All Blog Posts from Crimesider

NEW YORK - On Wednesday, Charla Nash revealed her gravely disfigured face on "The Oprah Winfrey Show," appearing on television for the first time since she sustained major injuries in a brutal chimpanzee attack in February.

In photos before the attack, she sports a wide smile, her eyes sparkling.

Not anymore. Nash lost her eyes, nose, and hands during a horrific 12-minute mauling by her friend's 200-pound pet chimpanzee, Travis. Now, Nash is blind, can't smell and must eat through a straw, she told Winfrey.

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LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - Will a Little Rock jury deliver a death sentence to the killer of Arkansas news anchor Anne Pressly?

The jury convicted Curtis Lavelle Vance of murder, rape and other charges on Wednesday. It is now weighing whether to impose the death penalty on Vance, who police say admitted to beating the KATV anchorwoman with a wood-handled garden tool.

The attack shattered Pressly's face and sent her into a coma. She never regained consciousness and died five days after the Oct. 20, 2008 attack.

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LEXINGTON, Mo. - Police investigating a western Missouri family accused of sexually abusing children are now searching a family property for dead bodies. They are also looking for buried glass jars, which the alleged victims say contain notes documenting their sexual abuse years ago.

Lafayette County Sheriff Kerrick Alumbaugh said there has been an indication of "body or bodies in numerous locations," although he would not say whose bodies they might be.

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NEW YORK - In an awkward and confrontational interview with Larry King, fallen beauty queen Carrie Prejean compared herself to conservative icons Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann and claims, like them, she is a victim of the liberal media.

"You have characterized yourself as being 'Palinized.' What do you mean," King asked on Wednesday night.

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CLEVELAND - Police in Cleveland have identified a 10th woman whose skull was discovered wrapped in paper in a bucket at the home of accused serial killer Anthony Sowell.

Police Lt. Thomas Stacho says 25-year-old Leshanda Long had not been seen since August 2008 but was not reported as a missing person. She had been reported missing twice when she was in her teens.

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NEW YORK - Attorneys for the owner of the chimp that violently attacked Charla Nash, disfiguring and blinding her, have argued that the incident should be treated as a workers' compensation claim, and nothing more.

Nash's family has filed a $50 million lawsuit against Sandra Herold, her friend and employer, who asked Nash to help lure the 200-pound chimpanzee, Travis, back into her Stamford, Conn. home on Feb. 16.

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LOS ANGELES (CBS/AP) Embattled ex-boxing champion Mike Tyson has a fresh legal fight on his hands.

California police are investigating conflicting accounts of an airport confrontation between the former heavyweight champ and photographer Tony Echevarria, in which the shutterbug says he was attacked and Tyson claims he was protecting his family.

The scuffle resulted in both men being booked and released on suspicion of misdemeanor battery, with both wanting to press charges, police said.

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NEW YORK - Former Miss California USA Carrie Prejean made a short but dramatic appearance on Larry King Live Wednesday, in which she refused to answer an openly gay caller and threatened to walk off the show, after King demanded to know why she and Miss California pageant organizers recently settled dueling lawsuits.

"You sued the pageant after they fired you, they countersued, and then you accused them of a number of things including religious discrimination, clearly an issue important to you," King asked. "Why did you settle? You don't have to tell me the terms of the settlement, but why settle since you had a fight to carry on?"

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NEW YORK - Charla Nash, who was mauled by a 200-pound chimpanzee in February, said she doesn't remember the vicious attack, nor does she want to.

"I want to get healthy," she said on Wednesday's episode of "The Oprah Winfrey Show." "I don't want to wake up with nightmares."

Nash, who is blind and has to eat through a straw, told Winfrey that she isn't angry.

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NEW YORK - Miss Congeniality was nowhere to be found when dethroned beauty queen Carrie Prejean turned up on "The View" and talked about... the sex tape. Yes, that sex tape.

"But Miss Prejean, you made the tape, you have [topless] photos of yourself, you didn't go along with the morals clause which is in the pageant's rules, and yet you say you're a victim — I don't totally buy it!"

Those were the doubting words of Joy Behar to Prejean on the daytime talkfest's Tuesday episode.

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