Police Search Park for 3 Missing Kids of Mom Murdered for Fetus

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EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. — Illinois police searched a nearby park Friday for the three missing children of a murdered pregnant woman whose fetus was cut from her womb.

Police identified the victim as 23-year-old Jimella Tunstall, and said they were questioning the woman's cousin. Published and broadcast reports identified the woman in custody as Tifanny Hall, 26, but police declined to confirm the reports. Both women lived in East St. Louis, the reports said.

Police said the woman in custody was a "person of interest" in the case, but would not say whether any charges were pending.

Dozens of searchers scoured the densely wooded Frank Holten State Park in East St. Louis looking for the dead woman's three children, identified as: Demond Tunstall, 7; Ivan Tunstall, 3; and Jinella Tunstall, 2. A boat also searched the shoreline of a lake by the park. The children have not been seen since Monday, but police said they were not alerted to their disappearance until after their mother's body was found late Thursday night.

Their disappearance has been reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

"We're hoping to recover the children alive," said East St. Louis Police Captain Craig Koehler told reporters Friday afternoon, adding that police have searched area parks — including bodies of water — for the children.

"The focus of our investigation at this point is trying to locate these children," Koehler added.

"We would ask that if anyone has information about the whereabouts of these children that they would contact our command post," even if tipsters wish to remain anonymous, he added.

A funeral for a baby a woman claimed was hers and had been stillborn was held Thursday, East St. Louis Police Chief James Mister told the Belleville News-Democrat.

The newspaper reported the woman later told her boyfriend she had killed a woman and stolen the baby.

An autopsy was scheduled for Friday to determine if the baby was removed from Tunstall's womb, Mister said.

St. Louis TV station KSDK reported that the woman being questioned went to Touchette Regional Hospital in Centreville, Ill., on Friday, Sept. 15. While at the hospital, police said the woman told them she went into labor after being raped, and that the rapist delivered the child, who was stillborn.

Police believe that child may actually have been the child cut from the womb of the victim, KSDK reported.

St. Clair County State's Attorney's Robert Haida said no charges had been filed by midday Friday.

"We're not rushing to judgment," he said. "We are taking our time and waiting on reports from investigators."

None of the family members — including the father of the kids — are considered suspects, police said.

Haida called it "a very tragic case," but would not comment further.

[WinterlessIceness]

Jesus Christ..

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Jesus Christ..

Then you'll like this one too!

Dragging Death Victim Identified
DENVER — A woman dragged to her death behind a vehicle was identified Thursday as a mother of three from the Mexican state of Guerrero, the Mexican consul general said.

Luz Maria Franco-Fierros, 49, was identified through fingerprints, Consul General Juan Marcos Gutierrez Gonzalez said. Franco-Fierros was from the city of Chilpancingo, the capitol of Guerrero.

Her battered, disfigured body was discovered early Monday along a subdivision road north of Castle Rock, about 20 miles south of Denver. Investigators say Franco-Fierros had been dragged behind a vehicle for more than a mile, leaving a bloody trail. Preliminary autopsy results said she suffered fatal head injuries and strangled as she was dragged.

Jose Luis Rubi-Nava, 36, was being held without bail on a charge of first-degree murder.

Friends told the Rocky Mountain News that the woman lived with Rubi-Nava, even though he had a wife and children in Mexico. Cesar Gustavo Flores, 20, a roommate, said the couple sometimes argued violently.

Spokeswomen for the district attorney, the Douglas County sheriff and the coroner declined to comment Thursday. Rubi-Nava's public defender, Kathleen McGuire, did not immediately return a call.

A judge sealed court documents and said he would consider McGuire's request for a gag order.

In his only public statement since the arrest, Sheriff Dave Weaver did not say how the arrest was made or how the few known clues fit into the case.

Among those clues is a widely circulated photograph found somewhere near the crime scene showing Rubi-Nava standing beside an unidentified woman, his right arm resting on her shoulder. Weaver said Wednesday he did not know whether the woman in the photo is the victim. Flores told the Rocky Mountain News that the woman in the photograph was Rubi-Nava's wife in Mexico.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said they believe Rubi-Nava is an illegal immigrant from Mexico.

