Gina DeJesus’ family is planning to ‘adopt’ Michelle Knight and look after her as their daughter after Michelle rejected a meeting with her own mother, a friend of Felix and Nancy DeJesus has revealed to MailOnline. Lupe Collins, a neighbor who helped the DeJesus family look for Gina since she disappeared in 2004, said Nancy DeJesus told her in a phone call on Thursday that she and her husband are trying to convince Michelle, now 32, to stay with them. ‘She was Georgina’s sister for ten years in that house and she’s still her sister now,’ Ms Collins said. READ MORE HERE
A surrogate father who spent ten years in jail for shaking his baby son to death has been freed after new evidence revealed the boy died of poor health. Drayton Witt, who was convicted in 2002 of second-degree murder in the death of his four-month-old son Steven. But this week, an Arizona Superior Court judge dismissed all charges against Mr Witt and he is now reunited with his wife, Maria. The 31-year-old was not Steven’s biological father, but helped Maria raise him and had given the child his last name, according to Slate. Mr Witt said Wednesday that he was overcome with joy knowing the case was finally closed for good. ‘I can start my life over again,’ he told the Arizona Republic. READ MORE HERE
Congolese troops fleeing the M23 rebels last November raped at least 97 women and 33 girls, some as young as 6, according to a UN report. The report, released on Wednesday covered “mass rape, killings, and arbitrary executions and violations resulting from widespread looting,” UN spokesman Martin Nesirky told reporters. A report by the UN Joint Human Rights Office said most of the rapes took place over November 22-23 in the eastern Congo town of Minova. READ MORE HERE
UPDATE: Police believe body is that of 18-month-old Kansas girl
(CNN) — The body of an 18-month-old girl whose mother was found dead last week along with two others may have been discovered Saturday, police in Kansas said. Authorities are conducting a forensic identification on the remains, a written statement said. “It is with great sadness that I report a body found in Osage County, Kansas, is believed to be the remains of 18-month-old Lana Bailey,” Franklin County Sheriff Jeff Richards said, adding that he was confident it was the missing toddler. READ MORE HERE
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Amber Alert Issued for Toddler
Family Murdered, 18-MO Toddler Missing
FRANKLIN COUNTY, KS – A missing mother was among the three found dead inside a Franklin County farmhouse as authorities issued an alert for the woman’s missing 18-month-old daughter. Authorities and family members have confirmed the identities of the three killed. Confusion exists among law enforcement agencies about the status of a man in custody in connection with the slayings and the alert for Lana-Leigh Bailey, who turned 18 months old on Tuesday. READ MORE HERE
NEWPORT NEWS, VA – A Newport News community held a candlelight vigil for 4-year-old Madyson Van Cleave Hook. Police say she was murdered by her mother’s boyfriend. 23-year-old Carl Cottee Jr. was babysitting Madyson alone on Friday when emergency dispatchers received a call that the little girl was not breathing. Cottee is now facing murder, child neglect and cruelty charges. READ MORE HERE
Ariel Castro Charged With Kidnapping, Raping Cleveland Girls
CLEVELAND — The owner of a Cleveland home where three women were rescued from a decade in captivity has been charged with kidnapping and rape, but his brothers had nothing to do with the case, authorities announced Wednesday. Ariel Castro, a 52-year-old former school bus driver, has been charged with three counts of rape and four counts of kidnapping, City Chief Assistant Prosecutor Victor Perez said. READ MORE HERE
Ropes, Chains Found in Home Where Women Held Captive
LOS ANGELES — Eight years after he testified in the Michael Jackson molestation trial that the pop star never touched him, an Australian choreographer has filed a claim against the singer’s estate alleging “childhood sexual abuse.” Attorneys for Wade Robson, who knew Jackson and stayed at the singer’s Neverland Ranch as a teenager, has asked a Los Angeles judge to allow him to make a late claim as creditor in Jackson’s estate. READ MORE HERE
Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight have been found alive after 10-years of captivity
CLEVELAND — The woman’s voice was frantic and breathless, and she was choking back tears. “Help me. I’m Amanda Berry,” she told a 911 dispatcher. “I’ve been kidnapped and I’ve been missing for 10 years and I’m, I’m here, I’m free now.” Those words led police to a house near downtown Cleveland where Berry and two other women who vanished about a decade ago were found Monday, exhilarating law enforcement authorities, family members and friends who had longed to see them again. Police Chief Michael McGrath said Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight were apparently held captive in the house since they were in their teens or early 20s. Authorities later arrested three brothers, ages 50 to 54. One of them, former school bus driver Ariel Castro, owned the home, situated in a neighborhood dotted with boarded-up older homes. No immediate charges were brought against them. READ MORE HERE
It’s heartbreaking, and it happens. Virtually every day, children are exploited and lured away from their families by cyber sexual predators. The FBI is committed to stopping these crimes through our Innocent Images National Initiative. Based in Maryland, it joins FBI agents with local and international task force members who collaborate in online undercover investigations specifically geared towards stopping those who prey on our children. READ MORE HERE
One in five children between 10 and 17 years of age have reported receiving an unwanted sexual solicitation while online, a new study finds. The solicitation mostly occurred in chat rooms and through e-mail. But the kids are generally all right, the study says. The researchers found teenagers are savvy when it comes to Internet use and while the overtures disturbed them, none of the children in the study encountered any violence. READ MORE HERE
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Shocking Statistics Reveal…
Each Year Internet Predators Commit:
Over 16,000 Abductions
:: Over 100 Murders
:: Thousands of Rapes
Over 39,000 Verified Registered Sex Offenders have profiles on MySpace
(Those are just the ones who have registered their real names!)
