Articles labeled: Kansas

An infant girl was left in a dumpster in McPherson, Kansas, and fortunately someone found her alive and well.

The 18-year-old mother of an infant found alive Tuesday in a McPherson trash Dumpster has become the focus of a police investigation into the girl’s disappearance.

The 6-week-old baby was discovered shortly after 1 p.m. on some plastic bags in a Dumpster in an alley two blocks from where she lives. The alley is between Maple and Walnut streets and between Hill and Woodside streets, McPherson Police Chief Dennis Shaw said.

Her cries were heard by officers and Emergency Medical Service workers searching the area in northwest McPherson.

“It appeared some care had been taken to place the baby in the Dumpster,” Shaw said.

Firefighters in Kansas City, Kansas were called Saturday morning to a fire and made a surprising discovery — a 2-year-old girl was alone in the burning house. Fortunately they were able to rescue her. The toddler suffered from smoke inhalation and is in serious condition, but family members say she is recovering. The twist to this story, though, is that it wasn’t an unfortunate coincident that was the result of poor judgment leaving a child by herself — investigators are saying that the fire was intentionally set:

Neighbors said the child lived at the house with her mother. However, the child’s mother did not show up at the house until firefighters were about to leave the scene about an hour after finding the girl.

Police took the 27-year-old woman into custody for investigation of endangering the welfare of a child, Snapp said, although she had not been charged Saturday.

Police believe the mother left the child unattended for 2 1/2 hours.

Fire investigators ruled that the fire was intentionally set, Vitale said.

He said the fire department had closed its investigation, but details regarding how the blaze was ignited were not released Saturday.

Saturday evening, detectives had not said who they believed was responsible.

Aron Pritchard, of Hutchinson, Kansas, is being accused of child abuse for putting his girlfriend’s kids, ages 2 and 3, into a clothes dryer where one of the children suffered bad burns. At the time of his arrest it was alleged he put them in there as punishment, but in his trial that began this week Pritchard now claims that it was all just for fun.

In a videotaped interview with detectives shown in court Wednesday, Aron Pritchard said he put the children in the dryer to show them they could have a good time without much money. An hour later, the dryer had become hot and the boy had second-degree burns.

Pritchard told the detective that he didn’t mean for the boy to get hurt.

Jurors also heard from a pediatrician who testified that the burns, combined with prior injuries including a twice-broken clavicle, could indicate an abusive environment.

Who would have thought the Catholic Church — that great bastion of gender equality — would not allow a female referee to officiate a boys basketball game simply because she’s a woman? Our minds are blown.

The Kansas State High School Activities Association said referees reported that Michelle Campbell was preparing to officiate at St. Mary’s Academy near Topeka on Feb. 2 when a school official insisted that Campbell could not call the game.

The reason given, according to the referees: Campbell, as a woman, could not be put in a position of authority over boys because of the academy’s beliefs.

Campbell then walked off the court along with Darin Putthoff, the referee who was to work the game with her.

“I said, ‘If Michelle has to leave, then I’m leaving with her,”‘ Putthoff said Wednesday. “I was disappointed that it happened to Michelle. I’ve never heard of anything like that.”

Public service announcement of the day: make sure to vet those babysitters as much as humanly possible… a babysitter in Witchita, Kansas has been arrested in the death of an 18-month-old in her care after police saw the child’s injuries didn’t quite jibe with what the suspect was telling them:

“She said she’d been babysitting, he fell off the couch and stopped breathing so she brought him to the hospital,” said Captain Randy Landen, Wichita Police Department.

Police say the baby had substantial trauma to his body, including bruising, scratches and brain injuries.

The 24 year old babysitter, Heidi Dieball let the mother and baby live with her. She was watching the boy while the mother was out with her boyfriend. Police say the mother is not a suspect in the case.

Very, very strange. The police are keeping hush as to whether foul play was involved, yet a mother was found dead and her twin babies were underneath the bed. Who put them there? Obviously we don’t need to wait for the police to tell us that this was either a suicide or a homicide.

OLATHE, Kansas — Authorities responding to a neighbor’s report of a foul odor found malnourished 3-week-old twins under a bed in an apartment containing their mother’s decomposing remains.

Both infants were taken to a hospital Friday, where one, a girl, later died. Her twin brother was in critical condition Saturday. Authorities said their 36-year-old mother appeared to have been dead for several days.