Saturday, November 24, 2012

No Arrests in Murder of Jersey Bridgeman




LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Jersey Bridgeman endured a lot in her young life, including abuse at the hands of her father and stepmother, but school officials say she was still a happy little girl.
Now, with the couple away in prison for chaining her to a dresser last year, authorities are trying to figure out who killed the 6-year-old. Her body was found in a vacant house this week in Bentonville, a northwest Arkansas city best known as the home of Wal-Mart’s headquarters.





“To find out that the girl had been abused before, to me it was like: ‘You’ve got to be kidding me,’” said Mike Poore, school superintendent in Bentonville, where Jersey attended kindergarten at Sugar Creek Elementary. “How can someone that young go through so much?”
Still, despite the hardships she faced, Jersey managed to delight those she met.
“She’s an amazing child,” said Mary Ley, communications director for Bentonville schools. “She’d been through a lot and still had joy.”




Police in the city about 215 miles northwest of Little Rock have said they’re investigating Jersey’s death as a homicide, but they won’t disclose how she died. In a statement Friday, they said the girl’s family members have been cooperating with detectives but do not want to speak to the media “during this time of grieving” and “ask that their privacy be respected.”
Authorities haven’t arrested anyone in connection with Jersey’s death or publicly identified any suspects or persons of interest.
“There’s no reason ... for the community to be worried at this point,” Capt. Justin Thompson told The Associated Press on Friday. He would not say whether authorities think someone who knew the girl killed her.
Thompson said Jersey’s body was found in a vacant house two doors down from the home where she lived with her mother. He said investigators believe the girl died sometime between midnight and 6:53 a.m. Tuesday, when her body was found about 10 minutes after someone called police to report her missing.
Thompson would not say who called 911.
Authorities have searched the home where Jersey lived, the house where her body was found and the home in between the two. Thompson wouldn’t talk about what evidence they collected.
Jersey’s death comes almost a year after her father and stepmother chained her to a dresser in nearby Rogers.
According to court records, David Bridgeman told an investigator he cut a belt to fit around his daughter’s ankle and chained her to the dresser because she got into medication and other things around the house. He and Jersey’s stepmother, Jana Bridgeman, both pleaded guilty in June to false imprisonment, permitting abuse of a minor and endangering the welfare of a minor.
Jana Bridgeman is serving a 12-year prison sentence, plus three years for a probation revocation. David Bridgeman is serving an 18-year prison sentence.

25 comments:

John Mc Gowan said...

OT..

McAfee's Dogs Could Be Key To Murder Riddle
Police in the John McAfee manhunt have exhumed the bodies of his pet dogs in the search for clues to his neighbour's murder.

Police hunting the anti-virus pioneer John McAfee think the millionaire’s dogs could hold the key to solving the murder of his neighbour.

Mr McAfee shot dead his pets after they were poisoned two days before Gregory Faull, a retired American builder, was killed.

Officers have dug up the animals’ remains, which were buried in the grounds of Mr McAfee’s home in Belize, to examine the bullets used to kill them.

Forensic officers are now comparing the bullets to the single casing found by the body of Mr Faull to determine if there is a match.

Police spokesman Raphael Martinez said: “The dogs were exhumed and the slugs were taken out indeed and basically it’s just to match the slug that was found in Mr Faull."

The 52-year-old was found dead in his home on the island of Ambergris Cave on November 11. He had a gunshot wound to the head.


Police officers carrying the corpse of Gregory Faull
Mr McAfee has denied he was responsible for the murder and says he went into hiding only because the Belize authorities have a vendetta against him. He believes he was the intended victim of the shooting, not Mr Faull.

Since going on the run he has started a blog, which he promotes on Twitter, and regularly updates.

In it he has given details of how he has disguised himself as a beggar, a salesman and a drunken German tourist to watch police search his home seven times.

In a post about the exhumation of his dogs, Mr McAfee wrote: “Then I watched the police dig up my four dogs that had been poisoned and buried. They cut off the heads and re-buried the bodies. I found this curious.”