Internet Experts agree that:
Millions of Sexual Predators and Perverts
Over 90% are online just watching and waiting for the “right moment”…
Internet Predators often Cross State Lines to reach their victims
Approximately 93 percent of all Americans between 12 and 17 years old are internet users (as of 2007)
One in five U.S. teenagers who regularly log on to the Internet says they have received an unwanted sexual solicitation via the Web. Solicitations were defined as requests to engage in sexual activities or sexual talk, or to give out personal sexual information. (only 25% of those told a parent)
About 30% of the victims of Internet sexual exploitation are boys.
Internet sexual predators tend to fall between the ages of 18 and 55, although some are older or younger. Their targets tend to be between the ages of 11 and 15
In 100% of the cases, teens that are the victims of sexual predators have gone willingly to meet with them.
There are over 644,865 Registered Sex Offenders in the United States (2008).
Teens are willing to meet with strangers: 16 percent of teens considered meeting someone they’ve only talked to online and 8 percent have actually met someone they only knew online.
75% of children are willing to share personal information online about themselves and their family in exchange for goods and services.
RALEIGH, N.C. — North Carolina authorities are accusing a couple of using zip ties to bind their 4-year-old daughter’s wrists and ankles to a baby gate. Raleigh police say 26-year-old Gerald Thomas Swinehart and 28-year-old Marlaine Victoria Coffey are accused of tying the child to a gate with plastic ties normally used by electricians. They also say Swinehart pushed or kicked the girl so hard her lower teeth broke through her lower lip. READ MORE HERE
Cyber predators are on an ever-changing hunt. They know they’re only as successful as their last deception. The latest looks like a game. “If parents could see what we see on a daily basis, they would be shocked,” said Christopher Heaverin of the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office. He is a cyber detective who knows it’s not just the blatantly sexual games used to lure children to predators. It’s also Xbox and Playstation, anything that allows conversation without seeing a face. READ MORE HERE
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Predators
DID YOU KNOW? — 73% of children who have offline sexual encounters with offenders do so more than once.
Although the Internet did not create child predators, it has significantly increased the opportunities predators have to meet victims while minimizing detection. They can communicate with children anonymously through instant messaging, social networking sites, chat rooms, message boards, and even cell phones. Online predators do not fit any one mold or stereotype; seemingly upstanding citizens have been caught enticing children for sexual acts. Contrary to popular belief, most online predators are not pedophiles. Pedophiles target pre-pubescent children, while online predators typically target adolescents who engage in risky online behavior. READ MORE HERE
Florida mom Chelsea Hugget, 21, is behind bars after murdering her 2-year-old Aliyah Marie Branum at home; Hugget says the toddler wouldn’t stop whining.Police were called to the Hugget’s home on April 26th where they found the toddler in distress; they rushed her to the hospital where she was pronounced dead shortly after. READ MORE HERE
CLEVELAND COUNTY — Cleveland County and Canadian County officials work together to arrest a man they say is a sexual predator and was distributing child pornography and admitted to sexually abusing at least ten children. A Canadian County Computer Crimes Investigator applied for a warrant from a judge in Cleveland County after he said he received numerous images of graphic child pornography from Roger Kuhn over the internet in Canadian County over a period of three weeks. READ MORE HERE
The parents of a 5-month-old girl found bruised and battered Sunday at the family’s Richardson home have been charged in her death. Police say Hector Rene Cupich-Quinones, 35, has been charged with capital murder, and Maria Guadalupe Zuniga, 37, faces a charge of injury to a child. Both are being held in the city jail after their arrests over the weekend. The father, who like his wife cannot hear or speak, confessed through an interpreter to beating their only child because she wouldn’t stop crying, according to police documents. READ MORE HERE
DREAMCATCHERS FOR ABUSED CHILDREN, INC. is an official non-profit 501(c)3 child abuse & neglect organization. Our mission is to educate the public on all aspects of child abuse such as symptoms, intervention, prevention, statistics, reporting, and helping victims locate the proper resources necessary to achieve a full recovery. We also cover areas such as bullying, teen suicide & prevention, children\'s rights, child trafficking, missing & exploited children, online safety, and pedophiles/sex offenders.
DeJesus’s Family Is “Adopting” Her Instead
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