Crime Time

Judge recuses himself from notorious escape case

The saga of Bobbi and Randolph goes on.

The judge in the trial of Bobbi Parker -- the deputy prison warden's wife who police say spent a decade on the lam with an escaped convicted killer -- has recused himself and the trial will be delayed.

Parker, right, was charged last month with aiding an escape for reportedly helping Randolph Dial, left, escape from the Oklahoma State Reformatory in Granite in August 1994.

Turns out Associate District Judge Dan Deaver was an assistant district attorney when Dial was charged with escape.

A review is under way to find a new judge who might take the case over.

-- Lance Murray

America's Most Wanted to note 1,000th fugitive caught

It just celebrated its 20th year on the air and on Saturday the well-known television real crime show America's Most Wanted will note another big milestone -- the 1,000th arrest in April of a fugitive targeted by the show.

Host John Walsh and the show have worked tirelessly to bring criminals on the lam to justice.

You may recall that Walsh began his crusade against crime when his 6-year-old son, Adam, was kidnapped and murdered in 1981. No one was charged after a botched investigation. According to reports, the man who likely killed Adam died in prison serving time for an unrelated crime.

-- Lance Murray

Your blotter: Fight clips and indictments

Reader comments are starting to pile up on Staff Writer Alex Branch's report about teen fights posted on Internet sites such as YouTube.

"In today's digital age," Alex wrote, "student fights, including some recorded around Tarrant County, are becoming commonplace on video-sharing Web sites.

"But what might be a cool video to a teenager is evidence to police. Authorities have used video to identify suspects in beatings, including a case last month in which a crowd kicked and stomped a 16-year-old North Crowley High School student."

Click here to read the entire report and reader comments.

Four Hurst teens indicted on capital murder charges

Four teens have been indicted on charges of capital murder on suspicion that they were involved in the slaying of a 20-year-old man near Hurst Junior High School in February.

They are accused in the shooting death of Reed Ballard, a last-minute tag-along to what was planned as a revenge meeting. Three juveniles have also been charged in the case.

Read the latest report by Staff Writer Domingo Ramirez Jr.

Haslet man charged in deadly 2007 wreck

A 22-year-old Haslet man who authorities say ran a red light, killed a couple and injured three children in a wreck more than six months ago has been charged with intoxication manslaughter and intoxication assault.

Colton Frazier McGuffin -- who admitted drinking before the wreck but later tested positive only for marijuana -- was charged Saturday with two cases of intoxication manslaughter in the deaths of Jason Bruce, 30, and his wife, Nora "Beth" Bruce, 29, of Chico. McGuffin also was charged with three cases of intoxication assault stemming from the injuries to their children, Becca Marsh, 8, and Bryan Marsh, 5, and their 9-year-old niece.

Fort Worth police Sgt. Rodney Bangs, supervisor of the traffic investigation unit, said Monday that it took a while for charges to be filed with the Tarrant County district attorney's office because the investigation was longer than usual.

Ready why in this report by Staff Writer Melody McDonald.

Also in the news ....

A 25-year-old man has been indicted by a Tarrant County grand jury on charges that he caused the death of his cousin's 10-month-old son by shaking the boy. Read more about this and other items here.

-- Bill Miller

It's Darth Vader vs. the Jedis in a battle royale

A long time ago in a courtroom far, far away, Darth Vader was given a suspended two-year sentence for assault.

OK, it was Tuesday in Holyhead, Wales, and it really wasn't Darth Vader. It was Arwel Wynne Hughes, 27, who had used a black garbage bag for a cape in March when he attacked the founders of Britain's first Jedi Church.

No light saber for Hughes, though. Prosecutors said that Hughes attacked Jedi church founder Barney Jones — a.k.a. Master Jonba Hehol — with a metal crutch. He bonked him on the head. Hughes also hit Jones' cousin, Michael Jones — or Master Mormi Hehol — bruising the 18-yer-old's thigh.

The incident was recorded on a video camera -- why does this not surprise me? -- that the Joneses had set up to film themselves in a light saber battle. Watch the video here.

"Darth Vader! Jedis!" Hughes could be heard shouting as he approached the cousins.

And, no the force obviously wasn't with Hughes. He'd drunk most of a 2 1/2-gallon box of wine before heading to church, prosecutors said. You can see the church's Web page here.

-- Lance Murray

Mexico drug killings to be met with more military might

Three more men dead. Expanded military operations to meet the violence. A new offensive in Iraq? No, it's right across the border from Texas in Mexico.

