Suspect named in Daniel Morcombe case

Earlier I wrote how they arrested a suspect for the murder of Daniel Morcombe, an Australian 13-year-old who’s been missing since 2003. Well, they finally named him: Brett Peter Cowan.

The Daily initially believed Cowan could not be named because he was charged with indecent treatment of a child under 16.

But a closer look at the legislation reveals that particular charge does not apply under Queensland’s reporting restrictions for all “prescribed sexual offences.”

“In Queensland there are laws that prevent the identification of a person charged with a limited number of sexual offences until they have been committed to trial,” the Daily’s lawyer said.

“This man has not been charged with these particular offences and therefore the prohibition doesn’t apply and he can be named.”

Well, I finally did it

After months of procrastinating, I have finally written up the abduction of Isabella Miller-Jenkins for posting later today. The case has raised national headlines and loads of mud-slinging and ire and what have you, because Isabella’s parents were lesbian lovers who conceived her with donor sperm. Then they split up and the bio-mom started talking about how the other wasn’t really Isabella’s mom, and then she renounced her homosexuality and joined Jerry Falwell’s church and everything kind of went to hell after that. This has been going on for years and of course the biggest loser is the child.

I know I’m probably going to get a nasty email or two over my casefile for Isabella, although I’ve tried very hard not to sound partisan.

Latest MP news

There is an article about Christine Nelson, who disappeared from Eugene, Oregon in 1986. She was 25. Her husband seems to be the prime suspect in her disappearance. The article doesn’t have any new information, but it’s nice that she got out in the spotlight for a moment.

I found this article about Shawn Tischler, a 30-year-old man who’s been missing from Long Beach, California since May. Shawn has schizophrenia and is very vulnerable. I must have scores of MPs on Charley who have schizophrenia or a related illness. Many of them become homeless. It’s tragic — all the more so when they get beaten to death by the cops, which happened recently in the case of Kelly Thomas from Fullerton, California. (Warning: that link has a picture of Kelly’s face just after the beating. It may just make you lose your lunch.)

There are new developments in the disappearance of Brandy Hall, who disappeared five years ago today from Malabar, Florida. She was a firefighter, as was her husband. The FBI has gotten involved in the case, which is presumed to be a homicide. Brandy left behind two small children.

The trial has begun for Valdeir Gonclaves-Santos, accused of murdering Vanderlei Szczepanik, his wife Jaqueline and their seven-year-old son Christopher. The Szczepanik family, who were immigrants from Brazil, disappeared at Christmastime in 2009. Valdeir’s wife is expected to testify. The police believe he killed the Szczepaniks to steal their money. They left behind 100k in cash and uncashed checks, and 20k in the bank, but their bank account was drained down to just $1,000 by January.

The police have identified the body of Lyubov Lutysk, who was listed on the Charley Project (and still is as of this writing, but I’m going to take her off). She was 49 when she went missing from Kent, Washington in January 2010. She had talked about being depressed and wanting to disappear. Her remains were found in the brush near Clark Lake Park in Kent. Foul play is not suspected.