Free Republic

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. -- An Orange County man was arrested Thursday night after he allegedly attempted to kidnap a 9-year-old girl who was playing with friends in her neighborhood. Marcus Younge, 23, was booked into jail, but was released on $5,000 bond Friday morning. The girl's mother says Younge tried to grab her daughter while she was playing outside near Pershing Avenue and Goldenrod Road in Orlando. The girl told investigators that she was playing hid and seek with neighborhood friends when an unknown black male came out of nowhere, grabbed her by the wrist and tried to pick her...

CASSELBERRY, Fla. -- A mother shot and killed her son, and then herself, inside a Casselberry Gun Range Sunday afternoon, according to police. When Casselberry police arrived at the Shoot Straight Gun Range on South U.S. Highway 17-92 (see map) just after 4:00pm, they found two people had been shot in an apparent murder-suicide. Police identified the man as 20-year-old Mitchel Moore. The shooter, his mother, was identified as 44-year-old Marie Moore. Eyewitnesses said the pair was acting strangely and then the woman ran out of the room to get more ammunition. When she returned, eyewitnesses said, she shot her...

WINTER SPRINGS, Fla. -- A Seminole County woman remained in jail Monday morning, after being accused of attempting to kill her own husband and then trying to cover up the crime. Deputies were called to the couple's Winter Springs home after a report of a home invasion early Sunday morning. Police have since charged Kimberly Boone, 44, with attempted murder in the first-degree. At approximately 5:45am, deputies responded to 714 Boysenberry Ct, in Winter Springs, regarding a call of a possible residential burglary with shots fired. Upon arrival deputies found 41-year-old Robert Boone in the bedroom with a gunshot wound...

Four women, accused of flashing bar patrons at "The Barn," in Sanford, were arrested after attending a "Girls Gone Wild" party on Thursday. Of the over one-thousand attendees, Joyce Lourcey, of Middleburg, Kathryn Giannobile, of Sanford, Christine Goncalves and Migdalia Rodriguez, both of Deltona, were hauled-off in handcuffs for indecent exposure. “Sanford had a strict nudity law and anyone that violated it with any type of flashing would be arrested,” said Cleo Cohen from the Sanford Police Department. Nudity is strictly prohibited in Sanford. "The Barn" owner, Eric Tims, posted signs about the town ordinance, but despite that, the women...

BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. -- New information released Friday reveal disturbing details about the murder of a retired police officer who disappeared from his home in Palm Bay. Paul Cadigan's dismembered body was discovered off a rural road in Osceola County on February 8. On Friday, Dianne Parker was jailed for his murder. She is expected to make her first appearance in court on Saturday. Investigators told Eyewitness News the victim died of multiple gunshot wounds and then was dismembered and scattered along at least two different rural roads in Osceola County. Parker, 55, is accused of a crime fit for...

OCOEE, Fla. -- An eyewitness saw a robber brutally beating a store clerk in Ocoee, so he pulled a gun out of his car at the Kangaroo gas station on Franklin Street (see map) and fatally shot the robber. That witness talked to Eyewitness News about his decision to pull the trigger and said he'd shoot that robber again if he had to (watch full interview). He's a regular at the store and said he was coming to buy some cigarettes when he heard the clerk screaming. He told Eyewitness News he not only grabbed his cell phone to call...

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. -- The remains of a young child were located in east Orange County on Thursday morning less than a half-mile from Casey Anthony's parents' home, according to the Orange County Sheriff's Office. Eyewitness News has learned an Orange County water meter reader discovered a bag in the area of Chickasaw Trail and Suburban Drive (see map), around three-tenths of a mile from the Anthonys' home (map from location to Anthonys' home). According to information obtained by Eyewitness News, when the meter reader picked up the bag a skull fell out. The Orange County Sheriff's Office has confirmed...

A Republican party official says U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez of Florida will not seek a second term in 2010. The official said Martinez was scheduled to make the announcement at a Tuesday morning press conference in Orlando. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to make the announcement. Martinez was elected in 2004 after serving as the U.S. secretary for Housing and Urban Development for President George W. Bush.

OCALA, Fla. -- The owners of an Ocala business are accused of taking a racist swipe at president-elect Barack Obama. The NAACP of Florida calls the message on the company's marquee "horrific" and "insensitive." Last year, the same fence company and auto shop was accused of using its sign to ridicule people with disabilities. What they've posted now, some call free speech and others call an outrage. "That's like racist right there," one resident told Eyewitness News. "Why do they feel like they have the right to just put it out there. There's kids that come by here. There's...

