Articles labeled: Missouri

Lori Drew, a woman who had been indicted in a MySpace hoax that authorities say led to a girl’s suicide has had her case dismissed by a federal court. Drew had been accused of setting up a fake MySpace page and luring 13-year-old Megan Meier into an online relationship which she then abruptly ended telling Megan, “You’re a shitty person, and the world would be a better place without you in it.”

The decision by U.S. District Judge George H. Wu will not become final until his written ruling is filed, probably next week. Wu said he was concerned that if Drew was found guilty of violating the terms of service in using MySpace, anyone who violated the terms could be convicted of a crime.

Drew 50, was to be sentenced in May but Wu had delayed the sentencing until today, saying he wanted to consider the defense motion to dismiss the entire case.

A federal jury convicted Drew in November of the three misdemeanor charges but deadlocked on a felony conspiracy charge that would have carried a sentence of up to 20 years in prison.

We’re not sure which is worse — the person that would buy a baby or the person that would sell it.

Authorities are still looking for a boy and girl that disappeared during a high school football game last Friday night. Police are hinting around that the boy may have kidnapped the girl.

An Amber Alert issued Tuesday remained in effect for Christina “Paige” Alley, 14, and Levi Carlson, 16, who were last seen Friday night in a maroon 1996 Toyota Avalon with Missouri plate number PD0 A5U, MyFOXKC.com reported.

They vanished during a football game in Lathrop. Alley performed in the band at the game’s halftime show and then got permission to leave.

When the pair didn’t come home at all that night, Alley’s parents called police, MyFOXKC.com reported.

Carlson was originally identified as a victim, but police have now named him a suspect, according to MyFOXKC.com.

A Kansas City, Missouri woman testifying in a trial about the death of her daughter admitted that the child’s injuries were life threatening, but she refused to get her medical attention anyway.

Testifying in her husband’s first-degree murder trial, Michelle Johnson said she watched Harrell Johnson kick little Erica Green in the head and later helped him dump the girl’s decapitated body in a wooded area of Kansas City.

A police officer found Erica’s naked, headless naked body in April 2001. Lacking an identity, she was known only as “Precious Doe” until 2005, when a community activist received a tip Harrell Johnson’s grandfather in Muskogee, Okla., where the couple lived.

Harrell Johnson’s trial began Monday in Jackson County Circuit Court, and prosecutors completed their presentation Tuesday with Michelle Johnson’s testimony and a videotaped confession by the 29-year-old defendant.

The defense also rested, without calling any witnesses, and closing arguments are expected Wednesday. The defense admits that Harrell Johnson kicked the girl, but contends that the act was not premeditated, as required for a first-degree murder conviction.

Ugh, it seems like we write that headline every other day around here.

Jackson County prosecutors today filed murder charges against a Jackson County couple, accusing a mother and her boyfriend of abusing a 1-year-old boy.

Kimberly Helmes, 21, and Kyle W. Cooper each face charges of second-degree murder and endangering the welfare of a child.

Police were called Friday evening to a home in the 25600 block of East 31st Street in Independence.

Helmes allegedly told police that she put the child in a playpen for a nap. She returned two hours later and found him not breathing. Investigators found apparent injuries that conflicted with the mother’s story. Police said she later recanted and said she had put the boy down hours earlier and admitted that the couple unsuccessfully tried to stitch the boy’s tongue together after it was split open.

Two things we never thought would go together — “pregnant” and “prostitution ring”. WTF? Takes all kinds, we guess.

Two women were charged with prostitution in Camden County on Thursday after they were arrested in a sting operation at a Lake Ozark hotel last week.

Two other women were also arrested, and three of the women are pregnant. Alexandra Wells and Allysia Waldrop were both charged on Thursday. Waldrop is pregnant, but is not known if Wells is also.

The undercover bust went down at a Lake Ozark area hotel after the sheriff’s department received several reports that pregnant women were advertising prostitution on an internet advertising site.

A Kansas City, Missouri woman and her two young children were carjacked when they pulled into an apartment building parking lot.

The woman was able to get her children out before the man drove off in her car, police said.

Officers spotted the stolen car and chased it to Interstate 70 and Paseo Boulevard, where the suspect crashed.

Police said they found the gun in the back of car that was held to the woman’s head.

Looks like Megan Meier’s parents are getting their wish.

A 49-year-old Missouri mother has been indicted for fraudulently using MySpace to “cyber-bully” a teenage girl who committed suicide after she was tricked into believing she was being dumped by her online boyfriend.

Lori Drew, of O’Fallon, Missouri, was named in a federal indictment charging her with three counts of accessing protected computers without authorization and one count of conspiracy. She faces a maximum of 20 years in federal prison. She has been summoned to appear in US District Court in Los Angeles in June.

The MySpace charade has drawn international ire since it was first reported that Drew posed as a 16-year-old boy on the social networking site and drew 13-year-old Megan Meier into a romantic relationship. After feigning interest in the girl for several weeks, Drew and several unnamed co-conspirators, abruptly broke off the relationship, telling her: “You’re a shitty person, and the world would be a better place without you in it.”

A Dallas woman has been accused of grooming her daughter from the age of 12 to be a professional dominatrix, selling her services on the web since she was 14. And no, it’s not our very own Mominatrix, who endorses sex acts between consenting adults only!

