Police: Morgan Leppert, 15, Brutally Killed Disabled Man

By Adam Kirk

May 7, 2008

WOKV.com

Local News

From being the focus of an Amber Alert to being called a calculated killer, Putnam County cops are painting a dark portrait of 15-year-old Morgan Leppert.

The girl disappeared at the end of April with her 22-year-old boyfriend, and last week was the subject of a nationwide Amber Alert.  It came the day Putnam County Police found a man dead in his Melrose home.

Sheriff Dean Kelly says Leppert wasn’t just a bystander in the death of 66-year-old James Stewart. “She realized that Mr. Stewart was hard of hearing, was physically challenged, and was an elderly man,” said Kelly. “They thought he would be an easy mark, and they needed his truck to get away.”

Kelly says Leppert acted as the ruse by pretending to be having car trouble, to get into Stewart’s home. That’s after she and Toby Lowry, 22, cased the man’s home and learned he had trouble hearing.

“She’s a victim until we’ve proven otherwise… and we’ve proven otherwise,” said Kelly.

Leppert and Lowry are accused of brutally beating, stabbing and suffocating the man, then taking his truck and driving to Cedar Key, Gainesville and Valdosta, before ending up in El Paso, Texas.

Police discovered the crime May 1, and issued the Amber Alert. A motorist saw the pair in Texas and called police, leading to their now being charged with first degree murder.

However, Leppert’s brother, Howard Hunt, told Channel 4 the ordeal has been an emotional roller coaster for the family, but denied the girl had any involvement in the plot.

“Some of the news stories have been portraying her out to be something that she’s not. I mean, she does not have a violent bone in her body. She wouldn’t harm a mouse,” Hunt said.

He said it was around Christmas when his family learned Morgan had been lying about Lowry’s age, telling them that the 22-year-old was only 17.

“My sister is young. She is the type to be easily manipulated. I don’t think that she was there when allegedly the murder took place,” Hunt said.

Police: Disabled woman abused for 13 years

By Rick Yencer / Muncie Star Press

May 8, 2008

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080508/NEWS02/805080521

Muncie — A Muncie couple stand accused of sexually abusing a mentally challenged woman in their care over a 13-year period that began when the alleged victim was in her early teens.

Sgt. Linda Cook, who heads the Muncie Police Department’s sex crimes unit, called it the “most bizarre case” of sexual misconduct she had seen.

Patricia Ann Tackett, 47, 124 1/2 N. Hodson St., was arrested this week on a preliminary charge of sexual misconduct with a minor.

Her husband, Duane Ray Tackett, 48, was taken into custody Wednesday, preliminarily charged with sexual misconduct with a minor, criminal deviate conduct and child solicitation. They were being held without bond in the Delaware County jail late Wednesday.

Cook said Patricia Tackett “was pretty much willing to give up (the alleged victim) to her husband,” and also participated in the sex acts.

The break in the Tackett case came recently after the alleged victim, now 27, told an aunt about how Duane Tackett repeatedly had sex with her over the past 13 years.

Cook said Patricia Tackett was interviewed this week, and admitted to allowing her husband to have sex with the alleged victim. Mrs. Tackett also acknowledged participating in the sex crimes, the officer said.

According to a probable cause affidavit, the sex acts involving the Tacketts and the woman took place many times each month for 13 years, continuing until last month.

The alleged sexual abuse first started when the couple lived in Muncie, and continued when they moved to Kentucky for 11 years, according to police reports.

There were several underlying issues involving the abuse, Cook said. Among them was the couple did not want the woman to date other men, she said. Police believe the victim, although 27, has the mental capacity of a 10-year-old.

Duane Tackett apparently was in Kentucky when the investigation began, but was persuaded to return to Muncie this week by relatives.

A Brooklyn mom’s crusade to cure diseases

May 6, 2008

Denis Hamill

New York Daily News - Brooklyn

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/brooklyn/2008/05/06/2008-05-06_a_brooklyn_moms_crusade_to_cure_diseases.html

Whenever Mother’s Day rolls around, I think of Parkinson’s disease.

And my heart aches.

My mother died of Parkinson’s in Brooklyn 10 years ago. I wish she would have died 10 years sooner. Because that final decade of her life, with that insidious disease, was like an agonizing living wake.

