Lost In Lima Ohio - A true crime blog

Lino Donato, previous post here , has been voted out of his job as Mayor of Poteet. Not by the people of Poteet, but by the city counsel. I have to admit, I was confused about this at first. Every story I came across seemed to refer to Donato being released from jail on bail last week, but that couldn't be right, because I first posted about him in 2006. And then it hit me. He'd been charged yet again. Earlier Monday afternoon, Donato was released on $200,000 bond after he was arrested last week for the second time in two years on child sex charges. He did not attend the council meeting nor could he be reached by phone or at his place of business. The most recent indictments allege that on Aug. 15, 2007, Donato touched a girl younger than 14 on her genitals and breasts, resulting in a first-degree felony charge of aggravated sexual assault and a second-degree felony charge of indecency with a child by contact, respectively. Donato's also accused of kissing the gir

Kelsey Peterson, a recent case of teacher going above and beyond in her duty to instill knowledge in her students (in this case, carnal knowledge) has been sentenced to six years for the sexual relationship she had with a 13 year old student. Some might recall that Peterson showed an incredible lack of intelligence when the investigation into the then alleged crimes began by taking the boy on a ' let's flee to Mexico ' trip. The two disappeared in October after the district's superintendent confronted Peterson with allegations of inappropriate conduct with the boy. She was arrested a week later in Mexicali, Mexico, after the boy made a cell phone call to his family. Peterson was arrested by Mexican authorities and transported back to Nebraska. "I want to move on with my life and make it better," Peterson said Monday in court. "I'm here to take responsibility for what I did." Not buying that. She's there only because she is being forced to

Police are investigating a woman after the bodies of two young little girls she had adopted were found in a freezer. Calvert County authorities said they found them Saturday as they were investigating a report of an injured child. A woman who said the girls were her adopted daughters has been arrested, according to The Washington Post. Renee Bowman, 43, told deputies that the remains had been frozen since at least February. A third girl was found after escaping the home and reported that she had been beat with a shoe, leading police to investigate the mother. More...

Really hard to pick a title for this one, it was a toss up between current title and "Mental Illness Can Be Hereditary". Honestly folks, if the school nurse shows up on your door step because there is concern for the mental state of your children, and you want to reassure them that your kid is not a nutcase- you might want to remember that *most* people take note of the old saying "apple doesn't fall far from the tree". School spokesperson Ebony Pugh said a nurse and a social worker were assaulted by the parents of a Brashear High School student when they went to take the girl home. The employees decided to take freshman Maria Malloy home, along with her sister, because they had concerns that Maria was acting erratically. According to family members, once there was talk that the student may have some type of mental illness, the mother of the student attacked the school workers. The family, holding tight to the notion that there's no mental illness ru

The Third Annual Kelsey Briggs Run/Walk Against Child Abuse will be held October 18th. The location is in Bricktown in Oklahoma City. You can still register online and the deadline has been extended. www. kelseybriggsrunagainstchildabu se.com If you have difficulty with the website when trying to register please email teri_sigman@sbcglobal.net You do not have to run to participate. We offer a one mile fun walk immediately following the 5k Run. Children can walk for free. You will receive a free T-shirt when you register. You can also purchase T-shirts while supplies last if you do not register. This years design is very unique. ALL proceeds will go to Prevent Child Abuse Oklahoma. Cherokee Ballard, Journalist and Spokesperson, will be this years Honorary Chairperson. She would love to meet each of you. Please support the children still living in fear. WE do not need another case like Kelsey's to get everyone's attention again. There are still children needing our help

Trench at Bad Breeders has the case of Alicia Lee , likely finalist for this weeks Worst Mother award. She's accused of sexually abusing her 2 year old son, and then bragging about it in emails. She included photos of the abuse to heighten her excitement I suppose. *Warning, wait 30 minutes after eating before viewing link above.

