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Jessica O’Grady since her disappearance on May 10, 2006 and has not been heard
from since a cell phone conversation as she was on her way to the intersection of 120th and Blondo streets just before midnight. Her grey Hyundai Accent was found on May 16 in a parking lot near 144th Street and West Center Road.
Multiple search efforts have been organized, one of which had more than 200 volunteers. Many local businesses have been helping out, said O’Grady’s grandmother, Sandie Shotkoski.
Since O’Grady’s disappearance, there have been search parties at Standing Bear Lake, Zorinsky Lake, Cunningham Lake, Chalco Hills, two local golf courses and, most recently, the Elkhorn River. So far none of them have found any sign of O’Grady. (The Gateway)
Anyone with information related to the case should contact the Douglas County Sheriff’s Department at (402) 333-1000.
The primary suspect in the disappearance of Jessica O’Grady is her boyfriend Christopher Edwards.
Search warrants show O’Grady was en route to visit her boyfriend, Christopher Edwards, on the night she disappeared. The current search warrant is for telephone records related to the O’Grady case. Bilek said his office wants to know whom the girl was talking to and any clues to her whereabouts before she disappeared.
After a thorough search of Edwards’ home, the county is still not ready to make an arrest.
Without a confession, the sheriff’s office is waiting for the results of other forensics tests. Of most interest is the evidence collected at the residence where Edwards lived. (KETV)
Body ID Sought, Remains found in ditch
Authorities in Mills County, Iowa are trying to determine the identity of a body found in a ditch west of Glenwood. It is not that of missing UNO student Jessica O’Grady.
The remains were found in a ditch beside Glover Road, at the north end of Thomas Lake.
Sheriff Mack Taylor says it appears the death happened about a month ago. The body was found on Saturday.
A Douglas County deputy says detectives determined that the body found in Mills County is not that of missing UNO student Jessica O’Grady. That determination was made based on identifying marks on the body. (WOWT)
Arrest comes almost a month after disappearance
The Douglas County Sheriff’s office made an arrest Friday in the case of missing UNO sophomore Jessica O’Grady.
Christopher Edwards, who has been described by local media as O’Grady’s boyfriend, turned himself into the custody of the Sheriff’s office Friday afternoon. Edwards faces charges of criminal homicide and use of a weapon other than a gun to commit a felony, according to the Sheriff’s office. (The Gateway)
Suspect, Christopher Edwards, Charged (Prosecutors say Jessica O’Grady 
was killed with a sword)
Douglas County Attorney Stu Dornan has filed a Second-Degree Murder charge against 19-year-old Christopher Edwards. Prosecutors claim he killed Jessica O’Grady with a sword.
Edwards was arrested last week.
During a news conference Monday afternoon, Dornan said investigators believe that Ms. O’Grady was killed with a Bangkok battle sword, similar to those pictured on the right. It’s a weapon that is 26 inches long with a 19 inch blade. Dornan says the death was intentional. (WOWT)
Second-Degree Murder Charge Filed; Sword Used In Death
VIDEO
OMAHA, Neb. — Investigators announced Monday that second-degree murder charges will be filed against a 19-year-old man who was arrested on Friday in connection with the disappearance of a missing University of Nebraska-Omaha student, and prosecutors said a sword was used in the death.
Christopher Edwards turned himself in to Douglas County authorities and was charged with criminal homicide and use of a weapon other than a gun to commit a felony. (KETV)
June 12th, 2006 at 09:37pm
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Mary Winkler, the wife of Tennessee pastor Matthew Winkler, was indicted for 
premeditated murder of her husband. Mary Winkler had previously confessed to the murder of Matthew Winkler; however, has never given a motive. Mary Winkler has not yet entered a plea and remains jailed.
Mary Winkler, indicted by a McNairy County grand jury, has been in custody since the day after the March 22 slaying of her husband, Matthew Winkler. Authorities have said she confessed but they haven’t disclosed a motive.
