All Blog Posts from Crimesider

MIAMI - Fifteen-year-old Michael Brewer, the Deerfield Beach teen doused with rubbing alcohol and set on fire by a group of his peers, has received his second skin graft.

A Jackson Memorial Hospital spokeswoman said Brewer was listed in stable condition after the Dec. 4 procedure. The first graft was Monday.

The attack occurred Oct. 12 and caused burns on about 65 percent of Brewer's body.

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JUPITER, Fla. - Paul Merhige, the man police believe shot and killed four members of his extended family on Thanksgiving day and has since been on the run, was seen on surviellance video inside a gun shop a day before the killings.

Police say Merhige murdered his aunt, two twin sisters, one of whom was pregnant, and a 6-year-old girl, at a Jupiter, Fla. Home, after a family meal on Thanksgiving day.

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GREELEY, Colo. - Colorado authorities say a man wanted in a 32-year-old murder in Greeley has been arrested in Florida, thanks to a DNA "miracle of science."

Marcello Maldonado-Perez, 51, was arrested in Port Charlotte, Florida Tuesday. Police say he's responsible for kidnapping, raping and killing 22-year-old Mary Pierce in 1977.

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FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - Paul Michael Merhige sat through three hours of Thanksgiving Day dinner and sing-a-longs around the piano, plotting the moment he would fatally shoot four relatives, his cousin-in-law said Tuesday.

After opening fire, Merhige was heard saying he had waited 20 years to kill them, according to the host of the dinner that turned deadly.

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GAINESVILLE, Fla. - Carlos Dunlap, defensive end at top-ranked Florida, was arrested early Tuesday and charged with driving under the influence, days before the biggest game of the Gator's season. According to police, the star pass rusher was literally asleep at the wheel while his car idled at a stop light.

As Florida takes on No. 2 Alabama in the Southeastern Conference championship game, could they be without one of the team's best defensive threats?

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JUPITER, Fla. - "God packed a lot of sweetness into that little body," heartbroken father Jim Sitton said of his murdered 6-year-old daughter Makayla Sitton. "She's just our life. I don't know how we are ever going to recover."

While the Sitton family tries to make sense of a Thanksgiving massacre that left four people dead including the alleged shooter's pregnant sister, her twin sister, his 79-year-old aunt and his cousin little Makayla, police are now looking in two states for Paul Michael Merhige, the man they believe perpetrated this violence.

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JUPITER, Fla. - A Thanksgiving dinner turned into a violent horror show as three women and a child in bed were shot to death during a family gathering, say Florida police, and now Paul Michael Merhige, the man police say is responsible, is on the run.

Police said 17 relatives were in the house when Paul Michael Merhige, 35, shot to death his twin sisters Carla and Lisa Merhige, 33, aunt Raymonde Joseph, 76, and 6-year-old cousin Makayla Sitton.

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TAMPA, Fla. - Why do kids kill? It is a question that keeps criminologists awake at night, and on call in a culture that is desperate to understand, and prevent, violence by children. It's also the issue that keeps criminology professor Kathleen Heide in demand, and on the case.

The way Heide tells it, a prison movie she watched on TV as a kid back home in New Jersey started it all.

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DEERFIELD BEACH, Fla. - Six weeks after a group of Florida teens doused 15-year-old Michael Brewer in rubbing alcohol and lit him on fire, burning over 65 percent of his body, one of the teens initially accused is speaking out and he claims he was "best friends" with the victim.

"I'm Jeremy Jarvis; I want to read something I wrote last night," the 13-year-old said Tuesday during a press conference.

"I want to express my deepest sympathy for Mikey and his family," he said. "I will pray for Mikey to grow stronger every day and have a speedy recovery."

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MIAMI - His story captured the attention of the South Florida community and the world. A 15-year-old boy set on fire by five teenage friends in a dispute over money. Michael Brewer suffered burns over two-thirds of his body and now, his parents and grandmother have spoken exclusively to CBS affiliate WFOR reporter Shannon Hori.

His parents say their son hasn't been able to fully grasp what happened to him. But even with all the drugs he's on for the pain, he has horrible flashbacks. He asks for water in order to put out the flames.

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