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Criminal Case News and Headlines

Trial and Investigation Updates

By Charles Montaldo, About.com

The latest headlines in breaking crime stories:

These are current famous criminal trials and investigations covered by the About Crime site. The pages below are updated with breaking-news headlines as events unfold.

The Death of Michael Jackson
On June 25, 2009, less than a month before he was scheduled to begin a series of comeback concerts, paramedics were called to Michael Jackson's rented home in Holby Hills near Los Angeles where they found him unconscious and not responding.

The Caylee Marie Anthony Case
On June 15, 2008, Cindy Anthony called 9-1-1 in Orlando, Florida to report that her daughter, Casey Anthony, had stolen a car and some money. She called back later to report that her granddaughter, Casey's daughter, 2-year-old Caylee Marie Anthony was missing and had been missing for more than a month.

The Case of Jaycee Lee Dugard
On June 10, 1991, Jaycee Lee Dugard was last seen waiting at a school bus stop near her in South Lake Tahoe, California. She was found 18 years later.

The Deaths of Byrd and Melanie Billings
On July 9, 2009, several men dressed as ninjas invaded the home of Byrd and Melanie Billings, a wealthy Florida couple who were known for adopting children with special needs.

The Murder of Annie Le
On Sept. 8, 2009, five days before she was planning to be married, 24-year-old Annie Le disappeared from the Yale University Medical School research laboratory where she was a pharmacology doctoral student.

The Trial of Melissa Huckaby
On March 27, 2009, 8-year-old Sandra Cantu disappeared from the mobile home park where she lived in Tracy, California. She was last seen on a video surveillance tape skipping toward her best friend's home.

The Crimes of Drew Peterson
Former Bolingbrook policeman Drew Peterson made national headlines in October 2007 when his fourth wife Stacey Peterson disappeared.

The Craigslist Killer Case
Philip Markoff, a 22-year-old medical student was arrested by Boston authorities in connection with a series of crimes against women who were advertising erotic services on the online classified service Craigslist.

The Jennifer Hudson Family Murders
On October 24, 2008, the bodies of Academy Award-winning actress Jennifer Hudson's mother and brother were found in the family's home on Chicago's South Side. Shot to death were Hudson's mother, Darnell Donerson, and her brother, Jason Hudson.

The Murder of Anchorwoman Ann Pressly
On October 20, Anne Pressly, a popular morning anchorwoman at KATV television, was found badly beaten in the bedroom of her home in the Pulaski Heights section of Little Rock.

The Trials of Darryl Littlejohn
On February 25, 2006, Imette St. Guillen, a graduate student at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, was last seen around 4 a.m. at The Falls, a bar in the SoHo section of New York City. Her nude body was found 14 miles away near a Brooklyn street.

The Appeals of Death Row Inmate Troy Davis
On Aug. 19, 1989, an off-duty Savannah, Georgia, police officer Mark Allen MacPhail was working a moonlighting job as a security guard for a Greyhound bus terminal when he heard a homeless man cry out from the Burger King parking lot next door.

The Zoey Zane Murder Case
On Nov. 23, 2007, 18-year-old Kansas college student Emily Sander was last seen leaving a bar with a 24-year-old man. Her body was found six days later about 50 miles east of El Dorado.

The Murder of Eve Carson
On March 5, 2008, Eve Marie Carson, the popular president of the student body at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, was found shot to death laying in the street at an intersection near campus.

The Brianna Denison Case
Brianna Denison, a 19-year-old Santa Barbara City College student, who was home in Reno, Nevada, on winter break, disappeared from the home of friends on Jan. 20, 2008.

The Gary Michael Hilton Case
On New Year's Day 2008, 24-year-old University of Georgia graduate Meredith Emerson went hiking in the north Georgia mountains hear Vogel State Park with her dog Ella as she had done many times before. She failed to return home from the hike.

The Murder of Lance Corporal Maria Lauterbach
On Dec. 19, 2007, Lance Corporal Maria Lauterbach, a Marine stationed at Camp Lejuene, North Carolina, was reported missing by her stepmother who had not heard from her since Dec. 14.

The 'Baby Grace' Case
On October 29, 2007, a fisherman found a plastic storage box washed up on an island in Galveston Bay that contained the body of a two-year-old girl the police called "Baby Grace."

The Lisa Nowak Case
On Feb. 6, 2007, U.S. Navy Capt. and NASA Astronaut Lisa Nowak, 43, was charged with trying to kidnap a woman she regarded as her romantic rival for the affection of a space shuttle pilot.

The Phoenix Baseline Killer Case
Between August 2005 and September 2006, the Phoenix, Arizona, area was terrorized by a serial criminal who authorities believe was responsible for nine murders, 11 sexual assaults of women and young girls and several robberies.

Natalee Holloway: Missing in Aruba
Natalee Holloway, an 18-year-old graduate of Mountain Brook High School in Birmingham, Alabama, traveled to the Caribbean island of Aruba with 125 members of her senior class. On Monday, May 30, 2005, she did not show up for her flight back to the United States.

The Elizabeth Smart Case
Elizabeth Smart was kidnapped from her Salt Lake City home on June 5, 2002 and was found nine months later with the man and wife, Brian David Mitchell and Wanda Barzee, who have been charged with her abduction.

The Allen-Cutshall Murders
Jason Allen and Lindsay Cutshall, two Christian camp counselors who planned to be married, were shot in their sleep in their sleeping bags as they camped on Fishhead Beach in Jenner, California.

Page 2: Previous Trials and Investigations

Charles Montaldo
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