Matthew Winkler, 31, a minister at the local Church of Christ, was found dead in his bedroom after he failed to show up for an evening service. (AP via Yahoo News)
Mary Winkler indicted on first-degree murder charge
The McNairy County Grand Jury indicted a Selmer minister’s widow Monday on a charge of first-degree murder in the March shooting death of her husband.
Mary Winkler will be arraigned on the charge during a 9:30 a.m. session Wednesday of the McNairy County Circuit Court, a circuit court clerk said.
Police have said Winkler confessed to firing the single shotgun blast that struck her husband, Matthew Winkler, in his back, killing him. Authorities believe she planned the murder. (Jackson Sun)
Slain Preacher’s Wife Indicted with 1st-Degree Murder
A Memphis grand jury returned Monday a first-degree murder indictment against Mary Winkler.
No official details were given. A first-degree murder indictment means she was accused of killing her husband, Matthew, with premeditation. (WTVF)
June 12th, 2006 at 07:54pm
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Philip Merrill, 72, an experienced sailor and chairman of the board of Capital-Gazette
Communications Inc went missing Saturday after he sent out sailing alone his 41-foot sailboat. Two boaters found the sailboat adrift Saturday evening near Plum Point and no sign of Philip Merrill. Rescue crews using helicopters and boats searched 100 square miles of the Chesapeake Bay over the weekend and today.
Merrill, 72, had taken his 41-foot sailboat, the “Merrilly,” out alone Saturday. He typically followed an 18-mile round trip without wearing a lifejacket, Chaney said.
Two boaters found the sailboat adrift Saturday evening near Plum Point, about 25 miles south of Annapolis and 40 miles south of his home in Arnold, and called police, officials said.
Rescue crews believe Merrill likely fell overboard since his wallet was on board and there was no damage to the boat, officials said. The wind was gusting up to 25 mph on Saturday, creating conditions that could be difficult for a single sailor alone, Chaney said. (FOX News)
Coast Guard spokesman
Crews Resume Search for Annapolis Publisher Small Boats, Helicopters, and C-130 Aircraft Search Area
Rescuers have resumed their Chesapeake Bay search for Philip Merrill, the firebrand newspaper publisher and diplomat whose 41-foot sailboat was found drifting alone Saturday in strong winds.
Rescue crews from the Coast Guard and the Maryland Natural Resources Police have been using small boats, helicopters and a C-130 aircraft to search an area roughly 25 miles by 8 eight miles, said Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr.Adam Mach.
A pair of passing jet skiers spotted Merrill’s unmanned boat, Merrilly, about 20 miles south of Annapolis on Saturday evening. The search was halted at midnight Sunday, then resumed this morning at 5:30 a.m. (Washington Post)
June 12th, 2006 at 11:25am
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Representatives of the Cruise Lines International Association, CLIA, has asked the Coast Guard to draft a “comprehensive reporting regime” for cruise lines to follow. This in the wake of the widely publicized disappearance of George Allen Smith IV aboard a Royal Caribbean cruise. The controversy surrounding George Smith’s disappearance lead to a Congressional hearing lead by US Representative Christopher Shays, R-CT.
U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Conn., also held hearings on cruise line safety, questioning whether the industry did enough to track and report crime and other problems that occur on its ships.
Crye said that while cases of missing passengers, injuries and crimes aboard cruise ships are rare, the public scrutiny has caused the industry to consider establishing more uniform reporting standards.
Shays’ hearing raised questions about who is contacted and under what circumstances should the contact be made. Multiple agencies, such as the FBI, U.S. Coast Guard and foreign police, can sometimes get involved, although they each have different reporting standards. Crye said his trade group has asked the Coast Guard to draft a “comprehensive reporting regime” for cruise lines to follow.
“We’re ready to execute it as an industry,” Crye said.
(Greenwhich Times)
Comments from the Shays hearings on the cruise line industry and safety issues.
