After Andy Williams, 15, was arrested for opening fire on his classmates in Santee, Calif., last week, his mother Linda Williams wept before a TV crew and said, "He's lost. His future's gone." No grownup in his life seems to have been looking out for that future before the shooting. Charles Andrew Williams had been a lost boy for some time--hopelessly adrift in a dysfunctional, anonymous suburban landscape, craving acceptance but too often meeting rejection instead. His schoolmates bullied him. His ...

When 20-year old criminology student Marisol Valles was sworn in as a police chief in the embattled Mexican state of Chihuahua in October, she became an instant celebrity as the bravest woman in Mexico. Pundits and media commentators cheered the slight, bespectacled, innocent-looking young mother who had the guts to stand up to the drug cartels. What made her especially valiant was the fact that her predecessor as police chief of the small farming town of Praxedis ...

The self-help expert who ran a program at an Arizona resort where three people died this month says it has been a "difficult" period but that he will continue his schedule of events despite the deaths. James Arthur Ray, who ran the "Spiritual Warrior" program at the Angel Valley Retreat Center near Sedona, also addressed the families of those who died. "I feel your pain. I accept your anger. And I pray for you all to have some measure of ...

Last week's "balloon boy" incident is being investigated by the Federal Aviation Administration, an agency representative said Tuesday. Richard and Mayumi Heene, whose son Falcon was thought for several hours to have flown away in a homemade balloon, are facing a number of local charges, a Colorado sheriff said this week. The Fort Collins couple could be charged with conspiracy, contributing to the delinquency of a minor and attempting to influence a public servant, Larimer County Sheriff Jim Alderden said ...

Joe Saenz rubbed his hands together and smiled as he walked up to a Los Angeles County, California, home. (CNN) -- Joe Saenz rubbed his hands together and smiled as he walked up to a Los Angeles County, California, home. His demeanor gave no clues as to what would happen next. Once in the front yard of the home, police said, he drew a gun and shot the victim several times, then in the head, execution-style. The slaying, caught on ...

The Colorado couple accused of carrying out a bizarre hoax involving their son and a huge balloon is "not running from the law" and deserves the presumption of innocence, their attorney said Monday. "The sheriff having a press conference saying that they're guilty does not make them so," David Lane told CNN's "American Morning." Authorities say the event -- in which the tearful couple claimed their 6-year-old may have been trapped in the flying-saucer-like contraption floating through the air -- ...

A Chinese ship with 146 people aboard was hijacked Monday in the Indian Ocean, the European Union Naval Force said. "The sheriff having a press conference saying that they're guilty does not make them so," David Lane told CNN's "American Morning." Authorities say the event -- in which the tearful couple claimed their 6-year-old may have been trapped in the flying-saucer-like contraption floating through the air -- was staged. Richard and Mayumi Heene had met in a Hollywood acting school ...

The man whose giant Mylar balloon ascended into the sky this week, amid fears that his 6-year-old was aboard, emerged from his house Saturday and offered a cardboard box for the media to submit questions. "I got people e-mailing me, calling me; they've got a lot of questions, and I don't know how to quite frankly answer any of them other than I've got a box," Richard Heene said about 10 a.m. He said he'd answer the questions later Saturday ...

An investigation into the deaths of two people who spent up to two hours inside a "sweat lodge" at an Arizona retreat last week has been elevated from an accidental death investigation to a homicide inquiry, Yavapai County Sheriff Steve Waugh told reporters Thursday. Authorities said James Shore, 40, of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Kirby Brown, 38, of Westtown, New York, died Friday at the Angel Valley Resort after spending up to two hours in the sauna-like sweat lodge. Nineteen ...

A balloon that was set adrift by a 6-year-old boy from his parents' Colorado home was found empty, CNN affiliate KMGH said, citing a police report. The balloon landed south of Prospect Springs, near Colorado Springs. The boy was not inside the helium aircraft when it landed, KMGH reported. A sibling saw the boy get into the craft Thursday morning. Officials were concerned that the boy may have fallen out of it, an undersheriff said. Margie Martinez of the Weld ...