When she finally died at 87, in lieu of flowers, we asked people who cared for the tough old Irish immigrant who nicknamed herself “Shaky Annie,” to contribute to a Parkinson’s charity.

In the years since, I’ve always kept up on this incurable disease that reduced the woman who gave me life to a pile of trembles. I think often of Muhammad Ali, a king dethroned by a revolt in his central nervous system, or Michael J. Fox, as brave at 5-foot-zip as Ali, fighting every day for a cure, and the last Pope, who proved that this disease spares no one.

I always wonder what’s being done to find a cure for Parkinson’s.

Then I learned that, right here in New York, a lady named Bonnie Strauss, who lost her mother and grandmother to Parkinson’s, had founded the Bachmann-Strauss Dystonia & Parkinson Foundation, which raises money to find a link, new treatments and cures for both of these disabling maladies.

As Mother’s Day approached, I tracked Strauss down to her foundation in Manhattan.

“After the birth of my second daughter 29 years ago, I knew there was something wrong with my neck,” Strauss says. “I had an epidural and after she was born, my head was tilted way over to the side. The doctor told me there was nothing physically wrong with me. He recommended a psychiatrist. I told him it had nothing to do with my head, but my neck.”

Over five years, Strauss saw other doctors who were also baffled. She thought about her mother and grandmother dying of Parkinson’s and feared she had inherited a bad gene. Then, one day, Strauss was hiking up a mountain at a California spa with a woman who had two sisters suffering from dystonia. “She told me I should check to see if I had dystonia,” Strauss says. “She gave me the name of a Dr. Mitchell Brin, then at the movement disorder program at Mount Sinai, who specialized in dystonia.”

Strauss went to see Dr. Brin. And after almost six years of suffering, Strauss was diagnosed with dystonia.

“I learned that dystonia is not a country,” Strauss says. “It is a neurological disorder that causes uncontrollable, painful spasms in one or many parts of the body. It can lay dormant in the body and be triggered by drugs or trauma. In my case, it could have come from the trauma of childbirth, or from the epidural, or a combination of both.”

My mother’s Parkinson’s was triggered by the trauma of a violent mugging in her early 70s. Afterward, she never stopped shaking.

The diagnosis made dystonia and Parkinson’s sound like evil kissing cousins to Strauss.

A highly successful businesswoman, Strauss made her own disorder and the one that killed her mother and grandmother her life’s work in 1995. She started a foundation that raised money for research into the treatment and cure of Parkinson’s and dystonia, and which also tries to confirm her suspected link.

“Our biggest goal is to make people aware of dystonia and to help people learn if they have it,” she says. “Our Web site can help direct them to the right doctors. Also, there is far too little research in this area. So, our foundation often provides seed money to help explore the most promising hypotheses. This often leads to larger grants and helps leverage new ideas and advances in the fields. So far, we’ve allocated about $8 million to 146 grants around the world. These grants bring us closer to the causes and, we hope, the cure for dystonia and Parkinson’s.”

To raise money, her foundation gets lots of corporate and private donations. They also run an annual golf tournament - this year on June 16 - and they also enter runners in the New York City Marathon. “We’re very excited that Christian Hoff, Tony award-winning actor of ‘The Jersey Boys,’ has signed on as our national spokesman,” Strauss says.

I can’t encourage strongly enough those people who suffer from one of these maladies, or who know people also suffering, to visit www.dystonia-parkinsons.org.

Talk about a mother’s work never being done.

Here’s a lady who developed dystonia after mothering a daughter, now dedicating her life to unraveling the mystery of her own disorder and the killer disease that took her mother and her mother’s mother from her.

Makes me feel better on Mother’s Day that there are better people than me out there doing something about the disease that killed my mother.

dhamill@nydailynews.com

Burglars Steal Computers, Cameras From Disabled Woman

Tom Murray

TMJ4 Milwaukee

http://www.todaystmj4.com/news/local/18667564.html

Milwaukee - A lowly crime caught on tape. Police are looking for a pair of burglars who preyed on a disabled woman and her roommate.

“We went to the mall, came back home and found our laptops and our camera’s gone,” one victim recounted. Both roommates asked us to hide their identities because the suspects are still at-large.