“Ocean travel puts passengers and crew in a distant, isolated environment and subjects them to unique risks and vulnerabilities. Like small cities, cruise ships experience crimes — from petty to profoundly tragic. But city dwellers know the risks of urban life, and no one falls off a city never to be heard from again. Cruise passengers can be blinded to the very real perils of the sea by ship operators unwilling to interrupt the party for security warnings. And after an incident occurs, a thorough investigation can be profoundly difficult when the crime scene literally floats away, on schedule, to its next port of call.
“Jurisdictional and bureaucratic tangles can also impede investigation and resolution of crimes at sea. For purely economic reasons, most commercial ships fly under foreign flags. Passengers cannot assume the protection of U.S. laws and law enforcement will be available in time, if at all. When events involve citizens of different nations, in the territorial waters of a third, all three can assert some jurisdictional claim. While these legal and diplomatic niceties are being resolved, the crime trail grows cold and crucial evidence may go overboard or melt into the crowd ashore.
Full House of US Representative memo
Attachments
Victims rights advocates; however, hope that Shays and Congress will pass legislation rather than hoping that the cruise line industry voluntarily complies with incidents reports. One would think that if the cruise line had been sincere it would not have taken all the negative publicity to act now. The George Smith case shed a spot light on the cruise ship industry as the Smith family has been unrelenting in their efforts for answers and laws/guidelines for cruise ships to adhere to so such events never occur again. The Smith family and Congress took notice of the numerous occurrences that has happened aboard cruise lines. They have had their chance to fix the problem, now its time for someone to tell them what to do.
Thirteen cruisers are presumed to have gone overboard in the past two years, according to the International Council of Cruise Lines. Nearly 11 million people took cruises in 2004 — 8.3 million of them Americans, the council says.
According to the FBI, about 50 U.S. cruisers are crime victims or disappear each year. Half the reported incidents involve sexual assaults; 20% are assaults; and 10% involve a missing person.
Shays said in an interview Thursday that cruise lines aren’t forthcoming about reporting bad things that happen to passengers. “Statistics are only provided on a voluntary basis,” he said. “They have a huge incentive to underplay crime.”
(USA Today)
June 10th, 2006 at 05:34pm
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This MySpace.com story may top them all. Katherine R. Lester is a straight-A honor
student, left home and flew to the Middle East to meet a man she met on-line. She originally lied to her parents to obtain a passport in order to meet a 25-year-old from Jericho.
Katherine disappeared Monday after talking her family into getting her a passport by saying she was going to Canada with friends, sheriff’s officials said. She apparently planned to visit a man whose MySpace account describes him as a 25-year-old from Jericho, Undersheriff James Jashinske said.
The FBI traced the teenager to a Wednesday flight from New York’s Kennedy Airport to Tel Aviv, Israel. At a scheduled stop in Amman, Jordan, U.S. officials persuaded her to return home, FBI agent Robert Beeckman said. (AP via Yahoo News)
Shawn Lester told The Saginaw News that her daughter has “never given me a day’s trouble. … I guess that statement can no longer be said.
PARENTS … CHECK WHAT YOUR CHILDREN ARE DOING ON-LINE. ESPECIALLY IF THEY HAVE A MYSPACE ACCOUNT. Luckily, Katherine R. Lester, was persuaded in Jordan to return home to the United States and not go on further to meet this man in the West Back.
DETROIT — A 16-year-old top student from Michigan tricked her 
parents into getting her a passport and then flew off to the Mideast to be with a West Bank man she met on MySpace.com, authorities say.
U.S. officials in Jordan persuaded her to turn around and go home before she reached the West Bank. She was on her way home Friday. (Fox News)
Katherine Lester had obviously planned this meeting well in advance to have first obtained a passport necessary for the plane flight to the Middle East. It appears her plan went as follows:
Jashinske said while the girl’s parents were working, she left home with her passport and enough clothing for two weeks.
“She was supposedly picked up by a yellow cab according to her brother,” Jashinske said. “Her mother called Katherine’s cell phone for the next two days, but Katherine did not return her calls.”
