Two Children

WJZ meteorologist Bernadette Woods is leaving the CBS-owned station to join a non-profit firm in New Jersey focused on climate change, she said Wednesday night. Woods, who has been with WJZ for seven years, said she will remain at the station helping with the transition for the next month. After that, she, her husband and their two children will be moving to Princeton, N.J., where she will join Climate Central as staff meteorologist. "I'm very excited about the opportunity in Princeton," she said.

The mother of two children who had their throats slashed nine years ago took the stand Thursday in the murder trial of Policarpio Espinoza Perez and described how her husband's elder brother took a romantic interest in her niece. Prosecutors have argued that friction among members of her extended family ultimately led to the 2004 murders of her children and one other young boy. During this week's trial — the third for Espinoza Perez — witnesses have faced questions from both sides about romantic tensions surrounding Noemi "Mimi" Quezada's niece.

A mother who apparently rushed inside a burning East Baltimore rowhouse was killed today in a failed attempt to save two of her children. The boys, ages 5 and 8, also were killed in the blaze.Fire officials did not immediately release the names of the victims.Investigators said the two-alarm fire broke out about 6:40 a.m. in a brick rowhouse in the 800 block of E. 22nd St. A malfunctioning television set or wiring leading to the television has been ruled the cause.Chief Torres said the first firefighters went in through the front door and pulled the two children and mother from a second floor-front bedroom.

A woman was found killed and two small children located unharmed in Garrison late Tuesday when a Baltimore County Police tactical unit forced its way into a home following a call about a possible domestic dispute. Katie Hadel, 33, had been stabbed multiple times, and was pronounced dead at the scene, police said. A suspect, Jeffrey Michael Shiflett, also 33, of Annapolis, who had been in a previous relationship with Hadel, was located at 11:02 a.m. Wednesday walking along a road in Reisterstown, and taken into custody without incident, police said.

Two children were killed early today when fire broke out in the basement of their two-story brick rowhouse in the 1800 block of N. Montford Ave.The deaths brought to 14 the number of people killed in city fires so far this year.Found in their beds in the basement by firefighters and pronounced dead at the scene were Firmaine Moore, 15 months, and Alfred Purnell Simpson, 3.Officer Richard Heymann arrived at the scene about 5:40 a.m. and saw heavy smoke and flames erupting from a basement window.

A fire in a Rosedale home yesterday afternoon killed two children, a 3-year-old girl and her 1-year-old brother, who had been left at home alone, Baltimore County police said.Charkia and Shakirr Hall were not breathing when firefighters brought them out of the house on the 6100 block of St. Regis Road. They were pronounced dead shortly after arriving at Franklin Square Hospital, police said.Their mother, Jennifer Grant, 34, arrived home shortly after the children were taken out of the house.

Richard W. Spicknall II, a Howard County man serving life in prison for the murders of his two children, was in a coma at a Laurel hospital last night after being found unconscious in his cell at a maximum-security prison in Jessup, authorities said. The 29-year-old inmate was on life-support yesterday at Laurel Regional Hospital, as investigators from the state Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services tried to determine the cause of his condition, department spokesman Leonard A. Sipes Jr. said.

Two children, one glassIn the absence of sharing.Two full-bodied whines.

On July 1, 2006, ALBERT R. HICKMAN. He is survived by two children, Mary Fleshman and Louis Hickman. Services are private.

Describing Rene Elizabeth Aulton as a "cold-blooded killer" who smoked cigarettes while her two children burned to death, prosecutors urged a Baltimore jury yesterday to ignore her mental shortcomings and send the young woman to prison.Assistant State's Attorney Donald Huskey rejected defense claims that Ms. Aulton -- who has an IQ just above mild mental retardation -- was manipulated into a confession by police. He said she told detectives the true story when she described setting a fire in a bedroom closet and leaving the room to let her daughters die."

John Ragan concedes that he is neither computer-savvy nor very much interested in using the Internet. "I'm not an Internet-surfing kind of guy," the 30-year-old carpenter said recently. But it was his occasional foray onto MarylandWhitetail.com that prompted Ragan to put a classified ad on the hunting-based website, offering to sell all of his bowhunting equipment for the $600 he figured he needed to buy Christmas presents for his family. Ragan, who grew up in Baltimore and now lives in Westminster with his wife and their two children, 12-year-old son Trenton and 9-year-old daughter Hayley, needed the money after he was laid off from a few sub-contracting jobs in recent months because of the economy.

