MICHIGAN – A 4-year-old girl who died after allegedly being tortured by her mother and boyfriend had been so badly burned that her big toe fell off and melted skin was found in the bathtub. The gruesome details surrounding Gabby Barrett’s death emerged after the little girl’s mother Candice Diaz, 24, and her boyfriend Brad Fields, 28, were captured by police on Tuesday. The couple had sparked a nationwide manhunt after going on the run from Sumpter Township on New Year’s Day after Gabby died. They were arrested 792 miles away in southern Georgia. READ MORE HERE

PENNSYLVANIA – Police say a 23-year-old woman left her dead newborn child in a bag under the porch of her father’s Pennsylvania home. Authorities say Brittany Robinson was charged Sunday with criminal homicide, abuse of a corpse, tampering with evidence and concealing the death of a child. Police say they believe the baby was born alive. An autopsy is set for Monday night to determine the exact cause of death. READ MORE HERE

‘KILLER NURSE’ Indicted

TEXAS – A “killer nurse” who may have killed 60 Texas children, was indicted on a murder charge for the fifth time this year. Genene Jones, 68, was charged Tuesday with killing 2-month-old Paul Villarreal in 1981. Jones was serving consecutive 99-year and 60-year sentences in state prison for previous charges — but was slated to get out in March 2018 under a mandatory release law. However, she will now be sent to an adult detention center while she awaits trial on her new murder charges, according to Nico LaHood, Bexar County District Attorney. READ MORE HERE

Genene Jones

Serial killer

RICHARDSON, Texas – The father of a missing 3-year-old Richardson girl who was later found dead has changed his story of what happened to her. Wesley Mathews was taken into custody on Monday night for injury to a child, a first-degree felony. His bond was set at $1 million. Mathews was previously charged with child endangerment. He told police his daughter Sherin disappeared after he left her by a tree around 3 a.m. on Oct. 7 because she wouldn’t drink her milk. READ MORE HERE

Michigan rapist gets joint custody

MICHIGAN – A Sanilac County Circuit judge has granted parenting time and joint legal custody of an 8-year-old boy to a convicted sex offender who allegedly raped the child’s mother nine years ago. Christopher Mirasolo, 27, of Brown City was awarded joint legal custody by Judge Gregory S. Ross after DNA testing established paternity of the child, according to the victim’s attorney, Rebecca Kiessling, who is seeking protection under the federal Rape Survivor Child Custody Act. A hearing is scheduled for Oct. 17, 2017 at 1:30pm,. The case, initially reported on “The Steve Gruber Show,” a Lansing-based radio program, is believed the first of its kind in Michigan and possibly the nation. According to the victim and Kiessling, it was prompted after the county surveyed the victim regarding child support she had received this past year. READ MORE HERE

NOTICE

Dreamcatchers for Abused Children is organizing a #VictimsRightsRally to protest this injustice. Join us on October 17, 2017 at the Sanilac County (MI) Courthouse lawn from 12pm-4pm to protest Sanilac County Judge Gregory S. Ross’s decision to award joint custody and parenting rights to a convicted child rapist!

The mother was raped and impregnated at 12-years old by a 19-year old man who should have served a minimum of 25 years to life in prison for 1st degree criminal sexual conduct, but instead only served 6-1/2 months in county jail, and now, a Judge granted her rapist parental rights without a hearing. This is the first known case where the newly passed Rape Survivor Child Custody Act in Michigan will be argued, and demonstrates why a rape conviction should not be necessary to suspend or terminate parental rights.