According to authorities, she got on a plane to visit a man she met three months ago. His MySpace account says he is a 25-year-old from Jericho, Tuscola County Undersheriff James Jashinske said in a press release. (Huron Daily)
The number of these cases is becoming alarmingly to common. MySpace.com has been the usual suspect far too often as well. Teenagers and parents have got to understand the dangers of the internet. Socializing network sites are playgrounds for sexual predators. The fact that the internet deals with the “world wide web” only increases the exposure of teenagers to those that would exploit them.
Lester met the man on MySpace.com, a social networking hub owned by News Corp. with more 72 million members that lets users post photos, Web logs and journals. Its features and popularity with teenagers have raised concerns with authorities in the United States. There have been scattered accounts of sexual predators targeting minors they met through the site.
“This is almost a stereotypical example of how kids become compliant victims. Internet predators don’t abduct their victims; they persuade them. And as is apparently the case in this story, it’s not uncommon for the child to know that she’s dealing with an adult,” said CBS News technology analyst Larry Magid.
“Aside from the distance involved, this is a pretty typical case. The most vulnerable kids are teenage girls who willingly get together with adult men they meet on the Internet,” Magid added (CBS News)
Michigan teen heads home from Jordan
June 9th, 2006 at 05:54pm
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Twenty-one-year-old Jonathan Berry is still missing and was last seen by his 
roommates at their apartment May 31st. Jonathan Berry’s father is in a predicament as the authorities have called off the search.
The father of a BYU student who’s been missing for a week says he’s in a “muddle,” and has no idea where to turn now that authorities have called off the search. (KSL5-TV)
The Provo Police Department’s missing persons unit is now in charge.
Canyon search off for hiker
Authorities found a bike belonging to the lost Brigham Young University student Thursday above the Provo Temple at the base of Rock Canyon. Authorities suspended their search over the weekend because the number of weekend hikers in the canyon made it difficult for tracking dogs to pick up Berry’s scent.
David and Michelle Berry headed to Provo upon hearing their son was missing. The couple returned to their Grand Junction home Monday after authorities called off the search for Berry and turned over the case to the Provo Police Department’s missing persons unit. Their four other children joined them. “We have no idea what happened,” David Berry said.
The family is in a quandary as to what to do next.
David Berry said he appreciates the efforts of authorities and search and rescue teams to track down his son and find clues about the missing man’s whereabouts, however fruitless.
“He’s not in that canyon,” he said. “We are totally at a dead end.”
He’s not sure where the search will go from here.
“We have no ideas,” David Berry said. “I’m in a muddle right now.”
But he’s sure of his son.
“If you had a kid you were proud of, he’s been one of them,” he said. (GJ Sentinel)
BYU student still missing
After nearly five days, the search for BYU student Jonathan Berry, from Grand Junction, Colo., was officially closed Monday (June 5, 2006), said captain Rick Healey of the Provo Police Department.
The case has been turned over to a missing person’s detective within the Provo Police Department, Healey said.
The decision to conclude official search efforts, which were focused on the Rock Canyon area, was reached after members of official search and rescue teams found nothing after combing the area with four-wheelers, cadaver dogs and a helicopter.
(BYU News Net)
June 8th, 2006 at 08:24pm
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Transcripts of Rita Cosby interviewing Symmes Culbertson, the attorney representing 
convicted sex-offender Jerry Inman. If anyone wondered what type of attorney would agree to represent such a heinous person like Jerry Inman who has allegedly confessed to Tiffany’s murder and the rape of two other, just take a look at what this lawyer has to say.
CULBERTSON: As—well, you know, as far as to what he said to authorities, I don‘t know that that rises to the level of confession.
I have not yet seen any of the statements that he supposedly gave to the authorities up in Tennessee. Once I see those statements, I might be in a better position to answer that question.
Read the full transcription of Rita Cosby of her interview with Jim Mixon, Lawrence Kobilinsky, Marc Klaas, Ed Miller, Cecil Reed, Tim Morgan, David Davenport, Symmes Culbertson, Karla Armenzedariz.
