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Wednesday, December 24, 1997

Report: Unsolved girl's disappearance among footage on porno tapes

WACO, Texas (AP) -- Videotapes among seized evidence of a pornography and sex ring includes that of a teen-age girl whose abduction and slaying is unsolved, according to the Waco Tribune-Herald.

The newspaper, in a copyright report for Tuesday's editions, said one videotape includes scenes of men having sex with juvenile boys as well as footage from coverage of Sheila Finch's abduction.

"That's just odd," Detective Derrick Johnson of the Bellmead Police Department told the newspaper. "It could be completely coincidental, but in a case like this you don't want to take any chances."

He said Waco Police Department investigators made arrangements to view the tape once the lead detective on the case returns from vacation.

The 10-year-old girl missed her school bus Oct. 17, 1989 and went to a grocery store to call her aunt, but disappeared shortly thereafter. Two days later, fishermen found her body at Lake Waco's Speegleville III park.

She died of multiple stab wounds.

Six men have been arrested for their alleged involvement in multiple sexual assaults on juveniles in the Waco area over the last two years.

Seven boys between the ages of 14 and 17 have been identified as victims, according to the newspaper's weekend editions.

Many other seized tapes contained segments that had been taped over, but investigators said portions relating to the Finch case had survived almost 10 years.

A former Waco police detective who investigated the case said none of the names of those arrested so far in the alleged pedophile ring in Bellmead, north of Waco, turned up during his investigation of the Finch case.

But Lacy-Lakeview City Administrator Mike Nicoletti said that, in some of his cases, suspects kept videotapes or articles about similar crimes.

"It is not that unusual for a pedophile or anyone involved in a series of crimes to create a collection of some kind that relates to the things that they do," said Nicoletti. "But I would sure be curious to find out any possible lead or information about that case.