If I was lazy, I'd just sum up Peter Frances Milosavjevic and his deviant behavior by saying that he was a filthy piece of worthless trash that didn't deserve to live, and barely was worth the effort it would take to actually get the state kill him. Milosavjevic is accused of luring at least 11 mentally handicapped women into his home on the pretense of providing them shelter in exchange for light housekeeping/cooking duties. Victims and police have testified that once inside the home, the women were subject to brutal sexual and physical abuse. For more than an hour Wednesday afternoon, defense attorney Chris Jensen quizzed his client about the women the prosecution alleges he raped, sodomized and forced to stay in his home for weeks and -- on a couple of occasions -- months. One of his alleged victims testified that she stayed with the defendant on two separate occasions in 2005, and that Milosavjevic routinely tied her up, raped, sodomized and sexually assaulted her with

By the time police arrived, David T. Meyers was already unresponsive and they were able to pronounce him dead. What killed him isn't a huge mystery- either Meyers had a heart attack or he was the fatal victim of his own deviant behaviors. A jobless sex offender has died after a struggle with a northside Indianapolis resident who found him in his teenage daughter’s room wearing nothing but a mask and latex gloves, police say. About 3:20 a.m. this morning, Indianapolis metropolitan police were dispatched to a residence at the 3000 block of West 79th Street to check a reported home invasion. When they arrived, police said they found Robert McNally, 64, resident of the home, on the floor with his arms wrapped around the neck of an unresponsive David T. Meyers, 52. Regardless of the outcome of the autopsy, police have indicated that it's unlikely any charges will be filed against the father. If a person breaks into your home, you are justified in using deadly force in defendin

The following cases will be aired this Saturday on America's Most Wanted. You can catch AMW on your local Fox station at 9pm. Roger McCray: Fort Lauderdale, Fla. detectives are trying to find this fugitive, who they say set his roommate on fire, leaving him to burn to death. There's just one problem: he's used so many identities, they don't know who he really is. http://www.amw.com/fugitives/ brief.cfm?id=38744 Larry Laudig: Police say Larry Laudig failed to show up for a scheduled court date, and police have no idea where this alleged sex offender could be lurking. http://www.amw.com/fugitives/ brief.cfm?id=58119 Douglas Adamson Killer: When dismembered body parts began washing ashore in Oregon's idyllic Colombia River Gorge, cops had to not only figure out who their John Doe was, the also had to identify his killer. Luckily, police were able to pull a fingerprint off the victim, a local truck mechanic named Douglas Adamson. Now, police hope AMW viewers ca

With three convictions in his back pocket- all of which were considered 'sexually violent', Gary Eugene Cherry walked into a court room and asked to have some of the restrictions put on him removed. By pointing to counselors who concluded that he was no long "sexually violent predator" and despite the state's objections, Judge James Sawyer lifted some of the restrictions, adding that Cherry still needs some supervision. "You require and maintain a level of community surveillance to protect your opportunity to ultimately be a free man someday and the public from what could be a disaster," said Judge James Sawyer. While the details need to be worked out, Cherry will continue to wear a GPS anklet and will keep checking in with a probation officer. His next door neighbor hopes Gary Cherry is never left completely unsupervised. "I'll be more worried because right now I'm safe, and so are people in this community," said Debbra Price.

A father attending a fair in Wisconsin attempted to invoke a law which allows a minor child to drink alcohol as long as they are in the presence of their parents. It may have worked, except that when he ordered two beers- one for himself and one for his son, he happily pointed his child out to the cashier. She quickly informed police, who objected to the whole 'beer for kid' idea. Might have had something to do with the fact that the son was four years old, and was sharing the beer with his two year old brother.

It's bad enough that people feel it's okay to drive drunk. It gets worse when they decide to do it while towing their children around... but actually sitting in the school parking lot passed out? I can't even begin to describe just how worthless a mother must be to do that to her children. I suppose we have someone to thank for teaching the little kids enough to go get help rather than sticking around. A 9- and 5-year-old walked into a Salem, N.H., restaurant looking for help because their mother was drunk and passed out in their car near an elementary school, police said Tuesday. The siblings went to Sayde's Restaurant near the Soule Elementary School at 173 S. Policy St. on Monday and said that their mother was passed out in the car in the school lot. A witness called 911, and when police responded, they found Laura LaSorsa, 38, of Salem, in the car that was still running and in drive, police said. SOURCE