June 8th, 2006 at 04:34pm
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Bertha Martinez, 46, from Taylor, TX has been missing since last Friday when she 
failed to return home Thursday night. Her husband reported her missing.
Martinez’s family has not heard from her. They suspect foul play.
Martinez was last seen Friday at Megarabbit on Jarrett Way in North Austin. She was wearing a white shirt and black capri pants.
(News 8 Austin)
Anyone who may have seen her is asked to call the Taylor Police Department at (512) 352-5551.
June 8th, 2006 at 12:14am
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6-year-old Chad Allen Hester has been missing since 9:30am this morning.
Washington County Search and Rescue has been mobilized and is currently searching the area around the Redwood Tree Circle Park in Bloomington Hills for 6-year-old Chad Allen Hester.
“He was going to the park which is a short distance from his house, but when his mother went to look for him she could not find him,” Harding said.
(The Spectrum)
Chad Allen Hester’s description:
Anyone with any information on Chad Allen Hester please call the St. George Police Department immediately at 634-5000.
UPDATE: Chad Allen Hester found safe with Biological Father
Search and rescue crews were called out to help locate the boy, but were called back just before 4 p.m. after the police learned the boy may be with his biological father.
Searchers spoke to the child’s paternal grandparents, who told police that Chad’s father had told them that he had the boy. Calls to courts in Utah and Washington showed no estanlishment of custody for either parent
(KUTV)
June 7th, 2006 at 10:02pm
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Authorities in Tennessee have captured a registered sex offender, Jerry Buck Inman, in connection with the bikini strangulation death of a Clemson University junior Tiffany Marie Souers.
Tennessee police arrested Jerry Buck Inman, 35, during a traffic stop near his parents’ home in Dandridge, Tenn., on charges of murder, rape and kidnapping, for the death of Tiffany Marie Souers, according to Jefferson County Sheriff David Davenport (Fox News)
Registered sex offender taken into custody near his parents’ home in Tenn.
Jerry Buck Inman, who was wanted on arrest warrants for murder, rape and kidnapping, was taken into custody without resistance during a traffic stop about a mile from his parents’ home in Dandridge, Tenn., Sheriff David Davenport said.
The family of Tiffany Marie Souers were obviously relieved at the arrest of this sexual predator who has been linked to the murder of their daughter by DNA.
Souers’ brother said he was smiling from ear-to-ear when he learned Inman had been arrested. “I gave my mom a hug and she said she felt happy for the first time in a while,” 16-year-old Trevor Souers said. “I was just really relieved.”
Once again, why are we not surprised that the alleged murderer is a repeat sex offender. Aren’t they always? When is this country going to start treating these people for what they are? Why is it OK for these predators to be walking the street and a danger to us all? Law abiding innocent people do not care any longer what these predator’s problems are in life. They are a danger and have to be locked away.
The 35-year-old construction worker was registered as a sex offender in Florida in September after he was released from prison for kidnapping and sexual battery. He also was registered in North Carolina. His last address is listed as Dandridge, Tenn. His mother, Vera McArthur, told The Greenville News earlier Tuesday that her son is bipolar and often suicidal, and had no idea South Carolina authorities were looking for him. She said he had been doing construction work in Tennessee and hasn’t been in South Carolina recently as far as she knows. “He just takes off and is gone a couple of days,” McArthur told the newspaper. (MSNBC)
UPDATE: Inman Confessed to Bikini Slay, Two Other Attacks
A convicted sex offender charged Wednesday with first-degree murder, kidnapping and rape in the bikini strangulation death of a Clemson University junior has confessed to the murder and two other sexual attacks in two other states, authorities said.
Jerry Buck Inman, 35, confessed to the May 26 murder of Tiffany Marie Souers, 20, as well as two sexual attacks of blond women in Tennessee and Alabama, The Anderson Independent-Mail reported Wednesday.
(Fox News)
June 7th, 2006 at 08:56am
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