h Plane wreckage found

h Plane wreckage found

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — A chartered plane that crashed into a shallow harbor after taking off from Kodiak Island, killing six people, was carrying a group of fishermen from a dissident sect of the Russian Orthodox Church home for Christmas. Four people survived the crash Saturday, and one of them told investigators that the door to a baggage compartment in the nose of the small plane had popped open.. The wreckage, above, was recovered Sunday. The passengers were members of Alaska’s community of Russian Orthodox Old Believers who had been fishing in Kodiak and were taking a short flight north to Homer to celebrate Eastern Orthodox Christmas at home today.

Man charged with killing
girlfriend, cooking parts

TYLER, Texas — A man killed his girlfriend, then filleted and cooked parts of her body before calling police to tell them what he was doing, authorities said Sunday. Christopher Lee McCuin, 25, called 911 on Saturday and told an emergency dispatcher he had killed Jana Shearer, 21, and was boiling her body parts at his mother’s home, said Smith County Sheriff J.B. Smith. When authorities arrived at the home, they found Shearer’s mutilated body, one ear boiling in a pot of water on the stove and a fork sticking out of some human flesh sitting on a plate on the kitchen table. Authorities said it was unclear whether McCuin consumed any part of Shearer’s body. Authorities believe Shearer, 21, was abducted from her home Friday night and killed. Her death and mutilation was apparently the beginning of a crime spree that also included McCuin’s allegedly stabbing the boyfriend of his estranged wife and breaking into a business. The stabbing victim is in critical condition at an area hospital, officials said.

Hiker search scaled back

ATLANTA — The search for a 24-year-old hiker who disappeared from the northern Georgia woods on New Year’s Day will be scaled back, authorities said Sunday. Georgia Bureau of Investigation spokesman John Bankhead said the search for Meredith Emerson will not stop, but that only trained search and rescue individuals and law enforcement will be involved today. Authorities believe Emerson is no longer alive. Also today, the man accused of abducting Emerson is scheduled to appear in court. Authorities served a warrant Saturday evening charging Gary Michael Hilton, 61, with kidnapping with bodily injury. More than 150 people fanned out in the northern Georgia woods Sunday looking for Emerson’s body.

Boy, 12, charged with
fatal beating of toddler

LAUDERHILL, Fla. — A 12-year-old boy beat a toddler to death with a baseball bat because she was crying while he was trying to watch TV, authorities said. The boy, who was not identified, was arrested Saturday on first-degree murder charges, Lauderhill police spokesman Lt. Mike Cochran said. He was arraigned in juvenile court Sunday and remained in custody. Cochran said the boy confessed to authorities that he was home alone Friday baby-sitting a 10-year-old girl and the 17-month-old girl and became angry when the toddler began to cry.

One SpongeBob’s demise

BELVIDERE, Ill. — SpongeBob’s melting. So are Patrick, Squidward, Gary and Plankton. The massive made-from-snow replicas of the cast of the Nickelodeon cartoon “SpongeBob SquarePants” aren’t expected to survive this week’s record-setting warm weather. Dave King spent more than 30 hours crafting the full-color snowmen in his front yard as a way to entertain his children. “It was everything in my front yard, everything in my neighbor’s driveway, everything in my driveway,” the Belvidere resident said. The snowy SpongeBob, the yellow sponge who calls a pineapple under the sea home, is nearly 13 feet tall. The sculptures are painted with nearly two-dozen cans of spray paint and have drawn hundreds of spectators to King’s northern Illinois neighborhood.

Associated Press