Mr McAfee amassed a $100m (£63m) fortune from his software business but said he lost all but $4m of it in the financial crisis. He moved to Belize in 2008.

http://news.sky.com/story/1015920/mcafees-dogs-could-be-key-to-murder-riddle

John Mc Gowan said...

OT..


New Madeleine McCann sensation: Cold case cops investigate paedophile in search for Maddy

24 Nov 2012 00:00
The child molester, who has a string of child sex convictions, was living on the Algarve when the youngster vanished from her holiday home


Pervert: Child rapist Raymond Hewlett
Harry Page
Child molester Raymond Hewlett went to his death refusing to speak to investigators hunting for Madeleine McCann after he was sensationally linked to her disappearance.

But police have now turned their attention back to the notorious paedophile who has a string of child sex convictions and was living on the Algarve when the youngster vanished from her holiday home in May 2007.

Scotland Yard detectives who opened a review into the Madeleine mystery want to speak to a couple who befriended the former soldier while they were on holiday in Portugal.

They were told by him he had been approached by gypsies wanting to buy one of his six children.

Alan and Cindy Thompson met pervert Hewlett, his German wife Mariana Schmucker and their kids.

Alarmed: Alan and his wife Cindy
James Vellacott
It was only after they returned to Britain they learned from a fellow holidaymaker that the seemingly harmless drifter had been jailed three times for vile attacks on young girls.

The couple raised the alarm after ­realising he and his family had been staying in their converted truck at a camping site near Praia da Luz at the time three-year-old Madeleine disappeared as her parents Kate and Gerry dined out with friends nearby.

Speaking after making the link Alan, 59, said: “Hewlett befriended us but kept quiet about his terrible past.”

The sex beast told the Nottingham couple how he was approached by some “gypsy tourists” offering cash for his own daughter.

Like Madeleine, she was blonde-haired and blue-eyed. He said he refused.

Sketch: Drawing of the suspect
Reuters
Cindy, 50, added: “We didn’t think too much of this at the time.

"Ray and his family led a desperate hand-to-mouth lifestyle and someone may have thought he’d be tempted to sell one of his six children.”

Hewlett, once on a ­Crimestoppers list of most wanted ­paedophiles, bore a striking resemblance to a suspect seen lurking outside the McCanns’ apartment.

He also repeatedly refused to give an alibi.

Described as “cunning” and a “danger to children”, it is feared the pervert might have kidnapped Madeleine to sell to the gypsies or even smuggled her into North Africa.

He admitted leaving Portugal for Morocco three weeks after she disappeared.

The 64-year-old was tracked down by investigators Dave Edgar and Arthur Cowley, who were working for Kate and Gerry, before his 2010 death from throat cancer.

But despite being confronted on three occasions, he refused to speak to the private detectives about the case.

Cont below

John Mc Gowan said...

Cont,

Former Scots Guard Peter Verran, 46, shared a Moroccan campsite with Hewlett between June and November 2007.

He said: “He told me gypsies wanted to pay good money for his daughter and he’d met some who traded in children and sold them to paedophiles.”

Another former pal in the ­Portuguese town of Tavira – where Hewlett’s family used to park their truck – revealed how he developed a close friendship with two gypsy families.

US-born artist Leonardo Leopoldo, 79, said: “No one spoke to the gypsies apart from Ray.

"He was always talking to them. There was talk in the area they sold children to ­paedophiles.

“By the time, Madeleine was snatched, he was very friendly with them.”

The Thompsons recalled Hewlett telling how he had gone to Morocco with his family to make a sale.

He did not elaborate but said it was “a good business trip and he made a profit”.

In Morocco: Hewlett boasted of making a sale on Africa trip after Maddy was taken
Peter Verran
There were numerous sightings of a girl matching Madeleine’s description in the North African country after she was taken.

Alan and Cindy contacted Hewlett in September 2009 to ask him about any link to her disappearance.

