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Alberta
Apr 9, 2006 15:25:09 GMT -5
Post by guy on Apr 9, 2006 15:25:09 GMT -5
Mounties have charged a babysitter with manslaughter six months after a 17-month-old boy died at a Wainwright home.
"When you have the death of a child, it's always sad because it's a lifetime that's gone, and the parents are deprived of all those wonderful and trying moments of raising a child," said RCMP spokesman Cpl. Wayne Oakes. "It would be very fair to say that the parents ... are devastated by the loss."
On Nov. 17, 2004, cops were called to a home in the east-central Alberta town in response to an initial report that a 17-month-old boy had fallen down a flight of stairs.
But a post-mortem provided investigators with evidence to continue a criminal investigation, and an autopsy showed the boy's death wasn't consistent with the report, police said.
"(The babysitter) was providing care for the child at the time of his death," Oakes said. "She is not the parent."
Oakes said he couldn't detail injuries suffered by the tot. A neighbour said the woman who was babysitting has two children of her own.
"She was babysitting a friend's kid. They're not friends anymore, though," said the neighbour, who didn't want to be identified.
Oakes said investigators only recently arrived at the stage of having charges sworn against the woman.
"The bottom line is that they must have those ever-important reasonable and probable grounds before the charge is sworn," he said.
Tracy Lynn Kuhn, 28, has been charged with manslaughter.
She was released on a recognizance by a Justice of the Peace. She'll appear in Wainwright provincial court June 2 at 10 a.m.
Wainwright is 208 km southeast of Edmonton.
The family has asked that the name of the child not be released.
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Alberta
Apr 10, 2006 21:11:12 GMT -5
Post by Sher on Apr 10, 2006 21:11:12 GMT -5
A Fort McMurray neighbourhood was in shock last night after a woman was found dead in a trailer following a report to police that someone was shot.
"This is really scary," said 18-year-old Sacha Cox, who lives a few doors down from the trailer. "You never see something like this coming because everyone's really quiet here. It's just a shock."
RCMP got a call from a neighbour "advising that a female in the residence had been injured as a result of a gunshot" around 12:30 p.m. yesterday in the Gregoire area on Fort McMurray's south side. "(The call) came from a local area resident," said Fort McMurray RCMP Const. Ann Brinnen.
RCMP secured the area and advised nearby residents, officials from two schools and a day care to stay inside. "It was for public and police officer safety," said Brinnen.
Justin Lindsay, a 13-year-old student at nearby Moberly Hall charter school, didn't realize what was happening at the time.
"We didn't know what happened but the RCMP came in and we went back to the classrooms that were secure," said Lindsay. "It was kinda strange because no one knew what happened until we went outside and saw the tape and the cops."
RCMP wouldn't confirm whether the woman had been shot, but did say the death is classified as "suspicious."
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Alberta
Apr 10, 2006 21:12:24 GMT -5
Post by Sher on Apr 10, 2006 21:12:24 GMT -5
One-half of a real-life fairy-tale romance was the victim yesterday of a vicious attack in which she suffered a stab wound to her neck.
Calgary police say Krystal Landaker, 28, was attacked while she tried to enter an apartment building on 15 Ave. S.W., where she was to meet her boyfriend Mike Rayton.
Landaker and Rayton were the winners in the Sun/CJAY 92 Bachelor/Bachelorette contest in October 2003, in which Rayton was Landaker's pick of the three bachelor finalists in the popular contest based on the TV series of the same name.
The couple won an all-expenses paid vacation to Mexico in the contest and have been together ever since.
Det. Hal Wetherup said Landaker was trying to enter the building around 12 p.m. when she became the target of an attempted robbery.
The culprit was another woman, who police say may have been intoxicated.
"The victim fought off her attacker and was stabbed in the neck by her assailant," said Wetherup.
Her wounds were concentrated on the back of her neck.
The assailant fled the scene immediately after the attack.
EMS Supt. Trent Snyder said paramedics found Landaker "suffering from serious wounds, possibly from a knife.
"She was in serious condition ... and transported to the Foothills hospital."
Landaker underwent emergency surgery.
Police described the suspect as a Native woman wearing a grey sweatshirt and baggy clothes.
Officers scoured the area after the stabbing and found two individuals matching the de-scriptions and who might have been involved in the attack.
Police couldn't say last night if charges had been laid against the two.
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Alberta
Apr 10, 2006 21:12:57 GMT -5
Post by Sher on Apr 10, 2006 21:12:57 GMT -5
CALGARY -- Outraged and scared, the victim of two separate beatings said she's sickened by the sentence handed to her ex-boyfriend and now fears for her life.
Kelli-Jo Smith said the four-year term given to Daniel William Freeze yesterday in Court of Queen's Bench means she will now have to leave town.
"I'm going to be moving, moving very far from Calgary," said Smith.
"You know as well as I do that he'll be knocking on my door.
"I have a daughter who's almost two years old - I'm already a single mother - I don't want her to be an orphan."
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Freeze was sentenced to one year in prison for beating and threatening Smith in her home on Dec. 23, 2003.
He was also sentenced to three years for breaking into Smith's basement suite on Jan. 20, 2004.
Freeze then beat Smith, forced her from the home, pushed and dragged her over two fences and held her against her will at his home before dumping her a few blocks away.