Richard "Ric Ric" Henyard is going to die, unless someone quickly steps in and saves him. I'm crossing my fingers that no one does. Unless a court intervenes, Richard "Ric Ric" Henyard, 34, will be executed by lethal injection at 6 p.m. at Florida State Prison for the murders of 7-year-old Jamilya Lewis and her 3-year-old sister, Jasmine. Henyard and a younger accomplice carjacked Dorothy Lewis and her daughters outside a grocery store in the central Florida town of Eustis on the night of Jan. 30, 1993. Henyard, then 18, raped Lewis and then shot her multiple times at close range, but she survived. He then participated in the shootings of her daughters after they cried out for their mother. Mark Gruber, one of Henyard's state-paid attorneys, filed two appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court last week and filed a final brief Tuesday morning, hoping to postpone the execution. A handwritten civil rights appeal filed by Henyard in federal court in Jacksonville

Kristie Hazell must have thought she was living in some sort of fairytale, because she clearly was acting out the role of the evil stepmother. Kristie Hazell, 27, and her husband, Ezra Emanuel Hazell, 30, were charged last year in the October 2007 beating of his daughter with a military belt and computer cord because she wasn't doing her homework. At the time, Mesa police considered it among the worst child abuse beatings they had investigated, with nearly 100 bruises found on the girl's back, legs, arms, buttocks and chest. The little girl was 5 years old, and should have been treated like a princess- not a punching bag. The beatings happened within the same month, and only came to light when the little girl informed a teacher of what was going on. The father's excuse was that the little girl- who was FIVE- was out of control. Honestly, I believe that the people actually out of control where the father and stepmom. Source

Jason Nathaniel Lewis, a 39 year old landscaper, broke into a Modesto home, threatened a woman with a knife, tied her hands behind her back and raped her. Afterward he made the woman shower and douche to remove any evidence. As he was leaving, he threatened her life if she told police, and stole the bottom sheet from her bed in order to hide any other evidence of the assault that may have been there. The woman, too afraid to call police only confided in a friend about the attack after neighbors grew concerned that she'd stop taking her daily walk. To calm her fears, they contacted police for her, and removed a few planks from her back fence in order to sneak the officers into the home without anyone seeing. Just the extent that was taken to reassure this woman that she would be safe is a telltale sign of how emotionally crippled she was by the attack. Did I mention that the woman Lewis brutally raped and scared was just 81 years old? Likely unable to even defend herself agains

Cmdr. James Mattingly might have displayed self control and dedication in his career- but online, he showed a bit more of his true colors. Mattingly was arrested after a task force tracked him down from a site that sold child porn. Law enforcement has said that Mattingly was purchasing porn 'in packages' which ranged from costing $79 to $99. When arrested, hundreds of images and videos were found which contained child pornography. He had hundreds of sexual pictures and video of pre-pubescent children, some clearly in pain from the rapes, prosecutors said. "This is a personal, psychological issue of great importance to him, but which did not impact on or have anything to do with his duties as a commander in the Navy," defense attorney Brook Hart said. His defense goes on to say: "He's trying to do something positive about it so he doesn't repeat the behavior. He's ashamed of it," Hart said. Of course, it's clear by his behavior at the ti

Curt Bassari spent 8 years sexually abusing a young girl, while her mother ignored the abuse. The girl, confided in a family member in 2005, after having spent half her life as a victim of Bassari, now she'll be able to spend the rest of her life knowing that Bassari will never harm her or any other child again. Curt Bassari, 47, received a 125-year term Friday from Superior Court Judge Stephen Holden. The sentence bars parole eligibility for more than a century. Bassari in June was found guilty of 10 counts of aggravated sexual assault and three counts of endangering the welfare of a child. The mother of the girl is herself serving a 7 year year sentence for sexual assault, after admitting that she knew about and enabled the sexual abuse. Source...