When quizzed about his Morocco trip he replied ­sarcastically: “Yes, so? That makes me guilty then?

"In Morocco, everything’s worth ­something. You can get 25 euros for an old bike.”

Speaking after he and Mr Cowley tracked Hewlett down to Germany, Mr Edgar said: “It would appear certain now that he does not want to talk to us.

“We want to know where Hewlett was when Madeleine McCann went missing.

“Does he know anything about Madeleine and will he speak to us? This is the first named person we have flown out to see.

“We want to eliminate this man from our inquiries as quickly as possible.

"His evidence could be crucial but we won’t know until we’ve spoken to him.”

On road: Hewlett's truck in Morocco
Peter Verran
German newspapers quoted police sources as saying the pervert boasted he had seen Madeleine twice before she died.

And in a deathbed letter to estranged son Wayne, he claimed to know what had happened to the youngster.

Hewlett denied having anything to do with her disappearance but said he knew she had been stolen to order by a gypsy gang.

Detectives are also looking at interviews Hewlett gave before his death in which he admitted being in the Algarve when Madeleine was snatched.

He told the Sunday Mirror: “It’s obvious why they’re ­interested in me. But they can all think what they like.

"I didn’t kill the McCann girl. It’s the truth and it’ll never change.

"I know I didn’t do anything wrong, but if people aren’t listening, what can you do? I didn’t kill the McCann girl.”

Before his death Hewlett claimed he was with an unnamed woman in Fuzeta, 30 miles from Praia da Luz, on May 3, 2007 – the day Madeleine went missing.

CONT Below

John Mc Gowan said...

Cont

He said she would remember because she shot a home video of him and his family at a flea market in the town.

But Mariana later revealed the friend could not remember where he was.

She said: “The truth is, she can’t remember where Ray was. She can’t give him an alibi. No one can.”

Before he died, Mariana challenged Kate and Gerry, of Rothley, Leicestershire, to come to see her.

She said: “I know about my Raymond’s past and it is forgotten. He is a changed man. I know that he didn’t take Madeleine.

“He is a very sick man and has said to me he will do anything to prove he is innocent, even take a lie detector test.

“Let the parents of Madeleine come here and ask him face-to-face if he had anything to do with their child going missing.

"My husband has nothing to do with little Madeleine. He’s an innocent man and he’ll prove it.”

Living in hope: Kate and Gerry McCann
Ian Vogler
Reports in Portugal claimed Hewlett was grilled by local detectives but later ruled out as a suspect.

But yesterday, the Policia Judiciaria refused to confirm if the paedophile had ever been questioned.

Hewlett gave a sample of his DNA to police in Germany from his hospital bed before he died.

But a German police spokesman said the DNA sample related to two 1975 child abuse cases in Britain – and not Madeleine’s disappearance.

British police wanted to interview him about a sexual assault on a child in West Yorkshire in 1975 and the murder of 11-year-old Lesley Molseed that same year.

In 1972, he abducted and ­sexually assaulted a neighbour’s six-year-old daughter and was sentenced to 18 months behind bars.

In 1978 he attempted to rape a nine-year-old girl and was jailed for four years.

And in 1988 at Mold, Flintshire, he kidnapped and assaulted a 14-year-old girl and was jailed for six years.

Last night Scotland Yard said: “We are not prepared to discuss any particular lines of enquiry.”



Rush of new clues in fresh look at case
The renewed investigation into Madeleine McCann’s disappearance uncovered 95 potential new leads in its first year.

Scotland Yard launched its £2million Operation Grange in May 2011, three years after the official inquiry ended, at the request of Home ­Secretary Theresa May.

By May this year the team of 29 detectives from the Met’s highly skilled Homicide and Serious Crime Command unit had sifted through 40,000 pieces of information in the case.

They are being led by Detective Chief Inspector Andrew Redwood, who previously caught murderer Miguel da Silva – convicted of strangling a mum-of-two – after a cold case review.