We've been reporting about the expanding narcotics-related violence in northern Mexico where two drug cartels apparently are at war with each other. The violence has claimed dozens of lives, most recently three men who were killed Monday in Juarez, across the Rio Grande from El Paso.

Over the weekend, the Juarez police director was killed and seven men were gunned down in the town of Palomas, across the river from Columbus, N.M.

Mexican officials have announced that more military will be dispatched to  the southern and western regions of the state of Chihuahua, in which Juarez sits. The El Paso Times photo at left shows troops in Juarez. Law enforcement officials on the U.S. side of the border say they don't anticipate that the drug violence will spread to this side of the border.

The Associated Press has reported that more than 2,500 people have died throughout Mexico so far this year in crime and drug-related violence. That's a heavy toll that seemingly will only go higher.

El Paso Times reporter Daniel Borunda gives a comprehensive look at the situation here.

-- Lance Murray

Serial predator stalks the streets of 2 Arizona cities

There's a serial predator roaming the desert cities of Phoenix and Mesa, Ariz., and police say they want to get him off the streets.

They've linked the man to four unsolved attacks on women in those cities, including two unsolved homicides.

"We would absolutely like to find this person and get him off the streets before he has a chance to harm anyone else," Mesa police Detective Steve Berry said.

The latest victim was found in November in Phoenix. The 35-year-old woman was kidnapped and taken to an alley where she was raped and beaten, police said. She was left for dead, but survived with numerous injuries.

DNA evidence then linked that crime to the other three cases.

-- Lance Murray

Indictment: Couple used teen girl in sex trade

A man and woman have been indicted in Missouri on charges that they trained the woman's now-teenage daughter to be a dominatrix, sold her sexual services and then photographed some of the sexual acts.

Indicted were Todd B. Barkau, 35, of New York state and the girl's 44-year-old mother. Her identity is being kept secret because identifying her would reveal the identity of the child who is a victim of sexual abuse.

The federal indictment, which was unsealed Monday in Kansas City, Mo., says that Barkau began training the girl when she was 12 years old, including making her watch pornography online as a teaching tool.

-- Lance Murray

Teen gets life without parole for killing, beheading man

Prosecutors said that Jean Pierre Orlewicz, 18, killed Daniel Sorenson, beheaded him and then set his body on fire in Michigan. They called Sorenson's death in November a thrill killing.

Monday, Orlewicz was given the mandatory sentence of life in prison without parole. Orlewicz did not speak at his sentencing.

-- Lance Murray

Prosecutors: No death penalty in killing of Redskins star

There's word out of Miami today that prosecutors won't seek the death penalty against four people charged in the killing of Washington Redskins star safety Sean Taylor, right.

The reason? The teen accused of being the shooter was a minor when the crime was committed. Eric Rivera, left, now 18, was 17 at the time he is accused of shooting Taylor in the professional football player's home.

Prosecutors say that the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that a person cannot be executed for a crime committed when they're under age 18. Others involved in the same case as a minor cannot face the death penalty if they were less involved in the commission of the crime, prosecutors said.

-- Lance Murray

Bodies continue stacking up in Mexican drug violence

It seems like a day doesn't go by that we're reporting on the increasing violenc in northern Mexico as warring drug cartels are killing people -- including law enforcement officers -- at will.

The Deming Headlight reports that five men were killed across the border in Palomas, Mexico, on Sunday just two days after two other men were gunned down in that border city. It is across the U.S.-Mexico border from Columbus, N.M.

On Saturday, the No. 2 police officer in Juarez, Mexico, was gunned down in that city. His was one of several killings in the Juarez in the past week.

All this, despite the presence of thousands of the Mexican soldiers and military equipment who were dispatched to the border cities to help quell violence between warring drug cartels.

-- Lance Murray

Police: Teenage girl gang may be behind deadly blast

Police in the English city of Harrow on the outskirts of London have a strange and disturbing case to solve.

The Daily Mail of London reports that police believe that a gang of teenage girls may have blown up a house with a home-made purple liquid explosive -- all over an argument with another girl over a boy. A man was killed in a neighboring house when he was crushed by falling debris.

The intended victim of the blast, Charlotte Anderson, was rushed to an intensive care unit with severe burns. Police said that hours earlier Anderson had phone them to report that a gang of girls -- ages 16 and 17 -- were causing trouble outside her house. Apparently it had to do with a boy.

