Articles labeled: vermont

Police have discovered the body of Brooke Bennett about a mile from her uncle’s property just a day after he was named a person of interest. Documents also came out yesterday implicating him in planning on using Bennett as part of a child sex ring.

The girl’s uncle, Michael Jacques, who has been in custody since Sunday on sexual assault charges involving another underage girl, is to be charged in federal court with kidnapping, police Sgt. Tara Thomas said.

Bennett last was seen alive with Jacques at a convenience store last Wednesday.

“The painful discovery of Brooke’s body today is tragic and heartbreaking,” Baker said.

He called the death “clearly suspicious” but declined to give details before a planned briefing Thursday morning.

A teenager who became stuck after “cave exploring” was finally rescued after 6 hours. Note to self: talk to the kids about avoiding things like “cave exploring”.

Police say the girl fell into a narrow area at about 7 p.m. Monday in what is known as the False Cliff Cave near the Dorset-Danby town line.

As part of the rescue effort, officials had to divert a stream flowing into the cave.

Police didn’t have the condition of the victim, but say she was stable and alert when brought out of the cave at about 1 a.m. Tuesday.

Police have turned their attention to the uncle of missing 12-year-old Brooke Bennett, a registered sex offender who is being charged with sexually assaulting another girl.

The alleged victim of the sex assaults, a relative of [Michael] Jacques, told police Jacques assaulted her during a five-year period, beginning when she was 9 years old and ending a few weeks ago, Orange County State’s Attorney Will Porter said.

Meanwhile, Jacques, pronounced “Jakes,” was being described as “a person of interest” in last Wednesday’s disappearance of Bennett. Col. James Baker, commander of the Vermont State Police, said investigators narrowed their probe and began focusing on Jacques based on information developed late Saturday and early Sunday through computer forensics.

A body pulled from Otter Creek in Vermont is believed to be Nicholas Garza, a college student who vanished in February.

Some here believed the melting of snow at winter’s end would yield clues or a body, but it didn’t, nor did several searches of Otter Creek, including one last month after aerial imaging showed an unidentified object in the water.

Mrs. Garza had been living on the Middlebury College campus since shortly after the disappearance and enrolled her 9-year-old son in school here.

“The remains have been in the water for a long time. They are not in good shape,” said Hanley.

The autopsy is scheduled for 9 a.m. Wednesday at the office of the chief medical examiner in Burlington, he said.

Could this be the work of the Smiley Face Killers?

I just can’t stand to hear another story like this. A mother kills herself and her two small children, one toddler and one 6 year old by drowning herself and the two children in a river brook.

Police tried to save them, but the mom was determined to end their lives and had no intention of sparing her children the suffering of drowning and the fear of their last moments - murder by the hands of their own mother.

When, oh, when are we going to wake up as a society and help children in our own backyard who are victims of their parents screwed up intentions and abuse and depression and whatever else excuse we so conveniently shrug off? Mothers diagnosed with depression need more than some counseling and medications. They need constant monitoring and perhaps and intervention from social services in effort to take their children away. We cannot sit here and allow these crazy and/or depressed moms and dads incompetently raise children. MT hopes that children are worth more than an, “Oh, well”, to the situation. MT finds it deplorable that these women are given sympathy instead of scorn. Nothing about this is noble or misconstrued. This is a murder/suicide and those children deserved better.

WARDSBORO, Vt. (AP) — A woman apparently intent on suicide waded into a brook carrying her 6-year-old daughter and purposely eluded the grasp of a police officer attempting to rescue her before being swept downstream, police said Sunday.

Both Nicole Waring and the child died, and a search continued Sunday for Waring’s 2 1/2-year-old daughter.

“For whatever reason, it was a deliberate action,” said Vermont State Police Capt. David Covell.

Waring, 40, was reported missing early Saturday after she disappeared from her parents’ Wardsboro house with the two girls, the state police said.

As troopers began preparing a search party, State Police Sgt. Robert McCarthy spotted Waring and a child standing on the edge of Wardsboro Brook, about 100 yards from the parents’ home, Covell said.

Normally placid, the brook was swollen with rain and snowmelt and had a swift current.

McCarthy tried to talk to Waring but she ignored him and walked into the water holding the child, police said.

Some parents at the Irasburg Village School in Irasburg, Vermont, are a bit irate at language arts teacher Wally Rogers for crossing the “separation of church and state” line. Rogers has the Ten Commandments hanging on his classroom wall, as well as religious texts lining his bookshelves. The final straw was when he gave the kids a handout titled, “Why Jesus is Better than Santa Claus”. Huh, we didn’t know people actually printed and kept all that kind of crap we get in our email inbox. And besides, I thought the debate of Jesus vs. Santa was already decided.

Downs said he doesn’t want other people teaching his kids religious beliefs contrary to his own.

The school’s principal, Paul Simmons, said the Ten Commandments poster and questionable books were removed from the classroom. He also said he’s observed Roger’s class several times and never heard him speak about religious material.

The school board is currently investigating religious links on Roger’s Web page on the school Web site. They also issued a reminder to all teachers that religious beliefs should not be shared in the classroom.