Crime Time

Facebook chats are undoing for fugitives hiding in Texas

Latest lesson for fugitives: You can run, but you can't hide on Facebook. A husband and wife facing 20 counts of rape, incest, sexual abuse and sodomy in Kentucky fled shortly after their arrest in 2007. Jerry Lee Callahan and his wife, Rebecca, came to Texas, where they applied for driver licenses here and even posted on Facebook, a Kentucky TV station reports. Facebook, not the driver license applications, was their undoing. They chatted through Facebook with an acquaintance, who alerted authorities, Police tracked the IP address and captured the couple in Victoria County, Texas. 

Father convicted of rape, incest, murder during trial

A 47-year-old Missouri man has been convicted of raping his daughter and then murdering on the four children he fathered with her, the Associated Press reported.

According to the report, the murder charge stemmed from the father not seeking medical treatment for the sick boy.  He also was convicted of rape, incest and abuse of a corpse.

The jury took 2 1/2 hours to render its verdict, which included a recommendation of life in prison on the murder count.

It must have been an emotional scene in the Harrisonville courtroom.

The now 20-year-old daughter tearfully read a statement, the Associated Press reported.

"(The defendant) made me become a mother too soon and in a way I didn't want to be," she said.

The woman told the court during the trial that she was 5 years old when her father first had sex with her. Her first child, a daughter, was born when she was 14. The baby died four months later after falling off a couch in the recreational vehicle that the family lived in, the daughter said.

She had a son two years later and he was the only one of her children who survived. A year later, the woman had another son. He died, though, after becoming ill and not receiving any medical care, the Associated Press reported.

-- Lance Murray

Austrian incest dad in interview: 'I want hardest punishment'

In his first interview since being convicted of murder, incest, rape and imprisonment, Austrian incest father Josef Fritzl says he deserves the "hardest punishment."

He talked about how the appearance in court of the daughter he raped and held prisoner in a basement dungeon for 24 years led him to plead guilty and take his punishment.

He even talked about wanting to help his victims.

Fritzl fathered seven children with his daughter, Elisabeth, during that time. The murder conviction stemmed from the death of the seventh child, who died without medical attention in infancy and whose body was burned in a furnace.

You can read more of what Fritzl had to say here.

-- Lance Murray

Austrian incest dad gets life in prison after convictions

It's life in prison for Austrian incest father Josef Fritzl after he was convicted Thursday of murder, incest, rape, enslavement and false imprisonment for keeping his daughter in a basement dungeon for 24 years and fathering her seven children.

The murder conviction arose from the death of the seventh child, who died in infancy without medical care. The baby's body was burned in a furnace.

Friztl reportedly stared blankly as all of the verdicts were read.

-- Lance Murray

A stunner! Austrian incest dad pleads guilty to all charges

Austrian Josef Fritzl stunned everyone Wednesday, pleading guilty to all charges against him -- murder, rape, incest, forced imprisonment and coercion -- with these words to the court: "I declare myself guilty to the charges in the indictment."

Fritzl had been accused of imprisoning his daughter or 24 years in a basement dungeon and of fathering seven children with her. One of the children died in infancy without medical care and he burned the baby's body in a furnace.

The death of the infant was the basis of the murder charge against him.

-- Lance Murray

Incest dad confronted by daughter in courtroom videotape

It must have been a gripping scene inside an Austrian courtroom Tuesday when Elisabeth Fritzl confronted her father, Josef, in a videotape.

He's on trial accused of keeping her imprisoned in a basement dungeon for 24 years and fathering her seven children. He faces murder charges in connection with the death of the seventh child, who died in infancy without medical care and whose body was burned in a furnace.

Reporters were not allowed in the courtroom during the testimony and likely will be excluded until shortly before a verdict is read.

Josef Fritzl has pleaded guilty to incest, but denies the murder and rape charges against him.

-- Lance Murray

Austrian dad pleads guilty to incest, but not to murder and other charges

Josef Fritzl, the Austrian man on trial for imprisoning his daughter for 24 years and fathering seven children with her, has pleaded guilty to incest and other charges, but he denies charges of murder and enslavement.

Those are the most serious charges against him. The murder charge arises from the death of the seventh child in infancy without receiving medical care, and whose body Fritzl burned in a furnace.

In a plea that will sound weird to American readers, he pleaded "partly guilty" to rape but there was no elaboration on this plea that is allowable under Austrian law.

Verdicts still should come this week on the more serious charges in his trial.

-- Lance Murray

Her diary tells of 24 years of incest, rape, imprisonment by father

Elisabeth Fritzl chronicled her life in an Austrian cellar prison where her father kept her and the six children he fathered with her for 24 years by writing a diary on scraps of paper.

In moving passages, she wrote of the death of her seventh child, who turned blue and died in her arms. She wrote of the beatings, the rapes and the threats.

She also wrote of the wonderment of her children at everyday objects we would take for granted.

Her father, Josef Fritzl, 74, goes on trial in an Austrian court in less than a week. He faces a murder charge in the death of the seventh child, as well as slavery, rape and incest charges.

-- Lance Murray

Man faces murder, incest charges; dead babies found in coolers

Prosecutors in Missouri say that a 47-year-old man in Cass County raped a teenage relative and killed at least one of the four children he fathered with her.

Danial M. Rinehart faces charges of second-degree murder, statutory rape, endangering the welfare of a child, two counts of incest and two counts of abandonment of a corpse.

According to television station KMBC's report, beginning in 2003 he fathered four children with the 13-year-old relative, who is now 19. One of the four children is still alive and is in state custody.

His wife, Linda, also faces charges of child endangerment.

Authorities said that during the course of their investigation they found the bodies of two babies inside separate ice coolers at a garage on rural property.

-- Lance Murray

Incest dad now facing murder charge in infant's death

Seems like there's something new nearly every week in the case of Josef Friztl, the Austrian man accused of imprisoning his daughter for 24 years in a dungeon and fathering seven children with her.

Word comes now that Fritzl has been charged with murder in the death of one of those children, who died in infancy. Prosecutors contend the child would have lived had it gotten medical care.

Fritzl, 73, has blamed his behavior on mistreatment by an abusive mother. He's also been charged with rape, incest, false imprisonment and slavery.

His daughter is now 42. She and several of the children were released from their basement prison in April after the woman became ill and required hospitalization.

-- Lance Murray