GADSDEN, Alabama — Timothy Derwood Williams, a 50-year-old who often took children to church in his van, has been charged with sex abuse after he allegedly touched a 12-year-old girl inappropriately, the Etowah County sheriff told the Gadsden Times. Williams drove his own van and would pick up children and take them to and from church, according to the Gadsden Times report. The 12-year-old is said to have been abused while the van was on Williams’ property and authorities told the Gadsden Times that they believe there may be other victims.

An Old Jefferson man faces life in prison after he was convicted of raping children over two decades, including his girlfriend’s 7-year-old daughter. Preston Lee Pierce, 49, was convicted Sunday of two counts of aggravated rape and two counts of sexual battery, involving four victims ranging from 3 to 16 years old. Pierce denied the charges but was unable to refute the victims’ accusations or explain why his DNA was found in the 7-year-old’s underwear.

Iron County prosecutors have charged a Cedar City man with child abuse homicide in the alleged beating death of a 14-month-old boy. Thomas Harry Canum III, 24, was charged with the first-degree felony on Tuesday in Cedar City’s 5th District Court. A preliminary hearing was scheduled for Oct. 13 before Judge John J. Walton. Canum remained in the Iron County Jail on Wednesday in lieu of $100,000 cash-only bail. He had been arrested after the child died Sept. 28 during an operation for head injuries at Primary Children’s Hospital in Salt Lake City. The boy initially had been treated at Valley View Medical Center in Cedar City.

Investigators spent much of the night at a park in Lakeland after discovering the bodies of two 14-year-olds Tuesday night. The Washington County Sheriff says the bodies of one boy and one girl were discovered around 7:30 p.m. by a man walking on a wooded path in Humphrey Park. Both teens are believed to have attended Oak-land Junior High School. Authorities tell 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS they are not looking for any suspects at this time.

A Minnesota man has admitted that he created fake Facebook profiles to befriend girls online, and that he took sexually explicit pictures of one girl with his cell phone. Forty-year-old Shane Allen Werlein of Stillwater pleaded guilty Monday to one federal count of production of child pornography. Prosecutors say that according to a plea agreement, Werlein admitted that from November to February, he created fake Facebook profiles and befriended two girls in a scheme to get one of them to engage in sexually explicit acts and give him photos of it.

Sandra Dawn Potter is the CEO and Founder of Dreamcatchers for Abused Children, an official child abuse and neglect awareness organization, educating the public on the signs, symptoms, statistics, prevention and recovery of child abuse.

Sandra came from a small town and her family provided care for her young daughter. She felt comfortable knowing her child would be safe, as she struggled working the night shift. Their lives were permanently changed when Sandra walked-in and caught her stepfather molesting her daughter.

The brother of a Cambridge man who was stabbed to death seven years ago by a Harvard University student was charged yesterday with trying to decapitate a Harvard researcher and raping his 11-year-old son during a brutal August home invasion. Marcos Colono, 32, was also named as a suspect in the rape of two women in a 2008 home invasion, prosecutors said. The 53-year-old father who was attacked in the August home invasion was forced to witness his child’s abuse and then was hacked 11 times with a butcher knife – eight times in his neck – as he and his boy fought back, prosecutor Katharine Folger said.

Oprah Winfrey has expressed her “profound” disappointment after a former dorm matron at her all-girls school in South Africa was acquitted of child molestation charges on Monday, October 11. Tiny Virginia Mokopo pleaded not guilty to 14 counts of child abuse amid allegations she had attempted to kiss and fondle students and claims she had assaulted one of the teenagers as well as a co-worker at the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls, near Johannesburg, in 2007.

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court will decide whether child social workers should have to get warrants to interview potential victims of sex abuse at school when the alleged abuser lives at home. The court decided to hear an appeal from Oregon officials and police officers who interviewed a potential victim at school. They were worried that children were being abused by Nimrod Greene, who had already been previously arrested on a charge of sexually abusing a 7-year-old boy.

A social worker and a police officer interviewed a 9-year-old girl at the child’s public school so Greene would not be around. The girl said during the interview that she had been sexually abused by Greene. The girl later recanted the statements.

MENIFEE — Nearly 100 sex offenders living in the senior communty of Sun City has sparked concerns and discussions of possibly barring sex offenders from working as senior caregivers. Meniffee’s public safety committee is already considering creating new laws that would restrict where sex offenders could live after two Sun City Civic Association members asked officials to address the number of sex offenders working as caregivers in senior homes.

An Oregon woman who murdered a pregnant woman and cut her unborn child from her womb has been sentenced to life in prison. Korena Roberts, 27, battered eight months pregnant Heather Snively with a collapsible police baton after luring her to her home. She then used a sharp instrument to cut the unborn baby from Miss Snively’s abdomen. An autopsy showed that the baby boy, who did not survive, had been torn from Miss Snively’s womb.

Julie Haney picked up the manila folder. Just a few inches thick, it felt small in her hands. Most files were far larger. As a special agent for the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, she had years of experience with files like this one. This was a cold case – a death that left more questions than answers. The case was 5 years old. And it wasn’t just cold; it was closed.

Haney’s boss, just back from a conference on cold cases, handed it to her for one final review. It was February 2006. Inside the folder was a photograph of Cassandra Castens, a toddler with blue eyes and blond ponytails. In the photograph, Cassie wasn’t looking at the camera but off to her left. She was smiling but just barely. It may have been the last picture of her ever taken. Haney opened the file and started to read.

DELTA – Random or targeted? That’s the question every North Deltan wants answered after the vicious broad daylight attack on 15-year-old Laura Szendrei in Mackie Park on Saturday afternoon. The teenager died early Sunday, with her family by her side. Her friends had found her face down, suffering from severe head wounds in a wooded area of the park, in the 8200-block of 110th Street. Police aren’t saying if they believe a weapon was used, but there’s speculation the girl was hit with a baseball bat. There were no signs of sexual assault, police say.

Police investigators found blood stains from two murdered infants in places ranging from their father’s boxer shorts and under his fingernails to a cluster of spots on a comforter on his bed and also on the nearby wall, a state lab expert said Monday.

Testimony by Wisconsin State Crime Laboratory DNA Examiner Sherry Culhane occupied the vast majority of the sixth day on trial for Baraboo resident David R. Yates, 48. He was charged with two counts of first-degree intentional homicide after police found his 5-week-old twins, Tyler and Savannah Yates, battered to death under his bed on April 13 of 2008. A pathologist testified last week the children died between 12 and 24 hours before they were found that evening.