All Blog Posts from Crimesider

MADISON, Wis. - During what police say was a 20-year killing spree in Milwaukee, Walter Ellis left his DNA behind all along the way — everywhere but the one place where it might have saved a life.

Ellis should have given a DNA sample to the state crime databank during a prison stint in the early part of this decade, but he had another inmate pose as him, authorities say.

As a result, when analysts tried to identify DNA in bodily fluids from one of the slayings back in 2003, no matches turned up.

Investigators didn't connect Ellis to the crimes until this fall, when they seized genetic material from his toothbrush. By then, it was too late for the woman police say was Ellis' seventh and final victim.

"If they would have got his DNA when they were supposed to get it, maybe my cousin would still be here," said Sarah Stokes, whose cousin, 28-year-old prostitute Ouithreaun Stokes, was found beaten and strangled in an abandoned rooming house in 2007.

Read full post…

SALT LAKE CITY - It's been more than a week since Susan Powell, a 28-year-old mother of two, was reported missing Dec. 6 from a Salt Lake City suburb in a case that police call suspicious.

Now police want to talk to her husband, Josh Powell, one more time, but as each day passes, the mystery deepens.

Read full post…

GREAT FALLS, Mont. - Authorities in Gallatin County are searching for Heavenly Echo Erickson, a two-year old girl with ties to the Great Falls area, who has been missing for more than two weeks, and they are asking for help from the public in locating her.

Heavenly is described as being two feet tall, weighing 25 pounds with blonde hair and blue eyes.

Read full post…

FRANKFURT - The father of American English teacher Devon Hollahan, who went missing in Germany more than a week ago, is "terrified" by his son's disappearance.

"Unfortunately, still no major clues in the case, but they're still hard at it," Jeff Hollahan told the Associated Press in a telephone interview Monday about the mystery surrounding his 22-year-old son.

Read full post…

MEDFORD, Ore. - Jennifer and Keith Lee told their four kids they were going searching for the perfect Christmas tree. Now Oregon authorities are searching for them.

Searchers combed icy mountain roads near the crest of the Cascade Range in southern Oregon Thursday hoping to find the couple who simply vanished Tuesday.

Jackson County Sheriff's Lt. Pat Rowland said they were saturating the area with Sno-Cats and ATVs, looking for Jennifer, 38, and Keith Lee, 36, of Medford.

Read full post…

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. - Devon Hollahan, a 22-year-old Arizona man who teaches English overseas, vanished during a concert in Germany last weekend. Now his father is fighting to find him and bring him home safely.

Hollahan was last seen at around 3 a.m. Nov. 21 after a concert in Frankfurt, Germany. He was traveling back to a hostel with his friend Josh Friedman, who stopped to ask for directions. When the friend turned back around, Hollahan was gone.

Read full post…

NEW YORK - "Killing people" and "cutting" -- two hobbies listed by Alyssa Bustamante, the Missouri 15-year-old alleged killer of Elizabeth Olten, 9, in an online profile.

She wasn't exaggerating, police say.

Authorities say the teenager strangled, cut the throat, and stabbed Olten, her young next door neighbor, killing her.

Read full post…

NEW YORK - Meghan McCain, the daughter of 2008 Republican presidential nominee John McCain, has taken to task fallen beauty queen Carrie Prejean and opponents of same-sex marriage, in the wake of news that the former Miss California USA has filmed a sex tape.

Read full post…

SANFORD, N.C. - Police still hope 5-year-old Shaniya Davis will be found alive, but that hope is dwindling.

About 200 searchers fanned out across several miles southeast of Sanford, N.C. on Monday based on "reliable information" that the missing girl's body may have been discarded, said Fayetteville Police spokeswoman Theresa Chance.

Read full post…

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. - Police have released horrifying still frames from a hotel surveillance video that shows a man carrying missing 5-year-old Shaniya Davis through a hotel hallway and towards an elevator.

Officials say a hotel worker called police to report seeing a child matching Shaniya's description, but by the time police got there, the man and child had left.

Read full post…