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.

No active search was done Sunday for Aliahna, though more than 100 emergency workers searched for her Saturday around the mobile home park where she and Plumadore lived. Allen County sheriff’s spokesman Cpl. Jeremy Tinkel said the same size search could not be sustained because of the Christmas holiday.

Although it was later learned that Aliahna was already dead by Sunday, it is still surprising that a massive search for a child did not continue despite the holiday.

Aliahna and her sisters were staying with Plumadore because their mother had been sick with the flu and Aliahna’s stepfather works at night and sleeps during the day. Plumadore told authorities that he left the three girls in his mobile home about 6 a.m. Friday and went to a gas station about a mile away to buy a cigar. Authorities have said the store’s surveillance video shows him there about that time. “I had dead-bolted the door,” he said. “When I got back, all the girls was here.”

He said he smoked his cigar and went back to sleep, then woke up about 10 a.m. when Aliahna’s mother called. After that call, he realized the door to the home was unlocked and that Aliahna was gone. He said Aliahna’s 6-year-old sisters told him Aliahna had left with her mother. Plumadore said it wasn’t until he talked with Aliahna’s mother about 8:30 p.m. that they realized she was missing and police were notified.

Allen County Sheriff Ken Fries said Plumadore was arrested after being interviewed by detectives for several hours Monday — and was also questioned Friday and Saturday.

On Monday, FBI agents descended on the rundown mobile home park where Aliahna lived and was last seen.

The mobile home park in Fort Wayne is a known haven for registered sex offenders. According to a state website, 15 registered sex offenders live at the mobile home park. That’s an alarming number given that the park only has about two dozen homes on its land. Plumadore is not on Indiana’s registered sex offenders list; however, he has a criminal record in Florida and North Carolina that includes convictions for trespassing and assault.

Given the nature of this gruesome crime, it makes you wonder what other crimes he has committed, but was never caught. It seems like a giant leap from trespassing and assault to murder.

Sources: MSNBC and The Chicago Tribune

According to a report made by a local news station in Denver, CO, a teacher was fatally shot and killed by her ex-boyfriend outside her Denver apartment on December 16. A GPS tracking device that would have been able to warn the victim that the suspect was nearby was not requested by the Denver District Attorney’s Office.

If the suspect, Ryan Miller, had still been wearing the GPS tracker, it would have alerted Andrea Roan that he was just outside her apartment; however, it was removed after a previous domestic violence case involving Miller and Roan was taken over by the Denver District Attorney. Upon taking on the case, the District Attorney decided they did not need to track the suspected killer.

Without being privy to the details of this case, I would still have to surmise that this man was considered a dangerous character for the court to have required him to wear a GPS tracker. I wonder what changed, if anything, that led to the decision of the District Attorney to have the GPS tracker removed. This is a tragic death that could have been avoided.

“We don’t ask for it [GPS tracking devices] in every case, just those cases where we think it would be appropriate and necessary,” says Vince DeCroce. Although he was unable to talk about any specific cases, he did explain that authorities often request GPS tracking devices when they believe the victim’s life could be in danger.

Apparently, Andrea Roan’s life was in danger because she lost her life as a result of this decision.

“First and foremost is victim safety,” DeCroce says. “The tracking device sends an alert to the monitoring company if the suspect gets near the victim’s home or workplace. The company then immediately warns the victim.”

It doesn’t sound like “victim safety” was a priority here.

According to law enforcement authorities, Miller waited outside Roan’s apartment last Friday morning and then shot her in the head as she drove away.

GPS Device Could Have Prevented Tragic Murder

Miller’s case files had been handed over to the Denver District Attorney’s Office, and they did not ask for a GPS tracker.

“It appears in this particular case, we did not ask for a GPS to be a condition of Mr. Miller’s bond,” says Denver DA spokeswoman Lynn Kimbrough. “In looking at the file folder, some of the things that the prosecutor would have looked for that would have triggered a request for GPS (tracking), he simply didn’t see them in the case file at that time.”

The DA apparently was unaware the City Attorney’s Office had requested one for Miller. “This is a tragedy that has been felt by everyone in our office,” Kimbrough says.

Court documents also reveal that Denver Police arrested 27-year-old Richard Leavitt as an alleged accessory after-the-fact.

According to the arrest warrant, Miller asked Leavitt to drive him to Roan’s apartment that Friday morning. Leavitt told law enforcement officials that he heard a gunshot while waiting in the car and then saw Miller running back to the car.

He told police they went back to Miller’s apartment and Miller asked him to carry out a backpack. When police stopped Leavitt as he was leaving the apartment, they say they found a gun and ammunition in the backpack.

Read entire story@ landairsea

This is a story where miscommunication, and lack of willingness to share crucial information, resulted in the death of a police officer. The controversy surrounding this incident is primarily directed at the FBI.

FBI agents knew of a bank robbery before it occurred, but they were keeping the details to themselves. The FBI contacted Muskegon County (Michigan) dispatchers to warn them about the possibility of a bank robbery. FBI Resident Agent in Charge, John King, had called the Muskegon Dispatch Center at roughly 10:20 a.m. to alert them to a bank robbery that was about to occur – 16 minutes later - ChoiceOne Bank was robbed.

