North Carolina police say a mother accused of violently killing her two young daughters with a hatchet is claiming that a “ghost” committed a double-murder. Naiyana Gauri Patel was hospitalized on Saturday with self-inflicted injuries after attempting to take her own life with the same weapon she allegedly used kill her daughters, 4-year-old Piya and 7-year-old Jiya, the Asheville Citizen-Times reported.

DALLAS — A 10-year-old Dallas-area boy who died of dehydration after his father and stepmother kept water from him was being punished for wetting the bed, authorities say. The boy, Jonathan James died July 25 after water was kept from him for five days while temperatures soared to 100 degrees or more each day, police said. The boy’s dad, Michael Ray James, and stepmother, Tina Alberson, both 42, were jailed after being charged Thursday with injury to a child causing serious bodily injury.

CLEVELAND – Cleveland police are asking for the public’s help in finding a person wanted in three different sexual assault cases. Recently, the Cleveland division of sex crimes/child abuse detectives asked for assistance in locating and identifying a man wanted for sexually assaulting an 18-year-old woman in December 2010. Further investigation has revealed that the suspect from the 2010 rape case is also linked to two other violent rapes. The DNA from the wanted man has been linked to two cold case investigations.

An Orangeburg County mother has been arrested and charged with child abuse after her 3-year-old child was found to have a broken leg and split liver. Sheriff Leroy Ravenell said 23-year-old Shanika Ann Riley was arrested Friday afternoon after hospital officials called the sheriff’s office to report Riley’s child was a victim of child abuse.

LAKEVILLE, Minn. — A father abandoned his 11-year-old son last month, telling him in a letter to move in with neighbors because their south Minnesota home was in foreclosure, according to a warrant complaint seeking his arrest. Steven Alexander Cross, 60, left two notes for his son, according to the complaint charging him with a gross misdemeanor of child neglect. One letter said their home in Lakeville was going to be sold at a sheriff’s sale and instructed the boy to take his PlayStation and go to a neighbor’s house.

Former “America’s Best Dance Crew” judge Shane Sparks allegedly sexually abused at least 6 young girls IN ADDITION to the woman who claims Sparks raped her when she was 12 years old … this according to court documents obtained by TMZ. The documents were just made public … following a plea deal Sparks made with the L.A. County District Attorney in which he received 270 days in jail after pleading no contest to having unlawful sex with a minor under 16.

Too Many Are Missing…And they are still among us. 2,300 Americans go missing on a daily basis: Both children and adults. And yet so many go unrecognized, unreported, and forgotten before their communities know they’re gone. Dreamcatchers new Missing Children’s Division is focused on bringing each of these cases to the forefront and helping locate them!! Please visit our Missing Children’s Division page here!

A 49 year old Buena woman is facing manslaughter charges after allegedly kicking her pregnant daughter in the stomach– killing the unborn baby. It’s a case that’s saddened neighbors and even seasoned detectives. Dulce Villegas of Buena can’t believe her neighbor 49 year old Querida Guerrero allegedly kicked her 22 year old pregnant daughter Helen Guerrero in the stomach– killing Helen’s unborn baby.

CHANDLER, Ariz. – Chandler police detectives arrested a care provider and her boyfriend on child abuse charges after an infant was found with 14 broken bones. Angelica Jimenez, 25, was booked into the Maricopa County Jail on one count of child abuse and hindering prosecution. Steven Saldana, 30, was booked on three counts of child abuse.

BRAUNAU, Austria — An 80-year old Austrian man has been taken into custody for allegedly sexually abusing his wife and his two mentally disabled daughters for more than 40 years, police and a prosecutor said Thursday. “We fear that he might bother his victims or continue to abuse women,” chief prosecutor Alois Ebner, who ordered the arrest, told CNN. A police official did not name either the suspect or the alleged victims.

Psychological abuse is a subtle method used to destroy a child’s sense of well being, to instill fear or terror, or prevent, undermine or destroy confidence. The use of psychological abuse, brutality or torture on a growing child is most damaging. It prevents the child from being who they were born to be, and limits or destroys their ability to function normally in life. It is the most damagning of child abuse, without leaving any physical scars.

In Rose McGowan’s People interview hitting newsstands tomorrow, McGowan discusses growing up in Italy as part of a Children Of God sect, a communal group that espoused polygamy and, some allege, child abuse. “I did not want to be like those women. There were basically there to serve the men sexually,” the Conan The Barbarian actress recalls about the group. “There were no newspapers, no television. You were kept in the dark so you would obey.” Makes the fact Rose was once engaged to Marilyn Manson look downright wholesome by comparison. We’re sure the man at least had a TV!

Spruce Grove resident Melanie Duhan doesn’t have many memories from her childhood. The ones she does are painful reminders of the vicious abuse she and her mother suffered through for years. Duhan recalled a time as a child when she watched her six-foot-four, 250-pound father beat her mom “like a dog” and drag her by her hair across the front yard, kicking her with his steel-toed boots.

A 27-year-old Tucson man was arrested this week after police say he abused his infant son, police said. Thomas Francis Wood is facing five felony counts of child abuse in connection with the injuring his 1-month-old son, causing the child to have brain bleeds and numerous fractures, said Sgt. Maria Hawke, a Tucson Police Department spokesman. Wood was booked into Pima County jail.