Heartbreaking photos have been released following a violent mass-killing in Guatemala. A heart-wrenching collection of photographs, which depict 6-year-old Carlos Daniel Gonzalez and his 4-year-old sister Izabel demonstrating for police how their family was gunned down before their eyes, have been released. In the photos, Carlos can be seen walking around the family home with his arm protectively over the shoulder of his little sister. READ MORE HERE

NEWPORT BEACH — A professional clown was sentenced Wednesday to 10 years in state prison for raping a girl a decade ago in Fullerton. Jose Guadalupe Jimenez, 43, of Anaheim pleaded guilty to one felony count of a lewd act upon a child under 14 and one felony count of a forcible lewd act on a child under 14. “He will be required to register as a sex offender for life. The negotiated plea was a result of the totality of the evidence of the case, availability of witnesses and wishes of the victim,” according to the Orange County district attorney’s office.  READ MORE HERE

A doctor testified today that a mother who glued her two-year-old daughter’s hands to a wall also beat the toddler so badly that she suffered significant brain trauma and bleeding inside her skull. Elizabeth Escalona pleaded guilty on July 12 to injury to a child. The 23-year-old mother is being sentenced today. She faces up to life in prison. A state district judge will decide her punishment. The doctor showed photos of the beaten child in court this morning in which she had bruises, cuts and bite marks all over her body shortly after she was brought to Children’s Medical Center in Dallas. READ MORE HERE

Syracuse, NY – Heather Lacey, a 25-year-old New York woman was jailed Wednesday after she allegedly locked her toddler son in a bedroom for up to 22 hours a day without supervision or access to a bathroom. According to DeWitt Police, an investigation was launched on Monday after detectives received a tip that alleged a woman was keeping her son locked inside a small bedroom unattended for long periods of time. READ MORE HERE

Body of 17-month-old Justin Kowalczik found buried in Long Island backyard

Buried beneath a Long Island backyard where neighborhood kids played and parents sipped drinks was a deep, dark secret — the body of a 17-month-old boy. State police detectives unearthed the remains of tiny Justin Kowalczik, who was discarded more than two years ago behind the suburban home where his mother quietly raised his two half-siblings, cops said Saturday. “I could tell she was hiding something,” said Patricia Ruane, the baby-sitter for Heather Kowalczik’s surviving kids. “Something was off. Something was very off with that woman.” No arrests were made after the body was dug up from the far right corner of the Farmingdale backyard — but police quickly identified the mom’s boyfriend as a person of interest. READ MORE HERE

MOBILE, Alabama — Authorities are investigating why a University of South Alabama officer fatally shot an 18-year-old freshman who they say was naked and acting erratically outside the campus police station early Saturday. With few details of the shooting in the Gulf Coast city of Mobile, the student’s mother and one of his friends said they could not understand how a six-year varsity wrestler and good-natured teenager could have died under such strange and sad circumstances. READ MORE HERE

The 10-year-old was last seen walking to school Friday morning.

SUPERIOR, Colorado — Colorado police searching for a missing 10-year-old girl said Sunday they found her backpack in a subdivision more than six miles away from her home, their first break in the case. Police would not say what items were in the bag belonging to Jessica Ridgeway, who has been missing since Friday, except that some of the items had her name on them. READ MORE HERE

A national study found that serious injuries from child abuse appear to have risen modestly over the past decade or so, and suggested that downward trends in other studies of abuse may reflect reporting changes rather than real improvement. Hospitalization for abuse-related injury rose 4.9 percent overall among children 18 and under over the 12-year span from 1997 through 2009, wrote Dr. John Leventhal and Julie Gaither, both of Yale University in New Haven, Conn. Children were increasingly likely to die from these injuries before discharge as well, they reported in the November issue of Pediatrics. Read this story on www.medpagetoday.com.  READ MORE HERE

ANAHEIM  — A 50-year-old Spanish teacher has been sentenced to four years in prison after pleading guilty to charges of having illegal sex with an underage student. Scott Adrian Peterson, of Anaheim, was a teacher at Orange High School when he reportedly began a relationship with the victim in April 2010. READ MORE HERE

6-year-old Meika Dawn Jordan died on November 14th 2011 at the home of her biological father and stepmother in Temple Drive, Calgary.  Police were told that the child was killed after falling down stairs, but autopsy results have since shown the victim suffered blunt force trauma to the head and abdomen as well as a third degree burn on her hand.  READ MORE HERE

A defenseless 3-week-old baby girl was mauled to death by a pit-bull in west Detroit this past Thursday. The mother of the child was visiting a friend and set the baby down in a car seat after being fed her formula upon which the family friend’s dog slipped into the house from the yard and began to maul the face of the helpless infant.  READ MORE HERE

State prosecutor and wife ‘abused adopted Ethiopian children found near death with skull fractures and bruises’

A deputy Pennsylvania attorney and his wife have been arrested after their two adopted Ethiopian children were found starved and beaten to near death according to police. Deputy Attorney General Douglas Barbour and his wife, Kristen were arraigned today after their 6-year-old boy was found malnourished with skin lesions and the 18-month-old girl having multiple skull fractures and being possibly permanently blind. READ MORE HERE

Girl found bound in bathroom of suburban school

SANTA ANA — A 425-pound man was arrested Thursday for allegedly trying to abduct a 10-year old boy on his way to soccer practice. Police received a call around 7:30 p.m. Thursday night when about a man trying to kidnap a young boy in the 500 block of E. Central. The caller said the boy’s soccer coach was trying to detain the man, but he had escaped.  READ MORE HERE