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Archives > Volume 8 Issue 18 - March 9, 2010 Discovery of Amber DuBois's body sparks new fears...The discovery of the remains of a second San Diego area teenager has raised more questions about a sex offender already in custody for the death of 17-year-old Chelsea King, but police aren't confirming the two cases are connected. ABC story here 
The skeletal remains of 14-year-old Amber DuBois were found in Pala, an Indian reservation north of San Diego, more than a year after she vanished on her way to school. Her remains were identified by the coroner through dental records, authorities said.
DuBois' remains were found less than a week after King's body was found in a shallow grave in a park where she was last seen jogging. Registered sex offender John Albert Gardner III, 30, was arrested on rape and murder charges in the King case. He has pleaded not guilty. He is also charged with attempting to rape another woman in December. He could face the death penalty if convicted of the King murder. Escondido Police Chief Jim Maher would not comment Sunday on whether the discovery of DuBois's body was linked to Gardner. "This is an ongoing murder investigation and any details, no matter how slight, would be inappropriate to reveal at this point in time," he said. Gardner was living with his mother less than two miles from DuBois' home when she disappeared in February 2009. The area where her body found was described by police as remote and rugged. The discovery of the girls' bodies has taken an incalculable toll on the community. Outrage has continued to mount that Gardner and other sex offenders like him are allowed to roam the streets. And parents say they are afraid to let their children play in parks. See vol8_iss16 and vol8_iss17 for more on this story. At a press conference immediately following Gardner's arraignment on March 4, Maurice DuBois said "there are enough similarities" between the two cases that he was confident Dubois and King were both killed by Gardner. ABC story here DuBois' grandmother and the private eye the family initially hired to find Amber, however, believe someone other than Gardner else is responsible for killing the Escondido High School student who vanished February 13, 2009. Questions remain about why someone would wait over a year to come forward with information in the case. Private investigator Bill Garcia, initially hired by the family to find Dubois, believes the tipster may have been sitting on the information and was compelled to come forward after a week of national news coverage about King's disappearance and a possible connection to DuBois. Garcia also does not believe that Gardner is responsible for DuBois' death and that the tip likely came from inside the insular Pala Indian reservation. ABC takes a look at why some stories of missing teens and children receive far more media attention than others. additional ABC story here Facebook fears after sex offender logged on to murder... Questions were raised about the monitoring of the online activity of sex offenders in the U.K. after it emerged that a convicted rapist was able to use the social networking site Facebook to befriend a vulnerable teenager he then raped and murdered. The Independent story here 
Peter Chapman, 33, was pretending he was 19 years old when he convinced student Ashleigh Hall, 17, to be his Facebook friend. Chapman, who had previously received a seven-year prison sentence for raping two prostitutes, collected the girl in his car from her house before driving to a lay-by where he tied her up, raped and strangled her.
Yesterday, after changing his plea to guilty on the first day of what would have been his trial, Chapman was sentenced to life in prison and told he must serve a minimum of 35 years. Police officers also raised the possibility that he was responsible for other, unsolved, sex crimes. But the revelation that he was on the sex offenders' register at the time of the offense - which happened in October 2009 - has raised questions about how, while supposedly being monitored by the police, he was able to use the internet to find a victim for an even more horrific attack. And it has prompted police to issue further warnings to youngsters highlighting the dangers of using social networking sites to meet people. Donald Findlater of the Lucy Faithfull Foundation, a child protection charity which has researched how to monitor and manage the sexual activity of sex offenders, said: "When people have committed such grievous crimes then I think one has seriously to consider how better to monitor their lives in the community, and that includes their lives online. We have the technical means and we ought to be using them." "In America it is typical that sex offenders are given email addresses which flag up if they attempt to register with social networking sites. The internet can be supervised far better now than ever before with the monitoring technology that is available. I know there would be human rights issues, but we already know that police forces can do a good job of monitoring people's online behavior." For more ways to protect kids from internet dangers, see eGuide/internet safety and eGuide/MySpace and Facebook. Brother of pope disclaims knowledge of child abuse... The brother of Pope Benedict XVI has said he never had knowledge of child sexual abuse in a famous southern German boys choir. Amsterdam news.net story here 
Georg Ratzinger, who headed the choir for over twenty years, said he had never heard of any illegal activity perpetrated by men attached to the choir.