By the time most people turn 21, they are thought to have enough of a concept of right and wrong to be considered a full fledged adult, and they are expected to act according to those concepts. Kelly Lumadue evidently believed that at 21, she should be given an exception to that belief, and even now she fails to take responsibility for her actions and would prefer it if the world would just let her pass the blame onto her dead husband. Twelve years ago, back when the now 33 year old was just 21, she was married to a pornographer. It wasn't until after her husband died in 2003 that the evidence of her deviant acts was found in the garbage by a sanitations worker. The man had found video tapes on the curb in front of Lumadue's home, and after discovering the content of them, turned them over to police. The tapes showed Lumadue sexually abusing a 5 year old boy, which she claims was done at the direction of her late husband. She was charged with the abuse after the discovery

I have shocking news for some film directors and the companies that pander to their no holds bar desire to make movies that are more likely to grab headlines because of their content, instead of their quality. I've talked before about the movie Hounddog, where a young (12 year old) Dakoda Fanning plays the role of a underprivileged girl who is raped by a fellow lead character in the movie. When Hounddog first came along, a good deal of it's defenders attempted to rationalize the acceptance of the sexual abuse portrayed in the film by making a comparison of it to the 1996 film Bastard out of Carolina. ( See previous post ) "Bastard out of Carolina" evolves around the life of a young girl whose family is completely in disarray. After the loss of a caring stepfather, the girl is forced to deal with the marriage of her mother to a man who later physically and sexually abuses her. The story, as told in the film is less about her abuse- few images of it are seen and ins

The following cases will be highlighted this Saturday at 9pm on America's Most Wanted: America Fights Back. The show airs on your local Fox station, and you can also catch updates on their website www.amw.com . New Mexico Escapees: On August 23, 2008, eight prisoners escaped from a jail in southern New Mexico. Although four men have been caught, four are still at large -- including Larry McClendon, a murder suspect. As the manhunt continues, so does the urgency to put the escapees back behind bars. http://www.amw.com/fugitives/ brief.cfm?id=58510 Luz Diaz:   In 2007, cops say 33-year-old Luz Diaz met a 14-year-old boy on an online, multi-player video game called 'Gears Of War.' But police tell AMW that Diaz took the relationship off-line -- seducing the teenage boy and having sex with him in a Motel 6. http://www.amw.com/fugitives/ brief.cfm?id=58343 David Allen Weir: It was their sophomore year in high school when Victoria Ramirez and David Allen Weir met. While t

Guadalupe Aguilar just might be regretting letting a teacher teach her 5 year old daughter how to dial 911 for help, or at least regretting taking that two hour walk during which she left the 5 year old and the child's younger sibling home alone. The girl called police after waking up and discovering her mother was nowhere to be found. When officers arrived at the home, they found the little girl and her 1-year old brother in the apartment all alone. Officers began a search for the missing woman, only to have her walk into the home a short time later. Aguilar is now facing charges for child endangerment after being booked into the local jail. Source...

Mary Lou Makley got permission to take a 2 year old boy shopping after stopping ot visit his mother. Makley however, failed to get permission to blow her crack smoke into the child's face. Which, honestly- I can't imagine anyone giving permission for ever. But, then again I can't imagine giving permission to a crack head to be around one of my kids, let alone go somewhere with them. Police say Makley had the mother's permission to take the boy shopping when she stopped at a friend's house in Aliquippa and smoked crack near the boy on May 13. Police say the boy's mother took him to the hospital when he later complained of stomach pains and his blood tested positive for cocaine. Story..

John Jackey Worman gets convicted: A man who produced thousands of images of himself sexually abusing children as young as 3 months old was convicted Wednesday on more than 50 child pornography charges. Jurors spent more than a week reviewing excruciating video evidence in the case of John Jackey Worman, 41, of the Philadelphia suburb of Colwyn. The jury announced its verdict after deliberating for about half a day. Worman, who showed little reaction to the verdict, faces a maximum sentence of 15 to 30 years in prison on each count. Even if he gets the max sentence, he could never live long enough to do enough time in prison to actually pay for what he has done. Read all...

For those unaware of alternitive activities for children, or for those just to lazy to stop and think of any- I thought it might be helpful to give a refresher course on things you can do with your children. Take a bike ride. Help with homework. Watch a movie. Eat dinner together. Play a board game. Read a book. Play a game of baseball. Make cookies. Go shopping. Make kid friendly crafts. Seriously, there are endless ideas of what a parent who wants to spend time with their children can do. Please note- none of these ideas are, and none of the ideas you come up with should be, to take your kids on a drug buy. Three people are facing drug charges Tuesday, including a Woonsocket man police say brought his 9-year-old son on a drug buy with him. Police said officers were monitoring the parking lot of a Manville Rd. convenience store when they saw Christopher Robertson, 32, pull up. They said Robertson and a small boy got out of the car, used a pay phone and left. Offi

