All Blog Posts from Crimesider

(CBS/AP) Point taken from Serena Williams -- and a record $82,500 fine, too – for the tennis superstar's foul-mouthed tirade against a line judge during this summer's U.S. Open semifinals.

Williams got smashed with the largest fine ever levied for bad behavior during a tennis Grand Slam, plus probation that means she could be suspended from the U.S. Open if she has another "major offense" at any Grand Slam in the next two years.

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NEW YORK - As Cleveland police work to identify the remains of at least 11 bodies found in the home of accused killer and registered sex offender Anthony Sowell, a Crimesider investigation has turned up disturbing information that indicates Sowell and other sex offenders around the country may be free to troll the Internet for sex and potential victims, with little to no oversight from law enforcement.

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CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. - A weekend-long search, aided by an army of volunteers and more reward money, is beginning Friday in a renewed effort to find 20-year-old Virginia Tech student Morgan Dana Harrington.

Harrington's parents, saying "we just want our daughter back," have added $100,000 of their own money to the Crime Stoppers reward for information leading to Morgan, and the band Metallica has also donated $50,000 to the reward fund.

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CHIPLEY, Fla. - Sheriff Bobby Haddock may still be basking in the glow of the rare happy ending in the case of 7-month-old Shannon Dedrick, found after five days of searching -- alive and well -- in a box under her babysitter's bed.

But now investigators have to figure out exactly how the toddler wound up in a 2' x 3' box, apparently hidden there by Susan Elizabeth Baker.

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NEW YORK - Raul Renato Castro, the 14-year-old boy who is now charged with drowning his 4-year-old neighbor in a bathtub, told authorities that he did it to keep little Alex Mercado from revealing the teen had molested him, according to an affidavit released in court Wednesday.

Castro, dressed in a jail-issued purple shirt and guarded by five bailiffs and two officers outfitted in paramilitary gear, appeared emotionless and stared at his hands as he nodded when Judge Jon Kapetan asked him if he understood the proceedings. Bail was set at $2.1 million.

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Chipley,Fla. Investigators in Florida are looking into possible connections between the 1987 disappearance of a 3-year-old South Carolina child, Paul Leonard Baker, and the dramatic lost-and-found case of Florida infant Shannon Dedrick, who authorities say was found alive under her babysitter's bed after being missing for five days.

Authorities in both states think the link between the two missing-child cases could be Susan Elizabeth Baker, the babysitter for Shannon Dedrick.

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CHIPLEY, Fla. - 7-month-old Shannon Dedrick, a Florida toddler who was missing for five days, has been found alive and apparently well, to the great relief and surprise of authorities. Washington County Sheriff Bobby Haddock said the discovery left "grown men crying."

But the joyous discovery is accompanied by shock and sadness as well, as authorities announced they plan to charge the child's babysitter, Susan Elizabeth Baker, her husband James Arthur Baker, and the child's mother Chrystina Lynn Mercer, in connection with the disappearance.

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OKLAHOMA - When it comes to getting the swine flu vaccine, prison inmates in Oklahoma would seem to have... no shot.

Prison officials in the Sooner State have asked for about 15,000 doses of the vaccine, but state health officials have stamped it "request denied."

They're not feeling too guilty about it either.

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TAMPA - Florida gambler Bill Seebeck was sure he'd hit the jackpot -- literally. He says the slot machine he was playing flashed a winning sum of more than $166 million. Seebeck told CBS affiliate WFTV "I was screaming, I was like up and around screaming."

But the casino says Seebeck's good fortune was a mistake -- a machine malfunction -- and is refusing to pay.

Can you say "call my lawyer?"

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NEW YORK - Apparently in Mount Clemens, Mich., crime does pay, especially if the people you rob fight back and beat you to a pulp.

A judge has ruled that Scott T. Zielinski can sue the store that he robbed at knifepoint, because the employees allegedly shot and beat him on the way out.

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