Minutes before the Christmas Eve attack, the extended Ortega family had exchanged holiday greetings with relatives in their native Torreon, Mexico.
By Hector Becerra December 30, 2008 - LA Times
As they had for years, the two families -- one in the city of Torreon in Mexico, the other in Covina -- called each other late Christmas Eve on a two-way radio. In Covina, about 25 people -- Joseph and Alicia Ortega, their five children and their grandchildren -- celebrated.
In Mexico, about 35 of their relatives celebrated at the home of Lilia Llamas Sotomayor, their niece. It was about 11 p.m. Amid the revelry, family members clicked a button on the radio and took turns wishing each other Christmas greetings.
"We did that every year. We were always used to calling each other on the radio," Llamas Sotomayor, 51, said. "This year, it was my turn to host the party. It was, 'How are you? We're all together here. How are you over there?' They were happy, and we were happy." Llamas Sotomayor said it was the next day, Christmas Day, that her nephew Charles Jr. called her brother Ernesto in Torreon to tell him about what had happened just minutes after the festive conversations that traversed the radio and two countries.
Charles told his uncle that his grandparents, Joseph and Alicia Ortega; his father, Charles Sr.; his mother, Cheri; his uncle James and his wife, Teresa; his aunt Sylvia; and his aunt Alicia and her 17-year-old son, Michael, had been killed.
"It was horrible. We still can't believe it," Llamas Sotomayor said in a phone interview from Torreon, in the central Mexican state of Coahuila. "We talked to them minutes before this happened." They were stunned to learn that Sylvia's ex-husband, Bruce Jeffrey Pardo, had dressed up as Santa Claus, shot an 8-year old niece in the face and then killed nine of their loved ones, burning to the ground a home that had become familiar to them over many years.
Suddenly, an act of violence in a Los Angeles suburb had become a painful event for residents of a city in central Mexico, a reminder of the close bonds that remain between Mexican immigrants in California and their families back home.Relatives in Torreon held a Mass for their U.S. relatives over the weekend. They had been used to visits by their American uncles, cousins and nephews. They in turn frequently visited the elder Ortegas' home in Covina. But now relatives in Torreon were traveling to Los Angeles to attend a mass funeral and to help figure out how best to care for the surviving children.
Joseph, 80, and Alicia, 70, visited Torreon at least twice a year. Alicia was born in Torreon. Joseph was born in the U.S. but his parents were from Torreon. In an interview with a reporter for El Siglo de Torreon newspaper, Consuelo de Dorantes, a sister of Alicia Ortega, described the day her sister and Joseph Ortega fell in love. While visiting his parents in Mexico in 1955, Ortega saw Alicia in front of her parents' home and said, "I'm going to marry her." He wooed her for several months before they married in Torreon. Then they moved to L.A. But the families kept in touch.
De Dorantes told the Mexican newspaper that every third Monday of the month, Alicia Ortega would call her and her sister Lilia -- Llamas Sotomayor's mother -- in Torreon. "Hola, hola, how are you?" she would greet them cheerfully before embarking on hours-long conversations, De Dorantes recalled. When their U.S. relatives visited, they would be served their favorite foods, including chile rellenos, mole, pozole and flavored shaved ice. "The whole family shook with happiness whenever they came," De Dorantes told El Siglo.
The elder Alicia's family in Torreon, the Sotomayors, were relatively well-to-do and well-known, with many in the family running successful businesses. Some sent children to study abroad in Canada and Scotland. Most of the younger Sotomayors spoke English, gleaned both from studying and from travel, Llamas Sotomayor said.
Joseph and Alicia Ortega had brought some of that business savvy with them, opening a shop where industrial parts were painted. Some of their children worked at the shop, and eventually one of their sons, Charles Sr., took over operations of the business, with help from his young son. "He was my uncle's right hand," Llamas Sotomayor said Monday, referring to Charles Sr. "He was always worried about them. They didn't travel if Charlie didn't go. Every time they came, Charlie came with them." Charles and his wife, Cheri, had five children; the eldest, Charles Jr., is in his early 20s, Llamas Sotomayor said.
Also killed in the attack was James Ortega, who was Joseph and Alicia's oldest child.Both of the Ortegas' sons were killed Christmas Eve.The Ortegas had three daughters, two of whom were also killed. One of them was Alicia Ortiz, who was killed with her 17-year-old son, Michael. "She was very strict. Her children spoke perfect Spanish, they wrote it and read it very well. She educated them very well. She wasn't a scolder, but she was strict about their study. She wanted them all to be very good," Llamas Sotomayor said, adding that she thought Alicia may have been a school nurse.
Sotomayor said some of her own siblings would take trips with the Ortegas and their children to Las Vegas, or go camping in the mountains. Sometimes, family in Mexico and the U.S. agreed to meet in different locations, such as Cancun, to get together.
About three years ago, many relatives in Torreon traveled to L.A. to celebrate Joseph and Alicia Ortega's 50th wedding anniversary. "We had a big fiesta. Everyone here went there," Llamas Sotomayor said. "That family had an energy that was very impressive, that didn't stop. They were very happy. They traveled a lot. They took trips to stay united."
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Satna gunman who massacred ex-wife's family planned more terror
LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- The man who police say dressed as Santa Claus and killed nine people at a Christmas Eve party may have also had plans to kill his mother and his former wife's divorce attorney, police said Monday night.
Prime suspect Bruce Jeffrey Pardo, who police said committed suicide hours after he went on a shooting rampage and started a raging house fire in the Los Angeles suburb of Covina, left a rental car with a gasoline canister inside outside the home of attorney Scott Nord, said Pat Buchanan of the Covina Police Department.
Police previously said that Pardo targeted his rampage at his former wife, Sylvia Ortega Pardo, and her family at the family's Christmas Eve party.
A divorce between the two was finalized in court on December 18 in a "somewhat contentious proceeding," Covina Police Chief Kim Raney said last week. Police believe Pardo planned to carry out a similar attack at Nord's house as he did at the shooting and house fire that claimed nine lives.