Witnesses say they saw someone pouring the liquid through the letterbox of the house before the blast destroyed it and two adjoining homes.

-- Lance Murray

Ex-pal says in book that O.J. confessed to killings

A former crony of O.J. Simpson has written a book in which he says that Simpson -- high on marijuana at the time -- confessed to killing Nicole Brown Simpson.

The former friend is memorabilia dealer Mike Gilber, whose book How I Helped O.J. Get Away With Murder: The Shocking Inside Story of Violence, Loyalty, Regret and Remorse (Regnery Publishing, 232 pages, $27.95), is due in stores Monday.

The Associated Press got an advance copy. The news agency reported that in the book Gilbert says that Simpson told him that he went to his ex-wife's house that night unarmed, but that she opened the door with a knife in her hand.

According to the book, Simpson mumbled to Gilbert: "If she hadn't opened that door with a knife in her hand ... she'd still be alive."

Gilbert even writes about how he told Simpson how to swell his hands so that the infamous gloves wouldn't fit, the AP reported.

-- Lance Murray

Neighbor: Interpol child sex suspect was 'the best Santa Claus'

The man apprehended after the international police agency Interpol put out a photo of a man suspected of sexually abusing boys in southeast Asia is an actor who painted faces and was, a neighbor said, "the best Santa Claus anyone has ever seen."

Wayne Nelson Corliss was arrested at his Union City, N.J., apartment and is charged with producing child pornography. He could face up to 20 years in prison if convicted, according to federal prosecutors. Corliss is suspected of abusing at least three boys ages 6 to 10 years old in southest Asia.

Interpol took the unusual step of releasing a photo of the suspect in hopes that someone could identify him, setting off a global manhunt. Corliss was arrested two days later.

-- Lance Murray

Girl sexually assaulted on school bus, police say

Authorities in Pinellas County, Fla., have arrested three teenage boys on  charges they sexually assaulted a female classmate on board a school bus that was parked at their high school, CNN is reporting.

Sheriff's officials say the girl was assaulted by an 18-year-old boy while two younger teens served as lookouts. The bus driver had left the bus to round up late-arriving students, officials say.

The bus was transportation for students who stay late at school to participate in after-school sports or other activities.

-- Lance Murray

Woman gets life for forcing kids to perform pay-to-view sex shows

Some crimes don't need much time to decide guilt and punishment.

In Tyler on Thursday, a jury needed just four minutes to convict a woman who was an organizer of a swinger's club where, prosecutors said, young children were forced to perform sexual acts for a live audience. It took six minutes for jurors to decide on a life sentence.

The woman, Shauntel Mayo, 29, was convicted on charges that she forced three siblings -- ages 7 through 10 -- to engage in sex with each other or perform sexual acts for club members who had paid to watch the sordid shows.

Her boyfriend, Jamie Pittman, 36, also was found guilty in four minutes in March and was sentenced to life in prison after two minutes of deliberation. Like I said, some things don't need much time to decide.

The Tyler Morning Telegraph reports.

-- Lance Murray

15th Juarez law official slain; troops don't quell violence

Crime Time has been reporting over the past few months about the increasing drug violence in the Mexican cities along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Staff writer Jay Root has an excellent report this morning that tells us about the brazen killing of Juarez Police Capt. Saul Pena Lopez on Tuesday -- gunned down in a fusillade of bullets. He's the 15th law enforcement agent to be slain there since the beginning of the year.

And, the killing hasn't slowed despite the presence of more than 2,000 Mexican Army troops sent to quell the violence involving warring drug cartels.

You can find Jay's report here. It has some outstanding photographic work by staff photographer Tom Pennington.

-- Lance Murray

Report: Trio stole corpse's head and turned it into a bong

Sometimes it's hard to believe what you read. It's just too incredible.

The Houston Chronicle is reporting that two men and a juvenile are being accused of digging up a man's corpse, decapitating it and then using the head to smoke pot.

The paper reports that the three went to the Humble, Texas, cemetery dug up a man's grave, took off the head and then transformed it into a "bong." The men have been charged with misdemeanor abuse of a corpse.

-- Lance Murray

Top official of Mexico's federal police gunned down

More violence against a police official in Mexico, where enforcing the law has become increasingly more dangerous.

The Associated Press is reporting that the acting head of that country's federal police was gunned down early Thursday outside his home in Mexico City.

