One day after Nancy Cooper's body was found after an exhaustive search not far from her Cary home life appears normal at the neighborhood pool she frequented.  It is a beautiful Carolina day full of sunshine and blue skies , matched only in intensity by the sparkling blue pool water where children splash, dive for rubber rockets and yell"Marco Polo."  On the other side of the pool  about a dozen women  are bopping up and down in a water aerobics class to the soundtrack of the rock band movie "Tommy" featuring the music of the "Who."  

The scene is so idyllic, it almost reminds you of a Disney movie, the perfect day in the perfect all-American neighborhood.  But it is shrouded in a veil of sadness.  One can't help but wonder how many times Nancy Cooper frolicked in this very pool with her young daughters, Bella and Katie, enjoying the cool water under a cloudless sky.  But that vision is quickly erased by

The family of Nneka Wilson described the trial of Jakiem Wilson in terms that normally would sound over-the-top. 

They called the defendant a "monster;" her death a "slaughter;" and the details of the case something straight out of a "horror movie."  Unfortunately, in this case, all of these descriptions apply.

Today, Jakiem Wilson was convicted of first-degree murder for killing his wife in their home while their two young children slept in February 2007. 

At trial, witnesses testified that after cutting his wife's throat, Wilson called his buddy and held the phone up to his dying wife's mouth.  The buddy heard only gurgling before he had to turn away from the gruesome sound. 

The same witnesses described Wilson's re-telling of the murder – he sat and waited with the knife behind his back as she showered.

When the first knife broke, he dragged her, wounded, to the kitchen to get another one. 

Nothing is more disturbing as a journalist than covering the death of a child, but it is even more disturbing when people start to see this phenomenon as the norm rather than the exception.

14-year-old Damien Dunn was killed Friday night, June 13, at a home not far from his home in Raleigh's Walnut Terrace community.  His young friends dressed like grown men in starched button-down shirts and ties walked down Walnut Street as they prepared to be pallbearers at Dunn's funeral.  Even at the tender ages of thirteen, fourteen and fifteen it was clear to me these young men had seen death before and expected to see it again.  Sure, they said all of the right things about Dunn being a good kid, a kid who never got into trouble, a kid everyone liked, but in their remorse there was also resignation that sometimes people die.   It made me sad to think these young men  didn't see the death of a young person as an unusual occurrence, but perhaps as a potential

One only has to turn on the television news at night or open the newspaper in the morning to see evidence that violence begets violence.

The trial of Lynn Paddock who is accused of killing her adoptive son, Sean, is a text book case of a violent childhood leading to a violent adulthood.  Paddock took the stand this week in her own defense describing horrific tales of abuse from her own mother as a child.  Despite her acknowledgment that the abuse was wrong she apparently grew up to be an abuser herself according to testimony from her children.

Being a victim of abuse is no excuse for abuse- especially abuse that results in the death of a child, but it is a reason for it.  It is a fact that until the cycle of violence is broken by some intervening factor- counseling, or in the worst case the criminal justice system- it will continue  in some form.

One can only hope when the Paddock trial is over, whatever the result, that her children get the help

One of the most interesting things about being a reporter who covers crime is getting the inside scoop. 

One of the most frustrating things about covering crime for television is not being able to tell viewers the whole story in the 1-minute 30-seconds we are allotted. 

That's why I decided to write a book about one of the most fascinating murder cases I've covered in my 18-plus years as a television news reporter.

Eric Miller, a young, promising pediatric AIDS researcher and father died from arsenic poisoning at the hands of his wife, Ann Miller, also a scientist, in Raleigh in December 2000.  It took four years to put Ann Miller behind bars.  Ultimately, she pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and is currently serving a 25-year prison sentence.

One man, a veteran homicide detective with the Raleigh Police Department, Chris Morgan, made it his mission to put Ann Miller behind bars. Before it was over ,prosecutors took the case