A missing 9-year-old Indiana girl, Aliahna Lemmon, was found dead on Monday night. She had been reported missing on Friday evening. The details of her death are incredibly gruesome.
The neighbor who had been watching Aliahna, 39-year-old Mike Plumadore, was interviewed by police and taken into custody at 9 p.m. and charged with murder on Monday night. Plumadore had been watching Aliahna and her sisters before she was reported missing. Plumadore told investigators on Monday where the girl’s body could be found.
Police say Plumadore bludgeoned Aliahna with a brick, then dismembered her with a hacksaw.
After beating Aliahna Lemmon to death last Thursday, Michael Plumadore told police he stuffed her body into trash bags and hid her in his freezer, according to an affidavit filed by the Allen County sheriff’s department. Plumadore said he later chopped up her body, stuffed her remains into freezer bags and hid some at his trailer and some at a nearby business. Read the full article »
Shawn Morgan, 43, admitted he murdered his neighbor, 3-year-old Breeann Rodriguez, after he had found her in his backyard.
Breeann went missing on Aug. 6 and was last seen in front of her home near Senath in southeast Missouri.
Morgan told authorities he had suffocated her with a white plastic trash bag and that it “felt like it took an hour for the girl to die.” He also told police that he tossed the girl’s body in the same trash bag he used to suffocate her and threw it over a railing along Missouri 164 and into a floodway ditch. Read the full article »
3-year-old BreeAnn Rodriguez was last seen riding her bike in front of her Senath home in southeast Missouri on Saturday. The 30-pound girl was wearing a pink top, and pink and purple pants, riding a small bicycle with training wheels.
Police say neighbors did not see any suspicious people or vehicles around, at the time BreeAnn was outside. At least 200 people searched for her over the weekend, joining police from several agencies, the Missouri State Highway Patrol and the FBI.
An Amber Alert was not issued for the girl and police do not know whether she wandered off or was kidnapped. Read the full article »
A 7-year Los Angeles cold case regarding the disappearance of Amber Nicklas is nearing resolution. FBI, Los Angeles, and Arizona police officers, armed with court orders, found Amber Nicklas–now 8-years old–living in a Phoenix home with her “family.”
The story is bizarre, and much of the information is confidential due to the ages of those involved. In September 2003, Amber Nicklas was living with foster parents when her three biological aunts visited her, taking their niece to a nearby Chuck E. Cheese restaurant. The child was never returned to foster care, and two of the three aunts were arrested, charged, and imprisoned. The third aunt, along with the baby girl had vanished.
In late 2009, a LA County detectives received a lead that was strong enough to re-open the case; it turned out to be false, but detectives were already re-examining details and updating the case with new information. The only hard evidence–a picture of baby Amber and a footprint from her birth certificate.
In early July 2010, detectives found–and interviewed–the missing third aunt who had disappeared with Amber. Following this interview, and armed with a court order, LA detectives knocked on a Phoenix-area door to discover Amber was alive and well, living with her “family” (her parents and two siblings). The Phoenix family–whose names are not being released–were raising Amber in the Gypsy tradition, and hired an attorney, claiming they were unaware the girl was considered missing.
Amber’s biological grandmother, according to their lawyer, gave them custody of the child in 2003 because the girl’s mother, a drug addict, was unfit to provide care.
At this stage, no one is facing criminal charges because there are no signs of abuse or neglect. Los Angeles County Captain Patrick Maxwell said his investigators were ‘heartbroken’ and emotionally ‘torn up’ because Amber’s been returned to foster care, far away from the only family she’s known.
While authorities in both LA and Phoenix are searching for answers, no doubt struggling with the notion that the motives behind Amber’s abduction were to provide the girl with a better chance in life, her Phoenix family plans to petition for her custody.