According to the AP, the Public Safety Department reported that Edgar Millan Gomez was shot 10 times. He died hours later in a hospital. Two bodyguards also were wounded in the attack.

Police have a suspect in custody. He reportedly has a record of car theft but that they have not determined a motive yet. Police reportedly are investigating a possible link to drugs.

-- Lance Murray

Interpol: Suspect in serial pedophile abuse caught in New Jersey

Cancel the alerts. Call off the dogs. Interpol says it's got its man.

As you may recall, Crime Time earlier this week wrote about the man being sought by Interpol, the international police agency, who is suspected of being a serial pedophile. Authorities believe he abused boys as young as 6 to 10 years old in southeast Asia.

The agency released a photo of him in hopes that he could be captured.

Well, that's happened. Interpol says the man, identified as Wayne Nelson Corliss, has been detained by authorities in Union City, N.J., just two days after the release of the pictures.

-- Lance Murray

Austrian incest dad mad he's portrayed as a 'monster'

As bad as it is, the man accused of imprisoning his daughter for 24 years in a secret cellar, raping her, and fathering her seven children says it could have been worse.

Josef Fritzl is upset that the media is portraying him as a monster, his attorney says.

"I'm only being portrayed as a monster and not as someone who committed monstrous acts... I could have killed all of them — then nothing would have happened. No one would have ever known about it."

That's what attorney Rudolf Mayer says Fritzl told him.

-- Lance Murray

Man accused of assaulting elderly relative

Johnson County sheriff’s deputies arrested a Weatherford man early Wednesday morning who was wanted on two felony warrants of injury to an elderly family member and interfering with an emergency call.

Randy White was arrested near Burleson while on his way to a friend’s home, said Weatherford police Detective Wendy Field.

White was transferred to the Parker County jail where he remains on $125,000 bond, Field said. White is accused of assaulting an elderly relative and the person’s care giver, Field said.

The relative suffered bruises and a deep laceration to the back of the head, Field said.

White is also accused of interfering with an emergency call by taking the care giver’s cell phone so that she could not call police. The care giver went to a neighbor’s home to call police.

-- Elizabeth Campbell

Sea lions weren't shot to death, feds say

Earlier this week Crime Time reported on the deaths of six sea lions near Bonneville Dam in Oregon.

The carcasses were found in traps put there to protect salmon swimming upstream to spawn. Authorities believed the animals had been shot to death.

Now federal officials say the sea lions were not shot to death and more tests will be needed to determine what killed the animals.

-- Lance Murray

24-year-old Dallas cold case cracked by DNA evidence

DNA evidence has been getting a lot of attention in Dallas lately because the Innocence Project has been using it to win the freedom of men who were wrongfully imprisoned.

But now the Dallas Police Department has used these high-tech tests to crack a 24-year-old cold case.

Angela M. Samota, a student at Southern Methodist University, right, was found murdered on Oct. 13, 1984 in her apartment at 4944 Amesbury Drive, a neighborhood a few blocks east of the campus.

Police found her on her bed with multiple stab wounds to her chest. And, according to a DPD news release, she was raped.

For many years this case went unsolved and was eventually given to DPD's Cold Case Squad. Detectives turned to DNA samples from the crime scene and plugged them into a national data base, which didn't exist in 1984.

After more extensive testing and confirmation, Donald Andrew Bess, 59, left, was positively identified as the one who raped and killed Samota.

Police knew where to find him. He was already in prison, serving a life sentence on three sexual assault offenses.

"We are all relieved to know who did it," Samota's former sorority sister Robin Wells told KXAS Channel 5. "I mean, we will never know why, but we know who. Hopefully the Dallas Police Department will make sure that he is never on the streets again."

-- Bill Miller

Brazen ATM thieves hit as store clerk watches

Here's an ATM theft you don't see every day.

A group of thieves stole an ATM   early Wednesday from a Grapevine convenience store after they smashed a window, dragged the machine out, loaded it in a van and then drove away.

Here's the kicker: The store was open and the clerk at the On The Run (Exxon) in the 1700 block of William D. Tate Avenue watched it all happen and gave police details of the van.

A few minutes later, authorities arrested one man and recovered the ATM machine in Bedford after the vehicle was spotted on Texas 121 and stopped after a brief pursuit

-- Domingo Ramirez Jr.

Indictment: Sadistic fake cops robbed, kidnapped, tortured cocaine traffickers

Authorities in New York say that a gang of sadistic fake cops abducted and tortured cocaine traffickers and stole money and drugs from them.

