Word: great-aunt
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...Melville, an indigenous child placed in the care of her great-aunt after her birth mother lost custody of her in 2001, was not likely to have been crying out of fear of abandonment, but out of sheer agony. She had a festering bone infection from a three-week-old fracture in her right leg that had already spread to her organs. The following morning, according to reports, Deborah was carried outside by her carers - apparently at her own request - and for eight hours she lay dying in the backyard. An autopsy revealed that one and a half liters...
...Melville's great-aunt and aunt both lived at the home at the time of Deborah's death. Both women were charged with manslaughter in the case but were eventually acquitted in 2008 on the grounds that they couldn't have known just how sick she was. Not everyone, however, was let off the hook: In an inquiry completed on Jan. 19, the national Department of Families and Child Services, the authority that was supposed to be protecting Deborah, was found largely responsible for her death, having ignored the many red flags raised throughout her six years in foster care...
That evening six years ago, Carter’s great-aunt visited her home in Fayetteville...
...suspect, John Floyd Thomas Jr., had been arrested in late March and charged on April 2 with the rape and murders of two elderly women in the 1970s. According to police, DNA evidence also apparently tied Thomas to the crimes against Kistner's great-aunt. A grimmer scenario loomed, however: investigators now believe that Thomas was behind many more sexually-motivated murders and may turn out to be the most prolific serial killer in Los Angeles history...
...Kistner, who plans on attending Thomas' upcoming trials, the investigation's findings may finally bring some closure to the tragedy of his great-aunt's death. "Especially in my line of business," says the ex-cop, "we like closure; we like happy endings, I guess, if there can be a happy ending to this. You're always looking for the bad guy, especially someone who could do something to an old lady like that." He adds, "I plan on attending the trials when they come up for the personal satisfaction of actually physically seeing him in custody and knowing that...