Project brings families together again

As they sat at the kitchen table playing Monopoly, Bobbi McIntyre and her only daughter recalled various episodes from their tumultuous past: Revelations of child abuse, placement in foster homes, a middle-of-the-night altercation with their husband and father. Tears started to flow. “We cry together,” said Amy, 17. “That’s the best part of it.”

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http://www.mlive.com/living/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2011/08/bethany_christian_services_pro.html

SOUTHFIELD, MI – Proof that the grand jury investigation into the Oakland County Child Killer case is heating up. Today Child Killer Task Force detectives asked Action News for copies of old archive footage from the case. These homicides happened 35 years ago… and now Task Force detectives want to look through the old film footage that Channel 7 may have from the days of the original investigation. Film footage like this from the 1970s may hold clues to the killer – or killers – detectives are pursuing in the Oakland County Child Killer case.

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http://www.wxyz.com/dpp/news/local_news/investigations/oakland-county-child-killer-task-force-requests-old-channel-7-film-footage

Read more: http://www.wxyz.com/dpp/news/local_news/investigations/oakland-county-child-killer-task-force-requests-old-channel-7-film-footage#ixzz1VuPV4uBb

UPDATE: BABY SUCCUMBED TO HIS INJURIES. Read more here

ORANGE, CA — A mother accused of tossing her 7-month-old baby from the fourth story of a parking structure is behind bars as the child clings to life. Noe Medina, Jr. was found in extremely critical condition after falling from the fourth floor of the parking structure at Children’s Hospital in Orange around 6:20 p.m. Monday, according to Orange Police.

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http://www.ktla.com/news/landing/ktla-baby-falls-from-parking-structure,0,1090521.story

DALLAS — Five-year-old Naim never made it to his first day of school Monday. The kindergartner and his three-year-old brother, Elijah, were killed Monday morning. Their father, Naim Muhammad, 32, was being held on $2 million bond in Dallas County Jail on two counts of capital murder.

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http://www.wfaa.com/news/local/Mother-grieves-for-murdered-sons-128228603.html

STARTING in the 1970s, lawmakers across the United States enacted punitive “lock ’em up” policies. The prison population more than quadrupled, and the United States became first in the world in both the total number of prisoners (about 2.3 million) and the rate of imprisonment (1 of every 100 adults is behind bars). Now, budget pressures, court orders and a recognition of the social costs of incarceration have prompted America to reconsider some of these draconian laws. Incarceration rates may be topping out.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/21/opinion/sunday/sex-offenders-the-last-pariahs.html

MUKILTEO — A Mukilteo couple is under investigation for allegedly withholding food from a 10-year-old girl described by police as “extremely emaciated.” The girl was admitted to an Everett hospital Monday weighing 51 pounds — about two-thirds the weight of a healthy child her age. Doctors reported that she was suffering from “severe malnutrition.” She also had multiple bruises, abrasions and scars all over her body, according to court papers.

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http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20110818/NEWS01/708189811

A 4-year-old boy is in the care of Child Protective Services after police arrested his mother and her live-in boyfriend accused of abusing the child to the point his leg was broken. Police arrested Travis Darrah, 26, on suspicion of child abuse and Melissa Chambers, 22, on suspicion of hindering prosecution on Wednesday, ending a month-long investigation into the couple who initially told police that the boy fell off of his bunk bed.

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http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/local/article_9efe5a7a-caae-11e0-976e-001cc4c002e0.html

CHULA VISTA, CA — A South Bay soccer coach accused of molesting a 16- year-old boy over a six-month period must stand trial on eight felony counts, a judge ruled Thursday. Prosecutors also presented evidence alleging a sexual assault against a second boy, but a misdemeanor sexual battery charge involving that minor was dismissed at the conclusion of a daylong preliminary hearing for Luiz Roberto Raymundo, said Deputy District Attorney Trisha Amador.

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http://www.ktla.com/news/landing/kswb-soccer-coach-molest-charges-trial,0,5912535.story

(REEDSBURG, WI)– The Reedsburg Police Department was notified of a pulseless, non-breathing infant on Thursday at 2:20am. The infant’s babysitter called police to the 100 block of N. Preston Avenue reporting the infant had stopped breathing. Reedsburg Paramedics responded and began CPR.

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http://www.nbc15.com/home/headlines/128092943.html

A Fort Lauderdale man was arrested and charged with aggravated child abuse and causing great bodily harm against his girlfriend’s 11-year-old son. Robert Mack Jr. was arrested Thursday. Fort Lauderdale police say he grabbed the boy on Aug. 6 and intentionally threw him to the ground. The child underwent surgery at Broward General Medical Center for a dislocated and broken right elbow, which had two pins placed in the joint, according to a police report.

READ MORE HERE: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/fl-lauderdale-abuse-charge-20110819,0,945157.story

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Remember hot sauce mom, aka Anchorage mom Jessica Beagley? Jurors on Wednesday watched video of a woman squirting hot sauce in the mouth of her adopted son and then making him stand in a cold shower in a case that caused a public uproar in Russia after it aired on the “Dr. Phil” show. Jessica Beagley, of Anchorage, is charged with misdemeanor child abuse. Beagley’s lawyer said she was punishing the 7-year-old boy from Russia because he misbehaved in school and then lied about it.

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http://news.yahoo.com/mom-trial-punishing-child-hot-sauce-195056907.html

Victor Barahona, whose twin sister was killed after allegedly enduring years of horrific abuse, will return to Texas to live with an uncle who wants to adopt and raise him. On Friday morning, Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Maria Sampedro-Iglesia signed an order returning the boy to Texas, where he spent most of the summer with his extended family. Victor told authorities he did not wish to live in Florida, but Sampedro-Iglesia ordered his return anyway, for a custody hearing requested by Miami prosecutors who will try his adoptive parents, Carmen and Jorge Barahona, for murder.