Surveillance cameras in a downtown high-rise captured the thieves leaving the apartment of the two young women with armfuls of electronics. One of the victims has cerebral palsy and relies on a wheelchair to get around.

“They took all of our pictures and files that we use for school,” one of the women told TODAY’S TMJ4 reporter Tom Murray.

With no sign of forced entry, the victims believe they were targeted. These burglars took more than electronics, they stole peace of mind.

“I feel like I’m constantly having to watch every move I make and I’m constantly looking to see who’s around me.”

These two young women are hoping someone will recognize and turn in the suspects. At a point in the video released by police, it appears one suspect looks directly at the camera. You can see his accomplice wearing a sweatshirt with a distinctive image of a skull. The suspects are disguised by hoods of their baggy sweatshirts, caps and bandanas.

“Stealing is wrong,” a victim said. “Invading someone’s privacy is wrong and I’d just like to know why.”

The burglary happened Saturday, April 26. Tips can be reported anonymously at 800-78-CRIME.

Man charged over deaths of seven-year-old boy and his disabled sister

06.05.08

thisislondon.co.uk

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23482273-details/Man+charged+over+deaths+of+seven-year-old+boy+and+his+disabled+sister/article.do

A 49-year-old man has been charged in connection with the murders of a boy and his disabled sister.

Ryan Thomson, seven, and his 25-year-old sister Michelle were found dead in their father’s home, according to police.

It emerged yesterday that Ryan had been treated to a leaving party at his primary school just a day before his death.

Last night their father Robert, 49, who was found in the same house with serious injuries, was discharged from hospital.

Police also revealed that a man had been charged in connection with the murders and would appear in Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court today.

Police said the children had been staying with their father on a temporary basis in the Muiredge Cottages area of Buckhaven, Fife.

Mr Thomson’s estranged wife June, who discovered the bodies on Saturday evening, had been visiting to attempt a reconciliation.

It is understood Mrs Thomson had been looking for a new home in England. It was unclear whether she had been planning to move permanently and if she had also intended to take Michelle, who had Down’s syndrome, with her.

A friend of the family, who did not want to be named, said: “Ryan only just had a school leaving party at his primary school on Friday because the family were planning to leave for London.

“We just can’t believe what’s happened.”

It is understood that a third sibling, Ross Thomson, 20, had been upstairs during the incident on Saturday but had not been aware of anything happening.

The couple’s eldest son Shaun, 20, travelled back to the Fife area from his home in Essex as soon as he heard about the tragedy.

The family friend added: “Ryan and Michelle’s older brother Ross stayed with me over the weekend, but he hasn’t said a word about what happened. He is still in shock.”

Another friend, whose daughter helped to care for Michelle, said the Thomsons had split up recently and Mr Thomson was looking after the children.

She said: “A couple of weeks back, June left him and went down south to look for a new home. But she had come back to try and patch things up.

“I don’t know what would bring someone to do something like this, it’s just horrible to think.”

Neighbour Chris Arnott, 38, said: “It isn’t nice to think this could happen on your street right under your nose.”

Mrs Thomson was last night being comforted by relatives.

Detective Superintendent Alastair McKeen of Fife Constabulary said Mr Thomson had been released from Queen Margaret Hospital in Dunfermline yesterday.

Mr McKeen added: “Both Michelle and Ryan suffered a particularly violent death and the scene was extremely harrowing for the police officers and paramedics who arrived at the house.

“Following on from our appeal yesterday, we are extremely heartened by the very positive response from the members of the community in Buckhaven.”

Earlier, officers say they are continuing to build up a ‘general picture’ of the movements of Michelle and Ryan on Saturday morning and afternoon before they were discovered dead, but have declined to go in to detail.

The investigation team continued to ‘keep an open mind’ as the inquiry progressed but Mr McKeen added: “I can confirm there are no specific lines of inquiry in relation to other individuals at this stage that are being prioritised.”

The forensic investigation of the house at Muiredge Cottages was “progressing extremely well”, Mr McKeen added.

He said: “While that will continue over the next day or two we would again appeal for the co-operation of local residents in being mindful of the fact that this is a devastating tragedy to have befallen the family in Buckhaven and for the community itself and provide some respect to their position in terms of not visiting the scene unnecessarily.”

