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Murder charges filed this afternoon against Terapon Adhahn: Prosecutors charged a convicted sex offender Monday with kidnapping, raping and killing Zina Linnik, a 12-year-old girl who was snatched from an alley behind her family’s home during a July 4th fireworks celebration. According to the charging documents, Terapon Dang Adhahn led investigators to the girl’s body. Zina died from a blow to the head, according to papers filed in Superior Court. Her body was found near Silver Lake in rural Pierce County, and authorities say Adhahn’s DNA was found on her. Adhahn, a Thai immigrant, was scheduled to be arraigned later...

My fellow Americans, we have a problem. We spend billions of dollars on homeland security, but our government can't even track and deport convicted criminal aliens. These are not the well-meaning "newcomers" who just want to "pursue economic opportunities" by "doing the jobs no one else will do." These are foreign-born thugs, sex offenders, murderers and repeat drunk drivers who are destroying the American Dream. If our immigration and entrance system cannot effectively monitor, detain and kick out convicted criminal aliens -- including illegal border-crossers, illegal visa overstayers, fugitive deportees, and green card holders who have committed serious crimes and...

Geraldo Rivera’s breathless tease By Michelle Malkin  •  July 16, 2007 08:09 AM If you want ignorant ranting about immigration and the Zina Linnik case, go watch Geraldo Rivera (thanks to readers for e-mailing me about it over the weekend and AP for clipping the vid). Utterly shameless. Geraldo teased his Saturday night segment on the case by claiming that Zina’s uncle, Anatoly Kalchik, would argue that Zina’s accused murderer should be called a “monster” instead of an “immigrant:” GERALDO: The tragic story was twisted to aggravate the immigration debate… A little girl snatched and brutally murdered. Tonight her family speaks...

A 12-year-old Tacoma girl, kidnapped while enjoying the all-American activity of watching fireworks on the Fourth of July, apparently was killed by a Thai immigrant who should have been deported but wasn’t. The little girl also was the daughter of an immigrant family living in the United States legally. The man arrested for her murder was convicted of first-degree incest in 1990 and has been violating a mandatory order to register as a sex offender, authorities said. And some people - from President Bush to Colorado Sen. Ken Salazar - still wonder why most Americans want immigration laws strictly enforced....

South Sound residents outraged over the abduction and slaying of Zina Linnik have raised two key questions about Terapon Adhahn, named by Tacoma police as the suspect in the girl’s death. Adhahn was an immigrant. Why wasn’t he deported after his 1990 conviction for incest? Because federal law didn’t require it. Adhahn, 42, came to America in 1977. He became a legal permanent resident, but never filed for citizenship. Under federal law, a single conviction for a “crime of moral turpitude” doesn’t warrant deportation for a legal permanent resident, Lori Haley, a spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said Friday....

The body of Zina Linnik was found today (Saturday) in Tacoma, Washington, based on information from a convicted sex offender who has been arrested in connection with her abduction, sexual torture, and death. Final charges have not been filed, and there has not been any trial. But available information now indicates that the man responsible is Terapon Adhahn, 42, an illegal alien who had been convicted in 1990 of incest against an underage relative. He should have been deported then as a result of that conviction. He wasn’t. As a representative of the Immigration Service said in one article about...

[link only for subject article] Police chief: Man to be charged in Tacoma girl's kidnapping, death TACOMA, Wash. -- A man currently being held for failing to register as a sex offender will likely be charged in connection with the death of 12-year-old Zina Linnik, who was kidnapped from behind her family's home on July 4. "It is anticipated that he will eventually be charged for Zina's abduction and death," Tacoma Police Chief Don Ramsdell said at a news conference Friday afternoon. "The Linnik family is currently in our thoughts and prayers as they begin healing from this horrific event."...

"I disgraced myself, and my mother deserves a better son than me.” Terapon Adhahn said those words to a counselor 17 years ago, during treatment for a sex offense he admitted committing. What he said to Tacoma police Thursday is unknown, but information from Adhahn, 42, led investigators to the body of 12-year-old Zina Linnik, missing since July 4. "It is with great regret and sorrow that I am informing our community that we have located the body of Zina Linnik," Tacoma Police Chief Don Ramsdell said Thursday, Ramsdell provided little more information, saying only that Linnik’s body was found...

TACOMA, Wash. — A 42-year-old convicted sex offender from Thailand who entered the U.S. illegally was being questioned by police Friday after he provided information that led to the discovery of the body of 12-year-old Zina Linnik, who police believe was kidnapped July 4 while watching a fireworks display.

TACOMA, Wash. — Police and FBI agents found the body of a 12-year-old girl who was snatched from an alley behind her house during a July 4 fireworks celebration, police said. Information provided by a man in custody on an immigration complaint led police and FBI agents to an undisclosed location in Pierce County where they found Zina Linnik's body, Tacoma Police Chief Don Ramsdell said late Thursday. The news brought "great anguish" to the Linnik family as well as Tacoma police and FBI agents who had worked to find the girl, Ramsdell said.

Zina Linnik was last seen around 9:45 p.m. on July 4, Tacoma police said. Witnesses reported hearing a scream and seeing an Asian male get into an older, gray van and drive away. Linnik is described as a blonde, 4-foot-11-inch-tall Ukrainian girl. She weighs 80 pounds and was reportedly wearing a pink T-shirt, capri pants and red flip-flop sandals at the time of her disappearance.

ISSAQUAH, Wash. -- A search at Tiger Mountain for a missing 12-year-old Tacoma girl has been suspended, police said. A tip led investigators to the site, and a command post was set up along Highway 18 on Tuesday. A helicopter and dozens of people, some with dogs, took part in the search for 12-year-old Zina Linnik, who disappeared on July 4. Officials met overnight and decided to suspend the search, police said. There were no immediate further details. Meanwhile, police said they are investigating a convicted sex offender in connection with Linnik's disappearance. Police searched the man's van and Parkland...

The person of interest is a 42-year-old sex offender from Thailand. He's currently being held for failing to register for an immigration violation and denies any involvement in Zina's disappearance. A search warrant reports investigators on Monday found a girl's undergarments at his home, where he lives alone. He responded to that news by saying he was remodeling the home for his sister.