The incidents, which go back nearly 60 years, allegedly occurred when a former head of the school was said to have engaged in drinking and masturbation sessions with some of the boys. A former pupil at the boarding school has told the German newspaper, Der Spiegel, an "ingenious system of sadistic punishments connected to sexual pleasure" occurred at the school, and he was unable to see how the Pope's brother, who was master of the chapel from 1964, could not have been aware. The allegations are now part of a widening sex scandal rocking Germany's Roman Catholic Church, which includes allegations of abuse at a number of school institutions. The Vatican "fully supports" the efforts of German bishops to investigate claims of child sexual abuse in Catholic institutions, even if the cases are decades old, L'Osservatore Romano reported. Catholic News Service story here "Full disclosure regarding abuse in Germany," said the front-page headline of the March 7 edition of the official Vatican newspaper. "The church is working rigorously to shed light on what happened in religious institutions," it said. The article followed a letter posted March 5 on the Web site of the Diocese of Regensburg, acknowledging past cases of sexual abuse of young students attending the Domspatzen, the school that trains the elite boys' choir of the Regensburg Cathedral. Initial news reports said the abuse may have occurred while Monsignor Georg Ratzinger, brother of Pope Benedict XVI, was serving as choirmaster at the school. But the Regensburg Diocese said the cases occurred in the late 1950s, while Monsignor Ratzinger held the post from 1964 to 1994. 
Meanwhile, authorities have raided a monastery in southern Germany as part of a probe into allegations that priests sexually abused children there, prosecutors said. CNN story here
Eight former students at the Ettal Abbey boarding school have reported that they were abused in 1954 and in the 1970s and '80s, the abbey has said in a statement. The head of the monastery and the school headmaster stepped down last week. The Roman Catholic Church in the Netherlands is calling for an independent investigation into reports of widespread sexual abuse within its institutions. Radio Netherlands Worldwide story here And finally, TIME magazine takes look at the widening scandal of Reverend Marcial Maciel and his Legionaries of Christ, one of the Roman Catholic Church's most powerful clerical orders. TIME story here For more information, see eGuide/clergy abuse. In other news... 
Bizarre allegations of rape, incest and bestiality in western Missouri led to the arrests of six family members last fall and unleashed public scorn over the unthinkable acts they are accused of committing two decades ago. CBS News story here But one of the more sensational claims - that one of the suspects forced their young victims to help kill a man - is creating an uphill climb for prosecutors that could sink the rest of their case, legal experts say. Investigators say the sexual abuse allegations have been corroborated by six siblings, at least three of whom say they were raped and molested over a 10-year period beginning in the mid-1980s on a farm east of Kansas City. Still, the case against Burrell E. Mohler Sr., 77, his brother and four adult sons could be compromised by the homicide claim. Authorities have yet to produce a victim or file homicide charges, and officials are mum about whether a homicide investigation is even under way. Without a body, prosecutors could face larger doubts about victims' stories that defense lawyers could exploit. Dozens of sex abuse charges have been filed against Mohler Sr., of Independence, Missouri; his four sons, Mohler Jr., 53, of Independence, Jared Leroy Mohler, 48, of Columbia, Missouri, Roland Neil Mohler, 47, of Bates City, Missouri, and David A. Mohler, 52, of Lamoni, Iowa; and his brother, Darrel W. Mohler, 72, of Silver Springs, Florida. Darrel, Jared and David Mohler have posted bond; the other three remain jailed. All have denied the accusations. For more on this story, see vol7_iss67, vol7_iss68, and vol7_iss69.
A New Hampshire high school English teacher who allegedly e-mailed nude photos of herself to a 15-year-old male student was arrested on a felony charge of indecent exposure and lewdness. AP story here Melinda Dennehy, 41, of Hampstead, turned herself in to Londonderry police and was later released on $10,000 bond. She was placed on administrative leave from her job at Londonderry High School on Wednesday, the day school officials and police were notified about the pictures going around school. The boy who received the photographs told police Dennehy also sent him text messages offering to have sex, and that she kissed him on the mouth in a classroom at least twice in recent months. Several male students, including the recipient of the images, were interviewed, and at least one photograph shows Dennehy with her genitals exposed, Londonderry Detective Kristen Gore wrote in an affidavit. The student who received the photos told police he forwarded them to two male friends. He also told police that Dennehy sent him text messages "continuously." Because the boy who received the pictures is under the age of 16, Dennehy faces up to seven years in prison and a $4,000 fine, Londonderry Lieutenant Chris Gandia said.
In an effort to close the door on what he sees as frivolous class-action lawsuits, Chamberlain lawyer Steve Smith crafted a piece of legislation passed by the South Dakota Legislature that opponents say unfairly limits the ability of child sexual abuse victims to recover damages from the institutions that employed their abusers. Argus Leader story here House Bill 1104 says any abuse victims over the age of 40 can sue only the individuals who abused them and not churches, schools or other institutions with which an abuser was associated. It passed the House 52-14 and the Senate 26-7. The bill is expected to reach Governor Mike Rounds' desk early this week. Rounds' Spokesman Joe Kafka said the governor has not yet taken a position on whether he will sign it.
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