The gang's activities were detailed in an indictment unsealed in a Brooklyn federal court.

The gang's take since spring 2003: more than 1,650 pounds of cocaine worth $20 million and $4 million in cash. Also, there were 100 people injured and 100 holdups that targeted large-scale traffickers on the East Coast.

-- Lance Murray

Your blotter: Children left in squalid conditions; police seek suspects with nice feet

Don't look for this man at any "father of the year" contests.

Gregory Dewayne Amphy, 22, right, was in a Dallas County jail Wednesday following his arrest for abandoning two children, ages 2 and 5, in a boarded-up home in southeast Dallas that had no food and utilities, but was strewn with trash and human waste, police said.

A 9mm pistol also was found in the home in the 3500 block of Holmes Street,.

Amphy arrived at the house about the same time as police, and he must have put up a struggle because he was arrested for resisting arrest, along with a bunch of other charges.

Staff Writer Bill Miller reports.

Husband never considered divorce after wife's unfaithfulness

For more than 20 years, "we've never had a life without the both of us," Darrell Roberson said Tuesday, a day after his wife, Tracy Roberson, was sentenced to five years in prison for her role in the December 2006 shooting death of her lover, Devin LaSalle, 32, in Arlington.

"Sure, I was upset at the situation," Roberson said from the office of his wife's attorney. "When I took my marriage vows I took them seriously. I'm going to stick with my family for better or worse."

Staff Writers Nathaniel Jones and Melody McDonald report.

Fort Worth police hunt thieves with very nice feet

A tractor-trailer was stolen Sunday night in far north Fort Worth, but the bandits abandoned it and most of the load -- 18,000 home pedicure kits.

Staff Writer Mark Agee reports.

San Diego State suspends students, 6 frats after drug raid

The hammer is starting to come down at San Diego State University after the arrest of 96 people -- 75 of them students at the university -- in a massive drug raid.

University officials have suspended six fraternities after the sweeping drug raid dubbed Operation Sudden Fall. The investigation was prompted by the cocaine overdose death in 2007 of a freshman member of a sorority.

Officials say that all the arrested students have been suspended and have been prevented from taking final exams until their cases are resolved.

-- Lance Murray

Police arrest prospective pot trial juror smoking pot

The Houston Chronicle has an amusing story by reporter Brian Rogers this morning with this lead on it:

"Judge Sherman Ross tried to assemble a jury of peers for a woman accused of possession of a marijuana on trial Tuesday.

But authorities say prospective juror Cornelia Mayo might have taken that concept a bit too far after she was caught smoking a joint outside the courthouse during a break."

She's now in custody on a marijuana possession charge and now she may need a jury of her peers.

-- Lance Murray

Video shows violent arrest of men by police officers

There is some pretty dramatic television news video from a police stop in Philadelphia in which police officers can be seen kicking and punching three men.

The officers were responding Monday to the report of a shooting nearby and the video by television station WTFX shows three police cars stopping the car. The events took place two days after a Philadelphia police was shot to death responding to a bank robbery.

"On the surface it certainly does not look good in terms of the amount of force that was used," Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey said. "But we don't want to rush to judgment."

Watch the video here.

-- Lance Murray

Drug raid at San Diego State nets about 100 arrests

About 100 people -- many of them fraternity members -- were arrested in a massive drug raid at San Diego State University that broke up what authorities called a "sophisticated" operation.

Police and DEA agents seized drugs including cocaine, ecstasy, marijuana and methamphetamine, officials say. Among the others arrested in the operation were members of San Diego area gangs from whom drugs, cash, and weapons were seized, officials say.

-- Lance Murray

Could NFL star's gun bust a police vest?

Hey, gun guys, have you been following the story about NFL star receiver Marvin Harrison of the Colts, right, and the ongoing investigation about a shooting in his hometown of Philadelphia, reportedly involving a handgun owned by him?

Police were still sorting through witness accounts this week, but early reports indicated that the shooting victim had argued with Harrison at his Playmakers bar, and the man got tossed. A radio station reported that shots were fired and the man was hit in the hand.

Also, police said, a child was hit in the eyes by broken glass, but was treated and released at a hospital.

Not a good situation, obviously.

Police also recovered a Five-seveN 5.7X28mm pistol belonging to Harrison, who has denied being involved in the shooting. Here's an ESPN report on the investigation.