Another rented car that Pardo used to flee the scene was found booby-trapped after the shooting, police said. That car burned as the Covina bomb squad was trying to disconnect an explosive device in it, police said.
On Saturday, Covina police released the names of the nine people unaccounted for since the shooting and fire. Nine bodies were recovered from the rubble of the house, but authorities said that they are having to work with dental records to establish identities.
"The bodies were so badly burned they cannot be identified any other way," said Covina police Lt. Pat Buchanan.
The nine unaccounted for include Sylvia Pardo, her parents, her sister, her two brothers, both brothers' wives, and a nephew. Ages of the nine range from 17 to 80, police said.
On Monday night, police said Pardo's mother had also planned to attend the Christmas party, but didn't go because she was sick. Pardo had a contentious relationship with his mother, according to Buchanan, because she attended the couple's divorce hearing and had sided with Pardo's ex-wife.
The shooting and fire left 10 children orphaned and three others lost one parent. An "Ortega Family Fund" has been set up at Nord's law offices.
Prime suspect Bruce Jeffrey Pardo, who police said committed suicide hours after he went on a shooting rampage and started a raging house fire in the Los Angeles suburb of Covina, left a rental car with a gasoline canister inside outside the home of attorney Scott Nord, said Pat Buchanan of the Covina Police Department.
Police previously said that Pardo targeted his rampage at his former wife, Sylvia Ortega Pardo, and her family at the family's Christmas Eve party.
A divorce between the two was finalized in court on December 18 in a "somewhat contentious proceeding," Covina Police Chief Kim Raney said last week. Police believe Pardo planned to carry out a similar attack at Nord's house as he did at the shooting and house fire that claimed nine lives.
Another rented car that Pardo used to flee the scene was found booby-trapped after the shooting, police said. That car burned as the Covina bomb squad was trying to disconnect an explosive device in it, police said.
On Saturday, Covina police released the names of the nine people unaccounted for since the shooting and fire. Nine bodies were recovered from the rubble of the house, but authorities said that they are having to work with dental records to establish identities.
"The bodies were so badly burned they cannot be identified any other way," said Covina police Lt. Pat Buchanan.
The nine unaccounted for include Sylvia Pardo, her parents, her sister, her two brothers, both brothers' wives, and a nephew. Ages of the nine range from 17 to 80, police said.
On Monday night, police said Pardo's mother had also planned to attend the Christmas party, but didn't go because she was sick. Pardo had a contentious relationship with his mother, according to Buchanan, because she attended the couple's divorce hearing and had sided with Pardo's ex-wife.
The shooting and fire left 10 children orphaned and three others lost one parent. An "Ortega Family Fund" has been set up at Nord's law offices.
Saturday, December 27, 2008
Marianne Mollmann - Biden and Clinton should champion rape victims' rights
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Sexual activity peak between Christmas and New Year's Day
By Frank Greve McClatchy Newspapers
WASHINGTON — 'Tis the season for making whoopee.
The Christmas-New Year's period produces a year-high spike in sexual activity and conceptions in the United States, according to biorhythm researchers and makers of sex-related products.
They attribute the increase to holiday leisure and New Year's resolutions to have children. New Year's irresolution fueled by alcohol and partying is another contributing factor.
"Right before New Year's Eve is our highest sales peak," said David Johnson, group product manager for Trojan brand condoms, the leading U.S. seller.
As expected, the holiday urge surge also expresses itself as a peak in U.S. births in September, according to David Lam of the University of Michigan's Population Studies Center in Ann Arbor.
Holiday intimacies aren't just an American rite, according to Gabriele Doblhammer of the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research in Rostock, Germany. Heavy Christmas-New Year's sex "is characteristic of all Christian cultures in which it has been evaluated," she and co-researcher Joseph Lee Rogers found.
A quartet of British public health researchers went so far as to liken the Christmas-New Year's period to a "festival on fertility" in a 1999 article in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine.
Such festivals, they wrote, are "associated with increased opportunities for socializing and a generally more hedonistic approach to life."
Recognizing the risks entailed, the British Health Education Authority once ran a condom ad before New Year's with the tag line: "Just in case old acquaintances aren't quite forgot."
What about the notion that spring is the season of love?
Among partners chronically pressed for time, intimacy flourishes in the rare leisure of three-day weekends, analysts said. Accordingly, the long July Fourth, Memorial Day and Labor Day weekends also produce spikes in condom sales, Trojan's Johnson said.
So does the run-up to Valentine's Day, he added.
"And before Mother's Day, there's a small peak."
The centrality of holidays to the timing of conceptions in the United States is relatively new, Till Roenneberg, of the Institute for Medical Psychology at the University of Munich, said in an interview.
Until the 1930s, fluctuations in temperature, sunlight and humidity yielded much larger seasonal fluctuations in U.S. conception, he said. They still do in less developed countries. In industrialized countries, Roenneberg continued, people increasingly are shielded from sunlight by indoor work and from temperature and humidity variations by heating and air conditioning.
Once the natural fluctuations, which influence human sperm and egg quality, are muted, lesser factors such as three-day weekends become visible, he said. Roenneberg's findings derive from studies of birth date trends in 166 regions of the globe. The data come from as early as 1669 and total more than 3,000 years of human experience.
WASHINGTON — 'Tis the season for making whoopee.
The Christmas-New Year's period produces a year-high spike in sexual activity and conceptions in the United States, according to biorhythm researchers and makers of sex-related products.
They attribute the increase to holiday leisure and New Year's resolutions to have children. New Year's irresolution fueled by alcohol and partying is another contributing factor.
"Right before New Year's Eve is our highest sales peak," said David Johnson, group product manager for Trojan brand condoms, the leading U.S. seller.
As expected, the holiday urge surge also expresses itself as a peak in U.S. births in September, according to David Lam of the University of Michigan's Population Studies Center in Ann Arbor.