Last December, police said were examining up to eight “very important” new leads after meeting Barcelona private investigators Metodo 3, who spent six months working for Kate and Gerry McCann, Madeleine’s parents.

They urged their Portuguese counterparts to re-open their search for the youngster, who vanished in May 2007.

The Portuguese police refused, but Madeleine’s dad Gerry said he had “no doubt” they would re-open the investigation to check new leads uncovered by the ­Scotland Yard team.

Former Met detective Peter Kirkham said the renewed investigation could still uncover new clues.

He said: “They bring fresh eyes to the case to ensure nothing has been missed.

“Forensic science has moved on and re-examination of the original exhibits may reveal new clues.

“If the police go knocking on doors again someone may now be willing to talk.

“Just one piece of information could help reveal what happened to Madeleine.”
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/madeleine-mccann-search-paedophile-raymond-1453749

Randie said...

Are you kidding me!

What kind of world do we live in!!!

This poor little girl!

JerseyJane said...

I see the pumpkin and fall leaves, and a huge apple in Jersey's hands...The innocence of a child, appreciating the beauty in life...

My daughter works at our County Morgue, she has seen what no one should see, but one thing that my daughter says that never leaves a child, even in death, is their glowing innocence...no matter how battered or beaten by the evil forces, yes, THAT innocence can not be erased...
Every child is wrapped cozy in a blanket( after evidence gathering) in their last home, my daughter makes sure of it..

Katprint said...

“There’s no reason ... for the community to be worried at this point,” Capt. Justin Thompson told The Associated Press on Friday. He would not say whether authorities think someone who knew the girl killed her.

I'm thinking that Capt. Thompson wouldn't be telling the community not to worry if he thought a random child murderer was loose in their community. He won't say "whether authorities think someone who knew the girl killed her" which presumably he WOULD say if her mother, mother's boyfriend, etc. had been ruled out.

Also he won't say who called 911. Maybe the reason the UK reporter didn't know where the mother was when she called 911 was because the mother didn't call 911? Maybe the boyfriend did? Who else would know that Jersey was missing at 6:30am?

hickorydicory said...

Hickory Dickory Doc
The mouse ran up the clock.
The clock struck four.
The mouse said "No more."
Hickory Dickory Doc

We must put an end to child murder. When will our children be safe?

Tania Cadogan said...

“There’s no reason ... for the community to be worried at this point,”

Therein lies the crux of the matter.

If they knew or believed it to be a stranger they would be warning the community.
LE Know or have a pretty good idea who murdered her, the community is not at risk

Tania Cadogan said...

Hi John I saw, it is on a lot of front pages which makes me womder what is coming out that needs the public attention directed away?

If, we assume tanner is telling the truth, the man she claimed abducted Madeleine had thick dark hair and was in his 30's to 40's.

This paedophile would have been 62 with thinning grey hair and not fit and healthy, in fact, one could say frail.
A slight difference which could not be explained away by poor lighting etc.

My comment posted on the daily mail site.

What's the betting it gets removed and i get yet another snotty email from the paper telling me off.

Same ol' same ol'.
Let's assume tanner actually told the truth (stop sniggering at the back) she described a dark haired man in his 30's/40's this guy was 62 grey haired and not well.
This does not explain the cadaverine in the apartment & the hire car which the mccanns couldn't explain away, especially when the case used to prove the dogs were wrong actually proved the dogs were correct (Zapata).
It also does not explain their behavior telling us Maddie is dead ( kate- and you just want to press a button, and we're ALL gone, and it's ALL finished, and we're ALL TOGEATHER and gone.) the key word here being ALL. If she pressed a button & Maddie was still alive she has just made Maddie an orphan, it only makes sense if she knows Maddie is dead.
Also what innocent parent relaxes & claims junk science when a dog reacts indicating their child could be hurt or dead? They demand to know what it means rather than claiming the dogs are wrong. Guilty parents however say that.

