GEORGIA – Authorities say two men and one woman were arrested by Georgia State Police after two boys were reported as being kidnapped. Asheville police say Georgia suspects, Natasha Cantrell, Christopher Carter, and Chadwick Agan are being held in the Jackson County Jail in Georgia. Cantrell and Carter are each charged with 2nd degree kidnapping and child abduction. Agan is charged with 2 counts of child abduction. A fourth suspect, Trena Weaver of Asheville, is charged with misdemeanor child abuse. An Amber Alert was issued for 1-year-old Elijah Joyner and 3-year-old Harlee Joyner around 12:00 Sunday afternoon. The alert was lifted around 2:30 p.m.

They were murdered by one of America’s most notorious serial killers, but for three decades they remained nameless. Now, the efforts to solve the mystery of killer clown John Wayne Gacy’s eight unidentified victims has yielded results for the first time – not only for the 33-year-old cold case but for scores of missing persons cases. Thanks to scientific breakthroughs in DNA testing, Sgt. Jason Moran has identified one of the unnamed men discovered in the serial killer’s Chicago home in the 1970s. William Bundy’s mother had long suspected her son was among the killer clown’s 33 murder victims.

A student who allegedly plotted a Times Square bomb attack is also suspected in the stabbing of a young boy, as part of an audition to join ISIS. Police say that last January, 21-year-old Fareed Mumuni stabbed 9-year-old Jermaine Culver in the neck as he was walking to school in Staten Island. Culver survived the attack but the case went unsolved for some time.

Pinckney police say that they took a complaint on Thursday the 16th from a Pinckney HS staff member that a 15-year-old female student had been raped at a residence within the Village of Pinckney. An officer responded and took the complaint. A witness was interviewed, as well as school staff, and the location was confirmed, as well as the identity of the three suspects. A search warrant was executed on the home of one of the suspects for physical evidence. All three suspects were then interviewed.

INVERNESS, Florida – Prosecutors have charged an Inverness man with kidnapping after an 8-year-old girl managed to escape her captor. Jeffery Story, 20, is accused of nabbing the young girl through her bedroom window in the middle of the night.

Numerous researchers have concluded that how parents respond to stressors is much more important than the stressor itself in determining the outcomes for themselves and their children. Parents are more likely to achieve healthy, favorable outcomes if they are resilient. Resilience is the process of managing stress and functioning well even when faced with challenges, adversity and trauma. Some stressors parents face can be managed easily so that problems get resolved; for example, calling a relative or friend to pick-up a child from school when a parent is delayed. But some stressors cannot be easily resolved. For example, parents cannot “fix” their child’s developmental disability, erase the abuse they suffered as a child or be able to move out of a crime-plagued neighborhood. Rather, parents are resilient when they are able to call forth their inner strength to proactively meet personal challenges and those in relation to their child, manage adversities, heal the effects of trauma and thrive given the unique characteristics and circumstances of their family.

TEXAS – A Santa Claus who has delighted children on the South Texas circuit for more than a decade won’t be coming to town this year. Reynaldo Ramirez, 37, of Corpus Christi was arrested this week by local authorities and charged Friday in a federal criminal complaint with possession of child pornography.

PITTSBURGH, PA — The state attorney general has charged a Pittsburgh police recruit already on unpaid leave with molesting two 15-year-old girls he met through a messaging app. 23-year-old Cyrus Sukhadia faces a Dec. 29 hearing on involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, statutory sexual assault and other charges.

MURFREESBORO, Tennessee — A 31-year-old Murfreesboro woman was arrested Wednesday and charged with attempted first-degree murder after a failed attempt to end her pregnancy, according to a report from the Murfreesboro Police Department. Anna Yocca of Swindon Circle is accused of using a coat hanger to end her pregnancy in September, Detective Tommy Roberts reported. She was 24 weeks into gestation.

VIRGINIA – A police detective who had investigated online crimes against children killed himself Tuesday, moments before police could charge him with having inappropriate contact with two young teens. David Edward Abbott, 39, of Gainesville, Virginia, was a Manassas City detective. He had served on the Northern Virginia-Washington, D.C. Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.

A mother has been arrested days after going on the run following the death of her 24-day-old daughter who was physically abused. Alyssa Kincaid, 24, was arrested today during a traffic stop, while her 26-year-old boyfriend, Nicholas Campbell, is already in police custody. The pair are both charged in connection with the death of Ciara Campbell, Kincaid’s daughter, who died on Sunday after just a few weeks of life.

KENTUCKY – Kendall Marshall, a 6th-grader at Noe Middle School in Louisville, Ken. has had enough of the brutal torment she has received from some of her peers. On December 10, Marshall’s family filed a lawsuit against two bullies, as a well as a guidance counselor from Marshall’s school. Marshall says the bullying started with one 6th-grade boy who used verbal tactics to cut Marshall down, commenting on her physical appearance. Both Marshall and her mother alerted school officials and district officials of the problem, but nothing was done.

–Winnipeg police have charged a 53-year-old man with second-degree murder in the death of Tina Fontaine. Raymond Joseph Cormier, 53, was arrested Wednesday in the Vancouver area. Fontaine, 15, was pulled from Winnipeg’s Red River on Aug. 17 2014. Her body was wrapped in a black plastic bag. She was a ward of the province, one of about 10,000 children in care with 90 per cent being Indigenous.

NEW YORK – 13-year-old Deandre Bloomfield remains in the hospital with second and third degree burns. His mother says her son was set on fire by a bully. “He just wants friends not thinking the worst, that this can happen to him,” Ursula Allen, his mother, says. The horrific act took place on December 2nd at the 13-year-old suspect’s Staten Island home. Allen says the teen sprayed cologne on her son, who is disabled, and lit a match.