Holiday intimacies aren't just an American rite, according to Gabriele Doblhammer of the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research in Rostock, Germany. Heavy Christmas-New Year's sex "is characteristic of all Christian cultures in which it has been evaluated," she and co-researcher Joseph Lee Rogers found.
A quartet of British public health researchers went so far as to liken the Christmas-New Year's period to a "festival on fertility" in a 1999 article in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine.
Such festivals, they wrote, are "associated with increased opportunities for socializing and a generally more hedonistic approach to life."
Recognizing the risks entailed, the British Health Education Authority once ran a condom ad before New Year's with the tag line: "Just in case old acquaintances aren't quite forgot."
What about the notion that spring is the season of love?
Among partners chronically pressed for time, intimacy flourishes in the rare leisure of three-day weekends, analysts said. Accordingly, the long July Fourth, Memorial Day and Labor Day weekends also produce spikes in condom sales, Trojan's Johnson said.
So does the run-up to Valentine's Day, he added.
"And before Mother's Day, there's a small peak."
The centrality of holidays to the timing of conceptions in the United States is relatively new, Till Roenneberg, of the Institute for Medical Psychology at the University of Munich, said in an interview.
Until the 1930s, fluctuations in temperature, sunlight and humidity yielded much larger seasonal fluctuations in U.S. conception, he said. They still do in less developed countries. In industrialized countries, Roenneberg continued, people increasingly are shielded from sunlight by indoor work and from temperature and humidity variations by heating and air conditioning.
Once the natural fluctuations, which influence human sperm and egg quality, are muted, lesser factors such as three-day weekends become visible, he said. Roenneberg's findings derive from studies of birth date trends in 166 regions of the globe. The data come from as early as 1669 and total more than 3,000 years of human experience.
Father helps catch peeper at college bathroom
(Original Post 5-2-08)
A voyeur who took pictures of women in the bathroom at Santa Fe Community College was arrested after an 18 year old student noticed feet in the stall next to her and she told her father.
The woman's father told police that he saw a man walking out of the women's restroom just before his daughter came out. He followed the man to his car and wrote down the license plate.
Police said that voyeurism just became a crime in New Mexico in the last year.
James McDow, of Glorieta, was charged with voyeurism. It became a crime last year in New Mexico, and that many voyeurs progress to more serious sex crimes, according to Sheriff Greg Solano.
"A lot of these type of voyeurism cases progress on to things like rape and other sexual crimes. So, this allows us to catch on to them before they progress onto larger felonies."
(Update 12-27-08) On December 10, McDow was sentenced to 364 days of supervised probation, and banned from schools and libraries. State District Judge Stephen Pfeffer also ordered alcohol and drug testing 3 times a week.
A voyeur who took pictures of women in the bathroom at Santa Fe Community College was arrested after an 18 year old student noticed feet in the stall next to her and she told her father.
The woman's father told police that he saw a man walking out of the women's restroom just before his daughter came out. He followed the man to his car and wrote down the license plate.
Police said that voyeurism just became a crime in New Mexico in the last year.
James McDow, of Glorieta, was charged with voyeurism. It became a crime last year in New Mexico, and that many voyeurs progress to more serious sex crimes, according to Sheriff Greg Solano.
"A lot of these type of voyeurism cases progress on to things like rape and other sexual crimes. So, this allows us to catch on to them before they progress onto larger felonies."
(Update 12-27-08) On December 10, McDow was sentenced to 364 days of supervised probation, and banned from schools and libraries. State District Judge Stephen Pfeffer also ordered alcohol and drug testing 3 times a week.
Friday, December 26, 2008
Austin teacher charged with sexual encounters with 18 year old student
(Original Post 5-16-08)Allen Cole, a 34 year old teacher at Travis High School in Austin, was arrested on charges of having sex with an 18 year old girl. Another student reported the relationship.
According to a probable cause affidavit obtained by KXAN.com, the student told police she had met Cole, 34, several times at his apartment between May 6 and May 10. The student told police she had sex with Cole more than 20 times over that 5-day period.
Police confirmed the girl's details of Cole's living room and bedroom. He's charged with improper relationship between a teacher and a student, a class 2 felony in Texas.
(Update 12-26-08) 10 days ago, Cole was sentenced to 4 years on probation, 200 hours of community service, a $1000 fine, and a permanent ban from teaching in any state or contacting his victim. The info is via Assistant District Attorney Allison Benesch.
Connecticut woman pleads guilty to poisoning husband; gets 15 years in prison
(Original Post 9-14-08)
A wife plead guilty Friday to poisoning her husband with antifreeze, then hiring a hitman to try and kill him plead guilty to attempted murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and inciting injury to a person. Jennifer Ratti, 28, from Coventry, CT plead in Judge Terence A. Sullivan's courtroom.
She was first arrested in April 2007, after her husband, Joshua Ratti, told Coventry police that he feared his wife was poisoning him.Joshua Ratti had been approached by one of his wife’s co-workers, who told him that Jennifer had been talking about killing him, Vernon State’s Attorney Matthew Gedansky said Friday.
Jillian M. O’Connor, 28 was approached in York Correctional Institution by Jennifer, which houses both prisoners convicted of crimes as well as those accused of them. O'Connor faces charges related to this case.
Joshua Ratti spoke during Friday’s proceedings in Vernon Superior Court, saying he had discovered that his wife was having an affair and had asked for a divorce. She then began to lace his sandwiches with rat poison and put antifreeze into beverages that she served him, he said.After approaching police, Joshua Ratti was taken to a hospital, where the determination was made that he had been poisoned, according to a police affidavit.
On March 30, 2007, Joshua Ratti called Coventry police and asked for a drug test, prosecutor Matthew Gedansky told the court. Ratti told police he hadn't been feeling well and thought his wife might be trying to poison him.
