Authorities couldn’t say Friday the exact number of animals rescued, but Harold Dates of SPCA Cincinnati put the number at just over 60. He said the animals were well cared for but a “little shaken up.” Funeral held for slain
Funeral held for slain brothers
TACOMA, Wash. (AP) — More than a thousand people mourned the deaths of Charlie and Braden Powell at a public funeral Saturday, nearly a week after the young boys’ father killed them and himself in a gas-fueled blaze.
“We want to celebrate their innocence today,” said the Rev. Dean Curry, lead pastor of Life Center Church in Tacoma. “We want to be grateful for the moments we had with these children.”
The boys’ grandfather Chuck Cox thanked police, social workers, teachers and everyone who cared for Charlie, 7, and Braden, 5, as well as people who had prayed for the boys after they died.
It “helps us to know that there are good people in the world — good people who fight against evil,” Cox said.
At the front of the church’s sanctuary, the boys were in a single casket topped with a large flower arrangement that included daisies, roses and sunflowers.
“We know that they’re with their mother,” Cox said, remembering his daughter, Susan Powell, who has been missing for two years and is presumed dead.
The boys’ father, Josh Powell, was in the middle of a custody battle with Cox when he torched his rental home in Graham last Sunday.
Josh Powell was a person of interest in his wife’s disappearance in Utah two years ago, and prosecutors consider the fire an admission that he killed her.
Remains ID’d as victim of killers
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Human remains uncovered in Northern California with the help of a convicted serial killer have been preliminarily identified as one of his victims, and authorities continued to search another site for the remains of as many as 10 people.
Dental records identified the remains found Thursday in Calaveras County as those of Cyndi Vanderheiden, 25, San Joaquin sheriff’s spokesman Les Garcia said Saturday.
Authorities were still awaiting the results of a DNA analysis to confirm the identification, Garcia said.
Cyndi Vanderheiden’s father, John Vanderheiden, said he is awaiting the DNA results but he is almost sure the remains are those of his daughter.
“There will be closure after that,” he said.
Searchers following a map prepared by convicted serial killer and death row inmate Wesley Shermantine have so far uncovered two sets of remains near property once owned by Shermantine’s family about 60 miles south of Sacramento.
One set is believed to belong to Vanderheiden, who disappeared in 1998, and the other is believed to be 16-year-old Chevelle “Chevy” Wheeler.
Authorities have not positively identified the remains found Friday as those of Wheeler. But Wheeler’s parents said they were notified that the remains were found in a spot where Shermantine said their daughter was buried after she disappeared in 1985.
Investigators believe Vanderheiden and Wheeler were among as many as 15 victims of Shermantine and his childhood friend Loren Herzog. They were called the “Speed Freak Killers” because of their methamphetamine-fueled killing spree.
Hazed students can’t play sports
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The parents of two boys who say the teens were punched during high school baseball hazing rituals say they’re being victimized again — this time because they aren’t being allowed to play sports after switching schools.
State rules prevent high school students from switching districts just to play sports, ostensibly to prevent star athletes from essentially being recruited by rival districts. But the parents of these two boys say school officials made no effort to help them escape the hazing that sent them both to hospitals for treatment.
Both boys, who were 15 years old at the time of the alleged abuse last year at Picayune Memorial High School, transferred to other schools because they said the verbal tormenting persisted after the physical abuse. But the Mississippi High School Athletic Association ruled them ineligible to play sports, a move that caused one boy’s new school to forfeit more than a dozen basketball game wins because he had been on the team.
The boys had applied for a hardship from the association, which would have allowed them to play sports. But the guidelines allow such exceptions only for medical reasons, and the boys’ request was denied.
Pets rescued from blaze find homes
MOUNT HEALTHY, Ohio (AP) — Several dozen animals have found temporary shelter after Ohio firefighters rescued at least 60 pets from a house fire in a Cincinnati suburb.
Authorities responding to the Thursday morning fire found a menagerie of about a dozen snakes, 18 rats, a hedgehog, a chinchilla, birds, rabbits and others creatures. Most of the animals survived the fire at the Mount Healthy home, although at least one iguana and two cats died.
Pet owner Nikki Hagaman, who volunteers at The Animal House pet store that also rescues animals, was not at home when the fire broke out. She said she had at least 77 pets.
“I can’t say no,” she told The Cincinnati Enquirer.
Authorities couldn’t say Friday the exact number of animals rescued, but Harold Dates of SPCA Cincinnati put the number at just over 60. He said the animals were well cared for but a “little shaken up.”