The sporting media has done some homework on that type of gun (shown here in a photo from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives) and reports that it shoots an armor-piercing round that has concerned law enforcement officers across the nation, who fear it could penetrate their Kevlar vests.

So now a lot of sports journalists are asking why does an NFL star like Harrison need armor-piercing rounds?

But we offer this question: were the rounds used in that gun actually capable of busting a vest?

Because we've also done some homework.

The ATF did a paper on the gun, and some of its ammo, which reported that Fabrique Nationale Herstal, the Belgian firm that makes the Five-seveN, also produces a variety of 5.7X28mm ammunition, and not all of it is armor piercing.

Which raises another question: could the armor-piercing 5.7X28mm rounds be made available to the general public, or to a guy like Marvin?

That's the question we're putting to all you gun guys who responded to our "define assault weapon challenge."

Your thoughts?

-- Bill Miller

Austin police nab possible 'mass homicide suspect' at Wal-Mart

For Austin police, the arrest of Edward Eberle comes down to "what might have been."

And, police said, what might have been was frightening.

Police arrested Eberle after his wife alerted police to the contents of text message he sent her that seemed to portend a threat of violence at his former place of employment -- an Austin Wal-Mart.

Eberle was arrested near the entrance to the store -- where he was fired in March -- carrying a 9mm handgun and "an unreasonable amount of ammunition," the Austin American-Statesman reported.

Eberle had texted his wife with message that he was going to hurt someone and encouraged her to "sell any story you want to tell to the highest bidder," the paper reported. He also texted his sister, telling her to turn on the TV.

Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo said Eberle was a potential "mass homicide suspect."

-- Lance Murray

Interpol releases photo of man wanted for child sex abuse

The international police agency Interpol has released a photograph of a man they suspect of sexually abusing young boys in southeast Asia in hopes that the public can help identify him.

The man appears to be in his late 40s to early 50s with graying, thinning hair. Interpol released six photos of him, according to the agency.

Interpol has been trying to identify the man for two years and has been unsuccessful in determining a name, nationality or where he might be.

You may recall that last year, Interpol released the "unscrambled" image of a sexual abuse suspect who was eventually captured.

-- Lance Murray

Sea lion killings baffle federal wildlife authorities

Authorities in Oregon are trying to figure who shot six trapped sea lions to death in a restricted area at the base of the Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River.

The sea lions had been trapped as part of an effort to reduce their impact on the spring run of endangered chinook salmon trying to get upstream so that they can spawn. The sea lions' bodies were discovered in floating cages on Sunday.

Investigators believe whoever shot the animals was familiar with the area, because the waters near the cages are tricky to navigate.

California and Steller sea lions were killed in the cage and both are protected by a federal law that safeguards marine mammals. Salmon, on the other hand, are protected by the Endangered Species Act.

-- Lance Murray

Austrian's incest, imprisonment plan began when daughter was 12

The story of incest and imprisonment alleged against an Austrian man continues to get weirder and weirder.

Austrian authorities on Monday said that Josef Fritzl began planning his secret underground cell in 1978, when his daughter was 12. Fritzl is accused of imprisoning his daughter there beginning at age 18 and kept her captive for 24 years. She is now 42 and Fritzl fathered seven children with her during that time.

Authorities released new information Monday about the cellar, including that the main door weighed about 1,000 pounds.

Early today, we told you that Fritzl's lawyer plans an insanity defense.

-- Lance Murray

DPS trooper fatally shoots knife-wielding truck passenger

A Texas DPS trooper shot and killed a knife-wielding truck passenger during a traffic stop near Greenville, the Associated Press reports.

According to Tela Mange, a DPS spokeswoman, the shooting occurred on Interstate 30, just east of Greenville, after the driver of the truck acted in an "evasive" manner.

The trooper stopped the 18-wheeler at about 10:30 p.m. Sunday, Mange said. The trooper had asked the driver if there were any passengers in the truck before discovering the knife-toting passenger, who began to approach the officer, Mange said.

The trooper then shot the man, Mange said.

The dead man's name has not been released yet, and the driver was detained.

-- Lance Murray

Wounded teller who lost twins talks about shooting ordeal

A 30-year-old bank teller who was shot in the abdomen during a bank robbery in Indianapolis and lost the twins she was carrying said the gunman leaped over her station, shot her and then wouldn't let anyone call for help as he demanded money from other tellers.

