All Blog Posts from Crimesider

NEW YORK - Ann Summers, grandmother of murdered 5-year-old Shaniya Davis, is strongly defending her daughter, who is accused of selling Shaniya as a sex slave to the man that, police, say, eventually killed her.

"She did not harm her kids. I was there, I should know," Summers said of her daughter Antoinette Davis.

Summers had more choice words for Mario Andrette McNeill, the man accused of raping and killing Shaniya on the same day her mother reported her missing.

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NEW YORK Meter reader Roy Kronk, who was hailed as a hero for finding the body of murdered Florida 2-year-old Caylee Anthony, was really the girl's killer, according to new claims by defense attorneys representing the toddler's mother, Casey Anthony.

Casey Anthony is awaiting trial on first-degree murder charges for her daughter's death. She's pleaded not guilty and has previously said a babysitter kidnapped her child.

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FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. - If police have it right, 5-year-old Shaniya Davis was raped, strangled to death, then dumped off a rural North Carolina road near a pile of deer carcasses in trash bags.

The man who they say is at the center of the horrible crime is Mario McNeill, who was seen on a hotel video surveillance tape carrying Shaniya, Nov. 10, the day she went missing.

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LOS ANGELES - Alexandra Forbes Kerry, daughter of Sen. John Kerry, has been arrested in Hollywood for allegedly hitting the sauce before she hit the road.

Los Angeles police say 36-year-old Alexandra Kerry was stopped by officers on a Hollywood street after midnight Thursday and failed a sobriety test.

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JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (CBS/AP> Blessed with a Friday off from school, 15-year-old Alyssa Bustamante dug two holes in the ground to be used as a grave, authorities said. For the next week, she attended classes, all the while plotting the right time for a murder, they said.

That time arrived the evening of Oct. 21, when Bustamante strangled 9-year-old neighbor Elizabeth Olten without provocation, cut the girl's throat and stabbed her, prosecutors said. Why?

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INDEPENDENCE, Mo. (CBS/AP) Incest pornography.

That's what authorities investigating six members of the Mohler family for alleged sex crimes against related children in rural Missouri, say they found in one of the suspect's home, and it was the suspect's wife that led them to it.

The search warrant issued last week after the arrest of Burrell E. Mohler Sr., 77, of Independence, said investigators seized several items from Mohler's home, including four computer towers, several pornographic magazines and books, several DVDs, and cameras.

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LEXINGTON, Mo. - Three alleged victims of what police call a horrible series of familial Missouri sex crimes, say one of the attackers forced them to help stab a man to death and bury him, according to court documents.

A search warrant, filed Nov. 9, but released to The Associated Press on Tuesday, stated three of the alleged child victims observed "several murders" and were forced to help kill and bury a man in April 1988.

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ATLANTA - "Pimp" comedian Katt Williams hasn't had it easy the lately.

Last Tuesday, Williams was accused of kidnapping a teen after a 911 call. On Sunday, he was thrown in jail on suspicions he had burglarized a suburban Atlanta mansion where he is staying while filming a movie.

But things have turned around for the controversial comic.

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CHICAGO - Charla Nash, the Connecticut woman who was attacked by a 200-pound (90-kilogram) chimpanzee named Travis has revealed her horribly mangled face and says she's ready to heal and move forward.

On Wednesday's episode of "The Oprah Winfrey Show," Nash, 56, said she's starting to get stronger.

The animal ripped off Nash's hands, nose, lips and eyelids during the February 2009 attack. She's being treated at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio.

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LOS ANGELES - Did the legal battle between former Miss California USA Carrie Prejean and pageant organizers suddenly conclude because organizers presented Prejean with a sex tape starring the religiously devout beauty queen?

Celebrity site TMZ says yes and CNN, last night, said a source with knowledge of the settlement confirmed it. Crimesider has no independent verification of the story at this time.

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