But he said the family “warmly appreciated” the floral tributes which had been laid.

Mr McKeen, head of CID with the force, did not disclose the nature of the siblings’ injuries.

“We are currently carrying out a thorough forensic examination of the house,” he said.

“We are not currently able to give precise details of the nature of Michelle and Ryan’s injuries.

“It has been a particularly harrowing experience for everyone involved in the investigation.”

Fife Constabulary also confirmed that extra community officers had arrived at the small community to provide extra reassurance for locals.

A spokesman said: “Officers will generally be patrolling the area, engaging people in conversation, and helping them feel more safe and secure again.”

Chief inspector Andy Morris described the incident as “a terrible tragedy which has shocked the entire community”.

Officers have set up an incident room and appealed for anyone who may have been around the Percival Road and Methilhaven Road areas, where the murders happened, to contact them.

Man accused of raping disabled victim may face 44 felony charges

By Elizabeth Dinan

edinan@seacoastonline.com

May 05, 2008

Portsmouth, N. H,

Seacoastonline.com

http://www.seacoastonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080505/NEWS/80505014

Portsmouth — Jordan Cantwell raped and sodomized a “mentally defective” woman eight times in a rented Brewster Street Rooming House room, say police. Charged with eight related felonies, Cantwell, 25, of 177 Ten Rod Road, Farmington, may face an additional 36 felony counts of aggravated felonious sexual assault involving the same disabled victim, police detective Mike Schwartz said during Cantwell’s Monday arraignment.

Schwartz told District Court Judge Sawako Gardner that Cantwell committed the crimes during three different 2007 incidents by “overcoming the victim by force and by virtue of the fact that she is mentally defective.” He said police did not file the charges until now due to a backlog at the state crime lab, which ultimately confirmed Cantwell’s DNA was on the victim’s linens.

Noting Cantwell’s criminal history includes bail-jumping and felony burglary convictions, he asked the court to set bail at $20,000 cash for each of the eight charges.

“He’s said he’s seen the victim since and he has not been returning my phone calls,” Schwartz testified.

In custody of local police, Cantwell asked for personal recognizance bail and told the judge he has “been staying out of trouble,” is “not doing drugs” and is “not a flight risk.”

“I’m not doing anything illegal,” he said, adding he works at a McDonald’s and comes to Portsmouth for monthly diabetes treatment.

“I’d be willing to do curfew or whatever it takes,” he told the court.

Judge Gardner set bail at $20,000 cash and $10,000 personal recognizance and ordered Cantwell to have no contact with the victim. The judge also granted Schwartz’s request to seal the police affidavit related to the case and scheduled Cantwell to return to the court for a May 13 probable cause hearing.

According to Herald archives, Cantwell was arrested in May of 2007 for breaking into a car on Brewster Street and a count of disorderly conduct. While on bail for those allegations, he was arrested for domestic assault and resisting arrest, following a police call to Holiday Drive where a victim alleged he struck her and slapped a phone out of her hand to prevent her from calling police. At that time, he cited his residence as the Cross Roads House homeless shelter.

Glen Ellyn man sentenced to 36 years in prison for sexual abuse of mentally disabled girl

Tribune staff report

May 5, 2008

chicaagotribune.com

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-sexual-assault-06-both.1-may06,0,3028620.story

A Glen Ellyn man was sentenced Monday to 36 years in prison for sexually abusing a mentally disabled girl for years.

Gerard Schlaiss, 51, admitted he inappropriately touched and fondled the girl, who was between the ages of 13 and 17, on six occasions before his arrest in September. He was sentenced by DuPage Judge Robert Anderson.

Police investigated Schlaiss and a report from a citizen who alleged seeing inappropriate contact between the two.

Schlaiss was convicted in 1990 of sexually abusing a 13-year-old girl in Lake County, according to the Illinois State Police sex offender registry.

He also was convicted of selling tobacco products to minors in DuPage County in 2005, said Assistant State’s Atty. Liam Brennan.