The rapist/murderer who would like to delay (or avoid) his execution because he's claiming he is just to fat to go through with it , had a prison interview in which he defended his claims that his fattness (he's gained 70 lbs since being sentenced to death) makes it hard to access his veins, thus making lethal injection 'cruel'. While I'm not usually one to agree with someone who raped, strangled and then carved into the bodies of two young women- I'm making an exception just this one time. I'm even offering to buy the bullet- as it would be a hell of a lot cheaper than allowing him to stay on death row another day, AND cheaper than the actual cost of lethal injection. But he says that ridicule reflects ignorance of his underlying claim that it's the inaccessibility of his veins that makes it difficult to get an IV inserted for a lethal injection. The legal challenge is based on constitutional issues and not fear of execution, Cooey said. "It

I'd like to take half a moment to welcome scribblemuse to the internet. Crime blog readers make some of the most interesting people, and so it's always great to learn when they've moved up from that label and began establishing their own little niche corner of the web. While ScribbleMuse isn't a crime blog, it is a crime forum- so I'm sure that a lot of you will be interested in checking it out. Rumor has it there's even  a live chat over there, so perhaps one night we can all engage in some lively discussions.

Actually, I suppose I should have titled that "groups of people you don't want to hang with" but it's too late now. I received this in an email, and thought that I would share with you all two articles of interest from Askmen.com. The first one is Top 10: Criminal Organizations . This isn't just your normal gang of bad guys, these are the worst of the worst and the list includes some interesting groups. The second article gives off the Top 10 Unknown Serial Killers . The only way to get on this list was to fit special criteria: If a killer has made this list, he (or she) satisfied the following criteria. - As of 2007 he is good and dead. - He faced some form of earthly justice, whether through arrest, conviction, execution or mob rule. - His acts of violence were so totally incompatible with civilized human society that he was entirely unfit for life within it. I honestly have to admit, while some on the list were known to me, a few of the more recent

First, let me remind you that I believe some of the best people in the world work in the field of child protection. These are the folks who look at every child in their case load as if that child was their own, always working diligently to ensure that everything that can be done to help that child, is. Having said that, I must also confirm that too many social workers, child protection caseworkers or however you label them, are just there to show up, put in their hours, call it a day around 5pm and grad their checks on the way out on Friday afternoons. I'll let you decide what category these folks belong in. A baby boy had his back broken at the climax of eight months of violence leading to his death, the Old Bailey heard yesterday. The 17-month-old had been placed on Haringey council’s child protection register eight months before he died, the jury was told. The mother and her partner were on police bail after being arrested on suspicion of assaulting the child before his

The 12 year old 'new kid' in a Arizonia court who turned out to actually be 30 and a sex offender ( previous post ) has plead guilty to 7 charges, including two that involved his gig as a pretend teenager. Authorities didn't find any victims of sexual abuse at the schools 30-year-old Neil Havens Rodreick II attended. But when Rodreick's ruse was discovered in January 2007, they found an extensive collection of child pornography at his home. Rodreick had originally faced 28 counts, but pleaded guilty to only a quarter of them Friday in Yavapai County Superior Court in northern Arizona, according to a plea agreement document obtained Wednesday. Rodreick pleaded guilty to four counts of sexual exploitation of a minor stemming from the pornography, as well as one count each of failure to register as a sex offender, fraud and simple assault. The felony fraud and misdemeanor assault charge are the only ones that stem from Rodreick's involvement at schools. Authoritie

This week you'll be able to catch the following cases on America's Most Wanted, which airs on Saturdays at 9pm on your local Fox station: Sarah Pender: She served almost six years of a potential 110-year prison term for her role in a double murder, but Sarah Pender decided that enough was enough. On August 4, 2008, police say she broke out of prison -- with the alleged help of a prison guard -- and hit the road. Now, cops need your help to track her down and lock her up again. http://www.amw.com/fugitives/ brief.cfm?id=58000 John Pezzenti Killer: On December 3, 2007, police detectives were called to a two-story shack in Anchorage, Alaska, where they found a body, soon identified as acclaimed wildlife photographer John Pezzenti, Jr. With no signs of forced entry or robbery, cops say John knew who pulled the trigger, and they hope that AMW viewers can help solve the murder. http://www.amw.com/fugitives/ brief.cfm?id=58981 Alexis Flores: Mota DeJesus dreads July 29 every y

