Couple accused of forcing 5 year old child to live in filthy closet wearing a diaper

 

 A Harris County couple faces serious charges after deputies say they forced their child to live in extreme filth. Bradley and Tammi Bleimeyer were in court Monday on charges of endangering a child.
Deputy constables were originally called to the couple's home in the 21500 block of Castlemont on March 27 about a disturbance, in which two males had reportedly been involved in a physical altercation.
The victim's 16-year-old step brother alerted deputies to the alleged abuse. He said the boy was forced to wear a diaper and live in a closet under the stairs with no food. But deputies say that victim had allegedly been removed from the home by his stepmother, identified as Tammi Bleimeyer, 33, before authorities showed up.
Deputies say they tried to find the child, but that Tammi and the boy's father, Bradley Bleimeyer, 24, were being uncooperative.

The next day, authorities used cell phone records to find the child, who they believed was in imminent danger. They tracked Tammi Bleimeyer's cell phone to a motel in Humble, where they found the child. He was in the motel with Tammi Bleimeyer, they say and that they noticed Bradley Bleimeyer leaving that motel earlier in the day.
Deputies say they noticed the boy had bumps, bruises, and was severely underweight. They say because of his appearance, they called emergency personnel and the child was transported to an Humble hospital and then later to Texas Children's Hospital.
"He's in severe state of malnutrition and even introducing food to him has to be done really slowly," CPS Spokeswoman Estella Olguin said.
Clayton Ticer, a friend of the victim's 16-year-old brother, told us it wasn't the first time.
"They would take him for a driver or whatever while the cops and CPS were there so they couldn't see him or talk to him," he said.
Ticer says his friend would often seek refuge at his house away from his stepfather.
"They've always gotten in fist fights and arguments, and it's always been pretty bad between them two," he said.
Both Bradley Bleimeyer and Tammi Bleimeyer were arrested at the motel. Authorities say Tammi, who has six children, is pregnant with her seventh child.

Selfie, missing hair and his big ass nose identify suspect in murder

Newton police arrested 34-year-old Sharman Odom and charged him with murder in the death of 31-year-old Maggie Daniels, Police Chief Donald Brown said.
Daniels' body was found June 28 in her Newton apartment. Brown said investigators think Daniels fought back when Odom attacked her in her unlocked apartment a day earlier, resulting in the lost clump of hair and a scratch on his nose and below his eye that officers found Friday in pictures on his smartphone taken the day police think Daniels was killed.
The police chief didn't give a motive for the killing, but said tests to see if Daniels was sexually assaulted are still pending.
Although Odom and Daniels lived in the same apartment complex, Brown said investigators have no evidence so far showing they knew each other.
Odom appeared in court Monday, but said little. Odom's lawyer said he is confused and scared.
Television footage from outside the courtroom showed a woman identified as Odom's mother trying to knock the microphone out of one reporter's hands and shove a camera into another person's face.
Brown said Odom first became a suspect when he was one of 150 people they initially interviewed after Daniels was killed. An investigator noted the clump of missing hair, linking it to evidence at the scene that Daniels had fought her attacker. On Friday, police got a search warrant for Odom's apartment and searched his iPhone, finding the selfies. He was arrested the next day.
Daniels was teacher of the year in 2011 in the Newton-Conover City Schools.
She was hired as a high school English teacher by the school district in 2006 and became a guidance counselor last year after completing her master's degree.
"The impact of Maggie's murder will be felt for some time because of her relationship with her students and co-workers at Discovery High," Brown said.

Man claims he killed demons but actually killed 2 young girls and later his fiancee

