Dear Crime Library News readers,

You are now reading the last editions of Crime Library News. As Court TV rebrands itself as truTV, Crime Library will no longer publish news. Rather than focus on the ending of our news efforts, I'd like to celebrate the highlights of our decade of news and the talented individuals who worked tirelessly to provide it to you. Many of these same people continue to write and produce feature stories for you on the main Crime Library site.

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News quickly became such an important part of Crime Library's business that in 2003 we needed to put more resources on news and hired Ulla Birkved Jensen in Copenhagen, Denmark. She had a special gift for figuring out which stories you would like to read — a gift that developed even further in her successor, Carla Lohr.

Taylor Behl

The real beginning of Crime Library investigative news came in the fall of 2005 when Virginia Commonwealth University freshman Taylor Behl disappeared in Richmond. I drove to her school to do a little investigating on my own. It was astonishing to me how poorly suited the local and national news organizations were to do real investigative reporting. Recognizing this gap in the market, we started to form a unique news team, first with blogger Steve Huff and journalist Seamus McGraw.

Tara Grinstead

Our next big case came a month later in Ocilla, Georgia, where former beauty queen and high school history teacher Tara Grinstead mysteriously disappeared. Around this time, Mike Wild from Lovettsville, Virginia, who licensed the thousands of photos used in Crime Library news and feature stories, started to realize that he suddenly had two full time jobs. Not only did he acquire and prepare photos for our stories, he was also now on location filming for days at a time.

As the news audience grew so did the need for message forums in which you could share your knowledge, insight and tips on these cases in the news. And so, Cora Van Olson joined the Crime Library team, setting up the message forums, working with the moderators, building full coverage pages for major news stories as well as publishing stories to the web. Later, Dr. Julie Celestin, Ph.D. in criminology, worked with the forum moderators to develop marketing and content.

Thomas and Jackie Hawks

In 2006, our full news team was operational. Pulitzer-prize nominee Tori Richards went to Salt Lake City to cover the disappearance and murder of 5-year-old Destiny Norton and after that, missing Los Angeles teenager Emmery Munoz. Later in the year Tori brought us the chilling story of how Skylar Deleon, his wife Jennifer and their accomplices cold-bloodedly murdered and robbed retired couple Tom and Jackie Hawks. You are probably familiar with her recent coverage of pedophile Jack McClellan whose web site advised pedophiles on how to gain the trust of little girls.

Shortly after Tori joined up, former federal ATF agent Chuck Hustmyre came onboard to work on cases like missing Montana teenager Heather Brianna Wilkins, missing Orlando financial planner Jennifer Kesse, and the murdered 6-year-old Christopher Barrios. Much of Chuck's investigative effort last year was focused on getting Boulder D.A. Mary Lacy to finally convene a grand jury in the child abuse case against Alex and Molly Midyette, members of a very prominent family, in the death of their 10-week-old infant. Had it not been for Chuck's work, it is doubtful that this baby would have found justice. Recently, Molly Midyette, who had graduated law school, was convicted of child abuse resulting in death. Her husband's trial is scheduled for January '08.

Molly Midyette taken after being found guilty (ap)

David Lohr, a Crime Library feature story writer, also joined the news team last year and quickly became the worst nightmare of incompetent investigators in cases like the Texas murder of teenager Terressa Vanegas and the bizarre unsolved murders of New York attorney David Keeffe and his wife. He always gave us the inside scoop on psychopath John "Woody" Woodring's murder of his wife in the supposed safety of a N.C. women's shelter. David also began his popular weekly column, "Serial Killer News."

Woody and Bonnie Woodring

In every major case we investigated, we needed the opinion of a professional that understood forensic psychology. Luckily we had our most prolific storyteller, Dr. Katherine Ramsland, to give you insight in to the criminal minds that created the news. This year, Katherine was one of the key reviewers for our Movies & Entertainment column, along with Anthony Bruno, another long-time writer of Crime Library feature stories.

Special thanks goes to the three contributors to the War Room which exposed and analyzed terrorist events inside and outside of the U.S.: Chuck Hustmyre, Anthony Bruno and Paul Van Olson.

None of this would have been possible without the years of Galen Jones' leadership. As the creator of Court TV Online, his vision and constructive management style inspired the best in his employees.

Most importantly, we thank you, our audience, for your loyalty and support over so many years. We sincerely hope that you have benefitted from our news stories and that whatever insight you have absorbed will help you protect your family in the years to come. Even though Crime Library is ending its news coverage, the feature stories in the Crime Library live on. Thank you again.

Marilyn J. Bardsley

Executive Editor,

Crime Library

By Marilyn Bardsley