Justice Patricia Rowbotham said the beatings were severe.
Further, Rowbotham said Freeze has failed to take responsibility for his actions, blamed Smith for the attacks and has never shown remorse.
Although the causes for the attacks were never made clear, court heard Freeze was angered by Smith's methamphetamine use and her occupation as an escort.
But Rowbotham said the 18 months Freeze has already spent in custody will count as two for one, which means he will only have to serve another year behind bars to complete his four-year sentence.
Crown prosecutor Achilles Grobler said he planned to study the decision, but would not say if an appeal was planned.
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Alberta
Apr 10, 2006 21:13:34 GMT -5
Post by Sher on Apr 10, 2006 21:13:34 GMT -5
CALGARY -- The act of putting her newborn child out with the trash was borne from a teen's misguided bid to protect her mother, a youth court judge said during a sentencing hearing yesterday.
Judge Sharon Prowse-O'Ferrall handed the teen mother, who cannot be named, a year's probation after the girl pleaded guilty to failing to provide the necessities of life to a child under her care.
A charge of abandonment was dropped.
"Although her actions would appear to be cold and callous, they do not reflect the true character of the young woman before the court," Prowse-O'Ferrall said, as the girl dabbed at her eyes with a tissue.
Last Sept. 7, the girl - then a 15-year-old who hid her pregnancy from friends and family - secretly gave birth in her bedroom.
About two hours later, she put the healthy boy, wrapped in bloody blankets, in a garbage bag outside her northwest home before cooking dinner for the family.
The baby, suffering from hypothermia but otherwise unhurt, was found about two hours later by a woman walking her dog.
Court heard the teen had endured a difficult childhood that included living with an abusive, crack-addicted stepfather and helping her divorced mother raise two younger siblings.
Crown attorney Pat Yelle said the teen, who repeatedly expressed remorse for her actions, did not intend to kill or harm her son.
Putting him in the trash was the impulsive end result of her secretive pregnancy, Yelle said.
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Alberta
Apr 10, 2006 21:14:17 GMT -5
Post by Sher on Apr 10, 2006 21:14:17 GMT -5
CALGARY -- Police made one of the largest ecstasy bust in Alberta's history, arresting one alleged drug trafficker, seizing millions of dollars worth of the drug.
The seizure was the result of an eight-month investigation by Alberta's Integrated Response to Organized Crime unit (IROC), the RCMP drug section, and the Integrated Proceeds of Crime (IPOC) unit, after they learned a shipment of ecstasy was coming to Calgary by land from Vancouver, said Staff Sgt. Barry Balerud.
"It was being shipped to Calgary but it could have gone to other parts of the country," he said. "Alberta is booming so it's going to attract criminals involved in organized crime." Police seized 213,000 tablets of the drug, worth about $4.25 million, during a search of a residence on June 15. Police didn't release information on the bust until yesterday because they didn't want to hamper investigations, said Balerud.
Det. Nina Vaughan of the Calgary police drug unit said the tablets were laced with traces of methamphetamine.
"Adding meth increases the likelihood of addiction and increases the stimulant factor," said Vaughan.
"It's also cheaper to make for the drug traffickers."
Vaughan said adding meth can make the already dangerous drug even more volatile. "Taking ecstasy is kind of like playing Russian roulette - you don't know what you're going to get." The methamphetamine added to the ecstasy is a different form of the drug than crystal meth, added Vaughan.
In addition to the drug, $25,000 cash, a 2003 Acura MDX SUV, two stun guns, a semi-automatic rifle with a partially loaded clip and body armour were seized from the residence.
Solicitor General Harvey Cenaiko said June's bust is another example of what criminal organizations can expect if they continue to operate in the province. "The Alberta government is committed to providing the resources needed to disrupt and dismantle organized crime," he said.
Hui Xu, also known as Phillip Tu, 32, has been charged with two counts of possession for the purpose of trafficking; possession of the proceeds of crime; unlawful possession of a firearm, unsafe storage of a firearm; and three counts of unlawful possession of a prohibited device.
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Alberta
Apr 10, 2006 21:14:49 GMT -5
Post by Sher on Apr 10, 2006 21:14:49 GMT -5
Calgary police searching for man after woman killed, children taken
CALGARY (CP) - Calgary police launched a manhunt Wednesday night for a man who fled with his son after the body of his 26-year-old former girlfriend was found at a duplex.
Robert William Bell, 31, was described as a "person of interest" in the case and Staff Sgt. Barry Cochran said he "may have information about her death." Bell, who owned the duplex where the body was found, left his home in the afternoon with three children - his nine-year-old son, a four-year-old girl he had with the woman, and her six-year-old son.
Cochran said Bell dropped the two younger children off at a south-side shopping mall and then headed off with the older boy - who he had custody of - in an older model, rusty, white four-door Pontiac Firefly.
However, the officer said police deliberately decided not to issue an Amber Alert.
"There's a number of criteria that have to be met for an amber alert, and we feel at this time . . . that the nine-year-old is not an abducted child nor is this a child in any danger."
Cochran said relatives of the woman went looking for her after she didn't return to the home she shared with the two younger children the night before.
"Family members were searching for her and made their way to this address and discovered the body in a bedroom," said Cochran.
Cochran said police had no idea where Bell might be headed.
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