Denver

Investigators compare cat mutilation cases

Authorities investigating a string of cat mutilations in the Denver area are talking with Salt Lake City police to determine whether there is any connection with similar unsolved cases there.

At least 24 cats have been mutilated in the Denver area in the past year, including four killed in the eastern suburb of Aurora in the past two weeks.

Some of the cats have been decapitated and others gutted. Many appeared to have been well fed and cared for and were probably household pets, said Cheryl Conway of Aurora’s Animal Care Division.

In Salt Lake City, the remains of 10 cats and a dog have turned up on lawns in a residential neighborhood in the past two years. The animals have been found with organs, heads, tails or legs missing.

Georgia

Mother faces charges of murder, arson

A mother who lost custody of her children last year because of abuse complaints was charged with murder and arson for allegedly setting a house fire that killed the two toddlers.

Firefighters found 3-year-old Xzavier Lovett and his 2-year-old sister, Sareshia, near a door when they arrived early Sunday at the burning home in Sylvester.

Police initially charged Tamari Lovett, 21, with involuntary manslaughter and reckless conduct. But after further investigation, they added charges of felony murder, first-degree arson and criminal property damage.

The maximum sentence for the murder charges is life in prison.

At least three child abuse complaints have been made against Lovett since 2001, said Renee Huie, a spokeswoman for the Georgia Division of Family and Children Services.

Louisiana

DNA links sixth victim to serial killer suspect

New DNA evidence has linked a sixth victim to the man accused of a killing streak that haunted women across the state for more than a year, law officers said.

Initial testing done after Geralyn DeSoto’s slaying had been inconclusive, said Mike Cazes of the West Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s Office.

DeSoto, 21, was found stabbed and beaten to death in January 2002 in her Addis home, on the day she had signed up for graduate classes at Louisiana State University.

Her aunt Belinda Snyder said the new evidence came from DeSoto’s fingernail scrapings.

The DNA evidence linked her death to Derrick Todd Lee, who is accused of aggravated rape and first-degree murder in the five other deaths between September 2001 and March in southern Louisiana.

Police also are looking at other unsolved murders for a link to Lee, who is in custody.

Washington, D.C.

Court upholds EPA rule for arsenic in water

A federal appeals court on Friday upheld the Environmental Protection Agency’s requirement that water agencies significantly reduce arsenic levels in drinking water to 10 parts per billion.

The tougher standard, issued by the EPA in October 2001 to go into effect in 2006, was challenged in a lawsuit by the state of Nebraska and the city of Alliance, Neb. They argued that regulating drinking water was a state responsibility and that the EPA had gone beyond its authority under the Interstate Commerce Act and the U.S. Constitution.

But the three-judge panel unanimously rejected the claim. The suit’s argument “falls well short” of having any merit, wrote Judge A. Raymond Randolph.