An early-morning fire in Brooklyn sent four people to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, including one firefighter and three occupants of the house. According to Baltimore City Fire Department Chief Kevin Cartwright, the one-alarm fire broke out about 4:20 a.m. in a dwelling in the 800 block of Glade Court in Brooklyn. According to Cartwright, units responded to find a two-story dwelling with smoke and fire visible, and crews put out the fire by 4:35 a.m. Cartwright said one adult and two children suffered mild smoke inhalation, were evaluated at the scene and transported to Harbor Hospital for additional treatment.

Two people were killed and others were injured in a car accident at the Curtis Creek drawbridge that closed all lanes of eastbound Interstate 695 in Baltimore late Sunday night, according to the Baltimore Fire Department. Rescue personnel were dispatched to the outer loop bridge at 10:01 p.m. and found at least five victims, a dispatcher said. A Maryland Transportation Authority Police spokesman said 21-year-old Victoria DeAngelo of Dundalk entered the outer loop of 695 near exit 1 driving in the wrong direction Sunday night around 10. She then crashed into an SUV. DeAngelo and a 3-year-old in the SUV, Lily Kelley, died.

A man driving a motorcycle died Saturday after a head-on collision with a SUV in Sparks, police said. The motorcyclist was driving east on Shawan Road near Beaver Dam Road at 7:57 a.m. when he lost control and struck a Toyota 4Runner, Cpl. John Wachter said. Four occupants in the SUV, including two adults and two juveniles, were taken to area hospitals with serious injuries. The motorcycle driver was pronounced dead at the scene. ywenger@baltsun.com twitter.com/yvonnewenger

Lou Ruth Blake was the family's matriarch who sang in the church choir and organized gospel shows. Lowell Frederick Blake liked to make people laugh. Venessa Marie Blake was the ardent churchgoer with a contagious smile. All three family members died within days of each other earlier this month from complications of the flu — a cluster that state officials acknowledged was unusual. Their deaths caused a stir in the community of Lusby in Calvert County, where Blake family roots run deep in the town of nearly 1,600.

Ruling that a $1.3 million lawsuit filed against the Baltimore school system was too broad, Circuit Judge W. Michael Pierson granted Wednesday the district's motion to throw out nine of the 13 counts, leaving a city jury to decide whether two principals were negligent in the alleged bullying of two students. Jurors began deliberating late Wednesday evening, after attorneys for the alleged victims' families and the school system made closing arguments in the rare four-day trial that has pitted parents against principals and exposed the medical and behavioral histories of a 10-year-old special-needs child.

MARY R. PATTERSON died on October 18, 2009, at home with her spouse, John E. Patterson, Sr. She also leaves to mourn, two children, John E. Patterson, Jr. and Joan Patterson-Taylor and many relatives and friends. On Friday, friends may call at VAUGHN C. GREEN FUNERAL SERVICES (RANDALLSTOWN), 8728 Liberty Road from 4 to 8 P.M. On Saturday, the family will receive friends at the Vaughn C. Greene Chapel-Randallstown from 11 to 11:30 A.M with services to follow. Inquiries to (410) 655-0015.

A federal jury on Wednesday convicted William and Donald Turley, father and son respectively, of using the family manufacturing business to bilk the National Security Agency out of nearly $1.5 million, the Maryland U.S. Attorney's Office announced. A third family member, Christina Turley Knott, previously admitted to participating in the scheme and also to embezzling $4.6 million from the Turley business — the Bechdon Co., located in Upper Marlboro — behind the backs of her father and brother.

Two children who Baltimore County police say were abducted by their mother from a foster caretaker have been found. Tyquan Rashard Wiggins, 7, and Shani'ya Lashay Wiggins, 3, were abducted by their biological mother, Dannelle Lynnette Wiggins, on Feb. 26, according to a police statement issued Tuesday. The three had last been spotted on March 1 near Lexington Market in Baltimore. After seeing media coverage, the mother's family contacted police, department spokeswoman Detective Cathy Batton said Tuesday afternoon.