The 44-year-old mother, whose name is not being published to protect the identity of her daughter, was arrested Friday. Also charged is Todd B. Barkau, 35, of New York state, who authorities say started advertising the girl on the Internet as a 19- to 20-year-old dominatrix when she was 14.

The mother is accused of encouraging and participating in the venture to exploit the girl, who is now 20.

Mr. Barkau and the mother once lived together in Blue Springs, Mo., where the business was allegedly run.

A newborn that was found in a St. Louis yard waste dumpster is recovering in state custody.

“The baby was about a foot down right up against the front of the dumpster,” said Wesley Falker in an interview with Fox 2 Tuesday.

Falker found the newborn baby boy inside the dumpster just before nine. The scene was just behind Wesley’s home on the 5700 hundred block of Waterman. Wesley tells Fox 2 he was just about to throw his lawn clippings into the dumpster when he heard a sound.

“I started to reach for the trash can and I heard the baby cry,” explained Falker.

Well at least these jerks didn’t claim they put their kids in the dryer so they could have fun.

A Camden County couple was charged with child abuse for allegedly putting two children in a clothes dryer.

The Camden County Sheriff’s Department accused Nicole Eberhart, 29, and her boyfriend, Stephen Ray Jr., 26, of placing Eberhart’s two children — 8 and 10 years old — into the dryer.

The pair are each charged with two counts of felony child abuse, the sheriff’s department said.

Ray is also accused of hitting the children. He was charged with violating his probation and is being held without bond. He has a first court date on the child abuse charges on Thursday.

Many will certainly recall the case from last November of Megan Meier, who committed suicide after being bullied on MySpace. At the time, Lori Drew — the mother of one of Megan’s former friends — denied being involved with a fake MySpace profile that was set up to lure Megan in and then taunt her. But a former employee of Drew’s is now refuting that claim:

But now Ashley Grills, a 19-year-old employee of Drew’s who created both Evans and the page, claims the mother not only knew about it, but encouraged it. She told a U.S. network the mom called it a “good idea” and alleges she wrote some of the messages that helped lure Meier in.

Grills was the one who found the phony picture they used to represent Evans, a lad who always found an excuse not to meet the shy, overweight teen he befriended and then condemned. And she admits writing the final message that appears to have sent the girl over the edge.

“The world would be a better place without you,” it read. A few hours later, Meier was discovered hanged in her bedroom. But Grills insists she never meant any harm, claiming she was trying to end the online relationship because the hoax had gone too far.

Given the description of squalor Kristin Marie Phillips was living in when she allegedly starved her 11-month-old daughter, Alexis, to death, our armchair psychology degree would point to her suffering from some major depression — perhaps not only post-partum related, but also from extreme loneliness caused by her husband’s deployment? Whatever the reason, what an awful and horrific way for a child to die.

Don Ledford, spokesman for U.S. Attorney John F. Wood, said Phillips faces at least life in prison if convicted. Prosecutors have not yet decided whether to pursue the death penalty.

Emergency responders and military police were called to Phillips’ home on Feb. 21 in response to two 911 calls, according to an affidavit filed in the case.

Written by an FBI investigator, the affidavit does not say who made the calls but describes the filthy conditions emergency personnel found.

Spoiled food, trash and dirty laundry were littered throughout the house, which had a “strong odor of urine and feces.”

Three of Phillips’ other children, ages 2, 5 and 14, were found alive at the house and have been placed in the custody of the Missouri Department of Social Services.

More Teachers Gone Wild™! Melissa Moss, an English teacher at Barat Academy (we totally read that as Borat Academy, which would be an interesting school) in Dardenne Prairie — a suburb of St. Louis, Missouri — has been charged with taking topless photos of herself and emailing them to a 15-year-old boy in her class. The boys parents found the naughty pics and reported the teacher to the school and the police. And we’re sure the boy didn’t share the photos with *any* of his friends….

We talked with the Robert and Kelly Pfeiffer- their son was in Moss’ class.

They say they thought she was a great teacher and they’re stunned by the charges.

“It is very disturbing and you know it’s kind of a sign of the times the way we live with a lot of internet access and Face book and things like that. As a parent you have to be on constant vigil to make sure, you have to know what your kids are getting into,” said Robert Pfeiffer.

His wife, Kelly, added, “I was kind of shocked because I worked with her a lot as far as one on one talking to her you know about his grades and keeping up with them and I thought she was a really nice teacher. So when this came about, it really shocked me.”

Barat Academy is a private, independent catholic high school that opened last September.

The parents of Megan Meier, who committed suicide after being bullied online, want the person who they deem responsible, neighbor Lori Drew, to serve jail time.

Drew, the mother of an ex-friend of Megan’s, admitted in a police report to setting up a fake MySpace profile of a boy named “Josh Evans”, which she then used to tease Megan calling her “fat” and a “slut”. Now the community wants something done:

“You cannot as an adult sit there and do that and hide behind a computer. It is a criminal act. We want to see her go to jail,” said Tina Meier, Megan’s mother.

Now others are calling for justice in the case. Prosecutors say they are reviewing the case to determine whether anyone will be charged with a crime.

Last week the board of aldermen in the Meiers’ hometown, Dardenne Prairie, Mo., passed a law making Internet bullying a misdemeanor in the town.

“It’s time that we do something against this. On all levels, the state and federal level,” Dardenne Prairie Mayor Pam Fogarty said.