Author Archives: admin

Refugees Cast Adrift to Sea & Left to Die

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January 2009 Thailand is facing criticism from human right’s groups for apparently forcing 1,000 captured refugees from Myanmar onto drift-boats and sending them out to sea to die. Amidst the chaos in what is now Myanmar, rocked by both a recent cyclone and an oppressive government, refugees are fleeing the country. One particularly desperate group of people are the Rohingyas. A Muslim minority in Myanmar, they are denied full citizenship, and some 200,000 or so people are forced to live … Continue reading →

Job Loss Leads to Murder of Family

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1-27-09 A poor economy can kill. Literally. In yet another example of how secondary family factors such as economics can affect a child’s welfare, a man who was distraught over losing his job fatally shot his wife, his five young children, and finally himself at their home in Los Angeles, California. Ervin Antonio Lupoe had been working as a technician at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in West Los Angeles, along with his wife. Shortly before the killings, TV station KABC … Continue reading →

Boys Bludgeoned to Death At Park

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12-23-2008 Two young cousins, ages 7 and 10, headed out on a walk to play at the park in their neighborhood on Christmas Eve. They never made it back. Both boys were found beaten so badly that they no longer had identifiable facial features, and police initially couldn’t even determine an exact cause of injury. Both were rushed to St. Joseph’s Hospital in critical condition. Sadly, their injuries were too severe to overcome. Both boys — 10-year-old Edwin Pellecier and … Continue reading →

One slip, Almost a Tragedy

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Nov. 2008 A family home video caught every parent’s worst nightmare on tape, and it illustrates just how quickly something disastrous can happen. It occurred when the family was posing for a group picture at the ocean side in California, next to the edge of a 150 foot cliff. It was a designated scenic area, with a railing on the side. Three-year-old Elena was backing up to take her position for the photograph, when her calves bumped up against the … Continue reading →

Children Who Are Murdered By Family Members

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Starving Children for Insurance Money In Forest, Mississippi, authorities say money may have been the key motive in the starvation death of a 4-year-old-boy.  Police say Austin Watkins weighed a mere 19 pounds when he died on November 9th, 2008.  Scott County Sheriff Mike Lee said the family had taken out an insurance policy on the boy.  His grandmother and aunt were arrested and charged with murder.  (USA Today, 11-17-2008, p. 12A)

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Mother Of Two Kills Expectant Mother, Cuts Out Her Baby

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October 2007 A woman accused of killing a pregnant woman and cutting the baby from her womb was sentenced to death for the crime  by  a Missouri  jury.  Lisa  Montgomery,  39,  was convicted of strangling Bobby Jo Stinnet, 23, at her home on December 16, 2004. She then cut out Bobby Jo’s baby and tried to pass it off as her own, authorities say. Lisa had apparently been lying to friends and family about being pregnant. Her ex-husband had planned … Continue reading →

Father Sets His Kids Ablaze

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In Wheaton, Illinois, a man offered to plead guilty to killing his two sons, ages 4 and 7, by dousing them with gasoline and lighting them ablaze. Kaushik, Patel’s public defender says his plea depends on the prosecution’s agreeing to not seek the death penalty, which is ironic, because Patel apparently told reporters that he had actually intended to kill himself (not his son’s) -when the crime occurred. Aug. 22, 2008  

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Children Crushed In Apartment Stairwell Collapse

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July 17, 2008 In America, you don’t expect buildings to collapse without warning or provocation. This is why residents of a Houston apartment complex were shocked when a stairwell did just that, crushing several boys inside. It all started with an innocent game of hide and seek. Ten-year-old David Vasquez, 5-year-old Miguel Robledo, and a 9-year-old friend who was not identified, were playing the game in the stairwell of their apartment complex at about 7:40 p.m. That’s when disaster struck. … Continue reading →

Fourth of July Display Sends Spectators Running

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July 4, 2008 Visitors to a fourth of July fireworks display in Charles City, Iowa, got a lot more than they bargained for when one of the pyrotechnic shells misfired. It sent a fireball skidding down the street and into a crowd of spectators. At least 37 people were injured in the accident, including several children. “It was like a bunch of little fireworks just coming toward us,” said Emily Watson, who was at the display. “They started to explode. … Continue reading →

The Kiss of Deaf

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June 2008 It was a simple kiss. Not the type of thing one would guess to be a hurtful thing. It certainly wasn’t something Gail Schwartzman’s 4-year-old daughter expected to hurt her mother when she gave it. Mom had been out of the house that day, and the little girl missed her. “When I returned, I went to say a big hello to my daughter. She was 4-years-old at the time. She was sitting on the floor watching TV, and … Continue reading →