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Man indicted on child porn charges dies

3-19-2014 Ohio:

A Granville man indicted Feb. 27 on multiple counts of having child pornography was rushed to the hospital Feb. 28 and died Monday from his apparent self-inflicted injuries.

Tyler C. Grossett, 27, last known address 560 Jones Road, was indicted as a result of a Central Ohio task force investigation of Internet crimes against children in late 2012, Licking County Prosecutor Ken Oswalt said.

According to his death notice, he was at the Selma Markowitz Care Center, operated by Hospice of Central Ohio, at the time of his death.

At 11:55 a.m. Feb. 28, a Granville Township Fire Department ambulance was called to Grossett’s Jones Road address regarding a reported overdose.

Granville Police Department Sgt. Keith Blackledge said the case is still open while officials await an autopsy report, but he could confirm suicide. Blackledge said the original report to Jones Road was an attempted suicide for an unresponsive person.

Oswalt said that to his knowledge Grossett had been in medical treatment since the day of his apparent overdose and he had never regained consciousness.

According to Licking County Sheriff Randy Thorp, deputies tried to serve the summons on the indictment to Grossett late in the morning Feb. 28, but were unable to make contact and left a standard note on the door to contact the office.

Before the indictment, the task force executed a search warrant at Grossett’s home and seized a computer that allegedly had “tens of thousands” of suspected images of child pornography, Oswalt said.

An investigation was ongoing for about a year to try to determine how many of the images actually constituted child pornography and the case was handed over to the Licking County Prosecutor’s Office in January.

Grossett was indicted on five fourth-degree felony counts of pandering sexually oriented matter involving a minor Feb. 27 by a grand jury. He was scheduled to have an initial bond hearing Tuesday in Licking County Common Pleas Court. ..Source.. by Advocate staff

Friend "shocked" over suicide of accused child molester who worked at church

2-21-2014 North Carolina:

SALISBURY, NC (WBTV) - A house parent in a Rowan County church school took his own life after being confronted with allegations that he had sexually abused young girls in the school.

Twelve years ago, there were similar allegations but nothing was done and many in the community want to know why.

According to the Rowan Sheriff's Office, Danny Kesler (59) took his own life after leaders at the City of Refuge School at Bible Missionary Baptist Church confronted him over allegations made by three teenaged girls at the school.

The girls had said that Kesler had inappropriate sexual contact with them.

Terry Rollins was friends with Danny Kesler. Rollins runs a knife store in Kannapolis and he says Kesler visited often, sometimes bringing children from the City of Refuge.

"Him and his wife had given up everything to operate this children's home for the church and they were faithful in doing it," Rollins told WBTV.

Rollins was shocked to hear of the new allegations and of Kesler's suicide just minutes after being confronted by church leaders.

Document Sheds Light on LCS Inmate Who Committed Suicide

3-6-2013 Texas:

A 12-page document released by U.S. District Court Thursday is shedding new light on the case of an inmate who committed suicide in the LCS Detention Facility near Robstown.

It was Saturday when 26-year old Trevor Nash, a second lieutenant in the U.S. Marines, committed suicide by hanging himself with a bed sheet. He was arrested by U.S. Marshals on Feb. 27.

According to the criminal complaint filed by the FBI, Nash was arrested for obtaining and distributing child pornography. The investigation dates back to May of 2013 while Nash was a pilot-in-training at Naval Air Station-Corpus Christi.

The 12-page document outlines the FBI's investigation into Nash's alleged child porn habits. The evidence included online conversations using several different chat sites, including Yahoo Messenger.

Defendant in sex assault cases takes own life

3-6-2013 Colorado:

The Denver District Attorney's Office said a defendant in multiple sex assaults, William Costello, killed himself Thursday morning.

Costello's trial in a series of sex assaults dating back to 2008 started this week in Denver District Court.

The court declared a mistrial Thursday morning after learning that Costello took his own life.