He ended up at the University of Connecticut Health Center, where ethylene glycol — an ingredient of antifreeze — was found in his system, Gedansky said. He suffered from renal failure, his mother later told the court. Although Jennifer Ratti initially denied involvement in her husband's illness, she eventually turned over containers of antifreeze and ant and roach killer, Gedansky said.
He said he has suffered from sleeplessness, nervousness, and a loss of quality of life since the incident. Because his wife tried to kill him multiple times, Joshua Ratti said, he fears for his life.
"Please accept this sentence, so I can try to get on with my life...I no longer feel safe. I don’t want to live in fear anymore because of what she did.”
A criminal restraining order prohibits contact between the victim and the defendant. The probable sentence will be 10 years in prison followed by 5 years of probation.
While Mr. Ratti found out that his wife could not be trusted, he had the support of his mother Deborah at the hearing, who told the court about more effects.
"He sleeps with a pistol at his bedside. He has been so tired from lack of sleep, she said, he twice dozed at the wheel and was involved in car accidents. Please enable my son to have a safe life back."
(Update 11-15-08) Judge Terence A. Sullivan rejected the plea deal stating that 10 years wasn't enough for the severity of the crime against Joshua Ratti. "I can't accept the sentence. It simply is not adequate to reflect the nature and the seriousness of the crimes. I've gone through this pre-sentence investigation report diligently. Unfortunately, each time that I read it, it doesn't get any better. It is a very striking description of what can only be described as a cold-blooded attempt to commit a murder."
The report, which is not a public document, indicates that the 28-year-old Ratti, a former Coventry resident, is "not remorseful" and "doesn't seem to care about what she's done," Ratti's public defender, Lisa Bennett, said. Bennett disagreed with the writer's conclusion, telling the judge that Ratti does understand the severity of what she has done. "She's absolutely remorseful for the harm she's done," Bennett said.
Jennifer Ratti said, "I want you to know how sorry I am. I wish I could take back what I did to you," but Judge Sullivan ordered Bennett and Tolland State's Attorney Matthew C. Gedansky to come back December 5, for either a longer sentence under a plea, or a trial if the plea is thrown out.
(Update 12-26-08) Jennifer Ratti was sentenced to 15 years in prison on December 5, and accepted the revised plea agreement even though it will cost her an extra 5 years in prison.
A wife plead guilty Friday to poisoning her husband with antifreeze, then hiring a hitman to try and kill him plead guilty to attempted murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and inciting injury to a person. Jennifer Ratti, 28, from Coventry, CT plead in Judge Terence A. Sullivan's courtroom.
She was first arrested in April 2007, after her husband, Joshua Ratti, told Coventry police that he feared his wife was poisoning him.Joshua Ratti had been approached by one of his wife’s co-workers, who told him that Jennifer had been talking about killing him, Vernon State’s Attorney Matthew Gedansky said Friday.
Jillian M. O’Connor, 28 was approached in York Correctional Institution by Jennifer, which houses both prisoners convicted of crimes as well as those accused of them. O'Connor faces charges related to this case.
Joshua Ratti spoke during Friday’s proceedings in Vernon Superior Court, saying he had discovered that his wife was having an affair and had asked for a divorce. She then began to lace his sandwiches with rat poison and put antifreeze into beverages that she served him, he said.After approaching police, Joshua Ratti was taken to a hospital, where the determination was made that he had been poisoned, according to a police affidavit.
On March 30, 2007, Joshua Ratti called Coventry police and asked for a drug test, prosecutor Matthew Gedansky told the court. Ratti told police he hadn't been feeling well and thought his wife might be trying to poison him.
He ended up at the University of Connecticut Health Center, where ethylene glycol — an ingredient of antifreeze — was found in his system, Gedansky said. He suffered from renal failure, his mother later told the court. Although Jennifer Ratti initially denied involvement in her husband's illness, she eventually turned over containers of antifreeze and ant and roach killer, Gedansky said.
He said he has suffered from sleeplessness, nervousness, and a loss of quality of life since the incident. Because his wife tried to kill him multiple times, Joshua Ratti said, he fears for his life.
"Please accept this sentence, so I can try to get on with my life...I no longer feel safe. I don’t want to live in fear anymore because of what she did.”
A criminal restraining order prohibits contact between the victim and the defendant. The probable sentence will be 10 years in prison followed by 5 years of probation.
While Mr. Ratti found out that his wife could not be trusted, he had the support of his mother Deborah at the hearing, who told the court about more effects.
"He sleeps with a pistol at his bedside. He has been so tired from lack of sleep, she said, he twice dozed at the wheel and was involved in car accidents. Please enable my son to have a safe life back."
(Update 11-15-08) Judge Terence A. Sullivan rejected the plea deal stating that 10 years wasn't enough for the severity of the crime against Joshua Ratti. "I can't accept the sentence. It simply is not adequate to reflect the nature and the seriousness of the crimes. I've gone through this pre-sentence investigation report diligently. Unfortunately, each time that I read it, it doesn't get any better. It is a very striking description of what can only be described as a cold-blooded attempt to commit a murder."
The report, which is not a public document, indicates that the 28-year-old Ratti, a former Coventry resident, is "not remorseful" and "doesn't seem to care about what she's done," Ratti's public defender, Lisa Bennett, said. Bennett disagreed with the writer's conclusion, telling the judge that Ratti does understand the severity of what she has done. "She's absolutely remorseful for the harm she's done," Bennett said.
Jennifer Ratti said, "I want you to know how sorry I am. I wish I could take back what I did to you," but Judge Sullivan ordered Bennett and Tolland State's Attorney Matthew C. Gedansky to come back December 5, for either a longer sentence under a plea, or a trial if the plea is thrown out.
(Update 12-26-08) Jennifer Ratti was sentenced to 15 years in prison on December 5, and accepted the revised plea agreement even though it will cost her an extra 5 years in prison.
