The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "child murder" ...
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Who Killed Aiyana Stanley-Jones?
LeDuff investigates who death Aiyana Stanely-Jones, a seven-year-old who was shot and killed when Detroit police raided an East Side home where she slept on the couch. Police were looking for a murder suspect, and Aiyana ended up dead. The story "is a powerful heartbreaking elegy for a child, a city and our civic duties."
Tags: crime; murder; Detroit; poverty; police reports; FOIA; homicide
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The Preacher's Mob
Michael Lock went from a child preacher to a crime boss, who ended up leading a criminal organization. The organization murdered a number of dealers and buried their bodies under concrete. But when police had the chance to capture Lock, they failed to and let him go. This series revealed he was paying a number of police officers to help with his crimes.
Tags: Michael Lock; crimes; Body Snatchers; law enforcement; killer; drugs; fraud; criminal; homicide
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Through the Cracks
The 1988 brutal rape and murder of a young mother and her daughter has left the child's grandmother, Phyllis Little, with 21 years of questions. In 2009, the NYPD announced they had arrested a man and charged him with the double-murder. Reporter Joshua Kors provides a detailed look at the lives of the murdered mother, as well as the man accused of killing her. Kors also describes the pain and guilt felt by Little for more than two decades.
Tags: crack; Bronx; low-cost housing; DNA; Five Percenters; Rikers Island prison; Bronx River Projects; West Farms
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"Trust Betrayed"
In this investigative series, Sun Sentinel reporters find numerous employees of Florida day care centers and nursing homes have startling criminal backgrounds. Many of the employees had criminal records that revealed crimes of child abuse, rape and murder. An obviously flawed Florida state law allows people to begin working as caregivers before a background check is complete.
Tags: Background checks; Florida day care; Florida nursing homes; Charlie Crist; criminal background; Department of Children & Families; George Sheldon; Children, Families and Elder Affairs committee
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Failing the Children: Deadly Mistakes
"In May 2007, authorities found 7-year old Chandler Grafner starved to death in a closet. He showed signs of long-term abuse. His guardians, Jon Phillips and Sarah Berry, were convicted of murder. In covering the story, KMGH-TV investigative reporter John Ferrugia attempted to determine the extent of the the Denver Department of Human Services' involvement with the family... Ferrugia and the KMGH investigative team consistently obtained internal documents to expose a system fraught with incompetence, lack of oversight, poor management and ineffective training... In short, a system that left children at risk."
Tags: Department of Human Services; child welfare; child protective services; child abuse; neglect
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Adolfo's Story
Adolfo Davis has been in jail since the age of fourteen, sentence to life in prison without parole for murder. In Illinois, it's legal to question a fourteen-year-old without the presence of a defense attorney so long as a youth officer is present, and the child is made aware of his rights.
Tags: accountability; murder; drug territory; parole; probation officer; testimony; sentencing
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Day-care dangers; DCFS: Guilty until proven innocent; DCFS Declassified
The series focused on how the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services protects children and found problems, including a state law with wording so flawed it couldn't work, major errors in investigating alleged child abuse that ended up accusing innocent parents and repeated errors in the investigation of a murdered boy.
Tags: children; DCFS; Kalab Lay; custody; child abuse; sex offender
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Air Marshals: Undercover and Under Arrest
The Federal Air Marshal Service presents the image of an elite undercover force charged with making life-and-death decisions that demand sound judgment. ProPublica found that dozens of air marshals have been charged with crimes, including 18 felonies, and hundreds more have been accused of misconduct. Cases include smuggling drugs past airport security, aiding a human trafficking ring, child sex abuse, bribery, drunken driving, domestic violence, holding an escort against her will during an overnight layover, solicitation to commit murder and voyeurism after one air marshal was caught taking photos of women's genitals on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.
Tags: air marshals; Transportation Safety Agency; human trafficking; child sex abuse; drunken driving; domestic violence; criminal convictions
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I Lit the Fire: Jared Petrovich Admits His Role in the Killing of John Chamberlain. But why did he target the gay?
These four articles probed the culture of violence at tTheo Lacy Men's Jail in Orange, CA, beginning with an exclusive interview of Jared Petrovich, the accuse ringleader of the Oct. 5, 2006 murder of John Chamberlain, an inmate suspected of child molestation who was brutally beated inside the jail. That story included combined interviews with Petrovich and other inmates and guards at the facility with transcripts and notes of interviews with inmates and guards that the reporter obtained from lawyers representing inmates, including Petrovich, who were charged in the attack. The article contained allegations that Deputy Kevin Taylor, a prison guard who was never charged in the crime, told Petrovich that Chamberlain was a child molester, and that Taylor routinely use inmates like Petrovich to enforce prison rules and mete out punishment to various inmates. Petrovich provided an example of this behavior that I did not include in my original story, alleging that Taylor had known about--and approved--a previous beating of an inmate in Sept. 2006. He only knew the inmate's first name--Mark--but claimed the inmate had been a guitarist for the rock band Kiss. He claimed another inmate, nicknamed "Sick Dog" had witnessed Taylor being informed of the planned attack and, after it was carried out, rewarding the inmates with sack lunches. Through a California Public Records Act request, the reporter obtained the Sheriff Department's jail file on the beaten inmate, Mark Leslie Norton, aka Mark St. John of the rock band Kiss, and found information which corroborated Petrovich's account of the incident, and obtained his death certificate. St. John died of a brain hemorrhage several months after being released.
Tags: prison beatings; rock band Kiss; California; prisoner brutality; bribe; prison regulation
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What went wrong?
"Police say Marine Lance Cpl. Robert Quiroz murdered his infant son. But confidential records - obtained through a court order by The Fresno Bee - show that authorities might have saved the baby" had they followed procedures.
Tags: police; law enforcement; child abuse; child custody; homicide; Robert Quiroz; Child Protective Services