John Mc Gowan said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
John Mc Gowan said...

HI Hobs,

The first thing that came to mind when i read that article was,how CONVENIENT.

Nuff said, lol

John Mc Gowan said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
John Mc Gowan said...

OT.

This was dated,Wednesday 14 nov 2012.

Antivirus pioneer McAfee:

I didn't kill my neighbor.

http://www.hlntv.com/article/2012/11/13/john-mcafee-says-he-did-not-kill-his-neighbor

Statement Analysis Blog said...

John,

I listened to much of the interview and did not hear him use that denial. It was long and I didn't complete it.

Also note, just in general, how and when the victim died, as it is important.

We had a case where someone left drugs with his girlfriend and she overdosed. He was able to say it because the drugs had killed her.

I believe that in this case, the gunshot to the head would be an immediate death, so I would like to get quotes.

If he is able to deny reality, he is in that very rare percentage and will be unable to say,

"I didn't kill ________" and "I told the truth."

Peter

Unknown said...

Re: Jersey - a horrible reminder that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. I often wonder why child welfare will give an abused child to a grandparent - who most likely - I'm not saying in every case but most - had a hand in turning the child's parent into an abuser.
Re: McAfee - "In it he has given details of how he has disguised himself as a beggar, a salesman and a drunken German tourist to watch police search his home seven times."
Does anyone else find his behavior bizarre?
Re: Madeline McCann - it's just another kind of jailhouse confession, IMO. Like when one inmate claims another told him this and that. And what baffles me is how this loser can up and head to another country so easily. A convicted pedophile?

Lis said...

JerseyJane, your comment really touched my heart. It's so true, the innocence of a child.

Lis said...

Has anyone gone and read McAfee's blog? Good grief, the man talks on and on and on. He is like a storyteller run amok.

Mary said...

No plea from the family of Jersey Bridgeman for the murderer to turn themselves in. No plea for the public to call a tip line with clues. The cops say they have everything that will answer all their questions. They must know exactly who it is. Someone close to Jersey. Either the mother, the live-in boyfriend or a room mate we don't know about yet.

Jazzie said...

There's been an arrest:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2012/11/26/arrest-death-ark-girl/1728633/

Jazzie said...

"Police said they will name the suspect at a news conference Monday night in Bentonville."

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2012/11/26/arrest-death-ark-girl/1728633/

Jazzie said...

http://www.4029tv.com/news/arkansas/northwest/Police-Neighbor-arrested-in-connection-with-Jersey-Bridgeman-s-death/-/8897460/17557336/-/8nrp69/-/index.html

Tania Cadogan said...

Jersey Bridgeman - who was abused by her father and stepmother - was allegedly killed last week by a neighbour, investigators have said.

The six-year-old was reported missing from her home in Bentonville, 215 miles northwest of Little Rock, on the morning of November 20.

Her body was discovered minutes into a police search in an abandoned house just a few yards away.

Zachary Holly, 28, who lives next door to Jersey, is being held in the Benton County jail on charges of capital murder, kidnapping and residential burglary.

He is due to appear in court on Wednesday.

"Many questions related to this investigation and arrest will be answered by the affidavit of probable cause, which will be released on Wednesday," police chief John Simpson told reporters.

Police released no detail about how Jersey was killed, but police captain Justin Thompson said earlier there was "no reason ... for the community to be worried at this point".

Jersey's death came 18 months after abuse allegations were levelled against her father and stepmother.

David Bridgeman and Jana Bridgeman eventually both pleaded guilty in June 2011 to repeatedly chaining her to a dresser at their home in nearby Rogers.

The pair are serving 18 and 12 year prison sentences respectively.

Jersey's biological mother DesaRae Bridgeman has been informed of the arrest.

The child's funeral was due to take place on Tuesday afternoon.

Anonymous said...

Arrests have been made.

Anonymous said...

Please help find Ayla
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/neighbor-arrested-killing-abused-ark-girl-17815202#.ULTf0XjUMxs