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
SC mother believes missing 31 year old daughter dead
By MITCH WEISS
Associated Press Writer
When Susie Fernandez drives, she tries to glimpse every face in passing cars. In stores, she glances at people in aisles and checkout lines. She's been doing it ever since her daughter, a nurse and devoted mother of a little boy, vanished in September.
"You try to have faith," said Fernandez, who fears her 31-year-old daughter is dead. "Not knowing what happened is just unbearable. It just consumes your life. You just have this pain in your heart that won't go away."
The sharpest pangs come from two thoughts: Fernandez said she believes she knows who is responsible for her daughter's disappearance, and she doesn't feel anybody outside her family is paying attention.
"At times, it seems like no one really cares except us," Fernandez, 47, said recently as she sat in her living room, surrounded by photos of her four children and grandson, Jamel Good Jr.
Maria Fernandez was last seen Sept. 3. Her boyfriend - the father of her son - initially told police he picked her up from work that day. But authorities say Jamel Good's story is muddled. He hasn't been charged, but Union County sheriff's investigators say Good is a "person of interest" in the disappearance and is not cooperating.
His attorney, Thomas White, disagrees. "He's been cooperative with them. There's no evidence that links him to any kind of crime," White said.
Meanwhile, Fernandez's relatives have been frustrated by a lack of new information.
In their minds are details of how authorities handled another missing persons case in the area.
When Susan Smith told police in 1994 that a man stole her car with her two children inside, a large-scale manhunt ensued. Investigators later discovered Smith had killed the boys.
"Where are all those officers now?" said Fernandez's aunt, Toni Davis, 42. "Where is the media?"
While thousands of people go missing each year, cases involving white children or attractive white women typically are the ones that attract media attention. Experts say it takes a passionate advocate to bring attention to a case involving a black person, such as Fernandez.
So her mother has been trying to get people interested. Susie Fernandez has posted fliers asking anyone with information to contact police. She's offering a $1,000 reward for information leading to an arrest.
Inside her house, off a busy road leading to this small city in north-central South Carolina, Maria Fernandez's three siblings recently listened as their mother recounted her daughter's life.
Fernandez was a popular nurse at the Ellen Sagar Nursing Home and at Spartanburg Regional Medical Center, working two jobs to support her son. She worked long hours, but was at the school bus stop with the boy every morning.
Susie Fernandez said her daughter dated Good for nearly nine years and was living with him at his father's house. But in early September, Maria spent several nights at her mother's home, saying she was leaving Good because he refused to get a job.
On Sept. 3, Good picked up Fernandez at her mother's house because her car was in the shop. He drove her to the nursing home and when her shift ended at 2:30 p.m., Good was waiting.
And that's when the story gets murky.
Authorities say Good told police they went together to look at a new house. Later, Good said he dropped Fernandez off at his father's house and left. When he returned hours later, she was gone.
Numerous attempts to contact Good and his father, who authorities say live together, were unsuccessful. No one answered the door at the house on two visits. An answering machine said it wasn't accepting messages. White said that he hasn't heard from his client in two months, but that police know everything his client knows.
Good has been convicted of several crimes in the past 10 years: driving with a suspended license, drug possession and writing a fraudulent check. With each case, he either received a suspended sentence, probation or a small fine.
Sheriff's investigator Terry Humphries said police don't have enough evidence to charge anyone. He said police have searched several locations and found pieces of Maria's broken cell phone on a roadside.
Humphries said Fernandez would not have willingly left her son.
"She was totally dedicated to her child. There was no way she could leave him behind," he said.
Meanwhile, Fernandez's relatives say they are unable to see Jamel Good Jr. because his father has custody and refuses to let them visit.
As she was preparing for church one recent Sunday, Susie Fernandez dropped to her bed and began sobbing. Her 12-year-old daughter embraced her, whispering, "It's OK, momma. She's in a better place."
Later, looking out her front door, Fernandez brushed back a tear.
"There are so many nights I just wonder: Where are you? What happened?" she said. "I just want to bring my baby back home."
Associated Press Writer
When Susie Fernandez drives, she tries to glimpse every face in passing cars. In stores, she glances at people in aisles and checkout lines. She's been doing it ever since her daughter, a nurse and devoted mother of a little boy, vanished in September.
"You try to have faith," said Fernandez, who fears her 31-year-old daughter is dead. "Not knowing what happened is just unbearable. It just consumes your life. You just have this pain in your heart that won't go away."
The sharpest pangs come from two thoughts: Fernandez said she believes she knows who is responsible for her daughter's disappearance, and she doesn't feel anybody outside her family is paying attention.
"At times, it seems like no one really cares except us," Fernandez, 47, said recently as she sat in her living room, surrounded by photos of her four children and grandson, Jamel Good Jr.
Maria Fernandez was last seen Sept. 3. Her boyfriend - the father of her son - initially told police he picked her up from work that day. But authorities say Jamel Good's story is muddled. He hasn't been charged, but Union County sheriff's investigators say Good is a "person of interest" in the disappearance and is not cooperating.
His attorney, Thomas White, disagrees. "He's been cooperative with them. There's no evidence that links him to any kind of crime," White said.
Meanwhile, Fernandez's relatives have been frustrated by a lack of new information.
In their minds are details of how authorities handled another missing persons case in the area.
When Susan Smith told police in 1994 that a man stole her car with her two children inside, a large-scale manhunt ensued. Investigators later discovered Smith had killed the boys.
"Where are all those officers now?" said Fernandez's aunt, Toni Davis, 42. "Where is the media?"
While thousands of people go missing each year, cases involving white children or attractive white women typically are the ones that attract media attention. Experts say it takes a passionate advocate to bring attention to a case involving a black person, such as Fernandez.
So her mother has been trying to get people interested. Susie Fernandez has posted fliers asking anyone with information to contact police. She's offering a $1,000 reward for information leading to an arrest.
Inside her house, off a busy road leading to this small city in north-central South Carolina, Maria Fernandez's three siblings recently listened as their mother recounted her daughter's life.