Kevin Sweat, 28, entered guilty pleas to three counts of first-degree murder in Okfuskee County District Court. Prosecutors dropped plans to seek the death penalty after Sweat agreed to waive his right to a jury trial. A bench trial was scheduled to begin on Monday.
The girls — 11-year-old Skyla Whitaker and 13-year-old Taylor Paschal-Placker — were fatally shot as they walked down a road near Weleetka in rural eastern Oklahoma. But the case quickly went cold after their bullet-riddled bodies were found not far from where Taylor lived with her grandfather.
Sweat was not suspected in their deaths until police questioned him in the 2011 slaying of his fiancee, 23-year-old Ashley Taylor. Prosecutors said Sweat told an investigator during a videotaped interview that he shot the two girls because he thought they were "monsters" coming at him.
Sweat was barely audible during Thursday's hearing as he responded to questions from the judge, who read a statement he signed acknowledging that the statements he made during the taped interview were accurate.
"We're finally going to get this off of our shoulders," said Ashley Taylor's mother, Faye Taylor. Her father, Michael Taylor, added that the acknowledgement of guilt was "a big part of the healing process."
"It's a big relief knowing this is happening. You doubt it's ever going to happen," he said.
Peter Placker, the grandfather of Taylor Paschal-Placker, said he "finally knows for sure" that Sweat was responsible for the deaths. But he noted: "It's not over until he's sentenced."
A sentencing hearing has not been set, but Sweat faces life without prison either with or without parole.
Sweat's attorneys had argued that Sweat was not mentally competent when he waived his Miranda rights before participating in the videotaped interview. But a judge agreed this year to allow prosecutors to use the video as evidence. The video had been played at previous hearings.
In the video, Sweat first tells Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation agent Kurt Titsworth he had nothing to do with the girls' deaths, saying "there would be no point to shooting kids."
But Sweat eventually said he shot what he said were "the demons" who approached him along a rural road where the girls' bullet-riddled bodies were found.
"I see demons, vampires ... monsters, demons, whatever. I do have some problems," Sweat said. "I was scared. ... They were still coming at me, so I shot them."
Taylor, his fianceé, went missing in July 2011 after telling her parents she was eloping with Sweat. Investigators have said that Sweat claimed he and Taylor argued and she got out of the care after the pair left Okmulgee to be married.
An investigator's report from 2011 said Sweat admitted cutting Taylor's throat and that police had found human remains in an ash pile on Sweat's father's property, along with prescription eyeglasses "consistent" with a pair belonging to Taylor.
The cases were ultimately connected after officers investigating her death found shell casings on Sweat's father's property that had markings that matched those found at the scene of the girls' 2008 slayings.

Mother arrested as suspect in daughters death

Jessica Smith, 40, faces charges of aggravated murder and attempted aggravated murder, Clatsop County District Attorney Josh Marquis said.
He said at a late-night news conference that she was being held at an Astoria jail and would appear for her arraignment, which would likely occur Monday afternoon.
Cannon Beach Police Chief Jason Schermerhorn said the suspect was taken into custody Sunday after a multiple agency search.
She was found about 15 miles east of Cannon Beach off a logging road, The Oregonian reported. Police said a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter spotted her vehicle there.
Authorities had said earlier in the day that the mother of the toddler and a teen girl found seriously injured in a resort room was wanted on suspicion of murder.
The paper reported that Schermerhorn said the cause of death of the 2-year-old remains unknown after an autopsy. But it determined her death was a homicide.
Authorities had been looking for Smith of Goldendale, Washington, since a housekeeper discovered the toddler and her 13-year-old sister Friday morning at the resort. Previously, officials wanted to ensure Smith's welfare.
The teen had severe cut wounds, but authorities said she is expected to make a full recovery.
Smith and her children checked into the resort Wednesday, and there was no sign of forced entry, the chief said. The children's father has cooperated with investigators and has been ruled out as a suspect, Schermerhorn has said. Multiple media reports citing court records say the couple had recently separated.
The public was asked to watch for a 2007 gold Chevrolet Suburban with the Washington license plate APX 3141, which Smith was believed to be driving.
More than a dozen people from around Cannon Beach gathered Saturday evening for a candlelight vigil for the 2-year-old girl. One of the women who helped organize the vigil said they wanted to support the teen who survived as well as the community.