During a press conference Saturday, Katherin Shuffield said the robber was more concerned about getting the money than letting anyone help the bleeding, seriously wounded woman.

"I said, 'Please help me! He shot me, he shot me! My babies!' He didn't let anybody do anything because he was more worried about taking the money," Shuffield told reporters.

Shuffield, who was five months pregnant, lost her twin girls two days after the shooting.The gunman is still at large, police said.

-- Lance Murray

Bodies of 3 infants found in freezer; mom arrested

More strange and awful news about children being killed, this one from Europe.

Police in Germany have arrested a mother after the discovery of the bodies of three infants in a freezer. Police say the children were not stillborn, but did not say what caused their deaths or how long they were in the basement freezer of a home in Wenden, Germany.

There have been other similar cases in Germany in the past couple years, police say.

-- Lance Murray

Was Austrian man who imprisoned, impregnated daughter insane?

Was Josef Fritzl insane or just evil and cruel?

The lawyer for the Austrian man accused of imprisoning his daughter for 24 years and fathering seven children with her says he will prepare an insanity defense.

Mental health experts will have to determine whether Fritzl was responsible for his actions and able to stand trial. Police say Fritzl kept his daughter and three of the children in a secret underground room. Three of the children were allowed to live upstairs as the adopted children of Fritzl and his wife. A seventh child died as an infant and Fritzl told police he burned the baby's body in an incinerator.

The bizarre crime came to light when one of the older children became ill and required hospitalization.

-- Lance Murray

Police: 911 dispatcher hung up on girl later found slain

You're in trouble. You need help quickly. You dial 911 and the last thing you want to hear is "click."

But that's apparently what happened to a Wisconsin college student who dialed 911 for help only to have the dispatcher hang up, fail to call back and never dispatch police to investigate.

Authorities say that Wisconsin-Madison student Brittany Zimmerman was later found dead, killed by an intruder.

They won't release the content of the call, but Madison Police Chief Noble Wray says that there was enough said in the call to have warranted Brittany being taken seriously.

-- Lance Murray

Man wanted for killing DPS trooper kills himself

As law enforcement officers closed in on him, the man wanted for the killing a Texas Department of Public Safety trooper killed himself with a gunshot, officials say.

Authorities say that Brandon Wayne Robertson, 37, himself a former cop, killed himself in a brushy area off of a county road near Linden in Cass County. He was wanted in the slaying of Trooper James Scott Burns, 39, who was shot with multiple shotgun blasts after pulling over a car near Lake O' the Pines in East Texas.

-- Lance Murray

Captured 32 years after prison escape, she'll seek commutation

She was on the lam for 32 years after escaping from a Detroit, Mich., prison before being captured April 24 in California.

She had gone from a prisoner in 1976 to a married mother of three children in a posh San Diego suburb.

Now 53, Susan LeFevre and known as Marie Walsh, LeFevre will petition the governor of Michigan to commute the nine years left on her sentence when she took off. LeFevre was incarcerated following a guilty plea in 1975 to drug charges.

"Nobody is suggesting that she ought to just be able to walk away from this and have everybody forget, but we now have the benefit of perspective," Paul Denenfeld, her attorney in Grand Rapids, Mich., said Thursday. "By all indications she's been a good wife and mother and a good community person, so we think that presents extraordinary circumstances and we think that calls for governors to respond in kind."

-- Lance Murray

Famous Crimes: J. Loyd Parker Jr., a family tragedy

It was a family tragedy, heaped upon a series of tragedies.

On this date, May 2, 1963, J. Loyd Parker, left, was fatally shot at his fashionable Rivercrest home. A gardener discovered the body in the kitchen of the three-story house.

According to news accounts, there were three bullet wounds in the back of the 74-year-old retired businessman, and one in his neck.

But this was not a burglary gone awry.

Parker, whose family made a fortune in ranching, oil and other businesses, was shot by his son, 44-year-old J. Loyd Parker Jr.

Prosecutors, during the son's trial, characterized Parker as "a man with a black, evil heart who shot his own father in the back."

He would eventually stand trial for killing his father, but not before numerous court hearings and a six-year stay at Rusk State Hospital, where he was committed after being declared insane and incompetent to stand trial.

But the son's military records indicated he was gripped by mental illness 20 years before the shooting.

The information, which was released during pre-trial proceedings, showed that Parker was discharged from the U.S. Army Air Corps in 1943 at Marfa, Texas.