PETITION: http://www.citizengo.org/en/signit/100841/view
RALLY EVENT: https://www.facebook.com/events/527874777557180/

JASPER, Florida — A man faces child cruelty charges, after his 19-month-old daughter was reportedly left outside during Tropical Storm Irma. Police in Jasper, Florida arrested 36-year-old Angelo Mitchell Monday. The Hamilton County Sheriff says the toddler’s mother reported the child missing at about 11:30 p.m. Sunday from their Jasper home. Officers and deputies searched the area and used a tracking dog to try to find the child, but came up empty. Around 11:30 a.m. Monday, a passerby discovered the child, lying in the yard of a home nearby. The little girl was discovered about 400-500 yards from her house. The sheriff says the 19-month-old suffered the whole night through the storm, exposed to the wind and rain, and was purple in color. READ MORE HERE

ALBION, New York –  10-year-old girl who was beaten repeatedly, forced to run with heavy packs and dragged behind a car escaped her tormentors as they slept to ask a neighbor for help, police in central New York said Friday. Four adults were charged after the bruised and malnourished girl escaped on Wednesday from her home in rural Oswego County, north of Syracuse. Her treatment, which included beatings with a tightly rolled newspaper wrapped with electrical tape, had apparently been getting worse since April, Oswego County Undersheriff Gene Sullivan said. READ MORE HERE

US Navy father and girlfriend arrested; boy in ‘dire condition’

A father serving in the Navy was arrested along with his girlfriend on suspicion that the couple tortured the man’s five-year-old son. Murrieta County police said they have arrested Benjamin Whitten and Jeryn Johnson on multiple counts of child abuse after being receiving a distress call on Tuesday. Police and fire personnel were dispatched to an emergency call at 24001 Verdun Lane shortly after 10:00am and discovered a child with ‘severe injuries.’ READ MORE HERE

NORWICH, N.Y. — A man killed a child while he was trying to rape her last weekend in his Chenango County home, police said. James S. Brower, 36, of Norwich, has been charged with murdering Jacelyn D. O’Connor, an 11-year-old girl. He killed Jacelyn as he tried to rape her in his 961 County Highway 33 home, said New York State Police Investigator Jamieson Tefft in a felony complaint. READ MORE HERE

TN – A couple has been charged with murder and child abuse in the death of a toddler at Ridgecrest Apartments on June 24. The Memphis Police Department said in an email Saturday that the child’s mother, Keinosha Taper, 20, and Taper’s boyfriend Gregory Ford, 27, have been charged in the death of Amelia Taper, a 23-month-old. They were arrested Friday and charged with aggravated child abuse, aggravated child neglect, first degree murder in perpetration of aggravated child abuse, and first degree murder in perpetration of aggravated child neglect. READ MORE HERE

ROCKWELL, N.C. — A suspect has been taken into custody in Concord after evading Rowan County Police. Houston Ray McCarn, has been arrested after being found at the Howard Johnson Motel in Concord. According to police McCarn, and his girlfriend Amber Scarborough was wanted for the First Degree Murder of Kingston Aistrop, and Felony Child Abuse Causing Serious Body Injury. Kingston Aistrop, 8-weeks-old, was reported to not be breathing when the mother called 911 in July 2016.

Both mother, ex-boyfriend now in custody, face murder charges

Suspects arrested in child murder investigation

Teenagers charged with murder in death of 2-month-old

QUEENSLAND – A man who killed his seven-week-old baby will be sentenced for manslaughter after pleading guilty at the Brisbane Supreme Court. Rick Cataldo was arraigned over the May 2012 death of daughter Lily Rain Cataldo at the court on Thursday, where he entered a plea to a single charge. Lily’s mother Michelle Leask was in April sentenced to five years’ imprisonment after also pleading guilty to manslaughter. READ MORE HERE

DEPUTIES: BABY ON VENTILATOR AFTER MAN STICKS FINGER DOWN THROAT

GREENVILLE, S.C. – A man and woman are accused of child abuse after a 5-month-old was taken to the hospital with severe oral trauma, according to the sheriff’s office. Celeste Paulina Marroquin, 20 – Charged with 2 counts of Unlawful Neglect of a child – $20,000 bond. Ricardo Perez Salas, 23 – Charged with Child abuse and Unlawful Neglect of a Child – No bond. Investigators say Salas was in a home with the child despite a recent DSS order prohibiting contact with the child. At some point between June 10 and 11 – the child starting crying and Salas put his finger down the throat of the child for an extended period of time, causing the damage, according to the report. READ MORE HERE