Tag: Montana
Missing baby survives 9 hours buried in woods
MISSOULA, Mont. — A 5-month-old infant who miraculously survived more than nine hours being buried under a pile of sticks and debris in the woods of western Montana suffered only minor injuries despite wearing wet and soiled clothes in cold weather, authorities said Monday.
The baby boy is otherwise in good condition, authorities said.
Missoula County Sheriff’s deputies were called about 8 p.m. Saturday about a man threatening people in the Lolo Hot Springs area of the Lolo National Forest. Deputies apprehended the man, who indicated that a baby was buried somewhere in the woods.
The sheriff’s office hastily put together a search crew of federal, state and local officials that combed the forest outside the hot springs for six hours before a deputy heard a baby’s cry at about 2:30 a.m. Sunday.
He found the baby face-down under the pile of sticks and debris, dressed only in a wet and soiled onesie in the 46-degree weather.
“He suffered some minor scrapes and bruising but overall is in good health,” sheriff’s spokeswoman Brenda Bassett said in a statement Monday.
The baby was taken to a hospital. Custody of the child has been referred to the state Division of Child and Family Services, whose spokesman, Chuck Council, did not immediately return a call for comment on Monday.
Francis Crowley, 32, was being held on $50,000 bail on a charge of criminal endangerment. Additional charges will follow, the sheriff’s office said in a statement Sunday.
“For all of us at the sheriff’s office, this is what we call a miracle,” the statement said. “For the officers who were present for this event, it’s especially hard knowing what this small baby endured in the last 24 hours.”
The nature of Crowley’s relationship to the baby was not immediately clear. There was no information on whether Crowley had an attorney.
via: https://nypost.com/2018/07/09/missing-baby-survives-9-hours-buried-in-woods/
Woman forced ex to have sex holding machete to his face
A Montana woman broke into a man’s house with a machete, ordered him to take off his clothes and forced him to have sex with her, police said.
Samantha Ray Mears, 19, was charged Friday with two felonies — aggravated burglary and assault with a weapon — as well as several misdemeanors for the incident at her ex-boyfriend’s Great Falls home, according to the Great Falls Tribune.
Mears reportedly broke into her ex of seven years’ house Friday while he was away. When he returned, she confronted him with the large knife, demanded that he take off all his clothes and ordered him to lie on his bed.
Fearing bodily harm, the victim complied and she proceeded to remove her pants and climb on top of him.
Mears then began to engage him in sexual intercourse — all while still holding the machete.
When he tried to get her to stop, Mears refused and bit him on the arm, according to KFBB.
After she finished, she sat naked on the bed, brandishing the weapon. At that point, the victim was able to take several photos of her, which he turned over to the police as evidence.
When an argument ensued soon after, an enraged Mears ripped a piece of trim from the victim’s wall and deliberately urinated in his bed, according to KFBB.
The ex-boyfriend was able to alert the authorities after claiming he needed to call a friend, then escaping from the room to dial 911.
According to the Tribune, Mears was also arrested in April after a previous argument at the victim’s home where she grabbed his hair, hit him in the face and attempted to strangle him.
The state has also filed a restraining order against the defendant, according to KFBB.
via: https://nypost.com/2018/06/26/woman-forced-ex-to-have-sex-holding-machete-to-his-face-cops/
MONTANA WOMAN USED METH AS TODDLER LAY DYING, PROSECUTORS SAY
A Montana woman abused a 13-month-old girl in her care, used methamphetamine while the child was unconscious and when the girl stopped breathing, put her body in a duffel bag and threw it in a trash can before going home to sleep, federal prosecutors said.
Janelle Red Dog, 43, of Poplar, has reached an agreement to plead guilty to second-degree murder in the April 2016 death of Kenzley Olson on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation, home to about 10,000 members of the Assiniboine and Sioux tribes in northeastern Montana.
U.S. District Judge Brian Morris has set a change-of-plea hearing for May 1 in Great Falls.
Prosecutors were prepared to show that Kenzley was ill and Red Dog was frustrated because she could not get the girl to stop crying, according to an offer of proof filed Thursday. She hit the girl on the head four times, causing her to have a seizure and lose consciousness, court records said.
Red Dog did not seek medical help for Kenzley and instead used meth with a friend. Sometime early the next morning, she decided to take the girl to the hospital. Red Dog said the girl stopped breathing on the way.
“Red Dog, believing (Kenzley) to be dead, disposed of her body by placing her into a duffel bag and throwing the duffel bag in an alley trash can,” prosecutors said.
Kenzley died of multiple blunt force injuries, but an exam also noted numerous bruises from head to toe in various stages of healing, suggesting a pattern of continued physical abuse and neglect, an autopsy found.
“It could also not be determined if (Kenzley) was deceased at the time she was placed in the duffel bag, so asphyxia or cold exposure could not be ruled out as contributed to her death,” court records said. Kenzley had the flu and was in the beginning stages of pneumonia, the autopsy found.
Red Dog initially reported Kenzley missing on April 19, 2016, and suggested she may have been kidnapped.
Kenzley’s death came just weeks after John Lieba II abducted a 4-year-old girl from a park in the reservation town of Wolf Point and sexually assaulted her before trying to kill her. The girl was found several days later. Lieba was convicted earlier this month of kidnapping, aggravated sexual abuse and assault resulting in serious bodily injury. He is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 3.
The day after making the report, Red Dog confessed and led investigators to the girl’s body.
Red Dog had been caring for Kenzley for three to four weeks prior to her death, court records said. Tribal Chairman Floyd Azure has said Kenzley’s mother was being held in the tribal jail at the time.
Red Dog’s mother, Rhea Starr, said her daughter was caring for Kenzley when no one else would.
“That baby was passed along like yesterday’s gossip,” Starr told The Associated Press last year.
Azure has said both cases show the impact of meth on the reservation. On Friday, Azure said drug use is still an issue on the reservation, but his department does not have the money and personnel to adequately address it.
via: http://abc7chicago.com/news/prosecutors-woman-used-meth-as-toddler-lay-dying/1938129/