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A 4-year-old Towson boy drowned last night after he fell or jumped into a swimming pool at the Northeast Baltimore home of an aunt, city police said.Police said the boy, Derek Emery of the first block of Comet Court, and relatives were leaving the above-ground pool in the 5500 block of Carter Ave. about 8: 30 p.m. when he apparently went back to the pool, which is connected to the house by a deck.Police said that when relatives heard a splashing sound, they first thought an older child was swimming.

Charlotte Young Ross, who operated a day care center in her West Baltimore home for 15 years, had a simple philosophy for raising her own children and those entrusted to her care.That philosophy was to treat every child "the same loving way," said her daughter Martha Ross Crawley of Baltimore."She treated them all like they were her own, which meant she could be strict when they got out of line," Mrs. Crawley said. "But the kids were just a part of her, each and every one of them."Mrs. Ross died Thursday of gall bladder and renal infections at the University of Maryland Medical Center.

Charles Milton Distefano was not one to allow a quiet day at his Southwest Baltimore home. When he wasn't doing carpentry, he was playing with his four children. When he wasn't playing with his children, he was playing with his pets.And when he wasn't playing with his pets, the 10 goats, four ducks, a horse named Barney and the assorted rabbits and chickens that he kept in the back yard -- and often in his house -- they would cry for attention."He was one of the real characters ," said James Hirsch, who lives near Mr. Distefano's former home on Christian Street.

A man was fatally shot yesterday three blocks from his West Baltimore home, police said.Derrick Holmes, 29, of the 600 block of N. Pulaski St. was in the 600 block of N. Brice St. about 11: 30 a.m. when he was shot several times by an unknown assailant, police said. Holmes was pronounced dead at the scene by Fire Department medics.Pub Date: 8/18/99

Leroy O. Dyett, a Baltimore mortician who built his Liberty Heights Avenue business into one of the city's best-known funeral homes, died Thursday of heart failure at his West Baltimore home.Mr. Dyett, 69, had operated the Leroy O. Dyett and Son Funeral Home in Northwest Baltimore since 1982. From the mid-1950s until he opened his business, he was co-owner of the Morton and Dyett Funeral Home in West Baltimore.One of Mr. Dyett's finest qualities, friends and relatives said, was his work ethic: Not only did he show up seven days a week, but he was usually the first person at the funeral parlor and the last one to leave.

A quartet of Washington-area bands is planning an Oct. 7 concert to benefit Baltimore's beleaguered Poe House. The concert, set for the 162 n d anniversary of Edgar Allan Poe's death, will feature the bands Lenorable, Nunchucks, Dance for the Dying and Lions & Tigers & Whales. It is being by organized by Washington-area fans of the famed poet and master of suspense. "When I heard about the funding problems at the Poe House, I immediately went into action mode," said Kai Hsieh, one of the concert's organizers, who describes herself as a frequent visitor to the house.

As president of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage's Greater Baltimore operations, Dean Cottrill has gotten to know the real estate markets of a great number of communities — from the heart of Baltimore to Ocean City . "I'm all over the place and I love it," said Cottrill, who started his real estate career more than two decades ago, after a stint as an accountant. He worked as a sales agent for just over seven years before moving into management. In 2007, Cottrill joined Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage as a regional vice president.

The first caller told Norman Breidenbaugh he had won $2.5 million in a foreign sweepstakes, but there was a catch: Breidenbaugh needed to send $2,000 in fees before collecting his earnings. Other calls followed, promising Breidenbaugh millions more - even a Mercedes Benz - as long as he would wire some money to pay taxes on the prizes. He obliged, sending more than $400,000 over about six years, hoping the promised winnings would cover his wife's medical expenses. The prizes never came.

Death came for Arunah Shepherdson Abell on April 19, 1888, just 27 days before he would have celebrated the 51st anniversary of the newspaper he founded in Baltimore in 1837. Abell, who was in his city townhouse at Charles and Madison streets near Mount Vernon Place, had retired about 9:30 the night before, "fully himself in all save physical activity," reported The Sun in a news article the next morning announcing his death. "DEATH OF MR. A.S. ABELL. THE END OF A USEFUL LIFE.

Baltimore City is $14,026.32 less poor thanks to developer Blake Cordish. That's how much he paid after the state fixed a three-year-old error that vastly undervalued his Federal Hill mega-rowhouse. The payment, made on the Ides of March, covers additional property taxes for the past three years on his 4,600-square-foot home on East Montgomery Street. As The Baltimore Sun reported in January, the state Department of Assessments and Taxation erred when it reassessed his home in 2009.