiple health hazards and an “unbearable smell.”

Betty Hottinger Facebook
Betty Hottinger MySpace

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http://www.theweeklyvice.com/2011/01/betty-hottinger-raised-her-kids-in-land.html

Muskogee, Oklahoma  – Jennifer Edwards, 28, and Jesse Wilson Sr., 64, were jailed on child abuse and child rape charges after a terrified 13-year-old boy locked himself in a closet and pleaded with police dispatchers for help. According to the Muskogee County Sheriffs Office, a terrified 13-year-old boy armed himself with a knife, locked himself in a closet and called police from a mobile phone. He begged dispatchers for help, telling them he and his 9-year-old sister were being abused.

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http://www.theweeklyvice.com/2011/01/terrified-boy-arms-himself-locks.html

Although child sexual abuse is reported almost 90,000 times a year, the numbers of unreported abuse is far greater because the children are afraid to tell anyone what has happened, and the legal procedure for validating an episode is difficult (American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 2004). It is estimated that 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 6 boys will have experienced an episode of sexual abuse while younger than 18 years. The numbers of boys affected may be falsely low because of reporting techniques (Botash, Ann, MD, Pediatric Annual.

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http://www.ncvc.org/ncvc/main.aspx?dbName=DocumentViewer&DocumentID=32315

OCALA – A 25-year-old Ocala man was arrested Saturday, accused of molesting four small boys. Jason William Smallwood faces four counts of lewd and lascivious molestation of a child under age 12. Two of the victims told deputies that on different occasions in April and May Smallwood touched their genitals, according to the report.

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http://www.ocala.com/article/20100802/ARTICLES/100809972/?tc=obinsite