Young boy tortured made to eat animal feces and eventually dies from abuse

New court records published on Monday detail the graphic grand jury testimony about the gruesome death and abuse of an 8-year-old Los Angeles boy at the hands of his parents.
Prosecutors told the jury that 30-year-old Pearl Fernandez and 34-year-old Isauro Aguirre abused “every inch” of their 8-year-old son, Gabriel Fernandez, before ultimately beating him to death in May of last year.
Prosecutors said that “for eight straight months, Gabriel was abused, beaten, and tortured more severely than many prisoners of war.”
Prosecutors say the boy even wrote his own suicide note because he no longer wanted to endure the beatings.
Along with the sickening treatment of the boy, the case also highlights yet another in a long line of failures on the part of child services. Two social workers and two supervisors have been fired since Gabriel’s death after failing to act on repeated warning signs.
Last May, Fernandez called 911 after Gabriel stopped breathing. She told police that her son fell and hit his head on the dresser.
Gabriel was found to have a cracked skull and three broken ribs. X-rays showed that the boy had BB pellets lodged in his lungs and groin.
The boys two siblings gave statements, saying Gabriel was forced to eat cat feces and rotten food and was never allowed to use the bathroom. He was beaten with a belt buckle, hangers, and wooden clubs. At one point, Fernandez hit the boy so hard with the belt buckle she knocked out multiple teeth.
Despite concern from teachers at the school and multiple investigations by social workers, the child was never removed from the home.
Every incident report shows that social workers concluded there was no abuse.
Gabriel’s siblings said the final beating came on May 22 when Fernandez got upset that he didn’t clean up after himself.
She and Aguirre reportedly took him to a bedroom and beat him.
The Los Angeles coroner James Kemp Ribe told the grand jury that he has “never seen this many skin injuries on a child.”

PSA - Your phone may be tracking your every move via GOOGLE

 
Google is probably logging your location, step by step, via Google Maps.
Want to see what kind of data it has on you? Check out Google’s own location history map, which lets you see the path you’ve traced for any given day that your smartphone has been running Google Maps.
This location history page has actually been available for several years, since Google first rolled it out as part of Latitude, its now-defunct location-sharing app. Cnet noticed it in December, 2013, TechCrunch picked it up a few days later, and now Junkee.com noticed it last week.

We’re highlighting it again because it’s trivially easy to turn off Google Maps location-tracking, if you want to.
In fact, I checked the location history page this morning and had difficulty finding any location data at all, because I’ve had location tracking turned off for months, with a few exceptions.
To turn off location tracking, just follow these easy steps.

How to delete your location history

View your location history using Google’s web page.
Set a time period to view — up to 30 days at a time.
Select the period you want to delete.
Click the “Delete history from this time period” link on the left side of this page.
If you have multiple Google accounts, check the history for each one.

To turn off location tracking in Android

Go to the Settings app.
Scroll down and tap on the Location section.
Tap Google Location Reporting.
Switch Location History to “off.”
Note: For greater privacy, you can also turn off Location Reporting, but this will keep apps like Google Maps from working properly.

How to turn off location tracking in iOS

Open the Settings app.
Scroll down to Privacy, and select Location Services.
Disable all Location Services by setting the top slider to “off” — or scroll down to disable specific apps one by one, such as Google Maps.
Take the steps above, and your location history will look something like mine does, below.
For more details, check out this LifeHacker article:
PSA: Your phone logs everywhere you go. Here’s how to turn it off.

Demented couple kidnap and sexually assault Amish sisters 7 & 12 years old

The couple were arrested and arraigned Friday on charges of kidnapping with the intent to physically or sexually abuse the 7-year-old and 12-year-old sisters.
St. Lawrence County District Attorney Mary Rain said Saturday that the girls were sexually abused, and the county sheriff said Stephen Howells Jr. and Nicole Vaisey may have planned to abduct other children.
"We felt that there was the definite potential that there was going to be other victims," St. Lawrence County Sheriff Kevin Wells said.
Howells, 39, and Vaisey, 25, are being held without bail and have a preliminary court appearance scheduled Thursday.
The sheriff said the Hermon couple "were targeting opportunities" and did not necessarily grab the girls because they were Amish.
"There was a lot of thought process that went into this," Wells said. "They were looking for opportunities to victimize."
The sisters were abducted Wednesday from a farm stand in front of the family's home in Oswegatchie, near the Canadian border. They were set free by their captors about 24 hours later and turned up safe at the door of a house 15 miles from where they were taken.
Vaisey's lawyer, Bradford Riendeau told The New York Times that Howells had abused Vaisey and treated her submissively. He said she made a "voluntary statement" to investigators after her arrest and was obtaining an order of protection against him.
"She appears to have been the slave and he was the master," Riendeau told the newspaper.
There was no answer Saturday at the St. Lawrence County Conflict Defender's Office, which is representing Howells.
Wells said the girls were able to provide details to investigators about their time in captivity.
The Associated Press generally does not identify people who may be victims of sexual abuse.
The kidnappings touched off a massive search in the family's remote farming community. Searchers scoured the community of about 4,000 people, but were hampered by a lack of photos of the girls.
The Amish typically avoid modern technology, and the family had to work with an artist who spoke their language, a German dialect known as Pennsylvania Dutch, to produce a sketch of the older girl.