According to police, he did not show up for his 8:30 a.m. trial. The court waited, but after a while decided to monitor him using GPS.

The GPS had him at various locations, but he was later found in the area of Brighton Boulevard by paramedics.

"It's sad resolution, but it is a resolution. There are a lot of people that have waited a lot of years for Mr. Costello to be held accountable for what he did," Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey said.

Deaths of sex offenders take turn to bizarre

3-22-2013 Maine:

A convicted rapist who confessed last week to killing his former roommate, another sex offender, and then killed himself was under investigation because of an allegation that he sexually assaulted a young girl late last year.

Bruce King, 59, also known as Bruce Neal, was scheduled to meet with a detective on March 11 to discuss the allegation. That day, he killed himself in a U-Haul truck that police pulled over on Interstate 95 near Lincoln.

Maine State Police spokesman Stephen McCausland said Thursday that King was first interviewed by police in January about the sexual assault allegation. He told investigators that it was his former roommate, Lawrence Lewis, 68, who assaulted the girl. The allegation was never substantiated.

Lewis's body was found in his run-down home on Route 2 in Molunkus Township around the time King killed himself on the interstate after a four-hour standoff with police.

Before he took his own life, King told Penobscot County Sheriff's Deputy Patty McLaughlin that he had killed Lewis by forcing him to overdose on prescription medication, according to a police affidavit.

Medical examiners did an autopsy on Lewis last week but did not release the cause of his death because tests are still being done.

Child sex abuse suspect dies at Boston hospital

3-7-2014 Massachusetts:

A man charged with sexually abusing 13 children through his wife’s unlicensed child care business died at a hospital Friday night after an apparent suicide attempt in jail several hours earlier, his lawyer said.

Defense attorney William Barabino said John Burbine, a convicted sex offender, apparently tried to hang himself in his cell in an approximately 20-minute period between his guards’ regular checks on him.

"We don’t know why," Barabino said. "John was a smart man and apparently took an opportune time to do what he did."

He said Burbine was receiving half-hourly checks by guards, one of whom noticed him hanging in his cell about 10 minutes before the usual 8 a.m. check.

Burbine, 50, had no pulse, but he was revived through CPR, and efforts to maintain his pulse and breathing and to stabilize him continued for hours at the hospital, the attorney said. Burbine died at 6:26 p.m. without regaining consciousness, he said.

Northern California man linked to killing hangs self

3-5-2014 California:

A cold case murder suspect identified through fingerprint and DNA evidence was found dead days after learning that he'd been linked to the crime.

Police told The San Francisco Chronicle (http://bit.ly/1caiqan) that 48-year-old Robert Hathaway hanged himself on Tuesday, four days after Fairfield police interviewed him about the killing and collected a DNA sample.

Hathaway was a suspect in the Aug. 31, 1983 murder and sexual assault of 40-year-old Priscilla Strole. The victim's 15-year-old son found Strole's body.

Police ran fingerprints and DNA from the crime scene through a new law enforcement database this year, and obtained a match for Hathaway, who was 17 at the time and a friend of the victim's son.

Hathaway in 1986 was arrested for burglary and his prints were entered into a database. ..Source.. by PressDemocrate

Child Porn Defendent Dies In Federal Prison

3-1-2014 Florida:

A former Tyndall airman, who pled guilty on child pornography possession charges in September, is dead.

Investigators arrested 30-year old Daniel Freiwald in July after tracing pornography internet downloads to his computer. He pled guilty to the federal charges last fall.

Federal Judge Richard Smoak sentenced him last month to 8-years in a federal prison. Wednesday authorities transferred Freiwald to the Federal Detention Center in Tallahassee, on his way to a federal prison.

But, Thursday he reportedly committed suicide.

Officials at the detention center refused to discuss the case.

But the Federal Bureau of Prisons' Inmate Locator website lists Freiwald's status as deceased. ..Source.. by

Man who died in house fire was well-known and often seen traveling city streets in a motorized chair

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