“Hey, this is John King with the FBI in Grand Rapids,” dispatch tapes recorded. “We are right now tracking a couple individuals up in the Muskegon County area around Ravenna. And so, if there happens to be a bank robbery come out, can you make sure we end up getting a phone call?” The FBI had been tracking the two bank robbers with a GPS tracking device placed on the suspect’s car and on a phone.

Although the FBI had placed a GPS tracker on the suspect’s vehicle, they did not provide a vehicle description when asked by a Muskegon dispatcher.

Dispatch tapes also show that one of the FBI agents appeared to know beforehand that suspects Derryl LaFave and Kristopher Cheyne were going to be in a black Chevrolet Blazer that they used as their first getaway car. The Blazer had been stolen the day before the robbery. The suspects abandoned the Blazer, which had the GPS tracker, not far from the bank before escaping in a blue Oldsmobile Bravada.

“We had our suspects in there before the bank robbery, so I’m sure that’s it,” FBI Task Force member Pat Harig told a dispatcher. At the time, he was discussing the Blazer. Harig told dispatchers the FBI had been tracking the suspects into Ravenna through GPS, and they wanted to keep that a secret. “Without putting this on the air, we have GPS on the vehicle and on a phone,” Harig told a dispatcher. “We do not need that on the air.”

In the weeks after the robbery and deaths, FBI agents said little about their involvement. At first, they told the Muskegon Chronicle they happened to be in the area. The dispatch tapes show the FBI had tracked the suspects into the area before.

“We’ve got a couple individuals we’ve been tracking that we think are responsible for a couple other bank robberies down south and they’ve been putzing around in Ravenna the last couple of days,” King told a dispatcher.

It does not appear that the FBI knew which Ravenna bank the robbers would hit next.

The tapes appear to show that at least two unmarked FBI cars didn’t quite make it to the ChoiceOne bank before the robbery and that the agents did not witness the robbery. One of the unmarked FBI cars ended up ahead of the getaway blue Bravada as it headed south toward Coopersville.

More miscommunication ensued because nobody told Ottawa County deputies the Bravada was headed into their county — behind the FBI agents — until it was already in Ottawa County. It was an Ottawa County dispatcher who had to call to find out: ”Hey, it’s Ottawa County. Can you advise an update?” ”Yeah, they’re in your county, now headed southbound,” a Muskegon dispatcher responds.

After the robbery, the suspects led officers on a 20-minute high-speed chase. The suspected bank robbers opened fire on the officers from their getaway car. The chase ultimately ended when the suspects ran over Walker Police Officer Trevor Slot as he was trying to lay down stop sticks. Police officers then shot and fatally wounded the suspects in a shootout.

Just before the shooting, as FBI Task Force member Pat Harig was on the phone with dispatch telling them he didn’t want this “over the air,” the dispatcher tells him that “shots” had been fired from the suspect’s vehicle at a Michigan State Police trooper trailing them. The dispatcher then asks Harig, ““Do you know their names and where they’re going?” Harig then gives the dispatchers the suspects names and details of their height and weight as the chase continued.

By the time the FBI was willing to share crucial information, it was too late, Officer Trevor Slot died minutes later.

Sources: LandAirSea, Target News 8 (WoodTV), The Muskegon Chronicle

Officials realized that Rondell Reed and Leviticus Taylor were missing from their shared cell during a routine headcount, shortly before 5 a.m.

The prison immediately went into lockdown and officials later found the inmate’s red prison jumpsuits during a search of the jail.

Leviticus Uriah Taylor, 25, was caught on that same evening after a sheriff’s deputy spotted him walking down a road.

“When the agent asked if he was Taylor, he said, ‘It’s me.’ And there was no struggle at all. He had presumably been out all night and was wanting to come in,” Indian River County Sheriff Deryl Loar said.

Loar added that two women who he said had confessed to aiding in the escape effort are now in custody. The women — 19-year-old Sadie Welker, who said she was Taylor’s girlfriend, and Angela Pike, 35 — were arrested on charges of aiding an escaped inmate and are being held on $100,000 bonds.

The second escapee, Rondell Reed, was captured last Saturday morning north of Cincinnati Ohio.

According to a Warren County Sheriff’s Office news release, a deputy tried to stop a suspected impaired driver who was northbound on Interstate 75 in Franklin  Township. The deputy had been notified a few minutes earlier that the vehicle, a Lincoln MKX with Georgia registration, had been reported stolen in Georgia.

When the deputy tried to stop the car, the driver crossed the grass median and began driving south on I-75 at close to 100 miles per hour. When the driver of the vehicle tried to get off at the State Route 63 exit, he hit a pole and crashed.

Reed had to be extricated from the vehicle and taken to Atrium Medical  Center, where he was treated and released a short time later.

Loar described the escape plan as elaborate and said the inmates made use of the jail’s air conditioning system to get out of the building and used clothing or blankets to help scale multiple razor-wire-topped fences.

Welker told investigators she had discussed the escape plan with Taylor numerous times and had waited at a planned rendezvous point for three nights before the inmates finally made their break, her arrest affidavit said.

Taylor was scheduled to be sentenced on November 10 for his first-degree murder conviction in the 2009 killing of a man in the course of a home burglary. Reed was awaiting trial over the killing of his sister’s boyfriend.