Denver police confirmed Thursday they arrested Rubi-Nava on a traffic charge in April but released him.

Police spokeswoman Virginia Quinones said the arresting officer suspected Rubi-Nava's identification may have been forged, but she said the department was not responsible for verifying a suspect's immigration status, and a new Colorado law directing police to cooperate with federal immigration officers was not yet in force.

[voivod]

Children of slain pregnant mother found dead

Three missing children have been found dead, days after their mother's body was discovered with the fetus cut from her womb, authorities announced tonight. The bodies of the children were found hours after a woman was charged and jailed on $5 million bond in the deaths of Jimella Tunstall, 23, who was seven months pregnant.

[KRAMER5150]

Tests: Slain Woman's Kids Were Drowned
By JIM SUHR, Associated Press Writer
56 minutes ago


In this undated photo provided by the Illinois State ...
EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. - A woman accused of killing a pregnant woman and her fetus told police she drowned the woman's three young children and stuffed them into a washer and dryer at their apartment, an official said Sunday.

Preliminary autopsies on the dead children Sunday appear to show they were drowned, Ace Hart, a deputy St. Clair County coroner, told The Associated Press.

As of Sunday, Tiffany Hall, 24, had not been charged in the children's deaths, but prosecutors on Saturday accused Hall of killing their mother, Jimella Tunstall, 23, and her fetus. The fetus had been cut from her womb, authorities said.

According to Sunday's autopsies, there were no signs of physical abuse or trauma on the children _ ages 7, 2, and 1 _ and toxicology tests were pending "to see if they were poisoned or possibly drugged," Hart said.

"They were not drowned there in the wash machine," Hart stressed.

On Sunday, the community turned to prayer to understand the slayings at a service for the slain family.

"This is an opportunity for people to turn to God," said Debra Kenton, a member of the New Life Community Church. "Who else can explain things like this?"

Authorities suspect Tunstall was slain on or about Sept. 15.

That day, Hall summoned police to a park, saying she had given birth to a stillborn child, Hart said. She was arrested after she told her boyfriend during the baby's funeral that the baby wasn't his and that she had killed the mother to get it, authorities said.

Tunstall's body was found Thursday, and authorities began a furious search for her children. Police said the children were last seen with the Hall on Monday.

Authorities had visited Tunstall's apartment Friday but noticed nothing amiss while looking for photographs of the children for media outlets to publicize in their search, Hart said.

Hall told police where the bodies were and told police she drowned them, Hart said. He said he understood why investigators may have overlooked the children during their previous trip to the apartment. "Who would be looking in the washer and dryer?"

By Saturday night, Hart said, "you could find them by the smell."

The oldest, 7-year-old DeMond Tunstall, was found in the dryer and the younger two children _ 2-year-old Ivan Tunstall-Collins and 1-year-old Jinela Tunstall _ in the washer. Two of the children were found nude, the third wearing only underpants, Hart said.

Hall remained jailed Sunday on $5 million bond, charged with first-degree murder in Tunstall's death and with intentional homicide of an unborn child.

Meanwhile, stuffed animals continued to mount outside Tunstall's apartment, its door crisscrossed with white evidence tape. There was a white teddy bear, and a stuffed race car with DeMond's name.

An autopsy showed that Jimella Tunstall bled to death after sustaining an abdominal wound caused by a sharp object, believed to be scissors, Hart has said. Authorities believe her womb was cut open after she was knocked unconscious.

Relatives say Tunstall grew up with Hall and had let her baby-sit her children. Hall has two children of her own. Illinois State Police Capt. Craig Koehler said they are "safe and sound."

Hall likely will be arraigned Monday on the two charges, each carrying a 20 to 60 years or life in prison, prosecutors said. The murder count could be punishable by the death penalty.

DNA tests should determine definitively whether the baby was the one Tunstall was carrying, Hart said.

[Axxman300]

"This is an opportunity for people to turn to God," said Debra Kenton, a member of the New Life Community Church

I hope the guilty party gets to MEET God in person soon.