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Father kills 4 children, self after spousal disputeAssociated Press Posted on Wed, Jul. 05, 2006 An undated photo provided by the Gustine Police Department shows twins Alyssa Branscum, 5, left, and Taylor Branscum. The twins and their two other siblings were found dead in their Gustine, Calif., home Tuesday, July 4, 2006, officials said. The children apparently died of gunshots to the head, and their father, Trevor Branscum, 38, died of a self-inflicted wound, Mayor Jim Bonta said. Police Sgt. Vince Inaudi said the children appeared to be sleeping when they were shot. The evidence was consistent with a murder-suicide,...

ADA - The bodies of a 16-year-old cheerleader and a 47-year-old man were found Saturday, less than 24 hours after the girl was seen getting into a pickup at her high school. Troopers in an Oklahoma Highway Patrol helicopter spotted the bodies of Caitlin Elizabeth Wooten and Jerry Don Savage shortly before 10 a.m., said Mark Bratcher, a spokesman for the city of Ada. Both had been shot in an apparent murder-suicide, said Jessica Brown, a spokeswoman for the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation. Ada High School Principal Bill Nelson fought back tears Saturday as students gathered less than 50...

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) - A local columnist and her businessman husband committed suicide on New Year's Day after sending out their obituary, letters to friends and a newspaper column supporting "death with dignity," authorities said. The obituary stated that Ethan and Helen Levine, both suffering from serious illness, died together "through united self-deliverance," according to the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle of Cheyenne and the Casper Star-Tribune, which received copies. http://apnews.myway.com/article/20050105/D87E4IQO1.html Wyo. Couple Write Notes, Commit Suicide The bodies were found Tuesday by Laramie County sheriff's deputies, who went to check on the couple after the obituary and letters were delivered. Laramie County...

Blacksburg social activists listed as missing following suspected arson The fire's cause had not yet been determined in what police are calling "a very vague crime scene." By Shay Barnhart 981-3665 The New River Valley Current PEARISBURG - Giles County sheriff's investigators are looking for two Blacksburg social activists who haven't been seen since Thursday morning, when a cabin in Newport that was home to one of them was destroyed by fire. Sue Daniels, 44, who lived in the cabin, and her friend, Niklan Jones-Lezama, 40, have been listed in a national database of missing people, said Lt. Willie Lucas...

Five Dead in House Fires in Detroit Area Monday August 30, 2004 12:01 AM WATERFORD TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) - Flames broke out in two Detroit-area homes Sunday, killing five people, including three members of a family, authorities said. Police officer Michael Waleskowki, 40, his wife and their 10-year-old son died in a blaze in Waterford Township, about 35 miles northwest of Detroit, Deputy Chief Ben McCaw said. The names of the wife and son were not immediately available. Authorities were investigating the blaze Sunday and would not say whether it was suspicious. The home was engulfed in flames when authorities...

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - Robert Howard had two dreams: becoming a doctor and winning an Olympic medal. He came close to achieving both. He made the finals in the triple jump twice, in Atlanta eight years ago and again in Sydney in 2000. This year was to be his last in medical school. Then, early Saturday, just as the 2004 Summer Games were getting under way in Athens, Howard leaped to his death - from a dormitory next to the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, dressed in blood-splattered surgical scrubs. Police surmise the blood was that of Howard's...

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - Police said Monday they believe a former Olympic athlete killed his neurosurgeon wife before jumping to his death from a 10th-story dormitory window. Investigators identified the man as Robert Howard, a University of Arkansas medical student who competed in track and field in the 1996 and 2000 Olympics, said medical school police Capt. Bryan Patterson. "Nobody that I know of had any kind of a hint that there were any kind of problems at all, let alone problems to that degree," said Dick Booth, an assistant coach at Arkansas who helped Howard prepare for the...

BAGHDAD (AFP) - Four US marines were killed in Al-Anbar province, the US military revealed. "Four US marines assigned to the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force were killed on the 21st of June in the Al-Anbar province conducting security and stability operations," a spokesman said Monday. Earlier, a witness said he saw four US soldiers shot in the western city of Ramadi Monday. He said he thought the soldiers were killed. The Marines never reveal details about how their troops are killed. Al-Anbar province, west of Baghdad, is a hotbed of the insurgency against the US-led occupation of Iraq. The deaths...

Tacoma police chief shoots wife, kills himself By LEWIS KAMB, PHUONG CAT LE, ANGELA GALLOWAY and RUTH TEICHROEB SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTERS GIG HARBOR - Tacoma's police chief shot his wife and then himself in the parking lot of a strip mall Saturday afternoon while the couple's two young children were nearby. David Brame died at St. Joseph's Hospital in Tacoma about 6 p.m. His wife Crystal was in critical condition at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. On Friday, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported that Crystal Brame, 35, had obtained a temporary restraining order in February against her husband. In subsequent court...

Town warier after girl's slaying Arkansas victim met abductor through Internet, police say 12/15/2002 By SUZI PARKER / Special Contributor to The Dallas Morning News HOLLAND, Ark. - Holland is about as far from being a big city as you can get. Eight miles from Conway and 60 from Little Rock, it is a community of 80 people surrounded by pastures and cows. It's the kind of place where neighbors look out for one another and few people lock their doors. But now it's a town reeling from what many residents would have considered a big-city crime: the slaying...

ALLIANCE -- Leroy Zeigler spoke softly and calmly about his daughter, Andrea Zeigler Floyd, who was shot and killed near an Army base about a week ago. He remembered her raising goats for 4-H. He remembered her as a standout athlete at Marlington High School. And he remembered her kind gestures. Like when she became a surrogate mother. “If she’d do that for those people she didn’t even know,” Zeigler said at his home in Columbiana County’s Knox Township, “you could imagine what she’d do for the people she knew.” Zeigler Floyd, 29, formerly of Alliance, was among four women...

Man kills four kids and himself in Merced murder-suicide Four Merced children are dead after what police believe was a murder suicide. Just after 7 a.m. Tuesday, a man went to the home of his ex-wife at Lecco and Piedmont Streets in Northeast Merced, where he allegedly shot his own child, three other children in the home and himself. Merced County Sheriff's Deputies say the man's ex-wife, Christine McFadden, came back from a morning walk to find her ex-husband and her five-year-old daughter lying dead on the floor. McFadden went to a neighbor's house to call police, then returned...