LAPEER, MI — A vigil was held Sunday to raise awareness about child abuse and to celebrate the life of 2-year-old Lily Furneaux-Wolfenbarger, who was killed in November. “Lily would want us to celebrate the two-and-a-half-years that we had her,” grandmother Lynette Furneaux said. The child’s stepmother, 26-year-old Renee King, has been charged with murder, sexual assault and child abuse. Investigators accuse King, who remains behind bars, of raping her stepdaughter and killing her with a blow to the head. King says she is innocent. A delay in forensic testing forced her pretrial hearing to be pushed back to Jan. 24. “She was so beautiful …. just her smile lit up the world and she loved to sing and dance and loved Jesus,” Lauren said.

More than 45, 000 children in Israel have been the victims of abuse over the past 12 months, the head of the Israel National Council for the Child, Dr. Yitzhak Kadmon, said Monday. Speaking a conference tackling the issue of infanticide, held at the Sheba Medical Center in Tel Hashomer, Kadmon said that initial studies showed the rate of children suffering abuse over the past 12 months was twice as high in Israel than in the United States. For every 1,000 children, 18 in Israel had said that they had been abused (45,600 children in real terms), as opposed to 10.1 children per thousand in the U.S.

Macon, GA — According to Macon police, 19-year-old Vonn Gibbons Jr. shot and killed a young boy his mother was babysitting for over the weekend before turning the gun on himself. Gibbons reportedly died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest shortly after shooting 7-year-old Jalen Griffin in the head. Gibbons’ mother, Cheryl Cole, told police she was asleep when the shots were fired early Saturday morning, and claims she had no idea her son owned a gun. Still in the early stages of the investigation, police say they are searching for a motive behind the bizarre murder-suicide.

CLEVELAND, OH — A mother has been arrested and charged with child endangering and domestic violence after being accused of abusing her three step-children. Three siblings, ages 12, 12 and 10, informed their principal at Marion C. Seltzer that when they get home from school their step-mother, 46-year-old Renee Lester, locked them up in the attic, the basement or a bedroom until the next day. The basement they were locked in had one couch the children shared without any blankets or lights. They were beaten if they used the toilet in the next room, told they had to hold it. The attic had nothing for the kids to sleep on, nor any blankets, but did have light from a street light outside.

PHOENIX — A baby girl from Arizona has been found dead inside a donation box that was shipped to a warehouse in Texas, and Phoenix authorities said Friday it will be extremely difficult to find out who placed the girl there. The child was discovered at a warehouse in McAllen, Texas, on Thursday as workers sorted through clothing shipped from metropolitan Phoenix. Investigators are waiting to hear from officials in Texas who are conducting an autopsy to determine whether the baby was born alive or stillborn, Phoenix police spokesman Sgt. Steve Martos said.

ST. PETERSBURG, FL– Florida officials filed an obscenity charge Monday against the author of a self-published how-to guide for pedophiles that was yanked from Amazon.com last month after it generated online outrage.
Polk County sheriff’s deputies arrested Philip Ray Greaves II at his home in Pueblo, Colo., and charged him with violating Florida’s obscenity law. Polk Sheriff Grady Judd said his office was able to arrest Greaves on Florida charges because Greaves sold and mailed his book, “The Pedophile’s Guide to Love and Pleasure: a Child-lover’s Code of Conduct,” directly to undercover Polk deputies. Judd says Greaves even signed the book. “He very proudly sold us his personal copy,” Judd told the Associated Press. “I was outraged by the content. It was clearly a manifesto on how to sexually batter children … You just can’t believe how absolutely disgusting it was.”

DENVER — Police say 34-year-old Stephanie Rochester of Superior told them that she smothered her son to death because she believed he was autistic and didn’t think she and her husband could handle a disabled child. On Friday, Rochester pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity in Boulder County District Court. Her attorneys say they believe that postpartum mental illness contributed to Rochester’s actions. Rochester is charged with first-degree murder and child abuse resulting in death in the June 1 death of her 6-month-old son, Rylan.

Dressed in her sparkling white communion veil, grinning shyly for the camera, Amy ­Houston looked a picture of purity and ­innocence in photographs taken when she was 12 years old. Today, little Amy should be a ­contented young woman. Instead, in the words of her devastated father Paul, she was left to ‘die like a dog’ in the street after being knocked down by Mohammed Ibrahim, a serial ­criminal and failed asylum seeker, who was driving while supposedly banned from the road.

A Man who raped an underage girl has been jailed for eight years. Passing sentence on James Riggs at Plymouth Crown Court, Judge Francis Gilbert QC branded him arrogant and said he had used the girl sexually on many occasions for his own sexual gratification. The jury of seven men and five women unanimously found Riggs, aged 25 and of Plough Green, Saltash, guilty of one count of rape and five counts of sexual activity with a child.

BERKELEY, Mo. (KMOX) — A Berkeley police officer who was fired amid allegations of sexual misconduct with a teenaged girl is charged Friday by the St. Louis County Prosecutor. Officer Phillip Peterson is charged with sodomy, statutory rape and endangering the welfare of a child. 27-year old Peterson met the 15-year old alleged victim at the Risen Lord Community Church in St. Charles, where Peterson was involved with the church youth group.

A man who was charged with raping an 11-year-old girl, currently serving time in the Knox County Detention Facility, is now accused of trying to hire a hit man to kill the child and her family.It was discovered that the hit man hired was an undercover Knox County Sheriff’s officer. James Wallace Davenport, 21, of Lutrell, was charged Dec. 14 with six counts of solicitation to commit first-degree murder, according to a sheriff’s office report. The report stated that Davenport solicited the undercover officer to kill the girl, and her family members, so the state would not be able to prosecute him on the rape charge.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Children and Families (ACF) today released its annual report on child abuse and neglect. “Child Maltreatment 2009” marks the 20th issuance of the report and shows a steady decrease in the number of victims who suffered maltreatment for the third consecutive year.

TAMPA, Fla. – The Tampa woman charged with the murder of her child was denied bond by a judge Saturday morning. Eboni Thompson, 31, was arrested for choking her 4-month-old baby girl to death, but Tampa Police said this story only gets more disturbing. “The father returned from a short trip to the store and he found the mother on the couch cradling the child,” said Laura McElroy of the Tampa Police Department.

A San Jose man convicted of stabbing to death his pregnant girlfriend and two daughters has been sentenced to death after an emotional courtroom appeal by the victims’ relatives. Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Jerome Brock issued the sentence Thursday to Rodrigo Paniagua Jr., who was convicted June 10 of murdering five-months-pregnant Leticia Chavez and their daughters, 6-year-old Adrina and 3-year-old AnaLisa in October 2005. He had been accused of stabbing them multiple times as they tried to fight him off and then, after setting their bodies on fire, walking outside their house to smoke a cigarette. Although a jury in July had recommended the death penalty, Paniagua’s attorney had asked the judge to impose life imprisonment instead. Brock turned down the request after Chavez’s relatives made emotional appeals to have Paniagua put to death.