All Blog Posts from Crimesider

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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NEW YORK - Alyssa Bustamante, the teenager who allegedly killed Missouri 9-year-old Elizabeth Olten, grew up in a turbulent household, say friends, and may not be the only Bustamante disposed to violence. Records show her father is a convicted felon.

Police say Alyssa Bustamante strangled, stabbed and cut her next door neighbor Elizabeth Olten's throat in October, then, two days later, led police to the wooded grave where she allegedly buried her.

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PERUGIA, Italy - The murder charges against Amanda Knox are "pure fantasy" according to the American student, who addressed an Italian court over the weekend.

Knox, along with two others, is accused in the fatal stabbing of her British roommate Meredith Kercher.

Italian prosecutors, in their closing arguments, said Knox and her Italian boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, should be convicted on charges of murder and sexual violence for the 2007 slaying.

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NEW YORK - In an exclusive interview with CBS News Crimesider, one of Alyssa Bustamante's closest friends said that the alleged killer of Missouri 9-year-old Elizabeth Olten had talked about murdering before, and had a psychologically troubled past that may have been overlooked by professionals.

Jennifer Meyer, 15, who spoke exclusively with Crimesider in a phone interview on Friday, Nov. 20, said that Bustamante had once told her, "I wonder what it would be like to kill somebody."

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NEW YORK - Crimesider has obtained exclusive photos of Alyssa Bustamante, the 15-year-old alleged killer of Elizabeth Olten, 9.

The collection of Facebook and MySpace photos reveals a multi-faceted teenage girl who appears troubled and typical at the same time — smiling, seemingly carefree in one photo, holding her hand as a gun to her head in the next.

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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.

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JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. - Alyssa Bustamante, the 15-year-old accused of killing her 9-year-old neighbor Elizabeth Olten, was sent to a mental hospital after her lawyer said she showed signs of severe depression and anxiety.

A judge ordered Bustamante to be taken to the Fulton State Hospital for up to 96 hours, but it was unclear exactly when that clock started. The order by Cole County Circuit Judge Patricia Joyce is dated Thursday but did not have a time stamp; it was released Friday.

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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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