In case any of you have recently seen the MSNBC article linking over eating to crime shows such as Law and Order, and CSI ( those that didn't can see it here ) and who may be contemplating a diet in the near future, I want to talk to you on behalf of all crime bloggers. Please, please for the love of chocolate cake, cherry pie, triple mousse tarts and all those other delightful snacks- remember that the article clearly states that it's crime TV that is causing your over eating. Not crime BLOGS. So, feel free to grab your favorite after midnight plateful of snacky goodness and continue reading your favorite crime blogs without fear of weight gain. ~much love, Lilo

Sexual offender Richard Leroy Bruce was charged with sexually abusing a five year old girl after one of his relatives walked in and witnessed him engaged in sexual contact with the child. According to the article , the family was notified and contacted police. He has been charged with first-degree statutory sex offense. Bruce was convicted in 1992 of second-degree sex offense, but wasn't under GPS surveillance, Venable said. According to state offender records, Bruce was also convicted of misdemeanor assault in 2007. Well, at least we know the courts HAD a chance to safe guard innocent children from this deviant. Too bad they didn't actually attempt to do it. H/T reader.

I've watched The Count of Monte Cristo various times. The entire plot revolves around a man falsely convicted of a crime, and sent off to prison. His beloved marries the man who helped plot against him, and he spends his time day dreaming of revenge. It's actually a pretty good movie. The innocent convict escapes, and runs his enemies through various sorts of retaliation. However, I must say that Jason Landis is no Count of Monte Cristo. He's a convicted sex offender with multiple unconnected convictions to his name. It just happens that in one particular case, he was acquitted. But, make no mistake- his story is nothing like that of Edmond Dantes, otherwise known as the betrayed Count. Regardless of how much he wishes it was. n May, Landis petitioned in Miami County Probate Court to legally change his name to Edmond Dantes, the lead character in “The Count of Monte Cristo,” who retaliates against people who helped wrongfully convict him of a crime. Because of that st

Most of you already know AoC is the term used to refer the legal term "age of consent". And while this blog usually focuses a little more on the sexual abuse of those UNDER the AoC, there is another blog I felt you all might take some interest in. Victimized over the AoC, is a well written blog focusing on the crimes committed against victims that are mostly adults. The blogger does a incredible job of highlighting the importance of establishing laws and providing a voice to those who are older- but victims none the less. What is even more interesting is that the blogger is a man. And I mean that with the highest amount of respect. All to often, it feels as the fight against sexual crimes is being fought by politicians and women alone- so having a man share in supporting these victims is note worthy to say the least. I had the chance to do a little corresponding with the blogger, Brian Heard and with his permission- I'm sharing an email from him with you. I found it i

I find it overwhelmingly annoying having to tug three children around all the time. I mean, after all- I too have a life, and just why on earth should my life be interrupted by the needs of three little heathens, always needing feed, clothed, taken care of. I mean, really... just how am I suppose to do what I want, when they are just so bothersome? And lets not even go into the fact that they are hampering my relationship with my boyfriend. Perhaps not word for word what Amanda Hamm thought, but I'm betting it's close enough to count. December 2006, I wrote a post about Amanda Hamm , her willful neglect of her children and her willing participation in their murder- all because she felt they were an inconvenience to her lifestyle. At that time, she was sentenced to 10 years in prison in Illinois, because the judge found her to be just about half guilty of the drowning deaths of her three children- 6-year-old Christopher Hamm, 3-year-old Austin Brown and 23-month-old Kyleigh H

I am not ignoring my blog, err actually maybe I am a little bit. But that's because this is a CRIME blog and not a POLITICAL blog- which makes it hard to blog when I am currently focused deeply on politics. I know, there are a lot of cases which I could and should be covering right now- and I promise to get to them ASAP. It's just that this week is the RNC and honestly, unless you want me to ramble about it- I'm going to be on a very light blogging schedule. However, if you happen across something of interest, feel free to share it with me. I'll be trying to collect and post links throughout the week and would be delighted to share any stories of interest you've come across. Thanks, Lilo