Fernandez was a popular nurse at the Ellen Sagar Nursing Home and at Spartanburg Regional Medical Center, working two jobs to support her son. She worked long hours, but was at the school bus stop with the boy every morning.
Susie Fernandez said her daughter dated Good for nearly nine years and was living with him at his father's house. But in early September, Maria spent several nights at her mother's home, saying she was leaving Good because he refused to get a job.
On Sept. 3, Good picked up Fernandez at her mother's house because her car was in the shop. He drove her to the nursing home and when her shift ended at 2:30 p.m., Good was waiting.
And that's when the story gets murky.
Authorities say Good told police they went together to look at a new house. Later, Good said he dropped Fernandez off at his father's house and left. When he returned hours later, she was gone.
Numerous attempts to contact Good and his father, who authorities say live together, were unsuccessful. No one answered the door at the house on two visits. An answering machine said it wasn't accepting messages. White said that he hasn't heard from his client in two months, but that police know everything his client knows.
Good has been convicted of several crimes in the past 10 years: driving with a suspended license, drug possession and writing a fraudulent check. With each case, he either received a suspended sentence, probation or a small fine.
Sheriff's investigator Terry Humphries said police don't have enough evidence to charge anyone. He said police have searched several locations and found pieces of Maria's broken cell phone on a roadside.
Humphries said Fernandez would not have willingly left her son.
"She was totally dedicated to her child. There was no way she could leave him behind," he said.
Meanwhile, Fernandez's relatives say they are unable to see Jamel Good Jr. because his father has custody and refuses to let them visit.
As she was preparing for church one recent Sunday, Susie Fernandez dropped to her bed and began sobbing. Her 12-year-old daughter embraced her, whispering, "It's OK, momma. She's in a better place."
Later, looking out her front door, Fernandez brushed back a tear.
"There are so many nights I just wonder: Where are you? What happened?" she said. "I just want to bring my baby back home."
Aussie pimp of Thai women 1st to be convicted of trafficking in women in Australia
From News.Com.Au
Tristan Swanwick
A GOLD Coast hairdresser who forced two Thai women into sexual slavery to pay off debts to violent loan sharks has been jailed for five years.Keith William Dobie, 48, was the first person in Australia charged with people trafficking under new laws brought in two years ago to clamp down on international sex slavery.
The former hairdresser yesterday pleaded guilty in the Brisbane District Court to two counts of people trafficking, one count of handling proceeds of crime, and four counts of presenting false documents.
Dobie lured the women to Australia to work as prostitutes with promises of easy money and generous working conditions, but turned into an abusive and demanding pimp after they arrived, the court was told.
Prosecutor Peter Flanagan, SC, said Dobie secured visas for the women by presenting false immigration documents to Australian officials in Thailand.He said Dobie was desperate to pay back money he had borrowed from Gold Coast loan sharks to finance his hairdressing salon and gambling addiction.
The women were both mothers and saw the trip as an opportunity to set up their families financially, Mr Flanagan said.But on arriving on the Gold Coast, the women were forced to see as many as five clients a day, even when they were in physical pain from frequent sex and were menstruating.
Mr Flanagan said Dobie earned up to $1000-a-day from the women, giving them the use of a room and $20 dollars a day for food and expenses in return.He sent as little as $600 in total to each of the womens' families.
Mr Flanagan said Dobie was verbally and physically abusive, telling one of the women she "had to work whether she liked it or not", and told them they would be arrested by immigration officials if they tried to escape.
Judge Leanne Clare told Dobie his treatment of the women had been "particularly demeaning and callous".
"Your true intention was to make as much money from these women by working them as often as possible so you could pay off your own debts," she said."
In your numerous appearances before me I have seen no indication of remorse for your crimes or the suffering they have caused."She sentenced him to five years. He will be eligible for parole after serving 22 months.
Tristan Swanwick
A GOLD Coast hairdresser who forced two Thai women into sexual slavery to pay off debts to violent loan sharks has been jailed for five years.Keith William Dobie, 48, was the first person in Australia charged with people trafficking under new laws brought in two years ago to clamp down on international sex slavery.
The former hairdresser yesterday pleaded guilty in the Brisbane District Court to two counts of people trafficking, one count of handling proceeds of crime, and four counts of presenting false documents.
Dobie lured the women to Australia to work as prostitutes with promises of easy money and generous working conditions, but turned into an abusive and demanding pimp after they arrived, the court was told.
Prosecutor Peter Flanagan, SC, said Dobie secured visas for the women by presenting false immigration documents to Australian officials in Thailand.He said Dobie was desperate to pay back money he had borrowed from Gold Coast loan sharks to finance his hairdressing salon and gambling addiction.
The women were both mothers and saw the trip as an opportunity to set up their families financially, Mr Flanagan said.But on arriving on the Gold Coast, the women were forced to see as many as five clients a day, even when they were in physical pain from frequent sex and were menstruating.
Mr Flanagan said Dobie earned up to $1000-a-day from the women, giving them the use of a room and $20 dollars a day for food and expenses in return.He sent as little as $600 in total to each of the womens' families.
Mr Flanagan said Dobie was verbally and physically abusive, telling one of the women she "had to work whether she liked it or not", and told them they would be arrested by immigration officials if they tried to escape.
Judge Leanne Clare told Dobie his treatment of the women had been "particularly demeaning and callous".
"Your true intention was to make as much money from these women by working them as often as possible so you could pay off your own debts," she said."
In your numerous appearances before me I have seen no indication of remorse for your crimes or the suffering they have caused."She sentenced him to five years. He will be eligible for parole after serving 22 months.
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Brian's Rant - Kudos to father trying to protect daughter from Drew Peterson
Brian's Rant The last two times Drew Peterson married, his wives turned up missing or murdered. Someone’s grown daughter, sister, and friend was murdered, and all the hopes, dreams, and shared experiences they has with Stacy and Kathy came to a deadly end.