NAPLES — A group of children and parents were trick or treating when witnesses say a black Hyundai drove through the crowd, nearly striking one of the children. One of the parents yelled at the driver to slow down. The driver stopped her car and exited the vehicle holding a three-foot long crow bar. Witnesses say the suspect began swinging the crow bar at the group violently. The suspect struck a parent on the forehead with the crow bar and then drove away quickly. Witnesses were able to jot down the license plate number. The suspect and her vehicle were...

Can't recall the last vanity I've done but I thought this was funny/interesting enough to post one now.

When he heard the name connected to the story – the one about the college kid who allegedly "hacked" his way into a personal e-mail account for Republican vice presidential candidate Gov. Sarah Palin – Tracey McDaniels was not surprised. There was, after all, a history there. "He did the same kind of thing when he went to school here," said McDaniels, a history teacher at Eastern Hills Middle School. "He and another kid found a way to get onto the school's server – they just sat down and figured out the password." A taste of things to come for...

Local elections officials are looking into potential election fraud and some of the information is pointing to a Democratic-leaning voter's group. ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations For Reform Now, has been registering thousands of new voters for this year's election, but in Seminole County, some voter applications are being withheld until it's proven they're legitimate. Election fraud is a felony, but first it has to be proven and someone has to be charged. So far, elections officials said they are just beginning to gather clues in this case. Seminole County's elections supervisor is holding up dozens of voter registration...

Governor Palin about to speak at rally in Florida. Here is a live stream from an Orlando station

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. -- A controversial billboard in Orange County has a picture of the burning World Trade Center and the message, "Please Don't Vote for a Democrat." The man who paid for the ad says he's trying to help Republicans, but officials with both political parties are calling the billboard inappropriate. There are billboards up and down busy Orange Blossom Trail, but this at John Young Parkway (see map) one sticks out. "Just looking at it, I'm not thinking about Democrat or Republican, I'm thinking about the twin towers and all the people killed," resident Mary Anderson told Eyewitness...

Catholics consider the consecrated wafer, the Eucharist, among the most sacred objects in the world and believe it becomes the 'Body of Christ' through transubstantiation. Student Government Senator Webster Cook filed the hazing charges with University of Central Florida administrators shortly after he admitted violating church rules by bringing the Eucharist home from Mass on June 29, then holding it hostage for one week in a plastic bag before returning it. Cook said his hazing complaint cited a UCF anti-hazing policy banning the forced consumption of any food in which the initiation or admission into or affiliation with a University...

A 13-year-old girl's sexual shenanigans have put a second man behind bars. Morris Williams, 22, told the judge he thought the girl was 18-years-old, but he found out Tuesday that ignorance is not a defense. Morris Williams' mother wailed as he went off to jail. The judge asked for media not to show 13-year-old Alisha Dean's face in court, but her pictures are all over her MySpace page and they portray a sexy, 19-year-old divorced woman. "She told me she had just turned 18," Williams said. Williams said Dean picked him up on the street and after a few conversations...

MARION COUNTY, Fla. -- A Marion County man who opened fire on his wife bought the shotgun used in the crime just hours earlier at a nearby Wal-Mart. He didn't have to wait to get the gun. He passed a mandatory background check in the store and walked right out with it. The man then went back into the store and bought some shotgun shells. Detectives said he then went home and murdered his wife. Cheryl Schleher heard a knock at the door Monday night around 11 o'clock. It was her neighbor, Johnny High. "My husband went out there and...

MARION COUNTY, Fla. -- A man who kidnapped and molested a Marion County boy choked to death in prison. Frederick Fretz died at a federal prison in Atwater, California after choking on a hot dog. In 2005, Fretz kidnapped 11-year-old Adam Kirkirt from Dunellon Elementary School. At the time, he told Kirkirt he was going to take him to his father, who had been arrested in Kentucky. Fretz and the child were later found in Georgia.

TAMPA, Fla. -- Florida's citrus growers are reporting only minor damage as the state thaws out from an overnight cold snap, even as snow flurries fall in parts of the Sunshine State. The National Weather Service says temperatures dropped into the 20s across north Florida, including parts of the Panhandle. The lowest temperature recorded was 20 degrees in Cross City, about 90 miles southeast of Tallahassee. A serious freeze would have been devastating to the state's citrus industry, already struggling from years of diseases and hurricanes. But most citrus growers are based in central and South Florida, where temperatures hovered...