A six-year-old girl was found dead Thursday morning in far northern Minnesota after spending hours in temperatures that fell to nearly 30 degrees-below-zero with windchills of -40. The unidentified girl, who was a first-grader at Horace May Elementary School, was found frozen to death at 6.23am at her home in Bemidji, Minnesota, about 115 miles east of Grand Forks, North Dakota. She was found inside her apartment building’s front entrance by both her mother and a neighbor who both immediately called 911, said authorities. Police said the girl was found dressed in a coat, boots, hat and mittens by emergency service personnel who arrived at the scene minutes after being called. It is not clear how the girl had managed to get outside, but it appeared she may have been there overnight. Foul play is not suspected.

A Delaware elementary school teacher found guilty of having sex with one of her 13-year-old students is trying to have her 10-year prison sentence reduced. Rachel Holt was 34 when she was charged with 28 counts of raping a minor in 2006. She pleaded guilty to one count of second-degree rape and was handed a mandatory 10-year sentence. Investigators said the science teacher had sex with the boy more than 25 times in just over a week, and on one occasion let his 12-year-old friend watch.

A registered sex offender has been arrested after authorities in Montana say he distributed child pornography to someone in Montana. Dana Preston Duncan, 43, was arrested Wednesday afternoon during his weekly check-in at the Oklahoma City Police Department. According to the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, a member of the Montana Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force informed them that someone was distributing child pornography from Oklahoma to someone in Montana. As police in Oklahoma investigated, they say Duncan was sending the material and that he was a registered sex offender.

A prominent sports journalist is expected to face more than 50 charges early this week arising out of a lengthy garda investigation into claims that he sexually abused a child. The man is due to appear in Dublin District Court on a range of offences arising from an alleged inappropriate relationship with a young girl. The charges include alleged sexual assault on a young girl and defilement and exploitation through sending text messages to her. The move follows a garda investigation that was launched in March 2011 after the man’s daughter found text messages to the girl on a phone she had been given by her father.

An infant girl died in Albuquerque after suffering sexual and physical abuse at the hands of her mother’s boyfriend, New Mexico cops said. Angelique Montano’s 4-month-old baby, Izabellah, died Sunday, after two weeks on life support, according to KOB-TV. Montano’s boyfriend, Elijah Fernandez, 19, is accused of causing serious brain and sexual trauma to the child while high on synthetic marijuana, commonly referred to as spice. Doctors had allegedly referred the child to the state’s Children Youth and Families Department three times before the deadly incident because of past injuries, according to KOB-TV.

A Poultney man charged with the murder of his 2-year-old stepdaughter denied the offense and was ordered jailed on $250,000 bail Monday. Dennis Duby, 31, faces 20 years to life behind bars for the killing of Dezirae Sheldon who Vermont State Police investigators say died from skull fractures inflicted by blunt force trauma. Duby told investigators that he believed the child had fallen off a table and said he’d seen her fall from a toilet and a sink on the afternoon of Feb. 19. But an autopsy of the little girl showed that she had fractures to either side of her head.

Charges of attempted murder and torture have been added to a case of suspected child abusers. Tuesday, police announced the additional charges, but relatives of one suspect said the two adults who’ve been arrested were actually trying to save the 5-year-old girl. “She was taken away from her mother, her biological mother,” Savannah Rodriguez told Eyewitness News. “And given to her father and my sister, with a whole bunch of problems that this little girl has. My brother-in-law and my sister are just trying to help.”

Two women who were sexually abused as children by their stepfather have spoken out in a bid to help other victims after his crimes went unpunished for nearly two decades. Katie Shortman, 24, and Dellisa Shortman, 25, have bravely spoken out after Paul Ward was jailed for four years when he admitted two counts of indecent assault. Ward, 50, of Sale, Greater Manchester, began abusing his two stepdaughters in the early 90s, when they were aged just five and six.

NICOMA PARK, Oklahoma – A 25-year-old Nicoma Park man is suspected of not only being sexually involved with a 12-year-old girl, but Spencer Police said there are cell phone images of child pornography to prove it. Spencer Police said they pulled over Daniel McGarity for speeding at 4:30 a.m. Sunday. They said he admitted he had marijuana on him. There was also a young girl in his car.

The case against a junior high school teacher accused of sexting a 13-year-old girl has been dropped, but not for lack of evidence. It was dropped because courts and prosecutors say the Texas law banning adults from sex chat with minors violates the right to free speech. An appeals court ruled that a teacher can participate in a certain level of sexting with a student, and it’s not against the law. “They dropped the ball,” said defense attorney Jim Shaw. “They dropped the ball.” Shaw says although Texas legislators tried to write a law that would stop sexually explicit texts messages from an adult to a child, they didn’t get it right.

DENVER – Today is day four of the search for convicted child rapist who cut off his GPS bracelet and disappeared in Denver. Eric Eugene Hartwell, 51, was convicted of raping a child in 1991 and attempted indecent liberties in 1996. According to the state sex offender registry, he is registered in Denver at 2765 S. Federal Blvd., unit 307. That address corresponds to an Independence House location where offenders live.

MONTGOMERY COUNTY COURTHOUSE — The Montgomery County District Attorney’s office dropped 266 charges of sexual abuse against a Norristown man in court on Monday, according to a press release from the man’s lawyer. Michael Simpkins, 46, of Norristown, pleaded guilty to simple assault and recklessly endangering a person in front of Common Pleas Judge Wendy Demchik-Alloy. She sentenced Simpkins to time served and he will be under court supervision in probation for the next three years.

ST. AUGUSTINE, Florida — A grandmother is facing a charge of child abuse after the St. Augustine Police Department said a grandchild left in her care had purple bruising up and down her back. Authorities said the child was at Webster Elementary School and was acting withdrawn and quiet. When staff asked the child was was wrong, the child said her back hurt. Police report that while the child was in the nurses clinic, a staff member saw 4-inch by 2-inch bruising on the child’s back.

A 9-member jury deliberated for three hours and 17 minutes before returning with a guilty verdict in the trial of a 44-year-old man indicted on two counts of incest against his daughter, who was 10 years old when the incidents occurred in 2009. The incestuous man is already serving a 3-year prison sentence for a conviction of aggravated assault of an indecent nature that he committed upon another minor. The trial took place before Justice John “Troadio” Gonzalez, and eight out of the nine jurors voted to convict the man on the two incest indictments.