This father’s concern for his daughter is a pleasant break from situations where women have been isolated and targeted by adult sexual predators and abusive manipulative “partners.”
Parents have no legal authority after ages 18 or 21, but that does not mean the threat to safety ends. A parent’s role as protector lasts through life. Their sense of duty to their children does not diminish if they haven’t abdicated their moral authority or parental role.
Accountability needs to be reestablished in relationships before a restraining order or criminal charges are filed. Parental or other family involvement at the first sign of trouble would be a way to establish accountability before the situation escalates into criminal activity.
Abusive “partners” can be seen as someone who grooms a same (or similar age) partner into physical, emotional, or sexual abuse. Murder would be the extreme expression of this. It is a fact that parental involvement in a minor’s life protects against sexual (and other abuse). When parents step into dangerous situations involving their grown kids, they are simply continuing the concern for their kids they had for the 1st 18 (or 21) years of their life.
Assuming the allegations involving Drew’s last two wives are founded, Peterson is a danger to younger twentysomething women in the same manner as a pedophile is a danger to 10 year olds. The danger isn’t expressed the same way with the wife killer and the molester, but they have a specific grooming method, specific power and control motives for their crimes, and destroy lives equally as effectively. A parent can choose to monitor the situation more closely, and this is what Mr. Raines appears to be doing.
Parents who stand back and sit idly by when sociopaths, sexual predators, or other abusers target their grown kids aren’t just abdicating their parental responsibility, but also an abdicating their common sense. Why in the hell would you do nothing when you see your grown child being brainwashed into believing that her abuser has her interest at heart?
This is what an abuser or other predator wants - lack of family support. Your protective role does not end at age 18. It is a big mistake to assume that children over 18 have the knowledge to protect against all threats at all times. They need someone on their side to protect against subtle tactics of abusive “partners” who have insinuated them into their lives.
If parental involvement in minor children’s lives protect against sexual predators, why can’t parental involvement in their grown child’s lives protect against abusive “partners?” It’s about the tension between the parents’ desire to protect their grown child and the desire to be on an adult footing by the grown offspring. The live and let live attitude is appropriate when there is no abuse of any type. If there is any risk of abuse, parents need to be parents again.
Some things don’t change. Abuse is abuse, and the difference between a rapist of women and a molester of 12 year old girls is the victims’ age ranges. Parents can intervene in DV situations, but too many times, they choose not to until it’s too late, because they focus on autonomy, but forget the safety, if not life, of their grown kids are at stake.
The difference in these perp’s mentalities are only the method of abuse, the way they pick targets, and the age range of a victim.
If there is a consequence of interfering in a grown child’s life, the consequence of a dead woman is much, much more serious that interfering in a grown child’s abusive relationship. Parents will live with the knowledge and shame that they could not have done more for their daughter before her abusive boyfriend/husband took her life.
If you see your daughter (or son with bruises) or a personality changed for the worse, it’s time to say “Get away from my child! (or sister, or friend)”. People with personality disorders and a lack of morals are everywhere, and as I’ve been saying, and not all of them target minors.
Friday, December 19, 2008
Woman's father - Stay away from my daughter, Drew Peterson!
A father has told Drew Peterson to get the heck away from his 23 year old child after an article appeared Thursday about his impending marriage to the young woman. Christina Raines, 23, is Peterson's 6th fiancee and will be his fifth wife if and when his last wife is officially declared dead.
The proposal happened sometime on the week of December 7 - 13, because Chris was spotted wearing a engagement ring Friday the 12th. Drew Peterson is the suburban Chicago (Bolingbrook, IL) policeman whose 4th wife, Stacy Peterson, has been missing since October 2007.
Until the body of Stacy is found or she is legally declared dead, Drew is still officially married to Stacy. After Stacy’s disappearance, Drew Peterson’s 3rd wife Kathleen’s body was exhumed. The cause of Kathleen’s death in March of 2004, originally thought to be suicide by drowning, was found to be murder after bruises were found on Kathy’s body.
The father, 53 year old Ernie Raines, isn't too happy.
"I said, 'You need to take that back. If you don't want to, I will,' " said Ernie Raines, 53. "I said, why would you want to marry someone like that anyway? He's my age for Christ's sake."
Ernie Raines said he and his daughter met Peterson at a Bolingbrook laundromat years ago, and that she has been friendly with him for months. Peterson has brought her roses, taken her to "Blue Man Group," promised to buy her a car and even autographed a book for him, Ernie Raines said.
Concerned about Peterson -- "I don't want a third one to come up missing" -- Ernie Raines said he drove to Peterson's house last month to "let him know that I'm here, that I'm around, that I know where he lives."
He said Peterson asked him, "Did you get my book?""We talked, I said, 'You know me, I'd kill for my kids, you know that,' " Ernie Raines said. "He told me: 'I will never do nothing to hurt your daughter, that's why I didn't put her name out.' "
Besides the suspicions about foul play and the last two wives Drew Peterson had, he also had a assault weapons charge filed against him. The unlawful use of a weapon charge stemmed from Peterson's ownership of a Colt AR-15 assault rifle taken from Peterson's job as a swat team member. The possession of the rifle would have been legal if the gun barrel was 16 inches or longer.
Judge Richard Schoenstedt threw out the weapons charge in November after prosecutors including Assistant State's Attorney John Connor failed to turn over evidence to help the Peterson defense try to prove that their client was a victim of a malicious prosecution.
On December 12, the Will County State Attorney's Office said through their spokesman Charles Pelkie that they appealed the decision to dismiss the case.
"We indicated right from the start that we planned to appeal this decision...We fully expect to win on appeal."
A timeline of the Peterson case can be found here.
The proposal happened sometime on the week of December 7 - 13, because Chris was spotted wearing a engagement ring Friday the 12th. Drew Peterson is the suburban Chicago (Bolingbrook, IL) policeman whose 4th wife, Stacy Peterson, has been missing since October 2007.