Police News - New Castle County

Delaware Online

http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080506/NEWS05/805060356/-1/NEWS01

Burglary Charges Filed: A disabled man said he was burglarized in his home May 2 by a man he knew. New Castle city police said the incident happened about 10:45 p.m. The disabled man heard a loud noise and later discovered his door had been kicked in and his 32-inch flat-screen television was stolen. Robert Coates, 27, of East Second Street in New Castle, was arrested and charged with burglary, theft and criminal mischief. Police said Coates was also wanted by New Castle County police for theft. He was committed to the Young Correctional Institution after failing to post $13,250 secured bond. Police recovered the television in an alley near South Street. Coates, police said, had done house work for the victim before.

Bus conductor remanded for assaulting disabled commuter
   
By T. Farook Thajudeen
 
Sri Lanka

Daily Mirror

May 06, 2008

http://www.dailymirror.lk/DM_BLOG/Sections/frmNewsDetailView.aspx?ARTID=13844

A bus conductor who assaulted a disabled commuter with an umbrella was remanded till May 15 by the Colombo Additional Magistrate Ms. Sujatha Alahaperuma yesterday.

Wellampitiya police produce the suspect Bomiriya Arachcige Chamila Champika of Kohilawatte Kotkawatte before the Magistrate and informed court that the suspect was the conductor of the private bus plying from Colpetty to Kohilawatte.

The elderly disabled commuter who had boarded the bus asked the conductor to ring the bell at his destination which led to an argument between the conductor and the passenger. During the altercation the conductor severely assaulted the victim on his temple with an umbrella.

The victim G.G. Wijedasa (63) was later admitted to the Colombo National Hospital for treatment. The police told the Magistrate that they could not record the statement of the victim since the victim was in a serious condition with internal hemorrhage to the brain. The Magistrate remanded the suspect till May 15.

Disabled man victim of horrific attack

1 May 2008

By Robert Sutcliffe

Yorkshire Post

http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/Police-name-disabled-man-attacked.4041472.jp

Police are hunting three men who carried out a vicious and unprovoked attack on a disabled man which left him seriously injured.

The 42-year-old victim, Damian Shepherd, who has cerebral palsy, was walking home when he was grabbed and attacked by three men just before midnight on Wednesday.

He suffered severe head and facial injuries in the attack, which took place in Cornholme, Todmorden.

Last night, he was in a critical but stable condition in intensive care at the Royal Oldham Hospital.

Det Insp Tony Nicholson of Calderdale CID said: “This was a horrific attack on a vulnerable man who clearly has disabilities. On the face of it it would seem this was a completely unprovoked assault with no indication of what sparked the confrontation.

“The victim has no defensive injuries. He wasn’t in any position at all to defend himself from the blows carried out by three young, fit men. His face is swollen, his eyes are shut and he is lucky to survive.”

Mr Shepherd, who lives in Cornholme, was walking home along Burnley Road when the three attackers grabbed him.

He was dragged on to a side street, Knotts Road, where he was beaten about the head and face.

A young couple living in a cottage nearby heard a commotion and ran out on to the street only to see the attackers flee back along Burnley Road, in the direction of Todmorden.

They wrapped him in a blanket and looked after him until paramedics and police arrived.

He was initially taken to Rochdale Infirmary but because of the seriousness of his injuries, he was transferred to Oldham.

Mr Nicholson said Mr Shepherd had been drinking Coke in The Staff of Life, on Burnley Road, 25-30 yards from where he was found, from 6.30pm to 10.30pm.

But he said officers were in the dark about his movements after he left the pub.

He added: “We are keen to speak to anyone who saw him between 10.30pm and midnight and, of course, we want to speak to the people who were seen to be running from the scene.”

John King, a barman at The Staff, said: “Everyone has been very shocked about what happened. We have got to know him quite well. He has been coming in here for a about a year now and comes in for company.

“He drinks soft drinks – mainly blackcurrant and water – and enjoys walking his pedigree dogs”

Yesterday, the area was cordoned off and a police tent put up while scenes of crime officers carried out forensic investigations.

Detectives were carrying out door-to-door inquiries and speaking to staff and regulars at The Staff of Life.

The attackers are all described as white men, aged in their late teens or early 20s, about 5ft 5in to 5ft 7in tall.

One man had short blonde hair and was wearing a blue jacket and jeans. Another was wearing a dark-coloured jacket and jeans.

Police are appealing for witnesses and anyone with information to get in touch urgently on 01422 337085 or to ring Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.