Until the body of Stacy is found or she is legally declared dead, Drew is still officially married to Stacy. After Stacy’s disappearance, Drew Peterson’s 3rd wife Kathleen’s body was exhumed. The cause of Kathleen’s death in March of 2004, originally thought to be suicide by drowning, was found to be murder after bruises were found on Kathy’s body.
The father, 53 year old Ernie Raines, isn't too happy.
"I said, 'You need to take that back. If you don't want to, I will,' " said Ernie Raines, 53. "I said, why would you want to marry someone like that anyway? He's my age for Christ's sake."
Ernie Raines said he and his daughter met Peterson at a Bolingbrook laundromat years ago, and that she has been friendly with him for months. Peterson has brought her roses, taken her to "Blue Man Group," promised to buy her a car and even autographed a book for him, Ernie Raines said.
Concerned about Peterson -- "I don't want a third one to come up missing" -- Ernie Raines said he drove to Peterson's house last month to "let him know that I'm here, that I'm around, that I know where he lives."
He said Peterson asked him, "Did you get my book?""We talked, I said, 'You know me, I'd kill for my kids, you know that,' " Ernie Raines said. "He told me: 'I will never do nothing to hurt your daughter, that's why I didn't put her name out.' "
Besides the suspicions about foul play and the last two wives Drew Peterson had, he also had a assault weapons charge filed against him. The unlawful use of a weapon charge stemmed from Peterson's ownership of a Colt AR-15 assault rifle taken from Peterson's job as a swat team member. The possession of the rifle would have been legal if the gun barrel was 16 inches or longer.
Judge Richard Schoenstedt threw out the weapons charge in November after prosecutors including Assistant State's Attorney John Connor failed to turn over evidence to help the Peterson defense try to prove that their client was a victim of a malicious prosecution.
On December 12, the Will County State Attorney's Office said through their spokesman Charles Pelkie that they appealed the decision to dismiss the case.
"We indicated right from the start that we planned to appeal this decision...We fully expect to win on appeal."
A timeline of the Peterson case can be found here.
Monday, December 15, 2008
Grand Rapids, MI lawyer's killer gets 30 to 75 years
Kent County Circuit Judge James Robert Redford sentenced Kevin Elder, 46, to 30 to 75 years today for the stabbing death of his estranged wife Tina Partee-Elder, 41, a prominent Grand Rapids attorney, while her kids, 9 and 11, were home on August 21, 2007. Those kids were forced into the basement while Elder stabbed his victim in the throat, causing deep puncture wounds, according to the Kent County Medical Examiner.
Elder pled guilty to 2nd degree murder to avoid the mandatory life without parole sentence under Michigan law for 1st degree murder, and also to spare his stepkids from taking the witness stand.
Partee's former husband and the father of her children, Fabian Newland, her brother, Terry Partee, and Kent County Assistant Prosecutor Kevin Bramble told the judge the maximum 30-year sentencing guidelines for second-degree murder with the possibility of parole did not factor in the brutality of the knife attack.
Bramble said that the fatal stabbing "was not an isolated act of domestic violence," and Judge Redford stated that Partee-Elder, who worked as a public defender, then as a attorney in private practice, was a very accomplished lawyer and truly fine person."
Redford expressed chagrin that for the second week in a row, "it is my duty to sentence a man for murdering his wife. I cannot begin to comprehend how a man can do this."
Elder's statement describing his "sorrow" at the victim's death came across as self-serving and false to her mother and other relatives in court for the sentencing.
"I'm deeply ashamed, sorrowful and embarrassed by the whole situation. I understand your pain and hatred of me and all I can say is, I'm sorry ... . I was in such an incapacitated state, I murdered my wife. I didn't know who I was or where I was."
Elder had a good life before he lost his job two years ago and turned to drugs and alcohol, according to defense attorney Robert Mirque. The night of the murder, he was high on cocaine, according to his lawyer. Partee-Elder filed for divorce in June 2007 and by July had filed a restraining order.
After the sentencing, Bette Partee, the victim's mother, stated his statment was self-serving. "You see what a manipulator he is, even to the end? He doesn't care."
In the end, Judge Redford said that due to the murder, "you extinguished a bright light...Tina is a very accomplished lawyer and truly fine person."
Elder pled guilty to 2nd degree murder to avoid the mandatory life without parole sentence under Michigan law for 1st degree murder, and also to spare his stepkids from taking the witness stand.
Partee's former husband and the father of her children, Fabian Newland, her brother, Terry Partee, and Kent County Assistant Prosecutor Kevin Bramble told the judge the maximum 30-year sentencing guidelines for second-degree murder with the possibility of parole did not factor in the brutality of the knife attack.
Bramble said that the fatal stabbing "was not an isolated act of domestic violence," and Judge Redford stated that Partee-Elder, who worked as a public defender, then as a attorney in private practice, was a very accomplished lawyer and truly fine person."
Redford expressed chagrin that for the second week in a row, "it is my duty to sentence a man for murdering his wife. I cannot begin to comprehend how a man can do this."
Elder's statement describing his "sorrow" at the victim's death came across as self-serving and false to her mother and other relatives in court for the sentencing.
"I'm deeply ashamed, sorrowful and embarrassed by the whole situation. I understand your pain and hatred of me and all I can say is, I'm sorry ... . I was in such an incapacitated state, I murdered my wife. I didn't know who I was or where I was."
Elder had a good life before he lost his job two years ago and turned to drugs and alcohol, according to defense attorney Robert Mirque. The night of the murder, he was high on cocaine, according to his lawyer. Partee-Elder filed for divorce in June 2007 and by July had filed a restraining order.
After the sentencing, Bette Partee, the victim's mother, stated his statment was self-serving. "You see what a manipulator he is, even to the end? He doesn't care."
In the end, Judge Redford said that due to the murder, "you extinguished a bright light...Tina is a very accomplished lawyer and truly fine person."
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